“Either you let Oscar bring you to my house, or I stay here the rest of the afternoon and wait for your discharge, so I can take you there myself,” I said.
She sighed and shook her head. “Well, then. Guess I’ll be stayin’ at your place tonight.”
*
“I’M SURE GLAD Nana’s okay,” Trey said, keeping his eyes on the road as we made our way back to the Valley.
“That’s for sure,” I said. I’d just called Vicky, letting her know I was on my way back and that Mama was doing fine.
“I sure was scared when I heard she’d gone to the hospital.”
I peered across the seat, resisting the urge to reach over and ruffle his hair. “Me, too,” I admitted. “I guess I’m glad Oscar was there to help her.”
“I know you don’t like him, but you should probably try to give him a chance.”
“What do you mean by that? I like him.”
“Come on, Mom. It’s really obvious. I get it. I didn’t like Sean at first, either. Now I think he’s great. And Oscar’s a really good guy. You’ll see. Eventually.”
I sat back against the seat and looked out the window. I was pretty sure now that Oscar had nothing to do with Chuck Richards’s murder. Sean was right. I’d let my emotions cloud my judgment. Honestly, I wanted to like Oscar. I really did. Maybe once I got to know him better . . . Suddenly my gaze caught on something. “Hey, turn around up here and head back to Bertram’s, would you?” We’d just passed by the hotel and I’d noticed a sedan with mismatched paint out front. As we pulled into the lot, I got a closer look. It was the car that the crying woman at the funeral had been driving! I pointed it out to Trey, my heart kicking it up a notch. She hadn’t left town yet! “Pull up there. Next to that car with the two-tone paint job.”
As soon as we parked, one of the hotel’s room doors opened and the woman from the funeral home came out dragging a large suitcase. “That’s her,” I said, reaching for the door handle.
“Who?” Trey groaned. “I gotta get to work, Mom. It’s lunch hour and—”
“Just hold on, okay? This is important.” I hopped out and approached the woman. “Hey, there, how are you?”
She looked up, her lips pressing into a thin white slash.
“We met yesterday at Chuck’s funeral,” I reminded her.
“I remember.” She opened her car trunk and loaded her suitcase before moving around to the driver’s side of her car without another word.
I hurried after her. “You were engaged to Chuck Richards.”
She stopped short.
“He had your engagement ring in his pocket when he died,” I added.
She turned and slumped against the car, folding her arms across her chest. “In his pocket? How do you know that?”
“I’m the one who found him . . . after he was . . . murdered.” I tried to gulp away the tightness in my throat as I thought of this woman driving a nail through someone’s skull.
She clasped her arms tighter around her midsection and rolled her eyes skyward, blinking several times. Each time her lashes closed, another tear rolled out until thin black lines ran down both cheeks. I was surprised at her sudden show of emotions. Certainly someone who’d committed such a brutal murder wouldn’t be moved to tears like this.
“Where’s the ring now?” she asked. “I want it.”
“The police have it.”
She pushed off the car and started for the driver’s door again. “Fine. I’m outta here.”
“Wait!” I reached out, snagging her arm.
“Let go of me!” She ripped out of my grip and started opening her car door.
“What’s your name? Where are you going?” I called out, trying to get some information, any information, but she ignored me and slammed the car door in my face.
I took note of her license plate number as she sped off and ran back to Trey’s car to get my phone. “Who was that anyway?” Trey asked, backing the car out.
“The murdered man’s fiancée,” I explained quickly as I dialed Sean’s cell phone.
He answered on the second ring. “Lila? Everything okay?”
I quickly relayed my discovery and gave him her license plate number.
“Did you get a name?” he asked.
“No. She wouldn’t tell me. But I now know she was Chuck’s fiancée.” I quickly relayed my conversation with the woman. I also explained my thoughts about the break-in at Makayla’s shop and how I was sure it was the fiancée trying to cover her crime. Then I filled him in on Zach’s discoveries, including how he found out that Chuck and an unnamed woman purchased an engagement ring from Beyond and Back. “Zach said the people at the store didn’t recall the woman’s name. Only that she had brown hair. But maybe one of your guys could question the manager and find out a little more.”
I heard some paper shuffling in the background. “Uh . . . sure. I’ll put in a call to the owner at Beyond and Back and see if he remembers anything.”