Merry Wives of Maggody (26 page)

He was a lot more handsome than Bopeep’s typical boyfriends, most of whom were covered with tattoos and scars. His eyes were brown and ringed with lashes, his face slightly round, his hair curly; he would still be carded at bars when he was thirty.

Or forty.

“You did some time at the state prison,” I said.

“Yeah, I sold a little pot to the wrong person. My bad.”

He obviously wasn’t going to spill his life story without prodding.

I’d once interrogated a suspect in a murder for nineteen hours. By the time the guy shut his mouth, I knew everything about his parents, teachers, disappointing birthdays, phobias, pets—and where he buried the body. I wasn’t sure it was worth it.

“You’re a veteran, right?” I asked.

“I enlisted in the army after I graduated from high school. Damn stupid thing to do, but I was all pumped up with the idea of going into battle. I did four years and quit. My last lady friend kicked me out, so I accepted Bopeep’s invitation.” He took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket but put it away when I shook my head.

“Have you ever played golf before?”

“I used to fool around some, but there aren’t any putting greens at the prison farm. Do you reckon that’s cruel and unusual punishment?”

“Right up there with torture. Write your congressman. Did you play a practice round on Friday?”

“No, I was too busy trying to find a place to sleep. Bopeep dumped all my clothes and stuff outside the trailer and told me to stick a golf club someplace that sounds damn uncomfortable. I’d played the course a couple of times after Earl mowed. Snakes all over the place. I didn’t see any reason to risk my life until it mattered.”

“Did you notice the marijuana plants in the rough?” I asked.

“I can’t say I did, but I believe you. Raz is a real nature lover, roaming all over Cotter’s Ridge, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. ’Shine, anyway.”

The pot was the least of my woes. “You were at the party Friday night, I’m assuming, and again last night. Lots of anger aimed at Tommy, and lots of beer. Tell me about the shoot-out at the stoplight.”

He lay across the bed and propped his head on his bent arm.

“Everybody tried to keep their voices low, so they were hissing at each other like geese. The redhead was griping about how childish it was and on and on. Jim Bob came damn close to making a divot in the pavement. It may have been on purpose, since it was Ridner’s driver. Jeremiah was bent over double behind the motel sign. There was so much confusion that it took an hour for everybody to take a shot. after Ridner hit the stoplight, it got real nasty. I decided to go sleep in a shack on Cotter’s Ridge.”

“What about Natalie Hotz?”

“She was a little unsteady on her feet, so I walked her to the door of her room. My mama taught me to look after ladies in distress.”

He grinned at me. “You feeling any distress, Chief Hanks?”

“Then you headed for the shack?”

“Took me half the night to find it in the dark. This morning I took a shower at Roy’s, and then he drove me to the golf course. Do you think it’ll be okay if I take a nap here? I don’t want to get on Ruby Bee’s bad side.”

“Neither do I,” I said as I left.

Twelve

I
knocked again on the Gilberts’ door, and this time Amanda opened it. She was wearing a T-shirt and had a towel wrapped around her head. Her face was damp. My rigorous training at the police academy led me to theorize that she’d been in the shower.

“May I come in?” I said. “I’d like to ask you and your husband some questions.”

“Sure, but Dennis isn’t here. He went for a walk, although I have no idea where. He’s been brooding about Tommy’s death. They were friends for a long time, all the way back to elementary school. Like brothers, I guess.”

I sat down on the corner of the bed. “Did that put a strain on your marriage?”

“It bothered Tommy when Dennis and I got married two years ago. He sulked for months because Dennis wasn’t as eager to play poker in the locker room half the night, or drink beer and watch football. Tommy ran a business during the day, but at five o’clock he turned into a frat boy. I thought he was crude and boorish, but I put up with him for Dennis’s sake.”

“How did you and Dennis meet?”

“At a media conference in Dallas. His station sent him. At the time, I produced a local morning talk show about fashion and wardrobe tips. Dennis and I ended up at the hotel bar, having drinks. Our relationship took off from there. Three months later I cheerfully quit my job and moved to Farberville.” She studied my light blue shirt. “Let’s go shopping the next time you’re in town. You’ll look much better in earth tones. Sage green, cranberry, pumpkin, colors like that.”

“Someone might nibble on me,” I said, smiling. If she was willing to feign friendliness, I was willing to reciprocate—as long as she didn’t pull out a suitcase filled with Barbie dolls and tiny accessories. “Are you a golfer?”

“Good heavens, no. I find it incredibly boring, but occasionally I force myself to ride around the course in a cart when Dennis can’t find a partner. I try my best to stay awake when he tells me about every single shot on all eighteen holes. I have no idea why golfers find that so fascinating. Most of the time I don’t even know what he’s talking about. I mean, mulligans and doglegs and birdies?” She rolled her eyes for my benefit. “They sound like soup ingredients.”

“But not very good soup. Do you accompany Dennis to all the golf tournaments?”

“I enjoy them, as long as there’s a decent bar in the club house and parties in the evening.” She wrinkled her nose. “This place isn’t at all what I anticipated, and now we’re stuck here another day. Dennis feels like he should be doing something about Tommy, but he’s helpless until we get back to Farberville. I’m already planning a tasteful memorial ser vice at the club. What do we do about the body?”

“I’ll give you the medical examiner’s number,” I said, “but he’ll have to tell you the procedure. It probably depends on locating Tommy’s next of kin.”

Amanda took a carry-on bag out of the closet. I held my breath until she pulled out a silver flask. “This is my emergency stash, and now’s definitely the time. I can’t think straight. Want a drink? It’s a cognac.”

“No thanks.” I waited until she’d poured herself several inches.

“I need to ask you about a bet between Dennis and Tommy. It concerns the tournament.”

“That silly thing?” She laughed as she sat in a chair and crossed her legs. “How on earth did you hear about it? No, let me think. We were at the club…” Her eyes narrowed as she took a sip of cognac. “Janna Coulter. Tommy said something about seeing Natalie at the first tee, and Janna never lets her stray too far. She told you, right? Janna has absolutely no sense of humor. The kindest thing I can say about her is that she’s single-minded, in every sense.”

“The source doesn’t matter. It’s my understanding that the bet was based on whether or not Tommy made a hole-in-one. If he lost, he had to pay Dennis a sum of money. If he won, then your, uh, sexual cooperation was the payoff.” I felt myself blushing, but Amanda didn’t so much as blink.

“Tommy was trying to needle me, that’s all. I pretended to be outraged and stomped out of the room like a diva. Dennis admitted later that they’d joked about it a little longer, but that was the end of it. I accepted his apology and bought myself a pair of Manolo Blahnik stiletto heels in Tulsa the next day. I have no idea why you think it was anything more than juvenile blustering.”

“Maybe,” I said, “but it does give either you or Dennis a motive to kill Tommy.”

Amanda put down the cup and began to towel-dry her hair.

“Give me a break. I just explained that this so-called bet was a farce. Dennis totally forgot about it until he saw the credit card statement. The shoes were expensive.” She peered at me through auburn straggles. “Even if there was a bet, I can assure you that they knew I had no intention of honoring it. I love my husband, Chief Hanks, but not enough to debase myself. I survived an ugly divorce in my twenties. I worked days and went to night classes to get a degree in communications, and I did it without anyone’s help. Do I sound like the sort of woman who’d allow herself to be sold to the highest bidder?”

I thought this over while she poured herself another shot of cognac. From what I’d been told, she’d been drinking since ten o’clock in the morning, first at the golf course, then in Proodle’s room, and now in her motel room. She appeared to be sober and articulate, but practiced drinkers could be sly.

“after Tommy won the stoplight pool,” I said, “you and your husband lingered behind with him. What happened?”

“Nothing,” she said as she shook her tangled mass of hair.

“Tommy asked Dennis if he knew anything about hooking up a boat trailer. They talked about it for a few minutes, then Tommy invited us to go sit in his stupid boat. It’s like he was the center of his own universe, so what ever made him happy was supposed to make everybody else happy, too. He was walking down the road when Dennis and I left.”

“Did you see anyone lurking, maybe behind the motel sign or next to the bar?”

“It was dark and we were exhausted,” she began, then hesitated. “You ought to ask Natalie Hotz. She and Tommy were awfully cozy this weekend, like sweet peas in a pod. I’ve been wondering about the two of them since a tournament last year at Hilton Head. I heard rumors they played nine holes in the moonlight.”

I tucked the gossip in the back of my mind for further consideration.

“Do you have any idea when Dennis will be back?”

“I don’t even know where he went. Some of us were having a drink in Phil’s room when Dennis just got up and left. I came here to wash the stench of smoke out of my hair. I was getting ready to take a nap when you knocked.”

“You’re not worried about him?”

“Not at all. He was this way after his mother died last year. Depressed, but not suicidal or anything like that. There was one thing. He wasn’t talking much, but he kept glancing around the room at people’s faces. All of a sudden he got this weird expression, like he’d come up with an idea. I tried to follow him, but I had to fend off Jim Bob. By the time I got outside, Dennis was gone.”

“Do you think he suspected someone?” I asked.

“You’ll have to ask him yourself. I’ll tell him to call you. Is there anything else, Chief Hanks? I have a splitting headache, and I need to lie down.”

I couldn’t think of anything, so I went out to the parking lot between the two buildings. Janna’s car was parked in front of number three, and the Wassons’ car in front of number four. Tommy’s car, the Gilberts’ car, and Phil Proodle’s car were in their respective places. Dennis’s whereabouts were unknown, but I could sympathize with his need to be alone to deal with his grief.

I left my car in front of Ruby Bee’s and walked to the PD, zigzagging between puddles. Roy had gone inside, I noted. Since the husbands were still outcasts, they could be in his back room plotting how to win the bass boat. They couldn’t write the test answers on their palms or hide crib sheets under their shirt cuffs.

No one was playing by himself, and each hole had a monitor as well. Mrs. Jim Bob was a pain in the ass, but she wasn’t stupid.

I, on the other hand, was feeling stupider than a flour beetle.

What could have occurred to Dennis in Proodle’s room? I hadn’t really seen who all had been there. Even if Dennis had an epiphany, it could have been provoked by an absence as easily as a presence. If Amanda had told me the truth. There was no reason to assume she had, since no one else had bothered to.

I was doodling on my pad and dreaming about pineapple upside-down cake when Les called.

“Got a good one for you,” he said. “The license plate number you gave me indicates the car belongs to Rosalie Wicket. Mrs. Wicket lives in a nursing home in Yazoo City, Mississippi. I called over there, and whoever I talked to said that Mrs. Wicket is in her mid-nineties, has outlived three husbands, wanders the halls wearing nothing but pearls, and lusts after Mr. Abelmeister, who resides across the hall and still has his teeth. She swears she doesn’t own a car.”

“But she does,” I said, perplexed. “It’s parked in Mrs. Jim Bob’s garage. I sat in it, for pity’s sake. Mrs. Wicket may be senile, but I’m not.” Or so I hoped. “It was a Mississippi plate. Maybe I got the number mixed up.”

“Chrysler Imperial Crown Coupe, right? That’s Mrs. Wicket’s car, whether or not she knows it. I couldn’t get much more out of the nurse’s aide, except that Mrs. Wicket hasn’t had a visitor in the ten years the aide’s been working at the Sunset Valley Retirement Home. If you want to call Yazoo City, have at it. I’m going home.”

I found the page with my notes from the interviews with Frederick and added the information about Mrs. Wicket. The car had not been reported stolen or totaled in an accident, so I had to presume that Mrs. Wicket had simply forgotten about it. If there was an explanation, Frederick hadn’t volunteered it.

I reread my notes on Kale and Kathleen Wasson. I had a fairly good idea about what Kale had been doing, which was partying like a deranged debutante. His mother was oddly unaware of this, either because she was delusional or because she was profoundly unintelligent. The previous night he’d been in the bar, and afterward in front of Ruby Bee’s trying to shatter the stoplight. Hadn’t she noticed the empty bed?

As for Kale, I had yet to take his statement. I wondered if there might be something between him and Natalie. In public, she snubbed him, but it could be a ruse. They might have been alone Friday night, which would explain her disarray when she got back to the motel room. Kathleen would have lied to give him an alibi.

And then lied about the previous night—even though she knew there were witnesses? Amanda had implied that Natalie and Tommy were overly familiar. If Kale was besotted with Natalie, he had a motive to kill Tommy. Chivalry and/or jealousy, for starters.

So did Janna. So did everybody in Maggody. Everybody in the county, for all I knew.

I couldn’t revisit the scene of the crime, since it was behind locked doors in Farberville. I wasn’t in the mood to scramble all over Cotter’s Ridge to find Dennis. The only thing that I wanted to do was settle back and take a nap.