by Judith Mehl
“I could scare her.”
“What part of don’t let her see you don’t you understand? I’d better come with you.”
“Don’t get twisted over it. I was just asking. I’ll report in and let you know where she goes. It’ll be easy. From what you said she’s barely out of school. Won’t know what’s happening.”
Chandler ignored him and headed out and settled into the passenger seat. “Let’s just get this done.”
They were in luck. She was still there. He had Akins park the car far enough away that she hopefully couldn’t see them. By straining his head toward the window a little he could spot her while she served customers at the counter.
“I wonder what kind of vehicle she drives. Akins, go check out the parking lot.”
The parking lot was on the other side of the building. If they parked where they could see it, those in the store might see them.
Akins ran back. “The lot’s full. Seems strange, this time of night.”
Chandler settled comfortably in the seat. “We take our chances here.”
He mentally assessed the situation. The shop didn’t seem to honor normal closing hours. So much for an early night, he thought as he attempted a comfortable position that kept his head practically out the window so he’d be able to spot her as she moved around. The air felt good on his face as he watched. A slew of women hovered around, with one old man in the background.
“What in the heck are they doing?”
Finally the crowd shifted slightly and he saw part of a cook pot on an electric burner of some kind.
“A cooking lesson? Just my luck. Dinner time and here I sit.”
Akins wrestled around in his seat enough to pull a chocolate bar from his back pocket. “This is all I got. You want to split it?”
Chandler grabbed the whole thing. “What a melted mess! But food’s food.” He peeled carefully, chomped it down in two bites, then licked the rest off the wrapper. So much for dinner. He eyed the diner down the street. He couldn’t leave. If he sent Akins that would be the time the broad goes home. Too bad I didn’t see a work schedule while I was in there. What am I thinking, anyway, to let them see me? Maybe we need to get rid of this lady.
“Whoa, who is that guy lurking behind Fanny Endicott? He reeks cop. I sure hadn’t seen the guy when I was here before. Who’s he?”
Akins burrowed lower in the seat. “Don’t ask me. On the other hand, he looks like he’s putting some sprinkles in the pot like he’s helpin’ cook. Can’t be a cop.”
“Besides, there’s no cop car in the lot or anywhere around. That guy must be a cook. Who woulda’ known. We could sure use him at the cabin.” They tucked down in their seats and prepared for the long haul.
“Oh, God, no,” Akins shout woke Chandler.
“What? Did she leave?”
“Don’t know.”
One inside light went off, then another. “Get the car in gear, dimwit. We don’t want her to get away.”
Akins started the car. When all the shop lights were out he swung the car around and headed toward the parking lot. It was empty. A dark and dirty jeep pulled out the rear of the lot and up an alley.
“Follow that jeep!” They were just in time. They saw the jeep turn out onto the side street. When it drove under a street light he could see her curly hair.
“That’s her. Don’t lose her.”
Chandler sat up tall. Maybe his luck had turned. Then they practically lost her on the first turn. She revved up that old clunker and shot out of there.
“Don’t worry. Nothing can out race my SUV.” Akins accelerated as if in a getaway car.
“We’re not robbing a bank, ya’ know!”
“I gotta’ be ready for anything.”
“Jerry, we’re only convincing some old farmers to get out of our way so we can build our resort. No getaway needed. Just follow the jeep.”
Akins tore after the woman and caught up. “Do you know this area?”
Chandler turned sideways in his seat. “Not really. We lived in town. Why?”
“We’re leaving town. Trying to tail someone on the back roads unseen might be tricky.”
Fanny drove like her maniac brother but was too exhausted to care. The work was hard, though she loved the women and the class. And old man Weiler was a dear. She wasn’t sure if he came to class every time to really learn to cook or to see the women. He didn’t flirt so she let him be.
Fulton on the other hand had driven her nuts. Always a gentleman. But always there. Behind her back, at her side. He eyed every one as they walked around the shop, or lingered too near her and the demonstration pot. Nobody, but nobody could have put a drop of anything poisonous in that soup. Which was great because as part of the class they all got to sample it. Usually that prompted many of them to pick up the same supplies to make their own at home.
Tonight his presence added a tension to her neck on top of the extra work and her first class alone. Her thoughts drifted through the evening’s activities and whether she should have organized it in a better way. Her tired eyes wandered frequently to the rear view mirror. And each time, in the distance she saw an SUV. Uncannily like the one she saw leaving the shop when that slimy man stopped in early afternoon asking for Agatha.
Could it possibly be? What could he want? Maybe he was trying to find Agatha.
Margaret was gone. Rosalin was gone. Agatha was the only one left in authority. So she had to shake the tail. Whether he was following her home or hoping she’d lead him to Agatha he had to fail. Fanny grew up in these woods, and her brother taught her more than racing a car. Her jeep was filthy and dented. The SUV looked like a new penny as the streetlight struck it. It’s time to muck it up.
Dusk settled into a dark, starless night, helping her feel safe as she traveled the unpaved roads, now heading away from home. She made an abrupt turn onto an even bumpier, unlit road. She saw him in her mirror make the same turn. Going deeper into the woods probably wasn’t her wisest decision. This guy was not going to catch her. She kept her eyes on the rearview mirror though, knowing that her false belief might find her with a killer, like the guy behind her on the road in a now-dirty car.
Fanny could emotionalize with the best of them, having won the drama queen award in her family of seven. The ability to exhibit nothing but a cold exterior when called for developed into her strong suit. She called on her aces now, knowing that revealing weakness would be her downfall. She needed to stall until she found help or it found her. Too bad Fulton hadn’t stuck with her past closing. He’d waved goodbye as he answered his phone and hurried out the door a second later.
So what was her next move?
At the last second, as she rounded a curve, she saw the off-road path her and her brother had followed in younger years. It was time to test it now. With the jeep. Before the mystery man could see her, she headed in and slowed the car to leave no dust trail. It killed her to do it, but it had been a dry spring and the path would either save her or give her away.
The SUV sped past, leaving a trail of dust.
Chapter 24
Those lower case ‘d’s that rise to the left and don’t come back show someone who wants to travel afar and experience adventure.
Kat stared at the wiry woman in front of the desk in the police station lobby. Then Kat blinked her eyes and nodded her head sideways at the booking officer, repeatedly. He finally asked the arresting officer to hold the woman in question at the desk, grabbed Kat’s arm, and swiveled her around behind the counter.
“What ya’ doin’ here anyway? You with Nick and his guys?”
“We’re all waiting for Detective Hill. He called a pow-wow.”
“What’s that got to do with this woman, here?” He tried to motion with his head without showing the woman she was the subject discussed. Kat placed herself between him and her.
“You may want to keep her here until her hearing. She might be a flight risk.”
“Do you know her?”
“
Never seen her before, but you can tell from the paper she filled out on the counter that she might be ready to flee. At least check out her story before she leaves. Those lower case ‘d’s that rise to the left and don’t come back show someone who wants to travel afar and experience adventure. I’m just saying. . . .”
He hung his head as if in despair, twirled her around and out from behind the counter. He pointed her toward the hallway. “Detective Hill will meet with you in the conference room on the right. All of you get in there and don’t move till he gets here.”
She gingerly repositioned her left foot, resettled the cane and motioned to the others to follow her. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a below-the-counter thumbs up from the arresting officer. He obviously did know the woman and her wanderlust.
Nick and Lance broke off their conversation and followed Kat. Lance assured Kat that they’d escorted the Tattoo Man in earlier and he was in custody. She was only there to represent the sisters who had identified him from Kat’s cell phone photo. Unsure of the Tattoo Man’s role in any of this, she turned to Detective Hill hoping for an explanation.
He settled every one down. “Okay, folks, let’s try to make some sense of what’s been happening. There’s no one else here; no one listening in. We need to lay everything out from the Petingill & Donnelly Security Agency case, to what’s been discovered so far in the death’s of the Bittersweet Herbs shop owner and associate, to the possible relationship of both cases to the Tattoo Man.
They all nodded an acknowledgment. They knew how the timing on the resort case with the scam artists was crucial. Anything could ruin it now, after weeks of preparation.
“Nick, it looks like the herb farm and shop may have nothing to do with your scam. Even though the old ladies, excuse me, the Missus O'Neary and Mrs. Ort, saw the Tattoo man near the herb farm, it seems to have no bearing on the developer scam. This man—to be called Tattoo Man only until we obtain his real name—may only be involved in Nick Donnelly’s case and have nothing to do with the deaths of Agatha Hartman and Rosalin Bromfield.”
He turned to Nick and his crew and added, “The Dan Jones’ farm, which is on the same road as the herb farm, is obviously part of Nick’s investigation. Miss O'Neary and Mrs. Ort may have seen the man with the tattoos while he was planning the fire at the Jones’ farm.”
Kat interrupted. “So you think that when Rosalin told Agatha she saw something suspicious, it could have been something to do with the recent fires and nothing to do with the herb farm?”
“That’s about it, ma’am.”
Just then he turned sideways and answered his cell phone. Kat could hear Hill’s response as she sidled closer. Kat’s ears perked up and he turned away from her. Everyone stopped talking.
“What?” They heard him say.
He repeated what was being said so everyone could hear. “You were tailed leaving work? You’re safe at home now?”
“I’ll have a man pick you up shortly. Don’t open the door to anyone else.”
Before he could pocket his cell, Kat asked, “Was that Fanny? Is she all right?”
“Looks like the enterprising lady knows these back roads. She shook him and headed home before he could find her.”
They all sighed with relief.
Kat was the first to ask, “But who was it?”
Detective Hill turned toward the group. “She didn’t say. But, hell. We were just going to announce the new direction of the murder cases.”
Startled, Kat knocked over her cane.
“Yes, Kat, we’re now investigating them as such. It’s difficult to assume that someone as knowledgeable about herbs as Mrs. Kinney would deliberately ingest foxglove, but it was in her system in large quantities and in a purer form than her medicine. And Ms. Bromfield was apparently shoved down the stairs.”
“Now, at this latest news, everything seems to fit into the Petingill & Donnelly Security Agency angle. Our thinking, if we caught the developers running their scam we’d probably have the murderers, too.”
This time he caught Nick by surprise, she thought. And the furrows in his brow didn’t look anything like smile lines. She hoped the detective didn’t plan on taking over Nick’s investigation. At least her husband hadn’t been catching up on the side so she knew as much as everyone else there.
The detective explained, “With the Jones fire so near the herb farm we figured maybe Margaret Kinney and Rosalin Bromfield had seen something they weren’t supposed to.”
Kat kept sneaking glances at the door.
“So what does Fanny have to do with it?”
“We’ll know more when she gets here. We’ll wait for her before we now attempt to tie the farm and shop back to the murders.”
Learning quilting had helped Kat be patient in waiting for her ankle to heal. However, everyone saw she still had a long way to go in really nailing that virtue. She took a moment to pull out her travel tin of herbal healing salve and massage it into her ankle. It distracted her from the murders only for a few minutes.
With a huge question mark in her voice, she said, “So Fanny being tailed changed your direction?”
“Yeah. I feel like I’m going in circles. Something must be going on at the herb shop. A stranger stopped in today and asked about Agatha. Then Miss Endicott was tailed home.”
The detective pulled a chair to the front of the room, swiveled it backwards and sat, facing the perplexed faces of all in the room. “Nick, let’s start in the middle with the Tattoo Man. What did you get before you brought him in?”
Nick arched an eyebrow. Kat knew it meant “How do you know I got anything?”
Her husband was smart enough not to voice his thought. He did explain how and why Lance was at the farm. “Let me back track a little. Our case, at the request of a client—name withheld, was to investigate a developer seeking a multi-million dollar investment into the building of a super resort in the area. Our client thought the investment sounded shady, especially since there were already quite a few resorts in the Poconos.”
Kat noticed Detective Hill’s eyes open wide and then become covered with a deep frown. It looks like this is the first he’s heard of it, she thought.
Nick continued, “With a few facts from our client we were able to research projects this man and his company were involved in in the past. He had never been formally accused of a crime but many aspects of the situations alerted the agency to a potential property scam here in the Poconos.”
Nick then briefly outlined their plan to situate Nick as a millionaire in the area looking for an investment on his money. The developer, Harrison Chandler, zeroed in on Nick before he could get completely established. He and the crew were attempting to hold the guy off until they could establish a clear cut case of fraud against him.
“I was able to finagle a tour of the area involved as well as a look at the master plan. Of course, he immediately wanted my money.”
Detective Hill nodded to Lance. “How does Lance and Dan Jones fit in?”
Lance shrugged his brawny shoulders but answered quickly and intelligently. “Once we knew the area, we discreetly checked with a few of the farmers to see if they knew about the development. Most didn’t. After we heard Dan was approached by the developer to sell his farm, we met with him.
He nodded to Nick, who continued. “He told us of a farmer nearby whose barn burnt to the ground in a suspicious fire. He was concerned. We moved Lance in that same day as his long lost son. Which brings us to today and the fire on Farmer Jones’ property.
“So you caught the Tattoo Man setting the fire,” Hill asked.
Lance winced. “Not really, or we would have called the police and turned him in to the fire department.”
Hill smiled at his attempt to defend the security agency from any wrong doing. “And???”
He turned to Nick. “So why is he downstairs now?”
“Once he admitted to setting the fire we brought him right here and notified the fire department battalion chie
f.”
The detective stood up, legs braced and every muscle alert now. “Was he this developer, Chandler, or whatever his name is?”
“Life isn’t that simple. He was hired for the job but didn’t know who hired him. It appears it is not his first fire in the area, but we can’t implicate Chandler directly.”
Kat heard several groans and could almost see the frustration emanating from the men. Before she could find words to cheer everyone up, Fanny breezed through the door and halted when she saw so many people in the room. Fanny’s embarrassed face, as everyone stared at her, turned to relief when she saw Kat. Hill motioned her in. Please make yourself comfortable. We understand you’ve had a problem. Can you tell us about it?”
Fanny grabbed the chair nearest to Kat and presented her with a very firm, “What’s going on?” look. Then she turned to Hill, who was up front, obviously in charge. She just wasn’t sure what he was in charge of, and what he wanted from her.
“Just tell him about being followed and what exactly happened.”
“I, I-uh, left work and saw a car following me. I checked for sure.”
Hill interrupted. “How did you do that?”
“Well, as soon as I thought he might be following me I kept turning onto dirty, bumpy roads away from home.”
“You didn’t happen to see what kind of car it was?”
“”It was a souped up Ford Explorer, a King Ranch, I think. Pristine, at least when he started out.” Kat saw she attempted to hide her smile at the thought, but didn’t succeed well.
Kat could see Hill’s skepticism and intervened before he had to swallow his tongue in regret.
“Her brother’s a mechanic and a stunt driver in his spare time. Fanny knows her cars.”
Hill settled back and motioned for Fanny to continue her story.
“That’s about it. I raced ahead and pulled onto an off-the-road path I knew from my childhood. He sped past on the main road. I let him get far enough away then headed home and called you.”
They all swiveled their heads toward Hill. She stammered out an explanation. “Earlier we’d seen a man in the store that was asking about Agatha. He left abruptly and a minute later I saw a Ford Explorer drive away.”