Thirty-Six and a Half Motives: Rose Gardner Mystery #9 (Rose Gardner Mystery Series) (7 page)

“How. . . ?” But as soon as the word was out of my mouth, I realized how.

“Anna.” He’d been helping out at the nursery a lot lately, and Violet’s assistant had taken a shine to him. “How much do you know?”

“Enough to know she’s goin’ to be gone for awhile. Do you need to take time off?”

I rubbed my hand over my forehead. “No. Not yet. Our Aunt Bessie is going to Houston with her, but I’ll probably go down after things die down around here.”

A wry smile twisted his lips. “Do things ever die down around here?”

“True enough.”

“If you need to take off, Neely Kate and I can keep things goin’.” He shifted his weight. “Neely Kate’s picking it up so fast, I’ll be out of a job soon.”

I laughed. “Hardly. Once the weather starts warming up, you’ll be working outside. We have so many jobs lined up, we’re going to have to think about finding more help. Do you know anyone who might be interested?”

He studied my face for a moment. “Do you care if he has a criminal record?”

“You have a criminal record, and I hired you.”

“Well, that was different. You knew I was innocent.”

“Of committing murder. But I knew you’d done the other things—possession of pot, stealing. You said you wanted to change, though, and I believed in you. If the guy you’re thinking about wants to change, too, and you think he’s trustworthy, then hire him and tell him he can start mid-March.”

Bruce Wayne looked shocked. “Don’t you want to interview him?”

“Nope. You’re a partner, Bruce Wayne. You interview him. You’ll be the one who’s ultimately in charge of him.”

“I’ll be his boss,” he said in shock.

I laughed. “And he’ll probably be the first employee of many. So get used to the idea.”

A grin spread over his face, and I felt genuinely happy for him. He’d grown so much from the scared, beaten-down man I’d met last summer.

I locked the door behind him after he took off and then jumped when the sound of my cell phone broke the silence. I hurried over to my desk, wondering if it was Mason. I missed him something fierce and would be tempted to answer.

But it was Joe.

“Hey.” I had to wonder if he was calling about Violet.

“I just wanted to give you a heads up. I suspect my dad won’t be in county jail for long. I hear an indictment is coming from Little Rock in the next day or two.”

“What will that mean?”

“It means they’ll move him up to Little Rock and keep him there until his first trial.” He paused. “Once we find other witnesses who are willing to attest to the things he’s done, you’ll be safer.”

“You really believe that?”

“I have to.”

I suspected I would never be safe from J.R. Simmons. I’d tricked him and trapped him using his own game, and he wasn’t the sort of man to let bygones be bygones.

Joe cleared his throat. “Have you felt threatened in anyway? Have you felt like you’re being watched?”

I hadn’t noticed either Jed or Merv before today, so I wasn’t too confident I could trust my skills of observation. And while I had noticed that strange man on Friday, I didn’t want to tell Joe about that. Not when it might mess up my current protective duty. “No. But I’m being careful.”

“Do you have your Taser?”

“Yeah, I keep it with me at all times. And there’s a gun at the house.” I didn’t mention Neely Kate had hers in her purse, along with her concealed carry permit.

“Be careful with that gun. Don’t go shooting the chief deputy sheriff when he shows up at your door makin’ sure you’re okay,” he said with a grin in his voice.

“I’ll try not to,” I teased, but now that I had him on the phone and in a good mood, I decided to press my luck. “Now that your father has been arrested, when can I get Dora’s journal back?”

His tone changed to all business. “It’s no longer an issue.”

“Has it been taken for evidence? Will it be used in the trial?”

His silence was all the confirmation I needed.

“That journal could contain information that would help keep your father in jail.”

He groaned. “I’ve got it covered, Rose. I’m going to make sure he doesn’t ever hurt anyone again, okay?”

What could I say? That I had trouble believing him? Those would be hard words for him to hear, but they were true. While I trusted him more than I had a week ago, I wasn’t totally onboard the
Joe’s going to protect me against his father
express.

“With all due respect, Joe, that’s my property. If it’s not being held for evidence, I want it back.”

“Fine. It’s evidence.”

“Then why wasn’t it logged in?”

He paused. “Who told you that?”

Mason had heard it from Deputy Miller, but there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hades I was going to tell Joe that. “Maybe I had a vision.”

“Of who?” he asked suspiciously.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I have no idea where
my property
is currently located, and I want it back.”

“You’ll get it back. I’m working on something that should play out soon, but I need the journal as bait.”

“Bait? Bait for what? Is this official Fenton County business or personal?”

“That doesn’t seem like it’s any of your concern,” Joe said, getting irritated.

“It is when you’re using the book my birthmother left me as the lure.”

“Rose, we’re on the same side here. We both want the same thing.”

I was pretty sure he believed that, but I wasn’t so sure the sides were separated by a straight line. There were so many people out to make J.R. Simmons pay for his various misdeeds, I was fairly certain the lines were as twisted and contorted as an octagon.

But I was too tired to fight him, and I suddenly regretted my decision to stay at the office. I really just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a month or two—until the pain in my chest over my breakup with Mason had faded enough for me to breathe.

“I don’t want to fight, Joe, but I’m going to ask you about it again soon.”

“Fair enough . . . and Rose?” I heard the hesitation in his voice.

“Yeah?” I asked, worried about what was coming.

“I’m sorry to hear that you and Mason are separated. I hope you two work things out.” Did he know we’d broken up? How?

Then I realized he was talking about Mason moving out. I fought back tears. “Thanks.”

I waited for him to gloat or suggest we get back together, but he surprised me. “Have a good night, and let me know if you feel like you’re in danger.”

I didn’t have it in me to remind him I was constantly in danger.

I
tried
to concentrate on a landscaping design for one of the houses in Violet’s old neighborhood with the design program on my computer, but I gave up after it took me twenty minutes to place two trees. At this rate, it’d be next winter before I got to the beds around the house. When I got up and stretched, I realized it was already dark outside. The only light in the office was from the glow of my computer screen.

The streets were fairly deserted, but there was a man standing in front of the office window. I realized with a jolt that it was the guy I’d seen on Friday. Average height, dark brown jacket, jeans, and a dark gray knit hat on his head. He turned to meet my eyes, and we engaged in a staring contest that lasted a good two seconds. It also gave me a good look at the brown-pigmented birthmark on his cheek.

And a perfect set of scratch marks.

I was staring at Sam Teagen. The man who had posted my bail. The man who’d hired Eric Davidson, the manager of the Burger Shack, to run Mason off the road, steal his cell phone, and most likely kill him. Judging from the scratch marks on Teagen’s cheek, he was also the man who had kidnapped me.

And in his hand, hanging at his side, was a gun.

I took a step back, wondering what to do. Should I call Joe? Jed? But before I could do anything, the man looked behind him and then took off running toward the antique store.

My cell phone started to ring. I snatched the Taser off my desk before answering the call with trembling fingers.

The screen showed a number I didn’t recognize. “Hello?”

“Stay in your office, turn off all the lights, and make sure your door is locked,” a man snarled, out of breath.

“Who is this?”

“Merv. Now do as I said!”

I turned off my computer monitor, casting the room in darkness, and checked the door even though I knew it was bolted.

I sat in my chair, feeling a little foolish. Should I be hiding?

A gunshot rang out, and I ducked, wishing I had the gun that Jed had given me last week. The one I’d used to shoot J.R. in the leg. But it had been taken for evidence. I regretted sending Neely Kate and her trusty revolver home.

Another shot rang out, followed by shouting. Sirens were next, although for the life of me, I had no idea why the Henryetta police would need to use sirens when their headquarters was on the other side of the square—although, common sense had never ranked high on their list of new-hire qualifications.

Someone pounded on my back door, and I ran back to open it. “Who’s there?”

“Merv. Let me in.”

I unlatched the deadbolt, and Merv stumbled in when I opened the door. The first clue something was wrong was the fact he wasn’t standing upright.

“What happened?” I reached out to help him, but he flung his hand out to hold me off, his gun still in his grip. I backed away from it.

“The bastard shot me, that’s what.”

“Oh, mercy. Where?”

“In my damn leg. I need to call Skeeter.”

My heart was in my throat as I shut and locked the door behind him. “I take it you want to hide from the police, but the only places to hide in here are the bathroom and the small storeroom.”

“Bathroom.”

I opened the bathroom door and turned on the light.

“Turn that off,” he barked. “The damn police will come knockin’, wantin’ to question you.”

I flipped the switch and closed the bathroom door, then used the flashlight on my phone to illuminate the small space. Merv hobbled to the toilet and sat on the lid, and as soon as he was situated, I shined the light on the hand that was pressed to his thigh. He lifted it to reveal a quickly spreading dark stain on his jeans.

“Ya got a towel?”

“Yeah.” I told myself to calm down as I opened the cabinet under the sink and handed him two clean hand towels. “Do you want me to call Skeeter?”

“No. I’ll do it.” He pressed one of the towels to his leg as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and placed the call. “Skeeter. There’s been trouble.”

He flicked an expressionless gaze up to me and then looked back down at his leg. “No. She’s fine. We’re in the bathroom of her shop. Some guy was lurking out front. I chased him toward the alley, but he shot me in the leg, and now the police are swarming all over the square.”

“It was Sam Teagen,” I said.

His gaze lifted again. “What?”

“The man outside the shop—he was Sam Teagen.”

“Who the hell’s Sam Teagen?”

I snatched the phone and pressed the speaker button. “Skeeter, listen to me. It was the guy who posted my bail.”

“You’re certain?” he asked.

“I’ve seen two photos of him, and it’s him. I’m sure of it.”

“This ties Simmons to your kidnapping after all.” Skeeter sounded pained to admit it.

“And there’s something else,” I added.

“What?”

“He had scratch marks on his cheek. I think he was also one of the men who kidnapped me.”

“
What?
Did Merv get him?”

“He got away,” Merv grumbled.

Skeeter cursed a blue streak, and I was shocked to see Merv cringe.

“Skeeter,” I said, getting pissed. “Merv got shot in the leg. We need to address that right now—not the fact that Sam Teagen got away.”

“Merv,” Skeeter said, “did you leave a blood trail?”

“No,” Merv answered. “I was careful.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “Your employee was shot, and all you want to know is if he left
a blood trail
?”

“Yes,” Skeeter said, sounding like he’d pinched off the word. “Because if they tie him to a shooting, he’s probably goin’ to jail, Lady!”

He paused for a moment, and when he spoke again, he sounded calmer. “Merv, how bad is it?”

“It hurts like hell, but I’ll live.” He shot me an angry glare. “It’s nicked is all.”

“So the place is already teeming with cops?” Skeeter asked.

“Yeah,” Merv said.

“Then we can’t get you out yet. Rose?”

“Yeah?”

“I need you to stay with him. There’s a murderer on the loose, and I don’t want you going home on your own. Besides, we can’t let the cops know you’re there.”

“Why?”

“They’ll want to question you, which means they’ll probably want to come inside. It goes without saying that we don’t want them knowin’ Merv’s holed up there, and we sure as hell don’t want them knowing that you saw Teagen, let alone that you recognized him.”

“I think we should—”

“Yeah, I know. Your boyfriend’s gonna pitch a fit, but I’ll make him see it my way.”

And there it was—the pain I’d stuffed down all afternoon was rising up and demanding my attention. But I wasn’t about to fall apart now. Not here in the bathroom of my office, with a man bleeding in front of me. I’d let myself cry later.

“Mason’s not an issue at the moment. We’re not telling him anything. Have I made myself clear?” I asked in a direct tone.

“Crystal.” Skeeter said, clearly pissed.

“But won’t the police figure out I’m here?”

“Your truck’s not out front, since Neely Kate drove it to your farm. As far as they’re concerned, you’re nice and cozy in that farmhouse of yours.”

“How do you—” I cut myself off. “Jed’s watching Neely Kate, isn’t he?”

“You let me worry about who’s watching who. My point is that you need to hole up for a few hours, and then I’ll come to get you.”

“You think it’s a good idea for
you
to come?” Merv asked. “Why don’t you send one of the guys?”

“Are you telling me how to my damned job, Merv?” Skeeter demanded in a cold, ominous tone.

Merv was not immune to it. “No, sir.”

“Good. Rose?”

“Yeah?”

“You sure you want to keep this from the D.A.? Because I’m playin’ this differently if you do.”

“I’m sure.”

After a beat of silence, Skeeter said, “You both sit tight, and I’ll let you know if I hear anything. You do the same.”

“Okay,” I said.

As soon as the line disconnected, Merv shot another angry look at me.

My back stiffened. “Go ahead and say what’s on your mind.”

“You’re not worth all of this trouble.”

“I never claimed to be.”

“You’re not even puttin’ out, and he’s still chasing you around.”

I cringed. “It’s not like that, and you know it. I provide a service that has helped Skeeter ferret out his enemies.”

“I don’t believe that hocus-pocus bullshit for a minute.”

I gave him a haughty look. “Well, good thing for me it’s not up to you to believe it or not.”

“You’re gonna ruin him.”

I cracked the bathroom door open. “Not if I can help it.”

“Where the hell do you think you’re goin’?”

“I want to see what’s goin’ on out there.”

“Like hell!” He reached for me as I slipped out the door and into the hall.

“Calm down, Merv,” I said, closing the door but leaving it open a crack. “I’ll be careful, and you know you’d be lookin’ yourself if you could.”

He grunted, which I took to be acceptance, and I plastered myself to the wall in the short hallway that opened to the office. Red lights swept across the darkened room, and through the edge of the front window, I could see several police cars spread out around the square. I squatted down and made my way to Neely Kate’s desk. Hunkered down behind it, I had a much better view out of the front window.

Officer Ernie was standing on the sidewalk outside my front door, looking down the street while talking to an elderly man. Great. If Officer Ernie was working the case, the police were just as likely to offer Teagen a job as they were to arrest him. The elderly man pointed toward the courthouse, and then the two of them walked out of my view.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out, not surprised to see Mason’s name. I considered not answering, but I couldn’t do that to him—especially because I suspected I knew why he was calling.

“Hey, Mason,” I said quietly, hiding in the hole under Neely Kate’s desk.

“Where are you?” Worry sharpened his words.

“We broke up, Mason.” I sounded as weary as I felt.

“Rose, there was a shooting by your office. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “I’m fine, but it’s not your job to worry about me anymore.”

“I’m not supposed to worry about you anymore because you broke up with me
four hours ago
?” he asked, incredulous. “My feelings for you are supposed to switch off just because you say so?”

“No.” I pressed the palm of my hand into my forehead. “I don’t know. Mason, no matter how much we love each other, we just don’t work right now.”

“Right
now
? Are you saying this is temporary?”

“I don’t know. You can’t deal with what’s goin’ on in my life, and I understand that. I really
do
. But I can’t put that horse back in the barn. All I can do is step away. I’m trying not to involve you any more than I already have.”

“Rose, I can handle it. I think I proved that at the cabin.”

“No, you didn’t. Not really. You were forced to be there . . . you left me the first chance you got.”

“How can you say that? I left to get Joe. To get you out of your charges.”

“I know.” I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to keep my tears contained.

He was right. But so was I. It ripped Mason’s conscience apart to straddle the law, and there was no denying that I was the reason for his straddling. While I was devastated over losing him, I knew I couldn’t make him choose between the law and me. If he chose me, deep down he’d resent me for it, but if he didn’t choose me, he’d regret it for the rest of his life. I had to be strong. For him.

“We don’t work right now, Mason,” I said again. “You know that.
That’s
the real reason why you left me last Friday.”

“I just needed time to think, Rose.”

I leaned my head against the metal back of the desk. “I understand, I really do, but when were you planning on comin’ back?”

He was silent for a moment. “I don’t know.”

“And that right there is your answer. Love is stickin’ with someone in the good times and the bad. Love is being there.”

“Are you claiming I don’t
love you
?”

“No. I know you love me. Just not enough.” I shook my head. “No. That’s not right. You love the me you knew with all your heart. But not the Rose I turned out to be.”

“Sweetheart, there’s only one you.”

I used to think so, too. But it was never actually true, I used to be two people—the Rose everyone knew and the Lady in Black—three, if you counted the fearful person I had been before Momma died.

Last week, those separate selves came together. I no longer knew where I stopped and where the Lady began. We’d merged, and I wasn’t sure what Mason thought of this new part of me. From the reaction I’d seen last week, he didn’t like it one bit. I couldn’t blame him for that. My cooperation with Skeeter went against everything he believed in.

“I love you, Mason, but what I’ve done is unfair and selfish. I need to get myself out of this thing—without you—so I don’t drag you in any deeper.”

“What gives you the right to make that decision for both of us?” he asked, sounding angry.

“
You
made it, Mason,” I said quietly. “You made it last Friday when you walked out of my office. I could understand if you’d left for one night, but you’ve been gone five days. You made the decision that we were done.”

“That’s not true.”

I was on the verge of breaking down, and I couldn’t risk that. Not with Merv bleeding in my bathroom and the police gathering outside my door.

“I can’t do this right now. I have to go,” I said.

“Will you at least agree to meet me in person to discuss this?”

I heard voices outside, which meant whoever was out there would be able to hear me, too. “Yeah. I’ll let you know when,” I whispered and then hung up.

I took several breaths to calm down. I needed to have my wits about me. I could fall apart later.

Crawling out of my hole, I moved to the edge of the desk, peered around the edge, and then gasped. Detective Taylor—the man who had a personal vendetta against me—was talking to Kate, of all people. I hadn’t seen her since my kidnapping. She wore dark jeans with black boots and a canvas jacket. The light of the street lamp highlighted the blue streaks in her dark hair. I strained to hear what they were saying.