Blown To Pieces (PTO Murder Club Mystery Book 2) (23 page)

Little Joe, whose truck I’d rode back in yesterday, held a hand out to each of us. We took the help up, and after a couple of attempts, both Monica and I were standing.

“You two need to get out of here before the cops show up. We’ll take things from here, unless you’d like all of Lakeside to know that your friend was kidnapped.” He slid his right arm around my shoulders and his left around Monica’s. He walked us out the front door.

Every muscle in my body hurt, and then I saw Portia. My heart broke into a thousand pieces. “What happened to Portia?”

A cinder block had crunched in her roof, and another one was sticking out of her hood. Smoke billowed out of the hole above the engine. All of her windows had been blown out, and one of her tires was up in a tree.

I’d had her for all of two weeks, and now she was dead.

“Who’s Portia?” Little Joe’s Australian accent made her name sound very fancy.

“My car.” I wanted to give her a hug and tell her I was sorry.

“Well then, it’s time for you to trade up.” Little Joe led us to an identical black Porsche Cayenne.

Did Daman have a fleet of black Cayennes just sitting around waiting for one to die so another could take its place?

Haley sat in the backseat, with Bautista sitting beside her. He had a blood pressure cuff on her wrist and was asking her some questions.

Little Joe tossed me the key fob. “Say hello to Pepe, Portia’s faster and younger brother.”

I didn’t have the time or the energy to argue.

I climbed into the driver’s seat, Monica took the front passenger’s seat, and I headed toward Daman’s house.

I glanced in the rearview mirror. Haley was rumpled, tired, dirty, and a little worse for wear.

Monica turned around in her seat. “How are you, Hales?”

“Fine, now that I’m out.” Tears gathered in her eyes. “I knew y’all would come for me.” She nodded at me and Haley. She choked out, “Thanks.”

“You’d have done the same for us.” Monica covered Haley’s hand with hers. “We love you.”

Haley melted against Bautista, who scooped her up into his lap and let her cry.

“Sorry it took us so long. We had to keep moving the charges and reconfiguring some things to minimize loss of life.” Bautista took the stethoscope out of his ears and let it hang around his neck. He patted Haley’s back.

I was back to liking Bautista again.

“Daman wants me to let you all know that he will be back today. He left yesterday, but due to some inclement weather, it’s taking him longer to get here. He’s been calling me every five minutes.” Bautista pulled out a handkerchief—a real silk one—from somewhere and handed it to Haley.

“What’s going to happen to Stumpy?” Monica held Haley’s hand.

Bautista smiled at her. “Do you really want to know?”

I turned onto Lakeside Boulevard. “Nope. I still can’t figure out why Big Tommy went to so much trouble to fake his own death.”

The irony that he’d actually died only days later was fantastic.

Haley wiped at her face and scooted back to her seat. “He worked as a cleaner for Cervantes. He told me that a cleaner cleans up the dead bodies and disposes of them. He and Molly worked together several times. Big Tommy saw the bodies as free meat, so he—“

Monica held up a finger and then covered her mouth.

“Skip over the C-H-I-L-I part. It makes Monica sick,” I whispered. “She used to like it.”

Monica gagged but managed to keep everything down.

“Big Tommy was in debt up to his ears. Five ex-wives will do it to you, and he’d started gambling. He owed some very bad people lots of money. Cervantes found out about it and decided that he no longer needed Big Tommy’s services. Big Tommy faked his own death because if he didn’t, Cervantes was going to take care of him. He needed the gold to start a new life. The diamonds would have been enough, but he said he didn’t know how to sell them. Apparently, Cervantes paid both Molly and Big Tommy in gold coins.” Haley turned to Bautista. “Daman’s diamonds are in Big Tommy’s left front jeans pocket. You might want to tell your men to get them before the police show up.”

Bautista pointed to the earpiece at his ear and the small metal dot clipped to his fatigues. “You just did.”

“Any chance he told you who this Cervantes is?” The man had ordered my house bugged and tried to have me killed. I kinda wanted to know who he was and why he hated me so much.

“No, but Big Tommy did say something about mixtapes.” Haley hunched her shoulders. “No idea what he was talking about.”

Monica and I shared a look.

“That’s what we found in that safety deposit box in his office.” Oh crap. “I think they were in our murder cabinet when my house was ransacked.”

“Murder cabinet?” Four straight lines dented Bautista’s brow.

“It’s nothing.” Monica waved her hand. “We just keep some info in there. No big deal.”

“I don’t think Big Tommy found them. At least, he never said that he did.” Haley’s color was coming back. “What did you tell my family about why I didn’t come home last night?”

“Sick friend. You selflessly spent last night nursing her back to health.” Monica patted Haley’s knee. “That’s exactly what you would have done if you’d had a sick friend in need of nursing.”

“Gerlinda knows the truth, but I have a feeling that woman would take a bullet for you, so her keeping your secret shouldn’t be a problem.” I turned into Daman’s driveway.

“She’s excellent at keeping secrets,” Haley agreed.

“Saint Haley has secrets. Spill.” Monica was all ears.

Haley looked up at Monica from under her lashes. “Not in a million years.”

Daman was waiting for us on the front steps of his house. As soon as I put the car in park, he opened my door and pulled me into a tight hug.

“Are you okay? I’ve been so worried.” His eyes inspected me from head to toe. He picked some debris out of my hair.

“I’m fine.” I batted his hand away. “We need to take care of Haley.”

“I’m good. Just hungry and thirsty.” Haley didn’t sound good. “I want to take a long bath and forget the last twenty-four hours.”

Haley was a little wobbly on her feet, so Monica and I put our arms around her and helped her up the stairs.

Monica checked her watch. “My mom took the kids to a movie. We have a little over two hours before they get back.”

“Let’s get you cleaned up and then fed.” I still couldn’t believe all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.”

Haley looked so fragile.

We took her up to the room I was using, and I pointed her to the shower. Monica laid out clean clothes on the bed for Haley.

I knocked on the bathroom door. “When you’re ready, we’ll all be in the kitchen.”

“Okay.” Haley sounded exhausted.

“How do we make this all better for her?” I was at a loss, and I hated losing. “This is my fault.” If I hadn’t been so flippant with Big Tommy, Haley never would have been kidnapped.

“No, this was Big Tommy’s fault. He’s the bad guy, you’re the good guy—don’t get confused.” Monica slung an arm around my shoulders.

I knocked on the bathroom door again and then tested the knob. It was unlocked.

I opened it and found Haley fully clothed, leaning against the sink, and just staring at the shower with vacant eyes.

I waved Monica over, and we went into the bathroom and put our arms around Haley, holding each other up. Leaning on a best friend is one of the best perks of being female...well, that and borrowing glittery nail polish...and having a friend who pretends to wear your size so she can buy you fantastic shoes.

“We know your secret.” I leaned back so I could look down my nose at Haley.

“Really? Which one?” Haley’s color was returning to normal.

“What do you mean which one?” Monica rolled her eyes. “We know you faked your shoe size to slip us great shoes, and we’re willing to forget about it if you keep dropping off trash bags full of shoes you claim are on their way to Lakeside Thrift.”

“Oh, that.” Haley dismissed it. “I thought you’d found out something else.”

“What something else?” Monica dropped her arms. “You’re a spy, right? Or maybe an alien from the planet Prissy Pants? I knew it.”

“You’ve never accused me of being from planet Prissy Pants.” If I were from another planet, it would have to be Bitchy as Hell.

“That’s cause you’re from planet Bombshell Bitch.” Monica shrugged.

“I like that. Bombshell Bitch. I need a T-shirt that says I’m the ambassador from planet Bombshell Bitch.” Could you have only one T-shirt made? I didn’t need two hundred of them.

“And you’re from Planet Smarty-Pants.” Haley smiled at Monica. “We aliens have to stick together.”

“We’re going to be okay.” Haley kissed each of us on the cheek. “Thanks again for saving me.” She pointed to the door. “Now leave. I need to get cleaned up. I want to see my kids.”

Fifteen minutes later, Haley was looking a thousand times better as we all sat around Daman’s kitchen table. It was made out of some kind of sturdy, untreated wood, looked older than dirt, had room for thirty people, and managed to feel homey.

Daman’s kitchen was the size of Astrid’s whole house and would have been overly large in a thousand-room hotel, but it seemed that Daman liked his rooms big, his furniture even bigger, and he liked to have his family and friends around him.

At the head of the table, he sat as close to me as possible without sitting in my lap. Monica sat on my other side, Bautista next to her, and Haley sat across from us.

Magdalena set a huge platter of beef and chicken fajitas in front of us, along with heaping bowls of refried beans, green-chili rice, pico de gallo, guacamole, shredded cheese, and homemade corn tortillas. She set plates in front of everyone but me. The only thing she gave me was attitude.

What had I done to this woman?

Daman patted my hand. “Don’t take it personally. She’s a little overprotective of me.”

“It’s kinda hard not to take it personally when she keeps standing behind me and muttering things that sound like Mexican voodoo curses under her breath.” Every time Daman wasn’t looking, Magdalena glared at me.

The doorbell bonged, and Bautista scooted his chair back, but Magdalena put her hand on his shoulder. “Stay. I’ll get it.”

If I were Daman, I wouldn’t let her anywhere near the front door. She’d probably mow down guests with her welcome wagon.

Daman slid his plate over to me. “Eat.”

While I hadn’t had much to eat today, I wasn’t particularly hungry. I glanced around. Neither was anyone else. I guessed we were too busy processing the events of the day to contemplate food...or, well, meat. Now, donuts or cupcakes were another matter. I looked around. Didn’t look like Daman had any.

“Sir, you can’t go back there,” Magdalena yelled.

It took balls of steel to defy Magadelena.

“Get out of my way.” It was a male voice. Ben. “Mustang, where are you?” Mustang!”

Ben and Daman in the same place with me...bad idea.

I scooted back from the table.

Daman stood. “I’ll take care of this. Eat.”

Haley’s eyes sparkled. “Your two suitors battling it out for your hand.”

I waved both of my hands. “In light of today’s discoveries, that has an entirely different meaning.”

Monica gagged and then coughed.

“I meant that it would be funny to watch them fight over you.” Haley’s eyes had lost most of their sparkle.

“A cage match or Jell-O wrestling would be fun to watch.” Bautista was back to being Mr. Matter-of-Fact.

Slowly, we all turned to look at him.

“That was funny.” Monica was the first to recover. “And sarcastic. Oh yeah, we can be friends.”

“Love, we’re going to be a whole lot more than friends.” He dropped a light kiss on her mouth.

Haley looked from Bautista to Monica and back again. “Clearly, I’ve missed some things.”

“Okay, let me catch you up. Bautista and Monica kiss a lot, two men are possibly Jell-O wrestling over me in the next room, and no one kisses me a lot.” I thought it was a fairly accurate description of my love life.

“Don’t be so whiny.” Monica turned to me and made smooching noises.

“Where is she?” Ben was yelling. “Mustang?”

I stood. “I’m in here.”

Daman shook his head as he walked into the kitchen. Ben stomped in after him.

Ben came directly to me and pulled me into a hug. “I was so worried.”

“I’m fine.” I waited for him to let me go. “Really.”

“You promised to tell me everything.” Ben finally let go and stepped back. “We raided the Chili Parlor and found...” He took a deep breath. “Evidence of at least seven different people.”

“Was there any other type of meat?” Monica really wanted to believe that Big Tommy hadn’t Sweeney Todded the chili.

“Yes, we found both venison and beef.” Ben glanced at the beef fajitas and cringed.

I was pretty sure everyone would be taking a break from meat for a while.

“Please sit.” Daman sounded like he’d rather have a hot poker shoved in his eye than have Ben sit.

I took my seat, and Ben pulled out a chair, dragged it over to me, and wedged himself between me and Daman.

God save me from alpha males.

“We just finished up at Big Tommy’s.” Ben turned to Daman. “The other half of the squad was called to the Knights of Columbus. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?”

“Actually, I know all about it—”

“You admit it?” Ben grabbed my arm and pulled me up. “Come on, Mustang, let’s go. He just admitted to blowing up the Knights of Columbus. He probably killed Big Tommy and Edna Miars.”

“Let her go.” Daman’s voice was calm and scary as hell.

“He didn’t blow up the Knights of Columbus, I did.” Bautista sipped from a glass of water. Calm, cool, collected—just another day at the ranch.

Ben dropped my arm, pulled out a set of cuffs, and went to stand behind Bautista. “You have the right to remain silent—”

“They were saving me. Big Tommy kidnapped me and was trying to ransom me for the gold we found at Molly Miars’s house. He killed Edna Miars after Mustang tried to deliver the gold but the bag was rigged with dye packs.” Haley was as calm as I’d ever seen her.