  After Olivia had showed Domenico around the small village of Gilmanton Iron Works, and had also pointed out the long birch tree lined drive leading to the house of former ill repute, the couple sped off for Alton Bay, a lakeshore community home to Miss O's long-lost kin. "The one thing that bothers me still about the whole Peyton Place drama," Olivia confessed on the ride over in the car, "is that no one seems to know what happened to the daughter, Barbara, the one who killed her father in 1946 and then buried him in the Roberts' sheep barn. The brother, who kept quiet, went to a juvenile detention center, while the sister seems to have disappeared - I've made inquiries and can't seem to find the woman anywhere." "Why would you want to?" "Because she holds a key to the real story - old man Roberts' relatives paid a visit to Posh once, to plead his innocence - he was a merchant mariner, they said, who sent money home which his daughter stole - not a rapist as the story goes. They said Barbara was the town tramp, but somehow, I don't believe it - she was only sixteen - something must have been wrong for her to stand on that stone wall and drill her daddy with a .38, I'd wager." "Such as?" Duke asked, keeping his eyes on the winding road. "Perhaps the father molested not the daughter...but the brother? Maybe that's why she shot him, and why the brother kept quiet." "Hmmmm," Domenico pondered. "Well, it certainly is a lovely spot - too lovely for such sordid tales. Tell me more about your relatives, they sound a lot more fun." "Let's see, Trixi likes to dance, Bubba fights a lot and Bucky is into Cats, as in skidoos. Okay, take a left up here - I think that's it - go down the dirt road - we're almost there. You'll see soon enough for yourself." |
To Shot Glass #4