Page 15 of So Deadly
Turk looked up at Faith in alarm.The woman lifted her frown to Faith.“Why are you talking about my son?”
“I understand there was a confrontation between you, your husband and Miss Margaret Hayes recently.You are Mrs.Leighton, right?”
The woman looked past Faith at Hayes’s house.Her eyes widened when she saw the police vehicles.She blinked and looked back at Faith.“Yes, I’m Barbara Leighton.What’s going on?Why is the FBI here?”
“Turk, myself, and my partner specialize in cases with certain characteristics,” Faith replied.“We’re investigating Miss Hayes’s death because the crime scene demonstrates those characteristics.”
“Oh my God.”Barbara lifted her hand to her mouth.“That’s why the dog was barking.”
Faith realized she hadn’t seen anyone else here.No noise came from inside the house either save the soft note of the radio playing an old swing song.“Is your husband home?”
“No, Tyrone’s out with Oscar right now.They’re getting ice cream.Tyrone’s a long-haul trucker, so when he’s home, they try to schedule a father-son outing at least once.We do family outings too, but I like them getting just father-son time.I think it’s important.”
“I agree,” Faith said.“How old is your son?”
Barbara blinked and seemed to focus on the conversation again.“Why does that matter?”
Because I need to know if he’ll tell me if I ask him where his dad really was.
Aloud, Faith said, “I understand he was attacked by Miss Hayes’s dog recently.”
“Okay, but you asked his age,” Barbara said, the hard look back in her eyes.“Why does that matter?”
Faith realized she wasn’t going to be able to beat around the bush anymore.“Someone murdered Margaret Hayes a few hours ago.I believe it might be related to her aggressive dog and her own aggressive manner regarding the dog.”
“My husband is at the Shops at Chestnut Hill,” Barbara said firmly.“I have texts from him telling me so, and for the record, my son is five years old, so if Tyrone were going to murder someone, he’d probably leave him at home rather than take him, especially where there’s a big dog that could kill him.”
“All right,” Faith said, lifting her hands.“Fair enough.Can you tell me about your interaction with Miss Hayes?”
“Why?”
“Because someone killed her.Not your husband, fine, but someone.I need to find out who, and having an idea of what Margaret was like can help me with that.”
Barbara took a deep breath and released it through her nose.Her expression suggested she still didn’t trust Faith, but when she looked down at Turk, what she saw must have mollified her a little because her face softened.“Margaret was hurting deeply.I don’t know what happened to her to make her that way, but she was.”
Faith raised an eyebrow.That was interesting.“Can you be more specific?”
“I just said I can’t,” Barbara said, a little irritably.She took a breath and rubbed the bridge of her nose.“I’m sorry.This is…”
“It’s tough,” Faith sympathized.“No one wants the FBI talking to them for any reason.”
Barbara sighed.“Margaret Hayes was rude.Her dog lunged at my son on our front lawn, and when we told her to keep him off our property, she told us that it was our fault for letting our son play on the street.Hewasn’ton the street; he was on our lawn.”
Faith nodded.“That matches what I was told.I’m curious to say why you believe Miss Hayes was hurting and not simply rude?”
Barbara smiled ruefully.“I suppose I don’t know that for sure.It’s just what I’d like to believe.My mother always used to tell me to have sympathy for angry people because you don’t know what happened to them to make them angry.I guess it’s easier for me to think that Margaret was hurt than that she genuinely believed our son deserved to be attacked by her dog.”
Faith nodded again.“And did you have any interactions with Miss Hayes after this?”
“No.She didn’t really talk to any of her neighbors.She liked keeping to herself, and the rest of us liked it that way.We have Oscar play in our backyard now.That’s probably safer anyway.Tyrone told me if it wasn’t a dog, it could have been a different kind of predator.”
“Well, I’m glad he’s okay.”
“Me too.”Barbara shifted her feet, ready for the interview to be over.“Did you need anything else?”
“I might reach out to your husband a little later,” Faith said, handing her a card.“Give that to him just in case I do.”
“You really think he did this?”
