Bowled Over (31 page)

“I guess I am,” Jaymie replied, as Hoppy jumped off the bench and danced around Kylie’s feet, begging for attention. “I didn’t know you two were involved in that way.”

“We weren’t until…well, until real recently.” She was uneasy, shifting from one foot to the other, looking back at the two fellows in her life.

“Recently? When?”

Hoppy gave up on getting attention from Kylie and drifted to the end of his leash, sniffing the railing at the boardwalk that overlooked the dock.

“It just…happened,” Kylie said softly, shrugging. She waved at Connor, who didn’t seem to notice.

“
When
did it happen?”

Kylie turned back and stared at her. “Why do you want to know?”

Jaymie couldn’t think of a single reason to insist, and maybe it wasn’t important. “Kylie, why don’t you sit for a minute?” she said, patting the seat of the bench. “I didn’t get a chance last time I saw you to really say how much I regretted missing so many years in Kathy’s life. You two had your problems, but were you close growing up?”

Her chin had firmed at Jaymie’s mention of her and her sister’s troubles. She didn’t sit. She glared down at Jaymie, her intensity unsettling. “Haven’t you disagreed with your sister over the years? If one of you had a kid, you’d know that just makes the disagreements more…I don’t know, more involved. Kathy thought I should be raising Connor one way, and I have my own opinions.”

“But she didn’t want you raising him at all, did she?”

“Look, as hard as it was that she was trying to take Connor away from me, I understood where she was coming from. In a way she did me a favor. It was a wake-up call, big-time. Her custody suit shocked me out of that awful blackness I was living in after Drew died. And then she forced me to take a good, hard look at how Connor and I were living, in that dirty, disgusting old farmhouse.” She looked off down the river, and a deep sigh escaped her.

“Kathy tried everything first,” she continued. “She tried to get Mama to let her put the farm up for sale and have someone come in and clean it, but Mama said no. She can’t
help it, I guess, but that farm is a big old millstone around all of our necks. She just won’t let go of it.” She shook her head, sadness in her eyes. “We can’t look after it, or at least I know
I
can’t. I tried to get Mama to sell it so we could all move into town and she could be more comfortable, but she wouldn’t budge. Anyway, because of Kathy and her custody suit, I ended up moving in with Andy, to give Connor a better environment. We started raising Connor together.” Again she looked back at the two of them, sitting together, Connor copying Andy’s sitting position and mannerisms, and her mouth softened into a smile. “Andy’s great; Connor may be his grandson, but he loves my boy as if he’s his own son.”

Jaymie pressed her advantage, now that she had Kylie talking. “But did you think Kathy would ultimately manage to take Connor away from you?”

“My lawyer didn’t think so,” Kylie said, her gaze settling back on Jaymie, her expression sober. “A year ago, maybe, but not now that I’m getting things straightened out.”

Jaymie watched her face. “Do you think Kathy would have been okay with you and Andy becoming a couple?”

Two red spots flared on Kylie’s cheeks, and she sucked in her breath. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her shorts and rocked back on her heels. “It wouldn’t have been any of her business.”

Jaymie was silent. She had hit a sore spot, talking about Kylie and Andy’s relationship. Maybe Kylie had worried about how Kathy would take it. On an impulse, Jaymie said, “Well, at least you won’t have to work as hard now, with the insurance Kathy left you.”

Kylie gasped. “How do you know about that?”

“Uh, I just…your mother said something about it when I went out to get the casserole dish.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying, but that money is for Connor, and it’ll all be there when he’s old enough to use it.”

“I wasn’t saying…Kylie, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean—”

“Just leave us alone,” the young mother said, whirling and stomping away.

Unfortunately, Jaymie hadn’t had a chance to ask where Kylie and Andy were the night of the murder. How did Connor get away from them?

The ferry came and went once, but Matt wasn’t on it. Jaymie watched Kylie, Connor and Andy for a while as they ate their early lunch together; Andy and Kylie eyed her on occasion. Finally he was done, and Kylie and her son departed. She was silent as the little boy stopped to play with Hoppy, who yapped and dashed about, making him laugh. As Jaymie tried to think of some way to ask how Connor got away from Kylie and Andy that fateful evening, the young woman pulled Connor away, saying she had to get some things at the Emporium for supper.

This time, when the ferry pulled up to dock, Matt Laskan was aboard. He was dressed in suit pants and a short-sleeve shirt, open at the throat, and he carried a briefcase. He waved to the ferry captain and began up the pathway to the boardwalk.

Jaymie rose, stretched and began to walk, slowly enough that he overtook her. She looked over at him as he passed, and said, “Oh, hi, Matt. How are you today?”

He looked up, a worried frown on his drawn face. “Oh. Hi, uh, Jaymie.”

She matched her footsteps to his and made small talk until they were away from the dock and could not be overheard. “You know, Matt,” she said. “I was surprised to learn about the real reason Kathy threatened you on the Fourth of July. I would never have pictured you as the kind of guy
who would end up in jail on assault and kidnapping charges.” It was a calculated risk, and his reaction was all she could have hoped for.

“How did you know about that?” he said, stopping dead in his tracks. “Who told you?”

She watched his face. “I didn’t know it was a
real
secret! Those things are a matter of public record. Though I suppose since it happened in Port Huron, nobody here would have a reason to know about it. Craig did, though, right? And he told Kathy? Is that how she found out?”

“No,” he muttered, looking around with a guilty frown. “Craig didn’t tell her anything. Kathy was digging around for dirt. She was an awful woman!”

“I’m so sorry,” Jaymie said, infusing sympathy into her tone. “It must have been infuriating, her holding it over you like that! To think she threatened to reveal it to your girlfriend!”

He stared at her, his eyes narrowed and his brows pinched together. There was silence for a long moment, and Hoppy whined, then tugged to the end of his leash and yapped at some gulls that were wheeling around above them, screeching.

“Why would Lily be concerned?” he finally said, blinking rapidly.

She watched him, trying to figure him out. Was he saying she wouldn’t have cared because their relationship was already over? Because she had moved on to Craig? What? “You don’t think she’d be concerned? Are you sure of that?” Hoppy got bored with barking at gulls and sniffed around Matt’s feet.

“Why are you talking to me about this?” He squared his shoulders and stared down at her, pushing Hoppy away gently with one foot. “What’s going on?”

“How did Kathy find out, if Craig didn’t tell her?”

He looked down at the dirt and scuffed his wingtip in the dust. “Kathy figured out somehow about my trips to Port Huron, and she followed me, the witch. I don’t know why she cared, but she did.”

“And she was using it against you? Using it as leverage in her campaign to move to Toledo and open a branch office?”

“Can you believe it? In this economy, she still thought
that
was a good idea!”

“I think she just wanted to move away from Queensville to get a fresh start. She intended to get custody of Connor. I suppose she needed you to go along with her plan, right, if she was going to convince Craig?”

“I just don’t know why she thought her feeble attempt at blackmail would work. Kathy was some kind of weird woman.”

“But Craig had other reasons for
not
wanting to move, right?” She watched him. Did he know about Craig and Lily?

But no hint of anger twisted his handsome face. “What do you mean?”

Okay, so he didn’t know about Lily cheating on him, but that only made it more likely that he would have killed Kathy, not less. If he had known, he surely would not have wanted to kill Kathy and leave the way open for Craig and Lily to be together. But she was wandering off the path. “Never mind. You really didn’t care if Lily found out about what happened in Port Huron?”

“Why would
she
care about it?”

Jaymie watched him, puzzled. His girlfriend wouldn’t care that he’d been accused of assaulting and trying to kidnap a prostitute? She was flustered and puzzled.

Matt shifted his briefcase to his other hand. “That was all just a misunderstanding. It’s in the past now.”

“Really? Are you still making trips into Port Huron?”

“That is none of your business!” he said. “Look, I gotta go. Lily said she’s washed those dishes and she’ll bring the picnic basket in to the store today or tomorrow. We’re having lunch at Ambrosio,” he said, naming a little bistro that had recently opened along the river just outside of Queensville.

“Oh. That’s nice.”

“I don’t know. She sounded down, and said she had something to tell me.” He looked into her eyes. “Do women
ever
mean anything good when they say they have something to tell you?”

She saw pain in his eyes, and fear. Gently, she answered, “Sometimes. Maybe she just needs to…I don’t know, go out of town or something.”

He shook his head. “It sounded serious. I gotta go, if I’m going to meet her.” He trotted off, briefcase swinging as he jogged.

It sounded like Lily was going to drop a bomb on him, either telling him about her and Craig or just breaking up with him. Jaymie walked to the Emporium, hoping to catch Valetta on her lunch break. She was in luck, and she sat on the front step as Valetta brought out a cup of tea.

“So, did you make any headway in finding out who was dressed up like Uncle Sam at the picnic?” she asked her inquisitive friend.

Valetta sighed and said, “Well, yes and no. I have seven names, but everyone agrees there were more like a dozen Uncle Sams and four or five Betsy Rosses.” She named everyone she had so far found out about, but not one of them was on the list of suspects. “The trouble is, we’ll never know
if we got them all. One of our suspects could have been dressed up at some point, and we’d never know.”

“Hmm. There’s got to be a way to figure this out! Did Johnny notice anything in particular about the Uncle Sam? Was the person short or tall, man or woman, pale complected, anything at
all
?”

Valetta shook her head in regret. “He said the person was a man, for sure, but he couldn’t say anything else.”

“That leaves us pretty much where we started, with Johnny’s uncorroborated story of handing the bowl to Uncle Sam. It would have been better if he hadn’t lied first and told us he’d put the bowl back on our table.”

“I know, but Johnny lies by instinct.”

That didn’t bode well for his court case, Jaymie thought, even if he was innocent. Lots of people lied, even when they didn’t do anything wrong, she guessed, but mature people didn’t. In the next moment she realized that, in all fairness, wasn’t true at all.
Everybody
lied, and one only had to look at the mess among Craig, Kathy, Lily and Matt to see dishonesty in action.

“I feel like I’m wandering around in circles,” Jaymie said. She told Valetta what she had written down and what she had seen that morning and what Kylie had said about her and Andy falling in love and just realizing it. “My problem is, I have no official reason to ask people these questions, and so I have to try to talk around it, and I never get the information I need. How did Andy and Kylie lose track of Connor during the fireworks? How does a three-year-old boy wander off in the dark and you don’t notice? That’s a sticking point for me, especially now that I know that Kylie is getting that huge insurance payout.”

“Can you see Kylie killing Kathy, though?”

Jaymie thought about it for a minute. “I just don’t know.
I keep wondering if Connor followed his mom, Kylie, when she went to meet Kathy. It’s one of the few explanations that makes sense.”

“But how would Kylie have gotten the bowl?”

“I don’t know. Could Andy Walker have been one of those dressed up as Uncle Sam later? You know, it would be pretty easy to go somewhere, slip on a tailcoat, wig, beard, hat and gloves, and wander around. What do you know about him?”

“Andy Walker? Let’s see…single dad, wife passed away about twenty years ago, when Drew was just seven or eight. He lived on a farm, then, but sold it and moved into town. I can’t say that I know a whole lot more about him, other than that he’s worked as a mechanic at the marina for years. Our paths haven’t crossed much.”

“Can you see him killing Kathy?”

“I wouldn’t have thought so,” Valetta said. “But I can’t see anyone killing
anyone
!”

“I know what you mean. It seems so barbaric.” She pondered the problem. “But there is one person we know who has been involved in a violent confrontation recently. I’m still puzzled as to why Matt Laskan wasn’t charged with the assault and attempted kidnapping he was arrested for. And why does he seem so relaxed about it? Do you know anyone who can find out anything about the charges and why they were dropped?”

Valetta thought about it. “Maybe. I’ll have to call in a favor.”

Jaymie stood and dusted off her butt as Hoppy pranced around in circles, waiting to continue their walk. “Okay. Are there any new picnic basket rentals today?”

“Not yet.”

“I’ll call you later and see if you found anything out.”

She headed home and did some cleaning and some
garden upkeep and then mowed the lawn. She confirmed the next reservation for Rose Tree Cottage—the last one before her parents’ two-week stay—and arranged for a plumber to check out the cottage drainage while the Leightons were there to oversee the work, then called Dee to confirm that she was going with them to the memorial service for Kathy Cooper. She spent an hour cleaning and organizing all the items she’d just bought at the thrift store in Wolverhampton. Valetta didn’t have any new information, Jaymie discovered, when she called her friend to check in.