“You think she was suffering postpartum depression?”

“‘Baby blues’ they called it back then, though that was a personal matter and not something anybody talked about. Lennie would sink into black moods. These days, you read about women killing their own kids, but I don’t believe she ever thought about hurting April. Ned claimed she threatened to, but I never believed a word of it. He’d be all down in the mouth, talking about how worried he was, asking my advice, but it was all done for effect.”

I studied her, wondering how much she might be willing to confide. I picked up a puzzle piece shaped like a one-armed ghost and tried to find a home for it. “Was there a question about how she died? I was told she killed herself.”

“She was a Catholic. Devout. Suicide’s a mortal sin. If she’d killed herself, she’d be condemning her own soul to Hell.”

“So you don’t believe she’d do such a thing.”

“No, I do not.”

“What if she were in unbearable emotional pain?”

“She had Father Xavier and she had her faith. She also had me.”

I tried placing the piece near the left-hand edge and I was startled when it popped into place. “What time of year was it?”

“Spring, which is another reason suicide made no sense. Her favorite holiday was Easter, which fell on April second that year. She passed on Good Friday, two days before. That week, we dyed Easter eggs together and hid them on the church grounds for the children’s Easter egg hunt. We were set to bake cookies and we’d been looking at recipes. She wanted to do bunny shapes with pink and blue icing. Ned hated anything to do with the holiday, but she ignored him and did as she pleased for once.”

“How did she die?”

“Valium. An overdose.”

“How much Valium do you have to take before you overdose?”

“Ned said she mixed it with vodka.”

“Valium is a prescription drug. Why would a doctor write her a script, given the state she was in?”

“A goodly number of housewives took Valium in those days. They referred to it as Vitamin V. If you complained about anything, Valium was the cure. Her family doctor actually suggested it.”

“Did she leave a note?”

Clara shook her head.

“Doesn’t her sending those items to Father Xavier suggest suicide was on her mind?”

“It might have been on her mind, but I don’t believe she would have done such a thing. She was frightened.”

“Of what?”

“Ned, obviously.”

“It may seem obvious now, but it must not have seemed obvious back then or the police would have investigated her death as a homicide.”

“That’s not necessarily the case. He was clever. The chief of police was a friend of his. Ned cultivated friendships with many of the officers and he was generous with his donations to their foundation. He laid the groundwork, confiding in everyone how distressed he was about her mental illness.”