The Diva Digs up the Dirt (9 page)

He examined it thoroughly. I watched his expression for signs of panic. He appeared grim and deadly serious but said nothing until he set it on the table. “Show me where you found it.”

We left Mona sitting on the deck, but Nina and Daisy crossed the expanse of lawn with us.

Wolf studied the hole in silence, then glanced at the dead rosebush, which lay on the grass, tipped over. Instead of expressing anger or annoyance or worry, his jaw tightened and he stared into the trees. His Adam’s apple bobbed a couple of times, and I thought he might be choking back tears.

I wrapped an arm around his waist but he was stiff as a corpse toward me. He pulled out his phone, walked a few steps away, and made a call, explaining the situation briefly and ending with, “We’ll wait for him.”

Nina’s wide eyes met mine. We’d been so worried about turning him in, and now it appeared he’d done that dirty work for us.

He took a deep breath. “You always think they’ll come home.” He bit his upper lip and winced. “After all this time, I still thought I would come home from work one day and find her on the porch with a frosty root beer in her hand. Then something like this happens, and it grabs you in the pit of your stomach, because you know it was just wishful thinking, and she’s never coming back.”

I wanted to be kind, to soothe him in some way, but instinct told me this wasn’t the time, and I wasn’t the right person.

Wolf walked away from us. He crossed the yard, his head bowed.

Nina peered at me with a questioning look. I shook my head at her. He deserved to deal with his grief privately.

His solitude didn’t last long. Detective Kenner lunged around the side of the house, his long legs moving so fast that the uniformed cop with him had to run to keep up. Wolf strode across the grass to meet them.

Kenner had made no secret of his romantic interest in me, but with his sour attitude, he ought to look for someone more like Roscoe’s housekeeper, Violet. His sunken cheeks and weathered skin gave him a haggard appearance. As far as I could tell, he never slept. He seemed to turn up everywhere I went, which I found a bit disconcerting.

Mona miraculously recovered from her fainting spells and sped out to them.

When Nina and I reached them, Wolf was explaining that
the evidence
had been handled by Mona, Nina, and me.

“
Au contraire
, my friends,” cried Nina. “
I
have not touched anything. And Sophie wore garden gloves when she handled it.”

“I suppose your fingerprints are all over it?” Wolf asked Mona. For the first time since he arrived, I heard a tinge of anger in his tone.

She smiled pleasantly. “Of course. I had to find out if it was Anne’s.”

Kenner motioned to me. “Let’s see where you found it.”

For what seemed like the hundredth time, I crossed the lawn and told my short story.

Daisy trotted along with us, keeping a sharp hound eye on Kenner. For some reason, she had never liked him. When we stopped at the site of the hole, she sat down and lifted her lip at him. She didn’t growl, but her skin sagged loosely, so when she snarled, she made quite a frightening face.

Kenner took a step back, away from Daisy. “Did you call Mona?” he asked.

It had all happened so fast that I hadn’t given Mona’s fortuitous arrival much thought. “No. Now that you mention it, she just showed up.”

“What did she do when she saw it?”

“She fell to her knees and clutched it to her like a baby.”

“So she knew what it was right away?”

Why this line of questioning about Mona? I thought back. “Yes, she knew instantly… or she acted like she did. She looked inside it, of course, but she immediately recognized that it belonged to Anne.”

Kenner wrote something on the back of a business card and handed it to me. “If you need anything, that’s my cell number.”

“Thanks.” Kenner was the last person I would call, but it would hurt him to know that. I tucked his card into my pocket and started to walk back to the others.

Kenner caught my elbow, causing Daisy to growl at him. “Sophie, be careful.”

That sent a new shudder along my arms. In spite of the heat, little goose bumps popped up.

Kenner conferred with the uniformed officer, who had bagged the purse. The words “Tape it from the bench all the way across the rear garden” hit me like a punch in the stomach.

Wolf had been so calm that I’d begun to think finding Anne’s purse wasn’t a big deal. But if they were cordoning off the back of Wolf’s lot, it was the alarming development I had feared.

I wanted to apologize to Wolf, but my original concerns about his involvement in Anne’s disappearance flooded back to me like a tidal wave, and I didn’t know what to say or do. There wasn’t any protocol that I knew of for a situation like this. “I guess I’ll get going. You, too, Nina?” I asked. When I pulled my car keys out of my pocket, Kenner’s business card fluttered to the ground.

Wolf picked it up, glanced at it, and handed it to me. “See you tonight.”

I nodded. Though we’d planned to have dinner together at my house, after all this, it just seemed—odd.

Nina said good-bye and propelled me toward our cars. Daisy ran ahead of us and waited by my car to jump in.

“He’s coming to your place tonight?” whispered Nina.

“It was already planned. Just dinner.”

“I don’t know what to think.” Nina jiggled her keys nervously. “He could have done it. He’s too calm. Just to be on the safe side, I’m coming to dinner, too.”

“I appreciate your offer, and I love you to death for worrying, but maybe it would be a good time for me to feel him
out. Do you know any of the details about Anne’s disappearance?”

“No one does. No one I know anyway.”

That was saying a lot. Nina had some impressive connections when it came to information.

She cocked her head at me. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Wolf has always been very kind. That’s probably why I feel so torn. The Wolf I know couldn’t have killed anyone, but that handbag…”

“If I weren’t married and you weren’t dating Wolf, I’d be dating him myself. I love the guy! There isn’t one other man who swings by the shelter every single week to donate food for the animals. I never believed the idiotic rumors about him—but I can’t imagine anyone except Wolf burying that purse under the rose bush like that.”

“Soph, I’m not letting you be alone with Wolf.”

Logic and emotion were colliding within me. I hugged Nina. “Thanks for looking out for me. I’ll let you know what happens tonight.”

Thanks to heavy tourist traffic, I parked five blocks from my house. During the walk home, I decided a garage wasn’t such a bad idea after all. It would be a delicious luxury to be able to pull into my own garage and avoid the extra trek. I unlocked my front door, and Mochie strolled into the foyer. With typical cat composure, he yawned and stretched before circling my ankles to let me know he was glad I had returned. Normally, I would have ushered him into the kitchen, but today I couldn’t wait to see what had happened in my backyard.

Daisy and Mochie accompanied me to the sunroom overlooking the back of my property. All the shrubs, trees, flower beds, and grass on the left side were gone. All of it. I kicked myself mentally. It wasn’t as though I had never watched the show.
Tear It Up
was Troy’s thing. He’d lied to me. What a surprise. He’d promised to build on the right side and yet they had dug a trench for footings that extended all the way to my house on the left. I tried to comfort myself with the notion that my angle wasn’t the best, but if that became the slab for the garage, I could park four Hummers in it.

A noisy truck was pouring concrete, and Natasha appeared to be shouting instructions to everyone. She waved her arms wildly at the driver of the concrete truck, but from my vantage point, I could see that he was watching the hand signals of a very calm man who was part of the crew.

I returned to the kitchen, fed Mochie leftover chicken breast, and gave Daisy a dog cookie. Troy knocked on the kitchen door.

“Could you come out a minute?” I followed him to the backyard.

“What do you think?”

This time I was painfully aware of a camera filming us. I tried to keep my cool. “It’s much larger than I expected. You
do
realize that I don’t own four cars?”

He laughed. “Not to worry. It will be wonderful. Trust me.”

I knew better than to trust anyone who could turn on the charm like Troy. “Didn’t you say it would be on the right?”

“Sorry, last-minute change.”

Last-minute? I didn’t think so. I was willing to bet the plans he submitted to the town showed everything on the left. Did they lie on purpose to get a rise out of the homeowners?

“Sophie! You’re not supposed to be out here.” Natasha barreled up behind me holding a clipboard. “Oh! You’re on camera.” Whispering, she said, “Isn’t this the most fun? I know what you’re going to say, but you don’t have to thank me. Getting to work with Troy is like a dream come true.”

She smiled at the camera, stood at an angle, and lifted her chin. “Honestly, Troy, I don’t know how you manage to get anything done with that crew of yours. They were all just standing around, so I put them to work raking what’s left of the grass.”

Troy barely missed a beat, but I thought I saw one second of shock. “I’m sure they were waiting for more concrete to be poured.” He grinned. “We, um, need to pick up some things this afternoon.”

Natasha straightened her top. “Will the cameras be coming with us?”

Troy smacked his forehead. “How stupid of me. We’ll need someone to stay here and accept deliveries.”

“I could do that.” Natasha waved the clipboard.

“I don’t know,” said Troy. “It really ought to be someone strong enough to stand up to the delivery guys. You’re so pretty that they might give you a hard time.”

“No! I can do it. I’m very firm with my employees, right, Sophie? No one messes with me.”

Troy was slick. He knew exactly how to get her off his
back. I watched with amusement as he reluctantly agreed to leave her behind. Natasha promptly ran toward Troy’s crew to tell them of her new and oh-so-important role.

“Thanks,” I muttered sarcastically.

He dragged his fingers over his face, pulling his features so he appeared demented. “I have spent the entire day with that woman telling me what to do. I deserve a break. Besides, there’s not a thing
anyone
can do until the concrete sets up. At this point, I would pay to get away from her.”

I chuckled at his mock desperation.

“I do feel a little bit guilty for sticking you with her, though.”

That was nice. If he hadn’t lied to me and torn up my backyard, I would have thought he was a good guy. He gave me a little two-fingered salute and strode away, waving his hands over his head at his crew.

In fairly short order, the concrete truck departed, leaving my world blissfully quiet. With Natasha hovering over them, Troy’s crew finished smoothing the concrete, packed up their belongings, and headed out.

I had to assume that Natasha was worn out. She eased wearily into a lawn chair, took off her shoes, and slouched with her eyes closed. Her hands fell to her sides. I had never seen her in such an unladylike position before. When I looked out the window a few hours later, she had left.

At precisely seven o’clock, Wolf rapped on the door to my kitchen and opened it. “Think it’s cool enough to eat outside?”

“Have you seen the mess back there? They poured concrete earlier today. I think we could cook on the grill, though. They didn’t tear up the patio.”

“Sounds good to me.” He was dressed to relax in navy shorts, a red polo shirt, and flip-flops. “Feel like a margarita? After the day I’ve had…”

“Yes, please!” I sliced sweet, juicy pineapple chunks to thread on skewers with onions, red pepper, and pork seasoned with sea salt, pepper, and rosemary. Rice cooked on the stove, along with spicy black beans.

Icy margaritas in hand, we ventured outside. The table, chairs, and closed grill needed serious dusting before we could use them. That chore behind us, I put the shish kebabs on the grill and joined Wolf at the table, exhausted from the events of the day. Wolf and I stared at each other for a few minutes in silence. I couldn’t imagine how he must feel.

“I didn’t expect quite this much concrete in your backyard.”

“Me, either. How much do you think it will cost to rip it all out?”

He licked a bit of salt from the rim of his glass. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. What’s the deal? Will they undo it if you hate it?”