Mistletoe & Murder (2 page)

*****

There wasn’t much we could do about the murder on Christmas, so we decided we would all enjoy the holiday and our families. I for one still wanted to talk to Jesse and find out what was going on with Ashley and why she wasn’t here. I had thought everything was perfect with them. I filled my mug with steaming cider and walked into the living room. Jesse was sitting by the fire, so it was an opportune time to find out what was going on. I sat next to him on the couch, and he looked at me as if he knew what was coming.

“You know you can’t hide from me,” I said. “In fact I can’t believe mom has left you alone. What is going on with you and Ashley?”

“Oh, Presley. I’ve screwed up so much. I’m afraid I’ve lost her.” Jesse ran his fingers through his hair.

“What happened?”

“We got in this huge fight last week. I told her I was worried about her and asked if she would consider taking a desk job.”

“That seems reasonable to ask. I just hope you didn’t expect her to go for it.”

“We were talking about getting married, and I may have said something that sounded like I wouldn’t want to get married if I always had to worry about her.”

“Are you nuts? I assume that completely ticked her off? What were you thinking?” Ashley was a DEA agent. She had hidden that fact from Jesse for a long time when they had started dating. He had thought she was a schoolteacher and instead that was one of a couple cover stories; she really had been working as a stripper undercover to help bust illegal mob activity by the mobster who owned the club she worked at. That has occurred when I had been in Vegas a few months ago for Anna’s wedding, which never happened. Ashley had went missing, and when we finally found her, being held captive by the very mob guys she was trying to put away, and the truth came tumbling out. Jesse forgave her for not telling him the truth, but he had apparently found it difficult to overlook the dangerous nature of her job and ended up being a jerk about it.

“That’s just it, I wasn’t thinking,” he said then paused for a minute and closed his eyes. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded, and somehow our argument just escalated and got so out of control. She walked out on me saying she never wanted to talk to my chauvinistic ass again.”

“And you didn’t follow her?”

“She had just told me she never wanted to talk to me again. What was I supposed to do?”

Men. They didn’t understand that sometimes women said things we didn’t mean. “Jesse, you sure can be dense. You should have went after her, not let her leave, dummy.”

“You don’t know how ticked off she was.”

“I realize I wasn’t there, but by not going after her where did that leave you? Here, alone, for Christmas.”

“I know. I’m miserable without her, but what do I do now?”

“Where is your phone?”

“Why?” he asked handing it to me. I went to his contacts and looked up Ashley’s number and pressed call.

“You’re calling her because I bet she is just as miserable as you are, but you need to be the one to apologize,” I said handing him back the phone.

“What do I say?” he asked looking at the phone scared, as if it was going to bite him.

“Just say you’re sorry, and the rest will come to you.” A couple more seconds went by. I was hoping she would answer. Just when I had about given up hope, I heard Jesse say hi.

“I’m so, so sorry, Ashley,” he said and gave me the thumbs up. He pointed over to his old bedroom so I knew he wanted some privacy. I felt good. My work here was done. I reclined back on the couch with what was left of my cider and hoped that my brother and Ashley would work things out.

*****

“Where are we headed?” I asked Cooper as we pulled out of my parent’s driveway early in the morning the day after Christmas.

“First to the Coffee Café to get you a coffee and one of those peach cream cheese muffins you like so much, and then I thought we’d take a drive to Shelby. Brian said Tommy still lived with his parents. Maybe they can tell us something.

I smiled at the thought that he remembered my favorite muffin. “I appreciate your willingness to help, Cooper.” He normally wanted me to leave things up to the police. He hated me getting involved and dragging him into it, though he always said yes to me in the end.

“Well consider it my Christmas present to you. I figured you would investigate on your own whether I wanted you to or not, so why fight it?”

I smiled. He was right. We stopped and got my coffee and muffin and I was disappointed I didn’t recognize anyone working. Betty, the owner, was in Florida and there were a bunch of young girls working the counter, much like I had at their age. However, as I bit into the warm, gooey muffin I had to admit they were as good as I have ever remembered.

“What makes you think Tommy’s parents will want to talk to us? After all, they just lost their son.” I asked.

“Well I’m hoping that like most people in their situation they will want to do whatever they can to help us find the killer of their child.”

We drove in silence for a while and soon turned down a two-lane country road that took us to Tommy’s parents. We quickly pull up to an older farmhouse that was well kept. Christmas lights hung on the roof but not lit. Neither was the tree I could see through the window. I felt bad for his parents; I couldn’t imagine what they were going through. We walked up to the door, and Cooper raised his hand to knock when the door swung open. Standing before us was a young kid, probably about sixteen.

“Are your parents home?” Cooper asked.

“No, they’re at the funeral home. My brother was killed. Who are you?” he asked with a glint of suspicion in his eyes.

“My name is Cooper Sands, and this is Presley Thurman. We understand this is a tough time for all of you, and we are very sorry, but we wanted to ask your parents a few questions about Tommy.”

“Why? You cops?”

“No. Just trying to help.”

The kid looked indecisive for a minute then relented and opened the door the rest of the way and ushered us in.

We left thirty minutes later with the name and address of Tommy’s best friend, Andrew Bachman. The kid, Tommy’s younger brother Tim, told us that Tommy and Andrew had been best friends since grade school and if Tommy was mixed up in anything Andrew would know.

We drove the few miles down the road to where Tim said Andrew lived and pulled in to the driveway of another older, well-kept farmhouse. The people in this community definitely took care of their property. We knocked on the door and Andrew’ mom answered and pointed behind the house to the barn where she said Andrew was working. We walked around back and pushed open the barn door to find a young man bending over an old car. The barn was warn and toasty, being heated by a kerosene heater, and I glanced around and noticed there were a lot of expensive looking tools. Granted, I knew less than nothing about tools, but there was something that made me wonder if the tools here might just be the tools missing from Brian’s shop. The look Cooper gave me told me he was thinking the same thing. The kid finally looked up, wondering I’m sure who we were and why we were there.

“Can I help you?” he asked in a tone that implied he didn’t want to talk.

“We wanted to talk to you about Tommy,” said Cooper, “we’re friends of Brian’s.” At this Andrew looked at us with both interest and wariness and then glanced around the makeshift shop. I could tell he was nervous, maybe because we had noticed the tools.

“I’ve already talked to the police. I’m not sure what I can tell you.”

“Do you have any idea who may have wanted Tommy dead?” I asked.

“No. He was a nice guy.”

“Even nice guys do bad things. Is there anything that Tommy was involved in that maybe wasn’t on the up and up?”

“What do you mean?” he said warily.

I sighed. “C’mon Andrew. We’re not trying to get you in trouble here. We just want to know what happened to Tommy.”

Andrew paused like he was deep in thought. “He did mention something a few weeks ago that someone had approached him about some stolen cars.”

I perked up. Maybe Tommy was involved in a stolen car ring and ran afoul of the wrong people. “You mean wanting him to steal cars?”

“No I don’t think so. I think it was more about some aftermarket work they wanted done.

“Do you know who approached him?”

“A guy by the name of Scott. I think his last name is Green. He runs a garage north of here. I told all this to the police.”

“As well you should,” Cooper said. “We aren’t trying to do their job for them. Just trying to help out a friend.”

Andrew nodded. “I can get that.”

“You’ve been a big help,” I said. “And Andrew, if you return the tools in here that might have questionable ownership, I’m sure you could do so no questions were asked.”

He looked sheepish. By the expression on his face I knew I was right; those were the tools missing from Brian’s shop. I was sure with Tommy being dead Brian wouldn’t care where the tools had been; he’d just be happy to get them back.

*****

“He’s hiding something,” Cooper said.

“But what?”

“I’m not sure, but I’ll bet it has something to do with Brian’s shop, and it’s more than some stolen tools. He’s holding something back. Call Brian, would you?”

“Ok. What do you want me to say?”

“Ask him if he can meet us.”

I got Brian on the phone and made plans to meet him at the McDonalds on the edge of town. I was intrigued at what was running though Cooper’s mind. A few minutes later we pulled in and Brian’s truck was already there. We went inside to find him waiting and munching on some French fries. They smelled so good. I was tempted to get some and a Diet Coke. However, after all the food I ate on Christmas and the leftovers at my parents, the last thing I needed was fries.

“Go ahead, Presley. I know you want some,” Brian said pushing his fries over to me where I eagerly took a few. They were hot and crispy with just the right amount of salt.

“We just left Andrew Bachman’s,” Cooper started.

“Tommy’s friend?”

“Yeah, and he seems to be in possession of your missing tools.”

Brian’s eyebrows rose. “Really? I was really hoping that Tommy wasn’t stealing. Not that it matters now, I guess.”

“We told him that he could return the tools, no questions asked,” I said. “I assumed in light of everything you would be happy to just have them back.”

“Of course. Is that what you wanted to meet me for?”

“Not entirely,” Cooper said. “Do you know of a Scott Green?”

“I know the name. He owns a garage a ways from here, and it’s rumored that his business dealings aren’t always on the up and up. But other than the rumors, I don’t know him personally. Why?”

“We think he had something to do with Tommy being at the shop,” I said.

“You think Scott Green murdered Tommy?”

“I’m not ready to go that far,” I said, “but Andrew told us about Scott wanting Tommy to do some work from him. When we asked what type of work, though, Andrew got cagey and said it was some sort of aftermarket stuff. Neither Cooper nor I felt he was being entirely truthful.”

“Well there have been rumors going around about a stolen car ring in this area. Do you think Tommy could have been involved?”

“If he was, why would he have been in your shop at that hour of the night, or day, however you want to look at it?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Brian said. “The police finished processing the crime scene awhile ago. Maybe we should head over there, see if anything jumps out.”

“I think that’s a good idea. We just need to stop at my parents on the way. I promised mom we’d be back for lunch at least. You’re welcome to come, Brian.”

“Thanks but I think it would be a good idea for me to do the same thing. Mom has been blowing up my phone being worried about me. I will swing by there on my way to the shop. Meet you there in about an hour?”

“Sounds good.”

We headed home and stuffed ourselves on leftover turkey and pie. Mom wasn’t too happy that we left right away again; she wanted me to spend time with the family not go around chasing murderers. But since she liked Brian, I wasn’t going to worry too much. She would get over it.

We beat Brian to the shop but only waited a couple minutes before his truck pulled in. I jumped out of my Kia wishing I had worn my fat pants. The waistband of my jeans was so tight it was digging into my stomach. Too much pie.

Brian got out of his truck and pointed at a black SUV parked on the street. “Did you see who was driving that car?”

“No. I think it was here when we pulled up.” I looked at Cooper for his agreement.

“She’s right, but it hasn’t been here long. You can see the snow under the car.” There had been snow flurries off and on over the last twenty-four hours and you could clearly see the build-up of snow under the car.

“Why?’ I asked Brian.

“I’ve seen that SUV around a lot the last week or so. I am curious as to who it belongs too.”

We walked up to the shop, and Brian unlocked the door. When he flipped on the lights, we heard a thud. We all turned in the direction of the noise in time to see the back of a man running toward the back fire exit.

“Hey you, stop!” I yelled, but of course the man didn’t stop.

“Brian, follow him out the back I will go out front,” Cooper said. “Maybe we can pin him in. But be careful!”

“Ok,” he said and took off running toward the back.

“Come with me, Pres,” Cooper said running back out the front door. We got back outside and saw Brian coming out the back entrance but we weren’t fast enough. The guy we were chasing jumped in the black SUV and sped off. I put my hands on my hips and bent over trying to catch my breath. I was annoyed that neither Brian nor Cooper looked winded at all. So not fair. I really needed to hit the gym.

“What do you think that was all about?” Brian asked Cooper.

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. Pres, do you have some paper and a pen in that big bag of yours?”

“Yes,” I said rummaging around in my purse for the items finally locating them and handing them to Cooper. He wrote something down and gave it to Brian.

“Here is the license plate number. Call your sheriff and tell him what happened and give this to him. I’m going to make a couple calls and see what I can find out.”

“Do you think that guy was the one who killed Tommy?” I asked Cooper as Brian walked away to make his call and Cooper pulled out his cell phone.

“Hard to tell, but he is up to something,” I said, “or he wouldn’t have been in the shop and then run off.”

The person who Cooper was calling must have answered because he held up his hand to silence me and started talking then walking away out of earshot. As Cooper was having his conversation, Brian got off the phone and walked back over to me.

“What did the sheriff say?” I asked.

“Not much. He was concerned that someone was in my shop and told me not to go back in until one of his guys got here to look around.”

Cooper put his phone back in its case and joined us.

I raised my eyebrows in question. “Well?”

“I just got off the phone with one of my guys who does all the background checks for me. The car is registered to one Scott Green.”

Brian and I looked at him in surprise.

“So what do you think that means?” I asked.

“Something that Scott wants must be in the shop.” Cooper replied looking at Brian.

“I really have no idea what that could be. There’s nothing special in there.”

“Nothing special hat you know of, Brian. Could Tommy have been hiding something in there? You know, thinking it was a safe place?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary, but I haven’t been looking for it either.”

“We need to go in there,” I said.

“But the sheriff said not to,” Brian said to me.

“I know what he said, but we can’t wait,” I said. “It will just take a few minutes.” I looked at Cooper.

He sighed. “Brian, you know there’s no stopping her, and for once I agree. It will only take a minute. We know no one is in there now, so it’s safe.”

“Can we get in trouble?”

“It’s your place,” I said.

“The most that’ll happen if they find out is a scolding, Brian,” Cooper said. “We just need to be very careful to not touch anything. We don’t want to make things any harder for the police.”

“Ok, let’s go,” Brian said.

We walked back into the shop. Cooper pointed over to a broken window half way toward the back. “I assume that is how the guy got in,” he said.

“Yeah, I noticed that when I ran out the back trying to catch him,” Brian said. “I just don’t know how he got up there. I didn’t see a ladder.”

“This must be where he was standing when we turned on the lights and scared him because here is his flashlight,” I said. “That must have been the thud we heard when Brian turned the lights on.”

“Good thinking, Pres,” Brian said to me.

Cooper scanned the area. “Brian do you see anything that seems out of place?”

“No. That toolbox there is the one Tommy used for his personal things. Maybe there is something in there.”

“Do you have some gloves handy?” Cooper asked.

“Sure, let me grab them,” Brian said walking over to another toolbox and grabbing some out of a drawer.

Cooper slid the gloves on and then proceeded to open the drawers. He got to the bottom one, and it wouldn’t open. “Key?”

“Hmmm. That’s strange. We don’t lock anything around here. All the important papers are in the office. I couldn’t even begin to tell you where the keys might be for that. But here, try this.” Brian handed him a crowbar from the tools hanging up on the wall. “You have my permission to break it.”

Cooper took the crowbar and forced the end of it in to the crack of the drawer opening. He put some effort behind it and within a few seconds the drawer popped open. “Lucky for us they don’t make these with very high quality locks.”

I peered over his shoulder to look in the drawer. There were a lot of papers and such in the drawer. “What is all that?” I asked.

Brian was also looking over Cooper’s shoulder. “It’s copies of past invoices for work done. But they are all old, from over a year ago. Why would Tommy have these locked up?”

I reached over Cooper’s shoulder and picked up a handful of invoices. “What information is printed on those invoices?”

“The basics. Customer name and address, make and model of car, the issue, any parts and labor.”

“Is there payment information on there?” I asked.

“Yeah. If it’s cash or check, we mark it down in the correct box. If it’s credit, we put it through our machine, and it prints out the information on there. Why?”

“Give me a second,” I said looking at the invoices. My mind was working fast. “Do you think Tommy could have been taking the credit card information?”

“That’s what makes sense. All these invoices have one thing in common. There are only credit card payments in here. No cash or check.”

“Oh no. My poor customers. Do you think Tommy was ripping them off?”

“That would be my best guess. But I am willing to bet he wasn’t working alone.”

“Scott Green?” Brian asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine, but it makes sense. I doubt Tommy had the connections to pull off credit card fraud. Somehow he must have gotten mixed up with Scott.”

“What do we do now?” Brian asked.

“Brian, you wait for the police and tell them what we found. Presley, I think you and I need to pay another visit to Andrew.”

We jumped in my car and headed back to Shelby. “I guess I don’t understand what exactly people would be doing with the credit card information off those invoices.”

“Think about it. With the customer name, address, and credit card information, there’s not much you can’t buy online. They would need social security information to open accounts in other people’s names, but there is a lot of financial damage they can do with a small bit of information.”

“That makes sense. Kind of scary how much information we all have out there and how easy it can be for a criminal to get to it.”

“It is scary,” Cooper agreed.

We pulled into Andrews’ a few minutes later and let ourselves into the barn where we found him the last time. He was still working on the same car he had been earlier. I had to admire his work ethic since it was a holiday and his best friend had just been killed.

He looked up when he heard us walk in. “What are you guys doing back here?”

“We came to ask you a few more questions.” I said.

Andrew set the tools he had in his hands down apparently resigned to talk to us. “I told you everything I know.”

“You didn’t mention the credit card fraud, and I’m sure Tommy told you about it.” I said to him

He looked shocked we knew. “How did…”

“It wasn’t hard to find out, and you can rest assured the police also have this information and will be here soon asking the same questions,” I said to him. “How did Tommy get involved?”

Andrew paused for a few seconds before he continued, “Tommy’s brother got in trouble with Scott Green.” He must have noticed my puzzled look. “Tommy has an older brother who is currently in jail awaiting trial on larceny charges.”

That made more sense and went a long ways in explaining how Tommy got involved with Scott Green in the first place. “If Tommy’s brother is in jail, I don’t see why Tommy is involved?”

“You don’t know these guys. It didn’t matter that his brother was in jail. Scott still expected him to fulfill his commitments and started leaning on Tommy to make good.”

“So why –”

“So nice to see everyone having such a nice conversation here.”

I heard a voice behind me and turned around to see the guy we had seen run off from Brian’s shop with another man I assumed was Scott Green.

“Good of you to join us,” Cooper said in response, “but we were just leaving.”