Cold Betrayal

“Did you speak to Sheriff Olson?”

Ali nodded. “I did. He seems to be of two minds on the subject. His first choice is that Betsy turned on the burners herself and doesn’t remember doing it. His second option is that the whole incident is a figment of her imagination. He felt compelled to imply that anyone who would go outside barefoot in the snow is a couple tacos short of a combination plate.”

“In other words, one way or another, he thinks this is all Gram’s fault. What do you think?” Athena asked.

“If my house was filled with gas and I thought it might explode, I’d boogie out through the nearest door, barefoot and stark naked, too, if necessary—snow or no snow.”

“So you think someone really did try to kill her?” Athena asked.

“I do,” Ali answered.

“But who?” Athena asked.

“That’s the question, isn’t it. Let’s think about that. If you look at the homicide statistics in this country, most of the victims and perpetrators are involved in some kind of criminal enterprise. Drug users and drug dealers knock one another off with wild abandon. Your grandmother’s not likely to be involved in any kind of illegal activity, so we can discount the idea that this is some kind of criminal infighting.”

Ali paused. “She has arthritis, right?”

Athena nodded.

“Elderly folks are often easy targets for druggies looking for stashes of narcotics. The problem with that is that after I spoke to Sheriff Olson, I also spoke to the deputy who responded to her 911 call. Deputy Severson said there was no sign of rifling or attempted burglary, and that Betsy could find nothing missing from the house—including checking her supply of medications, which were right there on the kitchen counter. In other words, we can disregard the idea that whoever did this intended to rip off her meds.”

“What does that leave?” Athena asked.

“Jealousy, maybe?” Ali asked. “What about her love life?”

“Gram’s love life?” a disbelieving Athena asked. “Are you kidding?”

From her expression, it was clear that Athena had never considered the idea that her grandmother might have a love life.

“Older people can fall in love, too,” Ali said gently. “Maybe Betsy is caught up in some kind of love triangle.”

“No,” Athena said, shaking her head. “Not possible. I can’t imagine Gram doing such a thing.”

“We have to find out,” Ali said. “You’ll need to ask her.”

“Me?” Athena asked faintly. “Why me?”

“Who else is going to do it? Right now you and I are the only ones who have Betsy’s back and are taking her concerns seriously. To find out what really happened up there, you’ll probably have to go there. You’ll need to find out what’s going on in your grandmother’s life and who her friends are, including any possible love interests. Maybe Sheriff Olson is right. Maybe she has reached a point where she needs more help than she’s willing to accept. And if it turns out she is having mental difficulties, you may be the only one who can help her make whatever arrangements are deemed necessary.”

“I’m not a detective,” Athena objected. “I wouldn’t have any idea how to go about doing something like that.”

“You’re Betsy’s granddaughter,” Ali said. “You don’t have to be a detective to ask those kinds of questions. In fact, it’s an obligation, and you’d be remiss if you didn’t. Which brings us to yet another possible motive.”

“What’s that?”

“Greed,” Ali answered. “As in, follow the money. How well off is your grandmother?”

Athena shrugged. “She’s okay, I guess. I mean, we’ve never really talked about her finances. It’s not my place.”

“Again, if someone tried to murder her and the authorities are brushing it off, it’s your place now. For instance, is her home paid for?”

“I’m sure,” Athena said, “and what’s left of the farm is paid for, too. Gramps owned a lot of land around Bemidji, land he sold off years ago. What we still call ‘the farm’ is really just a house on twenty acres. It’s not a real farm, not the way it used to be.”

“Has she ever seemed hard up to you?”

“Not at all,” Athena said. “Never. When Gramps was alive, he bought a new car every other year, and he always paid cash. He bragged that he never bought a car on time. After he retired, he and Gram took long road trips every year, driving all over the country, sometimes for as long as a month or more at a time. That stopped after Gramps died. That’s also when Gram stopped getting a new car every other year, but that was her choice. It wasn’t because she couldn’t afford it. She said that she did so little driving on her own that she didn’t need a new car every time she turned around.”

“Tell me about your parents,” Ali pressed quietly. In the years she had known Athena, she had said little about her parents. Ali knew Athena was estranged from them, but both Athena and Chris had been guarded about supplying any details. Now, however, the ground rules had shifted in Ali’s favor. To help guide Athena through this current crisis, Ali needed more information—the backstory that Athena had previously been reluctant to share.

Athena’s eyes filled with tears. “You remember when Chris and I went to Mi

Ali nodded. She remembered it well. She remembered hoping Chris would be able to help mend whatever fences needed mending.

“What happened?”

“You don’t know my mom,” Athena said. “We’ve never gotten along, ever. When I was little, she wanted me to wear dresses and play with Barbie dolls. I wanted to wear overalls and hang out with Gramps. When I’d go stay with them, he’d let me sit in his lap and drive a tractor. Mom was appalled. When it was time for college, Mom wanted me to go to the University of Mi

“I guess not,” Ali agreed.

“The problem is, I’m not big on being bossed around, either, so we’re not exactly a good fit. When I told them I’d choose my own school and that I had no intention of joining a sorority ever, Mom said that was it. If I wasn’t going to do things the way she and Dad said, then I was on my own as far as schooling was concerned. I’d have to pay for it myself. That’s when I joined the National Guard. That was a place where my early tractor driving with Gramps came in handy. I trained in a transport unit and ended up getting deployed to Iraq where I got blown up by an IED. I came home like this,” she added, glancing down at her prosthetic arm and leg.

Ali nodded. “I know about that. I also know that your grandmother came to visit you at Walter Reed while your parents didn’t.”

“Yes,” Athena said bitterly. “Their position was that I’d made my own bed and now should lie in it.”

There are conversations mothers-in-law are allowed to initiate and ones they are not. Taking a deep breath of her own, Ali stepped into uncharted territory. “Tell me about your first husband,” she said.

When Chris had first mentioned that he and Athena were dating, Ali had been concerned that not only was Athena six years older than he was, she had already been married and divorced.

Athena sighed and squared her shoulders. “Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Jack and I met in basic training. He was from Mi

“It was a first relationship for both of us. You remember that old song with the line ‘we got married in a fever’? That was us. We were in lust, not in love. We eloped right after basic training. I’m sure Mom thought we were pregnant. We weren’t. What surprised me, though, was that the moment my parents met Jack, they adored him, my dad even more than my mom. I think Dad saw Jack as the son he never had.”