The Marquesa's Necklace (Oak Grove Mysteries Book 1)

by P. J. MacLayne

  Now, normally I was a morning person. But I stayed up after everyone left to wash dishes and finish cleaning. I hated waking up to a messy kitchen, and doing housework kept my mind off of Elijah. And I still hadn’t read the police report. So I was short on sleep and grumpy.

  “Hmph,” I snorted into my coffee cup.

  He had the audacity to laugh at me. “Sorry we kept you up so late.”

  Guilt washed over me. “It’s not that,” I explained. “I enjoyed myself last night. I’m just tired of this whole thing. I mean, a little adventure in a girl’s life is fine, but I’d like to get back to normal one of these days.”

  “Normal being?”

  “I get up and do all my morning stuff, get my laptop, drive to the library, do my research, come home, eat supper, read. Normal.”

  We sat and listened to the chickadees greet the morning. Winter was on its way, and I was determined to savor these last few days of decent weather.

  “If it helps any,” he said, “They finally ID’d the second guy. His name is Robert Hillerman, and he’s a suspect in more crimes than you can imagine. There’s a rather handsome reward offered for his arrest.”

  “We’ll split it four ways. That’s only fair.”

  He nodded and drank his coffee. “So what are your plans for the day?” he asked eventually.

  “Get my laptop, go to the library and work. Any objections?”

  He put his coffee cup down and stretched, and then stood. “I’ll see you there,” he said as he picked up the cup.

  I may have stared at him. He smiled. “The library’s Wi-Fi is great. I can work from there and keep an eye on you at the same time.”

  From his expression, I knew objecting would do no good. So I clamped my mouth shut to fight off the curse word on the tip of my tongue, counted to ten, and then counted to ten again. I gave Piper a final pat through the fence, stood, and headed upstairs.

  When I came back down, he was gone, coffee cup and all. But when I pulled into the street after backing Dolores out of the garage, he was standing by his car, waiting for me. I sighed, stopped beside him, and rolled down the window.

  “It doesn’t make any sense for us to take both cars,” I said. “Hop in.”

  Elijah grinned. “Let me grab my laptop.”

  I thought he’d take a table next to me, but he didn’t. He sat several tables away, close to the main doors, but with his back to them. I thought about it, and realized the spot gave him a good view of everything happening around me. No matter how deep he seemed to be in his own work, he knew whenever I got up to get more books, and stopped to watch me until I returned to my seat.

  We settled into a routine. Elijah would be waiting for me in the morning, and we’d sit and read the paper together while we drank our coffee before going to the library. I insisted on driving, and we’d eat lunch at the little cafe down the street. After work, we would head back to my place and cook supper together. After supper, he’d stay for a little while, and bring me up to date on the progress Scotty and Lando were making on their research into Jake’s travels. Which wasn’t much. They still hadn’t found any information on the necklace. He always listened for me to lock the door behind him when he left.

  Wednesday night, I invited him to go to the Pink Flamingo. I figured he’d show up there anyway. He laughed and joked with my friends, flirted with each of them, without ever stepping over the invisible line and going too far. The perfect gentleman.

  Too perfect. He never touched me. And I wanted him to. I kept reminding myself he was doing this for Jake. Not for me. So why did I let myself care about him?

  This went on for a week. I started to think that as long the two men who abducted me were in custody, I was safe.

  Of course, I was wrong.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I glanced one more time in my rear-view mirror. “Your seat belt fastened?” I asked between gritted teeth. I moved my right hand to the gearshift and tightened my grasp on the steering wheel with my left.

  “What’s up?” Elijah asked.

  “Hold on.” I downshifted. “We picked up company a few blocks back.” He braced himself with one hand on the dash. I swung a hard right. The black car behind us followed. The light at the next corner turned green just before we got there. I turned left at the last possible moment. I had to give credit to the other driver, because he stuck with me.

  I considered cutting through the parking lot of the 7-11, but this time of the morning too many people stopped for their caffeine fix on the way to work. I didn’t want to put anyone else in danger. We needed to move out of town. I headed north in a zigzag pattern, sometimes using side streets, then veering back onto the main street. Elijah was on his phone talking to the 911 dispatcher.

  “They want to know if there’s a plate on the front and if we can get a tag number,” Elijah said softly so as not to break my concentration.

  I barked a harsh laugh. “I don’t want to let them get that close.” They were already too close for comfort. “I don’t feel like finding out if they have guns or not.”

  “Good call.” He relayed my message to the person at the other end of the call. “There are patrol cars on the way.”

  “We don’t have time to wait.” We’d already passed the city limit sign. I knew what I needed to do, and it wasn’t waiting for the cavalry.

  My plan was to increase the distance between our vehicles on the S-curve coming up. Dolores was more agile than the black sedan had a right to be, and hopefully, more powerful as well. And I suspected I knew these roads better than the other driver.

  I made it through the curve without a problem, and had room to spare when the road straightened out. “Hang onto your hat,” I said to no one in particular as I slowed.

  “What are you doing?” From the corner of my eye, I saw his knuckles turn a shade whiter as his grip on the dash tightened.

  “Wait and see.” In the rearview mirror, I saw the other car closing the gap between us. Just before the next bend in the road, I swung hard and braked at the same time. The maneuver was tricky with a manual transmission, but I feathered the clutch just right and ended up with the car pointed the direction opposite from where we had been going. I could only imagine the consternation of the other driver when he had nowhere to go but forward.

  I patted Dolores’ dash, stepped on the gas, and glanced over at Elijah. His lips were a tight line, and his face pale.

  “What was that?” he asked, his voice strained.

  “Bootlegger’s 180. But we’re not done yet.” I’ll give him credit. He didn’t object when, after going back through the curves, I pulled a hard right onto a side road instead of heading to town. With thick bushes along the side of the highway, this little road was hard to spot. I backed into a turn-around, the perfect place to keep an eye out for oncoming traffic without being seen myself.

  We sat there for a few seconds, me with one foot on the brake, the other on the gas pedal and the gearshift in first. “What are we waiting for?” Elijah asked.

  “That.” I watched as the black car roared down the main road. Taking my time, I pulled back onto the side road, and headed the opposite direction. I wasn’t going to risk damaging Dolores by catching up to our enemies and trying to run them off the road. “Are you still on the phone with 911?” I asked.

  “Yes,” was his terse answer.

  I spoke loudly. “We’ll be coming back into town at the 20th Street entrance. Can someone meet us there?”

  I listened for the response. “There will be a local officer and a highway patrol unit. Stay on the line until you get there.”

  “It’ll be about five minutes.” I checked my rearview mirror again. No one was behind us. “Might as well sit back and enjoy the scenery,” I told Elijah. “We lost ’em.” Good thing, because the blacktop on this road was in bad shape and I couldn’t risk any more evasive moves.

  “Where did you learn to drive like that?” Elijah asked. The color had returned to his cheeks, and he l
eaned back into his seat.

  I glanced at the phone he held. He got the hint and punched a button. “We’re on mute,” he said.

  “Jake taught me.” I kept my eyes on the road. This time of year, lost tourists might stop in the middle of the road, gazing at the colorful trees. “It was a game we played. We used to drive around, looking for roads like this one and plotting getaway strategies. I had no idea he might actually be planning to use the information someday.” I fought back a stray tear. The after effects of the adrenalin rush, I told myself. “I certainly never figured I would be the one who needed to put our plans into action.”

  He nodded, and twisted around to look behind us. “Still clear,” he said, and punched the button on the phone to take us off mute.

  The car that pulled in behind us a few miles from town set off the alarms in my head until I noticed the light bar on top. A second glance confirmed it as state trooper’s vehicle. I stepped on my brakes ever-so-slightly to acknowledge him.

  He followed us all the way to the city line where I could see a local police car stationed, lights flashing. As the trooper peeled off and headed to his next call, I waved my hand in acknowledgment. I pulled off behind the waiting officer and rolled down my window. The man coming our way was familiar and I relaxed.

  “Officer Felton,” I greeted him with a smile.

  “Morning, Miss Duprie,” he said, touching the brim of his hat like an old-time sheriff. The gesture made me smile even more. “Heard you ran into a spot of trouble this morning.”

  “The department is going to need to increase their budget next year just to handle my cases,” I told him.

  His mouth twitched. I swear he was trying not to laugh. “If you’ll drive on to the station, I’ll follow you,” he said. “And please stay within the speed limit.”

  I batted my eyes at him. “Don’t I always?” He chuckled as he returned to his patrol car.

  Inside the station, Elijah and I were escorted to the same office. I wondered when I saw the cane leaning against the desk, and my concerns proved correct. Freddie came into the office a few moments later and sat, heavily, in the chair behind the desk.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you be at home?”

  “I think that’s my question,” he grinned, but I noted how carefully he was moving. “Sitting around and doing nothing all day long drove me stir crazy, so I blackmailed my doctor into releasing me for light duty. I can only stand to watch so many cop shows. But don’t tell Sarah, okay?”

  I nodded. I owed him a favor or two myself.

  “So any idea who was chasing you?” Obviously, he had already been filled in on the basics of the case.

  “No idea.” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “Major assumption? Whoever it was is somehow tied to the two guys who grabbed me. They are both still in custody, right?”

  Freddie grunted. “First thing we checked, and the answer is yes.” Both men had been moved to more secure facilities while they awaited trial. Based on the seriousness of the charges, bail had been denied. “We’re going through channels to see if we can get any new information from them. They haven’t cooperated yet, so I doubt they’ll reveal something now.”

  I shouldn’t have expected anything else.

  “Were you able to get a tag?”

  “I was a little too busy driving.”

  Elijah coughed. Freddie grinned. “Yes, we had a few reports of the chase. How come you never told me you were such a good driver, Harmony?”

  I was glad there were no witnesses to my maneuvers once we had left town. Except for Elijah, of course, and he was staying awfully quiet. “I never had a reason to bring up the subject,” I answered, looking down at my hands. The hangnail I’d noticed this morning now seemed fascinating.

  “When they get done fixing the Mustang, you and I need to find an empty parking lot somewhere out of town, and have a contest.” He started to laugh, but caught his breath. I guessed he wasn’t as healed up as he pretended to be, and felt even guiltier about him being hurt.

  “I am so sorry, Freddie.” Leaning forward, I rested my hand on top of his.

  He looked startled, but didn’t pull his hand away. “What do you have to apologize for?” he asked.

  “For you getting hurt. It was me they wanted, and you were in the way.” I studied a stain in the carpet. “You might’ve been killed and I would’ve been responsible.”

  Freddie slowly eased out of his chair and walked around the desk. He reached out and stroked my cheek, then gently pulled me up so I stood face to face with him. I heard a noise from behind me where Elijah sat, but all my attention was focused on Freddie.

  “You’re not to blame,” he said. “I can’t even blame Hennessey, as much as I would like to.” He glanced over at Elijah. “Not you. I’m glad you were there for Harmony when I couldn’t be. I wish we could assign an officer to guard her full time, but the department doesn’t have the personnel to do that.”

  The fear I had that the two men wouldn’t get along disappeared. I leaned in, intending to give Freddie a peck on the cheek, but he turned back to me at just the right moment and our lips met. I went with the moment, and gave him a full-on kiss. There wasn’t any magic in the kiss, not that I expected any. Call it a thank you or a thanks for the memories gesture, but mostly I meant it as a kiss between friends. And I think he understood.

  However, from the look on his face when Freddie and I pulled apart, I’m not sure Elijah did.

  Before we pulled out of the parking spot in front of the police station, I checked Dolores’ tires. I’d left some rubber on the road during my maneuvers and was concerned about how much tread I had left. The old penny in the grooves trick told me they were okay for now.

  Elijah already had his seat belt on when I climbed into the driver’s seat. It made me grin.

  “Well, that ruined my plans for the day,” I said as I turned the key. I still got a kick out of the sound of Dolores’ engine purring. George had sounded more like a wheezy old man. “So what do you want to do now?”

  “Get you packed and move you back to the hotel,” he answered. I thought he was joking until I saw that his mouth was set in a hard line.

  “What good will that do? By now, anyone who has been tracking me knows where you are staying.” Logic is a bummer sometimes.

  “It’ll make it easier for the professional bodyguard I’ve got coming to keep an eye on you.”

  So that was what he was doing texting on his phone while we were inside. I turned the engine off. I don’t drive drunk, and I don’t drive when I am boiling mad.

  “Oh?” Ice dripped from the word. “Who made you God? Did you ever think you should have asked me first?”

  “Are you going to argue with me about this after what happened this morning?”

  I counted to forty. “I outran, out-thought and out-drove whoever that was following us. Could your professional bodyguard do any better?”

  His expression didn’t soften at all. “What would have happened if they started shooting? You don’t have a gun tucked under your seat, do you?”

  “No, but you have one.” Oh yeah, he hadn’t ever mentioned it, but I recognized the slight bulge under his arm. I’d spotted it days ago.

  He didn’t even look embarrassed. “It won’t do you a damn bit of good when I’m in Florida,” he snapped.

  That shut me up for a good twenty seconds. Now? He was going to leave me now after what had just happened? “Florida?” I asked finally. I’d gotten used to having him around.

  “Yes, Florida. I’ve got business to take care of. You didn’t think I was going to stick around forever, did you?”

  “No, I figured once you paid off whatever favor you owed Jake for, you would take off. You’re a Hennessey, after all. So don’t worry about your bodyguard. If I want one, I can hire my own.” I’d moved to ice-cold-angry and then on to bitch in record time. It was better than allowing myself to show how I really felt.

  Abandoned.
/>   Chapter Twenty-Six

  A knock on the window interrupted our argument. Glancing over, I identified Officer Felton and rolled down the window. From the way he examined our faces, he suspected something was up. But he didn’t mention it.

  “Thought you folks would like to know,” he said, “Highway Patrol located the car that chased you. Found fifteen miles south of town.”

  “Let me guess,” I said. “Stolen, and no one in it.”

  Officer Felton grimaced. “Right on both counts. They found it on a dirt road, and tracks at the scene indicate whoever abandoned it got a ride from someone else. HP will check for prints, of course, but they aren’t too hopeful of finding any.”

  “Figures,” Eli muttered from his side of the car.

  I nodded. I wouldn’t have expected anything different. “You’ll contact me with any updates, Officer?”

  “We’ll be in touch.” He patted Dolores’ roof. “Drive safely, Miss Duprie.”

  I rolled up the window and adjusted the heater. A definite chill hung in the air. Halloween was coming, and we always had at least one light snow before the end of October. I made myself a mental reminder to buy that blanket for Dolores, and to pull the heavy quilt out of storage for myself.

  “Are you still going to fight me on the bodyguard?” Elijah asked, a deep frown drawing lines in his face.

  I didn’t answer. After starting Dolores back up, I checked my mirrors, and gently nudged her onto the street. I glanced at them frequently on the way home, but the trip was uneventful, if extremely quiet. We arrived back at my place and I pulled into the spot behind Elijah’s rental car.

  “Have a good trip home,” I said, and waited for him to get out. The car was suddenly too small and he was too close. I half-expected him to pull his gun and force me to drive to the hotel. Either that or try to kiss me. I hoped for the latter.