Best Laid Plans

by Kristi Rose

  “You’re saying if I take this job, and if Laura or Levi are convicted and the self-sufficient thing looked to play a part, it’ll create a negative connotation, and I’ll be linked because of association.” I shook my head.

  “Exactly. You need to think of the endgame, the outcome, and consequences every time you take more cases like this,” Mom cautioned.

  Fear made rational people do stupid things. Fear overrode common sense every time.

  I’d experienced this and watched as it happened to others. This case could go sideways fast, and I’d be involved even more deeply than I already was. If either of the Danners weren’t convicted, and no one was charged with Josh’s death, my involvement would be scrutinized and the conspiracy theorists would have a heyday. Of course, the same would happen if one of the Danners was convicted.

  I wasn’t a stranger to being the odd man out. When you come from a family of overachievers and you’re the underachiever, you get used to being overlooked and underestimated and talked about. That fact would work to my benefit with cases like this. If I took more. But there was no way I was walking away from this case now. Not after being the first person of interest and knowing no one was looking for the real murderer but me.

  Mom brushed back a wisp of my hair that had freed itself from my ponytail. “You could always open up your photography studio. Give your mom one less thing to worry about.”

  I met her gaze. “No, I can’t. No more than you can just be the mayor of a small town.”

  The intercom buzzed, and Dana’s voice came through. “Your schedule is clear, Madam Mayor.”

  Mom rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Dana.”

  Dana laughed then disconnected.

  Mom opened a desk drawer and took out her purse. She slammed it closed with a push from her knee. “Time to go make sure Lady Justice has her chance.”

  I slid off the desk, crammed the last chocolate piece in my mouth, and ignored the slight shake in my hand. I might have been woefully unprepared as a PI, but I was determined to leave no stone unturned, regardless of the outcome. The truth of who killed Josh Chapman would come to light, and the right person would go to jail.

  22

  Monday

  Mom stayed late at the police station, working with Lockett and the Danners. Dad was at the paper putting stories to bed. I had kid duty. Hanging with Cora was a welcome relief after all the adulting I’d been doing. Truth be told, hanging with Cora or Simon the dog were the highlights of my day. Maybe that’s why Precious looked for Bigfoot; it was a good escape from the real world.

  Cora and I ordered pizza, splurged on the cinnamon sticks, and I let Cora drink her body weight in Sprite. A luxury Rachel doled out for good behavior.

  Afterward, we did each other’s makeup using bright blues and purples, gave each other wacky hairstyles, and let loose by playing Super Mario Cart. The Switch was a gift to Cora from my parents just because. They’d given it to her when we’d returned from seeing Rachel off. This kid of Rachel’s was clever enough to rarely mention the gaming system when she talked to her mom. If Rachel thought the system was being overly used, she would limit it. I hated to tell Rachel that this adorable genius kid of hers was more like me than she’d like.

  “You look like a clown,” Cora said as she ate around the crust on her second piece of cheese pizza.

  Cora had crafted large raccoon-like circles around my eyes.

  “You don’t think I should wear this blue under my eyes? I kinda like the effect.” It made my face look sallower, and with the right shadows, kinda creepy. In the bright light of my childhood kitchen, I looked like I’d put my face on while sitting passenger in a monster truck as it jumped over vehicles. Like that commercial where the lady comes out of the airplane restroom with lipstick all around her mouth? She had nothing on me.

  Cora shrugged. “Maybe. If you wanted to be a zombie.”

  “What do you know about zombies?” A scary topic for me in my thirties. What must a six-year-old think?

  “The kids were talking about it at school.” She nibbled her pizza an inch from the crust line before discarding it.

  “In class?” Kindergartners knew about zombies? Man, times had changed.

  “No, on the playground. Some older kids. They were saying Principal Josh was going to come back and eat our brains if we didn’t give them our dessert at lunch.” Her lower lip wobbled. “The dessert is really good. Like cake and Rice Krispies Treats like Mimi makes.”

  I pulled her onto my lap. “Cora, I’m gonna go to school and take care of these kids for you. Because no one should take another’s dessert. That’s just wrong on so many levels. But I want you to know there is no such thing as zombies. Never has been such a thing. It’s all made up.”

  She pressed against me. “How do you know?”

  “Well, I’ve been on this earth longer than you, and I’ve seen some things. None of them were zombies. Mimi and Grampi have been on this earth longer than me, and if there were zombies, Grampi would have put it in the paper. Everything goes in his paper. When you were born, you made the front-page news.” I hugged her tight. “Those kids are being big meanies, and I’ll fix that.”

  “Don’t tell them it came from me.” Her brow knitted in worry.

  I shook my head. “Of course not. They aren’t even going to know I’m there because of the dessert. You let me take care of this.”

  She didn’t look reassured, but slightly… sad?

  “What else is bothering you?” I rubbed her back, hoping she’d relax enough to tell me.

  “I believe you when you say zombies are fake, but I thought if Principal Josh could come back as a zombie, then maybe my dad could, too, and I could meet him.”

  Man, this kid was crushing me tonight. Her dad, a Marine, died in combat before Cora was born. Rachel and Jeff planned to elope as soon as his deployment was over, only he never came home. Wrecked my sister and the rest of us.

  “Oh, piglet,” I said, using my sister’s nickname for her daughter. “I wish you could have met your dad, too. But you know, just because we don’t see him, doesn’t mean he’s not here.” I explained that her dad was in the curls of her hair—Rachel’s hair was straight. Or the brown of her eyes—Rachel’s were blue like mine. I held her for a bit and told her stories about her father. Stories Rachel had told me. When we were both so maudlin I wanted to crawl into bed and hide under the covers, I changed things up.

  “Listen, we can’t go to bed sad. That won’t do at all.” Lately, the days had been filled with yucky people and bad acts. I needed some laughter or else my soul was going to shrivel and die.

  “What should we do?” She slid off my lap and went for a cinnamon breadstick, a good sign. If she was up for eating, then she was up for more.

  A movie would take too long, and I’d promised not to leave the house with Cora because I was a magnet for trouble so a walk was out of the question. My gaze fell on the Nintendo Switch.

  Bingo.

  I tightened the two ponytails on the top of my head, positioned to look like horns, and stood. “We need to dance more,” I said.

  I plugged in the dance game and set us up.

  “Because we just ate, this might make you vomit. If you feel like the pizza is gonna revisit us, you run to the toilet and do it there,” I said.

  Cora wrinkled her nose. “That’s gross.”

  “That’s life, kid.”

  We started with an easy dance, but the third song had moves that were quicker and goofier. I made a few errors on purpose to make Cora laugh. My hip was throbbing and I’d broken out in a sweat, but we were having a blast.

  Cora and I were busting a move. I performed a wild spin and in doing so caught sight of Leo and my Mom standing at the edge of the living room, watching us. The smile on my mom’s face was pure joy. The one on Leo’s was something else.

  I was never going to live this down.

  “Cora,” I said. I’d stopped dancing. “Mimi’s home.”

  Cora spu
n around and squealed. “Look, Mimi, we did each other’s hair and makeup. Aunt Sam bought pizza and dessert sticks.”

  I eyed Leo, daring him to laugh. I refused to pull the ponytail horns out.

  “How many pieces did you eat?” Mom asked Cora.

  “Two, Aunt Sam ate four.”

  I gasped, insulted. “I did not. I ate six.” I wasn’t ashamed of my pizza consumption. I pointed to the box and said to Leo, “Help yourself. When’s the last time you ate?”

  He shrugged. “It’s been a long day.”

  Mom said to Cora. “Let’s get you to bed, piglet.” She whisked her off to the back part of the house where the bedrooms were.

  Leo held up a slice, but before he took a bite said, “I like this look on you. It’s sexy in an other-worldly kinda way.”

  “You’re a weirdo.” I flopped onto the couch, exhausted, the day’s events catching up with me.

  He laughed then bit into his pizza. He brought the box from the table and sat next to me on the couch.

  “How’d it pan out?” I moved my feet to give him room, but stayed laying down.

  “Your friend Lockett is good. He got DB to not charge Laura with making a false claim and even made DB think it was his idea. She’s gone home with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.”

  “But Levi’s been charged.” Essentially, the question was rhetorical, but I had hoped.

  “He has. He’s not helping his case either. Talking about how much he hated Josh. Talking about how Josh stole from his family.” Leo finished his first piece and moved on to another.

  “Do you believe him? Do you think he did it?” My mind couldn’t comprehend a teen killing, even though I knew it happened every day. Case in point, school shootings.

  “It’s hard for me. I struggle to be objective. I’ve been taken off the case. I suppose my lack of objectivity is apparent to others.” He looked pissed at himself.

  “I think it’s human nature to struggle with objectivity, especially when you’ve put effort into helping a person out.” I nudged him with my toe. “These moments where you seem almost human are fascinating.”

  “What do I seem for those other moments? Superhuman? Godlike?” He winked.

  “More like a freak of nature.”

  “Says the girl with makeup streaking down her face.” He finished his pizza then grabbed my foot and held it tight with both hands, pressing his thumbs into the arch of my foot. “Looks like your injuries are getting better.”

  Human touch was good, usually. Human touch by a sexy man was amazing. I jerked my foot away.

  I sat up and curled into the corner of the couch. “You want something. You’re never this nice to me unless you want something.”

  He chuckled. “That’s not true. I’m nice to you a lot… lately,” he mumbled the last word.

  I pointed a finger at him. “A-ha, you admit it. You’ve been awful to me in the past. You’ve been nice to me a lot lately because you’ve wanted something. I’m utilitarian. You need help and old, dumb Samantha will do.”

  He shook his head and frowned at me. “Not a bit of that is true. You’re not old or dumb. You’re tenacious. You’re driven. Your sense of right and wrong is in line with mine. We’re the good guys in a world that seems like it’s gone crazy.” He blew out a heavy sigh. “A teen kills a guy his mom is dating because the guy stole stuff from them? I don’t believe it.”

  I was skeptical, too. Mostly because, if that was in Levi’s personality, then all the previously perceived injustices toward him and his family would have had an overreaction from him of some sort.

  “If I try to work this case on my time, behind DB’s back, I might make things worse.” Leo gave me a pointed look.

  I straightened in surprise. “Are you saying you want me to work this case? Me, the PI you don’t even believe took the PI test?” Which I hadn’t. My not-legit husband had taken it in my name, without my knowledge, but Leo didn’t need to know that. “Laura didn’t seem wild about me getting involved.”

  “I need your help, Sam.”

  I blew out a slow breath. “I don’t know where to start with this kid or his family.”

  “Keep digging into Josh. The clues are there somewhere.” He pushed from the couch and retrieved a legal-size manila envelope half an inch thick. He tossed it to me. “I brought you something. Here is everything DB has. These are copies. You go through them and I’ll go through them and let’s see if we can come up with something.”

  I took the envelope. “What do I do when I’ve read them? Will this packet self-destruct? Should I eat the proof? Because we both know I shouldn’t be seeing this.”

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “I trust you to not get caught with them.”

  Holy jeez, this was serious business. Leo asking me for help and telling me he trusted me. My PI star was rising.

  I responded with the seriousness he needed to know I was capable of. “I’m on it.”

  He smiled and paused by the couch. “You staying here or headed back to your place?”

  “Mine. Why?”

  “I’ll follow you home to make sure you don’t come into trouble. Because as driven and tenacious as you are, you sure are unlucky.” He chuckled while reaching for the empty pizza box.

  We cleaned up, said good-byes, and Leo trailed me home. Before getting out of LC, I hesitated. Should I invite him in? Part of me wanted to, and that part was shocked. Because let’s be honest, inviting him in for what? More conversation? As if. Truth was, I enjoyed having him around. Admitting that sent a burst of warmth to my girly parts that left them tingly.

  I gave him a wave when I unlocked my front door, but he didn’t immediately drive away. I watched from behind the blinds of my window. Did he think of me? Did his boy parts get tingly, too, when he did?

  23

  Wednesday

  Today’s list of desired accomplishments was big. And the best way to go about getting it all done was to start small. I tackled the easiest tasks first.

  My first stop was Ralph’s to get back on the schedule as soon as possible. I needed the money. I might live simple, but LC’s oil habit added up. Besides, I liked to occasionally buy fancy coffee like Unicorn Brew. It was the small luxuries, you know. Lason, my assistant manager, was happy to put me on the schedule starting next week.

  From there, I drove to AJ’s to give Simon attention and, hopefully, have a tête-à-tête with Troy. There were a million questions to ask. Did he know what he was really doing? That these “fake codes” they were plugging in were making charges. My guess was Troy knew. That would explain his mood changes.

  Was it a leap to believe Levi knew what was going on as well? That’s why he wasn’t doing the coding. Only a truthful conversation with Levi would solve that riddle. And getting both, a conversation and the truth, was unlikely. At least for now. Because I wasn’t hired by the family, but by Leo, I had to play my involvement with Levi and his family cool and casual.

  At the Gunn residence, Troy wasn’t around, and a quick text to AJ told me not to expect him. AJ was keeping tabs on him and had Troy working in the laundry room at the Pioneer’s training facility. Poor communication on my part.

  Simon and I played at the dog park for a while. I tossed the ball until his tongue hung from the side of his mouth. At home, I rewarded him with a big dog cookie I’d picked up for him from one of the local pet stores that made healthy dog treats. Easily, I was his favorite, and that made me happy. I liked the low demand relationship we had. Giving him cookies was no sweat off my back.

  Leaving AJ’s, I called Laura Danner and asked if we could meet. I’d let a day pass in hopes some normalcy would return to her life and she’d have a better presence of mind. This took some convincing, but she agreed to a short meeting after her visit with Levi. We planned to meet at How Ya Bean. I crossed my fingers that Unicorn Brew would be on the menu.

  It wasn’t. Apparently, June hadn’t been feeling well so no special drinks were on the menu.

  Kn
owing how June felt about others doing business at her coffee shop that weren’t on the schedule, Laura and I snagged a table outside so we could talk.

  Based on Laura’s crossed arms and scowl and the furtive glances from the other customers and locals walking by, I instantly realized my big mistake. Laura Danner wasn’t going to have the informative chat I sought with the stares of speculation all around her.

  “If you’re more comfortable taking this elsewhere, we can go to my dad’s newspaper,” I offered.

  “I have nothing to hide,” she said loudly. Her gaze going from person to person, likely daring them to say something to her.

  Precious said rumors about the Danners were circulating. Ranging from mild to extreme. The worst being the Danners were preppers, against government and societal systems, and building a cache of guns.

  Those ideologies sounded more survivalist to me. And never mind that the Danners had a business and did contracts with the man. These facts alone negated half of the stupid rumors.

  “What did you want to talk about, Samantha? Are you wanting to ask me if we’re preppers? If we think the zombie apocalypse is coming?” Her jaw was set, angry. But her eyes were sad, filled with pain. “Let’s see, I also heard I was caught up in a lover’s triangle with Josh and some other unknown woman and asked Levi to take Josh out. And then—”

  I waved a hand for her to stop. Then sat back in the chair and kicked my legs out, one ankle over the other. “When did being a prepper become a bad thing? I mean, we live within eyesight of four volcanoes. None of which are dormant. Maybe having a stockpile is smart. A prevention strategy.”

  After Laura studied me, her tightly crossed arms loosened slightly. “It’s called homesteading. And it’s about being prepared in case of an earthquake” — she gestured toward Mt. St. Helen’s — “or an eruption.”