"Don't be so hard on yourself."
"Still, I'm the one with control over my finances. It was my decision. Valerie didn't steal from me." She nodded once, sharply, and anger etched lines in her face for a moment. "Speaking of Valerie…" She leaned toward me, her voice low. "Melanie Rucker's got to be one happy woman right now."
"Melanie?" I copied her whisper. "Why would Melanie be happy?" I recalled her leaving the sheriff's office parking lot on Monday, and Randy's temper tantrum. She'd looked none too pleased then.
A young couple who lived near Juliet wheeled their cart past and said, "Hi."
"Don't tell me you don't know," she said, her eyebrows disappearing under her short brunette bangs. I shook my head. "Valerie had been carrying on with Randy for the last few months. All hell broke loose a couple of weekends ago when Melanie found out at a horse show."
"You're kidding! I hope Jacquelyn wasn't there to see it." Their teenaged daughter helped her dad on weekends with training and showing. "Besides, I thought Valerie and Greg were engaged."
"Engaged?" Donna made a half laugh, half snort, then glanced around again. "If they were, then they sure weren't exclusive. Greg's been fooling around with Jacquelyn, too."
"What?" My shriek drew a few glances. I lowered my voice. "But she's a kid!"
"She'll be graduating from high school in June. She's old enough, I guess – old enough to exercise her own bad judgment, anyway."
I was floored. What a sordid little mess. Now I thought I knew why Melanie and Randy were at the sheriff's office on Monday. They'd undoubtedly been called in for questioning. That must have been interesting. But why had he been angry with me?
"How'd you find out about all of this?"
"Peggy, initially. You know she works at the Everett Times – 'gossip central.' I think they get more news that's not fit to print than the other kind. Everyone on my softball team knows now, too, since a couple of them have kids with horses."
"Wow," I said, still absorbing the information.
"And to think it was a horse accident that killed her. I'd have thought – well, it wouldn't have surprised me if someone deliberately went after her."
Annoyance that misinformation about Blackie's involvement in Valerie's death flared before the actual fact that she was misinformed sunk in. She should have known Valerie was murdered with such direct access to gossip central. "It wasn't an accident, Donna. Someone killed her."
The look of shock on her face seemed genuine.
Although our conversation ended on a different, less dramatic note, I revisited the gossip about Melanie and Randy as I wheeled my cart of bagged groceries out to the parking lot. The two red Ford Escorts parked next to each other swung my attention to a more immediate problem. I had to look at the license plates to tell which was mine. Good thing they didn't have interchangeable keys like I'd heard some older Saturns did.
I finished loading the groceries into my trunk and returned the cart to the queue. A quick glance in the window of the other Escort revealed softball equipment – gloves, a couple of softballs, and bats. One of which was broken.
Donna's car.
I squashed my next thought before it was half-formed. I was imagining boogeymen under the bed.
I arrived home to find Juliet sitting on my front porch. She jumped up, dusted off the seat of her pants and met me at the curb as I parked my car.
"How'd it go?" she asked, looking worried.
"You knew I was meeting Jonathan?" I popped the trunk open.
"I think you might have told me. Did it go okay?"
I didn't remember telling her, but I didn't pursue it. Seems like everybody knew the details of my life right now.
"It went fine."
"Are you upset?"
"No, actually, I feel pretty good. Juliet -"
"Oh good." She put two fingers in her mouth and let loose a shrill whistle.
"Was that necessary?" My ears were ringing.
"I was letting Eric know he could come over."
A car door slammed. "You're calling him like a dog now?"
"It was his idea," she said defensively, taking the plastic bags I handed to her. "He didn't want to intrude if you were upset and wanted to talk to me alone."
Great. Another missed opportunity to talk to Juliet about her interview with Thurman. No offense to Eric, but I didn't want him in on the conversation.
Eric strolled over, said hello, and carried the remaining bags into the house. After helping me put the groceries away he pulled out a chair next to Juliet at the kitchen table, and stretched out his long blue-jeaned legs. Juliet gave him an appreciative once over. I put the kettle on for tea and brought mugs, tea bags, and biscotti to the table.
"Thea said everything ended okay with Jonathan," my sister informed him.
He took her hand lightly in his. "That's good."
She turned back to me. "No fireworks at all? Not even a little?"
"Not really."
Juliet chuckled. "Man, that's good, because after last night, with all that screaming and yelling you guys were doing downtown, and right after all that passionate making out-well, I figured you were going to have at it again tonight, 'cuz remember last week when I was bugging you about how boring your life was and you said you'd cut loose a little sometime soon? Oh, too, too funny. I thought you were trying to shut me up. But whoa, mama, don't you think you kinda overdid it a bit yesterday?"
My sister, once again, stunned me speechless.
"Juliet," Eric said, "I don't think you're being fair here."
"Oh, I don't know. My big sister is stirring up some good gossip in town, what with the mur -"
"Juliet," he said sternly. "Don't tease her."
She stopped abruptly, her previously lively expression changing to one of concern. "Oh, gee, I'm sorry, Thea. I didn't mean to upset you. I guess it must have been pretty bad for you to lose your temper like that at someone besides me." She looked at Eric and bit her lip. He smiled gently at her and squeezed her hand.
"It's okay," I said, even though it wasn't. It was my fault, not Juliet's. "It was pretty unpleasant, though. I feel bad about it." No point in denying it.
"I think Paul was pretty unhappy, too," Eric offered.
Regret swept over me. I looked at Eric, who suddenly displayed a great deal of interest in the biscotti. The tea kettle whistled. Juliet got up, took it off the range and poured boiling water into each mug.
"You've talked to him?" What horrible things had he said?
Eric submerged a tea bag in his mug with a spoon and stirred it with fascination. "Uh, no. He called and left a message telling me he was going to be busy and didn't think he'd be able to make practice this week."
"Oh." I tried not to sound as relieved as I felt. Then again, maybe Paul did say something and Eric was protecting my feelings. It would be like him to be kind. The silence in my kitchen felt desperate.
"We need to go," Eric said, without finishing his tea. "It's my turn to do the evening barn check."
He got up from his chair and stretched. Yeah, I saw why Juliet had a hard time keeping her eyes off him. A sudden yearning for Paul put an extra twist in my heart. My sister and Eric were lucky. They liked each other despite the physical attraction.
I walked with them to Eric's car. Frederick Parsons's black Mercedes was parked down the street, but I didn't mention it. I was too exhausted to expend what little energy I had left on someone who could think of nothing better to do than keep tabs on me.
Chapter Seventeen
I burrowed deeper under the warm comforter the next morning and examined my mood. Not great, but also not awful. Best to put off thinking about it until I'd eaten and had coffee, just in case I was mistaken. While the coffee brewed, I padded down the hall to the living room and stole a look out the front window. The absence of the black Mercedes made me feel a little less tense, so I showered, washed my hair with a new shampoo that smelled like apples, and wondered about Randy and Melanie Rucker. Could either have killed Valerie? The motive was so classic it was a Hollywood staple. But however angry Melanie was, wouldn't she be going after Greg first? Wouldn't a mother's knee-jerk instinct be to protect her child? Still, it was a possibility. Perhaps she believed Greg cared for Jacquelyn. Perhaps Jacquelyn herself dissuaded her mother from taking her anger out on Greg. Of course, Melanie might have simply chosen the easier target.