“That man is a killer if I ever met one.” Mom stormed past us, into the house, and into the kitchen. “I almost wanted him to make a move on me so I could shock him with my Taser.” She glanced at my scratched arms. “What happened to you?”
“I fell in the bushes.”
“Of course, you did.” She set her dish in the sink and collapsed into a kitchen chair.
“I could help y’all, you know, but obviously I’m not invited into this prestigious group of yours.” Angela came out of the pantry, a chocolate bar in her hand. “I do work at the police station where I’m privy to all sorts of information.”
“I didn’t know you wanted to help.” I pulled out a chair. As the younger sister, I’d never felt like anything but a nuisance to my popular older sister.
“Of course I do. You never asked me.” She joined us at the table, licking the chocolate off her fingers. “What do you want me to find out? One of the officers has a thing for me. I’m sure with a little encouragement, he’ll tell me anything I want to know.” She leaned her elbows on the table and gave me a Cheshire cat smile. “Like why the Edgars are in the Witness Protection.”
“They are?”
“Yep. I snooped on your laptop, saw what you were researching, and put two and two together, then asked some questions. I’m not stupid, you know, and I’m willing to ask more questions, with the proper motivation, of course.”
“What type of motivation?” I crossed my arms.
“That you let me stay here, indefinitely, until I decide I’m ready to move. Where else can I afford a place like this?”
I thrust my hand toward her. “It’s a deal.”
What kind of new horror had I just unleashed by being indebted to Angela?
19
After a week of no new clues or any contact with Matt, life drifted along in a haze. While I caught up on my writing, now half-way through my first mystery, I could go no further until I knew the identity of the murderer.
The Edgars stayed to themselves and Mrs. Henley hadn’t returned home after her suspicious departure. I clipped the leash on Sadie’s collar. A walk would do both of us some good and hopefully release some of my nervous energy.
“Hey, Aunt Stormi.” Dakota stuck his head out of his room. “Can you come here?”
I followed him into his room. He shut the door and pulled the blinds. “I’ve been doing some more investigating, there’s nothing else to do around here, and I’ve stumbled across something you might find interesting.” He lifted the lid on his laptop. “Did you know your Mrs. Henley did some time for assault?”
“What?” I dropped Sadie’s leash and stared at the computer screen. Sure enough, five years ago she served three months in the county jail for bashing a woman over the head with a shovel. The victim allegedly called her son a retard. Hmmm. Very interesting. “Good work, Dakota.”
He grinned. “I’ve been doing some … spying, don’t tell Mom, and Mrs. Henley has left her backdoor unlocked. Wanna take a look inside?”
Did I? We’d be breaking so many laws by taking a look inside, but Mrs. Henley had been gone for a while with no word to anyone. Maybe she was in danger. If so, it was my duty as the head of the Neighborhood Watch to check it out, right? Plus, it wasn’t safe to leave a house unlocked, even in Oak Meadow Estates.
“I should probably go alone. I wouldn’t want you to get into trouble.”
He frowned. “Haven’t I proven that I’m a good detective?” His hurt expression was my undoing.
“Fine, but you’ll stay outside as lookout.” No sense in both of us getting arrested for entering uninvited.
“Whatever.” He grabbed Sadie’s leash and stormed from his room, banging the door against the wall.
Teenagers. I shrugged and followed. While Sadie always walked sedately by my side on walks, she pranced and twirled and yipped when Dakota held the leash. It might have something to do with him playing along with her. I smiled. I really needed to spend more time with my niece and nephew … without breaking the law in order to do so.
“We’ll go through the alley.” Dakota ducked through a loose board behind a vacant house for sale.
I glanced both ways and squeezed through after him. Soon, we stared at the back of Mrs. Henley’s house. A curtain blew from a window over the garage where Rusty lived. The Henley’s sure were trusting people, and Dakota and I were about to violate that trust.
My heart leaped into my throat. I squelched down my guilt and reservations while pushing open the back door to the kitchen. “Hello?” Not that I expected anyone to answer, but I didn’t want to get shot or bashed in the head. Especially if the owner had a prior record. “Mrs. Henley?” I looped Sadie’s leash over a handrail on the back steps.
“They’re not here.” Dakota shook his head. “But … there is a van in the garage. Does she own more than one?”
“I don’t know.” Very curious.
The cloying scent of too much vanilla incense hung over the musty smell of a house closed up for a week. I stepped into a kitchen that looked unlived in. No dirty dishes in the sink, a table set for company, curtains with sharp creases hanging over the sink, and vacuum tracks in the carpet. If we walked across it, we’d leave tracks for sure.
Dakota and I stared at the carpet. “Oh, well.” He marched across it and to a closet next to the front door. “Here’s the vacuum. We’ll make as little footprints as necessary then vacuum on our way out.”
“Then how are we going to get back across?” Who was this kid?
He yanked open a drawer and pulled out a dishtowel. “We’ll step on this as we vacuum.”
I had a bad feeling about our plan. But, curiosity won out. I headed for the garage.
Sure enough, a slate-gray colored van sat inside. What had been the color of the one she had driven off in a week ago? It had looked dark. Maybe I could have Angela check DMV records to see whether Mrs. Henley owned two. I closed the door and surveyed the kitchen, doubting very much I’d find anything of interest.
“Found the office!”
I cringed at Dakota’s shout. If he wanted to be a detective, he’d have to be a bit quieter about it. If we got caught, Angela would kill me, and Mom would be mad because we hadn’t invited her along.
Heading down the hall, walking as softly as I could, I glanced in doors as I went. Every room, bathroom, bedroom, they all looked as if they had recently been cleaned. Except for the fine film of dust over the surfaces. If Mrs. Henley had come home any time in the last week, I couldn’t imagine her not dusting. While I loved my three-story Victorian, her cottage-style home was quaint and decorated like the inside of a magazine. I admitted to a small amount of jealousy.
“I got nothin’,” Dakota said. “No computer, no file cabinet, nada. But …” he pointed at a square patch on the carpet. “I think a cabinet sat there.”
Why would she leave and take her filing cabinet? “Let’s cover our tracks and check out Rusty’s apartment.” I grabbed the vacuum, cleared our tracks, then walked across the trail of dish towels, picking them up as I went. Should I put them in the hamper in the laundry room or fold them and place back in the drawer? I doubted Mrs. Henley would want to use them after I’d walked on them. I tossed them in the full hamper.
Back outside, we headed for the steep stairs on the side of the garage. Just like the house, the apartment door was unlocked. We stepped inside to a clean, sparsely furnished apartment. I froze two feet inside the door.
Plastered along one wall were photos of every person in the neighborhood as they went about their lives. I’d never noticed Rusty carrying a camera, but the evidence didn’t lie. There were photos of Cheyenne and Dakota walking to school, me walking Sadie, even one of me taken through my office window as I worked on my book.
There were several of Mom puttering in the yard, a lot of the Edgarses in different rooms of their house. Several showed them with their heads together, deep in conversation in their backyard. There were some of Torie as she walked arm in a
rm with Bob. Those had a red line drawn through them, as did one of a woman whom I believed to be Mrs. Lincoln. She was planting flowers at the time the photo was taken.
I put a hand over my heart and stumbled backward. I couldn’t believe Rusty was the killer. Why else would he have all these photos? I needed to let Matt know. An anonymous phone call should do the trick.
“Look.” Dakota held up a pad of paper. “It looks like a child’s writing, but there are notes on a bunch of people.” With wide eyes, he handed me the pad.
One note in particular grabbed my attention and stole my breath. The bad man killed Torie. “If Rusty has all these photos, why doesn’t he have one of the murder taking place?”
“Unless he did it,” Dakota said. “He wouldn’t take a selfie of him killing someone.”
True. I tossed the pad on the table under the photos and rushed down the stairs. Grabbing Sadie’s leash, I set off at a fast pace, leaving Dakota to catch up. I had no idea what to do with the information we had found. One … either Rusty was the killer or two … he knew who was and was either dead or had fled with his mother. I wanted to believe number two, but my brain spun faster than the spin cycle of my washing machine.
Once I was away from the house, I dug out my cell phone and called Angela. “I need you to see if you can find out whether Mrs. Henley owned two vehicles and what model and color they are?”
“What did you find?”
“Just do it, please. Also, see what you can dig up on Rusty Henley.”
“I’ve already tried that. He doesn’t have a record for anything more than trespassing.”
I bit my bottom lip. I’d read enough novels to know that Rusty could be the bad man he was talking about. What if he suffered from a split personality? What if he actually was the killer but thought someone else had done the killing while he was nothing more than a witness. Of course, I could be on the wrong track and he was witness to an actual someone else committing the crimes.
“Let me know what you find out, okay? And, Angela, be careful. I have a feeling the you-know-what is about to hit the fan.” I disconnected the call and watched as Dakota dashed toward me, shoving something into his pocket.
“Mrs. Henley just pulled into the driveway, driving a dark gray van.” He bent over to catch his breath. “No sign of Rusty.”
“We need to get out of here.” I set off down the alley as fast as possible with a dog who wanted to stop and sniff every rock and bush. Once back on the street, I crossed and forced myself to slow to a more sedate pace in case anyone was watching. There wasn’t anything unusual about me walking my dog, but running … that would raise questions. I never ran—anywhere.
Mom met us inside the front door, hands on her hips, and a scowl on her face. “Where did you two go?”
“Snooping.” Dakota grinned and raced up the stairs.
I dragged Mom away from the door and filled her in on the day’s findings. “What do you think?” I asked when I’d finished.
She twisted her lips while she thought for a minute. “I don’t think Rusty is capable of killing, multiple personality or not. But … I do believe he knows who the killer is.”
“It was hard enough to get information out of him. It will be harder now since he’s missing.” I perched on the back of the sofa. “If his mother wanted to hide him, I doubt she’ll answer any questions we might have about what he knows.”
“You think she knows what he knows?”
I shrugged. “You seem to know everything I do.”
“True.” She tapped her forefinger against her lips. “Mothers have a sense about such things. Especially when their children are up to no good. Angela is going to have a fit if she finds out Dakota went snooping with you.”
I nodded. “He volunteered. The boy is a genius at finding out information.”
Mom glanced out the window. “Well, if you have questions for Mrs. Henley, now’s your chance. She’s headed over here and looks as mellow as a tornado.”
20
I waited until the second ring of the doorbell, which set Sadie to barking, before I answered the door. “Mrs. Henley, welcome back.”
Her eyes narrowed. “How did you know I was gone?”
“I uh, saw you leave. I was sitting on the front—”
She waved a hand to cut me off. “Doesn’t matter. Since you’re the nosiest neighbor around here, I want to know if you saw someone nosing around my place. It’s evident someone was inside my house.”
“Who besides you has a key?”
“No one in this neighborhood locks their backdoor. Don’t you know that?” She tried to peer around me. “There is also a big pile of dog poo in my backyard. You have the biggest dog around. Have you been letting that monster run loose?”
“Of course not. She is never off her leash.” How could I have missed Sadie’s “business”?
“Where’s that nephew of yours? Kids nowadays have no respect for privacy. I wouldn’t put it past him and his friends to play around in a house when the owner is gone.”
“Was it trashed?”
“No. Very little was out of place, but I know someone was inside.” She crossed her arms and stared at me. “In fact, I found a long, red hair on my carpet.”
The blood rushed from my head to my feet. “What are you insinuating, Mrs. Henley?”
“I’m insinuating nothing. I’m flat out telling you that I think you were in my house while I was gone, nosing around in my personal business.”
“Where’s Rusty? He hasn’t finished the job I assigned him.”
She took a deep breath. “He’s gone away for a few days to my sister in Little Rock. You’re working him to death.”
“Is he all right?” I forced myself to look compassionate and concerned rather than frightened out of my flip-flops. “I found blood near the tool he was using.”
“He’s fine. The boy is as strong as an ox.” She jabbed a finger into my chest. “Stay out of my business. If you try to hurt that boy, I’ll make you pay. Mind you remember that. No one messes with my son.” She whirled and stomped back across the street.
I sagged against the wall while Mom closed the door. “She found a hair.”
“For goodness sakes, you can’t be the only red-head in these parts, but you should have been more careful with the dog.”
“Now what?”
“We call a Neighborhood Watch meeting and basically call out the killer. It will put a target on our backs, but this needs to come to an end.” Mom motioned for me to follow her into the kitchen. “We’ll state on the flier that there will be home-baked goodies and that dinner will be provided. That will bring just about everyone. We can get rid of some of those casseroles, you’ve cooked.”
“That should clean us out of the casseroles.” Then, I’d have room in the freezer for more. “I’ll come up with a flier and have them printed off. Let’s do the meeting tomorrow night at six o’clock.” Like Mom, I was tired of the waiting. We’d light a fire under the residents of Oak Meadow Estates and see what runs out of the flames.
Fifteen minutes later, I had a simple flier made up; twenty copies printed off, and sent Dakota out on his skateboard to take the signs to every pole around the neighborhood. I tried to split the chore between him and his sister, but Cheyenne was having none of it. She didn’t skateboard, didn’t ride a bike, and wouldn’t dare think about strolling around with her brother. I told Dakota I would pay him twenty dollars and he was off as fast as his skateboard would go.
While Mom baked some cookies to go with the chocolate cake she never delivered, I checked the freezer. Three casseroles might be enough, but I decided to make a dish of oven baked spaghetti just in case. There was no harm in having too much food. People were friendlier when their bellies were full.
*
At six p.m. on the dot, I approached the podium in the subdivision’s shared clubhouse, totally surprised that everyone I knew was there. The Edgarses were sitting in the third row on the left, Mrs. Henley in the fro
nt row opposite Mary Ann and a scowling Matt. The Thompsons, Sarah scowling at me, sat in the back row. Across the aisle from them were the Olson’s. Mrs. Olson had a possessive hand on her husband’s arm. There were also several people I had to meet.
The only one missing was Rusty. While I was somewhat relieved that his mother said he was visiting an aunt, I still wasn’t convinced he was out of danger. I cleared my throat and waited for the murmurs to stop. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was going to say, only that I needed to make the killer think I knew more than I did. Since my mother, sister, and nephew now felt compelled to help me solve the murders, I feared more for their safety with each passing day.
“Thank you for coming. As head of the Neighborhood Watch program, I felt compelled to invite all of you here to address some concerns.” I glanced at the notes in front of me. “We’ve had complaints of gunshots to scare off bats, trespassing on other people’s property, dogs leaving packages in people’s yards, and general nosiness into other people’s affairs.”
“Most of which are complaints against you!” Herman Edgars yelled out.
I chose to ignore his comment. “Also, since the murders of Mrs. Lincoln and Victoria Lanham, I felt it necessary to inform the residents of Oak Meadows Estate that the police are doing their best to discover the killer and that those with secrets—” I fixed a stare on the Edgarses and Mrs. Henley, “Well, these secrets are about to be revealed because of the diligence of this watch program.”
Matt’s eyes widened, and he fixed a stern look on me. I glanced away. If anyone could decipher that I was bluffing, it would be him. “Now, secrets are okay, but when these secrets endanger fellow neighbors, they should be brought into the light of day.” Again, I glanced at my suspects. “Taking photographs of other residents without permission is strictly prohibited.” There could no longer be any doubt in Mrs. Henley’s mind that it was I who had trespassed.
Her eyes narrowed. If looks could kill, I’d be bleeding to death on the floor from the daggers she shot in my direction.
Nosy Neighbor: All 7 complete Nosy Neighbor cozy mysteries PLUS: 2 short Christmas stories (A Nosy Neighbor mystery) Page 13
