Ninja Soccer Moms

by Jennifer Apodaca

  His breath blew past my ear in a foul word, and he let go of me.

  I whirled around. “Suck eggs, Pulizzi.” Not my best line, but I straightened my spine and headed for the door. I had a couple of clues I could work with. Like the computer being wiped clean. My thoughts were cut off by Gabe’s arm around my waist. Again, he dragged me back against his chest.

  Did he want a fight? I stuck my hand in my purse and latched onto my defense spray.

  Gabe put his mouth to my ear. “Shh, someone’s in the house.”

  I froze. I felt the coiled tension in his body behind me. He wasn’t playing now. Fear washed over me, humming in my ears. Since my hand was already around the defense spray in my purse, I pulled it out.

  Then I remembered Angel. All the hard lines in Gabe’s body were pressed into my back. I could feel his tension as he strained to listen. Finally, I enlightened him. “That’s just Angel.”

  He barely grunted and tightened his arm around my waist. “No, Angel is in the kitchen. Someone’s coming in the front door.”

  Well, that was disappointing. He even knew Angel was downstairs. We hadn’t put anything over on Gabe. Then I heard it, too. The scrape of a key in a lock.

  “Stay here.” Gabe let go of me and headed out of the door.

  God, what if it was the killer? Angel was down there! I rushed out of the room and down the stairs.

  The front door pushed open just as I stepped off the last step. Gabe was flush up against the wall. He reached out and yanked whoever was on the front porch inside and then flung them down.

  I leaped off the bottom step and aimed my defense spray at the intruder on the ground. “Don’t move or I’ll spray!” I shouted, then looked down.

  Rick Mesa, Chad’s best friend and assistant coach, was sprawled on the floor. His eye darted between the can of defense spray in my hand and Gabe at my side. “What the hell?” Fast and athletic, Rick kicked out, knocking my hand aside, and got to his feet. He crouched for a fight.

  My can of defense spray hit the carpet and rolled to a stop about six feet away. I looked back at Rick.

  He had totally disregarded me as a threat and was sizing up Gabe. At about five-ten, Rick was tight and wiry, but no match for Gabe. Though he did look pissed enough to try to take him. “Rick,” I shouted, throwing myself between the two men.

  Rick dropped his gaze to me. “Sam? What are you doing here? Who is this clown?” He waved a hand past me toward Gabe.

  “That’s Gabe Pulizzi. He’s, uh, a private detective. I’m helping Janie out. What are you doing here?”

  Rick stared at Gabe for a long minute and then looked back at me. “Janie didn’t say anything about you being here.”

  Of course she didn’t, since I hadn’t told her where I was going when I had her on my phone. To get past that little problem, I went on the offensive. “What are you doing here, Rick?”

  Rick looked around the house. “Getting some clothes for Janie to bury Chad in.”

  “Humph,” Gabe grunted behind me.

  Apparently, that was a popular excuse. I ignored Gabe. “Oh, I see you have a key.”

  Rick gave me a deadpan stare. “Look, why don’t you guys just leave? I want to . . . you know . . . take care of this job for Janie and get out of here.”

  Remorse slithered around in my belly. “Yeah, uh, Rick, I’m really sorry. I know Chad was your best friend. It’s really terrible.”

  “Yeah, it is. Don’t make it worse, Sam.”

  “Make it worse? How much worse could it get?” I’d never heard easygoing Rick so much as raise his voice. He was calm in dealing with kids and extraordinary at handling crazed parents. I had a great deal of respect for Rick. So his almost belligerent tone surprised me. Were the lines of strain around his eyes and mouth grief, or something else?

  “It could get worse. Sophie called me and told me you were stirring up trouble. Stay out of this, Sam.”

  This was getting way out of hand. Anger rushed into my blood, bypassing my brain to pump words straight out my mouth. “What are you hiding, Rick? Is SCOLE trying to hide that Chad embezzled money? Well, it’s too late. We already know about that.” God, I was pissed. Another thought leaped in the fiery mess in my brain. “Is that why you guys removed Janie as treasurer last year? You didn’t want her to expose Chad’s embezzling?” God, would they sink that low? I didn’t want to believe it. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt Gabe’s hand on my shoulder. In my anger, I’d forgotten he stood behind me. I had to calm down.

  “What are you talking about? What money?” He stared at me as if I’d popped out a third breast.

  He didn’t know. A sense of relief spread through me. I liked Rick. Always had. He’s one of the genuinely nice guys, and I didn’t want him to be a liar and a cheat. “I don’t get it, Rick. What’s the big secret that you all are trying to hide?”

  “We’re not hiding anything.” He sighed. “Look Sam, it’s bad enough that Chad was murdered. We don’t want bad publicity to make this worse.” He set his jaw.

  I knew he wouldn’t tell me anything else.

  “Why, Rick.” Angel walked out of the kitchen, her smooth seductive voice breaking the tension. “Hello.” She flashed a killer smile at Rick.

  Rick’s grim expression melted in a shy smile, making him look like a teenager instead of a thirty-something-year-old man. His coloring deepened. “Hi.”

  Angel looked over at me. “I finished cleaning the perishables out of the fridge, Sam. Nothing to worry about in the freezer, either.”

  Decoding Angel’s message, I knew that she didn’t find anything interesting in the kitchen, like, say, sixteen thousand dollars of missing soccer money in the fridge or freezer. “Thanks, Angel. I know Janie will appreciate it.”

  Gabe dropped his hand from my shoulder and moved to my side. “Now that you ladies are finished, why don’t you run along and I’ll lock up?”

  I smiled. “We’re not finished. But you can go. Your mom’s probably waiting for you at the beauty salon.”

  Rick finally tore his gaze from Angel to look at me. “I think you should all get out of here. Now.” He looked pointedly at the front door.

  I decided to try one more time. “Rick—”

  “Sam.” Gabe’s voice interrupted.

  I held my hand up, trying to keep Gabe out of this. I wanted to find out what Rick knew.

  “Behind you,” Gabe said.

  I turned and almost screamed. “Mom! What are you doing here?” I couldn’t believe it. She had obviously walked in the sliding glass door across the family room. Wasn’t anything in this house locked? My mom looked like she’d just arrived to show the house. She had on a winter white skirt and jacket, with a black silk shell beneath. Her blond hair sat in a perfect wedge cut, and she carried a slim black briefcase.

  “Chad had been thinking of putting his house on the market. According to my sources, Janie Tuggle, as guardian of the kids, will inherit. I came by to make sure the house is in shape to sell.”

  I stared at my mom. She did not get to be the real estate queen of Lake Elsinore by being squeamish, but that was a little too ghoulish, even for her. “Mom, that’s gross.”

  “That’s business, Samantha.” Unzipping her black case, she went on. “I’m not even going to ask what you and—” her gaze traveled to Gabe, tightening her perfectly lined mouth—“he are doing here. Ah, here it is.” She pulled out a glossy brochure, walked a few steps on her black heels and waved it at me. “This is the resort in Phoenix we will be staying at the last week of January. In between studying for your real estate license, we can network to build your resources. We will also work on your wardrobe. I suppose there’s a reasonable explanation for the dirt all over your backside?”

  I’d been ducking my mom all day, and she caught me in a dead man’s house. Figures. Shaking my head, I ignored the brochure in her hand and said, “Mom, the boys are in school. I can’t go with you.” I hated real estate.

  “Nonsense. Dad will
watch the boys, and Blaine will run the office. I already told them.”

  God, she arranged my life with Grandpa and my employee before even asking me. In fact, she wasn’t asking me now, she was telling me. “Mom!”

  Angel’s voice cut through my wail of frustration. “Attention, boys and girls!”

  We all turned to look at Angel, who was peering between the green slats of the blinds of the front window. “Detective Logan Vance is parking his car in the driveway. He is accompanied by a locksmith van.”

  “Oh, shit.” I looked at Gabe. “What now?”

  “Run.”

  We all headed for the sliding glass door like a massive hive of bees. After getting out to the backyard, Gabe slid the door shut. Just then we heard a car door slam.

  Vance. On his way to the front door.

  Gabe grabbed my elbow. “Can you jump the fence?”

  “Yes.” Maybe. My mom had disappeared around the corner, heading toward the back gate. “My mom!” I whispered.

  “Can handle Vance.” Gabe tugged me between the pool and the fishpond on my right. I looked up. Angel and Rick were going over the back fence, using a two-foot retaining wall to give them a leg up.

  We ran over the rain-dampened cement between the pool and fishpond. I focused on the fence, praying I could get over it. I didn’t want to get caught by Vance—“Oh!” My boot heel slid on the cement edge of the pond. My elbow slid from Gabe’s grasp. Teetering for a long second, I flung out my arms to get my balance.

  My left arm swung into Gabe’s hand reaching for me, knocking it away.

  I fell sideways into the fishpond. Cold, mucky water closed over my face. Sputtering, I shoved myself up on my elbow.

  Gabe and I locked gazes for a long second. Brackish, fishy water seeped through my red top and jeans and dripped from my hair. Then he said, “Good luck explaining to Vance,” and jogged to the fence.

  I got to my knees. Ugh, the bottom of the pond was slimy. “Don’t you dare . . .” I trailed off when I saw Gabe grab the top of the six foot fence, pull himself up, and leap over. Gone, just like that.

  He’d left me to escape or get caught by Vance.

  This was war.

  7

  Gabe Pulizzi was going to pay.

  Somehow, I pulled myself out of the pond, snatched up my purse off the ground, and got over that fence before Vance and the locksmith got into the house.

  Sheer anger drove me.

  Landing in a backyard, I glanced at the one-story house with blinds tightly closed and guessed the owners were gone. No sign of Gabe, either.

  Making my way through the backyard to the street I was parked on, I didn’t worry. Thanks to Angel’s nifty state-of-the-art tracking device, I’d find Gabe. He might be from the dangerous streets of Los Angeles, an ex-cop and a hot-shot PI, but I was a pissed-off woman.

  He was going down. Preferably in a dirty fishpond with one or two hungry piranhas swimming around.

  Angel sat on the hood of my white ’bird watching me. With every swing of her leg, the slit in her long jean skirt parted right up to the top of her thigh. How the hell had she gotten over the fence in that skirt?

  “I didn’t know we were stopping for a swim.”

  “Shut up, Angel.” I wrenched open the door and got in the car. Blaine was going to have a double heart attack, first from the mud at the nursery and now fishpond water all over the car.

  Angel slid in beside me. “Why did Gabe stalk off like that? Did he push you in the pool?”

  It took me a good three breaths to get the words out. “I fell in the fish pond and Gabe abandoned me. He’s going to pay.”

  Angel whistled between her teeth. “This is getting fun.”

  I rolled my eyes, started the car, and headed for home. I loved Angel, but even I couldn’t deny that her idea of fun was twisted.

  “What do you think your mom was doing there?”

  My shrug turned into a shudder when cold, brackish water slid down my back and into the seat of my jeans. “Could be she really was checking out Chad’s place. I’ll track her down and ask her.” I frowned, thinking about that. My mom had left a message with Blaine this morning, then stopped tracking me down.

  Whenever my mom got a new plan to change my career, she never stopped trying to contact me and convince me. Ever. Could it be my mom was distracted?

  By Chad’s murder? How?

  It took only about five minutes to shoot up Lincoln, turn left on Grand, and get to our house. After I parked the car, Angel followed me onto the porch. I sat in a chair and yanked off my boots, then pulled off my wet socks. I looked like the Bride of Frankenstein and smelled like day-old tuna.

  Shower first.

  Revenge second.

  Fury and frustration snarled together inside my head. Getting up, I said, “I’m going to take a shower. Then I’ll run you back to your car at your mom’s shop.” We both went into the house.

  Grandpa looked up from where he sat at his computer. “Hey, Sam, hi, Angel. Exterminator is gone. Blaine said Ali was acting weird, but she’s been fine with me.”

  Ali got up from her blanket by the sliding glass door. She padded over to me and started sniffing. I’m sure the fishpond water gave her lots of scents.

  I stopped by the hallway to quickly pet my dog. Grandpa was right. She seemed perfectly normal now. “Ali took it into her head to dump over a trash can at Duncan’s Nursery. We had to pull her off. I’m going to take a shower.” I left Angel to explain things to Grandpa and hurried down to my bedroom.

  After my hot shower, I pulled on a short black skirt and a cream-colored V-necked sweater. Gabe’s laughing at my seduction-for-information attempt stung, so I dressed to feel better. I stepped into some black heels, did some makeup magic, and went back out to the kitchen.

  Grandpa and Angel were fixing sandwiches. I went up to Grandpa and kissed his weathered cheek.

  He grinned. “You’re looking better. Angel told me about your investigating. Gabe really doesn’t know you have that tracking device on his truck?”

  “Nope.” I got a couple Diet Cokes and a bottle of iced tea out of the refrigerator and took them to the table. “We discovered that someone has already been in Chad’s house and wiped his computer clean there. And more people showed up while we were there—Rick Mesa and Mom.” I’d thought about this in the shower. “I think they are looking for something.”

  Grandpa brought a plate of egg salad sandwiches and set them down in the middle of the table. “Like the missing sixteen thousand dollars of soccer money?”

  “Maybe. But I don’t think Gabe would look for stolen soccer money for Dara. He was a cop.” Though he did have a code all his own. I went to the pantry to get paper plates and napkins.

  “Unless Dara hired him to find it and put it back so that she doesn’t get into trouble,” Angel said, as she set out a bowl of canned peaches.

  I turned from the pantry and saw the blinking light of the answering machine. “We have a message.” Holding plates and napkins in one hand, I hit the play button and went to set the stuff down on the table.

  A muffled voice said, “Stay out of Chad Tuggle’s murder. He got what was coming to him. So will you if you get too nosy.” Click.

  I straightened and whirled around to stare at the answering machine. Adrenaline poured into my bloodstream, and I broke out in a sweat.

  Angel stood with one hand on the back of a chair. “Play it again.”

  I walked a step to the phone and hit play.

  “Stay out of Chad Tuggle’s murder. He got what was coming to him. So will you if you get too nosy.” Click.

  “Did I just get a death threat?” I mean, jeez, most people get stupid sales calls. Me? I get death threats. This day was just unbelievable.

  Grandpa had stopped right beside me with a box of frozen brownies in his hand. “Some kind of warning, maybe?”

  “It was a man’s voice. Lowered and disguised, but a man.”

  Angel said, “What about Rick M
esa? He seemed awfully eager to get you to stay out of Chad’s murder. He was at the house looking for something. Maybe he knew Chad was stealing the soccer money and they had a falling out or something.”

  Gentle Rick a killer? Well, strange things were happening. And who else could it be? Not Gabe, I knew that. It wasn’t his style. Besides, Gabe knew that warning me off would have the opposite effect.

  Grandpa looked over at Angel, then back at me. “What other men have you talked to about this, Sam?”

  I went back over my day. “Detective Vance, obviously. Then I saw Duncan at the nursery, but that had to do with Roxy, not Chad’s murder, and hmm . . .” I trailed off, thinking about getting Angel’s phone call, then going to the beauty shop. “Oh wait. Don’t forget Lionel Davis. He tried to attack Gabe.” Lionel had a screw loose somewhere, but how could he be connected to Chad? Although he did show up at Heart Mates on the day I found out about Chad’s murder.

  Grandpa met my gaze. “Looks like you stirred something up today.”

  “Guess so.” I took the box of brownies from his hand and went to the microwave. I fished out three frozen squares of chocolate, arranged them on paper towel, and set them in the microwave. I set the timer for a couple of minutes at half power. Then I went to the table and sat down. Grandpa sat on my right, Angel was across from me, and Ali kept watch from her blanket by the sliding glass door. During a long minute of silence, we arranged plates and food.

  Angel took a bite of her sandwich and asked, “What are you going to do, Sam?”

  I looked up at Angel. “I’m going to track down Gabe Pulizzi and make him tell me what the hell is going on.” I took a bite of my sandwich, barely tasting it. He knew this case had turned dangerous. He’d told me it was dangerous in Chad’s house. But he wouldn’t tell me why.

  That might have been okay.

  If I hadn’t just gotten a death threat and had two sons and the most loved Grandpa on earth who could get hurt. That was unacceptable.

  After a bit of discussion with Grandpa and Angel, we decided that I’d have better luck sneaking up on Gabe under the cover of darkness.