“You’ve got a good memory, Detective. Second job. I decided to get serious about life after Luthor died. I’m learning how to make jewelry while I bartend. What case are you on today?”
“No case, looking for a ring for my girlfriend.”
“You’ve come to the right place. What do you want this ring to say?”
“Excuse me?”
“A ring is significant, but you’re not looking at engagement rings, so you must want to say something different. There’s a whole language around stones.”
“Huh.”
“For example, diamonds are a symbol of innocence and constancy. So horribly patriarchal and boring. When is her birthday?”
“She just had it. October”
“Birthstones are a good place to start. For October, you have your choice of moonstone, tourmaline, coral and opal. Coral is believed to prevent ill fortune and offer protection from skin disease.”
Peter shuddered. “Not a message I want to send.”
“Then there’s moonstone. Legend says, if you give your lover a moonstone necklace when the moon is full, you will always have passion. Moonstones can also reunite lovers who have quarreled.”
“There you go, Brother, just what you need,” Brent said.
“We don’t fight. We discuss. There’s a difference.” Peter turned back to Desiree. “Tell me about the other stones.”
“Tourmalines are healing stones. They heal emotional wounds. Pink tourmaline opens your ability to surrender to love.” Desiree gave him a winsome smile with this.
“Giving tourmaline might be considered manipulative or even insulting, don’t you think?”
She blinked. “You know, you might be right. I never thought if it that way.” She led them over to the last case. “Opals enhance creativity. They are the stone of love, but only to faithful lovers. They’re supposed to bring misfortune to an unfaithful lover. Otherwise, the Romans considered it a stone of hope and good luck.”
“There you go,” Brent said. “Insurance. Guaranteed karma if it doesn’t work out.”
Peter said, “I like how opals have so many colors in them. She enjoys a lot of color.” He started to mention that Lia was a painter, but considering Desiree’s history with Lia’s former boyfriend, didn’t want her making connections.
“Most opals are made into cabochons. These are rounded, with a flat back instead of faceted. We also have natural stones in the matrix.” She gestured to a bracelet featuring an oddly shaped opal with bits of rock attached, wrapped in an amorphous setting.
“Huh,” Peter said. He straightened up. “Thank you, Desiree. I may be back.” He turned to Brent. “Time to go, Grasshopper.” They exited the shop.
“How many more jewelry stores are you going to drag me into, Brother?”
“None.”
“Seriously? You’ve given up? Hallelujah.”
“Nope, I made up my mind.”
“But you didn’t buy anything. What exactly did you decide?” Brent asked, suspicious.
“I’d tell you, but you know the drill. I’d have to kill you. Cynth would be so disappointed.”
~ ~ ~
The dogs crowded around Brent as he hauled the sacks of Chinese food through Lia’s front door. “Now I know why Peter volunteered to carry both laptops.” He and the dogs made a sort of train heading into the kitchen, with Viola whimpering, Chewy bouncing and Honey taking advantage of her superior size to keep the lead. “No, Chewy, down. No jumping. Honey, that’s Italian leather you’re drooling on. Lia! Call off your dogs!”
Lia snorted, breaking off her hello kiss from Peter. “Sure thing, Brent. Shall I pull out the pepper spray?”
“I don’t care what you do, as long as you– Honey, that’s my crotch!”
“Sounds like one of your better dates,” Peter called out. “You sure you want help? We’d hate to spoil the mood.” Peter wrapped his forearm around Lia’s neck. “Quick,” he whispered in Lia’s ear. “Where’s your kubotan?”
“You’re getting even with me for today, aren’t you? Brent, I need a hand out here,” Lia called. “Cato’s at it again.”
Peter tightened his grip. “Things could have gone smoother, but Brent wouldn't have been nearly so entertained. I’m suspecting Kate didn’t tell you about her coffin insert.”
Brent walked out of the kitchen. Alone. “The food,” he announced, “is on top of the fridge with your pets gathered around it like pagan worshippers. If you want dinner, you may retrieve it. You people must live like savages. Please don’t conduct foreplay in front of me, it offends my sensibilities.”
“Hand me my kubotan, it’s on the little table by the door.”
“You sure you don’t want me to mace him for you?” Brent asked as he passed it to her.
“Thanks for offering, but you’d probably hit me with the overspray. Okay Mighty Sensei, your devotee awaits.”
Peter tightened his arm. “Notice how you can’t breathe?”
Lia gave a strangled nod.
“Turn your face into the crook of my elbow.” Lia complied. “Better?”
Lia took a deep breath. “Much.”
“You know where my funny-bone is?” Peter asked.
“I didn’t know you had a funny-bone, Dourson,” Brent said.
“Ha, ha. Press the kubotan into my funny-bone. It should be easy, since you’re looking right at it. Gently now, this is just for demonstration purposes.”
“Food is getting cold, Bossman,” Brent said.
Lia positioned the kubotan in her hands the way he’d shown her and shoved it into the outside of his elbow.
“Ow!” Peter dropped his arm. “I said, ‘gently,’ not ‘dent me.’ When did you turn into a sadist?”
“I’m hungry. Sorry about the dogs, Brent. They’ve never had the opportunity to see if you’re a soft touch. I’ll put them out back for now.” Lia turned to Peter. “I’ll dish out the food if you’ll distract the hairy horde. Brent, you can set up the laptops on the coffee table. Darling, I had no idea you were talking about surveillance videos when you asked if we could have Brent over for movie night.”
Peter was still shaking out his arm. “I saw a few art films in college. This should be right up your alley.”
“I got a grade for watching them. What are you going to give me for watching these?”
He leaned over, nipped her earlobe. “I’ll think of something,” he whispered.
~
“Have I mentioned,” Brent said as he sat on the couch with his chopsticks and a bowl of moo shoo pork, “how very amusing that little drama was that you staged with Stacy?” He still eyed the dogs, even though they had given up. They were now lying on their beds on the other side of the room, pretending there wasn’t food around.
“What exactly was Monica screaming about?” Lia asked. “I was too busy getting Kate out of there to find out.”
“Good thing,” Peter said, “or she would have been screaming about you. Mostly it was about shoddy caskets that pop open and shatter and how dare they humiliate her by tossing her husband’s bones around like that. She let everyone know she was suing the funeral home for sneaking in the coffin insert. She also demanded that we arrest Kate for trespassing.”
“Trespassing?” Lia asked.
“Trespassing,” Brent confirmed, “and a number of other things. It was quite the debacle. The pictures are priceless. I would post them on Facebook, but she’d know where they came from and Roller would not be amused.”
Brent swiped at his pants leg, then lifted a pair of blond hairs with two fingers, holding them away as if they were contagious. “I presume these are Honey’s. You know, I was going to offer to steal you away from Peter, but the dog pack is a nonstarter. I can’t accept dog hair on my clothes. You give up the dogs, then we can talk.”
“Um, thanks for the offer?” Lia said.
“Smooth, Romeo,” Peter said between bites of his egg roll. “I don’t know why women aren’t falling all over you.”
“Where are these movies you promised me?” Lia asked.
Peter pulled a trio of thumb drives out of his pocket and plugged them into the computers. He opened video files featuring a grid of smaller screens with a different birds-eye view of the store on each one. He increased the speed so the people on the screens were jerky dolls scampering about, Keystone Kops style.
“What are we looking for?” Lia asked.
“Anything that involves George and another person. Anything that looks hinky. People we recognize. The trick is not to fall asleep while we’re doing this.”
“Can you tell me what happened with Jacob?” Lia asked.
“Are you sharing vital case information with a civilian?” Brent asked.
“It’s all right, Brent. I took a blood oath,” Lia said.
“I figure she’s less inclined to get into trouble if she knows what’s going on, since this is so close to home. Do you want to do the honors?”
“I see. You want me to participate in this breech of ethics so I can’t rat you out.”
“Something like that,” Peter agreed.
“Oh, ye of little faith. Oh well, in for a penny.” They kept their eyes on the tiny screens while Brent recapped the interrogation. “The kid told the truth about selling the phone, but it’s obvious he was lying about where he got it and who was with him at the time.”
“How could you tell?” Lia asked.
“The kid was blinking more than Hugh Grant. Excessive blinking frequently accompanies perjury and prevarication. So I did this neat little trick that Peter taught me. I got him a glass of water. When he was talking about finding the phone, he had to look at his hand to pick up the glass. When he talked about selling the phone, he didn’t.”
“Weird,” Lia said. She noticed two clerks yakking on screen, ignoring a customer. She wondered if George saw these infractions, and what he did about them. “How does that indicate lying?”
“Nervous people lose the ability to complete small tasks they normally do without thinking. They can still do them, but they have to concentrate. It’s called unconscious competence versus conscious competence.”
“Are there conscious and unconscious incompetence?” Lia asked.
“Indeed there are.” Brent pointed with his chop sticks. “You can be bad at something and not realize it, like most people when they’re singing in the shower. Or you can be bad at something and realize it, like knowing better than to grab the controls on an airplane.”
“Then there was the bonus.”
“Which was?” Lia asked.
“We got his fingerprints. They unfortunately did not match the prints on the murder weapon.
“Hold everything.” Brent leaned over and hit the spacebar on one of the computers, pausing the screen. “There’s Onstad, in the housewares department with Munce.”
“Does she have a candlestick with her? The rope?” Lia asked. “Maybe the lead pipe?”
Peter rolled his eyes and shook his head while he paused the other computers. “Back it up a bit so we can watch the whole thing.”
Brent obliged, making a note of the time stamp at the beginning of the sequence then starting the video again. Kate was back in linens, lingering over some towels when George walked up. George took a quick look around before he approached Kate.
“Aw, they’re holding hands,” Lia cooed.
The pair talked while pretending to confer over curtains. George took another quick look around, then took Kate’s face in his hands and kissed her thoroughly.
“Reality TV at its finest,” Brent said. “The man has moves,”
“Isn’t this better than ‘The Bachelor’?” Peter asked.
“Only if she slaps him,” Lia said. “Or maybe if the women clerks gang up on her in the parking lot.”
“Vicious,” Brent said.
“That’s my girl,” Peter said, giving Lia a squeeze.
Dinner was finished. The remains were in the fridge and the dishes in the sink. Lia was drowsing with her head on Peter’s lap. She found the videos did not lose anything when viewed sideways.
“Huh,” Peter said. “That’s interesting.” He pressed the space bar and paused the video.
“What is it?” Brent asked
“Stacy, in the store,” Peter said. “Talking to Carleen. I didn’t realize they knew each other. Let’s keep an eye on her, see what she’s up to in Dad’s store.”
Lia sat up. They all leaned forward, peering at the screen. Peter gave a running commentary. “There she is, heading toward the back of the store. . . Now she’s looking around . . . spots something or someone . . she’s out of this camera . . . into the next . . . hurries toward the door to the back . . . in that little hallway. Probably going to the restroom . . . nope, into Dad’s office, and out of camera range.”
“Fascinating,” Brent said. “Wonder what she wants in there.”
“Door is opening again, here comes our girl . . . Whoa!” Peter said.
“Bingo,” Brent said.
“Huh?” Lia said. “What just happened?”
Day 15
Wednesday, October 23
“I don’t know why you need Stacy again,” Monica complained as she and her daughter entered the interview room. “Or why we needed to come all the way out here. I don’t appreciate having to take time off from work. I had to cancel appointments. You’re not the only ones with an important job.”
“Mottthhheeeerrr,” Stacy whined.
“Hush,” Monica snapped.
“Please be seated,” Brent said. “Can I get you some water?”
“Water? How long are you planning to keep us here?” Monica demanded.
Stacy rolled her eyes to the ceiling and huffed an aggrieved sigh.
“That depends on Stacy, Mrs. Munce,” Peter said.
“What has Stacy done? I insist that you tell me!”
“Mrs. Munce, we are conducting a formal interview,” Peter explained. “We will be asking the questions. You are here to advocate, should Stacy’s rights be in question. You may, of course, terminate this interview at your discretion. However, I think you’ll want to hear what we have to say.
“You are not here to answer questions at this time. It would be helpful if you would remain silent. We need to find out what Stacy knows, not what you want her to say.”
Monica glared at Peter. “Stacy, sit up straight. You know better than to slouch like that.”
Stacy ignored her mother and stared at her hands, her long hair curtaining her face. “What do you want to know?” she mumbled.
“Stacy,” Brent began, “we were reviewing security tapes taken at your stepfather's store the night before he disappeared.”
“So?”
“How well do you know Carleen Thomas?” Peter asked.
Stacy shook her head and continued staring at the table. “Just a little. From the store.”
“Stacy! What did I tell you about associating with the trash in that place?”
“They’re just people. There’s nothing wrong with being nice, Mother. Aren’t you always telling me to be nice to people?”
Brent set two glasses of water in front of Stacy and Monica while giving Monica a warning look.
“Stacy, what did you and Carleen talk about that night?” he asked.
Stacy took a sip, while eyeing Brent. “Nothing. I just said hello and said I was going to use the restroom in back.”
“Did you?” Peter asked.
“Did I what?”
“Use the restroom.”
Stacy locked eyes with Peter for three very long seconds. She dropped them back to the table. “No.”
“Tell us about that. What did you do instead, Stacy?” Brent asked.
“Why are you bothering to ask? You already know, don’t you!” Stacy accused. “Why don’t you tell her!” She jerked her head at her mother, whipping her hair around. She shoved it back behind her shoulder, angry.
“All right,” Peter said, “why did you take your stepfather�
�s second phone, Stacy?”
“What?” Monica screeched. “Stacy, you didn’t!”
“I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt,” Stacy pleaded.
“What do you mean, Stacy? What are you talking about?” her mother demanded.
“Mrs. Munce, please let us ask the questions,” Brent said. “Why did you take the phone, Stacy?”
“I just wanted to scare her off. I didn’t want George to leave.”
“Are you talking about Kate Onstad, Stacy?” Peter asked.
“Yeah, her.”
“What made you decide to scare her off?” Peter asked.
“George kept saying on those Kindle notes that he wanted to be with her forever. I knew he was going to leave us. So I thought I could pretend to be him and break them up.”
“How did you try to break them up, Stacy?” Brent asked.
“I already hacked his Kindle account. I knew he used either my name or DaisyBug for his password, so it was easy. Anyway, he usually left his Kindle at home. I think they were passing Kindle notes when he was hanging around the house, like kids sneaking notes in class. He probably figured it was safer than chatting online.
“I stole his phone. I knew they were going to meet that Monday, so I . . .” Here she stumbled. “I punctured Kate’s tire that morning.”
Monica shot up straight and drew breath to speak. Brent gave her a quelling look. She settled back in her chair.
“Didn’t you have a student council meeting that morning?” Peter asked.
“I didn’t go,” she said quickly.
“I suspect,” Brent said with an extra coating of Tupelo honey, “that if we check the attendance roster at that meeting, you were there. I also suspect you made sure people knew you were there, because you knew somebody was letting the air out of Monica’s tire. Who did you ask to help you, Stacy?”
“I just wanted everything to go back to normal,” Stacy mumbled.
Peter gentled his voice. “Who helped you, Stacy?”
Maximum Security (A Dog Park Mystery) Page 19
