I sighed, hating knowing these things about someone else, much less revealing them. But it was the nature of my job. “Yes,” I said wearily.

“Did she have a video camera? I noticed all the tapes out there.”

“Yes, she did. She kept it up there, on the closet shelf.” I pointed, and Marta fetched. She opened the soft black case, removed the camera, turned it on, and opened the tape bay. Empty.

“Who paid you to clean this place?” she asked out of the blue.

“I thought we’d covered that. Her mother, Lacey, gave Deedra the money so she could afford me.”

“Deedra get along with her mother?”

“Yes.”

“What about her stepfather?”

I considered my answer. I’d heard a fight between the two so intense I’d considered intervening, maybe three or four months ago. I didn’t like Jerrell Knopp. But it was one thing not to like him, another thing to tell the sheriff words he’d spoken in anger.

“They weren’t close,” I said cautiously.

“Ever see them fight?”

I turned away, began putting Deedra’s earrings into her special compartmented box.

“Stop,” the sheriff said sharply.

I dropped the pair I was holding as if they’d burst into flames. “Sorry,” I said, shaking my head at my own error. “It was automatic.” I hoped Marta Schuster stayed diverted.

“She always have this much jewelry lying around?”

“Yes.” I was relieved she’d asked a question so easily answered. I couldn’t stop myself from glancing over at Deedra’s chest of drawers, wondering if Marta Schuster had already found the pictures. I wondered whether mentioning them would help in some way.

“They’re in my pocket,” she said quietly.

My eyes met hers. “Good.”

“What do you know about her sex life?”

I could see that this was supposed to signal a tradeoff. My mouth twisted in distaste. “Your brother was mighty interested in Deedra, from what I could see. Ask him.”