by Lois Winston
“Don’t get all snippy with me,” Jonette warned. “We hung out. That’s all. Took a few day trips together.”
I hated it when she did this to me. What was she trying so hard not to say? “You traveled with Dudley and his dog? Is that why the police consider you a suspect in Dudley’s murder?”
Jonette gazed over at the deserted swing sets. Why wouldn’t she just come right out and say whatever it was she trying so hard not to say? I had no choice but to grill her. I started with a zinger. “Were you sleeping with Dudley?”
Jonette’s color paled. “Absolutely not.”
That seemed like a truthful response. I tried again. “Were you sleeping with his dog?”
She almost smiled at that question. “No.”
“Well then, what were you doing with the two of them? Wasn’t your life complicated enough without adding Dudley and his dog to the mix? What are you too chicken to tell me?”
I didn’t think Jonette would answer me. She was walking so fast I had to run to stay up with her.
“I’m not chicken about anything,” Jonette said. “I didn’t want to tell you this because you’re the only person who’s ever believed in me one hundred percent. I didn’t want you to know I’m such a loser. The truth is, I’m lonely. So lonely it hurts. You’ve got everything, Clee. I’ve always wanted to be you, even when you were married to that gigundo loser Charlie. You’ve always had people who cared about you. When I saw how attentive Dudley’s dog was to him, I decided I needed a dog like Madonna. Is that so bad?”
I dug my heels in and dragged the dog to a stop. “You want Madonna?” Did Jonette kill Dudley for his dog? I clenched my teeth so that question wouldn’t slip out.
Jonette shook her head in denial. “I don’t want Dudley’s dog. I want a puppy. I worked out a deal with Dudley. If I helped him with Madonna during her pregnancy and when the puppies were little, then I could have a puppy for free. I didn’t want a little yippy dog like my mother has. I want a big kick-ass dog that will eat any bad people that knock on my door.”
I sighed with relief. Her explanation rang true. Why didn’t she say something before about being lonely? I could have made more time for her. Not that I’d been much fun recently, but, hey, I would have made an effort if only I’d known. “Saint Bernards aren’t kick-ass dogs. Madonna has been friendly with everyone who’s come to our house.”
“So what?” Jonette squatted down and hugged Madonna. “She’s big and that’s enough to put most people off.”
Poor Jonette. It must have cost her plenty to confess her loneliness. I couldn’t believe that she wanted to be me. My life had been just as screwed up as hers, but at least my mother had never thrown me out and disowned me. Even when I got pregnant in college and married Charlie instead of finishing my education, Mama was always there for me. “Do you want Madonna?”
“Thanks, but no.” Jonette sniffed. “I love this dog, but she’s settled in with your family. Would you let me have one of her puppies? Please?”
“Puppies?” My knees went weak, almost as if one of my daughters had come home from school and announced she was pregnant. I stumbled over to the nearest park bench and sat.
“She should be pregnant,” Jonette said. “Dudley and I took her to be serviced by a stud dog three separate times, one day at lunchtime. If that didn’t do the trick, Bitsy’s dog might have closed the deal. I’d help you just like I was going to help Dudley. What do you say?”
Puppies. I just couldn’t get past that part. It appeared that I now owned a dog and puppies were in my future. I wasn’t ready for labor and delivery. I had assumed Charla and Lexy’s husbands would attend them when their times came. I planned to sweep in and be the devoted grandmother every other Friday evening.
I didn’t even know if the dog was pregnant. How did one determine such a thing? “Do I have to get her to pee on one of those little home pregnancy kits?”
“I have no idea,” Jonette said. “Dudley was taking care of that part. What does her vet say?”
I blinked. “She has a vet?”
“Of course she has a vet. Grady Murphy over at the Animal Clinic. You should take her in for a check-up and get your name on her file. Dudley had an electronic ID tag inserted under her skin in case she was ever stolen or lost. You’d need to get that record updated too.”
“Puppies. Ohmigod. Does that make me a step mom or a grandmother?”
“You’re taking this rather hard, Cleo,” Jonette said. “She might not be pregnant. I mean, what if she’s barren like me? Maybe she can’t conceive.”
Jonette sat down beside me and Madonna promptly put her head in Jonette’s lap. I felt as if I were nine months pregnant again and it was too much to take in. Was I so close to the edge that a little unexpected news would push me into the loony bin? “I hardly know what to say. I’ll have her checked out. But please, don’t mention puppies to the girls until we know if she’s pregnant.”
“I’d never do anything to hurt those girls,” Jonette said. “I love them as if they were my own. Although I have to say, your Mama and Charla in the kitchen are a little scary.”
“Hey, I warned you it was going to be a crazy meal. I’ve eaten orange eggs, blue pancakes, red grits, and God only knows what all else recently. Mama says I was stifling her creativity by not letting her cook. I hope that the color thing wears off soon.”
“My dinners are always straight out of the freezer case,” Jonette mused. “It’s a treat to eat green pork chops. I’m relieved you can appreciate their need for creativity. I was pretty worried about you.”
“Me too,” I said. “I don’t know how long I’ve been operating on automatic pilot, but now I feel like I’m in an ‘all systems go’ mode. I can’t thank you enough for not giving up on me this past year or so.”
Jonette reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “That’s what friends are for. You’ve always been there for me.”
This was getting entirely too sappy for me. Time for some sarcasm. “Yeah, but you’re still six months older than me.”
“And I got to experience everything first,” Jonette bragged. “I got my driver’s license first, I got to vote first, and I got to drink legally first. You can’t beat that.”
Jonette stood and stretched. “Time to go. I’ve got to pee.”
Some things never changed.
We headed home at a fast pace. The things Jonette had experienced first hadn’t been all good. Even so, I was glad she had known what to do after my divorce. I never knew she had experienced all this numbness and anger and grief as part of her divorces, at least, not until I experienced it for myself.
All I’d ever done was to make sure she was still a part of my life, no matter what. I hoped that was enough. It would truly suck to be a bad dog mother and a bad best friend.
Jonette and I told each other everything, but Charlie and Dudley had never operated that way. How had Dudley reacted to Charlie’s accusation that he was sleeping with Denise? I knew they had argued.
Would they have arranged to meet later and settle their differences? I’d seen them go at it before, in jest, of course. Charlie had out-muscled Dudley every time.
No amount of wheeling and dealing would have saved Dudley from Charlie’s wrath. I could see why Britt thought Charlie was guilty. I could even believe that Charlie had been driven by rage to kill his best friend. The hole he’d dug for himself tugged at my feet.
TWENTY-THREE
Madonna woke me when she stood on our bed. She whimpered softly in her throat. I groaned unhappily at my sleep being interrupted.
“If you weren’t cute and quite possibly pregnant I would be very angry with you right now,” I said without opening my eyes. Madonna huffed dog breath on my face and licked my nose.
Yikes. That was a little too personal for me. Nose-licking violated my own personal buffer I kept between me and the rest of the world, and it wasn’t hygienic.
Groggily I opened my eyes, mentally preparing myself to walk down th
e stairs and let her out in the backyard, but my bedroom didn’t look like my room. Like a carnival sideshow, my walls were awash in a sea of flashing red and blue lights. I sat up quickly, trying to get my bearings. Madonna rested her head on my shoulder and my nightgown dampened under her drooling mouth.
I was used to being drooled on now, but it had been a long time since I’d been abruptly awakened in the middle of the night. Adrenaline pumped through me like a fire hose. Someone was out there. And the police were after that someone.
Self-preservation demanded that I burrow back into the safe world under my covers, but I had my family’s safety to consider. If something bad was happening, I had to protect Mama and my daughters.
There was a good chance the police had made progress on their murder investigation. This house was on the main throughway. They must have pulled someone over. Who was it? I had to know.
I darted over to the window and stared unblinkingly at the scene below. Cops with drawn guns huddled behind parked vehicles on my lawn. My breath hitched in my throat. My heart hammered under my thin cotton nightgown.
I shivered. This was no routine traffic stop. This was more. So much more, but what was it? Madonna whimpered beside me.
I held my breath as the cops entered Ed Monday’s house. Holy cow. It was an invasion. I had to tell someone.
I speed-dialed Jonette on my bedside phone. “This better be an emergency,” Jonette grumbled into the receiver.
“Jonette, wake up,” I whispered anxiously. “Some weird commando stuff is going down over here. I’ve got a yard full of cops.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Cops. They’re everywhere.”
“Did Lexy set the bathroom on fire again?” Jonette asked.
“Not funny.” Lexy had experimented with matches not long after my divorce. She’d been sure she could contain a fire built in the tub, but she’d forgotten about the shower curtain, which incinerated quickly.
“What are they doing in my neighbor’s house at four-thirty in the morning?” I asked.
Jonette yawned into the phone. “That’s what they do on TV. Go after notorious criminals when they’re sleeping. Less resistance that way.”
I groaned aloud. “Ed Monday is not a notorious criminal.”
“They’re not waking him up to give him a citizenship award,” Jonette said. “What’s happening now?”
I edged the dog’s head out of the way and stuck my head close to the screen. “I can’t see a blasted thing. Oh. They’ve got the street blocked with police cars too. I can’t believe this is happening. Wait a minute. There he is.”
“We’re on the phone,” Jonette griped. “I’m not getting a video transmission.”
“They’re stuffing Ed in a squad car and leaving.”
Just then, I spotted Britt Radcliff down in the knot of cops on my lawn. “Hey. I see our favorite detective. I’m going down there to see what’s going on.”
“I will kick your butt big time if you don’t call me right back,” Jonette said. “Better yet, I can be there in five minutes.”
“Forget it. The street’s blocked. I’ll call you back.”
I slipped on my sneakers and a robe, then darted outside. “Britt. What’s going on?”
Britt blocked my way. “You don’t want to be involved with this, Cleo. Go back inside.”
“I saw you haul Ed Monday off in handcuffs. Will my family be next?”
“This was a special circumstance.”
I wasn’t reassured. Bad thoughts swirled in my head. What had Ed done? “Did Ed kill Dudley and the bank guard?”
Britt escorted me up my steps. “Ed Monday’s arrest has to do with an outstanding federal warrant. So far the evidence doesn’t tie him to the murders.”
“Other than his yelling at Dudley and being forcibly escorted from the bank?”
“Stop poking your nose around in police work. You are unnecessarily endangering yourself. If Ed looks good for the murders, I’ll add that to the charges against him.”
Why was everyone picking on my poor nose tonight? I covered it protectively with my hand. “Are you sure you’ve got the right man? Ed Monday couldn’t fix a bank error by himself.”
“Ed Monday is a fugitive. He’ll be taking up a new residence, courtesy of the government.”
I didn’t have any trouble imagining Ed having a secret life, but I didn’t want him to be a rotten person. Especially since Charlie had called it from the start. That meant my intuition still wasn’t working.
My shoulders slumped. How could I expect to solve Dudley’s murder when I couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys?
Britt held my screen door open for me. “Go back to bed. We want to get out of here before the entire town wakes up.”
I wasn’t ready to be thrust aside like a discarded toy. “What about the mass murderer on the loose?”
Britt ruffled my unruly hair and his eyes warmed. “I would be closer to solving my cases if you’d quit providing alibis and character references for everyone I try to arrest.”
My mouth opened and an exasperated gasp came out. “But my friends didn’t kill anyone. I know them.”
Britt squeezed my shoulder. “In my line of work I see everything. It isn’t unusual for the murderer to be well acquainted with the victim.”
“Why don’t you suspect me?”
Britt choked out a short laugh. “I can read you like a book, Cleopatra Jones. Every emotion you’re feeling flashes across your face. If you’d killed Dudley, I would have arrested you that day on the golf course. I brought Jonette in for questioning because she was the last person seen with the victim. And Charlie didn’t get anything that wasn’t coming to him.”
I felt heat rushing to my cheeks. “Charlie isn’t perfect, but adultery isn’t in the same league as killing your best friend.”
Britt scowled. “The jury’s still out on Charlie’s innocence. I like him for the murders. I just don’t have any solid proof that he did it. Yet.”
“Charlie isn’t the only one who could have done it. This town is full of people who hated Dudley.”
Britt’s expression grew stormy. “Stay out of this. You’ve got kids that depend on you. You’re not expendable.”
My lips pressed tightly together. Britt didn’t scare me, but I got what he was saying. “I promise not to do anything stupid.”
I said good night and went inside. Stupid was a matter of perspective. It wasn’t stupid in my book to do everything possible to flush the serial killer out of our town. My family’s safety depended on it.
~*~
Charlie called to gloat after I returned from driving the girls to school. “I was right about Ed Monday, wasn’t I?”
“What did you hear?”
“The big arrest is all over town. Ed Monday bombed some building as a college student then changed his name and hid out for the last thirty years.”
I sat down hard on the living room sofa to digest this news. “That is a surprise. Britt wouldn’t tell me what Ed had done this morning.”
“He was over there?” He swore out loud. “I always knew he had a thing for you.”
I blinked. Charlie sounded jealous. Of Britt Radcliff. My intuition wasn’t the only thing on the blink around here. “Britt was here to arrest Ed Monday.”
“I never liked Radcliff. He was always sniffing around, always standing too close to you.”
I toed off my shoes and swung my feet up on the sofa. Once I finished this call, a nap was my top priority. “If it makes you feel any better, he doesn’t like you either.”
“I have some rights here,” Charlie said. “My children live in that house. They’re too impressionable to have their mother dating anyone.”
My blood boiled at his pronouncement. “You weren’t concerned about the girls mental well-being when you committed adultery. You scratched your itch and didn’t care about any of us. Grow up, Charlie. I am seeing someone and they’re dealing with it just fine.”
&n
bsp; “I don’t like it,” Charlie snarled into the phone.
“You don’t have a choice.” I hung up on him. My blood seethed. No way was I calm enough to sleep now. Might as well go to my office and get some work done.
For sixteen years Charlie Jones told me what I could and couldn’t do. Not anymore. I was my own woman now.
I wouldn’t readily relinquish the freedom I’d discovered. Been there. Done that.
My newfound freedom had come at a terrible price. I wouldn’t get myself in another situation where someone else called all the shots. I could look out for myself and my family. I definitely did not need any man telling me what to do.
Empowerment. I could do anything with it. I could ask Rafe out on a date. I could spend my entire discretionary budget on frills or truffles or a hot-air-balloon ride if I so desired. I could golf every day of the week.
But the most important thing to the new me was keeping my family safe. I couldn’t assure their safety with a serial killer on the loose. I’d like nothing better than to see my ex rot in jail for years, but I wasn’t convinced he’d killed anyone. The timing of the White Rock development derailment seemed entirely too coincidental. It was time for me to learn more about Robert Joy.
~*~
The mobile office parked on the recently flattened Wingate farm did nothing to shore up my flagging courage. I drove past the development three times before the Gray Beast would stop. This place had a forgotten melancholy air that was enhanced by all the abandoned equipment dotting the land.
It didn’t take an accountant to add up the facts. This place was dead in the water. I was onto something here.
I knocked on the door. “Anybody home?”
Someone better be here. I’d parked next to a pickup with Robert Joy Construction emblazoned on the door panel.
I didn’t have much of a plan other than to sound out the developer. If he was the killer, I didn’t want to alarm him. My story was that I was interested in moving out here. Anyone who knew me wouldn’t believe it, but Robert Joy didn’t know me.