Family Jewels

Chapter 13

I couldn’t believe it.

Yet there it was….

That safe was not twenty feet from where I’d slept all night! How could someone have broken in and gotten by me? It just wasn’t possible. And it was also highly risky. Whoever broke in here had to be pretty damn sure I’d not wake up. But how?

Then I stood up from the sofa bed and reeled sideways. What the hell? I sat down again. The dizziness passed quickly, but when it did, I realized my brain was shrouded in a fog that was just beginning to dissipate. And not a sleep fog. I blinked.

Jesus, someone had slipped me something! But who? When? Oh, where should the ass-kicking begin?

My own, perhaps. Instantly the answer came to me.

I’d been careless yesterday. The damn heat, I’d carried a water bottle around with me all day. Of course, I’d set it down everywhere I’d gone. To take notes, to run to the bathroom at Mona’s. I’d set the water down to shake hands with Roger (whose other hand was covered with chocolate … geez, I hope it was chocolate).

Damn damn damn! Anyone could have slipped something into my water. I’m never that sloppy. But if I had in fact been slipped a mickey, why the delayed reaction? Why hadn’t it hit me until hours later? How could it not hit me until….

Oh, shit, until I’d had that drink of wine after dinner. It must have been something fairly innocuous until it was intensified by alcohol. That perfectly predictable glass of wine.

Or, shit, shit, shit, maybe someone slipped something into the wine itself? Slipped into Mother’s condo in order to slip it into the wine. Not that I could prove it. I’d polished off the last of it, a partial bottle of Shiraz. The same one Dylan and I had drunk from the other night. There’d been just enough left for a single glass.

Whatever the method of delivery, in the water or in the wine, it had worked. It had been lights-out drowsiness when my head hit the pillow, which I attributed to stress. I’d crashed early, thinking my subconscious might solve the mystery my conscious mind seemed unable to crack.

Mother was crying. Even the nerves-of-steel Mrs. P looked a little shaken.

Shaking the last of the cobwebs away, I headed to the sliding door. Damn it! Not only was it unlocked, it had been left mockingly ajar! One white panel of the sheers rippled out into the wind. There were no tell-tale wet footprints. No muddy hand prints on the wall. And no water on floor this time, no little piece of greenery — heart-shaped or otherwise. I checked the lock. Of course, it wasn’t broken.

“How could it be?” Mother asked me, bewildered.

How could I answer her?

~*~

I made two calls. The first one, I made easily, to Dylan. He was at the Goosebump. I know I woke him up — that was evident by the groggy “‘Lo”. But his alertness was instantaneous upon hearing my voice and the panic I tried to keep from it. Dylan Foreman was pretty good with his own bullshit buster. I told him what had happened. He’d be right over. He’d throw on his Dylan Hardy security uniform and be there as quickly as he could. He didn’t bother to tell me not to worry. That would just be too damn condescending in the circumstances.

“Thanks, Dylan.”

“And Dix,” Dylan said, before he hung up. “One of my contacts came through with that information on Frankie Morrell. Appears he does have a thing for hookers — blue haired, sharp clawed, whip brandishing … you name it. He’s been picked up twice in the last year soliciting undercover female cops. And apparently, he has some pretty kinky tastes when it comes to the services he pays for.”

“How kinky?”

“You don’t want to know.”

That was all I needed to know.

That was going to break my mother’s heart.

But if Frankie was into assorted games with hookers, I wanted him nowhere near my mother. Not that I wanted him missing or dead. Just no-damned-where near my mother.

The second call I made reluctantly. Yes, I had to call Deputy Noel Almond. That was a hard pill to swallow. I didn’t mind waking him up. Hell, I was silently pleading please be asleep into the phone even as I dialed his cell. But I just didn’t want to ask for help from the bastard. But there was no way around it. He had to know about this crime. And while I had him on the phone, I filled him in on the new info on Frankie Morrell.

On the missing ring news, Noel seemed a little surprised. Heavy on the little. I know the guy is trained to hide emotion, but I’m trained to catch the flickers of it.

When I told Almond about Frankie’s fetish for floozies, all he said was, “Well, that’s interesting.” But he said it with absolutely no interest in his voice. Not a bit.

He’d known. Nutless bastard! “Perhaps your investigation of Morell’s disappearance should have been geared in that direction, rather than my mother’s?”

I heard the chuckle before the phone clicked dead.

~*~

When I told Dylan I thought I’d been drugged, he looked stricken, sick for a moment. Then just plain angry. I was fine I assured him, and though he didn’t go into some macho-male going to kick-me some ass mode I find so tiresome, clearly he would love to get his hands on whoever slipped me the sleeping aid.

Perhaps he would.

I’m not stupid. Well, not that stupid. Dylan’s concern and anger went beyond the typical employee/employer thing. Beyond ‘friends’. I knew it.

He made a quick trip into my mother’s before reporting to Big Eddie for work. He’d been painting, sorting tools, vacuuming like a madman under Big Eddie’s instruction. Clearly, Eddie Baskin was taking advantage of the perceived slow wit of Dylan Hardy and getting him to do a month’s worth of grunt work.

We had to admit it then, to Mother, that Dylan was one of the good guys, on our side trying to solve this case. Sheepishly, I had to admit it.

“Don’t hang that head too low, Dix,” Mother said. “I’ve known all along.”

Of course she had. This was my mother.

“I’ve seen the way you two look at each other,” she said.

“Ah, you should see them when they think they’re alone!” Mrs. P added.

Lovely.

There was another knock at the door.

Big Eddie was taken aback a moment when he walked into mother’s and saw Dylan there. Whereas I myself was taken aback to see Big Eddie. No one had called him. He had to know he wasn’t the least bit welcome. But as he walked in through the door, he was followed by Deputy Almond.

“What are you doing here, kid?” Big Eddie asked Dylan.

Instantly Dylan Foreman donned the Dylan Hardy face.

“Saw the door open here, Big Eddie,” he said.

“And you walked right in?”

“This nice lady,” (he pointed to me) “invited me in.”

Big Eddie grinned at me. “You look tired today, Dix,” he said. “Didn’t you sleep well?” He was baiting me. Clearly, clearly, he was doing everything he could to yank my chain. He was that confident. Had he slipped me the drug? My bets were on it.

“Slept like a baby, Eddie. But not nearly as well as I’ll sleep tonight.” I smiled at him. Yes, I was fishing for a reaction. And yep, I got it.

And I saw it — the slightest waver to his grin. His eyes slid over to Almond before they slid back to me. What did I have? Not much — suppositions. But I’d gotten what I wanted — I wanted to throw Eddie off the slightest little bit. But I felt it too. The niggling was there. Hormones, my butt!

While I was watching Big Eddie, Almond was watching us both. Carefully.

“Say, Deputy,” Mrs. P said. “Give me a—”

“What, Mrs. Presley?” He rolled his eyes and turned to her. “A seven letter word for castrated?”

Mrs. P gasped. “Do all you sheriff’s deputies talk such filth to little old ladies? What I was going to ask for was a boost up.”

He did a double take. “Excuse me?”

“I’m too short. And there’s something at the back of this safe.”

We all were there in an instant, elbowing for room.

With a pointy right (hers) to the ribs (mine), Mrs. P won.

There was indeed something at the back of the safe.

“Dust?” I asked. Well, that was the first thing that came to mind.

“Come on, Dix,” Mrs. Presley said. “This isn’t your apartment. Dust doesn’t grow that thick here.”

She had me there.

“Maybe it’s bird poop,” Dylan said.

We all did a double take on that one.

“What?” he said. “Birds poop.”

“Yeah,” Big Eddie said. “Yeah … they do poop, Dylan. Now just shut the hell up.”

Almond reached in to touch it, his fingers coming away with grains of fine sand.

“Know what that is, Eddie?” Deputy Almond asked.

Big Eddie wet his lips before he answered. Apparently, the strain from staying on his tiptoes was getting to Big Eddie. His bald head was gleaming with sweat.

“Not sure, Deputy. Could be anything really.”

“Looks like sand.”

“Lots of sand in Florida.”

Eddie clumped down to flat footed again.

Almond nodded. He turned to Mother. “So, Mrs. Dodd. How very unfortunate that suddenly you’re a victim of crime too.”

Already, I did not like where this was going.

“Why, just yesterday your daughter hiring a pricey lawyer to get you out of jail, you’re the prime suspect in all these crimes — and let’s not forget the disappearance of Frankie Morrell — and suddenly, surprise, surprise, you too end up being the victim of a robbery. What are the chances?”

My jaw dropped. I could not believe what I was hearing.

“Yeah,” Eddie said enthusiastically. “Seems pretty coincidental to me too.”

Fucker!

“Easy, Dix….” I only realized my hands were fisted when Mother put her hand on my arm. She turned to Almond. Oh, how she turned to Almond.

Katt Dodd was back. My pinkie-swearing, lipstick wearing, kick-ass mother was back.

Almond stood there smirking in that condescending way some men have. He stood there waiting, no doubt, for my mother to cry. Fall down and fall apart. Dissolve into whimpering. Lose it in hysteria.

The guy just did not know women.

And he sure as hell didn’t know my mother.

See you can only push a Dodd woman so far, and losing the ring that my father had given her was the final push that Katt Dodd needed before she started pushing back.

“Deputy Almond,” she said. “Since these thefts began I have been nothing but cooperative with you. Since the disappearance of Frankie Morrell, the same. I’ve told you everything I know in every instance.”

I knew the tone. Oh, God, I knew this tone. Peaches Marie and I had received the same the morning after we’d sobered up from our first high school … ah, sleepover. This was the I’ve-put-up-with-all-I’m-going-to tone. This was Katt Dodd’s I’m-smiling-but-I’m-going-to eat-you-alive tone.

“Now what I see happening here, Deputy Almond,” my mother continued, “would seem to constitute police brutality. Harassment at the very least. You’ve been accusing me for weeks, yet your evidence is flimsy to non-existent. Anyone could have gotten my watch and you damn well know it. Well, Deputy, I am sick and tired of it. I’ve tried to be polite, cooperative and friendly. But no more. Now, you’re going to write up a report on my missing family jewels. And you’re going to give this matter all the attention that you’d give to each and every other crime in this complex.”

He tried to stare her down. “Since when do I take my orders from you, Mrs. Dodd?”

Katt Dodd reached into her pocket. She pulled out her Pinch-Me Pink without hesitation, smeared it on thick and smacked her lips together before she smiled at him. “I’m just asking you to do your job, Deputy. That ring was very special to me. And if you don’t apply the same diligence in solving this crime as you did the others, I will hold you personally responsible. And I will bring a law suit against not only yourself, but the entire Sheriff’s Department.”

“You think that scares me?”

“I don’t know if that scares you or not. But maybe this will: this is Florida, Deputy Almond. There are a great many ladies and gentlemen of my age here. And I assure you, when I am cleared of these crimes — and I will be — it is my intention to campaign tirelessly to get your elected Sheriff kicked out of his job. Every gray haired granny will be after his ass by the time I’m through, and I’ll make sure he knows it’s because of your actions, Deputy. Because of your harassment of an innocent senior. I have friends well beyond these Wildoh walls, and some in very high places. And I assure you, I am far from shy in front of the cameras. Would that be enough to unseat a Sheriff? Maybe not. But I’m betting he’d be prepared to cut your ass loose to take the heat off himself.”

Noel stared at her, but silently. Hell, she’d shut us all up.

“You think my magic is all in my head,” Mother said. “Just an old woman’s foolishness. Well, just watch how quickly I can make your job disappear. Your reputation.”

(And if I was judging things correctly, I bet his gonads, too, right about now.)

“Go ahead, try me,” Mother said. “You’ll find Cotton Carson is the least of your worries.” She went right up to him and got in his face. “Piss me off one more time, Deputy, and I swear to you the moment I’m cleared of these ridiculous charges, I will not only sue you for harassment, dereliction of duty and anything else I can think of, I will fucking mobilize a grey wave.”

Deputy Almond tried to stare my mother down. Failed. Though not miserably. The stare down lasted way past when my eyes began watering. But he failed nonetheless.

Muttering under his breath, he punched a few numbers into the cell.

“North? Deputy Almond here. Get forensics down to the Wildoh again. We’ve had another theft.”

Call completed, Deputy Almond sat on the sofa. “Can I bother you for a coffee, Mrs. Presley?” he asked, sweetly.

“Certainly. Cream, sugar, or spit?”

Well, he didn’t think that one over for very long. “Never mind.”

He opened up his handy-dandy note pad. Clicked open his pen. “Now, let me ask you a few questions, Mrs. Dodd,” he said to my mother.

Big Eddie sat down, his charm-filled necklace giving a tink with the motion. God that thing, must weigh a pound. About six mid-life crises rolled into one.

“Time for you to go, Eddie,” I said.

He looked at Almond. Almond nodded. “Yeah, Eddie. This time … I’ll handle it myself.”

“Don’t you need someone to safeguard the scene until forensics arrives? To make sure it doesn’t get, you know, contaminated?” he asked. “I can do that.”

“I’ll look after it myself this time.”

“You sure, Noel?”

“Quite sure.”

Eddie left, growling at a head-hanging Dylan as he went.

Mother sat on the sofa. She smiled at Almond as though he were the sufficiently chastised child and the time-out was over.

I learned a lot from this exchange. Relearned some too.

First, Mother’s strength. That was a refresher course. Katt Dodd had gone through some hard times in her life, especially when our father was dying and she had to be strong for Peaches and me. And now that the Dodd diamond was on the line, her real strength showed through again. The diamond meant the world to Mother, but she was the real rock here. She was the real family jewel.

Secondly, I learned never to accept coffee from Mrs. P when she’s ticked at you.

Thirdly and more importantly, I learned that Deputy Noel Almond didn’t believe my mother was guilty either.