“Where would I go? This is my house.”
Henry leapt onto the sofa and sat close to me. I petted him and he purred. Listening to the sound of the ocean is relaxing, but it doesn’t come close to listening to a cat purring.
Trent returned with a beer and resumed his seat next to me. “All right. Tell me about the gifts Rick didn’t give you.”
I told him the whole story, from the roses to the butterfly, ending with my realization that it was probable some stranger had been trespassing on my property.
“And the reason you’re just now telling me this would be…?”
I shrugged and reached for another piece of candy. Confessions require chocolate. “I thought it was Rickhead.”
I watched his eyes and saw the evolution from boyfriend to cop. It wasn’t what I wanted to see. “You didn’t think the whole situation was a little strange?”
“Strange, sure, but normal for Rick. He’s done it before.”
“So the first two gifts and notes have been destroyed, but you have the butterfly, the wrapping paper and the note?”
He was all cop. My boyfriend had left the building. I needed comfort and cuddling, but I was going to get an inquisition. “The butterfly’s at the restaurant, and Fred’s got the wrapping paper and note.”
“What’s Fred doing with them?”
I spread my hands. “Seriously? You want me to speculate on what Fred’s doing with that stuff? Maybe he’s checking it for fingerprints and DNA. Maybe he’s using the back of it for scratch paper to make notes of what the voices in his head tell him. Maybe he’s developed a process to turn paper into gold.”
“Lindsay, this is serious. We need that wrapping paper, the note and the butterfly.”
“You’re probably not going to find much on the butterfly. I cleaned and sanitized it.”
He sighed. “And you call Fred OCD?”
“Hey! I put it in the display case with my cookies. I didn’t want Rick’s DNA anywhere near food.”
“I’d still like to look at it. Can you get the paper and note from Fred and bring them to the station tomorrow along with the butterfly?”
“Of course I can. What you should be asking is, will I?”
He smiled, set his beer on the coffee table and took both my hands in his. I was pleased to see flashes of green in the darkness of his eyes. My boyfriend was back. “Will you bring those items to me tomorrow?”
“Sure. After you leave, I’ll go to Fred’s and ask him.” And see if Sophie was there. Now I had a legitimate excuse for snooping.
He pulled me close. “I’m not leaving.”
I snuggled into his warmth, into his familiar arms. “I’m good with that. Not that I need a body guard, but I like sleeping with you.”
“Of course you don’t need a body guard. I would never suggest that.”
“Good.” I leaned back and cuddled against him.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and was quiet just long enough for me to relax and let my guard down. “So if Rick didn’t leave the gifts, who did?”
He just couldn’t stop playing cop. “I have no idea. Isn’t that your job, to find out?”
“I plan to do that. But this may be somebody you know. Has anybody been extra friendly lately? A neighbor? Somebody at the restaurant leave big tips? Ask you personal questions?”
I giggled. “Big tips? Definitely not. I really don’t want to talk about this right now. I want to go upstairs and get personal with you.”
Ask you personal questions?
The words evoked an image of a wide face with pock-marked skin and bushy brows low over narrow eyes that leered and winked.
“Boyfriend didn’t give you that butterfly, did he?”
“I’ll have the special dessert made by the special lady.”
“You are a feisty little thing!”
“There is a disgusting creep that’s been in Death by Chocolate a couple of times. I don’t know if he’s my stalker, but he’s awful. His name is Grady Mathis.”
“Grady Mathis? Who is he? How do you know him?” The cop again, but this time I didn’t mind, was almost glad.
Had Grady Mathis been on my porch, peeking into my window? The thought made me shudder. I’d have to scrub my porch thoroughly. Suddenly some of Fred’s OCD actions made sense.
I told Trent about the car repair shop and how Grady had acted in the restaurant, including what he asked me about the butterfly. He had shown an interest in it and had seemed certain my boyfriend didn’t give you that butterfly, did he?
Trent shook his head. “I wish you’d told me about these incidents when they happened.”
I frowned. “Seriously? You think I should have told you that I thought Rickhead was leaving gifts again and that a rude customer flirted with me? Not my idea of pillow talk.” I settled back into his arms. “Anyway, this whole thing only started on Monday night after you and Lawson were over here, so other than when you hauled me into the station and had Lawson grill me about Ginger, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you. Oh, wait. Never mind. If it started on Monday, it can’t be Grady. I went to Mathis Paint and Body Shop on Tuesday. That’s the first time I met him.”
“Stalkers often obsess about someone they’ve seen but never actually met. Are you sure he hadn’t been in Death by Chocolate before you met him on Tuesday?”
When I first saw Brandon’s father I had a feeling I’d seen him before but assumed it was because there was a father-son resemblance. “I don’t know. He could have been. Their place of business isn’t very far from mine. In one day I see hundreds of faces. Brandon knew me, but I didn’t remember him.”
“Brandon’s the son, the one who ran into your car and convinced you to come to their shop in the first place?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe Brandon’s involved in all this. Maybe the father and son are in this together, and Brandon staged the accident to get you into their shop.”
Trent’s a cop and he knows about these things, but I couldn’t buy into that theory. “No way. Brandon’s a big, soft-spoken teddy bear. He’d never do something like that.”
“I’ll run a background check on both of them in the morning—”
“Brandon’s clean but Grady has two DUIs and he’s been in trouble for sexual harassment.”
Trent stiffened and gave me the cop stare. “And you know this how?”
Oops. I lifted my chin and gave him the obstinate red head stare. “I’m psychic.”
“Fred, of course. So you knew about this guy’s background and you still didn’t tell me he was bothering you?”
I threw up my hands and sighed dramatically. “I just told you, and you’re making me sorry I did!” The best defense is a good offense. “If you harbor any illusions of getting personal with me tonight, you’ll give up the cop attitude and go back to being Trent.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment then nodded. “Tonight I’ll be your boyfriend. Tomorrow morning the cop will have a talk with Mathis.”
I started to protest. Mathis hadn’t done anything wrong except be obnoxious. However, it would be nice not to ever see him again. “I’d rather my boyfriend had the talk. Just make it clear to him that you and I are involved and you carry a gun and you’re very jealous.”
He laughed. “I think I can probably get the message across. But if he comes back to the restaurant, call Detective Adam Trent immediately.” He rose and took my hand. “Now, about that getting personal stuff…”
I cleared our snacks off the coffee table and put away the cookies then set the box of Godiva chocolates on the top shelf of my pantry, partly to hide it from Henry and partly to hide it from me. If it was visible, I’d eat the entire box before I left for work in the morning.
We started upstairs and Henry dashed ahead. Instead of going straight to the foot of my bed, he curled in the corner. He may be a catnip-aholic, but he has good manners.
***
I was sleeping soundly and happily when Trent’s freaking cell phone rang.
He groaned and rolled over, uncurling himself from my back, taking away the warm.
I looked at the clock. Six minutes after two a.m. Probably not his dentist’s office with a reminder call.
He grabbed his phone off the nightstand. “Adam Trent…Yes…I see…I will…I’m on my way.” He laid the phone back on the nightstand and rolled over to wrap his arms around me.
I returned the embrace. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re on your way somewhere besides my bed.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Oh, well. Better a few hours of fun than no fun at all.” I kissed him then shoved him away. “Get dressed. Go play cop.”
“Lindsay, I need to tell you what that call was about.” Even in the dark, I could see that he had that I’m so sorry, ma’am, but I have bad news look on his face.
My breath caught in my chest. Had somebody else been killed? Somebody I knew?
“Somebody tried again to kill Rick.”
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness!”
He frowned. “What?”
“I mean, thank goodness it wasn’t somebody else, somebody I care about.” Trent’s frown didn’t clear, so I hurried on to another question. “What happened?”
“I don’t have all the details yet. Someone hit him on the head with something heavy. He’s in emergency surgery again, but they think he’s going to be okay.”
“Really? If I’d known a couple of whacks over the head would make him okay, I’d have done that to him years ago.”
He got out of bed and started putting on his clothes. “Sometime we need to talk about this attitude you have toward your ex-husband.”
“I think it’s a perfectly normal attitude. What’s your attitude toward your ex-wife? How would you feel if she’d just been almost murdered twice? Wouldn’t you kind of wish the killer had been a little more competent?” I got up and pulled on my jeans.
“Go back to bed. I know my way out.”
“No, you might get lost. Besides, I need to lock the deadbolt behind you.”
“True.”
We walked downstairs.
“I think I just made a good point,” I said. “The killer isn’t very competent, is he?”
“You mean because he failed twice to kill Rick?”
We reached the front door and I turned the deadbolt to unlock it. “That too, but if you think about it, he could have put an air bubble in Rick’s IV. He could have posed as a doctor and given him a shot of insulin. Instead, he just whacked him over the head again. Brute force.”
“You watch too much television.” He gave me a quick goodnight kiss. “Don’t come out. Lock up behind me, turn your porch light on and go straight to bed.”
For once, I was willing to take orders.
I flipped on the light and stood in the doorway watching him as he strode down the sidewalk.
Clouds still covered the moon and thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance. If it rained, surely my stalker would stay home.
I waved as Trent drove away.
I’d felt safe while he was with me. When he left, I felt very exposed, as if unseen eyes were watching me, as if Mathis or some stranger was going to pop out from behind a tree at any moment.
The thunder rumbled louder. A chilly autumn wind blew my hair across my face and sent shivers down my spine.
I strained to see behind bushes, around the thick trunk of the oak tree, in the shadows of Paula’s house next door and Sophie’s house across the street. I didn’t bother to look at Fred’s house. Between his psychic ability and his x-ray vision, not to mention all sorts of electronic microphones and cameras, he’d know if anyone came close to his house.
I couldn’t see anybody.
If I was inside with the blinds closed, nobody could see me.
I stepped back, shut the door and turned the deadbolt.
Lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the living room and turning the lamp, sofa, chair and television into evil aliens. Thunder crashed.
I ran upstairs where Henry waited on the foot of my bed. He was calm. If Henry was calm, everything was fine.
I turned off the lamp and went to the window. Tree branches thrashed about in the wind. Lightning streaked through the sky, bringing shadows to life and sending them dancing across my yard.
I considered closing my window. Not to shut out the storm. I love a good thunderstorm. No, I wanted to shut out those shadows. However, at the same time I wanted to hear if somebody came on my porch. I wanted to catch him in the act and dump Henry’s litter box on his head.
I left the window up.
My phone rang and I almost jumped out of my skin.
I looked at the display.
Fred?
Lightning flashed. Thunder boomed a split second later. The storm was getting closer.
My heart rate sped up. It was a strange hour for anyone to call, even Fred. Was he calling to warn me about something or someone he’d seen skulking around my house?
I picked up my phone. “Fred?”
“Of course it’s me. Who else would be calling from my cell phone?”
I released a long breath. He didn’t sound as if he was worried about my safety. He sounded like his usual snarky self. “Why are you calling at this hour?”
“I saw you were up and just wanted to be sure you were okay. I can come over if you want me to since Trent had to leave.”
I laughed. “Even if I were scared—which I’m not—I don’t need you to come over because you’re already watching everything that goes on over here.”
“I wish that were true. If it was, I’d have seen that creep who left the roses. I do sleep sometimes.”
“You do?”
He ignored my question. “I have more bad news. I’ve been studying the footage from the camera I left in Kenneth Wilson’s bedroom. He hasn’t made any move to get rid of his shoes.”
A cold wind gusted through my bedroom window.
“Damn. I thought sure we had Bob’s killer.”
“I don’t think so. You may have to accept that Bob’s murder was random and his killer may never be caught. However, Ken may kill Tina.”
I sucked in a quick breath. “Does that mean you’ve caught him on tape hurting her?”
As if in answer, lightning struck close by. I shrieked. The flash was so bright it momentarily blinded me, the thunder so loud it hurt my ears.
“You’re able to scream,” Fred said. “That means the lightning didn’t hit you and you’re not dead.”
“Thank you for being so comforting.”
“Any time. Back to Kenneth and Tina. I’m afraid we stirred up Ken with our visit and our talk about Bob. He was rough on her last night. Shouted at her about the affair. Threatened to kill her and the oldest boy, the one that isn’t his. Tonight she practically dragged Ken into the bedroom, begging him to hit her instead of the boy, so I assume he must have attacked or at least threatened the kid.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. Can you turn the video over to the cops and get him arrested?”
“Won’t work. If I tried, he’d get me for invasion of his privacy.”
“So how were you planning to use the video of him getting rid of his shoes? Wouldn’t that have been invasion of privacy too?”
“Absolutely. But if he’d done that, we’d have known he was guilty and then we could have worked on finding the evidence or getting a confession.”
“I see. And if he didn’t make a move to get rid of the shoes, you could use that as proof to me that he didn’t do it and I need to admit that Bob’s murder could be an anonymous mugging and quit nagging you about it.”
“That sums it up quite well.”
“But now you’ve caught him committing another crime.”
“Yes.”
“And we can’t do anything about it.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Lightning flashed and thunder boomed almost simultaneously. Rain pelted down so suddenly
and so hard I jumped. The wind blew chilly drops through my open window and onto my bare arms. I slammed the window closed.
“Go to bed,” Fred advised. “Get some sleep. We’ll figure out some way to help Tina.” He hung up.
I returned to bed, but I didn’t expect to sleep. In addition to worrying about Grady, I could now worry about Tina too.
The rain beat against my window so forcefully it seemed it would break the glass and come inside bringing all the cold and darkness that lived outside my house.
Chapter Twelve
The pre-dawn air was cool and rain-cleansed when I left for work the next morning. My front porch held only a few wet leaves blown down by the previous night’s turbulence. Nobody jumped out at me when I opened my garage door. Nobody was hiding in the back seat of my car.
I walked into the kitchen of Death by Chocolate to find Paula already at work. Rarely do I arrive before her. Not that I try very hard.
I dropped my purse into a corner of the kitchen and tied on an apron. Making chocolate is a messy process. At least, the way I do it is.
“Good morning.” Paula didn’t look up from the biscuits she was putting in a pan.
“Somebody sneaked into the hospital and tried to kill Rick again. Failed again.”
Her head snapped up, her eyes wide. Yes, I like the effect of being dramatic. “What happened?”
“That’s all I know. Trent had to leave in the middle of the night to check on him. And Trent thinks Grady Mathis may be my secret admirer.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “Could be. He hits on you every time he comes in here.”
I took down a large can of cocoa and began preparing brownies. “Trent’s going to talk to him this morning. If he comes in, we need to call Trent immediately.”
She shoved the pan of biscuits in the oven and closed the door. “Didn’t you get the roses before you even met this guy?”
“Before I went to the car shop, yes. But that place isn’t very far from here. Trent thinks he might have been in here prior to that time and I just don’t remember him.”
“I suppose that’s possible. However, he doesn’t seem like the kind of man who’d leave romantic gifts like flowers and that butterfly.”
Fatal Chocolate Obsession (Death by Chocolate Book 5) Page 12