The Sweetheart Game

by Cheryl Ann Smith

  Jason swept his tiny light beam around the shed. This would be easier with a Maglite; easier to be spotted prowling, too. “There are no signs that a crime has been committed here.” He moved to the perimeter and started a more thorough search. Nothing appeared new or disturbed. There were a couple of bags of old grass seed and parts of a bike. At the back was a trio of shelves filled with odds and ends of junk covered with a layer of dust.

  “It’s another dead end,” he said.

  Summer began moving things around on the lower shelf. “Hmmm. Interesting.”

  “Did you find something?” He joined her.

  “This box is new.” She pulled it off the shelf. The item was smaller than a shoe box. She pulled open the flaps and looked inside. “Odd.”

  He reached in and fished out one of two bottles. Directing the flashlight over the label, he noticed one bottle was partially empty. Summer’s breath caught. A cartoon rat covered most of the label with a red circle and slash around and over it. “Rat poison.”

  Her eyes lifted to his. “Jason, I think we found a clue.”

  * * *

  “Could this be the key to the cryptic text message,” Summer said. Her hand shook a little on the box. The idea of anyone ingesting rat killer made her stomach hurt. What a grim ending.

  “It does fit.” Jason put the box back on the shelf. “If Mary was poisoned. Otherwise it only tells us that they have a rat problem.”

  Her eyes darted around. No sign of large gray beasts. She relaxed a little. “I hate that the texter is playing with us. He or she should come right out and tell us what the heck is going on. This game playing could put Mary in danger.”

  Jason rubbed his chin. “There has to be a reason behind the clues. But who in the hell knows what it is?”

  “Is someone out there?” A voice yelled from the darkness.

  Startled, Summer dropped the bottle onto the dirt floor.

  “Shit,” Jason whispered and put the box back on the shelf. “We have to get out of here!” Both flashlights clicked off. He went low then headed for the door. Summer was right behind him. “Follow me.”

  A light on the back deck cast a yellow glow as the pair of trespassers darted out the door and headed around the back of the shed. Hopefully, he wouldn’t recognize them.

  “You there! Stop!” The voice was Mel’s.

  Jason ran for the back fence, Summer at his side. Her heart beat so hard that she was sure she was heading for a heart attack. Thankfully, Mel remained on the deck, clearly unsure if he should go for his phone or chase down potentially armed robbers. Or maybe he was just hopeful that they’d taken away some of his old junk. Either way, Summer and Jason vaulted the fence and made a safe getaway.

  “That was close,” she said when they hit the street and took off running. “We can’t go back to your house yet. Mel’s shouts might have awoken the neighbors.”

  “I have an idea.” He turned right at the end of the block and pulled off his knit cap. Summer removed her ski cap and shoved it in her pocket, then removed her sweatshirt and turned it inside out to expose a red inside. At his look she shrugged.

  “If he calls the police, we’ll look less suspicious if we aren’t both wearing all black.” She zipped back into the sweatshirt.

  They wandered out of the neighborhood and onto State Street. Jason led her north and into an all-night deli. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Robbing sheds does that to me.”

  He ordered a corned beef on rye and Summer ordered the turkey roll with pesto and provolone. They added bottles of lemonade to the order and took a pair of seats by the window. For a weeknight, there were college students all over the sidewalks but the deli was almost empty.

  She bit into her sandwich. They ate for a few minutes and people watched. A guy with a rainbow Mohawk wandered past with a girl bearing a tattoo of a butterfly on her face.

  “How old will she be before she regrets that decision?” Jason said and popped a potato chip in his mouth.

  “Thirty?” Summer sighed. “I wish we hadn’t lost the rat poison. It was a great clue. We could have dusted the bottles for prints.”

  Jason guzzled down the last of his drink and reached into his sweatshirt pocket. Drawing out his hand, he sat a bottle of rat poison on the table.

  Her eyes went wide.

  “I grabbed it off the floor on our way out.”

  Chapter 20

  “I could almost kiss you!” she exclaimed. Summer wanted to kiss him, but figured doing so in front of a picture window with passing college students was kind of tacky. So instead she gave him her most grateful smile.

  “You are the best sidekick ever,” she said and wrapped a paper napkin around the bottle to preserve evidence. “Watson and Tonto have nothing on you!”

  “Thanks.” From the look he gave her, he’d rather have the kiss than a grateful look, but then, he was a guy and guys could make out on the stage in a packed Carnegie Hall; and not think twice about it. “I was just following your lead.”

  She appreciated the sentiment. “We both did well tonight.”

  They finished eating and headed back to his house. Mel’s place was dark so they figured the coast was clear. They stopped in front of her house.

  Jason touched her hand and she wondered if he was looking for that gratitude kiss.

  “I should go in and bag the evidence,” Summer said before the moment went south. “Goodnight and thanks again.” She hurried off, feeling Jason’s eyes on her the whole way to her porch. She dared not look back out of fear she might run back to him and jump him in the grass. The guy was too damn sexy and she never used the word damn.

  Swearing was unladylike, or so Nana said.

  She missed her grandmother.

  Sleep proved troubled as visions of mice with oversized canines danced through her dreams. She tossed and turned and by the time the morning sun clawed its way through the space between her curtains, she could barely keep her eyes open and she felt a bit surly.

  The feeling stayed as she got ready for work and drove to the office in a blurry state. As she walked up to the building, she couldn’t remember much of the drive over. Or anything past dragging out of bed.

  Had she taken a shower this morning?

  Gretchen, the receptionist at Brash & Brazen, Inc. recoiled in horror when she pushed through the glass doors and headed in.

  “Good lord.” Gretchen jumped to her feet. She was wearing a sweater with cats dancing around a Maypole. “Were you mugged?”

  Summer reached up to touch her hair. She couldn’t remember brushing it this morning.

  Gretchen reached for her intercom. “There’s an emergency in the lobby,” she said. “Summer needs help!”

  Seconds later, Taryn and Jess came rushing down the hallway behind Gretchen’s desk, hands on their guns. They were in full alert mode. Upon seeing Summer, they both stopped and gaped.

  “Sweetie, were you in an accident?” Taryn said.

  Jess walked over and checked her over. “She looks okay. Check for her wallet.”

  “I was not mugged and I did not get hit by a car.” Summer frowned as she found a tangle on the back of her head. “I had a sleepless night, all right? Okay, several sleepless nights. This case is keeping me up.” Jason, too.

  Why was everyone making a big deal out of this? They’d all come in frazzled after having a bad night.

  “Under a bridge in a cardboard box?” Jess said. “Please tell us that you didn’t eat breakfast out of a dumpster?”

  “Now you’re being ridiculous.” Summer’s ring caught in her hair. Taryn helped her get it out. “Ouch!”

  “Come, before you scare off clients.” Taryn took her by the arm and steered her into the bowels of the office. They headed into the private bathroom reserved for employees. It was resplendent with gold fixtures and marble everything else. The lights had soft lightbulbs but not soft enough to keep Summer from blanching when she saw herself in the mirror.

  “Am I dead?�
� One side of her hair was brushed and the other looked like it had been on the losing end of a blender. There were dark circles under her lower lids and caked mascara highlighting red eyes.

  Good lord. Where had the beauty queen gone?

  “I think so. Taryn, quick get the defibrillator,” Jess joked and went for the supply cabinet kept for late-night crashes on one of the couches in the lounge. She dug out a toothbrush and paste.

  “Bring a comb,” Taryn said and they went to work. “Would you like to tell us what happened last night?”

  Summer filled them in as Taryn detangled her hair and Jess removed the mascara goop around her eyes. She finished with, “I think I got six minutes of sleep.”

  After her years of pageants and cheerleading, Summer never went anywhere, even the grocery store, without at least a swipe of lip gloss. To have made it out of the house looking like a stoned-out hooker, went against everything Tammy taught her.

  Clearly her adrenaline stores were tapped out. She’d been lucky she hadn’t gotten into a car accident.

  Jess brushed cover-up over the bags under Summer’s eyes. “I should Facebook this,” she said. “None of the girls would believe it.”

  The girls were their former squad member—friends of the Lansing Mighty Muskrats. “Reach for your phone and I’ll shoot you,” Summer grumbled. “I have a gun in my desk.”

  Jess laughed. “It’s kind of fun seeing you as Homeless Barbie. There, all done.” Summer no longer looked like the undead. “I’ve got to go.” Jess kissed the top of her head and left them to finish up.

  “Homeless Barbie? That’s funny.” Taryn twisted Summer’s hair into a knot at her neck, anchored it with a rubber band, and ignored her scowl. “Irving is in a meeting in Detroit this morning so his office is empty. I think a nap is in order.”

  Taryn dragged a grumbling Summer to the aforementioned office and helped her stretch out on the couch. Before Summer could finish her last protest that she was fine and didn’t need a nap, she began drifting off. With the last moment of clarity, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the bottle in a plastic bag. Taryn took it, puzzled.

  “Would you mind testing this rat poison for fingerprints?” Summer mumbled and then she was out.

  * * *

  There were scenes from the old Tippi Hedren movie, The Birds, where Tippi walked through town and the killer birds stared down at her with dead black eyes, ready to swoop down and destroy her. When Summer arrived home at six o’clock that evening, her mind flashed to the movie when she caught sight of her front porch.

  There had to be a dozen boys raking up her leaves, perched on the railing, or splayed out on the blue striped wicker chairs and bench seat on the porch. There were large brown paper bags filled with yard debris lining her sidewalk as the boys seemed to be taking turns between raking and vegging out.

  To her surprise, there was still grass under all the fall foliage. But that wasn’t what caught her attention.

  In the center of it all was a girl, turned away from the commotion and laughing at something a guy with a scraggly chin-only brown beard that looked like a squirrel tail was saying in her ear.

  What the heck? Was the college having a botany field day in her yard? She certainly hadn’t called for lawn service.

  Summer turned off her car, grabbed her purse and keys, and headed for the sidewalk. Dodging the bags and curious stares, she reached the bottom step when the girl turned her direction.

  She knew that face. “Heather?”

  Heather grinned and pushed up from a chair. “Surprise!” With the exuberance of youth, she hurried across the narrow porch, bounded down the stairs, and slammed into Summer. “I’ve missed you, big sis!”

  Hugging her tight, Summer felt a prickle behind her eyes. She hadn’t seen her sister in over a year since Grandpa died and Tammy took her back. Summer felt awful that too much time had passed since her last visit. She pulled back. “Where’s Tammy?”

  “It’s a long story.” Heather looked around at the boys. “I went to Taryn’s house looking for you but you’d moved. She sent me here.” Taryn lived three blocks over with Rick. “The boys came along to make sure I arrived safely. When they saw the condition of your yard, they jumped into action.”

  Mostly likely not out of a feeling of civic duty but to impress Heather. Some were shirtless.

  Ignoring the workers, she frowned. “I haven’t lived with Taryn in over a year. Tammy knew that.”

  “Tammy is a flake.” Heather smiled at squirrel-man. He grinned back. Summer’s back prickled.

  She stepped into big sister mode and stomped up the stairs. Up close, squirrel-man looked about thirty-five and way too old for her seventeen-year-old sister. “Beat it grandpa, before I Mace you,” she said and pulled the can from her purse. The man didn’t need a second warning. He hopped over the railing and vanished. “The rest of you can go, too. And thank you.”

  There was some grumbling but the youngsters filed off.

  “See you, Andrew. Jeff. Thurston. Evan.” Heather waved at them way as they filed past her. “Thanks for the escort! The yard looks great!”

  At least a half a dozen teens grinned dumbly and called goodbye to her pretty sister. Andrew, with the thick glasses, was one of Taryn’s boys, and her favorite. They lived next door to her and Taryn had sort of adopted them as little brothers. They were college students and an endless source of entertainment.

  He paused on the bottom step and grinned. “I’ll see you around, Heather.”

  “Yeah. See you, Andrew.” She hooked her arm through a scuffed blue backpack and gave him a one finger wave.

  He beamed. Summer almost felt sorry for him. He was the nerd picture in the dictionary. His chances with her sister hovered right around zero. Even having been passed up by the infamous O’Keefe curves, Heather drew men like a mosquito to an open vein. From the pictures the teen posted on Facebook, her previous dates had been more Saturday Night Lights jocks over Revenge of the Nerds.

  Poor Andrew.

  Summer took her little sister by the hand and dragged her in the house. Once she dropped her purse off, and settled Heather on a chair, Summer faced her. Something about this visit was off and she wanted to know what.

  “Would you like to tell me why you’re in Michigan without Tammy?” She got right to the point.

  Heather played with the frayed cuff of her jeans jacket. “Well, let’s see. Where to start? Well, about five weeks ago, Tammy left me a fifty dollar bill on the kitchen table, a pack of cigarettes—I don’t smoke by the way—and a note saying she was going off with a truck driver named Gordo to see America.” She twisted up her face. “More like the inside roof of Gordo’s truck if I know our mother.”

  “Heather,” Summer warned. Talking about Tammy’s sex life with her baby sister was just icky.

  “What? We both know Tammy has loose morals, as Nana used to say. She probably didn’t even pack panties for her trip.”

  Summer blanched. So much for the innocence of youth. “Good grief. Where do you come up with this stuff?” Tension pressed behind her eyes. Her sister was right. Tammy had the morals of a bunny. Of course, as the more mature sister, she kept that thought to herself. No sense whipping Heather up.

  “The school bus is where I learned all the good stuff. Want to hear the most common swear words in the eight to eighteen-year-old age bracket?”

  “I certainly do not.” Summer was not a violent person but had their mother been present, she’d have kicked her miniskirted and pantyless butt all the way back to Texas. How could she abandon Heather like that? Heather needed a real mother. Not a flake. “How did you get here?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Fifty bucks wouldn’t go far.

  “I took a stage coach to Dallas, a wagon train to Chicago, and a strange man with a white panel van drove me the rest of the way in exchange for sexual favors.”

  “Lord, where did you get that mouth?” Summer was mortified.

  At her expression, Heather laughed. �
��Relax. I did what normal people do when they travel. I took Greyhound to Ann Arbor and walked the rest of the way.”

  The girl had guts. Whether that was good or bad had yet to be determined.

  “Look,” Heather said. “Either you take me in or I move into Animal House with Andrew and the boys. I have no other options.”

  Summer pinched the bridge of her nose for calm. “You will not live with a bunch of college boys. You’re a minor and need adult supervision.” At the advanced age of twenty-six, she sounded like the mother Heather should have had instead of the fun sister she wanted to be.

  “Chillax. I followed your lead and tested out of high school. I’ve been accepted into U of M for the fall term. By then I’ll be eighteen and won’t need a babysitter.” Heather nudged her backpack with her shoe. “If you don’t want me around, I’ll work and get a place. But I need to crash somewhere for a few months.”

  There was no way in hell Summer would let that happen. As she looked at Heather with her wild, curly blonde hair and the blue eyes they shared, she realized how much her sister’s growing up she’d missed over the last few years and the infrequent visits home. The girl would live nowhere else but with her.

  “Come here.” She pulled Heather into her arms and tears welled. “I love you, little girl. I’ve missed you so much.”

  Heather hugged her tightly. “Don’t get all gushy on me.”

  “I will if I want to, and you’re living with me,” She pulled back and smiled evilly. “One last thing. If I see squirrel-beard guy sniffing around here again, I’m going to shoot him right off the porch with granddad’s old Colt .45.”

  Chapter 21

  Heather was a slob. Summer frowned at the pile of dishes in the sink and the junk scattered around the living room. Her sister had lived with her for all of about sixteen hours and was already acting like they were sharing a dorm room.

  Summer had come home from work at noon for lunch and Heather was still sleeping, sprawled in the guest room with an open bag of chips beside her on the bed. A few chips had been ground into pieces on the sheet.