“Oh. Cool. Now that I’ll be on staff we can swim together.” Trixie rolled to her side and rested her head on her hand. “So, have you found out anything else about your grandmother’s murder?”

“Some.” Skye was uncomfortable sharing information. She was out of the habit of exchanging casual gossip because most of what she heard at work was confidential.

“Do you suspect Hugo and Victoria?”

“Well, Grandma’s farm would be worth a lot of money if it could be subdivided into a housing development. And while Hugo wouldn’t get the money directly, I’m sure Uncle Dante would be very generous to his only child.”

Trixie shook her head and water flew from her gamin-like haircut. “Yeah, but didn’t you say Dante wants to continue to farm?”

“True, but he is sixty already. Maybe Hugo felt he could talk his dad into his way of thinking.”

“So, is Dante in the clear?”

Skye squeezed the moisture from her chestnut curls. “No, I knew Grandma’s care was costing a bundle. I mean, do the math. Mrs. J was there twenty-four hours, six days a week. They were only paying her five dollars an hour, but that’s still over seven hundred a week. Plus a couple hundred for the woman who stayed on Sundays. So that’s over four thousand a month, or nearly fifty thousand a year. Because of that, it turns out they might have had to start selling off pieces of the farm to support her. The lawyer said it would have all depended on how the crops were this year.”

“Wow, it’s a good thing my mother-in-law didn’t need to have someone take care of her for too long.” Trixie grimaced. “Oh, that reminds me, how’s your Aunt Minnie? Do you think she attempted suicide because she felt guilty about killing your grandmother?”

Skye scooted to the edge of the raft and dangled her feet in the water. “She’s still in the hospital. And actually I’m wondering if her so-called suicide attempt wasn’t really a murder attempt.” Skye told her about Minnie’s aversion to pills.

“Why would anyone want to kill her?”

“Maybe she knows something. I’ve been doing a little asking around and there’s a lot more to her past than I ever knew.”

Trixie shaded her eyes. “I thought your grandmother was telling you the family history.”

“She was, but we didn’t get to my aunts’ and uncles’ generation.”

“How about Minnie’s daughters?” Trixie eased back into the water.

“They certainly thought there were more jewelry and valuables than there turned out to be.” Skye followed Trixie into the water and they headed slowly back to shore. “Their husbands spilled the beans about their misconception at Grandma’s funeral lunch.”

“Of course you don’t suspect your own mother or brother.”

“No, thank goodness they have alibis. And I really haven’t found a motive for Aunt Mona, besides the fact that she’s a mean-spirited, sanctimonious bitch.” Skye filled in Trixie about the essay contest at school as they emerged from the water and crossed the hot sand.

“What a horrible thing to do to a child. And to have to sacrifice all your hard work with him. How awful for you too.”

Skye settled on the spread and began to apply sunscreen. Trixie joined her and oiled her own limbs.

Skye lay down in the bright sun and was almost asleep when Trixie’s voice woke her. “I know how to check to see who filled Minnie’s prescription.”

“How?”

“My cousin works at the pharmacy in town. She can check the records for us.”

“But isn’t that illegal?” Skye asked.

“Only if we get caught.”

CHAPTER 19

Five, Six, More Nasty Tricks

Before Skye dropped her off, Trixie agreed to call her cousin that evening. They parted with promises to stay in close touch.

As Skye went past her parents’ place she noticed her dad out in the yard, and on an impulse she pulled the Buick into the gravel drive. She had always found it difficult to talk to her father. His clipped way of speaking, and lack of interest in anything not farm related, made it hard to have a conversation with him.

Won’t Dad be surprised? I actually want to talk about agriculture. She grinned as she turned off the motor.

“Mom home?” Skye asked, approaching her father.

“Nope, she’s working afternoons. Just left.” Jed sat on his haunches looking at a snowblower that he’d turned upside down.

“Is she still mad at me?” Skye warily circled the pile of greasy parts.

He shrugged.

It was the kind of response she had been getting from him all her life. His refusal to communicate at a personal level drove her to say things for their shock value alone.

“Do you think someone in the family killed Grandma?” Skye said abruptly.

He shrugged again. It took a lot more than words to make Jed react.

“Almost every one of them has a motive.” Skye stepped back as Jed’s tool slipped and oil sprayed outward.

“Any proof?” Jed tightened a bolt and wiped it with a dirty cloth.

“Not really.” Skye steered the subject away from her lack of evidence and continued in the same vein. “I was wondering about Uncle Dante. Is he a good farmer?”

Jed was silent, finally wiping his hands on the rag and sticking them in his overall pockets. “Can’t really say. Has different ideas than me or Emmett.”

“Oh?”

“Emmett and me, we pretty much agree on most things. You know, do ’em the way it worked before.” Jed looked at Skye. “Dante likes to try new stuff.”

“Is that bad?” Skye’s knowledge of farming was surprisingly limited for having grown up in the country.

“Sometimes. Depends if they work or not.” Jed flipped over the snowblower.

“And were his new methods successful?”

“Not so’s you’d notice.”

“Has he bought a lot of new machinery lately?” Skye knew that a simple tractor could cost more than fifty-five thousand dollars.

“Yeah, he likes new equipment. Likes things to be shiny and bright.”

Skye pictured her father’s machinery. Most of it was decades old, and one would be hard-pressed to tell what color it had started out, but it all ran as if brand-new, thanks to Jed’s talent as a mechanic. She knew her father kept Emmett’s equipment running too, but she couldn’t recall Dante ever asking for help.

“Do you think maybe Uncle Dante was skimming a little off the top of the Leofanti trust?”

Jed took out his pocketknife and started to clean his nails. “You best leave that idea alone.”

“Why?” Her tone sharpened.

“ ’Cause none of his sisters wants to go down that road.”

“Oh, so they know.”

“Nah, but they don’t want to know either.” Jed finished with his fingernails and replaced the knife in his pocket.

Skye was stumped as to where to go from that point. To buy some time to think she asked a question she had always been curious about. “Why do you farm, Dad?”

At first she didn’t think he was going to answer. “ ’Cause I like bein’ my own boss and doin’ what I want when I want.” Jed pulled the bill of his International Harvester gimme cap down over his eyes.

She nodded thoughtfully. It was a feeling she could relate to. Jed was gathering his tools and wiping them down. Silences never seemed to bother him. She admired that trait even though she found it difficult to deal with at times.

“Does Uncle Dante make a good living from his land?” Maybe her mother and aunts didn’t want to know what Dante was up to, but she still did.

Jed lifted his cap and scratched his head. “Well, now, the last couple of years have been tough for us all. Not enough rain for growing and too much for harvesting.”

“Has he had to sell anything off?”

“That would never happen. Selling land is against his religion.”

“I’ll bet he was upset then when it looked like some of Grandma’s land would have to be sold to take care of her.” Skye watched as her father coaxed life out of the decrepit snowblower’s engine.