She calmly said, “First of all, I don’t curse all the time. Secondly, you boys are usually the cause of it. And thirdly, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.”

We both knew that tone. She was deadly serious. And if I thought about it, she occasionally dropped the F-bomb or a “shit,” but she never used “goddamn” or “Jesus Christ.” I knew to steer away from that minefield.

Bill said good-bye to my mom and nodded for me to follow him out on the porch. Once we were alone, he said, “I know you’ve been asking around about the blue SUV and you think the explosion at your girlfriend’s apartment was deliberate.”

I was going to say something, but he held up his hand.

“Learn from my experience, Mitchum. Conspiracies just don’t happen much. It’s easy for people to think in conspiracies. That makes our ordinary lives more interesting. It keeps us from thinking about the real things we have to face every day. That’s why people want to believe it was a conspiracy to kill JFK or Martin Luther King. In real life, at least in police work, I found the simple answer is usually the right one.”

He made sense, even if I still thought there was some conspiracy at work around me and my family. He was trying to comfort me and give me the benefit of his experience. It was one of the first times someone had actually acted like a father toward me in this town.

When I walked back inside, my mom was chatting with Alicia. The two of them were giggling about something I was sure made fun of me. That was no conspiracy theory.

When Alicia left for her training shift at the hospital in Newburgh, my mom patted the edge of the couch. She made no effort to distinguish calling me or calling Bart Simpson, and we both listened.

She said, “That girl is a real find. She’s smart, pretty, and takes no bullshit. She’s a real keeper.”

When I didn’t answer immediately, my mom said, “It doesn’t matter if you see it. She’d work out just as well for Natty. But I think you’re the one she’s interested in.”

Just what I needed. More things to think about.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

That night, I decided to do a little surveillance around town. I had listened to Bill about conspiracies and decided I was too immature to learn from his experience. I’m sure he’d understand.

All I really did was tool around town in my station wagon. I’m not even sure what I was hoping to find. A blue SUV with a dented front end. Someone I didn’t recognize who looked suspicious. All I knew is that I couldn’t sit around and do nothing.