Mucky Bumpkin

by Sam Cheever

  “You knew father was with someone in the plane that night.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you know who it was, don’t you?”

  She wouldn’t meet my gaze. It was Hal who put the puzzle pieces together. “The dead woman was Garland Medford’s girlfriend, wasn’t it? The one you were supposed to hide?”

  She didn’t confirm his assumption, but the pain that flitted across her pretty face was confirmation enough. Instead of responding, she glanced his way. “Who are you?”

  Hal tugged a business card out of the pocket of his jeans and handed it to her. “I’m a good friend of your daughter’s. She and I have been looking into the murder of a local Realtor.”

  My mother stared at the card for a long moment, as if she struggled to understand the words and numbers typed across its front. Finally, she sighed. “I’m glad she has you.”

  Hal and I shared a look. She hadn’t answered his question and that was all the answer we needed.

  “Why?” I asked her. “Why was she in the plane and you weren’t?”

  A tear slid silently down my mother’s cheek. “Because he was in love with her. And in the end, he decided being with her was more important than anything else.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I didn’t believe for a moment that my mother’s words were true. So, I ignored them, asking a more important question instead. “Why were they coming back?”

  Her gaze slid to mine. She sniffled and scraped the back of her hand under her eyes. “I don’t understand the question.”

  “Father and the woman. Why was he bringing her back here? I understood you were going to hide her.”

  Understanding lit her gaze. “Yes. The flight out was a ruse, meant to confuse Medford’s people.”

  “You suspected they were watching the house?” Hal asked with a frown.

  “Yes.” She slid me a guilty look. “We were worried for your safety and wanted to draw them off. Your father filed a false flight pattern leading them to Wisconsin and then doubled back.” She frowned. “I was supposed to be on the plane too but, at the last minute, he asked me to stay. That’s when I knew he was in love with her. We’d never separated on a job before. We’d always been a team.”

  “Maybe he’d known it was dangerous,” I told her gently. “Maybe he was trying to keep you safe.”

  Mother shook her head. “No. I knew then that they were going to run off somewhere together.”

  She sounded like a crazy woman. “But he came back. Doesn’t that prove anything to you?” I asked.

  “He came back because Devon radioed him and told him the ruse was blown. Your father’s friend from Indy learned Garland knew what we were up to. He’d sent people to the location where your father had planned on landing to refuel. At that point, we didn’t know how much of our plan Medford knew, so we had to scrap the whole thing. Your father and Devon decided the safest play was for them to return here and engage Plan B.”

  “That’s why the landing on a stormy night,” I said as one of the puzzle pieces fell into place.

  She nodded. “He knew it was dangerous, but it also made our plan work better. They’d never assume he’d double back into the eye of the storm.”

  “Do you know how Medford found out?” Hal asked, his gaze narrowing with speculation.

  “Devon and I have given it a lot of thought since that night. We believe Medford has someone here in Deer Hollow. Someone we’d never suspect who keeps his eyes and ears open and reports back to him.”

  “But you don’t know who it is?”

  She glanced at Hal. “I wish we did. Devon’s been snooping around the edges, trying to figure it out, but so far whoever it is has been successful in keeping a low profile.”

  “So, what was Plan B?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “We’d planned to move the woman to a safe spot here in Deer Hollow.”

  “But why here?” Hal asked. “That seems risky. Especially given the fact you believed Medford had a spy here.”

  “Yes, that made it riskier for sure. But we intended to keep the operation really close. Only four people would know. My husband and I, Devon and the woman. And it was just temporary. We’re good at moving goods, Mr. Amity. Brent and I have moved a lot of merchandise through the auction house. We deliver all around the world. Our plan was to deliver the woman via normal routes. We had it set up so that even we wouldn’t know where she ended up.”

  “You created your own witness protection,” I said, slightly in awe.

  She nodded. “She would make the final leg on her own. Our people were to deliver her to an airport in New Mexico and she’d drive to her destination from there. She was the only one who knew what that destination was.”

  “Who bankrolled the operation?” Hal asked.

  My mother’s expression turned sly. “Let’s just say she had friends in high places.”

  “I guess,” he said, making my mom smile sadly.

  She turned a frown on me. “How did you find me?”

  “George Shulz,” Hal told her. “We were looking for Devon Little.”

  A wary look flitted across her gaze. “Dev’s not here.”

  “Why are you here, Mom?” I asked her. “In this horrible barn?”

  She glanced back to the hulking structure, a secret smile playing across her lips. Finally, she pushed to her feet, brushing at some loose grass on her calves. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  As we followed her back into the barn, she shook out the peasant skirt that floated around her slender legs. “We put this together in the weeks before Sasha came to us…”

  “Sasha?” I asked.

  Her lips compressed. “The woman we were hiding.”

  Ahh…

  “This was where we were going to keep her until we thought it was safe to move her on.”

  I looked up at the hole-filled roof and down at the silty dirt floor, grimacing. “You didn’t like her, huh?”

  My mom chuckled, shoving open the tack room door. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” She moved toward the back wall and grabbed hold of a saddle rack hanging there. More saddle racks hung on either side of it, with tack-laden hooks four feet above on the same wall.

  “She lifted the rack, and a soft whirring sound made me step back in surprise. To my amazement, a narrow space opened in the wall, as the ancient barn wood slid back behind the saddle racks and a brightly lit room opened up before our eyes.

  Through the door was another room, one that was clean and bright and filled with the fresh scent of violets, my mother’s favorite. She motioned toward the opening. “Welcome to my home.”

  I stepped through the opening into another world. The space was only about fifteen feet wide, but it looked as if it ran the length of the barn. The windows were high and covered in frilly cotton curtains that let in all the light. From outside, I guessed it would be impossible to see through them into the room.

  The floor was covered in real wood flooring, wide planks in a golden oak color. The walls were brick, painted white and covered with an array of brightly-hued paintings. The paintings were of flowers and country scenes, rustic bridges arching over glistening creeks.

  The furnishings were brass and wood, all antiques but restored, giving the space a cozy-chic look rather than a rustic one. A queen-sized bed dominated one end of the room, with brightly painted tables on either side that held tall metal and wood lamps with bright white shades. A round, wooden table and two iron chairs dominated the center, sitting atop a multi-colored round rag rug. Along the outside wall, a galley kitchen was bright and pleasant, with white cabinets, the doors inlaid with leaded glass, a charcoal gray stone countertop with black veining, and a white porcelain farmhouse sink. A small stainless-steel refrigerator and stove completed the space, with a matching microwave over the stove.

  “What do you think?” my mom asked, smiling.

  Despite my roiling thoughts and general feeling of confusion, I grinned. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Ele
ctricity?” Hal asked, clearly looking past the aesthetics to the practical.

  “Generator. Propane. Devon pays them in cash when they come to refill the tank. Completely untraceable.”

  “And from the outside…” I began.

  “It looks like an old barn. We’ve even covered the glass in those windows with dirty, clouded plastic so they can’t see the curtains.”

  “Amazing,” I breathed. I shook my head. “This is genius.”

  “Thanks, honey. Your father and I worked on it together.” A cloud fell over her face. “I miss him.”

  I reached out and grasped her hand. That simple touch ripped something open inside me that I’d twisted tightly shut to keep from losing my mind. Emotions swamped me, and I wobbled where I stood. It was as if I hadn’t fully grasped that she was alive until that moment.

  Tears slid down my cheeks.

  My mom wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight. I closed my eyes and let myself enjoy the moment.

  There were still so many questions. And we still had the murder of Penney Sellers to figure out. But for just a moment, I could enjoy being with my mom again…the woman whose loss had nearly taken me down completely.

  If it hadn’t been for Caphy…

  I blinked, pulled away from my mom. “Caphy’s gonna split something when she sees you.”

  She laughed, swiping at her own tears and sniffling. “I’m afraid that will have to wait. Though I’d give almost anything to see her too. I’ve missed her sweet, squishy little face.”

  She placed her hands on my cheeks, looking into my eyes. “But I’ve missed your beautiful face more. I love you, sweetie. I’m so sorry for the pain we caused you.”

  I nodded, too overcome with emotion to respond.

  “Mrs. Fulle,” Hal said.

  We both looked at him in surprise. For a moment, I’d actually forgotten he was there.

  “We need to know where Devon Little is.”

  I should have known Hal wouldn’t be distracted from the job at hand. “Hal, maybe we should…”

  My mom squeezed my hand. “No, sweetie, he’s right. A woman has died. You need to find out who killed her.” She looked at my PI. “But I can promise you it wasn’t Dev. He wouldn’t kill anybody.”

  “I would have believed that a few years ago, mom. But he’s different now.”

  “Different, how?”

  “Secretive, sneaky.”

  As soon as I said the words, I realized why. “He’s been protecting you, hasn’t he?”

  “And you. He promised your father a long time ago that if anything ever happened to him, Dev would watch out for us. He’s been true to that promise.”

  “That might be, Mrs. Fulle,” Hal said. “But I still need to talk to him. I need you to tell me where he is.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. Devon keeps his whereabouts secret for just this reason. He moves around a lot. He’s gotten very good at keeping a low profile.”

  Didn’t I know it? The last time he’d shown up I’d found him by accident. He’d been living in the hangar…

  I blinked. A memory surfaced that had me clamping my teeth down on my lip to keep from blurting out to Hal that I knew where my uncle was.

  “If he’s innocent he has nothing to fear in talking to us,” Hal tried again.

  But my mom stared back at him with a mulish look on her pretty face that I recognized all too well. “Devon wouldn’t have killed that woman unless he was forced to do it to protect my daughter. And if he has done something to protect Joey, you’re not going to talk me into turning on him.”

  Try as I might, I couldn’t talk my mother into coming home with me. She insisted she was safe where she was and, more importantly, that I was safer with her there.

  I finally left in a huff, the memory of just how stubborn she could be returning with a vengeance. “That woman!” I said to Hal as we climbed back into his car.

  He wisely said nothing. When I looked at him, there was a tiny smile curving his lips. “What?”

  He shook his head. “Uh-uh. I’m staying out of this.”

  “You’re thinking the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, aren’t you?” I accused.

  Hal made a zipping motion over his lips.

  I expelled a frustrated breath.

  “Well, we didn’t find Devon,” he finally said after a couple of minutes of silence.

  His words reminded me of what I’d realized at my mother’s place. I straightened in the seat. “Oh!”

  He glanced over. “Oh?”

  “I think I might know where he is.”

  “Really? Where?”

  I smiled, feeling like the cat that had a helpless mouse in its sights. “Hiding in plain sight. Where else?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I didn’t have any better luck talking the cat into not accompanying us to the back forty than I had convincing my mother into anything.

  The two of them must have shared a form in a previous life.

  Hal, Caphy, LaLee, and I headed toward the defunct runway. Now that I knew the real situation with the crash, the area produced even more unsettling feelings in me when it came into sight.

  “You think he’s back in your dad’s office?” Hal sounded disbelieving.

  I didn’t really blame him. Devon had been living like a homeless person in that small room when we’d found him before. It would seem unlikely he’d return to a previous haunt for fear he’d be caught by Deputy Arno. But Devon was both determined and unchanging. He clung to things he knew.

  And there was one other little detail.

  “Arno said Penney Sellers was killed with Caphy’s leash.” I glanced up at Hal as his eyes went wide. “But her leash is in my kitchen, hanging on the hook where I last put it.”

  “Then it was one that looked like hers? That would imply the killer was someone who knew you pretty well…well enough to match something kind of random…but it hardly points to Devon. In fact, since he hasn’t really been in your life for a couple of years, it seems to me like it goes a long way toward proving it wasn’t him.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not that. When I found out the leash was used, I was trying to remember where I’d last seen my spare. I’ve always kept one in the house and one…”

  “In your dad’s office,” Hal finished for me, nodding his head.

  “Yep. The coyotes and Caphy’s fascination with them are an issue back here. I’d sometimes leash her if it was getting dark, just in case. I didn’t want her running off and getting herself into trouble.”

  “Amazing,” he said with a smile.

  “What?”

  He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and tugged me close, kissing the top of my head. “You’re every bit as smart as you are beautiful.”

  I flushed with pleasure, trying to hold back a grin. It was no use. The grin escaped, along with an embarrassed little laugh.

  My insides were warm and mushy from the compliment.

  I was a goner.

  “Well, let’s wait and see if I’m right before we sign me up to be a member of Mensa.”

  Caphy took off running. For a minute I panicked, thinking she was running after a coyote. But she headed straight for the door into the hangar and started digging at the threshold as she’d done before, whining.

  “Something’s in there,” I told Hal in a hushed voice.

  “Or someone,” Hal agreed. He looked at me. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to stay back?”

  I blew a raspberry.

  “Someone needs to protect LaLee,” he tried, looking smug as he made the attempt. Clearly, he thought my softer side would help him win the argument.

  I laughed, nodding toward the structure. “Too late.”

  The cat was sitting next to Caphy, licking a paw as if to say, “Hurry up minion, my manicure’s getting ruined out here in the wild.”

  Hal sighed. “I’m surrounded by stubborn and impossibly reckless women.”

  Ignoring him, I headed o
ver and tried the door. To my shock, it wouldn’t open when I turned the knob. I looked at Hal. “It’s locked.”

  “Did you lock it after the police were here?”

  “No. In fact, I was down here the next day to clean up, and I’m sure I left it unlocked. I figured there was no point since Devon had been living here for weeks despite the locks on this door.”

  “Do you have a key?”

  I thought about it for a minute. I had one at the house, but I really didn’t want to trek all the way back. My dad had left a spare key somewhere…

  It came to me a minute later. “The tank!”

  I hurried over to the big, rusted fuel tank near the oversized hangar doors and bent down, skimming a hand over the thing’s underbelly near the support leg. I felt the rough outline of the key after just a moment of fumbling around. “Got it!”

  Tugging it free of the duct tape my father had used to keep it in place, I jogged back to Hal and handed it to him.

  He inserted it into the lock.

  It didn’t work.

  I gave Hal an incredulous look. “I can’t flippin’ believe it! He changed the lock.”

  I pounded on the door. “Dev, open the door and let us in.”

  We waited, listening to the silence. Caphy cocked her head a moment later and then started digging at the threshold again, whining.

  LaLee seemed to grow bored with the show, wandering away and jumping up onto the sill of the office window.

  Hal and I looked at her. Then we looked at each other. The cat just might be an alien from outer space after all.

  Hal walked over and carefully scooped her off the sill. “Smart girl.” She gave him a throaty yowl, clearly annoyed to have been removed from her high spot before she was ready.

  I scratched her between the ears by way of an apology.

  She hissed at me for my effort.

  Hal pressed his fingers against the glass and tried pushing it up, likely hoping it was unlocked.

  Of course, it wasn’t. He glanced at me, lifting a midnight brow.