5 A Bad Egg (22 page)

I was in
luck.

Wayne came
out of the hardware store with a long thick hose in one hand.

“There you
are. I’ve been looking for you,” I said.

“What’s going
on? Did you catch the killer?”

“Maybe. I’ve
got a hunch that we’re getting close. That’s what I need to discuss with you. Wayne,
your life could be in danger.”

“Why would
anybody want to hurt me?” He looked startled by the very idea that he might be
in danger.

“We think
Mitchell Cobb might be knocking off rivals for Ellen’s affection. If we’re
right, that puts you right in his crosshairs next.”

Wayne shook
his head. “Mitchell? You’re not serious, are you?”

“Do I look
like I’m kidding?”

“I’ve known
Mitchell Cobb for years,” Wayne said. “He doesn’t seem the type.”

“There’s a
lot that you don’t know about him. Watch your back, and if he comes within a
hundred yards of you, call the police.”

“I’m not
afraid of Mitchell Cobb,” Wayne said.

“Well, maybe
it’s time that you were. Take this very seriously, Wayne.”

“Okay, I get
it. I’ll be careful. Do the police know that he’s a threat?”

“They’re
looking for him right now,” I said. “On a happier note, Crazy Betty confirmed
your alibi. She saw you with Ellen having your picnic in the park. As a matter
of fact, she thought you two looked as though you belonged together.”

“Maybe she
can persuade Ellen of that,” Wayne said a little wistfully.

“You two
didn’t break up, did you?”

“No, but
she’s doing her best to put on the brakes. We’re not kids anymore, neither one
of us, and I thought we were finally making some real progress, but with
Gordon’s murder, she’s not even sure that she wants to
be
in another relationship just now.”

I patted his
arm. “Be patient, Wayne. Our girl’s worth it.”

“You’re not
telling me anything that I don’t already know,” he said. “It’s just tough.”

“Remember, anything
worth having is worth fighting for,” I said.

“That sounds
more like Moose than you,” the mechanic said with a slight smile.

“He might
have said it first, but that doesn’t make it any less true.”

Wayne nodded,
and then he shook the hose in the air. “I’d better get this back to Rupe. He’s
got a rush job that needs it.”

“Just be
careful,” I reminded him once more. I was afraid that Wayne wasn’t taking the
threat seriously enough, but I wasn’t sure what else I could do about it.

“Like I said,
I’ve got it, Victoria.”

I watched him
get into his truck and drive away, and I wondered what I should do next. When
in doubt, my fallback position was to always go to The Charming Moose, so
that’s where I headed.

Chapter 19

“Victoria, why
did you take off like that without telling me where you were going?” Moose
asked as I walked back inside the diner. “I looked away for a split second, and
you were gone.”

“Take it
easy, Moose. I didn’t do anything dangerous. I just needed to find Wayne to
warn him about Mitchell.”

“That was
smart,” my grandfather said. “If Mitchell is intent on knocking off rivals,
then Wayne’s in danger.”

“That’s
exactly what I told him,” I said.

“You still
should have told me what you were up to,” my grandfather said worriedly. It
occurred to me that he was more concerned for my safety than the fact that I
might have been investigating without him.

I kissed his
cheek. “I’m okay.”

“Fine. That’s
just fine.” Moose paused, and then he asked, “So, where does that leave us?”

I looked
around. “Is Ellen still here?”

“No, she went
home with Opal and Robert. Why, do you need her?”

“I just
wanted to share a little good news,” I said. “With Crazy Betty confirming her
alibi, she’s off the hook with the sheriff. Wayne, too, as a matter of fact.”

“Call her,
then,” Moose said.

“I don’t
think so. I have to give out a fair amount of bad news in my life, so I want to
deliver something good like this in person.”

“Then let’s
go. We can brainstorm about ideas about where Mitchell might be hiding while we
drive over there.”

I looked
around the diner and saw that it was currently in Martha’s and Jenny’s most
capable hands. “Why not? It sounds like a good plan to me.”

“I have a
question,” I said to Moose as we drove toward Opal Hightower’s house. “It might
sound stupid, but there’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“Let’s hear
it,” Moose said. We often discussed new ideas when we were working on a murder
case, and every street and avenue that we could come up with was always
explored, no matter how crazy it might sound to the other at first.

“What if
Mitchell is innocent?”

“From the
description of that closet you found, I could hardly call him that,” Moose
said.

“I’m not
pretending that he’s not obsessed with Ellen to the point of sickness, but that
doesn’t make him a killer, no matter how convenient it appears to be at first
glance.”

“If it’s not
Mitchell, then who should we be looking at instead?” Moose asked.

“Well, our
suspect list is nearly depleted. The only other names we have left are Opal and
Robert. Could it be that we don’t see the truth because we both want the killer
not
to be one of Ellen’s parents?”

“Or both of
them, for that matter,” Moose said.

“Do you think
they could have done it together?”

Moose
appeared to think about it, and after thirty seconds, he said, “It’s a
possibility. What if Opal distracted Gordon while Robert snuck up behind him
with a pipe?”

“I suppose
that it’s possible,” I said. “Would it explain the bruises on Robert’s hand?”

“He has bruises?
When did this happen?”

“I didn’t
tell you about that? Sorry, that’s all my fault. I was talking to him while I
was waiting for you to pick me up, and I noticed that he was having a little
trouble with his hand. He claimed that he hit a cinderblock wall in
frustration, and I had no cause to doubt him at the time.”

“What if he
swung that pipe so hard that his knuckles connected with the wall near the
hardware store as he made contact with Gordon’s head? That could account for it
as well.”

“It makes me
sick just thinking about Ellen’s parents ambushing the man like that.”

“Remember,
they were trying to protect her,” Moose said.

“By killing
the threat? You know what we have to do if this is true, Moose. We are going to
have
to tell the sheriff.”

“I know that.
But how are we going to find out for sure?”

“If they were
working together, we need to split them up. When we get there, if we get the
chance, I want to talk to Robert, and you can speak with Opal.”

“Why can’t I
talk to Robert?” I asked.

“Victoria, we
have to keep them apart. Let me do this my way. Please.”

“Okay, but I
don’t like it. What if Robert decides to come after you?”

Moose
shrugged. “Then I’ll take care of him myself.”

“I’m not sure
this is the best idea, Moose. Why don’t we tell Ellen the good news about her
alibi, and then we can go straight to the sheriff with our alternate theory?
He’s a lot better equipped to handle something like this than we are.”

“I hate to
stop digging just when I feel as though we’re closing in,” he said.

“I know, but
sometimes that’s what we have to do.”

When we got
to Opal’s, there was a problem, though. She was alone, working on a new
knitting project as she answered the door.

“Is Ellen
here?” I asked.

“She took the
kids out for ice cream,” Opal said. “Why? What’s going on?”

“I just need
to talk to her in person,” I said.

“Well, you’re
welcome to wait here,” Opal offered. “She shouldn’t be that long.”

“That’s
fine,” I said. “I’ll do that.”

Moose asked
offhandedly, “Do you know if Robert’s home, by any chance?”

“He just went
across the street. Why?” Opal asked him.

“I think I’ll
go talk to him for a minute,” Moose said. He looked at me and asked, “Do you
mind, Victoria?”

“Go on. It’s
fine with me,” I said, though I wasn’t entirely pleased with Moose’s decision
to press on without the sheriff’s consent. “Remember, I’ll be right here if you
need me.”

After my
grandfather walked across the street, I kept watch on Robert’s house, looking
for any sign that Moose might be in trouble.

Opal must have
noticed my constant vigilance. “You’re not really waiting for Ellen, are you,
Victoria?” she asked.

“I admit that
it’s not the only reason I’m watching outside,” I said. I glanced back at her
and saw that she was knitting furiously as we spoke, her hands moving with
eerie, mechanical precision.

And that’s
when I got it.

One of the
Hightowers had indeed killed Gordon Murphy, but I had a hunch that Robert
hadn’t had anything to do with it. Gordon had been killed between the hardware
store and a shop that I knew Opal visited often, A Close Knit World. She must
have spotted Gordon out the window as he walked past, and seizing the moment to
protect her grandchildren, Opal had grabbed a pipe and ended his life.

“So, you know
after all,” she said the second she saw my face. “Are the police on their way?”

“I don’t know
what you’re talking about,” I said, trying my best to feign ignorance. She’d
already killed once to protect her family. What was one more homicide?

“Don’t lie to
me, Victoria. You know that I did it. What gave me away?”

This was
going nowhere. Maybe if I stalled her long enough, Moose would come back, and
then it would be two against one. “Mostly it was the proximity of the crime
scene to the yarn shop. You saw an opportunity to right a wrong, and you took
it, didn’t you? Robert doesn’t know, does he?”

“I think he
suspects something, but Ellen doesn’t have a clue. So, what happens next?”

“If you turn
yourself in, I’ll do my best to see that it goes easier on you,” I said.

“I can’t do
that, Victoria, and you know it.”

“When you
confessed to killing Gordon to me before, why didn’t you admit to using the
pipe on him?”

“I wasn’t
thinking straight,” she said. “You pressed me, and I panicked.”

“And I
discounted your confession completely.”

Opal nodded.
“I realized that confessing wouldn’t do Ellen any good, so when you dismissed
it, I decided to take advantage of my second chance.”

“You must
have killed him close to two o'clock, because you sent your husband to pick up
your grandchildren. That was out of the ordinary for you, wasn’t it?”

“As much as
Robert loves those two, nobody loves them more than I do. I couldn’t stand the
thought of losing them.” She frowned, and then Opal added, “And I won’t lose
them now.”

Uh oh. It
appeared that we were going to have a problem here. “You have to give yourself
up, Opal. It’s the only way,” I said.

Opal slipped
the scarf she was knitting off the needles with great deliberation, and held
one in each hand. Those things made nasty weapons when they were pointing
straight at me. “I can think of another,” she said as she started to move
forward.

I felt my
heart tighten. I didn’t want to fight her, but in another second, I wasn’t
going to have any choice. I had to think fast and come up with a way to stop
her.

Instead of
looking for another weapon, though, I decided to use the one thing against her
that had gotten her into trouble in the first place: her heart. “Opal, what
happens if you do manage to get rid of me? I’m going to fight for my life, so
things are going to get ugly here, but let’s say that you succeed in killing
me. Do you really want your daughter and your grandkids to walk through that
door and find my body? There’s going to be blood all over the place; I can
guarantee you that.”

“Of course.
You’re right,” she said as the needles slipped through her fingers to the floor
below. “What was I thinking?” At that instant, Opal started softly sobbing, and
I knew it was crazy the moment I took that first step forward, but the woman
was in pain. I hugged her, and the tears rushed out of her. “I’m so sorry,” she
kept repeating. I waited until her crying lessened, and then I took out my cell
phone and called the sheriff. While we were waiting for him to show up, Moose
and Robert came over together. I didn’t need to explain a thing to them,
because the second Opal saw Robert, she cried out, “I just wanted to save her,
Robert. Will she ever forgive me?”

“Ellen loves
you, Opal. She’ll find a way.”

Opal fell
into his arms then, and she was still there when the sheriff showed up three
minutes later to take her away to jail.

“I still
can’t believe that Ellen’s mother killed Gordon,” Greg said once Moose and I
were back at the diner. Ellen had heard the news, and she was at the jail now,
along with her kids and her father. The family was holding a vigil for Opal,
and I was proud of my friend for standing by her mother in her time of need.
None of us believed that the murder Opal had committed was okay, but everyone
who had ever met Gordon Murphy could understand how the end of the bad egg came
to be.

I was still
discussing what had happened with Moose, Martha, and Greg when my cellphone
rang. It was Rebecca Davis, and I’d been hoping that she’d call. “How’s Opal
holding up?”

“Surprisingly
well,” Rebecca said. “She gave me more details about what happened, so we have
something to work with. I can’t go into specifics, but apparently Gordon
threatened her when she tried to convince him to leave Ellen and the kids
alone. She says that he tried to attack her, and that she swung that pipe in
self-defense.”