Dead, to Begin With, page 22
“Why don’t we get to the important details, then?” Rhodes asked, and Glenda gave him a huffy look.
“I guess I’m putting it off,” Al said. “Here’s what we’ve been holding back for fifty years or more.”
He paused and looked around the table. Nobody said anything. After a second Glenda nodded.
Al took a deep breath. “Jake was there,” he said.
Chapter 24
The room was so quiet that Rhodes could hear the others breathing.
“Go on,” Rhodes said to Al. “You’ve started it. Tell the rest.”
Al opened his mouth, then shut it. He looked down at the table, then waved a hand as if to say he couldn’t talk any more.
“I’ll tell the rest,” Glenda said. “You know that in those days you could get a license to drive when you were fourteen? Jake had been practicing his driving out in the country, and he begged Glenda to let him drive home. She didn’t want to, but we—all of us—told her she should let him do it. She finally gave in. Jake is the one who had the wreck, not Gwen. We don’t know how he got out of the car and away from the accident, but he must have run home. He might even have called in the report. We don’t know what happened because he never talked about it to us. He never said another word about it. Maybe he dodged a jackrabbit or a possum.”
Just like Latham, Rhodes thought. One quick irreversible bad decision was all it took, and a life was gone.
“Maybe he was just speeding and misjudged the curve,” Glenda continued. “It didn’t matter. He started missing school and becoming more and more withdrawn. We knew why, but we weren’t going to say anything. It’s not that we were at fault, you understand.”
She paused as if hoping that Rhodes would exonerate her. He didn’t speak.
“We were just kids,” she said. “We were scared. We didn’t know the law. So we kept quiet. Jake didn’t tell anyone, either, as far as we knew. Maybe he told his parents. They had to know he was out that night with his sister, but he might not have told them he was driving. The sheriff might’ve known, but if he did, he wasn’t saying. The Marleys had enough pull to hush things up.”
Rhodes wondered about that. It would explain a lot. The sheriff must have known how unlikely it was for the driver of the car to wind up where Gwen had been. He might well have spoken to the Marleys, who could have used their money and power to keep their son out of jail and to keep his secret. Rhodes didn’t like to think that one of his predecessors would have sold out like that, but he knew it was possible, even likely, no matter how unappealing the thought was to him. The Marleys had more than enough power in town to keep things out of the papers as well. As far as anybody knew, Gwen was alone in the car. If anybody saw her and Jake at the Dairy King or the movies, they hadn’t spoken up.
“Sheriff? Are you listening to me?” Glenda asked.
“I’m listening. I had to think about a few things.”
“I can see why. I believe that’s all I have to say on the subject. You can tell him the rest, Ron.”
Ron shifted in his chair. “We know you think one of us killed Jake, Sheriff, but why would we do that? He’s the one who had something to hide, not us. I don’t know why he stuck all of us in that play of his. I’ll admit it. That had us worried, all right, but not worried enough to kill him. We don’t have anything to lose anymore. Not our jobs. I’m retired. Al and Glenda and Ed can retire anytime they want to. Probably should have already. We’re not worried about our reputations. Nobody cares about a bunch of old people like us. If anybody thinks about us at all, it’s to wonder if we’re still alive.”
Rhodes looked at Glenda. “What about you? Do you think one of this group killed Jake?”
Glenda smiled. “I considered it, but I couldn’t think of a motive. Can you?”
“No,” Rhodes said. “I can’t.”
No one had anything to say to that, and Rhodes realized that everything he’d thought about Jake’s death had been wrong. As often as he’d warned against reaching a conclusion before all the evidence was in, that was exactly what he’d done. All the evidence had seemed to point in one direction, so that was the direction he’d taken, forgetting that there might be other possibilities. Now he had to start all over and look at everything in a different way. He wasn’t sure what different way there was, however. It would take him a while to move all the pieces around and create a new picture.
That was too bad, because he’d liked the old one. He’d especially liked the way he thought it was about to end, with all the suspects gathered in a room for the final confrontation, the way it was in the old movies he’d seen on TV years ago. It would’ve been a fine ending, and it was too bad that things hadn’t worked out.
“Well, Sheriff?” Ed said. “Are we all under arrest, or is this little meeting over?”
“It’s over. I appreciate your help, but I wish you’d told me this story earlier.”
“Maybe we should have,” Ed said, “but you know how it is. Jake was sort of redeeming himself and doing good things. We didn’t want the story about the accident to get around and sour people on him and his project. Do you think people have to find out now?”
“Maybe not,” Rhodes said. “We’ll see. You can all go now. I won’t be bothering you again.”
“It’s okay, Sheriff,” Ron said. “You were just doing your job, and we were just covering our asses.”
“Such language,” Glenda said, but she was smiling. “If you ever need insurance, Sheriff, you know who to call.”
She left the room, followed by Ron. Al asked if he and Rhodes could have a minute, and Ed went on out to the front office.
“What about it, Sheriff?” Al asked when Ed was safely out of earshot. “You gonna arrest me?”
“I’m not,” Rhodes said. “You were under a lot of pressure, and now I know why. It wasn’t smart to come at me with that wrench, though.”
“I know it. I lost it for a minute. Now that you’ve heard the story, do you see what I meant about how there was a secret but there wasn’t anything else?”
“I do. There’s no connection between the past and Jake’s death. Maybe he just slipped and fell.”
“I bet that’s it,” Al said. He put out his hand. “I apologize again for trying to hit you.”
Rhodes shook the grimy paw. “Just don’t try it again.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, and I sure thank you for not taking me to the jail and locking me up. Anytime you want your Edsel worked on, you bring it around.”
“I’ll do that,” Rhodes said.
Al grinned. “I’ll do you a good job. Be fun to work on a real car again. See you, Sheriff.”
He left the room, and Rhodes followed him. Ed was sitting at his desk, and Rhodes asked if he could use the meeting room for a while.
“I need a place to sit and think,” he said.
“Take all the time you need,” Ed said. “I’m sorry we held out on you, but we were upset and worried. We still haven’t figured out why Jake wanted us to be in that crazy play of his.”
“Me, neither,” Rhodes said.
* * *
The little meeting room was a good place to sit and think things over. It was as quiet as Rhodes’s office in the courthouse, and Jennifer Loam would never find him unless his Tahoe parked out front gave him away.
Because Rhodes still thought the play had something to do with Jake’s death, he thought about calling Harry Harris for some English-teacher advice. Symbolism had never been Rhodes’s strong suit in English class. He tended to take things too literally. He’d gone along with the ideas about the characters in the play and their relation to Jake, and he’d been too quick to jump on the idea that Jake was going to use the play to expose them, as had been the case in the Shakespeare play. Now he had to start all over, and there was no way to know if he was right, no matter what he came up with. He couldn’t very well call Jake up and ask him.
It seemed simple enough now, though. Jake could very well have been happy because he was going to expose the person responsible for Gwen’s accident. He’d been the person, and could use the play to admit it. He was Marley, after all, the one hauling around the chains, which represented not so much the people he’d hurt but the guilt he’d carried for fifty years or more.
And what better place to make his confession than in the theater where it had all started? That was a lot of symbolism, but it made sense to Rhodes. Jake had wanted his friends in the play because he knew they shared his guilt to a certain extent, and he wanted them to have some relief, too. He’d wanted Rhodes there as representative of the law so that justice could be served. Just what Rhodes was supposed to do at this late date was an open question, but the idea also made sense.
What didn’t make sense was why anybody would kill Jake. Rhodes started going over everything he’d heard and seen, even the little things that hadn’t meant anything at the time.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there since the meeting room didn’t have a clock, but after a while he came up with an answer. He wasn’t sure it was the right answer, but it was an answer.
Rhodes left the meeting room and went to Ed’s office. Ed sat at the desk reading a book. Rhodes could see the title: A Christmas Carol.
When he saw Rhodes, Ed laid the book on the desk. “I read it a long time ago. I didn’t remember much about it. I thought it might give me some ideas about Jake and what was going through his mind.”
“Did it?” Rhodes asked.
“Not a one, but it’s a good story. Did you get any ideas while you were in my meeting room?”
“Just one.”
“Is it any good?”
“Better than nothing,” Rhodes said.
* * *
In the parking lot, Rhodes got into the Tahoe and called Hack.
“I’m going to Wesley,” he said. “Don’t call me unless there’s an emergency.”
“What level emergency we talkin’ about this time?” Hack asked.
“Same as last time.”
“You gonna tell me what you’re goin’ to Wesley for?”
“Nope,” Rhodes said.
“That’s what I thought. Keep the old dispatcher in the dark. I’m used to it, though. I don’t even care anymore.”
“I don’t believe you,” Rhodes said, “and I’ll fill you in later just in case I’m right about you.”
“Prob’ly read all about it on the Internet before you tell me anything.”
“Not this time,” Rhodes said.
* * *
Driving down the hill to Wesley, Rhodes thought things over again, remembering what Elaine had told him on his prior visit. At one point he should’ve pressed her, but she’d changed the subject, and he’d let her get away with it. He’d made a lot of mistakes in this investigation, but so far nobody had been hurt by them. He was thankful for that, at least.
The sun had been shining earlier in the day, but now the sky was overcast with thin gray clouds. The fields beside the highway looked even more barren than usual. The weather was in keeping with Rhodes’s gray mood, so he tried to lighten it up by turning on the radio to KCLR, which sometimes played music and sometimes had talk shows. He got lucky. It was a country music hour, and Dolly Parton was singing “Jolene,” an oldie that wasn’t overly chipper. That didn’t matter. Just hearing Dolly’s clear mountain voice cheered Rhodes up a little.
When he arrived at the Tunstall house, he saw that Harvey had finished breaking up the sidewalk and had hauled off the broken concrete. He’d built a form so he could pour the new walk, but he hadn’t done that job yet.
Rhodes parked the Tahoe and walked up the dirt walkway. Harvey opened the door but not the screen before Rhodes knocked.
Harvey didn’t have a welcoming look. “What’re you back here for, Sheriff?”
“Just wanted to talk to Elaine again,” Rhodes said. “I thought she might’ve remembered a few more things about the other morning.”
“She’s been taking her meds,” Harvey said.
Rhodes nodded. “This isn’t about her meds.”
“I guess you can come in, then,” Harvey said, opening the screen and standing aside.
Rhodes went past him into the house and found Elaine sitting on the couch, watching TV again. She was so intent on the screen that she didn’t notice Rhodes.
“Sheriff’s here to see you,” Harvey said at Rhodes’s back.
Elaine looked away from the TV and saw Rhodes standing there.
“Hey, Sheriff,” she said. “You ever watch The People’s Court?”
“Never seen that one,” Rhodes said.
“You oughta watch it, you being in law enforcement and all. It was better in the old days when Judge Wapner was on, but this Judge Milian is all right. She’s tough but fair, just like Judge Wapner was.”
“Tough but fair is always a good policy,” Rhodes said. “Harvey, would you mind letting me talk to Elaine for a few minutes, just me and her?”
Harvey looked at Elaine. “That all right with you?”
“Sure. I like to talk to the sheriff.”
“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” Harvey said, and he left the room.
“You have a seat, Sheriff,” Elaine said. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
Rhodes sat down. “It’s about when you were in Clearview the other day,” Rhodes said. “We talked about that, remember?”
“I remember.”
“You told me that you drove around a little before you came to the Beauty Shack.”
“I’m real sorry about what I did,” Elaine said. “I just love Lonnie to death, and I’d never do anything to hurt him or his shop. This haircut’s not really so bad, either.”
“I like the haircut,” Rhodes said, “but that’s not what I want to talk about.”
Elaine picked up the TV remove and muted the program. “What is it, then?”
“I asked you if you saw anybody downtown, and you said you didn’t remember. I thought maybe by now you’d have thought of something.”
“Like what?”
“Like something you saw.”
“I didn’t see anybody.”
“Maybe not on the streets. I thought you might’ve seen someone in the alley behind the theater if you happened to glance down that way. If not a person, a car or truck.”
Elaine looked down at the coffee table. “I guess maybe I did see a car.”
“Tell me about that,” Rhodes said.
“I guess it’ll be all right,” Elaine said.
“I’m sure it will,” Rhodes told her.
Chapter 25
Glenda Tallent’s office was on the highway leading to the Walmart but much closer to town than Aubrey Hamilton’s. It was a neat brick structure only a few years old. Rhodes figured the insurance business was doing pretty well. Even in a small town like Clearview, everybody needed insurance. The office was only a block from the McDonald’s, a location that Rhodes liked. He could’ve used a Quarter Pounder right then, in fact, but he thought he’d better postpone eating. Seeing Glenda was what mattered at the moment.
When Rhodes parked and got out of the Tahoe, he caught the scent of burgers. He wondered why he seemed to be smelling food so often these days, but this time it wasn’t his imagination. His stomach rumbled a little, but it quieted down by the time he reached the door of Glenda’s office.
He opened the door, and a little bell rang. It wasn’t necessary for it to alert Glenda, however, as she was sitting at her desk.
“What a pleasant surprise, Sheriff,” she said. “Twice in one day. I feel honored.”
“You shouldn’t,” Rhodes said. “This is still business.”
“Your business or mine?”
“Mine, I’m afraid.”
“Well, have a seat and tell me how I can help you.”
Glenda’s visitors’ chairs were brown leather armchairs, and Rhodes settled down in one.
“I thought you were through with us this morning,” Glenda said. “I can’t imagine what you could want with me.”
“Just a couple of things,” Rhodes said. “I have a few questions about the inspection report for Jake’s building before you insured it.”
“We don’t always inspect,” Glenda said, “but with a building as old as the theater, I thought it was necessary.”
Once again Rhodes wondered if everyone in town had forgotten how to answer a direct question. Maybe there was something in the water.
“That’s not what I asked,” he said, something he’d been saying a lot in the last few days.
“I know it wasn’t.” Glenda didn’t snap, but she gave him a cold look. “I was giving you some background.”
“You mentioned that Rick Shepherd did the inspection. Is he honest?”
“I said I’d used him before. He’s always been fine.”
“The building has some real problems,” Rhodes said. “Some dangerous ones. Were those noted on the report?”
Glenda smiled. “You’re trying to trick me into something, Sheriff. There were no dangerous items listed. Just the usual things. The building is structurally sound.”
“The structure might be sound. What’s inside it isn’t.” Rhodes had found that out the hard way. “There’s something wrong with that report.”
Glenda’s lips tightened. “I wouldn’t knowingly accept a false report.”
“You wouldn’t know it was false if you didn’t check it out for yourself, and why do that? After all, you trusted Rick. He’d always done a good job before.”
“He certainly had. I don’t know what you’re implying, Sheriff.”
“I’m implying that he overlooked some things, on purpose. I think you suspected as much, but you didn’t question the report.”
“I don’t think I like the way these questions are going.”
“That doesn’t matter. I need some answers. You even hinted to me about a reason Rick might fudge the reports. Feminine wiles. Remember?”
“It’s possible that Rick could have been susceptible to a little feminine charm,” Glenda said. “His wife died several years ago. Breast cancer. He’s a fairly young man. Young single men can be susceptible.”
