Thirty-Six and a Half Motives: Rose Gardner Mystery #9 (Rose Gardner Mystery Series)

by Denise Grover Swank

  “That’s not a problem,” she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

  Once again, I had to wonder about her past, but now was not the time to ask.

  “This is not a good idea,” Jed said. “They’re bound to be watchin’ your office. They’ll be less likely to be watching the bakery. Why not send Bruce Wayne to get your purse?”

  I knew he was right, but there was something about flipping off J.R. that appealed to me. “Maybe it’s not very smart, but I think we can make it work. If it pisses off J.R., I call it a win. Besides, you know they’ll never expect it.”

  “Skeeter’s not gonna be happy.”

  “Once it’s done, he’ll appreciate the gesture.”

  Jed’s eyes held mine in the mirror. “I suppose there’s no chance of changin’ your mind?”

  “Not even a little one.”

  He cursed under his breath. “I’m going in with you.”

  “You can go into the bakery, but you can’t follow us into the office. That’s where we’re going to lose them.”

  “And just how do you propose to do that?”

  “We’ll slip out the back door and walk down the alley toward the county jail.”

  “That’s blocks away. And you’ll be crossing two streets.”

  “If you’re out front watching the office, they’ll be watching you.”

  Jed pushed out a long breath. “This is crazy.”

  I grinned. “And that’s why it’s gonna work.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “Fine. But if anything goes sideways, you’re both staying with me.”

  “I can live with that.”

  Jed parked across the street from the landscaping office, then followed Neely Kate and me into the bakery. Dena’s eyes widened when she saw him trailing behind us. I cast a glance back at him, realizing what a formidable presence he was—tall, broad-chested, a no-nonsense look on his face. But she wasn’t looking at him with fear, I realized. No, it was pure, unadulterated lust.

  “Rose, Neely Kate,” she said, her gaze still on Jed. “You brought a friend.”

  “Yeah . . .”

  “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

  I looked back at Jed, unsure if he wanted me to share his name.

  He shrugged, leaving it to me to decide.

  I wasn’t ashamed of him, and I wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. “Dena, this is my friend, Jed.”

  “Your friend?” I heard the unspoken question in her voice. “What kind of friend? I thought you were with Mason.”

  Instant pain shot through my heart, but I managed not to cringe. “No, Jed’s just hanging out with me and Neely Kate today.”

  “Like a bodyguard?” When I gave her a questioning look, she added, “I heard about J.R. Simmons bustin’ loose, and I know you helped put him behind bars. If I were you, I wouldn’t mind having someone like Jed around to protect me.” She winked at him. “Of course, I wouldn’t mind havin’ you around anyway.”

  Jed’s only visible reaction was to narrow his eyes.

  “Um . . . we’re here for some cupcakes,” I said.

  “Are they for Jed? Because I have a special recipe I’d like to share with him.”

  My eyes widened as I cast a glance at Neely Kate. I never would have expected Dena to lose her head like this over a man, let alone my friend. The shrug Neely Kate gave me told me she was surprised, too.

  “Actually,” Neely Kate said, as she moved in front of the glass case, “we’re taking cupcakes to a friend of ours. You might know her, actually.”

  Dena crossed her arms over her chest. “This isn’t like the time you wanted to accuse poor Marta Gray of murder but decided to butter her up with her favorite cupcakes instead, is it?”

  “For the record,” Neely Kate said with a hint of sass, “we never accused her of murder.”

  “That’s right,” I added. “It was easy to see she couldn’t hurt a fly. In fact, we offered to be her friends.”

  Dena uncrossed her arms, but she still looked suspicious. “So who are you trying to butter up this time, and why?”

  “Maybe we’re just trying to be nice,” Neely Kate said.

  “Not likely,” Dena retorted.

  “No, really,” I said, crossing my fingers behind my back. “We’re trying to cheer someone up. We heard poor Hilary Wilder was feeling under the weather, and what pregnant woman doesn’t like cupcakes?”

  Neely Kate flinched enough for me to know it still stung that Hilary, who was the source of so much contention, still carried her baby while Neely Kate had miscarried her twins and most likely would never be able to get pregnant again.

  Dena looked like she was almost convinced.

  Neely Kate pushed out an exaggerated breath. “Of course, we could always go to Ima Jean’s shop.”

  Dena snorted. “Sure you will. If you want to give her cupcakes that taste like dirt. Besides, she shut down her shop after her daughter died. Even if she opened it back up, I suspect she wouldn’t want to see you there.”

  I sighed. She was right. Not only had I been there to witness her daughter’s death, but there was a chance she might be my grandmother. I wasn’t up to dealing with that right now. “We want a dozen cupcakes,” I said. “But I need two of them in a separate box. For Hilary. One vanilla bean and one chocolate.”

  Dena pursed her lips and shook her head.

  “Wrong choice?”

  “Are you really trying to cheer her up?”

  I couldn’t make myself lie, not even with my fingers crossed. “We—”

  Neely Kate butted in front of me. “What pregnant woman wouldn’t want cupcakes? And yours to boot! What kind should we bring her?”

  Dena studied the two of us for a moment, then sighed in defeat. “She’s been craving raspberry lemon.”

  I smiled. “Then we’ll take two of those.”

  Dena boxed those up before grabbing a bigger box for the rest of our treats. “And the others?”

  Neely Kate and I selected an assortment, and then Neely Kate paid since I didn’t have my purse.

  “I’ll pay you back,” I promised.

  Neely Kate shot me an ornery grin. “You sure will.”

  I was in a heap of trouble. And it wasn’t just from J.R. and his nonsense. Neely Kate would find a way to make me pay, all right.

  Dena gave Jed a final lingering look as we walked out of the bakery.

  Neely Kate laughed as soon as the door shut behind us. “If you’re lookin’ for a girlfriend, Jed, looks like you have someone jumpin’ at the bit to apply for the role.”

  “Not interested,” he grunted.

  She laughed as we walked over to his car. “It’s good to have options.”

  “Not interested.”

  “You got a girlfriend?” she asked. “Significant other?”

  He gave her a look that suggested he wanted to swat her away like a fly. Instead, he grunted again. “No. Now drop it.”

  Obviously he didn’t know my best friend very well. His comment only encouraged her to run through a list of the available women in a twenty-mile radius.

  “Maddie Hershey is cute, but she’s more gossipy than a hen house. I don’t suppose that would work with your career choice. Then again, it might as long as the information had a one-way valve, if you know what I mean.”

  His glare only made her laugh.

  “You need a woman, Jed. And I’m going to find you one.” She held up her hands as though viewing a sign. “Neely Kate Colson, woman of many trades: landscape designer, detective, and matchmaker.”

  She turned to me. “Do you think any of those will make me rich?”

  “Not unless you can make matches for millionaires,” I said, looking around for suspicious characters. The square seemed pretty innocuous, but I knew better than to accept that at face value. “But you won’t find many of those here in Fenton County. You might have to branch out.”

  She pursed her lips. “No, if Kate really bailed Rose out, she’s lost her million,
and Skeeter seems to have his hands full with strippers and bimbos.”

  Jed gave her questioning glance.

  “What? It’s not hard to figure out he has money. He was gonna bail Rose out, right?” she whispered. “And everybody knows he goes through strippers at his club like a crying woman goes through tissues.”

  While I had no doubt that was true, I hated that she thought she had him pegged. The man I knew was more than the sleazy kingpin she was describing. Then again, that was probably the perception he wanted the world to have of him. It was so much easier to underestimate him that way.

  When we reached the car, Neely Kate set both cupcake boxes on the front passenger seat. My gaze shot to a darkened spot on the asphalt outside the hardware store, several parking spaces down. It was surrounded by yellow crime scene tape, but Merv’s car had already been towed away.

  “You sure you want to do this, Rose?” Jed asked quietly, leaning into my ear.

  I lifted my chin and turned to look him in the eye. “Yes.” I knew I should be nervous, but I was mostly pissed. “I have my reasons.”

  He nodded with a grim expression. “I’ll walk you to the door, and then I’ll sit across the street in the car. Text me when you go out the back, and I’ll meet you around the corner on the side street. That way, if anyone’s watching the office from a lower vantage point, they won’t be able to see us.”

  Jed stood close, trying to shield my back as we crossed the street, but I knew it wasn’t necessary. J.R. wanted me to be terrified when I was taken. A sunny February morning in southern Arkansas was anything but terrifying.

  No, he’d wait until I let my guard down.

  Neely Kate unlocked the door, and Jed practically shoved me inside.

  “Keep the lights off,” he said, filling the open space with his body. “We can use the sunlight to our advantage. If it’s darker inside than out, no one will be able to see you two leave out the back unless they’re pressing their noses to the window.”

  “You’re not comin’ in?”

  Jed studied my face for a minute. “No,” he finally said, a slow smile stretching across his face. “You were right. You gallivantin’ all over town like nothing happened is gonna piss Simmons off more than you can possibly know. I say we do it.”

  Neely Kate broke into a huge grin. “I’m in.”

  “We’re all crazy,” I said, dabbing the corner of my eyes. “This is dangerous.”

  “But exciting,” Neely Kate said. “Let’s do it.”

  “Okay.”

  Jed nodded, then waited until Neely Kate locked the door before he walked across the street and sat in his car.

  Neely Kate gave me a long look. “Okay, it’s just you and me now. Why were you really so insistent about coming into the office? Shoot, I could have run in to get your purse.”

  “I don’t know,” I said, walking past her desk and looking down at the space I’d crawled into to hide. “I needed to see it in the daylight. So I’m not afraid of it.” I paused. “Neely Kate, Sam Teagen stood in that window with a gun, the both of us staring at each other. He would have busted in and taken me if Merv hadn’t run him off.” I walked to the back room, and opened the door to the toilet. A blood-stained towel lay in the sink, and there was a spatter of blood on the wall. “Merv was shot in our office, protecting me.” I looked back at her. “He doesn’t even like me very much. That just doesn’t seem right.”

  When she started to protest, I held up my hand. “That’s not why I’m here. He works for Skeeter, and I know he was doing his job. I may still feel guilty, but he knew the risk he was taking.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “Because those derelicts came into my business—our business. I’m not going to let them put their slimy stamp on it so that I’m scared to come into my own office. I’m not going to let them or J.R. Simmons—or anyone—make me cower in the dark. So I had to come here and face it, because I am scared. And I am intimidated. But I don’t want to let them have that power over me anymore. So I’m here, confronting it. This is me saying you can’t steal my life, J.R. Simmons, no matter how much you try.”

  She watched me for a second. “You really have grown so much from the woman I met last July.”

  “I have, haven’t I?” I asked, my eyes tearing up again. “But I’ve lost so much.”

  “Nothin’ worth havin’ is easy. You know that,” she said quietly. “We both know that. And I understand needin’ to make a stand, no matter how foolish it might look. What do you think I’m doing with Ronnie?”

  “I’m sorry I gave you a hard time about filing for divorce. I just want you to be happy, Neely Kate. You deserve it.”

  “I don’t know that I want what I truly deserve, but I’m gonna take a stand anyway. So if you need to ride through town like Lady Godiva, I’ll be waitin’ with a robe for when you climb down.”

  I pulled her into a hug. “You’re the best friend I could ever hope to have.”

  “You too.” She gave me a squeeze, then leaned back to look into my face. “Now why else are we here?”

  I laughed as I dropped my arms. “What makes you say that?”

  “Because I know you. There’s something else.” Her grin spread. “You wanted to come here for another reason. What is it?”

  “I want to go back up.”

  “On the roof? Why?”

  “I want to see if the duffel bag is still in the Dumpster.”

  “But Skeeter says the alley is under surveillance. And I thought the shed blew a hole in the roof.”

  “But he didn’t say the roof was under surveillance, and I can check out the Dumpster from the building next door.”

  “But Skeeter is supposed to be checking out the Dumpster,” she protested.

  “We’re already here, so why shouldn’t we look? Besides, I’m done taking orders from men.”

  “So why not tell Jed?”

  “He’d insist on coming, which would blow our cover,” I said.“They’d know we were up to something.”

  “They?”

  “You know someone’s watching us for J.R.”

  “But won’t they see us up on the roof?” Neely Kate asked.

  “Do you really think they’ll be looking?”

  “What if the police are up there? If there are as many guns in that shed as you said, they’re sure to keep a close watch.”

  “If they’re up there, we’ll leave. But J.R.’s escape is probably their top priority, so they must be stretched thin.”

  Neely Kate nodded resolutely. “Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

  As soon as I opened the unlocked door to the staircase, I was hit by a blast of cold air.

  “I bet they didn’t close the trap door,” I said as I led the way up the two flights of spiral stairs.

  I climbed the rungs in the wall and poked my head out of the hatch, which was indeed open. The shed had collapsed, and the roof was covered with black soot that surrounded the hole where the shed had stood. But while the entire area was cordoned off with police tape, no one was standing around. “It’s clear.”

  We both climbed out and squatted next to the opening. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we can just walk right over,” I said with a grimace. “I think we’ll have to squat and crawl.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I already figured that out.” But, rather than make her way to the next roof, she crawled over to the side of the building that faced the square. “You sure can see a lot up here.”

  I nodded, taking in the view. If J.R. had someone watching the office, they weren’t out in the open. So where were they? “We need to find Teagen and Marshal. It’s not enough to just take J.R. down, especially if Kate’s involved. We need to figure the whole thing out and wrap it up in a nice tidy bow.”

  We crawled over the multiple buildings separating us from the building that housed the antique store. The middle of the roof had completely collapsed, and the rest of the ceiling looked about ready to fall in, making it impossible to
get closer. I squatted in the corner and scanned the alley. Both ends were blocked with crime scene tape, but I didn’t see any law enforcement officials. I also couldn’t get a good look inside the Dumpster.

  “Can you see anything?” Neely Kate asked.

  “No.” I had to get closer.

  Taking a deep breath, I crawled onto the foot-wide ledge of the antique store building.

  “Rose! What do you think you’re doin’?”

  “We need that bag.” I didn’t crawl very far. I definitely didn’t have a death wish, but I was far enough that I could peer inside.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “I don’t see it.” Disappointment was heavy in my voice.

  “Okay, don’t get upset yet,” Neely Kate said. “Maybe it sunk into the trash. I bet a bunch of water went inside the Dumpster and all those cardboard boxes and papers would have fallen apart.”

  “But if it all flattened, wouldn’t the bag be on top?” I crawled backward, then lowered myself to the roof of the building next door. “I’m pretty sure the insurance office next door didn’t start throwing bags of shredded paper on top of it in the middle of a fire—oh crap! They know.” I dug out my phone and dialed Skeeter.

  “Who knows what?” Neely Kate asked, looking worried.

  “Everything okay?” Skeeter asked when he answered.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Have you talked to Anna?”

  He was silent for a moment. “I can’t find her.”

  I sucked in a breath, trying not to panic. “Did you go by the nursery?”

  “Yeah. Deveraux’s mother is working. She said Anna was outside helpin’ your partner with some mulch. One minute Anna and your partner, Decker, were there, the next they were gone. She has no idea where they went.”

  “Oh shit,” I said in panic. “They know we know.”

  “Whoa. Slow down,” Skeeter said in a tight voice. “What are you talkin’ about?”

  “James, think about it,” I said, ignoring Neely Kate’s startled look. “Teagen saw me jump off the side of the roof. He and Marshal left the shed unlocked before heading back to my building. Even if they didn’t know I was in the shed while they were, they might think I went in after them. The files were missing after they were in the shed the first time—after they saw me jump. And now I don’t see the bag in the Dumpster—”