Sally Berneathy - Death by Chocolate 03 - The Great Chocolate Scam (13 page)

“
I don’t have a killer
yet
, but I will if you don’t help me!”

“
And why do you think I’d help you stay alive?”

“
Because you’re my—”

“
Don’t start with the
wife
crap again!” I shot up out of my chair and grabbed the rolling pin.

Fred stood and took it from me.
“Don’t do anything rash,” he advised, guiding me back to my chair. “Rick, I think you can see that it would not be a good idea for you to stay here. What’s wrong with the condo where you’ve been staying?”

“
I think he’s found me. I’ve seen somebody in a dark sedan sitting outside, and when I leave, he follows me.”

I frowned.
“I saw a dark sedan with its lights out going down my street a few nights ago.”

“
Oh, that was me,” Rick admitted. “That’s my temporary car, just a used one I paid cash for after mine got blown up.”

A temporary car that he paid cash for?

I started to get up and grab the rolling pin again. Fred laid a hand on my arm and shook his head. Sometimes he can be really annoying.

“
Hey,” I said, “I got a great idea. Why don’t you go back to your house? With all the people there, you’ll be safe.”

Rick flinched.
“I can’t believe you let those people in my house. They’ve probably destroyed it by now.”

“
Those people are your family. Your mother, your brothers, Grace and your son.”

Rick’s
eyes became narrow slits. “That rotten boy is not my son,” he said through clenched teeth.

“
As soon as we get the results of the DNA test back, we’ll let you know.”

Rick shook his head.
“You don’t have to do that. There’s no way that kid is mine. For one thing, he doesn’t look anything like me.”

“
He looks like his mother. That happens. You don’t get to dictate which physical traits your children inherit.”

Rick reached for another cookie and smiled.
“Sometimes, you do. I had a vasectomy. I never told you because you wanted to have kids.”

“
A vasectomy? Why do I not believe that? You’d have been awfully young to have one of those before Rickie was born.”

He shrugged.
“I was seventeen, Mike was sixteen and Dan was fifteen.”

“
What?”

“
Oh, that’s right, you know them as Brad and Clint.”

“
I know who Mike and Dan are. But why would three teenage boys have vasectomies? What reputable doctor would do that?”

“
A friend of Marissa’s.”

“
Your mother…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“
After Dad left. She didn’t want to take any chances, said we were enough to take care of. She didn’t want any grandkids. We were all pretty wild.”

“Where’s
your father now?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
Liar.”

He glared at me.

A knock sounded on the front door.

Rick shot to his feet, perspiration breaking out on his forehead. Or maybe it was still his hair dripping.
“He’s here!”

“
Who?” Fred asked.

“
I don’t know! Whoever it is that’s trying to kill me!”

“
I think it’s probably Trent,” I said, rising.

Rick grabbed my arm.
“Don’t let him in!”

I shook him off.
“I invited him here. I didn’t invite you. Why don’t you just go out the back door and head over to your condo?”

“
No,” Fred said. “Rick, you need to talk to Trent. If you want the authorities to catch the man or woman who’s threatening your life, you need to work with them.”

“
No way! I don’t want anything to do with the cops, especially not my wife’s lover.”

“
I told you not to start that
wife
crap again!” I kicked his shin.

“
Ouch!”

“
You have a choice, Rick,” Fred said. “You can leave by the back door, get in your car, drive away and hope for the best, or you can talk to Trent and ask the police for their help.”

I went toward the living room, hoping Rick would be gone when I returned with Trent.

When I opened the front door I found Trent standing on the porch, smiling, happy, anticipating a night of fun and frivolity.

“Rick’s
alive.”

He stopped smiling.
“That explains why we haven’t been able to find his DNA in the remains from the explosion.”

Two men who supposedly cared about me, and both of them babbled about DNA instead of the impact of this tragedy on my life.
“Thanks for the sympathy.” I turned away and headed back to the kitchen.

Henry still slept peacefully in the corner, a cat smile on his lips as catnip dreams played through his head. Other than that, the room was empty.

Rick, Fred and all the cookies were gone.

I let out a deep sigh and flopped into a chair, relieved Rick was gone but distressed I couldn’t produce him for Trent. “He was here, I swear he was. Rick and Fred were sitting at this table eating my cookies when you knocked on the door.”

Trent walked over to stand behind me, his strong fingers kneading my shoulder muscles.
“Relax. Tell me what happened.”

I considered my options. Burst into tears or make more cookies. I still had plenty of dough. But for the moment I decided to sit there and let Trent massage my knotted shoulders while I told him about
Rick’s near-death experience.

When I got to the part about Rick tossing his wallet out after the car exploded,
Trent’s fingers clenched. “That’s the piece of evidence we withheld, the piece of evidence that anonymous caller gave us the other night when I had to leave you to meet with a man who never showed up.”

My own fingers clenched, imagining them wrapped around
Rick’s throat. “That worthless creep. It was him. Rick was your anonymous caller who jacked you around all night. He just wanted to keep you and me apart.”

Trent sat down in the chair next to me and took my hands in his. He looked every inch a cop now.
“We need to find Rick. We’ve got to bring him in and question him. He has information that could help us find this killer.”

I shook my head.
“There are a lot of people who threatened him, but he doesn’t know which one actually tried to kill him.”

“
We need to get all that information from him, and…” He cleared his throat and shifted in his chair then looked me squarely in the eye. “Now that we know Rick wasn’t in the explosion, we have to consider him a suspect.”

It took a minute for the full import of
Trent’s words to sink in. “You think Rick might have killed that woman?”

“
At this point, I have no opinion one way or the other. But it happened at his house to his car and he somehow miraculously escaped while a woman died. That makes him an automatic suspect.”

“Rick’s
good at that. Escaping while everybody around him goes up in flames, I mean.”

“
You said Fred was with Rick when you left them to answer the door.”

“
Yes. Sitting where you’re sitting, eating cookies from that plate.” That reminded me of my dinner plans. “Do you want some roast?”

Trent blinked a couple of times at the abrupt change of subject.
“What?”

“
I made a roast. It should be done. And I can make another pan of cookies in ten minutes. I have plenty of dough. We might as well eat. Rick’s gone back into hiding. You’re not going to find him tonight.”

Trent released my hands and sat back in his chair. The expression on his face told me we were
n’t going to have an intimate dinner and a cozy evening together. He pulled out that ubiquitous pen and small notebook. “Do you have Fred’s phone number?”

“
Of course I do.” I did not like the direction this conversation had taken.

Trent’s
jaw clenched. In a few minutes he’d be at the teeth-grinding stage. Well, I was already there. It was only fair that he share my frustration. “Would you please give me Fred’s phone number?”

“
No.”

“
No?”

“
No. If Fred wanted you to have his phone number, he’d have given it to you.”

Trent frowned.
“Lindsay, this is official police business. I need to call Fred and see if he knows where Rick went.”

I folded my arms obdurately.
“Get a warrant if you want me to give you Fred’s phone number.”

Trent’s
frown deteriorated into a scowl, and his lips got tight. “I can call someone at the station and have them get that number for me in five minutes.”

“
Go for it.” I stood, turned my back on him, took out my cookie sheet and cookie dough and began preparing to bake again.

“
Lindsay, don’t you want us to find Rick before the killer does?”

I considered that question while I slid the cookies into the oven and took out the roast.
“I wouldn’t mind going back to being a widow.” Nevertheless I picked up my cell phone and sat down at the table. I didn’t want the Karma cops coming after me. I punched Fred’s speed dial number.

“
Do you know where Rick is?” I asked as soon as he answered.

“
Yes, he’s in the car in front of me.”

I looked at Trent and nodded. He picked up the pen and poised it over the paper.

“Where are you?”

“
In the vehicle behind Rick. I checked his car for bombs, and now I’m following him to his condo where I’ll check for possible assailants then show him how to check his car each morning. If he’d had that knowledge last week, Julia might still be alive.”

“That’s
nice of you, especially considering you don’t like Rick, but Trent’s here, and he wants to talk to him.”

“
I’ll ask Rick to call Trent as soon as we arrive at the condo.”

I moved the phone away from my mouth and spoke to Trent.
“Fred will have Rick call you when they get to the condo.”

Trent shook his head.
“Not good enough. Where is the condo?”

“
Fred, do you have the address for the condo?”

“
Of course,” Fred replied, “but I’m not going to share it with Trent at this time.”

“
Oh.”

“
Rick and I have reached an agreement. We’ll keep him safe, help the police find the killer, and he’ll sign the divorce papers as soon as the murderer is in jail.”

I smiled. That explained why Fred was helping Rick. He was doing it for me. Fred was my friend.
“Thank you! I appreciate that. I’ll tell Trent.”

I disconnected the call and passed along
Fred’s information to Trent. Not to my surprise, he wasn’t happy.

The timer on my oven dinged. I took the cookies out and turned to Trent.
“I have prepared a delicious meal. Why don’t we just sit down and eat and have a nice evening together?”

Trent clenched his teeth again. I should talk to his dentist about giving me a cut of the
man’s dental bill. After all, a lot of it was my doing. “Lindsay, you have given me important information concerning an ongoing murder investigation. I can’t just ignore that. I have to call it in.”

I spread my hands in a gesture of resignation.
“Okay. Call it in. Then we’ll eat.” I went to the cabinet and took down two plates.

Trent went to the other room and called somebody. I
wasn’t really trying to eavesdrop, but I wasn’t trying not to, either, especially when I heard him ask the person on the other end to find a phone number for Fred Sommers.

He came back and sat down at the table.
“This looks good.” He didn’t sound sincere.

“
I tasted it. Everything is good.”

He ate a few bites before he finally laid down his fork.
“Why can’t the department find Fred’s phone number?”

I paused with a bite of roast halfway to my mouth.
“I’m going to take a wild guess on that one. Because he doesn’t want you to have it.”

“
Nobody can hide their phone number from the police.”

I shrugged, ate the bite of roast and put a big dollop of sour cream on my pieces of onion and potatoes.
“Whatever you say.”

Trent resumed eating, but he did
n’t resume smiling or looking happy.

Rick had effectively ruined another evening for Trent and me. Taking into consideration that he likely made the anonymous call that got Trent out of the house the night before, I wondered if that had been the purpose of
Rick’s recent visit, to see that Trent and I didn’t spend the night together. Was he really worried about an unknown mystery man stalking him or was he just determined to spoil my fun?

*~*~*

Trent left early that evening, of course. We parted on good terms, but not nearly as good as they would have been had Rick not interfered in our evening.

Henry was awake by then and followed us outside. As Trent drove down the street, I waved then went to
Fred’s house, passing Henry where he lay in the grass. I stopped and looked down at him.

“You’
ve got a problem,” I told him. “Are you aware that, while you were lying in the kitchen zonked out on catnip, Rick was upstairs hiding in my shower?”

He looked chagrined…or hung over. I
wasn’t sure which.

I went on to
Fred’s house. He opened the door before I had a chance to knock or ring the bell.

“I’ve
been expecting you,” he said.

I walked inside.
“Why can’t the cops find your phone number?”

“
They don’t need it.”

Made sense to me.

I went over to his sofa and sat down. He had been expecting me. A glass of white wine waited on the coffee table.

“
I figured you’d need something to help you relax after Rick’s stunt.” He sat down in the recliner and lifted his half-empty glass.

I sipped the wine.
I’d have liked to chug it and ask for more, but it was too good. I sipped and enjoyed. “Do you think Rick really believes somebody’s out to get him?”

“
I actually think he does, though I found no evidence to support that belief. Once someone has actually tried to kill you, I suppose it’s normal to be concerned they’ll try again.”

I swirled my wine, admiring the refraction of the light in the cut crystal.
“And the list of possible suspects is long.”

“
We’ll start on that list tomorrow.”

I looked up.
“We will?”

“
If you want him to sign those papers, we will.”

I nodded.
“May I have more wine?”

“
Certainly.” He took both our glasses to the kitchen and refilled them then returned. “Tomorrow we’ll talk to Akin’s detective.”

“
What shall I wear?”

Fred considered that for a moment.
“Something that makes you look vulnerable. Don’t wear any makeup. Do you have a dress?”

“There’s
the long skirt and peasant blouse from the year I dressed as a hippy on Halloween.”

“
That’ll work. Do you have a wig?”

“
No.”

“
I’ll bring you one. Would you rather be blond or brunette?”

This could be interesting. Maybe not as entertaining as pretending to be a stripper, but interesting.