Have Yourself a Merry Little Murder

by K. J. Emrick

  She did paint a picture, Lilly had to admit. She remembered the cigarette butts at the street now and realized Connor might have found a clue after all. “Was there anything else about the guy that you can remember? Anything at all could be helpful.”

  “We really need our car back,” Connor added.

  “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. You young people need to be mobile and ready to move around at a moment’s notice. I remember being that age and going here and there and, oh, just everywhere.” She stopped rocking again. “What did you ask me? Oh yes. The man. Well… I did think it was odd that he had a bandage on his neck. Odd place for a boo boo, you know?”

  Connor nodded, tucking that bit of information into the back of his head. A bald guy who smokes with a bandage on his neck. How hard could it be to find someone who looked like that?

  He reached out to take Mrs. Fillmore’s hand between his. “Thank you, neighbor. Cards this weekend?”

  She patted his palm. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  On the way back up to their apartment, Connor noticed how distracted Lilly was. They knew each other so well. Sometimes he really felt like they were two sides of the same mirror. Or… however that saying went.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked her. “We got a good lead on our stolen car. Tomorrow we can go and talk to George and ask if he knows anybody fitting that description and explain to him that’s who took the car. For some reason.”

  “What? Oh, yeah.” She shrugged. “If that’s what you think is best.”

  Connor put his arm around her shoulders as they came off the stairs on their floor. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah… I was just thinking about what Mrs. Fillmore said.”

  “About the guy who took our car?”

  “No, no not that.” She stopped in the hall, toying with his fingers. “She was talking about how her daughter never comes to visit her anymore. My mother is sad that she doesn’t get to see me as much as she likes anymore. I don’t want to be that kind of daughter, you know? I mean, Mom needs to keep up to date with… all the things going on in my life. Our life, I mean. Yours and mine. I was thinking… um. I was thinking that maybe we could go back to Misty Hollow for Christmas.”

  She was expecting him to argue about their schedules and the state of their bank account and maybe half a dozen other things that they always had to worry about. Instead he leaned in close and kissed her lovingly. “You know what? I think that’s a great idea.”

  A smile stole across Lilly’s face. He always knew the best thing to say.

  “Come on,” she told him. “I want to get you into bed. I still have news to tell you.”

  “Hmm. I’m intrigued,” he muttered. “News that’s better said in bed? Can’t wait to know what that is.”

  They opened the door to the apartment, and the risqué response Lilly had been about to give him got stuck in her throat. There was someone sitting at their kitchen table, facing the door, waiting for them.

  George Achner, their mechanic.

  Connor silently called himself an idiot for not locking the door.

  Everything froze for a single moment, until the door closed behind him. The sound of it jolted Connor. “Uh, your car’s missing,” he blurted out.

  George was not a small man. He stood over six feet tall, and his arms were as big around as Connor’s legs. The leather jacket he was wearing was one that he almost always had with him, rain or shine or snow. The grease under his fingernails was always there, too.

  “I can see the car’s gone,” he answered in a rough voice. “Question is, where is it?”

  Lilly crossed her arms and stared at the man. “No, the question is, what are you doing in our apartment?”

  “Waiting for you, is what. I came to collect my loaner car back from you. Turns out you two aren’t only late on your payment, but now you’re hiding my car somewhere. I want it back.”

  “You loaned it to us,” Lilly reminded him. “You loaned it to us while you’re fixing our car. And we are not late on our payment to you, thank you very much.”

  “Nearly midnight now,” George grumbled. “Come midnight, you’re late. Wasn’t me who loaned you that car anyways. That was my idiot employee Jack Dunston. He should’ve known better. That’s not something we do. You drop off your car, we fix it, you pay us. We’re a garage, not a charity. Now. Where’s my car?”

  Connor cleared his throat loudly to get their attention. Lilly was a strong woman and if he wasn’t careful, she’d be throwing George out of their apartment and then he might just decide to stop repairing their car or break something else on it and then where would they be? “George, listen,” he said. “The car got stolen off the street. We’re trying to figure out what happened to it right now.”

  George sat up straighter in the chair, making it creak under his weight. “What do you mean, it’s been stolen? You got my car stolen? What kind of nonsense is this!”

  “It’s not nonsense,” Lilly snapped at him. “Somebody stole the car. I was going to call the police because we haven’t really found out much about who took it.”

  “We found out a little,” Connor protested.

  “Yes, baby, we did and you did a good job getting that, but what are we supposed to do now? Look for every bald man with a neck injury in town? I really think we need to call the police.”

  “No!” George was quick to say. He stood up from the table and looked down at his shoes as he zipped up his jacket. “No. No police. This is my car, and I’ll take care of this my way. You two just stay out of it. And make sure you pay me what you owe!”

  He stormed past them and yanked the door open, stomping down the hall to the elevator. Just like that, he was gone.

  Lilly stared after him before closing the door again. “Did he seem nervous to you?”

  “He seemed like a guy who wanted to twist someone’s head off,” Connor answered. “Like someone who’s done it before, too. All right. I’ll call us a cab. It’s going to be a long night, but I really think we’re on to something.”

  “What? Connor, what are you talking about? We’re out of clues and George is already angry enough as it is. It’s time to call in the police.”

  “We’re not out of clues yet.” He smiled to himself as he took out his cellphone to make a call. Not to the police. To the local taxi company. “George just gave us the next clue.”

  “He did? I didn’t hear anything. Besides, if you ask me, I think George took the car. Isn’t it a little suspicious that he’s here, in our apartment, about an hour after the car goes missing in the first place? He probably took it himself and now he’s going to report it as stolen to get his insurance company to pay out for it. Or worse, to pressure us to pay him for it, adding to what we already owe him.”

  “Hmm. Maybe, but I don’t think so. Remember, Mrs. Fillmore said she saw a bald guy take it.”

  “So? George has employees. Like that Jack Dunston, who gave us this car in the first place and started this whole nonsense.”

  “Jack isn’t bald.”

  “Well, no, but he’s the one who gave us the car…”

  “Exactly. That’s the clue George just gave us.” Connor beamed at her as he explained what he was thinking. He found that he really was enjoying this. It was just like the mysteries he and Lilly had investigated in high school, and it was a lot more enjoyable than his job had ever been. “Jack gave us that car, right? But George just said he doesn’t give out loaner vehicles. So… why did Jack do it?”

  Lilly tilted her head to one side, thinking it through. “I don’t know. He must have had a reason, but I have no idea what it would have been.”

  “Neither do I. So.” He pulled up the taxi number on his phone. “Let’s go ask him.”

  Chapter 3

  George’s repair shop was open twenty-four hours a day. Connor had always thought that was a little bit odd. In a place that rolled the sidewalks up at night, this one business kept its lights on all night long. There were some nights when Connor an
d Lilly were coming home late, really late, and there were still cars coming and going from here.

  Something was definitely going on here. It seemed to Connor that they’d been sucked into it, like it or not.

  The single-story building had two bays on one end for working on cars and a long section on the other side for the office and storage of car parts. Two pumps out front offered leaded or unleaded gas although the prices listed for either was fifty cents higher than the local average. In all the time that they had lived in Milestone, Connor had never seen anyone buying gas here. There were always cars coming and going, at all hours, but none of them stayed long enough to get gas. Or long enough to do much of anything.

  There were always several cars parked in the gated lot off to the side. Customers’ cars that were being worked on, and a few that were for sale. Lilly spotted their car in there now, but it was hard to tell from here if the repairs had been done yet or not. Besides, they weren’t going to get it back without giving George something.

  Connor waited for the taxi to drive away and then started right across the road to the garage’s office. They could see people inside, standing at the service counter, drinking coffee. Jack was there, and he looked stressed over something. Maybe George had already called and chewed him out for giving them the car, Lilly thought. There were two other guys there as well, and a woman. The woman was curvy and blonde, chewing bubble gum and looking bored. Lilly decided she already didn’t like her, even without meeting her yet. Then there was a guy in a hat, covered in tattoos up his bare arms and his hands and even his neck.

  Then the third guy standing there was a bald man with a sour face.

  Lilly and Connor exchanged a glance. A bald man. Could it be this easy?

  The bell over the door rang when they pushed their way in and everyone turned to look at them. The silence hung heavy in the air. Jack finally lifted a hand to them. “Uh, hi guys. I’m a little busy right now. Maybe you want to come back tomorrow.”

  The man in the hat narrowed his eyes and sniffed like he’d just smelled something he didn’t like. “Don’t worry, Jack. We were just leaving. Remember what we said. See you tomorrow.” When he turned to the blonde, the tattoo on his neck caught the light and shone with black and red ink. A skull with a dagger through the bone.

  He caught the arm of the blonde and growled they were going somewhere more private. The bell jangled when the door slammed.

  The bald man looked at Connor and Lilly and smiled with yellow teeth. “Guess I’ll be going, too,” he said. “Got things to do. No rest for the wicked, eh?”

  His voice was squeaky, and he laughed like a tittering bird as he made the bell ring again.

  Lilly looked at Connor with a question… follow him?

  Connor shook his head. No.

  Jack actually looked relieved when everyone was gone. He mopped his forehead with his hand and when he did, his hair pushed back from his ears. Lilly stared. A wig? She hadn’t noticed that before. The color was so natural, but now she could see it.

  Jack was bald.

  Hmm.

  “Hi,” Connor said to him, before Lilly could find some way to point out what she’d seen. “Say, we wanted to ask you about that loaner car you gave us.”

  With a snort, Jack started cleaning up the counter of old coffee cups and scrap paper. “Just bring it back tomorrow like you promised, okay? Bring the car and your payment and everything will be fine.”

  “We can’t do that,” Lilly told him. “You see, someone stole the car. A bald man stole it maybe two hours ago.”

  Jack froze where he was. The color drained from his face. He blinked, and blinked again, and then slowly straightened up and came back to himself. “You two need to leave. Get out. Just get out I have work to do and you can’t be here. Get out. Just go.”

  Lilly took a step forward, prepared to argue with him that they weren’t going anywhere until they got some answers. Connor caught her hand and started moving them both toward the door. “No worries, Jack. We’ll be back tomorrow like we promised. See you then.”

  When they were outside, Lilly took her hand back. “You want to tell me what all that was about? He’s the only one who has the answers we need, remember? And he’s bald! If we don’t put a little pressure on him now, then we’ll never find out what happened.”

  He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “Don’t worry. I already know who took the car. I even think I know why.”

  “You… what?” Lilly couldn’t believe what she was hearing. What had she missed?

  “Trust me. I’ve got the whole thing figured out. Now it’s time to go to the police. Do you trust me?”

  She didn’t even have to think about it. “I’ll always trust you, Connor. Always.”

  “I love you, too,” he told her, as if those were the words she had said… which in a way, they were. “Let’s get going. Tomorrow’s going to be a really long day. Who do we know in the local police?”

  “No one,” Lilly answered.

  “Ugh. It was so much easier back in Misty Hollow where we knew the police chief personally. Well. I think it’s time to make a few new friends here in Milestone. Um. We’re going to have to call a taxi first. We still don’t have a car.”

  Chapter 4

  The next morning, they were in the Milestone Police Department, and everything was coming together.

  There was just one small room set aside for interviews with suspects, with a small one-way mirror looking in. Connor and Lilly crowded in front of it along with Sergeant Roger Tyndall.

  Roger was a tall and slender man who wore his dark hair slicked back and his beard trimmed close to his square jaw. He’d been understandably uncertain when Connor and Lilly had arrived at the station last night, telling him this fantastic yarn that started with a stolen car and ended with…

  “Drugs. Drug dealing right here in Milestone.” Roger shook his head sadly as he hooked his thumbs into his leather duty belt. His uniform shirt had a bad habit of untucking itself in the back, thanks to his long torso. “I can’t believe we got that kind of big city trouble right here in our town.”

  The car that had been taken from them was the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. After last night, all the clues had finally fallen into place for Connor. A business that stayed open all night even though it didn’t do much business. Cars coming and going but never stopping long enough to get gas or anything else. People hanging out inside, and then leaving as soon as anyone they didn’t recognize showed up. The suspicious way that George had been acting.

  And, the way everyone seemed to want that loaner car back. A loaner car that the owner of the garage didn’t know anything about.

  Roger had finally been convinced by the insistent way Connor presented the facts. On the basis of looking for the stolen car, Roger had gotten a search warrant and brought every officer in the department—all eight of them—to an early morning raid of George’s garage. What they had found, tucked in among the stacked tires, was four bags full of processed cocaine.

  “But I still don’t understand,” Roger said now as they watched the man in the interview room. “What was the deal with the stolen car?”

  “Well,” Lilly said, “the garage uses those cars parked in the side lot as a way to deliver the drugs without the police or anyone else noticing. They put the drugs in one of the cars, and then put a set of random plates on it, and just drive the drugs to their dealers.”

  She and Connor had figured it all out last night, talking excitedly for hours before presenting everything to the police. There hadn’t been time to talk about anything else, and now here they were.

  Connor gave her a wink. He was really, really enjoying this. “See, we thought it was suspicious that the garage had way too many cars sitting in its lot. This is a small town. How could they have that many cars to work on? They couldn’t. That meant they were using the cars for something else.”

  Roger was still confused. “But, Jack gave you one of the cars as a loaner
. Why would he do that, knowing there were drugs in it?”

  “Well, that’s where things got tricky.” Connor shifted on his feet, recalling every detail he had worked out. “See, the drug dealing was George the owner’s side business. His employee, Jack, decided to skim off the profits. The only way he could get a car out of the shop without George noticing was to give it to a customer. So he gives it to us as a loaner, and then pays someone to ‘steal’ it from us. They have the car, they have the drugs that were hidden inside the car, and Jack gets to claim it was an honest mistake when George comes looking for it.”

  Lilly smiled at Connor. The scam that Jack had planned out was really ingenious. It would have worked, too, if it hadn’t been for Connor.

  Roger nodded and snapped his fingers. “Oh! Okay. I get it. So it wasn’t Jack who stole the car?”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Connor pointed in through the window. “It was him.”

  Inside, the man they had seen in the repair garage sat miserably handcuffed and going nowhere. The man with the hat, and the tattoos. His hat was gone, but that tattoo of the skull with the dagger still shimmered under the lights.

  “Our neighbor,” Lilly said, “saw a bald man with a bandage on his neck. He used a key to steal the car, which was another clue that someone from the repair shop had to be in on it.”

  “But,” Roger asked, “she saw a man with a bandage. This guy isn’t wearing a bandage.”

  “He was at the time,” Connor said. “That’s a new tattoo. See how the ink still shines? When you get a new tattoo, you have to keep it covered with a bandage to protect it from infection. That’s your guy. He was working with Jack to steal from George, and George was a drug dealer. I think your department is going to be busy for the next week or so tying this one up.”

  “Thanks to you two.” Roger shook his head again, with a lopsided grin. “Having you guys in town is going to make things interesting. I can see that for sure. Thank you. I think I owe you one.”

  “You’re welcome,” Connor told him. “And I’m going to hold you to that.”