Decker paused a moment. Linda driving them to the poorhouse? Linda’s closet didn’t seem overly stuffed. No cache of jewelry was found. It didn’t make sense.

“What did Linda spend so much money on?”

“I asked Pappy D that very question,” Crandal said. He took a giant swig of his coffee. “Granny answered for him. Seems the Whore of Babylon spent it all on wild living.”

“Granny didn’t get more specific?” Decker asked.

“You gotta picture the setup,” Crandal said. “You got Pappy D, who was doing most of the talking, which wasn’t too much to begin with. You got his mousy wife—an old broad with knockers down to her knees—standing about two inches behind him, head down, not saying nothing. Except every once in a while, she perked up, got this fire in her eyes like a woman possessed, and hurled a biblical insult at Linda. Then she retreated back into her shell.”

“She doesn’t sound too balanced.”

“I don’t think she is.”

Decker said, “Think she could handle the kickback of a shotgun?”

“I think she could fire a cannon, if she had to,” Crandal said. “But like I said, it seems they arrived before the Littons did. If the dynamic duo did it, they’d have to be very quick and breezy about it.”

Murder took all of a moment, Decker thought. But what would they have done with Katie? Decker hadn’t found her until one in the morning some ten hours later and one hundred miles away from Fall Springs.

Decker asked, “Anyone down in Fall Springs remember them having a toddler?”

“A toddler?” Crandal asked.

“Yeah,” Decker said. “Pappy and Granny didn’t have a kid with them, did they?”

“Just their retarded son, Earl,” Crandal said.

“What was he like?”

“Huddled into a corner,” Crandal said. “Every time I looked at him, he gave me a scared smile. Shaking like a dog that had just peed in the house. Every so often, one of Sue Beth’s boys came over to him and started stroking his hair.” Crandal broke into a smile. “Guess everyone needs a pet retard.”

Decker didn’t respond.

Crandal shrugged. “Kid seemed harmless enough.”

“Did you talk to him at all?” Decker asked.

“Nope,” Crandal said. “Pappy wouldn’t let me near him. Just as well. I don’t think I’d get much out of him other than one-word answers.”

Like Byron Howard, Decker thought. He said, “So you have no indication that they were involved?”

“They seemed nutty enough to shoot,” Crandal said. “But the time frame doesn’t work out real well.”

“Happen to ask Pappy if he owns a shotgun?”