Act V, page 7
“What could?”
“The residue and what they found in the wine glass. It was a pearl.”
“Like from an oyster?”
“You got it.”
“Well just sauté me a seashell. This is getting weirder by the minute.”
*****
Brice followed up on the dark colored sedan while Addison hit the phones in search of anyone who might have wanted Claude Danning to die. It seemed there were several. Mrs. Danning had already told the other detectives that a man in her husband’s position was bound to have enemies. There were plenty of people at Janico that didn’t care for his management style and some that Danning had dismissed when he’d taken over the business. Any one of them might have tried to kill him.
Addison went through the list of disgruntled employees and former employees one by one, checking motives and alibis. In the mean-time, Brice picked up a hit on the dark sedan. “Get this,” he told his partner. “There’s only one dark Mustang in the area that matches the BRL tag.”
“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. Do you have a name?”
“Yes, and our winner is…one Dorsey Timmons, of 305 Raymond Blvd, Apt 127.”
“That name sounds familiar. Wait a minute.” Addison dug through the list in his lap. “Well I’ll be a stinkin’ son-of-a-gun. Our friend Mr. Timmons used to work for Claude Danning. He got himself fired about three days back.”
“What are we waiting for?”
*****
Dorsey Timmons looked like he’d been drinking for two days. His eyes were baggy, his face was dirty, and he smelled like a mix between a men’s locker room and a brewery. They had picked him up at his apartment, sound asleep on the couch. He had gone with them willingly.
“Mr. Timmons, I was hoping you could answer a few questions for us.” Brice began. “Do you recall being in the neighborhood of Hickory Bridge Road last night?”
He turned his eyes slowly toward Brice. “Have you got something for a headache?”
“Mr. Timmons, answer the question please.” Brice prompted.
“Yeah, I was there. I guess it was last night. I think I’ve lost some time.”
Brice and Addy exchanged glances. “What were you doing there?” It was Addy’s turn.
“I went…this is embarrassing. I mean…what was I thinking?”
Brice nudged his arm. “Mr. Timmons?”
“I got into an argument with my boss a few days ago and got fired.”
Brice wanted more. “It must have been a pretty bad argument to get you fired.”
“Yeah, I ended up calling him a lazy jerk and told him he could never be as good a man as his brother.”
Brice winced. Addison pushed further. “I’m just not gettin’ the connection between you being fired and ending up where you were last night.”
“Oh,” said Timmons, “that’s easy enough. I was drunk and figured I could go and apologize to Mr. Danning, maybe get my job back. I almost did it too. I went up to the door and knocked. I think I tried the knob, but it was locked. Then I chickened out and went home. He’s never gonna give me my job back anyway. Not after what I said.”
Addison mumbled under his breath. “I don’t reckon he’ll be giving anybody’s job back now.”
“What time was that, Mr. Timmons?” Brice asked, ignoring his partner.
“I was pretty far gone, but I think it was late, like eleven o’clock or so. I feel like an idiot.”
Brice tended to agree but didn’t say so. “Mr. Timmons, are you aware that Claude Danning was killed last night at about the same time you were in the neighborhood?”
Timmons’ face dropped and his mouth went slack. He couldn’t have shown more shock. Either he was a very good actor or this was the first he’d heard of his former employer’s death. “He’s dead? You’ve got to be kidding me. Is this why you wanted me here? You think I killed him?”
“We’re just checking out all the angles.”
“You’ve got to believe me. I mean…I was mad but I’m already looking another job. I never even went inside. I guess that’s why he didn’t answer the door.”
“Could be,” said Addison. “Death tends to make you a bit anti-social.”
*****
They did a voluntary fingerprinting and sent Dorsey Timmons home with the promise that they’d be watching him. Just being in the area and holding a grudge against somebody didn’t make you a murderer. “Saint Croix on a Cracker!” said Addison. “I thought we had our guy but I don’t think he had the smarts to do it. At least he didn’t last night. This thing looks planned and our buddy, Timmons, was too soused to plan anything.”
“I don’t know, he could have gotten drunk after he killed Danning.” Brice told him. “I wonder how smart he is when he’s sober and not fighting a hangover.”
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out. But as far as I can tell, he’d have to add on a whole lot of IQ points to do what this guy did.”
*****
Saturday was not a rehearsal day, and Glynnis found she had time to catch up on straightening the house. She had to do something to keep busy and get her mind off the Danning murder. She felt somehow responsible, even though her brain told her she was no more responsible for his death than a rooster was for the sunrise. Still, she had to think about other things or go nuts in the process.
Most people listen to music or watch TV while they cleaned house. Glynnis preferred books. She loaded an audio book from the library web site onto her MP3 player, a romance, something she didn’t have to strain her brain to think about, and started picking up. When she finished that, she would fold clothes, anything to help her slip away. In the middle of vacuuming the carpet, Glynnis realized she had no idea what had happened in the last fifteen minutes of her book. Not that it mattered, romances, like soap operas, all ran the same route, but still…”
The doorbell rang. Glynnis looked down at what she was wearing and shrugged. “Oh well,” she told Carl while running her fingers through her hair, “You show up unannounced, you get what you get.” She opened the door and saw her former fiancé staring at her, looking like he’d been through the ringer. Her day was just getting better and better!
*****
“Dorsey, what on Earth?” She glared, open-mouthed, at the exhausted man standing in her doorway.
“Glynnis, may I come in?”
It crossed her mind to refuse but she could see something was wrong. “Of course, I guess.” Glynnis opened the door further and stepped back allowing him to pass through. An odor pervaded the room that made Glynnis think, I’m going to have to clean this place again. “Dorsey, are you okay?” His eyes were tired and his auburn hair was dirty and sticking out in all directions.
“Yes…no. I don’t know. Nice place.” He sat down in a recliner. Glynnis thought he looked more like a rag doll than anything else. She resisted the urge to grab a can of Lysol and start spraying. “Your mother said it was nice.”
She walked into the kitchen and came back with a glass of ice water, handing it to Dorsey. He took it from her and downed it all at once. “More?” she asked.
“Please.”
She refilled the glass and he drank this one more slowly. “Maybe you should tell me what’s going on,” she whispered, afraid that whatever was bothering Dorsey was something that should be kept quiet.
“I’m not sure where to start.” He sat the glass down on a coaster. “Glynnis, everything I’ve done over the last week has been idiotic. Oh man, Glynn, I’ve been pretty stupid for a long time now.”
Glynnis wasn’t going to go down that path because she agreed completely. “Tell me about this week.”
He lifted the glass and pressed it to his forehead. “I already told you that I said something stupid to my boss and got fired.”
She made a noise of agreement to encourage him to go on.
“Then when you told me to apologize to him, well, I was pretty drunk, and…”
“Oh, Dorsey, you didn’t call him last night.”
“Worse,” he groaned. “I didn’t think about how late it was. I just wanted to make it right, so I went over there.”
“How did he react?” She leaned on the arm of the recliner, and without thinking stroked his forehead like she had always done before. “It couldn’t have been good.”
He looked into her hazel eyes. “Why did I let you leave me?”
“Dorsey…you broke up with me.” She shook her head. “That’s a discussion for another time. Tell me what happened with your boss.”
“Okay, okay.” She could see by the thoughtful look on his face that Dorsey was still trying to put it together. “He didn’t react. I knocked on the door and I tried to open it. Then I chickened out and left.”
“So, what’s the problem then? You can still go in on Monday and…”
“Glynnis! Listen to me.” He grasped her wrist, forcing her to stop what she was saying and look at him. “My boss was killed last night.”
Glynnis didn’t say a word. She couldn’t think of anything to say. This whole situation was out of control. She took the water glass out of Dorsey’s hand and sat down in the other recliner to drink what was left. “Dorsey,” she began, praying she was wrong, “your boss was Claude Danning?”
He nodded.
Oh man!
She hadn’t known where Dorsey had taken a new job. She’d gotten her information third hand through the Mama grapevine and had told herself at the time that she didn’t care. What a mess.
“There’s more.” Dorsey’s tired voice broke through her thoughts. “The police took me in for questioning this afternoon.”
“Oh, no.” She didn’t want to analyze too closely the feeling that was twisting her stomach into knots. Was this sympathy or did she still feel something for him? “Do they suspect you?”
“Maybe. They let me go for now and told me to stay around. Where would I go to anyway?” He twisted his knees up into the recliner and turned until he was facing her. “Glynnis, I’m so sorry I brought you in on all this, but I just couldn’t think who else to talk to. I don’t have anyone to go to.” Dorsey’s mother had died when he was only a child. His father had suffered a stroke two years ago when his business went under. He had only survived for a few weeks afterward. It had taken Dorsey months to clear up the paper work mess only to be left with nothing. “I just had to talk and you were the only person I thought might listen.”
Glynnis watched him for a moment, waiting for physical signs that he was leaving something out or perhaps even lying outright. “I’m really sorry, Dorsey. What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got a lead on another job. I’ve got a buddy who needs help in deliveries. It’d work for now anyway. Maybe I should find out about defense lawyers just in case, too. Do you think I’ll need a lawyer?” His eyes widened. “Glynn, I can’t afford a lawyer.”
“Maybe you should just go home and take a bath, then get some sleep.” She told him. “You can start following that job lead on Monday.”
“You’re right, I should go,” he told her, standing. He looked down at his hands. “Thanks for listening.”
“Will you be okay?”
“I just needed to say it out loud. It helps to hear your own voice sorting it all out.” He bent and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Would it be okay if I call you tomorrow, maybe?”
“Dorsey, I don’t think…” She couldn’t let him down right now, even if he had let her down when she really needed him. “Okay.”
As he walked to his car, Glynnis thought through what had just happened. He had looked down at his hands. In the year and a half the two had dated, she had learned his mannerisms backward and forward. When Dorsey scratched his head, he was distracted. When he stretched both legs out behind him one at a time, like a cat, he was thinking of nefarious activities. When he looked at his hands, as he had just now, he was hiding something.
So what was he hiding?
Chapter 6
Kenneth checked his watch. “Gabby, honey, if you don’t get moving we’ll miss our flight, and I’ve got to go to work tomorrow.”
“Coming.” This was the same response she’d given him the last two times he’d called her in the last forty minutes. “Just have to brush my teeth.”
Kenny did a last check of the room to make sure that they weren’t leaving anything. It looked clean, but once he’d left his favorite watch sitting by an alarm clock in a hotel room in Columbia. When he’d remembered leaving it there, he’d called, but by then it was already gone. No doubt, some hotel employee had already given it to her boyfriend.
“Okay,” Gabby walked out of the bathroom looking more beautiful than she had last night and the night before. She was worth waiting for.
He gave her a lingering kiss, wishing that they had just one more day in Vegas. “Come on, everything’s in the car.”
She grabbed her purse. “Have you thought about what you’ll tell your parents?”
“Not much,” He headed for the door. “How about you?”
“No. I don’t know what they can do about it now. I just hope they don’t refuse to pay for the rest of my degree.”
“They love you, Gabby. They want what’s best—even if they don’t like your choice of husbands.”
“At least you’ve already been accepted to law school and you have your scholarship. You don’t have to worry.” She realized how snarky that sounded and backtracked immediately. “I just meant that I’m glad we’re at least halfway there.
He took her hand as they walked to the rental. “It’s okay, baby. I’ll take care of you. We’ll get you through school one way or the other.”
She looked at him with all the love a newlywed could feel. She knew he would always protect her. Kenny was her world and she was his. They would have a wonderful, long life together. They would face whatever their parents threw at them, together.
*****
“I’m very sorry ma’am, but Detectives Gearhart and Paddix are not available at the moment.” The dispatch officer sounded as if she’d been asked to repeat the twelve times table followed by the Preamble to the Constitution. They’ll be back in the office tomorrow morning. May I help you?” She was about as interested in helping Glynnis as she was in getting malaria.
“I don’t know. It’s regarding the Claude Danning, um…case.”
Glynnis could hear her tapping out something on her keyboard and then, “It looks like Detectives Hardy and Hawkins are also on that case. Wait a minute please.” The phone beeped onto hold and Glynnis was thankful that they decided to leave off the elevator music. A few minutes later, she was back. “I’m very sorry, but the two of them are out at the moment. I could call them or leave a message for Detectives Gearhart and Paddix.”
Glynnis was pretty sure she could hear her filing her nails on the other end and wanted to jump through the line and drag the help out of her. “Maybe you could just tell them I called and would like to talk to one of them, that is—Gearhart or Paddix.”
“Do they have your contact information, Ms. Nuckolls?”
“Yes, and thanks for all your help.”
She didn’t seem to notice the sarcastic edge in Glynn’s voice. “You’re very welcome.”
This weekend had turned into a true disaster, and it wasn’t over yet.
*****
She was getting ready to warm up leftover chicken for supper when the doorbell rang and Carl started barking and whining with pure ecstasy. He loved company. Glynnis wasn’t expecting visitors and had never had a peep-hole installed. Until now there didn’t seem to be much point. The crime rate here wasn’t non-existent, but it wasn’t likely anyone would storm through your front door uninvited either. Well, not until now.
When Glynnis opened the door, she began to reconsider that peep-hole business. Wavy black hair and sparkling eyes stared back at her. “Detective Gearhart!”
“Brice,” he corrected. “I’m actually off-duty right now.” He looked past her into the entryway and then held up a plastic bag holding a cardboard takeout box. “You like Greek pizza?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had it before.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.” He inclined his head. “May I come in?”
“Sure…please.” She led him into the kitchen and indicated the breakfast table. “Sit down, Detective, um, Brice. Would you like something to drink with your pizza? I’ve got Coke, iced tea, sorry, no beer or wine. I don’t drink very often.”
“Coke’s good.”
She filled two glasses as he opened up the pizza box, then sat down across from him. “Is there something you needed to ask me about…” she couldn’t bring herself to say the murder “the case?”
“Here, have some.” He pointed to the pizza. “It’s great. They put feta cheese on it, and black olives, and…”
“Detective?”
“Sorry, I just love this pizza.” He took a huge bite, dangled a piece of cheese below the table for Carl, and went on. “Anyway, no, I don’t have anything to tell you or ask you, but I checked in with dispatch just out of habit and they said you’d called.”
“Oh, I’m really sorry. It wasn’t an emergency or anything, I just…you really didn’t have to come over here on your day off.”
“It was this or golf on TV. Have you ever watched golf on TV?”
“No, I think I’d rather watch my neice’s dance recital…all three hours of it.”
“Me too. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if it wasn’t an emergency. Why’d you call?”
She bit into a slice of white pizza. “You’re right, this is good.” She swallowed. “I understand that you questioned Dorsey Timmons yesterday regarding the murd…Mr. Danning.”
He looked at her as if she had a squirrel sitting on her head or something. “Wow! You really are psychic!”
“Yeah, that, or Dorsey came to my house to tell me about it last night.”
“Wait a minute. You know Dorsey Timmons?”
She smiled. “It’s a small town, Detective.”
“How small?”
“He’s my ex-fiancé.”
“No kidding! Too bad for him!”
“You mean the ex part or the fiancé part?”
“The residue and what they found in the wine glass. It was a pearl.”
“Like from an oyster?”
“You got it.”
“Well just sauté me a seashell. This is getting weirder by the minute.”
*****
Brice followed up on the dark colored sedan while Addison hit the phones in search of anyone who might have wanted Claude Danning to die. It seemed there were several. Mrs. Danning had already told the other detectives that a man in her husband’s position was bound to have enemies. There were plenty of people at Janico that didn’t care for his management style and some that Danning had dismissed when he’d taken over the business. Any one of them might have tried to kill him.
Addison went through the list of disgruntled employees and former employees one by one, checking motives and alibis. In the mean-time, Brice picked up a hit on the dark sedan. “Get this,” he told his partner. “There’s only one dark Mustang in the area that matches the BRL tag.”
“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. Do you have a name?”
“Yes, and our winner is…one Dorsey Timmons, of 305 Raymond Blvd, Apt 127.”
“That name sounds familiar. Wait a minute.” Addison dug through the list in his lap. “Well I’ll be a stinkin’ son-of-a-gun. Our friend Mr. Timmons used to work for Claude Danning. He got himself fired about three days back.”
“What are we waiting for?”
*****
Dorsey Timmons looked like he’d been drinking for two days. His eyes were baggy, his face was dirty, and he smelled like a mix between a men’s locker room and a brewery. They had picked him up at his apartment, sound asleep on the couch. He had gone with them willingly.
“Mr. Timmons, I was hoping you could answer a few questions for us.” Brice began. “Do you recall being in the neighborhood of Hickory Bridge Road last night?”
He turned his eyes slowly toward Brice. “Have you got something for a headache?”
“Mr. Timmons, answer the question please.” Brice prompted.
“Yeah, I was there. I guess it was last night. I think I’ve lost some time.”
Brice and Addy exchanged glances. “What were you doing there?” It was Addy’s turn.
“I went…this is embarrassing. I mean…what was I thinking?”
Brice nudged his arm. “Mr. Timmons?”
“I got into an argument with my boss a few days ago and got fired.”
Brice wanted more. “It must have been a pretty bad argument to get you fired.”
“Yeah, I ended up calling him a lazy jerk and told him he could never be as good a man as his brother.”
Brice winced. Addison pushed further. “I’m just not gettin’ the connection between you being fired and ending up where you were last night.”
“Oh,” said Timmons, “that’s easy enough. I was drunk and figured I could go and apologize to Mr. Danning, maybe get my job back. I almost did it too. I went up to the door and knocked. I think I tried the knob, but it was locked. Then I chickened out and went home. He’s never gonna give me my job back anyway. Not after what I said.”
Addison mumbled under his breath. “I don’t reckon he’ll be giving anybody’s job back now.”
“What time was that, Mr. Timmons?” Brice asked, ignoring his partner.
“I was pretty far gone, but I think it was late, like eleven o’clock or so. I feel like an idiot.”
Brice tended to agree but didn’t say so. “Mr. Timmons, are you aware that Claude Danning was killed last night at about the same time you were in the neighborhood?”
Timmons’ face dropped and his mouth went slack. He couldn’t have shown more shock. Either he was a very good actor or this was the first he’d heard of his former employer’s death. “He’s dead? You’ve got to be kidding me. Is this why you wanted me here? You think I killed him?”
“We’re just checking out all the angles.”
“You’ve got to believe me. I mean…I was mad but I’m already looking another job. I never even went inside. I guess that’s why he didn’t answer the door.”
“Could be,” said Addison. “Death tends to make you a bit anti-social.”
*****
They did a voluntary fingerprinting and sent Dorsey Timmons home with the promise that they’d be watching him. Just being in the area and holding a grudge against somebody didn’t make you a murderer. “Saint Croix on a Cracker!” said Addison. “I thought we had our guy but I don’t think he had the smarts to do it. At least he didn’t last night. This thing looks planned and our buddy, Timmons, was too soused to plan anything.”
“I don’t know, he could have gotten drunk after he killed Danning.” Brice told him. “I wonder how smart he is when he’s sober and not fighting a hangover.”
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out. But as far as I can tell, he’d have to add on a whole lot of IQ points to do what this guy did.”
*****
Saturday was not a rehearsal day, and Glynnis found she had time to catch up on straightening the house. She had to do something to keep busy and get her mind off the Danning murder. She felt somehow responsible, even though her brain told her she was no more responsible for his death than a rooster was for the sunrise. Still, she had to think about other things or go nuts in the process.
Most people listen to music or watch TV while they cleaned house. Glynnis preferred books. She loaded an audio book from the library web site onto her MP3 player, a romance, something she didn’t have to strain her brain to think about, and started picking up. When she finished that, she would fold clothes, anything to help her slip away. In the middle of vacuuming the carpet, Glynnis realized she had no idea what had happened in the last fifteen minutes of her book. Not that it mattered, romances, like soap operas, all ran the same route, but still…”
The doorbell rang. Glynnis looked down at what she was wearing and shrugged. “Oh well,” she told Carl while running her fingers through her hair, “You show up unannounced, you get what you get.” She opened the door and saw her former fiancé staring at her, looking like he’d been through the ringer. Her day was just getting better and better!
*****
“Dorsey, what on Earth?” She glared, open-mouthed, at the exhausted man standing in her doorway.
“Glynnis, may I come in?”
It crossed her mind to refuse but she could see something was wrong. “Of course, I guess.” Glynnis opened the door further and stepped back allowing him to pass through. An odor pervaded the room that made Glynnis think, I’m going to have to clean this place again. “Dorsey, are you okay?” His eyes were tired and his auburn hair was dirty and sticking out in all directions.
“Yes…no. I don’t know. Nice place.” He sat down in a recliner. Glynnis thought he looked more like a rag doll than anything else. She resisted the urge to grab a can of Lysol and start spraying. “Your mother said it was nice.”
She walked into the kitchen and came back with a glass of ice water, handing it to Dorsey. He took it from her and downed it all at once. “More?” she asked.
“Please.”
She refilled the glass and he drank this one more slowly. “Maybe you should tell me what’s going on,” she whispered, afraid that whatever was bothering Dorsey was something that should be kept quiet.
“I’m not sure where to start.” He sat the glass down on a coaster. “Glynnis, everything I’ve done over the last week has been idiotic. Oh man, Glynn, I’ve been pretty stupid for a long time now.”
Glynnis wasn’t going to go down that path because she agreed completely. “Tell me about this week.”
He lifted the glass and pressed it to his forehead. “I already told you that I said something stupid to my boss and got fired.”
She made a noise of agreement to encourage him to go on.
“Then when you told me to apologize to him, well, I was pretty drunk, and…”
“Oh, Dorsey, you didn’t call him last night.”
“Worse,” he groaned. “I didn’t think about how late it was. I just wanted to make it right, so I went over there.”
“How did he react?” She leaned on the arm of the recliner, and without thinking stroked his forehead like she had always done before. “It couldn’t have been good.”
He looked into her hazel eyes. “Why did I let you leave me?”
“Dorsey…you broke up with me.” She shook her head. “That’s a discussion for another time. Tell me what happened with your boss.”
“Okay, okay.” She could see by the thoughtful look on his face that Dorsey was still trying to put it together. “He didn’t react. I knocked on the door and I tried to open it. Then I chickened out and left.”
“So, what’s the problem then? You can still go in on Monday and…”
“Glynnis! Listen to me.” He grasped her wrist, forcing her to stop what she was saying and look at him. “My boss was killed last night.”
Glynnis didn’t say a word. She couldn’t think of anything to say. This whole situation was out of control. She took the water glass out of Dorsey’s hand and sat down in the other recliner to drink what was left. “Dorsey,” she began, praying she was wrong, “your boss was Claude Danning?”
He nodded.
Oh man!
She hadn’t known where Dorsey had taken a new job. She’d gotten her information third hand through the Mama grapevine and had told herself at the time that she didn’t care. What a mess.
“There’s more.” Dorsey’s tired voice broke through her thoughts. “The police took me in for questioning this afternoon.”
“Oh, no.” She didn’t want to analyze too closely the feeling that was twisting her stomach into knots. Was this sympathy or did she still feel something for him? “Do they suspect you?”
“Maybe. They let me go for now and told me to stay around. Where would I go to anyway?” He twisted his knees up into the recliner and turned until he was facing her. “Glynnis, I’m so sorry I brought you in on all this, but I just couldn’t think who else to talk to. I don’t have anyone to go to.” Dorsey’s mother had died when he was only a child. His father had suffered a stroke two years ago when his business went under. He had only survived for a few weeks afterward. It had taken Dorsey months to clear up the paper work mess only to be left with nothing. “I just had to talk and you were the only person I thought might listen.”
Glynnis watched him for a moment, waiting for physical signs that he was leaving something out or perhaps even lying outright. “I’m really sorry, Dorsey. What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got a lead on another job. I’ve got a buddy who needs help in deliveries. It’d work for now anyway. Maybe I should find out about defense lawyers just in case, too. Do you think I’ll need a lawyer?” His eyes widened. “Glynn, I can’t afford a lawyer.”
“Maybe you should just go home and take a bath, then get some sleep.” She told him. “You can start following that job lead on Monday.”
“You’re right, I should go,” he told her, standing. He looked down at his hands. “Thanks for listening.”
“Will you be okay?”
“I just needed to say it out loud. It helps to hear your own voice sorting it all out.” He bent and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Would it be okay if I call you tomorrow, maybe?”
“Dorsey, I don’t think…” She couldn’t let him down right now, even if he had let her down when she really needed him. “Okay.”
As he walked to his car, Glynnis thought through what had just happened. He had looked down at his hands. In the year and a half the two had dated, she had learned his mannerisms backward and forward. When Dorsey scratched his head, he was distracted. When he stretched both legs out behind him one at a time, like a cat, he was thinking of nefarious activities. When he looked at his hands, as he had just now, he was hiding something.
So what was he hiding?
Chapter 6
Kenneth checked his watch. “Gabby, honey, if you don’t get moving we’ll miss our flight, and I’ve got to go to work tomorrow.”
“Coming.” This was the same response she’d given him the last two times he’d called her in the last forty minutes. “Just have to brush my teeth.”
Kenny did a last check of the room to make sure that they weren’t leaving anything. It looked clean, but once he’d left his favorite watch sitting by an alarm clock in a hotel room in Columbia. When he’d remembered leaving it there, he’d called, but by then it was already gone. No doubt, some hotel employee had already given it to her boyfriend.
“Okay,” Gabby walked out of the bathroom looking more beautiful than she had last night and the night before. She was worth waiting for.
He gave her a lingering kiss, wishing that they had just one more day in Vegas. “Come on, everything’s in the car.”
She grabbed her purse. “Have you thought about what you’ll tell your parents?”
“Not much,” He headed for the door. “How about you?”
“No. I don’t know what they can do about it now. I just hope they don’t refuse to pay for the rest of my degree.”
“They love you, Gabby. They want what’s best—even if they don’t like your choice of husbands.”
“At least you’ve already been accepted to law school and you have your scholarship. You don’t have to worry.” She realized how snarky that sounded and backtracked immediately. “I just meant that I’m glad we’re at least halfway there.
He took her hand as they walked to the rental. “It’s okay, baby. I’ll take care of you. We’ll get you through school one way or the other.”
She looked at him with all the love a newlywed could feel. She knew he would always protect her. Kenny was her world and she was his. They would have a wonderful, long life together. They would face whatever their parents threw at them, together.
*****
“I’m very sorry ma’am, but Detectives Gearhart and Paddix are not available at the moment.” The dispatch officer sounded as if she’d been asked to repeat the twelve times table followed by the Preamble to the Constitution. They’ll be back in the office tomorrow morning. May I help you?” She was about as interested in helping Glynnis as she was in getting malaria.
“I don’t know. It’s regarding the Claude Danning, um…case.”
Glynnis could hear her tapping out something on her keyboard and then, “It looks like Detectives Hardy and Hawkins are also on that case. Wait a minute please.” The phone beeped onto hold and Glynnis was thankful that they decided to leave off the elevator music. A few minutes later, she was back. “I’m very sorry, but the two of them are out at the moment. I could call them or leave a message for Detectives Gearhart and Paddix.”
Glynnis was pretty sure she could hear her filing her nails on the other end and wanted to jump through the line and drag the help out of her. “Maybe you could just tell them I called and would like to talk to one of them, that is—Gearhart or Paddix.”
“Do they have your contact information, Ms. Nuckolls?”
“Yes, and thanks for all your help.”
She didn’t seem to notice the sarcastic edge in Glynn’s voice. “You’re very welcome.”
This weekend had turned into a true disaster, and it wasn’t over yet.
*****
She was getting ready to warm up leftover chicken for supper when the doorbell rang and Carl started barking and whining with pure ecstasy. He loved company. Glynnis wasn’t expecting visitors and had never had a peep-hole installed. Until now there didn’t seem to be much point. The crime rate here wasn’t non-existent, but it wasn’t likely anyone would storm through your front door uninvited either. Well, not until now.
When Glynnis opened the door, she began to reconsider that peep-hole business. Wavy black hair and sparkling eyes stared back at her. “Detective Gearhart!”
“Brice,” he corrected. “I’m actually off-duty right now.” He looked past her into the entryway and then held up a plastic bag holding a cardboard takeout box. “You like Greek pizza?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had it before.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.” He inclined his head. “May I come in?”
“Sure…please.” She led him into the kitchen and indicated the breakfast table. “Sit down, Detective, um, Brice. Would you like something to drink with your pizza? I’ve got Coke, iced tea, sorry, no beer or wine. I don’t drink very often.”
“Coke’s good.”
She filled two glasses as he opened up the pizza box, then sat down across from him. “Is there something you needed to ask me about…” she couldn’t bring herself to say the murder “the case?”
“Here, have some.” He pointed to the pizza. “It’s great. They put feta cheese on it, and black olives, and…”
“Detective?”
“Sorry, I just love this pizza.” He took a huge bite, dangled a piece of cheese below the table for Carl, and went on. “Anyway, no, I don’t have anything to tell you or ask you, but I checked in with dispatch just out of habit and they said you’d called.”
“Oh, I’m really sorry. It wasn’t an emergency or anything, I just…you really didn’t have to come over here on your day off.”
“It was this or golf on TV. Have you ever watched golf on TV?”
“No, I think I’d rather watch my neice’s dance recital…all three hours of it.”
“Me too. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if it wasn’t an emergency. Why’d you call?”
She bit into a slice of white pizza. “You’re right, this is good.” She swallowed. “I understand that you questioned Dorsey Timmons yesterday regarding the murd…Mr. Danning.”
He looked at her as if she had a squirrel sitting on her head or something. “Wow! You really are psychic!”
“Yeah, that, or Dorsey came to my house to tell me about it last night.”
“Wait a minute. You know Dorsey Timmons?”
She smiled. “It’s a small town, Detective.”
“How small?”
“He’s my ex-fiancé.”
“No kidding! Too bad for him!”
“You mean the ex part or the fiancé part?”
