A Drizzle of Deception: A Cozy Mystery (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book 10) (2 page)

Chapter Three

The next morning I stopped at the bank on my way to The Frozen Scoop. As I walked from the bank towards the shoppe I noticed Jeb and ol’ Charlie sitting on their usual bench in front of the hardware store. I walked slowly near them so I could hear their conversation. Jeb looked stricken while Charlie rattled on. Seems Charlie was trying to convince Jeb that the lights he saw outside his house at night were aliens. Good grief! The awful grimace on Jeb’s face made me think he was contemplating the notion.

“Have you seen any of those crop circles down your way?” Charlie asked Jeb. “That’s how they communicate with each other.”

Jeb rubbed his chin. “No, can’t say I’ve heard any of the farmers down my way speak of anything like that. I have talked to some neighbors to see if they’ve seen these strange lights too, but they haven’t.”

Charlie took a cigar out of his pocket. “Sounds like the aliens are only interested in you Jeb. I’d keep a shotgun nearby and fill them full of buckshot if I was you.”

I walked in front of the bench before Charlie could light the cigar. “Hey Jeb and Charlie. Why don’t you two come over to the ice cream shoppe and I’ll make us a pot of coffee.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Charlie said as he stored his unlit cigar back into his pocket, then moved over and plopped himself in his motorized wheelchair. Charlie could walk, but it was a struggle for him, hence the wheelchair. His slow moving sign still hung from the flimsy pole, a reminder of how it had once been the catapult for someone’s demise. But that’s a different story.

I led the men back to my shoppe, unlocked the door, and started a pot of coffee. I left the men at a table while I filled the ice cream case with barrels of Mississippi Mud and Butter Pecan. Jeb sat silent while Charlie watched the people from my large plate glass window as they walked down the sidewalk. I poured them both a cup of coffee and me one as well.

Charlie steered his wheelchair closer to the window. “Just a dab of milk in mine Tara. I can drink dairy, just can’t eat it.”

Yep, that was ol’Charlie and his idiosyncrasies. He drove Stormi crazy with that one.

I handed Charlie his coffee, and then sat down with Jeb who looked like he was about to fall asleep.

“How are you doing today Jeb?”

Jeb blew on his coffee. “Oh, not good Tara.” He took a sip. “I can’t sleep because of the lights and noises outside my house. And the security alarm keeps going off. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“I’m sure you know there aren’t aliens visiting you like Charlie mentioned.”

Jeb nodded. “I know. In fact I wish it was. I think they’d be friendlier than whatever is causing the commotion outside my house.”

I smoothed out my pink apron. “So now you’re hearing noises outside too? What type of sounds?”

Jeb looked thoughtful. “Kind of like humming noises. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like a loud hum.”

Okay, that was strange. Lights and humming noises. It was starting to sound like it was aliens hovering over his property in their spacecraft. I shook my head.

“Is it a loud or a soft hum?” Not that it mattered, but I had to try and get something plausible out of him.

“Sometimes it was loud and other times soft.” Okay, that didn’t work.

“Look Jeb, Brandon, Stormi and I will come out tomorrow and look around. Maybe we can get to the bottom of it.”

Jeb sighed and lifted his cup of coffee. “I don’t know. The police and the security guy from the alarm place have been out there and they can’t find anything.”

“Don’t be so fast to dismiss us Jeb,” I said as I stood up to get back to work. “We might run across something.”

Jeb smiled and looked more at ease. Yes we could see what there was to unearth on Jeb’s property…unfortunately it would be Jeb who would try and stop us.

Chapter Four

Brandon, Stormi and I headed to Jeb’s the next day. I told them about ol’ Charlie and his own tall tale of aliens visiting Jeb in the night.

“You got to hand it to Charlie,” Brandon said as he pulled into Jeb’s driveway. “He has an answer for everything. Honestly he may not be far off.”

I slapped Brandon’s arm. “Yeah, like you believe in UFOs.”

“Hey, this is where most UFOs are spotted…out in the countryside. I mean why hover over the big cities where all the lights and people are. Instead, let’s go bug an old man who’ll shoot buckshot up their tiny Martian asses.”

“Hey, stop your blabbering and get me out of here.” Stormi was stuck in the backseat of Brandon’s truck. There wasn’t much legroom back there and Storm was having a heck of a time getting comfortable on the way out.

Brandon jumped out and pulled the front seat forward so Stormi could hop out. “I’ll be glad when you get one of those trucks with a decent cab. I felt like a pretzel in there…my arms and legs going in different directions.”

Brandon rolled his eyes. “I’ll get right on that Sis.” Ahhh, the brother and sister bond. I knew they loved one another, but their favorite pastime was to bicker with one another. That’s how they communicated so I just let them have at it.

“I mean you could have at least taken out some of your tools. That pry bar was trying to goose me in the nether regions.”

“That pry bar was no where near your hind parts…unless you put it there.”

Stormi stood with her hands on hips as we stopped by one of the many outbuildings dotted across Jeb’s property. “I did no such thing. You set that metal torture device right where I’d be sitting.”

“You’re crazy as a loon!”

“Hey, hey,” I interrupted. “I know everyone is upset about Jeb, but let’s try and get it together.”

Suddenly a man stepped around the outbuilding. Stormi and I both jumped!

“Hey Denny,” Brandon said to the older man.

He was older, but a little younger than Jeb. He wore overalls and his weathered face and hands showed him to be a hard worker almost all of his life. He wore a hat over his thick gray hair. He stretched his hand out to Brandon.

“Good to see you Brandon. I thought I heard talking out here. Come to see your grandfather?”

“Yep,” Brandon answered. “Hey Denny, this is my fiancée Tara and my sister Stormi.”

Denny nodded his head to us. “How’s the handyman business treating you?”

“Very busy. Denny Fowler here is a carpenter and he’s helped me quite a few times when I’d be in a jam or need his expertise on a carpentry situation.”

“So Papaw Jeb rents out a workshop to you?” Stormi asked.

“Yes’m, has for years.” Denny scratched the top of his head. “Celeste Yang rents the other half. Unfortunately that’s the only building Jeb lets us work in. I’d love to see what he has in all these other outbuildings, but he has them boarded and chained. He doesn’t want anyone snooping around.”

Brandon looked around the property. “Funny how I never paid much attention that he locked all these buildings.”

Denny scuffed his worn work boot into the dirt. “Even the sheds are locked up. I simply would like to look around at some of his collections to get some inspiration for my sculptures.”

“You make sculptures too.” I was intrigued. That was not an art are the faint of heart.

Denny chuckled. “I try. Not sure I’m very good at it, but I like to do it. Mostly metal sculptures. I made one for the high school. It’s a metal sculpture that looks like a pencil.”

“Oh my gosh, you made that?” I was impressed. The metal sculpture was more than 6-feet high and stood at the edge of the high school welcoming students as they entered the area.

“Yes’m I did.” Denny looked pleased that I knew of his work.

“Denny’s quite the artist,” Brandon remarked. “He’s just too modest to let on.”

“I do smaller scale items too, like for front yards. I sell them at festivals.” Denny pulled a smart phone from his pocket and punched the face a few times, then handed it to me. “Here’s a few snapshots of my wares.”

The three of us looked at the photos, mesmerized by his genius. Some metal sculptures had no rhyme or reason, simply abstract metal pieces with long limbs floating upwards, but others were replicas of animals like a bird or cat. Some were table top versions and others were 3 to 4-feet tall.

“These are beautiful,” I exclaimed. “Let me know when you’re at a festival and I’d like to browse through your collection.”

Denny smiled, obviously liking the attention. “I will let Brandon know.”

“Denny, have you noticed anything odd when you’ve been out here?” Brandon asked. “Jeb’s been having trouble with his security alarm going off and he sees weird lights and hears humming noises.”

“I heard about that.” Denny punched his phone then placed it back into his back pocket. “But I haven’t seen or heard anything myself when I’ve been out here.”

“So you haven’t heard the strange noises or weird lights?” Stormi looked concerned and I didn’t blame her.

“No, afraid not. But I’m not here at night either when it seems the peculiarities occur.”

“Well thanks for your time Denny.” I could tell Brandon wasn’t feeling much better about this situation than Stormi. If no one else could corroborate Jeb’s story, one might assume Jeb is either making it up for attention or becoming senile. Neither option looked good.

Denny walked back to the workshop as we headed up to the house. Suddenly barking could be heard behind us. Three yellow labs raced by us and up to the house. Jeb came outside and hugged the dogs, scratching their ears as their thick tails almost wagged off their hind ends. Okay, now where did these dogs come from?

Chapter Five

We walked up to the porch where the dogs continued to lick Jeb’s face.

“Papaw, whose dogs are these.” Stormi rubbed the ears of one of the dogs who promptly sat down and leaned against her leg.

“I don’t know.” Jeb chuckled as he scratched the heads of the other two dogs. “They started coming by, oh I don’t know, maybe a couple of weeks ago. They come for a visit and I give them treats, then they leave.”

Brandon looked at their different colored collars. “I don’t see any tags. That’s odd. Why would someone let these purebred dogs out and not have tags on them?”

The collars were different colors, one black, one blue, and the other red. “I guess the colored collars are one way to tell them apart, but yeah, no tags is strange.”

Jeb didn’t seem to be listening to us. He was enjoying the dogs’ company and their excited whining. Finally they settled down and we all sat on the rocking chairs that dotted the long expansive front porch. We discussed the weather and some town gossip, then Stormi broached the subject of looking inside the locked outbuildings.

“Papaw, why don’t you let us look inside some of those locked buildings. Maybe if we go inside we can see if anyone has been trying to get in.”

Jeb shook his head. “Sorry Stormi, I don’t want anyone going in those buildings but me.”

“How are we going to help if you don’t allow us to look around?” Brandon seemed exasperated.

“Sorry boy, but I just don’t want anyone walking through my buildings, even family.”

Stormi changed the subject. “Anymore weird lights and humming noises.”

Jeb nodded as he rubbed the top of red collar dog’s head. “Again last night,” he said with a weary voice. “I can barely get a few hours of sleep at night. Been taking long naps during the day.”

“All the more reason to let us see inside these buildings.” Brandon’s patience was wearing thin.

“I don’t see how that will help.” Jeb sighed.

Stormi intervened. “If we know what’s in those buildings, maybe we can figure out who’s trying to break into them.”

Jeb shook his head. The man was stubborn to a fault.

Suddenly the dog’s ears perked up like they heard something we couldn’t. Then they raced down the driveway barking the entire way until we could no longer see them.

“That was weird.” Stormi said as she rocked back and forth. “I wonder if the Hackman’s down the road got some new dogs?”

“I already asked,” Jeb answered. “They haven’t and neither has the Parker’s down on Rebel Run Trail either.”

Brandon stood up and stretched. “Well, if you aren’t going to let us into the buildings to look around then we probably ought to head out.”

We said our goodbyes and told Jeb to let us know if anything else happens. Not that we could do much. If there was someone snooping around, then they were searching for Jeb’s money or whatever he had hidden in those buildings. Unfortunately, today we wouldn’t know what that was, but before long Stormi and her mother Dottie would be taking things into their own hands.