Chapter 19

As it worked out, Sierra actually came up with a modified plan that seemed doable. Although success was far from guaranteed, at least the risk to them would be minimal. They would wait at the curb outside the high school parking lot at dismissal time, like any parent waiting to pick up a child. But in their case, they would be waiting for a day when Jeremy left without his wife. Maybe she would be staying late to give extra help, taking her turn at detention duty or staying for a department meeting. The reason didn’t matter as long as Jeremy left alone.

Jaye and Sierra wore oversized sunglasses and baseball caps so the Newirths wouldn’t recognize them when they left the parking lot and drove by. This time there was no Betsy Dugan fallback plan if the couple spotted them and stopped to chat. Although they’d tried to imagine a legitimate reason to explain their presence, so far they’d come up empty. If anyone noticed them sitting there day after day, then driving off without an additional passenger, they might be suspected of scoping out the school for some nefarious purpose. Then they’d have to answer to the police. That was the Achilles’ heel of Sierra’s plan. So after the first couple of days, Jaye suggested alternating cars and buying floppy sun hats in an effort to mitigate that possibility. They’d even discussed renting different cars every few days, but the issue of cost quickly shot down that idea, along with one about having their cars repainted.

By day four of the stakeout they were growing antsy. Sierra brought along some of her peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to munch on, which helped until the cookies ran out. Between them, they polished off eight cookies before the dismissal bell rang.

“Once we’ve wrapped up this case and the real killer is behind bars, you should start peddling your cookies here car to car,” Jaye mused aloud. “Or maybe you could have a little pushcart. In fact, maybe we should start doing that right away—then we’d have an excuse for being here.”

“It’s not a terrible idea,” Sierra replied, licking a smudge of chocolate off her finger. The bell rang then, and both women turned to focus on the parking lot. Within seconds, kids started pouring out of the building, some headed to the waiting cars, the rest to the buses lined up to take them home.

“There’s Jeremy,” they said in unison as they spotted him crossing the lot to a silver SUV. Every day since they’d set their plan in motion, he’d made it out of the building before Kelly. He climbed in and started the engine. Now it was just a matter of waiting to see if she joined him as she had the other days.

“Today’s the day; today’s the day,” Sierra murmured like a mantra. “Today’s the day.”

“What’s going on here?” The speaker was male, loud and virtually breathing down Jaye’s neck. Adrenalin pumping through her, she whipped her head around expecting to see one of Sedona’s finest and wound up inches away from Daniel’s grinning face.

“You almost gave me a heart attack,” she gasped.

“Make that defibrillators for two,” Sierra said with no amusement in her tone.

“Whoa—sounds like you both forgot to take your happy pills today. What exactly are you up to?”

“We want to talk to Jeremy Newirth without his wife around,” Jaye replied.

“And we need to spot her before she gets into their SUV,” Sierra said. “The tint on those windows is so dark it’s almost impossible to see inside. It ought to be illegal.”

A frown creased Daniel’s forehead. “I’m pretty sure stalking someone is already illegal.”

“It’s called investigating,” Jaye said.

Sierra turned back to the parking lot. “Oh, no, we missed it! Jeremy’s leaving the lot.

“Daniel, move,” Jaye snapped, trying to push him out of the way.

“Okay, okay, I can take a hint.” He pulled his head back from the window and stepped out of their line of sight.

“Here he comes,” Sierra said. A second later, the SUV passed alongside them and was gone.

“I think I saw her in there,” Jaye said. “Or at least a silhouette of someone in the passenger seat.”

Sierra sighed. “Not that it matters. If we don’t get to Jeremy before he leaves the lot, we don’t stand a chance of flagging him down when he’s driving by us at thirty or forty miles an hour.”

Daniel was back at the window, peering in at them. “Sorry if I ruined that for you, but maybe next time you’ll remember to keep your partner here in the loop.”

Jaye went from annoyed to remorseful in a split second. Of course they should have told him. Would two of the Musketeers have neglected to include the third? She couldn’t even claim that it had just slipped her mind, because it wasn’t a run-of-the-mill thing like forgetting to buy milk. Had she subconsciously been afraid he’d try to scuttle their plan with a heavy dose of male logic? But even that shouldn’t have mattered. “You’re right,” she said. “You’re absolutely right, and I promise not to leave you out of our plans again.” With the emphasis on “our.” She knew a promise built on exceptions wasn’t much of a promise, but it was the best she could do for now.

Sierra made a similar vow. If she added any silent stipulations, Jaye had no idea what they were.

“I suspect that’s the best I can hope for,” Daniel said, regarding them with a canny smile. “Now, if I can be of any help with these vigils, give me a ring.”

Jaye smiled up at him. “Since you’re offering, could we borrow your Jeep tomorrow?”

***

The next day Sierra brought along the two crumb buns that had survived the morning rush. “I’m going to have to hire more help if business keeps up like this,” she said, handing one of the buns to Jaye on a napkin. “Poor Ruth was about to collapse today.”

Jaye bit into the cake with a little groan of pleasure as powdered sugar eluded the napkin and rained down on her lap. “If we have to continue this stakeout much longer, I won’t be able to squeeze into any of my clothes.”

The dismissal bell rang while they were still eating, so they shoved the buns back in the bag, but not before the console of Daniel’s car received a good dusting of sugar. Ten minutes passed with no sign of Jeremy or Kelly. The buses had all left, as had most of the cars waiting at the curb and half the vehicles in the parking lot. The Newirths’ silver SUV was still there, parked in the same row as always. Sooner or later one of them was bound to leave the school and claim it.

Another five minutes passed before Jeremy walked out of the building and over to his car. He climbed in, started the engine and put it in gear. He wasn’t waiting for anyone. “This is it,” Jaye said, jumping out of the car. The two women ran into the parking lot, reaching the driveway seconds before Jeremy. If it had been earlier, they would have been dodging other cars like crazy. Jeremy had done them a favor by being late.

When he saw them running straight at him, waving their arms, he braked sharply and waited for them to come up alongside him. He lowered his window, wearing an expression that was somewhere between curious and concerned. “Let me just pull to the side so I’m not blocking the exit,” he said.

Jaye and Sierra waited while he parked haphazardly across several spots and jumped down from the SUV. “Is something wrong?” he asked, covering the distance to them in a few long strides. “Do you need help?”

Sierra shook her head. “Actually, we wanted to talk to you.”

“Why didn’t you just call?”

“To be honest, we wanted to talk to you alone,” Jaye said. She and Sierra had gone over it a dozen times. There was no politically correct, candy-coated way to say they didn’t want his wife around. This was the make-or-break moment. He would either tell them off and leave in a huff or stay out of curiosity to hear what they had to say.

His brow had lowered over his eyes, which didn’t bode well. “You sound like those detectives,” he said with an unpleasant curl to his lips. “They’re the law, so I had to put up with their insinuations, but I don’t have to put up with it from the two of you.” He started to turn away.

Jaye was nonplussed by his reaction. Jeremy had something of a backbone after all. He didn’t need his puppeteer in order to make a decision or stand his ground. “Please don’t get me wrong,” Jaye said, switching to crisis-control mode. “Kelly’s wonderful, and she has a sparkling, vivacious personality.”

Jeremy stopped in his tracks as if reassessing the situation.

“Which is a great gift,” Sierra quickly added. “She outshines all of us. But every personality type has its advantages, and it’s often the quietest people who are the most observant or the deepest thinkers. We just wanted to hear your thoughts about the case.”

He turned back to them with a wary expression.

“The truth is we’re in the same boat as you and Kelly,” Jaye said. “We’re all suspects in the murder. The cops want to isolate us, turn us against one another. Instead, we should be banding together to help each other.” It sounded great, if you didn’t think too hard about it. The plan was to keep up the chatter before he figured out they were playing him.

“Jaye and I only have each other to support our alibis,” Sierra said. “Tourists make up such a large percentage of our business, it would be close to impossible to track down all the ones who visited our shops that particular day and expect them to remember at exactly what time they saw us at work. I doubt any of them are even still in town.” There were a lot of holes in what she said, but Jeremy had no way of knowing that. “You and Kelly are in a much better position, right?” she asked as if she sincerely wished that was the case.

Jeremy didn’t answer immediately. He was clearly trying to sort out his thoughts before speaking.

Jaye had no intentions of giving him time for that. “You’re both in the school building for, what—six, seven hours a day? That should definitely help with your alibi. I mean, there are dozens of students who would notice if you weren’t there. Of course,” she murmured as an afterthought, “you get out at two thirty most days. I guess that does leave a big chunk of time you had to account for too.” She and Sierra fell silent, hoping he’d feel obliged to speak.

“Uh, yeah,” he mumbled tentatively. “Same as you, we were home alone after school that day.” Okay, the Newirths had opportunity as well as motive.

“It stinks when they try to pit you against the people you care about most in the world,” Sierra said. “I mean, how do you betray someone you love?”

“Neither of us has had a decent night’s sleep since all this started,” Jaye continued. “It’s obvious the cops are trying to scare us, isolate us from one another until someone breaks.”

“We didn’t kill Peggy,” Sierra said evenly, “and I’m sure you guys didn’t kill her either.” She let the words just hang there in the air.

“No way,” Jeremy said, studying the cuticle on his left index finger as if it required his immediate attention.

“I feel so bad for Kelly,” Sierra said with a sympathetic sigh. “If someone ever hurt or stole my Frosty, I think I’d be capable of murder.” Tears popped up in her eyes on cue, a handy ability she’d discovered back in college drama class.

“I’m sure it was just as awful for Jeremy,” Jaye added, as if she were sticking up for him. Of course, she was actually saying that he was just as likely as his wife to kill whoever was behind Hershey’s disappearance. But on the surface it sounded a whole lot more supportive than accusatory.

Jeremy looked up at them, his misery written plainly on his face. “I loved that big, goofy dog.”

Sierra shook her head. “I understand. There are times you just can’t sit idly by and watch people who are guilty get away scot-free. Especially when it couldn’t be clearer who’s to blame.”

“But I’m sure deciding to take justice into your own hands is hard,” Jeremy said.

And we all know who helps you out with decisions, Jaye thought. She stole a sidelong glance at her friend, who gave her the slightest of nods. They’d gotten more from him then they’d expected. If they kept at it, they’d only succeed in scaring him off.

“We should let you get going,” Jaye said.

“Yeah, I need to get home,” Jeremy said without much enthusiasm.

“If you ever feel the need to talk . . .” Sierra gave his arm a little squeeze of reassurance. “And let’s keep each other informed.”

As they walked out of the lot, Jaye glanced back over her shoulder. Jeremy was still standing where they’d left him, as if he’d become rooted to the macadam.