Salvaged to Death (6 page)

“Why did he come back?” Sadie asked.

Fiona shrugged. “No idea. He’s a dim bulb. Maybe he thought the posse forgot his misdeeds. If so, he’s even dumber than I gave him credit for. People never forget things here.”

“You think the posse is responsible for his disappearance,” Sadie said.

Fiona shifted uncomfortably. “I think it’s more likely that Johnny remembered the way things were and ran away again.”

“Or they took matters into their own hands and killed him,” Hal said.

Fiona shrugged again.

“Fiona, who’s in the posse?” Sadie pressed.

Fiona shifted, picked up her needlework, set it down, and sighed again. “I don’t know all the members, but Tom’s the boss.”

“Tom Tomkins killed Johnny Jones,” Hal said. He blew on his hands and chafed them together for warmth. Autumn was quickly approaching, and the chill in the air was noticeably more pronounced. The weather was a mixed blessing; the mosquitos had finally called it quits for the night, but their hands and noses were freezing.

They sat behind a pumpkin larger than any Sadie had ever seen. It was so large that when she stood, she was still completely hidden. In the waning light, Fiona had proudly led them to her pumpkin patch. Sadie wasn’t much of a gardener, but even she was entranced and impressed by the gigantic pumpkins glinting in the anemic moonlight.

“I have a hard time picturing Tom Tomkins killing anyone,” she said. “He’d need a stepstool first.”

“Bo then,” Hal said.

“I don’t know,” Sadie said. She rested her head on the pumpkin, thinking. “Bo’s definitely capable. He’s big and strong, but I don’t think he’s stupid. There’s intelligence and cunning in his eyes. A stupid man might be willing to kill on another man’s orders, but a smart man isn’t.”

“Unless he’s insane and enjoys killing,” Hal said.

“Maybe,” Sadie agreed. “This bothers me, this unknown. I don’t like feeling like I’m missing something.”

“So we’re going to take Shirley’s case?” Hal said.

“Let’s tie up loose pumpkin ends first,” Sadie said. “I don’t want to let Fiona down, and I need to think, to process the Johnny situation first. It’s too…clean.”

“How so?”

“He goes missing and the posse is automatically blamed. But what happened while he was away? Where did he go? Why did he quit his job and tell his grandmother they were set for life? It’s a puzzle with lots of possible outcomes. I’m afraid looking into Johnny’s life might be like pulling a loose string on a sweater. Who knows what might unravel? I don’t want to do it, but I feel for Shirley.”

“And you can’t resist a good mystery,” Hal added.

“True,” Sadie said. They shared a smile. Her phone rang. She ignored it.

“If you don’t answer, he’ll just keep calling,” Hal said. “Persistent is Luke’s middle name, between serious and grudging.”

Sadie didn’t want to answer. She wanted to feign amnesia and take a few days off Luke completely, but Hal was right. If she didn’t answer, he would keep calling. Or he would send out the cavalry to make sure she was okay. After a deep breath, she pushed the button.

“I can’t find the chocolate syrup.”

“Did you check your girlfriend’s stomach? Last time I saw the syrup, she was squirting it directly into her mouth, adding milk, and using the swish and swallow method.”

“I bought a new one. I can’t find it,” Luke said.

“I haven’t seen it.”

“Oh.” He paused. “How’s it going?”

“Great. Bateman is everything I thought it would be and more. Fiona’s sweet. Hal is Hal.”

“What are you doing right now?”

“Guarding a pumpkin.” She glanced at Hal who was asleep.

“When are you coming back?” Luke asked.

“When the case is closed,” Sadie said.

“You’re investigating pumpkins. How hard could it be?” Luke said.

He had a point. She didn’t see the pumpkin ordeal lasting more than a couple of days at the most. The thought of going home so soon left her a little panicky. She needed more time. “Something else came up.”

“What?”

“A missing person. I’m going to look into it.”

“Sadie, don’t.”

“Luke, I can’t refuse a client.”

“You can do anything you want; that’s the beauty of owning your own business.”

“I need the money,” she said.

“I don’t need to see your face to know you’re lying; I can hear it in your voice. Look, just come home, okay? We’ll work out whatever your issue is, I promise. Everything is weird when you’re gone. It’s too quiet and Abby keeps wandering around cleaning. She’s been muttering about writing her memoirs again. Last time she tried that she almost got arrested. Come home, Sadie.”

“I haven’t even been gone a whole day, Luke,” she said.

“I know, but everything feels off.”

“Will Vaslilssa be there?”

“Eventually, when she gets off work. Is that what this is about? I mean, I know you joke about her eating a lot, but does it really bother you? Because I can contribute more to the food budget.”

“Bank robbery doesn’t suit you, and I have no idea how else you would get that much money,” Sadie said.

“Sadie, be reasonable.”

“I can’t. My feelings toward Vaslilssa are in no way rational.”

“She’s a nice person,” Luke said.

“Of course she is.”

“You’re being unfair.”

“Of course I am. But how would you feel if it was me? What if I was the one with a serious boyfriend?”

“I never said Vaslilssa and I are serious,” he said.

“You said you’re exclusive,” she reminded him.

“I’m exclusive with whomever I date; I’m a one woman man. Anything else feels like cheating.”

“Are you insinuating that I’m a cheater?” she bristled.

“What is wrong with you? Since when are you sensitive? Since when do you get upset over nothing?”

“I don’t know,” Sadie said. “This is why I went away—to clear my head, to get some perspective.”

“And you think you’re going to do that in Bateman, staring at pumpkins,” Luke said.

“You know me; I go where the action is. This is something I need to do. I’ll be home when it’s over.”

He blew out a breath. “Fine. Don’t do anything stupid. You know Hal’s not going to stop you, so try to hear my voice, okay?”

“That would interfere with me trying not to hear your voice,” she said.

“
Sadie
.” He had the tone, the you’re-nearing-the-end-of-my-patience tone. Sadie smiled.

“I will try to think like you,” she promised. “Step one: find a Russian who doesn’t understand the word ‘cholesterol.’”

“Sadie.”

“Step two: take a sledgehammer to my sense of humor.”

“Sadie.”

“Step three: call you on the pretense of chocolate syrup when what I’m really trying to say is that I miss you.”

“Hanging up now.”

“I haven’t reached step four.”

“Step four is hanging up,” he said and hung up. 

Sadie tucked the phone back in her pocket and checked to see if Hal was still asleep. He was. She didn’t begrudge him the much needed rest, but keeping watch alone was boring. She edged around the pumpkin and scanned the patch. This time last year she had been on television, reporting on a freak autumn Nebraska snowstorm. Now she sat in a garden not her own, trying to figure out if pumpkin murder was afoot, and she had never felt happier. Even with the sticky emotional situation with Luke, Sadie had never felt such a sense of purpose before. She was where she was supposed to be, doing what she was supposed to do. When the timing was right, no task was too small, even keeping watch over a giant group of gourds.

A movement at the far edge of the garden caught her attention. Was it a deer? A coyote? Maybe even a bear? It was too far to make out any details. She looked at the object askew, letting her peripheral vision take over and scan for movement. When it moved, she decided it was a human. A stealthy human, but a human nonetheless.

She nudged Hal, muffling his mouth with her hand in case he woke up talking. Her lips pressed to his ear, whispering. “Someone’s in the pumpkin patch, Linus.”

He blinked a few times to reorient himself. He nodded, and she dropped her hand, pointing to the spot the person had been. Sadie rose; Hal stumbled up and righted himself against the pumpkin. She guessed he was running on fumes at this point. She would have let him sleep except that he would be disappointed to miss any action.

They crept toward the place the mysterious stranger had been. There was no sign of him, but he would hardly be standing out in the open if he was sneaking around. And with so many giant pumpkins, there were plenty of places to hide. Sadie and Hal used the pumpkins as cover, dodging from gourd to gourd as they got closer to their target. Sadie didn’t expect whoever it was to still be there, but she hoped to gain some insight into who it had been. Even from far away she didn’t think it was Tom Tomkins. His tiny stature was a dead giveaway; even most women were larger. She was almost positive that whoever had been lurking wasn’t him.

They were two pumpkins away from the spot where she saw the intruder. She put a hand on Hal’s arm and pulled him to a halt, listening. She heard nothing but the sound of Hal’s breathing and the rustling of his jacket. He wasn’t great at sneaking around, she realized. He wasn’t as bad as some, but he obviously had no experience with covering the details of his presence. She could smell his cologne—it was pleasant, but also a dead giveaway. His jacket was nylon; Sadie had given up on synthetics when she became an investigator. Now she wore a cotton sweatshirt. It was warm and soundless with no crinkling material or clanging zippers. Unbidden, her thoughts turned to Luke. He had learned all the same lessons from Gideon that she had. She didn’t realize how invaluable it was to have someone who already knew what to do. She didn’t often use Luke, but when she did, he came prepared.

She released her grip on Hal and took a cautious step forward. Though there was no sound, her skin pricked, alerting her to danger. Some unspoken sense was trying to send her a message. Sadie had learned long ago to rely on those gut feelings; they were right more often than common sense in situations like these. She paused again, but it was too late. Someone rushed from the shadows and barreled into her and Hal, knocking them down like bowling pins. Sadie didn’t fight the hit; instead she rolled into it, allowing her upper torso to absorb any impact. She rolled twice and sprang to her feet, a maneuver she learned from her ex-husband who used to tackle her for fun. Kai had been amazed by her ability to take a hit and keep going.

Hal was still on the ground. She jumped over him and sprinted after their attacker.

“Okay?” she called.

“Yes,” he said, breathing hard. Grunting, he heaved himself up and limped behind her. She easily outpaced him, but she was still too far behind their assailant. Whoever he was, he was fast. She still couldn’t make out much about his form except that he was covered head to toe in black. Even his hair was covered. After the tackle, Sadie ruled out the possibility that it was a woman. He was fast and strong, but so were a lot of people. Her first instinct was to blame Bo, but rushing to judgment was often a mistake. When an investigator rushed too early to pin a suspect, she often overlooked something obvious in her determination to make a case.

Sadie pushed aside thoughts of identification and concentrated instead on catching up. She added a turbo burst of speed, but to no avail. The suspect easily outpaced her and disappeared into the night. The chase became futile. Sadie gave up and admitted defeat, something she hated to do. She wanted a release for her anger, but Fiona’s precious pumpkins were the only outlet. While it might feel temporarily satisfying to kick a pumpkin to smithereens, it would inflict dire emotional harm on her employer. Sadie refrained and instead kicked ineffectually at the ground.

“You putting out a fire?” Hal puffed as he jogged up to her.

“I’m having a tantrum,” she said.

“Are they always this calm? If so, you’re doing it wrong.”

“I lost him.”

“Probably a good thing,” Hal said. “He felt like a big guy. Or maybe there were six of him.” His hand graced over his ribs. “That’s what I’m going to tell people, if it’s okay with you.”

“What was he doing here?” Sadie said. She turned in a slow circle, but there wasn’t much to see. Not only was it dark, but pumpkins obliterated the landscape.

“Obviously it was Bo, and he was here to damage the pumpkins, probably on his boss’s orders.”

“I don’t think so,” Sadie drawled. “They know we’re here. They’re not going to damage the pumpkins with us watching.”

“Then what was this about?” Hal asked. He sat heavily and leaned against a pumpkin, yawning.

“If it was Bo, then I think he was watching us.”

“I know things are boring in the country, but are they so starved for entertainment that they watch us watch pumpkins?” Hal asked.

Sadie sat beside him, scooting close for warmth. The run made her sweaty. Now the sweat was making her cold. “No, it’s not that. Something is wrong with Bo.”

“You mean besides the beard and the fact that he works as a lackey for the kingpin of a rural salvage yard?”

“That’s precisely what’s wrong,” Sadie said. “A job like that should go to a moron. Bo’s smart. Why is he here?”

“Maybe he’s one of those get-back-to-nature types who doesn’t believe in working for the man,” Hal suggested.

“Or maybe he’s an ex-con,” Sadie mused. Maybe that was what had been niggling in the back of her brain. Maybe her subconscious had been trying to alert her to the fact that Bo was a criminal.

“That fits,” Hal said. “This is a good place to hide.”

“I guess,” Sadie said, still not convinced. “It’s just that people don’t usually come to small towns to hide. The city is far more anonymous. Here everyone knows everything about everyone.”

“Maybe they’re willing to look the other way,” Hal said.

“They look the other way for one of their own, not outsiders. Something is missing from the puzzle,” Sadie said. “This is really bugging me. I need more information. I need to know about Bo.”

“How are we going to do it?” Hal asked.

“I think we should break into their office and have a look around,” Sadie said. After a few beats of silence, she turned questioningly to Hal.

“What?” he said.

“I was waiting for you to tell me it’s a horrible idea and we shouldn’t do it,” she said.

“Keep waiting. I’m too busy trying to figure out how to scale razor wire.”

“If Luke was here,” she started but didn’t finish. If Luke was there, he would tell them they shouldn’t do it. He would probably try to physically block them from going into the salvage yard. But Luke wasn’t there; Hal was, and he was all for the idea.

They stared blindly toward the razor wire fence. “If we had bolt cutters, we could cut a section of fence,” Hal said.