Gina Cresse - Devonie Lace 04 - A Deadly Change of Power

by Gina Cresse

  Jane didn’t seem to hear her. She continued rubbing her temples and had her eyes squeezed closed.

  “Are you feeling okay?” Tammy asked.

  “What? Oh, yes. I’m fine. Just a little headache.”

  “You want me to get you something for it?”

  “No. I’ll be fine after I eat. Thanks.”

  Tammy left to attend to other duties. I watched the mystery woman peel the banana. She took a bite, then slid the yogurt toward me. “I don’t like yogurt. You want this?”

  I shook my head. “Isn’t there someone I can call for you?” I asked.

  She stared down at her hands and mumbled, “Jake.”

  “Jake?” I asked.

  She seemed to snap out of some kind of trance, peered at the half-opened door, leaned forward and whispered, “Do you think they’ll find someone to watch my room?”

  I frowned. “I don’t know. Craig will try, but—“

  She cut me off. “I’d kill for a double cheeseburger. Think you can arrange that?”

  I smiled and nodded.

  I watched through the windshield as Craig walked across the parking lot toward the car. He had something of significant size stuffed inside his jacked and seemed to be holding it with extra care. He squinted to see me clearer through the glass, then stopped and shook his head. He came around to the driver side and opened the door. He looked at me, then at our new passenger, Jane Doe, in the back seat. “Hi,” he said, giving her a warm smile. He looked back at me. “Why am I not surprised?”

  I took his hand and tried to pull him into the car. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  That’s when I noticed the large black nose poke out of the opened collar of his jacket. Two brown eyes blinked at me. “What’s that?” I asked.

  “It’s a puppy. He hasn’t got a name yet. I thought we’d name him after we get to know him a little better. John picked him up for me today. That’s why we had to stop here tonight. Happy six-month anniversary, honey.”

  Craig opened his jacket and pulled the puppy out. It was the biggest puppy I’d ever seen.

  “Puppy? He looks full grown,” I said.

  “He’s a Great Dane,” Craig explained.

  “Great Dane? My God, Craig, he’ll be huge.”

  “I know. Isn’t he cute? Tomorrow I’ll build a kennel for him in the back yard.”

  “Kennel? You mean barn. He’s going to be as big as a horse.”

  Craig put the puppy in my lap. He must have weighed twenty pounds. “Don’t you like him?” Craig asked.

  I immediately received a wet kiss across my face and caught the strong whiff of puppy breath. I stroked his head and held one of his enormous paws in my hand. He was the color of a fawn, and his velvet ears felt like silk in my fingers. “He’s adorable. Of course I like him. Thank you, but I didn’t know we were exchanging six-month anniversary gifts. I didn’t get you anything.”

  Craig smiled. “That’s okay. How about we share him? Sort of like a son?”

  I took the puppy’s face in my hands and looked him in the eye. The loose skin around his jowls formed a comical sort of doggy smile. “Hear that? You’re our son. We’ll have to come up with a name for you.”

  Jane Doe reached over the seat and patted the soft brown hair on the puppy’s back. “He’s too cute,” she said.

  Craig slid into the driver’s seat, started the engine, then turned and offered his hand to our passenger. “I’m Craig Matthews. You’ve already met my wife, Devonie, and our yet-to-be-named son.”

  She reached out and shook his hand. “Hi. I’m Veronica, but everyone calls me Ronnie. Ronnie Oakhurst.”

  Chapter Two

  The next morning, I called Detective Sam Wright to let him know about the attempted murder I’d witnessed. By the tone of his voice, I imagined him poking pins into a small Devonie doll. He could conveniently pull it out of his desk drawer whenever he felt the urge to punish me for interfering with his well-ordered life. I ignored his sarcastic remarks and insisted he come over to the house as soon as possible. Ronnie Oakhurst’s life was in danger, and I’d promised her he’d protect her. Sam ended the phone conversation without a goodbye, and forty minutes later he was banging on our door.

  I’d just returned from my fourth trip to the back yard to try to convince the puppy it was much better to “do his duty” outside. He was having a little trouble with this concept, but he seemed to be an intelligent creature, and with time and patience, I was sure he would catch on. In the mean time, I mastered the fine art of keeping one eye on him at all times. I’ve even surprised myself at the speed with which I can cover the distance of fifteen feet—the maximum space I’ll allow him to get from me when he’s in the house. He followed me to the front door to greet our guest.

  Sam sat on the edge of the sofa and flipped through pages of scribbles in his small notepad. “Okay. Start at the beginning and tell me everything that happened,” he said to Ronnie.

  Ronnie sat with her feet tucked under her in the chair on the opposite side of the coffee table. “I don’t remember everything.”

  “That’s okay. Just take your time,” Sam said.

  “Well, one of our sponsors invited us on a yacht cruise down to Cabo.”

  “Us?”

  “Our team. Lance, that’s my brother, races on the NASCAR circuit. I was supposed to meet him and the other crewmembers at the San Pedro harbor to catch the boat,” Ronnie explained.

  “When was that?” Sam asked.

  Ronnie rubbed a bruise on her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut. “We were supposed to leave Wednesday morning. What day is it today?”

  I sat with the puppy in my lap and squinted to see the calendar tacked to the wall in the kitchen. I’d lost track of the days myself since returning from New Zealand. I’d lost a day on the flight over, but gained it back coming home. We actually arrived in Los Angeles before we left Auckland.

  Sam checked his watch. “It’s Monday,” he said.

  “Monday. Five days lost,” Ronnie whispered.

  “So what happened at San Pedro?” Sam asked.

  “When I arrived, no one from our team was there. I thought I’d just arrived too early, but when I asked around, it turned out I’d missed the boat.”

  “They left without you?” I asked, surprised that her brother wouldn’t insist on knowing where she was before taking off without her.

  “Yeah…well, not exactly. I never really said I’d go for sure. I figured it would turn into a typical party cruise the sponsors are famous for. They bring along more alcohol than fuel. I told Lance that if I decided to go, I’d meet him at the dock. He probably assumed I’d decided to stay home as usual.”

  Sam scribbled in his notebook.

  “Lance knows I’m not a party animal. I’d rather spend my free time working in the shop.”

  “Shop? Doing what?” Sam asked.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I should fill you in a little more. I’m the lead mechanic for my brother’s racing team. I’m the best engine man—or I guess I should say engine person—on the circuit.”

  Sam stopped writing and raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

  Ronnie sat up straight in her chair and raised her chin proudly. “Yes.” She noticed the look of doubt on Sam’s face. “You don’t think a woman can find her way around an engine?”

  Sam raised his hands in self-defense. “I never said that. It’s just unexpected, that’s all.”

  Ronnie smiled and smoothed her prickles. “Sorry. Most guys think I look more like a trophy girl than a mechanic. When they find out I have a Ph.D. in physics, they usually turn tail and run.”

  This time, I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Physics? How’d you end up as a mechanic?” I asked. The puppy grew restless in my lap and insisted on getting down. I kept my ears tuned to Ronnie’s answer, but my eyes remained fixed on the four-legged toddler trotting around the living room.

  Ronnie frowned and twisted a strand of curly red hair around her finger. “I actually conside
r myself more of an inventor than a mechanic. My father was an inventor. I guess I wanted to be like him, but he died when I was little. He designed steam engines and electric motors and—well, that’s beside the point. He was killed before he could teach me everything he knew. My mother died shortly after. Lance pretty much raised me and put me through school. He was racing right out of high school, and he was good. Prize money was okay, but he really lucked out when he picked up a major sponsor. After I graduated, I wanted to pay him back for all he’d done for me. He’d just lost his lead mechanic and I volunteered for the job. He wasn’t too keen on the idea at first, but after I made a couple of modifications that cut nearly eight seconds off his best time, he changed his tune.”

  Sam flipped to a clean page in his notepad. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but I cut in before he could get a word out.

  “Who told you what time to meet the boat?” I asked.

  Sam scowled at me and cleared his throat. “I’ll ask the questions, if you don’t mind.”

  “But it’s going to be important to—“

  “What happened next?” he asked Ronnie, cutting me off.

  I glared at him, and then I noticed the puppy had disappeared into the kitchen. I was on my feet in a matter of seconds to see what he was up to.

  “Well, I figured it was just as well. I didn’t really want to go in the first place. Lance has been hounding me to get out more. Anyway, I was on my way back to my car when Charlie offered to take me down to the next port where he knew they’d be stopping for lunch.”

  “Charlie?” Sam questioned.

  “He’s the sailor who’d let me know the boat had already left. He had his boat ready and was going that direction anyway. I initially told him no thanks, but I just knew I’d catch nothing but grief from Lance, so I took him up on his offer.”

  Sam stopped writing and stared at her like she was a two-headed goat. “You got on a boat, by yourself, with a total stranger?”

  “I know now that it was stupid, but at the time, it seemed perfectly fine. He was an older man, maybe in his early sixties. He was very polite, and he wasn’t pushy at all. I’ve taken self-defense courses, so I figured if he did get fresh, I could take care of myself.”

  Sam shook his head and made more notes. “A few judo lessons and these women think they can take on anyone,” he grumbled to himself.

  I scowled at Sam as I carried the puppy back into the living room and sat down. “You’ll have to excuse Detective Wright. He just graduated from the San Diego Academy for Neanderthals, where they apparently don’t offer a course in charm.”

  Ronnie smiled. “That’s okay. I’m used to it, working at the track and all. Besides, it wasn’t a couple of judo lessons. I hold a black belt in karate.”

  Sam gaped at her.

  She met our curious glances and must have felt the need to explain. “I was mugged once. I wanted to be able to defend myself, and guns scare me, so I took up karate.”

  I smirked at Sam. “Black belt. I bet she could have your sorry hide on the floor in ten seconds flat.”

  He ignored my comment. “Did you get this Charlie fellow’s last name?” he asked.

  “Johnston. Charlie Johnston.”

  Sam jotted down her answer. “Okay. So you got on Charlie’s boat. Just the two of you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what?”

  “Well, we headed out of the harbor and started down the coast. He said we should have caught up with the other boat by about noon, so I found a deck chair and enjoyed the trip. Anyhow, about an hour later, the engine quit. Charlie didn’t seem to know what the problem was. I offered to go below and take a look.”

  “And he didn’t question that? If I’m a Neanderthal, then a man born in the forties would have to be far behind me in the course of evolution.”

  “You know, now that you mention it, he didn’t blink an eye. I’m just so used to the guys at the track coming to me for engine advice, it didn’t occur to me that he should be any different.”

  Sam thought about her response for a moment, then made a note in his tablet.

  “So the engine quit and you went below to check it out. Did Charlie go with you?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah. He showed me where the engine was, then left to find the toolbox. I waited a few minutes, then I heard another boat come alongside. I figured it was a sailor checking to see if we needed help. I waited a couple more minutes, then I heard the boat take off. I thought Charlie must have had a lot of confidence in me to send away a potential rescuer. Anyhow, I kept waiting, but no Charlie.”

  “You didn’t go look for him?” Sam asked.

  “I tried to, but the door was locked. I shouted and banged on the door, but he never came back. I hunted around for a key. That’s when I found the bomb attached to the fuel line. It looked like a big blob of Silly Putty with wires stuck in it. I took a closer look, then realized I was in big trouble. There was a timer dangling from one of the wires—like the ones we use at the track—counting down from four minutes.”

  My jaw dropped. “My God. What did you do?” I asked.

  Sam set his pencil down and raised his flattened hands in a mock karate stance. “She probably busted the door down with a karate chop,” he said, smirking at me.

  Ronnie kept a straight face. “Actually, I found a small screwdriver and removed the hinges,” she explained.

  I leered back at Sam. Here was a woman who could think on her feet in the face danger, and he was making stupid jokes about karate chops. He seemed a little embarrassed when he lowered his hands and picked up his pencil.

  “Then what happened?” he asked.

  “I climbed the steps as fast as I could and got to the deck. The bomb must have gone off just as I jumped overboard. The next think I remember clearly is waking up in the hospital.”

  I watched Sam write in his notebook. “Now, wouldn’t it help to know who told Ronnie the wrong time for when the boat was leaving? It sounds to me like she was set up,” I said.

  Sam glared and pointed a finger at me. “Don’t even think about getting involved in this investigation. Don’t you have some other business to take care of? Oh yeah, a new husband. Why don’t you go bother him for a while.”

  Craig’s timing couldn’t have been better. He pushed through the front door and hurried into the living room. “Sam, I’m glad you’re still here. I just ran down to the hospital this morning to get the scoop on Ronnie’s admittance. Bruce was working the ER that night, so he filled me in.”

  Craig plopped down next to me, patted the puppy on the head, and glanced at each of us. Then his eyes landed on Sam’s harsh glare. “What’s wrong?” Craig asked, oblivious to Sam’s frustration with me and my interference with his questioning.

  Sam shook his head. “Now I’ve got two of you,” he complained.

  “Two of who?” Craig asked.

  Sam dropped his shoulders in defeat. “Never mind. What did you find out?”

  “Well, a couple fishermen found Ronnie hanging on to an ice chest floating about ten miles off shore. There was a bunch of debris floating around and it looked to them like some sort of explosion destroyed a boat. They fished her out of the water, but couldn’t find any other survivors. They radioed ahead and an ambulance met them at the dock. She was admitted Wednesday night, around nine o’clock.”

  While Sam was busy writing, I asked my question again. “So who told you when and where to meet the boat?”

  “Lance told me. The plan was to spend about a week, heading south to do some fishing and sight seeing. Then we’d fly back home from Cabo.”

  “No one called to change the plans? No messages?” Sam asked.

  Ronnie shook her head. “No.”

  Sam turned his attention to me. “Can I have a cup of coffee?” he asked.

  “In a minute. I have some more questions,” I answered.

  Sam cradled his forehead in his palms and slowly shook his head back and forth.

  Craig took pi
ty on him. “I’ll make some coffee. You take it black?” he offered.

  “Yeah. Thanks,” Sam replied.

  “Ronnie?”

  “Please. Cream and sugar if you have it.”

  “Sure. Be right back,” Craig said as he disappeared into the kitchen.

  “What sort of boat did this Charlie have?” I asked.

  “It was big—a cabin cruiser I think they call it. It was real nice, fancy furniture, lots of shiny chrome.”

  I looked at Sam. “Sounds like a pretty expensive boat to sacrifice. These guys mean business,” I said.

  “These guys? You got this one solved already?”

  “Would you chill out? I’m just offering my observations,” I said.

  “Why don’t you offer to help your husband in the kitchen? I think I’ve got this covered.”

  Craig returned with the coffee. While he occupied Sam with finding a coaster, I continued with my questions.

  “Can you think of any reason why someone would want to kill you? Maybe another racer?”

  Ronnie shook her head. “There’s a lot of competition on the circuit. We’re leading in points right now. A bunch of money at stake, but no one is that desperate.”

  “Don’t be too sure,” Sam replied.

  “So, who’s second in points?” I asked.

  “Toby O’Brien, but it’s not Toby.”

  “How do you know?” Sam asked.

  “Toby’s been sweet on me ever since we were fourteen. He’d never hurt me.”

  Sam scratched his head. “Define ‘sweet on you.’ Obsessed?”

  “No. No. Nothing like that. He’s just a really nice guy. He asks me out once in a while, but I’m too busy for anything like romance. Besides, it would probably be a conflict of interest, me working for Lance and all.”

  “Right,” Sam said, not sounding convinced.

  Ronnie turned her attention to me. “I have a favor to ask,” she said. “I left my car at San Pedro. I really should get it.”

  Craig cut in. “I don’t think you’re quite ready to drive yet, but we can pick it up for you and bring it here,” he offered.