Perplexity on P1/2 (Parson's Cove Mysteries) (21 page)

     “Quite a deduction. I guess if he didn’t steal it and run, he
must
be a cop, Mabel. You were telling the truth, weren’t you? Now, we have a better reason for sending him to the bottom of the Gulf.”

    “Just a minute,” I said. “Whose house is this anyway? Isn’t this where Ben Williams lives? And, isn’t Andrea Williams, Ben Williams’ wife?”

     Andrea stuck out her neck and widened her eyes. “Oooh, Mabel. What are you? A detective? Or are you just snoopy? Well, guess what? You’re right. I’m Andrea Williams and I’m Ben’s wife.” She laughed.

     “But Ben is a cop.” I turned to Cecile. “Isn’t he?”

     Cecile didn’t say anything but by the expression on his badly bruised face, I knew I was right. Either that, or Cecile was trying to kill me with a look.

     Andrea laughed again. “Yeah, he’s a real baaaad cop.” She walked towards me with a rope in her hand. “I’m sure you’ve heard of them.” She looked over at Cecile. “I guess it’s kind of like a cop pretending to be a drug dealer. Right, Cecile?”

     “Who do you think my contact in jail was?” Hatcher grinned as if someone had just handed him a Nobel Prize.

     Cecile shook his head.

     “What’s the matter, Tucker? You wanna say something?” Hatcher moved the gun away a few inches. “Go ahead. Make it good.”

     “Ben is a good cop,” he mumbled through swollen lips. He looked over at Andrea. “Ben is our link to you and Hatcher.”

     “No way. You’re a liar.” She whipped across the room with her gun pointed straight at Cecile’s heart. “Don’t tell me you know Ben better than I do.”

     “Hold it,” Hatcher yelled. He grabbed for her wrist. She screamed. The gun went off and the front window shattered into a million pieces. As soon as I heard Hatcher yell, I’d instinctively wrapped my arms around my ears and dropped my head. Shards of glass flew everywhere. I glanced up at Andrea; blood was running down her face and arms. There was a moment of total silence, except for a few leftover pieces of glass falling to the floor.

     This, I knew, would be my only chance to make a run for it. Cecile, I decided, could look after himself. After all, he had a lot more experience in this sort of thing than I did. I could hear Andrea’s screams as I raced through the kitchen and out the back door.

     I’d barely made it off the back step when two police cars seemed to appear out of nowhere and pull up into the yard. Kyle and another cop jumped out. Two more emerged from the other car. All of them had their guns drawn.

     “Mabel, get in that car,” Kyle yelled, but it was too late. I was already past him and running for the hotel. There was no way I was going to spend the next who knows how many hours in a police station answering questions. Besides, I had no answers. Everyone who lived on P ½ was mentally deranged as far as I was concerned. Except for Stella, of course.

     As I neared the hotel, I could hear someone yelling my name.

     “Yoo hoo! Mabel, Mabel, where are you?” Then, with a bit more volume, “Get here right this minute, wherever you are.”

     Just a wild guess but, I would say I was in trouble with Flori.

     I dashed around the corner. Our shuttle bus was sitting in front of the door. All our suitcases were in a neat pile by Flori’s feet. When she saw me, she screamed.

     Screamed and then raced over and hugged me as if she’d thought I’d died or something.

     “Where have you been?” She started sobbing. “You said you were just going to the pool. We’ve been searching and searching.”

     “You heard me tell you that I was going to the pool?”

     “Of course, we heard you, didn’t we Stella?”

     Stella nodded. She looked very somber. Maybe she was going to miss us more than what I thought.

     “It’s okay, Flori. I’m here now so let’s get going.” I looked at the driver. “Are we going to be late for boarding?”

     “Not if we leave this second.” It was obvious that people showing up late wasn’t something new to him. Perhaps, meeting someone like Flori might have been a new experience, however. Probably half the population of Yellow Rose had heard her screams.

     “Good. I don’t want to be here a second longer than I have to either.” I searched through the luggage until I found my purse. “Let’s get moving. Stella,” I said, “it’s been  great meeting you. Thanks for all your help. Flori and I will give you a call as soon as we get home.” I started handing the driver our suitcases so he could store them. “Okay, Flori, let’s go. We don’t want to miss our plane.” I walked over and hugged Stella. “Thanks again.” I held eye contact. “Sorry to rush but we have to leave
immediately
, if you know what I mean.”

     Any minute now, I was expecting to hear sirens and cop cars screeching into the parking lot. Stella glanced around and nodded as if she might be expecting some herself.

     Flori took longer to say her good-byes because of the tears and nose blowing until finally Stella almost pushed her inside the shuttle bus. Stella slammed the door shut and raced off to her own car. I glanced out the back window as we drove away and watched until the back end of the pink Cadillac was out of sight.

     Somewhere in the distant background, I did hear sirens screaming. Flori turned to look at me but I pretended not to notice. If I never saw Yellow Rose again, it would be too soon for me.

Chapter Twenty Seven

     It was almost one in the morning by the time we finally reached Parson’s Cove. Because of our friend, Captain Maxymowich, we ended up changing planes and spending three hours in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Flori isn’t cranky too often, but this night she definitely was. Of course, it could have had something to do with me. It didn’t help that every time I wanted to explain why I’d left the hotel in pursuit of who knows what, she told me she didn’t want to talk about it. Well, I can’t say I didn’t try.

     Reg and Jake met us at the airport. It’s hard to describe the atmosphere. If there were an antonym for Fantasy Land, this was it. Jake is a weird person when he’s happy and fuming simultaneously. In other words, he was happy to see Flori but fuming at me but he knew that if he was nasty to me, he’d make Flori miserable. Quite a no-win situation.

     Reg was just plain fuming. Personally, I can’t imagine why. Our trip had nothing to do with him. So what if we got into trouble with Maxymowich? It wasn’t any skin off his derriere. He was annoyed because he had to give up watching some television show and drive all the way to the city to pick us up. That’s why he was gnashing his teeth.

     Jake and Flori sat in the backseat of the patrol car and I sat in the front with Reg. I’d tried to sneak in with Flori but Jake, without saying a word, grabbed my arm and shoved me into the front. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve argued.

     Everyone sat in silence until we got off the freeway and hit the highway to Parson’s Cove. Not that there wasn’t anything to say, we just held our breath and clung to our seat belts as Reg drove down the freeway, breaking the sound barrier. Nobody ever stops a speeding patrol car even when the flashing lights aren’t on or the siren wailing.

     Reg was the first to speak. “What in tarnation were you thinking, Mabel?”

     “About what, Reg?” My blood pressure was beginning to return to normal but my heart was still pounding wildly out of control.

     “You know exactly ‘about what.’” I could feel his eyes boring into me but I kept mine straight ahead.

     “You’d better watch where you’re driving.”

     “Watch where I’m driving, you say?” Fortunately, he listened and turned his attention to the road. “How about keeping my eye on you? How many times have I told you to keep your nose out of other people’s business? Do you ever listen?” He looked over, waiting for a reply. When there was obviously not a reply forthcoming, he answered himself, “Oh no, not you! You have your own set of rules. Not only that…” He looked around into the backseat. “You involve Flori. Flori, an innocent bystander has to get involved in illegal investigating, all because of you. What do you have to say to that?”

     “Watch the road,” I screamed. “You can’t look at me, into the back seat, and still drive, Reg.”

     “Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do, Mabel Wickles.” He did, however, straighten the wheel and return to the pavement from the shoulder. I remained silent.

     After about five minutes, he said, “So? That’s enough time for you to think of a good excuse. Why did you do it, Mabel? Why did you get Flori to go to Yellow Rose, Texas, with you?”

     “Because we wanted to see the Gulf of Mexico?”

     He sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

     “Not good enough. What did you accomplish going there, besides getting into trouble with the Law?”

     “The Law? We didn’t get into any trouble with the Law. We didn’t, did we, Flori?” I looked around at Flori but she was clinging to Jake and looking too terrified to talk. “In fact, the Law, as you put it, loved us. And, if you must know, Reg, we made new friends and helped solve some of the mystery.”

     A car went by and Reg put his lights on high beam again.

     “I hate to think of what kinds of friends you made, Mabel. Should most of them be behind bars?”

     “For your information, they were all good upright citizens. In case you were wondering and I’m sure you weren’t - one of the men in my photos was Cecile Tucker. Cecile happens to be an undercover cop.”

     Now, Flori found her voice. Sometimes she does when she shouldn’t.

     “Of course, we didn’t know that. He looked like a gangster. Even Stella thought he was. So did you, didn’t you, Mabel? Imagine Stella living next door all that time and thinking he was dealing drugs. Well, I guess he really was, wasn’t he?” She giggled and carried on, “It was nice of Kyle to fill us in on that, wasn’t it? Such a nice deputy, wasn’t he, Mabel?”

     Jake thought he should get in on the conversation, I suppose.

     “Who is this Stella?” he asked. “And, why would you think this guy was dealing drugs? What were you doing there anyway, Flori? When we talked on the phone all you talked about was how beautiful the water was and how good the restaurants were.”

     “Oh, Jake, we weren’t really
doing
anything. And, it’s true, the restaurants were awesome, weren’t they, Mabel?” I nodded and she kept talking. “Reg is just upset, that’s all. There was no way we got into any trouble with the Law. Well, at least, Stella and I didn’t. All we did was follow Hatcher and when we saw him going into the jail, we went back to Stella’s house. Mabel is the one who took all the chances. She really should be a private investigator.”

     “Thanks so much,” I said.

     “Yes,” Reg said. “Thanks so much, Flori. Now, Mabel, how about you fill us in on what you did while you were in Yellow Rose? It was enough to get Captain Maxymowich to leave town and go hunting for you.” The car swerved as he turned to talk to me. “Well, what do you have to say? It’s the taxpayers, like Jake here and me, who are paying for that plane ride back home, you know.”

     “You’re kidding,” I said. “You mean we can get our money refunded for the return ticket?”

     Reg shrugged. “Check with the airlines. All I know is that Maxymowich arranged to have both of you brought back. Seems he doesn’t worry where the money comes from.”

     Jake piped up. “That sounds good. You might be able to get your money back, Flori. Did you know that?”

     “I really don’t care, Jake. You can check it out if you want to. Mabel, you might as well tell them everything. We’re going to have to eventually anyway.”

     I was kind of hoping it would be ‘eventually’ and by that time, there wouldn’t be a mystery anymore and everyone would forget I was even involved.

     “All right, Mabel. Come clean. What did you find out down there?” Reg said, in a very stern police officer’s voice.

     It’s true, I can string Reg along for a certain length of time but when he puts on his cop voice, I know I’ve reached the end of my string.

     I took a deep breath.

     “Where do you want me to start?”

     “Anywhere. Just start, damn it, woman.”

     “You don’t have to use foul language, Sheriff.”

     I looked at him and he glared back. The tires hit the gravel; I gasped and Reg swung back onto the road. If someone had been tailing us, they would’ve thought they were tailing a drunken cop.

     “Okay, I’ll start from the beginning: First, we found out that Grace Hobbs lived on Avenue P½. Who, we discovered afterwards, wasn’t Grace Hobbs at all. Well, there was a Grace living there but it wasn’t the Grace we thought it was. You know, the one who was murdered. The real Grace, Cecile’s wife, is somewhere safe and I think she’s called Grace Tucker. I don’t know where she’s in hiding but she’s still alive. The cops would make sure of that. Actually, it wasn’t until we met Stella next door that we found out that there wasn’t anyone named Hobbs living there anymore. Good thing the phone number and the name hadn’t been changed in the phone book. It was still under G. Hobbs for Ginger Hobbs. Stella thought she died mysteriously but actually she was another undercover cop; at least, that’s what Kyle told us and he said she’d been shot in the knee or something. Anyway, she’s probably in another assignment or if she was really shot in the knee, I would think she’s doing desk work somewhere.”

     At this point, I knew my only hope was to thoroughly confuse him. I must’ve been doing a good job of it because I was totally confused myself.

     Reg shook his head. “Could you get back to what you were doing there, Mabel and stop talking in circles?” Another glare. “If you don’t mind, that is.”

     “Not at all, Reg. Just keep your eyes on the road. Here’s what we did - Stella, Flori and I staked out Cecile’s house. Since Stella lives next door, it really wasn’t a problem. We shut the lights off and watched through the hurricane blinds. Of course, we didn’t know at that point that it was Cecile, the cop’s house. We thought it was Grace’s house and that she had a drug dealer husband named Cecile.”