Ham Bones (31 page)

"You can't hold us. You have absolutely no reason to
detain any of us" Gabriel started toward the door.

"Gordon, put the cuffs on him and read him his
rights." Coleman's voice was calm and deadly. "Charge
him with obstructing justice. We'll hold him as a material
witness until the trial."

"You can't do that!" Gabriel looked around at us but
found no help. "Kristine is waiting for me. We have
plans. We-"

"I have plans, too, Gabriel." I spoke with a certain
edge. "Like living the rest of my life free because I didn't
do anything wrong"

"Really, Sarah Booth, it's not my fault this has come
down on your head" He glowered at me.

"Wrong" I really looked at him. Perhaps it was the
lighting, but I thought I caught a glimpse of Renata in the
depths of his eyes. "You came to town accusing me, saying that Renata was afraid of me, heightening the suspicion that I hurt her. And you did this without any evidence.
You took the rumor that someone deliberately planted and
helped to grow it until I stood accused in my hometown."

Gabriel wasn't one to back down. He met me glare for
glare. "I came to Zinnia for justice for my sister's murder. Which I haven't received yet" He gave Coleman a contemptuous look. "I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever find
out the truth"

"You had one goal in mind when you came, Gabriel." I
thought of his very public accusation in Millie's Cafe.
"And you set Booter on me like a bloodhound. You
wanted me to know you suspected me, and you fed that
suspicion in Booter and anyone else who would listen.
You led her on and sicced her on me like a mad dog"

He shrugged. "So what? So sue me. I thought you
killed Renata, and I devised a small way to make your life
unpleasant. I admit that. But so what?"

Tinkie lifted her chin. "So what is that Sarah Booth didn't
do a thing to Renata, and she's suffered all this time. So
what is that you've just admitted to slandering Sarah Booth
in front of witnesses. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"Who did kill my sister?" Gabriel looked around the
room. "If not Sarah Booth, who? Are you any closer to
answering that question?"

"Maybe" Coleman glanced at Tinkie, then at me.
"With Sarah Booth as a named suspect, I'd hoped to draw
the real killer out"

"Gee, thanks" I felt blood rush to my face, and my
head, where Gertrude had bonked me, started throbbing
again. "Does the word scapegoat ring any bells here?"

"I never believed you harmed Renata. Of all the people who were suspects, I knew you hadn't hurt anyone"
Coleman's tone was gentle, a little sad.

"Could you have mentioned that to me?" I could hear
my heartbeat in my ears, a very bad sign. If I started crying, it would all be over with. I only cried when I was so
angry that there was no undoing the damage. If Coleman
made me cry, in public, in front of these people, I would
never forgive him.

"It had to play out the way it did, Sarah Booth. Trust
me"'

"Right. That's exactly what I want to do-trust you"

Graf moved up to stand beside me. "That's a rotten
thing to do to anyone, Sheriff, but especially to someone
you say you love."

"Stay out of it, Milieu." Coleman's tone was murderous. "You don't have a clue about any of this."

"I have enough of a clue to know that no one deserves
to be accused of murder. Not only accused, but charged
and put in jail. This is the woman you say you love. How,
exactly, does love figure into those actions?"

For once, Graf got it right. "If you don't believe that I
killed her, who then?"

"That's something the night will tell." Coleman pointed
at Gabriel. "You, come with me. Gordon, take Milieu to a
cell."

"What about me?" Bobbe asked.

"You've got some explaining to do. And Sarah Booth
and Tinkie have some questions for you"

While Graf and Gabriel were shifted out of the room,
Bobbe turned to me. "You have to help me. My husband
and baby will be at the airport to pick me up. You have
to-"

I shook my head. "No, I don't"

"I didn't do anything," Bobbe wailed.

"What was taken from Robert Morgan's New York
apartment?"

All of the color faded from her face, leaving her lipstick a dark umber slash. "How did you know?"

"I overheard you on the phone just before you took off
for Memphis."

"But--" She looked away. "You heard me telling
Danny to put what he'd taken back"

"That's right." I'd been bonked on the head, but my
memory was still intact.

"It isn't like it sounds. It was just a medical report."

"What kind of medical report?" Tinkie asked.

"Renata's"

I sat up. "And what did it say?"

"Nothing of any importance to anyone but me" Bobbe
bit her bottom lip and one lone tear traced down her face.
"Honest, it was about makeup. She showed me the report
and said she was keeping it for future reference"

Coleman stepped back into the room. He stood near
the door to his office, listening, allowing Tinkie and me to
conduct the interview.

"What kind of report about makeup is worth stealing?" Tinkie asked.

"One that says that Renata's makeup wasn't pure."
Bobbe's voice was barely a whisper. "After Danny was
nearly electrocuted, we came very close to losing our
home. Renata used this incredibly expensive makeup."
She looked at me. "You know that. The stuff was handconcocted especially for her. Her lipstick was a hundred
and fifty dollars a tube. The liquid foundation she wore
cost nearly three hundred. She'd give me the money to
order it for her. Renata liked to have people run her personal errands. I think it gave her a sense of real power."

To quote Johnny Cash, I could see the train a'comin'.
"So you bought cheap makeup, put it in the expensive
bottle, and kept the money."

She nodded. "I know it was wrong, but I was desperate. I figured it couldn't hurt. The makeup was excellent,
but so are a lot of less expensive brands. No one could tell
the difference, and for the most part that was true"

"Except. .

"Except Renata's face broke out. She had the makeup tested and discovered the switch. She thought the company had screwed her, so she was raising hell with them,
threatening a lawsuit."

"La Burnisco?" I guessed.

"Right. Renata has used their cosmetics for years.
They worked it out somehow."

I knew exactly how. The money Renata gave Carlotta
was only part of the deal at La Burnisco. The other part of
the bargain was when she dropped the threat of a lawsuit.
No wonder Carlotta had jumped into the fire with the
devil.

"You got your husband to steal the report because it
would show a history of tainting her makeup" I wasn't
certain how much of Bobbe's story I believed now. It was
possible she'd worked with Robert Morgan to poison the
lipstick.

"I knew how bad it would look if Renata died of
tainted makeup and then it was discovered that someone
had tampered with her makeup once before. I knew it
would all be traced back to me, so I called Danny and
asked him to steal the report"

I remembered how freaked out Bobbe became when I
wanted to call Danny and ask him to come to Zinnia to
support his wife. Now I knew why. She had him busy on
a breaking-and-entering errand in New York. "So Danny
got the report"

Bobbe nodded. "Then when the sheriff said I could go
home, I realized that it was wrong to take the report.
Danny was going to put it back"

"A day late and a dollar short," Tinkie sniffed.

"It was only a skin rash. It wasn't a serious problem."
Bobbe's voice cracked.

"When did this happen?" I asked.

"In Reno"

"Why did Renata send the medical report to Morgan?"
The connection between those two held the answer to a
lot of unexplained things.

"I don't know. They were friends. He came up with
some cream to soothe the rash." Bobbe shrugged.

"Tampering with evidence in a murder case is a serious thing." Coleman walked over. "And it does look bad,
Ms. Renshaw."

She sighed. "Ever since Renata came into my life,
things have looked bad. I did a bad thing, but I didn't hurt
anyone. Neither did Danny. Let me call him and if he still
has the report, he can fax it to you"

Coleman nodded and handed her a telephone.

Bobbe fought hard to hold onto her composure as she
placed the call. She spoke hurriedly with her husband and
gave him the fax number for the sheriff's office. When
she hung up the phone, she took a deep breath. "I'm glad
you know. I'm glad all of this is over. I just want to be free
of this nightmare."

It was a sentiment I could clearly echo. The fax machine in the corner whirred into life and began producing
pages.

Coleman examined the report and passed it to me. It
showed exactly what Bobbe had said. The makeup contained nothing unusual, but it didn't match the composition of La Burnisco's magic formula. Bobbe hadn't
harmed Renata in any serious way, but my eye was caught
by the name of the doctor that Renata had gone to for the
skin rash. Albert Samen. A copy of the report had also
been sent to Dr. Varik, the retina specialist. Why would
Renata send a report of a skin rash to two medical doctors
in Los Angeles?

I pointed this out to Coleman. "Did you ever get
Samen's medical report on Renata?"

He shook his head. "First thing tomorrow, I'll make
another call." He looked around the room. "As for tonight,
Milieu, Trovaioli, and Ms. Renshaw will be guests of Sunflower County."

Coleman was calling a halt to the questioning. I was
surprised to find that it was nearly midnight. Tinkie was
dead on her feet, and Coleman didn't look good either.
Gordon had taken a seat at the radio, but he looked done
in, too. I could only assume that I was in a similar state.

"We'll be here bright and early," Tinkie said as she took
my arm and led me into the hallway. Sweetie fell into step
beside us, seemingly glad to be leaving the courthouse.

I turned back. Things with Coleman were not good,
and I wanted to finish it. At the thought of what he'd done,
my anger bubbled up again. "I want to have a talk with
Coleman."

"Not now," Tinkie said, tugging on my arm. "Let it go
for tonight, Sarah Booth. We're all about to drop"

"But-"

"No buts! Get some sleep and see how you feel in the
morning." She dragged me down the hall and out into the
cold night. I shivered until I thought my bones would rattle. She was right. I had no reserves left. There wasn't
anything I had to say tonight that wouldn't wait until
morning.

When I finally woke up the next morning, I felt as if
I'd been away from home for a long, long time. I'd
dreamed about Hollywood. The dreams had been fragmented, split with images of orange groves, the ocean,
windswept hillsides. The scenes I'd witnessed had contained big-finned Cadillac convertibles, blondes with dark
sunglasses and cinch-waisted dresses, martinis and palm trees. It was as if I'd flown over the state of California, sampling different places, different times.

Now I was in my own bed in a cold bedroom with late
morning sun pouring through the windows. When I
checked the bedside clock, I was shocked to see it was
nearly eleven. No one had called, or knocked on the door,
or licked my face. I'd been allowed to sleep for a solid
eleven hours. And I felt much better.

I got up and called Tinkie. "Where are you?" I asked
her.

"At the bakery. I'm picking up some Danish and coffee and one tall society reporter."

"Cece?"

"That's right. She called about thirty minutes ago. Seems
like she finally turned up something on those Hollywood
physicians."

"What about Coleman and Graf and Gabriel and Bobbe?"

"Coleman was called out of town. Gordon said he'd be
back after lunch, so I thought we'd wait until then to go
talk to Graf and Gabriel."

I didn't disagree with her logic, but I wasn't prepared
for the sense of betrayal that came with the knowledge
Coleman had left Sunflower County. Again. No doubt involving Connie. I wasn't going to ask, though. Whatever
convoluted schemes Connie had trapped him in were his
business. I could wait to talk to him later, when my name
was completely cleared, and I could tell him exactly what
I thought.

"Are you bringing Cece here?" I asked, forcing my
voice to remain bright and cheerful.

"If that's what you'd like."

"Or I could meet you at the paper?" I looked around
the room to see clothes scattered everywhere. Surely I had clean jeans in the closet, and a sweater. How hard
could that be to find?

"Then meet us at the paper. Cece's on her morning
deadline, and that'll be easier on her. Then we can go on
to the courthouse"

"Got it." I was already out of bed, digging through the
closet. I came up with an old pair of worn blue jeans and
a perky red sweater. Perfect. In three minutes I was lacing
my paddock boots and dashing downstairs as I ran a
brush through my hair.

I stopped long enough to feed Reveler and Miss
Scrapiron, and then I was in the roadster headed to the
Zinnia Dispatch.

As soon as I walked in the newsroom, I was blinded by
a flashgun going off inches from my face.

"Gavin, you moron" Cece stalked across the newsroom and snatched the camera from the photographer's
hands. "What are you doing?"

"She's news. Indicted, unindicted, out on bail, in the
slammer. Sarah Booth Delaney is news. I can get five
hundred dollars a pop from the National Snout for a picture of her."

"Gavin, we're going to hold you down and wax your
legs." Cece's threat was serious. "We'll pull the wax off
slowly, so that you feel each screaming root as it lets
loose."