by Lynn Cahoon
Angie caught Felicia’s gaze in the mirror. The ring didn’t look cheap. And the wedding band had already been attached to the engagement ring. This might be the first clue in Susan’s disappearance.
As soon as they left the salon, Angie texted the picture of the ring and the name of the pawn shop to Allen Brown.
A response came back quickly. A little too quickly in Angie’s mind. And yeah, as she read the words, she knew she’d gotten into the stew with Allen.
“What did he say?” Felicia asked.
Angie held the phone up and read the message to her. “He says, you can’t even stay out of investigating at a hair salon? What? Clues just fall into your lap. Let me do some checking.”
“Man, he sounds heated.”
Angie tucked her phone back into her purse. “This wasn’t my fault.”
Ian pulled up just then and parked in front of the salon. He climbed out of the SUV and walked over to them. “Your chariot awaits. Felicia, do you want a ride back to the apartment?”
“I’m good. I’ll walk home.” Felicia squeezed Angie’s arm. “I’ll see you tonight. Catch Ian up on what we found.”
Ian looked from Felicia back to Angie. “I was only gone thirty minutes, forty tops.”
* * * *
When they got to the party, Angie glanced around the room. Paper snowflakes dangled from the ceiling, and the décor was shiny white on white. She slipped off her coat and handed it to Ian, who gave it and his to the attendant at the coat closet. “Wow. This is beautiful. I can’t believe they turned the VFW hall into a giant snow globe.”
Ian took the ticket the attendant handed him and tucked it in his pocket. He took her hand. “You’re the one that’s beautiful. That dress Felicia gave you makes your eyes sparkle.”
“You sweet talker.” Angie leaned into him. “Maybe you could talk to your uncle and get him not to be mad at me?”
“He’s not mad at you. You found a huge clue. Just because you were asking personal questions that were outside the scope of your job as a civilian, he’s not going to hold that against you.” Ian grabbed two glasses of champagne off a tray and handed one to her. “I wonder what he’s found out about the ring?”
Angie sipped her drink and looked to see if she could find Felicia in the crowd. “I just hope that’s not a designer brand that everyone bought that year. We need to find at least one good clue. Barb’s counting on it.”
She drew in a quick breath as she was pulled into a tight hug. As she could see Ian standing on the other side of the man squeezing her, she knew she wasn’t in her boyfriend’s arms. Besides, this cologne didn’t smell like Ian.
Chapter 20
The odor reminded her of… Before she could finish the thought, she was spun around and Jon Ansley released her, tears rolling down his face.
“You found her ring. Here in town. That means something. It means she didn’t leave me, not voluntarily. She has to be somewhere close by.” Jon squeezed Angie’s hand. He was dressed in jeans and what appeared to be a clean T-shirt. And he’d apparently showered recently, as his hair was still wet.
“Hi, Jon. I guess Sheriff Brown reached out to you about the ring?” Angie took a few steps away from the man and closer to Ian, who drew her into a protective hug, with his arm around her shoulder.
“He stopped by the house earlier. It’s Susan’s ring. She never took it off. She had it designed just for the wedding.” He took two glasses off a passing tray and drank down one and then the other. “She was mad at me for something I’d done, or didn’t do, so she designed this freaking crazy-expensive ring. I about had a heart attack when I saw the bill. But she loved the damn thing.”
Angie saw he was shaking uncontrollably. She took the flutes out of his hands and then moved him into a nearby chair. “Jon, you realize this doesn’t mean she’s alive. They just found her ring.”
“Actually, I don’t care. I mean, I want her—no, I need her to be alive, but I have hope again. I haven’t had hope for weeks. I thought I’d never know what happened to her.” He leaned his head into his hands, then, running his fingers out through his hair, he stood and took in the crowd. “She might be here, watching.”
“Why would she do that?” Angie glanced over at Ian, who looked as worried as she felt. Jon was acting just a little crazy.
He glanced up at all the snowflakes. “She made so many snowflakes for this thing. They’d be all over the kitchen when I got home, her hands would be cramping from using the shears. She loved this dance and the charity it supports. She’d be here if she could. Excuse me, I need to go looking.”
Angie moved closer to Ian. He put his arm around her, apparently needing the support as badly as she did. She leaned into his chest. “Jon’s taking this too well. He’s going to fall over the other edge and get depressed when he doesn’t find her tonight.”
“I know. We should probably see if we can get him out of here.” Ian started to move toward the hallway where Jon had disappeared.
“Let him go. Maybe he’s right and Susan will just show up. Meanwhile, we’ve got others to chat with.” She nodded toward Holly and her crew. “I’d like to know what they think about the ring being found.”
Ian’s phone rang, and he stepped outside the hall to answer. Angie stood by a table and grabbed some appetizers from the waiters who were passing trays. She watched the assembled crowd. Felicia was over talking to what appeared to be the catering manager based on the black suit with a label pin on the front. Either that, or the guy was taking his networking assignment seriously, like at one of those business chapter meetings where locals got together to talk marketing. Angie had attended one of those meetings, then told Felicia never again. No one actually talked, and fewer people listened. She’d come home with a pile of business cards she’d promptly thrown away.
No, Felicia was the PR part of the team. Angie loved talking to suppliers about the local food and their families and crews. You could learn a lot about people by knowing what was important to them.
Her gaze drifted over to Holly’s table, where she stood with her husband. Few people actually sat; in fact, Angie only saw a few chairs at low tables near the sides of the room. They were filled with older guests, chatting and talking. They looked like they were having fun. Holly and her husband, on the other hand, looked like they’d just finished an intense fight.
Until someone walked up and started chatting with them. Then the demeanor changed and they were the perfect couple. Maybe Angie had just caught them in a bad moment. She watched as the other couple moved away from that table to meet someone else. Holly took three steps away from her husband, turned her back, and froze in place.
What the heck was going on with these people? She was watching the routine for a third time when she felt a touch on her arm. Ian held out his phone to her. “Uncle Allen wants to say something.”
She took the phone, and due to the loudness of the room, she said, “Hold on a sec.”
Once she was in the quiet hallway, she found a bench and sat. Her skirt flounced all around her and took up the rest of the bench. She patted down the tulle with a smile. Not her normal style, but she did feel like a princess tonight. She slipped off her heels and flexed her feet, trying not to groan in pleasure. Then she remembered the call. “What’s going on, Allen?”
“My nephew reminded me that I hadn’t properly thanked you for the lead today. I’m not really sure how you always seem to be in the middle of these things, but thank you for passing on the picture of the ring. That was good instinct.”
Angie wondered how hard it had been for Allen to say that to her. “You’re welcome. I just didn’t think that Susan Ansley would have a ring that you could buy at the local chain jewelry store. This group is nothing if not about appearances.”
“I’ve noticed that.” He chuckled. Then she could hear someone in the background. “Hold on a minute.”
Angie didn’t mind waiting because it meant she didn’t have to be in that room that was too hot and filled with people who didn’t care if she was there or not because she didn’t have an ounce of power. Or at least, not outside her restaurant.
When Allen came back on the line, he sighed. “Good news is we found the kid who hocked the ring. I’m going to have to have a chat with the pawn shop owner about thinking before he takes on buys. This kid is in Bleak’s class.”
“You’re kidding? How did he get the ring?”
“His story is he found it. Out at the cave, he thinks. Or at the canal. They were checking to see if the ice was hard enough to walk on the patches of water still in Indian Creek when someone got the idea to go out to the cave. He admits to drinking a bit that night, and he’s not sure when he found it, but he’d tucked it in his pocket and took it to the shop the next Monday to sell.”
“So we think Susan was either climbing in an empty irrigation canal or hanging out at the local hookup spot.” Angie rubbed her foot, trying to get rid of a cramp. Maybe she’d ask Ian to take her home. The night wasn’t as magical as she’d hoped. “Neither one of those options sound like a woman who would also plan one of these events. It’s pretty fancy for River Vista.”
“Maggie dragged me to one of those cotillions a few years ago. You couldn’t pay me to go to another one.” Allen’s voice sounded almost sympathetic. “Anyway, I thought since you were the one who found the lead, you should know it kind of drizzled out.”
“Thanks for calling. I’d hoped it would be better news. Jon’s here and he has his hopes up way too high.” Angie knew it wasn’t her business, but she was starting to feel sorry for the guy.
“I got that when he identified the ring. Now he’s convinced that Susan’s alive.”
Allen kept talking but something he’d said had Angie thinking. She broke into his discussion about Maggie and Bleak with her thought. “Allen? How often do you get calls out to the cave?”
“In the summer? Almost every night and definitely every weekend. I’ve assigned one patrol car to do a drive-by every hour in peak times.” He paused. “Why are you asking?”
“How often do you get calls out during winter?”
This time the pause was on the other side of the line. “New Year’s Eve, yes, but mid-January? I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a call out when it was this cold. And yet, I’ve sent guys out there three, maybe four times this last two weeks. I haven’t been inside the cave for years. Is there room to hide a body there?”
“If they keep coming back, wouldn’t it be more likely that Susan’s still alive?” The cave was in a remote spot about ten miles south of town. Legally, it probably wasn’t even in the River Vista area Sheriff Brown patrolled, but it was too far for any county offices to respond to an incident so it had unofficially been part of Brown’s area of control for years. All Angie could think of was someone cold and huddled in the dark, damp cave. “Could she really still be alive?”
“We’re going to find out,” Allen Brown said, then he hung up on her.
When she went back into the party, she waved away a glass of wine. Felicia and Ian were standing together, watching her approach.
“You were gone awhile.” Ian studied her. “And from the look on your face, Allen told you something. What’s going on?”
“Let’s get out of here. I need some air.” She waved away the question. She’d tell them when they got into the car.
As they were walking out, Charles and his wife, Jane, stepped in front of the door. He pointed a finger at Angie. “I don’t know what you’re playing, missy, but you need to stay out of this fight.”
“Which one?” Angie shot back and pulled out her phone. “The one where your wife is probably going to be arrested for harassing Nancy at work? I know you had a gun in your purse when you came in to ‘talk’ to her. What in the world are you thinking? That we’d just let you walk in and kill her?”
She dialed 911, and when the operator answered, Angie spoke quickly. “There’s a woman here at the cotillion who has a BOLO out for her involvement in a possible failed kidnapping. Her name’s Jane Gowan.”
Jane’s eyes widened, and she pulled on Charles’s hand. “We need to get out of here.”
“Hold on, what is she talking about? Calling the police won’t do you any good. We haven’t done anything wrong.” He frowned at his wife.
“You don’t know? You didn’t tell her to do it?” Felicia stared at the couple.
“We have to go now.” She dropped his hand and sprinted to the doorway.
He sighed and shook her head. He strode after her, muttering, “Women. She’s such a drama queen.”
Angie and Felicia stared at them as they left. Finally, Angie took a deep breath and without turning, asked a question. “Do you really think he didn’t know?”
“Unlikely.” Ian glanced around the room. “I guess we have to stay and talk to the police officer when they get here. Then let’s go. I’m beat.”
“Me too.” Angie took his arm, and they walked out into the hallway to wait for the officer.
Ian glanced out the window. “He must have parked in the back. I can’t see anyone in the front parking lot.”
Angie wanted to follow Charles and Jane to their new living arrangement, but she knew the action would just cause one more lecture from Allen. And like he always said, it wasn’t her business.
And besides, her feet hurt.
* * * *
On their way home, after stopping in Meridian for ice cream, Angie thought about Susan and Charles and Jane. They were all connected through the work on the soybean plant, but was that enough of a connection to mean anything in Susan’s disappearance? If Nancy had been in the kitchen alone that afternoon, Angie was certain that Jane would have kidnapped her. Then another person would be missing. There was no way this was a random coincidence. She looked over at Ian in the darkened cab. “Have you heard from your uncle?”
“Nope. You’ve been with me since we left the cotillion. When would I have talked to him?” Ian rubbed his forehead. “Sorry. I’m tired and ready for this all to be done. Why would people act like this all the time? It has to be exhausting.”
“Some people like drama in their lives. You and I are a drama-free zone.” She laid a hand on his arm. “Did you have fun at the dance?”
“We got to leave early. The food was great. And I didn’t have to talk to anyone except the police officer who took my statement. I’d call that a successful night.” He turned the car into the driveway. Two cruisers sat there. “We’ve got a backup today for some reason.”
One of the officers got out of his car and met them when they got out of the house. “Good evening, folks. Sheriff Brown thought it might be a good idea to have two officers on yours and your neighbor’s house. Especially since we’re still trying to track down the suspect from your break-in.”
Angie looked from Ian to the new officer, trying to see what wasn’t being said, but she couldn’t decipher it. She pointed her keys to the house. “I need to check on Dom. Has he been quiet?”
“As a church mouse. I’ve been walking the property every thirty minutes or so, and he comes out to watch me. Sits on that back porch of yours, and I swear, I can hear his thoughts. Mostly, he gives off a vibe of questioning my competence. It’s bad when a dog can make you doubt your effectiveness.” The officer held out a hand. “My name’s Mick. I’ve been to your restaurant with my girl. We loved it.”
“Thanks, Mick. I’ll have Ian bring you all out some cookies or pastries after we get settled. And some coffee. You’re more than welcome to use the facilities too.” Angie moved toward the porch, then froze. She pointed to a spot under the deck. “What’s that?”
Mick moved in front of her and swore. “When in the heck did they have time to do this?”
Ian pulled Angie back. “You
need to go sit in the car. In fact, move the car over to the barn and sit there.”
Mick waved the other guy out of his vehicle. “Don’t move the car. We’re going to have to go through this entire property to make sure nothing else was tampered with.”
Chapter 21
Angie folded her arms around herself and stared at the shape under her porch. Then her eyes widened. “We need to get Dom out of there.”
“Not until the bombs are cleared.” The other officer was on his walkie-talkie. His nametag said Devon, but Angie hadn’t met him yet.
“You’re sure it’s a bomb? At my house?” Angie leaned against the car and sank to the ground. Tears fell down her cheeks.
“Technically on your deck. And it just looks like a bomb. It could be there to scare you.”
“It’s working.” Angie closed her eyes and leaned her head back onto the tire.
“You need to get up out of the dirt.” Ian knelt next to her. “You’re getting Felicia’s dress all dirty.”
“I can’t do it anymore. I can’t fight. And I can’t lose Dom.” Angie let Ian pull her up into a standing position. She looked at Mick. “There’s no way anyone got in the back yard without Dom noticing. What if we call him out the dog door and get him out that way?”
“He was pretty sharp when I was doing my rounds. He didn’t let me get anywhere near the fence without him coming outside and watching me. I can’t see him letting anyone in his yard.” He glanced at the deck and the one bomb that had been found. “It’s your call. If we leave him inside and the guy has a remote, we’ll lose him anyway. Do you want to take the chance?”
Angie thought hard for two seconds, then she nodded. “I’ll hate myself either way, but at least it’s in my control this way. The other way, I’m just waiting for some jerk to ruin my life.”
First, Ian went to the barn with Mick. They checked for trip wires, and when they didn’t see any, Ian went inside to grab Dom’s lead. Then they walked over to the fence as quietly as possible. Angie stood by the fence where she could see into the yard. Ian stood at the gate, ready to fling it open and get Dom outside.