Shelley Freydont - Celebration Bay 03 - Independence Slay (19 page)

“No,” said Miss Edna. “There’s a brawl over at McCready’s Pub. We just heard it on the police band.”

The police band was the number-one evening entertainment for a good portion of Celebration Bay residents. “Oh dear, but what—”

“The sheriff is on his way over there and they’ve requested backup.”

“But—”

“Now, you listen up. One of the perpetrators is Chaz Bristow, and I think you’d better get over there and do something.”

Chaz in a brawl? And Bill on his way? He’d throw the book at him.

“Okay, we’re on our way.” Liv ended the call, though she didn’t have a clue as to how she and Ted could help.

She hurried back to the meeting room, stuck her head in the door. “Sorry, I need to borrow Ted for a minute.”

Ted rose and was across the room before she took a breath, and he managed it without even looking like he was hurrying. He stepped into the hall. Liv closed the door.

“That was Edna. There’s a fight at McCready’s. Bill is on his way to arrest Chaz.” A bit of a stretch but the best shorthand she could accomplish.

“I’m on it. We’d better take the car. We might need to make a hasty escape.” He opened the door to the meeting room. “Sorry, meeting adjourned.” Then he took off down the hall to the back entrance.

“I’m coming, too.” Liv only glanced at the closed door of the meeting room, then she ran after Ted.

For a man who must be well into his sixties, Ted could run. He was already in his SUV and firing up the ignition when Liv, the trained runner, got to the parking lot.

Ted reversed out of the parking space and sped forward, slowing down just enough for Liv to jump into the passenger seat. As they turned the corner out of the parking lot, they heard sirens converging across the green.

It seemed to take forever to make the three-quarter round of the square. It was a balmy night, and people were out. A crowd had gathered across the street from McCready’s, which was rarely a scene of trouble. And never on a Tuesday night.

A police cruiser blocked that section of the street. Ted merely stopped the SUV in the middle of the street and got out. Liv followed without questioning. Meese and several other officers were keeping the crowd at—hopefully—a safe distance across the street.

He saw Ted and Liv, and frowned, but Ted just nodded and practically shoved Liv past the police line. Meese made no attempt to stop them.

Halfway across the street, Ted seemed to realize that he’d brought Liv with him. “You’d better stay back with Meese,” he yelled over sirens and the ruckus coming from McCready’s as the door opened and a body was tossed out to the sidewalk.

“No way,” Liv yelled back. “You’ve brought me this far. But what are you planning to do?”

“I’m not sure. But this is what you’re going to do.” He handed her his keys. “Go back to the SUV and drive it around the back to the alley behind McCready’s. Wait for me. If I don’t show, I’ll text you and tell you what to do.”

Liv took the keys and, without asking for more explanation, ran for the car. Once there, she backed the SUV to the corner, made a two-point turn, and drove around the block to get as close to the pub as she could.

She left the engine running, like her adrenaline. She had no idea what was so urgent. Chaz obviously was part of the brawl. It only surprised her that he’d bothered to get involved.

There’d been a night when he’d watched her apply a few moves she’d learned in her martial arts class to a couple of jerks while he stood in the doorway and watched.

And what was with her mild-mannered assistant? Ted rarely showed any sign of excitement or any extreme emotion. He was the calmest person she knew. But tonight he was moving at warp speed and was totally focused. She’d only seen that energy once before, and it had not boded well for the man who had been its object.

She let out a squeak a few minutes later when the back door opened and a body fell into the backseat. Ted slammed the door and ran around to the driver’s side. He opened the door, and shouted “Move over!” as he climbed in, which Liv did with alacrity.

The SUV jerked into reverse, wheels screeching, and they backed all the way down the street, where they turned east and left the scene behind.

Chaz was slumped in the backseat, looking even worse than the last time she’d seen him. “Did we just break the law?” Liv asked Ted as they sped away.

He looked over at her and grinned. “Just a little bit.”

The SUV slowed and they continued at a sedate pace to the
Clarion
office. Ted glanced over his shoulder and seemed to vacillate on what to do next.

“On second thought, do you have a first-aid kit at your place?” he asked Liv.

“I have first-aid supplies.”

“Mind if we… ?” He nodded toward the backseat, where Chaz hadn’t said a word, had not even whined, moaned, or groaned like he usually did at the slightest inconvenience.

“I guess not.” She doubted if they could find first-aid supplies at the
Clarion
office, even if Chaz possessed any, and it seemed that going to Ted’s was not an option. “Sure.”

Ted made a U-turn in the middle of the street and, swinging several blocks out of the way to avoid the green, he sedately drove the three blocks to the Zimmermans’ old Victorian. As soon as he pulled into the driveway, the lights to the Zimmerman sisters’ Victorian popped on.

He drove all the way back to Liv’s carriage house and got out of the SUV. While Liv unlocked her front door, Ted hauled Chaz’s carcass out of the backseat. He smelled like a brewery, and she really wasn’t excited about having him stinking up her house, but she was also curious as to why he’d been in a fight and why Ted had felt it necessary to whisk him away as if it was a raid at a gin joint in the twenties, not an altercation at the local pub.

Chaz managed to glare at her through one half-open eye as Ted dragged him past.

“I’ll get some ice,” Liv said, and hurried to the kitchen while Ted dumped Chaz on her less-than-a-year-old couch. “I’ll make coffee, too.”

“I’m not drunk,” Chaz mumbled. “I’m wearing this booze.”

“You may not need it, but we do.”

She headed for the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee.
First things first.
Filled a plastic bag with ice cubes, gathered several clean dish towels, then detoured to the bathroom for first-aid supplies.

She didn’t want to think about whether Chaz was really hurt or not. She soaked a washcloth in cold water and grabbed another towel and returned to the living room. Chaz was propped up in a seated position. Ted was standing over him, fists on his hips and looking like thunder.

“What the hell were you thinking?” He saw Liv and clamped down on what he was going to say next. But Liv had already heard him all the way in her bedroom. He was pretty angry at Chaz. But she didn’t really understand why.

Chaz tried to get up but Ted pushed him, none too gently, back onto the couch. Liv put her supplies down on the coffee table and took a good look. Chaz’s T-shirt was torn, blood had left a trail of splatters down the front. His lip was split, his eye was swollen and already turning black.

It turned her stomach, but she just said, “Lose any teeth, tough guy?”

“Too early to tell,” he mumbled, or at least that’s what she thought he said; his lip made everything come out without consonants.

Liv looked at Ted, realized he wasn’t about to apply first aid, so she took the bag of ice, folded it into a towel, and placed it as gently as she could on Chaz’s face. “Hold this,” she ordered, and reached for the wet cloth.

She was dabbing at his mouth and was beginning to worry, since he wasn’t whining or complaining like he usually did but was just sitting there like a lump, when there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get it,” Ted said, and strode away.

Liv lifted her eyebrows at Chaz. He gave her a one-shoulder shrug. Maybe it hurt too much to raise both of them.

“Hope we’re not intruding,” said Ida as she and Edna bustled into the room.

“Heard it on the scanner,” Edna explained. “When we saw Ted’s SUV outside, we figured out what was going on.”

Considering she had been the one to call her, Liv guessed that was an understatement.

Ida began taking things out of a basket she’d carried in: a plate of sandwiches, a plastic container of what looked like lemonade, a bottle of spring water, and a real first-aid kit with a red cross on the metal top.

Edna eased Liv out of the way and peered down at Chaz, shaking her head. “You are in trouble, young man.” She took the cloth from Liv and made short work of cleaning the cut.

“I imagine the sheriff will be here shortly,” Ida said. “We didn’t snitch. But Bill is no dummy. Something you would do well to remember,” she said, casting a disapproving look at Chaz.

“There seems to be some question as to the whereabouts of a certain participant,” Miss Edna said. “And you…” She reached out and lifted Ted’s right hand for inspection. “Really Ted, you should know better.”

The knuckles were grazed. Liv stared at him openmouthed. Ted had joined the brawl?

“Sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do.” He turned on Chaz. “Especially when one of his friends is acting like… I can’t even say it. There are ladies present.

“So, before Bill gets here, would you like to tell us why you got suckered into that? You’re usually smarter.”

They all stopped at the sound of another car pulling up outside. Chaz moved as if he might try to escape. Ted pushed him back to the couch.

“Stupid. Keep your mouth shut.”

Liv blinked. Edna and Ida looked shocked.

Liv went to answer the door.

Bill was alone, but he wasn’t happy.

He glanced at Ted as he came into the room. “I’ll talk to you later.” He stopped and looked down at Chaz, shook his head. “Fall down the stairs or step in front of the car?”

Chaz opened his mouth.

“Fell down the stairs,” Ted said.

“I took Chalmers and the Weaver brothers and several others down to the station. They’ll probably make bail before I get there. But you. You’ve got to promise me to keep a lid on your temper, or I’m going to lock you up. And that’s going to look pretty bad, considering the recent past.”

Liv was totally confused. What recent past? Had Chaz been in trouble lately? She didn’t think he’d bother to do anything so energetic, unless maybe he’d forgotten to renew his fishing license.

She and the sisters stood like a silent chorus in the background while a drama that at least Liv didn’t understand played out in her living room.

“Can you agree to that? No matter the provocation?”

“Sure. Can I go home now?”

“You better watch yourself or they’re going to drag your sorry—you back to LA.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll behave. Can I go now?”

“Are you okay?”

Chaz nodded slightly.

“I’ll drive you home.”

Chaz pushed himself off the couch and pitched forward. He would have landed on the coffee table if Ted and Bill hadn’t grabbed for him and lowered him back to the couch.

“He might have a concussion,” Miss Ida said. “We’ll take him home with us.”

Bill looked skeptical; Ted, amused. The two men exchanged looks.

“Excellent idea,” Bill said with what Liv thought was unholy glee.

“Thanks, but I can take care of—”

“Or you can recover in a jail cell.”

Chaz started to get up again.

Liv pushed him back down. “Oh no you don’t. Everyone is staying right here until you tell me what that was all about.”

Bill didn’t look happy but he didn’t contradict her. “Well, since I have to question Ted anyway…”

“And Liv,” Chaz said from behind the ice pack, which was beginning to drip.

“Me?” said Liv.

“Liv?” Bill asked.

Chaz grinned, or at least he tried to. His lip was too swollen to move, but Liv could see the grin in his eyes—eye—the one that wasn’t swollen shut.

“She drove the getaway car.”

Bill groaned. “I wondered how you ended up here.”

“I think you should arrest her.” Chaz moved the ice pack from his eye to his lip.

“Oh, be quiet.”

Bill looked to the ceiling, then at Edna and Ida, who had begun to fuss over Chaz.

“We’ll stay,” said Miss Ida, and sat down beside Chaz.

“Good idea, Ida.” Miss Edna sat in the only other chair in the room.

Liv and Ted went to get coffee, mugs, and chairs from the kitchen.

Ida poured coffee while Edna passed around the sandwich plate. She didn’t offer one to Chaz. Liv didn’t think he could open his mouth wide enough to bite, much less chew.

Bill lowered himself to a straight-backed chair.

“Bill Gunnison,” Miss Ida said at her strictest, “you should be taking something for that back.”

“I will when I get home. And I’d be home if some people didn’t start brawls in McCready’s Pub.”

Both sisters looked shocked and turned their disapproval on Chaz.

“It wasn’t my fault,” Chaz mumbled.

“What happened?” Liv demanded, no longer able to hold on to her impatience.

“I was in McCready’s,” Chaz said. “Minding my own business. Then the Weavers and that—and Cliff Chalmers came in. They started talking smack about the murder and Leo. They said he was staying at the rectory and they’d really scared the”—his one good eye roved around the room, pausing on each sister and giving Liv the creeps—“scared the expletive deleted out of him. They laughed and said they were going to do it again and did anybody want to go with them.” He moved the ice pack back to his eye.

Liv shook out two ibuprofen from the bottle in her medicine cabinet and handed them to him. Handed two more to Bill, who swallowed them with a gulp of coffee.

Chaz did the same, only half the coffee dribbled back out of his mouth.

“Damn.” He held up his hand. “Sorry, sorry.” This was directed at the sisters, who were not at all fazed by his use of the word. Liv was sure they’d heard worse, but they had that effect on people. She’d seen them shut up grown men with a look or a word. Chaz should have sent them to McCready’s. They would have made short work of the Weaver brothers.

“And?” Bill prodded.

“So I told them to cut the—to stop. Cliff said something I can’t repeat, and I punched him. That’s all.”

“All? McCready’s is a war zone. Tables and chairs overturned, glasses broken. Mike is fit to be tied. And who can blame him?”

“I’ll pay for it. It was worth it.”

“Was it? This breaks your bail agreement.”

“Bail?” Liv blurted out in surprise.

“Bail?” gasped the sisters.

This time Chaz finally groaned.

Bill glared at him. “This yo-yo got himself arrested in LA for taking the law into his own hands like some latter-day Wyatt Earp.”

Chaz leaned back on the couch and shut his eyes.

“Fortunately they caught him before he did any damage. He got off easy, considering.”

“I just did what they wished they could do but couldn’t.”

“They fined him and sent him back here to cool his heels.” Bill switched his attention to Chaz. “And stay out of trouble.”

Liv slapped her forehead. “That’s why you were holed up in your house. And I badgered you into helping me. Why didn’t you just tell me?”

Chaz opened one eye. “That’s what you think? You should know me better.”

She did know him better. He wouldn’t turn a blind eye while a friend was in trouble, for all his couldn’t-care-less attitude. And she liked him better for it.

“Sometimes a man has to stand up for what he believes,” Ida said.

“Thank you, Miss Ida.” He moved the ice pack, and water poured down his shirt.

Exasperated, Liv took it away and carried it to the kitchen.

When she returned with a new bag of ice, everyone was talking at once. It sounded like a party.

“I think,” Liv said, coming back into the room and shoving the ice pack at Chaz, “what we need is a strategy session.”

“Liv,” Bill began.

“You let her talk, Bill Gunnison,” Miss Edna said. “She can go places and ask questions that you can’t.”

“Miss Edna, there’s a killer out there.”

“We’re well aware of that.”

“And my job is not only to catch that killer but to keep my community safe while I’m doing it.”

“We know, Bill.” Miss Ida reached over and patted his knee. “And you’re doing a good job. So what do you know that you haven’t told us?” She smiled sweetly at him. Turned to Liv. “Get out your lesson plan, dear.”

Liv blushed. She’d kept the sisters’ idea of a lesson plan for murder to herself.

“What’s this lesson plan?” Bill asked suspiciously.

“Well,” Liv said, once she realized no one else was going to explain, “it’s like a spreadsheet. You know, just keeping abreast of what’s happened and how and when, so we can better prepare for the next event, point to where we need to tighten security, fill in holes. Things like that. And—”

Ted made a minute shake of his head.

TMI
—a telltale admission of prevarication.

“It’s her lesson plan for solving a murder,” Edna said. “You show him, Liv. He might learn a thing or two.”

Reluctantly, Liv got her laptop and handed it over to Bill.

“It was our idea,” Miss Ida said with a satisfied sigh.

Bill glanced at the screen. Pulled it closer. Liv watched his expression change as his eyes moved from column to column and back again.

He handed it back to Liv. “You have one of these for every incident we’ve had?”

Liv shrugged. “They affected the Events Office.”

Miss Ida and Edna smiled proudly.

“Education at work,” Miss Edna said.

Bill looked skeptical. “This is all speculation, you know.”

“Of course she knows that, but what do you know?” Edna took the laptop from him and handed it back to Liv. “Go ahead, dear.”

Liv settled the laptop on her lap and poised her fingers over the keyboard.

“Nothing more than you already know,” Bill began. “Just what Leo, Ted, and Liv told us. Leo’s prints are on the musket. No secret there. No other clues. Not a scrap of fabric or a fingerprint that doesn’t belong. Whoever killed Rundle must have planned it in advance.”

“Wore gloves,” Miss Edna said.

“Dressed like the ghost so he wouldn’t be recognized,” Miss Ida added.

“Was familiar with the layout of Gallantine House,” Liv said.

“Which,” Ted said. “Would be just about any man and quite a few of the women who were kids here. After old man Gallantine died, the house sat empty for years. The roof was a popular hangout. Every kid with any imagination found the gate and the entrance to the tower. Then, when Henry came back, he let the tradition continue. There wasn’t anything to vandalize. Some graffiti that the rain eventually washed off. Bill and I hung out up there.”

Chaz raised a finger.

“Chaz did, too,” Liv interpreted. “Among other things.”

Miss Edna and Miss Ida pursed their lips.

Chaz hung his head, though Liv suspected it was so they wouldn’t see his reminiscent smile.

“But it could also be someone not from town, but who had visited,” Liv said.

“The nephew,” Ted said, suddenly taking an interest in the conversation.

“Who I saw helping himself to a figurine, and who was seen carrying a suitcase out of the boathouse.”

Chaz made an indeterminate noise.

Liz glanced over, but it was impossible to tell what he was trying to say. His face was contorted, but it was so swollen, not to mention also turning black and blue, that it was even harder to read.

“We don’t even know that something has happened to Henry,” Bill said. “Or that Frank’s even a suspect, though…” He glanced at Liv. “You do make an interesting supposition.”

Chaz groaned.

“Put that ice pack back on your face,” Miss Ida said. “And let this be a lesson to you about fighting in bars.”

“And George Grossman conveniently shows up saying that he’s authorized to buy the Gallantine mansion,” Ted added.

“I don’t believe Henry would sell his house. Piddle,” Miss Ida said.

“Who is zhee?” Chaz slurred.

“The guy from the historical housing conservancy,” Liv said once she had interpreted his question. “He said Henry had agreed to sell the house to him. He must have showed him around the house.”

“Henry loves that house. Why would he do that?” Edna asked.

No one knew.

“Actually, how do we know Grossman’s telling the truth?” Liv asked. “We just have his word for it.”

“The woman has a devious mind,” Chaz mumbled.

“And,” Bill added, “Daniel Haynes—who is Henry’s lawyer and who, according to Grossman, had brokered the deal—denies knowing anything about it. Though you’ll be glad to know, Liv, he has put a stay on Grossman’s letter of authorization until Henry’s whereabouts are known.”

“That’s great,” Liv said. “I hope it applies to the nephew, too. Not only is he robbing the house, we just learned today that Jacob Rundle had been selling what we think are stolen goods.”

“Where the heck did you learn this?” Bill asked.

“Got a tip,” Liv said.

“At lunch,” Ted volunteered.

“Huh,” said Bill. “We caught the nephew red-handed, thanks to Liv, though don’t make a habit of spying on suspects.”

“I—”

“Don’t bother to deny it. Funny that he should show up two days after his uncle disappears and Rundle is killed,” Ted said.

“Seems funny to me, too,” Bill agreed. “Said he came for the fireworks and to pick up some things his uncle had given him—the goods.”

“What about him meeting with Grossman?” Liv asked as she typed. “Did he say anything you can tell us?”

“Said that he’d caught him trespassing, there was something that wasn’t right about Grossman, and we should look into it.”

“The nerve of the guy,” Ted said. “Catches a trespasser while he’s stealing from the house himself. Did you look into it?”

“I’ve got somebody on it.”

“Seems like a lot of sudden interest in Gallantine House,” Miss Edna said.

“Especially since that sister and her son never gave Henry the time of day until now they think he might be dead,” Ida said. “Let him visit a few weeks each summer and ignored him the rest of the year. And after all he did for them.”

“What did he do for them?” Liv asked.

“Just sent money to her and to his father the whole time he was working in the movies. Even after his mother went a little around the bend.”

“I didn’t know that,” Bill said.

“We used to see Hildy Ingersoll at the interfaith get-togethers and she was on the Toys for Tykes Committee, the Shut-In Visitation Committee, and a few others. She used to visit the old Gallantine housekeeper before she died. She told Hildy that the checks came to old Mr. Gallantine regular as clockwork.” Edna sighed.

“That was before Hildy lost her husband.” Ida said. “After that she just lost her zest for life. Never got it back.” She shook her head and for a second seemed far away.

Thinking about her own loss?
Liv wondered.

“She just turned bitter. Didn’t come to the meetings anymore, didn’t see her friends. Just dropped out of everything but working for Henry Gallantine.” Ida
tsk
ed. “We should give her a call, Edna. Be better friends.”

Edna nodded solemnly.

Liv looked over to Chaz to see if he was at all interested in what they were saying, but his eyes were closed again. “But why kill the gardener? Do you think they were really after Henry himself?”

“Good question,” said Miss Edna.

Ida patted her chest. “How do we know that the culprit didn’t kill Henry, too?”

“True,” Edna said. “No one has heard from him, have they?”

Bill reluctantly shook his head. “But we’re looking.”

Liv wondered how many times he’d had to say that since Friday night.

“Is he a suspect?” Edna asked.

“Just a person of interest at this point.”

“No leads?” Liv asked.

“Not yet.” He pushed to his feet and almost straightened up. “And now I have things to do.”

“Bill Gunnison,” Miss Ida scolded. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Crime waits for no man,” Bill said with resignation. “Come, ladies. Chaz and I will walk you home.”

“I’ll walk them home,” Ted said. “I haven’t had the pleasure of a late-night stroll with two such lovely ladies in the longest time.”

“And we haven’t had two young men fighting over us in a dog’s age,” Edna said wryly.

“But it is nice,” Ida said.

Ted offered his arm to both ladies, and they said good night. “You go on, Bill. I’ll come back for Chaz when I’m done. I’ll take him home. You couldn’t get him off the couch much less up his stairs with your back.”

Liv wasn’t sure Ted could, either. But she’d go with them and help if she had to, because she had no intention of letting Chaz bed down on her couch.

Bill looked toward Chaz. “You sure?”

“Yes, I’ll see that he gets home. But, Bill, what are you going to do about Leo’s safety?”

“I have a squad car posted outside for tonight, but I think I should put Leo in protective custody. Reverend Schorr can’t keep him. With the mood of some of the people in town, it wouldn’t be safe for either of them.”

“What does protective custody mean exactly?” Liv asked. “Jail?”

“I hope not. Leo is eighteen; I’ll try to find a safe house through social services. Just until we close this case.”

“And if you don’t?”

“I have to.” He glanced toward Chaz again. “Keep him out of trouble if you can.”

“We’ll try.” Liv walked Bill to the door, then out into the summer air. “Can you tell me what Chaz did to get himself arrested?”

“Threatened a suspect in a murder trial in LA.”

“The banker?”

Bill nodded. “Chaz is convinced the man arranged to have his own wife kidnapped, paid the ransom, then killed her. There wasn’t conclusive evidence, even though Chaz, as well as the police, followed the case for several years. The prosecutor didn’t prove it.”

“So he took things into his own hands,” she said. “What would he have done if they hadn’t stopped him?”

Bill shrugged. “Hopefully his good sense would have prevailed. It’s not something I want to think about. He’s very lucky. Like he said, he’d just done what most of the law enforcement involved in the case wished they could do. Some cases just work out that way.”