Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 04 - Awkward Moments (25 page)

Chapter Forty-eight

Stephanie delicately licked her upper lip. “Is there some reason a woman couldn’t have done it?”

Chris watched her thoughtfully. “
I guess not if she got the drop on him, but the only woman we know is Essie. She’s not the killer type.”

“Shows how little you know.
I
could kill someone if I had to.” She slightly turned her head and looked at Chris out of the corner of her eye. “I wouldn’t, but I could. I watch enough television to know a lot of murders are spur of the moment and involve some kind of passion.”

Something about her comment struck a nerve in me. “Passion? That’s what killed the first man we found
– old Henry. Some guy named Melvyn wanted Henry’s wife for himself. It was kind of a love triangle except the woman didn’t return Melvyn’s feelings. This went on for years until the men had a showdown and Melvyn murdered old Henry.”

Stephanie raised her eyebrows. “Did Melvyn get together with the wife?”

“No. She didn’t want anything to do with him. Old Henry had disappeared and no one knew for sure what happened to him, but it was a good bet Melvyn killed him. Melvyn tried to have his way with Frannie and she shot him. Dead. End of story.”

“History very seldom repeats itself in real life,”
Bill said. “That doesn’t seem to be the case here.”

Chris’s mouth dropped open. “I think you
may have just solved the puzzle, bro.”

Stephanie seemed to be oblivious to what Chris said. “Bro? You two are calling each other
bro
now? How quaint. Very street smart, kind of, but at least that tells me you two are getting along.”

I glan
ced at Chris and wondered what Bill’s comment had triggered. What could Chris be thinking? I usually had at least an inkling of what was going on, but this time I didn’t have a clue. And yet something was bothering me. I just couldn’t quite grasp the elusive thought.

And then it struck me. Stu ha
s a wife named Jean. We’d never met her, but it was a cinch Charlie knew her well. After all, it was a small town. And why
hadn’t
we met her? In all our dealings with Stu, why hadn’t Jean ever been around? The law of averages made me think we should have at least seen her.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Chris?”

He smiled at me, our minds coming together as one. “Probably so.”

“I have an idea, too,” Mikey said, rubbing his chin as though he h
ad whiskers.

“Come on, we’ll talk about it on the way to town. We need to go see Jimmy.” Chris was already fishing his keys out of his pocket and heading for the door.

“Wait for me,” Stephanie said. “I still want to meet all the people.”

“And what if one of them really is the killer?” Bill gently turned her toward him.

“It’s okay. I’ll have you and Chris there to protect me.”

I laughed and a couple of frowns
were directed toward me in the process. “Sorry,” I said.

We never discussed our thought
s on the way into town because Stephanie wanted to hear the whole story again. She had more questions, and the more I thought about it, her comment about crimes of passion might be exactly what we’d been missing.

Chris pulled the Jeep up in front of the Burnt Bun. “Let’s go in and have a cold drink before we go flap our lips Jimmy. If I’ve got the wrong guy pegged for bumping off Charlie, then Jimmy will think I’ve got bats in
the belfry. I don’t want to finger the wrong guy. These people are all pals of Jimmy’s.”

“You go in and Stephanie and I will meet you. I want to run over to the store to get some milk. I’ll introduce her to Stu while we’re there.”

“Yeah, okay. But be careful.”

“Always.”

We walked into the store and Stu was in front putting up a display of sodas. His back was to us.

“Stu,” I said.

He knocked over a stack of soda cans. “Pamela! You just took ten years off my life. Guess my mind was somewhere else.” He stood up and studied Stephanie.

“This is my sister-in-law. We came in to buy some milk.” I hoped I didn’t sound as nervous as I felt.

“It’s nice to meet you, Sister-in-Law.”

“Sorry. Stu, this is Stephanie, Bill’s wife.”

He smiled. “Again, nice to meet you. Your husband is quite a guy.”

I raised my eyebrows, both surprised that Stephanie hadn’t said a word yet
and that Stu seemed to think highly of Bill. Maybe he was just being polite.

“So is Chris,” Stu said, misinterpreting my expression.

How could this man be a killer? I felt so comfortable around him. But, then, how many people have been interviewed on TV and said they never would have guessed their next door neighbor could be a serial killer because he was such a nice guy?

I left Stephanie to chat with Stu while I bought a carton of milk.
I was curious what her take on him would be.

When I stopped to tell Stephanie we need
ed to go meet the boys, she was listening intently to Stu tell her about the grocery business. To look at her, you’d think he was the most fascinating man on the face of the earth.

I touched her arm. “We need to go.”

“Okay,” she said. “It was so nice to meet you, Stu. And tell your wife I said she’s a lucky woman.”

He beamed and watched us leave the store.

“It’s not him,” she said, linking her arm through mine while we walked to the diner.

“What makes you say that?”

“Just a hunch, but I don’t think he’s the killer type.”

“And what makes a person the killer type?” I asked.

“I really don’t know, but it’s not that nice man.”

“Honestly? I don’t think so either.
How did you know about his wife?”

“I just asked a few casual questions and let him talk about himself and his life.”

“Uh huh.” Apparently there was more to Stephanie than I saw on the surface. “The funny thing is that none of us have ever met his wife.”

“She – ”

“Hurry up, Mom.” Mikey stood in the doorway of the diner. “We can’t talk ‘til you guys are here.”

“We’re coming. Hold your horses, kiddo.” Stephanie ruffled Mikey’s hair and surprisingly, it didn’t seem to bother him.

He calmly finger-combed it back into place while smiling at his aunt.

Chris and Bill were seated at our usual table and they’d ordered iced tea for us. Mikey had a chocolate malt sitting in front of him when he sat down.

My husband casually glanced around the diner, letting his gaze rest momentarily on the general area of the kitchen before he started talking.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“I want to make sure no one can hear us.”

Mikey took a sip of his malt before leaning forward conspiratorially. He didn’t seem to want to miss a word.

Chapter Forty-nine

Chris looked
into my eyes. “We both know who did this, don’t we? We’re on the same page, right?” He rolled his upper lip under and leaned back in his chair.

“You betcha.” I smiled at my husband. Our minds were so in tune that we’d both figured out who the killer was. It was a marriage made in heaven. Two minds
thinking as one.

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Bill said. “Who did it?”

“Stu,” I said.

“
Doc,” Chris said.

Our head
s spun around and we looked at each other, our two minds having taken separate paths.

“What?” we said in unison.

Mikey’s head was swinging back and forth like he was at a tennis match. “Okay, who did it? I have an idea, too, you know.”

“Stu,” I repeated.

Chris shook his head. “No, it was Doc.”

“How did you come up with a cockamamie idea like that?” I shook my head right back at him.
What could he be thinking?

“Could be I have some information you don’t.”
He looked smug, which at the moment annoyed the heck out of me.

“Dad, I – ”

I held my hand up like a stop sign. “Just a minute, Mikey. Like what, Bogie Man? I mean, come on. We all know Stu is married, but we’ve never met his wife. Doc hasn’t been around very much, other than to pick up dead bodies. He hasn’t even been on our suspect list. Doc? Did he and Charlie even have that much of a connection? I can’t believe you’d think it was Doc, of all people.”

“Stu would be the easy answer, and I don’t think this is going to be easy. I have a feeling the answer is in the past, just like with old Henry.” Chris still looked smug.

“Dad?”

“
Hold on, Ace. There’s one thing everyone failed to mention to us,” Chris said. “Doc’s wife and Charlie were old friends. I mean very
good
old friends, when they were young.”

“How’d you find that out?”
What was he trying to pull? Doc? I didn’t believe it.

“Mom, I wanted to tell you about – ”

“Mikey, would you please wait a minute?”

Sometimes children should be seen and not heard.
My son looked frustrated, but he needed to wait. The adults were figuring out who murdered Charlie.

Stephanie tapped her long, perfectly manicured fingernails on the table. “Look. I know I talk a lot, but at least I know when to keep my voice down. Would you two
speak a little softer? That waitress was looking over this way and trying to listen to our conversation.”

I pulled my lips back in a grimace. “Did she hear us?
Can you tell?”

“I don’t think so, but she’s coming this way.” Stephanie put on her brightest smile and watched Essie cross the diner.

“Uncle Bill, I need to say something.” Mikey sat up straighter in his chair.

“In a minute, Ace.” Bill picked up his iced tea and took a big gulp.

“Is everything okay here? Do you need anything else?” Essie stood by the table, smiling her own smile and waiting.

“Do you have any pie?” Stephanie asked.

“Of course.” Essie told her what flavors of pie they had and when Stephanie told her what she wanted, she walked away, looking reluctant to leave the table. Her steps were slow and she turned her head to the side as though trying to hear anything we might say. Apparently Essie was a lot more nosey than I’d realized.

“Not too discreet, is she?
She’s heading for the kitchen.” Stephanie started tapping her fingernails again. She was sitting with her back to the window so she had the best view of the diner, and she watched Essie disappear into the other room.

I didn’t want to appear obvious, so I didn’t turn around to see what was going on. “Is she gone yet?”

My sister-in-law held up her index finger for a moment before nodding. “Okay, let’s hear the rest, but keep your voices down. After all, you’re talking about who committed a murder and you don’t want to announce your suspicions to the whole world. Now tell me who this Doc person is, because I don’t remember you mentioning him. And don’t leave out details. Why didn’t you mention him before, when you told me the story? What else did you leave out? I thought you were going to tell me everything. I also – ”

Bill patted his wife on the back. “Okay, honey, take a breath and let’s hear what Chris and Pamela have to say. Okay?”

“Mom, I really need to tell you – ”

I shook my head, cutting him off before looking at Chris
. “Chris, tell me why you think it was Doc. Just because his wife and Charlie used to see each other doesn’t mean a hill of beans. Why wouldn’t he have… Why didn’t he kill Charlie years ago, if that’s the case?”

“You have a good point,
angel, but maybe it festered over the years. Who knows why it took so long? And why would you think
Stu
turned Charlie into buzzard bait?”

“They’re so colorful, aren’t they?” Stephanie glanced at her husband and chuckled. “Buzzard bait. I’ll have to remember that one.”

“Think about it, Bogey Man. Stu has been in on just about everything. He’s always there, trying to help. Don’t you think he just might have been trying to make sure no one suspected him? Think about it. We’ve never met his wife, and if we’re right about history repeating itself, it could be that Charlie and
Jean
were the ones having an affair.”

“
Bogey Man. I’ll have to remember that one, too. But – ” Stephanie held up her index finger again.

“Shush, Steph. Let them talk.” Bill
wrapped his hand around hers and lowered it to the table. “I’m really beginning to enjoy the way their minds work.”

“Here comes the waitress with my pie. Put everything on hold for a minute.”

Essie placed a plate with banana cream pie and a fork in front of Stephanie.

“Thank you.”

Essie stood next to my chair. “I just wanted to say I sure had a good time with Mikey last night. Maybe before you leave he can stay with us again. I’m just sorry Joe had to leave to work on the books here at the diner.”

Chris and I both turned to Mikey.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” he whispered.