by Kaye George
Tally’s mouth fell open and her fingers stopped moving. “Did no one think to taste the powder?”
“I did,” her mother said proudly. “I finally told them, I’d taste it. They had done tests for all kinds of drugs and it wasn’t anything. It flaked off those doughnuts. They were actually kind of stale when he bought them. It’s no wonder all the powdered sugar fell off into the bag.”
“Are you free to go?”
“Yes. We’re gone. I mean, we’re out of the jail building. On our way to the hotel. Finally. Now the show can go on, if the venue still has us booked.”
She knew that was the most important thing to them. The show, of course, must always go on. What a mess her parents had gotten into. Other people didn’t have to worry about their parents the way she and Cole did, she was sure. Cole hadn’t even shared in this latest crisis. To spare him, she hadn’t told him any of the Powdered Sugar Crisis, as she would always think of it. She would tell him eventually, now that she could laugh about the whole incident.
She walked to Mrs. Gerg’s early Monday evening instead of driving, to use up some of her nervous energy. A white van that said Arlen’s Aqua Shop on the side in blue letters was parked in front of Mrs. Gerg’s house, shining in the light from the streetlamp. She had seen it before. Was it Walter’s? It had a Dallas phone number under the lettering. She had no idea what kind of car Walter drove. But was he able to drive now? No, it was much too soon. The car could have belonged to someone visiting a neighbor, even though it was directly in front of Mrs. Gerg’s front porch. The spaces in front of both the neighboring houses were full.
She mounted the porch steps and tapped on the door. No one answered, but she could hear voices inside. Male voices. She knocked harder. Should she have called?
The door was flung open by the short Asian man she had seen here before with the cowboy. She had only glimpsed his face What was his name? She could never remember it. It didn’t seem to fit him.
“Hi,” she said. “Remember me? Tally Holt?”
He frowned, but stepped aside so she could come in.
She stood her ground for a moment. “Your name is…Thought?”
“Thet,” he said. So it was the same man.
“Oh yes. Nice to see you again. Is Mrs. Gerg here?” The whole name came tumbling back to her, Thet Thura. The other man was there, too, the one with the boots, his hat resting on his knee. Yes, his name was Arlen. That was his van outside.
Thet took another step back and she walked into the house. That must be his van out front, she thought, unless it belonged to the other man. Arlen looked up at Tally from the couch and said, “Howdy,” in a low, rasping voice. Probably from that chaw poking out his lip.
Mrs. Gerg sat on her sofa, huddled into the corner of it, a pinched, apprehensive look on her face. Thet glared at Mrs. Gerg for three full seconds before he stomped off into the kitchen. The lanky, tall man unwound from the couch and followed him, his boots clomping on the floor when he reached the tile floor in the kitchen. A reek of tobacco trailed after him. Tally thought Walter was probably there since he wasn’t in the living room.
Tally sat next to Mrs. Gerg. “Are you doing okay?”
The woman nodded, but the worry didn’t leave her face. Tally took her hands, noticing the bruises on her arms. She touched one lightly, looking her question at the older woman. Mrs. Gerg shook her head and darted her eyes toward the kitchen.
Tally leaned close. “I can help you. Do you want to come stay with me?”
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Why not?”
Mrs. Gerg cast a forlorn look at the floor. “I just can’t.” Then she looked Tally in the eyes. “Everything will be fine.” She attempted a smile. “This will be just fine in a little bit. I’ll be fine.” But her face remained worried-looking and her shoulders stayed hunched.
The voices in the kitchen were getting louder.
“It sure is!” a man shouted.
“It’s not! That is not a knockoff. I can tell.” That was Walter.
“Not so loud,” Thet hissed.
“What are they doing?” Tally asked.
“They’re…looking over some merchandise. Thet and Arlen are buying and selling things. With Walter.”
She heard them speaking in low murmurs, the rasp of the cowboy coming through occasionally. “I came to see if I can get you anything,” Tally said. “I have time to run to the grocery store if you’d like.”
“No, we’re okay.”
Tally wanted to see what was going on in the kitchen. She stood. “I need a glass of water. Can I get one for you?”
Mrs. Gerg jumped up. “No! No, I don’t need one. Please don’t go in there. You should leave. Please leave.”
Tally stepped very close, her voice low. “You’d better call me if you need anything. Okay?”
Mrs. Gerg nodded. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. “I will. You go now.”
“Are you sure you’re not in danger?”
“No, no danger.”
Tally couldn’t steal more than a glimpse into the kitchen as she left. But she clearly saw a mound of shiny objects on Mrs. Gerg’s kitchen table. It looked like a pile of jewelry and watches. Maybe she had found more members of the house theft ring.
As she left, she looked at the van again. The man inside the house was Arlen, so this van was his—Arlen’s Aqua Shop. And there was a Dallas phone number under the name.
17
Tally walked toward Dorella’s apartment after leaving Mrs. Gerg with those two men, against her better judgment, but her phone rang before she got even halfway there.
“Tally, it’s Jackson.”
She was glad she had dithered around and hadn’t eaten yet. They met at Rathskeller, both arriving at the same time and descending the stairway together.
They each had a glass of wine before ordering. Jackson said he wanted to decompress. “It’s been a busy couple of days. More than a couple.”
“You have a lot going on, don’t you? You picked up Ira Mann for the break-ins, and you have a murder in the motel. Then there’s the jade-smuggling.”
“It’s a lot, but it’s all related.”
“All of it?” The murder and the smuggling, yes, but the break-ins, too?
“I should say, it all ties together.”
“There’s more going on than you’re telling me,” Tally said, running her finger around the rim of the wineglass. The dry, deeply red liquid was hitting the spot tonight.
He gave her a wry one-sided smile. The one that scrunched up one of his eyes and made her heart leap a half an inch or so. “You know I can’t tell you everything. Mateo finding the body of the guy who ran into his truck does seem to be a coincidence. But everything else ties together logically.”
“So you don’t think Mateo killed him?”
He clamped his lips together and gave her a pointed look. He wasn’t going to say.
“Well, I think I found something related to the break-ins.”
He leaned across the table, an earnest, worried expression on his handsome face. “Tally, don’t go poking around in this business. It’s not safe.”
“I’m not poking around. I just saw it. By accident.” It was kind of by accident. “And I want you to make sure Mrs. Gerg is okay.”
“Tally, what are you talking about? What have you been up to?”
“I really did just want to check up on her. She didn’t sound right on the phone.”
“So you went over there.”
“I did. And I have to tell you…what I saw.”
“I’ll bite. What did you see? When was it?”
“Those awful men were there just now, Thet Thura and Arlen somebody. They were in her kitchen with Walter and there was a pile of jewelry on the table. It looked like watches, rings, necklaces—”
“Just now?”
“Yes. Just a few minutes ago. I came directly here from there.” Her fingers started drumming on the tabletop all by themselves.
“If Thura is involved…I have to go.”
Tally bit her tongue to keep from saying that they hadn’t eaten. She didn’t think he would react so immediately. She sat on her hands to stop her fingers, but her knee decided to jiggle up and down instead.
He called dispatch before he left the table. She heard him ask for a quick warrant and for police officers to pick up Thura and Wright and the third man at Mrs. Gerg’s house, and also to pick up Armand Mann. The fire chief.
“Wait just two seconds,” Tally said. “I’m afraid for Mrs. Gerg. Could you make sure she’s okay? And why are you picking up the chief?”
“He and Thura both have Dallas connections. Might as well question them both.”
After he dashed off, taking the stairs up to the street level two and three at a time, Tally relaxed. With Walter and the two men, Thet and Arlen, out of there, Mrs. Gerg should be safer. And the fire chief. Could he be an old acquaintance of the mysterious men?
Her phone vibrated a second before it rang and she saw her dad’s name. She grabbed it almost before it could make a sound.
“Dad! What’s going on?”
“We’re on our way to the Circus Maximus and our next performance. They’re waiting for us to show up.” She could tell he was smiling. There was a lift in his voice. “We thought they might cancel and replace us with another act. They actually did book someone else for these last few days, but now they want us to come perform.”
“I’m so glad. How are your voices?” She’d been worried about that.
“We’ve both been doing vocal exercises. Your mom says she’s one hundred percent and I’m almost there.”
“You know, there’s that ripped place in the lining of your satchel. You’d better check. Make sure nothing else is in there.”
He laughed. “We’ll do just that. For now, we have to run. Got shows to do.”
At least that load was off her shoulders. She was glad she hadn’t told Cole anything about this yet. He would have worried, and for nothing.
She had decided to forego her Monday night visit to Setting Sun, but she was free now, so she thought she might as well go there. It would take her mind off everything else.
Most of the residents, the ones who were still up, were watching TV in the communal room. She greeted everyone and the ones who could speak greeted her back. Some of them recognized her, some were just polite to everyone even though they couldn’t tell who anyone was anymore. And a few were cranky. But those people were that way most of the time.
Tally took a seat on the couch with two women, one of whom was knitting what looked like an endless scarf.
“Very pretty,” Tally said and the woman beamed.
A nurse entered the room with a tray of small paper pill cups. When she got to the knitter, Tally remembered what she had wanted to ask someone here. “Have you worked here long?” she asked the nurse, who had been there since Tally started visiting.
“I’d call it long,” she said with a smile. “I started here fifteen years ago.”
“Do you remember a janitor by the name of Walter?”
“What’s his last name?” She fed the pills to the woman beside Tally and gave her a cup of water to wash them down.
“Wright. Walter Wright.”
The nurse made a sour face. “Oh yes, I remember him. He got fired. Wasn’t here very long.”
“Can you tell me what he did?”
The nurse leaned down close. “I’m probably not supposed to. There are these rules about employment and confidentiality. But he’s bad news. He was stealing from these people. Can you imagine? Cash and jewelry. Even wedding rings.”
“Did you have him arrested?”
“No, no. We didn’t want any trouble. He gave most of it back and we told him not to return.”
Tally nodded. The pieces were falling into place.
18
Tally waited an hour before she called Mrs. Gerg to see where things stood after the police had presumably rounded up the three men. As she spoke on the phone, it felt like the woman didn’t want to talk to Tally, evading her questions. Tally was as direct as she could be, to test a theory.
“Mrs. Gerg, are Walter and the other two men still at your house?”
“Almost,” she said.
It seemed that they hadn’t been arrested. Or taken in and released already? She understood that Mrs. Gerg couldn’t talk freely so Tally would have to ask her questions she could answer with answering directly.
“Is Walter there?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Is Thet Thura there?”
“No, not at all.”
She was playing along perfectly. “Did the police pick them up?”
“Definitely not.”
“Why not? Okay, let me think how to ask you. Did the police find anything on your kitchen table when they got there?”
“No, nothing.”
“Mrs. Gerg, I’ve found out something about Walter. He was fired from a job for stealing. You need to—”
“We’re fine. I have to go now.”
So. They were fine? Maybe she meant that the men had gotten rid of the evidence. Maybe Thet or Arlen had taken it with them. Had they fled out the back when the police showed up? Or did they coincidentally leave before they got there? She had a chilling thought. Would Walter blame Mrs. Gerg for the raid? Would he hurt her badly? She wondered what had happened with the fire chief. Had they arrested him?
She didn’t even try to call Jackson, figuring he must be very busy right now. She ate a late supper, made from throwing together things that were in her refrigerator, disappointed that she and Jackson hadn’t gotten to have a nice meal at Rathskeller. Maybe some other time.
When the television news came on at ten, she was waiting for it, cat in lap, iced tea at her elbow. The broadcast only brought her more disappointment. There wasn’t a single mention of any trouble at Mrs. Gerg’s. Nothing about Walter Wright or any raids or arrests. And nothing about the fire chief. Jackson had said that Armand Mann and Thet Thura might be connected since the Manns were from Dallas.
Something pinged at the back of her mind, something to do with Thet and Dallas and Armand Mann. The offhand comment came back to her. Jackson had mentioned that both Armand Mann and Thura had Dallas connections, but that was it. Were they connected with each other? Or were they all connected to Arlen, who drove the van with the Dallas phone number? She would ask Jackson about that. Not that he would tell her anything, but she had to try.
* * * *
Yolanda had a better day at work on Tuesday than she thought she would. It started out with her and Raul facing each other on stools at the work counter.
“Raul, I need to know exactly what’s going on. There’s all kinds of speculation floating around.” True, it was herself speculating, but still, Raul didn’t need to know that.
“Rumors about what? What do you want to know? Lily and I are getting kind of serious.”
Yolanda’s mind paused. That wasn’t what she’d been thinking about. “That’s nice. I like her a lot.”
Raul smiled a golden smile. “I do, too. I haven’t ever liked anyone this much. What do you want to know? We don’t have any plans right now. Yet.”
“I wasn’t thinking about Lily. I need to know about Mateo.”
Raul looked puzzled. “What about him?”
“What exactly are his connections to what happened? To my window getting broken? And to the plastic being used for smuggling? I want to know the extent of his involvement.”
Raul shook his head. “He worked in the place that’s involved with the smuggling, yes, the place where they warehouse and ship the plastic that come
s from Asia. I’m pretty sure he was planning on doing something illegal when he had the wreck that night.”
“Did he know his truck was being used for transporting the smuggled jewelry stones?”
“I think so.”
“Is there any connection with the home robberies? I need to know if he’s involved. And if you are, too.”
“Those break-ins? No, I’m not. I don’t think he is, either. He said he was in the crime watch group and he’s been bragging to me all the time that he’s in on the burglary ring, but last night he told me he’s not. Not really.”
“What? What are you saying?”
“That some of the people in the crime watch group are the ones robbing the houses.”
“Mateo is either in or he isn’t. Which is it?”
“He knows who’s involved, and he wants to join them. I tell him to stay away from that, but he doesn’t listen to me. He’s tried to get in on it, to join the people robbing the houses, but they don’t tell him anything. He says they don’t trust him.”
“I wonder why,” Yolanda said, twirling her hair around her finger. “How much do you need to trust a fellow thief?”
Raul smiled at that. “He fell asleep driving the truck and messed up somebody’s plans. I don’t know who was in on that, but I think no one trusts him now. Still, I don’t think he had anything to do with the stealing from the houses.”
Yolanda leaned forward. “So tell me. Who is in the theft ring?”
“He won’t tell me. He still thinks they’ll let him in.”
“What about finding the dead guy in the motel?”
Raul shook his head. “Yeah, something was up with that. He knew who he was, but didn’t tell the police. But the two of them were supposed to work together with the smuggling, him and Sawyer, so he acted like he didn’t know him.”
“Work together how?”
“He told me all of this after Sawyer Sutton died. Mateo was driving the company truck. He was supposed to meet Sawyer at night, on the way to Dallas, and stop the truck. Sawyer was going to intercept him and take the goods from him, like a holdup. A fake hijacking. And Mateo would say he was robbed and didn’t know who did it. Then Sutton was supposed to pass the stuff to someone else the next day to take to a fish shop, or something, in Dallas. There was some kind of shipping mess-up and they were supposed to do that so the stuff got to the right destination. It wasn’t labeled to go to Dallas. The smugglers messed up and wanted Mateo and Sawyer to fix the mess-up.”