He’d known. Nutless bastard! “Perhaps your investigation of Morell’s disappearance should have been geared in that direction, rather than my mother’s?”
I heard the chuckle before the phone clicked dead.
~*~
When I told Dylan I thought I’d been drugged, he looked stricken, sick for a moment. Then just plain angry. I was fine I assured him, and though he didn’t go into some macho-male going to kick-me some ass mode I find so tiresome, clearly he would love to get his hands on whoever slipped me the sleeping aid.
Perhaps he would.
I’m not stupid. Well, not
He made a quick trip into my mother’s before reporting to Big Eddie for work. He’d been painting, sorting tools, vacuuming like a madman under Big Eddie’s instruction. Clearly, Eddie Baskin was taking advantage of the perceived slow wit of Dylan Hardy and getting him to do a month’s worth of grunt work.
We had to admit it then, to Mother, that Dylan was one of the good guys, on our side trying to solve this case. Sheepishly, I had to admit it.
“Don’t hang that head too low, Dix,” Mother said. “I’ve known all along.”
Of course she had. This was my mother.
“I’ve seen the way you two look at each other,” she said.
“Ah, you should see them when they think they’re alone!” Mrs. P added.
Lovely.
There was another knock at the door.
Big Eddie was taken aback a moment when he walked into mother’s and saw Dylan there. Whereas I myself was taken aback to see Big Eddie. No one had called him. He had to know he wasn’t the least bit welcome. But as he walked in through the door, he was followed by Deputy Almond.
“What are you doing here, kid?” Big Eddie asked Dylan.
Instantly Dylan Foreman donned the Dylan Hardy face.
“Saw the door open here, Big Eddie,” he said.
“And you walked right in?”
“This nice lady,” (he pointed to me) “invited me in.”
Big Eddie grinned at me. “You look tired today, Dix,” he said. “Didn’t you sleep well?” He was baiting me. Clearly, clearly, he was doing everything he could to yank my chain. He was that confident. Had
“Slept like a baby, Eddie. But not nearly as well as I’ll sleep tonight.” I smiled at him. Yes, I was fishing for a reaction. And yep, I got it.
And I saw it — the slightest waver to his grin. His eyes slid over to Almond before they slid back to me. What did I have? Not much — suppositions. But I’d gotten what I wanted — I wanted to throw Eddie off the slightest little bit. But I felt it too. The niggling was there. Hormones, my butt!
While I was watching Big Eddie, Almond was watching us both. Carefully.
“Say, Deputy,” Mrs. P said. “Give me a—”
“What, Mrs. Presley?” He rolled his eyes and turned to her. “A seven letter word for castrated?”
Mrs. P gasped. “Do all you sheriff’s deputies talk such filth to little old ladies? What I was going to ask for was a boost up.”
He did a double take. “Excuse me?”
“I’m too short. And there’s something at the back of this safe.”
We all were there in an instant, elbowing for room.
With a pointy right (hers) to the ribs (mine), Mrs. P won.
There was indeed something at the back of the safe.
“Dust?” I asked. Well, that was the first thing that came to mind.
“Come on, Dix,” Mrs. Presley said. “This isn’t your apartment. Dust doesn’t grow that thick here.”
She had me there.
“Maybe it’s bird poop,” Dylan said.
We all did a double take on that one.
“What?” he said. “Birds poop.”
“Yeah,” Big Eddie said. “Yeah … they do poop, Dylan. Now just shut the hell up.”
Almond reached in to touch it, his fingers coming away with grains of fine sand.
“Know what that is, Eddie?” Deputy Almond asked.
Big Eddie wet his lips before he answered. Apparently, the strain from staying on his tiptoes was getting to Big Eddie. His bald head was gleaming with sweat.
“Not sure, Deputy. Could be anything really.”
“Looks like sand.”
“Lots of sand in Florida.”
Eddie clumped down to flat footed again.
Almond nodded. He turned to Mother. “So, Mrs. Dodd. How very unfortunate that suddenly you’re a victim of crime too.”
Already, I did not like where this was going.
“Why, just yesterday your daughter hiring a pricey lawyer to get you out of jail, you’re the prime suspect in all these crimes — and let’s not forget the disappearance of Frankie Morrell — and suddenly, surprise, surprise, you too end up being the victim of a robbery. What are the chances?”
My jaw dropped. I could not believe what I was hearing.
“Yeah,” Eddie said enthusiastically. “Seems pretty coincidental to me too.”
Fucker!
“Easy, Dix….” I only realized my hands were fisted when Mother put her hand on my arm. She turned to Almond. Oh, how she turned to Almond.
Katt Dodd was back. My pinkie-swearing, lipstick wearing, kick-ass mother was back.
Almond stood there smirking in that condescending way some men have. He stood there waiting, no doubt, for my mother to cry. Fall down and fall apart. Dissolve into whimpering. Lose it in hysteria.
The guy just did not know women.
And he sure as hell didn’t know my mother.
See you can only push a Dodd woman so far, and losing the ring that my father had given her was the final push that Katt Dodd needed before she started pushing back.
“Deputy Almond,” she said. “Since these thefts began I have been nothing but cooperative with you. Since the disappearance of Frankie Morrell, the same. I’ve told you everything I know in every instance.”
I knew the tone. Oh, God, I knew this tone. Peaches Marie and I had received the same the morning after we’d sobered up from our first high school … ah, sleepover. This was the I’ve-put-up-with-all-I’m-going-to tone. This was Katt Dodd’s I’m-smiling-but-I’m-going-to eat-you-alive tone.
“Now what I see happening here, Deputy Almond,” my mother continued, “would seem to constitute police brutality. Harassment at the very least. You’ve been accusing me for weeks, yet your evidence is flimsy to non- existent. Anyone could have gotten my watch and you damn well know it. Well, Deputy, I am sick and tired of it. I’ve tried to be polite, cooperative and friendly. But no more. Now, you’re going to write up a report on my missing family jewels. And you’re going to give this matter all the attention that you’d give to each and every other crime in this complex.”
He tried to stare her down. “Since when do I take my orders from you, Mrs. Dodd?”
Katt Dodd reached into her pocket. She pulled out her Pinch-Me Pink without hesitation, smeared it on thick and smacked her lips together before she smiled at him. “I’m just asking you to do your job, Deputy. That ring was very special to me. And if you don’t apply the same diligence in solving this crime as you did the others, I will hold you personally responsible. And I will bring a law suit against not only yourself, but the entire Sheriff’s Department.”
“You think that scares me?”
“I don’t know if that scares you or not. But maybe this will: this is Florida, Deputy Almond. There are a great
