inhabitants of southern Arkansas.
Jack and I had gotten up early and gone to work out together at Body Time. We’d done triceps; I was sure to be sore after working triceps with Jack, because I tried heavier weights when he was with me, and I pulled harder for that extra set of reps.
Janet was there, and after she greeted Jack and went back to her leg presses, I noticed that Marshall himself came out of his office to spot her. I was pleased. Marshall needed to notice Janet, who had long had a soft spot for him.
Jack, on the other hand, would never be very partial to my
Marshall seemed to be in a very good mood, laughing and joking with Janet, and generally going around the room in a circuit to meet and greet.
“What’s up?” Jack asked when Marshall reached us.
“My ex is getting remarried,” Marshall said, beaming, an expression that sat oddly on his face.
I’d had some dealings with Thea, who was tiny, lovely, and widely respected. So are small poisonous snakes.
“Who’s the unlucky man?” I stood up straight after my second set of tricep pushups. Jack and I usually did them against the rack that held the heavier weights. We would put our hands close together on the top rack, and with our feet as far back as our height allowed, we would begin to lean down until our noses touched the weights, and then we’d push back up. I shook my arms to relieve the ache.
“A guy from Montrose,” Marshall said, actually laughing out loud. “And I stop paying alimony when she remarries.”
“When is the wedding?” Jack asked, planting his hands to do his set.
“Three months.” Marshall beamed at me. “No more Thea. And he owns the John Deere dealership, so she’ll be set. She’s not even going to go back to work.” Thea had been a child-care worker, and a very poor one, at the SCC day-care center.
“That sounds good,” I said. “I hope nothing happens to the man before she marries him.”
“He’s in my prayers,” Marshall said, and he wasn’t being facetious. He slapped me on the shoulder, nodded at Jack, and strolled back over to Janet, who was patting her face with a towel. She was trying to restrain her pleasure at being singled out by Marshall, but it wasn’t working. She was glowing with something besides sweat.
Back home, I showered and put on my makeup for work while Jack repacked and ate some breakfast. Then he took his turn in the bathroom while I ate some toast and made the bed.
We could make cohabiting work, I figured. It might take some adjustments, since both of us were used to living alone, and it might take some time, but we could do it.
Jack and I pulled out of the driveway at the same time, he to head back to Little Rock, and me to work for Birdie Rossiter.
Birdie was in full spate that morning. Unlike most people, who’d leave when they saw me pull up to their house, Birdie looked on me as a companion who was incidentally a housecleaner. So from the time I entered until the time I left, she provided a constant accompaniment, chattering and questioning, full of gossip and advice.
It wore me out.
I wondered if she talked to Durwood when I wasn’t there. I figured Durwood qualified to be some kind of dog saint.
But sometimes, in the middle of all the inconsequential gossip, Birdie let drop a nugget of something useful or interesting. This morning, Birdie Rossiter told me that Lacey Dean Knopp had made Jerrell Knopp move out.
“I guess she’s just got unhinged since poor little Deedra got killed,” Birdie said, her mouth pursed in commiseration tinged with pleasure. “That Deedra, she was the light of Lacey’s life. I know when Jerrell was courting her, he was mighty careful not to say one thing about Deedra. I bet he was after Lacey’s money. Chaz Dean, the first husband, he died before you came to Shakespeare… Well, Chaz left Lacey one nice pot of money. I knew she’d get remarried. Not just for the money. Lacey is pretty, no doubt about it, and no ‘for fifty’ or whatever age. Lacey is just plain pretty. If you marry somebody good-looking who has money, you just get a bonus, don’t you?”
I didn’t know which element would be the bonus, the money or the looks. Lacey, who had both, did not seem to me to be a particularly lucky person.
While Birdie went to pour herself another cup of coffee, I thought about Lacey making Jerrell move out, and I thought about the nasty speculation Janet and I had developed. I’d thought no one would worry if Deedra said she was going to make a relationship public, but I’d temporarily forgotten Jerrell. If she’d endangered his relationship with his wife, Deedra would have to be ruthlessly eliminated. Jerrell was crazy about Lacey. I’d never liked the man, and from my point of view it would be a great solution to Deedra’s murder if her stepfather could be found guilty.
But I caught myself scowling at the sponge mop while I squeezed it out into the mopping bucket. I couldn’t make a convincing case against Jerrell, no matter how much I tried. While I could see Jerrell hitting Deedra with a handy two-by-four, even taking a gun to shoot her, I couldn’t see Jerrell planning the elaborately staged scene in the woods. The strewn clothes, the positioning of the body, the bottle… no, I didn’t think so.
Birdie was back and babbling again now, but I wasn’t listening. I was mentally examining what I’d just said to myself, and I was forming a little plan.
It was a Monday eerily like that other Monday; it was clear and bright, and the air had a little touch of hotness to it, like standing just the right distance away from the burner on a stove.
Instead of parking out on Farm Hill Road, I turned into the graveled trail. I didn’t want to risk my worn-out suspension on the ruts, so I parked right inside the edge of the woods. I sat in my car, just listening for a minute or two. No bobwhite today, but I heard a mockingbird and a cardinal. It was a little cooler in the shade.
I sighed and got out of my car, removing the keys and stuffing them in my pocket for safekeeping. It never hurts to be careful.
Then I was moving down the trail again, telling myself that this time there wouldn’t be a car sitting in the middle of the woods, knowing there was no way a car would be in the same spot again…
But there
It was a dark green Bronco, which explained why I hadn’t picked it out before. There was someone sitting in it.
“Oh no,” I whispered. I shook my head from side to side. This was like one of those dreams in which you are compelled to do something you dread doing, something you know will end in horror. When my feet began moving forward, my teeth were clenched to keep them from chattering, and my hand was over my heart, feeling it hammer with fear.
I drew abreast of the driver’s window, standing well back so I wouldn’t catch the smell again. I didn’t think I could stand that without throwing up, and I didn’t want to put myself through it. I leaned slightly to look in and then I froze. I was looking into a gun.
Clifton Emanuel’s eyes were just as round and black as the barrel of the gun, and almost as frightening.
“Don’t move,” he said hoarsely.
I was too shocked to say anything, and I wasn’t about to move a muscle. A lot passed through my mind in a second. I saw that if I acted instantly I could disarm him, though he was equally ready to pull the trigger. But he was a law-enforcement officer and my tendency was to obey him, though I knew from experience that some people in law enforcement were just as wrong headed or corrupt as the sociopaths they arrested.
On the whole… I remained frozen.
“Step back,” he commanded, in that eerie voice that told me he was wound as tight as a coil could be wound.
If I stepped back I wouldn’t be frozen anymore, but I decided it wasn’t the time to quibble with him. I stepped back. Marshall had always warned us that no matter how skilled you became in martial arts, in some situations the man with the gun would rule.
I watched, hardly breathing, as Clifton Emanuel opened the car door and emerged from the car. Though he took
