The Maude Rogers Murder Collection

by Linda L. Dunlap

  Maude laughed, happy the young man had chosen to ride with her, but quickly her laugh turned to concern. “Oh, I forgot. I have a message,” she said before exiting the garage. “Would you check this for me,” she asked, fishing the phone out of her pocket.

  “Sure. Wait,” he said quickly. “It’s an automated message from Lilly. Who is Lilly?” he asked, interested.

  Maude hit the brakes and grabbed the phone. “My niece. Let me see it. It’s an S.O.S, a one-way message. She’s in trouble, and the only dangerous place I can think of is Thomas Bradley’s house. Oh God, don’t tell me she went there on her own. We were going to protect her.”

  “You think she jumped the gun on your plan?”

  “It would be just like her,” Maude said, slamming her foot on the accelerator as she turned onto Main Street. “Thomas Bradley is a dangerous man. He’s already killed his wife, and kidnapped Joe. He won’t hesitate to knock off a young woman who gets in his way. Call for back-up Calhoun, but tell them no sirens. If Lilly managed to send us a message, she did it without Bradley’s knowledge. Let’s keep it that way as long as we can.”

  ****

  Lilly untied her hands, and manipulated the earpiece, sending a message to Maude’s phone. She prayed her aunt was monitoring her text messages. The pain in her head had lessened, giving Lilly more clarity, but her shoulder joints hurt badly from being pulled behind her in an unnatural position. She reached for the ropes around her legs, and hoped they were as loosely tied as her hands had been. A groaning noise startled her as movement on her right side told Lilly she was not alone in the garage. She turned to look over her shoulder, and saw a long bundle lying against the wall. Other than the pinpricks of light, it was dark her where she and her fellow prisoner were confined.

  “Joe, is that you?” She whispered, all the while wrestling with the rope on her legs. A fresh smell of gasoline was seeping into the garage. She heard the sound of an object falling onto the concrete, and surmised what was happening. A chill struck her lower extremities. In her mind, Lilly knew what was about to happen. Bradley is getting set to burn the garage!

  “Joe, honey, groan for me. It’s Lilly. I’m going to get to you. But let me know you’re still alive. It’s really important that we get out of here.”

  A loud noise frightened her, as the light coming through the holes in the garage disappeared and the air was filled with smoke. Suddenly, the overhead doors blew off, letting in fuel-rich oxygen. The flames rose, greedily digesting the gasoline-soaked materials on the floor. Lilly screamed in frustration as she removed the last of the rope from around her legs and thighs. Quickly she crawled to the silent bundle against the dark wall and tried to move Joe before the flames overtook them both.

  “Get up Joe,” she yelled. His hands were tied together as hers had been, and he was unconscious. “Wake up,” she screamed again, wondering what drugs Bradley had given him. The flames encircled them, singing her hair, but she was not about to leave him behind.

  Maude and Calhoun arrived at the Bradley house just as a giant explosion of gas set the garage aflame.

  “Calhoun,” Maude commanded, “Help me. My niece may be inside. If she is, I won’t let her die. Bring the fire extinguisher.”

  “Will do,” he yelled, stripping the metal container from its holder beneath the dash. “I’m coming.”

  “Lilly Ann,” Maude screamed, stepping over a puddle of blood and a pair of legs lying on the concrete. She reverted back to the name she had called her darling niece for years. “Lilly Ann, where are you?”

  “Here,” the young woman yelled back, coughing. “Hurry. Joe’s tied up, and I can’t move him.”

  “Move over Maude,” Calhoun said, squirting the extinguisher’s foam as other officers arrived with their own fire-fighting equipment. “We’ll get them,” he promised.

  A half-dozen or so fire extinguishers were emptied upon the wooden structure, and both survivors were quickly removed from the dying flames. Joe was breathing shallowly, but an emergency vehicle’s doors opened, and a paramedic began ministering to the distressed detective. Still wrapped in the tarp and coughing from the smoke, Lilly crawled inside the vehicle and refused to leave.

  “Will he be alright?” Maude asked the technician.

  “We’ll do our best, detective,” the driver said. “Now let us get him to the hospital.”

  “Joe, I’ll meet you at the emergency room,” she said to his inert form. “By the way, you look like heck.”

  A sound emanated from the stretcher, and Maude could have sworn he was laughing.

  ****

  Thomas Bradley had known he was in deep trouble the moment he laid eyes upon the girl, but the drug was surprisingly easy to administer in the sweet drink he gave her. Jo Ann had begun to get on his nerves, telling him this way and that, how to take care of his business, but he’d surprised her with his quick thinking, and she had shown her appreciation for his ability to do what was needed.

  It was clear the girl and her boyfriend had to go, and the sooner the better. No one could prove he knew anything about them. He was already busy setting up his alibi with his best bud across town. Poor Jo Ann’s fingerprints were on the glass the girl drank from. In fact, from the cops’ way of looking at evidence, she had arranged it all. He laughed to himself, thinking what a scoundrel he had turned out to be.

  After taking a last look at the closed garage, Bradley was saddened for a minute that he’d buried Serena at the land fill. That was a low-class cemetery, but she got what she deserved for not supporting him. Jo Ann, on the other hand, his champion, had been there for him, even during the time he’d broken into the detective’s apartment. She had watched for approaching cars as he hid behind the door, waiting with the sap, prepared to drop the detective quickly. The last thing they had needed was a fight between the experienced police officer, and an out-of-shape photographer.

  Together, he and Jo Ann cleaned the carpet where the guy’s head had bled, and they mopped spilled coke that lay puddled on the hardwood floor like pools of dark blood. The detective had been on his way home from a fast food place when Bradley quietly sneaked up behind him. If I had known that kidnapping was so easy, he thought, I might have made some real money instead of the piddling amounts I was paid taking photos of ugly Americans. It’s too bad Jo Ann won’t be around to share my new career.

  Bradley took the butane torch outside, prepared to light it when everything was ready. “What a way to go,” he giggled to Jo Ann.

  “You okay?” she asked him.

  “You doubt me after all I’ve done so we can be together?”

  “No,” she was quick to say, recognizing a new attitude in him. “Just concerned.”

  “I am perfectly fine,” he said, pouring the gasoline mix up and down the garage door, and along the walls for good measure.

  “Okay, let’s go,” she said, stepping back when the trail of gas had been lit. “There’s too much, it’s going to blow.”

  “Wait,” Bradley said. His finger on the camera was poised and ready. “Wait.”

  The click came at the same time the gas ignited, just as the trajectory of the garage door targeted the reflected light in Bradley’s eye. His head was sliced cleanly from his neck, and the only photograph taken was of a dark blur headed into the camera’s eye.

  Jo Ann’s face was seared by the hot blast of air, but the errant, flying sheet of metal missed her by a few inches. Her lover’s hot blood quickly soaked into the dark fabric of her blouse, concealing the bright red of his death. She panicked, and disappeared screaming into the crowd that had gathered in Bradley’s front yard.

  Chapter 10.

  The doors of Madison’s largest hospital opened and closed much more than usual that night, as officers in different dress visited the unconscious man in the critical care unit. State, county, and city police officers flanked the hallways in the second hour, concerned over their brother. But work demanded they finally return to their own stations.

&nbs
p; Because Calhoun had a family, and had never met Joe Allen, he went home after paying his respects, promising to be at work the next day. The captain had assigned him to records for three months to fill in for an officer who had just given birth to twins, but the detectives were given permission to request his help if needed.

  Maude sat without moving, holding Lilly’s hand as they waited in the hospital. Her niece had miraculously survived with nothing more than a pounding headache and swollen wrists and ankles. Before the flash occurred, she had covered herself with the end of the tarp that was wrapped around Joe. “I guess I thought I could hide from that maniac,” Lilly whispered.

  “What did he have in the garage?” Lilly asked later. “Some sort of chain reaction occurred with the fire. The explosion was too much for just gasoline.”

  “I’m sure we’ll find out once the arson team’s investigation is done,” Maude replied. “This is getting to be a habit--you getting tied up.”

  “I know,” Lilly said. “I don’t like it--being tied.”

  “Hmm. Want to go check on him?” Maude asked.

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind,” she answered. “Thanks for letting me use your spare clothing.”

  “No problem, hon. I always carry them in case I get blood or puke on me.”

  “Good to know,” Lilly said with a smile. “Sure you don’t mind if I leave you alone?”

  “Go. He’s probably awake. They say he’ll be okay. His head wound isn’t as deep as it looked at first glance. Bradley kept him drugged, or Joe would have no doubt escaped. The early morning phone call must have been his last effort to get away, and the photographer caught him before he could tell me anything.”

  “Just think, he was there, all the time,” Lilly said.

  “I blame myself. Bradley outsmarted me. If I’d requested a search warrant before we took him in, we would have found Joe, and Bradley would still be alive.”

  “I know, Aunt Maude. But what about Jo Ann?”

  “She’ll be tried as a co-conspirator.”

  “You think she’s as guilty as he was?” Lilly asked, removing her hand from Maude’s.

  “Of murder? I can’t say. Of kidnapping a police officer? I hope she’s caught, and found guilty. But who knows with juries. Truth is, you never know what’s around any corner. One thing for sure, Jo Ann will turn up soon. She ran without any money or credit cards. She should have taken her purse if she wanted to get away.”

  A few more moments passed in the waiting room, and Maude wished she had a cigarette. She yawned, settling in for the wait. She hoped Stray had enough food to last him. She glanced at her niece and saw a puzzled expression on her face.

  “Something wrong?” Maude asked

  “I don’t know.” Lilly replied, looking behind her, toward the glass door. “I thought I saw something passing by.”

  “I didn’t see anything,” Maude replied, closing the buttons on her blazer. “What did it look like?”

  “Someone, oh, I don’t know. Nothing I suppose. Doesn’t matter. I’m going in to see Joe,” Lilly said, rising from her chair. Still it bothered her, as though she had witnessed something important. It would be later--much later--when she identified what she had seen as long red hair passing across her peripheral vision—and by then, it would be too late to matter.

  “Lilly, tell Joe hello from his partner,” Maude said from the hospital recliner. “Tell him I’ll see him soon--we have murderers to catch.”

  The End.

  Dear Reader, thank you for purchasing this Novella. I publish crime fiction and Y/A Fantasy. Also, I publish other genres under my pen name, Linda L. Davis. Please visit my website at www.booksiwrite.com

  Sign up on my website if you are interested in FREE advance reading copies and my newsletter. I am always glad to have reviews when the book is published.

  The Maude Rogers Crime Novels, by Linda L. Dunlap

  “The East Avenue Murders”

  “Murder on Edwards Bay”

  “The 6:10 to Murder”

  Historical Fiction, a love story, by Linda L. Davis

  “A Daughter of the People”

  Coming Spring, 2017, “The Bridge Builder”

  The Indwelt Novels by Linda L. Davis

  “The Indwelling of Jenny”

  Novelettes by Linda L. Davis

  “The Goblin Influence”

  “Soul Catcher”

  Fantasy

  The Memories, Book 1, The Gantlet

  The Memories, Book 2, The Reckoning

  I hope to hear from you, in a review, or an email, at booksiwrite5@gmail.com