“I don’t have any evidence to justify sending somebody. Anyway, I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m in homicide, not cat fights.”
“You don’t believe me.”
He tried to take my hand.
I pulled away.
“I do believe you,” he said, his expression entreating me to trust him. “And because I believe you, I don’t want you staying here by yourself until after we get you some stronger locks. I plan to either spend the night on your sofa or you can come to my house.”
I glared at him. “Really? Do I look like a helpless female who needs a bodyguard?”
Trent lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Definitely not. I’d just like to be around to take a chunk of anybody who’d try to hurt you. Henry’s had his chance, now it’s mine.”
“Hmmph!” I turned my back to him, but I was a little mollified and he knew it.
He put his arms around me from behind and kissed the back of my neck. “What good is it to have a macho cop in your life if you won’t let him be macho once in a while and at least think he’s taking care of you?”
I sighed, turned in his arms and gave him a proper kiss.
“The first time you spend the night with me, it is not going to be on my sofa,” I said. “Go home. I need to mow my lawn. I got a notice from the City of Pleasant Grove. They’re going to condemn my place if I don’t.”
He scowled. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. I’m sure it was Rick. He knows the mayor and all those people. But my lawn does need to be mowed, so I’m not going to fight it.”
“How about I mow while you put on your best frilly apron and whip up a spectacular seven course meal for dinner?”
I grinned. “How about ragged cutoffs, a frozen pizza and something chocolate for dessert?”
“Deal. Where’s your mower?” He released me and moved toward the front of the house.
“In the garage. Lift up on the handle and tug the door slightly to the left.”
“Got it.”
“But then you’re going home.”
He turned back. “And just what are you going to do if somebody breaks in again?”
“I have safety chains on both doors. I’ll leave them on, and if somebody comes in, they’ll have to break the door down and make a lot of noise. That’ll wake me up.”
“And?”
I shrugged. “And I’ll call you then go downstairs and pull Henry off the burglar before he does permanent damage to the intruder.”
He stood there for a minute looking at me, the green in his dark eyes bursting out in flames. I could almost hear the sound of his teeth grinding. “We’ll talk about it later.” He turned and walked out of the house.
I admire a man who won’t admit he’s beaten even when he clearly is.
I looked down to see Henry had moved up beside me and was also watching Trent. “You like him too, don’t you? Your opinion matters. Come on, let’s clean up the kitchen and get you some fresh food. Sorry, no catnip again tonight. You have to be alert. When this is over, you can go on a week-long bender.”
I filled Henry’s water and food bowls, and he chowed down while I cleaned the floor. As I swept under the edge of the stove, my broom brought out something shiny. I leaned over and picked it up. A gold hoop earring. Could be one of mine or one of Paula’s…or Henry could have yanked it out of the intruder’s ear. Blasted cops hadn’t done a very good job of investigating or they’d have found it. I’d have to point that out to Trent.
I slid it into my jeans pocket to show him later.
We had a good time that evening, Henry, Trent and I. Henry mostly hung around and slept since he had to take guard duty that night. Trent and I ate, talked and made out, and then he left. Well, he left after we had a rip roaring argument. His pride wouldn’t let him leave me alone without a fight, and I didn’t disappoint him. Nevertheless, we parted on good terms. I got a really nice kiss at the door.
We had so much fun kissing and fighting, I forgot about the earring until I was undressing for bed and found it in my pocket.
I carried it to my dresser and opened the small jewelry box my mother had given me for my tenth birthday. A tiny ballerina popped up and twirled to the tinkling sounds of the Blue Danube Waltz. I suppose my mother thought the gift would inspire me to be like that dainty, graceful ballerina even though I’d already been kicked out of ballet, tap, and jazz classes on the dual grounds of no talent and no interest. But my mother’s never been one to give up either.
I poked through my small collection of earrings. Mixed in with the real gold and silver, gifts from my family, were the junk pieces I’d acquired. I did have a pair of faux gold hoops, but they weren’t the same as the one I’d found on the kitchen floor, and both of mine were present and accounted for.
I held the earring in my palm and studied it, trying to guess its secrets, where it had come from, who’d worn it into my house.
It was late, so I didn’t call Paula to see if it belonged to her. I’d ask her tomorrow, but I’d never seen her wear hoop earrings.
I closed my hand over the piece of jewelry, clutching it and trying to get psychic vibrations from the person who’d last worn it.
I’m no better at being psychic than I am at dancing.
But I knew someone who was almost as good as a psychic. Fred should know about this latest development, and he would either be awake or would pretend he was.
“I assumed you’d call as soon as Trent left,” he said by way of greeting. “Did you have another break-in?”
“How did you know that? Do you have my house bugged?”
“I saw the cop cars. You weren’t making enough noise to justify a disturbance call, your cookies are great but not so great the police would come to your house for them, so it was a simple deduction.”
I noticed he didn’t answer my question about having my house bugged. Sometimes I think he has every house in the entire neighborhood bugged. Maybe the entire country.
“Yes, another break-in.” I told him what had happened and about the earring I’d found.
“Interesting. So there’s still something in your house that somebody wants, and that somebody may be a woman.”
“Or a man and a woman, as in Rick and Lisa.”
“Too bad the police wouldn’t check the DNA.”
“They took a couple of swabs, but Trent said they won’t go to the trouble to process it. I already cleaned it up or you could come over and have a look at it.”
“Why would I do that? I couldn’t tell anything simply by looking at it.”
“It was just a thought. I never know with you. I think we need to go visit the new lovers, see if either or both of them show signs of being in a cat fight.”
“We, as in you and I?”
“I don’t think Henry wants to go visit them. He doesn’t like Rick, and I doubt he’ll be fond of Lisa. Of course I mean you and me!”
“I never know with you,” he mimicked. “Let me do some checking on Lisa, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Is that a yes?”
“It’s a maybe.”
“I’ll go by myself, and you’ll miss all the fun,” I threatened. He’d already hung up, but I knew he was hooked. If there’s one thing Fred can’t stand…well, actually, there are a lot of things Fred can’t stand…but high on that list is not knowing the answer to a puzzle.
Chapter Ten
Paula had seen the cops at my house too. “I was going to come over and check on you,” she said as we prepared for the breakfast crowd the next morning, “but when I saw Trent was still there after the others left, I knew you’d be all right. I was hoping he’d spend the night.”
I threw up my hands, accidentally knocking over my measuring cup and sending cocoa flying around the room. “Does everybody know everything I do and who I do it with? It’s a good thing I’m not a secretive person.”
“Yes, it is,” Paula agreed then returned to her task of grating potatoes for hash browns.
As I cleaned up the cocoa, I repeated the details of my evening including my irritation with the cops for not taking the break-in seriously.
“My offer still stands for you to stay at my place until this is over,” she said.
“I appreciate it, but I don’t think anybody’s going to come back for a second battle with Henry. Oh, that reminds me. Did you lose a gold hoop earring?”
She turned to me. “No, I don’t have any hoop earrings. Why?”
We looked at each other in the bright light that reflected off the shiny surfaces of stainless steel ovens, refrigerators, pans and bowls. Through the one window I could feel the darkness from outside pressing against the sturdy walls, trying to seep in and take over the brightness. I wiped my hands on a paper towel and pulled the earring from my pocket.
Paula walked over slowly to get a better look at it. She peered down at the object in my palm then back up to me. “A stranger wearing this came into your house.”
I nodded.
“That’s disturbing.”
And suddenly, knowing with absolute certainty that this piece of metal had been yanked from an intruder’s ear, it felt very disturbing.
“Are you coming to my house tonight?” she asked.
A part of me wanted to say yes. The thought of spending the night in my house where strangers felt free to come and go and dig in my basement and fight with my cat and leave bits of jewelry sent shivers down my spine.
I shrugged in what I hoped was a casual manner. “It’s Friday. When Trent gets off work, he’ll be over with burgers. Maybe I’ll let him stay the night.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t either.”
We went back to our food preparation.
“You might want to keep a close eye on Henry when he goes outside,” Paula said, her soft voice loud in the silence. “If someone wants in your house badly enough, they might decide to eliminate the vicious cat the same way they eliminated Rodney Bradford. I’ve never seen Henry turn down food of any sort.”
Damn. We had to put an end to this thing soon. Following Henry on his nightly rounds to be sure he wasn’t eating poisoned food was going to be quite a trick.
***
As soon as I got home and filled Henry’s bowl I called Fred. “What did you find out about Lisa? Do you know where she lives? Can we go spy on her tonight after Trent leaves?”
“Have you ever heard of the word patience?”
“What is that? Some foreign language? Nope. Not in my vocabulary. Now about Lisa…”
“I found her. Lisa Bradford, formerly Lisa Whelan, also known as Brandy Fire.”
“Brandy—what?”
“She’s a stripper down at the Babes and More Lounge.”
Suddenly I needed to sit. I pulled a chair back from my table. It was the one that had been on the floor last night. I didn’t need to sit that bad. I returned it to its position and pulled out another one, then sank onto the hard wooden seat. “The new love of Rick’s life is a stripper named Brandy Fire? Well, at least we know where she got her money.”
“She doesn’t have any money.”
I felt as if my head was spinning like Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Rick was involved with a broke stripper? “What? No, wait a minute. If she doesn’t have any money and Rodney Bradford didn’t have any money, who was going to pay that exorbitant price for my house?”
“I have no way of knowing the answer to that question at this point.”
I sighed. “It was a rhetorical question. So when are we going to talk to Brandy?”
“Tomorrow afternoon at 4:00. I chose that time because Rick has an appointment to show real estate, so he’ll be gone, and it’s late enough Lisa should be awake by then.”
“I’ll put it on my calendar.”
“We’ll be going as talent scouts for a strip club in Las Vegas. Dress appropriately.”
“Talent scouts for a strip club? For such a conservative person, you come up with some wild ideas.”
“I considered telling her you were her future husband’s estranged wife, but decided that might not get us in the door.”
“You’re being sarcastic.” I hesitated. “Aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am being sarcastic.”
“Okay, fine, we’re talent scouts. About dressing appropriately, my G-string’s at the dry cleaners. Any other suggestions?”
“Your usual uniform of blue jeans and tee-shirts won’t work. You need something flashy but sedate.”
“Oh, well, that narrows it down. Can you be just a little more specific?”
“Certainly. Your black pants suit that you save for funerals, that shiny red blouse, gold or silver hoop earrings, those red spike heels you bought two weeks ago and red lipstick. And fluff out your hair. Don’t put it in a ponytail.”
“What about underwear?” I asked. “You left that out.”
“Unless you’re planning to strip, it doesn’t matter what your underwear looks like.” He hung up.
Henry trotted to the back door and stretched up, reaching for the knob. He probably wasn’t going to like it when I insisted on going with him. How embarrassing for a macho cat to have his mother tag along on his nightly rounds.
He strolled around the yard for a few minutes and didn’t seem to notice or care that I was following. But then he darted across the alley and into somebody else’s yard. I ran after him and tackled him.
For the first time, Henry and I had harsh words.
He growled.
“I’m doing this for your own good,” I told him.
He snarled and tried to get away from me. I’d never liked it when one of my parents said those words to me, either.
I picked him up and carried him out to the front sidewalk then put him down. “Don’t do that again. It’s one thing for a cat to run across other people’s property, but quite another for a chocolatier to do it. Let’s just have a nice walk along this designated city easement.”
He glared up at me and charged across the street, heading for the vacant house.
I charged after him and caught him just before he slid through the bushes and into that yard.
I wasn’t sure what I’d do if he decided to attack me the way he’d apparently done the intruder, but I was sure I wasn’t going to let him get away and be exposed to possible poison. He squirmed and flailed and made some ugly sounds that probably translated into feline swear words, but he didn’t bite or claw me.
“I am so sorry,” I told him as I picked him up and carried him back home. “You can’t go out tonight, but I will open a fresh can of tuna.”
I won’t repeat what he said, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even close to Thank you or That sounds good, Mom.
***
It was dusk when Trent arrived bringing burgers and onion rings.
Henry hadn’t stayed mad long, but he did make repeated attempts to escape. When I opened the door for Trent, I had to hold Henry back.
“Why can’t he go outside?” Trent asked, handing me the deliciously scented bag and bending over to pet Henry.
“I’m protecting him.” I explained Paula’s reasoning and waited for the backlash I knew was coming.
Trent nodded and followed me to the kitchen. He was biding his time.
I got plates, silverware and Cokes for our feast, and we sat down at the table.
He waited until I had a big bite of burger in my mouth. “So you’re protecting your cat from a murderer, but you don’t think I should be protecting you?”
I chewed and glared.
“Don’t you think that’s being just a little hypocritical?” he continued, taking advantage of my temporary inability to argue. “Don’t you think I care about you as much as you care about Henry? I was awake half the night worrying about you. If you insist on running me off tonight, I’m going to park in your driveway and stay there all night, and tomorrow I’ll be sleepy and grumpy and my neck will hurt, and we’re going to have a lousy Saturday date.”
He set his burger in his plate and frowned.
“Hey!” I protested. “You just got your way. You’re supposed to smile and be happy, not scowl at me.” I bit into a juicy onion ring, savoring the onion flavor as well as the flavor of confusing Trent.
“I don’t trust you,” he said. “That was too easy.”
I looked at Henry. He’d been lying over by the stove, pretending to doze, but the instant I looked at him, he shot up and went to the back door. “I’m doing it for Henry,” I said.
Trent took a bite of burger, chewed and swallowed. “Okay.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me to explain?”
He shook his head. “Like you said, I got my way. I’m happy. I’m not sure I want to know the explanation.”
I ignored him and explained anyway. “If you stay here, Henry doesn’t have to be alert, and I can give him enough catnip to put him into a happy stupor so he’ll quit worrying about not being able to go outside.”
“I’m going to pretend you just said, If you stay here, Trent, I’ll feel safe and secure all night long.”
I got up and put some catnip in a saucer then set it on the floor beside my chair.
Henry ceased his attempts to open the back door and trotted over with a happy meow.
“Watch this,” I said to Trent.
That cat loves his ‘nip. He began with a few dainty snorts then proceeded to lick at the bits of stems and leaves. Finally, inebriated enough to lose his dignity, he put his face in the saucer and rolled around.
“That is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!” Trent said.
Henry gave him a slightly cross-eyed look, then lay down beside the saucer and purred softly. The entire event had taken less than fifteen minutes.
“I feel better,” I said. “My cat’s happily stoned, and, gosh, Trent, if you stay here, I’ll feel safe and secure all night long.”
He arched an eyebrow. “The first part sounded sincere.”
My cell phone rang. Paula.
“Hi. You’re just in time to join us for dessert. Bring Zach and—”
“I think your intruder just came to visit me.”
Sally Berneathy - Death by Chocolate 02 - Murder, Lies & Chocolate Page 8