03 Murder by Mishap (20 page)

Edna thought of the envelope Jaycee had left in her care. On impulse, she went to her office, opened the drawer and took out the envelope. She read again what Jaycee had written on the front.
“Property of J.W.
If not collected within a week, please phone …” And there was the area code for Chicago. It was the only connection she now had with her young neighbor. She wondered about dialing the number and asking whoever answered if he or she had heard from Jaycee in the last day or so.

She was staring at the envelope without really seeing it, trying to decide whether or not to phone, when a loud pounding on the front door made her jump and almost drop the packet.

“Who in the world ...” she muttered, clutching the envelope to her chest and leaving the office.
The banging sounded again when she was halfway to the door, increasing her agitation and causing her to hurry the rest of the way. “Hold your horses,” she shouted at the door. She was rattled by having her peace unexpectedly disturbed and impatient to see who would be knocking so viciously instead of ringing the bell. She switched on the porch light and wrenched open the door without first looking through the peek hole.

She did not recognize the man standing on her stoop, hunched against the cool of the night. The collar was turned up on his black leather jacket, partially hiding his jaw and chin. The black baseball cap pulled low over his forehead held no design and served to cover his head and shield the upper part of his face. The partial glare she was able to discern in his dark eyes was hard and gave Edna a sudden chill.

“Yes?” She flicked her eyes to the hook that was the only deterrent to the man pulling open the screen door and forcing his way into the house. “What do you want?” Some of her anger was returning, and she was glad her voice didn’t quiver as the muscles of her legs seemed to be doing at the moment.

His voice was low and rough, as if he were a heavy smoker. “I’m looking for your neighbor.” He pointed with his thumb, half turning to indicate Jaycee’s place across the street.

“Sorry,” she said, beginning to shut the door. “I can’t help you.”

“Saw you up at the house
earlier’s
why I’m
askin
’. You know when she’ll be home?” He pulled on the handle of the screen door, but the hook held. The door’s clatter as he jerked on it chafed at Edna’s nerves.

It was then she noticed he was staring at the envelope she held across her chest. “I don’t know where she is or when she’ll be back. I can’t help you,” she repeated.

She was stepping back and about to close the door when her attention was drawn to his hand as he unzipped his jacket and reached across his stomach to grab something attached to his belt. The sight of a knife handle mesmerized her.

“Hi, Edna.
Wha’cha
doin
’?”

The spell broke in a rush of relief at the sound of Mary’s voice. Edna looked beyond the man on her doorstep to see Mary standing in the driveway with Hank at her side. The dog was alert, tail down, but he neither barked nor growled. Clad in jungle fatigues, Mary was barely visible at the edge of the light from the porch. Her left hand rested on the dog’s head. Her right was down by her side and slightly behind her thigh.

Edna’s mind flashed back to the first and only time she’d seen Mary stand like that and knew instantly her neighbor was holding a gun. She didn’t know whether to be frightened or relieved.

“
Wha’cha
doin
’?”
Mary’s repeated words were for Edna, but her eyes never left the stranger.

The three of them stood frozen in a tableau for several heartbeats until the man backed slowly off the porch. He kept his eyes on Mary and Hank until he melted into the darkness. Edna waited until his footsteps faded down the broken-shells to the road.

“Come in, Mary.
Quickly.”
She unlatched the hook and swung the screen door wide. When they were inside, Edna bolted the front door, before collapsing back against the heavy wood. “I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my life,” she said and straightened. Her heart was beating like a jack hammer. As she opened her arms to give Mary a hug, Jaycee’s envelope fell to the floor.

“What’s this?” Mary dodged the hug to pick up the envelope while Hank bent to sniff what he thought Edna had tossed to him. Uninterested, the dog turned to smell Benjamin instead, the cat having padded up beside him.

“It’s something Jaycee asked me to keep for her,” Edna said, taking the packet and heading back to the living room. “Come sit. I’ll tell you about it as soon as I get you something to drink.” She glanced at the gun in Mary’s hand. “Please put it away. I know you know how to handle it, but it does make me nervous.”

Mary took off her coat, folded it over the gun and set them on a chair just inside the arch to the living room. Edna put Jaycee’s envelope on the coffee table before leaving for the kitchen. When she returned moments later, wine in hand, she saw
Mary,
seated on the sofa, drop the envelope back onto the coffee table.

“Have you tried the phone number,” she asked, accepting the goblet Edna held out.

“Didn’t have time,” Edna replied, tossing another log on the fire before resuming her chair. “I was in the office, trying to decide whether or not I
should
call, when that man started banging on the door. He scared me.”

Mary took a sip of her drink, nodded and said, “Scared me, too. Hank didn’t like him either.” The dog was lying near Mary’s feet, head on his outstretched paws, eyes alert for any morsel of cheese or crumb of cracker that might possibly hit the floor. Benjamin was curled up in a bed beside the hearth.

It was a peaceful scene and Edna’s nerves were beginning to calm when Hank’s head jerked up and a low growl began deep in his throat. He was struggling to his feet when a deep voice said, “Hold him or he’s dead.”

As Mary grabbed Hank’s collar, Edna saw Benjamin streak off to hide in a far corner of the room. At the same time, she whipped her head around and saw the darkly-clad stranger standing in the archway, holding a gun. His collar was still up around his chin and mouth and his cap pulled low on his forehead. All she could see of his face were cold, dark eyes, a nose that had been broken more than once, and lips twisted in a snarl.
Inches from his right knee was
the chair on which Mary had left her pistol.

“Toss me that envelope,” he growled, wobbling his weapon in the direction of the coffee table. “Do it and I won’t have to shoot
you.
”

Edna started to stand, but he stopped her. “Sit down. Pick it up and throw it over here. Careful like.”

She did as she was told, tossing the packet as her granddaughter had taught her to throw a Frisbee, only with less force behind her wrist. She wished she dared throw it at his face. The envelope landed about a foot from his shoes which she noticed were scuffed and rubber soled. With her artist’s eye, she was trying to remember every detail she could in order to sketch him later for Charlie and the police. She knew she’d get the eyes right. It would take many days and not a few nightmares to forget the evil in them.

The gunman bent and picked up the envelope without taking his eyes from the group near the fireplace. He turned it over and quickly glanced at the back flap with its metal clasp and clear, package tape still in place. Waving the envelope in the air and keeping his eyes on the two women, he began to back out of the room. “Good thing you girls didn’t peek,” he said. “That means I don’t have to kill
ya
.”

The corners of his eyes crinkled in what Edna guessed must be a smile, but looked more like a sneer. “Should lock your doors at night,” he said in a mocking tone. “Never know who might walk in.” His voice hardened when he added, “Stay put and count to a
hun’red
. If you move before that, you’re dead. Get the picture?” With a short bark of a laugh as if enjoying a joke, he back away without waiting for a reply.

Edna half expected Mary to jump up and run after him and was amazed to see her calmly
lift
her glass off the coffee table and take a sip of wine. She was surprised but also relieved that her courageous neighbor wasn’t dashing up to grab her gun. Too stunned and frightened to speak at first, Edna finally squeaked, “Do you think he’s gone? We need to call Charlie.”

Mary caught Edna’s look and shook her head. She still held Hank firmly by the collar. “Yes, he’s probably gone, but
wait
here until I check the doors.” She pushed herself up from the sofa, heeled the dog and, on her way out of the living room, picked up her gun. She was back in a few minutes, Hank still at her side.

“Back door was wide open. He must have come in that way, but it wasn’t jimmied. No sign he broke in.”

Edna winced. “Starling must have left it unlocked for me. We’ve gotten into that habit when we know someone will be home soon. I didn’t think to check it when I came in the front door this evening.”

 Mary rolled her eyes, but said only, “Both
doors’re
shut and locked now.” 

Edna was too weak with relief that they hadn’t been hurt to be offended by Mary’s unspoken criticism of the
Davieses
’ lax security measures. “I hope there was nothing too important in that envelope of Jaycee’s.”

“Whatever is in it is probably on this too,” Mary said, reaching inside the breast pocket of her shirt and removing a small black wafer. She held it up between thumb and forefinger, grinning broadly.

Chapter Nineteen

“Where did you get that,” Edna demanded, a feeling of dread beginning to burn the pit of her stomach. Mary was too pleased with herself, by far.

“The tape only covered part of the flap. I felt a bulge near the clasp so I stuck my pen knife in to see what it was.” Mary’s eyes went wide with innocence. “This just fell out.”

She put the wafer in the palm of her hand and extended it toward Edna who stared at it transfixed before stuttering, “Starling uses those. It’s one of those what-cha-ma-call-
its
... a memory chip for a digital camera.”

“That’s right. It’s like the one I use in my digital,” Mary said. “That’s why I think whatever’s in the envelope might also be on this chip. That guy thought he got away with it, but I fooled him.” Mary’s grin grew wider.

Edna felt her skin growing cold and clammy. Her stomach wasn’t feeling so hot either. “And what happens when he doesn’t find it in the envelope?”

“He probably doesn’t know what was in it in the first place.” Mary shrugged. “He’s just a messenger. Even if he did know what to expect, he won’t open it. His boss would probably have to kill him if he did.”

“And what if this
boss
is waiting down the road? That thug could be back any minute.”

“Bosses don’t wait near the scene of a crime,” Mary said with confidence.

“I’ve got to call Charlie.” Realizing the futility of arguing with her all-things-criminal-enthusiast neighbor, Edna headed for her office, turning back when she heard a commotion behind her. Mary was close on her heels with Hank beside her.  Benjamin, seeing everyone leaving the room, crawled cautiously from his hiding place in the corner and trotted after them.
Safety in numbers
, Edna thought, turning back and hiding a smile. She would have felt cheered if she weren’t so worried about an angry gunman outside her house.

As soon as she entered her office and flicked on the overhead light, Edna crossed to the window and lowered the shade, something she almost never did. Even though prowlers had broken in the previous fall, they’d been caught. Knowing who the felons were and that the break-ins weren’t liable to happen again, she’d felt safe in the neighborhood. A screening of laurel and lilac bushes hid her house from cars going by along the road, so she hadn’t thought it necessary to pull every shade in the house after dark.

Feeling a little more secure after shutting out the night, she moved to the desk, picked up the phone and dialed Charlie’s cell number. He answered on the fifth ring.

“Rogers.”

She was surprised she sounded as calm as she did with her stomach tied in a million knots. Still, her voice shook slightly when she said, “Charlie,
it’s
Edna. Mary and I were just threatened at gun point. Our intruder may not have left the neighborhood yet. Would you come and check?”

Police Detective Charlie Rogers knew her well enough from past experience not to waste time questioning her. “Stay put. I’ll call for a patrol and be there as soon as I can, no more than fifteen minutes.” The words were barely out of his mouth before he hung up.

True to his word, he arrived twelve minutes later with Starling in tow. Edna and Mary had stayed in the office with the dog and cat. Once Charlie assured himself they were unharmed, he put his hand in the small of Starling’s back and gently propelled her into the room. “I’m going out to talk to the patrol and look around. I think it would be best if you ladies stay in this room until I get back.” At a nod of reassurance and approval from Edna, he hurried from the room, flipping open his cell phone as he disappeared into the hall.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Starling rushed to hug her mother,
then
straightened to look questioningly at Mary. Hank pushed his nose into Starling’s hand, and she scratched his ears absently as she waited to hear the details of their evening.