Gretchen Birch Boxed Set (Books 1-4)

by Deb Baker

  “Let’s go outside,” he said. “I can’t breathe in here.”

  “Don’t you want to hear my alibi?” she said when they found a slice of shade under a palm tree.

  “Do you feel you need one?”

  “I think I do, since you’ve been asking everyone else about it.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Shoot?”

  “Tell me where you were when Ronny Beam was killed.”

  Gretchen told him about Bonnie’s offer to watch her table and about the Boston group discussing Blunderboos. “Milt remembered that I was there, and your mother can tell you that she wanted me to see the club’s Kewpies.”

  “I still see a gap in time where you aren’t accounted for,” Matt said. “But I don’t think it matters. I think we have our man.”

  “Steve? You don’t still think he did it?”

  “He argued with the deceased shortly before the murder. His fingerprints are on the knife, and several witnesses saw him out in the parking lot before Ronny was killed. How much more evidence would you like?”

  “But what about the real murder weapon?”

  “The tire iron didn’t have any prints on it.”

  “Steve isn’t capable of murder.”

  “Everyone has the potential.”

  Brett, Percy O’Connor, and Ronny Beam were connected through a trail of Kewpie dolls. So was she, for that matter. The messages inside the Kewpies made her fear she was involved more deeply than she wanted to be.

  Should she tell him everything she knew?

  If she told him about the deliveries, he might think she was making a clumsy effort to shift suspicion away from Steve. Would he look more closely at her?

  Matt Albright was too full of himself to see the truth. Arrogant, self-absorbed, stubborn… She searched for more adjectives to describe him. Why did she even think for one moment that she could confide in him?

  The detective standing in front of her with the ridiculous smirk would probably scoff at her concerns and dismiss them out of hand as sheer fantasy.

  “Has Steve requested legal representation yet?” Gretchen asked instead.

  “I offered, he refuses. Says he’s waiting for you. That’s one of the reasons I circled your name in big bold red pen. Any idea what he’s talking about?”

  “None,” Gretchen said. Was Steve trying to protect her? How chivalrous of him, to come through for her. Finally. But too late. “Can I see him?”

  “No. He’s still in a holding cell. Until he’s charged, he can’t have any visitors.”

  “How long can you hold him without charging him?”

  “Not much longer.”

  His eyes locked onto hers. Gretchen squirmed under his gaze. What was it about this man? He induced too many conflicting emotions.

  “I wouldn’t have pegged him as your type,” Matt said. “I thought you’d go for someone…I don’t know…more sensitive, more artistic.”

  “Really?”

  “Anyway, I’m sorry it happened to you. Your boyfriend’s in a heap of trouble.”

  “I don’t know how many times I have to say this…” Gretchen didn’t finish the sentence. Why bother?

  ___________________

  She stomped back to her table, plopped into her chair, and selected a five-piece toddler doll from the repair pile.

  Before Gretchen could immerse herself in repair work and temporarily forget all the peripheral intrigue going on, Nina, canines in tow, walked the few steps from April’s table. “I kept an eye on your table, but nobody wanted to buy anything. The place is starting to clear out. What’s wrong? You’re so pale.”

  “Steve’s still in jail. I guess witnesses saw him in the parking lot.” She leaned back in the chair. “Matt must think I know what happened or that I’m an accomplice of some sort.”

  “Your knife and Steve’s fingerprints? It doesn’t look good.” Nina bent down to stroke the three dogs on the floor around her feet. Tutu put her jealous little muzzle under Nina’s hand every time Nina gave Nimrod or Sophie attention. “I bet that’s exactly what he thinks.”

  Nina straightened and her face turned the color of Elmer’s glue. At first Gretchen thought it was because of what she’d just said, but Nina was staring at Gretchen’s arm. “Don’t move,” Nina said, jerking her hand out in front of her like a cop stopping traffic. “I don’t want to panic you, but sit very, very still.”

  April, coming up behind her, looked at Gretchen and screamed.

  “Quiet,” Nina commanded.

  Gretchen did what Nina asked. “What?” she said, barely breathing.

  April had her hand at her mouth.

  Nina grabbed a Barbie doll. “An insect crawled out of Nimrod’s purse. It’s on your arm. Maybe I can flick it off.”

  “That’s not an insect,” April squealed. “It’s a scorpion.”

  “Oh, no.” Gretchen stopped breathing all together. She felt something on her bare left shoulder.

  Nina rounded on the poisonous insect. It was apparent that she planned to attack from the back.

  Ready to faint, Gretchen reviewed the symptoms of a scorpion sting: excruciating pain, severe swelling. She could live through pain and swelling. Don’t panic, she warned herself.

  Also possible: frothing at the mouth, difficulty breathing, convulsions. Though death from a scorpion sting was rare, she wasn’t looking forward to the convulsion thing. Or of gasping desperately for air.

  She knew all the trivial details associated with the insect world because the most terrifying thing that could ever cross her path was any sort of bug. Centipedes, ticks, spiders, crickets, the list was infinite. “I hate bugs,” she whispered without moving her lips, working to stay in control. “Get it off.”

  “Hold still,” Nina warned. “They have sense organs on their undersides. Once it senses you, you’re a goner.”

  “That must make her feel real good,” April said, talking through the fingers spread across her mouth. “I can’t watch.” She turned away. “Let me know when it’s over.”

  Gretchen felt it crawl down her arm, and she risked a peek, which didn’t help her mental state.

  The yellowish insect stared at her through its buggy, blinkless eyes. Lobster-type pinchers and a hooked tail curled across the top of its inch-long body. It was so close she could see the venomous stinger on the tip of its raised tail.

  “Help,” she croaked.

  “As long as the tail is curved on its back like that, you’re okay,” Nina said from behind her.

  “What are you waiting for?” April said. “Get it off her.”

  “I…I…”

  “You can’t do it, can you?” April turned to the main aisle and screamed. “Someone help!”

  Gretchen felt dangerously light-headed.

  “Detective Albright,” she heard Nina say. “Quick. Shoot it with your gun.”

  Gretchen felt a gentle breeze across her arm. She blinked and the insect was gone.

  She saw a sandaled, male foot descend on the invader. The foot zoomed in, the floor rose, and she felt herself falling sideways.

  The world went blissfully black.

  TWENTY

  “What a hunk,” April exclaimed, wrapping her dimpled arms across her chest. “I’d plant a scorpion on myself if I thought Detective Albright would save me.”

  “It was a nightmare,” Gretchen said from her chair, her voice still shaky. “I can’t believe I fainted.”

  Thanks to April’s screams, the Phoenix Dollers show drew to a dramatic close, the grand finale taking place at Gretchen’s table with most of the remaining shoppers and dealers looking on.

  For the first time in two days, Nina and her traveling dog circus hadn’t held center stage.

  Gretchen would have gladly given back that dubious honor.

  “You would have clunked your head on the floor if Matt’s reflexes hadn’t been sharp,” Nina said.

  “Where were you when I passed out?”

  “I was paralyzed,” Ni
na said. “Every muscle in my body stopped functioning. I don’t understand it. I started out intent on saving you, then when I got close enough to stare the beady thing in the eye, I froze. I’m so sorry.” Nina bent down and gave her a heartfelt hug. “It was a good thing Matt heard April screaming.”

  “I sure did bring the house down,” April added.

  Once Gretchen felt strong enough, April and Nina helped her pack up the remaining Ginny and Barbie dolls and carry them to her Toyota Echo. Gretchen opened the trunk and noticed that the parking lot was almost empty.

  “Someone must have put it in Nimrod’s purse,” Gretchen said. “First the napkin, now a scorpion.”

  “You already said that, repeatedly.” Nina leaned against the car. “Matt Albright didn’t agree with you. He said you needed time to recover, that the shock must have affected your reasoning.”

  “My question is, was the scorpion meant for me or for Nimrod?” Gretchen hugged the tiny puppy. She would have survived the sting, but what affect would the venom have on a three-pound poodle?

  What kind of monster would harm Nimrod?

  “We can’t be sure the scorpion didn’t crawl in on its own,” Nina said.

  “You had the purse when you and Eric went outside. Did you place it on the ground?”

  “No. I let both puppies run around in the back parking lot, then I used their leashes. I had both purses on my shoulder the whole time.”

  “Nimrod and Sophie weren’t in their purses at all?” Gretchen asked.

  Nina shook her head.

  “Then how did it get inside? Scorpions don’t fly.”

  “There has to be another explanation,” April said. “People don’t carry scorpions around with them.”

  Gretchen ignored April’s protests. “Could someone have put the scorpion inside without your noticing?”

  “I suppose so,” Nina said. “There was quite a crowd hanging out around the entrance. I didn’t pay much attention.”

  Gretchen didn’t ask whether Eric might have had the opportunity. The look on Nina’s face suggested she had feelings for him, and Gretchen didn’t want to burst that romantic bubble unless she had to. Besides, she knew the answer. Of course he had the opportunity. More opportunity than anyone else.

  “If what you think is true,” April said, “and someone did this intentionally, then the scorpion wasn’t meant for you, Gretchen. Whoever put it in the purse couldn’t know that Nina wouldn’t put Nimrod back in the purse. It was lucky for him that Nina led him back on his leash. Otherwise, he would have been stung.”

  Gretchen shuddered at the thought. “Then the scorpion was intended as a murder weapon,” she said. “Someone tried to kill Nimrod.”

  The stakes had been raised. Someone wanted to harm Gretchen’s dog, and that demanded her immediate attention. The tiny poodle and her three-legged cat were dependent on her for their care and support, and she didn’t intend to let them down.

  Gretchen felt Nimrod cuddle closer against her. He rested his chin on her folded arm.

  “Nobody,” she said to Nina and April, “messes with my dog.”

  ___________________________

  “What’s this?” Nina gestured at the box of worthless Kewpies stowed in Gretchen’s trunk.

  “That’s the box I’ve been trying to exchange with Duanne Wilson. I have to assume that the winning bidder of these copies has the Ginny dolls that I bought at the auction.”

  Gretchen opened the back door, and Nimrod wiggled out of her arms and into the car. She shut the door and returned to the trunk, pulling the box toward her and opening the top flaps. “The dogs broke one of the reproductions, and I glued it back together, but I didn’t have time to go through the box thoroughly. Now I think we need to take a better look at these, since Kewpie dolls keep popping up in unlikely places.”

  April peeked in. “I can give you a free appraisal on the spot. It’s all garbage. Junk, junk, junk. Chiggy was really bad at making dolls.” She shook her head in disgust while she pawed through the dolls.

  “Ah, look here,” she said. “The real thing. But still worthless.”

  April held up a Blunderboo Kewpie.

  Gretchen noted a crack along the side of its face and a wedge of bisque missing. “Why so many Blunderboos?”

  April peered through the hole in the bisque to the interior of the doll. “Nothing there,” she said. “Hollow. See.” She handed it to Gretchen.

  “You’re right.” Gretchen wasn’t disappointed yet. She still had hopes that the box of dolls would reveal something important.

  “Rats,” Nina said. “I was hoping to find jewelry. Wouldn’t that be something, if we stumbled on a smuggling ring?”

  “With our luck, it would be a drug ring,” Gretchen said.

  “Why did she have one real Kewpie with the ones she made?” Nina asked.

  “Probably used it as a guide for her reproductions,” April said.

  “Like a pattern? I get it.”

  “I’m cracking the dolls open,” Gretchen announced.

  “All of them?” Nina said.

  “What’s a little more damage,” April agreed, breaking into a smile. “I have a hammer in my car.” She lumbered off, although having a mission seemed to add a noticeable bounce to the lumber. April watched demolition derbies on television. This would be right up her speedway lane.

  “What about this Duanne person?” Nina asked. “Won’t he be mad if you break his dolls?”

  “I made every effort to return them to him,” Gretchen said, holding up a Kewpie reproduction with a grimace at the poor workmanship. “It’s not my fault he didn’t leave his correct address.”

  Bonnie’s car pulled up, and the window on the driver’s side slid down. “My house,” she said. “Don’t forget. One hour.” The glowing sun cast its light across her red wig, making it appear harsh and brassy.

  “We’ll be there,” Nina called.

  “Okeydokey. Tootles.” Bonnie drove away as April returned with a hammer and a folded newspaper.

  “Let me,” April said, picking up a doll and laying it on the asphalt on top of a sheet of the newspaper. Gretchen transferred the box to the ground, and she and Nina crouched beside April.

  “Not that one,” Gretchen said, pointing to the doll in April’s hand. “That’s the one I fixed at home after the animals knocked it from the bookcase. I know there’s nothing inside it.”

  April laid it aside and began cracking open one Kewpie doll after another. Gretchen and Nina sorted through the broken pieces, looking for clues. Soon the box was empty. Broken shards of clay covered the newspaper.

  “Nada,” Nina said.

  April picked up the doll Gretchen had repaired and with one solid stroke, broke it open.

  “Zilch,” Nina, the commentator, said.

  “I told you it wasn’t necessary to break it,” Gretchen said to April. “I fixed that one myself.”

  “Leaving no earth unturned,” April said. “Get it? Earth and clay?”

  “That’s stone, April,” Gretchen said. “No stone unturned.”

  __________________

  Gretchen unlocked the front door of her mother’s house with Nimrod swinging from her shoulder and one hand full of mail. She dropped the mail on the kitchen table, released the poodle from his traveling bag, and looked around for Wobbles. The episode with the scorpion had her on edge. To her relief, the cat stalked into the room. Nimrod spotted him and ran in circles around the totally indifferent feline.

  She flipped through the mail. The last piece was addressed to her. An invitation to a private memorial service for Brett Wesley, Tuesday night at eight.

  Gretchen opened cans of food and played referee while her pets ate. Nimrod, true to form, bolted his dinner then tried to take Wobbles’s share. Gretchen distracted the puppy with a small rubber ball in a game of catch.

  She considered carrying in the boxes from the trunk, but it really could wait until morning. She’d done enough work for the day.

&
nbsp; Through the workshop window facing Camelback Mountain, Gretchen saw dusk approaching. The orange glow of the setting sun glistened in ribbons over the red clay, highlighting the desert shrubs and solitary cacti. Climbers still traversed the mountain, but most were making their way down. From this distance they looked like industrious ants.

  Nimrod curled up on his bed in the corner and closed his eyes. Gretchen didn’t want to break the news to him yet, but he wasn’t through for the day. He had a cocktail reception to attend.

  No way was she going to let him out of her sight again.

  And what about Wobbles? Would the same evil-minded person try to harm him?

  Gretchen grinned. Wobbles was a street fighter. He’d left his signature scratches on many overconfident canines. Anyone who messed with Wobbles ended up looking like shredded paper.

  Besides, no one would actually break into her home, let alone harm Wobbles, right?

  No one had any reason to.

  Tomorrow, she would throw out the box of crushed Kewpie dolls.

  If she ever managed to track Duanne Wilson down, she’d have to pay him for the broken dolls. That is, assuming he returned her box of Ginny dolls. Gretchen really didn’t think she’d ever see them again.

  But she couldn’t help making another attempt to find Duanne, even though she knew she’d be noticeably late to Bonnie’s party.

  On her way out again, Gretchen bought a city map at the first gas station she passed and tried to make sense of it. After studying it for several minutes without finding Forty-third Avenue or her present location, she attempted to fold it. Giving up, she threw it in the backseat.

  Nimrod watched from the passenger seat with tilted head while she dug through her purse for the original slip of paper she’d used to write down Duanne’s address.

  The inside of the purse was a disaster. She’d have to clean it out or she’d have to carry two purses—one for her and one for Nimrod.

  Finding the address, she set out with Howie’s directions fresh in her mind.

  When she turned onto Camelback Road, Gretchen thought she spotted her tail again. So she veered down a side street at the last second without using her turn signal, and looking in her rearview mirror she saw the black car turn down the same street behind her, almost clipping another car. Horns blared and brakes squealed, and Gretchen took a hard right at the next crossing and sped away into the darkening night.