Thirty-Four

Teacups around the room clattered into their saucers. I thought Joanne might burst into tears.

“You’re not my grandfather?”

“Of course I am. But not genetically. Theona and I said we would treat Bobbie as one of our own, and we did. She was a Barlow through and through.”

“So Bobbie and my dad were my real parents, but you and Theona are not my grandparents.” Joanne’s expression revealed what a blow she had received.

“Correct. But had we been able to locate you, we would have brought you back here and raised you as a Barlow, too. Bobbie was our daughter, no matter whether she came from our genes or not.”

“Do you have adoption information?” asked Rose. “Maybe Joanne could track down her genetic grandparents.”

Judge Barlow laced and unlaced his fingers. He didn’t say a word. It was painfully quiet in the room. “It was a different time, you know. Thirty years ago, it wasn’t as common to have babies out of wedlock. Bobbie’s mother was desperate. She didn’t have the backing of her family and certainly didn’t have the money to raise a child on her own. I’m afraid the father left the picture quite quickly.”

“So you know who she was!” exclaimed Rose.

“I do. She worked for Theona and me, helping care for our children. It seemed like the best of both worlds. She could be with her daughter every day and no one would be the wiser.”

Rose shrieked, “Dovie?”

My eyes met Dave’s. Dovie had let Fritz out. Dovie had called Seth to come to Wagtail. But she had been with me during the fire. She couldn’t have killed Seth, could she?

Dave looked at his phone. “If you’ll excuse me, I have an emergency to tend to.” He nodded at me.

Dr. Engelknecht unwittingly covered for our departure by asking the judge how he felt.

Dave, Trixie, and I flew out the door. He scanned the street before he said, “I can’t believe this. We’ve been thinking that Seth killed Judge Barlow’s daughter, which he did, but she was also Dovie’s daughter! Do you know where Dovie is?”

“No.”

“Let’s hope she’s at home.” We hopped into his police golf cart and cruised over to Rose’s house.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“I don’t want Dovie to realize what we’re doing. Maybe she’ll think we’re checking on Rose.”

I followed him through the rose arbor and into Rose’s backyard. We traced back along Seth’s presumed steps through the trees.

“At what stage was the fire when Holmes brought Dovie to you?” asked Dave.

“It was getting big. I first saw the smoke from Rose’s backyard.”

“So Seth was following Fritz, but why would Fritz be here?”

“He was carrying the kittens over to the judge’s house.”

“But why here? He could have run down any street. You know dogs, they follow their noses.”

“If Dovie was the one who let him out, maybe Dovie was feeding him. He doesn’t look like he missed any meals.”

Dave’s eyes widened. “Oh, excellent. Dovie was luring Seth here. She could have readied the poison, and when Fritz came through, and Seth was behind him, it would have been so easy for her to be friendly to Seth, maybe even hug him and then, whammo, she jams the needle in his back.”

“Ugh.”

“Dovie wasn’t stupid. She knew she needed an alibi, so she set her own shed on fire as a distraction, and you were her convenient alibi, but the deed had already been done. Seth stumbled along and reached Rose’s backyard, but it had been vacated because everyone was out on the street, worried about the fire.”

“Dovie kissed Fritz and shooed him away because she had to start the fire.”

“I believe I need to talk to Dovie,” said Dave. “Maybe she’s home.”

Trixie and I followed him around the house to the front door. Dave knocked and shouted, “Dovie?”

No one answered. He tried again.

I peered into a window. “No sight of her.”

“She’s probably out shopping or running errands.”

We walked back the way we had come, keeping our eyes on the pine needles in case the killer had dropped something.

“I hope we’re wrong about Dovie,” said Dave. “I don’t want to arrest her, especially now that she has a granddaughter. What a crummy thing that would be. Maybe the judge is the killer. We don’t have anything on Dovie that definitely ties her to Seth’s death. The judge has the disposition and knows how to murder someone. He might also be the one who set Dovie’s shed on fire.”

We had just reached Rose’s house when I thought I saw a movement through her kitchen window. I grabbed Dave and ducked. “There’s someone in there.”

“Maybe the party at the judge’s house broke up and she came home.”

I texted Rose. Are you home yet?

She wrote back promptly. No. Is something wrong?

“It’s not Rose,” I whispered.

“I’m going to check it out. You stay here. I mean it, Holly. Don’t creep up in back of me or anything. And keep Trixie here with you.”

Dave crouched and darted toward Rose’s window. He slowly raised up to see inside, then promptly squatted again. He scuttled sideways and tried the back door. I watched as he opened it and scooted inside.