by Nick Russell
"Okay, that’s what I was talking about. Were there any other problems, Sonny?"
He thought for a moment and then said, "When Audrey first got into real estate and got all fired up about it, she kept telling me to quit my job at the dairy and get into real estate, too. But I’m not a salesman, John Lee. I'm a truck driver. I deliver milk."
"And she had a problem with that?"
“No, not really a problem. She just said that she thought I had more… what you call it? Potential. She said I had more potential than that."
“Did you guys argue about that, Sonny?"
“No. At first she was disappointed that I wouldn't even think about it, but then the busier she got, the less she mentioned it."
"Well, that's kind of what Audrey was supposedly telling Alice Shaw. Mrs. Shaw was of the opinion that, how do I say this without hurting your feelings, Sonny? She was of the opinion that Audrey had outgrown you."
"Outgrown me? What does that mean?"
"According to Ms. Shaw, and again I'm just telling you what she told us, the feeling was that Audrey was doing so much better in business and stuff that she wanted more in a relationship."
Sonny was shaking his head. "No, he said adamantly. "It wasn’t like that between me and Audrey. I was proud of what she was doing and how well she was doing, and she always told me she couldn't have done it without me making a living while she was building up her business."
"All right, I understand what you're saying," John Lee said. “I have to ask you this question, Sonny. Did you ever have any indication that Audrey was doing anything with Lonnie McBride behind your back?"
As soon as he said it, John Lee could tell he had lit the fuse again.
"You son of a bitch! There you go again. My wife would never cheat on me. Never! You get your ass out the door right now. Because I'm telling you right now, if you open your mouth and say something like that about Audrey again, that badge on your shirt and that gun on your belt won’t stop me from tearing your arm off and beating you to death with it."
Sonny was shouting by then, and his mother had come back into the room and put her hand on his arm, saying, "Settle down, son. Just settle down."
"No, Ma, I’m not going to settle down. Not when he comes in here and talks about Audrey that way."
"Mrs. McBride, Sonny, John Lee's not trying to say anything bad about Audrey," Maddy said. “We're just trying to get to the bottom of…"
"That’s enough,” Sonny's mother said angrily, pointing at the door. “You get out of here right now, the both of you. I mean it, git!"
Chapter 26
Sonny’s mother followed them out to their car, hurling insults and berating them for disparaging her late daughter-in-law’s memory.
“If you come back, I’m gonna sic a lawyer on your asses,” she said. “You got no right to come here sayin’ those nasty things about Audrey! No right at all. My poor boy is in there with a broken heart and you two are makin’ it worse. Don’t you ever come back, you hear me?”
She was still shouting at them as John Lee backed out of the driveway, and then came out to the road to watch them drive away, wary that they might return.
"That wasn't very much fun," Maddy said as they drove back toward town.
"No, it wasn't," John Lee agreed. "For a minute there I thought Sonny was going to take my head off."
"Me too. I understand the guy's really upset and all that, but he sure didn't appreciate any suggestion that Audrey might've been stepping out on him, did he?"
"No, he didn't. And I can't say that I blame him," John Lee admitted. "I’d feel the same way if I was in his shoes. Were you able to get anything out of his mother?"
"Only that her and Sonny both loved Audrey to death," Maddy told him. "She swore up and down that they had a good solid marriage and didn't have a care in the world."
“She’s sure like a mama bear when it comes to protecting her son, isn't she?"
"If I ever had kids, I might be the same way, John Lee."
"If you ever had kids? Is that something that you’ve thought about, Maddy?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw a pained but guarded look on her face. "Are you okay?"
“Why did you ask me that, John Lee?”
“What? About having kids?”
“Yes.”
He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know. Is that a problem?”
“Asking isn’t a problem, but I guess that's probably something we need to talk about. Can you pull over for a minute?"
He eased the Charger to the shoulder of the road and put it in Park. "What is it, Maddy?"
"I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, John Lee. I don't know where it's going between us. I mean, I hope I know where it's going, and I think you want the same thing."
"I do, Maddy. You know how much I do."
"We've talked a couple of times in the past about if either one of us wanted to be parents," she said. "I don’t know if I can do that, John Lee."
"What? Be a mom? I think you'd be a great mom, Maddy."
“That's not what I mean, John Lee. Do you want to be a father?"
He shrugged his shoulders and said, "To be honest with you, I never gave it a lot of thought. I guess I figured it might happen someday. But it's not my number one priority by any means. Where are we going with this, Maddy?"
She twisted her fingers in her hand. "Like I said, I don't know if I can do it. Not being a good mother, though Lord knows I never had a role model for that. But there was a lot of stuff done inside of me when I got raped, John Lee. Emmitt did things to me, bad things."
"I know that, Maddy," he said gently.
She shook her head and said, "No, John Lee, you don't know what I'm talking about. Some things inside of me got messed up from the beating and the rape and all of that. The doctor said they don't know if I can ever have kids."
There were tears brimming in her eyes and John Lee reached over and gently put his hand on the side of her face. “Maddy, when I think of our life together, I don't think of kids in it. If it happens, it happens, but don't think that it's something I expect or demand, or anything like that, okay?"
"I just…" She looked out the window for a moment and swallowed hard before continuing, "I just don't feel like I'm a whole woman anymore, John Lee.”
He reached across and put his hand under her chin and gently turned her face back toward him. "Maddy, you're every bit a woman. More woman than I ever needed, more woman than I ever expected to have. Don't worry about that, okay? What the hell, I don't know if Magic even wants to be a big brother."
“It’s not just that,” she said.
“Okay, what else?”
“To be honest with you, when we do… you know… I don’t know what’s going to happen. What if I freak out, or have some kind of flashback and rip your balls off or gouge your eyes out, or something like that?"
“Well, the way I hear tell, blind eunuchs are all the rage these days.”
She laughed in spite of herself and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. "I love you, John Lee Quarrels."
"And I love you, too, Maddy Westfall," he told her.
Chapter 27
Darci McBride was back at her own home, a two-story colonial with a large well-manicured yard and three vehicles parked in the driveway, a black Dodge pickup loaded with chrome side rails on the bed, running boards, and a chrome brush guard, a white Chevrolet minivan, and the Toyota Highlander they had seen at the Agosti house when they first talked to her there.
"Looks like she's got company," Maddy said when they pulled in the driveway.
"Well, let's go see. Never hurts to ask if we can talk to her," John Lee said, shutting off the engine and getting out of the Charger. They walked up onto the wide porch and he pushed the doorbell. There was no response for quite some time and he pushed it again, then looked at Maddy. “Maybe nobody's home." They stood on the porch a moment longer and then started back to the Charger when they heard the door open behind them.
“Hello?"
Turning back toward the house, John Lee saw Darci standing in the doorway wearing a lightweight blue silk robe, her hair wet.
"Sorry to disturb you, Mrs. McBride. We wondered if we could talk to you for a little bit?"
"I guess so. Come on in."
They followed her inside the house to an entry hall with a staircase with a polished oak railing on one side and a large living room on the other. "I was just getting out of the shower," she said. Sorry for the way I look."
“You look fine," Maddy assured her.
The short, thin robe did nothing to hide her figure and she held the neck closed. "Do you mind if I pop upstairs and put some more clothes on?"
"Sure, we’ll wait," Maddy told her.
While Darci was upstairs getting dressed, they looked around the room. It was furnished in a nice style, thick red leather upholstery on the couch and two side chairs, a white carpet that looked like it was brand-new, and one wall covered with plaques and awards and photos of Lonnie McBride at various functions.
"Looks like the man got around," Maddy said. "Isn't that the governor in that picture there with him?"
"It is," John Lee said, then added, "I guess Lonnie had friends in high places."
Darci came back into the room wearing gray slacks and a light blue pullover shirt and asked, “Can I get you anything to drink?"
"No, we're fine," Maddy told her.
"Please, have a seat," Darci said. They sat down on the couch and she took one of the side chairs and asked, "What did you want to talk to me about?" Then she shook her head and said, "That was a stupid question, wasn't it? You want to talk about what happened to Lonnie."
"Yes, ma'am," Maddy told her. Are you up to that?"
“It has to happen sooner or later. I guess now's as good a time as any."
"Mrs. McBride, we're trying to find out what happened to your husband. And we're trying to find out why Audrey Rittenhouse was in his car with him."
Darci frowned and said, "Let's don't beat around the bush. We both know why they were in the car together. Lonnie had been screwing her for a long time."
"Are you sure of that?"
"Did I ever see them doing the deed? No, but I'm not stupid. All those text messages, those phone calls where he had to run out to meet a client? I knew what was going on."
"How did you feel about that, Mrs. McBride?"
She held up her left hand and said, “You notice there’s not a ring on my finger anymore, don't you? I'd made up my mind I was going to throw the asshole out before this ever happened."
Maddy looked toward John Lee and then asked, "Did Lonnie know about that? That you were getting ready to kick him to the curb?"
"No," Darci said. "His ego would never have let him think that was possible. Lonnie thought he was God's gift to women, and I should just be grateful to be married to him. But I’ll tell you right now, it wasn't any picnic."
"What do you mean by that? I mean besides him cheating on you, were there other problems?"
"Like I said before, he didn't care about me and my needs. He was all about Lonnie first, last, and in between." She gestured at the wall and said, "Look there. His own little wall of fame. Lonnie was a legend in his own mind."
“It sounds like you were pretty fed up with him for sure," Maddy said. “How did you two get together in the first place, Darci?"
When I moved down here, I was kind of a mess," she said. "I'd been in a relationship with a guy and it wasn't going anywhere. He was an artist." She shook her head and then said, "I guess I should've learned from that, shouldn't I? He was always looking for his muse, as he put it. Meanwhile, I was working two jobs to pay the bills. I finally got fed up and left him, and Amanda kept asking me to come down here, so I did. Biggest mistake I ever made."
"Why is that?"
"I wasn’t here two weeks before Vince introduced me to Lonnie. Vince kept telling me what a great catch he was. How he was making a big name for himself, how he was going to be rich someday. I hate to say I'm stupid enough to be pushed into a relationship, but that's what happened."
"So, Vince is the one that put you two together?"
"Yeah. Vince is a master manipulator," Darci said. “I was vulnerable and I was stupid, and I guess I was just looking for someone I wouldn't have to support again. Lonnie was a great looking guy and he could be as charming as possible. I let infatuation turn into something else. Or at least I convinced myself it was more."
“Do you have any idea why Vince would do that?"
"Well, it's damn sure not because he’s some kind of romantic," Darci said, shaking her head. "Vince always has an agenda. Believe me, if he's talking to you about something, he’s steering the conversation to where he wants it to be, or he's pumping you for information that he needs about something. That's his way."
"What do you think his agenda was by matching the two of you up? What was in it for him?"
"I'm not really sure," Darci admitted. "I think, and this may just be my suspicious mind, that he thought if we were together I could be a spy for him."
"A spy? Why would he need you to spy on Lonnie?"
"Like I said, they had some big real estate deal going on. Vince doesn't trust anybody. I don't think he would even trust his own mother. Especially not when it comes to money. He was always asking me what was going on with Lonnie, was he showing any properties. Things like that."
Maddy thought for a moment and then asked, "Why would Vince want to know about the properties that Lonnie was showing?"
"I think it was because of that real estate deal," Darci said. "The way Lonnie talked, it was a big project and I guess it wasn't going the way Vince wanted it to. I know a couple of times I heard him and Lonnie arguing about it. Lonnie saying that things like what they were doing took time and Vince saying that that was bullshit, that Lonnie had told him they were going to make a killing. I don't know any of the details besides that."
“Darci, when we first talked you said that if Vince found out that Lonnie was cheating on you he would kill him. Why did you say that?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Vince is always saying he’s going to kill somebody. Maybe I overreacted, I don't know. But the last time we were at their house, Vince and Lonnie got into a real bad argument out in the garage. Amanda and I heard it and we went out to see what was going on. Vince had Lonnie pushed up against the wall and had a hold of his throat and was telling him something about how he was tired of his bullshit and he was going to kill him if he didn't straighten up and fly right. I had told Amanda about Lonnie cheating on me the day before that. That wasn't something easy to tell her, but I did. I just assumed that's what they were arguing about in the garage."
"Did Lonnie ever tell you about problems he was having with anybody else? Somebody that might want to harm him?"
"No, not that I can remember. According to him, everything was always perfect.” She waved her hand around the living room and said, “Just like this place, everything's perfect. Perfect furniture, perfect carpets, perfect everything. Lonnie spent thousands of dollars on a decorator to come in and make this place look perfect."
"It's beautiful," Maddy said.
"No, it's a showplace," Darci replied. "Proof of how successful Lonnie was. All those cars in the driveway? We didn't need four cars, but Lonnie wanted them. If you look in the garage, there’s a big pontoon boat and some kind of speedboat, and a couple of jet skis or whatever they call them. Lonnie had to have the best of everything, and he had to let everybody know what he had."
“So, he liked his toys?"
"Yeah, you could say that," Darci replied. "It didn't take me long to figure out after we got married that that's all I was, just another toy for him to show off. I was never a wife to Lonnie, I was just another accessory. And I damn sure better never go outside of the house without looking perfect. Perfect nails, perfect hair, perfect makeup. He even had a woman come in and teach me how to do my makeup because I wasn't do
ing it the way he thought it should be done!"
They were quiet for a moment and then Maddy said, "Darci, I have to ask you something, and I don't mean any offense by it, okay?"
"If you're going to ask me if I killed Lonnie and Audrey, no I didn't. I'm not going to lie and tell you I’m heartbroken, because I’m not. I’m glad he’s dead. But I didn't kill either one of them.”
“Can you tell us where you were when the accident happened?"
"Am I really a suspect?"
"Ma'am, at this point everybody's a suspect," Maddy told her.
“I was at Shangri-La Beauty Supply over in Lake City, buying all the stuff I needed to make myself look the way Lonnie wanted me to look. I'm sure the people there can tell you I was in. I'm a regular. I was coming back to town when I got the phone call from my sister telling me about the accident."
Maddy looked at John Lee, who didn't have anything to add, then said, "Darci, we thank you for your time. I know this isn't easy for you, and we don't want to add to your misery right now."
The woman laughed, but there was no humor in it. "This is probably a dumb thing to say if I really am a suspect, but I'm not miserable at all. Whoever pushed that stupid Corvette into the side of that train did me a favor. A big favor!"
Chapter 28
“What do you think?”
"I think Lonnie McBride was an absolute idiot to cheat on her," John Lee said. "She’s drop dead gorgeous, and any man who wouldn’t want to keep her happy is a fool."
"So you noticed that, did you?"
"I couldn't help but notice," John Lee said.
"Me either," Maddy told him. "If I went that way, I might be knocking on her door some night."
“I've heard there are people that go both ways," John Lee said, giving her an exaggerated leer as he backed out of the driveway.
"Dream on," Maddy told him. "But I think your ex does that, doesn't she? Maybe that's who you should be hooking up with, John Lee."
"I'd rather have you gouge out my eyes and rip off my balls,” he told her.