Death Wore Brown Shorts (Happy Holloway Mystery Book 1) (5 page)

“Make it one, and you’ve got a deal.”

“
Y
ou’re guilty
, and I’m going to prove it.”

“Not if I kill you first!”

Annie frowned at what she typed and sat back in her chair. She didn’t like it. So often, her impulsive nature appeared in her work, and she jumped ahead to reveal the killer too early. Then she had to double back, delete a bunch of brilliant prose—if she said so herself—and go in another direction.

“I need to get it right the first time,” she grumbled.

Her brain remained blank however, and she leaned across the desk to reach for the candy jar. Peanut M&Ms should jog the creative juices. She liked to push the jar farther away to make it harder to eat them one after another, but then the symmetry of her desk top was thrown off.

“Drat it, a handful more won’t hurt.” If she put the candy in the living room, she might not eat it. Making the trip down the hall to get them would break her flow. She munched on a second handful and then checked the time. Crap, it was almost time for Flynn to pick her up, and she hadn’t talked to Evie yet.

Annie dressed in a hurry, throwing on whatever curled into her fingers first. At least she had the peace of mind the items were clean. She had done laundry the day before. Sixties throwback dress encasing her generous figure and flat sandals on her feet, she scuttled out of the house to her car.

When she slammed the door shut and fired up her engine, the thought of shaving her legs popped into her head. She dismissed it. Who would look, and she didn’t care if they did.

The vet clinic where Evie worked was no more than a mile from where they lived. Annie slipped into the last parking slot of three and hopped out of the car. She paused to suck in a steading breath and entered the clinic.

A symphony of barking dogs sounded from the back. Annie approached the counter. “Good afternoon, is Evie in?”

“Just a second.”

The woman behind the counter was new or rather Annie hadn’t seen her before. She visited and spent some time at the clinic not long ago for one of her books. Turned out, she loved animals, but the shedding was a trial to her sanity. Not to mention washing her hands after each stroke of their fur.

“Evelyn, you have a visitor,” the woman called on the intercom. Annie questioned whether the clinic was so big they needed a speaker. She didn’t think so. Then again, maybe the customers considered it rude to just yell to the back. She had an urge to shout just because, but resisted.

Evie stumbled to a halt when she spotted Annie. Not to be put off, Annie hurried over to her. “Evie, are you okay? You look pale. Are you feeling all right? I know Paul’s death was a shock to everyone.”

“Um, yeah, I’m fine. Just a shock,” she mumbled.

Annie jumped straight to the chase. “I heard you stopped by Sam’s and ran off when you saw Flynn. Why would you do that?”

“Flynn? Is that his name?”

“Yes, Paul’s cousin.” Annie winked. “If you get really close, you see the resemblance. He’s a nice man, and I bet you’d like him.”

“I don’t want to like him.”

“Why?”

Evie reddened. She huffed a few times, looked around at the woman behind the counter, and then grabbed Annie’s arm to pull her out of earshot. “Look, Annie, I don’t want to be accused of murder. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Why would you assume you would, sweetie?”

Evie ground her teeth. “Because everyone’s saying… They’re…”

“Those ladies always talk. Sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they’re just making up nonsense to alleviate boredom. You know that.”

Annie studied Evie’s face. She didn’t appear comforted by this prospect. In all honesty, neither would Annie if everyone accused her. She’d felt bad enough when Flynn had the audacity to imply she might be guilty based on a pair of gloves in her purse. Now if it were a belt—wait,
did
she have a belt in there? She’d better check before meeting him.

“I was the last person to receive a package the night before,” Evie admitted. “The police came by to question me. They had Paul’s schedule.”

She swayed, and Annie reached out to steady her.

“Detective Lawson asked about Gary.”

“And what did you tell him?”

Evie clamped her lips together.

“I haven’t spent much time with the ladies lately, but I can guess what kind of rumors are flying around. Were you having an affair with Paul? Is that what you’re afraid will come out?”

“No!”

The vehemence could have been an act, but Annie believed her. She patted Evie’s arm. “Well, then you have nothing to worry about. The police won’t just lay a crime at your feet just because they don’t have anyone else to blame. Detective Lawson will do his job. He seems…capable. Besides, Flynn and I both are looking into it.”

Evie squeaked. “You are?”

Annie wondered if she should have kept her mouth shut about that part. Evie’s initial fear came from thinking Flynn suspected her, as if he had some kind of power. Her fears were irrational. Yet, Annie didn’t doubt Jason or even Marianne had happily shared with the police how Evie and her husband had a big fight just before he left. The fight didn’t prove anything, but suspicion would arise nevertheless.

Something brushed Annie’s leg, and she let out a little yelp. When she glanced down, her gaze settled on the reflective eyes of the meanest dog she had ever seen. Her breath caught in her throat, and instinct told her to double time it out of there. Unfortunately, the owner blocked the escape route and was busy untangling herself from a long leash.

Perhaps sensing Annie’s terror, the dog growled, and huge front paws landed on her thigh. All she saw were the sharp teeth ripping into her meat and leaving her scarred for life.

“Killer,” Evie snapped, her tone of voice firm and serious. “Heel, right here. Now.”

Killer. Seriously?

To Annie’s surprise, the dog turned meek. He jumped down from Annie’s leg and moved to Evie’s side. When the animal turned hopeful eyes toward Evie, begging for approval, Annie shook her head.

“Unbelievable. That was amazing, Evie. You’re good with him.”

“I have a small dog training business on the side,” Evie explained. “If you don’t teach them, they will rule you. Killer tries to get attention way too often, and despite my training his owner spoils him.”

“I heard that, Evie.” Killer’s owner chuckled. “I’ll try harder. I promise, and I’m sorry, young lady. Killer just likes to make friends.”

Friends, she says. More like he wanted a chew toy.

“Evie, I have to go,” Annie said. “And don’t worry. I’m sure everything will work out fine.”

Evie spun away from her without saying good-bye. She made a hand gesture at her side, and the dog followed. His owner dropped the leash and let her dog abandon her for Evie. Annie left the clinic soon after to hurry home and wait for Flynn to arrive. Before he pulled into her driveway, she scoured her handbag. The gloves stayed inside, but she was happy not to find a belt among the assortment of other items.

A
nnie climbed
out of the car and looked up at the apartment building. Someone lived on the first floor judging by the flowery curtains. Flynn told her his cousin lived alone, and she didn’t think he would choose those.

“I forgot he said he has a girlfriend. Did you talk to her?”

“No girlfriend that I know of. Paul used that excuse to keep the women he didn’t want to encourage at a distance.”

“He was okay looking. It’s possible.”

“Maybe. I’ll check it out, but he bragged to me about his conquests. I doubt he left out the girlfriend part.”

“Because you never judged him?”

Flynn smiled. “Are you asking if I have a girlfriend or if I have lovers?”

“Neither. How are we getting in?” Annie felt his eyes on her as she climbed the stairs to the side-by-side front doors. She assumed one led to more stairs on the inside up to Paul’s apartment.

“I was thinking of convincing the landlord to let us in. He lives a couple doors down. If that doesn’t work, there are other means.”

She widened her eyes. “You don’t mean breaking and entering, do you?”

“I’m next of kin. Technically, everything inside belongs to me.”

“Yes, but I don’t want to land in jail, because technicalities don’t keep you free.”

“Are you scared, Annie?”

He leaned an elbow on the banister from the base of the steps, the very picture of tranquility. She considered her options. Nothing ever stopped her from getting the information she wanted, but up until now she remained within the bounds of the law. For some reason, Flynn seemed to think he knew about her stubborn streak.

“I’ve read about how to pick locks,” she said. “Not every kind.”

He smirked and held up a ring of keys. “I was only teasing. I already spoke to the owner, and he dropped the keys with me yesterday.”

“That wasn’t funny.”

He moved past her and stuck the key into the lock. “It so was, Annie. You’re an interesting woman. It’s good to know the lengths you’ll go to.”

“Is that two strikes against me?”

“I’m joking.”

“Somehow I don’t believe you.”

He laughed and led the way into the apartment. After puffing up the stairs to the second floor, Annie paused to take a look around. She ran fingers under her chin to wipe away some of the moisture. The apartment was sweltering. Paul either didn’t like A/C, or he turned it off when he left each day.

The studio apartment contained a sleeping area, an office area, which might originally have been intended to be a dining and living room, and a tiny kitchen nook. Off the kitchen lay another door Annie figured was the bathroom. One could stand in the middle of the floor and reach everything. Okay, that might be an exaggeration.

A load of what looked like dirty laundry lay piled on an unmade bed. At the foot of the bed stood a wardrobe with the door cracked open a couple inches. A previous tenant, or maybe Paul, must have owned a pet, because the corner at the wardrobe’s bottom had been chewed.

Annie scratched her arm and continued to take in the surroundings. Piles of small boxes next to the computer stirred her curiosity. Did Paul have a small side business? The boxes were unmarked and the lids closed. She hesitated to go digging through them, but the same conviction didn’t stop Flynn from heading that way. She left him to it.

Paul had hung a whiteboard over his computer table. Tilting her head and squinting, Annie tried to make heads or tails of what the scribbling meant. “Two dash Overton? Huh?”

Flynn followed her line of sight. “Code? Maybe he was a bookie and took bets to make extra cash.”

“You’re pretty imaginative. Maybe I should call you the next time I have plotting trouble.”

He winked.

Annie spun away and dared to look through the clutter on the kitchen counter. Paul used it as a dresser going by the lotion, the shaving kit, a roll of socks, and the box of spaghetti among other items.

She picked up a stack of papers more to fan herself than to take a closer look. As she waved the papers before her face, she gazed around the room searching for the thermostat. A little A/C couldn’t hurt. She spotted the window beside the wardrobe first. If she didn’t get a breath of fresh air now, she would pass out.

Annie wrestled the window open an inch. She frowned and tried again. “Come on, you stubborn thing.”

“Need a little help?” Flynn called. He stood before the computer booting it up.

“I’ve got it. I think.”

Something thumped behind the wardrobe wall. She froze.

“Annie?”

“Flynn, did you hear something?”

“Like what?”

Her throat dried. She swallowed. Must have been her imagination. The apartment was too small for anyone other than them to be there without them knowing it. In her enthusiasm to get the window open, she must have bumped the wardrobe.

Annie managed to get a bit more height on the window and clutched the papers in her hand as she leaned on the sill. “Better,” she moaned.

A creak preceded the wardrobe door opening in degrees. When fingers curled around the edge, Annie screamed. Her hand spasmed in her fear, and she threw the sheaf of papers out the window.

Flynn spun around just as the person inside the closet made a beeline for the door. Rather than the masked murderer Annie expected, a young boy popped into view.

“Oh no you don’t,” Flynn shouted and pursued. The two disappeared down the steps to the street.

Annie leaned over the windowsill and looked down. The window overlooked an alley and a cemented square of yard space. She frowned at the papers scattered every which way.

“I guess I better go get them.”

For a moment, she paused to see if there were any other hidden spots someone might jump out at her. The bathroom maybe, but from her vantage point, no one occupied it, and there was no shower curtain to hide behind.

Annie descended to the street and headed around to the back of the property. She gathered the pages and examined the one on top. “Overton, forty-five millimeter. A camera maybe? If this is code, surely the pages wouldn’t be lying around.”

Annie started to turn back the way she came when she noticed another sheet caught in the narrow space between Paul’s apartment building and the next. She judged the width and wondered.

“One way to find out.”

She sucked in a breath and squished her boobs as much as possible. The side movement was slow going.

“I’m not claustrophobic. I’m not claustrophobic,” she chanted.

Paper rustled under her foot. Dang it. She had stepped on it, and how in the world would she bend to grab the page?

“What are you doing?”

Annie stilled. Flynn stood in the opening of the passage with a firm hand around the boy’s nape. Both of them looked at Annie as if she’d lost her mind. Her face flamed. “Oh, catching a little sun.”

Flynn glanced over his shoulder. The sunlight started several feet away from the building.

“Shade,” she corrected.

“Come on. We’re going to see what this one has been up to.”

Annie shuffled out of the passage and straightened her dress. She left the single page behind and followed Flynn and the boy back up to Paul’s apartment. This time rather than fiddle with the window, she located the thermostat and turned it down. Cool air blew from the vents, and she found a chair to flop down in.

After Flynn had shut and locked the door then leaned on it with his bulky figure, he released the boy. Annie eyed the window and hoped the trembling fellow didn’t get any bright ideas in that direction.

“Who are you?” Flynn demanded.

Annie came to his defense. “Don’t sound so angry, Flynn. You can see he’s scared. I’m Annie, sweetheart. What’s your name?”

The boy didn’t look away from Flynn. “Coty.”

“So before I call the police—”

“Flynn!”

“I didn’t take anything,” Coty shouted, defiant, angry. His trembling hadn’t stopped in the face of Flynn’s attitude, but he had backbone. “Paul gave me—”

Flynn narrowed his eyes. “What did he give you?”

“Stuff…sometimes.”

“Stuff,” Flynn repeated. “So now that he’s gone you figured you would break in here and steal some more ‘stuff’?”

“No. He said he would get me a digital camera, so I was hoping he got it and didn’t have a chance to give it to me yet.”

“My cousin didn’t make that much that he could just give every kid in the neighborhood a digital camera.”

“How do you know?”

Annie suppressed a chuckle.

“I know. So tell me the truth.”

“He did!” Coty was a small boy. Annie put him at ten or eleven at the most, but he had an air of innocence about him, too. Tears filled his eyes. “Paul was my friend. I used to come over, and we hung out when he didn’t have to work and played video games. I said I wanted a digital camera, and he said he could get me one easy.”

Suspicion entered Flynn’s expression. “Where?”

“I don’t know, but he sold some stuff on eBay.”

“What’s his handle?”

Coty rolled his eyes. “Why would I know that?”

Flynn stepped aside. “Okay, scoot. Don’t let me catch you in here ever again, or I’m having you arrested.”

Coty fled, the fear of the law clearly in the speed of his movements. Annie put her hands on her hips. “Was it necessary to terrify the child?”

“To scare him straight? Yes. Now he won’t think of breaking in anywhere ever again.”

“How did he get in?”

“Paul might have hidden a key somewhere, and Coty found out about it. I don’t know. The lock doesn’t look tampered with. I’ll have the landlord change it just in case. What’s on those papers you performed your contortionist act for?”

Annie colored. Why did he have to remind her? “Just more of the code on the whiteboard. I don’t understand it.”

“Well, I’ll take a look at the computer. You check these boxes.”

“I don’t feel right about going through his things.”

“They’re mine now. I give you permission.”

Annie accepted that and started for the first box. The tape clung as if it was a matter of life or death, and she searched for and found a box cutter. While she worked, Flynn typed away at the computer keys.

Neatly packaged inside the box was what Coty hoped for—a digital camera. Annie pulled it free from the bubble wrap and held it up so Flynn could see. “Maybe he was a bookie. This looks expensive.”

Flynn held his hand out, and Annie handed the camera over. “Not new though. See that scratch? He might have gotten it for a deal. Coty said Paul sold on eBay. He might also have bought a few used items there. I’ll check the history.”

“You know your way around a computer.”

He shrugged. “Bachelor life.”

“You mean your lovers don’t keep you busy enough?”

He smirked.

Annie checked the next box. More electronics. This time it was an old cell phone, several models back from the one she owned now. She checked inside the box twice and found no packing label. The box itself was also unmarked.

“Buy low and sell high,” Annie speculated. “The entrepreneurial spirit is strong in this country.

“Except someone murdered him.”

“Might not be related.”

“Or it might,” he countered.

Annie was smart enough not to rule out Paul’s business getting him killed. She just liked to debate points with Flynn. He had a good head on his shoulders from what she had seen so far.

“Here we are.”

Annie set down the third unopened box and moved up behind him. She rested a hand on the chair back and leaned closer, her face near his. He smelled of soap and natural maleness, which teased her nostrils, but she focused on learning Paul’s online activities.

“LadiesMan200901?” Annie read. “Really?”

“I did say, he liked to string them along.”

“I can’t reconcile it. Maybe I’m a poorer judge of character than I thought.” She considered everyone she knew and remade them in her mind into the opposite of what she knew their personalities to be—worse, into killers. Her head and her heart shrank away from the notion.

“In my line of work and some of what I did in the past, I have seen the darker side to people. I’m cynical. You’d be surprised how many regular looking folks are criminally inclined.”

Annie thought about her dad. In his case, he looked the part. She recalled those eyes and sometimes had nightmares about them. When she was small, people used to say she looked just like her dad, especially the eyes.

To distract herself from the past, Annie scanned Paul’s eBay account. “He hasn’t bought anything except an old video game three years ago.”

Annie straightened and scanned the room. Nothing stood out among the sparse décor and knickknacks. She rifled through the pages, trying to make heads or tails of the codes. Words and numbers in disjointed order, other notes that were so weird like “fichus” and “raven.” What in the world did it all mean?

They both turned to the boxes at the side of the desk. Flynn grabbed the third box while Annie claimed a forth. Ripping into them revealed more used electronics.

“Check to see if he has links to wholesale sites,” Annie suggested.

“None.” Flynn scanned files on the computer. From what Annie could glimpse, they were mostly JPGs and MPEGs. The names told her they were nothing she wished to see. Flynn moved on to scrounging around inside the desk drawer. He removed a checkbook from the interior.

Annie’s cell phone rang. She checked the ID to see Jane was calling and answered. “Hi, sis.”

“Annie!” Agitation made Jane’s voice sharp.

“Is there anything wrong?”

Her sister hesitated. “I need you to come to my house and sit with Ben.”

Annie tensed. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing serious. Quinn isn’t feeling well. I can’t leave Ben in the house alone.”

“Of course, I’ll watch him. Do you need me to go to the doctor with you?”

“No!” Jane sighed. “Just please, come home now. You can watch him at your house or mine.”

“Sure. I’ll be right there.” Annie disconnected the call. “Unfortunately, I’m going to have to cut short my part of the investigation, Flynn. Aunt duties call. I’m almost never requested to help since Jane is the epitome of motherhood. Now’s my chance.”