Early Check Out

by Diane Capri

  I pressed my fingers to my lips. They still tingled. The aftereffects of a lovely kiss. I kicked myself for not making it longer. I hoped I’d get another chance to kiss Daniel. I hoped I hadn’t scared him off.

  Since it was such a beautiful evening, I stood at the railing looking out at the water for most of the trip. Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t hear when someone came up beside me to stand at the railing. But I did smell him—he had a greasy odor clinging to him. Like he’d been dipped in an old, dirty deep fryer.

  I turned to see Todd glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.

  “Are you following me?” he demanded.

  “No, of course not. I don’t even know you,” I said sternly, with a little white lie on the side.

  He took a step back. I’d obviously startled him a little. “Oh, I thought I saw you outside of…” He shook his head. “Never mind.”

  “Are you okay? You seem a bit on edge.” Maybe I could get him talking. He looked like a kid into something way over his head. I’d heard that confession was good for the soul.

  He took another step away. “I’m fine.”

  “Don’t you work at D&W?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Yeah? I thought you said you don’t know me.”

  “I don’t. Just I recognize you from there. You delivery the groceries, right?”

  “Yeah, sometimes.” He rubbed at his mouth. I noticed his lips were severely chapped, as if he’d been licking them a lot. “What’s with all the questions?”

  Although I’d worked in the corporate world, I had a friend from law school who had gone the public-defender route. I’d helped her out on a couple of cases from time to time. Down at her offices, I’d encountered several different types of people. They only qualified for a public defender if they couldn’t pay for a lawyer. Which mostly meant hard-working people and those who were falling through the cracks for a variety of reasons. I had quickly learned to recognize signs of intoxication and drug addiction.

  Todd was exhibiting a few of those signs.

  “I was just thinking about home delivery service, that’s all. Thought you could give me the skinny on it.”

  “You order some groceries, and I deliver them. Nothing more to it than that.”

  “Right.” I nodded. “So, you would knock on my door and give them to me? What if I wasn’t home? How would you deliver them?”

  “We’d arrange a specific time.”

  I nodded again. “That makes sense. Do you ever deliver to the disabled? You know, folks who can’t get out much? Like people with disabilities…or sometimes the elderly?”

  He stared at me, his jaw clicking back and forth. His agitation level had jumped up.

  “Would you have a key to go inside? Would you put away the groceries?”

  I knew I was pushing him. Sheriff Jackson would definitely chastise me for this. But I didn’t plan to tell him. I would simply deliver the necklace and be on my way—no mention of this conversation with Todd.

  As the ferry neared the island, the captain’s voice rang over the loudspeakers, instructing everyone about docking procedures.

  Todd rubbed at his face again. His hands shook a little. “I’ve got to go.” Then he walked away and rushed down the ladder to the main level.

  I debated going after him. He seemed a bit unstable, though. I’d already had an iron skillet swung at me this week. I didn’t need anything else threatening to whack me. I liked my body undamaged.

  I stayed up top and watched Todd as the ferry docked. Once the ship was tied up and the ramp was lowered, he started walking down the dock. As he walked, he glanced once over his shoulder. I met his gaze. Then he turned around, hands fisted, walking with determination. I’d seen my share of guilty people. And Todd was most definitely guilty of something. Question was, what exactly had he done?

  Chapter 27

  Once I was off the ferry, I headed toward the sheriff’s station. I needed to drop off the necklace as soon as possible. I couldn’t be walking around with it in my purse.

  As usual, Deputy Shawn was the one who greeted me when I walked in.

  He smiled, but he was never that friendly to me. I always felt like he was looking down his nose at me. Like I was a nuisance or something. If I hadn’t been employed by the Park Hotel, my reception would probably have been downright cold. “He’s not here.”

  Was I that obvious? Yeah, probably. Whenever I walked in here, it was to see the sheriff. Which was one of the problems between me and Deputy Shawn. He wanted all the women in the world to be focused on him all the time.

  “Will he be in tonight?”

  “Nope.”

  I had a decision to make. I could leave the necklace with the deputy, submitting it as evidence. But would he take it seriously? I would hope so, but I was wary about Deputy Shawn’s abilities as a law enforcement officer. He seemed like one of those men who became a cop to impress the ladies. My other choice was likely going to get me in some serious trouble with the sheriff. But it wasn’t like I hadn’t been there before.

  “Okay, thanks. Ask him to call me when he has a chance, okay?” I nodded at him and then left the station.

  I had a bit of a walk ahead, but I didn’t mind. Thankfully, I’d worn comfortable shoes. I made a pit stop at the Weiss Strudel House.

  Twenty minutes later, I was standing on the porch of a cute, white bungalow with bright-blue trim. The decor didn’t match the man who lived here, but I really didn’t know him that well to make such a judgment. Maybe he was a bright-blue trim type of guy and I just didn’t know it.

  I knocked twice and waited. A few moments later, the door swung open.

  “Hi.” I tried a big smile. “I brought you strudel.” I shoved the box of pastries at him.

  Sheriff Jackson didn’t return my smile, and he didn’t take the offered box. He stepped out onto the porch, looked around, then glared down at me. “Why the hell are you on my doorstep?”

  “I know. I’m sorry. But I had to talk to you. I have something you need to see.”

  “I have put up with a lot from you. I’ve indulged you on many occasions.” He clenched his jaw. “But this, showing up at my home, is not okay. You’ve crossed a line, Ms. Steele.”

  Uh-oh, we were back to Ms. Steele and not Andi.

  “Look, Sheriff, you may have ‘indulged’ me.” Yes, I air-quoted. “But you have to admit I’m more than helpful to you. I have provided you with a lot of information you wouldn’t normally have found out about. You would never have solved the Banks murder without me.”

  Probably.

  His eyebrows went up at that. “Are you calling me incompetent?”

  I bit my lower lip, tamping down the urge to scream at this stubborn man. “Of course I’m not calling you incompetent, Sheriff. You’re good at your job. It’s just that I have certain skills and alternative methods you need, and you hate the fact that you need them. You don’t like relying on a civilian, like me, to do any part of your job.” I sighed. This visit was clearly not going the way I had planned.

  “Good evening, Ms. Steele.” He stepped back to close the door.

  “Wait.” I stopped the door with my palm. “I have vital evidence in the Walker murder.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What?”

  I reached into my purse and pulled out the blue velvet box, using the tissue again so as not to add my fingerprints to the mix. I wriggled it at him. “Do you want to know what’s inside?”

  I was surprised I didn’t hear his teeth grinding as he glared at me. But then he opened the door and stepped to the side to allow me entrance. Smiling, I crossed the threshold, and he shut the door a little too hard behind me.

  He led me into a cozy living room with a blue sofa and matching chair. The TV was on, a hockey game, and I noticed the beer bottle on the coffee table and the half-eaten slice of pizza. Whoops. I’d interrupted his supper. A sudden rush of remorse came over me. I shouldn’t have shown up at his house without calling. I rubbed at my tight chest, considering turning
around and leaving. But I figured that would be even ruder.

  “So, what is it?” he gestured to the blue box in my hand.

  I opened it and showed him. “I’m pretty sure this necklace belonged to Mrs. Walker.”

  He took the box and inspected the necklace. “How do you know?”

  “I’ve seen a couple of photos in her house where she is wearing this necklace. In those photos, you can see that one of the pearls has a pinkish shade to it. It’s not quite pearly white.”

  Sheriff Jackson lifted the box up to the light and moved it around just as I had at the pawn shop. His eyes widened, and I knew he’d seen the pink hue on the pearls and probably in Mrs. Walker’s photos, too.

  “Where did you find it?”

  “At a pawn shop in Frontenac City.”

  He nodded. “I’m going to assume that this is going to be a long, involved story.”

  I frowned. “I wouldn’t say long, exactly.”

  The sheriff went to the little table near the front entrance, pulled open a drawer, and took out a plastic evidence bag. He put the necklace box inside, sealed it, and using a thick marker he’d also procured from the desk, wrote down the date, what was inside, and I assumed the case number. When he was done, he looked at me again.

  “Do you want a beer?”

  “Ah, no,” I said, thrown off guard. “No thank you.”

  “I’m going to get another beer, then we’re going to sit down, and you’re going to tell me everything.”

  He disappeared into the kitchen, and when he came back, he had a bottle of beer in one hand and a tall glass of ice water in the other. He handed me the water.

  “Thank you.”

  He sat on the sofa and gestured for me to sit as well. I did, and after taking a sip, I set my glass of water onto the coffee table.

  “Tell me.”

  So I did. I told him how I spotted Todd, whom I recognized from the D&W, going into the pawn shop, then how I went inside and asked the owner about Todd and what he had sold there. I spotted the necklace, sure that it was Mrs. Walker’s, and bought it for two hundred bucks.

  I left out Daniel’s involvement.

  He shook his head. “You spent two hundred?”

  I shrugged. “I had to. I didn’t want the pawn-shop guy to sell it before I could call you and get you down there.”

  “I respect the ingenuity.”

  “And now that it’s evidence, I thought surely the department has the budget to pay a girl back for that ingenuity.”

  He chuckled. “I’ll see what we can do.”

  I smiled. “Thanks.”

  He took a long pull on his beer. “This is good, but it doesn’t necessarily prove the kid killed her. He could’ve pinched the necklace at any time. Just like Colleen Walker was taking things from her. I don’t think the old lady noticed that her stuff was being stolen.”

  “Maybe she’d been wearing it when she fell down the stairs. Though I know she wasn’t wearing it when we found her.”

  “We’ll have to find out. Ask around. Ask her nephew, ask the people who knew her.”

  “Also, I’m pretty sure Todd’s a drug addict.”

  The sheriff frowned. “How do you figure that?”

  Here goes nothin’. I should have kept my mouth shut like I’d intended.

  “Well, he seemed pretty on edge when I, uh, talked to him.”

  He set the bottle onto the table with a loud clink. “You didn’t mention that you talked to him.”

  “Yeah, on the ferry back to the island.” I rubbed at my arm, chills suddenly rippling over my skin. “He kind of confronted me. Thinking he saw me following him to the pawn shop.”

  “Andi. Jesus. You’re going to get yourself hurt.”

  At least we were back to Andi and not Ms. Steele.

  “It was fine. I convinced him that he was confused. But he seemed really out of it. He was definitely high. Had the shakes. Wouldn’t surprise me if he was a junkie. Or has a history of it.”

  He sat back on the sofa and scratched at the dark stubble on his chin. “I’d already pulled the sheet on him after finding out he was the delivery guy for Mrs. Walker. He does have a drug charge from last year.”

  “There you go.”

  “Doesn’t mean he killed her.”

  “I know, but at least you have a good reason to pull him in for further questioning, with the necklace and all.”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  I took that moment to look around the room and sneak some peeks into the sheriff’s personal life. The room was simple but tastefully decorated. There were a few paintings on the walls and lots of photos. I wondered if the decorating was left over from his ex-wife. I didn’t know what happened there and wasn’t going to ask. The place suited him, though. Clean lines, no muss, and no fuss.

  He cleared his throat, bringing me back to the moment. “I’m sorry I was…”

  “An ass?”

  “Yeah, an ass. I value my privacy. As I’m sure you do as well.”

  “I do, yes. I’m sorry I showed up unannounced. I should’ve called.”

  “Yeah, you should have.”

  “Okay, well, now that we’ve thoroughly chastised each other, I should probably go.”

  He stood at the same time I did. I went to move past him and kind of bumped into him. He reached out to steady me, so I didn’t fall ass over end onto the coffee table. The slight touch on my arm sent a surprising jolt of warmth over my skin.

  Seemed like I’d been jolting all day—because of two different men, no less. Maybe I did need to spend some time on my personal life after all.

  Then the front door opened, and Megan lurched in, dropping her purse and bag and kicking off her shoes all in one seamless motion. Her eyes bugged out when she spied us at the sofa, limbs sort of entangled.

  “Oh my God, did I just interrupt something?” She put her hand over her mouth, trying to cover the laughter spilling out. “Were you two making out?”

  We literally pushed away from each other and said in unison, “No!”

  I blushed, he scowled, then I was grabbing my purse from the coffee table, nearly knocking over the beer bottles, and heading toward the door. “Goodnight. Thanks for the water.” Then I was out the door, shutting it behind me, and marched down the steps of the porch.

  The door opened again, and Sheriff Jackson came out. “Hold up, Andi.”

  I spun around, afraid my cheeks were still aflame. “Yes?”

  “I don’t feel right about you walking back to the hotel by yourself in the dark.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Colleen Walker was released earlier today, and she’s got a bad temper. Now this Todd kid. Let me drive you.”

  I considered declining the offer, but I was a bit unnerved, and it wasn’t because of the sheriff. On the ferry, Todd had frightened me a bit. He didn’t look like a person in control. I felt sure he didn’t know who I was or where to find me, but I couldn’t be one hundred percent certain of that.

  I nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”

  The short drive to the hotel felt like an eternity. I didn’t know why I was nervous. I had no reason to be, but that thought didn’t stop the butterflies in my belly. What was going on?

  “I’m sorry about Megan,” the sheriff finally said as he pulled up to the lobby of the hotel to drop me off.

  “Don’t be. It’s fine.”

  “Sometimes she just blurts things out without thinking.”

  I put my hand on the door handle. “Seriously, no harm done. She just saw the wrong end of the stick.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, she definitely did.” He scratched at his stubble again. “It was stupid to think that we’d ever, that we even…”

  “Right. Stupid.” I opened the door and got out. “Goodnight, Sheriff.”

  “Goodnight.”

  I didn’t watch as he drove away but marched head high into the hotel. The staff nodded to me as I crossed the lobby toward the corridor to my suite. As I neared my do
or, I rubbed a hand over my belly. The butterflies were still at it. I didn’t know why my body was reacting this way. It wasn’t like I was at all attracted to Sheriff Jackson. He was a hard, stubborn man who definitely didn’t like me all that well. So, why did I all of a sudden feel angry about his “stupid” comment? It was definitely stupid, the thought of us being together.

  Wasn’t it?

  Chapter 28

  I got up at five instead of six in the morning, to be down at the desk an hour earlier than normal. The Park Hotel was expecting a VIP. Mrs. Willetta Garfinkel, the eighty-two-year-old widow of a wealthy hotelier and casino owner, was expected to arrive around nine with her assistant, Petra, and her French bulldog, Duchess. It was a huge deal, and everyone was expected to be in the lobby to greet her. She’d been making the trip every year at this time for the past ten years since her husband’s death. Before that, they arrived together and got the royal treatment as a couple.

  Two weeks ago, I’d received her list of requests for her month-long stay to make sure everything was ordered in and prepared ahead of time. The fridge in her suite was filled with spring water bottled in Colorado, which she used to brew her favorite brand of tea in ginger, mint, and green tea flavors. I’d arranged that a freshly baked scone with locally made strawberry preserves, two hard-boiled eggs, and freshly squeezed orange juice be delivered to her door every morning at exactly 7:30 a.m.

  I had to admit these were not even near the most unusual or demanding requests I’d received working as concierge. They were actually pretty standard for a VIP of her stature. She didn’t ask for anything too weird.

  At ten past nine, the lobby doors opened and in walked Willetta Garfinkel. She was an elegant woman wearing an orange head wrap, with strands of lavender hair peeking out, and round sunglasses that covered most of her seriously gorgeous face. Her strides were long and sure, her lime-green silk pants billowing with each step. I had to admire any woman walking effortlessly in purple stilettos. I also admired her fashion sense. I was lousy at both stilettos and fashion, so there was absolutely no danger that I’d upstage her in any way.