[To Die For 02] - A Book to Die For (2014)

by Richard Houston

  It was well past two in the morning by the time I got around to do the “little reading” Julie had suggested. I read with disbelief while sitting in a corner chair with Fred at my feet. The dim light from a table lamp didn’t seem to stop Julie or Fred from their dreams. Julie had fallen asleep in my arms and I had slowly extricated myself from her grasp so as not to wake her. Now I sat quietly, trying to make sense of what I had just read while watching her sleep.

  Ray had known about the mine for years. He had bought the claim back in the sixties for only five hundred dollars. Either Jonathan or Alec had read Ray’s manuscript. Either that, or maybe the old man simply told them about his claim. In any case, at least now I knew why Alec had chosen that particular spot to set up a meth lab. He didn’t have to worry about the owner making a surprise visit; Ray couldn’t object and neither Bonnie nor Margot had reason to visit the site.

  I finally understood why Margot wanted her father’s manuscript back. Ray had switched from trying to tell a story to an autobiography. At the end he no longer tried to hide his guilt in fictional characters. He claimed Chuck had an affair with Margot when they were much younger. Margot and Chuck were both married at the time, just not to each other. Ray suspected Jonathan was really Chuck’s son, which made Alec his grandson. Ray’s brilliant deduction had been based on the knowledge that Margot’s husband had a vasectomy during his first marriage.

  It was no wonder Margot and Chuck were so upset with Alec and Marissa making out, and why she wanted the manuscript back. I couldn’t help but wonder if Bonnie knew the two kids were cousins. Their kissing didn’t seem to bother her in the least.

  Poor Margot must have popped a hemorrhoid when she realized she gave me the original. I wish I could have seen her face when she did. At least now I knew why Chuck wanted my copy so badly, but it didn’t explain why he wanted to nail me to the cross. You would think he’d be kissing my butt hoping I would keep my mouth shut. It’s not smart to harass someone who knows your dirty family secrets.

  Ray’s book was great gossip, but nothing to kill over. Lonnie wasn’t even mentioned in it. It also wasn’t going to help me with my Chuck problem.

  I was sure of one thing. Lonnie’s death was no accident. The hose to the propane tank had been tampered with. Someone had rigged the hose to leak either before or during the barbeque. Unfortunately, I was the only one who believed Lonnie had been murdered. His demise was officially listed as an accident, and if Chuck got his way it would become a negligent homicide with me as the drunk who caused the accident.

  So there I was, sitting in a worn-out, overstuffed armchair, watching a beautiful game-warden sleep and trying to make sense of her involvement in a case that had nothing to do with wild animals. What was her connection to all this? I could have sat there until the sun came up, but Fred suddenly woke up and started to growl.

  “What’s the matter, Boy?” I whispered. “Dreaming about cats again?”

  He answered with a loud bark and ran to the door.

  “Jake?” Julie was wide awake now. Instinctively, she pulled the blankets over her naked breasts.

  “Shh,” I answered while quickly grabbing my jeans and shirt. “I think someone is out there by your car. Hold Fred and I’ll go check.”

  Julie scrambled for her clothes with one hand and took Fred’s collar with the other.

  “On second thought, let him come with me,” I said, opening the door a crack.

  Fred wasted no time pushing me out of the way and running out the door toward Julie’s car. She had parked it some fifty or sixty yards from the room. All the close-in spots were taken at the time, but it was still within eyesight of our room. I could see the interior light on and then heard a door slam and the light go off. Fred covered the fifty yards in greyhound time. He was on the intruder before the guy could get away. I was closing the gap when I saw the jerk give Fred a sharp kick in the side. Fred had been trying to bite the guy’s leg, but let out a yelp and let the guy go after the kick. I was too late. By the time I reached Fred, his assailant was already in his car and speeding out of the parking lot. Fred wasn’t moving.

  “Is he okay?” It was Julie. She had managed to throw on some clothes and come running out behind me.

  I reached for the spot where Fred had been kicked and he instantly yelped. “No,” I answered, “it looks like he may have some internal injury.” Then, as an afterthought, I added, “Watch where you walk. There’s glass everywhere.”

  Julie pushed me aside and bent down to pet Fred on the head. “It’s okay, Freddie,” she said. “Aunt Julie is just going to take a look. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

  Fred looked into her eyes as though he understood every word. He watched while she slowly moved her hand from his head, down his back and to his side. This time he only flinched a little and didn’t yelp.

  “Looks like a bruised rib,” she said. “It will probably be okay, but we should get him to the vet and have it x-rayed just the same.”

  Several of the other guests had come to their doors by now and were watching us. None of them wanted to leave the safety of their rooms and didn’t venture past the threshold. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the police showed up.

  “Good idea,” I answered. “Do you mind getting our bags while I carry Fred into the back seat? I know an emergency animal clinic in town that should be open by the time we get there, but we’ve got to go now.” I didn’t want to be detained by the men in blue when my dog could be bleeding internally.

  She ignored me and opened the door of her SUV. “Damn it!” she yelled. “He got the camera.”

  Chapter 14

  “You’re going to be okay, Freddie” Julie said from the back seat while I drove her SUV down Interstate Seventy. I was tempted to see how fast the big car would go, but stayed within the speed limit. Being stopped by the Colorado State Patrol was the last thing we needed. They might ask too many questions, like why the car’s window is broken.

  The rear-view mirror was set for Julie’s shorter frame and gave me a view of the rear seat instead of the road. She was holding Fred like a mother would hold a sick child. His head was resting on her lap and she patted it softly.

  “I think I know who did it, if that helps,” I said to the mirror.

  “Oh?”

  “Remember that guy trying to listen in our conversation?”

  “At Beau Jo’s?”

  “I think he works for Jonathan.”

  She stopped petting Fred long enough to look me in the eyes via the mirror. Her face was a combination of surprise and fear. “He must have followed us from the mine,” she said.

  “And I’ll bet your camera has his picture inside the mine, probably making meth. Too bad you didn’t have one outside as well.”

  “Maybe he thinks I did. Do you think he could be the one who chased Alec into the open pit?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered. “You’re a cop. Can’t you have him brought in and pistol whipped until he confesses?”

  “Funny, Jake. You should go on the Tonight show.” She had gone back to petting Fred and answered me in between talking baby-talk to him. “I think I told you it was out of my hands, didn’t I? The joint task force took over after I reported the lab.”

  “No, nor did you say why you were up there in the first place. Not that it’s any of my business, but I’m dying to know.”

  “You’re right. It’s none of your business, but I’ve always had a soft spot for cute dogs, so I’ll tell Fred.”

  The big ham looked up at her at the mention of his name.

  “I hid the camera there after receiving an anonymous tip, Freddie.”

  “Lonnie called the hot line?” I asked.

  “Wow, Fred, what a deep voice you have.”

  “All the better to eat you with, my Dear,” I answered.

  “You really need to get a handle on your fairy tales, Jake. Now where we, Freddie, before we were interrupted? No. it wasn’t Lonnie. Someone left a note on my windshield, bu
t that’s between us, okay? She told us where to look. We couldn’t really stake the place out without being seen. It was too remote, so I went there to place a game camera in the mine, hoping to catch Jonathan with his pants down.”

  “You caught Jonathan taking off his clothes?” I joked, trying to get her to smile again.

  I could see her reflection in the mirror. She tried not to smile, but failed miserably. “You know what I mean, Goofy.”

  “Then the meth lab is something fairly recent? And how do you know the concerned citizen was female?” I asked the mirror.

  She was still petting Fred and talking to him, but stopped long enough to answer me. “Pink sticky notes with perfect handwriting had to be a woman; and no, the lab was set up before I placed the camera. Anyway, that’s when I called the sheriff, who brought in the task force.” Evidently the charade of telling Fred was over. She was looking at me in the mirror. Fred didn’t care. I could tell the big mutt was eating up all the attention she was giving him. His tail was starting to thump; it was a good sign that the kick hadn’t done any real damage.

  Before I could ask what they had seen on the game camera, I saw flashing red lights in the distance from the side mirror. We were coming up on the Genesee exit so I made a split-second decision to get off the freeway. I knew old highway forty paralleled the interstate and would take me all the way to ninety-three where I could get back on the freeway, then on to Ward Road where the vet was located. I adjusted the rear-view mirror to get a better look behind me just in time to see the red lights disappear in a dip in the road. Hopefully, the cop, if that’s what it was, wouldn’t see me exit.

  “Why are you getting off here, Jake?” Julie asked.

  “I thought I’d drive past the Mother Cabrini shrine. No time to go up there, but we can always say a prayer for Fred as we drive by.”

  “I doubt if it’s a cop, Jake, but turn on the radio. The last button is the State Patrol frequency.” She had seen through my paranoia.

  I reached over to turn on the radio. It didn’t work. Then I noticed wires dangling under the dash. “Looks like he did more than steal your camera, Julie. This guy is smart. He made sure you couldn’t call it in as well.”

  She took her eyes off Fred long enough to stick her head between the two front seats. Fred was having none of it and tried to slip in between. “Damn. I’ve got some explaining to do on what I was doing in Idaho Springs.”

  By now we were on the overpass. Julie was right. The red lights belonged to an ambulance. I pulled over and watched it go down Interstate Seventy. When I turned back from watching the ambulance, I saw Julie watching me with her beautiful green eyes.

  “You could tell them you were celebrating your engagement.” I said with a grin.

  Her eyes swelled and I could tell she was holding back tears. “Please, Jake. Don’t ruin this for us. You know I can’t marry you.”

  “You’re not going to die, Julie. You can beat this. You did it once before and you can do it again,” I said while trying to reach between the seats to take her hand. “I love you and I’m going to make sure you get through it no matter what.”

  She couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. “Will you still love me when I’m bald or when I can’t get out of bed because all I’ll want to do is sleep?” she asked, rummaging through her purse for a tissue.

  I noticed she kept a small pack of them in a compartment next to the radio and handed her the pack. “You won’t be alone. If the chemo makes your hair fall out, Fred and I will cut ours too. If you want to sleep all day, we’ll be there the minute you wake up. Please, Julie, please say you’ll marry me.” I should have kept some of the tissues for now I could feel tears in my eyes.

  “You would do that for me?”

  “If you will have us,” I answered, nodding toward Fred, who seemed to have made a full recovery. He must have understood as well. His tail was wagging faster than a nervous rattlesnake. “I know we don’t have much to offer, but I promise with him around, you’ll never get bored.”

  Julie grabbed the back of my head and pulled me toward her to kiss me. I could taste her salty tears. I tried to kiss her back but a huge furry lump between us would have no part of it and started to bark.

  We celebrated our engagement at my little cabin. The x-rays confirmed what I already knew. Fred had no broken bones or internal injuries. He made a miraculous recovery after I had proposed to Julie. Whoever said dogs were dumb animals didn’t know my Freddie. He understood better than most children that Julie was going to be his new mom.

  Except to let Fred out when he got bored with us, we didn’t leave the cabin for two days. I was beginning to think she was some kind of international spy because of the way she got me to open up and tell her all my secrets. Just like the beautiful women in the movies, she knew exactly when to pump me for more information. By Monday, she knew the story of my life, including all the juicy details of my nasty divorce. All I got from her was how she came upon the manuscript. It was in the dumpster along with her broken camera at Randolph Motors.

  Julie called in sick on Monday. It wasn’t because of fatigue or fever, even though that’s what she told someone at the office. By Tuesday she felt bad for lying and had to go to work. She gave me a ride back to my Jeep, then followed me to Evergreen Parkway in case it broke down again. I honked and blew her a kiss, then turned south toward home. Fred probably would have done the same if he could. Instead, he jumped in the back and watched Julie turn onto the freeway.

  “Well, Freddie, how about I buy you a McDouble? Will that cheer you up?” I asked while switching to the left lane to make my turn into McDonald’s. “But you’ve got to promise not to tell your new mother. She doesn’t think you should be eating them.”

  I pulled into the drive-up lane, then quickly pulled out and found a parking spot next to a red Bronco. I couldn’t imagine what Bonnie was doing at McDonald’s, but it seemed like a good time to tell her about my engagement and ask about Alec. “Wait here, Freddie. I’ll only be a moment,” I said while cranking his window down halfway.

  Once inside, I searched for Bonnie. When I didn’t see her at any of the tables, I guessed she was in the ladies’ room so I placed an order for two burgers and a coffee. She still hadn’t come out by the time my order was ready, so I took a seat by the restrooms and sipped on my coffee while looking at the silent television on the wall. A Fox reporter was trying to make a case against the lack of security in Benghazi by showing footage from a surveillance camera. It might as well have been a movie about aliens for all I could see were dark-green figures with bright eyes reflecting the light of the infrared security camera. I soon tired of the scene and began to ponder my future with Julie.

  Would she want a full-blown wedding or settle for a quickie civil ceremony? She had told me she had been married before in a big church ceremony. That marriage broke up less than six months later when she caught her husband in bed with his best friend. She said it was a shock and forgave him, but he decided he liked his friend better than her and that was the end of their short marriage. The marriage was annulled, so it was conceivable she might want to try another church wedding. I was about to give up on Bonnie, realizing that there could be more than one beat-up Bronco in these parts, when a pretty teenage girl came out of the ladies’ room. The thing that caught my attention, other than her good looks, was that she was a dead ringer for Molly Ringwald in the movie Pretty in Pink. Then it hit me. In an instant, I knew who tipped off Julie about the poaching. The image of Shelia at the hospital dressed in pink was too vivid to ignore.

  I was about ready to take Fred his burgers when Bonnie appeared from nowhere. To be honest, she had probably followed Molly from the restroom, but I was too engrossed in Ms. Ringwald to notice.

  “Jake, did you hear!” She was beaming from ear to ear. “Alec came out of his coma. I’m on my way down there now.”

  “That’s great Bon,” I answered and got up to hug her. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
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  “Keep praying for him. He’s going to need all the prayers he can get,” she answered after hugging me back. “I know he wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

  “You got it, Bon.” I really wanted to ask if Alec had told anyone what he was doing at the mine, but decided that would have to wait.

  “I’ve gotta go, Jake. I’ll call you later,” she said and hurried out the door.

  Bonnie wasn’t out of the parking lot before I was on the phone to Julie.

  Chapter 15

  “How did you know, Jake?” Julie asked after she told me about Alec’s confession. She was sitting in my ex-wife’s Queen Anne chair with nothing on but my bathrobe after taking a long shower. I really needed to get rid of that chair.

  “Elementary, my dear Watson. When I realized it was Shelia who tipped you off about the mine, I thought to myself, ‘Why did she do it anonymously?’ The only reason I could think of is that she had to be afraid of the repercussions and she didn’t want the poacher to know it was her. At first I thought it was Jonathan and she was afraid he would turn her in for driving the Corvette the night Diane was killed, but he’s had over twenty years to do that so it had to be someone else. Then out of nowhere I made a connection with Benghazi and your security camera.”

  “Benghazi? I’m afraid you lost me, Jake,” she said, looking at me like I’d lost my marbles.

  “Yeah. Me too. I mean it always amazes me the way the mind works, or the way my mind works. The point is that every time a gun would go off I could see the flash from the infrared light reflection and I knew in an instant what caused those spots in your game camera picture. It wasn’t a dirty lens. It was puffs of smoke coming from the getaway vehicle.”

  Julie continued to stare, looking more bewildered than before, so I went on before she had a chance to ask if I’d been smoking Bonnie’s homemade cigarettes.