A Time to Live and a Thyme for Murder! (Outer Banks Baker Mystery Series Book 3) (11 page)

The plan worked like a charm. Krissy’s bodyguard didn’t even notice when Cheryl left the house. He was too busy reading something on his Kindle. Normally, she would be irritated someone wasn’t doing their job, especially something as important as guarding someone. However, in this instance, she was grateful. Within fifteen minutes, the other two women joined her and walked the rest of the way to Cheryl’s house to get her car. Krissy made a sly comment about Melissa needing to get her own vehicle, but she had gone without one since she arrived back in Kill Devil Hills years ago. She had no plans to purchase one.

Cheryl drove while Krissy navigated to known hangouts and crash pads Derek used during his brief stay in town. They needed to find something to connect him to others dealing or supplying X15. Krissy had the names Tanner got from his buddy, Hoss. She recognized a couple names as being mentioned by Derek at some point in time, but she never met any of them. They checked out half a dozen beach homes that the boy had crashed at when they had been vacant, but all were occupied by vacationers now. They drove by the moving company headquarters in a rundown building on the outskirts of the downtown area. That was when Krissy remembered that Derek had stayed most nights in a room a few floors above the company’s office. He had complained that it smelled, had no air conditioning, and only an old mattress on the floor to sleep on. The group decided to check it out.

They parked the car a couple blocks away at a local rental car company. The moving company office appeared abandoned with a sign saying they were out for lunch but would return at 1 p.m. The door was locked so they tried a side door towards the rear of the building. It was locked too. Just as Melissa was about to comment needing Logan’s lock picking skills, Krissy took out a hair pin from her ponytail and picked the lock. In seconds, the door swung open revealing a dark corridor. Thankfully, it was also empty.

There were only three floors of the building. They disregarded the main floor since it was clearly utilized just for the moving business. Boxes and bubble wrap filled the tiny hallway. The trio mounted the stairs to the second floor. The odor of burned popcorn and food rotting in trash cans permeated their nostrils. The floor seemed to be a dedicated snack room and hang out area with an old giant box television in the far corner. Krissy cocked her head to the side to indicate they should keep going to the next level.

The third floor was mostly unfinished with rough wood planks for the flooring and an open ceiling that revealed the wires and pipes running throughout the building. One lone fluorescent light hung down in the middle of the hallway. At the end of the corridor was a closed door. All other doorways were minus actual doors. These were packed full of more moving supplies and trash. One small room contained a filthy toilet and small sink that looked as if it had never been introduced to the “scrubbing bubbles”. Melissa couldn’t believe that Derek lived in these conditions while he was in town. It made her feel sympathy towards him. Perhaps he dealt drugs just to get by.

Krissy didn’t need to pick the lock on the door at the end of the hall. It was unlocked. There was trash strewn all over the floor – mostly fast food wrappers and soda cans. Although not in plain sight, they all assumed the place was crawling with roaches and other bugs. There was a dilapidated dresser in the far corner and a lamp missing a lampshade on the floor. There wasn’t much to inspect in the room to provide clues to Derek’s associates. Krissy checked out the dresser, pausing when she came across his favorite Stone Temple Pilots concert t-shirt and faded blue jeans shoved into a drawer. In the back pocket was a sticky note with the name “Ricky” scrawled on it with a phone number. Krissy recalled that “Ricky” was one of the names of the dealers that Tanner met up with the other night. Well, at least they had a number for him now and could connect him to Derek.

She didn’t have time to inform Melissa and Cheryl though before they heard the downstairs metal door bang shut and the sound of footsteps coming up the stairwell. There were only two ways out of the building – those stairs and the fire escape outside the window. Without any place to hide and with the stairs option not viable, Melissa motioned for the others to climb out the window. She nearly had to shove Cheryl outside as the footsteps came closer and closer. Cheryl’s fear of heights had the poor woman in a near panic and on the verge of hyperventilating as she looked down through the metal bars of the fire escape landing. Unable to get Cheryl to budge any further, they couldn’t escape down the rusty ladder so they ducked under the window sill. Melissa prayed whoever coming down the hall didn’t peep outside.

Without attempting to look inside, they heard the door bang open. Whoever was there stomped around loudly. They could hear drawers being opened and thrown to the ground, as well as the lamp crashing against the wall. Krissy stumbled back against the railing when the mattress smashed against the window right above her head. Melissa tried to grab her, but the rusty railing broke from the impact and the young woman fell backwards. Luckily, she grabbed the platform to stop her fall three stories to the ground below. However, the noise alerted the person inside to their presence.

A young man with an acne-scarred face and long greasy hair poked his head out the window to find Krissy dangling from the fire escape and Melissa desperately trying to pull her back up. Cheryl was still frozen in place with a death grip on the railing. The women thought they were goners. Even if this guy wasn’t a drug dealer, he wasn’t going to take kindly to being caught trashing the place. He started to climb out the window to get to them, but the sudden blaring of police sirens coming down the backstreet stopped him. He hoisted himself back inside and attempted to escape down the stairs. Unfortunately for him, squad cars had already blocked off all exits from the building. Melissa turned her attention back to Krissy’s predicament. She vaguely heard a voice over a bull horn instructing Richard “Ricky” Tavales to give himself up peacefully. There was the sound of a scuffle as Ricky tried to bolt out of the building but was tackled by two officers before he could get ten feet away.

Krissy’s grip on the platform was slipping fast. Melissa grabbed one of her arms and tried to pull her up. Now was not the time to realize she should have continued regular strength training workouts because her arms were just not up for the challenge. In horror she watched as the young woman lost her hold on the fire escape and plummeted down. Thankfully, her fall was broken by a police squad car that had parked just under them in case Ricky tried to escape that route. The squad car broke her fall. Seeing that the young girl was okay, Melissa almost sighed with relief until she saw the two gentlemen get out of the car. One was DEA Agent Thomas Garland. The other was Krissy’s father, Detective Jason Payne. Krissy looked up sheepishly, “Hi, Dad.”

Back at the police station, the two women sat across a small conference table from Agent Garland, Detective Cory Bronson, and Jason. Krissy was in another room having her injuries tended to from the earlier fall from the fire escape. Of the three men, the latter’s face revealed the most anger and frustration. Melissa inwardly worried more about what would be said when they were alone outside of this room. Cory had a smug “I told you they were trouble” smile. He seemed as if he were enjoying this situation. While the DEA agent actually looked somewhat amused. Melissa and Cheryl tried their best to appear contrite. No one spoke as they waited for Janice Littleton, their lawyer, to arrive. Even the agent had insisted nothing be said until the attorney could be present for questioning. While they waited, he checked in on the officers questioning Ricky Tavales in another room.

It didn’t take Janice long. Melissa had called her earlier that day to inform her of their intentions to track down where Derek had stayed during his time in town, in an effort to find his associates. The attorney had not approved the course of action, but knew better than to attempt talking Melissa out of it. She fully expected to get another call to come to the police station and was prepared. She walked into the conference room with a barely contained smile and slight roll of her eyes in Melissa’s direction. “Seems a bit crowded in here, fellas. My clients aren’t Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel after all,” she began. “Why don’t we have Detective Bronson check up on Krissy and then take care of some paperwork or something while we talk?” Cory immediately began to argue, but Agent Garland cut him off by agreeing with Janice and tersely sending him on his way. He earned an appreciative nod and smile from the pretty attorney.

Agent Garland started off by saying, “Okay, ladies, how about you explain what you were doing at the moving company office building and how you managed to be on the fire escape outside the tiny room Derek McCallie formerly occupied?” With a nod from Janice that it was alright to speak up, Melissa explained the whole story. How they had wanted to track down where Derek had been staying in an effort to find out as much as they could about his dealings in town. She also threw in a tiny fib that Krissy needed some closure with Derek’s death. Even Jason looked up at her with curiosity at that statement, but he let it slide without question. Melissa told another little lie when she said that the back door of the building was open. No use getting them in more hot water by confessing Krissy picked the lock. She continued to explain what they found, which wasn’t much. Melissa fished out the torn paper with the name “Ricky” on it along with a phone number, which Krissy had given to her, from her back pocket and handed it to Agent Garland.

“So is that everything you found, Mrs. Maples?” he asked. She assured him that it was and then explained the rest of the tale. They heard footsteps coming down the hall so they exited via the fire escape in order to avoid any confrontation with someone that may or may not be associated with the drug scene that Derek had been involved in. Cheryl nodded her head in agreement with everything Melissa said. After a moment’s silence as the two gentlemen absorbed the information, Agent Garland grinned and started to chuckle. “Ladies, you certainly make things interesting around here.” Everyone, including Jason, looked at the federal agent in wonder.

A little while later, Cory walked back in with Krissy in tow. The young woman was bruised, but nothing broken from her fall. Looking sheepishly at her father, she assumed she was in big trouble – not just with the law but with him. Finding the group sitting casually around the conference table and smiling came as a shock. The detective seemed a bit perturbed at the light atmosphere in the room. “Exactly what did I miss?” he asked.

Agent Garland piped up and said the women were free to go and no charges would be filed. He assured the detective they had been reprimanded enough about going off on their own to investigate a crime. However, he did warn Krissy to avoid fire escape ladders from now on.

As the other detective took a seat, the agent continued his explanation. He had hoped Ricky would confess to the murder of Derek McCallie, but the drug dealer had a solid alibi for the night in question – he had been locked up overnight in Nags Head, NC for a DWI (driving while intoxicated). However, he did have some interesting information to impart. Ricky knew all about Derek’s methods of hiding and transporting the drugs. He confiscated bread packages from his girlfriend’s place of employment. He hid the drugs in the bread bowls; however, he mistakenly left a few packages behind one night when his girlfriend finished cleaning up the front of the restaurant early and almost caught him slicing the bread and re-taping the bags. Ricky’s statements cleared Krissy as an accomplice in the drug trafficking. Everyone had been relieved at that news. However, there was still the question of who killed Derek.

Agent Garland surprised everyone when he asked for their cooperation in a plan to entrap the killer. While everyone readily agreed, Detective Bronson wasn’t thrilled with the plan and Jason didn’t want his daughter involved. Krissy argued with her father. Reluctantly, she showed him the new text she received while she was being evaluated by the medics. It was another threatening note instructing her to keep her mouth shut or else. “I have too much at stake for this to continue, Dad. I’m in this whether you like it or not.” He eventually relented after receiving strong reassurances from the agent that she would be thoroughly protected at all times.