"Because half the town thinks that Teenie was killed and buried by Dell, and then he committed suicide. It's making Sybil crazy. Teenie's mom's hard up. Even if she thought of calling you in, she couldn't afford you. Sybil decided to fund this, after she heard about you through Terry, who went to some mayor's conference and talked to the head honcho of some little town in the Arklatex." I glanced over at Tolliver. "El Dorado," he murmured, and I nodded after a second, remembering. Paul Edwards said, "Sybil can't stand the shame of the suspicion. She liked Teenie, no matter how wild the girl was. Sybil really assumed she'd be part of their family some day."
"No Mister Teague?" I asked. "She's a widow, right?"
"Yes, Sybil's a fairly recent widow. She's got a daughter, too, Mary Nell, who's seventeen."
"So why were Teenie and Dell out here?"
He shrugged, with a half smile. "That's a question no one ever asked; I mean, hell, seventeen, in the woods in spring... I guess we all thought it was a little obvious."
"But they parked up by the road." That was what was obvious, but apparently not to Paul Edwards. "Kids wanting to have sex, they're going to hide their car better than that. Small town kids know how easy it is to be caught out."
Edwards looked surprised, his lean dark face shutting down on sudden and unwelcome thoughts. "Not much traffic out on this road," he said, but without much conviction.
I put on my dark glasses. Edwards again looked at me askance. It was an overcast day. I nodded to Tolliver.
"Lay on, Macduff," Tolliver said, to Paul Edwards's confusion. Edwards's high school must have done Julius Caesar instead of Macbeth. Tolliver gestured to the woods, and Edwards, looking relieved to understand his mission, began to lead us downhill.
It was steep going.