The Road to Wrinkle Ranch

by Nick Russell

  "Damn good looking?"

  "Yeah, she's a good-looking woman," John Lee acknowledged. “And trust me, I've seen a lot of her."

  Maddy looked at him archly and asked "Really? Have you?"

  “She's a bit of an exhibitionist," he told her. “Or a tease. Probably both."

  "What do you mean?"

  "She likes to sunbathe in the nude and she doesn't really care who watches her doing it. In fact, I think she kind of enjoys the attention."

  "Well, I just can't wait to meet her," Maddy said sarcastically.

  “What about Audrey Rittenhouse? Wasn't she in your class?"

  "Yeah, but we didn’t move in the same circles," Maddy said. "I'll tell you who she was friends with though, John Lee."

  "Who?"

  "Beth Ann. I think Emily, too, for that matter."

  "I just remember her as being a redheaded girl who got a lot of attention," John Lee said. "But I didn't know she was friends with Beth Ann or Emily."

  “Yeah, they were. I don't know when the last time they got together was, but it might be worth looking into if we need any information on her."

  "Okay, I'll talk to Beth Ann and you talk to Emily. How's that sound?"

  "Oh, gee. You get to talk to your old friend with benefits and I get to talk to your ex-wife. It just doesn't get any better than that, John Lee."

  He laughed and said, “How about we talk to both of them together if we have to. Because if either one of us gets too near Emily, I think we’re gonna need someone to watch our backs. Otherwise, we’ll wind up with a knife stuck in it."

  "I still don't understand that," Maddy said. "After all, she's the one who moved out and left you. How did that make you the bad guy?"

  “What can I say? Nobody ever wants to admit they’re at fault, do they?"

  "I remember one time someone said that you married well but you divorced badly, John Lee. I think that was true."

  He laughed bitterly and said, "That's for damn sure. But you know what they say, Maddy. It’s better to have loved and lost than to spend one more day with that psycho bitch."

  The breakup of John Lee's marriage to Emily, who happened to be D.W.'s daughter, had kept the rumor mill busy in Somerton County for quite some time. Emily had never been able to find herself, as she called it. After taking multiple classes and launching new careers in everything from real estate to massage therapy, one day she decided that she was gay and moved in with another woman. But at the same time, she would return to John Lee's house, the home they had shared as man and wife, for occasional booty calls. John Lee had hung on for a long time, hoping the marriage could be salvaged, but when he finally realized that it wasn't going to get better, he was happy to get the divorce finalized and behind them. Emily, on the other hand, was very bitter about everything, and it didn't help when John Lee and her younger sister Beth Ann became friends with benefits. It was out of line and he wasn't sure how it started between him and Beth Ann, but they filled a need in each other for a while and then it ended. As for his problems with Emily, he wasn’t sure if they would ever end.

  They turned down the road John lived on, drove past his house for two miles and pulled into the driveway of a large newly built frame house with natural fieldstone on the bottom, topped by cedar siding and huge windows in the front. There was a black Mercedes SUV and a white BMW 430i convertible in the driveway, along with a silver Toyota Highlander. Maddy surveyed the scene and said, "Apparently Mr. Agosti does well."

  "I guess," John Lee said. "But like I said, he's kind of a jerk."

  They got out of the Charger and walked to the front door and pushed the button to ring the bell. Chimes sounded from inside, and eventually a tall brunette with hair that hung down past her shoulders opened the door. She was wearing some kind of black silk outfit that could have been pajamas or could have been leisurewear, John Lee wasn't sure. Then again, he doubted that Amanda Agosti was the kind of woman who ever wore pajamas or anything else to bed. Well, maybe something black and gauzy. He quickly pulled his mind away from that line of thought. He had more than enough problems in his life without adding anything like that to the mixture.

  "Good morning, Mrs. Agosti. We understand that Lonnie McBride is somehow related to you and your husband and that we could find his wife here?"

  She nodded her head and opened the grille screen door, motioning them inside. “Lonnie was married to my sister Darci. She’s in the living room."

  "Was married? Past tense?"

  The woman looked at John Lee as if she was confused for a moment and said, "Well, he's dead. Doesn't that make it past tense?"

  "Mrs. Agosti, we don’t know 100% that Lonnie was one of the victims in yesterday's accident. It’s going to take a while for the medical people to…"

  Before John Lee could finish, a squat, balding man came into the foyer. "The guy got ground up into hamburger, from what I heard!"

  “Jesus, Vince, do you have to be so crude about everything?"

  Vince Agosti looked at his wife, but if he felt abashed, he didn't show it. "You know me, I tell it like it is."

  “You don't have to be such an ass about it,” Amanda said nastily. "Would it be that hard for you to show a little class? Maybe some compassion for my sister?"

  “All right, all right. I'm sorry," the short man said, holding his hands up and waving them dismissively. "Whatever."

  His wife gave him a withering look, but he didn't seem to notice.

  “Darci is in here." She led them into the living room, where a woman who looked just as attractive, in spite of her face being blotchy and her eyes red from crying, was sitting at the end of the loveseat.

  "Mrs. McBride, I’m Deputy Quarrels, and this is Deputy Westfall, from the Somerton County Sheriff's office. We wanted to talk to you about your husband, if you're up to it, ma'am."

  She looked at them woodenly and said, “Lonnie got killed by a train."

  "We don't know for sure that it's your husband at this point," John Lee said.

  "What do you mean you don't know? It was his license plate and it was a red Corvette. He didn't show up for work and he hasn't answered any calls. If he's not under that train, where the hell is he?"

  “Vince, shut your goddamn mouth!"

  "Hey, don't jump all over me. I'm not the one that drove into the side of a train."

  John Lee thought they might have to break up a domestic disturbance, but his wife just shook her head and sat down on the couch, putting her arm around her sister.

  "Ma'am, like I said, we don't know for sure yet. I can't honestly stand here and tell you that I know it's your husband. But all indications are that, yes, Lonnie was in that car."

  "Someone said there was a woman in the car with him. Do you know who it was?"

  "Again, ma'am, we haven't confirmed anything yet. But we believe it was another real estate agent named Audrey Rittenhouse."

  Lonnie’s wife shook her head and said, "I should have known. That doesn't surprise me at all."

  "Why is that, Mrs. McBride?"

  "Because Lonnie screwing her behind my back."

  "Wait a minute," Vince said. "Lonnie was messing around on you? How come you never said anything about it to me?"

  His sister-in-law looked at him and said, "Because I knew you would kill him if you found out, Vince. That's why."

  Chapter 8

  The room was uncomfortably silent for a long moment, then Vince laughed and said, “Don’t be saying shit like that, Darci. These clowns might take you seriously.”

  “Mrs. McBride, why would you think that your brother-in-law would have anything to do with what happened with your husband? Assuming he was involved in the accident?"

  "What’s to assume? Lonnie’s dead, we all know that," Agosti said.

  "Vince, would you please just shut up?"

  "Don't tell me to shut up in my own house, bitch," he snarled, pointing a thick finger at his wife. “I don’t take that shit from you or anybody else."

  "How
about we all just calm down for a minute? We’re not going to stand here and watch you two start tearing each other apart," John Lee said.

  "What? A man can’t talk to his wife in his own house anymore?"

  "Just lay off the name-calling," John Lee told him. Then he turned back to the grieving woman and asked again, “Mrs. McBride, why would you think that Vince would have anything to do with what might have happened to your husband?"

  She looked at her brother-in-law through tear-stained eyes and said, "Because that's what Vince does. Vince stomps on people who get in his way. Don't you, Vince?"

  "You shut your damn mouth or you can get out of my house right now!”

  "All right, enough! Mr. Agosti, how about you go into the other room while I talk to Mrs. McBride?"

  "I'm not going anywhere. Who the hell do you think you are, coming into my house and telling me what I can and can't do? You’re just a hick cop and I'm supposed to listen to what you tell me to do? That ain’t happening."

  "I'm investigating what may be a crime," John Lee told him. "Now, I'm not going to ask you again. Go in the other room."

  The man stared at him and John Lee wondered if he was going to have to push the issue, but after a moment he shook his head and walked away saying, "What a bunch of friggin’ idiots."

  They heard a door slam down the hall and John Lee turned back to Darci and said, "Mrs. McBride, like I said, we don't know that it’s your husband that was involved in this accident, but I have to ask. Why would you say that if Vince found out about him having an affair, he would kill Lonnie?"

  "Did you just listen to him? Vince gets off on being in charge. And when people don't do what he wants, they pay a price for it."

  "Oh, come on, Darci. I know you're upset," Amanda told her sister, "but don't start saying things that are going to get blown out of proportion."

  John Lee wondered if the two sisters would go at it next, but instead, Darci shook her head and said, “Whatever."

  "Ma'am, you said that you thought your husband was having an affair with Audrey Rittenhouse. What made you believe that?"

  "Because I'm not stupid! Lonnie was a good-looking guy. He always had women falling all over him. Two or three times I walked into the room when he was talking to someone on the phone and he got off real quick. When I asked who it was, he said it was just business. But other times, if it was his boss or a client, he’d go right on with the conversation. So I knew he was hiding something.”

  She dabbed at her eyes with a crumpled tissue and shook her head. “Sometimes when he’d get one of those calls, he would tell me he had to go show someone a house right then and he would take off and be gone for an hour or two and come back. But he never said anything about who he was meeting or what happened with the house he was supposed to be selling. I know he was meeting her someplace."

  "And how do you know that it was Ms. Rittenhouse?"

  "Because I opened his phone and looked at his call log. Those two were calling and texting back and forth all the time."

  "Those texts, what did they say?"

  "If you just look at them, you would think they were about business, but I can read between the lines. There were things like ‘we need to meet at such and such place and don't be late, okay?’ Things like that."

  John Lee thought that they could just as easily have been valid communications about the business that both Lonnie and Audrey were involved in, but at that point, he wasn't going to speculate.

  “When was the last time you saw your husband, Mrs. McBride?"

  "Yesterday morning. He got up and got dressed and was leaving the house before I was even out of bed. I asked him where he was going in such a hurry and he said he had a big meeting to get to. Another big meeting. There was always a big meeting."

  And he didn't say who this meeting was with?"

  "No, he never told me anything."

  "How about you, Amanda? Did you know about this alleged affair?"

  The other woman nodded her head. "My sister told me about it. Told me she was suspicious of what he was up to."

  "And you never mentioned this to your husband?"

  "No, no way."

  "And why is that?"

  “Hey, if you guys think Vince had anything to do with whatever happened to Lonnie, you're crazy. I know he can be a real jerk, and he likes to show off and act like he's a badass and all that, but he's not. That's just for show. I wish you hadn't said something like that, Darci," she said, looking at her sister.

  “Do you know anything at all about your brother-in-law's business affairs."

  Amanda laughed and said, “Business affairs. Yeah, affairs is probably the right word for them."

  "What do you mean by that?"

  “If Lonnie was cheating on my sister with Audrey Rittenhouse, and I'm sure he was, it wasn't the first time."

  "Shut up, Amanda. I told you that was a secret!"

  "Ma'am, at this point there are no secrets," John Lee said. “Were there other suspected affairs?"

  "I know that Lonnie was getting more friendly with one of the other agents in the office, I think her name was Wanda. Wanda Coleman. I found out they were having long lunches and things like that."

  "What happened with that?"

  "Lonnie said he was going to a real estate seminar in Ocala and would be gone overnight. Two days later I got a phone call from the hotel where he stayed, saying that his wife had left her digital camera and some paperwork in the room, and wanted to know if this would be the address to send it back to."

  “And you weren't at the seminar with him?"

  "No. Of course, Lonnie said the people at the hotel were mistaken, they probably had the wrong room or something. I called his office and talked to Roger, his boss, and he told me there was no seminar."

  "What happened then?"

  "What do you think happened? I confronted Lonnie about it."

  "And?"

  “And he told me I was being crazy. Said he was there for a seminar, said he was the only one there and that he didn't have anybody with him. Then I told him what his boss had told me and he said that Roger probably forgot about it. The next day I called Roger again, and the story had changed. He said that yes, there had been a seminar, that it had been scheduled eight weeks earlier and he forgot all about it. He apologized for getting it wrong the first time. But I still didn't believe either one of them."

  “Were there any other suspected affairs, ma'am?"

  "I told you, Lonnie was a good-looking guy. I'm sure she wasn't the first or the only one.”

  "Mrs. McBride, besides what you said about Vince, do you know anybody else who might have had a problem with your husband? Somebody who might want to do him harm?"

  "Why would you ask me that? Do you think it was more than an accident?"

  "We’re just covering all the bases."

  “Well, I know that after the thing about the conference, Wanda was gone within a couple of days. I know, because I called and asked for her and they said she didn’t work there anymore. Maybe she was just mad for getting dumped or whatever. Maybe her husband, if she had one, found out. Or maybe Audrey Rittenhouse has a husband who got suspicious. I don't know. Lonnie didn't talk about his work very much at all.”

  Maddy tried to word what she had to ask next carefully. “Mrs. McBride, the victims of the crash were… the condition of their bodies makes identification very difficult. We need to get something that might have Lonnie’s DNA on it. Maybe a comb or a piece of clothing he wore recently. Would you be up to going back to your house with us to get something like that?”

  “How about a baseball cap he wore a lot?”

  “Yes, something like that,” Maddy said.

  “Then we don’t have to go to my place. There’s one in my car.”

  She led them outside and opened the Toyota, handing them a Miami Dolphins baseball cap. From the sweat stains it was obviously well worn, and Maddy told the woman they would get it back to her as soon as possible.

&nbs
p; “Keep it or throw it away when you’re done,” she said. “Lonnie doesn’t need it anymore.”

  ***

  John Lee found Vince Agosti sitting on his back deck drinking some kind of designer beer from a dark bottle. He looked up but didn't say anything. Uninvited, John Lee sat down in one of the redwood chairs next to him.

  "Listen, Mr. Agosti, I know people get upset and say all kinds of crazy things at a time like this. So if we got off on the wrong foot because of what your sister-in-law said, I apologize."

  “Forget it," Agosti said. “She’s always saying crazy shit like that. Only reason I put up with her is because she's my wife’s sister.”

  “Family matters can get complicated," John Lee acknowledged. "Let me ask you this, Mr. Agosti, did you know anything about Lonnie maybe having an affair?"

  “No, I didn't know. But if I did, I wouldn't do anything to hurt him, okay?"

  “I understand. And I'm not thinking along that line," John Lee said. “Can you tell me anything about Lonnie?"

  “Lonnie? He was a dipshit."

  "You two didn't get along?”

  Agosti pointed a thick finger at him and shook his head. "Don't be putting words in my mouth, asshole. I didn't say anything like that!"

  “Sir, every time we've talked, I’ve always treated you with respect, and I expect the same from you,” John Lee said. “I don't call you names and I won’t have you calling me names. Do we understand each other?”

  “Wow, you guys are sure sensitive down here, aren't ya? You wouldn’t last a week where I’m from."

  “Maybe not,” John Lee said, "but we’re not there, we’re here. Now, back to Lonnie. Why didn’t you like the guy?”

  “Like I said, he was a dipshit. Always thinking he was better than anybody else. I tolerated him because he was Darci's husband, and I tolerate Darci because she is my wife's sister. Just trying to keep peace in the family if you know what I mean."

  “Fair enough. Do you know of anybody who might have had a problem with Lonnie? Somebody who had a beef with him that might have led to this accident, if that's what it was?"

  “I didn't know enough about the guy or his business to care. He made a good living, and for the most part, he treated Darci pretty good. That’s all I know."