by Ritter Ames
“LIEUTENANT JOHNSON, can you hear me? My battery is about to die,” Kate said, then immediately regretted using the last word. They had been hiding more than half an hour already, and during the last ten minutes, the lieutenant hadn’t come on the line at all. However, the chatter she heard in the background sounded like the police might be closing in.
Just when the three of them decided she needed to hang up and call back to leave a message while she still could, they heard a cheer go up in the background, and the lieutenant picked up the phone again, “Mrs. McKenzie, it’s safe for all of you to return to the Tillman farm. The fugitive has been apprehended.”
“Will I get my van back? He took off in it remember. We have no way to get home.”
“Uh...” Johnson covered the speaker. When he returned, he said, “I’ll see about getting an officer out there to get you to get to a rental car agency. Your van will need to be serviced before it can be driven again.”
Kate didn’t know what scared her more, the fact that he hadn’t said if the van had any body damage, or how big the bill would be since he’d focused only on it needing service. She hoped she didn’t have a new engine or transmission in her future. “Thank you, Lieutenant Johnson.”
The hike back felt longer, but Liz said it was because they’d used up all their adrenalin. She offered to let them borrow her truck, but Kate knew they’d just be driving it back in the morning and she’d have to rent something then. “You need your pickup. I’ll see what my options are tomorrow about the van.”
When the patrol car arrived at the farm, the officer did have both of their purses with him, and the organizers eventually headed for home in a rental Camry a few years newer than Meg’s. When Kate tried again to get information on her van, the officer looked away and said, “I’m no expert about vehicles. Do you have insurance?”
Kate sighed.
“I’d been looking at new models,” Meg said as they eventually drove away in the smooth riding Toyota. “But this wasn’t the way I wanted to do a test drive.”
“I’ll second that opinion.”
“What are you going to do about your van?” Meg asked.
Kate set the cruise control and leaned back in the seat, fatigue hitting her big time. “Have Keith follow us tomorrow in the Jeep. Then while we do any last minute additions to the shoot list, he can get some brave officer to give him the police report on the van so the insurance will process our claim—whatever it is—and when we’re ready to go home we can turn in this rental car and Keith can chauffeur us in the Jeep.”
“Delegate. I like that idea,” Meg said.
“Me too. Not sure how well Keith will though.”
Gil was home when they hit the cul de sac. Meg had left her cell phone off since she’d forgotten to charge it last night, and with Kate’s completely dead, her low battery was all they had if any new trouble came their way. He’d heard about the manhunt at the paper, and hurried home when he couldn’t raise his wife on her phone. Keith finally called the lieutenant and learned the wives were fine, just shaken up and having to come home in alternate wheels.
“Next time you call me when you’re in the middle of a situation like that,” Keith said, nearly ripping Kate’s arm off as he pulled her out of the car to hug her.
Gil was more restrained, but the worry showed on his face. Meg held his free hand with both of hers, while his left stayed around her shoulders as both couples sat on the sofas in the Berman family room and covered all the parts of the stories that hadn’t hit the wire services. As the story ended, Kate realized she didn’t hear the kids upstairs in the game room.
“Where’s Sam and Suze?”
“I hired Tiffany to take all of the kids for ice cream so they couldn’t see how stressed out their fathers were when their mothers were incommunicado,” Keith said. “She’s keeping them busy at the park until six.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kate said, leaning her head on his shoulder. “Once we knew Josh was captured and we could leave, coming home was all we really thought about. And with my phone dead, and our concerns about Meg’s battery not making much of a call if we did need it on the way home, we didn’t even think about borrowing a phone to call you before we left.”
“Yeah,” Meg said. “We thought we’d be home close enough to regular time and be able to breeze in and say, ‘Wow, you would not believe the day we’ve had.’ But old Breaking News Gil over here stole our thunder.”
“Right, that’s exactly what I did.” Gil frowned at Meg and pulled a twig out of her red curls. “You might want to go take a shower and wash your hair.”
Meg snorted. “See.” She waved a hand at her husband. “He’s such a romantic.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Friday morning, July 19th
WORDS OF MOTIVATION
“I love when a plan comes together.” ~ John ‘Hannibal’ Smith of the A-Team
“I’ll be happy if I return home in a vehicle that has my name on the title.” ~ Kate McKenzie
THE NEXT DAY WENT ACCORDING to the plan Kate fashioned the afternoon before. Keith followed them to the farm, met Liz and took a tour of the place, met the animals, and saw the areas they were targeting for the shoot. Then he took off in the Jeep to talk to law enforcement, see what he could find out about the state of the van, and he had already alerted their insurance agent to anticipate a phone call. They found out the previous evening that the crippled van had been towed to the same garage Stacy had used to get her new tires, and Liz told Keith that George would treat him right.
Kate didn’t want to be treated right. She wanted everything about her vehicle to be as it had been before Josh jumped into it yesterday. Since that wasn’t an option, however, she reminded her husband that she and Meg would meet him at the rental car place, made sure he had his phone on and promised hers would stay on as well, then kissed him goodbye and wished him luck.
The women spent some time talking about Josh’s arrest, and Liz filled them in on what she’d heard. “He’s already confessed, so there shouldn’t be a trial. I guess he could change his plea to not guilty, but I doubt he will. He says he went in to give the goats some feed when he realized I might be late from the church meeting. The goats would have been fine, but it was their first night, and I think he didn’t feel comfortable with no one around to check on them. He didn’t see Bren’s truck until he left, just went into the barn, opened the bag, grabbed a can we had nearby and filled it, then noticed the smell of gasoline. When he followed the scent to my office, he found Bren splashing the walls with gas from the five-gallon can. Told the officers everything went red for him, and he didn’t even remember picking up the letter opener or killing Bren. The bracelet must have been in Bren’s pocket like we talked about, but he was scared later when he learned about it being seen by the body and the murder pointed to Stacy.”
“So he gave her an alibi,” Kate said. “Or, no, I guess he already did that to cover for himself.”
“Right,” Liz said. “For Josh, I think he was as worried about Stacy as he was himself, however.”
“Well, he obviously needs some help,” Meg said. “I hope he gets it.”
“Me too,” Liz replied.
They went then to finish furnishing the new hideaway office shed. Meg carried the task chair out, while Kate and Liz followed along.
“Oh, that chair is perfect,” Liz said when Meg finally rolled the task chair up to the desk. David had already loaded up a number of related web pages onto Liz’s laptop, and they positioned and repositioned the screen a number of times to decide how to use the electronic prop for the photos. The chair was a new bright spot in an already successful project, taking just enough room and no more, and keeping the functional look that everyone wanted.
The rest of the morning flew, with each of them going over all the lists to assure themselves nothing else should be added before Kate emailed the publisher later in the afternoon. All of the animals Liz had medicated all week were doing much better and on their w
ay to clean bills of health.
“I think about what’s happened this week, and I simply can’t believe it all happened in less than four full days,” Liz said. At that moment, her cell phone rang, and when she looked at Caller ID it told her the caller was her husband. “Well, looks like I get to fill him in after all the excitement like I’d hoped all along. I’ll step outside so you won’t have to hear him yell when he finds out I didn’t try harder to get in touch with him.”
As Liz stepped outside, Meg said, “After the experience last night with our own husbands, I guess her husband being upset that he didn’t know anything was happening is pretty normal.”
“Let’s hope that’s actually true,” Kate said. “He may have received a news release about how one of the nicest guys he knew, and their oldest son’s hero, made one huge mistake after another this week. I’m betting if he saw Josh’s picture online or in the paper, Liz is truly getting an earful and having to answer a ton of questions.”
She and Meg stepped out of the door and saw Liz in the distance, waving her free arm as if trying to shore up her words.
“I think you hit the phone call on the nose,” Meg said. “My guess is hubby isn’t as clueless about this as Liz had hoped.”
“The power of the internet,” Kate said.
Once all their tasks were complete, they promised Liz they would come back as needed the following week. “Just call us,” Kate said. “We’ll be here to back you up on anything.”
“You do remember that you actually work for my publisher, right?” Liz asked, grinning.
“Your publisher hired us to gain a successful photo shoot that showed you and your life in a way best serving your calendar projects and sales,” Kate replied. “Making you happy and comfortable in an unfamiliar situation is simply furthering our commitment to the contract we signed with your publisher.”
“Ladies, if you ever need a character reference of any kind, please let me know.”
When they pulled up to the rental car agency, Keith was already there. Kate quickly turned in the keys and received her paperwork showing the return, and they all climbed into the Jeep to learn what Keith had discovered in his investigations.
“Basically, he missed a turn, went airborne, and landed hard enough that all four tires went flat,” Keith reported.
“I’m not feeling very good about this,” Kate said, leaning her head against the window.
“That’s almost exactly what our insurance agent said,” Keith replied. “When he found out the thief took the keys out of your purse that was left in the unlocked van, he started making new tsking sounds until I reminded him how Josh shot over your head and said he would shoot you if you didn’t tell him where to find your keys.”
“Well, I should hope so!” Meg slapped the back of the seat. “If he dings you for any reason let me know and I’ll switch our policies immediately. We’ve used that company for years, and yesterday was far and away a highly unusual situation.”
Keith chuckled. “Don’t worry, he was completely on board about everything I wanted after the police department faxed the incident report to him, and I forwarded him internet links to the story.”
“I knew you’d handle it better than I would have,” Kate said, patting the arm he rested on the shifter.
“I know you’re patronizing me because you didn’t want to deal with all of this, but I’m taking the compliment anyway,” Keith said, grinning. “But this in no way gets you out of helping stain the new deck. I have the girls onboard because you’re part of the equation. Our afternoon is already planned, organized and cannot be changed.”
“Even after the stress I was under yesterday?”
“Another good reason to enjoy a stress-free activity with your family,” Keith added.
“Hey, Wonder Woman, you’re my wing woman,” Kate said. “Help.”
Meg sat back and crossed her arms. “If I jump in now Keith may rope me into this supposedly stress-free activity too, and I have a nail appointment. So I’m already booked for the afternoon. Sorry.”
THE NEXT MORNING, MEG came over for coffee. She and Kate looked out the screened back door at the lovely stained deck as they drank their morning cuppa.
“You guys did a great job,” Meg said. “I’m impressed. I’ve seen family projects like this and the decks look like a calico mismatch there are so many different shades.”
Kate nodded. “It took watching the girls closely at first. And ourselves if I’m going to be honest. Two coats of stain gave us the effect and protection we wanted, but we really had to watch that we didn’t accidentally overcoat what we’d already stained. It’s wet now, of course, but maybe by tomorrow we can enjoy moving the grill and furniture onto it.”
The cat chose that moment to come wind himself between the women’s legs. Meg set down her cup and lifted him to her shoulder. “Well, fella, how do you feel about the deck?”
“He seemed to like it fine while Keith was building it. We haven’t let him on the deck since we started staining, but eventually he’ll get to walk on the railing and make all of us worry about him falling.”
Meg ruffled one of his ears. “Bet he’ll love sleeping under it too. Lots of napping potential with this deck.”
“As long as he’s the only one who does,” Kate said. “I have nightmares that wild animals will decide to call our deck home.”
“Very likely. But when you’re invaded by squatters I’ll bring Rowdy over to roust them out,” Meg said. The cat squirmed to tell her that he wanted down, and she obliged. “He probably didn’t like me talking about the dog.”
Kate rinsed out her cup and put it in the top rack of the dishwasher. “I don’t think Rowdy talk upset him as much as looking out through the screen and not being able to go where he wanted.”
“I know the feeling. I get that way when I can’t eat things I want to, too,” Meg said.
“Oh, that reminds me.” Kate walked over to her printer and pulled a two-page recipe from the basket. “Liz got her baking son to tell her where the recipe was that he uses to make those fabulous ranger cookies. Then she emailed it to me. Want a copy?”
“Are you joking? Of course.” Meg read over the pages Kate offered. “Maybe I’ll try some of these tomorrow.”
“How was your nail appointment?”
“Nice. See?” Meg held out a hand displaying much shorter nails than before their endeavor in the rocky woods, but looking very nice with a light pink coat of polish. “Want me to do your nails later?”
“Thanks, but I just trimmed mine down so the broken parts were gone,” Kate said, flashing her hand. “I’m not patient enough to sit and wait for all of that filing to be over.”
Meg nodded and reread the recipe. “Yep, this is my project for tomorrow afternoon. Want to come and taste test?”
“I can’t turn down an offer like that.”
“What about the girls?”
Kate glanced back through the archway leading out of the kitchen, to the stairs up to her sleeping husband and daughters. “I think everyone is taking it easy today after yesterday’s staining project. Plus, poor Keith built the darn thing. I don’t know when they’ll have any energy again.”
“Yet, we were chased by a gun-toting jack-of-all-trades that everyone thought was the nicest guy in the world, and we’re still up with the sun.”
“No,” Kate said. “We’re up with the animals. I only got up because I had twenty pounds of feline weight on my chest who wanted breakfast.”
“Yeah, it was the dogs for me,” Meg replied. “I keep threatening to get a doggy door, but I don’t want to think about all the things they’ll bring inside when I’m not watching.”
“Your cats too.”
“Definitely.” Meg sighed and leaned against the counter. “Not that I want to sound like I’m cracking the whip, but did you get the email sent to the publisher yesterday. And did you hear anything back?”
Kate nodded and walked to her purse to pull out her phone. “Keith let
me work those up before I started on the deck. To be truthful, though, I think he wanted to start the girls first so he didn’t have to deal with their questions and mine at the same time. But, yes, the idea sheets were sent, and I got this email back saying how happy they were with our work.” She flashed her screen Meg’s way. “And they invited us to come by next week, and they said lunch would be catered.”
“More food.” Meg grinned. “We need more projects like this one.”
“Well, not with crazy gun guys who kind of have a moment of losing it when they run across someone trying to torch a barn with animals in it, then stay stressed all week covering up for the fact they had their Mr. Hyde moment and killed someone. Finally, they completely lose it when an innocent organizer and her partner figures out whodunit and the used-to-be-nice-guy/now-murderer doesn’t want to be caught.”
“That reminds me. Did Johnson give you grief for picking up the pen and not turning it over as evidence?” Meg asked.
“Not yet,” Kate said. “I don’t think he realizes exactly how we had our AHA! moment. But unless Josh confesses it will likely come out in court and I’ll get nailed then.”
“Liz thinks he’ll confess, remember.”
“I’m remembering,” Kate said. “I’m also going to try to remember not to clean up and put things into my pockets that may point back to a murderer. Except I think that’s the curse of my organizing DNA.”
“Quite possibly,” Meg replied, giving her a hug. “But Lieutenant Johnson should be grateful. This is the third case you’ve solved for him using your organizing and observation skills.
“Maybe, but don’t ever say anything like that around Keith,” Kate said, grinning. “Or you and I will likely be out of a job.