A Box Full of Trouble

by Carolyn Haines

  She went inside with Trouble at her heels. The cat went immediately to his bed in the front window and curled into a ball. He acted exhausted, and she wondered what he’d been up to during the night. She kept him inside when it was dark—too many chances for something bad to happen to a kitty in the night time. Stray dogs, cars, any number of dangers. And Trouble often spent the nocturnal hours snuggled against her. Last night, though, he’d been absent. Had he been on the alert for an intruder? He was smart enough to be a guard cat, for sure. For that, she was very glad. And Trouble displayed no antagonism toward Benjy. Tammy simply couldn’t believe that the quiet, nerdy man who read comics and talked about yoga positions could be a serial killer.

  The job Aiden had assigned her was to keep a sharp eye on Benjy. She didn’t feel much like a smoke-eating, tough-talking private eye, but she’d agreed to watch him. She wasn’t afraid of Benjy—because she still doubted his involvement in anything illegal. But she wasn’t discounting anything.

  It was going to be a long day, working side by side with a man who might be a serial killer. Things were complicated by her need to get the telescope. She thought about sending Benjy home for the day, but she came up with a better plan. Benjy could watch the store, and she’d retrieve the telescope. She didn’t really need to bother Aiden with this. She’d scoot up the mountain, grab the telescope, and get back before anyone knew she was gone. In the daylight, it wouldn’t be dangerous, and if Benjy was somehow involved in the Debby Caldwell’s death, he would be engaged at the store.

  Portions of the crater were very isolated, but others contained magnificent homes. It wasn’t like she was going to the backside of nowhere. She’d be up and down with the telescope as fast as she could move. Trouble would accompany her. No one would be the wiser about her escapade.

  “Benjy, I have to run an errand. You okay here on your own?”

  “Couldn’t be better. I’ll log in those books and do some title searches.”

  “Perfect.” Tammy smiled. “I’m off then. Trouble, let’s go.”

  * * *

  I cannot believe this. Tammy is acting like such a wanker. She’s actually returning to Tom Wells’ property and right back up to Rook’s Vantage. I thought when she ran out and jumped in her car that she might be up for a nosh. Maybe a bit of sole over linguini with a delicate white sauce or some beef tips with mushrooms. Something sensible. Wrong. She’s driving straight away to the scene of the crime. Or if not the scene of the crime, then the body dump.

  I realize she has to retrieve the telescope, but wouldn’t it be sensible to tell Aiden? He could have accompanied her. Maybe a little moonlight stargazing, up on the crater’s rim. I realize the romantic aspects have been somewhat dimmed by the discovery of a dead body not so far away. Still, it beats the hell out of Tammy going up there alone. Well, alone except for me. I’m clever and resourceful, but I only weigh fourteen pounds. I’m hardly a match against the brawn of the man I attacked last night. I had the advantage of surprise, and a clear shot at his most delicate personal anatomy. His John Henry and friends, as we Brits call it. I don’t think he’ll be so careless again.

  I closely observed Benjy this morning as he swept up the glass and moved around. Undetectable to the human eye, I noticed a slight hesitation in his gait. He has such wretched posture—not the highest recommendation for yoga classes, I might point out-- it could simply be weak muscles and laziness. Or it could be from the wounds I inflicted last night. I’m not taking him off the list of suspects

  Cats, in general, and I, in particular, have keen olfactory abilities. Dogs get a lot of credit for being able to track criminals and sniff bombs and find cadavers—all activities which I disdain, by the way—but cats have an equally acute sense of smell. We are just too smart to allow humans to use us as unpaid slaves. We employ our skills and talents only when it pleases us.

  Last night, I detected a faint sweet odor about the stalker. It isn’t incense, though that was a good guess by the handsome deputy. When Tammy mentioned that she also smelled a scent like roses and sandalwood, I knew our parking lot intruder was the same man who was up on the ridge.

  This morning I made it a point to thoroughly sniff Benjy. Nothing sweet, only a pungent whiff of goat cheese, cilantro, and turnips. And moth balls. Does anyone use moth balls anymore? While odors are interesting, they are not the most trusted identifier, and it’s possible the smell of the moth balls has overridden the lighter, fresher odor.

  What’s troubling, if you’ll pardon my wry wit and British humor, is that the person in the parking lot is likely the person from the ridge. He’s managed to find where Tammy works, and that means he knows personal things about her.

  If he is the killer, then he’s after Tammy.

  Here we are at the trail head. Tammy is raring to go up that ridge, and I’d best go with her. And let’s just hope there aren’t any weird surprises waiting for us. If magical thinking worked, I’d make sure that the missing young woman, Beverly, has been found and returned to her husband. I don’t have a good feeling about this, though. Aiden has made it his life’s work to track the killer, and I have a sense that Aiden operates on instincts much as I do. He’s come to Wetumpka because he believes a serial killer has taken up residence. I’m worried that he’s right.

  I wish Dad were here. I learned a lot watching him in action and hearing the stories of his great escapades. I know to use my acute senses and to apply logic. But Dad would be able to help me figure out what to do. I can follow Tammy and make sure she’s safe. Or as safe as I can make her. And Tammy is my charge—my human to care for.

  Eleanor and Peter, my human grandparents, Dad, and his missus Clotilde are in Puerto Rico working on a vaccine for a new mosquito-borne virus that impacts horses. They won’t be home until late next week. That will be too late, if the SSK is really here and has focused in on Tammy.

  Nope, it’s up to me and Aiden. And we won’t let her down.

  Chapter Four

  The hike up the trail was much warmer in midday than it had been in the evening. Halfway up, Tammy removed her coat and tied it around her waist. Her long legs covered the rough terrain. The beauty of the winter scenery—dark green pines and the brown and gray trunks of the barren hardwoods—took her mind off the chore she was completing. And Trouble was at her side, alert but not wary. She’d come to trust his reaction. The cat seemed able to sense…trouble. He was well named.

  As she trudged up one of the steeper legs of the incline, she heard a limb break. Before she could react, the cat jumped ahead of her on the trail and barred the path. Using feline stealth, he inched forward, looking back to make sure she was following his lead. Careful not to step on anything that would make noise, she fell in behind the cat.

  Trouble eased off the trail, and she followed through the scrub bushes behind him until they came to the top of Rook’s Vantage. She inhaled sharply but didn’t make a sound. A broad-shouldered man with sandy hair was looking through the telescope. He’d aimed it down into the bowl of the crater and was obviously watching something that held his interest.

  The man had taken off a thick black jacket, revealing a blue plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up. When he reached into his back pocket, she saw an ugly bite on his upper forearm. The tissue was purple and swollen and the impressions of the teeth very clear. Her heart thumped hard against her rib cage.

  She didn’t recognize the man, and she knew most of the people in Wetumpka. She had a suspicion of who he might be—the reclusive man living on Tom Wells’ property. He was a brawler at the Crater Bar, and he was non-verbal to shopkeepers and clerks if they tried to be pleasant, but he’d not darkened the bookstore door—no surprise.

  All in all, he was reputed to be a loner, a man who slid under the radar. Looking at his brawn and obvious attention to his physique, she thought him a far likelier candidate to be a serial killer than slouchy Benjy. She only wished he’d grow tired of the telescope and leave. If he took it with him, she wouldn’t be abl
e to stop him. She could only wait and see.

  He stepped back from the telescope and turned to face her, as if he sensed her presence. Hidden in the thick underbrush and vegetation, she knew he couldn’t see her, but her heart pounded nonetheless. His blue gaze was lethal and cold.

  “Come out, or I’ll drag you out.” He stepped toward her.

  She froze. He knew she was there. How? How had he sensed her when she hadn’t made a sound?

  “Come out or I’ll snatch you out so fast you won’t like it one bit.” He advanced.

  Tammy stood up. “I came for the telescope.”

  “Finders keepers.” He rolled his sleeves down to cover the bite and put his hands on his lean hips. “You’re trespassing.”

  “And who are you to tell me I’m trespassing. So are you.”

  “I have permission to be here. I’m living on the property.”

  So this was Tom’s tenant. He was about as pleasant as Tom was. No wonder they got along. “Look, I borrowed the telescope and I have to return it. May I please have it and I’ll leave.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t think you’re going anywhere.”

  Too late she noticed the knife in a scabbard at his waist. A long knife. His hand rested on the snap that held it in place. She had to defuse the situation. “I don’t want any trouble. I just want the telescope and I’ll leave and I won’t come back.”

  “I think you’d better talk to Mr. Wells about your sight-seeing expedition.”

  “Fine.” She wasn’t afraid of Tom Wells, and she’d much rather talk to him than this chisel-jawed stone man with a hunting knife. “Take me to Mr. Wells, please.”

  The man grinned. “Maybe I’ll just put an end to your stargazing and throw this telescope off the side of the ridge.”

  Tammy accepted she couldn’t stop the man. He was that much bigger and stronger. Key, though, was to get out of the situation without bodily harm. She could finance a telescope if she had to. “I wish you’d just give it to me. I’ll leave and won’t come back.”

  He assessed her. “Here.” He came forward and gave her the telescope and the tripod. “Now get off Mr. Wells’ land and don’t come back.” His voice softened slightly. “You should be more careful running around by yourself. You could get hurt up here.”

  “Thank you.” Tammy took the equipment and put it on her shoulder. She felt his gaze drilling into her back as she left Rook’s Vantage and hurried as fast as she could toward the downhill trail. She couldn’t act like she was running, but she dang sure didn’t want to linger.

  She was halfway down the trail when Trouble leaped off the path and dove into the dense undergrowth.

  “Trouble, you’d better come on.” Tammy glanced back up the slope and to her relief, the trail was empty. At least the man hadn’t followed her down.

  Or if he had, he was very clever at not being detected. Somehow she didn’t think that was a stretch. He moved like someone used to furtive activities.

  “Trouble!” She didn’t want to call out to the cat because if the angry man was within ear shot, he might think she was lollygagging around. “Trouble.”

  “Me-ow!” The cat popped out of the shrubs and refused to come to her. There was nothing for it but to grab him.

  “When I get my hands on you…” She stepped off the trail and hurried after the cat. Trouble moved under the dense brush with much more ease than she had plowing through it. She put the heavy telescope down and reached for the cat with both hands, but Trouble eluded her.

  “Dang it.” When she was about to bust a gasket with frustration, the cat sat down and looked at her. Winking in the sunlight beside the cat was something shiny. She bent down for a closer examination and sat on her haunches. She didn’t want to touch it. She recognized the jewelry glittering in the sun. The plain silver cross belonged to Debby Caldwell. She’d seen it on the woman’s neck whenever she went into the bank.

  “I am in big trouble now,” she mumbled to herself. She could either pick up the necklace or figure out a way to mark the spot. Whichever route she chose, she’d have to return to this property to show the sheriff or Aiden. And she had no doubt Tom Wells would not like that one little bit.

  Sighing with frustration, Tammy retrieved the telescope and laid it in the bramble to mark the spot. She was never going to get that piece of equipment home at the rate she was going.

  “Come on, Trouble. We have work to do.”

  As if he were totally angelic, Trouble followed her obediently down the path.

  When she got to the parking area, she called Trouble into the front seat. In three minutes they were headed off the Wells property and back to town. She felt light-headed with relief, but dread wasn’t far behind. She would have to tell Aiden about the necklace, and about her run-in with the broad-shouldered man, Tom Wells’ tenant. Which meant she’d have to admit she was back at Rook’s Vantage. The deputy wasn’t going to be pleased. Not in the least.

  * * *

  Sheriff Rob Sieck stopped in front of Aiden’s desk and sighed. “Tammy found more evidence on the trail up to Rook’s Vantage, and she had a run-in with that Thad Brady. The minute we cut him loose on the bar fight, he must have gone straight up to Rook’s Vantage.”

  “What was Tammy doing on the ridge?” Aiden couldn’t help the tightness of his voice. “Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine. She said she was retrieving a telescope. She found a necklace she thinks belongs to Debby Caldwell.”

  “She’s still up there?”

  “No, she’s in her car parked on the verge by the turnoff to the trail head. Brady caught her trespassing and threatened to have Wells press charges.” Sieck stepped aside. “She’s waiting to take a law officer back up the trail to collect the evidence. At least she didn’t touch anything.”

  “That woman is a menace,” Aiden said heatedly. “It’s like she’s compelled to go up that ridge and no matter how close she comes to danger, she just keeps going back.”

  “Yeah, she’s a stubborn one,” Sieck said. “Stubborn and smart. A bad combination. And she takes it personally when someone does something that harms the town.”

  Aiden had already told the sheriff what he knew about the Silk Stocking Killer, and the similarity between Debby Caldwell’s murder and the other cases. Rob Sieck wasn’t completely convinced that a serial killer was on the loose, but at least he had an open mind.

  “What did Tammy find?” Aiden asked.

  “She says it’s Debby Caldwell’s necklace.”

  “I’ll go up the ridge with Tammy to retrieve it if you want me to.”

  Sieck stepped back. “I need the exercise, but my plate is too full. I’ll leave this one to you. Just get up and down that hill before dark. I don’t want to have to send a search party after you.”

  “Got it.” He stood and put on his hat. In no time he was driving up the steep inclines of the crater’s many ridges and ravines.

  Tammy was waiting, her Prius parked on the public road, when Aiden drew close to the turn off to Rook’s Vantage. He stopped and signaled her into the front seat. Trouble jumped in first and took a purchase on the top of the passenger seat, balancing like a sphinx. Tammy greeted Aiden but kept her gaze straight ahead, and he realized she expected him to be angry. Score one for her.

  “I can’t believe you went up that ridge by yourself.” There was no way he could ignore her dangerous behavior. He’d be upset no matter who’d pulled such a stunt, but with Tammy his reaction was even more emotional. The idea that she could have met up with a killer was too much. “You went to the body dump of a potential serial killer. Alone. Without telling anyone where you were or what you were doing? Do you have a death wish?”

  “I went to retrieve an expensive piece of equipment which I’d borrowed, and which is still up there because I was trying to be helpful to you.”

  “Why didn’t you ask me to go with you to get the telescope?”

  She glanced at him. “Tom Wells doesn’t want anyone on hi
s property. I didn’t want to ask you to violate his expressed wishes to get something I left up there.” She turned to look out the window at the wild scenery. “Look, I just meant to get the telescope. Straight up and back. It wasn’t the smartest move I could have made. But I did see something.”

  “What?” He asked despite himself.

  “That tenant of Tom’s was up there poking around.”

  “Thad Brady must have gone there as soon as I let him out of the cell.”

  “He was arrested? For what?”

  “He was in a bar fight and I picked him up and took him to the station. The bar owner didn’t press charges so I cut him loose.”

  “He might be a very dangerous man. He had a big knife. You couldn’t hold him?”

  Aiden heard the panic in her voice and felt his anger diminish. She did have sense enough to be afraid. He’d begun to wonder if Tammy lived in her dream world of the safe and perfect Wetumpka to the point she took foolish risks. “We didn’t have enough to hold him. The law is the law.”

  “And for a young woman—his next potential victim—what does the law say to her?”

  “It says that I have to catch him before he can harm anyone else.” He pushed the accelerator and drove up the narrow road to the empty parking space by the trail head. He turned off the engine. “Let’s go.”

  “There’s something you should know.” Tammy met his gaze. “Brady has a bite on his right forearm.”

  “What?”

  “A human bite mark. I saw it clearly. He had his sleeves rolled up. When he realized I’d noticed it, he rolled his sleeves down and threatened to have me arrested for trespassing. If he’s the killer, do you think maybe Debby was able to bite him?”

  “Damn it.” Frustration clouded Aiden’s eyes.

  “What? I thought you’d be happy I noticed.”

  “You could have been killed. Now I need to collect that evidence before he realizes you found something. I can’t leave you here and I don’t want to take you up there with me if the guy is a serial killer.”