She looked taken aback at his unusual irritability. Temple almost never let himself show temper; it wasn’t good for the image. Today, though, he had other things besides his damn image to worry about.
Nadine wrung her hands. “I’ve never said anything before. I think people’s private lives are just that, private. But I think you should know what Mrs. Nolan did today.”
Jesus, not now. Temple covered his eyes, massaging the ache that ran under his eyebrows. “Jennifer has . . . problems,” he managed to say, the way he had so many times in the past when he wanted to elicit sympathy. It was his pat answer, one he didn’t have to think about.
“Yes, sir, I know.”
When she didn’t continue, Temple sighed, realizing he’d have to prompt her rather than say what he really wanted to say—that he didn’t give a good goddamn what the bitch did, he hoped she’d T-boned a power pole and killed herself.
“What has she done this time?” That was another pat response, showing his patience and weariness.
Now that he had asked, Nadine spat the words out as if she couldn’t hold them in any longer. “She called the library and told Kendra Owens you were trying to have Daisy Minor killed.”
“What?” Temple shot up from his chair, color leeching out of his face. His knees wobbled in shock, and he had to grab the edge of his desk. My God. Oh, my God. He remembered the sudden uneasy feeling he’d had this morning, the one that had made him check to see what Jennifer was doing. The bitch had been listening in on her bedroom extension. Mr. Phillips would kill him. Literally.
“Kendra didn’t take her seriously, of course, but she was worried in case Mrs. Nolan did something, you know, sort of foolish, so she called the police department and reported it.”
“The fucking bitch!” Temple said fiercely, and he didn’t know if he meant Jennifer or Kendra, or both.
Nadine stepped back, more than a little affronted by his language. “I thought you ought to know,” she said stiffly, and closed the connecting door with a bang.
With a shaking hand Temple picked up his private line and called Sykes’s number. After the sixth ring, he replaced the receiver. Sykes wasn’t at home, of course; he was waiting to follow Daisy home from work. After Jennifer’s stupid call, if Daisy had disappeared after lunch, the police department would have been on full alert, hunting for her, so the lack of action meant nothing had happened yet. He had to find Sykes and tell him to call off the whole thing. If anything happened to Daisy now, he, Temple, would be number one on the list of suspects.
Something had to be done about Jennifer. With her drinking history, though, it would be easy to set up an “accident.” Bash her in the head, run her car into the river, and be done with it.
But not right away. Anything done right now would be too suspicious. They couldn’t do anything to jeopardize the shipment of Russians.
First thing, though, he had to mend fences with Nadine. It wouldn’t do to have her bad-mouthing him to her little circle of friends. Gossip like that had a way of spreading like kudzu vines.
He opened the door, mustered the charm, and said, “I’m sorry, Nadine. I had no right using language like that. Jennifer and I had an argument this morning, and I’m still on edge. Then to find out she did something like that...” He let his shoulders slump.
Nadine’s expression softened a little. “That’s all right. I understand.”
He rubbed his forehead again. “Was Daisy upset when Kendra told her about the call?”
“Daisy isn’t working today. Her mother called in and said she had a toothache. I have my own suspicions, but that’s the story.” She waggled her eyebrows, looking arch.
Nadine should never try to look arch, Temple thought; she resembled a flirtatious frog. “What do you mean, ‘suspicions’?”
“About where she is. Well, I don’t know where she is, but I doubt she has a toothache.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I had to call over to the police department right before lunch, and Eva Fay said Chief Russo hadn’t been in all day either.”
The throb behind Temple’s eyebrows worsened. “What does that have to do with Daisy?”
“You mean you haven’t heard? They’re seeing each other.” For Nadine her satisfaction at being the first to impart this news more than made up for his rudeness and bad language.
Temple felt as if he’d been hit between the eyes with a two-by-four. “What? Seeing each other?” He could barely say the words, the shock was so great. Disaster yawned at his feet.
“Barbara Clud said they bought—well, they bought intimate articles together. Chief Russo sat with her at church on Sunday, too.”
“Then it has to be serious.” His voice sounded hoarse, and he made a show of clearing his throat. “Got a tickle in my throat.”
Nadine fished a cough drop out of her desk and gave it to him. “I’d say it’s serious, him going to church with her.”
Temple nodded and escaped back into his office, trying to grasp all the ramifications of what he’d just learned. Damn it! When Russo had run that tag number for him, he’d pretended not to know whose it was. Why would he do that? What had made him hide the fact that he knew Daisy? There was no reason to unless . . . unless he knew damn well Daisy hadn’t been parked in a fire lane at Dr. Bennett’s office, and the only way he could know that was if he’d been with her during the time in question.
The “intimate articles” bought at Clud’s Pharmacy had to be condoms, which meant they were sleeping together. Russo obviously wouldn’t have spent the night with Daisy at her mother’s house, but he had his own house to which he could take her. Temple had never thought Daisy Minor would spend the night with a man, but then he’d never thought she’d bleach her hair and go to the Buffalo Club, either. Daisy had evidently run wild.