Domestic Affairs (Tiara Investigations Mystery)

by Lane Stone

  He tipped the young woman and we joined Tara and Vic who’d requested the car be brought around. I checked the second text. Bomb in Tara’s car caused explosion. Stay away.

  “Good Lord!” I yelled, startling the young man holding the door.

  “Leigh? Are you okay?” Tara ran up to me.

  “What’s the matter?” Victoria grabbed my arm and motored me to the car. “Get in so we can talk before Paul gets here.”

  “Got a text from Detective Kent.” I recited it. Tara hid her face in her hands, and Vic just stared at me with an open mouth.

  Paul got in, of course, after tipping the valet. Was there no end to the handing over of money in this place?

  “Paul, this is so upsetting and you have to get up so early. I asked Leigh if I could spend the night with her.” She had?

  “I don’t like it, but I see the sense in it. Do you want me to stop by and pick up Stephie? I can take her home with me.”

  That, I didn’t like. My plan required having the dogs with us for protection. Not that I had a plan yet.

  “Just drop us all off at Leigh’s. We’ll go later and pick up both Stephie and Mr. Benz.” Great minds. Victoria was already dialing her husband to say what had happened.

  CHAPTER 14

  Continuation of statement by Leigh Reed. While Paul and Tara said their good-nights, I let Abby out to do her business. Then we ran upstairs. “Let’s change clothes.”

  Tara looked at the black running tights, navy t-shirts, and black fleece jackets I was flinging from the dresser drawer. “I take this to mean, we’re not staying away from the site of the explosion?” Rolling up a cuff here and there took care of the difference in my height and her’s.

  Vic patted Tara’s back. “Either that or we don’t want to be recognized in that Jeep.”

  Back downstairs, I handed out scarves and gloves, all in dark colors. “Let’s restore it to its former glory.” I tossed my backpack in and we went to work. A few minutes later, we’d removed the electrical tape and what leftover sticky stuff we could see. “I won’t put the top on. Everybody good with that?” Abby was running around catching the tape, then trying to get rid of it. She paused and looked at me, like she was totally okay with the top off. I reached over and gently pulled a strip of tape off one of her back legs. She was wearing one of the black knit scarves, wrapped three times around her neck.

  Tara reached down and petted her. “I thought I might get too warm in it. Doesn’t she look cute? She’s in a disguise, too.” Her hand was shaking.

  I walked over to Tara and tried a little humor. “I’m sorry about your car, especially the heated steering wheel, leather seat belt buckles, and steering column casing in leather.” I looked at Vic to see if she noticed Tara’s nervousness. “Are you okay?”

  “What I’ll miss most are the personalized floor mats with leather edging,” Vic said.

  “I can buy another car, but if this had happened during the day and someone had been killed, I would never have gotten over it. I would’ve had to quit the agency.”

  “You would?” Vic asked. “Why? You didn’t plant the bomb.”

  “I guess I always assumed if anyone quit, we’d all quit and dissolve Tiara Investigations.” I started putting the doors back on, rear right side first. “No one was killed, but a million dollars of damage is a lot. Do you think Al Ford planted the bomb?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Get in, Abby.” I secured the driver’s door last and we were ready to go. “He has access to explosives. Remember what Paige said about going to North Carolina to his company’s testing facility to check that the walls of new SCIF designs could withstand bomb blasts?”

  We drove to Victoria’s house in Alpharetta first. She took off her cap so the guard at the security gate could see it was her. “Oh, no. The lights are on. Shorty’s home.”

  “Should I just keep driving?”

  “No, I want Mr. Benz with me. Park here.” As instructed, I stopped in front of the neighbor’s house. “I wish I knew which room he was in.”

  Tara stopped stroking Abby’s head in the back seat to answer. “I’ll get out and go look in the dining room window.”

  Victoria climbed out of the Jeep. “I’ll hide in the front yard. Take your phone and call me if you see him.”

  “I’ll wait in the getaway car,” I said.

  Vic walked through the front yard, but stopped short of the porch. She waited behind a Japanese Maple for Tara’s signal. I got out for a better look and that’s when I saw some movement in the window at the far right end of the porch. It was Mr. Benz. Why couldn’t Vic see him? “Abby, stay.”

  “Vic!” I was whispering but she jumped anyway.

  “I think I just peed in my pants.”

  “You mean my pants. Keep ‘em. There’s Mr. Benz. Go get him.”

  She tiptoed up the door, slipped her key in and cracked it open about an inch. “Mr. Benz, come.” No movement. “Come, baby.” He either heard or smelled me, or both, and tensed.

  “Go to her.” Hearing my voice, he recognized me and his nub started to wag. I motioned to Victoria. Dogs just don’t get pointing, or at least not the way we do it. All of a sudden something streaked pass me. It was Abby, her disguise scarf flying. She ran up to the window and scratched it. Once, twice. Then over and over quickly. It was the universal signal to go out, but she wanted in to her friend. Mr. Benz scratched back. I joined them on the porch and went to the window. We were covered in the porch light. I tapped the window and repeated my instructions. “Go!” Finally Mr. Benz heard Vic at the front door and ran to her. She headed to the Jeep and Mr. Benz followed. “I’ll call Tara.”

  “Who’s out there?” Shorty yelled from the foyer.

  Abby and I pressed up against the house. Wisely, and conveniently for me, he didn’t open the front door. He wasn’t going to come outside. The way I see it, a man who’s afraid of a gram of fat and a ray of sun, is not going to open the door if he thinks a burglar might be out there. I rolled my eyes at his hyper-alert nervousness.

  “Hey, good lookin’….” At the sound of Tara’s phone, his head jerked to the side of the house. Then he stomped away to the telephone on the oversized oak desk. I doubted it was to order pizza.

  “Run!” Tara was wearing the shoes she’d worn to the funeral, but she gave it all she had.

  Tara and I reached the car at the same time, outpaced by Abby. Vic had our doors open. “We have to get through the security gate before he alerts them.”

  I slowed down as we approached the brick guard shack. “Caps off.”

  We gave little waves and kept going all the way to Tara’s house. Before we got very far, Victoria’s phone rang. “It’s Frank.” She didn’t make a move to answer it.

  I looked over at her. “I think you should take the call.”

  “I agree. We need to know if he’s called the police.” Tara and both dogs were in the back seat.

  “Okay, but I’m putting him on speaker.”

  “Wait.” I reached for her arm. “Remember you don’t know he’s at home.”

  “And you weren’t at your house,” Tara added.

  “Got it. Hello?”

  “Victoria, where are you? Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. I’m with Leigh and Tara.”

  “We had an attempted break in here at the house.”

  “How do you know? Are you at home?” She paused in between each word. Lying is not her gift.

  “Yeah, I’m here. And there’s something else. The Security Guard here thinks you may have been kidnapped. They said everyone dressed in the car was wearing black. You are okay, right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “They’re idiots,” Shorty said.

  “No, they’re not.”

  “You’re right, they’re not. They immediately checked on the neighbors and asked if anyone had seen or heard anything suspicious. Two reported seeing a black Jeep parked on our street, just sitting there.”r />
  “I can’t hear you that well. I’ll be home in an hour or so.” She tossed her phone into her handbag.

  Tara leaned forward and patted Vic’s shoulder. “It’s a good thing you hung up. You could’ve cracked. Wasn’t it sweet of him to be worried?”

  “Sweet? He didn’t notice Mr. Benz is missing!”

  Said dog sat up straighter as if to say, “I’m right here.”

  Tara put an arm around Mr. Benz to stop him from joining us up front. “Maybe Shorty was too concerned about you to notice.”

  Vic huffed to express her doubt of this being the case.

  We entered Tara’s subdivision, which is not a gated community. “I see lights on. Could Paul be here?”

  “Those are on a timer. We’re good. Leigh, even though we look cool as can be in this car, do you think we should maybe take the Hummer? I mean, in case there’s an APB out on us.”

  “Do they still use that term?” Victoria asked.

  “Don’t know,” Tara answered.

  I pulled into her driveway. “I agree. Let’s take the Hummer. That security guard could have reported us and the area around the explosion will be full of police.”

  “And it’s getting cold,” Vic added.

  I remembered Abby’s decision to exit the Jeep. “It’d be easier to control the dogs in it, too.”

  “I’ll open the garage door.” Tara got out and a few minutes later the garage lights came on and the door floated up. I pulled forward and everybody, dogs and humans alike, relocated to the Hummer.

  We didn’t crate them because we didn’t know what the night would bring. Abby is three and a half, Stephie and Mr. Benz are two and half years old, and none are too happy about being crated, so we do it only when necessary. I sat in the back and, one by one, secured them by their seatbelts.

  Finally we could go to Highway 20 and try to get some information on what happened. Tara put the big car in reverse. “Now I wish Jerome had arrested Al at the mall, after he keyed my car.”

  Victoria pulled a lip gloss out of her handbag. “We wanted him to make a mistake so he could be arrested for something bigger. Did you see him put anything in or under your car?”

  “No, but it’s too much of a coincidence. Don’t you think? Who else could it be?”

  That’s when it hit me. I hadn’t told them about Bea’s poisoning. I filled them in, especially the part about Al being in front of her when she took the handkerchief from whoever it was.

  “She’s sure it was a man?” Tara looked at me in the rear view mirror.

  “Yeah. What a crazy night.” Then I told them about taking Bea to see the goats at Buford Dam. I was comfortable in the back of the car and my mind drifted from one turn of events to another of the last few hours. I remembered I had three text messages and had only read two. The third made me smile. It was Jack writing that he missed me already. “Let’s take Satellite Boulevard. Then right onto Highway 20. Hopefully it’s not closed off.”

  “Looks okay.” Tara sounded pretty calm.

  I thought she’d be more nervous than she appeared. She wasn’t letting any anxiety show.

  “Tara, did you mean what you said about quitting the agency?” I asked.

  “No, I was just upset.”

  “Then I can give you two these.” I unzipped my backpack and handed Victoria two wrapped parcels. “Vic, open yours.”

  She squealed. “Night vision goggles!”

  I thought Tara was going to drive off the road in her happiness. “Actually, they’re night vision binoculars,” I corrected. “They run on three volt batteries, which I installed. We can use them tonight.”

  Tara looked at the equipment in Victoria’s lap. “How long will they run?”

  “The battery lasts ten hours.”

  “These look so real.” Then Vic held up the one she had unwrapped for Tara to see.

  “They’re military quality.” I found the manual in my backpack. “Here’s what the pamphlet says, ‘these night-vision binoculars feature third-generation technology and are made with gallium arsenide inside the light-amplification tube.’ It says there’s a built-in IR Infrared Illuminator.”

  “What the hell’s that?” Tara asked.

  “Beats me, but doesn’t it sound good? Can’t you just see us throwing that kind of language around the High Hill Day Spa? Want me to read some more product details? We have Dual diopter adjustment with a central focusing knob.”

  “Talk technology to me, baby!” Victoria was laughing out loud.

  “How about if I just leave the manual with you?” It was about time for our turn and I looked around. “Tara, take a right onto Plunketts Road. It’s just after these shops. They each came with a protective carrying case and neck strap.”

  Tara changed lanes to get ready for the turn. “That I understood. What color are they?” Vic showed her a grey strap. “I can live with that for now. Leigh, did Jack get these for you?”

  “Nope. We don’t need to mention them in front of him, either.”

  Victoria looked back at me. “Where did you get them?”

  “Overstock.com.”

  “How can we ever thank….?” Tara was interrupted by a phone call. She held up a hand to let us know she was about to answer it, then she pressed the navigation panel on the dash. “Hello.”

  “Tara, it’s Jerry.” He’d gone from Jerome to Jerry for her, but he would always be Detective Kent to me.

  I grabbed Vic’s shoulder. Neither of us breathed.

  “Have you seen Victoria lately?”

  “Yeah. She’s with me now.”

  “Good,” he grumbled.

  “Why?” Tara’s tone said she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  “A call came into the station that she’d been kidnapped, but was immediately followed by another call saying she was alright.”

  Victoria leaned toward the speaker. “I’m quite fine, Detective Kent. Thank you for your concern.”

  “You’re quite welcome.” Hard to tell if he was being a smartass here or not, so I let it slide. “Good night.”

  I put my baseball cap back on. “Tara, weren’t you asking how you could thank me? Is Wynona on board?”

  “Indeed, she is!” Tara found the CD in the holder in the console. Soon we were listening to Wynona Judd’s version of Free Bird.

  “Turn in up,” Vic yelled.

  I put my hands over as many dog ears as I could and laughed out loud. “Take a right here!” We were across from the Porsche dealership. Plunketts Road runs beside unoccupied land and then a few rows of trees. It was also elevated by about ten or fifteen feet. “It’s time to go to work.”

  My phone rang. It was Jack. “Quick, turn the music off!”

  “I’m heading out,” he said.

  I took that to mean he was leaving DC. “If you leave, won’t the Senate subpoena you?”

  “They can if they want to, but they’ll have to find me before they can serve me directly. The subpoena will be delivered to the Army headquarters at the Pentagon and it won’t be accepted. Leaving will give me time to get to someone who can tell me what’s going on. My plane is taking off. I’ll call when I can.”

  “Jack, wait. I don’t want you to leave the Army like this. You’ve had too good a career.”

  “The Army doesn’t want me to testify publicly. They sent a letter to the committee asking that I not be deposed. I know a lot of people, but no one can tell me who’s behind this. Getting on the plane is the best option I have right now.”

  “Are you concerned about what you’ll be asked in a hearing? That you may be asked about night operations you’ve designed and led, not just the future of the program?”

  “I’ve got to go.”

  I took off my cap and rubbed my forehead, like I was pushing thoughts back. We pulled the straps on our night vision binoculars over our heads. Victoria opened the manual and began to read. “Use extreme caution….Ohhh.”

  Tara opened the car door, then she screamed. “I’m blind!�
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  “Aw, hell’s bells. Get out and close the car door.” I rolled out and sank to the ground.

  Tara and Victoria stumbled out and closed the doors so the car’s interior lights would go off.

  “As I was saying,” Victoria resumed, “use extreme caution entering a lighted area when wearing night vision goggles.”

  I couldn’t see but I could talk. “These things work by taking small amounts of light and magnifying it, so when the light came on inside the car, it was exaggerated. And there’s the fact that our pupils were dilated.”

  “Can somebody just tell me if the dogs are okay?” Tara was down, but kept the goggles on.

  “They’re good.” Having had the fear of God put in me, I took my goggles off. I didn’t need them because the lights were on at the dealership. “Oh, no.”

  What little glass remained of the front of the dealership show window was cracked, revealing five or six battered cars. The cars which had been parked outside closest to the window were pummeled too. Moving my eyes to the left, I saw even more damage in the service and body shop area. One of the service bay doors had been blown out and the roof had partially collapsed. While the physical destruction was chaotic, the calm, professional people on the scene looked to be working efficiently. “I don’t see your car.”

  “Let me get my opera glasses.” Tara turned back to the car.

  I caught her by the shoulders before she could open the door. “Wait! Take those off.”

  We laughed and she removed the goggles. She got her opera glasses out of her backpack and trained them on the scene below us. “I don’t see it. But look, there’s Detective Kent. He’s standing with those uniformed officers.”

  Vic got her opera glasses out and started scanning the crowd at the Porsche dealership. “I don’t see him. Whoa, I do see someone else we know.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Paige Ford,” Victoria said. “She’s making a phone call.”

  “Detective Kent is getting a phone call,” Tara said.

  He looked at his phone and then put it back in that little case he wears on his belt. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed his number. We watched as he looked at the screen of his phone.