"It's a terrible thing that happened, but I don't understand why anyone wants to dig it up, especially now," Lucy walked with Paul and Taylor as she was heading home from working at the school.
In her forties, Lucy remembered little of the crime, but she remembered how everyone in her family reacted to the shocking news that George was killed, and his murderer was none other than Nigel.
"We're merely wanting some clarification, if you don't mind," Paul explains his and Taylor's presence in the village.
Turning her head, Lucy proceeds to ask them, "Who are you two, anyway, some kind of investigators?"
No reason someone would go through the efforts of asking all these questions unless there's something going on and Paul asks his own question, "Could you keep it a secret?"
Thinking it over, Lucy answers with a thoughtful, "Oh, I'm not sure, sir, why, everyone's been talking about you two since you been here!"
Gesturing towards her, Taylor adds, "But you'll know something they don't."
Why, they're probably talking about Lucy right now.
Stopping, Lucy thinks about it for a while, and when she looked up at Paul, she asks in earnest, "Why're you here?"
Paul then truthfully answers, "There's something we're investigating, and the village's case has some overlap. I cannot outright say, it's in the works."
Restraining herself, Lucy's ecstatic face was enough to convey that she was happy that she learnt something that hadn't been fed to her through the grapevine and that no one knew about it, yet.
Through Lucy, the couple learnt a greater deal about everything that happened around the time the case was going on, swearing to secret that they didn't tell anyone else what they told Lucy.
George and some children had been playing in the woods at the time, it was considered normal in the village, but after George's death, everyone prevented their children from even going near the edges during the day.
"Why were the children going into the woods?" Taylor asked her and Lucy replied that it was their "away" time from their parents and their chores.
With their parents' vehicles out of reach most of the time because of the jobs they did, no trains going by, the children of the village made do with what they had, and after that night, they had nothing left.
"Everyone knew from their south to their north, nobody ever got lost in the woods," Lucy regaled when she was a child and went into the woods to get away from her overbearing parents.
There was hidden beauty in the woods, but it's been so long since she ventured inside.
"Could've George have been in the woods shortly before his death?" Paul asked about the possibility.
Thinking it over, Lucy mentioned that when George's house was closest to the woods and he and his siblings were always in the woods from sunup to sundown.
When parents started banning their children from going to the woods, it caused strife between them before it finally took, and since, no child that has been born in the village ever gone into the woods.
Curious, Paul asked if Lucy knew why the house George lived in was torn down, and she sighed before saying how it was a haunting reminder that the village couldn't bear to look at it anymore.
From what she knew, the village never consulted the family about it, but it wouldn't surprise Lucy if they waited until the parents died.
"Why would they do that?" Taylor questioned the reasoning.
Shrugging, Lucy responds that it was probably because of Belfried's doing.
"Man was always full of himself!" Lucy spat as she began ranting about the man.
Using this to their advantage, the couple listened as Lucy talked about how she considered Belfried lower than dirt.
Pointing out how she hated him, Paul was told by Lucy how Belfried had political aspirations that took him north.
"He ran a campaign where he promised he would get rid of those travelers that camped on patches of farmland, you know, how they always promise you something grand," Lucy gestures and Paul affirms that he knew what she was getting at before she went on to describe how Belfried managed to secure his vote after getting rid of the travelers as he promised.
No one knew where they went, only that they camped at a different improvised campground during a spell and weren't seen again.
"You think he bullied them off the land?" Taylor asks Lucy's opinions.
Shaking her head, Lucy scoffed, "Please, that man never talked directly to people since he lived here. Always thought of himself as above us, must be nice to be ignorant as a stuck-up pig!"
Shifting topics, Paul then asks if Lucy knew Madam Loomis and Lucy frowns as she expressed her condolences to her daughter.
"Died a few years ago, now, such lovely woman. She did the village good," Lucy remembered how Mrs. Loomis took care of the village with her own two hands and the sorrow that took over it when her daughter announced her sudden passing.
Sharing looks with Taylor, Paul asked if her daughter was still in the village, and Lucy confirmed that Izzy was still here with her husband.
Reaching her house, Lucy asked if there was anything more that needed to be discussed, but Paul thanked her for her time before letting her go inside while he walked with Taylor.
"I don't believe in coincidence," Paul exhaled sharply as he went with Taylor to look for Isabelle Loomis.
They found her at her practice, where she was working on cleaning the examination room after helping a child with an ear infection.
Sterile to the point it was almost nauseating, the couple managed to talk to Izzy as she put everything up, and understandably, she was annoyed that they wanted to talk about her late mother.
Respectful, the couple allowed Izzy to ask them questions, get an understanding why they wanted to talk about her mother, and she exhaled sharply as she admitted that she and her husband were aware of the couple, in fact her husband was the one who met them.
"Small village, everyone talks," Izzy sums.
Admittedly, Izzy thought the couple would have left before this point because there wasn't a lot to discuss.
"We understand, but there's something that concerns us," Paul explains.
He stopped when Izzy asked, "Does it have anything to do with Belfried?"
Seeing the look in her eyes, Paul answers, "You don't seem surprised."
Shaking her head as she dried her hands, Izzy responds that nobody, not even the devil, liked Belfried.
"It's funny, my husband suggested to me that I lie to you to get you off my back, but if Belfried's got a bug up his arse, it's no coincidence," Izzy sat at her desk as Paul and Taylor went over to her.
A stark contrast from when she first saw them, with the heated phone call with Belfried, it dissolved any discomfort and disdain she would have had towards the couple.
Some call it unusual, but Belfried was the bane to her mother, and well, it's only fair that she continues the tradition of being hated by the unscrupulous man.
Slowly nodding, Paul affirmed her suspicion that he and Taylor were investigating something related to the case that happened here.
"I was just a baby when it happened, so I can't be much help there, but how can a boy dying be related to whatever you're investigating?" Izzy questions him.
Gesturing, Paul explained that he believed Izzy's mother knew more than she let on, that she attempted to tell Detective Murphy, but reasons unknown, it was censured by the publisher.
"Doesn't seem like them, if it's the honest truth, why shouldn't it be printed?" Izzy found it concerning.
As she frowns, Taylor suggests, "Because the truth that Detective Murphy wanted to tell would have implications."