“Cleo and Dan Tyler. Why do I know their names?”
“Cleo Tyler was abducted two days ago.”
“And?”
“She was found today. Still alive.”
“That’s good news. Where was she?”
This was no time to beat around the bush. “Hudson, I found her. I’d made plans to meet Lt. Allen in the Casa Linda parking lot, and that’s where she was. I went out there to find him but I found her instead.”
I told him about her being inside the Jeep that matched the make and model of Tex’s car. I told him about how I’d figured out that it wasn’t Tex’s car, and how the police officer seemed to already know that. “I figured a few things out today and I need to talk to Tex. I don’t know where to find him. He’s trying to figure this out alone.”
“Maybe he needs to figure it out alone. Sometimes that’s the best way to find answers.”
“Is that why you left? Because you needed to be alone to figure things out?”
He reached his hand across the table and set it on top of mine. “I left because I couldn’t stay. I had closure. You didn’t. And I had to let you make your own decisions.”
“You might not always like my decisions.” I raised my hand and entwined my fingers with his, stroking his palm with my thumb. “My circle is fairly small, Hudson. When I moved to Dallas, I thought I knew all the people I was going to know in my life. And then, when I hired you to help with Mad for Mod, I knew I wanted to spend more time with you.” I swatted at a mosquito that was buzzing around my head. “Do you know how many times I thought about us—you and me—together? But I was scared of what would go wrong so I blocked those thoughts. What we have now is pretty special. I don’t want to jeopardize it. I don’t want to risk not having you in my life.”
“Madison, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Hudson, Lt. Allen is in my life too. Turns out I don’t like isolation as much as I thought. I need to do what I can to protect my circle.”
“Who am I to you?” he asked.
“Is this a quiz?”
He ran his fingertips down the length of my nose. “Your life is so rooted in Doris Day. She had a lot of leading men. Is that what I am to you? One of a cast of leading men?”
“I can’t explain who you are to me,” I said softly. “I can’t explain any of these emotions.”
He dropped his hand and curled his calloused fingers around mine. “Madison, I walked away from you once. I’m not doing it again.”
“Even if it means I might tell you something you don’t want to hear?”
Hudson’s hand stilled, but he didn’t pull away. “You’re trying to tell me something now, aren’t you?”
I looked away from his amber eyes, wishing the mosquito would return to provide a distraction. Even Rocky and Mortiboy were being particularly well behaved, providing me no escape from what I had to say.
“Do you remember Effie, the college girl who lived in my apartment building?”
“She watches Rock sometimes, right?”
I nodded. “A few nights ago, she was approached by a guy dressed like a police officer outside of the Landing. She thought it was Lt. Allen.”
“How do you know it wasn’t?”
“It was the same day someone found his badge in the woods near where they found Kate Morrow’s body. Tex was with the police chief on a live TV interview. There’s absolutely 100% no way it could have been him.”
Hudson nodded. “That’s not what you want to tell me, is it?”
I shook my head. “I went to see Effie today. She’s staying with her boyfriend. She’s the only person who had an encounter with this person and walked away unscathed. I thought maybe she could tell me something new, something everybody’s overlooked.”
“Did she?”
“The guy approached her on foot. He was in uniform, and he said she had a broken tail light and asked her to get out of the car. She saw the knife the guy was carrying and took off instead. It was the same one your friend Lyndy had.”
He pulled his hands away from mine and his face went rigid. “Lyndy’s not a killer,” he said.
“Hudson, I don’t have the same history with Lyndy that you do. I saw his knife. I gave his name to the police.”
“You think he had something to do with these women getting abducted?”
“I don’t know. The police wanted a list of every contractor that I spoke to, and of everybody on that list, he’s the only one who came to me instead of me reaching out to him. He popped up at my studio the day after my client was abducted.”
Hudson stood up quickly. The picnic bench he’d been sitting on flipped backward. He stormed into the house, the screen door banging against the frame after he disappeared. Seconds later he returned.
He held up a blade like the one Lyndy had set by my feet. “It’s a carpet and linoleum knife. Cuts on the pull,” he said, miming the motion of hatchetting the knife into flooring and pulling toward him. “I told you Lyndy’s trade is carpet installation. He’s one of the best.” He set the knife on the table between us in the same manner that Lyndy had set it down on the ground. He tapped the wooden handle with his index finger. “This knife cost me less than four bucks at the hardware store. I’ve had it for twenty years. I’m surprised you don’t have one considering you’re a decorator. There’s probably a carpet knife in every garage in Dallas.”
For every part of a renovation job that I did myself, carpet tear out and installation was one job that I left to the professionals. It was a physical limitation, not a professional one, that kept me from adding it to my resume: my bad knee.
When I moved to Dallas from Philadelphia, I’d brought two things: a van filled with my meager possessions, and a torn ACL. I bought the apartment building, started my business, and adopted Rocky all after moving. The knee injury was a constant reminder of the days before I shut out the world and made a life for myself. Because I didn’t like to ask for help, I’d learned to do most things for myself, but kneeling on the floor while installing or tearing out carpets was one act that I’d never be able to do.
I picked up the knife and traced my fingertip along the side of the blade. Hudson’s faith in Lyndy was as unshakable as my faith in Tex. I couldn’t fault him for his loyalty. I focused on the tip of the knife. I’d been so sure that the knife meant something that I wasn’t willing to admit that it didn’t.
“Madison,” Hudson said softly, “it would be one thing if you found Lyndy’s knife at the scene of the crime, but you didn’t.”
“How would I know Lyndy’s knife?”
“His daughters gave it to him for Father’s Day, two weeks before they died. It has his initials scored on the handle.”
I looked at Hudson. “How did Lyndy’s daughters die?”
“Car accident,” said Lyndy, appearing at the side of Hudson’s house. “Five years ago my daughters were killed in a head-on collision with a drunk police officer.”
EIGHTEEN
My hands shook with nerves. Lyndy’s daughters had died in the accident with George Tyler. That had to be the connection.
Before I could say anything, Hudson jumped up from the bench. “Lyndy, you know Madison, right?”
I remained seated and looked back and forth between the two men. Lyndy looked angry at having walked in on a conversation about him. His eyes were narrowed and he watched me with what felt like distrust. Hudson approached him and put a hand on the small man’s shoulder. “I’ll toss another steak on the grill for you.”
“Don’t bother,” Lyndy said. “Don’t know if I’m staying.” He stayed his distance.
Lyndy was obviously more than a fellow contractor to Hudson. I could see that from where I sat. I walked over to him. “Lyndy, I’m sorry.”
He waved his hand in front of him. “I could
tell you didn’t trust me the other day when I came to your store. Said I wasn’t going to hurt you but it was in your eyes.”
“You caught me off guard.”
Lyndy looked away. “Don’t matter,” he said. “I’m used to it.”
In the course of owning Mad for Mod, I’d taught myself a few tricks of the trade, but I’d also learned to hire those who could do what I could not. That’s what had brought Hudson into my life. But before Hudson, the contractors that I’d worked with had had the same rough-around-the-edges qualities that Lyndy did. Some of the most skilled carpenters were people you might not think of taking home to mother. Even Hudson had turned out to have a sizeable skeleton hanging in his closet, and if I’d known about his past when I met him, I might not entertain the thoughts that were becoming more and more present. But that was his past. He’d chosen to build a quiet life for himself where nobody could judge him for his demons. Maybe he’d learned that from Lyndy.
“Lyndy, stick around, would you? I’ll get you a beer,” Hudson said.
“Beer’s good.”
Hudson caught my eye and I forced a smile. He went inside and Lyndy and I were left standing awkwardly by the side of the house.
“Did you walk here?” I asked.
“I walk most everywhere.”
“Then you must be tired. Let’s sit down.”
I led the way to the picnic table where Hudson and I had been eating. We sat across from each other. Lyndy folded his hands in front of him and stared at his dirty thumbs.
“How long have you lived in Dallas?” I asked.
“Whole life. That’s over seventy years if you want to know. Grew up in Oak Cliff and moved around lots. Been a carpet layer since as long as I can remember. Worked on lots of the fancy buildings around here. Dallas Grand Hotel downtown, the Manor House, even that fancy department store. Easy to get work back then.”
“I bet this was a nice area to raise a family.”
“Was back when I had a family.”
Lyndy fell silent and I didn’t prompt him to keep talking. Hudson returned with a bottle of beer and handed it off to Lyndy. He drank half of the contents before setting the bottle on the table.
“It’s a hard thing to lose a child. Changes your whole life. My oldest was sixteen years old. She’d just gotten her license. First person in our family who was going to graduate from high school, can you believe that? She even talked about going to college. Now she’s gone. Both of them are.”
My skin prickled. I looked up at Hudson, who shook his head almost imperceptibly. Lyndy lifted the bottle of beer and finished it off. “You got another one of these for me?” he asked Hudson.
“You know I won’t let you sit around here and drink your dinner.”
Lyndy stood from the table. “Just as well. Time for me to be gettin’ home.” He glanced at me, and then walked back the way he’d come.
Hudson waited until he was out of sight. “I know you two got off on the wrong foot. I thought it would be a good idea for Lyndy to come over while you were here, so the two of you could get to know each other.”
“It’s him,” I said. “Tex was at the bar the night it happened. George’s brother is Dan Tyler, the client who fired me. The husband of the woman who was found today.” My voice spilled out of me, words that made little sense independently of each other but, strung together, created the connection I’d been looking for. “Lyndy’s daughters were killed by George Tyler in that accident. Lyndy’s still angry about what happened that night and is out to exact revenge for lives lost. I have to tell Lt. Allen about this.” I turned away and went to the kitchen to grab my phone.
Hudson caught up with me. “Lyndy isn’t doing this,” he said.
“You don’t know that. You don’t know what it must have done to him to lose his daughters like that.”
“That accusation could destroy him.”
“But if there’s a chance he’s involved—Hudson, you have to see that I need to get this information to the police.”
“Go ahead, call them,” he said.
I put my phone in my handbag and reached for Rocky’s leash.
“You’re going to meet with Tex, aren’t you?” I didn’t answer. “He said he doesn’t want you involved.”
“And you said I have a brain of my own and you can’t stop me from doing what I want,” I said. I watched the shock of having his words cited back to him cross his face, as the realization that I’d heard the whole conversation sunk in. “Being involved with you doesn’t mean I’m going to turn my back on him.”
Hudson took Rocky’s leash from me. “Madison, be careful.”
I left out the front door.
Half an hour later, armed with takeout bags from the Hunan Palace, I knocked on the door of the white camper parked in front of Jumbo’s Topless Club. When I hadn’t spotted Tex in the Casa Linda lot, I widened my circle. Jumbo’s boasted stiff drinks, tattooed women, and eighties rock. If Tex didn’t answer the door to the camper, I wasn’t going inside to find him. Even I had my limits.
I heard movement inside seconds before the door opened. Something fell. Someone cursed. Another few sounds of items banging around, and then the door opened. Tex stood in front of me in a white undershirt and faded blue jeans that hung low on his hips. His hair was slicked back away from his face, and the facial hair from a few days ago had morphed from stubble to beard. He looked like he still hadn’t showered.
I held up the bags. “Hungry, Lieutenant?”
He stepped back and let me in.
I climbed up and moved a broom and plunger that had fallen from a cabinet. I felt his eyes on me while I unpacked the cartons of Chinese takeout and set them out on the counter. I didn’t look at him and I didn’t say anything. When I was done, I tore the paper off of a pair of chopsticks and turned around.
“You look like crap,” I said. “Doesn’t this thing have a shower?”
He flashed me a smile. “What’s the point of showering when I have to put the same dirty clothes back on?”
“You seem to have contacts with the outside world that bring you eggroll and beer. Surely you can get new clothes.”
“Priorities.”
“If you’ve been wearing the same underwear since last Wednesday, I don’t want to know.”
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” he said. I threw a balled up napkin at him.
I picked up a carton of orange chicken and dug around with my chopsticks. “I think I’m their number one customer. The owner gave me an order of snow peas for free.”
“They’re getting ready to close,” he said. “Chinese food doesn’t keep overnight.”
“What do they do with the leftovers?” I asked, before realization dawned on me. “They know I’m getting this food for you, don’t they?”
He finished his mouthful and swallowed. “About ten years ago the restaurants around here kept getting robbed. My partner and I made a habit of patronizing the restaurants every night. Thought if we made it known that there were police around, the perps would leave them alone.”
“Did it work?”
“We never caught the guys, but the robberies stopped. Sometimes that’s the best we can do.”
“And you’ve been hooked on Hunan Palace ever since.”
“They make a good eggroll.” He bit into his second since I’d arrived.
Having already eaten most of the steak and potatoes with Hudson, I wasn’t as hungry as Tex appeared to be. I moved past him and sat on a small padded bunker. Tex sat on the one opposite me and leaned back against the wall.
“How’d you know where to find me?” he asked.
“I watched you drive away from Hudson’s house earlier today.”
He didn’t react. “White campers aren’t that uncommon.”
&
nbsp; “I got the license plate.”
He grinned. “Night, I do like the way your mind works.” He finished off the second eggroll and set his container of rice down next to him. “You shouldn’t have come looking for me.”
“I thought that’s what you wanted.”
“I don’t know what I want.” He rubbed his eyes with the thumb and index finger of his left hand. “No, that’s not true. I want to find the women who are still missing. I want more than two hours of sleep. And I want you to stop calling me ‘lieutenant.’”
“What should I call you?”
He grinned a lazy half smile that gave away the fact that his whole mind wasn’t occupied with thoughts of the case. “It’s a shame my mind is fuzzy from lack of sleep. I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night with a very good response to that question.” He bent one leg and put the heel of his boot on the edge of the bench. “Okay, so you’re here. Considering you were at Hudson’s when I showed up, I’m going to go out on a limb and say he knows you’re here. Did he try to stop you?”
I wanted to return Tex’s playful smile, but I couldn’t. Not when I thought about the knife and the girls and the car accident.
“I think I found the connection you’ve been looking for,” I said.
Instantly the playfulness was gone and he was all business. He put both feet on the ground and leaned forward, forearms on his thighs. “Yeah?”
“First, you know about Cleo Tyler, right? That she was found today?”
A shadow crossed his face. “Iverson told me.”
“Why didn’t the abductor kill her? He killed Kate Morrow. If he’s escalating his violence, he wouldn’t go backward.”
“I don’t think he ever intended to kill Mrs. Tyler. I think she was a message.”
“Why weren’t you there? In the parking lot. I found her because I was there to meet you.”
“Something came up on the scanner that I needed to check out.”
I waited for Tex to tell me what it was. He didn’t. He finished his beer while I moved my rice around inside the carton. I’d lost my appetite. I set the carton down.
With Vics You Get Eggroll (A Mad for Mod Mystery Book 3) Page 14