When Mama Ryan answered, Tinkie assured her Wiley was unharmed and on his way to jail. There was a bit of squawking, but Tinkie convinced her Wiley was safer in custody than anywhere else.
Tinkie closed the phone and sighed. “For some reason, Wiley Ryan, your mama loves you.”
“Yeah, and I love her too. So sue me.”
We pulled down the driveway to Dahlia House, and Wiley leaned forward. “Look, I told you what I know. Let me go. I’m just a petty thief. I swear I didn’t hit anyone.”
“What you stole from Hilltop wasn’t petty. You stole a lot of expensive jewelry, silver, money, and art.” I had no sympathy.
“I want all of the stolen property back. I can’t believe my guests were robbed in my own home.” Tinkie meant business. “Where is all the stuff?”
“Are you nuts? I left it for pickup last night. Just like I always did before.” He sighed. “This time tomorrow, I would have been out of town and on my way home with enough cash to—”
“Who’s your partner?” Tinkie asked.
“I don’t have a partner, I have a boss. I’ve never met him, but his name is Jessie. I answered an ad in the newspaper that said easy money and lots of it. That’s all I know. We communicate by email. I’ve never met him. He sends me the information for the heist and I leave the goods at an appointed place. He leaves my cut there for me. That’s all I know.”
“Where are you supposed to pick up your money?” I asked.
“Like I’m going to tell you that.” Wiley flopped back in his seat and Sweetie Pie gave such a loud yodeling howl that he tried to cover his ears. Since his hands were belted, it was a futile effort. Sweetie Pie gave it to him again.
“She won’t stop howling until you tell me what I want to know,” I warned him.
“I can’t tell you anything. I could get killed if I talk. You’ll certainly get killed. This Jessie is no one to mess with.”
“You’re going to be deaf if you don’t talk.” As if on cue, Sweetie Pie changed the pitch so that even my ears throbbed.
“Who else was in on the theft?” Tinkie asked.
“Two members of the catering staff. I’ve worked with them before. I wouldn’t bother looking for them because they’re long gone.”
“Okay, here’s the deal,” Tinkie said. You tell us, right now, where and what time you intend to pick up your money. If Gregory recovers from the blow to his head, and if I get all of the things that were stolen back, we’ll consider letting you go.”
“Tinkie, I—” She couldn’t make that deal. She had no authority and neither did I.
She waved me to silence. “Make your decision right now, Wiley, or you’re toast.”
Wiley finally balked. “It’s too dangerous. I won’t tell you. I’m not a killer and I won’t have your funerals on my conscience. Jessie doesn’t mess around. He’s a pro. And he won’t be caught. He’ll fight and hurt whoever is in his way.”
“Cough up the information, Wiley, or we’ll take you to the jail.” I didn’t agree with Tinkie’s offer, but if Gregory Lent wasn’t seriously injured and the stolen property was returned, I could live with it. DeWayne might want to arrest me and Tinkie, though.
Wiley pressed his belted hands to his hairy chest and looked out the window. “I’m not telling you anything more. You can try to beat it out of me, but it won’t do any good.”
“Don’t tempt me.” I pulled in front of Dahlia House, and we helped Wiley out of the backseat. He was shaking with cold. The diaper was incredibly unattractive on a grown man, and probably of bigger concern--he was freezing.
“Graf left some sweatpants and things here.” I should have packed my ex-fiancé’s belongings up and shipped them to him, but I hadn’t. “I’ll get you something warm to wear.”
“Thank you. I’ve done a lot of demeaning things in my life, but wearing a diaper has to be one of the worst. Do you know how desperate a man has to be to run around in a diaper with rubber-tipped arrows pretending to be some love god?”
“A smart Cupid would have packed extra clothes,” I said dryly.
“I guess I could have borrowed one of Mama’s dresses, but somehow that didn’t seem any better. She was going to get me some clothes at the Wal-Mart when she got off work. I should never have dragged this to her door. I just didn’t have a choice.”
“Why are you robbing people?” I wasn’t interested in Wiley’s fashion dilemma, but I was curious about his life of crime.
He looked back at me long and hard before he spoke. “I used to be a thief, before I met my wife. I did some time in the joint, but Donna could see beyond that. She said I was a good man. She believed in me. I guess I felt I had to live up to her view of who I was.”
“You’ve been clean for years. Why go back to a life of crime?” I asked.
“I gave up stealing after I did my time. I’d learned my lesson and I was straight. I just wanted to take care of my family. Now I don’t have a choice. My boy needs expensive medical treatments. I couldn’t afford insurance working a minimum wage job, so we couldn’t get him what he needed. Stealing was the only way I could turn up quick money and he has to get the treatment or he won’t be put on the list for a kidney transplant.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Tinkie asked.
“Kidney failure. Diabetes. Poor kid is dying, and he’s never harmed a soul.” His voice was strained and he hurried up the steps to the front door so we couldn’t see he was about to cry. “I hope its warm inside. If I catch my death of cold, it’ll be on your heads.”
Twinkie looked at me and I knew her loyalties had shifted. Wiley Ryan was no longer the enemy. He loved his mama and he was stealing for a sick son. He was now our cause.
“He could be playing us,” I whispered.
“He’s not. I can tell.”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “Be careful.”
Wiley stamped his bare feet. “Hey, are you going to open this door or let me freeze to death on your front porch?”
Tinkie leaned close to me. “He’s like a little fuzzy puppy, Sarah Booth. I hope he’s house trained.” I punched her hard on the arm and ran up the steps behind the diapered former cupid.
The way his diaper was sagging didn’t bode well for any of us.
While Wiley took a hot shower and climbed into Graf’s old sweatpants and shirt, I called DeWayne. Torn between my duties as a deputy and my sudden, strange desire to help Wiley avoid jail, I somehow didn’t mention that the missing cupid was in my guest shower.
“Any leads on Gregory Lent’s attacker?” I asked.
“No. Doc is letting Lent go home today. No serious damage done. He never saw the person who hit him, so he’s not even a witness.”
“What happened?”
“Lent said he was smoking a cigarette, killing some time, when he was struck from behind. The next thing he remembers, he woke up in the hospital.”
“He doesn’t remember anything unusual?”
“He did say that while he was smoking, he saw something glinting on the lawn.”
“Glinting like a...”
“Sword or maybe a shield. Light reflecting on something metal. I figured it was part of someone’s costume.”
“I think you’re right, DeWayne. That may be very helpful, except there were thirty men and women at the party with some kind of metal garb on. Armor, decorative metal...”
“We’ll figure it out, Sarah Booth. We just need a direction to run in.”
“I’m working on it. I’ll be by the courthouse in a little while. Call if you need me.”
Tinkie was in the kitchen making something hot for Wiley to eat—I hoped the deceptive cupid had a cast-iron stomach. Tinkie’s cooking might be considered lethal. I plunked down at the kitchen table.
“I’m sorry for Wiley,” Tinkie said as she stirred a pot.
“If what he says is true, yeah.”
“Do you think he’ll tell us where he makes his pickup?”
“I don’t think he has a choic
e,” I said. “You keep an eye on him. I’m going to talk to Lent before he gets out of the hospital.”
I left Sweetie Pie, Chablis, and Pluto to help Tinkie guard Wiley while I drove to the hospital. Lent looked a thousand percent better, and he was perfectly willing to talk to me. I didn’t even have to show him my badge.
He told me the same thing he’d told DeWayne, but I had a few additional questions. “Gregory, who did you tell about the Richmonds’ Valentine’s Party?”
He considered for a moment. “Some friends. I mean I had to wear a big diaper. Like I wasn’t going to talk about that?”
“Names?” I had my trusty Bic ready to ink the page.
“Well, yeah, I told some girls, but you can’t talk to them. I don’t want them to know I got knocked out and missed the party. They were impressed I was making nine hundred bucks for wearing a diaper.”
“Tinkie will pay you anyway. Names?”
It turned out there was only one name. Victoria Nelson, a young woman whose family lived in Zinnia. It was a long shot, but until Wiley decided to spill the beans, it was the best lead I had, so I followed it.
The Nelson home was beautifully maintained. The lawn was clear of even a single leaf. Mrs. Nelson matched her house. Immaculate. And not very friendly. I explained why I was there.
“I heard what happened at the Richmond house. Of course we weren’t invited, thank goodness. But my Victoria has nothing to do with any of it. She wasn’t even home from Ole Miss.” The door slammed in my face with more force than necessary.
Had I felt Victoria had any potential as a lead I would have used my badge, but I couldn’t see any connection between a college girl Lent had tired to impress and a professional theft ring.
Since I was passing right by Millie’s Café, I stopped in to catch her up on the case. I hadn’t heard from Millie since she disappeared from the party. The way she’d fallen into lust with Claude the moment she was struck with the arrow left me curious. She’d admired Claude before Cupid smote her, but Millie was circumspect in her behavior. At the party she’d lost her inhibitions.
I wondered if she was still in lust with Claude, or if the heat of passion had subsided. I soon had my answer.
“He’s a wonderful man,” Millie gushed as she took my order for three lunches to go. I figured by the time I got back to Dahlia House Tinkie and Wiley could use some edible grub. Tinkie, for all of her good intentions, could turn a potato into a military weapon.
“You barely know Claude,” I cautioned. It was true, though, that Millie’s cheeks were flushed and her step was light. She looked like a schoolgirl with her first serious crush.
“I know that, Sarah Booth. I’m not a fool. We want to get to know each other. He’s invited me to Washington to see his bar.” She was glowing with happiness, and I found it hard not to clap and whistle. It had been a while since Millie had been interested in anyone.
“Do you think the arrow had anything to do with--”
“With the way I feel about Claude?” She put her pencil behind her ear. “I’ve had a lot of resistance to falling for anyone. Too much potential pain. I didn’t go to the party expecting to find a companion, but I did. It happened and there was nothing I could do to stop it. If that’s magic or Cupid’s arrow or just timing, I can’t say. But that little hairy man in a diaper is a special person. Even if he is a thief. I’d give up all my jewelry for this feeling. I wish you’d just let him go.”
“Let him go?” The words had an ominous ring. My gut was a little late in reacting, but when it finally did, I thought I might throw up. I’d left Tinkie alone with a thief and exhibitionist— and a master manipulator.
I tore down the road toward Dahlia House. I would never forgive myself if—I banished those thoughts. As soon as I parked, I grabbed my gun from the truck and raced up the stairs. The front door was wide open.
“Tinkie!” I called, my chest so tight I almost couldn’t breathe. “Tinkie!”
There was no answer.
I pushed through the dining room and paused at the kitchen door. Leaning against it, I listened. Someone seemed to be trying to talk. I kicked the door open and ducked into the room, gun pointed.
Tinkie had been tied to a kitchen chair and gagged. I pulled the gag from her mouth. “Are you hurt?” “No,” she said. “Thank goodness you’re here. Wiley got away. He caught me by surprise and tied me up.”
I looked at the nylon rope that had been used to tie her. “How did he know to get the rope from the tack room?” I asked.
Tinkie’s blue eyes widened and she pressed her lips together.
“Dammit, Tinkie. You let him go!”
“He’s got a sick baby, Sarah Booth. What was I supposed to do?”
“Did he at least tell you where the pick up point is?”
Her grin would have lit a subway. “You bet he did. I’m tender-hearted, Sarah Booth, but I’m not an idiot.”
The Slocum Gin was a black splotch against the starry sky as Tinkie and I cut across a cotton field. We’d parked half a mile away down an old tractor path. Luckily it hadn’t rained in days, and the frost-covered ground crunched beneath our boots as we hurried toward the abandoned gin. My breath condensed in front of me and my fingers ached inside my gloves.
“I’m freezing,” Tinkie said.
“Just be glad we aren’t wearing togas,” I said.
“What did the Greeks do during winter?”
“I don’t know. And I don’t care.”
“If we were wearing togas, we wouldn’t have any place to put our guns.” Idle chitchat was one of my social skills.
“Hush!” Tinkie grabbed my arm and pulled me to the ground as headlights swept the field when a car pulled into the old gin. “See, I told you Wiley wouldn’t rat us out. The kingpin thief is here.”
I wasn’t as easily convinced as my partner that Wiley had kept his mouth shut, though it didn’t made sense that the brains behind the burglary ring would knowingly walk into an ambush. We ran across the field and ducked behind the back of the building. Though I strained my ears, I couldn’t hear a sound.
“Boost me up,” Tinkie said. “I can climb in that window.”
“Okay. Just be careful.”
I used my laced fingers as a stirrup and lifted her to the window where she could climb inside. “I’ll go around to the front.”
“Don’t get hurt.”
“I plan on staying very safe.”
When she was inside, I eased around the building to examine the car parked out front. It was a beautiful Mercedes. Perhaps Wiley hadn’t lied about meeting the moneyman.
When another set of headlights swept the front of the building, I was safely hidden behind the Mercedes. I hadn’t expected two parties. And I knew Wiley wasn’t driving a Mercedes. Nor the black Escalade that pulled into the lot. A slender person got out of the SUV holding what looked like an army rifle and slipped into the building without making a sound.
I felt in the back of my pants for my puny little pistol. Tinkie and I were greatly out-gunned.
When another vehicle, this one a loud truck with a bad muffler, pulled into the parking lot of the old gin, I realized I’d badly underestimated what was about to happen. I was positive of it when a short, barrel-chested man and a woman wearing a long flannel nightgown got out of the truck and walked toward the building.
“Pssst! Pssst! Wiley! Don’t go in there. They have guns.”
“And they have my money,” Wiley said.
“My grandbaby needs medicine,” Mama Ryan said. She brought forth her trusty shotgun. “They’ll give Wiley the money he earned. Or else.”
“Stole,” I whispered under my breath. “Not earned, stole.”
“It’s as much his as it is theirs.”
Mama had a point.
“Don’t go in there. You’ll get hurt.” I tried one more time to reason with them.
Wiley’s answer was to push open the big creaking door and boldly step into the room. “I’ve come for my mo
ney,” he said into the dark, echoey building. “Give it to me and I’ll be on my way.”
“Come and get it, little man,” a female voice called out to him. “I hate to say it, Wiley. You’re a talented thief, but you’ve about outlived your usefulness.”
“Don’t do anything foolish,” a baritone cautioned the woman. A baritone I knew very well. Harold Erkwell was in that cotton gin. I realized too late that it was his Mercedes. What was Harold doing in the middle of this mess? I crept to the metal door that remained cracked open and peered inside.
“You should have minded your own business, Harold,” the woman said. “What did you think would happen here? You’ve been kind to me, but now you’re just a loose end I have to tie up.”
“I came here to talk some sense into you,” Harold said calmly. “You can return the stolen items. The young man who was attacked went home today. He’s fine. Just give everything back and I’ll help you with this, Prentiss.”
Prentiss Luce? It wasn’t possible. She was from a good family. She had every advantage. She—
“You’re so naïve, Harold. So easy to manipulate. You never suspected a thing. When I heard about the party from my gabby little cousin, Victoria, I knew you’d invite me if I asked. You gave me all the details. You virtually helped me set up the burglary. You were my unwitting accomplice--until you remembered I disappeared in the house for a while. Then you got suspicious.”
“You can walk this back, Prentiss. Think about it.”
“You were so concerned that you’d abandoned me while you went off with Sarah Booth to find the real cupid.” She walked through a shaft of moonlight that came in from a hole in the roof. She held the gun where she could fire at will. “I was in Hilltop helping Wiley load up the Richmonds’ silver and jewels. By this time next week, they’ll be sold in New Orleans and I’ll have another tidy sum stored away.”
“Prentiss, if you’ll give yourself up, I know Coleman will work with you. Tinkie and Oscar aren’t vindictive. They’ll speak up for you. I promise.”
“It’s ironic, you know. This is my last haul. I was going to sever ties with Wiley and friends.”
“All I want is my money,” Wiley said, advancing into the building. He was fearless and his mama had his back. “You promised and my boy needs it.”
Bones and Arrows: A Sarah Booth Delaney Short Mystery Page 4
