Deadly Traditions, page 9
As my mind returned to the conversation behind me, I turned back to the men, deciding I’d better sit down and pay attention. But a piece of paper on the floor beside an intricately carved wood desk caught my eye.
Shakes dove on the paper, no doubt intending to eat it if I didn’t get to it first. Everything was food to Shakes. Dirt, rocks, grass, paper. He was discriminating in some things, but not his eating habits.
“No,” I scolded him softly, tugging him gently away from the paper. I bent to pick it up, intending to drop it into a nearby wastebasket, and hesitated, my pulse picking up as I saw the words across the top of the printed sheet. Purchase Agreement. Below the title was the usual legal jargon with a place for the contractees’ names. Carol Ling and Vonda Williams.
The rest of it was torn away. But I didn’t need to see the whole document to know that I was looking at motive and opportunity for the attack against Vonda Williams.
Eddie’s gaze swung my way and sharpened when he saw my face.
I walked over and handed him the damning scrap of paper. He scanned it quickly and nodded at me. Pulling out my cell phone, I dialed a familiar number. It rang three times and an annoyed voice answered. “Where are you, MayBell? You’d better not be elbows deep in my murder investigation.”
I was very happy to deny the charge. “I’m not. But I need you to come to the home of Marty Sanders. We have reason to believe he was involved in an attack on Vonda Williams tonight.”
Sanders jumped up from the couch, but Eddie was already standing between the other man and me. He had a hand on his gun, but didn’t remove it from its waistband holster. “Please sit down, Mr. Sanders. I believe you’ve already created enough problems for yourself.”
“You don’t understand,” Marty Sanders told Argh on the other side of the one-way mirror glass. “I only wanted to talk to Ms. Williams. I certainly didn’t hit her. I could never hurt such an incredible talent.”
Eddie and I shared a look and I barely kept from rolling my eyes. “Nobody could ever do anything bad in this case,” I told him. “If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that today.”
“You’d have three nickels,” Dietz said.
Argh held up the torn paper. “Yet you claim you found her badly injured and didn’t call for help. Then you ransacked her office before you left, and stole the contract between Carol Ling and Ms. Williams, destroying it. What part of that behavior screams innocence, Mr. Sanders?”
“I know it looks bad,” Sanders started to say.
“It looks very bad,” Argh agreed. “It looks like you fought with Vonda Williams about that contract, hit her in a fit of temper, and then searched for the contract and destroyed it. There doesn’t appear to be a digital copy of the contract on Ms. Williams’ computer either. I’m sure our computer forensics folks will find the shadow of that document still sitting on the hard drive. Did you know that nothing is ever really deleted from a computer?”
Sanders shook his head, running long fingers through his shiny black hair. “I only wanted to talk to her.”
Twenty minutes later, Argh met us in the hallway outside the interview room. “It’s clear he’s guilty,” he told us. “We’re dusting for prints and processing the scene now. As soon as Vonda Williams wakes up and verifies that it was Sanders, we’ll be able to close the case.” He looked at me, his hostile gray gaze dark with anger. “Don’t think this absolves you from interfering in my investigation,” he told me.
“Vonda Williams wasn’t an active part of your investigation,” I told him. “Eddie and I just happened to be there at the wrong time.”
“Right,” he said. “Go home, May. Stay out of police work. Surely you have a funeral to crash or something?”
“I don’t crash funerals,” I told him, my teeth gritted. “I’m a paid participant.”
“Mm hm.”
I watched my arrogant excuse for a brother saunter away and fought the impulse to box his ears like I had when we were kids.
“Let’s go home,” Eddie told me, flinging an arm over my shoulders. “I know a certain little dog who’s probably frantic for a potty break about now.”
Chapter 6
I was so tired I nearly fell asleep on the way home. Only Shakes’ mania kept me awake. He was jumping from my lap to Eddie’s as if he really had to go.
“I’m hurrying, buddy,” Eddie told my little drama king. “We’re two minutes away.”
Settling the little pom to the ground in the parking lot of my apartment complex, I nearly had to run to keep up with him as he led me to his favorite patch of grass and I waited as he looked for just the right spot.
Eddie’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen, throwing me a surprised expression as he answered. “Hey, Jerald. Is something wrong?” He listened for a minute, frowning. “Oh? Okay. Sure. Can you come here?” He rattled off my address as I gave him a curious look. When he disconnected, he said, “Jerald heard Sanders was arrested for attacking Vonda. He says there’s something we need to know about Marty Sanders.”
“How’d he get your number?” I asked.
“He claims Vonda gave it to him after we showed up at his house.”
“That would have been about the time Sanders was at her house. Maybe he heard something,” I said, feeling excited.
My doorbell rang twenty minutes later. I opened the door to find Jerald standing in the middle of the hall, staring at the force of nature that was Doug.
My neighbor glanced at me. “Dude?”
“It’s okay, Doug. He just needs to talk to us about a case.”
Doug frowned, eyeing Jerald from head to toe. “Dude?”
Jerald lifted his hands. “I’m harmless, I promise.”
Eddie came out into the hall and Doug inclined his head. “Dude.”
“Hey, Doug. Thanks for keeping an eye on things.”
Doug skimmed Jerald one final look and returned to his apartment.
“Sorry about that,” I told our visitor. “He’s a little over-protective.”
Jerald laughed. “One of the benefits and curses of living in an apartment.”
“So true. Come inside. Would you like a beer?”
Shakes charged Jerald, barking unhappily. “Hey,” I scolded. “It’s okay.” I gave Jerald an apologetic smile. “You surprised him.”
Shakes quieted in my arms, his brown button eyes keeping a close eye on our visitor.
“I won’t keep you,” Jerald said as he stepped into the living room. “I just wanted to let you know that ever since I heard Marty was picked up for attacking Vonda Williams, I can’t stop thinking about something he said tonight in the alley.”
“What was that?” Eddie asked.
My cell rang and I pulled it out, looking at the screen. “I need to take this. I’ll be right back.” I hit answer and ducked into my room. “You’re not sending Baker over to arrest me are you?”
Shakes padded in behind me and dove into his kennel, a.k.a. the Pom Hilton. He circled three times and then settled down with a sigh.
“I would, but he’s already told me he likes you better than me and won’t do it.”
I grinned. There were two muffins in Detective Baker’s future.
“I wanted to let you know that Marty Sanders finally admitted to attacking Vonda. But he couldn’t have been the one to strangle your friend Carol. May, the killer’s still out there somewhere. So, keep your eyes open and your head up.”
“Why couldn’t he have done it?”
The bedroom door creaked as Eddie joined me in the room.
“He has a condition that makes his hands and wrists really weak. There’s no way he could have strangled Carol.”
“What kind of condition?” I asked.
“Peripheral neuropathy. He’s under treatment, but he’s physically unable to perform the type of gripping he’d have had to do.”
The bed dipped as Eddie sat down next to me. I turned to tell him who I was talking to and blinked in surprise. The man sitting on my bed wasn’t Eddie. I opened my mouth but Jerald shook his head, the gun in his hand mere inches from my face. “Hang up, May,” he said so softly I wouldn’t have heard him if he hadn’t been sitting so close.
“I’ve got to go,” I told my brother. My mind raced. If I let Argh go without telling him we were in trouble, Eddie and I would be on our own. Also, Dietz’s absence was more than concerning.
Shakes stirred in the Pom Hilton but lay back down again, seemingly oblivious to the man with the gun. But he gave me an idea.
“No,” I told Argh when he started to say goodbye. “I’ll be late getting to dinner tomorrow. I’m taking Shakes to that new dog park and then I’ll have to drop him off at home. You know how Dad hates my poor dog. I don’t dare bring him along.”
“May? What are you trying…?”
Jerald shoved the gun against my cheek, pressing hard enough to bruise.
“I have to go. Night, Mark.”
I disconnected, but not before I heard the shocked silence on the other end of the line. I rarely called my brother by his real name. In fact, I could probably count on three fingers the number of times I did so in a year. Between that and the lie about the Lieutenant and Shakes, Argh would have to know something was up. I just prayed he took action. “What did you do to Eddie?” I asked Jerald.
“He’s going to have a headache for a while.” Jerald’s lips curved in a mean smile. “It probably won’t be for long, though. I can’t really leave witnesses behind.”
Shakes whined in his kennel and I tensed, hoping he didn’t draw Jerald’s attention to him.
I spoke quickly as the man’s gaze started to turn toward my dog. “What do you want? Nobody’s even looking at you for Carol’s death. I’m not sure why you’re here right now.”
He clucked his tongue. “Such a liar. I was surprised when you and your boyfriend showed up at my door. But imagine my surprise when I found out you’re a cop’s daughter. I know what you’re doing. You’re looking into Scott’s death aren’t you? Dang cops will never let that go.”
“Scott?” In the Pom Hilton, Shakes suddenly jerked upright, his tail wagging fast and high, which told me he was on the alert. He bounced out of the kennel and through the bedroom door.
Hopefully, he’d heard Dietz stirring. I just needed to keep Jerald talking until Argh got there to help. “Who’s Scott?”
When Jerald smiled, ice crawled down my spine.
“Oh, wait. Was that your childhood friend? The one who drowned?”
“Don’t play dumb. I know you and your PI boyfriend are digging into my past. I can’t let you pin Carol’s death on me, MayBell Ferth. I can’t let you drag up ancient history to hang me with.”
“But you did kill Carol,” I said, sick of his lies. “You doubled back when your friends went home and strangled her.”
He shrugged.
“Why?”
“Why did I kill Carol?” He shrugged. “She annoyed me.” He reached up and rubbed his fingers over the scratches on his cheek. They looked angrier than the last time I’d seen them. “It was easy enough to go back to the alley. Nobody saw me. Carol thought I was there to apologize for getting so mad. She never even saw it coming.” His grin was terrifying. His eyes were cold and dead. I realized I was looking at a true sociopath.
“Why did you kill your friend Scott?”
“He kept whining about how he wasn’t supposed to be in the boat. I told him he needed to learn to break some rules. But Scott wasn’t a rule-breaker. He just didn’t have it in him.” Jerald shrugged as if he were discussing the fact that his friend hadn’t liked mushrooms on his pizza. “One less whiner in the world.”
“My family will come after you if you kill me.”
“It’s okay. I’m tired of this place, anyway. It’s time to move on.”
In the next room, Shakes was whining and scratching at the front door. Jerald frowned, looking in that direction. “And speaking of whiners.” He stood up, waving toward the bedroom door with the gun. “Come on. That dog’s annoying me. It’s time to put it out of its misery.”
Over my dead body!
I needed some kind of weapon. Scanning the room as he shoved me toward the door, I saw nothing but beauty products and discarded clothes. If only I still had that stupid corset, I could compress him to death with it.
Jerald gave me another shove and I stumbled forward. On a whim, I let myself hit the ground. I lay there for three beats, stalling. He kicked me on the leg and I bit back a cry. The last thing I wanted was to draw Shakes to me.
My dog was still scratching at the door. He started to bark and I called out for him to stop. Climbing as slowly as I could to my feet, I swung my gaze around the room but didn’t see Eddie. I finally spotted his boots sticking out from in front of the couch. They weren’t moving.
Anger spearing through me, I grabbed the first thing I could find and swung it at Jerald. The small but heavy metal lamp hit him on the nose. His head jerked back from the impact and blood ran from his nose. Unfortunately, he recovered quickly, punching me in the temple.
I hit the ground and the world spun. A furry missile shot past and Shakes launched himself at Jerald.
No! I tried to sit up, to stop him, but I was so dizzy.
My dog was a dervish, snarling and growling, flinging himself at Jerald and dancing away when the man tried to kick him. A gun went off mere inches from my head, and I screamed. The gun went flying, clattering against the tile floor of the adjacent kitchen. Shoving myself into a seated position, I fought to stay conscious, only to nearly be taken down when a wave of dizziness swamped me.
My eyes kept trying to close. I wrenched them open. My hand found the metal lamp again and I swung it as hard as I could, clipping Jerald on one thigh. It wasn’t much of a hit, but it distracted him from my dog for a minute.
Then I realized there was another person battling Jerald. A person who wasn’t wearing his boots.
Eddie punched Jerald in the jaw and the other man stiffened, wobbled in place, and slowly crumpled to the ground.
Pounding shook my front door. “May! What’s happening? Let me in!”
Argh!
The cavalry had arrived.
Chapter 7
“Why was Shakes scratching at the door?” I asked my boyfriend as Argh led Jerald Troka out in handcuffs.
“Doug was out there.”
“But why?” I asked, frowning over at my neighbor, who was holding Shakes and speaking to him in gibberish. Not for the first time I wondered whether Doug could be an alien from another planet. I smiled at the thought.
“May?”
“What? Oh, sorry. My mind wandered.”
“It’s no wonder. You probably have a nice headache. I’m sorry I didn’t get to you before that neanderthal hit you.”
“I’m fine. Tell me what happened here. Why was Doug in the hall? And what happened to you?”
Eddie grimaced. “Unfortunately, Troka caught me off guard. He pistol-whipped me. But he didn’t hit me as hard as he thought he had. I managed to duck away at the last minute. When I shook it off, I heard Doug skulking around outside the door. You know how he does that scratching thing rather than knocking sometimes?”
I nodded. Alien.
“He wanted to come in but I wouldn’t let him. I asked him to call 9-1-1 and wait for them.”
“And you?”
“I was dazed for a few minutes, but when I shook it off I heard him talking to you in your room. I was trying to figure out how to get to him without putting you in even more danger when I realized you were coming out here. Then I jumped him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t manage to do it before he hit you.” Eddie rubbed the bruised spot on my temple. I grabbed his hand and eyed the red spot on his head. “I’m okay, Eddie.”
“Well, MayBell,” said a judgmental voice behind me. “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”
I swung around to scowl at my brother. “Zip it, Superpatch. We’ve had a rough day.”
Eddie’s lips twitched, but he shook his head. “Your sister was no more responsible for what happened than you were, Ferth.”
Argh’s face flushed. Eddie’s intimation was clear. If Argh and the police had done their due diligence with Sanders sooner, we would have been on our guard about Troka. “Anyway,” my brother said, scooping up my dog and allowing himself to be kissed on the nose. “I’ll see you and the rodent at dinner tomorrow. I think Dad misses this little guy more than he misses us.”
Smiling, I said, “See you tomorrow.”
He handed Shakes to me and left. Doug hovered in my doorway, looking worried. “Dude!”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Tough night. But we’re all good,” I told him. “Thanks for your help.”
He cocked his head. “Duuude.” His smile was gentle and sweet as he left, closing my door behind him.
Unexpected tears burned my eyes.
“Hey,” Eddie said, pulling me into a hug. “I think I’ll sleep on your couch tonight. If you don’t mind. I don’t feel like leaving you alone after what just happened.”
Nodding, I said, “I’m good with that.” Toeing off my shoes, I stretched out on the couch, pulling him down with me. “I think there’s room for two.” I closed my eyes as an indignant yip ripped through the quiet.
“I’m sure you meant to say three,” Eddie said, a grin in his voice.
I murmured sleepy agreement. A soft bundle of fur snuggled up to my front, and I fell asleep as Eddie settled into place behind Shakes and me.
