Gone to Ground (26 page)

"Come on, young man. Get yourself in that room right now. Tell Chief Cotter the truth with Mayor B sittin there. That's what I done—confronted him before he got the chance to spin tales bout me."

The officer slumped forward, pressin two fingers between his eyes.

"You want the chief to think you were involved in Erika's murder?"

"He'd never think that."

"Then why would you help somebody plant evidence?"

Ted's head wagged back and forth. "It was just a convenience."

"A convenience?"

"To help convict the right man." His voice was so low I could barely hear him. "Mayor B saw that ring drop from Mike's shirt pocket at the factory. What harm would it do to 'find' the ring in Mike's house so we could use it as direct evidence? The mayor just wanted the murders solved. Like everyone else does."

I didn't know which was crazier, the mayor's story or that Ted believed it. Except—who was I to judge? Before I opened that drawer in Austin Bradmeyer's office, I'd never believed he could murder anybody either. Jus went to show how respected he was in Amaryllis.

Lord, help this town
.

"Why'd he want the pictures in the first place?"

"To remind him of the murders, he said. So he could help catch the guy. After Erika's death he wanted hers too."

I had to chew on that for a minute. "When did he want the other five pictures?"

"I don't know. Maybe ten days ago."

"How come you didn't just tell him no?"

Ted pulled in a ragged breath. "I needed the money."

Mayor B
paid
him? This was an even bigger mess than I thought.

Ted fell against the back a his chair, starin at the ceilin.

"Ted, go tell the chief. Now. You know you cain't hide from this."

He moaned. "I'll lose my job."

He jus might lose more than his job, fiddlin with an investigation, takin bribes. Ted knew that.

"Go. The longer you wait, the worse it'll be."

"I can't."

"I ain't leavin till you do."

His mouth twisted. "
Go
, Cherrie Mae. I'll handle it."

"You want me to knock on the doh myself?"

"No!"

I stood back from his desk, arms folded. "You got ten seconds. Then I'm knockin."

He sneered. "You're nothin but a meddler."

"Mm-hmm. Ten."

"Cherrie Mae—"

"Nine."

"I
can't
do it!"

"Eight. Get up, Ted."

He swiped his hand across his face.

"Seven."

Slapped his hands on his desk.

"Six."

He pushed back his chair, then hung there.

"Five. Four. Three."

"Stop, I'm going!" He shoved to his feet.

"Two, one."

Ted was breathin in little snorts. Stiff-headed, he walked round the desk toward the room. My heart turned over as I watched him.

At the last second he looked back at me. I nodded.

Ted knocked. Opened the doh. "Chief, I need to talk to you."

Tully lay on her couch, little left in her belly to
throw up. I'd gone back to pacin. Every second hung like an eternity. We weren't even talkin anymore. Nothin new to say, and we both had too much to think about.

We waited for Cherrie Mae.

How her news could change our lives. Would it,
could
it somehow prove to me my brother wasn't a killer? Could it show Tully her husband was innocent?

At 4:30 I heard a car outside the house. I trotted over to peek through the blinds. "It's her!"

"Oh, thank heaven." Tully slapped a hand against her heart.

"Stay there, I'll let her in." I bounded to the front door and opened it wide. Cherrie Mae slipped inside, lookin a little gray around the gills. Her purse hung from her arm. I shoved the door closed and locked it. "What happened, what happened?"

She wiped her forehead. "I need some water."

"Where's your computer?"

"They kept it."

"I told you."

"I'll get it back." Cherrie Mae started toward the kitchen.

"I'll get the water, Tully, you stay on the couch." My words knocked into each other, tryin to get out of my mouth. I wanted to rage and listen and squeeze the answers out of Cherrie Mae all at once.

I splashed water into a glass and herded Cherrie Mae into Tully's livin room. "Just tell us everything, we're goin crazy waitin. Here, take the chair, I can't sit anyway."

She sank down and took a few gulps of water. Set her purse on the floor.

"Did you hear the police found something here?" Tully's eyes glistened. "Something really important."

"Oh, did I. Erika Hollinger's ring."

We both gaped at Cherrie Mae.
"What?"

"That was
my
reaction."

Tully paled. "But that's . . ."

Cherrie Mae waved her hand. "Jus hold on. Let me tell you everthing."

And she began her story.

Tully lay still, her eyes fixed on Cherrie Mae and her hands balled up at the base of her neck. I stood with my back to the window, arms wrapped around my chest. Cherrie Mae took us through showin the chief her pictures. Seein him pull Erika's ring out of an evidence bag. The arrival of Mayor B himself. His lies. And Ted Arnoldson.

"Ted?"
I couldn't help it. His name just blurted out. I sure knew how to pick men. I'd once had a crush on Ted, then married John Cotter.

Tully looked sick. "So there's Ted and Mayor B in the station, talking to each other like nothing ever happened."

"Oh, they was both cool, all right." Cherrie Mae shook her head. "But Ted didn't stay cool when I got the truth out a him. One thing, though—I underestimated the chief. He didn't
want
to listen, but he did. I don't think he's gon try to cover anything up. And now he got the mayor to deal with." She pushed up her bottom lip. "Man cain't be happy."

Maybe. I still wasn't so sure the chief—or John—could be trusted. "So what now?"

"I don't know." Cherrie Mae set her water glass on the floor. "Question is—what did Mayor B tell the chief bout why he wanted the ring planted? Same story he gave Ted? Which wouldn't implicate him for Erika's murder, just messin with the evidence."

I thought about that. "And Stevie wouldn't be off the hook yet."

"Or Mike," Tully said.

Cherrie Mae scratched her head. "Well, anyway, I still think Mayor B killed those women. Man livin his life in front a everbody, nobody guessin the truth. Includin his own wife. Thought he could get away with it because a who he is. And he just might a planned from the beginnin to frame somebody else soon as he could."

Yeah, but . . . "Then why didn't he plant Erika's ring in Stevie's trailer?"

Cherrie Mae shrugged. "Maybe he didn't hear bout that search soon enough. All the officers was with Chief Cotter at the town meetin. Mayor B probly didn't have time to get to Ted. But when he heard bout Mike . . ."

"What did he care—Stevie or Mike?" Tully's words came out thick. "Long as he could pin it on somebody else. And Ted Arnoldson, at my front door to take me down to the station. Did he know
then
what he planned to do? How could he look me in the eye? How could he face Mike? How could he face his own
conscience
?"

"And to do it for money." I made a face. "How much money's he gonna have when he loses his job?"

Tully shifted on the couch, her face creasin. Cherrie Mae studied her. "You feelin all right, baby?"

She put a hand at her lower spine. "It's just my back."

We fell silent. My mind whipped questions around like a hurricane blowin straw. I sank down on the end of the couch, beyond Tully's feet, and looked to Cherrie Mae. "We still don't know what the blood means—on Stevie or Mike. Are they completely innocent? Or did Mayor B involve them somehow?"

"The
po
lice cain't know till they get the DNA results. That'll take another week or two."

"So . . . meanwhile they stay in jail?"

"I guess they'll have to. Even if Mayor B confessed to all the murders and swore up and down he did em alone, the chief would still have to keep em both till he sees the DNA. Confessions can lie, but DNA don't."

"Mike won't be coming home, then." Tully closed her eyes. In relief? Sadness? Guilt? Maybe all three.

"No, baby. Leastways not yet. You go stay with your parents. You'll have some time to sort things out."

Tully played with the neckline of her T-shirt.

I ran a hand over my face. "What do we do now? I have to do
somethin.
"

Cherrie Mae checked her watch. "Been an hour since I left the station. I'll call, see what's goin on." She dug in her purse and pulled out her cell phone. "I got their number in here somewhere." She pushed a few buttons.

I sprang up and hurried over to her. "Hold the phone out so I can hear." It started ringin.

"Police station, Officer Dedmon." The words sounded clipped.

"Hi, Chris, this is Cherrie Mae. Didn't know you was workin today."

"Just got called in. What can I do for you, Cherrie Mae?"

"I need to know what's happened to Mayor B and Officer Ted."

"I'm not sure I can give out that information."

"Now, Chris, you listen to me. I been a good citizen and tol what I seen. Now I'm worried for my own safety. I need to know if Mayor B's gon be a free man tonight."

A long sigh blew over the phone. "Why is this happenin, Cherrie Mae? What is goin
on
with this town?"

Cherrie Mae and I exchanged a look. This wasn't Officer Chris Dedmon talkin. This was Chris, deacon of the Baptist Church where she attended. Where she was a mentor to everybody.

"Hard to say." Her voice gentled. "I just know we got to keep prayin."

I mouthed to Tully,
Can you hear?
She nodded.

"So, Chris, tell me what's happened."

"They've both been arrested."

Tully widened her eyes.

"What for?"

"A list of things havin to do with tamperin with evidence and bribes."

"Not murder."

"Murder? No."

"Nothin about that at all?"

"They're not killers, Cherrie Mae. They just got stupid, is all. Thought plantin evidence would help us get the bad guys quicker."

Bad guys
meanin Stevie and Mike. The thought blew through me.

"Then why'd Mayor B have those pictures in his house?"

"He said to be reminded of the murders, cause he wanted em solved. Ted shouldn't a given him those pictures, but the mayor havin em wasn't a crime."

Cherrie Mae tapped a finger against her chair. "Will Mayor B stay in jail long?"

"Probably not. I imagine his wife'll bail him out."

Cherrie Mae's jaw moved back and forth. "And Ted?"

"He'll get out too if he can make bail. He won't have a job to come back to, though."

"I'm real sorry bout Ted, Chris. Makes me sad."

"Me too." He sighed again. "Me too."

They ended the call. Cherrie Mae stared at the phone in her hand. "Mayor B's gon come after me. I just know it."

"You think he'll get out of jail today?" I hated how scared she sounded.

She drew a quick breath. "I don't know. I shoulda found that out."

"Well, just in case—stay with me tonight. You can sleep in my guest room."

"Ain't you got to get up and go to work tomorrow?"

I snorted. "If I have any clients left. Doesn't matter. Stay anyway."

She nodded grimly. "Yup. Believe I better do that."

I edged back to the couch and sat down. None of us spoke. Dread swirled in the air.

'"Silence is of different kinds, and breathes different meanins.'" Cherrie Mae said the words half to herself, starin at the floor. She looked beat down and tired.

I blinked at her. "That some quote?"

"Charlotte Bronte."

Tully's gaze wandered from Cherrie Mae to me, but her mind seemed far away. "Tully." I patted her foot. "This'll . . . work out. Somehow."

She teared up. "Mike was there, Deena. In Erika's house. I know he was. I know that blood is hers."

Her pain vibrated into me. "I could say the same thing about Stevie."

In my head I heard Carl Cypress relatin my brother's words the night of Erika's death:
"The last thing I heard Stevie say was that he had to clean up 'the big mess.'"

Cherrie Mae hefted back in her chair. "Way I see it, solvin this thing rests on us. First, we have the most to lose. Second, Mayor B's still lyin. No way he's gon admit to killin. And by now he got hisself a lawyer so the
po
lice cain't question him no more."

Tully swallowed hard. "How are
we
supposed to solve it? I can hardly think straight."

"I know. But we will, with the good Lord's help. We got to. Fact is, we know things. With all our pooled information—the proof is there. Somewhere. We just ain't seen it yet."

Made me tired—and all the more scared—just thinkin about it.

"Problem is," Cherrie Mae sighed. "With proof Stevie
and
Mike
and
Mayor B all killed them women—we're plain back to square one."