Yappy Hour (31 page)

Yolanda waved him off, as Evie took the stage and screamed into the microphone like a madwoman, “Who's ready to howl!”

The dogs all picked up on her pitch and joined in an ear-shattering yowl.

“Yeah, let me hear ya!” Evie screamed.

Smasher banged on the drums and Bishop joined in with the guitar. They sounded hideously out of sync, but based on the crowd's reaction, I suspected I was probably the only one who noticed.

I glanced nervously outside. Brooks was nowhere to be found. “I have to call Brad,” I said to Gus. Gus's face registered something that was difficult for me to make out. Disappointment?

“If you think it's her, let's just call her on it. Here in front of God and everyone.” He motioned with his hands in true Italian fashion to take in the room.

“How can we do that?” I asked.

“Easy,” he said, storming over to the sound system.

My eyes grew wide as I realized what Gus was about to. He was ready to pull the plug on the entire operation.

Oh my God!

How sure was I of my suspicion? Before I could stop him, Gus yanked the cord of the amplifier. The band's volume decreased drastically, but the dogs and the crowd picked up the slack, so the overall effect was stunted.

Rachel ran over to us. “What are you doing?”

“Evie killed Dan,” I said.

“How do you know?” she asked, a look of horror overwhelming her fine facial features.

“Instinct,” I said, ignoring the fact that my instincts had been absolutely abysmal lately.

But Rachel was my sister. She'd trusted me all her life, and if I said something with conviction, she'd get in front of a freight train for me. “Murderer!” she screamed out, pointing toward Evie. “Murderer!”

Yolanda, who just now seemed to rouse from her inebriated state, screamed out, too, only she didn't know exactly who to point toward, so it took a minute for her to focus and get her finger to point in Evie's direction.

Brenda and Abigail soon joined in, followed by Gus, Chuck, and Max. Soon the entire crowd was chanting “Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er!”

Smasher was the first to stop playing. A dumbfounded expression on his face, Bishop toned down the guitar to a strum, and soon Evie finished her last note and looked out toward the crowd.

“Wha … Wha.…?” She looked around desperately for an escape hatch, her eyes darting back and forth like a caged rabbit. “What's going on?” She turned to Smasher and Bishop and screamed, “Play! You idiots!”

“You killed them!” I shouted out. “You murdered Dan because he didn't love you, and then you shot Oscar because he knew it was you.”

Evie's eyes bulged out of her head. “You're crazy,” she said into the microphone.

The crowd hushed up, waiting for my response. All eyes were on me. “You took Dan up to Stag's Leap, professed your love for him. But he wasn't interested in you. He'd been in love with Rachel. You were just a pastime to him. Like the horse races.” I was winging it now, but figured she'd be forced to defend herself against my allegations, so I might as well get it all out on the table. “You couldn't stand the fact that he didn't love you; you even took target practice on an enlarged image of his face.”

Several men in the crowd gasped, as if that was their worst fear: a scorned woman taking revenge on their likeness.

“You ran into Dan in the bar; he was delivering a letter to my sister. You took advantage of the fact that he was alone and there were no witnesses, or so you thought. You hit him over the head with a magnum bottle of wine. He died when his head hit the terra-cotta, but make no mistake…” And then for dramatic effect I extended my arm its full length and pointed at Evie. “
You
killed Dan Walters, not the terra-cotta floor of The Wine and Bark!”

“Hear, hear!” someone in the crowd shouted out.

“You were here the night Oscar was killed. We sat at this very table.” I thumped my palm onto a table by the window. “And we watched him enter DelVecchio's. I saw it then, but I didn't realize it. You remembered he was a possible witness.”

“No!” Evie screamed out. “It's a lie! You're crazy!”

A strange vibe was circulating through the crowd, almost as if they were about to turn into a mob.

“It's not true!” Evie yelled.

The doors to The Wine and Bark flew open and Officer Brooks and Sergeant Gottlieb stormed in. Sizzle was next to Brooks and he beelined for the stage, a big black giant mass.

“You stole Rachel's gun while you were at Stag's Leap!” I yelled.

Sizzle stopped short of the stage, but it was enough to scare Evie. Suddenly, she whipped something out of her waistband, a slim black object.

Beepo leapt toward her, becoming a small fury of brown and white fur as he lunged toward her leg.

Officer Brooks and Sergeant Gottlieb screamed, “Freeze!” in unison, reaching for their weapons. A sharp noise rang out into the crowd, followed by a flash of light and the smoldering smell of a firecracker.

Gus jumped in front of me, pushing me to the ground. Something burned in my shoulder, but I figured it was the fall. A rush sounded in my ear, like the sound of the mighty Pacific. I realized later it was the rush of my own blood, but it sounded distant at the time, like when you put a seashell up to your ear.

Then it seemed like the lights dimmed, and I found solace in silence.

Wet noses rubbed my legs, and yapping and yipping both human and canine came to me as if through a tunnel, growing increasingly louder, and blotted out any peace I'd momentarily found.

“What's going on?” I asked Gus, suddenly feeling woozy.

“You've been shot, Maggie. I think you passed out for a moment. Hold still, someone's calling 9-1-1.” His hand was on my forehead, warm and soothing.

I was vaguely aware of my sister wrapping her arms around my wrist and sobbing. “You're going to be okay, you're going to be okay,” she repeated. “Please don't die, Maggie.”

“Was I right?” I asked, dumbfounded, the words coming out of my mouth before I could figure out what they even were.

“Yes,” Gus whispered. “You were right. Evie was the one.”

I nuzzled my head into his chest. “My shoulder hurts,” I said.

“That's where she shot you. We're lucky it was a small gun, otherwise … it could have been—”

He stopped short, not needing to say anymore.

A hand rubbed at my back and a slurred voice said, “She missed a main artery because Beepo got to her.”

I looked up to see Yolanda's face close to mine.

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

She nodded and flashed me a self-satisfied smile. “He peed on her and ruined her aim.” We both giggled.

I looked around the room, disoriented. The crowd had diminished considerably. On stage, Evie was being handcuffed by Officer Brooks and Sergeant Gottlieb.

“I told Gottlieb to check out Evie. I never did like her much,” Yolanda said. She looked around the room. “Do you think I can rent the storage space now?”

Before I could answer, Max leaned in toward Yolanda and me. “I heard they found evidence at Evie's apartment. They were coming to arrest her.”

“What evidence?” I asked.

“Rachel's computer, and some other stuff I didn't catch.” He looked around and Brenda appeared. She was suddenly his second half, and that gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.

“She was blackmailing Dan. That's where the money was going,” Brenda said.

“I thought it was horse races,” Gus said.

“That was only part of it,” Brenda said. “Evie wanted to buy Dan out of DV's but he didn't want to sell to her. She was in love with him, true enough, but she was also out to steal his piece of the business.”

Officer Brooks and Sergeant Gottlieb escorted Evie off the stage. She let out a frightening howl as she passed by me. Brooks flashed me an apologetic look. Sizzle followed behind him.

“An ambulance is on the way,” Brooks said over his shoulder. “I'll come in the morning to check up on you, Maggie.”

Was I going to be in the hospital overnight?

I looked up at Gus and asked, “Am I that bad off?

He smiled. “Your shoulder looks pretty bad, but I think you'll be wielding that mutt-tini shaker in no time.”

 

Chapter Thirty-four

The sun was only just rising in the east when I decided to walk to the beach. At the hospital, they'd stitched me up quickly and sent me on my way with some strong painkillers. Gus had driven me to Grunkly's to sleep and so Grunkly and I could take care of each other. His arm was healing fast, and now I was happy that I'd cleaned up his house.

In the morning, I'd called Jan to ask her to delay my start date. She was happy to, giving me a fifteen-day reprieve. I'd miss the cruise to the Mexican Riviera but would be able to catch the one out to the Florida Keys.

Right now, relaxing on the beach was just what the doctor ordered. I walked the length of the beach, enjoying the solace of the lapping water and cawing seagulls. In the distance, a figure approached. The man was walking a big black lab, who was frolicking in and out of the water catching a red rubber ball.

The man had a gait I recognized. A warm sensation spread across my chest as he neared.

He tossed the ball toward my feet and the Labrador raced toward me, ignoring the ball and almost knocking me over to lick my face.

“Sizzle! Down,” Brooks said. He smiled widely when he saw me. “How are you feeling?”

My shoulder was bandaged, but I had full mobility. “It was just a graze. I was lucky,” I said.

Brooks closed the distance between us until his face was close to mine. “Yes, you were very lucky. I thought I asked you to stay out of the investigation.”

“I did,” I said, surprised by the accusation.

He squinted at me. “Did you think chanting
mur-der-er, mur-der-er
was going to help things?” he asked.

“I didn't really think about it,” I admitted.

“I can tell.” He laughed.

“Anyway, how did you know about that? You weren't even there for that part.”

“Believe me, I heard about it,” he said. “This is a small town, things get around. Besides, Evie confessed. Looks like having the crowd chanting at her sent her over the edge.”

“Did she say why she killed him?”

Brooks looked out toward the water and tossed the ball for Sizzle, who jumped out toward the waves. “Dan had gotten wind of Rachel dating Chuck and that they were planning to elope. He'd come over to talk to her and ran into Evie instead. They argued.” Brooks shrugged. “I guess he said some nasty things to her and she got pissed. She hit him on the head, didn't think it would kill him … but…” Sizzle returned the ball and dropped it at his feet. He absently stroked the dog's head.

“What about Oscar?” I asked.

“He saw her leave the bar that night. She thought he was a threat. You were lucky, she thought you were a threat, too. That's why she spooked your great-uncle's horse.” He stopped talking, his eyes resting on mine. “Life is fragile, you know. You never know what can do someone in.” He took my chin in his hand. “When I saw you drop to the floor … and all that blood, I thought…”

“I'm fine. It was a just a graze.…”

“If we're going to date, we have to have an agreement that you stay out of my cases.”

Date? If we were going to date?

He wanted to go out with me again!

My heart leapt. I had two men that I liked interested in dating me … and bonus, now neither was a suspected killer! But before I could get too excited, an image of the Soleado Cruise Line sailing to the Florida Keys crossed my mind. Oh well, I had fifteen days before the next cruise—certainly a lot could happen.

As Brooks lowered his face to mine, Sizzle jumped between us, barking and howling. In the distance, his barks were returned by a crew of yappy little dogs.

“Seems like your friends are out early today,” Brooks said.

“Yes.”

He glanced at his watch. “How's your uncle?”

“Recovering, and still betting like crazy. I'm on my way over there later to watch a race.”

He laughed. “Be careful, it's addicting. Are you free for dinner? I hear a knuckle burger is the thing for a bullet graze. Lots of protein, you know?”

“I'd love a burger,” I said.

The Roundup Crew approached, led by Yolanda, who was decked out to the nines in hot-pink capri pants, a clingy off-the-shoulder white blouse, and sky-high gold sandals. Brenda followed, in her classic all-black ensemble, and I couldn't help but notice that she gripped Max by the hand. Abigail chatted with my sister, Rachel, while the dogs jumped in and out of the water and chased each other.

The ocean lapped gently at my toes; the water was frigid, but even so, there on the beach, surrounded by Chihuahuas, beagles, Shih Tzus, and their lovely owners, I decided that Pacific Cove was a great place to be. Even bartending at The Wine and Bark was fun now that I had friends. I'd found a home with these crazy people, and if they'd have me, then I'd be happy to call them family now.

The water around my toes warmed up and I glanced down to see that Beepo was marking me.

Yolanda laughed and clapped me on the back. “He likes you!”

 

Cocktail Recipes

• • • The Salty Dog • • •

1 shot glass of gin

Mix with grapefruit juice

Salt

Rim your favorite glass with salt and fill with ice. Add cocktail. Garnish with a lime.

• • • Greyhound • • •

1 shot glass vodka

Mix with grapefruit juice

Fill your glass with ice. Add cocktail. Garnish with a lemon.

• • • Pomeranian • • •