“Not to worry. We still have a few stragglers and Amanda didn’t like the way they arranged the tables so she’s making everyone move them. How did things go with Daniel?”
“Not well,” Charlie said, hearing Amanda barking out orders in the other room. “I... Never mind, today is about you and your baby shower.”
Tara rolled her eyes. “I was hoping you would tell me that Greg wasn’t going through with the marriage and that’s why she’s moping. I could use a day brightener.”
“Why would you think Greg would share that with me?”
“Because I heard from Connie that he left the building after you did with Daniel.” Connie was an artist who sat closest to the exit.
Charlie felt a headache forming at the back of her skull. She and Daniel had just been outside talking for a minute... Greg must have been watching. Then he’d followed her to the bar.
“He’s taken quite an interest in you,” Tara said.
Charlie groaned. Was that what the drink in the bar had been all about? She wanted to sink into the floor. “Did Amanda know he followed me outside?”
“Apparently she tried to tag along, but he waved her back.”
Mystery solved, Charlie thought. “She thinks I want Greg.”
Tara’s eyes widened in alarm. “Why would you want Greg? You already have two men you don’t know what to do with.”
Just then Amanda saw them and headed their way.
“Watch your back,” Tara whispered.
“I’m doing this for you,” Charlie whispered back. “You and that baby.”
The shower was actually fun. Tara got a lot of great baby gifts and seemed to enjoy herself. Amanda got drunk and became more morose, sitting in the corner by herself.
So, all in all, Charlie chalked up the party as a success. But she wasn’t pushing her luck. Once things started breaking up, she grabbed Tara, told her goodbye and hightailed it for the door. She was determined to avoid Amanda at all costs.
What had Greg been thinking, coming after her, following her to the bar? She couldn’t care less about his intentions. Was he trying to get her killed?
* * *
THERE WAS STILL TIME before the baby shower would probably end, so Shep decided to talk to one of the teachers Fletch had told him about. Larry “Mac” McCormick taught English at the high school. Like Shep, he was out on Christmas break and easy to find. He lived in a cottage-style house on Cooper Park not far from Montana State University.
Mac answered the door on the second knock. He was holding a Christmas cookie in his free hand and was half turned, still talking to a child. Behind him came a cacophony of young voices, a roar broken only by a woman’s holler.
Mac laughed at whatever was going on in the kitchen as he held the door open and turned to Shep. “Sorry, we’re making Christmas cookies.”
The woman, whom Shep could not see, called that she was making cookies and that her husband was eating them.
“What kind of rule is it that you have to decorate at least six before you get to eat one?” the teacher asked him.
“Very unfair,” Shep said.
“Exactly.” The man seemed to take him in just as Shep was doing the same. Mac was a nice-looking man of about forty with a great smile and two deep dimples.
“This is probably not a good time,” Shep said. “But I need to ask you about Lindy Parker. She was—”
“I remember Lindy,” Mac said and turned back toward to the kitchen to tell his wife they would be in his office and would be back soon. With that, he stepped out onto the porch with Shep. “It’s around the side.”
They followed a shoveled path around to a small building. Mac opened the door and entered what was partly an office, but mostly a man cave complete with recliners and a huge flat screen TV that took up one wall. A very small desk and chair had been pushed to a corner.
“Why do you want to know about Lindy?” Mac asked. “Did you know her?”
“I’m friends with her sister.”
“Charlie.” Mac smiled. “Smart girl. Not that Lindy wasn’t.” He dropped into one of the recliners and waited for Shep to join him. “You’re looking into her murder?”
“I am. What can you tell me about her?”
“Typical seventeen-year-old. Smart, but lazy when it came to doing schoolwork. Troubled.” Mac shrugged. “I see enough of them that I can spot it.”
“Troubled how?”
“Just going by what I saw, I’d say it had to do with her mother. I only met her once, new marriage, new husband, new town. Lindy didn’t adapt well to change.”
Shep found it interesting how Mac had sized up the situation. As a teacher, Shep often saw troubled kids. Usually meeting the parents answered any questions he had.
“I heard she might have led on boys in her class.”
Mac nodded. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
“Did she come on to you?”
The man laughed. “I teach high school English. There are a lot of raging hormones out there. Lindy was just learning to use her sexuality. I’m not susceptible to teenage charm. But I would imagine she drove boys her age crazy.”
“Was Fletcher in your class?”
Mac nodded. “Was he one of them?”
“You never saw him and Lindy together?”
“Fletch had his choice of high school girls, but I guess I can see him going after Lindy. I would imagine she didn’t give him the time of day so he might have liked the challenge. Poor fool.”
“So you really weren’t one of the poor fools?”
Mac could have taken the question badly, but he didn’t. He smiled. “I was twenty-five, green, scared, right out of college and not sure I could do this. I was terrified of all of them, especially the girls. High school age students can be tough on you.”
Shep chuckled to himself, thinking that middle school students could be as well.
“But I found I loved teaching and that the students were as scared as I was. There are always those students you can’t reach. But the ones you can? The ones whose eyes light up when they start finding meaning in the written word? They make it all worthwhile.”
“Lindy?”
“Unfortunately, she wasn’t one of them. She pretended not to get it for attention. It wasn’t that she wasn’t smart. She just didn’t care.”
“She didn’t come on to you.”