Privy to Murder

by Carol Shenold

  I didn’t wait for the answer, climbed into the truck, backed up and swung around Mumsie’s car. Didn’t do the grass much good, not that there was much grass.

  * * *

  At the pavilion things heated up, in more ways than one. The band set up, finished checking their equipment, and drank a last cool one before beginning the first set. Reneé had the food set up with everything from California rolls, to tortilla rolls, taquitos, guacamole, salsa, and tiny lemon tarts. Not a sophisticated menu but appropriate for tonight’s crowd.

  Guests staked out prime table locations, the emcee warmed up. The kid who taped all the school games and programs was here to film the entrance of the Calf-roping Queen and her court.

  Twinkle lights twinkled, music rocked along with two-stepping rhythms. Flirting happened, parents watched kids like hawks, making sure no kid snatched anything stronger than soda. I circulated, made certain food displays were kept in order and large tubs filled with beer, soda, and small bottles of wine. The candles glowed and so did the guests. Damn, I liked country parties, even with the undercurrents of family conflicts you found in every gathering.

  I went over to Reneé. “A little more peaceful than the last party, huh.”

  She seemed thoughtful. “Have you seen Cherilyn or Laurel yet? That’s likely to liven things up. Laurel’s not exactly Miss Congeniality.”

  I looked around. I’d sent Cass home before dark in case Mumsie had plans. “Come to think of it, I haven’t. I’m shocked she isn’t here, blowing and going and bossing us all around.”

  About that time JT and Laurel walked in, Laurel in what looked like a designer gown, classier than the jeans and sequins a lot of the party wore, but a little overdone. JT wore his usual jeans, western shirt, boots, but couldn’t resist the Stetson.

  JT looked his cowboy best. Once again, I remembered one of the things that always attracted me to him. He was dang, pure sexy when he wanted to be.

  Then I remembered he was with Laurel, and I had to tell him about Keith in case he didn’t already know. But he was a cop, he would have known about Keith’s record and the court filing. Why didn’t he tell me? He knew I’d gone out with the guy. Suddenly I was indignant about everything I decided JT didn’t share with me.

  About that time Laurel bustled around, looking for something to complain about but didn’t seem to be able to find anything. I guess she’d never come in contact with Mag, that woman could have given Laurel lessons in bitchiness.

  JT was at the food tables alone. I went over to talk to him. “Hey. How are you?”

  He looked up from his loaded plate of food. “Good. You’re looking sharp. Like the band.”

  “They’re a bunch of twits, but they’ll do for tonight. They play all right but they have no idea how to conduct business like adults.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Heard about that and the flowers, told Laurel what I thought. She doesn’t seem to think acting like a witch is a problem.”

  “Wow. I’m surprised you survived that confrontation. How come you ended up here together?”

  “Were not together, just arrived at the same time. Hey, I’ve got news. You’ll be happy to know your buddy Frank is loose, couldn’t hold him without any more evidence. I really don’t think he killed anyone, but no one else sticks out like a sore thumb right now, and I don’t have much to go on.”

  “I know you heard everything already, but don’t you think there is some kind of connection between Keith, Donna and the money and murder?”

  He put down his plate and pulled me off to one side. “You have to stay out of police business, Tali. You’re going to get hurt or injured, girl, and you’ve had enough trouble already. Now, stop crime solving and come dance with me. And close your mouth before you catch a fly.”

  He pulled me onto the dance floor and we waltzed to “Waltz across Texas.”

  “I didn’t know you could dance.”

  “Lot you don’t know about me any more.” He pulled me close and it wasn’t the dancing that made me short of breath.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Romantic feelings in JT’s arms lasted two minutes. A crash and the sound of something breaking propelled both of us toward the food tables. We had to push our way through all the gawking dancers to see what the brouhaha was all about, or at least who was involved. Two rodeo club members and three, no four friends, circled around the corner between the food tables.

  Reneé looked ready to kill. “They started shouting at each other and then blows flew. Now see what they’ve done.”

  The ice-calf, or pieces it, lay on the floor in a wide pattern of sparkling pieces, along with the disembodied head. The crowd gathered around as if there had been a murder.

  Laurel clacked over, her Jimmy Chou stilettos noisy on the wood floor. She glared at me, a habit with her. “Can’t any event of yours ever come off without emotions running wild? Who started this? Look at this mess? Who plans to clean it up? The fair board and rodeo club will not be responsible for covering personal injury costs due to ice or fists.”

  “Hold it one minute.” I glared right back at her. “I didn’t bring emotions to this party. A party means people and people mean emotions.”

  “I don’t remember murders and fights galore until you came back on the scene.”

  “How the heck do you know? You’ve only been in town a few months yourself. And you know as well as I do, the younger the crowd, the more volatile the emotions. The more alcohol involved, the more likely something will get out of hand.”

  “I’m part of this town now and as the newspaper editor it’s my job to investigate what goes on and make certain everyone knows just what is really happening.”

  “I don’t know what your agenda is, but part of it better be to stop sticking your nose into my business, destroying my family and ruining everything in sight.” My voice pushed strident before I stopped talking and turned to the storage closet to find a broom and mop.

  Laurel stood still, seemingly wanting to say more. I turned my back to her and shoved the mop and broom into the hands of the fighters who stood there with their mouths open, until one of them nudged the other.

  “She’s mad and we’d better do what she says.”

  “Why should I?” the bigger boy said.

  “Because,” the first one whispered, “she’s a witch. You should see her crazy mother.”

  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so as soon as I was certain no ice slivers hung around to trip up someone, most likely me, I went to Reneé for comfort, as usual.

  She replaced food as fast as it could be eaten and thrust plates of taquitos in both my hands and pointed to the far end of the table. “Make yourself useful, and stay out of any more fights.”

  “You have to support me, not make cracks.” I set the plates down where Reneé had pointed, grabbed one of the crispy bite-size rolls with cheese and chicken inside, stuffed it in my mouth, and picked up the empty trays. I was ravenous, I realized, and thirsty. I spun around with plates, looking for the iced tubs of drinks.

  When Mag’s spirit appeared two inches from my nose, I gasped and threw both trays in the air, catching one before it hit the ground. The other flew over my head, landed on the floor with a clang, and rocked back and forth forever before stopping. Fortunately the sound of loud country music and boots line-dancing to “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” meant very few people had seen my reaction.

  Mag disappeared as quickly as she’d appeared, and I’m sure no one else saw anything but me jumping like I was possessed. Once my heart moved back to a normal rhythm and position I could take a deep breath again. I picked up the platter that had gone airborne and trudged back to Reneé.

  She grinned. “You might want to wait until after the dance to initiate the Frisbee game.”

  “Witch.” I said softly.

  “That would be you,” she said, not so softly.

  ”Speaking of fights, here comes the Love County Calf-roping Queen.” She gestured toward the bandstand and
the blonde teen dressed to the hilt, Queen banner across her ample chest.

  I looked at her. She grinned back. “See the shiner? I heard she was at the VFW last night. Got into a fight, or started a fight between a couple of guys and got smashed by a fist. Donna was one of the group.”

  “What was the fight about?”

  “Gossip is that Donna had a pen pal for a few months. Ask me where the pen pal lived.”

  I frowned. “Where.”

  “The pen pal was from the Pen, as in Penitentiary. She was writing a jail bird.”

  Bells and whistles went off in my head. That’s how Donna and Keith met, while he was in jail. He found a nice, he thought, girl from a small town to write to. What if Donna had mentioned me? “Wow. Amazing.”

  “Better yet, the Queen up there thought Donna’s pen pal was her boyfriend since Donna had been bragging about writing a cute, ‘innocent’ guy in jail and her boyfriend just happened to be in jail the same time as Keith.”

  I shrugged. “Dang. You just can’t trust the cute guys to be dating material any more. I remember the two of us eyeing him at the lake that time.”

  “Only because he was eye-candy, not because either of us would have dated him.”

  “Speak for yourself, remember? I did go on a date with him.”

  “Oops. Forgot about that. Sorry.”

  “So am I and I always will be. What a disaster.” I told her about the trial and what I’d remembered.

  “That would have been a shock for sure. I don’t blame you for being freaked out. Creepy, huh?”

  “You can’t even imagine. Shit,” I gasped.

  “What? What?”

  “Keith put the new lock on the house. He has a key, I bet, or a master.”

  Reneé looked serious. “Maybe not. I mean, he might not have recognized you, and even if he did, he wouldn’t have automatically planned to break in.”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t like the idea that he might have access to the house. I wonder if he had anything to do with the graffiti?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Well, if he did recognize you and still had a grudge . . .? Anything’s possible.”

  The emcee announced the queen and her court and the guests applauded. Mag materialized once again as the group made their way across the stage, directly in front of the girl with the white formal and black eye. Mag reached out to push her.

  “Mag, no,” I yelled.

  Mag disappeared and the crowd swiveled to look at me.

  “Nothing. It’s nothing, really. Stubbed my toe.” I stammered to a stop. The crowd turned back to the stage, and I would have collapsed into a chair if I’d had one.

  “Tali. What’s wrong with you? You’re pale as a ghost and you’re acting a little strange. Here, have a wine cooler.” Reneé opened a bottle, poured the contents into a cup, and put it in my hands.

  What the hell was with that woman, ghost, spirit? Whatever. Why was she trying to ruin everything I did? I finished the wine cooler, checked the tables, drinks, made certain the preacher’s kid was videotaping at the appropriate times, and looked around for JT.

  I still hadn’t had the chance to fill JT in on what I’d found out. The more I thought about it, the more uneasy it made me. I remembered the look on Keith’s face when he was sentenced, and the way he stared at the jury, at me. And he was in this town.

  The party wound down. The young singles drifted off. Some would gravitate to the Dallas club scene, some off into a friend’s pasture for a keg party. I helped Reneé pick up serving platters, police empty cans and bottles for recycling, reluctantly paid the band. It wasn’t that their playing had been bad, just their attitude in general.

  I borrowed Renée’s phone and called the house to let Mumsie know about Keith, or at least Cass, but no answer. I hoped they were just watching a movie or something.

  The fair board treasurer came up with the checks for Reneé and myself and I was pleasantly surprised that the amount was more than I’d quoted. “I want you to know that Laurel’s attitude doesn’t reflect that of the entire board,” he said. “You did a great job.”

  * * *

  All the decorations, shawls, and rugs were loaded into the truck by the time JT came up. I explained everything I’d found out about Keith, and he admitted knowing about the jail time, but not until after the disaster date.

  “But JT, what if he knows something about what happened to Mag and Betty Ann?”

  “The man was in jail for embezzlement, not murder. He would not be an instant murder suspect. I don’t think he was even at the party, was he?”

  “Yeah. I remember Reneé pointing him out because she thought he was so cute.”

  “That puts him right in line with the other forty people who were there. I don’t remember him with a murder weapon or fingers pointing to him as the murderer.”

  “You didn’t see him in the courtroom after the trial. He would have killed every member of the jury if he could have.”

  JT put his hands on his hips. “Tali, you’re being a little hysterical. It might give him reason to harass you out of revenge, but it doesn’t sound like enough motive to implicate him in the murders.”

  “But JT, you can’t just ignore someone with a background like his.”

  “I should have the fingerprint reports back from the partials on the murder weapon. It took longer than usual to find a match because it was found outside and had been smeared. We’ll have more of an idea then”

  “What if he turns out to be the killer and he’s running loose?”

  “If so, he won’t be running loose for long.”

  * * *

  I shook my head in frustration as he moved off to check on a crowd of kids down by the dock. The party was over. Even the groups who liked to hang out around tables to drink and talk had thinned out. Only a few stragglers were left, and they would disperse as I removed the last of the cloths and candles. Some of the candles had disappeared with people who found one with a picture of themselves or their kids.

  The band had left. Reneé finished putting away food and took off. I shooed away the hangers-on. The cicadas and tree frogs serenaded the countryside now that there was no boot-scootin’ music competition for their songs. I hated the sound of the tree frogs. To me they sounded like someone trying to scream, but they were too hoarse to do it right, like in a nightmare. I shook off the image.

  Lake sounds drifted in and you could hear the water lap at the dock. Without the food, the faint musty, fishy lake scent sneaked in. Peace descended as the moon rose to be reflected on the water’s surface. Dark tree reflections surrounded the lake.

  By the time I finished loading, I was burning up. I shed my jacket and threw it in the front of the truck. My boots were hot but I hadn’t brought extra shoes. I used to run around barefoot out here all the time. What the heck. I tossed the boots in with my jacket and purse.

  I made certain I had everything loaded, rolled the trash cans into one group, and covered them to try and keep out the raccoons. I walked down to the swimming beach just to cool my feet in the sand, then kept going until I could stick my toes into the water. I didn’t want to go too far and take a chance on getting the long dry-clean-only skirt ruined. Besides, it was too dark and there was no telling what you could step on in the murky lake water.

  I heard an odd sound and remembered I’d left my phone in the car with my purse. Probably Mumsie calling me back. I high-tailed it back to the truck, plowing through the sand. I flipped open the phone and there were four missed calls from Mumsie. She hated cells and would not have tried that many times if something wasn’t up.

  She answered on the first ring. “Tali, where have you been? I told you something would happen, something evil. And now look. I can’t believe it.”

  “Can you be a little more specific? What are you talking about? What’s happened? Are the kids all right?”

  “That’s the problem. I let Cass go into town with friends. I know you sent her home to help watch Sean, but sh
e’d worked hard today, and I thought it would be good for her.”

  I rolled my eyes, thankful she couldn’t see me. “Just tell me what happened.”

  “Sean refused to watch Star Wars, the complete set, with me and went to his room to play video games instead. I don’t think those are good for him at all, too violent.”

  “Mumsie, if you don’t tell me what happened…”

  “I’m trying, and don’t take that tone with me. Anyway, I went to check on him. He was pissed at you for not letting him go camping. He wasn’t in his room and I can’t find him anywhere else. I have this really bad feeling, Tali. I don’t think he’s just hiding somewhere.”

  “Okay. Let’s not panic. I’m going to check out the campground since I’m already at the lake. Chances are he went this way to be with his friends. Don’t worry. I’ll call as soon as I find out something. Keep looking around there and call his friends to make sure he’s not hiding out at someone’s house.”

  I looked around for JT so I could fill him in but he wasn’t in sight. Of course not, if you needed him. I ran for the truck, jamming my toe against the seat as I got in. Oh, now I remembered why I didn’t drive barefooted. I spun out on the gravel when I pulled out on 898 and turned toward Ivanhoe. That would take me across the lake bridges, and maybe I would be able to spot the scouts. They had their own camp on the other side of the lake.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Country roads were so frickin’ dark. Sometimes I hated the country, like now, when I was panicked, in a hurry, and on a twisting, winding road in the boondocks, trying to find a needle in a very dark haystack.

  Damn and double damn. I should have been excited that the party went well and I had a check in my purse that would catch up on some of the bills. Instead, all I could think about was Sean, and I kept seeing Keith’s eyes that day in the courtroom.

  I had the windows down and could smell the damp lake fishy smell, dead fish. Just past the second bridge and to the left was the scout campground. I slid to a stop on the gravel of the parking lot and jumped out of the truck to go look for Sean. Pain sliced into my foot. I’d landed on sharp rocks with bare feet. Damn, how stupid. I reached for my boots and shoved my feet into them without looking to see if I’d been cut.