Chapter 40
IT WASBEYONDhorrible,what happened to him.”
Decker was sitting at a coffee shop. Across the table from him was Betsy O’Connor, who worked as a waitress there. She was about five-five with a blocky build. Her graying hair was cut short and a pair of eyeglasses dangled on a chain around her neck. Decker had gauged herage at closer to fifty than forty.
He spooned some sugar into his coffee and said, “So you lived with him for a few years?”
“Yes. I mean, it was totally platonic,” she hastily added. “My husband was an ass who liked to beat me when things went wrong in his life. I dated a couple of guys after my divorce and found them to be much the same. So, I’ve chucked men, at least forthe foreseeable future.”
“But Babbot was different?”
“Look, Toby had his issues, but he was basically a good guy who’d had a crappy life. That’s why we were living together. We had to. We couldn’t make ends meet otherwise.”
“How’d you two come to know each other?”
O’Connor looked a bit embarrassed. “At an addiction meeting. We were both coming offissueswith pain pills and trying to get our lives back on track. We were both working, but the jobs just didn’t pay enough. Together, though, we made enough to live in a small house.”
“I understand that he’d been in an accident. Had an injury to his head?”
“That’s right. At the construction site, when they were building the fulfillment center. That was such a rough time for him.At first the company was helpful, but then they got nasty and cut him off.”
“I understand there was an issue with alcohol?” said Decker.
“That was trumped up. Toby hadn’t had a drop of alcohol for years. I would know. I lived with him when all that was going on. He worked so hard trying to get back to normal.”
“But he never did get back to normal?”
“No.He tried but just couldn’t keep a job. And I tried to make things work for us, but in the end my paycheck just wouldn’t cover the expenses. So we had to move out. Broke my heart. I really liked that place. It was my first real home after my divorce.”
“We found quite a few prescription bottles in his trailer. They were all painkillers.”
“Well, he was in a lot of pain becauseof his injuries.”
“I understand that you now live with some other people in an apartment?”
O’Connor dropped her gaze and fingered her coffee. “Yes, like when you’re in your twenties. But I’m not a kid anymore. It wasn’t the future I had mapped out at this stage of my life, but there you go. This job only pays minimum wage with no benefits. I work another job part time afterI leave here, but both don’t even add up really to a livable wage.”
“Did you ever try getting hired at Maxus?”
“Me and every other person in town. They employ a lot of people and it’s really the only thing going here now. But I couldn’t pass the physical requirements. Lifting all that weight and walking all that way. Or running, more like it. I’m probably going to have to move.I’m burned out on this place. I need a fresh start.”
“Babbot lived in a trailer after he stopped living with you. Did you ever visit him there?”
O’Connor nodded. “Several times. I’d bring him some home-cooked food. Give him a few dollars. I hated that he was living in that trailer. It didn’t even have electricity or running water.”
“Somebody burned the trailer down.”
O’Connor looked alarmed. “What?”
“While my partner and I were in it.”
“Dear God!”
Decker pulled out the sheet of graph paper that he had penciled in.
“Did you ever see this while you were at Babbot’s trailer?”
She examined the page. “No, what is it?”