Carpet Diem

by Misty Simon

  “So you have Preston Prescott zip-tied to the bars in the back of a hearse in the parking lot. Dare I ask how you managed that?”

  “Is that important? Don’t you want to go get him?”

  “No. I think we’ll wait just a moment, then go out to get him. I’d like to hear how you managed to catch him when I found out only today that I should be looking more closely at him.”

  I walked him through the events of the day and told him about Mrs. Petrovski fuming over the housecleaning and about her accusations against her nephew. He shook his head at me.

  “She was supposed to keep that to herself.”

  “Yes, well, I think you had better remember the town you live in. Hardly anyone ever keeps anything to themselves.” He frowned at me, but I kept on going. I told him about my happiness over not having to have my near-fatal showdown with the bad guy, as had happened previously. He smiled his way through the whole thing. So then I told him about Preston hearse-jacking me. That finally got a frown.

  “I told you to stay safe.”

  I groaned. “And how was I supposed to do that better than I tried? I had let everything go. Max was still at home, doing some follow-up, but I swear, I was out of it. I was going to let you handle everything. I was doing my actual job, not even being a concerned citizen, since I was sure you could handle the case, and then I get kidnapped with a can of soda. I didn’t ask for this.”

  “You never do.” He sat back down, only to lean forward in his chair. “You never do, and yet here we are again.”

  “This time, though, I don’t think I brought you the killer.” I bit my lip when the storm clouds started scudding across his face. It was no more than usual, but it still made me cringe a little. “Let me explain, before you blow your lid.”

  “Maybe we’d better go get Preston, because I do not want to lose him, and you can explain to your little heart’s content after I book him.”

  “Whatever you want, but you might want to hear this before we get him, so you know what you’re walking into.”

  He rose from his chair and shook his head. “At least let me pace while you’re telling me how this is going to be messed up yet again.”

  I took offense to that statement but let it ride, because it would gain me nothing to get in his face about it. “Look, I know you’re not happy, but he swears he didn’t do this. He has no idea who did, but I talked him into turning himself in and staying in jail until we find out who the real killer is. You get your man until we get the right one. I get to look around some more, and we get a killer—the real one, not the one that it seems the aunt wants to get rid of, enough to turn him in without the blink of an eye and with a smile. He doesn’t even know it was her, only that the police were looking for him, which he overheard at his gentlemen’s club.”

  “He says he didn’t do it, but he has no alibi.”

  “Yes, he was driving around and no one saw him and he didn’t see anyone. He says he doesn’t remember where he was driving, but eventually, he came back to the house. He won’t tell me what he did there, only that he left again and went home. His plan was to leave town, but he decided to come find me instead and try to force me to clear his name.”

  Another laugh, this one bigger. “Does he not know who he is dealing with?”

  “I guess not.” But I did smile at Burton. That was almost a compliment, or at least I was going to take it as one. “So I convinced him that if he would turn himself in, he could be protected at the station while we went and found out who really did this, and then he would get out of jail. I don’t know if he’s completely clean of this whole thing, but I’m a little surprised that he is thought to be the killer. I just don’t think he has it in him.”

  “We’ll see about that. In the meantime, I guess we’ve made him wait long enough.”

  “Well, at least it’s not hot outside, because I didn’t leave the car running, and I left the windows open just a crack.”

  He chuckled some more as he led the way out to the back parking lot. When I opened the back door, of the hearse, I saw that Preston was sweating profusely and his cravat had gone completely limp and was draped across the floor.

  “God, Tallie, I hope you never do that to your dog. You could have at least left me some air running. I was afraid I was going to die in here, and it was going to be your fault.”

  “Yes, well, beggars can’t be choosers, and when you chose me to help you, you should have considered who you were asking. Burton has agreed to take you in, but he’ll have to process you and interview you, as if he is really booking you with the crime,” I told him, then paused. “It’s the only way it’s going to look authentic,” I rushed to say when it looked like he was going to protest. “You’ll be protected here, and no one can come for you. We’ll figure out who really committed the murder, if it wasn’t you, and then we’ll be able to let you go.”

  Not that I was really part of that we, but it sounded better than putting words in Burton’s mouth.

  Burton got a utility knife off his belt and cut the plastic keeping Preston Prescott in the hearse.

  “Efficient,” the chief said while sawing through the thick material.

  “Useful,” I said. “I also have some other info that I can send to you on your cell once I get this hearse back to the funeral home. Give me about fifteen minutes, and it’s all yours. Better than any scraps of paper I’ve ever given you.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at me as he grabbed Preston’s elbow and hauled him out of the back of the hearse. “I’ll look forward to it.”

  After giving a small salute and a nod to Preston and Burton, I watched the chief escort the now prisoner into the station. I had no idea if Preston would ever leave, but it really wasn’t my job to make sure he did or didn’t. He’d held me captive and forced me to do his bidding. But then again, I had taken matters into my own hands and had made it turn out all right for me.

  He had been belligerent when I’d first told him my idea of letting Burton house him, which would cause the killer to think he or she had gotten away scot-free. He did not want to be in jail and did not want to lose face in front of his friends and associates by sitting for even a moment behind bars. But I was persuasive about the benefits of doing it this way, and in the end I threatened to leave him in the cemetery, tell Burton where he was for pickup, and refrain from interceding on his behalf if he didn’t do what I told him to. Not a proud moment, but at least it wasn’t a deadly one.

  And now I had to get that phone recording I’d made to Burton and drop the hearse off for Michael to pick up. I then wanted to check in with Max and maybe Gina. I hadn’t heard anything from her about being cut out of this particular investigation, but she’d had a lot going on recently, what with an upswing in business, and probably wouldn’t have had time to help, anyway. Or at least that was what I was telling myself and would tell her if she decided to get nasty about not being involved.

  And it was time for some actual caffeine. I’d finished that soda a while ago, and since it was caffeine free, I was starting to get a headache.

  After leaving the keys in the hearse visor, I trotted across the street to get my fix and to see if Mama Shirley had heard anything about the arrest of Preston or had any more info that could be useful. Max had been called into work and had texted me to let me know he was going to be out until later this evening. I didn’t feel it was appropriate to send him a text about how I had been taken hostage in a hearse, so I decided instead to share that with him over dinner. At least that way it would be more personal, and he could actually see that I was okay, instead of me just reassuring him over the phone.

  I hadn’t exactly promised Preston that I’d clear his name in the end; I had been careful about that. But the more I thought about his story, the more I wondered who had actually killed Audra and who would have had a motive.

  “We haven’t seen much of you,” Mama Shirley said as soon as I opened the door.

  I should have known that this was going to happen.
“I was just in here yesterday.”

  “Yes, but you’re not keeping us up to date about the investigation, and we’re being left out in the cold on the details. Gina is sad. You know how I get when Gina is sad. Plus, I could be the absolute number one on the gossip tree, and you’re cutting me out.”

  An answer was on the tip of my tongue—maybe not a smooth or witty one, but it was there—when Gina saved me.

  “Mom, knock it off. Tallie is doing the best she can. If I needed more information, I would have called her. She’s been running around like a lunatic lately. Cut her some slack, instead of cutting her with that sharp tongue of yours.”

  Oh, that was a burn, and I was interested to see how Mama took it.

  “Pssh,” she said, smacking Gina with her towel and then laughing. “Fine. You weren’t sad, but I still could be the absolute center of the gossip pool here.”

  “You already are,” Gina said. “What more could you want?”

  “How about the details on how I was abducted at cold soda point and Burton has the suspect in custody and he is singing like a canary?” I offered as I sat down and rested my elbows on the lunch counter.

  “Do tell.” Mama started my favorite whoopie pie latte and smiled over her shoulder as the milk steamed.

  “Yes, do tell, and don’t leave a single detail out,” Gina urged. “I’ve been trying not to be nosy, since I have my own stuff going on at the moment, but I can’t say I didn’t want to be Velma from Scooby-Doo again.”

  “There wasn’t much Velma-ing to do this time. I thought I was out until Preston Prescott decided to hijack me in the hearse at a funeral.”

  “Wait, wait,” Mama said, turning from the machine. “I’m not going to be able to hear you over the noise of making this thing. Gina, get her a cruller while I finish up, and then we can sit and discuss.”

  The place was empty, as it tended to be at this time of day. The lunch crowd had gone, the early afternooners had gone, but the after-work crowd hadn’t yet come in for their daily dose of coffee and talk.

  I staked out a table while Mama finished her coffee magic and Gina warmed up a cruller and put it on one of her pretty purple plates.

  Once they served me the latte and the cruller, they both sat opposite me at the four-top and folded their hands on the table in front of them. I would never tell Gina how much she looked like her mom, because it would get me walloped, but, man, did they resemble each other.

  “Spill.” Mama pushed the plate toward me. “You have all you need to get this all out to us. Now get moving.”

  So I told them what had been going on lately, about the cleaning jobs and the overly cluttered house and the additional info I’d learned about Audra from Letty. I told them about Caleb and Jason Huntington, and about Mrs. Petrovski telling on Preston, but Preston not knowing that. I also triumphantly crowed about tying up Preston in the hearse with zip ties after he had decided that taking me hostage at a funeral was a good idea and had demanded I help him. I still was on the fence about helping him at all, but if it would bring in the killer, then I wasn’t against looking for more information.

  After about an hour, I was done, and they sat, staring at me in wonder.

  “You’re a busy girl.” Gina swiped at the table with a white cloth she always had in hand.

  “Yeah. Sorry for not coming to get you, but so much of it was random conversation or people seeking me out that I wasn’t really able to do much more than react this time. And I have spent so much time on the phone I thought the thing might meld with my hand.”

  “But now you’re going to have to find the killer while Burton has this guy in custody. This guy can’t be seen out and about, trying to find someone else, if you want the real killer to believe that he’s off the hook for the crime, without a single issue,” Mama said.

  I hunkered down over my lukewarm cup. “I know, but I just don’t even know where to start. What if Preston really is the bad guy? Mrs. Petrovski turned her own nephew in. Why wouldn’t she know for certain it was him before she made that kind of declaration? That seems like pretty heavy stuff to do on a whim.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Mama Shirley said. “I could see several reasons why she’d be happy to have him out of her hair. And if she’s been looking for an excuse, then this would be the perfect one. If nothing else, he’ll be tied up for months, during which she can sell all her property and cut him out of the will, like she’s been threatening to do for years. She wants to leave everything to her precious Pomeranian, but she has been having trouble doing that because of some legalities with the properties themselves and the way they were passed down to her.”

  Her desire to put the Pomeranian in the will and cut Preston out of it, regardless of whom he married, was new information. Unfortunately, Max texted that he was on his way home and the after-work crowd had started coming in. Gina got up to serve, but Mama stayed seated across from me.

  “She can handle it for just a moment,” Mama said. We both eyed the line at the counter. “Or at least for the next minute or two.” Mama shrugged and then leaned forward. “I’ve heard something about Marg Petrovski that might help you with your case.”

  “It’s not my case. Don’t let Burton hear you say that, or he’ll have a fit.”

  “Bah. He’s my cousin, and I’m older. I’ll handle him if I have to. Now listen up.” She leaned in even closer, and I was afraid she was going to be in my lap at any moment. “Now, I heard that she’s been dealing in some shady stuff, and there’s some question about where those properties came from in the first place. Maybe you should have your Max look into some of the property records to make sure that she bought them on the up-and-up. There were rumors years ago about a bank heist. People thought it might have bankrolled the whole thing. That family has been up to their eyeballs in nasty things for years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the missus is in on it somehow, too.”

  “Mrs. Petrovski?” I wasn’t sure what to think about that or what she could possibly be into. She wasn’t the nicest of people sometimes, but I just couldn’t see her being nefarious. At one time we had considered the family friends, but now I wondered if I had just remembered that wrong.

  “Yes, but keep your voice down. You know how she’s been selling everything off? They say that if she got the properties through illegal means, then it will all be confiscated, and she won’t be able to do anything about it. I thought she had to sell due to money trouble and wanting to get out of debt, but that was bad information. So if she isn’t in financial trouble, then why else would she all of a sudden have to sell everything off? Monroe down at the bank let it slip at bingo that the woman has a bank account that’s bigger than ten of those socialites’ up on the hill, and it has to be enough. Why now? Look into that.” She rose from the table. “I’d better go help my Gina. She’s giving me the evil eye. I can feel it on my back. Good girl for being so strong, but I’m not going to tell her that.”

  Sure enough, Gina’s eyes were squinted, and her spine was ramrod stiff. I hid my smile behind a cough and waved to her on my way out.

  So now I was looking into Mrs. Petrovski’s bank records? I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do that. She was untouchable in many circles, and I no longer had many friends that I could sidle up to and ask about her business. In fact, I had no friends like that, and I couldn’t ask any of my cleaning clients, because they all knew better than to mess with a woman who could cut you with a look and had on plenty occasions. Invitations had been rescinded to parties that weren’t even at her house if she said the right words to the right people. But did that mean she was dirty? I guessed I was about to find out.

  It might not be pretty, and I might not be happy, but I was dedicated to figuring this out, while Burton grilled the man I didn’t think had committed the murder.

  Chapter Nineteen

  For the fourth time that day, I walked up the stairs to my third-floor apartment. I was absolutely going to count this as exercise and not worry one bit th
at I’d stopped at the kitchen on the first floor and raided my mother’s unending supply of snickerdoodles. I deserved them.

  Opening my door, I was greeted by Peanut, who tried to jump up and almost knocked me over. I gently scolded her and told her to get down. She sat on her rump, then gave me the goofiest smile. I loved that dog and was so happy that in the end she was mine, even after the turmoil of how she had come to be in my house in the first place. I guessed I should have been thankful that she was used to living in tiny places, since my space was small and tight and quaint.

  I maneuvered around her and put my plate of cookies on the kitchen table. After turning around, I showed Peanut that I had her treats, and as I knew would happen, Mr. Fleefers then deemed me worthy of a visit. When I’d picked up the snickerdoodles downstairs, I’d also raided the animal treat jar. This one was new, about three months old, and my mother was very pleased with her garage-sale find of a cat and a dog nestled together and napping in ceramic.

  Hey, at least she hadn’t been bugging me too much about kids now that she had these two adorable children to spoil.

  I handed out treats, then got down to business. After pulling my laptop over, I smiled when I saw the folder Max had put together of the information he’d been looking into at my request.

  Nothing much on Jason Huntington, though. I was definitely going to pay him a visit and find out if he knew where Bethany was. She still hadn’t answered her cell phone. I was starting to get worried about her. She should have been back at work, and there had still been no word from her today. I wasn’t willing to fire her as a no-call, no-show just yet, at least not until I found out what had happened and why she hadn’t gotten in contact with us.

  But Jason paid his taxes, was an upstanding citizen, was underpaid, and had never had any issues with the law. He was an outlier in the murder case, and I knew that, but I wanted info on all the players, and he was a player given that he had been involved with both Bethany and Audra at one point. From what I could tell, he didn’t have a big enough motive; however, that didn’t mean he hadn’t held a grudge about the way Audra dumped him and moved on so fast. Then again, he had moved on, too, so I almost had to be willing to cut him out of my investigation altogether. I wasn’t ready to do that, though.