“Yes.”
“It’s ’bout time somebody did something about Beth. That bastard ain’t never paid. You wanna know who killed Beth? I’ll tell you. Jack fucking Barrett killed Beth. Jack Barrett killed Beth and everyone in town knows it. Only no one in the fucking town cares. They didn’t care at the time cuz he was a fucking sports hero and they don’t care now cuz he’s the governor and they didn’t care in between cuz . . . who the fuck knows? Cuz they let him get away with murder which makes ’em what? Accomplices? Ah, it don’t matter. No one cares.”
“I care,” I said.
“Are you gonna get him? Are you gonna get him cuz of what he did to Beth?”
I smiled my most conspiratorial smile and said, “Tell me what you know.”
Lynn brushed the debris from a chair next to mine, sat down, and leaned forward, holding her vodka between her hands.
“People say there’s no proof that Jack killed Beth. But there is proof. What you call irrefutable proof.”
“Tell me.”
“The locket. The locket Beth always wore. What was missing when they found her body.”
“What locket?”
“The one he gave her. Beth wore a little silver locket in the shape of a heart. You open it up and there’s this tiny picture of Jack on one side and a tiny picture of Beth on the other side. Jack gave it to Beth when they were juniors and Beth never, ever took it off. Even when she took a shower she wore it. She was wearing it at the party. I saw it. Only it was gone when they found her.”
“There could be a lot of reasons for that.”
Lynn shook her head vigorously.
“Jack took it,” she said. “He killed her and took the locket. The fucking governor of the state of Minnesota. He did it.”
“Why? What motive did he have?”
“Because, because . . . Just because. Look, the night of the party Beth had a fight with Jack Barrett.”
“Do you know what it was about?”
“Jack was cheating on her.”
“He was?”
“Yeppers.”
“With who?”
“Beth didn’t know. That’s what the fight was about.”
“If she didn’t know who he was cheating with, how could she be sure?”
“You think we’re stupid? I always knew when my husbands were cheating on me. They always knew when I was cheating on them. You don’t need to be no rocket scientist.”
“Did you ever learn who it was?”
“Nah. No one said nothing afterward. I wouldn’t have said nothing, either.”
“Someone at the party?”
“Fuck if I know.”
“When Elizabeth left the party, she left alone,” I said.
“She left alone,” Lynn repeated and drained her glass of vodka. “Whew,” she exhaled. “That was good.” Good enough that she poured herself another hefty drink. She drank some more vodka and said, “Look. Jack did it. Everyone knows that. The whole fuckin’ town knows that. So what are you gonna do ’bout it?”
Good question.
“When Beth left the party, where was she going? Do you know?”
Lynn shook her head.
“She didn’t confide in you?”
“We were—We came together and we should have left together, but . . .”
“But what?”
Lynn drained her glass a second time.
“I haven’t told but a half dozen people this, but if it’ll help you get the governor . . .”
“What haven’t you told?”
“The reason Beth left the party alone. We were going to leave together. I should have been with her. I wasn’t. Know why? You wanna know why? I’ll tell you why? Because I was on my fucking knees in the upstairs bathroom giving the mayor a blow job when Beth decided to go home, that’s why. Seventeen years old and this man married with two kids in my school and he, and he tells me—Fuck. I believed every word he said. Fuck. That’s why Beth left the party alone. Men can be such bastards.”
I watched as Lynn poured herself another straight vodka.
“That’s why I drink,” she said. “That’s the secret to my success. One of the secrets, anyway.”
She drank some more.
“Worst thing that ever happened in this town was that fucking basketball tournament.”