Lena Jones 02 - Desert Wives

killed Solomon, but why? Then again, people suffering from dementia didn’t need rational motives, did they?
    Abel Corbett, Rebecca’s father, couldn’t be left out of the equation, either. Yes, we’d all been told the old prophet had promised him a couple of young girls in exchange for Rebecca, but what if Solomon had reneged on the deal at the last minute? Could the about-face have made Abel angry enough to kill? As I thought about Abel’s less-than-stellar track record at fatherhood, an even more intriguing suspect entered the picture.
    Noah Heaton, the dwarfish thug who’d been frustrated by Solomon’s refusal to give him any wives, looked good for it. Now his wedding day was about to arrive, along with his new wives’ welfare checks. Brother Noah had certainly cashed in after Solomon’s death.
    Noises down the hall interrupted my thinking. Saul was up and headed for the kitchen, Ruby trailing behind him. Thinking about my pseudo-husband and sister wife drew my mind onto a track I’d been avoiding. Saul’s own motive for killing Solomon remained second only to Davis’s. Solomon had bilked Saul out of his life savings, leaving him stranded in Purity with an unloving wife.
    For that matter, how about Ruby herself? She’d told me that Gaynell, her first husband, had died after Solomon’s faith healing failed. Although Saul had described Gaynell as somewhat less than kind, Ruby wouldn’t have been the first woman to have loved a brute. Even the Marquis de Sade’s wife had remained loyal to the bitter end.
    Even Cynthia couldn’t be ruled out as a suspect. Her father had ignored her desire to attend college, and instead promised her to Earl Graff. If the old bastard had still been alive, I might have been tempted to kill him for that myself.
    I finalized my list of female suspects with the person I least wanted to be the killer. Virginia Lawler, the owner of West Wind Ranch, the woman who devoted her life to helping girls escape from the polygamy compounds. Virginia’s present life might be an ongoing act of contrition, but I wondered if she found her efforts eased her nightmares. Remembering my own nights, I shuddered. Dreams could make you crazy. They could infiltrate your waking life until you could no longer tell fantasy from reality, right from wrong.
    Disturbed, I turned off the taps, stepped out of the shower, and dried off. Maybe I didn’t like it, but Virginia had means, motive, and probably opportunity. And then driven back to West Wind Guest Ranch in time for cocktails. Like most ranching types in Arizona and Utah she was probably comfortable with hand guns and rifles, but in the end, what did that prove? The same could be said for every single man, and possibly some women, in Purity.
    The real question here was, would Virginia have been heartless enough to allow another woman, a mother, to pay for her crime?
    I refused to believe it.
    I returned to my room, dressed quickly, and went into the kitchen, where Saul sat eating his Special K as Ruby watched him, her face unreadable. Neither spoke, but at least she’d set out the breakfast fixins’. Her orderly life was about to change, but Ruby just kept plugging along. It was almost admirable.
    Then again,
would
Ruby’s life change? Granted, Saul was still her legal husband, but did she plan to leave the compound with him? Or would she remain in Purity, hoping that the Circle of Elders would find her a new husband so that she could continue to live near her children and grandchildren?
    Thinking about it hurt my head, so I dumped a pile of Special K into my bowl and drowned it with milk.
    “Rain’s stopped,” Saul finally said into the silence.
    “Good. I’m going for a walk, but when I get back I’ll help pack.” Getting out of the house would help me think and I had precious little to pack, anyway. Some underwear and maybe one long-skirted dress. As a souvenir.
    I bolted down the cereal and after a quick goodbye, headed out the door. It was still early enough that I crossed paths with Meade on his daily journey across Prophet’s Park to Ermaline’s house for morning prayers.
    He smiled, looking more like his mother than ever. “Would you like to join us in prayer, Sister Lena?”
    Apparently Meade hadn’t heard about the scene with Davis the day before. There was no reason he should have. Even though the two shared the same father, I’d never seen them together. I also doubted Sissy had told him I’d caught her husband