Give First Place to Murder (11 page)

"Who are they talking about?" Aunt Mary looked confused, a first for her.

"Chovalo," Susannah stated grimly. "How the thought could even cross your mind is beyond me." This last was crisply addressed to Dan.

"Besides," Neil thoughtfully contributed, "it's Bryce Chovalo hates. He didn't even know this Rusty. Did he?"

"No one knew him.”.

"Someone did," Carl put in quietly.

"Exactly." Susannah stated this with satisfaction. "Only, none of us did."

"Finding out where Chovalo was shouldn't be hard," I said. "I'm a little more interested in Stephanie. The first time I saw her was back at the barn."

"You couldn’t miss her." Pat sighed and shook her head. "She hung on Bryce like her life depended on it."

"You're right." Susannah sounded almost gleeful. "We never saw her in the stands, and I didn't spot her on the rail either."

"You heard Aunt Mary. She has a wicked temper. You might want to ask her a few questions," I suggested to Dan. He wasn't pleased.

"We already have. We’ve also talked to Wes, to the grooms in the barn across the aisle, to the guy selling hot dogs, and the man who runs around in the golf cart with a chart in his hands."

"I'll bet you haven't talked to the pirate." My glass of wine was making me reckless.

"You’re wrong. We did."

“
You did?” That was interesting, but before I had a chance to pursue it Susannah got in a question.

"Why Wes? He got there after everything was over."

"So it seems. But you never know who saw what, when." Dan’s answer seemed deliberately vague

"Wes was there?" Neil asked sharply. "Did he…?”

"No," was all Susannah said.

"If he says one word to you or puts one hand on you, I'll kill him."

Neil sounded as if he meant that. I glanced over at Pat. She didn’t look any happier with that statement than I felt, and Susannah’s offhand dismissal of Wes didn’t help much.

"Wes is harmless He's the type who thinks he's doing you a favor by looking. He's never even offered to touch." She paused for a second before going on. "Besides, I can take of myself."

"I think we've had enough of this for one evening. Let's talk about something more interesting. Like sheep dogs." Carl picked up his empty beer can, collected Dan's and Neil's and headed for the trash. "Or starting the barbecue."

We started to clear away the debris left on the platters. Susannah disappeared into the kitchen and came back with plates and my basket of silverware, Pat brought out a tray loaded with the hamburger toppings. Barbecue smoke started to lazily fill the back yard.

But we weren't quite finished with murder.

Aunt Mary put down her bowl of potato salad and picked up the subject again.

"Dan, are you sure Irma's all right? Except for Susannah, it seems to me she's surrounded by not very nice people. I'm deeply disappointed in Chovalo. Stephanie Knudson I know and she is, well, I've already said all I'm going to. This Bryce sounds as bad, and I've heard rumors about Wes Fowler.”

She unfolded my picnic cloth with a sharp crack before laying it on the table. “I feel sorry for his poor wife. Susannah needs to stay way away from him."

"Don't worry about Wes,." Neil told her grimly. "I've already strongly suggested he keep away from Susannah."

"You did?" There was an odd expression on Susannah's face, as if she wasn't too sure she liked, or needed, a white knight.

"What's all this about pirates?" Aunt Mary went on. "How do pirates fit?"

Pat laughed. "Ellen ran into one. Literally. She said his parrots were rude."

"Parrots?" Carl's professional interest perked up. "What parrots?"

"He was by the horse barns yesterday morning and he had no business there." I looked at Dan but he seemed to be busy shoving around coals.

"I didn't see a pirate." Susannah looked up almost accusingly. "He sounds like he’d be hard to miss."

"He was there. Dan knows him, only he won't admit it."

Dan started to laugh. "That pirate is a professional entertainer who’s paid by the fair to wander around and, well, entertain. He's likely to show up anywhere. I can assure you neither he nor his parrots ran the pitchfork through your friend Rusty."

"He was no friend of mine," I said strongly.

"Rusty wasn't anyone's friend. Whoever murdered him was someone none of us ever heard of. I’m sick of the subject. Let’s eat."

I wished I felt as sure about that as Susannah seemed to, but by mutual consent the conversation changed direction as we finished getting dinner on the table. Murder, drugs and pirates were not mentioned again, but the pirate sat in the back of my mind, refusing to go away.

It was close to ten o’clock when Aunt Mary yawned and stated she was heading for home. She started to gather her empty bowls and platters, packing them in a carton box.

"Where's your car, Mary?" Dan asked. "I don't remember seeing it."

"That's because it's home in my garage where it belongs. You don't think I'd get that thing out for only four blocks, do you?"

"You carried all this stuff over here?" Neil looked shocked.

He was rewarded with a pitying look.

"Well, you aren't carrying it back," Dan stated. "Come on. I'll drive you."

Pat and Carl gathered their things up as well and even Neil, who had driven over with his parents, got up to leave. He didn't seem too anxious to go, but Susannah looked as tired as I felt and tactfully shooed him toward the door.

"See you tomorrow, Ellie." It wasn't a question Dan asked as he balanced Aunt Mary's box, and the kiss he leaned down to deliver was more than a peck. Susannah raised one eyebrow on her way upstairs, leaving me to turn off porch lights and lock doors before following her. Jake hadn't waited for me either. He was already a yellow ball of fur curled up tightly on my pillow. I shoved him over when I was ready to crawl in, reached for my book, decided I was too tired and switched off the light. Only sleep didn't come. I realized I hadn’t quizzed Susannah about Neil, and wondered if I should do it now. Probably not a good idea. But tomorrow I would make time, just the two of us. I envisioned a nice mother/daughter talk, one where I did the talking and she did the listening. It might even happen.

My thoughts turned to Dan and our relationship. I knew, deep down, that Dan’s protective feelings, in my opinion his over protective feelings, weren’t misplaced male superiority. He truly cared, about me and about Susannah. Only, I wasn't sure that was what I wanted. No, that wasn’t right. I wasn’t sure I was ready for the commitment that kind of caring brought with it. For the first time I felt my life was my own. I called the shots, a feeling I was beginning to like. A lot. How I fit Dan, commitment, and independence together, or even if I wanted to try, I wasn't sure.

Now, of course, I was wide awake. Irma, Susannah, murder, pirates, Dan. They refused to go away. The pirate. There was something about him-–more, lots more, than Dan was admitting. He was connected to all this, but how? And how did I find out? It was obvious Dan wasn’t going to tell me so who would?

Thoroughly irritated, I sat up in bed, snapped on the light and grabbed my book. It was equally obvious I wasn't going to make any headway solving these problems tonight, so I might as well see if I could figure out how the heroine in my latest thriller solved hers. Maybe she’d give me some ideas about what to do next.

The red light on my desk phone flashed. I looked at it in alarm. I’d made an appointment with an about to be transferred young couple to list their house. Surely this wasn't them calling back, changing their mind.

It was Dan.

"You sound surprised to hear from me. Are you?”

“
Of course not.” I was, not to hear from him but because a hectic Monday morning had raced by so fast.

“
It's lunch time. We are meeting for lunch? The Yum Yum?"

"Sure.” I pushed papers back into a file. “Ten minutes all right?"

"No more than. I'm starved." The line was dead.

I smiled a little ruefully and started to shuffle more papers into priority piles. Of course we were having lunch. We had been to lunch almost every day in the week since the murder. The police station was only three blocks from my office and the Yum Yum was right in the middle, making it easy for both of us. Dinner was harder, but Dan had shown up at my house three evenings and had taken me out Saturday night. Sunday, we had packed a picnic and gone to the beach.

I loved being with Dan, and I missed sleeping with him, waking up with him beside me, sharing coffee and the morning news. I was pretty sure where our relationship had been headed. until I’d stalled it at “friendship.” I had an uneasy feeling that it wasn’t going to stay stalled forever and pretty soon I was going to have to make up my mind what I wanted, and how I wanted it. But not this afternoon.

A few months earlier I would have had all the time in the world for lunch, but as I learned my new business, I found my days filling up. I’d closed a few sales and had more than a few listings. My knowledge level rose with every transaction I closed and every listing I won, as did my confidence. I was actually having fun.

Brian and I had married the summer before my senior year of college. Susannah and graduation had arrived together. As wife of an up and coming obstetrician, my "job" was hostess, charity bazaar volunteer, country club member and, of course, mother. Never anything that paid a salary. Brian made more than enough money, a fact he told me often, and as long as I spent it in ways that reflected his idea of our social position, he was generous. Gradually the idea of "wife" as "partner" faded, and "wife" as "job" took its place. It became more and more clear that the job didn't carry a lifetime guarantee, and one day Brian's lawyer informed me my husband wanted a divorce so that he could marry again. I had known about his affairs but had tried to ignore them, telling myself all kinds of lies. Down deep, I knew I was putting off the inevitable. The only part that came as a shock was my strong feeling of relief, mixed, of course, with fury that this last time he had been cheating with a blond piece of fluff not too much older than Susannah.

My lawyer, a true barracuda, told me to be grateful. It opened up a whole range of settlement possibilities. I left it all to her, enrolled in real estate school, got my license, and headed north. Coming "home" to Santa Louisa had probably been my Linus blanket. If so, it was working.

I had been afraid that moving into my parents home would make me feel like a child again, but they were happy in Scottsdale, my things settled into the old house as though they had been made for it, and I felt, for the first time, that I had a home truly mine. My life was taking shape, and for once I was doing the shaping.

My lawyer made sure Susannah had a huge trust fund. I’d ended up with a block of stocks that provided me a very nice monthly check, but nothing compared to the feeling each real estate commission check gave me. Money I’d earned. Each check said I was a competent, intelligent woman, capable of directing my life as I saw fit, capable of sharing my life as I saw fit. I cherished that feeling more each day.

I told Rosie, our secretary, to put all messages on my voice mail and headed across the street and through the park toward the Yum Yum, humming under my breath. The trees were full, the sky was blue, the air felt gentle on my cheeks. Life was good.

Dan was already seated and in deep conversation with Ruthie, the Yum Yum's head waitress and part owner. I waved to several people I knew and slid into the chair opposite him.

"We were talkin’ about the kid that got killed at the fair,” Ruthie told me. “Pretty gruesome way to die, but it’s one punk less we have to pay to keep in jail. Want the special, Ellen?"

Ruthie's hand, which never seemed free of a coffee pot, hovered over the empty cup in front of me.

"Iced tea please, Ruthie. What's the special?"

She pointed proudly at a black board that sat on an easel just inside the front door. I’d missed it entirely as I came in.

"New?"

"My idea. Pretty good, huh?"

"Great," I squinted at the cramped writing. "What's the chicken oriental salad?"

"It's new also. You'll love it. Dan's having the Swiss steak. Be right back with your tea." She topped off his cup and trotted off.

"I'll bet it comes with mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls which you plan to lather with butter, and more blue cheese dressing than salad."

"As a matter of fact, yes." Dan grinned at me as he poured cream in his coffee. "You look pretty today. That's a good color on you."

I refused to be distracted. “Dan Dunham, don't you ever think about your arteries?"

"Sure. Every night when I have a beer. Scientific research has discovered beer helps keep everything flowing right along."

“
I thought that was red wine.”

“
That too.”

I gave up on the subject of food, with or without drink. I wasn't going to win anyway. I tried murder.

"Have you come up with anything new?"

"New?"

"Yes, new. About Rusty. Remember? Murder? Fairgrounds?"