Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 02 - Bogey's Ace in the Hole (19 page)

Chapter Thirty-two

It didn’t take long to find out where the other Church Ladies were.  Lila stepped out from behind the car. 
The wind made her short dark blonde hair stand on end and whipped her gray shapeless old-lady dress around her knees.  She’d reverted back to her old style for the evening.  Her white tennis shoes stood out in the light from the streetlamp. 

May pulled a rubber band out of her pocket and pushed back her long, thick salt and pepper hair, and forming a ponytail, she banded it. “This darned wind is blowing my hair in my eyes.”

So much for being sneaky. We were a few houses away and I could clearly hear what she said.

“Shhhh,” Jasmine warned.  I saw her put her index finger to her lips.

There was a mature mesquite tree with drooping branches at the front of Florence’s yard, and the ladies headed for the tree.  Watching them, I could see they thought it would offer cover from prying eyes.

Chris took a step forward, but I
put a staying hand on his arm.  “Let’s wait for a minute and see what they’re up to.”

There was a flash of lightning, followed in a moment by rumbling thunder.

The ladies had moved behind the tree, trying to watch Victor’s house through the limbs.  The wind blew a branch and it slapped May in the face. She slapped it back.  So much for fear.

There was a light on in Victor’s house and I could see his silhouette
through the window.

“Let’s get back in the car,” I said.  “We can watch
out for them without them knowing we’re here.”

“Why shouldn’t
we let them know we’re here?” Chris asked, impatiently.

“They’re trying to do their part.  We should let them
be unless we see things getting out of hand.  This is probably the most excitement they’ve ever had.”

I figured Chris probably thought I was nuts, and I was absolutely sure he thought the Church Ladies were crazy, but he complied, more or less.  “We can’t get back in the car or the dome lights will come on.”

“So we’ll stand behind it.”

We moved quietly to the rear of the black
Jeep.  It was so dark out that I was sure they wouldn’t see us.

There was more lightning and thunder, and Chris stepped from behind the car.  “We have to get them out of there,” he said.  “Standing under that tree is the worst place they could be right now with all this lightning.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.  You’re right.”

The wind blew harder.  I pulled up the skirt of my dress so it wouldn’t drag on the ground and ran toward the ladies.

“Well, we wondered when you two would join us,” Jasmine said.  “Were you going to hide behind your car all night?”

“Get away from this tree,” Chris ordered, pulling on Jasmine’s arm.  “Are you nuts or something?”

Jasmine turned large and surprised eyes toward Chris.

“We’re in the middle of a storm, and you’re standing under a tree
,” he said.  “Do you want to be hit by lightning?”

“Oh,” she
cried out, jumping back.

The other ladies followed suit, and the lights came on in Florence’s house.

“
What’s going on out there?
” Florence hollered, not sounding at all timid.  “
What are you people doing?  Get out of my yard.
”

“
It’s us
,” Jasmine yelled.  “
Can we come in?”

“
Jasmine?  Is that you?
”

We trudged toward the porch and the front door.  Florence opened it and stepped back, waiting for us to enter.

“What a fiasco
this
turned out to be,” May said.

“Total chaos,” Lila
commented.

“Hardly worth the effort,”
added Jasmine.

We walked into Florence’s house and she closed the door behind us.  “What are you folks up to?” she asked again
, this time sounding suspicious.

“I think it’s time we come clean with her,” I said.  “Someone has threatened to harm Victor, and the ladies were trying to keep an eye on him.”

“Oh, that,” Florence said, sounding like this was old news.   “He told me about it.  He said you think someone is out to hurt him, but he assured me it’s not true.  He thought you might end up saying something to me, and he didn’t want me to be shocked.”

He hadn’t wanted to worry his elderly neighbor. 
Maybe he wasn’t so bad.  He’d been helping her with her paperwork, and he tried to watch out for her.  He hadn’t wanted Florence to worry.  He ran errands for her, and took her to doctor’s appointments.  Could it actually be her family who was after him?  Had he overstepped his bounds that much?  Could her family be as crazy as everyone else we’d come into contact with so far?  My feelings about Victor kept flipping one way and then flopping the other way.

I glanced at Chris and I could see the wheels turning.  I wondered if he was thinking the same things I was.

Before we could give it any more thought, we heard a car engine followed by a loud crash from across the street.  Chris ran to the door.

“Stay here,” he said.  “I’ll be back.”  He ran out the door and stopped beside the mesquite tree to scope things out before heading to Victor’s house. 
He moved away quickly when there was another bolt of lightning in the sky.  We watched him through the window.

“What was that
noise?” Florence asked.

“I don’t know.  Chris is going to find out.  It sounded like it came from Victor’s house,” I said.

“Oh, well Victor isn’t home.  This is his bowling night.”  Florence pulled her robe tighter around her.  “Are you sure you people should be poking around in his business?”

“We
honestly believe he might be in danger,” I replied.  “He doesn’t believe us, but I’d rather err on the side of caution than let something happen to him.”

“My, my.  I haven’t heard that expression in a long time
– err on the side of caution.  Well, I suppose you’re right.  I wouldn’t like to see anything happen to him.  Do what you think is best, but the only person I can think of who doesn’t like him is my nephew.”

She didn’t seem to grasp the full weight of the situation.  Victor had convinced her that he was okay
and not in trouble, and she was going to take his word for it.  And now we knew that she had a nephew who didn’t like Victor.  Finally!  A suspect.  I’d have to be careful with my questions.

“A nephew?  Why doesn’t he like…  What’s your nephew’s name?”

“Wade.  Wade Smiley.  He’s a good man, just not very trusting.”

That name was familiar.  Where had I heard it before?  I’d have to ask Chris if he recognized it.

“Okay, so why doesn’t Wade like Victor?”

“He believes Victor has tried to take his place in my life, but Wade doesn’t come over here that often anyway.  And I do need someone to help me.  Wade had his chance, and he didn’t help.
  He always used his job as an excuse.  And Victor has become like a son to me.  He’s always Johnny-on-the-spot when I need him.”

Okay, so there was plenty of reason for jealousy.  But there had to be more to it than that.

My thoughts were interrupted by Chris’s return.  The wind had blown his hat off and he carried it in his hand.  Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he opened it.

“Who’re you calling?” I asked.

“What happened over there?” Jasmine asked.

“Is there trouble?” May inquired.

“What?”  Lila kept it to one word.

“Someone threw something through Victor’s window, or maybe they shot it out.  I don’t know, but I’m calling the police.  It doesn’t look like Victor is home.”

“He’s not,” I said.  “It’s his bowling night.”

“Uh huh.”  Chris walked out on the porch with the phone to talk to the coppers.

“What happened to your husband’s head?” Florence asked.

“Someone hit him last night,” I replied.

“Do you mean he was in an automobile accident?”

“No,
ma’am, I mean someone snuck up behind him and struck him on the back of the head.”  I’d decided it was time to come clean with Florence.  She was in danger, too, just from being in the proximity of Victor.  She needed to open her eyes and see what was really going on before she ended up hurt – or worse.  She’d seemed like a feeble old woman, but I was seeing a different side to her tonight.  Maybe we’d awakened her and she was cranky.  No matter what the reason was, I had a feeling she could handle whatever we threw at her.

I heard a car engine and peeked out the window.  Victor was pulling into his driveway, and Chris
was walking across the street to meet him.  The wind was howling and I saw Chris trying to keep his hat on.  It looked like a losing battle to me.

Turning around, I saw Florence take a look at her clock.  “Well, Victor is a bit later than usual tonight.  If someone really threw something through his window, it’s probably a good thing.  He doesn’t need things that upset him in his life.  He told me so.”

Good grief!  This woman just didn’t get it.  Victor had enough stress for four men with someone trying to kill him.  I rolled my eyes.  Of course!  Tonight was the night.  Someone thought they’d shoot at his house and kill him.  It would look like a drive-by random killing.  Wait a minute.  I’d seen Victor sitting in front of his window.

“I’m thoroughly confused,” I said, to no one in particular.

“About what, dear?” Lila asked.

“About who was sitting inside Victor’s house.”

“Oh, that’s what we thought at first, too,” Jasmine said.  “But from our vantage point we could see there was something sitting on the table in front of the window, although it did resemble a person if you didn’t look closely.”

Apparently the killer hadn’t looked very closely.

“Would you all like some tea?” Florence asked, not sounding the least bit flustered.

Chapter Thirty-three

Chris returned from talking to Victor and said we should be leaving.  “His copper friend is on his way over, and it
’s about to start raining.  It looks ugly out there, and I know you don’t want to ruin your glad rags.  We’d better hit the bricks.”

Turning to the Church Ladies, I raised my eyebrows at them.  “Would you like us to follow you home?  You don’t want to be driving
by yourself in the rain.”

“Oh, no.  We’ll just wait until it stops.  We’ll have some tea with Florence,” Jasmine said.  She turned a look on the other ladies that I couldn’t read, but I had a feeling she was up to something.

As we pulled away from the curb, a police cruiser parked in front of Victor’s house.  He met them on the porch and they followed him inside.

And the rain came
– in buckets, or so it seemed.  It poured so hard that we had to pull over and wait until it let up before we headed home, which felt like an hour but was probably two minutes.

“Chris, does the name Wade Smiley
sound familiar?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Who is he?  I know I’ve heard the name somewhere.”

“He’s the
mall copper.  Why do you ask, cupcake?”

“Uh oh. 
I think we have a connection, although I’m not real clear on it.  Wade Smiley is Florence’s nephew, and he doesn’t like Victor.”

Chris took a quick look at me and turned back to the road.  “Now
ain’t that something?  Think about it.  Smiley had access to Jackson at the mall.  That could be why Jackson kept showing up there.  It would have been a convenient meeting place.  Maybe
Smiley
hired Jackson to bump Victor off, and maybe Jackson tried to double cross Smiley. I know mall coppers don’t carry gats, but that doesn’t mean Smiley doesn’t have one.  This opens up all sorts of new possibilities.”

“Doesn’t it though?  And another interesting fact.  Florence believes everything Victor tells her.  He told her about someone trying to hurt him,
but he said it wasn’t true.  Is he trying to spare her or is there something else going on?  Could he suspect her nephew?  And you’re right, Smiley could have a gun.”

Chris turned and glanced at me again.  “There’s just one thing, and you’re going to think I’ve got bats in
the belfry, but I don’t think it’s Smiley.”

“Why
not
?” I asked.  It all made perfect sense to me.

“Because I like him. 
My gut says he didn’t know Jackson.  I’ve got him pegged as more of a cream puff than a hard case.  He really seemed clueless about what was going on and why.”

“Your gut’s been wrong before, Bogey Man.  This makes too much sense to me, even if it doesn’t to you.  How many times have you heard the neighbors interviewed on TV after a crime and they
say that the killer was such a good person, always there to help anyone who needed it?  They’re shocked that he’s committed a crime of
any
type.”

“Good point, but all the same, I’d need some strong proof.”  Chris was being stubborn about Wade Smiley, and that was unusual.  He was generally ready to listen to all sides of a situation.

I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but this wasn’t the time for him to dig his heels in.  “Chris, think about it.  There hasn’t been anyone else that’s made a good suspect.  In fact, there hasn’t
been
anyone else involved in this.”

“Pamela, I can’t help the way I feel.  I just don’t see it.”

“Okay, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree and look for some evidence to prove which one of us is right.”

“And how do you think we’re going to find that kind of evidence?”

“We’ll follow Wade for a few days.  We’ll see where he goes and what he does, and we’ll see if he goes anywhere near Victor, other than to visit his aunt.  But from what I understand, he rarely stops to see her.”

Chris and I didn’t talk about it anymore, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

“I think…  Never mind,” I said.  I didn’t want to voice suppositions, just facts.

We drove past the restaurant and saw it had been closed for the night.  Nothing looked out of order, so we drove over to Constance’s house and picked
up Mikey.  As usual, he slept in the car all the way home.  Chris carried him up to his bed and tucked him in before going outside to check on the dogs.  They were huddled under the table on the patio, waiting out the storm.  Chris brought them in and left them on the back porch.

We were both tired and
headed straight for the bedroom.  I took off my lace dress and gently hung it in the closet, saying a thank you that it hadn’t been damaged.  It was only a dress, but it was important to me.

~ * ~

We’d had a long and tiring week, and it felt good to sleep in.  Mikey finally came in and woke us.

“I fed the dogs and cleaned up their stuff out in the yard.  Are you going to fix breakfast this morning or can I go ahead and have cereal?”

Bleary-eyed, I glanced up at him from under the covers.  “Give me a few minutes and I’ll get up.”

Chris climbed out of bed.  “You stay here and rest,
babe.  Ace and I will make breakfast for you for a change.  Is that okay with you, kid?”  He looked Mikey in the eye, sending a message.

“Sure, Dad.  That’ll be fun.  You just stay right here, Mom.  We’ll take care of you this morning.”

“Bless you,” I said, turning over and closing my eyes.

Forty-five minutes later Sherlock and Watson bounded in and jumped up on the bed, waking me up completely.  “Stop slobbering on me,” I said, pushing Sherlock away.  Watson immediately took his place and licked my cheek.  I
sat up and pushed her away, too.

Forcing myself to stand up, I made my way to the closet and fished out a shirt and a pair of jeans.  I had to do a little jig while I dressed because Watson kept trying to lick my feet.

“Would you please stop that?” I said, once again pushing her away.

“Mom,” Mikey called, from the bottom of the stairs.  “Come and get it.”

I trudged down the stairs feeling like my head was full of cobwebs.  One look at the kitchen and my head cleared – a little.

“I’m shocked,” I said, smiling.  “You haven’t burned the house down and the kitchen is relatively clean.  How did you manage that?”

“Organization,” Mikey said.  I knew he’d gotten the word from Chris.  My husband liked organization with everything right where it should be.

“Oh, I see.”  I gave him a hug.  “And what are we having for breakfast?”

“Bacon and eggs, and toast and grits,” Chris replied.

Chris and Mikey set all the plates on the table and told me to help myself.  I did.  I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I saw the food in front of me.

“So, Mom,” Mikey said, after eating a few bites.  “Me and dad have been talking about your situation, and we’ve got some ideas.”

“My situation?”  Uh oh, this didn’t sound good.

“Yeah, that you don’t trust Dad’s judgment.  He thinks the bad guy didn’t do it, and you think he did.”

“If he didn’t do it, or isn’t planning on doing it, then how can he be the bad guy?” 
I took a bite of eggs.

Mikey frowned.  “You know what I mean.  He’s a
possible
bad guy.”

“Ah, I see.  So you and your father have been discussing our current case?”  I turned a meaningful glance in Chris’s direction.

“Mikey’s mind isn’t as cluttered as ours are,” he said.  “Without going into too much detail, I laid out some of the facts for him.  I wanted to get his take on things.”

I set my fork by my plate and turned to my son.

“Okay, and what do you think?” I asked.

He sat up straight, knowing his opinion mattered to us, and his face was as serious as I’d ever seen it.  “I think this all has to do with the old lady
who lives by Victor.  It seems like everything leads back to her, at least from what my dad told me.  But, Mom, I would definitely trust Dad’s ideas about the mall copper.”

He folded his left arm across his lower chest and rested his right elbow on that hand, with his right hand up to his mouth.  He looked at the ceiling and appeared very contemplative, and as worldly as a
ny seven-year-old can.

“Is there more?” I asked.

“Yes, I think your idea about following the copper is a good one.  Can I come along?”

“No,” I said.  “The last thing I want is to put you in danger, and since we don’t really know what’s going on, it could come from anywhere.”

“Aww, Mom.  Let me come.”

“Nope,” Chris said.  “Your mother is right.
  And it’s too late to follow him today anyway.”

Before the discussion could go any f
urther, the doorbell rang.  Mikey and the dogs ran for the door, and before he opened it I heard him tell the dogs to
sit
and
stay
.  He waited until they were calm before opening the door.

“Oh, hi,” Mikey said, sweetly.  “My mother is in the kitchen.  I know she’ll be happy to see you.”  He was speaking louder than necessary.

Chris and I looked at each other, not knowing what to expect.

The Church Ladies trooped into the kitchen
with the dogs following behind them.  I should have known.

“God bless you and good morning,” Jasmine said
, sounding almost too cheerful.

“Well, God bless you, too,” I said.  “What’s got you ladies out and about this morning?”

“Oh, we’ve got things to tell you,” Lila said.

“Interesting stuff,” May explained.

“Things that might surprise you,” Jasmine added.

“Have a seat, ladies,” Chris said, pulling out chairs and removing dirty plates from the table.  “Give me a minute and I’ll bring you
some Joe.”

“I’ll talk while you take care of the coffee,” Jasmine said.  She looked like she was about to burst.  Her information
was important.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We stayed and talked to Florence last night, as you know.  After the police left Victor’s house he came over to see what was going on.  It was out of the ordinary for Florence to be up that late.  He was kind of rude to us, saying that we should let Florence get her rest.”

“Well,” May said, picking up the story, “Florence didn’t like that.  She told him that we are her friends and we can come over any
time we want to.”

“He gave us all a dirty look,” Lila said, “and then he left.  I think he was upset with Florence.  She was upset, too, and said it wasn’t any of his business whom she had over or when they were there.
  She seemed to think he was overstepping his bounds.”

“She became very talkative after that,” Jasmine said.  “
We learned a number of things, and I…  Actually, it was all four of us who came to some conclusions.”

“All four of you?” Chris asked.  “You mean that Florence had some ideas?”

“No.  I’m talking about Addie.  We talked everything over this morning, and we’ve decided that this whole thing with Victor has to do with Florence.”

“Told you so, Mom.”  We all turned to find Mikey standing
in the doorway to the kitchen.

“
Why don’t you put the dogs outside?” I asked.  “I don’t want them bothering the ladies.”

“Oh, they’re fine,” Lila said.  “I’m getting used to them.
  They make me feel kind of safe.”

Watson
sat down directly in front of Lila, which made her smile.  “See?  They know I’m not so afraid anymore.”

“What did your son mean when he said he’d told you so?” May asked.

“Yes, what was that about?”  Jasmine’s curiosity showed on her face.

Lila glanced up but didn’t say anything.  She was too busy petting Watson, and Sherlock had sidled over expecting to receive some of the affection.

“We’ve been discussing Victor and Florence this morning.  Chris asked Mikey for his opinion and he believes this is all about Florence.”