“Not much.”
“Come on,” I said. “If you asked around about me, I know you heard things, which are probably either untrue or only partially true. Tell me what you heard, and I’ll let you know if you can believe it.”
He grinned as he picked up his glass. “I think I like this game. I heard you dated both the sheriff and the district attorney.”
“That’s only partially true.”
“Which part?”
“I dated the chief deputy sheriff, but he was with the state police when we were together, and Mason was the assistant district attorney.”
“So am I already out of the running because I’m not in some type of law enforcement career?”
“No,” I said. The wine had already dulled my inhibitions, and I was surprised when I added, “I think it’s time for me to branch out.” But then I flushed and looked down at the table. “So what else?”
“Your sister is in Texas . . .”
“Dying?” I asked, looking back up to him as I shook my head. “She has cancer, but she had a bone marrow transplant. She’s doing really well and should be coming home soon. Anything else?”
“You’ve been the target of a few dangerous criminals.”
“Which is how I became involved with men in law enforcement,” I said. “But my time with criminals is done. I’m a simple landscaper now.”
He gave me a wicked grin. “Who helps homeless men.”
I paused and studied him, trying to decide if he was being sarcastic. Had he figured it out? He was obviously intelligent, and it wouldn’t take many brain cells to figure out that most people didn’t let urine-soaked men lie in the middle of their office.
But the waitress saved me by returning with our dinners. She gave me an odd look, then said, “The manager says to tell you that your meal’s on us tonight. After what happened the last time you were here.”
Levi’s eyes narrowed as he looked up at her. “What happened last time she was here?”
The waitress gave me an apologetic look—so much for helping me avoid an awkward conversation—and ran off.
He turned to me this time. “What happened the last time you were here?”
There was no way I was going to tell him I’d been kidnapped from the restroom ten minutes after my then-boyfriend had proposed. I hadn’t been to Jaspers since, partially because my whole life had tipped on its head that night and partially because I’d holed up at the farm, licking my wounds. “Let’s just say some things are better discussed on a second or fifth date.”
A grin spread across his face. “So things are going well enough that we can plan a second date?”
Well, crap. I hadn’t meant to say that. I finished off the last of my wine. “This chicken looks really good.”
Levi turned his attention to his sirloin steak, but thankfully the waitress’s announcement hadn’t made the silence tense. After about a minute, he asked, “How did you end up in the landscaping business?”
I gave him a teasing smile. “With a name like Rose Gardner, it seemed like destiny.” I stabbed a piece of broccoli on my plate. “The short version is that my sister wanted to open a nursery, and she needed my help to do it. We opened last September, and one of our very first orders was to re-landscape the New Living Hope Revival Church, but part of the deal was that we had to install the plants. It all kind of evolved from there. My partner Bruce Wayne and I split the landscaping business from the nursery in December.”
“Wow,” he said as he grabbed his glass of water. “That’s all fairly recent.”
“Most new businesses take two years to make a profit, but we just had our first month in the black.” I was proud of what we’d accomplished, especially since Bruce Wayne and I had wondered if we were destined to fail in a fiery ball of flames only a few short months ago.
He gave me a dubious look. “Did you say your business partner’s name is Bruce Wayne?”
I laughed. “His father is Clark Kent.”
I was about to tell him more about the business, but the woman who walked through the doorway caught my attention. Something about her looked familiar, and then it hit me.
She was the woman in Rayna’s vision.
I set my fork down, my gaze still on the woman as she disappeared into the bar. “Excuse me for a moment, Dr. Romano.”
“Levi,” he said, but it was an automatic reply. He was looking at me with about a dozen questions in his eyes. He watched as I stood and headed for the bar, but to his credit, he didn’t ask any questions.
After seeing the woman’s hot tub attire in my vision, I wasn’t surprised to find her wearing a gold sequined tube top, a pair of low-rise, skin-tight jeans, and four-inch fake leather above-the-knee boots. Her blonde hair was teased tall enough to look like an inviting home for a family of mice, and she wore enough dark eyeshadow to warrant a part as an extra in a vampire movie. I had no idea what her name was, but I had a sneaking suspicion what her profession might be.
“Is this seat taken?” I asked as I slid into a bar stool in front of her, thankful we were out of Levi’s line of sight.
“Actually, I’m waiting on somebody,” she said, looking around me. Presumably that somebody was a man.
“How about I buy you a drink and keep you company while you wait?” I asked.
She licked her lips. “I guess that would be all right.” She waved a hand to the bartender. “He’s cute.”
She had a point, although the guy walking around the end of the bar looked a good ten to fifteen years younger than her. He glanced at the woman and then back at me, doing a double take. I was sure my innocent-looking pink sundress was a strange contrast to her attire.
“I’m gonna have a Long Island iced tea,” she said. “Luke . . .” she added, squinting at his name tag. Then she tilted her head and looked at me.
“I’ll take a glass of wine,” I said. “Pinot grigio.”
Luke nodded, then headed back to his station without a word.
The woman watched his butt as he walked around the corner, then turned to me and narrowed her eyes. “Whaddaya want?”
“Who says I want something?” I asked.
“It’s the only reason a stranger buys a drink for someone. So whaddaya want? But I gotta warn ya, I don’t swing that way.” She gestured her fingers back and forth between us.
Ignoring her statement, I took a breath and decided to approach this as honestly as possible without giving away what I’d seen in the vision. “We had a mutual friend, and I thought it might be nice if we talked about her.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“Rayna,” I said softly. “Rayna Dyer.”
Her mouth dropped open, and then she closed it and swallowed. “How did you know Rayna? You don’t look like her kind of friend.”
“I hadn’t known her long.” It felt better to tell the truth, even if it was misleading. “I think that’s part of the reason I was so shocked.”
The woman didn’t look convinced. “How did you know her?”
“From Walmart.”
Her guard dropped slightly.
I glanced around before leaning forward and lowering my voice. “I know she was wanting to make Raddy pay for humiliating her like he did, and I know you two were coming up with a plan.”
The woman’s lips pressed together, and she reached into her purse and pulled out a cigarette.
“You can’t smoke that in here,” Luke said as he placed our drinks in front of us.
“I know,” she said in a snotty tone, putting the cigarette between her lips anyway. “I’m just holding it.” Then she added, “Is that a crime in this damn town?” The cigarette bobbed up and down in her mouth with each word.
The bartender scowled and stalked back to the bar.
The woman took the cigarette out of her mouth and held it between her fingers as she drained half of her cocktail.
I tried not to show my surprise when she finally set the glass on the table with a clunk. “You don’t know shi
t,” she said, repositioning her cigarette.
Well, crap. “I know you were supposed to go over to her house last night to help her plan her revenge on Raddy.”
Surprise flickered in her eyes. And something else. Fear. What was she afraid of? I decided to try to trick her into telling me something. With any luck, most of the information about Rayna’s death was still being kept from the public.
“Rayna told me Raddy was coming over to see her, but she kept it from you because you’d think she was weak for wanting to take him back.”
Disgust washed over her face, and I felt guilty for besmirching Rayna’s character—or at least her common sense. But I suspected this woman knew something, and I needed to find out what it was.
“That damn fool,” she muttered, then took another long swig. “I told her to stay strong.”
“I heard you were the one to find her and call the police.” It was a gamble, but I’d decided to go with my gut.
Her eyes filled with shock, and her hand trembled a little as she put the cigarette back into her mouth.
“I heard she was murdered,” I said quietly.
She nodded again. “I called it in anonymously. I told ’em I saw him strangling her, but last I heard they hadn’t arrested Raddy yet. What are they waiting for?”
I blinked. Deputy Miller hadn’t told me that. Had she really seen Raddy strangle his wife? “I think he’s on the run. But I heard he’s only one of the suspects.”
Her hand began to shake again, and she grabbed her glass. “There’s more than one? Who?”
“I heard they’re keeping it under wraps, but it has something to do with that necklace.”
“What necklace?” a man said from behind me.
I couldn’t help but startle a little as a man I didn’t recognize slid into the seat between me and the woman.
“Who’s your friend, Trixie?” he asked, eyeing me up and down like I was dessert.
“She was just leavin’.”
I held out my hand to him. “Hi, I’m Beth Ann,” I said, giving him the name I’d used with Hugh Wagner in the pawn shop. “Trixie and I had a mutual friend.”
He looked me up and down again like he couldn’t bring himself to believe it. “Who?”
“Rayna Dyer.”
His eyes shuttered closed. What did he know?
“I didn’t catch your name,” I said.
“Buck Reynolds.”
Oh my word. Trixie was friends with Buck. The same Buck who wanted the necklace.
I had to have a vision.
I didn’t have anyone to help cover for me, which meant I had to be careful. “Thanks so much for talkin’ to me, Trixie. I just wanted to talk to someone who knew Rayna. This whole thing’s been so hard.” I slid out of my seat and walked around behind Buck’s seat, resting my hand on his shoulder and focusing on whether Buck was going to talk to Trixie about Rayna.
The vision came quickly. I was sitting next to Trixie in a car, her face gripped tightly in my hand. “What did you tell her?”
Fear widened her eyes and her nostrils flared. “Nothin’, Buck! I swear!”
“If you told her, I swear to God, I’ll—”
“I didn’t tell her nothin’!”
The vision ended, and I found myself back in the bar, staring into Trixie’s pissed off face. “You’re gonna hurt her for talkin’ to me.”
Trixie looked startled, and Buck’s shoulder stiffened under my hand. “What did you say?”
I was in deep trouble.
Chapter 13
Flashing a weak smile, I put my hand to my head. “I think that wine went straight to my head.”
“You didn’t even drink it,” Trixie said.
“I know, right?” I said. “So weird . . . I think I’d better go.”
I started to walk away before realizing I hadn’t paid for the drinks. With a groan, I walked to the end of the bar and flagged Luke. Leaning in, I said in an undertone, “I’m paying for that woman’s Long Island iced tea and my wine, but my purse is over at my table in the restaurant. Can you send the bill over to me?”
“Since I only work a few nights a week, I’m not sure about all the rules,” he said. “But I think it’s probably okay.”
This probably bordered on stupid, but I leaned a little closer. “Can you do me a favor? I think that woman might be in trouble. Could you give her a note from me without letting him see it?”
The bartender’s smile wavered.
“Just try.”
“Okay.” He handed me a napkin and a pen, and I quickly scribbled: Trixie, call me if you need help. 501-555-2638
I folded it over and handed it to him. “Thanks.”
“No guarantees,” he said.
When I turned around, Trixie and Buck were both watching me with open suspicion. There was no way I was going to drag Levi into this, so I headed for the bathroom, leaned against the counter, and waited.
What was I doing? Why hadn’t I called Randy Miller and told him about Trixie? But Randy didn’t know about my visions. I could tell Neely Kate, of course, and I would, but I wanted someone else to know what was going on. Someone who could help. I could only think of one person, but I wasn’t ready to talk to him yet. So I called the next best thing.
“Is everything okay?” Jed said when he answered the phone.
“Yes, well . . . maybe.”
“Do you need me to come get you out of trouble?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t think so.” I took a breath. “What do you know about Buck Reynolds?”
“Why are you asking about him?”
“Do you think he’s capable of murder?”
“I’m damn sure of it.” He paused, his voice harder. “Why are you asking about Buck Reynolds?”
“I’m at Jaspers and I ran into Buck and his . . . uh . . . girlfriend, Trixie.”
“What are you and Neely Kate doin’ at Jaspers?”
“I’m not with Neely Kate. I’m on a date.”
He was quiet for so long, I thought we might have gotten disconnected. “Who are you on a date with?” he finally asked.
“That’s neither here nor there. He’s a perfect gentleman, so there’s no need for you to worry.”
He didn’t respond.
“Look, Jed. I think Buck Reynolds may have gone to Rayna Dyer’s house last night to look for the missing necklace and killed Rayna in the process. From the way Trixie was acting, I think she was either part of it or knows what happened, especially since she’s the one who supposedly found Rayna and called the sheriff.”
“Aren’t you calling the wrong side of the law about this?”
“I can’t call Deputy Miller,” I said. “I found out that Trixie was Rayna’s friend through a vision, which is the same way I learned Buck is pissed at Trixie for talking to me. Deputy Miller doesn’t know anything about my visions. He’ll have no reason to believe me.”
“Rose, it doesn’t sound like you have information he can do anything with anyway.”
“But you can,” I said.
“What exactly do you want me to do?” he asked in disbelief. “Perform a citizen’s arrest?”
“I don’t know, Jed,” I said, getting exasperated. “But I think Buck Reynolds is a murderer.”
“Which means you need to stay away from him, Rose.”
“I will. I am. That’s why I’m calling you from the women’s restroom.”
“You’re hiding out? Where’s your date?”
“He has no idea what’s goin’ on. In fact, I need to get back out there.”
“For God’s sake,” Jed groaned. “Get your pepper spray out before you leave the restroom. Let’s not have a repeat of last February.”
While free dinners at Jaspers were a nice perk, he had a point. One kidnapping had been enough.
Thankfully, no one was waiting for me when I walked into the hall with the pepper spray in hand.
Buck and Trixie weren’t at their table when I passed the bar, so I made a beeline to
Levi’s table. He was bent over his phone, but he looked up and gave me a curious stare. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course. Fine,” I said, sliding into my empty seat and hastily slipping the pepper spray into my purse. Had he seen it clenched in my fist?
Levi’s plate was mostly empty, and when I took a bite of my chicken, I wasn’t surprised that it had become cold. I set my fork down and picked up my water glass. I needed to turn the focus from my lengthy absence, if that was even possible. “Levi, what’s been your most interesting case as a vet?”
He stared at me for a moment, as though shocked by the sudden request, but then he launched into a funny story about a cat and its unlikely tormentor—a hamster. While I listened, I marveled over his reaction to my ten-minute disappearance. He hadn’t asked any questions, nor did he seem particularly upset. I couldn’t help wondering why.
The waitress returned with a dessert menu, and although I was desperate to go home and tell Neely Kate about my encounter with Burt and Trixie, I decided an extra twenty minutes wasn’t going to change anything. Jed was right. They’d left me with plenty of questions, but neither of them had given me any evidence I could use to press for an arrest.
If Levi noticed my anxiety, he didn’t let on. He carried the conversation easily, telling me stories about his four years in veterinary school at the University of Missouri and asking questions about the daily routine of running a landscaping business.
When the waitress walked over with a black bill folder, I had a moment of panic since I’d told the bartender to send me the bill for the drinks, but she winked at me as she set the bill down in front of Levi. “Everything was covered tonight.”
“Thanks for bringing the bill, even if you didn’t charge us, Alisha,” Levi said, pulling out his wallet. “I wanted to tip you accordingly.”
“Thank you, Dr. Romano,” she said. “I really appreciate that.” She smiled at both of us. “You two make a cute couple.” Then she turned on her heel and walked over to another table.
“Why do I have a feeling half the town will know about our date tomorrow?” he asked with a laugh and placed a twenty-dollar bill on top of the receipt in the open folder.
Family Jewels: Rose Gardner Investigations #1 Page 15