Restless Natives (A Coffee & Crime Mystery Book 1)

by Nan Sampson

  More flashing lights strobed through her windshield along with flashes of lightning. Klein stood, the top half of him disappearing from her view. She was just as glad. The condescension in his voice made her head hurt.

  Ellie didn’t know what rural Wisconsinites thought of as a jiffy, but almost an hour was not how Ellie defined it. She’d passed out a humiliating two times when the pain of jostling her arm overcame her. Worse yet, she’d actually cried. In front of other people. Strangers no less. By the time they had her on a gurney, rolling towards the Rescue vehicle, she felt it might have been better if she’d just died.

  Gruetzmacher was waiting for her at the Urgent Care Center, told her to hang in there and that he’d be in to speak with her as soon as they finished patching her up. He acted like that should make her feel better, but it didn’t. She just wanted to go home, back to her nice little condo by the lake, where life was soul-suckingly boring and predictable. Where there were no cows.

  She endured the “patching-up” process, served up by Nurse Pat and Doctor whatever-his-name was and found herself with a cast on her arm and a sling, a couple of stitches in her temple, a bloody nose and as the cherry on top of the whip cream of this disaster sundae, a black eye. The doc was nice enough, although somewhat condescending. He looked different from the man who’d stitched up her finger earlier in the week. Maybe even cute, although with her eye swelling shut, it was hard to see. But maybe it was just the shock. Or a sign that she really needed to head back to the city.

  Nurse Pat was cheerful and annoyingly sympathetic, making tsking noises that she wrongly assumed were comforting. Ellie just wanted to punch her in the nose so she could experience for herself how bad it hurt.

  They gave her some drugs, which she had no qualms accepting, then shuttled her off to a room where she was going to be forced to spend the night, so they could observe her. Like that was going to make her feel any better. By the time Gruetzmacher showed up, she was already starting to get foggy and she was long past fighting it.

  He didn’t beat around the bush – maybe he could see that she was sinking. “Sam said you thought someone tried to run you off the road.”

  She shook her head, regretted it. It felt huge and swollen, like a balloon. “Cows. Jerk came up from behind doing ninety. Sprayed me with gravel and swerved at me as he tried to pass. I slowed to avoid the cows. Cows.” She found herself giggling. “What the hell are cows doing in the road? Like Dr. Seuss. Cows. Moughs. Mough’s Cows. Who the hell names a business with a rhyme?” She chuckled again. “Mough’s Cows.”

  Something clicked in her brain and she remembered the drawing she’d made when the spirit of Artie had visited her in her room at the inn. She knew suddenly it was a cow. “Cows,” she muttered. “Mough’s Cows. Patti.” That’s what Artie had been trying to tell her. Something about Patti Mough. Was she the killer? No, it couldn’t be. She didn’t believe Patti had it in her. Plus, she had no motive. So what was Artie trying to say? Was it some kind of a warning? Did it have something to do with whatever Patti had been trying to tell her earlier on the phone?

  “You spoke with Artie? When? Ellie? You still with me? What about Patti?”

  Her eyes drooped closed. It was too much effort to open them again. “Mough’s Cows. Artie said Mough’s Cows. Patti. He was really angry.”

  Then she let go and slid into the soft black.

  Chapter 42

  The sun apparently rose early in Wisconsin. Ellie awoke grudgingly and opened her eyes to bright sunlight filtered through white vertical blinds. Faint sounds of movement and voices somewhere in the distance. She blinked, found her left eye wouldn’t. It wouldn’t really open either. It came back to her then, the accident, the Urgent Care Center.

  “Welcome back.”

  It hurt to turn her head, but she made herself do it. She knew that voice. And if her whole face didn’t hurt, she would have scowled at its owner. “McCallum. What the hell are you doing here?”

  He gave her that ridiculous grin. “Good to see you too, Gooden. Although really, you’ve looked better. Finally get in a fist fight with one of the restless natives? I always knew your mouth would get you in trouble.”

  “Ha ha. Come a little closer, McCallum. I’ve still got one good arm.” She found the call button and pushed it. Surely it was time for more drugs. And a nurse to shoo away unwanted pests. “What are you doing here?”

  “Gruetzmacher called Kate since he didn’t know anyone else to call. Since Kate is unavailable to play angel of mercy, I got the job. Kind of like filling in for your fairy godmother, only different.”

  She groaned. “Great. Okay, you’ve come, you’ve seen me. You can go now.”

  He didn’t move. Just sat in the chair with his long legs stretched out in front of him. “So what happened?”

  “Argh! How many times do I have to say it? I swerved to avoid some cows. Ran into a ditch. Hey, how’s my car? Can they fix it?”

  “Car’s totaled. But it was a wreck to begin with, so not much of a loss. Chief said you said something about getting run off the road. What, were the cows playing chicken with you?”

  It was more than a little foggy, frankly. She remembered a bunch of giant cows in the middle of the road and then… then she wasn’t sure anymore. “Who the hell lets cows roam around the countryside? I thought they were supposed to be fenced in or something. Or in a barn. Don’t they lock cows away in a barn at night?”

  “Couldn’t say, although I’m pretty sure the dairy farmers don’t think of it as locking them away. But you’re sure it was the cows that caused you to crash? Not another driver?”

  She tried to remember more, but it was like a DVD with a blank spot. There was just nothing there.

  “The last thing I can remember were the cows.”

  “Did you hit the cows?”

  She thought hard. She’d feel terrible if she had. She didn’t want to hurt a cow or any other animal for that matter. “I don’t know. Why, was one injured?”

  “No, but you have a huge dent on the left front quarter panel of your car. The opposite side of the one that got smashed when you went into the ditch.”

  She tried to think harder. It didn’t help. “I can’t remember.”

  “Huh. Okay.” He unfolded himself from the chair. “Bill wanted me to let him know when you were awake. And I’m sure the nurses want to do some medical kinds of things. Your purse is in the closet over there, but I put your cell phone and some girly make-up things in the drawer of the bedside table. I’m gonna go see what the deal is with your car – Bill notified your insurance company, but I imagine you’ll have to speak to them yourself to arrange for a payout.” He shoved his hands in the pocket of his jeans and yawned.

  He looked tired, which made Ellie wonder just how long he’d been sitting in that chair and if he’d driven up in the middle of the night. “I’m sorry you got dragged all the way up here.”

  “S’no big. You call if you need anything - I took the liberty of putting my number in your phone. I’ll stop by later, maybe have some paperwork for you about the car.”

  “Thanks.”

  There was an awkward silence, the awkward mostly being on her part, as he stood there, looking at her, and she could sense he wanted to say something else.

  “Sure. Get some rest, Glenda Goodwitch.” And then, wearing that ridiculous grin, he left her alone.

  Chapter 43

  “You know, Ellie,” Gruetzmacher said as he sat down in the chair and clasped his Chief’s hat between his knees, “if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were working real hard at finding ways to see me.”

  By the time Gruetzmacher arrived, she’d done what she could with her hair, but after a gander in the mirror, there had been no point in even attempting to put lipstick on this pig. Her face was a wreck. Split lip, purpling and swollen eye, big white bandage on her temple. The best that could be said was that she was sitting up, although the hospital gown made her feel vulnerable and exposed.

&n
bsp; “Yeah, I could see how you’d think that. Sorry.”

  “It’s what they pay me for. Although with you in town, I can see I’ll actually have to earn my keep. And I thought Lu was a trouble magnet.” He stopped spinning his hat and his face went serious. “Look, I need you to try to remember as much as you can about last night. Can you tell me the story, start to finish?”

  She was so tired of repeating this. “I’ll tell you as much as I can remember. There’s a bit of a blank spot. The nurse said that happens after head injuries. But really, I don’t see what the big deal is. I ran off the road trying to avoid some cows.” She studied him. He was frowning a lot. “Did I hurt one? Is Earl Mough pressing charges? I swear, I did my best to avoid them, but they just appeared out of nowhere. I slammed on the breaks just as soon as my lights hit them.”

  “No, you didn’t hit one of the cows. And Earl wouldn’t press charges even if you had. It’s his fault – apparently, there was a break in the fence and the cows wandered out. No, I want to know what happened before that. Sam – Deputy Klein, he was the one who spotted your car last night – he said you mentioned something about a pick-up truck running you off the road.”

  Ellie squeezed her eyes shut. Her head throbbed incessantly. “I was wrong. Or mistaken. I have this notion that there was someone that came screaming up behind me. I had already slowed because of the cows. But honestly, I couldn’t even swear that there was another car at this point. It’s all fuzzy. The last thing I remember is the wheel jerking and the ditch racing up in front of me and me thinking I was going to break an axle for sure.”

  “Can you remember anything about the car? Sam said you said it was a truck.”

  She tried. Hard. But other than a vague recollection of someone zooming past her in something big, she had nothing. “I’m sorry. He could have been driving a space ship for all I know.”

  “So the driver was a man?”

  “Again, I don’t know. I think so. It sounds right. But I could just be making an assumption.” She watched Gruetzmacher chew his lower lip, spin his hat some more. “Why? Why is it important?”

  He sucked in a breath through his nose. “Look, I should let you rest.”

  He wasn’t telling her something. Something important. “Charlie said there was a dent in my car that he didn’t think was caused by my trip into the ditch. Is that what this is about?”

  He stood, put his hat back on. “Rest. We can talk more later. You may remember more.”

  If she been wearing something more than a flimsy hospital gown, she’d have gotten out of bed to stop him. “Chief! Wait. I think I have a right to know what’s going on. It’s my car.”

  He looked seriously conflicted. “Do you remember what you said to me last night after the accident?”

  She did remember that they’d talked. But it was too hazy. “Not really.”

  “You said something about Patti Mough. That Artie told you something about Patti. Do you remember that?”

  She really wanted to. She tried. But there was just nothing there. “I’m sorry. It’s like someone took an eraser to the chalkboard.”

  “I won’t ask how you spoke with Artie. I’ve a feeling I don’t want to know. But what you said made me nervous enough that after I left you, I went out to the Mough’s. I needed to tell Earl about the cows being loose anyway.”

  He took off his hat, began twirling it again. “No one answered the door. But the back door was open and I found Patti on the kitchen floor next to a blueberry pie. Someone had poisoned her. Massive dose of the same stuff that killed Lu. My guess is that the poison was in the pie – and that the killer brought it to her.”

  Ellie’s heart skipped a beat. “Lord and Lady. She’s dead?”

  “No, we got her here in time. She’s in stable condition this morning, but it was touch and go most of the night. She’s still unconscious, but the Doc thinks there’s a good chance she’ll be fine. Ellie, I need to know who it was who passed you. Because it might have been the guy who did this to Patti. And if it was, it’s the same person who killed Lu.”

  And whoever had killed Lu very likely had killed Artie too.

  “Where was Earl?”

  “Out chasing down his cows. Apparently he’d found several spots where his fences had been taken out. Looked like someone cut the barbed wired. They’re usually electrified, but Earl’s system was on the fritz - he’s been waiting on the parts for the fix for a week now - and cows being cows, those that wandered out earlier were apparently trying to get back to the milking parlor when you ran into them. Sorry, poor choice of words.”

  “So someone planned this. Knowing the fence was not electrified, knowing the cows would get out…”

  “Or were encouraged to get out. S’what I’d have done.”

  Ellie continued, “They must have known Earl would go hunting for them, leaving Patti alone.” She shivered. Suddenly, she remembered Artie’s message to her. The drawing of the cow. If only she’d listened, maybe she could have stopped this from happening. “Damn it, I didn’t understand. I didn’t know what the cow meant.”

  “Beg pardon?”

  There was no way she was going to try to explain auto-writing to an ex-Chicago homicide detective.

  “Nothing. Never mind. Patti is going to be okay, right?”

  “She’s doing well, all things considered. Doc won’t give a definite yes or no yet, but he’s hopeful. We couldn’t transport her to the hospital in Madison last night because of the storm, but now that she’s stable, she’ll be taken to UW Hospital by Med Flight later today or tomorrow. Look, are you sure you can’t remember anything about the person who passed you?”

  She shook her head. “I wish I could. My impression is that it was a guy in a truck. I can almost see it, but I’m afraid my mind is just recreating what people have been telling me I said.”

  “Okay. Got it.” He put his hat back on again. “I’m going to head over to Schmidt’s Auto Body. Got some paperwork to give them so I can take custody of what’s left of your car. There may be paint transfer on the bumper, and maybe I can get the crime lab in Madison to tell me what kind of car it came from sometime this century.”

  “You act like Patti’s not going to be able to tell you who poisoned her when she wakes up. She is going to wake up, right?”

  “We all hope so.”

  “Oh, Goddess.” This was all her fault. If only she’d understood what Artie was trying to tell her.

  “I can see you’re blaming yourself. And there’s no reason for it. You’re tired, and you’ve been put through the wringer. Get some rest, do what the doc tells you and I’ll keep you posted.” He moved to the door. “And if you do remember anything else – and I’m not suggesting you give yourself a migraine trying, so don’t even go there – be sure to give me a call. Doc knows how to reach me in case you’ve lost my card.”

  A knock at the door and a young nurse that she didn’t recognize came in. Gruetzmacher slipped out with a wave of his hand and the nurse smiled. “Perfect timing. I’ve got some medicine for you and you’re allowed to have something for pain if you need it.”

  She didn’t know if she needed it, but she sure as heck wanted it. Even so, she shook her head and said, “I’m fine.” She wanted to keep a clear head. Maybe without the drugs, and with a little self-guided meditation, she could remember more about what had happened last night.

  The nurse shrugged and handed her a couple of pills, one was for the swelling and the other an antibiotic. “Okay. Just call if you change your mind. It’s better to get ahead of the pain than wait until it gets really bad.”

  She thanked the nurse, and waited until the woman left to ease herself slowly into a half lotus position in the bed. Then, clearing her mind, she grounded and centered and regulated her breathing to drop her into a light trance.

  The moment she felt herself slide into her center, she became aware of an intensely bright light. In her mind’s eye, she was suddenly on the lakeshore, with the vastness of Lake Mic
higan spreading out dark blue against a brilliant summer sky. The sun shone down, like a beacon, and her eyes were drawn inevitably upward toward it. She also now heard a voice, low, rasping, cantankerous. Artie’s voice, or at least how she remembered it. “Look at the sun,” he said.

  It blinded her, but she looked up anyway. There, in the sky, overlaid over the globe of the sun, was Artie’s face, those odd, blue-gray eyes that always seemed to judge her staring down at her. Like he had any room to judge, now that she knew what she did about him and his philandering ways.

  “Look at the sun,” he demanded again, and this time his tone was more adamant, even hostile.

  “I am looking,” she told him. “All I see is your ugly puss. Just tell me what you want me to know! Who killed you, Artie? Who?” Why did spirits insist on talking in riddles? Why couldn’t they just spit it out, whatever it was? Her Grams had told her that they couldn’t, that they could only communicate symbolically, but that sounded like a bunch of hooey to Ellie. They had been people once. They knew how to use language.

  The face in the sun let out a shriek then disappeared, leaving just the regular yellow white orb in the clear blue sky. A couple of gulls did their own shrieking nearby, and one of them dive-bombed the white capped waves close to shore.

  She walked along the beach, watching families play and picnic around her as though it were any other day. At some point, she realized that her meditation had turned into a dream. Not having the energy to pull out of it, she gave in and allowed herself to drop fully into the drowse.

  Chapter 44

  She awoke with a start some two hours later. She’d slept so soundly, she’d never even heard the nurse bring in lunch.

  An image from her dream still lingered in her mind. She’d been having coffee with Todd Hertz in her dream. He’d been serving her pie. And he’d looked at her with those eyes, his father’s eyes.