Murder on the Bucket List (23 page)

“Well, congratulations, Sara, and I hear congratulations are also in order for you having completed your black belt in karate.”

Sara looked confused. “You must've heard incorrectly. I don't have my black belt. I've been focusing more on modeling lately. In fact, I've just signed with a local agency. Can't talk about where I've auditioned, but I hope to be in a commercial soon.”

Francine turned to Charlotte. “Why is it I feel you were responsible for that question?”

Charlotte looked as puzzled as Sara had been. “But that symbol you showed me, Francine. I researched it. It indicates someone highly experienced in martial arts.”

“She didn't deny she took karate, she just said she wasn't that far along.”

“At some point she must've wanted it then, for it to have been tattooed on her ankle.”

“What were you trying to do, link her to the blood choke?”

Charlotte got a sheepish look on her face. “Sort of.”

Joy wrapped up her interview. Police and security guards began filtering into the area.

Francine pointed to them. “Looks like something's happening.”

“There's Toby!” Charlotte said. “I'm going to go talk to him. Maybe he knows what's going on.”

She started to take off, but Francine held her by the arm. “I think we should stay together. Jud is heading to talk to Sara. Let's go find out what he knows.”

“He's not going to tell us anything. And I'll be fine talking to Toby. What trouble can I get into?”

“Charlotte, if addiction to trouble had a twelve-step program, I'd have you enrolled.”

“I don't want him to get away. Let me go.”

“Set your cell phone to vibrate and hold it in your hand. You'll never hear it ring when it gets noisy and I may need to contact you.”

Charlotte made a beeline for Toby, and Francine made one for Jud.

Jud held up a hand. “Before you ask, I can't tell you what we're doing.”

“Will you let me guess? You're going to check the car because it went abnormally fast. You want to know if it has any technology Friederich might have developed.”

“Cannot confirm or deny,” he said.

Francine smiled. “You're good at bluffing, Jud, but I've known you for a long time.”

He shook his head. “I can't say any more.”

“Then answer my question from earlier. Who was it at Excalibur Racing that checked Jake's car over for you? I bet you found out it was Vince Baggesen, and now this qualification seems suspicious.”

“It was Vince Baggesen. That's all I can tell you.”

Francine watched as Jud went into the pits. The police were trying not to attract attention, but she thought it was clear to anyone watching that something must be wrong because the police weren't in anyone else's pit. They stopped to talk to Vince Baggesen. Francine wondered where Darla was. In fact, now that she thought about it, it was strange that Darla had not been around to watch Sara qualify. What could Darla be doing that was more important? Maybe she should find Charlotte and head over to Jake's pit. What if Darla knew about Jake and Sara and decided to put a stop to it?

Francine looked around for Charlotte and panicked. She was nowhere to be found. Then some of the crowd around the pits parted for Toby in his bright yellow Security shirt. Francine hurried over to him. “Where's Charlotte?”

He shrugged. “I don't know. She was here a minute ago. I gave her the iPod back, and she went off toward the catering area.” He pointed in that direction. “She said she was looking for my grandma.”

“Were you able to get the password for the iPod?”

“No, but I was able to reset it. I told her the new password, but I'm not sure she knows how to work the device.”

Francine pulled out her iPhone and called Charlotte. Fortunately she answered, almost on the first buzz. “Where are you, Charlotte?”

“I'm over by the Fox Sports tent, trying to find Mary Ruth. Francine, I think I know who killed Friederich. Sara's tattoo threw me off, but now it all makes sense.”

“That's great, but do you have proof ? Because I think I can get proof.”

Charlotte sounded cagey. “You tell me who you think it is first.”

“I'm not trying to one-up you. I think we can prove this, and then we can take it to Jud. Toby says you have the iPod.”

“I do, but the answer is so much simpler.”

“Charlotte, please. Just follow my directions exactly. Remember, we thought the proof was on the iPod.”

“I don't know how to work it.”

“I'm going to tell you.”

“Well, I'll have to put the phone down to get it out. I'm juggling my purse and my cane.”

“Please, just do it quickly.”

“Okay, I'm holding the iPod. Now what?”

Francine told her how to turn it on.

After a bit, Charlotte said, “Okay, it's on.”

“Sign in. Use the new password Toby gave you.”

“Is this going to take long?”

“It might, but this is really important. Did you press it?”

Charlotte sounded distracted. “Yeah.”

“Now look at the screen. You should see a bunch of little icons. Is one of them ‘videos'?”

“It is.”

“Tap on it.”

“I'm juggling too much stuff again, Francine. Let me put my purse on the ground.”

The announcer said that Jake Maehler was next up to begin his qualification run. The crowd noise picked up.

“Wait, Charlotte. Before you do that, let me tell you all the steps. You'll see a list of videos after you tap on the screen. You can move through the list by putting your finger on the screen and scrolling up. See if there's something that looks homemade, like Friederich filmed it himself.”

“Okay.”

Francine waited. She had gnawing feeling that somehow things were wrong, but she couldn't pinpoint what. The announcer said Jake's name again to make a qualification run, but there was no accompanying noise of his midget car. “Charlotte, I think something's happened to Jake.”

But Charlotte never responded. Francine heard a female voice talking to Charlotte, one she recognized immediately. Then she heard a crunch, loud and clear through the phone. The connection went dead.

thirty-four

Francine gasped because it
all made sense.
I should have known right from the start
, she thought.
The reason I knew it was twelve-fifteen in the morning when Jud asked me was because Darla Baggesen yelled it at us. But it came too fast! There was no way she could have done it that fast unless she was already up, watching us.

She hurried off to
where the caterers were located, looking for the Fox Sports tent.

Before Francine found either
the Fox Sports tent or Mary
Ruth's trailer, she came across Jose. He had a much smaller bandage on his head and was wearing a pink “Mary Ruth's Catering” apron. She rushed to where he was wheeling a catering cart across the ground. The cart had three shelves, each containing a large aluminum-covered pan, and the unevenness of the ground was jostling them.

“Jose,” she said.

He saw her and reacted with alarm as though the mere fact she was there meant bad things for him.

Francine supposed it was deserved. As gently as she could, she asked in her limited Spanish, “Can you point me to the Fox tent?”

“
Sí
,” he said. He stepped back to find a clear sight line. In broken English, he said, “That is it, the blue flag. Just behind the red and yellow flag.”

Francine was surprised he spoke any English at all. But she knew some immigrants who felt insecure about their language skills pretended not to know English until they had to. “
Gracias
, Jose. Should I try to cut straight across or follow the road all the way around?”

“Follow the road.”

Francine squared her shoulders and began to powerwalk.

“But your friend with the cane, she is in that trailer with Sensei Baggesen.”

He pointed to a large unmarked tent in front of the trailer. The trailer was large enough that it could easily haul and service a couple of midget cars.

Francine looked at Jose. “How do you know Sensei Baggesen?”

“She is
a black belt in the karate class I take.”

The information jolted Francine. “I didn't know Darla Baggesen had a black belt.”

“Oh,
sí
. Third degree.”

“When did you see them talking?”

He shrugged. “
Minutos
.”

“Do you know what they were talking about?”

“Sensei helped her use her iPod.”

Help her
, Francine thought, alarmed.
Not likely
. If Darla had recognized the iPod as Friederich's, and if Friederich died from a blood choke as everyone thought, and if Francine was putting two and two together and getting four …

“That's their trailer, the one you were to deliver those trays to?”

“
Sí
.”

“Jose, you can head on back to Mary Ruth's. I'll handle the food from here.”

Francine took her iPhone out, set it to record, and put it back in her pocket. She knocked on the trailer door. When no one answered, she did it again, this time with more force. The door opened. Darla stood there. Before Francine could offer a ruse with the trays of food, Darla grabbed her by the arm and hauled her in. The door slammed shut behind them.

_____

With a swift move, Darla slipped one arm between Francine's arm and body. She gripped Francine's upper arm with the other hand and used the hand on the inside to flip Francine's wrist over. She applied pressure to it.

The move had been so quick and the pain so sudden that Francine could only gasp.

The door had opened into the center of the trailer. To the right, at the front corner, were tools like Francine had seen in Friederich's workshop. Some were organized in cabinets with no doors and others were attached to a large pegboard. Closer to her was an unmarked midget car, which Francine theorized had been taken from Friederich's shop. A rolling tool chest was next to the car.

The inside of the trailer was deadly quiet compared to the noise of the qualification run outside.

Tied to a chair in the rear left corner was Charlotte, who acknowledged Francine with frightened eyes. She had a gag around her mouth, but it didn't look securely tied. She was working on it with her teeth like she could chew through it.

Charlotte must've put up a good fight
, she thought. What was likely a sitting area with a small table and two chairs had been thrown into disarray, the table dumped and the chairs in pieces.
She knows how to wield that cane.

“Where's Friederich's iPod?” Francine asked. “I know you took it off Charlotte.”

“It's in her pocket,” Charlotte answered over the loose gag.

“What did Friederich have on you, Darla? We know the iPod has some kind of blackmail video on it.”

“You messed this all up for me and you don't even know what's on it?” Darla hissed.

“It has to connect you to Friederich in a way you don't want anyone to know.”

Charlotte worked her tongue around the gag. “It's a sex tape, Francine. That's the only thing that makes sense.”

Francine nodded. “Like a prostitute, only for technology, not money.”

Darla snarled at her. “I was keeping Friederich focused on making Sara's car a contender.”

Francine tried to keep Darla talking until she could think of same way to save them. “Then why did you kill him?” she asked.

Darla applied more pressure to the hand hold she had on Francine, making Francine yelp.

“It wasn't intentional,” Darla said. “He betrayed me and I snapped. He told me he was going to help Jake using what he'd developed for Sara—what I paid for in more ways than one.” Darla laughed and Francine could hear the bitterness in it. “We're over at my house and he waits until we're getting ready to make love to tell me this. So I choked him out. Tried not to leave any obvious marks, but I knew once they did an autopsy it would all come out. The question was how to distract the police and pin it on Larry. Your Bridge Club couldn't have been more helpful providing a distraction.”

“What did you know about Larry?”

“Not much. Friederich had something on Larry, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. He assured me it was big, though, so I helped him figure out a way to use it to sop up money for Sara's midget car.”

“Sara backed off her qualification run for a reason,” Francine said. “The police know she was leaving room for Jake, that she's in love with him. Before I left, the police were in the pits examining her car and talking to Vince.”

“You're lying.”

“No, and whatever happened to Jake, they'll know you were behind it too.” It was a risk to keep making Darla mad, but Francine didn't have a choice. “The police'll be looking for you. That I know.”

Darla dropped the wrist hold she had on Francine and wrapped her forearm around her neck from behind. Francine dipped her head quickly to block the arm from reaching her neck, but Darla laughed and yanked Francine's hair to pull back her head. Francine kicked Darla in the shins and then remembered her self-defense class. She bit down hard on Darla's forearm.

Darla gave a short scream. Francine quickly twisted away under Darla's arm, tripping her as she escaped. Darla went down but threw a foot out and nicked Francine in the knee, taking her to the ground too.

Francine crawled the short distance to Charlotte and loosened the ties on her hands. Just as Charlotte stood up, Darla was on them both. She kicked Francine in the stomach and pushed Charlotte back into the chair.

Charlotte's right hand fell back into her cane. She lifted it and jabbed at Darla, but Darla caught it in midair. Francine was on the floor in pain from the kick, but she wasn't going to let Darla get the better of this situation. She put her hand out, gripped Darla's ankle and pulled. Darla momentarily lost her balance.

Charlotte struggled to her feet and attempted to regain control of the cane. But Darla recovered her balance and ripped the cane from Charlotte's hand, gripping it in her two. She slipped it over Charlotte's head and pulled hard. The cane yanked Charlotte back into Darla's body. The cane came up against Charlotte's throat and Darla had control.

“Can't breathe,” Charlotte choked out.

“One move, Francine, and I'll kill Charlotte. And once she's done, I'll beat you to death with this cane.”

“iPod,” Charlotte squeaked. “Evidence.”

“Thanks for the reminder, Charlotte. I do need to get rid of that.”

“Not what I meant. Gone. Not in your pocket.”

Darla's eyes opened wide in surprise as though she realized the iPod could have come out in the melee. She let go of the cane with one hand to pat the pocket where she'd put the iPod.

As Darla's grip loosened, Charlotte reared back with her good leg and kicked Darla square in the knee with as much power as she could muster.

The maneuver worked. Darla grabbed her knee in pain. Charlotte snatched her cane out of Darla's hands and doubled back toward Francine. Francine wasn't sure that was the direction Charlotte should be going.

Once again, the younger woman recovered quickly. Darla gave a yell Francine thought sounded Japanese. Francine watched in horror as Darla leaped at Charlotte.