“I guess.”

He looked at the pipes, reached up and touched one, then tapped on his phone again. “I’d imagine they’re giving Helen a pretty good grilling about it.”

“You think?” I asked, my hands on my hips.

He eyed me. “You met her before?”

I nodded.

“She’s a tough cookie, too,” he said, still tapping away. “Bit of an odd bird.” He shook his head. “Be a sad thing if she was the one that did it to Olaf.”

I told myself not to engage, to not ask questions. But my radar was on high alert.

“You think she did?” I asked.

He shrugged and held the tape measure up to the wall. “I don’t want to speculate. But I guess if I were Priscilla, that’s where I’d start looking.”

At least I wasn’t the only one on that track of thinking. “I just don’t get how he ended up here.”

His mouth twisted and his bushy mustached bounced a little. “Well, I’d expect she knew about you and Olaf.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

He snapped the tape measure closed and stuck it in his pocket. “I think everyone knew you two went on at least one date. Big mouths in a small town and all that.”

I blushed.

“So I’d expect she knew,” he said. “So if she did do it…well, you might’ve been an easy target for her.”

I shook my head. It all seemed too bizarre for me. But at least I knew I wasn’t alone in my thinking. Rex and I were on the same page. I smiled, grateful that he had come to some of the same conclusions I had.

“Was she dating anyone?” I asked. “Here in Moose River?”

He grabbed his coffee and took a long swallow, then shrugged. “Not really sure. Why do you ask?”

“I’ve just heard some things.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That right?”

“Just that she might’ve been dating someone,” I said. “I know she was on a dating website and she claimed she was involved with someone. But I can’t find who it was.” I smiled sheepishly. “And that’s just me being too nosy and doing things I shouldn’t be doing.”

“Right, right,” he said, running a finger over his mustache. He took another drink of his coffee. “Well, I know she went out with that Cornelius fellow. The taxidermist.”

I nodded. “I heard that, too.”

“But I don’t know if it was anything serious.” He shrugged again. “I don’t think I can help you too much there.”

“Nor should you,” I told him. I offered another smile, this time one of apology. “I’m getting way too into all of the gossip. I just need to step away from all of it. Mind my own business for a change.”

He returned the smile and held up his phone. “Think I got everything I need. I’ll call my guy and we’ll probably be out here again in a day or two. We’ll get the vents cut and hopefully keep those pipes warm for the rest of winter.”

“That’d be great,” I said.

I followed him back upstairs. He reached for his boots and pulled them on, then dug his keys out of his pocket. I walked him to the door and opened it for him.

“I’ll try and call next time,” Rex said as he crossed the threshold. “Not just drop in on you.”

“If we’re here, you’re welcome to come by,” I said. “It’s fine.”

“Okay,” he said. He paused and the cold air rushed in through the open door. “I wish I could help you, Daisy. With figuring all this out.”

I shook my head. “Oh, gosh, don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Like I said. I need to just let it go.”

He nodded. “Yeah, suppose so. Just not meant to be. Sure would be nice to know who did that to poor Olaf, though.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah it would.”

THIRTY EIGHT

Emily dropped her books on the table. “Well, it’s official. I’m poison.”

I’d taken the kids to the library and to the pet store after Rex had left and spent the better portion of the day focusing on them instead of getting distracted by Olaf or Helen. We’d had a nice afternoon and I felt sort of normal after a major run of abnormal days. I was sitting at the table, checking the computer for how to make homemade hamster toys, when Emily stormed in the house and made her  dramatic announcement.

“What?” I asked.

“I’m poison,” she said, slumping into the chair next to me. “No one wants to be around me.”

I pushed the laptop aside. “I want to be around you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Great.”

I took a calming breath and tried not to take her comment personally. “What do you mean?”

“Janie McClintock’s birthday party,” she moaned. “I’m not invited.”

A frown crossed my face. “I didn’t think you and Janie were that great of friends.”

“Well, we’re not. But that’s not the point,” she insisted.

“Okay. So what is the point?”

She tucked her chin to her chest and looked at me like I was a Neanderthal. Except I remembered that scientists had recently discovered that Neanderthals were actually probably capable of complex thought and communication so that analogy wouldn’t work anymore.

“That I wasn’t invited,” she informed me.

“Why would she have invited you if you aren’t friends?”

“Because she invited all of my friends,” she explained. She picked up a strand of hair and twirled it around her finger. “And because Carolyn told me she purposely didn’t invite me because we harbor dead bodies in our basement.”

“Coal chute,” I corrected. “We harbor them in our coal chute.”

“Not funny, Mom.”

“Sorry,” I said, thinking it was a little funny. “But if that’s honestly why she didn’t invite you, then you’re better off.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please. Everyone knows Janie’s parties are awesome. They’re going roller skating.” Her shoulders rolled forward a little and her voice lowered. “And Nathan’s going.”

“Ah.” Suddenly, it all became crystal clear. “We’re back to Nathan, are we?”

She rested her elbows on the table and propped her chin in her hands. She reminded me of a sad puppy.

“He apologized,” she said. “To me. And said it was more about his parents than him.”

“Well, that sounds kind of nice.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “But guess who likes him?”

“Janie?”

“Yeah.” She sighed and picked up another strand of hair. “And she will totally wear some low-cut shirt at her party so he can see her boobs bounce all around while she skates.”

It still sort of freaked me out that my kid talked about other kids having boobs. And that she had a pair herself. Where had the time gone?

“If that’s what Nathan is interested in, then maybe we should move on from Nathan.”

She rolled her eyes again. “Mom. All of the boys like boobs. Jake probably likes boobs.”

Jake did, in fact, like boobs.

“Well, they don’t have them,” I reasoned. “I mean, they do, but the breasts on a man serve a different function. It’s normal for boys and men to be fascinated with them. And, if you think about it, they should have an attachment to them. An affinity. If they were breastfed—”

Emily cut me off. “Got it, Mom.” Her cheeks were beet red. “The point is, she’s going to be there and he’s going to be there and I’m not.”

I remembered dating woes from high school. And, for once, I was glad that I was in my forties and that my teens were a distant, distant memory.

“So, have you considered that maybe you weren’t invited for another reason?” I asked.

She frowned at me. “Like what?”

“Like maybe she knows you like Nathan—”

I didn’t think her cheeks could turn any redder but they did. “I didn’t say I liked him!”

“—and that she knows Nathan might like you—”

“Mom! He doesn’t! I mean, I don’t know if he does…”

“—and she doesn’t want you there because she likes him and wants to show off her boobs to him and you won’t be able to show off your boobs to him because you won’t be there?”

“Oh my God,” she muttered, shaking her head. “I don’t know why I tell you this stuff.”

“I’m just saying that there might be more at work here than you living in the murder pit,” I said. “Teenage girls are devious.”