Stay At Home Dad 03-Father Knows Death (2 page)

She wiped at her eyes, pulled a walkie-talkie from her hip, and punched a button. “Mama, this is Matilda. You copy? Over.”

Five seconds later, the walkie-talkie crackled.

“This is Mama. Roger that, I copy. Over.”

Mama was not code for some motherly figure in Matilda’s life. Mama was Mama. Matilda’s mother. Who worked right alongside her on the fair board. I didn’t know the specifics, but I was pretty sure the entire fair board was somehow related to each other.

“We’re gonna need a new freezer,” Matilda said. “The police are telling me we can’t use this one, on account of Deuce Winters finding George Spellman in it. George is gone.” She paused. “Over.”

The Rose Petal police had, in fact, cordoned off the large freezer with yellow crime scene tape.

“Roger. I’m already on it,” Mama said through the walkie-talkie. “I’ve got another one on the way. Should be there in about fifteen minutes. Over.”

Matilda nodded. “Ten-four.” She stuck the radio back on her hip. “I gotta make some calls.” She glanced at the back of the ambulance for a long moment. “Make sure we got more sausages coming.”

She waddled over to the golf cart, wedged herself in behind the steering wheel, and took off, spraying dirt and weeds behind her.

Carly and Julianne made their way around the food stand building to me. Carly surveyed the scene, trying to take everything in. I resisted the urge to pull down the bandanna from her hair to cover her eyes.

Julianne just raised her eyebrows. “Well, this is interesting. You already talk to the police?”

“Yeah. Took all of five minutes. I didn’t do anything other than open the freezer door.”

“Maybe this time you won’t be a suspect.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Very funny.”

She shrugged. “You sort of have a way of falling into these things.”

It was hard to deny that, as much as I might’ve liked to. My part-time private investigating gig only existed because I kept finding myself embroiled in the criminal activity in Rose Petal. Julianne had made several subtle suggestions that, with a new baby on the way, maybe I might want to curtail my activity in that arena. I didn’t disagree.

But it seemed that trouble was still finding me, no matter how much I tried to avoid it.

As I contemplated that, Susan Blamunski hustled our way.

“Oh, good Lord,” Julianne whispered. “Red alert. Crazy woman dead ahead.”

Susan’s face was a mask of concern.

And of heavy eye makeup.

Her large mane of dark hair was teased up and hair-sprayed to death, so much so that I was sure it would’ve taken a missile to penetrate its exterior. Her 4-H T-shirt was expertly tied at the hip, just above her denim capris. Her sparkly silver sandals seemed a poor choice for a day at the fair, but she’d probably chosen them to match the sparkly silver polish on her toes.

“Deuce,” she said, grabbing me by the elbow. “What is going
on
?”

I tried to casually shake free from the grasp of our local 4-H leader, but failed. “I’m not completely sure.”

“I heard they found a dead body,” she said, her decorated eyes widening. She glanced at Julianne and seemed to just notice that she was there. “Oh, hello, Julianne. So nice to see you. We rarely get the opportunity to see you at 4-H events.”

The corners of Julianne’s mouth twitched. I could see the muscles in her face tense as she held back a retort. She wasn’t one to bite her tongue, but for the sake of our daughter, she said, “Hello, Susan.”

“So nice that your entire family could work the fair,” Susan said to me. “Finally.”

“We worked it last year,” Julianne said through gritted teeth.

“Did you?” Susan asked, pursing her perfectly glossed lips. “I don’t recall. Seems like we see you so . . . infrequently.”

If Julianne had had access to a hammer, I was pretty sure she would’ve used it on Susan’s skull at that moment. The fact that Julianne was in the process of establishing her own law practice after leaving her firm earlier in the year meant she was having to put in some serious hours before the baby was born.

But Susan’s digs about our family were nothing we hadn’t heard before. Our nontraditional family was still a novelty in Rose Petal. People couldn’t seem to get used to the role reversal we’d chosen in our home. It worked just fine for us, but there was no doubt that we were the topic of much conversation throughout town.

Julianne took Carly’s hand. “Come on, baby. Let’s go check out the bunnies. Before they have another dead body to deal with.”

If Susan picked up on the fact that she was the potential other body, she didn’t show it.

“When is she due?” she asked.

“Supposed to be a week ago,” I said. “Any day now.”

“That explains her size,” she murmured. She tugged on her own green shirt, smoothing it over her flat stomach. “I don’t think I gained more than nine pounds with either of my kids. But I have a terrific metabolism to begin with, so it’s actually hard for me to gain weight.” She smiled at me. “But you’ve probably noticed that.”

“Uh, sure.”

She refocused on the activity around us. “So, I heard they found some man in the freezer.”

“Yeah.”

“And was it really George? George Spellman?”

I nodded.

“And you . . . you found him?”

“Yeah.”

She squeezed my elbow. “How terrible! Why was he in there?”

“Uh, I don’t know. I just found him.”

The concern in her eyes now outweighed her makeup. “That is terrible.” She was silent for a minute, an expensively manicured fingernail in between her lips. “This isn’t going to be good. Did they say anything about the food stand?”

“Not yet.” I watched her. Like Matilda had been, it seemed like Susan was concerned, but not necessarily because someone had died. Susan appeared to be worried about something more than the food stand, too. But I didn’t know about what.

“We get nearly all of our funding from this week at the fair,” she said. “Without it, we won’t have any money for activities. For anything.”

That was the truth. The food stand was the major fund-raiser each year for our local 4-H. Nothing else brought in an even comparable amount of money. The entire year was built around one week of earnings.

“I’m sure the police will be done soon.” I wasn’t sure at all, but it seemed like a good way to placate her.

Susan looked around the area. “And didn’t I see Matilda over here earlier?”

“Yeah, she was here,” I said. “But I think she went to find out about the new freezer or something.”

Susan’s lips tightened together. “Well, that’s interesting.”

“What? That she went to find a new freezer?”

“No, no,” Susan said, lowering her voice. She looked up at me like she was about to share the most earth-shattering secret in the world with me. “I heard something . . . interesting.”

“You keep using that word.”

She glanced around me before settling her eyes on mine. “I heard that she was having an affair with George.”

3

I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly. “Matilda??”

Susan nodded her head, her hairspray-drenched curls bobbing obediently. “Yes. She and George. Together. Everyone is talking about it.”

I was pretty sure the only person talking about it was Susan. And if other people were talking about it, it was because of her.

“Hmm. That is . . . interesting.”

She waited for me to ask questions. I didn’t.

“Don’t you want to know what’s going on?” she asked. “Maybe something happened between them. Maybe
she
was the one who put him in the freezer. I thought you were an ‘investigator. ’”

“I am. But I’m not working this case.” Or any case at the moment, which was pretty much fine with me.

“You might want to, after you hear about Matilda.”

She wasn’t gonna stop, so I gave in. “Fine. What makes you think they were having an affair?”

Susan pulled me away from the food stand, toward the arts and crafts building. I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if people were crowding around, gawking at the crime scene. George’s body had been removed and most of the police cars were gone. One car was still parked next to the building, a dark blue unmarked sedan. The detective working the case.

Susan stopped just short of the entrance to the arts and crafts building and pulled me next to the wall.

“I saw them,” she whispered. “
Together
.”

I flinched. I wasn’t so sure I wanted more details about four-hundred-pound Matilda and her supposed lover. There were some things the mind refused to forget.

“At Texas Roadhouse,” she continued, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“You saw them at dinner?” I said. “I’m sure they were friends, Susan. George was the groundskeeper here for years. They could’ve been discussing fair stuff.”

George Spellman had operated a small lawn service business in Rose Petal. He also moonlighted as the groundskeeper at the Carriveau County fairgrounds during the summer.

Susan shook her head. “No. This was not a business dinner. I promise you. They weren’t discussing grass or repairs or whatever else it was he did around here.”

I’ll admit, I was becoming a bit more curious. “How do you know? And I thought you said you
heard
they were having an affair? Who told you that?”

“Oh, everyone is talking, trust me,” she said, her fingernails digging into my forearm. “But there were tears. She was crying. She was clutching his arm. I think . . . I think he might have been leaving her. Ending the relationship.”

This was a woman who watched far too many soap operas.

“You know, people might say the same thing about me and you,” I said.

Her mouth formed a perfect O. “Oh?”

I glanced at my arm. “You just pulled me away from a crowd. You’re whispering into my ear. Clutching my arm. . . .”

She dropped my arm like it was a stick crawling with fire ants.

“Deuce Winters! I am insulted!” She stepped away, the picture of indignation. “That is not what this is about!”

“Just sayin’.” I tried not to laugh. “Look, I gotta go find my wife. Make sure she doesn’t hear any rumors about me and you.”

I briefly turned back to see Susan glaring after me as I walked away.

Julianne and Carly were in the animal barn along with a sea of other fairgoers. It wasn’t air-conditioned, but there were fans circulating the hot air, at least giving the impression that people were being cooled off.

“Is the viper gone?” Julianne sat perched on a tiny chair, her stomach ballooning in front of her. I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to get up.

“Yeah, she’s gone.”

“Daddy, look at this bunny!” Carly sat across from Julianne, the biggest rabbit I’d ever seen huddled in her lap.

“Are you sure that isn’t a bear?” I asked. I stroked the rabbit’s silky ears.

“I want him,” she told me. “He’s for sale. The sign on the cage says so. He’s only ten dollars!”

“And he probably eats ten dollars’ worth of food a day,” I said.

“Daddy,” Carly said, scolding me. “He’s not
that
big.” She stood to return the rabbit to its cage. It struggled and scratched the air as she hoisted it up on her shoulder. An older 4-H’er, a girl I didn’t know, lurked by the baby pigs.

“Hey,” I said, motioning to the girl. “Any chance you can help her get this bunny back in its cage?”

The girl tugged nervously at her braid. “Uh, I don’t work with the rabbits.”

“Excuse me?”

She cringed, her eyes wide. “They . . . uh . . . they kinda scare me.”

“But you’re working in the animal barn.”

“My mom signed me up. I didn’t want to work in here.”

I shook my head and rolled my eyes and scooped the massive rabbit from Carly’s arms. Its claws dug into my arms as I struggled with the latch on the cage. I could hear Julianne stifle a giggle as I crammed the bunny back into its cage.

“Wow. What a rabbit wrangler you are,” she said.

I glared at her. “You have no idea.”

“So, what else did Susan have to say?” Julianne asked.

I stood behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “The usual. Just some rumors about the dead guy.”

“What kind of rumors?”

“That he and Matilda Biggs were having an affair.”

Julianne whipped her head around to look at me. “Are you serious?”

“Serious that she said that? Yes. Serious that he was? Good God, I hope not. But she seemed . . . off.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Something just didn’t seem right. She was upset about the death and about the food stand being messed up, but there was something I couldn’t put my finger on. And it was the same thing with Matilda. They were worried about things other than the fact that someone was murdered.”

“Deuce.” Her voice was filled with warning.

“What?” I dug my fingers into the soft flesh of her shoulders and kneaded gently.

“Do not get involved in this.”

“I don’t intend to.”

“That’s not good enough.”

She pushed on the seat of the chair, trying to heave herself to a standing position. I grabbed her under the shoulders and helped.

“I mean it,” she said, her eyes narrowed. “I am a hundred weeks pregnant. I am about to have a baby. I have a legal practice that needs all of my time and then some.
Do not get involved
.”

I held her to me. “Okay, okay.” I kissed the top of her head.

She pushed me away. “Promise me.”

“I promise.”

“I will kill both you and Victor,” she said. “And that’s not a euphemism for just being irritated and slapping you upside the head or something. I will honestly kill you both and find a way to get rid of the bodies so that no one will know I did it. I won’t use a freezer. I will dig deep, deep graves way out in the country and no one will ever find either of you.”

“You really need to have this baby,” I said. “You make far fewer death threats when there isn’t a child inside you.”

She stepped back and placed her hands on her hips. “If someone told me that killing you would get this baby out of me, I’d truly start looking for bullets. It would be hard raising two kids as a single parent. But right now, I’m willing to give it a shot to get this thing out of me.”