The weather was so nice I took the top off my Jeep before I drove into town. I searched under the seats to make sure I had a hairbrush and took off with the senior center calendar of events safely tucked into my pack. I pulled into the police station parking lot and parked, ran the brush quickly through my hair, then bounded up the steps two at a time.
“Cassidy wait!” the desk clerk called out to me before I hit the door to the hallway leading to Rusty’s office. I pulled up short.
“Is he busy?” I asked. “I can come back later.”
“Uh, you could say that,” she said noncommittally.
“Don’t tell me…there’s a beautiful blond who comes to ‘talk business’ every day. She drives up in a white Mercedes and she asks for Rusty and makes up some story about a case he is working on and she has more information for him.”
“You know?”
“I can guess.”
“Wow, you guess pretty good.”
“She’s pretty predicatable.”
“And you’re not worried?”
“Should I be? What’s Rusty’s reaction?”
“Well, he can’t exactly kick her out. He’s had me make up excuses for him. He’s quietly slipped out the back a few times. But they have met in his office a few times.”
“It doesn’t surprise me in the least.”
I went through to Rusty’s office and peeked in the little window. I knocked and opened the door a crack, just like I always did. Misty jumped out of her chair with a little screech. She stood there, hands on hips, giving me the evil eye.
“I think it’s about time for you to leave,” Rusty said.
Misty stomped over to me, turned a spectacular shade of red, out of anger, not embarrassment, and said, “You…you…you…infuriate me! That’s what you do!” Then she stomped out.
It was Rusty who was embarrassed. “Cassidy, it’s not what you think.”
“Yes, it is,” I answered. “It’s Misty, just being Misty. I watched it for three years in high school.”
“Let’s get out of here. My office is like a trap these days.”
We went out the back to staff parking and took the Explorer to a quiet restaurant for lunch. I kept my news to myself until we were settled in a booth.
“I told you Hazel knew more than we thought!” I said excitedly. “After I asked the right questions we started talking about cars being stolen and the odd way they are found and about some burglaries she had heard of. Look, this is a calendar of events for the senior center. If we stake out the parking lot or meeting area during one of the longer events we might catch Agnes going after a car. If none of those pan out there’s a dance the last day of the month and Wally says a woman that looks like Agnes attends the dances. He wasn’t sure it was Agnes but he said enough to make me think she was worth talking to. Hazel’s getting me a calendar for the Red Hat Ladies, too.”
“You got all this out of Hazel and Wally in one morning?”
“I went over there twice. I didn’t have much luck the first time, but I had more to go by the second time. I told you, Hazel has connections.”
“I guess so. Is this ours?” he said waving the calendar.
“Yeah, I made a copy of Hazel’s.”
He read through the schedule of activities and chose two likely days.
“I’m going to stake out these two nights, unless the other calendar has more likely prospects on it.”
I looked over the calendar and agreed with his choices. One of the dates was in eight days, the other two weeks.
“I think the second one is more likely to work. The group will be at a huge museum an hour away and I bet the more classy seniors will be interested in the Getty Center.”
“That’s my thinking.”
“I just wonder if Agnes will have time to find a new victim by then.”
“We’ll see.”
The subject of Misty never came up. I didn’t say I trusted him and he didn’t make any excuses. The truth was, I never demanded Rusty’s faithfulness. Although I thought he had been trustworthy I had no way of knowing that. My heart said I could trust him and my brain asked why. But they weren’t at odds with each other, either. Misty, however was a different story. I could feel a touch of jealousy as she pursued Rusty, but I wasn’t going to tell Rusty what to do. I always got a catch in my throat at the prospect of losing him. What would I do, if that happened? I could only blame myself. But…I hoped I could trust him. I just wished I knew I could. So, I guess I was at odds with myself. I just tried to keep the two sides of myself away from each other. If I could do that everything would be fine.