I considered appealing to Dickey’s common sense, groveling at his feet, and hoping he’d listen. By the time I went to sleep, I decided it was the right thing to do. It was a good thing I waited until the next day to turn myself in. By then I’d changed my mind.
Chapter 27
BLAZE HAD A BAD NIGHT. His old suspicions came back and it took all my persuasive reasoning to keep him in the motel room. Our family spent months helplessly watching him fight the infection in his brain. We still didn’t know how it had developed. Was it something that came out of the ground? Was it airborne? A wood tick? We’d probably never know the answer.
We were lucky to have him back. Lots of people die from meningitis.
I gave him a few dollars to count and stack and that kept him happy for a while. But the night was long and hard. Enemies came at him from all sides. They were at the windows, at the door, behind the shower curtain. I didn’t tell him how close to the truth he really was.
I started to suspect that he had most of his paranoid symptoms when he grew tired. All the drama was wearing on him. So Wednesday morning, Cora Mae knocked quietly on our motel door and tiptoed in to watch over him. She looked tired from her hot doctor date, but happy as she snuggled under my bed covers. I left Blaze snoring away, dead to the world.
Fred opened an eye, but seemed content where he was, curled on the floor.
Then I went over the edge after Tony.
____________________
According to TV6 news, the search for Tony’s body had followed the Escanaba River toward the river’s mouth in Escanaba where it ended at Lake Michigan. Nightfall had hampered their efforts, so they were at it again today working their way downstream.
The investigation on the upper end was complete. No body yet.
I parked the car a ways beyond the broken rail where the car had left the road. I changed from Cora Mae’s heels to sneakers, combed through the black bob with my fingers, and started down to the river. The view from the top used to be breathtakingly beautiful. After Barney’s death, I couldn’t see its beauty anymore.
The trip down is steep and rocky without any visible path. I had to clutch at brush to keep from falling, but finally I stood at the bottom, scanning out over the river for signs of Tony’s car. Dickey must have had it removed yesterday, but I could still focus on the angle of projection and make a guess as to where it landed – smack in the middle.
The current rode high and mighty, swirling and slapping against the rocky shore at my feet. If Tony had been inside the car, he was dead. If he hadn’t been inside, I wondered how he could have pulled it off. The car had to be traveling at more than an idle to break through the barrier above. How do you get a car up to speed on the road, jerk it to the proper angle for impact, and get out of the way before it goes over?
Quite a trick. He had to be a desperate man to even attempt it.
I poked around, keeping one eye on the road above in case company joined me. Nothing worthwhile surfaced. I walked along the riverbank, studying the ground for clues, anything out of the ordinary. Nothing.
That’s when I drove over to the jail to turn myself in and take my chances with the legal system, the one I’ve been in conflict with all my life. Anything to do with the government sits poorly with most of our community and that includes me. Having Blaze as sheriff was tolerable because he bent the rules once in awhile, looked the other way if he felt it was right. Blaze really cared about the community. But Dickey Snell? He reminded me of why we dislike government.
No one was there. So I took off the wig and went to Ruthie’s for a piece of pie.
Otis was the only other customer in the Deer Horn. He flung his hands over his head in a gesture of surrender. “Don’t draw on me, Gertie,” he said. “I’ll admit to anything you want me to, just don’t shoot.” Otis had a grin on his face to let me know he was kidding around.
“There must be something illegal about parking a train someplace other that in a train station,” I quipped back. “I’ll have to shoot you twice for that infraction. Ruthie, I need a pot of coffee and a piece of cherry pie. That last one was delicious.”
“To go?”
“No, I’ll eat it here.” I sat down next to Otis. “Where is everybody?”
“Hunting for what’s left of Tony,” Ruthie said. “Have you heard about his accident?”
“Yup.”
“It’s a terrible thing,” Otis said. “That’s the second car that’s gone off in that spot in the last five years. It’s slippery along there when it’s raining.”
“Did you guys call the cops after I came in and threatened Tony?” I said, cutting into the pie.
“Naw,” Otis said. “It woulda been bad for Ruthie’s business.”
I hadn’t thought of that. No one wants to eat in an establishment when there’s a shooting risk attached to it.
“Strange though,” Otis scratched at the side of his face like it helped his thought process. “Tony didn’t call them either. He smoothed himself out and finished his sandwich without even mentioning that it happened.”
“It’s leaking out,” Ruthie said. “Onni Maki came in earlier and asked me if it was true. I told him he shouldn’t believe everything he hears.”
“I’m sorry for the trouble,” I told her. “I don’t know what got into me.”
“That’s okay. It added some excitement to the day. I wonder why they haven’t found Tony’s body yet.” Ruthie flipped on a little TV behind the counter. She checked for news, found none, and left it on with the volume low. “Want anything else, Gertie?”
“Just keep the coffee fresh,” I replied, thinking I’d sit there until Dickey discovered me, see how long it took him. “I’m turning myself in.”
“How come?” Otis said. “It’s been real exciting around here with you on the loose.”
“Not quite as exciting for me. I can’t do any more on my own. I’m out of ideas.”
“We’re rooting for you,” Ruthie said. “We know you and Blaze didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m hoping that if I tell Dickey what I know, he’ll be able to use it to crack the case.”
Otis humphed like he didn’t believe it.
“It was Tony scheming all along,” I said, going on to tell them what I thought had happened. “By now he’s getting off a plane in Brazil. He’s left me holding the bag, and I don’t have the resources to stop him. The law has a longer arm.”
“Poor Lyla,” Ruthie said. “Either way, dead or living in Brazil, Tony’s gone and it’s going to be painful for her. How’s she going to keep that big house on a manicurist’s salary?”
George came in at that moment, did a double-take, and sat down at the table with Otis and me. After getting George coffee and pie, Ruthie sat down, too. I told George what I was up to.
“I guess it’s for the best,” George said. “I’ll get you a good lawyer, try to get you out on bail. I’ll even put my house up for you if that’s what it takes.”
“You’re a good man, George.” I held his hand then, right in front of Otis and Ruthie. If I was going to jail, it might be a long time before I had that warm, comforting hand in mine again. “Take care of my dog for me while I’m gone.”
“Maybe after all this is cleared up,” George said, “we can talk about us and where we want to go from here.”
Ruthie’s eyes got wide. I blushed.
“Look at that!” Otis shouted suddenly, knocking his chair over and rushing behind the counter to turn up the volume on the TV
As it happened, Tony wasn’t stepping off an airplane in an exotic country with a suitcase filled with cash. Diver’s working close to the Escanaba dam brought him up to the surface right about noon.
Tony Lento really had turned up dead in the water.
The news got even worse from there. According to the breaking-news anchor, undisclosed evidence collected at the scene of the accident suggested foul play. Everyone at the table turned away from the television and stared at me. Even George.