Chapter Thirty-Three, Part Two

That evening, Robert bought hamburgers from the diner because he was in no fit state of mind to cook. As far as Sophie was concerned, this was a treat, and for a little while, her happiness took precedence over everything else.

But after they had eaten and Sophie started doing her homework, his mood shifted. He needed to talk to Emily again, and after the way things had gone today, he had little confidence that it could be arranged. He could ask Norma, but he had no certainty of help from that quarter, either. He sighed in frustration. What insanity had made him think he could come back to this insular place and stay above its petty dramas? He had half a mind to—

“Dad?”

Robert looked up. Poor Sophie. If it was this hard on him, now much worse was it on her? “What do you need, sweetheart?”

“I can’t figure out what to do with my math assignment. I’m doing division, but every time I try to put twelve into sixteen, I’m left with four.”

“Yes, that sounds right.”

“What am I supposed to do with it?”

“With four?”

“Yes.”

“It depends on whether you’re working with fractions and decimals yet. What did your teacher say to do?”

Sophie gave an exasperated sigh. “I don’t remember. I was mad at her again and I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Well, don’t you think you should—” the look in her eyes brought him up short. She had come to him for advice, not a lecture. He motioned her forward and took her notepad in his hand. “This doesn’t look so bad. Sit down. We’ll figure it out together.”

#

The next morning after dropping Sophie off at school, Robert went by Norma’s house and knocked at the kitchen door. After a few minutes in which he heard footsteps and rustlings, punctuated by an occasional cry of “Just a minute!” Norma came to the door. She seemed taken aback to see her boss but quickly regained her composure.

“Good Morning, Mr. Dubeck. Do you need me to come in this morning?”

“No, I don’t see any reason for you to change your schedule. May I come in?”

This was even more startling than his appearance at her doorstep, but she let him in graciously. “Can I make you a cup of coffee? Or…”

“Don’t look so concerned,” Robert said. “This is…well, not exactly a social call, but I was hoping you could help me with something that's been on my mind. It has nothing to do with work.”

“Oh.”  Norma led him into her front room and motioned him toward the sofa while she took a seat in a chintz-covered chair. “What can I help you with?”

Robert hesitated. Now that he was actually here, sitting in Norma’s tidy living room full of crochet doilies and Hummel figurines, the question he wanted to ask seemed absurd, if not obscene. For a moment he considered saying something different, something innocuous. Maybe he could ask her advice about some recent daughterly foible. But no, if he didn’t broach the subject now, he would only continue to wonder. And besides, there was no guarantee Norma could help him in this matter. He was just guessing that whatever Emily had let slip in their recent conversation was something she could shed some light on. “How did my brother die?”

Norma sat back, her eyes wide and her mouth working silently for a moment. Then she shook herself. “It was in the letter I sent you.”

“Yes,” Robert said. Her reaction confirmed his suspicions. “You said he died of pneumonia, except that’s not what Emily told me.”

“Oh, Emily.” Norma waived a dismissive hand. “You can’t believe everything a drunk tells you. Just last week she was talking about pink elephants, and—“

“Stop it. There are things she said yesterday afternoon. Things about her, Arthur, and her husband. I have no reason to think she was lying. So what do you have to say for yourself? I’m not angry that you deceived me at the beginning, but I will be if you keep lying now.”

Norma slumped in her chair, as if she had been held up by a wire that suddenly broke. “I’m so sorry. We lied to protect you, I swear. There was no malice in it whatsoever, and what difference did it make, since Arthur was just as dead, either way?”

“I understand,” Robert said. “And I have no intention of prosecuting anyone, if that’s your fear. I assured Emily of that, too.”

“That’s good to hear.” Norma sighed. “It’s been a big load on her mind. Not that she wouldn’t like to see Julio hanged, but his brothers would probably take revenge on her. After all, if she hadn’t been…involved…with Arthur, none of this would have happened.”

Norma kept on talking, but Robert was no longer listening. Justice in Castaño had become purely local back during the Resource Wars, when his father and the other citizens had closed off the town to the outside world. Even though they were technically part of the USS now, they still followed their own rules and there was only one crime that merited hanging.

“I was furious with her for drawing me into it, but what other choice did she have? She couldn’t go to the town council and tell them what had happened. She couldn’t go to them and tell a lie, either. I was the only one she could confide in because no one else knew about the affair. Emily knew I wouldn’t tell tales.”

By now Robert had recovered slightly from having confirmed the worst of his fears. “How did you convince the council not to examine the body?”

Norma allowed herself a little half-smile. “No one on the council does that sort of thing. They rely on old Doc Grant, and he was easy enough to fool. The gunshot was to Arthur’s chest, so we just wrapped him up good, got Doc liquored up and then pretended there was a medical crisis. He checked for a pulse, looked at his face and eyes and pronounced him dead.”

“And the pneumonia?”

“It had been going around.”

“I see.”

Something in his tone made Norma sit up straight. “Where does this put Emily now? I don’t approve of her behavior, but she’s foolish, not criminal. I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”

“I don’t want anything bad to happen to her, either,” Robert said, and he meant it sincerely. “I’m going to think of a way to help her that won’t put her in danger from Julio or any of the rest of the Ruiz clan. I promise.”

“Just be careful,” Norma said. “And if there’s anything I can do, too…”

“I’ll let you know.”