by Jessica Beck
I put my hands on her shoulders and made her look into my eyes. “I’ll ask you again. Would it be okay if we ate here?”
“I’d love it,” she said as she reached over and pulled out a chair at the table closest to her station up front by the register. “Look at that. I even saved you both seats.”
“How could you do that?” I asked with a laugh. “You didn’t even know we were coming.”
“What can I say? I’m psychic.”
“Did you say psychotic?” Charlie Granger asked as he held his bill out to her.
“Charlie, do you really want to pay my aggravation tax again?” Trish asked him coolly.
That quieted him down immediately. “No, ma’am. Sorry about that.” He thrust a twenty at her as he fled the diner. “Keep the change.”
After he was gone, I asked, “What was that all about?”
“It’s something new I’m trying,” Trish said as she processed his bill and put Charlie’s change in the tip jar on the counter. “For egregious cases of offense, I charge a fifty percent surcharge on any bill at my sole discretion.”
“Have you used it much?”
“So far I’ve only had to do it twice. It’s amazing how quickly the word spreads,” she said with a grin. “You should try it yourself at Donut Hearts.”
“I don’t think so. The truth is that I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, not that I’m judging you,” I said. “You just have more of a built-in clientele than I do.”
“I get that. Anyway, it’s actually more of a threat than an actual policy. Why don’t you go get Jake, and I’ll get Hilda started on your burgers. I’m guessing you want fries and tea with them, right?”
“That sounds perfect,” I said.
I walked out to the truck, and Jake’s smile faded into a frown when he saw that I was empty-handed. “What’s going on?”
“Trish was offended when I asked for our food to go, so it turns out that we’re eating inside. I hope that’s okay with you.”
Jake shrugged. “It’s fine by me.”
As we walked up the diner’s steps together, I asked, “Are you sure that you’re okay with this?”
“Suzanne, if it’s important to Trish, it’s easy enough to do. Say, have you heard about her latest thing?” he asked me with a grin.
“The aggravation tax? As a matter of fact, I just saw it in action.”
“Was that why Charlie raced out so fast a minute ago?” Jake asked, laughing. “I can’t believe it’s true.”
“She didn’t actually enforce it,” I explained. “The threat alone was enough to bring him into line.”
“She’s got some kind of a medieval fiefdom going on here, doesn’t she?”
“I know I’d hate to offend her,” I said, “and not just because she’s one of my best friends in the world. Can you imagine life in April Springs without the Boxcar Grill?”
“No, it would truly be a sad and gloomy place,” he said.
Trish smiled happily at both of us as we walked in, and not long after we took our seats, our food was served.
“Did you make this for someone else?” Jake asked as he looked at the burger and fries suddenly in front of him.
“No. I bumped your order to the head of the line. Being the owner has its privileges. Suzanne told me that you two were in a hurry.”
“Thanks,” Jake said as he took a bite. “This is amazing.”
“I’m glad you approve,” Trish said, and then she drifted off to wait on another customer. I didn’t know how she managed to run the dining room, wait on customers, handle the register, and keep things hopping with Hilda in back. It would have driven me crazy in no time at all, but she did it with such grace and elegance that it was hard to imagine anyone else tackling it.
As we ate, Jake and I chatted idly with Trish, but we didn’t dare speculate about the case, and our hostess was gracious enough not to ask us about it. The truth of the matter was that she might not even have known what had happened at the flip house yet. After all, not everyone in April Springs was up on what was going on outside the town limits.
Once our bill was paid, we were in Jake’s truck and heading toward the house, or more accurately, what was left of it.
I wondered if it was even possible that we might find something that everyone else had missed. It was hard to imagine that between Chief Grant and his staff, the fire marshal, and the Secret Service, there would be anything left to find of value to the investigation, but we weren’t about to let that stop us from trying.
If there was anything we could do to help catch the killer, we were bound and determined to do it.
As we drove past Curtis’s place, Jake hesitated.
“What’s up?” I asked him.
“Why isn’t anybody here?” he asked. “The man was murdered yesterday. Don’t you think that at least warrants a full-scale search of his place?”
“I’m sure somebody’s checked it out,” I said. “After all, they can’t be everywhere at once.”
“I suppose not,” Jake said as he drove past.
As soon as we got near the flip house, I immediately understood why Curtis Mason’s house was empty.
It appeared that everyone was at our burned-out place.
Chief Grant was driving out as we were heading in, and he stopped and motioned for us to roll down our windows so we could chat.
“What’s going on?” Jake asked him.
“I was asked, ordered is more like it, to give Agent Blaze an update. That was easy enough, since I haven’t made any real progress since we spoke last night, so it was short and sweet.”
“What about Maxine and Lionel?” I asked.
“As of a few minutes ago, they’re both unaccounted for,” the chief said. “You can’t even begin to imagine how frustrated the Secret Service is about that.”
“They aren’t blaming you, are they?” Jake asked him.
“Directly? No. But I can feel their scorn. I didn’t realize it was my job to be everywhere at once.”
“We were just saying the same thing,” I told the chief, trying my best to comfort him.
“Well, she sent me out to find you, Suzanne, so at least that’s something.”
“Me? What does she want with me?”
The chief shook his head slightly. “She wants to hear all about your fight with Maxine this morning. Evidently you’re the last person to see her today.”
“There’s nothing I can tell her that’s going to help her find the real estate agent,” I said.
“You know that, and I know that, but she’s going to run you through the wringer anyway.”
“Not without me, she’s not,” Jake answered.
“If anyone else made that claim, I’d have said they were delusional, but you might just have a fighting chance with her. Anyway, good luck.” Almost as an afterthought, he said, “Sorry I ratted you out, Suzanne.”
“No worries, Chief,” I told him. “Did you tell her everything we discussed?”
“She’s got it all,” he admitted. “Like I said, I didn’t have much of a choice.”
“We understand,” Jake said as he looked up. Agent Blaze was standing by her car watching us, and the moment she got our attention, she waved us toward her. “We’d better go.”
“Good luck,” the chief said, and then he was gone.
“I need to know everything you know,” Agent Blaze said curtly. At first she’d tried to separate my husband and me, but she quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. That put her in a bad mood, not that she probably wasn’t there anyway.
“I’ve already told you three times,” I said wearily. “I don’t know what else you expect me to say.”
“There’s got to be something you’re missing,” she insisted.
“Agent Blaze, my wife and I have cooperated with you fully, but there’s simply nothing left for us to tell you.”
“Fine. I’d like to know one more thing if I may.”
“If we can help you, we will,�
� I told her.
“Why are you both here right now?” She gestured to what remained of the house, mostly just charred rubble. “There’s obviously nothing here worth saving.”
“We wanted to see it again for ourselves,” I said quickly. I wasn’t about to admit that we were still digging into the counterfeiting ring and Curtis Mason’s murder. “Is that okay with you?”
“It’s fine. We were just leaving,” she said. “Do you have any idea where either Maxine Halliday or Lionel Henderson III currently are?”
There was no doubt the question was an official one, and I was glad that I could give her an honest answer. “I don’t have a clue,” I said.
“Neither do I,” Jake added.
“Then there’s nothing keeping us here,” she said as she gestured to her team, which was waiting patiently for some signal from their leader. As a unit, they got into the vehicles and started to drive away. Only Agent Blaze hesitated. “If you see either one of them or come across anything that might help the investigation, I expect you to report it directly to me, not your local chief of police. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal,” Jake said, and I nodded my agreement as well.
She seemed satisfied by our responses, and soon enough, we were alone.
Chapter 21
THE HOUSE WAS A TOTAL bust, and not just the fact that there was nothing left to remodel. If there was a clue in the burned-out rubble, we couldn’t see it from the perimeter, and there was no way we were going to risk rooting around in what was left.
I was ready to give up when Jake asked, “Suzanne, where are you going?”
“Is there really any reason to hang around here anymore?”
“I thought we were looking for clues,” Jake protested.
“In there? Even if there was anything there to find, don’t you think between the three different investigating agencies they would have found it before us?”
“You’ve discovered things in the past when everyone else overlooked them,” he reminded me.
“True, but not after a search like what happened here,” I said, more than a little disheartened.
My husband put an arm around my shoulders. “Come on. Let’s apply a little scientific method and see what we can find.”
“What did you have in mind?” I was honestly curious about my husband’s willingness to look over ground that had already been so thoroughly searched. “There’s not much chance we’ll find anything here,” I said as I pointed to the ruins of what used to be our family project.
“So then we don’t focus on there,” he said.
“I’m willing to try anything at this point. I can’t ever remember being so frustrated in an investigation when all seemed so lost,” I admitted.
“That’s why we need to take our emotions out of it. I know they usually serve you well, but let’s look at this from a purely academic point of view. One of the first things they taught us at the academy were the different ways to search an area.”
“What are they?”
“Grid is popular, and so are line and zone searches, but what I have in mind is a spiral pattern. We start from one corner of the burned-out house and circle it, expanding the area of our search as we go. What do you say?”
“It sounds as good as anything else to me. Go on. I’ll follow you,” I said.
“Actually, I was thinking that one of us should go clockwise and the other counterclockwise. It’s possible that way we might see something from a different perspective.”
“Okay, I’ll go counterclockwise. After all, it seems to be in my nature to go against the grain,” I said with a grin. “How far do we search?”
“Until we can’t search anymore,” Jake said.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d be at it, but what else was there for us to do? Everybody was looking for Maxine and Lionel, so I doubted we could add anything to that part of the investigation, but maybe, just maybe, we’d get lucky here. If nothing else, it felt as though we were being productive. We stood back-to-back at one corner of the house and met up again on the opposite corner.
“Find anything yet?” I asked him with a grin.
“Suzanne, I didn’t think we’d get immediate results,” Jake answered.
“I was just kidding,” I said as I extended my pattern a little farther out. I might not have been following Jake, but we met up twice in each circular pattern, so at least I got to see him briefly each time we passed. He was mostly just motion out of the corner of my field of vision, though. I was focused on the ground.
I found several things at my feet, mostly construction debris that had blown away from the house or the dumpster we’d used, but something caught my eye about forty feet from where the side door of the house used to be.
At first I thought I was imagining it. In fact, I almost passed it by when something in my head told me that it was worth investigating.
It had been covered by a leaf and part of a bit of torn drywall, but it was there nonetheless.
I had found Lionel Henderson’s personal good luck token, the coin I’d seen him playing with several times before. I had to wonder when he’d lost it. It had certainly been after he’d claimed to have lost interest in buying our flip house.
I couldn’t believe it, but I’d just found a genuine clue after all.
I’d knelt down to pick it up when Jake must have seen what I was up to and grabbed my arm. “Hang on. What did you find?”
“Unless I’m mistaken, I believe this is Lionel Henderson’s lucky coin,” I said.
“Hold on one second,” Jake said as he pulled out his phone and started taking pictures of the nearly buried coin. Once he was satisfied that he had enough images, he took a pen from his pocket and carefully removed the debris around it, documenting it as he worked. It was a pleasure watching how meticulous he was at the job, and I could understand why he missed doing something with his life, particularly when he was clearly so good at what he’d once done for a living. Once the coin was fully exposed, he grabbed an evidence bag from his pocket and carefully collected it.
After that, he did something that surprised me.
He handed the bag to me.
“Are you certain this is Henderson’s lucky token? I need you to be absolutely sure before I call Agent Blaze,” Jake said.
I needed only a moment to confirm its identity. “It’s the same one, all right, or a perfect duplicate of it,” I said.
“Good. That’s all I need to know.”
Jake started to call the Secret Service agent when a voice called out from behind the small copse of trees that separated the burned-out house from Curtis Mason’s former place.
“Stop what you’re doing this instant,” Lionel Henderson III said as he pointed a gun at Jake’s heart. “I’ll take that token, if you don’t mind.”
Chapter 22
I HELD ONTO THE COIN, since it was our only bargaining chip. “Lionel, why did you use this house for your counterfeiting operation?” I asked him as Jake slowly started reaching for his gun, safely stashed away in his shoulder holster. To most people, it might have looked as though he was simply scratching his chest, but evidently the counterfeiter had been waiting for him to do something like it.
“You don’t want to do that, Mr. Bishop. I may not be that great a shot, but surely I’ll hit one of you if you continue to reach for that weapon. Do you really want to take that chance?”
“You don’t want to kill us, Lionel,” I said, hoping that it was true.
“At this point, I don’t see why not. After all, I’ve already got the blood of two people on my hands. What’s two more?”
“I understand that you killed Curtis Mason, but who else is dead?” I asked, hoping against hope that it wasn’t one of my friends. What if Chief Grant had figured everything out and confronted him? Could this shadow of a man have murdered my friend?
Jake got it before I did, which was to be expected, given the fact that he was a seasoned detective. I was good, and I fully realized i
t, but it would be ridiculous of me to suspect that I was better than my husband. As a matter of fact, it was a point of pride with me.
“You killed Maxine Halliday,” he said flatly.
“Very good, Detective. Now reach into your holster and slowly remove your handgun by your fingertips and drop it to the ground. Who knew that watching so many detective shows on television would give me insight into the way a law enforcement officer’s mind worked?”
Jake glanced at me, and I just shrugged. It was his call, and I respected his judgment. If he thought he could get a shot off before Lionel could fire in our direction, then I was okay with the consequences of his actions, and I hoped he knew it.
I knew in my heart that sometimes a roll of the dice was the best you could do. You placed your bet, and you took your chances on the final outcome.
Jake pondered the decision for a moment before doing as he had been instructed. I’d been poised to dive to the ground if he’d decided to shoot, but I knew that we weren’t out of options yet. I couldn’t really blame my husband for not risking my life. I knew that if he had been alone, he would have taken his chances without a single moment of hesitation, but I was the mitigating factor here.
Maybe I could do something to distract the killer enough for Jake to come up with an alternate plan. “Why did you feel as though you had to kill Maxine?” I asked him.
“She thought she could blackmail me, if you can believe that,” he said with disdain. “I was here collecting my supply of paper and some extra bills I’d already printed up when she followed me inside. I knew that she’d been snooping around the house, but I didn’t see her at the time. I let my guard down for a moment, and that was all that it took.”
“Why here, though?” I asked him again. “That’s the part that I don’t understand. You could have just as easily done this in your own home.”
“And risk having someone discover what I was up to? I hardly think so. I knew this place had been virtually abandoned for quite some time, and it was perfect for my needs, or so I thought. That was before I realized just what a mistake I’d made in choosing this place.”