WHO: L.B. Behr WHEN: A few years ago, before the book was published. WHERE: Another house in Fall City. SUMMARY: A fight about who they're including in the book. WARNINGS: ~It's an author reveal~
The storyboard went up. The storyboard came down. But tonight it was spread out on the table, little note cards to help sort through the clues, the people, creating some kind of organization out of a chaos of theories.
“We have Eddie, Danny, Ed.” names were set down, a frown in place at the next card. “Lola?”
She’s been a subject that they hadn’t talked about a lot though he’s written plenty of theories down about Lola Mayweather. Seeing her name couldn’t be a huge surprise. “Is that a question?”
There were plenty of facts. She knew there were plenty of facts. The whole town knew there were plenty of facts that pointed to Lola Mayweather. “It feels like a question.”
“It shouldn’t be a question,” he returned.
The indignance was inherited as hands found her hips, cards still in hand. “And why shouldn’t it?”
He didn’t want to allow her much interpretation so he continued with short answers. “Because she is suspicious as fuck.”
“She's my aunt!” Her arms went up in indignation. “You're saying I should put my aunt up as a suspect?”
“Yes, she is.” He picked up Lola’s stack of note cards. “And she is super guilty. My Dad saw her get thrown out that night. He told me how mad she looked. Mad enough to set a fire, for sure. You know what she’s like. It might not have even been her first arson.”
“Oh excuse you!” She huffed indignantly. “Sure she's not innocent but no one in town seems to be.”
“And we are putting the most suspicious in the book. She is definitely one of the most suspicious.” He stood firm.
“Says you. Not like you're putting any of your relatives on the pile.”
He grinned widely. “No, do tell me about which of my relatives has evidence against them. Lola Mayweather is suspicious. I’m not putting her down because it amuses me. I’m putting her down because she is guilty as hell.”
“Your dad's a huge gossip.” She muttered, reaching out to jab his chest. “Wipe that smirk off your face!”
“You know that my Dad isn’t a gossip.” He didn’t move as she jabbed him. “And you know that Lola needs to be a part of this book for it to be fair and unbiased which is why you haven’t immediately thrown my notes into the trash.”
“I'll throw you in the trash and your dad is a gossip.” A tongue was stuck out at him. Stunningly mature. But there was a deep huff of a sigh. “Is there anyone else we think? To be a major person.”
“There are a couple other individuals that I think could possibly have theories around them, though the connections become a bit more tenuous.” He tapped his pen against a stack of notecards that currently didn’t have a name. “But there’s one more thing that I thought could be plausible. Which is actually controversial and I’d want to be really careful with putting them in the books.” He slid the pile over to her so she could read them.
She flipped through the pile, nodding along as she did. “Honestly, out of all of them... This is where our strongest research is.” The profiles, the call logs, the little scraps of history that still existed. “But were they covering up their own incompetence or does it go deeper than that.”
“Seeing as they’re the ones who would have to admit fault and reopen the case, I’m not sure we’ll ever really get that answer.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But I think it should go in. I think people deserve to know the pieces we found and maybe someone will come forward with the pieces we couldn’t find.”
“It's true, either through guilt or fear.” She nodded along with the logic of it. There were days it seemed like the whole town was in on it, either through malevolence or incompetence. But maybe all these threads would help pull out the truth.
A nod, then a glance at his watch told him their time was ending. “Euphemia should be home soon so let’s get this stuff cleaned up.”