“Oh, I almost forgot. Put down a can of pumpkin. And eggs. We’ll need eggs.”
Boggs looked at the menu list. “I thought Sam and Betty were bringing pumpkin pie?”
“They are,” Toni said. “But I’m making pumpkin chiffon pie. Better put fake piecrust on the list.”
Boggs scratched her head. “Okay, first, what the hell is fake piecrust? And second, what’s the difference between pumpkin pie, which I hate, and pumpkin whatever pie?”
Toni laughed out loud.She came out of the pantry and hugged Boggs. “God, I love you! I’m getting fake piecrust because no one can make piecrust like my mom, so why bother. You can get them frozen and you just add the insides. As for the difference, regular pumpkin pie is kind of dense, and I don’t like it either. Pumpkin chiffon is light and fluffy. You beat egg whites and blend them in. Oh, that reminds me. Add Cool Whip to the list.”
Boggs did as instructed. “So it’s not heavy and grainy? The pie you make?”
“No, not at all. I’m with you. I can’t stand regular pumpkin pie. Or pumpkin anything for that matter.”
“Okay, I’ll try a bite of yours then.” She smiled. “This is going to be so much fun. A lot of work, but a lot of fun. Having all our favorite people over and everything. I’ve never had a family holiday at a place of my own. Have you?”
Toni thought for a moment. She’d been with her ex for almost seven years, but they’d never hosted a holiday. “Nope. This is a first for me too. I’m glad it’s you and me.”
Boggs kissed her. “We do make a good team, don’t we?”
“Yes, we do. The best team ever. Let’s finish our lists and go to bed.”
“And pick up where we left off?”
“Absolutely!”
They made a few adjustments to their menu and finished the grocery list. Then they discussed seating and decided they definitely needed help in that department. Toni didn’t want to send people to the basement to eat, so they’d need to borrow and beg for tables and chairs.
“How many people will be here?” Boggs asked.
Toni looked at her guest list. “Holy cow. Including us there will be sixteen people.Aunt Doozie and Uncle Tom aren’t coming into town until Friday, so we don’t have to count them. How in the world are we going to fit everyone in here?”
Boggs looked at the living room area. “Well, we have enough room, just nowhere to sit. Aunt Francie has a nice table and chairs we could probably borrow. The table folds, but it’s pretty sturdy. I’ll call her tomorrow. What about your folks? Do they have a card table or something?”
“Yeah, they’ve got a really nice one I’m sure we could borrow. But that still leaves us short.”
“We could bring up the game table and chairs from the basement,” Boggs suggested. “We could take the big ottomans downstairs and that will give us extra room.” She thought for a moment. “I think we should buy our own table and chairs,” she said. “We’ll run into this same problem again, so why not?”
“That could be pretty expensive,” Toni said.
Boggs rolled her eyes. “I think we can afford it, babe. Anyway, we’ll use it over and over.We don’t have a real dining area, so if we ever have more than three other people over, we’re screwed.”
“I guess you’re right,” Toni agreed.
“Let’s go upstairs and check online and see what we can find. We can go out tomorrow and shop.” Boggs pulled her off the stool. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
They scooted the two office chairs close together and sat in front of Boggs’s computer. They tried several local stores.
“Everything is so expensive,” Toni complained. “And we can’t really have a normal table because there’s nowhere to store it when we’re not using it.”
“Hmm. Let’s try a different kind of search. Let’s put in convertible furniture.” Boggs keyed in several things and they looked at the results. “Look,” she said pointing to the screen. “This would be perfect. It folds down to be a sofa table, but can seat six people.”
“How cool is that? And the price isn’t too bad,” Toni said.
“I think we should get two,” Boggs said. “We can keep one in the living room and put the other in the storage room when we’re not having a giant dinner party. Now let’s look for chairs.”
After a few more searches, they were able to find chairs that looked like regular dining chairs, but folded for easy storage. “Hey look,” Boggs said. “If we order online, we get free shipping. It says if we order by midnight, it will be delivered on Wednesday. We’re both off that day, so it will be perfect. We’ll get two of these tables and how many chairs?”
“Are you sure?” Toni asked.
“Absolutely. This is a great deal and we’ll use them for years. So how many chairs should we get? Ten?”
“Well, if the tables each sit six, we should get twelve,” Toni said.
“Duh, that’s right.” Boggs added twelve chairs to her cart and two tables. “Do you want anything else?”
“I think we’ve done enough shopping for one night,” Toni said.
Boggs was busy shopping in other departments. “Let’s see what they have in their clearance section,” she said. “You never know.” She looked at her watch. “We’ve got a little less than two hours to shop, so we’ll get the delivery date.” She chuckled.
“Then look at the clearance shoes,” Toni said. “See if they have anything fun.”
Boggs laughed. “Yeah, you really need some new shoes.”
Toni laughed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me this past year. I’ve become a real shoe whore. Before that I never owned more than maybe four pairs of shoes at a time. I can’t help myself. But almost all of them were on sale.” It was a weak attempt to justify her enormous collection of shoes. “Wait! Go back.”
Boggs hit the button.
“Look at those red tennies. And they’re seventy percent off!”
“And you only have what, three pairs of red shoes?”
“Not like these,” Toni argued. “These are adorable. And for less than eight dollars? Who could pass up that?”
Boggs added the shoes to her cart.
“Okay,” Toni said. “I’ve gotten my treat. Why don’t you look in the gadgets department? I’m sure you could use some type of computer thingy.”
“Touché,” Boggs said. “You have your shoes and I have computer thingys. But I’d rather have some more spy stuff. That Big Ear the gang gave us is a real hoot. You really can hear people talk. But I don’t think this store has any of that stuff. Let’s just go ahead and order. Maybe we can go to a spy store tomorrow since we don’t have to look for a table and chairs.”
“Sounds good. And I don’t need those shoes, sweetie. Go ahead and delete that. I already have enough red ones.”
“Okay, I’ll just order the table and chairs,” Boggs said.
“Agreed,” Toni said. “You finish up here and I’ll get ready for bed.” She kissed Boggs’s neck. “Hurry up, hon.”
Boggs cupped Toni’s face in her hands and kissed her passionately. “I’ll be in there as soon as I do this.”
Toni felt her knees get a little weak. After over a year, how can one kiss still do that to me? She went down to their bedroom and got ready for Boggs.
Chapter 17
The weekend passed quickly for Toni. She and Boggs had raked leaves and jumped in the piles. They grilled burgers on Saturday evening and added slices of Swiss cheese logs to the top. It was an experiment that turned out fabulous. On Sunday, they watched football and snuggled on the couch. They never talked about the maniac and only heard from Vicky once. She’d called to say that she had put in an offer on the house and that the deadline for acceptance was Monday afternoon.
When Toni got to work on Monday morning, she felt rested and excited about Thanksgiving. It had felt good to take a break from the reality of what was happening. Her calendar was light for both today and tomorrow and she was grateful. The only thing she had today in c
ourt was one motion hearing. She pulled out her file and started to do some research, checking the case law that the defense attorney had cited. She jumped when her phone buzzed.
“Yes?”
“Good morning,Ms.Barston,”Chloe said pleasantly.“There’s a Mr. Charlie Jones on line two for you. He says it’s urgent.”
“Ugh.” She debated about whether or not to take his call. Might as well get it over with because he’ll just keep calling and leaving messages for me if I don’t. “Okay, Chloe. I’ll take it. Thank you.”
She took a deep breath before hitting the button. She was so disgusted with how he treated Vicky and anyone else that was gay. But he just gives me the creeps. He’s so pathetic. What happened to not judging people, she told herself. I’m judging him because he’s so judgmental. She laughed at the absurdity of it all and punched line two.
“Good morning,Charlie. How are you today?”Toni surprised herself at how sincere she sounded, and actually felt.
“Fine, Toni,” he said. “But I have some very important information for you. I think I know where to find evidence on Frank.”
“Shouldn’t you give that information to the police?” Toni asked. “I can’t really do anything but pass it along.”
“I know,” Charlie said, “but this implicates someone else, too. Maybe even has something to do with the murder of the mayor. I really think you should see for yourself. I trust you. Maybe I’m just blowing this all out of proportion. But you were a therapist before. Anyway, I can’t really go into it on the phone. Can you meet me?”
What the hell? I guess it makes sense to want to talk to me, she thought. He won’t talk to Vicky. Maybe he knows something about Mevin. Crap. She couldn’t decide what to do.
“Are you still there?” Charlie asked.
“Yes, I’m sorry. I was just looking at my calendar.” She didn’t feel like meeting him today.
“It’s really important,” Charlie continued. “Maybe tomorrow then?”
She felt a little relieved, thinking that she could put the meeting off for another day. “Okay, tomorrow at about two? Do you want me to come over to Help Services?”
“No. I don’t want anyone to see us talking,” he said. “I don’t want any of the guys to think I broke their confidentiality or anything.”
“That makes sense,” Toni said. “Where do you want to meet?”
“How about at Jeff’s Diner on Third Street?” he suggested. “It won’t be crowded at all that time of day.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you at two tomorrow.” She hung up and jotted it down on her calendar. What the hell kind of information does he have? Should I have agreed to meet him today? She shrugged and got back to her research.
Shortly before the end of the day, Toni’s mom called to check on the status of Thanksgiving dinner. Toni assured her that everything was under control and that they would have plenty of food. Her mom informed her that she’d added a couple more items to her own list and then started laughing.
“What’s so funny, Mom?”
“Oh, it’s your father. I don’t know why he listens to that woman on the radio. He just yells at her.”
“Which woman is that?”
“Oh, Doctor Nancy I think her name is. But she’s no doctor, that’s for sure. She’s the one that says every answer is in the Bible.”
Toni took her attention off her computer screen. “What did you say?”
“I said she’s no doctor,” her mother said. “She’s a quack.”
“No, after that. Something about the Bible?”
“Yes. She thinks that the answer to everything, including hemorrhoids, is right there in the Bible. Now that’s what I call a liberal interpretation.”
“Tell Dad to keep yelling. I’ve got to run now, Mom. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I love you.”
Toni hung up the phone. It can’t be that simple, can it? She tried to remember, but couldn’t. She tapped her fingers on her desk. The Internet! She keyed in a search, found what she was looking for and hit print. She rushed out of her office and grabbed the paper from the printer. Holy shit.
“Boggs!” She saw her at the end of the hall, chatting with a uniformed cop. She was very excited, but she tried to act calm and professional.
Boggs must have sensed the urgency in her voice, because she began walking very quickly. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“I think I figured out the list. Look at this.” She shoved the paper into her hands.
“I don’t get it.” Boggs looked at her then back at the list.
Toni pointed to the first and second entry. Then ran her finger down the list and pointed to the eighth entry. When Boggs shook her head, indicating she still didn’t understand, Toni said, “Amy Judge.”
“Holy crap. Holy crap.”
“And look at the next one,” Toni said. “Ruth. How much you want to bet it will be Harriet Ruth?”
“Harriet from Stray Rescue?”
Toni nodded.
Boggs pulled out her phone.
“Tell Vicky and everyone to meet us there,” Toni said as she ran back to her office.She quickly grabbed her briefcase and jacket and met Boggs in the hall. They almost ran to the elevator.
“Vicky is sending units there,” Boggs said, still on the phone. “She called using someone else’s phone and no one is answering.” Boggs listened to Vicky as they waited for the elevator. “Okay, we’re on our way.” She looked at Toni. “She’s going to call Patty and have her check out her house. But do you mind if I drive?”
Toni handed her the keys while they were in the elevator to the garage. “Yeah, we’ll get there quicker if you drive.”
“How did you figure it out?”
“My mom said something about the answer being in the Bible and it just hit me.”
“I hope we’re in time.”
The elevator door opened and they ran to Toni’s VW Bug.
They’d been driving only about five minutes when Boggs’s cell phone rang. She pulled it out, glanced at caller ID and handed it to Toni.
“What’s going on?” Toni asked.
“The shelter is closed today, but there was a girl inside. Everything is fine here, but no Harriet. Patty is almost to her house.”
“Should we go there,” Toni asked. “Where does she live?”
“No,” Vicky said. “One way or another, there’s nothing you guys could do anyway.”
Toni relayed the information to Boggs, who slowed her driving. “Then what the hell should we do?” Boggs asked, obviously frustrated.
“I heard that,” Vicky said. “Go to your place and start looking at our list. See if that’s the only Ruth on there. As soon as we know anything, we’ll call you. Then we’ll meet you there. If she’s dead, then I’ll turn it over to the crime scene guys. If she’s okay, we’ll put her in protective custody or something.”
“Okay,” Toni said. “I guess you’re right. She can stay with us if she wants. We’ve got plenty of room.”
“I’ll let you know.” Vicky disconnected.
Both Toni and Boggs kept shaking their heads all the way home.
They’d barely gotten inside when Patty called.
“Harriet is fine,” Patty said. “I found her at her girlfriend’s house. She’s been staying there the last couple of nights. That might have been what saved her.”
“Does she want to come here?” Toni asked.
“I told her,but she wants to stay with her girl.Who can blame her? But we’re going to keep a uniform there, just in case. We’ll be over in a few. Johnnie is picking up food for us.”
Toni hung up the phone. “Let’s go up and change out of our work clothes,” she said. She filled in Boggs on the way up.
After they had changed into jeans and sweatshirts, Boggs slipped her pancake holster onto her waistband.She opened Toni’s nightstand and pulled out Toni’s gun. “Here, babe. I’d feel better if you were carrying also. Not that anything is going to happen in our house, but in case we need t
o run out fast. Okay?”
Toni nodded. She too felt better with having her own protection. She wasn’t used to having a gun on her, but she was more than familiar with using one. She’d demonstrated her expertise at the shooting range months ago. And in fact, she was a better shot than any of the others. But even though she could shoot better, she didn’t have the experience the others did. And adrenaline did strange things to a person.
They went back downstairs and opted for soda instead of beer. “Even though I could use a cold beer,” Toni said, “I think we need to keep a clear head.”
Toni pulled out the paper she’d printed at work and compared it to the list from Fairfield Human Rights Organization. She was still looking at the names when the rest of the gang arrived. They joined her at the kitchen island.
“Did you find anyone?” Vicky asked.
“Not yet,” Toni said.
Patty had her own list. “I’ll start at the bottom. I wish they were in alphabetical order.”
Johnnie had stopped and gotten fried chicken and set the food on the island.No one ate.They just watched the two women pore over the list.
“I think I’ve got it,” Toni said. “Here.” She pointed to the name. “Rose Samuel. Here’s her address and phone number.”
Vicky leaned over and began dialing her phone. “Patty, call this in and have a uniform go over there.” After several minutes of a somewhat vague explanation to Rose Samuel, Vicky closed her phone. “She doesn’t really understand, but she’s cooperative. She agreed not to open the door unless it is a uniformed cop.”
Everyone seemed to relax a bit and Toni and Boggs got plates and drinks.
“Okay,” Johnnie said. “I’m a little bit out of the loop here. What’s the deal?”
“He’s following the books of the Bible,” Toni said. “At least it looks that way.” She picked up the paper she’d printed and put it in front of Johnnie. “See? The first book is Genesis and the first woman’s name was Catherine Geneis. Next is Exodus and I’m betting there’s someone out there with a name that’s close to that. Third is Leviticus and we’ve got Irene Levitch. Then Numbers and that’s Maggie Numerosi. John Deutermann would be Deuteronomy and Joshua Andrews would be Joshua. Judges comes next and there’s Amy Judge. Ruth is the next one and Harriet’s last name is Ruth.”
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