“The research had been Mom’s work, what she was so distracted by, what she was so paranoid about. Because Grandma knew Mom had been reading up on the Farm, on all those deaths that happened around that time. Maybe she had a vision, I don’t know. But Grandma sent Sheriff Bearden to fuck with Mom’s head, send her a warning to quit poking around, Mafia-style. Remember the murdered hummingbird on our doorstep? Sheriff Bearden. Horace even thinks that it was Sheriff Bearden who messed with Mom’s tire and that’s why she wrecked her car. It’s impossible to prove, but that’s what he says, and I believe him. Besides, the night Mom died, she drove off because she saw Sheriff Bearden sneaking around the house. That’s what she was trying to end. She saw him hightail it to his car, and she wanted to track him down herself and make him own up to it.”

Yeah, that sounded like Mom. I could see her hopping in the car, going after him when she had the chance, whether or not Horace said it was a good idea. She would have chased Sheriff Bearden to the ends of the earth if he’d pissed her off bad enough.

“The first chance I got, I was gonna bust Horace out and grab you and make a run for it, but then I saw you and Grandma sneak off to the shed, so I followed you. And the rest is fucking history. At least I hope it is.”

“Was that why Mom married Horace?” I said. “Because she thought he could protect us?”

“I think so,” said Murphy. “I think she thought it would help to have the law on her side for once. For what it’s worth, I think he really did love her though.”

I remembered sneaking around in Horace’s head, trying to get him to admit he had killed Mom. He did love her, I knew that.

“It makes sense,” said Murphy. “Maybe Mom was sick of Grandma’s money, you know? Maybe she was tired of living off what our Uncle Jeremiah basically stole.”

I can’t even tell you how much I hated hearing that. I hated hearing that almost more than anything.

At first I refused to believe Murphy. I told her that Jeremiah was good, deeply and truly so, that he was probably the greatest person I’d ever known. She cocked an eyebrow up at me about that, and then she went and got all the documents from the car. I sat there in the hospital waiting room, reading every word. And I had to admit it made sense, you know? Why Mom had been the way she was, the reasons she raised us how she did. Everything came together in my mind, and it was all sad and ugly.