her head. “No. The question is how you know.”
“She came to the tavern. I think she has it in for Max, the owner, too, but that’s another matter entirely.” I wasn’t sure who knew the truth about Lula’s parentage, and I wasn’t going to be the one to start tongues wagging.
“She usually has it out for multiple people,” Georgia said, walking back over to the table. “She’s great at multitasking.”
“I know she’s your sister-in-law.”
“She ceased being my sister-in-law the moment she killed my brother,” she said bitterly.
“I heard Louise was friends with your daughter, Cassie.”
She nodded. “Walter was a lot younger than me. He actually met Louise when she was at our house hanging out with Cassie.”
“How old were they?”
“Louise was seventeen. Walter was in his mid-twenties. He was taken in by her charm. He married her because she was pregnant, but he would have married her even if she hadn’t been. He loved her, and then she killed him.”
“So you think she was the one who pulled the trigger?”
“She’d used him and was done with him. Claiming he was drowning Lula was a convenient excuse.”
“But Lula says she remembers being drowned.”
Georgia emphatically shook her head. “Walter loved that girl more than anything in the world. He would have sooner shot himself than hurt a hair on her head.”
“What if he found out he wasn’t her biological daughter?” I asked, figuring I wasn’t giving too much away. Given Louise’s sexual history, it was entirely plausible. Although Louise had flat out told me that Bart had tried to drown Lula, and Lula herself remembered something along those lines, that didn’t necessarily make it true. I couldn’t ignore that Louise was a liar, and Lula’s memories weren’t reliable. Everything related to the murder and what had preceded it was jumbled in her head.
“He figured it out before he supposedly tried to drown her.” Her face crumpled. “Lula can’t roll her tongue.”
“What?” I asked in confusion, and then it hit me.
“The ability to do it is a genetic trait. Recessive. She was learning about it in school and needed to figure out which parent she got the trait from. Both Louise and Walter could do it. But Walter lied and told her he couldn’t either. It tore him up to find out he wasn’t her father, but he wasn’t all that surprised. He came to us right afterward and told us.” Tears filled her eyes. “That was only a few months before she shot him.”
So Bart couldn’t roll his tongue. I added that to my list of useless facts. “Did he confront Louise?”
“Not that I know of. He was scared to push his luck. He figured she might take Lula from him.”
“So why do you think she decided to shoot him that day?” I asked. “Something must have prompted her. Were they fighting?”
Wet paper towel still in hand, she began to scrub again. “I can’t help you there. That’s something you’ll have to ask Hank.”
“Why would Hank know about their fight?”
She gave me a blank stare.
Then I realized Georgia had just confirmed a connection between Louise and Hank. “So Louise does have it out for him.”
“Seems more like he’ll be wantin’ to deal with her now that she’s back.”
Should I confess what Louise told me about Hank’s fortune? It didn’t seem wise, so I decided to play dumb. “Why’s that?”
“Louise took something of Hank’s, and he wants it back.” Her brow lifted. “If you want to know what it was, you’ll have to ask him.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Do you know how Hank got into the pot-selling business?”
She released a laugh and started scrubbing the table again. “I do, actually. You want the story?”
“If you feel comfortable sharing.”
She snorted. “As long as you aren’t some undercover agent . . . but I suspect anyone with a professional interest in prying out Hank’s secrets would have tried years ago. Wouldn’t be much point goin’ after him now. I’m sure the statute of limitations has long since expired on most of it.”
“I assure you, Georgia, the very last thing I want to do is hurt Hank. He took me in and treated me like a daughter. I would never betray him.”
She studied me for a long moment. “No. I can see you wouldn’t.” She resumed wiping. “I think the story starts with Mary.”
I gave her a look of surprise.
“I heard she died from cancer.”
“That’s right. Breast cancer. Sadly, they caught it too late, but she still put up a valiant fight for nearly ten years.