“What in the hell are you doing here?” she growled, teeth nearly clenched. “I thought they’d ‘a locked you up by now.”
“I need to talk to you for a few minutes.”
The waitress laid a hand on Karen’s arm and quickly ushered them through a swinging door into the kitchen. “There’s the back door, now use it!”
The big, dough-bodied cook turned from the grill and started. The waitress Allison had been slicing oranges at the cutting board. When she saw Judd, she let out a little cry. “Lenny, it’s him.” Karen had to step aside as the girl scuttled into the dining room.
“Please,” Karen said, deeply guilty at the disturbance they were causing, “we just wanted to ask you a few questions. It will only take a minute.”
“We all made statements to the police,” Ricky said, hands on her hips. She was probably in her fifties, but her faded jeans fit like leggings, and an inch of shiny gold bangles jangled on her left arm. Karen thought she resembled nothing so much as an older, but still exotic, mountain lioness. “You got any questions, you ask the cops.”
The cook picked up a cleaver and held it at the ready.
“We’re sorry we bothered you,” Judd said. Karen followed him out the back door and as he strode quickly toward his car.
“Damn.” He hit his leg with the palm of his hand. “It’s going to be impossible to learn anything if everyone’s already tried me.”
Hating to see him discouraged, Karen automatically said something positive. “Maybe not.”
“Come on, honey! What else do you expect me to do? Walk into the sheriff’s office and ask them politely if I can see my file?”
“No, of course not.” Karen thought a moment. “Perhaps, if I go back alone, the waitresses will talk to me.”
Judd leaned a straightened arm against the hood of his car. “I don’t want to ask you to do that.”
“You’re not asking, I’m volunteering. I came along to help, remember?”
Conflicting desires warred in Judd’s face. Finally he said, “All right. I don’t suppose they’d throw a defenseless woman out on her rear, but that cook looks a little crazed. Be careful.”
Karen wanted to point out it was Judd’s presence, not her own, that seemed to raise Lenny’s blood pressure, but she refrained. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back in a minute.”
The heat and humidity of the kitchen enveloped her as Karen stepped through the back door. Ricky had her arm around Allison, who had obviously been crying. Guilt washed over Karen again, but she pushed it aside and put on her most humble, nonthreatening smile, the one she used when visiting elderly clients in their homes for the first time. It said, Thank you for seeing me, and please excuse me for invading your space.
“Ladies, I’m sorry. If you could, please, it really would help me out if you talked to me for just a minute.”
Ricky exhaled, ruffling her bangs, then seemed to make a decision. “Allison, you go wash up.” She patted the girl’s fanny. “And get back out there pronto before they start climbing over the counter.”
Allison avoided Karen’s gaze as she blew her nose and obediently left. Lenny glanced apprehensively from where he was frying up some hash browns and eggs, but he seemed to be calmer now that Judd was gone.
“We were all real fond of Marlene,” Ricky said stiffly, crossing her arms over her chest. “You can imagine how hard this has hit us. Allison especially. And I’ve got to be out there, forcing myself to kid with the customers like nothing happened. We may look fairly busy this morning, but they’re usually waiting out the door on Saturdays. If folks are made to feel any more jittery than they already are, we’ll never get ‘em back.”
“It must be very difficult for you, and I’m sorry, really. I know it was a shock to you seeing Judd here. I’m a social worker for the county, you see, and I’ve been assigned to help him until he recovers his memory. Did you, ah, know he has amnesia?”
Ricky sniffed. “Yeah, I heard some rumor to that effect.”
Karen cut to the chase. “It would be a great help if you can tell me how well Marlene knew Judd.”
“I’ll tell you exactly what happened, straight. Marlene had a date with a man the night she was killed—she and Allison were working the lunch shift and Marlene told her. That evening, Mar called here close to eight o’clock. I answered the phone. She told me she was going out of town for a week or two.”
Ricky paused, and the back of Karen’s neck prickled. She thought of Judd arriving at Summers’ Chevron at seven the same night and demanding his back pay, not appearing to care when Howie told him to never come back.
Ricky cleared her throat and stared at the floor. “Mar was embarrassed asking me to cover for her with the boss lady—she’d never done that before, played hooky I mean—but she sounded happy about the trip. Me and Allison were sure she was going away with the guy.” The older woman looked up and fixed Karen with eyes that were cold with anger and grief. “We figure now that the murderer led her along so she’d tell everyone she was going out of town and we wouldn’t get suspicious and start looking for her right away. Heck, if they hadn’t found her body, Allison and me probably would have assumed she’d eloped and just decided not to come back.”
“Did she, ah, tell you her boyfriend’s name?”
“No way. Mar was very private and never talked much about her men, so we can’t prove it was Judd, but we took a kind of poll, and Allison was sure it was Judd Maxwell. He’s smooth and so sincere, you know. Just the kind of guy who could lie his way barefaced into a girl’s heart, never let her know what he was really like until he turned on her.”
Thoughts were beginning to whirl much too fast inside Karen’s head, making it hard for her to form her next question. She tried to slow down, to focus for a moment on the sounds of clinking cutlery and rustling newspapers that blended with the hum of conversation from the other room. Ricky’s estimation of Judd’s character could be pure imagination. But standing here, speaking with Marlene’s friends, was making the murder too real, whereas before it had been just a grisly story someone told her. She mustn’t convict Judd on circumstantial evidence, on what might be coincidence.
Karen took a breath. “What made you think Judd was, ah, was Marlene’s lover?”
Ricky leaned back against a freezer and crossed her arms. “Judd was friendly with all the waitresses, but especially Marlene. He used to come in here four or five times a week, for an early lunch, and he almost always sat in Mar’s section.”
Karen tried to think of reasons, other than the obvious one, why Judd would have driven clear across town and beyond the city limits to lunch at the diner. It could be because he liked the food, and because the friendly atmosphere made him feel he wasn’t eating alone.
She made herself ask, “Did Judd flirt with her?”
“No.” Ricky shook her blond mane. “He didn’t flirt, just talked to her. But sometimes he’d tell her something funny and she’d laugh—and he didn’t joke that often with the rest of us. And he left Mar big tips. He didn’t come on to her, though. That wouldn’t have been the right approach with a girl like Marlene.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Mar wasn’t really the sort you’d expect to find waiting tables for a living. She had more class, and not the same kind of interests as most folks. I always wondered why she hadn’t gone to college, maybe got in a fight with her parents, and that’s why she left home. She was only twenty-four or -five, and she wasn’t from around here.”
A voice called from the counter on the other side of the pass-through, “Hey, Ricky, you ever comin’ out? I can see my breakfast gettin’ cold up there.”
Ricky glanced fretfully over her shoulder, then stepped toward Karen and focused hard on her. “Sweetie, if I were you, I’d get as far as I could from that character and hide myself. I don’t care if he’s your job or you’re stuck on him, or whatever—it’s not worth it. I’d bet my life that this guy killed Marlene just for the fun of it. She was a sweet
young girl, just like you, and she’d never do anything to make a man slit her throat. This jerk got his kicks gaining her trust and then doing her in, and you can bet it’s not the first time. He’s probably left a string of redheaded dead women across this state.”
“Red?” Karen reached reflexively to touch one of her curls. “Marlene had red hair?”
“Yeah, sweetie, long and wavy. A lot like yours.” Ricky plucked the morning paper off a shelf next to a radio and showed Karen the front page. “See. The picture’s black and white, but the two of you could be cousins—or sisters.”
Chapter Eleven
It was a fatal mistake to leave by the diner’s back door.
But it was too late. Still reeling from what Ricky had told her, she’d left the kitchen the way she came in. Now, as Judd rushed toward her, she wished she’d thought to call a cab or find some other way to get back to Silver Creek on her own. It seemed just possible now that Judd had killed Marlene. Perhaps he’d blacked out before he did it. Perhaps he had a split personality or something. She simply didn’t know.
“You were in there a long time,” he said, a strange look of relief on his face.
“Not really.” She couldn’t tell him what Ricky had revealed. She had to pretend.
“Are you all right?” He was trying to catch her eyes, his hand hovering near her arm but not touching it. There was almost a quaver in his voice as he asked, “What did they tell you?”
“Nothing, really.” Karen walked fast to keep ahead of him, to keep him from seeing the distress in her face. “They, ah, they were too busy to talk, I’m afraid. The cook let me wait in the kitchen for a few minutes, but the waitresses couldn’t get away, or wouldn’t.” Feeling sick inside, she flashed him a smile over her shoulder that she hoped conveyed apologetic frustration.
“I’m sorry it was a wild-goose chase.” He followed her closely around to her side of the car. As he unlocked the door for her, caution warned her not to get in. She waited for him to step away, wishing desperately that some more believable excuse would come to her before she was forced to speak, but it didn’t.
“Would you, ah, would you mind if I stayed and got some breakfast? I’m really hungry—”
“Here?”
“Yes, I think I’d rather not wait. You don’t have to stay if you’ve got, ah, other things to do. I’m sure my uncle will give me a ride home if I call him.”
He was frowning. He obviously knew something was up. He’d never let her go now!
“I’ve got a better idea.” He was suddenly smiling, the instant congeniality ominous. “Why don’t we drive into Granite City? Maybe there we can find a place where everyone won’t recognize me off the bat.”
Before she could protest, he pulled open her door. “Come on.”
Karen craned her neck to watch as he circled the car. She could jump out and make a run for it, but they were yards from the diner parking lot, and there wasn’t a soul in sight. If he sprinted after her, he could catch her and drag her back to the car without the coffee-shop patrons ever spotting them.
She weighed her chances for safety as he slid in beside her; it was a long drive to the county seat, and traffic on the two-lane highway would be light on an early Saturday morning. “I’d rather not go to Granite,” she said, at the same time lying to herself, telling herself she had nothing to worry about. The mental ruse began to work, and she added more calmly, “I make that drive every day, you know. We can go back to my place, and I’ll fix us something.”
He threw her a questioning look, then started the engine. “That would be fine, if you don’t mind.”
“Yes, let’s go back to the house.”
Judd wheeled the car around and applied his foot to the accelerator, setting his course back to Silver Creek. Karen sat rigidly beside him. He couldn’t really imagine honest Karen lying to him about the waitresses not talking to her, but something had spooked her badly. He’d felt tension flowing from her the moment she stepped from the diner.
Judd rubbed his chest, which was strangely tight.
How alive he felt to Karen, how attuned to every signal of her emotions! All morning, since seeing Marlene’s photo in the paper, he’d felt oddly detached from his surroundings, as though he were an objective observer watching Judd and Karen investigate a crime that involved someone else. Only when he’d witnessed her distress had a part of him begun to feel again.
His feelings for her obviously ran deeper than his own sense of self-preservation. Time was of the essence, yet he’d suddenly judged it more important to take her into Granite if it would have relieved her distress.
But normal, pleasant diversions like weekend drives weren’t meant for him and Karen. He couldn’t escape reality, and he’d been dreaming to think for a moment it might be possible.
As he drove, Judd struggled to find something to say to make her less afraid of him. But what could he say that wouldn’t smack of outright hypocrisy, what assurances could he give about himself that weren’t potential lies? Karen Thomas was probably wise to be frightened of him. As they neared town, he forced himself to accept the truth: allowing Karen to go on being afraid of him was probably the kindest thing he could do for her. And at that moment, he felt a part of himself die.
The silence made Karen nervous, but it was easier than trying to talk and act as though nothing was wrong. They had just entered town when she spied a man on the sidewalk a block ahead, waiting to cross the street at Silver Creek’s first stoplight. She thought she recognized the figure. Yes, it was her uncle Ed, and the light was yellow. It must be a sign from heaven. She wasn’t sure Judd was guilty, and bailing out on him would be like taking sides, but this was her chance, and she knew she had to grab it.
Ed saw her through the windshield as Judd slowed the car for the light He squinted, then raised his hand in a wave. As they came to a stop behind another car, Karen said, “There’s my uncle. I’d like to talk to him.”
She shoved open the door and scrambled out to safety.
Ed Thomas came toward her with a smile that mixed pleasure with surprise. “Gee, you’re anxious to see me,” he said.
Flushed with relief in Ed’s familiar, comforting presence, she threw her arms around him and squeezed tightly.
“Are you okay, pumpkin?”
“It’s Judd,” Karen said shakily while trying to keep her voice down. “We were just at the Creekside Diner, and I had a talk with the head waitress.”
“Ricky Black, you mean? That woman’s got a big mouth and an imagination to match. I had a chat with her myself last night.”
“You did?”
“Sure. I tried to call you at the house, but you must have been out and I didn’t leave a message. I’ve got some news for your client.”
Judd had swung the car around the corner and parked. He approached them now and held out his hand to shake Ed’s.
“Morning, Judd. I was going to phone you later. I’ve got some information for you.”
Karen suddenly remembered that she’d forgotten to tell Judd she had gone over his head and asked her uncle to check into his background. However, Judd appeared neither angry nor worried by her uncle’s words, just a little surprised perhaps. She remembered what Ricky had said about Judd being smooth and adept at dissembling.
Ed added with enthusiasm, “I located your ex-wife, Judd. Cynthia Peltz was her maiden name. She’s still living down in Irvine, where you were an undergraduate at the University of California. She said she was a part-time student and worked in a sandwich shop near the campus, where you two met. But perhaps you’d rather talk later, in my office, and I can tell you the rest.”
It was a bit windy on the street, but there was little traffic and no pedestrians. Judd’s eyes were burning, his total attention focused on the private investigator. “No, please go on,” he urged, and ushered the three of them into the protected alcove of a closed-up shop.
“Well, Cynthia claims she was unsure about the marriage from the start, but you were
very much in love with her and talked her into it. Anyway, it didn’t last long. There were no children. I tried to get information about your family, but her memories were too vague to be of any use. She hasn’t seen or heard anything from you since the divorce.
“I asked her about the breakup, thought it might help you remember. She described you as being ‘uptight and puritanical,’ but reading between the lines I’d say you probably preferred studying or taking in a movie while she wanted to barhop.” He gave a sorry shake of his head. “Anyway, you split up after only a year and a half, she filed for a divorce and she remarried immediately after the papers came through. Something she let slip confirmed she’d met the other guy while you two were still together. Apparently you took the whole thing rather well, because even though her memories of you aren’t real fond, she couldn’t come up with anything bad to say about you.”
Ed paused a moment to allow the information to sink in. Her uncle’s news, combined with his friendly, trusting demeanor with Judd, was easing Karen’s fears. Her limbs felt rather limp after the sustained charge of adrenaline, and she was beginning to feel a little foolish.
“Did Cynthia know if I’d ever remarried?”
“No, she didn’t, but I’d say the chances are extremely slim. A former associate of mine now works for a big investigation firm in Tampa that has a database of marriage and divorce records you wouldn’t believe. That’s how I found Cynthia.”
“I see,” Judd said. Karen thought he looked relieved. “I appreciate you doing this for me, sir, and I want to pay you back. Is there any more?”
“Yes. I contacted your academic advisor at Irvine. He said you were a history major and you enjoyed the subject and were a top student but didn’t have much interest in teaching it and lacked any clear idea about what you wanted to do in life. Last time he saw you, you were planning to take a year off and get a job in the real world before investing in a master’s program. I asked him about extracurricular activities. He thought you were fairly active in some frat house you belonged to before you married, and that you were involved with the Democratic Club on campus. That’s as far as I got. I couldn’t get ahold of your academic records, which might give an address for your folks, but I’m working on it. The Privacy Act doesn’t always make my job easy”
Only A Memory Away Page 13