Classic Revenge (13 page)

"I said, I'm not. It seems to me that we're making
somebody nervous" Millie smiled an impish, satisfied
smile as she turned to look at her house. It was fairly
easy to follow where Henry was in the house as rooms lit
up, one by one.

"What in the world are you talking about, Millie?"
Joe raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Who are you
making nervous?"

Millie clamped a hand over her mouth at the same
time Trish groaned. Edna took a deep breath and cleared
her throat. "Joe, dear," she said sweetly, placing a gentle
hand on his arm, "you're intimidating poor Millie. I think it would be best if you'd leave your questions for
later."

"You think I'm intimidating her? I just asked a simple question!"

"Not in front of the neighbors," Edna warned. Joe
started to say something, but one look at his wife's determined expression made him change his mind. He stared
first at his wife and then at Millie, who just looked at him
with wide, innocent eyes. Finally, his voice deceptively
quiet, Joe said, "I'll refrain from asking any questions
right now. But as soon as Henry leaves, the four of us are
going to have a discussion."

"Here comes Henry now," Trish piped up gratefully as
the chief appeared from around the side of the house.
She wasn't looking forward to the coming discussion at
all. She knew Joe Radcliff well enough to know that he
wouldn't be pleased to learn they had started secretly investigating potential suspects.

Poor Edna looked like she had just swallowed rotten
tuna fish. The unspoken laws of matrimony demanded
that she should have told Joe what she was doing, out of
courtesy and respect, if nothing else. But Edna couldn't
very well tell Joe that she knew if she had told him he
would be upset. That sounded a little too juvenile, like
the child who knew he would be punished for doing
something wrong, but the temptation was just too great.

Oh, well, Trish thought to herself, maybe she and
Millie could convince Joe that they had forced Edna
to participate. Yeah, right, her inner voice whispered
mockingly.

When Henry drew near, Millie asked hopefully,
"Well?"

Henry sighed and shook his head. "Nobody is in the
house now. Come on in and have a look around, and see
if you notice anything missing or disturbed. I'll send
our fingerprint expert over in the morning, so try not to
touch anything." Millie was off in a dash, almost running toward her front door. Henry rolled his eyes and
hurried after her.

"Should we go in too?" Edna asked with a worried
look on her face as she watched Millie and Henry enter
the house.

Joe shook his head. "Let's wait a while."

A few of the neighbors walked up to express their
concern and offer any help before returning to their
homes and locking up tight. One man Trish paid particular attention to as he spoke with Joe was Mr. Greenburg, the neighbor Millie believed moonlighted as a
Peeping Tom. The image of this soft-spoken, thin, gangly old man spying on Millie was just too improbable
to be true. However, as soon as Millie and Henry came
back out of the house, Mr. Greenburg shuffled away in
a hurry. Trish bit her lip to keep from grinning. Millie
wasn't even carrying a rifle!

Millie's eyes narrowed as she walked up to her friends
and glared at Mr. Greenburg's retreating back. "What
did he want?" Trish noticed Millie was wearing her
other slipper now.

"He came by to make sure you were okay," Joe said,
unaware of Millie's past episode with her neighbor.

"I'll just bet!"

"Millie, never mind about that now," Edna gently admonished. "Was anything missing?"

Millie shrugged and shook her head, looking dumbfounded. "Not that I can tell-everything looks fine."

Henry placed his hands on his hips. "It might have
been a kid thinking the house was vacant. School's almost out for the summer, you know, and the teenagers
are staying out later. Maybe someone was just trying to
cause some trouble, or maybe somebody needed money,
got brave, and decided to try their luck in this neighborhood."

"That's a lot of maybes," Trish said doubtfully.

Henry frowned. "I'm just throwing out ideas at this
point. Like I said, we'll take fingerprints tomorrow, but,
I have to be honest with you, unless our culprit is in the
database already, we won't know more than we do now."

"We appreciate all you're doing, Henry," Joe said tactfully. "I must say, I would have expected someone else
on your force to have answered this call so early in
the morning. Are you working twenty-four-hour days
now?"

Henry grinned and shook his head. "Nah, Mac's
mother-in-law is visiting from California, so I gave him
the evening off. He begged me to work, but I figured he
could score some brownie points with his wife if he was
home" Both men chuckled at the lame joke.

Edna looked at Trish and rolled her eyes. "What is it
about mothers-in-law that can make the strongest male
cower?" That shut them up.

"Well, I'm glad you were here to handle this." Joe
reached out to shake Henry's hand.

"No problem. I'll send an officer around in the morning, Millie. In the meantime, I don't think you should
be alone in the house until that glass pane is replaced"

"I completely agree," Trish said firmly. She looked at
Millie and spoke in a tone that brooked no argument.
"You can spend the rest of the night with me"

Millie sighed. "That's probably a good idea. I doubt
anybody would be stupid enough to come back tonight,
though."

"Well, there's still no sense in taking chances. If you
do discover anything is missing after you look around
again, just give me a call. And don't have that pane replaced until after we take the fingerprints, okay?" After
Joe assured Henry that he would take care of that himself, Henry waved good-bye and drove off.

Millie stifled a yawn. "I'm just going to grab a few
things, and then we can go to your house, Trish. I'm
exhausted"

Joe followed Millie into her house while Trish looked
on suspiciously. That twinkle in Millie's eyes belied her
claim of exhaustion. However, the woman was eighty
years old, she chided herself, amazed once again at Millie's stamina. The events of the last few days would have
worn down someone half her age. Then, suddenly feeling bone-weary herself, Trish grinned wryly. She was
over half Millie's age, herself.

Joe and Millie came out of the house, Millie carrying
a small vinyl bag. "Oh-oh," Edna whispered, "I wonder
if Joe still wants to talk."

Trish had forgotten all about the "discussion" Joe
wanted to have. "I hope not," Trish whispered back. "I
don't think my mind is sharp enough right now to explain our actions."

Edna nodded. "We'll end up sounding like old busybodies instead of the experienced professionals we really
are" Trish choked on a laugh as she whipped around to
look at Edna. There was a definite glint in her eyes before she winked and turned to address Joe. "I think we've had enough excitement for one night ... or morning.
You get some rest, Millie, and we'll help you clean up
the mess and look around again later today" Edna leaned
over and gave Millie a hug. "Don't you worry about a
thing. Come on, Joe. We need some sleep, too"

"No buts, dear-everybody is tired." Edna slid her
arm through Joe's and started walking toward their own
house. "Call us when you get up," she said to Millie and
Trish over her shoulder.

"That girl's good," Millie chuckled as they entered
Trish's house.

"You can say that again. Do you want anything before we go to bed?"

"No, I'm fine. I'm not really even that tired. I just
didn't want to talk to Joe tonight. He's an old worrywart"

Trish grinned. "I thought as much. Still, we need to try
and get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day"

"You mean today," Millie said with a yawn, following Trish to the guest bedroom.

Trish woke feeling amazingly refreshed after the earlier sleepless night and then the events of Millie's
break-in. She even tried to exercise some, but she was
afraid the loud clanging of the metal weights would
wake Millie. It was no big deal, anyway. There was always tomorrow. Besides, just thinking about doing it was
an improvement.

Feeling thinner already, Trish sat sipping her coffee
and reading the newspaper when Millie walked in.
"Good morning." She looked up with a smile. "Did you
get any sleep?"

"I tried to," Millie grumbled, making her way to the
coffeepot still in her nightgown and slippers. "That
dang contraption you got there makes so much noise it
would wake the dead"

"That's a lie," Trish said sweetly, refusing to be
drawn into an argument this early. "I only did it once."
The curlers were gone from Millie's hair, and Trish noticed she had applied a light touch of makeup. She
looked relaxed and rested, despite her grumpy attitude.

"Well, you did it once too many," Millie said as she
sat down and took a sip of her coffee. "Actually, I slept
pretty well. I didn't think I was tired, but once my head
hit the pillow I was out"

Suddenly Trish caught a whiff of a strange odor, a
faint chemical smell. "I'm glad you were able to rest"
She looked around the kitchen trying to figure out
where the smell was coming from. "The stress probably wore you out more than you thought. I wonder what
time they'll come take fingerprints," she said, poking
her head under the table and sniffing.

"Oh, it'll be any time now, I imagine." Millie watched
silently as Trish got up and walked to the trash can in the
corner and stuck her nose in it. Sighing deeply, she put
her coffee cup down and crossed her arms over her chest
defensively. "Oh, all right, it's me!" she snapped.

Trish stood up straight and looked at Millie with a
puzzled expression. "What are you talking about?"

Millie's lips drew into a tight line as she glared accusingly at Trish. "Not too many people I know put bug
spray in the bathroom cabinet next to the hair spray!"

Trish cocked her head and frowned. "What do you
mean ... ? Oh, no, Millie, you didn't!" Trish pinched her lips together, desperately trying to keep from laughing out loud. The indignant expression on Millie's face
warned her there would be hell to pay if she did, but, try
as she might, Trish couldn't stop the laughter from erupting. Clutching her stomach, she leaned against the
counter with tears streaming down her face.

Millie sat in stony silence, a sure sign that she didn't
see the humor in the situation. When Trish could finally
breathe normally again, she asked, "Are you all right?
You didn't get it in your eyes, did you?" The concern
was sincere, but the grin plastered across her face
negated some of the sentiment.

"Of course I'm all right! If I wasn't, I could have
died here waiting for you to regain your composure.
Nice to know you care so much"

Trish took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her
face. "This is classic, Millie," she sighed. "I do believe
this is a first, even for you. Didn't you read the labels on
the cans? Raid and AquaNet are hardly the same product."

"I wasn't wearing my glasses," Millie sniffed.

"Well, you'll have to wash it out. I don't recall reading a warning label on the bug spray can about the danger of spraying your hair, but it can't be good for it."
Biting her lip to keep from laughing again, she went to
the bathroom and got the shampoo and conditioner. She
helped Millie get situated at the kitchen sink before she
had to back away. The pungent, sweet chemical smell
from the bug spray was overwhelming. Shoot, she was
laughing again, but she just couldn't help it.

"I really am sorry," she chuckled, watching Millie
dunk her head under the water faucet.

Before Millie could reply, the doorbell rang. Thankful for the interruption, Trish went to answer it. Still
grinning, she opened the door and ushered Edna and
Joe inside. She was about to relate what had happened
to Millie when she noticed their serious expressions.
Immediately, she sensed something was wrong.

"It seems that Millie isn't the only one who has had
an unexpected and unwelcome visitor recently," Joe
said, placing his hands in his pockets.

Trish's hand flew to her heart. "Good heavens, don't
tell me you were broken into also?"

Edna shook her head. "No, not us-it was Sam"

Trish's eyebrows drew together. "Sam had a break-in
again?"

Edna nodded sadly. "I'm afraid so. Unfortunately, I
don't think the police believe him."

Trish took a deep breath and motioned them into
the kitchen. "You better come and sit down and start at
the beginning. To be honest, I'm having trouble believing this!"

"Believing what?" Millie mumbled. She was standing on a step stool with her head buried in a sink full of
lather.

Edna raised her eyebrows. "Don't ask," Trish whispered as she got a clean towel from the laundry room
and placed it close to Millie's elbow. She poured Joe
and Edna coffee as they sat at the table.

Millie soon joined them, the towel wrapped turban
style around her head. "What's going on?"

"We were going to the grocery store this morning,"
Joe began, "when we saw Sam's car in his driveway.
We walked over to say hello, but when he answered the door we could tell he had been crying. We thought it
was the emotion of being in the house again, but someone had broken in to the safe in his spare bedroom,
and it was empty. Everything in that safe has been
stolen"