Bone Appétit (32 page)

“That’s what I need to find out.” I sprinted back to the Alluvian. When I entered our room, I knew Tinkie wasn’t there. The sizzle was gone. A pale sheet of hotel stationery centered my bed.

“Gone to Panther Holler to check for Anna. Tinkie.”

I dialed her cell phone—which rang on the bedside table beside her camera. Tinkie had launched a frontal attack on Anna and didn’t even have a way to contact me or call for help.

Something was very wrong. Tinkie was in trouble. I felt it. She’d never abandon her obligation to Evangeline Phelps, nor would she take off on a dangerous assignment without telling me—and without her phone.

She’d also taken the Caddy, which left me with no wheels. Never again would I ride with someone else. Not even for cooking lessons.

I went downstairs, wondering if I could talk police officer Eddie out of his patrol car. Not likely. Samuel was my best bet. I found him getting ready to leave for the day, but he turned over the key to his pickup truck without question.

“Drop it off at Buster’s Bluetop when you finish. You can leave the key with the bartender,” Samuel said.

“Thanks.”

“Make sure Hedy doesn’t go to jail for something she didn’t do.”

“I’ll do my best.”

The old Ford had seen better years, but it started with a roar. As I circled the hotel, I saw the Caddy parked where we’d left it. I felt like someone had whacked me in the stomach with a sledgehammer.

I killed the engine, jumped out of the truck, and ran back into the hotel. Samuel was chatting with Betty, the concierge, and a couple of clerks.

“Did you see Tinkie leave?” I asked. Everyone in the hotel knew her by now.

Samuel shook his head, but Betty spoke up. “She left about an hour ago.”

“Was she alone?”

Betty thought about it. “She walked out the door by herself, but there was a woman close behind her.”

“Can you describe the woman?” I wanted to tear my hair and scream.

“Petite, good figure, a bit older than you, and short, black hair. Oh, and she was wearing dark sunglasses.”

“Did Tinkie say anything?” Surely she’d tried to leave a clue. Even a small one.

Betty frowned. “She’s always so friendly, but she walked out like the Queen of Sheba. I thought she was rude, which wasn’t like her.”

“Betty, call Chief Jansen,” I said. “I think Tinkie’s been abducted. She left a note in our room, which may have fingerprints on it.”

Betty whipped into action.

I retrieved my cell phone from my pocket and dialed Coleman. When I heard his voice, my control crumbled. “Can you come to Greenwood now?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Tinkie has been taken by someone.”

“I’m on the way,” Coleman said.

As I closed the phone, it rang. Hoping it was Tinkie, I answered quickly.

“We’re wrapping the shoot today.” Graf’s voice was filled with sunshine and glamour. “I can catch a late flight to Memphis or the first one in the morning. What’s your preference, my love?”

“Tonight.” I managed to say it without crying

“Sarah Booth, is something wrong?” Graf asked.

There was no simple way to tell him how awfully wrong things were.

“Sarah Booth, what’s happened?” Graf asked for the third time.

I wanted to answer him, but I was struggling to maintain control. “It’s Tinkie. I think she’s been abducted. By someone bad.” I moved from the front desk reception into the plushly carpeted lounge area. The sounds of the hotel were instantly muffled. I was alone with Graf. “Madame Tomeeka warned me, and I failed to protect her.”

“I’ll catch the next flight to Memphis, rent a car, and be there as soon as I can.”

Graf wasn’t angry, he was worried. I had an overwhelming desire to feel his arms around me. “I can’t call Oscar.” Coward that I was. No way in hell was I going to phone Tinkie’s husband and tell him I’d let Tinkie fall into danger.

“Don’ worry about Oscar now. You’ll do what’s necessary,” Graf said. “Who has her?”

“I’m not certain. Tinkie left a note saying she was headed to the Wellington home, but her car is in the parking lot. The hotel receptionist said a woman left right behind Tinkie.”

“The killer?” Graf sounded as if he were feeling his way through a minefield.

“Maybe.”

“And maybe not. You don’t have enough evidence to jump to conclusions. Don’t call Oscar until you know something. There’s no point scaring him into a coronary if Tinkie caught a ride with someone and went off on a lead.”

Bless Graf for his sensible approach. “Thank you. Please hurry home, okay?”

“I’ll make them fly the plane as fast as it’ll go.”

I hung up and found myself facing Franz Jansen. He stood in the doorway, eavesdropping without a smidgen of apology. Tension radiated from him. “Are you certain Mrs. Richmond is missing?” he asked. “This isn’t some ploy to distract me while your client takes a runner?”

“Tinkie isn’t in the hotel, but her car is parked in the lot.” I kept it calm and factual. More than anything I wanted Jansen to laugh and call me a fool. “She left a note. In the room.”

Jansen took my elbow and led me to the elevator. It wasn’t until the doors closed behind us that he loosened his grip. “Are you okay? You’re not going to faint or do something embarrassing, are you?”

I shook my head. “I have to find her.”

“We will,” he said. “I don’t want Oscar Richmond or worse, Avery Bellcase, riding my ass ’cause Mrs. Richmond got hurt in my town.” Beneath his gruffness was something else.

As we exited the elevator I said, “You’ve got the good ole boy shuffle down pretty good, but I sense money isn’t
the driving factor here.” I stopped at the door. He was the head lawman in charge of the search for my partner. His agenda had suddenly become vitally important. “What is?”

“Let’s take a look at that room.” He edged me aside with his body and took the key card from my hand.

We entered and Jansen scanned the interior, from the cell phone and camera on the table to the white stationery and the clothes scattered around. The room exuded emptiness, and he picked up on it, as I had.

“Money and power control a lot,” he said. “Like it or not, the wealthy expect preferential treatment. I don’t mind going a little extra in some cases, as long as justice is served.” He twitched his mustache. “My motto is ‘whatever it takes.’ ”

“My friend’s life may be in danger. I have to know you’ll run over anyone blocking the path. Even the Wellingtons.”

“I should be insulted, Miss Delaney, but instead I admire your directness. I’ll return the favor. If Marcus is involved in these murders, or the abduction of Mrs. Richmond, or illegal means of gaining custody of his child, he’ll be arrested. I can’t guarantee he’ll be punished, because money has a way of tipping the scales of justice. But he will be arrested and charged.”

“It’s possible Marcus is a dupe of Anna Lock.”

“I’m having a hard time justifying why Anna Lock would poison three people to frame her own niece.”

“Are the actions of any killer reasonable?”

“Some more than others,” he said. “But I agree with your assessment that Miss Kompton is our next target.”

“Damn!” I’d forgotten all about Karrie. “She’s over at the school. She was helping Mrs. Phelps, which may or may not be dangerous. If Karrie is the killer—”

Jansen slapped the microphone hooked to his shirt.
“Timothy, get Linda and head over to the cooking school. Pick up Miss Kompton and hold her.”

“On what charge, Chief?”

Jansen thought a moment. “Book her for prostitution. That’ll cook her bacon and get her all churned up. Tell her if she cooperates, we won’t put the charges on the books, but if she stirs up a stink, we’ll book her and call Cece Dee Falcon.”

“Yes, sir.” There was doubt in the young officer’s voice, but he didn’t question his boss.

“Your men are well trained and loyal,” I said. “Even when asked to step all over the law.”

“The women, too.” For the first time I saw a glint of humor. “Now let’s get to work. Time’s a’wasting.”

“What do you know about Anna Lock?”

“A whole lot more than I did this morning.” He pulled a latex glove from his pocket, picked up the note, and bagged it. “I want this fingerprinted and the room, too. Did you check the cell phone for messages?”

I could have slapped my own forehead. “No.”

He did that and frowned. “You recognize these numbers?”

I took a look. “Her husband or me or Cece at the newspaper.”

“No strange numbers, at least on the cell phone. I’ll check at the front desk for a record of calls to the room. Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“To pay a visit on the Wellingtons of Panther Holler.”

“You’re taking me with you?” I was surprised.

“You’d be more dangerous running around here on the loose.”

__________

I left a message at the reception desk for Coleman and got in the patrol car with Jansen. The chief made the necessary radio calls to the sheriff’s office.

“I don’t have authority outside the city of Greenwood,” he said. “We play this like a social call. We’re there for a chat about Hedy.”

I nodded. I didn’t care if we had to wear cow costumes and dance the polka as long as we got in the gate and I could search for Tink. We’d just cleared the city limits when Jansen’s car radio crackled.

“Chief, Miss Kompton isn’t at the cooking school. Mrs. Phelps said she left half an hour ago.”

“Find her,” Jansen said into the radio.

He was about to put the radio away when it squawked again.

“Chief, this is Eddie.” He sounded like a kicked dog.

“Go ahead,” Jansen said.

“Miss Blackledge got away from me.”

I thought Jansen’s grip would crush the microphone. “She did
what
?”

“She put something in my coffee. She said it was a vanilla flavoring. I passed out and she’s gone.”

“I’ll deal with you when I return. Find her. Find her and arrest her for assaulting an officer, suspicion of homicide—anything you can think of. Put her in jail and swallow the key if that’s the only way you can keep her there.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jansen flipped on the lights and siren and stepped on the gas. The patrol car jumped forward.

“Hedy wouldn’t run without good cause.”

Jansen only tightened his grip on the steering wheel. His hands were massive. “Hedy left under her own power, according to Eddie. She drugged him somehow. Something fast acting. Mrs. Richmond left a note. She walked
out seemingly of her own volition, except for being followed.”

“And Karrie left on her own, too. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t coerced in some fashion.”

“My men will have more facts shortly.”

The cotton fields were a blur as we whizzed down the highway. Tinkie was a fast driver, but Jansen was no holds barred. We hit a bump and only my seat belt kept me from striking the roof of the car.

“Tinkie discovered something.” I wracked my brain trying to think who or what it could be.

“Maybe she’s at Panther Holler right now, one step ahead of us.”

“Let it be true,” I whispered under my breath. “Chief, there weren’t any unusual calls on Tinkie’s cell phone, but could you check and see if Hedy received any calls?”

He radioed a female officer in the hotel lobby. In a moment I heard her report back. “There was one call from Mrs. Richmond’s room to Hedy’s room thirty minutes before Hedy left, and another call to the room shared by Voncil and Amanda Payne.”

“Thanks.” Jansen cast a swift glance at me but never slowed. “You’re really convinced someone forced your partner into persuading Hedy to slip protective custody.”

I nodded, knowing that only something vile could have made Tinkie put Hedy’s future, if not her life, on the line.

“You look a little green around the gills,” Jansen said. “Want me to pull over?”

“No. The sudden stop from light speed might be my undoing.” I pointed to the wrought iron gate of the Wellington home. “Besides, we’re here.”

“And not a moment too soon,” Jansen said. His hand went to his holster to check his gun as we drove slowly down the shell drive to the big house.

__________

The front door stood wide open. The senior Wellingtons were out of town, but Marcus could be home. Or Anna.

Jansen inched forward, finally coasting to a stop at the sweeping steps that led to the shady gallery. “This doesn’t look good.”

I reached for the door handle but he stopped me. “Stay in the car.”

“Give me a gun.” Firearms weren’t my thing, but I was determined to protect myself.

“Do you have training?”

I shook my head. “I can use a gun, though.”

“Not today. Stay in the car.” He got a spare gun out of his glove box and tucked it into his belt.

As soon as Tinkie was safe and I was back at Dahlia House, I was signing up for the weapon classes Tinkie had begged me to take. And she was, too. She always protested, saying the ear protectors would mess up her hair. Too bad.

Jansen glided up the steps to the door like a big cat. He had become adept at concealing so much about himself that I wondered if the people of Greenwood knew anything about their police chief. I’d vastly underestimated him.

When he disappeared inside, I got out of the car and followed him. There was no way I intended to sit patiently while Tinkie might be in danger.

I made it in the door before Jansen grabbed me and snatched me inside. “I told you to stay in the car.”

“I have to find Tinkie.”

He roughly pulled me behind him. “Act like a fool and I’ll put you in the back of the car,” he warned me.

Gun moving slowly from left to right, he stepped into the empty parlor.

“Marcus!” he called. “It’s Franz.” His footsteps were silent as he moved deeper into the house. I followed, stepping into his tracks.

“Marcus!” Only the whir of the air conditioner answered his call.

We checked the downstairs room by room, and Jansen motioned upstairs. He headed up with me right on his heels. There had been no sign of Tinkie—or anyone else—in any of the downstairs rooms.

We found Vivian’s bedroom, a paradise of stuffed animals and bright colors. “The child and the grandparents are in Memphis,” I reminded Jansen.