Though Missy had always been overweight, she’d also been an athlete in high school. She’d been a pretty good field hockey player and had made the volleyball team too. Anybody looking at her would never suspect she had an ounce of athletic talent in her, especially if they knew she was a bookworm. But long ago (almost twenty years!) she’d played varsity sports and had known what it was like to be part of a team. Even though the years had added plenty of cushion around her hips, thighs, and butt, she could still move okay.
She walked for a minute down the road just to get warmed up, then started jogging. Six months ago, she wouldn’t have been caught dead running on the street, where any nitwit could see her, preferring instead to go to the gym and use the ellipticals with other people “of weight.” But a month ago she’d decided to get over it.
Missy jogged at a good clip. She was running toward the sun, and the early morning light felt good on her skin as the day broke. Spring was right around the corner. At this rate, she might be down another fifteen pounds in two months and, believe it or not, that meant she might be able to get back into her black (slimming) one piece bathing suit and make her triumphant return to the Grove City pool.
She hadn’t been able to fit into that in almost three years. The thought of that motivated her to pick up her pace and she was feeling extraordinary, getting that runner’s high that temporarily made her forget about everything else that was going on—
Till a car horn blared her out of her zen-like state. The sound actually startled her. Missy lost her footing and went down in the grass strip along the road.
“Get out of the way, you whale!” the guy yelled through the passenger window before speeding off. She didn’t recognize him or the car, but if she ever saw them again, she definitely would.
Missy picked herself up. When she rubbed her sweatpants, the mud she’d accumulated smeared onto her hands. Though the guy was about to take the bend in the road ahead, she gave him the one-finger salute before he disappeared from view.
Sometimes, she loathed men. For some reason, it was socially acceptable for them to give people a hard time about their weight. People just shrugged or laughed it off and looked the other way.
There wasn’t much of a shoulder on this two lane road, but still, she wasn’t that big that he’d needed to swerve to avoid her.
He was just an…
Missy started walking again. Thankfully she hadn’t hurt herself in the fall. It’d been a long time since she’d twisted an ankle, and she meant to keep that streak going for a much longer time. The idiot in the car kept coming to mind, his words echoing mercilessly. She shook her head. She shouldn’t let some jerk make her feel bad. He wasn’t much of a man if he’d felt the need to yell that at her when she was out here obviously trying to do something about it. If anything, he should have been encouraging.
Even though she told herself she shouldn’t feel bad, and repeated to herself that the guy was just one of those people who reveled in making people feel awful about their weight, she couldn’t help but feel down. The runner’s high she’d briefly experienced dissipated quickly, and once the adrenaline died she was left short of breath with tired, aching muscles. She turned around and ran back home, but her heart wasn’t really into it.
***
Missy took a long, hot shower, letting the steam build in the bathroom. The hot water soaked into her skin and loosened her muscles up after the short run. Her body might have stopped running, but her mind hadn’t stopped moving. All the way home, she’d kept thinking about Noreen’s predicament and what she could do to help.
Missy finished her shower and toweled her. At first she purposely left the full-body mirror on the back of the bathroom door fogged with steam. After that guy’s comments on the road, she didn’t want to look at herself and feel bad. But then she realized she was being silly. Anger rising, she swiped the mirror with the edge of her hand and took a look. She was slimmer—not that she needed to be.
In the bedroom, she went with her standby comfy, loose jeans she always wore and an equally comfy, loose long-sleeved t-shirt under a flannel. It was a great outfit for work, she was always getting up and down and carrying things and moving around in Books and Crannies. And, she’d probably be running around for Noreen today. Better to be comfortable.
Exercise always made her even hungrier than usual, so she was ravenous when she got to the kitchen. She fed Cody first, then weighed her options. They came down to: cereal, cereal, cereal. She settled on cereal.
She ate quickly and checked the time: 8:15AM. By now, Lee Greenberg was probably in his office. But maybe she didn’t even need to call him. Missy nodded to herself. She wasn’t going to let that idiot from earlier ruin her outlook on the day. Nope. Today she was going to get her friend out of jail. And she might be able to do it without a lawyer. Her attitude had already improved.
Ignoring Jill’s orders from last night, Missy scrolled through her contacts again and called Tyler’s cell phone instead of the station.
“Hello, Melissa.”
His tone was neutral. Missy wondered if he was home or at the station. She pictured Jill standing behind him, fuming. And it made her smile.
“Tyler, we need to talk. Can we meet?”
“Come to the station.”
Missy was thinking it would be safer if they talked outside of the station. She didn’t want anybody there to overhear them, in case Trudy’s theory was right and the mysterious cop was Anne’s killer.
“I really need to talk to you somewhere else, Tyler. I—”
“If this is official police business, I need you to come to the station, Melissa. If it’s not, then…”
“Then what?”
“Then…I don’t know.”
Missy didn’t think she’d ever heard Tyler say I don’t know before. He sounded lost.
“I spoke to Jill last night.”
His voice turned high-pitched. “What?”
“Yeah, I spoke to her,” Missy said. “Guess she didn’t give you the message.”
“What…what did she say?”
“That I wasn’t supposed to call you on this phone anymore.” Missy chuckled. “Oops.”
“Melissa,” he said. “Our situation is complicated. She knows a lot about you, too, so she must have felt threatened.”
Why would she feel threatened unless Jill knew Tyler still had feelings for her? It was the only explanation. Missy was both happy and angered. She would have gladly dated Tyler again and had come close six months ago, right before he’d dropped the bomb on her about he and his ex-wife trying to work things out.
She let her frustration and disappointment get the better of her. “That’s funny, Tyler, because I don’t know much about her.”
“Melissa, don’t be like that.”
“Like what?”
“You know like what,” he said. “And I really don’t have time for this.”
“This? What you mean is, you don’t have time for me.”
He said nothing.
Missy knew she should take a deep breath, but she was on a roll. “I thought we were supposed to be friends, Tyler.”
“It’s just not that simple.”
“Sure it is,” she lied through her teeth. She knew full well they couldn’t be friends. At least, not yet. Missy still had feelings for him. “Ever since you closed the books on Albert Switzer’s murder, you haven’t been able to look me in the eye longer than five seconds. When we bump into each other, you act like we’re perfect strangers.”
“I’m in the middle of a murder investigation and can’t—”
“By the way, you arrested the wrong person.” She was livid now, her hand almost crushing her cell phone. “Noreen didn’t kill Anne. That’s why I was calling you last night. So now she’s spent the night unlawfully imprisoned.”
Missy didn’t know if Tyler had broken any laws, but the phrase sounded pretty good.
“If you have information, you need to come down to the station,” Tyler sai
d. “I can’t do this over the phone.”
“Why not?”
“Melissa, you really don’t get it, do you?”
“I guess I don’t.”
A hard edge lined his voice. “This is a small town and when something terrible like this happens, everybody has their eyes on the detective.”
“If you can’t stand the heat…”
“I can stand the heat, that’s not the problem.” He sighed. “The problem is, I can’t have any appearance of impropriety when I’m investigating. If anybody thinks I’m being influenced by my ex-girlfriend, I’m finished. Don’t you get that?”
Missy was about to fire back, but finally got herself under control. He was absolutely right and had warned her of this last time when she’d meddled.
“So come in here and we’ll have somebody take your statement.”
“Not somebody,” Missy said. “It has to be you.”
“God!” He laughed sardonically. “Are you trying to be difficult, woman?”
“No. I’m not trying. I’m starting to think that comes naturally.”
Chapter Nine
On her way to the police station, Missy called Lee Greenberg’s office. She had the number stored in her cell because Lee had helped her mother update her will last year.
“Good morning, Missy. As much as I hope it is, I’m assuming this is not a social call?”
“I’m calling on behalf of Noreen Sullivan.”
“Don’t tell me they’ve arrested her for the murder of Anne Baxter.”
News traveled fast in Grove City. It always did. “You got it. I’m trying to get her out of there ASAP. She’s not a murderer.”
“The police can never get anything right, can they? Last time they waited too long and that oaf Gordon Cooper almost squeezed the life out of you. This time they jump the gun and arrest clearly the wrong person.”
Lee was very outspoken in his political views, many of which were negative toward the police. Missy found herself in the strange position of wanting to defend Tyler, even though he’d arrested her best friend.
“Honestly, the evidence does kind of point at her.”
Lee laughed. “Missy, I’m sure there are a million directions that evidence points in.”
“So you’ll take the case?”
“You had me at Noreen Sullivan.” Most men found Noreen attractive. Somehow she managed to be sexy and yet pull off the girl-next-door quality as well. Lee was no exception and Missy remembered he’d asked specifically about Noreen last year, when she and her mother had been in his office.
“Glad to hear you’re taking the case for all the right reasons, Lee,” Missy teased.
He laughed. “What better reason is there than to rescue a damsel-in-distress from a gross miscarriage of justice?”
Oh boy. Lee could be a little over-the-top. “Do you think you can get her out?”
“Of course.”
Missy stopped at the intersection before the police station. “How?”
“To be determined, Missy. But a good lawyer can find a way to argue about anything. That’s what they call advocacy.”
Missy shook her head. Even before one had tried to strangle her, Missy normally didn’t care much for attorneys. They were generally full of themselves and capable of talking out of both sides of their mouth. She believed there was a right and a wrong if you looked hard enough and thought that people these days hid behind their lawyers to get out of obligations.
But she was happy she’d called Lee. There was a lot of swagger in his talk, but she felt confident he could do something for Noreen. Even if Lee was a little much, he was doing the right thing here. Noreen wasn’t a killer.
Now Missy just had to figure out who was.
***
Missy walked into the police station. Chief Brody was sitting in his office, staring at her through the glass just like last time she’d been in here. He’d suspected her of the previous murder, all but forcing Tyler to investigate her. Because her parents had—once in their lives—gotten into a little bit of trouble with law, Brody had assumed the worst about her. Never mind the fact that her father had faced job loss and her mother had been forced to worry about losing her home at the time.
Today, Missy decided to give him a flip little wave. He nodded once then went back to his computer. She wondered what he actually did, because it seemed like Tyler did all the work.
Tyler came out of the other office. His uniform looked freshly-pressed. Missy caught herself wondering whether Jill had ironed it for him this morning...she shook the thought away and focused on the more pressing issue, like her best friend's incarceration.
"Good morning, Melissa," he said in a stiff voice. He was putting on an act for some reason. "How can I help you?"
"First, can I see Noreen?"
"I'm sorry. Only staff and attorneys are allowed back there."
She nodded, expecting that answer. "Could I have a minute of your time?"
“Of course,” he said, just as stiffly.
As they walked through the open floor of the station, Missy felt all eyes on her. No wonder Tyler was acting very formal with her, everybody was watching and the constant rumors that she was using their past relationship to influence him must have been stifling. She felt bad, for a moment, about forcing the meeting with him but then again Noreen was locked up. She had no choice, though she had no desire to hurt Tyler’s career.
He opened the door to his office. His desk was much neater than the last time she was here and to her surprise there was a bonsai tree in the corner next to a new, but empty fish tank. The room now seemed to have a little bit of a feminine touch and jealousy tore through Missy. Quickly, she batted the petty feeling down. Tyler was a married man, and he and his wife were doing the difficult—but right—thing. In a day and age where people got divorced at the drop of a hat, Tyler and Jill were trying to work things out. She respected him for it…
Missy scanned his desk as she sat in the chair facing him and her eyes landed on a picture of him and Jill.
They were standing in front of a waterfall. The picture had a South American feel to it. Tyler's arm was around Jill's shoulders and her hand was at his waist. Jill was only a couple inches shorter than him, and Tyler was tall, so she must have been pushing six feet. Missy couldn't help but be jealous of her figure and her beauty. They looked so happy together. Like the perfect couple. And Jill was very attractive.
But that should have come as no surprise. Tyler was a hunk and a good man to boot, present circumstances notwithstanding.
His eyes followed hers and recognition filled them as he realized she was looking at the picture of Jill. Tyler squirmed in his seat a little bit, clearly uncomfortable with the subject. She could tell he would have preferred to get down to business.
But Missy couldn’t help herself. Since he’d told Missy they were trying to work things out, both of them had avoided the elephant in the room.
Missy said, “That’s a really nice picture. Where were you?"
"Venezuela, for our fifth anniversary." He spoke matter-of-factly. Almost sadly. Like he was reading from one of his crime reports. She wondered what their marriage had been like and how they had reached this point, where they were not really together, but still together.
“She’s very pretty.”
Tyler shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Melissa, how can I help you?"
You can help me by letting my friend go. And by not acting like we're perfect strangers.
She took a calming breath. Last night and all morning, she’d been certain this was the correct course of action. It made sense sharing what she knew with Tyler.
But right now, a little tiny doubt had crept into her mind.
“You have something to tell me,” Tyler said.
Missy smiled. “You can still read me. Anne Baxter might have been having an affair."
He barely reacted, which made her think he already knew. "Might have been?"
She nodded. "With a cop."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"How do you know she might have been having an affair?"
She didn't want to mention Trudy. The woman was already scared silly and giving up her identity to Tyler would only make things worse.
"I'd rather not say."
"Did you see her with somebody?"
"No. This was information passed along to me."
Tyler asked why they thought it was a cop and what had been seen, and she shared the details of Trudy's story. By the time she was done, she knew Tyler would be easily able to figure out that Trudy had shared this with her as she worked in the shopping center where this happened. But there was no way to avoid that, and now that Missy had shared this information she knew she’d made the right decision. Now it was just a matter of getting Tyler to act on it and to let Noreen go.
She waited for him to say something. Or explain what he planned to do.
"Thanks for coming forward, Melissa." He stood. "I'll follow-up on this."
He headed for the door, signaling the end of the interview.
"Wait."
He stopped, his hand halfway to the knob.
"What about Noreen?"
"Melissa, you know I can't discuss an open investigation with you."
"But you just did."
He shook his head. "No, that was you providing me with information."
She wanted to walk up and shake him. "It's Noreen, Tyler.”
He said nothing.
“Do you honestly think she did it?"
“Melissa.” He opened the door. "I cannot discuss this with you."
She hated how he was pushing her out of his office. It made her feel like he was pushing her out of his life. Even though they hadn't been that close since his return, she'd felt something existed between them. He was making a conscious effort to ignore it. It would be one thing if he was acting normally around her, but right now he was trying so hard to act like there was nothing between them.
Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset Page 18