by Tegan Maher
Max looked at him and snorted. "Hmph. You're either high, drunk, or off your meds. Everybody knows donkeys can't talk." He put his tail and his head in the air and pranced off, firing off one final kick to the shin as he passed the other guy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I TURNED TO THE HOUSE to wake Gabi, hoping she could identify either of them, but her truck wasn't there.
"Have you seen Gabi?" I asked.
"Yeah, she had to work the breakfast shift this morning."
"It's the middle of the night!" I pulled out my phone and was shocked to see it was five-thirty. Considering I'd gone to bed at three, I didn't feel too bad. To my body, it was the middle of the night.
"You can't just hold us like this. It's unlawful imprisonment or somethin'. And assault, kickin' us and throwin' us around like you did." one of the grease balls said.
"First," Matt said, narrowing his eyes at him, "you were trespassing—for the second time. Second, you haven't seen assault yet. And besides, I think you mean battery. I'd be happy to demonstrate the difference if you'd like."
Though I suspected he was nowhere near full-battle mode, Matt was pretty freakin' scary. His voice was soft and his body appeared relaxed, which somehow seemed more threatening than if he were tense. His smile reached his eyes, but it lent him the air of a wolf poised to attack. I was glad to have him on my side.
The man squirmed and diverted his eyes. "Sorry," he said. "My bad, man."
He sat still for a few minutes, his stained wife-beater visible through the ripped buttons of his shirt. "Listen, you don't have to call the cops. I may be able to help you out if you're willin' to let us go."
The one Matt had dropped like a sack of potatoes struck out at him with his funky foot. "Shut up. You're gonna get us killed."
"Screw that. You see him?" He motioned to Matt with his chin. "Right now he's the threat. And if the cops come, I'm goin' down for at least a dime on outstanding warrants. Smuthers is small fish and I ain't attached to this backwoods dive anyway. Plenty of nice places in the country I'd rather be."
I glanced at Matt, debating between using the opportunity to get a name or doing what Hunter asked and waiting. Chewing my lip, I weighed the odds. Right now, he had a reason to talk. When Hunter got here, he may not. Matt shrugged, obviously understanding my struggle.
"So,” I said, deciding to get it while the gettin' was good, "I don't care about outstanding warrants. Who are you working for, why were you going through our trailer, and what do you have to do with the dead guy we found in my barn?"
Cheesy Feet clenched his jaw and looked away. "I ain't saying nothin'."
I shrugged. "That's fine. You're obviously the dumb one in the pair anyway."
I turned my gaze to Loose Lips and tapped my foot. "Well? The cops are gonna be here in about five minutes."
He licked his lips and looked at his partner, who was staring straight ahead. "Rick Smuthers. He runs a book over in Eagle Gap, an extension of his business in Atlanta. Sturgess was in so far he couldn't see daylight and his money ran out. The man had a knack for pickin' losers. We had a runnin' gag that you don't bet on nuttin' he threw money at."
Matt had his arms crossed over his chest, feet shoulder-width apart. "Yet he's dead and you're still slappin' around women on this property and trespassing."
He held out his head. "I wasn't down with slappin' around no women. Georgie here, he don't got no bones about it though. Sturgess ran his mouth about how he found out his dearly departed Mama left somethin' that belonged to him with this chick, Gabi, and she wouldn't cooperate."
"And so you decided to kill Sturgess and steal whatever Sylvia left from Gabi?"
He shook his head. "Oh, no. You got it all wrong. He wasn't no good to us dead. Smuthers ain't too happy about that. We didn't do it. Our orders were to retrieve the item and bring it to the boss to cover the debt. That's it."
"What about the guy in the green truck? The one that was here the day Marcus was killed?" I asked.
"I don't know nothin' about any green truck," he said. "We were in town lookin' for your girly friend when he was killed."
Matt rubbed his chin, his nose curled like he smelled something rotten. "Speaking of her, what about splittin' a woman's lip?"
For the first time, Cheesy Feet spoke up. "Bitch wouldn'ta got busted in the mouth if she knew her place."
Matt's foot snapped out so fast I barely saw it. One minute, the dude was sitting there sneering, the next, there was blood gushing from his nose and he was howling and spewing profanities.
He muttered something under his breath. I bent down and turned my ear toward him. "What was that, Georgie? Did you say you wanted me to turn you loose so you can kick his ass?" I made to reach for his arms, being careful to keep my distance. He spun away from me so I couldn't reach his hands.
"That's what I thought," I said, pushing to my feet. "Stop whining. You gave Gabi a split lip and a black eye and she didn't so much as whimper. Shame she's not here though because she sure was pissed. I'm sure she'd like a chance to return the favor."
I turned my attention back to Mr. Talkative. "So what exactly were you lookin' for?"
He shrugged, keeping a wary eye on Matt. "I dunno. All we know is the boss said Sturgess showed him a note he found in your girl's stuff at the farm before she came and got it. We ain't been able to find it to figure out what we were lookin' for."
That explained why they tried to get Skeeter to let them see the truck.
The crunching of gravel and the sound of a truck motor made me smile. "Oops. Looks like the cops are here."
Loose Lips struggled against his bindings, cussing me 'til a fly wouldn't light on me. "You said you'd let me go if I talked."
I crinkled my brow. "I did not. I told you the cops were gonna be here in five minutes. It's been about that long."
He stopped struggling and smirked. "I'm not repeatin' what I said if I'm goin' to jail anyway." He nodded toward Georgie. "He's right. Smuthers has people in the local lock-ups and I ain't goin' in as no rat."
I tilted my head and smirked back, holding up my phone. "Lucky for us I recorded it, then."
Hunter'd pulled up in front of the barn and strode the few feet to us. He examined the two men in front of him, then dipped his head toward Georgie. "What happened to his nose?"
I glanced at Matt, who started to say something. "I'm sure he felt so guilty about hitting a woman that he smashed his face into something. Ain't that right, Georgie?"
He opened his mouth to respond, then glanced at Matt and snapped it shut. "That's right," he said through gritted teeth.
"And Mr. ... I didn't catch your name," I said to Loose Lips. He clamped his mouth shut, too. I turned the Hunter, then compressed the audio file and sent it to his phone. "Well, whatever his name is, he explained things a tad. I just sent it to your phone."
He scowled at me. "What happened to waiting for me to get here?"
I sighed. "I saw a chance and I took it. He said he has warrants and offered to talk rather than go to jail."
"You can't offer him a deal like that," Hunter said.
"Oh, I know. I reckon he thought I'd turn him loose before you got here if he talked. I never agreed to that, though."
"Sometimes I don't know what to do with you," he said, "but I can't even be mad because you got more than I would have."
Matt was hauling the talker to his feet when Max came trotting around the corner.
"Keep that freak away from me," Cheesy Feet said, rolling over and pushing to his feet.
Hunter glanced at Max, then the dude. "Don't tell me a big guy like you is scared of a little donkey."
"I ain't scared of no normal donkey, but that thing kicks, and it's a smart-mouth."
Biting the inside of his cheek, Hunter raised a brow. "Smart-mouth, huh? That donkey?" He motioned to Max.
"Yeah," the guy said. "I don't know what you people are tryin' to pull, but that donkey talks. And there's other funny stuff goin' on around h
ere, too."
Cheri Lynn popped in, examining her nails. "Funny stuff? Where? I love a good laugh."
Cheesy Feet jumped back, and Max gave him his best donkey grin, along with the fakest bray I'd ever heard. "You know what's funny? The way your nose looks."
Cheri Lynn swooped right up in his face and nodded. "It does look a bit out of joint. In more ways than one."
The guy sidled toward Hunter's truck. "Just take me to jail. Please."
Hunter grinned and guided him toward the driveway as one of his deputies pulled up in a squad car. "Now there's something a cop doesn't hear every day."
"Yeah," the con said, keeping his eye on Max and doing his best to pretend Cheri Lynn wasn't hovering right beside him. "Seems to be a lot of that happenin' around here. Let's go."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
HUNTER SHOOK MATT'S hand. "Man, again, I can't tell you how glad I am you're living here."
Matt shot me a stern glance. "Yeah, well I tried to get her to stay in the house but she wouldn't do it."
"Hey!" I said. "What if one of them had been like, a Ninja master or something? I wasn't going to let you deal with it alone. Besides, this is my home. I'm not gonna stay inside like some damsel in distress and wait for somebody to come tell me it's okay to walk across my own yard. It's not like I'm helpless."
Movement from Matt's apartment caught my attention. The curtains swayed just a little and my first thought was that maybe there'd been three people instead of two. I tilted my head and took a step in that direction. "I think there's somebody in your place, Matt."
He stepped over in front of me and exchanged a glance with Hunter. "There ain't nobody in my place."
"But I—"
Hunter grabbed my sleeve and gave me the get a clue look. "The man said there's nobody in his place."
"Ohhh," I said, feeling like a dunce. "My mistake."
The awkward moment didn't last because Rae chose then to rumble up the drive. She slid her car into park and climbed out, looking around at all the action. "What's goin' on?"
I gave her a brief rundown, laughing at the incidents with Max and Cheri Lynn.
"Did they have anything to say about the guy in the green truck?"
"No, they said they were in town lookin' for Gabi when he was killed."
He scratched his jaw. "That's about right, according to what I've found out."
"Did you have any luck yesterday?" Matt asked.
"Nope," Hunter said. "As I matter of fact, I had just the opposite. Two separate people reported they saw Marcus with someone they would swear was Gabi last Friday. The sheriff over there's starting to get pushy about arresting her."
"Why's he bein' like that?"
I told him about the run-in Gabi had with his son. The flutter of his curtains caught my eye again in the early light, and I'm not gonna lie—I was dying of curiosity.
"Great," Matt said, drawing my attention back to the conversation and shifting a tad to his right so that I was no longer looking at his place over his shoulder. The man was way too observant. "How much time you think you got before he calls in the big dogs on it?"
Hunter sighed. "Maybe a day or two if we don't figure something else out."
"Well then," Rae said, "we better get to figurin'. But first I gotta get those goodies to Brew. I'm interviewing another girl this afternoon, too. Maybe I can actually start takin' some days off. Angel's more than capable of runnin' it without me."
I was glad to hear it. She'd busted her butt there pretty much seven days a week for almost a year. Rather than hire somebody else, she'd thrown every spare cent toward her business loans and was about to be in the clear. Lord knew she'd earned the chance to slow down a little.
Even though it was early, the ruckus had woken the horses and they were getting antsy. The rattling of feed buckets and the occasional hoof kicking a wall let me know their highnesses weren't willing to wait much longer. Any thought of going back to sleep went out the window.
I yawned. "We can get together for lunch, maybe. Right now, I'm gonna make some coffee, then feed. Hunter, I assume you have to go deal with Beavis and Butthead?" He nodded.
"Then I'll text you when I get to town. Matt, you want coffee?"
He'd already turned to go back to his place. "Uh, no. I'll make some at my place. I have something I need to do."
I arched a brow at him as the curtain swayed again. "I just bet you do."
Big, bad Army guy's face flushed a becoming shade of pink and I ran my tongue over my teeth to keep from grinning. He scowled at me. "Don't you have coffee to make?"
Rae and Hunter left and I went back inside after watching Matt stride halfway back to his place.
Curious and Curiouser.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I WAS DEAD ON MY FEET by the time I finished the stalls. There are some things you just can't use witchcraft for, and picking road apples and pee outta sawdust is one of them. I hung the stall fork back in the feed room and pulled my phone out of my pocket, wiping my forehead on my sleeve. Almost eight. Plenty of time for a nap.
My feet felt like lead bricks as I drug myself back to the house. I slid my coffee cup on the entry table, then picked it back up again and took it to the kitchen. No matter how hard I tried, some things just can't be unlearned. Leaving dirty dishes on the furniture was one of 'em.
I did take the time to rinse the layer of barn dirt off my face, feet, and forearms before crashing on top of my comforter, but that was it. I was asleep faster than I could even think bless your heart, let alone say it.
When I woke up, the angle of the sun told me it was close to noon. I rolled over and stretched, feeling like a new woman. I crawled out of bed and slipped on my fuzzy slippers, then scratched my hip as I shuffled to the stairs. I made a pot of coffee and while it was running through, went back upstairs and brushed my teeth.
It was the first day I'd had in a week or so where I didn't have to hit the floor running, and I was gonna enjoy a cup of coffee and some front-porch sittin'. This was one of the many reasons I was fighting setting regular store hours, kicking and screaming. As long as I was making enough money selling my creations and baked goods, I wasn't going to tie myself to the place nine to five.
The soft squeak of the back screen door was music to my ears in the comfortable silence of the house. I loved that place and couldn't imagine anywhere else ever being home. Hunter had a cute house he'd bought and was fixing up and I'd stayed there a few times, but I couldn't picture myself living there.
I scrolled through Facebook, then set my phone down and just enjoyed the sights and sounds of the farm. The chickens scratching and the occasional squeal from one of the horses were all that broke the horses. A few cardinals flitted back and forth, and the first hummingbird of the year came to sample my petunias.
It was a perfect day. Just warm enough so I didn't need a jacket, but the cloying heat and humidity that would weigh down the air in another month hadn't arrived yet.
The sound of a vehicle coming up the drive brought me out of my chair. Even though two of our problems were now locked up in the Keyhole County jail, there was still a murderer on the loose. It was only Gabi, though.
"There's coffee in the kitchen. Grab a cup and join me," I hollered. She held up the hand not holding her server apron and book and nodded.
Within just a couple minutes, she pushed out the door and slid into a chair beside me, plunking her apron on the table. It sounded like it had five pounds of change in it. She sighed and propped her bare feet up on the chair next to her.
"Lordy what a mornin'," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. "I'm so glad this is the last day of that convention. I've never seen so many tight fists and bad toupees in one room."
"I hear ya. They nailed us at Brew yesterday morning and Louise said they got hit, too." I shook my head. "Whoever put that together needs their head examined."
She rolled her eyes. "It's part of the new, We're Not Just a Lake Town promotion the Chamber of Commerc
e is running."
"Oh, for the love of God. I should have known if it was a cluster, Olivia had a hand in it." Olivia Anderson, my personal nemesis since grade school, was one of a handful of members of our Chamber of Commerce, and the only one who took an active interest in it. That meant anytime they were behind something, it was likely to be a cheesy pain in the backside. It was how she rolled.
"I just hope there's nothin' else like it in the works. Nearly every one of 'em ordered the bacon and egg special because it was only three ninety-nine and came with a cup of coffee." She sighed. "I wanna heave just thinking about it. Three different times, I had somebody complain about the fifty-cent upcharge for cheese, even though I told them about it when the ordered."
I raised a brow in sympathy and nodded toward her apron. "Lemme guess, most of 'em gave you a five and told you to keep the change."
"You got it, sister. I was gonna roll it, but I'm just gonna take it to the bank later."
I watched as she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, soaking up the sunshine. As bad as things looked, I didn't want to believe that she was involved in the whole business with Marcus.
"As bad as I hate to interrupt your peace, we caught the two guys who jumped you the other day."
She turned her head toward me and popped her eyes open. "No kidding? What happened?"
I told her about Addy waking me up, then about what all happened after, right up to Hunter mentioning how the sheriff of Eagle Gap wanted her arrested.
"I just don't get it," she said. "That whole thing with his kid happened like two or three years ago, but he's hassled me every chance he's gotten since then."
Shrugging, I reminded her of Hank. "It's not like our police department has proven trust-worthy, or even competent, for that matter. I wouldn't worry about it. Hunter will deal with him. We do need to figure out who the chick is that Marcus was with, though. If we can find her, it takes the heat off you."
She chewed on her bottom lip. "It doesn't surprise me that he was seen with someone who looks like me. He definitely had a specific type. But I have no idea who it coulda been. Pick any short, busty brunette in the county and he'd have chased her."
