and itâs kind of surprising,â Galton said smoothly. âShe left everythingâhouse, moneyâto your father. Now, I guess, itâll come to you. John Daniels says for you to call him.â
âShit,â said Catherine. âIs that what this is all about?â She was angry now, red hot. âCome on, Sheriff! Leona didnât have doodly-squat. I know Father paid her what he could, but that wasnât all that much; and she hasnât worked since he died.â
âAs a matter of fact,â Galton said calmly, âLeona had quite a bit of money. But she was kind of informal about it. She had little wads stashed all over the house. The only thing she bothered to put in her checking account was her social security check and a little income from a pension plan she belonged to through some nursesâ association.
âAnd,â Galton continued, his eyes searching Catherineâs face, âsomeone else besides me knows that. Sometime Friday night, before you found Leona Saturday morning, someone took his time searching Leonaâs house: either before or after carrying her out to that shack on your place. Your inheritance is a little depreciated. Mattress slashed, chairs ripped open. But the money, and a few other peculiar things, are still there. Strange kind of thief. Didnât kill Leona for her money, but he looked mighty hard for something in her house after heâor sheâkilled her.â
Catherine shook her head. âI donât know; no, I donât understand what you mean. If you thinkââand her flame of anger flashed through the smoke of bewildermentââI killed Leona for money, I hate to say this, but youâre crazier than I am. I canât believe weâre sitting here talking about this. Iâve known you all my life. My father left me lots of money; my mother left me lots of money; there was insurance besides, and weâIâown the land. In fact, Iâm a rich woman. I did not bash Leona on the head so I could come into her bits of money. I did not search her house to make her death mysterious. And if you think Iââand the sweep of her hand down her body pointed out its smallnessââcould or would pick up a baseball bat or something, and beat a woman twice my size to death with it, youâre just plain damn dumb.â
She sank back in her chair feeling clean. Something like a flushed toilet, she told herself bluntly and inelegantly.
Galton was eyeing her with amazement and a reluctant grin.
âI guess you let me have it with both barrels,â he said.
Catherine hoped he would add, âOf course I donât think you had anything to do with Leonaâs murder.â
But he didnât.
âWhy move the body at all?â she asked out of the blue. It was a point that had been bothering her. Moving Leona seemed an added risk. There was the chance that someone would see the murderer putting the body in his vehicle. And there was the undeniable conspicuousness of anyone at all being around and about in Lowfield in the late hours of the night. Though Friday night was comparatively busy, that didnât mean much.
âIâve been thinking about that,â said the sheriff, sounding almost friendly. âAnd I reckon whoever killed Leona was just trying to delay discovery of her body for as long as possible. She had plenty of neighbors. They wouldâve noticed, after a couple of days of this weather, that something was wrong. But since she kept herself apart, they might not think about not seeing her for quite some time, if the body wasnât there to let them know.â
âMaybe someone just couldnât bear to see her lying there after she was dead,â Catherine said quietly, her hands running over the carved rosewood of the chair. âAnd moved her so he wouldnât have to look at her while he searched. It had to be someone strong, didnât
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