“Carol’s sculpture? That did surprise me,” said Miss Tilley.

“The sculpture? I never did like her work, either,” observed Lucy.

“No, no, dear. Not the sculpture. So original. No, the way she hanged herself. I would have expected her to react differently. I rather liked her, you see. She didn’t behave the way a minister’s wife is supposed to. She never went to church; she had a career of her own. I admired that. I was very disappointed to hear she’d killed herself.”

“True grit,” commented Mrs. Miller. “She didn’t have it.”

Mrs. Miller certainly had grit, thought Lucy. She would never let anyone see her grieve for her son.

Grief, like love, was private.

“Well, it must have been pretty devastating,” said Lucy. “First her husband had an affair with Marcia; that would be awful for any woman. And then she figured out he’d murdered Sam, and almost murdered Barney. It would be pretty hard to take, especially if she loved him.”

“Young people are so romantic,” Mrs. Miller said.

“I wouldn’t call this romantic,” said Miss Tilley. “Not in the true sense of the word. I would call it maudlin.”

The other women nodded automatically. After fortyyears as a librarian no one argued with her about facts. Or definitions.

“What about the sculpture? How did it make you realize Davidson was the murderer?” asked Miss Tilley.

“The black hose. Carol had wrapped it all around the sculpture. It was the same hose Dave used on Sam’s car.” Lucy dropped her voice. She hated talking about Sam with his mother.

“A public declaration of his guilt?” Mrs. Miller asked a little shakily. Lucy was reminded again that this must still be hard on her.

“I think so,” she said. “Barney had stumbled on the hose when he mentioned to Carol that he needed something for Eddie’s car. The Cub Scouts are having the Pinewood Derby this month—you know, they race little wooden cars that they make themselves. Well, Barney was looking for some scraps of rubber to make a bumper for Eddie’s car. Knowing Carol was a sculptor and apt to have bits and pieces around, he asked her if she had something he could use. When she gave him a bit of black rubber hose, he recognized it as the same hose that was used on Sam Miller’s car. Barney was going to take it to the police lab the day after Christmas, but he never made it. Dave must have realized Barney had the evidence that could convict him, and decided he had to get rid of him. He parked out near the point, and when Barney came round the bend he turned on his high beams. Barney swerved right off the road.”

The two women clicked their tongues. “I wonder how many of the Ten Commandments he actually broke,” Miss Tilley mused. “Definitely the seventh, and the sixth, of course.”