Key to Love (30 page)

There is nothing more rewarding than destroying your enemies with a couple of chews and a swallow.
If only life could be so easy.

****

The late morning was getting hot and humid, but it was hotter in the beat-up old maroon Chevy pickup where Lucas sat with J.B., eating cheeseburgers and fries and watching the parking lot of Children and Youth Services a half a block away. Parked behind them, a block up the street, was Lucas’s Trans Am. Across the street, the bank was doing a sporadic business through the drive-thru. Beside them, the florist shop had opened, and a worker was busy hanging colorful flowering baskets of petunias on hooks underneath a canopy over the entrance. The canopy read “Rosie’s Posies.”

“Man, there is nothing better than melted cheese on some meat,” J.B. said between mouthfuls. He was on his second burger. “The only thing to improve this would be a beer.”

“If our plan works, I’ll buy you a case,” Lucas said. Despite the escalating heat, he didn’t want to start the truck to use the air conditioner and call needless attention to their location. He was not even fond of the idea of opening all the windows, but he knew there was no alternative. Once Elise had told him Nick found white paint chips on Mike’s car, he hadn’t been able to sleep, thinking sleazebag Morrison might be involved in his brother’s death.

“Now tell me again how you want this to go down,” J.B. asked.

“Loosely, you have to either run into the back of Morrison’s car when he’s coming out of the parking lot, or just hit it after it’s parked. That’ll give us reason to get old paint flecks from the back fenders. The police think the vehicle that ran Mike’s car off the road came up on him from behind, passed, and hit him on his left front fender with its right front fender, sending him off the road. It’s highly possible Morrison had his front fender, bumper, and right side panels repaired and repainted. So we need old stuff from the back side, preferably driver’s side, to see if it matches the samples left on Mike’s car.”

“Loosely?” J.B. asked. “Now I’d call it freakin’ idiotic, man. I thought you said you had this all thought out. I’ve no desire to up my insurance rates, ruin my perfectly stellar driving record, and possibly injure myself for a few flecks of paint!”

“Somebody’s cranky.”

When J.B. only glared at him, Lucas continued, “Unless you have a better idea, we are stuck with the plan.”

“If you take a look ahead of you,” J.B. pointed out, “you would see Morrison’s white Mercedes is parked between a Lexus and a Hummer—two cars I’d hate to inflict collateral damage on using your loose plan.” J.B. reached for a fistful of fries and took a sip of lemonade.

“Well, the dork always takes a late lunch, so we have some time to think this through.”

“And we have to wait for what? Two hours? And sit here and fry inside this cab in this heat?” J.B. finished his burger and dropped the wrappings into the take-out bag. He reached behind the seat, grabbed a grubby baseball hat with “Wayland Construction” written on it, and rummaged around until he found an old clipboard. From his pocket he withdrew a penknife and some small plastic bags.

“You know, Lucas, when someone acts like he’s guilty, he probably is. So stop acting like you’re guilty and stop playing by the book. You’d put ol’ Abe Lincoln to shame! Here’s the new plan. You’re going to drive into the parking lot like you should be there, pull perpendicular to the back of Morrison’s car, stop and block any view from the opposite windows in the office building. Consider yourself part of the Wayland Construction follow-up crew who’s inspecting the macadam parking lot for defects. I plan to jump out, scratch off some paint, and hop back in. It’s that simple.”

Lucas looked at him incredulously. “And you think
I’m
crazy? I don’t even know if it’s legal. What if someone recognizes me?”

J.B. shook his head and gave him a dismal look. “Legal? You’re worrying about legalities
now
? For crying out loud, you make something up on the spot if you bump into someone you know.” He looked over at Lucas. “Come on, boss guy, buck up. Let’s do it. An adrenaline rush would do wonders for your ethics. We’re trying to solve a crime here.”

“Ah, bite me,” Lucas grunted. With a sour look, he peered at J.B. and his battered hat. “Gawd Almighty, you look like the Jeff Foxworthy of a redneck construction company. Okay, let’s get this over with.” He turned the key in the ignition, and within minutes they were positioned in back of Morrison’s car. J.B. jumped out with hat, clipboard, and knife.

Not even fifteen seconds elapsed before Twila Pedmo motored into the parking lot and steered her big blue Buick into a parking spot opposite and perpendicular to them, across the egress lane, and in front of the entrance to the building.

Stunned, Lucas’s mouth dropped. He inched lower down in his seat and slipped his sunglasses on. “Oh, dear Lord,” he muttered to himself and in earshot of J.B. “Of all the people we could have bumped into, we luck out with Twila Pedmo, Miss Manners and Protector of Small Children.”

Twila Pedmo hefted her stocky frame from her car. She was wearing a floral spring dress in vibrant shades of pink, white, and yellow and her newly permed hair glistened pink in the bright sunlight. She immediately squinted at the pick-up and waved enthusiastically. “Yoo-hoo! Lucas, Lucas Fisher, is that you?”

“Holy crap,” Lucas heard J.B.’s voice grumble through the open passenger window where he was crouching on the other side of the pickup. “Now all we need is the local camera crew from WYOU-TV to document this and we can be on the late night news.”

“Yeah, and we’ll be watching it from jail,” Lucas muttered in a hiss.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Lucas,” J.B spit back. “Get out of the damn truck and run some interference, will you? Now!”

Lucas threw open his door, slid out, and trotted over to where Pedmo was standing. He gave her the widest smile he could manage. “Mrs. Pedmo, so glad I could catch you. I have a quick question, if you don’t mind.”

Pedmo looked at him curiously then peered around him and shot another puzzled gaze at the beat-up truck. “Don’t tell me you’re going to restore that piece of junk?”

“Nah.” He could feel the sweat trickle down his back. “Just took it in on a trade.” Which, Lucas thought to himself, was the truth. “Tell me, Mrs. Pedmo, do you have any idea where Elise and I could find Todd’s health records? We seem to have misplaced them along with some of Mike’s other important papers.”

She shook her head. “No, but I do know Mike used a pediatrician here in Scranton. I’ll look up his name in our records and email Elise and you. He could probably tell you who the pediatrician was in New Castle, and you could get copies from both of them and recreate his health history.”

“Thank you. It would be a big help.” Lucas licked his dry lips and smiled nervously, willing himself not to turn and look at the truck.

Pedmo peered at him with knitted eyebrows. “Lucas, are you all right? You don’t look very well.”

He nodded and forced himself to swallow. He was so nervous he could hear his heart wildly thumping like a war drum clear up into his ears. “This early spring heat seems to be getting to me.”

“Then you need to get out of the sun right this minute, young man,” she instructed him and headed for the entrance door, her sturdy shoes clopping on the pavement. He waited until she was inside, then hurried to the pickup and stood blocking the window on his side of the door until he heard J.B. open the passenger door and crawl in.

“Got it. Took samples from all four corners. See!” J.B. enthusiastically waved the plastic bags in one hand and pumped the air with his other. “I knew we could do it.”

Lucas glanced at J.B. and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He took a deep steadying breath. “Yeah, and I feel about five years older than when we started these shenanigans.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Elise thought there was nothing more beautiful than a boy and a dog and a May afternoon warm enough so she could lower the Tahoe’s windows to allow the sweet smells of spring to waft into the car. In yards and along the roadside, rhododendron bloomed in glorious shades of dark pink, purple and snow white. A soft breeze ruffled the leaves in the birch and maples, and new grass, green and rich, sprang up to crowd out winter’s brown.

Elise glanced in her rearview mirror at Todd buckled in the backseat and noticed he was leafing through the dog-eared
Fox and the Hound
. In his lap were two bags of animal crackers filled with compatible animal shapes and a box of juice. Beside him, Bess eyed the bags of crackers with solemn interest, caring little, she surmised, whether the animal crackers were friends or foes.

On the drive to the cottage, she pondered what she was going to do with Winston and Sanders. To alienate them by starting her own firm could be troublesome. They had a reputation and were well-known on the West Coast. On the other hand, Mort Levinson was handing her an offer hard to refuse and she surmised he would be willing to buy her out from under her legal obligations to Winston and Sanders. As the lead architect on his projects, she stood to make a lot more money than Paul and Chuck could ever pay her. Thrown into the mix were Lucas and Todd Fisher. She was in love with Lucas. Those gray eyes and easy smile had a way of turning her inside out, and Todd was a little charmer who tugged so hard on her heart strings she was certain they were going to break if she had to leave.

She also brooded over the Mike Fisher dilemma. So far they were getting no closer to finding out how he might have died. It was the end of her two-week vacation as well, and although she had more days owed her, she didn’t think it would be prudent to stay away from the San Francisco office much longer. Paul Winston had left a message on the answering machine and her cell phone yesterday asking when she planned to return to the office. She noticed there was a distinct softening of his usual terse nature, but not much.

As she and Todd drove into the cottage lane, taking the second loop of the driveway leading to the back of the cottage, she reminded Todd of the outside play rules. He was only allowed to play in the grassy yard behind the cottage and was not supposed to wander any place near the lake tucked away over a small rise on the north side.

“Can we look for Ranger?” he asked again when they stopped. He peered out the window at Cindy’s car, already parked in the back driveway. “Hey, look, Cindy is here!” He unbuckled his seat belt and with Bess tagging along barreled straight for the shed.

“Wait!” Elise hurried to keep up with him. She passed the doghouse on her way to the shed and stopped for a moment to stare at it. Newly built by Mike Fisher, it was finished with charcoal gray shingles, perfectly aligned. The siding, painted a glistening white, matched the color of the cottage. So what was bothering her about the doghouse? She shook her head as if she was shaking out cobwebs from her mind and hurried along to catch up with Todd.

Cindy was already inside the shed, sitting on one box and sorting through another when Elise swung the second door open to allow more sunlight to flood inside. Elise moved to the many boxes stacked four high and marked with Mike’s and Todd’s names on them. Todd took the lid off a box, positioned with others on the ground to the left of her, and dug into it. It looked like it held an assortment of old baby toys. Elise watched him bite his lower lip in annoyance.

For a moment, Elise stood still, her eyes circling the shed. She stared at the junk and stacks of boxes as an eerie shiver washed over her. Her neck and scalp felt as if any army of tiny spiders was marching upward. Her sixth sense kicked in. The last time she had been in the shed, all of the boxes had been neatly stacked in tiers of four. J.B. had promised her all of Todd’s boxes would be positioned within easy reach, but those labeled as Todd’s were now mixed in with the rest. Someone had been in the shed. Someone had been digging though the contents of the boxes. Someone had put them back in stacks, but not in the proper order.

Frowning, Elise looked at Cindy.

“What?” Cindy asked, seeing the alarmed look on Elise’s face.

Elise pulled out her phone and motioned Cindy toward her. She was just about to phone Lucas when she looked out and noticed the back door to the cottage was ajar. She pointed to the door and pushed Cindy back into the shed.

“Were you in the house?” she asked.

When Cindy shook her head, Elise whispered, “I need your help.” She jerked her thumb toward the house. “I’m going inside. I want you to wait out here with Todd and Bess. It’s possible the door was left unlocked by one of the contractors, but I can’t take a chance that’s the case. I’m going to look around to see if anyone is in there.”

“I don’t like this,” Cindy said, her eyes growing large and worrisome.

“Stay calm and listen to me.” Elise handed her phone to Cindy. “If after a few minutes you don’t hear from me, call Nick and Lucas and tell them to come here. Make sure they know you’re at the cottage along with Todd. Keep Todd and Bess inside the shed until you hear a familiar voice calling you, okay?”

“Okay, Elise, but let me repeat, I’m not feeling good about this. Why can’t we phone them now and wait until they arrive?” Cindy’s voice was now a distraught plea.

“Because if someone’s inside the house, I want to find out who it is before he gets away.” From her purse, Elise withdrew a small can of pepper spray, ducked outside, and crossed the distance to the back door of the house.

With her heart thumping, she stopped and stood quietly outside listening for any sounds within. Pepper spray in her right hand, she pushed the door open with the other and had a short surge of relief when the hinges didn’t squeak. Silently, the door drifted open into the kitchen. On the tile floor ahead of her, she saw smudges of mud where someone had walked. She was being silly, she told herself, the dirt could easily have been from a contractor or his helper coming in and out of the cottage with tools and supplies. There was still a showerhead to be installed in the master bath, and she had asked a carpenter to build permanent bookcases for one of the walls in Todd’s bedroom. She had also designed a new sunroom to expand the living area and had asked two contractors to stop by, look at the layout possibilities, and give her quotes.