Murder Wins the Game

by Maddie Cochere

  Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Was he going to do what I thought he was going to do? Was he going to ask me to marry him? He wouldn’t. He couldn’t! I wasn’t ready to get married. I didn’t want to get married again. Not yet. And after the week we’d just had, I had my doubts as to if we were even meant for each other.”

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” I said quickly. “Let me change my clothes, and I’ll be right back.”

  For the second time today, I ran up the stairs as if I was running for my life. I shut myself in the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. What was I going to do? If he asked me to marry him, I’d have to say no. His feelings would be hurt again, and we’d be done for sure. Is that what I wanted?

  Monkeynuts! Why did everything have to be so complicated?

  I changed into sweatpants, a t-shirt, and my fuzzy orange slippers. I needed a few more minutes to collect myself and calm my racing heart.

  I sat on the edge of the bed, but I was soon lying on my back, staring at the ceiling.

  A few minutes later, I opened my eyes to sunlight streaming in through the open blinds. The smell of bacon wafted up the stairs. My slippers were on the floor, but I was in bed still dressed in my sweats and t-shirt.

  For a moment, my world seemed right – but only for a moment. The events of yesterday flooded in, and the thought of getting up and facing Glenn made my stomach flop.

  I forced myself to go down to the kitchen. Glenn had already plated my breakfast of toast, eggs, and bacon and had it waiting on the breakfast bar for me.

  “Good morning, Sherlock,” he said. “I thought the smell of bacon might wake you.”

  I managed a smile. “I’m sorry about last night. I was exhausted, and I guess resting on the bed for a few minutes was a mistake.”

  “It’s ok. I know things have been tough for you lately. I saw Buck when I first came in last night, and he filled me in on your adventure with Pepper yesterday. He said she’s mad, but she’ll cool off eventually.”

  “I wasn’t that bad,” I said defensively and picked up a piece of dry toast to nibble. “I sold a ton of stuff for her. I watched out for shoplifters, and I was lucky enough to get her cookies back when some kids stole them. I might not have been the friendliest person there, but I certainly couldn’t have been the worst. I think she was mostly mad because I accused Mama of killing Dave Jackson.”

  He couldn’t hold back a smile. “I saw Estelle on your whiteboard. You’ll have to fill me in on how you came to that conclusion. As a matter of fact, you have a lot of information up there. I still think we should talk about it.”

  After I had stormed off from Dave Jackson’s place Friday afternoon, I came home and added notes to the board for the home break-ins, Richard Munson’s murder, and I started a column for Dave’s murder.

  I dropped the toast and grabbed my cup of coffee. “Come on. Let’s go. We can talk about it now.”

  Before I hit the stairs, the red phone rang. The loud noise was jarring and caused me to jump and splash coffee on my shirt. I couldn’t believe it rang.

  Glenn saw the puzzled look on my face. “I saw it when I came in last night, so I hooked it up for you.”

  I didn’t answer the phone. There wasn’t anyone I wanted to talk to at this time of morning. I let it go to the answering machine.

  You’ve reached Jo Ravens of Barnaski and Ravens Investigations. You’ve also reached Two Sisters and a Journalist. We’re not available right now. Please leave your name, number and a brief – yes, I said brief – message after the beep, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

  I stared at Glenn with what I was sure was a look akin to shock.

  “Jo? Pick up. I know you’re there.”

  It was Mama. I had no intention of taking her call. She rasped into the phone, “I didn’t kill Dave, and you better not be telling anyone I did. I swear, Jo, I’m ready to write you out of my will.”

  She hung up. Glenn was confused by my reaction.

  “How did you put my message on the machine?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Well, how did it get on there, because I didn’t record it.”

  “Didn’t you get this stuff back from the police?”

  “No. I bought both of these at the farmer’s market yesterday. I knew the telephone was mine, because of the scratch on the bottom. I had no idea the answering machine was mine. There were three to choose from.” My eyes lit up. “Glenn, we have to go to the farmer’s market and find out who runs the space where I bought the answering machine. They either stole my stuff or they know who did.”

  He wasn’t as enthused as I was. “Aren’t they closed today? It’s Sunday.”

  “I don’t know. I’d ask Pepper, but I doubt she wants to see me yet.”

  “I’ll run over and ask her. She likes me.”

  His broad smile showed off his dimple. Seeing it had its usual affect on me, and while feeling all gooey inside, I knew right then I didn’t want to be without him. If I was being honest with myself, I’d missed him terribly this week. Maybe we shouldn’t go to the market today.

  My face must have telegraphed my heart. He took the cup from my hand and set it on the coffee table. He took me into his arms and kissed me. It wasn’t a deep, passionate kiss. It was gentle and sweet and left me breathless with my heart racing. We should definitely stay home today.

  He leaned back a bit and peered into my eyes. “Jo. I made the lasagna, because I wanted to have a special dinner with you that night. There’s something I want to ask you.”

  I instinctively pushed him away from me. “Not now. We can talk later.” I headed for the stairs. “Go ask Pepper about the market. I’m going to change.”

  I rushed up the stairs and away from him. Why was he so insistent to ask me to marry him now? I loved him, but I needed more time before considering marriage. We hadn’t even been dating a year yet, and because of our work schedules, we didn’t spend a lot of time together. What if we were married and found out we couldn’t stand each other?

  I wasn’t in a hurry to go back downstairs. Maybe a long hot shower would buy me some time for Glenn to change his mind about popping the question this morning.

  An hour later, my hair was mostly dry, and I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. When I stepped out of the bedroom, I saw Glenn in the murder room at the end of the hall.

  “You didn’t want to join me?” I asked innocently.

  He didn’t smile. “I had a feeling you wanted to be alone.”

  I felt terrible. I didn’t mean to keep hurting his feelings. I sat down beside him on the love seat.

  “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to push you away.” I put my hand on his arm and decided to go for broke. “I love you. I’m just not ready to get married.”

  His brow furrowed before his face broke into a smile – a huge smile that turned into a boisterous laugh. “Is that what this is all about? You’ve been worried I was going to ask you to marry me?”

  Now I was offended and defensive. I stood and put my hands on my hips. “Is that such a horrible thought? Marrying me?”

  He was still laughing. “No, no. Of course not. And yes, I want to marry you – someday.” He patted the loveseat. “Come here.” I turned my head and closed my eyes. I heard him say again, “Come here. Sit down and let me explain.”

  I reluctantly plopped down beside him, my arms folded across my chest. I knew I was acting like one of Pepper’s kids during a snit, but I couldn’t help it.

  “Jo, look at me.” He turned my face toward him. “I have been thinking about marrying you. I would love to marry you, but I don’t want to rush you. I think we need more time together. I’ve been wanting to ask you to move in with me.”

  My eyes flew open wide, and I felt incredibly stupid. I’d thought for some time now we might move in together. I don’t know what made me think Glenn was jumping right to marriage.

  “Move in together?”

  “Yes,” he said with an endearing smile. “You know … wake
up together, eat together, shower together.”

  “Move in with you? At your place?”

  “Or I can move in here. I’ve already thought you might not want to move away from Pepper, but I think you should give both places a chance. Why don’t I come here for three months, and then you can move into my place for three months? After that, we can decide where we want to live permanently.” He paused for a moment before saying, “And by then, we’ll know if we want to have a serious talk about marriage.”

  I smiled and snuggled up close to him with my head on his shoulder. “I can do living together. And I can do talking about marriage later.”

  He put his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “We’ll have fun. You’ll see.”

  I felt happy and content. Now I needed to hurry and mend some fences. I’d start with Pepper later today.

  I looked up at Glenn. “What did Pepper say about the market?”

  “She said Saturday is the big day. The Amish and Mennonite families don’t participate on Sunday, so the vendors are down by over half, and the foot traffic is a lot less.”

  I sat up. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get going.”

  “Are you sure? We can go tomorrow. Let’s stay home and relax today.”

  Home. Did he just call my place home? It sounded nice.

  “I’d like to stay home, but I know for certain the market’s not open during the week, and I don’t want to wait until next weekend to follow up on this. What if there are more home break-ins this week, and we could have prevented them by finding the culprits first?”

  “Ok,” he said reluctantly. “I’ve already cleaned up the kitchen, so we can leave right away.”

  I grabbed my bag off the desk and tossed the truck keys to him. “You drive.”

  Ten minutes later, we had coffee from Chummy’s, and we were on the road. He steered the conversation to my whiteboard.

  “Tell me why you think your mother is a suspect in Dave Jackson’s murder.”

  “I don’t really think she killed Dave. At least I hope she didn’t. I saw her pulling away from his place the day he was killed.”

  “Did you actually see her on his property?”

  “No. I saw her pull out from a parking space in the block ahead of me. I assumed she was at his place. She’s been abusive to him in public, so it wouldn’t be unexpected to think she might show up at his house.”

  He nodded. “If she was in the vicinity, she should be questioned. Did you tell Sergeant Rorski?”

  “Nope. He wouldn’t even talk to me at the crime scene. He threw me out of the house and sent Bill outside to ask me a few questions. I left after that. No one asked me to go to the station to write a statement, and I didn’t volunteer. I’m not telling him about Mama unless he asks.”

  He frowned. “You should have written a statement. Other than Mama, do you have any thoughts on who might have killed Dave?”

  “Not really. It could be someone in his will who doesn’t want to wait for their inheritance, or maybe they’re afraid Dave will spend all the money and there won’t be any left when he dies. I think you always have to look at family first.”

  “What did you find when you went through the house?”

  My eyes widened. “What makes you think I went through the house?”

  He laughed. “I always assume you’ve searched a crime scene before we arrive, so don’t try to convince me you didn’t.”

  I knew my smile gave away my guilt. “I found a hundred thousand dollars, and I may have found two hundred thousand, but I didn’t have a chance to search the second satchel before Sergeant Rorski yelled for me.”

  He let out a low whistle under his breath. “There’s a motive for murder. Did you think someone killed him while looking for the money?”

  “Yes and no. I think whoever killed him knew him. There wasn’t any sign of forced entry, and he was sitting at the kitchen table getting ready to eat his lunch. The house was immaculate. There weren’t any signs it had been searched, but yes, I do think his murder may have something to do with the money in the house.”

  “Did you tell Sarge about the money?” He saw the look on my face and smiled. “Of course you didn’t.” He pulled out his cell phone and punched a number. A moment later, he said, “Hey, Winnie. Just between you and me, did you guys find anything in Dave Jackson’s house that you took into evidence? … Uh-huh. … Ok. … Thanks.” He hung up and faced me. “There wasn’t any reason to do a search. They only checked to be sure no one was in the house and that there weren’t any obvious clues, so the money is probably still there.”

  My eyes lit up again. “Glenn! I need to talk to Pepper and Jackie and make peace quick. I need one of them to go with me on a stakeout of Dave’s place. Maybe whoever killed him will come back to look for the money.”

  “Maybe they already did.”

  “Maybe they did, but maybe they didn’t. We should watch the house for at least a few days.”

  He wasn’t finished discussing the whiteboard. “What’s up with your bullet points on the Richard Munson murder? You know it’s going to be Kristy or her dad who killed him. How did you come up with the ex-wife and his girlfriend as suspects?”

  “Oh, shoot! I just remembered. I have jury duty tomorrow morning – with Mama.” I rolled my eyes. “Can you believe they seated us on the same jury? I wanted to talk with Judith Munson tomorrow and find out where she was when Richard was killed, but now I won’t be able to. I thought I’d ask her what she knows about his girlfriend, too. I got a tip one of them killed him.”

  “I saw your tip, Jo,” he said dryly. “Greg Thompson isn’t exactly a reliable source.”

  “Probably not. I still have to follow my leads. Sergeant Rorski isn’t even trying to solve the case. He’s trying to pin it on someone in the family, so he can get it over with quickly. Clay Carpenter thinks Sergeant Rorski is in way over his head, and none of this is going to go well for him.”

  He shot a sideways glance toward me. “Who’s Clay Carpenter?”

  “He’s on the police force over in Patterson. I ran into him at the farmer’s market yesterday. He had a few choice words about the ineptitude of the Buxley police.”

  I could see I’d hit a nerve. Whether it was a nerve of jealousy or a nerve of anger at Clay’s words, I couldn’t tell.

  Glenn was quiet for a few minutes before asking, “What does Arnie have to say about all of this?”

  “Arnie? Nothing. We’re not officially working any of these cases.”

  He reached over and grasped my hand. “Pepper’s not going to talk to you until she cools off, and Jackie’s probably not in a hurry to give you a hand with anything either. I’m off the force for at least another week, so let me help you. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to work these murders by yourself. I’m especially concerned with Dave Jackson’s murder. It doesn’t feel like someone in his family killed him. It might be dangerous to pursue it on your own.”

  “It won’t be dangerous if Mama was the one who killed him.”

  He smiled. “Estelle didn’t kill anyone. What do you say? Want to be a team?”

  I liked the idea of working with Glenn. It was only temporary, and it would give us an opportunity to spend more time together.

  I squeezed his hand. “We’re a team.”

  “Good,” he said.

  He instantly seemed more relaxed than I had seen him in weeks. The funny thing was I felt the same way. It was as if an enormous burden had been lifted, and there were no longer any problems in my life. I knew Pepper and Jackie would eventually forgive me, and it would be fun to work with Glenn until things were back to normal with the girls.

  He pulled into the field for public parking at the farmer’s market. I couldn’t believe the lack of traffic. Where there had been at least ten very long rows of vendor spaces yesterday, there were only four today. The amount of people moving in and out of the large building was considerably less as well.

  “Where do you want t
o go first?” he asked. “The office or to confront the vendor?”

  “I don’t want to confront anyone. You’re not able to make an arrest, so I only want to gather information. We’ll call someone on the Patterson force if we need an officer. This is their jurisdiction.”

  “We aren’t calling anyone at Patterson,” he said with irritation. “If there’s any arresting to do, it’s going to be Sergeant Rorski’s collar. These guys are stealing their goods in Buxley.”

  I couldn’t help smiling. For as mad as he had been about his suspension, and even threatening to quit, he was obviously still fiercely loyal to the Sergeant.

  “Let’s go find the vendor space first,” I said and led the way.

  It was chilly in the large building. I was glad I had slipped on a jacket before leaving the house. Glenn wore only a black t-shirt and jeans. The cool air didn’t seem to bother him.

  Many of the tables and wares were covered with sheets or tarps. Pepper was right. Less than half of the vendors were open.

  “Let’s get some fruit before we leave,” Glenn said, slowing down in front of a space with baskets full of fresh fruits and vegetables. “There are some good-looking strawberries and raspberries here.”

  “Back here,” I said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him toward the back of the building.

  The place where I had purchased the answering machine wasn’t covered, but there didn’t appear to be anyone working the space. Glenn looked over the items for sale. Most of the smaller items of value were locked in glass cases.

  “Just about everything here could have been taken out of a home,” he said.

  “Let’s say this is all stolen merchandise,” I said. “Why do you suppose they steal chairs and refrigerators? Those are heavy items.”

  “There must be a market for them.” He pointed out the prices on several pieces. “These are high ticket items but still great deals. If these are stolen, the money’s pure profit for the seller.”

  “No one’s there today,” a large man in a lawn chair called over from the next space. “They’ll be back next Saturday.”

  I stepped over to stand in front of his table. It was stacked with boxes of used video systems and games. “Do you know the guy who runs this space?”