Murder on the Ol' Bunions (A LaTisha Barnhart Mystery) (19 page)

My eyes were drawn to the doorway of room ten. I wanted to have a look. “You’re awful brave to let this be known.”

His chest rose as he straightened. “You’re going to tell, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “Think it’s only right, don’t you?” I pointed to the box at his feet. “I got another box of those in the car. Think you can be a good boy and fetch them for me?”

 
When he disappeared from sight, I edged down the hallway toward Dana’s room, checking through the window of the classrooms as I passed, all of them empty except for two teachers deep in conversation in one and a teacher replacing books on a shelf in another.

Teddy’s revelation disgusted me. How could Dana do such a thing? If there is one thing I value, it’s a good education. For someone in a career designed to help young people be the best they can be, I found Dana’s deed sickening.

I stopped at room ten, right before I got to the window. Some sixth sense demanded caution. I peeked around the edge of the window that gave a clear view of room ten and the people within.

Dana sat at her desk, her fingers dancing on the desktop. Sam stood in front of the desk, his wallet open.
Though I couldn’t hear her, she waved the wallet away and favored Sam with a serious expression.
Her pencil hovered over the grade book a second before she erased a spot and wrote something.

A huge grin split Sam’s face.

Dana dug around in her desk and slipped an envelope across its surface toward Sam. He took it and tucked it away in one of the many pockets in his jeans before turning toward the door.

I jerked back, turned, and hustled myself down that hall as fast as my legs could go. I tucked away my observation to share with the chief later.

I landed in Regina’s shop amidst a flow of babble, a few minutes late. No biggie. She had herself a full house and would probably be delighted not to have the added pressure of another patron showing up.

“Men are the worst.”

Lynn Crawford, resident loudmouth, had a whole bunch to say and she wasn’t squeamish about talking loud from her perch underneath the hairdryer. “Worse than babies, Madge, when they’re sick you might as well shut the house down. You’re not going to get anything done with them laying out in the middle of the living room moaning and groaning about how awful they feel.”

“Yeah.”

Then all eyes in the shop landed on Hardy, who slid even lower in his seat. The flash of sunlight on the door as it closed behind
me,
dragged the attention away from Hardy, to me. By the look of things, if I hadn’t come in when I had, another group glare might have had Hardy dripping right out onto the floor.

He jolted upright when he saw me and pleaded with his eyes for rescue.

“You all ganging up on my man?”
I smiled my words at the three women—Regina, noticeably absent from the group. Madge
Kendry
and Debra Zoe, along with Lynn, laughed.

“You came in the nick of time,” Madge said. “We had Hardy on the hot seat.”

Poor Hardy.
Sometimes Madge brought her husband with
her,
and only with Nick present would Hardy usually enter the salon.
Served him right for taking off without me.

Debra swept back her over-long bangs. “Regina said you were up for a new style. What are you going to have done?”

I ambled over to the chair next to Hardy and patted his knee as I sat down. “
Gonna
have my twists taken out. She’s
gonna
show me what to do. Wanted micro-breads but I’m not sure I’m up to handling all that hair.”

“
Shayna
sure looked good in them.” Madge said from her perch in Regina’s chair, pink cape in place, one side of her black hair trimmed, the other side untouched. She jerked her chin to indicate the back room. “Regina got a phone call. She was saying she was already behind.”

“I’m only due for a trim,” Debra spoke up. “Lynn just needs a brush out.”

“I’m powerful hungry,” Hardy whispered in my ear. “You
gonna
make me stay here the whole time? I’ve suffered enough.”

“You be still and wait. If Regina’s thinking it’ll be too long, I’ll reschedule.”

Madge leaned forward to make eye contact with Hardy. “Nick’s over at Mark’s if you want to wait for
LaTisha
there.”

Hardy shifted closer, his breath warm against my ear. “Oh,
they’s
all sugar and sweet cream to me now. Why didn’t you tell me how much they love to torment?”

“Why didn’t you just wait for me? And don’t even think about moving out of that chair. You twitch and I’ll strip off my pantyhose and tie you there.”

A soft gasp made me turn. All eyes were on the doorway of the backroom, where Regina stood, eyes puffy and red. Lynn turned off the hairdryer. Regina wiped moisture from her cheeks. “I’m sorry, ladies, I have to close shop.” Her voice caught and she cleared her throat on a sob. “Momma’s taken a turn for the worse. I need to get there.”

My heart churned in agony for the young woman.

Lynn slid the dryer into the upright position and began to pluck pins from her hair. “I’ll give myself a comb-out, Regina. You go on and get on the road.”

“And I can reschedule,” Debra offered as she crossed the room to embrace the younger woman. “I lost my own mother three months ago. You’ll let us know if there’s anything we can do?”

Regina nodded.

Lynn tossed the curlers into the bin Regina used and the pins into a drawer. She sent Regina an air kiss and left.

The rip of Velcro signaled Madge’s emancipation. “There’s worse than going around looking like a before-and-after
ad.
” She touched Regina’s shoulder. “Send Eloise our love, okay?”

By now, Regina’s tears had started to flow again. My mind ran the gamut, from disappointment over not being allowed to ask her questions, to concern for the girl, to the chief’s affection for the young woman. . .

The chief.

A plan formed in my mind as I grabbed Hardy’s hand and tugged him to his feet. “You come with us, Regina. We’ll get you over to your momma’s real
fast,
the chief will make sure of that.”

Only one thing almost quashed my ultimate plan to give Regina a chance to have some time with Chief Conrad.

Hardy.

We walked to the station and I went inside to explain the situation. It didn’t take much to convince the chief that now was a good time for him to go into Denver and check in with the state police. He could drop Regina off en route—since she was in no condition to drive
herself
anyhow. The chief acted like a small boy who just bought his first puppy. But when I followed him outside, Hardy stood at the passenger’s side door of the officer’s personal car (white with lots of antennas.) I sent Hardy eye-daggers and kept jerking my head to one side in hopes he would get the idea.

Chief blocked me from view as he greeted Regina and said something that reduced his tough-cop persona to that of silly putty. I stepped around Chief’s back and gave Hardy another head-jerk direction. He narrowed his eyes at me and looked concerned.

“Honey, you okay?”

Whatever drivel the chief had been driveling, both he and Regina turned their attention to me. I took a step back and grinned broadly at them.
“No, sweetie, just needing to talk to you a bit.
Privately.
In the back seat.”

Hardy swelled up like a bloated toad and winked at the chief. “Woman can’t get enough of me. Guess I better sit in the back.”

As smooth as butter, Chief gestured Regina toward the passenger side and pulled open the door.

I slung open the back door, spread my hand on Hardy’s head and squashed him onto the seat. “You’re so right, baby. You look so fine, I’m out of my mind.”

I slammed the door on Hardy’s murmured, “Amen.”

I rounded the back of the car as Chief went around the front. Our eyes met.

“Now play this thing smooth,” I counseled. “How ‘bout you let me ask the questions.”

“Do you think it’s a good time? Maybe we should wait.”

I shook my head. “Leave it to me.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed and he ducked into the car.

Regina remained quiet through the first thirty minutes, and I allowed her the time to regain her composure. My blood thrilled when I heard chief whisper across to Regina, “You okay? Your mother’s a lucky woman. You’ve cared for her with more loyalty than most kids would care for their parents.”

Regina
sniffed,
her profile showed the trembling of her lower lip. “She’s all I’ve got.”

I sat forward in the roomy car and patted her shoulder. “You’ve got a town full of people who love you and want what’s best for you. You’ll feel alone in your grief, but you won’t be alone in spirit.”

A tear trickled down Regina’s face as she edged sideways in her seat. A small smile curved her lips. “I really appreciate what a comfort you are to people,
LaTisha
.
To me.
You always make me smile.”

“She just makes me tired,” Hardy piped up from the back seat.

I cuffed him on his arm. “You keep your trap shut. Can’t say nothing nice, keep quiet.”

But it was too late. Chief chuckled and Regina smothered a laugh. Before I knew what was happening, Hardy joined in. A chuckle rose in my throat. “You all make me crazy.”

“Sorry,
LaTisha
, but you and Hardy are quite the couple.” Chief’s eyes smiled at me in the rearview mirror.

I slid my eyes over to Hardy. He flashed his gold tooth and winked.
“Loving her for thirty-seven years.
Every man should have himself a good woman.”

Chief sent Regina a guarded look, half hope, half begging. She didn’t seem to notice.

I struggled with how to get the conversation back on track so I could dump some questions on Regina.

“I wonder how it was between Marion and Mark. You have any ideas, Regina?”

“She complained about Mark a lot. They never married, you know.”

“Didn’t he come to town about the time you were involved in the mayoral campaign?”

Regina clasped her hands in her lap.
“No, not that I can recall.
He came later on.”

Chief met my gaze in the rearview mirror, pure torture in his eyes. “That was always a mystery to me—uh, I mean, what happened during that campaign and everything.”

“You’d think that money would have turned up somewhere," I added, flashing him an encouraging smile. "Guess whoever did it must have paid it back. That’s the only reason I can think the mayor might have dropped the whole incident like he did.”

“
LaTisha
and I were trying to remember just the other night
who
all was on that committee. Do you remember, Regina?” Hardy offered. “Wasn’t Marion on it? You think she stole the money?”

I kept a close eye on Regina. “Probably won’t ever know. What do you think,
Chief
”

“As a citizen. . .” he stuttered to a halt, his eyes darted to mine again. He cleared his throat. “Someone on the committee had to do it.” He turned his head to Regina. “You were involved in that campaign, what’s your take on it?”

She didn’t make eye contact with him. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought the woman was praying. My breath halted.

“Marion and I worked together. We weren’t really good friends.” She raised her eyes and caught Chief’s gaze, then glanced at me. Something snapped in the brown depths of her eyes.
A knowingness
.
A cautious flicker that said, I-don’t-know-if-I-can-trust-you.

“I don’t think Marion knew quite how to love, but we’re your friends, Regina.” Whatever prompted me to say that?

Regina faced forward again, eyes staring out the front windshield. Her sigh whispered through the car and Chief took one hand from the steering wheel and reached for Regina’s hand.

 
“It’s all in the past, Regina,” I said.

She nodded. “You all know, don’t you?”

“We guessed,” I said in a low, soothing voice. “What we don’t understand is that envelope you left on the counter at Marion’s shop.”

“I didn’t kill Marion, Chief” The knuckles of her hand holding his turned white. “You’ve got to believe me.”

Chapter Eighteen

As we rode along, Regina shared the whole story of the campaign funds. With composure and sadness she explained how her mother’s failing health had scared her.

“I knew mother’s sickness was getting beyond my ability to care for her. I had to get her in a home, and fast, but I didn’t have a lot of money and I hated the thought of putting her in the state’s answer to those too poor to afford alternatives. So I—” She sucked in a breath. “I directed some funds away from the campaign.” For the first time, she looked up, directly at the chief. “I fully planned on paying them back. I made that promise to myself.”

“But Marion discovered your secret,” I guessed.

Regina nodded, obviously miserable. “She threatened me. Called me a
thief,
and I guess I was, but I still knew I would pay them back. I told her that.”