by Nancy CoCo
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry,” she said and hugged me. “I mean ‘tucked her away to hide her.’ I didn’t mean to imply she was dead.”
Everett meowed and rubbed against my leg to comfort me.
“If we go, we all go,” I said and got up.
“That’s my girl.” Porsche got my coat while I leashed up Everett.
We got as far as the back door when we ran into Officer Sanford. “Sorry, ladies,” he said. “I’ve been given strict instructions to not let you leave.”
“You can’t make me a prisoner in my own home,” I said. “I’m not under arrest.”
“Yeah, she hasn’t been legally charged with anything,” Porsche said.
He crossed his arms and studied us with his cop expression. Rain softly dripped off his hat. I realized he was charged with standing out in the rain for the foreseeable future, and that would make anyone cranky.
“We were going to take Everett for a walk,” I said.
“Who walks a cat in the rain at ten o’clock at night?” he asked.
I winced.
Porsche gave him the stink eye. “We do.”
“For your own safety I’m going to instruct you to go back inside,” he said. “We’re here for your protection, whether you like it or not.”
“We?” I asked.
“Jonesy is working the front of the building.”
“Right.” I looked at Porsche. “Let’s go in and let these guys do their job.”
“But—”
“Wait,” I said as I put my hand on the door. “When did you guys get here? Porsche just came over. She didn’t see you then, did you?”
“No,” Porsche said her eyebrows drawn. “They weren’t here.”
“Look,” he said. “This is costing taxpayer dollars so if I were you, I’d go inside.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Porsche asked and crossed her arms and jutted her chin out to mirror him.
“Come on,” I said and grabbed her arm. “Let’s go in. All we’re doing here is getting wet.” I pulled her into the building.
“Why are you giving up?” she asked as Everett and I power walked straight to the front door.
“Who said I was giving up?” I opened the front door and the sound of cackling reminded me I needed to change the sound back to the normal bells.
“Ladies, please go inside,” Officer Jones said. He had blue eyes that twinkled in the damp streetlight.
I closed the door and locked it. “Darn.”
“You were hoping Officer Sanford was kidding about Jonesy?” Porsche said and looked out the window.
“There was a chance,” I said. “So really, they weren’t here when you came over?”
“No,” she said and turned to me. “They must have just come. Maybe your lawyer asked for protection.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I think this is Officer Hampton’s way of keeping me out of things.”
“Do you want me to go? I mean, I can say I’m going home to the kids and then double back and go to the Woolrights’.”
“No,” I said and put my hand on her shoulder. “I wouldn’t be able to bear it if I lost you, too. Besides, someone needs to be my alibi.”
She wasn’t happy but she agreed. “Now what?”
“I have no idea. All I know is that I can’t sit here and drink tea while who knows what is going on with my aunt.” My phone rang and we both jumped. Startled, I looked down and saw it was a number I didn’t recognize. “Hello?”
“Wren! Help me,” the phone crackled.
I put it on speaker. “Aunt Eloise! You’re breaking up.”
“Help me.” This time it was weaker.
“Where are you?” My heart pounded in my chest. “What phone are you calling me from?”
“Beach . . . hurry.”
“Stay on the phone,” I said and we rushed out the front door. Officer Jones scowled at us. “It’s my aunt, she’s on the beach and needs help.” I pushed past him and ran down Main Street.
“This better not be a lie,” he shouted and chased after us. I heard him call over his radio that we were running.
Porsche had scooped Everett up and ran with me. The pavement was cold and wet. I rushed through the puddles and the sound of my breathing was heavy in the fog. The beach was about five blocks from the shop. I arrived to realize that it was dark. The promenade shot to my left and to my right for a mile or so in each direction. The beach beyond was cold and damp and wide.
“Where?” I asked, trying to catch my breath. “Where are you?” The coast stretched out in front of me. The surf pounded. There was crackling in her phone.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Officer Jones said as he caught up to us.
“It’s Aunt Eloise,” I said and held up my phone. “She needs help. She said she was on the beach.”
He grabbed the phone from me. “Ma’am, this is Officer Jones. Where are you?”
The phone crackled. “Beach . . .”
He looked at me and then scanned the ocean. “Ma’am, it’s a big beach. Where are you? Close to First? Close to Sixth?
“Park . . . hurry.”
“Park,” I said. “She said Park. But Park isn’t near the beach.”
“Maybe she means the parking area,” Porsche said.
“There are two,” I said. “One on each side.”
“I’m sending a patrol out to the south side,” Officer Jones said.
“We’ll go north,” I said. I grabbed my phone from him and raced down the promenade. The rain picked up. The surf was close and loud and I shouted my aunt’s name. “Aunt Eloise! I’m coming. Where are you?”
Porsche had stuffed Everett into her jacket and ran with me as we stopped every few yards and searched the coastline. I was at the north parking lot and tore down the stairs to the beach. The promenade was a few yards higher than the sandy beach.
“Aunt Eloise,” I called into the darkness. I stopped and looked at my cell phone. I’d lost her call. I took a shot and called back the strange number, listening to see if I could hear the phone ring. There was a faint chirp off to the right. I plunged into the darkness, my eyes adjusting rapidly. “Aunt Eloise!”
“Aunt Eloise!” Porsche called beside me.
“Shh,” I said and tried calling again. This time the sound of the ring was closer. We both ran toward the sound. Officer Jones was with us.
Aunt Eloise was tucked up against the edge of a cement pillar. I got to her first. “I’m here. What happened? Are you hurt?”
“Wren,” she said in a low whisper. I leaned in and she grabbed my hand and passed me something metallic. “This is the key to everything.”
“Let me in here,” Officer Jones said. “Ma’am, are you all right?”
“No,” I said. “She’s hurt. It could be her heart. My mom died of a heart attack. Call an ambulance.”
“The ambulance is on the way,” he said. “Please stand back.”
I pushed away and stuck the metal object in my pocket.
“Ma’am, can you tell me where you hurt?”
I heard her moan. “Don’t touch her!” I was back beside my aunt holding her hand. “She’s freezing. She might have been out here in this rain for the last hour or two.” I went to take my coat off when the officer stopped me.
He took his off instead and covered my aunt. “I have more body heat.”
“I hear the sirens,” Porsche said. “I’ll go flag them down.”
“Ma’am, what happened?”
She moaned again.
“Tell them to hurry,” I called.
“Are you bleeding anywhere?” he asked.
I held her frozen hand and tried to warm it with mine. The rain pelted us and we tried to block it from her with our bodies. I was certain Officer Jones was getting soaked through.
The EMTs arrived with a backboard because a wheeled stretcher would have been impossible to maneuver through the wet sand.
They pushed me away and went to w
ork on my aunt. Jim and Officer Sanford hurried over. Jim told Officer Jones to go to the ambulance and get a blanket. Then, he turned to Porsche and me.
“What happened?”
I explained about the phone call and finding my aunt. My teeth began to chatter. Porsche was wisely covered and had Everett to keep her warm. A small crowd formed on the promenade as neighbors poured out of their homes, drawn by the police lights. The EMTs took my aunt up through the sand and we followed.
“What’s going on?” Pastor Harold asked.
“Is that Eloise?” Barbara Miller asked.
“What happened?” Theodore stepped up.
“You tell me,” I said to Theodore.
“I don’t understand,” he said “What is it that you think I did? Did you find your aunt?”
I grabbed Porsche. “Pull Everett out so that he can testify.”
She unzipped her coat and exposed a sleepy Everett. He eyed the crowd nonchalantly. In fact, he didn’t seem to care that Theodore stood right in front of him.
Porsche and I looked at each other. “So much for testifying,” Porsche muttered.
“Who’s testifying to what?” Joan asked.
“No one,” I said and motioned for Porsche to zip back up.
“Wren, do you want to go with your aunt?”
“Yes,” I said and climbed into the ambulance. I looked back at Porsche. “Please take care of Everett.”
“I will,” she said.
They closed the ambulance doors and we took off. I grabbed my aunt’s hand and held it between my own as the EMT in the back monitored her vital signs.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I can’t say,” he answered. “I think she may have hypothermia.”
“Was she hurt?”
“There’s swelling in her ankle and leg. We’re going to have to take her for X-rays and tests.”
“She’s cold and isn’t awake.”
“We know,” he said and flashed a light in both of her eyes. “Could be a concussion. Right now there’s no obvious bleeding. All we can do is monitor her vitals, keep her warm, and get her to the ER as fast as possible.”
People are often surprised when they pick up a
Havana Brown. These lithe cats are heavier than
they look.
Chapter 23
They made me wait in a waiting room while they checked out my aunt. I paced. My wet hair stuck to my head and neck, causing me to shiver. Rubbing my arms didn’t help.
“You need to get warm,” Jim said when he entered the room. “Nurse, can you bring her some scrubs and a blanket?”
“Yes, sir,” she said and walked off.
“I’m fine.” But my teeth chattered to prove I wasn’t fine at all.
“Here, let me help you get that wet jacket off,” he said and unzipped my jacket. It was a very intimate act.
I gave him the stink eye. “I’m capable of dressing myself.” I tried to get the zipper open but my numb fingers refused to work. Finally, I blew out a long breath and gave up. “Fine. Please help.” By this time, my entire body was shivering in waves.
The nurse came in with a blanket and a set of soft green scrubs. “There’s a bathroom down the hall and to your right. Please go change. You look like you’re in shock. Do you need my help?”
“I’ll be fine.” I grabbed the scrubs and hurried to the bathroom. Getting out of my clothes was almost heaven, as they had filled with sand and icy rain water. I splashed warm water on my face and washed the sand off my hands. Then, I reached into the jacket pocket and pulled out the key.
Aunt Eloise wasn’t kidding when she said she had the key to the crime. I studied it. It wasn’t a safe deposit key. It was bigger. More like a house key or a garage key. “What did you do to get this?” I asked my aunt. But she, of course, was unconscious and in an exam room somewhere. So, it was a rhetorical question.
I stuck the key in the pocket of the scrubs and wrapped the blanket around me. The waiting room was empty. I sat down and huddled under the blanket. The Weather Channel was playing in the upper right corner of the room, but I wasn’t interested. I pulled out the key and studied it. Aunt Eloise had gone to great lengths to get this key. It was up to me to figure out why.
“You look warmer,” Jim said as he entered with a coffee cup in each hand. I slipped the key back into the pocket of the scrubs, wrapped a blanket around my shoulders, and took the coffee.
“Thanks for getting me something to change into. I’m sure Officer Jones and Porsche were just as cold.”
“I haven’t heard anything about your aunt,” he said and sat down be me.
“They said in the ambulance she had hypothermia. She had a bump on her head and could have a concussion, plus she might have broken her leg or her ankle. Do you think the killer did this?”
“It was certainly more than a prank,” he said and took a gulp of coffee and winced. “Hospital coffee gives the department coffee a run for its money.”
“It’s warm,” I said and sipped.
“I saw you point Everett at Theodore,” he said without looking at me. “The cat didn’t respond.”
“I know,” I said. “I was so sure it was him.”
“We’ll keep looking.”
“Someone set me up,” I said. “They made sure I went into that shed and struggled to find something to get Everett out of the box.”
“It was certainly clever, if they did.”
I blew out a long breath. “I’m not a killer.”
“I believe you.”
“Then why all the suspicion about me and the shed?”
“It’s what I do,” he said and sipped more coffee. “I follow the breadcrumbs.”
“You know we thought Agnes Snow was blackmailing people,” I said. “We found her book with everyone listed and the amounts they paid her.”
“Yes, we found your prints on her ledger. And was she blackmailing people?” he asked, still not looking at me.
“No, it turns out she was selling her craft work and the folks didn’t want their recipients to find out.”
“That’s why I never suspected Woolright,” he said. “I knew Agnes was working on a special project for Mildred’s seventieth-birthday celebration next month. Theodore was trying to keep it secret. It was a portrait of them done in grains of rice. He sat for Agnes several times. He had no reason to kill her.”
“Well, that rules him out,” I said. “Especially if Agnes died before she could finish the work.”
“Miss Johnson?” A nurse poked her head into the waiting room. “Your aunt has been moved into a room. We are warming her and we want to keep her overnight to check for signs of a concussion.”
I stood. “Can I see her?”
“For a little while,” she said. “But then you should go home. We’ve got her. She’s in good hands.”
I looked at Jim. “What if the killer did this?”
“I’ve got a policeman stationed outside her door. She’ll be safe.”
“Thanks,” I said and followed the nurse down the hall to my aunt’s room. It was a double room, but the second bed was empty. Aunt Eloise was hooked up to an IV and a heart monitor. She looked pale and a huge bruise ran from her temple into her eye. “Hey,” I said.
She fluttered her eyes open.
“What happened?” I asked.
She licked her lips. “So tired.”
I took her hand. It was warmer than before and I squeezed it. “It’s okay. It can wait. I’m glad you called me.”
“I’m glad you came.”
“That’s enough for now,” the nurse said.
I gave my aunt a kiss on the forehead and squeezed her hand. “They’re going to take good care of you. Jim has someone stationed outside your door.”
“Okay.”
I hated to see how weak she was.
“It’s okay,” the nurse said. “By tomorrow she’ll be right as rain.”
“Come on,” Jim said. “I’ll take you home.”
“Well, Porsche has her family and Aunt Eloise is in the hospital. What do you suggest I do? I’m not spending the night with my lawyer.”
“I’m going to have Sanford stand watch at your back door.”
“That’s just miserable,” I said. “In this rain. I’ll be fine alone. Look at me, I’m not going anywhere.”
His mouth was a thin line. “I’ll have him watch from his squad car.”
“Thanks,” I said. “At least it will be warmer.”
“I’ll watch from the front,” he said.
“You really don’t trust me, do you?” I felt a pain of something in my heart. Maybe it was disappointment because I trusted him. Strangely, I wanted him to trust me back.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” he said. “It’s for your safety. Whoever did this to your aunt might want to do something to you next.”
“Oh, right.”
When we arrived at the shop, I jumped out and ran to the door and unlocked it. The door cackled at me and I reminded myself again to change the bells in the morning. Halloween was over. I turned on a light, locked the door, and waved to Jim. Then, I checked to make sure the back door was locked and went upstairs. A hot shower was in order.
A glance at my reflection in the mirror told me that I was a fright. Silly of me to think a guy like Jim would be interested in a murder suspect. Conrad had made it clear that a murder suspect wasn’t datable. Especially one who looked like a drowned rat.
Thirty minutes later, I was showered and my hair dried. I had on my best flannel pajamas and a thick bathrobe and sat down at my desk and turned on my computer. I put the key on the desk and studied it. It looked like a house key.
I noticed some numbers across the top of the key. So, I searched keys and key numbers.
Keys are typically printed with an alphanumeric code called a key identification number, a key code or a key number that allows locksmiths and companies to replicate keys without the need to install a whole new lock system. Key codes fall into two categories: blind codes and biting codes.