Picture Perfect Murder (Ryli Sinclair 1)

by Jenna St James

  “Melvin should be here shortly to make the call,” Officer Ryan informed us as he stared down at Iris. “So we have Garver’s heart cut out, and now we have Iris’s tongue cut out. That’s quite a specific pattern.”

  “It is?” I asked.

  “Agreed,” Garrett said, ignoring my question.

  “I’ll start snapping pictures,” Officer Ryan said.

  Deciding I wasn’t going to get anywhere with the men, I started walking down the narrow hallway toward the bedroom and bathroom area. I had almost reached the bathroom when I heard Garrett yell out, “Where are you going? Don’t touch anything!”

  Without turning around I rolled my eyes and said, “I’m going to the bathroom.” What he didn’t know was that I was going to the bathroom to snoop around, not to actually use it.

  It just so happened the first door I opened on the left side of the hallway was Iris’s bedroom. Closing the door behind me I looked around, hoping to find some sort of clue. Iris’s bedroom suite was made of light oak wood. Her bed was centered in the middle of the room, with a wooden headboard attached. On the far wall stood a tall oak dresser with four drawers, and next to her bed was a single oak nightstand. I didn’t recognize the quilt pattern on her bedspread, but that was no surprise. I did, however, like the interlacing colors of light blue, pink, and yellow.

  Knowing Garrett would kill me if I got fingerprints anywhere, I walked over to her nightstand, and using the bottom of my shirt, I carefully opened the drawer to rummage around.

  Big mistake. And when I say big, take my word for it, I mean big mistake. Who knew someone like Iris would keep toys in there. I mean, I guess it made sense, but gross! I had no idea how I was going to burn that image out of my mind.

  I spotted a large notebook on the bed, and using the bottom of my shirt again, I flipped it open. Bingo! It was her appointment book for the salon. Leafing through to October, I reached into my jeans and took out my cell phone. I quickly snapped a photo for the calendar month of October then shut the book, leaving it exactly where it was.

  Deciding I had spent enough time snooping, and knowing Garrett would probably start looking for me, I opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Or more like stepped into Garrett. He was standing in the middle of the hall, arms crossed over his chest.

  “I had better not find your fingerprints all over her bedroom.”

  “You won’t.”

  “Find anything useful?” he asked, trying to sound stern, but I could see his lips twitching, trying not to smile.

  I didn’t say anything, just shook my head.

  Dropping his arms to his side, he stepped closer to me. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. It’s been a while since I felt that scared. Hearing you cry, mentioning a dead body…it really got to me.”

  He leaned down and gave me a light kiss. Just a quick brush of his lips across mine, but the effect was like being squeezed to death by a boa constrictor.

  But in a good way.

  “I have to finish up here. I want to talk to the toxicology lab, have them check for something specific, then—”

  “What specifically?” I couldn’t help it. I had to know.

  “Then,” he continued, “I’ll wrap it up as quick as I can and drop by your place tonight.”

  “You will?”

  “Yes, Ryli, I will. I don’t want you alone tonight.”

  Not only had he used my given name, but he basically implied he was staying the night with me. Had I shaved my legs this morning? What does my house look like? Had I picked up my underwear off the floor? Good thing I had time to pick up before he came over.

  “How about you two quit making out in the hall and get over here and wrap up this dead body thing.” God bless Aunt Shirley’s big mouth.

  Turning around, Garrett sauntered back down the hall and into the living room. I gawked at his backside the whole time. Aunt Shirley’s cackle brought me back to the present, and I rushed down the hall, suddenly eager to print out the picture on my phone before Garrett came over.

  On an impulse, I decided to look in the sink. There were a number of dirty dishes with dried food caked on plastic plates, a pot that looked to have the remnants of macaroni and cheese stuck to the side, and lots of cups and silverware. Evidently keeping a clean kitchen wasn’t high on Iris’s list.

  What did strike me as odd was the fact that sitting next to the sink was two clean mugs—like they had recently been washed and set there to dry. Just like at Dr. Garver’s house.

  Minutes later, the three of us girls drove to the newspaper to print out my picture. I had just unlocked the front door when Hank’s truck came screeching to a halt in the tiny parking lot, gravel flying. Groaning, I knew what was coming next.

  “I hear about a dead body discovered over the police scanner. Then minutes later I get a call from someone that it was you who discovered the body of the town’s biggest gossip, and you don’t call me to tell me?” Hank barked as he slammed the truck door shut.

  “I’m sorry,” I said sarcastically, “How stupid of me not to think to call you during my breakdown.”

  “How bad was it?”

  “It was really bad,” Paige whispered.

  “Looks like someone cut out her tongue while she was still alive and waited for her to die,” Aunt Shirley said. Leave it to Aunt Shirley to provide the truth.

  “What you seem to be forgetting lately is that this is your job. It’s your job to report on these things, and you’re lucky enough to be in the thick of it!”

  “Lucky enough?” I practically screamed. “Are you crazy? This has been the worst few weeks of my life!”

  Son of a bitch…once again I felt the water works starting. What’s wrong with me? Usually I thought of myself a little bit more put together than this. A couple dead bodies and suddenly I’m Simpering Sally.

  “Leave her be you old coot,” my Aunt Shirley said. “Can’t you see she’s shaken up?”

  Glaring at my aunt, Hank pushed us all through the glass double doors before locking the deadbolt behind him. That simple act had me even more upset. If mean-ass Hank was taking safety precautions, I truly did have a lot to worry about.

  “What’d you get?” Hank said as he held out his hand. “I figure you all coming back here means you found something.”

  I debated on whether or not I should tell him, but then I figured maybe his seasoned eyes could help. Pulling the phone out of my pocket, I pulled up the gallery app and clicked on the photo. “I need to print this out. I found Iris’ salon schedule on her bed and was able to snap a picture real quick before Garrett found me.”

  Smiling, Hank took the phone and plugged it into the cord attached to the computer. “I knew you’d get something. Good work.”

  Paige leaned over and patted me on my shoulder. “See, you did good.”

  “I figure we help solve this murder alongside the police, papers will fly off the shelves.” Hank, always the upstanding guy.

  A few minutes later and Hank had successfully blown up the October schedule to where we could all see it.

  Bang! Bang!

  I looked over and saw Mindy hopping up and down on her four-inch spiked stiletto heels banging on the glass doors. Her tiny body shivering in the cool night air.

  Hank ran over to release the deadbolt in the center of the doors, flung them open, yanked her inside, and then rebolted the doors. “What’re you doing out here? I told you to stay home.”

  “You’re outta your mind if you think I’m just gonna sit home twiddling my thumbs, you jackass,” Mindy said.

  “Let’s see what we got here,” Aunt Shirley said ignoring them.

  It was basically a huge calendar with initials and abbreviations all over the place. No names were written out, but thinking back to who was in the salon that Friday morning after Dr. Garver’s murder, I realized CH @ 8:30/t&s probably stood for Claire Hickman. I wasn’t exactly sure what the ‘t&s’ stood for.

  “I think this here,” I said pointing to Claire�
�s name, “stands for Claire Hickman at eight-thirty. But I don’t know what this ‘t&s’ stands for.”

  “That probably stands for tease and style,” Mindy said, patting her own poofy hair.

  “It looks like that morning a lot of them were quickly penciled in. Notice how some are scribbled in with a pencil,” I noted.

  “I remember seeing Patty Carter there,” Paige said. “I bet that’s PC @ 9:30/b.o. What does ‘b.o.’ stand for, I wonder?”

  “Blow out,” Mindy said.

  We definitely wanted Mindy on our team when it came to girlie-girl deciphering.

  “It’s going to be difficult to see who has a standing monthly appointment since you only took a picture of one month,” Hank grumbled.

  “Well, excuse me! I was in a hurry and did the best I could,” I snapped.

  “Some of these initials I don’t recognize at all,” Paige said. “Trying to figure this out could take a while.”

  “Mindy, since you seem to know this stuff, would you like to take it and decode it?” I asked.

  “Yes, yes!” She grabbed the page up and did a victory dance.

  Laughing, Hank took her by the arm and guided her toward the front glass doors. “We’re out,” he said. “If you want a paycheck this week, get me something I can put in the paper.” With that he slammed out of the office.

  “Such a charmer,” I muttered.

  “Okay, now that Mindy is on deciphering, what do we do next?” Paige asked.

  “For right now, I think we should research paralytic drugs,” I said.

  “You think that’s how the killer is doing it?” Aunt Shirley asked.

  Nodding my head I said, “I really do. This is the second time Garrett has mentioned a toxicology report, and when you take that into consideration with the fact that someone is overpowering these women without too much of a struggle, I think we should look into what drugs will specifically do that.”

  “I can help you do that,” Paige said.

  “Great idea,” Aunt Shirley said. “Leaves me to just go home and go to bed.”

  I drove the girls back to their houses with the promise that we’d get together tomorrow afternoon to see what Paige was able to find out. I glanced at my watch and figured I still had an hour or so before Garrett would be at my place. I wrestled with what to change into the rest of the way home. I decided something sexy yet smart was needed.

  Pulling into my drive, I cursed when the automatic porch light didn’t go off. I’m not exactly sure when I noticed the pumpkin sitting on my steps leading into the house, mainly because I was too busy thinking about what I was going to have to clean before Garrett came by. It was one of those tall, thin pumpkins. Not even really my style. I liked my pumpkins small and round.

  My first thought was Matt had finally gotten tired of me saying I would decorate for Halloween and just decided to do it himself. It had typical triangle eyes, but the mouth was hugely exaggerated and wide open. In fact, I could probably stick my hand inside the mouth to set the candle if I wanted. Not that I wanted to do that mind you.

  I probably would have just walked right on by if I hadn’t noticed the God-awful putrid smell. Had the pumpkin rotted already? Peering down, I noticed something hanging out of the pumpkin’s mouth, resting on the jagged teeth. I reached out to touch it. The spongy rough texture took my breath away.

  Realizing what I was touching, I jerked up and started screaming. Really I was just making soft whimpering sounds, but in my mind it was blood-curdling screams. I brought my hand up to cover my mouth.

  Big mistake! That was the hand that just touched the tongue. I started to gag. Bending at the knees, as though that would help somehow, I tried sucking in air. Unfortunately that just put me closer to the nasty tongue.

  Closing my eyes, I just gave myself over to the inevitable. Standing up and running to the edge of the grass, I puked up what was left of the turkey sandwich I’d eaten for dinner. Nice, now I won’t be able to eat a turkey sandwich for a while. Not one to make the same mistake twice, I wiped my mouth with my turtleneck instead of my hand.

  The soft scraping on my door made me look up. I could hear the distressful meowing of Miss Molly, followed by the scraping of her paws on the front door. She must have sensed my distress. I carefully walked up the three steps and was reaching for my keys when I saw the note stuck to the door with masking tape.

  Not even caring that I was contaminating the scene, first with my vomit, and now by pulling the note off the door, I reached up and yanked the note down. Probably more forcefully than I wanted considering I was shaking so much.

  The Bible says to watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble. I guess Iris forgot that little bit of wisdom. Will you?

  Whoever wrote this note was full on declaring war on me. Looking up from the note, I took in my surroundings.

  My road doesn’t get much traffic. It’s a dead-end street off the beaten path of the main drag downtown. It’s also partially secluded by two large oak trees in the front yard, with medium-sized shrubs lining the walkway into the house. I’d always felt safe here in my quaint cottage, but now I’d become an easy target for a crazy murderer.

  Reaching into my jean pocket, I took out my phone and pulled up Garrett’s number. I debated for a moment whether or not to call him and let him know what happened, or just tell him what he arrived. Knowing I’d never hear the end of it if I didn’t tell him now, I pushed the send button and waited.

  “Almost done here. What’s up?”

  Sighing, I knew nothing I said was going to sound good to him. “Here’s the thing. I was coming home from dropping off the girls, and I pulled into the driveway and saw a pumpkin. I thought maybe Matt had stopped by and decorated, so I didn’t pay much attention.” I hesitated a moment, choosing my words carefully.

  “Go on.” I heard the resignation in his voice, as though he already knew it wasn’t going to be good.

  “Well, I saw something sticking out of the pumpkin, so I reached down and touched it. It’s a tongue. I’m assuming a human tongue. Maybe Iris’s tongue.”

  “Son of a bitch!” I pulled the phone away as Garrett continued his swearing. He ranted a minute before he finally calmed down. “Anything else besides the tongue?”

  “Well,” I said slowly, "there was a note taped to my front door basically saying it was Iris's tongue and that I better be careful or I'd end up the same way.”

  More swearing. I sat down on the front step, as far away from the pumpkin as I could get, and just waited for the storm to end. It didn’t take long. “So, are you okay?”

  I put the phone back to my ear. “I’m fine, just sitting here on the front porch steps talking to you.”

  “You sound like you’re in shock,” Garrett said softly. “Sit tight, don’t go in the house until I get there. I’ll be there in five. Think you’ll be okay?”

  I assured him I would be fine and hung up. I could still hear Miss Molly scraping and meowing. I felt guilty about not going in the house to comfort her, so I passed the time by talking to her through the door. I had just checked my phone to see what time it was when Garrett pulled into the driveway. Followed immediately by Officer Ryan.

  I stood up and brushed off my jeans. Officer Ryan gave me a tight smile as he strode up the walkway carrying a small box. Smiling back I looked over at Garrett. He was not smiling. He looked angry and tired.

  “It’s in the pumpkin?” Officer Ryan asked.

  “Yes, I didn’t touch it again after the first time.”

  Bending down, Officer Ryan turned on his flashlight and inspected the tongue in the pumpkin. “Lots of blood on the back half here, which makes sense considering we believe Iris’s tongue was cut out when she was still alive.” He opened the box and took out gloves and a baggie. I choked down a gag.

  Garrett flashed his beam of light onto the house. “I see they busted out your light.”

  Turning to where he was spotlighting, I took in the broken gl
ass on the side panel of my antique lantern I had hanging from my house. It was one of those replicated old 17th century lanterns with four panels of glass with a tiny knob to open so you could insert a light bulb. Now it was completely shattered and useless.

  “Would you mind if we opened the door and turned on your light inside?” Garrett asked as he put on a set of gloves. “I want to fingerprint and finish processing the area.”

  “Of course. Let me just go put Miss Molly in my room so she doesn’t escape.”

  I fished around in my jeans for my keys. When I pulled them out, Garrett took them from me and opened the door. Using his flashlight he did a quick surveillance of my living room, then entered and turned on the light. Following close behind, I bent down to scoop up the howling Miss Molly.

  Garrett reached out and gave Molls a scratch behind her ear. The little minx started purring.

  “I puked by the edge of the grass,” I whispered in Miss Molly’s fur.

  Garrett leaned over and kissed my head. “I’ll take care of it.”

  After dumping Molls on my bed, I began shoving dirty clothes in my hamper. Once that was done I sat down on the bed and unzipped my boots. My feet were beginning to hurt. I slipped on a pair of fuzzy pink socks with grippers on the bottom and went into the kitchen to brew some lavender tea. I definitely needed to calm down. I also added a shot of whiskey...then considering my day, I added a second.

  Since my front door was open, I could hear bits and pieces of Garrett and Officer Ryan talking. Wrapping my hands around the warm lavender tea, I sank down into my couch to eavesdrop. Unfortunately, most of what they were saying was about lab and processing, not anything too useful. I set the mug down on the end table and closed my eyes.

  “Ryli, wake up.”

  I felt Garrett rocking me awake. I opened my eyes and stared at him. God he was hot. Even after being on the job for over ten hours, dealing with a dead body and dead body parts, he still looked good enough to jump.

  “We’re finished, and I’m beat. I just want to get some rest. Let’s go to bed.”