Murder in the Milk Case (17 page)

With her gun in my back, we walked to the climate-controlled building that housed Jim Bob’s unit. I wished that one of our customers would pull in right now, but no one did. Saturday afternoons could be very slow. I punched the code into the keypad to get inside. The twenty-minute light came on, illuminating the hallway and the insides of the units. She handed me the keys. I undid the padlocks and pulled up the door.

People often keep weird things in their storage units, from cookies to trash, but I’d never seen the likes of Jim Bob’s. It looked like a home office, complete with a desk, swivel chair, battery-operated light, and three large file cabinets.

Stefanie shoved me inside. I fell to my knees and bashed my head on the corner of the desk. Blood dribbled down my face. I tried to stop the bleeding with pressure while I watched her, just wishing for one chance to pull her hair out by the roots. Why hadn’t I knocked her off Max’s desk when I had the chance?

She shut the unit door and turned. “Do you know what my biggest regret is?”

I shook my head.

She closed her eyes and sighed. “That I didn’t get a piece of that husband of yours. I certainly tried hard enough and on many different occasions.”

Pulling her hair out by the roots wasn’t going to be enough.

Her eyes shot open. “I should kill you just because he was faithful. Most men eventually succumb, even if it’s just once. Maxwell never did.”

My husband had never mentioned the other times she’d tried to seduce him. That made me so mad I stood up and took two steps toward her without thinking.

“Stop right there. Don’t do that again. I’ll pull this trigger in a second.” She waved the gun at me. “Sit down against the wall and put your hands on top of your head.”

I did what she said and looked around the unit. File cabinets, a desk. . . I knew what it all was. “I guess this was Jim Bob’s headquarters?”

She nodded. “Yes. My dearly departed’s second job.”

“So,” I said, “he was probably blackmailing half the town.”

“Quite a few. He never asked for much from anyone. Just a little money or other things here and there. Didn’t seem like much, taken one at a time, but altogether it was quite lucrative.” She pulled a drawer from the desk.

“Did you kill him?”

“Oh my, no.” She’d turned on her southern accent again. “Stabbing someone? Sugar, I’d get my nails dirty. If I ever wanted to kill someone, I’d make sure it wasn’t messy.” On her knees, she reached into the empty hole where the drawer had been and pulled out some keys.

“Do you know who did?” I asked.

“Nope.” She got to her feet, smiling. “Lots of people had reason to, including you.” She glanced at me slyly. “Isn’t it ironic that you’ve been hauled down to the sheriff’s office on a regular basis?”

“Did you have an affair with Daryl?” I asked.

“Until I found out who held the purse strings at his house.” She walked over to a file cabinet.

“Why’d you stay with Jim Bob?”

“Everyone has things to hide. Unfortunately, he made me pay for my secrets by staying with him. Besides, there were other things I wanted.” She waved the gun at me again. “Now, shut up, will you?”

She unlocked a file cabinet and yanked open a drawer. Her breath hissed through her teeth. She unlocked another and opened it. Then another. In a frenzy, she jerked every drawer open. One of the cabinets leaned forward. I wished it would fall on top of her and break her legs. She whirled around and faced me.

“Who took everything out of here?” She moved closer, pointing the gun at me. “Did you?”

I shook my head mutely, wondering if I was about to die.

“Did Maxwell?”

“I don’t know.”

If she shot a bullet at close range, would it travel through my body into the next unit? Then I thought of my baby. A brand-new life.

She stomped her feet, cursed, and spun around, wiping the desktop clean with her arm. Everything crashed to the floor. The light broke into two pieces. “It was the police. I’m sure it was.”

She stood silently, then she turned to face me again, this time with slow deliberation that was far scarier than her frenzy. “All that time your husband was leading me on, making me think the stuff was still in here.”

She moved closer to me and stood very still. I knew in that moment that she wanted nothing more than to get even with Max by killing me. I closed my eyes and prayed. Tension crackled in the silence. Neither of us moved, though I felt her gaze on me like heat.

The thought of Max finding me dead was more than I could stand. Poor man. He’d be a widower twice. And my baby would die. I wanted to cry, but I was too afraid. Instead, I involuntarily reached up and grabbed the cross necklace Max had given me, thinking about how much I loved him and how bad I wanted to live and spend the rest of my life with him. She said she wouldn’t kill someone in a messy way. Please, God. Please let her remember that.

Her breathing changed, and I felt the air shift as she moved. I opened my eyes, expecting to see the barrel of the gun pointed at my head. Instead, she’d walked over to the unit’s closed door.

“I’m leaving you locked in here. Everyone is at the baseball game. They’ll only start missing you in a couple hours. That’ll give me time to get away. I hope they find you before you die of thirst.”

With that, she turned her back, walked out of the unit, and pulled the door down, wheels grating in their tracks. Then I heard the snaps of the padlocks shutting. The outside door slammed as she left, sending a whoosh of air down the hall that vibrated the building's metal walls. The lights went out, leaving me in total blackness.

Chapter Seventeen

The building creaked and settled around me. I stood up and wondered when Max would notice I wasn’t at the game. My legs started to shake. I groped around until I found Jim Bob’s desk chair and dropped into it. Max and Detective Scott were going to kill me if I didn’t die in this unit first. I’d done exactly what they told me not to do. Put myself in danger, although I really couldn’t have anticipated this.

I heard voices in the distance. They could belong to anyone, so I didn’t get my hopes up. Where was Stefanie? She must have gotten a new car, because I didn’t recognize the one in the lot as hers.

I thought about how she’d tried to seduce Max over and over again. My shaking stopped. I got mad. How dare Miss Fancy-Pants lock me in a storage unit? I hopped out of the chair and shuffled over to the wall, feeling my way to the door. There had to be a way to break out of here. I’d do it, even if I had to dismantle the door in the dark with my bare hands. I’d just begun to investigate the mechanism with my fingers when I heard the building door open. The lights came on.

I held my breath. Had Stefanie changed her mind and returned to shoot me? I reached down and grabbed the body of the broken desk light to hit her with.

“Trish? Are you in there?”

Max. I was so relieved to hear him that I didn’t care if he was mad, as long as he hugged me first. I dropped the piece of lamp I held.

“Yes,” I said.

The locks jiggled, and then the door slid open revealing Max, Detective Scott, and Corporal Fletcher.

“Thank God.” Max rushed in, yanked me into his arms, and held me tight. Very tight. Too tight.

“Max,” I gasped.

“What, baby?”

“I can’t breathe.”

“Oh, sorry.” He loosened his grip. Then he noticed the blood and examined my head with his fingers. “Are you hurt bad?”

Corporal Fletcher moved closer to us. “Mrs. C., you need to go to the doctor and get that checked out.”

“I’ll be okay.” I tried to push Max’s hand away. All the tall men hovering over me made it hard to breathe.

“I’m glad to see you alive,” Detective Scott said. “We got Stefanie.”

“How did you know I was here? Why didn’t I hear sirens?” I wished Max would stop messing with my head.

“Abbie,” he said. “I called her when you didn’t show up. She told us where you’d gone.”

Detective Scott nodded. “We didn’t use the sirens because we didn’t want to broadcast the fact that we were coming.”

Max’s arm was securely around my shoulders as we walked from the climate-controlled building. Cop cars with flashing lights surrounded the office, and five or six uniformed deputies stood around. Too many cops.

“Kevin’s in the storage closet,” I said. “I imagine he’ll think twice before kissing another woman again.”

Detective Scott glanced at me. “We found him.”

I thought about Stefanie trying to seduce Max. My anger grew. “Where is Steffie?”

“In a cruiser,” the detective answered.

“I want to see.” I pulled away from Max and headed toward the cop cars.

Max hurried to keep up with me. “Trish, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He realized my true intention. The other men didn’t know me so well.

I marched to the car where she was held. I hoped she wasn’t handcuffed—that she would jump out and attack me, because I was ready to take her down.

I yanked the door open.

Across the parking lot, one of the deputies who was jaw jacking with another, noticed me. “Ma’am, you can’t do that,” he yelled.

I heard footsteps running toward me. Stefanie didn’t look up.

“Not too brave when you don’t have a gun, are you?” I snarled at her. “And who’s going to do your nails in jail, anyway? Too bad, because that orange color you wear might match your prison jumpsuit.”

She shifted until her back faced me.

“Mrs. C.,” Corporal Fletcher said behind me, “you need to get away from the car.”

I ignored him, clenching my fists. “I should have shoved you off Max’s desk when I had a chance.”

The corporal appeared in my field of vision and grasped my arm. I felt Max’s hands on my shoulders and realized that as much as I wanted to rip Stefanie’s hair out, the loss of dignity wasn’t worth it. Not to mention a possible lawsuit, another trip to the sheriff’s office, and maybe time in jail for assault.

I slammed the car door and turned to face Max. “I want to go home.” Then I glared at the detective and Corporal Fletcher. “I absolutely do not want to talk to that advocate person. She’s too nice to be real.”

The men glanced at each other.

“Fletcher can take a fast statement right now,” Detective Scott said. “I’ll get details later.”

For the second time that week, I sat on the edge of an examining table. This time at the hospital emergency room. Max sat in a chair in a corner.

After bandaging my head, the emergency room doctor began to scribble on his pad. “I’m going to write you a prescription for pain medication.”

If he did, Max would make me take it, and I couldn’t because of the baby. This wasn’t exactly the place I wanted to tell him.

“Make sure it’s safe for pregnant women,” I whispered, hoping Max wouldn’t hear me.

The doctor glanced up at me. “Did you say you’re expecting?”

Max’s head jerked up, and his eyes widened. “Expecting?”

The doctor glanced from me to Max. “Okay, that changes things a little.” He tore up the paper he’d already written and started a new one.

“You’re pregnant?” Max was frozen on his chair, staring at me.

The doctor eyed Max as he handed me a slip of paper and explained what he’d written. “And, ah, let me know if there’s anything else I can do.” He hurried from the room.

A nurse came in with some paperwork for me to sign. Then Max helped me off the table as if I were a china doll. I felt the prickle of tears in my eyes but kept them at bay. He guided me out of the building with his arm in the small of my back. At the car he opened the door for me, holding my arm as I got in. Then he rounded the front of the car and and slid into the driver’s seat.

“I didn’t want you to find out like that,” I said.

“How long have you known?” he asked quietly.

“Bill called me this afternoon. This is why my stomach has been upset.”

“Wow,” he murmured as he started the car.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I was in bed alone. Max and I hadn’t discussed the baby yet. It wasn’t his fault. He’d tried, but between the kids and me avoiding him, he hadn’t had a chance. I felt unreasonably cranky, out of sorts, and mad that he hadn’t been ecstatic when he learned about the baby, even though his had been the same as mine.

I tossed and turned, and slumber evaded me, but when he got into bed, I pretended to be asleep.

Soft light from the street filtered through the blinds. A dog barked in the distance.

Max rolled over to face me. “I know you’re awake.”

“How?” I asked.

“The way you’re breathing. Plus, your fists are clenched. You don’t normally do that when you’re sleeping.”

I realized I had a death grip on the top of the covers. I immediately relaxed them and shoved my hands under the blanket, keeping my eyes closed.

“Okay, I’m asleep now.”

“Come on, Trish. Neither one of us will get any rest if we don’t talk.”

I peeked at him.

He was on his back with his hands under his head and his ankles crossed. “I’m sorry my reaction wasn’t better.”

“It was about like mine was,” I grumbled.

He sat up and turned on the light. Then he stuffed a pillow behind him and leaned against the headboard. “I’ll admit, I was startled.”

“And it wasn’t exactly how I’d planned to tell you.” I sat up and shoved my pillow behind my head. “I was going to tell you after the game.”

He focused on his toes. “So did you tell Abbie?”

“Yes.”

His expression was bland, but his right cheek muscle was twitching. “I’m your husband. Why didn’t you call me and tell me first?”

He sounded so bereft, my heart feel like it had been cut in two. I hadn’t expected that reaction from him. “I talked to Abbie first so I could figure out a way to break it to you. I knew you were glad the kids are growing up. I didn’t want you to be upset and lose the game, which happened anyway because you guys had to come and rescue me.”

“We’ve rescheduled.” He shifted his head on the pillow and met my gaze. “A baby is such a special thing between a husband and a wife, and in our case, a miracle.”

“Yes, that’s what Bill said.” I squeezed his fingers. “I’m sorry. What can I do to make up for this?”

He slid his arm under me and pulled me toward him. “Let me hold you.”

I put my lips to his ear. “When I was in that unit, I kept thinking about how much I love you. How much I wanted to live and raise this baby.”

“I love you, too. When I found out you were in danger, I thought I’d go crazy.” He kissed me hard. “And even though the pregnancy is unexpected and not exactly what we’d planned, sometimes things happen for a reason. In fact, given all the odds, this baby has to be a gift from God.”

A bit later, I wasn’t sleeping yet, but I was content. We’d discussed baby names and decided to tell the kids the next day. Max was already breathing evenly like he does right before he falls asleep. I was happy to be next to him. I wasn’t dead or shivering in Jim Bob’s storage unit.

Old Jim Bob, the man everyone hated. So much so that someone killed him. Stefanie denied it, but she was certainly interested in something he kept in his secret office in one of the file cabinets. . .empty file cabinets. . . I’d forgotten to ask Max about them.

I sat up and turned the light on.

Max jumped up as if on a spring. “Are you okay?” He stared at me with wide eyes.

“Yes, I’m fine. When did the police get the stuff out of Jim Bob’s unit, and why didn’t you say anything? You had to have let them in. Did they have a search warrant? Did they need one? Furthermore, what was in there that Stefanie wanted so badly? Do you know?”

Max groaned and lay back down, pulling the pillow over his head.

I yanked it off his face. “No sleeping until you tell me.”

He kept his eyes shut. “I guess there’s no chance this can wait until tomorrow morning?”

“I won’t be able to sleep for wondering.”

Max sighed, rolled on his side to face me, and rested on his elbow. “Okay. Yes, Eric searched Jim Bob’s unit not too long after the murder. Yes, they had a warrant. Yes, I let them in. I don’t know exactly what he found, but it must have implicated Stefanie in some way because he was keeping an eye on her. However, he let everyone, including her, think that the unit was intact.”

“You knew and didn’t tell me?” I demanded.

He sighed. “Yes, I knew. And I didn’t tell you.”

“And you’re mad at me for not telling you things?” I huffed.

He shook his head. “I think the situations are just a little different.”

That was beside the point. “So why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because Eric asked me not to.”

I sat up and crossed my legs. “Is there something wrong with me? Am I untrustworthy? Did neither of you think I could keep a secret?”