“I heard she took you to small-claims court because of an incident in which your dog killed hers.”

“That was bad. I felt sorry for her, but I had my dog under control. Hers was running loose, so she was as much at fault as I was. In the end, I had to put my dog down, but it had nothing to do with her. Anyway, we settled it. I could have argued the point, but to what end? Her toy poodle was dead and she was brokenhearted until she got Baby.”

“Were you at the park for the fireworks the night she disappeared?”

“I was. Tannie was supposed to go with her brother, but he took off with his friends so the two of us went.”

“Did you see Foley?”

“No, but I know he and Livia Cramer got into it. She didn’t approve of the Sullivans. She thought they were heathens, which was none of her concern, but the woman never could leave well enough alone. She got on him about Daisy. The little girl had never been baptized and Livia thought it was disgraceful. Foley was drunk by then and told her exactly what she could go and do with herself. Livia made sure everyone in town heard what he’d said. In her mind, it was one more example of what a lowlife he was.”

“You didn’t see Violet?”

He shook his head. “Last time I saw Violet was the day before. She was driving around town in that new car of hers and she stopped to have a chat.”

“You remember the subject?”

“Mostly she was showing off. She’d come back from taking Daisy and Liza Mellincamp to lunch and a movie in Santa Maria. She had errands to run, so she’d dropped the girls at the house while she was out and about.”

“You’ve got a good memory.”

He smiled. “I’d like to take credit, but the subject comes up every other year-some journalist in town. I’ve told the story so often, I could do it in my sleep.”

“I’ll bet. When you talked to Violet, she seemed okay to you?”

“As much as she ever did. She had her ups and downs, what I believe they call bipolar these days.”

“Really. That’s new. No one’s mentioned mood swings.”

“That was my observation. I’m not up on these things so it’s only a guess on my part. She did a lot of crying in her beer, so to speak.”

“Daisy remembers her parents getting into a big fight the night before. This would have been Thursday night. She says Foley tore down a panel of her mother’s curtains. Violet blew her stack, tore down the rest of them and threw ‘em in the trash. Did you hear about?”

He shook his head slightly. “Sounds like something she’d do. Why bring that up?”