“I’ll say,” Lee said. “You’d better see a doctor about it, Rusty. You might need shots or something.”
“Rabies shots,” I added.
A disgusted look on his face, he said, “Yeah, I know.”
“Are you all right?” I asked Lee.
“I’m fine.” She spoke as if everything were perfectly ordinary. “Where’s Slim?”
“Waiting in her car.”
“What for?”
“Just ... she didn’t want to ... where were you? We were over at your house and ...”
Nodding, she said, “I got your note.”
“We thought something had happened to you.” I almost got through the sentence before my voice broke and tears again filled my eyes.
“Oh, God,” Lee murmured. She leaned against me and put a hand on my back. “I was fine, honey. I just went out, that’s all. I never expected you to show up so early.”
Sounding amused, Rusty said, “Dwighty here, he had you kidnapped and murdered.”
Not trusting myself to speak, I nodded.
“Your truck was still there,” Rusty explained. “Same with your purse.”
“I ... thought Stryker got you.”
“Jeez.” She rubbed my back. “I’m so sorry. I just went down to the river, that’s all. It’s such a wonderful, windy night. I sat out on the end of the dock to enjoy the weather and have myself a little cocktail.”
“My God,” I said. I’d almost looked for her there. “But the screen door was locked.”
“The back screen? Was it?” She frowned and shrugged. “I must’ve gone out the front.” She was silent for a few seconds, then nodded. “Yeah, I did go out the front Sat on the stoop for a few minutes before I got the idea to see what the river was doing.”
“Man,” Rusty said, and chuckled.
Lee rubbed my back some more. “I’m so sorry, honey. I had no idea....”
“That’s okay,” I said. “We shouldn’t have shown up so early.” Why had we gone to her house so early? It took me a moment to remember. Then I explained, “We were worried about you. That’s why we didn’t wait till ten-thirty. I was afraid Stryker was gonna try something....”
“Because I gave him that check?”
A few other reasons, too—but Bitsy, not Stryker, had turned out to be the culprit behind most of them. I didn’t want to get into all that with Lee.
“I guess it was mostly because of the check,” I told her.
“I pay with checks all the time,” she said.
“But Stryker’s so creepy.”
She smiled gently. “Oh, I don’t know.”
“He is.”
“He’s a pretty bad guy,” Rusty affirmed.
“And he ... he likes you.”
“That’s not so terrible. He probably wouldn’t have sold us the tickets if he hadn’t liked me.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Dwight thinks he’s got the hots for you.”
“He does,” I said.
Looking mildly amused, Lee said, “Well, that may be so, but he never tried anything. I haven’t even spoken to him since you and I were out here.”
I stared at her.
“And he hasn’t spoken to me. I did see him selling tickets on my way in, but he looked really busy so I didn’t bother him. And he didn’t bother me. I don’t think he even noticed me. I figured he must’ve already let you guys in.... So why isn’t Slim here?”
“It’s her time of the month,” Rusty proclaimed.
I couldn’t believe my ears. I wanted to kill him.
“She got it all of a sudden on our way over.”
“Rusty!” I gasped.
He leaned forward and smiled at me. “It’s all right, pal. I’m sure Lee knows all about this sorta thing.”
“Does Slim need ... anything?” Lee asked. She seemed a little flustered, herself.
“You mean like a tampon?”
Lee nodded.
“Nah. She had some in her glove compartment. She walked off into the trees to put one on. Dwight and me, we waited in the car so as not to embarrass her.”
If Slim ever heard about this, I wouldn’t have to kill Rusty—she would beat me to it.
“So where is she now?”
“Back in the car, waiting for us.”
Lee looked at me, frowning. Apparently, she wasn’t completely buying Rusty’s tale.