Hell in a Handbasket: Rose Gardner Investigations #3

by Denise Grover Swank

“It’s an office full of people,” I said. “How dangerous could it be?”

  He gave me a dry look in the mirror. Good thing I hadn’t told him that Calvin had held me at gunpoint the day before.

  I found June at her desk, her eyes glued on her computer screen while her fingers were flying on the keyboard. “He’s not here,” she said without looking up.

  “Do you know when he left?”

  “He hasn’t been in all day.”

  So much for an alibi. He definitely would have had time to murder his wife and Charlene. I decided to play dumb. “Do you know when he’ll be back?”

  She looked up at me in exasperation. “Have you no shame? The poor man’s wife was found murdered.” Then her brow wrinkled. “Why are you even here? Patsy was the one who hired you, and now she’s dead.”

  I took a moment to regroup. “True, but I still feel like I owe it to her to clear her name. And if I can find out who did this to her, then all the better.”

  She shook her head. “I’m sure Mr. Clydehopper’s at home . . . grieving as he should be.”

  “Do you happen to know why Calvin didn’t come in today?”

  “You drove him to drink yesterday,” she said. “Whatever you said upset him. He probably stayed home to recuperate. Now go away and let him grieve.”

  “Do you know if anyone has been in to see him over the last few days? Anyone unusual?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She glanced up, exasperated. “I take my job seriously, Ms. Gardner. I’m at my desk from before eight until after five, every day. I would know if someone unusual had stopped by.”

  “You weren’t here at lunch today,” the woman who’d told Neely Kate the pony story said as she got up from her desk. “You were gone for a couple of hours. And you were gone last Friday too,” she called over her shoulder as she headed toward the entrance.

  “I was at a dentist appointment last week, and I had a doctor’s appointment today,” June said, getting ticked. “I was back by one. I am allowed some personal time.”

  “Of course you are,” I agreed, trying to find my way back to her good side.

  “In fact, I live less than two miles from the factory, so I’m always available when Calvin needs me. I take my responsibility to him very seriously.”

  She graced me with a scathing look. Obviously I wasn’t going to get any help from June, not that I was surprised. She took her gatekeeper job seriously.

  I started to head for the door, but the younger assistant was in the hallway, motioning for me to come closer. After I glanced back at June and saw she was engrossed in a phone call, I hurried over to meet her.

  She hugged the wall in the hallway and shot a worried glance at the office area. “Do you think Calvin killed his wife?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, trying to keep a neutral face. “Do you think he did?”

  She made a face. “Maybe.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Because I heard him talkin’ to Patsy yesterday afternoon after you left.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Pretty sure. He was in the hall, probably because June eavesdrops on all his calls. She’s like obsessed with him, and some days he just has to get away from her.”

  “How can you be sure he was talkin’ to Patsy and not one of his . . . girlfriends?”

  “Because he called her by name—Patsy. He told her you were onto something and for her to sit tight, that he was gonna take care of everything. He told her to meet him at their special place at noon today.”

  “Have you told the sheriff’s deputies any of this?”

  She shook her head with a wild look. “I didn’t want to stir up trouble if he was innocent.”

  “If he turns out to be guilty, do you mind if I give your name to them to help build his case?”

  She frowned. “I don’t know. He’s a VP, and I don’t want to lose my job.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’s gonna be the one losin’ his job if he’s guilty.” I collected her name and contact information, then hurried outside and around the building. I got into James’ backseat and told him everything.

  “I need to get to a phone,” I said. “I have to call Deputy Miller.”

  He shook his head. “No. Not yet.”

  “Have you lost your ever-lovin’ mind? What do you mean not yet?”

  “We don’t know what’s in that file. It might be detrimental if the sheriff’s department gets their hands on it.”

  He had a point, but it felt wrong. “Okay. We need to find Calvin before the sheriff’s deputies do, because if we figured this out, you know they’re going to. It’s not like we’re dealing with the Henryetta Police Department.”

  He turned around in his seat to face me. “Any suggestions?”

  I pressed my lips together and stared at the building. “I don’t know. Maybe his house, but if he’s hiding, that would be too obvious. Surely he’s not that stupid.” I paused. “He’s a deacon at the church. He might have gone there for counsel.” When he gave me a weird look, I shrugged. “What? I go to Jonah for advice sometimes.”

  “Jonah Pruitt and Reverend Timothy Baker are two entirely different men.”

  He had a point. I noticed a back door open and saw June hurry toward a minivan. “Why’s Calvin’s secretary leaving a half hour early after she missed two hours at lunch for a doctor’s appointment? Especially after she made such a big deal about how much time she spends here.”

  June got into her vehicle and headed for the exit.

  “Follow her,” I said.

  He gave me a look of surprise. “The secretary?” But he put the car in drive and started to tail her.

  “Yeah, call it a gut instinct, but I think she knows something. She got on the phone as soon as I walked away. And then she left so quickly.”

  He simply nodded, accepting my reasoning, and continued to follow her to the south side of town, staying several cars behind her. “Does she live down here?”

  “No,” I said. “She mentioned she lives two miles from the factory. Said she lives close so she can be there whenever Calvin needs her.” My eyes flew wide. “I wonder if that includes aiding and abetting him after he murdered his wife.”

  “You might be onto something,” he said.

  Keeping his distance, he followed her to a rural property, stopping the car when she turned off onto a gravel drive that led into the trees.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  He shot me a look in the mirror. “If you were wearing jeans, I’d suggest we walk through the woods and sneak up on her.” He shot me a smirk. “Not that I’m complainin’ about the view.”

  “We have to see what she’s up to,” I said, ignoring his remark, “but I’m not lettin’ you go back there alone.”

  His grin spread. “I can handle myself.”

  “I have no doubt of that, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let you finish this without me.”

  He laughed. “Then we’ll both go.”

  “How do you propose we handle this?”

  “You let me worry about that.” He pulled into a turnaround spot about fifty feet down and parked as far off the road as he could get, making sure his car wasn’t visible unless someone drove right past it. He got out and opened my back door, reaching a hand in to help me out. When I stood, he wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me flush against him. “I haven’t held you since yesterday.”

  “You’ve gone longer than that,” I whispered, staring up into his dark, hungry eyes.

  He lowered his mouth to the sensitive skin on my neck, right below my ear. “But now that I’ve had several tastes of you, it only makes me want you more.”

  I shivered.

  He lifted his head and gave me a deep kiss.

  I gripped his shoulders, my fingers itching to explore across his chest and back, but now was not the time. I leaned back and grinned. “Come on. We’ve got a file to find.”

  He spun around, a
nd I thought I’d pissed him off, but he bent his knees. “Hop on.”

  “You want to carry me on your back?”

  “Are you insinuatin’ I can’t?”

  “Far be it from me to threaten your manhood.”

  He laughed. “Get on.”

  I jumped onto his back, and he looped his hands over my calves to hold me on as he stood. Then he slipped into the trees, heading toward the makeshift driveway June had turned down. He had to shift my weight a couple of times, especially since the holstered gun kept jabbing into him, but it didn’t take him long to follow the gravel road back to a small, dilapidated house. June’s minivan was parked out front and so was another car—a shiny white Cadillac. I remembered how Calvin often parked in the back of the church parking lot so it wouldn’t get dinged.

  “That’s Calvin’s car,” I whispered in his ear. “He loves it almost as much as Patsy loves hers.” Then I remembered. “Loved her car.” The thought that she was gone made me sad, even though she’d been meaner than a hornet most of the time. She’d been alive, and now she was gone.

  “This is good,” he said, letting me slide down to the ground. He squatted and pulled a handgun from his ankle holster. “Follow me. Stick close.”

  He moved along the tree line, then darted to the side of the house and motioned me over.

  I ran over to him, and he started to inch toward the back of the house. The windows were open, and voices were filtering out—June’s and then Calvin’s. The closer we got to the back door, the more apparent it was that they were arguing.

  “What were you thinkin’, June?”

  “My job is to take care of you,” she said in a pleading voice. “I’m takin’ care of you.”

  “At work! Not in my personal life!” His voice broke. “I loved her. Why did you kill her?”

  June killed Patsy Sue? What a tangled mess. I wished I had my phone to record their conversation.

  June pressed on, sounding desperate. “She was gonna sell you down the river. She was gonna take the information about you and use it to divorce you and get all the money.”

  Charlene sold the file to Patsy?

  “She would never do that!”

  “She told me herself this morning! I went to see her to find out what she intended to do with the information in the file.”

  James shot me a look. Then he pointedly glanced down at my leg before looking back up. I pulled out my gun and followed him as he rounded the corner to the back of the house.

  “Have you looked through the file?” Calvin asked. “There’s information in there about me?”

  “Yes, but I think we can contain it.”

  James leaned close to me and whispered, “I know you want to be part of this, but I don’t want them seeing you. I’m gonna send them running out the front and take the file. Stay hidden out here behind the house until they’re gone.”

  “You’re just gonna let them go?” I whisper-hissed.

  He leaned his face close to mine. “Trust me, they’re gonna get caught. The important thing is for us to get that file. You can call Simmons as soon as I get it. Are you with me on this?”

  I could see the logic behind his argument, but I’d been burned before. “If you betray me—”

  “I won’t, Rose. I swear.”

  “Okay.”

  He gave me a nod, then opened the back door and walked in bold as he pleased, his gun in hand.

  “You’re early,” June said. “And why are you sneakin’ around the back? I told you to come to the front door.”

  James had set up a meeting? Had he figured this out before me and played me like a fiddle?

  “I’ve heard that before,” James said. “Now about that file . . .”

  June began to laugh. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  She sounded entirely too confident for my liking, and she’d just admitted to killing Patsy. I knew James had his own gun, but she seemed crazy enough to shoot him.

  I moved underneath a window and reached up on tiptoes to see inside. On the side closest to me, June sat at a small table with a large envelope. She was pointing her handgun at James, who stood in front of the back door. Calvin was on the other side of the room—the actual kitchen—standing in front of the refrigerator. He had a gun too, but he looked just as incompetent holding it as he had yesterday.

  When James didn’t answer, she said, “You show me the money first, sweetheart—then you can have it. That’s the way these things work.”

  I heard the sound of a car engine approaching from the front of the house, and I scooted to the edge and peered around the corner. It was a truck. One I recognized, and the man getting out of the cab confirmed it.

  June had contacted Kip Wagner.

  Another man got out of the truck, following behind as Wagner strutted toward the front door.

  What was I going to do? I had to let James know, but if I startled June or Calvin, they might shoot him. I was about to call Wagner’s name through the screen window when a loud rap landed on the front door.

  June looked confused. “I’d presume you brought backup, but why are they knocking on the front door?”

  I heard wood crashing at the front of the house. Then Wagner shouted, “I want my damn file.”

  Clomping footsteps stormed through the house, coming toward the back.

  “Where’s Patsy?” Wagner asked.

  “She’s indisposed,” June said. “But I have what you’re lookin’ for.”

  Patsy had set up the meeting and June had taken over? How had Patsy been involved with Wagner?

  Well, I realized she’d had business dealings with James, so it wasn’t a stretch.

  “Then hand it over,” Wagner snarled, and I realized he was less than six feet from me, inside the kitchen. Where was James, and why hadn’t Wagner said anything about him being there?

  “Just like I told your associate,” June said, her voice more distant than before—she must have moved to the middle of the room—“I need to see the money first.”

  “What associate?” Wagner barked.

  “The guy who just showed up expecting me to hand over the file. Why are all y’all here so early?”

  “Let me make this clear,” Wagner said in a slow, even tone. “That’s my file. I’ll give you a small finder’s fee, but I will not be extorted. Where’d the guy go?”

  “Good question,” she said in confusion.

  “Search the house,” Wagner said, and I heard more foot stomping.

  He’d sent someone to find James, but where was he? It was a small house. There couldn’t be too many places to hide.

  “This is your last warning,” Wagner said. “Give me the file.”

  “And for the umpteenth time, show me the money,” June sneered.

  I heard a gunshot, and Calvin screamed.

  “I’m disappointed to see you’re part of this, Clydehopper,” Wagner said.

  “I didn’t want to have anything to do with it,” Calvin said in a whiny voice. “She dragged me into it.”

  “Which she? Your dead wife or the dead woman at your feet?”

  “June,” he wailed. “June killed Patsy after Patsy set up the meetin’ with you.”

  “Was she after the money?” Wagner asked with a bitter laugh. “Or was she after you?”

  “Both,” Calvin said with a quaver.

  “I’m disappointed, Calvin. I really am. I thought we had a deal. I thought you were my man.”

  “I was,” Calvin said. “I am. I swear I didn’t know this was happening.”

  Wagner was quiet for a second, then said, “Too bad I don’t believe you.”

  There was another gunshot, and Calvin screamed again.

  “Now I have a new problem, Calvin,” Wagner said. “You just saw me kill that woman. What was her name again?”

  “June,” he said through a sob.

  Terror washed over me like a bucket of cold water. Wagner was going to kill Calvin too. I might not have a phone, but I did have a gun,
and there was no way I could let him kill another person without intervening.

  “Now, if anyone had asked me if I thought you’d squeal on me, I would have said no way. Calvin’s my guy. But then I never thought you’d extort me, so I guess you never know about a person.”

  I moved to the open back door and peered around the corner. Wagner’s side was to me and Calvin had fallen to the ground, his upper leg already covered in blood. June was lying on the floor, partly under the kitchen table.

  “Please,” Calvin begged.

  “Put the gun down, Wagner,” I said as I moved in front of the screen door and pointed my weapon at him. James was going to spit nails when this was over, but so be it. I hadn’t managed to save Jeanne—or Patsy, for that matter—but at least I could save Calvin.

  Wagner twisted to face me with a startled expression; then he grinned so wide I thought it would split his face. “Lady,” he said, still pointing the gun at Calvin. I noticed he was holding the manila envelope in his other hand. “Didn’t this take an interesting turn? I was just sayin’ the other day that things had gotten dull as dirt, but then you pop up and shake everything up.” He turned more to face me. “And here you are, standing in the middle of a bloodbath, only you don’t have your shotgun this time.”

  “And you’re not surrounded by your men.”

  He frowned. “Where is my guy?”

  I had been wondering the same thing myself. But even more importantly, where was James? He hadn’t slipped out the back, which meant he was still inside.

  “So that makes it just the two of us,” I said. “Equal playing field.”

  He laughed. “You think you’re my equal? You’re nothin’ compared to me.”

  “Seems to me Daniel Crocker made that same mistake.”

  “Crocker was a fool.”

  “A dead one. Shot by me. Now you’re goin’ to drop the gun and the envelope and walk backward to the front door. Then I’ll let you drive away.”

  “You’ll let me drive away?” he said with a short laugh. “You’re something else.” He shook his head, still pointing his gun at Calvin. “So you want this file after all. Not that I’m surprised. You must have found out what’s in it. However, your integrity is now in question. You claim you’re neutral, not to mention you claimed you’d return the file to me if you found it. So that also makes you a liar.”