What a Meth

by Jamie Lee Scott

  He looked tired. Dark circles shadowed his lovely eyes, and the twinkle had faded. He’d had some pretty late nights and early mornings, as he was swamped with some gang murders. I tried to understand why he was cross with me. I wasn’t going to take it personally.

  “Great.” Not for the first time, I was thinking that taking Alyssa’s money was a bad idea.

  Nick called to Piper, “See if you can get Mimi and Charles out of here for now. I’m going to look for the fire inspector.”

  Piper said, “You guys get into your vehicles and I’ll get a path cleared.”

  I watched as Piper sauntered over to the officer at the barricade, her hips swaying, perky boobs bouncing. She was no dummy. She leaned in close to the uniformed officer and I saw her boob touch his shoulder. Hey, that was a move from my play book! I giggled.

  Then she turned around, winked at us, and the officer moved the wooden barricade at the speed of light. She lifted her arm, made a gun with her fingers and shot at Charles.

  I looked over to see him catch the imaginary bullet. Barf! I was so telling Simone about their flirting.

  Simone was Piper’s partner, and if anything could make Piper look more stunning, it was Simone on her arm.

  As Piper climbed up the driveway to catch up to Nick, Charles dashed off to the Toyota. He didn’t even look back at me as he got in and floored it. Dirt sprayed everywhere, and he was gone.

  I got in my car and saw that my cell phone was vibrating. I looked down to see I had a text message. It was from Charles.

  I TOLD YOU IT WAS A BAD IDEA TO TAKE THAT SKANK’S MONEY.

  I threw my phone across the car and sat in the driver’s seat. I hated when he was right. So I needed to prove him wrong. Right?

  As I drove through the blockade, I wondered aloud “What the hell have I gotten myself into?”

  5

  I was two blocks from the Gotcha office when I my phone rang. Shit. I’d thrown it across the car, and there was no way I was going to find it and answer without getting in a wreck. I needed a new car, one with Bluetooth capability.

  I pulled my car over and leaned over the console. I had to stretch to my limit to grab my phone, which had landed between the passenger seat and door. By now I’d missed the call.

  I straightened myself back up and looked at the phone. I’d known it was Nick, because I gave him a personalized ringtone. No, I’m not going to share what it is, because I don’t want everyone copying how cool I am.

  I pressed the speaker button and listened to the message.

  “Meet me at the station. I’ll be there by the time you get there.”

  No “Hey babe,” no “love you,” nothing. I felt a shit storm coming on.

  I pulled back onto the road when my phone rang again. It was my mom. I didn’t have my hands-free set up, so I let it go to voicemail. The guilt was overwhelming. I never let my mom go to voicemail. Ever.

  As soon as I was parked at the curb outside the cop shop, I grabbed my phone and tapped my mom’s number from the missed calls screen. She answered on the first ring.

  “Screening your calls?” she asked.

  “Sorry, I was driving.” I put the phone on speaker. “What’s up Buttercup?”

  I could hear the smile in her voice. Buttercup was a pet name that I rarely used anymore.

  “I hope you’re having a pleasant day.” She was hedging.

  “Mom…”

  “Okay, fine. Luke and I are going to Mexico.” She blurted the last sentence as fast as possible.

  “That’s wonderful!” My day was suddenly looking up.

  “Really?” She let out a breath loud enough for me to hear through the phone.

  “Why wouldn’t it be? You’ll have so much fun. Just stay away from the drug cartels. I don’t want you toting Mary J back over the border.”

  She giggled. “Well, your sister doesn’t think it’s okay. I had to hang up on her earlier. I’m too old for a lecture.”

  I smiled. My sister was always the mom. “She’s just worried about you. It’ll be fine.”

  I saw Nick’s car turn the corner and pull into the back lot of the police station.

  “Mom, I gotta go. I have a meeting. I’ll call you later.”

  “Love you.”

  I said, “Love you too,” and hung up.

  Sitting in the homicide division gave me the creeps, so I waited in my car until I saw Nick get out of his. The lot was behind the police station, across from the court house, so from my vantage point, parked on the street, I had to twist in my seat to see him.

  I got out of my car and saw Nick walking towards me. His face was drawn and tight. I had the sudden urge to get back in my car and speed away.

  “Hey,” I said, trying to sound more cheerful than I felt.

  He reached out and put his arm around my shoulder, leading me toward the building. “Lucy, you got some ‘slpainin’ to do.”

  I swallowed the lump that threatened to gag me.

  “What kind of ‘slpainin’?”

  “Come inside. Inspector Groves wants to talk to you.”

  He held the door open and I walked into the station, flinching away from the prisoner cells that lined the hallway. Room A, B, or C, I could take my pick, as they were all empty. I hoped I didn’t end up in one of them before the day was over. The thought that the money Alyssa had given me was drug money unexpectedly weighed heavy on my mind.

  We walked through the main briefing room, which had rows of tables and chairs, all facing a huge white board. The board had been erased, but the remnants of black and red dry erase marker could still be seen. Seemed like there was a lot of red.

  All of a sudden, I was seeing red, as Nick escorted me into one of the interview rooms. I didn’t mind being on the voyeur side, but this was the interview side. I felt a pang in my heart.

  Nick made introductions. Fire Inspector Fred Groves looked to be about fifty, with short cropped gray hair and leathery tan skin. The deep creases on his face made him look wise. Like Nick, he wore khaki Dockers, but he wore a dress shirt, not a polo shirt.

  We all sat.

  Nick said, “We’ll be recording. Okay?” He looked at me.

  “Recording?” Now I was really freaking out.

  Fred spoke first. “I’m the fire inspector for this county. It’s my job to determine how a fire started, the source, and the extent of the damage. I wanted to talk to you about why you were at this house when it exploded, and what you saw.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to remember exactly what I’d witnessed. I tried to explain why I had been there.

  “We’ll get to that in a minute,” Nick said. “Just tell us about the fire.”

  “I had just put my car in gear and was getting ready to leave my stakeout position when I heard the explosion.” I paused for a moment. “Yes, that’s it. I heard the explosion first, and then a split second later the small house was engulfed in flames, with pieces of debris flying everywhere. It happened so fast.”

  Fred jotted notes on his iPad. “Who all did you see this morning?”

  “I saw Alyssa, her kids, and then after the fire I saw Wanda and Irma.”

  “Wanda and Irma Tucker?” he said.

  I nodded, looked at the recorder light and said, “Yes.”

  “Did you see anyone in or around the house at the time of the explosion?”

  “Yes, Alyssa went into the house. I don’t know if anyone else was in there. I was supposed to be looking for her husband Jeff, but I never saw him.”

  “Not even in the house?”

  “No, I had pulled out my binoculars to see if I could see movement, but not so much as a curtain moved, nor did I see a shadow. Then Alyssa came back home and boom.” I threw my hands up when I said “boom.”

  “And why were you watching the house?”

  I told him again about how Alyssa had hired me, and he jotted more notes. A lot more notes, and I was getting nervous.

  “You never approached the house? Kn
ocked on the door?”

  “No, sir, I never set foot on the property until after I saw the fire. I couldn’t even get close to the cottage after the fire, because of the heat and flames. I tried to see if anyone was hurt.” I stopped, then added, “Was anyone hurt?”

  “There are bones and bone fragments, but we won’t know more until we have them tested,” Nick said, crossing his legs.

  Nick never crossed his legs. What the hell was going on? What was he hiding?

  “And other than Alyssa’s appointment at your office, you’ve never met her before?”

  I stood and walked toward one of the carpeted walls, then turned back. “She didn’t even have an appointment. I have no idea why she chose me. She said she got my name from the phone book.”

  “And you’d never met her before?” He asked again.

  “No. Why?” I squeaked.

  “One of the women at the house said she’d seen you before, and that you had to have known the occupants of that house.”

  I’d started back to the table to sit down, but stopped in my tracks. “Who said that? It’s not true. I don’t know who the hell those people were.”

  “Sit down,” Nick said, as he reached up for my arm. “You aren’t suspected of anything. Take a deep breath and calm down.”

  I yanked from his reach. “Calm down, my ass. Who said they’d seen me before?” Then it hit me. “That fucking Irma Tucker, wasn’t it?”

  Fred didn’t say anything.

  I leaned forward and slammed my hands on the table. “Wasn’t it?”

  Fred swiped his finger across his tablet and took his dear sweet time looking back up at me. “Yes, it was Mrs. Tucker.”

  I pushed up off the table, every muscle in my body cringing. “Irma knows me alright, but not from this incident, or from the couple that lived in that house.”

  “You speak of this couple in the past tense. Is there something I should know?” Fred asked.

  I frowned, confused. “Didn’t they die in that house?” I looked at Nick. “You said there were bones.”

  Nick said, “We don’t know for sure.”

  I looked at both men. “How could they not have died?”

  “It’s an ongoing investigation. We still have a lot of evidence to go through.” Fred’s feeble explanation didn’t do it for me, but I wasn’t going to beg for information.

  “I don’t mean to be short with you, but what the hell does any of this have to do with me?”

  “How do you know Irma?” Fred asked.

  “I know her from a case I handled a while back. She owned the property a candle company was leasing.”

  “Coincidence that you also know the Kings, who also rented from Irma?”

  The way he said it, I didn’t know if it was a question or a statement, so I didn’t respond.

  “I’m looking into Irma Tucker’s holdings.” Nick stood. “Anyone want some water, soda, scotch on the rocks?”

  Fred laughed and shook his head.

  I said, “Water, please.”

  Nick left the room. Fred said nothing to me, just looked at me. And of course this gave me diarrhea of the mouth.

  “We were investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl. Our contacts gave us the address to a barn, which Irma owned. She came after me and my partner with a shotgun. She comes pretty well armed, so why aren’t you talking to her?”

  “She wasn’t there when the house exploded, you were.” Fred closed the cover on his tablet. “I don’t think you had anything to do with the explosion, Mimi, I just want to know why you happened to be there when it occurred.”

  Resigned, I slumped in the chair. “Ever heard of coincidence?”

  Nick came back with a bottle of water and touched my shoulder as he put the bottle on the table. I looked up at him and tried to smile.

  “Why me?” I asked him. “I thought I was done with dead bodies.”

  Fred perked up. “Dead bodies?”

  Nick put up his hand. “It’s a long story. Maybe someday over lunch I’ll explain it.”

  Fred stood. “This was a waste of time.” He looked at me. “No offense.”

  I gave him my best “screw you” look.

  “Call me when you get some answers,” Fred said to Nick.

  He left without another word.

  I put my head in my hands, knocking over the bottled water in the process. I didn’t even bother to catch it as it rolled off the table.

  Nick walked around the other side of me and picked it up. “Ungrateful…” He put it next to me on the table.

  We both laughed.

  “There were bones and flesh strewn about the property, but we don’t know who, or what, they belong to.”

  I twisted the cap on my water bottle, slammed the lid on the table and chugged half in one swig.

  “I’m done with this, right? This has nothing to do with me. I took the woman’s money, I did my job, and I’m done.” I had to be done.

  Nick turned off the recorder and shook his head. “This stays between us.”

  I looked at him.

  “Jeff King was not only my C.I., but he was supposed to testify in a big drug case that’s in jury selection right now. He likely will have testified in the next few weeks.”

  “Was I set up?”

  Alyssa’s husband wasn’t cheating on her. For some reason, I was supposed to be there to see the cottage go up in flames. A witness, but why? It was pretty obvious that place burned to the ground.

  “I’m not sure what’s going on. It’s weird timing for a house fire. I don’t think Jeff would kill himself to get out of testifying. But I do think there are factions that would kill him to keep him quiet.” Nick rubbed his forehead.

  “Some pretty bad stuff he was in?”

  “Bad enough that I’m surprised the kids were out of the house when the fire occurred.” Nick’s face was drawn and tired.

  “The girls,” I blurted.

  “What girls?”

  “Their kids. Who is going to pick their kids up from school and tell them everything they own is gone? And that their parents may be dead?” I started to choke up, thinking about those poor little girls.

  “We sent a social worker to the school.” He was so matter-of-fact.

  I inhaled deeply. “Good. Well, not good, but better than nothing. Those poor girls.”

  “I don’t mean to sound callous, but this may be the best thing that ever happened to those girls. That was not a good environment.”

  I’ve never understood the selfishness of drug addicts. Not even their kids were important enough to make them stop using. I thought of the girls, and what their life may have been like. Alyssa seemed to dote on them, but she spent money for a P.I. instead of buying them new clothes, getting a proper hair cut, or new shoes.

  I’m selfish, too, but I don’t have kids. Someday when I’m ready, if I’m ready, I’ll be there for them, the same way Jackie is for her twins. My kids will always come first. Not that I wouldn’t buy garage sale finds if that’s what it took to clothe my children, but I sure as shit wouldn’t squander any money on a private detective I didn’t really need.

  I shook the image of that scrawny crack whore out of my head. I wanted to wring her neck for what she’d done to those girls. But now, maybe they’d have a chance at a normal life, whatever normal was.

  I fiddled with the bottle. “She seemed like a loving, caring mom as she was walking them to school. But hell, I know better than anyone, appearances can be deceiving.”

  “A loving, caring meth head mom. Yep, those girls are better off. Birds of a feather and all.” Nick leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

  “I guess.”

  “There’s still a lot of loose ends in this investigation. It’ll be handled as a murder investigation until we can prove it was an accident.”

  I looked at Nick. “You think someone killed him to keep him from testifying?”

  Nick started to run his fingers through his hair, then stopped. “Did you se
e anyone anywhere around that house? Someone who may have been staking the place out along with you?”

  I wracked my brain, trying to remember. I’d looked at all of the properties as I was looking for a place to park. “I didn’t see anyone. Nothing suspicious stood out at me, either.”

  A few cars drove by while I was sitting in my car, but no one slowed down suspiciously or stopped. Then again, I wasn’t looking at the cars; I was looking at the house.

  “Damn.” He sounded lost.

  Then I thought about the house where I’d parked. No cars. Was it occupied?

  “What about the property where I was parked?”

  “What about it?” He didn’t really seem all that curious.

  “I don’t know. There was no garage that I could see, and no cars. Maybe the family worked normal daylight hours, but that was a pretty damn good view of the King cottage.”

  Suddenly Nick’s demeanor changed and he pulled his notepad from his pocket.

  “I remember the house, I think. I’ll stop back by there and take a look. Thanks.” He kissed me on the forehead.

  “It’s probably nothing.”

  “We won’t know until we check it out.”

  “How long before you identify if they were human body parts?” No one should be having a conversation like this with their boyfriend.

  “Maybe never.”

  I put the lid back on my water. “Why?”

  “The fire was very hot. With the second explosion, there were pieces scattered everywhere. The bones were so brittle, we couldn’t even move them. DNA samples will take weeks, and we don’t even know if they’ll be useable.”

  I understood the sickly look on Nick’s face. It was going to become a cold case.

  Nick snapped out of his melancholy mood and smiled. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

  “Breakfast? Are you hungry?”

  Nick winked.

  6

  Once I got back to the office, I looked in my rearview mirror. I didn’t have a stitch of makeup on, and yet Nick still wanted me. I’m not sure how I got out of having breakfast with him, and I knew I couldn’t meet him for lunch. How long was this going to go on? I looked in the mirror again before getting out of the car, and cringed.