If You Ever Tell

by Carlene Thompson

  Mac frowned. “I want you to think about two points. One, that scarf is probably your mother’s and it has been worn recently, but there’s no proof that she wore it. Two, I understand why your mother would keep her presence a secret if she committed the murders eight years ago, but why would she kill Gus?”

  “Maybe she was in the barn with Eclipse, who looks exactly like the horse she had when she was young, and Gus walked in. He recognized her. She still didn’t intend to reveal herself unless she saw that I was in danger of being arrested and tried for the murders of Dad and Wendy, so she grabbed the rake and struck at Gus, then she ran. I’m sure she didn’t mean to kill him.”

  “Well, if she wanted to keep her presence a secret, she would have to kill him. And don’t forget that he was posed, Teri.” Her eyes widened. “The hay in the stall had two tracks where Gus’s heels had scraped as he was pulled to the corner of the stall. You didn’t seem to notice, so I didn’t say anything last night, but you should know now.”

  “Oh, God. How could I not notice?”

  “Don’t get upset, Teri. You were so shocked when you saw him, then I took you away. You were sitting over on the bench when the police mentioned it. The whole thing was terrible enough without you imagining someone dragging Gus over to a corner where he was hidden unless you completely opened the horse stall.”

  “Then Mom didn’t want him to be seen immediately. Maybe she thought if he was found later, someone else would be blamed. Someone like Josh, who she probably knew wasn’t home right then but would be later.”

  Mac closed his eyes for a moment, then looked at her sympathetically. “Teri, are you listening to yourself? One minute you’re saying your mother isn’t well, she’s acting crazy, and then you credit her with extremely calculated behavior. It doesn’t make sense.”

  Teresa dropped her gaze and sighed. “You’re right, Mac. None of this makes sense. I’m just grasping at answers, no matter how illogical, because I feel like I’m under siege. I’m so scared, both for myself and for my mother.”

  “I know.” Mac’s voice was tender and understanding. “I also know how hard it is for you to admit you’re so frightened. You’ve never wanted people to think you were afraid of anything. That’s why I took the liberty of buying you what might be a valuable present.”

  “A present?” Teresa asked as Mac reached into his pocket. “Not a gun!”

  “Hush!” Mac hissed. “Of course I’m not carrying a gun around in my pants pocket, although I don’t think it would do you any harm to have a gun.”

  “Well, I don’t own one. And as for buying one now—when I’m suspected of murdering three people—I don’t think so.”

  “I’m one step ahead of you. I got this for you.” Mac held out a shiny gold tube.

  “Lipstick?” Teresa asked. “You think lipstick will help me?”

  “It’s a special kind of lipstick.” Mac smiled. “It’s lipstick pepper spray. It’s perfectly legal—you don’t need a permit to buy or carry it, and there isn’t a problem with you keeping it concealed, like there is with a stun gun.”

  “Who would want to walk around carrying a stun gun?” Teri asked.

  “I don’t know. That’s the problem with them. You have to tote it around in full view all the time or you could be arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. Anyway, pepper spray swells the mucous membranes and the veins in the eyes so your attacker can barely breathe or see, not to mention that it burns like hell. This little sprayer is good for up to six feet.”

  Teresa picked up the tube carefully and slipped off the top to see the small white pump. “All I have to do is squirt this once?”

  “Well, I’d squirt it three or four times to be safe. And remember, you have to be close to your attacker. You can’t disable him if you’re clear across the room.” Teresa looked at the tube doubtfully and Mac went on. “Look, Teri, I know this isn’t the most dangerous weapon you could have, but as you’ve said, you don’t already have a gun and now isn’t the best time for you to buy one. Just keep this tube with you at all times. It’s small—it will even fit into the pocket of jeans. Tight jeans, like you wear.” She made a face at him and he grinned. “I want you to promise me you’ll always carry it.”

  Teresa gave the tube one more dubious glance, then picked up her purse. “I’m afraid this dress has no pockets, so it has to go in the purse for now. But later, I’ll wear nothing that doesn’t have at least one pocket, and this will be in it.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  Just then their food arrived and Teri’s eyes widened at the size of the steak, the baked potato, the ear of corn she hadn’t expected, and the huge rolls. While the waitress finished organizing their food on the table and asking if they’d like anything else, Teresa tucked the tube of pepper spray in the top of her purse so she wouldn’t forget it. She had every intention of keeping her promise to Mac to carry the little tube of spray all the time, and she already felt a tad safer.

  2

  “I won’t be able to eat all day tomorrow to make up for what a glutton I made of myself tonight,” Teresa groaned as they climbed the steps to her porch. “Still, it was absolutely delicious.”

  “I did notice that after declaring you couldn’t possibly eat so much, you cleaned up your plate,” Mac said dryly.

  “No one has ever accused me of having a dainty appetite.”

  Mac gave her the slow, lazy grin she loved. “That’s another one of the things I like about you, Teri Farr.”

  “That I eat so much?”

  “That you don’t pretend, even about how much you eat. Of course, with a slender body like yours, you don’t have to worry. You’re tall and slim like your mother. That’s how she would have been if she’d eaten five full meals a day.” He paused, then said slowly, close to her cheek, “You’ll always be beautiful, Teri. Always.”

  When they reached Teresa’s house after dinner, she had meant to kiss Mac good night at the door and then go to bed at a decent hour—alone. But after Mac had taken her in his arms and kissed her as if he hadn’t kissed anyone for years, Teresa’s resolve wavered. She wanted—desperately wanted—at least one more kiss. But not here with the porch lights blazing. Josh wasn’t home, but her prowler might be lingering around. She didn’t like feeling so exposed.

  “Let’s go inside,” she murmured as Mac’s lips touched her neck. “Mac, stop. I can’t get my key in the lock.”

  He took the ring of keys from Teri, inserted the one she’d separated from the rest in the lock, and swung open the door. Sierra rushed at them, barking furiously. “Hey, girl, I’m glad to see you, too,” Teresa said, bending to give the dog a “hello” pat.

  But Sierra continued to huff, snort, bark, and growl, not settling down as she usually did when her mistress had returned home. Teresa suddenly became aware of more noise in the room. Noise coming from the television, which she definitely had not left on when she’d left the house with Mac.

  “The TV,” she said, moving closer to the television. “Mac, look at it.”

  She felt him standing behind her as she stared at the images on the screen. She wasn’t seeing the regular Wednesday night programming. She was seeing herself wearing her best pair of jeans and a glittery top, laughing and clowning with a crowd of people, then leaning forward to blow out the candles on a cake.

  Teresa was seeing the missing videotape of her sixteenth birthday party.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  1

  “MAYBE YOU JUST OVERLOOKED that tape this afternoon,” Mac said with forced calm.

  “I didn’t!” Teresa snapped. “I looked especially for the tape of my sixteenth birthday because it was probably my happiest. I searched for it before I saw the scarf, so you can’t say I was scared and overlooked it!”

  “Okay, okay. Don’t get so wound up,” Mac said patiently. “The issue isn’t so much the tape but that it’s playing. You weren’t watching it before I came, and even if you were, it would have ended
by now. VCR tapes don’t rewind themselves and play over and over. I’m going to check the doors. You stay here.”

  Mac went to the front door and carefully inspected the lock. “This is fine,” he said almost to himself. When he went to the back door, Teresa watched herself on the tape—sixteen, happy, untouched by tragedy. She saw a young Teresa take the camera and turn it on her mother, who smiled with embarrassment and held her hands in front of her lovely face. Then Teresa had caught Emma, tall and spare, with her thick hair pulled back tightly. Emma, who’d always hated having her picture taken, had fled from the room as if Teri were pointing a flamethrower at her, sending Teri and her contemporaries into fits of teenage laughter as Teri had yelled, “I’m sorry, Emma. Don’t be mad.”

  Mac walked into the living room, placed himself between Teresa and the tape playing on the television, took the remote control from her hand, and pressed stop. Then he put his hands on her shoulders. “Maybe the lock on the back door has been picked, but I’m not sure. I’m not an expert. Just to be safe, you need to have your locks changed.”

  “Great,” Teresa said in defeat. “Tomorrow is the Fourth of July. I’ll never find anyone to do the work.”

  “Maybe not a professional locksmith, but I, my dear, can install new doorknobs with locks. The hardware store will be open tomorrow. I’ll get the stuff in the morning and have you locked in safe and sound by noon. I need to go through the house now and make sure no one is still in here.”

  “This will be your second house tour for intruders today,” Teresa said. “Maybe you should become a private detective.”

  “I think they have to follow people around, go on stakeouts, wade through bank records. Not for me,” Mac said lightly. “I’d rather just hunt people down in houses and pummel them to death.”

  “I’ll go with you, but I’m not pummeling anyone. I’m too depressed.”

  They looked in every room and every closet with Sierra trailing dutifully behind them. Nothing was missing or even disturbed and they found no one lurking in the house. They returned to the living room and Teresa removed the tape from the VCR, then thumped down disconsolately on the couch. She looked at the cassette label that read:

  TERESA’s SWEET SIXTEEN BIRTHDAY PARTY

  Her mother’s handwriting on the tape she had made—a tape Teri had not watched since right after the party, a tape cartridge she hadn’t seen for eight years, a tape cartridge that had not been in the box she’d found today in her former home.

  “Where did this come from?” she almost wailed to Mac. “Who brought it here?”

  “I don’t know, but I do know we should call the police.” She looked at him in alarm. “Teri, someone broke into your house. They didn’t take anything—”

  “No, they left something.”

  “It doesn’t matter whether they took or gave. They broke in. You have to report this. You don’t have to face the police alone. I won’t leave you.”

  “I won’t leave you.” The simple words shook Teresa. Did he mean just that he was not leaving her tonight to face the police, or did he mean he wasn’t leaving her ever? Or did he mean both? Oh, she was too tired to analyze everything Mac said. Now she could only concentrate on the present situation and be glad he wasn’t going to desert her.

  A young deputy was sent to the scene. Teresa vaguely recognized him as one of the county deputies who had come the night before when they had found Gus’s body. The deputy took copious notes and nodded his head a lot, agreed that someone breaking in just to leave a VHS tape was indeed strange, and checked both doors as Mac had done. Teri then told the deputy about the prowler who had left the night-light on the porch. He did not seem particularly impressed with that until she said she had seen someone who looked the same running across the road the night Gus Gibbs was murdered. The deputy asked for a full description, then narrowed his eyes and asked why she had said nothing about this person last night.

  “I was very shaken and I just didn’t think about it,” she said lamely. “I didn’t see the person come from the barn—just from my property. I intended to tell the sheriff about it today, but I haven’t seen him. I’ll be talking with him tomorrow, though.”

  Mac didn’t give the deputy a chance to ask why she hadn’t talked to the sheriff today. “In light of this person who’s creeping around here wearing a black coat and hood, leaving things on Miss Farr’s porch, coming from her property on the night of Mr. Gibbs’s murder, don’t you think she should have police protection?” Mac asked.

  “We already have a city patrol car coming by here four times every twenty-four hours and a state police car come by twice,” the deputy said. “I know it doesn’t sound like much, but we’re low on manpower right now—one deputy is out sick, and another’s on vacation—so there’s no way we can provide twenty-four-hour surveillance, but I’ll see if we can’t step up the patrols,” the deputy said. “In the meantime, Miss Farr, it might be best if you stayed with a friend.”

  After he’d left, Teresa looked at Mac and said, “A patrol car coming by approximately every four hours will certainly scare off the hardiest of souls.”

  Mac laughed. “I know it’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. At least the break-in has been reported.”

  “And no one will dare do it again now that it has been officially reported.”

  “Don’t be such a sourpuss,” Mac teased. “Reporting it was the right thing to do.”

  “That will be a great comfort to me the next time someone breaks in here and kills me and Sierra.”

  “No one is going to get a chance to do that,” Mac said, “because you are not going to be alone until this thing is over.”

  “Mac, I can’t desert this place like the deputy suggested. Josh’s friends are going to feed the horses, but the guys aren’t staying here, and I’m not going to run off and leave the horses unprotected.”

  “Can’t you pay Josh’s friends to stay in the barn and watch over the horses?”

  “The barn is a crime scene—it can’t be disturbed except to feed the horses. Besides, I don’t know who these guys are—I have no way to get in touch with them and I don’t know where Josh is. I can’t contact them.”

  Teresa took a deep breath. “I can’t leave the horses, Mac. Some of them are mine. Most of them aren’t, but they’re being boarded here. Even if I weren’t concerned about them because I love horses, it’s taken me years to get my business going and I can’t just toss everything aside. The safety of those horses is my responsibility and you can call me silly and childish and reckless and just plain stupid, but I can’t leave them!”

  “I hadn’t intended to call you any of those things,” Mac returned calmly. “I know you aren’t going to leave the horses unprotected for long, especially after someone did go into the barn and turned loose your horse.” Teresa noticed he’d carefully not mentioned the murder of Gus. “But tonight you have to get out of here until your locks can be replaced. That’s why I want you two ladies to put together a travel kit, because you’re coming to spend the night at my place.”

  “At your place!”

  “Yes, Teresa. I have an apartment above the club and it’s pretty nice.”

  Spend the night with Mac? Every bit of reason in Teresa told her to say no. Every bit of emotion desperately wanted to accept his offer.

  “Mac, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” she said, hearing the lack of conviction in her voice.

  “Look, Teri, do you want to sleep in a house where someone has picked your lock to come inside and leave a videotape?”

  “No, of course I don’t!”

  “Well, I’m offering you an alternative. You could always go to a hotel, but they’ll charge. I won’t. Besides, the two nicest hotels in the area don’t allow dogs.”

  “I can bring Sierra to your apartment? Because I’m not going to leave her here alone to face whoever, whatever—”

  “I told the two of you ladies to put together your travel kit. I only see two ladies in
the room—you and one with short brown hair and impressively large pointed ears.” Teresa smiled. “Teri, I know you wouldn’t run off and leave Sierra, either. I’m going to call a guy who’s sort of an undercover bouncer at the club and ask him to spend the night outside of your barn. He can pitch a tent or something. It’s a warm night. He’ll guard your horses for you.”

  “You think he’ll do it?” Teresa asked doubtfully.

  “For some extra money, I know he’ll do it. I’ll also call the cops and tell them not to go berserk when they see him out there. Now go pack something. The sooner we get out of here, the better. Frankly, I feel a little creepy, too, knowing someone was here about ten minutes before we arrived. They had to be waiting until they saw my car coming toward the house, because the tape hadn’t been playing for more than a few minutes.” Teri hadn’t thought of that. “Run along now,” Mac said briskly. “And remember this is an overnight trip. You’re not going on an ocean voyage.”

  “I wish we were going on an ocean voyage,” Teresa muttered to Sierra, who followed her as she gathered up a nightgown, underwear, and some toiletries. “I’m beginning to feel about as comfortable in this house as I do in the house on Mourning Dove Lane.”

  2

  “Beer, popcorn, and The African Queen on DVD,” Gabriel said. “What more could a man want?”

  “Me, I hope.” Carmen sat down beside him on the couch, placing a fragrant bowl of buttery popcorn on her lap. “After tomorrow night, we won’t always have to stay in the secrecy of our houses. We can actually go to the theater to see a movie.”

  “I like watching movies at home. You can always put them on hold if the mood overtakes you.” Gabe leaned down and kissed Carmen’s neck. “Get my meaning?”