And why did I tell her where I was? Now I’d have to vacate my last remaining hideout. Or did I? She was a reporter. Was she required to protect me, or was it optional? I didn’t know anything about news reporter ethics.
I calmed down and thought it through, but all I came up with were more questions. Were Tony and Laura planning to run away with the credit union’s money? Did Bob kill Kent to keep him quiet? Did Tony kill Bob to silence him, too? Were the two love birds trying to set up Shirley by planting orange shoes in her house? Or was Shirley part of the scheme?
The most perplexing question of all might never be answered. Why did the robber steal Monopoly money instead of real hundred dollar bills?
I turned off the coffee pot, but didn’t try to cover my tracks by cleaning up. I had to confront Laura in person, force her to listen to the tape. She had some explaining to do. I’d get the truth out of her if I had to torture it out of her. I still had my weapons arsenal and I hadn’t used my stun gun recently. My trigger finger was itchy.
____________________
I was backing out of Shirley’s driveway when George pulled in behind me, blocking my escape. I stayed where I was, palming my pepper spray, while he strode up to the truck window. If he yanked the door open or made any other aggressive gesture, he was getting it full on, no holds barred.
“Dickey got a call-in tip a few minutes ago,” he said through the crack I’d made in the window. “He’s rounding up his volunteers and then he’ll head over here.”
“You came to warn me?” I could have cried. What a wonderful man. And I was about to assault him with my pepper spray!
George nodded. “I’ll have to circle around and come back over with them, or else they might suspect something’s up.”
Laura hadn’t wasted any time calling in the troops after she found out where I was. “I don’t have any place to go,” I said.
“Is it time to turn yourself in, Gertie? I’m sure we can find the truth.”
“Never! Dickey’s a dope. And I have a few loose ends that might tie up the entire case, if only I can work them.”
“We don’t have much time then. You need to go. Do what you have to do and meet me at my place later.”
“I have a habit of ruining my friend’s lives. I’m a curse. You don’t want to get involved with me.”
George grinned. “I can’t wait to get involved with you. Now go.”
“What happened to Fred?” I called out the window as he ran back to his truck.
“Fred’s back home with Grandma.”
“Look out for him. He’s in hostile territory.”
George backed up, clearing the way for my escape. One more time, I’d lucked out, turning away from the sound of sirens and blowing a cloud of dust up behind me. It would settle before they arrived. And Dickey would spend the rest of the day combing the neighborhood and lifting useless clues from Shirley’s house.
As it turned out, I spent the rest of the day doing the same thing I suspected Dickey was doing. But instead of combing the woods, I was searching Escanaba for Laura Deland. She wasn’t at her house or at work. Either she was out on assignment, or she had skipped town.
After hours of wasted effort, I put myself in her shoes. Mentally, of course. What would I do if I were her? Where would I go? Then it hit me. She’d be in Stonely driving right behind the sheriff, getting first dibs on a breaking story and killing two birds with one stone. She’d tipped off the cops to my whereabouts, now she got to reap the rewards by writing the wrap-up story. Both a personal and a professional coup.
And I used to think she was sweet.
If I ever got out of this mess, I’d have to improve my people analytical skills. My character judgment needed an overhaul. That’s what being on the run does to a person. Before my criminal career, I took trust for granted. Now, I couldn’t find any reason to believe in anyone.
How could I have misjudged George so badly? He’d been a friend for years and years, and in one minute at Ruthie’s restaurant, with one misinterpreted look from him, I had been ready to count him out as a true friend. Had I seen only what I wanted to see? Was I afraid of him, of my feelings for him, of closeness?
Driving back to Stonely to spend the night with George, I thought I understood Barney’s words better. I didn’t want to let go, like he’d advised me to do when we chatted at Tony’s blind. Barney had been my life, and I was still hanging on with all my might. But he was right. I didn’t have to forget him. And as he said, maybe I did have a lot of love inside me. I just had to release a part of my life that would never come back, that was gone for good. I had to move on. Start living and loving again.
Tonight I was going to do it with the only other man I ever cared about.
George had a big pot of chili simmering on the stove. Its wonderful aroma would have bowled me over, but Fred beat it to the punch. What a surprise! George grabbed me as I fell backwards while a two-ton black shepherd tackled me with slurpy, sloppy dog-breath kisses.
“Thank you, George,” I cried, happier at that moment than I’d been in a long time. Both of my favorite males together, at least for this moment.
We settled at the kitchen table, and I ate two bowls of George’s chili. It took a while because between bites I told him everything that had happened so far. I have a tendency to intentionally leave out facts when I tell a story, but this time, with George, he got the full text. We recorded our conversation on a fresh tape as a backup, in case anything happened to us. Neither of us wanted to think about what could happen.
George suggested putting the tape in the mail and sending it back to his house. That way we could use it as leverage, just like in the movies. And no one could get their mitts on it in the meantime.
George and I worked out a plan from the cushions of his leather sofa, side by side, holding hands and speaking in whispers while soft music played in the background. The drama of the situation made for heady sensations and impulses on my part. I kept glancing at George’s muscles. He wore a white T-shirt, the sleeves riding just above his biceps.
I was sixty-six years old! Married to the same man for over forty years! I couldn’t believe what was going through my mind. And through the rest of my body. Barney was my first and I thought he’d be my last.
“I’ll drop the tape in the mail first thing tomorrow,” George said. “You better stay out of sight and let me be your eyes and ears and legs.”
I felt like I’d come home. To stop running and have three square meals a day, hanging out with George and Fred. I gave a big, contented sigh and could almost forget I was a hunted woman.
“You’ll pick up Laura for me?” I asked. “So I can get some answers?”
George ran a finger down my arm, sending shocks of electricity through all the right places. Until now, I hadn’t realized how much I missed a good man’s touch. “I’ll bring her to your doorstep,” he said.
“I have a better idea,” I said.
“You want me to bring her someplace else?”
Could I go through with it? Maybe we could keep the lights off so he couldn’t see. I gulped. Then I remembered how George’s wife had run off at Christmas time all those years ago, leaving a letter on the kitchen table. As far as I knew, he hadn’t been with another woman since, not that I didn’t understand. After what she did!
George might be just as nervous as I was. What if he said no? Shouldn’t I wait for him to make the first move? Doubt crept into my thoughts. What was I doing?
If I thought about it much longer, I’d end up running out the door.
“Laura has nothing to do with my better idea,” I said, standing up and leading him through the living room toward the bedroom. George scrunched his brow like he was trying to understand a foreign language without a single lesson to make it easy. By the next look on his face, I knew he’d caught on to my plan. When he didn’t pull back, I knew he approved.