Then I felt it.
I wasn’t the only one.
“You guys picking up on that?” Chad asked.
Izzy’s face broke out into a huge grin. Annette’s expression looked the same. I suddenly felt abnormally happy as well.
“What in the world?” Izzy said.
“She’s having the time of her life,” Annette said.
“She is?” I asked.
“Wherever she’s at, she’s living it up,” added Chad.
I let out a sigh I didn’t know I had been holding in.
“Any idea where?” I asked.
The trio was silent while they tried to piece it together.
“I taste salt,” Izzy said, smacking her tongue inside her mouth. “Maybe tequila, too.”
“I’m picking up the sand. The ocean,” Chad added.
“A nearby beach?” I offered up.
“No, not close by. We’d see it clearly if she was,” Annette said.
“She’s okay though,” I said.
“Most definitely,” Annette replied.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that she hasn’t been kidnapped,” Izzy said, letting go of Annette’s hand. I noticed she held on to Chad’s.
“That’s a relief.” It seemed like Kat was just off somewhere being Kat. That I could live with.
The microwave dinged and ended the little pow-wow session.
“Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate you doing this.”
“Absolutely. It was fun,” Chad replied. He placed his other hand on top of Izzy’s and held it there.
Annette gave me back the necklace on her way to grab her dinner out of the microwave.
Izzy and Chad seemed to be having a moment together, and with Annette getting ready to eat, I definitely felt out of place. It was time for me to skedaddle. It had been a long day, and I had plenty to think about.
13
The next morning I sipped my cup of chai and thought everything through for the thousandth time. Kat was okay, hurray! Alexia hadn’t killed Cody, and Devonshire wasn’t really after Finn. Now what? Maybe I would run over to Sweet Thangs, nab my favorite beverage done right and tackle this day head on. I mentally made a plan to do just that when I looked over and spotted Mrs. J. Not that she was hard to miss. Hot pink sun hat, matching lipstick and tracksuit. Binoculars pressed to her eyes, staring right at me. Sleuthing Jackson was at it again. I waved sarcastically directly at her. She waved enthusiastically back, not even bothering to look sheepish. That wasn’t her style. Normally I would’ve invited her onboard, but given the circumstances, I ducked back inside, threw on a pair of fresh leggings, a tank top and an off-the-shoulder sweatshirt. I slipped my feet into a pair of flip-flops, nabbed my sunglasses and met her dockside.
“All clear?” I asked her.
“Can’t be too sure right now, Sug’. You see that husband of yours?”
Wouldn’t you like to know, I thought. “Nope, not yet,” I replied instead.
“Well, I’ll keep looking.”
Of that, I was certain.
“Are you packing?” I asked Mrs. J. Her pants pocket had a suspicious bulge that looked an awful lot like a gun.
Mrs. J. pulled out her weapon. “The STUNner 2000. The strongest Taser on the market. This baby packs some power.”
“Is that legal?” I asked.
“Depends on who’s asking. Why, you want me to get you one?”
“Hmm, maybe. I’ll let you know.” Truthfully, I should’ve bought one a long time ago. Maybe for my birthday. Self-defense: the gift that keeps on giving.
“What about the float? Y’all figure out whodunit?”
“Actually, yes.” I never spoke to Inez or interviewed a single suspect, but I was fairly certain I knew who had destroyed the float. That’s one thing I had figured out.
“Well who is it? Who am I arresting?” Mrs. J. asked.
“The puppies,” I said with a smile.
“Puppies? What puppies? What are you talking about?” Mrs. J. demanded.
“Darla’s Dalmatian puppies. Didn’t you see them at the station?”
“Well, yes, I saw them. I ain’t blind.”
“Well then, those puppies.”
“I’m not following. Why would those puppies be so malicious?”
“Come on, Mrs. J. What did the damage on the float look like? Were parts of it thrown about and all chewed up?” I remembered seeing how the puppies had shredded the papers in their play yard.
“Well, I suppose you could say it looked that way.”
“What do puppies do?”
Mrs. J. didn’t respond.
“They chew up everything. It would only take a couple of them getting out to rip that float to shreds. Did you ask Chief Brody about it?” I asked.
“He hasn’t returned my calls,” Mrs. J. said.
“Stop in and pay him a visit. I bet the little rascals got out two nights ago and had a field day.”
“Humph, I’m going to have a word with their mama.”
I was sure Darla couldn’t wait.
I said goodbye to Mrs. J. at Sweet Thangs and grabbed my latte and cream cheese-stuffed cinnamon roll to go. I thought back through this past week and kept coming back to the photo Agent Cooper had showed me. That was key. I was positive. Finn might not have the same photo, but I knew he kept his old yearbooks. The question became where?
I did a bit of a searching while cleaning around the house. I’d open a closet, rearrange a couple of items, fold some towels, while also seeing if there was a box of old memorabilia stashed away. If I thought really hard, I could vaguely remember a light blue storage container that Finn used to keep his high school things stored. I had only seen it a time or two. Finn brought it out once to show me his baseball team photo. The fact that he had played the sport in high school hadn’t been surprising seeing he loved the game as much as my father did.
Looking under the bed, I stopped short.
“Sweet sugar, what is that?” I went to reach for the syringe but stopped myself. Absentmindedly my hand went up to my shoulder and rubbed it. The pain in my arm from earlier in the week. It had been from an injection. Why hadn’t ever thought of that? I scrambled up and quickly found my cell phone and dialed Detective Brandle.
“I was injected with something,” I said when our lines connected. “I just found the syringe under the bed.”
“Why didn’t I think of that? Don’t touch it,” Detective Brandle instructed.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t.” I scooped up Captain Jack in my arms and walked over to board him in the kitchen. The last thing I needed was for my pup to get a hold of it. Thank goodness he hadn’t found it before me.
“How long do you think the drug would stay in my system?” I asked.
“Depends on what it is. It’s mostly likely long gone by now. Let me call it in. You want me to come over?”
“No, it’s okay. I can handle it.” While it was completely unnerving to know I had been injected with something, it was also a relief to know I hadn’t slept through someone being shot. There had been a level of guilt sitting over me for not waking up to help Cody that I hadn’t even realized.
“Hey, before you hang up, do you by chance happen to know a guy who drives a motorcycle? His helmet has green flames. He’s a bit, I don’t know, off.”
“TJ?” Detective Brandle asked.
“I don’t know, I didn’t get his name. The Quick & Go store clerk said she saw him the night of Cody’s murder acting jittery. He was just here yesterday looking for Finn, too. He said he heard about Cody.”
“Yeah, that sounds like TJ. If anything could bring him out, it would be Cody’s death.”
“What you mean, bring him out?”
“The kid experimented with way too many drugs. If I remember right, I busted him for selling LSD several times. It seems like he took one too many trips and fried his brain. He never leaves the house.”
“Oh my gosh, that sounds awful.”
&
nbsp; “Yeah, it wrecked his mother. She never got over it.”
“And he was friends with Finn and Cody?” I asked.
“Back in the day. They were inseparable.”
“You don’t think he has anything to do with Cody’s murder, do you?”
“That’s an angle I hadn’t thought of. I’ll have to think about it. I don’t think TJ could have pulled it off. Especially if you’re talking about being injected with something, but it wouldn’t be the first time a killer surprised me.
“Maybe they’ll pull some evidence off the syringe,” I offered up. At this point, that was our best chance of getting something concrete.
“Let me give Agent Cooper a call and have him look into TJ.”
“Okay, I’ll keep an eye out for him too,” I said.
I hung up with Detective Brandle and waited twenty minutes for the crime scene techs to come and retrieve the syringe. It didn’t take them but a minute to put the needle in a baggie and after that I was left wondering where else to look for Finn’s yearbook. I was convinced that identifying the four boys in the photo would hold the answers to the case. I was working on the assumption that TJ was the third boy in the photo. The fourth boy could very easily be his accomplice.
The only place I hadn’t looked was Finn’s old apartment, and come to think of it, I should have looked there first. I even had a couple boxes stashed upstairs. Knickknacks, college textbooks, old journals. Items I didn’t want to part with, but didn’t fit in with my current life or style choices. I still had the apartment key on my keyring, and it would take only a minute to jog over there.
A couple of minutes later, that’s exactly what I did.
No one paid any attention to me as I skipped back across the marina and jogged up the wooden staircase. A few seconds later, I was through the front door and flipping on the kitchen lights.
There stood Finn in his boxer shorts, eating SpaghettiOs cold right out of the can. He had a goofy expression on his face while mine was more of shock.
“This? This is your top-secret hideout? Your old apartment located less than a stone’s throw from where the FBI has been coming and going?”
“Brilliant, isn’t it?” Finn asked while scraping the bottom of the metal can with a spoon. “I told you I wasn’t that far.”
“I know, but you could have just told me where you were. I wouldn’t have told anyone, and it would’ve made me feel a heck of a lot safer knowing you were close by. Which, reminds me! I had a little chat with Alexia today.”
Finn dropped the can on the floor. It was the reaction I’d hoped for.
I pointed my finger at his chest. “You jerk, you never told me you were married before.”
Finn held up his hands in a surrender. “It lasted a week, and the woman conned me. She ran off with the goods. Did she tell you that?”
“Yeah, and guess what, it’s not The Sugar King who is after you. Turns out that little heist you guys pulled off? Yeah, you stole a bunch of forgeries.”
“No, we didn’t. We stole the real things.” Suddenly Finn seemed all offended. You’d think he would’ve been happy.
Nope, ’fraid not. Alexia discovered it when she went to fence them, which explains why The Sugar King never came after you. You weren’t worth it. So, someone who knows about the little heist wanted to get you guys all together again. Why? I have no idea but it wasn’t The Sugar King.”
“Alexia didn’t—”
“Try to hurt me? No. I figured that out ahead of time. If she had wanted me dead, she would’ve done it when she killed Cody which means—”
“She didn’t kill Cody,” Finn filled in.
“Bingo. Turns out Alexia couldn’t keep risking walking around in public as she’s pretty much on every country’s most wanted list. Hence her sneaking around.”
“Sounds like she’s created quite the career for herself.”
“That she has, but she still wanted to make sure you knew it wasn’t The Sugar King.”
“How thoughtful,” Finn grumbled.
“Listen, I know it wasn’t a legit marriage on her part, but you still should’ve told me. I don’t like secrets. Promise me there aren’t anymore,” I said.
Finn pretended to think on it.
I eyed him expectantly.
Finn reached his hands around my waist and pulled me close to his chest. “I promise. And for what it’s worth, I don’t consider you my second wife, or my second anything. You’re my one true love.” I swallowed hard. Finn could deliver a line with the best of them. SpaghettiOs mouth or not, I moved in to give him a kiss.
“Finn, I’m sorry, man.” The unexpected voice froze me in my tracks. I didn’t recognize the voice behind me enough to put a face to it. When I turned around, I saw that it was TJ. His eye was twitching and he repeatedly licked his lips, almost lizard-like.
“TJ, man, what’s up? Is everything okay?” Finn asked. Finn moved until he was standing almost in front of me. This couldn’t be a good sign.
“I’m such a screw-up, everyone hates me. It killed my mom. My brother tells me every day. Never forgave me.”
“What? What about Timothy?” Finn asked.
“He hates me. I screwed up,” TJ replied.
“It’s not you that I hate,” another voice added. Now that voice I knew. Agent Cooper strolled through the doorway, gun drawn and pointing it at the three of us.
“Tattletale Timothy, long time no see,” Finn said to Agent Cooper. Now Finn was standing directly in front of me. I searched the counter with my eyes for a weapon. Kitchens were full of them. Steak knives, meat mallets, frying pans—what could I grab?
Then it all clicked together. “The photograph. It was you, Cody, TJ and Agent Cooper.”
“Agent Cooper? What kind of name is that?” Finn asked.
Cooper’s my mother’s maiden name. I’m not going to have you disrespect her. If it wasn’t for you, my mom would still be alive.”
“Why are you blaming Finn?” I asked.
“He showed TJ the world of crime, and it took his life down with it.”
TJ looked utterly confused.
“You’re crazy, man. It wasn’t even my idea. TJ’s the one who marked Devonshire,” Finn said. Personally, I didn’t think it was smart to call a man pointing a gun at you crazy, but that was just my opinion. “And I never did any drugs. I’m clean there.” Finn held up his hands to accent his point.
“No, but Cody did,” Agent Cooper said. “I was able to get one of you.”
“No he didn’t,” TJ replied.
Agent Cooper looked at his brother for the first time. “Of course he did. You just don’t remember. Like everything else.” Agent Cooper’s expression was filled with disgust. “Long hair and spending his life on the beach. I think I know a stoner when I see one.”
“I’m pretty sure you just insulted half of the US population,” Finn replied.
“I’m don’t care. TJ, come stand next to me,” Agent Cooper said.
TJ reluctantly did as he was told.
“What do we have here? A little murder-suicide?” Agent Cooper said. “TJ was tired of being a screw-up, so he decided to take back control, killing his loser friends and then turning the gun on himself. Sounds poetic, doesn’t it?”
“Poetic, my foot!”
Mrs. J. had joined our little group. She didn’t even wait for Agent Cooper to turn around before blasting him with her Taser gun. The little prongs hit him right in the neck, and he went down hard. Mrs. J. kicked Agent Cooper’s gun across the floor to me and proceeded to handcuff him.
“This here’s a citizen’s arrest. You have the right to remain silent!” Agent Cooper didn’t even twitch.
It was Saturday morning. Gala festivities were in full swing, and Finn and I were meeting Aria and Vince for brunch. After the week we had been through, we could all use a Bloody Mary. Make it a double.
“You grew up with Agent Cooper?” Vince asked.
“Tattletale Timmy. He was always running after
us, telling his mom what we were up to,” Finn said.
“Did you know he was with the FBI?” I asked.
“No idea. It all makes sense now, though. He knew about the heist and knew we never got caught. Why not abuse your powers and come after us?”
“Not to mention he was totally mental,” I added.
“Yeah, I did a lot of stupid stuff in my day, but not drugs. TJ only has himself to blame for that one.” Finn replied.
“Hey, did you see this?” Aria handed me her phone.
It was a news article featuring the newly founded Devonshire Foundation. A hundred thousand dollars were up for grabs in the form of wide-sweeping grants.
“No way! Your work?” I asked Vince.
Vince winked. “I may have tipped off his wife.”
“Smart and efficient,” I laughed.
At that moment, Aria offered up a toast, “Cheers to the fabulous foursome being together again.”
I raised my glass to second that.
“Can we join in?” Kat breezed through the doorway as if she was planning on meeting us there all along.
“Kat! Where in the world have you been?” I asked.
Kyle, Randy’s son stood behind her. Kat proudly held up her left hand to show off the rock on her ring finger. “We got hitched in Mexico!”
Vince signaled for another round of drinks, and I stood up to hug my sister-in-law and her new husband. “Welcome to the family, Kyle.” Hope you don’t have any secrets, because if you do, we’ll find them.
About the Author
I'm a mystery author with a soft spot for romance and humor, too. I love all things girlie with a dollop of danger, have a strong affinity for the color pink (especially in diamonds and champagne), and, not to brag, but chocolate and I are in a pretty serious relationship.
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Beauty Secrets Mystery Boxed Set 2 Page 40
