Thirty-Six and a Half Motives: Rose Gardner Mystery #9 (Rose Gardner Mystery Series) (28 page)

Granny Rivers nodded.

“That’s okay,” I said softly. “Did the woman want the whole story?” She started getting agitated, so I added, “You’re not telling me what you two talked about. It’s okay.”

She nodded, grabbing a tissue from a box on the table. “She wanted the whole story.”

“Did you know who Neely Kate’s father was before Jenny Lynn left?”

She hesitated.

“You don’t have to say it out loud,” I suggested. “You can just nod or shake your head.”

She nodded.

“Did anyone come lookin’ for her after she left?”

She nodded again.

There was no way J.R. would have shown up to do his own dirty work. He would have sent someone else.

“Do you know the name of the person who came to see you?”

She looked away. “No.”

“If I show you a picture, do you think you can tell me if it was him?”

Despite her dubious expression, she nodded and said, “I’ll never forget that man.”

I pulled out my phone and sent Skeeter a text:

I need you to send pic of Thaddeus Brooke’s photo on his driver’s license.

He didn’t respond for a good half-minute, but then he sent the photo, no questions asked.

I held the screen in front of Neely Kate’s grandmother. “Is this him?”

Tears filled her eyes, and I stared at her in shock. This was not the woman I’d met in the bingo hall. I had never expected anything to terrify that feisty woman.

“So this is him?”

She nodded.

“He showed up lookin’ for Jenny Lynn?”

“Her too.”

“So he was looking for something else?” I asked in surprise.

When she didn’t answer, Neely Kate blew her stack. “For God’s sake, Granny, I know you think you’re helpin’ me, but you’re hurtin’ me more by not telling me! What was he lookin’ for?”

Her grandmother stood up and shouted, “A gun! He was looking for the gun Jenny Lynn took from that man!”

Neely Kate gasped. “A
gun
?”

The older woman started to sob. “Jenny Lynn took if for insurance.”

“You mean protection?” I asked.

“No,
insurance
. She said he’d shot and killed a man with it. She took it to use for blackmail. I told the man who showed up that if he or the man who’d used Jenny Lynn tried to find her, we’d turn the gun in to the police.”

I sucked in a breath.

Granny Rivers wiped her nose with her tissue. “I told him that she took it with her. He banged me up a bit, then said he’d be back in a week to get it or else. But he never came back. Then the police chief got shot in his house. A burglary gone wrong, they said. Who’s gonna fall for that? The police chief! After the same thing had happened to the owner of the fertilizer plant the week before . . . Everyone thought there was a dangerous criminal on the loose, but I knew that rich guy from El Dorado had somethin’ to do with it.”

“Where’s the gun now, Granny?” Neely Kate asked.

She started crying harder. “She took it with her.”

“Momma took it?”

“No, that woman. She knew I had it, and she demanded I give it to her.”

Neely Kate glanced at me. “How’d Kate know about the gun, and why would she want it?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe she wanted it for more evidence against her father.”

“So why’d she threaten Granny if she told anybody about her showing up and askin’ questions?”

“I don’t know.” I looked over at Jed. “Any ideas?”

“Not a one, but I agree it sounds like Kate. Still, it would be good if we could get your grandmother to help confirm it.”

Neely Kate squatted next to her grandmother’s chair. “Granny, listen to me. Can you tell me something about the woman? We can make it yes or no, just like the questions you answered for Rose.”

The old woman looked suspicious, but Neely Kate forged on anyway. “Did she have dark hair?”

Her grandmother hesitated before giving a slight nod.

“See?” Neely Kate said. “That wasn’t hard. Now tell me this: did she have blue streaks in her hair?” Neely Kate grew frustrated when the woman didn’t answer. “Granny, did she have blue streaks in her hair?”

“I don’t know,” she said, her body shaking as she started to cry. “Her hair was covered with a hat. I could only see the ends of her dark hair sticking out.”

I heard the door behind us open.

“Hey, Granny,” Neely Kate’s cousin Witt called out. “Sorry I got held up. I know you think I was trying to get out of fixin’ your hot water heater.”

“What did the hat look like, Granny?” Neely Kate said, her voice rising. “
What was she wearing?
Tell me!”

“What in the hell is goin’ on here?” Witt stomped into the room with fury in his eyes. “What are you
doin’
, Neely Kate?”

Neely Kate stood and turned to face him, looking like she was ready for a showdown. “A woman was here askin’ about me and my momma, but she threatened to kill me if Granny told anyone. I need to know what she asked and what Granny told her.”

“So you’re just lightin’ into her?” he asked in disbelief. “She’s liable to have another spell.”

“I need to know, Witt!”

“Well, this isn’t the way to do it!”

I put an arm around Neely Kate’s shoulders and gave her a comforting squeeze. “It’s okay, Neely Kate. We have enough.”

“No, we don’t!” She turned to face me. “We don’t know who he killed with that gun!”

“We don’t need to,” I said quietly, trying to calm her down. “It’s enough to know that Kate’s gettin’ desperate. She has to be if she’s threatening an old woman just to make a move on her father.”

“Rose is right,” Jed added, rising from his chair. “We’ve got enough for now.”

“No—”

“
Neely Kate,
” Jed said, firmly. “That’s enough.”

She nodded, and then her entire body slumped against me.

“Jed . . .” I called out in a panic.

“I got her.” He was around the table in an instant, scooping Neely Kate up in his arms. “I’m takin’ her out to the car.”

“I don’t need you to do that, Jed Carlisle,” Neely Kate protested. “I can walk on my own two feet.” She swatted his chest, but she didn’t struggle very hard to get loose as he carried her outside.

“Rose,” Witt said. “What’s goin’ on?”

I moved next to him and lowered my voice. “Neely Kate has stumbled onto the truth about her birth father, and it’s a dangerous mess.”

Pride filled Witt’s eyes. “Of course it is. It’s Neely Kate.”

“And now that she knows someone came to see your granny . . . Well, Neely Kate has just had one shock right after another today, and I suspect she hasn’t eaten in hours, which explains why Jed is carryin’ her.”

Witt winked. “Or the fact that he’s a strappin’ young man.”

I shook my head, wondering how much of his suggestion was true. “In any case, we’re gonna take her with us to keep her safe, but you might take your granny somewhere else tonight. To be on the safe side.”

“Just how big of a mess has Neely Kate stumbled into?”

“A huge, nasty pile of poo.”

He shook his head in amazement. “You’ve got your work cut out for you. You take care of Neely Kate, and I’ve got Granny covered.”

“Thanks.”

I squatted next to Neely Kate’s grandmother. “I’m sorry we upset you, Mrs. Rivers. Neely Kate is just desperate to get some answers.”

“I hope that other woman is okay,” she said.

I hesitated, assuming I must have heard her wrong. “
What
other woman?”

“When that woman left, she stopped outside the front door and took a phone call. She told the caller not to worry, that she had Jenny Lynn’s gun and now she was gonna teach the other bitch a lesson she wouldn’t forget for the rest of her short life.”

Dizziness flooded my head. “Are you sure?”

She nodded.

“When did the woman come see you?”

“Yesterday. Yesterday afternoon.”

Yesterday?

“Thank you, Mrs. Rivers,” I said. Then I ran out the door to find Jed.

We had to save someone.

J
ed was standing
next to the back car door, surveying the farm, when I found him. He turned to face me. “Neely Kate’s lying down on the backseat.”

I nodded.

He gestured toward the house. “That was a surprise.”

“Which part? The gun?” I asked. “Or the fact that Kate was here digging into Neely Kate’s past?”

“Both.”

“Well, I’m about to add more intrigue—Mrs. Rivers said her visitor stopped by yesterday, but as she left, she took a call and told the person on the other end that she was going to teach the other bitch a lesson. Then said she was going to kill her.”

He scowled. “So Neely Kate’s granny suddenly got chatty, huh?”

“Not much, and I think it was unintentional. She was worried about the woman her visitor threatened.”

“I think we should get you to the safe house.”

“What? Why?”

“Because Kate Simmons threatened you. As crazy as she is, it’s a wonder she didn’t kill you in the diner and be done with it.”

“I suspect she’s a lot like her daddy and likes to toy with her prey. But in this instance, I think she’s after Hilary.”

He took a step backward. “
What?
”

“Kate practically said the same thing when she left Merilee’s, but she said it specifically about Hilary. I need to call Joe.” I started digging for my phone in my coat pocket, but Jed grabbed my arm.

“Whoa. What are you gonna tell him?”

“I already told him that I think his sister is after Hilary. I’ll tell him I have more proof.”

“Text him. You can say all of that in a text.”

Good point.

I checked the screen and saw that Mason had called and left me a message. When I retrieved it, I was surprised by how relieved I was to hear his voice in my ear.

“Rose, I’m about to go into a meeting with the state police, and I don’t know how long I’ll be. You’re onto something with Nick Thorn. He was shot in his car in a parking lot outside a bar. The police determined it was a robbery, but no one was ever caught. He was murdered two years ago, last September, so it fits with the timeline of Kate taking off. I’ll keep digging, but I’m not sure what else there is to find.” He paused, and his voice lowered. “If you change your mind, my offer to come stay in the courthouse still stands. Be careful, Rose.”

I relayed Mason’s message as I typed off a text to Joe. When I finished, I looked up at Jed. “We have to go check on Hilary.”

Jed’s mouth dropped open. “Have you lost your mind?”

“No. I’d call her if I could, but I don’t know her number.” When he didn’t answer, I said, “Come on, Jed. We’ve still got a few hours to kill. Let me do this good deed, and maybe karma will be on our side. Besides, I suspect Neely Kate needs to eat. You two weren’t gone long enough for her to get dinner and break into the office.”

“She said she wasn’t hungry.”

“I didn’t eat much while I was talking to Joe, and we need all the energy we can get to face J.R. How about we pick up some food, then stop by Hilary’s?”

Rather than answer, Jed turned around and got into the car. As soon as I climbed into the front passenger seat, he pulled away from the Rivers’s property.

Unbelievably, Neely Kate had fallen asleep and was stretched out on the seat. As soon as Jed got onto the highway, I asked, keeping my voice low, “Any word from Skeeter?”

He nodded. “He’s scouting out the barn with a dozen men. So far nothing.”

“I guess that’s good, right?”

“I have a hard time believing that Simmons Sr. is gonna show up at an unfortified site. I suspect he’s taking a play from our playbook.”

“You think he’s gonna change the meetin’ spot?”

“We’re positive. We also suspect he’ll change the time. Anything to throw us off our game.”

“Well, crap.” Everything he said made sense. “How soon?”

“We’re not sure, which is why I don’t want to waste any time checkin’ on the wicked witch of the south.”

“If we don’t, I’ll deal with it, but I could never forgive myself if something happens to her because she wasn’t warned. But how about I have a vision to see if I can figure out where we’re meeting?”

“Good idea.”

I put my hand on Jed’s arm and closed my eyes. The vision was slow to come, and when it did, the image was in slow motion and grainy. I tried to focus on the background, but I didn’t recognize where we were. It looked like a barn.

After I relayed the vision to Jed, he asked, “What does it mean?”

“I think it means things are changing and the future hasn’t sorted itself out yet.”

We went through the drive-through of the Chuck and Cluck because it was Neely Kate’s favorite place and I was desperate for anything to make her feel better. Neely Kate’s head popped up as soon as Jed pulled up to the drive-through menu board and the maniacal sound of clucking broadcasted over the speaker.

“Chuck and Cluck?” she asked in a sleepy voice. “You hate this place.”

“Hate is a strong word,” I said, grinning back at her. “I’ll make do.”

“You love me,” she teased.

“You know I do.”

“I hate to break up the lovefest,” Jed grumbled, “but the chicken wants you to order.”

True enough, there was a plastic chicken head mounted next to the menu board, and its mechanized mouth opened and closed whenever the attendant spoke over the speaker.

“Arly,” the person on the speaker drawled. “Is that you messin’ with me again?”

I could only imagine all the pranks the guy on the other side of the speaker had faced.

Neely Kate ordered fried chicken and mashed potatoes while Jed and I both got chicken strips and fries. When we got to the takeout window, Neely Kate squealed with delight. “He’s dressed as a chicken! That’s new.”

Sure enough, the employee at the window was wearing a chicken costume. When he leaned out to tell us our total, he had to repeat it twice since the chicken head muffled his voice.

Jed had to practically toss the money inside the window since the chicken’s hands were shaped like claws.

“Whose ridiculous idea was this?” Jed asked, getting grumpier by the minute. He glanced over his shoulder at Neely Kate. “You know this shit will kill you, don’t you?”

“Ha!” Neely Kate barked. “Says the man who’s about to meet a deadly killer. Might as well have fried chicken before you meet your maker.”

“No one is meetin’ their maker today,” I said. “We’re all gonna survive this and annoy the crap out of each other tomorrow.”

Neely Kate laughed, but her spirits seemed to lag again as we drove across town toward Hilary’s. While we ate, I filled her in on Mason’s message and my worry about Hilary.

“Part of the reason I’m indulging your request is because I think the woman’s perfectly safe.” Jed shot me a sideways glance. “So I’m gonna park around the corner and let you two go check on her.”

“I really want to argue with this plan,” Neely Kate said, licking her fingers. “But I’ve been kind of worried since we talked to her this morning.”

A ball of anxiety knotted in my stomach. My gut told me that something bad was going to happen. Maybe I could get close enough to Hilary to have a vision and make sure she was safe from Kate’s clutches.

When I suggested my plan to Neely Kate, she whacked my arm. “Why haven’t you been having visions today? You could have had one of my granny!”

“And what good would that do? It might work if my visions searched the past instead of telling me the future.”

“You could have had visions of me or Jed or Skeeter to see if we survive the night.”

I shivered. There was no way I was going down that road unless I was desperate. I had died in visions before, and while I’d changed those deaths, it was always terrifying to go through. Now I wondered if I was being selfish. But tonight felt different. Heavier. A feeling of hopelessness clung to this meeting, and the truth was that I was scared to face it head-on.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Jed pulled up to the curb and put the gear shift in park. I could see Hilary’s house around the corner. “Why are you parking so far away?”

“I sure as hell don’t want to be seen parked outside her house.”

“Really?”

“Get this done so we can get out of here,” Jed grumbled as he pulled out his phone. “I’m gonna check in with Skeeter.” He shot me a glare. “I should let you be the one to call and tell him what you’re up to.”

I opened my car door. “That’s my cue to leave.”

He emitted a low rumble, so I clambered out of the car with Neely Kate hot on my heels. I threaded our arms as we crossed the street and tugged her close. “How are you really doin’? You’ve had one shock right after the other.”

“I’m still processing it all, but I’ve decided that it’s not the worst thing in the world. At least I know now.” She grinned. “Can you imagine what Joe’s gonna say when he finds out?”

“So you plan on tellin’ him?”

She lifted her eyebrows. “I don’t see any reason to keep it a secret, do you?”

I smiled. “No, after all the crap Kate’s pulled, I suspect Joe’s gonna be happy to have a mostly normal sister.”

“
Mostly
normal?”

Hilary lived in the biggest house in town. It was a turn-of-the-century Victorian that hadn’t been on the market when she’d acquired it. Rumor had it that Hilary had approached the owner and convinced him to sell.

Jed had parked close to the back of the house, but as we rounded the corner to the front, I caught sight of a dark sedan idling at the curb. It took me a second to figure out what felt off to me—the back door was open, but no interior lights were on. In fact, a man stood next to the car’s open back door. A woman was scooting into the backseat, but the man gave her shoulder a push.

“Let’s go!” he said, speaking none too gently.

His gaze swept over me, but Neely Kate and I had skidded to a halt and she’d tugged me deeper into the shadows of a tall oak tree at the side of the house. While he didn’t seem to notice us, I got a good look at him, and it was as plain as day who he was.

“Oh, my word, Neely Kate!” I whispered as I pulled out my phone. “That’s Sam Teagen!”

Teagen got in behind her, and the car sped away before he even got the door shut.

“Come on,” Neely Kate said, then ran for the front door. “Don’t call Joe yet.”

“Why not?” I asked as I followed her, surprised she knew who I was calling. “We just saw Hilary Wilder get kidnapped by Sam Teagen. I bet you money his friend Marshal is driving.”

“Let’s make sure it was her.”

“We’re outside her house, Neely Kate. And he’s getting away! We should be following them!”

“By the time we get back to Jed’s car, it will be too late. We’ll never catch up.” She’d already climbed Hilary’s front steps and now stood on the wraparound porch, knocking on the front door. The door swung in a few inches.

“Neely Kate, her door’s open. I can’t see Hilary doin’ that.”

She put her hands on her hips and sighed. “I’m afraid you’re right.”

“Now, I’m calling Joe.”

Only Joe didn’t answer, so I hung up and called 911. Unfortunately, the call went to the Henryetta police dispatcher.

“I’ve just witnessed a kidnapping. The man was Sam Teagen, and the woman was Hilary Wilder.”

“So they knew each other, ma’am?”

“I’m not sure if they did or not. What difference does it make? I saw him stuffing her into the backseat of his car, and then he got in behind her and they drove off.”

“And how could he drive off if he was in the backseat?” the dispatcher asked in a bored voice.

“He had a getaway driver.”

“Uh huh . . .”

“Why aren’t you taking this seriously?”

“Because you’re Rose Gardner, and we have memos posted everywhere to watch out for you.”

I had no idea how she knew who I was, but I had bigger things to dwell on. “What on earth does that mean?”

“It means trouble follows you wherever you go, and sure enough, you’re stirrin’ it up now.”

“Do you think I’m lying?” I asked in disbelief. “Why would I lie?”

“That’s not up to me to figure out. You just wait there. I’m sendin’ Officer Ernie to talk to you.”

I hung up, madder than a wet hornet. “They’re sending Ernie to talk to us, and we’re supposed to wait here.”

“Are we really gonna do that?” she asked in disbelief, looking down the street after the car.

“Shoot, no. We need to tell Jed and Skeeter.”

We hurried back to the car. Jed was on the phone when I slid into the passenger seat and Neely Kate got into the back.

Jed gave me a grim look as he hung up. “And that was the official change of plans. We have thirty minutes.”

I took a slow breath to fight my sudden nausea. “Where are we going?”

His eyes narrowed. “That’s the irony of it. We’re goin’ to the Atchison plant.”

I shuddered. I hated that ruined warehouse.

He put the car into drive. “We have to meet up with Skeeter, but he’s a good ten minutes south of town.”

I shook my head. “Whoa. Slow down. Who did you just talk to on the phone?”

“Skeeter.”

“Why didn’t J.R. call me, too?”

“He didn’t call you about the meeting place this afternoon, so why is this a surprise? Besides, it wasn’t J.R. who called him. It was Kate.”

“Kate? Why would she call Skeeter?”

Jed took off before I could get my seatbelt fastened, and I had to put my hand on the dashboard to brace myself.

“We just saw Sam Teagen stuff Hilary into the back of a car,” I said.“That is too coincidental.”

“Agreed. But is Kate workin’ with her daddy, or is she helpin’ lead us to him?”

“This is nonsense,” I said, pulling out my phone. I called Skeeter and put him on speaker. “Skeeter,” I said as soon as he answered. “What did Kate say?”

“She said the timetable had been altered. She told me to bring the Lady in Black and meet her at 7:45—at the Atchison plant, outside Henry Buchanan’s office. I take it you know where that is?”

I cast a glance at Jed. Considering that the Atchison plant was where he’d been shot in the arm, he probably didn’t have warm and fuzzy memories of the place either.

“Is she working with her dad?” I asked. “Or does she have her own dog and pony show goin’ on?”