Let Loose (25 page)

Uh huh.

Milly, apparently tiring from all the
screaming, lowered her hands. Seeing the full room, her eyes
rounded.

Susan grabbed her by the hand and pulled her
off the bed. “Look at him. It’s a dog.” She rolled her eyes and
muttered something about Milly growing a pair.

Milly straightened and waved a finger in
Susan’s face. “I never wanted to come along anyway. If you hadn’t
trusted Craig—”

Carol waved the notebook at both of them.
“That’s enough. Everything’s fine.”

Susan and Milly both paused and both stared
at the notebook.

Carol smiled. “It’s here. Just like he
said.”

Susan snorted. “He said—”

“Doesn’t matter. We need—”

Taking advantage of their argument, I dove
forward and grabbed the notebook. Carol, feisty for a woman of her
years, held tight. Then she did a move I’d seen Zef and Cash
practice more than once in my living room. She jerked the notebook
side to side while snarling.

Her tactic worked. I let loose.

She held the notebook up over her head and
let out a victory hoot.

Disappointed in my performance, I lowered my
brows, eyed the prize, and took a step back in preparation for a
notebook-stealing leap.

Doors, front and back, slammed open. “Police!
On the floor.”

I jerked my gaze to Rhonda, who was the only
one of us standing in the hall. Her mouth dropped and she fell to
her knees, hands held over her head.

“What—” I was confused, but Carol wasn’t. She
clawed open the notebook, ripped out the first two pages and began
tearing them into bits.

I watched, shocked by her gall as the little
pieces of white paper drifted from her finger and onto the
floor.

Kiska watched too. Then, without warning, he
lunged and began sucking them up like a Hoover on steroids,
practicing the malamute credo:
When in doubt, assume anything
and everything is food.

I threw myself on him, grabbing his collar
and trying to wrestle him away from whatever Carol had been so
determined to destroy. He, of course, took this as reason to suck
the pieces in faster.

My buddy, Chuck, stepped around Rhonda, gun
drawn and brows lowered. Kiska sucked in another pile and looked
up, the last piece of paper stuck to his nose.

I fell down beside him, stared at the ceiling
and tried to think of a way, any way, to explain this to Peter.

Peter released a sigh. “So, Craig isn’t
pressing charges.”

I looked up from my seat of shame, right in
between my dog of destruction and my best friend of no use in a
crisis.

“That’s good.” I gave Rhonda a sideways look
to see if she thought my response was appropriate. In situations
like this, it was so hard to know exactly what was expected of
me.

“But I still need to know what you were doing
there.”

Did he? I mean really? “If Craig isn’t
pressing charges...”

Peter growled.

This is what happened when you dated a police
officer. Expectations of complete honesty even when others would
have been let go, lies buzzing around them like angry bees.

Rhonda, do gooder that she was, answered for
me. “Lucy thought Ethel might be there.”

Peter’s eyes widened. Well, widened was a
strong phrase, but there was a shift at the corners. I was pretty
sure that meant he was surprised. Seeing an opening, I leaned
forward. “She’s missing.”

His usual stone face fell back into place.
“Why do you think that?”

“Carol told me.” Kind of.

“And exactly how long has she been
missing?”

His momentary lapse was long past. He was
back in police detective face full force, but something about how
he said missing...

“Does it matter?”

He paused. Which answered my question. It did
matter and not just in the “has to be missing 24 hours” way that
you hear about.

“Carol didn’t mention it to you?” I
added.

He tapped the end of his pencil on his
desktop. “Not to me.”

I put my hands under my butt and tried to
keep my face as emotion-free as his was.

Not to him. Not to anybody here, was my
guess. Which meant Carol didn’t want the police to know that Ethel
was missing. Which meant Ethel might be doing something that would
get her and/or Carol and company in more trouble.

Why couldn’t people just be upfront with me?
Why couldn’t they just trust me?

I met Peter’s gaze. “Oh, well, I don’t think
it was a big deal. Carol just hadn’t seen Ethel in a bit, and
Rhonda and I thought maybe she had stopped by to see Craig. And
since we knew that Craig had been brought in here, we just thought
we’d stop by and see if she was there waiting or something.”

“You knew Craig had been brought in?”

Oh, yeah... how had I known that again?
“Uh... I’d heard a rumor.”

His eyes flickered, but he let it pass.

“So you broke into Craig’s? Even though you
knew he was here?”

I objected. “We didn’t break anything.”

“Was the door open?”

My annoyed stared gave him the answer.

“Then you broke in. Though it’s good to know
you aren’t guilty of vandalism too.

“Back to Ethel. Why did you ‘go’ into Craig’s
house looking for her? I’m sure you knocked.” His expression said
he was actually sure of the opposite. “So when she didn’t answer,
why didn’t you just leave?”

Rhonda piped up, saving me, at least for the
moment. “We wanted to be thorough. So many people aren’t these
days. Everyone is in such a rush, rush, rush. Anything worth doing
is worth doing well, don’t you think?” She gave him a wide-eyed
stare that would have worked on any other male over the age of
twelve.

Peter just stared back at her for a moment
and then glanced down at his desk. “It says here Kiska was eating
something when Chuck arrived. Maybe part of this?” He held out the
one remaining scrap of paper my dog had left undigested. “From
this?” He held up the notebook.

I twisted in my seat, trying to get a better
view of the scrap. Chuck had been fast, pulling it off of Kiska’s
nose before I had a chance to check it.

My loving boyfriend pulled the paper back and
dropped it and the notebook onto his desk. “It looks like part of
an address. Any idea for what?”

I had ideas. I always had ideas, but
unfortunately not many of them were backed up with fact. Plus,
after the run-in at Craig’s, all of my suspicions were back on
Ethel and company as being up to no good. But I wasn’t ready to rat
them out, not without talking to them at least once more.

Not that I had much to rat them out for.
Peter already knew they’d been at Craig’s too. The only thing none
of us had told him was that Carol had been responsible for tearing
up Kiska’s latest snack or that she and I had been fighting over it
just minutes before Chuck showed on the scene.

“An auction, maybe?” I asked. “Craig does
like to go to auctions. If you show it to me, I might be able to
tell you.” I held out my hand. Confidence is important when
bluffing your mark.

This mark, however, was bluff proof. He kept
his hands folded on his desk.

After a minute, I placed mine back on my lap.
“So, we can go then? I need to get home. Kiska’s had a big day.”
Eating evidence and all that. “And Red’s dogs need to be let out.”
Using my confidence move again, I stood up.

This time, it worked. Peter stood too and
walked to his door.

He waited for me to gather Kiska’s lead and
walk forward. Rhonda, pretending interest in the tie on her coat,
hung back.

He leaned down and murmured in my ear, “If
you see Ethel, have her stop by. I might have a question or two for
her too.”

Afraid to meet his gaze, I gave a quick nod,
tugged on Kiska’s lead, and strode as quickly out the door as my
lagging malamute would let me.

o0o

Rhonda and I walked to her shop where we
picked up her Trooper and headed back to the logging road where my
Jeep was still parked. She had work to do back at her shop, or so
she said. Kiska and I were left alone to go back home as I’d told
Peter I intended... or not.

However, Carol, in my opinion, had some
explaining to do. So Kiska and I made our way back to town too.
This time to Carol’s.

I left him in the Jeep to catch up on his
sleep and went to the front door.

Two knocks and it swung open. Carol stood
just inside, a phone in her hand. “Oh, it’s you.”

Not the friendliest of greetings. Especially
considering I’d come close to perjuring myself for her with my
boyfriend.

She stepped back and waved me in. I followed,
checking as I did for any signs of the rest of her gang. My trust
level for all of them had plummeted in the past three hours.

“We’re alone,” she said, falling back on a
worn couch.

I perched on the edge of a wooden chair that
was positioned close to the door.

She brushed a bunch of orange hair from her
eyes and stared at me. “I guess you didn’t tell your boyfriend what
happened.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant, but
since I hadn’t told Peter anything much at all, I felt it was safe
to agree.

She sighed. “I appreciate that, and I know
Ethel will too.” Her mouth turned down and she looked at the
phone.

“Have you heard from her?”

For a minute I didn’t think Carol was going
to respond. Finally she sighed. “No, but I’m sure she’s fine. Ethel
knows what she’s doing.” She brushed something off of her lavender
pants. “Craig is a good man. Ethel saw that from the beginning.
It’s what she does best, seeing the good in people and bringing it
out in them.”

Ethel’s friend eyed me in a way that made me
wonder if she was thinking I was the exception that proved the rule
of Ethel’s bringing-out-the-good-in-people talent.

“She was so worried all of this was going to
get Craig in trouble, and now it has. You wouldn’t guess it from
looking at him, but Craig is a complete softie, and we took
advantage of that.” She picked at a spot on her thigh.

I wanted to know how the group had taken
advantage of my neighbor, but I also wanted to be able to plead
ignorance if needed. So I licked my lips and switched to what I saw
as the most urgent topic.

“Did you tell the police?”

Carol looked shocked. “What? You mean about
Craig? Why would I do that?”

“No. That you haven’t heard from Ethel.”

“I told you, she’s fine. The last thing she
needs is the Helena Police—” Her eyes narrowed. “You didn’t tell
them, did you?”

I made a face. “Not exactly.” Before she
could yell again, I explained what I’d told Peter about going to
Craig’s to look for her.

My answer seemed to settle Carol some. “It
hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet. You know they won’t look for her
before that anyway.”

I nodded. It was good to talk to someone who
was as up on their TV police work as I was.

“If she isn’t back by dinner, I’ll call them.
Ethel isn’t one to miss a meal.”

I relaxed some. That was reasonable.

“So where could she be?”

Carol lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know.
She’s always meeting new people and getting them to help her so she
can help someone else. Helping people is her thing.”

Ethel and I were like twins
.

“Actually, guilty as she’s going to feel
about Craig being arrested, she was helping him too. I don’t know
how well you know him, but since his wife died five years ago, he’s
been lost. He needed a purpose besides buying junk and doing
needlework.”

I hadn’t known Craig had been married, or
that his auction going was an attempt to fill some kind of a void,
but I nodded in a sympathetic way that kept Carol going. She listed
off half a dozen other lost souls that Ethel had helped in one way
or another.

“You saw a lot of them that day at the police
station.”

I had, and I remembered now why I had put so
much trust in Ethel’s innocence. She was good people. Much better
people than I could ever hope to be.

I left with a real mix of emotions. I was
sure whatever Ethel had done, she’d done it with good intentions,
but then, as I’d witnessed more than once, most people who do bad
convince themselves that whatever bad deed they were doing was
actually for a greater good.

I opened my Jeep’s door and shoved Kiska into
the back. “Good intentions don’t always equal a good outcome,” I
told him.

And no good deed goes unpunished.

Any cliché you picked, things didn’t usually
end well for the do-gooder. I just hoped this wasn’t going to prove
true for Ethel.

o0o

Not knowing where Ethel was nagged at me too
much to go home. It nagged at me enough I knew the only true relief
could come from starch and fat. Preferably packaged together in one
neat little crunchy bundle.

Fries.

I got a large at the closest drive thru and
pulled into a spot facing Euclid where I could watch cars go by and
wait for the grease to do its magic.

Kiska shoved his head forward and sniffed at
my snack.

I dropped three fries on the seat divider and
picked up my phone to see what cat picture was making the rounds on
social media today.

The tiny image of a tape flashed at me from
the screen. I had a message. Probably delivered while I was out of
range retrieving my Jeep.

The voice on the other end of the line was
Ethel’s. She sounded chipper. She had just said she would call back
when the phone rang. I punched accept and shoved the phone to my
ear.

“Lucy, can you do me a favor?”

“A favor?” I’d been worried she’d been
chopped into pieces and stored in a steamer trunk and here she was,
sounding as happy as a mouse at a cheese tasting, calling me for a
favor.

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of Craig Ryan,
but he isn’t answering his phone. I’m wondering if you could stop
by his place and give him a message.”