“No.”
“Did you say anything to him?”
“I wouldn’t give him the time of day.”
“So what did he do then?”
“He just turned around and stacked his groceries on the conveyer belt. Like he never even saw me.”
“So you think he recognized you.”
“Oh, he recognized me all right. How do you not recognize your dead wife’s sister?”
“Did he react in any way?”
“You could tell he wasn’t going to. He thinks he got away with how he treated my sister, but he knew my feelings about him.”
“What happened next?”
“He left. I was still in line—I couldn’t exactly follow him out! But I watched him go, you better believe I did.”
“What did you see?”
“I saw him go out the sliding doors, you could see through them, and walk into the parking lot with his groceries.”
“Did you see him get into a car?”
“No. The person in front of me only had four or five items and I was putting things on the belt.”
“So you didn’t see what he was driving.”
“No.”
Danny looked at Tess. “Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate—”
“But I did see the truck when he drove by that couple of times. What you’d call cruising.”
“Can you describe the truck?”
“It was white.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t know anything about trucks. Sorry.”
Danny looked at his notes. “Can you tell me about your sister’s nephew from her first marriage? His name was David, right?”
“Yes.
“She really liked him. But you have to understand, I wish she’d never met him. If she hadn’t, she would have never—” Pat’s fingers abruptly went to her mouth and her eyes grew wide. She looked at Tess.
She’d made the connection. After all these years.
Tess could see she was flailing. Her eyes were glassy as she looked from Tess to Danny and back again.
Danny hunkered down so he could look in to her eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I…” She glanced around, focused on her husband.
Tess noticed the stubborn look on Bert’s face. Had he thought the same thing at one time, but then discarded it as impossible? Tess had no way of knowing.
Danny said, “Do you think that is possible? That she was killed on purpose?”
“By someone, do you mean Wade?” demanded Bert Scofield. “Because that’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of.”
Tess thought that the idea must have crossed his mind before.
Pat said, “You didn’t see the way he had her under his thumb. There’s a mean side to him, as I keep telling you, but you won’t listen and neither would Dad.”
Danny shot a look at Tess. Tess said to Bert, “Would you mind—I like those tamales so much. I’m wondering if you can give me the recipe.”
“Sure.” He led her back into the kitchen. He reached into the cupboard and plunked down a bag of blue corn and husks for the wrapping. “It’s pretty straightforward.”
“Could you write it down for me? I’d really appreciate it.”
“Sure.” His voice was gruff. He grabbed a tablet that had been affixed to the refrigerator and got a pen from the kitchen drawer. “You’re not fooling me. You just wanted me out of there.”
“Yes, that’s right. But I do want the recipe.”
“Fine. But what you have to understand is, Pat’s always been, well, a conspiracy theorist. She’s been convinced from day one that Wade killed Karen. Although thankfully, she never said it in public. I don’t want to get sued.”
“Is Wade the suing type?”
“Who knows? But if you want my opinion, I think she’s imagining things.”
“But you do admit he’d know where she was at twelve o’clock that night.”
“Sure. But that doesn’t mean he’d do anything. Look, I know people. I work in business. He and I used to go on hunting trips together, and you get to know a guy. I don’t believe it, and I’ll tell you another thing, her dad thought he was a good guy. They worked together for fifteen years. George was his mentor. They were like that.” He crossed his fingers.
“You sound convinced.”
“I know people. Wade’s one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. Karen was…she was difficult. Her first marriage ended, but she got attached to that kid, Dave. Couldn’t let it go. No relation, but she was always humoring him. You ask me, she had a crush on the kid. You know, like those schoolteachers?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, older women and kids barely out of high school. Or even in high school. She was a teacher herself. So…it’s not a leap to think that she might have had a crush on the kid. Going out there at midnight to pick him up when his car was in the shop? You asked me and I’m telling you what I really think: she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Tess heard footsteps behind her—Danny. “Hey, thank you!” he said to Bert. “We’ve taken up enough of your time, so we’ll be going.”
“Yeah, well.” Bert glared at Danny. “Maybe you should spend more time on solving my father-in-law’s murder instead of going on wild goose chases.”
“Hey, you might be right,” Danny said. He held out a hand. “We’ll do our best to find out who killed him. It’s important to us.”
“Yeah,” Bert grumbled. “‘Your call’s important to us.’”
Tess grinned at Danny.
Outside, Tess said, “What do you think?”
“I think ol’ Wade is one hell of a con man.”
“Pat’s instincts are right,” Tess said. “But I can see how the guy can charm the pants off anyone.” She thought of the open, friendly face. The guy looked and acted like a big friendly dog. Like he’d bear hug you at any moment. “He’s good.”
Helium Man—that’s how Jaimie thought of the son of a bitch—told her to take Harshaw Road out to Mowry, an old ghost town down near the Arizona-Mexico border. It was a remote area, and few tourists made it there. She was to bring a “reward”—ten thousand dollars in cash. He’d wait until she showed up with the money and left it at a prearranged spot, marked by one of those flags on wires they used for cable markers. She was to call him at a certain number when she’d done it. Once he had the money, he’d direct her to where she would find Adele.
Not that she trusted him. But what else could she do?
She knew he was serious, because he called the dog “Adele.” So he knew
This scared Jaimie to the core. She entertained the idea of not playing along, letting him keep her, but he’d anticipated that, too.
He’d told her, graphically, what he would do to Adele, and how long it would take to kill her. He told her he’d
