Page 94 of Death on Gallows Path

“Yeah.”

He wasn’t going to tell me more.

He didn’t need to. I could build a strong case that the sheriff wanted him to question Bryon — and get a confession.

“I’ll be home as soon as I can, but it’ll be late,” he said.

“Understood.”

“If I have a chance to get away for dinner or—”

“That would be great. But I do understand.”

He grumbled. “Wish I did. I want to see you.”

* * * *

“Thought we’d stop off at the post office for the dogs to see Ike,” Clara said with innocence that would convince the unwary.

It didn’t need to convince me. I was all for this plan.

We arrived to find my kitty-corner neighbor, Amy Kackley, mailing a package. She was the only customer. We exchanged short hellos, she patted the dogs, then said she needed to get back to work at the library.

The three dogs wiggled and wagged in pleasure at Ira’s attention and he reciprocated with a smile, which drew a bigger one from Ruby.

Clara dove in — good idea, since customers had the irksome habit of showing up.

“Ruby, tell us about Willow Yost and her connection to Jean and Oscar Hoskins.”

“Oh, she’s been like a granddaughter to them since she was a little one. Because they were like grandparents to her.”

That echoed what the ladies told us at brunch. We needed more.

“It must have been so hard on her when Jean was diagnosed last year,” Clara said.

“It surely was. Hard on everybody. Only one who handled it well was Jean. Went on like herself, never missing a beat. Saying right out she needed to get her affairs in good order and do what she wanted to do. That was her, through and through.”

“Wasn’t there something about a trip . . .?”

“Yes, indeed. Jean had wanted to go to Europe, see all the things she’d read about and taught about all those years — literature and such. Had the whole thing planned for a couple years off. When the diagnosis came, she said they’d move it up and Oscar dug in to make that happen.”

“Did they go?”

Ruby’s face darkened. “No. Damon Swindell had gotten Oscar to invest in one of his business ventures at the start of last year.” Her tone put ventures in the same category as venom. “When Oscar went to him to get the money out, he said it was gone. Just gone. Even though it had only been a few months. Made no bones about it that Oscar and Jean would never get a penny back.”

“A lawyer—?”

Ruby shook her head. “Jean said she absolutely would not spend the end of her life that way. That was her way. But I also think it was to pull Oscar up short. He was already on the edge of going into a tailspin over her diagnosis and if he’d started obsessing about that . . . But with her insisting on living those final months, she held onto him and wouldn’t let him do anything but live, too.”

Ira sighed from behind us.

We all looked at him.

He was still petting the dogs, but there was pain in his eyes.

“Ira is right,” Ruby said. “After Jean died, Oscar did go into a tailspin. If it weren’t for Willow and that little dog . . .”

“So, he’s back to himself?” Clara asked.