not my place to approach the police.”
I squinted at Waldo long and hard. What was he up to? I wondered if his “source” had mentioned that we were there when the Bunny and Michelle ruckus went down. If so, was he hinting that we should come forward?
Peggy must have finally been paying attention, because she piped up. “But, wait a minute—”
Roz cut her off at that pass. “Peggy, you need to get that casserole actually COOKING, don’t you? Come on, I’ll help.” She moved Peggy toward her house and I could see there was some whispering going on.
Looking at my watch gave me a good reason to cut the conversation short. “Hey!” I yelled to them, “I have to get back to the house, Callie will be home any minute and I don’t think she has her key.”
Colt and I left faster than two convicts on a prison break, leaving Waldo all alone on the sidewalk.
Two minutes later we were in my house and I was standing in the front of the refrigerator trying to decide between a cold iced tea or a cold glass of wine. Colt grabbed an apple from my fruit bowl. Taking a milk carton from the top shelf, I abandoned the idea of tea or wine in lieu of good ol’ fashioned Oreos and milk. The best way to drown my sorrows.
Colt munched while I savored the milk-soaked cookies. In between bites, I pried for information. “Howard’s car is still out front. Have you seen him at all?”
He chewed, but didn’t respond.
“Hello? Are you ignoring me?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, you’re ignoring me?”
“No, I’m not ignoring you. Yes, I’ve seen him. Barely in passing.”
“Why wouldn’t he at least come by for his car?”
“I have no idea. Can we talk about something else?”
“Why did you stop by?”
“Because you ran over a woman last night and I thought you might still be a little shaken up. Just checking in because I care. Should I leave?”
“No, no.” I rubbed his arm. “I’m glad you’re here and I’m glad you care.” He played around with the apple, which was nearly all core now. I’d eaten five Oreos already and was trying to decide if I should really have another. “I need your advice.”
“I feel very important. Ask away.” He got up and threw the apple core into my trash can, then sat down and dug into the Oreos. I broke down and took another as well.
“We think Bunny Bergen shot Michelle Alexander.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Who is “we” and why do “we” think this?”
“Roz, Peggy and I. We saw them fighting after the PTA meeting—”
“You mean that really happened?”
I nodded.
“How did Weldon—”
“Waldo.”
“How did he hear about it?”
“Don’t know.”
“Did anyone else see it?”
“There was another car there that took off afterwards.”
“Did you recognize the car? Any idea who was in it?”
“No. What are you thinking?”
“Just wondering. Go on.”
“So anyway, Bunny accused Michelle of talking about her behind her back and said ‘I’ll kill you.’” I drew finger quotes for emphasis, “if she did it again.”
Colt grabbed another Oreo, but didn’t say anything for a minute. “Do you really think she’d kill someone? People say things like that without thinking.”
I washed down the cookie with the last of my milk and took a minute to let it settle. “She’s been acting funny. Not ha-ha funny, but tooty-fruity funny, and today she showed up here in the middle of the storm and the lightning flashed and her face looked like something from a slasher movie and then she took her two boys out of school early.”
“You’re starting to sound like your friend Peggy.”
The front door swooshed open and the house reverberated with the sounds of Callie entering the premises. That is to say the classic thumping of her backpack hitting the foyer floor and the ever popular slamming of the door so hard that the walls shook. Beautiful she was; graceful she was not. “Mom! I’m home.” By the sound of her voice, she was in a good mood. When she came into the kitchen and saw Colt sitting with me, her mood and her feet made a u-turn. She walked out without a word.
“Callie, do you want a snack, sweetie? We have Oreos!”
“Not hungry,” was her answer from the stairs. I counted. Five, four, three, two, one, SLAM! Her bedroom door. She had that timing down to an art.
With Callie home, I knew I had twenty minutes before I needed to be at the bus stop for Bethany and Amber. “So, to make a long