“I just wish I’d thought to ask you to recommend a divorce lawyer sooner.” She sighed. “But I guess I’ve been in denial. Apparently I should have closed all the joint accounts as soon as Brett moved out, rather than waiting till he spent all the cash and maxed out the credit cards. I’d be a lot less broke, and look a lot less suspicious to your chief. But I didn’t even get around to changing the locks until I came home one day last week and found our stereo was gone.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I just shook my head. Molly didn’t seem to expect an answer. We watched in silence until, to my relief, she broke out in giggles again at the sight of a black-and-white pinto llama standing, proud and dignified, basking in what he no doubt assumed was the approval of the crowd, while his owner tugged in vain on his lead.
“Actually, according to my attorney—my defense attorney—I may owe a debt of gratitude to Clay County as well,” Molly said. “She seems to think she’ll be able to get a lot of the evidence thrown out in court because the Clay County police are careless about processing it.”
“Yes, Deputy Plunkett is pretty careless,” I said. “I think they’re doing all they can to keep him from touching anything from now on.”
“Damn,” she said, with a wry laugh. “There goes my defense.”
“Not necessarily. After all, if they find any evidence that would clear you, you don’t want that getting thrown out, right? Look, do you have any idea how the gun got in your van?”
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “I’ve been racking my brains. Did I leave one of the doors open? Maybe. The van’s old, and the back hatch sticks sometimes. Maybe it was open.”
I nodded. Of course, this begged the question of why the killer would make a beeline from the crime scene to her van in the hope that it would be open and he could deposit the gun there. Maybe he’d just planned to leave it in or near her campsite, noticed the imperfectly closed van door, and seized the opportunity. Or maybe the killer was someone who knew her well enough to know about the tricky latch.
Or someone who knew that Brett might still have had a key to Molly’s van. Vern had said his key ring was missing. If Molly hadn’t changed the house locks until last week, had she even begun to think about the van locks? Probably not; or even if she had, it probably hadn’t seemed a high priority for spending some of her meager cash on.
“Of course, someone could have jimmied the van doors,” she was saying. “It’s not that hard—Brett knew how. He was always losing his keys. Or having them taken away from him at bars and parties.”
She smiled sadly.
“You don’t sound very mad at him,” I said.
She considered that for a moment.
“Actually, I’m not.” She looked around as if to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “To tell the truth, when he actually left, all I could feel was an enormous sense of relief. As if I’d been carrying around a huge weight but I was so used to it that I never realized how much it was dragging me down until suddenly poof! It was gone. I was almost dizzy with relief. Okay, I was terrified about the possibility of losing the farm, but didn’t blame Brett for that. I knew perfectly well it was her idea.”
“Genette’s?”
She nodded.
“I gather you don’t like Genette,” I said. “Understandable.”
“It wasn’t just me,” she said. “No one liked her. If you ask me, I think the killer wanted to hurt her. Or maybe was trying to kill her and got Brett instead. I can’t think of any reason why someone would want to kill Brett. Most people found him either annoying or likable. Or both. But you don’t kill people because they’re annoying. And no one hated him.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“Which is what your mother always taught you to say when you can’t say anything nice.” Molly’s laugh sounded bitter. “You think my theory’s stupid.”
“No, this time I meant it,” I said. “It’s an interesting theory, especially since Genette seems to share it.”
“Genette?” She sounded startled. And then she frowned. “How do you know she…”
“Mother spotted Genette packing up her booth and presumably planning to skip town, so I got the job of stalling her until the chief could get there,” I explained. “She was completely panic-stricken, saying the killer had been after her and gotten Brett by mistake. She was about to leave all her stuff behind, thinking the fair had bellhops to pack it for her.”