Marriage Vow Murder

by Leslie Langtry

That was possible. There was no such thing as the perfect device in Spy Land. For every major breakthrough, whether it was the world's most powerful listening device or something that made rats explode, there was someone who could render it powerless.

  "It has to be Lana," I grumped. "Leiko, Vy Todd, and the other crooks couldn't possibly know how to do that."

  I really, really didn't want it to be Lana. She hated me. Like, really hated me. And I didn't want to go up against a spy who was still in the biz. Not after years as a civilian.

  "Not necessarily. Vy could have someone who works for her who can do that."

  "We have to find Lana. Prove that she's here or in Russia." I couldn't stand this much longer.

  "I've got a couple of guys working on it at Langley," he said.

  "Who? I know everyone who worked in Russia. That was one of our areas, remember?"

  He arched an eyebrow. "You didn't know Bobby Ray. And he took your old beat."

  "Who's working on it?" I asked again. We were getting close to the intersection.

  Riley looked for a moment like he wasn't going to answer me. "Edgar and Al."

  This time I slammed on the brakes and put the van in park. "Edgar and Al are idiots! They don't speak Russian! They speak Slovenian!"

  "They went through intensive language training. They're fine." He sounded a bit defensive.

  He had a right to be. Edgar and Al were two guys who joined the CIA together, went through training together, and somehow ended up together. It was unusual for a couple of new agents to get the same assignment, and it came out later that these two had been friends since middle school band camp.

  At any rate, they'd almost been killed dozens of times. How it didn't go all the way to dead, I didn't know. These two walked into traps like they were lobotomized lemmings. They'd gone through four sets of handlers in one year, which was extremely unusual. These guys had been pretty controversial at Langley because they were such a liability. And now Riley was getting intel from them?

  "Find someone else," I snapped. "Someone good."

  "I can't do that. I've been out of the biz too, remember? I've a limited number of resources to pull from."

  We rode in silence. He was right, but I wasn't happy about it. Of course I wanted the best of the best working on Rex's case. However, anyone who did that for us at the CIA could lose their jobs or worse. And by worse, I meant getting stationed in the Arctic Circle. Unless you're into eating seal blubber and being cold all the time, that was the one assignment everyone dreaded.

  I'd parked half a block from the intersection, so we jumped out of the van and ran to the corner. Dusk was hitting. The sun was gone by five in the afternoon in the winter.

  "There's nothing here," Riley said as he turned completely around.

  He was right. We were at the edge of town, by four empty lots. At one time there'd been a butcher shop, a barbershop, a gas station, and a long time ago, a rumored brothel. The brothel mysteriously burned down in the 1940s. The other places were around through the '90s but torn down in 2000.

  "Maybe they were transporting him?" Riley pulled the printout from his coat pocket and tried to study it in the darkness.

  I was circling the intersection, looking for anything that might have been left behind. Could Rex have thrown something from the car if what Riley had said was true? It didn't seem likely, considering a window down in winter would be a tad suspicious.

  Turning my attention to the lot on my right, I started a perimeter search. We'd had a snowfall recently, and the snow was pristine. Untouched. If someone had walked through here, we'd know it.

  "Nothing!" I screamed. "There's nothing here!"

  I started kicking the snow and cursing. Loudly. A few cars slowed down to watch this psycho woman throwing a temper tantrum in the midst of a vacant lot, but I was on a roll now. I started making snowballs and threw them at the street sign.

  "Arrrrrrgh!" I shrieked when I (of course) missed.

  I can throw a knife with deadly accuracy, but a snowball was beyond my talent range. Finally I resorted to thrashing and screaming in place until Riley ran over and hugged me close against him.

  And that was when I started crying. Loud, panicked sobs with huge intakes of air in between. My whole body shook uncontrollably, and the whole while, Riley gently rocked me back and forth, patting my back and speaking soothingly. I didn't even know what he was saying, but it seemed to help, because after a few minutes, I was able to breath normally again.

  "It's alright," Riley said softly. "It will be alright."

  I pushed away, and he handed me a tissue. After wiping my face, I stuffed it into my pocket.

  "Will it be alright? Because things don't seem to be going that way," I hiccupped.

  Riley looked at me with serious eyes. "Honestly? I can't say. But I'm going to do everything I can to see that you and Rex get a happy ending."

  I almost lost it again. Standing there, my feet frozen by the snow, my breath billowing in midair, I wondered.

  And that was when I got hit in the face with a snowball.

  Riley stood there with a grin. "What? The cold will keep your face from getting puffy."

  I grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed it down his shirt. He screamed. I laughed.

  "You okay now?" he said as he danced around, trying to get the snow out of his shirt.

  "No." I shook my head. "But I'm pulling myself together so we can move on."

  Back in the van, Riley made me crank the heat. I took several deep breaths and steeled myself. I was going to find Rex. Alive. And maybe, just maybe, Juliette. I couldn't guarantee that she'd survive.

  My cell buzzed. Bart.

  "Hey, Bart," I said with fake cheer. "What's up?"

  "So," he droned, "did you want me to spend the night, or what?"

  I was beyond mentally and physically exhausted.

  "Is that okay?" I asked.

  "Yeah," he said without one single speck of emotion. "Mom said she'd bring me my Xbox."

  "That would be great, Bart. Thank you. I don't know how long this will take."

  "'Sokay. I'm charging for a whole day, so…" And with that, he hung up.

  * * *

  I made it home, ate a whole bag of Pizza Rolls, and took a long, hot shower. I barely hit the pillow before I fell asleep. My last thoughts were that I was going to rescue Rex and kill whoever was behind this. I fell asleep with sweet dreams of revenge.

  * * *

  "Mrs. Wrath!" Betty's voice must've been part of a dream I'd been having where I was following a scent-trained armadillo into a dark warehouse.

  A sharp poke in the shoulder made me realize this wasn't a dream.

  "She's not dead!" Betty shouted, and my eyes flew open.

  Ten little girls ran into the bedroom, followed by Kelly.

  "Quit letting the girls into my house in the morning!" I grumbled.

  "Where are the cats?" Hannah asked.

  "And Leonard?" Inez pressed.

  Betty puffed up. "My brother is babysitting them at Detective Ferguson's house."

  The girls stared at her.

  "Have you been there?" asked one of the Kaitlyns.

  "Did you find his gun?" Lauren added.

  I started to sit up and realized I'd been so tired I had gone to bed naked.

  "Kelly," I said in a calm voice. "Why don't you take the girls into the kitchen?"

  The girls looked at me questioningly.

  "I've got ice cream sandwiches…" I didn't even need to finish my sentence over the stampede that emptied out my room.

  Kelly closed the door behind her, and I quickly got dressed. I wasn't really sure how many ice cream sandwiches I actually had, so my time might be limited. It turned out I had a case of the things. By the time I joined them, Kelly was protesting the girls having their third sandwich. I snagged one and peeled off the wrapper.

  "I can't believe you are giving them ice cream in the winter, at nine a.m.!" Kelly hissed.

  "That's what you g
et for bringing them into my bedroom before I'm up."

  Kelly led me into the living room, but not before I grabbed another ice cream sandwich.

  "This was the girls' idea. They were worried about you. And they wanted to do something to cheer you up."

  I softened. "Awww. They're great kids. I just can't justify any time away from this investigation. If I could, I'd search for Rex 24/7."

  She nodded. "I know. It was just so sweet for them to offer. That, and it's the last day of the holiday break, and their parents wanted them out of the house."

  "I guess we could send them on a scavenger hunt, door-to-door to find Rex," I mused. "I've still got a couple sparkly Rex unicorn posters somewhere…"

  Kelly ignored my suggestion. "Any news?"

  I told Kelly about Lana and Leiko. Considering that due to me, she'd had run-ins with them in the past, she wasn't too happy. By the time I caught her up on all the latest, she looked like she was regretting bringing the girls here.

  "If this is about you, we have to get the girls out of here. They may not be safe."

  I shook my head. "The killer/kidnapper wants me to solve the clues first. Nothing is going to happen until the Blue clue."

  Kelly didn't look convinced. "Let's assume they're the ones who took Juliette Dowd. Why wouldn't they do something to the girls? They went after Rex, so why not other people close to you?"

  "Well, if they took Juliette because they thought she was close to me, then the joke is on them." I wandered back into the kitchen, but sadly all the ice cream novelties were gone.

  The girls were starting to short out from sugar overload. We needed to do something fast before they started climbing the walls. But whatever we did would be taking away from the investigation. I needed to keep pushing on. But how? And that was when I had the best idea ever.

  * * *

  "Why are we here?" Kelly looked around the playground in the heart of Des Moines.

  The girls were running around, hitting each other with snowballs, and rolling deformed snowmen. They had a collective look in their eyes not too different from a man I once spotted in Kabul dressed as the Easter Bunny after taking a whole lot of PCP.

  "It's probably better if you didn't know," I said.

  She stepped in front of me. "You haven't taken your eyes off of that house since we arrived."

  "Don't point at it!" I snatched her arm back.

  She folded her arms over her chest. "Who are you surveilling?"

  I waved her off. "It's no one. Not really. Just a suspect."

  "Just a suspect in a double kidnapping who has murdered two people?"

  "When you say it like that, it does sound bad. I like my definition better." I kicked at some snow with the toe of my boot.

  My best friend glared at me. "Either you tell me who it is, or I'm going over there and knocking on that door."

  To be honest, I was a little torn. Kelly could take on anyone. Soo Jin once saw her throw a three-hundred-pound junkie to the floor and subdue him in the emergency room. But as much as I liked those odds, I decided to come clean.

  "Vy Todd lives there."

  Kelly turned an interesting shade of red. "You brought the troop to a park across the street from a drug smuggler who's suspected of killing several people!"

  "Relax. It's totally safe. This is a really nice neighborhood, and we're in a park with kids."

  "You're using the girls as cover?" Kelly shrieked this time.

  Betty and Lauren heard that and came running.

  "What are we cover for?" Lauren twisted into some interesting fighting formations. "Is it the bad guys who took Detective Ferguson? Are we going to fight?" The girl reared back and kicked her foot all the way through a snowman. Kelly had to help her extricate herself.

  "Don't be ridiculous." Betty rolled her eyes. "You can't go into hand-to-hand combat with someone like that. You need this." She pulled a zip gun from her pocket.

  I threw myself onto the girl, half burying her in the snow. By the time we got to our feet, I had the zip gun. Which was good, because if things went bad with my partially formed plan, we might have a shootout.

  Huh. Now that I thought about it, maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

  That was when things got interesting.

  Prescott Winters III came strolling down the sidewalk. The wealthy wife killer (and possible parent killer) completely ignored us as he passed. Kelly and the girls had no idea who he was, but I'd been doing a little online research. I could spot that tall, thin frame with its weasel face anywhere.

  Under the pretense of helping Betty up, which I was sure I would've done anyway, I watched him. He had no interest in us whatsoever. Which was good because to my complete surprise, he walked up to Vy Todd's house and rang the doorbell. Seconds later, the woman appeared at the door, and after looking both ways, let him in.

  "Did you see that?" I hissed. "That was Prescott Winters III!"

  Kelly's head swiveled. "That guy who just walked by?"

  I nodded. "He just went into Vy's house! She let him in! Stop looking!"

  She turned back to me. "We should probably call Officer Weir and let him know."

  "He's at least half an hour away!" I protested. "I need to get closer."

  Betty finished brushing herself off. "I'm on it!"

  Without waiting for me to ask what she was on, the little girl tore off down the sidewalk toward the house where the dangerous criminals were.

  "No!" I shouted as I chased after her. "Wait!"

  Kelly stayed with the other girls, but when they noticed Betty on the run, they joined in. I'm not proud to say that a couple of them passed me. I regretted eating all that ice cream for breakfast.

  Betty stopped just short of the house. She bent down and dug through the snow until she found a rock. She started packing snow around it, and before I could reach her, hurled it at a window in Vy Todd's house.

  The other girls sensed something was up, so they started throwing snowballs at each other. I had to admit, it was an excellent cover.

  Vy came running out of the house, screaming at the girls. Prescott came out as far as the porch, and someone joined him. It was Harvey Oak! I'd all but ruled him out! But here they were, Rex's Most Wanted, together! I pulled my hat lower on my face and pulled my scarf up in an attempt to disguise myself a little. Just in case I needed to confront them later. I didn't want them tying me to the girls.

  "Whatever you do," I whispered, "don't laugh."

  The childlike munchkin voice shrieked, "What are you brats doing?" Vy Todd stormed over, reminding me that I had more pressing matters to deal with.

  A couple of the girls bit quivering lips, but for the most part, they acted like her voice was totally normal. For a brief second, I thought my warning might've triggered suspicion as Vy stared for just a second, waiting for giggles. When they didn't come, she regained her outrage.

  "I'm so sorry!" I slipped between her and the girls. "Things got out of hand! I'll pay for your window."

  She shook her fists. "I should have you locked up! Juvenile delinquents!"

  Betty stepped forward with big, watery eyes. "I'm so sorry, ma'am! Please don't call the police!"

  I didn't know what surprised me more, Vy Todd's little cabal or Betty pretending to be sad and vulnerable. The kid's skills were getting spooky.

  I had an idea. "Let me come in and see the damage. I can have my insurance agent here in twenty minutes to look at it." I waited to see if she'd take me up on it.

  The woman hesitated. She looked back toward the doorway, and Harvey and Prescott dove back into the house.

  "Um, no. That's okay. It was just an accident." She started to back up with her hands out in front of her. "Just try to be more careful!" The woman turned and ran back inside her house, slamming the door.

  "Well?" Betty looked up at me with dry eyes.

  "Well what?" I asked.

  "Now that the window's broken, we can hide in the hedges and listen to what's going on. Let's go."


  I couldn't have been more proud if she was my own kid. The only problem was I figured ten girls and two adults wouldn't fit under that window.

  Kelly joined us, hyperventilating. "That's enough for today!"

  That was all well and good, but how was she going to convince them to walk away? She gave me a wink.

  "Who wants lunch? I happen to know a great place one block over with hot dogs and french fries!"

  The screams brought people out onto their porches. Once they noticed our group, they went back inside.

  "You go do what you have to do," Kelly whispered. "I'll take the girls."

  "Thank you!" I hugged her.

  She arched one eyebrow. "Oh, don't thank me yet." She held out her hand. "This is on you."

  I probably deserved that. I handed over my credit card and slipped behind a tree as they all marched away. Loud voices came from the broken window. This was my chance. Keeping to the shoveled sidewalk, I walked across the street and passed the house, doubling back through the side yard into some large hedges under the window.

  My only problem was the footprints in the snow that gave me away. Maybe I could smudge them on my way out.

  "I'm not sure this is a good idea," one of the men said.

  I didn't know the difference between Prescott's and Harvey's voices. Quietly, I slid my cell phone from my pocket and set it to record. Then I held it up as close to the window as I could and prayed it would capture the conversation.

  "Oh," said an affected voice with a snooty, cultured accent. Definitely Prescott. "I don't know. I rather like it."

  Did that mean they were just getting together now? Did that mean they didn't have Rex? I had too little information to go on to decide.

  "Sit down, Vy!" Harvey snarled. "Your pacing is making me nervous!"

  The woman shrieked, "Those…girls…I could kill those girls!"

  Hey! That was a bit over the top.

  "Who cares about that?" Prescott said. "Do sit down. Forget about those urchins."

  "Fine!" she snapped, and I heard what sounded like a thud. She wasn't a large woman but could apparently drop onto furniture like a sullen, preteen elephant.

  "You haven't mentioned my favorite word yet," Prescott said. "Money."