Ninja Soccer Moms (8 page)

I got to my knees. Ugh, the bottom of the pond was slimy. “Don't you dare . . .” I trailed off when I saw Gabe grab the top of the six foot fence, pull himself up, and leap over. Gone, just like that.

He'd left me to escape or get caught by Vance.

This was war.

G
abe Pulizzi was going to pay.

Somehow, I pulled myself out of the pond, snatched up my purse off the ground, and got over that fence before Vance and the locksmith got into the house.

Sheer anger drove me.

Landing in a backyard, I glanced at the one-story house with blinds tightly closed and guessed the owners were gone. No sign of Gabe, either.

Making my way through the backyard to the street I was parked on, I didn't worry. Thanks to Angel's nifty state-of-the-art tracking device, I'd find Gabe. He might be from the dangerous streets of Los Angeles, an ex-cop and a hot-shot PI, but I was a pissed-off woman.

He was going down. Preferably in a dirty fishpond with one or two hungry piranhas swimming around.

Angel sat on the hood of my white 'bird watching me. With every swing of her leg, the slit in her long jean skirt parted right up to the top of her thigh. How the hell had she gotten over the fence in that skirt?

“I didn't know we were stopping for a swim.”

“Shut up, Angel.” I wrenched open the door and got in the car. Blaine was going to have a double heart attack, first from the mud at the nursery and now fishpond water all over the car.

Angel slid in beside me. “Why did Gabe stalk off like that? Did he push you in the pool?”

It took me a good three breaths to get the words out. “I fell in the fish pond and Gabe abandoned me. He's going to pay.”

Angel whistled between her teeth. “This is getting fun.”

I rolled my eyes, started the car, and headed for home. I loved Angel, but even I couldn't deny that her idea of fun was twisted.

“What do you think your mom was doing there?”

My shrug turned into a shudder when cold, brackish water slid down my back and into the seat of my jeans. “Could be she really was checking out Chad's place. I'll track her down and ask her.” I frowned, thinking about that. My mom had left a message with Blaine this morning, then stopped tracking me down.

Whenever my mom got a new plan to change my career, she never stopped trying to contact me and convince me. Ever. Could it be my mom was distracted?

By Chad's murder? How?

It took only about five minutes to shoot up Lincoln, turn left on Grand, and get to our house. After I parked the car, Angel followed me onto the porch. I sat in a chair and yanked off my boots, then pulled off my wet socks. I looked like the Bride of Frankenstein and smelled like day-old tuna.

Shower first.

Revenge second.

Fury and frustration snarled together inside my head. Getting up, I said, “I'm going to take a shower. Then I'll run you back to your car at your mom's shop.” We both went into the house.

Grandpa looked up from where he sat at his computer. “Hey, Sam, hi, Angel. Exterminator is gone. Blaine said Ali was acting weird, but she's been fine with me.”

Ali got up from her blanket by the sliding glass door. She padded over to me and started sniffing. I'm sure the fishpond water gave her lots of scents.

I stopped by the hallway to quickly pet my dog. Grandpa was right. She seemed perfectly normal now. “Ali took it into her head to dump over a trash can at Duncan's Nursery. We had to pull her off. I'm going to take a shower.” I left Angel to explain things to Grandpa and hurried down to my bedroom.

After my hot shower, I pulled on a short black skirt and a cream-colored V-necked sweater. Gabe's laughing at my seduction-for-information attempt stung, so I dressed to feel better. I stepped into some black heels, did some makeup magic, and went back out to the kitchen.

Grandpa and Angel were fixing sandwiches. I went up to Grandpa and kissed his weathered cheek.

He grinned. “You're looking better. Angel told me about your investigating. Gabe really doesn't know you have that tracking device on his truck?”

“Nope.” I got a couple Diet Cokes and a bottle of iced tea out of the refrigerator and took them to the table. “We discovered that someone has already been in Chad's house and wiped his computer clean there. And more people showed up while we were there—Rick Mesa and Mom.” I'd thought about this in the shower. “I think they are looking for something.”

Grandpa brought a plate of egg salad sandwiches and set them down in the middle of the table. “Like the missing sixteen thousand dollars of soccer money?”

“Maybe. But I don't think Gabe would look for stolen soccer money for Dara. He was a cop.” Though he did have a code all his own. I went to the pantry to get paper plates and napkins.

“Unless Dara hired him to find it and put it back so that she doesn't get into trouble,” Angel said, as she set out a bowl of canned peaches.

I turned from the pantry and saw the blinking light of the answering machine. “We have a message.” Holding plates and napkins in one hand, I hit the play button and went to set the stuff down on the table.

A muffled voice said, “Stay out of Chad Tuggle's murder. He got what was coming to him. So will you if you get too nosy.” Click.

I straightened and whirled around to stare at the answering machine. Adrenaline poured into my bloodstream, and I broke out in a sweat.

Angel stood with one hand on the back of a chair. “Play it again.”

I walked a step to the phone and hit
play.

“Stay out of Chad Tuggle's murder. He got what was coming to him. So will you if you get too nosy.” Click.

“Did I just get a death threat?” I mean, jeez, most people get stupid sales calls. Me? I get death threats. This day was just unbelievable.

Grandpa had stopped right beside me with a box of frozen brownies in his hand. “Some kind of warning, maybe?”

“It was a man's voice. Lowered and disguised, but a man.”

Angel said, “What about Rick Mesa? He seemed awfully eager to get you to stay out of Chad's murder. He was at the house looking for something. Maybe he knew Chad was stealing the soccer money and they had a falling out or something.”

Gentle Rick a killer? Well, strange things were happening. And who else could it be? Not Gabe, I knew that. It wasn't his style. Besides, Gabe knew that warning me off would have the opposite effect.

Grandpa looked over at Angel, then back at me. “What other men have you talked to about this, Sam?”

I went back over my day. “Detective Vance, obviously. Then I saw Duncan at the nursery, but that had to do with Roxy, not Chad's murder, and hmm . . .” I trailed off, thinking about getting Angel's phone call, then going to the beauty shop. “Oh wait. Don't forget Lionel Davis. He tried to attack Gabe.” Lionel had a screw loose somewhere, but how could he be connected to Chad? Although he did show up at Heart Mates on the day I found out about Chad's murder.

Grandpa met my gaze. “Looks like you stirred something up today.”

“Guess so.” I took the box of brownies from his hand and went to the microwave. I fished out three frozen squares of chocolate, arranged them on paper towel, and set them in the microwave. I set the timer for a couple of minutes at half power. Then I went to the table and sat down. Grandpa sat on my right, Angel was across from me, and Ali kept watch from her blanket by the sliding glass door. During a long minute of silence, we arranged plates and food.

Angel took a bite of her sandwich and asked, “What are you going to do, Sam?”

I looked up at Angel. “I'm going to track down Gabe Pulizzi and make him tell me what the hell is going on.” I took a bite of my sandwich, barely tasting it. He knew this case had turned dangerous. He'd told me it was dangerous in Chad's house. But he wouldn't tell me why.

That might have been okay.

If I hadn't just gotten a death threat and had two sons and the most loved Grandpa on earth who could get hurt. That was unacceptable.

 

 

After a bit of discussion with Grandpa and Angel, we decided that I'd have better luck sneaking up on Gabe under the cover of darkness.

I dropped Angel off at her car, then went to Heart Mates and tried to find Gabe the conventional way. I called his house, cell phone, and pager, and left messages on his voice mail.

Nothing.

I killed the next couple of hours by trying to track down Roxy and my mom. No luck there, either. Then I worked on a new computer profile for Roxy. Once I found her, I'd get her to approve it and we'd run new matches. I wanted to find the right kind of man for Roxy. The new profile would match her with more mature and stable men—or so I hoped.

Done with that, Blaine and I closed up Heart Mates and I headed to Stater Bros. to pick up the essentials for Angel's lingerie party tomorrow night. I stocked up on margarita mix, munchies, and a few other things we needed at the house, then headed for home.

I parked my car in front of our little house and got out, carrying a bag of groceries. Joel was sprawled on the floor playing a video game, while TJ did homework at the coffee table. “Hi, boys. Go get the rest of the groceries from the car, please.”

“Hi, Mom. Did you get ice cream?” Joel turned off the video game.

“Ice cream sandwiches.” I kicked off my black pumps and headed to the kitchen, with Ali running circles around me trying to sniff what was in the bag.

TJ strolled past me. “Got an A on my science report.”

I stopped and managed to grab the back of his T-shirt. “TJ! That's great.” Shifting the bag of groceries in my arm, I hugged my son. “I'm so proud of you. You worked on that report a long time.”

His blue eyes lit up, and then he raced out to help Joel bring in the groceries.

Grandpa came in the kitchen from the hallway. “Hey, Sam, TJ tell you about his report?”

I smiled. “Yes, he did. All real casual-like, of course.” Joel came in with more groceries. “Mom, what's for dinner?”

“Spaghetti. How did you do on your book report?”

“Got a B.” He fished out the ice cream sandwiches and put them away.

“Good, Joel.” I nodded and got a pan out to start the water boiling for spaghetti.

TJ came in with the last bag. “The news about Coach Chad is all over school.”

Dropping ground meat in another pan for sauce, I grabbed a paper towel to wipe my hands and looked at TJ. Chad had coached one of TJ's teams and I'd been the team mom. “About Chad's death?”

“Yeah.” He started folding the plastic grocery bags. “Are you investigating his murder, mom?”

I walked across the kitchen to him. “I'm looking into it for Janie, yes. TJ, are you all right?”

He looked up at me. “Mom, I haven't even seen Coach Chad in a couple of years. It's just that rumors have been going around about Coach for a long time. You know, how he left Janie for Josh's mom.”

“Dara? You know her son?”

TJ smoothed the bags. “Yes. He's at school. He's quiet. I'd heard that Coach Chad got friendly with Josh and that's how he met his mom. But, Mom, Josh is like—”

He looked up at me and I watched my smart, too-old-for-his-fourteen-years son struggle to put his feelings into words. I made myself stand still and give him time.

“Josh is sad, Mom. He doesn't say much. I don't think Chad was really being a friend to him. Not like Coach Rick would have been. I think Chad just used Josh to get to his mom or whatever.”

I got it. Maybe Josh had even said something to TJ about it. Being used to get into your mom's bed was sick. I knew it 'cause a few men had done that with me. Be nice to the kid and Mom thinks the man is a knight in shining armor. “TJ, do you know Josh well?”

He shook his head. “Talked to him a few times at school. He doesn't have many friends, Mom.”

I reached out and hugged TJ. “Thanks for telling me. Go ahead and finish your homework and I'll have dinner ready soon.”

When the boys left, I went back to making the sauce, while Grandpa got two cups down and filled them with coffee. My thoughts centered on what TJ had said. I'd always thought that Dara set her sights on Chad. But what if it had been the other way around, and Chad persuaded her? What did that mean?

What did I even know about Dara Reed? She'd moved to Lake Elsinore a while back with her one son.

“Grandpa, do you think you could look around on the Internet, you know, with your connections, and see what you can find on Dara Reed?”

He handed me a hot cup of coffee. “Sure, Sam. I'll get started right now. Maybe by the time you get home from looking for Gabe tonight, I'll have some information.”

Gabe. He still hadn't called me back. But Angel had shown me how to use her receiver to the tracking device she put on his truck. As soon as I got dinner done and the boys settled, Ali and I were going to find out just what Gabe was doing that was so important he couldn't return my calls.

 

 

My plan was to find Gabe and surprise him, then demand answers. I counted on him being so impressed with my ability to find him, since he didn't know about the tracking device, combined with my short skirt and deep V-neckline, to compel him to talk to me.

Okay, maybe the short skirt and plunging neckline were about my miffed pride over Gabe laughing at me.

Ali and I went by Gabe's house first, just to make sure he wasn't there. Ali recognized where we were and whined low in her throat, hoping we could stop and visit Gabe. “His truck is not in the driveway, Ali. He's not home.” I glanced over at her. She had her nose pressed against the passenger-side window watching Gabe's house slide by. “We'll find him.”

I studied the screen of the GPS receiver while driving. It wasn't much harder than talking on the cell phone and driving. Fortunately, the residential streets in Gabe's neighborhood were empty. If I was using this right, it looked to me like Gabe was hanging around the Stater Bros. shopping center on Lake Street. He could be shopping.