Secrets for Sale Page 8

  I didn’t know who it was until Aiden whispered, “That’s Douglas Gates. He came to speak at our school.”

  Before Billy had a chance to say anything, another voice, so low we almost couldn’t hear it, said, “Or you’ll do what, Sheriff Madrigal?”

  “Or I’ll arrest all of you, that’s what!” said Billy.

  “You can’t do that!” said Anthony Petrelli. “True or true?”

  Billy laughed. “Of course I can do that! I’m the Sheriff!”

  Although Aiden giggled from the back seat, the whole affair scared me. One of those people on the council was probably the killer. And Billy was baiting them. I had just gotten married, and I didn’t want to be a widow.

  I wondered why the mayor hadn’t chimed in and then I heard his voice. “Sheriff Madrigal, you know you can’t do that. It will never stick.”

  “You’re right, mayor. It won’t stick. But I can still bring you all in for twenty-four hours for questioning and maybe leak to the press that I had to arrest all the High Council. You’ll all have a fun time living that one down.”

  “He can’t do that, can he, mayor?” asked Douglas Gates.

  I heard the door open and funny footsteps approach Billy, who sounded like he stood in front of the council. The footsteps were funny because it was two steps and a third—it was Wichita Wiggins and his cane. His voice boomed out next. “Of course he can do it! And I sanction his actions! What y’all are doing to that woman—do you know what it’s called? It’s called slander. And if the papers get hold of it and quote any of you or think they have quoted any of you, then it is libel. And you’re in a heap o’ trouble.

  “So, as your designated town attorney, I would advise you to drop the notion of firing Martha. There has been no malfeasance here, except the murder, which I have no reason to believe she is any more guilty—or innocent—than any of you.” After a hesitation he added, “Russell, make sure you get all this down.”

  There was a muffled response, and I heard grumbling on the council. I couldn’t distinguish any voices—it was all more like a jumble of disconnected words. They sounded angry.

  “And I’d like to advise you,” I heard Billy’s voice say, “that if you call this meeting to order at another time and this subject is revisited, I will carry out what I did not do tonight. But I will come to each of your businesses—after I call the newspaper—and arrest each and every one of you, handcuffs and all. Except for you, mayor, and that’s only because there is no way you could have done it. Although I could still bring you in for questioning.”

  “That’s a threat!” yelled Anthony Petrelli, and I could picture him shaking his fist in the air. He was an annoying little man who thought he was a big shot. “Am I right or am I right?”

  “No, you’re not right, Anthony. That’s a fact,” said Wichita.

  “Do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting?” asked the mayor.

  “I move that we adjourn the meeting,” said Elizabeth Conroy.

  “I second the motion,” said Douglas Gates.

  “Meeting adjourned,” said the mayor.

  Then I heard the jumble of disconnected words again and chairs moving across the floor. The meeting was adjourned.

  “One more thing, council,” said Billy. “I have arranged that Martha will take some time off, so she doesn’t have to hear any of these comments around town.”

  “She can’t leave town! She is still under suspicion like the rest of us! No matter what you think!” Anthony Petrelli said, and it sounded like he was right in Billy’s face. “And you know that’s true!”

  “She will not be leaving town, but she will be inaccessible. I’ll know where she is and Wichita will know where she is. Nobody else needs to know,” said Billy.

  “It sounds like you’re protecting her,” said Douglas Gates.

  “Yes! I’m protecting her from the likes of all of you! She is too nice a lady to hear all the rumors that all of you are spreading around town.”

  “I know we’ve already adjourned the meeting, but I think the rest of the council will agree with me, this is not a paid leave for Martha,” said the mayor.

  Billy sighed. I could even hear it in the phone. “It will be vacation time, mayor. And it might interest you to know that’s the first thing Martha said to me when I suggested her taking time off. ‘I won’t take paid leave. I’ll take vacation time.’ That’s the kind of woman you’re accusing of malfeasance.”

  “She’s still a suspect, though, right?” asked Elizabeth.

  “Yes, Elizabeth. She’s still a suspect. Just like you.” It sounded nasty, but I could tell that he had a smile in his voice. He must like Elizabeth, despite what happened at the meeting. “And if I find any kind of evidence that she is the perpetrator, I will haul her in just like the rest of you,” Billy said it to the room, not to one single person. I could tell by the projection in his voice.

  I heard many sets of footsteps filing out of the room, and Billy and Wichita were silent. Aiden whispered from the back seat, “Did he turn off the phone?”

  “I don’t think so. I didn’t hear it click.”

  “Thanks, Wichita, for coming tonight and supporting me,” said Billy.

  “Well, you and I know she didn’t do it, but she does need to stay on the suspect list. Where is she going to be?”

  “My new place—just inside town limits,” Billy said. Then we heard a click and the connection was cut off. We had heard what Billy wanted us to hear, and I appreciated him for that.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  DECIDING NOT TO wait for Billy to come out of the town offices, we drove home. Since Billy was talking to Wichita, he could be a while. Thinking over the conversation and drama I just heard, I didn’t know where Billy would start his investigation, but I knew where I would continue mine. And that would happen tomorrow.

  “Mommy?” Aiden asked before we got home. “Can we have pizza for dinner? I’m hungry.”

  “Sure, baby. Let’s wait for Daddy to get home.”

  “Mommy, he and Wichita could talk all night.” Aiden knew about Billy’s long-winded conversations with Wichita.

  I laughed. “You’re so right, Aiden. We’ll see when we get home.”

  It didn’t take long. We weren’t home five minutes before Billy arrived carrying a hot pizza. Sometimes, I swear, that man reads my mind.

  When we sat down to eat, between mouthfuls of pepperoni pizza, Billy asked, “So what did you think?”

  “I think you did something incredibly kind for Martha. But Billy, I also think you took a big risk for yourself.” I put my hand on his arm. “One of those people is probably the murderer, and you provoked him tonight.”

  “Yeah, Daddy,” Aiden piped in, “I don’t want to lose you. You’re the only Daddy I’ve ever known.”

  Billy put one hand out to me and one to Aiden and patted us both. “Don’t worry. I can take care of myself; and I had Wichita there to support me. It will be fine.”

  “I hope so,” I said. “So Martha will be at the new house with Hugo?”

  “Martha will be there alone for a few days. Hugo has to stay for some guests that have reservations at their bed and breakfast.”

  “Will Martha be okay out there all alone?”

  “Yeah, why not?”

  “Well, you know, that Charlie man. And his vicious dog.”

  “Oh, Lorry, you worry too much. Buck isn’t vicious, and he’s never out on his own. Uncle Charlie is fine. He’s very responsible. I’ve never known him to shirk any of his duties.”

  “I think he’s a drunk, Billy.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so. He used to be an alcoholic, but he’s been on the wagon for years.”

  “I know you didn’t notice, but I saw him weaving as he walked.”

  “Whatever,” said Billy, waving my worry away, “Martha will be fine out there.”

  “All right. I hope so.” Stuffing more pizza into my mouth, I nodded. “You going to take her out there tomorrow?”

&n
bsp; “Um, well, I was hoping you would.”

  Frowning, I began to say that I already had plans, but since I didn’t want Billy to know about them, I hesitated and said, “Sure.” I hoped that Billy heard the word more than my hesitation.

  “Great,” he said, more involved in eating the pizza than the details of the conversation. “You can call her tomorrow to arrange when to pick her up.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I said, wondering if I could leave Petra alone twice while I took Martha to the new house and proceeded with my investigation.Work had slowed down since all the excitement over the new exhibit. Still, Petra had her schoolwork to do. All I could do was ask and see what she said. So I ate another slice of pizza.

  For the rest of the evening, we didn’t talk about Martha or what happened at the meeting. We watched one of Aiden’s movies and discussed the new house. We made plans that I would start packing, but I still wasn’t willing to accept the notion of selling my wonderful gambrel house. That decision would have to wait until later. W had plenty of time and plenty of money, so it didn’t matter, anyway.

  When the movie finished, Aiden asked, “When can I ride the zebra, Dad?”

  Billy laughed. “Nobody rides Spot, Aiden. We’ll get you and your Mom—if she wants one—two good horses.”

  “Aiden should have a pony, not a horse. He’s only seven.”

  “No! I want a horse! I’m almost eight!”

  “You won’t be eight for six more months, Aiden,” I said.

  “You’ll have to talk to Uncle Charlie about the wisdom of getting a pony,” said Billy.

  “A horse is too big for him,” I said.

  “I want a horse!” said Aiden, who stuck out his lower lip and crossed his arms across his little chest. I’m not necessarily proud that he learned that from me, but on him, it looked cute.

  “We’ll discuss it after your mom talks to Uncle Charlie. He has a lot of connections and will come up with something good for the two of you.” He looked at me. “You want a horse, don’t you? You know, so we can all ride together.”

  I looked off into space thinking about horses and their connection to my trip to the Grand Canyon. And then I thought about the mules at the Grand Canyon and how my experience with horses had made me comfortable with them. So horses had been my key away from my abusive marriage to Eddie. They changed my life. A tear dribbled out of one of my eyes. I think it was the left one. It must have been, because Billy noticed it, and he was sitting to my left. Bingo, who was at my feet, looked up at me and whined.

  “Are you okay, Lorry? You don’t have to get a horse if you don’t want to.”

  I tried surreptitiously to wipe the tear away, although there was nothing surreptitious about it because Billy was looking straight at me. So I smiled to ease the fearful look he gave me. “I would love to have a horse,” I said. And I meant it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  THE FOLLOWING MORNING, I got to the office before Petra, which, while it wasn’t a first, was probably a second or third. She almost always arrived before me—already finished with work and engaged in her studying. So that surprised me.

  I called Martha and arranged to pick her up at ten o’clock. Since I didn’t think I’d be gone long, I thought Petra would be okay with it. She usually was. Whether I got to go on my other errand of investigating the murder didn’t matter as much as taking care of Martha and making sure she got settled in the new ranch house.

  At nine-fifteen, Petra stumbled in the door. Her eyes had that deer-in-the-headlights look, her make-up was smeared, her blouse untucked, and even one of her pierced earrings was missing. I’d never seen her like that. She staggered past me and past her office.

  “Petra? You okay?” I didn’t want to mention her looks, because she must have known. Maybe that’s why she was heading to the bathroom.

  “Yeah, fine,” I heard her say before she closed the door to the bathroom. Her voice sounded weird.

  A few minutes later, she walked—it sounded normal—back to her desk. I heard her sit down and turn on her computer.

  “Petra?” I asked. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah, fine. I’m fine. Perfectly fine.” Normally, she would say that with an edge to it because I annoyed her. This time, though, she said it in a flat monotone voice. I thought it sounded like when you asked people How are you? and even though they have a broken arm, they say fine from habit or something.

  “Um, I hate to ask this when you’re feeling stressed or whatever, but do you mind if I take off this morning for a while? I have to take Martha out to the new house. Billy wanted to protect her from all the rumors running around town. Do you mind?”

  “Yeah, yeah, sure. Take your time. I wouldn’t mind being alone all day today. You have anything else to do? Just do it. It hasn’t been busy, and I’m fine. Really fine.”

  She didn’t sound fine at all. Her voice didn’t have her usual spark in it, though it sounded sincere. Kind of. And besides, I wanted to do that other errand. Looking back on this, I should have paid more attention.

  “Okay, thanks. I appreciate that. I’ll get back when I get back.” I don’t think she heard the thanks or the other comment, because I heard her whispering into her phone. She usually talked that way to Mason. It must be him.

  Petra said nothing else. A while later, I could hear the keys of her computer clacking away, so I figured she must be working and back to normal. I hoped she had tucked in her blouse, but I didn’t think I should ask.

  While I was waiting to go pick up Martha, an idea that had been rumbling around in my brain occurred to me, so I placed a call to Bryan O’Keefe, my attorney. I had met Bryan a few months earlier when I was accused of murder. The exact place where I met him—I’m more than embarrassed to say—was in the holding cell at the Sheriff’s station where Billy had put me. Although we weren’t married then or even dating, it still wasn’t a great memory. Bryan had been great, and now we were all great friends. Bryan and his partner, Ryan, sometimes babysat for Aiden when Billy and I had our rare night out. Bryan didn’t answer the phone, so I left a message for him to call me back.

  Just before I had to leave to pick up Martha, the front door jingled and opened, and in walked Zack James with a concerned look on his face.

  “Lorry!” He smiled and hugged me.

  The first time I met Zack, he was in jail, and I was talking to him through a computer set-up at the Coyote Moon jail. He was a former juvenile delinquent who I had somehow extricated from his jail cell by my astute observation of detail. At least that’s how I’d put it. Billy would put it another way. Zack was grateful just the same. “How are you, kiddo?” I asked when we pulled apart from the hug.

  “Doing great, Lorry, thanks to you.” After they released him from jail, he cleaned up his act, got a job cleaning the local post office, and took college classes in the evening. Then, one of his professors was so impressed that he got him a computer job, and Zack quit the post office. His life was improving in leaps and bounds, and he thought he owed it all to me. He didn’t, and I kept trying to tell him that, but he liked to attribute his success to me. Zack says I believed in him which made him believe in himself.

  “How’s your new job? You miss the post office?”

  “Hardly at all,” he smiled at me and poked me in the arm, but I could see he was inching his way toward Petra’s office.

  “Well, good to see you, Zack!”

  “Good to see you, too, Lorry.” And he was one speed short of running into the next room.

  I stood up to leave and as I walked out the door, I could see Petra in his arms, and he was comforting her. It looked like her shoulders were shaking, so she was either laughing or crying, and considering how she looked earlier, I figured it was crying.

  Although Zack had feelings for her since before jail, she only considered him a good friend. Mason was her tried-and-true boyfriend. But Mason lived in Flagstaff. Still, I didn’t know what this was about. I said nothing and closed the door softly behi
nd me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  MARTHA AND HUGO were lugging her suitcases out of the house when I arrived. I got out to help them put them into the back of my car. “Are you taking everything you own?” I joked.

  Martha and Hugo looked at each other and frowned. “We don’t know how long I’ll have to stay there,” said Martha.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Martha. I didn’t mean to joke. This is serious, isn’t it?”

  Hugo put his arm around Martha. “We’ve never been apart for more than a day,” he said, blinking away the tears that wanted to pour from his eyes.

  Martha turned, gave Hugo a big hug, kissed him on the mouth, and said, “Let’s go. I can’t stand this.” She walked to the passenger side of the car where she pulled a tissue out of her purse and blew her nose.

  “I’m sorry, Hugo.” I hugged him.

  “Not your fault, Lorry. It’s the town’s people. What I don’t understand is how they could think my Martha could do that.”

  “What I think happened, Hugo, is the killer started the rumor, and everyone else picked up on it. Once Billy finds the killer, everything will be put right again.”

  “I hope so. I hate this,” said Hugo.

  Then Martha honked the horn in my car, and when we looked over at her, she raised her hands palm upwards. That wasn’t anything like Martha would normally do. She must really feel stressed. And who could blame her?

  I noticed that Bingo, who had been sitting in the passenger seat, had climbed onto Martha’s lap and was licking her chin. That dog knows when he’s needed.

  After kissing Hugo on the cheek, I opened the door of the car, slid in, and started it. “Sorry, Martha.”

  “I’m sorry, Lorry. I’m so stressed over this ridiculous situation. And I even had a feeling that Billy didn’t want me to get away from town to protect me from the rumors but to protect me. That scares me. What if the bad person doesn’t realize I’m not at home now? What if he sets fire to our house or something?”