by Laina Turner
“Well, it wasn’t the totem pole they had the issue with per se. It was the naked women he wanted carved on the totem pole that the town fathers objected to. He is a bit of a dirty old man by normal town standards. I didn’t really see the issue.” Dirt laughed. “To each his own.”
Katy and I burst out laughing. Only in a small town. “Now I bet they wish they would have just let him do it,” I said. “I’d rather look at a totem pole of naked women than a Pepto Bismol pink house.”
Dirt chuckled. “I imagine they are.”
“Tell me something, Dirt. What is the deal between you and Cooper these days? You used to be friends, and now you act like you can’t stand each other,” I asked. Dirt looked at me and, while I could tell he didn’t want to talk about this, he knew I wasn’t going to quit bugging him until he told me. Sighing, he looked at me. “It’s a long story, Pres…”
“So? I have time. I just don’t understand all this animosity. You used to be such good friends. I know you’re busy, so just give me the short version for now and satisfy my curiosity and I will leave you alone about it.”
“After you left for Chicago, both of us were aimless with no goals to speak of,” Dirt began. “We spent our days drinking and playing video games, engaged in a life of petty crime, under age drinking, and cow-tipping, joy-riding type stuff. At the time, we thought we were hot shit. Now it is somewhat embarrassing when I think about it. One day, after a few beers, we got the bright idea to join the Army. We had watched the movie Full Metal Jacket for the umpteenth time and felt we were tougher than those guys. Of course, we were not in our right mind. Somehow, we felt it would be a piece of cake, and we would even get paid for it. Life couldn’t get any better.”
“It was probably the best thing for the both of you,” I interrupted. “You both were always smart, just more interested in fun than anything else.”
“Oh, I don’t disagree with you there. I know now that joining the military was the best thing for us. However, we found out very quickly that life in the military was not Full Metal Jacket. We definitely weren’t tough enough to handle it, and we needed that knowledge. It brought us both back to reality.” He paused for a minute. He needed to choose his words carefully.
It was clear to us that this was a difficult story for Dirt to tell. For a moment, we weren’t sure if he was going to continue. We all exchanged glances, and then Dirt continued.
“Once we woke up to the reality of our situation and made peace with it, which admittedly took a lot of time, we found that military life suited us. We got the chance to do the macho bullshit we liked to do. During off-duty times, we drank and partied with the guys. And got paid,” he smiled at the memory.
“Okay, Dirt. Not really seeing the problem here. It looks as if you were both having fun.”
“We were. Until Cooper ruined it,” he replied bitterly. “I had started to think I wanted a career in the military, but Cooper didn’t take it as seriously as I did. He got into trouble and dragged me down with him. I can’t forgive him for that. He ruined my future.”
“You were both young. I’m sure he didn’t intentionally ruin your career. That sounds a little dramatic, Dirt,” I said. “Besides, you seem to be doing pretty good for yourself right now.”
“We might have been young, but we were old enough to know right from wrong. Yeah, we did some petty shit when we were in high school. Like taking my grandma’s car and joy riding or selling a little pot. Thinking we were big, bad drug dealers. We knew it was wrong but thought it was cool and didn’t think we had anything to lose. When the stakes were higher, Cooper should have known what the right decision was. He chose the wrong one.”
“What did he do that was so bad you can’t forgive him?”
“He started selling pot on base and got caught. He denied it and they didn’t have enough proof to charge him for it. He got reassigned to a lowly position at a different base and served his time until he could get out.”
“And this affected you how? Sounds like he got his punishment” I said.
“If he denied it, why do you think he did it?” Katy asked.
“All the evidence pointed to him. To make matters worse, he wouldn’t help with the investigation. If he wasn’t doing it, he certainly knew who was and wouldn’t give him up,” Dirt replied. “That makes him guilty either way.”
Dirt paused while the server took his order. It gave me a moment to digest what he was telling us. I understood how he was hurt by Cooper’s actions, but it was so long ago, why the continued extreme hostility? Dirt was still carrying a big grudge.
“I still don’t understand how this affected you.”
“We were best friends. So, of course, people thought I was involved. Most people who thought he was innocent and just covering up for someone thought that someone might be me. I was guilty by association.”
“That’s hardly his fault, Dirt.”
“If he wasn’t selling drugs, he could have come clean about who was. He could have told me if he was guilty. Of course, I would have still been mad, but he owed me the truth. He didn’t have to let people think it was me,” Dirt said angrily. “If he had been a true friend, that’s what he would have done. But, instead, he just didn’t say anything.”
“Did you ask him? Give him a chance to tell his side of the story?” Katy asked.
“Of course I did. I asked him, no, I begged him, to come clean about selling the drugs. I would support him as a friend, but he had to tell the truth about what he was doing or if he really wasn’t the one, who was. He had to clear my name and his. But he didn’t,” Dirt spit out. “He told me it wasn’t him, but refused to name anyone. So I just figured he was guilty and just too ashamed to admit it to me.”
“You couldn’t give him the benefit of the doubt? He’d been your friend for how long and you couldn’t believe that he was innocent?”
“Get off my back, Presley; you weren’t there. If he was innocent, then why couldn’t he tell me who the guilty party was?” Dirt practically yelled at me, fists clenched, knuckles white. “If he had just told me that, there would have never been an issue. Either with our reputations or him getting in trouble.”
“Don’t you think that, as his best friend, you could have just taken his word for it? Maybe believed he had a good reason to not tell you, or anyone else who was involved. You’re the one who was a bad friend, Dirt. Not Coop. A true friend would stand by your side no matter what.” While I meant every word I said, by the look on Dirt’s face I thought in hindsight I should have been more tactful. Especially since Dirt was already having a not-so-great day. Idiot, I thought, probably shouldn’t have brought this up in the first place. “I’m sorry, Dirt,” I said, reaching out to touch his hand gently. “I kind of got caught up in the moment and carried away with wanting to know. I shouldn’t have brought this up, and I didn’t mean to be so blunt. However, you know I’m right. You always trusted Coop before. Why not this time? Do you really think he would have ever done anything to hurt you?”
“Presley, you haven’t even been around in years. What do you know about anyone?”
“Maybe not, but I know what he was like back in high school and this was soon after. People don’t change the fundamental core of who they are that much.”
“Presley, you had one night with him. Don’t act like you know everything there is to know about Cooper Sands.” I stared at Dirt, shocked that he had said that. I didn’t realize Cooper ever told anyone. I just assumed he never said anything.
Before I could say anything else, the server brought Dirt’s food wrapped up to go.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. What’s done is done. I’ve got a murder to solve.” He stood up to leave. “I don’t need to deal with this bullshit. Thanks, Pres. It’s just what I didn’t need.”
“Dirt, I’m sorry. Really, I am. Please stay. Let’s talk about this.”
“Just drop it, Pres. I’ll catch up with you later.” He started walking out of the diner.
>
“Hey, Dirt! Wait!” I wanted to mention what Brian had told me about the Senator stopping by. I didn’t want to keep everything from him and felt a little guilty bringing up the Cooper situation and wanted to do something helpful. He turned back around and looked at me, raising one eyebrow as if to ask what. Rather, what the hell, and looked at me expectantly.
“I just wanted to tell you that Brian said he thought the Senator might be depressed. Do you think this could be suicide?”
“No,” he said shortly. “It’s definitely murder. People don’t usually commit suicide by stabbing themselves.” Then he continued on his way out.
“Dirt, wait…” I called, but he didn’t look back. He either didn’t hear me or was ignoring me. Probably the latter. I knew I had pissed him off, but at least I knew to rule out suicide. Not that I wanted him murdered, but before I could make it into a good story, I had to figure out who killed him and that might not be easy. It’s not as if I had any experience with this.
There was so much going on here. I never would have expected all this when I came home—the Senator being murdered or this thing between Dirt and Cooper, which was another mystery in itself, albeit not nearly as pressing as the murder. I also wondered why my dad lied about where he had been last night.
“Why didn’t you tell me about what Brian said?” Katy asked as she watched Dirt leave.
“I didn’t have time before Dirt showed up. I didn’t figure the Senator really committed suicide. He was probably having a bad day when he was at Brian’s. Happens to all of us.” I shrugged. “What do you think about the drama between Dirt and Cooper? Did you know any of this?”
“That’s not really what I expected. I had heard something had happened between them, but I guess you never know. I figured they had just grown apart, and I didn’t think much of it.”
“I’m surprised too.”
“It’s a shame. Obviously, it still bothers Dirt.” “And,” added Katy, “by the way Cooper acted last night, I think it still bothers him too. I feel like we should do something.” That was Katy, the fixer: wanting everyone to get along and be happy.
“Me too, but I don’t know what,” I said thoughtfully. “After all this time, maybe we should just leave it alone.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell him about Helen,” Katy changed the subject.
“I can’t believe that you started to. I told you that I wasn’t ready to say anything yet. I counted on you to keep my secret. Luckily I distracted him.”
“I still think you should have told him. You are going to be in a lot of trouble when Dirt finds out.”
“I told you, don’t worry about that. All in good time.” My phone rang. Looking at it, I saw it was my parents’ number. “My mother, I’m sure,” I said to Katy. “Hello, Mother,” I barely got out before my mom immediately started badgering me about where I had been and what I was doing. “Okay, okay.” I looked at Katy and hung up.
“Next time she calls and I’m with you, I’m just going to hand you the phone and you can deal with her.”
Katy laughed. They moved on from talking about the current events to reliving some old memories. I told Katy about seeing my dad last night too and how today he had lied about where he had been. Katy, of course, assured me that there had to be a good reason. I knew Katy was probably right, but it was still concerning. I would get to the bottom of this eventually, if just to satisfy my own curiosity.
Chapter 8Last night it had seemed like a good idea to avoid the wrath of Cooper and Dirt and not tell them about Helen. However, by the light of day, I began to think maybe it hadn’t been the smartest idea. Who was I kidding? I was no detective. What if I really screwed something up? Or even worse, what if withholding this information did get me in trouble like Katy said? I didn’t want any legal trouble. I was a good girl at heart and wanted to keep it that way. At this point though, I figured the damage was done and I just needed to redeem myself by finding out more useful information. Then, when I went to them with the information, they wouldn’t be so mad.
Yesterday at lunch, Katy and I had worked together to come up with a plan to see what we could find out around town about Helen and any extramarital affairs she may have been having. I wished I could get my mother to help—she surely knew what the rumor mills were talking about. We were hoping we could identify the person in the car with Helen the other night. I was convinced that finding out the identity of this person would help unlock the rest of the mystery, or at least satisfy my own curiosity about Helen’s affair. Katy wasn’t thrilled about my interfering and not telling the guys what I knew, but I persuaded her to see my reasoning. One of the first things I thought of was to talk to some of Helen’s friends here in town. Not that Helen was here much, but she had grown up here. I figured since childhood friends were usually the people you told your secrets to, it would be a good place to start. Besides, when Helen spent time here in Alkon, she was active in some women’s clubs, so people knew her.
As I pulled into the parking lot of the library, which was the first step in their grand scheme, I began to get nervous again. What if I had impeded the investigation by not telling Dirt or Cooper? What if, by not sharing what I knew, I helped the killer get away? But, then again, what if I found an angle they didn’t think of and was able to help catch the killer? I was the queen of rationalization; this was no different from being able to justify new shoes over paying the rent on time. I needed to give Dirt and Cooper more credit. I was sure they were smart enough to figure it out without my little, tiny pieces of information. Besides they probably already knew about Helen and would just be mad I was wasting their time with such trivial matters.
See what a small dose of positive thinking did, I thought, and stepped out of my SUV. I felt better already. Now, I just had to figure out the best way to ask Ruth Johnson, the town librarian and best hometown friend of Helen Daniels, about Helen’s extracurricular activities. We thought Ruth was a good place to start, if she would tell us anything. Besides, she really was one of the few friends Helen had here—at least that we knew about. I tried very subtly to get some information out of my mother last night, but she hadn’t been too forthcoming. She thought it was none of my business.
“Hi, Ruth,” I said, walking up to the circulation desk with a peppy smile plastered on my face, the type showing lots of teeth, that I could spot as a fake from ten miles away, but I was hoping Ruth wouldn’t be as observant. Even my mother didn’t catch on to this all the time. I thought if I turned on the charm, Ruth might be susceptible to it. I had even been careful when getting dressed this morning to be more conservative than normal—no Juicy Couture sweatsuit today. Normally, I wouldn’t care what anyone thought, but since I needed information from Ruth, I wanted to do my best. I felt that adhering to the Junior League’s conservative preppy dress code could only help my cause. As a result, I was in a khaki skirt and blue button down shirt. I had borrowed a pair of white Keds from my mother; I didn’t have anything like that in my closet. Adding the perfect strand of pearls made me the lady my mom always dreamed I would be—the younger version of herself. It made me want to throw up when my mother looked at me this morning as I was leaving the house; I swore my mother’s eyes were glistening with joy. I felt some satisfaction when I saw the look of joy turn to disapproval when she saw my tattoo. It was an immature reaction, I knew, but I still took pleasure in those small victories. I would never be part of the women’s club the way my mother wanted; it just wasn’t in my nature. But, if the ladies of the town would trust me more in this get-up than if I was wearing jeans and three-inch heels, then I would do it. I was willing to go that extra mile. If only I didn’t feel so uncomfortable, like I was dressing up for Halloween.
Ruth hadn’t changed any. In fact, it looked as if she still thought it was the 1950s. I peered over the desk, slightly expecting to see a poodle skirt and bobby socks. Ruth had on gray slacks and a pink sweater, not too far off. And yes, don’t forget the requisite strand of pearls all of
us good Junior Leaguers wear, I thought to myself sarcastically, while fingering my borrowed ones absentmindedly. Ruth was one of my mother’s good friends, so I needed to be very careful about what I said to her. My mother was already annoyed with me for interfering in this to begin with. The last thing I needed was for Ruth to run back to my mom and tell her about the whole conversation, and I was sure it wouldn’t take much. I didn’t need my mother on my back any more than she already was and she definitely would be if I insulted one of her friends. Although I was a grown woman now, I had to admit that I was still scared of my own mother.
“Hello, dear, how nice to see you,” Ruth said to me. “Your mother said you were going to be home when I saw her at bridge club the other night. Planning to stay long? You know, my Bobby is home too. Maybe you could get together.”
Over my dead body, I groaned inwardly. The other aspect of my mother’s friendship with Ruth was they never stopped trying to fix Bobby and me up. When we were little, the two women had forced us to play together. It hadn’t been all bad. At a young age, we had fun. People just change and as we grew older, we found different likes and friends. There were five of us. Me, Katy, Bobby, Tracey Miller, and Steve Krump. I wasn’t sure what Steve was up to these days, and Tracy Miller was now Sister Tracy, although she was the last person I would picture joining a convent. Maybe it was penance for all the trouble we got into as kids; maybe she was now paying for all of us. Too bad Bobby hadn’t followed her example. As we grew up, Bobby went from being a fun kid to one of the biggest losers in high school. He was lazy and smoked pot all day, thinking his looks and charm would get him by. Shockingly, they often did, but I didn’t think he really had much of either looks or charm. Part of his problem was that his mom always gave him everything he wanted. There was never any reason to shape up, and he didn’t seem like the type to undergo a complete transformation of his own free will. But, I had to be polite or I would never get the information I needed, so I replied, “That sounds like a great idea, but right now I’m here working and I am really busy. Maybe I can give him a call some other time?”