She looked around the room. “In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t touched anything in here that’ll take a print. When I came back I opened the front door using gloves. I was never here. I don’t know where you live, Sarah. But we know each other pretty well. I know all about this ‘gifting’ thing, and it doesn’t bother me one bit since I’m not a tight-assed old broad. Anyone wants to gift me a good-lookin’ guy, I’m ready. That’ll shut down any questions they might ask me about that. My car is parked a quarter mile down the street, not in the parking lot here. And I hid my face with this scarf when I came back this morning.” She looked around the room one more time, then at us. “What else? Did I forget anything? I’m tired. I’m starting to feel mushy in the head.”
I tried to think, too. It was hard, complicated, but the alibi was the ball game. It had to fly. Then something did occur to me. “What about that conference call we made the other day? All four of us were talking at one point. If we’re asked, what was that about?”
Ma considered that. “Okay, Allie was still missing. We’ve been trying to find her. I’m a PI and so is Jeri. Jeri asked me for help. And of course Sarah was in on it. We were talking about that, what to try next. Didn’t get much of anywhere with it, but we talked it over.”
“Why didn’t we get together to talk about it?” I asked. “Why do it over the phone?”
“We didn’t because we didn’t. There wasn’t any why about it. It’s not like all of us decided one way or another. I did that. I phoned all of you, set it up as a conference call since that was convenient at the time, that’s all. If anyone doesn’t like it, too bad.”
Ma thought for a moment. “Police won’t know who killed those people. In fact, if they don’t pin it on Julia they’ll never know. But Jeri is in that mineshaft, which puts Mort front and center, maybe me, too, a little anyway, because I trained her, so the rest of the story is that none of us knew Jeri was doing anything regarding Reinhart’s hand. Mort got the package with the guy’s hand in it, which was weird, and that’s all we know about that. That’s all. Don’t give the police any maybes or suppositions, like maybe Jeri was looking into the Reinhart thing on her own, even if it seems obvious. Let the police come up with their suppositions and maybes. The less you two say, the better.
“You don’t know Allie and Reinhart were found in a mineshaft. You don’t know anything about a mineshaft. It’s likely the police or FBI will put it together that Reinhart was seeing her. It won’t take ’em long to find out she was hooking. You knew it, so you can tell them if they ask, but that’s where it ends. None of us knows a thing about her being with Reinhart. Nothing at all.
“As of now, don’t phone anyone. In particular, don’t phone me. Phone calls leave records. Don’t act suspicious, but be aware that it’s possible you’ll be watched or followed.
“If the police question you, you don’t know where Jeri is. You don’t know she was found north of Gerlach. The only place you’ve ever seen Julia or Wexel is on TV, and you’ve never heard of Leland Bye. Even if the police give you a bit of information, don’t repeat it and don’t use it, act as if it pretty much went in one ear and out the other. At first you don’t know anyone was killed. You don’t know bodies were found. If they tell you bodies were found, you don’t know where they were found, you don’t know who was killed, you don’t know anything about any of this. You . . . just . . . don’t . . . know. And in fact, we don’t know. We don’t know if Julia put Jeri and Bye into that shaft last night. She could’ve hauled them away. Maybe Reinhart and Allie are down there, but we really don’t know that either since Julia could’ve been lying, so again, you don’t know.
“I’ve got to leave. You two should shower—together—make breakfast, get something to eat. Stay here awhile, then, best thing I can think is both of you go to Mort’s house. Go there to pick up more of Mort’s clothes since he doesn’t have any here. It’s possible the police will be there. If so, that’s when the game will really begin, so be prepared—but at some point, Mort, you’ve got to make an appearance so it might as well be at a time and place that makes it easy for the police. Remember that you’re not in hiding. Not at all. Don’t sneak around. Don’t look around as if you’ve got anything to hide. Let all the information come to you. Don’t put anything out there yourself. Walk around happy, holding hands, smiling. Talk. Laugh. Don’t look like—well, like you do now. You don’t know Jeri is gone. Do all your crying now and get it over with.”
She took one last look at us, then at me. “Don’t shave, Mort. I’m thinking you might need that briar patch in a while.”
Then she put on the scarf and left.
The room was quiet. Sarah rolled back into my arms and held
