Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 02 - Apple Pots and Funeral Plots (28 page)

Finally I went out and bought several jigsaw puzzles.
I worked on them while Tom coordinated with the DEA officers.
Each hour there seemed to be more and more people milling around the town.
When we did go out, we could barely walk down the streets because they were packed.
I was no longer sure who were the good guys or the bad guys.

That evening we watched Ted participate in the cheese pizza-eating contest.
It was nice to spend more than a few minutes out of the hotel room. Even Shelby
jumped up and down and barked
.
She was glad to be
out
for a longer walk than just around the inn, too.

We saw Bill and Kate in front of the contest tables.
I wanted to say something to Bill about the drug raid, but Tom insisted I keep it quiet.

“You never know who’s involved, Liza.”

“I’m sure Bill isn’t.”

“Yes, but in this town news seems to travel like wildfire.
We don’t want to spook the real bad guys.”

“I guess not.”

Kate gave me a big hug when we walked up to them and I felt like a traitor.
Bill and Tom shook hands and we all stood in the audience and cheered Ted on.

Ted came in first.
We screamed and yelled for him.
After the announcement of the winners, he strutted over with his three-foot high trophy.
Kate gave him a big hug.

“Great job, Ted,” Bill said.

Both Tom and I congratulated Ted, too.

“We haven’t seen you two around lately,” Bill said.

Tom and I looked at each other and I said, “
Shelby
’s still recovering from being sick, so we’re taking it easy.”

Tom leaned toward Bill.
“I think she’s afraid to leave the dog alone.”

Everyone laughed and I joined them.
“I guess it’s silly, but I don’t know what made her sick in the first place.”

“You are coming for the big contest on Saturday, aren’t you?”
Ted asked.

“Of course,” I said.

Tom smiled.
“We wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Kate and Ted took off and Bill said he had a date.

“With who?”
I smiled and winked at Bill.

“Edith and I are going to get some dessert.”

“That’s nice,” I said and patted him on the shoulder.
“Really nice.
I like her.”

He nodded.
“Me, too.”

Bill waved and walked away.
I glanced at the big tent.
In front were two guards.

I pointed to them.
“I see they’re back.”

“Oh yeah.”

“By the way, what happened to the one that was in our room?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you.
I called Jimmy to check on his status and he told me that the man was gone when he went to the inn to pick him up.”

“That’s convenient.”

“Yeah,” he heaved a heavy sigh.
“I thought so myself.”

“How does a person escape from handcuffs?”

“When someone gives him the key.”

“Oh.”

“Why do you think I’m not informing the local cops of the bust?
I don’t know who to trust.”

“I’m sure you can trust Jimmy.”

“Maybe, but I can’t be sure.
I don’t want to jeopardize the entire operation by telling the wrong person.”

“That’s true.”

Shelby, Tom and I went back to the inn.
We ordered apple pots from room service.

A few minutes later, Joe arrived.
When he tried to come into the room,
Shelby
lowered her head and growled.

“Easy,
Shelby
,” I said and motioned Joe to come in.

Joe walked in and put out his hand.
“What’s the matter, girl?
You know me.”

Shelby
’s growls got deeper.
She’d never reacted to anyone like that before.
When she lunged toward Joe, I grabbed for her collar.

Chapter 27

I totally missed her col
lar and thankfully Tom walked
between Shelby and Joe.
He put his hand on
Shelby
’s nose, “Easy, girl.”

She backed away, but continued to growl and kept her eyes locked on Joe.

Tom took the apple pots from Joe.
“Sorry, she doesn’t seem to trust anyone these days.”

Joe shook his head and backed out of the room.

As soon as he left,
Shelby
went over and stood by the door.

I looked at Tom.
“I wonder if he’s the one who tried to poison my dog.”

“I don’t know.
But given the way that
Shelby
reacted to him, it’s a good bet.” He took a big spoonful of his apple cobbler.
“But there’s no way to prove it, so there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“I know.
That’s one of those irritating rules that go along with your job.”

“I feel the same way some times.”

We finished our
apple pots and went to bed.
Friday we spent the entire day in our room.
We ordered room service, Tom rarely got off the phone and I did jigsaw puzzles.
At this point, if I never saw a jigsaw puzzle again, it would still be too soon!
The only reprieve I got was walking
Shelby
.

When I walked her for the third time in an hour, Tom put down the phone.
“Feeling housebound, Liza?”

“What gives you that idea?”

He laughed.
“You’d never last during a stakeout.”

“That’s why you’re the cop and I’m not.”

“How about I take you out to dinner?”

“No more room service?”

He closed the notebook he’d been writing in for the last few days.
“You pick the place, I’ll pay.”

“Rogan’s Steak House, prime rib, and their wonderful French fries.”

He whistled.
“That sounds expensive.”

“It is, let’s go.”

“What about Shelby?”

“I just took her out, so she’ll be fine for a couple of hours.”

Tom pat her on the head, smiled and said, “Good dog.”

Dinner was wonderful and uneventful.
We didn’t run into anyone we knew at the restaurant and we didn’t talk about drugs, apple pots, or murders.
It was a nice welcomed change.

When we got back to the inn, Tom went right back to the phone.
It was aggravating
so I took Shelby for another walk
.
Was this what life is like when you live with a cop?
I put a few more pieces into my latest jigsaw puzzle, paced the floor, and finally crawled into bed.
Two hours later I woke up and Tom was busy writing in his notebook.

“Tom.”

“Yeah,” he said without even looking up.

“It’s late, come to bed.”

“In a little while,” he said, still not looking up from his notebook.

I glanced at the alarm clock.
“It’s
three o’clock
in the morning.
Can’t you work on that tomorrow?”

“Just give me a few more minutes,” his tone elevated, a note of aggravation in his voice.

I’ve never been around Tom when he was in the middle of an investigation.
It was strange and more than a little annoying.
Was this what I was like when I was looking into something?
I got out of bed, went over, and stood by the table.

Tom finally looked up, “What?”

I stepped over and sat on his lap.

He smiled.
“Can I help you?”

“Just make me a promise.”

“Sure.”

“If I’m ever this involved in something, please provide a distraction before I become obsessed.”

“As long as you’ll do the same for me.”

I leaned down, kissed him on the neck, and whispered, “I can do that.”

Finally it was Saturday evening.
I watched as Tom loaded up with all his hardware.

“It’s amazing that you can move with all that stuff on.”

“Practice, lots of practice.
Did you ever get your gun back from the local cops?”

“Nope.
They’re keeping it as evidence.”

“Okay.
I’ll be right back.”
A few minutes later he came back with a small pistol.
“I want you to carry this.”

I pushed it away.
“I don’t need that.
With all the FBI and DEA agents in this town right now, I don’t want to be mistaken as one of the bad guys.”

“I don’t care.
If you don’t want to take it, then you have to stay here in the room, all night.”

I glanced at the table with the latest jigsaw puzzle on it.
Then I grabbed the gun.
“Fine, anything to get out of this room.”

I put the gun in the back of my waistband.
This was starting to feel awfully familiar.

Tom leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
“Maybe we can play find the weapon later?”

“No way.
I’m not playing anything with a loaded weapon.”

Tom laughed.
“Let’s go.”

“What are we going to do with
Shelby
?”
I asked.

“Let’s leave her here.”

“No,” I shook my head.
“Last time we left her here someone tried to poison her.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen a second time, honey.
But I’m sure it’s not a good idea to bring her to a drug raid.”

I picked up the phone.
“I know one person who is definitely not going to the eating contest.”
I called Edith’s house and got no answer, so I tried the library.

Edith answered on the fifth ring.
“Hello.”

“Hey, Tom and I want to watch the final eating contest and I don’t want to leave
Shelby
alone.”

“Are you afraid she might get into something and get sick again?”

“Maybe.”
I hated lying to her.
I knew she wasn’t involved but somebody might be listening on the phone.
Paranoia definitely came with living in Clainsworth.
“I just don’t want to take any chances.”

“Bring her by.
She can wander around the library while I work.”

“Still trying to organize all those children’s books by reading level?”

“Yes and it’s turning out to be a much bigger job than I anticipated.”

“Well, remember you don’t have to have them all leveled.
You need some that are just for the kids to enjoy, not necessarily to practice their reading skills.”

“I like your suggestions, Liza.”

“Thanks.
We’ll be over in a few minutes with
Shelby
.”

“No problem.”

We dropped
Shelby
off at the library and went on to the contest.
The entire fairground was packed with people.
I could barely move without running into someone.

Bill walked up to us.
“It sure is a great crowd this year.
I think there are more people than last year.”

I glanced around wondering who the drug dealers were and who the cops were.
Occasionally, I’d see Tom nod to someone; they’d nod back and then move off into the crowd again.

I turned to Bill.
“How’d your date go with Edith?”

“Really well.”
Bill smiled.

“Are you going to go out again?”

Tom jabbed me in the ribs.
“Leave the poor man alone, Liza.”

“I’m just interested in his happiness, that’s all.”

Bill smiled.
“Yes, we’re going out again next week.”

I patted him on the arm.
“Good.”

We stood in the back of crowd and watched the contest.
Ted didn’t make the finals, so we weren’t really interested in the results even though there were five cameras from several different stations taping the event.

The mayor stood behind a complete set of the special apple pots on the contestant table.
He had a huge smile on his face.
As he held up one of the apple pots, the crowd would clap and cheer.
I could see the red lights on the camera, so everyone all over the world was seeing the apple pots, too.
I wondered how many of them sat at home calculating the profits from the drugs in each of the pots.

The eating contest went smoothly and a champion was given a five-foot trophy and a check.
He was a little Asian man who could barely see over the trophy.
I don’t know where he put the contents of fifty apple pots!

After the contest was over, the crowd wandered back to the carnival and the booths.
The mayor went into the big tent, followed by his two guards, and fifty or so cops.
My stomach knotted up as I watched Tom follow the crowd into the tent.

I stood by the contest table and waited.
I half expected to hear loud shouts, gunshots and lots of screaming, but it was quiet.
Time passed and still not a sound.
I tried to concentrate on something besides my growing anxiety.
So I sat on the table and stared off at the carnival, watching the rides going up and down.
At least the jigsaw puzzles had been a safe distraction.
Waiting to see if Tom
would come
back unhurt from a drug raid was eating away at my stomach lining and making me feel like I
would
throw up.

The gun in my
back poked
me in the butt, so I took it out and placed it in my front waistband.
It was a small gun, much smaller than the one that Tom had
given me or the ones that my dad and I had practiced with. I probably wouldn’t be able to hit anything with it
.
I closed my jacket, concealing
the weapon from anyone who walked
by.
I certainly didn’t need to give the local cops another reason to arrest me again.
 

Suddenly, I felt something poke me in my back.
Great, Tom was back, the raid was over, and everyone was safe.

“You bitch!”
He growled next to my ear.

When I turned my head, I saw the mayor and felt the gun he
held
to my back.