Miz Scarlet and the Bewildered Bridegroom (10 page)

“Michael Sharkey,” he
replied. That simple introduction put a quick end to the
mystery.

“Nice to meet you,”
said Kenny, standing up and reaching out to shake his hand, even as
the teenager seemed apprehensive. “How do you two know each
other?”

“UCONN.” The brief
answers seemed to indicate this young man was not a Tolstoy or
Dickens in the making.

Jenny fidgeted beside
the lanky youth. She sounded like any normal teen facing the Grand
Inquisition.

“We met at the
bookstore. He’s from New Hampshire, like me. His parents own a real
estate company on the seacoast. He’s never been convicted of a
crime, he gets good grades, and he’s working at the country club as
a groundskeeper this summer. Can we go now or do you want his
Social Security number first?”

“Never been
convicted....Does that mean he’s been arrested?” Bur wondered,
raising a stern eyebrow. She growled in response.

“No, I was being
sarcastic! What is with you people tonight?”

“We’re just looking out
for you,” my brother insisted magnanimously. “Is that a
problem?”

“I’m old enough to
vote, Poup!” she reminded him.

Kenny took that in
stride, smoothly pressing on. Maybe it was all his years of working
at Princeton, dealing with students as a public safety officer.
“You are, but that doesn’t make you invincible. Just remember about
what happened earlier today, Jen. Better that we err on the side of
caution than leave you vulnerable.”

“Kenny’s right, squirt.
We want you home in one piece and at a reasonable hour, because we
care about you.” Bur delivered those words with a friendly smile,
but I could see they had an effect on both
teenagers.

“What happened today?”
There was concern written all over Michael Sharkey’s face. He
looked down at the young woman next to him and there was no
mistaking his feelings for her.

“Nothing. I’ll tell you
in the car,” she promised him. I could tell she didn’t really want
the earlier incident to spoil her evening, but there was wisdom in
reminding her to be careful.

Looking at her now, my
thoughts flashed back to the first time we met, when I had to
rescue Jenny from a creep who was trying to kill her. She had that
same deer-in-the-headlights look that night too. I fought the urge
to wrap my arms around the vulnerable teenager and hug away her
fears. Instead, I stood up and herded Jenny and her date towards
the door.

“Have fun,” I told the
teens. “Just be smart about it.”

Even as they walked
down the hallway, I heard Hammerhead ask her what had occurred. His
arm went protectively around her shoulder and pulled her
close.

“What do you think,
Captain Peacock?” Bur asked his buddy across the dining room table.
“Is he trustworthy?”

“You can’t tell just by
looking at him, Poup. Let’s wait and see.”

“Fine. Shall we call
this Scrabble game a draw? If I play my cards right, there’s still
time to take Kasey out for a drink at the Hungry
Owl.”

“Seriously?” I glared
at my brother, my hands on my hips. “You’re going to call that poor
woman up at the last minute? Why does she let you get away with
such bad behavior? What is she, chopped liver to your lumpfish
caviar?”

“I’ll have you know
that I had a date scheduled with her until Laurel begged
me...
begged me
to play Scrabble tonight! Mother
said....”

“Fine,” I retorted.
“But if it was me....”

“You’d still be single.
Oh, wait. You are!” he hooted.

That’s when my cell
phone danced in my pocket, startling me as it bounced against my
hip. I pulled it out. “It’s Jenny. Hi, kiddo. What’s
up?”

“Somebody popped all of
Hammerhead’s tires!”

“Somebody did what?
Where are you?” My heart was in my throat.
Please don’t let her be out in the middle of
nowhere, parking with the shark boy.
“We’ll come and get you.”

“Scarlet, I’m scared!”
she confessed. “We’re on the highway.”

“You’re stranded on the
highway, as in I-384?”

“Yes!”

“Crap!” Kenny snatched
the phone from my hand, peppering her with questions. I could tell
Jenny had lost her composure when I heard sobbing. He asked to
speak to Hammerhead. “Listen, we’re leaving right now. We’ll be
there in five minutes. I want you two to stay on the line with
Scarlet. Whatever you do, I don’t want you to hang up. And keep
your eyes and ears open, Michael. Don’t let anyone get near Jenny.
Get back in the car and lock it. And if anyone approaches, don’t
roll down your window or open the door. Lean on the horn and make a
lot of noise if you feel in danger. Can you do that for me? Good.
Okay, we’re on our way.”

He handed the phone
back to me. “Hammer...er, Michael, can you put Jenny back
on?”

“Sure.” I heard the
door locks click into place and then sniffles on the other end of
the line.

“You okay,
Jen?”

“I guess so. What is
going on?”

“I wish I knew,” I told
her.

We stopped on our way
past the living room only long enough to let the Scrabble players
know what was going on. I knew the ladies were nervous. I didn’t
blame them. I was nervous too.

Kenny turned to my
brother as we stepped back into the hallway. “Bur, just to be on
the safe side, could you follow us in your car?”

“Sure. No
problem.”

A minute later, our
two-car rescue caravan left the inn for the short drive to the
interstate.
Please don’t let
something terrible happen to them, God. Don’t let some drunk driver
plow into the disabled car or some nutty tire slasher terrorize
them with a knife.

“Talk to them,” Kenny
instructed me. “Get some information.”

“What kind of
information?”

“We want to know what
happened, blow by blow. Start at the beginning.”

Prompted by Kenny, I
tossed out a half-baked question, still not thinking straight.
“Where were you when the tires were popped?”

Chapter Eight --

“We weren’t anywhere.
We got in the car and drove out of the driveway. When we got onto
the entrance ramp for I-384, Hammerhead noticed the steering
started to go wobbly. By the time we were on the highway, we knew
something was definitely wrong. He pulled over the car and got out
to check the tires. They were all flat. Miz Scarlet, doesn’t that
mean someone did this to Hammerhead’s car while it was parked at
the inn?”

“I don’t know, Jen. Is
it possible it happened before he got to the inn and the tires just
didn’t go flat right away? Maybe he drove over broken glass or a
box of nails some careless idiot left in the road.”

“Hammerhead said to
tell you there are punctures in the sidewalls.” Even as she said
that, I knew it had to have happened at the inn. The entrance to
the interstate was less than a quarter of a mile down the road.
What other explanation was there? The question was who and why? Was
someone really out to get Jenny? I tried distracting her. “What
kind of car is Hammerhead driving?”

“VW
Golf.”

“What
color?”

“Black,” Jenny informed
me. I searched the horizon for some telltale sign, and sure enough,
I spotted blinking tail lights in the distance.

“I think we’ve found
you.”

A moment later, Kenny
pulled up behind the small compact car. “Thank God the kid had the
good sense to put on the emergency flashers and get the car onto
the shoulder. Can you call Danny DiPietro for a tow? Here’s his
home phone number, Scarlet. I just want to take a closer
look.”

Kenny gave me the
information before he pulled a long Maglite flashlight from the
toolbox he kept on the floor behind the front seat and got out of
the car. He went over every inch of the Golf’s exterior with a
light bright enough to illuminate the airport runway at Bradley
Field. Bur and Hammerhead stood behind him, consulting from time to
time. Jenny had the good sense to come and sit with
me.

“I can’t believe this,”
she admitted, her teeth chattering. “Why did someone do this to us?
It’s so mean!”

“It is, isn’t it?” I
patted her knee. “Don’t you worry, Jen. We’ll get to the bottom of
this mess. In the meantime, let me call for that tow
truck.”

Danny was at home,
watching television, when his phone rang. He was less than
enthusiastic about personally coming out to pick up the car until I
told him it was for Kenny. “Give me ten minutes, Scarlet. I have to
grab my helper. You said all four tires are flat?”

“Couldn’t be any
flatter. Kenny thinks it’s related to the apparent break-in we had
at the inn earlier today. Someone smashed a window trying to get in
through the sun porch.”

“Did you ruffle some
feathers again, Miz Scarlet,” I heard Danny chuckle on the other
end. “Is someone out to get you?”

“Actually, we think the
target might be the teenage girl who lives with us. It could be a
stalker.”

“Hmm, in that case, I
think I’ll tow the car to my garage and lock it up for the night.
Tomorrow, I’ll examine every inch of the car, just in case some
creep sabotaged it.”

“Sabo....” I stopped
myself. Jenny was upset enough as it was. Why make her even more
apprehensive? “Um, why do you think...that might be the
case?”

“I had a lady come in
about three months ago. Her ex-husband not only vandalized her car,
he popped a tiny hole in her brake line, so the fluid drained out
slowly. She found out the hard way when she was going down Avon
Mountain.”

“Geez! That’s
terrible!” I shivered at the thought someone might do that kind of
thing to poor Jenny. “Yes, it’s a good idea to take the car to your
garage, Danny.”

“What?” Jenny wanted to
know what the mechanic told me, but I thought it best to leave out
the details. After all, it wasn’t necessarily the same kind of case
as the vindictive ex-spouse, was it? I didn’t want to plant the
seeds of fear in the teenager’s fertile mind if this was just some
jerk trying to rattle her...or Hammerhead. Maybe he was the real
target. Or was he the perpetrator? Was this his way of getting
Jenny to depend on him? I felt like a jerk for suspecting the boy,
but I had to wonder.

“How long have you and
Shark Boy been dating?” I asked. We had met several of her college
friends earlier in the year, but he wasn’t one of
them.

“About two weeks. He’s
friends with Lally’s boyfriend, so we double-dated a couple of
times and went to that big Cinco de Mayo bash with the
gang.”

“Any chance somebody’s
mad at him?”

“Are you kidding?” In
the glow of the dashboard lights, I saw her examining me to see if
I had sprouted a second head. “Hammerhead is Mr. Nice Guy.
Everybody likes him.”

Famous last
words.
Popular people, just like
irritating and annoying people, often attract the wrong kind of
attention. There’s something about power and prestige that make
psychopaths, sociopaths, and creeps want to destroy good people.
“What’s he studying?”

“Civil
engineering.”

“Those guys aren’t
normally known for wild and crazy behavior,” I decided. “They
almost border on....”

I stopped myself from
suggesting the Shark Boy was boring. Frankly, I was rather pleased
that Jenny had found a young man who seemed both level-headed and
considerate. He was already a better choice than the last one she
brought home. Carson Kristal, pre-law, was so full of himself it
was a miracle he didn’t burst at the seams. If there’s one thing I
can’t stand, it’s a pretentious, self-serving student who feels
compelled to tell every adult within listening range what we are
doing wrong. I personally considered drop-kicking the little cheese
weasel back to his mama in Montpelier, but Kenny talked me out of
it. He insisted Jenny would grow out of the relationship if we just
let her be. It took a month longer than expected, but one day
Carson made the mistake of telling her she could do better than to
work for the Four Acorns Inn while she was in
school.

“Don’t you find Miz
Scarlet more than a little bossy?” he queried her one afternoon, as
he sipped his cappuccino at the mall. “I mean, the woman never
married. She’s obviously jealous of you, with your looks. How else
can you explain the lousy hours she makes you work? Why don’t you
just apply for a full scholarship and move into my apartment? That
way, you don’t have to scrub toilets any more, Cinderella. Let her
find some other poor slob to exploit!”