Sue Beth sighed. “Well, ’bout a month ago, Rolland started coming to the house…to see Linda, I think. Linda…she wouldn’t do nothing with him at the house, wouldn’t touch him, even talk to him while others were around. But sometimes, when they thought no one was looking, they’d be whispering, planning to meet each other. I tried not to listen, but couple times I couldn’t help it.

“I’d get so angry. My blood would just boil. I’d be angry at Linda, angry at my brother Luke, for not doing nothing ’bout his wife. But you can’t go sticking your nose where it don’t belong, so I tried to act normal around her and Luke.”

“Carla ever catch them whispering together?”

“Yeah, she knew ’bout it, too.”

“She ever say anything about it to you?”

“Not really,” Sue Beth said. But her voice was very hesitant. This time, Marge prodded her for more.

Sue Beth said, “Well, it’s just that…I don’t think Carly liked the fact that Linda was seeing Rolland. Maybe she felt bad for Luke, though she never said nothing before about it. I think Carla was a little jealous, plain and simple. Linda was twelve years older than her, but she had a way with the boys. And she didn’t have to act as…how should I put this…act as…as wild as my sister did to get ’em.”

Sue Beth shook her head.

“Things were sometimes bad, Miss Detective. Bad ’cause Linda was playing so close to home.”

“Byron Howard?”

“I think that was the start of it.”

Marge wondered about the beekeeper, if he figured into all this. She asked Sue Beth how Linda and Byron got started. Sue Beth shrugged and claimed ignorance. But she did say that after the affair, Byron Howard kept to himself. Never came over anymore unless it was absolutely necessary for him to talk to Pappy, B.B., or Luke.

“What about Linda after the affair?” Marge said. “She didn’t seem to keep to herself.”

“Right about that,” Sue Beth said. “Her thing with Byron didn’t change her wild ways one bit. She still acted up, going to Hell’s Heaven, doing Lord knows what over there.”

“I spoke to the owner of Hell’s Heaven,” Marge said.

“You spoke to Chip?”

Marge nodded. “He said Linda just used to drink there but didn’t have a lot to do with the guys. Though quite a few seemed to be interested in her. What do you think about that?”

“Well, that’s what Linda always said,” Sue Beth answered. “She was just having fun, not doin’ anything serious. But…but if I was a bettin’ woman, I’d swear there was something going on between her and Rolland.”

“Why Rolland?”

“I don’t rightly know.”

Marge asked. “What was Linda like as a mother?”