It was feasible, but it still didn’t feel right.
Late in the afternoon, I showered and cleaned up, including giving Smooshie a bath—she’d had no issues about wallowing in the mud—and I dropped Martha off at The Rusty Wrench. Buzz said he would pick me up after work, so Greer could keep the truck a day or two if he needed it.
After, I walked over to the shelter. Smooshie had to pee every twenty feet, but eventually, we got there. I wore jeans and a sweater, my hair a little wild with frizz, and had a gut-check moment when I couldn’t stop thinking about Naomi on Parker’s arm. Together, they would make a handsome couple for the banquet. The quarterback and the head cheerleader. I couldn’t stop the bile burn in the back of my throat.
Parker wasn’t in the shelter, and I didn’t know if I was relieved or disappointed. I could see his house lights on. Dang. It was disappointment. He really didn’t want to see me. Paul Rogers was on duty for the afternoon shift. Addy Newton was dutifully following Paul as he worked.
I nodded to the teenager. “I see Parker approved your volunteering.”
“I brought in my essay this morning and he said I could shadow Paul today, and if it works out, he’ll give me more hours.”
“That’s great, Addy.” I looked at Paul. He had been volunteering at the shelter for more than a year. The dogs always took to him right away. He was a big guy, both in height and girth, and he exuded warmth. “Is the kid doing a good job?”
“So far. He has an admirer in our new Star.” Paul smiled. Star was the female we’d taken in this week. She’d been very shy with the handlers, and very submissive.
“She breaks my heart,” Addy said. “I can’t believe the shape she’s in. If I could, I’d tear her last owner’s head off.”
“Ditto that,” Paul said. “She’s getting healthier every day though. She’s put on a pound just in the last two days.”
“That’s great.” I took my phone out of my purse and put it on Parker’s desk then I put my purse in his desk drawer. “Are you leaving at six tonight?”
“Yes, but I want to take Dexter out for a run in the backyard. Addy’s going to go hang out with Star for the next half hour. Tripod needs some cuddles if you want to hang with him in the TV room. You’ll have to take Dolly and Leo after.”
Dolly was a full brindle beauty. She was going to a foster family next week. And Leo, who was black and white, and lovable brute, had some adopters coming to see him on Monday. I’d miss him, but Parker had checked them out, and Leo was getting a great new forever home.
“Sounds perfect.”
“Hey, Lily,” Parker said.
I turned and gasped. It was the first time I’d seen him since the kiss. He wore a dark-blue suit that accentuated his broad shoulders and tapered waist, a pale-blue shirt, and a silver-and-blue striped tie that complimented his blue eyes. His hair was neatly trimmed and styled, and his five o’clock shadow was shaved clean. All my lady parts stood at attention.
“Wow, you look really nice.”
He smiled, but it was tight. Not happy. “Thanks.”
“You ready for tonight?”
“Yep.”
Paul’s eyes shined with humor. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you in anything but jeans, T-shirts, or flannel.”
“Me too,” I said. “Naomi will be proud to have you next to her tonight. Any woman would.”
“Any woman?”
I glanced at Paul. He clipped Addy on the shoulder. “Come on, kid. Let’s get to work.” The man knew how to take a cue.
“Thanks, Mr. Knowles,” the teenager said. “You know, for giving me a chance.”
“Sure, Addy. I’m happy to do it.”
Paul and Addy took off, leaving Parker and me alone in the office.
Parker leaned against the wall but he didn’t say anything. I could see the internal conversation going on in all the micro-tics happening in his face. I wished I could get inside his brain and hear his thoughts, but while I had good ears, they weren’t that good.
I broke the silence. “I thought you might call last night.”
“I almost did.”
“What stopped you?”
“This.” He looked me in the eye. “I can see it written all over you, plain as day.”
“What?”
“You want to be friends. I get it.” He stood up straight and pulled back his shoulders. “It’s harder for me than for you. I’m not a dense man. I know when someone likes me. When you were in my arms the other night, I’d never felt anything so right. I know it wasn’t just me.”
I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t just you.”
“Then why do you keep putting roadblocks between us?”
Smooshie leaned hard up against my leg, as if she could sense my distress. “Because we’re too different.”
His ears reddened, and his lip curled at the corner. “What does that even mean?”
Inside, I said, I’m not human, you are. Out loud, I said, “You have to trust me.”
“But I don’t,” Parker said. “I don’t trust you at all.”
I couldn’t smell the lie behind his anger. He might trust me with the work, but he didn’t trust me with his heart. It broke mine. “I’m sorry, Parker. I really am.” I led Smooshie from the room, and we headed down the hall to hang with Tripod.
I heard the door to the office slam, and I winced as Parker left the building. I looked at Smooshie, who was giving me a you blew it look. She wasn’t wrong.
Tripod—named because he only had three legs, one in the front, two in the back—hopped over when Smooshie and I walked into his room. Both pitties did the butt-sniff dance as they circled the floor. I sat down on the blanket-covered couch, and Smooshie jumped up on one side of me while Tripod managed to get up on the other side.
It was quiet in the room, so I turned on the TV. I needed noise to drown out my thoughts.
Why did Parker have to make things so difficult? I supposed he could ask the same thing about me. I wasn’t trying to be difficult. On the contrary, I was trying to keep my life as simple as possible.
I focused my attention on the murder of Merl Peterson, because it was better than wallowing in self-pity.
What did I know?
Merl was a pillar of the community. He owned a lot of property around town. He had no wife or children. He left all of his estate to the Moosehead Lodge. He was bashed in the head on the college campus. There was no connection between Merl and the mummy formerly known as James Wright. James Wright wasn’t from the area, but his partner Gail Martin used to live where James’ body was found.
I shuddered. I couldn’t believe the history behind that house. Well, at least I didn’t have to worry that the family who “disappeared” in the eighties was buried in the floorboards or stuffed in the attic. That was a big relief.
The body had been in the wall less than a decade. Martin had been locked up thirty years ago. Why would Wright, twenty years or more later, go to Martin’s childhood home? Nothing about this case made very much sense.
And what about the holes that were depressions on the property? Most of them looked pretty old, but some of them were fresher. While I suspected they were man-made, I hadn’t discounted an animal, because Smooshie really did seem to think there was some exciting activity happening underground, but I found it hard to believe that an animal made all those impressions. When I’d looked at them from higher up, they’d formed a rough grid pattern. I knew gophers dug in multiple places around the same area, and that could give the holes a grid-like feel, but there was something too uniform about these. I wanted to talk to Jeff. He said he hadn’t killed Merl, and my lie-detector didn’t ping. Even so, he knew something about what was happening on my property, and if I could question him, I was certain I could get him to tell me the truth.
When Paul’s shift ended, Addy came and found me. “Do you think I could stay and shadow you tonight as well?”
I remembered Nick had said that Addy was a quarterback for t
he football team. Why wasn’t he going to his coach’s party? “It’s Saturday night. Don’t you have the retirement banquet tonight?”
He blushed. “I’m grounded.”
“What did you do?”
He toed the floor and wouldn’t meet my gaze. “I got drunk with a buddy the other night, and things got a bit…stupid. Even for me.”
The way he avoided looking at me, and his sudden desire to work here, made me wonder if the “stupid” involved a .22 rifle.
Before I could say yes or no, the teenager added, “Besides, working here tonight will give me something to do other than look at my bedroom walls. Dad’s okay if I stay, and I really want to help.”
The kid’s eyes pled with me, and I didn’t have the heart to turn him away. In many ways he reminded me of my brother Danny. It made me want to give him a chance.
“I don’t mind, then,” I finally said.
We took turns spending time with each dog. Smooshie was used to having the front office to herself, and she had a nice big pillow bed to plop down if she wanted. Besides, she’d dragged her favorite toy, a squeaky monkey, from the toy room, and hid it under the pillow bed. She liked to keep guard like a dragon sitting on treasure.
Around seven, Greer came in. “Your truck’s going to be ready by tomorrow afternoon.”
“You’re the only garage open on Sundays,” I noted.
“Technically, I’m closed tomorrow, but I got nothing better to do.”
I asked Parker once why his father worked on Sundays. He told me it was his dad’s way of pissing off God because God had pissed him off. I understood how loss could shake your faith.
Greer held up a thermos. “I brought some fresh coffee. Want a cup?”
“You don’t have to ask me twice.” We went into the office, and I grabbed two Styrofoam cups from near the empty coffee pot. I’d meant to make some, but it was easy to lose track of time here.
He poured and we both sat. “Helluva day,” Greer said.
“Helluva week,” I corrected.
“Ain’t that the truth.” He blew on his cup, steam rolling over the rim. “I’m just glad they got Merl’s killer. I can’t believe it’s Jeff Callahan though. That boy, same as the others, always had so much respect for Merl. He used to hire them for this and that. Give them a little extra money.”
“Parker said that. I’m really sorry again about your friend.”
He stared down into his cup. “It’s always hard. Open house is on Monday and the funeral is Tuesday. They finally released Merl to the funeral home this morning.”
“You let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, okay? You and Parker have been incredible to me. I don’t know if I would have stayed if it wasn’t for the two of you. And Buzz, of course.”
“You’ve helped us too, Lily. In ways you can’t even see.” He smiled sadly. “We’re both glad you ended up in Moonrise.”
My phone beeped. I had a text from Nadine. “Hold on, Greer.” I unlocked the screen.
Jeff had an alibi.
“Oh no.”
“What is it?”
We had to release him.
“Callahan has an alibi. Apparently good enough they let him go.”
Greer’s nostrils flared. He clenched his fingers hard enough to crumple the Styrofoam cup full of hot coffee. “Son of a—” He shook his hand.
“We need to get cold water on that,” I said. I set my phone down and unrolled some paper towels. I handed a wad to him.
He took them and dried his fingers. “I’m fine.” Greer walked over the trash bin next to the desk. He glanced down at my phone. “What’s that?”
“What?” I picked my phone up. I must have swiped the back button with my palm when I set it down, because the picture Reggie had sent me was on the screen. “Oh. You weren’t supposed to see that.”
“It’s a weightlifting club medal.”
I picked the phone up and enlarged the picture. “It says 400 on it. What does that mean?”
“It means the person who got the medal was able to lift 400 or more pounds.”
“How do you know?”
“Parker had one. He actually had four of them—200, 250, 300, and 350. The football coach gave them out when the boys hit their target goals.”
The body had been in the wall for nearly seven years. Could one of Parker’s high school friends have murdered James Wright? Maybe. But why kill Merl? I still couldn’t quite make the connection.
I stared at Greer. I didn’t want to tell him that the medal had been in James Wright’s hand. Besides, I made a promise to Reggie. Even so, I had to find a way to warn Parker he might be partying with a killer right now. “I need to go. I have to talk to Parker.”
“Finally come to your senses, huh?”
“What?”
“You and my boy belong together. He should be with you, not with Naomi.”
I didn’t want to mislead Greer, but I also didn’t want to have to explain. “What about the shelter?”
Greer nodded. “I’ll stay here and watch Smoosh and the other dogs.”
“And Addy,” I said. “Thank you.” I winced. “Can I borrow your car?”
Greer pulled the keys to his coupe out of his pocket and handed them to me. “Don’t ding her.”
“I won’t.” I’d call Nadine on the way. The medal wasn’t enough to arrest anyone. Especially if the whole football team had them. And it could have been from someone a little older or even younger. But I had my suspicions about the killer of both Wright and Merl, and I thought I’d finally figured out the why.
He touched my arm before I could put on my sweater. “Don’t break his heart, Lily.”
I hugged Greer. “Don’t worry.”
Chapter 17
I tried to call Nadine, but her phone went to voice mail. I texted her: Call me! I nearly broke down and called the sheriff, but I doubted he’d believe my suspicions. Plus, I could get Reggie in a lot of trouble if Avery found out she’d sent me pictures of evidence. My heart raced in my chest, and my claws came out as I drove to Moonrise High School. I wasn’t sure what I’d do when I got there.
The town was small enough that it only took five minutes to get to the school. The parking lot was packed. There had to be at least sixty or seventy cars, trucks, and vans sandwiched side by side. I parked near the road. I tried calling Nadine again. Straight to voice mail. I called Parker’s number and got the same.
I rolled my shoulders to ease the tension. “Just get out of the car,” I told myself. “One foot after the other.” This was a fool’s mission. The truth was, there probably wasn’t going to be any trouble at the high school, regardless of who killed Merl or James. I wondered if my motives were pure or selfish. Did I just want to see Parker with Naomi? Had I used this flimsy evidence as a way to crash the party?
I was honest enough with myself to admit it was a possibility.
People would be safe as long as the murderer thought he or she was safe. Right?
A car pulled in a couple of spots down from me. I saw Ryan Petry on the passenger side. The driver was Paul Simmons. I relaxed a little. I needed a friendly face right now.
I started to get out of the car, but stopped when Ryan leaned across the front seat and kissed Paul.
Oh. Wow. I was a terrible detective. However, it explained a lot. I’d seen Ryan do a lot of flirting with women, but he never smelled of lust or arousal. Apparently, I’d been sniffing him around the wrong gender.
Ryan got out of the car. He stood there watching as Paul backed up and pulled out of the school. I opened my door and got out as well.
Ryan heard me and looked up. I gave him my best reassuring smile, but he looked stricken. I strolled over and took his hand. “Your secret is safe with me.”
He squeezed my hand. “You want to go inside?”
That had been a quicker conversation than I’d expected. I didn’t press him, though. It was Ryan’s thing, and he could talk or not talk about it as he saw fit. “Yes, plea
se.”
A truck drove up when were got to the door. It parked almost sideways in a parking space. Jeff Callahan stumbled out of the cab.
“This is bad,” I whispered.
“Why?” Ryan asked.
“Jeff was arrested and released today for Merl Peterson’s murder. It’s pretty clear he was framed, and—”
“Move out of my way,” Jeff said. He bared his teeth as he shoved past Ryan and me.
“We have to stop him.”
“There’s a reason I’m a veterinarian and not a cop, Lily.”
Exasperated, I sighed. “Fine. Then let’s go find a cop. Nadine is in there somewhere.”
When we got into the gym, the auditorium was decorated with streamers. A big banner with the team’s picture, Coach Thompson on one end of the players and Assistant Coach Nick Newton on the other. The tables were covered with white cloths, sparkles, flower arrangements, and candles. There were men and women of all ages in attendance, but the coach had been around for a couple of decades. The current team, a group of about thirty teenage boys of various sizes. Addison should have been among them, but a grounding was a grounding.
All in all, the gym had been turned into a banquet hall. It was pretty. I took out my phone. No bars. Great. It was no wonder I couldn’t get through to Nadine or Parker. Coach Thompson the 2009 team had attracted a huge crowd. The gym was wall-to-wall with people. The sea of folks milling around made it even harder to find my friends.
A woman stopped Ryan and me before we got too far.
“You need badges,” she said. “Though I’d know Ryan Petry anywhere. You haven’t changed a bit, Big Sexy.”
The Money Pit Page 14