Saving Allegheny Green (24 page)

A huge lump formed in my throat. It was an emotional day. Hell, it had been an emotional two and a half weeks. Had only seventeen days passed since that night Sissy shot Rocky in our garage? So many things had changed, it seemed like a lifetime ago.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered. “The deputies were looking everywhere for you.”

She reached out and took my hand. “I know.” She smiled shyly at the priest. “Frank brought me home. I came to tell you what had happened with Rocky. I was ready to face the music.”

“Face the music? But you didn’t kill Rocky.” I frowned, confused.

“No,” Sissy said, “but I was involved in something else. I needed your help. I needed your advice.”

“But you weren’t here,” Mama chimed in.

“I’m sorry,” I interrupted. “I should have been here for you guys.”

“No, don’t apologize, let me finish. I had to call the police,” Mama continued, smiling. “I handled everything for Sissy.”

My mother’s pride in herself was unmistakable. She’d accomplished something important without any help from me. I was proud of her, too. When the rubber met the road, she’d come through.

“You did a great job, Mama.” I kissed her cheek.

“Thank you, dear.”

“Where have you been?” I asked Sissy.

“Hiding out in my church.” Father Turner stepped forward and offered me his hand. I shook it.

“You’ve been giving her sanctuary?”

“Yes.”

I turned to Sissy. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I couldn’t. Not until I could prove my innocence.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“Go ahead,” Father Frank urged.

“I’m not proud of what I did,” Sissy said. “But I’m the one who really found Rocky’s body, Ally, not you.”

“You already knew he was dead when I told you?”

“Uh-huh.” She took a deep breath. Father Frank squeezed her hand. “I knew Tim and Rocky were up to something illegal. Rocky owed Dooley Marchand three thousand for the demo record and Tim had gotten in deep gambling. Tim borrowed money from Dooley and couldn’t pay him. So he was performing sexual favors to pay off his debt, but I know he hated it.”

Ah, I thought. So Dooley Marchand was the blond man Tim’s neighbors had seen with him.

“Rocky asked Tim if he wanted to make a lot of cash and get Dooley off his back. Tim agreed. They targeted Reverend Swiggly for a blackmail scheme. Apparently, Darlene, who’s from Swiggly’s hometown in Louisiana, told Rocky he was gay. They plotted for Tim to have sex with Swiggly while Rocky would secretly videotape their liaison. Except no one expected Swiggly to get kinky with the autoerotic asphyxiation and accidentally kill Tim. But I didn’t know any of this until after I found the tape.”

“You’ve got a copy of the tape?”

Sissy nodded. “After I let Denny off at the house last Saturday night, I went back over to Rocky’s and found him dead. I panicked and I touched the belt around his neck. He’d told me that in case anything bad happened to him that he had hidden a tape and if I viewed it I’d know who to blackmail.” Sissy ducked her head. “I admit, I was going to go through with the
plan and blackmail whoever was on the tape and keep the money for myself.”

“What for?”

“I wanted to move out. Get a home for Denny and me.”

“Really?” I stared.

“Well, at first it was to get away from your bossiness. At least that’s what I told myself. But then I realized that as long as we stay here, I’m never going to grow up. I need to leave for my own growth.”

And I needed her to go for mine. Where had she acquired this sudden insight? I slanted a glance at Father Frank. He smiled and I had my answer. “So what happened next?”

“Rocky said he’d hidden the tape in a safe place but he was killed before he could tell me where. Then I remembered he’d had a videotape with him when we went to Tim’s funeral but that was the last I saw of it. I figured he’d stashed the tape somewhere in the church.”

“And that’s where I found her,” Father Frank said. “In the chapel, searching for the tape.”

“I didn’t tell Frank what I was doing of course. Not at first.” Sissy sent an adoring glance in the priest’s direction. “But he was so kind. He gave me something to eat, let me stay in his house, eventually I told him everything and he helped me to see that blackmail was the wrong answer. Together we searched for the tape and found it. When we watched it and saw who had killed Tim, we called the sheriff’s department and they told us Sheriff Conahegg had gone to Swiggly’s house. When we went over to Swiggly’s place and didn’t get an answer, we came here. Mama called the deputies.”

“Can I have a hug?” I asked, tugging off the now-damp blanket. I had some kind of green mucky seaweed stuff on my clothes, but Sissy didn’t seem to mind. She hugged me like she hadn’t hugged me in years.

“I was so scared,” she said. “So frightened. I was so scared that you were dead. That Swiggly had killed you.”

I put a hand on her shoulder and allowed her to cry. “It’s all right,” I said gruffly. I held her for the longest time, then a deputy came up to us.

“Miss…” He spoke to Sissy. “Would you like to come with me? We need your full statement.”

“Where’s Sheriff Conahegg?” I asked the fresh-faced officer.

“He’s out front by the ambulance but he’s refusing to go to the hospital.”

“What?” I said. “Let me at the old goat.”

“Ally,” Mama said.

“Uh-huh?’

“Can I talk to you a minute?”

I wanted nothing more than to go to Conahegg but I couldn’t ignore the change in my mother. “Sure.”

“You know,” Mama said, “Tessa and I have been talking. We think it’s about time we got our own place, too.”

I swallowed hard. “You mean leave the river?”

Mama touched my cheek. “You’re the one who loves it, daughter. It’s your home. Not mine. It really hasn’t been since your father died.”

“You mean I’ll be living there alone?” Turns out I wasn’t going to have to kick my family out. They were jumping ship on me. Honestly? It felt as if Atlas’s boulder had rolled from my shoulders.

“We’ll just be moving into Cloverleaf. Not far. Tessa’s been eyeing a cute little house on Lee Street.”

“How long have you been planning a move?”

Mama shrugged. “Since you met Sam. We figured as long as we were living here that you’d never have a life of your own. Sam’s the right man for you. Ung told Tessa.”

I stared at her, mouth open. It was a conspiracy, a plot.

“Go see about him,” Mama said. “If anyone ever needed you, it’s Sam.”

“He doesn’t need me! He doesn’t need anyone.”

“Oh yes he does. He’s too stubborn for his own good and you’re the only one I know stubborn enough to challenge him. Go, daughter.”

“Okay, I’ll go.” Mama, Tessa and Ung might be certain that Conahegg was the man for me, but I wasn’t so sure. Regardless, I stalked up the hill, trekked through the Swigglys’ pristine palace and out the front door to the ambulance. Conahegg was leaning against the hood looking pretty tired, but when he saw me his face lit up.

“What’s this about you refusing to go to the hospital?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t refuse to go to the hospital, I refused to go in an ambulance.”

“How are you planning on getting there then, smart guy?”

“You’re going to take me.”

“I am?”

“Yes.”

“Do you really think that’s wise? You’ve got a bullet in your shoulder.”

“The paramedics packed the wound. I won’t bleed all over your car. Besides, I’ve had worse.”

“I’ll bet. You scared the life out of me. When I saw you floating facedown in the water I was sure you were dead.”

“Did you miss me?” He quirked a corner of his lip upward.

“Yeah,” I said gruffly. “I kinda did.”

“I want to talk to you, Ally. Alone.”

My heart kicked.

A patrol car went by with Gloria Swiggly in the backseat. Forlornly, she pressed her face against the window and stared at us.

Conahegg shook his head. “Sad case.”

“What’s going to happen to her?”

“All we have is the confession she gave us. The evidence is flimsy. Swiggly’s rich. She could walk.”

“What about Swiggly? He did kill Tim.”

“Accidentally.”

We stared at each other a moment.

“Sheriff—” one of the paramedics came up to us “—if you’re not going to ride in the ambulance, we’re going to leave and get the preacher to the hospital.”

Conahegg nodded and stepped away from the ambulance. He swayed a little on his feet. I slipped my arm around his waist and pulled him close. It felt right.

Later in my Honda, I looked over at him. He had the passenger seat shoved back as far as it would go, his long legs still bent high, his neck lolling against the headrest. His eyes were closed.

“Are you going to be all right, Conahegg?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice on an even keel while a million different emotions slipped through my veins.

“Don’t you think it’s about time you started calling me Sam,” he asked, opening one eye.

“Why should I do that and ruin a perfectly good adversarial relationship?”

“Because we
are
married.”

I raised a finger. The thought of being married to Conahegg was the stuff of fantasies, but I wasn’t going to let him in on my secret. No sense in further inflating that ego of his.

“We didn’t have a marriage license,” I pointed out. “Sorry to disappoint you, but it isn’t legal, even if Swiggly is a preacher.”

“But it was a good ploy to buy time.” He closed his eyes again. “You’ve got to admit that.”

“Yes,” I conceded. “It was a stroke of genius. Good thing it worked.”

“We’re a pretty good team,” he murmured.

“You didn’t think so in the beginning.”

We did make a good team. So good it was scary. Almost as scary as the new emotions overtaking me. Even though we’d been through a lot, had risked our lives, endured danger together, I couldn’t get over how alive I felt.

“That’s back when I thought you were a pretty, but nosy buttinsky,” he said.

“You think I’m pretty?”

“Come on, Ally, don’t play coy. It doesn’t suit you. Sissy, yes, but not you. You’re a damned fine-looking woman.”

I mulled this over, then cleared my throat. “I’m pleased to hear you’ve revised your opinion of my supposed nosiness.”

“Oh, I still think you’re a nosy buttinsky,” Conahegg said. “But a nosy buttinsky who knows what she’s talking about.”

“Thank you…er…I guess.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So tell me, what happened after you threw me in the water?”

“I dived for the boat keys and knocked Swiggly over. He grabbed the pistol.” Sam gestured at his shoulder with his left hand. “And he shot me for my troubles. I fell back into the water and decided it was a good idea to let them think I was dead.”

“Lucky thing it wasn’t Miss Gloria with the shotgun.”

“She was too busy shooting at you.” Conahegg sat up and looked me straight in the eye. “I swear, Ally, those were the worst moments of my life when I thought she might have hit you. You didn’t surface and you didn’t surface and you didn’t surface. I would have swum after you if I could have. I was dying not knowing what had happened to you.”

“I went to the caves like you told me.”

“And you found my hunting knife. I really liked that bloodthirsty look in your eyes when you dived under their boat, my
knife clenched between your teeth like Tarzan on a homicidal mission. You know,” he mused, “I like my wives bold and bloodthirsty.”

“We’re not married,” I insisted.

He grinned and winked.

What did he mean by that? And why was I getting a funny, fizzy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“And by the way,” I asked, “just how many bold and bloodthirsty wives
have
you had?”