“So yeah, Agent Cooper said the woman and Finn were former crime buddies,” I said, finishing my story and taking a drink of soda.
Aria sat back and reflected on what she had just heard. “You think Agent Cooper was serious? Any chance he was just playing you to get a reaction?” she asked.
“What do you mean? Like that woman really wasn’t a former accomplice? I don’t think so. The video only seemed to confirm Agent Cooper suspicions and left him more worried about my safety than I thought the man was capable of. But it gets better,” I said.
“You mean worse,” Aria said.
“Yes, yes I do.” I leaned in across the table. I definitely didn’t want anyone hearing this next part. “Randy down at Red’s said that Finn stopped in the night Cody was murdered, about 2AM. He talked to Kat, and the two disappeared shortly after.” I sat back up. A look of shock still registered on Aria’s face.
“Why would he do that? Why would he go get Kat and not wake you?”
“Not a clue. Then Randy said this mysterious woman came looking for Kat yesterday too.”
“Shut up. You think it’s the same woman who tried breaking in last night?” Aria asked.
I nodded my head slowly. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”
“Any chance the mysterious woman’s intentions are friendly?” Aria asked.
“Doubt it. I mean, think about it. She doesn’t have any problems walking into Red’s and asking around for someone in broad daylight. Why wouldn’t she just do the same with me? I was at work most of the day yesterday.”
“How do you know she didn’t? Didn’t you say a ton of people stopped in asking for you?”
Aria was right, and I told her so. “I didn’t even think of that.”
“So maybe she had to break in last night to speak with you,” Aria added.
I supposed Aria’s theory could be true, but it still didn’t sit right with me.
“I don’t know. If she knew I was at your house, and her intentions were friendly like you suggest, then she should have just rung your doorbell.”
“Unless she thinks my house is being watched like you said last night.”
“You’re right. Oh man, I just don’t know what this woman wants.” All the unanswered questions were really starting to get to me.
“You know who might?” Aria asked.
“You mean besides Finn?”
“Obviously.”
I thought for a second. “Yeah, I have someone in mind. Give me a minute.” The waiter had just brought our food out, but I excused myself anyway to step outside and make a quick phone call. I called the person I should’ve called in the first place when I first got the video link from Vince.
“Bob Brandle,” said my semi-retired detective friend.
“Hey, Detective Brandle, it’s Ziva,” I said.
“Speak of the devil,” he replied.
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” I somewhat joked.
“I was just chatting with Agent Cooper about you,” Detective Brandle explained.
“Oh, this ought to be good,” I replied dryly.
That got a chuckle out of Detective Brandle. “Oh don’t worry, I set him straight.”
“I don’t even think that’s possible, but thank you. I appreciate it. Speaking of which, are you free to meet up later this afternoon?” I asked.
“You figure something out?” Detective Brandle turned serious.
“I might be piecing it together, but I need your input,” I said.
Detective Brandle was silent for a minute. I didn’t push it.
Finally, he said, “Well, technically I’m just an unofficial resource on this case, so I don’t see any harm in meeting up.”
“Really? That would be awesome. Want to say Sweet Thangs at four o’clock? My treat.”
“Well, you know you got me there. I’ll see you soon.”
I hung up with Detective Brandle and turned to walk inside to finally dig into my lunch when I couldn’t believe who was parked two cars down from me wearing the worst disguise known to man. She might’ve been wearing a blonde corkscrew wig, ala Shirley Temple, and a pair of oversize sunglasses, but it was still Mrs. J. sitting in Mrs. J.’s car. And this time, she had a sidekick with her. I shook my head and closed my eyes, unable to believe her level of ridiculousness. At least it wasn’t the press.
“Quick, look busy,” I heard Mrs. J. say plain as day through her rolled-down window as I approached her car.
“Shouldn’t you be down at City Hall or something?” I asked her.
Mrs. J. pretended not to hear me.
“Ladies? Hell-O!” I bent my face toward Mrs. J.’s open window. She looked up at the roof of her car as if lost in thought.
Oh good gravy. “Mrs. J., I know it’s you. You can stop pretending now.”
I looked further in the window and saw Vicki Klein, a retired librarian and Mrs. J.’s right-hand woman when it came to planning the gala. No one knew more about flowers than Ms. Klein. Obsessed was the word Mrs. J. had used to describe Vicki’s love of botany.
“Hi, Ziva,” Vicki replied quietly to her hands. Her face was turning a ridiculous shade of red, much like the wig she was sporting over her normally light tresses.
“Well fiddlesticks! How in the world did you mark us?” Mrs. J. asked while peeling off her wig and tossing it into her backseat.
I thought about giving Mrs. J. some tips on how to properly run a stakeout, but thought better of it. Instead I said, “What are y’all doing anyway?”
“Trying to find that husband of yours. Figured he try to meet up with you sooner or later.” Mrs. J. tried fluffing her hair back out after being plastered under all that fake hair.
“So, you’re going to tail me?” I asked.
“You got a better idea?” Mrs. J. replied. Next to her, Vicki squirmed in her seat. I could tell she was wishing she could disappear. I didn’t blame her one bit. Heaven knew it was easier to just go along with Mrs. J.’s plans than to try to dissuade her.
I just shook my head and turned to walk away. By that time, my food was bound to be getting cold.
“Hey, you’re going to be there today, right? In two hours. The library.”
“Yup, wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I said over my shoulder and walked back inside the restaurant.
Despite promising Mrs. J. I’d be there, I thought about skipping out on the gala meeting and seeing if Detective Brandle was free to meet up now. After all, it was more important for me track down Finn than attend a community meeting. But this is Mrs. J. we are talking about, and I had to live here in Port Haven for the rest of my life. She was definitely one woman that you wanted on your side, which meant not making her mad.
I left Aria and swung by the docks to swap trucks, and then made the short trek to the library. Pulling over in the parking lot, I could see that the rest of the community was taking this event just as seriously as the mayor was. I spotted Inez and Marion Siebold, last name Michelson now, heading inside. Marion and Inez had started out as Beauty Secret clients, but slowly evolved into friends. Marion had been through hell when her husband was murdered and I solved the case, which cemented our friendship. Inez was Vince’s grandma. She was always willing to lend a hand, and often times that included taking Captain Jack when I was out of town or when it wasn’t safe for my little pooch to be with me.
They stopped when they saw me pulling in. Never a good sign. I tried not to let it bother me. Heads bent forward, they started talking to one another in hushed tones. I had a feeling I knew the topic of conversation.
When I parked Finn’s truck, they were still waiting for me.
“Afternoon, ladies. How are you doing today?” I asked as nonchalantly as possible.
“Ziva, we didn’t think you would still come,” Marion said, cutting right to it.
“Trust me, I wasn’t sure I was going to come either, but Mrs. J.—”
“Birdie Jackson can just go ahead and shove her agenda where the
sun don’t shine,” Inez said. Both Marion and I stood there in shock with our mouths open. Inez loved to talk, but she was always so polite.
“I’m serious. You’d think she was the Queen of England with how ridiculous she’s been. She’s only the mayor. I think someone needs to remind her of that. We have more important things happening in this little town of ours. Not only that, you should be considerate of your friends and what’s happening in their lives. Instead of worrying about how this gala is going to go down, she should be organizing a search and rescue mission for your husband. In fact, I think that’s what I’m going work on tonight. We’re going to find him, Ziva. Don’t you worry about it.” Inez said in rapid succession.
“That’s a wonderful idea, Inez. I can’t believe I didn’t even think to do that. I’m sure Rich would help as well,” Marion said, referring to her new husband and our town’s beloved family doctor.
“Heck, you help every member of this community. I know everyone is already behind you. Now don’t you worry about it. I see the look on your face right now. None of us believe Finn’s guilty of anything else other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time. We’ll find out what’s happened to him and bring him home.”
Inez was right. That was exactly what I was thinking. I had assumed that everyone else thought the same as Mrs. J. and Agent Cooper had, which is that my husband was a murderer on the run. These two ladies here—well, they gave me a little bit more hope for my community and for humanity.
“Let’s just go in here and get this stupid meeting done to make Birdie happy and afterward we’ll have a little private pow-wow and organize a manhunt for that husband of yours,” Inez said.
I wasn’t even sure what to say. After talking with Randy, I was more inclined to think Finn and Kat were on the run on their own accord, but what if I was wrong? I would never forgive myself if they had been taken and I didn’t look for them. I ended up nodding and eventually saying, “That would be wonderful.” I was so used to being a girl boss and striking out on my own, it hadn’t occurred to me to reach out to my friends and family.
“His sister is missing, too,” I added as we headed toward the building.
“Oh sweetie,” Marion replied. “We’ll have to look for her, too.”
Mrs. J. stuck her head out of the library door and hollered out at us. “What in the world are you ladies doing just standing out here? The meeting is about to start.”
“I swear, that woman. She is driving me crazy,” Inez said under her breath. I couldn’t agree with her more.
The meeting was scheduled to take place in one of the community rooms just off the main library section.
Along the sidewall of the room, a table had been set up with an assortment of covered trays and pitchers of iced tea and lemonade. Before she became the mayor, Mrs. J. was known for her baking skills. Well, that and her crazy fashion sense. I should have known that she’d show off on both accounts. She was dressed in cream and lime and reminded me of a key lime pie with the way her cream-colored hat swirled on the top of her head. I figured she probably had to wear a hat seeing that her hair would’ve still been a mess from that wig.
If I knew Mrs. J., under the napkins covering the platters was an assortment of wonderful desserts. Buttercream-frosted sugar cookies, strawberry cheesecake bites, double fudge brownies and lemon bars were just the type of thing that Mrs. J. would have baked in preparation for today’s meeting. I wasn’t about to lift up the napkins to find out exactly what treats were in store because at that moment, Mrs. J. had an honest-to-goodness gavel that she was hammering to call the meeting to order. I resisted rolling my eyes, but when I looked over at Inez, I saw that she didn’t. I was beginning to love that woman more and more.
“Now ladies, this is crunch time. This weekend tourists will be flocking to our beautiful city to experience a one-of-a-kind festival. There’s no time to waste so let’s not. Inez, what’s the art fair report?”
“Well now, I don’t have a formal report, but what I can tell you is everyone’s real excited about it. We have a little bit of everything—jewelry designers, woodworkers, candle makers. Plenty of crafts for the kids, too. It should be a real fun time.”
“Inez, I ain’t worried about people having fun. I need numbers. How many vendors? How much money? Everyone paid up? The devil’s in the details.”
Inez looked taken back and not too happy. “I’ll have to add that up and get back to you,” she said and left it at that. Something Inez never did.
“Now Vicki, how does the plant sale look? Were we able to reach our goal of 500 preorders?”
Vicki hesitated before answering, and I knew that answer must’ve been a no.
“Well, we didn’t have as many preorders as we were initially hoping for, but I believe we have a strong showing. We’re off to a good start.”
“Numbers, Vicki. We need the numbers. How many times do I have to tell y’all that? How many orders am I looking at here?”
“We reached over half, 262 orders to be exact. I think that number will be much higher once we have the plant displays up. Everyone can see how gorgeous the azaleas are and they can pick out the colors in person.”
“Two hundred and sixty-two? Good heavens, that’s not even close to the number we wanted.”
“Well Birdie, I mean Mayor Jackson, this is the first year that we’ve hosted this festival. I believe more tourists are going to be actually purchasing the plants than our local residents.”
“You better be right, Vicki. You better be right.” Mrs. J. was shaking her head in disappointment. “Let’s move on to talk about the parade. Marion, how many floats have registered?”
“The last count was twenty-seven. If you ask me, that’s a pretty impressive turnout,” Marion said, consulting the paper before her.
“That’s good, real good.” Mrs. J. was busy for a few minutes jotting notes down in her leather folder. The room sat in uncomfortable silence while we waited for Mrs. J. to finish.
“Now I’m going to assume that you all can make it tomorrow to work on our float,” she said without looking up. The ladies and I looked around at one another.
Inez spoke up. “I thought we weren’t going to enter one. Isn’t that what we decided two weeks ago?” she said, looking around the room for confirmation. Ladies nodded their heads in agreement.
“Well, I made an executive decision. I’m the mayor, I can do that. Now don’t y’all go looking at me like that. Think of how it would look if the planning committee didn’t enter a float. Not good, I tell ya. Now Pete down at the fire station has an empty bay and a flatbed just waiting for us. I plan on starting at noon and I expect you to make it. Ziva already brought the truck, too.”
Everyone turned and looked at me.
“Uh, Mrs. J. asked me about it last week. Sorry, I thought she let you guys know as well.” Clearly she hadn’t.
“I’m just going to come out and say it. I don’t think this is a good idea. We don’t have enough time, supplies, or even a theme. Plus, it’s rude to just expect us all to drop everything and cater to your whims. You’ve gotten a big head, Birdie. You need to check yourself,” Inez said.
I sucked in a breath. Granted, someone needed to say it, but I didn’t want to be here to witness it.
“Big head. Big head, my foot. You can just excuse yourself if that’s the way you feel. Whoever else feels the same way can just get to gettin’ too. I ain’t got time for this. I said the same thing to that Devonshire man. I don’t care if he had this date first, my gala is more important than his Little Miss Whatever pageant.”
Inez didn’t move.
“Go on, get. You said your piece, now skedaddle.”
“I’m disappointed in you, Birdie,” Inez said.
Mrs. J. just shooed Inez away with a flick of her wrist. Inez attempted to stare down Mrs. J., but she had turned her attention back to her notes.
Inez stood up and marched out. I gave her a sympathetic look but stayed in the meeting just in
case I was called on again, or had to play referee if mutiny ensued. At this point I was thinking there was a fifty-fifty chance it would. For the sake of our town and Mrs. J’s reputation, this gala couldn’t be over soon enough.
6
After the meeting, my mind was so full of parade floats, azalea’s and the impending search party that it never occurred to me to check the backseat of Finn’s truck before I hopped in. I felt the person’s presence before I heard him say my name and it was all I could do to keep myself from freaking out.
“Ziva! Ssshhh! Don’t scream!”
Why is it that when someone sneaks up on you and scares you half to death, they always say don’t scream? I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense to me either. I whipped my head around and came face-to-face with my husband. I was so overcome with emotion that I didn’t know which one I wanted to lead with. Relief that he was alive. Anger that he had disappeared on me in the first place. Confusion as to what in the heck was even going on. I felt them all play across my face.
“Look straight ahead. I’ve only got a minute,” Finn instructed.
“What are you even talking about? I need more than a minute with you and preferably someplace private where we can talk.” I was cognitive of the fact that all around me ladies were piling into their cars and setting out for their evenings. Mrs. J. looked suspiciously my way. I gave her a polite wave and started Finn’s truck.
“I’m gone for less than two days and you’re already driving my ride,” Finn joked.
I still had too many emotions running through me to find much humor in his comment.
“What were you guys talking about outside for so long, anyway?” Finn asked.
“As if you even need to ask. They’re organizing a search party!” I hissed. Even though Inez left the meeting, she stayed after as promised to organize the search party. It was scheduled for 9AM the next day. I was shocked with how quickly the ladies had moved on the idea, but as Inez reminded me, “Time is of the essence in a missing person’s case.”
Beauty Secrets Mystery Boxed Set 2 Page 34
