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“Fine with me. Right now all I can think about is that cold bottle of chardonnay in my fridge,” said Lucy, sitting down and preparing to listen.
“No surprise, Des and Sandy have both been arrested, there’ll be a press conference tomorrow after their arraignments on a bunch of charges, including the murder of Dave Forrest and attempted murder of Cathy Jasper.”
“How do you know all this?” asked Lucy.
“I’m defending Des.”
“Not Sandy?”
“She’s hired Gerald Fogarty,” he said, naming a high-profile lawyer.
“I guess her folks are footing the bill,” speculated Lucy. “They must be worried that she’s going to be facing some serious charges.”
“The DA hasn’t said, not yet anyway. I’ve heard he’s got video of her in the bank the morning the egg disappeared, so she could have taken it and planted it on her husband. Des is hoping for a plea deal, it’s all I can do to get him from confessing everything. Of course, he’s putting all the blame on Sandy. He said Sandy hatched the plan to steal the egg, believing that Dave would be locked up and out of the way, which would allow her to grab all their considerable assets so they could run away together. Of course, Dave wasn’t locked up, so Sandy started working on him, telling Dave how useless he was, hoping he’d be so embarrassed he’d kill himself, but that didn’t happen either. That’s when, according to Des, Sandy finally decided she’d do it for him. Sandy’s gun appears to be the murder weapon, it’s the right caliber and all. The gun found by his body was Dave’s own, a different caliber. Aucoin’s got other evidence, including plane tickets, but I haven’t seen it yet. Of course, these are just charges, they’re both presumed innocent.”
“Wow, Aucoin’s been busy,” observed Lucy. “First the Mike Green case and now this.”
“I’m sure you’ll hear all about it at the press conference tomorrow.”
“And if he holds back, I’ll know what questions to ask.” A lightbulb lit up in her head. “Actually, I’ve got one for you,” she said, thinking of Cathy’s questions the day she dropped off the help wanted ad. “I know Cathy had her suspicions about Des but what made her so sure he was having an affair that she went hightailing it over to the A-frame?”
He laughed. “She found a Rolex watch hidden in his sock drawer.”
“Okay, so that indicated Sandy was the woman, but how did she know to go to the A-frame?”
“She handled all the Jasper accounts and when she got the cabin’s electric bill she realized somebody was using it.”
“Des certainly didn’t cover his tracks very well,” observed Lucy.
“It’s always the sock drawer, or the laundry,” said Bob, in a world-weary tone. “Charge account bills, too. Men are idiots.”
“Let’s leave it there,” said Lucy, smiling to herself. “Thanks for the info, Bob,” she said, ending the call.
Finally out of the office and in her car, about to start the engine and head home to the longed-for chardonnay, Lucy got another call, this time from Mallory. “Just want to thank you, Lucy,” she said.
“For what?”
“The video of Sandy in that cami. It’s already gone viral and the orders have been pouring in. Everybody wants that cami.”
Lucy found herself laughing. “Thanks,” she said. “It’s good to know something good has come out of this mess.”
She drove slowly, aware that the days were getting longer and the buds on the trees were swelling, preparing to leaf out. Nature struggled on, following her own schedule, while humans seemed to behave more and more foolishly. This entire episode was a good example, thought Lucy, turning onto Red Top Road and climbing the hill to home. It all could have been avoided if Sandy had just stuck to golf, and Des had stuck with Cathy. She pulled into the driveway, looking up at the big old antique house she and Bill had bought so many years ago and thought of the life they’d lived there together. So many memories, she thought, stopping to get the mail from the box by the road. It was mostly junk, but along with the electric bill she found a rather grubby, heavily taped, recycled manila envelope addressed to herself. There was no return address and she couldn’t imagine what it contained. Curious, she ripped open the flap and withdrew a neatly folded tissue paper packet. Opening it, she found a silver wishbone, engraved with the initials KK.
No note, just the wishbone. A thank-you bone from Karl Klaus. She smiled and shook her head. He hadn’t been joking, she thought. He really was into bones.
