Verse and Vengeance

by Amanda Flower

A strange expression crossed his face. “You’re her.”

  “Her?” I asked.

  “The woman he was obsessed with.” He took a step closer to me.

  “Obsessed with?” I didn’t like the sound of that.

  He took another step closer. “He thought you were keeping some great secret that, if he could prove was true, would make him rich.”

  “And did he tell you what that secret was?” I moved away from him, realizing that coming to this neighborhood in the city by myself had been a very bad idea. I didn’t know this man or what he was capable of.

  “No, he never did,” the man said regretfully.

  “You have my name. What’s yours?” I asked, trying to sound a lot more self-assured than I actually felt.

  “Scotty Jones. I worked for Redding to get in the required number of hours to earn my private investigator’s license. I don’t know what I will do to get those hours now that he’s gone. I don’t know if my hours will transfer to another PI’s office or if another will even take me. Joel Redding didn’t have the best reputation in the business. It might have done me more harm than good to work for him.”

  I wasn’t surprised to hear that, but even so, Scotty sounded callous. He didn’t appear the least bit upset about Redding’s death, only inconvenienced.

  He leaned in close to me, so close I could smell coffee on his breath. “So what is the great secret you were keeping from Redding?”

  I took a big step back to get away from his breath. “I don’t have one.”

  He laughed. “I don’t believe that at all. If Redding said you had a secret, you did. He might not have been good at managing his money. If he had been”—he pointed at the brick building—“he wouldn’t have been in this dump, but he was a darn good detective. He knew his stuff, and he knew when people were lying. He would tell me that you were lying right now.”

  “Then you would be wrong,” I lied.

  “Maybe I will take up the reins and try to find out if your secret is as good as Redding believed. He was usually right about that sort of thing. I haven’t found it yet, but I might. Trust me, I have wanted to find out. I have torn that office apart looking for something that would tell me, but I’ve found nothing.”

  I supposed I should be glad Redding hadn’t trusted his intern.

  He narrowed his eyes. “Why are you here?”

  “I—I know what happened to Redding, and I wanted to give my condolences.”

  “Who were those condolences to? No one cares that he’s dead. He was a single man with no family to speak of, or friends, for that matter. No one will miss him.”

  Again, I felt terribly sad for the private investigator. How awful to die like you never even mattered at all.

  He laughed. “I know why you’re here. You wanted to come here and find out what kind of dirt he had on you. It must really be something good.” He took a step toward me and grabbed me by the arm before I had time to react. “What is it? You can tell me.”

  I tried to pull away from him. “Let go of me.” I looked up and down the street, but the block was deserted. All I could see were Emerson’s two green eyes peering through the windshield of my car. What would become of my tuxie if this man hurt me? “Let me go!” I shouted, even though there wasn’t anyone there who could hear me.

  He pushed me toward the building. Was he going to try to take me inside? I wasn’t going to let that happen. I remembered the self-defense training Rainwater had made me do. I stomped down hard on Scotty’s instep, and he cried out. Before he could recover, I elbowed him in the gut, and he let me go. I leaped away.

  “You—”

  He didn’t get to finish calling me whatever terrible name he planned to say, as two police cars careened around the corner and screeched to a halt in front of the detective’s office.

  Scotty swore and ran up the street.

  “Police, stop!” a loud voice cried.

  An officer in blue raced up the sidewalk and knocked into me, causing me to fall to the ground. About twenty yards away, he dove onto Scotty’s back.

  “Violet,” a voice I knew all too well said.

  I turned around and saw Rainwater standing in the middle of the dirty sidewalk. I sat there with my mouth hanging open.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Rainwater extended a hand to me, and I took it. “Are you all right?” He helped me to my feet.

  “I—I think so,” I said, hating the fact that my voice shook. I cleared my throat, hoping to sound a bit more in control. “I mean, I’m fine.”

  He studied me. “What were you doing there with Jones?”

  “I knew this was Redding’s detective office …”

  “And you thought it was a good idea to come here. Did you see the neighborhood? This is not a safe place for a naïve woman from Cascade Springs.”

  I put my hands on my hips. “I have spent most of my adult life living in worse neighborhoods than this as a grad student. I know how to handle myself.”

  He raised his hand. “Let’s not argue about this here.”

  “So we are going to argue about it later?” I asked.

  He gave me a look as the sprinting policeman who had catapulted himself onto Scotty’s back walked the would-be P.I. to us in handcuffs. The officer handed Scotty off to a female officer, who put him in the cruiser.

  The first officer walked over to Rainwater and me. Rainwater held a hand to him. “That was a nice grab, Crump. If we ever have an interdepartmental relay competition, I want you on my team.”

  Crump laughed. “I only run to catch the bad guys. Well, that and if I’m chasing down an ice cream truck. I do love ice cream. I think after that snag I deserve a hot fudge sundae. I will get the fixings for my whole family on the way home. The kids love to hear about when I take down a bad guy.”

  “So Scotty is a bad guy?” I asked.

  Crump nodded at me. “Who’s this?”

  “Violet Waverly. She’s a citizen of Cascade Springs. She was visiting Redding’s office when we came by.”

  The other officer’s eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything. I couldn’t help noting that Rainwater didn’t call me his girlfriend. I knew that it was to make things a bit easier for both of us. If the Niagara Falls police knew we were dating, there might be some complicated questions.

  “Why did you arrest Scotty?” I asked. “I mean, I only knew him for five minutes when you all showed up, and I could tell he wasn’t a great guy. But what did he do?”

  The other officer raised his eyebrows at Rainwater again, this time the arch of his brow asking a silent question. Rainwater nodded. I must have passed some kind of unwritten cop test, because the officer said, “After looking at Redding’s books, we saw that Jones was skimming money. Redding wasn’t great at his bookkeeping and Jones took advantage of that.”

  “That’s bad,” I said. “But why did he run?”

  The officer shrugged. “Because he’s on parole for a similar crime to another company. He knew that if he violated his parole, he was going back to jail.”

  Maybe Scotty hadn’t been interested in hurting me just before the cops arrived. Maybe he’d just wanted to know my secret so that he could make all the money Redding had bragged about if he learned the truth about me. Even if I didn’t know that was true, it made me feel a bit better to believe it. Not that I ever planned to see Scotty again if I could help it, and it didn’t sound like he would be getting out of jail anytime soon.

  Crump shook Rainwater’s hand again. “Hey man, I’m sorry I had to pull you into all of this, but you know with …” He trailed off when he glanced at me.

  “You can speak freely in front of Violet.”

  Crump raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything against it. “Anyway, give your sister my condolences. She hasn’t had an easy time of it.”

  “No, she hasn’t,” Rainwater said in a tight voice.

  What did this have to do with Danielle? I bit the inside of my lip. I remembered that Simon Chase had s
aid he’d seen Danielle arguing with Redding at the race registration table just an hour before the private eye died. Were the police trying to connect Danielle with Redding’s murder? I’d have thought that if Rainwater was involved, he would have tried to do the opposite.

  “It was a good grab,” Crump said. “We’ll take Jones to the jail and let him think things over. Any way you call it, he’s in violation of parole. His officer is supposed to meet us there.”

  Rainwater nodded. “I would like a chance to question him about Redding.” He paused. “And see what he knows about some other cases.”

  “Understood,” Crump said. “Stop by the jail tomorrow, and we will give you the time.”

  Rainwater shook the other officer’s hand.

  “We picked you up. Do you need a lift back to Cascade Springs? I can get one of my rookies to take you back.”

  “We can take Violet’s car back to the village,” Rainwater said, hiding emotion from his face.

  I knew him well enough now that I could see it. Rainwater was upset. I wasn’t sure if I was in trouble with him or not, but I was certain I would find out when I was alone with him in my car.

  Crump nodded and went back to his cruiser.

  Rainwater turned to me. “Let’s go, Violet.”

  He sounded so tired that my heart ached for him. Whatever was going on weighed heavily on the police chief.

  I unlocked the Mini and was grateful to see Emerson right where I’d left him. “Hello, Emerson,” Rainwater said, not surprised in the least to see my cat sitting on the passenger’s seat. He picked up the cat, folded his long body into the car, and set Emerson on his lap as he buckled himself in.

  I put the key in the ignition. Two thousand questions were running through my head at the moment. There were so many that I didn’t know which to ask first.

  “I know you have a lot of questions, and I’ll answer the ones that I can. Let’s drive to the Falls. It’s pretty at night, and we need to talk.”

  “All right,” I said.

  It was early evening, but still a few hours before the Falls lit up for the evening light show. Tourists milled around the park at the American Falls, but not nearly in the numbers I’d seen when I’d driven by earlier.

  I parked in the visitor lot, and Rainwater and I got out of the car again. For a second time, I locked Emerson in the Mini. Through the windshield, I watched as he curled into a ball and fell asleep. I found Emerson’s behavior suspicious at best.

  Rainwater took my hand. I stared down at it.

  He laughed. “We aren’t in the village right now, and I’m technically off duty. If I want to hold your hand, I can.” He looked at me with those amber eyes. “And I do.”

  I squeezed his hand. “Okay.”

  The police chief led me through the park. We could hear the rush of the river and feel the mist of the Falls before we saw them.

  Rainwater looked down at me. “You’re being awfully quiet. I thought for sure the moment we got into the car, you would quiz me.”

  “I don’t know where to start.”

  “How about I start then?”

  I nodded. Just then, the path opened and we saw the Falls. The setting sun glistened off the water rushing over the side of the American Falls. Below, two Maid of the Mist boats bobbed in the channel. On the Canadian side, tourists going to the Under the Falls excursions shuffled down the steps in lines, two dozen deep, wearing blue disposable ponchos. Tourists from all over the world were scattered along the shorelines, snapping away and posing for the perfect selfie with the Falls in the background. A collection of street vendors hawked everything from hot dogs to stuffed animals. Commerce was alive and well at one of the eight natural wonders of the world.

  I looked over the basin to Canada and could see just as much commotion on that side as on the American side.

  “You shouldn’t have gone to Redding’s office today,” Rainwater began. “The office is in a bad neighborhood, and you could have gotten hurt.”

  I pulled my hand from his grasp and stared at the Falls. I knew he was only worried about me and cared about my safety, but at the same time, it felt like a scolding of sorts. Knowing I wasn’t on the moral high ground, I changed the subject. “Is Danielle okay? Is she involved in this mess with Redding somehow? And why was Scotty arrested? Do you think Scotty killed Redding because Redding found out about the missing money from his business?”

  Rainwater threw back his head and laughed.

  I stepped back and folded my arms. “I don’t see what’s so funny.”

  “It’s funny that all your questions came out at once. I knew they were in there somewhere.”

  I cracked a smiled. “Oh, well, that’s not all of them. I have many more.”

  He took my hand again. “I don’t doubt it in the least.” He took a breath, turning serious again. “But why did you go to Redding’s office?”

  “I thought I could find out some answers …” I trailed off. I couldn’t tell Rainwater I was looking for answers related to my shop and to Jo. He didn’t know the truth about the shop. Guilt ate at me at the thought. This man—this incredibly brave, selfless, good man … he deserved better than half-truths and prevarications from me. I knew one day soon I’d need to make a decision to bring him fully into my world or I’d have to set him free. A man like Rainwater deserved complete honesty. I glanced up at him and hoped that something of the way I felt—all those good feelings—was something he could see.

  “Violet?”

  Unsure what I could say, what I was ready to say, I changed the subject. “That self-defense training came in handy.”

  He grunted. “I wish you wouldn’t put yourself in situations where you need those skills.”

  I didn’t say anything. We both knew I wouldn’t be promising I would do that. I wanted to be safe too, but I had a need to learn the truth, especially when I was helping a friend like Jo.

  Rainwater led me to an open place at the rail around the American Falls. There was no one close enough to hear us over the rushing water. He stared down at that churning water like it might tell him something.

  I placed my hand on his arm. “Are you okay?” I had never seen Rainwater so down. I had seen him irritated, mad, afraid, and stern, but never, in the time I’d known him, sad.

  He took a breath and nodded. “The man who went over the Falls earlier in the week was my former brother-in-law, Aster’s father, Bryant Cloud.”

  That was the last thing I had expected him to say.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I covered my mouth. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. I went to the station in Niagara Falls and identified the body myself.” He stared out at the water.

  “Oh no! Is Danielle okay? Is Aster? Does Aster know?” Again, I hit him with rapid-fire questions.

  He shook his head. “No. Danielle doesn’t want to tell her yet. I don’t know how she will tell her. Aster is only six. She can’t really understand, and her father hasn’t been a part of her life the last couple of years since they moved in with me. At first Danielle had a restraining order to keep him away from them, and then when the order was lifted and we didn’t hear from Bryant, Danielle and I were both relieved.”

  “Do they know what happened?”

  “He was shot and fell into the water just north of the Falls.”

  “Shot? None of the news sources said that.”

  “The Niagara Falls police were keeping it quiet until the body could be identified. He was badly beaten up in the water.” He grimaced. “And from going over the edge of the Falls. Crump said they won’t be able to hold the fact that it was murder back from the media much longer. The people in our tribe and who know my sister will know that Danielle was his ex-wife. There is a good chance I won’t be able to protect her or Aster from the media.”

  Poor Danielle.

  “What made the Niagara Falls police come to you for the ID?”

  “Dental records.” He sighed. “They asked me to come down t
o identify the body rather than my sister as professional courtesy.”

  “Why was he near the river?” I asked.

  “He might have been fishing. They found his gear and truck upriver. He certainly was drinking. His alcohol levels were twice the legal limit when he was shot.”

  “Could it have been a hunting accident?” I asked.

  “Not one I’ve ever heard of. The bullet that hit him was from a handgun.”

  “How awful,” I said, but at the same time I wondered what any of this had to do with Redding.

  “Even in death he manages to hurt my sister.” Rainwater’s face was a hard mask.

  I felt the spray of the Falls on my cheeks. Ten yards up from us, another couple held on to each other as they looked at the Falls. They had that just-married glow, as Niagara Falls was a common location for a quick wedding. It was a romantic place. There was a reason so many people eloped here. I had wanted to come here with Rainwater, but our schedules were such that we had never made the time. I’d always thought we would visit during the summer when my classes were over. I certainly hadn’t thought it would be under these circumstances.

  “You were the one who told her,” I said.

  He looked down at me.

  “When you took her from the café, it was about her ex-husband.”

  He nodded.

  “I thought …”

  “What did you think, Violet?” He was staring at me with those unique amber eyes again. Sometimes I felt I could melt into them, and other times, like now, I felt like they were hot pieces of glass reflecting myself back at me, not letting me peek inside his soul at all.

  “I thought that it might have been about Redding. I know she and Redding had an argument before the race started.”

  “I’m not going to bother asking you how you know that.”

  “Good.” I didn’t want to have to bring Simon into this.

  “What did they fight about?” I asked.

  He looked out to the water again. “It was about Bryant. When Danielle first left him because he was physically and emotionally abusive to her and she was afraid he would do the same to her daughter, she and Aster went to New York City.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “She thought in the midst of all those people, she could hide.” He gripped the railing. “She didn’t come here to me first. She was too embarrassed.” He took a breath and let it out. “Bryant wasn’t going to let her go without a fight, so he hired Redding to find her.”