One Chance: A Thrilling Christian Fiction Mystery Romance (11 page)

Penelope nodded and kept her smile in place even as her insides twisted. Angry young man. Could it be the same guy that Mandy the waitress had seen?

Blane sucked on his dentures as he continued. "So I kept an eye on him for a minute in case he was planning to rob them, but he went to the last booth in the back and just sat down. So I left."

Penelope shook the man's hand. "Thank you, sir. How's the leg doing you these days?"

Blane, in his younger days, had served in the military. He'd loved to tell Penelope stories about those days, and Penelope would sit on the man's porch for hours and listen to him. His leg had been hit with several pieces of shrapnel during World War II and had given him a permanent limp.

"It pains me during heavy rains. Can always tell when a storm's coming." He shook Penelope's hand. "Think one's coming now, Deputy Chance."

Penelope couldn't help hearing a double meaning in the old man's words as she shook his hand. Things were building up. And a storm was coming.

The next two people on her list were a young married couple. Gail and Hank Carpenter remembered Friday evening the same way. They remembered Doug coming into The Pizza Palace, they even remembered Blane Morris leaving and being nearly knocked down by a rude and angry man who went and sat in the back, near them, glaring at Doug. The two of them went to leave a little before seven. And Doug wasn't far behind them in line to pay.

"We heard about what happened the next day," Hank said, "and we remembered how we had just seen Doug in there. I hope you can put him away for what happened."

Penelope nodded, keeping her face neutral. Not everyone in town knew about Doug being Penelope's friend, apparently. But either way, the events of this weekend had kept the memory of seeing Doug at The Pizza Palace fresh in their minds, so that helped. They didn't have a description of the angry man, but it backed up Blane and Mandy's story, and both of them did have a good description.

Of Michael Findley.

The other side of this coin was a little brighter. She had good confirmation from four different witnesses that Doug was at The Pizza Palace from six until almost seven o'clock. That fit with what Doug had given her as a timeline for that night. Penelope knew exactly where Doug was for the entire end of his night. He was at The Last Chance Tavern, where Penelope had found him after getting the report that their poor friend Pete Lamb had been run down, supposedly by Doug.

Doug had told her that he'd only had the one beer, with food, by the time he'd left The Pizza Palace, and Mandy the waitress had previously verified that. Doug was in the restaurant for three quarters of an hour and, given his height and weight and tolerance for alcohol, there was no way he could have been drunk when he left. He would definitely be blitzed by the end of the night, but at that point, Doug was still sober by all reports.

Ricky's Pub, the next place that Doug said he went to after The Pizza Palace, wouldn't be open until a little later, so Penelope decided to knock on the doors of nearby houses. Besides, not even the owner of the bar remembered Doug being there the last time she'd asked.

This was the part of police work that didn't get shown a lot on the television shows. Hard leg work, asking questions of people and coming up dry time and again before you found what you were looking for. At the third house one block behind Ricky's Pub, Mrs. Betsy Isaacs suggested that the man across the street, Dan Hughes, may know something because, as she stated it, "He walks that snotty little Pomeranian of his at a quarter 'til seven every evening. Mouthy little mutt."

Thanking her for her help and cooperation, Penelope turned to leave. "He's not at home right now," she said. "He goes to Jacksonville every Sunday to visit his mother. Still gone."

"Did you see him leave yesterday?"

"No, I didn't," Mrs. Isaacs replied with a small shrug, "and I haven't seen him come back either. Sometimes he stays until the next day. He should be back by suppertime, though. He's gotta walk that dog, you know."

Penelope thanked her again and went back to her car. She had a feeling her neighbor with his noisy dog might have the information she was looking for so she planned to come back later in the evening. The feeling that she was on the right track lingered She took it as a good sign.

CHAPTER 20

Returning to the police station, Penelope went directly to Sheriff Jackson's office. She knocked, heard the Sheriff tell her to come in. Closing the door behind her, she sat down in the same chair she'd been in that morning. "We've got a problem," she started to say.

Sheriff Jackson waved her to silence. "Go ahead, Detective Greene," he said, and it was then that Penelope realized the Sheriff was on a conference call.

"Who's that there with you?" the voice over the line said. Penelope recognized the booming bass tone immediately.

"Donny Greene," Penelope said, a little louder so the phone would pick up her voice. "Haven't seen you in a dog's age."

"Penelope Chance!" Donny said cheerfully. "I haven't seen or heard from you since you got engaged to that handsome Doctor Jacob Gordon. When's the first little Penelope due?"

Penelope laughed at her old friend. "I'm not even married yet, Donny. I'll be doing that in a few more months. Jacob said he's willing to have ten kids, but I think two or three would be more than enough. I'll be sure to send you an invitation to the wedding, though. So what's up? Why the call?"

The Sheriff was the one who answered him. "Michael Findley."

The hair on the back of Penelope's neck stood up.

"We can't find him over here," Donny explained. "Anywhere. But, we confirmed that the victim...uh, sorry Penelope, that Camille was living with him. A lot of his things are still in their house. The Sheriff was telling us that her son is over there with you?"

"Yeah, that's right. Camille dropped him off to her ex-husband before going back to Gainesville and ending up dead. Her ex is in a lot of trouble now as it is, Donny. But put all that aside for a minute. I know why you can't find this Findley character."

"Why's that?"

The Sheriff looked at her, waiting.

"Because he's here," Penelope explained. "That's what I was coming in to tell you, Sheriff. I've got at least two people who can identify him positively, and two others who probably could if I showed them a picture."

There was silence in the room and on the phone line too.

Then the Sheriff asked, "Do we know where he is now?"

Penelope shook her head. "No. We don't. I'm looking into a few things and I'll know more soon. Donny, do you have time of death yet?"

"Nope, not yet. The Medical Examiner's pretty backed up." the Detective answered.

"Sheriff, I've buttoned down the timeline for Doug on Friday, at least for the early part of the evening."

"And after that?" the Sheriff asked her.

"I don't know yet," Penelope had to admit.

The Sheriff nodded. "Detective Greene, we'll get back to you when we know more. Do the same for us, all right?"

"Will do, Sheriff. Penelope, you still there?"

"I'm here Donny."

"You have to know that the ex looks good to us for this murder, right?" Penelope could hear the apologetic tone in Donny's voice.

"Yeah, I know that. We're holding him here on our own attempted murder charges. He's not going anywhere."

"Okay." There was a long pause. "Good luck with this, Penelope."

"No such thing as luck, Donny."

"Only faith." The two laughed at their old joke. For Penelope, it wasn't just a joke. It was the truth.

*

When Penelope finished going over with the Sheriff what she had found out so far, she left the Sheriff's office with the intention of going to check on Doug. She knew how lonely the holding area was when it was just you back there, being watched over a monitor by the person at the front desk.

Officer Anthony Marks had returned to the police station to write his preliminary report and she found him now sitting at her desk, using her computer. He smiled at her when he saw her coming out. He held up the freshly printed report to her. "Deputy, I didn't find anything other than an unlocked window to the spare bedroom. No signs of forced entry, so I'm guessing the window was our perp's way in."

"Did you check for footprints or fingerprints?" she asked him, accepting the report and reading it over.

"Of course," he replied, leaning back in a way that accentuated his muscular physique, "and there's a good one on the side of her house. Looks like he braced himself to climb in. Came back for a fingerprint kit. Know where they are?"

"In the back of the cruisers," she told him. "We keep one in each. Why do you think the person who did this is a guy?"

"Big bootprint. Most likely a guy. Plus the only things taken were those photos. Why would a woman steal photos from him?"

"Why would a guy?"

He pursed his lips and kind of rolled his eyes. "Because they meant something to him, most likely."

That idea hadn't occurred to Penelope. Jacob had said the photos were of him, her, Doug and Camille. Who would want to take those?

Someone who knew one of those people, obviously. Her? Jacob?

No. More likely, with everything else going on, Doug or Camille.

"Good job, Officer," Penelope said, coming back to herself. "Uh, see if Saunders or Petersen can help you out with that angle. I'm in the middle of this attempted murder case with Doug and have a lot of work to do yet."

"Aw," he said, actually sounding disappointed. "I was hoping you and me maybe could get a chance to work together."

And Penelope took his meaning, clear as day. She needed to nip that in the bud. "Did you meet with Jacob out to his house?"

Anthony nodded. "Nice guy. Good head on his shoulders. He a friend of yours?"

"He's my fiance." Penelope didn't say anything else. She hoped that would be enough.

The light came on in Anthony's eyes. "But hey, y'all ain't married yet."

He smiled in a way that Penelope knew was supposed to be suggestive.

"We're married in our hearts," she told him. "And that means something to me."

Anthony frowned, feeling insulted. "Well. Fine, then. I can take a hint."

"Can you? Can you really?" Penelope asked him. "Because this is pretty important. If you're going to cross those kinds of lines, I'd like to know up front."

His frown turned into a scowl. "Maybe I shoulda just stayed in Tampa."

Penelope sat down at the next desk over and leaned toward him with her elbows on her knees. "That decision is yours to make. From what I've seen so far, you're a very capable officer. But there's more to being a good police officer than just good investigation techniques. You have to be able to respect people, too."

"That why you're sticking your neck out for Doug Foster?"

Penelope took the change in subject in stride. "That's one of the reasons. Plus, I owe him a lot."

"Doc Gordon, oh excuse me, I mean your fiance," he twisted the word a little, but Penelope didn't rise to the bait, "he was telling me a little about that. I hope you figure it out. I don't know what I would do if my brother ever got into that kind of trouble, but I do know I'd want to solve it."

Penelope grinned, happy to be back on safe conversation ground. "Well, Doug's not my natural brother." Anthony gave her a questioning look and she added, "My parents died when I was eight and, since Doug and I were such good friends, his parents adopted and raised me. I was an only child until then and he's the closest thing I've had to any real family."

"What happened to your parents?" he asked, innocently enough.

Penelope blinked away an image of their house, in flames, falling down on itself as the fire department tried to save it. "I'll tell you that some other time," she said to him. "If you stick around town long enough. For now, let's just leave it at me and Doug being as close to blood as two people can get without being actually related."

"That's all the reason you need to want to solve this?" he asked.

She nodded. She wondered, then, if she should have opened up to him about this. Jacob knew all about it, of course, and so did several other long-time residents of Franklin. But Penelope hadn't missed how Anthony had used the discussion of her childhood to change the topic from his untoward interest in her, without actually saying he'd back down.

And he didn't strike her as the type of man to back down easily.

"Is there anything I can do to help with this case?" he asked, his neutral face hard to read.

"I've got it. For now. You keep on this burglary. Scare up some leads."

He looked disappointed as he walked out the door, glancing over his shoulder to see if she was watching him. She was, but it was to make sure he left to do his job. She had a feeling this thing he had tried to start between them wasn't over.

She did not need another distraction right now. Between Camille's murder and Doug's son and all the little petty cases she'd had to work on in the middle of this whole investigation she wasn't getting anywhere near clearing Doug of the attempted murder of Pete...

She sat up straighter in the chair. Distractions. Is that what these were? Is that what the introduction of Officer Anthony Marks was? Something to keep her from doing what she had to do so he could help Doug? To keep her from finding the truth?

Please God
, Penelope asked,
help me to stay the course. I took up this career hoping to do Your work, hoping to help other people. Now the one who needs my help is my friend, Doug. Help me to ignore temptation and distraction alike. Help me to keep my mind focused. Help me do my best. And if it is Your will, Lord God, help me show my friend is innocent.

She knew that last part was a little selfish. But it was what was in her heart. God never asked for more than that.

Jacob would be at the clinic by now, so Penelope decided to check on whether he knew if Pete was due to come back from Grace Memorial Hospital in Gainesville. She was hopeful Pete would make a quick recovery and help button up some of the loose ends that seemed to be sprouting everywhere she looked. But more than that, she wanted to hear Jacob's voice. She wanted his strength right now.