Mourning Commute

by Sam Cheever

  He hesitated a beat and I was afraid he wasn’t going to say it. Finally, “I love you too, Punkin. You take care now.”

  “I will.”

  I disconnected to the rhythmic sounds of Shakes horking up grass under a nearby tree. I crouched down beside him and scratched his back. “Is your tummy upset, little man?” His response was to hork up some more grass. Though he did give his tail a little wag.

  I straightened up as a distant thought slipped through my brain, too pale for me to grasp. I tried to remember what it was but I couldn’t grab it. Giving a mental shrug, I tugged Shakes’ leash gently. “Come on, little man. Time to head home. I need to hit the grocery store so we have something to eat for dinner.”

  As we approached my apartment building, a woman opened the door to a car sitting at the curb and climbed out.

  I recognized the woman. And I realized I wasn’t going to make it to the grocery store after all. I smiled at Valerie Mitner even as my mind spun with questions about why she was there. “Mrs. Mitner. It’s nice to see you again.” I was trying to remember what Ruthie’s instructions had been about dealing with a client after the obligation had been met. Somehow, I didn’t think Valerie was there to ask for more services, but I couldn’t imagine why else she’d come.

  Val Mitner’s eyes were wide and her lips were formed in a taut line. She seemed even more upset and nervous than the last time I saw her. “I’ve come to warn you.”

  I blinked. I hadn’t been expecting that. “Would you like to come up? I can fix us some tea. Or coffee if you’d prefer.”

  She shook her head, her hands gripping the edge of the window on her car door. She didn’t even step all the way out of the car and close the door. She appeared to be ready to leap back inside at a moment’s notice. “I won’t be here long. I wanted to tell you that you need to watch out for Leland.”

  I blinked, trying to remember where I’d heard the name before. “Leland?”

  “Doctor Leland. He works with my husband.” She frowned. “I think they’re up to something at Crime Clean and it’s not good.”

  I had so many questions. “Are you sure you don’t want to come upstairs. Just for a short while?”

  “No! Listen to me; you’re in grave danger!”

  “Okay, I’m sorry. I won’t interrupt again. Tell me why you think I’m in danger.”

  “I don’t think, girl, I know. I heard them. They’re plotting to get rid of you. Leland didn’t finish the job that night and he’s determined to do it.”

  Something cold and creepy clawed its way up my back. “Finish the job? Are you saying…?”

  “You were pushed into that pool, weren’t you?”

  I flapped my lips a few times before I could get the words out. “Did you see it?”

  “Not the actual pushing. But Leland was out there a few minutes before you went into the water. I saw him talking on the phone.”

  I cast my mind back, trying to remember what I’d been doing. Had he heard Deitz and me talking about them whispering at the funeral? And if he had, would he have tried to kill over it?

  “Why would he want to kill me?”

  She shrugged. “Leland’s convinced you know something. I don’t know what he thinks you know. But he seems determined to shut you up.”

  I swallowed hard. “Did he say those words? Shut me up?”

  She nodded. “Anyway. I didn’t want to get involved, but I’ve been a wreck worrying about it. You deserve to know. She slid back into her car and hesitated before closing the door. “Stay close to Eddie. He’s a good boy. He can keep you safe.” She slammed the door without another word and sped away.

  Shakes and I stood on the sidewalk, staring after her.

  My beautiful sunny day had gone cold and ugly.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Deitz asked me for about the tenth time. “I can talk to him alone.”

  I turned his way and made a herculean effort to smooth out the frown I’d been wearing since speaking to Val Mitner. “I need to be there. I need to look him in the eye and give him all the reasons why he doesn’t want to mess with me.” Brave words, coming from someone who was having trouble keeping her knees from knocking together.

  Deitz didn’t look convinced, but he nodded. “Okay. Let’s go then.”

  Deitz was able to locate Doc Leland’s home address and we went there first. A woman with faded gold hair answered the door, eyeing us with hostile suspicion. A couple of quick questions determined that she was Leland’s housekeeper. And she succumbed enough to Deitz’s charm to tell us that the doc was down the street at the Farmer’s Market.

  “Picking up peaches,” the woman told Eddie with a smile.

  She said the word “peaches” with such affection I thought maybe it was a kid or a dog or something. But her next words clarified that thought. Or else Leland and his housekeeper were a couple of very sick individuals.

  “For my peach cobbler.”

  Deitz grinned. “My favorite. You use fresh peaches?”

  Her smile widened and gained a slight leering quality. I suddenly felt like a third wheel. “I do. No slimy, oversweet canned peaches for my cobbler.” Her eyebrows waggled suggestively.

  Deitz better watch out or he was going to become the woman’s next “peach”.

  “Have you been the doc’s housekeeper for long?” I asked, just to pull her attention off Deitz if nothing else.

  Her smile tipped upside down when she looked at me. “Almost ten years. You won’t find a better man than Doctor Leland.”

  “He has a pretty exciting job though, doesn’t he?” Eddie said. “I’ll bet he could tell you some pretty gruesome stories.”

  She shrugged one shoulder, giving the idea only lukewarm interest. “He cleans. I clean. He just cleans different stuff than I do.”

  Well, that was certainly one way to look at it.

  We thanked the woman and started down the steps. But she called out, stopping us. We turned.

  She stepped through the door. “You people need to stop harassing him. He’s a good man. He doesn’t deserve it.”

  Eddie and I shared a look. “We people?” I asked, frowning. “What do you mean?”

  Her upper lip curled slightly. “Don’t think I don’t know who you are. My husband came from Mexico. He told me stories about the stuff the cartel pulled down there. I know you’re with them. They love the pretty blonde types for cover. But you…” She pointed a finger at Deitz. “You reek of the cartel. You leave him alone. He’s no danger to you.”

  As the door closed between us, Deitz and I shared a surprised glance.

  “What in the world?”

  We tried knocking on the door again, but the housekeeper had said her piece apparently and wouldn’t open it again.

  Fifteen minutes later, we were rounding a table of cantaloupes and watermelons in search of a short, balding forensic pathologist.

  I spotted him a minute later, haggling with a tall, ginger-haired woman over an enormous head of cauliflower. “There!” I pointed at the doc. Deitz and I hurried through the crowd toward him.

  When we arrived at the cauliflowers, Doc Leland was gone. The tall, ginger-haired woman smiled. “You want a head of the best cauliflower in the city?”

  I shook my head. “Maybe later. Did you see where that man who was just here went?” I held a hand a couple of inches above my own head. “About this tall and balding.”

  The woman shook her head. “Sorry. I’ve been busy.”

  Deitz and I turned away and plunged back into the crowd. It was a big crowd, made even more overwhelming by the abundance of tables filled with stuff that everyone needed to navigate.

  I finally saw a long table filled with fresh peaches and grabbed Deitz’s arm. “Over there.”

  Leland was carefully examining a fat, perfect peach as we approached.

  “Doctor Leland?”

  His gaze shot up, narrowing on us as if he was trying to remember who we were. “Ah, Mr. Deitz and Miss…” He shook E
ddie’s hand and looked at me.

  “Ferth,” I told him. As if he didn’t know. I crossed my arms over my chest to discourage him, in case he tried to shake my hand too.

  “We need to speak to you for a minute. Is there someplace quiet?” Eddie asked.

  Leland hesitated, seemed about to ask us what we wanted to discuss, and then nodded. “This way.” He led us to an area just outside the market and indicated a series of stone tables with attached benches. I picked the table that was farthest from the crowd and we sat down.

  “What’s this about?” Leland asked.

  Eddie took the lead, which was fine with me. Finding myself face to face with the man who might have tried to kill me that night at the Mitner’s was proving more unsettling than I’d thought it would be.

  “We’ve been told that you were in the vicinity of the pool the night May was pushed into the water. Did you see anything or anyone nearby?”

  I was watching Leland carefully and saw the slight tightening around his eyes that screamed guilt. Still, he shook his head, feigning disinterest. “No. I’m sorry, I wasn’t.”

  “We have a witness who can put you on the patio,” Eddie insisted.

  Leland’s mouth moved as if he were chewing over a response. I could tell his instincts were to keep lying, but he wasn’t stupid. If he was the one who’d pushed me into the pool, lying would only make him look guiltier.

  “Okay, you’re right. I was out on the patio. But I was on my phone and not paying attention. Then the lightning started and I ducked inside. I’m afraid I didn’t see anything.” He looked my way. “I’m sorry.”

  Eddie hesitated a moment, letting Leland’s insincere apology hang between us like a rotting apple on a bug-infested tree. Then he leaned in, lowering his voice. “Doctor Leland. Our witness also heard you threatening Miss Ferth.”

  To his credit, Leland was a very good actor. He’d have given some of my colleagues in community theatre a run for their money. His mouth fell open and he gave me a look of pure horror. “That’s not possible. I’d never…” Then his look turned dark. “Who is this witness? I’m being framed.”

  Okay, that seemed a bit over the top. Not to mention a bit repetitive since I’d heard that excuse from one suspect already. I shook my head. “We’re not telling you that. If what the witness says is true, you might try to hurt them.”

  “I’ve never hurt anyone in my life!” His anger seemed to deflate a beat later, as Deitz and I continued to stare at him. “Look, I can see why you’d think that, my being on the patio when you were nearly killed…”

  “What did Miss Ferth do that had you thinking about killing her?” Eddie asked, his tone hard and cool.

  Leland’s shocked gaze slipped back to me and gained a pleading quality. I hardened myself against it, firming my lips and staying silent.

  Finally, he sighed. “It’s all a big misunderstanding. I wasn’t suggesting we kill her. I’m not a violent man.”

  “Then what were you suggesting?” I asked quietly.

  “I saw you snooping at the viewing. I thought you’d overheard…”

  “Overheard what?” Eddie asked.

  “That’s not important. But I need to make something clear…” He leaned close and I scooted away before I could stop myself.

  Eddie reached out and grabbed his arm. “Back off, Leland.”

  He shook his head. “I wasn’t going to hurt you, Miss Ferth, the pathologist said, “I just wanted to pay you off. If you knew about the payoffs…” He didn’t finish the thought but I got the gist of it. I assumed he and Mitner had been bribing Robard for the inside track on scene cleaning. “You were bribing Robard, weren’t you?” I asked.

  Leland held my gaze for a long moment, his eyes making promises I didn’t want to consider. I was guessing he was suggesting more bribes. For me.

  He stood and turned back toward the market. “Think about my offer, Miss Ferth. I’ll make it worth your while.”

  Eddie stood up and started after him. “Hold on, Leland, you can’t…”

  Leland was ten feet away when a shot rang out. Something white and chunky, tinged in red, flew into the air and rained down on the crowd as they screamed and scattered.

  Doctor Leland dropped like a rock.

  Right in front of the tall ginger-haired lady’s table.

  18

  Screams went up all around us and people ran past in droves, knocking me into Deitz and sending us scurrying behind the stone table for cover.

  When a moment had passed, and no more shots rang out, Deitz looked at me. “Stay here.”

  I watched helplessly as he scooted out from behind the table and ran toward the prone body on the grass a dozen feet away.

  The market was silent as everyone waited for the next shot.

  It never came.

  Deitz checked on the ginger-haired lady, crouching behind her table, and then asked loudly if everyone else was okay.

  Someone yelled out that they’d called 911.

  Deitz dropped to his knees next to the fallen pathologist.

  Despite the thundering aspect of my heart that seriously made me feel like I was going to pass out, I ran toward Deitz, my movement spurring the rest of the curious. People slipped out from behind trees, rocks, and tables to see about the man on the ground.

  A fast, rhythmic whomp whomp whomp sound rose in my awareness and then got lost behind a roaring sound in my ears.

  My eyes squeezed shut, I stood several feet away like the coward I was and let Deitz check Leland out. “Please tell me I’m not about to regret missing the entrails and brain matter lecture,” I told him.

  There was a long, extended groan and I opened one of my eyes. “He’s alive?”

  Deitz didn’t answer. He was busy dragging off his shirt.

  I tried not to notice the smooth, golden expanse of his back or the way the muscles rippled beneath the skin, as he folded the shirt and wrapped it around some part of Leland’s body.

  In the distance, sirens sounded, growing rapidly nearer.

  The silence in the market seemed louder than those sirens. “Deitz?”

  I peered at Deitz’s broad back, seeing only Leland’s small feet and short legs, unmoving, on the grass. My gaze resisted the painted white chunks all around him. I was really afraid to know what it was.

  “It’s just cauliflower,” a voice said next to me.

  I jerked around but realized the young man wasn’t talking to me. He was telling his pale-faced girlfriend. She was standing with her hands on his shoulder, looking terrified.

  “And peaches,” someone else said.

  My hair started to blow around my face. I gathered it into my hand, holding it away from my face so I could see.

  One of Leland’s legs moved.

  Deitz reached out and placed a hand on him. “Lie still. The bullet just grazed your head. You’ll be fine, but you’re going to have one heck of a headache.”

  Leland groaned as if to support Deitz’s observation.

  I forced my feet to move forward. Standing next to Deitz, I looked down. “Who shot you?” I asked the fallen man, not realizing until the words came out how ridiculous they were. The chances of Leland either knowing that or telling us if he did know were slim to none.

  Deitz reached up and tugged me down. “Stay low. Just in case.”

  Murmuring started in the surrounding crowd at his words and, moving as one, the whole circular mass of people stepped back a few feet.

  The movement left me feeling very exposed.

  The wind picked pieces of debris up off the ground and pelted us with it. I tugged on a small stick that got stuck in my hair.

  My cell rang and I didn’t even look as I answered. I knew who it was. “Hey.”

  “May, what have you gotten yourself mixed up in?”

  I was only slightly relieved it was Argh and not the Lieutenant. “Deitz and I were at the Farmer’s Market and…”

  “I know where you are. Your pale, clueless mug’s been
all over the news. Dad’s biting his teeth off one at a time and spitting them at us.”

  The rhythmic whomping sound I’d been ignoring suddenly loomed larger and I looked up into the source of the growing wind.

  A chopper bearing the letters WLOS on its belly hovered overhead, a man with a camera hanging out the side door.

  “Great.”

  The sirens screamed to a stop in front of the Farm to Table Farmer’s Market and the police jumped out of their squad cars, guns drawn.

  “I’d better go talk to them,” Deitz told me. He moved through the crowd and, lifting his hands into the air, approached the police, calling out the situation as they ran up and frisked him.

  I looked down at Leland and twitched in surprise as I saw his gaze staring into mine. Eddie’s shirt was wrapped around the older man’s head and there was already blood soaking through the cotton. Leland’s mouth opened and moved.

  He seemed to be trying to tell me something.

  I moved closer but still couldn’t hear. I dropped to my knees next to him and lowered my head, putting my ear close to his lips.

  He groaned softly and his eyes closed. I thought for a minute that he’d gone unconscious again. But then he ground out the words, “Security…get security.”

  “Move out of the way, Miss Ferth.”

  I looked up into Robard’s hostile face, wondering what he was doing there. I stood and moved several feet away.

  Robard watched the EMS personnel remove Deitz’s shirt from Leland’s head and examine him, checking his pupils, blood pressure and heart rate before moving him.

  I stood next to Deitz while the emergency responders worked. Eddie was wearing a bright orange Farm to Table tee shirt someone must have given him. “Nice,” I said, tugging on it.

  He grimaced. “I’m like a beacon for the shooter.”

  Because I came from a long line of cops and was therefore well-versed in the use of humor as a means of coping with stress, I took two very deliberate steps away from him.

  I was happy when his handsome face softened into a grin.

  Robard strode over. “Tell me what happened.”

  We told him. Even the part where we were questioning Leland about trying to kill me. We gave up Mrs. Mitner because we had to. Leland could have very easily gotten killed and, if our questioning him had something to do with that, we owed it to the man to tell the police what we knew.