The Murder Motif: An Austin, Texas Art Mystery (the Michelle Hodge Series Book 2)

by Roslyn Woods

  “You’re sure it was him?” asked Dean.

  “I was pretty sure the whole time, but I saw him absolutely when the light went on in his car. It was him.”

  Dean looked at her for a long time. “And then?”

  “Then I ran through the parking lot and jumped the embankment. I crossed the road and texted Margie and we came home. So Kojak never even knew we were there.”

  “I never would have pegged you as a dare devil.”

  Shell shrugged her shoulders. “Make fun if you want.” She was exhausted, and she wasn’t in the mood to defend herself anymore.

  “So Dean,” said Margie, “what do you think it means?”

  “I don’t know. It sounds as if Kojak took something down to the water and got his feet wet. It sounds like it could be something really bad, but who knows?” Then turning back to Shell, “You girls took a big chance. If he was doing something criminal, you can guess he was armed. If he’d seen you, he might have shot you.”

  Ignoring this, Margie pressed. “But what should we do with this? Should we talk to Gonzalez?”

  “He’s going to think you’re insane,” said Dean. “But maybe we should tell him. Let me think about it.”

  Shell stood up. “Thanks for the first aid,” she said. “I’m going to bed now.”

  “Margie,” Dean said quietly, though he was looking at Shell. “Do you have an extra blanket? I’m staying right here on the couch.”

  Chapter 41

  He had been angry at Hector for a long time. Hector was so full of orders, so quick to give a reason why he was doing everything wrong.

  He was tired. Tired of everything. Especially Hector’s threats. But he knew Hector could follow through. This morning he decided it was time to do something about it. He turned his vehicle south on Interstate 35 and headed toward Buda. In twenty-five minute’s time he took the exit to Cabela’s.

  The parking lot was huge. Hundreds of cars were parked there, and he wondered where everyone came from. Once in the door, he looked up and ahead in awe. This was the mother ship for sportsmen. It was two stories high, and it was a complete and total wildlife adventure. There were stuffed animals of every kind, and he marveled at how lifelike they were. There was camouflage clothing to fit every size and shape. There was fishing gear and hunting gear. There were boats, ATVs, knives of all types and sizes, and best of all, there were firearms.

  The signs for the firearms section of the store were clear. There were mannequins holding rifles to lead the way. The glass counter was L-shaped, and he guessed it was a hundred feet long. In it was every kind of pistol. Above it was every kind of rifle, sight, scope, and even tripod.

  “May I help you?” asked the bearded man behind the counter.

  “Yeah, I need a pistol,” he said.

  “What kind of pistol?”

  “I don’t really know. It should work up close, and it should be pretty small.”

  “Okay. That sounds like your standard self-protection pistol.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you interested in new or pre-owned?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I don’t want to spend a lot.”

  “Well, I don’t know your taste,” said the bearded man, “but for me, I like these .38 revolvers. They’ve got knock-down power, and you don’t lose your shell casings. I reload mine. It saves money, and it’s just a lot more personal.”

  “I’ve never used one.”

  “Well, I won’t lie to you, it’s got a kick to it. If you haven’t shot one before, it’ll surprise you a little bit. It’ll ride up some, but it’s got the punch you need if you’re in a close-up situation. Aim low. I mean, the guy isn’t going to remain standing if you hit him close to the center.”

  “Looks to be about the right size,” he said, looking at the one the bearded man was showing him.

  “This one here’s a Colt, and this one’s a Ruger. My personal favorite is the Colt, but I’ve gotta admit I’m pretty sentimental. The Ruger is a great deal and really accurate.”

  He looked at the Colt and thought, except for the snub nose, it looked like the pistols he had seen in Western movies. He looked at the Ruger and thought it looked like something from a spy film. He leaned toward the spy pistol. They were both pre-owned, but the Ruger was only four hundred dollars. That seemed like a deal since the other one was six.

  “Okay. I’ll take this one. And I’ll need some bullets.”

  Chapter 42

  Shell’s neck and shoulders ached when she woke up in the morning. She tiptoed into the bathroom and took the band-aid off. In the mirror her face looked okay except for the inch-long cut on the cheekbone a little left of center under her left eye. There was a little swelling. Might need a stitch or two. It had quit bothering her about an hour after taking some of Margie’s Tylenol, and it hadn’t started up again till early this morning.

  She hoped a hot shower would relieve her aching neck and shoulders, but when she got out she found that the cut had started bleeding again. She stuck some tissue on it, got dressed, and headed for the kitchen. The two little dogs were soon at her heels, and she reached down to pet them without speaking.

  Dean was lying on the couch with his eyes closed. She hadn’t even known him two weeks, but her world seemed to be centered on him. At night she would peek through her window shade to see if his light was still on. In the morning she would watch for Sadie to run into the backyard signaling he was up. She could hardly be with her best friend without talking about him. And it isn’t just Margie. It’s me.

  Bitsy and Tabitha joyously wagged their tails as she filled the water bowl. She added a little food to Tabitha’s dish and looked in the cupboard for another bowl so Bitsy could eat, too.

  After she had washed her hands and started the coffee, she stood at the sink looking into the backyard. When Margie gets up we’ll need to go by the Urgent Care and get a stitch. Then we’ll need to go to the police station. If something comes of Kojak’s escapade last night, they’ll need to know there were witnesses to something, whatever it was.

  “Hey,” said Dean, leaning in the kitchen door. “I’m going to take a quick shower. Can I have some of that coffee?”

  “Oh sure,” said Shell, turning around.

  “Um, you’re bleeding again,” he said with his brow furrowed.

  “It’s fine. I’ll go over to the walk-in and get it looked at in a few minutes.”

  “I’ll take you.”

  “I’m sure Margie can—”

  “Let’s let her sleep.”

  Shell felt defeated. She couldn’t insist on waking Margie to avoid having Dean take her to the doctor.

  “Maybe we should just go home and I can get my car,” she suggested.

  “I’ll take you,” he repeated stubbornly.

  “Okay,” she said as she watched him turn away.

  It didn’t take long to get to the Urgent Care. There was one on Guadalupe near 22nd, and Dean drove straight there. The nurse behind the desk took one look at Shell and said, “Honey, I’m moving you to the front of the line. Would you like your husband to come in with you?”

  “Yes,” Dean answered for her. “I think I should go in for moral support. I think she might need stitches.”

  Shell gave Dean a wide-eyed look. “Really?” she whispered, annoyed.

  “Really,” he said.

  Doctor Carlson was a short, round man with blond hair and eyebrows. He gave Shell’s face a long look and asked, “How did this happen?” while giving Dean a sideways glance.

  “I tripped on a branch and fell on a sharp stick in my backyard.”

  “When was this?”

  “Last night. My dog was chasing a cat and I was trying to catch her.”

  The doctor nodded as if slightly bored. “Well, you’re very lucky that stick missed your eye. You might have lost it,” he said. “Next time send your husband after the dog.” He laughed at himself as if he had made a good joke, and Shell and Dean smiled.

  “Good id
ea,” she said.

  “When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?”

  “I don’t know. College?”

  “You’re twenty-nine?” he asked looking at the paperwork she had filled out in the waiting room. “Better have another one. You’ll also need to take an antibiotic for a few days.” He turned to the medical assistant and gave him instructions. In a few moments the assistant came back with a few things on a tray.

  Shell caught a look on Dean’s face that seemed to say, This is what happens when you follow people in the middle of the night. She shrugged her shoulders. It really wasn’t all that big a deal. So she would have to take an antibiotic and get a tetanus shot. So what?

  “I’m afraid this local anesthetic is going to sting,” said Dr. Carlson. “The tetanus shot will just pinch a little.” He gave Shell a shot of anesthetic, and while they waited for it to kick in he gave her the tetanus shot. Then he went through the process of cleaning the wound and giving her three stitches. “You’ll have to come back on Tuesday to remove these. Use this ointment twice a day, and stay away from the sharp sticks in your backyard!” he ordered as Shell and Dean thanked him and left the office.

  By the time they got back to Margie’s, she was dressed and had breakfast made. “Thanks for the text,” she said to Dean. “Oh, Shell, did it hurt?” she wanted to know as she examined the tape on her friend’s face.

  “No,” said Shell. “It was fine. I’m glad you made breakfast. I’m starving!”

  “After we eat,” said Dean, “how do you feel about a trip down to the police station? I thought about it a lot last night. I think the police need to hear about your…adventure.”

  “Okay,” said Margie, “but Shell and I should go in by ourselves. We’re the ones who witnessed what Kojak did, and the police don’t need to think you’re influencing us to go sleuthing.”

  Dean thought about this for a minute. “You know they’re probably going to scold you for getting involved in a police investigation.”

  “If we can take your scolding,” said his sister, “we can surely take the scolding of the Austin Police Department!”

  Dean went home after breakfast and Margie and Shell got in the minivan and headed downtown.

  “Can you believe everything that’s happened in the past few hours?” asked Margie.

  “No. I just want to get this over with and go home to take a nap. I’m exhausted,” said Shell.

  “I didn’t sleep very well either. Too much Dr. Pepper.”

  “Too much excitement and blame,” said Shell.

  “Shell, you can’t blame Dean too much. What we did upset him because he doesn’t want us getting hurt.”

  “And we don’t want him going to prison.”

  “No, we don’t,” said Margie. There was a silence. Then she said, “Shell, I just have to say something.”

  “What?”

  “Shell, he’s very, very interested in you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The way he looks at you! The way he doctored you last night! It was quite touching. He’s falling for you.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Yes, Shell. He’s falling for you.”

  Was it possible? Was it possible that Dean cared about her? No, he was too negative. She remembered the harsh way he had told her she couldn’t stay in his mother’s house. Could a man who cared for her treat her so coldly? Margie was wrong.

  They pulled into a parking space just a few feet from the entrance to the police station. “Make sure you give them the address in Onion Creek, and don’t forget the road we used when we went down to the river,” said Margie.

  “You’ll be there too. If either of us forgets anything, the other can chip in.”

  The place seemed clean and crisp with the combined institutional smell of burnt coffee and Pine-sol. Gonzalez wasn’t in on Saturday morning, but Wilson was, and he actually seemed very happy to see them.

  “What can I do for you ladies?” he asked as he ushered them into a gray interview room and signaled them to be seated across from him at a solid-looking table with chunky-looking metal chairs.

  “Well,” said Shell, “we had an interesting experience last night, and we thought you should know about it.”

  “Mind if I record us?” he asked.

  “Not at all,” said Shell, and she and Margie proceeded to tell Detective Wilson about following the intruder the previous evening. He seemed interested and asked lots of questions. He showed a good deal of concern that Shell had injured her face, but both Shell and Margie went away with the feeling that he wasn’t taking their experience at all seriously.

  Chapter 43

  Dean noticed it was getting cold. The leaves on Barrow Avenue were falling fast now, and the gutters in the street were filled with their various colors. He had decided to go by the house to check on things. Sadie hadn’t been left alone very many nights since she had become his very own best friend, and he wanted to make sure she had handled it okay.

  “Hey Sadie!” he called as he unlocked the side door. She was there already, wagging her tail and barking excitedly. “Hey, girl! Let’s get you some food. Are you hungry?”

  Dean went to the pantry while she danced around him excitedly. He got a can of her favorite food, opened it, and put it in her bowl. Then he gave her a pat and went into his office to have a look at his email. There was nothing significant since last night. He had checked it just after he finished the webpage.

  Thinking of the previous evening led Dean’s mind back to Margie and Shell. What a scare they gave me! They had really gone out on a limb for him, and it was the last thing he wanted. He wondered how they were doing at the police station. Hopefully, Gonzalez would give them a talking to they wouldn’t soon forget. Maybe they would stop getting themselves into dangerous situations like the one they were in last night.

  It made him sick that Shell had hurt herself trying to help him. Even as he remembered taking her to the Urgent Care this morning, he cringed at the thought of the needle the doctor had stuck in her face to numb her for the stitches. And even though he had teased her by pretending to be her husband, he wanted her to realize how dangerous the whole adventure had been. If only she’d listen to me, he thought. If only she could get over being mad at me.

  He knew what her anger was about. It was about his “evicting” her the other night. The atmosphere around her had completely changed since he had been so sure she was considering going back to Dallas with her ex. Now it appeared she had never had any such intention. But how could he get her to go back to being the Shell she had been the other night when he almost kissed her? He admitted to acting like a jerk. Did he have to tell her why he acted that way?

  He thought of the Stickley hutch cabinet again. He had been thinking about it since the night they hunted down the wine glasses in the dark. She needed a place for her crystal. It was clearly her style. She seemed to gravitate to all things Craftsman, and it was a real antique and fairly valuable. Oh, it’s no brand new Honda Pilot, he thought bitterly. He just wanted to make a peace offering.

  He went into the kitchen and found Sadie’s leash hanging on its hook. “C’mon Sadie! Let’s go for a run!”

  They ran south on Barrow and took 41st Street east past the Hancock Golf Course over to Red River. Then they rounded the golf course and took 38th back to Duval and on up to Barrow again. Every run was an opportunity to look for suspicious-looking cars in the neighborhood, and as usual, Dean saw no one this morning.

  He repeated the circle, and as he ran, he decided his mother would have liked Shell. She might even have liked her defiant independence, but she would surely have liked her sense of humor, her love of dogs, her artistic nature…her goodness. She would be happy to have Shell using her Stickley hutch cabinet. He was sure of that.

  Once back at the house he took another shower and put on clean clothes. He would just have a look at the storage unit to see how much trouble it would be to get the piece and bring it
to Shell’s house. He could get Donald to help him this week.

  The storage unit was on 51st Street, and Sadie rode shotgun. Every once in a while she let out an excited bark. She’s happy to be having a day together, he thought. “Maybe we can go to the dog park later,” he said as he pulled in at the familiar orange and silver gate and typed in his code. The gate slowly opened and he drove through. His unit was around at the back. 347. He got out of the Cherokee and put his key in the padlock. It turned easily and he opened the door, but what he found inside surprised him.

  Everything was in disarray. The dresser drawers were opened and their contents lay on the cement floor. Boxes were overturned and emptied. The hutch cabinet itself had been pulled from its position against the wall, and its doors and drawers hung open.

  Dean walked around, astonished. There was his mother’s luggage tossed down from the neatly upright place where it had been on the metal shelf only two months earlier. Only the clear, plastic containers filled with dishes or clothing had been left alone.

  Dean was pretty sure someone had been here for the same reason they had been going in and out of the two houses on Barrow Avenue. But what were they looking for? And when had they been here?

  He closed the door and put the padlock back on. “I’ve got more trouble,” he told Sadie as he drove around to the business office. “I’m glad it’s cold ‘cause you’re going to have to stay in the car for a bit.” She let out a single bark and retreated to the back where she lay on the bench seat as if she had understood him completely.