Gun in the Gardenias Read online

  She wrinkled her nose. “Did Darren tattle on me?”

  “Why would he tattle?” Mack asked, his voice looming with worry. “What are you up to?”

  “Well, somebody who’s in hospice—that journalist fellow—sent his nephew with the case file for Penny, which I knew was coming but didn’t receive in time to help us since Penny attacked me soon afterward.” The words rushed out. “Anyhow, Solomon wanted to get rid of his research files before they became part of his estate and became something else for his lawyers and his heirs to haggle over. That was what the kid brought me through the media barricade today.”

  She stared at the files as she talked to Mack, then saw a note tucked in the front of one of them. She pulled it out. “Oh,” she said. “He’s gifted them to me, according to this note. The handwriting is pretty rough and scrawled, but I imagine it goes along with the fact that he’s probably feeling pretty rough. It does say, ‘Dear Doreen, here is my life’s work. Hopefully it will help you on yours.’ And it’s signed Solomon.”

  “On yours?” Mack asked. “Since when is solving cases your life’s work?”

  “I don’t know,” she said dismissively. “Who knows what Nan’s told him?”

  “Or who knows what he’s deduced himself,” Mack said. “I highly doubt any of that material is of any value.”

  “You might want to see Penny’s folder though. I read some interesting tidbits. There is nothing new, but it proves she had a terrible childhood. It also has clippings of what Solomon found throughout the years on her case.”

  “Well, maybe I’ll take a look. If nothing else, we should probably have it for our file and to share with the prosecutor.”

  “Exactly. It’ll be better if he knows what the defense lawyer knows as well.”

  Mack laughed. “Now you’re even starting to think like a cop. Lord help us.”

  “But I don’t know if any of the rest of these files are of interest or not,” Doreen said. “Did you get anywhere on that gun?”

  “No, we’re still waiting for the ballistics report.”

  “Interesting. On that note, do you remember what Steve’s last name was?”

  “Albright.”

  She went to the boxes. “Aha!”

  “What does that mean?” Mack asked, his voice rising.

  “There’s a folder with that name on it.”

  “Doreen,” he said in warning, “don’t you dare go down that path.”

  She chuckled. “How can I not? Somebody has gifted me with his whole life’s work of research on criminals. You should see how thick this file is.”

  “Well, Steve Albright’s a corporate lawyer. Of course, it’ll be thick. That doesn’t mean it’s anything criminal.”

  “I know,” she said, “but I’ll have fun taking a look anyway.” As soon as she said that, she ended the call, picked up the huge file, and walked into her kitchen. Then she groaned. She still had so much to do in the kitchen, but her energy had completely died now. She dropped the file atop the kitchen table and turned to her pets. “What do you guys want to do?”

  Mugs woofed at the door. They probably needed to go out. They hadn’t had any exercise today. She was the one who had worked her butt off, scrubbing, cleaning, and making several trips up and down the stairs. They hadn’t. She picked up a mug and poured the last of the coffee in it. “How about a trip to the creek then?”

  She opened the door and let the animals out but remembered something. The media was around, and she had all those files in her house. She went back to the front door, reset the alarm, and rushed to the kitchen to set that alarm too before heading outside.

  Nan texted just then. No luck. Too many watchdogs.

  At that, Doreen interpreted the conversation to mean Nan couldn’t get in to see Solomon. She quickly responded, Don’t worry about it. It’s fine.

  Her mind buzzed, and she wondered what she should do. Somehow she had to keep the boxes safe. She didn’t want anybody to know she had them. That thought came too late because she’d already told Mack and Nan. Mack wouldn’t blab, but he would want to see them. And Nan? … Well, the truth was, Nan would blab. And, sure enough, it would be Doreen who got into trouble.

  With that thought, Doreen didn’t take too long with her walk of her animals along the creek. Plus Doreen’s muscles ached. She turned her brood around and headed for a hot shower and then to bed early tonight.

  Chapter 7

  Friday Morning …

  Doreen woke up, rolled over, and groaned. Who knew cleaning a house would cause her body so much physical stress? Somehow she had been cocky and had thought last week’s work in Penny’s garden had toughened her up. But Doreen still hadn’t used her muscles enough to handle this kind of regular activity. As she remembered all the loads she had taken from upstairs down and from downstairs up, she realized she really did deserve to be sore today. On top of that, she had scrubbed everything in the house except for the kitchen and that hall closet. She was determined to do them so she could count the job as done. Then winced because she still had the entire garage to look after too.

  Goliath jumped on the bed just then and nudged her in the face with his forehead. That big guttural purr of his demanded attention. She was more than happy to give it to him.

  With both hands, she gently scrubbed up and down his neck, around his ears and cheeks, and above his forehead. Then she gave him long, smooth strokes down his back and along his tail. He stretched out fully, his tail swishing back and forth. He kept hitting Mugs’s face with it. And likely on purpose. He ended up waking Mugs, who rolled over. Then the next time his tail came by, Mugs opened and clamped his mouth on it fast. Goliath screeched and turned to Mugs. In an instant, a chase ensued. They ran down the hallway and into the other bedroom and then finally back around again and down the stairs.

  Doreen groaned at the noise because Mugs wouldn’t stop barking, and Goliath was letting him know exactly what he thought of this treatment. But though Goliath had chased Mugs out of her bedroom, it was Mugs who chased Goliath back in. She laughed.

  “You guys are just doing this for fun,” she said. She sat up on the bed and looked around her clean room, smiling. She still had the weird hanger contraption she’d created and hung from the ceiling for Thaddeus to roost on. Thaddeus rested gently on it, watching the critters race. She walked to the bird and cuddled him. Immediately he threw himself sideways into the palm of her hand. She picked him up and held him against her chest.

  “Thaddeus is here,” he said. “Thaddeus is here.”

  She chuckled and lifted him higher, then kissed him on his neck. “And Doreen is delighted that Thaddeus is here.”

  Gently he moved up her shoulder, where he nestled against her hair. Even those subtle moves caused her pain. Since she had already had a hot shower last night, she would take a muscle relaxant this morning. She got dressed, easily finding something new to wear from Nan’s stack she’d kept for herself. She didn’t have many belongings to begin with, so it was a shock to uncover Nan’s eclectic fashion collection. Even after paring down her clothes a great deal, a lot still occupied a whole spare room. Things Doreen now had to inspect once more to see if she’d keep them or not.

  With Thaddeus still on her shoulder, she walked downstairs to the kitchen, disabled the alarms, opened the kitchen door, and watched as the cat and dog raced through the doorway to the backyard. She laughed as she stepped outside to see the morning sun dappling across her lawn.

  “Good morning, world,” she cried out happily. It really was a lovely day. Nobody was after her. As far as she knew, everybody involved in something nasty was in jail, and her day was her own. Of course, she had those files from Solomon, but she would look into them more before Mack arrived. He’d promised to come and cook pork chops tonight. She did want to have a full digital copy of everything made, just in case Mack had designs on those boxes.

  With that thought in mind, she put on coffee, grabbed the big file on Penny and stacked up as many of the lik
e-minded pages as she could, then ran them through her scanner. By the time that file was done, so was the coffee. She renamed the PDFs and sent one copy to Mack and saved one for herself. After that, she returned the folder to the box and carried her coffee outside.

  Goliath and Mugs ran in circles beside her, while Thaddeus chirped in a happy and lively tone. Smiling, Doreen walked to the creek and stuck a bare toe in it. “Brr,” she said. “Hardly swimming weather.”

  “Thaddeus likes water. Thaddeus likes water.”

  “You do, indeed,” she said. She lifted him off her shoulder and set him on one of the big rocks right against the shore. “Now you can sit there and watch the water go by,” she said.

  Instead of watching though, he went to the other side of the rock where it sat in the creek and dipped his head for a drink.

  She picked him up again after he drank, then walked farther down the creek. Her other two critters followed her. It was a seriously gorgeous day. As she got closer to the water, she kicked off her flip-flops and stepped into the cool water fully this time. “Cold but lovely,” she repeated with a smile.

  “Thaddeus likes water,” the bird murmured against her ear. “Thaddeus likes water.”

  “Do you want to sit on the rocks?”

  His head bobbed up and down, his feathers fluffing out then flattening again. She knew he had a complex language for every movement he made, but she didn’t really understand all his nuances. She helped him off her shoulder and then carefully placed him on one of the bigger flat rocks in the creek. He could still walk back to dry land if he wanted to. Immediately though, he went to the shallow end and bent his head for another sip of cool water.

  “Tastes good, doesn’t it?” she asked him.

  But he was too busy drinking to respond. Then he pecked at some unseen object on the rock, completely happy. Doreen looked at Goliath, laying on the path with his tail flicking as he watched Thaddeus. She could almost see the thoughts the cat had. He was thinking the bird was crazy. Meanwhile, Mugs seemed to take great delight in just bouncing around. But then he backed up, took several stiff-legged hops and flew into the water. He sent a wave crashing toward Thaddeus, who squawked and flapped his wings. The bird stumbled backward before righting himself. After that, he proceeded to rip into Mugs and to tell him off fiercely.

  Doreen laughed. “I know it’s bad to laugh at you,” she said, “but you guys really do keep my life fun and exciting.”

  “Just make sure you keep it that way,” a man’s hard voice said behind her. “Because snooping around in other people’s business will cut short that little idyllic scene of yours.”

  She stiffened but didn’t bother turning around. She already recognized the voice. “Good morning, Steve. Still out to cause trouble?”

  “You’re the one causing trouble. I’ve hired an excellent criminal lawyer for Penny. You’ll rue the day you made up those stories.”

  “I didn’t make anything up,” she said. “Good for you for helping your friend out though. After all, I’m sure she didn’t really mean to kill her brother or to attack Hornby or me.”

  “It’s all lies,” he said.

  “So, I take it you were lovers,” she said in a conversational tone. “There’s really no other reason to continue to defend her, even in the face of all the evidence.”

  An ugly silence came before he responded. “And now you impinge her honor. You might be so low but I am not.”

  “Interesting turn of phrase, so you loved her, but from a distance,” Doreen said with a laugh, turning to look at him.

  He was dressed in an all-black getup, and his hands were in his hoodie pockets. It was like one big kangaroo pocket, and she worried about the possibility of him having a gun in there. She always wondered why people pulled a gun out of a pocket when they could shoot right through it.

  An awkward silence followed while they stared at each other. “She’s been keeping secrets from you.”

  Something baleful was in his gaze. “I’m a corporate lawyer. I have all kinds of secrets I keep for my clients.”

  “Right, because corporate lawyers do that. They help corporations save money. And they cheat and steal too.”

  “No, we don’t,” he bit off. “And I won’t have you tarnishing my reputation. That’s called slander.”

  “Right, it’s all about your reputation, isn’t it? I wonder how your reputation will hold up, knowing you were caught running through my backyard with a gun—then losing said gun—for the cops to find?” When she caught the shock in his face, she nodded slowly. “Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize you?”

  He took a step back.

  “Yeah, you better keep going,” she said. “I know you’re in cahoots with Penny. The question is, will you be up for charges as a coconspirator to attempted murder?”

  “You’ve got it all wrong,” he stated with a shake of his head.

  “What I don’t have wrong is the fact that you were trespassing on my property with a gun. I chased you to the creek. Penny went one direction, while you went the other. It was pretty obvious who you both were. And then, like an idiot, you lost the gun.” She paused before adding, “You do know it’s been handed in to the cops?”

  She’d never seen a man go as pale as a ghost. She had heard the phrase many times but had never actually seen it. She nodded slowly. “You better have an explanation,” she said, “and fast. The police will be knocking on your door soon.”

  “I had nothing to do with anything,” he spat out.

  “Well, good. Then why are you so terrified?”

  He shook his head again. “You don’t know anything. And your interference is ruining everything. Stop meddling in people’s lives. You don’t understand.”

  “Help me understand then,” she said in a coaxing manner. “Seriously. Help me. I don’t understand how you’re as sweet and innocent as you keep trying to tell me when you were trespassing with a gun, which means you had an intent to murder someone.” She knew she was making up some of the legal terminologies because what did she know? She just liked to watch cop shows. That didn’t mean she understood the language. But then she studied Steve’s body language and nodded. “You’re terrified about something. I highly suggest you go back and think about where you stand in all this and just what trouble you might be in for real now.”

  “For real?” he asked mockingly. “What are you, sixteen?”

  “Not even close,” she said. “But I will admit, on days like today, I do feel like I’m sixteen. It’s lovely. It’s also weird and awkward too. But then again, you’ve got to be at least fifty-eight—or maybe a year or two younger but not by much. Maybe you were Penny’s younger lover. Who knows?” She shrugged. “I can’t be too bothered about your sex life.”

  He mumbled under his breath with another shake of his head. And then, when he didn’t have anything else to say, the normally very articulate Steve spun on his heels and almost ran up the path. Doreen watched him go and wondered if she should add something, like a snappy retort.

  But nothing came to her mind much less to her tongue. What she really wanted was to yell at him to stay away. But he was already so far gone that he wouldn’t have heard her.

  Belatedly she noted how her animals had rallied about her. Goliath had gotten up and sat down beside her, staring as Steve raced away. Mugs no longer splashed carefree in the water either. He instead stood beside her with the back of his neck all bristled. Even Thaddeus had crossed the creek to be nearby.

  She reached out a hand on either side and gently stroked both pets. “He’s gone for now, guys. Let’s hope he stays away.”

  Chapter 8

  Friday Midmorning …

  Slowly Doreen wandered back to the house and wondered if she should tell Mack about Steve. She’d already emailed him earlier, but it made sense to double-check if he was coming for pork chops tonight. Just the thought of barbecue pork chops—well, maybe not barbecue since she didn’t have a barbecue pit—or any version of pork c
hops made her mouth water. Without questioning herself, she hit the speed dial for Mack and waited for him to answer. His answering machine got the call instead. Frowning, she wondered if that meant he was in a meeting or if he was off on another case.

  The thought of being on another case so soon almost filled her with fatigue. At the same time though, her interest spiked. Since Crystal’s case potentially connected to however many more cases, Mack could still have a mess of paperwork to do, interviews to attend, and loose ends to tie up in each and every one of those cases. He was probably too darn busy to answer the phone. She hung up without leaving a message.

  Her phone rang as she walked to her small deck. It was Mack’s mother, Millicent.

  “Could you please come tomorrow instead of today?” Millicent asked fretfully. “I do love your visits, but I have to go out this morning for doctors’ appointments. I’d prefer to stay home, but I have to go see them.”

  “Oh, no problem,” Doreen said gaily. “I can come Saturday morning. Not an issue.” Mentally she was pleased to have the spare time today. It would allow her to work on her house instead.

  Inside now, she settled on toast with cheese for her breakfast and then walked into the living room and stared at the boxes of folders. If she got into those, she would never finish the kitchen. She wanted the kitchen done before Mack got here for dinner tonight. So she pushed the boxes of files farther along the wall to the side of the front door, so Mack wouldn’t trip as he stepped inside with his hands full of grocery bags, blocking his view of the floor.

  Then, with a cleared space, she emptied everything from the kitchen into the living room. It was the only way she could sort through it all. She started with the cupboards under the stove and worked her way all the way around. By the time she had everything emptied, Thaddeus sat on top of the turkey roaster. He squawked at her, and she smiled.