A Dead Red Oleander (The Dead Red Mystery series)

by RP Dahlke

  I held the seventeen-pound bowling ball in my sweat-slicked hands, and hoped to God I could pull this off.

  She looked at me and said, "You can do this, you know." She edged up to within a hundred yards behind and above him, and keeping her speed and altimeter matched to his, said, "This is where you come in. Push open the door just enough to wedge it with the ball. Don't put your fingers in the holes, just hang on to it, and when I say 'go' do it, okay?"

  I did as she said, and held my breath waiting for her signal.

  "Wait for it. Wait—wait—go!"

  Chapter Twenty-four:

  Pearlie and I sat on upturned wooden crates waiting for the police, EMTs, and fire department to report back to us on where the Piper Cub went down. The bowling ball had done its job, rocketing through the wing of the flight school trainer, sending the lightweight plane into a tailspin and crashing into an empty field. We'd circled the wreck and saw the killer fall out of the door and stumble around before dropping to the ground. He rolled on to his back, and from his middle finger salute, we knew he was alive. Pearlie answered him in a tilt of her wing, and we flew back to the airstrip at the flight school. Lucky him, he'd get to stand trial for multiple murders after all.

  The fire chief confirmed that the fire at the flight school was started by an explosive device, and Jack Lee Carton, or whoever he really was, had been picked up and taken away.

  We couldn't stop smiling and poking each other like a couple of happy kids. We'd done it. Single-handedly brought down the man who'd been responsible for at least three murders, and maybe four, if the sheriff's deputies found Alvin's body buried in the soft earth of the poled hangar.

  Pearlie chattered on about her plans for Mad Dog until she mentioned staying in Modesto.

  "I thought you were all set to take your acting skills to Hollywood," I said, ribbing her a bit.

  "You know that was just the adrenaline talking, but I have a better idea. I think you'll admit we're a pretty good team. Of course, I have some catching up to do in the crime solving department, but I'm as smart as you, so I don't see any reason why we can't be partners in this."

  "In what?"

  "A private investigating business. We'd be our own bosses. We could call it the Blonde Jobs."

  "Pearlie, I don't think—"

  "Wait—you don't have to say yes or no right now. We have plenty of time. I'm going to be here nursing Mad Dog back to health and seeing him on his feet again. That will be my penance for not believing in him."

  "Pearlie, your granny will disinherit you!"

  "Lalla, when granny passes, I'm getting a bequest of some cash, same as you. The rest of it goes to charity. I oughta know, I helped her set it up."

  "But then why do you—"

  "I know. My bad. I get crazy in love with some guy and figure if he thinks I'm an heiress he'll be more interested. Well, I am an heiress, but not as rich as most of 'em think."

  I was wondering if this would mean the end of her relationship with Mad Dog but decided to keep my mouth shut.

  "So will you just think about it? I mean, what else are you going to do for fun? Your daddy's cropdusting business will be sold soon, right?"

  She had a point. "I'll give it some thought, Pearlie."

  She pointed at the patch over my swollen eye and giggled. "I'm gonna have to put some rhinestones on that eye patch. Otherwise, you're going to look like all the other one-eyed pirates at the wedding."

  The mention of my wedding blew away my earlier euphoria. Caleb and I never did have that talk last night. He probably wanted to call the whole thing off, and I couldn't think of a reason why he shouldn't.

  Caleb and Jim Balthrop turned in unison when the deputy who'd been assigned grave duty came running up to us. "It's like you said, Miss Bains. There's a body in a shallow grave."

  That made four dead because of Jack Carton: Arthur, Burdell, Jinx, and now Alvin.

  The two men stepped over to where Pearlie and I waited. Caleb winced at my pathetic appearance—swollen eye, bruises on my face, my arm in a sling. Some bride I would make.

  "Pearlie, do you feel up to flying your granny's plane back to Lalla's ranch?"

  "You bet," she said, popping up off the crate. She was pumped on that adrenaline again, but this time she hadn't shot anyone. "We can make it back to the ranch before dark if we start now," she said, nodding at the late afternoon sun.

  Caleb put a hand on my shoulder. "If you don't mind, Pearlie, I'm going to take her home with me."

  I smiled and said, "You go on, Pearlie, We'll see you at the ranch later tonight."

  If I was lucky, maybe he wasn't kicking me out of his life after all. Maybe we'd spend the night in bed, and maybe it was all just wishful thinking.

  He led me to his cruiser and gently buckled me into the passenger seat. "You okay for another couple of minutes? Good. I'll be right back," he said, and went back to talk to first one person and then another. I heard the Cessna swoop over the cruiser. Pearlie was on her way home. By the time I got there she would have sorted it all out with Aunt Mae and my dad. Good. That would be one less story I had to recite again. I didn't envy her the job she had set herself for, nursing Mad Dog back to health. But first she would have to tell him that Jinx had been murdered, and why.

  I yawned once, and then twice, feeling my eyes grow heavy with exhaustion. I guess I could count the time I'd spent under the farm truck as sleep, but not by much. I was bone tired.

  With the warmth of the car and my exhaustion, I was having a hard time staying awake. I blinked my eyes wider, but they simply drifted down again. I had to stay awake, at least long enough to find out if the wedding was still on or not. I looked out the window at Caleb, deep in conversation with Jim Balthrop and another officer, and gave up. Maybe it would be best to put my seat back and get a little shut-eye.

  I awoke in Caleb's bed, the sun shining through the window. I was flat on my back, the covers flung back to reveal that I was still in my panties and bra. Well, crap, this was a fine howdy-do. No conversation and no make-up sex, either.

  I rolled over to the edge of the bed and slowly pushed myself up with my elbows. Everything ached and my eye pounded.

  "You have an appointment with an eye doctor at noon," he said, holding out a cup of hot coffee.

  I took it and tried to smile, but the split in my lip hurt too much. "Can you help me to the shower?"

  "I was going to suggest that myself," he said, a little gleam in his eye.

  Evidently, I wasn't too hideous to look at, because Caleb turned on the shower, undressed me, then took off his T-shirt, revealing those rock-hard abs I so loved. He lowered his jeans just below his hip bones till I could see the pale fuzz that started, and ended, with everything that made me feel like I belonged to him.

  He stopped and frowned. "I thought it best if I'm in there with you, you know, to hold you up, but if you don't want me to…."

  I smiled, ignoring how much it hurt my lip, and held out my arms to be lifted up and into the shower.

  An hour later, we were back in the bed, tangled up in the sheets and sweaty. "Another shower?" I asked, trailing a finger from chest to his belly button and causing a minor quake in his stomach muscles.

  He lifted my hand up and threaded my fingers with his. "Deodorant will have to do until after the eye doctor, but first, let's get some breakfast."

  "You brought me home with you so we could talk, but of course I fell asleep on you. Do you want to have that talk now, Caleb?"

  "Lalla, I laid awake most of last night thinking about us. I always knew you were a risk taker—hell, nobody would fly cropdusters if they weren't. And it's natural for a man to want to protect the woman he loves—"

  My breath hitched in my throat. "You think—you think you still love me?"

  "Of course I do, silly. I'm trying to explain, if you'll let me. As I was saying, I keep trying and you keep resisting. Nothing's going to change, just 'cause we're getting hitched."

  "You know, you'
re not exactly in any position to criticize. Your job could get you shot and killed."

  "Yes, yes, I know. The thing is, I figured I had a choice, we could go our separate ways, I could leave you to your life, or I can change my attitude. 'Cause it doesn't look like you're going to change yours."

  "But Caleb, I'm not some Stephanie Plum bounty hunter chasing bad guys. This is me, Lalla Bains."

  "Yes, and the name Lalla Bains in this town has become synonymous with a woman who solves crimes, so I might as well get used to it."

  "You think I should become a policewoman, or what?"

  "After we're married, you'll have plenty of time to think about what you want to be when you grow up."

  "Pearlie's suggested we get ourselves a PI license and open shop in Modesto. Me? A PI? Nah. That's just too crazy. And, get this, she wants to call it 'The Blonde Jobs.' How silly is that?"

  He slapped my bottom and said, "In the car and to the eye doctor, woman."

  Epilogue:

  Caleb and I drove out to the ranch in his pickup. We talked the whole way, laughed some, and held hands. When we walked into the kitchen, I was pleased to see Nancy and Jim sitting around our kitchen table with my family. My dad surprised me by standing up and hugging me.

  Aunt Mae sniffled once or twice. "Did y'all eat? Okay, then how about coffee, or some ice tea?"

  Caleb insisted I sit while he went to the cupboard for the mugs and poured us our coffee.

  "That boy certainly does know his way around a kitchen, Lalla," my Aunt Mae said as she admired Caleb's rear end in his faded jeans. She saw me looking and laughed. "I'm old, not blind."

  I greeted Nancy and Jim.

  "We came today," Nancy said, "because your dad has something to give Jim."

  My dad held out a letter for me to read. "This was in the package you brought back from Burdell's. After I told him about Arthur dying at our place he knew he'd done the wrong thing, so he enclosed the bribe money he'd accepted and put it in a hollowed out paperback. He said if something happened to him, I'd know his suspicions were right."

  "But I thought Jinx told Jack where Arthur was working."

  Jim said, "I told you this guy always had two plans. He had Jinx in Fresno and Burdell in Sacramento. All of it was meant to keep us chasing our tails. And Jinx was the one who got Jack Carton to your party where he could easily kill Arthur."

  "Was it his plan to frame Nancy all along?"

  "He had cased their home looking for the right opportunity, and picked up the spare syringe out of their medical supply kit thinking he'd use it somewhere. He's a very weird guy. He likes phenol and planned to use it on both of them. But when the opportunity came up, he only managed to get to Arthur. So kidnapping Nancy later was the next best thing. But when that didn't work out, he decided to start cutting his losses, which meant killing everyone who could identify him. He's already rolled on the Las Vegas partners in exchange for some kind of leniency. God knows what kind of deal he'll get for that."

  I looked at Nancy. "What will you do now?"

  She smiled shyly. "Your Aunt Mae has offered me and Jim positions in her company. I'm going to keep her books, and Jim is going to be in charge of security for her ranch."

  "Jim," I said, "that's a pretty big change from the marshal's service." What I meant was, it was a huge step down from his position as a federal marshal.

  He smiled. "It was a much easier decision than you can imagine. I lost my enthusiasm for my career when they could've helped keep Nancy safe but wouldn't. Besides, I grew up on a cattle ranch in Florida, so this is an easy transition for me."

  "Okay, but Nancy will keep Aunt Mae's books? Isn't that what Pearlie does?"

  My Aunt Mae reached up and poked at her wig with a fingernail. "I think I may be losing my best bookkeeper to Mad Dog. At least that's what she shouted at me over the phone when I reminded her we were going home after the wedding."

  "Then your godfather's Las Vegas partners will be convicted and you no longer have to be in WitSec?"

  Jim took Nancy's hand. "We're going to be living under the radar out in East Texas, and I'll be there to watch out for her."

  That's when I thought of the photo I'd taken of Nancy the night of the attempted kidnapping. She was sound asleep, face down on my cot, looking as if she were dead. "Jim, I have a going-away gift for you and Nancy that I think will help you stay clear of any future problems."

  "Oh?"

  "I'll e-mail it to you today."

  My dad stood, and hitching up his pants, said, "Shirley and I are gonna go look at some goats."

  "More goats?" I asked.

  "I was going to get a nanny for Bruce, to keep him company. But Shirley is allergic to cow's milk, and I need something to do with this place, so we're going to start a goat farm and sell the milk products."

  At the look of shock on my face, he said, "Well, what else am I supposed to do with all this land? You're getting married tomorrow, and Bains Aero Ag will be shut down, so why not?"

  "Tomorrow's the wedding." I turned to Caleb. "Caleb?"

  "If you'll still have me," he said, his easy smile lifting my spirits.

  "I do," I said, and meant it with all my heart.

  THE END

  I hope you liked A Dead Red Oleander as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  More Lalla and the gang will be up with "Wishbone Alibi" -- yes, I'm moving the lot of them to Wishbone, Arizona in 2014.

  And don't forget to take a look at the others in the Dead Red Series on Amazon:

  #1 in the series: A Dead Red Cadillac-Cropdusters, crooked drug runners and a crazy Chihuahua

  #2 in the series: A Dead Red Heart-What would you do if your loved one lost their chance at a heart transplant because the donor organ went to a convicted felon?

  And my romantic sailing Trilogy, starting with A Dangerous Harbor, and Hurricane Hole coming September 2013

  Website: http://rpdahlke.com

  Contact me: rp@rpdahlke.com