by K. J. Emrick
“Cookie?” she hesitantly asked. “What are you… how did you find me?”
Jerry relaxed his stance, and stepped back to let Cookie take the lead. Smart man, she said to herself.
Going down to the end of the hall, she took Amanda’s hands. “It’s okay, dear. You know me. You know Jerry, too, I’m sure. We’re just so glad you’re safe.”
A look crossed Amanda’s face, and she dropped her eyes to the floor.
“We understand,” Jerry said to her. “You had to take some time for your grief. It’s a hard thing to lose your mother. Especially like this. So we understand why you did this but you really should have told someone where you were. People were worried.”
She blinked at them. “What?”
“Well yes,” Cookie said, making sure to put on a smile. “Of course we were worried when you went missing so soon after your mother’s death. People often get into a state when bad things happen, but we didn’t want you to get yourself into trouble. The whole police department was out looking for you, dear. You needed some time, I understand. I’m grieving for your mother, too. I will miss her. Very much.”
Amanda pulled her hands back. She curled them into fists at her side as she began shaking her head back and forth. “No, you don’t understand. I’m not here because I need time to myself. I’m not grieving, I’m hiding!”
Cookie stared at her. She didn’t understand. “Hiding? From who?”
She looked at both of them, trouble swirling like a storm in her eyes, and opened her mouth to answer Cookie’s question.
Which is exactly when a patrol car siren whooped with a single blaring note outside. Red and blue lights flashed in through the windows at the front of the house.
Amanda closed her mouth into a tight line.
Whatever she had been about to say was lost in the rush of activity that followed. Jerry went to the front door and opened it for the arriving officers. Chief Rosen was the first one through, his face nearly glowing red and his dark eyes trying to drill holes through everything. When he saw Amanda, his expression softened, if only a little.
Two other officers followed him, and Cookie recognized them right away. Mason McLear and Cassandra Barlow, the department’s two newest hires since Rosen had taken over. Mason was a little bit shorter than Cassandra, with dark hair that he pulled straight back from his forehead. Cassandra’s dirty blonde hair was shaved down in a man’s style, emphasizing her long neck and her ears that were too big for her oval face. They both followed after Rosen like lap dogs, she also recalled.
Mason was also the one who had an outstanding tab at the Old Crow Bar. Although from what Cookie could see, this probably wasn’t the best time to bring it up.
The Chief bent his head in low to growl something at Jerry, and even though he was shorter by several inches he made it clear that he was the one in command. Whatever he said made the lines around Jerry’s eyes tighten. Then the chief jabbed a finger into Jerry’s chest, and with a few final words he left him standing there.
Mason and Cassandra smirked at Jerry as they followed their leader.
Cookie caught Jerry’s eyes, realizing that her mouth was hanging open but unable to help it. They had just found someone the rest of the department couldn’t. Again, she might add, and Rosen had chewed Jerry out for it.
Again.
He shook his head, once, telling her to let it go. From the way his shoulders were tensed up and from the look on his face, she suspected there would be lots more said between the two of them. Just not right now.
“Miss Tucker,” the chief said to Amanda, all official bluster. “I’m glad we found you. Gave us quite the scare. Now, listen, I understand that women get emotional especially at times like this, but you can’t just take off without telling anyone.”
Thankfully, he had his back to Cookie. If he could have seen the expression on her face when he said that, his head might just have exploded. Chauvinistic, arrogant, piece of—
“Now,” he said over Cookie’s mental cursing, “my people will bring you back to your house, Miss Tucker. Please go with them.”
From across the room, Jerry cleared his throat behind a fist. “Uh, Chief, Amanda was just about to tell us about how she was here to hide from someone.”
Rosen arched an eyebrow. “That so? Well, Miss Tucker, why don’t you tell me who that might be?”
That same storm from before swirled in Amanda’s pale eyes. Cookie was sure she wasn’t saying everything when she said, “I was hiding from whoever murdered my mother.”
“Nonsense,” he said dismissively. “We’ve got your boyfriend under arrest already. You’re perfectly safe.”
Amanda looked like she was about to faint. “You did… what? No, Chief Rosen, no. You don’t understand. It wasn’t Grayson.”
“Nonsense.” That was all he said on the subject, apparently. “We’ll talk more later. Cassandra, Mason, take her home. Stay with her until I get there. I’ll take the second cruiser.”
The man wasn’t willing to listen to anything. The only saving grace as far as Cookie could see was that there would be two police officers with her. Whoever Amanda was scared of wouldn’t be able to get to her.
Just before the front door closed behind the two officers and Amanda, she looked back at Cookie. There was resignation in her eyes. Like she was going off to meet her fate.
Well, Cookie told herself. That was worth a few questions. Later. After she and Jerry left here, they could always go over to Amanda’s house and—
“What in God’s name were you thinking!”
Cookie actually jumped in her shoes when Rosen started shouting. The man had a voice that could curdle milk.
Jerry didn’t flinch. In fact, he seemed to swell up under the brunt of Rosen’s anger. “Chief, I called you when we found this address. Did you want me to wait for the National Guard to come and surround the place?”
“Don’t you get smart with me, Officer Stansted! This is my department, and I decide how we do things, but I seem to keep finding you and your girlfriend stepping in my way over and over!”
Smiling even though she wanted to slap the chief across his belligerent face, Cookie stepped around to stand at Jerry’s side. “The point I believe we were trying to make, is that we were only here to find a missing friend. And look. We found her.”
“I don’t care if the two of you found Jimmy Hoffa smoking Cuban cigars in his underwear!” Rosen bellowed as he gestured wildly with his hands. “You deliberately went around behind my back on this one, Stansted! You are intentionally messing with this investigation just because your girlfriend knew the victim!”
At Cookie’s feet, Cream gave a little growl. He didn’t like the chief’s tone, either.
When Rosen drew a breath to say something more, Jerry cut in over him. “Fiancé.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Cookie is my fiancé,” Jerry repeated. “She’s the woman I’m going to make my wife.”
“Cookie? Who in God’s name is… oh. You mean Karen here?”
“Yes,” Cookie said to him, “he does. Don’t worry. Only my friends call me Cookie.”
“Well, we don’t have any danger of that happening, now do we?”
She just stared back at him, not wanting to take his bait.
Jerry took a step closer.to her. “She’s the woman I’m going to marry, Chief.”
“Oh really?” Rosen snapped. “Seems like you’re doing a great job with that, too.”
Jerry’s hand curled into a fist.
Cookie stood speechless. Her mind was racing, and she had to wonder how much of that was anger at Ed Rosen… and how much of it was her own frustration at the truth in Ed’s words.
“As of now,” he said to Jerry, “you are off this case. You won’t go anywhere near it. I don’t even want to see your face around the department unless you’re bringing me coffee! Now, tell me you understand.”
Cookie watched Jerry’s face, very closely. She tried t
o read his thoughts. Whatever he was thinking, she didn’t see any hint of it cross the mask of his expression.
She wasn’t prepared for what he did next.
Slowly, his hand went up to this badge. Eyes locked with Rosen’s, he undid the hook on the pin, and slid it out of his shirt. With practiced motions, he put the pin back in the clasp.
Then he held his hand out, and dropped the badge.
Rosen reached out and snatched it from the air. He stared at Jerry incredulously, and it was like the entire world stopped for a moment.
Cream whined a little question, cocking one little Chihuahua ear up in the air.
“Here’s what I understand,” Jerry said. “If you don’t trust me enough to do my job, then I’ve got no reason to stick around your department. If being a cop in this town means working for a man like you then I’m done with it. I’ve got four weeks of vacation time built up, Chief. I’m taking two of them starting now. I’m putting in my papers. Happy retirement to me.”
Then he turned on his heel and gave Cookie a glance that clearly said, let’s get out of here.
She’d never been more proud of him in all the time that they’d known each other.
Cream barked at Chief Rosen, echoing Cookie’s own thoughts. Then he turned his rear end on the man, tail in the air, and scraped his paws on the rug before following Cookie and Jerry out of the house.
“I can not believe you called that man,” Cookie grumbled. “He is a blight on this town and I intend on talking to Mayor Fieldberg about him. She should never have hired him.”
Beside her, driving back to the police station to turn in the rest of his equipment, Jerry fidgeted in his seat. “Cookie…”
“I mean it. He needs to be removed.”
“Cookie?”
“Someone who cares about this town needs to take over.”
“Cookie.”
From the backseat, Cream barked and his doggy seat belt straining, put his front paws up on the center console. When Cookie kept going on and on about Ed Rosen, he barked again.
“Well, I mean every word of it,” she told her doggie friend. “I can’t help how I feel. What were you going to say, Jerry?”
Now that she’d given him the chance to speak, finally, it took him a moment to actually form the words. “I’m… retired.”
She smiled at that but she could see that the reality of what he had just done was starting to weigh on him. Leaning across the center console she wrapped her arm through his, and put her head down on his shoulder. “Big changes coming.”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“You aren’t regretting this already, are you?” She laughed when she remembered the astonished look on Ed Rosen’s face. “I’ve never seen you stand up to that blowhard like that.”
“It was never a good idea, career wise. Now… I guess my career is over. Wow, Cookie. I’m retired.”
“Well. Not yet, you aren’t.” She had a feeling that she knew exactly what Jerry needed. “Since you’re still technically a police officer with the Widow’s Rest police force for the next few weeks, how about interviewing a key witness in the investigation of Sheila Tucker’s murder?”
“Hmm? Who would that be?”
“Why, her daughter Amanda, of course.”
Jerry sucked in a breath, but he still slowed his car down and pulled over to the side of the street. He was obviously considering the idea. “Rosen won’t like this.”
“Do we care if he likes it?”
“The officers who brought Amanda home aren’t going to like this, either. Mason and Cassandra really don’t like it when anyone gets involved in their business.”
“Lap dogs,” Cookie labelled Mason and Cassandra. “Both of them. Lap dogs. No offense, Cream.”
The little Chihuahua sneezed and shook his head before retreating to curl up in the back seat again.
“Jerry tapped his thumb against the steering wheel. “Amanda did seem to know something more than what she told us, didn’t she?’
“I think she wanted to tell us,” Cookie agreed. “I think she just wasn’t comfortable talking around Chief Gasbag.”
That got a little chuckle from him as well. “Are you ever going to run out of names to call him?”
“I’ve got some names for him you’ve never heard before.” She smiled sweetly. “I just keep those to myself. After all, I am a lady.”
Picking up her hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Yes, you are. Well, if I’m going to be leaving the force anyway then I guess I really don’t care if I make the chief mad at me or not. So. Let’s go talk to Amanda.”
He made a U-turn, and then they were driving off to the other side of town. Amanda lived in a nice little home and although Cookie had never spent much time there she was able to give precise directions for Jerry. Widow’s Rest wasn’t all that big but it still took them the better part of five minutes to get there. “It’s the blue house at the end of this street. Hold on. Shouldn’t there be police cars here?”
Jerry’s hands tightened on the wheel. “Yes. There should.”
He reached for the radio clipped to his belt, but hesitated, and then drew his hand back. The last time he’d called in to let his chief know what he was doing, he’d only succeeded in getting himself yelled at, and his career path changed forever. Whatever trust he’d had left for Ed Rosen was gone now. He gave her a nod as they parked in the driveway of Amanda’s house. All they needed was each other.
Cream padded around a couple of quick circles on the backseat before standing with his nose pointing at the front door of the house. Cookie reached back to pet his furry head in agreement. All they needed was each other, and their little dog, too.
She clipped the leash back on Cream’s harness and the three of them stepped up to the walk to the steps of the house. When Jerry knocked, Cookie felt relieved to hear Amanda’s voice answer from within. Amanda was here, and she was safe.
Cookie couldn’t put her finger on it but something about this mystery really had her nerves on edge. Maybe it was just that it involved such a close friend. Maybe it was Chief Rosen’s incompetence. Maybe it was that nagging feeling she was getting at the back of her mind that something just wasn’t right.
When she opened the door, Amanda’s eyes were bleary and red. She’d been crying again. She was surprised to see them, too, but her eyes grew even wider when she looked past them to the street. That wasn’t surprise in her eyes now. That was panic.
“Where are they?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Cookie exchanged a look with Jerry. “Where are who?” she asked, even though she had a pretty good idea exactly who they were talking about.
“Those two officers.” Amanda stepped out onto her porch, looking up and down the street. “You know, the ones who were with us at the other house. They said they were just going out to the car and they’d be there if I needed anything. Did they leave? Are you taking their place, Jerry?”
“Sort of,” he said. He pushed the door open wider and motioned for them all to get inside. “Let’s talk in here. I think I’d feel a lot better if we weren’t out in the open like this.”
Amanda’s voice shook. “Jerry, what’s going on? They told me I would be safe here. They said that I’d be protected and that they had Grayson under arrest for my mother’s murder. I know it’s not him,” she insisted, clutching her hands to her chest. “I know it’s not him, but they promised me I’d be safe.”
Jerry crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s what you were about to tell us, wasn’t it? Before Chief Rosen had you brought here you were going to tell us who you thought was after you and your mother. You don’t think it was Grayson, so who do you think it was?”
Amanda nodded, looking small and miserable. She combed a shaky hand through her long hair as she gathered her courage. “I don’t know his name. I just know it was someone my mother had a business deal with. There was a lot of money that changed hands between them, or that was supposed to ch
ange hands, or something. I heard him threatening my mother over the phone last week. I was over at her apartment and the phone call came in and the guy was yelling so loudly I could hear him even when Mom turned away.”
Jerry took out his notebook and pen. “What did you hear the guy say?”
Amanda leaned her hip against the back of the couch, focusing on the floor as she thought back. “He was screaming so loud… he kept saying that my mother had promised him the money, and she had to give it to him or he would take it from her.”
“So what about the business deal? You said he and your mom had a business deal gong.”
Cookie immediately thought of what Benjamin Roth had said. What sort of arrangement did he get her friend into? Was that what had gotten her killed?
But Amanda was shaking her head. “I… I guess I don’t know? I just assumed there was a business deal going on. The guy said that Mom had promised him the money. What else would it be for?”
Hmm, Cookie thought to herself. That didn’t necessarily mean there was a business deal. Which in turn meant that whatever had been brewing between Roth and Sheila probably had nothing to do with her death. She’d accused Roth of terrible crimes in the past, but now she knew better. He was a slimy man, and very low on her list of people she would walk across the street to talk to, but he was not a killer. He wasn’t evil. He was just very self-absorbed.
“All right,” Jerry was saying as he wrote in his notebook. “He’s yelling at your mother. He’s threatening her. Did you tell anyone about this?”
Amanda shrugged helplessly. “Mom told me not to worry about it so I didn’t and now… now…”
Cookie reached out to lay a hand on Amanda’s shoulder. She knew the thing that was so hard for her to say. Now, her mother was dead. Now, she knew she should have said something. Amanda felt like she could have prevented it, if she’d asked the right questions about that phone call, and then told the police about it.
Jerry flipped a page in his notebook. “Amanda, you’re going to have to tell us everything about that phone call, okay?”