"The father had an accident, too," she said. "Some months back. It was out behind their place, near the mine."
"The mine?" I asked. "They had a mine?" I racked my brain, trying to recall whether I'd seen a mine when I was at Silas' house that time. Who has a fucking mine in their backyard? I thought.
"Oh, it's not the way you're thinking, honey," she said. "People around these parts did their own mining all the time, blasted into the sides of mountains. That stuff was regulated a lot less than it is now. You didn't have to have a whole company; you just needed a permit to blast away. The father used to sell coal in town to make ends meet-of course, he spent most of it down at the bar."
"So there was a mining accident..." I prompted. I wanted to know what the hell had happened with Silas' family.
He hadn't said a word about it.
Of course, he wouldn't, would he?
"Well, that's what they said it was. They called it an accident, said he was blasting in his backyard," she said. "Of course, I doubt anyone looked much into it. That man wasn't exactly beloved here."
"No..." I said, less of a question than a statement. He was definitely not beloved by Silas. Silas hated his father. He wanted to get the hell out of West Bend as quickly as possible. I somehow doubted that he was heartbroken over his father's death. And from what Silas had told me about him, I suspected the town felt the same way. "But you don't think it happened that way?"
"Well, I thought it did," Letty said. "And then Esther Saint killed herself. And that got me wondering. It didn't make sense to me that she would off herself after that dirt bag husband of hers was finally out of the picture. Besides that, there was the alcohol-she just wasn't a drinker. And she was seeing the Mayor."
"What do you mean, seeing the Mayor?" I asked.
"I mean, seeing him," she said. "Boning, I believe you youngsters call it."
I laughed. "Yes, Nana," I said. "Boning. Is this something you know to be fact?"
She shrugged. "I have my sources," she said.
"Okay," I said. "What would any of this have to do with the property?"
"Don't give me that look," she said.
"What look?"
"The one that says you think I'm a senile old woman."
"I definitely don't think you're senile, Nana," I said. "You're the one sleeping with half the men in this place."
"Hush your mouth," she said, looking toward the door. "One of them thinks we're exclusive. I don't want him overhearing."
"Nana!" I admonished.
"Don't lecture me," she said. "I'm old."
"You can't use that as an excuse for everything."
"Most of the time it works," she said. "Anyway, like I was saying before, I think there's something hinky about this mining company. I don't know about all of that stuff. It's over my head. But I think the deaths might be related."
I sighed. "All right, Nana," I said. "Do you have any factual evidence?"
"Well, I know what I heard from Esther herself," she said.
"Okay."
"She said her husband knew something that was going to make them rich." Letty made her declaration, then sat back in the chair with her arms crossed, visibly pleased with herself.
"That's it?" I asked.
"That's it?" she asked. "That's everything. Clearly, the father found out something - or knew about what the company's interested in - maybe something on his property, maybe something on the other property here, I don't know. But he told his wife, and his wife said something to the mayor or someone else. And that got her killed."
"You're a regular Agatha Christie," I said.
"Don't sass me," she said. "What do you think?"
"I think..." My voice trailed off, and I chose my words carefully. "I think it's certainly within the realm of possibilities."
"You don't believe me."
"I think it's less likely than the fact that the father was a crazy drunk who was full of shit," I said. "And that Esther Saint killed herself because downing a bunch of pills with alcohol is more convenient and easier than doing it some other way."
"I'll give you the paperwork from the company," she said. "You promise me you're going to look into it."
I sighed. "If it were anyone else, Nana..."
"I know." She smiled. "You'll make a dying old woman happy."
"Nana!" I said.
"What?" she put her hands up. "We're all going to die eventually, Tempest. I didn't say I was dying right now."
Sometimes, I wasn't sure whether the grifter part of me really came from my parents. Or from her.
***