We were literally a few steps away from the front door, when suddenly in my mind’s eye, I saw the man appear behind us.
“Merlene!” I shouted. “Run!”
On that note, he grabbed me and I felt a cold, steel object next to my throat. As concerning as that was, there was no way I was dropping Nilla, unless Merlene was able to get that door open in time for her to run past it. Nilla started to growl, but just as before, the guy pretty much ignored her. I think he didn’t give her the respect she deserved because of her size. If those nice, sharp teeth of hers got close enough to his ankles, he’d find that much-deserved respect fast. I tried to settle Nilla down as much as I could, considering my current limitations.
“Stop right where you are!” he warned Merlene. “Or this one’s head will get blown off.”
Merlene had sped up when I’d cried out to her, then slowed down, then she stopped and turned around. She was only about a good two feet away from the door.
From that look in her eyes I could tell she had it in for me since I was the one who got her into this mess. In my humble opinion, she could’ve kept going, leaving me and Nilla to fend for ourselves, but she didn’t. She’d done the exact thing for me as I would’ve done for her. No one bickered back and forth more than we did, but I didn’t know a couple of friends that were committed to each other more than we were, all insults set aside.
“Look...we don’t want any trouble,” she said. “Just let us leave. We don’t know who you are and we don’t care. Do we, Lucille?”
“No, we don’t care,” I agreed, careful not to aggravate his trigger finger since the barrel of the gun was resting against my skin.
“Get away from the door,” he told Merlene. She immediately complied. “Who are you people and what are you doing here?” he asked.
Merlene looked at me, then back at him. “Uh...we were looking for Mister Tucker. We...uh...saw that his gate was unlocked and wondered why since when he’s away the gate usually is locked. We were just strolling by when we thought we’d check in with him.”
She was sort of a quick thinker, but I wasn’t so sure what she came up with sounded believable to this guy.
He appeared to be thinking it through.
“Get over here!” he told her.
“Why? I thought you were letting us go,” she said as she reluctantly conceded to his demand. She looked like she was about to cry. I just knew she was blaming me more and more and probably having second thoughts right then about dashing out of the door when she had the chance and leaving me to lie in my own bed, so to speak. She couldn’t have been thinking logically at this point since she was sure we were all going to die.
5
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“Be careful with her. Can’t you see she’s blind?” Merlene yelled as he shoved me along.
“Blind? Really?” he asked. “She looked like she could see exactly where she was going when you two were heading to the door. You left her behind and she’s blind?” The guy was clearly being sarcastic. I thought it was nice of Merlene to care in spite of her presumed anger.
As we were walking, the files fell from beneath my blouse.
“Halt!” he said, bending over and picking them up, all the while, keeping an eye on Merlene.
Merlene and I stopped in our tracks.
“What have we here?” he uttered, rather gleefully.
I wasn’t sure he actually expected a response, so I didn’t offer one. As much as I didn’t want to part with those documents we obviously went there for, our mere survival had now taken top priority.
He rested the files on the dining room table and proceeded to order me into one of the chairs. He then used a cord he’d sliced off from an iron to tie my hands and feet. This situation brought back dreadful memories about the time I was kidnapped and held for ransom. I’d be the first to admit this was way too much action for an old lady. I sometimes asked myself why I wasn’t lying back in my recliner watching soap operas, eating soup and drinking herbal tea like some of the other retirees out there. No! Instead, I found myself looking down the barrel of guns, getting tied up and kidnapped.
He’d locked Nilla in the laundry room we’d come out of and she was barking at the door and scratching relentlessly. She did manage to scratch his face after he’d taken her from me. That’s my girl—a real fighter. She never ceased to make me proud. At least he didn’t try to retaliate after she’d got him good, unlike that idiot who’d barged in my house, not too long ago, with his equally idiotic partner.
This man didn’t appear to be your average killer. There was something about him that seemed different. He was a bit softer than the average cold-hearted criminal. Maybe whatever he did to Luke out there in the shed wasn’t intentional and he just didn’t want to get caught, then these two fine ladies and one cute dog foiled his plans and his otherwise seamless escape.
He ushered Merlene to the table next, brandishing the gun in her direction. “Your turn, lady.” I could tell she hesitated as she walked slowly toward the empty chair.
Then suddenly, she bumped up against the table, and fell sideways into him, causing him to lose balance. Merlene had him by about six inches in height and another forty pounds in weight, so she almost successfully knocked him off his feet. I had no idea if it was intentional until she picked up a small Aladdin-looking lamp which sat on a narrow stand near the dining room table and whopped him over the head with it. The gun fell and he landed on the floor next to it. She immediately kicked it away.
“You go, girl!” I cheered. “Serves him right!”
She was still holding the lamp and as he attempted to get up, she gave him another whop—this time on his shoulder.
“Stay down, you bugger, before you get another one!” she yelled.
Merlene was on a roll and he was moaning and dazed like a fragile little wimp. She went over and grabbed the gun. “If you move a muscle, I’ll make you worm food. I mean it!”
Merlene hurried over to me and keeping a sharp eye on him, she untied me. She then handed me the gun, which reluctantly, I accepted.
“Do you know where he is?” she asked.
“Uh, huh,” I answered.
“Point it at him and if he moves, smoke him! I’m gonna tie him up.”
I did what the lady said. It was high time I got the upper hand on a criminal. In all the years I’ve known Merlene, I didn’t know she was this ‘rough and tough’. I guess she meant it when she used to say no criminal was big and bad enough for her. I always scoffed when she said it, but I had clearly underestimated her.
“I thought you said she was blind!” The guy exclaimed as Merlene started hog-tying him.
“I am, you nincompoop!” I responded. “And if you survive this turn of events, don’t you dare think of saying anything any different. If you do, I’ll come and hunt you down and...”
“Lucille!” Merlene interjected. “Quit babbling and focus on what you’re doing!”
She was making a final tie around his hands and feet for extra reinforcement. Nilla was still barking occasionally and I called out to her to assure her that I was there and everything was all right.
After Merlene got that guy pretty much incapacitated, she went to the laundry room and let Nilla out who immediately charged at the brute on the floor. She clearly disliked him from the moment she’d lain eyes on him and didn’t appreciate him pointing that gun at my neck either.
“Get this mutt off of me!” he yelled.
“Does she look like a mutt to you?” I asked.
“Just get it off! It’s hurting me!”
Nilla was attacking his butt, sinking those teeth into it for sure. I just shuddered to think she was going to be licking my face later with that same tongue that inadvertently would have had to come into contact with that guy’s rear end. First thing’s first: when we got home, I was giving her teeth a good brush and get that mouth of hers rinsed out good.
Merlene must’ve somewhat pitied the guy and took Nilla away.
“I see the game room has a little door,” she said. “I’m gonna put her in there until we sort this situation out.”
The game room had one of those tiny doors, about three feet in height with a latch. It looked more like a playroom for a small child—even though Luke didn’t have any children—so I was good with Nilla being in there just so she wouldn’t rip Mister Man to pieces and we just as easily could let her out if need be.
“You almost killed me, lady!” the man shouted at Merlene. “And you let that mutt out to finish the job!”
There he went with that mutt talk again and in such a condescending way.
“You’re lucky I didn’t get rid of you,” Merlene fired back. “I doubt you were gonna just tie both of us up and leave us alive and ticking. You knew we’d be the ones to seal your fate inside the big house or electric chair for killing poor Luke.”
Well, her statement wasn’t absolutely correct: Luke Tucker was nowhere near poor. Quite the opposite, in fact...but I knew what she meant.
He turned his head more to the side as Merlene walked over to me and took the gun. We weren’t directly in his view.
“You think he’s dead?” he asked. “He’s not dead. He’s just unconscious.”
Merlene glared at him. “Unconscious?” She then looked back at me. “Did he look unconscious to you, Lucille?”
“I can’t say for sure, but he looked quite dead to me though.”
“I caught you again!” He cried. “How could she have known whether or not he looked dead?”
Merlene’s expression told me she could’ve kicked herself for that slip-up. She was always very careful—much more than I ever was.
“Never mind.” He sighed. “I don’t care. Look...untie me and I’ll let you go. No hard feelings. You two go your way and I’ll go mine, and the dog too.”
“Let us go?” Merlene glanced my way, laughing. “He said he’ll let us go.”
I thought it was funny too. We almost laughed ourselves to tears.
“No, seriously. I mean I won’t try to restrain you once you let me loose. We can part ways amicably.”
“You’re too much,” Merlene said, a chuckle breaking her voice again.
“Mister, if Luke Tucker is just unconscious, why did you put him out there in that shed?” I probed.
“Because it was closer to where I parked the car. I’m a small guy, as you probably can or cannot see, so I only could’ve managed to carry him so far.”
Merlene looked at me. I think the guy’s reply might have sounded logical to her.
I wished I was able to see what Luke was doing in there. I figured maybe if I tried focusing in on him like I did when I was upstairs, I’d have some luck or Merlene just as easily could’ve gone out herself and checked.
She must have read my mind. “I’m going to see for myself,” she said, handing the gun to me again. “Remember, Lucille: If he moves a muscle, smoke him!”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m trigger-happy,” I casually said.
“And you’d better believe that,” she told him as she walked past him on her way to the kitchen door.
There was complete silence for at least a full minute after Merlene left until this fake wise guy thought to open his trap again.
“She told me what to do if you moved a muscle. In my book that means the mouth muscle too!”
He seemed perturbed. Guess he thought he could’ve convinced the supposed blind lady to let him loose. How dare he insulted my intelligence?
Merlene rushed back inside, leaving the door widely ajar. “If Luke’s unconscious, my name is jackass. I’m calling the police!” she said, heading to the phone in the living room.
“How do you know he’s dead?” I asked.
“Apart from him being cold and grayish-blue, I checked for a pulse and guess what? He hasn’t got any!”
“Yep. Sounds dead to me,” I replied, evenly.
“Not only are you a killer; you’re a liar too! And a dumb one, I might add,” I said to the guy who now seemed more nervous than ever. Guess it was Merlene’s ‘police talk’. “Did you really think we’d just take your word that Luke was alive and not have the common sense to check for ourselves? How stupid do we look?” I probably shouldn’t have asked that question since Merlene might have had an invisible stupid written on her forehead that only he and I could see. I retract—that only he could see.
As Merlene summoned the police to the house, the man started to cry—like a baby. Snot and everything running from his nose. Sorry for whomever walked on that carpet after he would’ve been yanked up by police.
“I didn’t mean to do it! It was an accident!” he moaned. “I just wanted him to stop threatening my family. That’s all I wanted.”
“It has something to do with those files over there, doesn’t it? That’s what you were up there looking for?”
He nodded. “I just wanted him to stop and he wouldn’t! Do you know what it’s like to live in fear that someone was going to ruin your life and give your family a bad name in this town?”
“Nope. I have no idea,” I said. “That’s no reason to kill a man.”
“I told you it was an accident!” He got peppery. “Can’t you understand?”
“Tell it to the police,” Merlene interjected as she re-entered the dining room. “They’re on their way here.”
“No. I want him to keep talking, Merlene. The man has to get this weight off his chest. Can’t you see that?”
She looked like she caught on.
“You go right ahead, you poor, innocent soul. Tell this wise, old lady what happened,” I said.
“I can’t!” He shook his head vehemently. “I just can’t!”
I couldn’t believe how quickly he changed his mind. I thought he wanted us to know the truth or quite possibly—his truth.
He seemed adamant about it, but I had a gut feeling that there was much more to Luke’s so-called accidental demise than this guy was probably ever willing to reveal.
I called Merlene to the side, a good ways off from within earshot of the cry baby. “I have to get the hell out of here with these files before the cops show up. Can you handle them alone?” I asked.
“Can I? Of course, I can? Take Nilla and go. I’ll be good with this chump.”
“What will you tell them as far as why you’re here?”
There she was with that look again. “Leave it to me, Lucille.”
I grabbed the files from the table, then went and got Nilla from the other room and we quickly made our way back home. I could hear police sirens blaring in the distance.
Just as we were about to step inside the house, in my mind’s eye, I saw several police cars converging in front of Luke Tucker’s home.
6
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I didn’t expect to see Sir Clement at my house the instant Nilla and I walked through the front door. He was standing at the foot of the staircase and for once, I saw a real expression on his face. It was one of sadness. Guess he must’ve taken grand-nephew Luke’s death pretty hard.
“Why are you here already?” I asked, hoping this time he’ll answer me. “I would’ve thought you’d want to be near Luke at this most distressing time.” Then something dawned on me which I was sure explained his visible demeanor and his unexpected presence: Luke’s demise reminded him a lot of his own. That’s why he didn’t stay there while Merlene dealt with the police. I guess the impact of it all was too much for him, even in death.
Who says the dead can’t feel? Nonsense!
“I’m sorry,” I said, approaching him. “Luke seemed to be an all right guy. Really seemed to care for you and the Tucker family. It’s a pity his life was snuffed out that way and for what?”
“What you need will be at your fingertips,” he said, morosely.
I almost staggered. “Not only did he have an insanely sexy voice even at his age and apparent ghostly state, but that was the very first time, literally in years, that the man had ever uttered a s
ingle word to me. This was epic! I must really be onto something here. I’m sure he was referring to the files in my hand. I couldn’t wait to sit down and thoroughly peruse them.
In a flash, Sir Clement was gone and for a little while there, I felt his sorrow almost to the point that I got a bit teary-eyed—and I rarely ever get teary-eyed. Life just isn’t fair sometimes.
In my heart, I realized the one thing that could even out the unfair score that life had thrown at Sir Clement was to somehow get him the justice he deserved, and perhaps to do the same for Luke.
I gave Nilla two treats instead of one for being the good guard dog that she is, then I retreated to the porch out back where I would review the documents. By now, Anthony was well on his way to his family in Tulsa and Theodore was at work. So, Nilla and I had the entire house to ourselves.
As I sat with the files on my lap, the one on top which was taped under the roof of Luke’s locked away cabinet was what I focused on, since I had briefly seen the other ones. It wasn’t long before I discovered why it had been hidden to the extent that it was and the very thought of it made my heart sink.
7
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Merlene showed up at my house a little less than an hour later. She went on and on about the events that unfolded after I’d left Luke Tucker’s house, but I was at a loss for words, completely dazed by what I’d read.
“When Sheriff Cooke asked me what I was doing there, of course, I told him I was only checking on Luke to see if he was okay since he’d been gone for so long,” she explained. “That’s when he reminded me that I didn’t live in the neighborhood. ‘So how does that compute?’ he asked. ‘What business is that of yours?’ Well, I’m a quick thinker, so I told him he knows how close you and I are, and you’d told me you heard Luke had been gone for longer than usual this time, so I decided to go by the house to make sure everything was okay. Just being a good citizen, like we all should be. I even said I thought I’d heard noises inside the second I approached the gate, so naturally, I went in to check.”
Lucille Pfiffer Mystery Series Box Set Page 23
