“This was in San Diego?”
“That’s right. I was out of high school only a few years, helping my mom out, taking classes part time at the JC, planning to be a nurse. Eldon was a lot older— thirty-six and he looked in his forties, had lost most of his hair already. I wasn’t attracted to him at first, but then I started to like him. ‘Cause he was polite. Not just for show, all the time. Quiet, too. That was good, I’d had enough of noisy men. Also, back then I thought he was a genius. He had a job as a chemist, kept science books and all kinds of other books everywhere, reading all the time. Back then, that impressed me. Back then I thought education was the way to get saved.”
“No more, huh?”
“Wise man, fool—we’re all weak mortals. The only genius is the one up there.” Pointing to the ceiling. “Proof is, would a genius go around killing other people? Even those who asked for it? Does that sound like a smart thing to do when we’re all gonna answer for our deeds in the next world?”
She shook her head and spoke to the ceiling tiles. “Eldon, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes right now.”
The dessert came. She waited until Milo’d taken a forkful before attacking her pie.
I said, “But at the beginning you were impressed with his education.”
“I used to think education was everything. I was gonna be a registered nurse—when I moved up to Oakland, I had these . . . fantasies, I guess you’d call ’em. Eldon would open up a doctor’s office, I’d work with him. But then he wouldn’t have nothing to do with Donny and me, so I had to keep working and never got to finish school.” She licked her lips. “I’m not complaining. I take care of the elderly, do what nurses do, anyway. And now I know there’s no shortcut to happiness, doesn’t matter what your job is in this world. The main world is the one afterward, and the only way to get there is Jesus. It’s exactly what my mother taught me, only back then I wasn’t listening to her. No one listened to her, that was the burden she carried around. My father was godless. She never turned him around till he was dying, and even then, not till the pain came on real bad, so what else could he do but pray?”
The back of her spoon skated over the chocolate cream pie, picking up a coating of whipped cream. She licked it, said, “My dad smoked all his life, got lung cancer, it spread to his bones, all over his spine. He died in bad pain, choking and screaming. It was horrible. Made a big impression on Eldon.”
“Eldon saw your father die?” I said.
“You bet. Dad died right after we were married. We’d go visit Dad in the hospital and he’d be coughing up blood and screaming from the pain and Eldon would turn white as a ghost and have to leave. Who’da figured he’d be a doctor? You know what I think? Seeing Dad die could be part of what started out Eldon on this killing business. ‘Cause it really was horrible, Mom and me got through it by praying. But Eldon didn’t pray. Refused to, even when Mom begged him. Said he wouldn’t be a hypocrite. If you don’t have no faith, seeing something like that is gonna scare you.”
She finished her pie.
Milo said, “Is there anything you can tell us that might help us learn who killed your husband?”
“I’d say someone didn’t like what Eldon was doing.”
“Anyone in particular?”
“No,” she said. “I’m just talking . . . logical. There’s got to be lots of people who didn’t approve of Eldon. Not God-fearing people, God-fearing don’t go running around killing. But maybe someone …” Smile. “You know, it could be someone like Eldon. Got no faith and a big hate grew inside him about Eldon. ‘Cause Eldon had a difficult personality—didn’t care what he said or how he said it. Least, that’s the way he was back when we were married. Always getting into it with people—bring him into a place like this and he’d be complaining about the food, marching up to the manager and starting an argument. Maybe he got the wrong person mad and this person said, Look what he does and gets away with it, sure, it’s okay to kill, it’s no different from tying my shoes. ‘Cause let’s face it, if you don’t believe in the world hereafter, what’s to stop you from killing or raping or robbing or doing whatever it is your lust tells you to do?”