Firework Fiasco

by Kathi Daley

  “One of the other Elvises, a man named Eric Spencer, told me that Calvin had a change of heart and just took off without even giving us enough notice to find a replacement. My event manager is livid, but I do understand stage fright, and how it can cripple a person.”

  “You think Calvin had stage fright?” I asked. I seemed to remember his bio said he’d worked in Vegas as an impersonator in the past, and he certainly hadn’t gotten this far in the competition if he hadn’t preformed before. The stage fright angle made no sense in my mind, and I was surprised Dirk believed it either.

  “I’m sure of it. I happened to wander over to the stage during rehearsals yesterday and he was pacing around, talking to someone on the phone. I overheard him say that the stress was too much for him and he just couldn’t follow through with his commitment. I’d noticed him fidgeting before one of the rehearsals and put two and two together. I was going to say something to him, but then one of the other contestants wandered over and I didn’t want to embarrass him by saying I’d overheard his conversation. My heart goes out to the guy. It really does. When I first started in show business I was so terrified of going on stage that I threw up pretty much every time I had a live event.”

  “During?” I asked.

  “No. Thankfully, the cookie toss was before I went on. It took me a long time to get to the point where the thought of a public appearance didn’t cause a lot more stress than I wanted to deal with. I might have quit if it hadn’t been for my father breathing down my neck, insisting I make something of myself.”

  Dirk was such a big star, I’d never thought of him having insecurities like the rest of us mere mortals. I wanted to grill him for more information about Elvis #3, but his event coordinator was waving him over, so he said good-bye and left.

  “Now do you believe me?” Nona asked.

  “I believe something is going on.”

  “So what now?”

  Good question. I felt like I should call the man who was covering for Salinger, but really, what was I going to tell him? My husband’s grandmother woke up next to a dead man, but all traces of him and the blood he’d shed were gone?

  “We should tell Zak what’s going on.”

  I could see Nona wasn’t happy with that idea.

  “It’s either Zak or the guy filling in for Salinger. If Elvis #3 really is dead, we need to find out who killed him before the trail grows cold.”

  “Call the kid filling in for Salinger,” Nona said. “If you tell Zak he’ll just call the kid anyway, plus he’ll know what a crazy old woman he has for a grandmother.”

  I picked up the phone to call the sheriff’s office, even though I suspected that with absolutely zero proof as to what had occurred, the guy probably wouldn’t believe us. Not that I’d blame him. The whole thing was too ridiculous to be real.

  ******

  “Let me get this straight,” the substitute deputy, whose name, we learned, was Buckner, said when Nona finished telling her story. “You met a man dressed as Elvis in a bar last night. You went with him back to his room, where you passed out. When you woke up this morning, you found the man lying in a pool of blood with a knife in his chest. You then hopped on your Harley and went to find Ms. Zimmerman.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “How old are you exactly?” he asked.

  “It’s not polite to ask a woman her age,” Nona replied.

  “Never mind.” He typed something into the computer, then looked at the screen. He whistled. “Older than I would have guessed.”

  I cringed as I waited for Nona to belt him. If you wanted to live you needed to know that commenting on Nona’s age wasn’t good for your health. Thankfully, she decided to behave and simply glared at him. I didn’t blame him; even I thought he was being a lot ruder than he needed to be.

  “Are you going to look into this or not?” Nona demanded.

  He let out a loud sigh. It was obvious he’d just as soon send us on our way, but I had to give him some credit when he got up, grabbed his car keys, and headed to the door. Nona and I followed him to the motel in my car. He took the key from Nona, then told us to wait in my car until he had a chance to check things out. After a few minutes he came out.

  “There’s no evidence anyone died in that room. Not recently, at least.”

  “I know what I saw,” Nona insisted.

  “I’m sure you do.” He looked at me. “Can I speak to you for a moment, ma’am?”

  I got out of the car and followed him a few steps away.

  “I can’t tell if this is just some huge joke you’re playing on the new guy as retribution for pulling your grandmother over for speeding the other day, or if your grandmother needs to have her medication adjusted. I do know there’s no way some guy was stabbed to death in that room less than twenty-four hours ago.”

  “I know how it looks and sounds, but Nona seems so sure, and Elvis #3 has pulled out of the competition. At least talk to the people over there to see what you can find out.”

  “Sounds like a huge waste of my time.”

  “Maybe, but it will help to put Nona’s mind at ease. I mean, how hard could it be to track down this Calvin Jobs and have a chat with him? If you can confirm that he’s alive and well that will be the end of it.”

  The man closed his eyes, let out a breath, and shook his head. “I’m more than certain this is a waste of time, but if it will make you happy I’ll see what I can do. In return, you have to promise me that neither you nor your nona are going to run around town telling everyone that one of the Elvises was murdered in his room last night. You must know all that will accomplish is cause a lot of heartache for a lot of folks.”

  “I won’t talk about it. Nona won’t either.” I would, however, I’d decided, tell Zak what was going on. It didn’t feel right to keep it from him, despite Nona’s request. Besides, chances were, he could help me make some sense of this mess.

  ******

  I had to hand it to Zak: he managed to make it through Nona’s explanation without a single look of doubt or disbelief. He sat quietly, giving her his full attention, asking reasonable questions, and offering thoughts of concern and sympathy where appropriate. The gentle approach he took toward the whole thing made me feel bad for all the times I’d thought Nona’s sanity was in doubt.

  “Don’t worry, Nona.” Zak wrapped his huge arms around the small woman who obviously meant a lot to him. “I’ll take care of everything. All I need for you to do is to lay low until this is straightened out.”

  Fat chance of that happening, I thought to myself. Nona was the sort to fly high. Laying low never had been her style, at least since I’d known her. I first met Nona when she stayed with Zak and me in the days leading up to our wedding. Not only had she rolled into town on her pink Harley wearing a pink leather jacket, but when I found out she’d arrived I’d gone looking for her and found her doing yoga out by our pool. Totally naked.

  According to the Zimmerman family, though, Nona had once been a rigid, controlling woman who lived to impose her will on others. She’d lived her life based on a stringent set of rules she enforced with an iron fist. Then she had a stroke and became a totally different person. The new and, I think, improved Nona doesn’t seem to understand the boundaries most people live by. She does what she wants, when she wants, how she wants, with little regard to what anyone else might think about it. I do love her for that. I also worry about her for the same reason. She doesn’t seem to understand that the laws of physics apply to her too, and she’s just as likely to come to harm as anyone else. When she’s in town I find myself worrying she’ll drink too much, hook up with the wrong person, or crash the hog she rides. Having said that, I wouldn’t change a single thing about her. Nona might not have a lot of years left, but you can be darn well certain she’ll live them on her own terms.

  Zak finished listening to everything Nona had to say, then sent her out to the pool to cool off after reminding her that children lived in our house, so a mandatory b
athing suit policy would have to be enforced.

  “What do you think?” I asked when we were alone.

  “I’m not sure,” Zak answered. “Nona believes she saw this man lying in a pool of blood with a knife in his chest. I’m convinced she’s very sure of what she saw, and given the fact that the guy seems to have disappeared, I’m inclined to believe her. But if he died in that room I honestly can’t believe there’s absolutely no evidence to find.”

  “What if it was a hit carried out by the mob and they sent a cleaner to take care of things?” I said. “You know, like in that movie we watched.”

  Zak leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. “While I value your idea, and agree that it might very well have merit, at this point my tendency is to think there’s something simpler going on that we just haven’t figured out yet.”

  “Yeah, probably. It seems to me that for everything to have played out the way Nona said it did, there had to have been several things going on. For one, it seems Nona was drugged. Why? If someone wanted Elvis dead, why not wait until she wasn’t around? Drugging her and then killing him while she was in the room seems like a needless risk.”

  “Agreed.”

  “And then there’s the fact that Nona was left as a witness of sorts,” I continued. “Why would someone kill Elvis and then just leave her there in the bed, knowing she was sure to wake up and discover the body at some point? Seems like another needless risk.”

  “Or maybe it was part of the plan,” Zak suggested.

  “Part of the plan?” I lifted a brow. “How?”

  “I’m not sure. I think the fact that Elvis was left for Nona to find was intentional.”

  “Okay, that’s a frightening thought.”

  Zak wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. He held me tight, letting me find comfort in his embrace, until I heard Catherine fussing through the baby monitor. I kissed Zak quickly on the lips, then headed up to get her.

  “Look who’s awake,” I greeted the suddenly smiling and happily squealing baby.

  “Ma,” Catherine crooned as I lifted her out of her crib and kissed her on top of her thick head of dark brown curls.

  “Did Daddy take good care of you while I was gone?”

  “Da.” Catherine pulled a handful of my hair.

  I laughed as I put her down on the changing table. After making sure she had a dry diaper and a fresh jumper, I picked her up and went downstairs. Sitting her in her high chair, I opened the refrigerator and took out a Tupperware container of homemade baby food. Not that I made it, mind you. Homemade baby food was more of a Zak thing.

  “You’re back early.” Alex Bremmerton, one of the teenagers Zak and I were raising, walked in from the pool.

  “I wasn’t at the Zoo all that long. Aspen is covering while I look into a situation for Nona.”

  “A situation?” Alex took a bite of an apple she’d grabbed from a bowl on the table.

  I know there are a lot of mothers out there who wouldn’t tell their thirteen-year-old daughter that the woman she knew as an honorary grandmother had found a dead man in her bed after waking up in a motel room, but I wasn’t one of those mothers; I caught her up on what had happened.

  “Wow, poor Nona. When she came out to swim I thought she seemed a little deflated. She didn’t even do her signature cannonball into the pool. As hard as it is to believe, she actually walked into the water down the steps on the shallow end.”

  “When she first told me what happened, she didn’t seem overly upset, but I can see it’s really starting to get to her. Maybe it’s become more real to her as time passes.”

  “I’ll try to cheer her up,” Alex offered. She looked around the room. “Where’s Charlie?”

  My hand flew to my mouth. “Oh my gosh. Charlie! I left him with Aspen when Nona showed up. I should go.” I glanced at Catherine.

  “I’ll feed her,” Alex offered. “And after she eats I’ll bring her out to the patio and put her in her bouncy chair. She loves to watch Scooter play in the pool.”

  “Thanks.” I reached out and hugged Alex. “I’ll let Zak know you have Catherine. I’ll try to hurry.”

  “Take your time,” Alex encouraged. “Catherine and I will be fine. Won’t we, baby?”

  Catherine screamed in response, which I assumed meant she was happy to spend time with her big sister.

  Chapter 4

  Thankfully, Charlie had been perfectly happy to spend the day with Aspen at the Zoo and had no idea I’d forgotten about him in all the confusion.

  “I’m sorry I ended up being gone all day,” I apologized to Aspen.

  “Charlie and I were fine,” Aspen responded. “Is Nona okay?”

  “Not really. I’ll tell you what’s going on, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else. At least not until we figure things out.”

  “Of course,” Aspen promised me.

  I hopped up onto the counter and began my story. I could tell by the changing expressions on Aspen’s face that she was as shocked by the tale as I’d been.

  “Wow,” she said when I was done. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m not sure yet. On one hand, figuring out what did or didn’t happen to the man Nona knows as Elvis #3 isn’t my job. We’ve notified the authorities, which pretty much passes the responsibility for solving the mystery to them. On the other hand, Nona is really upset. I have a feeling she won’t be satisfied with leaving it alone. And maybe she shouldn’t be. If a man was murdered, someone should be trying to figure out what happened to him.”

  “If you need me to work extra hours while you try to figure this out, don’t worry about it,” Aspen offered.

  “Thanks. I’m going to try to juggle things so I can spend some of my time here at the Zoo. It’s been a long time since I’ve helped out on any kind of a regular basis. I was actually looking forward to being here while Jeremy and Tiffany were off. But I know from experience that murder investigations have a way of taking over any schedule I might try to stick to.”

  “The way you’ve described things almost makes it sound like someone’s messing with Nona,” Aspen mused.

  “If that were true it would certainly explain things. According to Nona, she woke and found Elvis #3 dead. She didn’t touch him or look around; she simply freaked out and ran. The fact that the room was totally free of both a body and any blood less than ninety minutes later doesn’t make sense. Especially because no one has reported seeing anything. But if Elvis wasn’t really dead, if the knife and the blood were fake, I suppose I could see how he or whoever could have accomplished things in the amount of time allotted.”

  “The only real problem with that is why? Why would anyone go to all that trouble to play a prank on a harmless old lady?”

  “I have no idea. And maybe that wasn’t what happened at all. Maybe Elvis #3 isn’t dead. Maybe nothing happened and Nona really is losing her mind. I guess all I can do is follow the clues wherever they lead.”

  “It doesn’t seem you have a lot of clues to follow,” Aspen pointed out.

  “True. In this case I suppose I’ll have to follow the lack of clues.” I glanced at the clock. “Is there anything we need to discuss before I go?”

  “Not really. When you arrived I was about to respond to a call about kittens in a drainpipe. The kittens have been living in and near the pipe with their mother, but the mother seems to have disappeared. The woman I spoke to is afraid she’s come to some sort of harm, leaving the kittens on their own. She tried to reach them, but they were too far back in the pipe. We may need to trap them.”

  “Charlie and I will take a trap and some food and go over there on our way home. Do you have directions?”

  Aspen handed me a paper with an address on it.

  “I’m still going to come in tomorrow as scheduled. If things change, though, I’ll let you know. Did you ever hear from the forest service about the bear cub they wanted to bring in?”

  “The cub is being brought here in the morni
ng. They said they’ll arrive by around ten.”

  “Okay, good. I’ll definitely be here then. This will be the first wild animal intake you’ll be handling on your own.”

  “Okay. I’ll lock up, so don’t worry about that,” Aspen assured me.

  Charlie and I did a quick sweep of my office to ensure I wasn’t leaving behind anything that needed to be dealt with, then we headed out of town to the address Aspen had given me. I hoped I’d find evidence that the mama cat was alive and well, but unfortunately, domestic animals left out on their own had to face a lot of hazards, including automobile encounters as well as run-ins with the large predators nearby.

  The kittens had been spotted in a rural area. There were homes not far away, but they were widely spaced, so there was some forested area between each parcel of property. I loved living on the lake, but if I couldn’t afford a home there, I’d want to live out in this unincorporated area rather than in town.

  “Based on these notes, the kittens should be down in that drainage ditch,” I said to Charlie as I pulled slowly to the side of the road.

  If she was anywhere close by I didn’t want the mama cat to be spooked by Charlie, so I left him in the car while I tried to suss out the situation. As Aspen had described, there was a small cabin just to the right of the ditch. I knew there was another property to the left, but the home wasn’t visible through the trees. I walked slowly around, looking for any sign of the adult cat before I climbed down into the storm drain and took a look inside. I didn’t see anything at first, so I took out my flashlight, then lay down flat on my stomach so I could get a look inside the pipe. I hadn’t seen anything for a while, but then I saw something move. I’m pretty small, so while most adults wouldn’t fit in the pipe, I was able to scoot forward until an orange kitten poked its head into view.

  “Hey, sweetie. Is your mama around?”

  I didn’t see the mother and didn’t want to risk leaving the kittens alone if she was gone, so I scooted back out the way I’d come and went back to the car for Charlie. It might seem counterintuitive to send a dog in after kittens, but I was afraid of crawling in any farther for fear of getting stuck, and the kittens were so young, I didn’t think they’d be afraid of him. Besides, Charlie knew how to transport them without harming them, and he’d be able to travel farther into the pipe to ensure we didn’t leave anyone behind.