Chapter Thirty-Nine

 

Even though Loren Garrison had pleaded guilty, Radhauser kept working the case. No one ever pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge unless they’d struck some kind of deal with the District Attorney. Something didn’t feel right.

He called ahead to make sure Gracie worked the lunch shift. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the garage door repairman Matt had mentioned, the strangeness of his showing up without having been called, and the opportunity he’d had to plant the scissors.

When he’d called Anderson’s Garage Doors, trying to get an emergency service call, the man’s wife said she wished people would stop phoning. Radhauser pushed her, said he’d pay triple the going rate. Then she told him to call The Silver Spur Steak House out in Catalina. Now that was one big coincidence. And sure enough, the van Matt had described was parked in the lot when Radhauser arrived.

He pulled into an empty spot and parked his Bronco. Waves of heat rose from the asphalt. When he pulled open the double doors into The Silver Spur, Gracie was on the phone behind the podium, jotting a reservation into the book. She smiled when she spotted him. “If you came back for the pineapple upside-down cake, you’re a little bit early. Baxter hasn’t baked them yet.”

He tipped his Stetson for a second before taking it off. “I’m here to see you. But I’d love a big glass of iced tea.”

She smiled uncertainly at her boots, then slid a glance toward the bar where a bartender Radhauser had never seen before served beer to what looked like the same men who’d been here the last time he’d talked to Gracie. She ordered his iced tea and waited for it to be poured.

“Your usual corner table by the window?”

“Why not? Can you spare me a few minutes?”

She nodded and led him around the bar. It smelled like fried onions and beer. They both slid into the booth. “How are your classes going?” Radhauser asked.

“I’m in the middle of final exams. Memorizing all the bones in the body for anatomy. Did you know the foot has twenty-six? Twenty-eight, if you count the sesamoid bones at the base of the big toe. But you didn’t come here to quiz me.” She paused and smiled. “At least, not on anatomy.”

“What can you tell me about that Anderson Garage Doors panel truck in the parking lot?” Radhauser took a swig of his tea.

“That belongs to Charlie,” she said, then confirmed what the man’s wife had told him, that Anderson did the landscaping work on Sunday and Monday mornings. “Baxter pays him in free beer and all the food he can eat. Are you having problems with your garage door?”

“Yes. And when I saw his truck, I thought this might be my lucky day.”

“He’s cutting Baxter’s grass. But he’ll be at the bar soon.”

“I need you to do something for me, Gracie.”

“What?”

“Go back to the night Crystal told you she was pregnant.”

Gracie looked away, then back at him again, her dark eyes wet and accusing. “How do you know she told me that?”

“Because she was happy, and you were her best friend and she wanted to share that good news with you.”

Gracie smiled sadly. “She couldn’t wait to tell her boyfriend. She was already planning a May wedding in the courtyard at the Arizona Inn. She said she wanted me to be her bridesmaid.” Her eyes filled with tears.

“Did she mention how far along she was in the pregnancy?”

“About a month. She’d taken a home pregnancy test.”

Radhauser nodded. So, Crystal had lied to Gracie.

“This is really important. Did Baxter know?”

“I didn’t mention the pregnancy,” she said. “Bax was disgruntled over Crystal not showing up when he’d expected her to work the bar. I tried to explain how excited she was about planning a wedding.”

“How did Baxter take the news?”

“He started pacing, and muttering to himself about what an idiot he’d been. At first, I couldn’t make sense out of it. Apparently, he’d had some papers drawn up making Crystal a co-owner of The Spur. He said they’d planned to have a baby together. Maybe even get married.”

“Did you have any idea he and Crystal were romantically involved?”

“There were some rumors. But Crystal never confirmed any of them. And she bitched about him as much as the rest of us.” Gracie gave him a sad smile. “Crystal wasn’t a bad person. She just wanted to be loved. And she was an expert at getting men to fall for her. Now that I think about it, it’s probably why Millie didn’t like Crystal very much.” Gracie’s eyes lit with mischief for an instant. And in that moment, Radhauser could see what she must have looked like as a little girl.

For the first time since his wife and son died, Radhauser felt the stirrings of tenderness for another woman. Gracie was at least a decade younger, but she understood both the folly and the burden of being human.

Maybe after all this was over, he’d call her, see if she’d like to have dinner or take a picnic lunch up to Mt. Lemmon. He shook his head, an attempt to get a grip on his emotions. He was in the middle of a murder investigation. And, despite Garrison’s confession, it was beginning to look as if he’d arrested the wrong man. He didn’t have time for distractions. “Did Baxter eventually calm down that night?”

“At first his voice was quiet and really sad. Then he went ballistic, called her a lying bitch.” Gracie stared at Radhauser for a moment, her eyes wide. “But we all knew it was his grief talking.”

“What happened next?”

“He stormed out of the bar, left it for Millie and me to handle. We heard his front door slam. I wanted to warn Crystal. But Millie said she’d go over and talk to him. And if Baxter left, she’d call Crystal. Baxter didn’t go anywhere.”

“How about Millie? Did she leave the premises before midnight?”

Gracie shook her head. “She went over to talk to Baxter, but she didn’t leave the premises. Most of my tables look out on the parking lot, and her car was there until she went home around one. Baxter said she had a headache, that he’d told her to lie down for a while. She did. But the headache didn’t go away. Bax behaved real nice and helped me close up.”

Something cracked and a new possibility seeped in, further diluting Radhauser’s conviction that Garrison killed Crystal.