Rock-a-Bye Bones (35 page)

“Cut off her funds,” I said. “If she hasn't left the country, we have to stop her and maybe we can patch this back together somehow.”

“Have you checked the private airstrip?”

Harold was a damn genius. “I hadn't thought of that, and I'm right here. You're a god, Harold. Of course, Tinkie would go private if she could.”

“With the right plane, she can get to Central America, and from there, she can go anywhere.”

“Harold, thank you.” My gut reaction told me Harold had hit the nail on the head. I'd never have thought of a private plane. “But wouldn't she have just asked Yancy to take her? He flew us to Nashville.”

“She needs a plane with a longer reach, which requires a longer runway. The private planes so many plantation owners fly are perfect for short hops. If she wants to jump the border and land somewhere without extradition where she'll have half a chance of being welcomed, she needs a bigger plane.”

When he explained it that way, it made perfect sense. Tinkie would know these things, too. “Do you think someone is giving her a ride as a favor?”

“Tinkie knows a lot of wealthy people. Maybe. Could be she's hired a charter. Do you know where she'd go?”

I hadn't considered Central America, but Costa Rica would be my first guess. I told him my thoughts.

“I'll check with the air traffic controllers to see if a flight has been scheduled for Costa Rica. If we can stop her in the States, that's the best outcome. If she's in Memphis, whatever it takes, bring her back to Zinnia. I'll stall everyone until then.”

“How?”

“I don't know,” Harold admitted. “I'd give my life for Oscar and Tinkie, and for you. I'll come up with some reasonable explanation for her absence. Just find her and drag her home.”

“I'll do my best.”

*   *   *

The private section of the airport was secluded and not easy to access. When I finally figured out where to park, I regretfully left the animals in the car once again. On second thought, I took Chablis. She might be my best bargaining chip with Tinkie. I knew my partner loved her husband and her dog. Maybe seeing Chablis would snap her out of the baby fog and force her to realize what she was leaving behind.

If she was even there.

The regulations for private flights were much different, though security was no less thorough. I was stopped the moment I entered the large building that served as a check-in and -out. No one said a word about Chablis, but I was ushered into a side office.

“What can we help you with?” a tall, mustached man who was obviously in charge of security asked.

“My partner is here with a baby. She's confused. She thinks the child is in trouble and I suspect she's headed out of the country. I have to stop her.” There wasn't time to concoct a story more palatable. “If you know where she is, the best thing for everyone is to find her and stop her from taking off.”

He got on the phone and made some calls.

“She's here. The plane is almost ready to taxi to the runway. I've told the pilot to hold up and to keep the loading ramp in place. What do you want to do?”

Now that was a good question. “I have to talk to her.”

“You can't take an unleashed dog—”

“This dog may be the thing that wins her over. I don't have a leash. Do you?” I wasn't about to give up on having Chablis with me. Now that I knew Tinkie was near and that I was the person who would step between her and the future she perceived as hers, I would need every asset I could muster.

He sighed. Obviously he'd dealt with a lot of cranky wealthy people, and though I was far from rich, I was pretty darn cranky. “Keep the dog in your arms. I'm going to ask the pilot to make her and the staff disembark. He'll say it's a mechanical problem with the plane.”

“Thank you.”

He marched away, leaving me and Chablis with our doubts and fears. I cuddled the dust mop and assured her Tinkie was all but on her way home. I spoke aloud to bolster my courage as much as to comfort the pup.

When I saw Tinkie coming down the stairs and onto the tarmac, where all of the luggage had been disgorged from the plane, I felt my heart drop to my knees. She was sporting black hair and wore off-the-rack dungarees and a flannel shirt with a ball cap. Libby was wrapped in a tacky pink and blue plaid blanket.

Tinkie stood beside her luggage, checking her watch, obviously anxious. I pushed open the door of the terminal and stepped into the night. To my horror, Chablis jumped from my arms and ran across the landing strip to Tinkie. Though I was hustling to catch up, I was still fifty feet away when Tinkie saw her dog. She put a hand to her mouth to stifle her cry, and she held out one arm to invite Chablis into her embrace, careful to protect the baby.

She faced me and I could see her features harden. “Stay away from me,” she said. “I'm getting back on that plane and—”

“You're not.”

“It's what I have to do.”

I kept walking toward her. I had to get close enough to grab her. She wasn't reboarding. No matter how furious she got with me, her whole life depended on my ability to keep her in Memphis. She hadn't gone so far she couldn't turn this around. If she flew away, it would be a different story involving the feds, charges, prison time, and a lot of other really unpleasant things.

“Pleasant is going to be fine, Tinkie. She fought to stay alive under brutal conditions because of her baby girl.”

“I don't want to hurt Pleasant or Charity, but Libby is my baby now. I'm the one who can take care of her, provide for her. No one could love her more than I can.”

“At what cost?” I pointed to her wedding ring. “Oscar doesn't know what you're up to. I'm the only one who does. We can head back to Zinnia, make up a plausible reason why we were in Memphis, and all of this can go away.”

“You know I won't do that. I can't. I've never loved anyone or anything with such intensity. With such pure joy. I'll die before I lose her.”

I thought of Jitty's last incarnation in the kitchen, the woman who'd sacrificed her legs for her children. The story of King Solomon. I knew what I had to do. Chances were high my friend would never forgive me, but I had no other play.

“This blast of maternal love you're feeling isn't about what's good for Libby. This is all about you, Tinkie. This fills a hole in your life, and so you want it. And obviously you don't care who you hurt to get it. This isn't the partner I've grown to love like a sister. This is the selfish girl from college.”

Tinkie could not have been more shocked if I'd slapped her. “How can you say that? You don't know what it's like to love a child.”

That one stung, too, but I couldn't be defeated by my own hurt feelings. “The time may come when I consider having a child or adopting, but I won't steal someone's baby. Pleasant has every right to her little girl. What you're planning to do is worse than murder.”

“You don't know what you're talking about.”

“Oh, I do. I surely know. Everyone was so angry at Graf when he chose his daughter, when he put her first. I heard the whispers and the comments. Because he hurt me, you were all ready to string him up. But he made a choice for love, for his child.
His
child. Just as Libby is Pleasant's child. He chose his blood, and that's never the wrong choice.”

“That's exactly what I'm doing and you're trying to stop me.”

I stepped closer. Tinkie trembled in the cold wind that whipped across the open landing strip. “No, you're making up excuses for stealing another woman's child. Loving Libby is not the reason for your actions. This is for you, all for you. It has nothing to do with what Libby wants or needs.”

“You're a mean person, Sarah Booth. I never saw it before, but I do now.”

I knew the risk when I started. I knew Tinkie might end up hating me forever. Even when she finally realized that I was correct, it was possible my harsh words would end our friendship, our partnership. Any future together.

While I asked Tinkie to make a sacrifice, I, too, was willing to make one. I would give up our friendship to save her from committing a terrible crime and going to jail. Before she cut Oscar's heart out and left it on the kitchen counter, I would give up whatever I had to surrender to see her safely home.

“Chablis's heart was broken when we went to Hilltop and you'd left her. How could you leave Chablis?”

Tinkie started to speak, but her voice broke on a sob. “She has a good life here. I didn't know where I was going or how I'd live. I took some money, but not enough to live on. Besides, Oscar loves Chablis. I couldn't take everything from him.” She was crying in earnest when she finished speaking.

“You don't have to take anything. Come home, Tinkie. We'll come up with an explanation for why you were in Memphis. We'll give Libby to her mother, who has been through far too much. You and Oscar will see Libby all the time. The alternative is that you'll go to prison, Oscar will be heartbroken, and you'll never see that baby again.” I picked up her luggage and motioned the clerk to help with the rest as we hauled it across the airstrip.

“Mrs. Richmond won't be taking a flight,” I said.

“I called the police,” the clerk said.

At first I didn't believe what he said. “You did what?”

“She was kidnapping that kid. That's not her baby. I called the police.”

I got in his face. “You'd better cancel that call and say it was a misunderstanding right this minute. The baby is going home. I don't care how you walk this back, but if you're a smart man, you'll figure out how to do it. Now.”

I grabbed Tinkie's arm. “We have to go. Our only hope is to get back to Sunflower County and put that baby in her mother's arms. Everything can be explained as a misunderstanding.” If only we could get home before some branch of law enforcement snared her.

Because the Caddy had a bigger engine and a better heater than my roadster, I transferred the dogs and loaded Tinkie and the baby in. Within five minutes we were tearing out of the parking lot. We'd have to take the back roads home, which would slow us down some, but on a cold November night, there wasn't likely to be any traffic.

Sweetie and Pluto nuzzled Tinkie's neck and checked on the baby while I drove like the wind, this time in the opposite direction.

*   *   *

Tinkie cradled the baby in one arm and Chablis in the other. The child remained undisturbed by all the events. Chablis's heart was wounded, but she would forgive Tinkie. Dogs were the ultimate givers of unconditional love. Only a mother and a dog could dispense love with such an open heart.

I took Highway 3, because I wasn't sure the clerk at the terminal could actually stop the ball he'd put in motion. I had one chance to save Tinkie from the conflagration she'd started. If I got her back to Sunflower County and returned Libby to her mother, maybe, just maybe, this Memphis episode could be forgotten. As far as I was concerned, no one would ever know the true details about how close Tinkie had come to wrecking her life.

I didn't know how to broach the subject of Libby's mother, but I had to start somewhere. “Pleasant almost died, but she'll recover.”

“I'm sorry I abandoned you in the woods. I knew Coleman would find you.”

“It's okay.” I wasn't sure that it was, but Tinkie was not the only person in our friendship who'd taken a regrettable action. When I first came home to Zinnia, I'd dognapped Chablis and ransomed her back. The money had saved Dahlia House, but guilt scalded me on a regular basis. More than anything I wanted to confess my sin to Tinkie, but to unburden my conscience would hurt her and our friendship. So I chose to live with the guilt.

“I knew you'd be okay. I really did. I have total faith in Coleman when it comes to protecting you.”

“I almost killed Luther Potter in cold blood. I shot him in the leg and when he couldn't get away, I put the barrel of my gun to his head. If Sweetie Pie hadn't knocked me down, I think I would have killed him.”

Silence stretched between us for a long time. The miles spun beneath the wheels. We drove in a tunnel of darkness, the headlights illuminating the road ahead of us, and the darkness gobbling up the light behind us. On either side of the narrow two-lane highway, empty fields stretched into the velvet night.

“You aren't a killer,” Tinkie finally said.

“And you aren't a kidnapper. Yet here we are, both of us. The trick to survival, Tinkie, is to come to terms with our actions, accept them, and understand what we're capable of. I'm not saying we shrug it off, but we forgive ourselves and move forward. We both faced a set of circumstances that brought out the worst in us.”

“You pack a lot of wisdom for someone who can't match socks and slacks.”

It was such a relief to laugh out loud. I'd feared my friend and partner was lost beneath emotions and actions. “Tinkie, I could wring your neck.”

“Oh, get in line. I'm sure Oscar is mad enough to divorce me.” She inhaled sharply. “Do you think he will?”

“No, but we'll minimize this. The two of us. We need a white lie.”

“Such as?”

“Maybe you got a call saying the baby was in danger. You were acting to protect Libby.”

Tinkie thought a moment. “You would lie to Coleman?”

“And Oscar and Cece and everyone else. Tinkie, you lost your head. You did something so far outside your normal conduct that I can't see punishing you for it. Let's clean this up.”

“Does anyone else know what I did?”

“Just the folks at the airport. And Harold.”

“Can we really fix this?”

“We have to.”

Sweetie gave a low howl, concurring with my statement.

“It's settled then. The story is Libby was threatened. You acted impulsively not to steal the baby but to protect her.”