JACK AND I DRAINED OUR BEERS AND VAMOOSED. IT SEEMED a good time to be somewhere else, to be giving Tom and Faye a little privacy.
We went back to my place first, but we didn’t stay. I was halfway up the stairs, thumping along on my crutches, when Mrs. Pierce barreled out of her downstairs apartment and addressed my back.
“Consider this notice of your eviction,” she said. “I don’t allow my girls to have men up in their rooms.”
I thought of informing Mrs. Pierce that I wasn’t one of her “girls,” but I bit my tongue. And I thought of telling her that Jack was actually a cross-dressing roller derby queen, then thought better of that, too. I even considered asking Jack to flash his badge and recite something from the local renter’s laws. 1 tossed that idea, as well. Who cared what the law said? If Mrs. Pierce didn’t want me—not just the me who left trails of longing in the snow but the larger, more complete me—in her house, then I didn’t want to be in it, either. “I’ll be out as soon’s I can. find another roost,” I answered evenly.
Jack gave his own interpretation of the law by picking me up in his great strong arms and carrying me the rest of the way up the stairs and across the threshold into my apartment, cackling like a madman.
Riding in his arms felt good. It felt joyous. I laughed with all my body as he set me down on my bed and kissed me on the forehead. I arched my back on the pillows and said, “Thank you, most kind and noble sir.”
“Want me to bring the law down on her?” he inquired.
“Nah. I think I just outgrew this place anyway.”
I was still laughing when I looked at my answering machine. I said, “Oh, look: We got us a telly-phone message.” Thinking nothing could daunt me just then, I punched the play button.
The message was from Katie. Her voice sounded exuberant. “Ray told Mama, and Mama told me the happy news!” she had chirped into the mechanical ear. “Well, I think this is a cause for celebration. There’s a funeral tomorrow, as I’m sure you know, so we’re tied up until late afternoon, but let’s get you up here for dinner. Now, don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll arrange all the food, and all you have to do is get yourself dressed. Ray will pick you up. Say six o’clock. Great! Give me a call, okay?”
You could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather. I grabbed up the phone and dialed Ava’s number. Katie answered. “Katie,” I said, shaking with rage. “It’s Em. Just what the fuck do you have up your sleeve?”
“Oh, nothing,” she cooed. “Just welcoming you into the family, dear.”
I could get no sounds through my windpipe for several seconds. Finally, I spluttered, “Well! I take it you haven’t heard from Ray yet about Enos!”
Katie let out a smug snort. “Oh, that. Em, dear, you have to understand, a wife can be open-minded about her husband’s interests in other women.”
“Interests?” I squealed. “Interests?”
“Really, Em. Ray told me that you tried to tell him that Enos had been unfaithful to me. Of course that’s not true, but so what? Even if he was you don’t think that would matter, do you?” With
each word, her voice heated a degree. Alternate meanings seemed to slither through her words like poisonous snakes.
“Is Ray there?” I asked, my throat constricting.
“No. He has gone to work. He works.”
And I lie around and take up space, I thought, anger once again edging ahead of fear. “Listen, Katie, I—thank you for your invitation, but I won’t be available.” I was descending quickly to her game of using one statement to make another. Then suddenly, what she had been saying hit me; Ray had not announced that Enos was a murderer; he had told his family that the man had been committing adultery! Ray had misunderstood everything I’d told him. I rewound the tape of memory and replayed it, this time hearing all the double entendres.
I dropped the phone into its cradle without bothering to say good-bye. I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and stared straight at Jack in horror.
Jack studied me with intense interest. “What?”
“I’m rethinking the conversation I had with Ray in the car. I—I asked him to deal with his brother-in-law. He said he would. And I … and he … I suppose I never once said murder … you know, being polite … but I thought he understood.”
Jack arched one eyebrow. “Did you mention both women?”
“Yes.”
“And Ray went home and accused Enos of adultery.”
“Yes. Or … that’s what Katie just spat back at me.”
“Then that means that Enos isn’t our killer,” he said simply. “Either that or your boy Ray’s in some weird, weird space.”
“Why?”
“Because Ray’s a cop, Em. He thinks his brother-in-law is guilty, but not of murder, and murder has certainly occurred. You can’t name murdered people around a cop and have him think adultery unless he knows your suspect is innocent. And that means that Enos has an alibi. Or worse, maybe your pal Ray is
playing some kind of mind game on us all. Are you sure he didn’t kill those women?”
“Maybe he’s in denial.” I suggested, knowing as I said it that I was being absurdly hopeful.
Jack said, “If he’s that far from reality, I guess it’s a good thing I helped you get that ring off.”
I began integrating this new piece of the puzzle. “But Ava got all jumpy around me when I mentioned earthquakes and Dr. Smeeth and Enos, and she wouldn’t talk to me this morning. She knows something.”
“She has a huge share of that company, Em. You think she doesn’t know what’s going on there? Come on, she’s no room-temperature IQ.”
My stomach sank through my socks. “I don’t like this, Jack. This means we can’t rely on Ray to be a good cop and lock Enos up.”
“You still think it’s him?”
“Yes. The tidiness with which they were each killed. Those killings were engineered. And each was about to expose him.” I stared at the floor. “I know how to make sure if it isn’t him.”
Jack shook his head. “You can’t take any chances, Em.”
I began to tremble with fear and rage. “Chances? Somebody out there is killing women who know too much about the projects Enos Harkness works on, and I’m the next logical target.”
Jack put an arm around my shoulder. “Come on, Em, I’ll take you to my place. You can stay there until this clears up.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said. “But I can’t hide. If I’m the prey, I’ll draw the wolf wherever you put me.”
Jack’s lips set into a straight line.
I said, “I just realized something.”
“Tell me.”
“If I’m the bait, then we are in charge of the trap.”
“What are you thinking?”
“The Ottmeier funeral is tomorrow. Everyone who is anyone in the Mormon community will be there, and that will include all the Raymonds; and unless I misunderstand the way business is done in this town, Hayes himself will also attend. We’ll have to get Jim Schecter to help us, and get the use of the clock tower at the City and County Building.”
For the first time, Jack looked truly worried.