Pushing Up Daisies

unobserved?'

She nodded in agreement as she sliced her spoon into the Jell-O. 'I haven't seen Felix in a while. You two have a lovers' spat?'

'I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer.' I didn't bother protesting, since Babe seemed to know everything and probably knew about our aborted roll in the mulch. 'I think he's in Mexico.'

'That's a helluva commute.'

'I don't know if he's coming back.'

'C'est la vie. Stabbing,' she said, taking another poke at the quivering dessert. 'That's serious hate. That kind of hate takes time to develop.'

With the spoon halfway to her mouth, Babe stopped and stared right at me. We'd had the same thought.

'Maybe years. Maybe forty to fifty years?'

CHAPTER 28

I didn't know how nervous to be. The next morning I got to Halcyon early. I jogged around to the back of the house and was relieved to find Hugo working on the pear trees near the stone wall. He saw me and waved me over, but I stood motionless, rooted to the terrace, watching the sun glint off Hugo's shiny new coa.

He sensed something was wrong and started toward me.

'What is it?' he asked.

'Do you know about Guido Chiaramonte?'

'I do.'

'Hugo, where is Felix? And where were you yesterday?'

'I can't. En boca cerrado.'

'Don't give me the boca cerrado line. This is serious. Hugo, you might be in a world of trouble.'

He said nothing.

Hugo's well-known dislike for Guido, his unfortunate display of temper in front of the cops the day he thought Anna was attacked, the money owed, and Guido's salacious cracks about Anna. And now the squeaky-clean coa. I didn't believe he was capable of it, but the cops were going to treat Hugo, and possibly Felix, as suspects in the stabbing of Guido Chiaramonte.

The three Springfield police cars pulling in to the Peacock driveway confirmed my suspicions. Mike O'Malley walked straight over to us, barely acknowledging me.

'Hugo Jurado? We'd like you to come down to police headquarters to answer some questions related to the attack on Guido Chiaramonte. You have the right to remain silent. . . .'

He continued to read Hugo his rights, while I stood there in shock.

'Sergeant O'Malley, Hugo's English is not that good. Is there any reason I can't come along as a translator, before he retains counsel?' I asked.

O'Malley continued with his note taking. 'Officer Guzman can translate.' He turned to face me. 'If that's even necessary. By the way, Mr. Jurado's vehicle has been identified as the one seen near the Chiaramonte nursery on the morning of the assault.'

I was about to protest when O'Malley held up his hand to stop me, adding, 'And his fingerprints were found on the weapon.' That silenced me.

Finally Hugo spoke. 'Ms. Paula, I will finish the espaliers on the wall when I return. Some of the wires are coming down; you should take a look at them. And, please, let my Anna know that I am all right, and I will call her as soon as I am able.' Hugo was led away by the cops, and I was alone.

Not long after the cops left, I got a frantic call from Maybel Pena, Ann's daughter. I barely had time to scribble down her garbled directions before she ran back to her mother's bedside. The Penas lived in Somerville, a modest neighborhood of bodegas, hair salons, and storefront churches. Their apartment was in a tidy whitewashed building with colorfully painted iron gates on all the windows and seedlings growing out of lard cans on the steps.

Anna's daughter opened the door. Maybel was every Japanese businessman's dream date. Golden skin, soft curves, masses of ringlets, all wrapped in the white knee socks and seductive plaid uniform of St. Agnes's Girls School.

'I'm sorry to have bothered you, Miss Holliday. My mother is very upset. She's been like this for hours, and she won't tell me what's wrong.' The kid broke down. 'She keeps insisting only you can help her, so that's why I called—'

'You did the right thing. I'll talk to her.'

Maybel led me through the kitchen, where her homework was spread out on the table, to a small bedroom in the back of the apartment. Anna was lying in bed, fingering a rosary and staring at the ceiling. I knocked on the open door, and she hoisted herself onto her pudgy elbows.

'Oh, thank God, you are here, Meez Paula. Maybel, sweetheart, go finish your studies. The grownups must talk alone. And close the door, like a good girl.' She waited until her daughter was gone before continuing.

Anna Pena had just found the perfect lace mantilla when the cops walked into Dona Maxi's Bridal Shoppe on Calhoun Street and escorted her to the police station for questioning. 'Meez Paula, he didn't do it. The police don't believe me.'

She spit out something in Spanish. 'Dios mio, this will kill his mother. If I don't do it first. That silly woman. He is so superstitious—they both are. And now that I tell the police, he thinks it will bring him more bad luck.'

'Worse than being arrested for attempted murder?' I asked thoughtlessly.

She rolled over and mumbled into her pillow, something I couldn't quite make out.

'Anna, I'm sorry. That was insensitive. What did you tell the cops?' I asked.

'The truth,' she wailed plaintively, as if that was the dumbest thing she could have done.

The truth was that Anna had given Hugo a new set of tools, including the spanking-new coa, as an engagement present. And she talked him into going to Chiara-monte's the morning Guido was stabbed to collect the money Guido owed him.

'I never should have forced him to go. It's all my fault. But that was hours before they say Guido was stabbed. We were already downtown by then, getting the marriage license.' She collapsed into tears again.

She recovered, and continued. 'He didn't even tell the police, because he thinks it's bad luck if his mother isn't the first to know. So I told them and he was angry with me. What could I do—let him go to jail?' And now he was there anyway.

Anna told me how the happy couple waited seventy-five minutes for their number to be called at the license bureau. According to the cops, that was more than enough time for Hugo to drive back to Chiaramonte's, stab Guido, and return to the office in plenty of time to sign on the dotted line.

'Weren't there witnesses? There must have been a roomful of people if you had to wait that long.'

'Have you ever been in love, Meez Paula? There was a roomful of people staring into each other's eyes. I couldn't see anyone else there but my Hugo. What if no one can identify him? The police say they will look, but I am scared. Meez Paula, he didn't do it.'

'What can I do?' I said lamely.

She bolted upright. 'You can help us. You must. That police officer likes you—he'll listen to you.'

'He's liking me less these days. He's mad I didn't tell him about Hugo's car, so now he thinks I'm hiding something.' She looked at me, pitifully. I'd dashed her only hope.

'I may know some other people who can help,' I said.

CHAPTER 29