Loe raamatut: «A Minute on the Lips»

CHAPTER ONE

“OTHER DUTIES AS assigned” should be etched on Sheriff Andrea Jackson’s office door. In fact, that could be the entire job description wrapped up in one neat phrase. As she drove into town, Andi had no idea what the day might bring—investigating, wild-animal wrangling, babysitting or some crazy-making combination of all three with an added wild-card adventure.

Andi made the full circle around the redbrick courthouse before she headed toward the office. As she pulled to a stop in front of the sign that read Reserved for Sheriff, Nettie, the part-time dispatcher, walked out to meet her.

“Morning, Sheriff, hon. Jackie over at the diner called to demand an investigation of his crime scene.” She held up a cup of steaming black coffee. “I think you better head on over there first thing.”

“Thanks, Nettie,” Andi mumbled as she latched on to the cup and dragged it through the window. Caffeine didn’t do much to wake her up after sleepless nights, but it did signal to her brain that it was time to get to work.

Campaigning and elections made it hard to sleep. Instead of getting up to do something productive that calmed her worries—like knitting or reading or eating half a gallon of ice cream—she’d stubbornly clung to her pillow and given herself the “go to sleep” lecture. That never worked. Neither did logically pointing out that she had only this many hours to sleep. One worry led to one regret, which led to a long guilt trip or a short visit to Anxiousville, population: one. The middle of the night could be rough. As the number of hours available to sleep shrank, so did her ability to do anything other than stare at the clock.

After a quick sip of coffee, Andi buckled her seat belt again and waved. “I’ll head over there first, Nettie. If anything important comes up, use the radio.”

“Sure thing, Sheriff, hon,” Nettie answered. “Good luck!”

Andi nodded and pulled away. Nettie had been a bingo buddy of Andi’s grandmother since bingo was invented. Even though Andi was an adult member of the county’s law enforcement team, Nettie had a hard time adjusting, so more times than not, she said “Sheriff, hon.” It didn’t bother Andi enough to try to change it, and she needed every good-luck wish she could get. This was not her first run-in with Jackie. He took his food very seriously, had the sheriff’s office on speed dial and loved the threat of a good lawsuit.

As Andi rolled to a stop in front of the diner, she thought the town of Tall Pines might be at full capacity. It was going to be hot again, but cars lined both sides of the two-lane highway through the middle of town. October was the height of the season, and even though it was unusually warm, traffic had picked up accordingly. Arts-and-crafts fans meandered along the sidewalks. They might have wandered on into Jackie’s Country Kitchen except he had the door barred and a small group blocked the entrance.

Andi could see Jackie’s beady, excited eyes over the top of the crowd. He was standing on the bench he’d pulled over to block the door to the diner. Andi would need to get that fixed pretty darn quick or she and Jackie would both be on the mayor’s hit list.

Andi glanced over the crowd as she asked, “Jackie, what seems to be the problem?”

Jackie wrinkled his brow in an ugly frown. “Sheriff, the problem is that I’ve got a crime scene here, and I don’t want any of these suspects or looky-loos to muddy up the evidence.”

Right. Andi nodded, hoping Jackie would think she cared as deeply as she had the first time she’d answered one of his calls. Or even the second or third. Then she hadn’t realized how frequently she’d be giving Jackie the same nod. Now she knew better than to get her hopes up for a real case. “Why don’t we go inside and have a look? And we can move that bench right back under the window, to get things back to normal.”

Even before she got the second sentence out of her mouth, Jackie was shaking his head. The few red hairs that remained on top stirred in the weak breeze. “No, ma’am, first get statements from every one of these suspects. Then I’ll let you in to look around, take your fingerprints and do any of that forensic investigation. You better hurry it up, though. I’m losing the breakfast crowd.”

Andi stifled a heavy sigh as she looked at the crowd of “suspects” and decided it would be easier to go along with Jackie at this point. He wasn’t going to like that her forensic investigation would be sorely lacking. She could take fingerprints and get some photos, but considering the crowd that went through the diner, unless she found something really out of the ordinary, she’d have a hard time calling anything she found evidence. Thanks to television, everyone expected her to have a crime lab, a source at Homeland Security and a psychic in her back pocket. In most cases, Andi’s resources were limited to her powers of observation—which were pretty good. She was also lucky to work with talented deputies. For almost two years, they had been enough to stay on top of petty crime, not-so-friendly disputes, domestic violence calls, small drug busts and general safety concerns in Tall Pines. No laboratories needed.

Andi pulled out her pad to take down the names of Jackie’s suspects. As Andi surveyed Wanda Blankenship’s tiny tank and long, lean legs exposed by very short shorts, she nearly convinced herself that Wanda was guilty of whatever had been perpetrated. Any woman who looked as good as she did with that much skin showing had to be up to no good. Feeling just a little guilty about judging Wanda’s book by its cover, Andi straightened her shoulders in her neat, perfectly serviceable uniform, smoothed back any hairs that had escaped her no-nonsense ponytail, and asked, “Wanda, do you want to start?”

She shrugged. Andi figured she had to be innocent. There was no way she could hide a murder weapon or the crown jewels in that outfit. “Sheriff, I was jogging through town when Jackie grabbed me.”

Jackie bent to point a bony finger in her face. “You were running away from the diner. If you didn’t take it, you saw who did.”

“Has something been stolen, Jackie?” Andi was surprised. And excited. Traffic tickets and accident reports kept them busy, but this was the kind of work she’d signed on to do.

He narrowed his eyes at Andi. “Yes, but I won’t say what it is. One of these people knows and they’ll confess.” He turned to face the man lounging beside the door. “Or else.”

Andi watched the stupid smirk cross the stupid face of the way-too-smart newspaper editor and suddenly felt hot under the collar of her uniform. There was always a gleam of mischief in his gray eyes, as if he could see right through her. Mark Taylor had moved into Tall Pines to take over the paper almost two years ago. And then he’d taught her a very valuable lesson: never trust a reporter. Following his leading questions, she’d been too helpful, too prominent, too speculative. Determined to show just how well she could do her job in the early days after her election, she’d given him way too much information on the county’s domestic violence stats for an article he’d been working on, and she’d been paying the price with the local business and community leaders ever since. And instead of appearing only in the Tall Pines Times, the story had gone to the state paper, painting a stark picture of what really goes on behind closed doors even in quaint tourist towns.

Everything he’d printed had been true. He just hadn’t told the whole story.

People had stopped her on the street to explain how stupid they thought she was. And she’d gotten one angry, vaguely threatening note in her mailbox at home. She wanted to hate him for it, but he’d been doing his job. He sold a lot of papers, and she should have been wiser. It had been an excellent lesson: a little truth could travel a very long way in the hands of someone determined to twist it. “No comment” was her favorite answer any time he called now. Since then, unless something was part of the public record or a feel-good piece for community outreach, she’d made up her mind to say as little as possible to anyone who might write it down and publish it for the world to see. She’d also stopped reports to the local radio station and had to think long and hard before she answered any emails to her office.

None of that kept him from calling, emailing or stopping her on the street to ask for updates or quotes. And sometimes she thought he did it just to annoy her. For him, it wasn’t that hard.

Obviously she couldn’t trust Mark Taylor. But he bothered her more than she’d care to admit. He was always rumpled, but it was hard to pinpoint the problem exactly. Maybe it was his hair. He knew his way around styling products. Hair that perfectly messy and adorable had to be worked at, didn’t it? And it wasn’t his height. As the girl who’d held down the middle of every back row of every class picture all the way through middle school, Andi knew a thing about height. And Mark Taylor was only average. He’d certainly never played center on the high school basketball team. As Andi studied the smirk on his face, she figured him for a fast, sneaky guard, the kind that would score before she even knew he was in the neighborhood. And that was likely the problem. Mark Taylor was smooth. And Andi distrusted both the eternally rumpled and the naturally smooth.

He’d moved to town and slipped right into the flow as if he’d always been here. Andi had heard plenty of stories about his Little League sponsorship, his volunteering to help the high school yearbook staff and his charming smile. The ladies of Tall Pines loved him and loved to talk about him. She’d been born and raised here. The only family she had was here, but Andi still felt so out of step some days.

As Mark’s eyes met hers, his left eyebrow rose. And that one small gesture reminded her she was supposed to be investigating...something. “Sheriff, you have any questions for me? I’m completely at your service, but yesterday Joe Sales told me the fish are biting and Spring Lake is calling my name.”

She shrugged and did her best not to blush at being caught off guard. The only solution was to cut to the chase. “What brought you to the diner, Taylor?” He’d rattled her with one question and a mobile eyebrow.

He pointed at Jackie. “This one called me before I even made it out the door and demanded I get over here. When I asked him why, he said I knew why and I better get to the diner or I’d be in serious trouble.”

“And do you know why?”

He smiled slowly and shook his head. “Nope. No idea. But it might make for an entertaining story.” He shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “Entertain me, Sheriff.”

Jackie propped both hands on his hips. “You were the first person I thought of, newspaper man. I know you’re jealous of my recipes. I better not see any more turn up in that blessed newspaper or I’m gonna lawyer up, you see if I don’t.”

At last year’s chili cook-off, Jackie won again, as he had every year since the contest started, but Mark, the new kid in the pot, won second place and published his recipe, minus one secret ingredient, in the paper. Jackie was convinced the recipe had been based on his. He’d never been able to explain how Taylor had gotten it or why he’d steal a recipe to alter it, but Taylor had produced a stained, handwritten recipe and a character witness in the form of his mother to prove his innocence. And he’d taken Jackie’s accusations the same way he took everything: with a joke and a laugh. If Jackie was a man who took his cooking seriously, Mark Taylor seemed to be a man who took nothing seriously. Well, maybe nothing but the news and how well it sold, anyway.

Andi noticed Mark Taylor noticing Wanda and wished she could arrest him for something, anything, but that’s not a game she wanted to play with the newspaper man, especially in an election year.

Before Andi could question the other man at the scene, Jackie’s busboy, Oscar, Jackie motioned at him. “And Oscar didn’t see anything.”

Oscar nodded. Andi and Oscar looked at each other and waited. Apparently that was his best answer. One quick glance at Taylor showed he was politely refusing to laugh. Andi had no idea how long that would hold out or what would happen to her temper if he did laugh. It was definitely time to get to the bottom of this.

“Jackie, why don’t you show me what’s missing? And walk me through your arrival.”

He hopped down from the bench and pushed open the door. The small group followed him in and froze in the doorway. Winning twelve chili championships means lots of trophies. A man like Jackie puts those trophies front and center so all who enter his restaurant may be astounded by his performance. And now Jackie had a big, empty trophy case with faint outlines of where the trophies used to live.

Andi waved her hand vaguely over the large case. “All right, so your trophies...they’re missing?”

Jackie’s glare was intense, but what bothered Andi was the sight of Taylor taking notes.

“Listen, Sheriff, the trophies are important, but they aren’t nearly as valuable as the safe. This week’s receipts, all my recipes—” Jackie rubbed his forehead and for the first time Andi noticed that he was worried “—and some important papers, things of mine and Mona’s...they’re all gone! Worse, somebody’s got ’em!” He was more agitated than usual.

Andi wished she’d spent more time mainlining hot black coffee before attempting the day. “Show me the safe, Jackie.”

The whole group followed him through the swinging door and crammed into his small office. The safe door was hanging open, and the safe was empty.

“I won’t rest until I have everything back and whoever stole it is rotting in jail,” Jackie said. Andi didn’t doubt he meant what he said.

He turned to glare at Taylor. “If it’s not the no-good newspaper man, then this girl here—” he motioned disdainfully at Wanda, who looked like she’d never been inside the Country Kitchen or any other establishment that served fried food in her life “—she knows who was here. She’s got a guilty look about her.”

In reality, she looked mildly revolted as she surveyed the diner and tried to make herself as small as possible, as if the fat in the air might attach itself to her thighs somehow. Taylor was amused. Oscar was bored. None of them seemed interested in trophies or recipes. It was hard to rule out an interest in money. “How much do you think was taken?” Andi had no idea how much business the Country Kitchen did, but any loss would be hard to absorb.

Jackie shrugged. “Have to check my ledger, but I think I had about eight hundred dollars and some change on hand.” He shook his head and strangled the spotless white towel in his hands. “Those papers are priceless, Sheriff!” Jackie grabbed her wrist and waited for her eyes to meet his. “I mean it. Those papers...they’re important.”

Andi spent a lot of time being annoyed at Jackie. It was an automatic reflex at this point, but the look on his face said he was worried and maybe a little...sad. She smiled with confidence, hoping to encourage him. “All right, Jackie. Let’s find them then.”

With a sigh, she settled down at the counter. “First, I’m going to need a big, steaming cup of black coffee, and keep it coming.”

Jackie crossed his arms over his chest and shot her an evil glare. “Sheriff, I’m losing business until you secure this crime scene.”

Andi silently counted to ten. Coffee was pretty much the only forensic aid she had at her disposal. “Of course you are, but coffee helps me think. While you get the coffee, I’ll take some pictures and a closer look, maybe dust the trophy case for fingerprints. Then, after you get the next cup, I’ll quickly interview everyone over there at that booth.”

She turned to point at the booth she always sat in when she came to Jackie’s. From there, she could see both the sidewalk and the kitchen, allowing her to time the arrival of her food and anticipate any unexpected visits from the mayor or Ray Evans, the former sheriff. He’d been forced to drop out of the last election after a heart attack, but he was back in fighting shape now, fifty pounds lighter and at least twice as mean—but only to Andi. Since she’d taken office, he liked to shoot her dismissive looks, make snide comments under his breath and generally act as a thorn in her side.

Jackie stormed off as Andi approached the trophy stand. He might be hard to please, but he kept a spotless place. Wanda didn’t have much to worry about in the Country Kitchen. If fat left any residue, Jackie had ruthlessly eliminated it along with any other dust and dirt. The imitation wood grain of the six-foot-tall trophy case was almost spotless. The sliding glass doors that normally kept prying fingers away were open and moved to one side. There didn’t appear to be any scratches on the wood or smudges on the glass. Figuring out how a person could manage that would be a gift to humanity.

“Sheriff, I gotta say it’s an unexpected pleasure to run into you this morning. May I say you’re looking lovely as always.” Andi could see Mark Taylor’s face reflected in the glass and did her best to appear perfectly unaffected yet slightly annoyed. Despite her best effort, Mark Taylor’s husky voice that close to her ear sent a shiver down her spine. In a good way.

“Annoyed” was her number-one defense. If she spent too much time around him without it, she started to think about how handsome he was and how long it had been since she’d had dinner with a man, good-looking or otherwise. Thoughts like that distracted her from how dangerous he was, how easy he made it to trust him. And that was the last thing she needed. The only time she wanted to wind up on the front page was when she won this election.

She didn’t turn to face him, but he stood close enough that she could smell clean clothes and warm man. It was a good smell. Andi licked her lips and said, “I am busy here, Mr. Taylor. We can chat momentarily.”

When she braved a glance his direction, his lips twitched and he gave her a small salute. “I live to serve, Sheriff. Although I am going to enjoy having the shoe on the other foot.”

“What do you mean?” Andi asked.

“I mean you’ll be the one asking questions this time. Maybe I’ll be easier to work with than you are.” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her answer.

She forced her shoulders back down to their normal spot and fought the urge to fidget with her shirt. “Of course, the fact that I wear a badge and gun will help you make a decision.”

He whistled and went to sit at the counter.

Rolling her eyes at how easily he distracted her, Andi thanked her lucky stars Jackie’d been preoccupied.

Andi took out her phone and snapped a few pictures of the case and the sparkling glass before she walked over to check the door. There were no signs of forced entry on the inside. There were no scratches on the lock outside the door, either. No marks on the door. No broken glass. She went back to the office to snap pictures of the safe and Jackie’s spotless desk. The safe had an electronic keypad, but it was just a good, basic burglar-and-fire safe. Whoever had broken in had spent the time to get it open instead of hauling it away. But why take the trophies? This didn’t feel like a random theft.

Andi made a quick trip to her SUV to pull up the field kit. As she did her best to find clear, unique fingerprints on the door, the trophy case and the safe, she cataloged questions and what she knew. And just as she’d expected, she couldn’t find a single print she’d call evidence.

She stepped back into the dining room and propped her hands on her hips, taking one last look to make sure she hadn’t missed a thing. Every table in the restaurant looked to be perfectly placed, neat and set for the morning’s service. The white counter and stools along the front of the room were absolutely spotless. The black-and-white linoleum looked clean enough to eat off of. A small crowd stood outside on the sidewalk. Andi opened the door and gestured for them to come inside.

As they entered, she handed each one a menu. “Morning, folks. You’re welcome to sit anywhere. Someone will be over to get your breakfast order in just a minute.”

Jackie didn’t need to lose any business. And Mayor Jones didn’t need to see distressed tourists loitering on the sidewalk. Andi contemplated darting out to move the bench back to where it belonged, but Jackie set her coffee on the counter.

“Jackie, you can open for business. I just want to ask a few quick questions for now.”

He nodded curtly and marched over to her usual booth. He slid in and slammed his crossed arms on top of the table. As she picked up the coffee mug, Andi said in a low voice to the remaining suspects, “Thank you for your patience. I’ll have you back on your way as soon as possible. Oscar, you can go ahead and get their orders. Jackie will be back in a second.”

Oscar smoothly pulled out his pad and glided over to the table by the window where a family of four was perusing the menu. Their study shouldn’t take long. At breakfast Jackie was big on the basics: pancakes, biscuits, sausage, bacon and eggs. The only real question was how much food they wanted piled up on the table at one time.

Andi slid in across from Jackie and pulled out her notebook and pen. She used to rely on her memory for all the pertinent details. Then Mark Taylor moved to town and Andi decided she might need her own little notebook.

“So, Jackie, is the diner exactly as you found it this morning when you came in?”

“You mean other than the lineup of criminals sitting at my counter? Yes. I didn’t touch anything.”

“Other than the door and the phone, you didn’t touch anything, right?”

His bushy brows beetled over his nose. “Well, yeah, I had to touch the phone to call your office, didn’t I?”

“And to call Mr. Taylor.” Andi sipped her coffee and watched the color rise in Jackie’s cheeks. He gritted his teeth and nodded curtly.

“What about the trophy case?” Andi asked. “Was it locked when you left last night?”

He stared over his shoulder as if the trophy case would tell him the answer. When he looked back, he was frowning, but he finally nodded. In her book, Andi noted that the case might have been unlocked. He didn’t look certain.

“Was the safe locked? And where do you keep the combination?” Andi watched him think.

“Yes, the safe was locked. I didn’t have the combination written down anywhere I can think of.” He sighed. “But I kept the override key in the top drawer of the desk. Probably wouldn’t have been hard to find if he knew what he was looking for.”

She made a note to check for prints on the key. A savvy robber might expect the key to be hidden in the desk, but it didn’t change her mind that the thief was somebody who knew Jackie pretty well. He had a thing for organization and efficiency.

“And where was Wanda Blankenship when you stopped her?”

He huffed once. “She ran past me while I was unlocking the door. You know she makes laps. When she came by again, I grabbed her and told her to sit right down.”

Andi pursed her lips. “And she did? She sat right down when you told her to?”

Jackie shrugged. “I might have threatened to tell a secret about her if she didn’t stay put.”

Andi paused, her pen ready to add whatever shocking secret Jackie had over Wanda Blankenship, but he picked that moment to clam up. “And what is that secret?”

He shook his head. “Nope. I won’t tell.”

“Listen, Jackie, it’s honorable to keep secrets for people who’ve asked you to, but it might help me to know what Wanda’s hiding. I’m pretty good at keeping secrets, too.”

He frowned. “I might need that secret someday. It’s already helped me once. I’m not giving it up.”

Andi fought the urge to sigh. It was difficult but she managed, barely, to meet his eyes. “And it has nothing to do with this case?”

“Can’t see how it does, Sheriff.” He met her stare without flinching, and Andi decided to move on.

“Okay, does the restaurant have a back door, Jackie?” This strip of Main Street had been converted to smaller spaces from a large mercantile. Some of them had back entrances and some didn’t.

Jackie shook his head. “No, Sheriff, we use the front door, have to carry trash around the end of the block to the Dumpsters out back.” He pulled out his order pad as the door clanged shut behind new customers. Jackie glanced at them and back at Andi. “It’s a real pain.”

She jotted down his answer. “You mentioned important documents. Like deeds and legal papers...that sort of thing?”

“Yeah, stuff I wanted to keep safe, things that...well, it’s all important but some of it’s...it can’t be replaced.” He made the wrap-it-up gesture. “Just find my property, Sheriff. Fast. Mona’s going to be real upset until you do, and I can’t have that. The twelve gold trophies ought to be a real easy trail to follow.” He pointed over at the new table of customers. “All right if I go now?”

She nodded. And made a note that Wanda wasn’t the only one with some kind of secret. Jackie didn’t want to talk about whatever was in the safe. Andi wrote down his wife’s name and a big question mark.

Figuring she knew how it well it would go, Andi sucked up her frustration before calling over her shoulder, “Oscar, can I talk to you for a second?”

He silently glided over and hovered.

Andi pointed at the seat across from her. “Do you want to sit down?”

There was a minute adjustment of Oscar’s head that might be a refusal. Apparently he preferred to stand.

“Jackie said you arrived after he did this morning. Is that right?” Another infinitesimal adjustment that might be construed as a nod. “What time did you leave yesterday?” Andi waited. This was going to be good.

“Four.” She didn’t know that she’d ever heard Oscar speak, but he had a nice, deep voice.

“Can anyone verify your whereabouts between four and when you arrived this morning?”

Her answer was a small tic that looked like a no but might also be a yes. She sighed. “All right, Oscar, go ahead and get back to work. I’ll track you down if I have any more questions.” And a deep desire to ram my head against the wall. Oscar would have known about the safe and the key, but he had to be smart enough to know he’d be the number-one suspect if something like this happened.

Andi glanced over to see Wanda Blankenship and Mark Taylor in what appeared to be a cozy conversation. Wanda was leaning against him. One tanned, leanly muscled shoulder rested against him. Andi took a deep breath. “Miss Blankenship, can I talk to you for a second? I know you need to be on your way.”