"Do you think Pumpkin bought the liquor for Billy?" Fred said.
"No. Pumpkin told me Billy asked him to buy booze, but he refused. Pumpkin is a bit kooky, but I believe him. I sense he's had his own past problems with substance abuse."
"Someone bought the bottle for Billy," Cynthia said. "They're as much at fault as him."
"Maybe." Dean answered. The two looked at him. "Maybe someone put it there."
"Who?" they asked in unison.
Dean rocked back and sighed. "I don't even like to say it because I don't have an ounce of evidence, but at the debate Fitzgerald said liquor had been found in Billy's vehicle. I was the first one to the accident scene and I pitched the bottle-the only bottle. How would Fitzgerald know?"
"Are you suggesting he put it in Billy's Jeep?" There was a look of horror on Cynthia's face.
"I'm just asking questions."
"There must have been more than one bottle," Cynthia offered.
"The Jeep was upside down, on its roll bar. I didn't search, but I'm sure I would have seen one if it were there. There's something else. I saw Fitzgerald buy two pint bottles of vodka that morning. When I mentioned it to him, he lied about it."
"Was the bottle in Billy's Jeep vodka?" Fred asked.
"I tossed it without looking at the label. It was a clear liquid- I remember that much. But in Fitzgerald's defense, there were two pint bottles of vodka at Lydia Larkin's place, so he may have bought them for her."
"The liquor bottle outside the Lucky Pup mine was a pint of vodka, too," Cynthia said. "That supports the suspicion that Billy and some of his friends were the ones who broke into the mine and first discovered the bones. You never did get your chance to talk to him about it." Their joint realization that no one would ever speak with Billy Langstrom again was sobering.
"Look," Dean said. "I know this is far-fetched and I'm probably only fantasizing because I'm so pissed off at that son of a bitch Fitzgerald in general. . .but all these facts bother me."
It was Fred who broke the silence-with a mighty leap. "I think I've got it! Billy found the bones. They were Fitzgerald's papa's and he killed Billy to stop him from testifying! He planted vodka in his Jeep and then ran him off the road! He was the one who switched the bones, killing two stones with one bird-"
"I think you've got that a bit mixed up," Dean offered, but Fred was on a roll.
"-he'd cover up the killing and make you look like a fool and win the election!"