Lifeless in the Lilies (Lovely Lethal Gardens Book 12) Read online

  Mugs started barking and tore out after Goliath. Thaddeus, who was on her shoulder, readjusting his position after she stood up, said, “Mugs is fat. Mugs is fat.”

  She looked at him in shock. “You did not just say that,” she cried out. “That’s so mean.”

  “He-he-he.”

  She shook her head. “You can’t call Mugs fat,” she told Thaddeus. “That is unkind, and it’ll hurt his feelings.”

  At that, Mack turned and looked at her and said, “Did you just say that to a bird?”

  She glared up at him. “Mugs has feelings too. You can’t just call him fat.”

  Mack didn’t say a word but pivoted and strode forward.

  She guessed that meant that he didn’t really believe her. She raced to catch up with him, grabbing his elbow. “Mugs has feelings too. We can’t disregard that.”

  “Mugs will be just fine. Keep feeding him, and he’ll be happy.”

  “Well, of course,” she said, “but I can’t have him getting fat.” She quickly added, “He isn’t now either.”

  “Of course not,” he said.

  “Well, he isn’t,” she said. “And I can’t have you saying that he is.”

  He just groaned. “This is another stupid conversation.”

  “Well, I didn’t start it,” she said.

  “Well, if you didn’t, who did?”

  She looked at him, thought about it, and said, “Thaddeus did.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Mack said, and he strode away even faster.

  Chapter 5

  Saturday Late Afternoon …

  Doreen kept stomping behind Mack, as they made their way to the first cross street. “I don’t remember it taking this long,” she said, as he turned to look at her.

  “It’s not that long. We had to go past the block because it’s partially flooded.”

  She nodded. “You’d think, after all this time, they would have put better drainage in here.”

  “Mother Nature always wins out when it comes to flooding,” he said. “It’s not bad right now, but, every once in a while, we do get a year where it can be really ugly.”

  “I don’t want to see it like that,” she muttered.

  “Have you checked your sump pumps lately?”

  She stared at him in shock, then shook her head. “I have not.”

  “We’ll do it when we get back. That’s why you have them though, for unexpected water surges like this,” he said, as he looked around the area. “I would have thought that this would have calmed down by now.”

  “I would have too,” she said.

  “But we’ve had an awful lot of rain,” he said, shrugging. “These floods come out of nowhere but go down almost as fast.”

  She nodded. “It seems like it’s been a season of everything.”

  “You’ve had quite the time since you got here, haven’t you?” he asked, tossing a grin her way.

  “Well, it has been that,” she said. “I’m not exactly sure what kind of a season at this rate, but it’s certainly been different.”

  “It’s better than what it would have been if you’d stayed with your husband,” he said.

  “Well, that goes without saying,” she said, blowing a fluff of hair off her forehead. As they walked forward, she said, “I think the kids were up around here.”

  “This far?” he asked. Stopping to look back at her place, it was just barely visible through the trees.

  She nodded. “That’s why I didn’t get too good of a look at them.”

  He nodded and stopped to survey the area. “Maybe we’ll just walk up a little bit and see what we can find.”

  She kept pace with him now, not carrying Mugs any longer, although her wet jeans were getting more uncomfortable to walk in. They passed the Environmental, or ECO center, as the locals called it, and moved toward a residential area. When they reached the corner, she looked at it and noted, “A bunch of houses are in here. Those kids could be from some of these.”

  “Well, they could be,” he said. “We’ll take a look.” As they moved up and around the area, they saw some kids playing. “Recognize anyone?”

  She shook her head slowly. “Honestly it just happened so fast.”

  “Of course,” he said. He walked up, waved at a couple kids. One waved back, but another just stared at him. The others kept playing, ignoring the adults.

  “I guess your reception isn’t always positive, is it?” she asked Mack.

  “It’s not negative either,” he said. “It depends on how the kids have been raised. As to whether they’re afraid of the police or not.”

  “I can’t imagine raising children to be afraid of the cops,” she said, with a shake of her head. “Besides, you don’t look like a cop, but you do look like authority.”

  “Maybe not, but it happens.”

  “I guess I just think it’s wrong.”

  He smiled. Then a child who had been sitting nearby got up and tore off in the opposite direction.

  “Well, that’s not a good response,” she muttered.

  Mack stopped and studied the kid, as he disappeared around the corner.

  “Do you know him?” Doreen asked Mack.

  He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so, yet something is a little familiar about him.”

  “Well, I imagine, after a number of years, you get to know everybody here.”

  “Unfortunately that’s not the case,” he admitted. “I’d like to say it is, but certainly a lot of people live here that I’ve never come across.”

  “Well, that’s a good thing then because that means they haven’t been involved with the police.”

  “Well, that’s the theory anyway.”

  Something in his tone of voice made her stop and glance at him. She looked around at the other kids, who were smiling, but they were looking at Thaddeus. “This is Thaddeus,” she said. “He’s my parrot. Do you have any idea which two kids saw him on the river earlier?” They just stared at her with odd looks on their faces, mostly blank. “I don’t think we’re terribly welcome here,” she said quietly to Mack.

  “I think you’re right,” he said, his hands across his chest, as he surveyed everybody in front of them. “The question to that then is, why not?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe it’s more of a poor area or maybe it’s just a smaller area, where they’re warier of strangers.”

  “I wouldn’t have said so,” he said, “but sure. Up ahead we do have a lot of apartment buildings.”

  “That doesn’t mean that it’s a low-income area though. And I’m sure not one to be talking,” she said, “because I’ve probably got less money than any of them.” He chuckled again. She smiled. “I’m glad I can make you laugh at least.”

  “You always make me laugh,” he said, looping an arm around hers.

  She smiled, and they walked up a little closer to the kids. “Do you think they’ll talk to us?” she asked.

  “I doubt it,” he said.

  Just then a door banged on a house nearby, and a big burly man—wearing jeans, suspenders, and a dirty T-shirt—stepped out, glaring at them.

  Mack smiled. “Hey. Nice day, isn’t it?” he said.

  “Well, it was until the pigs showed up.”

  She stiffened and gasped. “Did you just call me a pig?”

  He glared at her. “Who are you, toots?”

  At that, her jaw dropped. “My name is Doreen,” she said, inclining her head regally, completely at a loss as to how to deal with him.

  “That’s nice,” he said, shaking his head at both of them. “You’re not wanted here, so get lost.” And, with that, he stepped back inside and let the door slam again.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody quite so rude,” she mused, staring at the door.

  “Get used to it,” he said, “particularly if you think you’ll align yourself with the cops. An awful lot of people out here don’t like us.”

  “But you’re very nice,” she said in astonishment.

  He laughed. “Doesn’t matter if I’m nice or not. I’m a cop, and, if they’re trying to avoid the law, they don’t like cops. Likely they’ve had a bad experience.”

  “Exactly, but that’s still no reason to treat you like that,” she said in outrage, and it was getting harder and harder to keep her temper contained.

  “Whoa,” he said, looking at her sideways. “Don’t you go getting all riled up now.”

  “Why not?” she said. “That was really unfair of him.”

  He snorted. “That’s hardly an insult in today’s world.”

  “That doesn’t make it right.”

  “Maybe not, but it doesn’t make it terribly wrong, and we won’t cause an issue over all this.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. He just rolled his eyes. “Come on. Let’s head home.”

  “No, somebody here put out a cry for help,” she said. “Remember? That’s why we’re here.”

  “We don’t know that it’s from here at all,” he said, with quiet emphasis. “Remember that. We don’t have any reason to be bothering these people.”

  She raised her hands in frustration and turned, as if to leave, then stopped when she spied the same little boy. “Don’t look now,” she said, “but that little guy who took off is watching us from around the corner.”

  “Of the same house?” he said, slowly turning.

  “No, the neighbor’s,” she said.

  “Good,” he said, “maybe I should go take a look.”

  “Maybe I should,” she said. “He might do better with a woman than you.”

  “Maybe not,” he said.

  “Well, I can tell you that he’ll do better with Thaddeus than both of us,” she muttered.

  That stopped him in his tracks. “You’ve got a point there,” he said, with a nod. “Go ahead and see what you can do.”

  Chapter 6

  Doreen, after checking to ensure Thaddeus was securely on her shoulder, called Mugs and Goliath to her side and walked slowly toward the little boy, who stared at her from around the corner. Once he realized she was approaching him, he backed away.

  She immediately held out a hand. “It’s okay. We won’t hurt you,” she said in a gentle voice. “Do you want to come meet my animals?” The little boy’s eyes grew round, but he nodded. She smiled and crouched down just a few feet away from him. She didn’t dare check to see what Mack was doing, but hopefully he had sense enough to stay back a little bit.

  Thaddeus leaned forward. “Big guy, big guy!”

  The little boy looked at him in surprise and then quickly gazed at her and back to Thaddeus.

  “Yes, he talks,” she said, with a beaming smile. “At least sometimes he talks. Just when you want him to talk, he doesn’t though.” The little boy giggled. She smiled. “Do you want to say hello to him?”

  The little boy crept out a step and then another. He extended his hand, and Thaddeus reached forward—but with his beak—so the little boy got scared and pulled back.

  She immediately reached out a hand. “Hey, it’s okay. Thaddeus won’t hurt you.”

  The little boy looked at her uncertainly, but then Mugs walked over and leaned up against him, almost knocking the little boy over. He chortled with laughter and bent down to pet Mugs.

  “His name is Mugs.”

  “Mugs,” he repeated, patting the dog awkwardly.

  “That’s right, and the cat is Goliath. Because he’s so big.” He looked at her in surprise and saw Goliath sitting between the two of them. She said, “You can pet him too, if you want.”

  He looked surprised, then gazed down at the cat, and back at Mugs, who he was still awkwardly trying to pet. She spoke to Goliath. “Well, the least you could do, Goliath, is walk a little closer for some attention.”

  The big cat shot her a baleful look, his attention on the house and something moving in the window. Again she didn’t dare focus on that and kept her gaze on the little boy, staying crouched in front of him. When he reached out a hand toward Thaddeus, she took several small steps closer, so that Thaddeus was closer too. “Just reach out your hand flat,” she said, holding hers out to show him. “Hold it out so he can check to see what’s on it.” When he did, she crept a little bit closer and said, “Thaddeus, say hi.”

  Thaddeus cocked his head, looked at the little boy, and said, “Hi. Hi. Hi.” The little boy laughed and laughed.

  “Isn’t he fun?” she said, with a smile. At that point Goliath, who hadn’t bothered to move, was now right at her feet. “If you want to come forward and say hi to the kitty, you can.”

  He looked at the kitty and then at Mugs, who was still at his feet.

  “Or you could say hi to Mugs or Thaddeus again,” she said, with open hands. “They’re all quite friendly.”

  He giggled, but his hand stayed on Mugs, who didn’t appear to mind the attention at all. As a matter of fact, he looked close to knocking the little boy over and just lying on top of him. She frowned at Mugs and said, “You be nice, Mugs.”

  Immediately the little boy stopped petting the dog. She faced him, smiled, and said, “No, I don’t mean that he’ll hurt you, but he especially likes little boys. He might want you to lie down on the grass, so he can lie on top of you.”

  At that, the little boy burst out laughing, as if he couldn’t imagine such a thing. But she’d seen Mugs do some pretty wonderful and weird things over time.

  She smiled at the little boy and said, “My name is Doreen. What’s yours?”

  He giggled. “Isaac.”

  “Well, Isaac, it’s very nice to meet you. Is this your house?” She pointed to the closest one.

  He shook his head, but he didn’t say anything more. He kept patting Mugs. Just then came a shout from inside one of the houses. Isaac looked at a window, startled, then looked at her and bolted backward. Mugs immediately tried to run after him, but she called him back.

  “Mugs, you come here.” He stopped, looked at her balefully, and she shook her head. “We can’t go back there. It’s not our place.”

  The little boy disappeared down a pathway. She slowly got up, gathered Mugs and Goliath, and withdrew, so that everybody would know that she was leaving. Casually she turned, making sure the animals followed her, as she retreated to where Mack stood beside a driveway, his hands on his hips.

  “That didn’t appear to do much,” he muttered.

  “Well, we know his name is Isaac,” she said, quietly motioning toward the street, so they could walk back home. “Also we don’t know who’s in his house, but the noise that came from inside scared him, and he took off like crazy.”

  Mack nodded. “I’ve never seen him before.”

  “Is Isaac an unusual-enough name that you could check birth registrations to see who he might belong to?”

  He looked at her in surprise. She shrugged. “No,” he said. “It would help to have more than just a first name.”

  She winced. “Of course it would. I wasn’t thinking. I guess there are probably hundreds and hundreds of Isaacs.”

  “Tens of thousands across the country,” he said. “It’ll be pretty hard to find the one who might be here.”

  “Well, only like one hundred thousand or so people live here, so what will that be? Like maybe fifteen Isaacs?”

  “Probably at least fifty,” he said, with a chuckle. He waved toward the river. “Shall we?”

  She nodded. “Or we could walk all the way around,” she muttered. “I would like to know what’s on the other side of that pathway.”

  “And we can do that too,” he said, “but I’m a little worried about you and your energy level.”

  She frowned as she thought about it. “I’m not doing too bad right now,” she said cautiously. “I just wouldn’t want to go too far.”

  “We shouldn’t have come out at all right now. It’s too soon after you got hit,” he said, as he looped his arm through hers. “We should be getting you back home again.”

  She shrugged, really worried now. She hated to admit it, but she felt a little bit shaky on the inside. But, of course, Mack had already noticed. Almost instantly his gaze zeroed in on her face. “Damn, I knew we shouldn’t have come.”

  “When we get an anonymous message asking for help,” she said, “it’s not like we’ll sit at home and do nothing.”

  “Well, I agree with that. But you’re not the one who should be out here.”

  “It’ll have to be me,” she muttered. “I don’t even want to contemplate who may have had Thaddeus while he wasn’t with us.”

  “And the trouble is trying to backtrack his whereabouts earlier today,” he murmured. “Because, if that crazy bird can fly just a little bit, he can also get into a lot of trouble a long way away.”

  “Isn’t that the truth? He can get in trouble in my own backyard,” she said, snickering. “I love him dearly, but we don’t always know where his mind is at.”

  “That’s true.” Mack sent a quick text and slowly led her toward the street. “Another road is over here,” he said. “We’ll go up this way and come around.”

  She nodded as they headed to where the river had another bridge, and, by the time they crossed it, she started to shake. He led her to a nearby bench and had her sit down. She looked at him and said, “I can keep going, you know?”

  “You can,” he said, “but you don’t have to.”

  “Of course I do,” she said. As she looked down the road, her shoulders slumped. “I just wish it wasn’t quite so far.” At that moment, a vehicle approached and stopped in front of them. She looked at the cruiser in surprise. “Did you call them, or are they here because we look suspicious?”

  He laughed. “I asked them to give us a ride.”

  “Are you tired?” she asked excitedly. He looked at her, his head tilted, and she sighed. “Of course you aren’t,” she muttered. “You called them for me because I am running out of steam.”

  “I called it for you,” he said, “because you were recently attacked and shouldn’t be out here at all.”

  As she looked up, she saw Arnold, working his way around the front of the car, hitching his belt up under his belly. “Arnold, you’ll need bigger shirts.” She motioned at the way the buttons were straining.