HIGHWAY HOMICIDE (17 page)

He looked over at Carl with tear filled eyes that were begging forgiveness.

“I stepped forward, hoping to make her change her mind. Thinking I was angry, she stepped forward as well. She had her arms held out to ward me off. We were so engrossed in what was happening that neither of us noticed the upturned garden rake lying in the grass between us. It was dark in the garden, you see, Carl. Anyway, she stepped on it and it came up and hit her in the face. I don’t think it hit her that hard but it was enough to knock her off balance. She fell over backwards and hit her head on the stone garden edging. I hadn’t even touched her, Carl. I swear it.”

“It’s alright, Doc, go on,” Carl said quietly, not wanting to stop the flow of words.

“I rushed forward and knelt down beside her and felt for a pulse. I couldn’t find one at all. It looked to me as though striking her head on the stone had killed her instantly.”

“And then what did you do? What did you do with her? Where did you put her?” Carl asked insistently.

“I didn’t put her anywhere, Carl. But as I stood back up I saw Jack Finlay looking over the fence at me. He’d obviously just been passing and had seen what happened. And since I was the doctor, he’d just shrugged and moved on. I suppose he expected me to deal with it.”

“What was he doing there then?” Carl asked.

“I have no idea. As I said, I guessed he was just passing for some reason. But, Carl, that was when I did the most stupid thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I just left her lying there. There was nothing I could do for her now. She was dead. I expected to be called out in the morning by you guys, to the scene of a fatal accident, as I always am. And it
was
an accident, Carl. I never touched her, except to check for a pulse.”

“But the gossip said she’
d gone away with Finlay, Doc. Why didn’t you correct the story?”

“Because there was never any body, was there?  A
nd I thought I’d been terribly mistaken. That she had only been stunned and not dead at all. I wondered if she’d gone away, but on her own, because she hadn’t gone back to Errol obviously.”

“And then Finlay went missing as well, Doc. Didn’t that make you just a little bit curious?”

“Curious, yes. Carl. Curious enough to go looking into it, no. You have to remember I was hurting pretty bad. Dolly had just told me once again that she didn’t want me.”

Carl had noticed
Doc had referred twice to the fact he and Dolly had been together, which confirmed what Jude had told him.

“I just wasn’t sure what the truth was and frankly, I didn’t want to know either. She was gone, one
way or another and that was the end of it, as far as I was concerned. But I repeat, Carl, and I’ll swear on a stack of bibles that I never touched her and I certainly didn’t kill her either. Even if she is dead, and since I have no proof of that, I have no idea where she is now.”

“Well, Doc, I can tell you this much. According to my sources, Dolly is definitely dead and has been for some time, I believe. Possibly since that night. I am truly sorry for you. But I wont know where she is for some time though. When I know, I’ll let you know,”

Doc nodded sadly.

“One more thing, Carl, am I in tr
ouble with the law for what I’ve told you today?”

Carl looked thoughtful.

“Don’t think so, Doc. I don’t think there’s a law about walking away from a dead body. Especially since no one turned up dead. Maybe, if I ever get around to it, I’ll have to look it up sometime. In the meantime, don’t you lose any sleep over it, okay?”

He reached over and shook the old doctor’s hand.

“Gotta go, now, Doc. You take good care of yourself now.”

As he got up to leave, Carl said, “There’s just
one more thing I’d like to ask you.”
              Doc gave him a startled look until Carl added, “Its alright, this isn’t about you or Errol, Doc. It’s about Dave. I was wondering what would cause him to lose his memory like he did. It sure gave him a whole lot of grief.”

Doc smiled and looked relieved.

“It’s called retrograde or short term amnesia, Carl. It’s only temporary and the person’s memory can return at any time. Usually it’s caused by a blow to the head or could be due to some intense or severe visual shock.”

Carl nodded.

“Yeah, right, that makes sense. Thanks, Doc,” he said as he turned and waved at Lisa and Rosetta.

“Doc needs a refill over there, Rosie, and I’ll bring Ol’ Blue Eyes in next time for you, I promise.”

He stuck his hat jauntily on his head and walked on out. He’d had a good day. Christ, he’d had a bloody marvelous goddamned day!

Chapter Twenty Seven

David had settled in very nicely at Judy’s place and had come to an amicable agreement with her regarding payment. Judy had reluctantly accepted a monthly room rental payment from David on the condition that she provided the majority of his meals for him.

Having already partaken at her dinner table, it was an offer he neither could nor wanted to refuse. Judy had also taken the morning off so she could take him out shopping again. Being a fairly standard forty two tall, he had no trouble getting a dark charcoal grey suit to fit him off the rack. He added a white shirt, a somber tie, black socks and black shoes to his outfit.

He wasn’t a suit kind of guy though. Put him in jeans, a tee shirt, an old sweater and boat shoes or boots and he was happy. Not well d
ressed perhaps, but happy. He’d always been clean shaven, didn’t like his hair to be overly long and couldn’t stand studs, pins and earrings on men, certainly not on himself. He was completely turned off by any female who sported any kind of body piercing ornamentation, other than earrings.

He knew
he was attractive to women; otherwise he wouldn’t have lasted ten seconds with Maria. She’d wanted him as much as a trophy, to show off to the other girls, as she did for any love for him, even more so, perhaps.

In retrospect, and now
it was too late anyway, he wondered why he’d stayed with her so long. She was stunningly beautiful, of course, but she had some very nasty and socially unacceptable habits to go along with it as well. Whenever he’d caught her stealing it had usually been something trivial. She had just laughed it off, and, rather than upset her, so had he.

Then, of course, there was her jealousy and her callous and almost brutal treatment of some of the other girls and guys, both in and out of their group.

David was devastated she was gone now and stunned by the way in which it had happened. But in a way, he was strangely relieved. He was relieved that he no longer had to make a decision to leave her. It had been made for him.

She’
d made the decision to leave him and someone else had finalized it for her. Now he could stand back and look hard at their former relationship objectively, he saw it quite differently.

He realized
, from his point of view at least, it was merely infatuation, based solely upon her beauty. It certainly wasn’t love, as he’d once thought it was. She’d said she’d loved him too, but looking back now, he very much doubted the sincerity of her words.

He would go to her funeral on Tuesday,
and he had no doubt at all it would be a very emotional experience for him. Afterwards he would close the book on that chapter of his life. Then he’d move on by trying to build a new one for himself right here in Cooper’s Corners.

In the couple of days he’
d been here, the local folks seemed to have gone out of their way to make him welcome.

Both Carl and Judy had very effectively paved the way for him. Carl had taken him out to O’Shaunessy’s Pub and back out to Lisa’s diner. Carl had made it quite clear to everyon
e, in the eyes of the law, and that also meant in
his
eyes; David was a victim, not a criminal.

He’
d even gone a step further by going to the Holy Cross church on Sunday and had asked the minister if he could address the congregation. He told the assembled worshipers the same thing. David Gates was just another victim and should be treated as such.

Judy, in the meantime, had addressed the Friday night Bingo goers and had also set the gossip mill str
aight. She told them the Sheriff’s office believed both Forrest Appleyard and Maria Caspar had been killed by the same man. And, as she’d emphasized, that man
wasn’t
David Gates.

“Do you seriously think I’
d welcome a killer to actually stay under my roof and to sit down at my own dinner table? Well, do you?” she’d said.

The gossip mill had shaken their collective grey or white heads and that was the end of that.

It was now Tuesday night and they were having dinner at Judy’s, following the funeral. There’d only been a handful of people present, including Judy, David and, of course, Erica. In spite of her beauty, Maria had very few friends, but plenty of enemies and enemies don’t usually attend funerals, except to gloat.

Judy had asked Erica to come back to Cooper’s Corners with th
em to stay for a few days. She’d already explained that David was staying with her as well and he’d been cleared of any wrong doing. Erica gladly accepted the offer and returned with them in Judy’s car.

In the middle of the meal, Carl dropped by, primarily with some news for David. After greeting Erica again, Carl had difficulty dragging his eyes away from the large lemon meringue pie that sat on the end of the table.

“Being so busy, I guess you don’t have time for a piece of pie then, Carl, do you?” Judy said mischievously.

“What?” Carl said, finally getting around to looking at her. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, I just thought with all this
real
police work you’ve been doing lately, you’d just be too busy to sit around here eating my pies,” she said.

“Oh, for Christ sake, Jude, just dish the damned thing up, will you?” he said, and to David and Erica he added, “She’s just fishing
for compliments. She knows she makes the best damned pies in the whole County.”

He pulled up a chair and sat down at the table. “Happy now, woman?” he said to Judy.

“Only best
pies
, Carl?” Judy said, raising her eyebrows. “So what’s wrong with my other food?”

Carl spread his hands out.

“There you go, see. I just can’t win with this woman, can I?” he said.

“I didn’t know
you wanted to
win
, Carl,” Judy said sweetly, handing him a huge slice. “I just thought you wanted a piece of pie. And in any case, you should know by now you can’t win against a woman. We don’t play fair, do we, Erica?”

Carl gave her an exasperated look as the two women exchanged grins.

“I think a thank you would be nice, Carl. You aren’t doing too badly with your ‘pleases’, but you’ve got a way to go yet with your ‘thank yous’,” she said, needling him a bit more.

“Thank you
, Jude,” he muttered. “Happy
now
?”

“Only if you are, Carl dear,” Jude said, grinning at Erica.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, woman, give me a break,” he said. “Anyway, I just came by to tell Dave here something. Dave, Alvin Ryan, over at the appliance store in town is interested in talking to you. He said he’s looking for a salesman, assistant manager or whatever for his place. He’d like to talk to you, if you’re interested. I told him you worked for G.E. and knew all about appliances.”

David smiled.

“Well, I know a bit about them, Carl. I certainly don’t know all about them, but yes, sure, I’d love to talk to him, thanks.”

“Alright, then, that’s settled. I’ll swing by in the morning to pick you up. Then, if you like, after you’ve talked
Alvin into hiring you, we’ll pop over to Burlington to get your own car back, okay?”

“That’s great, Carl, and thank you.”

“See how easy it is, Carl?” Jude said sweetly.

“See how easy
what
is, Jude?”

“Saying thank you, Carl. David does it all the time.”

Carl pretended to ponder for a moment.

“
I’m afraid I’ll have to look this one up in the books, Dave,” he said. “But I know a couple of the Judges around here so I think I can make it stick.”

“What on earth are you talking about, Carl?” Judy asked.

Carl pointed at David,

“Him,” Carl said, with a serious
look on his face. “I think I can still arrest him for behavior likely to cause a duly elected law officer to be held up to ridicule by his staff. A very serious offence that is, Dave, so just watch your tongue with all this please and thank you stuff, okay?”

“There, Erica, that just proves it. It doesn’t matter how much you dress them up, even in a uniform, you still can’t get some men to be polite to a lady, can you?”

Carl bit back a further retort and took a bite of his pie instead. It was much safer. Dave was a pretty lucky guy, he thought, to have all of this as part of his lodging deal.

But he didn’t do so badly himself either, he thought. Alternating between Lisa’s diner and Jude’s dining room, he had two of the best cooks in the County feeding him on a regular basis.

He’d thought that he should maybe ask Lisa out again, as a thank you for everything. There was that ‘thank you’ thing again. It was popping up everywhere these days!

When he’
d taken David back into the diner the other day, Lisa’s sister, Rosetta, had hovered around them like a wasp around a jam jar. And it was Dave that Rosie was obviously interested in, he thought. It looked as though young Dave had already found himself an ardent admirer in Cooper’s Corners.

Maybe he could arrange a foursome, Lisa and himself, with Dave and Rosie. That might do it. Lisa was very fond of Japanese food and liked the flair with which the meals were prepared. It would be a fair distance to go but he k
new the Sakura Japanese Restaurant over on Church Street in Burlington was her favorite.

H
e and Dave wouldn’t have dress up either, since it was casual dining. It would make conversation a little easier if there were four of them too. He’d planned to mention it the next time he saw Dave and here it was now, the next time.

“Dave, buddy, I’ve had an idea. Something to get you out and about a bit socially,” Carl began.
              Judy raised her eloquent eyebrows, as Doc called them, once again.
              Ignoring her, Carl carried on.

“I thought
you and I could ask the diner sisters out for an evening.”

“The diner sisters? Who on earth are they?’ David asked.

Judy laughed.

“He means Lisa and Rosetta, David,” she said.

“
Lisa
!” David exclaimed. “Do you think she’s forgiven me enough to go out with us?”

“Dave,” Carl said, “For the sake of her little sister, Lisa would forgive Jack the Ripper himself. Didn’t you notice how young Rosie was hanging around you?”

“I thought she was just giving us good service,” David said.

“Yeah, sure!” Carl scoffed. “You
noticed
all right. Anyway, she’s cute, isn’t she?”

“Yes, I guess she is, but you know, Carl, so soon after Maria’s funeral…” David left the rest of the sentence unsaid, glancing over in embarrassment at Erica.

“I didn’t mean tomorrow, for Christ sake, Dave, but are you okay with it if I set it up for later?”

David looked at Judy, and then again at Erica.

“It’s alright, David,” Erica said, “She’s gone and nothing we can do or say will ever bring her back, will it? You need to get on with your life now. We all do.”

She secretly would have been perfectly happy if Carl had included her in the foursome instead of Lisa. But not living here made that impossible.

Maybe she should think of relocating up here as well, just as David was doing. There was nothing left for her in Rutland either. She could easily sell the house, since it had been in just her name only. Her parents had willed it to her as a place to take care of her sister. Like David, her job wasn’t a prime factor in keeping her in Rutland either. As tears started to stream down her face, she excused herself and headed for the bathroom.