by Amy Vansant
“But I know I didn’t do it,” said Mina, turning to Carter. “I know.”
Carter pulled the cuffs from his belt. “Mina, you have the right to remain silent.”
Mina began to wail. Payne released one loud bark of laughter and then covered her mouth when Carter turned to look at her.
“Sorry,” she said. “This is just like on television.”
“It’s not funny, idiot. We’re next,” said Gemma.
Payne winked at Carter and held out her hands. “Ooh. Cuff me.”
Carter felt his cheeks flush.
Chapter Eighteen
Charlotte answered her door to find Sheriff Carter standing on her doorstep. She glanced at her fit watch. It had just turned ten.
“Sheriff Carter, what brings you to FrankLand?”
Carter took off his hat and held it at his waist. “Good morning, Miss Charlotte. I’m sorry to bother you but things are getting interesting over at the Miller Estate and I think you’re about to be involved.”
Charlotte took a step back, using one leg to push Abby farther away from Carter. “Come in. Ignore her, or pet her, she just wants attention. She won’t hurt you.”
Carter gave Abby a quick scratch behind her ears as he entered and Charlotte led him into the kitchen. She moved a mug on the counter into the sink.
“I wasn’t expecting visitors,” she mumbled before turning to face him. “Do you want coffee?”
He removed his hat. “If you have some.”
Charlotte nodded and opened a drawer to find a coffee pod. “Mariska got me one of those one-person pod thingies. I’ll run it through for you.”
“Mariska?”
“Oh, sorry. You don’t know her. I’m used to everyone knowing her. She’s like my adoptive mother. She lives across the street.”
He nodded. “Frank told me something about that. He said he sorta adopted you?”
Charlotte chuckled. “The whole neighborhood did, with Mariska in the lead. Long story short my parents died, and left me here with my grandmother, who also ended up dying. The neighborhood arranged it so I could stay and not be thrown into the system.”
“Lucky girl.”
“I was.”
A silence fell and Charlotte suddenly felt self-conscious. She scrambled for something to say.
“Milk?”
“Black.”
“Of course. Big bad sheriff would take it black, wouldn’t he?”
Charlotte smiled to keep from cringing. Why did I say that? That might be the dumbest thing I ever said.
If Carter thought she was a weirdo, he didn’t let on. He chuckled as she turned to hand him his coffee.
“So what’s this about the Miller Estate?”
She realized she’d given him the mug that said I got high on Pike’s Peak on its side, a gift from Mariska after a trip to Colorado. Sheriff Carter held up the mug and cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Do I need to arrest you?”
“Gift from Mariska. I’m not sure she got the joke.”
“Hm.” He took another sip and then put down the mug. “I’ll let it slide this time.”
He smiled and winked and Charlotte hastened to make herself busy throwing out the used coffee pod. She felt like he was flirting with her. It probably came naturally to him. He was a strapping, handsome sheriff in uniform. He probably had the ladies swooning everywhere he went. If she had to guess, he was close to forty, which would make him a good ten years her senior, give or take, but not so old it might not cross his mind to flirt a little.
“Single pods,” he said, as she dropped it in the trashcan. “You live here alone?”
She nodded, cognizant it was a stretch for him to leap from the pod to her living status. A coffee pod maker didn’t mean she was alone. She’d never seen a machine that made multiple pods at the same time. Mariska had a pod machine and she had Bob.
His reason for the leap was obvious.
He wants to know if I’m single.
“I have a boyfriend,” she blurted a little more forcefully than she meant to.
My god, I sound like a spaz.
“I mean, I live here alone but I have a boyfriend.”
Oh much better. He didn’t ask if I had a boyfriend.
“Of course you do.” Carter opened his mouth as if he was going to say something else and then scowled, seeming to think better of it, and cleared his throat. Charlotte suspected it was his old-fashioned southern gentleman fighting with his modern-day workplace rules. If he’d said, Of course you do, a good lookin’ gal like you, it wouldn’t have been professional. He’d probably had to take a sensitivity class at one point. It maybe hadn’t entirely worked. For one, he needed a woman to follow him around and smack his nose with a newspaper every time he called someone little lady. The idea of a personal nose-smacker made Charlotte smile and she turned away to keep him from seeing.
“Please, sit,” she said, motioning to her kitchen table. She took a seat across from him.
Carter took a sip of his coffee and then locked his gaze on hers. For some reason, it made her face twitch.
“So anyway, I’m here to let you know Ms. Powell wants to see you.”
“Who?”
“Mina Powell.”
“Oh, the housekeeper. I didn’t know her last name.”
“Turns out she’s a little more than a housekeeper. She was the deceased’s sister.”
“His sister?”
He nodded. “I’m sure I had the same look on my face when she told me. It’s a little weird. But she said her being the maid was how they both liked it. I guess she got a place to stay and he got a housekeeper.”
“That explains why she was the only one allowed upstairs. She’s family. Why does she want to see me?”
“Probably because I brought her in this morning. I’m holding her.”
“For what?”
“I want to talk to her about the murder of her brother.”
“It was definitely murder?”
“It’s looking more likely. You’ll see the autopsy when you stop by the station.” He leered a little, as if access to the autopsy was some sort of bait.
Charlotte ignored the come on. “But what about Lyndsey and the puppies? The earring. I didn’t even get to tell you about the mask.”
“All still possible. But Mina admitted she told Lyndsey to take the dogs during a panic.”
“What panic?”
“Lyndsey went upstairs and found the old man dead. When she heard Mina coming she panicked and hid. Mina found her, panicked some more and sent her away with the dogs.”
“What? So Lyndsey did take the dogs but she didn’t kill Miller?”
Carter shrugged. “I questioned the girls, too.”
“The twins? They’re involved now?”
Carter shrugged and took a gulp from his inappropriate mug. “TBD. It’s a bit of a free-for-all at the moment. Anyway, Mina’s a crier and she’s driving everyone at the lockup insane. Maybe you could get down there and see her. Calm her down. She mentioned she wanted to see you.”
Charlotte scowled. “Sure. But she understands I’m not a lawyer, right?”
“She thinks you can put the record straight. And to be honest with you, I wouldn’t mind that either. Less work for me.” He laughed and stood. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“No problem.”
“That’s pretty much it. I appreciate the favor.” Carter shook her hand and headed for the door.
“How did you know where I live?” she called before his hand touched the knob.
He turned. “I was down this way and thought I’d stop in and catch Frank up on everything. When I mentioned Mina moaning about you, he told me you were right across the street.” He walked out on the landing and turned, smiling as she followed him to the doorway. He flipped on his hat in a fancy, end-over-end way and winked again.
The man needs a wink intervention.
“Bit of a shock to find you here. You look good for your age.”
There it is. Charlotte pictured her imaginary instructor smacking him on his nose with her rolled newspaper and smiled. “Thanks.”
Carter headed to his cruiser, which sat parked at the curb in front of Charlotte’s house. She followed him outside and stood in her driveway. She was about to head back inside when she noticed four women heading down the sidewalk towards her. She recognized them as members of the Morning Death Squad, whose sworn duty was to make sure everyone woke up each morning. If someone’s blinds remained closed too long, they’d knock on your door to make sure you hadn’t died during the night.
Everyone needs a hobby.
“Morning, ladies.”
The women’s gazes bounced from Charlotte to the cruiser and back again as Carter pulled away, their expressions masks of disapproval.
“He came to tell me about someone who wants to hire me.”
“Mm hm,” said the brunette.
Charlotte scowled. “He wasn’t here long.”
“But long enough maybe,” muttered another.
Charlotte rolled her eyes and snatched her paper out of the driveway. “Goodbye, ladies.”
She marched back into her house as the ladies strolled on their way.
Nosey ghouls.
Charlotte got dressed and headed for Carter’s station. The sheriff wasn’t there but his deputy set her up in a room with Mina Powell. The woman looked as though she hadn’t slept in a week. The red rims of her eyes practically glowed.
“I’m so glad you came,” said Mina.
“Sheriff Carter told me you wanted to see me.”
“I do. I want to hire you to find out who killed Kimber.”
Charlotte perked. A job!
Be cool. First things first.
“Do you have a lawyer?” she asked.
“Yes. I’ve got the family lawyers already working on that end of things.”
“Good. I’m a hundred dollars an hour plus expenses. Is that okay?” Charlotte suffered a twinge of guilt. She charged less when she thought potential clients couldn’t afford her services, but the Miller house seemed capable of covering what she thought her hourly rate should be.
Should I feel guilty asking what I think I’m worth for once?
Mina didn’t blink.
A wave of giddiness swallowed Charlotte’s guilt. She felt so legit.
“Okay. Tell me what’s going on. Take it from the top, when you found Mr. Miller.”
Mina took a deep breath. “The night Kimber died, I found him on the ground and then heard a commotion in the puppies’ room. Lyndsey was in there. She looked like she was hiding.”
“Did you ask her what she was doing in there?”
“Yes, because she’s not allowed upstairs. No one is except me. Kimber wanted it that way.”
“Why?”
“He was very private.” Mina paused and then added, “And he didn’t like kids very much.”
“Did you ask her why she was up there?”
Mina looked away as if thinking. “At the time she told me she’d gone to see the puppies. Today, on the phone she said Kimber had asked her to come see him.”
“Why?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. She said it might make things worse for her.”
“Hm. Okay. Go on.”
Mina wiped her nose and took another deep breath. “I told Lyndsey to go. We started talking about how people might think she’d killed him and about her DNA being on the puppies—”
“Her DNA on the puppies?”
Mina closed her eyes. “It seems silly now. We were panicking. We just thought everything would be easier if it was clear he’d fallen while alone. She wasn’t supposed to be up there, and I didn’t think the police would miss the puppies. So I just told her to take them.”
“You told her to take them?”
Mina nodded, looking more miserable from one moment to the next. “It was stupid. It didn’t hit me then that the dogs disappearing would make everything look even more like a crime than it already did. I didn’t think about the girls letting it slip about them to the police. We could have just said he fell getting out of bed and left her out of it. They wouldn’t have started to test the dogs fur for DNA.”
“Probably not.”
“We watch too many of those shows. The crime shows. The girls love them.” Mina sighed. “Well, they used too. They’re too old now. All they think about now are boys and their phones.”
“So Lyndsey took the puppies and left?”
“Yes. That’s when I heard Kimber groan.”
“He was alive?”
“Yes. I ran to the front window and tried to call out to Lyndsey that he was alive, but she was probably already gone. I ran downstairs to find my phone so I could call nine-one-one. That’s where I ran into the girls. I told them not to worry. Gemma went back to her room and I got to talking to Payne, found my phone, and then headed back upstairs. By the time I got back up there, Kimber was dead, but—” Mina’s hand rose to cover her mouth.
“But what?”
“There was a lot more blood. I figured he’d moved and started bleeding, but then Sheriff Carter found the rabbit.”
Charlotte blinked at Mina. “The rabbit?”
“Kimber’s rabbit doorstop. It was at the top of the servant stairwell.”
“That’s different from the main stairs?”
Mina nodded. “It climbs from the kitchen to across the hall from Kimber’s room. They found the iron rabbit in there, covered with Kimber’s blood and my fingerprints.” Mina practically yelped the last two words and grabbed for more tissues.
“Was it always in the stairwell?”
“No. That’s just it. It’s a doorstop, so it sat in front of his door.”
“Do you know how your fingerprints got on it?”
“Yes. I’ve moved it every day for the last twenty years. My fingerprints should be all over it.”
“So they think someone hit him with the rabbit?”
“Yes. Twice.”
“They said twice?”
“The autopsy apparently says he fell, and then someone hit him with the rabbit. They think it could have been me. They think I saw my chance to finish him off and then hid the rabbit in the stairwell until I could get rid of it later, I guess.”
“But you never did get rid of it.”
Mina’s eyes bulged. “I didn’t know it was there. I didn’t do it!”
“No, I’m sorry. I understand that. I mean, if your plan had been to get rid of it, you never did. They found the rabbit a day later.”
Mina nodded, looking hopeful. “You’re right. I see what you’re saying. If I wanted to hide it, why would I have left it there for Carter to find? That’s a good point.”
“Exactly.”
Mina’s countenance crashed once more. “But that means someone else did it and the girls were the only other people in the house. Lyndsey had left.”
“And they only found your fingerprints.”
Mina nodded. “But not on the ears.”
“What’s that mean?”
“The ears were clean.”
“Do you ever pick it up by the ears when you move it?”
Mina nodded. “Sure. Probably most of the time.”
“So someone cleaned their own prints off the ears.”
Mina sucked in a breath and put her hand on Charlotte’s. “Another good point. You’re really good at this.”
Charlotte tried not to smile. “And you’re sure the damage from the rabbit wasn’t already there when you checked on him the first time?”
Mina winced, her voice dropping to a whisper. “It really looked worse when I went back upstairs. There was new splatter on the wall. I didn’t really think about it at the time but…I do think something happened after.”
“And you’re worried that means the girls might have done it?”
“Yes. But…they can be brats but they’d never kill someone.” Mina sobbed a
nd wiped at her nose with the wad of tissue clenched in her fist. “I don’t want to go to jail to protect them. Does that make me a terrible person?”
“No. I know you can’t believe they’d do it, but can you think of any reason the girls might want to kill Mr. Miller?”
Mina shrugged. “He was a very difficult man. Cold. Distant. He wasn’t much of a father to any of the girls, but we’d all reached a sort of living arrangement—” Mina’s face began to redden and Charlotte could see she was choking up. She blew her nose. “I’m sorry. This is all just so awful.”
There was a clank and Charlotte looked up to see the deputy there, his key in the jail lock.
“You’re free to go,” he said.
Mina looked up. “Me?”
“You and the girls. The sheriff actually had one of the other deputies take them home a while ago. He’s decided not to hold you either, pending further investigation, but I wouldn’t go leaving the country.”
Mina frowned. “Where would I go?”
The deputy opened the door and shrugged. “I dunno. Mexico?”
Charlotte blinked at the guard. Did he give all the prisoners ideas where to run?
Mina looked at Charlotte.
“Can you give me a ride home?”
Chapter Nineteen
“No one’s here.”
Mina opened the door and stepped out of Charlotte’s Volvo. The cars Charlotte usually saw parked in the large stone driveway were missing.
“Who owns which cars?” asked Charlotte.
“The estate owns the older black Jeep. We all use it. Lyndsey has an old Miata she keeps over by the barn. The Toyota is mine. The girls borrow it sometimes.”
“What about other people on the farm?”
“There are landscapers who come a couple times a week.”
“Were they here the day you found Mr. Miller?”
Mina paused as she mounted the stairs to the porch and squinched her forehead until a little ball of flesh appeared between her puffy eyes. “No. They have a pretty big truck and I would have seen it when I called out for Lyndsey.”
“Anyone else?”
“There’s the stable boy.”
“I thought Lyndsey took care of the horses?”
“She does, but he comes to muck out the stalls and does the dirtier work. He might have been here. He might be here now. He comes on a bike and parks it in the garage.”
