Maggie Lee (Book 7): The Hitwoman and the 7 Cops (2 page)

“Hungry,” DeeDee panted, as though having her name spoken aloud gave her permission to speak.

“Your cat’s still out there.” Leslie informed me. “She didn’t seem to want to come inside.”

“She’s fine out there.” I wasn’t worried about the one-eyed, one-eared Southern Belle of a cat who pretty much did as she pleased.

“I’m going to visit your mother,” Leslie said. “I was wondering if either of you would like to go with me.”

“I promised Katie that I’d visit with her and I’ve got a meeting scheduled with one of her doctors.”

“Do you think they’re getting ready to send her home?” Leslie asked hopefully.

I secretly hoped the meeting wasn’t about that. While I desperately wanted Katie to make a full recovery from the car accident that had killed her parents and left her in a coma, as her legal guardian, I didn’t feel like I was prepared yet to provide the best post-hospital life for her.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” I told Leslie.

“What about you Marlene?” Leslie asked, undeterred. “Would you like to visit your mother?”

“Umm,” Marlene said hesitantly.

I knew the feeling. I was never too eager to go visit Mom either.

Marlene surprised me by saying, “Okay, I’ll go.”

I raised my eyebrows silently, asking her about her sudden change of heart.

She looked away, which left me to wonder if she was thinking of hiding from Wally at the nuthouse where Mom resides.

“Wonderful!” Leslie clapped her delight.

DeeDee plopped her heavy head into my lap, looked up at me pitifully, and whined softly, “Hungry.”

“What’s wrong with the mutt?” Marlene asked.

“Let me count the ways,” God shouted from his enclosure.

Marlene frowned at the reptile. “And why’s the lizard squeaking?”

“I don’t squeak!” God thundered.

But to Marlene and Leslie it sounded like a squeak.

“The dog’s hungry,” I said quickly.

“I’ll feed her,” Leslie offered.

Faster than a sailor abandoning a sinking ship, DeeDee left me and bounded over to Leslie. She waited expectantly at my aunt’s feet.

“It’s like she understood what I said,” Leslie marveled.

“She can’t even understand what comes out of her own mouth,” God griped.

“Maybe the lizard’s squeaking because he’s hungry too,” Marlene suggested.

“I
do not
squeak!”

“I’ve got a headache,” I muttered as Leslie and DeeDee made their way up the stairs and into the kitchen.  Once they were out of earshot, I turned my attention to Marlene. “We’ll figure out what to do about this Wally character. Just promise me you won’t do something stupid like take off.”

“Okay,” she agreed grudgingly. “But only because I couldn’t get very far on forty-two bucks.”

Chapter Two

“Margaret? Are you awake?” Aunt Susan called from the top of the stairs.

I rolled my eyes. Considering that she couldn’t have missed Leslie and DeeDee barreling into the kitchen moments before, it seemed like an idiotic question.

“Glad she’s looking for you and not me,” Marlene whispered, hopping off the couch and heading for the storm doors to make her escape before our most uptight aunt could single her out.

“Are you up?” Susan climbed down a couple of stairs on one side of the room, while Marlene scampered up the flight on the opposite of the room.

“Yes. Unfortunately I am,” I responded in my grumpiest voice.

“Good. There are a couple of gentlemen here to see you.” The disapproval in her tone made me want to cover my head with a blanket and hide.

My stomach lurched nervously. “Who?”

She walked to the bottom of the stairs so she could look me in the eye. “One’s a police detective and the other’s a U.S. Marshall.”

“Griswald?”

“Yes and no,” Susan said mysteriously. “Don’t keep them waiting. They seem impatient.”

“That can’t be good,” I said weakly, getting to my feet. Since I’m not exactly a law-abiding citizen, I should have been alarmed that a member of the police force wanted to talk to me, but the addition of the Marshal made me think this impromptu visit wasn’t about me, but about my dear old dad who was supposed to be in the Witness Protection Program. I wondered what new trouble my father had managed to wreak.

I braced myself for a lecture as Aunt Susan ran a critical eye over me.

Instead, she surprised me. She pulled me to her in a quick, tight hug. “I’m proud of you, Maggie,” she whispered before pushing away from me.

I stood there for a moment, too shocked by her display of affection to move.

She cleared her throat. “Well don’t dilly-dally. Get up there and see what they want. If you don’t hurry, I’m afraid Loretta may eat the one who looks like a young Robert Redford alive.”

“Bring me,” God urged from his enclosure.

Unable to think of a reason for scooping up the lizard that my aunt would be comfortable with, I left him behind. I hurried up the stairs with Susan following closely.

Susan hadn’t been exaggerating about Aunt Loretta and the agent who looked like a movie star. She was practically shoving her barely clad bosom into the young man’s face under the pretense of pouring him a cup of coffee. To his credit, the guy looked mortified as he made a point to keep his gaze averted.

“Ooh coffee. I’m dying for a cup.” Even though I said it to distract Loretta from her full-court seduction attempt, I didn’t have to fake my enthusiasm for the liquid caffeine. “Can I have a cup?”

Loretta nodded, grudgingly leaving her would-be conquest’s side to find a mug for me.

“Miss Lee?” Robert Redford’s partner, a young man with dark circles under his eyes, stood and extended his hand. “I’m U.S. Marshall Mike Griswald.”

I shook it, trying to ignore the way his sport coat gaped, revealing his holstered gun. “Any relation to the other Griswalds who were after my father?”

He smiled ruefully. “My uncles and I are afraid the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree on that one.”

“They sat right there”—I pointed to a chair across the table—“and polished quite a bit of silver.”

Mike hesitated as though he were trying to figure out if polishing silver was some kind of euphemism.

I hid a grin, happy to keep the U.S. Marshall off his game a bit longer. “So how are you related to them again?”

He shook his head. “My mom is their sister.”

“So I guess law enforcement runs in your family.” I didn’t point out that criminal activity runs in mine.

Mike shrugged. “For some of us, but unfortunately not for all.”

Something in his tone revealed that he wasn’t thrilled with some choices made by unknown family members. I could relate and found myself smiling at him sympathetically.

“Here you go, sweetheart.” Loretta placed a cup of coffee in front of me.

“Thanks.”

“Our Susan was quite taken with your uncle,” Loretta revealed with a coquettish smile.

Deciding that particular topic of conversation was even more loaded than what they were really there to discuss, I quickly said, “So what has my father done now?”

“Have you heard from him?” young Robert Redford asked.

“I’m sorry, you are?” I asked.

“Ummm…. I’m… um…..”

I waited, wondering why the guy didn’t know his own name. Piss, the one-eyed cat, leapt into my lap and eyed the tongue-tied man.

“Aww, he’s bashful, bless his heart,” she drawled, though to anyone else it just sounded as though she was purring contentedly.

“Detective Brian Griswald,” Mike supplied. “He’s giving me a hand with the search.”

Wondering how a guy too shy to even introduce himself had ever made detective, I looked from one man to the other. They didn’t
look
like brothers.

“Perhaps we should just make this conversation between the three of us,” Mike declared, staring pointedly at Loretta, who was batting her eyelashes at the other Griswald.

Taking pity on the poor detective who didn’t seem to know what to do about Loretta’s unwanted flirtation, I nodded. “I think Aunt Susan needs help in the kitchen.”

Loretta didn’t take the hint.

Brian shot a helpless look at Mike. The Marshal yawned.

“We need some privacy,” I told Loretta firmly.

She pouted slightly, but got up and left the room, though she definitely wiggled and sashayed as she did it.

Poor Detective Brian gulped, spots of color blooming on his cheeks.

“She’s really quite harmless,” I assured him.

A blush tinged the tops of his ears pink.

“About your father,” the Marshal said, firmly bringing our attention back to the topic at hand.

“Haven’t seen him.” I sipped my coffee. “Has he been missing long?”

“A day. Maybe two.”

I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t ask how they’d manage to lose track of the star witness against the Lubovsky crime family.

“We’ve got a list of his known associates. Do you mind looking it over and telling us if there’s anyone you can think of who’s not on it?”

Brian Griswald handed me his cell phone.

I glanced at the list of names. “To be honest, my father and I aren’t all that close.”

“And yet you negotiated his entrance into the protection program.” Mike smothered another yawn.

“The things we do for family.” The things
I
did for family not only included getting people into the United States Federal Witness Protection Program, but killing complete strangers in order to fund my niece’s hospital stay.

“According to my uncles, you helped bring down the Lubovsky syndicate in order to protect your sister.” Mike checked his watch. “Is she here?”

I shrugged. “She was earlier.”

“But she’s not now?”  The marshal guzzled his coffee like a man who’d just crossed the Sahara on foot.

I smiled slightly. “I’ll check for you.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Marlene!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Marshal Griswald almost dropped his coffee cup.

Detective Griswald flinched.

Even Piss dug her claws into my jean-covered thighs in protest.

I took an audible deep breath and yelled again, “Marlene! Are you here?”

“For heaven’s sake, Margaret,” Susan complained, bursting into the room, “must you act like you were raised in a barn?”

“I
was
raised in a barn,” Piss meowed from her spot on my lap. “And no one, not even the idiot chickens, behaved as abysmally as you.”

I mentally tucked that little nugget of information away since I didn’t know much about the Southern Fried Cat. “Sorry.”

Susan glared at me. “Why are you shouting?”

“Because these gentlemen want to know if Marlene is here.”

“And you’ve suddenly been rendered incapable of getting up and searching for her like a civilized human being?”

Instead of answering my aunt, I directed my attention at the two men sitting across from me, catching Mike mid-yawn. “I think it’s safe to say she isn’t here.”

“She went with Leslie to visit your mother,” Susan interjected, her disapproval that I hadn’t accompanied them evident in her tone.

I ignored her. While my relationship with my mother had improved recently, I didn’t relish the idea of going to the mental health facility where she resided. The other residents creeped me out. Quite frankly, they were a reminder that I was only a step or two away from ending up there myself if anyone knew I talked to animals or killed people. Shaking my head to rid myself of the disturbing thought, I tapped Brian Griswald’s phone with my finger. “That’s who’s not on your list. My mother.”

“What list?” Susan demanded worriedly.

“A list of Archie’s known associates.” I gave the phone back to the detective. “Depending on the day, my mother, Mary Lee, may not know Archie, but he definitely knows her.”

Susan pressed a hand to her chest. “You don’t think he’s going to try to take Mary, do you? Every time he does, she suffers a setback.”

“We have someone watching her,” Mike assured us quickly.

Susan’s sigh of relief was audible. She sank into the nearest chair. “Thank you.”

I drained my coffee like it was a shot of liquid courage. “So tell me, does the fact you’ve lost track of him mean he’s kicked out of the program?”

The marshal’s mouth twitched in the semblance of a smile. “We need him in order to make the case against the Lubovsky family. As long as we can get him back before he does something stupid like breaking the law, his status as a protectee won’t change.”

“You don’t know Archie Lee,” Susan said. “The man was born getting into trouble.”

“Will you help us find him?” the Marshal asked.

“I don’t have any idea of where he is,” I told him honestly.

The reserved detective cleared his throat nervously. “What about Jeffrey Hendricks?”

Every muscle in my body tensed and the back of my neck suddenly felt cold.

“You okay, Sugar?” Piss peered up at me through her one good eye.

Throat tight, I was barely able to get out my response to the detective. “He’s not on your list.”

“And you didn’t mention him.”

“You said it was a list of his known associates. I assumed that meant you were looking for people who might help him.  If he runs into Jeff Hendricks, he might end up dead.”

“That wouldn’t help our case,” the marshal inserted.

For the first time, Brian made eye contact with me. “Why would Hendricks want your father dead?”

I exchanged a look with Susan.

Like me, her tension had ratcheted up at the mention of Jeff Hendricks. She twisted a handful of linen tablecloth.

“Miss Lee?” The detective leaned closer, his bashful, bumbling Columbo act momentarily forgotten. “Why would Hendricks want your father dead?”

“Because,” I said slowly, “even when my dad does the right thing, it comes back to bite him.”

Chapter Three

Before I could elaborate further, there was a crash and the tinkling of shattering glass from the kitchen. Then a truncated scream, followed by a resounding
thunk
.

It was the scream and
thunk
that alarmed me.

Both the marshal and detective were out of their seats, drawing their guns and rushing toward the doorway before I registered that the cat had already left the room. Jumping up, I followed closely behind.