For the Birds: Rose Gardner Investigations #2 (Rose Gardner Investigatons)

by Denise Grover Swank

  “Whose side are you on, Witt?”

  He cocked his head. “Who says I’m on a side?”

  “Everybody in the criminal world took a side last winter,” I said. “Whose side did you take?”

  “No one’s. Sure, most of the guys from the shop turned on Skeeter last winter and pledged themselves to Gentry, but I made it clear that while I didn’t have a beef with Malcolm, I wasn’t loyal to him either.” He shifted in his chair. “I don’t want back in that world. I did my time. That was enough. But I still hear plenty of things. How can you be so sure Reynolds isn’t behind all of this?”

  Witt didn’t know about my visions, so this could get tricky.

  “Tell him,” Neely Kate said, setting the pancakes and the bacon down on the table. I glanced up at her, and she nodded with a knowing smile. “He’ll understand. Remember Granny?”

  Alarm covered Witt’s face. “What about Granny?”

  “Nothin’s wrong with Granny,” she said, grabbing syrup from a cabinet. “But knowin’ Granny will make you more receptive.”

  He looked on edge.

  “Now, this is something else you can’t tell anyone, Witt,” I said. Up until a year ago, my gift had been a carefully hidden secret. My momma had convinced me that only an evil soul could see visions. I’d slowly let people in—Joe and Neely Kate and Mason and James and Jed—and they’d convinced me that my visions were nothing to be ashamed of. That they were useful, sometimes even lifesaving. Even so, I’d still kept them a secret. Now I couldn’t help thinking they should stay that way. If I was straddling two worlds, the fewer people who knew about my ability to suss out the truth, the better.

  Witt gave me an impatient look, but he nodded his agreement.

  “I have visions of the future. Sometimes they’re spontaneous. But sometimes I can force them. That’s what I did for Skeeter Malcolm last winter—I interviewed people he suspected of bein’ turncoats and looked for the truth.”

  His eyes lit up. “You’ve gotta be shittin’ me.”

  Neely Kate sat down and grabbed a pancake off the plate.

  “I got information for him, and in return, he helped me protect Mason from whoever was trying to kill him,” I said, hoping to stave off his questions.

  “Damn . . .” He shook his head, then stabbed two pancakes and transferred them to his plate. “And with everything goin’ on last winter . . .”

  “I saved his hide a few times,” I said.

  “No wonder he thinks you’re valuable.” If he’d dropped the theory that we were personally involved, all the better.

  “I hadn’t done anything for him since last February, but he got involved in the whole mess around Reynolds’ necklace.” I paused, then added, “I forced a vision of Buck Reynolds, which is how I know he’s not the one who took Scooter.”

  He gave a short nod and picked up the syrup bottle. “How much does this bodyguard gig pay?”

  “Not much, but more than nothing. A hundred dollars a day. I’ll probably need you twenty-four seven until this is resolved. You’ll stay here with us. Is that okay?”

  “And you can work on my car,” Neely Kate tossed in. “It’s makin’ that weird noise again.”

  Witt shot her a mock grimace before he turned his attention to me. “I can’t legally carry a gun, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “So what good am I?”

  “I have no doubt that if Neely Kate gets into trouble, you’d do anything to help her. I’d like to think you’ll do the same for me.” I stabbed a pancake and put it on my plate. “And maybe you can teach me more about defending myself.”

  He was silent for a moment. “You’re neutral? You’re really not tied to Malcolm?”

  I cast a glance to Neely Kate, then said, “It’s complicated.”

  “Oh boy . . .” Witt groaned. “Here we go.”

  “We’ve had ties to Skeeter in the past,” Neely Kate said in a steady voice. “But we’re free of them now.”

  “And how does Malcolm feel about that?” Witt asked, cutting off a small wedge of the pancakes.

  Witt deserved honesty. At least as much as I could give him. “He agrees with the principle of distancing himself, and he tried it after the parley over the necklace.” I hesitated. “He finds it difficult in practice. While I didn’t tell him what Buck hired me to do, he guessed it involves his brother. He’s smart enough to know he can’t stop me, but he asked that I use Jed as a bodyguard. I refused.”

  “So we don’t have to worry about Skeeter Malcolm getting mixed up in the middle of this?”

  I made a face. “I think they’ll leave me and Neely Kate to our own devices as long as they know we’re well-protected. But seein’ how Scooter’s wrapped up in this, I suspect he’ll be part of it any way you slice it. Do I plan on keeping him updated on what we find? No. I plan on having absolutely no contact with him at all.”

  Witt looked only half convinced.

  “If you’re worried about lookin’ like you’ve aligned yourself with Skeeter Malcolm,” I said, catching his gaze, “then I will do my utmost to make sure that doesn’t happen. Can I guarantee it? Not any more than I can guarantee you won’t look like you’ve aligned yourself with Buck Reynolds. I hope to look like an impartial party, which is why I need you and not Jed.”

  He still looked unsure, so I reached across the table. “Give me your hand.”

  A grin spread across his face. “I knew you couldn’t resist the Rivers-boy charms.”

  I nearly snorted. Tall, good-looking, and charming, Witt was the exception to the typical Rivers-boy genes. “I’m gonna have a vision. Give me your hand.”

  His smile faded. “Why?”

  “I’m gonna see if you’re aligned with anyone when this is done.”

  His head jerked to face Neely Kate. “Can she do that?”

  “She can try,” she answered around a bite of pancakes. “She doesn’t always see everything she asks for.”

  “She asks for it?”

  Neely Kate rolled her eyes. “Just give her your hand.”

  He slowly reached across the table, and I put my hand over his, looping my fingers around the side. Closing my eyes, I focused on finding Scooter. My vision filled with a dark gray haze like before, something that alarmed me, especially in light of Squawker’s new favorite phrase, but I changed the question. This time I asked if Witt would appear neutral when we were finished looking for Scooter.

  The scene was dark, but it was nighttime. Sheriff cars with flashing lights were parked outside a gas station. I could see Neely Kate standing next to Witt’s car, and she was wringing her hands with a worried look on her face.

  “She told you that you’d stay neutral,” she said. “And she delivered.”

  “But what did she do to make that happen?”

  I was back in the kitchen and I blurted out, “She said you’d stay neutral.”

  Was she me? And what was I going to do to make that happen?

  Chapter 19

  Both Neely Kate and Witt obviously wanted to know about my vision, so I told them as much as I could. In truth, I was worried—she’d seemed out of sorts in the vision, and the situation had clearly involved the sheriff. I couldn’t help worrying that I kept seeing the same murky gray haze every time I asked anything about finding Scooter.

  We started to clean up the kitchen, and my phone vibrated with a text from Buck’s number.

  I have info. Come see me.

  I glanced over at Witt. “Buck Reynolds says he has some info and wants me to meet with him. If you don’t want to do this, I understand.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “So if I’m stayin’ here with you two, does that mean I’m getting breakfasts like that every day?”

  Neely Kate threw a dish towel at him. “You’re a mooch, Witt Rivers!”

  “I’m a Rivers, ain’t I?” He grinned and tossed the towel back at her. “And you better wrap up the cleanin’ if we’re goin’ to meet Reynolds.”

  “Where
are we meetin’ him?” Neely Kate asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  When and where?

  He texted back seconds later, and I read his response out loud.

  The fertilizer plant. Thirty minutes.

  “Okay,” Neely Kate said, putting a clean dish in the cabinet. “I bet Buck Reynolds is gonna be excited to see me.”

  “I’m not sure ‘excited’ is the word I’d use,” I said.

  “Do I want to know what that’s about?” Witt asked.

  I laughed. “Let’s just say Buck Reynolds doesn’t want Neely Kate anywhere near any more of his jewels.”

  I locked an upset Muffy in the house, and as I walked down the porch steps, I took a long look at Witt’s car. It didn’t look much newer than Neely Kate’s car, and it was a clunker. “How well does your car run?”

  “You’re seriously asking a mechanic that question?” he asked in disbelief.

  I gave him a pointed look. “Well?”

  He shrugged. “It’s decent.”

  “Then we’re takin’ your car. My truck’s too conspicuous.”

  He grinned. “Well, all right. I guess I’m on the clock.”

  Witt drove, Neely Kate took shotgun, and I sat in the back. My lack of sleep caught up to me despite my nerves over meeting Buck, and I found myself drifting off. I woke up when we were about five minutes away, roused by a combination of Neely Kate calling my name and the throbbing in my leg. I’d transferred the important items from my purse to my backpack, including a bottle of ibuprofen. I fished it out and wished I’d thought to bring a bottle of water too.

  “I thought maybe we should come up with some sort of plan,” Neely Kate said. “You still have a headache? Have you had too many visions in a row?”

  That sometimes happened when I first started forcing one on top of the other, and sometimes after particularly intense visions. “No, I’m fine.” I popped the pill in my mouth and swallowed it dry, praying it didn’t get stuck on the way down. “Neely Kate, you can stay in the car if you want.”

  Neely Kate snorted. “You can’t be serious.”

  I sighed. “It was worth a shot.”

  “You really want to do this without me?” I could hear the hurt in her voice.

  I reached over the seat and put my hand on her shoulder. “Of course not. If I did, you wouldn’t be with me right now, but we haven’t talked about what happens if we don’t find Scooter. There’s bound to be a penalty. It doesn’t make sense for all three of us to pay it. So I’ll go in and be the front person, and then I’ll come out and tell you what he said.”

  Neely Kate gave me a hard stare. “We’re all going. It’s settled.”

  I didn’t have much time to give it more thought because Witt was already driving into the plant’s parking lot. I tried not to think about meeting James here the night before . . . and everything else that came afterward. My skin flushed at the memory of going home with him, and I squelched the sudden urge to call or text him. He was off-limits, and I’d do well to remember that.

  Buck’s car was already there, along with a couple of other cars, which meant we were outnumbered.

  “Neely Kate,” I said. “Do you have your gun?”

  “Yeah, in my purse.”

  “Got anywhere to hide it on you?”

  She jerked her head around to face me.

  “We’re playin’ with the big boys, and we don’t have Jed and Merv here to protect us. We need to be ready because I’m not getting snatched up again.”

  She gave one slow nod and pulled her gun out of her purse, then stuffed it down the back of her capris and under her blousy shirt.

  “Witt,” I said. “Your job is to observe everything. I’m gonna be focused on Buck, so you and Neely Kate need to pay attention to everything else. If either of you thinks something’s off, then use a code word to clue me in that it’s time to leave.”

  “So the only one goin’ into this meeting wearing a gun is NK?” Witt asked.

  “Nope.” I said. “I’m wearing mine under my dress.”

  “I still need a gun,” he said with a frown.

  “Not today you don’t,” I said. “The code word is bananas.” I reached for the door handle—we were certainly being watched, and the longer we took, the more suspicious we’d look. “Let’s go.”

  I was out of the car first, but Neely Kate got out and stepped in front of me, wearing her Lady in Black sidekick face—the one that said, Mess with me, and I’m not responsible for the consequences. Witt took the rear, following close, and I was in full-on Lady mode, surprised I could so easily make the transformation without the hat and the dress.

  I quickly scanned the roofs of the buildings around us and realized Buck had at least two men up there with rifles. Good to know if we needed to make a hasty retreat.

  We entered the semi-dark office and found Buck sitting on a beat-up metal desk in the small reception area—the only piece of furniture in the space—surrounded by three of his men, including Tim Dermot and the other guy from the night before. Buck was lounging with his arm braced to the side, but the posture looked forced, and I suspected the sweat on his forehead wasn’t completely due to the rising summer heat.

  “Lady,” he said, sitting up as we entered. “I see you brought your friend. And a new bodyguard.”

  “Lone wolves don’t survive in this world,” I said in a curt tone. “And I told you I’m neutral, hence the new guy. So, what do you have for me?”

  He kept his gaze on Witt behind me. “Not so fast. I wanna know who your new bodyguard is.”

  “That’s neither here nor there,” I said, putting my left leg in front of me. It made me look prepared to take on anything, but it would also make it easier for me to reach my gun if the situation called for it. “He’s not affiliated with anyone, which makes him mine. Now what do you have?”

  “He’s a Rivers.” The speaker was the man I hadn’t seen before. “He used to work for Crocker before Lady took him out. Did some time for armed robbery. He’s not with anyone.”

  Buck eyed him up and down. “That’s not true, now is it? You’re aligning yourself with the Lady in Black.”

  Crap. Why hadn’t I seen it that way? Had Witt?

  I felt the tension radiating off Witt, who stood behind me and to my left. “I’d rather align myself with someone who’s trying to see to the betterment of this county than with someone who would sooner burn it down.”

  Buck stiffened. “Is that how you see it, boy? That I’m burnin’ it all down?”

  “Enough, Mr. Reynolds,” I said in a firm voice.

  My tone carried a reprimand, and he shifted his angry eyes to meet mine.

  “Let me make this clear,” I said, my words clipped. “I thought we’d had this lesson last night, but you seem to be a slow learner, so let me spell it out one more time: If I do a consultation job for you, you will treat me with respect. You will treat my associates with respect. If you are incapable of that, then we are walking out that door right now.”

  Anger blazed in his eyes, and he leaned forward, his muscles tightly wound as though he were a wildcat ready to pounce. “I don’t know who you think you are—”

  He was acting tougher today, but he’d added to his audience, which meant he couldn’t afford to look weak. Well, neither could I. And while I wanted whatever information he had, I wasn’t going to let it be at the expense of my reputation.

  “I think we’re done here,” I said, then started to turn around to leave. There was a look of confusion in Witt’s eyes, but my focus was on the movement I heard behind me. In one fell swoop, I lifted my dress with my left hand, grabbed the gun out of my holster with my right hand, and spun back around, pointing it at Buck’s chest. He was now standing directly behind me, and it was obvious he’d planned on physically dragging me back. The look of surprise on his face sent a rush of power through my veins.

  Power plays. This world was full of prancing peacocks, but dammit, I could preen with the best of
them.

  “That’s strike two, Mr. Reynolds,” I said in a deadly cold voice. “One more and you’re on my blacklist.”

  His men all had guns pointed at me, while Neely Kate had hers pointed at Dermot. Then I realized Witt had a weapon out too, pointed at Buck.

  He’d had one all along. What had I done?

  Buck looked like he wanted to rip my head off. “Looks like we’re at a stalemate, Lady.”

  I cocked an eyebrow, forcing myself to take slow, steady breaths even though my heart was racing. I couldn’t afford to look scared. “Are we? I have no qualms about pullin’ this trigger and finishin’ it. Can you say the same?”

  He’d added more sweat to his forehead, and the certainty in his eyes wavered. I could let this man try to save face, but I was sick to death of men thinking they could get one up on me. Sure, I was playing in a man’s world here, and James may have dragged me into it, but I was good at sniffing out the truth, and Buck Reynolds obviously thought so too since he had come to me.

  I wasn’t going to back down.

  “Before we go one step further, let’s make this perfectly clear,” I said in a firm voice. “You will treat me and my associates with respect. I have no reason to help you, and I am more than willin’ to walk away from you entirely. What happens next is completely up to you, Mr. Reynolds.”

  He glared at me for several more seconds, then cursed under his breath and said, “Put away your guns.”

  They were slow to respond, but that wasn’t too surprising—Neely Kate and Witt still had their guns trained on Dermot and Buck. Then I realized they were waiting on me. I lowered my own gun, keeping it at my side, and Neely Kate and Witt followed suit.

  I lifted my chin, pushing past my light-headedness now that the danger had slightly passed. “You told me you have information. That’s why we’re here. Start talkin’.”

  “We found out that Elijah Landry has been livin’ in Henryetta.”

  That wasn’t all that surprising since he was clearly involved in local criminal politics. “How long?”

  “A couple months.”