Death Before Facebook

seated near a small oval swimming pool.
    Skip said, “I didn’t expect that.”
    “It was the original reason I rented the house—otherwise it’s pretty run-down. But then Caitlin came along and it got to be a big safety hazard. Now I have to keep it filled up even in the winter—” It did have water in it, and lots of grunge. “I mean, if she falls in water, at least she’s got a chance, right? She’s already had swimming lessons, and in the summer we do have fun.” Her eyes moved to the little girl and she slipped into baby talk. “Isn’t that right? Isn’t that right, Petunia?” She picked the baby up. “Caitlin’s really tired. I’ll hold her and maybe she’ll go to sleep.”
    There were a few plastic chairs on an old patio near the pool, some nice palm trees, and a banana or two. Someone had once cared about the yard.
    “Good thing there’s sun today.” Lenore pulled Caitlin onto her lap, and Skip noticed for the first time that it was a very lovely day indeed. A day that might have been manufactured in September and saved for a couple of months, till it had reached full golden mellowness.
    She sat in one of the chairs. “Tell me about you and Geoff. How did you meet?’
    “Oh, we’ve known each other forever—since we were kids. But we met again on the TOWN. It’s wild—just about everybody who’s on it here got on it through somebody else—I mean they all knew each other and that’s how they got on. But I started taking computer classes at UNO and got interested that way. When I saw Geoff was on it, I started flirting with him.”
    “You started it?’
    “Well, I don’t really remember, but anyway—”
    “What?”
    “I’d almost forgotten it started that way. I think people thought I was his girlfriend—his family and everything.”
    “You weren’t?”
    “Not really. I was kind of lonely at first, so—well, maybe a little then. But neither of us was really interested. What we wanted was a best friend.”
    “I thought Layne was Geoff’s best friend.”
    “Is that what he says?”
    “It’s not true?’
    She looked vaguely around the garden. “I don’t know. I guess they were kind of close.”
    While her eyes wandered and her baby cuddled, Skip hit her with the thing she really wanted to know. “How’d you get Geoff’s autopsy report?”
    If she’d expected a big reaction, she had to be satisfied with a shrug. “I know someone in the coroner’s office.”
    “Who?”
    “Tom Renault.”
    “And how do you know him?”
    “Through a group I belong to.”
    “A group.” Skip let it sit there. Skulls, black hoods, coroner’s deputies—did these things go together?
    “Parents Without Partners,” said Lenore.
    “Come on, Lenore. Tom Renault’s gay.”
    “Well, he hasn’t always been. His ex-wife’s a hopeless alcoholic; and his lover died, poor man.” Skip didn’t ask for details. She could check it easily enough.
    “Tell me something else—did Geoff tell you any secrets?”
    “What kind of secrets?”
    “Anything to do with what he remembered. Anything at all you think might be important.”
    Lenore shut her eyes, thinking. But she came back shaking her head. “I can’t remember anything.” Her eyes wandered again and when they returned to Skip, they were watery. “When we were kids, we just played together—it wasn’t a big deal. But his grandmother was my music teacher. I only took from her a year, but I’ll never forget it.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because she was just about the only adult who ever was nice to me. It was so awful to see her yesterday. She’s lost it, did you see?”
    Skip thought Lenore knew very well that she had seen—that Lenore had seen her watching, and noted it for reasons of her own. She said, “You must know Neetsie and Suby too.”
    “A little, sure. But not through Geoff especially, through the TOWN. Neetsie’s dad got her on it, the same as he got Geoff on. And then Geoff got Suby on.”
    Time to ask her about Kathryne Brazil? Something told Skip to wait.
    She certainly wasn’t ready to ask about the skull and robes.
    Lenore said: “God, I miss Geoff! But I’m doing a little better. I’m handling it, I think.” She blew her nose.
    When the crime lab and Rountree had gone, Skip asked Lenore to go through the house.
    “Would you mind going with me?”
    “Okay.”
    And without asking, she handed the baby to Skip.
    Skip wondered if she’d have done that with a male cop.
    But the little girl cuddled