To Die For

on Wyatt’s face was priceless. Dad took it all in stride.

“Fine with me,” Dad said affably. “I’ll get the charcoal started.” He went through the kitchen and out onto the deck, where he kept his monster grill.

Wyatt was a cop. He’d just heard about an attempted murder, though I knew Sally had really intended more to break Jazz’s legs than to kill him. He also looked as if he’d just stepped into an alternate universe. “She can’t forgive him?” he asked in a strained tone. “She tried to kill him!”

“Well, yeah,” I said.

Mom said, “He redecorated her bedroom.” Did we have to draw him a picture?

“I’m going outside,” he said warily, and followed Dad. Actually, it sort of looked as if he was escaping. I don’t know what he expected. Maybe he thought we should be discussing my personal situation, but you know that thing I have about dancing around and not thinking about something? I got it from Mom. It was much better for us to talk about Sally trying to run over Jazz than it was to think about someone trying to kill me.

The topic was like a nine-hundred-pound gorilla, though; we might put it in a corner, but we couldn’t forget about it.

Siana arrived, having gone home and changed into shorts and a T-shirt. Jenni breezed in, cheerful in a pale yellow dress that went great with her skin tone, and she had to be brought up to speed on the car accident. That was the topic of conversation at the dinner table, over juicy grilled hamburgers. Actually the dinner table was the picnic table out on the deck, but the principle is the same.

“I’m going to talk to Blair’s ex-husband tomorrow,” Wyatt said when Mom asked what the plan of action was. “Blair says it isn’t him, but statistics say I’d better have a talk with him.”

I shrugged. “Knock yourself out. Like I said, I haven’t seen or talked to him since the divorce.”

“But he called and left a message on her answering machine when it was on the news that she’d been shot,” Wyatt told my intensely interested family.

Siana leaned back and said thoughtfully to me, “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that he wants to get back together with you. He may be having trouble with his second wife.”

“All the more reason for me to have a word with him,” Wyatt said, with a snap in his words.

“I can’t see Jason doing anything violent,” Mom said. “He’d be too concerned with how it would look. He’d do anything to protect his political career.”

“Would he kill to protect it?” Wyatt asked, and everyone fell silent. Jenni toyed with her silverware and didn’t look at any of us.

“But I’m not threatening his political career,” I pointed out. “Whatever I know about Jason is the same thing I’ve known about him all along; there’s nothing new. So why would he suddenly decide, after five years, that he needs to kill me?”

“Maybe it isn’t your situation that’s changed; maybe it’s his. Maybe he’s planning to run for something more important than the state legislature, such as governor, or congressman.”

“So he thinks he’ll commit murder and get away with it? How likely is that?”

“Depends. Is he a man who’s smart, or a man who just thinks he’s smart?”

We all looked at each other. The problem was, Jason wasn’t a dummy but neither was he anywhere near as sharp as he thought he was. “I’ll give you that,” I finally said. “But there’s still no motive that I can see.”

“You can’t see any motive, period, for anyone, so that doesn’t rule him out.”

“I see. Since I can’t point you to any specific person, you have to consider everyone.”

“But in the meantime, Wyatt, until you catch this person,” Mom said, “how are you going to keep Blair safe? She can’t go to work; she can’t stay in her own home. I’m surprised you even let her come here.”

“I thought about canceling,” he admitted. “But I had to balance that against other needs. I can guard her coming and going to the car, and I can make certain no one follows us when we leave. Unless this person knows Blair and I are involved, and knows where I live, we’re in the clear there. Have any of you told anyone?”

“I didn’t even tell Sally,” Mom said. “She isn’t in any state to listen right now.”

“I haven’t,” Siana said. “We talked about Blair getting shot, but we didn’t get into personal stuff.”

Jenni shook her head. “Same here.”

“Then we’re clear,” Dad said. “It never occurred to me to talk about her private life.”

“Good. Keep it that way. I know my mother hasn’t said anything, either. Blair, have you told anyone?”

“Not even Lynn. We’ve had other stuff to talk about, you know?”

“So we’ll go back to the previous arrangement. She’ll stay with me, she won’t go to work, and after tonight you won’t see her until we catch this guy. Talk on the phone all you want, but nothing in person. Got it?”

Everyone nodded. He looked satisfied. “The detectives are canvassing Blair’s neighborhood, talking to everyone, even the little kids. Maybe someone was seen around your car, and no one thought anything about it at the time.”

I wasn’t real hopeful on that front. Because I didn’t park at the curb in the front of the building, my car wasn’t as readily visible as most of the others. Someone could have approached from the rear unseen, unless a neighbor just happened to be looking out a back window at that exact time, and slid under my car without anyone seeing him from the street.

I hated it, but I’d been banking on Dwayne Bailey being the one who was trying to kill me. He was the only person I knew of with a motive, and even then he hadn’t really had one; he just didn’t know that I couldn’t have identified him. Finding out he had an alibi that was likely legitimate left me mentally floundering, because I couldn’t think of any other reason why someone would want me dead. I didn’t mess around with other women’s men, I didn’t cheat anyone, and unless provoked, I tried to be nice to everyone. I didn’t even wear white shoes after Labor Day or before Easter. Hey, I saw that movie with Kathleen Turner, and I took it to heart. I don’t want the fashion Nazis coming after me.

“If it isn’t personal,” I said, thinking aloud, “then it’s about business, right? Money. What else is there? But I haven’t cheated anyone, and I didn’t drive anyone out of business when I opened Great Bods. Halloran’s Gym had already closed down when I bought the building and renovated it. Does anyone have any ideas here?”

All around the picnic table, heads shook from side to side. “It’s a mystery,” Siana said.

“What are the usual motives?” Dad asked, and started ticking them off on his fingers. “Jealousy, revenge, greed. What else? I’m discounting politics and religion, because as far as I know Blair isn’t political, and she isn’t a religious hothead. This isn’t a case where someone gets mad and acts without thinking, right, Wyatt?”

Wyatt shook his head. “Both of the attempts were premeditated. If we play percentages, both attempts were made by a man-”

“How do you figure that?” Siana asked, intrigued as always by any intellectual discussion, even one that involved someone trying to kill me.

“The weapon used wasn’t a handgun, not from that distance. We know where the shooter positioned himself, because we found the shell casing. It was a twenty-two rifle, which is common as grass in these parts, not a lot of stopping power to it, but with an accurate shot it’ll kill. It’s also a subsonic round. Blair bent down as the shot was fired, which is why it hit her arm instead of a vital area. Women may use handguns, but they seldom use rifles, which require practice and skill for distance shooting, and that generally isn’t something a woman’s interested in.”

“What about the brakes?” Mom asked.

“There are four women sitting here. Do any of you know where the brake line is?”

Mom, Siana, and Jenni all looked blank. “Beneath the car,” I said. “I saw you looking.”