The Bogus Biker (7 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Officer Parnell Garrett showed up in three minutes flat. “I don’t’ see any sign of anybody or evidence they tampered with anything,” he told Penelope and Jake. Thirtyish, still unmarried after a star-studded four years on the football field, basketball court, and track at Amaryllis High School and later as a University of Arkansas Razorback, he was the proverbial lost-child-finding, kitten-in-a-tree-rescuing cop. “Everything’s locked up tight.” He hesitated. “Why? What’s in there?”

Penelope moved away and busied herself at the sink. “Thanks, Parnell. Stay and have a piece of lemon icebox pie?”

“My riding lawnmower,” Jake said at the same time. “Been there two years, and nobody’s bothered it.”

“Well, I hate to say it, but our days of not locking things up may be over. And yes, ma’am, I’ll have the pie, but I’ll have to take it with me.”

Penelope retrieved a paper plate and a packaged plastic fork from a drawer. “Why do you think we need to start locking up?”

Parnell’s face became a mask. “Oh, just the way things are going everywhere.”

“How about some sweet tea with the pie?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Penelope took down a large plastic take-with cup from a restaurant in Little Rock.

“Just how are things going right here in Amaryllis?” Jake asked. “I want my pie, too, Nellie.”

Parnell shifted from one size-twelve foot to the other. “We’re going along, Mr. Kelley.”

Jake huffed, letting Parnell know he
knew he was being given the runaround.

“I heard there was more trouble at the Sit-n-Swill last night,” Penelope said, handing the plate and cup to the officer.

Parnell shrugged. “Nothing much.”

“But that’s two nights this week,” Penelope insisted.

“Yeah, well, I better go. Thanks for the pie and tea. Call me if your prowler comes back, but I doubt he will if he realizes he can’t just walk in and get what he wants.” He stepped through the door Penelope opened for him since his hands were full. “See you around, Mrs. Pembroke, Mr. Kelley.”

Jake scarfed his pie in four bites. “I’m going to bed.”

“At seven-thirty?”

“I’ll watch some television before I turn out the light.”

“Okay. I think I’ll sleep in a little later tomorrow since there aren’t any guests, but I’ll leave the coffee ready to go.”

Jake pecked her cheek.
“’Night, darlin’. And maybe you better lock the back door.”

             
“What if the mysterious Tiny comes back? He said he thought he might hang around a while, but he wouldn’t tell me why.”

“I have a feeling he’ll figure out a way to get in. He might even knock.” Jake chuckled at his own joke.

Penelope shivered. Somehow the idea of a stranger coming and going at will made her feel uneasy.

****

When
Tiny Sam
—Penelope giggled at the combination of names—hadn’t come in at ten o’clock, she put away the nursing journal and flicked on the small television on the highboy across the room. The newscaster’s first words made her turn up the volume and lean forward for a closer look.

When Arkansas state troopers stopped a car near the Oklahoma state line this morning, both occupants bailed out and made a run for it. One man is now in custody, but the second is still at large. Buddy Hall has more on this story from Ft. Smith.

The man leaning over the hood of the small blue compact car, while police searched and cuffed him, had a ponytail brushing the back of his collar. “Bailed out, did you?” Penelope said aloud. “Wonder what they found in your car?”

Buddy Hall answered her question.
The K-9 unit brought to the scene located a cache of drugs, though officers aren’t saying exactly what or how much. Hopefully, we’ll have an update in the morning.

“I’ll just bet…” She stopped, listening, wondering if she’d heard footsteps on the stairs. Throwing back the cover, she reached for her robe, and opened the door.
“Anybody there?” Silence. “Hello?”

Stepping into the corridor, she switched on the lamp
beside the stair railing that defined the L-shaped hall and padded down to the front room. No light came from under the door, but she knocked anyway.
I’d probably have a heart attack if he opened the door in nothing but his birthday suit.
She started back for her room but turned and went half-way down the stairs instead. Plunking herself down on the rose-strewn runner she’d had installed only last year, she settled down to wait. “Come on if you’re coming,” she said.

Almost on cue, she heard the familiar creaking of the back door as it opened and closed, and the muffled sound of footsteps drifting through the dining room toward the foyer. Tiny Sam almost stumbled over her.

“What the hell…?”

“It’s about time,” she said, folding her arms across the front of her robe.

“I didn’t know I had a curfew.” He sounded amused.

“Somebody was poking around in the shed tonight. Good thing I found your bike and decided to lock up.”

He sat down on the step above her. “Did you see anybody?”

“Just a shadow wearing black leather and metal.
Parnell Garrett came out and looked around, but he didn’t find anything.”

“Okay.”

“But the ten o’clock news had a story about state troopers stopping a car on the Oklahoma border, and I recognized one of the guys who stayed here Thursday night. Well, I thought I recognized his ponytail anyway. The other one got away.”

“You’re sure about that? The ponytail, I mean.”

“I’m sure.”

“Interesting.”

“Listen, Tiny…or Sam…or whoever you are, I know what’s going on. The police found drugs in the car. Those guys probably delivered some to the Sit-n-Swill Friday night, and somebody fired that shot to create a diversion, and…”

“Anybody but your daddy call you Nellie?” Sam interrupted.

“Don’t change the subject. No, Daddy’s the only one.”

“What did your husband call you?”

“That’s none of your business. And how do you know about my ex?”

“It’s not classified information.”

Penelope rolled her eyes. “He called me Opie. He used to watch Andy Griffith and little Opie in Mayberry.” She swallowed.
I didn’t mean to tell him that.

“I like Penelope better.”

“My mother named me for a cousin, a sister, and her mother. Penelope Corinne Louise. She was a British war bride, you know.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Then you don’t know everything, do you?”

With one oddly gentle finger, he tucked the perpetually errant lock of hair behind her ear. “You’re pretty feisty.”

“You’re pretty infuriating.” When she realized he was still touching her cheek, and that she liked it, she swatted his hand away like a gnat. “So are you going to tell me what you’re involved in or not?”

“Not.”

“Then I’m going to bed.”

“Good idea. I’m going, too.” He gave her a hand up and didn’t turn loose right away. “Sleep well, Penelope Corinne Louise.”

She glared at him—or tried to, anyway.

“By the way, you need a better lock on the back door. I got in with a credit card.”

“How’d you…”

But he had already disappeared down the hall toward the front room, leaving her to stare at his broad back.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

(Monday)

Penelope overslept the next morning, but she took time to put herself together before she went downstairs:
unfaded, well-fitting jeans, a yellow tank top, gold hoop earrings, and subtle but well-applied makeup. She found
Tiny Sam
and Jake at the kitchen table drinking coffee, eating three-day-old cinnamon buns, and laughing like they’d known each other all their lives.

Jake winked at his daughter, and Sam’s eyes moved over every curve revealed by the tank top, a look Penelope couldn’t describe as anything but lecherous. She swept past them and poured herself a cup of coffee, then leaned against the cabinet.

“I was telling Tiny here about the Toney twins’ trip to Nashville,” Jake said.

“Sam,” their visitor said.
“Tiny’s at the bottom of Pine Branch Creek.”

“Huh. He better be wearing concrete boots, or he’ll surface somewhere between here and Danville by the end of the week.”

Sam grinned. “Definitely concrete boots. And by the way, I’ll get that bike out of your garage if you’ll unlock it for me.” He hesitated for a second. “Of course, I can pick the lock just as quick.”

“I’ll just bet you can,” Penelope said rolling her eyes. “What are you going to do with the
bike.”

“Don’t send it swimming in Pine Branch Creek, too,” Jake said. “It’s a nice one. I checked it out this morning, and it’d be a shame to…”

“Don’t you even think about it, Daddy! That riding mower is all you need to be tooling around on.”

Jake lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “Henpecked, that’s what I am.”

Sam slapped at his pocket when something buzzed.

“You wired?” Jake asked.

Without answering, the other man got up and strolled into the dining room.

“He’s a nice sort of fellow,” Jake said.

Penelope shrugged.

“You got the
hots for him, Nellie?”

Penelope barely turned to lean over the sink before coffee spewed out of her mouth.
“Daddy, really!”

“You skitter around him like dry leaves in a stiff breeze.”

“You have a sudden urge to move over to the old folks’ home?”

Jake winked. “I want a room next to a good-looking woman.”

“With or without teeth?”

He laughed and got up, leaving his mug and a scattering of crumbs on the table. “I’m going uptown and see what kind of action I can find. Be back sometime.”

“Good riddance,” Penelope muttered, but she couldn’t help smiling as she watched him saunter out to his pickup, carefree as a kid—and twice as loveable.

“Your daddy gone?”
Sam asked when he came back to the kitchen.

“Uptown looking for action.
Or so he said.”

“What kind?”

“At his age, it won’t be too serious.” Penelope brushed the crumbs from the table into her hand and tossed them in the sink.

Sam sat down and held out his mug for a refill. “How long were you and Travis Pembroke married?”

Penelope had a wild impulse to pour the hot coffee over his hand but managed to get it in the cup instead. “Why is it any of your business?”

“Just curious, that’s all.”

“Sixteen years. We married as soon as I finished high school.”

“Isn’t he a lot older than you are?”

“Only five years. He finished the university and came home the year I was a senior.”

“Swept you off your feet, huh?”

“I guess.”

“When did you manage to work in nursing school?”

“When Bradley started first grade, the bus brought him half-way up the road to the Point, and someone was always there to meet him, either his grandmother or Mrs. Bessie, the housekeeper.”

“Worked out then.”

“Good thing it did. I moved back in here with my parents when Bradley was twelve so I could take care of my mother and decided three years later to get rid of Travis before he got rid of me.”

“Probably not a bad idea.
How well do you know Travis Pembroke?”

“What kind of question is that? I was married to the man.”

“That doesn’t mean you knew him.”

Penelope stirred her coffee. “I guess it doesn’t at that. He likes money, which he has, and anything in skirts, which he can get.”

“Was he ever into anything he shouldn’t have been—besides other women?”

“Absolutely not.
He’s a good businessman and an honest one. Pembroke Point is the largest cotton producer in the area.”

“Did you know his friends?”

“Better than I wanted to.”

“Including Roger
Sitton?”

“Roger’s a pussycat. Well, maybe a tomcat-
wanna-be, but he’s harmless.”

At the word ‘cat
, Abijah materialized from wherever he’d been lurking and curled himself around Penelope’s ankles. She lifted him into her lap. “And so are you, aren’t you baby doll? Just a big old lover boy, that’s all.” She nuzzled his head, and he cranked up his rumbling purr.

“A tomcat, huh?”

“Who, Roger? He’s divorced, has a son in Kentucky, or maybe it’s Tennessee. Where is this going? Do you think Roger is mixed up in the drug business?”

“I didn’t mention any drug business.”

“But that’s what you’re talking about. Why you’re here.”

“Just getting the lay of the land, that’
s all.”             
“You darn well blessed aren’t!”

He
laughed, his eyes crinkling in the corners in a way that made Penelope want to smooth them out and… She looked away.

“If you’ll give me the key to the shed, I’ll move my bike.”

“On the rack by the door. Purple tag. Put it back when you’re done.”

She scratched
Abijah’s ears as she watched Sam amble down the flagstone walk winding through her mother’s flower garden and beyond. He had shoulders like a weightlifter and the hips of a jockey. She shivered.
I shouldn’t be thinking about his anatomy, especially his hips!

Planting a silent kiss on
Abijah’s head, she set him down, grabbed her purse from the end of the cabinet, and marched out to her car where she’d left it under the porte-cochere.