by Susan Harper
“Smart and devious,” Felicity said. “Kind of hard to solve a case if every single person in town is a potential suspect.”
“For real,” Iris said.
“So, what is it you ladies do exactly to be looking into a murder case while on vacation?” Sam asked.
“My sister is a party planner, and she also owns her own private investigative agency,” Iris said proudly. “We were at the party when Donald was killed, and the police hired her to investigate.”
“Interesting,” Sam said.
“You probably saw her on the news recently,” Iris bragged. “She’s the one who stopped Senator Daily’s assassination attempt.”
“Shoot!” Sam exclaimed. “I did see that! Your friend made quite an impressive tackle. Knocked Daily right off that stage!”
Felicity laughed. “That would be Jefferson.”
“Well, sounds like our local police have themselves an excellent partner,” Sam said, bringing the carriage to a halt. He pointed. “Just right around the corner is Lonnie’s shop if you’re wanting to talk to him.”
Felicity smiled. “Yes, definitely. Thanks for the ride, Sam.” She placed some money in his tip jar, and she and Iris unloaded.
She paused again to pet Betsy the horse on the nose, and the thing neighed and nodded its head up and down, snorting a bit on Felicity’s hand. She laughed and wiped her drool-covered hand on her pants. Sam pulled his carriage away, heading toward a group of tourists who had gathered on the corner and were pointing toward the carriage excitedly. Felicity turned to Iris, hands on her hips. “Ready to go talk to Lonnie?” she asked.
“Definitely.”
9
It took two full days to finally get the shop and detective agency looking decent again. If it hadn’t been for the damaged shelves in the event shop, they would have finished a lot sooner, but Jefferson had wasted half of a day of cleaning while searching stores for similar shelves. Jack entered the shop at the front door, carrying with him two to-go bags full of what Jefferson assumed to be their lunch.
“Thanks,” Jefferson said as Jack tossed him a rolled-up sub.
Fix and Trixie seemed to appear out of nowhere, probably sensing that Jack had arrived with their very late lunch. The four of them gathered at the front of the shop in the lounge furniture. The busted cushion was the one item that had yet to be repaired, but Jefferson had simply turned the cushion over—no one would be the wiser. “I’m exhausted,” Fix moaned, sinking down in his seat and taking his first bite of his sandwich like he hadn’t eaten in days.
“Boohoo,” Trixie said, half-joking. “Your job was sorting through a bunch of scattered files. Jefferson and I have been reassembling floating shelves on the main floor and mending the broken shelves in the storage room. It took me an hour to scrub all of that paint that had fallen on the floor back there. I mean, whoever did this deserves a punch in the groin. It was bad enough they knocked everything off the walls and tossed the furniture around, but to knock that top shelf down that was holding all the paint buckets? Seriously!”
“Speaking of which, I’ve got some bad news,” Jefferson said. “One of the paint buckets landed in the box of barrettes. Over half of them are completely ruined.”
Fix’s eyes widened. “Oh, please, no,” he groaned.
“Looks like we’re going to have to create another assembly line,” Jack said, sighing. “Sorry, Fix, but that event is coming up this weekend. Looks like I’m going to have to loan you to Jefferson for the party planning side of things for a couple of days.”
“Seriously?” Fix groaned. He had started working in the party planning shop just for Trixie, but he had always had an interest in criminal investigation. When Felicity had started the detective agency with Jack, he had jumped on being a helping hand for it. And he had even started going to school for it to make himself more useful. But, every once in a while, Fix got pulled in to help in the shop.
“I already picked up all the supplies,” Jefferson said. “So, after lunch, we’re going to get you and Trixie set up by the phones so that you can get going on making the barrettes.”
“Well, at least we get to work together,” Trixie teased, giving Fix a nudge. “What are you and Jack going to be doing?”
“We’re going to ask around, see if anyone saw anything regarding the break-in,” Jack said. “I know the police are looking into it as well, but honestly, the chief has a little bit of beef with me, so I don’t think they’re treating the break-in with a sense of urgency. I know Patrick’s not working the case, so the chief probably put a group of rookies on it. I think it’s going to be up to us to find out what happened.”
“Any chance I can get in on that and let Jefferson help Trixie with the flower barrettes?” Fix asked.
“No, I think you’re going to do just fine making the flower hairpieces,” Jefferson laughed. “Plus, I think your girlfriend is looking forward to spending a little time with you.”
Trixie laughed. “Sounds fun.”
“I want to help Jack,” Jefferson said. “This is quite personal. Whoever stole those files trashed the event shop too, so I’m going to help.”
“If you say so,” Fix moaned.
Once the group finished their lunch, Jefferson got Trixie and Fix set up making the flower barrettes for the upcoming luau. They had two hundred and fifty barrettes they were going to have to remake, so the task was bound to keep the two of them very busy that day. Once Fix and Trixie had their instructions, Jack and Jefferson headed out. The two men stood outside of the shop, staring up Main Street.
“What now?” Jefferson asked.
“I say we divide up the street and just ask all the shop owners and employees if they saw anything,” Jack said. “It’s a start.”
“I’ll go across the street,” Jefferson said. “You take this side.”
“Sounds good. I’ll meet you back at the shop once we’re done,” Jack said, heading down toward the coffee shop on the corner that would be the start of his side of the road. Jefferson crossed Main Street and began entering shops.
Jefferson spoke with several shop owners, but no one had heard or seen anything regarding the break-in. Most of them hadn’t even heard that the event shop had had an intruder, which led Jefferson to agree with Jack—the local police hadn’t even started talking to potential witnesses yet. This only added to Jefferson’s frustration. The day dragged on, but eventually, he arrived at the ice cream shop.
Next to the ice cream shop was an elevator that opened out on the street. It was an unusual design, but it was one he was quite familiar with. This was where the victim from the very first case he and Felicity had worked together had been found. It had been nearly two years ago, but it still gave him the creeps. He loaded up on the elevator and went up to talk to the businesses there. It was there that he hit the jackpot.
The employees of the insurance agency, he learned, had installed security cameras—probably a decision made after one of their employees had gotten arrested for drug smuggling. There were cameras in the agency as well as one camera they had placed outside overlooking the street.
The employee he was speaking to was a man named Sam Jiggs. “Let me look at the cameras. We keep the recordings for, like, a week or so before we delete them.” He headed to a back room, returning shortly after. “I think I might have something for you, Jefferson.” He had a DVD. “Here, I burned the video on here for you. You probably want to show that to the police, too.”
“I appreciate it, Sam,” Jefferson said and headed out, taking the stairs this time just to avoid the elevator.
He decided to head back to the shop even though he hadn’t finished speaking to everyone on his side of the street. He was already far enough away from the shop to where he doubted anyone else would have seen anything. He saw Jack exiting a building just across the street from him, so Jefferson waved him down and pointed to the event shop. Jack nodded. The two of them walked back to the shop, and they met out front. “What did you find?” Ja
ck asked.
Jefferson held up the DVD. “Sam at the insurance agency had a camera set up on the street in front of the ice cream shop, and he got the getaway car on camera.”
“Heck yes!” Jack exclaimed, and the two of them hurried inside where Fix and Trixie were hard at work.
They put the DVD into the computer, and the four of them crowded around. Unfortunately, they didn’t have much. They could just barely see the event shop in view, and the large black van sitting out front blocked the shop’s front door, so they were unable to see the culprit entering or leaving. However, they had the car on video. The black van whizzed up the street toward the camera, and when it passed by, they saw that the van had no license plate.
“What in the world?” Jack asked. “No license plate? Someone definitely didn’t want to get caught. Something is definitely up.”
“Agreed,” Jefferson said, sighing in defeat. “Who would want to break into the shop for some files?”
“It was the senator’s file that’s missing,” Jack said. “That’s pretty suspicious.”
“I guess we can turn this into the police. They might be able to track it,” Jefferson said.
Jack huffed and took the DVD. “I guess,” he groaned.
Soon, the day came to a close. The flower barrettes were far from complete, so they all had that to look forward to the next day. Jefferson closed up shop and headed home. It was getting fairly dark when he pulled in the driveway, and he noticed his front door was open. Jefferson’s heart started racing. He reached for his glovebox and pulled out his gun. Jack had convinced him to start carrying, and in that moment, Jefferson was glad.
His first instinct was to call the police, but frankly, he thought that maybe he hadn’t closed the door all the way when he left that morning. He stepped out of his car, looking around the yard first with a keen eye. The front porch light was still on, and he was certain he had indeed left it on. He entered his home, gun raised, and flipped on the lights. “Are you kidding me!” he shouted.
It looked just like the shop. His kitchen cabinets were open, a bunch of broken dishes on the floor. His living room was a mess, and someone had once again been kind enough to tear a cushion. His television was busted and lying on the floor. Jefferson checked all the rooms and closets in the house before he felt safe enough to put his gun away.
The worst of it was Felicity’s room, and that made Jefferson exceptionally angry. Her room was a complete catastrophe. Her dresser was even lying on its side with its contents spilled out all over the floor. “Unbelievable,” he said under his breath and whipped out his phone, calling the police first. They assured him an officer was in route. He then called Jack.
“What’s up?” Jack asked.
“Someone broke into our house and trashed Felicity’s room,” Jefferson hissed.
“Geez, seriously?” he asked, sounding quite concerned. “Look, I’m on my way.”
Jack got there shortly after the police had already come and gone. He looked just as angry as Jefferson at the mess. “Who would do this?” Jack asked as he looked around the living room. “Dude, your TV? Seriously? Is nothing sacred?”
“Funny,” Jefferson groaned. “What do you think?”
“I think that someone is trying to send you guys a message… I also think that you need to install an alarm system,” Jack said. “How bad is Felicity’s room?”
“It’s worse than the rest of the house,” Jefferson said. “I don’t think anything is missing, but I’m not sure. Should I call her?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I mean, she and her sister only have one more day left in Helen… I say leave it. Let her enjoy her last day in Helen before we start calling her and giving her something else to worry about.”
“I agree,” Jefferson said, shaking his head. He looked around his house. His room was mostly left alone, but someone had dug through all his drawers. “Someone is definitely trying to spook us. This is not cool.”
“No, it’s not,” Jack said. “I’ll help you clean up the mess. Maybe you should stay at my place tonight.”
Jefferson shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he said, then began picking up broken dishes off his kitchen floor.
10
“Sorry. Lonnie hasn’t been here since he found out that Donald had been killed,” the young girl behind the counter said.
Felicity frowned. “So, after we came in here questioning Lonnie and told him Donald had been killed, he just dipped out?”
“Pretty much,” the girl said. “The manager he hired a while back has been handling things. She doesn’t know where Lonnie is either, though. He just sent her a message saying he wasn’t going to be here for a few days and to handle things. That’s the last any of us has heard from Lonnie.”
Felicity turned to Iris. Iris had her arms crossed as they made their way out the door. “Something’s up,” Iris said. “You think he skipped town?”
“I think we should definitely talk to Bonnie about this,” Felicity said. “It’s lunchtime. I’m going to call her and see if she wants to meet us for lunch.”
“Good, I’m starving,” Iris said.
Felicity called Bonnie, and the woman was available. The sisters headed to a local restaurant that served authentic German cuisine. Bonnie met them out front, and the three of them got a table. Once they were seated and had ordered their food, they turned to business. “So, what do you have for me?”
“Lonnie Egrit,” Felicity said. “He’s certainly a suspect, but there’s no solid evidence yet. Word is he and Donald have had a few confrontations about Donald’s pick-pocketing. And, according to his employees, he’s been missing ever since the day Iris and I told him Donald had been murdered.”
“That is certainly suspicious,” Bonnie said. “He could have skipped town. This definitely makes him a person of interest. I think after lunch, I’m going to go on the hunt. See if he’s hiding out in town anywhere.”
“We’re probably going to go back to the cabin for a bit,” Felicity said. “It’s been a pretty busy morning for the two of us.”
“Well, you two are on vacation,” Bonnie said. “I kind of feel bad I hired you. I sort of ruined your little sister trip, didn’t I?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Iris said. “This has been a lot of fun.”
Felicity laughed slightly. They scarfed down their lunch, and after paying the bill, the women parted ways—Officer Bonnie headed into town to ask around about Lonnie, and Felicity and Iris headed back to the cabin for a bit of rest and relaxation.
As they pulled up to the cabin, Iris declared, “I think it’s time we took advantage of that hot tub on the porch.”
Felicity grinned. “Oh, I agree,” she said, and they hurried inside to change into their swimsuits. The hot tub felt just wonderful, and it was certainly the sort of relaxation Felicity felt she needed.
They laughed and splashed one another a bit, enjoying their time together. They heard a horn honk, and glanced down the driveway to see Caleb sticking his head out of a truck window. He smiled up at them. “Enjoying the hot tub, I see!” he called.
Iris smiled. She propped her arms up on the side of the hot tub and looked out toward Caleb. “Hey, Caleb! Where are you heading off to?” she asked.
“Making a delivery for one of our cabins,” he said. “We got a local renting one of our cabins for some reason, and he asked for some extra towels and stuff.”
“Oh, yeah?” Iris questioned. “Why would a local need to rent a cabin?”
“I don’t know,” Caleb said. “Maybe he just wanted to enjoy the hot tub too.”
Iris laughed. Felicity came to the edge of the hot tub as well and glanced down the driveway toward Caleb, who was grinning in Iris’s direction. “Hey, Caleb, your local who’s renting a cabin… It’s not Lonnie Egrit, is it?”
“Well, shoot, how did you know that?” Caleb asked, and Felicity had to nudge Iris to keep her from squealing or saying anything.
“Just a lucky guess,” Felicity said.
“All right, well, maybe I’ll see you ladies later?” he asked hopefully, and Iris agreed to meet up soon.
Almost as soon as Caleb was out of sight, Felicity jumped out of the hot tub. “What are you going to do?” Iris asked excitedly.
“Well, I’m going to go talk to him,” Felicity said.
“Wait, but he might be a suspect,” Iris said. “You think that’s a good idea?”
“I don’t know about that just yet,” Felicity said. “But you can stay here while I go talk—”
“Oh, no you don’t,” Iris said, jumping out as well. “I’m definitely going with you. I want to see what happens.”
Felicity laughed a bit, and the two hurried to change. They drove their car up the steep incline, passing Caleb on his way back down. He looked at them curiously, but the two women pressed on. There was only one more cabin out this way, so it was easy to locate where Lonnie most likely was. Felicity marched right up to the door, Iris on her heels. She knocked, and the door flung open. Sure enough, they had found Lonnie Egrit. The man jumped back in surprise. “I thought you were that kid again,” he said, shaking his head. “What are you doing out here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Felicity said. “You know, it looks kind of suspicious to disappear right after a murder.”
Lonnie glanced around nervously. Felicity had gotten pretty good at reading people, and she could tell that Lonnie was certainly on edge. “Look, now’s not a good time,” he said and started to close the door, but Felicity put her foot in the way.
“I could call the police,” Felicity said. “They are looking for you, after all.”
“Looking for me!” he exclaimed, now quite pale.
“Or we could just talk,” Felicity said.