A Cold Christmas (28 page)

“And Ida Ruth, never one to let opportunity go by, called Ettie and what? Said get your Jezebel daughter-in-law away from the church organ or else?”

“More than that,” Susan said. “Ida Ruth, being a little sharper and having a meaner take on humankind, realized this made Ettie a strong suspect for murder. She told Ettie what Pauline had said and that it was her, Ida Ruth's, Christian duty to inform the police. Why she didn't do that first, only Ida Ruth knows and she's beyond asking.”

“Some people like to take a needless poke at rattlesnakes.”

“Ettie loosened the railing. I think she would have banged Ida Ruth's head against the concrete a few times if the woman hadn't had the stroke that left her with almost no speech.”

Stomach to the floor, Perissa crept over to Parkhurst, rose on tiptoe, and hissed in his face. Startled, he jerked back. The cat fled back under the couch and resumed growling.

“Jesus! That is the meanest cat I've ever seen.”

Susan laughed. “That's true.” She paused. “Wherever Pauline Frankens is, I hope she knows her Ollie wasn't hurt in the fire. That big loving cat is now snuggling up to the James children.”

“Hazel said something about Halcion in an Advil bottle.”

“Ettie was afraid Caley would get custody of the children and take them away. If Caley were proved unfit, Mat would get custody. Since he's not exactly the fatherly type, he'd turn them over to her.”

“You didn't have anything even remotely resembling evidence.”

She grinned. “I know. That's why I tried to shake her up a little. Sure didn't look like I'd succeeded until we caught her trying to dispose of the murder weapon.”

Parkhurst shook his head. He got up to get a pillow from the couch, tossed one to Susan, and lay back down. He shoved the pillow under his head. “Game to the very end, that little lady.”

They were quiet, listening to “Silent Night” on the radio.

“Mat claims he didn't kill Noel's wife,” Susan mused.

Parkhurst raised on one elbow and looked at her. “Don't tell me you believe him.”

“I do. He's not a great guy, he's a cheat and a con man, but I didn't sense any violence in him.”

“So the White Water sheriff got the right guy after all?”

“Noel was another thief, charming, according to his lawyer, but Caley didn't find him charming. She saw him as creepy and menacing. Prison probably changed him.”

“And the scar on his face,” Parkhurst said dryly.

She nodded. “Ettie found him pretty menacing. He hung around Caley until Ettie showed up, then followed her to learn where she lived. He rang her doorbell and pushed his way in. Scared her. She had no idea he was even out of prison.”

“Threatened her?” Parkhurst got up to put another log on the fire.

“Apparently. She wouldn't tell me exactly what he said, but he made clear his only reason for living was to find out who killed his wife.”

Parkhurst poked at the log, sending up a shower of sparks.

“He called her Sunday afternoon,” Susan said, “and mentioned the children, how easily something could happen to them. He hoped nothing would. His only purpose was in tracking down his wife's killer. Ettie told him to come to Caley's house, she had something to show him that might help him.”

“So she let him in, showed him the gun, and shot him.”

“Yeah.”

She stared at the fire. “You know, I think he was innocent of his wife's murder.”

“Somebody killed her. Took a knife and stabbed her thirty times.”

“Somebody did that all right,” Susan said. “I'd bet my money on Mat's first wife. Kathleen. She was mentally unstable. I think she felt Mat was leaving her to be with Noel's wife and she stabbed the woman.”

“I guess it doesn't matter now, does it? Not with both of them dead.”

“Yeah,” Susan said. “He ordered a headstone for his wife's grave from that catalog that was in his post office box.”

Parkhurst gave a short laugh. “Well, then, how bad could he be? How's Demarco?”

“Grumbling about having to stay in the hospital. Probably doing calisthenics in the hallway. I think the physician's going to boot him out soon just to get rid of him.”

They listened to “The Little Drummer Boy,” then Parkhurst said, “You going back to San Francisco?”

She took a breath and opened her mouth. Finally, she said, “I don't know.”

Also by Charlene Weir

Murder Take Two

Family Practice

Consider the Crows

The Winter Widow

 

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin's Press.

A COLD CHRISTMAS.
Copyright © 2001 by Charlene Weir. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weir, Charlene.

A cold Christmas / Charlene Weir.—1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-312-26931-5

1. Wren, Susan (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Police—Kansas—Fiction. 3. Police chiefs—Fiction. 4. Policewomen—Fiction. 5. Kansas—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3573.E39744 C64 2001

813'.54—dc21

2001041981

First Edition: December 2001

eISBN 9781466834613

First eBook edition: November 2012