“What difference does any of that make?” Jake was querulous. “Why aren’t you searching for whoever came in the house and killed Susan?” Her eyes popped wide. “Someone came in and killed Susan and got my car keys and stole my car. Where is my car now?”
“The Ford is in police custody and is being searched and fingerprinted.”
Jake looked excited. “If you get fingerprints, can you find out who was driving it?”
“We are making every effort to discover the identity of the driver.”
Jake frowned. “How did the police find my car?”
Price spoke without emphasis. “Mrs. Flynn was driving the car when it was stopped for speeding at approximately twelve-fifteen A.M. on State Highway 3 West on the outskirts of Adelaide.”
If the detective had announced that a spaceship was ready to board on the front lawn, the effect on his listeners would not have been more pronounced.
Jake’s lips parted in soundless shock.
Peg’s round face was blank with astonishment.
Gina shook her head in derision. “That’s impossible.”
Jake lifted her hands in a flutter of rejection. “Susan hadn’t left the house for months. Today—I guess yesterday now—was the first time she’d gone outside since September. I thought at the time she was overdoing. I worried that it might be too much for her heart. The driver absolutely could not have been Susan.”
Price nodded at Johnny. “Officer.”
Johnny spoke emphatically, his expression determined. “I was on patrol in Car 5 at a quarter after midnight. That’s the first time I stopped a blue Ford.” He rattled off the license number. “This was on the edge of town where the road curves into 3 West. Radar clocked the car going seventy-eight miles an hour in a sixty-mile-an-hour zone. When I approached the vehicle”—there was an odd look of discomfort on his face, perhaps reflecting a memory that the front seat had at first appeared to be unoccupied—“the driver rolled down the window. When I looked inside, I saw Mrs. Flynn.”
Peg’s voice was gentle. “Johnny, it simply can’t be. She’s been so ill and weak. It was a struggle for her to go up and down the stairs.”
Johnny’s face set in stubborn lines. “She knew me. She called me Johnny and she said she was glad I’d done well at the police academy. She knew my mom. She had on this black mink coat. And she didn’t look a bit sick. She looked the way she did when we were kids. Anyway, the lady who was with her will confirm that it was Mrs. Flynn. She and the lady had been to a sick friend’s house. The other lady was young and real pretty.”
I smiled at Johnny. What a sweetheart.
“The other lady had red hair, really bright red. Mrs. Flynn said she was visiting over Christmas.”
Detective Sergeant Price drew a small notebook from his back pocket, flipped it open. He looked at Jake. “I’d appreciate the name of Mrs. Flynn’s friend. It will help sort out what happened this evening with the car.”
Jake fumbled with her shawl. “Susan didn’t have a friend with red hair.”
Peg’s eyes squinted in thought. “There’s Midge Baker.”
Jake sniffed. “Midge isn’t a real redhead. Auburn and plenty of gray.” She turned toward Johnny. “Was this a real redhead?”
“Yes, ma’am.” His reply was swift. “Curls red as fire and green eyes and she had a friendly smile.”
Honestly, what a sweetheart.
Peg turned her hands up. “I can’t imagine who it could be. No one has been to see Susan over the holidays. Several people called and Susan said to tell them she wasn’t feeling up to visitors. Anyway, none of them are redheads.”
Price closed the notebook. “That’s interesting. We’ll have a sketch made, try to identify her.”
Gina twirled a long strand of dark hair between a thumb and forefinger. “Maybe I’m not quick, but I think there’s a disconnect here. Johnny”—she nodded toward Officer Cain—“told us what happened the first time he stopped Jake’s car. Does that mean he stopped her car a second time?”
“The first time Mrs. Flynn said she was sorry about going too fast and I gave her a warning ticket. The car went on.” Johnny’s face was strained. “About forty minutes later I was parked on the shoulder of Persimmon Hill with my lights off, the motor idling. You know how kids go flat out down the hill because it’s the steepest one in the county. A car came over the rise and took off hell-for-leather down the slope. I turned on my lights and gunned the cruiser. The car swerved big-time, like somebody had jerked the wheel. I thought there was going to be a crash. The car whipped back and forth across the road but somehow it didn’t go into a full spin—”
No thanks to Wiggins. I felt I’d managed a nice piece of driving.
“—and slid to a stop just past the bridge.”
Gina leaned forward, intent. “Now we’re getting somewhere. You stopped the car and it turned out to be Jake’s Ford. Who was driving?”
Johnny moved uncomfortably. “The redheaded woman was at the wheel. I caught a glimpse of her hair and her fur coat, kind of a light golden brown one. I didn’t see anybody else.” He licked his lips, swallowed. “By the time I got to the car window, she was gone. I looked everywhere. I didn’t find a trace of her. I searched the car and there wasn’t anybody in it, not in front or back or in the trunk.”
“That’s crazy,” Jake exclaimed. “You must have been awfully slow getting there.”
Johnny flushed. “I got there quick. I don’t know where she went or how she got out of the car. The door never opened.” He looked haunted.
As well he might, poor sweetie. But I didn’t see what other choice I could have made.
