Shenanigans in the Shadows

by Kari Lee Townsend

  “Sunny, come on, now, I—”

  “You have news for me? That’s wonderful. Just what I hoped for.”

  “Not quite.” He sighed, sensing this wasn’t the time or place, no doubt. “No prints other than all of ours, and nothing else missing. Just one big mess and missing rings. This person knew how to cover his tracks, that’s for sure. There’s not even a hair or fiber from clothing.”

  “Can you check into something for me?” I asked.

  There was a hesitation on the other end of the line. “Okay, shoot.”

  “Can you see if a Diana West came to town last night or early this morning? Any records at all from hotels, bus stations, train stations, restaurants, etc.”

  “Can I ask why?”

  “You owe me. Isn’t that reason enough?”

  “Fine. But you’re not going to do anything stupid are you?”

  “Gee, that’s the pot calling the kettle black. Call me back when you get any information, okay?”

  “Yes, and for the record...I’m sorry, for everything.”

  “I know.” I finally relented a bit, but added, “Just give me some time to get over being mad.” I hung up before I had to either tell him the truth, knowing he would stop me, or have to lie to him, which no matter how mad at him I was, I didn’t want to do. Because the truth was I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew I couldn’t sit around and do nothing when my best friend’s happiness and future hinged on discovering the truth. And discovering the truth was something I did best.

  3

  “You are so predictable,” said a deep male voice from behind me.

  I jumped out of my skin and whirled around, wide-eyed, all in one motion. “Mitchel Stone, you are not funny! Don’t do that to me again.” I poked him hard in his rock-solid chest and stared up at him. Way up since he towered over my five-foot-four-inch frame.

  “I’m not trying to be funny.” He caught my hand in his much larger one, lines of frustrations etching his rugged face. “I’m trying to save your scrawny behind from going off half-cocked as usual and putting yourself in danger.”

  I pulled my hand from his and waved it in the air. “Oh, please. I’m perfectly safe. I just decided a night out might clear my head.”

  “At the Song Bird—a Japanese karaoke bar known for catering to outsiders.” He snorted. “Yeah, I’m not buying it.” He crossed his muscular arms and stared me down suspiciously.

  “Lucky for you I’m not trying to sell anything.” I inspected my nails. “Besides, Cole and Jo are supposed to meet me here. You know how Cole loves this place. And for your information there hasn’t been a murder, so the only thing I’m in danger of is—”

  “You didn’t ask me to join you, even though we’re living together?” His tone made my gaze snap to his. “You must really be mad,” he added quietly, looking a little dejected and disappointed.

  “It’s not like that,” I quickly replied, placing my hand on his forearm. “I needed a night out alone. You know I care about you, but you and Morty are driving me crazy with all the fighting.”

  He took my hand in his own and intertwined our fingers, studying them as he replied, “I’m trying, Tink. I really am. That cat hates me.”

  I sighed and squeezed his hand. “He doesn’t hate you. I think he’s just jealous. We’ll figure something out. Just...try harder.”

  “So, does your night out alone involve hoping to run into Diana West, who’s in town, by the way.”

  I dropped his hand and pumped the air with my fist. “Yes! I knew it!” Then my lips made an “oh” shape.

  He smirked. “And that pretty much tells me the real reason you didn’t want me along as your date tonight. Because you thought I’d stop you from confronting a possible criminal.”

  “Thought?” I looked up at him with a pleading smile. “Does that mean you left Detective Grumpy Pants at home and you’re not going to stop me?”

  He drew his brows together and scowled deeply, hesitating before finally capitulating. “I’d say this makes us even because you drive me just as crazy with your dangerous impulsive ways.” He poked me back, but much softer. “I’m not going to stop you, but don’t think for one minute that I’m leaving your side.”

  I threw myself into his arms and kissed him square on the mouth. He grunted, but his arms came around me and held me tight, kissing me back until I pulled away breathless and slowly slid down the length of him. Let’s say his expression was a whole lot sweeter by the time my feet hit the floor. He shook his head with a look that said, What the hell am I going to do with you?

  “There you are, Sunny, and...oh...” Jo smiled at Mitch, her face flushing. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Detective Stone.”

  “I owe you,” he said with conviction, and added sincerely, “I really am sorry, Jo.”

  “I know.” She gave him a hard squeeze. “We’ll find the thief. We have to. That’s all there is to it.”

  Cole clapped Mitch on the shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault, buddy. But when I get my hands on the person responsible, it ain’t gonna be pretty. I’m warning you.”

  “Duly noted.” The detective nodded once. “And for the record, I get first dibs. Those rings went missing on my watch. Not yours. I will find out who took them and justice will be served, I can promise you that.”

  “Good. Now that we’re all on the same page, my long lost cousin just arrived.” Cole took a step toward the door.

  “I’d better handle this, seeing as how I have the most experience, and we don’t need you behind bars before your wedding.” The detective grabbed his arm to halt him.

  “Back off, boys, she’s mine.” Jo stepped in front of them both.

  “Not if I get to her first.” I charged past them all.

  We all descended upon a tall, dark-haired willowy creature about the same age and the spitting image of Cole, if he had a feminine side, that is. She stepped back, looking startled, but then stood her ground in a ready position, eyeing us warily.

  “Wow, if I didn’t know better, I would swear you were Cole’s twin instead of his cousin,” I said, taken aback. I stood there, staring at her in fascination. She even had a couple of tattoos, but somehow they fit and only added to her feminine appeal.

  “I’ve heard that my whole life,” she said carefully, still eyeing us all as though we were about to pounce at any moment. “Our mothers were twins, and we look like them.”

  “Why are you here, Diana?” Jo asked a bit harshly, stepping closer to Cole like a fierce Amazon warrior, ready to pounce on anyone who dared to cause him any more pain. “Those rings don’t belong to you.”

  “Actually, they do. They were supposed to be passed down to all of the women in our family,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “Is that why you took them?” Mitch asked, pulling out his ever present small notebook and pen. Once a cop always a cop and never completely off duty.

  Diana blinked and then frowned. “What do you mean took them? I didn’t take anything.”

  “According to my notes, you arrived in town last night,” Mitch said, lifting his gaze to look her in the eye. “That’s right. I checked.” He had a knack for figuring out if someone was lying or not.

  “Goody for you.” She threw her hands in the air and looked at us like we were all crazy. “I never said I didn’t get in then. What is this all about?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me, Diana,” Cole said with a deep growl. “Grandma’s rings are missing, and I want them back.”

  “You think I took them?” she sputtered, genuine shock registering across her pretty face. “Even though they technically were supposed to go to me, I never wanted the rings, Cole. I just said that because you made me mad when you wouldn’t listen to me or give me a chance to explain.” She shook her head, looking forlorn and hopeless. “Wow, so things are really that bad between us, then?”

  Cole frowned with the first hint of doubt shadowing his face. “If you didn’t come here for the rings, then what did
you come for?”

  “You,” she said plain and simple and with utmost sincerity.

  Jo tugged on his arm until he looked at her. “Babe, you know I’m good at reading people. I think she’s telling the truth.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he looked back at Diana. “Why didn’t you come to Gran’s funeral?”

  It was plain to see Diana was fighting back tears. “Because I didn’t know about it. We used to be like brother and sister, Cole. Our mothers were the ones who were at war, but not us. Never us. Unfortunately, Gran chose sides. Lucky for you she chose your mother. Mine was never spoken to again. As her daughter, I was guilty by association. I was never notified when she died. When I found out, I was devastated. That’s why I reached out to you. You’re all I have left. I was hoping we could make our own peace.”

  We all waited with baited breath, and the silence became unbearable.

  Finally Cole cleared his throat and said, “Gran was a hard woman to love, but at the end, she mentioned having a few regrets and wanting to make peace with you, too. I think she would have been proud of the fine woman you’ve grown into. And I’m sorry I misjudged you. I thought you stayed away on purpose. What do you say we start over?” He held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Cole, the pigheaded idiot who hung up on you.”

  Diana let out a sob and threw herself into his arms. He stumbled back a step, but then quickly wrapped his big burly arms around her and held on tight. Jo jumped into the middle, wrapping her arms around them both. Mitch blinked a couple of times, his eyes looking misty as a tender smile tipped up the corners of his lips while he looked at the happy trio.

  Don’t get me wrong, I was happy for all of them as well, but I couldn’t stop the worrisome thought from hammering my brain. If Diana West didn’t steal the heirloom rings, then that could only mean one thing. While we might have bridged some family ties, we still had a thief in our midst....

  And the wedding was still very much on hold!

  4

  “Father Moody gave a lovely service today, don’t you think?” Granny Gert asked while sitting on the wrought-iron bench next to the old-fashioned brass lantern as she broke off pieces of some special cookies she made just for the swans in Mini-Central Park. Granny had a cookie for everything and stored them in her original orange pumpkin cookie jar with the foil covered plate for a lid, swearing that cookies didn’t taste the same stored in anything else.

  The park was situated in the center of town, just down the street from Sacred Heart Church on Mystical Drive. Ever since she’d driven my Bug off the road and nearly into the pond when I was teaching her to drive, she’d fallen in love with the swans, nicknaming them Fred and Ginger. Every Sunday, rain or snow or shine or heat wave as the case may be right now, we walked to the park after church and fed the swans.

  “It was very nice as always,” I responded, fanning my heated cheeks, praying for a break in the temperatures to come soon. It was barely past noon and hot as the dickens, not a cloud in the sky.

  The swans started trumpeting and flapping their wings like they did every time they saw my granny. She clapped her hands, bobbing her plastic rain-cap covered head to the beat and humming along. It didn’t matter if there wasn’t even a remote possibility that it would rain, she wasn’t about to take chances with her perfectly curled and set snow white hair getting ruined.

  She reached into her faded floral apron made out of flour sacks from years ago—Granny reused everything, adhering to waste not want not, and poor Morty paid the price with his bowties made out of old curtains—and tossed a piece of cookie to Ginger. Granny never went anywhere without her apron. Fred tried to gobble it up first, and Granny tsked, pointing her bony arthritic finger at him in a scolding way. “Ladies first, Fred.” Ginger ruffled her feathers, and Fred let out another noisy honk until Granny finally threw him a piece.

  “So, are Mom and Dad all set with their reservations at Divine Inspiration?” I asked, still frustrated with Jo for inviting them, but my mother had been a big help in planning her wedding and Jo liked her.

  My mother was a well-known ruthless lawyer with impeccable tastes and my father was a renowned cardiologist with a stubborn streak back in New York City. I knew they loved me, and I loved them as well, but liking them was a whole different story. It was kind of hard to like people who tried to control my every move and thought I was crazy. No matter how many times I predicted something that they couldn’t explain, they were still non-believers. Things hadn’t been much better since I’d moved out of their house and made a life for myself in Divinity, but we were working on it.

  I just didn’t want to “work” on it too frequently.

  “Oh, things will work out just fine. They always do. That Theodore fellow doesn’t care much for your mother and her demands, but he sure does love my cookies, bless his heart.” She winked. “Now if we can just get her to stop telling him how to run his Inn, everything will be peachy keen. Speaking of family, I think it’s just wonderful that Cole reunited with his cousin. Diana is a doll. They looked so sweet all sitting together in church today right beside Captain Walker. Do you think Grady noticed my new dress?” She flushed, all atwitter.

  I smiled. Captain Grady Walker was much younger than Granny Gert, but that didn’t stop her from outrageously flirting with him every chance she got. Sometimes I suspected he was just humoring her by flirting back, but other times I had to wonder. Granny had always been a striking woman with her snow white hair and snappy brown eyes. A petite dynamo with a heart of gold and an ever-present smile on her face. You couldn’t help but be happy in her presence.

  “You look lovely today,” I said and meant it.

  She beamed. “Raoulle did a wonderful job with my hair this time down at Pump up the Volume. Tracy did a good job for you and Jo, too. She has a gift, you know. Everyone says so. Why, I heard Lulubelle and Wanda saying that very same thing.” She hesitated a beat, and I could see she was dying to tell me something more. “That’s not the only thing they were saying, not that I like to spread gossip or anything, mind you.”

  Lulu was the queen of gossip and our resident Bunco Babe. If anything was going down in Divinity, she knew about it. But she had a heart as big as her cherubic cheeks and triple chins. That’s why I couldn’t understand what she’d been doing with Wanda the witch, who had the features of a rat and was just as mean. I could tell Granny was chomping at the bit for me to pull it out of her.

  “Were they getting their hair done on Friday? I hadn’t noticed. So, how is Wanda these days?” I kept the conversation going rather than coming right out and asking Granny to spread the news, which somehow made it acceptable for her to do so, in her eyes anyway.

  “Poor Wanda. Zeb’s not an easy man to be married to, but lately he’s been a bear. I think that’s why she walks around with her face so pinched all the time. Maybe I’ll give her the latest gossip magazine. They have a miracle cream that’s supposed to smooth out the skin and flatten those nasty wrinkles without scary needles and that Bobox stuff.”

  Granny lived for Friday’s at the salon. She was obsessed with the tabloids and believed in every new trend as though it were gospel. “It’s Botox, and I don’t think a cream is going to change her features, Granny. She looks just like her father. The poor woman got stuck with the wrong set of genes,” I replied.

  “Well, now sweetie, I don’t think new jeans are going to help.” She patted my hand with her brown spotted one as if I were the slow one, but then her brow puckered. “Unless you think they’re too tight. Maybe she should buy a looser pair so more oxygen can get to her face. I think you’re onto something. We’ll just puff her up a bit with air. I’m going to write to that magazine and tell them our idea,” she said all excited like. “Oh my stars, we’ll be famous and puffed air will be the next big thing. Imagine that.”

  I was imaging that, and the image in my mind’s eye wasn’t pretty. “You do that, Granny. In the meantime, why do you think Zeb Erwin is such a bear lately?”

/>   “Because of Cole, of course,” she said without missing a beat. She threw out more cookies to a not-so-patiently waiting Fred and Ginger, who honked away in irritation. Granny laughed. “Look, they’re serenading me. How sweet.”

  More like they were letting her have a piece of their mind. “Wait, what?” I asked as her words registered.

  “They’re singing, silly.”

  “Not that. What you said before about Cole.”

  “Oh that.” Granny dusted her hands on her apron. “Wanda was telling Lulu that Cole beat Zeb out of that big construction job for a new community center in town. Zeb’s business has been around twice as long as Cole’s, yet Cole is more savvy and has found ways to cut costs without cutting quality. I guess he felt that job should have been his, and rumor has it they’re hurting for money, poor things. Wanda isn’t too happy because she has to hear him gripe about it all day. She even said he vowed to get what he deserved one way or another.”

  I frowned. “And what exactly do you think he meant by that?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I do know her ears perked right up when Jo was talking about those priceless heirloom rings of Cole’s and asking you to store them at your place.” Granny winked, and I swear she knew a whole lot more than she let on to people.

  “I am such an idiot. I told Jo to bring them over Saturday morning right in front of the whole salon. Anyone could have heard me, but especially someone with a grudge against Cole. Either Wanda or Zeb could have shown up and waited for the perfect moment to strike.” I jumped to my feet. “Thanks, Granny, you’re the best.”

  “Well, goodness gracious me,” her cheeks turned rosy with pleasure, but then she blinked at me, “where on earth are you going in such a hurry?”

  “Shopping. Are you going to be okay here alone?”

  “Oh, fiddledeedee, I can take care of myself, you silly girl. Been doing it long before you were alive. It’s a beautiful day. I’ll just finish up here and walk back to the church then drive myself home to start dinner. I’m more worried about you. Scary things happen when you get that crazed look in your eyes, young lady.”