Miz Scarlet and the Bewildered Bridegroom

by Barton, Sara M.

  “Never been convicted....Does that mean he’s been arrested?” Bur wondered, raising a stern eyebrow. She growled in response.

  “No, I was being sarcastic! What is with you people tonight?”

  “We’re just looking out for you,” my brother insisted magnanimously. “Is that a problem?”

  “I’m old enough to vote, Poup!” she reminded him.

  Kenny took that in stride, smoothly pressing on. Maybe it was all his years of working at Princeton, dealing with students as a public safety officer. “You are, but that doesn’t make you invincible. Just remember about what happened earlier today, Jen. Better that we err on the side of caution than leave you vulnerable.”

  “Kenny’s right, squirt. We want you home in one piece and at a reasonable hour, because we care about you.” Bur delivered those words with a friendly smile, but I could see they had an effect on both teenagers.

  “What happened today?” There was concern written all over Michael Sharkey’s face. He looked down at the young woman next to him and there was no mistaking his feelings for her.

  “Nothing. I’ll tell you in the car,” she promised him. I could tell she didn’t really want the earlier incident to spoil her evening, but there was wisdom in reminding her to be careful.

  Looking at her now, my thoughts flashed back to the first time we met, when I had to rescue Jenny from a creep who was trying to kill her. She had that same deer-in-the-headlights look that night too. I fought the urge to wrap my arms around the vulnerable teenager and hug away her fears. Instead, I stood up and herded Jenny and her date towards the door.

  “Have fun,” I told the teens. “Just be smart about it.”

  Even as they walked down the hallway, I heard Hammerhead ask her what had occurred. His arm went protectively around her shoulder and pulled her close.

  “What do you think, Captain Peacock?” Bur asked his buddy across the dining room table. “Is he trustworthy?”

  “You can’t tell just by looking at him, Poup. Let’s wait and see.”

  “Fine. Shall we call this Scrabble game a draw? If I play my cards right, there’s still time to take Kasey out for a drink at the Hungry Owl.”

  “Seriously?” I glared at my brother, my hands on my hips. “You’re going to call that poor woman up at the last minute? Why does she let you get away with such bad behavior? What is she, chopped liver to your lumpfish caviar?”

  “I’ll have you know that I had a date scheduled with her until Laurel begged me...begged me to play Scrabble tonight! Mother said....”

  “Fine,” I retorted. “But if it was me....”

  “You’d still be single. Oh, wait. You are!” he hooted.

  That’s when my cell phone danced in my pocket, startling me as it bounced against my hip. I pulled it out. “It’s Jenny. Hi, kiddo. What’s up?”

  “Somebody popped all of Hammerhead’s tires!”

  “Somebody did what? Where are you?” My heart was in my throat. Please don’t let her be out in the middle of nowhere, parking with the shark boy. “We’ll come and get you.”

  “Scarlet, I’m scared!” she confessed. “We’re on the highway.”

  “You’re stranded on the highway, as in I-384?”

  “Yes!”

  “Crap!” Kenny snatched the phone from my hand, peppering her with questions. I could tell Jenny had lost her composure when I heard sobbing. He asked to speak to Hammerhead. “Listen, we’re leaving right now. We’ll be there in five minutes. I want you two to stay on the line with Scarlet. Whatever you do, I don’t want you to hang up. And keep your eyes and ears open, Michael. Don’t let anyone get near Jenny. Get back in the car and lock it. And if anyone approaches, don’t roll down your window or open the door. Lean on the horn and make a lot of noise if you feel in danger. Can you do that for me? Good. Okay, we’re on our way.”

  He handed the phone back to me. “Hammer...er, Michael, can you put Jenny back on?”

  “Sure.” I heard the door locks click into place and then sniffles on the other end of the line.

  “You okay, Jen?”

  “I guess so. What is going on?”

  “I wish I knew,” I told her.

  We stopped on our way past the living room only long enough to let the Scrabble players know what was going on. I knew the ladies were nervous. I didn’t blame them. I was nervous too.

  Kenny turned to my brother as we stepped back into the hallway. “Bur, just to be on the safe side, could you follow us in your car?”

  “Sure. No problem.”

  A minute later, our two-car rescue caravan left the inn for the short drive to the interstate. Please don’t let something terrible happen to them, God. Don’t let some drunk driver plow into the disabled car or some nutty tire slasher terrorize them with a knife.

  “Talk to them,” Kenny instructed me. “Get some information.”

  “What kind of information?”

  “We want to know what happened, blow by blow. Start at the beginning.”

  Prompted by Kenny, I tossed out a half-baked question, still not thinking straight. “Where were you when the tires were popped?”

  Chapter Eight --

  “We weren’t anywhere. We got in the car and drove out of the driveway. When we got onto the entrance ramp for I-384, Hammerhead noticed the steering started to go wobbly. By the time we were on the highway, we knew something was definitely wrong. He pulled over the car and got out to check the tires. They were all flat. Miz Scarlet, doesn’t that mean someone did this to Hammerhead’s car while it was parked at the inn?”

  “I don’t know, Jen. Is it possible it happened before he got to the inn and the tires just didn’t go flat right away? Maybe he drove over broken glass or a box of nails some careless idiot left in the road.”

  “Hammerhead said to tell you there are punctures in the sidewalls.” Even as she said that, I knew it had to have happened at the inn. The entrance to the interstate was less than a quarter of a mile down the road. What other explanation was there? The question was who and why? Was someone really out to get Jenny? I tried distracting her. “What kind of car is Hammerhead driving?”

  “VW Golf.”

  “What color?”

  “Black,” Jenny informed me. I searched the horizon for some telltale sign, and sure enough, I spotted blinking tail lights in the distance.

  “I think we’ve found you.”

  A moment later, Kenny pulled up behind the small compact car. “Thank God the kid had the good sense to put on the emergency flashers and get the car onto the shoulder. Can you call Danny DiPietro for a tow? Here’s his home phone number, Scarlet. I just want to take a closer look.”

  Kenny gave me the information before he pulled a long Maglite flashlight from the toolbox he kept on the floor behind the front seat and got out of the car. He went over every inch of the Golf’s exterior with a light bright enough to illuminate the airport runway at Bradley Field. Bur and Hammerhead stood behind him, consulting from time to time. Jenny had the good sense to come and sit with me.

  “I can’t believe this,” she admitted, her teeth chattering. “Why did someone do this to us? It’s so mean!”

  “It is, isn’t it?” I patted her knee. “Don’t you worry, Jen. We’ll get to the bottom of this mess. In the meantime, let me call for that tow truck.”

  Danny was at home, watching television, when his phone rang. He was less than enthusiastic about personally coming out to pick up the car until I told him it was for Kenny. “Give me ten minutes, Scarlet. I have to grab my helper. You said all four tires are flat?”

  “Couldn’t be any flatter. Kenny thinks it’s related to the apparent break-in we had at the inn earlier today. Someone smashed a window trying to get in through the sun porch.”

  “Did you ruffle some feathers again, Miz Scarlet,” I heard Danny chuckle on the other end. “Is someone out to get you?”

  “Actually, we think the target might be the teenage girl who lives with us. It could be a st
alker.”

  “Hmm, in that case, I think I’ll tow the car to my garage and lock it up for the night. Tomorrow, I’ll examine every inch of the car, just in case some creep sabotaged it.”

  “Sabo....” I stopped myself. Jenny was upset enough as it was. Why make her even more apprehensive? “Um, why do you think...that might be the case?”

  “I had a lady come in about three months ago. Her ex-husband not only vandalized her car, he popped a tiny hole in her brake line, so the fluid drained out slowly. She found out the hard way when she was going down Avon Mountain.”

  “Geez! That’s terrible!” I shivered at the thought someone might do that kind of thing to poor Jenny. “Yes, it’s a good idea to take the car to your garage, Danny.”

  “What?” Jenny wanted to know what the mechanic told me, but I thought it best to leave out the details. After all, it wasn’t necessarily the same kind of case as the vindictive ex-spouse, was it? I didn’t want to plant the seeds of fear in the teenager’s fertile mind if this was just some jerk trying to rattle her...or Hammerhead. Maybe he was the real target. Or was he the perpetrator? Was this his way of getting Jenny to depend on him? I felt like a jerk for suspecting the boy, but I had to wonder.

  “How long have you and Shark Boy been dating?” I asked. We had met several of her college friends earlier in the year, but he wasn’t one of them.

  “About two weeks. He’s friends with Lally’s boyfriend, so we double-dated a couple of times and went to that big Cinco de Mayo bash with the gang.”

  “Any chance somebody’s mad at him?”

  “Are you kidding?” In the glow of the dashboard lights, I saw her examining me to see if I had sprouted a second head. “Hammerhead is Mr. Nice Guy. Everybody likes him.”

  Famous last words. Popular people, just like irritating and annoying people, often attract the wrong kind of attention. There’s something about power and prestige that make psychopaths, sociopaths, and creeps want to destroy good people. “What’s he studying?”

  “Civil engineering.”

  “Those guys aren’t normally known for wild and crazy behavior,” I decided. “They almost border on....”

  I stopped myself from suggesting the Shark Boy was boring. Frankly, I was rather pleased that Jenny had found a young man who seemed both level-headed and considerate. He was already a better choice than the last one she brought home. Carson Kristal, pre-law, was so full of himself it was a miracle he didn’t burst at the seams. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a pretentious, self-serving student who feels compelled to tell every adult within listening range what we are doing wrong. I personally considered drop-kicking the little cheese weasel back to his mama in Montpelier, but Kenny talked me out of it. He insisted Jenny would grow out of the relationship if we just let her be. It took a month longer than expected, but one day Carson made the mistake of telling her she could do better than to work for the Four Acorns Inn while she was in school.

  “Don’t you find Miz Scarlet more than a little bossy?” he queried her one afternoon, as he sipped his cappuccino at the mall. “I mean, the woman never married. She’s obviously jealous of you, with your looks. How else can you explain the lousy hours she makes you work? Why don’t you just apply for a full scholarship and move into my apartment? That way, you don’t have to scrub toilets any more, Cinderella. Let her find some other poor slob to exploit!”

  “Exploit?” Those were fighting words. “You think Miz Scarlet exploits me? That woman saved my life, you moron!”

  It was true. When a violent fiend chased her down the street in Bay Head, New Jersey, I actually hit him with my car to prevent him from butchering the poor girl. By the time he picked himself up from the pavement, I was already pulling her into my Ford Focus and driving like a maniac down the street. Jenny’s biggest complaint at that moment in time was typical. She thought I should stop for the red light, but with the killer hot on our trail, running a traffic light seemed the least of my problems.

  What Carson didn’t realize was that Jenny actually has some money in the bank. Her single mother socked away every spare dollar for years, so her daughter could go to college, but the teenager almost lost the opportunity, thanks to a con artist who tried to rob her blind. We helped her recover her inheritance and then Bur guided her through the steps to set up a trust that provides a small monthly stipend. Her salary at the inn helps to cover almost all of the rest of her expenses. And as long as she is enrolled in classes and getting good grades, I have promised to pay fifty percent of her tuition at the University of Connecticut. Why shouldn’t I? As that twit, Carson, so indelicately pointed out, I never did marry. I like to think of Jenny as the child I never got to have.

  “Someone’s flashing headlights at us,” she announced, bringing me back from my musing. A moment later, the Central Street Garage flat bed truck slowly rumbled past us and pulled up ahead of the Volkswagen. Two men hopped down from the cab and joined the group huddled around the car. We watched them walk around the compact car, kneeling at every tire to examine the damage.

  “Oh no!” Jenny suddenly sat up in the passenger seat, turning around as blue lights flashed into Kenny’s SUV.

  “Oh no what?”

  “There’s a police car pulling up.”

  “Honey, the cop is stopping to make sure we’re all safe. Consider this a good thing.”

  Sure enough, the state trooper nodded as he passed us and continued on to the cluster of men surrounding the Golf. Once he personally inspected the damage to the tires, he insisted on making out an official report. Kenny briefly popped his head in the window to update us on the situation.

  “Listen, I’ve invited Michael to stay at the Four Acorns tonight. I hope you don’t mind, but until we get this sorted out, I’d feel better if I knew he wasn’t in harm’s way.”

  “No problem. He can sleep in the library. Jen can help me make the bed up when we get back.”

  “I have a better idea, Miz Scarlet. He can sleep on the trundle bed in the Red Oak Room next to me.”

  I admit I was surprised by Kenny’s suggestion. Did he suspect Michael Sharkey was somehow involved in this mess, either as a target or a culprit?

  “That’s fine too,” I agreed.

  “Good. We should finish up here shortly,” he told us just before he turned around and headed back to the group gathered around the disabled Golf at the side of the road.

  “Wow.” That was all Jenny said. Wow.

  I waited, expecting more. When she didn’t come through, I pursued it. “Wow what?”

  Glancing over at her, I could see she was overcome with emotion. I sat quietly, giving her time to compose her thoughts. The flashes of cobalt blue pulsed on and off, keeping a steady rhythm that was somehow comforting in all this darkness. Traffic was light at this time of night, and there was only the occasional tail light to break the endless black horizon on this lonely stretch of I-384. At last my companion stirred. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she spoke.

  “I haven’t felt like I was a part of a real family since my grandparents were alive. I never realized how much I missed it.” She sighed wistfully. “After they died, it was just my mom and me. My world got a little smaller. And then, when she died....”

  “That’s what happens when there isn’t enough family to go around,” I told her. “Whether it’s by death or divorce, too many people end up alone and disconnected. Family is important, Jen.”

  “I have a confession to make. I thought you’d be mad I caused you guys so much trouble.”

  “Oh sweetie, you have no idea what an important role you play in the lives of the Wilsons. Even when we worry about you, it’s because you matter to us. We’ll get through this, Jen. Besides, what did you do to cause this mess?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, “but I still feel guilty about it.”

  “Don’t. For all we know, it’s got nothing to do with you. I have a few skeletons of my own in my closet, kiddo.”

/>   “Yeah, right,” she snickered. “You’re a real wild woman, Miz Scarlet.”

  “Actually, Jen, I might have had a bad relationship...or two....”

  “You?”

  “Yes, me. You don’t need to know the gory details, but let’s just say I didn’t always pick the right men to love.”

  “But I thought Captain Peacock was the guy you had the hots for in high school.”

  “Honey, I’m long out of high school. When Kenny moved to New Jersey twenty plus years ago, I still had a life to live. Do you really imagine I spent those days and nights like a cloistered nun?”

  “Well, actually I kind of did.” She paused a moment, mulling that over. “You dated guys?”

  “More than one.”

  “Huh.”

  “This probably isn’t the time or the place to tell you, but I’m going to anyway. There was a guy who wanted to destroy my family. He even tried to kill me.”

  “To kill you?” She laughed. “Come on! Why would some guy want to kill you? That doesn’t make any sense!”

  “He thought Randolph and Wallace Googins ruined his family, so he wanted ours to suffer a similar fate.”

  “No way!” There was disbelief in her voice.

  “It’s true. And just so you know, we don’t talk about this in front of the Googins girls. It upsets them.”

  “Hmm....” There was another long pause before Jenny spoke again. “Does this mean it’s your fault the tires were flattened?”

  “Fault isn’t something we assign to victims of crime, Jen. If you’re asking me whether it’s possible that Ned Sorkin and his creepy half-brother, Jeremiah Wellstone, are behind these incidents, the answer is maybe. But the situation has to be investigated.”

  “What if it’s not related to what happened to me in Bay Head or what happened to you with that Ned guy?”

  “Then we have another mystery to solve,” I shrugged. “After all, every crime has a purpose, doesn’t it? A drug addict might steal because he needs money for his next fix. A killer might kill because he wants revenge for some perceived injustice or he has a desire to profit from the crime. A stalker harasses because he wants to terrorize his victim.”