Deadly Row to Hoe

by Cricket McRae

  But even the potential of adding another member to the household couldn’t keep my attention from wandering to the story Faith Snow had told me that afternoon. How quickly a life—or two—could be changed. Or ended. Most of the time we wander through our days assuming tomorrow will be very much like today, and that’s usually a safe belief to hold because that’s exactly what happens. But one event, one turning point, and everything is different. The awareness felt heavy while at the same time it made me feel fragile as glass.

  Tentative.

  Life was risky. Putting a child into the mix really upped the ante, too. I’d often smiled at Meghan’s protective attitude toward Erin, but I understood it. If I had a baby, I’d more than understand it. I’d live it every day.

  Was that why Meghan was so against my “little investigations”? Could I really keep involving myself in Barr’s work if I had a child? How could Kelly possibly know enough about it to tell me I could?

  I gathered the last of the soap trimmings to mash together for our own use—functional if not as pretty—when Clarissa yelled upstairs, followed by a sharp bark from Brodie. It sounded like a happy shout, though, and I took my time padding up to see what had caused Miss Grumpy Boots such joy.

  No one was in the kitchen. Meghan’s words drifted in from the entryway. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Allie and Tom want her to stay here tonight.”

  I rounded the corner and came up short. Hallie stood just inside the doorway. Looking past her, I saw the whippy red car parked at an angle to the curb, the driver’s door hanging open. Meghan stood with her arms crossed over her chest, jaw set. Behind her, Kelly kept his hand on Clarissa’s shoulder, despite how she leaned away from him. Erin looked on from the sidelines with wide eyes.

  “What’s going on here?” I moved to Meghan’s side.

  Hallie was a mess. Her jeans were tucked sloppily into knee-high riding boots that had never seen a stable. Her sleeveless blouse was rumpled, and a black satin bra strap had slipped down her arm. Her hair stuck out like she’d combed it with a piece of buttered toast, and her mascara was as smeared as if Erin had applied it. She peered at me with bleary eyes before an elaborate sneer distorted her features.

  “You. You show up everywhere, don’t you? Interfering, stirring things up. Nosy, nosy, nosy.” The distinct smell of tequila drifted out on her words.

  Oh, dear. I glanced at the clock. Not even six o’clock.

  “It’s your fault he got hurt. Your fault.”

  “Are you talking about Nate?” I asked.

  “Of course I’m talking about Nate!”

  “Hallie,” I said with slow care. “Do you know what happened to Nate?”

  She blew a very unladylike raspberry. “You think I’m stupid? Of course I do.”

  “Do you think that perhaps you ought to tell the police?”

  A wily look flickered across her face. “Tell them what? Somebody hit him on the head. They told me that.”

  Was her innocence forced, or was this simply booze-induced stupidity? I tried again. “But you don’t know who hit him?”

  Her shoulders raised all the way to her ears and then dropped. She wove slightly back and forth in her boots. “How would I?”

  Beside me, Meghan swallowed. I glanced back at Clarissa. Kelly had both of his hands on her shoulders, but she wasn’t trying to pull away now. All her attention was on her aunt.

  “C’mon, Clary. Go get your stuff. Let’s go home.”

  “He won’t let me.” Clarissa’s words held tears. I could tell Kelly was upset at having to restrain her, but no way would any of us let her leave with Hallie.

  “Let her go!” Hallie took a step forward.

  Meghan and I crowded together, blocking her way. “I’m sorry,” I said. “Tom and Allie asked us to watch her, and that’s what we’re going to do. Maybe you could give me your car keys, and I’ll call your sister to come pick you up.”

  She slowly shook her head. “I don’t need anyone to come get me. I jus’ miss my little Clary, is all. I want her to come back home. Miss her …”

  “I’m sure she misses you, too,” Meghan said.

  “Do you, honey?” Hallie peered at her niece.

  Clarissa gave a little nod, but frankly looked terrified. I could have killed her aunt right then and there.

  “But she’s spending the night with Erin,” Meghan continued. “I think Sophie Mae had a good idea. I’m going to call Allie now.”

  “No!” Hallie held up her hands. “Don’t bother her. It’s okay. I’m going.”

  “Please wait. Come into the kitchen.” Meghan reached for her. “I’ll get you a cup of coffee and you can hang out with us for a while.” She glanced over at me, and I nodded. Neither of us wanted Hallie around Clarissa in her current state, but what choice did we have?

  But Hallie turned and pushed the screen door open, stumbling out to the porch and then, getting her bearings, ran down the steps.

  “No, wait!” I followed her out the door, hoping against hope that she’d left the keys in the ignition. If I could get there first—

  In the middle of the yard she stopped right in front of me, hunching over. I veered left to miss her, but she stood, fast, ramming her shoulder into my hip. Off balance, I went down with a loud oomph. Gasping, I came up on my knees, but she’d already made it to the car. Kelly flew past me and banged through the garden gate as Hallie slid into the car and slammed the door.

  We all heard the automatic door locks.

  Clarissa ran out into the yard. “Hallie! Wait, Hallie,” she called.

  But now her aunt was more interested in making a getaway than in her niece.

  The Camaro’s engine roared to life. Kelly jumped back as the vehicle accelerated backwards, then took off down the street with a squeal of tires on pavement. Watching it go, I saw Bette standing in her front yard with Alexander, head craned to see what the heck was going on at the Ambrose-Bly household.

  How embarrassing.

  “Are you all right?” Meghan asked, kneeling beside me.

  “I’m fine,” I wheezed, still on all fours. “Clarissa, honey? You okay?”

  She shot me a fierce look—which promptly dissolved into tears.

  Twenty-three

  Kelly went to call Barr while Meghan comforted Erin and I did my best to comfort Clarissa.

  “What’s wrong with her?” she sobbed into my shoulder. We were on the sofa, while Meghan and Erin had gone to Erin’s room.

  At least that implied Clarissa wasn’t used to that kind of behavior from her aunt. I rocked her a little and murmured, “She’s just upset. It’ll be okay.”

  But would it? I still couldn’t figure Hallie out. Was she drinking and carrying on because Nate got hurt? Because she hurt him? Did she have any idea how fine the line between love and hate was that she was straddling?

  Was there something I didn’t know?

  Well, obviously, there was.

  “How ’bout we call your mom,” I said, almost sure Clarissa would reject the idea.

  But she surprised me by nodding vigorously. In many ways she seemed years younger than Erin, in spite of her desire to grow up far too quickly.

  “Okay. Wait here and I’ll get the phone.”

  “I have mine,” she said, reaching in her pocket.

  “Let’s use ours,” I said. “I’d like to talk to your mom first, anyway.” As I went into the front hall to retrieve the handset from its cradle, Barr’s old white Camry pulled up in front. His car, not the department’s. That meant he wasn’t just stopping by the house on his way someplace else.

  Good.

  He ran up the walk. I met him at the door and gave him a quick kiss. “Be with you in a sec.”

  “Where’s Kelly?” he asked.

  “I think he went out back. Said something about checking the window locks.”

  Barr nodded and went to find him. I dialed the phone and waited, debating how to tell Allie about her sister.

  “Sophie Mae? Is
Clarissa okay?” God bless Caller ID.

  “Hi, Allie. She’s fine. Well, mostly fine.”

  “What’s wrong?” Anxiety threaded her voice.

  “Hallie stopped by to see her.”

  “Oh. I probably should have warned you. She was pretty upset when Tom told her we’d decided Clarissa should spend some time with Erin until the … situation … is resolved.”

  Situation, indeed.

  “Did you know she’d been drinking?”

  “What? No, of course not.”

  “We tried to get her to stay so we could call you, but she took off. I’m concerned that she’s on the road.” Not to mention how she handled that sporty car of hers even when sober.

  “Oh, God. I’ll call her—no, wait. What if she answers and she’s driving and then she gets in a wreck? Should I wait?”

  “Er, I don’t know. We told Barr, so the police—and likely the sheriff’s department—are on the lookout for her.”

  Allie was silent.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “But she was acting pretty irrationally.”

  She sighed. “I suppose there are worse things than the police picking her up.”

  “I called to let you know what was going on, but also because Clarissa wants to talk to you. I think it kind of scared her to see her aunt like that, and she was trying to get Clarissa to come back home with her.”

  “Darn Hallie.” For the first time Allie sounded truly angry at her sister. “We’ve put up with so much from her over the last year, and I keep making allowances and hoping she’d get over that crappy divorce. But her mood swings are getting more and more dramatic. She’s getting worse, not better. Let me talk to my daughter.”

  Yes, ma’am. But I didn’t take offense at her abrupt tone, because I knew it wasn’t directed at me. Plus, I couldn’t blame her.

  “Hang on.” I walked back into the living room and held the phone out to Clarissa, still huddled in the corner of the sofa. “Your mom’s on the phone. Do you want me to leave you alone to talk to her?”

  “Yes, please.” It was the first polite thing she’d said to me.

  I handed her the phone and went into the kitchen to add pasta shells to the minestrone. Barr and Kelly tromped up the stairs from my workroom as I stirred. My husband tucked his phone into his pocket as they entered the room. My gut twisted when I saw his face. Kelly didn’t look very happy, either.

  “What’s wrong now?” I asked.

  “That was Zahn. At least we know where Hallie was five minutes ago.”

  I rubbed my eyes. “Where?”

  “The hospital.”

  My hand went to my throat. “Oh, no. What did she do?” I had visions of her breaking into the ICU and finishing the job on Nate.

  “Found Daphne and Nate’s mother and made another big scene.”

  I let out my breath. She hadn’t gotten to Nate or hurt anyone. Still. “Darn it. The last thing Faith and Daphne need is some crazy woman making things even harder.”

  “Faith?” Barr asked.

  Giving the soup on the stove another quick stir, I said, “Mrs. Snow. I went to the hospital this afternoon since they wouldn’t give me any information over the phone. Now I have Daphne’s number, so I can call her directly. I keep hoping Nate will wake up and tell us who hit him.” I couldn’t keep the frustration out of my voice. There were too many possible suspects but no good ones except the one who had knocked me down in my own front yard and made a scene at the hospital.

  “Unless you can get Hallie to confess,” I said to Barr.

  “That’s unlikely, at least for now.” His tone was wry.

  “She is in custody, isn’t she?” I asked.

  Kelly snorted.

  My shoulders slumped. “The hospital just let her go?”

  “Not exactly,” Barr said. “Once things escalated to the point where the floor nurse noticed what was going on, he called security. Apparently Hallie started yelling at Daphne, who turned around and yelled back. They were inches from a cat fight outside the ICU.”

  “Oh, God,” I groaned. At least Daphne could stand up for herself.

  “But it took security a couple minutes to get there,” Barr said. “She scooted out before they arrived.”

  I slumped into a chair. “So she’s still out there.”

  “Cadyville patrol is looking for her, and Everett, Monroe, and the county are on alert as well. We’ll find her.”

  “Kelly told you she’d been drinking?”

  Barr frowned. “Drinking or drunk?”

  “Well …” I hedged. “She seemed pretty loopy, but then again she seemed loopy when Daphne and I ran into her coming out of Nate’s trailer, too. I could definitely smell tequila, though.”

  “Let’s just hope she doesn’t get into a wreck or hurt someone else.”

  Someone else?

  “Do you think she’s the one who attacked Nate?” Kelly asked before I could.

  “Hard telling at this point.” Barr refused to speculate without proper evidence. “I meant that if she’s driving around drunk her car is a weapon that could hurt anyone who gets in her way.”

  Heck, the way she drove, her car was always a weapon.

  “I’m going to check on Clarissa,” I said.

  Meghan and Erin came out of Erin’s bedroom. Meghan looked as serious as a heart attack, but her grinning daughter had obviously recovered from Hallie’s visit with the typical resilience of youth. So I was a little surprised when she ran up and gave me a big hug.

  “Does it hurt?” Erin asked, patting my hip where Hallie had hit me.

  “Sophie Mae?” Alarm echoed in Meghan’s voice.

  I squeezed Erin and waved with my free hand as if dispelling a fog. “That side’s fine.” My other hip, where I’d landed on the ground, would sport a fine bruise.

  My housemates still looked concerned. So I pasted a big smile on my face and pushed Erin toward the kitchen. “Any chance I could get you to set the table?”

  “Uh, sure,” she said, taking a few steps.

  Meghan gave me a hard look and then followed behind her.

  In the living room, Clarissa was still on the phone. “But Mom, you have to let me come home. Hallie needs me … I’ll be careful, I promise … please …?” She looked at me with pleading eyes.

  But I could tell Allie wasn’t giving in. I couldn’t blame her.

  I gestured at Clarissa and whispered. “Let me talk to your mom before you hang up, ’K?”

  She nodded. “Sophie Mae wants to talk to you again … yeah …

  okay … I miss you, too.” But not as much as she missed Hallie was my guess.

  Offering an encouraging smile, I took the phone from her hand, crossed to the entryway and went into Meghan’s office. I closed the door behind me. Clarissa didn’t need to know what I was about to tell her mother.

  “Allie? I have an update on Hallie.”

  She’d been angry at her sister before, but my news about the hospital and all the cops in the entire county being on the lookout for her doubled her fury. She agreed to call when Hallie came home.

  If she came home.

  _____

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea tonight,” Barr said when I mentioned my idea of going to Monroe for a movie with the girls.

  I hadn’t had a chance to tell him why I wanted to give Meghan some alone time with Kelly. But he was right—with Hallie on the loose it would be better to hunker down at home. Together.

  Meghan shrugged at me. “We’ll watch something here, maybe play some board games.”

  Clarissa weighed in. “Board games are boring. That’s why they call them bored games.” She smiled at her joke, and after a moment so did Erin. “Don’t you have video games?”

  “On my computer,” Erin said.

  “Don’t you have a game system for the TV? Or a Wii?”

  Erin shook her head, ashamed at how lame our entertainment options were. She’d never minded before, preferring to read or engage in real-life ac
tivities.

  “Ugh! How can you stand it?” Clarissa’s lip curled in derision.

  Erin shrugged. “I dunno. Do you have all that?”

  Clarissa’s chin rose. “Of course I do.”

  I tried to imagine Tom spending hard-earned money on such things when the budget was so tight their first year on the farm.

  “Hallie gets me all kinds of stuff.”

  Ah. Of course. She’d probably made out quite well in the divorce.

  “We could play poker,” Erin said. “My Nana Tootie taught me how.”

  Clarissa sneered.

  The evening did not get any easier after that. According to our guest, the soup had too many vegetables, bread and butter would make you fat, and fizzy cola products were vastly superior to homemade lemonade. She deemed the kale chips just plain weird and wanted chocolate ice cream for dessert when we only had vanilla. She didn’t care for any of our suggestions for things to do after dinner. Eventually Erin gave up and went to her room, ostensibly to work on her novel. Even that met with disapproval from Clarissa.

  At least Erin had gotten over feeling like we needed a houseful of video games, since Clarissa’s credibility diminished with every complaint. The rest of us ended up sitting in the living room watching Clarissa channel surf until finally Meghan couldn’t stand it any longer.

  “Time for bed.” She stood.

  Kelly, Barr, and I followed suit.

  Clarissa craned her head to look up at us. “But I want to stay up. Mom lets me stay up, you know.”

  “I highly doubt that,” I said, remembering what Barr had said about waking up the family when he went to show them Darla’s autopsy photo. Of course, just because he woke up the parents didn’t mean their daughter wasn’t playing some shoot ’em up in her room. “You and Erin can hang out in her bedroom.”

  Meghan fired a look at me, and I tried not to look sheepish.

  “Whatever.” Clarissa got off the sofa and trudged toward the hallway.

  “Lights out in half an hour,” Meghan called.

  I ducked my head. “Sorry. I know Erin’s had it with all the whining. But that little girl has some problems, not the least of which is her aunt. It’s been a pretty tough day for her.”