Authors: Roberta Isleib
I called Joe's cell phone and left a message telling Laura to expect a roommate arriving after midnight.
I slept until late morning, when Laura bounded into the room and shook me awake.
"I don't know how you put up with Mike for almost a year," she said, flinging herself on the bed next to me. "That man is a beast."
"How'd he play?"
"He shot seventy-four. He's certainly not scaring the leaderboard. And talk about walking on eggshells—it's more like broken glass when you're carrying Mike's bag. My hat's off to you. You're either a saint or a masochist."
I laughed. "He's not so bad. Just remember, you're a mallard in the rain, babe, a mallard in the rain."
She stuck her tongue out. "Are you ever getting up? We're dying to hear all the gory details of what happened with Gary Rupert. Joe's over at the putting green watching his guys. Can you meet us there in twenty minutes?"
I reached the practice area half an hour later, and worked my way around the enthusiastic fans crowding the putting green for a glimpse of their favorite players. Sheesh. This was a different world than the low-key buzz at the Plantation Golf and Country Club. Joe grabbed me from behind and folded me into one of his trademark bear hugs. All my plans to act standoffish washed directly down the drain.
"I owe you an apology," he said. "I didn't get a chance to congratulate you. I'm so proud of you." He hugged me again. "You must have thought I didn't give a hoot. We looked all over for you before we left, but you'd already gone to lunch with Gary."
I wasn't going to admit how bad I had felt about being left alone yesterday—lousy enough to have gotten trashed and practically thrown myself into a murderer's arms.
"I wanted to celebrate with someone. Maybe I jumped the gun a hair going off with Gary. It was not a good afternoon." I glanced over at Laura. "Jack Wolfe called just before you left to tell me he's gotten married."
"Who in God's name would marry him?"
"Easy, girl," I said. "This is my ex-boyfriend you're talking about." Laura lifted her eyebrows at that. "Anyway, her name is Masako and she doesn't speak much English."
"Which explains everything very nicely," said Laura.
"Time out, ladies," said Joe. "Tell us about Gary."
"We were having a pleasant enough lunch." I thought back over the sequence of yesterday's events. "He was a little snotty to the waiter, but other than that, things were fine. Right up until the moment I suggested his mother made a great murder suspect."
"You what?"
"I still think it was a good theory. We"—I gestured to the three of us—"never really talked about her, even though she looked suspicious all the way along. She belonged to Turner's wacko organization, she had a lot of conflict with Kaitlin, and she acted squirrelly whenever we ran into her. Call it sexism, call it ageism, but for some reason, we didn't consider her as a killer."
"I can't believe you told Gary that!"
"I'd had a glass or three of Chardonnay—my tongue was a little loose at that point. Anyway, he dropped me off at my room, then showed up later and attacked me. So I beaned him with the nine-iron. That's pretty much all there is to tell."
"What was Harding doing there?" said Joe.
"Gary had been blackmailing him for years. He made him stay away from me by threatening to expose an old photo." I held both arms up in my best Richard Nixon/ Bill Clinton imitation. "Don't ask me anything else about it. I'm not talking."
"So Max got suspicious of Gary and showed up at your place?"
I nodded. "He saw us go to lunch and watched Gary come back to my room. By then, I'd already cold-cocked the guy and didn't need the cavalry."
"I don't understand why he didn't try to kill you right away," said Laura. "Why did he wait until later to do the job?"
"Even though I was teasing him about which words Bencher might have been trying to communicate to me, he must have thought it over and decided I couldn't be trusted."
"I bet if you had some hypnosis, you could remember what Bencher really said," said Laura.
"I don't want to know." In fact, after this week, they'd have to tie me down to hypnotize me. And I'd fight going under every step of the way. Right now I knew as much as I needed to know about my life—except for the future. And that would require a crystal ball, not a headshrinker.
"I followed up with the sheriff's department this morning. Right now, Gary's not admitting anything," said Joe. "But his mother has been talking. Apparently she suspected that Gary was molesting Kaitlin years ago. She knew she should have done something. But Coach was always so hard on Gary; she thought he'd go crazy if she told him what she suspected. So she told herself boys will be boys."
"She knew about the abuse and she didn't do anything?" I said. "That's outrageous."
"But not unusual," said Joe. "People overlook the most incredible evidence in the name of protecting someone else in the family, or themselves, for that matter."
"I don't get it. Why would Mrs. Rupert have joined that kooky false memory outfit if she knew Kaitlin had really been molested?" Laura asked.
"She wanted to protect Gary, but she didn't want Kaitlin to get her father in trouble. She knew Coach hadn't done anything. I guess she hoped Kaitlin would just drop the charges, with enough opposition."
"She's got a forklift load of garbage on her conscience now," said Laura. "How's she going to live with herself?" She shook her head in disbelief. "I have to say, Gary Rupert surprised me. I really had my money on the phony Dr. Turner."
"If Turner didn't kill Bencher," I said, "why was he so intent on scaring me away from his office?"
"He'd mounted such a campaign of harassment against Bencher, he must have worried someone would take legal action against him," said Joe.
"Besides which," said Laura, "he made a darned good murder suspect. He was smart but sleazy and his tactics were just this side of guerilla warfare."
"Hit some short putts now," Joe called over to the golfer he'd been observing. "You want to start the round with the sound of the ball hitting the cup in your mind."
"Now that sounds familiar," I said. "How much is that guy paying you for that canned line?"
"Someday, I'd like to hear more about the session you had with Turner," said Joe, ignoring my teasing. "He's an interesting character."
I nodded, glad Joe didn't have the time to spare now. I was still digesting the ideas he'd raised about my own family. The glass half empty, the glass half full.
"So who put the club in So Won Lee's bag?" asked Laura.
Joe shrugged. "No one's come forward." They both looked at me. We all knew that I had benefited most from that maneuver. Did someone want Kaitlin out? Or me in? I'd probably never know.
On the far side of the practice green, I spotted Jeanine. She wore deep purple short shorts and a matching low-cut tank. She was animated, sexy, and drop-dead gorgeous. Through the crowd, I could just see the baseball caps of two men clustered around her.
"Who the hell is Jeanine talking to?"
Joe laughed. "I may have created a monster. She's got Mike Callahan and Rick Justice fighting over her like it was their last chance at a meal. Or a birdie putt."
"Some girls have all the luck," I said. "I'm off guys for the time being. Hey, didn't I hear someone say something about buying me lunch? I'm starving."
Approach Shot:
a golf shot used to reach the green, generally demanding accuracy, rather than distance
Back nine:
second half of the eighteen-hole golf course; usually holes ten through eighteen
Birdie:
a score of one stroke fewer than par for the hole
Bogey:
a score of one stroke over par for the hole; double bogey is two over par; triple bogey is three over
Bunker:
a depression containing sand; also called
a
sand trap or simply a trap
Caddie:
person designated or hired to carry the golfer's bag and advise him/her on golf course strategy
Card:
status that allows the golfer to compete on the PGA or LPGA Tour
Chip:
a short, lofted golf shot used to reach the green from a relatively close position
Chunk:
to strike the ground inadvertently before hitting the ball; similar to chili-dipping, dubbing, and hitting it fat
Collar:
the fringe of grass surrounding the perimeter of the green
Cup:
the plastic cylinder lining the inside of the hole; the hole itself
Cut:
the point halfway through a tournament at which the number of competitors is reduced based on their cumulative scores
Divot:
a gouge in the turf resulting from a golf shot; also, the chunk of turf that was gouged out
Draw:
a golf shot that starts out straight and turns slightly left as it lands (for a right-hander); a draw generally provides more distance than a straight shot or a slice
Drive:
the shot used to begin the hole from the tee box, often using the longest club, the driver
Fairway:
the expanse of short grass between each hole's tee and putting green, excluding the rough and hazards
Fat:
a shot struck behind the ball that results in a short, high trajectory
Flag:
the pennant attached to a pole used to mark the location of the cup on the green; also known as the pin
Front nine:
the first nine holes of a golf course
Futures Tour:
a less prestigious and lucrative tour that grooms golfers for the LPGA Tour
Gallery:
a group of fans gathered to watch golfers play
Green:
the part of the golf course where the grass is cut shortest, only a putter may be used to advance the ball to the hole
Hacker:
an amateur player, generally one who lacks proficiency; also called a duffer
Hazard:
an obstacle that can hinder the progress of the ball toward the green; may include bodies of water, bunkers, marshy areas, etc.
Hook:
a shot that starts out straight, then curves strongly to the left (right-handers)
Irons:
golf clubs used to hit shorter shots than woods; golfers generally carry long and short irons, one (longest) through nine (shortest)
Lag putt:
a long putt hit with the intention of leaving the ball a short (tap-in) distance from the hole
Leaderboard:
display board on which top players in a tournament are listed
Lie:
the position of the ball on the course
Out of bounds:
a ball hit outside of the legal boundary of the golf course which results in a two-stroke penalty for the golfer; also called OB
Par:
the number of strokes set as the standard for a hole, or for an entire course
Pin:
the flagstick
Pitch:
a short, lofted shot most often taken with a wedge
Putt:
a stroke using a putter on the green intended to advance the ball towards the hole
Qualifying school (Q-school):
a series of rounds of golf played in the fall which produces a small number of top players who will be eligible to play on the LPGA Tour that year
Rainmaker:
an unusually high shot
Range:
a practice area
Round:
eighteen holes of golf
Rough:
the area of the golf course along the sides of the fairway that is not closely mown; also, the grass in the rough
Shank:
a faulty golf shot hit off the shank or hosel of the club that generally travels sharply right
Skull:
a short swing that hits the top half of the ball and results in a line-drive trajectory
Slice:
a golf shot which starts out straight and curves to the right (for right-handers)
Tee:
the area of the golf hole designated as the starting point, delineated by tee markers, behind which the golfer must set up
Top:
to hit only the top portion of the golf ball, generally resulting in a ground ball
Trap:
see bunker
Two-putt:
taking two shots to get the ball in the cup after hitting the green; a hole's par assumes two putts as the norm
Wedge:
a short iron used to approach the green
Woods:
golf clubs with long shafts and rounded heads used for longer distance than irons; the longest-shafted club with the largest head used on the tee is called the driver