What I really needed was a shower and a change of clothes. I debated stopping at home for a few creature comforts, but rejected the idea. My home would be watched. My friends would be followed. That is, they might have been under surveillance, if they weren’t all in the hospital or in jail.
What I couldn’t do without was my morning coffee. I had the start of a caffeine headache, and it threatened to take me down harder than any flu virus could. I stumbled out of the woods, climbed into my truck, and drove to the only place I could think of going to.
The shades were still drawn and the door jamb was still pried loose where Tony had allegedly come in with the Orange Shoes. Nothing had changed at Shirley’s house since the last time I’d been there. Dirty dishes still cluttered the sink. Not a single thing more had been packed up – almost as though Shirley had abandoned her life here all together.
I turned on Shirley’s television but it only had rabbit ears on the top of it and my limited channel surfing didn’t produce anything newsworthy.
After that, I rummaged through cupboards and boxes and found what I needed. A shower later and the beginning of a second pot of coffee, and I felt human again. I even found workout clothes that fit me in one of the boxes. A dream come true for someone in my situation.
What even made it better? A working phone. Shirley hadn’t turned off her utility services. Yippee. The tide was finally turning my way.
The hospital had Kitty listed as a patient, so she was still alive. No one would tell me anything more than that. I cursed the federal government for all its so-called privacy measures, when all of us knew we didn’t have a bit of privacy from them.
I called Lyla next. “I’m going after the person who killed Tony,” I said, quickly before she realized who she was talking to and hung up. “It won’t cost you a dime. I need to clear my name.”
“Everybody says you killed him, Gertie.”
“You know I didn’t. If I had, I would have shot him, not fixed it so he left the road above the river. You know that stretch of road isn’t my favorite. Down below is where I lost Barney. Besides, I didn’t even know where Tony was at the time he died.”
Heck, I hadn’t known where he was most of the time when I was supposed to be trailing him. Catching him in Ruthie’s Restaurant had been a fluke. I had stumbled over him in one big accidental moment.
“I hope they don’t start suspecting me next,” she said. “Tony and I had a terrible fight at the salon. Theymight blame me for his death, say I wanted to get rid of him.”
She didn’t sound too broken up over Tony’s demise, but to be fair, she’d been through a lot of heartache with him.
“I’ll clear both of us.” The lie slid easily over my lips. If Lyla had anything to do with Tony’s death, I’d turn her right in to free Blaze and Cora Mae. “Why did you suspect Tony of cheating in the first place? What made you hire the Trouble Busters?”
“It was only suspicions and feelings. I didn’t know anything for fact.”
“Did you have someone in mind? Someone you thought he was seeing?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“How can I help you if you won’t tell me what I need to know?”
“But I’m not sure, and I’d hate to start rumors.”
“Who am I going to tell? I don’t have a single friend left to gossip with.”
“Okay, but keep it quiet. I don’t know if it’s true or not.”
“I’ll keep it to myself.”
“Before I hired you, Tony was hanging around at the credit union more than usual. And one day, when I was shopping in Escanaba, I saw him in a restaurant and he was with a woman.”
“Who was he with?”
“Sue Nenonen”
“But she helps with the books at the credit union and he’s an accountant. It could have been strictly professional.”
“Yes, that’s true. And when you followed him, you didn’t see him around the credit union or with Sue.” I could hear in her voice how bad she wanted to believe in Tony’s loyalty to her. “You didn’t, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
Even now I couldn’t tell Lyla about the tryst I’d semi-witnessed at the hunting blind. She needed to hold on to a few good memories of the cheating bum. If only I had kept my eyes on the blind instead of letting nature call, I’d know who the woman was. Had it been Dave’s wife, Sue?
After reassuring Lyla that I’d do everything possible to catch Tony’s killer, I replayed the tape I’d run in the woods while scooting on my belly.
“I don’t believe you,” the woman had said. The sound wasn’t crisp and clear. She’d lowered her voice, and she was angry.
“I’ll take care of it,” Tony had said. “We’ll be together soon.”
“I’ve heard that before.” Then giggling and they had made up the good old-fashion way.
I played the tape back several times. Was Sue the woman in the woods?
I called Sue and Dave’s home number, hoping Sue wasn’t already at the credit union crunching numbers. She picked up the phone on the second ring.
“This is a representative for the Elizabeth Taylor perfume company,” I said to her, holding the recording unit as close as possible to the receiver. I wished I had a telephone hookup for my recorder. It would have simplified the process. “You’ve won a year’s supply of White Diamond perfume.
“Is this a joke?” she asked. “I didn’t enter a contest.”
“Your significant other must have signed you up for the drawing.”
“Dave?”
“Your significant other.” I put enough emphasize on ‘other’ to send the proper message. “You know what I mean.”
Sue hung up.
I replayed the tryst talk from the woods, then my perfume contest chat with Sue, but the sound was garbled. I couldn’t hear Sue at all. Remembering her voice from the few sentences she had uttered before hanging up, I didn’t think she was the woman in the woods. But a person’s voice is changed slightly both through a phone connection and when replayed on a recording unit.
I couldn’t say absolutely positively that it wasn’t Sue.
Now what?
I played the tape over and over until I was fairly certain I could identify the voice if I ever heard it again. Then I called Laura Deland’s house. “This is Laura,” she said into her end of the phone when I asked for Laura.
“This is Gertie. I thought I’d stop by and talk to Shirley.”
“She’s gone. You just missed her.”
“Gone as in moved? Or gone like to the store?”
“She left for lower Michigan.”
“But she didn’t take any of her things from her house.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well, I…uh…I’m there right now.”
“WHAT?”
“I needed a place to stay.” Something was wrong. I shouldn’t have said that. Laura’s tone changed from friendly and helpful to wary and cunning. Something else was wrong, too, but I couldn’t place it.
“I’m sure she wouldn’t want people in her house,” Laura said. I could tell she didn’t like it one bit. Was breaking and entering on my list of pending criminal charges yet? I couldn’t remember.
“I was just leaving,” I said. “Sorry to have missed her.”
I sat and stared at the phone. Then I replayed the tape, listening hard to the woman’s voice. Laura Deland’s voice was a dead-on match with the one from the woods.
Chapter 30
I WASN’T EXACTLY SURE WHAT to do with my new insight. That sweet young reporter just couldn’t have been dallying around with Tony Lento. She was beautiful. She could get any man she wanted. Why Tony? It had to be a mistake.