Steeled for Murder by KM Rockwood

he’d never been entirely sane, but he’d really gone off the deep end lately.”
    “Like how?”
    “Lots of things. He’s been forgetting what he’s supposed to be doing. People have been complaining that he’s brought them the wrong parts. And that was just at work.” Kelly shoved the rest of the pickle into her mouth.
    “Was he losing it other places, too?” Too bad he wasn’t killed in one of the other places.
    “Look at the way he treated his wife. Made her come drop him off wearing a negligee and then made her get out of the van so everybody could see her in her nightie. In this weather. I heard about that. Kissing her and feeling her up like that in front of everyone.”
    I nodded. That was the incident that had started all this. At least for me.
    “No reason for that but to humiliate her.” Kelly licked pickle juice from her fingers. “Wanted to show everybody what a hot woman he’s got and how he could make her do anything he told her to. Disrespecting your woman like that makes no sense.”
    I hadn’t given it much thought. Kelly might be right. At any rate, it wasn’t entirely normal. “Treating her like that was something new?”
    “Yeah. Although he’s always been a little weird about her. They live in a cabin on a few acres back in the woods. You know that alley that runs next to the shipping yard?”
    “Yeah.”
    “That turns into a gravel road a mile or two outside of town. Their house is off of that, about four miles up in the hills. It’s set back off the road. Really isolated. He’d brag about how he never let her go anywhere by herself. If she did have to go somewhere, he’d drive her. She was mostly just stuck up there at home by herself with the kids. I know they—she—has a set of twins and at least one more older one.”
    “So why would he have her drive him into work now?” I started on my other mangled peanut butter sandwich. No improvement over the first. “Wouldn’t the kids be home asleep at midnight? Somebody ought to be at home with them.”
    “You’d think.” Kelly shook her head. “I know some of the guys had been buying drugs from him. Maybe he had some stuff in that van of his and didn’t want it in the parking lot here. Every once in a while, they bring a drug dog by to sniff. And the dog zeroing in on a vehicle is probable cause, so they can search it.”
    “What was he dealing?”
    “Rumor had it he could get you anything, but mostly weed and crystal meth.”
    I thought about how he’d accused me of looking at his wife. And the sores on his arm. “Meth can make you really paranoid. If he was doing that.”
    “Yeah. I wish they’d keep all that stuff away from the plant. Makes trouble for everyone.” Kelly popped a few chips into her mouth and chewed.
    “They’d have to be crazy,” I said. “Why would anyone take a chance on blowing a good job like this?”
    Kelly licked a drip of mustard from the side of her sandwich. “You have a point there. But some people are crazy. And they don’t stop to think how tough it is to get decent jobs in this economy. They figure they can always pick up another job.”
    “Not that easy.” I took a glum look at the remains of my sandwich and stuffed it in my mouth. I was pretty sure that if the state didn’t give a tax break to the company for hiring a paroled convict, I wouldn’t have this job.
    “A lot of these guys don’t think like that. Even the ones old enough to know better. Mitch was always bragging that he didn’t need this job.”
    “Look at where it got Mitch. Some of the others might learn something from it.” I wiped the last of the peanut butter from my fingers onto my jeans. They needed to be washed anyhow.
    “You’d think. But I need this job for sure. And I got to steer clear of anything that even looks iffy.”
    Doesn’t sitting with me fall into that category? I wanted to ask. Instead, I said, “Mitch was certainly in the ‘old enough to know better’ category.” I took a