by Randy Rawls
She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath as an orchestra of pianists tickled their ivories up and down my spine.
“It’s been the most terrible and the most wonderful time of my life these last few weeks. Although my feelings for you were growing, my feelings for Jake weren’t changing. I can’t tell you how many nights I lay awake trying to sort through my messed up feelings—each time with no luck. I shed more tears over you than any other man I’ve ever known. I was falling in love with you but not falling out of love with Jake. What a mess.”
She drew another deep breath. “Maybe that’s what inspired Jake to propose. Maybe he sensed a change in me. I don’t know what caused it, but it took me by surprise.” Terri flashed her beautiful eyes at me again.
“So far, it’s a great story,” I said. “Make a great soap opera. Do you have anybody in mind to play my part? What tilts the scales to Jake’s side—his money?”
Her eyes flashed, and she fired back. “No, not his money. You, you and your stubborn dedication to your job did it. My college roommate married a cop. They had five great years together before he was killed on the street one night at midnight. I watched her struggle to keep her life together while raising two children. I watched her wear the same outfits year after year because she couldn't afford new ones. I watched her life revolve around work and her kids—no time for living. I watched her grow older with no laughter in her life. Today, she looks ten years older than she is.”
She continued with the same intensity in her voice. “I asked you to drop this case. I warned you that you were the target, not Sonny. I tried to tell you how I felt, but all you did was treat me like a child. You tried to placate me by being cute. That’s when I knew there was no future for us. I’m not going to be a cop’s widow, even a private cop. I’m not going to live my friend’s life.”
“I’m sorry, so very sorry,” I interrupted. “If only I’d known—I had no idea you were so serious and why.” I stopped and reflected for a moment. She had hit me right where I live, but I could only respond, “You made the right decision, though. My dad taught me that a man’s word is his bond. I gave my word to Jake and Bubba, and I intend to live by it. When this case is over, there might be room for compromise, but not now—not on this case.”
“Damn you, Ace Edwards. You’re so stubborn, it’s insulting.” Her fists were clenched and her lips were a thin line. “Jake is safe and secure. I’ll never have to wonder if he’s lying in the street bleeding to death. I’ll never have to patch his wounds after an angry husband beats him to a pulp. I’ll never have to hand him a cold compress to hold over a black eye—like the one you’re wearing now.”
Ouch, that was a definite gotcha. I had hoped the light was dim enough to hide my eye.
She continued, ripping my heart as she went. “And, most of all, I’ll never have to bury him because he was killed living up to his word. I did feel something special, and maybe it could have grown, but you killed it. Understand me when I say I love Jake, and I’m going to make him the best wife any man ever had.”
“Fine, that’s settled. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some serious drinking to do.” I headed toward the door.
“Ace, please don’t go.”
Her tone had changed, all the fight was gone. Instead it contained a plea, one I couldn’t ignore.
“There, there’s another reason I wanted to see you tonight. I, we need your help.”
“You need my help? What makes you think I want to help you? Is this how you treat all your lovers after you find someone better?” I was still hurting and the desire to hurt her dominated me.
“Please. Be fair. Accept what I said, because it’s the truth. This is more than you and me and Jake. It’s Joey, too. I’m worried about him. He hasn’t been himself recently. He drinks too much and is sad all the time. Mom and I don’t know what’s bothering him. I thought, well, I hoped you might help us.”
I sighed, the will to fight draining away. “You’re something, Terri. You break my heart because I won’t stop being a detective, then ask me to help your brother because I am a detective. At least it’s not your fiancé. But before we let this go any farther, I gotta ask questions. If you and Jake were so tight, why did you go out with me, let me think there might be a future for us? Did Jake put you up to it, did Jake—”
I didn’t get to finish the question that had haunted me all day because my head was spun sideways by a vicious slap.
Since I wasn’t anchored to the parking lot, I ended up against the wall. Her hit wasn’t like Bubba’s fist, but it was hard enough. She didn’t look like she packed such a wallop, but the stinging of my cheek proved looks can be deceiving. Guess that’s what comes from clapping blackboard erasers in school, or is it white boards today?
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ace. Are you okay?”
She even looked like she meant it. “Yeah, the lights only blinked. They didn’t go all the way out.” I rubbed my cheek. I could feel the heat radiating from it. She’d slapped me on the same side as my black eye. I hoped it wouldn’t make the eye worse. I was tired of comments about it.
“I’m sorry I hit you, but why did you ask that insulting question?”
“Because I need answers. Why did Jake have you watching me, have you play up to me, have you—well, you know? All he had to do was ask, and I would have told him whatever he wanted to know.”
Terri gave me one of those looks usually reserved for repelling would-be assailants in dark alleys. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you—your spying for Jake—”
Her fists clenched and came up, but she didn't swing. “I know what you said. I just don’t know what you’re talking about. Jake never asked me to do anything with you. Nothing. Nada. What I did with you, I did because I wanted to. Whatever gave you such a cockeyed idea? What gives you the right to question me like this? For your information, Jake was upset because I spent time with you.”
“Crap, Terri. You expect me to—”
She was winding up again so I decided discretion was the better part of valor, and hurt a whole lot less. I threw my hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay, I’m backing off. Maybe we’d better get back to the conversation we were having before we stumbled into this treacherous land where beautiful damsels clobber white knights.” I grinned, or tried to.
“Okay,” she responded.
Was that the ghost of a smile I saw?
“What about Joey? What should we do?” Her tone was pleading. She seemed more disturbed about Joey than she was about my broken heart.
I swallowed my pride. “I suppose I could talk to him.” I remembered my dream. “In fact, I hoped to talk to him. Is he here tonight?”
“Oh, that would be great. He has so much respect for you.” She smiled, actually smiled.
His great respect for me was news. I only talked to him once.
Terri continued, “He’s not here, though. He couldn’t come out tonight. He fell into a prickly pear cactus and scratched his face. Mom said he’s swollen and looks terrible. He says he’s not showing his face in public until he looks normal again.”
“Prickly pear?” I flinched. “That must have hurt. Those things are miserable. How did it happen?”
“Tripped, or that's what he told Mom.”
I was about to commiserate with him when bells rang. “Wait a minute. He has a scratched face? What about his ear? Is it scratched and torn?”
“Yes, or Mom says it is. How did you know? His left ear. You know. The one he wore the earring in. It’s a mess. He must have gotten stuck directly in the ear lobe. It’s swollen worse than his face. Mom wanted him to go to the doctor, but he refused.”
I’ll bet he did. Toy boy. It finally clicked. The night I met him. I was close, but not quite on target. It wasn’t toy boy, it was love toy—it was Joey-boy, the love toy. Joey, Terri’s brother. What a mess. If what I thought was true, this quagmire had turned into quicksand, and I was belly-button deep in it.
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I knew I had to stay cool and not arouse Terri’s suspicion. “Where is Joey tonight? I’d like to talk to him.” My insides churned.
“Home, I think. Mom said he was staying in. I don’t think it would be a good idea to go there tonight, though. He’s not in any condition to see anyone. Maybe tomorrow night.”
“When did you last see him, I mean, face to face?” I was digging and I didn’t know which way I wanted it to turn out. “Did you see him today?”
“No. Let me think. A couple of days ago. He came by the school and said he had to go into Dallas on business.”
Bingo, I’ve got bingo, I wanted to shout. It had to be Joey. Joey, who’d been stalking me. Joey, who killed Sheila. Joey who killed Sonny. Joey… Whoa, I knew I had to slow down before I made a fool of myself. Did that make sense? Where was the motive? Why would he have done all those things? In fact, as far as I’d found out, he’d had no association with Sheila.
“Terri, think back. What day did he go to Dallas, and do you know where he was a couple of hours ago?”
“Home. I mean, I think he’s home. I don’t know for sure. Dallas. It must have been Wednesday. Why? Are these things important?”
I couldn’t tell her what I thought. “Ah, I thought I saw him when I came through Cisco. He drives a dark pickup with a white racing stripe, doesn’t he?” I was guessing, but I thought it was a logical guess.
“Yeah, but it couldn’t have been him. I talked to Mom after school and she said he was asleep. He was running a fever so she gave him a fever reducer and a sleeping pill. Mom believes sleep cures everything. He should be out the rest of the night.”
“So, he couldn’t have been in Cisco about an hour ago then?” If she was right, I was back to square one, but off the hook with Terri.
“Not according to what Mom said earlier. If it’s that important, I can call and see if he’s home. What’s up? You’re acting strange. It’s more than seeing a truck like his in Cisco, isn’t it? You—”
Her voice changed in midstream. “No. Ace. No. If you think Joey’s somehow involved in what’s been happening around here, you’re wrong. He wouldn’t, no, he couldn’t hurt anyone. That’s what you’re thinking, aren’t you? You think you can pin it all on Joey. You son-of-a-bitch. You’re trying to get even with me, and with Jake. I wish I’d never told you. How could you?”
She continued to argue his case, while I remembered his arrests for assaulting women. So much for not being able to hurt anyone.
I gripped her by the shoulders. “Terri, slow down, please. I haven’t accused him of anything. But there are things that look bad.” I gave her a small shake. “Listen to me a moment.”
I finally got her attention. She stopped her tirade, but trembled in my grasp. I told her about my motel room being searched, the break-in at my house, the earring I found and the droplets of blood, the tiny piece of material I took off Sweeper’s broken claw, and finally, the shot that someone took at me earlier in the evening. I skipped the assault in my motel room. That would have played into her arguments about my chosen profession.
I completed my story by saying, “If you find it hard to believe, I can show you the hole in the convertible top, and the brick at my place that had the note wrapped around it. The police have the gas can.”
Terri grasped my arms. “No, no matter what you say, I know it wasn’t Joey.” Her gaze locked on me, begging me to believe her. “It was Joey who warned you that someone was after you. It was Joey who had me tell you Sonny wasn’t the target, you were. It was Joey”… Her voice trailed away as she went mute.
Her face took on a shock and a sadness worse than I had ever seen before. She reminded me of one of those paintings of little girls with the big sad eyes. She was heart wrenching.
“No, Ace. Please don’t make me believe my brother tried to kill you—that he killed Sonny. Please, I can’t handle that, I’ll never believe it.” She fell silent with her head bowed, her quiet sniffling the only sign that she cried.
I reached and pulled her into my arms. “I don’t want it to be true, I really don’t,” I whispered into her hair. What else could I say? “But, I’ve got to follow this to its end. Right now, everything points to Joey. I’m sorry, Terri, but I can’t, no, I won’t back off. Down deep, I’m still a cop and I have an obligation to put killers away. The difference between Sheriff Yardley and me is I have fewer restrictions. I can go anywhere, investigate anything. Also, I make more money than he does.”
Terri pulled back from me. “Can’t you be serious for more than thirty seconds?”
I slid my hands down her arms, grasping her hands, not to comfort her, but to protect myself. What I was about to say might get me another smack in the chops. “You want serious, here it is. Help me, and we’ll be helping the people of Cisco. If Joey’s innocent, we can prove it much faster by working together. If he’s guilty…” I let my unsaid words hang in the air.
Terri’s eyes reflected her pain, sending a ripple of compassion through my heart. She mumbled, “Joey asked about your investigation, about what you found out. He asked me to find what, I mean, if you have any suspects. Could that mean—”
“Hey, Ace. Is that you?” A voice interrupted her.
“Damn,” I said under my breath.
Bubba walked up. “Thought that looked like you. Not too many midgets in this area with bright red Chrysler convertibles. Hi, Terri. Is it true what I hear about you and Jake Adams?”
Terri tore her gaze from me and looked at Bubba with a sad smile. The charming Terri was almost back. “Hi, Bubba. It’s nice to see you, too. What have you heard about Jake and me?”
“Hell, I heard you two was gettin’ hitched.” He stopped and looked at me, then Terri. “Uh, nothing, nothing important.” He appeared embarrassed. “Come on in. I’ll buy you guys a beer. Heck, I’m starting to like them Kill’en things.”
We had little choice but to follow Bubba into the Down Home. While I would have sworn it couldn’t happen, the smoke seemed thicker and stinkier, the noise louder, and Terri sadder, but still beautiful.
The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. For me, there had already been two highlights—the first, being with Terri and the second, my conclusion that Joey was somehow mixed up in the mess. What I didn’t have an opinion on was whether he’d acted alone or as part of a conspiracy.
I decided not to tell Bubba about my suspicions. First, I didn’t want Joey to be guilty because of Terri, and second, I was afraid Bubba might go off the deep end and go after him. He could crush Joey with one hand.
Terri hung onto my arm as if she were engaged to me instead of Jake. I didn’t mind, even if it was for the wrong reasons. Although she was Jake’s fiancée, she was still the most exciting woman I’d ever known. Besides, I figured Jake owed me for winning her away before I knew he was in the race. Terri and I stood at the bar and chatted, and Bubba worked the crowd. As I watched him, I realized why Sheila had found him worthy of her attentions. People liked him. When he approached a group, the grins and smiles turned on him. They were bright enough to penetrate the blue-gray haze of smoke that cast an illusion of privacy over each group. Each man had a handshake for him and every woman a hug. Again, I realized how badly I misjudged Bubba. He played his role to perfection depending on what he wanted a person to think. For me, he’d played the big muscle-bound lummox, and I’d bought it—hook, line, and punch in the jaw.
Terri headed for the ladies room, and I stood alone for a few minutes sipping my Killian’s. Sammy Waltham came over to visit. After we’d shook hands and exchanged insults, he asked, “Have you learned anymore about who shot Sonny?”
“Nothing firm, but it’s getting better.” I heard Terri’s sharp intake of breath as she returned to my side.
“When you catch up with him, let me know, and I’ll warn him not to pick a fight with you.” Sammy obviously hadn’t noticed Terri’s distress. “My wife’s still mad at you. She said you shouldn’ta hurt the part she gets the most pleasure f
rom.” We both laughed. He slapped me on the shoulder and walked off to join another group, faking a limp for the first few steps.
At midnight, Terri announced she had to leave, something about being fresh for her students in the morning. As we walked to her car, I took her hand. “I wish I’d met you before Jake. Maybe I’d have had a chance. Things might have turned out differently. But since it didn’t happen, I do wish you happiness. You’ll always have a very special place in my heart.”
“Thank you. For obvious reasons, I’m not going to think about what-ifs. I’m a one-man woman, and Jake is that man. I have to admit though that being around you makes it more difficult to live up to what my mama taught me. I already envy the woman who finally gets you.” She tried to kiss me lightly on the cheek.
I couldn’t allow her to walk out of my life with a sisterly kiss. I pulled her to me and gave her the kiss I’d wanted to give her since I’d first heard her voice back there in the smoke.
She stepped back, her face flushed, her voice husky. “Good night, Ace. I have to leave.”
She got into her car, started the engine, and back out of the space.
“Good-bye, Terri,” I mumbled. “I'll carry that last kiss with me forever.” I watched her drive away with my heart breaking and my mind cursing Jake. I knew I’d never love another like I loved Terri.
As her taillights turned into little red dots, reality jumped up and kicked me in the gut. Joey? What was I going to do about Joey, and how would I ever square it with Terri and Jake?
TWENTY-ONE
Morning arrived after another night of near sleeplessness. I wanted the case to be over and Jake and Terri married. Maybe then I could curl up with my cats and get a good night’s sleep.