by Sylvia Nobel
Back at the office, Jim was tapping out a story on the winners of the bronco-busting and calf-wrestling competitions. In response to my questions, he informed me that Tally was downtown covering the boot race, and that Tugg had gone home sick again. Tugg’s illness was really beginning to worry me. After work, I would drop by his house. We needed to talk.
Oddly enough, Ginger wasn’t at her desk either. “Is she still at lunch?” I asked Jim.
“Nope,” he said, absently shuffling through his notes. “Lupe and Al are covering the phone. I think she’s gone for the day too.”
“Why? Is she sick?”
“I don’t think so. Lupe said she got a personal call and went barreling out of here around eleven-thirty.”
That was strange. Ginger never left before five o’clock. I had no time to dwell on it with two other assignments awaiting me and the deadline for my article staring me in the face.
It was almost six o’clock before I finally finished my copy and headed for Tugg’s place. Mary greeted me at the door with a sad smile and filled me in on his condition.
“The doctor in Phoenix did some more tests yesterday,” she said, ushering me into the spacious kitchen. “He’s on new medication and it’s making him a little groggy. But, I’m sure he’ll be okay in a few days.”
She poured me a glass of iced tea and then led me into the living room where Tugg lay on the sofa, napping. His face looked old and pale. A wave of embarrassment swept over me. I should have called first.
“Perhaps I’d best come another time,” I whispered as Mary gently shook his shoulder. She motioned that everything was fine.
Watching Tugg’s pallid face made me recall what Ginger had said about his reluctance to take over the Sun. After thirty-five years in the business, he had been eagerly looking forward to retirement. He had already laid out plans for a European trip before Mary had collared him to run the newspaper her grandfather had founded. Poor Tugg. It was obvious to me his heart wasn’t in the job. Ginger’s assessment of Mary wearing the pants in the family appeared to ring true.
Tugg blinked a few times and then focused on me. “Oh, hi, Kendall,” he said with a wide yawn, throwing off a light blanket. “What’s up?”
Mary gave me a friendly wink and left the room. I pulled a footstool next to the couch. “Are you going to be all right?” I asked, while really thinking, ‘Tugg, I think I’m about to step into a hornet’s nest and I’m going to need you to be well and alert.’
“I dunno,” he groaned. “This goddamned ulcer is acting up again and I can’t do a blasted thing about it. ‘No stress,’ the doctor told me. Ha!”
I studied his bloodshot eyes. “Did something happen to trigger this?”
“Probably everything. My daughter, Louise, called two days ago. She’s splitting up with her husband and wants to move in with us for a few months with the three grandkids.” His shoulders slumped and the deep sigh puffed out his cheeks. “As if I didn’t have enough trouble already.
“We’re drowning in red ink at the paper and we need another infusion of capital to get new equipment. We just don’t have it.” He stopped talking, took a long drink of water and then turned to look toward the kitchen. The sound of Mary humming along with the radio and the clang of pots and utensils announced dinner preparations. He put a finger to his lips, indicating silence, and beckoned me to move closer to him. I scooted the stool forward. In a low voice, he said, “Mary and her sister Faye are bugging me to ask Roy for another loan. By the way,” he said, giving me a worried look, “he called here night before last. He sounded edgy about your visit the other day. Said he hoped you weren’t thinking of stirring up any more trouble at his expense.”
“That says a lot, doesn’t it? He wouldn’t be upset if he didn’t have something to hide. My article about the shelter comes out in tomorrow’s edition. That should put his mind at ease. He’ll see there was nothing more to my questions than gaining information for my story.”
“Look. He’s jumpy because it’s getting close to election time. He can’t afford to have any more derogatory stuff printed about him. Your inferences probably set him off. That got Faye upset and now Mary’s in a tizzy.”
His defeated tone bothered me. “Tugg, you’ve got me in a real spot. You’re going to have to make up your mind what you want to do. If you want me to pursue this, I’ll do it, but if you want to drop it, then just say so.”
He looked more miserable than I’d ever seen him. “God knows I’ve thought of having you just forget about it. If I hadn’t gotten that phone call from John, it would have just been one of those things. But, like I said, I feel in my gut there’s more to his disappearance than him just getting pissed at me ’cause I told him to lay off Roy unless he had something to back up his allegations. It’s the timing. It just doesn’t sit right.”
“And I agree with you, Tugg. It’s pretty obvious that I’m onto something. By the way, there are a few things I haven’t told you yet.”
Originally, I hadn’t planned to tell him about the attack on me in the darkroom, but the time seemed right. I repeated the episode, and after I explained my theory about Claudia and Roy, the expression on his face made my heart sink. He was staring at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“The smuggling part might be plausible, but I can’t buy your theory about some kinky cult. How could something as weird as that be going on without someone finding out about it?” He threw his hands in the air, adding, “Those are both pretty wild ideas, Kendall. Without proof, we’re nowhere.”
His continuing skepticism bothered me. “Don’t you think I know that, Tugg? I’m trying to get some evidence, but you’ve given me a rather tough assignment and then tied one hand behind my back.”
He leaned his head back against the sofa and crossed an arm over his eyes. “What if I’m dead wrong about John? He was such a goddamn flake, maybe it’s possible he really did just take off.”
“How can you even think that after what happened to me?”
He dropped his hand and gave me an anguished look. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about everything these the past two days. There are a lot more ramifications to this than I originally thought. So many people will be affected. All the employees, their families…”
I cut in impatiently. “Don’t be in such a hurry to discount the smuggling angle. The ring operated in both southern Arizona and Texas a few years ago. Most of the people involved were caught, but the ringleader got away. It could have been restarted right here.”
Tugg looked blank for a minute and then his eyes widened in astonishment. “You think Roy is the ringleader? Oh, Jesus. Do you have any idea what will happen when this story breaks? Mary will be devastated. This is my family we’re talking about, for chrissake!”
His defensive tone struck a nerve. He seemed to have developed a severe case of cold feet. I wondered if his poor health was affecting his judgment.
I fidgeted uncomfortably on the stool as I watched his face crumple in distress. A pang of pity shot though me. It wasn’t difficult to understand how he felt. The outcome of this investigation could have awesome consequences.
“Tugg,” I said softly, “I don’t think Roy’s behind this. He’s not smart enough. I think the mastermind is Claudia Phillips. There’s something about her that just doesn’t jibe. She shows up out of nowhere after Violet Mendoza dies, and suddenly there’s a large anonymous donation that allows the church to buy a separate house for runaway girls. Don’t you see how easy this is? They don’t even have to hunt for the girls, they come right to them.
“Then, within the last year those two girls are found dead in the desert and presto, the toxicology reports on both of them wind up missing. Convenient, huh? I’m positive based on what you’ve told me, John Dexter’s note and his sudden disappearance, that these things all tie together. Roy didn’t bungle those cases, the misinformation is deliberate.”
Tugg sat very still. His face had taken on a grayish pallor.
“Now, I’m not sure yet
how the woman John Dexter was supposed to meet that last day fits in, but I’m going to find out. And to do that, I have to have the freedom to get this thing moving, get Roy or Claudia riled up enough to make a mistake.”
Looking grim, Tugg rubbed a hand back and forth across his mouth. I could almost see his stomach twisting. What a quandary he was in.
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Listen, Kendall, if you’re even half right, I don’t feel at all good about the position I’ve put you in. You should have told me right off about that business at the paper the other night because this is beginning to sound more serious than I ever imagined.”
“Well, I...”
He put up a hand to silence me. “Look, I can’t help but feel a certain responsibility for you because of what your dad did for me, and being an old newspaper man, I also feel it’s as important as hell to find out what really happened to John Dexter, but...if he was deliberately killed, as you suspect, how can I, in good conscience, justify letting you continue with this?”
“Tugg, what do you mean? We can’t stop now! All I need is one little piece of concrete evidence for the county attorney and they’ll take the investigation from there.”
A look of pain crossed his face and his hand flew to his stomach. From the coffee table, he scooped up a bottle of pills and popped two in his mouth.
“Tugg, I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to upset you.”
He waved my remark aside. “You haven’t done anything I didn’t ask you to do, but…I think now, due to the circumstances, that perhaps it would be better if Tally or Jim took over the assignment.”
He may as well have kicked me in the stomach. I stood up so fast, the stool fell over behind me. “Oh, no you don’t,” I said fiercely. “Don’t pull this ‘because you’re a weak, little female’ routine on me. Don’t forget, the way I read this, John Dexter is most likely dead, and he was a man. What makes you think either of them could handle the assignment any better than me?” He didn’t answer so I charged ahead. “I can appreciate the position you’re in, and I know you’re not feeling well but, damn it, I need to do this!”
He looked doubtful. “I don’t know, Kendall.”
I took a couple of deep calming breaths and sat down beside him on the sofa. “Tugg, did I ever tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you even hired me? If I haven’t, then I’ll say it now. I was really in a dismal state of mind when I arrived here in Castle Valley. I didn’t know if my health would ever improve, I’d lost my fiancée, my job, everything. You’ve given me a chance to prove myself. Don’t take this away from me now.” I gave him a beseeching look, but he dropped his eyes and stared at his clasped hands.
“Give me two weeks, Tugg. Two weeks and I’ll have some tangible proof for us to take to the authorities. What do you say? I swear on a stack of Bibles, I’ll be careful.” I waited in heart-thumping agony, hardly daring to breathe.
“Oh, lordy,” he muttered. “I’m probably going to regret this…but, okay. Two weeks.” He shook his finger at me. “But you’ve got to promise me, you’ll keep me informed of everything. You won’t go and do something stupid just to prove a point?”
Relief poured through me. “I promise,” I said, solemnly raising my right hand.
My emotions were still in a jumble by the time I arrived home. It hadn’t occurred to me just how much I wanted to solve this case, until it was almost snatched away from me. At least now, I had a little breathing room.
I was also in a state of anxious anticipation over my article and, tucked away in a small corner of my heart lay the thought I tried to evade all afternoon.
The unresolved argument with Tally bothered me more than I cared to admit. I had hoped to see him and clear the air between us. The fact that he’d made a deliberate effort to avoid me all day had been glaringly obvious. I’d have to explain to Eric that I would have only a few hours for dinner on Friday. Being the sensitive man he was, I felt confident he would understand.
The thunderheads that had towered over the northeastern horizon all day had vanished along with my hopes of rain. Jim had told me it was called a ‘false monsoon,’ though occasionally it did rain in June. But, because of the intense heat many times the rain evaporated before it even hit the ground. “Dry thunderstorms,” he’d added sagely. I had never heard of such a thing in my life, and wondered if he was pulling my leg.
Feeling whipped, I dropped into a chair, kicked off my shoes, and let the tepid air blowing from the evaporative cooler wash over me. Harry and Rick had overheard Jim talking to me about the weather and had given me the disquieting news that ‘swamp’ coolers didn’t perform very well in humid weather. I guessed this was as cool as it was going to get.
I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until the jangling of the phone awakened me. For a few seconds I couldn’t figure out why I was sitting in a chair or what time of day it was. I stumbled across the room and grabbed the receiver.
“Hey, girlfriend,” came Ginger’s cheerful voice over the line. “Your voice sounds kinda funny, y’all been sleepin’?”
I yawned. “Actually, I was. I’ve had a rather stressful day. So, how come you cut out so early?”
“We’ve all had us quite a day too. Drop everything, and get your buns over here, girl. We got ourselves a baby!”
By the time I arrived at Ginger’s the sun had set the horizon aflame in scarlet. While music from the stereo filled the room, she bustled about filling glasses with sparkling champagne and Brian passed around pieces of cake. Bonnie and her husband Tom held hands and gazed reverently at their new daughter whom Nona held proudly on her lap.
I was surprised to hear of their last minute troubles. They had ended up in a bidding war with another couple over the baby. Their choice was to match the amount offered to the birth mother, or be forced to back out. Taking out a second mortgage on their house and selling some stock had finally raised the amount needed.
“Eric really came through for us,” Bonnie crowed. “He made a special trip to Iowa to convince the birth mother we’d make better parents. I’ll never be able to thank him enough.”
It turned out that was only part of their problem. Tom went on to say that the birth father had made an eleventh hour appearance and decided against signing the relinquishment papers. But, when offered a substantial amount of money, like magic, the paper was signed.
So far, they hadn’t given me any definite figures, but I surmised this little girl had set them back substantially, not to mention the emotional turmoil they had suffered.
By the time Bonnie and Tom had packed their car and left for their home in Prescott, it was well past ten. Bed sounded pretty good to me, but Nona insisted I stay and see more of the momentos from her days on the Broadway stage.
“Humor her, will ya, love,” Ginger muttered under her breath as we followed Nona’s wheelchair down the hallway. During my first visit, Ginger had described Nona’s room as a museum and it certainly was. I didn’t have to feign interest and felt genuinely astounded as she directed Ginger to pull carefully preserved costumes from a spacious cedar closet. A strong odor of mothballs permeated the room, making me sneeze several times.
Nona’s withered face beamed with pride as she recounted each role she had played. The closet was crammed with boxes of wigs, hats and shoes, jars of theater makeup, photos, and piles of yellowing fan letters.
“This is fantastic,” I said to Nona while running my hand over a green velvet gown. “I wish I could have seen you perform.”
“I got to admit, I was pretty good,” she said tucking the photos away in a shoe box.
I thanked everyone for allowing me to share their special evening and Ginger linked arms with me as we walked outside. The night was muggy and still. Not even a whisper of wind relieved the oppressive air. Greenish heat lightning flashed dimly on the horizon.
I remarked again how fortunate Bonnie and Tom were. Not only had they weathered the emotional storm, they’d also managed to come up with the ad
ditional funds needed to complete the adoption. It was then Ginger confided that she and Nona had given them money also, and that the total dollar amount had come to forty-five thousand.
I was aghast. “Forty-five thousand dollars! Are you sure about that?”
“Is a frog’s ass water tight? Of course I’m sure.”
“I can’t believe they paid that much for a baby!”
“It’s over and done with, sugar. Let’s talk about you and Tally. He looked like he was a fixin’ to chew the head off a goat when I walked in on the two of you.”
I explained what had happened and she remarked, “Y’all ain’t going to the barbecue? Well, no wonder he’s mad at you. That’s one of the biggest shindigs of the year.”
“I know, I know. It was so stupid. But it was an honest mistake. Tally didn’t really ask me like it was a date or something. I thought it was a drop by thing, you know? I’ll scoot out there after dinner.”
“So, how you gonna square that with Eric?”
“I hope he’ll understand. Boy, I wish I hadn’t gotten myself mixed up with two guys. It has really complicated my life.”
“Well, for pity’s sake, if you ain’t the one. I have never in all my born days seen anybody kick up such a fuss about having two boyfriends.”
“It’s not just that. I’m caught right in the middle of two people who despise each other. I may throw them both back.”
Ginger gaped. “You’ve slipped over the edge, girl.”
I laughed at her remark. “I’m not sure what to do. Eric is coming on like gang busters and Tally acts as though he’d like to lasso me with a rope and put the Starfire brand on me.”
The dim glow from the porch light illuminated her face just enough for me to make out the impish gleam in her eyes. “Well, sugar pie, I can think of a lot worse things than being lassoed by a man like Tally. Far as I’m concerned, he can park his boots under my bed any ol’ night.”
“Ginger,” I cried, in mock horror. “I’m shocked! I thought Doug Sauers was the love of your life.”
Her infectious giggle filled the night air. “Well, now don’t have a hissy fit. There ain’t no harm in taking a peek at a good-looking man. And speaking of good-looking, where’s Mr. Dreamboat taking you for supper on Friday?”
