“Picklebie. You’re a bunch of fumbling incompetents.”

My friend burst out laughing, then composed herself enough to say, “You forgot to say over. Over.”

“Over!” Miss Mildred screeched.

Neely Kate was still grinning when she opened the notebook and turned to the last page I’d used for notes. “Gloria said she and her coworker first started noticing Henry and Dora together months before she quit, which was in late September. Months…that’s probably May or June at the earliest.”

“Okay.”

“Dora had you in early November, so she would have gotten pregnant in January. She wasn’t slipping into his office until the summer.”

We were talking about pregnancies again, and I searched Neely Kate’s face for any sign of distress, surprised when I found none. “They could have just hidden their affair in the beginning. In fact, they probably would have been more careful in the beginning.”

“True… But wasn’t your daddy living with her when you were born? And you have photos of the three of you together.”

“Daddy and Dora must have met at Atchison. I guess he didn’t know about her affair with Henry.”

Neely Kate leaned forward, her forehead wrinkled with irritation. “The only evidence we have that there was an affair between them is the testimony of a gossip. We need more evidence.”

“Neely Kate, she walked out of Henry Buchanan’s office asking, ‘What about our baby, Henry?’”

She let out a sigh. “Well, that does sound bad, but that’s just how she remembers it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were embellishing things.” We were silent for a moment, then Neely Kate said, “So Dora goes to see Henry. Days later there’s a fire. Dora dies a week later and Henry kills himself days after that. The timing of it all is pretty odd.”

“Agreed.”

She looked up at me. “Rose, I’d bet my Fire Engine Red OPI nail polish that your momma didn’t have anything to do with Dora’s death.”

“You think it was an accident?”

“Shoot, no. I still think she was murdered.”

I frowned. “Well, she did have a gun hidden under her bed.”

Neely Kate nodded. “Wouldn’t you if you thought someone was out to kill you?”

I wasn’t so sure. I was resisting carrying a Taser. But while I’d always suspected Dora had been murdered, I’d thought it was a domestic dispute. “You think Ima Jean killed her?”

“No.” Her eyes widened. “Think bigger.”

“Henry?”

She waved off my answer. “The more I think on it, the more certain I am she wasn’t having an affair with Henry Buchanan. Think about it. She was the bookkeeper. She knew about everything to do with the factory’s money. What if she saw something funny and went to her boss about it?”

“In her journal she mentioned something about money being missing. But that doesn’t explain them meeting at night.”

“It might if it was something illegal.”

“Maybe she discovered the extortion.”

Neely Kate shook her head. “But if Henry was extorting someone, he wouldn’t be dumb enough to run it through the company.” Her eyes lit up. “It’s much more likely that he was being extorted and she’s the one who figured it out since she noticed the missing money.”

“Miss Mildred said the company was up for a government job. What if it had something to do with that?”

“We really need to talk to that foreman. Dirk Picklebie,” Neely Kate said. “And we need to go through Dora’s journal together to see if you missed anything.”

I wanted to protest that I’d already garnered anything of importance from the diary, but it was obvious I’d missed a ton—whether it was actually in the book or not.

Suddenly the question of my history involved more than what happened to my birth mother. Now I was questioning everything.

Chapter Seventeen

Neely Kate covered my hand with her own. “Are you sure you want to do this? Maybe some things are better left in the dark. What happened twenty-five years ago doesn’t have a lick to do with who you are right now.”

I shook my head. “My entire life has been a lie, Neely Kate. Maybe if Momma had been kind and loving, I’d be content to let things lie, but we both know she wasn’t.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I just have to know.”

She patted my hand. “Then we’ll find the truth. Because I’m convinced the two of us can solve any mystery.”

“Thank you.”

She slid the journal between us and flipped through the pages. “Where do you think we should begin?”

I reached for it and turned the pages. “She started talking about the man she was seeing here.” I pointed to the first entry. “See?” I said. “In December, she writes that she started seeing the married man she met at work. And she says they ignored each other as much as possible to avoid suspicion.”

Neely Kate groaned. “That doesn’t mean she was seeing Henry. She could very well have been talking about your father.”

The front door creaked open and I jumped in my seat. I almost jumped again when Joe walked in, looking official. I was struck again by how handsome he was in his uniform, but more noticeable was the change in his demeanor. He seemed so much more at home with himself than he’d been while we were dating…or even back in November when he and Violet sprung the news of his investment on me. But it was there now and it made me happy for him. Maybe he was finding peace.