Sleuthing Women

by Lois Winston

  I waved her down. Jonette could do mad better than anybody I knew. She didn’t have to convince me she was upset. Back in high school Dudley had cheated Jonette out of her virginity. That single event had a profound effect on all of our lives. “I’m not talking about ancient history, for Pete’s sake. I’m talking about right now.”

  The old men made another lap past. They must have thought we were vacating the bench when Jonette got up. I glared at them again and they shuffled away. One of them flipped me a finger, but I couldn’t be bothered with him right now.

  Jonette was hiding something. I could smell it. The problem was that Jonette and Dudley had always been like oil and vinegar. Had something changed?

  She had always claimed she hated Dudley. His denying her a bank loan when she desperately needed one hadn’t helped either. Love and hate were two sides of the same coin as I had recently discovered. What wasn’t she telling me?

  Jonette grabbed my leg. “This is Dudley we’re talking about. The biggest liar of all time. What makes you think I’d let him back in my pants again? I’m not a complete idiot.”

  I pried her fingers loose lest the old men get the wrong idea. I loved Jonette like a sister but I knew she wasn’t being completely truthful. Did that make her a murderess?

  “You can’t fool me, Jonette. I know you’re hiding something. Is it something that can get you arrested?”

  She shot me her best Queen Bee look. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

  That did it. I lunged for her throat.

  “You girls ready to go?” Mama asked sweetly.

  Sanity returned. If I was going to manhandle Jonette into spilling her guts, I was intelligent enough to do it where there were no witnesses. “Past ready.” I glanced down and saw that Mama had no shopping bags attached to her hands. “Where are the shoes you came here to buy?”

  “They didn’t have my size in the style I wanted. My choices were to chop off my toes and buy a smaller shoe or stuff the toes of a larger pair with tissue paper. I don’t need shoes that bad. Besides, we’ve still got the mall to go.”

  Jonette and I would kill each other if we had to spend more time together. “Not today. I’ve gotta get home, Mama. The girls will be home from school soon, and I have things that have to be done.”

  “Me too,” Jonette added hastily as she limped out of the discount store. “I’ve got to get ready for work.”

  Mama ignored Jonette’s comment and grabbed my arm. “Things? What kind of things do you have to do today?”

  I got Mama settled in the passenger seat while Jonette climbed in the back. Walking around the car, I collected my thoughts.

  If I dodged Mama’s question, she’d be merciless and no telling what else she’d also weasel out of me. If I said what I was going to do, I’d hurt Jonette. But Jonette had hurt me by not trusting me, so I wasn’t going to spare her feelings right now.

  I started the car and pulled out on the highway. “Things. Like picking up the house. Like making calls. I’ll offer for Bitsy and the boys to stay with us as long as they need to. It will be easier for her to make the funeral arrangements if she can stay here.”

  In my rearview mirror, I saw Jonette’s face tighten with anger. She’d always had trouble with my friendship with Bitsy, even aside from the Dudley thing. Jonette viewed Bitsy as a rival for my friendship.

  She had nothing to worry about there, and I’d told her so repeatedly over the years, but old insecurities die hard. In the twenty years I’d known Bitsy, we’d never shared the same level of closeness that Jonette and I had. For instance, I couldn’t imagine ever lunging for Bitsy’s throat.

  Jonette was different. I could easily want to strangle her in one minute and then go out to dinner with her the next. She understood me like no one else and we’d always shared our deepest darkest secrets.

  What she knew about me would easily fill a tell-all biography if I was famous or anything. Fortunately my lack of fame hadn’t tempted Jonette to sell me out.

  But now that my thoughts had started down that other road, I couldn’t stop myself from connecting the dots. Jonette was lying about Dudley. I knew that as sure as I knew my name.

  What I didn’t know was how big a lie it was. Over the years, Jonette and I had been in the trenches many times, and she’d never had homicidal tendencies before. What would make her lie to her closest friend?

  FIVE

  I pulled up near Mama’s whale of a car in the empty golf course parking lot. “I’ll see you at home.”

  Mama didn’t move a muscle. “Oh. I couldn’t possibly drive. My heart, you know. We’ll pick up my car tomorrow.”

  Jonette opened her door.

  Her car was parked clear across the lot. “Wait, Jonette. I’ll drive you over,” I said.

  “No thanks. I wouldn’t want to put you out in your hour of need.”

  It wasn’t very sporting of her to go away mad. I wanted to grill her but of course I couldn’t with Mama present, which was why I’d stopped at Mama’s car first. Given Jonette’s history with Dudley, I had to be sneaky if I wanted to pry her secrets out of her. “I’ll call you,” I said.

  I watched her limp to her car, waiting until I knew for sure that her tin can cranked up and I didn’t leave her stranded.

  “You and Jonette settle your differences?” Mama asked.

  I gripped the steering wheel tightly. Protecting Mama from Jonette’s secrets involved walking a fine line. I loved them both dearly but everyone knew there were some things you didn’t tell your Mama, no matter how old you were. Even though my Mama thought she knew everything, some of Jonette’s secrets would make her hair stand on end. “Now why would you think that? You caught me about to strangle her there at the hot dog stand.”

  Mama tsked. “The way you girls go on. I’ve never understood how you two could be best friends one minute and mortal enemies the next. And then when the mud slinging stopped you’d be inseparable again. Is Dudley’s death driving a wedge between you?”

  I wondered how much Mama knew about Jonette and Dudley. Had Mama known that Jonette’s mother had thrown her out like garbage because of Dudley? Mama had never questioned me about my wanting Jonette to come live with us.

  But as a mother, I had a new perspective on that incident. If one of Charla or Lexy’s friends asked to move in with us, I would worry about the legal ramifications. I’d also worry that the child’s mother would be frantic until they learned of their child’s whereabouts. Without a doubt, I would phone the child’s mother. Is that what Mama had done?

  “We didn’t settle a darn thing,” I said. “Jonette is holding out on me and it’s irritating the daylights out of me. I’m worried that she’s somehow mixed up in this mess with Dudley.”

  “Jonette’s had a hard life,” Mama said as I headed over the mountain to Hogan’s Glen.

  “I’m not in the mood for one of your lectures, Mama. If you recall, I’m the one who found the dead body today. I’m the one whose life is currently in the toilet, and I won’t let you lecture me about Jonette falling on hard times. This is supposed to be my hour of need.”

  Mama sniffed. “Don’t get snippy with me, missy. Just because your father deeded the house over to you in his will doesn’t mean I won’t throw you out of my house.”

  I edged around the slow traffic in the right lane as we descended to the valley. It was a sore point with her that Daddy had entrusted the house to me.

  I knew he’d done it because he’d trained me to think like him, but Mama was certain I had ulterior motives and that I’d made him change his will. “Look, neither of us is going to throw the other one out, so don’t threaten me with that. Someone killed Dudley, and I’m afraid it might have been Jonette. Why else would she lie to me?”

  Mama did a double take. “Bite your tongue. Our Jonette? A bloodthirsty murderer? Does she even own a gun?”

  “Not unless she’s taken to keeping multiple secrets from me. But in this day and age, you never know who’
ll be toting guns.” I had three guns under my bed, but that was beside the point.

  “You’re right,” Mama said. “I see stories on the news of kids shooting kids, of fathers killing their entire families. I tell you. The world’s going to hell in a fish basket.”

  Personally, I didn’t see how the entire world would fit in a fish basket. But I agreed with the sentiment.

  There was too much craziness out there in the world. We didn’t need it coming here to Hogan’s Glen. “You don’t mind if I invite Bitsy to stay, do you? We’re just a few blocks from the funeral home and it would make everything so much easier for her.”

  Mama waved my comment off. “It’s your house. Invite whomever you like.”

  It didn’t take a genius to interpret that remark. She didn’t want me to invite Bitsy to stay over, but she couldn’t come out and say so because it would blow her self-proclaimed image as grand lady of the manor. She liked to appear as if she were the only sane person in a world flush with insanity.

  Mama gripped the armrest so tightly her knuckles gleamed. “Will she be bringing those wild boys of hers? And that monster dog? The one that ate all my roses last summer?”

  Bitsy had gotten her sons a second Saint Bernard after Dudley claimed the family dog in their divorce settlement. But the new dog had landed in a house of apathy and had grown up with very little supervision. Consequently, Mozart had no manners, but he was part of Bitsy’s family.

  “Definitely. The boys are old enough to go to a funeral. Artie’s thirteen to Grant’s twelve. They’ll be fine.”

  Mama shuddered. “I’m calling my heart specialist as soon as I get home. With all this confusion, I’m going to need a tune-up.”

  I did my best not to roll my eyes. Mama’s world revolved around her. What did it matter that a man was dead and a family was grieving? The only thing that mattered to Mama was herself.

  I recognized Charlie’s sleek BMW sedan in our driveway as I pulled in. My ex-husband lounged on the steps, waiting. In spite of my resolve to be firm, my heart lurched at his disheveled appearance. His thinning dark hair needed combing. His cotton dress shirt looked like he’d slept in it.

  A short-haired Saint Bernard drooled on Charlie’s shoulder. I recognized Dudley’s dog at once and I ached for her loss. Madonna must be awfully confused. With Dudley not coming home last night, the dog had to think she’d been abandoned.

  Dealing with Charlie in a civil manner took every bit of composure I possessed on a good day. This hadn’t been a good day, and I didn’t feel like being polite to anyone, much less my ex-husband. Life had handed me lemons and I didn’t care for lemonade.

  SIX

  I swore out loud as I fumbled for my purse.

  “Watch your language, Cleo,” Mama advised. “It’s not becoming for a lady to swear all the time.”

  “Mama, I don’t have to be a lady around my ex-husband the adulterer.”

  “We could wait in the car until he goes, but that would inconvenience us. Rise above your feelings, dear.” This from the woman who had forever barred Charlie from darkening the doorstep of our two-story Victorian house.

  The fact that he’d had enough courage to wait on the steps for our return showed how desperate he was.

  Charlie rose and walked toward my car. We were of equal height, he and I, and he’d never liked me to wear heels. The wonder of it all was that I’d let him tell me what to do for so long. Since the divorce, I’d binged on shoes with heels. Too bad I was still in my golf shoes.

  When Charlie saw Mama in the passenger seat, he veered wide around her and ended up at my door. I saw the glassy tears in his baby-blue eyes and my wrath cooled a notch.

  My instincts told me he was here for consolation. My brain reminded me he was married to another woman.

  “I see you’ve heard the news,” I said.

  He reached for me, but I kept the car door between us. It was the best defense I could come up with on short notice. As a result, the clumsy embrace ended almost as soon as it began.

  I swallowed my triumph with a dose of guilt. Charlie’s color was off and his hands trembled. Even if he’d ruined my life, there was no reason for me to sink to his level. I was a bigger person than that.

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” I cleared my throat delicately. “I know you and Dudley were very close.”

  He pinched his nose to keep tears from flowing. “I can’t believe he’s dead.”

  If I turned my back on him and skirted around the car to Mama’s side, he should get the message that I wasn’t still his supportive wife. But in spite of all he’d put me through, I felt his pain.

  I girded myself with facts. He was married to Denise. He’d betrayed my trust. He didn’t deserve my sympathy. A little compassion was all he was getting from me.

  I darted around the back of the car and assisted Mama from her seat, taking her arm as if she were a delicate hothouse flower. “It’s real enough,” I said. “I found the body.”

  Charlie trailed after us, the dog at his heels. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  I would not let him make me feel guilty. He wasn’t my responsibility. “We’re not married anymore, remember? You have a brand new wife. Go home and let her comfort you.”

  He swore and kicked at the loose stones in the driveway. “I heard the news from Britt Radcliff and I detest that man. How do you think that made me feel?”

  Mama answered for me. “Like the yellow-bellied snake you are?”

  I patted her arm. The last thing I needed today was a trip to Intensive Care. Mama’s hatred of Charlie ran deep. “Hush, Mama. Don’t get all worked up. You have to think of your heart.”

  Charlie muttered something under his breath. “Will you just stop a minute, Clee? I need to talk to you.”

  I glared at him over my shoulder. Apparently he was used to my fierce stare, as he didn’t quake like the old men at the discount store. Pity.

  I could have used a bit more respect from Charlie, but his needs had always come first. Dismissing him would be great for my ego, but what if he wanted to discuss the children?

  “I have to get Mama settled,” I said. “If you have time to wait, I’ll come out when I’m done.”

  Madonna politely pressed her head under my hand. I petted the very large dog and then slipped inside the house.

  “How long you going to make him wait?” Mama asked when we were safely inside.

  “Forever would serve him right, but the girls will be home from school soon. I’d just as soon be done with him before they get here. Maybe ten minutes?”

  In that time, I went to the bathroom, fixed myself a glass of water, took off my golf shoes, and donned my faded pink slippers.

  I called Bitsy but she didn’t pick up the phone. At the tone on her answering machine, I invited her and the boys to stay here. When I ran out of things to do, I stepped out on the porch.

  Charlie patted the seat next to him on the porch swing. I had too many memories of sitting beside him in that very swing, nestling my head on his broad muscular chest. Not going to happen today.

  I sat in the nearby rocker. Madonna came over and placed her whole head in my lap. I scratched behind her ears. “What are you doing with Dudley’s dog?”

  Charlie’s teary blue eyes peered out of his gaunt face. “When I heard about Dudley, I went and got her from his house. I wanted to keep the dog but Denise threw a fit. Says she’s allergic.”

  Yeah right. Denise didn’t want Charlie spending time with anyone but her. She hated sharing him on the weekends with his daughters. Having a dog around would definitely cut into her Charlie time. “So?”

  “So, I thought of you. The dog likes you, so it’s all set.”

  Warning bells clanged in my head. Was Charlie telling me what to do? That was so not going to happen. “What’s all set? I didn’t agree to anything.”

  Charlie exhaled deeply. “You don’t have to keep her for long. Bitsy and the boys will take her home after the funeral.”

 
; I had enough responsibility with Mama and the girls. Reasons why I couldn’t keep the dog churned out of my mouth. “We live on a busy road, Charlie. This dog isn’t used to traffic. What if she wanders out on the road? Kids are in and out of here all the time, and they won’t always remember that the dog can’t go out unsupervised. You should make other arrangements. Why don’t you kennel the dog?”

  “I can’t put her in a cage.” Charlie’s voice broke. “She was Dudley’s dog. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Where’s your heart?”

  My chin came up. Charlie didn’t have the market cornered on grief. “He was my friend too. But he wasn’t a very nice person. Why did you let him be so mean to folks down at the bank?”

  Charlie scowled. “Dudley always looked after the bottom line. The Board didn’t care about his methods as long as the balance sheet looked good. That’s why he got the job of financing that new development.”

  “I can’t believe you’d bring up White Rock at a time like this. That farm acreage won’t pass the percolation test. People are still laughing at Dudley about that boondoggle. Old Man Wingate must have laughed all the way to the bank with his pot of gold.”

  “Dudley got the job done.” Charlie’s blue eyes filled with heat. “He had a plan that both the buyer and the developer liked. Wait and see. The whole community will benefit from the larger tax base.”

  The only thing that farm had going for it was its proximity to the Hogan’s Glen city limit. Nothing Charlie said to me would convince me Dudley had been thinking of the community’s welfare when he brokered that deal. I’d stopped trusting Charlie’s version of the truth after that little matter of adultery. “People didn’t like the way Dudley did business.”

  “Losers always complain. Their time would be better spent looking after their own bottom line. It wasn’t Dudley’s fault bank customers had financial troubles.”

  “That’s a stupid thing to say.” I saw red. My hands clenched in tight fists. “I’ll bet it was one of those irate customers that did him in, and I wouldn’t blame them. Dudley had no right to play God with the bank’s money.”