Sue Beth shut her eyes. “Her one saving grace. Linda was a very good mother to Katie.”

Marge doodled cubes inside her notebook, thinking about Linda’s duality. She might have been a madonna when it came to her kid, but to an old-fashioned couple like Pappy and Granny, she was nothing more than an evil whore, teaching her wicked ways to their younger daughter. Maybe Granny’s rebuke had gone beyond verbal admonitions. But then where would Luke fit into all of this?

Marge dropped that train of thought, moved on to another motive—a stronger motive.

“One last routine question, Sue Beth,” she said. “Do you know anyone who’d gain something from Luke’s death?”

“Gain from Luke’s death?” She shook her head. “Just Linda. But she’s dead, too.”

“Hmmm,” Marge said. She continued drawing cubes. “What would Linda have gained from Luke’s death?”

“His portion of the land, of course,” Sue Beth said. “It’s divided three ways between Luke, Pappy, and me—” She suddenly reddened, couldn’t seem to find her voice.

Marge let her blush a moment, thinking, She knows what I’m getting at. Good! She said, “Three ways. What happened to Carla?”

Sue Beth was still scarlet. “Carla?”

“Yeah, Carla,” Marge said. “She wasn’t included in the inheritance?”

“When she married—if she married the right person—Pappy would have included—” Sue Beth had suddenly had enough. “What does Carla…or Pappy…or me have to do with anything? Lord knows, I was never interested in selling. And Pappy wasn’t interested in selling. And Carla never said no words about it neither. The only one who was interested in selling was Linda!”

Marge said nothing.

“Well, you’ve already pried into all of our affairs,” Sue Beth said. “What else do you want to know?”

Marge took Sue Beth’s arm, stroked it gently. “I have to ask you these things, Sue Beth. I need to know everything if we’re going to get anywhere.”

Sue Beth suddenly seemed to shrink. Her face lost all its anger. Her lip began to tremble, her eyes watered.

“What else?” she choked out.

“That’s all for the moment,” Marge said. “You all right?”

“I don’t know anymore,” Sue Beth said.

“Would you like to see Katie now?” Marge asked. “Or do you want a moment to calm down?”

“No,” Sue Beth said. “I want Katie. Let’s get it over with.”

Marge gently led her into Sophi Rawlings’s living room. Decker and Sophi were drinking coffee, sitting on the sofa, kids scampering around them like bedbugs. They both rose when Sue Beth and Marge entered the room, and Sophi immediately offered them coffee. Both declined. Sue Beth was shaking, hugging herself. Sophi went over to her, threw her thick arm around Sue Beth’s small shoulder.

“She’s in the back,” she said. “You want to go outside, or should I bring her here?”