Flea Market Fatal (11 page)

It was all a lie, and she hoped he didn’t probe for details.

Del shrugged. “Dangerous town, all of a sudden. Al gets himself strangled and not long after somebody steals from your truck. Wonder if it was the same guy?”

She was convinced he was toying with her. But was that because he was just a weirdo, or was that because he was the killer?

“Did you see anybody, either on foot or driving by?” Missy asked.

“Nope.”

“So you were home while all this was happening, I take it?”

“Yep.”

Noreen finally found her voice. “All anybody keeps talking about is your argument with Albert.”

Del smiled fully for the first time. “Ha. Which one?”

Missy and Noreen looked at each other. If this guy was guilty, he was doing little to make it look like he wasn’t. He’d just admitted to having frequent arguments with Switzer.

“The one having to do with your property.”

“Ha. Which one?”

This guy was basically admitting to having a grudge against his now-deceased neighbor. Missy didn’t know where to go next, other than just coming right out with it.

“The most recent argument,” Missy said. “That’s what everybody’s talking about.”

The smile turned into something dangerous. “Switzer was squatting on my land.”

“He was?”

Del nodded. “Encroaching along the border with that fence he put up.”

Missy and Noreen both turned. The fence was a new addition. Del had taken paint to it on his side, marking it up with wide, random brush strokes and different colors.

“That wasn’t even the worst of it.” Del folded his arms. “Last year he started regrading his backyard. Now my basement floods any time we get a decent storm. Of course he wouldn’t accept responsibility.”

“And you didn’t see anybody else at his place Saturday morning?”

Del scratched at his beard again. “In the morning, there were plenty of people stopping for the garage sale.”

“Anybody in particular stand out for you?”

“Just you.”

“Me?”

He nodded. “Everybody knows about your pop and Al.”

Yeah, everybody except her. Missy was trying to figure out what to ask next, when Noreen blurted out:

“Did you kill him?”

Del shook his head at her audacity. “Who are you, Cagney and Lacey?”

Missy didn’t get the reference. Must have been before her time. She decided to back Noreen up. They had already opened the door, might as well go all the way inside.

“You weren’t on good terms with him. You live right next door, which means you had the opportunity.”

“Opportunity?” His eyes were slits now. “People were in and out of there all morning. I would have to be an idiot to go over there and kill him.”

“The murder wasn’t premeditated,” Missy said. “Whoever did this just flew off the handle. I’ll bet you went over there to talk about something, got into an argument, and lost it with him.”

“Your boyfriend has already been through here,” Del said. “Asking me all these same questions. I gotta answer them for him, but I don’t gotta answer them for you. You and your friend can get off my property now.”

Del turned and started walking away. Cody untensed.

“If you didn’t do it,” Missy said, “help us figure out who did.”

Del stopped on the first step onto his porch and turned just his head. “Al Switzer was an asshole, but he didn’t deserve to die. That ain’t right. I’d help if I could but I didn’t see anybody else.”

Missy opened the door for Cody then got behind the steering wheel in the truck. She looked over at Noreen.

“Weird guy,” Missy said.

Noreen nodded. “So now we’ve got three suspects. Del, Cooper, and Oliver.”

“Oliver said he had an alibi.”

Noreen shook her head. “Oh, Missy. Haven’t you read a mystery book ever?”

“Uh, I have actually. A lot more than you, I’d like to point out.”

“Then you should know we have to follow-up on his alibi. I’ll bet Oliver was lying. I mean, he should have had a hard time finding one woman, let alone two.”

Before they knew it, they were both cracking up in Missy’s truck, still in Del’s driveway. The thought of two women with Oliver was a non-sequitur, but the older Missy got, the less surprised her about people. No woman should have wasted her time with Oliver McCleary, which meant there were probably plenty of women wasting their time with the guy. That was just the way it was.

As she backed out of the driveway, Cody stood up on the seat between them and started barking.

“Cody, what the—” Missy turned and saw what the dog was barking at. Next door, a police cruiser and Gordon’s Tesla pulled into Albert Switzer’s driveway.

“What’s this all about?” Noreen asked.

“We’re here,” Missy said. “Worth checking out.”

The driver of the cruiser stepped out. Of course it was Tyler dressed in his uniform. Even from this great distance and through the trees, she recognized his broad shoulders and also his walk. Tyler carried himself a certain way, almost like he was in the military: shoulders back, head up, full of confidence.

Missy drove the short distance and parked half on the street in front of Switzer’s house. Loretta was on the porch, Gordon had stayed by his car, and Tyler was cutting across the lawn, coming right for her.

She got out. Cody started barking again. She really didn’t like Loretta and Gordon.

“Missy, what are you doing here?” Tyler practically snapped. He stopped a few feet from her so they were out of earshot of Loretta and Gordon.

“She shouldn’t be here!” Gordon called out from his car. “Or her dog! She has no right to step onto this property.”

Tyler ignored them, but his face was red. “I’m walking a fine line here, Melissa, and I can’t have you interfering. If it looks like you’re influencing this investigation, I could get into serious trouble. Is that what you want?”

“I’m trying to help.” Missy felt bad. She really wasn’t trying to make life hard for Tyler.

“Gordon has a lot of friends in high places. He’s part of that old boy’s club. All he has to do is whisper in the right ears, Melissa, and everything I’ve been trying to do for the department is lost.”

“Tyler, I’m sorry.” She looked past him. “What are they doing here?”

“None of your business,” Tyler said. “Now I really need you to stay out of this. What were you even doing next door?”

“Talking to Del…” For a moment, Missy thought about telling that made-up story about someone stealing out of her truck while she was here. But she couldn’t do that to Tyler. “Look, I just thought he was the perfect suspect. He lives right here and the two of them hated each other.”

Tyler pursed his lips and looked away. Gordon started walking across the lawn.

“You need to leave,” Tyler said.

“Why is she here?” Gordon asked. He made it halfway across the lawn before Cody’s barking stopped him dead in his tracks. Missy looked over her shoulder. Cody was pressing her nose against the window and yapping, while Noreen tried to calm her from the passenger seat.

“She was just passing through,” Tyler said. “Weren’t you, Melissa?”

“Officer,” Gordon said. “I have my suspicions that this woman removed something belonging to Loretta from the property after Mr. Switzer’s unfortunate passing.”

Tyler turned back to her. “Is that true?”

“No. Not true.”

Gordon pointed at her. “Loretta can’t find certain personal items that were very meaningful—and
valuable
—to her. It’s not a stretch to think that Missy killed Mr. Switzer given what happened in the past between the man and her father, and then out of spite stole Loretta’s things, to get her revenge on Loretta that way.”

It was pretty preposterous, actually. “I was just a little girl when all that happened and I didn’t even know about it until
after
Mr. Switzer died. My mother kept it from me. You can ask her.”

Gordon laughed sardonically. “Oh, right, like we can trust a thing your mother says. She would do anything to protect her daughter.”

Despite the man’s imposing size and musculature, Missy wanted to rush and take a swing. Or, better idea, open the door and let Cody gnaw on his leg for awhile.

“Okay,” Tyler said. “Like I said, Melissa was just leaving.”

“Hold on,” Gordon said. “I think we should see what’s in the back of Melissa’s truck under that tarp.”

“What?” Missy stiffened. “Everything in my truck belongs to me.”

It wasn’t a lie, but still…lawyers scared her. They were so quick on their feet.

Tyler faced her. “Can we see what’s under the tarp, Melissa?”

She didn’t want to show them even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Fine.”

Melissa went around the back and pulled the tarp aside, uncovering the things she’d purchased Saturday along with Switzer’s cabinet.

Gordon motioned for Loretta to approach.

She stepped off the porch while the dog continued to go crazy. Tyler, Gordon, and Loretta all circled behind the truck to see into the flatbed.

Missy just waited for the other shoe to drop. Loretta would see the cabinet and make a big stink about how she’d taken something that wasn’t hers. But Switzer had agreed to sell it to her, so it was Missy’s. It had to be hers, right? She wasn’t sure. She didn’t know a thing about property law, and with Gordon breathing down her neck, she knew she was in trouble.

Loretta examined the things in her truck, her eyes passing right over the cabinet. Missy lowered her eyes, waiting for the inevitable challenge. She tried to think of what to say, but—

“Nope. I don’t see anything that’s mine in there,” Loretta said.

Missy’s head snapped up. She couldn’t believe her good fortune. Loretta hadn’t recognized the cabinet! Maybe it had never been inside the house. Judging by its current state, Missy figured Switzer had kept it in his detached garage probably planning to refurbish it for years before finally throwing in the towel and deciding to sell it.

She had totally lucked out.

Loretta turned and headed back to house.

Gordon faced Tyler now. “Detective Brock, I don’t know why you haven’t arrested this woman yet. She had motive and opportunity. I don’t want to have to take this to the mayor but the way you’ve conducted this investigation raises serious questions.”

Missy felt awful. What had she been thinking? She wasn’t a detective. She should have listened to Tyler—the expert—and stayed out of it. Now she’d seriously fouled things up for him. Being headstrong was good, most of the time. But sometimes this happened.

She wanted to apologize to Tyler, but doing it in front of Gordon wasn’t the best idea. She’d have to do it later.

“Look, I want to help. That’s why I’m here,” Missy said, turning to Gordon. “I didn’t kill Mr. Switzer. He was a nice man to me. What happened between him and my dad was a long time ago, and like I said I didn’t know anything about it until after he died. I haven’t kept anything from the police and I’m just trying to help. Maybe if you told me what you were looking for, I can say whether it was here or not. I spent a few minutes looking over what Mr. Switzer was selling.”

Gordon stiffened. “I will only discuss this investigation with Detective Brock. Not you.”

Cody had finally stopped barking, but still had her snoot pressed up against the window. It was fogged and full of slobber.

“Can we get a move on?” Loretta called out from the porch. “We have things we wanted to do today.”

Tyler kept a straight face, but Missy knew he must have been seething on the inside. “Melissa, I’d like to talk to you later. For now, I have to ask you to leave.”

Without thinking, Missy opened the door and Cody sprang like she was racing at the dog track.

“CODY! NO!”

The dog bounded across the lawn. Gordon hesitated for a second, then turned and broke into a sprint. Missy followed, but Cody was so fast, there was no way she could catch the dog. In the blink of an eye, she knew she’d just ruined everything for Tyler and probably herself. Gordon was going to get Tyler fired through cronyism, and now Cody was going to seriously injure the attorney. By this time tomorrow, Missy could expect to receive a formal complaint and be dragged into court. Gordon would easily get a judgment against her, and she’d owe money she didn’t have—

“Easy, Cody.” Tyler had moved like a flash and gotten in front of the dog. He grabbed her collar and rubbed her head. Cody was still tense and strained against the collar, but Tyler had stopped her so that Missy could get her back into the truck.

“Oh my God,” she said. “Thank you, Tyler. Thank you.”

“Just get out of here, Melissa.”

Missy had a difficult time focusing at work, which was a problem because they had a lot of customers again. Not as many as Monday but still significantly more than usual. Her fifteen minutes of fame hadn’t ended yet. At least somebody was benefitting from this. Books and Crannies was doing a business.

Things quieted down finally around four, and Noreen and Missy had a moment to sit down behind the counter.

“How are we going to talk to Oliver?” Noreen asked.

Missy laughed sardonically. “Maybe we should question Brett. He’s done more business in the last two days than he did all last month. Half the shelves are bare. He probably killed Switzer.”

Noreen nudged her shoulder. “Hey, come on, Miss. You’re the one that’s always upbeat. What gives?”

“Seriously?” Missy knew she was about to take everything out unfairly on her friend, but couldn’t stop herself. “I’ve screwed things up for Tyler. He has a hard enough time right now without me doing something stupid. I mean, he just let Loretta and Gordon enter a closed crime scene. Never in a million years should he be doing that, but that’s the position he’s in because I listened to you and started investigating.”

Noreen shook her head. “I didn’t make you do this.”

“No, but you talked me into it,” Missy said. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t. And we both know why.”

“You’re unbelievable.” Noreen was still shaking her head. “Tell me why you think I talked you into this.”

“Because you’re constantly pushing me to be more like you, and I’m not. I’m not outgoing and confident and pretty like you are. I don’t go up to men at bars. And I don’t need to. I like my life the way it is. I like working here and spending time working on my crafts and hobbies. I don’t need anything else.”

Noreen stood. “If you can’t be honest with yourself, I guess I can’t expect you to be honest with me.”

Missy was too angry to ask what that meant and Noreen was too quick leaving the store anyway. She sat there, behind the counter, fuming.

***

Her shift ended at seven. Missy had planned to go to the gym, then come home to work on the cabinet, but after today’s endless string of disasters she just didn’t have it in her. She stopped for takeout on the way home, food that wouldn’t help her waist line but she didn’t care. At least she still had Cody.

Her phone rang when she was still a few minutes from home.

“Hi, Tyler.”

“Hi.” His voice had a distant quality to it, like they hardly knew each other. “I wanted to call because I’m coming over.”

“Tyler, I know you have to ask me questions but tonight is really not a good night—”

“I’m calling because I won’t be alone tonight.”

“What?”

“The chief is coming too. He’s taking a more active role in the investigation.”

Missy’s heart sank. The only reason Tyler’s boss was now getting involved was because he didn’t think Tyler was doing a good job. She felt awful because deep down she knew it was mostly—if not all—her fault.

She sighed. “I’m pulling into my driveway now…”

Though she couldn’t say exactly why, when she saw her house she knew something was wrong.

“Melissa, what is it?” Tyler asked.

She parked but kept the engine running and didn’t get out. It was dark and there were no lights on in the house but she thought she saw something.

“Missy, are you okay?” Tyler asked.

“I think my front door is open.”