“I’m really not in the mood for pizza. I’m going out to get some fried fowl. Back in a jiff.” Grabbing my purse and jacket, I fled before anyone could ask me any questions, like why I suddenly had a taste for a food I’d always hated.
I had just enough time to get back to the motor coach to ask Jerry about the ladies who’d taken his car off him, but not enough to go to the casino to locate them tonight. Unless I snuck out of the house later. Could I lie to Alex yet another night and tell him I didn’t want him to stay over when I really did want him in my bed but only if he could wait until I interrogated some white-haired con artists? I certainly couldn’t take him with me. He wanted me to stay out of this murder investigation/possible abduction more than he wanted me naked between the sheets. Well, he couldn’t have it both ways. Frida had enough work to do, enough clues to pursue in Bernard and Sammy’s disappearances. Certainly, as a friend, I should help her where I could. And Alex was working on the case for David. Everyone was so busy. Superhero Eve to the rescue. Besides, it was only a talk with some little old ladies. What harm would that do?
I drove past our old shop. It was silly, I know, but I wanted to see it again. There wasn’t much to see, only rubble where a strip mall once stood. It looked as if all the charred timbers and twisted debris had been cleared. It wasn’t ours any longer, but it also wasn’t Elvira Reed’s, and that gave me a moment’s satisfaction … until I noticed a sign that had been erected in front of the leveled strip mall.
It read, “Reed Construction Company. Coming Soon, Elvira’s Nostalgia Closet: The Finest in Vintage and Secondhand Designer Wear.”
Oh crap.
What else could go wrong?
I found out when I got to the flea market. There was no Jerry, but worse, there was no bus.
“What do you mean, ‘The bus is gone’? Where did Jerry put it, I wonder.” Nappi’s voice on the other end of phone sounded calm enough. It was optimistic of Nappi to put such a positive spin on its disappearance. It was possible Jerry had driven it to a safer place. I hoped. Did Jerry even know how to drive one of those giant things?
“Wait there.” Nappi disconnected.
My cell rang. Caller ID said it was Alex, and he didn’t sound nearly as sanguine as Nappi. “Where the hell are you, and what have you done now, Eve?”
“The bus is gone, and I didn’t take it. This is all Jerry’s fault. He’s driven off with our store. I knew this would happen.” I remembered my earlier vow to be more Zen about Jerry, but then traded serenity for the more satisfying promise that I’d kill Jerry when I found him.
I should have guessed that Nappi would arrive with everyone in tow—Madeleine, Grandy, and Alex. We searched the flea market grounds, but found no bus, no Jerry. As we stood talking, my attention was caught by a lone figure walking toward us from the other side of the parking lot.
“Jerry, what have you done with our shop?” I strode toward him, fists clenched at my sides.
“Don’t hit me.”
“I have no intention of hitting you. Nappi, hand me your gun. I want to shoot him.”
I held out my hand.
“No, I think since he’s my employee, I should shoot him.” Nappi reached into his jacket as if pulling a gun from a shoulder holster.
Jerry began to shake and his face turned some color I could only describe as a mauvy, pukey green.
“Let me at him first,” Alex said.
“My pal.” Jerry held out his hand to Alex.
Alex grabbed him by his collar and pulled him into his chest. “If you’ve permanently misplaced my girlfriend and her best friend’s means of making a living, I’ll turn you into a eunuch.”
Jerry gulped. Madeleine and Grandy shot death ray looks at him.
“Listen, guys. Calm down. We can get it back, I’m sure.” Jerry’s certainty was offset by the squeak in his voice.
“Get it back from where?” I asked.
“It’s really simple. I noticed one of the tires was going flat, and since I knew you’d need it tomorrow early, I decided to take it to that all night gas station at the corner of Highways 98 and 441 and air it up. Well, I did that, but I was worried it might have a nail in it, so I drove it down the road to see if it held.”
The whole ugly evening began to unfold in my mind. “So you took it down the road, as in down the road to the casino. Right?”
Jerry nodded. “And when I got there, who should I run into but those ladies I told you about, the ones who won the car off me. They were driving the car, and I thought, this is perfect, I can get the car back off them because I know how they play now and I’m wise to their ‘tells’ when they’re betting. So I invited them into the motor home and we had a little game, right there.”
“Let me guess. You bet the motor home and lost it too. You idiot.” I didn’t want to believe Jerry was that dumb, but he was.
“Yeah, but here’s the good part. They dropped me off and said they’d be interested in another round of poker if I could find someone to stake me. And here you guys are. I really know how they play now. I can win. I’m certain.”
Nappi appeared calm. His only “tell” was a muscle in his temple that seemed to twitch in bursts of three, followed by moments of no movement. “So where are you supposed to meet them?”
“They should be by here in a few minutes. You’ll stake me for more Texas hold ’em, then?”
I wanted to stake him to a post and then build a fire under him, but I could tell Nappi had a plan that necessitated keeping Jerry alive. That Nappi. What a generous guy.
“Introduce me as your uncle and tell them I want in on the action.” If anyone could gamble his way to motor home repossession, it was Nappi, but he looked too smooth, too sophisticated. No Sabal Bay grannies would want him in on the game.
Grandy seemed to be thinking as I was. “That won’t work. Tell them I want in on the game. They won’t be able to turn down one of their own.”
“You a good player?” asked Nappi.
“Watch me.” Grandy’s grin was reassuring. I racked my brain to remember if I’d ever heard of her playing poker. Ah, well. My Grandy didn’t lie about what she could do. I wasn’t worried. Maybe a little worried.
“Okay, here they come. Pull your car around back, Eve. Everybody but Grandy hide.” Jerry waved us behind the buildings.
The rig pulled up next to the black SUV. I was impressed. Whoever was driving had maneuvered it well. They stopped and opened the door on the passenger’s side.
Jerry introduced Grandy as his grandmother.
“Get in,” said one of the women.
“I thought we’d play here,” Jerry said.
“Nope. We’ll go to my place. Too tight in this buggy with all these clothes and things. You can leave your car, lady. We’ll bring you back here after the game.”
Another voice could be heard from the back of the rig. “I hope your grandma here can offer us more of a challenge than you, sonny. I’m beginning to feel guilty about taking all these vehicles off you. Soon we’ll have to set up a used car lot.”
“Poker’s a lot like gin rummy, right?” I heard Grandy say. Suddenly I wondered what we’d set her up for. Did she really know nothing about poker?
Laugher erupted from the women inside.
Grandy and Jerry entered the bus, the door closed, and they rumbled down the gravel road and turned south onto the highway.
Everyone looked nervous except for Nappi, who seemed amused by the thought of my Grandy taking on the geriatric gamblers of Sabal Bay.
We waited for over two hours. The others had it over me. They had eaten the pizza while I had nothing. My stomach growled.
“You didn’t get your chicken, did you? And now nothing is open in this town.” Madeleine strode around the parking lot, her arms tucked into her waistband to keep warm.
“The chicken run was a lie, wasn’t it?” Alex said. “You were up to something, going to see someone. Who?” He took my arm and turned me to face him. Nappi leaned on his
car and watched us.
I wanted to look up at Alex with innocence written across my face, but I knew that was no good. I was bad at that pose and he knew it. I might as well tell him the truth … or something like it.
“I thought I might run out to Sammy’s and talk with Grandfather Egret, see if he heard anything from Sammy. Or maybe Bernard.” Well, that was close to the truth. The airboat business was on the way to the casino. I could have stopped there if I wanted to.
“And you couldn’t do that by calling him to see how he was?”
“Friends don’t just use the most convenient means to let others know how they feel. Friends go out of their way for friends.”
“We could have come with you. We like the Egret family. We were concerned too, you know.”
“You may like Grandfather Egret, but you have no use for Sammy.” I had him on the defensive now. Just where I wanted him.
“I like Sammy fine. I just don’t trust the two of you together.”
“Oh, like we’d get it on out in the swamp that night we were dumped there. Is that what you mean?”
“What he means is, he wonders what you and Sammy were doing together in Orlando the night the store burned.” Madeleine had walked up and overheard our conversation.
“So you told him about that? You couldn’t just keep your mouth shut? Madeleine Boudreau, you are a poor excuse for a friend.”
“And you, Eve Appel, are just as bad. Why didn’t you tell me about David’s business card in Bernard’s car?”
“Because I was trying to spare you. You had enough on your mind.” I stood toe to toe with Madeleine. Alex was at her side, facing me. “How did you find out?”
“David told me. Obviously he thinks I’m adult enough to handle these things. And I know that Sammy’s missing too.” She and I continued to stare at each other, neither of us blinking.
Finally, Alex broke the silence, cutting through the tension. “Let’s put this all behind us. Eve has confessed to what she was up to tonight. Let’s just drop everything else. For now.”
Madeleine reached out to touch me. “I know you were just trying to do the right thing for me.”
Alex gave me an awkward pat on the shoulder. “And I know you and Sammy are only friends.”
I let out my breath in a loud whoosh, unaware until now that I had been holding it. We all continued walking around the parking area, waiting for the rig to return, or for my cell to ring, letting us know the rig was lost.
As I walked past Nappi, he grinned at me.
“What’s so funny?”
“Your friends think you’re finally telling the truth. They both love you so much they can’t see what’s right in front of them.”
“And that is?”
“You are a prisoner of your own snoopy nature. I don’t know what you were up to tonight, but I know it had something to do with either the murder or Bernard and Sammy’s disappearances. You hate seeing others in action while you sit on the sidelines. That’s going to get you seriously hurt or worse one day.”
He was right, of course. “There must be some way I could come with you to the ranch. I could wear a disguise and—”
“And if you were discovered, what do you think would happen?”
“If the Reeds aren’t involved, we’d get thrown off the ranch.”
“And if they are as bad as you think?”
“We’d be killed?”
My cell rang.
“Jerry?”
“No, it’s Frida. I hope I’m not calling too late, but I thought you’d like to know that we got the report on the store back from the fire marshals. It was arson.”
“I’m not surprised. Are you going to arrest Elvira Reed?”
“I’ve got as much reason to view you as a suspect as I do her.”
“Me? Why would I set the store on fire?”
“Elvira was competition. You got your merchandise out of the shop then you torched it so she couldn’t move in.”
“I was with Sammy in Orlando.”
“So you say, but he isn’t around to serve as your alibi, is he?”
In the favorite words of Eve Appel: oh, crap.
“And another thing … while I have you on the line. What are you, Madeleine, Alex, and your mob friend doing wandering around the flea market at this time of night?”
Double oh crap.
Chapter 14
“How do you know where we are?” I asked.
I heard the sound of a horn near the street. Frida’s cruiser sat near the entrance to the flea market. The headlights came on, and the car pulled down the road and stopped near us.
“To answer your question, Eve, one of our cruisers came by here a few minutes ago on his nightly rounds.” Frida got out of her car and looked around the area. “Say, shouldn’t your motor home be parked here?’
“Nice detective work, Detective.” My tone might have been flip, but inwardly I groaned in despair. Now we’d have to explain to Frida about Jerry and the gambling grannies.
Before I could open my mouth and put forth my version of the night, the motor home pulled into the flea market entrance and started up the road, then stopped with a screech of the brakes. Through the windshield I could see the white-haired woman at the wheel turn her head to talk to someone in the back of the rig.
“I’ll bet the grannies aren’t too happy to see the cop car,” I said.
“Who?” asked Frida.
The rig started up again and maneuvered into its parking slot. The door opened, and Jerry got out, followed by Grandy. I expected to see the rig back out in a hurry and speed away. It didn’t.
“Where is everybody?” I asked.
“That’s the first thing you say. Not ‘Thanks for winning back our shop’? Where are your manners, girl?” Grandy may have sounded angry, but I caught the twinkle in her eye, and knew she was just ribbing me.
Madeleine clapped her hands together. “You got it back. Hooray!”
Nappi and Alex each gave Grandy a hug.
“What were you doing while she was saving your bacon, ya dumbass?” I said to Jerry.
“Now, don’t bother the boy, Eve. He makes a mean Cosmo and a tasty platter of nachos.” Grandy rubbed her stomach and licked her lips.
Nachos. I could just drool.
“Everybody hop in, and I’ll chauffeur you where you need to go.” Nappi gestured toward his SUV.
“Wait just a damn minute.” Frida rarely swore. I knew she was steamed at getting no explanation for what had transpired tonight.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Frida. Lighten up. Grandy and Jerry were taking the rig out for a spin with some friends, followed by an evening of cards.” I am so quick on my feet with the lies. Nappi lifted his eyebrows in surprise.
“And everyone else thought it would be fun to stand around the deserted flea market?” Frida tapped her foot and looked skeptical.
“We were meeting them here. Now we’re off for coffee. Care to join us?” Madeleine asked.
Frida merely shook her head, got back in her car, and drove off without a word.
What a team we were—the three musketeers, D’Artagnan, and me. Oh, and dumbass too.
Madeleine sat in the front seat between Nappi and Alex while Jerry sat in the back between Grandy and me. I whispered in Jerry’s ear, “Do you remember how to get to the house where the grannies played poker tonight?”
“Oh, sure. What do you need?”
“I need to talk to them. They seem to know their way around the off-casino gambling games, and I’d like to pick their brains.”
“They won’t tell an outsider about those games.” Jerry sounded skeptical, and the expression on his face indicated he was smug about knowing something I needed to know.
“They will if I threaten to sic Frida on them,” I said.
“What are the two of you whispering about back there?” Alex turned around in his seat and shot me a cautionary look.
“Nothing much. I was just asking him for his recipe for
nachos. I’m starved, and I think I have all the ingredients at home to make some.” I gave him an innocent grin.
The headlights in the car approaching us lit up Grandy’s face. Grandy knows you’re lying, it said.
“What do I get out of this if I help you?” Jerry asked, leaning into me and waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“Not what you think. Now shove over, will you?” I jabbed him with my elbow.
“What then?” he insisted.
“Money to gamble with. How’s that?” I hated myself. I was going to pay for information by giving a gambler money to feed his addiction.
“Eve.” Alex turned in his seat again.
“Garlic, you say? In nachos? You gotta be kidding me.” I slugged Jerry in the arm so hard, he slid into Grandy, knocking her into the door.
“Stay out of my space, will you?” she warned him.
Back at my place, I found that garlic in nachos is quite good, but seems to discourage late night romance. Alex slept in my bed but didn’t seem very interested in kissing me good night. Or in any follow-up either. I drifted into garlic-infused salsa and chips dreamland.
The next day Nappi called me on his way to the Reed ranch. “I’m turning into the drive now. I’ll be in touch later.”
“Come to the house. We’ll be back from the flea market on the coast by five. Better yet, you’ve got my cell so you can give us updates.” Again, I wished I could be with Nappi. Maybe Madeleine was right. I did find chasing down killers more exciting than selling fashionable used clothing.
“I’ll call you later.” Nappi disconnected with a chuckle. He knew what I was thinking.
I’d been driving the motor home down the 714 highway. When I got off the phone, I checked my rearview mirror and caught sight of Madeleine and Grandy in the seats behind me. Both of them had similar expressions on their faces, happy that I wasn’t with Nappi on the caper at the Reed’s ranch and scared that I might be cooking up some other equally dangerous adventure for myself.
A Sporting Murder Page 11