I looked down and took a deep breath. “Alright. We can do a dress rehearsal. Just friends and family. Work out all the kinks before doing it with the general public.”
Star smiled. “That sounds fair enough.”
Ida thumped the table with her hand. “Well, what do we do now?.”
“I’m not sure. But I don’t think we can just sit around and wait. Thanks again Star. We’ll see ya soon.”
Ida grabbed her computer bag off the chair back and Star waved goodbye. We were off for the short walk one door over to The Grumpy Chicken.
Chapter Fifteen
IDA AND I MADE HASTE for the pub. The visit with Star produced unexpected results and I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss something. Plus, Belanger and Rotgut remained at large and we needed to find them. Talking with the gang would allow us to review things, maybe spark a new thought, and help us identify the next steps. The police were on it, but if we could help resolve the case in a more timely fashion, the sooner I would breath easy.
In the excitement, though, I forgot the time. Upon entering The Grumpy Chicken, the place was empty. It was still morning, albeit late morning, and we had just opened for the early lunch crowd. The gang would not be at the bar till noon, at the earliest.
Dixie saw us and hollered. “Well, did you learn anything?”
I snorted. “And then some. You won’t believe it.”
Dixie shot back, “Try me.”
“Rotgut is actually hunting down Jacob and the owner of Bev Serve, this Belanger guy. Belanger reneged on a deal with Rotgut, costing the shiner over a million.”
Dixie stood up straight. “Ouch! That’s not pocket change. So how did you figure that out?”
“The grumper. The vision and mark Star experienced told a story. Then we figured out what it meant. I called Eckart in Savannah and he is having Jacob moved for protection.”
“Specter connector! Are you admitting to me the grumpy chicken helped you piece this together?”
I chuckled. “I’m not sure.” I stopped and shook my head trying to rid the thought. But the notion stayed and I had to be honest. “Check that. Yeah. Our grumpy friend helped figure this out.”
Dixie let out a belly laugh. “Oh man, I can’t wait to tell Tom. See his face when he hears about this.”
“That’s not all either. I know what’s going on with the insurance policies. If Belanger robbed Rotgut through some sort of scam, then he would have to leave Savannah forever. The company insurance policy he bought for Jacob as a ‘key’ employee was for two million. Between that and the over one million stolen from Rotgut, he would be set for life. He can live wherever he wants. But he needed time to collect the insurance money and then get away. That is where the second fake life insurance policy comes in. You know, the one made to look like Jacob bought it and names me as the beneficiary? It frames me for the murder giving Belanger time to collect his three million and flee.”
Dixie and Ida looked like their brains ached. Dixie erupted. “What in the blazes are you cackling about. The cats that sneak in here make more sense than you do right now.”
I persisted. “Belanger made sure Jacob handled this ‘big deal’ with Rotgut. So when Belanger stole the money from the Rotgut deal, over a million dollars, he knew Rotgut would kill Jacob. With Jacob’ death, the two million life insurance policy would pay Belanger. But that would take time. So he used another fake policy, framing me, as a smoke screen to get that time.”
Ida cocked her head. “Oh, that makes more sense, sure.”
I stomped my foot. “It’s a bit complicated, I know. It takes a minute to settle in and make sense. But it all fits together perfectly.”
Dixie chuckled. “So Belanger tricked Rotgut to commit a murder that he needed done to collect insurance money?”
“Yeah. But it was clever how he tricked Rotgut with a phony deal to set it all up, then stole the moonshiner’s money as a bonus.”
Dixie’s jaw hung. “This was Jacob’s boss? Wow! Makes you look good in comparison, Ginger.”
I pulled a fake hurt face. “Ha, ha, very funny.”
Ida shook her head no. “We can’t let this Belanger creep get away. He sets all this up, then sits back and collects the money. Meanwhile, Rotgut gets his hands dirty and Jacob gets killed. That’s pure evil.”
I added, “Eckart is trying to track Belanger down right now. Thinks maybe he can use the cell towers to find him.”
The front door opened. It was Piper and she stopped a few steps in sensing that something was going on. “Alright, out with it. What happened?”
We told her the news and like Ida, Piper quickly labeled Belanger evil. We continued to discuss the recent events and there was sense of excitement to it all. Another mystery to solve and solve we did. At least I hoped so.
Bones whipped up some shaved steak sandwiches, cut them into bite size chunks, then put toothpicks in each piece. I was shocked that my young dishwasher/grill cook actually made a nice hors-d'oeuvre out of a simple steak sandwich. He was more creative than any of us knew.
At noon, Guardrail came in with Dog Breath in tow. They smelled the steak cooking on the grill and Dog raised his nose in the air, taking in a good whiff. “Haven’t had shaved steak on the menu for a while. Smells real good.”
Guardrail smiled. “I agree. Makes me realize how hungry I am. Might even get a cold beer even though I don’t usually drink at lunch.”
Dog added, “Some sandwiches scream for cold beer. And shaved steak is one of them.” He smacked his hands together, then rubbed them like he was trying to generate a spark.
Bones made lunch for the custom motorcycle mechanics and Dixie poured two beers for them. While the boys waited for their sandwiches, the town spinsters wandered in. Edith nudged her older sister. “See, I told you, Lily. It was a good idea to come here for lunch. Things are happening and that means the gang will be in the pub.”
Lily popped back. “It’s not the gang until we’re here!” The two elderly sisters laughed at her comment.
The door swung open again, this time it was Digger. He saw the spinster sisters laughing. “What’s so funny? You laughing at me?”
Edith spun around. “There you are Digger, glad you made it. Seems the gang’s assembling.”
They all took seats and ordered something to eat. I noshed on Bone’s hors-d’oeuvres plate and after an hour of chit chat, my phone rang. It was a blocked number. “Hello?”
“Ginger? It’s Detective Eckart.”
“I thought it was your voice. We were just talking about Jacob’s...”
“Listen, this is important and I’m short for time. There was an incident when we moved Jacob. One of our uniforms thought he saw a suspicious pickup truck as they were leaving. When he went to check it out, he identified the driver as Rotgut. They chased him for a while but he got away. Rotgut is hunting Jacob, like you thought, but he could also be hunting others. I think it’s wise if you keep a low profile. Maybe even have your Aunt come over for a while.”
“Thanks for telling me. I’ll call my aunt but she is swamped with everything going on...”
“Then I’ll call her. She’ll listen to a fellow officer. Rotgut is the worst of the worse. We can’t be too cautious. I got to go, they might have found something with Belanger’s phone. Bye.” He clicked off.
I felt my face droop. “That’s not the call I was hoping for. They spotted Rotgut hunting for Jacob as they moved him to a new hospital. Even chased him for a bit but he got away.”
Dixie gulped. “So do they have an idea of where Rotgut might be heading?”
“Nope. And that is what Eckart is concerned about. Says we should be careful.”
Piper motioned no with her head. “He’s not coming here. We had nothing to with stealing Rotgut’s money. He has no reason to come here.”
But Piper was wrong. The front door flew open and a large man entered. My brain refused the first data sent from my eyes. But it registered after a second. I was staring at Rotg
ut cradling a shotgun.
Chapter Sixteen
WE STARED AT THE HULK standing in front of us. Rotgut was almost as big as Guardrail, but he looked tens time larger with the shotgun nestled in one arm. I heard his voice for the first time. “Alright. This is the place Jacob Allen did business at the day before he was hurt. Who did he meet with?” No one moved or said a word. He raised his voice. “I’ll say it again. Who did he meet with?”
Dixie flinched, just a little, and Rotgut pounced. “So, you must be the one he met with?”
Dixie whimpered. “I was here when he called on us, yes. But I’m just the bartender I only made the list of stuff we needed.”
Rotgut came over and stood right in front of me. “You must be his ex-wife. He said you had red hair. And yours is the only red hair on a woman in here.”
I felt fear flash through my body like a jolt of electricity. But I reached deep and stood up straight. “I am. And I did meet with Jacob.”
“Well, now we’re getting somewhere. Where’s my money? And where did the pigs take him?”
I looked at him like I was seeing a horse riding a man. “What makes you think I know anything about where the police took Jacob? And I don’t know anything about your money. So why you asking me?”
“Because Jacob came here after he ripped me off. To his ex-wife’s place. This little town makes a great place to be on the lamb. And with an ex to help, it’s perfect.”
“Jacob came to sell me liquor and beer. That’s all. I didn’t even have dinner with him.”
“So you’re telling me that your ex came all the way out here to the country only to sell some beer to ya?”
“Yes. Nothing more.”
Rotgut’s face turned bright red. He roared, “I hate being lied to! Tell me where my money is and where they took Jacob!”
My knees tried to buckle as his voice hit me like a tidal wave. I was surprised to find I was still standing. “I don’t know. I’m telling you the truth.”
This was a real bad time for Dog Breath to find his voice, but he did. “Listen, I know you don’t know that lady like I do. But if she tells you it’s the truth or she doesn’t know something, you can take it to the bank. She is not capable of lying.”
Rotgut stormed over to the stool occupied by the Vietnam veteran sporting a gray ponytail. He went nose to nose with Dog Breath and studied the lines on his face. Then Rotgut shifted his shotgun and jammed the butt of it into Dog’s stomach. Dog Breath crumbled to the floor.
“Anyone else want to open their mouth?” Rotgut paced the dining room. Then he stopped about ten-feet in front of me. “Good!” He focused back on me. “So, you had a minute to think a little. Now, pretty lady, did you remember where my money is or where they took your useless ex-husband?”
“I don’t know anything about either of those things.”
Rotgut carried the shotgun like a hunter, cradled in one of his arms, pointed diagonally to the sky. But now, he took it in both hands and pointed it at me. Dixie came running over to shield me. She pleaded. “What are you doing. This is not going to get you answers. And it sure as chicken snot won’t help your situation.”
Rotgut snarled. “You better move or I will shoot you, too.”
I asked, “What makes you think I know anything?”
Rotgut lowered the weapon and raised a single eyebrow. “Jacob steals a large sum of money from me and needs a place to hide. His ex’s little town is an ideal spot.”
I never heard a chuckle so out of place, but Dixie did let a snicker escape. “Listen, Ginger here wouldn’t even take his calls for a month before the meeting. They weren’t what you would call friends. Ginger met with him out of necessity, because his company was large enough to keep us supplied when the general store couldn’t.”
Rotgut barked back. “Why you doing all the talking. What are you her lawyer or something?”
Dixie chuckled a second time. “No, I’m her friend. She helped me when I needed it most – to raise three kids on my own. I owe her everything and can’t let you shoot her.”
The big moonshiner glared at her. “Then you tell your friend to tell me what she knows about my money and how to find the weasel who stole it. If she doesn’t tell me, then you should move or your kids will be motherless.” He raised the gun a second time.
I raised my voice. “Stop this madness. I don’t know. I can’t tell you what I don’t know. Why did you give Jacob more than a million dollars anyway?”
Rotgut flinched his head back a bit. “How did you know it was that much?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you the truth.”
Rotgut went red again and squinted his face. “You tell me how you knew that. Right now! Only Jacob could have told you it was that much.”
I felt my body shaking and had no choice. “It’s like this. We have a chicken ghost in this pub and sometimes it tells us stuff. One of our neighbors is a medium and she can communicate with spirits, including our chicken. During a vision the chicken ghost showed her a scene in the woods. They saw you near a still, yelling at someone. You said you lost over a million dollars.”
Rotgut blinked a number of times. “Have you been spying on me?”
“What? No, I didn’t know you existed until Jacob was hurt.”
“I did say that to my partner and I did lose that much money, but not all of it was lost to Jacob. The deal with Jacob was only for five hundred thousand.”
“I was not aware of that. So where was the rest of it lost?”
“In bribes. To grease the skids for the deal to be approved by state and federal agencies. We needed special licenses to go legal and make some, um..., problems go away. No one but my partner knew it was just over a million.”
“I know it seems bizarre, but the medium saw you in a vision talking about it.”
Rotgut went red again and bellowed. “You’re stalling. That’s an absurd story. You took a lucky guess based on what you knew from Jacob. Because you were part of his scam!” He once again raised and pointed the shotgun at me, this time with purpose.
Dixie pressed against my side and put her arm across my chest. “Stop! We’re telling what we know and we’re being completely honest with you.”
Rotgut lowered his voice and appeared to talk to himself. “I keep asking how things could get worse. And now I have lunatics telling me a chicken ghost told them about a private conversation I had in our secret still location. This qualifies as getting much worse.” Then he glared at Dixie and me, hate in his eyes.
Completely out of character, Dixie’s voice cracked. “You’re making a huge mistake. She is telling you the truth. We have done nothing to you, why are doing this to us?”
“Because you’re lying. Tell me where my money is!”
I tried again. “Look, I know they moved Jacob. The police told me that. But they moved him to a secret location to protect him... from you.”
“Why did they tell you they moved him?”
“Because I told them you were hunting for Jacob. The police thought you were on the run, hiding after the attempt on Jacob’s life with the car. They assumed you would be far from here. But I found out different, that you lost a lot of money and it was personal. Then I warned a detective working on the case.”
“You? You told the police. Based on what Casper the friendly chicken ghost told you?”
“Kind of. I figured it out after learning about the broken deal with you, from Star’s vision. And it fit like a puzzle piece with the insurance policies taken out by Jacob’s boss, Jake Belanger.”
“That insect, Jacob, set all this up!”
I tilted my head. “You still don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
I shook my head. “Sounds like Belanger made Jacob do all the footwork and put him forward as the mastermind of the deal. But it wasn’t Jacob, it was Belanger.”
“I’ve known Jake Belanger for years. He would never double cross me. We grew up together. Why would he do something like
that?”
“You will have to ask him.”
Rotgut’s body stiffened. “Maybe I will ask Belanger some other time. But right now I am asking you where my money is and where did they take Jacob. That is what you need to worry about. So what is your silly chicken ghost telling you now.”
“I don’t hear it talk to me. It’s not like that.”
Rotgut burst. “Stop! You think I’m stupid. There is no chicken ghost. You are making it up. NOW TELL ME!” He pointed the gun and cocked it. “You have till the count of three. One... two ...”
The harrowing sound that came next resembled a chicken being tortured and it boomed louder than ever before, then the lights flickered. With the distraction, Guardrail jumped from his stool, sprinted over to Dixie and me, and dove in front of us. The shotgun fired and I waited for the searing pain. But it didn't come. I realized instead my pickled egg jar shattering into a million pieces. My gaze returned to see glass showering Rotgut’s head and he folded at the mid-section while falling to the floor. As the large moonshiner hit the ground, it revealed Edith standing just behind Rotgut. She held the neck of a broken bottle. Edith was white but managed to say, “I hate wasting good gin on a piece of chicken spit like him.”
Lily came rushing over and sat on the unconscious gunman. Lily eyed her sister still holding the remains of the glass vessel. “Well, help me keep him down.” She motioned at Edith to sit next to her and looked around the room. “And someone call the police and have them come remove this piece of garbage from our favorite dining room.”
Dixie let out a big breath. “I think I need to swear for real. I’ll put the ten dollars in the swear jar up front and then just let me get it all out.”
I hugged my bartender. “Don’t ruin it now by wasting your money. You did great and were real brave. I don’t know how to thank you enough.”
Guardrail rolled over on his side. “I’m too old for this. Ouch! I hurt something I didn’t know I owned.”
Dog rushed over and helped his big partner up. “You old fool. I think you’ve seen too many movies.” Dog struggled to get his big friend back on his feet.
A Highball and a Low Blow (Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub Series Book 3) Page 10