“I’m not afraid of Tangie,” I said.
“I know,” Levi said. “You’re not afraid of anybody. Even people who might be a murderer.” He winked his eye. “You and your 5-inch heels are fearless.”
“Yes we are,” I said although I could hear my there was Dedek’s voice in my ear telling me, for the second time since I’d been in Branson, not to be so cocky.
I blamed the cockiness on not only my martial art skills, but my ability to do it in style. Take for instance these pretty canary blue Jimmy Choos I was sporting . . .
“So,” I said bringing myself out of my reverie and frowned at Levi. “You said you didn’t know anyone she called Scout. Why all of a sudden are you saying it’s Tangie?”
He glanced over at me and a small grin curled up his lips. “She never actually called Tangie Scout. What she said, and I just remembered it, was that she had someone “scouting” for her.”
I rolled my eyes. “That is not very good evidence of it being Tangie,” I said. “One’s a verb. One’s a noun.”
“What?” he said and frowned up. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“It seems mighty convenient for you, again, I might add, to remember a clue way after the fact.”
“What?” he whined. “I can’t help I’ve got a bad memory.”
“Bad memory that is dead set on Tangie being the killer,” I said. “Everything you’ve come up with, after the fact, points to Tangie.”
He shrugged. “If she did it, she did it. Not my fault.” He folded the paper over and flapped it in my face.
I shook my head. “We just need to figure out what we’re going to say to her when we see. We can’t just walk in there and not be ready.”
“When we get in here,” Levi said. “I think you better let me do the talking.” He took the notebook out of my hand and stuck the Blackmail List sheet between the leaves of the pages.
“I don’t know,” I said. “And shouldn’t we call the police first?”
“Why?” he asked. “Why do you always want to call the police?”
“Because maybe she is the murderer. We need back up.
“I can handle Tangie,” he said and waved the notebook at me. “We’ve got all the proof we need. And I thought you weren’t afraid of her.”
“I’m not afraid of her,” I said. “That has nothing to do with putting the killer in jail. To be honest, I don’t even know if we’ve yet to have something concrete on her.”
“She’s the killer,” he said, confidence spilling over in his voice. “And I can prove it.”
“How?”
“By making her confess.”
“OMG!” I said. “Like that is going to happen.”
“Like I said, you just let me do the talking,” Levi said. “And let’s see if I can’t convince you I’m right.” He glanced over at my purse “And maybe you should get your grandfather on the phone. I’m sure he’ll have some questions of his own.”
I didn’t say anything to him as he pulled into the parking lot of the Lucky Leprechaun. Once he put the car in gear, I got out of the car. I just decided to let him talk to Tangie, sans Good Question Asking Grandpa. I wasn’t convinced she did it but only because of Ethan and Swan’s involvement, something he didn’t know.
Plus my grandfather had been so busy fighting with my Baba that I hadn’t ever had the chance to bring him up to speed on the case. It was no way he had anything to offer, he’d only heard the conversation with Benjamin.
By the time Levi had gotten out of the car, I had already made it to the door to the bar.
“Remember,” he said jumping in front of me and pulling open the door. “Let me do the talking.
There was a green neon light of three-leaf clover in the window of the bar, and it seemed to be the only illumination making the bar’s dim and smoky interior have an eerie glow. I waved my hand in front of my face to clear a line of sight.
People were scattered around sitting at tables and at the bar, but Levi zoomed in on Tangie like he had radar. He grabbed my hand and pulled me flying behind him as he marched over to her.
“You killed Blu!” Levi snarled and leaned across the table putting his face in hers.
Tangie backed her face away and pushed his on his shoulder. “Get out of my face, Levi!” she shouted. “Don’t come in here with no mess.” She kicked her way out from the booth nearly toppling the beer and the glass of soda that was on the wobbly table and stood up to face Levi.
“We’ve got proof.” Levi threw a glance my way, standing his ground. “We know you did it.”
“You don’t have any proof of me killing nobody,” she said. “And why did you bring her?” She flung a hand my way. “She doesn’t have anything to do with what was between me and Blu.” I stepped back. Not wanting to get in the middle of their spitting match.
“She’s the one that helped me figure out you did it,” Levi said, he grabbed my arm and pulled me next to him.
“Well she did a piss-poor job of doing it because I didn’t kill Blu.”
“Then what about this?” Levi whipped out Blu’s black notebook from inside of his leather jacket. I hadn’t even noticed he stashed it there.
“What is that?”
“Proof,” he said.
“How is a notebook proof I killed Blu?” Tangie asked.
“It has the dirt on you, and Lowell and Benjamin in it.”
“Dirt on me?” It was Benjamin. He stood there face pale and mouth opened.
It appeared he was the owner of that soda that Tangie had almost knocked over.
“What are you doing here?” Levi said, breaking into a chuckle. “Didn’t we just leave you at the Home Depot?”
“He’s here with me,” Tangie said.
“Why?” Levi asked. He narrowed his eyes at the two of them.
“None of your business,” Tangie said.
“I thought you said you didn’t kill Blu,” Levi levied his question to Benjamin.
“What? I didn’t,” he said.
“Then why are you here with Tangie right after you told us where we could find the information on who the murderer was.”
“You did what?” Tangie’s eyes got big and she huffed out the words with such force that I thought she was going to explode.
“I did no such thing,” Benjamin said and I could see his bottom lip start to tremble.
Was he going to cry again?
“Yes, you did,” Levi the Instigator said. “And we found out that Tangie killed Blu. Now I’m beginning to think you helped her.”
“I told you where to find the keys,” Benjamin said. “I said nothing about you finding a murderer anywhere.”
“You told them about the keys?” Tangie asked concern and surprise on her face. “I thought you came here so we could get them before anyone else found them.”
“I didn’t know she wanted the keys because she had killed Blu,” Benjamin said to Levi.
“I didn’t kill Blu!” Tangie shouted.
“Destroying evidence?” Levi asked. “So that’s what you two are up to?”
Benjamin’s eye met each one of ours – mine, then Levi’s, and when they got to Tangie I saw panic light up in them. Without saying a word, he turned and headed for the door.
“Hey!” Levi shouted after him. “Where you going?” Levi turned and looked at me and then back at Benjamin who by this time had made it all the way to the door. He turned back around, pointed to Tangie and barked at me, “Watch her!”
“She can’t watch me!” Tangie said and headed out behind them.
It should have been quite obvious to all of them, that I didn’t want any part of their argument. Like the rest of the people in the bar, I had been no more than a spectator in their rumble. Plus, I didn’t know for sure that Tangie was the murderer and if she was, what were Levi and I supposed to do about it?
Actually, we probably weren’t going to have to do anything about it because he was doing a real bad job of getting her to confess.
I followed them out and headed for Levi’s car. I leaned up against the door and watched the ruckus.
Levi was trying to stop Benjamin from leaving and Tangie was shouting at the both of them, then I saw Lowell emerge from one of the parked cars.
“Wow,” I mumbled to myself. “This is a pretty popular Merry Stampeded spot.”
“Don’t try and leave,” Lowell said walking my way.
I turned and looked behind me then back at Lowell. I pointed to myself. “You talking to me?” I asked.
“Yes. You,” he said. “I saw you and Levi break into the barn over at the Merry Stampede. I’ve already called the police.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I lied then stepped aside and forward because he was coming right at me. I didn’t want to pinned against the car.
“Yeah you did,” he said. “And you’re waiting here.”
“Hey!” Levi shouted out. “Lowell! Leave her alone! You leave Nixie alone!”
Lowell turned to look at Levi and that gave me a chance to scoot even further away.
“Don’t you try it!” Lowell said noticing my move. He stepped over to me and from underneath grabbed my left wrist with his right hand.
“Let her go!” Levi said and started my way, but without giving him a chance to defend me, I put my left leg back into my fight stance, grasped his wrist, and with a hip movement, I spun to the side, pushed in, turned his wrist over and pulled him to the side of me. That did two things – made him release his hold on me and break his concentration. He was totally surprised that I got away from him, and how quickly I’d done it.
It gave me time to step my right foot out of my high heels. Then I brought my knee straight up, straight in, heel facing him I pushed my foot into his chest. I recoiled my knee, and dropped my foot back into my shoe before he knew what hit him.”
“Oh no you didn’t just do that!” Levi came over. He bent over and stopped laughing. “I thought you didn’t have any more secrets! Girl, you are a fighting machine.”
Tangie and Benjamin stood in awe, not saying a word and Lowell didn’t know seem to know what to do. He was still pressed against the car, his hands up in the air.
“Man,” Levi said. “You messed with the wrong girl.”
Lowell swallowed and lowered his hands slowly. “The police are coming,” he said as if wasn’t sure how much of threat that was to me.
“Good,” I said. “Because they can pick up Tangie for murder.”
“What?” Tangie said. Her voice was loud and had climbed several octaves. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“I think we have enough evidence that they’d want to at least hold you and talk to you.” I said and turned to Lowell. “And you too, you were with her that night. You must have seen her do it.”
“I wasn’t with her,” he said. “That’s what she said.” He threw a finger her way.”
“I think it was all three of you,” Levi said. “Benjamin helped set her up in that house.”
“I did no such thing,” Benjamin said. “I’m out of here.”
“You move,” Levi said, “and I will sic Nixie on you.”
I wasn’t so sure what I thought of that . . .
“Tangie,” Benjamin said, “you better tell her.”
“Tell what?” Levi said.
Tangie started walking in circles. Her eyes focused on the asphalt under her feet, her hands balled into tight fists.
“Tell her,” Benjamin repeated, following her with his eyes. “Or, I’m telling everything I know. Everything.”
“Guess you better tell us, Tangie,” Levi said. “Benjamin sounds really serious about spilling the beans.”
“If you want to know, you have to give me the dirt that Blu had on me. All of it,” she said.
“No we don’t,” Levi said. “We not making bargains for you to confess to a murder.”
“I’m not confessing,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest. “And if you want to know what I know, you do have to promise to give it to me.”
“What do you know?” Levi said.
“Are you going to give it to me the information she had?”
“Yeah,” I said.
What the heck, I thought. Why not give it to her. I wanted to know what she had. Plus, it was evidence that we’d broken into the Merry Stampede and if she had it, Lowell couldn’t turn us in.
Tangie let out a huff. “I know who killed Blu,” she said and held up her head. She started moving it back and forth like she wished she could purge the knowledge she had stored.
“Who killed Blu?” Levi and I said almost in unison.
She looked at us and licked her lips. “I’ll tell you who did it, but not here.” She had stopped pacing, relaxed her hands and seemed to have reached some kind of decision that made her feel less tense.
“Where?” I asked. “At the police station?”
“No!” she said and shot me a searing look. “Not at the police station.”
“Why? We have to let the police know,” Levi said. “If you really know who killed Blu.”
“Because I don’t like those places. Plus, I want to be there when the police arrest . . .” She stopped talking and looked at us. Both of us had eager looks on our faces.
“When they arrest who?” I asked.
I had resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to figure it out. Understanding and buying designer wear was more my forte.
“Don’t think I’m telling you now,” Tangie snapped. “And don’t forget our deal.”
“We won’t forget,” I said.
“You turn in Blu’s killer and we give you the dirt she has on you,” Levi said.
“You give it to me,” Tangie said, “and you don’t ever tell anyone.”
“I won’t,” he said. “All I want is justice for Blu.”
“And I won’t either,” I said.
All I wanted to do was clear Swan’s name and keep my job. The Merry Stampeded crew could keep all their crimes to themselves.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Oh yes. I had had enough of murder.
I needed a shopping time-out.
Although I hadn’t seen any, I could hear the mall calling out to me. It was the only way I could put a curb on all the stress that was piling on me, pushing my chest in so hard that I could hardly breathe.
Dedek after me to find out who the murderer was, then not available to even help me out. Ava Dewey with her unrealistic expectations. How was I supposed to figure out anything without letting people know who I was and why I’d been there in the first place?
Then there were the neighbors. SMH.
Andie Halliwell was overflowing with kookiness, and I was afraid it was contagious. Like him, I was going around, sans notebook, asking strangers all kinds of questions. He had sparked a flicker of suspicion in me about home invasion and housesitting, which was confirmed by Detective Wade. From what Andie had said, Ava Dewey didn’t have to worry about me giving Harrington a bad name, she could thank Reddit for that.
And then there was the Carlings, definitely not neighborhood darlings. And certainly less skillful in hand-to-hand combat then they thought.
And don’t get me started about the people at the Merry Joy Stampede Ranch.
Geesh!
But now that we were on our way to find out who the killer was, my nerve endings couldn’t have been on any higher alert.
Levi put me in the car with Lowell and told me to “do” my karate on him if he tried anything. (What is this thing with people thinking the word “karate” is a verb?) I wasn’t too worried about Lowell trying anything, though. He wanted to clear his name now that he knew Tangie might be a part of it and had dragged him into it as his alibi. He wanted to make sure when Tangie had her say, he wasn’t implicated. He was happy to go along for the ride.
Levi stuffed Benjamin in the backseat of his Camaro and Tangie in the front. He got his directions to where she wanted to go and spill her guts from her and Lowell followed th
eir lead.
And nothing could have wiped the surprise off my face when we pulled up at the Piedmont Community Center.
What in the world . . .
Wasn’t that the community center where Detective Wade was going to be conducting a pow-w0w with the neighborhood watch group? Why would Tangie want to go there?
This couldn’t be good.
But then on second thought, perhaps the community center was apropos since it was in the neighborhood Blu had turned up dead in. That way, with the homeowners there, they’d know that the killer had been caught and they were safe in their homes again.
We pulled into the parking lot of the small building, and I saw Swan and Ethan go in.
“Oh my,” I said.
“What did you say?” Lowell asked.
“Nothing,” I said. I snapped my seatbelt off and slid out of the seat. All of a sudden I was nervous about who Tangie was going to point the finger at.
Could it be my friend? Was Swan the killer? I felt bad, because in my mind, she’d always been a main suspect.
We all, Tangie, Benjamin, Lowell, Levi and myself, walked in at the same time. It seemed that our presence was quite the oddity because the room went hush and all eyes turned toward us.
There was a long, banquet-like table in the front of the room, and a lectern sitting in the middle. Folding chairs were arranged in rows, with an aisle down the middle facing the table. The large brightly painted room was only half full of people.
I noticed Clover and Coffey Carling sitting on side of the room, and Andie Halliwell on the other. Neighbors who couldn’t even sit next to one another. I wondered where the Dallansandros would sit, or did they even care about the watch group. It surely hadn’t helped them any.
“Detective Wade,” Tangie said breaking out of our group and walking halfway up the aisle. “I have something to tell you.”
“Miss Dumont,” he said, surprise etched in his face. “I didn’t know you’d be coming here.”
“I came to talk to you,” she said.
“Can it wait until after the meeting?” he asked. “We were just getting ready to start.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Nope. I don’t think it can wait,” she said.
A Merry Branson Murder Page 13
