The Bigfoot Blunder (A Charlie Rhodes Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Where did you go?” Millie asked. “I thought you took off or something.”

  “I noticed a guy staring at me on the sidewalk, so Bay and I followed him into a store to see if he was up to something,” I replied. “He was from the resort.”

  Landon stilled across the table, pursing his lips as he wrinkled his nose. “You followed a guy who was staring at you on the street?”

  Bay’s expression was murderous as she locked gazes with me. “Do you ever think before you speak?”

  “I didn’t realize it was a secret,” I protested.

  “It wasn’t a secret, but you have to learn the right way to tell certain people particular bits of news,” Bay snapped, pinching the bridge of her nose as Landon stared at her. “Just remember that I forgave you, so you shouldn’t make a scene right now, Landon. We were never in any danger.”

  “Seems like a sound argument,” Landon said. “Now tell me the story about who you saw on the street … and then followed despite the fact that you might’ve been dealing with a murderer.”

  “It was Shane Norman,” I supplied. “He was staring at me. When Bay found me on the sidewalk he hid in that unicorn store.”

  “Shane Norman.” Landon cracked his neck as he searched his memory. “He’s the head of purchasing, right?”

  I nodded. “He’s also one of Penny Schilling’s many boyfriends.”

  “Did he say anything to you?” Chief Davenport asked, extending a finger in Landon’s direction when it looked as if the FBI agent was going to push Bay on her actions. “You just got out of the doghouse. I had to listen to you whine about it all morning. How far are you willing to push things?”

  “I haven’t decided yet,” Landon replied. “She shouldn’t have followed a strange man into a store. It wasn’t safe.”

  “It’s broad daylight and it was The Unicorn Emporium,” the chief pointed out. “How much danger do you really think she was in?”

  “Fine.” Landon blew out a frustrated sigh. “We’re even, Bay. I’m not going to yell.”

  “I don’t care if you do yell,” Bay countered. “We didn’t do anything. And I’m more than happy to resurrect my anger if you’re going to be a butt itch.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing as Landon’s cheeks flushed.

  “A butt itch?” Landon looked caught between laughter and annoyance. “That’s a new one.”

  “That’s what you remind me of right now,” Bay pressed.

  “Well, I would hate to be a butt itch.” Landon slid an arm around Bay’s shoulders and rubbed his nose against her temple. “I’m not angry. I am, however, curious about what Shane Norman was doing in Hemlock Cove.”

  “I think he was interested in Charlie,” Bay said, causing my heart to roll.

  “Me? Why would he care about me?”

  “He was staring at you when I came outside. I think he would’ve spoken to you if I hadn’t interrupted,” Bay explained. “You said he saw you the day you were at the resort. Maybe he discovered you were looking into Penny’s death and wanted to pass on some information.”

  “Why not share that information with us?” Landon challenged. “When I talked to him he barely opened his mouth.”

  “Yes, but you’re ‘The Man,’” Bay answered. “People are nervous talking to law enforcement. Charlie is young and looks approachable.”

  “I think she’s saying you look slutty,” Thistle offered, slathering mustard on her chili dog. “You might want to lay off the hooker makeup.”

  I frowned. “I don’t wear hooker makeup.” Wait … do I? I craned my neck in an attempt to catch a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror behind the counter, letting my attention be drawn to Landon only when he tapped his fingers on the table.

  “Your makeup is fine. Thistle is just being Thistle.”

  “She has teal hair,” I muttered. “She doesn’t have a lot of room to talk.”

  “Exactly,” Landon said. “Get back to Shane Norman. Do you think he was trying to talk to you or did he have something else on his mind?”

  “Like what?” I asked, confused. “I’ve never spoken to him. He stared a bit but couldn’t run away fast enough when he saw Bay.”

  “That might be because the Winchester reputation is well known around these parts,” the chief suggested. “In addition to being a Winchester, Bay has very clear ties to you and me, Landon. Maybe Shane Norman would be more willing to talk with Charlie.”

  “I guess there’s only one way to find out,” I suggested.

  “We have to go back to the resort after lunch,” Bay agreed, bobbing her head.

  “You’re not going alone,” Landon interjected.

  “He won’t talk to us if you’re there,” Bay argued. “You have no choice but to step back.”

  “I have no problem taking a step back,” Landon said. “As long as I can still see you it will be fine.”

  “You’re being unreasonable.”

  “And I think I love you enough not to care.” Landon reached for the ketchup. “Go ahead and pout, Bay. I’m still going with you to the resort.”

  “Maybe I should go alone,” I suggested. “That might be the only way we can be reasonably sure that he’ll talk to anyone.”

  “Absolutely not,” Landon and Chief Davenport said in unison.

  “We go as a group or not at all,” Landon added.

  “Just let them have their way,” Bay muttered, her expression dour. “They won’t ease up, so it’s easier to compromise.”

  “Is that what you call it?” I questioned. “Compromise?”

  Bay shrugged. “What do you call it?”

  “Giving in.”

  Bay snorted, taking me by surprise. “Oh, Charlie, you’ll find that a lot of the things you believe now aren’t true. You’re young and set in your ways. Things will appear different when you get older.”

  “I’m fairly certain that was an insult,” I muttered.

  “I’m fairly certain I don’t care,” Landon shot back. “We’re going together. Get used to it.”

  He was still handsome. I would never say otherwise. But his tone was beyond grating Being low woman on the bossy totem pole well and truly sucked.

  24

  Twenty-Four

  Our trip to the resort yielded nothing, not even a sighting of Shane Norman. His employees said he left early for the day, citing a headache, but it was clear something else was on his mind. Jim Green watched us from his perch above the lobby when we walked through the front doors, but other than that we garnered little attention.

  Landon swung by Shane Norman’s house on our way out of Bellaire. But the driveway was empty and the house dark, so we headed back to Hemlock Cove.

  My mind was busy on the drive, and I could see Bay thinking just as hard in the passenger seat.

  “I don’t understand why he would come looking for me,” I admitted, breaking the silence that had fallen over the Explorer. “Did he think I could help or something?”

  Bay held up her hands. “I have no idea what to tell you,” she said. “There are a hundred reasons he could be looking to talk to you.”

  I had trouble believing that. “Name one.”

  “Maybe he has information he’s uncomfortable sharing with law enforcement,” Bay suggested. “Police officers and FBI agents often make people uncomfortable. I’ve seen it numerous times since I started dating Landon. Even before then, when hanging around with Chief Terry, I saw it happen a lot, too.”

  “You mean the Dark Ages?” Landon teased, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he captured Bay’s hand and squeezed it. “I often forget you had a working knowledge of law enforcement before I entered your life.”

  “That law enforcement didn’t boss me around daily.”

  I pressed my lips together tightly, expecting Landon to blow. Instead he merely shook his head.

  “If you think I’m going to apologize for wanting to keep you safe, you’re wrong,” he said. “It makes me nervous that this guy sho
wed up in Hemlock Cove. Before this happened, he was furthest down my list of possible suspects.”

  Well, that was interesting. “Why is that?” I asked. “I thought there was something odd about him the day I saw him on the loading dock, so he was high on my list.” In truth, I didn’t have a list. I simply wanted Landon to justify his list so I could better understand.

  “I usually don’t base my opinion on feelings,” Landon supplied.

  “That’s not true,” Bay countered. “You had a feeling I was worth saving when you first met me. You even risked your status as an undercover agent to do it.”

  “No, I risked my status to save a bunch of civilians running around in a corn maze in the middle of the night,” Landon clarified. “I would’ve done what I did no matter who was out there.”

  Bay looked almost disappointed. “Really?”

  Landon sighed. “Probably not, no. I’m supposed to say that I would. You’re the reason I was there that night. We both know it. You simply want to hear it because it makes you feel all girly and floaty.”

  Bay grinned. “You’re kind of a sap.”

  “If the sap fits.” Landon shrugged.

  I watched the interaction with a pang of loneliness. I never realized I was missing someone until I saw how happy Bay and Landon were simply being together. I spent my college years studying and enjoying the occasional party, but I made sure not to let anyone – including roommates – get too close. My secret weighed heavily on me and I didn’t want to risk letting anything slip at an inopportune time.

  I cleared my throat to interrupt the moment and forced their attention back to me. “If he saw me and knew I was asking questions and that somehow triggered his attention, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to be the guilty party? Maybe he wanted to silence me.”

  “That’s a theory, but I’m not sure that feels right,” Landon admitted.

  “I thought you didn’t base your opinion on feelings,” I challenged.

  Landon heaved a sigh, his annoyance evident. “This is why I need to hang around with more men. Women always throw things I say back in my face.”

  “She has a point.” Bay adopted a pragmatic tone. “You said you don’t base your investigative work on feelings. Why is this different?”

  “Because I also applied logic when I thought about it,” Landon answered. “Charlie wasn’t at the resort alone. She was with Jack. What good would approaching Charlie do if she has an investigative partner? He can’t possibly think he’ll silence Jack, too. That guy is clearly trained.”

  “Trained as what?” Bay asked, confused. “Is he like a circus performer?”

  Landon barked out a laugh, genuinely amused. “He’s military, sweetie.”

  “He is?” Bay’s eyebrows flew up her forehead. “How do you know? Did he tell you? He’s not much of a talker.”

  “He’s not much of a talker,” I interjected. “Well, he’s a talker when he wants to be bossy and tell everyone what to do. Other than that he’s pretty quiet … and judgmental … and full of himself.”

  Bay shifted in her seat to look at me. “That’s a man thing. You can’t let him get away with it. You have to force him to talk to you.”

  “Well, I’m not in the mood to talk to him at all right now,” I muttered, shifting my eyes to the window. “He’s a butthead.” I could see Bay’s smile out of the corner of my eye and opted to ignore it. “Landon is right about him being ex-military, though. He was a Marine.”

  “So that means that he’s probably intimidating to other men,” Bay mused, tapping her chin and turning to Landon.

  “He’s not ex-military. Once a Marine, always a Marine,” Landon nodded as though something had become clearer.

  “You had Millie with you, right?” Bay asked.

  I nodded. “I can’t see people wanting to approach her either. I find her funny, but she has a cranky persona. From what I can tell, most people find her intimidating.”

  “She’s like Aunt Tillie,” Bay noted.

  “No one is like Aunt Tillie,” Landon countered. “Millie seems a bit eccentric but mostly stable. Perhaps Shane Norman didn’t approach her simply because he didn’t see her. Maybe he came to town to find anyone from your group and happened to stumble across you first.”

  “I don’t understand why he would do that,” I said. “How does he think we’ll be able to help him?”

  “Good question,” Landon said. “Maybe he’s the murderer and he’s trying to push the animal angle. If he believes he can get you guys to look in the right direction he might’ve planted evidence somewhere in the woods. Maybe he’s the person you saw out there last night.”

  I searched my memory, trying to overlap the dark figure from my memory with my picture of Shane’s silhouette. “No way,” I said after a beat. “Shane Norman isn’t even six feet tall. What I saw in the woods was taller. Plus, well, I don’t like casting aspersions on people’s body types because I’m not about weight shaming, but Shane is kind of rotund.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think Penny was interested in him because of his looks,” Bay agreed.

  “That’s why you’re interested in me, though, right?” Landon asked cheekily.

  “Your looks are most of it, but I like the way you wash my car when it’s dirty, too,” Bay replied.

  “Keep it up,” Landon warned. “I’m going to sleep in the guest bedroom if you’re not careful. We have that thing for a reason.”

  “We both know that’s an empty threat,” Bay shot back. “You’ll cry if you’re forced to sleep without me.”

  Landon didn’t seem bothered by the assertion. “You’ll cry, too.”

  “Yes, we’ll be a couple of sad sacks.”

  Landon grinned as he leaned over to give her a quick kiss. Someone else – a lesser person, mind you – might find the display distasteful. It simply made me rueful.

  “You can drop me in town,” I offered as Hemlock Cove popped into view. “Millie is waiting for me. She was going to head back to the library for more research.”

  “Where will you go from here?” Landon asked.

  I shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “Do you still believe it was Bigfoot?” Bay asked, her sea-blue eyes somber as they locked with mine.

  “I believe that something odd is going on,” I clarified. “I know without a doubt that I can’t leave this town until I find out what it is.”

  BAY AND Landon dropped me in front of the diner. The rental vehicle remained in the same spot Millie had parked it in hours before, but she was nowhere in sight. I checked the diner to make sure she wasn’t waiting for me, and then set out to walk to the library. Hemlock Cove was small, so it wouldn’t take me long. It was a nice spring day, so I looked forward to the walk.

  My joy lasted only a few minutes.

  “I’ve been looking for you.”

  The woman detaching from the side of a Range Rover caught me by surprise. I took an involuntary step back when I recognized her. Phyllis Grimes looked different out of her resort uniform, and the dark glare she graced me with reminded me of a soap opera my mother used to watch. I braced myself for trouble … and possibly the ire of an Erica Kane wannabe.

  “Mrs. Grimes, I … how are you?”

  Phyllis arched a dubious eyebrow. “How am I? How do you think I am?”

  “I honestly have no idea,” I replied, looking around for the fastest escape route. “I’m not sure what you’re doing here. In fact, I’m not sure how you found me.”

  “You were with Bay Winchester at the resort,” Phyllis reminded me. “Everyone in the area knows the Winchesters on sight. They’re … famous.”

  “For what?”

  “Being busybodies,” Phyllis sneered. “That whole family is crazy. The great-aunt has a pot field behind the inn. She actually sells to high school students. Did you know that? The woman is out of control and no one does a thing to stop her.”

  I had no idea if that was true, but I wouldn’t put it past Tillie Winchester. “Ok
ay, well, I’m here. Are you looking for me for a reason?”

  “I’m not sure you can help me, but I thought I would take a chance,” Phyllis replied. “I know Bay won’t listen to me. She works for the newspaper and she’s looking for a story. She doesn’t care how she gets it … or how many lives she ruins in the process.”

  “I don’t know her very well, but that doesn’t seem likely,” I argued. “She seems a genuinely nice woman.”

  “She was spawned by crazy people. That means she’s crazy by extension,” Phyllis shot back. “I’m not here to talk about Bay Winchester. I want nothing to do with any of the Winchesters. In fact, don’t mention you saw me to them. If Tillie Winchester decides she’s bored, she’ll curse me and nobody wants that.”

  I stilled, surprised. “She’ll … curse you?” I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. “How will she curse you?”

  “No one knows how she does it,” Phyllis replied. “We simply know she does it … and she takes joy in doing it. Why don’t you ask Margaret Little about Tillie’s curses and see what she says.”

  “Tillie has cursed Mrs. Little?”

  “The woman runs a store that sells nothing but porcelain unicorns,” Phyllis replied, rolling her eyes. “What do you think?”

  I had no idea what to think, but I was fairly certain that fixating on Mrs. Little was a mistake. “So … you wanted to talk to me?” I’m not good in social situations sometimes – especially if I’m uncomfortable. I couldn’t ever remember feeling more uncomfortable than I did right now.

  “I do want to talk to you,” Phyllis bobbed her head. “When Bay approached me yesterday I handled things badly. She caught me off guard because I knew why she was there. She wanted to embarrass my husband. He doesn’t deserve it. I mean … the man is a good provider.”