by Judy Nickles
He smiled a little. “You saw ‘In the Line of Fire’?”
“Three times. He’s a hunk.”
“A hunk?” He appeared to be trying not to laugh.
She nodded.
He lifted his hand to wave as he disappeared through the door, and Penelope’s eyes fell on the clock to the right. With luck, she’d slide into Mass before anyone knew she was late.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jake’s truck wasn’t in the drive when Penelope got home from Mass. That meant he was either with the Toney Twins at a coffee shop on the interstate or hitting balls on the practice green—which was as far as he’d gotten in learning to play golf.
She parked in the garage and then went around to check out the attached shed. Sure enough, Tiny’s—or Sam’s—cycle nestled in a corner covered by the tarp that used to be on Jake’s riding mower, the one he’d bought as a concession to his reduced endurance after his stroke. Daddy’s not going to like seeing his favorite toy sitting out like that. She replaced the tarp and went into the house for an old blanket to put over the cycle.
She had trouble finding the keys for the garage and the padlock on the shed, but when she finally had everything locked up, she felt better. No use anybody snooping around and seeing something out of place. If those bikers thought Tiny had gone off Rosedale Bridge into Pine Branch Creek, so be it. R.I.P. Tiny.
Mary Lynn sat at the kitchen table drinking warmed-over coffee and eating a blueberry cream cheese muffin. “What were you doing out there?”
“Nothing.” Penelope returned the keys to the hook by the back door and washed her hands at the sink.
“Nothing took you a long time. I’ve been here fifteen minutes.”
“Where’s Harry?”
“We went to early Mass because he had a ten o’clock tee-time this morning.”
“Oh.”
“I saw Jake at early Mass, too.”
“I guess he was going to meet the Toney Twins somewhere afterwards. Tim and Tom Toney, whom no one but their mother could tell apart, had lived eighty years as ‘the Toney Twins’, never marrying and still occupying the house they were born in.
“Everybody gone?”
“Yes. That nice little family with the twins left right after breakfast.”
“I thought I’d help you clean this afternoon, and then we don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the week.”
“That sounds good.”
“Did you know there was more trouble at the Sit-n-Swill last night?
Penelope didn’t know, but she was sure she looked guilty anyway as she wondered if Tiny and the Bikers had been involved. “No, what happened?”
“Bikers. Got into it with a couple of guys from the Hollow and started tearing up the place. Parnell called for backup from the county, but nobody showed. So he went in and broke up the fight and cleaned the place out.”
“Parnell can do that. Did he make any arrests?”
“I think those two from Possum Hollow cooled their heels in the jail overnight, but the bikers took off.” Mary Lynn popped the last of the muffin into her mouth. “Let’s get started upstairs.” She looked at Penelope. “You’re still dressed.” She leaned across the table. “What was so important outside you had to take care of it before changing out of your Sunday-go-to-meeting duds?”
Penelope’s face grew warm. “Nothing. I told you. I’ll make a quick change while you start stripping beds.”
Still mulling over the bikers’ brawl and the possibility of Tiny being part of it, Penelope almost didn’t see Mary Lynn start for the front room. “Don’t go in there!”
“Huh?” Mary Lynn’s hand dropped away from the glass doorknob.
“This weekend’s guests stayed on the third floor.” Penelope thought she might be babbling.
“Which room did those men have?”
“Bradley’s old room, but I’ve already cleaned it.”
Mary Lynn’s hand snaked back to the knob on the door of the front room and had it open before Penelope could utter another protest. “This room’s so big you could put another double bed in here and…” Her mouth fell open. “This room’s not clean!”
“Close the blessed door, Mary Lynn.”
“Who…”
“Just leave it alone.”
Mary Lynn peered at her friend through narrowed eyes. “Penelope Corinne Louise, there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“So? Close the door.” Penelope turned her back and stalked off down the hall to change her clothes.
They cleaned the third-floor apartment in total silence. On their way downstairs, Penelope said, “If you say one blessed word about that front room—and I mean to anybody, even Harry—you will no longer be my best friend.”
Mary Lynn snorted. “What’s the deal, Pen? You have a secret lover or something?”
Penelope stopped and put her hands on her hips. “I do not! That’s a terrible thing to say.”
“I was only joking.” Mary Lynn chewed her bottom lip. “But it does look suspicious.”
“Thanks for helping me clean. Now go home.”
“You’re a bad liar, you know.”
Penelope shrugged. “We can’t all be talented like that. I remember the time you tried to convince Miss Maude Pendleton to give you an extra week on your English term paper because you’d been at the bedside of a dying uncle in the Bronx.”
Mary Lynn giggled like the school girl she’d been. “She’d have bought it, too, if she hadn’t known somehow that both my parents were only children.”
“She knew everything.” I know stuff. Tiny’s words rang in Penelope’s ears.
Mary Lynn grabbed her purse from the mirrored hat and coat stand by the front door. “Well, if you need to confess anything in the wee hours of the morning, better call me instead of Fr. Loeffler.”
“Not a word, Mary Lynn. I mean it.”
Penelope waited to hear Mary Lynn’s car peel away, then went back upstairs and cleaned Tiny’s room. Or Sam’s room. Whoever he was.
****
She baked pork chops and made scalloped potatoes for dinner, though which Jake regaled her with the Toney Twins’ latest exploits. They’d driven over to a car show in Nashville in their ’67 Mustang and gotten stopped by the state police three times going and four times coming home. “Showed me seven warning tickets, all for the same busted tail light,” Jake said, almost choking on his last bite of potatoes.
“That tail light’s been broken for at least a year, ever since old Mrs. Murdock backed into them at the Garden Market. Or they backed into her. Bradley gave up trying to find out.”
“You know that, and I know that, but seven different smokies don’t.”
“That’s not fair, Daddy. The state troopers are just trying to do their jobs. I think it was pretty nice of them to just give the Toneys a warning.”
“Seven of them!” Jake almost screamed with laughter. “Seven!”
Penelope took out the lemon icebox pie and set it on the cabinet. She’d just touched the knife to the whipped cream topping when she saw a shadow zip past the window over the sink and round the corner of the garage. Letting the knife tumble into the sink, she flung open the back door and yelled, “Who’s out there?”
The shadow hesitated, then dashed off, but not before she caught the gleam of metal studs on black leather in the light from the gas lamp on the driveway. “Daddy, call the police! Somebody’s trying to break into the garage.”
Jake ambled over to look out the door. “They don’t have to break in. It’s not locked.”
“It is, too. I did it this morning after…just go call the police. And hurry, before they get away.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Officer Parnell Garrett showed up in three minutes flat. “I don’t’ see any sign of anybody or evidence they tampered with anything,” he told Penelope and Jake. Thirtyish, still unmarried after a star-studded four years on the football field, basketball court, and track at Amaryllis High School and later
as a University of Arkansas Razorback, he was the proverbial lost-child-finding, kitten-in-a-tree-rescuing cop. “Everything’s locked up tight.” He hesitated. “Why? What’s in there?”
Penelope moved away and busied herself at the sink. “Thanks, Parnell. Stay and have a piece of lemon icebox pie?”
“My riding lawnmower,” Jake said at the same time. “Been there two years, and nobody’s bothered it.”
“Well, I hate to say it, but our days of not locking things up may be over. And yes, ma’am, I’ll have the pie, but I’ll have to take it with me.”
Penelope retrieved a paper plate and a packaged plastic fork from a drawer. “Why do you think we need to start locking up?”
Parnell’s face became a mask. “Oh, just the way things are going everywhere.”
“How about some sweet tea with the pie?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Penelope took down a large plastic take-with cup from a restaurant in Little Rock.
“Just how are things going right here in Amaryllis?” Jake asked. “I want my pie, too, Nellie.”
Parnell shifted from one size-twelve foot to the other. “We’re going along, Mr. Kelley.”
Jake huffed, letting Parnell know he knew he was being given the runaround.
“I heard there was more trouble at the Sit-n-Swill last night,” Penelope said, handing the plate and cup to the officer.
Parnell shrugged. “Nothing much.”
“But that’s two nights this week,” Penelope insisted.
“Yeah, well, I better go. Thanks for the pie and tea. Call me if your prowler comes back, but I doubt he will if he realizes he can’t just walk in and get what he wants.” He stepped through the door Penelope opened for him since his hands were full. “See you around, Mrs. Pembroke, Mr. Kelley.”
Jake scarfed his pie in four bites. “I’m going to bed.”
“At seven-thirty?”
“I’ll watch some television before I turn out the light.”
“Okay. I think I’ll sleep in a little later tomorrow since there aren’t any guests, but I’ll leave the coffee ready to go.”
Jake pecked her cheek. “’Night, darlin’. And maybe you better lock the back door.”
“What if the mysterious Tiny comes back? He said he thought he might hang around a while, but he wouldn’t tell me why.”
“I have a feeling he’ll figure out a way to get in. He might even knock.” Jake chuckled at his own joke.
Penelope shivered. Somehow the idea of a stranger coming and going at will made her feel uneasy.
****
When Tiny Sam—Penelope giggled at the combination of names—hadn’t come in at ten o’clock, she put away the nursing journal and flicked on the small television on the highboy across the room. The newscaster’s first words made her turn up the volume and lean forward for a closer look.
When Arkansas state troopers stopped a car near the Oklahoma state line this morning, both occupants bailed out and made a run for it. One man is now in custody, but the second is still at large. Buddy Hall has more on this story from Ft. Smith.
The man leaning over the hood of the small blue compact car, while police searched and cuffed him, had a ponytail brushing the back of his collar. “Bailed out, did you?” Penelope said aloud. “Wonder what they found in your car?”
Buddy Hall answered her question. The K-9 unit brought to the scene located a cache of drugs, though officers aren’t saying exactly what or how much. Hopefully, we’ll have an update in the morning.
“I’ll just bet…” She stopped, listening, wondering if she’d heard footsteps on the stairs. Throwing back the cover, she reached for her robe, and opened the door. “Anybody there?” Silence. “Hello?”
Stepping into the corridor, she switched on the lamp beside the stair railing that defined the L-shaped hall and padded down to the front room. No light came from under the door, but she knocked anyway. I’d probably have a heart attack if he opened the door in nothing but his birthday suit. She started back for her room but turned and went half-way down the stairs instead. Plunking herself down on the rose-strewn runner she’d had installed only last year, she settled down to wait. “Come on if you’re coming,” she said.
Almost on cue, she heard the familiar creaking of the back door as it opened and closed, and the muffled sound of footsteps drifting through the dining room toward the foyer. Tiny Sam almost stumbled over her.
“What the hell…?”
“It’s about time,” she said, folding her arms across the front of her robe.
“I didn’t know I had a curfew.” He sounded amused.
“Somebody was poking around in the shed tonight. Good thing I found your bike and decided to lock up.”
He sat down on the step above her. “Did you see anybody?”
“Just a shadow wearing black leather and metal. Parnell Garrett came out and looked around, but he didn’t find anything.”
“Okay.”
“But the ten o’clock news had a story about state troopers stopping a car on the Oklahoma border, and I recognized one of the guys who stayed here Thursday night. Well, I thought I recognized his ponytail anyway. The other one got away.”
“You’re sure about that? The ponytail, I mean.”
“I’m sure.”
“Interesting.”
“Listen, Tiny…or Sam…or whoever you are, I know what’s going on. The police found drugs in the car. Those guys probably delivered some to the Sit-n-Swill Friday night, and somebody fired that shot to create a diversion, and…”
“Anybody but your daddy call you Nellie?” Sam interrupted.
“Don’t change the subject. No, Daddy’s the only one.”
“What did your husband call you?”
“That’s none of your business. And how do you know about my ex?”
“It’s not classified information.”
Penelope rolled her eyes. “He called me Opie. He used to watch Andy Griffith and little Opie in Mayberry.” She swallowed. I didn’t mean to tell him that.
“I like Penelope better.”
“My mother named me for a cousin, a sister, and her mother. Penelope Corinne Louise. She was a British war bride, you know.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Then you don’t know everything, do you?”
With one oddly gentle finger, he tucked the perpetually errant lock of hair behind her ear. “You’re pretty feisty.”
“You’re pretty infuriating.” When she realized he was still touching her cheek, and that she liked it, she swatted his hand away like a gnat. “So are you going to tell me what you’re involved in or not?”
“Not.”
“Then I’m going to bed.”
“Good idea. I’m going, too.” He gave her a hand up and didn’t turn loose right away. “Sleep well, Penelope Corinne Louise.”
She glared at him—or tried to, anyway.
“By the way, you need a better lock on the back door. I got in with a credit card.”
“How’d you…”
But he had already disappeared down the hall toward the front room, leaving her to stare at his broad back.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
(Monday)
Penelope overslept the next morning, but she took time to put herself together before she went downstairs: unfaded, well-fitting jeans, a yellow tank top, gold hoop earrings, and subtle but well-applied makeup. She found Tiny Sam and Jake at the kitchen table drinking coffee, eating three-day-old cinnamon buns, and laughing like they’d known each other all their lives.
Jake winked at his daughter, and Sam’s eyes moved over every curve revealed by the tank top, a look Penelope couldn’t describe as anything but lecherous. She swept past them and poured herself a cup of coffee, then leaned against the cabinet.
“I was telling Tiny here about the Toney twins’ trip to Nashville,” Jake said.
“Sam,” their visitor said. “Tiny’s at the bottom of Pine Branch Creek.”
; “Huh. He better be wearing concrete boots, or he’ll surface somewhere between here and Danville by the end of the week.”
Sam grinned. “Definitely concrete boots. And by the way, I’ll get that bike out of your garage if you’ll unlock it for me.” He hesitated for a second. “Of course, I can pick the lock just as quick.”
“I’ll just bet you can,” Penelope said rolling her eyes. “What are you going to do with the bike.”
“Don’t send it swimming in Pine Branch Creek, too,” Jake said. “It’s a nice one. I checked it out this morning, and it’d be a shame to…”
“Don’t you even think about it, Daddy! That riding mower is all you need to be tooling around on.”
Jake lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “Henpecked, that’s what I am.”
Sam slapped at his pocket when something buzzed.
“You wired?” Jake asked.
Without answering, the other man got up and strolled into the dining room.
“He’s a nice sort of fellow,” Jake said.
Penelope shrugged.
“You got the hots for him, Nellie?”
Penelope barely turned to lean over the sink before coffee spewed out of her mouth. “Daddy, really!”
“You skitter around him like dry leaves in a stiff breeze.”
“You have a sudden urge to move over to the old folks’ home?”
Jake winked. “I want a room next to a good-looking woman.”
“With or without teeth?”
He laughed and got up, leaving his mug and a scattering of crumbs on the table. “I’m going uptown and see what kind of action I can find. Be back sometime.”
“Good riddance,” Penelope muttered, but she couldn’t help smiling as she watched him saunter out to his pickup, carefree as a kid—and twice as loveable.
“Your daddy gone?” Sam asked when he came back to the kitchen.
“Uptown looking for action. Or so he said.”
“What kind?”
“At his age, it won’t be too serious.” Penelope brushed the crumbs from the table into her hand and tossed them in the sink.
Sam sat down and held out his mug for a refill. “How long were you and Travis Pembroke married?”