Maggie Lee (Book 16): The Hitwoman Plays Chaperone

by Lynn, JB

  This time the driver had managed to park it, albeit a bit crookedly.

  “Weird,” I muttered under my breath.

  “What is?” Before I could even answer, God scaled my bra strap and settled on my shoulder to have a look for himself.

  “That’s the same Winnebago that was at the Revolutionary War camp. Isn’t it?”

  “Could there be another one that ugly?”

  “I doubt it. Strange coincidence that it’s here.”

  “Very strange,” he agreed. “Maybe I should sneak inside and do some reconnaissance?” he suggested eagerly.

  I thought about the suggestion for a moment.

  “Hey, it’s you again,” a female voice said from behind me.

  As I turned around, God dove back under my shirt. I found the RV driver staring at me suspiciously.

  “Are you following me?” she asked.

  I shook my head and admitted, “I was wondering the same thing about you.”

  When she blinked at me, but didn’t respond verbally, I held out my hand to her. “We didn’t get around to formal introductions the last time we met. I’m Maggie.”

  She grabbed my hand and shook it heartily, surprising me with her strength. “R.V. Thank you for helping me park the monster.”

  “R.V. like what you drive?” I asked.

  She nodded, but chose not to elaborate.

  I wondered what the initials stood for. Probably something exciting and exotic. Even standing as she was, in worn jeans and a t-shirt from an animal rescue organization, she had an exotic look with her hazel eyes, black hair, and a skin tone that reminded me of when Aunt Susan put a little too much milk in my coffee.

  Realizing she was shifting uncomfortably as I studied her, I asked with a gentle smile, “So what are you doing here?”

  She sighed and admitted sheepishly, “Using the restroom. I haven’t quite mastered the bathroom in that thing.” She waved at her vehicle with disgust. “What about you?”

  “Research,” I replied. “Does the term Scorpio mean anything to you?”

  “Besides the fact that was my ex-husband’s sign, not much.”

  She referred to her ex with even more disgust than she had the pink monstrosity.

  Deciding that R.V. seemed to be more miserable with her life than I was with mine, I felt the need to blurt out, “Things will get better.”

  She grimaced. “But they usually get worse first.”

  Of course she was right.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Aunt Susan swooped in on me before I even made it in the door of the B&B. “What were you thinking, Margaret?”

  “At this moment? That I’m hungry and could use a cup of coffee.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  The caffeine headache that had settled behind my eyes was not ridiculous, so I pushed past her, made my way to the kitchen, and started making a pot of coffee.

  “Gotta, gotta,” DeeDee whined softly from the basement.

  “That dog has a bladder the size of my knuckle,” God griped.

  Considering I don’t think lizards even have knuckles, I didn’t think that was true.

  “In a minute,” I called softly to the Doberman.

  “I meant,” Susan continued, undeterred by my need to communicate with my pets or for java juice, “what were you thinking when you agreed to this ridiculous séance?”

  I paused, mid-coffee scoop. In that moment I wanted to kill Armani for running her big, uncensored mouth. “Who told you about that?”

  “Darlene, of course.”

  “Darlene?” I continued scooping coffee, despite the fact my blood pressure was climbing faster than a roller coaster. My sister seemed intent on undercutting my relationships with everyone. I didn’t understand why, but I sure as hell didn’t like it.

  “You can’t expect me to participate,” Susan continued, oblivious to the fact that my head was about to explode.

  “Hold on,” I said, “I’m a beat or two behind on this. Exactly what was said?”

  Hearing the tension in my voice, Susan eyed me sympathetically. “She really is steamrolling you, isn’t she?”

  Startled by her insight, I nodded. “It feels that way.” Tears pricked the back of my eyelids as I tried not to let them fall.

  Susan enveloped me in a hug, resting her chin on my shoulder. “You don’t deserve this.”

  “What did she say?” I asked again, barely choking out the words.

  “That she wants to hold a séance with Armani to talk to Teresa. She wants us all there. You, me, Loretta, Leslie, and Marlene. All seven of us. The number seems to be very important.”

  “Did she say what she wants to talk to her about?” I wondered if whatever it was had anything to do with Zeke skulking in the backyard, looking for something for her or if it was just, as Armani had said, a ploy to get custody of our niece.

  “No. It doesn’t matter though. I’m not going to do it.”

  I sighed heavily, knowing that Katie’s future hung in the balance. “I think you should.”

  “You think I should? You’re not really giving credence to Armani’s outrageous claims of a psychic gift, are you?”

  I shrugged. “She hasn’t been wrong yet.”

  “But—”

  I lifted a hand to silence her. “You’re the one who always told me that it never hurts to listen to anyone.”

  She frowned. “I think you cherry pick the lessons I tried to impart for your own advantage.”

  I chuckled and held her tight. “Maybe some just stuck better than others. So you’ll give it a try?”

  Susan sighed. “How can I disregard my own advice?” Patting my shoulder, she started to leave the kitchen. Hovering in the doorway, she looked back and said, “Angel’s looking for you. He doesn’t seem happy.”

  Nodding, I said, “I’ll find him after I walk the dog.”

  Once the coffee was done brewing, I poured some into a travel mug, deposited God in his terrarium and slipped the leash on DeeDee.

  Together we went outside. Her so that she could pee on every blade of grass she saw, and me to think.

  I was pretty sure I knew why Angel wanted to see me. No doubt his uncle had made the request he return to the family fold. I couldn’t in good conscience prevent him from providing Dominic with the same level of excellent care that he had for Katie. I wasn’t happy that he’d be leaving the B&B, but I understood why it had to happen.

  Sighing, I turned my attention to more pressing problems.

  “I don’t suppose you can tell me what Zeke was looking for out here,” I mused aloud.

  “Box,” DeeDee barked immediately.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Box!”

  “What kind of box?”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Kind?”

  I couldn’t help but smile at her confusion. She meant well, but she wasn’t all that much help.

  “A box,” I repeated, wondering what that meant.

  “A locked box,” a wise guy replied.

  Looking up, I found Mike perched in a branch, watching me. His eyes gleamed. “You know what’s in locked boxes, don’t you?”

  I shrugged.

  “Treasure!” He flapped his wings excitedly to make his point.

  “Treasure, huh?”

  “You bet. He took it to her.”

  I stood a little straighter at that revelation. “Zeke brought the box to Darlene?”

  “The treasure chest,” the bird agreed.

  “So he really was skulking,” I murmured. “He didn’t want me to know what he was doing.” It stung that one of my oldest friends had sided with my sister in whatever this was.

  “Don’t you want to know what was in it?” Mike asked.

  “Sure, but I doubt they’ll tell me.”

  “But I will,” he squawked triumphantly.

  “I thought you said he brought it to her.”

  “He did, but I followed him.”

  “And what did you see?
”

  “Paper. Lots of papers. And the shiny bit. Want to see it?”

  I nodded excitedly. “You know where they left the box?”

  “I stole the gold.”

  “You stole it?”

  “Before they even knew what was happening,” he declared proudly. “Darlene was holding it up and I swooped in and snatched it right out of her hand.”

  “You stole it?” I repeated, my voice cracking with disbelief.

  “Bird bad. Bird bad,” DeeDee growled.

  I couldn’t blame her. Every time she took something that wasn’t hers everyone called her a bad dog.

  “Let’s just say I liberated it,” Mike back-pedaled. “Yeah, that’s it. I temporarily liberated it.”

  With that, he flew off.

  “Wait!” I called after him, but he ignored me.

  “Bird bad?” DeeDee asked.

  “Sort of.” I scratched between her ears. “It’s been a heck of a day.”

  I was about to go back into the B&B to find Angel when Mike soared into the yard.

  “Catch!” he yelled, dropping something shiny from the sky.

  I tried, throwing out my hands, but I came up empty. The shiny metal fell to the ground.

  DeeDee pounced on it.

  “Drop it,” I roared at the top of my lungs.

  Whimpering, the dog ran away.

  “I wasn’t yelling at you,” I called after her.

  “Yes, you were,” the crow countered from his seat in the tree.

  Ignoring him, I picked up the gold from the ground, realizing as I did so that it was a locket on a chain. For a long moment I just let the chain dangle from my fingers, the locket spinning around as I studied it.

  It didn’t seem familiar. I didn’t think it had belonged to Teresa. So why had Darlene sent Zeke looking for it? Anxiety pooled in my chest as I considered it.

  When it stopped moving, I opened the locket with trembling fingers, hoping I’d find an answer there.

  Instead, I found more questions.

  Chapter Eighteen

  There were two pictures in the locket. One was of my mother as a young woman. She was beautiful, vibrant, and sane looking.

  The other was of my father.

  Squared.

  Young and virile, and happier than I’d ever seen him, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a young man who was the spitting image of him. The only difference I could spot between them was that one sported a thin mustache while the other was clean-shaven.

  “My father has a twin.”

  I was unaware I’d spoken the shocking realization aloud until God said, “That must have been who we saw.”

  I stared at the picture. “He never told me.”

  “He must have had a reason,” the lizard offered.

  I didn’t find that comforting considering how often I disagreed with my father’s reasons for doing things.

  I looked up at Mike. “Did Darlene see what’s inside the locket before you stole it?”

  “Temporarily liberated it,” God mocked.

  Mike stuck his head under his wing, feigning embarrassment. “No. I got to it first. That’s good, right?”

  I nodded slowly. “Could be. It’s even better that she doesn’t know I have it.”

  “Does that mean I’m not getting it back?” the bird asked, his disappointment evident.

  “I’ll get you something else shiny to replace it,” I promised.

  “I know you will,” the crow cawed. “You’re a gal who pays her debts. That’s why I like you.”

  “And here I was thinking that you like her because she tosses you tidbits of stale bread.”

  “Cut it out,” I ordered. “Otherwise you can survive on mealworms instead of crickets.”

  The lizard shuddered his revulsion and fell silent.

  “Do you know what happened to the papers in the box?” I asked the bird.

  “Not me. I snatched the loot and took off.”

  “Maggie?” Marlene shouted from inside the kitchen.

  Stuffing the necklace into the pocket of my jeans to hide it, I yelled back, “What?”

  “Angel’s looking for you.”

  “So I’ve heard. Tell him I—”

  The kitchen door swung open and Angel stepped outside. “Tell me yourself.”

  “Angel!” DeeDee barked excitedly, running at him at full speed like it had been years since she’d seen him instead of hours.

  To his credit, Angel matched her enthusiasm. “DeeDee! There you are! Good girl!”

  For a couple of moments the two pretended to wrestle, the big dog and the big man perfectly content together. I realized she’d miss Angel too once he was gone and a lump formed in my throat.

  Once he’d given the dog her fair share of his attention, he met my gaze. “Are you avoiding me?”

  I shook my head. “It’s just been one of those days. Is Katie doing better?”

  He nodded. “She slept a lot, but seems to have recovered.”

  “Good.”

  We stood there, an awkward silence descending over us, staring at one another.

  “So you talked to my uncle?”

  I nodded.

  “And you’re mad?”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Why would I be mad?”

  “Because it means I’ll be deserting you in your time of need?”

  For some reason his sincerity amused me and I chuckled. “Are you deserting me?”

  He crossed his arms defensively. “Dominic needs my help more than Katie. I have—”

  I held up my hand to stop him. “You misunderstood. I don’t think you’re deserting me.”

  “You don’t?”

  “Of course not. We always knew this was a temporary arrangement.”

  He nodded slowly, looking disappointed that I wasn’t crushed at the prospect of his leaving. “But things with Darlene...”

  “I can handle Darlene.”

  His eyes widened at my steely tone. “That’s kind of what I’m worried about.” He took a few steps closer to me. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Of course,” I replied lightly.

  His lips flattened, signaling his disbelief. “So what does this mean for us?”

  I considered playing dumb about “us” but decided that would be insulting and he deserved better than that.

  He waited patiently for my answer.

  “I don’t know,” I finally replied. “I have so much going on….” I trailed off, silently pleading with him to understand.

  He nodded curtly. “You’re right. Now’s not the time. We’ll revisit this when things calm down.”

  “Things never calm down in my life,” I warned.

  He shrugged. “I guess only time will tell.”

  “Maggie! Maggie!” Zeke came running into the backyard at full speed.

  “Zeke! Zeke!” DeeDee barked, racing toward him.

  “I guess neither of you can choose between us,” Angel said darkly, turning to go back into the B&B.

  When I moved to follow Angel, Zeke called, “This is important.”

  “As important as what was in the box?” I asked, pinning my old friend in place with a cold stare.

  He blinked and for a second I thought he’d cave, but his conman experience kicked in and he replied smoothly with a smile, “We have more important things to discuss.”

  I knew he was trying to distract me and I clenched my fists. “More important than talking about you selling me out?”

  “Zeke bad. Zeke bad,” DeeDee panted.

  At least someone was loyal to me.

  Zeke raised his hands defensively. “I haven’t sold you out.”

  I pointed my finger at his chest and stepped toward him. “You’ve chosen sides.”

  Zeke backed up.

  I kept advancing.