“Possibly. Manny claims David told him and Logan about three weeks before graduation that he intended to propose to Jayla after graduation. He’d found a small ring he wanted to buy, but it was too expensive. David hounded Logan to get him a job at the auto body shop for quick money, but then Logan came up with a different plan. Logan started pressuring Manny to let him and David swipe merchandise from the hardware store while Manny looked the other way. Manny refused. And even though Manny claims David said he understood, Logan became enraged.”
“I wonder why Logan was more upset than David?”
Mike shrugged. “My theory? Either Logan or his family didn’t want David out at the shop that much. Maybe they were afraid he’d catch on that something illegal was going on out there.”
“So my theory that Manny got Logan to help him kill David probably isn’t a solid theory?” I wondered.
Mike smiled. “Doesn’t look to be.”
“Well, crap. I was so sure Logan and Manny were in on it.”
“That’s not all,” Mike said.
I crossed my arms over my chest and frowned. “You’re awful Chatty Cathy today. Why?”
Mike smiled. “Because I know how this town talks, and I have a lot of work to do tonight and can’t field your calls. Now, about the illegal activity at the auto body shop…it’s not drugs being run through there. When I executed the search warrant for the tarp out back, I had the K-9 with me. Nothing.”
My mouth dropped open. “What? You’re kidding me! Gramps and I thought for sure that’s what was going on out there. Classic signs. Way more workers than needed, all the dogs roaming around…even the delivery of the car the night David died sounded fishy. More like delivery of drugs.”
“The chief can keep Logan for twenty-four hours,” Mike said. “I think his plan is to have the dad, Earl, come in around six tonight to do an in-depth with him regarding the tarp.”
Great news for us!
“You aren’t going to sit in for that?” I asked.
“No. I have another theory of what’s going on I need to get paperwork around for. Hopefully I’ll be able to run with it tomorrow. There are a couple hoops I’m jumping through right now, but by tomorrow it should come to a head.”
I gasped. “You think you’re gonna solve this case by tomorrow?”
He tapped my forehead. “I’m sure inside here your wheels are spinning on what your next move will be now that you have this information.”
I gave him my best innocent look. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Uh-huh. Let’s just not do anything that gets you arrested, okay?”
“Okay.” I winced. “Oh, hey, can I ask a favor?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Usually I would say yes, but why do I get the feeling this has something to do with my case?”
“Can you look up someone for me? See if they have a record?”
“Jaycee—”
“Now, just hear me out. One name, that’s it. Then I promise not to ask anything more.”
He frowned. “Okay, I can run it real quick. Who is it?”
I closed my eyes and brought up the name Jane had given me. “Edwardo Brittolli.
“Anything in particular I’m looking for?” he asked.
“I don’t know. It was just something the librarian, Jane Forsythe, said to me.”
“Edwardo Brittolli. Got it. I gotta get back to the station and write today’s report up. It’ll probably be another couple hours. If it’s earlier than seven, I’ll stop by here before I head to my place to pack. Otherwise, I’ll just see you in the morning for breakfast. We’re still on for tomorrow night’s dinner, right?”
“Yep. Big time announcement.”
He cupped my face in his hands. “I can’t wait,” he whispered as he lowered his mouth to mine.
***
At five-fifteen sharp, Jax, Heidi, and Bridget literally ran through the front door of Gone with the Whiskey. I laughed when I noticed they were out of breath.
“Did you run here from your stores?” I teased.
“Yep,” Jax said. “We raced.”
I waggled my finger back and forth between Heidi and Bridget, pointing to their matching black outfits and black boots. “I see you two are dressed for the occasion already.”
“We went to work like this,” Bridget said proudly.
“We wanted the whole day to get into character,” Heidi added.
Chuckling, I set down three Tequila Mockingbirds on the counter. “To get your juices flowing.”
“What’s the plan?” Jax said. “Do we know?”
Heidi nodded and set her glass down. “We’re to drive one vehicle out to Shady Hill Cemetery, leave the keys under the mat, and wait for further instructions.”
“That doesn’t sound ominous in any way,” I said dryly.
“Shady Hill?” Jax mused. “That’s only like half a mile from Blevins Auto Body. That’s a great place to meet.”
“But how are we getting to the shop?” I asked.
Heidi averted her gaze. “I’m not sure.”
“Liar!” I cried. “You know something!”
Heidi and Bridget exchanged looks.
“What?” I demanded. “What do you know?”
“We don’t know anything,” Heidi said. “For sure.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, but she didn’t budge.
“Go on and get dressed,” Mom chided. “You don’t want to keep Bernita and the girls waiting.”
Bernita and “the girls” were actually known as the Double G Gang—the Graffiti Grannies. Their tags on buildings and bridges were legendary around town. Mike tried for weeks to capture the gang responsible for the artwork, but he never could. They’d also been instrumental in helping us out in a couple cases. I’d been sworn to secrecy to never divulge their true identify…and that’s a promise I was taking to the grave with me.
Once Jax and I were changed and Mom, Tillie, and Darlene assured us they were capable of handling the place for an hour or two on a Friday night, we piled into my Rubicon and headed the mile and a half out of town to the cemetery.
“I just hope this cemetery thing isn’t an omen,” Jax said.
“Whaddya mean?” I asked.
“Let’s be honest, whether it’s by Mike or these Blevins people—if we get caught, we’re dead meat.”
Chapter 17
Bernita No-Last-Name-Needed claimed she was five feet tall, but I secretly called her a liar at that bold statement. She barely reached my chest, was slightly rotund, and had a head full of thick, kinky gray curls. When she first introduced herself to me months ago, she told me she was known as the Queen Bea of the Double G Gang. And I soon learned she was every inch her street name.
As I drove around the back side of the cemetery, I cut my headlights so as not to blind the group of ladies already there. Bernita, Ilita, Irma, and Patsy stood in front of Bernita’s grandson’s massive Ram truck. She’d told me the first time I met her that she’d “borrowed” it from him since he was in the military and didn’t need it. When I asked if she was afraid someone in her family might tell her grandson, she assured me in the same steely voice Gramps sometimes developed that her family knew how to keep their mouths shut.
They made an imposing view standing with their arms crossed over their geriatric bodies, unsmiling, the cemetery as their backdrop. Shutting off the engine and slipping my keys under the mat, the four of us hopped out and walked over to greet them.
“Only three minutes late,” Bernita said. “Not too bad.”
Barely managing to suppress an eye roll, I stopped in front of Bernita. “So what’s the plan?”
“We’re going in stealth,” she said. “I’ll have Ilita, Irma, Heidi, and Bridget take the south side and back area, while you, me, Jax, and Patsy hit the front or north side.”
“What do you mean going in stealth?” Jax asked.
We followed Bernita as she walked toward the back of the truck. Turning on her flashlight, she flashed the
beam around the pickup bed. There were four fancy-looking dirt bikes chained to a bar.
“We can’t ride dirt bikes to a stakeout,” I said. “They’re noisy!”
Bernita chuckled. “Not these babies. These are super quiet. My grandson helped me modify them when he was on leave last month. They’re stealth hybrid dirt bikes. They go zero-to-sixty in three seconds, but they’re electric. Which means the only sound comes from the tires.”
“No way!” Jax exclaimed. “That’s amazing.”
I sent a glare to Heidi who just laughed.
“I only heard about them,” she said. “I haven’t ridden on it yet.”
“Because it’s electric,” Bernita went on, “the bike’s battery is capable of charging our tablets and phones in an emergency.”
“Okay,” I said, “now that’s impressive.”
“Drawbacks,” Bernita said, “are that the battery only lasts about four hours, and since it only has a forty-horsepower engine, the top speed is about seventy-five miles per hour.”
I didn’t really consider a top speed of seventy-five a drawback. I found it scary. Because I knew these crazy women would push that speed the whole way.
Irma and Ilita hopped up inside the truck and slowly pushed out a ramp. Bernita and Patsy guided the end of the ramp onto the ground while Irma checked to make sure it was secure and not going anywhere.
One by one the motorcycles were carefully unloaded down the ramp. With only four bikes, it was obvious we were going to partner up. I didn’t care who I got, as long as it wasn’t Patsy. The last time I rode a motorcycle with Patsy, I almost went flying out of the side car.
Ilita passed out helmets to Heidi and Bridget, while Patsy gave Jax and me each one. Bernita then tossed the Double G girls their helmets.
“What you need to know about these helmets,” Bernita said, “is that they’re our lifeline. The four of us have helmets that are Bluetooth accessible. This means we can interact and communicate with each other. Your helmets have speakers to hear us, but you can’t communicate back.”
“We also need to be careful on separation,” Patsy said. “The range on the Bluetooth is a little less than half a mile, so if there’s an emergency and we get separated, remember the range and say whatever it is you need to convey.”
Shoving the heavy, foam-filled helmet onto my head, I hoped like heck we wouldn’t need that last part because we wouldn’t get separated during an emergency. But this was the Double G Gang…you never knew what to expect.
“Give me a thumbs-up if you can hear me.”
Bernita’s voice sounded in my ear, and I raised my thumb in the air with everyone else.
“Perfect,” she continued. “This time around, I want Ilita and Heidi riding together, Irma and Bridget, Patsy and Jax, and I’ll take Jaycee.”
Oh gosh no! Please! I’ll take Patsy!
“On the bikes, ladies,” Bernita said.
I waited until Bernita was settled before gingerly sitting down on the seat. When it continued to give, I grabbed onto her and held on for dear life.
“It’s supposed to give like that.” Her voice filled my ear. “It sits on a huge spring that allows for give and take in case we need to make a harsh landing or something.”
“Great,” I murmured.
“Let’s ride!” Bernita yelled.
With a whoop from the other girls, the three bikes took off like a rocket and headed out of the cemetery. Chuckling, Bernita gunned the bike and we shot off after them. The weight of the helmet snapped my neck backward, and it took all my focus to lift my neck back up into a righted position. Ignoring the pain, I wrapped myself around Bernita’s back and held on for dear life. As we turned onto Mays Canyon Road, Bernita called out the order she wanted us to ride.
“You still hanging in there, Jaycee?” Bernita sounded in my ear.
It took all my effort, but I managed to lift my right arm from around her waist and give her a shaky thumbs up.
“We’ve just made the left to go up the drive to the auto body shop,” Ilita said. “We’ll cut around back and station ourselves back there.”
“Good,” Bernita said. “Patsy and I will keep going straight up the road until we reach the first big tree by the fence. On my drive out to the cemetery, I tried to map out the best places to watch from, and that seemed like the safest from the front. Remember, once the bike lights are off, we’re pretty much going in blind. Be careful, and keep your helmets on.”
“Ten-four,” Irma said.
I sat up and looked over Bernita’s shoulder to see what, if anything, was going on at the auto shop. I didn’t really think anything would be going on since Logan was still in custody, and Earl was in the middle of being questioned, but I couldn’t be sure.
Bernita pulled off the side of the gravel driveway and parked behind a huge redwood tree. Patsy did the same with a tree ten feet away. The start of the fence was just mere inches from me, and I had to wonder how long it would be before the dogs arrived.
“Can you make anything out, Irma?” Bernita asked.
“That’s a negative, Queen Bea. It looks nice and dark back here where we are.”
Suddenly, a cacophony of dogs barking and howling filled the air, and all the hairs on my body stood on end. Even though I couldn’t see them in the darkness, I could have sworn I felt them circling us. A complete fabrication, but it was my perceived reality.
Bernita grabbed my arm then flipped up her visor. “The cops were out here today?”
“Yes. Mike stopped by the bar around five to tell me they served a search warrant for the tarp this afternoon, and that the son was being held overnight while the dad should be getting questioned right this minute.”
Bernita and Patsy moved swiftly toward the fence while I stood next to Jax. Once again Bernita’s voice filled my ear. “I can make out movement, but I think it’s the dogs. I saw a few of those precious beasts when I did my reconnaissance earlier.”
I peered around Jax and noticed Bernita had binoculars to her eyes.
“I think it’s time we invested in a pair of those cool infrared binoculars,” Patsy said. “Especially if we keep going on nighttime stakeouts.”
God forbid!
“Do you think these bad guys just up and left when the police did?” Ilita asked. “Like maybe they didn’t have anything to hide or move out here?”
“Could be.” Bernita dropped the binoculars around her neck. “Irma, can you girls get any closer to the building than you already are?”
“Sure can, Queen Bea.”
“Go ahead and move forward. I’m going to have us walk the fence line nice and slow and see what we can make out inside the shop.” Bernita motioned us to follow her. “Stay next to the fence where the grass is taller, just in case we need to drop.”
Yippee.
The gravel driveway still went another thirty feet before it curved left and brought the customer to the crux of the shop’s parking lot. That was where Gramps and I had parked. That was also where a lot of debris and car parts sat haphazardly on the ground.
“If it’s dark inside and nothing looks to be going on,” Bernita said, “I say we give it a few minutes and then call—”
She didn’t have a chance to finish the sentence. Headlights cut through the night and the four of us instinctively dropped to the ground. Over the pounding of my heart, I could barely make out Bernita telling the other group of girls out back to stand down.
I heard the sound of tires crunching gravel go on by and was about to lift my body when Bernita hissed at us to stay down, another car was coming up the drive. A few seconds later, I again heard the unmistakable sound of tires crunching over gravel.
What? They decided to have a party out here?
The sound of a car door shutting had me panting like I was in labor. I wanted to look up and see if I could make anything out, especially who it was, but I just couldn’t seem to lift my head. And not because my helmet weighed eighty pounds, but because I was a little ter
rified.
“Nice and easy now,” Bernita admonished. “This is why we’re here. It looks like two people got out of one car and one out of the other. All three are going inside. We need to get as close as we can to see what’s going on. It’s too dark out here to be sure of anything.” I was about to protest when I was physically yanked up by the back of my shirt by Bernita. “Get a move on, girl! You’re the only one here who can identify who’s inside. Take my binoculars and get your answer. We’ll be down by the bikes in case we need to make a run for it.”
Swell!
Knowing she was right, I took her binoculars, crouched down low, and started waddling up the fence line to the curve in the driveway. At the curve, I ran to one of the cars and ducked behind. I could hear my breath coming in pants from inside the helmet. I was about to stand and run toward the building when Bernita buzzed in my ear.
“I’m sending Jax up to cover you,” she said. “I don’t like you out in the open like that.”
Still squatted down behind the dark vehicle, I waited until I could see Jax heading for me. Motioning for her to hurry up, I turned back around and cased the front of the auto body shop.
“These dogs aren’t going to stay quiet long,” Jax whispered as she lifted her visor. “They’re already starting to whine again.”
As if on cue, the dogs let out a piercing cry and started barking and howling like they’d been doing minutes before. I nearly keeled over when the front door opened and a voice rang out into the night.
“Shut up you dang dogs!”
I knew that voice!
On impulse, I brought the binoculars up to my eyes. I didn’t think I’d see anything in the dark, but I was wrong. There was a faint light coming from inside one of the bays that illuminated the area where the coffee pot sat, giving me just enough backlight to see.
The figure stepped back inside the shop and shut the door. I counted to five before standing and motioning for Jax. My intention was to get as close as I could to the building, look through the glass door, and see what happened.
Whispering Walls & Murder Page 10
