Rey and Lennie found the kitchen, and what more found Jimmy and Astrid both in it, Jimmy seated leaning over the table with his head resting on it, looking just about as out of it as he had last night, and Astrid, though notably calmer this morning, looked as though all the will to live had all but gone out of her.

"Good morning, Mr. Cain, Mrs. Cain," Lennie said, "We've come to ask some more questions."

Astrid was in a white and blue floral dressing gown and stood by the stove pouring herself a cup of coffee, her voice was tired, matching her eyes perfectly, and she said to the detectives, "Please, detectives, don't call my son Mr. Cain, Mr. Cain was my husband."

"Understood, Mrs. Cain, Jimmy," Lennie nodded towards Cain Jr.

"Have you found out who killed my father yet?" the young man asked.

"We're still working on it," Lennie said, "You mind if we sit down?"

Jimmy lightly shook his head against the linoleum tabletop.

"Would you care for some coffee, detectives?" Astrid asked, coffee pot in hand.

"No thank you," Rey answered.

"Now we've got a couple things we need to make sure we have the right timeline on," Lennie said, "What time did you and your wife get to the club last night?"

Jimmy picked his head up off the table and absently ran his hand up and down the side of his face and tried to think, "I think…we got there…about…11…or maybe closer to 11:30, I really don't remember."

"Okay, what time did your father come into the club?" Rey asked.

"He came in a few minutes after we did, right after we'd ordered some champagne, we were just starting to drink it and he came in yelling at us," Jimmy answered groggily, "Like he was…waiting on us."

"And as soon as he comes in, your wife and he start getting into it?" Lennie asked.

"Uh…yeah, I think so," Jimmy said, "I don't even really remember what it was all about."

"What time did your wife call for the bouncer?" Lennie asked.

"A few minutes after they started screaming at each other," Jimmy answered, "It didn't last long."

"And then you two just stay there dancing for two hours, then somebody comes around and shoots your old man," Lennie said, "It sounds like somebody may have been waiting on him."

He didn't miss the half scowling look Astrid flashed their way when he said that, and he knew it was because she didn't know he was watching her, otherwise she wouldn't have done it.

"Mrs. Cain," Rey turned his attention towards her, "You came down there last night because Oswald called you to come and pick him up?"

"Yes," Astrid answered, regaining some of her composure.

"He make a habit of that?" Lennie asked, "Calling you in the middle of the night to get him?"

"Uh, no, actually," she answered, "I was surprised…and…I didn't come right away."

"There a particular reason why?" Lennie inquired.

"My mother doesn't like driving at night," Jimmy answered for her.

"I'm sorry, Jimmy, but she has to answer," Rey told him, "If you try answering for her, you could be charged with hindering the investigation."

Astrid's eyes opened wide, "Of all the absurd!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Cain, but it's just standard procedure," Lennie said, "We have to get answers directly from who we ask."

"Well it's true," she told them, "I don't like driving at night, I never have, and Oswald knew it, I thought he was joking when he called…and then when I figured out he was serious, I didn't know what to think. Surely he could've called somebody else…my eyesight isn't what it used to be, I have trouble seeing the road at night, I'm a very nervous driver when it gets dark."

"That's understandable," Lennie said, "But you finally came, didn't you?"

"Yes…" she nodded, "I decided I couldn't leave him waiting all night, and I finally came, but…when I got there…he was already dead."

"What time was this, Mrs. Cain?" Lennie asked.

"The phone ringing woke me up…I looked at the clock, it was a little after 1:30. By the time I finally got there…it was already going on 2:20."

"So you don't live nearby," Rey made an educated guess.

"No," Astrid replied, "I spent about…10…maybe 15 minutes, arguing with myself over whether I'd actually go out, then I got dressed, I live half an hour away."

"Which still leaves a little more time unaccounted for," Lennie said.

"Traffic," Astrid said, "There was a lot of traffic…and I kept hitting every red light between my house and that nightclub."

Lennie cleared his throat and asked, "Do you have any idea, Mrs. Cain, why your husband would call you to come and pick him up?"

She shook her head, "No…things had not been well between us for a while…" she looked near tears again, "But there still wasn't any reason for somebody to kill him."

"Mrs. Cain," Rey said, "Can you think of anybody who may have wanted your husband dead?"

At that moment, Lynda walked into the kitchen with a cordless phone in her hand, laughing and carrying on with whomever she was talking, and said into it, "I know, isn't it great? The phone's just been ringing all night with people offering their congratulations. There were a bunch of reporters and photographers piled up outside of the police station when we left, I'm sure they got some pictures of us, I can't wait to see how they turned out." As she talked, Lynda got herself a glass of water and headed back towards the kitchen door, but stopped at it and added, "I'm not sure…you'd think with the man having three bullet holes in him, they could forgo an autopsy and we could set him on fire right away."

"We're burying him," Jimmy absentmindedly spoke up.

"Oh that's right, we're dumping him in a potter's field," Lynda said into the telephone, "I don't know when the funeral's going to be but I'm going to dig out my spiked heels for the occasion…you've never seen me dance in those things have you? I imagine I'll make a real impression on his grave. I don't think we'll bother with a tombstone though…you know they charge by the letter and I hate to waste money." And with that, she was out the door.

"Let's try that again, anybody else who may have wanted your husband dead?" Lennie asked.

"I can't think of anyone," Astrid shook her head.

"Were you and your husband having problems?" Rey asked.

"Oh…" she said in a tone that practically screamed she was trying to downplay it, "We had our share of disagreements, but nothing serious."

"Did your husband have problems with other people?" Lennie asked, "Maybe somebody he owed money to, or somebody who thought your husband had somehow wronged them?"

"No," she said, "I don't believe so, no."

"So, you don't know if your husband had any enemies?" Rey asked.

The kitchen door swung open and Lynda walked in again, still lost in her telephone conversation, "Oh yes I know if we get him a big tombstone, everybody will know where it is and they can do with it whatever they want…but it seems a bit of a shame to put up a big tombstone just to replace it after the public tracks it down and smashes it. Besides, I think it's more suiting burying him in an unmarked grave. He was nobody in life, damned if we're going to make somebody out of him in death. That about sounds like something Dickens would've written for Scrooge, doesn't it?" she laughed, "What's that, Harriet? Oh yes we are expecting a big turnout, huge. The whole family's coming out, I guess they want to make sure the bastard's really dead…oh yes it's going to be a marvelous time."

Lennie got up from the table and went over to Lynda and said to her, "Mrs. Watkins, would you mind stepping outside? We're conducting an investigation and we need to talk to your husband and mother-in-law in private."

"Oh, sure, go on ahead, you won't bother me any," she answered as she left the kitchen again.

Lennie closed the kitchen door behind her and turned the lock on it.

"Maybe now we can speak privately," he said.

"Exactly how did your husband get along with the rest of the family?" Rey asked.

"Oh, everybody got along fine with Oswald," Astrid said, "Nobody had a problem with him."

The kitchen door moved but wouldn't open, but all the same they heard Lynda's voice yell on through, "Don't lie to the police, mama, it's a sin and besides that, it's illegal too!"

Lennie managed to keep a straight face as he asked, "Is she always this charming?"

"It's just who she is," Jimmy seemed to pull himself a little more together now, "She always just says what she thinks…she never says anything she doesn't mean."

Rey and Lennie shared a mutually suspicious look at that, but it was completely lost on the Cains.

"Mrs. Cain," Lennie said, "Your daughter-in-law has had a lot to say about your husband, and she doesn't seem to be alone in her beliefs."

"Rubbish," Astrid replied, "Just a bunch of grocery store tabloid gossip, that's all that is, nobody saying those things about Oswald ever knew him."

"All the same, it all had to start somewhere, and if it starts at your daughter-in-law, why do you think she hated your husband so much?"

"Honestly?" Astrid asked.

"Yes, if she's just blowing all of this out of proportion, lying to cast a slur on your husband's image, why would she do that?" Lennie asked.

"Why would she do it?" Astrid repeated in disbelief, "You've seen all the attention she's gotten by doing it."

"Is that all it is?" Rey asked, "She's trying to get attention? Trying to make herself look good?"

"Trying to make my husband look bad," Astrid answered, "He never wanted anything except what was best for myself, for our son, and all that woman has ever done is dragged his name through the mud."

The back door opened and Lynda came in through it, still on the phone, and said to the person on the other end, "Can you make it for the funeral? Well that's okay, you can stay at the house…I think I'll just stay here too…well you know, everybody's coming and there's going to be a lot of kids, and who wants to take kids to a funeral? Especially for a man they didn't know, especially for a man nobody cared about. We can all stay home and have a big celebration while the rest of the family is tending to the necessary work."

Lynda got tired of standing on her feet and fell back against a chair and put one foot on the wall as she continued, "Sure, we can stay here and have a big barbecue, you know everybody brings a ton of food to these things anyway. We can have a cookout and go swimming, or better yet, we could go to the amusement park….I don't know, any amusement park, we can go to Coney Island. We'll go to one of those places that has a water park, you still have your bikini?" there was a pause, "Oh yeah, I guess you would need a one-piece after that. No matter, we'll go to an amusement park and we'll go on the rollercoaster and scre-e-e-e-eam, and we'll go on the bumper cars and check out the pool, and the arcade. We'll have a good time…and I'm sure we'll be able to get some kind of group discount."

"She seems to be taking this rather well," Astrid dryly noted.

Jimmy glanced at his mother and looked back at his wife, "Oh she means well, mother, I know she does."

"I'm sure she does, Jimmy…but she could at least pretend to be the slightest bit upset about it, for our sake," Astrid said, completely ignoring the two homicide detectives present in the room.

"It's just who she is, mother," Jimmy told her, "You know she doesn't say anything she doesn't mean."

"Unfortunately," she replied, "In the two years you have been married, I've heard plenty of what she means." A shiver ran through Astrid's little body as she turned back to her son and she said, "You know…since the night you introduced us to that girl, I just knew deep in my heart this day would come. I just knew that one day she was going to kill your father. I guess I'm just kind of surprised it happened now, and not sooner. But I was hoping to God it wouldn't happen at all."

"She didn't kill him," Jimmy told his mother sternly, "I know it looks bad for her but I can't believe she'd kill him."

"She has the guns," Astrid said, "I saw them, a whole closet full of them."

"Yes," Jimmy said as he stood up, "Full, if she had shot him, wouldn't one be missing?"

"Jimmy," Astrid reminded him, "The police didn't find a gun."

"But she couldn't have had one with her last night," Jimmy told his mother, "She had no place to put one."

"She could've found a place," Astrid told him, "I saw that dress she was wearing, she could've put it somewhere under it."

By now, Lennie and Rey decided they'd be better off just sitting back and letting the upcoming events come to pass without any interference from them, and just see where it all led to.

Lynda hung up the phone and went over to the table and kissed her husband on the cheek. "You better get dressed, Jimmy, we'll be having to make a public appearance soon and give a statement for everybody to hear."

Astrid was near the end of her rope. She slammed her hand down on the table and said, "I don't see how you can be so happy about this."

"Of all the people in the world, you should," Lynda replied, "After all, you married that beast that walked on hind legs, you had to sleep with him, they should award Nobel prizes to that feat."

Astrid looked up at her daughter-in-law and said to her, the pain and hurt and bitterness in her tone, "You are a hateful little person."

"Yes!" Lynda promptly responded, her chest sticking out and the bravado of her tone making it clear that she was proud of this characteristic trait of hers, "And don't you forget it. I haven't been a member of this family for two years to start playing nice with anybody now."

"I don't care what the police say," Astrid was crying again, "I don't care what the courts say, I don't care what you say, I believe you killed my husband."

"I sure would've if I hadn't been beaten to that punch line," Lynda insisted.

Lennie leaned over towards Rey and murmured to him, "I'm still waiting for the punch line, is any of this making any sense to you?"

"Nope," Rey answered.

"Good," Lennie replied, "For a minute I was worried it was just me."