“Right,” Kyle said.
“And I do know Maris drinks,” Belinda said. “I’m not that stupid. But I know why she drinks, Kyle Borden, and so do you. She drinks because she can’t stand seeing what Betsy Wetsy’s done, that’s why. It isn’t fair.”
Kyle cleared his throat again. Gregor bit his lip.
“Belinda,” Kyle said. “About yesterday afternoon. You and Emma took Mark back to the Toliver house, from the library.”
“Right,” Belinda said. “I was getting off work. We wanted to know what Mark was like. He was terrible. I really hated him. He was such a snot. I told him all about Hayley and you could see he was impressed, but he wouldn’t say so. He just went on about the library and how he couldn’t find this book.”
“What book?” Gregor asked.
“I don’t know,” Belinda said. “I never spend much time with books except, you know, at work, and then I don’t read them. They give me a headache. It was a book about carpentry, I think.”
“Carpentry?” Gregor asked.
“It had carpenter in the title,” Belinda said. “He couldn’t find it. He went looking for it, and he got Laurel to help him, but she had to tell him we didn’t have it. We used to have it, and it was in the card catalogue, but it disappeared and we never got it back, because nobody used to take it out anyway. Honestly, you’d think, with a book on carpentry, at least some people would want to take it out. At least it was about something useful. It wasn’t like Betsy Wetsy’s books. They’re just a lot of bull about what everybody thinks and why they think it and how we’re all too stupid for liking to wear makeup and going on diets.”
“You’ve read one of Betsy’s books?” Kyle said.
Belinda shrugged. “Parts of one. It wasn’t a whole book straight through. It had chapters in it that were separate, you know, and not all about the same thing.”
“Essays,” Gregor suggested.
Belinda shrugged again. “Something. It was stupid. The first chapter was all about high school, and how we all have this sound track to our lives like our lives were a movie, and so instead of really living we have other people’s words and emotions and, I don’t remember. It was really, really stupid. It was like she was saying we shouldn’t ever listen to music except maybe classical music. Or like that.”
“Right,” Kyle said.
“It was stupid,” Belinda repeated.
“Look,” Kyle said. “About driving Mark DeAvecca out to the Toliver house. We’re trying to get a few things straightened out. Emma says it was around three. Is that right?”
“It was a little before,” Belinda said. “Betsy Wetsy had gone and abandoned him, so Emma and I decided to take him home.”
“Okay,” Kyle said. “Now. You take him out to the Toliver house, and then what?”
“He asked us in for some coffee, but Emma wouldn’t go,” Belinda said. “I thought she was being stupid, myself. I would have loved to go in. Betsy Wetsy could have come home anytime and then we’d be able to see for ourselves.”
“But she didn’t come home,” Gregor said.
“No, she didn’t, and we didn’t even get out of the car.” Belinda pouted. “We just stayed parked there at the curb while Emma talked to Mark, which was awful, because he’s just like Betsy Wetsy was. Stuck-up. Snotty. You wouldn’t believe the books he had. I don’t think anybody ever really reads books like that. They just pretend to.”
“Now, pay attention,” Kyle said. “Did you see Chris when you were out there?”
“Of course we didn’t.”
“Could she have been parked in the driveway behind the house?”
“No,” Belinda said positively. “If her car was parked in that driveway, I’d have seen it.”
“Are you sure?” Kyle asked. “Because I asked Emma, and she said she couldn’t see anything.”
“That’s because Emma was driving,” Belinda said. “She was on the other side of the car. She wasn’t right up next to the curb. I was right up next to the curb, and I was practically in front of the driveway entrance, and I could see right down it. The only car there was that Ford Taurus the nurse drives Betsy Wetsy’s mother around in.”
“Could there have been cars in the garage?” Gregor asked.
“Oh,” Belinda said. Then she put on a show of thinking really hard. “I suppose there could have been. I don’t remember the garage doors being open, but I don’t remember them being closed either. Was Chris’s car in Betsy Wetsy’s garage?”