Mudlark (33 page)

I said, "What did you do?"

He flushed. "I got mad. I wanted to hit Cleo, hit Annie. I wanted to kill them both."

I moved, and the chair creaked again.

He looked at me, pleading. "Just for a moment. I didn't, though. You've got to believe me. I wasn't
brought up that way, to raise my hand to a woman. So I walked off. I was pretty steamed. That's why I drank so
much when I got home."

Jay stood up and went to the fireplace. He poked the log and it flared into brightness. "I think you ought
to be telling this to your lawyer, McKay." He restored the poker to its place.

I said, "The problem is that his lawyer is Annie's lawyer."

Bob heaved a huge sigh. "That's it. You got it. I'm going to need a lawyer, but right now I want to talk
this out with somebody neutral."

Rob said, "Maybe Mr. Dodge is right, Dad. I know this guy in the public defender's office. He could
suggest a criminal lawyer."

"I called Quentin," Bob snapped. "He'll find somebody. Right now, I need to talk. I trust you,
Dodge."

Jay rubbed one shoulder on the mantel. "I'm not taking sides, Mr. McKay, and anything you tell me goes
straight to Dale Nelson."

"Good, that's what I want." Bob slammed his left hand on the arm of the couch. The coffee cup rattled.
"Annie's my wife. She'll have the best lawyer money can buy, but I'm not going to let her shove the blame onto
me."

"For Cleo Hagen's death?" Jay ruffled his mustache with one finger.

"For C1eo's death. I loved Cleo," Bob repeated, face red and earnest.

"Are you saying your alibi won't hold water?"

"My alibi is Annie's alibi."

Jay nodded. We were both nodding like Buddhas, looking wise. In fact, it hadn't occurred to me to turn
the alibi around. I didn't particularly like Annie, but she had substance and respectability. Bob didn't. I had
assumed she was covering for him.

Bob leaned forward, hands on his knees. "See, it was like this. Annie said I'd better have an alibi, in case
somebody talked about the date I had with Cleo. Annie said it was just like Cleo to get herself killed on a night
everybody knew I was going to be with her."

"Everybody didn't know," Jay said.

"It came out." Bob ducked his head. "Just the way Annie said it would. She told me she'd say we spent
the evening together at home, so we were ready when Nelson questioned us. We stuck to the story, even when he
found one of Cleo's hairs in the Blazer. That started me wondering, though. I usually drive the Blazer, but Cleo
didn't like it, hadn't ridden in it for months."

"Still, she had ridden in it."

"Yeah, but our handyman vacuums the cars every week."

"Even so--" Jay kept his eyes on Bob and his tone skeptical.

"I started worrying," Bob said doggedly. "When I left Cleo and Annie together, Annie was mad, but I
didn't want to believe she'd killed Cleo. I thought Tom had killed Cleo. I was sure of it." He sounded aggrieved, as if
Tom should have cooperated and confessed to the murder. "Annie said the police thought so, too. She has her
sources at the courthouse. The alibi would keep us out of the investigation. She said she didn't want a scandal.
Neither did I, and my brother Quentin sure as hell didn't."

"So you wanted to believe Tom killed Cleo, but you'd begun to have doubts."

"Yeah. And I kept racking my brain, trying to remember what time Annie came home that night. I asked
Robbie."

Rob cleared his throat. "Both cars were in the garage by the time I got in."

"Davis--that's the handyman--he may know when she came in," Bob said, "but Annie sent him
away."

Jay walked over and sat on the occasional chair. "You interest me. Where?"

"He's in Hawaii for another week. I told the police."

"Then Nelson will call Honolulu. He's thorough."

"Davis is on Molokai. Camping."

"Even so."

I shivered. I hoped the handyman was in Hawaii.

Jay said, "When did you and Annie decide to alibi each other?"

"Right away. I heard the news story, that Cleo was dead. I called Annie. She wouldn't talk then, but she
drove straight home. She said not to tell anybody, not even our lawyers, that I'd seen Cleo that night. She said she'd
back me up. She did, too. I kept reminding myself she was being generous."

Jay sighed. "Tell me something, McKay. What would you have done if they'd arrested your cousin?"

Bob blinked. "Tom?"

"He
is
your cousin, isn't he?"

He shifted. "Distant cousin."

"Well?"

He held out a hand, as if in supplication. "I thought he was guilty. I thought he'd done it."

"What made you change your mind?"

Bob leaned back. He looked baffled. "It was more like creeping doubts. I kept drinking. I drank a lot but
I drank at home, and I couldn't stop thinking about the hair they found in the Blazer. That and the fact that Annie
didn't raise her voice when she called Cleo all those names. Annie always goes real quiet when she's angry."

Jay said, "That's no kind of proof, Bob."

"I know it." He drew a long breath. "I think Annie killed Cleo on the beach. How I don't know, but Annie
could have done it. Maybe she used the jack handle, something like that."

Jay had said earlier that Cleo was killed with a piece of driftwood. I opened my mouth to speak and
closed it.

Bob went on, "She and Cleo were pretty much the same size, and Annie's strong. She plays killer tennis.
She could have murdered Cleo and driven the body up onto the dunes near Tom's house. The tide would have
washed some of the tread marks away, and Annie could have brushed away the rest. The Blazer's a four-wheeler,
you know."

"I used to own one," Jay interrupted. "Then what?"

"Then she could have driven home and cleaned the Blazer. And phoned that jerk, Johnson. I'd passed
out before midnight, and I don't remember much after I got home."

"Well, all of this is interesting speculation." Jay kept his eyes on Bob's face. "Let's say Annie could have
killed Cleo Hagen. That doesn't mean she did."

"I keep telling him that," Rob said.

Bob was shaking his head. "She's going to confess to the arson charge and offer to testify against me if
they'll do a deal. I can see it coming."

A silence followed. I was trying to imagine Annie killing Cleo. It had been easier to visualize Bob
smashing heads, but his earnestness was impressive in the flesh. And the fact that young Rob was sitting there
beside him, even if Rob didn't believe his mother was a murderer, said something about the father's character. And
maybe about Annie's.

I looked at the kid. He was pale and taut-faced. "What do you think, Rob?"

"She didn't do it. I mean I don't think she did it, but Dad deserves a fair hearing. I think everybody
should be fair." He sounded plaintive, almost childish.

Jay stood up. "There is a witness."

This was news to me. I stared at him.

"Unfortunately he's in a confused mental state right now."

Matt! My lips formed the name.

Jay shot me a warning glance.

I bit the name back.

He went on, "I don't think he saw the killing itself, though he may have. I think he did witness the
disposal of the body."

Bob leaned back and let out a long breath. "God, that's a relief. Who did you say it was?"

"I didn't say." Jay shot me another glance. "And I'm not going to. I need to call Dale Nelson."

Bob rose. "Will you tell him I'll be at home? I'll wait up until he contacts me."

Rob and I stood up, too. Bob held his hand out. After visible hesitation, Jay shook it. The McKays left
almost at once.

The door had barely closed on them when Clara burst from the kitchen, followed by Bonnie and
Tom.

"What happened?" Clara demanded. "Did he confess?"

Jay held up a restraining hand. "Not to the murder. I have to call Dale. I'm going upstairs. I suppose you
may as well fill them in, Lark."

They carried me off to the kitchen and plied me with microwaved cassoulet while I recounted Bob's
story. Clara and Tom were inclined to believe Bob, but Bonnie held out. It was, she suggested darkly, an obvious
attempt to cover his ass.

He was trying to do that, all right. I wasn't sure what to believe.

Clara was being reasonable, though her eyes glinted with excitement. "I say Annie did it."

Tom had kept silent as I talked. He rubbed his forehead. "If Bob killed Cleo, it was a simple crime of
passion. What's Annie's motive?"

"Bumping off the competition?" Bonnie swung her coffee mug. "Naw, it was Bob."

Clara said, "I told you folks on Labor Day that Annie needs the prestige she gets as editor of the
Gazette
." She looked from Bonnie to me. "And you saw the house in the Enclave. If Bob was serious about
Cleo, if he wanted a divorce, Annie would lose the paper and the house."

Bonnie gave a skeptical snort. "What are divorce lawyers for?"

"Bob would give Annie a settlement. Of course he would. But the house doesn't belong to Bob, and
neither does the paper. They're McKay family property. Annie would lose both. I think she did it."

I cocked my head, listening. Jay was coming down the stairs.

When he entered, he gave a general smile and rubbed his hands. "How about a nice piece of pie?"

I said, "You're insane," but I got up and cut into Ruth Adams's pie. That took a while, with the others
tossing off questions and Jay eluding them in his bland, infuriating way.

I served everyone else then held the last piece of pie out of his reach. "Talk or it goes into the garbage
grinder."

Jay grinned. "Okay, okay. Give me the pie."

I handed him the plate. "Did they arrest Annie?"

"For hiring Johnson and Baldock to commit arson? Yes. Naturally, she clammed up and called in the
lawyers. Dale tells me she's trying a plea bargain. If they drop the arson charge or grant her immunity, she'll testify
against her husband in the murder of Cleo Hagen."

A silence followed. Tom cut a judicious bite of huckleberry pie. "So Bob was telling the truth?"

"I think so." Jay waved his fork. "But I'm damned glad I'm not on the investigating team. Annie is saying
she was just trying to create a diversion. She admits she picked on you, Tom, because you'd been married to Cleo
and because of the book. She says she tried to called attention to you, and that she wanted to protect Bob with a
false alibi. Bob was unfaithful to her, but he was her man, and she was going to stand by him."

Bonnie groaned.

"Dale," Jay said, cutting a neat bite of pie, "is waffling. He wants to believe Annie. I shook him up. He
agreed to go out to the Enclave and interrogate Bob."

Another long pause. I said, "What about Matt?"

Jay said, "He's coming along. I think he's going to admit he saw Annie place the body in the dunes near
Tom's house, and that he lied to protect Annie because he hated what Cleo represented. Matt isn't crazy. He's just a
little muddled."

Tom said abruptly, "So Cleo made me an honest offer for the house? I don't know why that makes me
feel better, but it does."

"Maybe you should console Donald Hagen with your reinterpretation of Cleo's character." Bonnie
spooned huckleberry syrup from her plate.

I stood up and headed for the coffee pot. "Donald Hagen, what will happen to him?"

"A suspended sentence." Jay didn't look blissful at the thought. "Hagen has good lawyers."

I started to say I was really wondering whether Hagen's father would force him into another marriage,
but the others hadn't heard Nancy's gossip. If Jay could be discreet so could I. I poured another round of coffee by
way of distraction.

Eventually Clara and Bonnie left, and Tom headed for his room. We heard the computer making its
warm-up noises. Tom was going to be all right. I wasn't so sure about Bonnie. She wanted Bob guilty. He could
certainly be obnoxious, but I thought he was innocent of murder. The corollary of that was Annie's guilt.

Jay and I stayed in the living room, comfortably entwined and staring at the dying fire.

I rubbed up against him. "What happens now?"

He smoothed my hair. "Now it's up to the lawyers."

"Wonderful. I suppose Darla will follow the case syllable by syllable."

"It'll be an education for her."

I ran a hand over his chin. Only slightly raspy. "It bothers me, not to know for sure who's guilty."

He said, "Annie McKay is guilty. But it'll be interesting to see what her lawyers plead. If she hadn't hired
Johnson, she could make a case for manslaughter--or second-degree homicide. She got a little too clever." He
nibbled my earlobe. "I hope Melanie's experience didn't put you off maternity."

"It was pretty gory, and she suffered a lot, but I thought the baby was interesting. He was tiny but
opinionated." I snuggled closer. "Actually, the situation just put me off guns."

Jay is not the kind of cop who keeps caressing his .38. He knew my opinion of firearms. "More than ever,
huh?"

An ember flared and crumbled.

"Definitely. What if he'd had one of those assault rifles instead of an old-fashioned thirty ought six?" I
shuddered.

"Cold?"

"Just thinking."

"I did some thinking, too. You may or may not need a baby, Lark, but you definitely need a
bookstore."

I sat up. "What? Here?"

"Wherever. Why not here if I take the job?"

I stared at him. He smiled in the sneaky way he has that always disarms logic. "Why a bookstore?"

"If you were running a bookstore, I'd know where you were and what you were doing eight to twelve
hours a day while it was open. You scared me again, lady. I had a couple of very bad hours imagining horrors.
Besides, you miss Larkspur Books."

"I don't create disasters--"

He pulled me closer and gave me a disarming kiss. "So you say. A bookstore in Kayport, right near the
History Museum."

"Why not at the mall? There's a great location next to the bakery. Jay, you fiend. I want to get
pregnant!"