“Yeah, I saw him. Almost clipped him. Not too many people stroll there in the daytime.' He waited for her to ask another question and nodded casually to one of the waitresses. Two of them arrived simultaneously.
“Another of these,' he pointed to his empty mug, 'and a bowl of chili.' Then he turned to Faith. 'I recommend the chili, the chowder, and the beef stew. Starting in the spring, the lobster and clams are good too.' He smiled. A girl could get dizzy from that smile. 'And I ought to know. I eat here every night.' He smiled at the waitress. She dropped her pencil.
“I'll have a cup of chowder,' Faith said.
“ And to drink ? ' asked the waitress.
“It's whatever you want, or tonic if you don 't drink. But not fancy,' Scott told her matter-of-factly. He had obviously brought too many women here who wanted Black Russians or Strawberry Daiquiris. There was nothing elaborate about Willow Tree and if they wanted the other stuff they could get a frappe at Friendly's and pour a nip in it, which is what they usually did.
“A glass of white wine then, thank you,' said Faith and smiled. Faith's smile was pretty dazzling, too, but the waitress
“That's why I stick to beer,' Scott remarked, 'That stuff always gives me a headache.'
“ It's not exactly grand cru. There are many better wines that I am sure you'd like.' Roughly every other growth ever produced.
They were straying again and before she found herself inviting him to the parsonage for a little wine tasting to the accompaniment of Tom's raised eyebrows, she continued the questioning.
“About Dave. Do you know what time it was when you saw him ? '
“It must have been about noon, because I get off work for lunch at eleven-thirty. I work at a body shop in By-ford. It probably took me ten minutes to drive to Ale-ford, then another ten to unload the bike from my pickup and eat my sub. I had ridden a ways up the tracks when I saw him. I turned to go to the hills by the power lines after that. My boss is pretty strict aboutbeing on time, so I only rode for about a half an hour. I usually wait to ride until after work, but it was too nice a day to waste.”
Except in Cindy's case.
“But I don't understand. You saw Dave and can even pinpoint the time. Why can't you tell the police?'
“It's not a matter of `can't,' it's more `don't want to.' '
“But why on earth not ? A person's freedom is at stake here.'
“Look, Mrs. Fairchild, the cops and me have never been what you'd call buddies. I finally got off probation a year ago and I swore I would never have anything to do with them again if I could help it.' He saw the sudden question in her eyes. 'Nothing big, no B and E's or anything. Just a lot of little stuff that mounted up—vehicle unregistered, uninsured ; trunacy, minor in possession. And for the record, since I'm sure you would all like to find a suspect to replace Dave, I barely knew Cindy. Didn't want to. She used to try to talk to me and I would just split.”
I'll
Scott was still talking. ' I don't know Dave much, either. Just to say hello to.'
“But you can't let him go to prison simply because you don 't have a particular fondness for the police ! It's not as if you committed a crime.'
“Ah, but you see, that's the problem. Legally speaking, you're not supposed to be riding a dirt bike by the tracks or by the power lines. And it's posted. Everybody does it, but you can get nailed for it.'
“For a person who doesn 't want to have anything to do with the police, you seem to be taking some rather big chances.' Faith was getting annoyed.
Scott looked at her calmly and smiled. Trishia had said he'd like the minister 's wife and Trish was usually right. That's why she made such a good girlfriend. She knew him. Ever since they had heard about the murder and Dave 's arrest, she had been after him to go to the cops. She was from Aleford and knew Dave. But he wouldn 't and then she came up with Mrs. Fairchild—she knew he'd much rather talk to Faith than to Mac-Isaac.
“Little chances,' be told her. 'Tiny chances. I never ride there on weekends when people are out walking. And it's not exactly a big city police department. They don 't have the manpower to stroll along the railroad tracks every noon on the off chance that Scott Phelan might go for a ride when there are all those traffic tickets to give out and lost dogs to find.'
“So you're just going to sit back and let Dave be found guilty of a murder he didn't commit !'
“Now, be calm, Mrs. Fairchild. I never said that. I said I didn't want to and I don 't. And here is where you come in, and your husband, since I assume you don't keep secrets from him.”
Was he laughing at her, Faith wondered ? And of course she didn 't keep secrets from Tom. At least not secrets like this.
“Of course you can just go to the police and tell them what I've told you and they'll come and boot me down to the station for questioning, but what I want you to do is hold off for a day or two. They have a lot of guys working on this case and the police are not the jerks they seem to be, or not all of them anyway. They'll turn something or someone up and then I won 't have to get mixed up in it. But don 't worry, I'll be a good citizen and if it looks like Dave needs my testimony, I'll come the minute you tell me to. I just don 't want to get involved if I don't have to and that's the best I can do for you. Except for one more thing. If you agree to this, I'll work my butt off trying to find out anything else—starting here at Willow Tree. If someone here doesn't know all about it, it hasn't happened yet. If you don't agree, you're on your own. No hard feelings either way.”
The smile again.
Faith wasn 't sure what she had gained. A partner? A Watson he wasn 't and she knew that Tom for one would be appalled by the ethics or lack thereof in the agreement. But somewhere it made a little sense. In any case, it would have to do. She was sure he wouldn't have told her he had seen Dave if he hadn 't been pretty sure she would agree to his terms.
“All right,' she said, rising to leave, 'but not for long and we get to tell Dave.'
“That's no problem. I would have told Dave myself, but they've been keeping him pretty busy.”
Maybe she was wrong about the ethics, Faith thought. Scott stood up, too. Really, he was breathtaking. 'Nice to meet you, Mrs. Fairchild,' he said, extend- ing his hand.
She took it.
“Nice to meet you too, Scott, and say hello to Trishia for me. She is your girlfriend, isn 't she ? “
Faith looked at her watch. She had been gone almost an hour and had better hurry. Tom might be getting worried. On her way out she glanced into the smaller room and was getting into her car before the fact fully registered that the Moores' son, Robert Jr., had been sitting across from someone in a shadowy corner of the room. Now what was he doing home from college ? As far as she knew it wasn 't vacation. Maybe he had stayed on for a day or so after Cindy's funeral.
That evening when she told Tom about her conversation with Scott Phelan, he was even more annoyed than she had thought he would be. He was in fact, very angry. He had been angry enough earlier when Faith, in a misguided bid for sympathy, told him about Dunne following her.
“ Faith ! ' he said now as he strode up and down the living room setting off a cacophony of creaking floorboards. 'Faith! I thought you were merely going to keep your ears and eyes open.' That is a far cry from leaving your house in the middle of the night to tryst with a bunch of teenagers, ending up with a police escort home ! And thank goodness he is keeping an eye on you, although what he must think of me snoring away while you are all over the landscape, Heaven knows. And now you go off to some shady diner to meet a strange man. Faith, I just can't believe you would put yourself in such danger!'
“Now, Tom, I wasn't in any danger. Okay, I was a little nervous driving back last night, but meeting someone
