Murder Wins the Game

by Maddie Cochere

  I put the ribs in the refrigerator, grabbed a beer, and headed for the sofa to put my feet up on the coffee table and watch television until Glenn stopped by before his night shift.

  It wasn’t long before my head was back, my eyes were closed, and I occasionally felt a slight vibration at the back of my throat. No one was around, and I was too tired to care. I snored on.

  Chapter Three

  It was going to be another beautiful, sunny day, but my mood didn’t match the day. I couldn’t shake a feeling of unease.

  I had awakened on the sofa at midnight with a crick in my neck and no sign of Glenn. He didn’t come by before work, and he didn’t call. I went to bed mad at him for being so sensitive, and I was mad at myself for allowing my frustration with Mama to affect my behavior toward him.

  I went downstairs and rounded the corner into the kitchen.

  I wasn’t prepared to see Mama at the breakfast bar scratching lottery tickets with a brass letter opener. My heart and feet jumped at the same time.

  “Geez Louise, you scared me half to death,” I yelped at her. “How did you get in here?”

  “I used my key.”

  She slid a cup of coffee from Chummy’s across the counter to me.

  My mouth fell open for a moment. “You don’t have a key. I never gave you a key.”

  “I had it made from the key in the rock outside.”

  “I haven’t had a key in that rock for months.”

  “I made it last year. In case of emergencies.”

  Mama really knew how to overstep boundaries. Pepper already had a key in case of an emergency, but I knew it was useless to ask Mama to turn over the one she had made. And she never had just one key made. She always had the clerk at the hardware store make keys in multiples of three – one for her keychain, one to hide in the house, and one to give to someone else in case of emergencies. I was certain if I checked Roger’s keychain, he would have a key to my house.

  I made a mental note to call a locksmith and have the locks changed.

  “What’s the emergency this morning?” I asked.

  “There isn’t one. I knocked, but you didn’t answer. When I came in, I went upstairs and heard the shower running, so I knew you were up.”

  She was getting under my skin, and I snapped at her. “What do you want, Mama? I have to go to work.”

  “Why didn’t you go to the Munson party last night?”

  “What party?”

  “The party Kristy invited us to.”

  “She didn’t invite us to their party. She was being funny. You didn’t go, did you?”

  “Sure I did. They had lots of food and booze. Chet Kimble was there. Nancy said you’re working on a case for him. It must not be going very well, because he was drowning his sorrows in scotch.”

  “I’m not telling you about his case,” I said. “But I doubt it would drive him to drink.”

  “That’s what you say. I’ve never known him to be a drinker, and he even asked me out.”

  I didn’t believe her. “What did you say?”

  “I told him he was too late, and now that I got Roger living with me, I ain’t looking to hook up with anyone else. If Roger wouldn’t have had the runs from eating too much pizza, he would have gone with me. I felt bad for him that he missed out on being social with the big money in town.”

  Just how social had she been? My heart wasn’t jumping any more. It was sinking into my stomach.

  “Why are you here, Mama?”

  “I thought you should know that Kristy knows you’ve been following her.”

  “How does she know that? You didn’t tell her did you?” I couldn’t keep an accusing tone from my voice.

  Mama pretended to be offended. “I didn’t tell her. I overheard her talking to some boys about her grandpa and how he had some woman following her.”

  This wasn’t good.

  “What else did she say?”

  She hesitated and a softer look than usual came over her face. It was a look of pity.

  “This private dick job isn’t going all that well, is it? Maybe you should think about going back to the mortgage company. I’m sure they’d take you back.”

  Her words aggravated me. My job was going great, and I loved it. I couldn’t imagine why she would suggest taking my old job back.

  “What else did Kristy say?”

  “Nothing much.” She hesitated a few moments before saying, “She made a few cracks about your weight and how easy it was to lose you in the mall. And she knows you sleep when you watch her. She’s walked up to your truck before, and you never noticed her. Yesterday, you were sleeping, and she had to drive by three-”

  “That’s enough,” I said, cutting her off. “I get the picture. But just because my surveillance of her hasn’t been the best doesn’t mean I need to quit my job.”

  “Suit yourself, but she was bragging about how she’s not following any of her grandfather’s rules, and you don’t have a clue. If she’s not supposed to be drinking, she was pretty hammered when I left.”

  I snatched the cup of coffee off the bar and grabbed my bag from the table in the living room. Before going out the door, I turned back to Mama and said, “Stop playing the lottery or Pepper, Hank, and I are going to put you in a home and tell everyone you’re senile.”

  I marched out, climbed into my truck, and headed downtown. I didn’t want to be mean with Mama, but it upset me that she thought I should quit my job, and it was hard to hear what Kristy had said. I knew my surveillance skills were crap, but I was certainly better than when I first started. Arnie said it would take time to hone my skills.

  I needed to talk to Glenn. If I could smooth things over with him, the underlying unease would lift, and I’d have a better day. I might even apologize to Mama for threatening to put her in a home.

  I pulled in front of the courthouse and parked at a meter that hadn’t yet expired. I hopped out, grabbed my bag and saw there were five minutes left. That was probably enough time to run in and get out of jury duty, but I added a quarter anyway. If Aunt Bee came along after the meter expired, she’d ticket the truck for sure. She took her job as a parking enforcement officer seriously and didn’t give preferential treatment to relatives.

  I followed signs directing the public to go in through a side door and was met by Officer Collins and a female security guard manning a walkthrough security gate.

  “Jo Ravens. What are you doing here?” he asked cheerfully as the woman began going through my bag.

  His pleasant attitude took me by surprise.

  “I’m dropping off papers for jury duty.”

  “Ahh. Your turn, eh? Well, we all have to do our part to keep the community running smoothly.”

  I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. The man had never spoken a kind word to me before.

  “You can’t take this in there,” said the security officer. She held up a canister of pepper spray. “Or these scissors. Or these nail clippers. How did you get a stun gun?” She began rattling off items from my bag. “Metal nail file, handcuffs, a ball of twine, a roll of quarters.” She looked at Officer Collins. “If there’s a sock in here, could the quarters be considered a weapon?”

  They both laughed.

  “Just give me my bag,” I said and reached to take it from her.

  “Not a chance,” she said. “You can leave it here and pick it up on your way out or take out everything that’s not permitted inside the courthouse.” She held up a rabbit’s foot and smiled.

  I knew she wasn’t serious about the rabbit’s foot. Aunt Bee had given it to me as a joke when I first began working with Arnie. I considered it lucky and had been carrying it with me ever since. It was doing a poor job of bringing me luck today.

  I left the two of them laughing and didn’t care if they continued to go through my bag or not. I headed for the stairs and climbed the two flights to the Clerk of Courts office. I stopped to catch my breath before approaching the counter. I hated that I was so out of
shape. Even though my weight was down from last year at this time, I still needed to lose at least thirty-five pounds.

  Pepper had recently put it into perspective for me when she said, “Think of your thirty-five pounds as one hundred and forty sticks of butter. If you were to tape them all over your body, you’d be able to see how much extra fat you’re carrying around under your skin.”

  I thanked her for the visual. She had lost eighteen pounds from joining the new Slimmers Weight Loss in town. I didn’t want to commit to weigh-ins, following an eating plan, and keeping a food diary, so she had to join without me. I could lose weight on my own if I put my mind to it – and found the willpower to quit Smitty’s ribs.

  I walked to the counter and didn’t believe the day could get any worse when Vicki turned from a filing cabinet to greet me.

  “Hi, Jo. What can I do for you?”

  I couldn’t even force a smile. “When did you quit working at the bank?”

  “I didn’t. I’ve always worked here three mornings a week. If you’d get up in the morning instead of sleeping until noon, you might have known that.”

  Her voice was pleasant, and anyone hearing her would think she was teasing me, but I knew she meant her snarky words. She was evil.

  “I’m here because my jury summons got lost in the mail.” I handed the envelope with its multiple postmarks and the paperwork to her. “I just got it yesterday, and that’s not enough notice for me to serve this Friday.”

  She laughed. “You can’t get out of jury duty that easy.” She handed a clipboard and pen to me. “Fill out your questionnaire, and I’ll send it up to the judge with an explanation as to why it’s late.”

  I begrudgingly sat on the hard wooden bench across from the counter and completed the questionnaire. I did my best to plead my case that I would be happy to serve with more notice, but my workload was so heavy, it wasn’t feasible for me to miss up to a week of work with no one to fill in for me. I told the judge that subpoenas wouldn’t be served and criminals would go free.

  Satisfied I had given enough reasons for not serving, I handed the clipboard, form, and pen back to Vicki.

  Her smiled seemed fake when she said, “I can’t imagine why, but if for some reason you’re excused from duty, you’ll get a notice in the mail. If you don’t receive anything, make sure you’re here on time Friday morning. If you’re later than eight o’clock, you’ll get a contempt of court citation.”

  I went downstairs to retrieve my bag and left the courthouse with Officer Collins and the security guard still snickering as I walked out the door.

  Arnie and Nancy were both on the telephone when I walked into the office. I shut my door and sat down to begin working on a mountain of paperwork that had put me in the running for first place in a procrastination contest. Not only did I have case reports to write, but Nancy was waiting for over a month’s worth of expense reports. I also needed to analyze the background checks Arnie had conveniently taken from his desk and tossed onto mine, and if there was time, I wanted to check my Kristy Munson notes once more before meeting with her grandfather.

  It was after one o’clock when Nancy rapped on the door and leaned in through the doorway.

  “Are you all right in here?”

  I reached for several folders on the credenza behind me and handed them to her. “I’m in a groove. Here are my expense reports and the background checks. My notes are in each folder, and I’ve forwarded the information to the clients. Unless we hear otherwise, tell Arnie those jobs are complete. I’ll have the reports for Matheson and Johns finished within the hour.”

  Nancy’s face took on a look of astonishment. “Who lit a fire under you?”

  “No one. It was just time to take care of paperwork.” She took the folders and turned to leave. I stopped her. “Wait a minute. You spend a lot of time with Mama. What has she said to you about playing the lottery?”

  She suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I’d rather not say, Jo. I don’t want to betray Estelle’s confidences, and I don’t want to get caught in the middle of anything.”

  I nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have asked, but if you find out Mama’s going broke and planning to come live with me, you better forget your loyalty and tell me.”

  She giggled. “I will. There’s nothing to worry about - yet.” She turned to leave again but spun around. “Don’t forget, you have to see Richard Munson at four o’clock.”

  I nodded again, and she left the room. I was dreading seeing the man. There was nothing personable about him, and he always made me feel like a little girl about to be punished. Maybe he had good reason to punish me today. Did he know I hadn’t been effective in following Kristy? Is that why he wanted to see me? Was he going to fire us? Richard Munson was our highest paying client right now.

  I didn’t want to think about it. Feelings of unease rushed in again. I pulled my cell phone out and called Glenn. The call went straight to voicemail.

  My motivation for doing paperwork vanished. I dug through my bag and found the three subpoenas that still needed to be delivered.

  One of the deponents was on the way to Richard’s house. No one had answered when I rang the bell yesterday. Maybe I could catch Beth Sauder at home today.

  “I won’t be back,” I told Nancy as I walked past her desk. “I’m going to grab some lunch, deliver a subpoena, and then meet with Richard. Hopefully, we’ll still have a client after I see him.”

  “I heard,” she said with sympathy.

  “Mama has a big mouth. Pretty soon the whole town will know.”

  “I don’t think Kristy knowing you’ve been following her is necessarily bad news,” she said. “If Estelle heard her saying she’s not following any of her grandfather’s rules, you can report that information to him. It’s what he’s been expecting anyway.”

  “I know. I thought about that, but Mama tends to exaggerate, and I don’t want hearsay to be what he bases his decision on.” I noticed Arnie’s office was dark. “Where did Arnie go?”

  “He’s over in the bar talking with Parker.”

  That ruled Parker’s out for lunch. I didn’t want to talk with Arnie if Mama was telling everyone about my crappy surveillance skills. I didn’t want his sympathy or his words of encouragement. I’d take care of this on my own.

  After wolfing down a chef salad at Chummy’s, I drove to Beth Sauder’s house, parked in the driveway, and rapped on the door. After another rap and a few minutes more, an elderly man answered.

  “Is Beth here?” I asked.

  He threw a thumb over his shoulder. “Out back tending the garden.”

  I thanked the man and headed around the house. A middle-aged woman stood in the center of a small garden with a hoe in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.

  “Hi,” I called out. “Are you Beth Sauder?”

  She shielded her eyes against the sun as she looked my way. I walked between two rows of small plants and held the envelope out to her.

  “I’m Jo Ravens with Baranski and Ravens Investigations. This is the subpoena for your deposition.”

  She dropped the hoe and took the envelope from my hand. “I’m being set up, you know,” she said calmly.

  I was surprised by her words. “Why would you think that?”

  “I know who’s stealing from the company. It’s Bernie Drucker. He’s only been with the company for three months. A few weeks ago, I had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment, and I walked up on him while he was putting a box of spark plugs in his trunk. He said he bought them, but it’s company policy that employees aren’t allowed to buy more than a few parts at a time for personal use, and a supervisor has to sign off on the purchase. He was nasty and told me to mind my own business. I’ve heard it rumored that even though everyone is being looked at for the inventory discrepancies, only my initials are on the suspicious counts. I think he fudged his own numbers to make them look like mine. Is this something I should hire you to help me with?”

&
nbsp; I pulled the last two subpoenas out of my bag. One was for William Drucker. “Is Bernie a nickname?”

  “Yeah. The warehouse supervisor gave it to him. He comes in looking stoned all the time, but he keeps passing random drug tests, so the super calls him Bernie.”

  I slightly shook my head and furrowed my eyebrows. I didn’t know how passing drug tests would get him the nickname of Bernie.

  “It’s so obvious he’s a burnout, so he calls him Bernie for short.”

  I was stunned a supervisor would call him an incriminating name like that. Whether William was passing drug tests or not, his boss could be looking at a harassment suit by using the nickname.

  “I don’t think you need me yet, Beth. Go to your deposition and answer your questions truthfully. If you can talk with Matt Ryder privately, fill him in on anything that doesn’t come up when you’re questioned. If you need an attorney later, he’ll be able to recommend someone. Tell him I told you to ask.”

  “I will. Thanks.” I turned to leave, but she continued to plead her case. “I know it’s Bernie. He’s sneaky, and I think he steals from the lunchroom, too. Food and money have both gone missing from lockers. We didn’t have any problems until he started working there.”

  I wished her well and told her to call me later if she needed my help. I didn’t want to get involved in a case already being handled by attorneys, and it sounded like it wouldn’t be too hard to get to the bottom of the stolen car parts anyway.

  I climbed back into my truck and headed out of town.

  As much as I dreaded my meeting with Richard Munson, like Jackie, I had always wanted to see inside the formidable structure.

  The house was situated on twenty-five acres of land ten miles west of the city. Before his wife left him, the house had been a hub for numerous parties, fundraisers, and social functions.

  Rumors swirled over the fact that he had cut his son, Mark, out of his will when Mark took his mother’s side in the divorce and refused to continue working for his father’s internet company in Columbus. Instead, he started his own software and design company in Buxley. Kristy was Richard’s only grandchild, and he planned to leave his fortune to her if she could prove herself worthy and not rebellious like her father.