Meg and Tom left for the bar arm in arm, and I was feeling pretty smug. I was thinking that this might be the end of Meg’s attraction to Scott Howe when Tom stomped back in the door.
“Bella, before I forget, I’ve got some bad news. Vera’s death wasn’t caused by a fall. It’s being handled as a murder. Unfortunately, you’re on the suspect list. I wanted you to hear it from me before word got around.”
“Great. Not only do I have to deal with the trauma of finding a corpse, but now I’m accused of murder too. I’ve had better weeks.”
“Not accused, just a suspect. You’d be on the list even if you hadn’t found her body, because you worked with her.” Tom sighed. “But it definitely puts you in the spotlight. For what it’s worth, I don’t think anyone really thinks it was you. At least, no one that actually knows you.”
Meaning I was number one suspect in Lieutenant Brooks’ eyes. Great.
“Get out of here. Meg’s waiting for you. I promise not to kill anybody while you’re out.”
Tom grinned at me and headed back out the door. I stripped off my mud-covered jeans, pulled on Tom’s sweats, and slumped in a kitchen chair.
Crap
, I thought,
crap, crap, crap.
I would have yelled, if the kids weren’t supposed to be sleeping.
I dug my phone out of my jacket pocket and flipped it open. Jim picked up his phone on the third ring.
“I’m having a very weird week. Got a minute to talk?”
“Not really. I’m right in the middle of something. I’ll call you tomorrow.” And he rang off.
I stared at my phone. It was ten-thirty at night. What could he be in the middle of now? Something didn’t feel right to me, but I shook it off. Everything seemed bizarre at the moment.
* * * * *
I was sitting in front of the TV when Meg and Tom walked in. It was one-thirty in the morning, not too bad considering they hadn’t left home until after ten. Meg was laughing and hanging onto Tom.
“Had a few too many.” Tom grinned at me. “I think I might get lucky tonight.”
“You’d better believe it, Big Boy.” Meg giggled. “You are mine tonight.” She stood on her toes to whisper in his ear.
Tom blushed bright red. “Easy girl, Bella’s still here.”
“She couldn’t hear me.” Meg giggled. “Anyway, Bree’s a grown-up. She knows the birds from the bees by now.”
“Yeah but she may not know about what you just suggested.”
I stood up. “I’m outta here before I get roped into something we will all regret later.”
“Chicken.” Meg laughed.
“Yeah, I’m Chicken Little. See you tomorrow Meg. Later, Tom.”
I grabbed my jacket and muddy jeans and headed for the door.
“Hey, Bella,” Tom called after me. “Thanks for the advice.” He grinned at me. “Hanging out at the barracks is definitely overrated.”
* * * * *
Next morning, I dragged myself out to the barn early and gave my animals some overdue attention. It was drizzling steadily, turning everything to mud and muck. The chickens liked it. They were spreading their wings and preening, taking a rain bath. One of the roosters was splashing around in a puddle trying to make the ladies look at him. I swear those hens were rolling their eyes.
On the way back to the house from the barn, I slid in the mud and went down on my knees in some horse manure. “Crap.”
“Yeah, literally,” said a voice from the road. Rob was sitting in his Toyota 4x grinning at me. I hadn’t heard him drive up. I struggled to my feet.
“What? Are you stalking me? I don’t really need an audience for every stupid thing I do, you know. If I did, I’d date a cop.” I trudged toward the road, flicking mud off my hands.
“You date a lawyer, isn’t that the same thing?” “No. Anyway, you can only be dating if you actually talk to someone, which I haven’t for at least, uh,” I thought a moment, “since yesterday. I guess I can’t really complain.”
“He’s probably just working on a case. You know how those lawyer guys are. Serious about their work.” He leaned out the window to rub Ranger’s head. “Anyway, I just dropped by to see if you wanted a ride into work. It’s kind of wet for the bike today.”
“Yeah, I could go for that. Just give me ten minutes to get ready.” I looked down at myself. “Make that twenty minutes.” I headed for the house.
Rob parked his truck and followed me into the kitchen. I stood just inside the door for a minute, undecided. I didn’t want to track mud and manure through my house, but I wasn’t comfortable getting undressed in front of Rob. My loathing for cleaning overcame my embarrassment.
“Turn around for a minute. I don’t want to track mud all over the house, so I’m going to take my clothes off here.”
“That’s fine. Go ahead and do what you need to do.”
“Be nice,” I gave him what my mom would call the beady eyeball. “Turn around and look out the window, or I’ll tell your girlfriend on you.”
“Spoilsport.” But he turned and looked out the window.
I shucked my boots and peeled off my wet, stinky clothes. I left them in a pile near the laundry room door and took off across the kitchen in my bra and panties. A wolf whistle stopped me. I looked over my shoulder to see Rob watching me leave the room.
“Nice undies.”
“You cheated. Better watch your back, McCullough. When you least expect it, I’m going to take you down.”
“Can’t wait.” He winked at me.
I sighed and took myself upstairs to get cleaned up. I intended to take a quick shower, but washing off the animal smell and mud took a while. I had to shampoo twice and then figured I might as well shave while I conditioned my hair. My conscience started to bother me, and I wondered if Rob had a customer waiting for him. I gave my hair a quick rub with the towel and combed it out. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt and shoved my feet into a pair of dry hiking boots. My motorcycle boots from last night were still soggy.
Rob was sitting on my couch when I came down the stairs into the main room. He was wearing jeans and a long-sleeve undershirt with a flannel open over the top. Hank had his head in Rob’s lap with his eyes closed. Rob was stroking his ears, and I swear you could almost hear that dog purr. Rob smiled at me.
“Mud all gone?”
“Yeah, mud, horse shit and whatever else I picked up out at the barn. Sorry it took me so long. Shall we?” I tilted my head toward the door.
“I don’t know. Hank here seems to think it’s my job to scratch his ears.”
“Hank is a big baby. He may not like it, but he’s going outside with the rest of the dogs.”
I shooed the dogs out the door and we headed for Rob’s truck. It was a twelve-minute drive to town from my place when the roads were dry, and I wasn’t stuck behind a tractor. With Rob driving, it took us fifteen minutes in the mud. I’m pretty sure he was a dirt track driver in another life. He turned to me as we pulled up in front of the laundromat.
“I’ll pick you up at ten-thirty for coffee. Are you working at the ‘dairy’ tonight?”
“No, it’s an off night for me. Not too many guests this week.”
“Good. I’ll come after work and give you a ride home, too. What time do you think you’ll be done here?” “Six-ish, I think. But I’m flexible, if that doesn’t work for you.”
“No, six is good. See you later. Don’t forget coffee.”
I jumped out of the truck, and he drove off.
Nice guy
, I thought,
too bad he’s seeing Lisa Clarkson. Wait a minute, I’m seeing someone too. So cool it. Rob is a friend. A friend.
I finished talking myself out of a relationship with Rob and headed toward the lower door to the office. Before I could push the door open, my feet veered off course and took me to the coffee shop. I wanted a muffin.
I stood at the counter trying to catch Sandy’s eye. I heard laughter from a table behind me and took a look around. Lucy Howe, one of our reporters, who also happens to be my archenemy, was sitting at a table with a group of women. Several of them had been looking my way but swung their heads away as I turned toward them. Lucy made a comment under her breath, and they laughed again.
I thought about going over to find out what the big joke was, but Sandy came up the counter, and I figured if I didn’t order now, I’d never get my breakfast.
“What’s with them?” I jerked my head toward the twittering women.
“Lucy Howe has been holding court all morning. She shuts up when I come around, but she’s finding something highly amusing.”
“Why do I feel as if this has something to do with me?”
“Well, it could just be paranoia. Then again, it might be the way they all look at you when they’re laughing. Don’t know. Coffee and a muffin?”
Four
I took my coffee and muffin upstairs to the office. Meg hadn’t arrived yet, no surprise. She was probably sleeping off a night of drunken debauchery. I powered up my computer and downloaded my e-mail. Most of our articles came from the reporters electronically. Some of the local interest stuff about the ladies club and school lunches got called in, but luckily for me, most everything else came to me already typed.
I was hard at work putting together the calendar of events when Meg finally waltzed in. She had a smug smile on her face and a swing in her walk. Good stuff.
“Everything hunky dory at home again?”
“Things are good.” Meg smiled. “Tom said he’d make sure that we get more time together, no kids, at least once a week. More if he can manage it. So things are good.”
“I’m glad. Problem solved, then?”
“Well, not exactly,” Meg grimaced and looked down at the rug. “Yesterday, I told Scott I was attracted to him.”
My eyebrows just about shot off the top of my head. “You didn’t! God, Meg, what got into you? What did he say?”
“He said he was attracted, too, but thought I was just flirting for a little fun. He was embarrassed. He doesn’t want to cause a rift in my marriage, and he had to think about what to do.”
“What to do about what?”
“I think what to do about getting the barn finished.” Meg sighed. “Man I really blew it. If Scott tells Tom he isn’t going to finish the barn, Tom is going to want to know why. He’ll make him talk. He’s good at that. Guilty guys always confess to Tom. That’s one of the reasons he’s such a good cop. They take one look at his face and spill the beans.”
“Well, maybe if you tell Scott you’ll stay away from the barn, he’ll feel like he can finish it. Why, why, why?” I hit my head with the base of my hand. “This is the kind of dumb stuff I do. This isn’t you.”
“I got flustered. I was so wound up, and I didn’t really want anything to happen. Well, I guess part of me wanted something to happen, or I wouldn’t have kept hanging around. I just blurted it out.”
“I think you should lay low for a while. Come to work more. Stay away from the barn. Spend time with Tom and the kids. Maybe it will all blow over.”
“God, I hope so. Man, I’m so stupid sometimes.”
We went to work on the paper, and silence fell over the office. It was a quiet day, no phones ringing, no reporters hanging over our shoulders. The time passed quickly, and before I knew it, Rob was standing next to me holding my jacket.
“Time to go, Cinderbella. I owe you coffee.”
Meg raised her eyebrows at me as I waved goodbye. Let her wonder, I thought, and grinned. I knew I’d get a grilling when I got back to the office.
“What are you grinning about,” Rob asked me. “I know you’re not that happy to be going to coffee with me.”
“Sorry. Just a thing between Meg and me.”
“You going to tell me about this thing?”
“Uh, no. I don’t think I could without sounding like a complete idiot. Besides, it’s good for a girl to be mysterious sometimes.”
Rob’s rolled his eyes at me, but he didn’t say anything. We got into his truck and motored over to The Sugar House on Route 14. The place was packed, as usual, but the hostess was a good friend, and she slid us into a little table for two.
I ordered coffee and a muffin. Rob ordered hot tea. The rain was pounding on the windows, and leaves were blowing and sticking to the glass. I was silently thankful that I wasn’t riding the bike today.
“So when do I get my car back? I’m going to miss it, if this keeps up.” I pointed my chin at the window.
“I’m waiting on parts. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.” He paused for a minute, considering me. “Don’t take offense, but are you going to able to eat if you pay me next week? I’d hate to see you starving.”
“Don’t have much choice, do I? I’ll just buy groceries with my credit card. Not my favorite, but better than trying to ride the bike in the snow. Anyway, it’s a fair trade. I’m paying your bill with cash.”
“The reason I’m asking is that I’m pretty flush right now. Lots of inspections and tire swaps. Fast money stuff. I’d be fine with it if you needed to pay installments. Only don’t tell anybody I do that. I only offer payments to people I trust to pay. And folks who really need the favor.”
“So which am I? Someone you trust or one that needs the favor? Wait. Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know. Anyway, I’m fine. My grandparents left me the house, so I don’t have payments. I don’t make a whole lot of money, but as long as I don’t have vet bills, I don’t need a whole lot of money.”
“Keep it in mind if anything changes.”
We sat with our hands wrapped around our mugs and talked motorcycles. Rob’s face lit right up when he talked about bikes. He laughed when he told me how he rode through a puddle that just keep getting deeper and deeper until his engine died and he tipped over and landed in a foot and a half of water. The guys riding with him laughed so hard they cried, but then they had to wade into the water to help him pick up his motorcycle, and they all ended up soaked.
I told him about the time I rode into a grass meadow to check out a camping spot. I stopped on a hill and leaned the bike downhill instead of uphill and couldn’t hold the weight of the bike. Fell right over and slid down the hill. The guys with me were laughing so hard that it took them twenty minutes to get my bike back up on two wheels.
Rob laughed. “Got to appreciate a woman who can laugh at herself.”
I smiled at him. “Back at you.” He really was a nice guy.
Whoa
, I said to myself.
He’s seeing someone, and so are you.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
“What was that?”
“Oh, uh, nothing. Just a mental head slap. I probably should get back to work.”
Rob paid the bill, and I left a couple of dollars on the table as a tip. I’d waitressed for a while in college, so now I tended to overtip. It’s hard work, and waitresses get paid next to nothing.
Rob and I walked out, pulling on our jackets. A state cruiser sat in the dirt lot in front of the Sugar House, and a trooper got out of the car and walked toward me. I veered off course to meet him.
“Bella Bree MacGowan?” I didn’t know his name, but I’d seen him before, and it was apparent he knew who I was.
“That’s me.” I had known this was coming since Tom had talked to me the night before. “Do you need me to come down to the barracks?”
The trooper looked a little surprised. “Yes, and I need to drive you there myself.”
“Actually, I don’t have a car here, so it works out fine for me. Can someone drive me back to work when you guys are done with me?”
“I’ll come get you if you’re stuck,” Rob broke in. “Just call.”
“You can sit in the front. Maverick says you’re not armed or dangerous.” He opened the passenger side door. I pulled my cell phone out of my purse. “I need to make a quick call to work. Is that okay?”
I called Meg and told her I didn’t know when I’d be back to the office and slid into the front seat of the cop car. I waved to Rob who was standing there with his arms folded, looking murderous. I rolled down the window.
“Go back to the shop,” I called out to him. “I’ll be fine. I’ll make one of the guys take me back to work.” But he stood watching as the car rolled me away.
I was back in the same interview room as before. I’d been sitting by myself for at least thirty minutes, and I wondered if someone was watching me through the twoway glass. At least, I assumed the mirrored wall hid a viewing room. It would if this was TV.
I supposed I should be more nervous. I knew I was a suspect in murder case, but I couldn’t take it too seriously. I couldn’t see myself as a potential murderer. You couldn’t pull a murder out of thin air. There had to be motive, evidence.
Lieutenant Brooks finally entered the room after I’d been sitting for about an hour. He grabbed the chair across from me and sat down. He was quiet for a moment doing the cop routine, staring at me from under lowered eyebrows, the tips of his fingers pressed together.
“The word around here is that you didn’t kill Vera. But if you ask me, anyone can commit murder, given the right circumstances.”
The door opened, and a female trooper entered the room and stood with her back to the closed door. She shot Brooks an angry glance, and I figured he wasn’t supposed to start without her. But she didn’t say anything, and her face betrayed only that one quick emotion.
Cop face, gotta love it.
I wondered if they gave classes in shutting facial expressions down.
Lieutenant Brooks had his baby blues fixed on me. Actually, they were brilliant blues with beautiful dark lashes.
Good lord, what is wrong with me? I’m attracted to just about every guy I meet.
I did a mental headshake and tried to concentrate.
“So. Why don’t you tell me again how you found Vera’s body?”
I went through the story again, shuddering at the memory of Vera’s cold arm. When I finished Brooks was considering me again. He had his hands folded into a steeple and the tips of his fingers against his lips. I wondered if he knew how sexy that was. He had a great mouth. Jeez, I needed to get a life. All a guy needed was a good pair of lips, and I lost my head. I must have low blood sugar or something.
“You must know that your coworkers think you are the only person who had the opportunity to kill Vera. You were the only one working alone that night. Didn’t you, in fact, insist on being the one to work alone?” All of a sudden, Brooks wasn’t so attractive. Funny how that worked.
“I offered to work alone. I grew up with the general manager, and he trusts me not to do anything stupid.”
He just looked at me.
“Do my coworkers know when she was killed? Because when I found Vera, she was stone cold. She could have been killed long before I found her. Anybody could have killed her.” I had a thought. “You must know when she was killed by now. When did she die?”
“I’m not at liberty to release that information at this time. But I don’t believe you have an alibi for the time in question.”
“I don’t get the opportunity to say for myself if I have an alibi or not?”
“You haven’t been charged with a crime, so I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Boy, this guy was starting to piss me off. “So it’s necessary to keep me at the barracks half the afternoon, when I should be working. It’s necessary to tell me that the people I work with think I’m suspected of murder, necessary to make me relive that awful evening, but not necessary to tell me when the crime I’m supposed to have committed took place.”
Nice. Very nice.
I stood up. “If you are waiting for me to confess, it’s not going to happen. I didn’t kill Vera. I had no reason to kill Vera. And unless you have cause to hold me longer, I’d like to go home now.”
Brooks let me go. I left the room a little forcefully and heard my mother’s voice in my head telling me not to slam doors. Steve was waiting for me. I figured he’d watched the whole thing behind the mirrored wall and knew when I’d be done.
“How you doing? You were stuck in that room for a long time.”
“Pissed off, is how I am. I’ve got things to do, and he’s wasting my time. Is he even looking for the person who really killed Vera? I bet he’s already nailed it on me, and he’s figuring I’ll crack if he holds me long enough. I bet you anything he doesn’t have any evidence at all. I found her, Steve, I didn’t kill her.”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff, Bree. Nobody who really knows you thinks you killed her.” Maybe Brooks doesn’t really think you killed her either. Maybe he has the hots for you and wanted an excuse to spend a couple of hours in your company.”
“Oh, shut up!” I gave him an open-fisted shot to the shoulder. “God, you are so one-track-minded.”
“Minded? What’s minded? Is that a real word?” He was laughing at me now.
“You know what I mean. Can you find someone to take me home? I need some time before I go back to work.”
Steve took me home. We pulled into the dooryard where the dogs were, and they barked and raised their hackles at the car. I pasted a smile on my face and thanked Steve. The dogs swarmed me and I bent to rub Annie’s brown velvet ears before dragging up the steps and letting myself into the house.
The house calmed me. I moved through the kitchen and dining area, inhaling the quiet. I’d inherited a little money with the farm when my grandmother died. Most of it, I’d used fixing up the old house and putting in modern windows. Sunshine fills the rooms, making them glow. I love the windows, especially during the winter, when every shaft of sunlight is like a gift. I made my way up the stairs to my bedroom.
I’d stripped the room of everything except my bed, a dresser and my grandma’s old rocking chair. It was full of space and light with a little blue in the quilt and rug. A room you’d expect to see in a beach house with a view of the ocean. My view was of the pastures and the pond.
When my grandmother had lived in this house, the windows all had heavy, insulating drapes covering them. I’d pulled them all down, declining to put up any curtains at all, except in this room, where I’d hung lacy white sheers that fluttered when the windows were open. My favorite room in my favorite house.
I slid off my shoes and pulled down the quilt. I hoisted myself onto the mattress and sunk into the bedding. Then I grabbed the covers and pulled them up over my head. This was a place I could find peace.
The dogs were barking to come in, but I ignored them. I lay under the covers for a while, willing myself to go to sleep, but my stomach was growling and my mind wouldn’t slow down. Fragments of my conversation with Lieutenant Brooks were popping into my head, making me crazy. My stomach felt full of rocks, and there was a miniature jackhammer drilling into my skull above my left eye. Finally, I threw the covers off in a fury and stomped downstairs for something to eat.
I cast around my kitchen for something suitable and snagged a cup of chocolate pudding out of the fridge. I ate it standing at the window, but I wasn’t seeing anything. My mind was focused on the events of the last few days. I grabbed another pudding out of the fridge and started on that on,e too. About halfway through, I started to feel sick and threw it away. Time to go back to work.
I pulled on my rain gear, an old yellow slicker with matching pants. Then I stomped outside and dragged the bike out of the barn. Riding the bike in the mud wiped my mind of the events of the day. I was concentrating on finding the firmest ground and not letting the bike slide out from under me around corners. I made myself relax when I got to the pavement, rolling my shoulders and releasing my breath.
Meg wasn’t at the office when I got there. I powered up my computer and rifled through the ads to be set, looking for something easy. I pulled a couple out of the pile and tried to concentrate on them, but what I really wanted to do was talk to Meg. I called the house and got Jeremy on the phone. Yeah, his mom was around the house someplace.
I locked up the office and headed over to Meg’s and Tom’s. I let myself into the house. Louise was sitting in the kitchen with papers spread across the table. She had a pencil in her mouth and a scowl on her face.
“Homework? Need help with anything?”
Louise pulled the pencil from her mouth. “Nah. I just have to do a science project for Mr. Morse. I’m making a poster that shows the life cycle of this plant, and I’m trying to work out how I want to lay it out.”