Classic Revenge (20 page)

Millie sat quietly in the backseat, but Trish could almost feel her tense up. "No, um ... not right offhand.
We don't have the list of names with us, anyway. Perhaps you could come back by in a couple of days"
Maybe by then Sam would be able to verify if the
earrings were Susan's or not and they could talk to
Larry about Mary Chavez.

Before he could say anything, a car pulled up behind
him. He looked in his rearview mirror and sighed. "Perfect timing," he muttered. "Okay, just please be careful ...
while you run your errands." Grinning, he waved and
pulled off.

Trish took a deep breath and pressed the gas pedal.
"I'm not sure he believed us," she said wryly.

"It doesn't matter," Millie said. "The next time we see
him we'll be able to tell him what we've been doing."

"If all goes well, we will," Edna said, a stark reminder
that all they were doing at this point was guessing.

"It will. My gut tells me that we're on the right track,"
Millie said confidently.

Trish wished her own gut was as sure as Millie's.

"I
think we're almost there," Edna said, looking at
the directions. "Take a right here on Roosevelt Street
and it should be just a couple of miles further." Edna
laid the directions on her lap and then cocked her head,
her brows lowered in puzzlement.

"What's wrong?" Millie asked, leaning forward to
look at Edna.

"Don't tell me we're lost!" Trish exclaimed.

"No, it's not that. For some reason, this looks familiar."

"Maybe in your younger days you used to run the
streets around here," Millie suggested with a sly grin.

Edna frowned. "That's not likely." So far, all they had
seen on Roosevelt Street were bars and fast-food places.
Trish chuckled. Try as she might, the image of Edna running in to grab a quick hamburger between barhopping
was impossible to conjure up, regardless of how young
she may have been.

Finally, neighborhoods starting sprouting up on both sides of the street. They passed a small undeveloped
stretch of land when Edna said, "It should be right up
here on the right."

Millie leaned forward in her seat and peered through
the front window. "Oh, no, it can't be!" she whispered at
the same time Trish pulled over on the shoulder of the
street and slammed on the brakes.

"Oh, no, is right," Trish replied.

Trish was just a few yards from the address that
should be Tom Jones'. And that address sported a large
sign at the entrance that read Southwest Mobile Home
Park. There was silence in the car as all three women
pondered this latest development. Trish turned the car
around and headed back home. No wonder Roosevelt
Street had sounded familiar. They had just traveled a
different route to get to it this time. Evidently, Mary
Chavez knew a shortcut.

Sam was more than eager to do his part in trying to
determine if the earrings that Mary Chavez wore were
indeed his wife's. He was so eager, in fact, that Joe had
to coach him several times on how to act calm and natural both before, and after, his encounter with Mary. If
she grew suspicious, then she would get rid of the evidence before any of them could blink, thereby destroying any chance they would have of going to the police.
"He said-she said" wouldn't go over too well with
Henry-not since he already believed Sam was only
trying to cover up a crime.

They all agreed not to tell Sam about Mary's visit to
Tom yet. He had enough on his plate right now without
adding fuel to the fire. If he got angry before his meeting with Mary, he could very well spill the beans.

Sam strode casually into the restaurant while Joe and
the women waited outside in Joe's SUV. They were
parked around back where there were no windows for
them to see what was going on inside, but, more importantly, nobody from inside the restaurant could see them,
either. Was Sam talking to Mary right now?

Trish found it hard to believe that their sweet waitress
of the night before could be capable of murder. Still,
more and more women were committing violent crimes.
Passion, jealousy, money ... all these motives could
possibly make a woman snap. But what could have been
Mary's motive? She doubted Mary was in love with
Sam, so that ruled out passion and jealousy. Killing Susan for financial gain didn't make sense because there
had been no theft until long after the murder.

Trish sighed and leaned her head back on the car
seat. Why try to rationalize a crime that only someone
completely insane would justify? It was impossible. On
second thought ... Trish had just turned to Millie with
a teasing smile when she caught sight of Sam coming
around the corner of the building. That was fast! He was
walking briskly, his lips in a tight line. Trish's heartbeat
sped up. Had he discovered whether the earrings were
Susan's or not?

Sam climbed in and shut the door. "Let's get out of
here"

Joe looked at him curiously. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything's fine," he said through gritted teeth,
"just highly embarrassing. Mary wasn't wearing any
earrings. I wanted so badly to question her about them"
Sam's hands were clenched in tight fists where they lay
on his lap. "When she saw me, she did everything she
could to avoid me, but I guess she couldn't find anyone else available to wait on me. When she finally came
over, she was overtly rude, making several snide remarks
that anybody who was within the length of a football
field could hear. Stuff like `waitressing wasn't her first
career choice, and was I able to make sure everybody
else got fired, too?"' Sam shook his head. "To think I
used to feel sorry for her."

Trish's heart sank. She looked at Edna and Millie
who, by the expressions on their faces, felt the same
way she did. What a wasted endeavor this had been. The
earrings were such a strong clue, and they had pinned
their hopes that a positive ID of them would guide the
next step in their investigation. How were they going to
get Sam to see them now? He couldn't very well march
into the restaurant night after night in the hopes that one
evening Mary would be wearing them.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Sam," Edna
said soothingly. "I didn't get the impression that Mary
could be that vindictive."

"Appearances can be deceiving, especially when
you're trying to earn a tip," Millie said wryly. "What
concerns me now is how are we going to prove those earrings are Susan's?"

"Maybe we should go ahead and tell Henry what we
suspect," Edna suggested.

Sam chuckled bitterly. "I'm sure that would do a lot
of good"

"We'll think of something," Millie piped in. "Don't
you worry. I've got a hunch we're on the right track,
and with or without the help of the police, we're going
to prove it."

Trish bit her lip. There Millie goes again, promising
results that are not at all certain. What they had was a lot of nothing, and that included not a shred of evidence
that would back up even one of their theories.

"Sam, what kind of relationship did Mary Chavez
and Tom Jones have?" she asked as Joe pulled out of
the parking lot. There wasn't any point in keeping information from him any longer.

Sam looked over his shoulder with raised eyebrows,
obviously surprised at the question. "Relationship?
Mary and Tom? They didn't have a relationship. They
were both married."

"I didn't mean a personal relationship," Trish said.
"How did they get along at work?"

"They barely did," Sam scoffed. "They couldn't
stand each other. Mary was always complaining about
Tom's reports, and Tom was always saying that Mary
picked on him to hide the fact she wasn't doing her
job"

"Maybe they were hiding an attraction they felt for
each other," Millie offered, nodding knowingly. "It's
not unheard of for some people to use anger as a flirting
method"

"That's not possible," Sam said, shaking his head.
"You would have to have seen them together. No, there
wasn't anything personal going on between Tom and
Mary, and they had very little to do with each other at
work. Regardless, what does Tom have to do with any of
this, anyway?"

Edna proceeded to tell Sam what they'd witnessed
when they had followed Mary that day. His brows furrowed as he listened to her. "Well, it does seem strange
that they would have anything to do with each other. I
can't imagine what it means, though. I seem to recall
hearing that Tom got a divorce not too long ago, but I can't say for sure. And, as far as I know, Mary is still
married" He sighed and rubbed his hand across his eyes.
"I can't see how any of this could be tied to Susan's
death. The earrings bother me, but we don't know if they
are Susan's or not. And, for the life of me, I can't imagine Mary or Tom going to such lengths to hurt me"

Trish heard the frustration in his voice and she
could well sympathize. He was facing a murder charge,
and it seemed as if they were getting nowhere. They
dropped Sam off at his sister's house, promising to get
together with him in the next day or so when they had
another plan.

Joe drove home in silence. When he pulled up in front
of Trish's house, Edna climbed out also, telling him she
would be home soon. This was a time for brainstorming,
and Joe had a frustrating way of inserting common sense
into these kinds of sessions.

Trish immediately started a fresh pot of coffee, regardless of the time, and they sat at the table waiting for
it to finish brewing. "I'm tired of pussy-footing around,"
Millie said. "We're going to have to make something
happen"

"Like what?" Edna asked warily.

"I don't know what. I just know that we need to do
something ... anything!"

Trish sighed. "I hate to admit it, but I agree" She
paused for a second. "The one thing we do know is
that Mary has some connection to Tom Jones. What
we don't know is what that connection is. So that's
where we need to start. We need to find out some
basic information about Tom, where he works, what
his schedule is, things like that. Maybe an idea will
come to us"

Millie nodded determinedly. "Okay, at least we have a plan. Edna, you bring something for us to snack on,
I'll bring the binoculars, and Trish, you bring drinks.
We'll meet here at ten in the morning."

Trish looked at Edna with raised eyebrows. Should
they stand up and salute?

The next day was a bright, beautiful day with soft
clouds hanging in the sky and the comforting smell of
spring wafting through the open windows. They had
parked on one of the side streets across and down from
Tom Jones' trailer. They could have been visiting any
one of several trailers from their strategic vantage point,
but it was unlikely anybody would notice. The place was
like a ghost town.

"Did you ever call Joe?" Millie asked Edna as she
lowered the binoculars. They had been watching Tom's
trailer for over an hour now. The same older-model red
pickup they had seen the other day was in the driveway,
but there had been no movement around the trailer at
all.

"You know I haven't," Edna said impatiently-and
with a little guilt. "I've been with you all morning. I'm
going to wait a little while before I tell him where I am.
That way he won't worry-he won't know how long we
were actually here"

"So much for your handy-dandy cell phone," Millie
muttered under her breath.

"I heard that!"

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting hungry," Trish said. They were all getting bored, but the
last thing she wanted was for Millie and Edna to get
into one of their squabbles. Her patience would only stretch so far and she didn't want to be distracted from
her thoughts. There had to be another way to approach
Mary again without appearing too obvious. She was also
having second thoughts about their decision not to tell
the police their suspicions regarding Sam's former bookkeeper. Maybe she could at least convince her friends
that they should talk to Larry Thompson. He didn't seem
to think they were all off their rockers like the chief did.

"We're not stupid, Trish. We know what you're doing," Edna said with a sniff.

Startled, Trish looked over her shoulder. Was Edna a
mind reader now? Then she realized that Edna must be
referring about her attempt to keep the peace with the
mention of food. "Then why couldn't you have stopped
arguing on your own?" she snapped, and then she sighed
deeply and leaned her head against the headrest. "Sorry,
I'm just frustrated. I can't help but feel we're wasting
our time."

Millie reached over and patted her on the knee.
"Don't worry about it. We're all a little short-tempered
right now. I think you're right, we need something to eat.
At least it will give us something to do."

"Right," Edna said cheerfully, "we'll all feel better
after we eat" Lifting up the wicker basket she had
placed on the back floorboard, she proceeded to pass
out napkins and bottled water. Next, she handed Millie
and Trish blue plastic-covered bowls with plastic forks.