Secret Prey

beaten. I mean, she’d never say that, but way deep down, I think she might feel it. I used to plead with her to leave the man.’’
    ‘‘Where do you come from? You and Audrey?’’ He knew, but if he could get her rolling, anything might come out.
    ‘‘Oxford. It’s up in the Red River Valley,’’ she said.‘‘The closest big town is Grand Forks.’’
    ‘‘Sugar beets?’’
    ‘‘No, we never really farmed. We lived just outside Oxford—we could walk to school—and my dad was a mail carrier. Both of my grandfathers were farmers, though. Dad grew up on a farm, and so did Mom, but he just wasn’t interested.’’
    ‘‘Your folks still live up there?’’
    ‘‘No, they both died. My father died when I was little, when I was ten, that was . . . twenty-four years ago, now. Just about this time of year. Mom died four years later. In the spring. After Mom died, I went to live with my aunt Judy in Lakeville and Audrey went to college. She went to St. Anne’s.’’
    ‘‘I know . . . Listen, I assume that you didn’t talk to us directly because you didn’t want to offend your sister. Or alienate her. Is that right?’’
    Bell nodded. ‘‘You know, she kept talking about how she loved him and what a great provider he was, but I really thought he was an animal and that sooner or later, he’d kill her. He was a killer. You said on the phone that the Kresge thing wasn’t finished yet, but you know, it really is. Wilson killed him. Maybe I should have come forward earlier, but . . . I wasn’t sure. And he was my sister’s husband.’’
    ‘‘The good provider.’’
    ‘‘Easy to laugh off if you’re a police officer, down here in Minneapolis,’’ Bell said. ‘‘But if you were poor in Oxford, Minnesota, and we pretty much were, then ‘good provider’ isn’t something you laugh at.’’
    Lucas glanced around: ‘‘Are you married? Or . . .’’
    ‘‘Divorced,’’ she said. ‘‘Four years now.’’ She shook her head at the unstated question. ‘‘Larry never laid a hand on me. We just found out that we weren’t very much interested in each other. We were dating when I got pregnant, and we got married because we were supposed to.’’
    ‘‘All right,’’ he said.
    They talked for a few more minutes, then Lucas stood up. ‘‘Thanks.’’
    ‘‘What about Dan Kresge? Are you all done now?’’
    Lucas shrugged. ‘‘I don’t know. There doesn’t seem much more to look at. We’ll keep picking at little corners, but there’s not much left.’’
    ‘‘I’m glad that man’s gone—Wilson, not Mr. Kresge. I know it’s a sin, but I’m glad he’s gone.’’
    LUCAS HAD JUST TAKEN A STEP TOWARD THE FRONT door when the door opened and a slender teenager stepped in, dressed head to foot in black, carrying a black bookbag. Her hair was blond, no more than an inch long, and a tiny gold ring pierced one eyebrow. She looked quickly at her mother, then to Lucas, gave him an assessing smile and said, ‘‘My. This is a studly one.’’
    ‘‘Connie!’’
    ‘‘He is . . .’’ Slightly seductive, intended to tease her mother.
    ‘‘Please! This is Chief Davenport from the Minneapolis Police Department.’’
    ‘‘A cop? You can’t be asking if Aunt Audrey really killed him—she admits it,’’ the teenager said. She dropped her bookbag in the entry. ‘‘I don’t think she killed anyone else.’’
    ‘‘We’re just making routine calls,’’ Lucas said.
    ‘‘The chief of police makes routine calls?’’
    ‘‘I’m not the chief, I’m a deputy chief,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘And sometimes I make routine calls, if the case is important enough.’’
    ‘‘We were just finishing here,’’ Bell said.
    ‘‘Well, good luck with Aunt Audrey,’’ the girl said. ‘‘The meanest woman alive.’’
    ‘‘Connie!’’ And Bell looked quickly at Lucas: ‘‘Connie and Audrey don’t get along as well as they should.’’
    ‘‘She is such a tiresome little bourgeois,’’ Connie said, rolling her eyes. ‘‘The only interesting thing she ever did was kill Wilson.’’
    ‘‘Which was, when you think about it, pretty interesting,’’ Lucas said.
    Connie nodded: ‘‘Yup. I gotta admit it.’’
    Lucas smiled at her, deciding he liked her. The girl picked it up, and smiled back, a touch of shyness this time. Lucas said to Bell, ‘‘If anything else comes up, I’d like to give you a call.’’
    As Lucas passed Connie, he picked up just