Best Kept Secrets(157)
trophies, my own father's respect. You didn't even want
Celina anymore, but you made damn sure I didn't get her,
didn't you?"
"Shut up," Reede snarled, taking a threatening step forward.
Junior aimed his finger at the center of Reede's chest. "Stay
away from me, you hear? Just stay the hell away from me."
He slammed out the front door. The racket echoed through
the small house. After the Jag's roar had faded, Reede headed
toward the kitchen. "Want some coffee?"
Alex was stunned by what Junior had said, and even more
shocked by Reede's cavalier reaction. She ran into the
kitchen. Coffee grounds showered from the metal scoop when
she grabbed his arm and spun him around.
"Before I fall completely in love with you, Reede, there's
something I've got to ask one final time." She took a sharp
breath. "Did you kill my mother?"
Several heartbeats later he replied, "Yes."
Forty-three
Fergus Plummet stood at the side of the bed, looking down
at his sleeping wife, his body quivering with indignation.
"Wanda, wake up." His imperious tone of voice could have
awakened the dead.
Wanda opened her eyes and sat up, groggy and disoriented.
"Fergus, what time--" Everything sprang into clarity when
she saw what he was holding in his hand--five incriminating
one-hundred-dollar bills.
"Get up," he ordered before marching from the room.
Trembling in fear, Wanda got out of bed. She dressed as
quickly as she could and ruthlessly raked her hair back, not
wanting him to find more fault with her.
He was waiting for her in the kitchen, sitting straight and
tall at the table. Like a penitent, she timorously approached
him.
"Fergus, I ... I was saving it as a surprise."
"Silence," he bellowed. "Until I tell you to speak, you
will remain silent and soul-searching." His accusing eyes
pierced straight through her. She bowed her head in shame.
"Where did you get it?"
"It came in the mail yesterday."
"In the mail?"
Her head wobbled up and down in a frantic nod of affirmation.
"Yes. In that envelope." It was lying on the table
beside his cup of coffee.
"Why did you hide it from your husband, to whom you
are supposed to be submissive, according to holy scripture?"
"I," she began, then stopped to wet her lips, "I was saving
it to give you as a surprise."
His eyes smoldered with suspicion. "Who sent it?"
Wanda raised her head and looked at him stupidly.' 'I don't
know."
He closed his eyes and swayed as though entranced.' 'Satan, I
command you to release her from your evil power. You have
control of her lying tongue. Give it back, in the name--"
"No!" Wanda shouted. "I'm not lying. I thought it probably
came from one of those folks you've been talking to on
the phone about what you did out at the Minton ranch."
He was out of his chair like a shot. Rounding the table,
he bore down on her. "How dare you mention that? Didn't
I tell you never, never to utter a word about that?"
"I forgot," she said, cowering. "I thought maybe the
money came from somebody who appreciated what you did.''
"I know who it came from," he hissed.
"Who?"
"Come with me." He grabbed her hand and dragged her
toward the door that connected the kitchen to the garage.
"Where are we going, Fergus?"
"Wait and see. I want the sinners to meet face-to-face."
"The kids are--"
"God will watch over them until we get back."
With Wanda sitting shivering in the front seat beside him,
Plummet drove through the sleeping streets of town. At the
highway, he headed west. He seemed unaware of the cold,
warmed by his coat of righteousness. When he took the turnoff,
Wanda stared at him in total disbelief, but he shot her a
look of such condemnation that she wisely refrained from
uttering a peep.
He pulled up in front of the large house and ordered his
wife to get out of the car. His footsteps landed hard on the
hollow steps and his knock rang out loudly in the stillness of
early morning. No one answered his first knock, so he
pounded harder on the door. When still no one came, he
emphatically banged on the window nearest him.
Nora Gail herself pulled open the door and aimed the barrel
of a small handgun directly at his forehead. "Mister, you'd
better have damned good reason for beating down my door
and getting me out of bed at this ungodly hour."