A Finder's Fee (7 page)

“Well, you’re in luck.” He grinned lazily at me. “I finally got my old pickup running again. That should make the trip easier. She’s not stylish but she goes where I need her to.”

I agreed to take a look tomorrow night at what he’d found at the old homestead. I still had some cleaning up to do after being gone for three days, and I had to meet Dillon tonight.

“All right then. I’ll pick you up about seven, if that’s okay?”

“That sounds fine. I can’t wait to see what you found.”

He got up from the table. “Maybe I can persuade you to take a short ride on one of the horses. No wild galloping like last time.”

“I don’t know. No promises.”

“You don’t have to worry. I have the answer for sore muscles. You have someone slather on some liniment, massage it in real good and then take a long, hot bath. It does wonders.” He winked at me. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“We eagerly await your coming, good sir!” Maggie suddenly blurted out.

It had been all I could do to keep her from interrupting the whole time Jake had been there. She couldn’t let him leave without saying something that was going to embarrass me.

Jake laughed and kept walking. I muttered under my breath about my constant companion who was making my life difficult. I was going to be glad once we found her bones and reburied them.

I sat at the table a few minutes more after he was gone. I could see Missing Pieces, so I knew there were no customers waiting to get in. As I was about to get up, Nancy joined me, putting a smokeless cigarette in her mouth. She’d recently given up the real thing.

“Hey there, sweetie. Was that the same cowboy who rescued you last year?” She grinned. “Sorry. I couldn’t help but peek out at him. He’s something special.”

“Yes. Jake Burleson. We’ve kept in touch.”

“I’d like to keep in touch with him, if you know what I mean. What a hunk! You’re still with Kevin, right?”

“Of course. Jake and I are just friends.”

Nancy patted a strand of her bright red hair that had been blown out of place by the breeze, even though it was barely an inch long. She was such a nice person, wonderfully organized, but she had no luck with men. She’d been divorced for a long time. She was always dating someone, but nothing lasting ever came of it.

“How about next time he comes to be friendly, you introduce us,” she suggested. “I like those quiet cowboy types.”

“Sure. I’d be glad to. Maybe he could convince you to ride horses with him.”

“Anytime. I don’t know a thing about horses, but I could learn.”

“It’s rough riding one, I can tell you that. Jake says the cure is liniment, massage and a hot bath. I don’t know if I’m willing to try again.”

Nancy’s expressive eyebrows rose. “He offered to do that for
you
?” She puffed her fake cigarette a little faster. “Sounds like he might be thinking of you as a
little
more than a friend, Dae. Better keep your boots on.”

We both laughed about that. Nancy went back inside, saying that her hands were freezing.

I thought about what she’d said about Jake. I doubted that he had any romantic feelings for me. He knew I was dating Kevin, and he’d never stepped out of bounds in that direction. Sometimes people saw more than what was there.

Treasure and I went back to Missing Pieces. I gave him a tuna treat and he ran around the shop with it for a while. I watched him for a few minutes, enjoying his pleasure. Then I finished straightening up.

There were no more customers, and I knew I had to go home and face the real mess I’d left behind. There was a ton of laundry that needed to be washed and cat litter to change. I’d done the fun stuff, the work at Missing Pieces, first. Now it was time to go home and do the things I didn’t want to do.

I packed up Treasure again and we headed down the boardwalk to the parking lot. A large crowd was standing around outside the coffee shop and bookstore. A few of them applauded as Councilman Randal “Mad Dog” Wilson drove up in his custom-made golf cart.

He waved and approached the crowd. I knew when he got up on the porch above the people that he was about to make the speech Nancy had told me about. I still didn’t see any media there, but that had never stopped him. No doubt he planned to denounce me and urge people to vote for him.

Some of the people on the blacktop applauded again. Most seemed to be standing around waiting to see what was happening. Mad Dog held his hands out for quiet. I waited to see what he planned to say.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Duck police car pull into the parking lot on one side of the group. I couldn’t imagine that Chief Michaels planned to give Mad Dog a hard time about holding a gathering there. Duck wasn’t that kind of place.

Instead, as Mad Dog began speaking about bad leadership, Officers Tim Mabry and Scott Randall approached him from either side.

“I’m sorry, folks,” Chief Michaels said from the porch. “I’m afraid Mr. Wilson is going to have to come with us.”

“What? This is outrageous,” Mad Dog loudly complained. “What about freedom of speech?”

Chief Michaels put his hand on his shoulder. Mad Dog, at six foot four and almost three hundred pounds, dwarfed him. “I’m sorry, Randal. You’re under arrest for the murder of Lightning Joe Walsh.”

“T
hat’s ridiculous! I didn’t kill anyone. You have no right,”
Mad Dog yelled as he struggled with the officers. People in the crowd started pointing and trying to figure out what was going on. More people came out of the coffee shop to see what all the commotion was about.

It wasn’t a pretty picture. There was no way Tim and Scott could hold him, not with any kind of respect. Mad Dog was strong and bullheaded, according to Gramps. Once he got an idea about something, or someone, he didn’t let go.

Tim and Scott kept looking at the chief, obviously wondering what he wanted them to do. Mad Dog seemed intent on kicking them down the stairs, but he was a town council member. The two young officers were a little bewildered by their duties at this point.

Chief Michaels finally bent close to his old friend. He whispered something and put his hand on Mad Dog’s shoulder, as if trying to calm him.

I had no idea what he’d said to him, but immediately, Mad Dog released Scott from the half nelson he’d had him in. He removed his foot from Tim’s chest.

Mad Dog stumbled to his feet and held his hands in front of him like a tame albeit dazed gorilla. The chief put on the handcuffs then walked beside him down the stairs and to the car.

It was a sad day for Duck residents to see one of their own, a man people looked up to for many years, led away with his head down and wrists cuffed. Some people in the crowd booed and protested their candidate being taken away.

I wished there had been another way to do this. I knew the chief was only doing what he had to, but maybe he should have waited until he had Mad Dog by himself. It wasn’t like the councilman was a flight risk.

He’d be taken to Manteo, to the county jail, no doubt. I was sure he’d be bailed out right away. His family owned property and was well off. Besides, what bail bondsman wouldn’t take the word of a town council member?

Mad Dog had been committed to the good of our town for as long as I could remember. Our ideas on how that good should be done clashed sometimes, but it was impossible to imagine he’d killed a man and buried him in his car. Even though I’d seen the skeleton and the car, it was very hard to take in.

Randal “Mad Dog” Wilson was a lot older than me, so I didn’t really feel like I knew him personally like Gramps and Chief Michaels did. I wanted to believe the best of him even though the evidence must have been substantial for the chief to take such strong action.

I avoided the coffee shop as I skirted around the crowd. I knew everyone would have questions. I didn’t want to be the one they asked. It was too obviously in my favor for my opponent to go to jail.

Instead I continued home with Treasure to do my laundry and consider how trying to find a dead witch had led me to a dead race car driver.

“Pardon me,” Maggie interrupted. “I was never a witch. I thought you understood that.”

“Sorry. It was because everyone keeps calling you that. I’ll try not to let it happen again.”

She exclaimed over the curtains in my bedroom and how they would make a lovely summer gown. I asked her to step back again and let me get finished cleaning up.

Gramps finally got home at about six thirty. I’d spent the rest of the day dusting, mopping and scrubbing. Everything smelled clean and fresh. My laundry was washed, dried and folded in the same day for once. I’d even changed the sheets on our beds and washed them too.

Gramps sniffed appreciatively as he came in the back door in his stocking feet. That meant he’d left his smelly fishing boots on the porch. “Smells like supper. Is that my granddaughter’s famous corn fritters and beans?”

“It is.” I heaped the fritters on a plate. “And there’s apple cobbler for dessert.”

“I should go away early without breakfast more often.” He looked up at the light over the kitchen table. “And no cobwebs. You’ve been busy.”

“Yep.” I put out the casserole dish of beans and waited for him to wash his hands at the sink. “They arrested Mad Dog at the coffee shop today. It was terrible.”

“I know.” He took a seat at the table. “I met with Ronnie, Tuck Riley and Luke Helms early this morning. I knew it was coming. They were only waiting for the judge to sign the papers.”

“So Sheriff Riley got in on it too. He wasn’t at the coffee shop today.”

“Ronnie insisted it was a town arrest, but Tuck said it was a county cold case. They’re like a couple of sharks going after a piece of raw meat sometimes.” He chuckled. “I’m glad I’m not part of that anymore.”

“I guess the evidence was overwhelming, huh?” I passed the beans after Gramps had taken his fill of corn fritters.

“I don’t know about it being overwhelming, Dae. But those were Joe Walsh’s remains in Mad Dog’s old car. The medical examiner hasn’t said what cause of death is yet, but Mad Dog is the logical suspect. I would’ve done the same thing.”

“It’s hard to believe someone you’ve known all of your life could do something like that. You know, we always tend to think the bad stuff comes in with the people from outside Duck. Was Mad Dog that different back then? I know he’s belligerent sometimes, but killing someone is different than being cranky.”

“Ronnie and Tuck will look into it.” Gramps believed every word he said. “They’ll figure out what happened. That’s their job. Not ours.”

“I know.” Gramps was a stickler for letting people do their jobs, especially when it came to law enforcement. Apparently, he felt like too many people had put in their two cents’ worth while he was sheriff. He wasn’t stepping on anyone else’s toes.

Changing the subject, he said, “How was your time at the shop today? Sell anything?”

I told him about my customers but not about planning to meet Dillon this evening. It would’ve been too much explaining that would have left us at odds over repaying Kevin for the fine. Gramps certainly wouldn’t want me to talk to Dillon, much less sell anything to him.

Gramps would’ve said Kevin knew what he was doing when he agreed to help me. He’d pay the fine, like a man, and go about his business.

At least that’s what he’d tell me.

Of course I knew this wasn’t a two-way street. If Kevin had done something similar for Gramps, Gramps would be trying to figure out some way to pay him back. He might not turn to someone like Dillon for help—especially since he knew Dillon was a criminal. Gramps took a dim view of me spending time with anyone outside the law.

After we’d finished eating and done the dishes, I put on my jacket and started toward the door. “I’m going to finish something at Missing Pieces. Don’t wait up.”

He put down the dish towel and said, “You don’t have to lie to me, Dae.”

For a brief moment, I wondered what I’d said that had given me away. Did I look guilty? Was it his famous radar that always knew when I was in trouble as a kid?

“It’s all right for you to meet Kevin. You don’t have to sneak out or lie about it. You’re an adult now. Although I do wish he’d come around and pick you up to take you out. There are still some rules about a man courting a woman. I would never have guessed Kevin Brickman was that kind of man.”

I was so relieved that I hugged him. “Thanks. I guess I don’t think about it that way. You’re so old-fashioned!”

He sat down in his recliner. “I saw Jake Burleson this morning. I think he might want to give Kevin some competition. Did he drop by to see you at the shop?”

I explained about Jake taking me to Corolla tomorrow night. “He wants me to look at something. You too, if you want to come.”

“I don’t want to get between a man and a woman he might be interested in. Besides, I’ve got a Lions Club meeting.”

“Believe me, you won’t be interrupting anything. I’m dating Kevin. Nancy said the same thing about Jake today. I haven’t gotten that feeling from him at all.”

“Well, we’ll see. At least he’s picking you up at your home, like a man should.” He switched on one of the old shows he liked to watch. “Don’t stay out too late.”

I assured him that I wouldn’t and slipped out the door.

I thought about Jake on my way down to Missing Pieces. I hoped I hadn’t given him the wrong impression. Kevin and I weren’t engaged or anything, but there was an implied exclusivity to our relationship.

I wondered if there was something I could say to Jake that would make him understand, in case there was a problem. I didn’t want to awkwardly ask him if he was interested in me as more than a friend.

It was a strange, slightly exhilarating experience to deal with. I had never had the opportunity to wonder if a second man was interested in me. In school, I was always the weird one whose grandfather was the sheriff. Tim had been the only boy who ever asked me out.

It wasn’t fair to lead Jake on though. I liked him and enjoyed his company, but not in that way.

There was a big chicken and dumplings dinner at one of the local churches near the house. It seemed to be a popular event. Traffic was heavy on Duck Road. I had to walk around some of the cars that were parked too far in the road. There were no sidewalks.

It was going to be awesome when all of the boardwalk was complete so everyone could get around town without walking along the narrow, sometimes crowded road.

There were a few cars at the Duck Shoppes. Trudy’s Beauty Spa was closed and dark. I couldn’t tell if anyone was in Shayla’s shop—there were always dark curtains on the windows. A small group of people were outside at Wild Stallions, talking and nursing their drinks as they looked at the lights across the sound.

I opened the door to Missing Pieces, but before I could go inside, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked back and found a person-sized mirror right up in my face. I took a step back, almost tripping over the threshold into the shop. The mirror followed me like it was possessed.

“Jump out now while you can, witch,” Flourine yelled with a vigorous shaking of her beads and charms.

“You’re kidding, right?” I looked around the edge of the mirror at Shayla. “I can’t believe you think something like that would work even if there were a witch inside of me.”

Flourine frowned. “It always works. You can see the witch inside when you look in the mirror. Everybody knows that.”

“I guess you forgot to tell the witch inside of me.” I grinned at Shayla but was secretly terrified. Would that really work? “What next? Rubber chickens? A green umbrella?”

“I never heard of those,” Flourine confessed. “How do they work?”

Shayla put down the mirror. “Come on, Gram. She’s just making fun of us.”

“No. Really.” I laughed to disguise how close they were to the truth, but my heart was pounding. What would happen if they found out about Maggie?

“Okay. Laugh now. We’ll see who laughs last.” Shayla’s usually melodic voice was harsh. “Oh, and by the way, watch out for Ann. Her idea was electrocuting you to reveal the witch. Maybe she’s got the right idea. At least you wouldn’t be
laughing
right now.”

That was scary.
“Maybe you should give it up before someone gets hurt.”

“Somebody like that
witch
.” Flourine huffed.

“Let’s remember that even if there is a witch in me, I’d still be here. Hurting me would be bad.”

Flourine squinted into my face. “You threatening me, witch?”

I glanced at Shayla. “Seriously? I think this has gone far enough, don’t you?”

I didn’t wait for an answer, just turned and continued into Missing Pieces, closing the door behind me. I felt a little sick. Maggie might not be a witch, but I didn’t know what Shayla and her grandmother would have done if they’d seen Maggie in the mirror.

I needed to get back to the construction site and find those bones before one of Shayla’s stunts hurt either Maggie or me. I wasn’t sure about Flourine’s magic, but usually Shayla’s was more hoodoo than voodoo. I didn’t want to find out that I was wrong.

I hoped Dillon wasn’t outside waiting for me and witnessed the whole thing. It had been dark on the boardwalk. I might have missed him. That would be embarrassing.

I took out the silver bells—as soon as I felt sure Shayla and Flourine were gone. I looked at them one last time before I packed them up. I’d been so sure all three bells would find their way to me. I’d boasted of it confidently, especially after Dillon had given me the one he’d located. I would really have liked to see them all together, even if I didn’t get to keep them.

“Your friends are very stubborn.” Maggie appeared as I looked into the old mirror on the wall.

“They are. We’ll get a lead on Thomas’s grave soon. So much has happened, it’s been hard to find time. I’m sorry.”

She laughed, tossing “our” head back in a way I would never have done. “Don’t worry about me. I’m having a wonderful time. Perhaps I’ll stay awhile longer.”

I started to argue with her (a complicated procedure), then I heard the door to the shop open and close. I straightened my shoulders and went into the main area. I plastered a big smile on my face, sure this was the best thing to do.