Too Many Crooks Spoil the Plot

by Sarah Osborne

  The kids, of course, were thrilled that Dan would be spending the afternoon with them. Lurleen looked like someone had offered her a free trip to France. She was a little less enthusiastic when I explained the reason for the change in plans.

  I had second thoughts about going out to dinner. The kids didn’t need to be running around in public, and Tommy needed to understand how serious the situation was. Maybe if I fixed us all a nice meal, he’d soften about having us there. I did an inventory of his kitchen. He had one six-pack of Goose Island Bourbon Country Stout and two bottles of white wine in his refrigerator—Domaine Leflaive Montrachet Grand Cru. Lurleen had already spotted them and told me how expensive they were. In his pantry were a dozen bottles of red wine, equally expensive I was sure. Two Lean Cuisine dinners were in his freezer, and a package of fancy crackers in his cupboard. That was it. How could I be related to this person? Did he even live here? I’d brought food for the kids but not nearly enough to make a decent dinner.

  “I’m going to run to the store,” I yelled into the den where Lurleen, Dan, Jason, and Lucie were hovered over a game of Clue.

  Lucie jumped up and ran to me. “May I come with you, Aunt Di, and help with the groceries?”

  “I’d love that Lucie, but I don’t think Jason can manage his suspects without you. Besides, I’ll be back in a flash, and you can help me make dinner.” Lucie seemed to accept that. Poor kids. They were basically in prison. I hoped they didn’t realize it. I’d pick up bathing suits for them at Target, and at least they could swim in Tommy’s pool.

  I called Oscar, who had my car brought up. When I exited the building my Corolla sat in the circular drive, engine humming. A valet waved at me from the side of the building. I climbed into the front seat and was adjusting my seat belt when the man approached from the passenger side, opened the door, and slid in next to me. What was this all about?

  “My name’s Mark,” the man said. He reached over and shook my hand. His grip was a little too firm. He was about my age, late thirties, dark hair. “I work here. I’m a friend of Tommy’s. He wanted me to check on you to make sure you didn’t need anything during your stay.”

  I might have believed him if he hadn’t added the part about Tommy’s concern for my welfare. My hands gripped the steering wheel like they were welded there. “Please get out of my car. I’ll be happy to talk with you in the lobby.”

  “Just trying to be friendly,” he said. He didn’t move. So I did. I released my seat belt and pushed the door handle on the driver’s side.

  “Don’t,” he said. This time the tone wasn’t friendly. He grabbed my arm before I could open the door. “Drive.” He pulled a gun out of his pocket and stuck it in my ribs. “Now.”

  I froze and willed myself to stay calm. I stared at him.

  Dark hair. Dark eyes. A very familiar face. He was a grown-up version of Jason. “You’re Jason’s father. You’re Charlie Flack!”

  “How the hell do you know anything about me? Drive. Now.”

  I drove slowly to the gate and watched as it opened to let us leave the complex. I tried to remember every movie I’d seen with the bad guy in the car pointing a gun at someone. It didn’t help.

  “What do you want from me?” I asked. By now we were at the end of the drive and ready to turn onto Wieuca and from there onto Peachtree.

  “You know what I want.” He sounded frantic. “I don’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want Ellie to get hurt either.”

  “I don’t know what you want. I swear to God, whatever it is you think I have, I don’t.”

  “Pull into the parking lot at that church.”

  I turned on to Wieuca and then left into the parking lot of one of the biggest church complexes in Atlanta. There were enough spaces for five hundred cars, but only a half dozen were filled. I turned to face Charlie Flack with my left hand on the car handle, trying to figure out some way to escape before he shot me in the side.

  I took a good look at him. He was sweating. He looked scared to death.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said again. He pulled the gun away from my side. I could see his hand shaking. “I know you’re looking after my kid. Don’t make me hurt you. Just give me what I want.”

  “Believe me, I would if I knew what it was. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Ellie must have told you something, given you something.” He grabbed my purse. It took both his hands to empty out the contents. That was his big mistake. Two seconds. Gun down by his side and I was out of the car running for my life. I listened for a shot but none came. I ran in the direction of the church. Weren’t the doors in a church always open? Before I could find out, a security guard ran up to me.

  “Can I help you, miss?”

  “Over there,” I panted. “In the white Corolla. A man with a gun.”

  The guard grabbed me and pulled me into the foyer of the church, locking the door behind him. Then he called the police. By the time they arrived, Mark, aka Charlie Flack, was long gone. In the meantime I’d called Mason. He was on his way.

  Mason pulled up as I finished giving my statement to the police. He hugged me long and hard.

  “Hey, Mase. What are you doing here?” one of the policemen asked. He gave us a funny look. “You know this woman?”

  “Yes. She’s a friend of Eleanor Winston—the woman who was murdered in midtown. The same guy who shot Winston may have killed Billy Joe Sandler. Charlie Flack’s a suspect. There’s an APB out for him.”

  “The perp left on foot. We’ll get him. The word at the station is you got pulled from the case.”

  “Don’t believe everything you hear, Jerry.”

  Mason turned to me. “You all right?” He took my arm. “I’ll be taking Dr. Brown home.”

  He got me settled on a bench near my car. “You feel up to telling me what happened?”

  I nodded. “I’m just glad to be alive.” I told him what Charlie Flack had done.

  “If anything had happened to you—” he began.

  “But it didn’t. You know, when I looked at Flack, he looked like a scared kid. Like one of my patients when I’m about to give them a shot. When I saw him like that, I thought, This guy isn’t the murderer. This guy is afraid he’ll be next.”

  Mason nodded. “You may be right, but a frightened man can be just as dangerous as a cold-blooded murderer.” He put his hand over mine. “I’m worried about you and the kids. We don’t know who’s out there, and we don’t know what they want.”

  At that moment, the police officer Jerry approached the car.

  “We have to impound Dr. Brown’s car for twenty-four hours. And I’m sorry, Dr. Brown, but we’ll have to check your purse for fingerprints.”

  “It’s not a problem,” I said.

  “I’ll take you wherever you need to go tomorrow,” Mason said. “I’ll feel better about that anyway.”

  “How can you do that with your work?” I asked.

  “I’m on desk duty as of tomorrow. One step short of leave with pay.” He saw my worried look. “Just until I can talk to my captain. I’ll get this straightened out. In the meantime, I’m going to put you in a safe place. You’re coming to live with me.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You and the kids are coming to live with me. I have an old farmhouse just north of here, off Peachtree Road. My mother is there, and remember she’s an ex-cop. Dan will be there too. We’ll finally be able to keep you safe. Lurleen is welcome to come as well. If we get everyone under one roof, just until this is solved, then I’ll have one less thing to worry about.”

  “What made your mother become a policewoman?” I said. It seemed to be the only thing I could wrap my head around.

  “She went to the police academy when my father died—he was killed in the line of duty. My mom was the first female sharpshooter on the force. She retir
ed two years ago. You remember the standoff in the Grady ER a few years ago?”

  “Yes. I had a friend working in the ER at the time. Someone shot the guy before he harmed a single hostage.”

  “That was my mom. You’ll be safe with her. She got the Sharpshooters Commendation five years running.”

  “Wow! So this police business is in your blood.”

  Mason nodded. “My dad was a cop and his dad before him. Of course, my being a cop was hard on my wife. When she got sick, she worried about the kids. She didn’t want them to lose two parents. I almost quit the force at that point. But Amy lived a long time with breast cancer and pain. The boys were off to college before she died. I think she hung on for me and for them.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Me too, but time helps.”

  Mason opened the door to his Jaguar and got me settled inside. He was done discussing his previous life with me, and I had no desire to press him for more information. He checked my seat belt the way you might check on a small child’s car seat. I’d never felt so well taken care of. Maybe it’s more accurate to say, I never let anyone take care of me before.

  “Let’s go to the condo and get you out of there. I need to have a long talk with Tommy.”

  “Why?”

  “Charlie Flack said he knew him. It might be a lie, but how did he manage to turn up as a valet at your brother’s condo?”

  It was a good question that left me with a bad feeling. The feeling I had when Tommy did something wrong as a kid. Then it was little stuff—shoplifting candy, a toy he wanted. I’d find it in his room and take money to the store he’d stolen it from. It was a small town. I knew every shopkeeper. I also knew my mother would go ballistic if she ever found out. Her favorite child stealing? She’d have a heart attack. So I kept it a secret. Maybe I hadn’t handled that right. Maybe that was why Tommy never really learned right from wrong.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mason dropped me off at the condo and looked around the perimeter of the building before he joined me inside. He showed Oscar his badge and asked if there was a valet named Mark or Charlie Flack working there. Oscar shook his head, said he knew all the valets. There were no new hires and no one who met the description I provided. Mason gave him his card and asked him to call him immediately if anyone showed up who fit Flack’s description. Oscar looked concerned and asked if they might need additional security.

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” Mason said.

  Oscar was immediately on the phone, and I found myself breathing better.

  The kids were excited to see Mason and even more excited when he offered to bring food back for all of us. Mason took everyone’s order and headed out the door. Dan and Lurleen knew something was up but waited until we were alone to question me about it. The kids were engaged in Lurleen’s Chutes and Ladders game in the den, which meant we had plenty of time to talk in the kitchen.

  I filled them in.

  “Charlie Flack showed up here?” Lurleen sounded incredulous. “How could he know we were here?”

  “How has he known about every move we’ve made?” I asked.

  “You don’t think your brother—”

  I stopped her. “Flack said he knew Tommy, but no, I don’t think he would have put us in danger. At least not knowingly. My brother is a lot of things, but no, I can’t believe he had anything to do with this.”

  I probably would have gone on some more if Lurleen hadn’t put her hand up. “I know, sweetie, innocent until proven guilty. And he is your brother.”

  Dan said nothing.

  I told them about the plan to move in with Mason and his mother. Dan nodded his approval.

  Mason arrived an hour later with bags of food from the Varsity for Jason and Lucie, the Bistro for Lurleen and Dan, and the Golden Buddha for me and him. Of course, once the kids saw us using chopsticks, they wanted some. Fortunately, Mason had brought along some kid-friendly chopsticks for them to use. We had plenty of food for Tommy, but he never showed up.

  We talked to the kids about our move the next day. They were good sports, especially when they heard about the tree swing and the huge backyard to run around in. It didn’t hurt that Mason’s mother was a cop. Lurleen said she thought she could make arrangements to stay with us. Dan tried not to grin like the Cheshire cat.

  After I got the kids to bed, I called my boss at the clinic, this time expecting she might be ready to fire me. Instead, she suggested I take the rest of the week off and keep her posted. She had second-year pediatric residents who were starting in the clinic the next day. She had things covered. I kept expecting Tommy to show up, but when he didn’t, I wrote him a long letter explaining why we were moving. I didn’t mention Charlie Flack. I just said I’d had a bad encounter. That was Mason’s idea. He wanted to talk with Tommy first, find out what he knew. Mason left around eleven that night and was back at seven in the morning. Still no Tommy. We sat in the kitchen waiting for the rest of the household to wake up.

  “Do you think Tommy could be involved with any of this?” I asked.

  “Charlie Flack says he knows him, works at his condo. And you said Ellie and Tommy were friends.”

  “She had a huge crush on him growing up. Tommy went away to boarding school when he was fourteen, and every summer when he came home, she’d be after him. They dated for a while in high school, and then she cheated on him with the football captain. Tommy never forgave her for that.”

  I offered to make Mason a cup of coffee, but he shook his head. He motioned for me to keep talking. “I think Ellie moved to Atlanta to see if she could get him back. He was an up-and-coming lawyer.” I sighed. “I loved Ellie but she was always looking for the next gravy train. And she never found it. Tommy wouldn’t have anything more to do with her. He’s kind of like old-man Sandler. You’re disloyal to him one time and you’re out the door.”

  “What makes you so sure they never reconciled?” Mason asked.

  “Something Tommy said about how he didn’t need more trouble in his life, and Ellie always brought trouble. I think it was after I moved back and tried to look her up. He said I should leave well enough alone. If her phone was disconnected, maybe that was a good thing. Time to leave the past behind.”

  Something was niggling at me.

  Mason saw me lost in thought. “What is it?” he asked.

  It took me a minute to remember.

  “Ellie and Tommy just missed each other that day she came by. When I asked if they were in touch, she said she hadn’t seen him in a year or more, but she thought she’d seen his car go by. Tommy just bought that car. It was his pride and joy. How would she know his car if she hadn’t seen him?”

  “Hmm” was all Mason said.

  We heard the elevator and then a key in the lock. Tommy walked in, looking like he’d been in a fight. I ran to him.

  “What happened to you?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”

  He shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

  “I do,” said Mason, standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

  “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my condo?”

  “This is Detective Mason Garrett. I told you about him. He’s investigating Ellie’s death.”

  “I told you, Mabel, no strangers, no cops.”

  “Something happened to me yesterday. I asked him to come over.”

  “What happened?”

  Mason stopped me from answering. He stuck out his hand but Tommy refused to shake it.

  “What happened?” Tommy asked me again.

  “She’s not at liberty to say right now,” Mason said. “She’s all right. The kids are all right. What about you? You get in a fight?”

  Tommy looked down at his torn shirt, rubbed a hand over his face and what looked like a doozy of a black eye.

  “It was a rough night. Finished up a big cas
e and followed it up with too much partying.”

  “Doesn’t really look like you’ve been partying. Looks like someone beat you up,” Mason said.

  “Where do you get off? I come into my own house and find you here questioning me about how I look and where I’ve been. Get out of my house!”

  “We’re all getting out,” I said. “We’re moving. You’ll have your condo back by the end of the day.”

  “Why?” Tommy asked.

  “It’s a long story. We’ll talk about it over breakfast,” I said.

  “Can’t stay. Got a breakfast meeting downtown in an hour.” With that he disappeared into his bedroom.

  Mason and I stared at each other. Tommy could get angry at the drop of a hat, especially when he’d been drinking. He worked out in the gym, but he wasn’t a big guy. He knew his limitations and I hadn’t seen him in a brawl since he was a teenager. He was more the smooth-talking type. He could annihilate you with sarcasm or legal threats. Maybe someone didn’t take to that and let him have it.

  Before we could talk, the kids came running into the room. They were dressed and ready for action. The thought of a big house to run around in with a tree swing in the backyard was almost more than they could imagine. Hermione and Majestic followed on their heels as if they’d gotten wind of their new home. Poor Hermione, cooped up all day with only a ten-minute walk from me or Dan. Maybe she knew she was about to get her freedom.

  “We’re all packed up, Aunt Di,” Lucie said to me.

  “Great, honey.” I hugged her and Jason. “Tommy’s here, so you can thank him before we go.”

  Lurleen and Dan wandered in from the laundry room where Dan had camped out during the night.

  “You stayed here last night?” I said to Lurleen.

  “It’s not what you think,” she said, trying to organize her tangled chestnut curls. “Bonjour, mes petit choux.” She ignored me and hugged the kids.

  “I insisted she stay,” Dan said. “You’d already gone to bed. I didn’t want her driving home alone.”

  Tommy called from the bedroom. “Mabel, could you make me a cup of coffee?”