The Diva Digs up the Dirt (8 page)

With renewed vigor, I slammed the shovel into the mulch, stepped on it, and pressed on the handle as a lever again to loosen the soil. Daisy helped by digging, flinging dirt underneath her.

Something gave way, and I fell back on the mulch.

Daisy continued her frenzied digging. I scrambled to my knees and crawled closer. “Stop, Daisy, stop!” I placed a hand on her coat, looking more closely at the dirt-encrusted corner of something… leather?

I grabbed hold, and the object yielded slightly under the pressure of my grip. Clearing soil away, I kept pulling until the ground relinquished it. Clumps of dirt clung to a strap. I brushed it off. In spite of the dirt, I recognized the fob with a soil-encrusted logo. There was simply no question—I had dug up a woman’s purse.

My heart pounded as I opened it. The bag was an expensive brand, made of good leather that lasted for years. In contrast to the outside, the interior was surprisingly clean. I reached in and removed a wallet. The plastic-encased driver’s license inside left no doubt about the owner. “Anne Fleishman,” I whispered. Wolf’s wife.

A shiver shook through me. I closed my eyes and winced, wishing I could turn back time so that I would never have found it.

The implications flicked through my head like a kaleidoscope. No matter how the facts twisted and turned, the presence of Wolf’s wife’s handbag buried in the dirt had to mean she was dead. I couldn’t think of a single innocent reason to bury her purse in the garden. My hands trembled. They held evidence that pointed to Wolf as Anne’s killer.

I placed the bag on the grass, jumped up, tore off my gardening gloves, and threw them on the ground. I knew what I had to do. I knew
exactly
what I
should
do. But I didn’t want to. Daisy bounding along next to me, I ran to my car for the cell phone I’d left inside it. My fingers shook so hard I had trouble pressing the digits to call Nina. “I’m at Wolf’s house, and I have a problem.”

“Need a mediator for a lovers’ spat?”

My voice broke. “A
big
problem.”

“I’ll be right there.”

I walked back to the purse, wishing it would have vanished. If it had been a snake, it wouldn’t have frightened me more. In a way, it was a snake. If I did what I should—if I turned it in to the police—that purse would bite Wolf. Just because I had never known Anne, and I loved Wolf didn’t mean I should hide evidence to protect him.
Did it?

I paced the contours of Wolf’s backyard, fretting.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there was a very good reason for burying the purse in the garden. I’d been in shock and hadn’t taken the time to think it through. I sucked in a deep breath. I needed iced tea to cool off. I could go buy some. But I couldn’t take the purse with me. I would contaminate it. Could they get fingerprints off a purse? Off
leather? Of course they could. They could take them off almost any surface. But Wolf’s fingerprints wouldn’t mean anything, after all, he’d been married to Anne. Husbands touched their wives’ purses, didn’t they? I felt certain Mars had held my bags for me, or handed them to me, or looked for keys in them.

But he had never buried one in the yard.

Why did her driver’s license and wallet have to be in it? If they hadn’t been in the purse, the bag would be almost meaningless. No one would know for certain to whom it belonged. But her IDs changed everything. If she was alive, she’d surely have taken them with her wherever she went. Wouldn’t she?

I collapsed to the grass, far from the horrible handbag. Daisy licked my face, and in spite of the oppressive heat, I buried my face in her fur.

And that was how Nina found me.

She placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Soph? You okay?”

“No.”

She extended her hand and helped me stand. I led her to the handbag. “It belongs to Wolf’s wife. Her driver’s license is inside.”

Nina’s eyes widened and horror spread over her face. The two of us stood over the handbag, looking down at it like it was a bomb.
It was!
It was a nightmare wrapped up in good leather.

“You opened it?”

“Of course.”

“Do it again.”

I pulled the gardening gloves on, reached inside the bag, withdrew the wallet, and held it out to her.

Nina screamed. She slapped a hand over her mouth and whispered, “This can’t be happening. I can’t believe it. I was completely convinced that Wolf was innocent.” She gasped and looked toward his house. “Where is he? What if he finds us here?”

“Relax. He’s at work.”

She took a deep breath. “What are you going to do?”

“I think
we
have to turn it in to the police.”

“Yes. It would be wrong to re-bury it and pretend it never happened.” She looked at me in all earnestness. “Right?”

“I don’t
want
to turn it in!”

Nina held up her hands, palms toward me. She bit her upper lip. “Let’s think this through. Are you willing to
ever
be alone with Wolf again now that you’ve found the purse?”

It was a valid question, no matter how much I hated hearing it. “Maybe.” That was partly a lie. Alone with Wolf? I didn’t know how I would react. I feared it would never be the same.

“When he kisses you—what will you be thinking?”

I frowned at her.

“When he wraps his arms around you for a hug, will you be afraid his hands might creep up to your neck and strangle you?”

“Stop that!”

“Well?” She wobbled her head around and gestured aimlessly. “I don’t want Wolf to have killed his wife, either. Soph, we don’t have the power to change his past. If he did it, then I don’t want you going out with him anymore. And I don’t want any other women to suffer his wife’s fate.”

My voice came out much smaller than I’d have liked. “I couldn’t live with the guilt. But what if we’re wrong?”

She opened her mouth and shut it again like a fish out of water.

“Turning the handbag over to the police doesn’t mean we’re accusing him of murder,” I said.

“Right.
You’re
not even suggesting that Wolf planted the purse there.”

“Exactly. It just happened to be there.”

“No one is making any accusations.”

Daisy barked and we swung around to look at Wolf’s house. Had he come home?

No. But Mona, who had invaded my yard only the day
before, chugged toward us, her gait odd and unsteady. “I knew you would find her.” She stared at the bag on the grass. “That’s her purse,” she cried. “I would know it anywhere!” She fell to her knees and hugged the handbag like it was her baby.

“No!” I screeched. “You’re contaminating it. It doesn’t belong to your daughter.”

Mona held it at arm’s length. “Yes, it does. She saved for this bag. Wolf thought it was too expensive, but I came through with a little cash. It’s definitely her purse.”

“Wolf?” The kaleidoscope in my head swirled again. I still held the wallet and looked at the driver’s license photo again. Anne Fleishman had been very attractive, with rich cinnamon hair, and a frightening resemblance to Mona. I knew the answer, but I asked anyway. “I thought you said your daughter’s name was Linda.”

“I couldn’t exactly tell you that I’m Wolf’s mother-in-law, now, could I? I had to lie.”

I stared at her kneeling on the ground with the handbag clutched to her breast. “What if I had agreed to look for her? I would have been chasing after someone who didn’t exist.”

Mona tightened her grip on the handbag. “I was going to wing it. The important thing was that you could get me inside Wolf’s house to search around.”

Her plan made no sense to me. Either she was delusional or, more likely, so desperate that she hadn’t thought anything through.

“What’s that? Anne’s wallet?” Mona’s eyes blazed with fury. She thrust her hand toward me. “Give it!”

Against my better judgment, I handed it over.

Mona whimpered and cried out like a wounded animal. “My baby! He killed my baby!”

Tucking the wallet inside the bag, Mona staggered to her feet. “He’s not home. This is our chance to go inside and look for clues.”

“I think we can officially scrap the business about no accusations,” said Nina.

My heart sank. We were kidding ourselves to wish for even one moment that Wolf wouldn’t become the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. Once the handbag was in the hands of the police, everything would change. But I had no choice. Sometimes one had to do the right thing, even if it led to disastrous consequences.

I struggled to sort my mixed feelings. The last thing in the world that I wanted to do was hurt Wolf. Yet, if he’d killed his wife, the police had to know. This wasn’t something that could be overlooked—the handbag was too incriminating. My feelings for Wolf were something
I
had to deal with. They couldn’t impact my actions, though I did wish I could have a redo of the entire rotten day. Who would have ever thought the notion of planting a rose in Wolf’s backyard would lead to this?

“Sophie! Please. There’s no telling when Wolf will return.” Mona stumbled toward the house, still clutching Anne’s handbag.

I ran after Mona. “We’re not going inside Wolf’s house.”

“We have to.”

Nina caught up to us. “How would you like it if someone snooped around
your
house?”

Mona stopped walking. “How would you feel if you didn’t know where your daughter was?”

I could understand Mona’s motivation. If I were in her shoes, I would move heaven and earth to find any tiny bit of information that might lead to my daughter. But I wasn’t about to let her into Wolf’s house, even though I knew where the spare key was hidden.
If
Wolf had killed Anne, it would be highly unlikely that the murder weapon would be under the mattress all these years later. Besides, in the unlikely case that there was some sort of evidence in the house, if we entered, we might disturb it. “I’m sorry, Mona. Two things are clear to me. Whether I want to or not, I have to report the purse to the cops. And whether you like it or not, we are
not
going into Wolf’s house to snoop.”

She lifted her right hand to her forehead. “The heat. I feel dizzy.”

Nina grabbed Mona’s elbow and ushered her to Wolf’s back deck, where she helped her sink onto a teak patio chair.

It
was
hot. No doubt about that. Yet I had a feeling Mona’s dizzy spell had more to do with her desire to get inside Wolf’s house. She certainly hadn’t loosened her grip on Anne’s handbag.

“Do you need an ambulance?” I asked.

“Good gracious, no. A glass of iced tea and an air-conditioned room would do nicely.”

My guess had been right on target. “If you’ll give me your keys, I’d be happy to start up the air conditioning in your car for you.” Did that sound as mean as it felt?

Nina gaped at me like I’d lost my mind.

“She’s faking! Can’t you see that?”

The words were barely out of my mouth when Mona slid off the chair and collapsed in a heap on the deck. I dashed to her side. She still hadn’t lost her talon hold on Anne’s purse. I placed my finger over my lips in a signal to Nina to not speak. Nina gripped her head with her hands, like a mime who thought I had gone nuts. Sure enough, in a matter of seconds Mona opened one eye and looked up at us.

While Nina helped her into the chair again, I dialed
Wolf’s number on my phone. I might have to report the handbag to the police, but I could at least let him know about it so he wouldn’t be blindsided. After all, the Wolf I knew wouldn’t have murdered his wife. Couldn’t have. Then why was doubt pounding at me like a jackhammer?

Although I hadn’t intended to, I walked away from Mona when he answered. I just couldn’t bring myself to tell him in front of her. “Wolf, we have a little problem. I brought over a rose to plant in your yard, and when I dug in your flower bed”—I paused, trying to read his reaction, which was silly, because he didn’t say anything—“I found Anne’s handbag.”

He didn’t speak for what seemed a very long time. When he did, it was terse. “I’ll be right there.”

Although I’d been out of earshot, Mona screamed at me. “Did you call Wolf? Are you insane? He’ll leave. He’ll skip town!”

If she was right, it would bring everything to a head immediately. I decided to give him half an hour. If he bolted, like Mona thought he would, thirty minutes wouldn’t give him enough time to leave the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. I supposed I had put him on notice, though. The minutes ticked by painfully.

He arrived ten minutes later. I hurried out to the driveway to warn him about Mona’s presence.

He bent to plant a kiss on my cheek. “What’s this about Anne?”

I explained what had happened.

“Where is the handbag?” he asked.

“Out back.” Before I could tell him about Mona, he loped around the house.

I jogged after him. He stopped short when he saw Mona. I had to give him credit, though. He didn’t fly off the handle or act angry.

“Hello, Mona,” he said. “I didn’t know you were in town. Is that the bag Sophie found?”

I couldn’t help noticing that Wolf didn’t seem perturbed by Mona’s presence, but she glowered at him. He pulled
out gloves and slipped them onto his hands. For a moment, I thought she might not give him the bag, but she relented.