Good Buy Girls 05 - All Sales Final

by Josie Belle

  She pushed through the double doors into the rec room to find a crowd had gathered around the pool table. A quick glance and Maggie could see that there were two solid balls, two striped balls and the eight ball. Dennis was lumbering around the table with a swagger that made Maggie think he had just sunk one.

  “Lucky shot,” Blue muttered, confirming her guess.

  “Seven in the corner,” Dennis said and pointed with his cue.

  He missed and Blue looked thrilled. He clapped his hands together as if relishing the prospect of demolishing his opponent. As he moved around the table, Maggie elbowed her way past the front row of spectators.

  “Blue, I need to talk to you,” she said.

  “Maggie, I’m in the middle of something,” Blue protested.

  “Sorry, but I have no time and this is really important,” she said.

  Blue glanced at Dennis. “Five minutes?”

  “If that’s what you need to build up your courage,” Dennis said with a careless shrug.

  “Hey!” Blue started to protest but Maggie dragged him away.

  “Bigger issues, Blue,” she said.

  “To you maybe,” he grumbled. “My reputation is at stake here.”

  Maggie fished the picture out of her purse. “Do you know this man?”

  Blue looked from her to the picture. “No, but I know the woman. That’s my cousin Ida Dixon.”

  “Are you sure?” Maggie asked.

  “Positive. Where did you find that?”

  “It was in the vanity table in a drawer that was glued shut.”

  Blue leaned on his pool cue and rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. “Glued? I thought it was just locked and the key was missing.”

  “It was locked and glued,” Maggie said.

  “Strange,” Blue said. His eyes had a far-off look in them and Maggie wondered what he was thinking.

  A crash sounded from the other side of the room and they both started and glanced over at the pool table.

  “No! Stop! Argh!” Dennis cried. “This is no place for children! Who let this demon spawn in here?”

  “Uh-oh,” Blue said and he hurried back to the table.

  A towheaded boy about five years old was holding two of the pool balls in his chubby fists. He glanced up at everyone and a big fat tear pooled in his right eye.

  “Is this saboteur yours, Dixon?” Dennis asked.

  “No, and quit yelling,” Blue snapped. “You’re scaring the poor kid.” Blue looked at the boy and said, “It’s all right. It’s just a game, but next time, ask before you take things that don’t belong to you.”

  A sweet older lady gave Blue an adoring look before she enfolded the little boy in an embrace and wiped away his tears.

  “Seems to me you should follow your own advice,” Dennis said as he placed his cue in the rack.

  Blue rolled his eyes at him. “I demand a rematch.”

  Dennis crossed over to where they stood. “Fine by me.”

  He glanced at Maggie. “You didn’t have anything to do with this, did you?”

  “No,” Maggie said. She raised her hands in a gesture of innocence.

  Dennis frowned at the photo. “Why do you have a picture of Jasper Kasey?”

  Maggie glanced from Dennis to the photo. “Excuse me?”

  “Jasper Kasey,” Dennis said. He tapped the picture with his forefinger. “I’d know him anywhere. My brother and I followed Captain Kasey around like puppies. He was a pilot in World War Two. We thought the sun rose and set on him. Who’s the dame?”

  “My cousin Ida,” Blue said stiffly.

  “Ah, well, there’s no accounting for taste,” Dennis said.

  Blue balled up a fist and looked like he was going to pop Dennis, but Maggie looped her arm through his and held him back.

  “Thank you, Dennis, you’ve been a huge help,” she said.

  “Any time,” Dennis said. “You can always count on me when he lets you down.”

  Blue shifted and Maggie snatched the cue out of his hand right before it would have bopped Dennis on the back of the head.

  “Stop that!” she hissed. “You’re behaving like a child.”

  “Can’t help it,” Blue grumbled. “That guy just brings out the toddler in me, and in my defense I have had to spend more time with him and his brother than a sane person should. I know Doc Franklin wanted me to help them with the ladies but I’m pretty sure I’d have better luck with a pair of goats. ”

  He puffed out his lower lip and it was all Maggie could do not to laugh. “He also gave me my best clue of the day, so be nice. The uniform Jasper’s wearing is the same one the skeleton had on.”

  “What?” Blue studied the photo more closely. “You think this guy is the skeleton in your basement.”

  “It seems likely,” Maggie said.

  Blue studied the picture. “It looks like she loves him, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes, it does,” she agreed.

  In the photo, Ida was smiling up at the handsome captain and it was easy to see that she was completely enamored with him. The smile on his face was less giddy but no less warm. Maggie had a feeling that he loved Ida in return.

  “But if his skeleton is in the basement, then that means . . .” Blue paused and then he looked severe. “Ida didn’t kill him.”

  He said it with a stubborn conviction that Maggie knew would never be swayed. Blue was obviously fond of his late cousin and he was going on the offensive to protect her good name.

  “No one said she did,” she reminded him. “Knowing his identity is just the start to finding out who may have wanted to harm him. I’m going to turn this over to Sam and he’ll take it from there.”

  “Tell him, well, I’d like that picture back when he’s done,” Blue said. He looked rueful. “I forgot how carefree and happy she was when she was younger.”

  Maggie nodded and squeezed his arm. “I’ll make sure you get it back. In the meantime, behave yourself.”

  Blue glared at the door through which Dennis had departed. “It won’t be me who picks the fight.”

  “Just make sure it’s you who stays out of the fight,” she said.

  “Fine,” Blue said. He sounded very put out about it but Maggie didn’t have time to argue with him any longer.

  A glance at her phone and she knew she was cutting it close to get back to the shop within the hour. She definitely did not want to impose on Max, who, as a practicing attorney, had enough demands upon his time.

  Fifteen minutes was all she could spare. She hurried to her car and drove over to the police station. She parked in the lot and ran up the walk.

  “Who lit your tail feathers on fire?” Deputy Dot Wilson asked as Maggie slammed through the front door.

  “No time,” Maggie huffed. “I have to see Sam.”

  “Is everything all right?” Dot asked. She came around the desk to open the half door that would let Maggie in the back.

  Dot was built stout, which she often said was to shoulder the problems she dealt with every day. But she managed to make herself feminine with attention to the details like makeup and jewelry. It was always done with a light hand, but still, she came across as polished and pretty instead of as someone who had given up. She was one of Maggie’s favorite people and not just because her shoe obsession brought her into Maggie’s shop on a regular basis.

  “It’s better than okay,” Maggie said. She waved the photo. “I have something to show Sam.”

  Dot’s eyebrows lifted. “About your tenant in the root cellar?”

  “The same,” Maggie said.

  “I want to hear this,” Dot said and she followed Maggie to Sam’s office.

  Maggie could hear voices as they approached spilling out from the door that was open just a crack.

  “Remember when Lufkowitz lost his watch to that hooker outside the coffee shop on Parker Ave?” Andy asked. She was hooting with laughter and Maggie could hear Sam chuckling as well.

  “Yeah, and his biggest concern was
how to tell his wife, since she had just given it to him for their anniversary,” Sam added. He laughed harder and Andy banged on the edge of his desk with her fist as she doubled up, giggling uncontrollably.

  “And he actually . . . hid . . . under his desk,” Andy gasped.

  The two of them were having fits now and Maggie and Dot stood in the doorway watching them.

  “It’s been like this ever since she got here,” Dot said. “You’d think they were party planners for the dang circus the way they carry on about how great the old days were.”

  Dot sniffed and Maggie could tell her nose was a bit out of joint over the boss reminiscing so much about his former place of employment.

  “I’m sure it will pass,” Maggie said. “Eventually.”

  “Uh-huh.” Dot sounded doubtful. Then she glared at Sam and raised her voice over their ruckus. “Sheriff, if you have a minute, your fiancée actually has the first clue that might help you out with your investigation.”

  “Huh . . . what?” Sam wiped the tears of mirth from his face and glanced at the door. “Oh, hey, Maggie, when did you get here?”

  “A few minutes ago,” Maggie said. Her lips moved into a smile position but it felt thin, like when she was low on butter and tried to spread what little she had across an entire piece of toast. It never tasted right.

  “So, what’s this about a clue?” he asked.

  Andy was still laughing, paying no attention to them, and Maggie got the feeling she was going to roll right into another “remember when” moment.

  Maggie held up the photo to stop the other woman from speaking. “Look at this. See anything familiar about this guy?”

  Sam took the photo and Dot moved to look over his shoulder, refusing to budge when Andy crowded in behind her.

  “That’s the uniform—” he began but Maggie interrupted.

  “—that’s on Captain Bones,” she said. “Except thanks to this photo I now know his real name is Jasper Kasey.”

  Chapter 19

  Sam’s eyes went wide and he hugged her close. “Look at you! I may have to put you on the payroll as a detective, darling.”

  He gave her a smacking kiss on the lips and Maggie saw Dot grin while Andy looked like she’d bit a lemon.

  “Not to be a doubter, but how do you know that’s the same man? And how did you get his name?” Andy asked. Her voice was dubious with a dash of condescension, and Maggie found she didn’t much care for the other woman’s attitude.

  “Since selling the house to us, Blue Dixon has decided to empty out the old storage unit where he kept the sisters’ belongings,” Maggie said. “One of the items was an old vanity table that belonged to Ida Dixon, the woman in the photo.”

  “Wow, I only knew her as an old woman,” Sam said as he studied the photo. “She was quite a looker in her day.”

  “She looks like she loved him,” Maggie said.

  “That’s hardly a scientific assessment,” Andy said. She tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder.

  Maggie frowned at her. “As for the identity of the man, Dennis Applebaum gave me his name when I stopped by Spring Gardens to show the photo to Blue, who identified his cousin Ida. By the way, Blue asked if he could have it back when you’re done with it.”

  “Of course,” Sam said.

  “So, how many people have handled the photograph?” Andy asked.

  “A few,” Maggie said. “Me, Blue, Dennis and now Sam.”

  “Well, that’s going to muddy up any fingerprints that we might have found.”

  “I doubt that Ida Dixon had ever been fingerprinted in her lifetime,” Dot Wilson said. “So, I don’t see how it would have helped anyway.”

  Maggie sent her a grateful look. She didn’t think she was imagining that Andy was being a bit of a jackass about the whole thing. It was almost as if she resented Maggie for finding a bit of vital information.

  Sam fished through his desk drawer. He pulled out a large magnifying glass and held it over the photo.

  “Dennis was right,” he said. “You can just make out the name on his uniform. Kasey.”

  Maggie looked through the magnifier. She felt a thrill course through her at having found out the identity of their skeleton.

  “I guess we’ll have to call him Captain Kasey or Jasper now,” she said. “I have to stop by the house on my way to the library to pick up our sleeping bags for Sandy. I’ll be sure to salute.”

  “Do.” Sam smiled at her. For a moment it felt as if no one else was even in the room with them. “Nice work, darling,” Sam said and he winked at her.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “And now the professionals will make sure it’s actually accurate,” Andy said.

  “I’m sure it is, but let’s see if the military has records on Captain Jasper Kasey that they can share with us to confirm his identity,” Sam said. “You have been in touch with them already, right? Since we found a soldier in uniform, it was your first move, correct?”

  “Well, I . . . not having an office has made it difficult,” Andy hedged.

  Sam gave her a hard look and Maggie saw Andy squirm just a little bit.

  “You are being paid for this investigation,” Sam said. “I would expect you to treat it with the same professionalism as any other.”

  Andy shot Maggie an irritated look and then nodded. “Of course.”

  “Deputy Wilson, help Ms. Lowenstein settle into the empty office down the hall,” he said. He turned to Andy and said, “Dot can get you anything you need.”

  “Thanks,” Andy said. She left the room behind Dot, looking duly chastised.

  Sam watched them go with a considering look on his face. Maggie wondered if this was the time to mention that Andy’s motivation was to encourage him to go back to Richmond, but then she hesitated. Did she want to influence his decision or let him make up his own mind?

  “Dennis Applebaum, huh?” Sam asked.

  Maggie decided to let the moment pass. “Yeah, can you believe it?”

  “I’ve missed you,” Sam said as he pulled her close.

  “Same here,” Maggie said. “Are you on duty tonight?”

  “Until eleven,” he said. “Meet me at my place then?”

  Sam gave her a wicked smile that made her think of tussled bed sheets and hot sheriffs—well, her hot sheriff.

  “Sounds like a plan,” she said. She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Uh-oh, gotta go. I left Max watching the shop.”

  She kissed Sam swiftly on the lips and bolted for the door.

  * * *

  Maggie closed and locked her shop at eight o’clock. Her niece Sandy had texted her earlier in the day, saying that they needed the sleeping bags Maggie and Sam had used on their campout in the house for more relatives who were coming for the wedding.

  It was still light out, barely, so Maggie figured she’d swing by the house and grab the sleeping bags on her way to the library. She hadn’t thought she’d get a ton of research done before the place closed and hoped that Claire had already managed to narrow down the amount of microfiche she’d be looking through tonight.

  She parked in the driveway and noted that a light was on in the house. It was the one she and Sam left on for security. At least she hoped it was that one and not the ghost being funny and running up their electric bill. She crossed the porch and unlocked the door.

  “Hello!” she called.

  There was no answer. Not that she had been expecting one. Captain Kasey had been transported to the medical examiner’s office for further investigation so there was really no reason for anyone to be here in the house. Still, it seemed only polite to call out a greeting.

  She shut the door behind her and walked across the wood floor. She caught herself tiptoeing and then stopped, making herself walk normally.

  She cleared her throat and said, “Good evening, Captain Kasey. I’m not sure if you’re still here if your skeleton isn’t, but I just want you to know that Sam and I are going to figure out what happened to
you.”

  She paused, waiting to see if the light flickered or if the doors banged open and shut. Maybe he had left with his skeleton, after all.

  “Well, I just wanted you to know that,” Maggie said. Her eyes darted around the empty front room, but again, there was nothing. Maybe everything she had seen before had just been the weather and the old house settling, like Sam said.

  She picked up the sleeping bags where they’d left them rolled up in front of the fireplace. She could see herself here, reading a book by the fire in the winter with Marshall Dillon curled up in her lap. Maybe buying this old place hadn’t been that crazy after all.

  She checked the doors and windows on the lower floor to make sure it was secure before carrying the sleeping bags out the front door. She paused to lock the door before adjusting the bags in her arms and striding across the porch.

  She had just reached the top step when her leg caught and she was sent sprawling forward down the steps and onto the hard concrete walkway. Thankfully the sleeping bags cushioned her fall, keeping her from breaking her neck or anything else she’d rather not have broken.

  She lay face down on the sleeping bags, trying to regain her composure. She hated to think it but had she been pushed? There was no one here besides her, so that left the presence in the house. Was it trying to hurt her?

  Maggie glanced back at the house half expecting to see a ghoul peering at her from one of the windows. Then she shivered.

  Chapter 20

  The light from the street illuminated something on the top step. Maggie pushed herself to her feet and moved closer to check it out. Fishing line had been strung six inches above the top step. That was what had made her fall, not the bad intentions of an irritable ghost.

  She supposed this should have made her feel relieved but instead her head whipped from side to side to see if anyone was lurking in the shadows.

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Sam’s direct number.

  “Hey there, darling.” Sam’s deep voice instantly soothed Maggie, wrapping its warm affection around her like a down jacket on a cold night.