"She's not stopping, Heather," Amy said. "This is ridiculous. I think we should turn back."
"Oh no," Heather replied. "No way. We've put in way too much time and effort now. I'm not walking all the way back to the Chevy."
"Speaking of your car, we should've taken it."
"You don't think Miss Walker would've noticed a cherry red vehicle following her through multiple streets and suburbs?"
"I don't much care for rational thought, right now. My mind is buzzing." Amy flapped the front of her shirt open and closed, collecting cool air and sluicing it over her skin. "There she goes again."
They darted across another street, keeping to the shade of the trees and aided by the setting sun. Judy faltered in front of one of the rundown houses and Heather's heart did a happy flip. Could this be it?
Walker swiveled her head, checking side streets and back the way she'd come. Heather and Ames darted behind their tree.
"What's she doing?" Amy rested her forehead on the bark.
Heather inched to the right and grunted. "She's walking again."
"No. Come on. Come one. Do you think she's doing it on purpose? Maybe she knows we're following her and she's playing mind games with us. This should be a form of torture. You know, that water drip thing they do on your forehead? This makes that look relaxing."
"Yeah, you would know," Heather said.
"Fine, so that wasn't a politically correct thing to say." Amy pushed off from the tree. "Can't we give up now?"
"No."
Judy reached the next intersection but didn't cut down another side road. She rushed across it and toward the highway.
"No way," Heather said. "She's hitting the road out of town."
"That's where our jurisdiction reaches its end."
Heather looped her arm through her bestie's and tugged her along. "Keep up, gorgeous. We're almost there."
"You don't know that." Amy smoothed her damp hair back and it clung to the top of her head. "I want an entire box of donuts after this. A box."
They followed their suspect across the street and onto the highway. The sun had already set and that dusky light drifted between the trees of the forest. They had to be close to the South Bosque River, now, or at least a track which led down the slope to it.
Spring scents clung to the evening, new buds on trees and drying moisture on the grass. Under different circumstances, it would've lulled Heather, but the ache in her thighs and the sight of Judy Walker's velvety black coat drove her onward, aware.
The woman spared a single glance for the way she'd come - she didn't see them, hidden behind another tree - then disappeared into the forest.
"Okay, this isn't tiring anymore," Amy said. "It's just creepy. What is she doing?"
"One way to find out."
They broke out from their cover and jogged to the place where Judy had disappeared. A dirt road led through the trees, rutted and scarred by tire tread marks. An engine burbled to life nearby.
Heather and Ames exchanged a look. The not-so-intrepid explorers skipped over the dips in the road, drawn by the rumble of a motorbike.
"Wonder how many CCs that is," Amy whispered.
The engine revved, a cheap, growl, and Heather held up a hand. Amy bonked into her back. They leaned forward and, finally, found Judy.
The woman had stripped off her velvet coat and strapped on a pot helmet which reminded Heather of a parade she'd been to with her grandmother. Harley Davidson's had roared down Main Street and mini-Heather had shrieked at the vibration which rocked through her tiny body.
The similarities ended with the helmet. The four wheeler which sputtered on the track didn't provoke awe. It vomited petrol fumes out of its exhaust. Heather's eyes watered and she pinched fingers to the base of her nose.
Judy straddled the four wheeler, revved the engine again, then took off, the four wheeler’s glorified buzz fading into the night.
"I don't care," Amy said.
"Huh?"
"I don't care if she's the murderer. It's the end of the line, Shepherd. I'm going home."
They couldn't follow Judy now, anyway. They'd lose her in the forest and dusk had already shrunk back from the fingers of night. Stars twinkled at them, blocked here and there by leaves from the canopy.
"I'll call Ryan," Heather said. "He'll want to see this. They can get someone down here to see where these tracks lead."
"And we can go home, right?"
"Yes, Givens. We can go back to my house and have donuts and movies. Does that placate you?"
"It's a start."
Heather considered the track one last time. The puzzle pieces drifted in her mind, closer than they'd been before but still nowhere near each other. Judy Walker had a four wheeler and she'd been frenemies with Norma. Could it be the answer they'd sought?
"Ryan's not going to phone himself."
"All right, all right, keep your hair on, woman." Heather made the call.
Chapter 14
The following morning Heather and Ames sat side by side behind the counter, yawning and staring blearily at the customers in the store. Ryan had followed the tracks the night before but had reported they split off at four places and each alternative had produced nothing - though, one had led to the Best Fishin' Camp.
The four-wheeler had disappeared. Which was physically impossible, of course, but the detectives down at the station couldn't find it.
"Who?" Heather asked.
"What's that?"
"I just can't figure out who did this," Heather said. "Or why Judy has a four wheeler."
"It's got to be her. Those getaway tracks were unmistakable, right? Ryan thinks she did it. Doesn't he?"
"No. I don't know. I mean, there are probably loads of people who have four wheelers around Hillside. Just because she has one doesn't mean it was her outside the warehouse," Heather replied. Her jaws creaked with another yawn.
"But it's too much of a coincidence. What are the odds that Judy would have a four wheeler and be ex-besties with our victim?" Amy lifted her mug and glugged down some coffee. "There's got to be a connection."
"What worries me is that argument with Pete. I only caught the end of it but they definitely know each other. There was heat between them."
"What kind of heat?"
"Angry heat," Heather said. She took a sip of her coffee too. "I guess it's crazy to go over this when we're exhausted."
They fell into an uneasy silence, both batting their eyelids to quell the tired ears and the glare from the morning sun outside. At least, the rush hadn't started yet. They had a couple minutes to collect themselves.
"What about the Big Brother password? The cloud?"
"Nothing. Ryan's having trouble getting to the top of some long chain of command within the company," Heather said. "Which is bad because I feel like that's the answer here."
"The surveillance?"
"Absolutely. Why else would the killer have erased the footage from the physical drive? The minute we get the surveillance the case is solved." But they wouldn't get the surveillance if the Big Brother people avoided them. "We could try to figure out the password."
"How? We don't know that much about Norma and I doubt she would've told anyone what it was."
"Maybe she told her best friend." But Heather didn't have a leg to stand on there. Judy hadn't wanted to speak to them in the first place and she'd maintained she hadn't spoken with Norma in years.
"Ugh." Amy massaged her temples.
"My sentiments exactly." No password to the Big Brother cloud, no real evidence which tied Judy Walker to the scene. Ryan could try matching up the treads on the four wheeler to the marks they'd found outside the store but without the four wheeler, they couldn't even do that. Judy wouldn't talk. Pete wouldn't say much and the creep ex-husband from high school, Danny, had no apparent connection to the crime scene.
Sure, he'd brought Norma roses and been rejected, but that didn't make him a murderer. Innocent until proven guilty.
"W
hat could the password be? Surely, we could try hacking into it."
Amy snorted. "Hacking into it? Since when did you become Mr. Robot?"
"I'm not but I'm sure there are people who can do that kind of thing. Ryan has connections."
"Yeah? Good luck to them. You only get three tries to enter the password before the Big Brother Company changes it from their side. To retrieve it, you have to provide identification and prove you're the owner of the software on that specific device."
"How do you know all this?" Heather asked. "The cat spitter?"
"No. While you were confronting that lowlife Larry in the country jail I was busy with a little research of my own. I figured we'd need to break into that cloud somehow, but it's tighter than an overweight Dave squeezed into a reindeer costume at Christmas."
"I said I wouldn't do that again. He still hasn't forgiven me, you know." Heather rose and stretched her arms above her head. The bell had tinkled - the first of those morning rushers were on their way.
"Who? Ryan?"
"No, Dave." He'd sulked for a week after the reindeer costume incident. Ryan had figured that it was due to his belly - he felt ashamed of the bulk.
The first customer stepped up to the counter and Heather inhaled, sharply. James Gordon grinned at her, the mole on his cheek hidden in the creases of his skin. James who worked for Lyle Clarke, and the same James who'd given her the final 'clue' which had solved a murder case the week before and put Mikey Malone behind bars.
"Good morning, Mrs. Shepherd," he said. "How are you today?"
Better before he'd come along. "I'm fine thank you, James. How are you? No more disturbances in your neighborhood?"
"Oh no, now that Mikey's locked up there's nothing to worry about." The words 'locked up' came out like a fat smack to the jaw.
"What can I get for you?" She would've refused him service but she didn't have a reason or any proof that he'd helped his boss hide the truth behind the murder last week. "Coffee to go?"
"Aw, no thanks. I'm here to collect a couple dozen donuts for Clarke Enterprises."
"Clarke. Enterprises." Amy tried the words on for size.
"Sounds good, doesn't it?" James asked.
"Which donuts?" Heather tied down the lid on her frustration. If she let James the Mole see it he'd report back to Lyle that he'd gotten to her.
"Whatever's good this week? Say, Mrs. Shepherd, how's the family?" James asked.
Her fingers faltered on the glass sliding plate which opened on the rows of donuts. "Pardon?"
"Just wondering how it's going."
"I don't think I've ever mentioned my family to you before, James," Heather said and brought a box out from the shelf. She snapped the sides into place, then fed donuts into its interior, counting them out to avoid confrontation.
One donut, two, three, four -
"I know. I just hear things is all."
"What things?" Heather asked.
"Just about your happy family."
Heather closed the lid of the box and handed it to him. He flashed a wad of bills, dropped them on the counter. "Thanks," he said and winked. "Stay safe." He gave way to the next customer in line and took that awful smile with him.
Chapter 15
Heather sat in her office and cycled through the header pictures on the Norma Young tribute page. She held the tablet in both hands and used her thumb to switch from the first to the next. Norma at the beach. Norma with her ex-friend Judy, Norma at a party during Cinco de Mayo.
Each one was happier than the last and those cherub cheeks shone along with her eyes. Norma had definitely had something special. A little bit of magic.
Heather sighed and placed the tablet on top of her desk calendar. Ryan had called a half hour ago and let her know that the partial print on the register hadn't matched anyone in the IAFIS database. And they didn't have DNA apart from Norma's at the scene.
Big Brother was lock-jawed. Judy had all but disappeared and Sampson had found another job packing groceries at a store. As for Danny... well, they didn't have anything on him either.
A knock rat-tatted at Heather's door.
"Come in," she said.
Geoff Lawless scrunched into her office and shut the door behind himself. "Shepherd," he said. "I've got news for you. It's important."
It had to be or whoever was behind the counter wouldn't have let him back here.
"Please, take a seat, Geoff."
Lawless did as he was told and the chair screeched a complaint. He looked down between his legs at the seat but didn't complain. Sampson truly had damaged the thing - she'd have to replace it.
"What do you need to get off your chest?"
"I know something about your investigation," Geoff said. "I didn't think I did until Judy called and told me she wouldn't bring in the dogs."
"Why?"
Geoff wasn't great with words. He gnashed his teeth, struggled in the screaming chair, then halted. "She never misses an appointment. When she canceled I knew she was involved in what happened to Norma."
"All right," Heather said and opened the Evernote app on her tablet. "So, what can you tell me?" She typed out Geoff's name and misspelled it twice. Maybe Amy had a point about that Bluetooth keyboard.
"A couple months ago the two women were in the boutique. Norma. Judy. Judy was there first." He clipped the sentences as short as he could. Perhaps, it wasn't that Geoff didn't have a gift for language. He had a gift for distilling thoughts and ideas into the simplest sentences possible. "Judy was with Pablo and Fifi. Then Norma ran in."
"Was she upset about something?'
Geoff grunted to the positive. "She mentioned an affair. She said that she wanted to catch him in the act."
"Catch who?" It couldn't have been Roadkill Rodney, he hadn't been in the picture yet.
"Don't know. A man. The guy she dated in her store? Big guy. Big as a mansion." Geoff cleared his throat. "Norma told Judy that she wasn't going to put up with his cheating anymore and that she got a program on her computer. Big Something. I can't remember Big -"
"Big Brother," Heather finished.
"Yes." Geoff didn't seem surprised she knew about it. "She said she wanted to tape him but she didn't want him to know."
"But he would know since the cameras are in there," Heather said. "They're in plain sight." Pete wasn't an idiot. Huge didn't equal stupid.
"She mentioned a hidden camera. I don't know where. She wanted Judy to help her and she talked about something else. A password."
Heather sat up so fast that her knees hit the underside of the desk and bounced the tablet. "The password. Geoff, what did Judy say? What did she say?"
"She said to use Fifi and Pablo," he replied. "That's all."
Heather typed the clue out with tremulous fingers. "Geoff, this is beyond helpful. Thank you for coming to see me."
"I'm not done." Geoff's tone was flat. "I think Judy was the one who was having the affair. I don't know who the guy was but it was Judy who was with him."
"How do you know?"
"She told me that she had a new love but to keep it a secret. He wasn't classy enough."
"That sounds like Judy," Heather said. So she'd had an affair with Norma's boyfriend at the time. And she'd lied about being out of contact with the woman for the past few years. "Did Judy and Norma speak often in the boutique?"
"Every week."
"Goodness." And they had the password now, too. Heather wanted to be overjoyed but this wasn't thanks to her investigation skills. This was pure dumb luck. Geoff had come forward and given them the final clues which would slot her mental puzzle pieces into place.
"Is there anything else, Geoff?" She crossed her fingers under the desk.
"That's it," he said. "She told me things because she thought I didn't matter. They spoke in front of me because I'm quiet."
"I don't think there's any doubt that you matter, Geoff."
Lawless detached himself from the chair and nodded. "Have a good day, Shepherd. Hope I
helped."
"You did," she replied. "In fact, you just made my day."
Geoff left without a fuss, not loping off as he had in the past, but employing short, confident steps. Running his own business had changed the man, for sure. From failed baker who stalked her cases and rifled through the Donut Delights trash cans to the successful boutique owner.
This was why she loved business. He'd taken control of his own destiny.
Heather locked the screen of her tablet. She lifted the receiver of her office phone from the cradle and dialed Ryan's number. The phone clicked and two rings followed.
"Detective Shepherd," he answered.
"Hey, hon. I have the password."
The phone clattered, Ryan grumbled under his breath, then came back into focus. "What did you just say?"
"The password for Big Brother. I think I have it," she said.
"Come down to the station." Ryan never questioned her. It was one of the many things she adored about her husband. "And bring donuts."
"Be there in twenty."
Chapter 16
“Let’s get this party started!” Amy held the chipped saucer in one hand and her donut in the other. She took a bite and vanilla cream splotched onto the plate. “I don’t get it?” She asked, around a mouthful of treat. “What are we waiting for?”
Ryan fiddled with the screen’s wire, then finally sat back. He pressed the power button on Norma’s computer. “We’re waiting for me to finish setting this thing up. I’m not a computer whizz.”
Ryan’s air con clicked in the corner and gusted cold air on their heads. The computer took a while to start up, but finally, the windows icon emerged on a background of blue. They hadn’t bothered plugging in the speakers.
Ryan gestured for Heather to take the mouse.
She shifted the cursor across the screen, clicked on the Big Brother icon – an eye, of course – and then on Options in the toolbar. “Wait, where do I go from here?”
Vanilla Cream Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy - Book 44 (Donut Hole Cozy Mystery) Page 5