Under the Gun

by Kelsey Browning

  It still made her sick that she’d been forced to use this place as a dumping ground for precious items from her past, like Daddy’s pocket watches, which were now lost for good. But thankfully, Maggie had been able to save Lil’s wedding rings.

  J&R’s owner Rick had never asked too many questions, and he’d done right by her. Hopefully he could shed some light on one of their problems today.

  Rick’s face lit up when he spotted her. “Miss Lillian?”

  “Hello, Rick.” She walked over to the counter and shook his hand.

  “It’s good to see you. You look great. I wondered whatever happened to you.” He leaned his thick forearms on the glass countertop, giving Sera an appreciative up and down, and then a spark of recognition hit as he saw Maggie. “You. You’re the one who came in and picked up Miss Lillian’s wedding set.”

  “That’s me.”

  “You bring me some good stuff today?” Rick asked Lil.

  His face was so eager, she almost felt bad that this was purely a fact-finding mission.

  “Afraid not.” Lil glanced into the cases where so many people’s memories were lined up under the LED lighting. How many pawned items ended up here? Rick had given her extensions several times to keep her from losing her valuables, but he couldn’t possibly do that for everyone. “I’m looking for something.”

  Rick spread his arms. “Possibilities are endless. What’s your pleasure, ma’am?”

  “A couple things actually,” Lil said, glancing around the large space. Chock full of stuff, the pawnshop appeared to be a prosperous business all year long. “Has anyone brought in a pair of ladies’ Western gloves bedazzled with gems and edged in gold fringe?”

  “Can’t say they have.”

  Although she’d known it was a long shot, disappointment settled inside her. Then a thought occurred to her. They couldn’t look at this as an either-or scenario. Maybe someone had taken the gauntlets for both a memento and money.

  “How about a handful of sapphires, rubies, and diamonds about yay big?” She made a quarter-inch opening between her thumb and forefinger.

  He laughed. “Now that, I would remember. Haven’t seen anything of the kind.”

  Shoot. “Didn’t figure so, but if you do, let me know.”

  “Not the style I’d picture you wearing, Miss Lillian,” Rick teased. But he glanced over at Sera as if he was imagining her in a little cowgirl outfit, probably with a whip.

  Lil pulled out the list of Abby Ruth’s guns. “I’m actually hoping you’ve recently seen this collection or anything from it.”

  Rick’s brows pulled together as he dragged his finger down the page. “Nice set here. Yours?”

  “No. A dear friend’s. Stolen from my property, but the local authorities haven’t been able to track them down yet. I thought maybe you’d be able to help me.”

  “Haven’t seen anything like this in my place, but we’re required by law to register all guns passing through our shops on the Pawn Tracker Alert database. I can check that for you.”

  “Would you?”

  “Anything for you, Miss Lillian. It’s so good to see you. I was worried something happened to you. You were here like clockwork for such a long time.”

  Boy, wouldn’t he be surprised to know where she’d been all that time. “Tell the truth. Gal my age, you thought maybe I kicked the bucket and you missed out on the estate sale.” She gave him a wink and he blushed. “Guilty. I can read you, Rick.”

  “Well, you did always have neat stuff. So where have you been?”

  “Folks my age are always checking items off their bucket lists. I went somewhere I thought I’d never, ever visit, much less spend over a year.”

  “Wow,” Rick said. “Sounds like a place I should take the missus. Where’d you go?”

  Maggie coughed, and Sera grabbed Lil’s arm. “Oh, Lil, don’t make us listen to all that vacation stuff again.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re back,” Rick said.

  “No one is happier than me.”

  “Let me check the database for these guns.” He tapped on a keyboard at the end of the counter as Sera, Maggie, and Lil meandered through the shop.

  Maggie rounded the corner with a teal plastic box. “You won’t believe what I found. Look at this. Only forty dollars. Do you know what one of these costs new?” She plopped the carrier on top of a table and opened it up.

  “Looks like a giant turkey carver,” Lil said.

  “A Sawzall, Lil. Do you know how many times I could’ve used one of these over the past year?”

  “Gracious, no.”

  Rick said, “I’ll give you ten percent off today for bringing my old friend back in.”

  “Sold,” Maggie said, carrying the item to the counter.

  “Sorry, Miss Lillian. No luck on those guns, but do you have an internet connection back home?”

  “Of course we do. We’re old, not dead.”

  He laughed. “I’ve jotted down this website you can check. Guns like those on your list may show up here. You can keep an eye out for them, but you promise me if they do pop that you’ll call your local authority to make the contact. They should be watching this website, but let’s be real, they’re busy.”

  Lil smiled. “Thank you. I knew you’d help us.”

  “Don’t be a stranger.”

  As they left the shop, Lil lagged in the doorway. When she glanced at the ruler along the edge of the door this time, unlike the weekend before she headed off to the big house, she seemed to be back to her same old five feet.

  Chapter 13

  Sera was eager to get the brainstorming process underway. They needed to gather a list of suspects and work this case quickly. If they didn’t get started as soon as possible, Marcus would be ready to leave Summer Shoals, and she’d be left out of the investigation. The thought of that ate at her because she’d missed the excitement of solving cases with the girls.

  But her mood fell as she pulled into the long driveway leading to Summer Haven. The Maserati that Marcus had rented was parked right out front. “I don’t think Marcus will understand our interest in solving these cases,” Sera said. “We might have to put off our brainstorming until he leaves.” She slammed the gear shift into park and then followed Lil and Maggie inside. “I’m sorry.”

  Maggie’s eye narrowed. “Wait a minute. Where’s Abby Ruth? Her truck’s been missing so much lately that I didn’t notice at first.”

  “I bet she’s with Jenny, but I’ll shoot a text to be sure,” Sera said.

  “Since we have to delay talking about the case, I’m going to make a quick run to the market.” Lil took the list from the refrigerator then headed out the door. But there was no spring in her step even though she normally enjoyed grocery shopping.

  They had to get Lil’s name cleared. It was hard to see her feeling so down. And the last thing Sera wanted was for her safe and happy world here at Summer Haven to feel as if it was beginning to unravel at the edges. They needed to set everything right.

  So rather than seeking out Marcus, she took her laptop out to the front porch. Settling into one of the rockers, she began looking up information about that eerie orb, and she checked out the website Rick mentioned.

  She’d already been sitting on the front porch for an hour when Marcus came outside. She didn’t have to turn around to know it was him, because his familiar ocean-scented aftershave wafted with him. Was it awful that she hoped he didn’t want her to join him on a scouting mission this time? She lowered the screen on the laptop to keep him from asking questions about her research.

  “I better get a move on or I’ll be late for my appointment to see an old cabin north of here.” He glanced at his watch. “I’ll see you in a while.”

  “Potential location for the romantic comedy you were telling me about?” she asked.

  “Yes, that or the thriller I’m also considering,” he responded as he headed for his car.

  She watched him leave. He loved his work, and when he had a
fresh idea, he reminded her of a six-year-old with a frog in his pocket. Any other wife would probably be worried that her husband was off running around to parts unknown. But she’d never worried about Marcus like that.

  Relieved to have alone time with the girls, she tucked her laptop under her arm and made a mad dash inside.

  Maggie stood at the kitchen counter stirring up another batch of her tea. At the rate they’d been drinking that mix since all this crazy gauntlet and gun stuff had gone down, they might need to consider a group membership to AA.

  Sera set her laptop on the counter next to the pitcher of tea. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that glowing orb from the mausoleum.”

  “I know what you mean. I haven’t been able to shake it either,” Maggie said.

  “At first, I thought it was Jessie trying to communicate with me because we were so close, but after my research, I’m not so sure.”

  Maggie stopped stirring and set the spoon in the sink. “What did you find out?”

  Sera tipped back the laptop’s screen so Maggie could see it. “Lots of information about similar sightings.”

  “At our mausoleum? Not ours, but…oh, heck, you know what I mean.”

  “Not only there. Apparently there’s a history of those sightings all over the place, but I found several accounts of them right there at the Holy Innocence Mausoleum,” Sera said.

  Maggie moved in closer. “Really? I’m surprised we never heard anything about it. Stuff like that usually spreads pretty quickly around here. What does it say?”

  “Unfortunately, the orb won’t get us any closer to finding Jessie’s gauntlets, but…” Sera held up a finger and broke into a grin. “It could be a miracle.” She clicked a bookmark to YouTube and pointed at the screen. “See. It looks exactly like what we saw.”

  “It does.” Maggie watched intently. “I thought you couldn’t record ghosts.”

  “Well, maybe orbs and ghosts are different. I don’t know, but it says the orb is believed to be Katherine St. Simon, Lady of Sorrows and Healing.”

  “Sorrows and healing, what does that mean?”

  “She’s rumored to have healing powers. There are several more recorded accounts on the internet of people who’ve visited her, let her energy surround their bodies, and whatever disease or ailment they suffered from began to get better.”

  “Oh my goodness! Are you thinking about Abby Ruth?” Maggie grabbed Sera’s arm. “This is big.”

  “I think so too. We’d be crazy not to at least try it.”

  Maggie’s grin faded. “She’ll never go for it.”

  Sera chewed on her lip. “She has to. I wonder if Jenny would help us get her to the mausoleum?”

  “She’d be as skeptical as her mother.”

  “You’re right, we’ll have to get clever. We’ll get Abby Ruth there, one way or the other.”

  She heard Lil call out from the front door over the sound of plastic bags rustling, “Home from the grocery.”

  “Coming,” Sera called back, but Lil had already made her way halfway to the kitchen, so Sera grabbed a couple of the bags she had looped over her arm and carried them to the counter.

  “Did you hear back from Jenny? Abby Ruth’s with her, right?” Lil asked Sera. “I couldn’t get this whole mess off my mind while I was at the Piggly Wiggly. I almost missed that cantaloupes were on two for four dollars.”

  “The cancer mess, gauntlet mess, or gun mess?” Maggie asked.

  “All of it,” Lil said.

  Sera leaned against the counter as Maggie and Lil went through the normal routine of unpacking the groceries and putting them away. “Well, the good news is Jenny took the bullet and told her mom about the missing guns.”

  “Oh,” Lil and Maggie breathed together.

  “The not-so-good news is she said her mom was so spun up that it scared her. She wants us to keep her mom out of the investigation.”

  “That could be a challenge, but Jenny has a point. The last thing Abby Ruth needs right now is another burden on her mind,” Maggie said as she dumped grapes into a colander in the sink and began to wash them.

  Sera plucked a grape from the strainer. “You’re right. She should concentrate on her health. We can take care of the rest.”

  Looking livelier than she had earlier, Lil pulled a piece of paper from her purse. “When can we start that suspect list?”

  “I say we get down to it right now.” Excitement streaming through her, Sera tossed the grape in the air and caught it in her mouth. She chewed and grinned. “I think it’s time to break out the paper and markers.”

  Lil gawked at her. “I don’t think this is an appropriate time for an art project.”

  Maggie grinned at Lil and motioned toward the formal dining room. “Watch and learn, my friend.”

  * * *

  Lil settled into one of the chairs at the table and rested her hands on the arms. It was obvious Maggie and Sera had some type of ESP system, and it sometimes hurt to be on the outside, but she was learning that their silent communication was helpful when it came to solving crimes.

  Maggie left the room and came back in wearing a roll of duct tape like a bangle bracelet.

  Sera skipped back into the room, her arms loaded with brightly colored markers and a roll of newsprint.

  Lil thought she might swallow her tongue as she watched Maggie help Sera unroll the paper, then yank a wide length of duct tape and slap it against the beautiful flocked wallpaper to secure the paper. She’d taken no more care than if she’d been posting flyers in the Piggly Wiggly’s front window.

  Lil forced down her protest at the ill treatment of her wall coverings. That stuff was sixty years old anyway, so she tried to keep perspective. What was a little adhesive among friends?

  Besides, it was time to get serious about all these problems. It was like the universe was suddenly against Lil. Abby Ruth’s guns being stolen from Summer Haven and Lil being caught on film as the last person to touch the precious Jessie gauntlets. A shiver crawled her spine. I hope all this isn’t a sign I wasn’t supposed to get out of prison early, because going back would be my undoing.

  “Okay, what do we know for sure?” Sera brandished a big purple marker, and Lil prayed silently it wouldn’t bleed through the paper.

  “The guns went missing before last Sunday,” Maggie said.

  Sera wrote the date on the paper. “And Abby Ruth left when?”

  “Doesn’t matter, because we know that whoever stole the guns cut the inside lock, which means it couldn’t have happened until after we moved Abby Ruth’s things into the trailer and forgot to lock it.” At Maggie’s wince, Lil smiled gently and patted her hand. She knew her dear friend was still beating herself up over that mistake.

  Sera’s eyes lit up. “Perfect. A tight timeframe. Much better. Good job, Lil.”

  A swell of pride flooded Lil’s chest.

  Maggie piped up. “All the guns were unusual enough that they can’t be pawned easily.”

  Sera wrote, RARE GUNS, and then drew an arrow. “So we could be looking at someone who needs money or is a gun collector.”

  “If we’re looking for a collector, that would be the reason we haven’t come across them in the Pawn Tracker Alert Database. Because they wouldn’t be looking to sell the guns.”

  “Or,” Lil said, raising her hand in the air, “like us, the thief didn’t know those guns would be hard to get rid of.”

  “Good point. Only that broadens things out again.” Sera tapped the pen against the palm of her hand. “How about we add known thieves? Maybe Jenny can get some insight from Teague on that. And Lil, you know everyone in this town. Certainly we can dig up known baddies around here.”

  Lil got up and grabbed a pad of paper “I can do that.”

  Sera pulled in a deep breath. “You know, it wouldn’t be so farfetched to suspect Jessie’s family. They were always so jealous of her fame. Always tapping at her door for money.”

  Maggie said, “Maybe you cou
ld talk to them since you were so close with Jessie. See what they’re thinking.”

  “I can take that one,” Sera said. “Who else?”

  Lil chimed in. “A memorabilia collector? And those Jessie lookalikes still seem suspicious to me.”

  “Yes, Lil. Good one.” Maggie grabbed another marker and walked over to jot that on the paper. “Anyone else?”

  A grin spread across Sera’s face. “Maybe a crossdresser with a fringe fetish?”

  “For goodness sake,” Lil exclaimed.

  “Hey, it’s not that farfetched.”

  “Maybe not in Los Angeles,” Lil said. “But it is in these parts.”

  Maggie wrote CD w/a FF down at the very bottom of the page. “Who all was around the house between the time we moved Abby Ruth’s things to the trailer and when we discovered the guns were missing?”

  “The mailman left a package at the front door,” Sera said.

  “I think Teague had at least one Little League practice on the field out back,” Lil added. “So anyone connected with the team.”

  “Goodness gracious.” Maggie blew out a slow breath. “There are at least twenty kids on Grayson’s baseball team, which means thirty to forty parents.”

  “Was there anyone else here at Summer Haven?” Lil said, then noticed a strange expression on Sera’s face. “What are you thinking?”

  “N…nothing.” She quickly looked away and concentrated on the paper in front of her.

  “Lil,” Maggie said softly, “I think we have to add Charlie to this list. I know how much you liked him, but he spent two nights—”

  “I’d sooner suspect Angelina herself than Charlie.” Her shoulders rolled in and she slumped in her chair. “I’m telling you, that boy had manners. Something you don’t see much of these days.”

  Sera hmmed and drew a little star next to Charlie’s name.

  “Anyone else?” Maggie asked. “There have been a lot of strangers in town lately.”

  Lil sent Maggie an appreciative smile. Yes, she might be throwing Lil a bone, but the intent was nice.