Revenge in the Roses (Lovely Lethal Gardens Book 18) Read online

  An odd look took over his face as the captain contemplated that. “You know something? I think that goes for any situation.”

  “Yep, now stay close, while we figure this out. We must take the wind out of their sails, otherwise they’ll be all on a big rampage.”

  Following the crowd, Doreen spotted Darren. She waved at him. “Darren, did you get an update from the hospital?”

  He nodded and joined her and the captain. “Mack’s awake and doing well. He’s been admitted into a private room in the hospital. You’re still not allowed to go visit though, even during regular visiting hours.”

  She frowned at him, wondering if that was said on purpose.

  He shook his head. “No, it’s not me. The doctor wants to keep Mack quiet for the next little bit. Maybe later tonight or tomorrow morning you can see him.”

  She nodded slowly. “That’ll be all the quiet Mack gets. After that, I’m breaking him out of there,” she announced.

  The captain sighed heavily. “I’m sure glad you didn’t say that in front of this crowd.”

  She looked over at him, startled, and then nodded. “Right. Believe me. I’d have an awful lot of breaker-outers with me.”

  Now with everybody seated in a big circle, she stepped into the center and sat down. All the animals immediately arranged themselves around her. “I don’t know how much of the scenario you all have heard, so I’ll give you what I know, and then anybody here who has information to offer, please speak up.”

  She quickly gave an accounting of the walk down from her house with Mack and the animals. Mugs lay at her feet, and his ears lifted when she mentioned his name. Thaddeus did the same, poking his head out of Doreen’s hair, and cried out, “Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here.”

  Immediately everybody laughed and clapped. Goliath just gave them all one of those long blasé looks, stretched out flat, and let his tail twitch.

  Doreen continued. “We came around the corner of Rosemoor, saw a vehicle parked opposite the front door. A man hopped out when he saw us, lifted his hands, and called out “Copper,” then said something about revenge is better cold and shot Mack, who was already in motion. I’m not exactly sure whether Mack was trying to knock me out of the way or was moving toward the shooter, but Mack took the bullet high in his chest, actually more of a shoulder shot, and collapsed into the rosebush.”

  She took a few minutes to compose herself, as everybody gave sage nods. “I’ll keep the questions simple. Did anybody see that vehicle parked out front? Hands up.”

  Nobody raised their hands. She frowned at that.

  “Did anybody see the actual shooting take place? Hands up.”

  Again everybody shook their head. Nobody put up their hands.

  “Did anybody know that there would be any kind of altercation earlier this evening?” she asked the crowd.

  At that, one tiny little bird of a woman poked up her hand.

  Doreen looked at her, with a sinking heart. “Yes. … What information do you have?”

  “My knees have been acting up. That only happens when bad things are about to happen,” she explained. “I just didn’t know it would be Mack who would get hurt. If I’d known”—she slowly stood, her head barely cresting above all the other people seated—“I would have said something to him, but I didn’t know it would be him.”

  At that, several other people laughed, and one nodded.

  Doreen looked over at the nodding man. “I’m sorry. I’m not sure what your name is,” Doreen began. “Have you seen this woman’s knees cause trouble before?”

  “I don’t know that her knees cause trouble, but she has pointed out a few times when her knees have hurt, and bad things have happened.”

  She stared at him for a moment. “Interesting. Okay. Besides that set of knees, does anybody else have anything to add about this?”

  At that, several people put up their hands.

  “Thank you for all being so mannerly.” She pointed to the one gentleman. “I think your name is Uriah?”

  He nodded, seemingly pleased that she knew his name. “I want to know what we’ll do about it.” He then stood. “It’s one thing to get all the initial layout of the crime and then ask for answers, but do you have a plan yet?”

  At the word yet, she realized just how much they were all counting on her. She looked over at the captain.

  “I’ll give you the official line,” the captain replied, his hands on his hips, as he turned and surveyed them all. “And you won’t like part of it.” At that, his words were met with jeers all around.

  Doreen held up her hand. Instantly there was silence. At her side, the captain swore under his breath. She looked over at him, a question in her eyes.

  He just shrugged. “They won’t do that for me,” he whispered.

  She looked back at the rest of them, all looking at her expectantly. “First off, the official line is, the police are investigating.”

  In response came catcalls and jeers.

  She held up her hand again. And once again there was silence. “Unofficially …”

  Expectant looks appeared on their faces, and everybody grinned, waiting for her to explain.

  “Obviously I’ll be looking into what happened. Of a bigger concern, as Nan brought up earlier, we must ensure that you guys all stay safe.”

  At that, one man laughed. “We’re already dead anyway,” he quipped. “At least let us have a little fun before we go.”

  She nodded, knowing full well where he was coming from. “I get that, and I know, for you, a lot of this is just fun stuff, but remember Nan was attacked on a recent case that I had, and we don’t want a repeat.”

  Everybody turned to look at Nan, and they nodded.

  “That’s a good point,” noted one man. “It’s one thing to die from old age. It’s another thing to have it brought to us earlier by a murderer.”

  “Exactly,” Doreen murmured. “So obviously I will be working within the parameters of the police.” She worked hard to make her wording right, without pissing off the captain and everybody here. “So I will stay in touch with Nan, and you will not take bets.” She gave her nan a stern look, then turned to everybody in this room. “You will not bet on the outcome of Mack’s surgery. Do I hear any arguments against that?”

  Immediately everybody shook their head.

  “Not about the surgery, my dear. That’s totally fair,” Nan agreed.

  Doreen turned to face her grandmother, hearing that cagey tone in her voice. “Or about how soon this case will be closed. We will work it until it’s solved, one way or another. We can’t have Mack getting hurt again, and we can’t have anybody here getting hurt. That person was parked right outside of this building across the driveway, as if he knew that’s where the property line ended. It could have been random, but I’m not a big believer in coincidence anymore.” She paused.

  “And, of course, an awful lot of people know about this place, and they know who lives here and who doesn’t.” She looked at them seriously, her gaze going from one resident to the next and the next. “If you see anything suspicious, you know you can contact the captain and his team. However, at the same time, we don’t want all the police phone lines inundated with people who think that, you know, the plumber is doing something suspicious or something silly like that.”

  “But how will we know if the plumber is doing something suspicious if we don’t report him?” one of the women asked in that curious tone, as if Doreen had made a strange comment.

  Doreen turned to hide the instinctive rolling of her eyes. “Fine, just don’t inundate the police with phone calls that don’t have any substance. And please, I won’t insult you by having to describe what that means.”

  “That’s fine,” Richie added. “They can always talk to Nan or me to get that point clarified.”

  “And that’s not a bad idea,” Doreen stated. “You two could run interference for the police, and, if you find anything credible, then you can contact Darren.”

  Richie beamed.

  Doreen pivoted to Darren, who stared at her in horror. Her lips twitched. “But, Richie, please do not fill Darren’s day with useless calls either.”

  Richie shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “No, you might not think you’re doing that,” Doreen murmured gently, “but I wonder if Darren has a different idea.”

  At that, Richie snorted. “Of course he does. He’s young, my dear. He doesn’t really understand life yet.”

  “Right. And, of course, you guys have such great experience, a wealth of it, that, if we’re smart, we will put it to good use.”

  Immediately everybody sat up straighter.

  “We just can’t have things being manufactured for the sake of attention,” Doreen reiterated. She hated to state this so plainly, but it was time for plain talking.

  At that came silence. A couple people looked down at their hands, and another couple looked at Doreen in astonishment. Thankfully even more just nodded their heads.

  “You know something?” Richie replied. “It takes a very straightforward type of a person to say something like that to us, and I understand why you would say it.” He turned and looked at everybody around, glaring at them. “You hear that? Don’t do anything just to make it look like you have something to say,” he repeated. “You got something to say? You bring it to Nan or me. We’ll decide whether it’s of any value or not, and then we’ll send it to Doreen first.” He added, “I know my grandson won’t have time.”

  At that, Doreen watched Darren sigh ever-so-slightly with relief. But Doreen knew that she would take a hit for it. “Fine,” she agreed, “and now I’ll have a cup of tea, and then I’m heading down to the hospital.”

  “Not with those animals you’re not,” one of the ladies stated. “Can’t have them in the hospital.”

  She nodded. “I know, they wouldn’t let me in the ambulance either. Can you believe it?”

  And that brought the discussion back to how they should allow the animals in everywhere there were people. Knowing that would distract the crowd for now, Doreen turned to the captain and asked, “Was that okay?”

  He nodded. “Better than I had hoped for.”

  Darren stepped up closer. “Yeah, … except for throwing me under the bus.”

  “That’s okay. Apparently Richie’s got your back.” She chuckled.

  Darren sighed. “It won’t make any difference. You know that.”

  “It will if I can keep them a little bit corralled. And a little bit means a little bit. We can’t do too-too much just because of who they are.”

  Darren nodded. “And you’re right. They do have an awful lot of experience and knowledge among them. But, if they don’t know anything, they just don’t know anything.”

  “I was an eyewitness to the entire thing, and unfortunately I don’t know much either. But, believe me, if I thought anyone could dredge up a little bit of information to help, I would welcome it.” She turned to the captain. “I don’t suppose any street cameras are around Rosemoor, are there?”

  He shook his head. “Nope, there sure aren’t. And too many gray vehicles are in town, without more of a description to identify the gunman’s car from all the rest. So searching the main city cameras for the car is not efficient or productive.”

  “That’s what I expected.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “And I presume you’re going through Mack’s old cases.”

  “Of course we are,” Darren replied in exasperation.

  “But those cases”—she looked at him carefully—“won’t automatically say, Hey, this guy hates Mack.”

  “No. Of course not,” the captain said.

  “And the other consideration is whether any of these people who may have put Mack on their target list,” she added, “could be in cases that I brought him.”

  At that, Darren and the captain exchanged a look, and she realized they’d already considered that.

  “Of course you’re considering that already.” She nodded. “But the gunman did say, Revenge was best served cold.”

  “And what does that mean to you?” the captain asked curiously.

  She looked at him and shrugged. “That it wasn’t a recent case and that he’s been waiting a while to pick an opportunity to do this. So why now and why Mack? Obviously Mack has done something the gunman didn’t like, but why now? Has Mack once again been in the news? Has he been suddenly brought up to somebody’s level of awareness? Some person who may have forgotten about this beef with Mack, but now he sees him again, and something’s pissed him off enough to do something about it?”

  “What do you mean by that?” Darren said.

  “Maybe the gunman was in jail,” she said bluntly. “Maybe he’s out now, and he’s made plans all these years to get back at Mack.”

  “And that’s certainly possible too,” the captain murmured. “Which is why we’re going through all of Mack’s cases.”

  “Of course you are. And I already know that you won’t keep me informed on this case.” A yawn caught her by surprise. She gave a headshake. “It’s been a pretty rough night so far. If we’re done here, I’ll head to the hospital and see if I can coax them to let me in.”

  “The doc did say no visitors,” Darren repeated.

  “Yeah, no visitors but family. And, no, I’m not family, and, no, I wouldn’t go and tell them that I was family in order to get in to see Mack. However, I do know a family member, and a family member does work for me.”

  “What does that mean?” Darren asked her.

  “Mack’s brother, Nick, a lawyer, is handling my mess of a divorce.” She paused, her mouth open, as she stared at the captain.

  “What?” the captain asked.

  “I don’t think he would do this,” she began, “but …”

  “Who?” the captain asked.

  “My ex.”

  “Explain,” the captain said.

  “Robin was my divorce lawyer—the one who died here not too long ago, where I looked to be the suspect. Remember?”

  Both the captain and Darren nodded their heads.

  “She did my divorce, screwed that up, did all kinds of illegal things, including everything about my divorce proceedings. From what Nick tells me, it negates the signatures on the divorce papers. So it all must be redone. And, of course, now my ex is very unhappy because his easy way out of the marriage to give me nothing isn’t looking all so easy now.” She shrugged. “Of course I don’t care about most of that, but Nick is pretty insistent that I get something out of it.”

  “Then you should,” the captain agreed. “If your ex had any money before you got into the marriage, that’s one thing. However, if you helped to make any money during that marriage, then that’s an entirely different story.”

  She nodded. “That’s what Mack’s brother told me too. And I did help with my husband’s business over those fourteen years we were married. Mathew, my ex, didn’t have very much when we first married, but he’s got megamillions now.”

  “Then a settlement is to be expected, and your ex is perfectly aware of what a divorce could cost him.”

  “Right.” She frowned. “You might want to look at that in terms of Mack’s shooting. It doesn’t feel like it’s my ex in that Mathew would be hands-off. So, if he could get somebody else to do it for him, that would be Mathew’s way.”

  “But what would be his motivation?” asked the captain.

  “In this case just because he’s pissed off. And also, with Robin dead, and her estate not going to Mathew, everything moneywise has kind of blown up in his face. I don’t know whether he holds Mack responsible for any of this divorce mess or not.” She shrugged. “All I can tell you is that, every time I’ve spoken to him recently, Mathew’s one pissed-off person. And maybe he would hire someone to shoot Mack just because he knows that I care about Mack.”

  “Maybe. It is something that we can’t afford to ignore,” the captain agreed, pulling out a notepad. “Anything else you can suggest?”

  “Yeah, that guy Steve, with all the dead bodies on his property.”

  He nodded. “That’s one of those cases. We’ll have to go back through all of them.”

  “I will too. If I come up with anything, I’ll let you know.” And, at that, she stood. “I also was wondering if I can get a ride to the hospital.”

  The captain looked at her.

  “I know. You gave me a ride home, but—” She shrugged sheepishly. “It shows how affected I was because my car is still there at the hospital.”

  “Oh, good Lord,” Darren said. “Yeah, I’ll take you down now, but you still won’t get in to see Mack.”

  “I understand, but I would at least like my wheels back.” And, with that, she walked over to Nan and gave her a hug and a kiss goodbye. “I’m heading to the hospital.”

  Nan lost the joviality on her face and gave her a hug back. “Take care, sweetie.”

  Waving goodbye, Darren led Doreen and the animals out to his patrol car. As she got in, she closed her eyes momentarily.

  “Mack really is okay,” Darren murmured.

  “I’m glad to hear that.” She gave him a half smile.

  “I hadn’t realized you two had a thing going.”

  “I’m not sure we do. It’s caught me by surprise too.”

  At that, he laughed. “Yeah, that kind of stuff usually does.”

  “I don’t know what it does,” she murmured. “It’s all just a little too confusing at the moment. I just want to know that he’s safe.”

  “We all do,” Darren agreed. “Mack’s very popular at the station.”

  She couldn’t imagine him not being well loved. He had a lot of heart.

  As they drove to the hospital, she asked, “You mind driving me right to my vehicle? I want to make sure it’s still there. It would be terrible if it’s been towed away. Plus I can put the animals in there, while I quickly check on Mack.”

  It was there. She gave a happy sigh. As it came into view, she said, “Am I glad to see my car.” She got out, along with the animals, leaned in the passenger side before closing her door, and said, “Thanks very much for the ride.”