by Lynne Hinton
Ewing seemed unsure of whether he was talking about right then or later. “Well, I think that’s a nice idea. Maybe when it gets a little warmer, you can come over and get Aaron to ride out with you.”
Evangeline clapped her hands together. “Let’s head back to Madrid. I’m getting hungry.” She turned to the rancher and held out her hand. “It was sure good to see you again, Mr. Ewing.”
He nodded, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. “Always a pleasure, Sister.” He faced the Captain. “Jackson, you come any time you want to ride. I’m sure you’ll find that you haven’t lost a thing in being able to handle a horse.” He patted his friend on the back as he turned to walk away.
“I’ll give you a call,” Jackson responded, and he headed down the porch steps.
Evangeline waved good-bye and joined the Captain. They both got into the truck and Eve started the engine.
“He’s hiding something,” was all the Captain had to say.
THIRTY-SEVEN
“And they all have alibis?” The Captain was sitting at his desk.
The cat was asleep on the cushion pushed into the corner behind him. Daisy was now a permanent resident of the private detective agency.
Evangeline was putting away some files in the cabinets located behind him in the back of the office.
“The son too?” He had spun his chair around and was facing Evangeline.
She turned to hear the rest of the phone conversation. She knew the Captain had asked a private detective in the Los Angeles area, a former FBI agent he knew from his days on the force, to check into the whereabouts of Cheston’s family members during the time of the man’s disappearance.
“Well, keep checking. Somebody out there has to know more than they’re letting on.” And he said a quick good-bye and hung up.
Evangeline waited a few seconds and then moved to the chair in front of the desk. She took a seat. “He didn’t find out anything?”
Jackson shook his head. “There was a family trip that lasted a few days, including the day that Cheston was discovered to be missing. Wife, son, in-laws, even the family lawyer had all taken a long weekend to go up to the Santa Barbara area. It was somebody’s wedding.”
“And Cheston hadn’t planned to attend with them?”
He scratched his chin. “JP …” He paused to explain. “My contact …”
And Evangeline nodded knowingly.
“He says the wife told him that Cheston hadn’t planned to go. She said they’d rarely spent time together the last couple of years.” He picked up a pen and started tapping it on the top of the desk. “She showed him a list of people who could vouch that she and the son were at the rehearsal party, the wedding, and the reception.”
Evangeline listened. “Sounds like she was awfully eager to prove her innocence.”
Jackson smiled. “JP thought the same thing. But I guess the family lawyer told her to have the alibi and the names of witnesses handy. He said she didn’t seem to mind his questions, even after he explained he was working with a private detective in New Mexico. Of course, JP always had a way with the ladies. And from what he says, Mrs. Cheston was happy to have a male caller.”
“Well, maybe if he’s so good-looking, I should fly out to Los Angeles and get the full report in person.” Evangeline grinned.
“You’re a nun,” the Captain reminded her. “And I wouldn’t let J. P. Sanders get within twenty feet of either one of my girls.”
“Wow,” Evangeline responded. “Sounds like there’s a story there.”
Jackson waved away the comment. “There’s no doubt JP’s a charmer, but he’s not to be trusted when it comes to women.”
“I thought you two were friends.”
“JP is a business contact. We were in the police academy together before he left to join the government. I respect his work. But I wouldn’t call him a friend. And whatever you do, don’t mention his name to Daniel.”
“What did this guy do to Daniel?”
“The FBI and J. P. Sanders were brought in to New Mexico to work with the Santa Fe police on a high-profile drug-trafficking case. Daniel’s wife served as a liaison between the force and the FBI. She and Sanders spent a lot of time together. Too much time, if you get my drift.”
“Oh.” Evangeline got the drift just fine. She remembered learning about Daniel’s divorce when she was away at college, and even though she had never heard all the details, she’d heard enough to know Daniel had been devastated. “Then why would you call this guy?” she wanted to know.
“Because he’s good at what he does. He gets answers faster than anybody I know.”
“But he broke up your best friend’s marriage.”
“Like I said, don’t tell Daniel.”
Evangeline shook her head.
“What?” He seemed to sense her judgment.
“I just find it odd that you would keep in contact with a man who brought such turmoil into the life of your best friend.”
“I don’t keep in contact,” he fired back. “I run into him from time to time at conferences and PI events.”
“It just feels underhanded, deceptive,” she responded.
“He’s a good private detective, living in the area where I needed assistance. I asked him to carry out one assignment. He did that and I’ll send him a check for his services. I’m not taking him out for dinner and dancing, for heaven’s sake.”
Eve shook her head. “I’ve just forgotten the ways of the world, I guess.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It just means I am used to honesty and truth-telling. I’m used to being in community with lots of people and working at authenticity in my relationships.”
“That’s a bunch of bull.”
“Why would you say that? Why do you think it’s a bunch of bull?”
“Because it is.”
“How would you know?”
“Because I know people. And it doesn’t matter if you live together in a gated community on a hill where you pray five times a day and take vows of poverty and chastity or whether you live thirty miles away from those you call friends and family, everybody hides things. Human beings by nature are just not truthful in how we represent ourselves, no matter who you’re talking about.” He stopped. “If one of the nuns fixes the oatmeal in the morning and it tastes like sawdust, and she asks, ‘How’s the oatmeal?’ what do you tell her?”
Evangeline looked away. She thought it was a stupid analogy.
“You tell her it was fine oatmeal. Now, isn’t that misrepresenting the truth?”
Evangeline’s face reddened. “It’s not the same thing as making a secret contact and a business arrangement with someone for your own gain when you know that contact and arrangement would be hurtful to someone you care about.”
He retorted, “It’s misrepresenting the truth in both aspects. And in the oatmeal scenario, there was an actual lie. In the arrangement I made with JP, an arrangement that was for one task with a beginning and an end, I haven’t lied to anyone.”
“I can’t speak for anyone else, whether we’re talking about those in the gated communities or those who claim to be in friendships. I can only speak for myself. And I seek to live my life in truthfulness. I am trying to be honest in all things. And I see your business arrangement with this man in Los Angeles and your need to keep it hidden from someone you claim is your friend as not being truthful, not honest.” She looked away.
“And what about the reason you left Pecos?”
She jerked around to face him. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about what you’re really doing here.”
She didn’t reply.
“You’ve been away from the convent for almost a month now. I’ve got the prosthetic. In a couple of weeks I’ll be released by the doctor to drive. Why haven’t you called the vice superior and made arrangements to go back to the community? Why haven’t you been honest instead of trying to make everyone else, including yourself, bel
ieve that the only reason you’re here is to take care of me? I think you’re enjoying working on this case a little too much. I think my surgery was a good excuse for you to get away from the monastery, maybe even away from your vows. I think there’s something else going on with you, and you won’t talk about it. And why haven’t you gotten rid of that cat?” He spun around and pointed at the animal still asleep in the corner behind him. The cat looked up and yawned.
Eve glared at him. There were all kinds of things she wanted to say, truthful things, she thought, like telling him about the call she had with Dorisanne and why his other daughter wouldn’t face him, things like he was a bully and how she thought her mother should have never stayed married to him. But she didn’t say any of those things. Instead, Evangeline took in a breath and slowly exhaled. She made the decision to try to control her tongue. She would not speak in anger.
“When the doctor releases you to drive,” she said, her voice calm, her tone remaining at a conversational level, “I will return to Pecos.” She waited. “I’d like to help you pay some outstanding bills that I know you have, help you get the house set up in a way that you’ll be comfortable living with your disability. I will take the cat with me. And I should be able to accomplish those things in the next couple of weeks while I’m still driving you. For now, I’m going home to fix us something to eat. When you’re finished doing your paperwork or making your phone calls and want to come home for lunch, give me a call and I’ll come back to get you.”
And with that, she got up from her seat, picked up the truck keys from the desk, and walked away. The cat jumped up to join her. She slammed the door as she left, barely missing the exiting cat, walking at a cool, steady pace but feeling her heart pound.
THIRTY-EIGHT
“What do you mean that he’s suspicious?” Mother Madeline was fixing her guest a cup of tea. She was wearing a pink warm-up suit, white sneakers, and had her gray curly hair tied back with a pink bow.
Evangeline had never seen her mentor in such casual attire. She was used to seeing the older woman dressed from head to toe in black—a long black skirt, sensible black shoes, black jacket, black blouse, all serving as the background for the signature white priestly collar. It was surprising to see her in such bright clothes. She liked it and even wondered how it might be for her to add a little color to her casual wardrobe while she had one.
“He keeps asking me what I’m doing here, why I don’t go back to Pecos for a morning service or afternoon meeting. He thinks I have some hidden agenda in taking the leave of absence.” Evangeline leaned her elbows on her knees.
It was late in the morning and the sun was bright in the kitchen. The air was still. Spring was definitely upon them, and all the windows in the front area of the house were open. Madeline brought over a cup and set it before her friend.
“Thanks,” Eve mumbled. She shook her head. “I leave my entire life behind to come take care of him, and he accuses me of not being honest, of hiding my true feelings.” She took a sip of tea. “Well, I guess he’s right about some of that, but I know if I let out some of my true feelings about him, we’d be in the same boat as he and Dorisanne.”
Madeline took the seat across from Eve.
“He’s just so cruel.” Evangeline folded her arms across her chest. She closed her eyes, still trying to gather herself after the conversation she’d just had. “I understand he’s having a difficult time with this setback. I know losing a leg has to be wrought with all kinds of feelings of loss and grief and frustration. He’s worried about what will happen to him.” Her eyes flew open. “But that doesn’t mean he gets to take it all out on me. I do not deserve to be his punching bag.”
Madeline nodded.
“I thought I had worked through all of this anger at him. I thought I had come so far with our relationship and my ability to take his abuse and not get hooked in to his criticisms and his need to incite those around him. I thought I had mastered this thing.”
Madeline laughed, shaking her head. “Unfortunately, it takes more than just a few years in a convent to learn how to deal with family conflict.”
“A few years? Madeline, I’ve been at the abbey for more than two decades! I’m forty years old. How much longer is it supposed to take?” She felt exasperated. “I have worked on issues of forgiveness, of acceptance, even of gratitude for the fact that he is responsible for my having life. But I don’t think a human being should have to work their entire lifetime on trying to find a place of peace with a parent. At some point, I should be able to move on and focus on some other things.”
“There are no other things,” Madeline pointed out. “It’s easy to say we’re ready for loftier trials than figuring out how to have a conversation without getting our feelings hurt. That life is more than just negotiating household tasks and paying the bills. But these so-called little things are actually our best teachers. Our ability to connect in deeper and more meaningful relationships is developed only by living into these menial events. And if we continue to be stalled, even if it is always in just one relationship, we must work to understand those obstacles until they no longer impede our progress.”
“I understand. But I just can’t deal with him anymore,” Evangeline confessed.
“Tell me, Eve,” Madeline said, reaching out to touch her arm, “is there anything more to this? Could it be that his obstinacy and his ill temperament are just the net you’ve caught yourself in to keep from landing somewhere else?”
“I don’t understand.”
She pulled her hand away. “Okay,” she replied without pressing.
“You think there’s something else that I don’t want to deal with? You think I’m using his bad behavior as a way to stop something else from surfacing?”
Madeline didn’t answer. She drank from her cup of tea.
Evangeline sat back in her chair. “I guess it’s not easy seeing your parents age,” she commented.
Madeline shook her head. “No, not easy at all.”
“And I suppose one can claim that they are prepared to take on the role of caregiver, but taking care of somebody else is not really all that easy.” She smiled. “Even for one as spiritually mature as a nun.”
“That’s true too.”
“What?” Evangeline could see Madeline had more on her mind.
“Those are possible reasons for your discontent,” she replied.
“But you think there’s more?” Evangeline sat up, leaned closer to Madeline. “You think he’s right?”
Madeline lifted her eyebrows, her face a question mark. She finished her tea and set the cup back on the table. “Only you can answer that,” she acknowledged.
Evangeline fell back in her chair.
Madeline got up from the table. “Would you like more tea?” she asked.
Evangeline looked in her cup. She had not drunk more than a few swallows. She shook her head.
The older woman placed her cup in the sink. She turned to face the table where Evangeline remained seated. “Why don’t you tell me more about your father’s murder case?”
Eve shrugged. She was not all that interested in recapping the information that had been gleaned since she last saw the retired priest.
“The man was here working on a new movie script?”
Eve thought for a moment. There’d been no discussion of Cheston’s purpose for being in the area. She assumed that he was here for work, but maybe that needed to be asked of others. “I think so,” she said. “I’m not sure I ever heard if he was perhaps the writer as well as the director of this new film that is supposed to be made here.”
“The young woman was arrested?” Madeline pried.
Eve nodded. “She’s out on bail, living in Santa Fe until the trial.” She felt herself perk up a bit. The subject change did seem to improve her mood.
“Your father thinks she’s innocent?”
Another nod.
“And you?”
“I don’t think she’s capable of murder,�
� she answered. “I think she was really angry at the victim when they were last together, maybe even wanted him dead.” She was holding her cup in both hands. “But no, I don’t think she poisoned the man she loved and threw him off the side of a hill.”
“There was an argument, then, between the victim and the accused?”
Evangeline nodded. “Apparently, he was mad at her for not trusting him to stay sober, and she was mad at him for not getting the divorce he had promised.”
“Ah, the difficulties of love.” Madeline turned and looked out her southward-facing window. “I guess you and I should be glad we have only to work so diligently on those relationships with family members and not those with lovers or spouses.”
There was a sigh. “Right now, I think I’d prefer a lying, Hollywood-director boyfriend to a crotchety, old, one-legged father.”
Madeline turned back to her guest and smiled. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter who the others are that happen to be on our path walking with us. Mother, father, sister, boyfriend, roommate, we must still find a way to stumble forward together.”
Evangeline put her cup to her lips and drank the tea she had been given and then wiped her mouth. “Either that or we kill ’em.”
THIRTY-NINE
Evangeline rolled up the truck windows. The handles on both doors were old and not very secure, and she wrestled to get first one all the way up and then the other. She finally succeeded and fell back against the seat. It was warm enough to have them open but far too dusty. The winter snow had melted, and there had been no other precipitation for weeks. She put the truck in gear and drove along the bumpy dirt road, thinking about her conversation with Madeline as well as the one she’d had earlier that morning with the Captain. He always seemed to know just how to make her angry. Was he even aware of the way he pushed people’s buttons?
“I guess it’s just easier to pick on me instead of talking about how losing his leg makes him feel,” she said out loud, recalling how he tried to antagonize her, how it almost felt like he wanted to make her mad so that maybe she’d leave or at least quit asking questions about how he was feeling.
