A Few Drops of Bitters

by G. A. McKevett

  “I’d say everybody in this household is lucky,” she told him, “because we have each other and you!”

  Chapter 26

  The next morning, Savannah was so exhausted that she slept nearly an hour later than usual. When she finally woke, she realized that Dirk had turned off the alarm, and next to the clock on her nightstand was a note, scribbled on a sheet of Brody’s lined notebook paper.

  It read: Hi, Babe. Us guys are off to school and work. Sleep some more. xox

  She looked down and saw that both cats had joined her. A rare occurrence these days. Diamante was draped across her feet, and Cleopatra was snuggled against her tummy.

  With all the chores on the day’s calendar, Savannah knew she should jump out of bed and get going. But the allure of warm kitties, their gentle purring, and soft pillows was too strong.

  She snuggled deeper into the bed and pulled Granny’s quilt up to her chin. Just fifteen minutes more.

  * * *

  An hour later, she woke to the sound of voices in her house. She couldn’t tell whose voices or what they were saying, but she figured she should roll out of bed and find out.

  As she was slipping into a pair of jeans, she heard a child’s gleeful squeal and realized that at least one of the visitors down below was her sweet Vanna Rose.

  So, she wasn’t surprised when she exited the bedroom, mostly dressed, and heard Tammy’s cheerful chirping, as well.

  It took her a bit longer to recognize Carolyn Erling’s voice.

  What the heck is Dr. Carolyn doing here? she wondered. Did her new roommate kick her out already? They seemed to be getting along so well there at the clinic.

  As she hurried down the stairs, running her fingers through her hair to try to give her curls some sense of order, she heard Carolyn say, “I so hope she’ll be willing to do it. I’m sure she’d be the best to—”

  Carolyn spotted Savannah the moment she stepped from the foyer into the living room and jumped up from the sofa to greet her. “Oh, I hope we didn’t wake you,” she said. “I should have called first.”

  “No, not at all.” Savannah gave Carolyn a quick hug, then reached down to scoop up the squealing toddler at her feet, who was demanding to be held. “I’m usually up and about at this hour. It’s just . . .”

  “It’s been a hard couple of days,” Carolyn said.

  “Yes. It has. But not as bad as yours.”

  “Let me go get you both some coffee,” Tammy said, scurrying toward the kitchen.

  “Thank you, Tamitha. I’ve got the kiddo here.” Savannah motioned for Carolyn to have a seat, and she took Vanna with her and sat in her chair.

  As she pulled a children’s book from the stack beneath her end table and gave it to the girl, Savannah waited for Carolyn to explain the reason for her unexpected visit.

  When she wasn’t forthcoming, Savannah decided to ask her outright. With absolutely no caffeine in her system, “patience” wasn’t an option.

  “How can I help you?” she said.

  “I beg your pardon?” Carolyn replied.

  “When I was coming down the staircase just now, I overheard you say you hoped someone would be able to help you with something. Am I wrong to think you were referring to me?”

  “No, not at all. I was talking about you, and I do have a big favor to ask you.”

  Savannah hoped it wasn’t going to be a huge favor, because at the moment, she was pretty sure that she wasn’t going to be able to hold a baby and drink a cup of coffee at the same time.

  It just wasn’t one of those “multitasking” kind of days.

  “I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but please feel free to ask,” she said as graciously as she could manage.

  “I don’t know how one goes about hiring a private detective. I’ve never done that before. But I’d like to hire you.”

  “Oh. I . . . okay.”

  Savannah couldn’t help but be surprised. Until this moment, Carolyn hadn’t expressed any overwhelming desire to find out who might have murdered her husband. In fact, Savannah had thought more than once that Carolyn probably knew already. Or at least strongly suspected.

  But Savannah also couldn’t help being pleased. It had been months since she’d had a paying job and her savings account had dwindled considerably.

  Plus, she was dying to get back to work again, and not just lurking around her husband while he solved his case.

  “Sure,” she heard herself say far too eagerly. “I happen to be available at the moment.”

  Except for being the maid of honor at my sister’s fancy wedding, she silently added. Not to mention trying to raise a troubled child, give my husband the attention he deserves, be a loving granddaughter and a good cat mommy, and wonder how I’m going to make ends meet with a sporadic income. Yes, I’m pretty much footloose and fancy-free.

  “Do we sign papers? Do I pay you now?” Carolyn asked, reaching for her purse that lay beside her on the sofa.

  “Tammy takes care of all that,” Savannah said. “She can fill you in on the particulars later. But like I said, there’s not much to it. Just tell me what you want me to investigate.”

  Savannah assumed it was Stephen’s murder, but she’d learned long ago not to assume anything, either in law enforcement or the private detection business.

  “I want you to find out who killed my husband,” Carolyn said. “I need to know.”

  “Of course you do. But the police are investigating it now. You must be aware that it’s my husband who’s leading the investigation.”

  Savannah didn’t bother to mention that San Carmelita’s city budget was so tight and their police force so small that Dirk would not only be leading the investigation, but he would be the only one doing any investigating.

  Unless her Moonlight Magnolia team lent a hand, as they frequently did—as much for the love of “sleuthing” as out of affection and consideration for Dirk.

  “I would just feel better if you were working the case, too. I have a feeling that you’re very capable, Savannah.”

  “I appreciate your faith in me, and if you really want to hire me, I’d be happy to have you as a client,” Savannah assured her. “But I feel I should be honest and tell you that I’m not sure the outcome will be much different, whether my husband works the case alone or if my team and I conduct our own investigation.”

  “You think, either way, in the end we’ll know who killed him?”

  “I do. Dirk is very good at his job. Thorough. Determined. A bit like an alligator with a Christmas ham in its jaws.”

  Carolyn glanced away and seemed uneasy with what she’d just heard.

  Savannah wondered if it was because of the too-graphic imagery or because she’d just been assured the murderer would be caught.

  Savannah had to be equally honest with herself and admit that she wasn’t absolutely certain that Dirk was wrong.

  Stephen Erling’s killer might be sitting on her sofa at that moment. For all Savannah knew, Carolyn simply wanted to hire her in hopes that, through Savannah, Carolyn could keep tabs on Dirk’s progress.

  Or maybe even influence the investigation.

  On the other hand, she appeared sincere.

  “I still want to hire you and your agency,” Carolyn assured her. “I’ve read so many good things about you in the papers over the years. I need to do something. I need to do this.”

  “Then you’ve got yourself a private detective,” Savannah told her, as Tammy brought a tray loaded with Savannah’s Old Country Roses coffeepot, matching cups, creamer, and sugar bowl into the living room and set it on the coffee table.

  Turning to Savannah, she held out her arms and said, “Vanna and I have things to do in the backyard. I’ll take the phone outside with me, so you won’t be disturbed if anyone calls.”

  “Thank you, Tammy,” Savannah said, handing over her precious burden. “Dr. Erling here is going to be a client of ours. I assured her that you can walk her through the less glamorous aspects of our lit
tle business—payment, contract, etc.”

  “I’d be happy to. Anytime.” With her daughter on her hip, Tammy walked to the rolltop desk in the corner and picked up the business phone and her own electronic tablet.

  As she sauntered out of the house, Savannah knew that what Tammy intended to do in the backyard was Internet research.

  Savannah also knew that Tammy would have done the same thing whether Carolyn had hired them or not.

  The kid had a calling. Though some might call it an obsession.

  Savannah poured them each a cup of coffee and pushed the cream and sugar closer to her guest.

  They both took a long drink, savoring the experience, much as they had enjoyed the hot toddies beneath the arbor in the moonlight.

  Then Savannah turned in her chair to face her new client. Her dark blue eyes had the same predatory intensity as Dirk’s when he was about to “squeeze” somebody. Hard.

  “First question,” she said. “Who’s Lissa?”

  Chapter 27

  “This is a really special occasion,” Savannah said as she looked around Granny’s dining table at the illustrious company gathered there. “It’s the first meeting of the Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency in a month of Sundays, and the first one ever in Granny’s new home.”

  “Hear, hear,” John said, raising his teacup in a toast to their hostess. “A lovely home it is, too. I can hear the ocean waves from here!”

  Granny chuckled. “I have to be careful not to go sleep-walkin’ or I could end up in the brink! Them waves is practically outside my door!”

  “I’m very happy for you, Mrs. Reid,” Ryan added. “Beach living has to be the best.”

  “I sure enjoy it,” Granny said solemnly. “It was my lifelong dream. I knew it was comin’, one way or another. I just didn’t know how.”

  Savannah looked around the interior of the luxury mobile home with its cathedral ceilings, skylights, and stone fireplace. The contemporary kitchen had every convenience, even ones her grandmother had never dreamed of, and so did the bathrooms, three bedrooms, and the formal dining room where they were sitting.

  When Savannah thought of the run-down old shotgun shack in Georgia, where Granny had spent most of the years of her long life and compared it to the lifestyle her grandmother was now enjoying, she felt enormously grateful.

  Grateful to a certain highly successful actor, who was about to join their family.

  The depth of his generosity was hard for Savannah to comprehend or even accept. Though she realized that with so much wealth, it was likely that he barely even felt any sort of financial impact when he gave them a gift. But to them, who had been raised far poorer than most, it felt like a king had handed them the keys to his castle.

  Savannah and Granny exchanged glances across the table. Only the two of them—and Dirk, because Savannah had told him—knew that this beautiful home on the sea had been paid for with money that Ethan had given Savannah.

  Thanks to him, Granny no longer lived in Dirk’s old trailer, sitting in a park that was rapidly becoming the drug capital of the county.

  Savannah’s only concern was that Ethan might think these gifts were expected of him or that they valued him more because he gave them. She wanted her soon-to-be brother-in-law to know that he was welcomed and loved only for himself and for the joy that he brought their little Alma.

  Granny rose and walked around the table, making sure that Savannah, Dirk, and Ryan had coffee, John his Earl Grey tea, Tammy her mineral spring water, Waycross his root beer, and sippy juice boxes for Brody and Vanna Rose.

  She replenished the platter of warm-from-the-oven chocolate-chip cookies, then turned to Brody and said, “How’s about you and me take the Colonel for his sundown walk on the beach?”

  “You betcha!” Brody sprang up from his seat on the floor near the fireplace, where he had been drawing pictures. As he scrambled to put the paper and crayons away, he said, “I was hopin’ you’d offer, Granny. Do you think we’ll see the lighthouse come on again, like we did before?”

  “Most likely,” she said. “It comes on ever’ single night and has since many years before I was born.”

  “They had lighthouses before you were born?” Brody was amazed.

  “They surely did. Most of ’em was run by dinosaurs. It was hard for ’em, climbin’ up them windin’ stairs, but if the light went out, they were good at relightin’ it. They’d just give it a blast with their fiery breath and git ’er goin’ again.”

  Brody gave her a doubtful look. “I think you’re mixing up dinosaurs with dragons.”

  “I am?”

  “Afraid so.”

  “Okay. Either way, let’s get goin’ before that sun sets. We wanna see all them fancy boats comin’ back home to roost for the night.”

  Brody snickered. “Now I think you’re mixing up boats with chickens.”

  Savannah decided to intervene. “Brody, we don’t contradict Granny. She’s earned the right to have every word that comes out of her mouth accepted as gospel.”

  “Don’t tell the child that,” Granny told her. “He’s gotta learn to trust himself before he can trust what other folks say. I don’t mind being told when I’ve spoken amiss.” She turned back to Brody. “Long as you don’t make a habit of it.”

  “I won’t. Just if it’s dinosaur stuff, ’cause I’m pretty much an expert on them guys. I read a book about ’em.”

  “See there,” Gran said. “He read a book, and now he’s an expert.” She walked over to Tammy, who was holding Vanna Rose on her lap, and said, “Can I take your little darlin’ out for a sundown walk on the beach, too? We’d be happy to have her.”

  Tammy looked down at the tiny girl in her lap. The child’s head was on Tammy’s chest and her eyes half-closed.

  “Thank you, Granny, but I think she’ll be asleep in three minutes. You and Brody go ahead and have a nice time.”

  Gran checked once again to see that the beverages were flowing, the platter had plenty of cookies, and everyone appeared comfortable. “Okay, then you guys get down to business with your mystery solving. When we get back, I wanna hear who it was that done it.”

  “No problem, Gran,” Dirk told her. “We’ll have them behind bars before that lighthouse comes on.”

  Thirty seconds later, Granny, Brody, and Colonel Beauregard were gone and the group at the table turned to the business at hand.

  The most somber business of all.

  “As you know,” Savannah began, “we have a new client. An unexpected one. Dr. Carolyn Erling. I’ll tell you now that she is Dirk’s number one suspect.”

  Everyone turned to look at Dirk, and he nodded.

  “As you may or may not know,” Savannah continued, “Carolyn’s husband, our victim, was held in very low esteem by those who knew him, even though he was a world-famous surgeon. We may have a hard time finding someone who isn’t glad he’s passed on.”

  “What a dreadful legacy to leave,” John said over the rim of his teacup.

  “Even if we can’t take our belongings with us,” Ryan added, “it’s nice to think we’ll leave our loved ones some good memories of us.”

  “Whether Dr. Erling was a nice guy or not,” Savannah said, “he didn’t deserve to be murdered. After talking to Carolyn this morning, I believe we have one or maybe even two more suspects that need investigating, as well as Carolyn herself.”

  Dirk immediately got out his pad and pencil, and Tammy took her electronic tablet from her diaper bag.

  Savannah continued. “Dr. Liu told us she saw Stephen Erling at some sort of hook-up party with a gal named Lissa. They were joking about how they had gotten one over on someone named Jerry, by attending this particular get-together when he was out of town.”

  “Was Carolyn aware that her husband was at a party like that with another woman?” Dirk asked. “’Cause if she was, that might be another reason for her to knock him off.”

  “I don’t believe she knew, and I didn’t mention it to her today
either. But I did ask her if she knew a couple named Lissa and Jerry and she immediately told me that she did. Lissa’s name is actually Melissa, and she’s married to Jerald Becker.”

  “Lissa and Jerry,” Tammy said, scrolling on her tablet. “Here they are. They live in Twin Oaks. Nice place. This says he’s a lawyer and she’s a surgical nurse.”

  “She was,” Savannah said. “In fact, she was Stephen Erling’s surgical nurse for several years. Carolyn told me that Lissa quit abruptly a few weeks ago. Erling was furious. She left him high and dry, right before an important operation in Madrid. Apparently, he had to scramble to find and train a replacement.”

  Waycross nodded toward Tammy and said to Savannah, “Sounds like you need to sic my lady on those two. By this time tomorrow you’ll know what color boxers Mr. Becker wears and whether Miss Lissa plucked her eyebrows this morning.”

  Ryan laughed. “He’s right. Tammy, I wouldn’t want you investigating me. I’m pretty sure you’d uncover skeletons I didn’t even know were in my closet.”

  “Actually, I find more skeletons in basements, attics, and rose gardens than in closets,” Tammy said in a most officious tone. When they all laughed, she shrugged and said, “To be honest, Savannah and Dirk may have found some actual bone skeletons, but I only find the boring kinds, like the sort of secrets you uncover in bank accounts, tax returns, credit reports, and posted messages on dating sites.”

  “Then you’re gonna check out those two a bit more and get back to us with whatever you find?” Dirk asked Tammy.

  When she nodded, he said, “Okay. Thanks. By the way, I’ve got a little something of my own to report. Today I went back out to the crime scene, looked around. CSU had been pretty thorough. I didn’t see anything new there. But I did go next door and talk to the teenage kid and his dad.”

  “Shane and Dylan Keller?” Tammy said, again wearing her self-satisfied smirk. “Both of whom were arrested for assault after a road rage incident in Nevada. They weren’t tried for it because the guy they beat up dropped the charges right before the trial began.”

  Dirk stared at her for a moment and said, “They didn’t mention that today.”