“I know you already talked to the police earlier,” Marino said, moving the ashtray loser. “But I want you to go through it chapter and verse for us, beginning with when you saw Jennifer Deighton last.”
“I saw her the other day -”
Marino interrupted. “Which day?”
“Friday. I remember the phone rang and I went to the kitchen to answer it and saw her through the window. She was pulling into her driveway.”
“Did she always park her car in the garage?” I asked.
“She always did.”
“What about yesterday?” Marino inquired. “You see her or her car yesterday?”
“No, I didn’t. But I went out to get the mail. It was late, tends to be that way this time of year. Three, four o’clock and still no mail. I guess it was dose to five-thirty, maybe a little later, when I remembered to check the mailbox again. It was getting dark and I noticed smoke coming out of Jenny’s chimney.”
“You sure about that?” Marino asked.
She nodded. “Oh, yes. I remembered went through my mind it was a good night for a fire. But fires were always Jimmy’s job. He never showed me how, you see. When he was good at something, that was his. So I quit on the fires and had the electric log put in.”
Jimmy Clary was looking at her. I wondered if he knew what she was saying.
“I like to cook,” she went on. “This time of year I do a lot of baking. I make sugar cakes and give them to the neighbors. Yesterday I wanted to drop one by for Jenny, but I like to call first. It’s hard to tell when someone’s in, especially when they keep their car in a garage. And you leave a cake on the doormat and one of the dogs around here gets it. So I tried her and got that machine. All day I tried and she didn’t answer, and to tell you the truth, I was a little worried.”
“Why?” I asked. “Did she have health problems, any sort of problems you were aware of?”
“Bad cholesterol. Way over two hundred’s what’s she told me once. Plus high blood pressure, which she said ran in the family.”
I had not seen any prescription drugs in Jennifer Deighton’s house.
“Do you know who her doctor was?” I asked.
“I can’t recall. But Jenny believed in natural cures. She told me when she felt poorly she’d meditate.”
“Sounds like the two of you were pretty close,” Marino said.
Mrs. Clary was plucking at her skirt, hands like hyperactive children. “I’m here all day except when I go to the store.”
She glanced at her husband, who was staring at the TV again. “Now and then I’d go see her, you know, just being neighborly, maybe to drop by something I’d been cooking.”
“Was she a friendly sort?” Marino asked. “She have a lot of visitors?”
“Well, you know she worked out of the house. I think she handled most of her business over the phone. But occasionally I’d see people going in.”
“Anybody you knew?”
“Not that I recall.”
“You notice anybody coming by to see her last night?” Marino asked.
“I didn’t notice.”
“What about when you went out to get your mail and saw the smoke coming out of her chimney? You get any sense she might have had company?”
“I didn’t see a car. Nothing to make me think she had company.”
Jimmy Clary had drifted off to sleep. He was drooling.
“You said she worked at home,” I said. “Do you have any idea what she did?”
Mrs. Clary fixed wide eyes on me. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I know what folks said.”
“And what was that?” I asked.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head.
“Mrs. Clary,” Marino said. “Anything you could tell us might help. I know you want to help.”
“There’s a Methodist church two blocks away. You can see it. The steeple’s lit up at night, has been ever since they built the church three or four years ago.”
“I saw the church when I was driving in,” Marino replied. “What’s that got to do -”