by Sandra Balzo
‘My God, Earl. You scared the life out of me.’ She put her hand over her heart.
‘I'm mighty sorry, AnnaLise.’ He looked around. ‘Where's the Camry?’
‘I left it with Ben Rosewood,’ she said truthfully. ‘It's a bit of a long story, but I think it's best you contact him and see what the situation is.’
Lawling cocked his head. ‘I sure can do that, AnnaLise, but –’
‘Oh, wait,’ she interrupted, digging through her pockets. ‘Here's the fob.’
He took it. ‘Now, how in the world did Mr Rosewood –’
She shrugged. ‘Must have another fob he didn't give you. Like I said, best you ask him. For now, though, where did you find that?’ She gestured toward the Chrysler key.
Standing here alone in the deserted lot with Lawling, she was remembering Joy's comments about him appearing at every pertinent juncture. Why in the world would he remove the key from Daisy's hidey place?
‘When you weren't back yet, I thought maybe you'd decided to keep the Camry.’ Lawling was looking a little crestfallen, presumably because that clearly wasn't the case. ‘I was thinking I should drive Daisy's car down – you know, make it easier for you. Before I called and made the offer, though, I wanted to make sure I had the means to follow up on it.’
‘That's very nice, Earl,’ AnnaLise said. ‘But how did you know where the key was?’
Lawling snorted. ‘Everybody older than forty in this county has one of those.’ He pointed at the magnetic key-coffin in her hand. ‘And every single one of 'em thinks nobody knows where they put 'em.’
He knocked on the Chrysler's bumper like it was a door. ‘There's only so much metal on cars these days, so it doesn't take a wizard to know where they'll stick.’
AnnaLise laughed, but held out her hand. ‘I'm starting to think you may be the smartest person in Sutherton.’
‘You're just starting to think that, AnnaLise?’ He regarded her for a moment and then dropped the key in her palm.
‘Thank you, sir,’ she said and closed her hand on the key. Climbing into the car, she started the engine – the old-fashioned way, with a real key – and rolled down her window. ‘I'll be in touch about the Camry.’
Lawling didn't look like he believed that. He raised his hand in farewell. ‘You take care now.’
‘And you.’ AnnaLise shifted in drive and started to pull out. When she was far enough away for comfort, she called to him.
He'd started for the office and turned. ‘Yes?’
‘If you were going to drive this down to Daisy's for us, how on earth were you going to get back?’
AnnaLise Griggs didn't give Earl Lawling time to answer.
Thirty-four
‘Honest to God, AnnaLise, have you descended to the point that you trust no one?’ Daisy was where AnnaLise had left her, in front of the printer working on her first blog entry. ‘And that poor Earl Lawling, him and his girlfriend, probably, just trying to do us a favor by ferrying the car down.’
‘I'm not sure there's any such thing as a “poor man,”’ AnnaLise said. ‘They're all playing the angles, I just don't know which particular ones are Earl's. Beyond wanting to sell me that Camry, of course.’
‘Well, that's a terribly jaded way of looking at life,’ Daisy said, getting up to put paper in the printer. ‘And love, I might add. Whatever happened to you today?’
Oh, Daisy, you don't want to know, AnnaLise thought.
And then she told her.
When the whole sordid story was out, both of them were sitting down at the table, Daisy leaning forward on her elbows.
‘So . . . ,’ the mother began. ‘This Rosewood, your married lover, used a gun Joshua Eames lent him to shoot out his wife's tire and send her off the road toward certain death.’
‘He knew she didn't wear a seat belt.’ This last was said with a flourish, since AnnaLise herself hadn't thought about it for awhile. ‘And drank too much. The mountain roads were the ideal setting and seemingly everyone -- first Joy, then me, and ultimately Josh -- the perfect scapegoats. Ben, always the lawyer, was setting up "reasonable doubt."'
Daisy looked like she had some doubt of her own. 'And his daughter?'
'The way I see it, Ben was fed up with Tanja and killed her to get out of the marriage without having to forfeit her money. Then, somehow, Suze – Suzanne – became another stumbling block. Maybe there was a trust fund, containing more money than Ben wanted to sacrifice, or maybe she just tipped to what her father had done.’
‘But what about Joshua? He had to die, too?'
"With Josh dead, Ben would be free to pin the whole thing on him." Make that: killing three birds with one stone.
Daisy was wagging her head side to side. 'Oh, AnnaLise. How in the world could you get involved with a man like this?'
‘Take this to any bank, Daisy: you don't need to tell me how stupid I was.’
‘Beyond stupid, daughter-of-mine,’ Daisy said, reaching across the table. ‘And I know from personal experience. Maybe if you'd asked me –’
AnnaLise put her hand up to her ear like it was a telephone receiver. ‘Hello, Daisy? I'm thinking of having an affair with a powerful, married man. What do you think?’
‘See?’ Daisy said, with a smile. ‘This all could have been avoided. If you can't tell your mother about something you're considering, then just don't do it.’
‘Words to live by.’ AnnaLise squeezed her mother's hand and then let go. ‘Time to pack?’
‘Pack?’ Daisy asked. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Anywhere but here,’ AnnaLise said. ‘Ben Rosewood attacked Josh and – at least as of a half an hour ago when I called Chuck – the police still hadn't found the bastard. Chuck says we should go somewhere safe and I agree.’
She didn't tell her mother where Chuck, kiddingly, had suggested AnnaLise go. At least she hoped he was kidding.
‘But where?’ Daisy asked. ‘Phyllis'?’
Phyllis ‘Mama’ Philomena lived behind her restaurant. ‘I'd prefer farther away.’
‘Ooh, I've got it,’ Daisy said, getting up and going to the phone. ‘We'll go to Ida Mae's. She'll love all this!’
AnnaLise just bet she would.
***
Daisy insisted on driving her car and, given AnnaLise's adventures of the day, her daughter had agreed.
As they slung their overnight bags onto the back seat, the kitchen phone began ringing. AnnaLise, who had been in the process of locking the apartment's front door, ran back inside to answer it.
When she returned to the car, she was smiling. ‘Good news. We don't have to go anywhere. Ben has been arrested.’
‘That's wonderful news, dear,’ Daisy said, giving her daughter a hug. ‘Only, we're still going.’
‘But why? We're not in fear of our lives anymore.’
‘Oh, yes we are. I told Ida Mae what was going on and she's already changed the sheets in the guest room, decanted the wine and started dinner. You want real death threats, see what happens if you disappoint her. Get in the car.’
AnnaLise sighed, but grumbled an ‘All right,’ as she opened the passenger side door. She picked up a sheath of papers on the seat. ‘What's this?’
‘My blog. I thought you could read it as we drove.’
Ahh, the real reason AnnaLise had been relegated to the shot-gun position. ‘But I get carsick.’
‘Only on winding roads. Read fast before we get to them.’
AnnaLise doubted the tome in her hands could be finished before they got to the mountain and started up, but she also figured she owed Daisy at least that. When AnnaLise had finally decided to confide in her mother, she had been a rock.
‘This is very good,’ the daughter said, squinting against the slanting sun. ‘But you realize it's supposed to be a blog entry, not the Encyclopedia Suthertonia.’
‘What I wrote isn't that long,’ Daisy protested.
‘It is, too,’ AnnaLise said, paging through. ‘But we can put this up on the web
site in installments. I had no idea this Lovers' Lookout was so popular. I love the part about you and your friends being chased out by Chuck's dad.’
‘Cop or not, he was just a few years older than we were, so knew first-hand all the places to park. Here.’ She slid a small rectangular sleeve to AnnaLise.
‘What's this?’ AnnaLise unzipped it. ‘A digital camera?’
‘Yup. We need to take pictures.’
‘Of what?’
‘Lovers' Lookout, of course. I noticed that a lot of blogs have photos with them. If we time it right, the sun should be setting.’ The car made an abrupt turn off pavement and onto gravel.
‘Please, Daisy,’ AnnaLise heard a less-than-flattering whine in her voice. ‘Pretty please, can't we go on to Ida Mae's and have a nice quiet dinner? I've had enough excitement today without off-roading at sunset. Especially somewhere the cars seem to have plummeted from fairly regularly.’
‘Oh, pshaw,’ Daisy said, as they bounced over the gravel road. ‘It's perfectly safe up here.’
‘Pshaw?’ AnnaLise repeated as a bump separated AnnaLise from her seat – at least as far as the seat belt would allow. ‘You're too young to say “pshaw.”’
‘Says you.’ Daisy darted the Chrysler to the right and stopped, switching off the ignition.
‘We're here?’ AnnaLise pulled on the door handle, swinging it wide. She was already feeling a little sick from reading in the car and needed air.
‘We are, but be careful on that side. The first step can be a doozy.’
AnnaLise slammed the door shut. ‘Daisy, I swear –’
Her mother cackled. ‘Don't be such a weenie, dear. This is like angle parking. I nosed in so our best view is out the front windshield.’
‘Great, then I can stay right here.’
‘Is this the young woman who conquered the Blue Ridge Parkway?’ Daisy asked, getting out on her side. ‘Exit this car and claim your heritage. You, my dear, are a child of the High Country.’ She swung an arm in a wide arc. ‘Look.’
AnnaLise looked. The sun was bathing the mountain, the autumn tones of the turning trees in contrast with the white ribbon of the far end of the Sutherton Bridge on the opposite side of the gorge, cutting a glowing white swath through the colors.
It was . . . breathtaking. In a good way.
AnnaLise sighed and swung open her door again. Looking first, she stepped out. ‘This isn't too scary. In fact,’ she glanced around, ‘it's not scary at all.’
‘Of course not,’ Daisy said, reaching back into the car to retrieve the camera from the console where AnnaLise had left it. ‘When we used to come up here, we weren't looking to die. We were just looking to . . . well, look.’
‘And touch,’ AnnaLise murmured under her breath, but thinking too much about exactly what her mother had done up here wasn't any better an idea than her mother doing likewise about AnnaLise and Ben.
As Daisy clicked away, AnnaLise cautiously walked forward to the Chrysler's front fender. ‘You heard they found Josh's mother, right?’
‘Robyn?’ Daisy kept clicking. ‘Yes, and though I was surprised she was dead, I'm not surprised there was a man with her. Robyn spent so much time parked here that I'm surprised they didn't name this lookout after her. Not that you could tell Fred that, of course.’
‘They say her car must have gone off here, but I don't see how it could just roll. I mean, cars had emergency brakes even back then and this area is pretty level.’
‘'Even back then'?’ Daisy repeated, peeking out from behind the camera. ‘We're not talking about the nineteenth century, AnnaLise. Or even the twentieth, for that matter.’
‘I know.’ She shivered. ‘Are you done? It's starting to get cold.’
‘You don't fool me. You're more worried about the dark than the cold.’
‘More like you driving in the dark.’
‘Well, you needn't and, besides, I'm done.’ Daisy pulled out her handbag and traded the camera for her cell. ‘Nearly six – we'll be right on time.’
Six. Earlier than they'd arrived at Ida Mae's the night of their accident and the discovery of the Porsche. Just four days since what Charity had called the busiest – no, wait, the craziest night ever. ‘One call sends our guys and fire and rescue out there, only to stumble on something altogether unexpected . . .’
‘Daisy?’ AnnaLise said, putting her hand on her mother's shoulder before she could climb back into the car. ‘Do you remember Ida Mae saying her neighbor had called nine-one-one, but they hadn't come straight away?’
‘Of course. Barbara Jean down the way was having stomach pains and her daughter insisted she call the paramedics, but they didn't arrive for an hour. Can you imagine? Glad we don't live on the mountain. If I have pains, I just walk on over to the station.’
‘Right,’ AnnaLise murmured, still thinking. ‘Can I use your cell phone?’
She pulled out the card that Charity had given her and dialed the number. When Charity answered, AnnaLise asked her one question.
When she hung up, her mother was looking at her. ‘What was all that about?’
‘Charity Pitchford was on duty at the station the night we had our accident and Tanja Rosewood went off the road.’
‘And her husband Coy was right here on the scene, remember? What –’
This time AnnaLise stopped her. ‘You heard the question I just asked Charity.’
‘You mean how many nine-one-one calls they got? I did. But I couldn't hear her answer.’
‘It was exactly what she told me in Chuck's office earlier this week. One.’
‘So?’ Mother was peering at daughter.
‘Don't you see? That one call was Barbara Jean with her pains. The responding units stumbled on us en route.’
Daisy was looking confused. ‘But that would . . .’
AnnaLise was nodding. ‘Exactly right. Joshua never called nine-one-one.’
Thirty-five
‘But why would Joshua Eames have said he called the emergency number if he didn't?’ Daisy was looking even more confused.
‘Maybe to keep us from calling ourselves?’
This time Daisy shivered and wrapped her arms around her torso. ‘Can we talk about this in the car?’
But AnnaLise was looking off across the gorge. ‘What if Josh was there on the road leading to the bridge heading home, not from work, but from shooting out Tanja Rosewood's tire.’ She pointed toward the white glint of the bridge and the road leading to it on the opposite side of the ‘c’ from where they stood. ‘It would be a clear shot from here, if not necessarily an easy one.’
‘Now you think Josh is the guilty one?’ Daisy asked, apparently forgetting her earlier chill. ‘What about your friend, the district attorney?’
‘Ben is a pathological liar and cheat, but maybe he's not a murderer.’
‘But Josh, someone you've known practically all your life, is?’
AnnaLise shook her head. ‘I'm wondering . . . I mean, we have only Josh's word that he lent Ben the gun. And even that he was attacked in the hospital just hours ago. If he lied about calling nine-one-one, maybe he's been lying about everything.’
‘What if . . .’ Daisy was staring off toward the gorge, arms still wrapped around her.
‘Go ahead?’
Daisy turned to her. ‘What if the sirens wouldn't have scared him off that night? He told us to stay in the car, remember?’
‘You're thinking he might have sent us over?’ AnnaLise followed her mother's gaze off the edge.
‘It wouldn't have taken much,’ Daisy said. ‘And if you're right that we caught him in the act –’
But AnnaLise was shaking her head. ‘But we hadn't. In fact, we didn't even know it was Josh until he called out to us.’
‘But he couldn't have known that,’ Daisy said. ‘Still . . . I know that the black truck was coming down the mountain.’
‘You're sure of that? Because if so, it blows my theory to smithereens. Josh couldn't have been both here shooting
off the lookout and in the truck coming down the mountain.’
‘Maybe he wasn't in the truck,’ Daisy said. ‘You know how many dark-colored SUVs and pick-ups there are up here, and I told you I thought the truck just kept on going.’
‘Didn't you say the Eames house was very near here?’ AnnaLise recalled something else. Fred Eames saying that Josh liked to ‘tramp’ through the dead-end as a shortcut.
‘Just through there.’ Daisy pointed away from the cliff. ‘Fifteen minutes on the road, but probably ten by foot.’
‘More like five,’ a voice said from the nearby brush.
Joshua Eames stepped into the fading, slanting sunlight.
Thirty-six
‘They released you from the hospital,’ AnnaLise said, not knowing what else to say to the young man who stood wraithlike in front of them, head still swathed in gauze.
‘And police custody, thanks to you. Your friend Ben Rosewood is in a heap of trouble, especially now that I remembered what happened that night.’
Josh was standing with this back to the gravel road. While AnnaLise and Daisy could see his face, they were likely only silhouettes to him against setting sun.
Good thing, because AnnaLise didn't think she could keep the horror off her face.
‘Well, that's good,’ she said, glancing at her mother. ‘Daisy, we need to run. Ida Mae's waiting.’
‘I don't think so,’ Josh said, moving closer. ‘We need to talk first.’
Both women were standing on the driver's side of the Chrysler and AnnaLise pulled Daisy toward the front of the car, so the open door was between them and Josh.
She'd forgotten, seeing him in a hospital bed most recently, how tall he was, and how broad. His father, but with the six-pack. ‘“Always big for his age,”’ Daisy had said. Probably even at ten.
‘I'm sorry about your mother,’ she said now, as she had in the hospital when Coy Pitchford had broken the news to both of them. Though now she realized that it hadn't seemed as much of a surprise to Josh as it was to her.
‘You know . . .’ He stopped, his face expressionless.
