one was living in them.
I came to a tall fence with a latched gate. I unlatched it, and cautiously entered a backyard that led to a swamp thick with trees and dense vegetation. Jed’s footprints ran into the middle of the swamp, then disappeared.
I stood perfectly still and listened. There was no sound coming from the swamp, save for a squirrel’s frantic chirping. I sensed that Jed was close by, but that didn’t mean I was going to blindly follow him. This was the neighborhood he’d grown up in, and I had no idea what he might have hidden back there.
“Jed? Are you there?” I called out.
I heard a swishing of leaves, followed by a branch being broken.
“You set me up!” Jed shouted back.
“I didn’t set you up,” I said. “I don’t know how those things got there.”
“Fucking liar! You’re no better than the rest of them.”
“The rest of who?”
“The cops!”
I started to reply, only my words were cut off by a loud thwap! A steel-tipped arrow was sticking in the fence three feet from my head, its colorful tail vibrating.
I walked backward through the gate opening and shut it behind me. I learned long ago that heroes were dead people who got buildings named after them, while smart people lived to fight another day. Buster appeared in the street, holding a large piece of LeAnn Grimes’s yellow dress in his mouth.
The front door of LeAnn Grimes’s house was locked, and I banged on it loudly with my fist.
“Let me in,” I said.
“Go away,” Heather said through the door.
“I’ll kick it down.”
The door opened, and I entered with Buster. Heather stood in the foyer, an ice pack on her neck, eyes red from crying. I followed her into the living room where LeAnn sat on the couch in a bathrobe. Seeing Buster, she cowered in fear.
“Keep that monster away from me!”
“Did he bite you?”
“No, but he destroyed my dress.”
“You’re lucky.”
Buster still had her torn dress in his mouth. I clicked my fingers and my dog lay down. I took the shredded garment from him, and tossed it into LeAnn’s lap. Then I pointed at the empty spot on the couch.
“Sit next to your mother-in-law,” I told Heather.
Heather dutifully obeyed. The two women shifted their gazes to the floor, and said nothing. Women were the most logical creatures on the planet, except when it came to men. Then they acted as crazy as everyone else.
“Are either of you hurt?” I asked.
LeAnn shook her head.
Heather said, “I’m okay.”
“What the two of you just did was really stupid,” I said.
Neither woman replied.
“I’m here to help, in case you didn’t know it,” I said.
Again, nothing.
“I think Jed is innocent, but I can’t do much if you won’t level with me.”
They looked up in unison, the expression on their faces identical. They didn’t trust me, but they wanted to.
“Tell me why Jed ran away,” I said. “If he didn’t know how that cell phone and pair of underwear got in the garbage, then he should be willing to talk to the police.”
LeAnn laughed under her breath.
“Why is that funny?” I asked.
“The police are not our friends,” LeAnn said. “That’s why my husband hired you.”
“I’m not above the law,” I said. “I have to call the police, and tell them that I found Piper Stone’s cell phone in your garbage pail. Before I do that, I want you to tell me what happened this morning when Jed met with Stone.”
This request was met with silence. I crossed my arms and waited.
“I wasn’t here,” Heather finally said.
LeAnn redid the knot in her bathrobe before replying. “It was about nine. I was pulling weeds in the front when a black BMW drove up with Stone behind the wheel. Jed came out of the house, and they left in her car.”
“Did you see her again?” I asked.
“No,” LeAnn said. “Jed came back fifteen minutes later. He was very upset, and had been crying. I asked him what was wrong, and he shook his head, and went inside the house.”
“Did Stone drop him off?”
“No, he was on foot.”
“Do you remember anything else? Anything at all?”
LeAnn shook her head.
“Please stay here,” I said.
I went into the kitchen and rifled the pantry. Finding a plastic Ziploc bag, I put it over my hand, went outside, and removed Stone’s cell phone and the pair of underwear from the garbage can without contaminating them any further. My gut told me that Jed hadn’t put them there, only the evidence was saying otherwise. It was one more piece to a puzzle that I still couldn’t put together.
I called 911 on my cell phone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
F ive minutes later, a cruiser pulled up in front of LeAnn Grimes’s house with its bubble light flashing. It contained the classic mismatch of uniformed officers: a crusty male veteran, and an inexperienced young female. The pairing worked great on TV cop shows; in real life it created nothing but friction. Standing on the front lawn, the pair listened to my story.
When I was done, the male officer took me aside. His nameplate said J. Botters. On the plus side of fifty, with leathery skin and thinning hair, he exuded the casualness of someone ready to retire.
“Show me where Jed ran off to,” Botters said.
I walked Botters down the street and showed him the route Jed had taken, and the arrow he’d shot at me. Botters pulled the arrow out of the fence.
“Think he was trying to kill you?” Botters asked.
“He was just trying to scare me off.”
“Want to go look for him?”
I had told Botters and his partner that I was an ex-cop. Maybe Botters had misconstrued that to mean I was prone to taking risks.
“Only if you go first,” I said.
Botters studied the arrow, then shook his head. We walked back to LeAnn’s house. I was holding the Ziploc containing Stone’s cell phone and underwear against my chest, and I handed Botters the bag. He studied the cell phone through the plastic.
“Most ladies won’t part with their phone and their undies,” Botters said. “Jed must have done something to her.”
“Do you know Jed?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah,” he said.
Botters’s partner appeared in the doorway of the house, beckoning him to join her. “Yes, dear,” Botters
