“I do. If the caller meant to kill us earlier today, wouldn’t she have first tried to lure us into the woods so we were easy and convenient targets without a townful of potential witnesses? I mean, taking someone out on Main Street is pretty … hard-core criminal. It’s two separate people. I hate to say it, but that’s why we need to go to the river and meet with this informant. I want to go home. I miss Oscar. I miss Chablis. I know my emotions are all over the place.”
I gave her a one-armed hug, which was the best I could do in the car. “You have a right to be emotional.” I waited until she was looking into my eyes. “Cece is going back to Zinnia tomorrow or Ed’s going to scalp her. You can ride back with her. I’ll finish here.”
“No.” She had her jaw set and her lips in a pout.
“I can finish up this case. The most important thing you can do is take care of that baby.”
“And that is exactly why I’m not leaving. If I can’t pull my share of the duties, I’ll quit the agency.”
“Oh, no you won’t.” The very idea that she might quit upset me. There wouldn’t be a PI agency without Tinkie. If she quit, I wouldn’t be able to carry on alone, not even with all the help from Coleman and the deputies. Tinkie and I were a team.
“I don’t want to be deadweight on you.” Tinkie was about to cry.
“Yes. Especially not now that you’re soon going to weigh as much as a whale.” I said it very seriously. It took her a moment before she burst into laughter.
“You are awful.”
“Of course I am. That’s why you love me.”
“Let’s go to the river. If there’s evidence to exonerate Erik, let’s get it and then we can both go home. Or there is another possibility. Maybe someone is going to meet us to give us evidence against Erik. We just have to be prepared for anything.”
I eased the car into the sparse traffic. I had one more thing on my mind. “Listen, Tinkie, before you talk to Oscar, think about this. Oscar and Coleman are going to have a lot of questions for us when we get home. If they find out we were almost shot on the street, they’ll be determined to keep us safe.”
“Right. Coleman may need his handcuffs.”
I laughed, too, and we were off. We’d just make the deadline if I put the pedal to the metal.
* * *
The dirt road that led down the east side of the Escatawpa River was easy to spot and looked well traveled. I’d grown up swimming in creeks with my friends and our mothers. We didn’t consider it old-fashioned to take a hand-crank ice cream maker and take turns churning the custard my mother had cooked, or sinking watermelons in the cold creek water so that when it was time to cut them, they were sweet and icy. Those memories flooded back to me as we drove along the side of the amber river that was filled with beautiful white sandbars. The Escatawpa was one of the most beautiful small rivers I’d ever seen.
It was a little early for swimmers—the days were turning warm and sunny, but not enough to make a dip in the river tempting. In another month, the sandbars would be filled with people who’d come to enjoy the water.
The trees along the bank were pine and scrub oak, not the beautiful live oaks that had grown up in some places. Palmettos were scattered about in clumps. We rode with the top down, and the sunlight filtering through the trees was golden. From somewhere nearby the lemony scent of a magnolia in bloom came to me.
Around us was the chatter of small animals and birds. Squirrels darted across the road in front of the car, apparently on a suicide mission. Luckily I was going slow enough to easily dodge them.
“How much farther?” Tinkie asked.
The odometer showed we’d traveled a mile on the dirt road. We were exactly where we’d been told to be. I slowed to a stop. The woods seemed to be empty, except for us.
“I think we’ve been had,” I said. “This was a practical joke.”
“Let’s give it a minute. Maybe turn around so we’re headed out.”
I did as Tinkie instructed. When the Roadster was pointed toward the highway, I cut the engine and we settled into the seats to enjoy the serenity of the woods that surrounded us. It was a perfect spring day, too soon for the mosquitos or yellow flies that would hide in the woods during summer.
I turned the radio on and picked up a country station that was playing some oldies, tunes that dated back to my childhood, when I would watch my parents dance. They weren’t ballroom dancers, like Erik, but they were perfectly in tune with each other. They’d danced close, seeming to lose themselves in the music and each other.
After three songs, Tinkie had slumped in her seat, the sunshine falling softly across her face. In that instant, she looked so much like a child she almost broke my heart. She was about to give birth to her own child, and in the golden light of a spring day, she looked no older than fourteen.
The crackle of a stick made me turn my attention from Tinkie to the woods. The undergrowth beneath a large oak tree began to move and quiver. Someone was hiding under the tree, and he had a clear line of sight on us.
“Tinkie.” I’d slipped my gun under the front seat. I slowly reached down and grabbed it. “Tinkie.” She was sound asleep and I hated to disturb her, but I had to. “Tinkie, wake up but don’t move too fast.”
She slowly came awake and focused on my face. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s someone under that big oak.” As if to emphasize my words, the underbrush began to move again, and there was the crackle of another dead branch. “I can’t get a view of whoever it is.”
Tinkie played it cool and sat up straighter, using the side mirror to check for the intruder. She saw him. “I see the movement, but I don’t see who’s making it. They’re well hidden and have the advantage. We’re sitting ducks.”
We were. Yet I was loath to run away if someone was there to deliver evidence of Erik’s innocence to us. We’d agreed to the meetup place, but I hadn’t anticipated that the person we were to meet would be in hiding, watching us.
“It’s like one of those horror movies you watch. The Hills Have Eyes or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You know, the deranged backwoods family is hiding in the woods, ready to take us hostage to cut us up with a saw.”
I liked horror, but not that kind of mayhem. “Stop it.” She was giving me the willies. Tinkie had thrown me into a movie set where I didn’t see a part I wanted to play. “We’re waiting another two minutes. If someone has something for us, he can approach so we can watch him. Otherwise, we’re leaving.”
“Okay.”
We were both still staring at the bushes around the big oak when something crashed through the underbrush.
“Holy hell,” I said as a giant black boar came rushing out. It stood about four feet tall and had tusks that could gut a man. We were both so shocked that we didn’t move, and the hog bolted in the opposite direction.
“Damn,” Tinkie said. She hardly ever cursed, but we were both shaken. I was still holding the gun with one hand and my keys in the other when my cell phone rang. It was so loud in the quiet of the woods that I jumped clean out of the car seat, bumped the phone, and sent it flying under the front seat. Tinkie and I leaned down simultaneously, knocking heads with a definite bang.
“Damn,” we said in unison as a shot rang out and slammed into a tree on Tinkie’s side of the car. Had she been sitting up, her head would have been obliterated.
My reactions were swift and instinctive. I jammed the keys in, turned the car on, and hit the gas pedal. The little Roadster flew down the sandy road. “Where the hell did that shot come from?” Tinkie asked as I put everything I had into driving.
“I think it came from across the river. Someone was on the other side.”
“They ambushed us.”
“They did,” Tinkie said. She put a hand on my arm. “Only a few people knew we were coming here, to the river.”
She was right. The caller, whoever that was. Adam in the drugstore, who could have overheard our conversation. And no one else. Adam was a kid, completely
clueless. But he worked for Erik and would never think twice about Erik questioning him. “We’re going to find Erik, and we’re going to get some answers.”
“What the hell is going on with this case?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.” Being shot at twice in one day was way over the top.
20
Tinkie recovered the phone to discover that Cece had finally called us back. She’d saved our lives with her call, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. Not until after I’d kicked her butt for disappearing on us.
“Where have you been?” Tinkie made the call and she was as peeved as I was.
“Hans and I have been doing interviews, but I found some time to work on your case for you.”
“Really?” I wanted to hear what she had to say more than tell her about nearly getting shot … twice. When we made it to the highway, I turned west, toward Lucedale. When I was sure we’d evaded the shooter, I pulled over. “Tell Cece we’ll call her back in a minute.” I had to report the shooting to Sheriff Glory instantly. When Tinkie handed me her phone—mine was still under the car seat—I dialed Glory, put the phone on speaker, and filled her in on what had happened.
“You girls have stirred a hornet’s nest,” she said. “Any idea why?”
“No.” That was an honest answer.
“From what you say, the shooter had to be across the river on the Mississippi side, so it’s my jurisdiction. I’ll call the Mobile County sheriff’s department to take a look on the Alabama side to see if they can find any evidence.”
“Thanks, but I’m pretty sure there was nothing there but the boar.”
“No matter, we’ll check it out.”
I liked the way Glory thought. She and Coleman were on the same law-enforcement page. “Thanks.”
“I’ll give you a call if I find anything. Sarah Booth, I like you. I think you’re good at your job. But maybe you should consider going home and letting me handle these murders. I’m not out to get Erik. You have to know that, but he is the most viable suspect. The man can’t seem to help himself by staying put and having an alibi no matter how many times I warn him.”
She was right about that, and I was beginning to have some doubts of my own. Where Erik was concerned, Tinkie and I were no longer positive he was as innocent as we’d once thought. I wasn’t yet ready to confess to the sheriff that I thought my partner and I had been played, but it was a consideration I was entertaining. “We’ll think about it.”
“I’d rather see you home safe instead of bleeding on the side of the road. I get the sense this case has become … personal for you. It might also become fatal.”
She had a rather graphic way of making me see her point. And she’d hit the nail on the head. Two attempts at gunning me and Tinkie down made it seem mighty personal. But that didn’t make a lot of sense since neither one of us had ever met or known anyone from Lucedale until this weekend.
When I didn’t say anything, Glory continued. “I don’t normally share information with anyone outside my department, but you should know that Snaith came to me with video documentation of Erik prowling around his shop. Snaith said he was afraid for his life. I found Erik’s fingerprints on a window that someone tried to jimmy.”
Tinkie put a hand on my arm. Her face registered real alarm. “When was this video taken?” Tinkie asked.
“The night Patrice Pepperdine was poisoned.” She gave it a beat. “Does Erik have an alibi?”
“Erik hasn’t confirmed it, but I believe he was practicing with his dance partner, Ana Arguello, in Mobile.”
“Dance partner.” She chuckled. “Why didn’t he just say so?”
Because maybe it wasn’t true. That’s what I thought and Tinkie seemed to be on the same page, judging by her expression. “I’ll ask him. Maybe you should ask Ana. Tinkie and I plan on tracking her down.” I gave her the contact information Erik had given me.
“When I find Erik, he’s going to park it in jail.”
That might prove to be to Erik’s advantage since he couldn’t stay out of trouble. “Thanks, Glory. Gotta go,” I said. “Call if you need us.”
I hung up and glanced at Tinkie before I pulled back onto the four-lane highway. “I think we seriously have to consider our client may be guilty,” she said. “We’ve been looking for proof that he’s innocent. Now we just need to look for proof of the person who killed two people.”
I nodded. “Call Cece back and find out where she’s been.”
She got our friend back on the phone and put the question of her whereabouts to her. In a moment she hung up and turned to me. “She’s been with Hans. She has something important to tell us. She’s waiting at the B and B for us.”
“She couldn’t spill it over the phone?”
“She wouldn’t.” Tinkie’s frown spoke volumes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Cece didn’t sound right.”
“We’re about twenty minutes from the B and B. We’ll weasel the information out of her and find out what’s wrong.” If that Hans had done something to hurt my friend, I’d make him pay.
“Sarah Booth, I have a big favor to ask of you.”
Tinkie knew I’d do anything in my power that she asked. “Okay.”
“We can’t tell Oscar or Coleman that someone has tried to shoot us. Twice. Not until we’re safely home.”
“I kind of think we have to.” I had made a promise to myself that I would not lie, by commission or omission, to Coleman. In the past, I’d skirted the truth about the dangers Tinkie and I faced. The consequences had been grave. He knew my work could be dangerous, as was his. Lying wouldn’t change that fact but it would destroy the trust between us.
“No, we don’t.” Tinkie didn’t wait for me to respond. “Oscar is crazy protective since I got pregnant. Honestly, he barely lets me walk to the mailbox without him. If he finds out someone has shot at us twice, he’s going to blow a gasket. He’ll hire bodyguards and security and he’ll never let me leave the house.”
She wasn’t exaggerating. “Maybe, but at least you would be safe. I’m worried about you, too, Tinkie. In either of these incidents, you could have been killed, or the baby could have been hurt. Maybe it’s time for you to be swaddled in protective layers for the remainder of your pregnancy.”
“Don’t say that. Not even teasing me.”
One look at her face and I could tell she wasn’t kidding. “What is it?”
“For the last decade or so I’ve had to live with the knowledge that my body wasn’t capable of doing the basic act of reproduction.”
“Tinkie, you had a medical issue. You’ve always had all the right plumbing, but your Fallopian tubes were scarred. It’s not—”
“My body was scarred because of a decision I made. Oscar and I together. It almost ended my marriage, because I went along with him when it truly wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted that child. More than anything. But because of the way I was raised, I let him make the decision. The man ruled. That’s how I was taught.”
I knew how she’d been raised and she was right. Patriarchal to the core.
“For a long time I dreamed about my child, the one that I aborted. I would dream she was in the house or the yard. I would hear her singing and playing, always just out of sight. For a long time I stayed home alone each day, just to spend time with her. And I began to hate Oscar. Remember back to the time I hired you to check into Hamilton Garrett?”
I remembered. Her retainer for my services had saved Dahlia House and set me on the path of becoming a PI. “I do.” I’d also been a little shocked that Tinkie had a big enough interest in Hamilton’s past to pay me to vet him for her.
“I was going to have an affair with him. I’d given up on Oscar. I almost couldn’t stand to be in his presence.”
“Why didn’t you? Sleep with Hamilton?”
“It was so evident he was smitten by you. And in seeing that, I realized what a dangerous game I was playing. I had to accept what had happ
ened and forgive Oscar. But mostly I had to forgive myself.”
Tinkie had told me about the abortion and how hard it was for her not to be able to have children. She had viewed it as God’s punishment, which I certainly didn’t believe in. But I’d never realized how close to the rocks her marriage to Oscar had come. “The important thing is that you’re going to have a baby now. Your very own. And Oscar is more excited than you are, I think.”
“He’s ready now for a family. When it seemed we couldn’t have one, he really began to think about what that meant and what we’d never have. He matured a lot, and so have I.”
“Okay, but none of this has anything to do with keeping you safe.”
“Of course it does. Oscar has to trust me to keep myself and this baby safe. If he doesn’t, we’ll end up divorced. I can’t be smothered, and I know he’s going to try. Once the baby is here, it will ease up a lot. So I’m asking you, if you value my marriage, please don’t tell Coleman what happened. Not until we get home and you can make him understand that he can’t tell Oscar anything right now.”
She had amazing belief in my ability to convince Coleman to do anything. He was about as hardheaded as a Rocky Mountain boulder. But I had to try. My friend had asked for something that would cost me, but not to give it to her would cost her a whole lot more. “Okay. I won’t tell him. Until we get home.”
“Great!” Her whole demeanor changed. She pointed down the highway to the garish sign that touted the skills of Perry Slay, Esquire. A man now dead. “They should take that down.”
“For a whole lot of reasons,” I agreed.
21
Cece was waiting for us in the garden, which had just sprung to life with twinkle lights. She’d ordered a martini for me and a Virgin Mary for Tinkie. I was glad for the drink, and even more glad to see my friend. The glow she wore so well told me things were going great with Hans. Tinkie’s worries seemed unfounded.
“Ed wants you back in Zinnia,” I told her.
“I’m heading out tomorrow, early.”
The Devil's Bones Page 15
