“Aren’t we all,” Fiona added, as she came into the living room from the kitchen.
“Speak for yourself,” Granny Gert responded, as she sashayed along behind her.
“Boys oh day, I’d say I have you all beat,” said a little old pear-shaped woman with tight gray curls. She was hunched over as she bustled about the room in polyester pants and a paisley printed blouse with a brightly colored half-apron tied about her waist.
“This is my granddaughter Sunny, and her beau, Mitchel Stone.” Granny Gert pointed to us. “And this here is our new cook, Great-Grandma Tootsie,” she said with a flourish, just as proud as punch. “She’s ninety-nine years old. Can you believe it? I hired her myself.” Granny’s snappy brown eyes sparkled with mischief. “Don’t let her age fool ya. She’s just as spry and sharp of the mind as anyone I know. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if she outlived us all.”
“Oh, go on with you now.” Great-Grandma Tootsie waved her hand about, but her smile was pure gold and her faded blue eyes filled with pleasure.
“I agree, her cooking’s amazing, but don’t ask her for the recipe. All you’ll get is, ‘Oh, I just use a little bit of this and a pinch of that’,” Fiona teased, and it was clear the three had already become fast friends. Looked like the Dynamic Duo had become the Tasty Trio of the inn.
“I can’t see that well—immaculate degeneration and all—but I don’t need to.” Great-Grandma Tootsie straightened as much as she could to show her pride. “Why, I’ve been cooking for so long, I guess I just know what’s what.”
“I have to say, I was skeptical at first,” my mother admitted to the room, “but Toots has definitely proven me wrong. Age has nothing to do with art, and my kitchen needs her.”
“You heard the boss, ladies,” Great-Grandma Tootsie said to Granny Gert and Fiona. “Let’s shake and bake. We’ve got a lunch to prepare.” They hustled out of the room without a single argument, with Toots trailing in their wake, humming big band show tunes every step of the way.
I stared at my mother, my mouth hanging open, having no idea what to say.
“Strange, I know,” my mother responded anyway. “But the price is right. She wants to work for free. Says she has plenty of money, and this will keep her young. She’s outlived all but one granddaughter, who moved to Florida after turning sixty, and one great-granddaughter, who is forty and single in New York City. They tried to get her to join them, but apparently Toots doesn’t like to fly and wants to keep her feet firmly planted where her roots are, in upstate New York. How could I say no? I guess we’re her new family now.” My mother left to clean up her paint supplies, calling over her shoulder for us to pick any room and make ourselves at home. Everyone else had already returned to their chores.
Mitch eyed me with concern. “Strange, for sure. What’s even stranger is the way Morty was acting, don’t you think?”
“I agree. I’ll have to take him to the vet first thing in the morning.”
“I don’t think what ails him can be cured by a doctor.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think he’s doing what he always does when we’re working a case.”
My eyes widened. “He’s trying to tell us something.”
“Exactly.” Mitch rubbed his whiskered jaw. “The question is, what?”
By Monday evening we were back home, with Vicky’s furnace making the place nice and toasty, and a refrigerator full of food. Morty had reappeared, of course, acting perfectly fine. Neither one of us could figure out his clues, so we’d decided to go over what we had so far.
Mitch bit into the roast I’d made, and chewed for far longer than should be necessary. He stabbed a carrot and potato next, and I could hear crunching. They were supposed to be cooked. There shouldn’t be crunching. My shoulders wilted, but he just smiled and didn’t utter a single complaint. He gave up, set down his fork, and studied his notes, even though I knew he was still hungry. I could hear my own stomach growling, so I grabbed the leftovers Great-Grandma Tootsie had packed for us in a picnic basket. He opened his mouth to say something, but I held up my hand.
“I’m no martyr. What I am is starving. And for the record, I love you for not complaining.”
“And I love you for trying,” he said softly, then rubbed his hands together and focused. “Okay, so let’s put our heads together and see where we’re at.” Mitch’s phone buzzed. He checked the message and rubbed his temples. “Great. Captain Walker wants a progress report. The mayor wants this case closed ASAP. The winter carnival is coming up, and an ongoing murder investigation isn’t exactly going to draw the kind of crowd he needs.”
“Divinity counts on the carnival for a big source of its revenue, so I get it, but I’m not about to overlook something and risk Cole taking the rap for this.”
“I agree.” Mitch looked thoughtful for a moment, then he scooped up his notes and added them to the picnic basket with the rest of Grandma Tootsie’s goodies.
“What are you doing?”
“Bringing reinforcements.”
I groaned, eying the basket with longing. I had planned on dinner in bed, but something told me we weren’t going to be eating this for dinner anytime soon. “We’re going to butter him up with this food, aren’t we?”
“It certainly can’t hurt.” He looked at me with sympathy. “I feel your pain, Tink. Don’t worry. We’ll order pizza when we get back. Deal?”
“Just so you know, we’re getting the raw end of the deal, but okay.”
Ten minutes later, we sat in Captain Walker’s office, waiting patiently.
“I think Granny Gert just might have some competition with Great-Grandma Tootsie’s cooking.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and moaned as if in heaven.
“Oh, man, those are fighting words, my friend.” Mitch pointed at the captain. “Better not let Granny Gert hear you say that.”
“Roger that.” The captain laughed. “So now that I’ve eaten, care to fill me in?”
I held out a plate of cookies from Granny Gert and knew I didn’t have to say a word.
“Things must be bad if you’re pulling out the ace.” The captain snatched the plate and took a seat behind his desk.
“Not bad, just not great for Cole’s sake.” I sat in the chair beside Mitch. “We still have hope that one of our leads will pan out, but we need more time.”
Captain Walker rubbed a hand over his bald head and winced. “That’s the problem. I’m not sure how much time I can give you.”
“We’re just asking for you to hear us out first,” Mitch said.
“Done.”
My clever detective read from his notes. “So we all know Gunther Corp was found shot to death outside the community center. The last person to see him was Cole West moments earlier when he was heard arguing with Gunther. Cole went for a drive to clear his head, but has no one to corroborate his story. Cole has a concealed-carry license from when he was a correctional officer, and he owns the same caliber of gun used to kill Gunther. Cole’s gun is missing. He claims it must have been stolen, yet his house doesn’t look broken into, and nothing else was taken. No one can imagine Cole could be capable of murder, yet everyone knows he would do anything to protect his family. It’s possible someone is trying to set Cole up. We just have to figure out who and why.”
“Agreed,” the captain responded while nodding. “Any leads?”
“Well, we did discover Cole wasn’t always the most upstanding citizen,” I chimed in, reading from my own notes. “He started out in Stillwater as a correctional officer when Gunther was an inmate there. After Gunther got out, Cole got sucked into the Rebel Riders gang. When he saw the length Gunther was willing to go to get what he wanted, Cole got out. He met and married his first wife, Faith Winslow, and moved to Divinity, where he became a carpenter. After Faith died, Cole returned to Stillwater, and Gunther tried to lure him back in. When Cole saw how Gunther was pressuring business owners to give him money for his protection, Cole tried to stop him, and Gun
ther got badly burned in a fire. Gunther’s had it out for Cole ever since.”
“I didn’t know all that.” Captain Walker frowned.
“Not many people do. Cole doesn’t like to talk about his past and has worked hard to change his ways and become a respectable, contributing member of the community,” I said. “When Gunther came to Divinity, he started harassing Gary at his hardware store, but Cole intervened the best he could. Gary had to know there was only so much Cole could do to stop Gunther, and Gary wasn’t about to lose his business. He’s put everything he has into making it successful. Gary’s a fixer. He helps everyone in town. Maybe he tried to fix the situation, before Divinity became another Stillwater, by taking out Gunther. Gary also has a pistol permit and is a member of the gun club. He would know what kind of gun Cole carries. I can’t picture Gary purposely trying to set Cole up, but if he killed Gunther out of desperation, he might have panicked and put the blame on Cole. He witnessed first-hand the animosity between them when they fought in his shop.”
“I hope for all our sakes the killer isn’t either of them.” The captain shook his head. “It would be a shame for Divinity to lose either of these good men.”
“Gunther only came to Divinity because IA is investigating the police department in Stillwater,” Mitch added. “Too many crimes were overlooked, so they think someone on the inside was turning a blind eye for a cut of the profits. My buddy, Detective Juan Torres, says Officer Adam Burrows covers the East side of Stillwater where the Rebel Riders hang out. If Adam cut Gunther off, then it only makes sense Gunther would be looking for a new turf not far away. But if Gunther got caught, he wasn’t about to go down alone. He would rat out Adam in a heartbeat, so maybe Adam followed Gunther to Divinity to get rid of the threat and then pin his murder on someone else, like Cole. Adam called in sick the day of the murder.”
“And don’t forget we have Gunther’s second-in-command, Ray Simone,” I added. “I guess it’s no secret that Ray wanted Gunther’s title as the leader of the Rebel Riders. Gunther treated Ray like crap, and the whole gang didn’t like the chances Gunther was taking. He’d become a loose cannon at the end, so maybe Ray took Gunther out. He came to Divinity with Gunther, probably staking out the town, but he easily could have killed him and tried to frame Cole. The rest of the gang would never know, and Ray would logically become their new leader. No one in Divinity saw Ray after Gunther died, and Chuck Webb said he had already checked out when we went to see him at the Divinity Hotel.”
“We went to talk to both Ray and Adam in Stillwater yesterday,” Mitch stated, “but we didn’t have any luck finding them before we ran off the road.” His gaze shot to mine before adding, “The damned weather was fierce to drive in.”
Yes, and gunning the car in those conditions hadn’t been the smartest thing Mitch had ever done. I didn’t say a word because I didn’t want to talk about the issue between us any more than he did.
“The first tow truck driver’s name was Ralph Peters—a giant of a man who seemed harmless enough until we mentioned Gunther Corp,” Mitch went on. “It was like he became a different person. Rage filled him, and he let it slip that his wife had been having an affair with Gunther before he died. Of course, he blames Gunther for brainwashing and seducing her. He definitely seemed like he had a side to his personality that could easily commit murder if provoked. We said as much, and he left us there before we could question him further.”
We didn’t say as much, I wanted to point out. Mitch did. Again, not another smart move, but I couldn’t really blame my detective for being off his game after the bomb I had dropped on him.
“Okay, I’ll try to stall the mayor as much as I can, but you two need to get to work and find me some answers. Find out if Burrows or Simone have alibis. They definitely have motive. And talk to Gary. He also has motive, but I sure do hope he has an alibi. And someone needs to find out just how unstable Peters is, and if his wife’s in any danger. Maybe give Detective Torres a heads-up, since that’s his jurisdiction, but if he links either Ralph or his wife to Corp’s death, then all bets are off and I want him. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.” Mitch nodded once. “We’ll do the best we can.”
“Do better than that. There’s two of you.” The captain met eyes with each of us, letting us know, in no uncertain terms, his hands were tied, and the pressure to close this case quickly was on. “Make the most out of the time you have left. Understood?”
“You can’t mean—” Mitch started to speak with a tone I knew well.
“Divide and conquer,” I interrupted, already standing as I ignored Mitch’s frown. He barely agreed to let me be a consultant, but at least he could keep an eye on me that way. He hated when I went rogue and worked on my own, but this time he didn’t have a choice. This time I was following orders. “We’re on it, Captain.”
“Good. Then what are you waiting for?”
8
By mid-morning on Tuesday, I pulled into the parking lot of Gary’s Hardware. He’d missed his weekly horoscope reading, so I’d decided to chase him down. Normally I would just phone and reschedule, but like the Captain said, we were running out of time.
As I’d suspected, Mitch hadn’t been happy about me venturing off on my own. I was only allowed to talk to the least threatening of our suspects, and I wasn’t to put myself in dangerous situations. Simply question people like Gary, ask around town, poke into some public records, etc. I wasn’t a cop, hadn’t been trained, and didn’t own a gun. I knew that.
But I also wasn’t stupid.
I had good instincts that had led to several convictions in the past. Okay, so they had also led to some scary situations, but that couldn’t be helped. I promised Captain Walker that I had learned my lesson. I was more careful now, because I had more to lose. Namely my stubborn knucklehead of a fiancé and a chance at a family of my own.
Mitch had headed for Stillwater to talk to Torres about Peters, and to look for Burrows and Simone once more. At least today was a nice day—bright sunshine with no wind and freshly fallen, sparkling white snow that glittered like diamonds.
Grabbing my oversized tote bag, I made my way inside the store. Gary was behind the counter talking to a customer, so I wandered the aisles. Voices from the next row over carried to me. I recognized the voice of Cole’s secretary, Cathy Grossman.
“Are you okay?” Cathy said. “You don’t look so good.”
“Gee, thanks,” a familiar voice grunted.
“I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just really worried about you.”
“I’ll manage,” the voice responded after a lengthy pause. “The pain will eventually pass. It always does.”
I peeked through the shelves and saw Cole’s buddy Zack Kruger. He rubbed the end of his amputated arm and shifted from foot to foot.
“You shouldn’t have to go through this. You’ve been through enough.” She tucked her bright red hair behind her ears and her soft green eyes gazed at him adoringly.
His gaze met hers and held. “So have you.”
She was the first to look away, her pale skin flushing and making the spattering of freckles stand out. “You still having nightmares?”
He shrugged. “How do you know about that?”
She winced sympathetically. “Cole told me. He’s worried about you, too.”
“He’s the one we should all be worried about. I’ll get through this. He might not. I’m not the one with a wife pregnant with twins. He’s the one who has been through a lot after losing Faith. I can’t let him lose Jo and the twins too.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. There has to be some way to help.”
Guilt stabbed through me over avoiding Jo and Cole lately. I justified it by saying they had each other to lean on, and I had a job to do if we were ever going to clear Cole’s name. The truth was I was terrified that wouldn’t happen. Jo was my best friend. I couldn’t look her in the eye and pretend like everything was going to be okay. What
if it wasn’t?
I bumped into the shelf and knocked over a hammer, sending it crashing to the floor with a loud bang.
Zack whirled around in a crouched position, whipping his good arm up as if to protect himself. Cathy reached for his arm to steady him, but he stepped back, evading her touch. She dropped her hand and looked down at the floor.
I rushed around the shelves until I stood beside them in their aisle. “I am so sorry. Clumsy me is always knocking things over. I hope I didn’t cause either of you any harm.”
He straightened, letting his muscles relax. He looked tired. “No worries, Miss Meadows. I’m fine. Gotta run now. Good seeing you again.” He quickly left the store. As quickly as one could with a limp.
“He’s so stubborn.” Cathy stared after him with a look of longing on her face. “Too proud to ever ask for help, even though he clearly needs it.”
“I’m sure Doc Wilcox would clear his schedule for a local hero.”
Cathy’s sad gaze met mine. “That’s not the kind of doctor he needs, I’m afraid.”
“Oh,” I said quietly. “Have you known him long?”
Her face lit up with genuine pleasure. “I have known Zackery Kruger since he and Miles and Cole first moved to Divinity and worked together in construction. I got a job as Cole’s secretary and never left. They were really something to behold when they were together. Always raising a ruckus with plenty of laughter thrown in. The Three Musketeers.” Her smiled faded. “But after Faith died, everything changed.”
“What happened?” I sensed she needed someone to listen to her.
“Miles left to lick his wounds in private, and Zack joined the service because he was angry, but I stayed to be there for Cole.” She smiled at me sadly. “There was nothing else for me to do. Zack didn’t only leave Divinity, he left me. We had just started seeing each other, but I guess that wasn’t enough to make him stay. He might have left angry, but he came back broken, and I have no idea how to fix him.”
Hazard in the Horoscope Page 7