by Roslyn Woods
“It really doesn’t make sense,” said Shell.
“But it seems to be true that Lana Maxwell bought it,” said Ken. “Dean also thought it was weird that Becky Lester told the police about his having it. Apparently, she said Amanda had told her. Do either of you know her?”
“I might have met her at the wedding,” said Margie, “but I don’t remember her. I can look through the wedding pictures. Why would she do that? She had to be put up to it or something.”
“Dean remembers her as a small blond with short hair, if that helps,” said Ken.
“Okay,” said Margie. “How did they know to look for the sweatshirt?”
“Apparently they’ve got video of a man about Dean’s height going in and out of Amanda’s apartment complex on the morning of the killing. He was wearing an orange Longhorn hoodie, and his face was hidden from the camera.”
“But everyone in Austin has one of those,” said Margie. “We’ve probably got three of them ourselves, and we’re not even fans.”
“Yes,” said Ken, “but the one they found in Dean’s closet has Amanda’s blood on it.”
Shell felt sick. It looked bad.
“What can we do?” she asked.
“For right now, not very much. Just do as Dean says and keep yourselves safe,” he answered. “Shell, he really wanted me to press on you the importance of staying with Margie and Donald. He doesn’t want you sleeping at your house.”
“I can do that. Can you tell him I’m staying with Margie?”
“I can. And he hopes you’ll start video visitation as soon as they’ll allow it.”
“When will that be?”
“Probably tomorrow evening at five. You’ll need to use your laptop,” he said looking at Shell, “or Dean said you can use the desk top at Margie’s house. I’m sure he’d like to visit with all of you. You’ll have to call Travis County first and get it scheduled.” He paused and added, “And y’all be careful not to reveal anything about the case in your conversations. There could be people listening in.”
“Really?” asked Margie.
“I’d count on it.”
“Okay,” said Shell.
“One more thing. Is there any way you can talk to a woman named Rita Anderson? Dean said she might know something about Lana Maxwell buying a gun. He says she was a good friend of his mom’s.”
“I know her. She lives up the street. I can go see her,” said Shell.
“That’s good. Let me know what you learn.”
It was after four when Shell and Margie got home to the house on 16th Street. They both changed into comfortable clothes and found themselves sitting in the living room with the dogs. Sadie found a spot on the floor near Shell’s feet, whining a little, as if to tell her she missed Dean, and Bitsy squeezed up next to the big dog. Tabitha, who had no rules about staying off the furniture, jumped up into Margie’s lap.
“I’m exhausted,” said Margie. “I hardly slept a wink last night.”
“Maybe you should lie down for a while,” suggested Shell.
“No, I’m going to push on through and hope to sleep tonight. Right now I need to run out and get a few things at the grocery store. You wanna come?”
“I would, but I need to go by my house and get some clothes and dog food. I also think I’ll stop by Rita’s and see if she’s home. Maybe she can answer this question about Lana buying a gun.”
“Okay, but take Sadie with you. I don’t think you should go by the house without her now that Dean’s not home and things are feeling so weird.”
“Okay, I’ll take her. She’s a good travel buddy.”
Chapter 56
It was a cream colored bungalow with trim the color of toast. There was a Halloween wreath on the door. Little pumpkin lights lined the border of the porch, and as she rang the bell, Shell wondered if Rita had grandchildren.
“Oh, dear,” said Rita, opening the door. “I’ve been worrying about Dean all day.”
“Yes,” said Shell, remembering the article in the morning’s Statesman. “I went to the arraignment hearing this afternoon with Dean’s sister and her husband. I imagine you saw the police cars yesterday.”
“Yes, I did. Come in, dear,” she said, standing back and holding the door open for Shell and Sadie. It was a lovely room with deep teal walls and a bucolic landscape painting over the fireplace. The wood floors shone with high polish, and nothing was out of place. “I remember Dean’s sister,” she was saying, “because Lana introduced us at the wedding. I remember she has beautiful red hair.” Then she added, “Oh, listen to me! You must have something you’d like to talk about. How did the arraignment go?”
“Not well,” answered Shell. “The judge wouldn’t set bail, so Dean can’t get out till there’s a trial and he’s cleared.” Shell’s voice broke then, and Rita reached for a box of tissues from the shelf behind her.
“Here, dear,” she said, handing her a tissue. “This is just terrible, and we know Dean is innocent. Please, sit down. You need to ask me about something?”
“I do,” said Shell, taking a seat in a wingback brocade chair as Rita sat down, and Sadie politely lay on the floor by Shell’s feet.
“Can I get you some tea or something?” asked Rita. “And does Sadie need some water?”
“No, no, but thank you. I won’t stay long. Margie and I were just talking to Dean’s lawyer,” she began, “and he thought you might be able to answer a question or two for Dean.”
“Oh, I hope I can,” said Rita, “but I doubt there’s anything I know that could help.”
“Rita,” said Shell, “they found a gun in Dean’s house. It seems it was purchased by Lana in 1992.”
Rita looked taken aback.
“Oh, dear, I do know a little bit about that,” she said leaning back in the brocade chair opposite Shell’s. “Dean was off at school in California, and Lana and I were two divorcees who’d met at the neighborhood association.”
“Does Hyde Park have one?”
“Oh, I think nearly every neighborhood in Austin probably has one, dear. Anyway, there had been a burglary over on Duval, and being single women, it made us quite nervous. We were having coffee one day, and she suggested we needed protection. I don’t know what we were thinking! It was whimsical really. Neither one of us was the type to have or shoot a gun, but we went to a gun shop, the one on Manchaca Road, and we bought twin .25 caliber pistols.”
“Oh my!” said Shell. “That’s what they found!”
“We bought them and the ammunition for them, and we kept them in our nightstand drawers. We thought they were so cute. You know, they’re small, and they had pearl handles. I kept mine there for about a week before it bothered me so much I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I didn’t want to shoot anybody, and I was pretty sure that if I aimed it at someone they’d just take it away from me and shoot me with it. Anyway, I took the clip out and put one piece in the back of a dresser drawer, and the other in the back of a different dresser drawer. And there they’ve been all these years.”
“But what about Lana?”
“She did the same thing. She said she hated that thing more than anything in the world. She said it frightened her and embarrassed her, and she just wanted to get rid of it.”
“But she didn’t,” said Shell.
“No. It seemed a little bit complicated to take it back to the store where we bought the guns, and so she did what I did. She took the clip out and put it somewhere in her dresser, and she took the gun and put it in a cardboard box with some jewelry she never wore.”
“Where was that?”
“It was in the top of her bedroom closet,” said Rita, “and as far as I knew, that’s where it stayed till she died.”
“And you never knew of her talking to Dean about it?”
“Oh, no, I don’t think she would have. She was a little embarrassed about it, you see. And you know, she wouldn’t have wanted Dean to feel bad about going away to school. He was such a good son. I’ve never had
children, but if I did I’d want a son just like Dean. It would have been hard for him not to worry about his mother if he thought she felt unsafe. He might even have come home and not finished school, and Lana wouldn’t have wanted that. He was doing so well at USC.”
“I wonder why he didn’t find it after Lana died,” said Shell.
“Oh! That Amanda!” said Rita. “I’d be willing to bet money she found it and took it!”
Shell noticed an expression of disgust on Rita’s face.
“Why do you say that?” asked Shell.
“Lana was worried sick after Dean married her. At first she’d seemed like a nice woman, but it didn’t take long for Lana to see she was trying to get everything she could from Dean’s bank account, and she even wanted to be written into Lana’s will.”
“She didn’t think he should marry her?”
“At first she was okay with her,” said Rita, “but after the wedding, Amanda started doing things that bothered her.”
“Like?”
“I’m afraid you’ll think I’m speaking ill of the dead, but she was not a good wife to Dean, I can tell you that.”
“What did she do?”
“Well, first she filled his house with that awful Italianate furniture that they put in all the model homes. It was expensive and gaudy, and she wouldn’t have a thing to do with a kind of furniture that would be at home in a Craftsman house. I guess Dean let her buy what she wanted because he just wanted her to be happy, which is fine, it’s just she wasn’t interested in his being happy with the furniture. It was his home too, after all. And Lana told me he wasn’t really consulted about it at all. Then Amanda had to have a new car, and Dean let her get that Lexus. Lana told me she refused to ride in Dean’s car because it wasn’t nice enough. He had that nice Jeep Cherokee, and it was fine till she had him hooked, but it wasn’t good enough after the wedding.”
“Well, it isn’t so unusual,” said Shell, “for a woman to buy new things after getting married.”
“No, but nothing was enough. Then she started going out at night without Dean, and Lana was beside herself.”
“But I thought she maintained a sort of friendship with Lana,” said Shell.
“She seemed to want to, but it was all for getting into Lana’s will, and Lana was wary by then. She’d noticed Amanda snooping around her house looking for things.”
“What was she looking for?”
“Valuables. Things started to go missing, but Lana wouldn’t say a word to Dean. And when Lana went to the hospital and Amanda started staying in her house, I went over for a visit. I told her Lana had asked me to try to find where she’d put the pearl brooch I’d given to her when we were sixty. I really just wanted to see the house.”
“And she let you look?”
“What else could she do? Anyway, there were already things missing two weeks after Lana had left,” she said looking at Shell. “It was small things, like silver vases and antique boxes, but I just knew she was hocking that stuff and lots more that I couldn’t see. Anyway, she let me look for the brooch in Lana’s jewelry box. It was there, but at least half of her other jewelry was missing.”
“And Dean had no idea,” said Shell sadly.
“No, I think he was just too good to see the evil in another person,” said Rita. “That, and he was probably trying to turn a blind eye.”
“Yes,” said Shell. “Because he didn’t want Lana to have to see the messy divorce that was coming. He was biding his time.”
“And when Amanda moved into the apartment up north,” continued Rita, on a roll now, “do you know that girl took every stick of that furniture she’d bought and left Dean without a thing? Not that he should have wanted the ugly stuff, but his house had no furniture in it. Nothing but his bookshelves and his desk. He had to buy a bed, and he started bringing his mother’s furniture over to his house so he’d have a place to sit!”
“I didn’t know any of this,” said Shell. “I wonder if Margie had any idea what Dean was going through. Did you ever learn anything about what happened to all of Lana’s jewelry?”
“After she died,” Rita answered, “Dean asked me if there was anything of hers that I’d like to have. I told him there was only one thing and that I’d kind of like to have that pearl brooch. It wasn’t very valuable, but Lana loved it, you see, and that made me want it. Anyway, it couldn’t be found. He looked everywhere for it, and I told him not to worry about it, but I know he felt bad. Carmen even helped him search for it.”
“And you talked to Carmen about it?”
“Only a little, dear. She’s very loyal, you know, but she cleans my house too, and we’ve become good friends through the years. We both felt so sad about losing Lana that we had to console each other. Anyway, she felt as bad about the brooch going missing as I did.”
“So Amanda had taken it,” said Shell, thoughtfully.
“That’s what I have to think,” said Rita.
Shell sat shaking her head. It seemed impossible Dean had been married to a woman like Amanda, and she felt deeply sorry that he and his mother had been forced to endure so much at her hands.
“Rita,” she said, “I’d like to ask a big favor.”
“Anything, dear,” Rita responded.
“I’d like to borrow that little pistol of yours.”
Chapter 57
Shell and Sadie didn’t get home till seven-thirty, and Donald was putting wine glasses on the table while Margie was dishing up bowls of steaming pumpkin soup. A loaf of golden French bread sat in the middle of the table, and Shell felt a pang. What was Dean having for dinner tonight? With all his stress, would he even be able to eat?
“How did you do? Did you learn anything?” Donald asked as Shell put the bag of dog food in the pantry.
“I did,” she answered. “You’ll find it pretty interesting, I think.”
They sat down at the table and talked as they ate, and Margie and Donald were astonished at what Rita had told Shell, both about the guns she and Lana had bought and about the things Rita believed Amanda had done.
“I guess I should have expected the theft,” Donald said, “after hearing the things you learned from Carmen. It’s just pretty shocking anyway, though, isn’t it?”
“The thing is, Donald,” said Shell, “I think they’re going to ram a conviction through if we don’t do something that makes it clear someone else killed Amanda.”
“Do you think you know who did it?” asked Margie.
“I vacillated between Kojak—the man we now know is Hector Arena—and Danny for a long time. But now Danny’s out of the picture. So Kojak is still a possibility, but Richert learned that the police have video of someone entering and leaving Amanda’s apartment complex. Whoever it was looked a lot like Dean in an orange longhorn hoodie. Who looks like him? Two people that I can think of. Remember the triplets?”
“Wait a minute,” said Donald. “There’s Ray, the guy we spotted at the bar, and who was the other guy?”
“Dean’s handball partner, Jason. He’s in the background of one of the wedding pictures.”
“The guy we met in the courtroom today! But why?”
“I don’t know. I’m just saying, he looks like him. Enough like him that I mistook him for Dean when I saw him walking up the street and getting in his car the other day. And he drives a gray SUV.”
“A gray SUV?” Donald asked. “Like the one your ex said belonged to the guy who’d been in and out of your house.”
“Yeah.”
“And,” added Margie, “Shell thinks she saw him at the bar the night we saw Kojak and Ray.”
“It’s hard to imagine a friend of Dean’s could do something as violent as kill someone,” said Donald.
“I’m thinking it’s possible he was working for the killer, and he’s working for him now. Maybe he doesn’t even really know much about what’s going on,” said Shell.
“What about Ray? Isn’t he the guy Dean caught lying to him about going to the bar? You
don’t think it’s him?”
“I don’t know,” Shell answered. “I’m confused. I’ve never seen him walking around. All I know is Jason looks a hell of a lot like Dean.”
“What does Ray drive?” Margie wanted to know.
“That’s unanswered too,” said Shell. “Anyway, I want to do something.”
“What?” asked Margie.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to invite Gabe and Linda to come over and talk to us this evening. Is it okay?”
“Of course, but you’d better call now. It’s almost eight,” said Margie.
Shell rummaged through her purse for a minute, searching for Linda’s card. Then she went into the guest room and made the call.
“Hello, Linda?”
“Yes?”
“This is Shell Hodge. I met you and Gabe the other evening at Bess Bistro as Dean and I were leaving.”
“Oh! Hello! We saw the paper. It’s just awful! Is there anything we can do?”
“Well, I do need to ask a favor. Is there any chance you and Gabe could come over to Dean’s sister’s house tonight?”
“I think we could. Just a minute and I’ll ask Gabe.”
Shell paced as she waited. In a minute Linda was back on the line.
“Just give us the address,” she said.
Gabe and Linda pulled up in Gabe’s Volvo sedan at eight-thirty. Donald was watching for them while Shell paced and Margie made decaf.
“Hello. I believe we met the other night,” Gabe said as Donald reached out to shake his hand and then Linda’s.
“Please come in,” said Donald. “We need some advice, and maybe some help.”
They all greeted each other, but it was clearly a sober occasion.
“Please sit down,” said Margie, as she brought cups and saucers to the coffee table. Gabe and Linda sat on the couch and Donald and Margie sat opposite them as Shell came into the little living room with the coffee pot.
“Let me pour,” said Margie, as Shell placed the carafe on a trivet.
“Okay,” she said as she seated herself in a dining room chair they had brought into the living room for the occasion. Then looking up at Gabe and Linda she began, “Thanks for coming. We need to fill you in on some background, and maybe we can get you to fill us in, too. We’re going out on a limb here because Dean told me you were in his corner. We don’t know where else to turn.”