Under the Dog Star: A Rachel Goddard Mystery #4 (Rachel Goddard Mysteries) (9 page)

“I just need to ask your son a few questions.”

“About what?”

“His dealings with Gordon Hall.”

She frowned at her son. “What dealings with Gordon Hall?”

“He’s saying—He’s asking—” Pete slammed down the hood of the Thunderbird and grabbed a rag off a fender to wipe his hands. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

Folding her arms, Babs Rasey tilted her head to look up at Tom. “You gonna tell us what you’re after?”

Her husband, Beck, wasn’t around, Tom assumed. If he were, he would have been in Tom’s face long before this. “Pete’s been seeing the Halls’ daughter, Beth, and I heard Dr. Hall didn’t approve.”

Babs maintained her tight, defensive expression. “You heard old news. That’s been over for a while now. And so what, anyway? The man’s dead now. Killed by that pack of wild dogs, I heard. Who cares what he thought about anything?”

“The medical examiner has ruled Dr. Hall’s death a homicide.”

“A homi—You mean a
person
tore out his throat? Well, that’s a new one on me.” Babs Rasey laughed, shaking her head.

“We believe somebody sicced his dog on Dr. Hall.”

Pete ducked his head, hiding his reaction from Tom’s scrutiny.

Babs’ expression sobered, then twisted into a frown of disgust. “Well, that’s pretty cold-blooded. Who would do a thing like that?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Tom said. “I’m talking to everybody who had trouble with Gordon Hall.”

Pete jerked his head up. He looked scared and ready to bolt. “You accusing
me
of doing it?”

“Now you just hold on a minute, Thomas Bridger,” Babs said. She stepped closer to Pete’s side. “You’ve got no right and no reason to come here accusing my son of—of God knows what.”

“I’m not accusing him of anything. I just want to ask him some questions. Once I do that, I’ll probably be able to rule him out as a suspect, then I can move on. I’d like him to come with me to headquarters—”

“
Mom
,” Pete said, his voice rising.

Under the tree, the dog rattled its chain and barked in Tom’s direction.

“You’re not taking him anywhere,” Babs said. “You want to question him, you come back with a warrant. Now get off our property.”

“All right, if you want to make it harder on everybody,” Tom said. “I’ll be back.”

She stepped in front of Pete, as if she could protect the muscular young hulk. Behind his mother, the boy’s face had gone slack with fright.

Chapter Eight

The Halls’ front door opened a crack, and a blue eye peered out over the safety chain. “You’re back,” Rayanne Stuckey said when she saw Tom, her voice faint with dismay.

“Mrs. Hall around?”

“But you were just here.”

“And now, like you said, I’m back. Can I come in?”

“Mrs. Hall told me not to let anybody in. She’s scared. And she doesn’t want to see anybody that’s comin’ to sympathize either.”

“Well, she’s not scared of me, and I’m not here to sympathize. I’m investigating a crime. Open up, Rayanne.”

She hesitated a moment longer, then unlatched the door and swung it open. Tom stepped across the threshold into the foyer. “In there.” Rayanne waved a hand toward the living room.

He was on his way into the living room when footsteps pounded down the staircase. He swung around to see Beth Hall charging toward him.

“You’ve got no right!” she screamed. She came to a halt three feet from Tom, hands clenched into fists, her whole body trembling. “Who do you think you are?”

“Beth?” Vicky called from the living room. “What on earth?”

“What’s wrong?” Tom asked the girl, although he had a good idea.

Outrage twisted Beth’s delicate features into an ugly mask, and her eyes glittered with tears. “You have no right to accuse Pete of killing my father. It’s a lie! You’re just a big dumb cop trying to mess up our lives because you don’t know how to catch
real
criminals.”

“
Beth.
” Vicky stood in the doorway from the living room. “That’s enough. Stop this right now.”

Soo Jin stood behind Vicky, a derisive smile on her lips as she watched the little drama play out.

“Just calm down,” Tom said to Beth. “I don’t know what Pete told you, but all I want to do is ask him some questions.”

“You called him a murderer!” Tears spilled over and streamed down Beth’s cheeks. “Just because you’ve got that dorky uniform and that stupid badge, you think you can push people around. But it doesn’t mean shit, do you hear me?”

Beth shot out a hand, grabbed the badge on his uniform shirt and tried to yank it off. Tom caught her arm and forced her to let go. When he released her, she cradled her arm against her body and howled as if he’d broken it.

“Oh, for pity’s sake,” Soo Jin said.

“Elizabeth Ann Hall, you stop this nonsense right now,” Vicky said. “I am ashamed of you.”

The girl plowed into her mother and shoved her with enough force to make her stumble backward. Tom and Soo Jin both darted to Vicky and grabbed her arms before she fell.

When Vicky was steady on her feet, supported by Tom’s arm around her waist, Soo Jin marched over to Beth and slapped her face. The loud
pop!
of the blow echoed in the foyer.

“Hey!” Tom said. “That’s not necessary.”

But Beth was already flinging herself at Soo Jin, hands outstretched to rake fingernails across her face. Soo Jin caught Beth’s wrists and held her at arm’s length.

“You bitch!” Beth struggled but couldn’t free herself from Soo Jin’s grip. “You told him about Pete, didn’t you? You’re always trying to suck up to somebody, you’re always trying to tear me down. You’re not part of this family, do you hear me? You’re just a dirty little bastard somebody found on the street, your own mother didn’t want you.”

Soo Jin slammed Beth against the wall. Beth wailed and slid down until she sat in a heap, bawling, her face pressed to her knees.

“Oh, dear god,” Vicky whispered. She breathed rapidly through bloodless lips. “I don’t know how much more I can take.”

“Come on and sit down,” Tom said. He glanced at Beth to make sure she was going to stay put, then guided Vicky to the living room sofa. Soo Jin followed.

Vicky was weeping by the time she sat down. In the foyer, Beth bellowed like an animal being torn apart. Tom looked back at the girl in amazement. He would never have guessed that quiet little Beth Hall was capable of that much passion and rage. Her relationship with Pete was starting to make sense.

“Tom,” Vicky said, pulling his attention back to her, “do you think the Rasey boy had something to do with Gordon’s death?”

“I don’t have any evidence against anybody at this point.” Tom sat in an armchair facing her across the coffee table. Soo Jin sat beside Vicky and rested a hand on her shoulder. “I’m looking into the people who had disputes with your husband, just what I told you I was going to do.”

“That business with the Rasey boy was so long ago,” Vicky said. “It’s been months, and Beth hasn’t seen him since then.”

Soo Jin snorted. Vicky and Tom both looked at her. “You don’t think that’s true?” Tom asked.

Soo Jin leaned forward to speak quietly. “They never broke up. They’re still seeing each other, and obviously they’re still talking.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Vicky said.

“How do you know what’s going on?” Tom asked Soo Jin. “You’ve been away at school.”

“I do come home for visits,” Soo Jin replied, lifting her chin as if defying him to contradict her. “And I hear Beth on the phone with him, making plans to sneak out—”

“Shut your mouth, you bitch!” Beth yelled from the foyer. She scrambled to her feet and charged toward the living room.

Tom leapt up and caught her as she came through the doorway. “Whoa, whoa.” He gripped her shoulders. “Settle down.”

“Get your hands off me! You don’t have any right to touch me.” Beth twisted her shoulders and Tom released her. Instead of going after Soo Jin, she subsided into tears, gasping out her words. “You can’t believe all those lies. Everybody’s trying to come between us.”

“Will you talk to me about it?” Tom asked. “Give me your side of the story?”

Beth raised her head and threw a defiant look at her mother and older sister. “Yeah, I’ll tell you the truth. Then you’ll see how stupid it is to blame Pete for anything.”

“Vicky? Is it okay with you if I talk to Beth privately?”

She waved a hand as if she barely had the strength to lift it. “Use the family room.”

Tom followed Beth down the corridor. They entered a room dominated by a wall-mounted HDTV that looked about six feet wide. On the other walls hung dozens of framed photos of all the Hall kids at various ages. Tom took an upholstered chair and Beth collapsed onto the brown leather couch, sniffling. He handed her his handkerchief. “You must still be in shock after finding your father that way.”

Her head bowed, Beth answered in a shaky whisper, “It was horrible. The way he looked, lying there with—” Her hand went to her throat. Fresh tears filled her eyes. “Poor Daddy.”

“Your father was murdered, Beth, and I have to do my job and investigate everybody who had a grievance against him. From what I hear, he didn’t approve of you dating Pete Rasey, and they argued about it.”

“Pete didn’t do anything to my dad! He
wouldn’t
.”

“Okay, I get that. But I need to know exactly what happened between them.”

Slumped on the sofa, Beth stared toward the window as she thought. From somewhere outside, Tom heard the faint, raspy whistle of a white-throated sparrow, a harbinger of winter.

“Mom and Dad never gave Pete a chance,” Beth said at last. “All they’ve ever done is criticize him. They don’t like his father or the place his family lives in or him being a football player. Dad thinks athletes are stupid, so Pete must be stupid to spend his time throwing a ball around.”

“How long have you and Pete been dating?”

“We don’t
date.
He can’t come here and pick me up and take me somewhere for a
date.
We’ve always had to sneak around.”

“All right, how long have you been involved with him?”

“Why do you want to know? Are you going to ask me whether we have sex? You want all the details?”

This girl was trying his patience, but Tom did his best to keep his voice level. “Just answer my question. I’ve explained why I have to look into this.”

Beth was silent a moment, scraping a fingernail back and forth on the sofa arm with enough pressure to leave an indentation in the leather. “A year. I’ve been
involved
with Pete for a year.”

“Have you witnessed any arguments between your father and Pete?”

She nodded. “But it wasn’t Pete’s fault.”

“What happened?”

“We were just hanging out this summer. We drove down to the river, we took some food and had a picnic, and we were just hanging out. My dad tracked us down, and all of a sudden he was just
there
, and he grabbed Pete and started pushing him around and yelling at him and saying he’d kill Pete if he ever came near me again.”

“What were you and Pete doing when your father showed up?”

“I
told
you, we were just hanging out.”

Tom gave her a long look, his eyebrows raised skeptically.

Beth tried to hold his gaze with the glare of a stubborn child, but after a few seconds she gave up and averted her eyes. “We were making out, okay? Is that what you want to know?”

“Did you both have all your clothes on?”

The girl’s face flamed, her smooth pale skin turning blotchy red. Instead of answering the question, she blurted, “Dad had no
right
. Pete
loves
me. Dad had no right to come between us.”

“You say he was pushing Pete around? What did Pete do? How did he react?”

“Well, how do you
think
? He had to defend himself. He wasn’t going to just
take
it.”

“So they had a fistfight? They were hitting each other?”

Beth inhaled a deep breath, expelled it in a huff, and nodded. “They both had bloody noses. It was so stupid. And it was all Dad’s fault.”

“You said your father threatened Pete. How did Pete react to that?”

She caught her bottom lip in her teeth, clearly reluctant to tell Tom the truth.

“Beth? Did Pete threaten your father too?”

“Neither one of them
meant
it. It was just, you know, guys saying things when they’re mad.”

She hadn’t looked directly at Tom since she began talking about the confrontation. He had a feeling he’d pushed her as far as she was willing to go, and if he forced anything more out of her he couldn’t be sure it was the truth. Now that he’d seen another side of her, a depth of rage he would never have imagined, he had to revise his approach. This was a girl with strongly conflicting feelings about her father.