A Highball and a Low Blow (Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub Series Book 3)

by Constance Barker

  I had a great rebuttal in my head, but all the came out was, “Yes.”

  He scowled. “Great. Now tell me again what you discussed with Jacob when you met with him.”

  And I told him again, and again. We reviewed my meeting with Jacob at the pub, the highlights of our marriage and divorce, my finances, and the weird insurance policy. It took longer than I expected.

  Finally it was ten-thirty and we were all tired. The detective exhaled. “Alright, I think I’m good for now. I need to drive back to Savannah tonight, so I think we’re done. But you need to stay put and let me know if you are going to leave town. For any reason. Got it?”

  “Detective, I was going to visit Savannah in a couple of days. Is there any reason I can’t make a day trip.”

  “No. That’s fine, on one condition. You need to stop by the station and meet with me again. It will give me time to organize this mess and come up with more questions I want to ask you.”

  “I can do that.”

  The sullen man nodded. “Deal then. I’m in the office mid-afternoon that day. Meet me at two-thirty at the station.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. See you in two days, then.”

  I rose and left. Aunt Mae followed and grabbed me at the front door. “Ginger, sweetie. Be careful. This man thinks you may have done this. Don’t do anything to convince him further.”

  I smiled. “I have no intention of dealing with Mr. Sunshine anymore than I have to. But I won’t sit back and ignore false allegations.”

  The voice from the hallway cut like an envelope flap on a licking tongue. “I heard that. And I’ll have you know that I have been called worse names. You couldn’t do better.” The detective came over and stood next to Mae. “Don’t forget. Two-thirty. Two days from now. My office.”

  “I’ll be there.” I turned, unlocked the door, and stepped out into the cool night air. I needed some distance from the gruff detective. His insistence on making me a suspect was beyond troubling, it was unacceptable. There was new, urgent work to do tomorrow.

  Chapter Six

  TOSSING AND TURNING all night, I pondered why Jacob bought an insurance policy just a few months ago with me as the beneficiary. The more I thought about it the stranger it seemed; it made no sense. I woke early, eager to start digging into this new mystery.

  I got out of bed, hastily ran through my morning routine, and left the apartment to immediately dive into the new development. It was seven-thirty in the morning and I loudly knocked on the door. Ida answered, wearing a blue robe and a blue scrunchie held her shoulder length brown hair in a pony tail. “Are you serious? I just got up.”

  I pushed my way in. “I need to talk with you and there’s no time to waste.”

  Ida moaned. “I’m starting to regret offering my own office as the hack shack.”

  “Look, one of those insurance policies names me as the beneficiary. I saw it last night at the police station with my own eyes. Why?”

  Ida rubbed her eyes. “Really? I haven’t even had my coffee yet. But if you must, after you told me about your Aunt’s call last night, I set up some special searches to look for more info.”

  “Did you find anything?”

  Ida chuckled. “Not if I haven’t had my coffee. Coffee first.”

  So we went to her kitchen and made coffee together. I told Ida all about the meeting last night with the crusty detective, John Eckart. “He really thinks I may have done it for the insurance money.”

  Ida sipped her fresh coffee. “Son of a ... I do it every morning. That damn thing brews so hot.” She grimaced and pressed her hand to her mouth. “And this detective thing really sucks for you. But I was thinking, maybe Jacob felt guilty about cheating on you and did it as a kind of peace offering?”

  “Do you realize how stupid that sounds? This is Jacob Allen we’re talking about. While we were married he never even mentioned life insurance. And you already learned that his current girlfriend had to cut a deal with him to get him to take out a policy. He would never take one out on his own, especially benefiting his ex-wife.”

  “I guess you’re right.” She blew on her coffee then took a sip. “Let’s go see what my friendly internet spider-men found.”

  We moved to the office and Ida sat and plunked a few keys. “Looks like we did find who issued the policies and they all came from one agency in Savannah, C. Brown and Associates.”

  “Well, that’s something we can check tomorrow when we visit Savannah.”

  Ida worked a bit more. “This is so odd. I still don’t have a copy of the policy. But it looks like a man named Jake Belanger was involved too. His name appears in some of the correspondence I see.”

  “Okay, that’s good. We need to find out who he is.” My phone rang. I took it out and flipped it open to see it was Aunt Mae once again calling. “Hello, Auntie. You’re calling early.”

  “I know, honey. But it’s eight o’clock and I knew you would be up and about.”

  “So what’s up?”

  “I thought you might want to come by for a minute when you can. I got the report on Jacob’s car from the state labs. And it’s unusual, to say the least. Since you knew Jacob well, I thought you might like to take a look. See if what they found means anything to you.”

  “Okay, I’ll be right over.” I closed the flip phone and tilted my head back.

  It must have been longer than I thought because I realized Ida was waiting breathlessly. She flipped her hands in the air, palms up. “Well?”

  “I’m sorry. Was just thinking. Aunt Mae has the lab report on Jacob’s car. She asked me to head over and take a look.”

  “Well, I have plenty to do here so you should go see what you can learn from her.”

  “You’re right. See ya later.” And with that, I headed out once more for the police station. This was becoming an unwanted daily routine.

  As was usual during business hours, Eunice greeted me at the station front desk and waved me on into the station. I found Aunt Mae hard at work and she looked surprisingly rumpled. She studied something on her computer screen while I took the seat on the side of her desk. She rubbed her red eyes. “Hello, sweetie. While we were meeting with Detective Eckart last night, the state techs emailed us the report on Jacob’s car. I’ve been studying it since I got here early this morning. It makes no sense.”

  “Why?”

  She popped up a picture of it on her screen and spun the monitor so I could see. “Take a look.” After a moment, Aunt Mae spun the monitor back into place. “The device wired into Jacob’s car is actually a collection of parts. They were set up to shock him through the steering column, like we suspected. But the electronic parts are a mix of modern and clever to low tech and clumsy.”

  “Well, electrocuting someone with their own car is pretty unusual. Not the kind of doohickey you buy off the shelf. So I guess you would have to use whatever you could find to make something like that work.”

  Aunt Mae sighed. “Yeah, but I was thinking this might be like bomb-making. People who build things like this to kill almost always have a signature in the way they construct their devices. But this sounds like it was just thrown together.”

  “Well, that explains why it didn’t kill him. But it still worked well enough to put him in a coma.”

  “Yeah, unfortunate for your ex-husband. Shoot!” Aunt Mae scrolled down a little. “Whoever did this was smart enough to avoid leaving prints. The techs even looked for hairs or something with DNA left behind when the device was installed. But nothing.”

  There was brief pause till I sat up straight. “Hey, where is the car?”

  “It’s impounded at Donnie Freeman’s garage.”

  “I was hoping to take a look.”

  “That’s really not a good idea and you already saw the picture. It’s evidence.” She paused. “But we can go over and look if we don’t touch. And we found tire prints in the mud next to where Jacob was parked. We can also visit the public parking lot to show you where.”

  �
�That sounds like a plan.” I rose.

  Aunt Mae moved some papers on her desk till she found her car keys. “Let’s go. I’ll drive, it’ll be faster.”

  I was surprised. Aunt Mae took the lone police car owned by Potter's Mill. I buckled in and felt out of place in the cruiser. I even slouched a little in my seat to try and stay out of sight. We arrived at Donnie Freeman’s garage, which was also used by our police as an impound. Aunt Mae went into the office and emerged with another set of keys. She jumped back into the driver’s seat. “Donnie keeps impounded cars locked up next door. I’m going to move the cruiser to block the entrance while we look at the car. I don’t want the chain of custody for this evidence ruined by a curious visitor. You can meet me at the gate.”

  I exited the car and walked over to the impound area. Through the chain link fence, I could see there were only a few cars inside. And it was obvious that most of the cars inside had been there for a while.

  Aunt Mae moved the police car, blocking the driveway, and then got out and came over to unlock the gate. She flung it open and we stepped inside. She pointed her finger at the cars. “Now, don’t touch anything. It would contaminate the evidence. Understand.”

  “Yes. I got it. No touching.” I eyed the odd sight. There were a number of large piles covered with plastic sheeting.

  Aunt Mae took the plastic off one pile, revealing the seats from Jacob’s car sitting on yet another piece of plastic underneath. She laughed. “It looks like the techs were thorough.”

  “Holy cow! They took his car apart!”

  Aunt Mae cocked her head to one side. “Only way to look and not miss anything.”

  I saw a large, locked metal box, like the kind they use at construction sites. “What’s that?”

  “That’s where they locked up the device. Let’s take a look. I have the key for that too.” Aunt Mae put the key in the old-fashioned padlock and twisted, freeing the metal bolt. She opened the lid and we peeked inside. “There it is, sweetie. I wanted to see it in person too and it looks different from the picture in the report.”

  “Aunt Mae, I’m not sure what I’m looking at, but it doesn’t look like much.”

  “Well, Jacob can be glad for that or he would have ended up dead.”

  “A bunch of the parts are copper.”

  “Yeah, but copper conducts electricity well. Makes sense to use in a device like this. Okay, I think we are done here.” Aunt Mae closed and re-locked the lid. “I have to go back inside to return the keys and fill out some paperwork to document our visit.”

  I pointed to another odd looking pile. “What’s that?”

  Aunt Mae pulled off the covering and we saw sales binders and folders. I recognized the name printed on the binders. It was the distributor who now supplied my beer and liquor, Bev Serve. “That’s to be expected for a salesman. Now we should go, sweetie.” Aunt Mae recovered the sales binders and car seats with plastic and we headed out of the impound pen.

  I got back into the cruiser while Aunt Mae returned the keys to the office. Then she returned to the car, buckled in and we were off. While turning onto Main Street she glanced over at me. “Ginger, did any of that mean anything to you?”

  “Well, Jacob was definitely a good salesman and his car is packed with sales literature. So he was working a respectable job. Nothing funny about any of that. The device, though, I don’t know. I still think it’s odd to see so much copper.”

  “I appreciate your input.” She turned off Main Street. “We’re here.”

  Our next destination was the public parking lot. It sat between the Potter’s Mill Oracle and the custom motorcycle shop owned by Guardrail and Dog Breath. The lot sits a couple of doors down from The Fluffy Pillow, but the B&B uses the large lot to provide enough parking for all its guests.

  Aunt Mae drove through the lot and I saw an area taped off in neon yellow. “Well, there’s no doubt where he parked. You police like that tape.”

  Aunt Mae chuckled. “I know, it’s cliche but the yellow tape works. Keeps people out of an area even though it’s just a flimsy piece of plastic.”

  We parked and exited the car. I walked over to the roped off area. “Well, not much to see but lots of pavement.”

  Aunt Mae smiled. “So you think. Yes, it’s an asphalt lot, but see that spot over there.” She pointed. “It’s a low spot. Water puddles there and a thin layer of dirt has collected over time. There’s enough dirt there now to form mud when wet, and there was a tire print in that mud thanks to the morning dew, right next to Jacob’s car.”

  I huffed. “Well, that’s kind of interesting. I guess. But how can we know if it was the one who rigged his car?”

  “We can’t. But that mud puddle is pretty fragile and it’s a fair assumption that the tire print is pretty fresh or it wouldn’t have been good enough for us to get an impression to analyze.”

  I folded my arms. “That makes sense. Did the print mean anything?”

  “Well, the computer says it’s most likely from a truck. That particular tire is used almost exclusively on full-size pickups. And there was an irregular spot, most likely a plug to fix a hole in the tread.”

  “In rural Georgia, that doesn’t narrow it down too much, does it?”

  Aunt Mae laughed. “The Sheriff said exactly the same thing.”

  I swiveled my head for one last look. “Well, I guess we’re done here. Thanks. It’s just as easy for me to walk back to the pub from here. I’ll see ya later. There’s a lot to think about.”

  Aunt Mae nodded. “You got that right. Lots to mull on. If you think of anything, or realize something new after seeing all this, let me know. Thanks, sweetie.”

  “Will do. Hey, by the way, tomorrow Piper and I are heading to Savannah. Is there anything you want me to do? Or do you need anything from there?”

  “No, honey, but it’s sweet of you to offer. Eckart is taking care of things on that end. And by the way, make sure you’re on time to see him tomorrow.”

  “Thanks for the reminder. But I’m keenly aware of our meeting. And I don’t want to do anything to make Mr. Sunshine more grouchy.”

  “Okay, honey. I’m heading back to the station. Be careful tomorrow. Some of the information I am getting out of Savannah is concerning. That device found on Jacob’s car indicates that some real hardcore criminals might be involved. Please watch yourself.”

  “I always do Auntie. And Piper will be with me. We’ll be fine.”

  Aunt Mae kissed my cheek and then got back in her car. She waved at me as she left the lot.

  Chapter Seven

  I CHANGED MY MIND. Instead of heading back to the pub, I made my way back to Ida’s house. I knocked and she yelled through the door. “It’s open.” I let myself in and could see that she showered and dressed while I was gone.

  I joined her in the kitchen where she was playing with her phone and getting more coffee. “You smell good.”

  Ida flicked her hair. “It’s the shampoo. Scooter likes it.”

  “Geez, he’s even picking your soap now?”

  “No, I like it too, and if makes him happy, well...”

  I rolled my eyes. “Back in the sane world, I was wondering. Can you search the internet for things based on a description?”

  “Maybe, depends on what you mean by description.”

  “I saw the device installed on Jacob’s car. It’s unusual and Aunt Mae said things like that are usually a signature. I was wondering if you could find something online based on how it was used, along with the basic description of it.”

  “Yeah, that should be possible.”

  Ida and I headed for her office, now our current hack shack. Ida typed in the description of what I saw and how the device was employed. She gasped. “That’s not good.”

  “What did you find?”

  “A story from a local television station in Savannah about a moonshiner who was killed when he started his truck. He was electrocuted. And the device looked like this.” She pointed at her screen.
I saw a picture of the device found by police in that case.

  I stared at the image. “I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.”

  Ida leaned back. “So I’m guessing it looks similar to what you saw with Mae.”

  “Yeah. Not exact but pretty close. And lots of copper, just like I saw this morning.”

  “So what does this tell us?”

  “Well, it depends. Did they find who committed this crime?”

  Ida read for a few seconds. “Nope, but the article says they suspected another shiner, named Sammy Mason. But he goes by Rotgut.”

  “Rotgut? That’s a horrible nickname, yuck.”

  Ida chuckled. “If he’s the one who did this, then he's named appropriately.”

  “I guess. After all, you wouldn’t call a homicidal moonshiner something like Snuggle Buns.”

  “Nope. Rotgut seems more appropriate.” Ida read on. “Oh, look at this. This is not his only suspected crime. It says here that Rotgut is suspected of killing two other people. Ouch, and one was with a shotgun. Seems they haven’t found enough to charge him though.”

  “This must have been what Aunt Mae meant.”

  Ida spun and looked at me like I was an orange in a barrel of apples. “What?”

  “She told me to be careful. That some really bad people were involved in this. Rotgut seems to qualify as real bad people.”

  Ida made a face. “I suspect bad people is the nicest thing Rotgut ever gets called.”

  I sighed. “You’re probably right.”

  There was a knock at the door. Ida looked up. “I sent a text to Piper, told her you were here. That must be her.” Ida got up out of her plush office chair and went to answer the door.

  I looked at the picture of Rotgut in the article. It was a fuzzy picture, but his size, the bald head, and evil stare made it clear that he was not the kind of person who worries about his Facebook page.