It All Falls Down: Rose Gardner Investigations #7 (Rose Gardner Investigatons)

by Denise Grover Swank

  “I’ve considered relocating us for the night,” he said. “But I think they got what they came for and aren’t comin’ back.” He searched my face. “Unless you think we should pack up and go somewhere else.”

  “No,” I said quietly, unsure how to handle this subtle, indirect Joe. “I don’t think we need to go.”

  He nodded. “Okay. That’s why I came in—to give you an update and ask if you wanted to stay somewhere else.” His gaze dropped to his empty plate on the table. “And maybe grab a sandwich. I’m still starving.”

  “I put the chicken salad in the fridge,” I said, walking over to it. “Let me get your sandwich.”

  I got it out and handed it to him, wrapped in a paper towel. He gave me another kiss, then looked deep into my eyes. “To answer your previous question: I would do anything in my power to protect you and Hope,” he said quietly. “I understand and support your need to do the same. All I ask is that you do everything you can to stay safe and in one piece. Can you promise me that?”

  Biting my lower lip, I gave him a slight nod as tears stung my eyes. “Yeah. I promise. I have too much to lose.”

  “Then that’s all I can ask.” He gave me another quick kiss before spinning around and walking out the door.

  “What just happened?” Neely Kate asked, watching him, slack-jawed.

  “Joe just gave me permission to do whatever I think is necessary to protect my family and the county, no questions asked.”

  “Okay,” she said, “what have you done with my brother?”

  I laughed softly, but I was still in awe of what he’d just said.

  “So…” she said, turning to me with excitement in her eyes. “What do we do first?”

  “We?” I asked. “You’re to have no part in this, Neely Kate,” I said in a stern tone. “You and Jed are leavin’ town so you don’t get involved in this mess.”

  She propped a hand on her hip and gave me plenty of attitude. “Well, I haven’t left yet, have I? I’ll help until we leave.”

  “I highly doubt Jed would approve.”

  Her brow shot up. “We might be married, but that man doesn’t own me.”

  “Neely Kate,” I said with a sigh. I started to remind her that he was looking out for her best interests, but I saw that Joe had stopped midstride on his way back to the barn and pulled out his phone.

  He talked for about ten seconds before heading back to the house, his phone still pressed to his ear. He hung up while he stood at the bottom step of the back door, then let himself into the house.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked as soon as he walked back in. I knew it wasn’t, but I hated to speculate.

  “I just got a call,” he said with a heavy sigh as he started to rub the back of his neck. “Word about Margi.”

  “Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Neely Kate prodded.

  But even before he said it, I knew he had bad news.

  Joe’s gaze lifted to mine. “Margi was found dead, and Levi Romano is missin’.”

  Chapter 12

  “Oh my word,” I said, feeling lightheaded. I couldn’t believe it. I’d just seen her two days ago.

  Fear had returned to Joe’s eyes, and I knew he was playing the what-if game again, only his scenarios had all turned more violent.

  “What happened?” Neely Kate asked.

  Joe gave her a grim look. “A deputy found her in her home.”

  “How’d she die?” Neely Kate asked.

  “I can’t release that yet, and even if I could, I wouldn’t have anything to tell you since we don’t know yet.”

  So it likely wasn’t something obvious like a gunshot wound. Then a new thought hit me.

  “Does Randy know?” Randy Miller, a sheriff’s deputy who’d helped me plenty in the past, had dated Margi for a few months, but last I’d heard, they’d broken up about a month ago.

  Joe made a face. “Yeah.”

  “Is he okay?” Neely Kate asked.

  “I don’t know,” Joe said, “but he’s definitely not working on her murder investigation.”

  That made sense, but I wondered how Randy was handling it. It was hard for me to accept she was gone, and we’d barely known each other. They’d gone out for months.

  We all stood in stunned silence for several moments before I jerked my gaze to Joe. “You said Levi is missin’?”

  “He never showed up to work this morning. His assistant thought maybe he was out on an emergency call and forgot to tell her, but he still hasn’t shown up, and his phone goes straight to voicemail.”

  “Do you think Levi might have killed his sister and run off?” Neely Kate asked.

  “Neely Kate!” I admonished. “That’s Levi you’re talkin’ about. The man who saved Muffy’s life.”

  She met my gaze. “Sometimes you don’t know what people are capable of. And he might have done it in a fit of rage.”

  “I’ve never seen Levi enraged,” I said.

  “Just because you haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened,” Neely Kate countered.

  She was right, but it seemed far more likely Margi had been mixed up in something bad. Her attitude toward me had always seemed a bit strange, and it probably wasn’t a coincidence she’d arrived in town right about the time Hardshaw had gotten serious about wiggling into town.

  “At the moment,” Joe said in a slightly louder than usual voice, “anything is possible, but it’s all speculation at this stage. So we’ll investigate everything until the clues start pointin’ us in the right direction.”

  “Did you get anything from the surveillance tapes?” I asked.

  “There’s nothin’ on them.”

  “What?” I asked. “How can that be?”

  “Someone knew they were there because they covered the lenses from the side. We got nothin’.”

  I knew nothing good would come of pinning too much hope on the cameras. And now we knew a deep level of forethought had been put into the action.

  Joe cast a glance out the back window. “I need to go check on things out there and make a call to the DA.”

  “Okay,” I said, watching him head back outside. I lowered into a chair, feeling sick. “I can’t believe Margi’s dead.”

  “I might not have liked her much,” Neely Kate muttered, “but I would never have wished her dead.” She made a face. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom and then call Jed and let him know what’s goin’ on.”

  “Good idea.” I had a couple of texts of my own to send.

  As soon as she was out of sight, I grabbed my phone and pulled up Mason’s number.

  Have you heard about Margi Romano?

  I was just sending off a check-in text to Randy when my phone rang with a call from Mason.

  “What do you know?” he asked.

  That gave me pause. Were they trying to keep her murder under wraps?

  I cast a glance at the powder room, where Neely Kate had gone, then headed for the stairs. I’d likely share what I found out with her, but I didn’t want to risk her overhearing something that Mason wanted me to keep to myself. She’d already guessed he was my source earlier.

  “Have you heard about my barn?” I asked, stalling as I came up with a plan. I suspected he’d confirm information I already had, but he probably wouldn’t freely drop anything else into my lap. Not like this morning.

  “It would have been impossible not to,” he said in a flat tone. “Joe wasn’t quiet about calling for help.”

  “You think he should have been?” I asked with a frown. I headed up to my room and shut the door behind me. I could see everything going on around the barn from the sunroom.

  He paused, then sounded guarded. “So you’re calling about the break-in at your barn?”

  “That’s one of the reasons,” I said. “And it was more than a break-in. They dug a huge hole out there sometime after I headed to town this morning. Not a quick or easy task.”

  “Do you know who was responsible?” Mason asked. “You don’t ha
ve to give me a direct answer. A hint will suffice.”

  “No, but I suspect someone bigger like Hardshaw,” I said. “Especially with everything goin’ down this week But now that I think about it, it could also have been Carmichael. We already suspect he killed Rufus Wilson, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he knew what Margi had buried out there and forced her to tell him the location before he killed her.”

  “Wait. Margi Romano is dead?” he asked in surprise.

  I sat on the edge of my desk. “I thought you knew that was why I texted.”

  Mason released a string of expletives under his breath.

  “What do you know about Margi’s ties to my barn?” I asked.

  “I know she’s keeping horses out there,” he said. “And that she did some construction on your barn.”

  “Were you watchin’ my barn or Margi?” I asked in a blunt tone.

  He was silent for several seconds. “You haven’t been under surveillance since around the time of the grand jury.”

  Not exactly an answer as to whether the state had been watching Margi. Especially since she’d started her construction around the same time as the grand jury last October.

  While I was peeved I’d been under surveillance, I wasn’t exactly surprised by it. They’d tried to get information from me about the murder of two Sugar Branch policemen. Denny had killed them, saving me, but the police thought James was behind it. They’d hoped to nail him to the wall with my information.

  “Why were you watchin’ Margi?” I pressed.

  “I never said we were. You’re speculating.”

  Time to take a different tactic. “Why would she have hidden boxes of guns in my barn?”

  “How did you know they were guns?” he asked, his voice cold.

  Score one for me. Sure, Joe had told me as much, but Mason had just confirmed it. “I have my ways. The real question is who stole them and to what purpose.”

  “Did you find out from Roberta Hanover?”

  I found it interesting that he thought she might know. Did he think James was involved? I knew he’d been selling arms to the Collards, but he’d had a falling out with them last year…before Margi started working on the barn.

  “No, I haven’t found out anything from her yet,” I admitted.

  He was silent for a moment. “I’ve got to go,” he said. “It’s been an interesting chat. If you harvested anything from this conversation, I hope that our confidentiality agreement remains intact.”

  “Always.”

  “Thank you.” Then he hung up.

  “No,” I whispered as I watched a deputy string crime tape around my barn, “thank you.”

  Now what to do with this information?

  I heard whimpers on the monitor, still tucked in my pocket, so I turned it off and headed to Hope’s nursery. She was still half asleep, her hands fisted as she waved them around and kicked her feet, trying to free herself from the blanket burrito Joe must have made when he put her down. Muffy was in her room, watching me.

  “Good afternoon, Sweet Hope,” I cooed. “Are you ready to get up and see all of the commotion goin’ on?”

  Her response was to let out a tiny wail of anger.

  “I know,” I said in a soft voice. “You’re upset that you missed out on all the excitement. You’re just like your momma. Aunt Neely Kate is here, and so is Daddy. He’s busy workin’, but when he finds out you’re up, I’m sure he’ll come in and tell you good afternoon.”

  I unwrapped her as I spoke, then grabbed a diaper from the stack next to the bed and made quick work of changing her. She had to be hungry again, because she was crying in outrage by the time I carried her downstairs, Muffy following on my heels.

  Neely Kate was standing in the living room with an anxious look.

  “Do you look that way because you can’t stand to hear your niece cry or because you got some bad news from Jed?” I asked as I made my way to the sofa. I got settled, then lifted my shirt to nurse Hope.

  “Both, I guess,” Neely Kate said as she sat down beside me. Muffy jumped up onto the sofa between us, resting her head on Neely Kate, who began to absently rub behind her ear.

  “Well,” I said, my back tensing. “Spit it out.”

  “Jed wants us to meet with Dermot.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m all for that, and I’m sure I can get away. But who’s gonna be at this meeting? I need to know if I’m bringin’ Hope.”

  “I think it’s safe to bring her. It’s just you and me, Jed, Witt, and Dermot.”

  “Dermot’s not bringin’ any men?”

  Muffy moved her head, and Neely Kate stopped petting her. “Jed told him that you’d likely have the baby since Joe’s workin’.”

  “A safe bet now that he has two murder investigations and the barn robbery.”

  She nodded. “I guess Dermot has heard rumors he wants to discuss.”

  I pushed out a sigh. “Well, that’s good, right?”

  “Yeah.” But the way she was wringing her hands in her lap didn’t suggest good news.

  “Why are you so pent up?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Something told me it was more than worry that she and Jed wouldn’t be able to get away now. “I mean, I know a lot’s goin’ on, but you’ve handled worse than this while singin’ ‘Whistle While You Work.’”

  Her head jutted back in outrage. “I’ve never sung that song in my life.”

  “Okay, so maybe while you were paintin’ your nails would be a better analogy.”

  She nodded her acceptance and forgiveness for suggesting such a thing. I made a mental note to find out why she found that so offensive later.

  “What’s goin’ on, Neely Kate?”

  “Jed heard something else.” She shook her head. “Something unrelated to the mess with your barn and Margi.”

  “What is it? Are you worried about going away while all of this is happenin’, because I still think it’s a good idea.”

  She let out a bitter laugh. “Oh, we’re not goin’ anywhere. Kate has made sure of that.”

  I involuntarily sucked in a breath, and Hope stopped nursing to look up at me. “Sorry, sweet baby,” I said, stroking her tiny arm with my fingertip. “Momma was just surprised is all.”

  She stared at me with huge eyes, then seemed to accept my answer and resumed nursing.

  “What happened with Kate?” I asked as I grabbed a pillow to prop under Hope’s body.

  Neely Kate reached over and helped me situate it. “We think she tried to make contact with our baby’s birth mother.”

  “What?” I practically shouted, disturbing Hope again. Startled, she began to wail.

  I bounced her in my arm. “Momma’s so sorry, sweet baby. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Maybe we should talk about this later,” Neely Kate said over Hope’s crying, guilt filling her eyes.

  “No,” I said, trying to guide the baby to latch back on. “Now that the shock has worn off, I promise not to overreact again, although to be fair, it wasn’t really an overreaction.”

  “True, but you’re nursing your baby,” she said, worrying her hands. “We can talk about this later.”

  As if Hope wanted to convince Neely Kate to heed my suggestion, she stopped crying and latched on again.

  “My baby doesn’t take precedence over yours, Neely Kate,” I insisted in a hushed tone. “What did Kate do?”

  “Well, Jed found out through a mutual friend that a strange woman approached her last night at the Dairy Bar where she works down in Sugar Branch. The woman ordered an ice cream cone but then hung around, asking personal questions until the manager made her leave.”

  “What kind of personal questions?”

  “What she planned to do with her life now that she had graduated. If her family had any history of mental illness or alcoholism or drug abuse.”

  “What?” I whisper-shouted.

  Neely Kate grimaced and glanced down at Hope, who didn’t seem disturbed. “I know. It could
just be some random weirdo, but the timing feels too coincidental.”

  “Did the woman say anything direct about the baby?”

  She shook her head. “No. She asked our birth mother where she was going to college and whether she could afford it.”

  “And did the birth mother answer her questions?” I felt weird calling her ‘birth mother,’ but Neely Kate and Jed had said they had sworn to protect her privacy and thus refused to tell me or anyone else her name.

  “I think she answered a few of the innocuous ones, like that she’s going to LSU and doesn’t know what she’s going to major in, and then got weirded out by the rest. That’s when the manager stepped in.” Tears filled her eyes. “Her brother—the one who told Jed that she was putting her baby up for adoption—was the one who told Jed. He thought it was weird and wondered if it had anything to do with Skeeter. But the woman had short dark hair. In a bob. She was medium height and looked like she was in her mid to late twenties.”

  I pressed my lips together. “What do you think she was up to?”

  “I don’t know,” Neely Kate said, “But we’re definitely not leaving town until she does. It’s just… How did Kate find out who she is? We haven’t even told you and Joe. Only our attorney knows.”

  “I don’t know,” I said with a worried sigh. “How does Kate find out anything? Could she have tapped your phone or hacked your computer?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since last summer.”

  “We both know that doesn’t mean she hasn’t dropped in for a visit and forgotten to say hello.”

  “True.” She looked down at her hands, still worrying them, then glanced up at me with panic in her eyes. “What if Kate tries to hurt the baby?”

  “I know it’s a legitimate concern,” I said. “Kate is criminally insane, but she also has a weird devotion to you. She takes her big sister role seriously.”

  “I know, but she has a weird and dangerous way of proving her affection,” Neely Kate grumbled.

  She had a point. Kate had done some horrible things to Neely Kate in the past, all because Kate had a warped idea of what people did to and for the people they loved. “Still,” I said, “she knows how much you want a baby. Shoot, she killed Stella and Branson because she held them responsible for making you sterile. She’s not going to take that baby away from you.” It occurred to me that I wasn’t just trying to convince her—I was hoping to convince myself too. Kate might mean well where Neely Kate was concerned, but she didn’t always think logically. “Maybe that was her way of screening the birth mother.”