“I still have a few questions, Elsie.”

She looked at her watch. “Go on then.”

Decker said, “Pauline was stabbed—”

“It was her fault.”

“Okay. It was her fault. But she was still stabbed. Injured. Or was she dead at that point?”

“I told you it was hard to tell.”

“Right. You put her in your car.”

“Her car,” Elsie said. “Mine was in the shop.”

“Right. You put her in her car and took her back to your house.”

“Yes.”

“What happened to Brock?”

“She was too heavy for me to carry, so he lifted her into the car.”

“Who’s ‘he’? Brock Baer?”

“Of course. Who else was there?”

“It’s just … well, one minute you’re trying to stab him, and the next minute, you two are working together?”

“When we realized the seriousness of the situation, we had no choice. Pauline was wounded badly, and we knew we had to help her.”

Decker nodded.

“It was the right thing to do,” Elsie said.

“Absolutely.” A pause. “Let me make sure I have this correctly. Brock Baer and you decided to stop fighting and help Pauline.”

“Yes.”

“Then Baer helped you put Pauline into your car. Wait, her car. Yours was in the shop.”

“Yes.”

“After Baer did that, where did he go?”

“To my house, naturally.”

“Naturally,” McAdams echoed.

She turned to him. “Of course!”

“And then what?”

“He brought her into the kitchen to see the damages.” She paused. “He was still stinking of alcohol, but he seemed more rational.”

“What happened after he brought her into the kitchen?”

“Pauline was dripping blood. If she wasn’t dead, she was barely breathing.”

Decker nodded and waited for her to continue.

Elsie said, “It was clear she was not going to survive.”

“And you didn’t even consider taking her to the hospital?” Decker asked.

Elsie thought. “No.”

Just like that.

No.

“All right,” Decker said. “After she died in your kitchen, you cleaned up the blood?”

“Yes. With bleach.”

“Did Baer help you clean it up?”

“Yes.” Elsie thought a moment. “He was a terrible man. But I don’t think he wanted her to die. I certainly didn’t want her to die. But things happen.”

“Things do happen,” Decker said. “You cleaned up the kitchen. Then what did you do?”

“Brock and I sat down to think. It had been a crazy evening.”

The mistress of the understatement. Decker said, “I’m sure.”

McAdams said, “Where was Pauline while you were cleaning everything up?”

“In the trunk of her car, wrapped in plastic.”

“Then you were planning on burying her.”

“Of course,” Elsie retorted. “I couldn’t leave a body rotting in my house while I took Bertram and Kathrine to Germany.”

Decker said, “You buried her quite a distance from your home.”

“Yes.”

“Who chose the spot?”