To Fetch a Killer

by Maria Hudgins

  “He ticked off everyone. I’m sure the line of haters was long. Look at the online store reviews. He freakin’ loathed social media, so he ignored them, but I kept telling him that it would bite him in the butt. He had kept a list of mortal enemies.” Zac scraped the remaining mashed potatoes and gravy off his plate. “I told that detective to look into his unhappy customers.”

  “So, you think it’s a former customer?” Cassidy stared across the table.

  Zac shrugged and downed the rest of his Pepsi. After he burped, he replied, “Probably. Who else could it be? He didn’t have that many friends. And my grandparents hardly went anywhere. You’d think they were quarantined or something.”

  Erlene sidled up to the table again. “Don’t rush. But here are your checks when you’re ready if no one wants dessert. How’s your grandma doing?”

  “She seems okay to me,” he said, picking up his check. He fished out his wallet and put a twenty in the black plastic folder and handed to Erlene.

  “Be back with your change.”

  “Make it all in ones,” he shouted at her back. “Speaking of Grandma, I probably need to get back. She’s been at the store all day, and she’ll be in a mood if she didn’t sell anything.”

  Zac rose as the bells on the front door tinkled.

  A shadow crossed the table, and Cassidy turned to see Todd enter. “Hey,” he said.

  Zac ducked his head and slunk out.

  “It’s good to see you,” Cassidy said. “Would you like to sit down?”

  Before he could answer, Erlene swooped in. “Let me clean up this table for your handsome lunch date.” She picked up Zac’s plates and wiped down that side of the table. “This one’s an improvement over the last one,” Erlene muttered on her way back to the kitchen.

  A few minutes later, she returned with a menu, “What can I get you, officer?” Erlene turned on her best megawatt smile.

  “I’ll have the club sandwich with a side of potato salad and a coffee, black,” he said, before she could hand him a menu.

  “Excellent choice. I’ll be back in a flash.”

  “What’s new in your world?” Cassidy took a sip of her tea.

  “Pretty normal. No murders or serious crime. I stopped a speeder this morning and got a call that a raccoon was trespassing at the library.” He paused. “How’s Zac?”

  “Wait. I was going to ask you about the raccoon.”

  “Animal control relocated him even though he liked his new residence among the stacks.” Todd, in his blue and gray trooper uniform, stared across the table at her. “About Zac?”

  “He called me. He said the police knocked on his grandmother’s door at o’dark thirty and took him in for questioning. He said there was a lot of talk of poisons and things in the garage. He said he thought his grandfather was crushed by the furniture.”

  “I’m sure the furniture landing on him was debilitating, but someone had been trying to get rid of Ron before that. The ME is checking with his doctor to see if the substance had shown up before during routine exams. We’re looking at everything right now.”

  “Zac was pretty adamant that he was innocent. He told me that his grandfather left home on Friday and didn’t return that night.”

  “Everybody I arrest claims innocence. Still looking at the timeline,” Todd said as Erlene put his lunch in front of him. “Thanks, Erlene.”

  The waitress winked, and her sensible shoes squeaked on the linoleum floor.

  After a several bites of his sandwich, Todd continued, “Zac mention anything else?”

  “Not really. He’s living with his grandmother and working at the store.” Cassidy looked at the tall trooper. She’d hoped that this was a friendly visit, but Todd was all business. It almost felt like an interview. “What’s next for you?” she asked.

  “I’m doing twelve-hour shifts this week and looking forward to some time off next week. What about you?”

  “Fall is the beginning of our off-season at the track. I’m always looking for different kinds of events. I’m renting some of the multi-purpose rooms at the track for holiday parties and events. Always trying to find new revenue streams.”

  “Anything planned for the rest of the year?” he asked, taking a swig of his drink.

  “We’re going to be a stop on a motorcycle club’s Teddy Bear Toy Run for Charity. That is always fun. I’m also partnering with a running club Thanksgiving weekend, and we’re going to have a 5k Turkey Trot on the track.”

  “Let me know when you have registration for that one. Sounds fun.”

  “Will do. What’s your email address?” she asked.

  He pulled out a business card and pen from his front pocket and jotted something on the back. Then he handed the card to her.

  Cassidy pushed her plate to the edge of the table and added Todd’s contact information to her phone. “There. I texted you my information and the registration link. Oliver and I are going to walk the track for the Turkey Trot.”

  His radio chirped and spewed out a string of codes. He answered and rose. He dropped a twenty on the table. “Sorry. Bad accident out on the bypass. I need to head out. It was good to see you.”

  “Bye. It was good to see you, too,” Cassidy said as he disappeared out the front door.

  Erlene approached with the checks as Todd strode out the front door. “He’s so nice. You should hang on to that one.” Erlene picked up the dirty plates.

  “Here, keep the change,” Cassidy said.

  “Bye. Tell Henry to pop in once in a while. I miss his old face.”

  Thoughts of Zac, the Silvers, and Todd bounced around in her head. She hurried home to confirm a hunch that might help make sense of all this. She needed to find the answer to one simple question: Why had Ron Silver returned to the track after dark?

  CHAPTER NINE

  Cassidy zoomed down the track’s maintenance road, kicking up dust. After squeaking to a stop in front of her house, she slammed the Jeep’s door and then the front door. She patted Oliver and made a beeline for her laptop.

  She settled in at her kitchen table and logged into her work files. When she looked at the feeds from the main cameras, there was no indication that he’d come through the front or back gates. She also didn’t spot him walking in. Could he have climbed the fence? And why would he go to all that trouble to come back when the sale was the next morning? He said himself that his furniture would be okay overnight.

  Cassidy pulled up the camera feeds at the snack bar and the multipurpose room. She checked them during the time after the track had been cleared. Nothing unusual.

  She stood and made herself a mug of coffee. She needed caffeine and sugar to keep plugging away at the camera feeds. Okay, you are missing something. Cassidy zoomed through the feed near the snack bar at five o’clock and slowly made her way backwards. She repeated this for all the cameras. Jotting down the date and time stamp for any Ron, Zac, Pearl, or Marti sightings. The police had only asked for Friday’s overnight footage. It couldn’t hurt to see what the cameras captured during the rummage sale.

  With so many people at the track, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. After over three hours of searching, she had Zac at the snack bar twice, Pearl near the souvenir stands, and Marti talking to some women by the grandstands on the day of the sale. Cassidy backed up and repeated the routine for the previous day. Fewer people, but it was still a lot of feeds to click through. This time, she had a shot of both trucks arriving through the back gate, a couple of clips of Pearl and Ron walking past the grandstands at different times, and a shot of Marti knocking on the office door. She also found a clip of Zac’s red truck exiting the back gate, and almost a half hour later, she found a quick snippet of Pearl driving Ron’s white truck to the exit. It didn’t look like Ron was with her. Too bad none of the cameras had good shots of where the booths were.

  She saved copies of what she found to Dropbox. Oliver let out a series of high-pitched whines. She emailed Todd a link to the clips.


  “Okay, big boy. I know I’ve been busy. Let’s go.” The massive black and brown dog danced like a puppy at the door.

  Cassidy slid on her coat and fastened Oliver’s leash. Excited to be outside in the crisp twilight, Oliver bounded across the yard to the cut-through to the track. They looped the outer maintenance road past the outbuilding and the scoreboard where the sun was slowly sinking. The Rottweiler slowed his pace to sniff every blade of grass near the fencing around the track. She tugged on his leash, and he reluctantly ambled toward the garage area. After more nudging, Oliver halfheartedly followed her to continue their circuit of the track.

  Oliver froze and let out a low guttural growl. Cassidy thought she heard footsteps. She turned. Someone small approached. She tightened her grip on Oliver’s leash.

  “Hey, hey,” Pearl Silver said, panting as she bustled toward them. She stopped and caught her breath.

  “Mrs. Silver, what are you doing here? Sit, Oliver!”

  The big dog sniffed at Pearl, and she took several steps backward. “My truck broke down around the bend, and I thought maybe I could get help here. Oooooh, he frightens me.”

  “He won’t hurt you, but I can put him away.” She leaned down to her dog. “Come on, Oliver. You can guard the office for a little while until we get Mrs. Silver’s situation straightened out.” Oliver trotted beside Cassidy.

  Cassidy unlocked the back door, and Oliver dashed to his bed. “Come in, Mrs. Silver.”

  “Uh, the dog’s loose in there. Can we talk out here?” she asked quietly. “It’s been a rough week, and now I don’t know what I’m going to do about this truck. I can’t get a hold of Zac or anyone.”

  Cassidy pulled the door shut and backed down the wooden steps. “Do you want me to call a tow truck?”

  “I guess. I hate to have the added expense. Maybe we can find someone to look at it first. I kept telling Ron that he needed to keep it up. He never paid attention to the details.” Pearl rummaged through her oversized, vintage purse that probably dated to the nineteen seventies. She pulled something out that she hid behind her back.

  “I usually call Rex at the garage in town. He does towing for us during the races.”

  “Don’t you have someone here like a husband or boyfriend who could look at it? Who else is around?”

  “No. It’s Oliver and me tonight. I’ll see if I can get Rex.” Cassidy reached in her pocket for her phone.

  Pearl stepped forward and pointed something at Cassidy. She pulled the trigger and Cassidy screamed. One tiny dart stuck to her jacket, and the other embedded in her jeans. Pearl let go of the trigger, clicked a button, and squeezed again.

  Something smelled fruity, and stars flashed in front of Cassidy’s eyes. Then everything faded quickly to black like an old computer monitor shutting down. She could hear voices, and Oliver barked and pounded against the wooden door.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Cassidy felt like she was watching a TV show that she was starring in. Zac, in a black hoodie, came around the corner and hoisted her over his shoulder. Pearl toddled along behind him, but her tiny stride fell behind as he headed to the garage area.

  Once inside, he dropped Cassidy like a sack of laundry onto the cement floor. Her arms and legs tingled, but she felt okay, despite the two zaps from Pearl’s taser. She scooted back against the cabinets behind her, finding her voice. “Zac, what are you doing?”

  “Securing my future.” He grinned and took a step back. “Grandma’s going to take care of me if I do what she says.”

  Pearl caught up and huffed into the garage. “Zac, shut up.” She pointed at Cassidy. “You shouldn’t have been poking around, asking questions. You were always talking to the police. You stuck your nose where you shouldn’t have.”

  “What? This is crazy,” Cassidy said, trying to stall. “Zac, you know I’ve only been trying to help.”

  He snorted. “Hardly. You’ve been nothing but trouble. Grandma’s been planning this for a long time. The old coot just wouldn’t die, so when the opportunity arose, I helped her plan move along. That old furniture was good for something.”

  Cassidy furrowed her brows and stared at the pair. “What plan?”

  “She was trying to get rid of him. But the antifreeze was taking too long, so when everyone left after setting up the booths, I gave that china cabinet a good shove. He wasn’t in the best of health, and it didn’t help him any when I body-slammed it and knocked the rest of the air out of him.”

  “So, he didn’t come back in the middle of the night? No wonder I couldn’t find anything on the cameras,” Cassidy said. Ron had never left the track.

  “You’re nosey.” Pearl pointed her finger at Cassidy. “And you’re so impatient.” Pearl turned to face Zac “And now I have to clean up your mess as usual. I told you my idea would work. But no, you wanted to do things your way,” Pearl said, rummaging through her purse again.

  “It had to be done. You weren’t giving him enough of the antifreeze. And since the cops know about it, we’re going to make it look like he got it here. Perfect plan. A lot of cars here, and antifreeze wouldn’t be out of place. Plus, we told the cops the last thing he drank was the coffee from your concession stand.” Zac smirked. “He was poisoned, and in his feeble state, he pulled the furniture over on himself. Easy peasy. And we get the insurance money. All of it. Right, Grandma?”

  “We need to move this along. She doesn’t need to know the plan. But she’s going to help us by being our Fall Girl.” Pearl’s laugh was high-pitched and sounded like a demon from a horror film.

  Zac snickered. “And then we get the money. What a beautiful plan.”

  Cassidy’s eyes widened as Pearl pulled a revolver out of her purse. The gun looked like it belonged on one of the Saturday westerns from the nineteen fifties, but she was pretty sure that it was still dangerous. She had to do something before it was too late.

  Cassidy rolled to the left and scrambled to her feet.

  “Don’t move,” Pearl ordered. “I’m done messing around. I need for this whole thing to be over.” The gun wobbled as she trained it on Cassidy.

  Cassidy screamed. Then she ducked as a snarling, one-hundred-and-thirty-pound mass of slobber and teeth bolted through the garage, knocking Pearl over. The gun discharged before it skittered across the concrete floor.

  Zac screamed and grabbed his thigh. A red stain seeped out like a flower blossom and covered his jeans. He sank to the floor and moaned. Oliver leapt over Pearl and landed on Zac’s chest. The man screamed again as Cassidy scrambled for the gun.

  “Heel, Oliver. Sit.” She ordered, inching closer to her dog. He looked at her, slobbered on Zac and sat down on the man’s chest. Zac whimpered. “Call an ambulance. She shot me. And don’t let your dog eat me.”

  Cassidy pointed the antique gun at Pearl. “Don’t you move. Keep your hands where I can see them. I’m still a little bit spacy from your taser, and I might just hit the trigger by accident.” Pearl looked like all the air had been let out of her. She lay on the cement on her back.

  Pulling her phone out of her pocket, Cassidy punched in 911. “Yes, dispatcher. This is Cassidy Green at the Amelia Speedway. My dog and I have the two people responsible for Ron Silver’s murder in my garage. Could you please send an ambulance and the police now?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, and my dog is sitting on the guy who’s been shot.”

  “Who’s been shot?” the dispatcher asked.

  “Zac. I guess his last name is Silver. His grandmother, Pearl Silver accidentally shot him when she pulled a gun on me. Tell the officers I have the gun, and they can have it when they get here.”

  “They’ve been notified and are in route. I’ll stay on the line with you. How is Zac?”

  “He’s still conscious, but he’s bleeding a lot,” Cassidy said. “And my big dog knocked Pearl over. She may need an ambulance, too.”

  “They should be arriving in minutes. Where on the property are you?”

&n
bsp; “We’re at the garage near the back gate.” Cassidy thought she heard sirens in the distance.

  A few minutes later, two deputies and four EMTs ran down the maintenance road. Cassidy handed the first deputy Pearl’s gun. The EMTs surrounded Pearl and Zac.

  “Can you open the back gate for the vehicles,” a deputy who Cassidy recognized only by sight asked.

  “Sure.” She grabbed Oliver’s collar and zipped over to unlock the gate. She returned and found an out-of-the-way spot near the mouth of the garage. The emergency staff moved the police cruisers and the ambulances closer as the EMTs continued to work on Pearl and Zac. Oliver leaned into her, and she stroked his head. “Good, boy. You’re my hero.”

  After what seemed like hours, Deputy Charles Smith approached her and pulled out his phone. “Hey, Cassidy. What happened here tonight?”

  “Oliver and I went for a walk, and Pearl wandered in from the back gate. She said her truck had broken down and needed help. She acted scared of the dog, so I put him in the office. She tased me, and Zac carted me back here. Oliver must have known I was in danger because somehow he got out. He knocked Pearl over, and she shot Zac.”

  Charles nodded and tapped into this phone as a state police cruiser pulled in behind the other emergency vehicles. “Anything else you remember? She tased you?”

  Cassidy nodded. “She pulled it out of that giant purse where she had the gun hidden.”

  Todd picked up the purse and handed it to Charles. “You okay?” he asked Cassidy.

  “Oliver saved me.”

  “The EMTs need to check you out after the taser shock,” Todd said.

  “Shocks. She zapped me twice.”

  “Hang tight. They’ll be right with you after they look at those two.” Todd moved closer to Zac and was absorbed into a conversation with the county police.

  The forensic van rolled up behind the other emergency vehicles. They immediately surrounded the area with crime scene tape and pulled out plastic bins. The ambulances left with Pearl and Zac as the track lights buzzed and came on.