Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 04 - Awkward Moments (22 page)

Chapter Forty-two

When we arrived at the diner, Essie took Mikey’s backpack and put it in the kitchen, out of the way. Meanwhile, we sat at a table by the window and studied the menus. Essie brought a glass of milk for Mikey and iced tea for the rest of us, saying she’d be back in a minute to take our orders. The diner was full, as usual. Didn’t anyone ever eat at home?

She returned and
took our orders and as she walked away, Jimmy approached us, pulling up a chair. “If I’d known you were coming into town, I’d have asked you to bring that fabric with you.” He spoke a little louder than necessary. Of course, the people in the diner didn’t know it was already in his possession.

Chris followed his lead. “We should have thought to bring it with us, Officer Stubbin. Sorry we didn’t think of it. It’ll be safe at our place overnight though.”

They weren’t yelling, and thankfully it didn’t sound contrived. Just a little loud.

Joe came out of the kitchen and stopped at our table. “I just wanted to apologize again for disturbing you this afternoon, Mrs. Cross.”

“You didn’t bother me,” I said.

He
studied my face for a brief moment before he nodded and went back to the kitchen.

Jimmy lowered his voice. “Here’s the plan. While you’re still here eating, I’ll head out to your place and park in the barn.
Be sure you get home before dark because I don’t think our killer will show up while it’s still light out. Park your Jeep in the barn, too, because I understand you’re supposed to be going to the movies.”

“Word gets around fast,” Chris said.

“Spreads like wildfire. You’d think this town was made up of a bunch of old ladies.” Bill, I realized, wasn’t always politically correct. I shrugged it off.

Jimmy smiled at each of as though we were just chatting, but that’s not what we were doing. “Bill, you take the south side of the yard, out past the oak tree. Chris, you take the west side and stay out of sight. I’ll take the east side. I’m not going to worry about the north side because I really doubt anyone is going to come from the creek. I’ll wait in the barn until you get there.”

I picked up my purse and acted like I was searching for something. In the process, I pulled out a tissue and a key to the house. While dabbing at my nose, I casually placed the key on the table with my other hand.

“Take the key and you can wait inside for us,” I said.

“Thanks.” Jimmy pushed himself up from the table, palming the key as he did so.

I put the tissue back in my purse.

“You know, I could take the north side of the house, just in case.” I didn’t want to be left out.

Chris shook his head. “No. I want you safely inside the house.”

“He’s right,” Bill said.

Once again Jimmy spoke a little louder than necessary.
“Well, I’ll see you folks in the morning. We’ll take another look around the grave for more evidence, too. The rain we had seems to have stirred things up.”

Essie brought our food just as Jimmy turned to leave. “Bye
, Jimmy.”

“See you
in the morning, Essie.” He glanced at us. “I always have breakfast here.”

Mikey ate dinner at record speed. He wanted to help Essie around the restaurant. He’d soon find out what hard work is. I watched while
she gave him some chores. He helped us at
Bogey Nights
from time to time, but all he did was greet people.

First she had him start collecting glasses from vacated tables and leave them on the table closest to the kitchen. While she loaded them into a small tub to carry into the kitchen, he began collecting dirty dishes and silverware. My initial reaction was I wish
ed he was wearing gloves. You know, germs.

Before I could give that idea more serious thought, Chris tapped me on the
shoulder. “I think we’d better get going.” He already had the keys to the Jeep in his hand.

I nodded and Bill stood up.

“Just a minute.” I left them standing by the door and while I gave Mikey a hug and told him I’d see him in the morning.

He said a quick, “Bye”, and went back to work. He was having fun. I wondered how long that would last.

It wouldn’t be long until the sun set, so Chris didn’t waste any time driving home. Jimmy was already there and opened the barn door for us as we drove past the house. It wasn’t a huge barn but both vehicles fit with room to spare.

“Let’s go inside the house and wait for dark
before we spread out.” Jimmy made himself right at home and led the way.

After letting the dogs out to do their business, I closed all the curtains in the living room and we sat and waited while the sun dove behind the mountains. We didn’t turn on any lights and spoke quietly, killing a few more minutes. Jimmy thought ahead and brought walkie talkies with him. The men could stay in touch with each other, as well as with me. He checked to make sure they were working. I couldn’t help wondering why he hadn’t done that before coming out to the house.

I excused myself and fed the dogs while the men talked quietly.

Chris gave me a hug and reminded me to stay quiet before the three men left by the back door. I parted the curtains a crack and watched while the
y secreted themselves outside. They were careful, and if I hadn’t watched them I wouldn’t have any idea where they hid.

The dogs seemed to sense something out of the ordinary was happening, and they stayed so close to me that I almost tripped over Watson. I caught myself on the door frame on my way into the kitchen.

I’d thought ahead and left the pitcher of iced tea on the counter so I wouldn’t have to open or close the refrigerator door. I knew it was unlikely, but I didn’t want anyone to see the sudden flash of the light. I had the tea, a glass and the sugar lined up on the sink. I could make myself a drink by feel, which I did.

Sitting at the kitchen table, I waited. I had no clue what I was waiting for, other than maybe the sounds of Jimmy arresting someone.

I felt useless and began to pace. There was just enough light to see where the dogs were and I kept my eye on them. They had a habit of getting in the way. Sometimes they were too protective, although I was glad for their company at the moment.

The walkie talkie was on the sink, so I picked it up along with my tea and headed for the living room where I curled up on the sofa. It was so comfortable I was afraid I might fall asleep and miss all the action.

I rolled my eyes, thinking about how much my life had changed since I met Chris – from waitress to solver of mysteries and finder of killers in one easy lesson. Ha!

I had a feeling it was going to be a long evening.

Chapter Forty-three

Sitting
alone in the dark gives a person too much time to think. I closed my eyes and went over everything in my mind, from the day we’d arrived at the house until now. We weren’t from this area, and until the last few days we’d never met any of the local people. How the heck had we ended up in the middle of a murder? Sheesh. We just wanted a nice vacation and we wanted to celebrate Mikey’s adoption.

When I opened my eyes I realized it had become darker. There should have been at least a little moonlight. Oh, right. I’d closed all the curtains.
Hmm. There was bare window above the curtains, so I was right, there should have been more light. Carefully, I made my way to the window to open the curtain a sliver. I wanted to know what was going on.

Just as I reached for it, I heard someone whisper something over the walkie talkie and I hurried back toward
the sofa, tripping over Watson and falling flat on my face. I reached up from my embarrassing spot on the floor and felt around for the stupid contraption that was now only making static noises.

I found it and pushed what I thought was the Talk button. Nothing happened. I felt around and found another button, push
ed it and whispered, “Did someone want something?”

Chris spoke very softly and I could barely hear him.
“I asked if you’re okay. I was beginning to worry when you didn’t answer.”

“Oh. I’m here and I’m okay.” I grabbed hold of the edge of the coffee table for support while I pulled myself up, hitting my other hand on the edge of the table and dropping the walkie talkie.
I rubbed my hand because I’d hit it hard.

Chris said, “Okay, just checkin’.”
There was a click and he was gone.

I dropped back to my knees to feel around for the
hand-held radio and all I felt was a dog’s paw. Good ol’ Sherlock began licking my hair.

“Stop it.”

My command just made him lick faster. He seemed to think I’d come down to his level to play. I could hear Watson padding over to see what all the commotion was about.

“What is it with you and hair?” I pushed him away and stood up to get away from him
, feeling for the walkie talkie with my foot.

He licked my foot.

Once again, I rolled my eyes. “You can be so annoying sometimes.”

I sat down on the sofa and pulled
up my feet. I’d find the little two-way radio later.

It suddenly dawned on me that it wasn’t going to be a long evening after all, because if the killer made his move, he’d have to do it while we were at the movies. He wouldn’t wait until we were home. I sat up straight and began feeling for the radio
with my foot again so I could mention my sudden epiphany to Chris.

When Sherlock sniffed my foot I pulled it back up on the sofa. My mind was whirling and my stomach did a little dance. I didn’t need to tell Chris anything. The men already knew this and I’d only make myself sound like a goofball. Our whole plan had been to make it easy for the killer to come to the house while we were supposedly gone.

My stomach continued to flutter because I realized the murderer could show up at any moment.

I tried to read the time on my watch but it was too dark to see it. Standing, I
shuffled my feet across the floor so I wouldn’t trip over the dogs. I walked into a protruding knob on the lower door of a china cabinet which told me I was to the left of the kitchen door. I stopped and grimaced, the pain ripping through my knee, before moving to the right to find the kitchen.

My idea was that t
he microwave would be easy to read with the numbers lit. No such luck. Twelve o’clock was blinking in a bright light which meant at some time the microwave had gone off and we’d never corrected the time. It must have been during the recent storm.

I took a peek out the back window and saw why there was no light filtering through the windows. The moon barely showed through some heavy clouds. Another storm must be moving in. It was so quiet in the house. I could hear the wind picking up outside.
What lousy timing. This reminded me too much of an old black and white movie. Every time something happened, the wind would howl and lightning and thunder would crack across the sky. At least the storm hadn’t started yet. No loud booms to cover up the noise an intruder might make.

With my hands in front of me so I wouldn’t walk into anything, and shuffling my feet so I wouldn’t trip, I made my way back to the living room, found the sofa, and sat quietly. Once again waiting. I didn’t like waiting. I didn’t have a lot of patience. I sighed loudly.

Watson growled softly.

“Shhh. Don’t make any noise.” I figured Sherlock was too close to her and she was warning him off. She did that frequently, even though they adored each other.

She growled in spite of my warning.

“Shh.”

Creak.

Chris must had tried to radio me again while I was in the kitchen and decided he’d better come check on me. The door was locked, so he’d have to knock.

I waited.

Watson growled a little louder and
I reached over to quiet her down. I ran my hand down her back and discovered her hackles were up. I also discovered it wasn’t Watson. It was Sherlock, the larger of the two dogs.

Why hadn’t Chris knocked? Both dogs were growling and I shushed them, realizing it
wasn’t Chris at the door
.

I threw myself on the floor and began feeling around for the walkie talkie.

Someone fiddled with the door handle, trying to get inside.

The dogs jumped up and began barking angrily. Someone was trying to invade their space and they weren’t happy. Neither was I. My stomach lurched and I finally found the
walkie talkie.

Bang!
The screen door slammed and I heard footsteps as someone ran around the side of the house and off toward the creek.

“
He’s here
,” I yelled into the two-way radio. “
He’s running toward the creek. Hurry!
”

Within moments I
heard footsteps pounding as Chris, Bill and Jimmy ran behind the house and in the direction of the creek.

Running through the house toward the kitchen, I slammed my face right into the door frame
, knocking myself silly. I reached up and felt my forehead where a lump was already growing.

Holding my head, I made my way to the back door and looked out the window. I couldn’t see anything but trees and shadows.

“And Chris talks about awkward moments? He should try walking in
my
shoes for about half an hour.”