Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [141]
“It matters to me. I can’t lie anymore. Do you have any idea of how I feel?”
“Probably pretty shitty if I’m any judge. You have to take it one day at a time. Just don’t put your snoot in a bottle like I did.”
“Elmo made a deathbed confession and saved my skin. I don’t know how to handle that. I told those men I was the one who did it. They wouldn’t listen to me. Then Jane swore she did it. I think they thought we were a comedy team. Elmo took my crime to the grave with him. You knew I did it, too, didn’t you?”
“I more or less suspected. This is how I look at it, Annie. Your good outweighs your bad. You aren’t home free. You’ll carry your guilt for the rest of your life. I guess Elmo, wise man that he was, saw that as a more fitting punishment. You have the rest of your life to make up for that one mistake. I’d like to help you.”
“Mr. Shake, Rattle, and Roll himself?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s a deal.”
The door to the freight elevator swished open. Jake’s big paw pressed the number 15. “Daisy taught him that trick. They must have ridden this elevator one hundred times while I sat here on the floor. You see, you forgot to give us a key.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. How about I take you three ladies out to dinner?”
“What about Jake and Charlie?” Annie asked.
“I didn’t say a linen tablecloth place. I was thinking more along the line of Burger King.”
“I’m your girl,” Annie quipped.
“Annie?”
“I went through that packet of papers. Tom and I took them to the police station. Tom has some news for you, too.”
“What is it?”
“Tom called the Charleston police, and they said Andrew Pearson checked a book out of one of the branch libraries on the art of bomb making. They issued an APB for his arrest. I think everything is finally going to be okay. We’ll know more tonight on the news. Are you okay, Annie?”
“No. But I will be. I’m going to need some time. Elmo will be cremated tomorrow. I’ll take his ashes home with me. Someday, when I have a permanent home and a family of my own, I’ll decide what to do with his ashes. With Jane’s approval, of course.”
Clay nodded. “Speaking of time. That’s all Jake and I have these days.”
“Elmo believed a wake should be a party. I could never figure that out. He really hated it when he would see one of us cry. He made me swear after he passed over, as he put it, we’d do a wild jig or something that passed for a jig. We actually promised. Do you believe that. I wish I could figure out the way his mind worked.”
“Don’t try, Annie.”
“I’m really glad you came here, Clay. I mean that.”
“I know you do. That’s why I’m staying.”
“I guess that’s it,” Jane said, turning off the television set. “I thought they’d make a big deal out of Elmo’s confession. If something more exciting had happened in town, they probably wouldn’t have mentioned it at all. I bet they bury it on page nine in the paper tomorrow. Andrew Pearson got more airtime than Elmo, and the guy’s a shit. Well, I’m off to bed.”
“Me too,” Tom said, yawning elaborately. “By the way, Clay, Jake’s sound asleep in Daisy’s room, with Charlie right alongside him.”
“No kidding,” Clay said just as elaborately.
“You know what I’m thinking?” Clay said when everyone’s door closed.
“I know exactly what you’re thinking, Mr. Mitchell. There’s this great suite of rooms at the Ritz Carlton that are sitting empty right now. How am I doing so far? And we have our choice of at least four vehicles to make the trip to said hotel. That is assuming we want to make the trip over there. What’s your feeling on that, Mister Shake, Rattle, and Roll?”
“I made that up,” Clay grimaced.
“No!”
“Yeah, I did. I never made the earth move for anyone, either. I made that up, too.”
“No!”
“Yeah.”
“Then what do you have going for you?”
“I make pretty good pancakes. My dog loves me. Little kids like me. I’m solid and dependable. I almost have a job. I love unconditionally. I try never to do the wrong thing. I do get poison ivy every year, though. I’m a real-mess for about two weeks until it clears up.”
“A girl would be a fool to pass you up.”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s my thinking,