‘I’ve been their mother since they were ten. They are so precious to me,’ Constance said.
‘I wish I had that kind of relationship with my husband’s daughters, but their mother poisoned them against me – and their father. Now that they’re grown up, he hardly ever gets to see them.’
Constance shook her head. ‘That’s such a shame. If only—’
The door to the library burst open and Megan rushed in. ‘Dru told that bitch doctor everything!’
‘What?’ Constance said standing.
Megan seemed to notice Jewel for the first time, and backed up a few steps.
‘Are you sure?’ Constance asked.
Megan nodded.
‘How much?’ Constance asked.
‘Everything.’
Constance turned to Jewel. Her demeanor had changed from charming to dangerous. ‘And I’m sure you’re also in the know, Mrs Monk.’
‘In the know about what?’ Jewel asked, at this point really confused. She’d almost accepted Constance’s excuse for the fight between her and Dru the night of the funeral.
‘Where are they?’ Constance demanded.
‘In the solarium,’ Megan said.
‘Bring her!’ Constance said, and Megan went up to Jewel and grabbed her arm, and the three left the library on their way to the solarium.
Darrell Blanton’s wallet was also full of cash. So he probably didn’t have any money on him in the cell. How did he pay for the pizza he probably didn’t order? I walked out in the hall and called for Holly. She came, carrying a sleeping Junior with her.
‘Did you pay for the pizza when it was delivered to Darrell?’ I asked her.
She shook her head. ‘No, of course not. I knew you wouldn’t want the county to pay for it, and I’m saving all my money for the honeymoon.’
‘Call that pizza kid back and have him come in. Just tell him I’ve got a few more questions.’
‘You’re supposed to be at the hearing for Drew Gleeson in about a half hour,’ Holly told me.
‘Shit,’ I said, then turned and apologized to the new mother. I knew calling Harry Joyner and asking to reschedule wasn’t gonna fly. He’d think I was just stalling. And I could well be. At that point I had no idea what I was doing or why. Thinking fast, I said, ‘Call the pizza kid now and tell him to come in ASAP. When’s Emmett gonna be through at the VFW?’
‘He should be leaving about now. They were gonna serve lunch—’
‘Call him. Tell him to come back here and get the prisoner and take him to the courthouse. He knows just about as much as I do about the case.’
She handed the baby back to his mother and ran for her phones. And I went back into the storage room with Chandra Blanton and her new family.
‘So,’ I said, taking out the inventory typed up by Holly the morning after we’d brought Darrell Blanton in. I compared the inventory with the items in the box. ‘One cell phone, Fonetastic brand; one wallet holding thirty-two dollars in cash, an out-of-date driver’s license and a lapsed MasterCard; one Swiss Army knife – forty-seven blade variety; a half-eaten roll of Mentos; eighty-seven cents in loose change; and his Nikes, complete with shoelaces.’
‘That looks to be it,’ Chandra agreed.
‘OK, let’s go out front so you can sign about a hundred forms to pick this stuff up.’
‘Do we really need any of that crap?’ Mike asked his soon-to-be-wife.
‘I can buy three boxes of newborn diapers with that thirty-two dollars!’ she informed her soon-to-be-husband.
Mike shrugged. ‘OK,’ he said, which I agreed was the wisest choice of an answer.
We went back out to the bullpen where Holly was just hanging up the phone. ‘That was Emmett. He’s on his way. He said he should be here in no time at all.’
‘Did you get hold of that pizza kid?’ I asked her.
‘Ronnie Jacobs,’ my clerk said succinctly, obviously not impressed with my memory. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He said he was close and he’d be right here.’
‘Good,’ I said. ‘Chandra’s got papers to sign?’
‘Right here,’ Holly said with a smile. ‘I’ve got them all sorted out for you.’
‘Thanks,’ Chandra said. ‘And if I haven’t said it enough, I just want to tell you how sorry I am about what my family did to your bachelorette party. And about that lady who got killed.’
Holly reached out a hand and cupped Chandra’s elbow. ‘You’ve already said it plenty and you really don’t need to keep saying it. No one blames you. We all know you were as much a hostage as the rest of us.’ Holly grinned widely. ‘And if it wasn’t for this little one,’ she said, gently rubbing Junior’s back, ‘we’d probably still be there!’
Chandra laughed but still hung her head. That was some heavy guilt that girl was carrying, I thought. I hoped she could work through it. Maybe with my wife’s help.
The front door of the shop opened and the pizza kid – Ronnie Jacobs – came in with a tall, striking blonde hanging on his arm. The blonde stopped upon seeing all of us standing there, but she seemed to be looking at someone in particular. I glanced at Chandra, who was staring right back at the blonde.
‘Cousin Lucinda,’ she said. ‘What are you doing here?’
No phone to order a pizza, no money to pay for a pizza, and the pizza kid was involved with a Blanton woman.
Light was beginning to dawn.
Dru looked around the solarium, her eyes darting back and forth. ‘We need to get out of here,’ she told Jean.
‘Why?’ Jean asked.
Dru looked at her as if she found her slow. ‘Because Megan went to get Constance. And God only knows what Constance will do to keep this whole mess from getting out.’
‘So the story’s true?’
Dru rolled her eyes. ‘Of course it is, stupid. And yeah, she’s the one who got Aunt Paula involved, too, with my dear old dad. He started with her when she was like a kid. Way before Megan and I were born. But one child – Constance – wasn’t enough for him. When she got “too old”, he told her to bring in Paula. According to Constance, though, Paula was a bad girl and didn’t play the games like she should.’
‘Jesus,’ Jean said, dropping down on one of the wicker chairs.
Dru leaned down and grabbed her arm. ‘Get up! We’ve got to get out of here.’
Jean stood and pointed to the double doors that led to the hall they’d both come down. ‘Out there?’
‘No! Of course not!’ Dru said, again shaking her head at Jean’s obvious stupidity. ‘That’s the way they’ll be coming. We need to go outside. Come on!’ she said, and took Jean by the arm, almost dragging her to the French doors that led to a veranda.
But the storm was still in full swing. Beyond the veranda there was nothing but grass, trees and flowerbeds. There were no walkways, nothing that would keep Jean’s crutches from sinking into the softened earth and sending her tumbling to the ground.
‘I can’t!’ Jean shouted to be heard over the deluge. She pointed to her crutches.
‘Fuck!’ Dru said, looking back into the room they’d just left. Jean followed her gaze and saw Constance entering the solarium, followed by Megan, who had a tight grip on Jewel’s arm.
‘I can’t leave my sister-in-law,’ Jean said.
‘I couldn’t give a shit about her – or you, for that matter. Lady, you are not my hero!’ Dru said and took off into the rain, leaving Jean standing alone.
Cousin Lucinda, the tall blonde, grabbed Ronnie Jacobs’ arm and said, ‘Let’s get out of here—’
She said this just as I walked up to Ronnie with a big old smile and, taking his free arm, said, ‘Ronnie! Thanks for coming by so quick! Just a few questions, then you can be on your way.’ Turning to my clerk, I said, ‘Holly, why don’t you take Mike into the break room so he can get some refreshments for everyone?’
Holly gave me a quick nod to indicate she got the message, then said brightly, ‘Sure, Sheriff! What a good idea!’
I ushere
d Ronnie into the interrogation room – now aptly named for what was about to transpire.
‘So, Ronnie,’ I said, still smiling, ‘you said Darrell Blanton called in his order to your dispatcher?’
‘Yeah, I guess,’ he said.
‘Ronnie, we’d confiscated Darrell’s cell phone. He didn’t have any way to call for a pizza.’
‘Oh. Well, maybe someone else called it in for him?’ he suggested. ‘You’d have to check with our dispatcher about that.’
‘Oh, I will, don’t worry about that,’ I said, still smiling. ‘And one other thing: you said you gave him the pizza and he gave you money, is that right?’
‘Uh huh,’ Ronnie said, turning a little green around the gills.
‘But we’d also confiscated all his belongings – including his cash.’
Ronnie shrugged. ‘Maybe you didn’t get all of it?’ he suggested.
‘Hum,’ I said, as if thinking that over. ‘Maybe he had a hidden stash, is that what you’re thinking?’
‘Sure,’ Ronnie said, his face coming back pink as he smiled and nodded.
‘You said he took it out of his pocket, right?’
‘Ah, I don’t know. Did I say that? Ah, I don’t remember. I mean if I said that or if he did that.’
‘Surely you’d remember if he took off his boot and pulled money out of there?’
‘Ah, yeah, maybe—’
‘Or if he opened his shirt and he had a money belt taped to his chest,’ I offered.
‘Yeah, sure, I guess—’
‘So more than likely he would have to take his money out of his pocket, right?’
‘Ah, well, yeah, sure, I guess.’
‘Thing is, I checked with the ME’s office and he said there was nothing in his pockets at all. Not even lint. We cleaned him out when we took his crap and put it away.’
‘Huh,’ Ronnie said. ‘Well.’
‘Well, what?’ I asked him.
He was silent. Then the door burst open and Cousin Lucinda, Ronnie’s girlfriend, came barging in. ‘Honey-bunch, tell him you want a lawyer! They do that on Law and Order all the time!’
Well, she had me there. Maybe Harry Joyner wouldn’t mind taking on a paying client.
Jean moved back into the solarium just as Constance pulled a very ladylike, pearl-handled pistol out of the pocket of her full skirt. Jean mused to herself that a straight skirt or pants would have shown the bulge of the pistol – good fashion choice to go with a full skirt if you needed to go armed.
‘Thank you for coming back in, Doctor McDonnell,’ Constance said, leveling the gun at Jean’s heart. ‘Why don’t you and your sister-in-law have a seat?’
Megan pushed Jewel to the nearest white wicker sofa. Jean sat down next to her.
‘Where is Drusilla?’ Constance asked.
Jean shrugged. ‘Off to tell the world about you, I hope.’
Constance laughed. ‘You’re giving her far too much credit, Doctor. Dru bitches and moans a lot, but when she can’t pay her rent or buy booze she’ll come back.’
‘So you’re making another alcoholic, are you?’ Jean said.
Constance sat down on the love seat opposite the two other women. ‘Now you’re going to blame me for Paula’s drinking problems?’
‘Dru told me about what you did to Paula.’ She shook her head. ‘You truly are a sick woman, Constance.’
Constance laughed. ‘Thanks for the diagnosis. But you won’t be sharing it with anyone else.’
‘You’re just going to shoot us? Right here? That sounds complicated.’
‘No, I’ll think of something less complicated and more apt. Maybe an accident – or rather, two.’ She turned to Megan. ‘What kind of accident can two people have, dear?’
‘A car accident,’ Megan said, smiling at her stepmother.
‘Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?’ She patted Megan on the arm. ‘You always come through for me, darling!’
Constance and Megan both were sitting on the love seat, their backs to the door from the hall. They didn’t see or hear Vivian come through the doors in her silent automatic wheelchair, but Jean did.
‘So you gave your little sister to your pedophile boyfriend, and then later his own daughters … You’ve been pimping them out for how long?’
‘Don’t give me that holier than thou bullshit! Paula enjoyed it! Just like my girls did, and don’t let Dru make you think she didn’t! Because she’d be lying! And what else was I supposed to do after their father left me with nothing?’
‘Get a job?’ Jewel suggested.
Constance was about to respond but never got the chance. Her mother took that opportunity to hit her only surviving daughter over the head with a very expensive vase.
The next day I met my wife and sister at the airport in Tulsa, both me and Harmon loaded down with flowers to greet our women and Johnny Mac loaded down with Godiva chocolates for both his mom and his aunt. We don’t do things half-assed in Oklahoma, folks.
It was all over. When I called Emmett and told him to tell the judge and Harry Joyner – oh, and Drew Gleeson, too, I suppose – that Drew was no longer a suspect, I asked if he could see whether Harry would like to sit in on an interview with the new suspect. Harry said sure. Since I doubted Ronnie Jacobs made much more than the minimum wage at the pizza joint, I figured I’d hit up the judge to pay Joyner as a court-appointed attorney.
Joyner advised Ronnie to tell the truth, and when he started to do so, his girlfriend, Lucinda Blanton, tried an easy stroll out of the building. Holly, bless her, saw her going for the door and she and Chandra Blanton managed to grab both the girl’s arms and bring her back in. Holly knocked on the door to the interrogation room where me and Joyner and Ronnie Jacobs were sitting, and said, ‘This one was taking a hike, Milt. I think you might want her in here?’
I nodded. ‘Swell idea,’ I told Holly, and grinned like an idiot. She pushed the girl in and I stood and offered her a seat. ‘So good of you to join us, Ms Blanton,’ I said.
She looked at Ronnie, whose head was down, hands clasped in front of him. ‘Baby?’ she said.
Slowly, Ronnie’s head came up. ‘I gotta tell it all, honey-bunch.’
Lucinda jumped up and ran to the door, but my wise clerk had locked it. I encouraged the girl to sit back down.
So it went like this: Ronnie and Lucinda fell in love, which was a no-no for a Blanton girl. When Darrell and his cousins found out about it, they accosted Ronnie, beating the ever-loving crap out of him. And Darrell told him that if he saw Ronnie with Lucinda again he’d kill him. So after enough time for Ronnie to heal up, he and Lucinda decided the only way they could get out of Prophesy County with both of ’em alive and kicking was to do something about Darrell, the ring leader.
Ronnie was on his way home from the pizza joint that Saturday night, having stayed late to clean up, and carrying a nice hot pepperoni with him, when he saw my Jeep going by with Darrell Blanton all snug in the back seat. He ran back to his apartment where Lucinda was waiting for him and the pizza, and told her what he’d seen. And then the girl took over.
Seems Blanton women know a lot about herbs and flowers and stuff, and Lucinda knew that the oleander bush in Ronnie’s side yard was poisonous. So she blended the petals up with some oregano and garlic and olive oil, poured her concoction over the pizza, added extra cheese, stuffed it in the oven long enough to melt the new cheese, and they were ready to do the deed. The girl had no idea that the oleander mimicked digitalis, she just knew it was poisonous. It wasn’t the first time Ronnie had delivered a pizza to the sheriff’s office, to the deputies or to prisoners, and he didn’t think anyone would think anything about it.
At that point in his recitation, Ronnie looked up at me with big watery blue eyes and said, ‘And it worked like a charm!’
‘Just shut up, Ronnie, for God’s sake!’ Lucinda said.
‘But, honey, I have to tell the truth!’
‘Why?’ she demanded.
Obvious
ly she had him there, because Ronnie failed to reply.
I stood up, knocked on the door and Holly unlocked it. ‘I need the keys to the lock-up,’ I told her. She handed me her ring of keys and I took the lovebirds back to the cells – one for each.
When I came back out, I told Harry Joyner, ‘You might want to find another attorney for the girl. I don’t think you’re gonna want to defend them together.’
‘She pissed?’ he asked.
I shrugged. Looking over at Holly, I said, ‘You might wanna get the first aid kit and go back to Ronnie’s cell. He needs to get cleaned up.’
Holly didn’t say anything, just grabbed the first aid kit and headed back. Joyner raised an eyebrow at me. ‘Fingernails,’ I said. ‘Before I could get them locked up, she went for his face.’
‘Separate attorneys for sure,’ Joyner said.
That Monday night I got a phone call from Jean telling me she’d finished up her business. ‘You know who it was?’ I asked her.
‘Long story, babe, but I’ll give you all the gory details tomorrow night. Can we go to La Margarita when Jewel and I get in? We’ll be starving,’ she said.
‘La Margarita? You sure? I thought you said it was too greasy for your taste.’
There was a silence on the other end of the phone for about thirty seconds, then she said, ‘I could use a little grease right now.’
And it wasn’t until the ladies deplaned, we ate dinner, sampled some Godiva chocolates, drove all the way back to Prophesy County and got Johnny Mac to bed that the four of us sat down and discussed the situation in Kansas City.
And I gotta say I was shocked. A child doing that to her own sister, not to mention the crazy father of those two girls. It was sickening and personally I wanted to exhume the old man’s body and shoot it a couple of times.
‘And the old lady cold-cocked Paula’s sister?’ I asked.
‘Knocked her right out!’ my sister Jewel said with a big grin.
‘But then we had to talk Vivian into calling the police,’ Jean said. ‘“That is not something we do!” she told us. I just looked at her for I don’t know how long, then I told her she had to. That’s when Megan jumped up—’
‘She tried running to the door to the hall,’ Jewel said, still grinning, ‘but I tackled her!’
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