out making rural calls. But he isn’t Arthur’s father. Norma was already pregnant when she met him. She only passed the baby off as his to reel him in. She set her sights and went after him.”
Watching her closely, Bill tugged at the corner of his mustache. “Did they conspire to get rid of Mrs. Driscoll?”
“I don’t think Norma had anything to do with it.”
“Mrs. Kemp—”
“I’ll tell you why,” she said, cutting Bill off. “Norma didn’t consider Gabe’s missus competition. She had convinced herself that Gabe would ultimately choose her and Arthur over ‘that fat German cow,’ as she called her.
“She had big plans for Gabe to move her and Arthur into that large, pretty house. As his wife, she would become a society maven. I told her she was delusional. But I also saw how besotted Gabe was with her.” She shrugged. “Maybe he gave in to her impatience.”
“Gabe claims to have been at your house twice on the day his wife went missing. Once in the afternoon, once late that night.”
“He was, but not to help with Arthur’s breech birth, because Arthur was already a month old. Gabe came that afternoon. He held the baby for half an hour and spent another thirty minutes in the bedroom with Norma. They were lovey-dovey. She begged him to stay longer and was pouty when he left.
“When he came back that night, it was a different story. He was frantic. I mean berserk. Batshit crazy. I had to deal with him myself because Norma was out.”
“Out where?”
Thatcher could tell she was reluctant to answer, but finally she did. “There was someone else. Before Gabe, and the whole time she was with him.”
“The baby’s father?”
“That would be my guess, but I don’t know. It was a very secretive affair. She always went to him. She was with him that evening of Mrs. Driscoll’s disappearance. When she got back home, Gabe was there, but he was too distraught even to ask where she’d been.”
“What time did she get home?”
“Midnight or better. Honestly, I believe Gabe is rather thick. She smelled of sex. He’s a doctor, right?” She snorted with derision. “Arthur was a hefty newborn. Any fool could see he was too big to be six weeks early, as Norma claimed. But Gabe never raised a question about his size or seemed to doubt that he was the father. In my opinion he’s a loser.”
Bill said, “But you covered his lie about the breech birth.”
“I did, yes. Norma insisted that we back him up, for Arthur’s sake, she said.”
“Did Gabe kill his wife, Mrs. Kemp?”
“I swear to you I don’t know.”
“Did you ever question Norma about the convenient timing of Mrs. Driscoll’s disappearance?”
“No,” she replied in her wheezy smoker’s voice, “I didn’t want to know the answer.”
Bill sighed. “When two people share a secret like that, it tends to erode the relationship, whether it’s between siblings, husband and wife, illicit lovers. If it turns out that Gabe Driscoll assaulted your sister today—”
“Then all bets are off. I’ll dance naked at his hanging. But…” She shook another cigarette from the pack. Thatcher lit it for her.
Bill said, “You were about to say, Mrs. Kemp?”
“I’m not sure Gabe has it in him to do that. I told you she was pouty when he left that afternoon. It was because he wouldn’t make love to her. Our walls are thin. I could hear her trying to seduce him. He refused, saying it was too soon after the baby for them to have sex. So the way she was violated today just doesn’t seem like him. Murder maybe, but not that.”
“Not even if he’d found out the baby isn’t his?” Bill asked. “Maybe he realized that he’d been duped, suckered into killing his wife and his own unborn child for another man’s. That could have motivated him to fly into a blind rage.”
She said, “Then they ought to hang the bastard twice.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, the ambulance from Dallas arrived. Bill directed it to the back of the building, where Norma Blanchard’s body was loaded. Patsy was going to follow in her car. She told Bill that her husband had family in Dallas, and that she had arranged to stay with them until her sister’s body could be released for burial.
“Please remember that you’re a material witness in two crimes,” Bill said. “I’ll need to reach you.”
“I understand.” She gave him her relative’s telephone number and address.
As they watched her departure, Bill said to Thatcher, “She