Molly swore at this. This was our problem, and we were going to fight the bastards every step of the way!
‘Move to Florida,’ I said. ‘Take everything. I’ll get a public defender to advise me and defend myself.’
‘We fight this together, David.’
With a coy smile I asked her, ‘How do you know I’m innocent, Molly?’
‘Because this isn’t about your dick.’
‘If Buddy Elder set this up,’ I countered, ‘wasn’t it possible he had Denise keep a bogus diary?’
‘Denise isn’t on Buddy’s team anymore, David.’
‘Are you sure about that?’
The Sunday morning paper featured Johnna Masterson with her beauty pageant smile on the front page, the headlines proclaiming, ‘Search Continues for Missing Grad Student.’
My crimes and misdemeanours were listed mid-column. Unlike the article about Walt Beery, they didn’t say a thing about my book.
The sheriff’s spokesperson, Lt. Gibbons of sex crimes, insisted there were no suspects. In fact, investigators were still trying to determine if a crime had been committed. Certain discrepancies in my statement to them, however, were troubling.
I hadn’t even finished the story before the phone began to ring. The first two were death threats. One involved certain choice parts of my anatomy being fed to me. The other promised a handgun of a certain calibre rammed into a certain orifice before being discharged. The sincerity of cold rage from perfect strangers astonished me almost as much as their sexually deviant bloodlust.
It seemed to me only a matter of time before the sheriff came with a warrant for my arrest. When I heard Gail Etheridge on the answering machine I didn’t bother picking up. Gail’s message was supportive. This was what they did when they couldn’t make an arrest.
I just had to hang tough.
I decided to take Ahab around the property, though it was a cold, miserable day. I half-expected to find a grave out there somewhere, something easy to notice if you just went back and looked. What would I have done if I found a corpse? I thought about it without deciding. The right thing would be to call the sheriff.
The smart thing would be to dig it up and drop it on Buddy’s doorstep.
In fact, there was no grave. Nothing at all. I rode for nearly two hours before I took Ahab back to the barn.
Lucy was waiting for me. ‘We have to talk,’ she said.
I got the currycomb and brush from a shelf and began working over Ahab’s flanks. ‘I’m listening.’
‘You have to change your story, Dave.’
I laughed at this. ‘Why is that?’ I walked to the other side of the horse, glancing over Ahab’s back.
‘Buddy wasn’t with Johnna Masterson Tuesday night.’ I looked up, frowning at her. ‘He was with me,’ she said.
I studied my stepdaughter’s face. She was struggling with her confession. ‘You were home Tuesday night, Lucy.’
‘He called me.’ She blinked as she tried to meet my gaze. ‘He wanted to see me.’
‘Is Buddy the guy you’re interested in?’
Lucy rolled her eyes, an expression designed to convey adolescent opinion of adult intelligence. ‘It’s a little more than interest, Dave.’
I probably should have been angry. Giving the matter any thought at all, I should have realized the kind of trouble I was in, but at that moment all I felt was fear for Lucy.
I put the brush and currycomb away and got the shovel. I walked into Ahab’s stall. ‘Does your mother know about this?’
‘I just told her. She’s pissed.’
‘You know how old this guy is?’
‘Please, Dave.’
‘Let me ask you something.’
‘The answer is yes.’
I found myself holding a shovel full of dirty sawdust and unable to move. ‘That wasn’t the question,’ I said finally, and dumped the load into the wheelbarrow.
Back inside the stall I said, ‘My question was if you actually saw him Tuesday night or just talked to him.’
‘He was out here at midnight. We’d been on the phone for a couple of hours. He wanted me to come outside and, you know, drive around. I went out through my bedroom window.’
‘What time did you get home?’
‘A little before three.’
‘You drove around with this guy for almost three hours?’
‘We didn’t drive the whole time.’
This came off too smart, too cute. ‘This isn’t a joke, Lucy!’
‘I talked to Buddy last night. He says the two of you aren’t getting along because of Denise.’
‘How did you meet Buddy?’
Lucy gave me a look of exasperation. I was missing the point.
‘Humour me,’ I said.
‘Kathy and I went to a college party. Her brother is in a fraternity. Buddy was there.’
‘Buddy Elder was at a fraternity party?’
‘Why not?’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing this guy?’
‘He’s only like ten years older!’
‘That’s the least of his problems!’
‘He doesn’t think you hurt Johnna.’
‘He doesn’t?’
‘He told me last night you couldn’t do something like that.’
I smiled. ‘But you think I could?‘
Lucy considered this for moment. I wasn’t sure if she had made up her mind or not. ‘I thought… when I saw the news…’
‘That’s not my style, Lucy. You know that.’
‘They made it sound like-’
‘It’s what they’re paid to do.’
I took Ahab into his stall and gave him a scoop of oats. Jezebel protested and Lucy took her a treat.
‘Buddy thinks Johnna disappeared just to hurt you.’
‘I want you to stay away from Buddy. I know it’s not my business and I don’t have any right to tell you what to do-’
‘No problem. He ended it last night.’
‘He ended it?’ She nodded uncomfortably. ‘Did he say why?’
‘He asked me to marry him.’
I expect I swore, but I can’t remember. I only recall looking at her as I tried to fathom my emotions.
‘I told him I wasn’t ready. I don’t want to get married!’
‘You said no?’
‘He said you won’t let me see him again if we’re not married, so we might as well end things.’
Lucy was in her room when I went back to the house. Molly was upstairs sanding the new floor.
I waited patiently until she stopped.
‘You talk to Lucy?’ I asked.
‘She’s grounded for life.’
‘If Dalton gets hold of the phone records, Molly, he’s going to find out about this.’
‘If Buddy was with Lucy Tuesday he couldn’t have done anything to Johnna Masterson, David.’
‘He called me, Molly! He was laughing at me! He knew what was going on with Johnna!’
