by Katie Ruggle
“Well, you’re hot, for one.”
Lou’s comment caught Daisy in the middle of taking a sip of coffee. It took some effort not to spray the mouthful across the room. “Excuse me?”
Her expression must have revealed her reaction, since Lou laughed. “When I think ‘shut-in,’ I think old and ugly, and you’re definitely neither. I also imagined you dressed like an Amish woman, but I’m not sure why.”
Daisy choked again. “Um…Amish?”
“You know.” Lou gestured at her own thermal shirt and jeans. “Long dress, apron, funky hat.”
After sitting with her mouth open for a few seconds, Daisy started laughing. “Why?”
“I said I didn’t know why!” Despite her aggrieved tone, Lou was snickering, as well. “When I heard that you didn’t leave the house, a picture of an Amish grandma popped into my head. It was random and weird. That happens to me a lot.”
“Mental pictures of Amish grandmothers?”
“Well, sometimes. But mostly random and weird thoughts.”
“I see.” Taking a deep breath, Daisy got her amusement under control. “Why did the house surprise you? Did you have a mental picture of that, too?”
“Yes.” Lou winced, taking a drink of her water in an obvious attempt to delay elaborating.
“Tell me. I promise I won’t be offended.”
“Piles of newspapers and lots of cats,” Lou muttered, her gaze focused firmly on the water bottle cap she was twisting and untwisting.
“Huh.” Although Daisy figured she should be insulted, she just found it funny. “So, I’m an elderly Amish hoarder.” She frowned thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t ‘Amish hoarder’ be some kind of oxymoron?”
Lou laughed. “I think so.”
When their laughter faded, the silence reminded Daisy of the purpose of Lou’s visit. “Did Chris tell you why he thought we should talk?”
“Not really,” Lou said. “He called me this morning and said it would behoove me to swing by Daisy Little’s house to chat, and that he’d ‘warned’ you I’d be coming. There were lots of meaningful pauses, but I had no clue what he was getting at. He was being very un-Chris-like in his vagueness, but he was pretty insistent about me talking to you. When I told him that Callum had the truck, Chris even picked me up from my house and drove me here.”
“He told me he couldn’t talk about the Willard Gray case, but that I should talk to you.”
Lou’s eyes lit, and she leaned toward Daisy. “Do you know something about the case? I’m doing the whole Encyclopedia Brown thing, ever since I discovered poor Willard.”
“Encyclopedia…what?”
Waving off the question, Lou tilted so far forward that Daisy was afraid she’d topple over. “I’ve been looking into Willard Gray’s murder, even before we knew who he was. Callum and I put together a murder board and everything.”
The more Lou explained things, the more confused Daisy got. “A murder board?”
“It’s just a whiteboard with everything we know about the case. I snuck a couple of my less wild theories on there, too, much to Callum’s dismay. He’s more of a just-the-facts kind of guy.”
“O-kay.” Daisy took a sip of coffee to give her a chance to digest some of what Lou had just thrown at her. “So, Chris wants me to tell you what I saw this morning so you can add it to your killer board?”
“Murder board.” Lou was actually bouncing on her sofa cushion. Daisy understood why she’d declined caffeine. Even without it, Lou looked about ready to rocket into space. “What did you see this morning? Did Chris actually think it was related to Willard’s case? You need to start spilling immediately. I’m dying here!”
“I’m spilling! I’m spilling!” Daisy hurried to explain before Lou started levitating. “I think I saw someone moving a body.”
Lou went perfectly still before shrieking, “What?”
Wincing, Daisy shot the other woman a look.
“Sorry,” Lou mumbled through the fingers she’d clapped over her mouth. After a few deep breaths, she let her hand drop back to her lap. “I get excited when someone mentions dead bodies. Oh, wow, that just went to a really wrong place, didn’t it? Okay, so forget my disturbing remark and get back to your story. I promise there will be no more screaming, unless you reveal something totally shocking. Let’s just say that I will attempt to keep my verbal exclamation points to a minimum, how about that?”
“Um…sure. This morning, around three thirty, I saw someone loading what looked like a tarp-wrapped body into a sheriff’s department vehicle.”
Instead of screaming, Lou just stared, her mouth open. Daisy sipped her coffee and let the other woman process the information. After several moments passed, Lou finally moved. She set her water bottle on the coffee table with the utmost care. Pulling her cell phone out of her back jeans pocket, she jabbed at the screen and then put the cell to her ear.
“Cal,” Lou said into her phone, “you need to bring the whiteboard over to Daisy Little’s house. I’m getting vital information here. I need my markers.” Her forehead creased at his response. “The whiteboard is an important part of our investigation team, Cal. We need him here.” She continued in an overly patient tone, as if the answer should’ve been obvious. “Of course the whiteboard is male. I named him Emerson.” Lou paused again. “Because someone named Emerson has to be intelligent. So, are you up for a whiteboard delivery?”
By Lou’s crestfallen expression, Daisy was pretty sure the answer was “no.” “Fine. I still love you, even if you are leaving me lost and whiteboardless.” She glanced at Daisy and gave her an apologetic look, mouthing no whiteboard. “Daisy Little’s house. Uh-huh. That Daisy Little.” Absently, she reached out with her free hand and started turning her water bottle in circles. “Deputy Chris drove me here. He was being really insistent in a weird and vague way about how I needed to talk to Daisy. Apparently, she saw a deputy moving a dead body really early this morning.” Lou listened for a minute. “That’s okay. Chris can give me a ride ho—fine! I’ll call you. You know,” her tone turned crafty, “if I bought that old International pickup I want, you wouldn’t have to be my taxi service.” Her disappointed, no-whiteboard frown returned. “But it’s adorable. Who needs modern safety features when I’m driving something so awesome? Yes. Okay. We’ll argue about this later. I need to get all the body-moving details from Daisy now.” Lou looked a little too excited about the prospect. “Uh-huh. Love you, too. Bye.”
After poking at her phone again, Lou tucked it into her back pocket. “No whiteboard.”
Daisy snorted. “I got that.”
“Do you have a notebook or a piece of paper or something?” Lou asked. “I know I’m not going to remember everything.”
“Sure.” Daisy retrieved a small notebook and a pen from the junk drawer in the kitchen and offered them to Lou before taking her seat on the couch again.
“Perfect. Thank you.” Lou flipped open the notebook cover. “Now tell me everything.”
Chapter 4
They went over all the details multiple times. Instead of making Daisy more certain about what she’d seen, it only increased her doubts. Repeating the story over and over made what happened sound so outlandish and unbelievable.
“What if there’s some stupidly simple and innocent explanation for this?” she finally asked Lou. “I’m going to feel so dumb that I’ve wasted your time and Chris’s and—”
“Stop.” Lou cut off her torrent of words. “If that’s true, then Chris will see it in the call log, and we’ll all be happy that no one is dead. But can you really think of a good reason for someone dressed in black to be shoving something shaped like a dead body—including a boot!—into a sheriff’s squad at three in the morning?”
Daisy had been trying all day to come up with a logical explanation, and she hadn’t succeeded. She shook her head.
“Me ne
ither. It’s not like we’re going to do crazy things with this information. We’re just going to add it to the other facts on the whiteboard and see if it snaps together with any of the other puzzle pieces.”
“Okay.” Daisy let out a long breath.
Lou’s cell chirped, and she glanced at the screen. “Callum is leaving Station One right now and is headed over to pick me up. He should be here in five minutes or so.”
Glancing at her watch, Daisy was shocked to see that they’d been talking for almost two hours. Now that Lou was about to leave, disappointment swept over Daisy. It had been so nice having someone new—and female—to chat with, even if that chat had been about a possible dead body. “Did you want to see the rest of the house? The quick tour takes less than five minutes.”
“Definitely.” Lou bounced to her feet.
As Daisy led the way through the lower level, she felt simultaneously flustered and excited. There was also a tinge of embarrassment that she was so thrilled to have found a new friend, since she probably should have outgrown that level of enthusiasm in kindergarten.
“This is the… I don’t know what exactly to call it. The gym? Training room?”
Lou made a beeline to Max. “No matter what you call it, this place is awesome!” Wrapping an arm around the waist of the grappling dummy, she looked around at the rest of the equipment. “No wonder you have a body like…that.” She gestured at Daisy, who flushed and resisted the self-conscious urge to wrap her arms around herself.
As she tried to look at the home gym with a stranger’s eyes, Daisy had to admit it was really nice. Her dad had knocked down the wall between two rooms to give her a lot of space. She had a treadmill and an elliptical machine, free weights and benches, a pull-up bar, a variety of heavy and speed bags, and plenty of mat space for sparring. Plus, Max was pretty awesome in and of himself.
“Who trains you?” Lou asked, leaving Max with a pat on the rump to explore the rest of the room. “Or do you just use YouTube videos or something?”
“Chris, mostly, although I do have some DVDs, too.” She grinned. “And maybe a few YouTube videos.”
Instead of laughing, Lou gave her an interested look. “So, you and Chris…?”
“No. I mean, we’re friends, but not…” Daisy waved a hand, her blush brightening. “We’re friends. So…no.”
“Uh-huh.” Lou’s voice was skeptical. To Daisy’s utter relief, Lou’s phone chirped, interrupting whatever else the other woman was about to say.
“Callum?” Daisy guessed.
“He’s at the front door. Apparently,” Lou smirked, “he’s been knocking.”
“Oh!” Hurrying out of the training room, Daisy said over her shoulder, “I should have a doorbell, but I normally don’t get that many visitors, so it hasn’t really been an issue before.”
“Don’t worry about Callum.” After a final, longing look at the fitness equipment, Lou followed her to the front entry. “Standing outside for a few minutes won’t kill him. I keep telling him that patience is a virtue.”
“Um…okay.” Daisy pushed the unlock button for the exterior door. There was the usual thump-click as the outside entrance relocked, and her hand moved to the first dead bolt. A heavy knock on the interior door made her jump.
“Hold your horses, Cal!” Lou bellowed right next to her ear, startling Daisy again. “There are a bazillion locks, so it’s going to take a minute.”
The only acknowledgment from the other side of the door was a masculine grunt, but the knocking didn’t resume, so Daisy assumed that Cal had held his horses, as requested. Her hands shook a little as she unfastened the dead bolts and chains. It seemed like a long time before she managed to open the door, revealing a big, stern-looking man wearing a baseball cap.
As his narrow-eyed gaze fixed on her, Daisy took a couple of steps back to put some space between her and the intimidating man.
“Callum!” Apparently, Lou was not at all daunted by the austere figure, judging by the way she grabbed his hand and tried to haul him into the kitchen. “You have to see this home gym. It’s awesome, and there’s even a naked guy in there.”
That seemed to catch his attention, and his piercing gaze moved to Lou.
“I’ve been meaning to put some pants on him.” Daisy wasn’t sure why she was blushing. It wasn’t like Max was anatomically correct. He was an oversized Ken doll. “I’ll need to get some from Chris, since Dad’s pants would be too small for him.”
Callum redirected his attention back to her, making Daisy wish she hadn’t said anything. There was something about the look he was giving her that made her want to prattle. “I’m Daisy.”
“Oops, sorry. I’m being mannerless. Callum, this is Daisy. Daisy, Callum. As you can see, Cal, Daisy is nothing like an Amish grandma.”
“Or a hoarder,” Daisy added.
“Definitely not a hoarder. Come on.” This time, when Lou tugged at Callum’s hand, he followed her into the kitchen. A few steps in, he waved Daisy ahead of them. She hurried to lead the way to the fitness room. Once inside, the first thing her gaze landed on was Max’s Ken-doll-like crotch, and she blushed, vowing to ask Chris for some sweatpants the very next time she talked to him.
“Very nice.” Callum examined the room with careful attention.
“Thank you.” She could feel the babbling trying to break free, and she swallowed down the rush of words with some effort.
“Isn’t this great?” Apparently, Lou was all too willing to pick up the conversational slack. “In Simpson, most of us have to make do with more natural forms of weight training, like carrying firewood and moving rocks. I’d love to learn more self-defense, though. Do you think I could invite myself to train with you and Chris sometime?”
“No,” Callum said before Daisy could even open her mouth to reply. “I’ll teach you self-defense if you want to learn.”
“Um…I don’t think so.” Leaning into his side, Lou gave him a sweet smile. “When you try to teach me anything one-on-one, I end up wanting to kill you. Besides, Chris knows all the cop moves.”
Callum frowned at her. “We do fine in dive training.”
“That’s different. There’s a group of us, so it dilutes my homicidal impulses.”
“I’d rather you not do any…grappling with Jennings.”
“Fine.” She turned to Daisy, who’d been watching their argument like it was a game of Ping-Pong. “Daisy, can Callum join us for our training sessions? That way, we’ll have an even number of grapplers.”
“Uh…sure.” Daisy wasn’t sure how a grappling club had just started in her fitness room, but she blamed the hurricane named Lou. “Let me talk to Chris.”
“You know who else really needs to learn this stuff, especially with Anderson still out and about?” Lou had a thoughtful expression, which made Daisy worry. “Ellie Price. She probably won’t be able to do much for another couple of weeks, since she’s still recovering from getting shot in the chest, but she could definitely benefit from knowing a few self-defense moves.”
“I think Holloway has it covered.” The corner of Callum’s mouth tucked in, like he was holding back a smile.
Lou shook her head. “He can’t watch her twenty-four hours a day.”
“He’s going to try.”
“I’m going to ask her anyway. George can come along, too, so the two of you can both beat your chests in a manly way.”
Callum shot her a look, although he mostly seemed resigned. “Shouldn’t you check with Daisy before you start inviting more people to her house?”
“Sorry, Daisy!” Lou made a face. “I didn’t mean to take over your fitness room. You’ll love Ellie, though. And this is right up Rory’s alley, too.”
“Um…okay?” Even though Daisy felt a little like she’d just been flattened by a runaway semi, there was a fizz of excitement in her stomach at the thought of havi
ng a bunch of people at her house for training. It would be the closest thing to a party she’d ever experienced, not counting birthdays when she was a kid.
“Yay! Perfect. This is going to be awesome.” Lou danced over to Max and gave him a hug.
Callum watched, looking equal parts amused and appalled. “I’ll bring pants for…?” He raised an eyebrow at Daisy.
“Max.”
“Right.” An actual smile curled his mouth, and Daisy suddenly understood why Lou could have fallen for him. “I’ll bring pants for Max.”
* * *
Daisy squinted at the mailing label she’d just printed and realized that the sun had almost disappeared behind the mountains. Before turning on the overhead light, she closed the shades, knowing all too well how easy it was to see into a lit room when the windows were uncovered. The office windows, as well as all the lower-level ones, were covered in metal grates. She knew it was silly to have her house fortified like she lived in the worst slums of a big city when she was actually in sleepy Simpson, but having bare windows on the first floor would have robbed her of what little sleep she managed to get.
With the light on, she could actually see the print on the mailing label. She attached it to the cardboard box containing a carefully wrapped Depression glass pitcher. As she added it to the pile of packages that were ready for the UPS driver to pick up the next day, Daisy rolled the tightness from her shoulders. Even though it was still early, she was tired. The previous almost-sleepless night, her mild concussion, and the multiple visitors were all contributing to the heavy blanket of exhaustion settling over her.
The muffled thud of a fist on her front door gave her a mild start before she remembered that it was most likely her dad. Instead of hauling around the dozen keys he’d need to gain entry, Gabe just knocked and waited for her to open the doors for him.
Daisy grinned as she hurried to the entry. He’d been gone for four days, and she’d missed him. She also had a mile-long grocery list. If she was going to start hosting training parties, she’d need snacks and beverages. Sports drinks, maybe? Daisy hoped that Gabe would be able to hit a few estate sales before he left for his next job, too. She was getting low on inventory.