He approached her car. She rolled the window down a few inches, too unsettled to go the whole way. Tyler smiled.
“Are you okay, Melissa?”
Oh how she loved it when he called her Melissa. Nobody else did, not even her mother these days. It had been his name for her, nobody else could use it.
“I haven’t been home since yesterday morning,” she said. “I stayed at Mom’s last night.”
“Okay.” He was still smiling, so calm as always. “The chief and I will clear the house. You stay here and don’t get out of the truck till you see us. Okay?”
She nodded.
Cody had sat up on the seat and started thumping her tail against the cushion at the sight of Tyler.
Tyler nodded at her reassuringly, then he and the chief entered her house. She watched as one by one the lights came on in each room as they moved through. Downstairs, then upstairs, then the flood lights in the backyard. Five minutes passed before Tyler came out the front door and waved at her.
***
Someone had ransacked her house.
All the furniture was moved out of place, some of it upside. Every drawer in her kitchen and cabinets was either open or pulled out of the furniture. She usually kept her mail in a box near her dining room table, right where she did her bills. It was spilled out all over the floor. Upstairs was the same story. They had even pulled her mattress off the box spring and stripped the sheets off it. Someone had taken one of her lipsticks and written on the wall.
murderer
A chill ran through Missy. She felt Tyler’s hand at the small of her back. It was the first time he’d touched her since high school.
“Let’s go downstairs, Melissa.”
Wiping under her eyes, she led him down and into the living room where all her books had been thrown everywhere.
Chief Brody was waiting for them down there. He was a big man with a round belly and thinning hair. Missy would have expected some sympathy in his eyes but found none.
“Hi, Missy,” he said, as if they’d run into each other at the coffee shop and not at a crime scene. “I know this is difficult, but do you think anything was taken?”
She looked around the living room. “I…have no idea. I’d have to go through everything.”
“Who do you think did this?” Brody asked.
“Somebody that thinks I killed Mr. Switzer.”
The chief inclined his chin and looked down his nose at her. “Did you?”
“Did I what?”
“You know what I’m asking.”
“Did I kill Switzer? No.” Damn she hated when she cried, especially in front of others. She wiped under her eyes with her palms and the backs of her wrists.
Tyler stepped up beside her. “Okay, Melissa, I need you to walk me through the last two days. Let’s start with when you woke up.”
***
Over an hour later, Chief Brody stopped questioning her. It was Tyler that had begun, but Brody had quickly taken over obviously not caring for the way Tyler was doing it. The chief left without even telling her he was sorry for what happened. After his car was up the street, Missy turned back to Tyler who was still on her porch.
“What a jerk,” Missy said. “I don’t believe him.”
Tyler took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Melissa. I know how upsetting this must be.”
“I just feel violated…somebody was in here.” She shivered and it wasn’t from the cold night air. “I can’t stay here.”
“How about Noreen?” he asked.
Missy laughed ruefully. “She’s probably not taking my calls right now. I kind of blamed her for everything that’s happened, even though it was my own doing.”
“So call her and apologize.”
What Missy really wanted was for him to ask her to stay over. She wanted to feel safe tonight, and there was nowhere she’d feel safer than under Tyler’s roof. The feeling surprised her, and she felt herself blushing. Hopefully he didn’t see in the darkness.
“I think I’ll go with Mom tonight.” Missy shrugged.
“Okay.” His mouth was still open, like he wanted to say more. “I’ll ask the boys on the late shift to swing by a few times tonight.”
It was such a small gesture, but she was grateful. “Tyler, I’m real sorry about everything that’s happened. I should have listened to you and stayed out of things.”
“Apology accepted.” He smiled. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I might be onto something. If I’m right, I think I can close this case.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “And believe me, it’s pretty thin. But it’s enough to keep the chief from arresting you. He was planning to tonight, but I managed to talk him out of it.”
Thank you didn’t seem sufficient, but she said it anyway.
He smirked. “So I’ve got a day, two at most, to clear your name. If you killed Switzer, now’s the time to run.”
“Tyler, I didn’t—”
“Joking.” He nudged her shoulder. “I know you didn’t. I just know it.”
She couldn’t help herself. He had piqued her curiosity. “So what do you have?”
His head tilted to one side. “Really, Melissa?”
“Sorry.” She smiled. “You know me. Always interfering. Just habit.”
“I wonder.”
“You wonder what?”
“If I really do know you anymore.” His eyes got a faraway look. “It’s been a long time. I said you hadn’t changed but maybe you have.”
She wanted to kiss him. Really bad. But there were just too many things happening all at once right now. Going in for the kiss would just further complicate everything.
“I’m not that different,” she said. “Though my hips and butt would beg to differ.”
He laughed. It was the first time she’d heard him truly laugh since he’d been back. He used to laugh all the time. In high school it’d been hard to get him to stop. He’d seen the humor in everything, somehow striking that careful balance between succeeding in the classroom and at sports but never taking things too seriously.
Tyler was still chuckling. “You’re right, maybe you haven’t changed.”
“What does that mean?”
“You never gave yourself any credit, Melissa, and you still don’t apparently. You were the sexiest girl in high school and had absolutely no idea.”
Her? Sexy? The two words were antonyms in her mind. She didn’t really know how to respond. He was speaking in the past tense about her and she had no idea if he still thought of her that way. Sexy.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll follow you to your mother’s.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The next day, Noreen called out of work complaining of a stomach bug. Noreen never got sick and Missy hadn’t heard of a bug going around, so she figured Noreen just didn’t want to see her. She felt bad about that and resolved to call her later that night. They hadn’t argued in a long time. Being the best of friends, they’d come to accept each other as they were over the years. Missy knew she needed to apologize but figured Noreen still needed time to cool off before she was ready to accept the apology.
Today the bookstore was slow, so they weren’t missing Noreen. They had five customers all morning and after lunch it was even slower.
Brett came out from the back. “Miss, I’m going to grab something to eat. I’ll be back in thirty. You okay?”
She nodded. “I’ll be here.”
“Alright, see you soon.”
Missy’s shift was over in a couple of hours, at four today, and the evening stretched out in front of her. There were a lot of things she needed to do: go home and clean up, an hour on the elliptical at the gym, go over Noreen’s to apologize, but with everything hanging over her head she didn’t know what to do. She had full confidence in Tyler, but if his lead didn’t pan out, then that meant she was right back in the chief’s crosshairs. The thought of being arrested sometime in the next two days absolutely terrified her. She’d
have to get an attorney, and where was the money coming for that? Worse came to worst, she’d have to ask Mom for help. She hadn’t done that since college and didn’t want to now. Of course Mom would, but that wasn’t the point…
The door opened and Oliver McCleary poked his head in. She automatically tensed. She’d left Cody at her mom’s and she was all alone in the store with this guy.
“There she is.” Oliver stepped in and closed the door.
“What do you want?”
“I’m shopping,” he said.
“No, you’re not. You can leave.”
“I’m a customer.”
“And we have the right to refuse service to anybody.”
He ignored her last comment and walked across the store toward her. Her eyes darted around the counter, looking for a weapon. She didn’t know if McCleary was the killer, but she wasn’t about to take any chances. The only thing she saw was an old stapler. She wrapped her hand around it, feeling its cold metal. It could do some damage if she swung it, or she could throw it to distract him and run.
McCleary stopped a few feet shy of the counter. “Heard you were asking around about me.”
“You heard wrong.”
He kept on talking like he hadn’t heard her. “I heard you’re trying to pin Switzer’s murder on me.”
“I’m not doing anything. The police are investigating.”
He grinned slyly. “Your boyfriend is investigating.”
Her palm was sweaty and heating up the metal of the stapler. “How about I call him?”
McCleary’s eyes steadied and fixed on her. “Stay away from me.”
“I plan to.” Where had she left her phone? Was it in the back with her purse? She needed to keep better track of it.
“I don’t know what happened to you last night…” He smirked. “But whatever it was, I promise it’ll be nothing compared to what I can do.”
A chill ran through her body. Missy had to force herself to relax her grip on the stapler because it was digging painfully into her palm.
McCleary held his wicked stare on her for another moment. She kept waiting for him to close the distance between them. If he did, she wouldn’t hesitate. She’d just throw the stapler at him and run.
But McCleary turned on his heel and left the bookstore. She ran up and locked the door. If anybody needed to get in, she’d just pretend she’d forgotten to unlock it. Missy hurried into the back and found her phone. She needed another ten minutes to calm down. When she finally did, she knew she had found the killer.
It was McCleary. Had to be. She didn’t know what Tyler had, but McCleary was the most obvious candidate to her now. Del and Cooper might have had mean streaks, but Oliver was violent and reckless. After being escorted out of the store on Monday, he’d been brazen enough to come back today? A man like that who so obviously flaunted the rules was heedless enough to kill a man in a pure rage knowing full well there was a good chance people would stop to browse at the garage sale. She just couldn’t see Del or Cooper doing that, no way.
She called Tyler.
“Melissa, are you okay?” He was already worried and she hadn’t gotten a word out. Maybe he still did have feelings…
“McCleary was just here. He was just here at the store. I think he did it.”
“What did he do?”
“Threatened me, basically.”
Tyler cursed. “I’m sorry, Melissa. Is he gone now?”
“Yes, and Brett will be back any minute.”
“Okay, good. Do me a favor, and give me a call when you leave work and let me know where you’re headed, okay?”
“I will, and thanks. Are you going to question McCleary?”
“Melissa, the only thing I can tell you is that things are moving fast. I caught a break this morning. Now I just need to tie some things up. I don’t want to make promises, because investigations very often get derailed at the drop of a hat, but I’m feeling good about this.”
She felt so much better. Even if McCleary wasn’t the killer, once Tyler arrested the murderer then McCleary would forget about her.
Hopefully.
***
Missy called Tyler on her way out of the store and gave him the heads-up. She stopped at Mom’s to get Cody, then headed home. She couldn’t stay at Mom’s house forever and needed to get things back to normal. Getting the house in order was going to take a lot of work and Missy figured the mindless nature of the task would distract her from everything else.
It was just turning dark when she got home. Missy started on the first floor. After a few minutes of trying to decide what to do with everything, Missy realized she hadn’t touched most of this stuff in months, if not years. Perfect opportunity to throw some of it away.
She grabbed a trash bag and quickly filled it up. It made the cleaning a lot easier. In a couple hours, the downstairs was back to normal. Missy took a quick break and fed Cody, who’d been hanging around her bowl in the kitchen with a sad look on her face. When Cody was done, she gave the dog some biscuits as a special treat.
Then she got to work on the upstairs. Since it was smaller, it went a little faster and she surprised herself at how quickly she finished. The lipstick was a pain to get off the wall and she’d need something stronger than the cleaner she tried at first. But that could wait till tomorrow. Her house was hers again, and it made her feel good.
It was only eight-thirty and the cleaning had energized instead of tired her. It was too late for the gym now. If she exercised after eight, she had trouble falling asleep at her regular time. She decided to call Noreen.
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hey there.”
Missy swallowed her pride. “Nor, I’m sorry about yesterday. I was out of line. I just couldn’t leave things the way they were. You’re my best friend and I’m sorry I tried to blame you for everything. It wasn’t your fault. At all.”
She heard voices in the background on the other end of the phone and figured Noreen was out grabbing a drink.
Noreen took a moment to respond. “That’s okay, Miss. I know how difficult the last few days have been for you. And truth be told, I definitely pushed you. Getting you to come out to Wing Night and wear that outfit…I can’t act like I had nothing to do with it. So really, there’s no reason to apologize.”
Missy felt a lump form in her throat. She’d been so worried about ruining her friendship with Noreen.
“Thanks, Noreen. Still friends?”
Noreen laughed. “Always, girl. Always.”
“I’m mentally hugging you right now.”
“Ha, me too!”
“So, are you coming out for the Book Club tonight?”
Missy’s heart sank. “I completely forgot…oh my God.”
Noreen laughed. “That’s okay. I told everybody I wasn’t sure if you could make it tonight. They all understood.”
“You’re a lifesaver.”
“I know it.” Noreen paused. “Okay, I better get back. The natives are restless. Let’s do something tomorrow night.”
“Assuming I’m not arrested between now and then, sure.”
“What does that mean?”
Missy filled her in, knowing she could trust Noreen with what Tyler had shared. It wouldn’t go any farther. They talked for another minute, and then Noreen had to go.
Missy hung up feeling a lot better. It was after nine now, but she was wide awake and filled with energy. She decided to get started on the cabinet.
“Come on, Cody, let’s go to the garage.”
But Cody didn’t budge. The dog was still sprawled on the kitchen floor, still full from the dinner and treats. Her mouth hung open. She thumped her tail.
“Alright. You stay here then.”
Missy went outside. It was a cold night. Fall was finally arriving. She went to the truck and pulled the tarp aside again and unhooked the bungee cord securing the cabinet. She slid it out of the truck and lugged it to the garage.
She put the cabinet down to slide the
door open. It was old and the tracks were a little out of alignment, but she managed. The door groaned the whole way up. She swore that one of these times she’d either open it or close it and not be able to move it again. Yet another thing to add to the To Do list, of course.
Flicking on the light, she saw the mess that was her garage. It was the one space she didn’t feel that all-consuming need to keep tidy. Garages were supposed to be messy, Dad had always said.
But because it was so messy, it took Missy a moment to realize it was messier than usual. Whoever had ransacked her house, had come in here too. The drawers on her work bench were all pulled out, some of them on the floor. Papers were scattered under one of her tables.
She shook her head, the anger from yesterday returning anew. Talk about overkill. They’d ruined the house and then did the same thing out here too? She really hoped Tyler found whoever did this and threw the book at them. Even if the only charges were vandalism and trespassing, she still wanted the criminals brought to justice.
Missy had to clear a space for the cabinet on the garage floor. She positioned it over a drop cloth because her plan all along had been to repaint and possibly refinish it. She had a nice blue she could apply to the interior and shelving and then she could sand out some of the rough patches on the exterior. The best part? She had all the supplies she needed. Assuming she could spruce this thing up and sell it Saturday, she might see a nice little profit from it.
Missy stooped to open the cabinet doors. She’d looked inside it before when Switzer had put a classified ad in the paper for all his stuff, but hadn’t checked the inside on Saturday when she’d picked it up. All the shelves were in there, along with something else.
An old manila envelope.
She frowned. Why would Switzer leave something in the cabinet knowing she was going to pick it up—
Her breath caught in her throat.
Either he’d forgotten about whatever was in the envelope, or…
He left it on purpose.
Quickly, she took it out. The adhesive on the envelope had long ago worn away, so she lifted the flap open and pulled out the papers that were inside.
There were a lot of old real estate documents in there. Deeds and other things. She didn’t understand what she was looking at, but she saw Loretta Switzer’s and Gordon Block’s names on everything, as if they were buying property together. The documents were brittle in her hands, the edges coming off some. She checked the dates on them and gasped when she saw how old they were.
Flea Market Fatal Page 12