“I’m betting the charges are dropped between now and then. You know I haven’t thought they had enough evidence against Billie, but with these other victims being found,” he shrugged, “I don’t see them proceeding at this point. Unless they can finger her for all the killings, I think they’re going to have to go back to square one. I guess I’ll have a better feel for it after I’ve met Billie.”
“We can do that now, if you like,” Lorna suggested.
“The sooner the better.” T.J. stood. “You’re coming with me, though, right? I think she’d be much more comfortable if you were there.”
“Sure. I’d planned on being there. Let me give her a call and let her know we’re stopping over.” Lorna got out of the chair and went into the house.
“Where is everyone going?” Regan asked as she put her cell phone back in her handbag.
“Lorna and I are going over to talk to Billie Eagan.”
“I’ll wait here. For one thing, I think the poor woman would probably feel overwhelmed if the three of us showed up. Besides, I’m waiting for Mitch to call back. I had to leave voice mail.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Lorna asked as she came out through the front door.
“Not at all.” Regan got up and walked over to the rocking chair Lorna had been sitting in. “It’s a beautiful day, the humidity has dropped, it’s nice and shady here on the porch, and I have a book in here somewhere…”
Regan began rooting through her handbag.
“Here we go. The newest thriller from my favorite author.” She moved the chair, then sat and rested her feet on the porch railing. Since she was shorter than Lorna by several inches, the rail would have been out of reach if she hadn’t moved the rocker. “I’ll be right here when you get back.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.” Lorna swung her bag over her shoulder and followed T.J. down the steps.
Regan waved them on.
Lorna paused next to T.J.’s car.
“Maybe we should drive over.”
“Isn’t Billie’s house right across the field?”
“Yes, but it is several acres away.” She was still staring at the car.
“You’re incredibly subtle.” He took his keys out of his pocket and opened the driver’s-side door.
“Great. I’ve been dying for a ride in this machine all week.” Lorna grinned, opened the passenger door, and got in.
“You should have said something. I’d have been happy to show ‘er off.” T.J. slid behind the wheel and started the engine. “You want the top up?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Just asking. Some women don’t like to have their hair blown around.”
“I’m not one of them.”
He turned the car around and stopped at the end of the drive.
“Which way?”
“Turn right,” Lorna told him. “Then right again in about a quarter of a mile.”
He accelerated slowly, then proceeded to the intersection, where he made a right at the stop sign. Lorna leaned her head back and closed her eyes, letting the breeze blow around her. She was smiling, and he found himself smiling, too.
“That was nice,” she told him when he pulled up in front of Billie’s house and cut the engine.
“Not much of a ride. We’ll take the long way home.”
“Yay.” She got out of the car and waited for T.J., then walked up the two steps leading to the front door. She was about to ring the bell when the door opened.
“Billie, this is T. J. Dawson, the private investigator I told you about,” Lorna said.
“Pleased to meet you.” Billie did not offer her hand, but appeared to be studying him. After a long moment, apparently approving of what she saw, she stepped aside and gestured for her visitors to come inside. “I don’t know what there is to investigate, but we can talk.”
She led them into the living room, which was furnished with an old blue sofa-the cushions of which were sagging slightly-one end table, a floor lamp that Lorna recognized as having come from her family’s attic, a chair with a makeshift slipcover, and a television set on top of a bookcase.
Billie must have caught Lorna’s glance at the lamp, because she said, “That lamp, your momma gave it to me. If you need it, or you want it, you can have it back.”
“No, no, I don’t need it,” Lorna assured her.
“Well, you ever feel you do, you just tell me.” Billie sat in the corner chair.
Lorna and T.J. sat side by side on the sofa.
“Billie, have you been hearing about all the bodies found in the back field?” Lorna asked.
“You tell me what that all means,” Billie visibly shivered, “ ’cause I never heard tell of such a thing. Bodies all through the woods, they’re saying on the news.” She looked from Lorna to T.J. and back again. “You don’t think they believe I had anything to do with all that, do you?”
“Billie, I honestly don’t know what anyone is thinking at this point,” Lorna told her. “But if they gave it serious thought, they’d figure out that you’re not a likely suspect. You’re not physically big enough, or strong enough, to have pulled it off. So I think that shouldn’t be a worry right now.”
“Well, it ain’t like I got nothing else on my mind.” She turned to T.J. “Lorna said you wanted to ask me some questions. You go right ahead. What do you want to talk about first?”
“Let’s talk about the night Jason disappeared,” T.J. said.
“Go ’head.”
“Do you remember where you had been that night before Jason came home?”
“I was right there at home. I’d worked until nine-thirty at the diner, then had to wait for almost forty minutes for Stella’s husband to come pick us up.” Billie turned to Lorna and said, “Stella Rusznick worked the same shift as me, and her husband picked her up every night. Nights when I didn’t have a ride, they’d drop me off. Most nights he was there by ten, but that night he was a little late. He’d stopped at Kelly’s Tavern on the way and had himself a few.”
Billie laughed hoarsely.
“I never knew how scared you could get when a drunk was behind the wheel. All the times I drove drunk, or rode with someone who was, I never was scared. Once I stopped drinking, though, whoa! Scared the bejesus outta me to be in that car with Stella’s husband. Never knew what sober people felt, driving with me, until I sobered up myself.”
“So you got home around ten after ten that night,” Lorna said.
“ ‘Round there. I went into the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea. Never drank it until I stopped- Well, anyway, I made tea and took it outside and I sat on the back steps. Looked out across that field, looked up into the sky. Wondered where my girl was.” Billie stopped and swallowed hard. “With Mellie gone, I had a lot of time to think, mostly about how bad a mother I’d been. Mother from hell, I’d say, and that would be the truth. I prayed every night that wherever she was, she might know how sorry I was for every time I hurt her. Every time I raised my voice when I didn’t have to. Every time I ignored her or made her feel like she didn’t matter. I sat there each night after she disappeared, wondering if she was still alive… wondering if she’d just gotten so tired of me being the way I was that maybe she simply up and ran off.”