Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 02 - Apple Pots and Funeral Plots (3 page)

Chapter 3

When I woke up, the sky had darkened. How long had I been out? I wondered.
My head
pounded
and Shelby was licking my hand.

“It’s okay, girl.”
I patted her on the head and she barked.

“What the hell happened?”
I asked
Shelby
.
She barked again.

My forehead felt sticky, so I pulled the rearview mirror toward me, reached over and switched on the overhead light, and looked at my head.
Oh yeah, it was blood.
A two-inch cut adorned the right side of my forehead.
At least it didn’t appear to be bleeding anymore.
It’s the upshot of owning an older car - no airbags.
Although you never get your chest crushed, you do occasionally knock yourself out by hitting your head on the steering wheel.

I felt my arms, thighs, neck, and back.
Nothing appeared to be broken, but every muscle in my body hurt.
And I couldn’t move my legs.
They were pinned under the dashboard.
Obviously, I’d done more than slip into a ditch.
I must have hit something that crushed the front of my car.
My door wouldn’t open no matter how hard I pushed.
Shelby
danced around in the seat and barked
.

“Great.
You have to go the bathroom, don’t you girl?”

She barked again.
I unhooked her from her harness attached to the passenger seatbelt.

“Well, try your door.
Mine’s stuck.”

She barked again.

I unhooked my seatbelt, leaned over, and stretched my hand toward the passenger door.
Even though I could touch it, I couldn’t push it open.
Shelby continued to turn around in her seat and bark.
Great, we were stuck and pretty soon it
would
smell like urine in the car.
Shelby didn’t have the biggest of bladders.
When she needed to go, she went.
That’s when I heard a voice and saw a flashlight coming toward me.

I rolled down my window and shouted, “Help!
I’m stuck.”

The first face I saw belonged to a young man with facial acne and flaming red hair.
He was a welcome sight.

“What happened, lady?”

What kind of question was that?
Wasn’t it obvious?
But I just answered honestly, “I don’t know.”

A teenage girl was the next face I saw.
She had long blond hair, a beautiful complexion, and weighed maybe a hundred pounds.
If she weren’t here to help me, I’d have hated her immediately.
“She’s been in an accident, stupid,” she said to the boy.

He crossed his arms and bellowed, “I’m not stupid!”

The girl shook her head and looked back at me.
“Hi, my name is Kate and my stupid friend over there is Ted.”

“I’m Liza.”
I pointed to my legs.
“And I’m stuck.”

Shelby
barked again.

“And my dog has got to go to the bathroom.”

“Ted, see if you can open that other door and let her dog out.”

I picked up
Shelby
’s leash from the seat and handed it to Kate.
“Keep this on her if you get the door open.
I don’t want to lose her.”

“No problem.”
Kate took the leash and threw it over the car to Ted.

Ted had to yank several times on the door, but it finally opened.
He hooked Shelby on the leash and took her out.
She went directly to a tree and peed.

“Can you call someone to get me out of here?”
I asked Kate.

“Already done,
Liza
.
My dad runs the local tow truck service.
He’s on his way.
Do you need an ambulance?”

“I don’t think so.”
I felt my arms and legs again.
“Everything seems to be okay.
I have a cut on my forehead, but it’s not bleeding anymore, so it’s fine.
I’m just stuck.”

Then my phone rang.
Kate and I glanced at it.
It kept ringing.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“It’s got to be my boyfriend, Tom.”
I shook my head and smiled weakly, “He has an uncanny way of knowing when I’m in trouble.”

Kate laughed.
“Just tell him you’re fine.”

“Good idea.”
I opened the phone.
“Hello.”

“Hi, honey.
How’s it going?”

“Fine.”

“Have you gotten to Clainsworth, yet?”

“No, not quite.
But I’m almost there.”
Well, it was the truth, right?

“How was the drive?”

“Uneventful.”

“That’s your favorite word these days.”

“Yes and it’s so true.”
I laughed lightly.
“My life is pretty uneventful.”

I saw the lights from the tow truck.
“I’ve got to go.
I’m almost into the town.
How about I call you when I get settled in my hotel?”

“Sounds great, honey.
I look forward to your call.”

“Talk to you soon.”
I closed the phone.

Kate smiled.
“Sometimes it’s just better if they don’t know, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”
I sighed deeply.

A large man wearing brown overalls with, “Bill’s Towing Service” embroidered across the front, came up to the car.
He was probably ten years older than me with dark black hair tucked under a baseball cap.
His face was round and accented with bright green eyes that glistened in the moonlight.

“Are you okay, Ma’am?”

“I’m fine and not old enough to be called Ma’am.
My name is Liza and I appreciate you coming out and getting me out of my car.”
I stuck my hand out the window toward him.

He shook my hand.
“I’m Bill, and I’ll be glad to get you out.”
He stood back and looked at my car.
“But I think your car is totaled.”

“It was time to buy a new one anyway.”

“Good attitude.”
He winked at me.

“Stop flirting, Dad, and get her out,” Kate said, obviously the boss around here.

Bill blushed and left.
Ted came back with Shelby, who jumped back into the car and licked my face.
I patted her on the head and she lay down, taking her shotgun position again.

Kate pointed to the harness.
“It’s a good thing you keep her hooked up.
She probably would have gone flying through the windshield without it.
Most people don’t follow the safety rules about dogs in cars.”

“I’m a big rule follower.”

“Teacher?” she asked.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Well, they tend to be big rule followers but it was your bumper sticker.”
She pointed toward the back of the car.

“Oh yeah, ‘If you can read this, thank a teacher.’
Guess I’ll have to get a new one.”

“Go with something sexier.
I’ve seen ones that say ‘If you can read this, kiss a teacher.’”
She laughed.

I laughed with her.
A few minutes later her dad was back with some kind of huge metal tool.
He stuck it under my dash and pumped it up.
In another minute or so, Bill
pulled
me out of my car.

I stumbled when I tried to stand up and Bill grabbed me.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes.”
I stood up straight and leaned against my car.
The sides were crushed and the hood was smashed.
In fact, there was only about a foot left to the front of my car.
Bill was right; my car was a distant memory.

“Here’s what caused the accident,” Bill called from the back of my car.

I joined him.
“What?”

“Looks like you blew your back left tire, probably on one of the many potholes in our great roads.
Then, you crossed over to the other side and rolled down into one of our massive irrigation ditches.”
He pointed to the front of my car.
“That wouldn’t have been too bad, but the front of your car struck a huge cement block that someone must have tossed into the ditch.
It’s probably left over from a road job.”

“Great.”
I shook my head.
“Have you got a car rental place in town?”

Bill chuckled.
“It’s not that big of a town.”

“She can always use Kate’s car,” Ted said, sarcastically.

I glanced from Ted to Kate.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t use your car.”

She glanced at Ted, frowned and then to her dad.
“I’m grounded for two weeks.
I won’t be driving it.”

Bill nodded.
“That’s right, and if you sneak out after you say you’ve gone to bed again, I’ll sell it to Liza.”

Kate’s eyes widened.
“I’ll never do it again, I promise.”
She grabbed her dad’s arm and smiled up at him.

“Good girl.”
He patted her head.
“That’s what your dear old dad wants to hear.”

“Well, I’m not sure about the car,” I said.
“But I could use a ride into town.
Can you tow my car in, too?”

“No problem.
How about I take you and the kids into town and I’ll come back tomorrow morning and get the car?”

“That’s great.”
Out of the backseat I grabbed my two bags, one with my clothes and the other with
Shelby
’s food and our treats.

As we walked up and out of the ditch, I glanced back at my car.
I used my first teaching paycheck to make the down payment on that used VW.
It had served me well for the last ten years, but now it was time to move on.

We all piled into the cab of the tow truck.
It was a tight fit.
Shelby sat on my lap and Kate sat on Ted’s.
He was the only one who looked happy.

Bill looked at Ted and frowned.
“Do you want me to take you home?”

“No, Kate and I were walking from my house into town to get some pizza.”
He smiled at Kate.
“Are we still going?”

“Of course.”

Bill shook his head.
“Nothing stops my daughter and her stomach.”

Just then my stomach
growled
.
Everyone looked at me.
Bill laughed, “I guess your stomach needs filling up, too.”

“I am kind of hungry.
I ate lunch, but that was hours ago.”

“Well, how about I drop your stuff at the Motor Inn and then take you all for pizza?”
Bill suggested.

“How did you know that I’m staying at the Motor Inn?”
I asked.

He patted
Shelby
on the head.
“It’s the only place that takes dogs.”

I wanted to add that it was where Danielle Slammers was killed too, but didn’t.
I just nodded and glanced out the window.
All of the local businesses were closed and dark as we drove into town.
From what I could see, the fronts of the businesses looked freshly painted and their names were illuminated with brightly colored neon signs.
Although the streets were deserted, they looked neat and clean.

Kate noticed my looking around and let out a huge sigh. “Yep, they roll up the streets in Clainsworth around five every day.”

“Except for festival nights,” Ted added.

“Is that why you’re here?”
Bill asked.

“No.
I didn’t even know about the festival.”

“Then why the hell would you come to Clainsworth?”
Kate asked and then quickly caught her dad’s disapproving eye.
She grinned.
“Sorry, Dad.”

He shook his head.
“You and your mouth, young lady.”

Just then we pulled up to the Motor Inn.
It looked newly painted, too, and the parking lot contained fewer potholes than the highway.
Luckily, I never needed to answer the question of why I came to Clainsworth.
Things were looking up.
Kate and Ted got out and let Shelby and me out of the truck.

“The pizza parlor’s just two blocks down from the inn.
Are you coming?”
Bill asked.
Kate started giggling until her dad stared at her.
She rolled her eyes and then smiled at me.