Page 125 of Death on Gallows Path

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“. . . and I saw Sheila had it figured out,” Clara told Teague later that night, at my house, with dogs, snacks, and wine in the living room.

He’d have more questioning and investigating to do, along with a lot more report-writing. But he was off until morning.

“Pammy holding a gun on you might have been a clue,” he said dryly.

“Before that,” Clara said indignantly. “Sheila got pieces of it way, way before. Including the bruise — or non-bruise.”

We explained about Linda seeing Pammy in the drug store, buying a concealer kit, eight days before Zoley’s excessive makeup and Damon’s murder.

“How did Pammy know Zoley would need it?” Clara asked rhetorically. “She couldn’t. Even if you say Damon — or Bryon — had hit her before Pammy bought the wheel and the bruise didn’t show yet, but she knew it would . . . then it wouldn’t have still shown enough a week later for Zoley to need thick makeup.”

“She could have run out, from using it other times. But in that case—” Yes, I barely finished one thought before I argued against myself. “—she would have had practice concealing bruises and she wouldn’t have slathered makeup on the way she did.”

“So the bruise didn’t exist. What made you think she was using Zoley?” Teague asked me.

I dug back through impressions.

“There was a moment when Zoley was talking and Pammy had this expression . . . smug self-satisfied. It fit with Zoley saying things she’d been directed to say.”

“Saying Bryon was possessive, volatile. She trotted those out for you, too.” Teague neither confirmed nor denied Clara’s certainty. “Did it to give Bryon motive.”

“There was something about their relationship . . .” I ran out of words — never good for a writer.

Clara picked up for me. “Zoley pulled a mean girl on Pammy in high school. Sheila listened carefully enough to hear the echoes of that. It didn’t click for me until afterward.”

“It only occurred to me as we walked out of training,” I said, “that instead of killing each other’s husbands, she decided to get rid of both men by killing one and setting up the other. To make herself rich and free. To make Zoley poor and miserable.

“In the end, Pammy’s need to reveal her ascendancy over Zoley overtook her caution, even her self-preservation.”

Teague tipped his head. “Say that’s a given, how did you get to the end?”

Clara said, “She had dreams last night and put pieces together.”

His brows rose. “Dreams?”

“There was a map. I think it was to a treasure chest. Anyway, there was a map and there was a treasure chest.

“The map made sense, with the basic question of why Damon went to Gallows Path, but not to where his truck wouldn’t be seen. Why there? was something we kept asking, along with why now?”

“Sheila’s questions,” Clara said with pride.

“Why now? fit with a big calendar in my dream, with people weaving in and out of it, which is what brought me to the idea of people with motives not just being suspects. They created the timeline. They were the answer to why now?”

He frowned slightly, but said, “Go back to the treasure chest.”

“That circled around Damon having treasure — money he scammed or otherwise took from other people, especially the suspects. We heard Pammy was really good at finances. Yet she claimed to have no knowledge of Damon’s business. Possible. Say, if she had an idea of what he was up to and was uncomfortable about it.”

“But . . .?” Clara’s grin invited me to keep going.

“Damon wasn’t known as a financial whiz, yet William Alsup’s lawyers discovered sophisticated foreign accounts. Damon told Oscar his money was just gone, like it fell in a black hole. Part of the scam? Certainly could be. But what if that was true?

“Bryon said Damon said he was missing money. A lie? Sure could have been. Bryon connected it to Damon saying Willow was in his office. But what if it wasn’t and what if it wasn’t a lie?

“That got me thinking about layers. And then the elephant.”

“Elephant?” Teague asked.