When they were gone, Jackie turned to Joe. 'This box you told Linda about. Tell everyone. From beginning to end.'
Joe did it on his feet, as if reciting in school. 'Then we came back to town,' he finished.'And that bastard Rennie had Rusty arrested.' He iwiped sweat from his forehead and sat back down on the couch.
Claire put an arm around his shoulders. 'Joe says it would be bad for Rennie to find out about the box,' she said. 'He thinks Rennie might want it to keep on doing what it's doing instead of trying to turn it off or destroy it.'
'I think he's right,'Jackie said.'So its existence and location are oun first secret.'
'I don't know...'Joe said.
'What?' Julia asked. 'You think he should know?'
'Maybe. Sort of. I need to think.'
Jackie pushed on without questioning him further. 'Here's the second order of business. I want to try and break Barbie and Rusty out of jail. Tomorrow night, during the big town meeting. Barbie's the guy the President designated to take over the town administration - '
'Anybody but Rennie,' Ernie growled.'Incompetent sonofabitch thinks he owns this burg.'
'He's good at one thing,' Linda said. 'Stirring up trouble when it suits him. The food riot and the newspaper being burned... I think both of those were done according to his orders.'
'Of course they were,' Jackie said. 'Anyone who could kill his own pastor - '
Rose goggled at her. 'Are you saying Rennie killed Coggins?'
Jackie told them about the basement workroom in the funeral parlor, and how the marks on Coggins's face matched the gold baseball Rusty had seen in Rennie s study. They listened with dismay but no disbelief.
CHAPTER 25
'The girls, too?' Lissa Jamieson said in a small, horrified voice.
'I've got his son down for that.' Jackie spoke almost briskly. 'And those murders were probably not related to Big Jim's political machinations. Junior collapsed this morning. At the McCain house, incidentally, where the bodies were found. By him.'
'What a coincidence,' Ernie said.
'He's in the hospital. Ginny Tomlinson says it's almost certainly a brain tumor. Which can cause violent behavior.'
'A father-son murder team?' Claire was hugging Joe more tightly than ever.
'Not a team, exactly,'Jackie said. 'Call it the same wild strain ot behavior - something genetic - coming out under pressure.'
Linda said, 'But the bodies being in the same place strongly suggests that if there were two murderers, they were working together. The point is, my husband and Dale Barbara are almost certainly being held by a killer who's using them to build a grand conspiracy theory. The only reason they haven't already been killed in custody is because Rennie wants to make an example of them. He wants them executed in public' Her face cramped for a moment as she fought off tears.
'I can't believe he's gotten as far as he has,' Lissa said. She was twisting the ankh she wore back and forth. 'He's a used car dealer, for heaven's sake.'
Silence greeted this.
'Now look,' Jackie said after it had stretched out a bit.'By telling you what Linda and I mean to do, I've made this a real conspiracy. I'm! going to ask for a vote. If you want to be a part of this, raise your hand. Those who don't raise their hands can leave, contingent on a promise not to blab about what we've discussed. Which you wouldn't want to do, anyway; if you don't tell anybody who was here and what was discussed, you won't have to explain how you heard. This is dangerous. We might end up in jail, or even worse. So let's see some hands. Who wants to stay?'
Joe raised his hand first, but Piper, Julia, Rose, and Ernie Calvert were not far behind. Linda and Rommie raised their hands together. Lissa looked at Claire McClatchey. Claire sighed and nodded. The two women raised their hands.
'Way to go, Mom,' Joe said.
'If you ever tell your father what I let you get into,' she said, 'you won't need James Rennie to execute you. I'll do it myself.'
19
'Linda can't go into the PD after them,' Rommie said. He was speaking to Jackie.
'Who, then?'
'You and me, lion. Linda's gonna go to the big meeting. Where six or eight hundred people can testify that they saw her.'
'Why can't I go?' Linda asked. 'That's my husband they've got.'
'That's why,'Julia said simply.
'How do you want to do it?' Rommie asked Jackie.
'Well, I suggest we wear masks - '
'Duh,' Rose said, and made a face.They all laughed.
'Lucky us,' Rommie said. T got: a great selection of Halloween masks at the store.'
'Maybe I'll be the Little Mermaid,'Jackie said, a little wistfully. She realized everyone was looking at her, and blushed. 'Whatever. In any: case, we'll need guns. I have an extra at home - a Beretta. Do youi have something, Rommie?'
'I put away some rifles and shotguns in the store safe. Got at lease one wit' a scope. I won't say I saw this comin, but I saw somethin comin.'
Joe spoke up. 'You'll also need a getaway vehicle. And not your van, Rommie, because everyone knows it.'
'I got an idea about that,' Ernie said. 'Let's take a vehicle from Jim Rennie's used car lot. He's got half a dozen high-mileage phone company vans he picked up last spring. They're out in the back. Using one of his'd be, whatdoyacallit, poetic justice.'
'And exactly how you gonna get the key?' Rommie asked.'Break into his office at the showroom?'
'If the one we pick doesn't have an electronic ignition, I can hotwire it,' Ernie said. Fixing Joe with a frowning glance, he added: 'I'd prefer you didn't tell my granddaughter that, young man.'
Joe did a lip-zipping pantomime that made them all laugh again.
'The special town meeting is scheduled to start at seven tomorrow night,'Jackie said. 'If we go into the PD around eight - '
'We can do better than that,' Linda said. 'If I have to go to the damn meeting, I might as well do some good. I'll wear a dress with big pockets and carry my police radio - the extra that's still in my personal vehicle. You two be in the van, ready to go.'