by Lisa Bork
Now it was Brennan Rowe’s turn not to reply. I forged ahead. “I heard a rumor some folks think Mr. Hughes might have wreaked his revenge on Tim Lapham.”
“I’m surprised, Miss Asdale.”
“Surprised at the rumor?”
“No. Surprised you’d repeat it. You have a reputation in this town as a sensible, level-headed businesswoman. That’s why I came to you. You won’t disappoint me, will you?”
I twisted the phone cord between my fingers, feeling chastised and guilty. “I’ll do my best, Mr. Rowe. But if Mr. Hughes bids higher than your final offer, there’s not much I can do.”
“Then may the best man win.”
That damn saying again. I planned on the best woman winning.
Rowe hadn’t seemed inclined to comment on Tim’s vote. Had he paid him for it? Was that the fifteen thousand dollars hidden in my apartment? Why hide it there? And why set me up to take the fall if Rowe killed Tim to cover up their actions? Rowe needed me out of jail in order for me to bid on the car—unless he really didn’t want the car. That didn’t make any sense, but then, not much had lately.
I locked the front door behind me and spotted Celeste turning the key in the lock at Talbots across the street. I glanced down at the ugly sweatpants I’d put on again this morning with my equally ugly ski jacket. A new dress coat might be in order and maybe a loose pair of dress slacks. I had to win an auction on Monday, and it always helped to look as well as feel like a successful businesswoman when taking on the men.
When Celeste’s eyes roamed over me a few minutes later, I regretted providing her with so much ammunition to launch an attack on my person. But, for once, she had other things on her mind.
“Jolene Asdale, I heard all about that pecker face who tried to kidnap you. Are you all right?”
“I’ll heal, but my clothes were ruined when he dragged me with the car. I need a new coat and maybe a loose pair of slacks. My leg got ripped up pretty good.”
“I have just the thing.” Celeste beckoned. I followed her across the floor to the most beautiful winter white wool coat I’d ever seen. “Try on this coat and this pink scarf. Pink works with your coloring.”
When I looked in the mirror, I had to admit it all worked. But a quick glance at the price tags made me hesitate.
Celeste slid the coat off my shoulders and headed toward the register with it. “Don’t worry, Jolene. I’m going to give you my employee discount. Consider it a reward for bravery.”
I decided to wear my new clothes out of the store and asked Celeste to ring up a pair of dress pants for tomorrow.
At the register, Celeste reached behind her on the counter and picked up a fluffy turquoise angora-like sweater.
I waved my hand. “Oh, no, not for me.”
She held it up by the shoulders. “I was thinking about Erica for Christmas. She’d look fabulous in it.”
Trust Celeste to know her clothes. Erica would love it, and I hadn’t picked anything out for her yet.
Celeste rang everything up and held out my shopping bag. I reached for it. She pulled it away at the last minute. “I heard Ray moved out of your home yesterday.”
I resisted the urge to lunge for the bag, run out the door, and drive over there to check. Instead, I shrugged.
“It’s funny. I always thought the two of you would get back together. That’s why I never made a play for him myself.”
Was I supposed to thank her? I settled for a non-committal smile and a change of subject. “You mentioned Tim’s disagreement with the pastor at your church. How bad was it?”
Celeste set the bag on the counter. “Tim and the minister had words after the sermon. It wasn’t pretty.”
“Do you agree with the minister?”
“No, I don’t, but in this town, it doesn’t pay to be open with your opinions. I guess Tim found that out.”
I cocked my head to the side and stared at Celeste. “Are you saying Tim was killed because of his beliefs?”
Celeste waved her hand dismissively. “No, oh no, not at all. I’d be more inclined to think it had something to do with the half million missing from the town coffers.”
I picked up my bag. “Every time I hear the number it’s grown. Where are these numbers coming from?”
“The town’s independent auditors are looking over five years of financial statements.” Celeste leaned over the counter. “The rumors are flying.”
I hated to encourage her, but knew she’d have the information I wanted. “Did you hear anything about Tim’s life insurance?”
“He left a million to the children, split fifty-fifty, in a trust fund. Becky will have to submit receipts for the children’s expenses to the bank in charge of administering the trust and she will be reimbursed. At least their college funds are guaranteed.”
“So Tim didn’t leave Becky any money directly?”
“No. They had their wills changed after their divorce. Greg Doran handled it.”
I thanked Celeste for her help and headed back to my car, thinking about our conversation. It didn’t sound like Becky had a motive for murder, but the missing money sure pointed to Tim’s knowledge of, or involvement in, something unseemly.
Now if I could only figure what.
I pointed my car in the direction of home and for some reason it chose to transport me not to my apartment but to the home Ray and I once shared. I pulled up in front of the house and looked for signs of life. Nothing.
My key still worked in the lock. No surprises there. I stood in the middle of the living room and looked around. The pillow and blanket I’d used two days ago were folded and stacked on the corner of the couch. But some things were missing.
The big open spot in the living room shouted “Ray’s favorite armchair and ottoman.” The empty hooks on the coat rack said “Ray’s jackets.” I climbed the stairs to the second floor, ignoring the discomfort from my scabbed thigh. The hangers and bureau drawers were empty. I checked the drawer Ray usually locked his service revolver in. Only a hint of leather and gun oil remained, along with the key to the drawer which he had always hidden before. The spicy scent of Ray’s aftershave lingered in the bathroom, but his razor and toiletries were gone. In the kitchen, a big gap on the counter told me Ray had taken the coffeemaker. I’d bought it for his birthday last year.
He’d left behind all the things we had inherited from my father or purchased together as a couple, which meant he’d left almost everything. I didn’t want any of it, either. I just wanted Ray, but this move had an aura of finality to it. My realization had come way too late.
The doorbell rang. I ignored it. Probably nosy neighbors come to get the scoop.
I heard a key in the lock. The door creaked open.
I walked into the living room and came face to face with Catherine Thomas. She let out a yelp of surprise when she spotted me. I was glad to have my new clothes on because she looked like a true business professional: black pantsuit, boots, and wool coat much like the one I used to have. Her hair fell in glorious waves to her shoulders. I had to give her credit—she was a knockout. “Jolene, hi, I, uh, I thought no one was here. I didn’t see any cars in the driveway.”
“I parked in the street.” I took a few more steps toward her. “Ray’s not here. Were you meeting him?” If so, I planned to run out the door.
“Sort of. He told me to stop by and pick up my bike from the garage. I had a waffle iron in the kitchen that belongs to me, too.”
“Oh, well, I guess you guys are going to need that.” Pictures of the two of them sharing breakfast and the Sunday comics filled my head. Ray and I used to do that. A lump formed in my throat.
Catherine tipped her head to the side. “What do you mean?”
I forced the words through my lips. “Ray moved in with you, didn’t he?”
An emotion I couldn’t pinpoint floated through her eyes. “He moved in with one of the guys from the sheriff’s office temporarily.”
I wanted to do the happy dance, but I sa
t gingerly on the sofa instead, an immense sense of relief flowing through me. “Really? But you have a ring.”
She crossed the room and took the chair across from me. “It’s just a ring. It doesn’t mean anything.” She looked at it as if for the first time. “I thought it might someday, but now I know it won’t.”
“I don’t understand. Ray gave it to you, didn’t he?”
Catherine blushed a becoming shade of pink. “He asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I told him the truth. A diamond ring.”
“And he gave you this ring?” I pointed to her finger.
“Yes, but he didn’t say the magic words that usually accompany a ring the way I hoped he would. Instead—” Catherine twisted the diamond ring around her finger. “Well, you know the Meat Loaf song? You know the one, ‘Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad’?”
I knew it. The chorus was about wanting and needing, but not loving a person. The track was on one of Ray’s favorite Meat Loaf albums. “Yes.”
“It was playing on the stereo when he gave me the ring, like a subliminal message.” Catherine slid the ring from her finger and pinched it between her thumb and pointer finger. “Ray doesn’t say too much, but I’m pretty sure the only girl he’s ever going to love is you.”
I resisted the urge to clap my hands in glee.
“He told me when we met that his divorce wasn’t finalized, but he planned to take care of it. I knew that day in the Coachman Inn he hadn’t. He would have had to tell you about me, and you had no idea who I was. I’d had the ring for two months. He never even asked if he could move in with me now.”
She laid it on the coffee table and stood. “I’m going to take my stuff and go. Maybe you can return this to him when he gets here. I don’t want to embarrass myself further by crying in front of him.” Her voice broke. “Because I do love him, but I don’t want to be his backup plan.”
She stumbled out the door, crying.
I felt guilty, as though I had ruined her dreams and broken her heart.
But Ray had taken up with her, not me. Of course, maybe if I’d never left him, he never would have taken up with her in the first place. Maybe if I’d wanted, needed, and loved him the way he wanted and needed to be loved, none of this would ever have happened.
I wasn’t too keen on being the one to tell him his relationship with Catherine was over. She’d abdicated responsibility rather quickly and if I’d been less in shock myself, I would have refused to do the deed. If Ray truly loved her, I’d break his heart a second time.
I eyed the diamond ring on the coffee table. If I just left it there he’d get the message, wouldn’t he? He would call her and she would tell him, right?
The front door swung open before I had a chance to bolt. Ray stepped inside and took off his deputy sheriff’s hat. “What are you doing here?”
I moved between him and the ring. “I heard from Celeste that you moved in with one of your friends. I came over to verify for myself.”
He dropped his hat on the chair and put his hands on his hips. “I told you I would move out. The house is yours, not mine. You can move back in or sell it, whatever you decide.”
I summoned all my courage and swallowed all my pride. “I wanted to tell you how …” What should I say? How sorry I am that I left you? How much I love you? I fumbled for the right words.
Ray’s head tipped to the side. I could tell he’d caught sight of the ring on the table. “What did you say to Catherine?”
“Nothing. She came to pick up her bike and waffle iron.”
He strode across the room and snatched the ring from the table. “And left her ring by accident?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then, tell me, Jolene, what exactly did happen.”
Ray’s neck had that telltale red flush. He was pissed and apparently pissed at me. I took offense and let it all spill out unedited. “Apparently, you gave her a ring. She expected you to ask her to marry you. You didn’t. She introduced herself to me last week at the Coachman and realized I had no idea who she was. She surmised you never spoke to me about finalizing the divorce the way you promised her. She decided today she didn’t have a future with you because you didn’t even ask to move in with her.” Okay, so the coward in me left out the part about how she figured he still loved me. I didn’t want to be too sure of myself.
“I didn’t promise her.” Ray pushed the ring into his pant’s pocket. “Is that all she said?”
I tried to read the tone of his voice to see if he was asking if he had a chance to make up with her, but I couldn’t. I was going to have to lay it all on the line. “No, she said she realized you were always going to love me and she didn’t want to be your backup plan.”
A nerve in Ray’s cheek twitched—something I’d never seen before. Did he care for Catherine? Was she wrong?
“Thank you.” He pulled a ring of keys from his jacket pocket and detached the one for my house. He held it out to me. “I think that’s it.”
If I took the key, we would be through. “Tell me, Ray, is she right? Do you still love me?”
Ray’s arm dropped to his side. “Jolene, you left me and then you pretty much ignored me for the last three years, unless you needed me to help with Erica. I was your backup plan and I’m tired of it. I don’t want to wait around for you anymore.”
My heart skipped with joy at the thought he’d been waiting around—until Catherine’s face popped into my mind. “I would hardly call almost a year-long affair with Catherine waiting around.”
“Thank you. I feel guilty enough about how I treated her. Tell me, Jolene, do you ever feel guilty about how you treated me?” His gaze zoomed in on my face. I had to look away.
I did feel guilty. I should have stayed to work it out with him instead of packing and running away. But it wasn’t entirely my fault.
I met his gaze. “What about the way you treated me, Ray? What about all the pressure to have a baby with you, a baby you knew I didn’t want to have?”
His eyes glazed over. “I was wrong, Jolene. Wrong to pressure you, wrong to think we would have been happier with a baby, and maybe even wrong to marry you in the first place.”
His words drove a knife into my heart. My eyes filled with tears. I wiped them with the tail of my new pink scarf. “What are you saying, Ray? That you never loved me? That all ten years of our marriage were a mistake?”
“I don’t know. I married you thinking I could change you. I was wrong. It was wrong.”
The tears flowed down my face now. I felt like I was drowning. I needed to sit down. I fumbled for a chair, but Ray pulled me in his arms first.
He pressed his lips to mine, sending a shock wave through my body. I resisted, flattening my hands against his chest and pushing. He refused to budge.
Instead, he cemented his body to mine. His tongue teased my lips apart. Our tongues entwined.
I slid my hands up his chest and curved them around his neck and into his hair. I grew faint from lack of air, but I didn’t want to break off the kiss. Ray didn’t show any signs of stopping.
Not that I wanted him to.
His lips moved to my ear.
His breath tickled it.
I tensed in anticipation, waiting for the familiar bite on my earlobe, knowing where it might lead and more than willing to be led. This man was the only one I ever truly wanted.
He whispered, “One last chance, darlin’. Tell me the truth about the money.”
My back stiffened. How cop-like to attack the witness in a weak moment. But then, Ray’s job always was his first priority. Just once, though, I would have liked to have been placed ahead of his job.
I shoved him away, my face flushed with anger. “We were talking about our marriage, Ray.”
He folded his arms across his chest, clearly back in control. Had he felt nothing just now? Was it all just an improvised interrogation technique? I tried to compose myself, not wanting to let him see that he still had the power to break my heart.
&nbs
p; “I want to talk about the convenience store robberies, Jolene. The witnesses to the last robbery where the clerk was shot and killed said the getaway car was funny ha ha, like a clown car, and didn’t have plates.”
“A Mini Cooper? Someone robbed a store driving a Mini Cooper?”
“That was my first thought, too. A Mini fits their description of a small car with two doors, but I can’t find a Mini registered to anyone within a hundred miles. Do you know anyone who owns one around here, maybe a collector?”
“No one in particular, but I remember seeing one on the list of customers I compiled for you. I’ll have to go back to the office and go through the records again.”
Ray nodded. “I think you were right about this robbery. It’s a copycat. But I think you were wrong about Erica. Sam’s cousin Theodore drives a late model dark-colored Lincoln.”
All the air rushed out of me like a punctured tire. “Oh.” I still didn’t want to believe it, but I’d been so wrong about so many things.
“I’ve got an APB out on Theodore Tibble. He shouldn’t be too hard to find now that we have a plate number.” Ray picked up my hand and held it. “I think the fifteen thousand you found in your apartment is evidence of Erica’s involvement.”
A warning bell went off in my head. “How do you know I found fifteen thousand?”
Ray’s grip tightened on my hand. “I saw you in the park that night, putting the money under the town Christmas tree. I have the money in the evidence lockup.”
I whipped my hand away, rose to my feet, and glared at him. “You followed me? Then you had the nerve to come to my house and question me as though you didn’t know what was going on?”
Ray looked up at me, rubbing his palm over his chin and making a scratching sound on his five o’clock shadow. “You weren’t exactly being honest with me, either.”
“Is there anything else you’re not telling me?”
He stood, towering over me. “I could ask you the same. Where did the money come from?”
“I don’t know.”
Ray snorted. “You expect me to believe that?”
We used to trust each other, but apparently we’d lost that, too. I didn’t even bother trying to convince him that this time I’d told him the real truth.