Cooper started the conversation. “I was at the diner and I kept hearing that a woman named Vera was back in town. I didn’t pay much attention until I heard it was Vera Exton they were talking about. Did they mean the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist?”

“Yes. She’s Kelly’s sister.”

“Wow. I’m impressed. Does she come home often?”

“The only time she’s been in Mason since she left in the seventies was for her mother’s funeral.”

“Uh-oh. Is that caused by one of those small-town feuds?”

“Not at all. Kelly meets her sister somewhere in the world every year. Sometimes with the family and sometimes just her and her sister.”

“Right. You would know because of Kelly’s son.” He stopped and looked at her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to step out of bounds. I don’t usually get involved in gossip, but I do go to the diner, and people talk. I swear, when they were talking about Vera Exton, they were extra loud. They seemed to want to make sure I heard them.”

“That’s probably true. We are proud of her.”

“So tell me what she’s like.”

“I have no idea. I’ve never met her.”

“Was your dad living in Mason when she was here?”

“Yes, but I doubt if he knew her. He’s never spoken of her. But then, Hattens and Montoyas weren’t exactly in the same social whirl.”

“But you must have heard some gossip.”

“Why all these questions?”

“I admire her work very much. Her reporting is honest and forthright, but she tells the human side of everything. She seems to be afraid of nothing. That book she wrote about Joe Harding... I shouldn’t say it, but I bawled.” He was looking at her, waiting for her to reply.

“I only know what I’ve been told. Kelly adores her, and I know Adam and Vera were friends.”

“Oh, yes. You said he was going back to Africa with Kelly’s older sister. I didn’t put the Exton name together. Was it the Peace Corps?”

“I think so.” She didn’t feel a need to elaborate on that connection. Mason was already sounding like a soap opera. “I think Vera was different. I guess you’d say she never really belonged here. Kelly said her sister had always wanted to leave. As soon as Kelly got her vet license, Vera left Mason and didn’t come back until she had to. She was more involved in the world than in little Mason, Kansas. Somebody told me she was shot once.”

“In 1987. Thirty-first of July. At Mecca. The Saudi police opened fire against demonstrators. She was one of the wounded and helicoptered out of there. I read that when she was young, she demonstrated against the Vietnam War. That would have been when she lived here.”

“I don’t know about that. It was well before my time.”