Thirty-Three and a Half Shenanigans

by Denise Grover Swank

  He hesitated. “He’s under a lot of stress at work right now. There’s some fallout from his boss over that Black Friday bust.”

  I scrutinized him to see if I could catch him in a lie. “He hasn’t mentioned it to me.”

  “He probably doesn’t want to worry you.”

  “Is his job in trouble?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know.”

  Anger burned in my chest. “You’re just trying to stir up trouble between us.”

  “I’m not, Rose. I swear. And while there’s no love lost between Mason and me, I’d rather work with him than the actual DA.”

  “I don’t want to keep this from him. It’s too important.”

  “I know. Just give me until next week.”

  “No.” I steeled my back. “I’ll give you until the weekend.”

  He started to protest, then stopped. “Okay.”

  I turned around and started up the porch steps.

  “Rose.”

  I looked over my shoulder at him.

  “Tread carefully around Hilary. I’d truly kick her out of town if I had the authority, but I don’t. Try not to rile her up.”

  His words rekindled my anger. “I’m done hiding from the world, Joe Simmons.”

  “And I wouldn’t have it any other way. But until this is sorted out, try to avoid her if you can.”

  “That shouldn’t be too hard,” I said sarcastically. “Why don’t you tell her the same thing?”

  I walked back into the house, worried that Maeve would be upset that I’d stayed outside for so long with Joe. But she seemed more concerned about the leak under her kitchen sink.

  “The inspection showed some issues, but I got the house for such a steal we didn’t make the owner fix them.” She put a large plastic bowl under the pipes. “This should take care of it for now.”

  “That won’t work for long,” I said.

  She sighed, and I reached down to help her up. “But it’ll keep the floor dry for the time being. I’ll just have to remember to keep emptying the bowl.”

  “I thought the realtor said he was going to give you the names of some repairmen.”

  “He did, but none of them seem to be in a hurry to run over for nickel-and-dime repairs.”

  We finished putting the meatloaf together, making a double batch so Neely Kate could take one home to bake for her and Ronnie. I was impressed, though not surprised, that Maeve had already gone grocery shopping and picked up all the essentials.

  Neely Kate looked beat, so I offered to drop her and her meatloaf off at her car so she could get home to put it in the oven. Maeve cut another couple of generous slices of cake and put them on a plate for my friend to take with her.

  “I’m gonna get as huge as a whale if I keep hanging out with you, Maeve,” Neely Kate joked as she put her coat on. Then she winked. “I’m sure Ronnie won’t mind.”

  “You’re welcome here anytime,” the older woman said with a warm smile, looking pleased as punch. She’d only been in her house for a couple of days, but it was already obvious the move had been a good decision.

  As soon as we got in my car, Neely Kate started grilling me. “I hope you gave Joe an earful about Hilary.”

  “Neely Kate, he doesn’t want her here any more than we do. He says he’s really done with her, and I think he means it this time.”

  “Hmm.” She pressed her lips together.

  I cast a glance at her, wondering if I should come clean about J.R.’s fabricated evidence, but there was no telling what she’d do. I couldn’t risk it.

  I pulled into an empty space several spots from her car. “Are you worried about telling Ronnie that you got fired?”

  She shook her head with a grin. “Nope. I’ve decided it’s a blessing in disguise. You’re right, I’ve hated that place all along.”

  “Then do you want to go to Sugar Branch tomorrow and look for Nikko?”

  She threw her arms around me. “Thank you. I wasn’t sure if you’d still want to help me after what happened today.”

  “Hey.” I gave her a squeeze and leaned back to look at her. “We have to find Dolly Parton, don’t we? It’s the next place to look.”

  “Do you want me to come by your office? If you’d like, I can get an accounting program set up on your computers before we go.”

  “Really?”

  She shrugged and opened her door. “Sure. Turns out I have loads of time now.”

  “See you in the morning, Neely Kate. Take it easy tonight, okay?”

  “I’ll give it a try.” She shut the door and waved. I watched her walk to her car, deciding I had just enough time to run home and get Muffy before Mason showed up for dinner.

  My phone rang as I pulled out of the parking space, and I cringed when I saw who was calling.

  “Skeeter, you haven’t bothered me for two weeks, so why do you keep calling me now?”

  “I need you to come read someone.”

  “Skeeter!”

  “It’ll just take a minute, and he’ll never know it’s you. We’ll put a hood on him.”

  A hood? “Who is it?”

  “You don’t need to know that.”

  “Are you holding him hostage?”

  “No.”

  “Then how are you gonna explain the hood to him?”

  “He thinks it’s something kinky.”

  I gritted my teeth. “I am not—”

  He laughed. “Relax, Lady. I’ve got it covered.”

  What was gonna be uncovered was what had me worried, but I didn’t say anything. If I continued down this path, it was going to end badly. There was no doubt about it.

  “I think this guy has information about who’s after Deveraux.”

  For all I knew, he was making it up just to push my buttons. And damnation and hellfire if it wasn’t working. “I am not looking at naked people. I’ve seen enough topless women today to last me a lifetime.”

  “What’s that supposed mean?”

  “Never you mind. The fact is, I’m about to have dinner with Mason and his mother.”

  “You and your damn dinners.”

  I lifted my chin. “I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand.”

  “Well, your dinner’s postponed. Mr. Assistant DA’s about to go into a meeting, so he’ll be late. You have time.”

  My shoulders knotted with tension. “How do you know that?”

  “Lady, I make it my business to know things. But if you want to make sure he doesn’t notice, you need to come now.”

  I grunted my frustration. “Where?”

  He laughed. “Go north on 82 and turn onto County Road 36. Go two miles and turn off into the lot of the old feed store. Jed will meet you there.”

  “Fine,” I huffed. “I’ll head there now. But I can’t be seen.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s like I said, I don’t want you to be seen.”

  I hung up on his laughter and called Maeve. “I’m gonna be a little late. I have an errand to run.”

  “Take your time, dear,” she said. “Mason called right after you left and said he was going to be late himself. An unplanned meeting with his boss came up.”

  Well, crappy doodles. Skeeter was right. Mason was meeting with the DA. That rarely happened. I couldn’t help wondering if there was some truth to what Joe had told me too.

  I pulled into the empty parking lot of the feed store, wondering once again how I’d gotten into this predicament. To be safe, I drove around the back of the building and found Skeeter’s sedan idling there.

  I parked as Jed got out of the car and walked over, opening my door. “Skeeter wants me to take you to the place we’re going.”

  “I can’t drive there?”

  He shook his head. “He doesn’t want your truck there. I’ll drive you.”

  That made sense, and I was grateful for the secrecy, but I didn’t like the idea of being at their mercy.

  Jed sensed my hesitation. “You’re perfectly safe, Lady. I guarantee it.” He looke
d me in the eyes as he said it, with an earnestness I wouldn’t have expected from one of Skeeter’s men.

  I got out of the truck. “Okay.”

  He opened the back door to the sedan, and I started to get in, but he stopped me. “I have to blindfold you first.”

  “What?”

  He pulled out a black handkerchief from his coat pocket. “It’s for our protection as well as yours. If you confess what you’ve been doing to the Assistant DA, you won’t be able to show him where you’ve been.”

  I stared at the cloth in his hand. It made perfect sense, but it made me nervous nonetheless.

  He leaned closer. “Rose, I swear to you that I’ll keep you safe.”

  I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because you saved Skeeter’s life.”

  “So you’re doing it out of loyalty to Skeeter?”

  “He took a chance on me when no one else would. He’s like a brother to me. You didn’t have to help him, but you did.”

  “It wasn’t altruistic, Jed. I did it to get my money back.” As soon as the words tumbled out, I wondered if I should have admitted that.

  He chuckled. “I don’t believe that for one minute. You could have let him get killed, no skin off your nose. But you didn’t.” He gave me a grin. “I’ll look out for you.”

  I took a deep breath and glanced down at the handkerchief one more time before looking up into his face. “Okay.”

  “Turn around.”

  I faced the car as he put the folded fabric over my eyes and gently knotted it in the back, trying not to catch my hair. He took my arm and helped me into the backseat.

  When I heard his car door shut, I asked, “Will it take long to get there?”

  “Skeeter said to tell you not to worry. That you’ll get back in time for your dinner.”

  I couldn’t hold back my snort. “Of course he did.”

  “I’m gonna turn up the music pretty loud. Skeeter doesn’t want you to know where you are from the sounds.”

  “This feels an awful lot like a kidnapping. How do you know I won’t just rip off this blindfold?”

  He laughed. “Because I’m pretty sure you don’t want to know where you are.”

  He had a point.

  Loud country music filled the car, and four songs played before Jed turned the music down.

  “Can I take my blindfold off now?”

  “No, I’m gonna lead you in.”

  Jed got out, and then I heard the back door open. He guided me out of the car and took my elbow, coaching me on where to walk and telling me when we came to a step. My heels echoed off wood slats under my feet as we moved along, but after a few moments, Jed pulled me to a halt.

  “Lady,” Skeeter said. “Thanks for coming.”

  I raised my hand to the side of my head. “Can I take this off yet?”

  “I’d prefer for you to keep it on until we go inside.”

  I lowered my hand.

  “I’d like you to talk as little as possible once we’re in there. I’d prefer for him to not even know you’re there.”

  “You know I’m gonna blurt something out about the vision I have. I can’t stop that.”

  “I know, but we’ll keep the talking in his room to a minimum, and even if he hears you, he won’t be able to see you.”

  “You were serious about the hood.”

  “Yes.”

  “I really don’t want to see anything kinky, Skeeter.”

  He laughed. “You won’t. He’s drugged, so he won’t remember much. He’ll wake up next to a blonde with big tits and think he partied too much. He’ll get pissed because he won’t remember screwing her.”

  I took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  He led me through a door, and I entered a room that smelled like mildew and pine.

  “You can take your blindfold off now,” he whispered next to my ear.

  I tugged it off and blinked as I took in the living room covered in paneling and green shag carpet. It looked like a house straight out of the 1970s.

  Skeeter motioned to the dark hall, and I followed him to the last door. He opened it and stepped inside, giving me enough room to walk past him.

  A guy lay on the bed, dressed in a white T-shirt and green plaid boxer shorts. His legs and torso were pale, but he had a fading tan on his arms that ended at his biceps. He wasn’t obese, but he had a bit of flab on him. He was on his back with his arms all akilter over his head. A pillowcase with a kitten pattern on it covered his head, making it hard for me to guess his age. I knew he wasn’t a teenager, but he didn’t look too old either.

  I leaned close to Skeeter, suddenly realizing he smelled really good. Maybe it was because the rest of the place smelled like dirty socks original to the 1970s decor. “Can he breathe with that thing on his head?” I whispered.

  “Yes. We’ll take it off after you’re done. It’s for your protection.”

  And yours, but I kept that to myself. At the moment, it didn’t matter why he wanted to hide me—it just mattered that he did.

  I moved closer to the bed, not sure if I wanted to sit on it. It hadn’t been made after its last use, and the man was sprawled over the rumpled sheets and blankets. I decided to squat at the side, and I reached over and grabbed the man’s hand, which currently lay on his pillow.

  The man promptly rolled toward me, blindly reaching out for me and grabbing a handful of my hair.

  “Mmm, baby,” he moaned. “I love your hair.”

  My eyes flew open in alarm, but Jed freed my strands in an instant, all while I still held onto the guy’s hand. I looked up at Jed and mouthed, “Thank you.”

  He nodded with a tight smile and stepped away from the bed.

  I looked up at Skeeter and whispered, “What do you want me to look for?”

  He squatted down next to me. “Let’s start with whatever you see, and then we can discuss whether you need to narrow it down.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes, concentrating on the unconscious man. The vision came seconds later with a strong force. I was in a living room I didn’t recognize, looking at a man I didn’t know.

  “That’s not how he wants it done,” I said in a deep male voice. “I’m supposed to get his schedule and turn it over. That’s it.”

  “Well, things change. This is how it’s going to go down now.”

  The vision ended, and I was thrust back into the bedroom with more force than usual. I fell backward on my butt, saying, “You’re gonna do it differently than he wants it done.”

  Skeeter lifted me to my feet. I wobbled and almost collapsed. Sensing my weakness, Skeeter wrapped an arm around my waist and held me up. “What did you see?”

  I shook my head, feeling drugged. “I don’t know,” I whispered. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Tell me, and I’ll see if it makes sense to me.”

  After I told him about my short vision, he shook his head. “Schedule? What schedule?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It’s worthless.”

  I wasn’t so sure. I’d now had two visions that had left me with a bad feeling, both of which were seemingly ambiguous. What did it mean? “Then what do you want me to look for?”

  “I want to know who he’s selling me out to.”

  I took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  I squatted next to the bed again and held the man’s hand again, focusing on Skeeter’s question. The next vision took longer. This time I was in a room lit by a bunch of fluorescent lights in a dropped office ceiling. I sat with a group of men around a dark wood conference table. Skeeter was at the opposite end, his face contorted with fury.

  “Somebody tipped off Rodriguez, and nobody’s leaving here until I figure out who it was.”

  The room was deadly quiet as I hid a phone under the table and wrote a quick text. He knows.

  My eyes flew open. “Someone tipped off Rodriguez, and you’re gonna text someone.”

  I glanced up at Skeeter, whose e
yes had turned murderous. “So there is a traitor.” He pointed to the man in the bed. “Is it him?”

  I stood and whispered. “I don’t know, but he hid his phone under the table and texted He knows to someone.” I shook my head in confusion. “I think you were in a conference room. A bunch of you were sitting around a table.”

  “Anything else?”

  “You said you weren’t going to let anyone leave until you figured out who’d tipped him off. And I think it was night time.”

  “Did you recognize anyone else who was there?”

  I closed my eyes, trying to recall more details. “Jed and Merv were with you. I didn’t recognize anyone else.”

  He was silent for a moment. “Okay, we’re done here.” He led me out to the living room with Jed following behind us. Skeeter picked up the handkerchief and lifted it, but I stopped him before he could put it around my eyes.

  “Wait. I need to ask you something.”

  A grin teased his lips. “Okay.”

  “Do you know the strippers at the Bunny Ranch?”

  Skeeter burst out laughing. “What?”

  I’d been thinking about it all afternoon. Mud wanted to put the Bunny Ranch out of business because of who owned it. Skeeter already admitted there were unsavory characters determined to bring him down. Skeeter had his hands in all kinds of endeavors, and he seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn’t bat an eye about associating himself with a strip club. In fact, he probably found his dates there. “You own it, don’t you?”

  He looked amused. “I do.”

  “There was a girl who worked there. Dolly Parton. Do you remember her?”

  He shook his head. “Was that her stage name?”

  “No. But she goes by Sapphire at Gems.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Gems? They’re trying to put me out of business.”

  That squared with what Sparkle had told me. “What are they doin’?”

  “They didn’t need to do much more than open their doors. There’s not enough business to support two clubs. There’s hardly enough to cover one.”

  “So why would they have opened up in the first place?”

  “Good question.” He looked like he knew something he wasn’t sharing. Not that it was any of my business. He grinned. “You lookin’ for a job? I’ve got another way to put you on the payroll without you resorting to dancing on men’s laps.”