Murder Wins the Game

by Maddie Cochere

  I stood and waited while a wave of dizziness came and went. A noise at the top of the stairs caused me to remain rooted where I was. The dim light didn’t come on, but someone was coming down the steep narrow staircase with a flashlight. I had to think of something fast, or I knew I was a goner.

  I dropped to my knees and crawled to the chairs in the corner. I felt for the uppermost chair and lifted it, praying all the while they wouldn’t come crashing down and alert whoever was coming to my location in the darkness.

  The chairs held their position, and there was no noise. I leaned against the wall and made my way toward the stairs and the flashlight. Cobwebs coated my bare arm as I dragged it against the wall. I was too focused on the oncoming light to care.

  I held the chair high over my right shoulder and took a deep breath. I couldn’t see who it was, but the minute they stepped off the last step, and before they could swing the flashlight in my direction, I hit them with the chair with every bit of force I could muster.

  The flashlight dropped to the floor, as did the person holding it. I heard a loud groan, but I didn’t wait to see if they were injured or not. I jumped over their body and ran up the stairs toward the sliver of light coming in from the narrow door at the top.

  I burst through the door and lunged toward the back door. My eyes blinked rapidly against the bright light. I could barely see.

  Before I could find the door handle, strong arms grabbed me from behind. I turned to throw a punch, bite, kick - anything I could think of to defend myself, but the person holding me said, “Easy there, Sherlock. Everything’s ok now.”

  I’m not a crier. It takes a lot for me to break down and cry, but at that moment, my knees gave out from under me, and I allowed Glenn to support me while I buried my face in his neck and sobbed. I honestly hadn’t realized how terrified I’d been in the basement until this very moment.

  Glenn held me tight for a few minutes, before leaning me against the counter and whipping his t-shirt off. He helped slip it on over my head.

  “Where’s Collins?” Sergeant Rorski bellowed.

  Glenn looked into my eyes and repeated the question. “What’s Collins doing?”

  I sniffed, wiped my eyes, and shook my head. “How should I know?”

  “He came downstairs to get you. What’s he doing down there?”

  “Oops,” I said. “Someone might want to go check on him.”

  Officer Winnie took off down the stairs.

  It was then that I looked around and saw every man on the police force - and then some - was either in the apartment or outside on the lawn. The bag from behind the sofa was on the kitchen counter. It had been unzipped and revealed the money.

  “What’s happened?” I asked. “Did you get the Druckers?”

  He nodded. “They’re in squad cars right now. They were packing suitcases when we showed up.” He looked over at Sergeant Rorski. “Sarge, let me take Jo home and let her get cleaned up. I’ll make sure she’s all right and get her down to the station later to write a statement.”

  I knew he wouldn’t object. He was always glad to have me out of the way at a crime scene.

  The sergeant walked over to us and looked me over. He shook his head in a manner indicating disbelief and asked, “Are you ok?”

  Words failed me. I nodded my head.

  “Good,” he said. “I don’t know how you did this, but you did good, Ravens.” He looked at Glenn. “Go ahead and take her.”

  Before we could move, Officer Collins came through the narrow doorway with Officer Winnie guiding him from behind. He had his head tilted back, and blood was now in the clotting stage at his nose. From the look of his face and the front of his uniform, it had obviously poured from both nostrils for a while. He lowered his head and the beginnings of two black eyes were already starting to show.

  “What the hell happened to you?” the Sergeant roared.

  I grabbed Glenn’s arm and dragged him out the back door before the officer could answer.

  As we crossed the yard, I saw Jackie talking with Clay Carpenter. She was writing as fast as he was talking. When she saw us, she yelled, “Wait up!”

  Glenn wasn’t stopping for anyone. “She’ll call you later,” he said, and continued to propel me toward his car.

  “My truck is parked in the alley behind the house, and my bag is somewhere in the basement.”

  He helped me into his car and sent a hurried text to Officer Winnie to find my bag and drop it off at the station.

  “Did you do that to Collins?” he asked. He had a slight smile on his face, but I genuinely felt bad for delivering such a hard blow to his face and head.

  “I didn’t know who was coming down the stairs. He should have called out my name or something. I was defending myself.”

  He reached over and grasped my hand. I noticed how filthy it was. My arm was worse. I grabbed the rear-view mirror and pulled it in my direction. The sight before me was horrific. Collins and I could have been twins. I had blood smeared on my face from my own nosebleed, and both of my eyes were going to be black as well. My damage wasn’t nearly as great as his, but I was amazed falling on my face could result in such a mess.

  We drove back to my house. Or was it our house? Our place? It was going to take some getting used to, referring to my house as Glenn’s, too.

  I took a long, hot shower and came downstairs to the vegetable omelets Glenn had hoped to make yesterday. They looked delicious, and I was ravenous. I not only ate mine, but Glenn shoved half of his over to me as well.

  After eating, we took cups of coffee into the living room and settled on the sofa. Glenn sat on the end and gave me the coveted spot in the middle.

  “I leaned back and yawned. It was still early, but I was beat. “Do we have to go to the station today?” I asked.

  “I can probably get you out of it if we go first thing in the morning,” he said.

  I nodded and sipped my coffee.

  “Tell me what happened on your end,” I said. “I went to the Druckers to see what they knew about their downstairs neighbor, Roberta. Obviously, I was wrong about that, and things went south from there.”

  “Winnie called to tell me who operated the space in the flea market where I saw the candlestick. When he said Bill and Bobbie Drucker, the name Drucker sounded familiar, so I came back here and checked your whiteboard. It occurred to me Bobbie might be Roberta. Your pink lines made it clear she was a flimsy thread between the murders and the robberies.”

  “Why flimsy?”

  “Because you didn’t have anything concrete. There was nothing to pin on her. Just because the Druckers had the candlestick didn’t mean they were the ones who stole it. They could have bought it from someone.”

  I shrugged. That made sense.

  “I wrote down the address and then went to the station to talk with Sarge. I told him everything I could think of that you had on your board. He reminded me that he had already charged Kristy Munson with her grandfather’s murder. I told him I thought we should talk to the Drucker’s anyway. At the very least, we had to ask them where they got the candlestick. He told me to take Clay Carpenter with me, and he reminded me that I wasn’t actually on the force.

  “Yeah, that’s another thing,” I said. “What is Clay Carpenter doing here? He came down into the basement, and when he saw it was pitch black, he turned tail like a little scaredy girl. He left me down there with Bernie and a gun!”

  “I’m getting to that. We’re short handed, so the sarge got a few guys from Patterson to transfer temporarily to the Buxley force. Clay is one of them.”

  I shifted in my seat to face Glenn as he continued with his story.

  “We drove around the block and spotted your truck in the alley, but we didn’t know for certain if you were upstairs with the Druckers or not. We went up and knocked, and Bobbie let us in. I told her we were looking for you, and she said she hadn’t seen you. I asked her if I could look around, and she said not without a warrant, but I wasn’t
taking no for an answer. I told her I wasn’t a police officer, and I didn’t need a warrant.

  When Bobbie and Bill were chasing me through the apartment while I was looking for you, Clay spotted the basement door in the kitchen. He went down and saw how dark it was-”

  “No kidding,” I said. “You should have heard him. He didn’t even step off the last step, he just turned around and bolted.”

  “He turned around and bolted because he saw you.”

  “How did he see me?”

  “He didn’t see you as much as he saw glints of light from all the duct tape. Remember, by now we knew there were three people in the house, and Clay had only seen two of them. He didn’t know if you were alone down there, and he knew I wasn’t armed upstairs. He played like he was afraid of rats and came back upstairs.

  By the time I was done looking in closets and under beds, he was at the back door waiting for me and rushed me out of there. Bobbie and Bill didn’t know he had gone downstairs. When he told me you were in the basement, I wanted to go back in, but he insisted we wait for backup. I was furious with how long it took for Sarge to get manpower together and get over there. I didn’t know about the gun, but I knew the longer it took, the more likely something bad would happen to you.

  They finally stormed the place and arrested the Druckers. I wanted to come down and get you myself, but Sarge said I was too emotional and sent Collins instead.”

  I leaned over and kissed him. “I’m glad you’re an emotional guy,” I murmured softly.

  “Me, too,” he said. “I like my nose the way it is.”

  “Has Bernie already been charged with murder?”

  “Murder? None of the Druckers have been charged with murder. They’ll be charged with possession of stolen goods and breaking into Dave’s house and stealing his money, but there’s no proof of murder. There’s no motive.”

  “William Drucker Junior confessed to killing both Richard Munson and Dave Jackson right before he planned to kill me. If you and Clay hadn’t shown up when you did, I’d be dead right now.”

  Glenn’s eyes bugged out. “Holy cow, Jo! We’ve got to see Sarge right away.”

  Of course we did.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It had been four days since all the hoopla with the Druckers happened.

  Officer Winnie called for paramedics when we showed up at the station and told Sergeant Rorski about Bernie’s confession. The sergeant’s face turned volcanic red before settling into a lovely shade of purple as he grabbed his chest and fell back into his chair.

  I never knew an anxiety attack could produce such a result.

  Once confronted, Bernie wasn’t afraid to confess. He still believed he would be tried as a juvenile. The prosecutor assured Glenn there was no chance of that happening. An investigation into the Druckers revealed they were classic grifters, moving from city to city, stealing and conning people out of their money along the way. Three unsolved murders in previous towns were being re-investigated and would likely be charged to Bernie as well.

  An interdepartmental review cleared Glenn of any wrongdoing for pulling his weapon on minors. His badge and gun were returned to him, and he was due back on the job Monday night.

  Officer Collins sustained a broken nose, a concussion, one detached retina, and two seriously black eyes. He was reprimanded for not identifying himself as he approached me in the basement. If I thought he disliked me before, I was sure he hated me now.

  My nose and eyes were fine. The color remaining under my eyes was easy to conceal with makeup, and I dabbed concealer on the bruises now.

  I hadn’t had much of an appetite the past few days, and it showed. The emerald green dress I was wearing was snug but in a good way. I looked more curvy than plump. I had curled my hair, and it fell in soft waves past my shoulders and nearly halfway down my back.

  Glenn walked into the bathroom and slipped his arms around me from behind, pulling me against him. He peered over my shoulder to check me out in the mirror.

  “You look beautiful,” he said, leaning forward to kiss me on my cheek. “Happy birthday.”

  I turned around and hugged him. “Please tell me where we’re going. You know I don’t like surprises.”

  “Sorry. You have to like them today, because I’m not telling.”

  He fussed with his shirtsleeves for a minute. “Let’s get going. We don’t want to miss our reservation, and I want to stop by my place to grab my other cufflinks. These are scratching me.”

  On the way to his house, I felt a flutter of butterflies in my stomach. Everything in my world had righted itself, and I was excited about our date tonight. Glenn looked super sexy in his suit and tie, and although it had taken nearly a year, I finally felt as though we belonged together.

  “Come in with me,” he said. “I’ll be a few minutes finding the links, and you can take a look around and see what you want to pick up tomorrow to take back to our place.”

  Our place. So that was how he was going to refer to my house. I could live with that.

  When we stepped onto the porch, he handed his keys to me. “You open. I want to grab the mail.”

  He pulled the mail out of the wall-mounted box while I opened the door. I stepped into the large living room and threw the light switch on the wall.

  “Surprise!” a large group of people yelled at the same time.

  I was truly astonished. I would have never thought Glenn would arrange a surprise party at his house. Lights went on in the rest of the rooms. People were everywhere.

  I lightly backhanded Glenn on his chest. “How in the world did you keep this from me?” I looked over at Pepper and asked, “How did you keep a secret this big?”

  “It was hard,” she said emphatically. “I almost messed up a couple of times, but you’ve been so distracted lately, you didn’t pick up on it.”

  Glenn knew I wasn’t one for public displays of affection, but I turned and threw my arms around him to plant a huge kiss on his lips. He pulled me into his arms and returned the kiss with passion.

  Someone started music playing. Dean Martin sang Amore.

  “For the old people,” Glenn said with a smile.

  “What about our dinner reservations?” I asked.

  He pointed to the dining room. “We’re right on time.”

  I felt like a giddy schoolgirl. I was even giggling.

  Glenn and I began moving through the crowd to say hello to everyone. I was more than a little surprised by some of the guests who had come. Sergeant Rorski manned a make-shift bar that had been set up in one corner of the living room. Arnie sat on a stool next to the bar. It seemed appropriate he would have taken up that spot.

  Officer Winnie and Clay Carpenter were on duty, but most of the guys on the force had come. I nearly fell over when Officer Collins approached me and held out his hand.

  “No hard feelings, Jo,” he said. “Happy birthday.”

  I shook his hand. “I’m truly sorry, Tom. If I had known it was you, I certainly wouldn’t have swung as hard as I did.”

  My words didn’t come out as I intended, but he understood and nodded his head.

  How Glenn managed to get Howard Sanders to come was a true mystery. The coroner had nothing but contempt for me. Tonight, he was positively pleasant.

  Glenn had an answer for me later in the evening. “Can you believe all the people who came?” he asked.

  “Not at all,” I said. “How many pies did Jackie have to give Howard to get him here?”

  “None, Jo. Every person who was invited came tonight. It’s a great testament to how much you’ve earned their respect.”

  I didn’t know if that was entirely true, but it felt good to believe it for one night.

  I slipped into the dining room and surveyed the food. The girls had outdone themselves this time. The theme was Italian, and I had never seen so many different types of pasta on one table. Glenn came to stand beside me and pointed out a dish of rolled beef in tomato sauce.

  “
Have you ever had braciole? I made this especially for you. It’s my grandmother’s recipe.”

  “Your grandmother was Italian?”

  He smiled and nodded. “She taught me to cook when I was a teenager. She left her recipes to me.”

  No wonder his lasagna was so good. A light bulb went off over my head. No wonder he was offended when I didn’t want it. It felt personal to him.

  The dessert table was just as impressive. Most of the desserts were classic Italian to include my favorite - cannoli. A lone blueberry pie sat in the middle of the table with a small sign stuck in the middle with a toothpick. It had my name on it. I knew it wouldn’t be from Crump and Crumpets. It would be one of Jackie’s amazing pies.

  The birthday cake was three layers and sat on a separate table by itself. Jackie had made the cake and decorated it with private eye elements. It was cute and funny at the same time. The cleverness of the scarlet scarf, the candlestick, lead pipe, and gun weren’t lost on me.

  “What do you think?” she asked as she sidled up to me.

  I laughed. “I think you’ve outdone yourself. Is there chocolate under that white icing?”

  “It’s buttercream, and yes, it’s chocolate cake.”

  “It’s fantastic. Thank you,” I said warmly.

  Not wanting to be left out, Pepper rushed over to us. “I love the Clue things you put on the cake,” she said.

  Jackie shoved an elbow into her side.

  Pepper looked like the cat that swallowed the canary. I had no idea what that was all about.

  “You’ve been so busy at work, we haven’t had a chance to talk with you the past few days,” Jackie said. “Did you hear what happened at the Garden Center?”

  Pepper screwed up her face and said, “It wasn’t my fault.”

  Jackie laughed. “For starters, Judith and Bridget weren’t even in town on the day Richard was murdered. They were in Hawaii making arrangements to have orchids flown into town for the garden show. Most of the flowers won’t arrive until next month, but one rare one was shipped ahead to give it more time to acclimate.”

  “They should have had it in a safer place,” Pepper said.