by K. C. McRae
Lauri clenched her jaw. “She’s such a snot. Just because she’s a nurse and works at the Quikcare doesn’t mean she’s any better than I am. I don’t think she even loved Clay, not like I did. She just wanted to be part of that whole family. She started going around telling people I was stalking her boyfriend, so I made a point of letting her know not to mess with me.”
Merry sighed. “I take it that means you messed with her?”
“Just a little.”
“Good God, why?”
“So she couldn’t just blow me off. So she’d have to think about what she was screwing up. So she’d …”
“So she’d get scared?”
“Yeah. So she’d know I was serious.” The tears had vanished.
“How serious were you?”
She squinted at Merry as if trying to read small print. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you’re under suspicion for Clay’s death. I mean Barbie’s waterbed was slashed and flooded part of her house. I mean you’ve been acting strange, and if you don’t ’fess up to what you have done, there’s a strong possibility the police will assume you did all of it, including killing Clay.”
Lauri’s mouth fell open.
“Well?”
She closed her mouth. Blinked. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”
I’m trying to be on your side, you infuriating little ninny. “What were you doing at Clay’s house the night he died?”
Silence.
“Were you going to try to seduce him?”
Lauri clamped her lower lip between her teeth before nodding once.
Merry held her hand up. “Okay, okay. Now tell me something. What time were you there?”
She shrugged.
Merry struggled to keep her irritation from showing. “It’s important.”
“Around midnight, I guess. It had stopped raining.”
“Were you wearing those sandals?” She indicated her cousin’s feet.
“No. A pair of Mom’s boots.”
Merry closed her eyes. They’d match the footprints for sure. “Why didn’t you say that when I asked you before?”
“She gets mad when I borrow her stuff.”
Christ. “Did you see anything? Hear any shots?”
“No. Just fireworks. You know, bottle rockets, some of the bigger stuff. I’m surprised someone didn’t call the cops.”
“Yeah,” Merry said, thinking.
“His name is Denny Teller.”
Lauri’s words startled her out of her reverie. “Who?”
“Denny Teller. The one-night stand guy.”
“Clay’s roommate? He’s the father?”
“I didn’t know he was Clay’s roommate, not then.”
“You didn’t go to his place, to, um …”
“No.”
“Your mom’s house?”
“No.”
“A motel?”
“A van, okay? We did it in the back of his van. Would you like a blow-by-blow?”
“Uh, no. I shouldn’t have asked. It’s not any of my business.”
“No, it’s not.” Still, Lauri looked mollified by her apology.
“You know he’s married?”
Lauri sighed. “Yeah, I know.” She watched an eighteen-wheeler rumble by. “It doesn’t matter. I just wanted to have the baby and be with Clay. I don’t care about Whatshisface anyway. The only reason we got together in the first place was because I was lonely and drank too much beer, and one thing led to another … whatever. None of it matters now.”
“It matters to the baby.”
“No, it doesn’t. Denny told me he wouldn’t pay child support.”
“You can take him to court. Force him to take a blood test to prove he’s the father.”
Lauri didn’t say anything.
“You’d better tell your mom about Denny.”
“Why? It doesn’t make any difference.”
“Because she thinks it was Clay. Because if you don’t, I will. And I think it would be better coming from you.”
Lauri turned on her. “You lied. You said you wouldn’t tell her.”
“I did not. I said she didn’t send me. And she didn’t.”
“Shit.”
“Lauri, if it really doesn’t matter, why not tell her? It would mean a lot to her to know that you trust her.”
“She doesn’t trust me.”
“You keep secrets.”
“Whatever.”
“It’s up to you. Tell her or don’t. But she’s going to find out.”
A car full of teenagers pulled into the parking lot, country pop thumping out of the stereo. Merry stood to leave. She put her hand on her cousin’s shoulder. Lauri stiffened for a moment, then went slack. After a few moments she turned and looked up. She blinked slowly.
“I miss him, you know?”
Merry patted her cousin’s shoulder. “I know.”
“Nothing turns out the way you plan it, does it?”
“Sometimes it’s worse. Sometimes it’s better. Sometimes it’s just different, and you don’t know whether it was better or worse until a lot later.”
Lauri nodded. “Okay.”
Merry was surprised. “Will you be all right?”
She shrugged. “I guess.”
“I bet you’ll feel better if you talk to your mom.”
Lauri held up her hands in mock surrender. “Okay. I’ll tell her tonight.”
Walking back to her vehicle, Merry wondered how much of what Lauri had said was true. Her gut said most of it was. In fact, all along her cousin seemed to be pretty up front when asked direct questions. But what about the things she left out? Then Merry realized Lauri had neatly deflected the question about the waterbed, before she even got a chance to ask it.
twelve
Merry felt guilty that Izzy had been getting so much more exercise at the Cains’. The next morning she decided she could manage a placid ride, sans stirrups. Then a run into town to see this Denny Teller character. Have a little talk about child support. But before she could saddle Izzy, before she’d even washed her breakfast dishes, the phone rang.
“Call Shirlene.” The voice spoke just above a whisper, but she could tell it was Jamie.
“What the—”
Merry heard conversation in the background, and he hung up.
Well, hell.
She dialed Shirlene. After four rings she answered, sounding subdued.
“Jamie just called me. What happened?”
“Oh, God,” her aunt said. “They came and arrested Lauri. That asshole Hawkins. She was in the bathroom when he got here, and when she came out he arrested her. He was going to take her in her pajamas and bathrobe, but I raised holy hell at that, and finally he let her go get dressed. Then he tried to handcuff her, and she started to fight him—she managed to smack him a good one across the face before he grabbed her hands. That other one came in then, the skinny one who was here the other day? Well, he came in, and he took her out, and then Hawkins went out and shoved her into the back of the police car. She was screaming at them, Merry.” She took a shaky breath. “She was in handcuffs and screaming at them.”
“Jesus. Are you okay?”
“I tried to go out and calm her down, but Hawkins stood in my way, wouldn’t let me by. God, he was mad! When she hit him, I thought for a moment he was going to lay her out. But he decided to take it out on me instead.”
Merry grabbed the edge of the counter. “What did he do?”
“He told me, real sarcastic-like, not to worry about trying to visit Lauri today because the only person he’d let in to see her would be a lawyer. He’s not even going to let me take her a toothbrush. Can they do that, Merry?” Her voice wavered.
She’d never heard Shirlene like this. “Sure,
when they first arrest her. What about bail?”
“I don’t know. They just left.”
“Call Kate.”
“I was just about to. I’ll talk to you later.”
They said goodbye. Merry finished the dishes and sat at the kitchen table with a second cup of coffee, thinking hard. She’d really been looking forward to that ride on Izzy.
She placed another call.
“Hazel Police. May I help you?” Nadine again.
“Hi. Is Jamie around? This is Merry McCoy.”
“Oh, hi. How’s it going? No, he left already … um, can you hang on a minute?”
Merry heard a male voice, and pictured Rory Hawkins’s bulk looming nearby. Nadine returned, sounding official.
“No sir, I’m sorry. Officer Gutierrez is not in. May I take a message?”
“Can you tell me where I could track him down?”
“I’m afraid Officer Gutierrez will not be in until tomorrow.”
“He’s off today?”
“That’s right.”
“So he’s probably at home.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re a gem.”
“That’s true, sir. You have a good day now.”
———
After that fat jerk hustled her into the back of the police car, Lauri endured the ride to the police station in silence, scarcely able to breathe since his B.O. reeked so bad. God, what a pig. She coughed and he shot her a menacing look in the rear view mirror.
Then they asked her questions in the same long room as before, lots of questions, but Lauri wouldn’t answer them because she imagined Merry would tell her to keep her mouth shut. She tried to find out why they were so sure she’d killed Clay, but they wouldn’t tell her anything.
Then they asked about the gun.
She’d wondered when that would come up. She’d already told Officer Gutierrez about looking around Clay’s house the morning she found the body. Now she wished she’d said something about touching the gun, too. It would’ve been better if she’d slipped that information in then, instead of having to answer for it now.
Of course, she hadn’t thought they’d ever suspect her. Stupid nosy neighbor, spying on her in the dark. Her mom had better get on the stick and get her out of here.
She waited while they filled out forms. The skinny chick with the big boobs—what was her name … Natalie? No, Nadine. She searched Lauri and made her turn out her pockets, took her stuff away. Then she led her downstairs to the jail.
Lauri peered into the first doorway they passed and saw a long room with one big cage on the left side of a walkway, and facing it on the right, four smaller spaces enclosed by low-tech black iron bars. The two men sitting in the big cell looked up when she walked by, and one of them grinned at her.
The women’s jail was the same, but smaller. There were only two mini cells across the aisle.
The poured-concrete floor sloped to a drain set into the walkway. As she walked over it, an oddly fruity smell wafted from it, cloying and putrid at the same time. She held her breath and hurried past.
The cinderblock walls reflected pale hospital-aqua like an underwater cave. The absence of windows intensified the feeling; claustrophobia pressed around her throat when Nadine shut her inside the big cell with a clang. Though it had been warm when the police took her out of her house, down here the walls held a damp chill the sun never touched. Fluorescent light glared down from parallel tubes over the center aisle, casting the room into starkness that made her eyes hurt.
Lauri shivered as she turned to survey the space. The only seating was a thick wooden bench bolted to the back wall. There wasn’t even a toilet. Good thing she’d been allowed to go to the bathroom before coming down here. At least the little cells had bunk beds.
On one end of the bench, a large woman reclined on her back with one leg bent, forearm resting over closed eyes. She wore jeans and a black T-shirt, and her greasy brown hair was pulled back into a lank ponytail. Her beer belly peeked out from under the T-shirt, all soft and pasty. Lauri’s lip curled.
It was spooky quiet. No television or radio. No voices or traffic noises. The light bulbs didn’t even hum, as if the water-colored walls drank in every vestige of sound before it could strike human ears. For just a second, she wondered if the walls could suck in the sound of a scream, leave the husk of it hanging in the air, less than a whisper.
The woman on the bench shifted her arm and opened her eyes, looking her up and down without moving from her prone position. Even though the look was downright rude, Lauri didn’t look away. The woman slowly sat up. She might have been fat, but upright she looked like she could wrestle a bull to the ground.
Her clothes rustled when she moved, and even though she knew it was silly that made Lauri feel a little better.
“What’re you here for, princess?” the woman asked.
She didn’t answer. Hugging herself she walked to the other end of the bench and sat down.
“Not very talkative, huh? That’s okay. I can respect that.” The woman leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.
“I don’t know why I’m here,” Lauri said.
The woman opened her eyes again. “Whadaya mean you don’t know?”
“Well, I shouldn’t be in here,” Lauri said.
“Honey, nobody should be in here. I’m Val, by the way. I shouldn’t be in here, either.”
“What did they mess up and arrest you for?” Lauri asked.
“Oh, just because I shouldn’t be in here doesn’t mean I didn’t do it.”
“Do what?”
Val narrowed her eyes. “Took a baseball bat to my ex-husband’s truck.”
“How come?”
“It was my truck, but the bastard got it in the divorce. I loved that truck, did all the work on it myself. I’ll be damned if he hauls his new little piece of ass around in it.”
“Huh,” Lauri said, not understanding why anyone would love a pickup. Sounded like Val should have taken the baseball bat to her ex-husband.
“So? Whadabout you?”
She looked away. “They think I killed my boyfriend. Well, ex-boyfriend.”
Val whistled. “No shit?”
Lauri sighed. “No shit.”
“So what did he do to you?”
“Nothing. He didn’t do anything. We broke up a year ago. We’d been talking lately, but he had this new girlfriend …”
“Did you do it?”
“Of course not.”
“So why’d they arrest you?”
Lauri bit her lip. “Some stupid footprints I left under his window.”
“Under his window.”
“Yeah. His bedroom window. I looked in his window late one night, and suddenly they decide I must have shot him.”
“Shot him, huh. Wow.”
“I don’t even know how to shoot a gun—and I wanted to marry Clay. Just because it happened the same night I was there, they think
I did it. I mean, I’m the one who found him dead, right? I wouldn’t have done that if I’d killed him, would I?”
“Unless that’s what you want them to think.”
“Hey. Whose side are you on?” Lauri said.
“I’m just saying. And it’s what those cops upstairs are saying, too.”
“Well, nobody asked you.”
“Sensitive little thing, aren’t you?”
“Leave me alone.”
Val raised one eyebrow, and her expression turned hard. Without another word she resumed her horizontal position on the bench.
Lauri pulled her legs up and rested her chin on her knees. She was cold. She was scared. And she was getting really pissed off. The slick soles of her sandals wanted to slide off the bench. She took them off and cupped her fingers over her cold toes. What she wouldn’t give
for some warm socks and a pair of tennis shoes right now. And a sweatshirt. A nice fuzzy, snuggly sweatshirt. If her mom didn’t hurry up, she could freeze to death in here.
God, what a bunch of jerks the police were. Merry had warned her, and maybe she should have listened. Cousin Merry, poking around, asking her questions, handing out advice like she was some big sister or something.
Lauri had told her about Denny, after he’d bailed on the money he owed her. Owed her, damn it. Maybe Merry would get all high and mighty and get something out of him. Her cousin was like that: a girl version of a white knight. A sucker. Lauri could smell them a mile away. And prison had made her cousin tough, too. She bet that if Merry did talk to Denny, the guy would listen a lot harder than he had when she’d talked to him. Little creep.
Her thoughts swerved from anger at Denny to Clay as she’d last seen him. He’d been so still. It had frightened her, badly. She’d thought dead people were supposed to look like they were sleeping, but once she’d seen him in the light, Clay had looked dead. And not just because of all that blood, either. It was like he didn’t have any bones left, only skin holding in the soft parts he’d left behind.
The tears felt hot on her cold cheeks. She wiped them away.
Stop thinking about it. Just stop. Don’t think about the smell of blood that left a taste in the back of my throat like when Becky Ostler dared me to chew a piece of tinfoil in the fourth grade.
After a little while, Nadine brought in another woman. She had mascara circles like a raccoon around her bloodshot eyes, bits of dried grass sticking out of blonde curls in desperate need of combing, a dribble of yellow mustard down the front of her soiled white shirt. She staggered to the bench and sat next to Lauri, leaning against her arm and muttering under her breath.
And, oh, what breath it was. Dismayed, Lauri looked over at Val, who watched them with a small, enigmatic smile, ignoring the silent plea in her eyes. She edged away from her new companion, sliding off the bench as she propped the woman against the wall. As she stood, the woman leaned over and vomited on Lauri’s bare feet.
Lauri shrieked. Val grinned. Nadine came running. The woman stretched out along the bench and went to sleep, stuttering snores rising with her sour breath. Nadine took in the situation and left, to return with a roll of paper towels. She passed them through the bars, said she’d come back when she wasn’t so busy upstairs.
