Nursing a Grudge is Murder (A Maternal Instincts Mystery) (10 page)

I indicated a chair next to my desk for Melanie to sit.

“Go ahead. I’ll wait right here for you,” she said, seating herself.

I joined Jim and David in the living room. They were standing near the front window.

“There’s a guy on our corner, right now, wearing a Smith & Wesson skull cap,” Jim said.

I stared at him. “What?”

“You think it’s a coincidence?” he asked.

I peeked out the window.

I was vaguely aware of Laurie crying from the other room and Jim moving to get her from the nursery, but mostly I was fixated on the guy across the street. It appeared to be the same guy who’d been outside Tea & Tumble.

Same hat, same height—it had to the same guy. But why was he here?

I glanced at David, who had now retreated to my fireplace mantel.

“David, was that guy on the corner when you arrived?”

He shook his head. We shared a silent moment, both of us presumably thinking the same thing, because David tilted his head toward my office.

Had skull cap man been following me, or was he following Melanie?

Chapter Ten

Jim emerged from the nursery with Laurie in his arms. “I changed her, mommy, but I think she needs you now.”

Laurie was desperately rooting around Jim’s shirt and hitting his chest with her little fist.

Melanie was sitting where I had left her, waiting patiently.

“Did you notice anything strange on your way to my house?” I asked her.

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, maybe I should start someplace else. Come to the living room.”

She followed me and peered out the front window.

“Do you know that man?” I asked.

“No, why?”

“It’s the same guy I saw when I had lunch with Jill the other day. I thought he followed her when she left.”

Melanie hugged her arms to herself. “Oh my God, do you think he’s connected to Brent Miles and maybe even…?” Her voice trailed off and she stepped away from the window.

“He showed up after you arrived. Do you think you were followed?”

A noise came from down the hall and Melanie startled.

“That’s Danny,” I said to David.

David nodded and called down the hall, “In here, buddy!”

The sound of Danny’s footsteps grew louder as he raced down the hall and into his father’s arms. His hair was tousled and he rubbed sleep out of his eyes as he asked, “Where’s mommy?”

“With your baby sister!” David said. “We named her Chloe.”

Danny nodded excitedly. “I want to see Chloe and mommy.”

David rubbed Danny’s back while still looking out the window. He mumbled distractedly, “Yeah, I know. Me too. Let’s have some breakfast and get dressed first.”

I watched Melanie peer out the window again. After a moment, she said, “Kate, I can’t be sure, but the guy across the street is the same build as the man who attacked me at Perry’s house.”

“We should call the cops,” Jim said.

Melanie groaned. “Yeah, but they took forever to show up at my brother’s place. This guy could be gone before they get here.”

“The Taraval police station is pretty close to us,” Jim said. “They should be able to get here fast.”

I shook my head. “No, they’ll scare him off and we won’t get any answers. Let’s use the station to our advantage.”

Jim nodded. “You want to set up a trap?”

I smiled. “Of course.”

<><><>

We came up with a plan while I nursed Laurie, and David got Danny dressed. We’d called my seventeen-year-old neighbor Kenny and asked him to babysit, instructing him to come around the back of the house. Melanie was to leave through the front door and see if skull cap man would follow her. If he did, Jim and David would follow him. If he didn’t, I would leave after Melanie and see if he tailed me. Either way, Jim and David would follow closely behind him.

I had Melanie call my cell and we put both phones on speaker. Melanie slipped her phone into her shirt pocket and we tested our connection. When we were convinced that we had full audio access to her, we sent Melanie on her way.

She was to head toward the Taraval Police Station. If she was tailed and something went wrong, like Jim losing her, then she was to park in front of the station.

Kenny knocked on my back door. It was refreshing to see his smiling face and dyed green hair.

Jim unlocked the door and let him in.

“S’up, familia Connolly!” He said, giving Jim a high five as he sauntered toward the counter. “Any breakie for the sitter?”

Our standing agreement with Kenny had always been to feed him. His parents were recent vegan converts and Kenny, being a growing boy, had a voracious appetite that tofu just didn’t satisfy.

“You’ll have to make it yourself,” I said, securing Laurie into her baby swing. “We’ve got a bit of project going on here.” I nodded to Melanie. “Ready?”

She rose. “Here goes nothing.”

I walked her to the front door and saw her out, making sure she reached her car safely and that skull cup man saw me retreat back inside the house.

Jim, who was monitoring us from the garage door vents downstairs, had a clear view of Melanie, me, and skull cap man.

I went to the staircase and waited for Jim’s assessment. We had agreed no one would look out the front window; we didn’t want to spook our stalker.

Melanie’s voice came through my phone. “I’m in my car now. I can’t tell what he’s doing.”

“He’s getting into a green Prius,” Jim called from downstairs.

I reported this to Melanie.

“Okay, I’m trying not to turn around and stare. I’ll keep my eyes on the road ahead of me and drive to Taraval Street,” she said.

“We’re going,” Jim called up to me.

I could hear Jim get into the car with David.

“Where’s daddy?” Danny asked.

“Hey, buddy, I make a mean Mickey Mouse pancake. Want to see?” Kenny asked.

Danny looked at me, concern furrowing his tiny brow. “Mickey’s not mean.”

I smiled. “He means delicious. A yummy Mickey Mouse pancake.”

Danny jumped up and down. “Delicious!”

He had a little lisp when he said the word, which made me repeat it and hug him to me.

“Come on, let’s crack the eggs, buddy,” Kenny called.

Danny took off running toward the kitchen with Kenny.

I heard the car in the garage start up.

Melanie reported that she was three blocks away with a green Prius on her tail. I conferenced Jim into the call.

“You guys can open the garage. They’re three blocks east heading toward the Taraval Police Station.” I said.

“Roger that,” Jim said.

I joined Kenny and Danny in the kitchen.

Kenny frowned. “How did the P.I. get left out of the surveillance?”

“I know,” I said, feeling more than a little annoyed.

I placed a griddle on the stovetop for Kenny. Our home phone rang.

Kenny looked at me. “Want me to get it?”

I nodded and took over pancake duty. Not only did I get stuck at home, while everyone else was out gallivanting, but now I had to make breakfast!

Kenny picked up the phone and frowned as he spoke. “Okay, okay, man calm down. I’ll tell her. Hello?” Kenny stared at the phone, then repeated, “Hello?”

“Bad news,” he said to me as he hung up the phone.

I frowned. “Who was that?”

“Dude said to call off the tail.”

I froze. “What? What dude? Was that skull cap man?” I asked.

Kenny shrugged. “I guess so. He didn’t really identify himself, just said to stop following him. He sounded pretty pissed.”

“How did he get my number?” I asked.

The memory of the waitress from Tea & Tumble taking my picture flashed through my mind. Could she have posted my information somewhere? A chill ran through my body. I felt exposed, like a goldfish in a glass jar; even worse, I felt just as dumb as one. Things were getting away from me, events were out of my control and I was in the dark.

The corners of Kenny’s mouth turned downward, but before he could respond, I said. “Damn!”

Danny repeated my swear word. I cringed. “No, Danny, don’t say that. Bad word. I meant darn.”

Danny pointed a finger at me. “Potty mouth, Kate!”

I clapped a hand over my mouth and Kenny openly smirked.

“What’s going on?” Jim said through the speaker on my cell phone.

“Jim, you’ve been spotted and warned off,” I said into the phone.

Jim cursed under his breath.

“Another potty mouth,” Kenny said.

I hit Kenny in the arm. “This is serious!”

Kenny puffed out his skinny seventeen-year-old chest and said, “Don’t worry, Kate. I’ll protect you.”

“Oh God,” Jim said. “Protect you from what? What’s going on?”

“Skull cap guy called our house,” I said.

“Are you sure it was him? How does he have our number?” Jim asked.

“I wish I knew,” I said.

I scrolled through the caller I.D. on my phone, but the call that had come through was marked as “unavailable.”

“What do I do now?” Melanie whined.

“I’m pulling over. You carry on to the police station,” Jim said.

I passed the spatula off to Kenny and rubbed at my temple. A headache was already forming. Whether it was due to lack of sleep or stress remained to be seen.

“I’m rounding the corner to the police station now and he’s peeled off,” Melanie said.

“Melanie, where do you live? We’ll hightail it over to your place. See if he’s heading there,” Jim said.

I felt absolutely useless at home. As a budding P.I. or a P.I. in training or a P.I. wannabe or whatever the heck I was,
I
should have been the one fending off the bad guy.

Melanie gave Jim directions.

I grumbled.

Jim said, “What’s that, honey?”

“Oh nothing,” I said. “I’ll do some research. Look up that number Perry called.”

“Okay, we’ll call you later,” Jim said, hanging up and disconnecting me from Melanie.

I sighed. It was just as well; they’d fill me in as soon as something happened.

I took the phone over to my office, hoping something would happen sooner rather than later, and left Kenny and Danny eating their pancakes. I peeked in on Laurie. She was still sound asleep in the swing. I envied that she could sleep through all the commotion but was grateful for the quiet time.

After powering up my PC, I pulled up the reverse database. As I feared, the number came up as a pre-paid phone with no name attached to it.

I sighed.

An ominous feeling overcame me. If Perry had been meeting another woman, then it was possible she could have had a pre-paid phone, but it didn’t feel right. Pre-paid phone equaled trouble in my mind.

My home phone rang again and I jumped. I squared my shoulders and prepared myself for a conversation with skull cap man.

“Hello?”

Galigani’s voice filled the line. “Kate, got your message late last night. What’s going on? We’ve got competition?”

The night before, I’d left Galigani a worried voicemail after dropping off V.D. Worried because a) I hadn’t been the one hired by Barramendi and b) V.D. knew something I didn’t.

“Yeah. Apparently Barramendi hired some Spanish playwright to look into things. Can you believe that?”

“Oh. Do you mean Vicente Domingo?”

“That’s him. V.D.”

Galigani laughed. “That guy’s kind of tough to read and he doesn’t play well with others. I’ll tell you that much. Last year, I worked a case for the prosecution and he was working defense. He did NOT share information. Nothing. Not one single name or number, nothing.”

“Is that customary for the prosecution and defense investigators to work together?”

“Sure. I mean, sometimes there’s sleight of hand.” Galigani sounded annoyed. “You know, someone trying to get ahead in their career at the expense of someone else. That especially happens in election years. But generally speaking, we’re on the side of justice.”

“So, why do you think Barramendi hired him?” I asked.

“They’re first cousins.”

“Ah, nepotism.”

I felt relieved.

Maybe Barramendi doesn’t think I’m incompetent after all.

I glanced at my cell phone. No update from Jim or Melanie. I could hear sounds of Kenny and Danny horsing around in the kitchen. All the commotion made it feel like Grand Central Station.

“Real question is, what spooked Miles? Why do you think he called his attorney?” Galigani asked.

“You’ve got me there. I tried to get it out of V.D., but the best I could do was a postcard about his play.”

Galigani snorted. “A play, huh? Maybe you should get involved. You know the old saying, keep your friends close and your enemies—”

“Don’t even go there!” And before Galigani could try to convince me, I said, “Hey, I have a situation developing here.” I explained about Melanie’s visit, Perry’s mysterious phone friend and the skull cap man tail gone wrong. I ended by saying, “Why don’t you come?”

“You have any food?”

“Mickey Mouse pancakes,” I answered.

Galigani made a semi-gagging sound indicating his disapproval of my offering and hung up on me.

<><><>

Fifteen minutes later, I opened the door for Galigani with Laurie in my arms. He was holding a pink pastry box.

“No wonder you’re a heart patient,” I said.

He smiled. “These are for
you
.”

“Ahh. That’s more like it,” I said, putting my hand out to receive the pastries.

Kenny must have smelled the doughnuts from the kitchen, because he instantly appeared and snatched the box out of Galigani’s hand.

“Let me help you with that,” he said.

We watched in amazement as Kenny inhaled four doughnuts in a row.

I pulled the box from him. “Didn’t you just eat pancakes? You’re going to get sick.”

Galigani seated himself on my sofa and said, “He’s just filling up one of his legs, Kate.”

I sighed, then broke off a piece of a chocolate-covered old fashioned and handed it to Danny, who had trailed Kenny from the kitchen and was now silently drooling over the box. Laurie let out a wail, not wanting to be excluded from the doughnutfest.

“Is it okay to give a doughnut to a four month old?” I asked.

Galigani and Kenny both answered at the same time. “Sure!”