by Elise Sax
By the time Klee closed the office and drove home, I was bone tired. I fed the dogs, and went to bed. Without taking a shower or brushing my teeth or even getting undressed, I slipped under my covers and snuggled in bed with Abbott and Costello.
The next minute, I was asleep.
It was the deep kind of sleep without dreams. The healing, reparative sleep that I never got, usually. But it only lasted seven minutes. Seven minutes of sleep. I woke with a start, sitting up in bed.
“Bad dream?” At first, I thought I was still asleep and dreaming. Amos was sitting on the chair next to the bed. His hat was on his lap, and his long legs were crossed at the ankle out in front of him.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“I just saw tomorrow’s paper. Why didn’t you tell me you were shot at?”
“They shot the dog.”
“Why didn’t you file a report?”
“It could have been an accident.” I was pretty sure it wasn’t an accident. There aren’t many hunting accidents in the forest at night.
“Trouble,” he said, as if he was tasting the word in his mouth. “You come into town, and all hell breaks loose.”
“I’m radioactive,” I said, echoing Boone’s words.
“For sure.”
“So, what’re you doing here?”
“I’m watching over you until this gets worked out. Go back to sleep.”
“I don’t sleep.”
“You were just asleep.”
I looked at my pillow, as if I didn’t know how it wound up in my bed. “I know. I can’t figure out how that happened.”
“Go back to sleep, Trouble. I’ll watch over you.”
“What if I snore?”
Amos smiled. “Go back to sleep.”
He was a man used to being obeyed. I laid back down and pulled the covers up under my chin. “Do you think Boone shot at me?” I asked him, sleepily.
“Boone is an asshole, but he would never hurt a woman.”
“That’s what they all say.”
I closed my eyes and willed myself to fall asleep, but it was no use. Whatever miracle had gotten me to sleep before was over. While I laid in bed, I replayed the past week in my mind, trying to find clues. All roads led back to New Sun Petroleum, but I couldn’t find any proof of their guilt. As I went through the events of the past few days, I remembered that tomorrow was Friday. It was the day of Jimmy’s wake and the day that Silas’s article was supposed to be published. But Silas had put it on hold until he could get out of the hospital and finish it, and I didn’t want to go to Jimmy’s wake. Of course, I needed to pay my respects, but I had barely known Jimmy and showing up as his employer was awkward for me. This was the first time in my life when I was the boss, and I didn’t wear the title well.
The thoughts went round and round my mind, and finally I gave up on falling asleep and opened my eyes. Next to me, Amos was sound asleep in my chair, his chest rising and falling, as he snored softly. I put a blanket over him and walked to the kitchen, where I made myself a cup of tea. Faye had completely put the stove and oven back together again. I looked around for more things to clean while I was up. That’s how I wound up scrubbing the grout in the bathroom until the sun rose the next morning.
“Psst. You look great,” Adele told me. We were at the Goodnight Catholic Church in town. There was a closed casket at one end of the church’s event hall, and about thirty guests roamed the room, eating finger food and drinking soda.
I was wearing the only black outfit I owned. It was a stretchy mini-dress that I had last put on when my husband I went to Vegas. Adele was wearing black slacks and a white top. Nora and Faye were also there, and we gathered together. Nora had brought only two children with her, and they were keeping busy, cleaning off the food trays and stuffing every pig in a blanket into their small mouths.
Besides us, Klee was the only other non-family member at the wake. She made the rounds, talking to Jimmy’s family, and more or less ignored me. I gave Jimmy’s parents my condolences, but I was bad at parties and loathed mixing and mingling, so I was happy to stay with my three new friends.
“I heard that Jimmy’s grandfather has a social security check forging scam going,” Adele said to our little group.
“Oh, that must be why he’s in the bank five times a day,” Nora said. “It’s a miracle he hasn’t gotten caught.”
“Anybody want a crab puff?” I asked. “I’m going to fill a plate.”
I got their orders and moved on to the food table. Nora’s kids had done a good job at decimating the platters, but there were still a dozen crab puffs left. I was putting them on my plate when Jimmy’s mother touched my back. I turned around.
“I need to talk to you,” she whispered and urged me to go into another room with her. I followed her out, and she took me to a small utility closet, where she closed us both in. “I know you’ve been butting in all around town and you’re good at it,” she said.
“I wouldn’t say butting in. I’ve been on assignment.”
“I heard you broke into New Sun Petroleum. I heard that you shot up someone in the forest.”
Living in Goodnight was like living in a perpetual game of Telephone where everyone knew half-truths and misinformation about everybody else.
“Well…” I started, but she cut me off.
“This is important and off the record,” she said. Damn. I hated off the record. “You might not know this, but my husband’s family are bad people. Not so much bad, but rough. Yes, that’s the right word. Rough. They wanted Jimmy in the family business, but he wouldn’t shut up about The Washington Post.”
“I heard him mention it once or twice,” I said, charitably.
“My husband’s family was very angry about this,” she continued. “Very angry. When I say angry, I don’t mean like your family gets angry. I mean, it’s much worse. Do you understand?”
“Very angry,” I said, catching on. I put a crab puff in my mouth.
“When the family would get together for dinner, they would talk.”
I was riveted to her story, sure that I was about to hear something important. I put another crab puff in my mouth. “What did they talk about?”
“Your reporter. The good one. Silas Miller.”
“Silas?”
She nodded. “They blamed him for turning Jimmy away from the family business. Do you see?”
“I don’t think Silas did that. Jimmy had his own plans for his life and career. Silas just happened to be there at the Gazette.”
“That’s not important,” she said, growing impatient. “They blamed Silas. They blamed him. Do you understand?”
I didn’t understand. “Yes, I totally understand,” I said.
“Good. Tell your sheriff boyfriend. If I do it, I’ll wind up like my poor Jimmy. Tell him that my husband’s family hated Silas. Start there. I want them to pay. They took my son away from me, and I won’t rest until they never rest again.”
Chapter 12
Adele, Nora, Faye, and I left the wake. I had eaten the rest of the crab puffs while walking back to my little group, full of information that Jimmy’s mother had just given me. For the first time, I seriously doubted that New Sun Petroleum was behind Jimmy’s murder. It was possible that Silas had been completely on the wrong track. It wasn’t the evil, polluting, corrupt energy company that pushed him off the roof. It was Jimmy’s family who did it, angry at Silas for luring him away from the family business with the glamour of the mighty press.
Out on the sidewalk in front of the house, Amos was waiting for me in his parked SUV. He hadn’t let me out of his sight since he found out I had been shot at. “Look at him waiting for you,” Adele said. “It’s like I’m watching a good movie starring John Wayne and Gene Tierney. Will John Wayne find love again with the beautiful stranger? Will Gene Tierney allow room in her heart for the tall, handsome cowboy?”
“That’s a good one,” Faye said. “I can see him swinging her around as they de
clare their love for each other.”
“And the sun is setting behind them,” Nora added. “And he throws her on his horse, her bottom nestled between his thighs, and they ride off toward a mountain range.”
“This is the best movie, ever,” Faye said. “So much better than Twilight.”
“There’s no movie,” I told them in a huddle. “John Wayne doesn’t want to find love with Gene Tierney, and Gene Tierney has given up on men. Gene Tierney’s husband is a killer who tried to put her away and is fighting her divorce. Gene Tierney doesn’t get over that so easily.”
They didn’t look convinced.
“Well, that’s okay,” Faye said, finally. “If John Wayne won’t work out, I think Gene Tierney would go great with Steve McQueen.”
Adele clapped her hands together. “Steve McQueen! Yes, that’ll work.”
“Gene Tierney isn’t riding off into the sunset with Steve McQueen, either,” I said. “Steve McQueen is a dusty, secretive guy who thinks Gene Tierney is radioactive. Besides, like I said, Gene Tierney is off men.”
“Fine. No men. So, let’s do ladies night,” Adele said. “We’ll go to Matilda’s, drink prosecco and eat fried chicken.”
I loved fried chicken. I wanted to marry fried chicken. I wanted to take a bath with fried chicken. But I was on the trail of a killer, and I didn’t have time for ladies night.
“Ladies night,” Nora breathed. “I need a ladies night more than I need a new, less-tired uterus. Please let’s have a ladies night!”
“I’m in,” Faye said. “I need a break from intergalactic war. Since this started, Norton hasn’t touched me. It’s all about aliens and sales and nothing about my sensual needs.”
“Okay, you convinced me. Ladies night,” I said. Even though I had a killer to catch, I was happy to have three new friends. I didn’t have any friends in my last town until I met Gladie. So, having three friends right off the bat was exhilarating. “I have to tell John Wayne something first.”
I stuck my head through the open passenger window of Amos’s car, and I told him about the conversation with Jimmy’s mother. “Makes sense,” he said.
“You knew already?”
“It’s a small town, and I’m the sheriff.”
He had a point. “What about the girl? The one who disappeared. Have you found anything out about her?”
“No. Nobody in town is missing. My men are still keeping their eyes open for her.”
It wasn’t enough. I wanted to find her and get her help. As soon as Jimmy’s murderer was behind bars, I was going to stop at nothing to find her.
“We’re having a ladies night,” I told him, gesturing to my three friends.
“Oh, geez. Will I have to do my hair and talk about Shaun Cassidy?”
“Holy crap. How old are you?”
“I don’t know good pop culture references.”
“I think we’re going to get drunk and binge-eat fried chicken legs. And it’s a ladies night not a ladies plus a man night. You’re off bodyguard duty tonight.”
“Sorry. Not until we find the shooter. I’m stuck to you like glue.”
“Between us, we can fend off a shooter,” I said, but as the words came out of my mouth, I realized that I wasn’t so sure. Maybe I was pooh-poohing the danger I was in. “Faye has a hammer, and I have a crowbar, and Adele is highly aggressive,” I continued, despite my doubts. “And Nora’s kids can chew through steel. One of them ate through a table leg in Jimmy’s family’s house.”
Amos sighed. “Text me every thirty minutes, and I’ll set up hourly patrols at your house.”
“I’m not going to text you every thirty minutes.”
“How about every forty-five minutes?”
“What time do you go to bed?” I asked, and his face flushed slightly.
“Normally, I’m in bed by eleven, but lately I’ve been having trouble sleeping,” he said, making me blush in turn.
“Okay. How about I call you at eleven so you know I’m still alive?”
“I don’t like this,” he said. “This isn’t the way to do things.”
He had a point. “Look, nobody’s getting past Adele.”
Amos’s head slumped against the steering wheel. “Fine,” he said, finally, wagging his finger at me. “Listen, would you try to stay out of trouble? Just for once?”
“I’m the most stable person I know.”
“That’s so sad,” he said and drove off.
Adele drove me to get a bucket of chicken and a carton of ice cream, while Faye picked up the prosecco, and Nora wrangled her kids and gave her husband his childcare instructions for the evening. We met back at my house, and Nora brought four kids with her.
“Only four kids,” she said excitedly. “It’s like I’m on vacation.”
We walked in through the kitchen and set up the food in the living room, sitting cross-legged on the floor around the coffee table. Nora threw some chicken at her kids, and they stirred into action, running screaming through my house. The dogs were delighted that fried chicken was flying around the house in the hands of little people. They chased after them, barking and jumping in glee.
Meanwhile, we got down to drinking, eating, and gossiping. They mostly wanted to know about my investigation. As much as word had spread about me being insane, word had also spread that I had mad detective skills.
I gave them the rundown, omitting the part about the girl showing up again. They were very impressed about me getting zip-tied. “You’re James Bond,” Faye said. “I would have peed my pants.”
“I was dehydrated,” I explained.
“I hate those New Sun people,” Nora said. “They’re all kinds of fishy.”
“They’re very determined but totally inept,” Adele pointed out. “Poisoning, shooting, and pushing Silas off a roof. They’re all over the place, like they can’t make up their minds.”
“Can you imagine Wade injecting a cigar with poison?” Nora asked.
“You’re right,” Faye said, pointing at her. “It’s like with contractors. They have a style, a way of doing things, tools they like to use. They don’t change unless they’re forced to. It’s weird that Wade would change up his style.”
I stopped breathing. Faye was right. Wade’s style didn’t include getting his hands dirty. I couldn’t picture him lying in wait on a roof, waiting for Silas.
But Silas had been meeting someone on the roof about his article. Who was it? Someone from Jimmy’s family? Suddenly, I was certain that it was an important piece of the puzzle, and I was getting more and more desperate to solve the puzzle quickly. The bad guys were moving in, and they might try and kill Silas again.
And they might try to kill me again, too.
All of a sudden, there was a blood-curdling scream, which made me jump in my seat. Certain that this was it and the murderer was on us, I moved to get up, but Nora waved me back down and shook her head.
“That’s just the kids,” she said. There was another loud scream, followed by something big crashing to the floor. “Yep, just the kids,” Nora said, happily.
“Don’t worry, I’ll fix whatever they break,” Faye whispered to me.
We finished the chicken and moved on to the ice cream. We gossiped about most of the town, and by the time ten o’clock came around, they were all sound asleep. Faye was asleep on the couch, Nora and Adele were asleep on my bed, and Nora’s kids were sleeping on the dogs on the floor.
There was no way I could sit up all night watching them sleep. There was no way I could read a book while my brain was going double speed, figuring out who killed Jimmy. I had to talk to Silas, and I had to talk with him, now.
Tiptoeing out of the house, I shut the door with a soft click. On the other side of the courtyard, Boone’s lights were all on. It was the perfect time to spy on him, but I was in a hurry to get to Silas.
At the hospital, I walked down the linoleum-covered hallway to Silas’s room. When there were footsteps behind me, I assumed that a nurse had caught me
there after hours, but when I turned, I was surprised to find Boone.
“What’re you doing here?” I demanded with my hands on my hips.
“What’re you doing here? You’re not supposed to be out on your own.”
“Since when? Have you been talking to Amos?”
He scowled at me, his handsome face downturned. “I don’t talk to that asshole,” he said.
“Well, I can take care of myself,” I insisted. Even to my ears, it sounded wrong. I was terrible at taking care of myself. My choices and decisions were wrong most of the time, mostly stemming from trusting the wrong man. I had been put away as a crazy person, almost murdered several times, and I had fondled a married man’s breasts. Even so, I was determined to turn that around and prove to the world that I was smart, competent, and able.
“Mind your own business,” I added.
“Fine,” he said, obviously hurt. “I’ll mind my own business. I’ll leave you alone. That’s a better option for me, anyway.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“All righty, then,” I said, slowly, turning around and instantly regretting rejecting his company. “I’m going to do this myself.”
Boone surprised me by taking my hand. “Like hell you are. Someone will shoot at you again, and this time instead of the dog getting it, it’ll be me or some innocent kid in the cancer ward.”
“Gee, your concern for me is overwhelming and touching,” I said.
He shrugged. “I feel like I should wear a hazmat suit around you.”
“Okay. Okay. Tone it down, bud. I’m not that bad. There were a few hiccups before, but it was just bad luck. It’s not like it happens every day.”
“Every day since I met you.”
“But it doesn’t happen every hour, every minute.”
Just as we reached Silas’s room, a figure dressed in black ran out and down the hallway. We walked into Silas’s room and found him on the floor, a pillow on the floor. He gasped for air, clutching at his throat.
“Sonofabitch. I’ll get help,” Boone said.
