“That we’ve let our heads get turned by all of this sex. We’ve got so many Dorseteers hopping in and out of bed with each other that we don’t know who loves who, who loathes who, who might want who dead.. . Are you with me so far?”
“You’re talking, I’m listening.”
“Okay, good. We’ve got Abby, Chrissie, and Martine all without alibis for the night Tito died. Two of them had been romantically involved with him. The third was his mother-in-law. Now, we don’t know why Donna Durslag had to die. Therefore we have no idea which one of those three had any interest in killing her. But here’s something that we do know-that Dodge Crockett is a sick, bad, morally depraved guy.”
“I won’t disagree with you there.”
“Let’s say that this qualifies him to be our prime murder suspect, okay?”
“That’s a bit of a leap, but go ahead and run with it.”
“We know that he’s home alone tonight. He told me so this morning. So all we have to do now is wait and he’ll show his hand.”
“What hand?”
“Something is going to happen tonight,” Mitch declared with total certainty. “I’m telling you, I can feel it.”
“Whoa, time out, cowboy-this is your feeling?”
“Well, yeah. Put yourself in his shoes, Des. It’s not as if a perverted sociopath like Dodge is going to spend his night watching Send Me No Flowers on American Movie Classics. Not that it’s a bad movie, mind you. Rock Hudson and Doris Day were an underrated comedy team, and Paul Lynde absolutely goes to town as a funeral home director who loves his work just a bit too-”
“Okay, I am going to have to hit you.”
“Someone is going to visit Dodge tonight. Or he’s going to go see someone.”
“And?…”
“And that’s our chance to find out what he’s really up to and who he’s up to it with. If he leaves, we follow him. If someone comes by, we tiptoe our way to the house and put our noses to the glass. It’s smart, it’s simple, and it’ll work. What do you say, Master Sergeant, am I right or am I right?”
Des sat there in the darkened silence for a long moment before she said, “You do know that this particular move is straight out of the Hardy Boys, don’t you?”
“Maybe it is,” he admitted. “But it was a darned effective maneuver when they’d exhausted their other options. Besides, Frank and Joe cracked a number of Fenton’s toughest cases.”
“You do know that was fiction, don’t you-for little boys?”
A possum moseyed its way out of the brush and up the Crocketts’ driveway, its long, slinky tail trailing along behind it. Truly one of God’s ugliest creatures, Mitch observed. Right up there with the lowly woodchuck. Just one of the many new things he had learned since he moved to Dorset. “You think this is a stupid idea, is that it?”
“Actually, I’m sitting here thinking you make a shocking amount of sense.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“For starters, I think you have you a personal vendetta thing going on. You admired Dodge and he’s turned out to be a total sleaze and now you want him to fry. Your judgment is clouded, Mitch. That’s not to say I disagree with you. The man is bad news, and he should pay for what he’s done to Esme and Becca and who knows who else. But that doesn’t necessarily make him a murderer. Just a sleaze.”
Mitch considered this for a moment. “Okay, what else?”
“I also think there’s an exceptionally good chance that we’re going to sit here until four in the morning and have nothing to show for it except stiff necks.”
It was awfully quiet. They hadn’t seen so much as single passing motorist since they’d been parked there.
“Maybe, but at least we’re together.” He leaned over and kissed her smooth cheek. “You don’t mind that part, do you?”
“No, baby, I don’t mind,” she said, her own knowing lips finding the sweet spot under his ear, the one that turned him into a quivering mass of man Jell-O.
“Did I remember to thank you for stopping at East Coast Grill?” he murmured, finding her mouth with his.
“Three times… This makes four.”
“I’m overwhelmed. I’ve never had a woman bring me pork before.”
“If I’d known you were this easy I’d have done it a lot sooner,” she said, groaning softly. “But you’d better pass me some of that coffee. I’ve been up since before dawn.”
Mitch poured her some from the thermos he’d brought, thinking about what she’d said. Because she wasn’t wrong. Not one bit.
He did want it to be Dodge.
They’d had words that morning at Will’s house. Mitch hadn’t needed to stay there with Will for long. As soon as Des took off the poor guy headed straight for the phone to call his father figure. Dodge’s arrival was Mitch’s official cue to leave. Mitch was in no mood to hang around with that man.
Still, their paths crossed out on the front porch as Dodge came bounding up the steps, looking all tanned, virile, and fit, a manila folder tucked under one arm. “Mitch, I’m so glad you’re here,” he said, face etched with concern. “This is just such an awful business. Why would anyone want to hurt Donna?”
“I really don’t know, Dodge.”
“How is our boy holding up?”
“Our boy is pretty shook.”
“We missed you out there this morning,” he said, eyeing Mitch carefully. “The tide was out. It was beautiful.”
“I couldn’t make it,” Mitch said, rather stiffly.
“Sure, sure.” Dodge seemed stung by Mitch’s chilly response. “Oh, hey, I’ve got something for you,” he said, holding the manilafolder out to him. “This is the application for that teen mentoring program over at the Youth Services Bureau. They’d love to have you if you can spare an hour a week.”
Mitch reached for it gingerly. He did not actually wish to touch anything that Dodge had touched. In fact, he felt a form of visceral revulsion just standing on the same porch with him.
After an awkward silence Dodge said, “I’m sorry you had to walk in on my… private moment with Becca yesterday.”
Mitch said nothing. He knew that the older man was waiting for him to put his mind at ease. But Mitch didn’t particularly feel like doing that.
“I can tell that you’re still upset,” Dodge persisted.
“Dodge, I really don’t want to talk about this right now. Why don’t you go inside? Will needs you.”
“It’s wasn’t what it looked like, Mitch. Becca and I have a real history together. We go way back.”
“Kind of like you and Esme?” Mitch snapped, immediately regretting it. He should have kept his mouth shut.
Dodge didn’t lose his composure. He simply looked Mitch straight in the eye and said, “I don’t know what you’ve been hearing, or from who, but I love my daughter, and I would never, ever hurt her. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.”
“You never touched her?”
“I’d like to have an opportunity to discuss this further with you, Mitch. Martine will be with Esme tonight. I’ll be home all evening. We can have a drink on the terrace and talk it through, okay? Maybe by then you will have cooled off.”
“Dodge, one thing keeps puzzling me-why’d you tell me that Martine was having an affair?”
“Because she was,” he said. “And because you and I are friends. Or at least I thought we were.”
“Okay, right, I get it now,” Mitch said, nodding his head. “I’m the one who has the problem.”
“Mitch, we all do things that we don’t understand and we can’tcontrol,” Dodge offered as explanation. “Things that we feel bad about. That’s what makes us human beings. Our only real failure is when we don’t make the effort to understand one another. Will you at least try? Will you do that much for me?”
“Sure, I’ll do that much, Dodge,” he replied grimly, seized by the horrifying certainty that his friend had just
