Mid-Century Monster, page 10
part #3 of Solstice Properties Mystery Series
“I make an impression, what can I say?” Chad gave her his bright disarming smile, that didn’t work as well on her as it seemed to on other women. Over the years it still made him all the more attractive, but wasn’t something she lost her mind over like she had the first time he’d used it on her back in college.
Before Cin could say anything, RJ came over from his quiet scanning of the tools on display. “Nothing from my stuff out on the shelf.”
Chad shrugged. “Not surprised; they’re probably still in the back. Mateo likes to make sure everything’s cleaned up before putting them out. It’s also possible that whoever brought them here pawned them and didn’t just sell them outright.”
The door the girl had disappeared through opened and a large balding man waddled out. His gaze traveled around the shop, then settled on them. He came straight toward them. “Officer Kilkari. I thought you’d quit the police force.”
“I did, Mateo.” Chad shook his hand. “We’re here looking for some tools that were stolen from the house we’re remodeling. Checking around town to see if they might’ve been pawned. We’ve already talked to the police, they’ll be checking too.”
Mateo frowned. “You know I don’t deal in stolen things. It’s not good for business.”
“I know.” Chad put his hands in his pockets and looked like it saddened him to come in looking. “But we’re checking all the shops. The person would’ve come in this morning or early afternoon. We’re looking for a table saw, a drill press, a big silver toolbox.”
Color drained out of Mateo’s face. “Wait a moment. That sounds familiar.” He turned around and went back through the door.
Moments later, there was shouting in the back. From the sound of it, the girl was defending someone, but the distance and sudden switch to Spanish made it hard for Cin to follow.
RJ pursed his lips. “This still feels too easy. I wonder if the thief had the smarts to not sell everything at the same place. The tools could be all over town.”
“If he were smart.” Cin glanced around. The place was full of desperation and despair. She was still a little more open to things from casting her spell and didn’t like the feelings. “But hey, sometimes we can catch a break. I didn’t get any feelings like there were multiple spots we should go.”
“And nobody ever said that bad guys were smart.” Chad let out a breath, then turned slightly, leaning against one of the glass cases as he crossed his arms. “If they were smart, we wouldn’t catch so many of them.”
Cin pointed at him. “The police wouldn’t catch so many of them. You’re not part of their web anymore.” Sometimes she felt like she needed to remind him that he was a civilian. Although they kept stumbling onto things, it wasn’t his job to catch the bad guys anymore.
Mateo came back out of the door, carrying RJ’s tool box. “Is this one of the pieces? There are several more back here.”
RJ beamed as he reached for the toolbox at the same time Mateo set it on the counter next to Chad. “That’s my toolbox, yes.”
“I’m going to need to file charges for sale of stolen goods.” Mateo looked grimmer. “These were good quality tools. I’ll have to talk to my daughter about being more careful when she buys things from pretty men.”
“I’ll call the station and get someone down here to make a record of everything.” Chad pulled out his phone. He turned away from the counter and walked toward the televisions as Mateo returned to the backroom.
There was more shouting in Spanish.
After a moment, Chad frowned and dialed another number. “Hi, Helen, Chad Kilkari. I wanted to let officer Longtooth know we found the missing tools. They’re down at First Chance Pawn. What? Really? Tell you what, we’ll handle things here. Hope that doesn’t drag on too long. Yeah. Have someone call me later, when it’s all resolved.” He hung up and slipped the phone into his pocket.
“What’s up?” Cin touched his arm.
“That domestic dispute Harvey got called on is now a hostage situation. The wife is barricaded in the house threatening to kill her husband and kids. Sounds like most of the city force and part of the county are over there. The neighborhood’s been evacuated.”
“Wife?” RJ raised his eyebrows as he looked away from going through the tools in the metal box.
Chad nodded. “Not all domestic disputes are husbands assaulting their wives. Sometimes the women crack too. We’ll need to go over this stuff, get the documentation, and then I can go in and fill out the reports for Harvey.”
Mateo returned from the back with his daughter helping him carry the table saw. “That would explain all the sirens we heard before you got here.” He shook his head. “People don’t respect each other anymore.”
“That’s so true.” Chad took his phone and started taking pictures of the tools. “Mateo, I’m going to need the name of the person who sold this to you so we can go talk to them.”
“Sure. We haven’t had a busy day, so his ticket should be here, or I can get you a printout of his receipt. It’s all in the computer system.” He glanced back at his daughter. “If the rules were followed, we should have a copy of his driver’s license.”
“Then we just have to hope he hasn’t moved in the past couple of years.” Chad glanced at Cin, silently suggesting she help the daughter find the information they needed.
Like so many other parts of investigation, there were multiple things to do, and while the men played with the tools, the women handled the paperwork. She almost felt like it was a normal day at the office.
16
Since Mateo didn’t want to keep stolen property at his store, he insisted they take all the tools with them when they left. Cin insisted they make a short video to document everything. She didn’t want anything to come back and bite them if she could help it.
They’d just finished loading the tools when Char called. “Mom, we’re waiting for you and Dad at the steakhouse. They’re starting to stare at us for not ordering.”
“Give me a sec.” Cin looked at Chad as her stomach growled. “Hey, the girls are still waiting at the steakhouse.”
Chad rolled his eyes. “We forgot to call them, didn’t we?”
Cin nodded. “Yes, honey, we did.”
“I really want to go find this guy tonight.”
“Me too.” RJ put his hands on his hips. “Chad and I could handle that and let you go eat with the girls.”
“Nah.” Cin sighed. “Char, you and EEEK go ahead and eat. We’ll catch up with you at the house.”
“And reimburse me for paying for my own dinner?”
“I might be able to add a little to your next allowance, if you make sure to bring me a receipt.” Although she’d taught her daughters to be independent thinkers and strong women, sometimes they had learned their lessons a little too well.
“Will a picture of it in a text do?”
“I suppose.” Yeah, they’d learned a little too well.
“Thanks.” Char sounded more cheerful than she had moments before. “See you guys later.” The call ended.
Cin leaned against the truck. “You know, Chad, sometimes your daughters are a little too smart for my own good.”
“And they’re only my daughters when they’ve done something wrong, or are getting on your nerves.” Chad leaned next to her.
“Well, yeah.”
RJ laughed. “You know, those girls are lucky to have you two as parents.”
“Yeah, we do.” Cin joined his laugh. “Okay, now let’s go find our thief and see what he can tell us.”
Chad shot a glance at the closed pawnshop. “Yeah, particularly since something not human handled them before they were sold.”
“Really?” RJ raised his eyebrows. “Any idea what?”
“Nope.” Chad shook his head. “Other than it was the thing that’s been hanging around the house. The stink of it’s all over the stuff. But there’s also a human scent that I don’t recognize.”
“And that scent is probably our thief.” Cin pushed off the truck and headed around the back to get to the passenger side. “Come on, I’ve got his address.”
“This is still being way easy,” RJ muttered as he followed her.
Cin slipped into the truck, hoping things would stay easy. They needed easy for once.
Cin stared at the third house they’d stopped at. Chad had been able to use his charm and old police attitude to get leads at the first two. Their subject, Alex Hart, hadn’t lived at the first place in nearly a year, but had moved to a different house a few blocks away. At that house, they’d said he’d left the previous month for the address Cin, Chad and RJ were currently parked at.
Since no one was home, they were hanging out hoping to catch Hart when he came back. If, as at the first two stops, he no longer lived there, maybe the person who did would know where to find him. Chad had already gone on about how a lot of petty criminals tended to be somewhat unstable when it came to their living arrangements. Cin just hoped they could find Hart, get some questions answered, and haul him in.
Chad stared at his phone and shook his head. “I can’t believe that domestic standoff is still going on. Normally Zack has stormed the place by now.”
“Maybe he’s being a little more cautious since he’s seeing your friend Shelby,” RJ suggested from the back seat.
As if her name being spoken caused her to call, Cin’s phone rang and it was Shelby. Cin answered quickly. “Hey, Shelby, what’s up?”
“Any chance you could come over?”
Cin frowned and stared at the darkened house two houses down from where they were parked. If they left, they might miss Hart. “We’re kinda in the middle of something right now. What’s up?”
“Okay, maybe just talking will help. What are you up to?” She sounded on edge.
“Sort of a stake out, I guess. We’re trying to find the guy who stole tools from the house we’re working on right now.” It wasn’t top secret, so Cin figured it was okay to tell her. It also wasn’t like she and Chad were official cops or anything.
“Have you heard about the standoff? They’ve got that entire neighborhood shut down. Zack’s out there in the middle of a major incident with a crazy woman with a gun.”
“We heard about it.” Cin shifted in her seat to be a little more comfortable. “That’s why we’re here and not letting the cops handle it.” As she said it, she knew she wasn’t being totally truthful to her friend. Even if the cops had been free, they’d probably still have tracked down Hart to get info out of him. Over the past year, she and Chad had started feeling like the paranormal cops in the Cottonwood area. There was something strange going on at the reno and Hart might have a clue. They needed to talk to him.
“Oh. That’s good that Chad still wants to help out the force.” Shelby bit back a sob. “Cin, how did you deal with things like this? Does it ever get any easier?”
“It doesn’t get any easier.” Cin watched a truck drive past them, then past the house where Hart was supposed to be living. “You’ll always worry about what’s going on, particularly when there’s something happening like this standoff. Your man’s in the middle of danger and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Shelby sobbed again. “If Zack wasn’t such a great guy, I don’t think the uncertainty would be worth it.”
Cin grinned at Chad and patted his leg, knowing he was hearing everything Shelby had to say. There was no way, with his werewolf hearing, he was going to miss anything that was said over the call. “Exactly. I understand about finding a great man. You want to hold on to them. But we also have to let them be the man they are. Just give him extra loving when he gets home.”
Chad raised his eyebrows and whispered. “You never did that.”
“I did too.” Cin kept her voice low.
“Oh I plan on doing that.” Shelby sighed. “Is there any kind of spouse support network in the force? Maybe it would help if I could gather the other wives and such together when something like this happens and we could be there for each other until the danger is past.”
“There isn’t, exactly, but tell you what, I’ll get you some phone numbers when I get home and you can call some of the wives and husbands who might be receptive to setting up something.” She smiled to herself at the thought. It would’ve helped her get through some dark nights if she’d hung out with the others while waiting for the call that everything was okay, or worse news. “Having dinner, or just drinks would help, wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah, I think it would.” Shelby sounded a little more relaxed.
A beat-up convertible Volkswagen Bug came down the road and pulled into the driveway of the house they were watching. Two men got out and headed into the house.
“Shelby, our suspect may have just arrived.”
Even as Cin started to end the call, Chad and RJ were moving out of the truck. She was going to sit there and watch while the guys did the dangerous part, but she still wanted to be ready to move if they needed her to.
“You all be safe.” Shelby sounded sad.
“Will call you when it’s over.” Cin wished she could just run over and lend Shelby a shoulder to cry on. She’d needed that herself so many times in the past when she hadn’t known what was happening to Chad.
“Thanks.” Then Shelby was gone.
Cin turned her phone over, so the light wouldn’t let any watchers know she was still in the truck. Chad walked up the front walk as RJ slipped around the back. The acted like a partnered pair of cops. It was something Cin hadn’t seen before, but knew the two had a great working relationship on job sites. That level of friendship was something Chad had bemoaned losing when he’d had to leave the police force.
She held her breath as Chad knocked on the door. From the silhouette, it looked like one of the two men who’d gotten out of the Bug answered. After a moment, he waved his hands around and appeared agitated. Then he shoved past Chad and took off running across the badly-kept yard.
Chad spun and took out after him.
With a steadying breath, Cin opted to try something she’d heard about through some of the witch forums she often visited online. She pushed magic out toward the man as she whispered trip and fall. On the fourth iteration of the words, the runner stumbled. He flailed and it was enough for Chad to grab hold of his collar and jerk him to the ground.
Cin instantly stopped sending out her magic.
With expertise formed from years on the force, Chad restrained the man, then patted him down. He jerked him to his feet.
RJ came back through the side gate with another man under control.
Not being able to stand waiting any longer, Cin scrambled out of the truck to go see who the men her guys had just assaulted were, and what they had to say.
17
Cin reached the guys, just as Chad and RJ sat their two captives on the curb. Around them, a few people cast quick glances out windows, but the drapes were quickly pulled back, blocking out interior light. It wasn’t the best neighborhood in Cottonwood, and very few people would risk pissing off a possible drug dealer or worse.
“Okay, Hart, we want to know why you stole those tools out of that house on the north side last night.” Chad sounded like a rough TV cop.
“I don’t have any tools from no house on the north side.” The smaller of the two men squirmed as Chad glared at him. He matched the driver’s license they’d gotten from Mateo.
“Yeah, we don’t have to talk to you,” the other one shouted. “You ain’t shown us no badges or nothing. You don’t even look like cops. Cops ain’t got beards and shit.”
“Undercover cops do.” Chad leaned in close to him and growled.
RJ took up a position looking dangerous behind the men.
Cin almost laughed. It was funny seeing them act so out of character, although she wondered if she was glimpsing some of the face Chad had worn for years when he was working.
“Look, we ain’t got no tools,” Hart complained.
“No, you sold them already.” Chad stayed close and menacing to Hart.
“That fool sold us out,” complained the bigger guy. “I told you we should’ve gone to the new place, but you like the way his daughter looks. Dude, your libido is going to get us in so much trouble.”
An idea came to her and Cin walked over and touched Chad’s shoulder. “If you like talking to pretty ladies, then let’s chat.” She pushed out a little magic to him, adding a glamor to herself, hoping to get through to him with little effort.
“You are pretty.” Hart’s eyes glazed slightly, letting Cin know her glamor was working.
As Chad stepped back, she squatted on her heels and smiled. “Alex, tell me about getting the tools. Why did you do it?”
“Man, don’t talk. Dude we’re going to be in so much trouble.” His friend started to stand, but RJ put his hands on the man’s shoulders and forced him back to the curb.
“Sit,” RJ forced out through gritted teeth.
Cin smiled again. When they got home, she was going to have to let Chad know how much their tough-guy routine turned her on.
Hart blinked, but his eyes stayed unfocused. “There was this guy. I don’t know who. He was down at the bar we like to hang out in. He said there was this house, a nice one, where some people were working. Said they had lots of high-dollar tools.” He shook his head. “He lied about that. Just regular tools. Not worth much.”
The way RJ slitted his eyes, he looked like he wanted to backhand Hart hard.
“So you took the man’s suggestion and broke into the house to steal the tools,” Cin prompted.
“Yeah.” Hart nodded. “But we didn’t have to break in, the door was unlocked.”
“No.” RJ mouthed and shook his head.
“We got just about everything into Wayne’s truck when this racket started up. Some kind of howling or something. I don’t know for sure.”
The guy next to him threw up his hands. “Dude we’re screwed. Look. There was something there. Sounded like some kind of wolf, or big dog or something. The other dogs around started barking and carrying on. We left.”
