Chapter 27

6:00 PM

Mage hadn’t had time to prepare anything big with driving Stephen to the doctor’s but on the way back she stopped long enough to pick up a couple of take and bake pizzas.

Mage and Chet had a quiet dinner with just their kids and no siblings. Not that they ever minded Darryl and Marcia there. Marcia could be very talkative, and the conversations between her and Mage were usually very interesting. Darryl and Chet often just shook their heads whent the two got going. When Allie got involved, there wasn’t a silent moment during the meal.

At eight o’clock, the kids went upstairs when the doorbell rang. Chet answered it as Mage called out to the kids to be nice to each other. Lately, they had started bickering as siblings often did.

French and Coleridge were at the front door, and Chet beckoned them in. They were just sitting down when Chet spied Brad’s car pulling up. He went to let the man in, and was surprised to see Trish getting out of the car as well. He wondered what was going on there, but decided it wasn’t the time to ask any questions.

In the next few minutes, the Fraisers arrived, walking from the fourplex that had been built behind the farmhouse. As they were entering the house, Judge Matthews and Sylvia made their appearance as well.

Chet set a large perculating coffee pot on the dining table, and they gathered around it. A few minutes later, a timer went off in the kitchen and he got up to get a couple of pies from the oven. He carried them out to the table, then went to the deep freeze and pulled out a couple of gallons of iced cream.

Once everyone grabbed whatever they wanted, Mage told them what happened to Stephen.

“Will he be okay?” Sylvia asked.

“It sounds like it,” Mage replied. “Bruce called a little while ago, and it sounds like Stephen is going to have to take some time off. The bracket ripped a bit of his temporalis muscle on the right side. It’s gonna really hurt to talk and chew for a bit, I would imagine.”

At that, Chet gave a bit of a snerk, which made Mage give him a stern look. “I hardly think that’s funny, Chet.”

“Sorry, Hon. I wasn’t laughing about Stephen. I just noticed you prioritized talking as higher than chewing. For Stephen and most other guys, it’s usually the other way around.”

“Are you saying that women prioritize talking more than eating?”

“Yes,” said Chet, Judge Matthews, and Ron Fraiser, almost in unison. Mage turned her evil eye on the others, but it simply seemed to increase their mirth, so she gave up.

"So what'd you find out today?" Brandy asked.

"About?" Mage asked, looking pointedly at Brandy's and Greg's clasped hands.

Greg laughed. "I think everyone knew about us."

"Yes, but it's now been confirmed."

"What did people tell you today?" Brandy asked, as if daring Mage to comment on personal things. "Or weren't you able to get anything out of them?"

Mage bristled, but kept her composure. Brandy's tone was challenging, but nowhere near “nasty” as it had once been. "Well, it seems there was an interesting relationship between Bo and Lisa.”

“Bo and Lisa?” Melissa asked, seeming surprised.

“Kirk told me that Lisa was teaching Bo English in the house when nobody else was here.”

“That’s very interesting,” Judge Matthews said.

“But that’s not the only interesting thing,” Mage continued. “Apparently, Adam Gregory has been spreading rumors that Wanda has been interested in Bruce since she first met him.”

“Are we sure they’re rumors?” Greg asked.

“Of that,” Mage admitted, “I’m not sure. Kirk says there might have been some reciprocation.”

Melissa shook her head, however. “I don’t think Bruce would have allowed any relationship with Wanda, and as far as Lisa and Bo, forget it. She and Bruce were crazy about each other.”

Ron nodded his agreement.

Greg, as diplomatically as he could, asked, “How certain are you?”

“I’d stake my life on it,” Ron said.

“That’s good enough for me,” Judge Matthews said. “That tallies with what I remember.”

Sylvia agreed. “I can’t see them encouraging any extra-marital relationships.”

“So you think Adam is just trying to get back at Wanda?” Brandy wondered.

Sylvia nodded. “I think it’s likely.”

“What about Bo? That’s not coming from Adam.”

Melissa sighed. “My sister was passionate about teaching. It’s possible that she could have acted in a less than sensible way. She might have decided that it was worth the bad appearance to have a good teaching environment.”

“More likely,” Greg mused, “She just didn’t think about the appearance.”

Melissa nodded. “She would have known Bruce would understand, and that would have been it.”

“What about,” Chet ventured, “the possibility that Wanda was interested in Bruce. Maybe while he was with her, Adam chose to overlook her wandering eye. He is certainly no saint himself.”

“Maybe,” Brad said. “I’m not sure she would kill for it though. And why kill Gerry?”

“Was there any relationship between Lisa and Gerry?” Trish wondered.

“I’m telling you,” Ron said, “she and Bruce were crazy about each other.”

“Then why were the two of them killed?” Brandy wondered. “Why the note saying they left together?”

“Could Gerry,” Trish said uncertainly, “have been a red herring?”

“How do you mean?” Brad asked.

“Well, if someone is willing to kill someone in the way of getting a man she’s interested in, would they hesitate to kill someone else to throw suspicion off of themselves?”

“Don’t you think that’s kinda a stretch?” Mage said.

“I think it’s something we have to consider,” Trish said.

“Well if that’s the case,” Mage said, “We have to consider it the other way too. What if Gerry were the intended target and Lisa was a red herring?”

The color drained from Melissa’s face. “You think my sister was killed for no reason at all?”

“I’m only saying if we consider that Gerry could be a red herring, then we have to consider that Lisa could be also.”

Melissa looked at her husband. She hadn’t considered, or maybe hadn’t wanted to consider that her sister was only collateral damage. “That’s absolutely sick,” she said.

“I’m sorry…” Mage began.

Melissa looked back at her. “No, you’re right. I mean killing an innocent person is sick.”

“Both of them are innocent,” Chet said.

Sylvia’s voice was almost a whisper. “That’s an assumption, too.”

“What do you mean?” the judge asked.

“I don’t want to think either of them could have been mixed up in anything illegal, but are we sure they weren’t?”

“We knew them both,” Judge Matthews argued. “That doesn’t seem like either of them.”

“No, but we knew Ralph too. We didn’t expect him to be mixed up in what he was.”

Bill Matthews thought about his friend, Ralph Thomas, who had been such a prominent judge. He hadn’t even considered that Ralph might be mixed up in the corruption that the others had been. “I hate to think that someone else we were friends with might be corrupt,” he said slowly, “But you’re right, Sylvia. We’ve got to consider it.”

“Any way we look at it,” Ron said, “It’s very possible that someone we know is a criminal. Maybe Gerry and Lisa were mixed up in something, or maybe not. But someone is a murderer, and we may know the person.”

“Or persons,” Mage said. “What if there was more than one? Maybe someone was interested in both of them? Maybe it was a pact between two people to kill them?”

Chet was staring at Mage, his mouth open in disbelief.

“We don’t know much about this, Chet,” Mage defended herself. “All we’re sure of is that Bruce didn’t kill Lisa.”

“And that neither Lisa nor Bruce would cheat on the other,” Chet told her.

“Right,” she agreed. “We know very little about the case.”

“You have a talent for understatement, Mage,” Sylvia said.

The talking stopped and the group sat in silence, each mulling over possibilities.