Рита Браун - Outfoxed

“Then how did Jennifer get into this mess with Fontaine?” Betty was more worried than she let on.

“I’d go over to the barn to help Cody.” Jennifer sat up. “He’d be around, laughing, joking. He’d let me work Gunpowder. What a neat horse. He’d let me snort a line or two.”

“But how did Dean Offendahl know this? I’m missing something.” Betty bore down.

“I’d collect money from Dean and some of the others and buy coke from Fontaine. He had good coke. I didn’t take Dean over there.”

“But you told him who was selling you the drugs?” Bobby rested his chin on his fingertips.

“Bragging, in passing—how did you tell him?” Betty pressed.

“Kind of, uh—threw it off.”

“Why is he saying you slept with Fontaine?”

“Mom, he’s making that up. He’s trying to get people’s attention off of him. He thinks this is going to hurt me.”

Clearly Dean’s stories about Jennifer sleeping with Fontaine are what truly upset the young woman. It’s one thing to sleep with a boy your own age but at seventeen to sleep with a man of Fontaine’s years, that grossed out her classmates.

“I guess it did. You’ve been in your room for two days,” her mother curtly replied.

“It’s pretty rad.” Cody defended Jennifer.

“Radical? I think it’s close to the mark. I’m still taking the ‘diminished judgment’ tack and if Jennifer was over there at Fontaine’s stable, the coke was pure or good or whatever it is, she gets high, he gets high, it’s not an impossible thought no matter how disgusting it is to me. And not so much that I’m disgusted with you, Jennifer, although I’m not proud. I’m disgusted with Fontaine. He took advantage of you, both of you.” Betty’s eyes blazed.

“I’m over twenty-one,” Cody flatly said. “I knew what I was doing.”

“I don’t think you did but I think he knew exactly what he was doing. Getting beautiful girls ripshit—isn’t that the word, ripshit—and then taking you to bed. Goddammit, I wish I’d shot him, the sorry son of a bitch!” Bobby jumped up from his chair, pacing in front of the fireplace. “But the fact remains that he is dead. And I expect Sheriff Sidell will cruise around to us soon enough.”

“Why?” Jennifer thought this was strange.

“Because either of you could have killed him in a rage—from a sheriff’s point of view. You do drugs, you leave him or maybe he leaves you. Who knows how that will fall out. You’re angry on two counts: He dumped you and no more drugs.”

“That’s not true!” Jennifer shouted.

“I didn’t say it was.” Her father coolly studied her. “But I’m trying to see this with a sheriff’s eyes. Right now neither of you looks too good.”

“Jennifer wouldn’t kill anybody,” Cody passionately replied. “You know that. She made a mistake.”

“Did you know?” Betty’s heart was pounding inside and she didn’t know why. She was more afraid than when she’d fetched Doug from the bear.

“Not until the end.” Cody lowered her voice. “I just never thought Fontaine would do something like that.”

“You went to bed with him. Presumably you knew what kind of man he was.” Bobby’s sympathy was running thin.

“I’m older than Jennifer. Going to bed with an underage girl is statutory rape, isn’t it? I never thought he’d do something like that.”

“He knew he was safe.” Bobby grabbed the mantelpiece. “He knew neither one of you would ever tell because he was your candy man. He could do whatever he wanted and he did.”

“Dad, he was never ugly. He was fun.” Jennifer thought she was relieving her father’s distress. “He wasn’t a mean kind of guy.”

“Let’s set motivation aside.” Betty returned to her original question to Cody. “What did you do when you knew, and how did you know about Jennifer and Fontaine?”

“At first I half suspected but like I said, I couldn’t believe he’d do something like that. When Jennifer skipped school that one day and came to me, I asked her. She said yes.”

“And?” Betty stared at her.

“I told her to stop.”

“Did you?” Betty focused on Jennifer.

“Yeah. I went to rehab. I never got the chance to go back, I guess. I mean I didn’t even talk to him until opening hunt. Hi. That was it. So yeah, I stopped.”

“Do you think Fontaine bribed your little sister with drugs to get even with you?” Bobby felt sick to his stomach.

As distressed as her father, Cody replied, “I don’t know. I don’t think so but then again I didn’t think he’d seduce Jennifer in the first place. He could have done it to get back at me. Anything’s possible.”

“Did you tell him to stop?”

Cody exhaled. “Mom, I went over to his stable to pick up my tack. I didn’t want to ride for him anymore. I wanted to put everything in my place, since I was going into rehab. He drove in just as I was driving out. He rolled down the window of his Jag and I told him to stay away from Jennifer.”

“What did he do?” Bobby stepped away from the fireplace toward Cody.

“Nothing. He rolled his window back up.” She shrugged. “Nothing.”

Jennifer, crying again, asked, “Does this mean I can’t go to Thanksgiving hunt?”

Bobby and Betty looked at each other and then at Jennifer.

“No.” Bobby said. “It doesn’t mean that. We’re better off doing the things we usually do. It’s worse to hide.”

“People will laugh at me.” Jennifer sniffled.

“Get it over with.” Cody didn’t relish the spectacle either. “Let them laugh and get it out of their systems. After a while they’ll be bored with it.”

“I can’t go back to school.”

“You can and you will. Ignore Dean Offendahl. His father was an ass to protect him. The only way you learn about life is to pay for your mistakes. If you don’t pay, believe me, there’s a much bigger bill waiting for you down the road. Pay up, Jennifer. Hold your head up and just keep walking.”

“That’s easy for you to say, Dad,” she sniped.

“Not so easy. Crawford Howard came into the shop and called you two coke whores,” he fired right back at her. “And you aren’t the only person in the world, Jennifer Franklin. I’ve got feelings, too. So does your mother. We’re in this together; let’s think together.”

“He called us that?” Cody was outraged.

“If that asshole says one word to me in the hunt field, there will be two murders. I’ll commit mine right in front of God and everybody!” Bobby exploded.

CHAPTER 62

Being no fool, Crawford Howard hired a public relations specialist from New York City. Since his .38 was the weapon used in the commission of a crime, since he was booked on suspicion of murder and released on bail, he needed damage control.

Jonathan Sweiss arranged special interviews with the local television station, the local newspaper, and the Richmond paper as well.

Crawford, being a man of the world, was not surprised when Jonathan didn’t ask if he really had killed Fontaine Buruss. Jonathan didn’t care. He was hired to perform a service and this he did.

In each of the interviews, Crawford explained that he did not like Fontaine, a personality conflict as well as a conflict of modus operandi. Differences between them had escalated during the past six weeks. Crawford expressed no regret at Fontaine’s death because he said that would be false but he vehemently declared he did not kill the man, he would not kill any man unless in self-defense.

Martha stood by him, the ordeal bringing them closer together.

The social consequences were immediate. Fontaine’s friends dropped them both from their lists whereas everyone else picked them up. The thrill of having a possible murderer in their midst proved enticing to many a jaded hostess.