Buried Leads (An Avery Shaw Mystery)

by Amanda M. Lee

  I watched him curiously. “Why did you volunteer us to stay here?” I finally asked.

  “Why not?”

  “It just seems odd,” I admitted. “Like you’re trying too hard for them to like you.”

  “You think this was about them liking me?” Eliot looked surprised.

  “It wasn’t?”

  “It was about irritating you – and maybe getting you alone.” The look Eliot slid towards me was predatory – and sexy.

  “You knew that we’d end up alone up here?” Somehow, I doubted that.

  “No,” Eliot admitted. “I thought we’d end up in a hotel – but this is just as good.”

  “Yeah, childhood sleeping bags and a hard floor are definitely sexy,” I teased.

  “Sexy is a state of mind, not your surroundings,” Eliot leaned back against the wall. There was a about twenty feet between us – but it felt like I could feel his warmth emanating from here.

  “You seem pretty sure that you’re going to get lucky,” I said, licking my lips nervously.

  “I wouldn’t want to disappoint your mom,” he laughed.

  That was only a plus from my perspective. I slowly got up and moved towards him. What the hell, right?

  

  I woke up in a tangle of arms, legs and Star Wars fabric. I could feel Eliot curled up behind me, with his right arm wrapped around me tightly. He felt me stir and snuggled in closer to me, mumbling into my tangled blonde hair as he did. “Good morning.”

  “Morning,” I murmured back, relaxing back into his strong arms for a few minutes. I looked up at the sliding glass doors in the kitchen and saw that the light was starting to filter in. It was almost dawn. Sally would be here soon. And, as comfortable and relaxed as I felt, I knew that if Eliot and I were found naked and wrapped in my childhood sleeping bag – things would get unpleasant, to say the least.

  “We have to get up,” I said reluctantly.

  “I know,” Eliot said. He kissed my temple quickly and then climbed up. I took a second to appreciate his naked rear end before I started getting dressed, too. I only had the same clothes I had worn the day before, so it didn’t take very long. I excused myself to go into the bathroom and ran my fingers through my hair. It was a losing battle.

  I asked Eliot to bring my purse into the bathroom for me. Luckily, I had an extra hairbrush inside of it. I wet it under the faucet and ran it through my hair. It wasn’t a vast improvement, but it was better than it had been. I threw all of my hair into a pony tail and then splashed some water on my face.

  When I came back out into the living room, Eliot had folded up the sleeping bags and stashed them back into the linen closet. Despite the fact that we’d had a, um, rigorous evening, Eliot’s hair barely looked out of place. I handed him the hairbrush anyway and watched as he disappeared into the bathroom.

  When he was done, Eliot came back out into the living room and shrugged into his flannel shirt. He then turned to me expectantly. A memory of last night rushed into my head and I could feel my face flush.

  Eliot smirked when he saw the reddening of my cheeks. “Are you regretting it now?”

  “No,” I admitted. “I just know my mom is going to take one look at me and know the dirty, dirty things we did last night.”

  “Do you think she’ll really care?”

  “Oh, yeah, it’s going to totally piss her off,” I responded.

  “Is that a bad thing or a good thing?”

  “It’s a good thing,” I said. “It’s definitely a good thing.”

  Eliot held his hand out to me and I took it, letting him pull me towards him and brush a soft kiss across my lips. Inviting him to dinner really was one of my better ideas – and that’s saying something, because I’m something of a genius (especially in my own mind).

  Eliot and I heard someone outside of the apartment door and I inadvertently took a step back. I wasn’t surprised to see Sally standing there. She was laden down with painting supplies.

  “Oh, good, you’re up,” she said. She was eying us both speculatively for a minute. I could tell she wanted to find out if anything happened – but she currently had other things on her mind. That would have to wait.

  “We’re going to go down to the restaurant and have breakfast and then we’ll go help pack your stuff,” I said.

  “Good,” she said. “By the time you get back here I should be done painting.”

  I led Eliot back downstairs. My cousin Mario was cooking this morning and he looked surprised when he saw Eliot and I descend from the upstairs apartment. “Looks like someone got lucky last night,” he teased.

  Mario was seven years younger than me and fresh out of high school. He was working at the restaurant while he put himself through college. He was one of my funnier cousins – but I wasn’t especially in the mood for his brand of humor this morning.

  “Are you jealous?”

  “Hell yes,” Mario answered amiably. “He’s very pretty. His hair looks like it feels like spun satin.”

  Mario has a weird sense of humor.

  Eliot and I went back out to the dining room and slid into the family booth. Derrick was already eating his breakfast. I was surprised to see him. “What are you doing here? I thought you were going back to the city?”

  “I was,” Derrick grumbled.

  “Did they nag you until you agreed to come back?”

  “No,” Derrick said. “My mom nagged me so I spent the night at her house. On the couch.”

  My family is a little co-dependent.

  I ordered eggs, hash browns, ham, wheat toast and tomato juice – my favorite breakfast. Eliot ordered pancakes. When the waitress left, I turned back to Derrick. “How long do you think this is going to take?”

  “Knowing Sally? All day. It’s not exactly how I wanted to spend my Saturday,” he grumbled. “I wanted to spend the afternoon with Devon.”

  Ah, Devon, his Channel 4 sweetie. Good. I didn’t like her anyway.

  “She’s hot,” Eliot said to Derrick as a means of conversation.

  I glared at Eliot disdainfully. “You’re much hotter, baby,” he absentmindedly patted my hand as he sipped from his cup of coffee.

  Derrick snickered and sipped from his own cup of coffee. He was now looking at me curiously. “Your mom is going to know you got laid last night,” he said finally.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied, staring down at my silverware.

  Derrick smirked. “You kind of have a glow.” He turned to Eliot. “Good job. Maybe she’ll be more interested in you than fucking up my job for awhile.”

  “I don’t fuck up your job,” I argued.

  “You don’t make it any easier,” he countered.

  Thankfully, my breakfast had arrived so I had something else to focus on besides popping Derrick’s head like a really big zit. I found that I was suddenly ravenous. Derrick watched me dunk my toast in my egg yolks and started laughing. “He took a lot of out you, huh? You need some nourishment?”

  I glanced over at Eliot, but he apparently wasn’t going to ride to my rescue. “Do you want to chime in here?”

  “Nope.” Eliot took a big bite of his pancakes and smirked at me.

  So much for my white knight.

  Eight

  The rest of breakfast was spent in relative silence. The conversation we did have revolved around Sarah Frank and her mysterious disappearance. “Have you heard anything?” I asked Derrick.

  “Nothing more than you’ve already been told,” Derrick answered succinctly.

  How did he know what I’d been told? “I think you guys know more than you’re saying,” I said.

  “Why would you say that?”

  That’s an evasion. When you answer a question with a question that means you’re hiding something. “Because I think it’s weird that the sheriff’s department would have a press conference at the home of a missing woman.”

  “Why is that weird?” Eliot asked.

  “It’s just not norm
al.”

  “You’re the last person that should be judging what is normal,” Derrick sniped.

  “See, that’s another evasion,” I countered. “I know you’re lying to me. I know you’re all lying to me. I’m going to find out what you’re hiding.”

  “Shouldn’t you be focusing on your new boyfriend?” Derrick may be a master manipulator, but I was better.

  “I’m a consummate multi-tasker,” I said.

  “Lucky for you,” Derrick told Eliot.

  “I do feel lucky,” Eliot said finally. “She’s never boring.”

  I smirked at Derrick triumphantly.

  “That was a backhanded compliment,” Derrick said. “He’s saying you make him want to pull his own hair out.”

  “That’s not what he said.”

  “That’s what he meant.”

  “It is not.”

  “It is, too.”

  I turned to Eliot. “That’s not what you meant, is it?”

  Eliot swallowed the bite of pancakes he’d been chewing. “I meant what I said. You’re never boring.”

  Derrick barked out a laugh. “See.”

  I finished up my breakfast in a moody silence. If Eliot was bothered by my sudden sullenness, he didn’t acknowledge it.

  The sound of the bell ringing above the door caught all of our attention, and we all turned to see who was arriving. I could only hope it was karma – and she was coming to give Derrick a good swift kick in the ass.

  Instead it was my conscience coming to give me a bitter dose of reality in the form of my mother. She was heading straight towards us.

  “Good morning,” Eliot greeted her amiably.

  “Good morning,” my mom said stiffly. I noticed that my grandfather had come out into the main room from the kitchen. He slipped into the booth at the far end of the table and was eating his morning breakfast. My grandfather was a big guy – and he loved his food. “Good morning, grandpa,” I greeted him.

  “Morning, Dolly,” he said.

  My grandfather calls all of his granddaughters Dolly. I have no idea why.

  “Who is your friend?”

  I introduced Eliot. My grandfather hadn’t had a chance to meet him the night before. My mom had slid into the middle section of the booth and was sitting next to Derrick. She picked a piece of toast off his plate and started nibbling on it. Derrick gave her a dirty look. “Do you want your own breakfast?”

  “No,” she sighed. “I’ll just have this piece of toast.”

  “Maybe I wanted that piece of toast,” Derrick countered.

  “You’ve had enough,” she responded.

  I pursed my lips and smirked at Derrick. When he was sure my mom wasn’t looking, he shot me the finger.

  My grandfather was still staring at Eliot thoughtfully. “Is he your boyfriend?”

  I cast a sideways glance at Eliot. We really hadn’t defined that.

  “Yes, sir,” Eliot answered for me.

  “You are?” I was surprised at how quickly he had answered the question.

  Eliot ignored me.

  “Shouldn’t you have decided that before last night?” Derrick asked.

  If my legs were long enough to reach him, I would have kicked him. “Eat your breakfast,” I admonished him.

  My mom was fixing her icy glare on me again. Great.

  “So, I figured we would all go over to Sally’s now.” What? I can divert, too.

  “What did you do last night?” My mom’s tone was no-nonsense.

  “Should we all leave now?” I ignored her question.

  “What did you do last night?” She’s like a dog with a bone, I swear.

  “We slept.” That’s not a lie. We did sleep. After.

  “In separate rooms?”

  “Yes,” I lied.

  I could see Eliot shaking his head out of the corner of his eye. He was absolutely no help.

  “She’s lying,” Derrick supplied. I really hate him sometimes.

  “Are you lying?” My mom’s voice had risen an octave.

  “Who are you going to believe?” That was a loaded question.

  “Just leave her alone,” my grandfather chimed in. “She’s an adult. At least we know she’s not a lesbian now – even if that fellow does have some mighty long hair for a boy.”

  Eliot ran his fingers through his hair self-consciously. I moved to push him out of the booth. “We’ll meet you over at Sally’s.”

  My grandfather got up from the table. “I’m going to run upstairs and go to the bathroom and then I’ll meet you over there.”

  That was code. He really means he’s going to sit on the toilet upstairs until he’s sure we’re all gone and then get caught up in some work task that conveniently keeps him from helping us.

  He disappeared into the kitchen. He really wouldn’t be a lot of help anyway. He would probably be more of a hindrance, barking out orders and directing everyone else to do things until everything resulted in a really large clusterfuck.

  My mom was still regarding Eliot and I suspiciously. “What?” I turned to her in exasperation.

  “Nothing,” she pursed her lips.

  “Just let it go,” I grumbled.

  “You let it go,” she countered.

  The whole family devolves into middle school comebacks sometimes. Luckily for us, things didn’t have a chance to sink to any new lows because there were raised voices emanating from the kitchen.

  The other customers in the restaurant were looking beyond the swinging double doors curiously. Derrick and I pushed through the doors and followed the ruckus. Eliot and my mom were a few paces behind.

  The voices were loud – and familiar.

  “What the hell are you doing? Is this some type of whorehouse?” My grandfather was bellowing from the top of the stairs.

  I raced up the stairs to see what kind of situation had suddenly evolved. I was shocked to find my aunt Sally cowering on the floor. She was shirtless – and she was trying to cover herself.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I was painting,” Sally gasped; reaching for the tarp she had placed on the floor to protect it from the paint.

  “Naked! She was painting naked,” my grandfather was beside himself with disbelief.

  “I didn’t want to ruin my clothes,” Sally said lamely.

  I felt a warm body move in behind me and turned to see Eliot taking in the scene with a small smile.

  “Like I said, you’re never boring.”

  Nine

  I left my mom and grandfather to deal with the naked painting incident. This is why you don’t live in a place where you have no privacy – or where family can just wander in unannounced.

  “Why didn’t you lock the door?” I heard my mom ask disgustedly. She’s always practical.

  “I didn’t think I needed to,” Sally answered.

  “You know he needs his bathroom time after breakfast,” my mom countered.

  “I forgot.”

  Derrick, Eliot and I descended the stairs and exited the restaurant through the back door. When we got outside, Derrick and I burst out laughing. Eliot watched us curiously.

  “I take it this doesn’t’ surprise you,” he said.

  “It’s not even the weirdest thing Sally has done all week,” Derrick answered truthfully.

  Eliot and I followed Derrick to Sally’s house – which was only a few blocks away. When we pulled up to the house, Eliot seemed surprised. “Why would she move out of this house and into a small apartment?”

  Sally’s house was beautiful. It was an older, yellow farm house that she had spent a lot of time fixing up and decorating.

  “I don’t know. Maybe she’s scared of Steve.”

  “Why would she be scared of him?” Eliot looked surprised.

  Describing Steve is difficult. He’s one of those guys that comes across as amiable, but after talking to him for a few minutes you realize that he’s got a lot of old world attitudes. He believes women should cook, clean and shut the hel
l up. Most women believe that he should just shut the hell up.

  “Wouldn’t she have known that he was like that before she married him?” Eliot seemed confused.

  “She did, but I think she thought she could change him,” I offered lamely.

  “Well, that’s pretty stupid. You can’t change someone. They are who they are. You either accept that, or you move on.”

  “Is that a warning for me?” I asked him curiously.

  “No, it was just a reminder to me,” he teased.

  We got out of the car and joined Derrick on the front lawn. No one else had arrived yet.

  “We’re fifteen minutes early,” Derrick said. “Do you think we should just go inside and start getting stuff?”

  “I don’t know, “ I shrugged. “Is Steve here?”

  Derrick nodded his head towards the pickup truck in the driveway. “His truck is here.”

  We opted to wait until someone with at least a semblance of authority arrived. Thankfully, Marnie and my mom were only a few minutes behind us.

  “What are you waiting for?” Marnie chastised us. “Don’t just stand there. Start moving stuff.”

  “We weren’t sure if we were allowed to go in the house,” Derrick argued.

  Marnie waved Derrick’s protests off disinterestedly. “Come on.”

  We started following my mom and Marnie up the porch steps when the side door swung open. Steve was standing in the door with one of his brothers – and they didn’t look happy to see us.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “We’re here to get Sally’s stuff,” Marnie challenged him.

  “Well, then you’re going to be disappointed.”

  I saw Derrick and Eliot exchange furtive looks. They clearly sensed this was going to turn into more of a battle than anyone else had anticipated.

  Marnie wasn’t going to be dissuaded, though. She and Sally fought like cats and dogs – or like sisters that were only eleven months apart in age – but she wasn’t going to put up with any of Steve’s bullshit. “Get out of the way.”

  “Sally is not leaving me,” Steve argued.

  “Then you’re going to be disappointed,” my mom chimed in.