Unbinding Love: An Angela Panther Mystery Novella (The Angela Panther Mystery Series) (8 page)

I glanced at my foot. And my eyes lit up. “Mel, get the shovel, quick.”

If anyone happened to be secretly taping Mel and me shoveling dirt in the woods behind Emma Marx’s backyard, they definitely needed to send it to
America’s Funniest Home Videos
because they’d take home the big bucks. Two middle-aged women holding each other up and attempting to balance on one foot each while taking turns shoveling and falling all over each other had to be hilarious to watch. It was gut-busting to Ma and Bill, or would have been it they still had guts, and it was pretty comical to Mel and me too.

My psychic juju had been sending me all kinds of signs telling me something wasn’t right, but I had ignored them. I’d been intent to figure out what was going on, or find Emma Marx, the money, the next clue…I didn’t quite know what, and that was the problem. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I just knew I needed to find out.

“Keep your heel pressed into the ground so I don’t fall,” I said.

“My heel is pressed into the ground.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

“Stop pushing your hip into my thigh and we won’t tip over,” Mel said.

“I have to or I can’t get enough force to push the shovel.”

“That’s because all you do is run instead of lift weights. You need to build more muscle,” Mel said.

“Do you really wanna have that conversation when I’m holding the shovel?”

She shook her head. “Not so much.”

The shovel hit something solid in the dirt. “I think I found it,” I said.

“Found what?” Ma asked.

So did Mel.

I dropped the shovel and wobbled to the ground as carefully as I could without putting any unnecessary pressure on my already swollen and pained ankle. “Look.” I pointed to the top of what looked like a piece of metal. “Can you see that?”

Mel mimicked the way I sat, and checked it out. “Looks like some kind of metal something.”

I nodded, and then used the metal spade to push the dirt around it off. The more I pushed, the bigger the metal got.

“Wow, that’s pretty big,” Ma said.

“Can you do anything?”

“Who me?” Mel asked.

“I’m talking to my mom,” I said.

“Yeah, Fran. Can you work your celestial juju for us? This could take all day,” Mel said.

“Who’s she talkin’ to?” Ma asked. “I don’t see no one named Fran around here.”

“Oh for the love of Mike. Now is not the time for that, Ma.”

“What’s goin’ on?” Mel asked.

“She doesn’t go by Fran, remember?”

“Seriously? Now?”

I nodded.

“Petronilla, can you do anything?”

“What’s she thinkin’? It’s not like I can work miracles or somethin’.”

I sighed. “No, but you do have some fancy celestial super powers when you need them, and right now we need them. We can’t be digging like this all day.”

Mel held up her hand. “Look, I just got a manicure and it’s ruined.”

I bit my bottom lip. “Really? That’s what you’re goin’ with?”

She shrugged. “Do you know how expensive manicures are these days?” She held her hands to my face and as I examined the dirt between her skinny, dirty fingers I caught a glimpse of something flash behind her. One minute it was there and the next it was gone.

“They’re ruined,” she said.

“What?”

“My nails. You’re not even looking at them,” Mel said, and checked behind her. “What’re you looking at?”

“I thought I saw something.”

Bill floated behind Mel. “What did you see?” He turned around and checked out the area behind him. “A neighbor?”

“I couldn’t make out what it was. Probably just the wind.” I went back to the metal in the ground and dug my hands into the dirt, trying to find where the thing ended but couldn’t. Either it was massive or I wasn’t the brightest bulb on the tree. I figured it was the second.

“Ah Madone,” Ma said. “Hold on.”

She drifted upward, did some funky thing where her arms rose up above her head and slightly behind her. Her energy lit up, glowing a bright white, trimmed in a soft gold, something I’d never seen before, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t amaze the heck out of me. She positioned herself over the metal piece and pulled her arms back in and then immediately back out. When she did, the dirt, leaves and everything else covering the metal flew off, splattering all over both Mel and me. Since our jaws had dropped open, we got a mouth full of the stuff too.

“Holy mother of God,” Mel said through a mouth full of yard yuck. “Your mom is the bomb.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Ma said.

I spit out the debris and bent down to grab the metal box. “It’s a safe.” I dug around the sides of it with the spade. The depth wasn’t as big as I’d expected so I doubted it had the money in it, at least not all of it. I was able to push it out with the spade. I pulled it out of the ground and set it down next to me. We all stared at it.

The sunlight reflected off the metal box and bounced into my eyes. When I squinted, a prism of colors darted across the yard and rebounded off the mounds of dirt the police left when they’d dug up the yard before. “This doesn’t make sense,” I said.

“What?” Mel asked.

“The police already dug up this entire backyard and found nothing.”

“This wasn’t in the backyard. It was in the woods behind the backyard. Why would they check there?”

“Since they didn’t, I guess it’s not something they would do.” I ran my hand across the box and let out a frustrated breath. “It’s got a combination lock.”

“Try the ten-twenty-five number again,” Bill said. The urgency in his voice struck me as odd.

“Why so impatient, Bill?”

“I’m not impatient,” he said. “We’re just waiting.” His energy vibrated, and instead of glowing, it hummed. I would have sworn he was anxious, though he tried hard to remain calm.

“What’s going on, Bill? You’re acting awfully strange.”

“Nothing’s going on. Just open the box.”

I wiped off the lock area with my shirt and moved the four little numbers to the date the dog died and the lock clicked open.

I stared at the safe one more time.

Ma’s patience was close to done. “Well, whadda’re ya waitin’ for? You gonna open it or what?”

I let my conscious get the best of me. “Should we get this to Aaron?”

“Hell no,” Mel said. “Open the darn thing before I pee on myself.”

“We’re all curious,” Bill said. “Just open the safe.” His tone had quickly gone from impatient to upset.

Mel couldn’t hear him but must have sensed something. “What’s going on?”

“Why are you curious, Bill? Do you think the money is here? What does it matter to you anyway? You can’t do anything with it.”

My mother glared at Bill. “Yeah, Bill, if you were alive, you’d be sweatin’ like a dog in a Thai restaurant right now. You wanna tell us what’s goin’ on?”

Bill back peddled. “I uh, I…I’m just excited. I don’t know how the money could be here. I don’t know how the police couldn’t have found it. I don’t know what’s going on.”

I swirled the numbers on the lock so it wouldn’t open. “I’m not gonna open it. I think we need to call Aaron.” Since we’d basically broken all kinds of laws—or so I thought—I didn’t want to break any more, so notifying the police was definitely the right thing to do. I pulled my phone from my pocket and called him.

He answered with a new greeting. “Tell me you’re not doing something you shouldn’t be.”

“Why can’t you just say hello? It’s like you think the worst of me now and there’s no reason for that.” I worked hard to keep the mood light so Bill wouldn’t freak any more than he already had. I wanted him to think I didn’t suspect him of anything even though I was certain he’d done something bad.

“Because I feel like I’m the comic relief in some bad women’s play lately.”

“If it was a women’s play I don’t think it would be bad.”

“What can I do for you today?” There was a hint of sarcasm in his tone, but I ignored it.

“I think you should come to Emma Marx’s house.” I clicked the speaker icon on my phone so everyone could hear the anger I knew was coming.

“Son of a bi—bicyclist. What are you doing messing around an active crime scene
again
? Is Mel with you? She better not— oh hell. I’m on my way.” He disconnected.

Mel giggled. “Guess I’m not getting lucky again tonight.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blond ball of something bounce through the bushes. I paid better attention and saw it was a Golden Retriever. “Bill, what was your dog’s name?”

“Benny. Why?”

I yelled the name Benny and the dog bounded over to me. He pounced toward me and I went to pet him, completely forgetting that I couldn’t. I told him he was a good boy, and he wagged his tail like I was his new best friend.

Bill was excited to see his dog. “Hey, Benny, how’s my good boy?” He crouched down, though not touching the ground, and got up close to the dog. Benny’s tail stopped wagging, his ears went back, and he showed his teeth. Instead of a soft moan, the dog growled and barked like he wanted to eat Bill for breakfast. Bill tried to calm Benny but it didn’t work. After a few minutes of incessant barking, Bill up and disappeared.

As I filled Mel in on my thoughts, Benny ran around in circles, sniffing the holes the police dug around his backyard. He’d catch my eye occasionally and I’d laugh as he’d drop into a hole and jump out. When he didn’t come out of one, I pushed myself up and hobbled toward it.

“Where’re you going?” Mel asked.

I pointed to the hole. “Benny’s in there and hasn’t come out.”

“Wait for me,” she said, then pushed herself up and hobbled behind me.

“Oh crap,” we both said in unison.

“Well, that ain’t good, “Ma said, staring into the hole.

Just then, Aaron showed up.

“What on God’s earth are you two thinking? This is an active crime scene—“

Mel and I glanced back and him and then pointed into the hole. When he saw what we were staring at at the bottom of the hole, he grabbed his radio on the side of his shirt and said, “This is Detective Banner, I need the medical examiner over at the Marx property. We’ve got a body in the back yard.” 

“Who do you think it is?” Mel asked.

“From the looks of him, he’s not been there long,” Aaron said.

“Come on, Benny boy, come here!” The ghost-dog was still in the hole with the body, and it freaked me out. The man lay there, face up, covered with only a thin layer of dirt. Contrary to what people think, unless you’re asleep or your eyes are already closed, they don’t automatically close when you die. If they’re open, they stay open. This guy’s eyes were wide open when he took his last breath, and from the look on his face, he was pretty shocked too. It made my skin itch from the inside.

“Is he here?” Mel asked.

“Who?” Aaron asked.

She pointed to the man in the hole. “Him. Is he here?”

“Oh, you mean his ghost?”

“No, Santa Claus.”

“You’re asking me a question I can’t answer.”

“Actually, I’m asking Angela.” She poked me in the shoulder. “Hey, you listening?”

“Ouch. What?”

“Is the dead guy here?”

I glanced around just to make sure. “The only dead one with us is Benny the dog. The rest took off.”

“Even Fran?”

“Yup.”

“Odd.”

“Something’s up with Bill,” I said. “He really wanted me to open the box. The box!” I grabbed the box and gave it to Aaron. “The combination is one-zero-two-five. Whatever’s inside means something to Bill, and I know you’re gonna think this is crazy but I think he killed his wife.”

The eye roll he gave me confirmed my suspicions.

The medical examiner arrived, along with his team and a crew of crime scene technicians. Benny was not pleased. He ran circles around them all, barking and nipping at their heels. I watched as one tech kept glancing and swiping at his feet, and wondered if he also had the gift. When I caught a glimpse of him crouched down and talking to Benny, I knew. He noticed me noticing him talking to nothing and quickly stopped, so I walked over to him and whispered in his ear. “The Golden’s name is Benny. Your secret’s safe with me.”

His mouth about hit the ground, but when it had time to sink in, he smiled and said, “Thank you.”

We stood around the make shift grave while the ME asked us questions.

“Do you know the man?”

“No, sir.”

“Find any ID?”

“No, sir.”

He leaned into the hole. “Looks like a recent death. Body is clearly in rigor, smell is limited.”

Praise God, thank you, Jesus. The last thing I needed was Mel or I throwing up all over a crime scene. Again.

Mel leaned on her good foot and grabbed hold of Aaron. “The victim appears to be approximately mid-thirties.”