Free Half Past Mourning by Fleeta Cunningham Page B

about Danny? It sounds a little too convenient to me.”
    “It is Danny’s car, Marigold.” Nina took a token swallow of the chicory-flavored coffee and put the cup back on the table. “The man who has it isn’t a con man or a charlatan. He’s a professor at San Felipe. He didn’t buy the T-Bird from Danny, but it’s the same car.” With as little detail as possible, Nina explained how she’d seen the car and met Peter Shayne.
    “It’s just a coincidence, Nina. Danny took his car when he left. He had to, if he was going away, now didn’t he?” She patted Nina’s arm, her fingers so thin, the nails so long, they might have been bird claws. “That car was popular, and I don’t suppose Danny bought the only yellow one in the country. Stands to reason another one would turn up from time to time.” Her blue eyes, bright as marbles, narrowed. “Danny will come back, sugar, but he’s not going to come back to you. You’ve just got to admit that, Nina.” She sighed, and though her tone was sincere, pale eyebrows arched and lips puckered to show her concern, Nina found it theatrical. “Isn’t it time you accept what really happened, sugar? My boy was as sweet as he could be, but he had a hard time facing up to unpleasant situations. He didn’t want to get married, just didn’t feel ready for the responsibility, but he didn’t want to tell you. Couldn’t bring himself to say the words that would break your heart.” Marigold’s hands, dry and cool as polished bone, held Nina’s with an unpleasant intensity. “I wasn’t proud of the way he went about it, child, but I know my boy and how he handled things. Danny left, and you’re deluding yourself over this car that could have come from anywhere.”
    Nina pulled her hands free so she could reach for her purse. “I’m not deluding myself, Marigold. It really is Danny’s car. I have proof.” She took the license and the pocket knife from her bag and dropped them into Marigold’s palm. “These were hidden under the trunk liner in the T-Bird. You know Danny must have put them there. I don’t know why he did, but they do prove it’s Danny’s car.”
    Marigold stared down at the objects. She turned the pocket knife over, held it up so the light caught the tiny engraving, then put it aside to examine the license. Her face went white to the lips, the artificial rose of her cheeks and mouth garish against her stark pallor. “I...don’t...understand.” She fingered the worn crease in the driver’s license. Her head dropped down, her face covered by bone-thin hands. “It’s all wrong. Leaving the car, his identification, that wasn’t part of the plan. No, not what Danny said, not at all.” Marigold seemed to have forgotten Nina’s presence. She continued murmuring to herself, confusion and bewilderment robbing her words of meaning. Nina, concerned that the older woman was lapsing into shock, touched her shoulder with a cautious hand.
    “Marigold? Marigold, did Danny tell you something you haven’t told me? You said Danny had a plan of some kind? He told you he intended to leave?”
    “Oh, Nina, of course he did.” Marigold’s head snapped up and her eyes shone with exasperation. “Why do you think Sheriff Hayes was so slow to get started searching for Danny? I told him not to look, and I told him why. Danny intends to come home as soon as you realize the marriage isn’t a real one. I thought by now you’d see that.” She pushed Nina’s hand away. “You’re a fairly bright girl, considering your folks were just working people. I never thought you’d be so slow to understand or so stubborn about hanging on.”
    Reeling from yet another affirmation of Danny’s faithless character, Nina sank deeper into the cushions of the sofa. If it was true, she had to know all of it, had to understand the part of Danny that could say he loved her while planning to abandon their life together. “Please, tell me everything. I need to know how it