I lay still, waiting for MacGregor to awaken. I wanted to scoot across the king-sized bed and into his arms, but because I valued his sleep as much as my own, I didn’t want to disturb him.
“Come here, McNair,” he whispered.
I laughed. “Reading my mind again, are you?”
“Mmm, only my own. But I’m glad to hear you were thinking the same thing.” He opened his arms and welcomed me into them. I lay there, once again feeling like the most fortunate person on the planet.
“Anything this morning?”
“I fear Charlie’s loud trumpet blew any clarity clear out of my brain last night.”
MacGregor’s chuckle was warm and husky. “I ken what you mean, lassie.”
I sighed in complete satisfaction, knowing my father and my fiancé were the best of friends. I no longer had to edit my words because my husband would take any joking about my father seriously and take advantage of the opportunity to throw in some spiteful jabs. For that matter, nor was it necessary to stifle myself from bringing up my father in the first place. Life was indeed good. In fact, it didn’t get much better than this.
Yes, my daughter was returning to the East Coast in one day, but she no longer hated me and held me solely responsible for her parents’ divorce and the finality of their relationship. And she had decided that my fiancé was all right after all since he’d been the advocate behind her having a puppy. The three children in my life were getting along well. The baby down the street had been returned to her home. My fiancé and I would now have time to plan our wedding. I sighed contentedly. Life did not get better than this.
“Damn!”
“Don’t answer it.” MacGregor pulled me toward him, away from my ringing cell phone.
“Only Charlie would call this early.”
“Precisely.”
I raised my head to look at the clock on the nightstand. Ten o’clock. “Actually, it’s not that early.” I rolled over to my side of the bed, cold now, and grabbed my cell.
“Morning, Charlie.”
“Morning, lassie. Are you up?”
“Not yet.”
Normally he would have chuckled. Normally he would have told me, good. Normally his voice would not have sounded so solemn and somber.
“What is it, Charlie? What’s happened?”
“Someone tried to blow up Judy Green’s car.”
“Oh my God! Was she hurt?”
“Only some scrapes and bruises, thanks to our men.”
“Gil and Ramon were there?”
“Aye. Still no sign of the bodyguards so they were watching the house to be sure there were no intruders when Mike Green showed up. Which meant Tommy was there too because he was tailing Mike.”
“It was Mike?”
“It appears that he rigged her car to blow up when she opened the door or touched it. Our guys saw him coming out of the garage so they went to see what was happening. I’ll fill you in later. I’m about to head over there now. Can you come with me?”
“We’ll meet you in five minutes.”
I quickly explained what had happened as MacGregor and I climbed into jeans and sweaters. We ran brushes through our hair and toothbrushes through our mouths before hurrying into the kitchen to check on the puppies.
“I cleaned up their pads already.” Josh was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and scarfing down a store-bought scone. Not immune to suffering from mother’s guilt I proclaimed that as soon as this was over, I would bake a month’s worth of homemade scones. I would even send a care package to Holly at college.
I glanced over at the coffee pot and snatched two to-go cups from the cupboard and filled them. MacGregor explained to Josh what was happening while he tossed two scones into a bag.
“Can I come?” Josh closed his math book and drained his coffee cup. “Rocky and the puppies have been fed and I just walked Rocky.”
“Of course.”
He raced into his bedroom for a jacket and the three of us hurried across the street to Charlie’s Bentley that was warmed up and waiting for us.
“Tell us everything,” I said.
Charlie’s sigh was deep and I knew he was blaming himself for not having proven that Mike was the perpetrator before this happened.
MacGregor patted him on the shoulder. “It’s a good job you had your men keeping an eye on the victims, Charlie.”
“Aye, it is indeed. I only wish—”
“Tell us what happened.” It was always best to get Charlie focused on the events.
“Okay, lass, I will.” He glanced over his shoulder before pulling onto the highway. “Apparently Mike showed up, went to the door. George answered and let him in. Tommy was tailing him, of course, and contacted Gil and Ramon to let them know he was at the house although they were there so already knew. The three of them watched the house from different positions.”
“Peering through the windows, I assume?”
“Aye, of course. The two brothers were talking, seemed friendly enough, actually friendlier than usual. When they went into George’s office, our men could no longer see them. Fortunately Tommy was near the garage, and a while later, he spotted Mike coming out of the side door of the garage and back around to the front door of the house. He and George talked for a minute and then he left. Ramon spotted Judy walking through the house with her purse and coat and relayed that to Tommy and Gil. They broke into the garage through the side door, just in time to stop her from getting into her car.”
“Is that how she got the cuts and bruises?” Josh asked.
“It is. She had no idea who they were so they had to tackle her. She thought they were after her. By the time they explained who they were, she was lying face down on the ground, well away from the car. One of them escorted her away from the property. Tommy went and got George and told him to join his wife on the street. And then they opened the garage door and threw a stone at her car from a distance.”
“And it blew up,” MacGregor said.
“And it blew up.”
“Thank goodness you had your men on it.”
“But how did they know?” Josh asked.
“Logic, Instinct, intuition,” I answered. Charlie didn’t only teach his students PI basics. He taught them to follow their gut. “They must have suspected Mike was up to something when he came out of the garage. Where is everyone now?”
“We’ll know in a minute.” Charlie made a left turn and stopped in front of the Greens’ home.
George spotted us and came running to greet us. “Charlie! How can I ever thank you! If you hadn’t had your men keeping an eye on us, Judy would be—” He gulped and I saw a hint of moisture in his eyes. “I’m so stupid! I should have listened to you and hired . . . sooner . . . and I never should have given them the holiday off. What an idiot! I just didn’t think—”
“Never mind that, laddie. She’s safe. I see the police are here.”
Three patrol cars were sitting on the side of the road, doors open. Mike Green was handcuffed and being escorted toward one of the cars.
“I’m telling you I didn’t do it! I didn’t do anything! I went to look at George’s old MG he has in the garage. He found an old steering wheel for it to replace the damaged one. He wanted to show it to me. Tell them, George. Tell them!”
“That’s true. I was showing him the steering wheel.”
“See. I told you. Now will you get these things off me!”
One of the policemen ignored his protests and jerked him toward the car.
“What the hell? My brother just told you why I was here.”
“Yeah, but then your brother left and went back in the house,” the policeman said. “You had plenty of time to plant a device on the car to blow it up.”
“But I didn’t! I tried to go back into the house, but the door had locked automatically behind George so I went out through the other door.”
“Tell that to the jury,” the policeman said, shoving him into the patrol car and motioning for the d
river to take him downtown.
Charlie and I looked at each other. Charlie turned to George and asked the question both of us were thinking. “Why did you leave him alone in the garage?”
“It was only for a minute. I just went inside to get the keys to the MG.” He hit his head with his fist. “Stupid! How stupid can I be! But Mike? My own brother? I was supposed to go with Judy! Mike knew I was going with her!”
Ben Blaine’s theory infiltrated my thoughts. The perpetrators were often those closest to the victims.
After Charlie’s men filled us in on the details of the events from their perspectives, we stood there watching the police secure the crime scene and collect evidence. Charlie just kept shaking his head.
“It’s over, Charlie,” MacGregor pointed out. “And you may not have solved the crime before it was committed, as you like to do, but you did save Judy Green’s life.”
“Aye, I suppose that’s true enough.”
“So, what are you thinking?” I asked.
“I dinna ken, lassie. I dinna ken. I suppose I just keep thinking more clarity will come.”
“Isn’t it clear what happened?” Josh asked. “I mean, when George went inside for those keys, Mike set up the explosive device on Judy’s car.”
“Right, but two questions are still unanswered.”
“What?” Our budding detective asked.
“Why George and Mike are suddenly so friendly. And how Mike knew George would forget to bring the keys with him, and that he’d have a chance to rig the explosive,” Charlie said.
“All good questions,” I said. “Mike may have simply hoped to have a moment to rig the car, or planned to create one by sending him inside for a glass of water or whatever. Something we’ll most likely never know.”
“The first question might be easily explained,” MacGregor said. “The twins did indicate that the only time their brothers seem to get along is when one is asking for the other’s help. George must have needed Mike’s help with that MG steering wheel.”
“I don’t suppose you had a chance to look into Mike Green’s financial situation?” I asked Charlie. There had been little time between his trumpet tooting and the explosion. Approximately eight hours.
“Why do you think I look so bleary-eyed this morning?”
“What did you learn?” MacGregor asked.
“Only that Mike made some bad investments recently. Lost a little money. He also loaned Val’s parents some money to revive their struggling business.”
“How much?”
“A couple million.”
“Not small change. Add to that his brother’s doing a disappearing act with a good portion of their inheritance and you have—”
“Motive.” Charlie’s sigh cut through me. It was a sigh I had felt too many times when I knew I wasn’t going to be able to comprehend every part of a crime or motive. It was something detectives had to live with. Unresolved events. But that didn’t mean we didn’t anguish over the gaps. I knew Charlie would be attending the trial for Mike Green, attempting to glean answers to every possible question that came into that tenacious brain of his. I smiled to myself. Like daughter, like father.
“Shall we go home then?” MacGregor asked, most likely thinking of the uneaten scones that were sitting in the car and would taste much better once they were warmed in a lovely oven.
We walked back to the Bentley, Charlie’s attention still on the crime scene. He wouldn’t rest until this one was completely over, including the trial. But for now, for us, it was over. We could go home and spend the day as a family. The day before my daughter would be returning to a faraway college on a faraway coast.
* * *
We spent the day with more than the family. When Maureen and Jillian joined Holly for a premature puppy-training session, it quickly turned into an extended family. I could almost imagine the puppies smirking and laughing at their mistresses’ attempts to instruct them in the ways of the world, much the way teenagers react when their parents are trying to convey the importance of boundaries and curfews.
But at least they were named. In keeping with the Beatles theme, the girls decided to name them, Lucy, Maxwell, and Chuck. Holly’s, being the girl with one black ear and one white, was Lucy from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” while Maureen’s speckle-faced pup was Chuck.
“Chuck?” six of us had asked simultaneously.
Maureen had rolled her eyes, clearly conveying her opinion of our intelligence, or lack there of. “It’s from ‘When I’m Sixty-four.’ I think it’s one of the grandchildren’s names.”
Wow. How many generations had the Beatles crossed? How many would they continue to cross, or was bridge a better word for it? “Okay, then, Chuck.” I looked at the puppy who was licking his mistress, obviously enamored with his new name.
Jillian decided her wee runt with the two black ears and white snout needed a big name, so she named him Maxwell from “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” I suspected it would soon be shortened to Max.
“It will certainly feel empty around here once Holly and Matt go back to school and the girls take their puppies home,” MacGregor said.
“And Josh goes back to Charlie’s?”
“Aye. It will be just the two of us then.”
“And Rocky and two puppies.”
“Aye.”
“We’ll actually have time to sit down and plan our wedding.”
“And our honeymoon.” MacGregor took my hand across the table and brought it to his lips to kiss. He held it there for a long time after as if conveying to me just how cherished I was. I could have told him it wasn’t necessary. He found a way to communicate that message to me daily, with only his eyes. But, because I was enjoying the feel of his hand wrapped around mine, I didn’t say a word.
“Oh, brother, get a room you two.” Maureen joined us at the table. Realizing what she had implied, and that my son and daughter were present, she cringed. “Oops, sorry.”
Matt laughed and Holly, too absorbed in Lucy, didn’t notice.
“So, when do you think I can take Chuck home?”
“Any time,” I told her.
“You don’t think he’ll get lonely?”
“Not if you give him lots of attention.”
“He can always come play with Maxwell,” Jillian offered. “And we can plan to walk them at the same time so they can visit. Are they too little to take for walks?”
“It will be good to get them used to a leash.”
Jillian rubbed her cheek against the top of Maxwell’s head. We had done the right thing. It had helped dispel that loneliness I’d seen reflected in her eyes so many times. A puppy had done that. A yapping, squirming, hair-pulling puppy.
After Jillian and Maureen and Holly had gone to the pet store to purchase everything that a puppy could ever need and want, and the two girls had returned to fetch their new buddies and take them home, we spent the remainder of the day with Holly, Matt, and Josh. The three of them had established an easy relationship. Holly seemed to feel neither threatened nor as if she’d been replaced by Josh. And the intimidation Josh might have felt at the hands of her blunt and often tactless tongue was gone. Now he was merely amused by her.
I made Holly’s favorite, shepherd’s pie, for dinner. It was a time-consuming meal to prepare. However, with novice but willing choppers, I had a lot of help. As the six of us sat around the table, laughing and joking, I decided that just maybe there were more important things than having all the details and answers in a solved crime or in a mysterious and unusual relationship. Or knowing the identity of a kidnapper. I could go to sleep believing that in one very gratifying evening, I had mastered the ability to relax and let go. I could go on with my life without discovering everything. I could be at peace with knowing that we had answered what we could and had done our best on a job. I went to sleep almost believing that.
* * *
“Hmm?” I reached for MacGregor but he wasn’t there. My eyes opened to find him across the ro
om, pulling a sweatshirt over his head.
“Going somewhere?” I glanced at the clock. It was not even eight on a Sunday morning. It would not be a typical Sunday morning because I would be taking Holly to the airport and then driving Josh down to Olympia to visit his grandfather who lived in a rest home, but still—seven-thirty?
“Just for a wee run. I’ll be back shortly.”
“If you needed exercise, all you had to do was tell me. I’m sure I could provide you with a lovely workout.”
He chuckled and sat down on the edge of the bed to kiss me on my forehead. “Hold that thought.”
“For how long?”
“Until tonight when Matt and Holly are back at their respective schools, and Josh is across the street, and we have the house all to ourselves, people-wise, that is.”
“Mmm, lovely thought. But I think Charlie has planned a pub celebration tonight.”
“A pub celebration?”
“Two crimes have been somewhat-solved.”
“Och, aye. Well, after that then. I’ve nothing scheduled for morning, so we can stay up as late as we’d like and sleep in as late as we’d like.”
I sank back down into my pillow.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Holding that thought.”
But five minutes after he was off for his run, I was in the kitchen brewing coffee. Five minutes after that, I was opening the front door to find my ex-husband standing on the other side of it.
“Joe! What are you doing here?”
“I came to say good-bye to Holly.”
I glanced down at my wrist as if I wore a watch. I didn’t need one. I knew it was too early for my daughter to be up. And way too early for a visitor. “She’s sleeping. Across the street. At Charlie’s.”
“I know. I just wanted to—”He stammered, looked down at his feet, then up at me again. I was staring into Holly’s blue eyes. I shivered at that thought. But it was only natural. We recognized many attributes and characteristics of our spouses, ex-spouses, parents, ancestors for that matter, in our children. It was just more challenging when it was someone whose life no longer intersected with ours. Except at seven forty-five on a Sunday morning.
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