Stilettos & Scoundrels (34 page)

“I don’t care, Presley. I don’t want this to get out. I can handle it myself,” she said stiffly.

“Helen,”
I
implored.

“Just stay away from me, Presley. And don’t breathe a word about this to anybody or you’ll be sorry.” She turned and walked back to her car.

When
Helen left,
I
sat in
my
car thinking about
my
next move. Floored about the extent of the Senator’s gambling problems, thoughts were spinning in
my
head. The someone, or someones, he
had
indebted himself to
had definite motive for
murder.
I
started
my
car and decided to go home and think about
my
next step. In fact,
it might be smart to
wait until tomorrow to pursue this.
I
needed to talk to Katy
about this new development, and I knew Katy
was busy and wouldn’t be around tonight.
Katy
wouldn’t
say
why either. When
I
asked, she was vague.
I
didn’t press
the issue
at the time
,
but
I
planned to
get it out of my friend
when
I
saw her next.
I
assumed Katy was spending time with C
hris and didn’t want to tell me
after
our
discussion about him earlier.

I had stuff to do today anyway. I
needed to get the stuff
I
picked up for
my
m
other home
, and I
wanted to do some shopping at the new outlet mall nearby. Maybe
I
would blow off the rest of the day and shop.
It wasn’t
the most responsible thing to do
,
but
I
felt stuck
about
where to go from here. Who
should I
let in on what
I
knew
?
H
ow
could I
make
all this into something for my
article, which
I
had to figure out soon
so I could
call Trevor back. He had almost reached stalker status. Having decided on a course of action
for the day, I
felt happy
—even if I was putting myself
further into the poor house
and avoiding the tough questions
.
But as I
d
rove by the grocery store on my way to the mall, I
caught a glimpse of
something out of the corner of my
eye
that made me slow
down. Was that Ruth wa
lking into the grocery mart? I
pulled in
to a spot and wondered what I should do. I had my
self a
ll talked into shopping, but I
hated to pass up this opportunity. One might argue doing something constructive to earn money was much better than spending it
,
especially since I
didn't have many other income options right now.

Fine
, I said to my
self.
Let’s do the right thing.
Ruth was already ticked at
me
a
bout our conversation at
the library yesterday, so how much madder could she get
if I had
a few more questions
?
The fact that thi
s would probably get back to my
mother,
again
, was a thought
that I
pushed to the back of
my
mind. Once
I
explained it all to
my mother
, surely she wouldn’t be too mad
, would she?
And she wasn’t that close to Ruth. Was she? Right.
Who was
I
kidding? It wasn’t about being close, it was about embarrassment.
When h
er daughter ma
de
a spectacle of herself
, she couldn’t be proud of me
.

I caught
up to Ruth in the frozen food section, an area of the grocery store
with which I
was quite familiar
.
Ruth looked up from her groceries with a
n expression
of surprise.
I
wondered if it was because Ruth didn’t
expect to find me
here or didn’t want to be caught buying frozen pizza. That could be the kiss of death to some of these ladies in town.
I
lived for frozen food. Without a microwave and Lean Cuisines,
I
wouldn’t survive.

“
Presley. What a nice surprise,” Ruth said. Nice surprise.
Ha!
I
wasn’t going to fall for that fake nicety.

“Hi, Ruth. I didn’t expect to run into you here.” Two could play this game. “But I am so glad I did, because since our last talk I thought of a few more questions I wanted to ask you. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Yes, I do mind. In case you hadn’t noticed, I am in the middle of shopping
,
and I have things to do. Better things than to listen to you invade
an
other
person
’s privacy.”

Knowing all
I
knew about Bobby and his secrets,
I
knew Ruth felt she had a lot to hide.
I
didn’t know why it would bother Ruth to have a gay son in this day and age
,
even one with a gambling problem.
I
couldn’t understand why all the women in this town put so much pressure on themselves to have everything perfect. Perfect houses, perfect cooking, perfect kids
,
the list w
ent on and on. It almost made me
feel bad for asking all those questions
—for
making Ruth feel uncomfortable. Although it wasn’t
Ruth’s
fault, she had
an
idealistic
image of
how everything should be. So what
?
Bobby had a failed marriage. Not that big of a deal.

“What do you want, Presle
y?” Ruth asked, interrupting my
thoughts.

I
had planned to just blurt out
that I
had heard about Bobby, but knew that would be enough to make Ruth flip, so
I
decided a softer approach might be better.

“Actually, Ruth, I hoped to get Bobby’s number from you. After I left the library
,
I thought maybe it would be fun to get together, for old times
’ sake.” I
didn’t really want to
reconnect for fun, but as I
said it, it made sense to talk to him. Might as well go right to the source and see what Bobby had to say for himself.
I could stay in my
mother’s good graces at the same time.

“Oh! I am glad you changed your mind about being too busy. I know Bobby would love to get together. He’s had a rough time of it lately.” She reached into her purse for a pen
and
a slip of paper.

“That’s what I’ve heard,”
I
said, trying to sound sympathetic since it was clear it made Ruth happy.

“Don’t believe everything you hear. People don’t have anything better to do than to gossip. My Bobby is a good man.” She scribbled down a number and handed
me
the paper slip.

That’s the pot calling the kettle black,
I
thought
.
M
ost
folks
would consider Ruth one of the biggest gossips in town.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,”
I
said nonchalantly, as if
I
could
not
care less.
I
took the paper and stuffed i
t in the side compartment of my
purse.

“I would hope not. Your mother wouldn’t be happy to learn of you spreading hurtful rumors.”

“Ruth, I am not the one spreading rumors. They’re already out there. I’m just trying to confirm them.”

“Maybe you should spend more time worrying about what’s going on at home than what other people are doing.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“
I
mean
there are things going on right under your nose that you should be more concerned about. Now please leave
,
so I can get on with my shopping.”

I
wanted to ask Ruth more
,
but
I
knew it was pointless. Besides
,
I
needed to think about what Ruth just said. It made
me
wonder if it had anything to do with seeing
my
dad that night and him not telling the truth about where he was
.
I
had tried to forget about that.

“Well
,
thanks for the number. Have fun shopping.”
I finger waved and made my
getaway before Ruth could say anything else.

My
car beeped as
I
pressed the button to unlock it
, and I threw my
purse over to the passenger seat. As
I
was starting to get in
, out of the corner of my
eye
I noticed
someone who
looked like Simon. Squinting
,
I
saw
that
it was Simon. He was standing next to a black car
, (
it looked like a Lincoln
)
, talking to someone through the open window.
I
couldn’t tell who he was talking to and wasn’t about to walk over there. Hmmm….
Interesting place for Simon to be hanging out: the grocery store parking lot.

“Don’t you want to know who killed S
enator Daniels, Mother?” I
yelled into the phone, frustrated.
I
had
barely left Ruth and the grocery store when
my
cell phone rang.
I
tried ignoring it, but knew
my
mother wouldn’t quit calling until
I
answered and
I didn’t
want to shut it off in case
Cooper
or Dirt called. Now
my
mother alternated between giving
me
the third degree about sticking
my
nose in matters
I
shouldn’t and yelling at
me
for embarrassing her with her friends. Ruth
had
called
my mother
the minute
I
left the frozen food aisle.
No big surprise.
Not to mention
my mom
was
upset
that I
hadn’t brought her stuff from Home Depot yet
. I
didn’t realize
my
mother was in such dire need of weed killer and Miracle
-
Gro.
I
wanted to ask her if she knew anything about Bobby and his gambling problem, not to mention his preference for men, but she wouldn’t let
me
get a word in edgewise. Plus, in a twisted way,
I
wanted to see the look on her face when
I
dropped the bombshell about Bobby being gay, so maybe it would be better to wait until
we
were together.

My
phone started beeping, signaling someone else calling in.
I
look
ed
at the screen
and saw that
it was
Cooper
.
I
planned to call him anyway
,
so
he had timed his call perfectly
.