“Nature over nurture? Maybe, if stupidity counts.” Jax wiped his hands on a napkin and actually picked up a cookie.
The video flipped back to the office and Ted Swenson talking over his grandmother’s meltdown. “I figured Jackson and the woman really were trouble, maybe even criminals, when they raced the car like demons and deliberately lost me heading out of town. I got worried, so I took the truck back to the office and went inside to talk to Mr. Pendleton. I thought I could use my influence and make him see it was dangerous to the district to send those files.”
“Don’t talk, youbleep!” cried grandma from the floor. “Shut up, shut up, shut up—“
Evie fought a giggle watching the video repeat Reuben’s bounce on Marilyn’s wide back. He was sitting on her while trying to knot the computer cords around her wrists to keep her from flailing about. Grandma’s mind might be deteriorating, but she was still built like an ox.
The sheriff read Teddy his rights, but that only seemed to shake him more. He kept on talking. “I only meant to knock him out long enough to wipe the computer. I thought that would fix everything. I called Grandma to tell her what I was doing, but she kept yelling about boxes and now I’d done it, Pendleton would spill everything. She said if I didn’t want to go to jail, I’d make it look like suicide and reminded me of the pistol she told me to carry.”
Larraine whistled. “That’s one wimpy critter. And people laugh at me!”
“People look at the outsides and never see what’s inside,” Evie suggested. “A big man like that, Teddy didn’t have to work hard to conceal his weakness.”
“You’re the expert,” Jax murmured. “You cultivate small and weak.”
“Evie’s a silver dagger,” Loretta reminded him. “Maybe I should learn to teach others to see bubbles.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not possible, dear,” Mavis said complacently. “You need to teach them to look beyond the obvious.”
Reuben had paused the video while waiting for the talk to subside. Roark impatiently rolled his hand to indicate he continue.
But Evie had been there and heard it all. Taking a plateful of cookies, she settled on the floor and began reading emails, while up on the screen, Ted Swenson confessed to putting a bullet to Pendleton’s head at his grandmother’s orders. But he refused to confess to the same with Clancy.
Evie had stepped in then, explaining Clancy’s ghost hadn’t seen Ted as a killer, and that grandma’s aura indicated she was the more likely suspect. She did, after all, have a box full of.22s at her own admission, and had known Clancy since adolescence and thus knew his allergies. Grandma had screamed some more. Sheriff Troy had given Evie the side-eye—Reuben’s editing brought that look up close—but he’d hauled both of the Swensons in for questioning.
Grandma’s attorneys had swooped in after Troy had hauled his suspects to his office, and Teddy made frantic calls. Evie figured everyone in the cellar would go to jail if Troy ever figured out that R&R had access to his computer network and now possessed all the video from his courthouse office.
Grandma had been hauled to a mental institution but not before she bragged about offing Clancy in the same way Teddy had finished Pendleton—as if she’d been planning on blaming her grandson.
They’d heavily edited out the boring bits. Evie watched in sick fascination as grandma ranted about Clancy being ableepity-bleepblackmailer. For Loretta’s sake, she was glad they’d tuned out the old lady’s curses. Genteel, grandma was not.
“Hollywood in the fifties must have been run by the mafia,” she murmured.
“Pretty much,” her Aunt Ellen, Pris’s mother, agreed. “From what I’ve seen, it’s not much better now. Is that where she’s from?”
“Family in LA with enough money to run with the movers and shakers,” Jax explained.
“Glad Great-Aunt Val stayed here then.” Gracie got up and filled her plate again.
Huh, Aunt Val probably was about the same age as Grandma, but her dramatic tendencies lent themselves to re-enactments and seducing husbands.
“I’ll start filming the audience shortly if y’all don’t shut up,” the professor said grimly, revealing his dark side.
Everyone flung food at him. Evie aimed for his man-bun.
They’d all seen the TV clips of Ted and Gus resigning from their respective political races and the family’s appeal for privacy for their poor demented granny, a pillar they’d relied on, yadda yadda. The table full of food got more attention than Reuben’s grand finale.
“Good documentary, Reub,” Jax called, helping himself to another sandwich while tucking Evie’s hand in his. “Maybe you’ve found a new calling.”
“I’m hiring him for my security detail.” Larraine hugged the top-knotted nerd. “But making beautiful movies together sounds good, too.”
Evie glanced at Roark, who’d been unusually silent this evening. “What’s with the Cajun?” she whispered to Jax.
“Bad news from home, I think. He’s not into communication.”
“Yeah, I kinda noticed that, and he’s not the only one.” Evie tapped a spoon against the tea pitcher. “Got an announcement, folks, listen up.”
When the roar reduced to a low rumble, she figured that was the best she could get. “Mr. Pendleton’s family offered a reward for finding his killer. Several attorney and charitable organizations to which he belonged matched it. It looks like the Sensible Solutions Agency will get paid for a change.”