Randy shrugged. “I have no idea.”
The dark-haired woman standing next to Randy suddenly spoke. “The only person I can think of would be Lucy,” she blurted out.
Lucy began to shake her head. “No…”
Gloria lowered her gaze to read the woman’s tag. Barbara stepped closer. The woman crossed her arms and shifted her stance. “Bill said that there was some bad blood between you and that you refused to return some of the guns he had loaned you.”
Lucy rubbed the palm of her hand on the top of her jeans. “No! That’s not true. I never borrowed anything from Bill. I own every single gun that I have and I can prove it.” Lucy’s face turned as red as her hair.
Barbara’s eyes sparked. “I think that is a bald-faced lie and I told the police that they should take a close look at you.”
“Why, I!” Lucy pointed at the woman’s nametag. “Hey! I know who you are! Bill told me months ago, before we broke up that you were chasing after him!” She handed her purse to Gloria. “You’re one of the reasons we broke up!”
Gloria could tell by the wild look in Lucy’s eyes that things were about to head south…to the Mexican border south. She slung both purses over her shoulder and reached for Lucy’s arm. “Maybe we should go.”
It was as if Lucy hadn’t even heard Gloria. Her full attention focused on the woman on the other side of the counter.
“Why don’t we step outside,” Lucy challenged.
The woman – Barbara – rolled up her sleeves. “Why don’t we?”
Visions of Lucy and this Barbara woman rolling around on the ground, punching each other and pulling each other’s hair flashed across Gloria’s mind.
Apparently, Randy had the same thought and he reached for Barbara’s arm. “It’s not worth it, Barb,” he reasoned.
The young man behind the counter mysteriously disappeared in the midst of the conflict…what if was calling the cops?
“Let’s go, Lucy,” Gloria urged. She tugged on Lucy’s arm.
The women retraced their steps and exited the store. Gloria kept a firm grip on Lucy’s arm as she led her to the car.
“Psst!”
Gloria shifted her attention as she gazed over the roof of the car.
“Over here!” The young man, who had been behind the counter, was motioning for Gloria to come over.
Gloria glanced inside the store and then casually made her way around the front of the car.
Lucy started to follow Gloria but Gloria waved her back to the car. She didn’t want to draw attention…at least no more attention than they already had!
The young man, Zeke, according to the name embroidered on his shirt, motioned her forward. “Something funny was goin’ on here right before Mr. Volk’s death,” he said. “Mr. Volk asked me to keep an eye on the cash register. He thought one of the other workers was stealing from him.”
Gloria leaned in. “Did you tell the police that?”
Zeke plucked a pack of cigarettes from his front pocket. He tapped the pack on the side of his hand and pulled one out. “Nope. The police questioned us at the same time and I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others.”
Gloria nodded. Smart move. Otherwise, it might put a target on his back. “You need to talk to Officer Fred Burnett,” she said.
Zeke clamped the cigarette between his lips and fumbled in his pants pocket for his lighter. “Yes, ma’am. I’m going to do that just as soon as I leave work today.”
Gloria heard a car door slam in the distance. “Who do you think killed Mr. Volk?” she asked.
Zeke lit the cigarette and took a drag. “Could be one of the people that worked at the store. There was also a weirdo gun salesman that kept coming in. Every time he showed up, Mr. Volk would disappear in the back of the store and tell us to tell him that he wasn’t here.”
“Did you get a name?” This could be a huge clue!
“Maxim. Something Maxim.” Zeke flicked a cigarette ash on the sidewalk. “All I know is he avoided this Maxim guy like the plague.”
“Zeke!” Someone from behind the store called Zeke’s name.
“Look. I gotta go!” Zeke dropped the cigarette on the cement and crushed it with the tip of his shoe. He jogged down the sidewalk that ran next to the building and disappeared from sight.
Gloria slowly walked back to the car. She opened the driver’s side door and slid into the seat. “Did Bill ever mention someone by the name of Maxim?”
Lucy frowned. “Hmm. Maybe.”
Gloria fastened her seatbelt and started the car.
“I think I remember...” Lucy rubbed her forehead. “Yeah! Bill hated the guy. He was some sort of salesman, always trying to pressure Bill into buying more guns and ammo.”
Lucy gazed out the window as Gloria pulled onto the road. “He sold a special kind of gun. It was real expensive.”
Lucy turned to face Gloria. “Oh my gosh, Gloria! The gun. The special gun. It was a Kahr® brand. It’s the same gun that I have and the same one that the police told me killed Bill!”
Chapter 5
Gloria’s head was spinning. First, there were the employees at All Seasons Sporting Goods who may or may not have been stealing. The woman, Barbara, who all but accused Lucy of killing Bill, and now this “Maxim” guy who Bill did not care for and sold Bill the custom gun that had, in fact, killed him. She added all of them to her mental list of suspects and included the employee, Zeke.
He seemed eager to throw others under the bus, but he was an employee, too. Maybe he was under suspicion for stealing, as well. He said that Bill told him to keep an eye on the others, but why would Bill have ruled him out as a possible thief?
Lucy and Gloria discussed the list of suspects on their way home. The next step in the investigation was to get inside the house across the street to see if there were any clues investigators may have missed.
Lucy read Gloria’s mind. “We need to sneak into that house. The sooner the better.”
When they reached the Town of Belhaven, Gloria made a last minute decision to stop by Dot’s Restaurant.
Dot spotted the girls when they stepped through the door. She met them at a back table with a cup of coffee for Gloria and a cup of hot water, along with a packet of hot chocolate for Lucy.
Gloria caught a whiff of chicken and dumplings. Dot’s famous chicken and dumplings to be exact. Her stomach grumbled. “I’m starving.” She had been in such a hurry to start the investigation she had skipped breakfast.
“Me too,” Lucy said. “I’ll take the chicken and dumplings.”
“Ditto,” Gloria agreed.
Dot pulled her order pad from her apron pocket and jotted their orders down. “How is the investigation going?”
Gloria lifted the coffee cup to her lips and sipped. “We’re racking up more suspects than Carter has liver pills.”
Dot snorted. “So I guess the case is in high gear.”
Lucy dumped the packet of hot chocolate in her cup. She added hot water, three packets of sugar and picked up her spoon. “We’re hoping to lock onto something before one of us ends up in jail, charged with Bill’s murder.”
Dot set the coffee pot on the edge of the table. “Are you serious? You two are suspects?”
At one time or another, each of the Garden Girls had been the subject of a criminal investigation. Everyone that is, except for Lucy and Gloria. And maybe Margaret.
Lucy lifted her mug of hot chocolate and sipped. “Needs a little more sugar.” She reached for another sugar packet.
Gloria explained how the gun that had killed Bill was a custom gun, one that he carried in his shop and the same brand gun that Lucy owned.
Gloria told Dot about Officer Burnett’s visit the evening before and how she had politely shown him the door. “I think I’ve managed to make it to the suspect list.”
“Maybe the detective thinks that you’re covering for Lucy,” Dot pointed out.
“Or that I’m an accomplice,” Gloria added. “That’s
why Lucy and I are going to sneak into the house across the street later tonight to search for clues.”
She knew they were grasping at straws. The investigators had been across the street several times and she was certain they had probably turned up anything and everything that looked suspicious. Still, they had to try…
Dot picked up the coffee pot and turned to go. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. The last thing you need is to get caught inside that house!”
In the back of Gloria’s mind, the warning bells went off. Dot was right. It wouldn’t look good.
Looking back, she wished she had heeded Dot’s warning and her own feeling of foreboding.
***
The girls stepped out onto the back porch and Gloria stared up at the sky. It was pitch black. A thick layer of clouds hung in the air, obliterating the stars and moon.
Gloria took the lead as she and Lucy crept across the deserted street. She reached a hand inside her jacket pocket and touched the top of her 9mm handgun, safely tucked inside.
Gloria couldn’t shake the feeling that the outcome of this covert operation was going to end badly.
At best, they ran the risk of getting caught and being charged with breaking and entering…but only if the new owners decided to press charges…she hoped not.
At worst, the killer could return to the scene of the crime and add two more notches to his belt: the two of them.
Gloria pushed aside the nagging thought of something going awry. After all, who in their right mind would show up this late at night?
The girls had decided not to share their plan with anyone and Dot swore she wouldn’t breathe a word.
Gloria had even had to tell Paul that she would have to call him a little later than normal because something unexpected had come up.
He seemed curious but didn’t press. He knew his betrothed well enough to know that she was more than likely up to something and that he more than likely did not want to know what that something was.
“You got it?” Gloria whispered to Lucy, who crept silently next to her.
Lucy nodded. “Yep.” She lifted the mini flashlight and held it out.
A loud thumping echoed in the still night air. It sounded like it was coming from the old corncrib behind the barn.
Lucy tugged on Gloria’s coat sleeve. “What was that?”
“I-I don’t know,” Gloria answered. The hair on the back of her neck stood straight out. Something felt wrong…terribly wrong. She prayed they weren’t walking into a trap and the killer hadn’t returned for some unfinished business, namely them!
Gloria swallowed the lump in her throat and pushed back the feeling of dread. “Let’s get this over with.”
The girls tiptoed across the gravel drive and around to the back door. Gloria reached for the handle. The door was locked.
“It’s locked,” Gloria hissed.
Lucy reached inside her back pocket. “That’s okay. I think I can open it.”
Gloria stepped to the side and Lucy stepped in front of the door. She shoved what appeared to be a credit card, in between the door and the jamb. She slowly slid the card down as she turned the knob.
“Pop!” The door creaked open.
Gloria shook her head. “The Jill of all Trades,” she joked.
Gloria reached inside her other pocket and pulled out a small flashlight. She turned it on and pointed the beam at the floor. “Where did you learn that trick? Never mind. Maybe I don’t want to know.”
She took a step inside the kitchen. The floorboards creaked under the weight.
“Shh!” Lucy whispered.
“I can’t shh,” Gloria said.
“Then let’s hurry up,” Lucy urged. “What’s the plan?”
Gloria didn’t have a plan. It had been years since Gloria had been inside the old farmhouse. She vaguely remembered that the kitchen was located in the back.
“Time is of the essence.” Lucy reached for her own flashlight and flipped the switch. “You start over there and I’ll start here.”
The girls methodically searched the small kitchen…or what was left of it. The house was in the midst of major renovations. A few of the lower cabinets were still there but all of the upper cabinets were missing.
Gloria made a mental note to try to find out the names of the construction workers on site. What if one of them had taken Bill out? It was a stretch but they certainly had access to the house…
“There’s nothing here.” Lucy turned to Gloria. “I wish we knew where Bill’s…uh, where Bill had been found.”
“Let’s try the other room,” Gloria suggested. She pointed her flashlight at the floor and crept forward.
Lucy was right on Gloria’s heel as the women made their way into the living room.
Gloria beamed the light around the room. Furniture crowded the center. Large sheets of cloth covered each of the pieces. She guessed this was to keep them from getting dirty during construction.
Gloria lifted the corner of a sheet and peeked underneath. It was a chair and it looked vaguely familiar. She wondered if it was something James’ brother had left behind.
Lucy stuck close to Gloria as she studied the small room. “This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies!”
It was giving Gloria the willies, too. Just the fact that a murderer had been inside the house was enough to cause her stomach to twist in knots.
“Let’s search the bedrooms,” Gloria suggested. She led the way as the women quietly stepped into the first bedroom. Her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light and she pointed her flashlight at the floor.
The room was empty. Off to the far right was a closet, the door closed.
Gloria eyed the door cautiously. Did she really want to look inside?
Gloria pushed her fear aside. This was the whole reason they were there. She stiffened her back. “Let’s finish this.”
Before she could change her mind, she grabbed the handle of the door and yanked it open. Something large and black shot out at Gloria. She stumbled backwards. “Agh!”
Lucy, certain that Gloria was under attack, bolted from the room.
The dark object whacked Gloria on the forehead. She clenched both fists and swung at it furiously. She wasn’t going down without a fight!
When it didn’t fight back, she opened her eyes. It was the handle of a broom!
Gloria shoved the broom back inside the closet. “It was just a broom,” she hollered into the living room.
“Scaredy-cat,” she mumbled under her breath.
Lucy scurried back inside the bedroom. “I was going for help!”
“Sure you were,” Gloria laughed. “I could’ve been dead by now.”
The girls finished their search of both bedrooms and a small bath located between the two bedrooms.
Gloria flicked the flashlight off. “It’s hard to tell if there’s a clue or not. I’m gonna go with the place is clean.”
“Yeah. Let’s get out of here,” Lucy agreed.
The girls turned back toward the kitchen when a noise on the front porch caused them to stop dead in their tracks.
“Did you hear that?” Gloria whispered.
“Uh-huh. W-what was it?” Lucy asked.
Gloria slowly turned her gaze to the front door. She could see the shadow of someone through the glass pane. “There’s someone at the door.”
Just then, the doorknob began to rattle. Whoever was at the door was trying to get in!
Chapter 6
“Hit the deck!” Gloria grabbed Lucy’s hand and dragged her down. The girls landed on the floor with a dull thud.
“Follow me!” Gloria slithered along the scuffed wooden floor in a desperate attempt to reach the kitchen – and the back door.
She cast a furtive glance behind her. The shadowy figure was still there and the knob rattled again. It echoed loudly in the quiet of the house. It sounded to Gloria like the rattle of death.
Lucy, who was right behind Gloria and gaining quickly, grabbed the heel of Glo
ria’s sneaker. “Get your gun out!”
Gloria had almost forgotten she’d brought her handgun with her! She twisted to the side, fumbled inside the pocket of her jacket and reached for her gun. It wasn’t there. “I-It must’ve fallen out of my pocket when I hit the floor,” she gasped.
Lucy spun like a kid on a merry-go-round and headed back to where they’d made contact with the floor. The palms of her hands darted back and forth as she searched in vain for the cool metal of the weapon.
Gloria turned back, too, frantically sweeping her arm across the floor as she searched for the missing weapon.
Gloria glanced up at the door. The shadow was gone, along with whoever had been trying to get in!
She knew it was too good to be true. “You don’t think…”
A beam of bright light shone in through the back door and illuminated a section of the living room floor. The girls froze. Gloria squeezed her eyes shut and offered up a silent prayer for protection.
***
“Hello?” The voice...male, was very familiar. “Gloria? Are you in here?”
Gloria’s eyes shot open. “Paul?”
“Where are you?” The beam of light illuminated the living room and bounced off the wall. Finally, it came to rest on two sets of terrified eyes.
Gloria felt a wave of relief flood her body and sudden tears burned the back of her eyes.
The girls slowly rose to their feet.
“What are you doing here?” Gloria brushed at the sleeves of her shirt.
Lucy raised a hand in greeting. “Hi Paul.”
“Hello Lucy,” he answered and then turned to Gloria.
“What am I doing here?” Paul asked. “What are you two doing here?”
“We…uh…”
Paul shook his head. “I know what you’re doing. Do you have any idea how much trouble you two could get into?”
Gloria had an inkling. But they were already in trouble so heaping a little more on top seemed insignificant, although she didn’t tell Paul that.
“How did you find us?” Gloria brushed the dust bunnies from the front of her pants; her eyes casually scanned the floor in search of her gun, which was still MIA.
Fall Girl (Garden Girls Christian Cozy Mystery Book 9) Page 4
