Dead Ends (Main Street Mysteries Book 2) Page 19

  The chief said, ‘OK, tell me.’

  And so she did. But after she'd laid it out – all of it – there was silence.

  ‘Chuck?’

  ‘I'm thinking.’

  ‘Please don't let your opinion of me cloud your judgment. This is about Josh. I'm not accusing Ben Rosewood because of an affair which I ended.’ And boy-oh-boy, wasn't she glad now that she had.

  Chuck let loose of his head. ‘Lise, I love you – you're one of my best friends. I may not like what you did with Rosewood back in Wisconsin, but I certainly don't believe you'd accuse a man of killing his wife and daughter and wounding a third person just because you were pissed at him.’

  ‘Thank you.’ When Chuck said he loved you, you could take it to the bank.

  ‘I do need to think about this and see how your theory – and so far it is only that, a theory – fits into what we know of the facts.’

  ‘But what about Ben?’ AnnaLise asked. ‘You can't leave him roaming the streets.’

  ‘I know where to find Rosewood, thanks to you, and I'll bring him in for questioning. I can't say that there'll be anything to hold him on though.’

  ‘I'll press charges,’ AnnaLise said. ‘For assault.’

  ‘From what you said, he didn't assault you.’

  ‘He grabbed my wrist.’ She held up said appendage and was sorry to see there was no bruising.

  Chuck cocked his head. ‘I believe you, but with no proof, it's just not enough.’

  ‘So because I religiously take my vitamins and don't bruise easily, I'm out of luck?’

  ‘We'll see.’ Chuck leaned across the desk and patted her hand. ‘Listen, I'll have someone watch your place. I promise you and Daisy will be safe, OK?’

  Instead of feeling relief, AnnaLise felt a chill run up her spine. ‘You think he could come after us?’

  ‘Honestly, Lise, I don't know. And I won't know until I interview him, and even then, maybe not.’

  ‘What about Josh?’

  ‘We plan to take him into custody when the doctors' release him.’

  ‘Can you maybe hold off on that?’ AnnaLise asked. ‘At least until after you talk to Ben?’

  ‘We'll see.’

  AnnaLise smiled ruefully. ‘Damn that inscrutable Cherokee blood line of yours.’

  ‘It would behoove you, I think, to get your tasteless ethnic stereotypes right. It was Charlie Chan who was inscrutable and not only was the character Chinese and not Cherokee, but Warner Oland who played him wasn't even Asian.’

  ‘He was Swedish,’ AnnaLise said. ‘I love that you know this stuff.’

  ‘If it was about cops or detectives, as I was growing up, I watched it. Or read it. My dad and I were really close.’

  ‘That's right, your mother and father were divorced,’ AnnaLise said. ‘Maybe that's why you have a soft spot for Josh. He grew up without a mother, too.’

  Chuck escorted her to the door. ‘It was probably tougher on Josh. He was ten when his mom took off. I never even knew mine.’

  AnnaLise kissed the chief on the cheek as the phone on his desk began to ring. ‘Poor woman. She doesn't know what she missed.’

  Finally outside the Sutherton police headquarters, AnnaLise realized she didn't have transportation.

  Daisy's Chrysler was at Earl Lawling's yard, the Toyota was presumably still on the Blue Ridge, and the police had impounded Ben's rented Explorer.

  ‘Huh.’ AnnaLise stood in the parking lot outside the station and looked around.

  Where was a cab when you needed one? ‘New York City,’ she said aloud.

  ‘Talking to yourself?’ Charity Pitchford was just coming out of headquarters.

  ‘More and more, these days,’ AnnaLise admitted. ‘I don't know where my head is. Or my car.’

  ‘You've lost your car?’

  ‘Not technically. I just . . . well, I got a ride here, and . . .’

  ‘By one of our squads, I understand,’ Charity said, producing her car keys. ‘Coy told me. Need a lift?’

  ‘I do, but I'm afraid it's to Sutherton Auto. That's where Daisy's car should be.’

  ‘Hey, no problem,’ Charity said, waving her to a Ford Escape which had to be her civilian car. ‘I thought you might want me to take you all the way up to the overlook past the viaduct.’

  ‘No, that wasn't exactly my car. And I left it with the owner, anyway.’

  ‘When you stole his.’ Charity started her mid-sized SUV. ‘Busy day.’

  ‘You don't know the half of it.’

  ‘Do you mind if we head south first and stop at the hospital? Coy's there standing guard over the Eames kid and I told him I'd bring lunch.’ She reached back and picked up a brown paper sack. ‘He's trying to take off some weight and doesn't trust himself in that cafeteria.’

  ‘They have great soup,’ AnnaLise said as they backed out of the parking space. ‘And that's not bad for you.’

  ‘It surely is, if you pair it with a loaf of bread, a pound of butter and cheesecake for dessert. The man has absolutely no will-power.’ Charity pulled up to the stop sign at the top of the cop lot. ‘So, hospital first?’

  ‘You bet,’ AnnaLise said. ‘In fact, I was hoping I could talk to Josh. Do you think that's possible?’

  ‘I don't see why not,’ Charity said. ‘As long as you don't mind either Coy or me being right there, too.’

  ‘Not at all.’ AnnaLise glanced sideways at her driver. ‘I understand the plan is still to arrest him?’

  ‘Now, AnnaLise, you're not trying to pump me for information again, are you?’

  ‘Yes, but don't take it personally. I do it with everyone.’

  ‘Must be the journalist in you. Makes you nosy.’

  ‘Or being nosy, which makes you want to be a journalist,’ AnnaLise admitted. ‘I've never quite been sure which is the cart and which is the horse.'

  ***

  When they got to the hospital, Coy was in Josh's room and Fred Eames was nowhere in sight.

  ‘Fred's with the lawyers,’ Coy said as he emerged. ‘Hope he doesn't spend everything he's worked so hard for trying to push off the inevitable. Though I have to say you introduced a nice new wrinkle to the plot.’ This last was directed at AnnaLise.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Charity asked, handing the bag lunch to her husband.

  ‘Well, the chief just called and had me ask Josh about whether he lent this Ben Rosewood a gun. The boy's brain is fuzzy – no surprise, what with a bullet having whizzed right past it – but he says he does recall doing that, just not which gun or exactly when.’

  ‘Probably just grasping at straws,’ Charity said. ‘You put the idea in the kid's head.’

  ‘I don't think so,’ AnnaLise piped up. ‘Fred told me about the borrowed gun yesterday, so this isn't something Josh just came up with – or went along with, as you say – to dodge the charges against him.’

  ‘Well, it's going to take a whole lot more than that, I'm afraid,’ Charity said.

  AnnaLise was afraid, too. ‘Can I see Josh?’

  ‘Don't see any harm,’ Coy said. ‘I'll have to sit with you, but I'll mind my business and eat my lunch. Want half, Charity?’

  ‘Heck, no,’ Charity said. ‘If AnnaLise is going to be here for twenty minutes or so, I'll run over to the cafeteria.’

  Coy looked pained, but he kissed his wife. ‘Have fun, darlin'. Eat something I'd like.’

  ‘Oh, I will,’ Charity said, turning to walk the green line. ‘Cheesecake or tapioca?’

  ‘So help me, if that woman comes home with cheesecake on her breath,’ Coy said, leading AnnaLise into the room, ‘I'll divorce her.’

  ‘I've never been much for that particular treat,’ AnnaLise admitted.

  ‘Then you haven't had this here hospital's cheesecake,’ Coy said. He waved AnnaLise toward Josh and seated himself in a reclining chair in the corner, sack lunch in his lap, Coke on the floor next to him.

  ‘Don't know why everybody is enthusiastic about even this hospital's foo
d,’ Josh said by way of welcome as he pushed away the rolling table that was across his bed. His left cheek was covered with a gauze patch and the rest of his head bandaged in a kind of figure-eight, like somebody with a bad headache in an old-time movie. ‘Stuff turns my stomach.’

  ‘Then I'll get rid of this,’ AnnaLise said, guiding the table to the door side of the room and returning to sit down next to him. ‘How are you doing?’

  ‘Not good,’ Josh said. Whatever painkillers they'd probably given him couldn't take the edge off the fear in his eyes. ‘They're saying I somehow killed Suze.’

  ‘Do you remember anything?’

  ‘Not a thing. After we got to my house and sat down there on the couch, that is. We'd been fighting.’ He glanced over at Coy, but the officer seemed engrossed in what looked – and smelled – like a hard-boiled egg sandwich, ‘and since my dad wasn't home we . . . um, thought it'd be a good time to . . . well, make up.’

  AnnaLise couldn't suppress a smile. Oh, to be this young – and that naive –again. Seemed like just yesterday. ‘And you don't remember anything after you sat down?’

  ‘Nothing that had any guns or shooting in it, and I'd swear to that.’

  Now AnnaLise laughed outright. ‘I may have some good news for you.’ She leaned closer. ‘The chief is bringing in Ben Rosewood for questioning.’

  ‘Really? The chief thinks he's the one who shot us?’ The hope in Josh's voice made Coy glance over, but then he kindly went back to eating.

  ‘It's possible, and using the . . . firearm you lent him.’ Tempted as she might be, AnnaLise knew she shouldn't give anything away – including that the murder weapon was a deer rifle. ‘Are you sure you don't remember anything about it? Like which one of your dad's it was?’

  Josh had begun shaking his head before AnnaLise finished her question. ‘I wish I could, believe me. Heck,’ a sideways look toward Coy. When he turned back, Josh had tears in his eyes. ‘I'd have made something up if I thought it would help.’ His voice was barely a whisper.

  ‘Don't do that, whatever you think of,’ AnnaLise warned softly, as Coy's cell phone started to ring. ‘If there's anything I know, it's that the chief recognizes a liar when he sees one.’

  For Josh's sake, AnnaLise hoped her words were true.

  Coy said, ‘Pitchford’ into the phone and listened.

  ‘I should probably go,’ AnnaLise said to Josh. ‘I just wanted you to know what was going on.’

  ‘I appreciate that, AnnaLise,’ Josh said, sticking out his hand.

  When AnnaLise took it, the palm was understandably sweaty, but still firm. ‘It's going to turn out OK, Josh.’

  He nodded and looked down at the floor, and AnnaLise had the sinking feeling that he was experiencing the same surge of fear that she had, when Chuck had tried to reassure her. That if someone felt they had to tell you everything was going to be OK, that maybe it wasn't. Couldn't be, even.

  She stood up. ‘Daisy said to say hi.’

  Now Josh smiled. ‘She's a real trip, your mama is. Mrs Peebly, too, though I have to say she scares me some times.’

  ‘Don't feel bad,’ AnnaLise said, patting his shoulder. ‘She scares me, too, and I lived next door to her most of my life.’

  That got a laugh out of him. ‘Still, you were lucky to grow up with Daisy and Mrs Peebly around. Mama Philomena, too. I –’

  ‘Excuse me?’ Coy was standing, the phone still in his hand.

  ‘I'm sorry, Coy, I was just leaving. I didn't mean to over-stay my –’

  ‘No, that's not the problem, AnnaLise. I just need to talk to Josh and, well, maybe it's best if you're still here for that.’

  AnnaLise sat back down and took Josh's hand.

  Thirty-two

  ‘I couldn't believe what I was hearing.’

  AnnaLise was again in the passenger seat of Charity Coy's Escape, the two women heading toward Sutherton Auto so AnnaLise could pick up Daisy's Chrysler.

  ‘I know,’ Charity said, turning onto the highway. ‘How did Josh take it?’

  ‘He was ten years old when his mother “left.”’ AnnaLise's air quotes went unseen, the officer wisely keeping her eyes on the road in front of them. ‘Now her remains are found in the second car recovered from the gorge this week. I don't think he knows how to feel.’

  ‘I'm not sure I would either.’ Charity looked sideways at AnnaLise. ‘Did Coy tell him about the man with her?’

  ‘No.’ AnnaLise felt her eyes go wide. ‘A man? Do we know his identity?’

  A shake of the head. ‘Not yet. The license plate on the car was still intact, so it was easy enough to figure that the female remains were Robyn Eames' and get dental records confirming it. We don't have as much to start with on the male, though I'm certain the chief is talking to Fred right now, see who thinks it could be.’

  ‘Presumably, the guy she was having the affair with,’ AnnaLise said. ‘And there are probably lots of people willing to dredge up that little tidbit.’

  ‘Was the man from Sutherton?’

  ‘I think so, though most of what I know is second-hand – through either Daisy or Mama.’

  ‘You weren't here?’

  ‘That was my first year of college at Wisconsin. From what I heard, there'd been talk about the two of them, no surprise, and when they both disappeared it was assumed they'd run off together.’ AnnaLise shook her head. ‘Who knew it was the road they'd run off?’

  ‘Well, not exactly “run” and not precisely “road,”’ Charity said. ‘From where the car landed, it's more likely to have slipped off that Lovers' Lookout near where Daisy and you had your own accident.’

  Some ends are deader than others, AnnaLise could hear her mother saying. ‘Talk about your unsafe sex,’ she muttered.

  Charity laughed. ‘I've heard tell of such things. And to make things worse, neither had a seat belt on.’

  ‘Or the parking brake, apparently.’ AnnaLise relayed what Chuck had told her about a particularly amorous couple rocking their car off the cliff, even as they were rocking each other's worlds. ‘I put it down to urban legend.’

  ‘Sutherton doesn't strike me as urban, but I get your point. Well, here we are.’ Charity turned the Escape into Sutherton Auto's drive.

  ‘The Chrysler is right up there next to the office,’ AnnaLise said, pointing. ‘But you can drop me any – ’

  ‘Excuse me.’ Charity's cell was ringing, so she conscientiously pulled over and put the car in park, ‘Charity Pitchford.’

  AnnaLise opened her door and signaled that she'd just walk the rest of the rest of the way, but Charity held up one finger.

  ‘My God, Coy, why did you . . .’ She listened. ‘Don't blame it on . . . Is he . . . Well, that's good, at least. Do we have a description . . . OK. I'll be right there. Hang on, babe.’ She clicked off, shaking her head almost violently.

  ‘What?’ AnnaLise asked.

  ‘Coy. Apparently the hardboiled egg sandwich didn't agree with him and he had to make a bathroom run. Josh was sleeping and Coy figured things would be fine, but –’

  Oh, God – what did the kid do? ‘Don't tell me. Josh bolted?’

  ‘Worse. He was attacked.’

  ‘Oh, my God.’ AnnaLise said, her hand going to her mouth.

  ‘Don't worry, Josh's not much worse off. He woke up and started yelling, scaring the guy off apparently.’

  ‘Ben Rosewood.’

  ‘As good a guess as any,’ Charity said. ‘The chief questioned him, but decided he couldn't hold him with what we had. Especially since the judge had already issued an arrest warrant for Josh on the same crime.’ She shifted her car into drive. ‘Listen, I need to get back to the hospital, but let me get you up to your car first. I'd hate to have you stranded in this deserted lot if it doesn't start.’

  ‘No.’ AnnaLise plucked at the officer's sleeve. ‘I really mean, it was Ben Rosewood. I told him that Josh had regained consciousness.’

  ‘But that's no secret,’ Charity said. ‘The whole
town likely knew hours ago that Josh was awake. Hell, they're also probably chewing on his mother's body being found, given how fast news travels around here, courtesy of Mama Philomena's and the rest of the Sutherton grapevine.’

  The journalist waved that aside. ‘You don't understand. I . . . umm, I may have told Ben that Josh identified him as his and Suzanne's attacker.’ AnnaLise ducked her head. ‘Don't you see, Charity? This could all be my fault.’

  Thirty-three

  AnnaLise watched as Charity Pitchford's SUV bounced back down the drive, a rooster tail of gravel splaying out behind it. The officer had called Chief Greystone and reported what AnnaLise had just told her about the conversation with Ben.

  AnnaLise had been able to hear the ‘You're telling me she did what?!’ but, mercifully, Chuck had lowered his voice enough for Charity to be able to return the phone to her ear for the rest of the brief conversation.

  When they finished up, AnnaLise hopped out of the Escape and insisted that she'd walk the rest of the way to her mother's car, while Charity headed off toward the hospital. Clearly upset both by what had happened to Josh and by Coy's role, Charity agreed, but only after handing AnnaLise her card and making her promise to call if the Chrysler didn't start or some other problem intervened.

  AnnaLise had promised, despite the fact that she'd left her cell in the Escape, which was why Ben had been able to call Chuck and report it stol— ‘Shit!’

  AnnaLise searched her jean pockets, but came up with only the fob for the Toyota Camry. ‘Fat lot of good you'll do me,’ she said to it.

  Because, of course, the keys to the Chrysler were in her purse, also in the custody of either Ben Rosewood or the Sutherton police.

  Unless . . .

  AnnaLise trudged up the dusty drive to the Chrysler and felt under the right front fender. ‘Eureka! The hidey place.’ When she snaked her hand back out from under, it held a magnetic key case.

  Only problem was, when she slid it open, the thing was empty.

  ‘Looking for this?’

  AnnaLise jumped and turned to see Earl Lawling holding the valet key from the Chrysler in his hand. She hadn't noticed the front bumper of his SUV just visible behind the building, nor the light inside.