Thirty and a Half Excuses (28 page)

The SUV driver had gotten out of the car and was shouting, but he stopped when he took in what was happening. I shoved an elbow hard into Christy’s stomach, and she groaned and dropped her hold on my hair.

I pushed the door open and took off running. “Call 911!” I shouted to the SUV driver as gunshots rang out.

She was really trying to shoot me!

I ran for several blocks, zigging and zagging between houses and changing streets. I stopped behind a giant oak tree to catch my breath, looking around to make sure I’d lost her.

I was at the edge of downtown, which meant I was close to the nursery. But should I take a chance and go there? The police station was out. I considered going to Mason’s office, but I didn’t want to risk passing any police officers who might decide I was guilty before proven innocent.

I snorted. A crazy lunatic like Christy was walking around Henryetta shooting at people, but they were interested in arresting me and Bruce Wayne.

I doubted Christy even knew about the nursery, let alone that I was an owner. When I walked through the door to the shop, Violet was livid. “Where in the hell have you been?”

I wiped the sweat off my forehead. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“I’ve been manning the shop all alone. You didn’t even call to tell me where you were, and your phone went straight to voicemail.”

I stumbled to the back room and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, taking several gulps. “My phone’s dead,” I finally said, realizing I’d lost my purse somewhere in the last couple of hours. My phone along with it.

“When are you going to become a responsible adult and learn to charge your phone?”

I ignored her question and took another drink.

“Why are you so out of breath?”

“I was running from a crazy woman.”

“Ha. Ha,” she sneered, going back behind the counter. “Very funny.”

I leaned against the counter. “I had to go to Jonah’s this morning. Remember? We got that parsonage job.”

Her eyes bugged in exasperation. “Well, why didn’t you just say so? I forgot all about it. How’s it going?”

I thought about everything that had transpired over the last few hours. “It’s going fine.” I went behind the counter. “Where’s the phone book?”

“Why?”

“I need to call Mason.”

“If you’d just charge your phone, you could call him on that.”

I saw no point in arguing with her. I looked up Mason’s office number and Cecelia answered on the second ring.

“Cecelia, this is Rose Gardner. Has Mason come back to his office yet?’ I took the cordless handset to the backroom, out of Violet’s earshot.

“No. Not yet.” I could tell it was killing her to be nice to me.

“Will you give him a message? Tell him I lost my cell phone, but I’ll call him back later to explain what happened. In the meantime, could you call the police and tell them Christy Hansen is running around town with a gun? I suspect she plans to put one of her bullets in Jonah Pruitt.”

“
What
?”

“I know.” I sighed. “Just tell ‘em.”

I may have gotten away from Christy, but as far as I knew, Bruce Wayne was still missing. I had to find him. I put the phone back in the charger. “Vi, I have to go back to the job. David’s not working with Bruce Wayne, and he needs the help.” Lying to Violet made me feel guilty, but it was a lot easier than explaining everything, not that she’d approve of me helping Bruce Wayne anyway.

“But you haven’t even taken any plants yet.”

I cursed under my breath. “Uh…there’s a lot of digging out bushes and tree trimming. We probably won’t get to planting until tomorrow. Or the next day.”

She looked out the window. “Where’s your truck?”

This day just kept getting worse and worse. My truck keys were in my purse, wherever that was.

I waved in the direction of the street. “Oh, you know. Out there.”

She shook her head, looking at me like I was one of her misbehaving children. “What does Joe think about you spendin’ so much time with Mason?”

“He’s just
fine
with it. He told me yesterday that he
trusts
me.”

Putting her hands on her hips, she jutted out her hip. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I groaned. I didn’t have the time or energy to deal with her right now. “Exactly what it sounds like, Violet. Joe trusts me.” I headed for the door. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Charge your phone!” she shouted after me.

Unsure what to do for transportation, I decided to check Merilee’s for my purse since that was the last place I remembered having it. And if I couldn’t find it there, I’d call a locksmith to get new keys for the truck. After that, I was looking for Bruce Wayne.

Even if it meant driving out to Weston’s Garage alone.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Thankfully the waitress at Merilee’s had found my purse and put it behind the counter even though she didn’t look too happy to see me. My cell phone was in it, but I hadn’t put a charger in my new truck yet.

I drove to the Piggly Wiggly first. I hadn’t expected to find David there, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him stacking cans on a shelf. He, on the other hand, looked surprised, but not so pleasantly.

“Bruce Wayne’s in trouble.”

David hung his head, rolling it from side to side. “What’s that boy gone and done now?”

“Actually,” I squatted next to him. “He hasn’t done anything. It’s one of those wrong time and place situations.”

He pressed his lips together. “He seems to get into a lot of those pickles.”

“Have you seen him?”

“Nope, not since he left for that preacher’s house this morning.”

“Do you know if Bruce Wayne had any dealings with Weston’s Garage?”

David’s shoulders slumped. “Don’t tell me he’s mixed up with those guys again.”

My heart sunk.
Again
. So he had a history with them. “He left Merilee’s with a couple of them this morning.”

He shook his head. “I told him to stay away from those guys.”

“What did he do for them?”

“Little jobs, mostly errands. He was in training to rise in the ranks.”

“What does that mean?”

Sighing, he held out his palm. “Look, you can’t just join one of those places. You have to work your way up, prove you’re worthy. I’m surprised your boyfriend didn’t tell you about it. He knows the drill. Why don’t you ask him?”

“Because he’s not here, and I need information now. When was the last time Bruce Wayne associated with them?”

“About the time he was arrested for murder. When he got out, Crocker had been arrested.”

“Do you think he’s working for them again?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. He was really trying to go down the straight and narrow, but it hasn’t been working out too well.”

I stood, brushing my hair from my face as I tried to figure out what to do next. “If you see him, will you ask him to call me? Tell him that I’m worried sick about him, and I want to help.”

David’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I noticed that. Why do you want to help him so bad? What’s in it for you?”

“Maybe I want to help him because I like him.”

A knowing grin spread across David’s face.

“As a friend!” I added. “I’ve got more man troubles than I can handle. I sure as hades don’t need any more.” I looked around the store. “Do y’all sell cell phone charger cords? I lost mine.”

“So you can take Bruce Wayne’s call? We sure do…”

What in tarnation was up with people linking me to men in whom I had no interest? I rolled my eyes. “Where are they?”

He tilted his head to the left. “Aisle four.”

“Thank you.” I hurried over two aisles, trying to process what David had told me. The fact that Bruce Wayne had dealt with Weston’s Garage in the past was a good sign. He might have actually gone with them willingly.

The menagerie of cords hanging in front of me was driving me crazy. I pulled my cell phone out of my purse, trying to match it to the cord ends on the chargers. Why did there have to be so many?

“We’re in deep trouble.” I heard Jonah Pruitt say. My eyes widened as I looked around to find him. When he spoke again, I realized he was one aisle over.

I grabbed the cord that seemed to fit my phone and followed his voice as it moved down the aisle.

“The police were at my door this morning accusing me of murder. I thought this was under control.” He was silent for several seconds, and I couldn’t be sure if he’d stopped or was still moving. Finally he spoke again, several feet ahead of me. “Well, that doesn’t help… I had her right there within my reach before I got interrupted. When I finished with the detective nonsense, she was gone.”

Was he talking about me? I was desperate to hear more, but he was at the end of the row and headed my way. I spun around to run the other way, but Jonah rounded the corner and spotted me before I could make good on my escape. He cast his gaze down and mumbled, “I’ve got to go.” Then he stuffed his phone into his pants pocket. He’d changed out of his shorts and T-shirt into a polo and khakis. “Rose? What on earth are you doin’ here? Aren’t you supposed to be working on my yard?”

“Well…” I stalled. “We never came up with an approved estimate, so I put Bruce Wayne on another job today.” The lies were rolling off my tongue today like butter off hot corn on the cob.

“I was disappointed that you were already gone when I finished my interview with Detective Taylor.”

“Sorry, I had another job to bid.” I shifted my weight. “What did Detective Taylor want?”

He waved his hand as though my question was nonsense and he was batting it away. “Nothin’. They just wanted to know if I noticed any suspicious behavior when I was at poor Gina’s house. I guess I have another funeral to officiate.”

“Did he mention how she died?”

His mouth twisted as though he was thinking about it. “Now that you mention it, he didn’t.”

Despite being in the middle of all this mess, I still didn’t know how any of these women had
actually
died. “I ran into Christy Hansen this morning.”

His smile fell. “Is that so? And how is she?”

“Angrier than a cat tossed into a bath. She’s lookin’ for you, and it’s not to discuss Sunday’s sermon.”

He gulped. “Thanks for the warning.”

“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure why I had told him. He probably deserved her wrath, but if she shot him, I didn’t want to live with the guilt of knowing I could have helped prevent it.

“Well, I’ve gotta get going.” I pointed my thumb toward the registers.

“Wouldn’t you know it? I’m done too.” He was carrying a basket with a loaf of bread and a block of cheddar cheese. “We can check out together.”

Oh yippee.

We walked to the registers together, Jonah staying closer to me than necessary.

David looked up from stacking his cans, watching us with curiosity.

Placing my cord on the conveyor belt, I pulled out my wallet, purposely avoiding Jonah’s gaze. “If Monday’s your day off, how come you planned for the big revival to start tonight?”

Jonah released an exaggerated sigh. “The Lord may have had a day of rest, but my work never seems to be done. I wanted to get in five solid nights.”

“Did you have revivals at your old church? I’m not sure where you were before you moved to Henryetta.”

He stiffened. “Why the sudden curiosity?”

I wasn’t sure, but if Jonah had anything to do with these deaths, maybe he’d swindled old ladies before. Maybe it was why Joe had warned me about him. The more I knew, the better my chances of getting out of this—and of helping Bruce Wayne. But Jonah wasn’t going to just tell me for the sake of telling me. I’d been giving him the brush off, and I needed to be nice to him. I tried to give him a coy smile, but I wasn’t sure if it worked or just made me look constipated.

The cashier leveled her gaze at me. “That will be $18.79.”

I handed her a twenty, turning back to Jonah. “You know more about me than I know about you. That hardly seems fair.”

He relaxed, resting his shoulder on a display rack. “I was in Texas before here. Homer, Texas. Ever heard of it?”

I shook my head and took my change from the cashier. “Can’t say I have.”

Laughing, he put his two items on the belt, but he looked nervous. “I’m not surprised. Most people haven’t.”

“So why move to Henryetta?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” He continued to look down at his merchandise. “It seemed like a nice town, ready for a spiritual revolution.”

“You sure have added a lot of church members in a short time.”

“I told you, it’s our loving, accepting attitude.”

The cashier handed me my bag.

Jonah looked up, and something in his eyes caught my attention. Desperation. “Rose, will you wait a second and let me walk you to your truck?”

“Uh…” I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea, but Jonah seemed to have been forthright in his answer…well, as forthright as he seemed capable of being. I hated to lose an opportunity to gather more information. “Okay.”

The cashier frowned in disapproval.

I stood at the end of the aisle. “I have to say I was impressed with your service yesterday. And I’m speechless you put me in your video.” I was sure he’d take it as flattery.

“So you’ll consider coming back?”

I tilted my head with a shy smile. “I’ll think about it.”

A grin spread across his face, and he looked almost genuine, like he wasn’t a televangelist, just a happy man. He paid for his food and snatched up his bag, walking outside with me.

“Have you had lunch yet?” he asked.

“I…” I hadn’t, but I needed to look for Bruce Wayne. But my stomach betrayed me, growling at the mention of food.

“I know you’re a busy businesswoman, but you need to take time to eat. Besides I really need to talk to you about something. Lunch will be my treat.”

Jonah was dropping his guard, and I had a chance to get more answers. Maybe he knew where Bruce Wayne was. “I can’t stay for long.”

He pointed to the park at the end of the street. “How about we grab something and go sit in the shade.”

Being out in the open made me feel better, even if it was the park I’d escaped to the night of Momma’s death. “Okay.”