Death Of A Deputy: A Culinary Cozy Mystery (A Murder In Milburn Book 2)

by Nancy McGovern

  “You live with your mother and sister.” Nora smiled. “I didn’t take you to be a domestic animal.”

  “Did you picture me living in a cave with a few bears?” Sean raised an eyebrow. “Well, I tried renting an apartment in town a few years but, to be honest, once I got over the stigma of living with my mom and sister, I realized it’s really nice to have all the housework taken care of so I can focus on being sheriff. Besides, I got a nice separate entrance to my room.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she blushed.

  “Sean, don’t be gross.”

  “I was going for smooth,” Sean said, sounding glum. “Oh well. Have some lemonade?”

  “No thanks.” Nora sat down, and he sat down next to her. They stared ahead in silence for a few moments, admiring the garden and the grounds in front of them. To their left were the stables, with six chestnut horses now safely ensconced, eating oats out of their bags.

  “Your father was very successful,” Nora said.

  “My entire family built this ranch up,” Sean said. “Ma handles it now and she keeps telling me it’s my duty to handle it someday. Between you and me, I think it should go to Julie. She’s the one who loves it. For me, it’s just the place I come to sleep.”

  “But you’re happy here,” she said. It was true. Despite everything, he was.

  “You know, I haven’t had a vacation in five years,” Sean said. “Or at least, it feels that way. I know the townsfolk were kind of mean to me, but the truth is, they were right. I was very emotionally involved in the case. I needed space and time. I needed to delegate it, instead of trying to solve it myself.” He took a sip of the lemonade and smacked his lips. Then said, “Nora, the truth is, I wouldn’t have been very good at solving the case. No doubt about it.”

  “Did you meet your replacements?” she asked.

  “Jason and Rudy.” Sean frowned a little. “Mayor Almand requested them, yes? I can’t say I care for them too much. They’re a bit… rough.”

  “They’re goons,” Nora said. “Nothing short of it.”

  “Nora, don’t judge so fast,” Sean said. “Detective Jason was in the most vicious unit in NYC. He’s seen things that the most battle hardened of men would shudder at. He’s used to dealing with absolute gutter rats. So yes, he does have his techniques, but his heart’s in the right place.”

  “I took a witness to him, and Jason was terrifying,” Nora said. “He was literally suggesting torture to get information out.”

  “Who was the witness?” Sean looked interested.

  “Ricky,” Nora said. “I thought I heard him extort someone, but I could have been wrong. All I really heard him say was that he hadn’t talked about what he saw and he wanted fifty.”

  Sean steepled his fingers and put them under his chin. “Sounds pretty clear to me. He was after someone. So he’s in custody now?”

  “No,” Nora said. “The detective was terrifying him, and Ricky was refusing to speak. Plus, he’d managed to wipe his phone clean of data, so I just… I made them let him go.”

  “You what?” Sean leapt up.

  “I couldn’t leave him there, Sean. They were threatening to convict him for assaulting them when he’d done no such thing. If I’d left him there, they’d have had him sign a false confession to murdering Wallis or something.”

  “Nora, you fool!” Sean thundered. “I’m telling you, Jason is rough, but he’s a good detective. You’ve given Ricky the chance to escape. Come on! We need to go nab him. Where did you see him last?”

  Sean was racing down the garden to his garage, and Nora followed him.

  Opening it, he pulled the tarp off a ’65 Ford Thunderbird. Despite herself, Nora whistled. “That’s a lovely car.”

  “Forget the car,” Sean said. “We’ve got to find the boy.”

  Nora jumped in after him, and he gunned the engine, roaring off down the drive.

  “He could be anywhere,” Sean said, thinking aloud. “But let’s see. Knowing these kids, they tend to have fixed places they go to. I know he was staying at the local dive motel.”

  They reached the motel, and Sean walked up to the reception.

  A bald man was reading the paper and scratching his belly. He started as Sean thumped the desk.

  “Sheriff.” He looked surprised. “I mean, Sean, can I get you a room?”

  “No,” Sean said. “You can tell me where the kid is staying. Ricky.”

  “Ricky what?” The man opened a register book and began scanning it.

  “Ricky… Richard Tanner,” Sean said. “Slim, tall, floppy hair.”

  “Oh that kid,” the bald man said. “He’s in 602. They’re all accessible separately. You go to the building behind this one.”

  Sean nodded, and raced off, Nora behind him.

  “Sean, calm down,” she said. “Ricky hasn’t done it, and he won’t talk about who did. It’s no use going after him.”

  “Nora, I don’t really care,” Sean said. “Don’t you understand? Ricky was extorting the murderer, a silly dangerous thing for a fifteen-year-old to do. He would have been safer in custody.”

  “What are you saying?” Nora asked, her heart suddenly coming into her throat.

  “That you put Ricky’s life in danger by not letting detective Jason keep him in jail,” Sean said. “Here we are. 602.”

  He banged on the door. “Open! Police!”

  Nothing.

  He banged again. “Open up! I’m warning you!”

  Nothing.

  There was a row of doors, all eerily silent, all closed. Somewhere, a window creaked.

  Sean put his boot to the door and pushed. To their surprise, it creaked open.

  “Right,” Sean said, pulling Nora to the side and pulling out his cell phone. “We’re calling for back up.”

  In half an hour, three police cars swarmed the motel, and the door was wide open. Nora’s heart was still pounding against her chest when Detective Jason came out of the room.

  “Nothing,” he said, shrugging. “Sorry Sean. The place is empty. Clean as a whistle.”

  “No sign of him,” Sean asked. “I got a bad feeling, Jason.”

  “Well, if some people hadn’t been over smart…” Jason gave Nora a look. “Maybe things would have ended differently. For now, my guess is he’s decided to run away, out of town.” Detective Jason pushed his face against Nora, looked her in the eye. “Now, if there’s anything you remember, anything at all, I suggest, for the boy’s sake, that you tell me.”

  Nora shook her head. “I have no clue where he could be.”

  “What about the place where you found him?” Sean asked. “The woods? He could have gone back there.”

  “It’s been two hours since I last saw him,” Nora said. “I don’t know.”

  “It’s getting dark too,” the detective said. “Sean, I know this feels important to you, but Rudy and I have a few other leads we’re chasing up. The thing is, the kid had ID saying he’s 18, and we had no proof on him. If he’s gone, he’s gone. Nothing for us to do.”

  “Didn’t you have an injunction saying he couldn’t go out of the county?”

  “Sure, and I’ll put out a description to anyone who might spot him,” Detective Jason said. “Apart from that, I guess I have to let this lie for now. You guys should go to the woods. See if you find anything.”

  Sean looked miserable as they drove back, and Nora felt even worse.

  Where was Ricky? Why had he vanished?

  “When’s the last time you saw him?” Sean asked, and Nora told him.

  Sean gave a small sigh. “From the way you describe it, it sounded like Ricky ran after seeing Harvey. Now, I’d suspect Harvey but I remember doing that last time, and it didn’t go well.”

  “Harvey couldn’t have wanted Wallis dead anyway,” Nora said. “He was asking Wallis to campaign against you. He and Wallis were allies.”

  “You know who the first suspect is in a murder,” Sean asked. “It’s always an ally. Either the wife, or the busine
ss partner, or a friend.”

  “Sean, Harvey’s not a murderer.”

  “So you say,” Sean said.

  “No matter how much you hate him for what happened between him and your father,” Nora said.

  “That’s not the only reason I hate him,” Sean said, looking at her. He held her gaze until she looked away.

  “Harvey didn’t do it,” Nora said.

  “Fine, he didn’t,” Sean said. “But that doesn’t mean that Ricky wasn’t extorting him. You only heard one side of the conversation. Maybe Ricky tried to blackmail Harvey, and Harvey told him to get lost. Did you ever think of that?”

  Nora shook her head. “I didn’t consider it.”

  “Or… or maybe Harvey was doing something else, something he didn’t want people to know about. Or maybe Harvey was one of the last people to see Wallis and he doesn’t want to be a suspect so he offered to pay off Ricky,” Sean said. “There’s so many possibilities, Nora. Don’t just dismiss the fact that it could have been Harvey Ricky was talking to.”

  “So what do we do?” Nora asked.

  “We search the woods first,” Sean said. “Then we go to Harvey’s.”

  The woods were empty. Sean and Nora spent three hours searching around it before they gave up.

  “It’s too dark now,” Sean said. “We’ll never find him even if he is here.”

  “Sean, I’m terrified,” Nora said. “Please tell me… tell me he’ll be all right.”

  “I would,” Sean said. “But I don’t lie. There’s a very real chance he’s in danger, Nora.”

  “I did this,” Nora said. “I should have turned him in. Oh god, what have I done?”

  “I don’t care,” Sean said. He gripped Nora by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Listen. What’s in the past is over. You made the best decisions you could with the information you had. Stop regretting it. Here’s what you’re going to do now. You’re going to come with me, and if it takes all week, you and I are going to find that boy. All right?”

  “All right.” Nora smiled up at him.

  That was the thing about Sean. No matter where you were, no matter what happened, he always made you feel like there was a road leading away from it all. Like any mess you made could be cleared up, and he was the capable man who’d clean it for you.

  He smiled at her now, and Nora felt a strange stretch in her heart.

  *****

  Chapter 18

  Nora awoke the next day, her dreams having been full of Ricky. It had been rather insane - she’d been chasing him through a jungle that suddenly opened up into a scary rock concert with all the audience members dressed up as skeletons. On stage, Wallis screamed into the microphone with a diamond guitar and a skeleton suit.

  “We are Legend. We are Alive!” he’d screamed.

  In the dream, Ricky turned to Nora, pointing at Wallis, saying something Nora couldn’t make out. Then, inevitably, the crowd swallowed him and he vanished.

  When she woke up, she was covered in a sheen of sweat. After taking a hurried shower, Nora put on a navy blue dress and a white jacket. Then, changing her mind, she took it off and went with blue jeans and an emerald polo neck t-shirt.

  “It’s all over town that Ricky’s missing,” Mrs. Mullally said. “There’s rumors that it’s the police that made him run away. I heard the new cops are a little bit better than thugs.”

  “They’re all right,” Nora said, looking downcast. “Mrs. Mullally, I rather suspect it was my fault that he’s gone.”

  “Your fault?” Mrs. Mullally asked. “Why Nora--”

  “I was the last person to see him,” Nora said. “He vanished after…” but Nora didn’t complete this, she just shook her head miserably.

  “There, there, dear,” Mrs. Mullally said. “Let me make you a cup of chamomile tea. It’ll make you feel that much better.”

  “Actually, I think I just want to gulp down some coffee today and run into town,” Nora said. “I never did meet Anna, and I think I need to soon.”

  “Before that, there’s someone here to see you,” Mrs. Mullally said.

  Tina walked in, wearing her workout gear, clearly just in from a run.

  “Tina.” Nora stiffened, remembering their last meeting.

  “I know you don’t want to see me,” Tina said. “But Sean called, and he told me you might need me. He seemed to think you were unnecessarily blaming yourself for Ricky’s disappearance.”

  That was Sean for you - a good man through and through.

  “I’m fine,” Nora said tightly. “I’m just afraid for Ricky, and I don’t know what to do. I feel responsible for him.”

  “Of course you do,” Tina said. “You feel responsible for every person on the planet, Nora.”

  “That’s harsh,” Nora said.

  “I’m not being harsh on you, you’re being harsh on you,” Tina replied. “Nora, if the silly boy was fool enough to blackmail the murderer, then whether or not you were near him, he’d eventually have gotten caught by the murderer. I’m just glad you weren’t in the crossfire.”

  “Wait, who told you that?” Nora asked.

  “Told me what?” Tina looked puzzled.

  “Told you about… about Ricky blackmailing the murderer? Was it Sean?”

  “Does it matter?” Tina looked irritated. “What are you doing, Nora? Mrs. Mullally, I’m sure you’ll agree with me. The last thing Nora should be doing is getting involved in this case. She’s got the diner to think about, and she’s still not over Raquel yet.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Mrs. Mullally said. “I told you I toured with the greats, didn’t I? Stevie Nicks, Zany Motts…”

  Tina looked impatient. “Yes?”

  “I remember once, we had this drummer, real nice fella named Chauncey. Big guy with more muscles than a wrestler, and a ponytail, but the sweetest man you ever saw. He was a drummer for us then, but he finished college and eventually quit to become an accountant somewhere in Idaho. Can you imagine that? Well, I suppose I did become a science teacher myself, so there’s never a way to tell. Anyhow, Chauncey had a twin brother, Kane. Kane looked just like Chauncey but on the inside, that boy had a mean streak wider than the Grand Canyon. He went into the military to escape some ruckus he’d created in his hometown, and then he was thrown out of the military for being too rough. That’s the kind of guy Kane was. Anyhow, Chauncey was really upset when Kane, for the third time, stole money off his ma and pa to fund some bad habits of his.”

  “Mrs. Mullally…” Nora could see Tina was getting a glazed sort of look on her face.

  “Yes, dear, I’m coming to the point. My youngest, Steve, often said that the worst part of doing something wrong wasn’t the punishment as much as it was listening to me go on and on.” Mrs. Mullally chuckled. “Never did learn to say it in 10 words when 500 would do.”

  Nora laughed. “Mrs. Mullally, I never tire of listening to them.”

  “I like you for it,” Mrs. Mullally said. “Anyhow, Chauncey was unloading on us all, how bad he felt about what Kane was doing, and saying that Kane used to be a good guy that his bad behavior all started when their older sister died in a hit and run.”

  “Oh, that’s so sad for the parents,” Tina said. “To lose one child to an accident, and another to bad decisions.”

  “Oh, there’s no pain like the pain of a wayward son,” Mrs. Mullally said. “In any case, the original point I was trying to make, my dear, was that Zany, listening to all of Chauncey’s rantings, ended it with one sentence. You can’t change a leopard’s spots. If it hadn’t been for the sister, it would have been something else, in all likelihood.”

  “You don’t really believe that do you?” Tina asked. “Human beings aren’t fixed creatures. We’re constantly evolving. More importantly, we’re constantly choosing to evolve.”

  “Still, you can’t run away from your nature,” Mrs. Mullally said. “It seems to me that it’s in Nora’s nature to help those who are injured, to fight against injustice. I thin
k it’s always been. I remember back when she was in school, there was a girl named Sheryl, who was bullied by the rest of her grade. There’s always one like that in every batch. They have to exist for the rest of the kids to pick on. The lowest on the totem pole. Well, Nora here was the only one who tried her hardest to be nice to Sheryl. I could see she felt awkward about it because she was picked on plenty too, but she never stopped being nice. Nora’s not going to rest till the murderer is caught. You wait and see.”

  “But she has to,” Tina said. “Nora has a job, she has a life. Wallis’ death is none of her beeswax.”

  Nora wasn’t listening to Tina’s protests any more. Hearing Sheryl’s name reminded her of why she’d been distant with Sean for so long. He’d always been one of the popular kids in school, and he’d picked on Sheryl too.

  “You agree, right, Nora?” Tina asked.

  “Hmmm.” Nora looked up, confused.

  Tina sighed. “There you go. You haven’t heard a word I said.”

  “Sorry.”

  “I was only saying that it’s every human being’s duty to evolve, to do things that make themselves happier,” Tina said. “I don’t think what you’re doing is healthy, Nora. It seems to me like you’re distracting yourself from what you really want, the diner, and instead chasing around unsolved cases that you have no business chasing around in.”

  “That’s one way of looking at it,” Nora said.

  “Well, why else wouldn’t you take my money?” Tina asked. “If you did, we could have the diner started as soon as next week. I know you’ve already arranged for licenses and the like.”

  “Tina, I didn’t take your money because I thought you were very casual about it,” Nora said defensively. “It doesn’t mean I’ve got no intention of opening the diner. That’s my one dream and I’m going to achieve it.”

  “You’re procrastinating,” Tina said. “That’s what it is. You’re still not over Raquel’s death, and that’s what it is too. You won’t admit it. It’s why Ricky was important to you, it’s why you were trying to solve Wallis’ death. It’s why you’re scared of your dream ever coming true, because if you actually open the diner, you’ll feel like you betrayed Raquel, won’t you?”