A Crying Shame: A Jesse Watson Mystery (20 page)

“Are you absolutely positive, Mother?” Randy asked as he came
up behind her.

“Well…”

“I told you!” Isabel said. “She’s crazy.”

“Did you get what you wanted from your house, Claire?” Abby
asked, changing the subject.

“We got a little more that we bargained for,” Claire said.
“Jesse tripped over a poker. It had a bloody rag wrapped around it. It’s in a
plastic bag, sitting on your washing machine.”

Abby’s eyes widened and a smile came to her face. “Are you
kidding? Why didn’t you tell me when you called, Randy?”

“I didn’t want you to have a wreck trying to get back here.
I’m sure you would’ve put the pedal to the metal and we’d be pulling Claire’s
SUV out of a ditch somewhere.”

Abby ignored her son’s lecturing as the realization of what
she had in her custody overcame her. “I must call Detective Trainum and tell
him the good news. He might have to get out of bed, but who cares?” She looked
at me and said, “I bet you’re the one who found it, didn’t you?”

“How did you know?”

Abby just smiled.

“She tripped over it in your yard, Abby,” Claire said.

Abby stopped in her tracks. “Who in their right mind would
throw a murder weapon out in the yard? You’d have to be an idiot. I want to see
the poker.” Abby turned and headed toward the hall.

“No, Abigail,” Randy said as he took her by the hand and led
her back to the parlor. “I want you to sit right her with the rest of the
ladies. We’re going to have a cooling down period for one hour and then I’m
going to call the police.” He sat down in a chair. “No one is to touch that
bag! Now let’s sit here and collect our thoughts.”

I chuckled. “I see your son calls you by your first name when
he wants to get your attention. I do that to my mom, too, and it usually
works.”

“I don’t think it’s very nice of him to treat me that way,”
Abby mumbled to herself as she sat down on the settee across from us.

Isabel walked over to Abby and sat down beside her. “You can
be so stubborn sometimes and you always have to get your way.”

“I just wanted to have a little fun with Frank. He thinks
he’s so smart.”

“Abby, he is smart,” Isabel said as she rubbed her sister’s
shoulders. “He treats you with respect even when you try to make him mad. Why
do you do that?”

“I guess I just can’t help myself. He hates me and Pete. He’s
always trying to tie Pete into something illegal. Frank’s jealous of all the
money we have. His father, Caleb, could’ve been rich just like Pete, but he
wanted to be a cop instead. It’s not our fault that Frank followed in his
father’s footsteps and doesn’t have two nickels to rub together.”

Claire and I sat silently and listened to the skeletons fall
out of Abby’s closet.

“He blamed Pete for his father’s heart attack just because
Pete was on the phone arguing with Caleb at the time he had it. That’s a
ridiculous accusation. I’m surprised Frank didn’t try to have Pete prosecuted
for a heart attack induced by a phone conversation.”

“You know where this comes from, don’t you?” Isabel asked.

“Yes, I do,” Abby said. “Jaynee dumped him and it broke his
heart.”

“I don’t think he ever got over her.”

“Who’s Jaynee?” I butted in.

“Jaynee’s my daughter,” Abby said. She got up from the
settee, walked over to the piano and picked up a framed picture. She brought it
over to show us. She pointed to each person in the photo. “This is Jaynee and
her husband, Steven, the hunk.” Abby giggled. “At least, that’s what I call
him.” She pointed to the two children in the picture. “This is my grandson,
Peter. He was named after his grandfather. And this is Laurie, my
granddaughter. They’re twins.” She walked over and set the photograph down on
the piano. As she walked back to the settee she took notice that Randy had
stretched out in the chair and his eyes were closed. Her next comment was
intended for him. “My other child isn’t married, yet.”

“Are you harping on that again?” he said as he opened his
eyes and looked at us. He winked and then laid his head back again. “I’m so
glad I have you to remind me of such things.”

Our conversation dragged on and on until finally, an hour
later I said, “It’s time to call the police. This is making me crazy. I don’t
know why we had to wait.”

“Sometimes it’s best to sit back and go over everything in
your head before you jump the gun and cause yourself grief,” Randy said as he
got up from the chair and headed to the hallway. “I’m going to call the police
and then I’m going to get the poker.” He turned and left the room.

The four of us sat motionless until his return. He walked
into the room and laid the black bag on the coffee table. It was all Abby could
do to keep herself from reaching over and touching the evidence. I could see it
in her eyes. Her curiosity was getting the best of her.

I looked at her and said, “Don’t go there, Abby. The last
thing you want is for the police to find your fingerprints on the murder
weapon.”

“What can they do?”

“Oh, don’t be asinine, Mother,” Randy said. “Listen to Jesse.
It would be very unwise for you to touch that poker. The police will be here
soon.”

“I’m not that crazy,” Abby said, with a twinkle in her eyes.
“But I would like to see it.” She turned her attention to Claire’s wastepaper
basket full of money and paperwork sitting on the floor. “You might want to put
that away. We can put it in the credenza.”

Claire grabbed the basket and followed Abby over to the
credenza by the piano.

“Here, put my purse in there while you’re at it,” I said,
handing it to Abby. “I’d hate for my gun to fall out while the detective’s
here.”

“You might not want to cross your legs either,” Isabel said
with a smile.

I looked down and noticed that the leg of my pants was hiked.
The gun I had strapped to my ankle left a distinct bulge. Quickly, I pulled up
the leg of my jeans and unsnapped the holster. “Stick this in my purse, too,” I
added.

Abby carefully took the gun from me and placed it in my bag.
She took the bag over to the credenza, then looked back at me and said, “You
come prepared, don’t you?”

“I sure do,” I replied. “I’ve run into trouble a few times.”

“We could be headed for serious trouble when that detective
gets here,” Claire said as she walked back over to me and sat down. “I’m sure
he’s going to want to know why we were outside in the snow.”

“I’m pregnant,” I said, winking at Abby, who was having way
too much fun under the circumstances. “I needed some fresh air.”

“Hey, that’s good,” Claire said. “And I tripped over the
poker.”

“No, we can’t stray too far from the truth, or we’ll get
choked on our lies. We went outside so I could get some fresh air and I tripped
over the poker. That’s all we need to say.”

The doorbell chimed and everyone in the room jumped.

“Everybody follow my lead and let me do the talking. I don’t
want anyone to offer anything,” Randy said. “I’ll answer the door.”

Seconds later, Detective Trainum and three of his men walked
into the parlor.

“This must be serious if you need three officers to back you
up. What’s wrong, detective?” I said as I stood and walked up to him. “Do you
think it’s going to take that many of you to handle us four bad women?”

Randy walked up to me, gave me one of his arched eyebrow
looks (the same look that Billy gives me) and said, “Sit down, Jesse.”

Like a scolded child, I took my rightful place back on the
settee and heeded his demand.

An hour later, satisfied with our explanation and with
evidence in hand, the detective and his men left. Detective Trainum promised to
see us again.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said. “I thought we handled that
well.”

“Something just dawned on me,” Randy said as he turned and
headed to the study.

We all followed him.

“What is it?” Abby asked him.

“Tracks to Carl’s back door!” he said as he looked up at each
of the monitors. “I’m sure the detective and his men are examining the area
where Jesse said she stumbled over the poker. I’m just hoping we’ve had enough
snow to cover your tracks.”

“I don’t see the detective and his… oh, crap,” Claire said.
“What’ll we do?”

“We’re not going to do anything, except wait,” I said.

Randy went to one of the computers and punched a few keys.
All the screens zoomed in on Detective Trainum’s face. He stared back at us
with a sinister look as if he knew we were watching.

All of us lurched backward at the sight of his face covering
every monitor.

“Yuck!” I said. “I’d hate to wake up to that every morning!”

“Be nice, Jesse,” Claire said. “He can’t help the way he
looks.”

We all erupted with laughter as Randy readjusted the zoom so
that the detective’s face wasn’t the only thing we could see. Even Claire had
to chuckle at herself. Eventually, the laughter died down as we stood still and
watched the detective and his men. Randy hit a key on the computer and the
voices of the men outside became almost audible. Randy turned the volume up as
far as it would go, but, unfortunately, we couldn’t make out what they were
saying. They talked with their heads together the whole time, and not once did
it sound like they were talking above a whisper.

“They’re on to us,” Abby said. “I’m sure Frank knows about my
system.”

“I’m sure he does, Mother,” Randy said. “Frank knows
everything that goes on with this family. A lot of people do. When you have
money and your face shows up in the news and in magazines, people pay
attention.” He turned and looked at me and asked, “Do you see the tracks that
you and Claire made in the snow earlier?”

I walked up a little closer to one of the screens and took a
better look. “No, I don’t, why?”

“Aren’t you glad we had that one-hour wait?”

I smiled at his wisdom.

“When I’m confronted with a situation that requires a calm,
level head, I make myself take a time-out,” he said. “If it’s a life and death
situation, of course, that rule doesn’t apply.”

“That one hour gave us enough time for the snow to cover our
tracks. Look, it’s still snowing like crazy.” I pointed to the screen and then
looked back at Randy. “You’re very astute. You should be a private eye.”

“Actually, I didn’t think about the snow at the time I
demanded a time-out. I was only doing what I would normally do, and it paid
off.”

“That’s a pretty smart rule,” Claire said. “I’ll have to…”

I stopped listening to Claire when I looked at one of the
screens to my left and saw the shadow of a person hiding behind a tree. I could
barely make out the form, but with the help from one of Abby’s floodlights, I
could see enough to know that someone was there. He or she was lying in wait at
the north end of Abby’s yard. I touched Randy’s arm and pointed to the screen.

“Are all the doors locked?” I asked as I looked at Randy.
“How safe are we right now? I mean, when Claire and I came in through the back
door, it wasn’t locked.”

“It wasn’t locked because I unlocked it just before you got
to it,” Randy said. “The system in this house is state-of-the-art. It’s one of
the best. We can do things just by the touch of a finger.” He pressed a computer
key and a warning came up on the screen indicating the activation of a
full-system alarm. “I suggest that no one open a window or door.”

“What happens if we do?” Claire asked. “Will we be blasted
with a loud alarm?”

“No, it’s a silent alarm system, but we will be swamped with
fire, police and emergency personnel within about three minutes. I know,
because when it was first installed, Mother set it off a number of times.”

“I set the alarm off by accident,” Abby said. “It wasn’t my
fault that I didn’t know how to use it. I tried to remember…”

“That’s enough, Mother,” Randy interrupted her. “We have to
do something about that man out there. We have to warn the detective. I know
what I’ll do.” Randy picked up the phone and dialed. “Hello,” he said. “This is
Randy Morgan. It’s a matter of life and death that you patch me through to
Detective Trainum right this minute.” A few seconds passed and then Randy said,
“What? But you have…” He pulled the phone from his ear, stared at it and then
slammed it down in the cradle.”

“What happened, son?” Abby asked.

“The woman said his cell phone wasn’t turned on.”

“I have an idea,” I said. “Where’s the button for the outside
public address system?”

“That’s a great idea!” Randy pressed a key and spoke directly
into the computer. “Hey, Trainum, when you and your lazy men finish goofing
off, Abigail would like to speak to you.” Randy hit a few keys and then turned
to us and said, “If that doesn’t get him in here quickly, nothing will. I
turned off the in-house alarm. The doors are still locked, but we can open them
from the inside without setting off the alarm or having to put in the code.”