He got in the county car. He had told Ivy that he would come by, and he felt a little chill up his spine. He’d necked with her just like a schoolboy, and he hadn’t been a boy in a lot of years. He knew that to many people a little necking didn’t mean a thing. Times had changed a great deal since he was a high school kid. But he hadn’t changed, try as he might. He was still an old-fashioned man, with old-fashioned ideas, at least about a lot of things. One thing was women. In his way of thinking, you didn’t lead women on, not women like Ivy. You were honest with them, and you declared your intentions.
Unfortunately, he still wasn’t quite sure what his intentions were. Did he want to get married again, or not? Was it worth the risk of doing again? There was a lot to gain, but there was a lot to lose, as he had already discovered once, the hard way.
If Kathy were there, she would have told him to marry, he was pretty sure. When she’d taken the teaching job, she had said that she knew she was leaving him in good hands. There was no mistaking her meaning. She clearly expected him to marry Ivy, and she just as clearly approved. Rhodes was pretty sure he approved, too. Last night, he’d been absolutely sure. Now, he was wavering again. I didn’t know I was so wishy-washy, he thought.
Ivy came to the door wearing jeans and a checked shirt. She’d had a haircut, and her hair was very short. She’d done nothing about the gray that flecked the blackness, and Rhodes approved.
“Notice anything?” she asked.
“Besides the haircut?” Rhodes asked. “I like it, by the way.”
“No, not the haircut,” Ivy said, tilting her head. Rhodes saw the gold ball on her left earlobe.
“My lord,” he said, “you’ve had your ears pierced.”
Ivy took his hands and pulled him into the house. “That’s right,” she said. “I just thought, better late than never. They do it right there at the beauty parlor. It was an impulse, I guess. I think I’ve always wanted pierced ears, but I never had the nerve to get it done. What do you think?”
Rhodes was feeling like a kid again, and he wasn’t exactly sure what to say. When he had been young, “nice” girls weren’t the ones with pierced ears. But that had been a long time ago. Surely he wasn’t that old-fashioned, was he?
“I like it,” he said. And he did. “I’ll have to get you a pair of earrings with diamonds.”
Ivy was pleased. “You’re sure? You don’t think I’m a hussy?”
Rhodes laughed aloud. Ivy looked so young, and made him feel so young, that he kept forgetting that she was nearly his own age. She must have had the same thought he had. “Of course not,” he said. “How could anyone think that? It never entered my mind.” A good thing no one can arrest the sheriff for lying, he thought. Anyway, it’s just a white lie.
“Liar,” Ivy laughed. She led him over to the couch, a not-very-comfortable model covered in thick gold cloth.
“Well, maybe the thought did cross my mind,” Rhodes said. “You know, a man of my generation. . ”
“Never mind,” Ivy said. “Tell me all the hot gossip of the county.”
Rhodes told her about the doll that the Wheelis boy had found in the ditch. “Buddy’s not the most liberal-minded man in town, you know. Not too long ago he tried to charge a couple with adultery. I’d bet that by the time he turns in the evidence, it’s flatter than a pancake and rolled into a little ball.”
Ivy laughed at the story, but she wanted to know about the murder investigation. Rhodes told her about the four men at the Gottschalk place, and he told her that Bert Ramsey’s funeral would be the next day.
“I’d like to go,” she said.
Rhodes was surprised. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess I feel sorry for Mrs. Ramsey. She seemed so sad when we talked to her.”
“Can you get off work?”
“I think so. What time?”
“Ten o’clock.”
“Can you pick me up, or shall I go by myself?”
“I’ll pick you up,” Rhodes said. “I’ll be there on official business, but there’s no reason I shouldn’t let you go with me.”
“Fine. I’ll be ready.”
Just at that moment, a bolt of lightning shot across the sky, lighting up the darkness outside. It was followed almost at once by a tremendously loud roll of thunder. The lights flickered and went out.
“Must have hit a transformer,” Rhodes said lamely.
“Where was Moses when the lights went out?” Ivy asked.
“I remember that one from the eleventh grade,” Rhodes said. “From Huckleberry Finn. He was in the dark. Just like us.” The eleventh hour, he thought. Oh, lord. He put his arm up on the back of the couch. He could barely see Ivy, but she was there. Oh, lord, he thought again.
Chapter 10
Rhodes was sure of two things the next morning. One was that he was not making much progress in finding out who had killed Bert Ramsey. The thought of attending the funeral brought that fact home, hard. So far, Rhodes had talked to Buster Cullens for a few minutes and learned nothing. He had also talked to four members of Los Muertos and learned even less.
Why would Los Muertos want to kill Ramsey, anyway? Rhodes had no idea, and he certainly had no hard evidence that they were involved in any way at all. Mrs. Ramsey had heard motorcycles. That was it.
And what about Buster Cullens? Again, he had Mrs. Ramsey’s story that Buster was now living with Bert’s old girl friend, along with Mrs. Ramsey’s strong feeling that Buster was guilty. And that was all. There was nothing to link the two men in any other way.
What bothered Rhodes most was the money in Bert’s house, along with all the evidence of a lot of spending. Bert hadn’t earned all the money by doing odd jobs.
The other thing that Rhodes was sure of was that he was now an engaged man. Or maybe he wasn’t. He couldn’t remember exactly what he’d said, but it seemed to him that he’d made some pretty definite promises. He was engaged, all right. Of course, they hadn’t set a date or anything like that. He wished he could remember his exact words.
It didn’t really matter, however. Rhodes still felt like a teenager, and he also felt inordinately pleased with himself. He’d have to call Kathy and let her know.
He had a bowl of Grape Nuts, got dressed in khakis, and rode down to the jail. There was not much going on. A nursing home patient was missing, but he had wandered off before, and no one was really worried yet. There had been a bit of vandalism at the high school, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. Rhodes caught up on his reports and then went to pick up Ivy.
Ivy was dressed in a dark gray suit, and Rhodes was once again impressed with her trim figure. She made no reference to the previous night, and neither did Rhodes. It didn’t seem like the proper time.
The rainfall had settled the dust and greened up the grass, and the northerly breeze that had pushed in behind it had cooled the weather down to an almost bearable temperature. The cemetery would be muddy, but probably not too bad.
They arrived at Ballinger’s. Rhodes parked in front, this time, and they went in. They signed the register and sat in the back of the small chapel. Rhodes didn’t like funerals.
The organist played a series of the slowest, most maudlin tunes imaginable-”In the Garden,” “Sunrise,” “The Old Rugged Cross.” Rhodes was going to make out a list of upbeat numbers for his own funeral and request that they be played at top speed. He was considering “The Uncloudy Day” and “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder” when the rest of the small crowd began to trickle in.
Rhodes recognized some of them, people for whom Ramsey had worked, for the most part, except for old Tink Lindsey and his wife. Attending funerals was their only form of entertainment, and Clyde Ballinger had once told Rhodes that the Lindseys hadn’t missed a funeral at his establishment in the last fifteen years.