Shivering Mind

Chapter 60

‘Something more … personal,’ Gilpin added. He looked dubiously at his pancakes, topped with strawberries and puffs of whipped cream. He began scraping them to the side of his plate.

‘More personal,’ I said. ‘So does that mean you’re finally going to talk to Desi Collings, or Hilary Handy? Or do I need to?’ I had, in fact, promised Marybeth I’d go today.

‘Sure, we will,’ Derek said. She had the placating tone of a girl promising her pesky mom to eat better. ‘We doubt it’s a lead – but we’ll talk to them.’

‘Well, great, thanks for doing your job, kind of,’ I said. ‘And what about Noelle Hawthorne? If you want someone close to home, she’s right in our complex, and she seems a little obsessed with Amy.’

‘I know, she’s called us, and she’s on our list.’ Gilpin nodded. ‘Today.’

‘Good. What else are you doing?’

‘Matilda, we’d actually like you to make some time for us, let us pick your brain a bit more,’ Derek said. ‘Spouses often know more than they realize. We’d like you to think a bit more about the argument – that barnburner your neighbor Mrs., uh, Teverer overheard you and Amy having the night before she went missing.’

Max’s head jerked toward me.

Jan Teverer, the Christian casserole lady who wouldn’t meet my eye anymore.

‘I mean, could it have been because – I know this is hard to hear, Mr Elliott – because Amy was under the influence of something?’ Derek asked. Innocent eyes. ‘I mean, maybe she has had contact with less savory elements in town. There are plenty of other drug dealers. Maybe she got in over her head, and that’s why she wanted a gun. There’s got to be a reason she wants a gun for protection and doesn’t tell her husband. And Matilda, we’d like you to think harder about where you were between that time – the time of the argument, about eleven p.m., the last anyone heard Amy’s voice—’

‘Besides me.’

‘Besides you – and noon, when you arrived at your bar. If you were out and about in this town, driving to the beach, hanging around the dock area, someone must have seen you. Even if it was someone just, you know, walking his dog. If you can help us, I think that would be really …’

‘Helpful,’ Gilpin finished. He speared a strawberry.

They both watched me attentively, congenially. ‘It’d be super-helpful, Matilda,’ Gilpin repeated more pleasantly. First time I’d heard about the argument – that they knew about it – and they chose to tell me in front of Max – and they chose to pretend it wasn’t a gotcha.

‘Sure thing,’ I said.

‘You mind telling us what it was about?’ Derek asked. ‘The argument?’

‘What did Mrs Teverer tell you it was about?’

‘I hate to take her word when I got you right here.’ She poured some cream into her coffee.

‘It was such a nothing argument,’ I began. ‘That’s why I never mentioned it. Just both of us scrapping at each other, the way couples do sometimes.’

Max looked at me as if he had no clue what I was talking about: Scrapping? What is this scrapping of which you speak?

‘It was just – about dinner,’ I lied. ‘About what we’d do for dinner for our anniversary. You know, Amy is a traditionalist about these things—’

‘The lobster!’ Max interrupted. He turned to the cops. ‘Amy cooks lobster every year for Matilda.’

‘Right. But there’s nowhere to get lobster in this town, not alive, from the tank, so she was frustrated. I had the Houston’s reservation—’

‘I thought you said you didn’t have a Houston’s reservation.’ Max frowned.

‘Well, yes, sorry, I’m getting confused. I just had the idea of the Houston’s reservation. But I really should have just arranged to have some lobster flown in.’

The cops, each of them, raised an accidental eyebrow. How very fancy.

‘It’s not that expensive to do. Anyway, we were at this rotten loggerheads, and it was one of those arguments that got bigger than it should have.’ I took a bite of my pancakes. I could feel the heat rushing from under my collar. ‘We were laughing about it within the hour.’

‘Hunh’ was all Derek said.

‘And where are you on the treasure hunt?’ Gilpin asked.

I stood up, put down some money, ready to go. I wasn’t the one who was supposed to be playing defense here. ‘Nowhere, not right yet – it’s hard to think clearly with so much going on.’

‘Okay,’ Gilpin said. ‘It’s less likely the treasure hunt is an angle, now that we know she was already feeling threatened months ago. But keep me in the loop anyway, okay?’

We all shuffled out into the heat. As Max and I got into our car, Derek called out, ‘Hey, is Amy still a two, Matilda?’

I frowned at her.

‘A size two?’ she repeated.

‘Yes, she is, I think,’ I said. ‘Yes. She is.’

Derek made a face that said, Hmmmm, and got in her car.

‘What do you think that was about?’ Max asked.

‘Those two, who knows?’

We remained silent for most of the way to the hotel, Max staring out the window at the rows of fast-food restaurants blinking by, me thinking about my lie – my lies. We had to circle to find a space at the Days Inn; the payroll convention was apparently a hot ticket.

‘You know, it’s funny, how pr

ovincial I am, lifetime New Yorker,’ Max said, fingers on the door handle. ‘When Amy talked about moving back here, back along the Ole Mississippi River, with you, I pictured … green, farmland, apple trees, and those great old red barns. I have to tell you, it’s really quite ugly here.’ He laughed. ‘I can’t think of a single thing of beauty in this whole town. Except for my daughter.’