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fallen asleep waiting for me to show up?
    “Hello!” I said loudly.   “Wake up!”
    If he was sleeping, he was about to get a rude awakening.  
    I grabbed his shoulder to shake him awake, and he slumped off the bench and slid down onto the sidewalk.
    Someone had clearly decided to settle accounts with the man before I’d had the chance to deal with him myself.
    I was leaning over the body checking for a pulse when a police siren whooped once at me, and I turned to see the chief of police, a look of clear concern on his face as he opened his car door and raced toward me.

 
    “It’s not what it looks like,” I told Chief Martin as he ignored me and got down on one knee to check for the man’s pulse.
    “Be quiet, Suzanne,” he ordered.
    For once, I decided to listen to him.
    That’s when I remembered Grace.   Why hadn’t she come out when the chief showed up?   “Grace?   Are you there?” I called out into the darkness.
    “Suzanne, I’m warning you,” he said.
    “I don’t understand.   Grace was supposed to meet me here,” I said, stretching the truth just a little.   “What if she’s hurt?”
    Chief Martin stood up from the body and pulled out his handgun.   “Stay right here.”
    “With him?” I asked as I gestured to the corpse.   “Forget it. I’m coming with you.”
    He started to argue the point, but then he must have realized how futile it would have been.   “Fine.   Just stay behind me, and don’t do anything stupid.   Do you understand?”
    “I’ll behave myself,” I said, meaning every word of it.
    “Now, where exactly was Grace supposed to be?”
    I couldn’t really answer that, not without giving away why I was there.   “I’m honestly not sure.”
    “Then you don’t even know for sure that she was ever here in the first place.   Call her.”
    I took out my cell phone and hit the number three for speed dialing.   Momma was one, Jake was two, and Grace was three.  
    After nearly eight rings, I was ready to give up when she finally answered.
    “Suzanne, I’m so sorry.   I must have fallen asleep!   Are you all right?”
    “Not by any definition of the word,” I said.   “He’s dead.”
    “Who’s dead?   The blackmailer?   Do you need help hiding the body?   Are you at the clock?   I can be there in two minutes.”
    “I’m with Chief Martin,” I said.   “Maybe you should just stay right where you are.”
    “I’m so sorry.   I know that I blew it.   I don’t know what else I can say.”
    “Grace, don’t worry about it.   We’re good.   Now, go back to sleep,” I answered, and then I disconnected the call.
    “So she’s at home, safe and sound?” the chief asked after he put his weapon back in its holster.
    “It turns out that she never left the house,” I said, the relief thick in my voice.   If Grace had done as I’d asked and come down to the clock, there might be more than one body there right now.
    “And why was she meeting you at this time of night here by the clock, instead of at the donut shop?”
    I had a decision to make.   I could try to weave some kind of story on the spot to cover my tracks, or I could tell the truth.   It didn’t take long for me to realize that there was no way I could tell as many lies as I needed to in order to get me out of this.   “That man came by the donut shop this morning and called my dad a murderer to my face,” I admitted.   “He demanded that I pay him off for his silence, but I didn’t believe him.   When I asked him for proof, he promised me that he’d have it with him tonight.”
    The chief took that all in, and then he asked, “Did you find anything on him?”
    “I didn’t even have time to look,” I admitted.   “You showed up the split second after I discovered that he was dead.   How did you know that a body would be here?”
    “It was an anonymous tip,” Chief Martin said.   “I hate those things, but we have to follow up on every last one of them.