Freezer Burn: A Maggie Mercer Mystery

by Jill Behe

  “DANDY. How’s business?” “Hey, there, Maggie.” She winked. “Booming, thanks very much. What brings you to my humble abode? Not business, surely. Not on a Saturday. Y’all don’t work on weekends.”

  “A detective’s work is never done.”

  “Heard a rumor you’re officially off the market.” She gave me a ‘come on, come on’ gesture. “Let me see it.”

  I’d almost forgotten about the bling-thing. Smiling widely, I produced my left hand, waggling my fingers in her face.

  She grabbed them to study the brilliant gem. “Oh, girl, it’s gorgeous! I knew he was a man with good taste when he started taking you out, but now? Now, I’m convinced.” Hurrying around to the front of the counter, she pulled me into a hug. “Congratulations, honey.”

  “Thanks.”

  “When’s the wedding?”

  I smacked her arm. “Give me a break.”

  She laughed. “Figured you and your man would be out at the lake today, trying out The Chute.”

  “Are you kidding? With all those other towns converging on the place, there’s no way we’d be going out there today.”

  “Oh, that’s right. I forgot we invited all those others. I hope the boy scouts who won the raffle don’t get in a squabble over who goes on the first sled.”

  “I’m sure their leaders have a diplomatic way of solving that little problem.”

  “No doubt. So why are you here?”

  “I can’t go into detail—”

  Her eyes rolled and she smirked. “Of course not.”

  “I need to talk to the boys. Are they here?”

  “Is this about Luther?”

  “No. Wish it were.”

  She took a breath. “They’re up in Josh’s room. Should I call them down?”

  “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to talk to them there.”

  She nodded. I could tell she wanted to ask questions. There’s a look mothers get when they’re worried, but are trying to hide it from everyone. She had it, and I was the reason.

  “A favor? Please?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Wow. You’re really going to owe me big, lady.”

  “Yeah, I am. It’s serious, D.”

  “I figured.” A sigh. “All right. What is it?”

  “Is there any way you can carve out a space in the dining room for the boys and me, with some privacy? I’m going to bribe them with burgers and fries.”

  She put a finger to her lips and tapped.

  “They haven’t had their lunch yet, have they?”

  “No, but…. I have an idea.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why don’t I bring the food up to Josh’s room?”

  “Perfect. Thanks, Dandy.”

  “As I said before, you, my bestest friend, are going to owe me.”

  “Big time.”

  “You still like your burger without cheese or onion, but double pickle and ketchup?”

  I grinned. “Yup.”

  “And Pepsi!” We said together, then laughed.

  “Mom?”

  She turned. “Yes, Joshua?”

  “We’re bored. We’re gonna head over to bug Dad, unless you have something for us to do.”

  “I’m sure he’d be glad to see you, but Miss Maggie is here to talk to the three of you. And she’s springing for burgers and fries.”

  I nodded. “And shakes.”

  His eyes widened. “Serious?”

  “Yes sir-ee.”

  “Cool. I want—”

  His mother held up a hand. “I know what y’all want.”

  I slung my arm around his shoulder. “I have some questions for you three.”

  His smile faded. “We didn’t do it. Honest.”

  I laughed. “So you say.”

  “Whatever it’s about, Josh, I don’t think you’re in trouble. If you were, Chief Madison would be here, instead.”

  His eyes swung between the two of us.

  I gave him a thumbs-up.

  “Okay.” He grabbed my arm, pulling. “Room’s this way.”

  CHAPTER 39

  COFFEE KLATCH POWWOW

  THE BOYS and I had an intense, but satisfactory conversation, and the burgers Dandy sent up were excellent, as always.

  On my way out I stopped by the desk. “Thanks for not hovering, D. I’m sure it was hard not to.”

  “It was, yes, but I trust you, Maggie. If it was life-threatening, I know you’d tell me. That’s not to say I’m not dying of curiosity, but I won’t pry. You’ll tell me when you can.”

  “There is something I need you to promise me.”

  “Anything, as I’m sure it has to do with my son and his friends.”

  “If you see the man who tried to break into Sybil’s room again, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whoever you’re with, you call me. Promise?”

  She bit her lip, studying me a moment. “I promise, Maggie, but…. Is Josh, are the boys in danger?”

  I shook my head. “The guy is a person of interest, that’s all. We just need to talk to him. I’ll try to keep you informed. As for the boys? Danger is a strong word, but keep ’em close.”

  She nodded, the worry no longer hidden. “You can bet on it.”

  “Thanks.” I reached across the counter for a hug. “I appreciate it.”

  On the drive to Mac’s to pick up Wyatt, I mulled over the info the boys had provided. Their descriptions weren’t that much different from what we already had, but their viewpoints and observations in general, would be of interest to Wyatt and Ricky.

  I pulled up in front of our friend’s new house.

  He opened the door just as I raised my hand to knock. “Maggie! Great to see you!”

  I was engulfed in a smothering hug, which I returned in kind—mostly for self-preservation. “Same here, Mac. How’s it going?”

  “Much better, thanks. Still finding boxes to unpack, but I’m getting the place ship-shape.” He gave me a hug. “I hear you and this delinquent are gettin’ hitched.”

  Wyatt stood, smug, in the doorway of what looked like the living room. I could hear a sports announcer in the background.

  I held out my left hand. “Yup. It’s official.”

  Mac laughed. “Great looking piece of glass you got there.”

  “Sure is.”

  “Congratulations. Couldn’t happen to a nicer couple.”

  “Thanks, Mac. All your male-bonding done? I need to talk to the chief.”

  “Uh oh, Wyatt. You in trouble already? Sounds serious.”

  I grinned. “Nope. Just a case.”

  “But it’s Saturday.”

  “Dandelion Jones just reminded me of that fact, not an hour ago.”

  He chuckled. “She’d know.”

  Wyatt joined us in the foyer. “What’s up, Maggie?”

  “We need to have a powwow.”

  He looked at his watch and opened his cell. “I’ll call Rick.”

  “I’ll drive. See you later, Mac. We’ll have to get together for a meal sometime soon.”

  “Sounds good. Take care.”

  I started the vehicle and, waving to Mac, pulled away from the curb.

  Wyatt was on the phone. “All right.” He looked over. “The office or my place? Or your place?”

  Huh. “Um. Mine’s closer.”

  “Meet us at Maggie’s. Soon as you can get there.” His phone snapped shut. “You still have any cookies from the other day?”

  My eyebrows rose. “You mean the ones you’ve been scarfing down?”

  “Uh. Yeah.”

  “You’d know better than me whether there’s any left.”

  “Maybe we should stop for donuts.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Then we might as well stop by the office, so I can pick up my steno pad.”

  We were idling at the red light on the corner of Franklin and Maple, right blinker ticking.

  “Yeah. Okay.”

  I made the turn.

  Twenty minutes later, we pulled into my driveway.


  Rick was waiting. “Geez. When you invite a person to your house, you know it’s really rude to not be home when they get there.”

  “Maggie needed to stop by the office.”

  Rick frowned.

  “Wyatt had to make a donut run since he ate all the cookies.”

  My man pulled the pink box from the backseat as Rick snorted.

  “In that case, rude is relevant.”

  We gathered in the living room with the plate of donuts—no, I didn’t leave them in the box. How uncivilized do you think I am?—and our full coffee mugs. Wyatt and I were on the sofa, Rick pulled the recliner around to face us across the coffee table.

  Powdered sugar dusted his shirt front. “I’m glad we decided to meet up today. I’ve got some stuff to pass along. There wasn’t much time yesterday for an update.”

  “Why don’t you start, then.”

  He grabbed a small notebook from the pocket of the jacket he’d thrown over the back of the La-Z-Boy. “Well, I was standing in line to get donuts, yesterday morning, and Ed Jones comes up and starts talking.

  “Now you know the guy scares the snot out o’ me. Always has. So right from the start I’m real leery about what he might want. Seems like a man—someone he’d never seen before—came into the hardware store a day or two ago and bought a couple ropes. Ed wanted to know if I thought, maybe, it was the same guy his wife had chased off with the broom. And did I know what the guy would be wanting with that rope. How am I supposed to know something like that?”

  “People are concerned. You know it doesn’t take long for information to spread from one end of town to the other. What did you tell him?”

  “That it wasn’t necessarily the same guy, but that I would alert you about it. He got all apologetic then, like I’d embarrassed him or something. He said thanks and left. Didn’t even wait to get his donuts.”

  “Maybe he wasn’t there for that. Maybe since you don’t go into the hardware store unless you’re desperate, he figured he ought to come to you, and since you’re known to frequent Spirelli’s on a pretty regular basis, it’d be a good bet he could catch up with you there.”

  “Huh.” Rick stared at Wyatt, probably trying to figure out if he’d been insulted or not. Frowning, the kid continued after a minute of contemplation. “I’d just come out of Spirelli’s and was heading for my truck, when Miz Hanson, from the Rea and Derrick, stopped me. Ah, it’s the CVS now. Apparently a strange guy came in the drugstore the other day and wanted recommendations for what to give a person to make ’em sleepy. She thought it might be pertinent to us, as Annetta Russell had told her how fearful she was for her grandson.”

  “Annetta told her?” Hmm. The woman was usually the epitome of discretion—in other words very closed-mouthed—about subjects like that. She must be even more worried than I’d realized.

  Wyatt frowned at me. “Why is she telling people that?”

  Oh crap! I’d never updated them about her visit. “Um, that’s part of what I need to talk to y’all about.” My lip was going to be bruised from my teeth sinking into it.

  He didn’t look happy with me, but focused on Rick again. “Okay. So folks are being observant. That’s a good thing. I’m glad the small town busy-bodies are out in force. Though some should keep things under their bonnets so as not to inspire undue panic in public. But there’s no way to control that. Got anymore?”

  Rick shook his head and grabbed another donut. “That’s it for me.”

  “Maggie?”

  I nodded. “I told you about Pansy’s call. It bothered me enough that I decided the boys and I needed to have a talk. Before I could figure out a good time for it, Annetta stopped in. That was the day you and Rick got called to Cletus’s house, but in all the commotion, I forgot about her visit.”

  “She finally decided to let you in on the big secret, except that she’s telling the whole town? And I’m just finding out about it now?” He was squinting, and a tad ticked off, if I had to guess.

  “Yes, sorry. There’s been a lot going on. She has reason to be concerned. Her theory is that Wally’s ex—Blake’s mother—has rallied her brothers to take Blake back to Ohio.”

  Wyatt straightened. “What?”

  “Of all the lame-brained ideas.”

  “Apparently, before Wally moved back here, and after the boy’s mother was arrested, he got full custody of Blake. Has the court papers to prove it, too. Annetta thinks this girl has been telling her brothers that Wally stole Blake and hasn’t been paying child support.”

  “So this is about a kidnapping.”

  “In a manner of speaking.”

  “Where does Sybil fit into all this?”

  “I have a theory.”

  “Thought you might.”

  CHAPTER 40

  PASSING THE INFO

  “LET me put it this way, and see if you come to the same conclusion I did. Blake’s mother got out of jail a couple weeks ago, and she’s got three brothers.”

  “Hmm. Doesn’t sound like she’s a reporter, either.”

  Rick nodded. “A distraction.”

  “That’s what I thought, too. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Bruce again, so I don’t know what he found out. But according to the research I did, she doesn’t have any affiliation with any newspaper, or media source, within this geographical corridor.”

  “Why talk to Bruce?”

  “Well, he is the one who reported her missing, thinking she was in trouble. I suggested it might be prudent to check out her credentials before he pledged life and limb for her cause.”

  “Good idea. Rick, maybe you ought to pay him a visit.”

  “I’d make sure he’s alone, or his buddy Danny will be the one asking the questions.”

  “Or worse, jotting down everything he hears, to be printed in the next edition.”

  “You really think it’s them, this girl’s brothers?”

  I nodded. “As soon as Annetta said the woman had three half-brothers, it just clicked. Then she told me her name. Take a guess.”

  “Sybil.”

  “Got it in one.”

  Rick let out a laugh. “Well, yeah. That would have clinched it for me.”

  I had more. “There have been three guys we don’t know running around Mossy Creek recently, with a mad vengeful sister who just happens to be fresh out of jail and wants her son. If Annetta’s hypothesis is right, and it usually is—and Pansy’s observations seem to confirm it—their motivation for being here is definitely to snatch Blake.”

  “But if they’re here to take him, and Wally has full custody, not only will she not get any money, all of them will end up behind bars.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So why bother?”

  “I haven’t got a clue. About the only thing it would do—on the off chance they didn’t get caught—is devastate Wally and Annetta.”

  “In other words, revenge.”

  “Yeah. Cold and calculating, if you ask me, but not very bright.”

  “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll follow up with our Miss Annetta.”

  I frowned. “Why would I mind?”

  “What else you got?”

  Hmm. Guess he wasn’t going to answer. “Nothing on that subject, but I can’t seem to wrap my head around why they’re—”

  “What?”

  “Can they really believe they’re going to get away with it?”

  Wyatt rubbed his hands over his face. “God, sometimes I hate this job.”

  “Well then, Mr. Chief of Police Madison, that means you should probably warn the target, and/or, his dad and grandmother.”

  “It sounds like Annetta is on alert already.”

  “She mentioned it, yes. I didn’t expect her to spread it all over town, though.”

  “We need to bring them up to speed. And since I’m planning to talk to her again, anyway, I’ll make sure to include that piece of advice.”

  “Sorry.” I cringed. “Was that over-stepping?”

&nbs
p; “Don’t worry about it.”

  Which meant yes.

  “You talked to the boys today?”

  “You know I did. We had a very good lunch, too, by the way.”

  “Don’t rub it in.”

  “Seems they’ve been seeing two different men, and a lot more often than Miss Pansy is aware of.”

  “Oh, yeah? Only two?”

  I nodded. “From the descriptions they gave, I’d say they’ve never seen Jarrod. Remember that day they popped into the office, out of the blue? Did I tell you about that? Well, maybe not. You were still out at the lake.”

  “I must have been. But, it probably seemed an innocent visit, at the time.”

  “Yes and no. Anyway, they noticed one of the brothers following them when they left Corsair’s. I’m thinking it was William. The boys figured if they stopped in to visit, he’d take off.”

  “Did he?”

  “They didn’t see him for a day or two after that.”

  “Were their descriptions any different than what we already have?”

  “Pretty basic, and not much different. According to the boys, both men are kinda skinny and not real tall. One of them wears a dark blue windbreaker and a ski hat. I’m sure he’s the same one I saw at the post office, and the one who almost knocked me off the porch at The Inn at the End.”

  “What about the other one?”

  I shrugged. “Jeans. White shoes—like new sneakers—and a black bomber jacket. Josh said the guy looked like a biker dude. Luke told me they’ve seen one or the other of the men almost every day for the last two weeks. Blake was the most solemn of the three. He admitted they never got close enough to see the men’s faces, but that they wouldn’t be hard to recognize. The boys weren’t actually afraid, just felt ‘kinda creepy’ knowing the men were following them around.”

  “You’re right, the descriptions aren’t much different, but the boys’ insights are great. My theory is that Jarrod is the oldest, and the one in charge. I’m more than concerned that those 10-year-olds were being stalked, and we’re just now finding out about it.”

  “As long as Blake isn’t left alone, he should be relatively safe. Don’t you think?”

  “I highly doubt those bozos would try to take all three.”

  “Unless they get desperate because he’s never by himself. And where’s this Sybil?”