by Diane Bator
Thayer’s face reddened so fast she guessed at least a couple of those thoughts had entered his head. He’d broken into her house, hoping to catch her with her guard down. “Not after two murders at the karate school.”
“Good point.” Mick, still shirtless, zipped his jeans. “I would’ve broken in too.”
“You did break in and I might press charges.” Her head throbbed. “Neither of you has any reason to be in my house.”
“That’s not true,” Mick said. “I came in because I was worried when you didn’t answer the door. For all I knew, the killer had found out where you lived.”
“Is this true?” Thayer asked.
“I was asleep!” She pushed between both men toward the kitchen. “He broke in and hid in my bedroom to save his own bacon, just like when he broke down my front door the last time, which he still owes me money for, by the way.”
Thayer’s eyebrows disappeared beneath his bangs. “You broke down her door?”
“Only once. This time I used the key.” Mick reached her before Thayer did and lowered his head to hers. “I can get rid of him if you want.”
Hands shaking, she poured water into the coffeemaker reservoir. “I want you both gone.”
Thayer sat at the table. “I’m not leaving. I have some questions for you.”
“Then come back after I’ve had coffee, breakfast, and a shower. Maybe I’ll be in a much better mood.” She turned to Mick. “You too.”
“I’m not leaving until he does.” Thayer folded his arms across his chest and leaned back.
“Oh, grow up.” Mick rolled his eyes and leaned his head so close to Gilda’s his breath warmed her cheek. “Let me get rid of him then we’ll talk.”
“Don’t bother,” she said. “You’re going with him.”
He held out both hands at his sides. “I have nowhere to go.”
She folded her arms over her stomach. “Don’t make me give you directions. I don’t care where you go. Just get out of my house.”
“Sure you care. You just don’t know it yet.” Mick’s lips brushed her ear, resurrecting the thoughts of him wearing nothing but boxer shorts.
He turned to Thayer. “Let’s go get breakfast and give the lady some peace? I’ll buy.”
Thayer opened his mouth to object, but Mick slapped a firm hand on his shoulder and steered him out of her house. When Thayer sputtered and tried to turn back, Mick hooked an arm around his neck and yanked him out the door.
Gilda brought the spare key inside then locked the front door, the back door, and every single window until she was convinced no one else could enter. She even stuck duct tape over the mail slot. Still agitated after a long, cold shower, she polished off half a pot of coffee, and focused on making a protein shake for breakfast.
The phone rang while she blended her shake, but she ignored it, in no mood to speak to anyone. The ringing stopped when she pressed the off button on the blender. Whoever it was hadn’t bothered to leave a message.
She poured the mango and pineapple concoction into a travel mug and sipped. If she headed for the beach and tried hard enough, she could imagine herself alone somewhere in the tropics. On her way out the door, she grabbed a steamy Katarina von Herrington romance Marion loaned her weeks ago. Murder mysteries were no longer welcome in her house. Ever.
She hoped neither Thayer nor Mick would find her until she’d thought things through. Thayer was relatively harmless. All talk, no action. He claimed to want her back, but hadn’t made any real attempt. Well, not until he broke into her house, while she was locked in her bedroom away from Mick anyway.
When her thoughts turned to Mick, a surge of heat pulsed through her from head to toe and all points between. He’d professed his love for her, crawled to her when he was drunk and let her cry on his shoulder repeatedly. She even woke up next to him, exactly what she’d longed for since they met two years earlier. So why did his clinging to her when he needed a friend and her romantic reactions to him now feel so wrong?
Chapter 31
“Hey, slow down.” Fabio fell into step beside her on the way to the beach. He carried two cups of coffee and a paper bag. “I saw you when I was at Café Beanz. You haven’t seen Thayer lately, have you?”
“Yes, I have,” she said. “I kicked he and Mick out of my house an hour ago. They were going for breakfast.”
“They were in the same room in your house together?” Fabio’s eyes widened. “What were they doing there?”
She sighed. “You really don’t want to know.”
“Try me.” He steered her onto the sand.
Gilda kicked off her flip-flops to carry them. “Mick apparently came into my bedroom last night to hide from the world then Thayer broke into my house this morning when I didn’t answer the door. He caught Mick outside my bedroom door trying to get his clothes back. What was he doing there anyway?”
Fabio smirked. “He was supposed to watch your house while I got coffee.”
Glad to see her favorite log unoccupied, she sat on the names, dates and initials etched in the log’s weathered surface and sipped her shake. “Why are you being nice to me?”
He eased down next to her and reached into the bag. “Because I think you’re stuck in the middle of a bunch of lunatics and could use a friend.”
“Why would you call them lunatics?” She eyed the muffin cradled in his hands. Chocolate chunk. A solid dose of chocolate would go a long way.
“Why do you think?” Fabio held out the muffin. “Want one? Thayer can get his own.”
“No, thanks. Walter was a teacher who liked little girls. Erik wanted his own school but went about it the wrong way,” she said. “I was the one who found both their bodies. Doesn’t that make me look guilty?”
He shook his head and handed her the muffin anyway. “No, and to be honest, none of the guys you work with suspected you, so we never did either.”
“Never?” She raised her eyebrows. “Seriously?”
“You sound oddly disappointed, which scares me a whole lot.” Fabio sipped his coffee. “Finding two dead bodies in a row does look pretty suspicious, but you had no motive. When the murderer knocked you out cold, we knew we were right.”
Waves lapped the shore and tourists slowly invaded the beach. She admired the confidence of anyone who wore skimpy bathing suits, despite being overweight, since she didn’t have that kind of intestinal fortitude, even after losing twenty pounds. She still had a lot more confidence to gain.
“Mick never doubted you.” Fabio broke the silence.
She fumbled what was left of the muffin. “Mick? Why would you say that?”
“It was no coincidence I ended up in Sandstone Cove, you know. He and I trained together in Detroit before I became a cop. Mick got his black belt then his second degree black belt and opened the school.” He bowed his head. “I wanted to train with Mick again, but we had a falling out. When I called the other day, he said never to show up at his school again.”
“That was you?” Gilda asked. “The call that came from Mick’s condo the day Walter died. I thought it was Chloe.”
Fabio scratched the back of his neck. “No, I made that call from his condo. Chloe said someone broke in. At first, she thought it was Mick. I tried to calm her down. Now he’s convinced I’m her latest fling.”
“She’s no good for him anyway, or you for that matter.” The breeze blew her hair across her face. “Why would Mick break into his own condo?”
“Because she’d changed the locks that day and told him to take a hike.” Fabio frowned. “Mick insisted it wasn’t him. When I looked around, it looked like someone wanted to plant evidence, which probably would’ve netted us a killer if Chloe hadn’t contaminated it first.”
“Contaminated what?”
“Evidence.” He rubbed his hand across his face and smeared a bead of sweat. “A fabric scroll written in Japanese with some pieces cut out. You might know where it came from. Mick had one just like it at one time. Chloe found it and threw it
in the trash.”
“A scroll?” She sat up straighter. “Was the fabric rust colored with Japanese writing?”
He raised both eyebrows. “Yeah.”
Gilda grew lightheaded. “The Four Possessions of the Samurai. It went missing from the school the day Walter died. Mick and I...” She trailed off aware she and Mick had compromised both pieces they’d found.
“The Four Possessions? Of course. HILT. Honor, integrity, loyalty,...I don’t remember the last one. Why didn’t anyone mention the missing scroll earlier and what does it have to do with you and Mick?”
“The last one is Time,” she said. “The scroll didn’t seem important until Walter’s funeral. Mick and I kind of found them.”
“Where did you kind of find them?”
Gilda winced. “At the funerals. ‘Honor’ was in Walter’s breast pocket. Erik held ‘Integrity’ in his hands. We guessed the killer used them as reasons to eliminate people at the school. The scary part is there are only three black belts left and two kanji.”
“Which means time is running out.” Fabio crumpled his muffin wrapper and dropped it into the paper bag. “We need to keep an eye on all three black belts.”
“How many suspects do you have aside from the black belts?” she asked.
“A couple.”
“You’re a bad liar,” she said. “If it helps, I didn’t notice the scroll was missing until after the police were gone. It usually hung in the change room.”
“The truth is, Thayer and I are spinning our wheels. We’ve checked out alibis and backgrounds, but until we get stuff from the lab, we have no proof.” He paused. “Do you have any suspects?”
Gilda finished the last of her protein shake and hoped her surprise wasn’t too obvious. “The killer has whittled down my suspect list. Do you think Xavier, Mick, or Razi did it?”
“You forgot one.” Fabio studied her like he was waiting for a reaction. “Yoshida’s a black belt too. Don’t you think anyone would want to kill him?”
“I’m sure there’s a long line.”
He nodded. “Which tells me there are some issues we haven’t heard about yet. I’m going to do some research. Yoshida has access to the school and to Mick and the others. To you, too, Sherlock, so watch your back.”
Sherlock. Fabio definitely spoke to Mick already. Apparently, he and Mick had either made up or called a truce until the murders were solved.
Chapter 32
Gilda’s head pounded with a dull ache from the time she left Fabio alone on the beach. Neither breakfast, meditation nor a morning run under threatening skies eased the pain. She arrived at the school that afternoon in time to see the first splatters of rain slap the front door.
“Gilda?” Mick, his voice scratchy and tired, called out. “Is that you?”
“Yeah.” She turned the lights on and sat behind her desk. “Why are you in the dark?”
When her question was met by silence, she shrugged. He hadn’t called out for help nor had he asked for an ambulance. She stared at the monitor. What if he’d only had enough strength to shout once? His voice had sounded weak and harsh.
“Mick?” With her heart beating faster by the second, she pushed back her chair and walked toward his office. “Mick? Are you okay?”
No reply.
She reached around the corner to the light switch, expecting to find Mick sprawled dead in his chair. When she flicked the switch, she shrieked. No bodies littered the room, just fast food containers, half empty coffee cups, and rotting fruit. Where was the police cleanup crew now? Even they wouldn’t touch those biohazards.
“Hey, what’s up?” Mick asked from behind her.
“Don’t do that.” Gilda spun around and shoved him away. “Where were you?”
“The dojo.” He wiped a trace of blood off his lip. Fresh cuts crossed his face and he wore the first blush of a black eye.
“What happened to you?” she asked.
He hesitated. “Chloe got mad at me. What are you doing here?”
“Cleaning up your filth. We have classes today, remember?” She folded her arms across her stomach. “Why is Chloe mad now?”
“She stopped by and demanded I sign over the deed to my condo.” He slipped past her and sat in his office chair. “When I refused, she punched me and tried to claw my eyes out.”
That explained the papers Chloe held in front of the school several days ago. Gilda frowned. “I thought once you repaid Gary you’d get your condo back.” She frowned and leaned in the doorway. “You still haven’t paid him, have you?”
He stared at the floor for several seconds. “It hadn’t seemed like a priority until now. I was so wound up after she left, I locked the door and tried to meditate. I promise, I’ll get matters settled before Chloe comes back with some muscle.”
“She must really like your condo,” Gilda mused.
“No, she just really hates me.” He smirked. “She’s pulling every stunt she can to get me out of her life, as well as out of town.”
Chloe hadn’t even come close to her suspect list. “Including killing people?”
Mick’s eyes widened. “She’s not the hands on type. She’d never be able to pull off a murder. I guess we’d better do some serious cleaning in here. Hopefully we’ll have some students in about an hour.”
“Yeah. Hopefully.” Gilda turned away to return to her desk, a thousand things on her mind. As she passed by the dojo, she thought she saw light from the doorway, but it was there and gone so fast she decided it was a by-product of her nagging headache.
Mick bolted from his office and ran past her. He opened the back door and peered outside. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” She bowed and walked into the dojo.
He ran around and flipped on every light in the building then peered into the back room. “I thought I heard the back door close.”
“That’s weird. I thought I saw a light.” she said.
“A flashlight or daylight?” He returned to where she stood riveted to the floor.
Lightheaded, Gilda stumbled behind her desk to sit down. “Daylight.”
“Somebody else must have been in the school while I was meditating. I didn’t hear a sound until now.” Mick sat next to her, beads of sweat glittered on his forehead. “I was a sitting duck. They could’ve taken me out any time they wanted.”
She reached for the phone. “I’ll call Fabio.”
“I don’t want him here.” He shook his head.
“We need him here,” she said. “He and Thayer have to know someone was in here again. At least they can keep an eye on things while you focus on classes and feel safe.”
“They won’t make me feel safe.” He scrubbed his face with both hands and growled. After a long minute, he nodded. “Fine. Call Fabio. We have to protect our students.”
Gilda’s hands shook. “I’ll call Razi to come in early.”
“You’re the best. Thanks.” He smiled, but fear haunted his eyes when he hugged her.
She called the police station, not surprised when Fabio and Thayer arrived five minutes later. Together, they searched the school then directed a two-man forensics team to dust for fingerprints near the vent and back door. After asking a dozen questions, Thayer disappeared out the back door with the forensics team.
“Are you sure you didn’t see anything?” Fabio asked.
“Just a flash of light,” she said. “Mick was in his office and heard the door.”
“Why didn’t you hear the door?”
Gilda frowned. “I have a headache and a thousand things to worry about before classes start this afternoon. I wasn’t paying attention until I saw the light.”
“Have you noticed anyone else sneaking around in here before?” Fabio asked.
She hesitated long enough for him to raise both eyebrows. “The day after Walter died, I came in to send e-mails and make signs to say we’d be closed. A man with bare feet ran out the back door. By the time I got outside, he was gone.”
; Fabio slapped his forehead. “You didn’t think that was important enough to mention?”
“Mick knew,” Gilda said.
“Mick’s not a cop.”
“I thought he’d tell you.” She left him at the desk and focused her energy on cleaning toilets and floors to keep busy. Before long, the first students arrived.
“Gilda, are you here?” Marion strolled in and handed her a cup of tea. “Oh, honey, you look dreadful. What are the cops doing here? Did something else happen? Why didn’t you call me?”
Fabio smiled. “We’re just making sure things don’t get out of hand, considering all that’s happened lately.”
Marion looked doubtful, even more so when Gilda flashed a worried smile then pressed her hands into her armpits and glanced around the corner. Mick’s office door was closed. She hoped he’d found an ice pack and wouldn’t scare the kids. Before she could move away, the door opened and Mick strolled out. He forced a weak grin.
“Whoa.” Marion stepped back, her eyebrows raised. “That’s quite the shiner. Makes you look even tougher than usual. The kids will really be well behaved tonight.”
“Yeah? You should see the other guy,” Mick said.
Gilda hunched her shoulders and returned to her desk without comment. There was no point trying to talk to him with everyone else eavesdropping.
“Miss me, honey?” Thayer strolled through the door with a cardboard tray. “I got some tea to calm your nerves. You seem a little stressed.”
“Marion already brought me tea. Herbal. No caffeine.” She wasn’t about to give him brownie points for consideration, no matter what he did.
“You’re here to observe and keep the peace, not bother my receptionist.” Mick scowled. “Maybe Fabio should investigate you. You’ve wanted me run out of town since the day Gilda started to work here. I wouldn’t put it past you to hire somebody to put me out of business permanently.”
Thayer snorted. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t bother hiring anyone else to do it.” When the room fell silent, he reddened then bowed his head and skulked to the seating area.
