JC: Well, I guess that makes sense in a strange way, doesn’t it? Figures. He was a strange man.
ON: How do you mean?
JC: He had no choice since he got it from his mama and daddy, I guess. My husband and I grew up with his daddy, Max. His mama grew up in Adora Springs. Max threatened to kill the girl he dated before he met Paula. Did you know that? That was in high school, but I’ll never forget it.
ON: No, ma’am, I didn’t know that, but you know that doesn’t pertain at all to this investigation.
JC: Right. Of course not, but this is really close to my heart because Caroline is one of my daughter-in-law Ada’s dearest friends. Those two have been inseparable since they were babies—all four of them have been. Rosemarie, Ada, Caroline, and Kasey. Kasey’s poor mother…everyone says that Roy Dupont killed Angie, but Roy never spent one day in prison, because the Foxberrys made it all go away. Well, I guess you know all this, don’t you?
ON: I can’t speak to any of that, Mrs. Castelow.
JC: Of course you can’t. Well, I saw Caroline and Trey arguing once right outside the B and B not too long ago. She was crying. I was at the window watching. I thought about it as soon as I heard what he’d done to her.
ON: What do you mean?
JC: How he beat her up and pushed her through a window.
ON: Allegedly.
JC: Uh-huh. My brother is the chief of police, so trust me, I get it. I know the language and I said what I said. Maxwell Foxberry allegedly threatens to kill a woman forever ago and no one does anything about it since it was just an allegation, right? Like how Roy allegedly killed Angie Fritz and was never even investigated for it? So, it’s all this allegedly that’s mucking up the truth. Men keep getting away with it. So, whether Trey drowned on his own or whether someone wanted him dead, the Foxberrys have pissed off a lot of people in this town and I wouldn’t mind seeing them run out of it, to be quite honest. Does this help? Can you put this down somewhere for someone to read later? I’m not even scared for you to put my name on it. I’m not scared of the Foxberrys. Never have been. Never will be.
ON: I’ve got it down, Mrs. Castelow. Thank you.
*
Claire Miller
Officer Neil: Hi, Claire. What brings you down today?
Claire Miller: I want to talk about Trey Foxberry and…
ON: And?
CM: This is hard for me.
ON: Take your time.
CM: I feel terrible. It’s terrible, what I did…I don’t know if I can…
ON: There are usually bottles of water in here, but we’ve been busy today. Let me go get some more. Would you like one?
CM: Yes, please.
ON: There you go. When you’re ready, continue.
CM: Thank you. I…I dated Trey for a little bit when we were in high school. I was in love with Leo Bell, but he and Rosemarie Kingston are…well, no one could ever get between them. It’s like this supernatural thing they have together that used to torture me when I was a teenager, but you force yourself to get over those things to survive. So yeah, Trey and I dated and broke up. Got back together and broke up. Sometimes when we were both home from college, we’d hook up. I liked him a lot, and he did have a way of making me feel like I was the only girl in the world sometimes…but he could be really jealous. He’d lose his mind if I talked to certain guys. Like Leo, for example, since he knew how much I liked him. Once, when Leo’s band was in town, I went to see them at the amphitheater, and after the show, I gave Leo a hug, and later, Trey grabbed my face and smacked me for it. I smacked him right back too.
ON: Good for you.
CM: I was stupid enough to keep going back to him. Most of the time he kept me a secret, but I didn’t care, because I was kind of seeing someone else. I’m not proud of any of it, but it’s what happened. With Trey and me it was mostly sexual, because that’s all we did toward the end. Some of it was while he was married to Caroline, and when I got pregnant, he said if I didn’t get an abortion, he’d tell everyone at the church about us and share private photographs of me. I’ve worked there for so long…I couldn’t bear the thought of letting the Bells or my family down like that, so I did it…I got the abortion. That was three months ago. I stopped sleeping with him after that, and I felt awful every time I saw Caroline at the bakery, because she is such a sweet person and she deserved so much more than him. Or what I was doing to her. I’m guessing he probably got meaner after I stopped seeing him—I don’t know. Maybe he was upset because I ended it. It was hard to know what he was thinking most of the time. But I believe it if Caroline says he’s the one who beat her up, because he did have such an awful temper. Maybe he got tired of being that way and maybe he jumped into the lake to end it.
ON: Is that really what you think happened?
CM: Yes. It is. I don’t think someone should have to get in trouble for killing him if he did it to himself.
ON: That makes sense.
CM: I’m sad. I’m sad it ended this way.
ON: I understand, Claire. Thanks for letting us know.
*
Leilani Kingston
Officer Neil: Mrs. Kingston, you’re here to give a statement on Trey Foxberry?
Leilani Kingston: I am.
ON: I know your daughter, Rosemarie, and Caroline are very close.
LK: Like sisters, right.
ON: What is it you want to talk about?
LK: Trey’s father threatened my husband’s life years ago over selling weed in Goldie. Not a big deal and the cops always looked the other way for the most part, since they were buying it sometimes too. I mean, of course, it’s been legalized and everything now, but before all that, my husband used to grow small amounts to sell. All organic, mostly to the hippies here who didn’t grow their own and to cancer patients, the occasional college kid if they looked over twenty-one. Maxwell Foxberry didn’t want my husband selling weed here, since he wanted to be the only source, and he told my husband that. It was around the same time he got Roy Dupont involved in running stuff back and forth from here to Adora Springs and Jesse County, all over these hills. Roy would do anything. The man had no morals. Did you know him?
ON: No, ma’am, I didn’t.
LK: You’re lucky. Anyway, my husband didn’t stop, just went more underground, made a few deals with some big dispensaries. I thought maybe Maxwell had moved on, but one night he came to our house, and thankfully Rosemarie wasn’t there, but he told my husband if he didn’t stop selling weed in Goldie, he knew some guys that would make sure he couldn’t do it anymore.
ON: Y’all took that to mean he was threatening your husband’s life?
LK: Right. Then the next week when I ran into Maxwell on my walk, he said that maybe he and I could work out a deal.
ON: What did he mean by that?
LK: Maybe he meant sex? Maybe he meant…I don’t know. I ignored him, but at that point I think Max saw that weed wasn’t making enough money anyway, because everyone wanted pills. None of this will leave this room, right?
ON: Everything you and I are discussing will remain confidential.
LK: Thank you. The Foxberrys operate differently and everyone in Goldie knows it. It’s not just Goldie, though; it’s all these little towns. If someone killed Trey Foxberry, it could’ve been anyone. Do y’all think someone killed him or that it was an accident?