Can't Keep a Brunette Down (30 page)

"Back off," Fabio said. "Maybe you should let Detective Wright take a bash at him. I'll bet she has less abrasive ways to make him talk."

"More than you know," Thayer growled.

Gilda cringed and stared at Mick. When he met her gaze, she wasn't so sure she wanted to hear the truth, especially not after Xavier had tried to poison both of them not so long ago. She had as much reason to want him dead as anyone else.

"Sit," Mick said.

Her hands shook and her knees weakened. "I can't do this anymore. First Walter, then Erik, now Xavier. I'm going home and locking my door. I quit, Mick. For real this time. You have to deal with things by yourself this time. I'm done."

"Sit." He motioned to the chair beside him.

"Not a chance." Her chin quivered. "You were right. I give up. I don't need to play detective. Thayer and Fabio can handle everything. I'm going home." She turned to walk away.

Thayer grabbed her arm and steered her to the desk. "Your boss told you to sit."

"He's not my boss. I already quit twice." She folded her arms across her chest. "As far as I'm concerned, I don't work here anymore, and I'm never coming back."

"It's okay, Gilda," Fabio said. "You're scared and in shock. We all understand." He looked past her and frowned. "Mick, I need your clothes for evidence."

"Sure." When Mick stripped off his shirt to reveal rippling muscles, a female officer tried to hide her stare. "Gilda, can you at least do me one last favor? Grab me a change of clothes from the chair in my office."

"I'll get them," Thayer said.

"Gilda knows where my things are," Mick insisted.

She scowled, curious why he wouldn't trust anyone else. Any of the officers could have fetched his clothes. "Fine. I'll get your clothes, but after that, I'm leaving."

"Thanks," Mick said. "After that, you can leave."

Gilda wove through the maze of people and paused in the doorway of Mick's office. Pristine was the first word that sprang to mind. Too pristine, considering the current state of the rest of the building and how messy the school was just a short while ago, especially with Mick living there lately. He wasn't normally that neat.

His clothes were folded neatly on the desk, not slung over the back of a chair as usual. His sandals, the only thing out of place, sat under the desk, not on the shelf out front as usual. Beneath his clothes lay a stack of papers. Rental agreements for a building in Detroit, which Yoshida had already signed and stuck bright-yellow paper arrows where Mick was to initial and sign.

Gilda grabbed his clothes and stuck the papers beneath her shirt with a sudden yearning to hear what he had to say. She clutched the papers against her stomach with one arm, then rejoined the men and handed Thayer the clothes.

"Do you want to search them to make sure I didn't smuggle him a weapon?" she asked.

When Mick blanched, she shook her head a fraction of an inch.

Thayer hesitated then shook out each item of clothing and handed them to Mick. "He can change, but I want one of my officers to keep an eye on him."

Mick snorted, unzipped his jeans, and dropped them to the floor. He stood behind the desk, wearing nothing except a pair of Snoopy boxer shorts, then stuck his thumbs in the waistband. "Did you want these too?"

"No!" Both Thayer and Gilda hollered.

The female officer's mouth dropped open, and her face darkened to crimson.

"Put your pants on." Fabio chuckled.

Gilda turned her back. She was used to seeing Mick walk around with no shirt, but not in his skivvies—aside from when he woke up in her bed. First he'd professed his love to her, now he was practically naked in front of her and most of the local police force. She had no idea how much more of his insanity she could stand without another long, cold shower.

"Come and sit." Mick patted the chair beside him. When both officers moved closer, he held up a hand. "Just Gilda. The rest of you take a hike."

"She's not a lawyer," Thayer said. "There are no confidentiality rights between an employer and employee."

Fabio yanked his partner away from the front desk. "Give them one minute before you walk Mick to the gallows. You can interrogate them both later."

Gilda joined Mick. She hadn't even sat before he grabbed her arm.

"Did you find the papers?" He pulled her so close that their noses bumped. When she lifted her shirt and showed him the papers, he grinned. "Anything else in there I should know about?"

"What are the rental papers for?" she asked. "What's Yoshida up to?"

"I know whose ring you found."

Gilda sat back, her mouth open wide.

He whispered. "Xavier came in to look for it the other day. His father-in-law's a goldsmith. The same goldsmith who made a copy of Xavier's one-of-a-kind ring for Yoshida a couple years ago after Xavier and his wife split up."

"When I asked him about it, he never said a word," she said. "He never said anything when you mentioned it at Razi's house either."

"Shh!" He pulled her by the front of her T-shirt until their noses touched again. "He said he hid it to keep it from one of his ex-wives. Yoshida didn't dare say anything, or he would've definitely been a suspect."

"He was already a suspect anyway," Gilda said. "He probably didn't even know anyone had found the ring until you told him. So who killed Walter and Erik?"

Mick shrugged, glancing toward the dojo. Fabio leaned in the doorway, doing a bad job of pretending not to watch them. "No idea. I don't even know who killed Xavier. Someone knocked me out and left long before I woke up."

"Yeah. I guessed that by your footprint in the blood."

"Huh?"

"The blood was already congealed when you stepped in it. If it was still wet and runny when you got here, I don't think your print would be so clear." She hesitated. "This really doesn't matter to you, does it?"

"Xavier and I planned to train for a couple hours. I went to my office to make a phone call and change. When I came out, I heard a noise, and then someone hit me from behind. When I came to, Xavier was laying there, and I tried to give him CPR. Then I heard a noise."

"The killer?" Gilda tensed.

"A cat."

"A cat? From where?" she asked.

Mick motioned his head toward the wall. "The vent, which leads to the roof. It would be a pretty handy way for someone to sneak in and out without being seen."

But only for someone a great deal smaller than either Razi or Mick. She shivered. So much for her theory the killer was a black belt. Yoshida was a black belt who was smaller than both men, but he could walk in and out of the school without anyone paying much attention.

"When did you call the police?" she asked.

He reached for the bottle of hand sanitizer on her desk. The empty bottle only sputtered when he squeezed it. "After I checked his pulse, and before I checked out the vent. Marion took the call."

"Yeah, she phoned me."

"And you came running to make sure I was dead."

"Hardly." Gilda frowned. "She just said there was an emergency, and I should get over here right away."

He reached over and gave her a hand a squeeze. "I thought maybe she told you I was the murderer and to stay away from me if you valued your life."

She tilted her head. "Why would she tell me that?"

"Because I was a blubbering idiot when I called, and I'm sure I said something about being covered in blood." He studied his hands as though they belonged to someone else. "I need a hot shower and something to scrub off with."

"I need a word with your boyfriend." Thayer shooed Gilda away from her desk. After another fifteen minutes of interrogation, Thayer let Mick go with the warning, "Don't leave town or else."

"Thanks, but I live at the school right now," Mick said. "I don't have anywhere to go until Chloe leaves town. She was supposed to show up a couple hours ago to pick up her plane ticket. Gilda, do we have more hand sanitizer?"

"Yeah, in the back. I'll get you some." Gilda bit back an offer that Mick could go home with her. Not only would Thayer take it wrong, so would Mick. She headed toward the utility room and opened the door.

Bleach wasn't something they normally used in the school, yet there were five bottles in the closet. Large bottles that would take both hands to move. She leaned into the closet for the mop and cleaner. The smell from the bottles made her gag. Whatever was in them certainly didn't smell like bleach. More like gasoline.

"Mick
.
" She called, ignoring everyone but the rumpled, bloody man who lumbered toward her. "Did you put these here?"

"Bleach?" he asked. "You know I never use the stuff. What're they doing here?"

"I've never seen them before either," she said. "They sure don't smell like bleach."

Thayer shoved her aside. He grabbed a bottle and sniffed the contents then yelled for everyone to clear the building. At first, no one moved. They all seemed to hold their breaths.

Fabio limped around the corner. "What is it?"

"Gasoline," Thayer said. "Enough for someone to burn this place and half of Main Street to the ground." He turned to Mick. "I think it's time you came to the police station."

Mick shook his head. "This wasn't my doing. Dust them for fingerprints. This place is all I have. Why would I want to torch it? Whoever put them there probably killed the others and is still out there somewhere."

"If you don't come peacefully, I'll have to cuff you," Thayer said.

Mick's shoulders tensed. "I'm probably safer there than here anyway."

Gilda almost agreed until something caught her attention. The bottles were stacked neatly, not set inside in a line. Three bottles on the bottom with a board wide enough to balance the remaining two bottles that sat on top of the lower three. It appeared someone with an obsessive-compulsive disorder had cleaned and reorganized the utility room. Yoshida?

Fabio turned to Gilda. "I'll need your keys to lock up, before you leave."

Mick said nothing, but when he glanced into the closet again, the angle of his head spoke volumes. "She's not safe here either."

Thayer narrowed his eyes. "You know something, don't you? What did you see?"

"I know either one of us could be next," Mick said.

Gilda craned her head for a better view. Several rolls of paper towels were stacked in the same pattern behind the bleach bottles. All it would take was for someone to toss a match on the paper towels to melt the plastic enough so the school and the consignment shop next door would explode. Her knees weakened, and she struggled to catch her breath.

Mick nudged her arm. "Can Gilda grab one last thing from my office before we go?"

"Quickly," Thayer said. "We have to get out of here."

"My wallet. It's on the shelf with the candles," Mick said, then leaned closer and lowered his voice. "Call Razi. I'll text you when I'm done with the cops, and then we can meet at Café Beanz."

She half-ran to Mick's office. On the shelf above his desk stood the tower of candles Yoshida had built. Three on the bottom with a ruler supporting the remaining two. Everything stacked so there was an object between the two layers. Just like the bleach and the paper towels. Was Mick trying to tell her he'd figured it out too?

She returned with his wallet, her hand shaking. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be much better when this is over." He gave her a one-armed hug, hard enough for the papers in her shirt to crackle between them, then flashed a weak smile. "Give Fabio your key, and then go home. I'll call you when they let me go."

Gilda grabbed her purse and scurried out the door, armed with the lease documents. Now she needed to fill in the blanks and put it all together.

 

Despite having quit her job twice and no longer wanting any involvement with the school, the murders, or Mick, Gilda called Razi when she got home. "Sensei Mick is at the police station for questioning. You should pick him up."

"That is not what Sensei Mick told me when he called a minute ago."

"What did he tell you?" Her heart sank. Busted. So much for quitting and not being involved. She should have walked, actually run, away from it all. What was wrong with her?

A long pause. Razi must have been trying to choose his words carefully. "He will meet us at Café Beanz once Thayer releases him."

She sighed. "That could be hours from now."

"That is true," he said. "Sensei Mick also asked me to make sure you are well. He wanted to know if you are upset with him."

"Upset with him?" Her anger burst through her carefully constructed dam. "How could I not be upset with him? He never mentioned the missing merchandise. Never told me about Walter's past or the whole mess with Chloe and Gary until I was smack in the middle of things. I could've been killed just for being anywhere near him." She sucked in a sorely needed breath. "How in heaven's name could I
not
be upset?"

Razi remained silent for a long minute. "Miss Wright, I will meet you at Café Beanz at four. We will sit in a booth near the window, and you can try to convince me you do not care what happens to Sensei Mick. Okay?"

"Huh?"

"I will see you at four," he said. "Please try to think of something constructive to assist us in stopping the murderer."

When he hung up, she stared at the phone with her mouth agape. Razi was right. Even after everything that had happened—the murders, the whack to her head, she and Mick's misguided kisses—the three of them were still a team. Both Razi and Mick needed her to set her anger aside to help them catch the murderer.

Unable to relax, she cleaned house. Her hands wiped away dust while her mind went over evidence and occurrences. Had she missed anything? Was there a suspect she hadn't even considered, someone who had grievances with the school? All her thoughts came back to Yoshida and Mick.

The phone rang, jolting Gilda away from her mental checklist. Her stomach slithered in and out of knots as she let it ring until the answering machine picked up.

"Oh, brother." Marion groaned over the speaker. "Gilda, don't you ever answer the phone? You're not at the school. You're not at home. Where on Earth are you?"