The Second Mouse - Archer Mayor [66]
“Of course,” he said, having expected this.
“What did she die of?”
He didn’t avoid the predictable question, and now, having met her, he also didn’t worry about sugarcoating his answer.
“Mrs. Redding, I’m afraid she died from too much propane in her system.”
Her brows furrowed. “Like from a stove?”
“That’s right, or a gas leak of some sort. We’re still looking into that.”
Her hands sought each other out on her lap and curled up together for comfort. “Oh, my goodness. I thought . . .”
“Yes?”
“Well . . .” She hesitated. “That she might have just died. You know?”
“Of natural causes,” he suggested.
“Yes.”
“So this comes as a surprise?” he asked gently.
She frowned and considered that. “You’re asking if she was suicidal.”
“We know she was sad about Archie,” he said, using Morgan’s first name on purpose, increasing the moment’s intimacy.
Adele looked down at her hands, as if checking to see what they were up to. “She was sad,” she told them, “but I never thought she was going to do that.” She looked up, her expression drawn, as if guilty. “We spoke every morning.”
Lester felt sorry for her. “I didn’t say she did, Mrs. Redding. We’re still investigating.”
“But how else?”
He held up his hand. “I’m also not saying she didn’t. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to torture you with this. We simply don’t know right now. That’s one of the reasons I’m here.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. “All right.”
“We understand Michelle was in financial straits,” he said as an opener.
“She was, yes. I was trying to help with that, as much as I could, and I know her friend Linda was, too. They were talking about moving in together, into Linda’s place.”
“Because of the troubles with the landlord?”
Her expression darkened. “Yes—horrible man.”
Lester chose to hold off on that for the time being. “Was Michelle at all upbeat about living with Linda?”
“They liked each other a lot. They had some experiences in common.”
“The alcoholism?”
Adele ducked her head down again, and Lester worried that he might have overstepped here. “We’ve interviewed several people already,” he said vaguely, hoping that would spread the guilt around a bit. He knew from Gunther’s notes that Adele had also struggled with the bottle.
“Yes,” she finally murmured. “I was worried at first that’s what might have killed her.”
“We have no evidence of that,” he said.
“Good. I’m glad. She’d been doing so well. She never joined AA, like Linda told her she should, but she seemed to have come up with her own way of dealing with it.”
“That’s saying a lot,” Lester commented. “What with Archie dying, the money running out, and the troubles with Archie’s father, the pressures to slip must’ve been huge.”
That seemed to bolster her a little. “Maybe Linda and I made the difference.” Her eyes suddenly welled up. “I felt so bad about that part of her problems. I used to drink when she was little and needed me most. I failed her and I passed that on to her, too. A terrible thing for a mother to do.”
“You were there for her later,” Lester soothed her. “And she obviously really appreciated it. Linda said your daily phone calls were a big help.”
He wasn’t actually sure of that but figured it couldn’t hurt.
It didn’t. Adele smiled wanly. “That’s nice to know.”
“Tell me a little about Newell Morgan,” Lester finally said. “Why did things go so wrong there?”
She made a face. “Michelle said it was envy—that he hated his own life and wished it was more like Archie’s.”
“Was Archie’s life that wonderful?” Spinney asked innocently. “I don’t know much about him.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t on that level. He was a school custodian. He didn’t have big dreams. He was just happy being alive. What Michelle meant was that they had each other. All the father had was anger. He hated everybody.”
“But he still let them live in that house. Why was that?”
“Michelle said it was just so he could have a free workman to fix it up until he could sell it out from under them.