“I understand your mother slapped your father. According to one source, she was heard to say she hated him.”

“My mother doesn’t hate my dad,” he told Officer Scruggs. “And she doesn’t hit.”

“I understand your father lost a lot of money on a bad crop. No doubt that made your mother upset. Maybe your parents argued about that? Maybe your father threatened your mother, and she might have felt a need to take down the gun, just to defend herself?”

“Nothing like that happened.”

The police officer wasn’t quitting. “Okay, then,” he said. “I have to ask you about the morning of the shooting, Nathan. Would you say there was anything unusual about your mother’s behavior that day?”

“No.”

“Would you say your mother was agitated? By that I mean was she upset?” He said it like Nate wouldn’t know what “agitated” meant.

“She was normal,” he said. “If anyone was acting a little different, it was my dad. He wanted to say all these things to me, like instructions for shaving. Like he might not be around or something.”

It felt reassuring, having something to say about that day that was real. Like Cassiopeia, the constellation that you can always locate, that helps you get your bearings for the rest.

Officer Scruggs looked like he didn’t know what to say next. “But you can’t deny your mother was upset with your father?”

The guy had definitely been watching too many episodes of Perry Mason. But even though he was trying to act like a big-shot lawyer, Nate knew he was really nothing more than a small-town policeman who spent his whole life giving talks about bicycle safety at schools and rounding up lost pigs.

“I don’t remember that,” Nate said.

“Come on now, son,” the officer said, impatience creeping into his voice. “We’ve got a witness prepared to testify that your mother told your dad she wished he was dead.”

Rufus, Nate thought.

Nate took a deep breath and turned in his seat so he was facing the policeman. “I’ll tell you one more time,” he said. “My dad was feeling real bad all winter and for a long time before that, too. He told my sister and me we’d be better off without him. In the barn that morning he kind of said he might not be around in the future. All my mom ever did was try to keep things together for my sister and me.”

It was strange, hearing himself say these words. He knew this wasn’t what the policeman wanted to hear. The man didn’t even write it down in his notebook. But as much as he loved his father and as angry as he’d been at his mother, Nate couldn’t let Officer Scruggs believe his mom could have shot his dad.