taken up residence in a house not far off Main Street in the center of town. The other person Naomi referred to I didn’t know. “Jeremy?”
“This is Jeremy,” Naomi said, looking down at the infant, a tiny one with a sparse fringe of light blond hair and bright blue eyes, rosy cheeks. Naomi looked up from her small charge, took a deep breath and pointed at something white spread out across the ground. “There’s blood, Clara. On that sheet over there, on the face of the dead boy under it, and all around Jacob on the floor.”
“Did you see how it happened?” I asked. Naomi shook her head. “Why are you here?” I asked.
At that moment, her attention shifted to something or someone over my shoulder. I turned and saw Max trudging toward us. I felt uneasy about my physical response, the way my pulse kicked up at the sight of him. I thought of the way my body reacted when he touched my shoulder just two nights ago. He walked over and his eyes settled on my muddy jeans. I knew he guessed what I’d been up to. I’d confessed my obsession and my morning forays with my shovel over dinner a few weeks earlier. When I looked at his face, though, I realized that Naomi’s description must not have been an exaggeration. This was a bad scene, I knew, simply from the dour look Max wore as he came to a stop beside me.
When I asked what he knew, Max gave me a rundown. “The men are still checking the outbuildings, but the count so far is four dead, two women and two children,” he said. Beside us, Naomi gasped, as if starved for air. At that, Max appeared upset with himself for talking in front of her, and he sighed. “Naomi, we need answers.” Then he asked the question I had just moments earlier, “First off, what brought you here this morning?”
“That,” Naomi said, pointing at a clear plastic bag with something inside made out of white plastic, shiny metal, and plastic tubing. It lay on the ground not far from where we stood. “I was delivering that breast pump to Laurel for Jeremy. I promised her and Jacob that I would when we talked at services yesterday.”
“Did you see anyone when you arrived?” I asked, and Naomi shook her head. “But you went inside?”
“I went in the house to find a phone after I saw the little boy, Benjamin, dead under the sheet. I needed to call nine-one-one.” Naomi shrugged as if slightly embarrassed. “We only have one cell phone at the trailer, Clara, and I forgot it when I left to go to the hives this morning. I had to go inside the Johanssons’ house to call for help.”
“Laurel was expecting you?” Max asked.
“Yes,” Naomi said. “She and Jacob both were. But I was running maybe half an hour late, a little bit more. There was a lot of commotion at the trailer getting the young ones off to school this morning, and I didn’t get out the door as early as I planned.”
“When you saw Jacob, did he say anything?” Max asked.
Naomi shook her head. “Nothing. He was awake when I walked in, his eyes open. I had the feeling he felt relieved to see me. As soon as he did, his eyes closed. It was like he drifted off and went to sleep.”
Max looked at me, and I shot him a glance that signaled agreement. We both knew where this was going. “Mother Naomi, we need you to go to police headquarters,” I said. “I’m going to have one of the deputies drive you there, and I’ll ask Detective Mullins to take your statement.”
I noticed that Max grimaced when I mentioned Jeff Mullins. I wondered why and was just about to question him on it when Naomi interrupted me.
“Oh, I can’t give an official statement. I can’t do that,” she protested. A fundamentalist Mormon town that adhered to the principle of plural marriage, Alber had an uncomfortable relationship with civil authorities. Hence cooperation wasn’t always easy for those of us in law enforcement to get, so I shouldn’t have been surprised at Naomi’s reaction. Plus there was my frigid relationship with my family, which despite my best attempts hadn’t thawed. Still, there were four dead bodies on the property and a man who, according to Naomi, appeared to be dying. I’d hoped she’d step up. “I just told you everything I know,” she