Whispering Pines Mysteries Box Set 3

by Shawn McGuire

  She still hadn’t seen me. Maybe, if I stayed very quiet, this could be my alone spot. Until summer, at least, when we rented out the apartment to guests.

  Finally, she did see me and gave a tired little grunt before climbing the stairs to stand next to me.

  “Don’t tell anyone we come up here. It’ll be like our secret clubhouse. Just us girls.”

  But I had to wonder, why was I excluding Tripp?

  Chapter 21

  I had no idea how long I stayed out on the deck last night, but my nose and toes were freezing by the time I went in, and Tripp was already in bed. When I woke the next morning, he was lying there looking at me.

  “Where’d you go last night?” His voice was gruff with sleep. He must have woken only a minute before I did.

  “I was out on the sundeck.” I yawned and stretched. “The moon is going to be full tomorrow.”

  “You should have told me. I would’ve gone out there with you.”

  “You were working on the attic. It’s okay if we don’t do everything together.”

  He rolled away from me and threw off the covers. “It would be nice if we did something together, though. Other than eat. Don’t you think?”

  Maybe that was it. I’d been in a funk for weeks, and he’d been working like a crazy man on that attic. Maybe it wasn’t that I needed space, but that we hadn’t done enough together lately.

  “That would be nice. I miss you.”

  He looked over his shoulder and robotically said, “Miss you too.”

  I was about to suggest watching a movie together tonight or coming to bed early to have a little fun. But Tripp had already pulled on the work clothes lying on the floor next to the bed and left the room before I could ask him.

  The smell of bacon being fried permeated the room the second he opened the door. It didn’t help that Gloria and Melinda kept taking over the kitchen. Even though he really wanted to finish the attic, the kitchen was Tripp’s domain, and I knew he felt bad about not taking care of our guests the way he normally did. I’d have to have a talk with Tavie about that. Of course, I should probably ask Tripp what he wanted first. My instincts hadn’t been serving me all that well lately. Maybe he didn’t care about the girls using his kitchen.

  After showering, I dressed in my cargo pants and the black T-shirt I wore beneath my uniform shirt. Breakfast this morning was a much simpler affair than yesterday. Gloria was at the dinette table with a plate of bacon and a glass of orange juice in front of her. Tavie sat beside her with a cup of tea, toast, and fruit.

  “Good morning, ladies,” I greeted. “You’re up early.”

  “We’re going over to the hospital in a little while,” Tavie explained. “I had paperwork proving my relationship with Silence sent over there yesterday. They’re going to let us into the ICU today.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “I’m sure it will ease your mind to see her.”

  I poured myself a mug of coffee and grabbed a banana nut muffin. Melinda was in the great room munching on grapes and studying something on her phone with great interest.

  “Mind if I join you?” I asked.

  “It’s your house,” she snapped and then softened. “Sorry. Yes, please, have a seat.”

  I chose the chair next to the sofa she was sprawled on. “What are you looking at?”

  She turned the phone, showing me a mostly dark screen. “There was something scurrying around in the tree line, following us as we walked last night. I took a video and am trying to see if it ever made an appearance. All I see is darkness and an occasional tree branch moving.”

  I thought of Cheryl and all the pictures she took with her phone. “Do you take a lot of pictures?”

  She shrugged. “Some. I do more videos than pictures. I mean, pictures are great, but capturing more than a freeze frame of a moment is way better.” A shadow crossed her face. “I’ve got tons of pictures of my parents. I can’t remember their voices, though.”

  The comment stabbed at me. “I understand what you mean. I didn’t get to see my grandparents very often when I was younger, but I felt really close to them. Even though we did a lot of remodeling to this place before we opened, and it looks very different, I still get hit with memories of them in every room. I swear, sometimes I can smell Gran’s lavender bath salts, but I can’t quite remember her voice or the exact way she used to dance around the house.” I laughed. “Gran loved to dance.”

  We grew quiet again while I picked at my muffin and sipped my coffee. I thought again of Cheryl’s pictures, and one, in particular, came to mind. I set down my breakfast, ran to my office, and signed on to the cloud-based storage where we kept all the station files. This system was so much easier, especially during times, like now, when I wanted to access something but hadn’t thought to lug the laptop home and didn’t want to run all the way over to the station.

  I drummed my fingers on my desk. It was taking forever for the photos to open. When they finally did, I opened the “helpful” folder and then specifically the shots of the group fight.

  I gasped when the one I’d been thinking of filled the screen. In all the other pictures of Melinda, her hands were hidden behind other people. This image very clearly showed her phone in her hand. I ran back out to the great room.

  “Melinda, did you take pictures or movies at the pub that night?”

  “Yeah.” She paled, her freckles standing out against her ivory skin. “Holy crap. The video can help you, can’t it?” She swiped her finger across her screen and tapped multiple buttons. “I’ve been so worried about Silence I didn’t even think about that.”

  I dismissed her concern. “Don’t worry about it. Will you forward a copy of that video to me?”

  Her fingers were flying across her keyboard. “Already on it. What’s your address?”

  She followed me down the hall to my office and watched as the video loaded onto my screen. Curious about what we were up to, Tavie and Gloria joined us.

  “Sorry about all the jumping around,” Melinda said. “I have a tendency to speak with my hands and get really animated when I’m upset.”

  Gloria snorted a laugh. “No doubt. She was ticked off at some guy who took her spot in the parking lot one time and backhanded me right in the face.”

  As Cheryl’s pictures had shown, Melinda, Gloria, and Silence changed positions often during the altercation. Fortunately, when Melinda stepped to the back, she remembered to be still and quiet and to record the action going on in front of her. As I’d seen in Cheryl’s pictures, Lindsey and Kendra were standing directly in front of Silence. Behind them, Sundstrom remained mostly quiet, occasionally adding a word or two to backup Lindsey. Didi stood glued to Sundstrom’s side, saying nothing, only moving in tandem with him. Except for one instance.

  Once again, my instincts were off. I’d been sure Sundstrom was the guilty one.

  “Oh my God,” Tavie whispered.

  “Play it again,” Gloria begged in a whisper, not because she wanted to see the outcome, but because she was as shocked as the rest of us.

  I backed up the action and replayed it at half speed. We watched in horror as tiny Didi reached between Lindsey and Kendra, his knife in her left hand, and plunged it into Silence’s stomach. In real time, it had taken no more than two seconds.

  We couldn’t determine what had been said just before the stabbing, there was too much crowd noise, but whatever it was, it spurred the people behind Lars and Didi to action. They surged forward, pushing the pair into Lindsey and toward Silence. That’s when Didi made her move and snatched the knife from Lindsey’s side. If Melinda had pointed the phone even two inches to the side, the act wouldn’t have been caught on video.

  “You’ve got her.” Melinda’s voice was deep with emotion and triumphant.

  “I do.” I agreed. “You all, go to the hospital. News like this will surely give Silence a boost.” I looked at Melinda. “Good job. If you can learn to keep your hands still, you might have a future as a videographer.�
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  I saved the video to the station’s cloud then picked up the phone and dialed Deputy Atkins.

  “You’re wondering about the prints, aren’t you?” he asked.

  “Tell me you were able to lift some.”

  “They’re doing that right now. Looks like they’ve got a few partials.”

  “A few as in multiple partials from one person, or partials from multiple people?”

  He laughed. “Couldn’t tell you that.”

  “Tell them to check against the prints I sent you for Didi Stieber first. I’ve got video evidence of her stabbing the victim. Her prints on that knife will make this rock solid. I’m heading over to the station. Call me there when you’ve got something.”

  I finished getting dressed—uniform shirt, essentials loaded into my cargo pockets, shoulder holster with Glock—then got my K-9 suited up in her harness.

  We were halfway to the station when I realized I hadn’t told Tripp I was leaving or asked him about a movie tonight. I made a mental note to give him a call later.

  At the station, I thanked Schmitty and Elsa for their help and dismissed them.

  “Will you need us to come back again?” Schmitty asked.

  I locked eyes with Didi in the cell across the room. “No, I’ll be wrapping things up this morning. Thanks, though.”

  Even though I’d purposely spoken loud enough for Didi to hear me, she didn’t flinch. She sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Sundstrom, one of his hands clasped in both of hers, her head resting on his shoulder. Sundstrom, however, was trying to send me a message of some kind via a pointed stare and a wrinkled brow.

  After Schmitty and Elsa left, I went to the cell to get Didi, but he met me at the bars.

  “Can I talk to you?”

  “Sundstrom,” Lindsey said in a warning tone.

  “This isn’t about you,” he snapped.

  “What is it about?” I asked

  He glanced past me at the interview room. “In private. Please?”

  I should’ve asked either Elsa or Schmitty to stay. Sundstrom wasn’t big, but he was muscular, and I wasn’t comfortable being alone with him. It would take Atkins thirty or forty-five minutes to get here.

  “Hang on,” I told him.

  I silently cursed Reed for not being here with me as I picked up the extension on his desk and called Grapes, Grains, and Grub. Even though it was early, Maeve answered.

  “Is Jagger there by any chance?” I asked.

  “Not yet. Are you still having problems?”

  “I am. I need someone here with me while I interview one of my suspects.”

  Maeve hummed, as though making a decision, then said, “I’ll give him a call. Since we were closed yesterday, he might be up by now.”

  Not even five minutes later, Jagger called, informing me he was on his way. As I waited, the phone rang again.

  “We’ve got a clear print for Gavin Lindsey,” Atkins said.

  “That makes sense. It’s his knife.”

  “We checked the system and found plenty of public disturbance charges for him. No prints on the knife for Kendra Grossman, but she came up with a shoplifting charge about five years ago. Lifted a box of tampons. Nothing in the system for Didi Stieber or Lars Sundstrom.”

  “Okay, let’s get to the punchline. You said you had multiple partials. All Lindsey’s or did any of them match Stieber?”

  “We got one really clear partial that came up as a match for her.”

  I slumped with relief. That plus the video evidence meant this case was done. “Excellent.”

  “I already sent the report to your email. I’m on my way to pick her up.”

  “Bring a second squad or a van. I’ve got minor charges for Lindsey and Sundstrom as well. Lindsey is sure to do some time since he’s a repeat. Plus, I’m charging him with inciting a riot.”

  By the time I’d reviewed the report from county and queued up Melinda’s video to play on the screen in the interview room, Jagger was standing in my doorway.

  “What do you need me to do?” he asked before I could say a word.

  “Be my bodyguard,” I said with a laugh. I explained the situation and the bouncer positioned himself in the corner of the interview room while I brought in Sundstrom. I placed him with his back to the door. I turned on the voice recorder as I sat across from him and asked, “What did you want to talk with me about, Mr. Sundstrom?”

  “She did it,” he said.

  Chapter 22

  Had Sundstrom really just turned in his girlfriend?

  “She who?” I asked for clarification. “What did she do?”

  After blurting out the first part, he appeared to be struggling to say more. As I waited for him to speak, I thought back to interviewing her at The Inn.

  I told you that I needed to figure out what happened to Silence before you could see Lars again. Remember?

  I didn’t tell you?

  That she stabbed Silence? Was that what “I didn’t tell you” meant?

  Sundstrom moaned with his eyes closed as if in pain and said, “Didi stabbed that woman.”

  I glanced at Jagger, who took a wider stance. “How do you know this?”

  “We were standing there behind Gav and Kendra, Didi had her right arm looped around my left arm. For like two seconds, she pulled away, which was the first sign ’cause she never lets go of me. She leaned forward and then she was right back in place. I knew she did something but had no idea what until you had us all sit on the floor.”

  “You didn’t think to mention anything to me at that point?”

  “I didn’t have proof. I figured it was her, but it’s not like I was going to turn in my girlfriend on a hunch. You wouldn’t let us talk at the pub, and then you put us in separate buildings. I didn’t get to talk to her until last night after Gav and Kendra fell asleep and the guards were in your office. That’s when she told me she did it.”

  “Why? Any idea?”

  “She’s manic.”

  It took me a second to realize he meant she had a disorder. As I’d suspected. “Bipolar?”

  He shook his head. “Manic isn’t really the right word. She’s got something like OCD where she fixates on things.”

  “Let me guess, she fixates on you? Is this why her hair color matches yours?”

  “Yeah.” He dropped his head back and sighed. “She made me go to her stylist with her a couple years ago so they could match it. People think it’s cute, so I don’t care.”

  “Not all people.”

  He lifted his head again and looked at me. “She gets this way about stuff too. Like reorganizing the house. Everything has to be in the right spot. Everything has to look a certain way.” He put his hands over his face and rubbed his eyes. “She’s been steady for so long. I thought it was under control. She goes to therapy and takes antidepressants, but I guess she could’ve stopped her meds. She says they make her feel funny.”

  “You don’t monitor that?”

  “If she takes her pills? No. I can’t be there all the time. I mean, I could stand there and watch her put a pill in her mouth, but there’s nothing stopping her from spitting it out after I walk away. She probably figured she was better and stopped taking them even though her doctor said she’d need the pills forever. I don’t know.” He paused, becoming emotional. “What are they going to do with her?”

  “Some of that will depend on what happens to Silence.”

  He sat forward, elbows on his knees. “She can’t go to prison.”

  I agreed with him there. Unfortunately, that was beyond my control. “Didi clearly has mental health issues. Psychiatric hospitalization would be best for her. I’m sure they’ll take that into consideration.”

  At least I hoped they would.

  He shook his head. “I can’t deal with this again. Last time she got this way, like two years ago, she kept arranging and rearranging the house. I’d come home from work and everything, every single thing, from the kitchen would be laid out in the family room.
For two weeks, I couldn’t touch anything until she decided where it belonged. Then she’d start on the bedrooms. Then back to the kitchen.” He put his hands to his face. “I can’t do this anymore. I’ve got a job and kids to support from my first marriage.”

  “That’s your choice to make, although you’ve got troubles of a different kind coming your way.” I paused, waiting for a response from him.

  He stared at a spot on the floor. “I know.”

  “What was the point of you all coming here this weekend? Was the plan to cause trouble?”

  He looked away, embarrassed. “I lost a bet.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “I’ve been friends with Gav since high school. We made this bet graduation night about which of us could pick up a girl faster at a bar. I lost and wouldn’t accept the punishment.” He held a hand up at me. “Don’t ask, it’s too embarrassing. Gav agreed to let it slide only if I agreed to let him collect later. He agreed but the conditions were whatever he said, whenever he said it, no questions asked, I had to do it. This was, what, fifteen years ago? I figured he forgot about it. Then a couple weeks back he tells me he got fired from the foundry but that was okay because he had this idea for how he could get into the police academy.”

  He told me almost word for word what Kendra and Darryl had said yesterday about how Lindsey didn’t make it in. Sundstrom’s account was so similar, in fact, I assumed this was a rant Lindsey had gone on more than once and they were repeating his words.

  It took all my willpower to not tell him what a moron I thought he was. “Coming here and causing problems in my village was a better idea than dealing with whatever punishment Lindsey wanted to dish out?”

  He stared down at his feet. “Sorry.”

  “Hope it was worth it because you could do jail time for this.”

  “I understand.”

  I glanced out into the main room. “I need to talk with Didi now. One more question, can you confirm that the others had nothing to do with this idea of Lindsey’s?”