Marge smiled.

“You up to doing this?” Decker said. “I could come back in an hour.”

“Go ahead with your theory,” Marge said. “I liked it.”

“I lost my train of thought,” Decker said.

“We were on Luke not paying for any more fertility treatments.”

“Yeah, right,” Decker said. “Okay, Luke said no more treatments, but Linda desperately wanted a kid. Luke told her, fine with him, go out and fuck somebody. Why should he pay for someone else’s sperm when she can get gallons of it for free?”

“But then why would he call her a whore?” Marge said.

“Maybe he didn’t think that she’d really take him up on his offer,” Decker said. “And when she did, maybe he brooded on it for a long time, then finally became unglued.”

“And when he went beserk, so did she.”

“Then,” Decker went on, “Linda started crying, and that got Earl’s attention away from his baloney sandwich. He saw what was going on and got his shotgun. But something else went down before Earl actually plugged anyone. Someone else shot Luke first.”

“Linda,” Marge said animatedly. Her head vibrated. She lowered her voice. “Had to be.”

“Why?” Decker said. “Just because Luke called her a whore?”

“Nope,” Marge said. “Remember Earl quoting Luke saying that Katie didn’t belong to Linda?”

“But it should be just the opposite,” Decker said.

“Bear with me,” Marge said. “When you pressed Earl on that, he said that Katie didn’t belong to Linda because she was a whore. Suppose Luke threatened to take Katie away because of Linda’s affairs?”

“But the kid wasn’t even his.”

“That doesn’t mean an irate guy like Luke wouldn’t try to use it against her. Threaten to expose her.”

“True.”

“Now how far do you think Linda would go to keep her kid?” Marge said.

Decker held up his hand, made a gun with his fingers, then pulled the imaginary thumb-trigger.

“I think so, too,” Marge said. “Now suppose Earl saw Linda killing his brother. Maybe he became irate enough to plug her.”

“Possible, but…” Decker hesitated, “but picture this. Suppose Linda’s pulling of the trigger was a big surprise to everyone, including Rolland Mason. Suppose he started to light into her—cussed her out. Remember, Earl said that he made Linda cry. Suppose Earl walked in at that moment, and Rolland started giving it to him—called him a stupid, ef word retard. Think of it through Earl’s eyes. He saw Luke slumped over, Linda crying, and Rolland ranting. It’s possible that Earl freaked out and wasted Rolland.”

“And then Earl saw Luke lying there, and figured he must have killed Luke as well,” Marge asked.

“Yes,” Decker said.

“Of course, that doesn’t explain why Earl would murder Linda and his own sister.”