She pulled it closer to her face and handed it back, shaking her head.
“Here’s the next one.”
She took the phone. “That’s him! I remember now. That’s the guy.” Her eyes were wide with excitement.
Deena held up her hand. “Oh, I forgot to tell you to wait until you have seen all five pictures to say anything.”
“I don’t have to see any more. That’s the guy. I’m positive.”
Estelle grabbed the phone and gasped at the picture of Wyatt Garrison.
Although Abby seemed certain, Deena wanted to make it more legitimate. She took the phone and went through the motions of showing the girl the last three pictures.
“Like I said, that second one was the guy. I remember now that he looked a little like this man on one of the soaps I watch.”
“Aren’t you too young for soap operas?” Deena asked.
“I clean houses. The women I work for almost always have them on.”
Estelle nodded in agreement. “Abby, this man is a friend of mine.”
“See! I told you so. That’s what he told me.” She stuck her chin out.
“Still, I can’t imagine you would just let him roam the house unsupervised. Surely you watched him when he left. Did he take anything with him?”
She lowered her eyes. “I guess I might as well tell you since you’ll probably find out anyway. You see, he said it was urgent that he get the book he needed. When I said I couldn’t let him in, he offered me money.”
Estelle took a step back. “He bribed you?”
She nodded. All defiance had disappeared. “Yes, ma’am. He gave me a hundred-dollar bill and said it would be our secret. I know that was wrong,” she quickly added, “but a hundred dollars is a lot of money. I’m trying to save up so I can move away from here and get a good, decent job.”
“There is no shame in cleaning houses, my dear,” Estelle said, reverting back to her mother’s tone.
“That’s not my only job.” Abby shifted her weight back and forth, either from nerves or the cold wind. “I’m also a dancer. And not the kind you would see at one of your fancy theaters.”
“Oh, I see.” Estelle looked away this time. “You never told me that.”
“I try to keep it quiet. You know how all those Bluebonnet Club ladies would react if they found out. ‘Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.’ That’s what they’d say.”
Abby had a point. Deena wanted to know more. “I saw you the other day at Billy Ratliff’s place. You looked pretty cozy with Leroy Johnson. How do you know him?”
“We all know each other from high school. He’s just a friend.” She pulled the hoodie tighter around her. “Look, it’s cold. Are we done?”
“I have one more question,” Deena said. “Where were you Saturday night during the auction?”
“Like I told that detective, I was at work at the club. The Boots and Babes on the highway. You can ask. They’ll back me up.”
“I’ve heard of it.” Deena made a mental note.
Abby turned to Estelle. Her eyes grew misty. “Are you going to tell everyone about my other job? If so, I just know they’ll all fire me.”
“No, my dear.” Estelle patted Abby’s arm. “And I expect you at nine o’clock sharp tomorrow morning. Mr. Sinclair has been asking for your pork ribs.”
Abby’s face exploded into a smile, and she disappeared back into her apartment.
“Maybe we misjudged Ronnie Clark,” Deena said as they got back into the car. “Maybe his outburst was just his bad temper rearing its ugly head.”
“Maybe,” Estelle said. She rubbed her temple with the tips of her fingers. “I don’t want to think that Wyatt Garrison is a liar and a thief.”
“And a killer.”
Estelle turned and leaned her head back as she stared out at the road.
It’s hard when you feel betrayed by someone you thought you could trust. Deena could relate. She reached over and patted Estelle’s arm. Unfortunately, things would probably get tougher before they got better.
* * *
WHEN THEY RETURNED to the house, Russell was out back working on a project. He seemed surprised to see them. “Aren’t you two supposed to be at the thrift shop? Did something happen?”
Estelle stayed outside to fill Russell in on their latest exploits while Deena went in the house. She found a pitcher of sweet tea and sat down at the old oak table in the kitchen. It reminded her of the farm table her grandmother used to have. The one she sat at when she would cut up vegetables for stew and roll her dough for fresh bread. Deena wondered if Russell, being a few years older, had the same memories when he sat in this room.
Deena needed paper. She could always think better when she doodled notes. The back staircase beckoned her. She climbed the stairs to the study to find paper and a pen. The room gave her a bit of the creeps as she looked around. After all, it was the very same room where Russell and Estelle almost died last spring.
Deena hurried over to the desk and pulled out a few pieces of stationery and a pen. Something seemed odd, as if she wasn’t alone. Was someone watching her? Not wanting to wait around for any paranormal experiences, she shut the door behind her.
A sound, not quite animal and not quite human, startled her. She looked down to see Clover the cat, back arched, ready to attack. Deena apologized and stepped around her, then raced back down to the kitchen. Her heart pounded out of her chest as she sat back down at the table. Her imagination must have been working overtime.
Using the supplies she had retrieved, Deena made her usual chart of suspects with columns for motive and opportunity. She wrote Abby’s name first. Clearly, if she had been involved in the plot, her motive would be money. Deena wrote a dollar sign on the paper. Opportunity? If she had wanted to steal something, she could have done it anytime while she was here alone. She wouldn’t need to invent a wild story about a stranger coming to the house. Besides, Estelle hadn’t found anything missing from the house. It would be easy enough to check out Abby’s alibi. In fact, Guttman had probably already made it around to the Boots and Babes Club to check it out. She crossed Abby’s name off the list.
Billy, Leroy, Ronnie Clark, and finally, Wyatt Garrison, were the other names she added to the list. Deena didn’t want to think that an actual acquaintance of Estelle’s could be the culprit, but it was beginning to look that way. Motive? Obviously, Wyatt would have been looking for the coins when he bribed Abby to let him look around the house. When he didn’t find them, he would have left empty-handed.
Besides that, Wyatt was probably the only suspect who knew Leonard personally. That would explain why Corey said he had seen them talking outside of the car. How or why that conversation turned deadly was still a mystery.
Estelle and Russell came in through the back door.
Estelle wiped her feet. “Iced tea?” She shivered as she looked at Deena’s glass. “I’ll put on a pot of coffee.”
“Sis, are you okay?” Russell hung up his coat on a hook near the door.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“According to Estelle, you may have caught a killer today.”
Deena looked back toward the kitchen. “Is that what you think, Estelle? That Wyatt is the killer?”
Estelle kept her back to them. “As much as I hate to believe it, it’s the only logical conclusion. He admitted to wanting the coins for years. And now we know he had come looking for them. I wonder why he didn’t just ask me for them?” She turned around. Her face had lost its color.
“Here, let me make the coffee.” Russell led Estelle to the table.
Deena smiled proudly at her brother. After being single for sixty-something years, he had truly embraced married life.
He must have guessed her thoughts based on the smile she gave him. “See? I can be chivalrous.” He opened the cabinet to pull out the cups.
Estelle leaned over, checking out Deena’s notes. “What’s that?”
“A list of suspects and t
heir motives. I hope it’s okay that I got some stationery from your mother’s desk.”
“That’s fine. What have you come up with?”
“I think we can eliminate Billy, Abby, and Leroy as suspects. I don’t think any of them were involved. If they were part of some master scheme, I doubt they would be hanging out smoking dope as though nothing had happened. Guilty people are rarely that calm and collected. They make mistakes by either doing something or saying something out of the ordinary.”
Estelle nodded. “That’s why I’m so perplexed by Wyatt. He didn’t seem like he was hiding anything.”
“Although,” Deena reminded her, “he didn’t seem all that surprised to see you.”
“That’s true.”
The coffee pot chugged in the kitchen as the aroma of fresh roasted beans wafted across the room.
“Still making coffee the old-fashioned way, I see,” Deena said.
“It’s still the best way.” Russell brought the cups over on a tray and sat down. “So what now? Are you going to call the police and tell them about this Wyatt Garrison fella?”
Estelle’s sickly appearance had worsened. “I suppose we don’t have much choice.”
“I wish I could say that I trusted Detective Guttman to do the right thing,” Deena said. “It seems political pressure makes him quick to pull the trigger and make an arrest before all the facts are in. But, he’s all we’ve got.”
As she pulled out her phone, she said a little silent prayer, hoping she was doing the right thing. She took a deep breath when he answered. “Detective Guttman, could you come over to the Fitzhugh house? We have something important to tell you.”
Chapter 12
The little neighborhood in Butterfly Gardens always offered a welcome respite for Deena after a long day of antiquing or shopping or sleuthing. Although she knew secrets were hiding behind every brightly painted, wreath-covered door, she chose to view the area as a safe haven, free of turmoil and tragedy.
Boy, was she wrong.
Before she could even get out of her car, Gary was standing by her door bursting with the latest news.
“You’ll never guess what happened. I mean, not in a million years.” He clasped his hands.
Deena wasn’t in the mood for games. “Okay, then just tell me.”
“Christy Ann got cited by the police for disturbing the peace. They nearly threw her in the pokey for assault from what I heard.”
“You’re kidding!” Deena stood with her mouth open staring at the house across the street. Normally, the blinds would be open, but now the place looked closed up like Fort Knox.
Gary seemed to take delight in being the one with neighborhood gossip for a change. “And you’ll never guess what it was about.”
“Don’t tell me. Cookies?”
His face fell. “How’d you know?”
She pointed to the back seat.
“Oh, I see she got to you, too,” he said. “Let’s go inside and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Sounds good. And I’ll tell you all about finding the thief who stole the Fitzhugh coin collection.”
“What?” Gary stopped and held the front door open.
“Yep. And you’ll never guess how.”
“How?”
“Well, it all started with cookies.”
* * *
HURLEY DANCED AROUND, happy to see her, as usual, so she flipped him a cookie out of one of the boxes. The saga of the neighborhood drama lifted her spirits. “Maybe I should walk over and check on Christy Ann, just to see how she’s doing, of course.”
Gary grinned. “Just to be nosy, you mean.”
“Okay, I admit it. I want to know exactly what happened. Maybe I can drop a couple of snarky remarks. It’s not like I don’t owe her any.”
“Suit yourself. I’ll fire up the grill for burgers.”
Deena headed across the street and knocked on the door. When no one answered, she rang the bell. If the baby was asleep, she’d have to answer the door to shut Deena up. Sure enough, on the second ring, Parker, Christy Ann’s husband, answered the door.
“Hey, Deena,” he said. “Christy Ann is lying down. She has a headache. Can I do something for you?”
“Sounds like she’s not the only one with a headache, from what I hear.” Ooh. Such a good line. Wish I could have said it to her face.
“Is that Deena?” Christy Ann whispered from behind the door. “Get in here quick.”
She obeyed and Parker headed off to the den to tend to the screeching kids. Maybe they were only laughing, but to Deena, it sounded like a ruckus.
“What did you hear?” Christy Ann seemed to have been bingeing on one of the boxes of Peanut Butter Delights. Crumbs covered her blouse. She offered one to Deena.
“No thanks. I have plenty, remember?”
“So tell me what you heard.”
“Gary said you got cited for disturbing the peace. He also mentioned something about assault.”
She paced across the foyer and then sat on the sofa in the formal living room. Deena followed her lead. “That Sarah Garrett. Thinks she knows everything. Tried to say I cheated in the cookie sale.”
“Cheated? What do you mean? Were you using steroids or something?”
An exasperated gasp escaped from Christy Ann’s lips. “Since you don’t have kids, you don’t know what it’s like to go up to a stranger’s door and try to sell them stuff. It’s not fun, I can tell you.”
Oh, you might be surprised.
“Anyway, she’s the chairman of the Pee Wee League—that’s another whole story. She divided the neighborhood into territories. You can only go door-to-door in your assigned area.”
“Uh-oh. Did you invade someone else’s territory?”
“Not exactly. Little Davey and I were just going for a stroll to the playground. He was in the wagon and there just happened to be some of the cookie boxes inside.”
“Of course.”
“I mean, he might have needed a snack, you know. I couldn’t help it if some people saw us and asked to buy cookies. It would give the league a bad reputation to turn away patrons, right?”
Deena clinched her teeth to avoid saying what she really thought. After all, Christy Ann had been through a lot already. No use kicking her when she was down.
“When some of the other moms found out, they sent that awful Sarah woman over here to chew me out. If you ask me, she’s just jealous because her child doesn’t play sports as well as Davey.”
“So you assaulted her.”
From the other room, Deena heard Parker yell at the children to hold their voices down so he could read the newspaper.
“Deena! You know I’m a pacifist. I can’t help it that a box of cookies slipped out of my hand and hit the back of her head accidently.”
“Accidently hit the back of her head?”
“There were no witnesses, and I’m sticking to my story.”
Parker stuck his head in the room. “Honey, can you watch the kids so I can go pick us up something for supper?”
Christy Ann looked annoyed but nodded.
“What? You’re not cooking?” Deena teased.
Christy Ann tilted her head. “Come on now. You know the kind of day I’ve had. You must feel like this all the time, you poor thing.”
She searched for a snappy comeback but came up dry.
“Listen, Deena, you’re one of my best friends.”
I am? It was news to her.
“Do what you can to help smooth things over if you hear any malicious gossip about me. Also, I’m going to be volunteering for the Bluebonnet Club with a service project on Saturday. Maybe you could come and say sweet things about me.”
“But the Bluebonnet Club is a bunch of older ladies. I thought you were in the Junior League.”
“I am, but that doesn’t stop me from helping the less fortunate whenever I can. See? I’m a really special person.”
“You’re special, that’s for sure.”
Christ
y Ann smiled sweetly. “Some of my friends have aunts and grandmothers in the Bluebonnet Club. The older women can spread the word about how selfless I am for helping out. So will you come? It’s for a good cause.”
“I’ll check my calendar,” Deena said and headed to the door. “Stay out of trouble, you hear? Oh, and you might want to go easy on those cookies. I think you may have put on a few pounds.”
She didn’t stop to look at Christy Ann’s expression. Luckily, Deena got out the door without a box of cookies slamming into the back of her head.
Chapter 13
There’s nothing quite like being awoken in the middle of the night by a phone call from the police. Your mind jumps to all kinds of horrible conclusions.
When she heard the word police on the other end of the line, Deena immediately pictured her parents living out their golden years in Hawaii. Had something happened? A boating accident perhaps, or a shark attack? She pictured that poor girl in the opening scene of Jaws.
It took a minute for her pulse rate to lower after she hung up.
“Who was it?” Gary grumbled when she turned on the table lamp.
“The police.”
He shot up in bed. “What is it? Is it Mother?”
“No, it’s nothing like that. There’s been a break-in at the thrift shop, and they need me to come down there.” She threw back the covers.
Gary let out a sigh of relief. “I’m coming with you. I don’t want you out alone this time of night.”
The small shopping center housing the thrift shop looked like the midway at a carnival with all the flashing lights out front. Deena counted three police cruisers in the parking lot. Imagine her surprise when she went inside to find the police with four grown adults in custody. It was like stumbling upon the Watergate burglars.
Russell, Estelle, Penelope, and her husband, Edwin, all sat in folding chairs with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
“What on earth is going on?” Deena stood in the doorway of the storeroom. An odd burnt smell attacked her nostrils.
Stay Sharpe Box Set Page 9
