“Two things come to mind if the first scenario is correct,” Decker said. “Earl went completely berserk and killed the girls. Or someone else finished off the girls and plugged Luke as well and tried to convince Earl that he did everything. Now it seems to me that only three people would have that kind of power over Earl—his mother, father, or Sue Beth.”

“So the big question is, who was really there when the whole thing went down?”

“One of the bloody shoe prints we found corresponded to Earl’s size—eight and a half men’s. The other two were women’s size 7—same size as Carla, Sue Beth, and Granny Darcy. Linda’s foot was smaller. Could be Carla ran back and forth calling for help, but I’m betting the shoe print belonged to Sue Beth or ole Granny.”

“Never found the matching shoe to the print?”

“No,” Decker said.

“So who was there?” Marge asked.

“Well, Sue Beth went to Fall Springs with her family,” Decker said. “Of that we’re certain. The waitress will verify her presence at the restaurant where they stopped on the way. But that still doesn’t clear her of the murder.”

“I just remember talking to her the first time I broke the news, and later on when she picked up Katie.” Marge shook her head. “Either she’s a first-class actress or she was really in the dark about the whole mess.”

“So we’re back to Granny and Pappy Darcy,” Decker said, “I’ll try and talk to the parents. That’s going to be hard, because I’m sure Nixon is telling the entire crew to keep the lid on. They’re listening to Nixon now. Amazing how a ‘nigger’ becomes a lawyer when the family’s in deep shit.”

Marge smiled.

“Truthfully,” Decker said, “we don’t have a single thing on them. What we have is Earl’s confession and physical evidence to tie him to the scene—his shoe print, his mentioning the shotgun—and the little gun. We’ve got nothing physical on Pappy, and just an anonymous shoe print the same size as Granny Darcy’s. We’re going to have to come up with something better if we want to solve this and make it stick.”

Marge said, “Suppose it was like Sue Beth originally stated. That Earl was supposed to be left behind with Luke and Linda. But this mess went down. Granny sent Pappy up ahead of her to cover for them, and Granny stayed behind to clean up the mess.”

“What about Katie?” Decker said.

“A big question mark.”

“Look,” Decker said. “If Granny did stay behind, how did she and Earl get up to Fall Springs by dinnertime?”

“Either Pappy took the bus up and left the car for Granny and Earl, or Pappy took the car, and Granny and Earl took the bus up.”

“Agreed,” Decker said. “Taxis are out of their league.”