Thirty-One and a Half Regrets (Rose Gardner Mystery #4)

by Grover Swank, Denise

  Violet’s mouth fell open. “What in the world has gotten into you?”

  “I think you should count your blessings because a lot of people have sacrificed to let you keep them.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  I couldn’t believe I’d let myself say so much. “Nothing.” I walked into the other room to get away from her.

  Violet acted hurt until it was time to go trick-or-treating, and then she announced that she’d decided to stay home and hand out candy. Mike and I left with the kids, Muffy trotting next to me on her leash. Ashley and Mike had coerced her into wear her antennae while I was in the kitchen with Violet, but the look of indignation on her face told me that it hadn’t been consensual. We walked down the street, Ashley not as excited as she was before we left. It felt awkward and sad without Violet, as if one leg of a three-legged stool was missing. The three of us had always taken Ashley and Mikey out together.

  Mike and I stood at the end of a driveway and watched the kids walk up to a neighbor’s front door. I held Muffy’s leash, trying to keep her from flopping onto her back again. One of her wings was already dented and had a small hole in it.

  “I was sorry to hear about you and Joe breaking up,” Mike said, keeping his gaze on the kids. “I hope Violet didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  I sighed and mumbled, “Not how you think.”

  He spun to face me. “What?”

  “No. She didn’t.”

  He relaxed and stuffed his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “I miss seeing you, Rose. You’ve been like a little sister to me. I should have called to check on you, but I wasn’t sure…with Violet.” He cleared his throat. “How are you handling everything?”

  “I’m better.” I wrapped my arms around my chest, my heart aching. I’d lost so much in my life recently and I just kept losing more. “I miss you too, Mike. I hope you’re doing well.”

  “I’ve been better,” he sighed as the kids ran back to us. “I’ve been a helluva lot better.”

  Ashley held up her pink pumpkin. “I got M&Ms, Daddy!”

  “That’s awesome, my little princess!”

  Melancholy hung over me the rest of the evening, seasoned with my dread of facing Joe the next day. Mike and I took the kids back to the house and went inside, stopping in the entryway. Violet was sitting on the sofa with a bottle of wine and two glasses, one partially full.

  “I’m going to go ahead and head home, Vi. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, jumping off the sofa and walking over to me, disappointment in her eyes. “I thought maybe you could stay and have a glass of wine with me and we could talk. We haven’t really had a chance to for weeks.”

  I glanced at Mike, who awkwardly stood to the side.

  “I’m really tired and I want to get plenty of rest for tomorrow. What time do I need to be there?”

  “The presentation is at one, but we should both be there by twelve. I think it’ll take the whole afternoon.”

  No way could I handle that. “Once my part is done, I’m out of there.”

  “Okay.” She nodded.

  “Aunt Rose?” Ashley tugged on the hem of my sweater. “Can Muffy sleep over with me?”

  “I don’t know…” I hadn’t had any run-ins with Thomas in over a month, but I was still worried that he and his friends might try to prank my house. If Muffy was there, at least she’d be some kind of alarm system. “I kind of want Muffy to spend the night with me tonight. How about tomorrow night? If it’s okay with your mommy.”

  “Can she, Mommy?” Ashley spun to face her mother. “I miss Muffy.”

  “Okay, maybe Aunt Rose can bring Muffy to the shop tomorrow. She should be there for the press conference anyway. She is the nursery mascot.”

  Her statement surprised me. She usually didn’t like Muffy hanging around the store.

  I flashed Ashley a smile. “Muffy will be very excited. She loves having sleep-overs with you.”

  Mike picked up little Mikey and put an arm around Ashley’s shoulders. “How about I get you two ready for bed?”

  Violet looked surprised. “You don’t have to do that, Mike.”

  He stopped and stared at her for several seconds. “I know, but I miss this. Our family.” His voice was raspy, so he cleared his throat. “I’d appreciate it if you’d let me get them ready for bed.”

  For once Violet seemed at a loss for words. “Sure, Mike,” she finally said. “Thank you.”

  Violet watched them disappear down the hall, and there was a certain heaviness in her eyes when she turned back to me. “Are you sure you can’t stay?”

  My heart ached. I longed for the days when Violet and I had been close, but lately I’d begun to wonder how close we’d really been. My faith in Violet had wavered in everything, including her role in our shared past. If she’d managed to hide an affair from me for months, what else had she hidden? I couldn’t stay tonight because it was too hard to hide my bitterness and anger. I knew I needed to confront her, but now wasn’t the time. “I’m tired. I’ve been working more with Bruce Wayne gone.”

  “When is he coming back?”

  “I’m not sure.” I sure wished I knew. I needed to start figuring out where he was, and what I could do to find him.

  I headed home, suddenly feeling more lonely than usual. I missed Joe, but I realized it wasn’t an all-consuming feeling, like it had been for the past several weeks. The kind that sometimes stole my breath and threatened to suck me into an abyss of despair. No, the grief had turned to a nagging ache, and when I really stopped to examine it, I realized it wasn’t even necessarily Joe that I missed. It was having someone in my life to share the little things no one else cared about.

  Did that mean I was ready to move on?

  I pulled into my driveway and walked up to my dark front porch, looking for any signs of mischief from Thomas and his friends, but everything was in its place.

  When had I become so paranoid?

  Muffy was still wearing her costume, and I considered taking it off before letting her loose to go to the bathroom in the front yard, but she didn’t seem to mind it anymore, perhaps because she’d broke it in. One of her antennae had fallen off completely and the broken wing was hanging lopsided. Somehow it seemed to suit her even more now.

  My eyes drifted to Thomas’s house. He was in his driveway, sitting on the back of his car with two of his friends. When Bruce Wayne had disappeared last time, it was after an encounter with Thomas at Jonah’s church. I was beginning to suspect that Bruce Wayne’s disappearance definitely had some tie to Crocker’s gang. I just didn’t know what. The question was, would Thomas tell me anything?

  There was only one way to find out.

  I could only imagine the harassment Muffy would endure if I took her with me in her costume, so I stripped it off before clipping her leash onto her collar. She immediately began to jump around in excitement. If only my enthusiasm matched hers. Instead, dread filled my belly like a boulder, dragging me down my steps. I forced myself to straighten my back and lift my chin as I walked. I was about to confront a handful of teenage boys. What was I so worked up about?

  A giant grin spread across Thomas’s face as I approached his car. His two friends flanked him, each with a beer can in hand.

  “Well, look who’s come-a-callin’.” Thomas laughed. “Here to party with us, Rose?”

  I swallowed the lecture on the tip of my tongue. It would be wasted breath and wouldn’t encourage him to help me. “Have you seen Bruce Wayne Decker lately?”

  Thomas’s smile turned wicked. “Nope, he’s usually hiding up your skirt when I see him.”

  My face burned with anger and embarrassment. “Are you sure you haven’t seen him? Maybe out at Weston’s Garage?”

  He hopped off the back of the car and strutted toward me. He was a tall and lanky seventeen-year-old who hadn’t quite grown into himself. But he could still cause me physical harm. The question wa
s whether he’d cross that line.

  “Maybe you’d like to come pay a visit and see for yourself. I know a few friends who’d love to have a chat with you.”

  The hairs on my arms stood on end. “Have you seen him or not?”

  He cocked an eyebrow with a smirk. “You didn’t say the magic word. Please.” The street light caught the medallion at the base of his throat.

  I drew in a breath, trying to rein in my impatience. “Thomas, would you please tell me if you’ve seen Bruce Wayne?”

  He leaned his face into mine, his beer breath nearly making me gag. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” he whispered, then grinned wider and stepped back. I got a better look at the medallion, which was a St. Jude’s charm. Funny, Thomas didn’t strike me as the religious type and his mother was Pentecostal. “I haven’t seen him since last week.”

  “And when and where was that?”

  “Last Friday. At Weston’s Garage. Now you owe me something.”

  I took a step back. “What could I possibly have that you want?”

  “I’ll let you know when I want it.” Then he started laughing again, his peanut gallery joining in, and turned his back to me.

  Muffy lowered her head and released a growl. I tugged on her leash. “Come on, Muffy.”

  Their laughter filled the darkness as I walked back to my house. I was surprised Miss Mildred hadn’t called the police on them yet for disturbing the peace. When I got inside, I locked all the doors and windows, more irritated than scared. Thomas was a lot of talk, but I knew one day he’d cross a line that couldn’t be uncrossed.

  Muffy seemed agitated, but I finally got her calm enough to settle down for bed. I had trouble sleeping, worried as I was about Bruce Wayne and where to look for him. No, I knew where to look. I just didn’t want to go there. While I knew Thomas was a bunch of talk, I had no delusions that Crocker’s associates at Weston’s Garage wouldn’t back their threats with action. I was tempted to tell Mason what was going on, but I didn’t want to put him in a difficult situation. If I told him Bruce Wayne was missing, he’d be forced to report it. And if I asked him not to, I’d be putting his job at risk. I couldn’t do that.

  I woke up the next morning to the sound of Muffy whimpering. After I checked her over to make sure she wasn’t hurt, I took her outside through the kitchen door. But she instantly bolted around the corner to the front of the house. I raced after her, but stopped in my tracks when I caught sight of my front yard.

  Smashed pumpkins littered the yard and covered the porch. The hay bales had been ripped apart and strewn across the grass and the street.

  With a heavy sigh of disappointment, I walked up the front steps to see if Thomas and his friends had done any permanent damage to the house. Dried-up gobs of the pumpkins and squash splattered the porch, but I didn’t see anything that couldn’t be fixed. My gaze landed on the table between my rocking chairs. Smack in the middle was a half-finished bottle of tequila.

  So Thomas and his friends had staged a party on my porch.

  Something shiny on the table next to the bottle caught my attention. I leaned over and picked it up, immediately recognizing it as a St. Jude’s medallion necklace. When I flipped it over, I saw an engraved snake on the other side. Here was my proof that Thomas was involved, but the necklace sparked another memory too. A month ago, someone had tried to break into the house next door to Thomas and the police had found a St. Jude’s necklace in the yard. And then there was the necklace I’d found in Bruce Wayne’s apartment. Was it some symbol of being loyal to Crocker? I let it drop from my fingers onto the table.

  I considered calling the police and filing a report so I could press charges, but I doubted that Henryetta’s finest would take me seriously. When I gave my statement to Detective Taylor the day after Jonah’s mother had tried to kill me, he insinuated that I was responsible for the predicaments I’d gotten sucked into over the last few months. I could only imagine how he would react if I made the call.

  “Let me get this straight, Ms. Gardner. You confronted a known hoodlum and his friends, and then you were surprised when they trashed your porch? And you say you don’t bring these things on yourself?”

  The police were out. Once again, I was on my own.

  Chapter Four

  I got dressed and spent the next half hour cleaning my yard. I was putting my rake in the shed when my cell phone rang. I dug it out of my pocket, surprised to see it was Mason.

  What was he doing calling me at eight in the morning?

  “Rose, have you left for work yet?”

  My forehead furrowed in confusion. “No. But I’m about to leave soon.”

  “Would you meet me somewhere for coffee?”

  My stomach fluttered in anticipation, but my head told it to be still. Mason was using his business voice. This wasn’t about us. “Sure. Merilee’s?”

  “Not this time. How about the new coffee shop south of town, The Coffee House. Do you know where it is?”

  “Yeah,” I said, still confused. “But I have to run by a job, so I’ll be in my work clothes.”

  “That’s okay. I just need to talk to you and the sooner the better. Can you meet me in about thirty minutes?”

  “I was about to leave, so I can meet you in fifteen.”

  “See you there.”

  After I put Muffy in the bathroom, I drove across town, anxiety prickling the hair on the back of my neck. Why did he sound so business-like? Had he changed his mind and decided to tell me he was moving on?

  I pulled into the parking lot, recognizing Mason’s car several spots away. A patch of new houses and businesses had sprung up south of town over the last few years, and Violet’s neighborhood was part of the transformation. The Coffee House had opened after our nursery and had replaced us as the most buzzed about new business. For a town a full hour from the nearest Starbucks, an establishment that specialized in espresso drinks was a big deal.

  Mason stood outside the front door, wearing a dark suit and looking more handsome than ever. It made me blush to realize that I noticed. “Thanks for meeting me, Rose.”

  “You know I wouldn’t refuse you anything.”

  He had opened the door for me, and I was walking through it when he stared down into my eyes. The longing in his gaze stole my breath away. “Be careful or I’ll take you up on that sooner than I intended.”

  A shiver ran down my back and I let my imagination wander to what that might entail, which surprised me even more. This morning was full of shocks.

  We walked up to the counter and placed our orders, then stood at the end of the counter waiting for our drinks.

  “So…are you going to tell me why you asked me here?”

  “Can’t I just ask you to coffee?”

  “Well, yesterday we decided we would spend more time together as friends. And I definitely would have still come if it was just a friendly invitation. But your Mason Deveraux III, assistant DA voice convinced me this was something other than a coffee date.”

  “No wonder you solve so many mysteries,” Mason teased as he took our cups from the barista. But I noticed his smile didn’t reach his eyes, and his shoulders were tense. “You pay attention to the details.”

  We found a table next to the window that overlooked the parking lot. Once we were settled, I couldn’t shake my nerves. Why would Mason ask to see me over here about something DA-related?

  My stomach fell to my feet. What if it was about Bruce Wayne?

  “So what’s up, Mason?” I tried to keep my voice from quivering.

  He took a breath, his forehead wrinkling with concern. “I wanted you to hear this from me first.”

  The seriousness of his expression left me lightheaded. “What?” I whispered.

  “There was a prison break last night.”

  My eyes flew open. “Miss Rhonda escaped?” Mason had promised me weeks ago that if Jonah’s mother ever got out of jail, he’d make sure to tell me as soon as he knew. Only after I said the words did I re
alize I’d used her fake name. “Does Jonah know?” I could only imagine how upset he’d be.

  He shook his head, looking even more worried. “No, not Wanda Pruitt.”

  “Then who? Why are you telling me in person—?” I sank back into my chair as the truth hit me like an anvil.

  Daniel Crocker.

  “The sheriff’s office is following several leads and the state police are also part of the manhunt.” He reached across the table and took my hand. “They’ll catch him, Rose.”

  I nodded in shock, clinging to his fingers.

  “He’s probably miles away. He’s had enough time to leave the state, so I’m sure you have nothing to worry about, but I wanted you to hear it from me. I’m sure you’re safe, but as a precaution, the police are going to increase their patrols of your neighborhood.”

  “Like that’s done me any good in the past.” I pulled my hand from Mason’s and forced myself to take a sip of my coffee, which was so hot it burned my tongue. “How sure are you that he’s left the state?”

  “My friend Jeff at the sheriff’s office is very sure. Their most solid lead points to Shreveport.”

  “Not the sheriff’s department. You. Do you think he left the state?”

  Mason grabbed his cup and spun it in his hand. “I don’t have a good handle on the guy. I read all of his files after you told me that his former associates threatened you last month. The smart thing for him to do would be to leave the state.”

  “You still haven’t given me an answer.”

  “All of the law enforcement offices are certain he’s left, but they’re neglecting to take into consideration that he’s a psychopath. And from my experience, psychopaths never behave as they should.”

  “So you think he could still be around the area.”

  His eyes searched mine. “I don’t know. Maybe. So I need you to report anything unusual. A phone call. Anything strange that makes you uneasy.”

  “The decorations on my front porch were destroyed last night. But I’m fairly certain that my neighbor Thomas and his friends did it.”