Best Laid Plans

by Kristi Rose

  Cora said, “Aunt Sam is chasing some guy in the woods. He’s been following us.”

  Leo caught my eye, and I shrugged then resumed scanning the woods. Blue Hat had disappeared like the sun does behind clouds, only the trees were his cloak.

  “Why were you looking for me?” I asked him.

  “Break in the case and thought you’d like to hear.” He gestured to the jungle gym ahead of us. “Feel like climbing Cora?”

  “Can I?” she asked me. This wasn’t seeking permission; this was her asking if we were safe.

  “Totally, it’s all good here,” I said and smiled in a way I hope was reassuring. Inside, my mind was spinning as I tried to process what I’d just seen.

  Cora trotted off.

  Leo said, “You were right. The inhaler was with the evidence from his office. A mistake at the lab had it in the wrong evidence box. Thankfully, the bag was labeled correctly. Anyway, we tested the inhaler. Inside it was a toxin. Not nicotine.”

  He had my attention. “The inhaler was spiked?”

  Leo nodded. “Ricin. It was one of those inhalers that marked the number of puffs a person takes. Only one was used. Boomer Jacobson was the one who gave Josh the inhaler, not the pharmacy. And get this, when they brought him in, the first thing he said was that Josh and Carlie were fooling around during her ‘swim time’. You were right about Josh being a player. Any chance you recall Josh using the inhaler the day he died?”

  My mind wouldn’t conjure up the images of the day Josh died since it was too busy trying to piece together the last moments with the man in the blue hat.

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t focus. I’ll need some time. I’m… I saw…” I pointed to the trees.

  “Did you see the one-with-nature flasher? We’ve had some complaints about a guy on the trail, flashing people. We haven’t told the press yet, hoping we would catch him.”

  I scanned my memories one last time then shook my head again. “No, it wasn’t a flasher. This is gonna sound crazy, but this guy, he was wearing a blue hat and it blocked part of his face but he,”—I gulped— “he looked just like Carson.”

  28

  Tuesday

  There was no time to pursue the Carson look-alike, though I badly craved knowing if he was dead or not.

  I mean, he’d been declared dead. And, yeah, I thought my brain was probably playing tricks on me. Add in my tendency to be a conspiracy theorist and doubter, and I was seeing Carson in weird places.

  Okay, only two times so far—at the docks of the Windy River and today in the park.

  After dropping Cora at my parents, I idled in LC and forced myself to get my head back in the game. Leo followed us to their house and stood outside my Jeep, his arm across the lowered window.

  “If Boomer gets arrested, does that mean Levi will be let out?” Was my job done? Even though I’d resolved nothing and proved even less.

  “Yeah, but ricin has to be found in Josh’s system. And knowing DB, he’ll wait until the last moment to arrest Boomer and try to retain them both. Levi did confess after all.”

  “Why wasn’t ricin found in the toxicology?”

  “It’s not something commonly tested.”

  I gave Leo a quizzical look. “Shouldn’t a battery of tests be done to rule out everything?”

  He smiled. “Not when all that costs money and when an easier, more obvious option is available.”

  I tapped a finger against my steering wheel as I thought about the recent turn of events. “Let me make sure I have this straight. The medical examiner said Josh died from nicotine poisoning based on the levels in his system, which were discovered because I saw Josh vaping and my dad mentioned the current epidemic with vaping lung. Eventually this points us to Levi because the police were looking for vaping juice and found a vial in Josh’s desk with Levi’s fingerprints on it.”

  Leo nodded.

  “But no other substances or toxins were found in his system?”

  “That we test for. The medical examiner always takes extra samples in case other tests need to be done later. Like we’re experiencing in this homicide.”

  I squinted as I forced my brain to bring all the elements into one picture. “We have a vial of liquid nicotine in Josh’s desk that had an exceedingly high nicotine content. We have flavored water tablets treated with nicotine that we think Jenna sent. And we have ricin in the inhaler that Boomer gave him.” I raised a brow and looked a Leo in question. “Am I looking for one suspect or several?”

  Leo shook his head in wonder. “The things I see on this job.”

  “Jenna wanted Josh dead because he’d burned her before, and she knew he’d do it again. He wasn’t going to let her get her hands on any of the money.” I snapped my fingers in realization. “That’s why having the joint account with Alice Andrews’s name on it helped Josh. The account did two jobs, blackmailed Alice and kept Jenna from accessing it. The only account she cleaned out was the Pay Forward For the Kids account.”

  Leo said, “Which, by no means, was chump change.”

  “Nope, but think of all the money left behind. I bet she saw his promise of Fiji as the ruse it was. Then Levi. He confessed to killing Josh because—”

  “Josh was stealing from Levi’s family and, according to Levi, playing his mom for a fool.”

  I sighed wearily and brought up something I’d been dreading that I’d discovered in my research. “I read online that nicotine is still used in pesticides in the US.”

  Leo nodded. “Yep.”

  “And I hate to even say this out loud, but it’s possible that Levi could have been doctoring Josh’s food when he ate at their house with pesticides that had nicotine in it. Untraceable in certain foods with bold flavors.”

  Leo was silent.

  I continued. “I don’t want to say this—”

  “Don’t.” His lips pressed into a grim line.

  “But that’s a fair amount of circumstantial evidence against Levi and not much against anyone else. Especially if ricin isn’t found in Josh’s system.”

  His jaw muscles ticked. “Levi didn’t do it. I’m not wrong about this.”

  I held up my hands in defense. “Fair enough. I had to say it, though. I had to put it out there.”

  “Get to Carlie before DB does.”

  “You want me to confirm that she and Josh were playing naughty student and teacher?”

  He nodded. “And anything else she can tell us about Josh. Did she know about the scams he was running? Take notes.”

  I screwed up my face in protest. “Hello, do you know who you are talking to? I don’t ‘take notes.’ I put it all here.” I tapped my temple. “And even if I did take notes, you simple humans with your ABC and 123 could never decipher my notes. You aren’t fully evolved,” I said haughtily.

  Leo chuckled. “True. Call me when you’re done with her.”

  I put LC in reverse. “Watch your six, officer. If DB finds out you’re playing behind the scenes, you could get canned.”

  “You watch your six. No more phone calls after you’ve been attacked or hit by a car. I’m not a fan of those.”

  “I’m not a fan of making them.” I looked over my shoulder in preparation to back out but then looked at him. “Do you really think that guy in the woods was your flasher?”

  Leo bobbed his head as if he to say kinda, maybe.

  “Does the flasher look like Carson?”

  It was Leo’s turn to let out a weary sigh. “The descriptions we have are a white guy, about Carson’s height, and wears glasses.”

  “This guy didn’t have glasses.”

  Leo stuck his hands on his hips. “Maybe the flasher got contacts.”

  Maybe. Or maybe Lockett wasn’t joking when he said it would be just like Carson to fake his own death. I wasn’t sold on the flasher theory. Though the alternative wasn’t any better.

  “Okay,” I said with forced vigor. “I’m off to shake down Carlie Jacobson.”

  “I hope she tal
ks,” Leo called as I backed down the driveway.

  Time to collect on when I distracted DB from giving her a ticket for her terrible parking job at How Ya Bean.

  Using my phone’s GPS, I drove toward the hills on the outskirts of Wind River, where the homes were new and large and the yard ridiculously small.

  The driveway was devoid of cars, but I saw movement through the large front window.

  Before I reached the walk to the front door, the garage door began to open. I paused and waited while it made its ascent.

  Carlie Jacobson was tossing a tote and duffle bags into the car.

  “Going somewhere?” I stepped into the garage.

  She jumped and squealed, holding the tote over her chest as if it were armor to protect her. She pointed a finger at me. “I have nothing to say to you.”

  I slapped my hands against my legs in false disappointment. “And here I thought a ‘thank you’ wouldn’t be asking a lot. Guess the news is right, and we’ve become a society of all take and no give.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “A thank you for what?”

  I pointed to her SUV. “For saving you from a ticket even though you rightfully deserved it. Got myself handcuffed to the bike rack for my efforts. You’re welcome.”

  She grinned maliciously. “You deserved it.”

  I let her anger roll off me. “You’re right. I deserve a thank you.” I gestured like she should pay up.

  “Never,” she said.

  I gently kicked a duffle bag that was on the ground between us. “Looks like you’re in a hurry. Yet, I’ve got all day.” I looked over my shoulder. LC was blocking her exit unless she went all-terrain and drove over her yard. The desperation in her eyes told me she was capable.

  She tossed the tote she’d been clutching into the back. “If I’m here when they let Boomer go, he’ll kill me.”

  I caught myself mid-eye roll. Typically remarks such as the one she just made were hyperbole, but in Carlie’s case, her husband was downtown for homicide.

  “Because you were sleeping with Josh?” I went for broke.

  Carlie snorted. “Yeah, it’s okay for Boomer to bone his dippy receptionist, but if I get my fix elsewhere, he has a conniption fit.” She stabbed at the air with her finger for added emphasis.

  “How do you know he was fooling around with his receptionist?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I used to be his receptionist.”

  Fair point. “Boomer said you were seeing Josh during your swim time? When was that?”

  She glared at me as she picked up the duffle by our feet. “You aren’t going to pin Josh’s death on me.”

  “I’m not trying to pin it on anyone except who actually did it. And I don’t think it’s a sixteen-year-old kid.”

  Carlie snorted. “Don’t be so sure. Levi Danner caught me and Josh ‘swimming’.” She did air quotes and chuckled at her own joke.

  Carlie’s lack of empathy for others made me want to slash her tires.

  She continued, “And he was pissed. Said some awful things to Josh. Threatened him, even.”

  “Threatened how.”

  “Said he would do whatever it took to get Josh out of his mom’s life.”

  As threats went, that was benign. “Did Levi have a weapon?”

  Carlie shook her head.

  I sighed in frustration as I tried to make the big picture come into focus. Josh was dating Laura but sleeping with Carlie. Josh was also scamming companies and Recode and Reshape parents and… . Could he have been done in by a jealous husband? Perhaps all the extracurricular cons Josh had running were simply that and not the impetus for his death.

  “You have to admit, a jealous husband is far more likely to eighty-six someone than a teen protecting his mom’s heart.”

  Carlie stuck her hands on her hips. “Sure, but which jealous husband was it?” She laughed bitterly. “Because Laura Danner and I weren’t the only women to fill his calendar.”

  “Ah-ha, I knew he was a player. All that smoking had to mean something.” I leaned against her SUV, trying to force the mental snapshots into one large picture.

  Carlie snorted. “As if you didn’t know. Puh-leez. He was priming you to make his move.” She made a heart with her two hands and placed them over her chest.

  “He was gross.”

  She let her hands drop to her side. “He was good. Like real good. He had moves like Jagger.” She wiggled her hips. Then her eyes got glassy as she lost herself in a memory. She fanned herself. “He was like an addiction. I couldn’t give him up. Even though I knew I should. He knew how to pay just the right amount of attention. Every time with him was like getting devoured and adored.” She slumped against her SUV and wiped her brow. “Oh, lord, I miss him.”

  “Ew,” I said.

  “Clearly, you’ve never been devoured and adored.”

  “Hard pass,” I said.

  “You know, I think that’s how Boomer busted me. Josh and his stupid pretense that he didn’t smoke. Always asking me to get him more patches from Boomer’s office. I had to stop when Boomer noticed they were missing. Then Josh went to Boomer to start nicotine replacement therapy. Had Josh not been so cocky Boomer would’ve never connected the dots between his missing patches, Josh, and me.”

  “Did you ever see Josh use an inhaler or anything like that?”

  “Just the vape pen, but he said the flavors left a bad taste in his mouth.” She laughed. “Like cigarettes leave a good taste?”

  “It didn’t appear to hold him back,” I said.

  “True.” The wistful, longing expression returned to her face.

  “Who else was he sleeping with?”

  Carlie seemed in the mood to share now that she’d revisited Josh-time.

  She pushed from the SUV, looking everywhere but at me. “I don’t know for sure.”

  Lie. “Any guesses?”

  “Every mom at the school?” she said with a laugh. “Josh didn’t keep women long. He didn’t like things to get complicated. He was going to replace me with you.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  She gave me the once over, her lip curling up in disgust. “Because he was asking you to meet privately during the time we got together.”

  Ah, that explained the animosity. I shook my head and grimaced in revulsion. “Never.”

  She smirked. “You mean now we’ll never know.”

  There was no point in arguing. She thought Josh was the-bomb-dot-com.

  “I need to get out of here before Boomer gets released.” She looked worriedly toward the door into her house. “I don’t want the kids to see us go nine rounds.”

  I inclined my head to outside the garage where a police car was parking on the street. “I bet they’ll have a few questions for you first. Ask them when Boomer will get out. Tell them you need protection. If you’re as scared of him as you seem, maybe you should have it recorded somewhere for future reference.”

  She looked past me and groaned. “You’re a jinx, Samantha True, you know that? Wherever you show up, trouble follows.”

  “Yep,” I said and pushed from her SUV. “Thanks for the conversation.”

  I passed Officer Gee as I was walking out and he was coming in. He side-eyed me, but I kept going.

  I drove to the end of the street, my mind turning over everything Carlie had said. I texted Toby and asked him to dig around in Josh’s email and look for possible girlfriends or lovers. He would also hack into Josh’s text messages, too. Recalling Danika’s behavior at the PTC meeting and at the Celebration of Life party, I asked Toby to spend extra time on her.

  Using my phone, I accessed the images of Josh’s calendar.

  Thursday, swim icon. On his calendar for the Thursday we were supposed to meet about Cora’s sexual harassment was the swim icon and a camera.

  Was that supposed to be me? And, if so, was Josh’s calendar nothing but him marking notches on the proverbial bedpost?

  Frustrated, I banged my head gently on the stee
ring wheel because chasing down all the women sleeping with Josh sounded awful, especially if they were going to go into detail like Carlie had.

  Blech. I shivered in revulsion.

  But I’d do it because if there was one jealous or enraged husband gunning for Josh, then potentially there was a second. And possibly a third.

  How many people tried to kill Josh, and who was successful in their endeavors?

  29

  Tuesday

  In the midst of trying to get to the bottom of Josh’s death, a dog across town required my attention.

  Driving away from Wind River and the case gave me anxiety. Leaving the vicinity felt like I might miss something important, or worse, dropping the ball completely.

  Truth was, I was stymied on how to uncover Josh’s other lovers, emojis weren’t enough. Precious suggested I ask in the weekly school email newsletter. I tucked that idea in my back pocket as a last resort.

  In the meantime, it was me and Simon and a dog park where, hopefully, an epiphany would happen.

  A girl could dream, couldn’t she?

  At AJ’s, Simon greeted me at the door, tail wagging as he pranced in front of me.

  “You ready for some fun, big guy?” I gave his head and ears some good rubs.

  He barked in response.

  “Well, come on then.” I grabbed his leash and the bag of toys and treats that hung from coat hooks in the mudroom. “Let’s do this.”

  What was great about a dog was they leave everything behind and enjoy the moment. This became my goal as well as Simon and I played hard at the dog park.

  At AJ’s house, I unleashed Simon and gave him a nuzzle of thanks. I said, “You love Sam, don’t ya? You think she’s awesome.” He licked my face as affirmation.

  “Yes.” A voice from around the corner said. “We do think she’s awesome.”

  I poked my head into the kitchen. AJ was making a smoothie that was the color of green baby poo.

  “That looks gross.” Pointing out the obvious was my superpower.

  “If you put it in a travel mug that’s not clear, you can’t see it and you don’t think about it. It’s actually tasty.” He held out the blender. “Taste?”