“What am I going to do? I wish Grant were here. He’d know what to do.”
Stan looked at Sonia and she nodded at him.
“Alison, look at me.”
When she did he said, “I called Grant last night. He and Kelly are probably in Phoenix right now getting ready to drive back up here.”
When she gave him a confused look, he said, “I had to. After last night, Grant would have had my hide when he got back if I hadn’t.”
Alison nodded and looked down at the glass she was clenching in both hands. “I hate it that they had to cut their honeymoon short.” Then she looked up at Stan. “I guess it’s kind of selfish of me, but I’m glad Grant’s going to be here soon.”
Stan was consumed with jealousy for a moment. He wished it was him that she wanted nearby when she needed help. Oh well, he’d just have to work on that some more.
Sonia had stepped away a few yards and he could hear her calling dispatch to get the lab team back out here to go over the place again.
Just then, Stan’s cell phone rang. It was Sybil and he had to tell her what was going on but he gave her a watered down version.
He turned back to Alison and said, “Who is your insurance agent?”
She reached down to pull her purse into her lap. She then opened a wallet and pulling a card out, handed it to him. He called the insurance agency and told them they should be able to inspect the damage in about two hours.
When the lab crew pulled up out front in their van, Stan was surprised to see the chief pull up right behind them.
When the chief made it to where they were all standing on the front porch, Stan realized what must have happened.
After the chief had greeted everyone, Stan pulled him off to the side. “Did her Aunt Sybil call you?”
Stan was surprised when Chief Darrel Winters gave him a sheepish grin and said, “I can never refuse that woman anything.”
Stan laughed and said, “No, I guess none of us can.”
Stan’s cell phone rang again. This time it was Grant.
“Hey Stan, I’m just checking in to see where we should go when we get there. We’re about an hour away.”
“I would say that the best place to go would be to Sybil’s house. If we’re not there by then, we should be soon.”
He wasn’t even going to tell his best friend what his little sister’s house and car looked like, not yet, at least. Let him get to Sybil’s and rest a few minutes first.
Chapter Seven
It took Stan some fast-talking, but he was able to persuade Alison to let him take her back to Sybil’s instead of her office. The decisive factor had been when he told her that Grant and Kelly should be there soon.
Right now, as he drove, she was on her cell phone, giving directions to her secretary as to what needed to be done in her absence. He didn’t like it when she told Mary that she might still be in before five, but he didn’t say anything to her about it. It wasn’t worth the fight right now. He’d worry about it later if it happened.
When he turned the corner and headed toward Sybil’s house in the middle of the block, they both saw Kelly’s red Mustang sitting in the driveway. Grant was helping Kelly out of the passenger side as Stan pulled in next to them.
Alison jumped out of the car, rushed around the other car, and leaped into her big brother’s arms. When Stan got around to where they were, Kelly had joined them, forming a three-way hug. Stan sure liked his best friend’s new wife. She was a thoughtful, caring person and it showed in everything she did.
Once the four of them were seated in a circle in Sybil’s large living room with her and Sarah, Alison told the others what they had found at her house.
As soon as Alison finished, Kelly pulled her phone out of her purse and made a call. Stan couldn’t tell what she was saying but she seemed to be on hold for a minute then said a few more words before disconnecting.
Kelly turned to Alison and said, “I just spoke to my grandfather and we have a new blue Mustang exactly like yours sitting on the lot right now.”
She smiled at the incredulous look on Alison’s face. “Yes, that’s right. As soon as they clean it up, someone will bring it over here.”
When Alison started to protest, Kelly smiled and held up her hands. “Don’t worry about the paperwork or the insurance. Grandfather said that could all be taken care of later. Right now, you need a car and it’ll be here in about an hour.”
Stan was shocked when Alison got up from her seat between her aunt and her mother and walked over to Kelly. Leaning down, she gave Kelly a hug and said, “I think I’m going to love having you for a sister-in-law.”
While they were hugging, Grant leaned forward to look around Alison, caught Stan’s eye and tilted his head toward the back of the house. Stan got up and followed his partner out onto the back patio.
When they were seated in facing patio chairs, Grant said, “Okay, I’ve heard all about the what, now let’s talk about the who and any other details that the others don’t know yet.”
Stan smiled at his friend’s bluntness. “Well, we don’t have much. None of the victims could give us anything except the guy was wearing a Halloween mask. No description of any kind, not even size or shape. With him going at their faces with a rubber hose, they automatically held their arms over their faces and closed their eyes.”
When Grant slapped the table with his open palm, Stan added, “We do have three possible suspects though.” He paused to look Grant in the eye. “And you know at least two of them if not the third one too.”
He ignored Grant’s puzzled look. “Last Sunday while Alison was having an open house, Spencer Baldwin showed up acting kind of strange. Sounds like he wants her back. Said he still loved her.”
“That dirt bag! I sure was glad when Alison dumped him.”
Stan was somewhat surprised at Grant’s vehemence, but not so surprised when he pulled out his little notebook and began writing as Stan continued.
“The second one is her weird neighbor Blaine Stockton. He’s been a lot more lately. Alison finally got fed up with him and put her house up for sale. That’s when the guy got really bad. He kept pulling her sign up and she’s had several confrontations with him. I rescued her from the last one yesterday afternoon and we took him in for a psych. eval.”
Grant looked up from his notebook. “Then he couldn’t have been involved the attack last night.”
“Sorry. That was my thought too until Sonia and I got to the hospital after the attack last night. It seems that when no one was watching Stockton, he simply got up and walked out of the place.” At Grant’s questioning look he said, “At least an hour before the attack.”
Grant shook his head. “So we’re back where we started.”
“Wait, what I think is the best suspect is yet to come.” He waited for Grant to turn back to him. “Have you met this guy who worked for Alison by the name of Wilson Monroe?”
Grant thought for a moment. “Yes, I think I’ve seen him at her office a few times. He’s new.”
“Yeah, well he doesn’t work there anymore. Alison got complaints from clients that he was hitting on women clients, even married ones.”
“So she fired him?”
“Monday afternoon and that’s when things started happening. That part may only be coincidence, but it sure looks good to me.”
Grant closed his notebook and returned it to his shirt pocket. “How about the note the guy left last night?”
Stan shook his head. “Nothing! Standard laser printer, no prints.”
“Figures.” He leaned back in his chair a little. “You mentioned Sonia. How come she’s so involved in our case?”
Stan laughed. “Man are you in for some more surprises, big ones.” He laughed at Grant’s bewildered expression. “I think I’ll start with last Sunday afternoon. After all some of this applies to the case. I just happened to be in the neighborhood of Alison’s open house so I stopped in just as Baldwin was driving off after harassing her.
Grant was grinning now. Stan was sure his friend knew what was coming next.
“Yeah, I must have said the wrong thing and she blew up at me. Well, I got plenty ticked off too so I stopped at Denny’s to cool off before I went home.”
He paused to rub his chin. “You’re not going to believe the rest of this. I know I wouldn’t if you were telling it to me.”
When Grant didn’t comment, Stan continued, “The hostess was leading me to my table when Sonia called out to me from a booth where she was sitting, alone. She motioned for me to join her!”
He let that sink in and wasn’t disappointed at the disbelief on Grant’s face.
“So I sat down across from her, not knowing what to expect. Then she proceeded to apologize for being so nasty to us. If that wasn’t weird enough, she then told me about growing up without a mother and with a cop for a father.”
Grant opened his mouth to speak, but Stan cut him off.
“There’s more. She said her father is a retired Phoenix P.D. captain. One of her brothers is a lieutenant there and the other two are sergeants. I guess you could say that we have her brothers to thank for her treatment of us. She said that once she made sergeant, they were all giving her advice and every time she tried any, it blew up in her face. So, she said from now on she was going to just be herself.”
Grant leaned back in his chair with a groan. “Hey, I had no idea. I think I’d heard that her dad was a cop, but none of the rest. No wonder she comes across the way she does.”
Stan was grinning now and Grant was giving him a suspicious look.
“That was when she told me that she was going to be my temporary partner while you were gone. And I can’t believe it, but she’s been great to work with Grant. She’s also been good with Alison.”
Grant shook his head. “I’m glad I’m sitting down.”
Stan laughed and said, “This one, you’re going to love. Right away Monday, we had to interview some people about a bar fight last Saturday night. Well, you won’t believe who one of the customers there that night was.”
He paused for effect, “Wayne Newcomb!”
Grant shook his head. “Probably there with a woman. The guy’s been going through them like water since he broke up with Cassie last year.”
“Yeah, but that isn’t the best part of this story. When we went to Wayne’s office to interview him, it was hilarious. He hit on Sonia so strong that she almost ran out of the place. She couldn’t get out of there fast enough when we finished.”
Grant laughed along with Stan on that one. Then he looked closer at Stan. “There’s something else you’re not telling me, isn’t there? Stan, I’ve known you better than anyone else, for the last twenty years. So give. What is it?”
Stan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He might as well get it all out now, since Sonia already knew. “Okay, here goes.” He held up both hands palms toward Grant. “Promise you won’t hit me or anything, okay?”
Grant just laughed and motioned for him to continue.
“Okay.” He looked Grant straight in the eye and said it all almost at once. “I’m in love with your sister and I’m going to marry her!”
Stan watched him closely for any kind of a reaction. Nothing at first, then Grant’s eyes got a glint in them and his mouth twitched a little. Finally, he leaned back in his chair and laughed so loudly that Stan was afraid the others would all come running to see what was wrong.
When Grant stopped laughing long enough to talk, he said, “You’re just now figuring it out? I’ve suspected it for over a year now. In fact, Kelly commented on it the when she saw the two of you together that first time we all went four wheeling.”
Stan couldn’t believe Grant was taking it so well. “You mean you’re not mad at me?”
Grant grinned broadly. “No, actually, I think it’s great.” He chuckled. “I know you’ll be good together. The fact is that you two deserve each other.”
* * *
Alison could hear her brother’s loud laugh out there on the patio. What did he think was so funny? Her world was falling apart with some monster wanting to hurt her and they were out there laughing. Stan had to be telling jokes. That’s what it was. Sometimes she wished he would just stop all his jokes and kidding around all the time. Couldn’t he ever be serious about anything?
She could hear them coming back into house now. When they entered the living room, Grant sat back down beside Kelly putting his arm around her and she leaned into him. Alison still had a difficult time thinking of her brother as married. But, since she’d first met Kelly nine months ago, she had grown very fond of the tall black haired woman with the deep blue eyes and a permanent limp.
She almost laughed when she thought about the fact that she and Kelly were now sisters-in-law, but had already been stepsisters. Her brother married their stepsister! But no one had a problem with it at all. In fact, when she’d been around Kelly’s grandparents, they had seemed to accept Grant as part of the family.
Come to think of it, if Beth Newcomb could be believed, she’d said at the wedding that she wanted to think of Alison as her granddaughter too. That would take some thought and some time to get used to.
That line of thought brought her to Sarah. Alison began surreptitiously watching her ‘mother’ wondering how it would be to have a mother again. But she couldn’t just push Sybil aside. There had to be a way to include both of them in her life, but how?
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Grant and Kelly seemed to be having an earnest conversation.
When they finished, Grant turned to Alison and said, “Alison, Kelly and I both want you to come stay with us until we catch this guy.”
Alison was surprised. “No, you two just got married and you haven’t even spent one night in your new house yet. You don’t want me there in the way. I can just stay here with Sybil . . . and Sarah.”
Grant shook his head. “Alison, think about it. I hate to say this but you are a target right now. You don’t want to put Mom and Sybil in danger . . . do you?”
That really floored her! Of all that he’d just said, she only heard one word, ‘Mom.’ He’d called Sarah, Mom! She almost lost track of the conversation. Then she recovered.
“I would be putting Kelly in danger too.”
Kelly laughed and patted her purse. “I have a handgun in here just like yours and Grant says I’m pretty good with it too. If Grant’s not around, I think that between the two of us, we should be able to keep the bad guy away. Don’t you think?”
Alison had to smile at Kelly’s logic.
Grant said, “You might as well give up Alison, once Kelly gets her mind made up she’s as bad as you about not changing it.”
They all laughed. “Okay.” She turned to Sybil and Sarah. “If you won’t think I’m avoiding you two.”
Both sisters answered in unison. “No.”
Sarah said, “Remember, I’m moving out of here Monday anyway.”
There was a knock on the door and when Sybil opened it, one of the salesmen from the dealership held up a set of keys and looked at Kelly. “Here are the keys, Kelly. Who gets them?”
Kelly pointed at Alison and he walked over to her and handed them to her. “Enjoy.” With that, he waved at Kelly and was gone.
Grant and Kelly stood together and Grant said, “Well, Alison, now that you have your new wheels, why don’t we all go over to our house and get settled?”
Alison had a thought. Grant and Kelly had not even been to their new house since they got married. She had to give them at least a little time alone there before she invaded their privacy.
As they stepped outside, she said, “Why don’t you two go on ahead of me? I just need to stop by the office to get a couple of things then I’ll be right over.”
Grant looked doubtful. “Are you sure?” When she nodded, he said, “Okay, but d
on’t stop anywhere else. Don’t go into the office unless you know who is in there. If you see someone following you, call me immediately.”
She grinned. “Yes sir!”
Kelly turned to Alison and said, “Why don’t we take Brutus with us so you don’t have to take him to the office. After all, I think it’s going to take a little time for him and George to get used to each other.”
Alison almost laughed at the thought of Brutus and Kelly’s cat together. She had a feeling that her eighty-five pound shepherd might just meet his match with that temperamental twenty-pound ball of white fur.
With that, Grant and Kelly drove off in her red Mustang with Brutus’ head hanging out a rear window. Alison smiled as she got into her new blue Mustang and it felt good. Just as she started the motor, Stan came out of nowhere and tapped on her window.
She rolled it down and he said, “I’m following you over to your office then to Grant’s house.”
His voice and demeanor brooked no argument so she shrugged her shoulders and rolled the window back up.
As she was driving to the office, Alison couldn’t get over how this car was a duplicate of her first one. How could she not love this one as much as the other one? That thought led to all that was going wrong in her life right now. Her mood just went from super high to rock bottom in a matter of seconds.
How was she ever going to make it through all this? But, Grant was back. That would make all the difference in the world. And she had to admit that Stan and Sonia had been great in his absence.
When they got to the office, Stan jumped out of his car and went ahead of her to make sure the office was okay. Mary sat at her desk typing on her computer, so Stan sat in a visitor chair in the reception area while Alison went into her private office.
Alison was soon on her way over to Grant and Kelly’s new house. She thought about that as she drove. When her brother met Kelly, Grant had a small one-bedroom apartment and Kelly owned a small condominium. Alison had sold Kelly’s condo and found the perfect house for them to purchase. Kelly had been pleased that it was only a short distance from her grandparents’ estate on the mountainside. Alison was happy that she had been able to do all that for Grant and Kelly as a wedding present.
Accepted Memories (Sycamore P.D. Series Book 2) Page 9