“Forensics first,” Marge said. “Blood on Katie’s PJs. Matches with her mother and Carla. The kid was obviously at the scene of the crime either during the shooting or after all the blood was spilled. My guess she wasn’t there too long, otherwise she would have had blood from the others as well.”

“Good.”

“Rolland Mason. His sheet is clear, but that doesn’t tell us the whole story. I found his ex-lady—a waitress in Saugus named Betty Bidel. Chip’s tip panned out.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah, he was good for something. Anyway, from Betty I learned that Rolland was dealing in meth. She also told me that Rolland had left her and had plans to marry Linda.”

Decker said, “Was Linda aware of his plans?”

“That I don’t know. It might have been unrequited love.”

“You know, Marge, we keep sticking Rolland with Carla like the two of them were an item. Maybe it was Rolland and Linda who were the happy duo, and they were confronting Luke about it. Tempers got hot, bam-bam.”

“Then where does Carla fit in?”

“Funny you should ask,” Decker said. “She may have had her own agenda. I visited Manfred and Associates today. I spoke to an associate.”

Marge said, “Taking on the big guys again?”

Decker laughed. Last time he visited the head of a big corporation, he’d leaned too heavily on a well-connected CEO, and it almost lost him his job. Only his supportive captain had saved his neck….

Decker whipped his thoughts back to the present and gave Marge a quick rundown of the conversation, including Carla’s disinheritance. He said, “Suppose Linda thought she’d have an ally in Carla. Maybe Linda even offered Carla some money if she could get Luke to sell. So the two of them confronted Luke and were rebuffed. Then all hell broke loose.”

Marge said, “And Rolland was attached to one of the women. His old lady said he loved Linda. But maybe when he found out that Carla stood to gain some bread, he decided to pair off with her because she was convenient.”

“Sounds good to me,” Decker said.

“Except for a couple of minor details,” Marge said. “Even if Luke was willing to sell, he’d have to convince Pappy D and Sue Beth to sell before there was any money to be made. To me, Pappy chasing a Manfred representative off his property with a shotgun shows lack of interest.”

Decker laughed. “I finally did get ahold of the representative. His full name’s James Chatam, and his story jibes well with Donaldson’s account except that he said Pappy Darcy had been carrying a rifle. When I asked him if it could have been a shotgun, Chatam said yeah, it could have been, he doesn’t know the difference.”

“But Donaldson used the word shotgun specifically?”

“Yep.”

“Interesting that Donaldson would know the weapon and he wasn’t even there,” Marge said.