June didn’t look up. “Almost two weeks ago.”
Melanie pulled out the patio chair and sat down. “Why have you been pretending he’s still here? Why would you do that?!”
June lifted her head and gaped at Melanie as though she didn’t know how to answer any of those questions. So she didn’t.
Which didn’t make any sense, either.
“June,” Melanie said, her voice thick with emotion in her throat. “Why have you been pretending he’s still here?”
“Because he is.” June’s voice was somewhat childlike, and Melanie felt a chill zip through her. The woman had to be off her rocker. Completely. Because the only other explanation for her comment was…
“What do you mean he’s still here?” Melanie said again, her throat now thick with unease.
June shrugged and looked away, off toward Elwood’s roses. “I didn’t think he would ever do something like that. If I had known I would have called for a doctor. I didn’t know. So I wasn’t ready. I don’t even think he was ready. But then he just…did it. He took all those pills.”
“June, what do you mean he’s stillhere?”
“I loved Elwood,” June said, her head cocked to one side, twotears tracking down her cheeks. “You need to know that, Melanie. I loved my husband very much. But I loved Elwood, too. He was my best friend after Frank died, my only true companion. And he gave me a home, something I’d never really had before. He gave me work to do, work I loved. And he let me care for him, almost like a wife cares for a sick husband. He gave me everything. Everything.”
Melanie’s heart was pulsing madly in her chest as her brain embraced the notion that something was terribly off.
“June,” she said. “Where is Elwood? Where did you take him?”
“I needed more time,” June said vacantly, still staring at the garden. “That’s why I did what I did. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“What? What did you do?”
“He left everything to Ruthie’s boys, Melanie. Everything. All his money, all his investments, his royalties. And this house. This house where I had lived with the two people I loved most in the world. It is more than just a place to live. It’s my home. I couldn’t lose it. I needed more time to finish the script I was writing for him. I needed the money it will bring in. I’m going to beg those boys to sell me the house and I need that money for the down payment. So I needed more time. I needed Elwood to be alive and finishing the screenplay. I can’t lose this house.”
“So you…didn’t tell anyone he’d died because you are writing his screenplay?” Melanie said, aghast.
“They aren’t really his scripts anymore,” June said. “I’ve been writing them for a long while. A very long while.”
Melanie leaned forward across the table. “June. You need to tell me where Elwood is. Where did you take him?”
June sighed heavily. “I told you. I didn’t take him anywhere. He’s right here.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
June pointed to the rose garden. “Righthere.”
The blood in Melanie’s veins seemed to whoosh to a chilly stop, followed by an odd calmness. “Are you telling me that you buried Elwood in the backyard?”
June was staring at the rosebushes, several of them blooming in the summer-like temperatures of a typical Southern California December. “Yes.”
“And Eva. Eva knows this, too?”
“She doesn’t. At least, I don’t think she does. I’m not sure.”
“What do you mean you’re not sure?” Melanie echoed hotly.
“I think maybe she has suspected it for a few days. Maybe a week.”
Anger began to flare. “And she didnothing?”
“I think it’s because she understands. She lost her home, too. She lost her family. She knows what it’s like to lose everything. I think maybe she wanted to help me.”
“Help you?” Melanie said furiously. “Help you commit a crime?”
