Body Brace (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 10)

by Patricia McLinn

  “Does that mean Clara knew he was already dead or—” Mike broke off and looked past me. “Jennifer. At last.”

  I twisted around to see my front door opening.

  “What happened at the pharmacy? Did you get ahold of someone at Fort Phil Kearny about—?”

  She broke in. “There’s bigger news than that. Jolie Graf and her husband are at the sheriff’s department. I saw them going in.”

  On the screen Mike flopped back on his couch. “They got there before us.”

  “Had to happen sometime.” Diana had the solace that it would make her honey happy. For the rest of us, this was all downside.

  “Twice in a row. Luther Tipton and now this.” Jennifer patted Shadow on her way to a seat. “It stinks.”

  “Don’t give up yet.” Only peripherally aware of it, I started a new Free Cell game.

  “You have something in mind?” Mike lifted his head and peered through the screen.

  “Nothing concrete. I just… I keep thinking about what Penny said about teaching a man to fish.”

  Mike straightened. “Hey, I looked that up. Did you know it’s not from the Bible? Some people say it’s an old Native American saying or an old Chinese saying or an old somewhere else saying, but there’s no evidence. Articles said the concept had been around, but the actual saying, with fish and teaching, is traced to an author — the daughter of William Thackeray — in the 1800s.”

  “What does teaching a man to fish have to do with any of this?” Jennifer demanded. “Isn’t it pretty darned clear the sheriff’s department thinks Palmer was messing around with Jolie, Kamden found out, and killed him.”

  “Unless Willa found out and wanted revenge even though they’re divorced.” Mike said.

  “I would never murder a woman who was my romantic rival. What’s the point?” Diana said.

  “In general, it’s considered that the point is to remove the competition.” I won the Free Cell game and started another.

  “That’s stupid. A woman who shoots the other woman is simply making more work for herself.”

  Jennifer said, “Explain that, Diana.”

  “It’s the Penny Czylinski school of he-done-me-wrong. If you shoot the woman, the guy’s hungry the next day, just like a man you give a fish. But if you shoot the guy, you get to the root of the problem, like teaching a man to fish.”

  She appeared to conclude we hadn’t followed her explanation. I thought we were all trying to process Diana — Diana — saying this.

  “A man who cheats will cheat again. A woman who determines that shooting the other woman is her solution to a serial cheating man, will need to shoot the next woman and the next and the next. It becomes monotonous. Better to fix the problem permanently.”

  I muttered, “Can’t wait to tell Russ Conrad this theory of yours.”

  “Mine and Penny’s. He’s heard it from me already.”

  “In relation to this case?”

  “No.”

  Mike whistled. “Way to warn the sheriff he better treat you right.”

  “Yeah, but can we get back to this thing?” Jennifer keeping us on the straight and narrow — or trying to get us onto it. Impressive. “The Grafs are at the sheriff’s department. Does that mean everything’s over or doesn’t it?”

  “It doesn’t.” I forestalled three open mouths by saying, “First, Jennifer, did you get anything from Fort Phil Kearny?”

  “Yes. There was a guy on the roster, roll call, whatever spelled R-E-N-E-N-T. He’s listed as a deserter.”

  “What? What’s this about?” Mike asked.

  After explaining to him and Diana about the Miners’ Camp Fight survivors account referring to the deserter Wren — “Or Ren, short for Rennant,” Jennifer said — I added, “Yet another Rennant ancestor not showering himself with glory. This explains Palmer’s attitude about the reenactment.”

  “And meshes with Russell Teague hating how his ancestors are viewed. Two of a kind.”

  “Yup. Now, Jennifer, what happened at the pharmacy?”

  “Nothing thrilling. Nadine Hulte came in — the guy behind the counter called her Nadine, so no great detective work there. She asked about poison ivy. He looked at her wrist, said she had it, sold her some goop, she left.

  “She went into the liquor store nearby. I stayed in my car in case she’d seen me in the pharmacy. Guy came out and put a box in the truck for her and she had a couple bags. Then she went to the museum.

  “You said to see if she was being followed — I mean by someone more than me. She was. That new deputy just down from O’Hara Hill. Stayed in the car — unmarked, like you said. He never noticed me. When she went to the museum, he peeled off. I figured we knew where she was for a while, so I followed him.

  “Went right to the sheriff’s department. That’s when I saw Jolie and Kamden Graf going inside with Richard and Shelton.”

  “Nice work.” We all praised her.

  “Okay, Elizabeth, talk,” Diana ordered. “We know you figured out what was bothering you because you stopped playing Free Cell, so share.”

  I looked down, and she was right — I’d turned off my laptop.

  She was also right that what was bugging me had surfaced up to the level of forming words.

  “For starters, I don’t think Rennant’s possible cheating is a strong motive for Willa. A really good divorce settlement, a new house, good relationship with her kids, sprucing herself up, doing social things, getting involved in the community. That all sounds like a woman moving on with her life. Not one angsting over her ex.”

  Diana tipped her head, staring at the top of a picture frame, before bringing her gaze slowly down to me. “I agree.”

  “Plus, why be upset over Jolie when she wasn’t about Clara or Vicky or Rosalee or Connie before them?” Jennifer asked.

  I heard Vicky’s voice saying it had been months and months since she’d dated Rennant. Which made some sense for why she wouldn’t talk to me.

  Jolie Graf didn’t have that reason. Why was she so scared to talk?

  “Willa’s not out completely, right?” Mike asked.

  “Nobody is. But there’s something else. Why didn’t Penny tell us Palmer was having an affair with Jolie?”

  “Penny rarely tells us anything.”

  “I don’t agree, Mike. She tells us lots. She just masks it amid a lot of other stuff we’re not interested in.” I reconsidered that. “Not at the top of our current interest, anyway. But she—”

  “Elizabeth? You’re frowning.”

  It took me a couple beats to respond to Diana.

  I started slowly. “Penny didn’t tell us or hint or toss in pieces about Jolie and Palmer.” My word train picked up. “She didn’t include anything — I’m sure Mike and I didn’t miss it — about them having an affair.” I jerked upright. “Because they didn’t have one.” Into the silence, I repeated, “No affair between Jolie and Palmer. Never happened.”

  “But there was so much talk. All the rumors…” Diana stopped her own words.

  I nodded at her. “What you said about the rumors being weird, people not believing them. Rumors can be wrong. And I think Penny actually did tell us. Mike, remember what she said about good for the goose, good for the gander?”

  “How could I? You had me muted.”

  “You could hear, you dope. I just didn’t want you talking.”

  “I’m a highly paid professional. What I have to say is—”

  “I want to hear Elizabeth,” Jennifer interrupted.

  “All right, all right. Yes, I remember the goose and the gander.”

  “But then she added in theory, that is.”

  “What does that mean? Is this more to do with fishing?” Jennifer asked.

  “Sort of. Maybe. If Penny was talking about Jolie and Kamden as the goose and gander, that would mean Jolie was fooling around on him, the way he fools around on her. But add in theory and what do you have?”

  “That she wasn’t fooling around,” Diana s
aid.

  “Exactly. Also, when Penny listed the women Palmer dated, she never mentioned Jolie. Not once.”

  “But the rumors. They came from somewhere,” Jennifer protested.

  “What if they came from Jolie. To try to make her husband jealous?”

  It was so clear to me. I looked from the two faces in the room to the one on the screen.

  “The woman has practically starved herself to death trying to get his attention. You should have seen her today at Teague’s ranch, clinging to him. And think of all the rumors circulating about him cheating on her — at their wedding, for heaven’s sake. She had to know. She had to.

  “She finally tried to do something about it by spreading rumors to make him jealous. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Rennant dated a number of women, one after the other. That made it more believable — though all the others were single. But Jolie probably didn’t recognize that in his pattern.”

  Diana nodded. “It explains the contradictory vibes I picked up.”

  “With Penny never including her, I’ll buy it,” Mike said.

  “So, now what?” Jennifer asked.

  “We go to the sheriff’s department. Because now,” I said with a bit of triumph, “we’ve got something to get our foot in the door.”

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  I was trying to not listen to Jennifer, on the phone in the back seat, schmooze with a hacker pal when a familiar figure came out the back of the sheriff’s department building.

  I swatted the air toward the back seat, not taking my gaze off our quarry. “Shelton.”

  “Gotta go, Dirt.” Yes, Dirt was the guy’s nickname. I did not want to know why.

  Diana, in the front passenger seat, was already on alert.

  I stopped Jennifer from opening her door with a gesture. “Let him get closer. So he can’t duck back in.”

  “Ah,” she breathed.

  “Now.”

  Shelton swore as we emerged simultaneously. “You three. Go to the front desk where the rest of your kind are supposed to be.”

  “We’re not here to learn what you’ve found out, Sergeant. We’re here to share something we’ve found out.”

  And get our foot in the door.

  * * * *

  It took considerably more finagling to get from a foot in the door to our entire selves in the observation room.

  The sheriff’s department had gone high tech under Sheriff Conrad, with video in the two interview rooms and screens for each in this cubbyhole. One screen showed Kamden Graf looking peeved. The other showed Jolie weeping.

  I was holding out to be in on the interview before I told Shelton my blinding insight. I hadn’t made much headway when Diana gave me her be reasonable look and I decided to try that.

  “Get them in one room together,” I said.

  Shelton scowled.

  “They’re dancing around, not giving you anything, right?”

  The scowl intensified.

  “Jolie thinks her husband has a motive, is terrified he did it, and is determined to protect him to the end.

  “Kamden, on the other hand, knows he doesn’t have a motive and he can’t figure out why on earth you’d think he might, so he’s bobbing and weaving trying to figure out what’s going on, while you’re not telling him because you’re trying to worm a confession out of him that he’ll never give.”

  “You’re saying because he didn’t do it?”

  “No. I don’t know if he did it. What I’m saying is he wouldn’t have done it for the reason Jolie thinks he might have and has you thinking he might have.”

  The scowl brought his brows even lower and his face darkened, at the same time light gleamed in his eyes, like a sunset just at the horizon with a universe of boiling black clouds above it.

  What he said was, “You saying you don’t know who did it. I like that.”

  I ignored that, thanks to Diana’s elbow in my side. “Put them in one room together. Tell her husband in front of her that she thinks he killed Palmer Rennant because Jolie was having an affair with Rennant and see what happens. What do you have to lose?”

  Shelton and his scowl left the room with no indication if the clouds or the line of sunshine would prevail.

  Diana, Jennifer, and I looked at each other to see if one of us had a blinding insight into what Shelton would do. Heck, we even resorted to looking at Lloyd Sampson, who looked back blankly.

  It was three minutes before Richard Alvaro escorted Jolie out of her room.

  At almost the same time, the other screen showed the door to Kamden’s room open and Shelton walk in with a hold on Jolie Graf’s arm. Alvaro entered behind them, closing the door and taking up a stance on the opposite side of the table.

  “Oh, Kamden. Oh, darling—”

  Jolie dove toward her husband, but Shelton retained hold her one arm. Her feet still near Shelton, she tipped against his hold, her free arm reaching, imploringly, toward Kamden. They looked like the beginning of the clunkiest pairs skating death spiral ever.

  Kamden shrank away.

  Safe in the separate room, Jennifer and I chuckled. Diana sucked in her cheeks. Sampson made a sound.

  Shelton never broke. He did glare toward the camera, which stopped Sampson’s sound.

  “Jolie, stand up.” He accompanied the order by drawing back her arm, tipping her upright. “Kamden, move your chair down.”

  The man complied with an enthusiasm that left him almost against the far wall. One-handed, Shelton set a chair for Jolie on the same side, but nearer the door.

  Presumably, Alvaro could get across the table to get between them if necessary. Just in case, Shelton sat at the end of the table, with a clear shot at Jolie.

  “Okay. It’s time we get things straight here,” Shelton started. “There’s talk around town that could give you two motives for killing Palmer Rennant.”

  “Me? I don’t—” Kamden got in first.

  “That’s—”

  “Quiet.” Shelton’s word carried the day. “We’re clearing that up right now.” He looked down the table at Kamden. “You have a motive because Jolie was having an affair with Palmer.”

  “But—” Jolie started.

  Shelton’s stop-sign hand nearly clipped her in the nose.

  Kamden looked like he was having a hard time comprehending the words.

  “You think I— Me? You think I did that? No way. I didn’t kill him. Why on earth would you think that?

  “Like I said. Talk about him and your wife.”

  “Because she was having an affair with him? I wouldn’t—”

  Jolie burst out, “But I wasn’t Kamden — I wasn’t. There was nothing between Palmer and me. I’m so sorry. So desperately, desperately sorry. It was a terrible idea to make you jealous. I know I shouldn’t have. I should have trusted you. I was so miserable, so unsure and I thought if you saw that you could lose me… But I never thought you’d react this way or I swear — I swear I wouldn’t have let people think Palmer and I were… you know. I never meant the rumors to drive you to such desperate action. I never thought you’d kill Palmer.”

  “I didn’t. Had no reason on earth to kill the man.”

  “But— But—”

  Over Jolie’s protests, Shelton addressed Kamden. “Did you hear those rumors about Jolie and Palmer?”

  “I heard a little. Didn’t think it was true. Seemed too good to be true, you know? Get—”

  “What? What?” Jolie screeched.

  “—her off my hands, like. Give her something else to think about.”

  “You scum-sucking, stinking pile of—”

  She had more energy than I’d expected.

  “Quiet.” Shelton cracked his whip again. “I want yes or no answers from you two. Jolie did you start the rumors that you were having an affair with Palmer Rennant.”

  “Well, an affair…”

  “Yes or no?”

  “Yes.”

  “Were you having an affair with him?”<
br />
  “No.”

  “Less than an affair, but still having relations with him?”

  “No.”

  “Okay. Now, Kamden, did you hear the rumors?”

  “Yeah. I guess. Didn’t—”

  “Did you act on those rumors?”

  “Uh, did I… Huh?”

  “Did you kill Palmer Rennant?”

  “No. I been telling you and telling you that. No. And if you’ve been thinking I would have because of rumors him and her were doing the dirty, I’m here to tell you, no way.”

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  “You should have seen it, Mike.” Jennifer was exultant, trying to tell him everything at once about Jolie and Kamden Graf. “Elizabeth and Diana were like this one-two punch right to Shelton’s chin. And it went exactly the way Elizabeth told him, but better. It was as good as the play in Chicago.”

  “But those are real people,” Diana reminded her quietly.

  Mike asked, “But did Kamden know she wasn’t having an affair? If not, if he thought she was, even though she wasn’t, he had a motive.”

  “He didn’t care. So he had no motive.” With a glance toward Diana, Jennifer added. “That’s sad for her. But she’ll be better off without him. She has to be.”

  “No motive for Jolie, either,” Diana said. “She wanted Palmer alive to try to make her husband jealous.”

  “Two suspects down. Where does that leave us?”

  Mike sure knew how to deflate a mood.

  Like chemicals sitting next to each other with no problem until a catalyst starts a chain reaction, those bits and pieces were back cascading through my brain. Facts, observations, and snatches of conversation jostling each other. I grabbed some as they floated by.

  Otto’s dog Devil scratching the passenger door and the front door.

  Connie didn’t know who came after her.

  The watch.

  Rennant’s truck parked at the side of the porch instead of in front.

  Poison ivy.

  Why the butte and when.

  Pillow talk with a different pillow.

  Mary Ferguson.

  “Mary Ferguson,” I said aloud. “And a catalyst.”