Rose Gardner 01 - Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes

by Swank, Denise Grover

  My heart stopped and I twisted the bag in my hands. “Uh…I was looking for you.”

  “You must have really gotten turned around. The car’s back that way.” He looked casual, standing with his back against the brick wall, pointing in the opposite direction with his thumb. But he clenched his jaw and his eyes were cold.

  “What are you doing over here?” I asked, keeping my tone light, as though we had just run into each other by accident.

  “Making sure you don’t get lost.” He pushed away from the wall and took my hand in his, but it wasn’t a friendly hold. He meant it when he said he was making sure I didn’t get lost.

  We walked to the car and drove home, both of us on edge. Joe’s anger simmered under the surface and my anxiety choked all conscious thought. We were almost home when Joe finally spoke up. “Where were you going, Rose?”

  “I told you….”

  “Where were you going?” He growled.

  “My car.”

  He let out a long breath. “Why didn't you just ask me to take you there?”

  “I didn’t want to bother you.”

  Joe pulled into the driveway, looking toward my house. “I wish I could ask you what you’re up to, but I don’t want to know, not now.” He turned to face me, his eyes serious. “But I’m begging you to stay home and wait this out.”

  “Wait what out?” Did he know about my meeting with Daniel?

  Joe sighed and closed his eyes. He opened them and the anger was gone, replaced with worry. “You’re gonna do it, aren’t you?”

  I didn’t answer, just stared at him, wondering what he knew. He got out and went into his house, leaving me in his car.

  I sat there for a moment, wondering what had just happened. I got out and brought Muffy outside, watching her sniff around the yard. Maybe Joe was right. Maybe I should just stay home. I didn’t have the flash drive. If I showed up without it, Daniel Crocker would kill me. If I didn’t go, Daniel Crocker would kill me. I decided I’d rather be dead in the comfort of my own home. I’d just hide my rolling pins.

  Relieved to have made a decision, I went inside and found an envelope on my kitchen floor. My name was handwritten on the front, a photo inside. A photo of Violet. Written on the back of the picture, in carefully printed block letters:

  See you tonight.

  I squashed the paralyzing terror that wanted to take me over. I had to think this through and panic wouldn’t help anything. I sat down and took several deep breaths trying to clear my head. What was supposed to be on the flash drive? I decided to call the other employees at the DMV. While I doubted they would tell me anything, I figured I had nothing to lose. But I needed to hear Violet’s voice first.

  “What’s up, Rose?” The children’s voices were in the background.

  “Nothing, I just wanted to call and check on you.”

  “Why? Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, everything’s fine. I just wanted to call and say I love you.”

  “I love you, too, Rose. Hey, I think we’re throwin’ together a cookout tomorrow, want to come?”

  “Sounds fun,” I said, forcing the cheerfulness in my voice.

  “Great! See you at four.”

  I’d just have to figure out how to live until tomorrow afternoon.

  I’d started looking up employees’ phone numbers in the phone book when I heard the sirens in the distance, coming closer to the house.

  My cell phone rang in my purse. I picked it up, surprised to see Joe’s number.

  “I’m sorry,” was all he said.

  The sirens stopped out front. What did he do?

  The police pounded on the door and shouted for me to come out with my hands up. Muffy whimpered next to my leg. “It’s okay, girl,” I said as I rubbed her head, positive it wasn’t. I opened the kitchen door.

  Five of Henryetta’s finest greeted me at the door. Apparently, it was a slow crime day.

  “Keep your hands up where we can see them,” one of them shouted.

  I walked out with my hands in the air, fuming. I could wring Joe McAllister’s neck with my bare hands. Then the Henryetta police department would really have a reason to arrest me.

  “Ms. Gardner, we have reason to believe you murdered Sloan Cooper on Wednesday night and the murder weapon is on your premises. Do you give us permission to search your property?”

  My heart skipped a beat and my head got fuzzy. Joe had planted the gun on Thursday night. He set me up all along. I was too angry to be hurt. I could be hurt later. “Where exactly do you want to search?”

  “Your shed.”

  I knew I should call Deanna, but I didn’t have time to waste. It was already five o’clock and I had to be at The Trading Post at ten. It could take Deanna an hour to get here. Besides, I knew the gun wasn’t there. “Sure.”

  Joe stood on his front porch, gawking like all the other neighbors. The look on his face when he heard me give approval was priceless. I gave him a cold hard stare.

  Muffy whimpered in the doorway.

  “It’s okay, girl,” I said. She was unconvinced and paced back and forth at my feet. I addressed the closest officer. “Can I put my hands down now? You’re making my dog nervous.”

  He turned me around and patted me down. “Yeah.”

  Several police officers had already opened the shed and were removing items, tossing them into the yard.

  Muffy came out of the house and stood by me, whining. I leaned down and petted her head.

  “May I ask why you think I did this?”

  “An anonymous tip.”

  “Yeah, I bet it was anonymous,” I muttered under my breath. “I have an alibi for that night. I stayed the night at my sister’s.”

  “Are you making a statement?” the officer asked, surprised.

  “Take it for what you will.”

  The crowd on the sidewalk grew quickly. You would have thought it was the second coming of Jesus from the rapt attention the people were giving my shed. By that point, the shed was at least halfway empty, the lawn mower one of the items in the yard. I looked over at Joe to see his reaction. The disbelief and confusion on his face gave me momentary satisfaction. I gave him a smile so sweet it would have killed a diabetic.

  “I think I’d like to call my lawyer now,” I said. The policeman went inside with me to watch me use my phone. Muffy tagged along.

  Deanna was furious with me for allowing the police access to the shed and said she’d be right over. The only reason I called her was because I saw the kind of damage they were doing to my yard, and I doubted they would restore it to its previous state.

  I went outside to wait for Deanna. Muffy kept whining and followed close behind.

  The contents of the almost empty shed lay tossed in the yard. Even the metal shelves lay on their side. It looked like a redneck yard sale.

  A car tried to drive down the street, a difficult task considering all the people crowded on the pavement. It was an older muscle car owned by the high school boy who lived on the corner. Any other person would have driven around the block, but curiosity got the better of him and pushed his way through the crowd.

  When the car reached Joe’s house, it backfired twice in rapid succession, sending the crowd into screams and bedlam that rivaled Armageddon.

  The officers in the shed began to shout, “Get down! Take cover!” To my amazement, the stout policeman standing at my side dove on top of me, throwing us both to the ground. The crowd panicked even more, running into each other and diving under bushes and cars.

  Muffy lost it.

  She began to howl and run in circles, nudging me with her nose and whimpering. The policeman swatted at her. She took off running down the street past Joe’s house and into the screaming mob.

  “Muffy!” I yelled with what little breath I could get into my lungs, while trying to push the officer off my back.

  It took some effort to move the policeman, especially considering his girth. I supposed I should have thanked him for putt
ing himself on the line to protect a rolling-pin-wielding, gun-hiding murder suspect but I was more worried about my dog.

  “Muffy!” I screamed again, starting to run after her when I finally broke free.

  One of the officers grabbed my arm and dragged me back, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and cinching my hands behind my back.

  “What are you doing?” I cried out in disbelief.

  “You were fleeing the scene of a crime investigation.”

  “I was running after my dog!” I screamed and turned to the street. “MUFFY!” And then I began to cry. I’d been fine up to that point, but I was afraid I’d never see Muffy again and I broke out into wails of anguish. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, Joe ran off his front porch in the direction Muffy had gone.

  The crowd reassembled. It wasn't every day they saw someone handcuffed. I sat down on the grass by my driveway, not an easy task when you can’t use your hands to help yourself down. People took out cell phones and snapped pictures. I was big news for Henryetta, especially with tears and snot dripping down my face that I couldn’t wipe away, seeing how my hands were preoccupied.

  The police got the crowd settled down and they confirmed the noise to be backfire. Everything back under control, the officers returned to the task at hand, cleaning out my shed.

  Deanna showed up, furious when she discovered me sitting in the grass wearing handcuffs. She asked for a search warrant, just in time for the police to announce they had emptied everything out of the shed and found nothing. The anonymous tip said the gun would be wrapped in a yellow towel under the lawn mower, but all they found was a wrench wrapped in the towel. Deanna told them my sister and aunt would confirm my whereabouts Wednesday night.

  One of the officers lifted me none too gently off the ground and uncuffed my numb hands. They began to clear out the crowd and returned to their police cars.

  “Hey!” I called, thoroughly irritated. “Are you going to clean up that mess?”

  They looked at me as though I’d just asked them to scrub my toilet.

  Deanna took me inside the kitchen and reamed me up and down. She told me if I ever again dealt with the police without her present, she would drop me in an instant.

  She left, the police left, then finally the straggling crowd left. But Joe still hadn’t returned. And neither had Muffy.

  It was now eight o’clock and I still didn't know what was supposed to be on the flash drive. And even if I could fudge it, I didn't have access to a computer. Could I go and convince them to leave Violet alone if I showed up with nothing? I had no doubt I’d be dead, but that would be okay if they left Violet alone.

  I heard a knock on the kitchen door and it swung open before I could answer. Joe entered without Muffy, looking devastated. All the fury and fear came roaring out and I attacked him, pounding his chest with my fists.

  “I hate you! I hate you, Joe McAllister! You set me up to be arrested and because of you, Muffy’s lost and I’ll never see her again. You used me! You and Hilary must have had fun laughing at poor, stupid Rose. You never even liked me! You just used me to get that stupid flash drive and I don't even know what’s on it! Now because of you, I’m gonna die and I don't have time to save Violet. I hate you!”

  He let me hit him at first, but he grabbed my fists and held them to his chest when I mentioned dying. I’d said too much.

  “Whoa, slow down. What do you mean you don't know what’s on the flash drive? Where is it?”

  “It’s there in that Walmart bag.”

  He let go of me to tear into the Walmart bag next to my purse. “Rose,” he said, his voice rising in panic. “This hasn’t even been opened!”

  “I know!”

  “If you don’t have a computer, how are you going to put the information on it? Where’s the real flash drive?” He tossed the package onto the table.

  “I don’t know!” I screamed.

  “Did someone steal it in one of the break-ins?”

  “I never had it! I didn’t even know anything about a stupid flash drive until the night of Sloan’s visitation when Daniel Crocker found me and dragged me down the hall, telling me if I didn’t deliver it tonight at ten, I was gonna be sorry.”

  Joe sat in the kitchen chair, his face white. “Oh, my God.”

  “Get out!”

  He looked up, startled.

  “Get out of my house!” I screamed, hysterical. “Get out!”

  He stood up and I pushed him toward the door. He may have been bigger than me, but I was lucky to have caught him in a moment of shock. He stumbled backward.

  “Rose, I can help you.”

  “Help me? HELP ME?” I screamed like a banshee and I had no doubt the neighbors could hear me, but I didn't care. “You mean help me like planting a gun in my shed? And callin’ the police with an anonymous tip so I’d get arrested for murderin’ Sloan? Then getting’ my dog lost! You mean that kind of help? Because no freakin’ thanks! I don't need your help!” I shoved and beat him with my fists. “Get out! GET OUT! Get out of my life!”

  He stumbled out the door but recovered before he fell. “Rose, let me explain.”

  “Explain to this!” I slammed the door shut so hard the wall shook. I locked both locks. Joe pounded on the door shouting my name, but I went into the bathroom and washed my face. I had less than an hour to come up with some kind of plan to save my life.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I made myself get a grip. I couldn't show up to met Daniel with a red nose and bloodshot, puffy eyes. Plus, I suspected sex was a way to communicate with Daniel Crocker and I was desperate enough to pull that out of my limited arsenal and use it to save Violet. Nevertheless, I had to look the part to play it.

  Clothing proved an issue. If Daniel hadn’t seen me in the red dress, and I if hadn’t got snot and tears all over the front, I would have worn it. Instead I found a pair of jeans and a silky sleeveless shirt and wore my black bra, which peeked out over the top of the low-cut shirt. I decided this would work better in The Trading Post, which was a bar with a rough reputation just outside the city limits.

  Torn between heels and sensible shoes, I chose heels. I had little chance of outrunning anyone, but perhaps looking sexy could help me. Heavens knew I needed all the help I could get.

  I opened the flash drive package with shaky fingers and tucked it in my jeans pocket. I was fairly certain they were going to check it and I hadn’t figured out how to explain why it was empty.

  I gave myself on last look in the mirror, surprised by the image. Maybe I could pull this off.

  I went out into the kitchen to call a cab. I’d take a taxi to my car, which was still parked at the funeral home, but it required extra time. While I waited for it to show up, I went outside to look for Muffy, walking up and down the sidewalk and calling her name. I worried Joe would hear me and come out but, he didn’t, even though I saw him watching out his living room window. I checked the time on my cell phone—nine thirty-five. I still had time but my nervousness threatened to swallow me whole. I locked the door and waited for the taxi in the driveway, pacing.

  Five minutes later, Joe came outside, easing his way over to me as though I was a wild animal and might bolt if he got too close. “Rose?”

  “Leave me alone,” I growled, looking down the street with my side to him.

  “Do you need a ride to your car?”

  “I called a taxi.”

  We waited a few more minutes. I was so anxious I thought I would puke.

  “Don’t go, Rose.” His voice was so quiet I could barely hear him.

  I turned to face him and shook my head. “Do you have any idea what you are asking?”

  “Do you know what’s going to happen if you go with an empty flash drive?”

  “What do you care, Joe? Leave me alone!” I started down the sidewalk. Wearing heels wasn’t such a good idea if I had to walk two miles.

  Joe jogged up to me. “Let me drive you.”

  “Drive me where?”


  “To your car.”

  I stopped and glared at him. “Why are you doin’ this?”

  “Rose, I care about you.”

  That made me livid. “Don’t. You. Dare.” I spit out through gritted teeth. I started walking again.

  “Okay, I feel guilty. I’m tryin’ to make it up to you.”

  I stopped. That sounded like a more honest answer and my cab still hadn’t shown up. Being late wouldn’t work in my favor. “All right.” I turned around and walked to Joe’s car and got in.

  We drove in silence for a couple of blocks.

  “Do you have a plan?”

  I remained silent.

  “Rose, do you know what these people are capable of?”

  “I have a pretty good idea, Joe, which is exactly why I’m going.”

  Joe stopped at a stop sign. “I can’t let you do this.”

  “You don’t have a say. Now drive.”

  He drove several more blocks. “You at least need a plan. Tell me you have a plan.”

  “I have a somewhat plan.”

  “Does your plan have anything to do with the way you’re dressed?” When I didn’t answer, he continued. “That won’t work with him, Rose. He’s been put in a very awkward situation by trusting his source and paying already. His partners are breathing down his neck for this information. If you don’t have it, nothing will save you.”

  “I already know I’m gonna die. I’m doing this to save Violet.”

  He stopped next to my car thankfully still parked in the deserted funeral home parking lot. He shut off the engine and turned to me. “Rose, I’m begging you.”

  “You have no right to beg me for anything, Joe McAllister. You lost that right the moment you betrayed me. When was that exactly? The night you met me?”

  “Rose,” he moaned.

  “Fine, so you’re worried about me?” I said in a sneer. “Come with me, be my bodyguard.”

  “I can’t.” He hung his head.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I started to get out of the car.

  Joe pulled me back and grabbed my shoulders. “I’m about to do something that could get me killed, but I can’t sit here and let it happen to you first.”