Murphy Mystery Cooper envied so many things about Miranda: her garden, her green thumb, her gift with color. On Saturday, June 9, the Blue Ridge Mountains were so clear that Coop felt she could see every leaf on every tree. The fine weather lifted her spirits, which surely needed lifting. So far the investigation into the deaths of the two ReNu employees had yielded nothing. On her hands and knees pulling out burdock root—a miserable job, since the root surely went all the way to China—Coop reviewed the case. Over and over again she returned to the identical statements of the mechanics: Bobby Foltz; Lawrence Pingrey, called Lodi; Jason Brundige; and Sammy Collona. You’d think the shock of seeing their co-worker with his brains bashed out would provoke an emotional torrent, if not of loss then of fear. Not so. After Nick was found shot, Cooper had returned to ReNu. The mechanics’ statements were again, while not identical, disquietingly neutral—somber, yes, but still neutral. Nick was liked.
