“You’re a fool, Wiley. You thought we had a deal. I only paid you two percent of what you stole—a pittance. Now I don’t have to do that.” Prentiss swung the gun toward him. “There is no honor among thieves.”
The spray of bullets came with such speed that Wiley and his mom barely jumped out of the way.
“Prentiss, don’t!” Harold called.
There was no time for hesitation. I hurled myself through the door, doing a roll and ducking behind a piece of rusty machinery as bullets pinged all around me. I chanced a look, but I didn’t see Prentiss or anyone else. The building was dark and appeared empty, though I knew better.
“Harold?” I hissed.
My answer was another spray of hot lead. That gun of hers had to hold a thousand bullets. I was afraid to fire my gun for fear I’d hit an innocent.
“Sarah Booth?” Harold spoke from my right, and he eased up beside me. “Get out of here.”
“Not a chance.”
“You can’t reason with her.”
“I know, but I’m not leaving you. How did you figure it out?”
“No one in her family could believe she was making money in her art gallery. She never sold anything. Never really tried. I put two and two together. She asked me about Tinkie’s party. She was too interested in the details. More than a social interest.”
“How did you know to come here?”
“Tinkie told me. She called this afternoon. Don’t be mad. She thought I might be helpful.”
“Why didn’t she just call DeWayne?” I was a little put out. “She did. He’s in the rafters. That’s why I got here first.” “There’s only one of her and four of us—six if you count Wiley and Mama Ryan. Let’s take her down.”
“She has an assault weapon,” Harold reminded me. “We need a plan.”
Another hail of bullets pinged all around us, then mowed across the building to the last place I’d last seen Wiley and his mother. Prentiss had us pinned down. But she didn’t know about Tinkie and DeWayne. I hoped.
“Prentiss, you’re running out of time. Just put the gun down.” Harold wasn’t a quitter. He kept at Prentiss.
“Why’d you even agree to meet Wiley?” I yelled out.
“Loose end,” she said.
I had to give it to Prentiss. She was confident. She’d meant to kill Wiley and made no bones about saying so. It was a fatal mistake.
Wiley rushed out of the darkness toward Prentiss while Mama set up a barrage of cover for him with her shotgun. Wiley darted, spun, cut cartwheels, and handsprings as he evaded Prentiss’s answering gunfire. The too-long sweatpants flapped behind him like he was a scarecrow.
When he bowled into Prentiss, knocking her backwards, two figures repelled from the roof of the old gin. Tinkie and DeWayne dropped like giant spiders right on top of Prentiss.
Without a second of hesitation, Tinkie whacked her upside the head with the butt of her gun. “I could have shot her, but I thought this would be more fun,” Tinkie said as she stepped out of the rope harness and used it to tie Prentiss up.
I went to help but DeWayne held up his hand. “Tinkie’s been itching to do this for the last half hour. Let her finish.” DeWayne pulled out his cell phone and snapped photos of Tinkie hog-tying Prentiss. “Coleman is going to love this.”
He turned to me. “I need the badge back, Sarah Booth. Coleman said if I didn’t get it back, he was going to skin me.”
Reluctantly I pulled it from my pocket and gave it to him. “I didn’t get to tune up a single suspect. That’s not fair. Tinkie got to.”
Harold put an arm around me. “Fair is that we’re all here and no one is harmed.”
The door of the gin creaked and DeWayne sprang into action. Wiley and his mama were headed into the night. “Come on, Sarah Booth, you can help me arrest them.”
It wasn’t the victory I’d hoped for, but I did my duty. In less than ten minutes we had Wiley, Mama Ryan, and Prentiss loaded in Harold’s vehicle for delivery to the courthouse. DeWayne had already picked up the two caterers who’d been in on the heist. They’d tried to run, but they hadn’t gone far enough to avoid DeWayne’s reach.
As DeWayne and Harold drove away, I stood outside the gin with my partner. “DeWayne will get all of the stolen items back,” I assured her. “It’s over.”
“Not completely,” Tinkie said, and when I pressed her for more information, she would only smile. “You’ll see,” she promised. “I’m planning another party.”
The promised party was better than I could ever hope. It consisted of Tinkie, Wiley, Millie, and me. We sat in the Delaney Detective Agency offices at Dahlia House sipping mimosas and eating a tray of snacks Millie delivered. She was back in Zinnia after a weeklong vacation in Washington D.C. with her new beau.
“I’m in love,” she told us without any embarrassment or hesitation. “It’s the most amazing thing. Wiley, I know you aren’t Cupid. In fact, you’re a crook. But that arrow did something to me.”
“That’s ridiculous.” I couldn’t believe a gown woman was going to put her romantic life in the hands of a hairy conman just because he showed up at a party in a diaper with a bow and rubber-tipped arrows. “You were shot with a toy.”
“Toy or not, it opened my heart. Claude is going to find someone to run his bar and he’s coming to Zinnia to help me with the café. We’re thinking about a liquor license for Millie’s Café.”
“That’s wonderful,” Tinkie gushed.
“While I appreciate this gentleman giving me a shot of love,” Millie said as she eyed Wiley, “I’m not certain he should be out of jail. Tinkie why aren’t you pressing charges?”
“He has his reasons, and I have mine.” Tinkie’s blue eyes were filled with mischief. “Wiley has agreed to help me with something.”
“What?” I asked. I was far more interested in my mimosa than in what games Tinkie had in mind to play with Wiley Ryan. The truth was, though, I was glad she’d convinced DeWayne not to pursue charges against the little satyr. And I suspected Tinkie had given him money for his son’s medical treatment. I couldn’t prove it, and she’d never admit it, but I knew the boy was at the top of the kidney transplant list. The condition that had prevented him from getting a new kidney had been successfully treated.
“Wiley, maybe you should show her?” Tinkie said. “See, I think Wiley has a special gift. I want him to bestow it on you, Sarah Booth.”
Red alert! Red alert! Tinkie was messing in my romance department. I stood to run out of the room, but I was too slow. Wiley had his toy bow and arrow, which was pointed right at my heart. As he released the string, I dove right, falling behind my desk. The arrow missed me by a hair and struck Sweetie Pie right in her chest.
Outside Dahlia House, I heard a strange bark. Before I could grab her, Sweetie was up and dashing outside. Everyone ran to the window to see Sweetie Pie down on her front paws, tail in the air wagging, as she greeted a very handsome black lab.
“Sweetie Pie!” I called out. I could see the hearts flying between the two dogs. “Sweetie Pie Delaney!”
But she and the black lab disappeared around the house. I heard the yip-yip of two dogs playing. I knew without a doubt that if the lab didn’t have a collar, I was now the owner of two dogs. Sweetie had a mate.
I turned on Tinkie and Wiley. “Look what you’ve done.”
“The arrow was meant for you, Sarah Booth.” Tinkie wasn’t even dismayed. “Next time.”
“I need another pitcher of mimosas.” I took the empty pitcher and headed for the kitchen, the laughter of my friends following me. I’d just uncocked a new bottle of champagne when I caught the scent of chocolate. I whirled to find Cupid fluttering in the air behind me. He was the Cupid of Valentine cards with his perfect baby body and little white feathered wings. He dropped bonbons at me as he circled the room, bow and arrow at the ready.
I’d had it with the devious little demi-god. “If you shoot that arrow at me, I’ll spay you with Raid and then beat you to death
with a flyswatter.” I put some oomph in my threat by picking up the yellow swatter from the hook on the cabinet.
“Looking for love in all the wrong places,” the little imp sang as he dove at me, his wings aflutter.
I ducked under the kitchen table. “Stop it. Get away from me. I swear—”
Cupid settled atop the kitchen table. His chubby little legs elongated and his body filled out with womanly curves in a darker hue. Because Jitty was a fashion diva, the diaper was replaced with a gorgeous red teddy. She still held the bow and quiver of arrows, but she dropped them to the floor.
“I’m not gonna shoot you with an arrow of love. You fightin’ it so hard, your black old heart would probably abscess. Pus would spew everywhere and spray—”
“Stop it!” I covered my ears and stood up. “Stop it right now. You leave me alone. You and Tinkie and everyone else.” I was at the edge. “I want to love someone, but I can’t force it.”
Jitty jumped to the floor. She walked around me letting out a low whistle. “I won’t ever say this again, but just this once, Sarah Booth, you’re right.”
I slapped my ear, because surely I’d misheard. “What?”
“You’re right?”
“About what?”
She sighed and shook her head. “You and Diana Ross. It’s true. You really can’t hurry love. It’s just that I’m afraid you’ll miss out on the one man who can love you for the rest of your life.”
Jitty knew something. “Which man is that?”
A sly smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “You know I can’t tell you anythin’ like that.”
“But you know who my true love is.”
She didn’t deny it. She just changed the subject. “Love makes the world go round, Sarah Booth. I know you’ve been hurt, more than once. And you’ve hurt your fair share of men. But you can’t give up. You can’t hide out here in Dahlia House, pretending that work satisfies all your needs.”
“Who am I supposed to be with? If you’d just tell me, it would simplify things and I could get on with it?”
Jitty only shook her head. “Remember this, Sarah Booth. The heart is a muscle. If you want it to grow strong in love, you have to exercise it.”
Her words stopped me cold. “Who said that?”
“Jitty the wise. Now get back in there with your friends. And open your heart. You never know who’s going to walk through the door around this place.”
Just as I heard Tinkie’s footsteps in the dining room, Jitty disappeared. The door pushed open and Tinkie stepped into the room. She sniffed. “I smell chocolate.”
“It’s just your imagination,” I said, grabbing the pitcher of mimosas.
“You aren’t mad at me, are you?” Tinkie asked.
I bumped the kitchen door open with my hip. “Even if I was mad, I couldn’t stay that way. I love you, Tinkie. Sometimes, the love of a friend is the best love of all.”
As we left the kitchen, I looked back to see Cupid fluttering above the sink. He gave me a big wink before the door closed. “Sooner or later, love is gonna getcha,” he sang so softly only I heard.
About the Author
Carolyn Haines is the USA Today bestselling author of over 70 books. She was the recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Writing and the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence, as well as the "Best Amateur Sleuth" award by Romantic Times. Find out more about Carolyn by signing up for her newsletter for contests and updates.
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Also by Carolyn Haines
Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries
Sticks and Bones
Bone to Be Wild
Booty Bones
Smarty Bones
Bonefire of the Vanities
Bones of a Feather
Bone Appétit
Greedy Bones
Wishbones
Ham Bones
Bones to Pick
Hallowed Bones
Crossed Bones
Splintered Bones
Buried Bones
Them Bones
Novels
The House of Memory
The Book of Beloved
Revenant
Fever Moon
Penumbra
Judas Burning
Touched
Summer of the Redeemers
Summer of Fear
As R.B. Chesterton
The Darkling
The Seeker
Bones and Arrows: A Sarah Booth Delaney Short Mystery Page 5