Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evie (9 page)

“Thomas made this one easy for us,” she said, gesturing to the paper.
“The Case of the Cocky Dick
took place in Seattle. The villain of the story was a cop who used his uniform off-hours to approach women and question them about some facetious crime, then kill them. I’m guessing the clue is at one of the Seattle precincts.”

“Which one?”

At Max’s words, Evie made the mistake of lifting her gaze and looking into his eyes. There went that brain stutter thing again, she realized, then swallowed and tried to gather her wits about her.

This sexual attraction problem was almost more than her system could support and still maintain primary functions. Her mind and heart were in constant turmoil over what to think of him. There was so much about Max she found appealing, yet Thomas had despised him, and he had hated Thomas. According to Thomas, Max had abandoned his own mother. And when things didn’t go his way, he became sullen and snappish and downright surly.

Reminding herself that sexual attraction did not necessarily mean a man was right for you, she resolved to fortify her resistance to him. Sure, she could acknowledge that she desired him physically, but emotionally, unless she found out what drove him, what made him tick—what, if anything, he hid behind his churlish behavior—he was off limits.

She returned her attention to the clues. “I’d say it’s at the North Precinct since that’s where the villain in the story committed his crimes. Most of his victims were college girls, and that precinct is near the university. He’d target a girl while making his rounds, follow her and find out where she lived, then come back later.”

Max seemed to mull this over for moment. “Heyworth hid one of the clues inside a police precinct? I find that really hard to accept.”

Evie crossed her arms and quirked her lips. Such a know-it-all. Here he’d asked for her opinion, and when she gave it, he decided to ignore it.

“You got a better idea, Detective?”

With a bit of a shrug, he smiled and said, “Well,
you’re the expert. Okay, Miss Smarty Pants.
Where
in the North Precinct?” The sparkle in his eye told her he didn’t believe her, but it was the only lead they had.

She quirked her lips again. Boy, just when you thought you had somebody pegged, they went and surprised you.

“I’ll tell you that, Detective Smartass,” she said, “when we get there.”

Chapter 9

D
ear
D
iary:

Today was Saturday
, and Pete, that's my mom’s boy
f
riend, took us to the Woodland P
ark Zoo!
It
was awesome!
A
nd
P
ete bought us hot dogs and ice cream, and
I
got a balloon, and peanuts to
feed the elephants, P
ete
’
s really nice and he has kind eyes and I asked my mom i
f
she was going to marry him. I
f
she
did, then he could be my dad! I
think
P
ete would make a great dad, so I hope he
fal
ls in love with my mom!

E
vangeline—age 10

T
he first ferry out of Port Henry sailed at six o’clock in the morning, so by the time they reached Pier 52 in Seattle, it was nearly nine. As Max drove off the boat and into the heavy morning traffic on Alaskan
Way, he was feeling the effects of only three hours’ sleep.

“Is there a drive-through Starbucks around here somewhere?” he said, making eye contact with Evie in the rearview mirror where she sat just behind him.

“I don’t know,” she said. “We can stop and ask.”

“That’s okay. It can wait. We’re cutting it pretty close as it is. I alerted
the precinct to be on the look-
out for Edmunds and the woman, but if they caught the ferry last night, they’ve been in Seattle for hours. If
their
clue is not at the precinct, they may already have found it, and are well on their way to Number Three.”

In the seat next to Max, Nate yawned. “I think you should turn left here.”

“Why? Do you know where the precinct is?”

“No, but we’re supposed to proceed north and—”

“We can stop and ask,” Evie said from the backseat. In the mirror, he saw her nudge Lorna.

Max downshifted and moved in front of a Metro bus. “I’m sure it’s up this way.”

“Do you have a map?” she persisted.

“No, but I’ve been in this part of Seattle before. I’ll find it.” He put on his signal to turn.

“I don’t think you can turn here. It’s one-way.”

He flicked her a glance in the mirror. “Then I’ll turn on the
next
one.”

Lorna blinked sleepy eyes and looked out the window. “Didn’t we pass that sporting goods store once already?”

“Maybe we should stop and ask for directions,”
Evie said, an evil gleam in her eye. “You’re not the kind of man who refuses to ask for directions, are you?”

“I am fully capable of asking for directions, Ms. Randall,” he groused. “But it just so happens I know exactly where I’m going, so I don’t
need
to stop and ask for directions.”

Nate sighed. “Up one hill and down, driving through the town, ignoring suggestions that do vex, coming from the fairer sex—”

“Give it a rest,
Keats.
I liked you better when you were reclusive.”

Lorna leaned forward and put her hands on the back of Nate’s seat. “Oh, that was wonderful, Dabney. You can make up poems right on the spot, just like that. I’m so
impressed.”

Was this woman nuts, or thoroughly devoid of any kind of taste, or was she so smitten that her ears had clogged up?

Nate pushed his glasses up on his nose and turned to her. “Thanks. It’s not so hard,” he said gently, then looked over at Max and frowned. “Especially when you’re highly motivated.”

Due to the time of day and the amount of traffic they had to deal with, it took nearly an hour to reach the North Precinct. When they pulled up in front, Max caught Evie’s gaze in the rearview mirror and sent her a look that said,
See
?
I got us here and I didn’t have to ask for directions.

She sent him a look in return that said,
Idiot.
Max opened the car door for Evie, then reached in and took her hand, helping her from the backseat
of his midnight-blue Lexus IS sedan. Her fingers curled around his in a reflexive action, which he in no way took for flirting but wished he could.

Her skin was warm, her hands soft, and as she stepped out of the car, he made certain to stand his ground, not move back, not give her enough room so she’d have to come into close contact. He had her trapped between the open car door and his body, and for a moment let himself enjoy her clean, soapy scent, the gleam of morning sunlight on her glorious red hair, the flash of irritation in her blue eyes.

She was on to him and didn’t budge. Lifting her chin, she met his gaze with a challenge. “So, here we are. Amazing. Do you
ever
ask for directions, Detective?”

“I do,” he said softly, locking gazes with
her. “When I’ve never been…
somewhere before with
…
someone. Unfamiliar territory, so to speak. I’ll ask if there’s anything I can do to make her journey better. If she directs me to shift my attention a bit more to the left, I will. Or perhaps I’m doing lickity-split through a narrow tunnel, and she asks me to slow dow
n. I can go very, very slow. Ex
quisitely slow. You may not guess it to look at me, bu
t I’m highly responsive to…
directions.”

Evie swallowed and pressed her plush lips together. She took a deep breath, which made her breasts rise and fall under the thin blue sweater she wore.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve obviously underestimated you. And here I was prepared to
give you a good tongue lashing.
”

His heart stopped, then jumped ahead. Without
thinking, he moved his hands to cup her shoulders. His gaze dropped to her soft mouth, then back up to her eyes, which were gleaming with satisfaction.

“I’ll take a rain check on that,” he murmured as Lorna and Nate came around to stand behind them.

Letting his hands fall away from Evie’s shoulders, she moved away, and he closed the car door, took her arm, and started toward the precinct. “I still can’t imagine how, with all these police officers and patrol cars around, Heyworth would have been able to hide three clues somewhere inside the station.”

“He didn’t.”

At Evie’s words, Max stopped and turned her
to face him. “What did you say?
”

She looked dynamite in her sweater and blue jeans, but he forced himself not to notice the sweet curves of her body as she put her hands on her hips and said, “The clues aren’t in the precinct. At least, I don’t think they are.”

He bit down on his temper, which had more to do with acute sexual frustration than with actual anger. “Well then where the hell are they, Miss Marple?”

“My, my,” she all but purred. “We really
do
need our coffee, don’t we?” Lifting her arm, she pointed across the street. “Tawy’s Tavern is open. I’ll bet they have coffee.”

Nate murmured, “A tavern. Right across the street from the precinct. I’ll bet a lot of cops hang out there.”

“The passage in one of the clues,” Lorna said, “referred to a bar. The villain walked into a bar
…
”

“Since
The Case of the Cocky Dick
was fiction,” Evie explained, “I wasn’t sure there’d be a real tavern near the station or if Thomas had made it up. That’s why I couldn’t say much until we got here. I don’t think the clue is in the precinct house. I think it’s in the tavern.”

They entered the old brick building and walked across the highly polished hardwood floor. An ancient man behind the bar stood peering into an open ledger.

“ ’Morning,” he said as the four of them approached. “You folks want coffee?”

“That’d be great,” Max said.

“Suze!” the old man shouted over his shoulder. “Four on the floor! You can sit anywheres. Suze be out in a minute with your coffees.”

“Thanks,” Max said, showing his badge. “I’d like to
ask you a few questions first.
”

The old man looked at the badge, then at Max. “You know, son,” he said with a slight chuckle, “police station’s right across the street. I seen more badges than Carter’s got pills. You got a question, ask it.”

Behind them a few of the round tables were occupied with uniformed officers sipping coffee, digging into a hot breakfast, bullshitting about a good or a bad bust they’d made last night.

The woman named Suze appeared with four steaming mugs of coffee on a tray. As Max gratefully took one, he nodded his thanks and took a long gulp, letting the scorching liquid warm his insides all the way down.

“We’re looking for a man and a woman, may
have been in very late last night or early this morning.” Max took another slug of coffee. Not bad. Not half bad. “Tall, thin man, short, round woman. She’s Russian and—”

“They was here. I gave ’em their envelope and they left.”

“Envelope?”

“Sure. Tommy Hey
worth gave ’em to me, oh, must have been
a good six months ago, with in
structions to pass ’em along to the right folks when they showed up and asked.”

“Them,
”
Max repeated.

“Sure. Had three of ’em. Now, I only got two.” The old man smiled, showing crooked yellow teeth. He had gray hair, what there was of it, and sharp black eyes. “The envelopes is marked with the names, I didn’t know what it was all about, but Tommy was an old friend of mine, son of a bitch that he was. Told him I’d do as he asked when the time came.”

“How long ago did the man and Russian woman leave?”

“Was waiting for me when I opened this morning, ’bout five-thirty.”

Great. Edmunds and Madame Grovda had a nearly five-hour head start on them for Clue Number Three, wherever in the hell
it
was.

Evie stepped forward and put her hands on the smooth bar. “Is there one for Evie Randall and Max Galloway?”

He presented Evie with a charming smile, then slid his glance over to Max and frowned.

“There’s one marked ‘My Darling Evie and Detective Dickhead.’ That’d be you, I figure.”

Max scowled. “Yeah, that’d be me.”

The old fellow opened a drawer, removed an envelope and slapped it down on the bar.

“The other one’s for us,” Lorna said softly. “Lorna and Dabney, or whatever he may have called us.”

Another envelope smacked wood. Nate reached over and picked it up.

Max tossed some bills onto the bar to pay for the coffee. “You’ve been a great help. Thanks.”

The man nodded as he collected the money, grinning like a cat that had just popped a canary. “By the way,” he said, chuckling low in his throat, “Tommy said to give you a message.”

“All of us, or just me?”

“Just you.”

Evie, Lorna, and Nate took their coffees and moved to a table in the corner by the front window.

“Let’s have it.”

“Said to tell you that this one was easy. They get harder from now on. Lots harder.”

Max took another swig of coffee. “He say anything else?”

“Matter of fact, he did. Didn’t make no sense to me until I seen you come in.” He flicked a glance at the table where Evie was sipping her coffee, smiling at Nate and Lorna. “Said if you was after a
real
treasure, you might start by looking right under your nose.”

As Max walked to the table, he kept his eyes on Evie. Sunshine filtered through the window, casting her profile in silhouette. The old man had called her
a treasure, and maybe she was. And maybe that wasn’t the problem. Maybe the problem was, he didn’t deserve to be rich.