by Teresa Trent
Miss Aileen was stunned by the parent takeover and my dismissing her for a change. “Sure,” she snapped. The parents got up to leave, and Bubba the tire guy came over to talk to me.
“I should have known you would get to the bottom of this. This is just like in those old mysteries. Check out the least likely suspect.”
As Bubba stepped out the door, I began to think about Wade Atwood. Who was his least likely suspect?
After leaving the “crisis” meeting, I decided to stop by the Pecan Bayou Gazette to see if Rocky had heard anything new on Wade Atwood’s murder. Now that it was officially a murder, there were at least three women who might have wanted him dead. I was sure wife number one, Emmie, had known her husband was seeing someone else. Had her jealousy driven her to murder? But it seemed like if she were going to murder someone, it would be the other woman and not the person she supposedly loved.
When I walked into the newspaper office, Susie Atwood was at a front desk with Nicholas sitting next to her.
“That sounds great, but you probably want to run spell check before you turn that in to my dad.”
“Susie? Didn’t your father come to pick you up today?”
“No. He’s busy.” She turned back to the screen.
“Too busy to take you home when you’re so close to delivery?”
“He’s a very busy man.” Something was fishy here.
“Susie, did you actually call your father?
“No. I can’t call him. My Mom knows I’m okay. He’s going to be so angry when he finds out about Wade. Can’t I just stay here for a little while longer?”
The door from the back room opened and Rocky emerged from the distribution area of our paper.
“Betsy. Good to see you. Susie here has been trying her hand at article writing. How is she doing, Son?”
Nicholas leaned back, “Not bad. I’ve already learned to use crushed eggshells to get plants to flower. I think her column is going to go over like a bumper crop of tomatoes.”
“If we can get those ladies from the gardening club to start reading it, then you go, Susie.”
“I know I suggested this whole idea, but there are some problems with it. Have either of you thought about the little problem that Susie lives two and a half hours away in Blakely, Texas?”
They both looked at me like it was time for my afternoon meds. “What’s wrong with that?”
“What about local events? What about something like the garden contest we have going on right now? She would have to drive over here all the time and with a little baby. Have either of you thought of that?” When it came to the newspaper, nothing mattered to Rocky but getting those stories in print. This was exactly why I’d found myself judging a beauty contest, making a sorry-looking cake for a creative cook contest, and now I was in this gardening thing. It was too much, and this time, I was not going to let them get away with overextending another person.
“When I first thought about Susie doing this, I figured it was a good idea, but you live a long way away.”
“Who says I’m going to be a long way away? Maybe I’ll stay right here in Pecan Bayou. I think the people are really nice.”
Nicholas leaned forward, “Won’t your family miss you in Blakely?”
“No. They’ll be okay. Besides that, I’ve just become a disappointment. I may as well go where people like me.”
She was breaking her parents’ heart by staying away so close to delivery. “Why don’t you call your dad?”
Rocky tapped on the desk with his finger. “They have to be worried about you, kid.”
She rustled in frustration. “Okay. Fine. I’ll call him.”
“Right now?” I asked.
“Fine.” She took her phone out of her purse, punched in a number, and put the phone up to her ear.
“Daddy? I just wanted to let you know I’m in Pecan Bayou and I’m fine.” She stopped speaking as the sound of shouting could be heard on the other end.
“Daddy. I told you I’m fine. Don’t worry. Have a nice day.”
Nicholas let out a big laugh as Susie cut off the call.
“You can’t be serious,” I said.
Susie’s phone began to ring, but she didn’t move. Nothing bothered me more than a ringing phone.
“Aren’t you going to answer that?”
Susie picked up her phone and looked at the caller as if she didn’t even know who it was. “I don’t see why I should. I’ve given my father all the information he needs.”
“Talk about burying the lead,” Rocky murmured.
I sighed. “You can stay with us another night.”
“Thank you, Betsy.”
I looked over to Rocky, “Have you heard anything else on Wade’s murder? I know you’ve got your reporter’s ears to the ground.”
“Not a thing. What about you? You have been cavorting with the sister wives. Susie, Daisy, Emmie, and ... Betsy. Oh,” his eyes grew bigger as he came to a realization about my first name. “You fit right in, girl.”
I hit Rocky’s shoulder with the back of my hand. “Stop it. I don’t think they can be called sister wives if they don’t know they’re all married to the same man. I was just working on a theory inspired by Bubba of Bubba’s Tires. Who do you think would be least likely to kill him?”
Nicholas chimed in. “Susie.”
Susie smiled at Nicholas. There was just a little bit of electricity between the two of them. Nicholas was a handsome guy, and even though many of the town single ladies had pursued him, I’d bet none of them thought of showing up nine months pregnant.
“Thank you, Nick.”
“I mean, just look at her. There is not an evil bone in her body.”
I mentally made a note; she did seem like the least likely suspect.
“What about the first wife?” Rocky asked. “She was the original owner. She had to be jealous.”
“Yeah, when you’ve been married to a man for a while and he suddenly starts making long trips, you have to be curious.”
“She had to know. And she had that big fat insurance settlement. There’s a lot of motivation there.”
“Maybe I’ll run over to Fredericksburg and ask her a few questions.”
“Just let me get my keys.”
“She doesn’t want to talk to the press,” I told Rocky.
“And how do you know that? She could be waiting for someone to help her tell her story.”
Nicholas laughed. “Yeah right, Dad. She has the Enquirer on the other line.”
“You people just don’t know how to pursue a lead.”
“Tell you what, Dad. Why don’t you let me go along with the ladies, and you stay here? If there’s a story there, I can get it, maybe with a little more finesse.” As Nick spoke, his gaze never left Susie. Was I crazy or was there something chemical going on here?
CHAPTER 15
Emmie sat at her desk, where she worked in an accountant’s office, tapping her pen against the desk pad. “I wish you would have called first.”
If we had called first, we might not have been able to get the information we wanted.
“I know. I’m sorry. We just had some thoughts and wanted to ask you a few things.”
“Things having to do with Wade?”
“Yes. If I could ask a very personal question, did you know that Wade might be involved with someone else?”
Nicholas started to take out a small pad of paper, and Emmie’s eyes widened. I held up a hand to stop him. “This is purely off the record, right Nick?”
He nodded and quietly slipped the pad back in his pocket.
“Yes. I knew. How could I not know? He was home every weekend for years, and then suddenly he starts traveling on Saturdays? It just didn’t make any sense. I didn’t know who, but there had to be someone.”
“Did you ever find out about his child?”
“One day when I was doing his laundry, I found a little pink bow in his pocket. It was the kind of thing a toddler would wear. I figured wh
oever he was seeing had a child.”
Nick leaned closer. “And how did that make you feel?”
Emmie sat up straight and folded her hands in front of her on the desk. “How do you think it made me feel? It made me very sad and sometimes angry. If he wanted a divorce, he just needed to ask me. I wouldn’t have been happy, but it was a lot better than sneaking around.”
“I feel the same way,” Susie said, expelling a breath. “I always thought marriage meant monogamy. I would be the only girl for him, and he the only guy for me. I never would’ve wanted to marry him if I had known that he had two other wives. It really does hurt, doesn’t it?”
Emmie’s eyes softened. “Yes, it does. And now you have Wade’s child on the way. I always wished I could have kids but sadly was not able to. I think both Wade and I went through a time of mourning for the child we would never have. I thought I was having a hard time with it, but now I guess it upset him even more than I could have ever known. Why else would he go off marrying other women and having children?”
“Like you said, a divorce would’ve been a whole lot easier.”
“Sometimes I just get so angry when I think about all of this. He’s humiliated all of us. I feel like the biggest fool. Sometimes he could be a thoughtless jerk.”
This was a whole new side of Emmie and Wade’s relationship. They had really wanted children. When they found themselves unable to have any, they processed it in different ways. Instead of drawing closer over their loss, they pulled away. How depressed did this make Emmie? Was it enough to kill Wade? “And I know you already answered this for the police, but where were you when Wade died?”
She shot me a glance. “Where do you think I was? I was right here in this town waiting for Wade. That was all I ever did anymore. That’s me. Stupid Emmie, just waiting.”
If Emmie Atwood wanted to prove to us she didn’t have a motivation for killing her husband, she had messed up terribly.
“Can anyone corroborate that you were here?”
“No. I guess you could check my Netflix account. Once Wade started disappearing for days at a time, I discovered binge watching. I was by myself. Just me and the dog.”
Emmie Atwood had a motive and no alibi.
As we left Emmie’s office, Nick helped Susie get into the backseat of the car.
“How are you feeling? Is your little fella going to be making an appearance?”
“Real soon.” She said, out of breath from trying to move her bulk around.
Even though I didn’t feel like it was a great idea, I was willing to return this girl to her family. “Would you like for me to drive you back to Blakely? We can put Coco in her car seat and make it into a road trip.”
She leaned on her elbow and ran her hand through her hair. “I know I need to go home. You’ve been more than kind. Still, though, I’d like to stay tonight and will plan on going back tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“If you like, I could take you back,” Nick said. “You could drive your truck, and I’ll follow you. That way you get your vehicle back home. Besides, I’d kind of like to see where Susie Atwood comes from. I’ve never been to Blakely.”
How convenient. Nick to the rescue. I had the feeling Susie Atwood wouldn’t be a single mom for long.
On Saturday morning, Leo and I sat across the table from each other drinking our coffee and enjoying some buttery banana walnut muffins from the new bakery in town, Sunny Buns. It had been a couple of years since Patticakes shut down, and having fresh pastries was a treat.
“Susie says she’s going to be going home today?”
“I offered drive back with her, but then Nick volunteered. I’m not totally sure about this, but I think Nick may like her. It was a great thing because I promised Daisy that I would watch Anna while she went to her first GED class.”
Leo sighed. “You’re a better husband to these women than Wade was.”
He had a point. Why hadn’t Wade encouraged Daisy to get her GED? For that matter, why had Wade promised three women happiness? In the end, his selfishness left them all short. These were kind, intelligent, loving women, and yet they had been fooled by this handsome man with a dimple in his chin..
“Listen, Betsy, I don’t want to be getting into your business, but old Susie there is about to have a baby. The way she was moving around last night, I would say it’s going to happen in the next forty-eight hours.”
“Really, Leo? How much do you know about obstetrics?”
Leo reached over and touched my cheek. “Don’t forget, I lived through this experience with you. I saw the way you looked at the end. I see the same things in Susie. Take my word for it—we need to get her back home.”
“I know. I’m just thankful Nick volunteered to follow her home. I’m worried that they will get on the road and she’ll go into labor.”
“They should drive faster?”
“Very funny.” Nick was a single guy and a journalist. What did he know about bringing a baby into the world? Budding romance or not, maybe I needed to go along with them. Then again, what did I know about delivering babies?
Leo leaned forward and took another helping. “The average labor takes hours. Even if she starts having labor pains, Nick will more than likely have time to get her to the hospital. Besides, it’s her first kid. First-time mothers take longer.”
“Okay, I can see what you’re saying might be true. I’ll babysit the girls today and just hope everything works out for them.”
“Yes, and I’ll take the boys to swim team tryouts.”
“Both boys?” Usually, Zach chose not to participate in any kind of sport. He didn’t even like the taste of Gatorade.
Leo held up a hand to stop my next question. “I know what you’re about to say, but I’ve convinced him to try out. In swimming, you don’t have to bat or catch a ball or tackle anybody. I think Zach can do this.”
He was right. It was worth a try. Swimming was a non-contact sport. It might be just the kind of thing Zach would enjoy. “Then I guess we’re both booked.”
“Sure, let Nick drive with Susie,” Leo said.
Although Susie now seemed hesitant about her journey, she was dressed and ready to go when Daisy came to drop off Anna. Nick was working for part of the day but promised to be there by two.
“I’m a little nervous about going to the GED class,” Daisy said. “I picked up a new notebook and some spirals. I feel like a kid on the first day of school.”
“You’ll be okay. It’s for your future.” When Daisy pulled out of the driveway, her eyes were on Anna. She was taking the first step, always the scariest one, but it would lead to great things. My heart went out to her at that moment. She really didn’t know just how much potential she had in front of her. It would be hard for the both of them, but at least they had her parents to help out. She would be fine. She just didn’t know it yet.
Once Susie and I got the girls settled in, we went out and looked at the garden.
“Uh oh. Seems like you have some pests making their way to your cucumbers. Glad you have those marigolds planted. I have a recipe for a homemade organic spray for those bugs. Let me see if I can remember it.”
I took out my notebook to start writing down the valuable information she was giving me. Susie tried to bend over and touch one of the plants and jolted back upright.
“You don’t need to be doing that right now.”
“I keep forgetting. I will be so glad when I can bend over without a bowling ball in my way.”
Susie went through my garden plant by plant like a biology doctor diagnosing and prescribing. Maybe that should be her name? The plant doctor. The girls played in Coco’s sandbox for a while and then settled on trying to put doll clothes on Butch. Butch was patient as they slid on Ruffles and tried to bobby pin a hat to his velvety ears. He almost seemed to enjoy it. Anna was having an excellent time.
After lunch, Susie decided to lie down along with the girls for a nap. She watched Anna and Coco at the table. Her
enjoyment being around the children was obvious.
“Is it always this way?”
I smiled. “I wish. I treasure days like this, but then there are other days I’m exhausted by ten in the morning.”
Susie didn’t answer but continued to watch the girls quietly, a slight smile on her lips.
“You can do this,” I whispered. She looked surprised when she realized I knew what she was thinking. How could I not? I had the same thoughts when I was pregnant with Zach.
“Do you think so?”
“I’m pretty sure of it. Yes, you are young, but if you parent the way you take care of plants, you may be looking at an Ivy League scholar.”
At two o’clock, Nick showed up right on time. Susie had laid down for a little nap after lunch, probably the most reasonable thing I’d seen her do since she’d arrived in Pecan Bayou. I lugged a bag of outgrown baby clothes I pulled out of Coco’s closet to give to the new baby. If it were a boy, the little dresses would go to waste, but there were plenty of plain onesies and pajamas the baby could use. “You can load this bag in the car. I’ll go wake her up from her nap.”
“Hi Nick,” Susie said from the top of the front porch stairs.
“You’re awake.”
“I slept for a little while, but then I woke up and started worrying about this trip.”
“Well, you certainly have plenty to worry about right now,” Nick assured her. “But I’ll make sure you get home to your parents.”
Leo and the boys turned into the driveway, back from their swimming tryouts. When Susie got to the bottom step, she suddenly leaned over and grabbed her side. She winced, and Nick ran to her to support her under the arms. “Are you all right?”