interrupted. “Your brother?”
“No. Back then he would have killed Ev if he knew. Ivor had signed onto the police force only days before Ev attacked me…I couldn’t tell him.”
“Do you suppose your brother found out about it recently?”
“No,” she growled. “Ivor did not kill Everett Olson.”
“I’ll have to talk to your brother about all this. The rape attempt, I mean.”
She closed her eyes. “You will, won’t you? Which means I have to tell him before dinner tonight and alert Mom as well.”
“How good a friend are you of Tilly Grant’s?”
Liv opened her eyes. “Why?”
“She was Olson’s lover. You hated the man.”
Liv shrugged. “It’s her life. I never told her what Everett did to me. And, of course, in time, Ev apologized and asked for my forgiveness for his behavior a million times over. He was drunk that night and an oversexed eighteen-year-old. No excuse, but…” Liv sighed as she toyed with an eagle feather on her necklace. “I was experimenting with flirting at the time,” she said. And that’s why I left town, because I was known as a flake. Liv sighed. I didn’t like who I was then, and, look at me…I’m not much better now . “Clearly he cleaned up his approach. Ev went on to screw every woman in this town except me.”
“So Ms. Grant says. She knows you don’t like him, but I don’t think she’s aware of the real reason why.”
“It’s a small town. For harmony’s sake, we leave some things unsaid. Until one of us drowns.”
Parker nodded and leaned forward, a tight smile on his face. “Now is the time I have to ask where you were last week. Every person I interview, must answer that question, including your mother and Ivor.”
Without a word, Liv rose and went to the desk in her bedroom, picked up the single sheet of paper she’d composed that very morning, and stalked out to Parker. “Here,” she said. “This answers your question about where I was the week Everett Olson died.”
He took the page, but instead of reading it, he kept his focus on Liv. “I appreciate your writing down the information. I didn’t expect—”
“You better read it before you thank me.”
Parker looked puzzled. “What?”
“You won’t like what it says.”
“I won’t?” He glanced at the paper. “What the hell?”
Liv watched his features tighten as he read the page. It had killed her to give him a chart so simple, so spare. She took some comfort in knowing that the first chart she made, the one she’d slid into her desk drawer for her eyes only, was so detailed it went to three pages. But those pages were hers, not his. She reveled in the details; he only needed the summary.
Parker lifted his eyes from the paper. “You have got to be kidding me.”
She shrugged. “In black and white. At least ten of us were in Seattle during the time Everett Olson died. Any one of us could have been with him when he drowned.”
Chapter Four
Petersburg 1932
Everyone’s a Suspect
(The Murder of Sing Lee: A Retrospective
by Liv Hanson)
Letter to the Editor of The Petersburg Press:
“Since the government investigator came here about the murder of Sing Lee, a few of us got together to do everything in our power to help the officer find out the dirty skunk that done the deed. We believe there is a certain man who done it, but so far as we know he has kept his mouth shut about the real facts, and unless said party comes out right away and gives the government man the facts he knows, it will be proof to us that he was on the job before Sing Lee was killed and we will urge the government investigator to have him arrested as the murderer. Even if he didn’t know about it beforehand, protecting the killer is just about as bad as the brutal job he done on poor, old, kindhearted Sing Lee who done so much good in this town for so many years. Our homes are here and it is not safe for anybody with a murderer running loose.” Sincerely, Concerned Citizens of Petersburg,
“No. Back then he would have killed Ev if he knew. Ivor had signed onto the police force only days before Ev attacked me…I couldn’t tell him.”
“Do you suppose your brother found out about it recently?”
“No,” she growled. “Ivor did not kill Everett Olson.”
“I’ll have to talk to your brother about all this. The rape attempt, I mean.”
She closed her eyes. “You will, won’t you? Which means I have to tell him before dinner tonight and alert Mom as well.”
“How good a friend are you of Tilly Grant’s?”
Liv opened her eyes. “Why?”
“She was Olson’s lover. You hated the man.”
Liv shrugged. “It’s her life. I never told her what Everett did to me. And, of course, in time, Ev apologized and asked for my forgiveness for his behavior a million times over. He was drunk that night and an oversexed eighteen-year-old. No excuse, but…” Liv sighed as she toyed with an eagle feather on her necklace. “I was experimenting with flirting at the time,” she said. And that’s why I left town, because I was known as a flake. Liv sighed. I didn’t like who I was then, and, look at me…I’m not much better now . “Clearly he cleaned up his approach. Ev went on to screw every woman in this town except me.”
“So Ms. Grant says. She knows you don’t like him, but I don’t think she’s aware of the real reason why.”
“It’s a small town. For harmony’s sake, we leave some things unsaid. Until one of us drowns.”
Parker nodded and leaned forward, a tight smile on his face. “Now is the time I have to ask where you were last week. Every person I interview, must answer that question, including your mother and Ivor.”
Without a word, Liv rose and went to the desk in her bedroom, picked up the single sheet of paper she’d composed that very morning, and stalked out to Parker. “Here,” she said. “This answers your question about where I was the week Everett Olson died.”
He took the page, but instead of reading it, he kept his focus on Liv. “I appreciate your writing down the information. I didn’t expect—”
“You better read it before you thank me.”
Parker looked puzzled. “What?”
“You won’t like what it says.”
“I won’t?” He glanced at the paper. “What the hell?”
Liv watched his features tighten as he read the page. It had killed her to give him a chart so simple, so spare. She took some comfort in knowing that the first chart she made, the one she’d slid into her desk drawer for her eyes only, was so detailed it went to three pages. But those pages were hers, not his. She reveled in the details; he only needed the summary.
Parker lifted his eyes from the paper. “You have got to be kidding me.”
She shrugged. “In black and white. At least ten of us were in Seattle during the time Everett Olson died. Any one of us could have been with him when he drowned.”
Chapter Four
Petersburg 1932
Everyone’s a Suspect
(The Murder of Sing Lee: A Retrospective
by Liv Hanson)
Letter to the Editor of The Petersburg Press:
“Since the government investigator came here about the murder of Sing Lee, a few of us got together to do everything in our power to help the officer find out the dirty skunk that done the deed. We believe there is a certain man who done it, but so far as we know he has kept his mouth shut about the real facts, and unless said party comes out right away and gives the government man the facts he knows, it will be proof to us that he was on the job before Sing Lee was killed and we will urge the government investigator to have him arrested as the murderer. Even if he didn’t know about it beforehand, protecting the killer is just about as bad as the brutal job he done on poor, old, kindhearted Sing Lee who done so much good in this town for so many years. Our homes are here and it is not safe for anybody with a murderer running loose.” Sincerely, Concerned Citizens of Petersburg,
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