That silences the room. They follow Peter down the trail and to the tree. Mike is standing there, guarding something. Waiting. His phone at his ear.

“The boys called me,” Mike says by explanation. “So I called the police. They’re on their way. Don’t touch it.”

Iris looks at Danielle’s book bag and the pipe extending from it. “Someone planted that here.”

“Yeah, your murdering husband,” Ned says. He turns away, kneels down, and vomits into the grass.

Peter leans against his father and starts to cry. Grant takes his mother’s hand. Ned stands up and stares at Julia with a hate she’s never seen before.

The police sirens approach.

“We say nothing about what our children have done,” Gordon whispers to her. Desperate now, the way she was moments ago. Now he’s afraid.

“I’m not letting my husband go to prison for this.”

“If you talk about the drugs, then you give your husband even more motive,” Gordon says. “To silence her. You destroy my child and you destroy yours. He confessed. You ought to think that he might be telling the truth—that he cheated on you and murdered her to keep her quiet. Do you save your daughter or not?”

“What’s happening?” Mike says, his voice rising. He has one arm around Peter, the other around Grant, comforting him. “What are you two whispering about?”

Iris stands there, staring at the bag. Lose her husband and her daughter or lose just one?

Choose.

48

Transcript from Interviews for A Death in Winding Creek by Elena Garcia

Elena Garcia: You’d known both Danielle Roberts and Iris Pollitt for several years.

Francie Neville: Yes. I referred Iris to Danielle after Iris asked about our adoption experience—my husband and I had adopted three children from Russia. So I was maybe the only one in our mom group who knew Danielle longer than Iris.

Garcia: What was your impression of Iris?

Francie: I liked her. She was semi-famous, you know, but that wasn’t something she talked about. Having written songs for such famous people. I’d heard her songs so many times on the radio and I didn’t know. If I’d written for NSYNC and Britney Spears, I would have told everyone probably within five minutes of meeting them. That was not Iris. She knew it made her look better if you learned it through a friend or idle talk.

Garcia: And what was your impression of Danielle?

Francie: We used her services with all three of our children—we adopted one to start, and then two together later. So obviously I would have a good opinion of her.

Garcia: Was there ever anything strange or odd about their relationship?

Francie: Most of our little group felt that without Danielle, we might not have had such a good experience in the adoption process. She was good at her job, mostly.

Garcia: Mostly?

Francie: Well, all the way.