by Lisa Bork
I was happy to be out on the town as a family. Ray’s schedule fluctuated so much that we rarely had the opportunity. I hoped for more days like this in the future, and fewer like yesterday. Yesterday, when Noelle was in danger, and Ray and I weren’t with her. What if we couldn’t keep her safe? What if Social Services did take her away? Or worse yet, what if we managed to prove Heather’s innocence and she took her away?
The now familiar sense of fear washed through me, ruining my moment of euphoria. “Ray, we haven’t talked about what might happen to Noelle if we prove Heather’s innocence and she’s released. What if she wants Noelle back?”
“I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t know what recourse we would have.”
“But she abandoned her. And she’s apparently involved in some kind of criminal activity, even if she didn’t murder Theo.”
“We don’t know that for sure.” Ray set his bottle down. “We need to know more. When we know, then we can talk to Greg and go from there. Until then, let’s try to live in the moment.” He leaned forward and picked up my hand, turning it over to plant a kiss in my palm and send an electric charge up my spine. “For today, just be happy.”
Once again, pretty poetic for Ray. It was also the line printed on the shopping list pad I’d attached to our refrigerator with a magnet.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Erica. She had her black pants and white blouse on, her hair done up in a swinging ponytail, but her necktie and her apron were in her hand. I waved, trying to catch her attention. It took her a couple minutes to spot me, since she was busy batting her eyelashes at the hot bartender.
“Hey, what are you guys doing here?” She dropped onto the bench beside me and tickled Noelle’s chin.
“We came by to see you and decided to have an early dinner.”
“What’d you want to see me for?” Erica picked up Noelle’s bottle and made it dance across the table to her obvious delight.
“We stopped by your house. We saw your gnome collection. And your wind chimes. They’re destroyed. Do you think Sam did it?”
Erica’s laugh echoed in the nearly empty dining room. “First of all, they’re not my wind chimes or my gnomes. They belong to the landlord’s new girlfriend. Second, what makes you think Sam did it?”
“Mr. Murphy said some guy in a baseball hat used an oar to smash them. Sam’s working at the yacht club now, isn’t he?”
Erica scrunched up her face and looked at Ray. “Did you help her with this logic or is she making this up all on her own?”
Apparently Ray didn’t have a ready answer to that question, because he just forked more salad and shoved it in his mouth, refusing to make eye contact with me.
“Jolene, Sam does not wear baseball hats. Baseball hats give you hat-head, and Sam has a thing about hat-head. He never wears hats. And the oar was from the landlord’s new canoe, which he left by the side of the house. He likes to take his new lover out on the lake and paddle her around, serenading her.” The sarcasm in Erica’s voice let us know exactly what she thought of that idea.
The waitress appeared with our dinners in hand.
When she left, I continued my questions. “So who did smash the gnomes?”
“I don’t know, but the landlord expects me to pay for them. He and Mr. Murphy decided it must have been one of those hooligans I hang out with.” Erica folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not paying.”
I had no doubt. I would pay, just like always. All the bills still came addressed to me. Ray raised an eyebrow to let me know that he realized the same.
“So you have no idea who did smash the gnomes?”
“None.” Erica shrugged as though the whole thing was no big deal. “What’s the latest with Heather and Noelle?”
I looked at Ray. He nodded to say “go ahead.” “We’re trying to find people who have had contact with Theo and Heather during the months between the convenience store robberies and Theo’s death. We need to find out what they were doing together and why someone would threaten Heather and Noelle and possibly kill Theo. Do you know anyone we should talk to?”
“Just Sam, but I don’t think he saw either of them after the convenience store robberies. We were in the psych center for months after that, and no one came to visit except relatives.”
Erica looked at her watch and stood. “My shift is starting.”
I grabbed her wrist. “Wait. I have a couple more questions. Where can we find Sam?”
Erica shrugged. “At his parents’ house or at the bowling alley around eight. It’s karaoke night.”
“Karaoke night?”
“Yeah, Sam loves karaoke.” She pulled her wrist free, slid the necktie over her head and cinched it at her neck, then tied the apron around her waist before bending to plant a kiss on Noelle’s head. “See you guys later.”
I watched as she made her way across the floor to the bar where she would serve cocktails until two a.m. Then I met Ray’s gaze. “Is it me, or does she seem more grown-up?”
He grunted. “She is almost thirty-three. It’s about time she started acting it. Now start eating. We have to get to karaoke night.”
We took Noelle home, played with her for an hour then bathed her, put her in pajamas, gave her one last bottle, and tucked her into her car carrier, where she fell asleep on the drive to karaoke. Trying not to think every moment with her might be my last, I also felt a little guilty taking her into a stinky bowling alley when she should be home, asleep in her crib. I got over it. She would be safest with Ray and me.
Bowl-A-Roll had a sound stage set up in the middle of the lobby with two microphones and a television screen. The disco balls flashed red and green sparkles of light all over the packed room. At a table to the right of the entry, people were in line to sign up for their turn to sing. Tonight the bowling alley offered a one-hundred-dollar prize to the singer who received the most audience votes. Wachobe’s answer to American Idol.
Ray spotted Sam at the bar minutes after we walked in the door. “Let me approach him alone, okay?”
“You arrested him once, Ray. He might not be so happy to see you.”
“Yeah, and your sister dumped him with a phone message, Jolene.”
Ray was a little ticked, but I didn’t care. “I’m going with you. He’ll see the baby. He’ll know you’re not on duty.”
“Fine.”
Ray led the way to the bar, carrying Noelle. Sam caught sight of us immediately. His facial expression didn’t change, so I couldn’t judge our reception. I acted friendly, hoping he would respond in kind.
“Hi, Sam. How are you?”
“Okay, Jolene.” He nodded toward Ray. “Deputy Parker.”
Ray nodded back. Apparently he wasn’t going to follow my lead and be friendly. I ignored him, turning back to Sam and holding up Noelle. “This is Theo’s baby, Noelle. Remember her?”
Sam glanced at Noelle without too much interest. “Yep.”
“We found out Theo’s girlfriend, Abigail Bryce, is really Heather Graus. Did you hear?”
He picked up a few beer nuts and popped them in his mouth. “I saw it on television.”
“Did you know she wasn’t Abigail Bryce?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed as though I had asked him if he was an accessory to a crime. Maybe I had. “No. It was news to me.”
“She plans to plead guilty to Theo’s murder, but we don’t think she did it. Do you know anyone who would have wanted Theo dead?”
“No, Theo was a nice guy.”
A nice guy who robbed convenience stores. I guessed Sam’s standards weren’t that high, then wondered what that said about his relationship with my sister. I pushed those thoughts aside. “Do you know any reason why Heather would want to kill Theo?”
“No.”
“When was the last time you saw them?”
Sam gave me a look that said “duh.” “When Deputy Parker arrested us and took me back to the psych center.”
“You didn’t hear from Theo at all afte
r that?”
“No.” Sam scanned the room as though looking to escape us.
Another thought occurred to me. “Do you know if Theo and Heather had a good relationship? He didn’t hit her or anything, did he?”
“No. He loved her from the first time he saw her, the loser.”
“Where was that?”
“At the May Day party.”
Wachobe’s business association ran a May Day party each year in the town square, where the children danced around the flag pole holding colored streamers and the adults received nosegays of lilies of the valley and coupons to all the shops on Main Street. Ray and I never attended because his birthday is May 1, and we always took a long weekend trip somewhere when we were together. The years we weren’t together, I mourned at home, alone, wondering what Ray was doing.
I remembered Heather’s beautiful voice when she sang to Noelle in the jail. “Did he know Heather could sing?”
“Yep. I’ve heard her, too. She’s a damn good singer.”
“Do you know if she ever worked as a singer?”
“I know she’s won karaoke contests before. She told Theo.”
I looked at Ray, who smiled. Another clue into Heather’s past. I couldn’t wait to get home and look up all the karaoke contests advertised in the Finger Lakes area. Maybe someone who had paid out the prize money would remember Heather Graus … and her associates.
____
While I laid Noelle down in her crib for the night, Ray pressed the button on the answering machine, which had flashed its telltale red light when we walked in the living room.
I heard the messages through Noelle’s bedroom wall.
“Ray, it’s Gumby. We responded to a call at your sister-in-law’s house this morning. Someone smashed all the garden gnomes in her front yard. They belonged to her landlord’s live-in, but I thought you’d want to know. Later, bro.”
The machine announced message two. “Hi, this is Cory Kempe. I’m calling to report to Jolene Asdale that I deposited Mr. Barclay’s check and delivered the Datsun to Mr. Barclay’s place of business on Martin Road at five o’clock this afternoon. It took me all day because Barclay didn’t deliver the check here until after three.”
Geez, how long was Cory going to stay mad? For a guy who never got angry, he sure knew how to hold a grudge.
“I should probably mention that Mr. Barclay arrived at his place of business driving a porcelain white Jaguar. I then realized the company name on the check I deposited was FLM, Inc., which matches a name on the list from the DMV my boss asked me to review. FLM stands for Finger Lakes Marketing. That’s all I have to report to my boss.”
Ray stood with his hands on his hips when I entered the living room. “What did you do to Cory?”
“I told him about Mark Wynn.”
“And he’s mad at you for telling him?”
I sank onto the couch. “He’s mad at me for not telling him sooner. He said he expected better from his former best friend.”
Ray sat beside me, threw his arm around my shoulders, and hugged me. “He’ll get over it.”
I hoped so. I would miss his friendship. Not to mention, if he quit, where would I find another Cory who could both make the cars’ engines purr and their owners preen with his ego-strokes? “What do you make of this Dave Barclay revelation?”
Ray pulled me back with him as he sank into the couch. “I’m not sure. It sounds like Barclay is the one who gave Theo’s parents the bail money.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Theo’s mom said it was Theo’s back wages, right?”
“Right. So Theo worked for Barclay?”
“That’s what it sounds like.” Ray sighed. “But we checked Theo’s employment history after his arrest. He doesn’t have any history, with Barclay or anyone else, at least not on the books.”
A thought struck me. I grabbed Ray’s thigh, digging my fingers in.
“Hey, ow!”
I eased my grip. “Sorry. But Barclay and his wife were at the racetrack the day Theo was killed. In fact, they were standing right behind me when Theo spotted me.”
“Is that when he and Heather took off?”
“Yes.”
Ray took his arm from my shoulder and turned to face me. “Are you sure he spotted you? Maybe he spotted Barclay and ran.”
I closed my eyes and pictured the scene again. “I don’t know. I turned and saw Theo. He seemed to recognize me. He pointed me out to Heather and they both started running.”
“But it could have been Barclay that they were afraid of?”
“I don’t know, Ray. It all happened so fast.”
He ran his hand down my cheek. “It’s okay. That’s why eyewitness reports are so unreliable. It’s hard to take it all in objectively when you’re in the heat of the moment.”
I felt like I’d let him and Noelle down. “So what should we do now?”
Ray glanced at the mantel clock which read nine-fifteen. “It’s too late now to visit Barclay. I don’t want to leave you alone, and I don’t want to send anyone else from the department. Let me call the Sheriff and fill him in. I’ll see how he wants to proceed in the morning.”
He stood and pulled me to my feet. “Meanwhile, you do an Internet search. See how many karaoke contests you can find. Heather ties into all this somehow. We need to know how.”
Halfway across the room, he stopped to face me again. “And while you’re at it, see what you can find out about FLM, Inc.”
____
An hour later I had compiled a list of ten karaoke contests in the Finger Lakes area within the last year. Six at bars, one ski resort, two churches, and another bowling alley.
I called the six bars immediately. The bartender answered each time. Two remembered the contest but not the winner; three were new to the job; and the sixth seemed like he’d been sampling his wares. All suggested I speak to the management the following day.
In the morning, I would call again and ask if Heather Graus a.k.a. Abigail Bryce might have participated in or even won any of the contests. The managers should know whom they paid the prize money.
Ray sneaked up behind me and rubbed my shoulders.
I leaned into his hands. “I have some karaoke contest sponsors to call in the morning, but I couldn’t find FLM, Inc. on the Internet anywhere.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll call Catherine in the morning. Her practice has corporate lawyers, too. They’ll know how to ferret out more information about FLM, I’m sure.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Okay. What did the Sheriff say?”
“He wants us to ask Heather about Dave Barclay. Even if she won’t admit to knowing him, we should be able to tell if she recognizes the name. If she does, he’s okay with bringing Barclay in for questioning. He’d like to know what Theo Tibble did for Barclay that was worth all that bail money.”
Ray released my shoulders, stretched and wiggled his neck. “I’m going to bed. Are you coming?”
“In a minute.” How could he sleep? My mind was racing. I knew the true meaning of sitting on pins and needles. I was full of energy and questions, and it would all have to wait at least another ten hours.
I went into Noelle’s room and pulled my rocking chair close to the side of her crib. When she first came home with me, I’d sat here many a night, watching her sleep and worrying about SIDS. Babies were an all-new experience for me, a wonderful, joyous experience fraught with questions and concerns. Thank God Isabelle had been around to advise me.
Isabelle. It had been days since she called. Tomorrow I would have to phone her and bring her up to speed. Otherwise, I might lose another friend.
What to do about Cory? He’d never acted this way before, but then, he’d never had a reason to. Was he still dating Mark or sitting alone at home, pining for his lost love? I didn’t dare call him to find out. How could I make it right between us?
Noelle rolled onto her back, smacking her lips and sighing. Such a beautiful baby. I’d been so lucky to hav
e her. But if Heather didn’t sign the adoption papers, would Noelle be leaving me soon for good? I didn’t think I could bear it. Would my marriage to Ray survive the loss of this child? He’d been very clear that he wanted a child. We’d separated because I’d refused to bear one and didn’t like his constant pressure. When the dead man in my showroom Ferrari forced us to face each other, we realized flames still flickered between us. He’d compromised and suggested adoption. Noelle had fallen into our laps. Would she be taken away as abruptly? Where would that leave us?
A shadow in the doorway startled me. “Ray?”
He padded closer, wearing only his boxers. He leaned close to my ear, his warm breath tickling me. “What are you doing?”
“Thinking.”
“About what?”
That we might lose our child? That we might not make it to a fiftieth wedding anniversary without her? That I feared all the people I loved were not permanent fixtures in my life? All things I might tell my best friend, if only he wasn’t my husband, too. “Just thinking.”
He took my hand and tugged. “Come think in bed.”
I followed him out of Noelle’s room. “I don’t want to think anymore.”
His thumb stroked the palm of my hand. “Good. I was planning on making you feel instead.”
By nine a.m. Ray and I were working the phones while Noelle played with her toys on the floor. He called Catherine on his cell while I used our home phone to contact all the karaoke contest sponsors. I struck out with all the bars and the bowling alley. They hadn’t kept any records, and they couldn’t recall the winner’s names. They all thought the winner might have been a girl. The church, however, a more saintly institution, had kept meticulous records about their winner: Abigail Bryce.
“We sent Miss Bryce a 1099 at the end of the year.”
“What address did you send it to?”
The church secretary read off the Bryces’ home address in Canandaigua.
I wondered what the Bryces had thought when they received that envelope in the mail, six months after their daughter’s death. Had they notified the police?
An answering machine was on at the ski resort, but then, it was mid-July. I left a message without much hope of hearing from them anytime soon, especially since their message said they would reopen in October for fall foliage rides on the mountain gondola.