He lowered his voice. “You coming down here or what?”

4

The Callen Police Department was housed in the back of a small, one-story, redbrick building, the front section of which served as the municipal offices. The library was in the basement, and the jail-such as it was-was in the annex, a low-slung square of gray block and mortar that connected to the main building through a short corridor.

Lorna parked behind the building and went to the side door, which led directly into a small lobby. Through the glass, Lorna saw Brad Walker leaning against the wall, talking to his father, and when Lorna knocked, he nodded in her direction. Chief Walker stood and waved to her.

“Come on in,” he told her. “Just give that door a push-it sticks in hot weather. Here, let me do that.”

He went to the door and gave it a shove. “Don’t want the air-conditioning to escape. It’s hot as hell out there.”

Lorna pushed a strand of hair back off her forehead. “It is that.”

“You ready to talk to Billie Eagan?” he asked.

“Sure. I’m still not certain why she wants to see me, but sure, I’ll talk to her.”

“She’s in here, in the conference room. Normally, we’d have her in a holding cell while we wait for the sheriff to drive her out to the prison, but the air conditioner out there hasn’t been working, and it’s just too damned hot for man or beast. Joel Morgan, of the PD’s office, was in on another matter, and the judge asked him to handle Ms. Eagan’s case, at least through the preliminary hearing, which won’t be until next week. He’ll be by in a minute to talk to her.”

“She’s been charged?”

“Charged, arraigned, and has a room reserved at the county prison.”

“Can’t she get bail?”

“That’s up to her, I guess, if she can post bail. You can discuss that with her, makes your visit sort of official.”

The chief gestured in Lorna’s direction and she followed him through a door at the end of the room. Billie Eagan sat at the head of a rectangular table, her hands folded in front of her, her pale, thin arms stark against the dark wood. Her hair was straight, stringy, gray, no longer the thick, dark strawberry blond Lorna remembered from her childhood. She wore a sleeveless cotton blouse that was stained on one side. When she looked up at Lorna, it was through watery blue eyes set deep into a gaunt face.

“Hello, Mrs. Eagan,” Lorna said from the doorway.

“Lorna.” Billie’s voice was as flat and low-pitched as Lorna remembered.

“Chief Walker said you wanted to see me.”

Billie nodded. “I do.”

“Lorna,” the chief touched her on the arm, “I’ll be right outside here, if you need me.”

He closed the door behind him, leaving the two women alone. Lorna moved farther into the room, taking a seat across the table from Billie.

“I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am about your momma.” Billie’s voice still held a trace of the West Virginia hills where she’d been born. “She was as near to being a friend as anyone I ever knew. She was a good woman, through and through. I just wanted you to know.”

Lorna hesitated. She hadn’t recalled her mother speaking of any particular friendship with Billie Eagan.

“Surprised, are you?” Billie looked faintly amused.

“I didn’t know that you and my mother were… friends,” Lorna said awkwardly.

Billie nodded.

“Well, I appreciate you thinking of her.”

“I think about her every day.”

“You do?”

“She used to stop by once or so a week. Drop off a bag of groceries. Sometimes something she might’a baked. She made these little lemon muffins with poppy seeds…”

Lorna nodded. Her grandmother’s recipe.

Her mother used to make muffins for Billie Eagan?

“She always took me to my doctors appointments, stopped at the drugstore on the way home to pick up my prescriptions. She even made sure I got to my meetings at night, said I needed the support if I was to overcome my addictions,” Billie continued. “Every once in a while, she’d bring me a pack of cigarettes.”

“My mother bought you cigarettes?” Lorna’s jaw dropped.

“Oh, she didn’t like doing it, I know she didn’t. But she knew how hard it was for me to quit, especially on top of everything else I was trying to quit at the time. Said she’d gone through that once with cigarettes herself, and she knew how tough it was, so she-”

“My mother never smoked,” Lorna said flatly.

“She tell you that?”

“Well, no, I never asked her, but she hated cigarettes. Hated smoking.”

“Yes, she did. Said she’d been real happy none of you kids ever picked ’ em up. But back when she was younger, she did. Stopped when she found out she was pregnant with you and never picked ’em up again.” Billie leaned back in her chair. “Or so she said.”

“I’m stunned. I never knew that about her.”

“I guess there’s lots of things you didn’t know.”

Lorna stared at Billie, not sure what to say. Billie stared back.

“Like what?” Lorna finally asked.

“Your mother never believed that I had anything to do with whatever happened to Melinda.” Billie’s face hardened. “I know everyone else around here thought I did, but she believed me. Even after Jason ran away-at least, back then, that’s what we thought happened to him. Now they tell me they found him there in the field.”

Billie’s lips tightened. “Can you imagine that? All these years, I thought he’d run away, maybe to the city someplace. And there he was, just a couple’a acres away from where I lay my head every night.”

“No, Mrs. Eagan. They found Jason at the back of our farm, over where the new houses are being built. Your house is over on Conway Road.”

“I lost that house long ago. After all that craziness, after the police started questioning me when Jason went away and they needed someone to blame, I lost my job. I lost my house. I got sick. I lost everything…” For a moment, her eyes seemed to cloud over, and her lips shook slightly.

“Where have you been living, then, all these years?” Lorna asked.

“Here and there, moved around for a long time. I guess I should’a gone home to my family, but I always thought Jason would come back, maybe Melinda, too. Then, a few years ago, when I got really sick, your mother let me move into that cottage out there near the grapes.” Billie glanced up and saw the look of surprise on Lorna’s face. “Oh, I guess that was something else you didn’t know.”

“No. No, she never mentioned it.”

“Maybe she thought you wouldn’t have approved,” Billie said softly.

“It was her property, her cottage. She didn’t need my approval.”

“Well, by then, you were over there near Pittsburgh and setting up your business-she was real proud of that, that you had your own business, but I’m sure you knew that-and your sister and brother had both moved away. I guess maybe she got a little lonely sometimes.”

Billie smiled for the first time since Lorna entered the room. “Or maybe it was that goodness of hers, coming through. She was such a kind soul.”

Lorna’s throat tightened unexpectedly.

“Anyway, I just wanted you to know how much I miss her. Not only the things she did for me, you know? I miss talking to her, miss having her company.” When Billie looked at Lorna this time, there were tears in the corners of her eyes. “I never knew anyone else like her.”

“Neither did I,” Lorna whispered.

The door opened, and Brad stuck his head in.

“The public defender is here to see Mrs. Eagan, Lorna. You about finished?”

“Oh. Sure. I’ll just be a minute.” Lorna nodded, then turned back to Billie after Brad closed the door. “Mrs. Eagan, I have to ask you something.”

Billie looked up, waiting.

“Did you kill Melinda?”

“No. No, I did not.” The answer was quick, and sure. “I do not know what happened to that child, I swear on her life.”