Death Wore Brown Shorts (Happy Holloway Mystery Book 1) Page 7

  “Who are you?” Flynn demanded.

  Annie came to his defense. “Don’t sound so angry, Flynn. You can see he’s scared. I’m Annie, sweetheart. What’s your name?”

  The boy didn’t look away from Flynn. “Coty.”

  “So before I call the police—”

  “Flynn!”

  “I didn’t take anything,” Coty shouted, defiant, angry. His trembling hadn’t stopped in the face of Flynn’s attitude, but he had backbone. “Paul gave me—”

  Flynn narrowed his eyes. “What did he give you?”

  “Stuff…sometimes.”

  “Stuff,” Flynn repeated. “So now that he’s gone you figured you would break in here and steal some more ‘stuff’?”

  “No. He said he would get me a digital camera, so I was hoping he got it and didn’t have a chance to give it to me yet.”

  “My cousin didn’t make that much that he could just give every kid in the neighborhood a digital camera.”

  “How do you know?”

  Annie suppressed a chuckle.

  “I know. So tell me the truth.”

  “He did!” Coty was a small boy. Annie put him at ten or eleven at the most, but he had an air of innocence about him, too. Tears filled his eyes. “Paul was my friend. I used to come over, and we hung out when he didn’t have to work and played video games. I said I wanted a digital camera, and he said he could get me one easy.”

  Suspicion entered Flynn’s expression. “Where?”

  “I don’t know, but he sold some stuff on eBay.”

  “What’s his handle?”

  Coty rolled his eyes. “Why would I know that?”

  Flynn stepped aside. “Okay, scoot. Don’t let me catch you in here ever again, or I’m having you arrested.”

  Coty fled, the fear of the law clearly in the speed of his movements. Annie put her hands on her hips. “Was it necessary to terrify the child?”

  “To scare him straight? Yes. Now he won’t think of breaking in anywhere ever again.”

  “How did he get in?”

  “Paul might have hidden a key somewhere, and Coty found out about it. I don’t know. The lock doesn’t look tampered with. I’ll have the landlord change it just in case. What’s on those papers you performed your contortionist act for?”

  Annie colored. Why did he have to remind her? “Just more of the code on the whiteboard. I don’t understand it.”

  “Well, I’ll take a look at the computer. You check these boxes.”

  “I don’t feel right about going through his things.”

  “They’re mine now. I give you permission.”

  Annie accepted that and started for the first box. The tape clung as if it was a matter of life or death, and she searched for and found a box cutter. While she worked, Flynn typed away at the computer keys.

  Neatly packaged inside the box was what Coty hoped for—a digital camera. Annie pulled it free from the bubble wrap and held it up so Flynn could see. “Maybe he was a bookie. This looks expensive.”

  Flynn held his hand out, and Annie handed the camera over. “Not new though. See that scratch? He might have gotten it for a deal. Coty said Paul sold on eBay. He might also have bought a few used items there. I’ll check the history.”

  “You know your way around a computer.”

  He shrugged. “Bachelor life.”

  “You mean your lovers don’t keep you busy enough?”

  He smirked.

  Annie checked the next box. More electronics. This time it was an old cell phone, several models back from the one she owned now. She checked inside the box twice and found no packing label. The box itself was also unmarked.

  “Buy low and sell high,” Annie speculated. “The entrepreneurial spirit is strong in this country.

  “Except someone murdered him.”

  “Might not be related.”

  “Or it might,” he countered.

  Annie was smart enough not to rule out Paul’s business getting him killed. She just liked to debate points with Flynn. He had a good head on his shoulders from what she had seen so far.

  “Here we are.”

  Annie set down the third unopened box and moved up behind him. She rested a hand on the chair back and leaned closer, her face near his. He smelled of soap and natural maleness, which teased her nostrils, but she focused on learning Paul’s online activities.

  “LadiesMan200901?” Annie read. “Really?”

  “I did say, he liked to string them along.”

  “I can’t reconcile it. Maybe I’m a poorer judge of character than I thought.” She considered everyone she knew and remade them in her mind into the opposite of what she knew their personalities to be—worse, into killers. Her head and her heart shrank away from the notion.

  “In my line of work and some of what I did in the past, I have seen the darker side to people. I’m cynical. You’d be surprised how many regular looking folks are criminally inclined.”

  Annie thought about her dad. In his case, he looked the part. She recalled those eyes and sometimes had nightmares about them. When she was small, people used to say she looked just like her dad, especially the eyes.

  To distract herself from the past, Annie scanned Paul’s eBay account. “He hasn’t bought anything except an old video game three years ago.”

  Annie straightened and scanned the room. Nothing stood out among the sparse décor and knickknacks. She rifled through the pages, trying to make heads or tails of the codes. Words and numbers in disjointed order, other notes that were so weird like “fichus” and “raven.” What in the world did it all mean?

  They both turned to the boxes at the side of the desk. Flynn grabbed the third box while Annie claimed a forth. Ripping into them revealed more used electronics.

  “Check to see if he has links to wholesale sites,” Annie suggested.

  “None.” Flynn scanned files on the computer. From what Annie could glimpse, they were mostly JPGs and MPEGs. The names told her they were nothing she wished to see. Flynn moved on to scrounging around inside the desk drawer. He removed a checkbook from the interior.

  Annie’s cell phone rang. She checked the ID to see Jane was calling and answered. “Hi, sis.”

  “Annie!” Agitation made Jane’s voice sharp.

  “Is there anything wrong?”

  Her sister hesitated. “I need you to come to my house and sit with Ben.”

  Annie tensed. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing serious. Quinn isn’t feeling well. I can’t leave Ben in the house alone.”

  “Of course, I’ll watch him. Do you need me to go to the doctor with you?”

  “No!” Jane sighed. “Just please, come home now. You can watch him at your house or mine.”

  “Sure. I’ll be right there.” Annie disconnected the call. “Unfortunately, I’m going to have to cut short my part of the investigation, Flynn. Aunt duties call. I’m almost never requested to help since Jane is the epitome of motherhood. Now’s my chance.”

  “Are you trying to prove something to her or yourself?”

  “No, just always trying to improve. Can you drive me now? She sounds a wreck, and I don’t like to worry her more than she needs to be.”

  “Okay.” He stood, tapping the checkbook against his palm.

  “Did you find anything?”

  “I don’t know. It would be easier if Paul were sitting on a fat load of cash like thousands. Instead, there’s maybe ten thousand in his savings.”

  “That’s a lot to many people.”

  “Maybe, but for murder?”

  “It’s happened,” she said. “What’s your theory?”

  He hesitated. “To be honest, I think my cousin was stealing the electronics and reselling them for a modest profit on eBay. The question is where did he get the supply?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Annie pulled her sandals off her feet and curled up on the couch. Across from her, sitting way too close to the TV, Ben stuffed his little mouth with
cookies. “Move back some, Ben.”

  “But this is the good part.”

  “You’ll ruin your eyes.”

  “You sound like Mommie.”

  “We’re sisters.”

  “Look, the shark is going to eat him. Watch out!”

  Annie chewed a nail and surged off the couch to move closer, too. She shouted at the stupid man, and she and Ben braced for the inevitable.”

  “Told you,” Ben said.

  “He should have listened to us,” Annie agreed.

  The front door opened, and Donovan walked in dressed in his usual—suit without the jacket. He had loosened his tie but didn’t remove it. “Hi, Annie, where’s Jane?”

  “Daddy,” Ben shouted and threw himself into his father’s arms.

  “She took—”

  “Quinn to practice,” Ben explained, cutting Annie off. She figured Jane didn’t want to worry the little tike, so she didn’t correct him.

  “Paisley is at a friend’s,” Annie added. “She’ll probably be a while, so if you want to eat, I call in a mean pizza.”

  Donovan offered a half smile at her joke. “Call in, huh? No thanks. If I know Jane, she’ll have something ready to go in the oven. If we order instead, she won’t like it.”

  Annie felt sorry for him. How much fight did he have to muster to eat unhealthy sometimes? Most of the baked goods Jane made were donated, but Annie managed to find cookies she and Ben had confiscated.

  “Since you’re here and she’s not, Annie, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  Annie’s curiosity perked up. She and Donovan chatted upon occasion, but he wasn’t the friendliest type. When she visited their house, she and Jane spent all their time together. Donovan seemed to fade into the background, or he disappeared into his home office.

  “Sounds serious,” Annie teased.

  He neither confirmed nor denied. “Ben, go finish watching this in the other room. Wait, what is this show? Annie, a killer shark? That’s too violent.”

  “He’s not scared. Plus, we watched Jaws a couple months ago. This one is so fake, you can’t take it seriously.”

  Donovan glared at her. “If Jane found out…”

  “I’ll take the fall. All right fine. Ben, we can’t watch anymore. It’s bunny rabbits and teddy bears from now on.”

  Ben groaned but gathered his cookies and tramped out of the room. Annie returned to the couch and waited for Donovan to start the conversation. He yanked at his tie and tossed it on the couch. Then he thought better of it and folded the tie into his palm as he sat in one of the armchairs.

  “It’s about Jane,” he began.

  “She’s driving you nutsy with her strict rules?” Annie suggested.

  He colored, embarrassed. “I don’t mind the discipline of how she runs the house. I work a lot, and I come from a house where my mother drank most of the time and almost never did housework. She’s changed a lot now that she’s older. Trust me when I say Jane’s order felt refreshing for the first ten years of our marriage. I’m not saying I’m tired of it.”

  “Um, if this is about marriage, Donovan, maybe you should talk to a counselor. I don’t know anything.”

  “No, it’s about your sister.” He kept glancing toward the door as if he expected Jane to pop in at any second and catch him doing wrong. “She’s… I don’t know how to explain it. She’s changing, Annie.”

  “Can you be more descriptive?”

  “I think trying to keep us all in order is getting to her, and Paisley for one isn’t making it easier. A stubborn teen, and I guess I’m not much help because I leave everything to her. I feel guilty about it. I want to help, and at the same time I don’t. Maybe I’m not capable of helping.”

  Annie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. By no means did she think her sister was flawless, neither were her kids. Paisley made that clear on a daily basis. However, despite the trials any couple went through, Annie thought Jane and Donovan were perfect.

  “Are you saying she shouts at you or treats you badly?”

  “Sometimes.”

  Annie swallowed. “Does she abuse you or the kids?”

  His eyes rounded. “No! Of course not. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that. Jane does everything a wife and mother could, and more. It’s the look in her eyes, and sometimes she cries when it’s a little matter we’re dealing with. I’m coming to the end of my tolerance level, Annie. Maybe you can convince her to talk to someone.”

  Annie dropped her face into her hands. Anger boiled inside. Donovan didn’t sound worried about Jane at all. He seemed more impatient over the sufferings of his wife. Jane loved them both, and she tried to imagine what it would be like to live with Jane. From the beginning, Jane treated her with kid gloves, so Annie didn’t get the brunt of Jane’s extreme ways.

  “I’ll…” she began, and her voice faltered. Jane was the one of the two of them who had it together. “I’ll talk to her when I get the chance.”

  “Thank you.” He didn’t try to touch or hug her as the two of them rose to their feet. Instead, he spun away and left the room. Annie’s fears eased with him out of sight and the conversation at an end but rose again when she thought of all he said.

  The moment she got a breather, she would talk to her sister—before her marriage fell apart.

  * * *

  Shattering glass woke Annie out of her sleep, and she sat up in bed. Heart pounding, throat dry, she pressed a hand to her chest and listened. The blood in her ears made it hard to hear. Was someone in the house, or had she dreamed the noise?

  Annie strained to listen but picked up nothing. She’d be nuts to go back to sleep without checking it out, crazier if she called the police with a false claim. She threw the sheets aside and climbed out of bed. Creeping on bare tiptoes, she made her way to her bedroom door.

  The door stood open, and Annie peered around the jam to get a view of the hall. Across and down some from her room lay her parents’ room. She just got a glimpse into it, and her heart stopped upon seeing the light.

  Annie dropped to all fours like a shot. Part of her wanted to scramble back to bed. One more look to make sure, she thought and stretched to see. The view from the floor was harder, but there was the light, bobbing.

  “Oh crud, oh crud,” she murmured.

  To call the police or defend herself? If she didn’t at least get a weapon, she might go down before the police arrived. Annie crawled across to the dresser and reached around it to the umbrella she found in the corner. She recalled putting it in that spot because she intended to pack it away at some point. Good thing she had forgotten until now.

  The gaudy promotional tool was given to Annie at a city fair two years ago. A deep purple, the umbrella lost all appeal from its size because of the gigantic golden words that read “Eat Joey’s Pizza” stamped across it. Annie should have thrown it out, but the umbrella had kept her dry one day from a nasty storm. After that, she couldn’t do it.

  She held the umbrella in one hand and climbed to her feet. Her toes caught in her nightie, and she stumbled, almost landing face first on the floor. She froze when she caught her balance, hoping she hadn’t alerted the intruder. Nothing stirred.

  Okay, I’m ready. Annie Holloway is not going down without a fight—hopefully!

  Once she made it to the hallway, she flattened herself against the wall and crept along. The floorboards creaked beneath her feet, but she steered clear of the worst ones, knowing where they were. She found it strange the intruder hadn’t made any noise as far as creaking, and the light wasn’t as bright as she thought it should be. Maybe he covered it somehow. He was good. She’d give him that.

  Annie reached her parents’ room and stood outside the door, eyes shut and fingers aching as they squeezed the umbrella.

  Go in.

  She didn’t move.

  Go in, Annie, or go back and call the police right now.

  Why was she having an argument with herself? Well, technically, she hadn’t answere
d herself yet.

  Sanity still present.

  She crouched, but all the subterfuge had sapped her of energy. Her legs wobbled, and she crashed down on her knees before sprawling across the opening. The umbrella went clattering over the heart pine floor.

  “Caught,” she mumbled, waiting for a gun or some other weapon to rest between her eyes.

  When nothing happened, she turned her head. The light was gone. Wait, had she been dreaming? She climbed to her feet slowly, but as soon as she did, the light appeared again. This time, Annie figured out what was going on. The light didn’t come from inside the house but just outside.

  She inched toward the uncurtained window but then stopped to scan the floor. As far as she could tell, no glass littered the surface. That part she might have dreamed, or her subconscious told her someone lurked outside her house.

  “Maybe I’m psychic now.”

  Because she didn’t have a curtain to hide behind, she ducked to the side and peeked out before hiding. Down below, a flashlight bobbed back and forth. Annie squinted to try to make out who it was, and she gasped when she realized it was Evie.

  “What is she doing?” Annie whispered.

  Evie clutched her blouse close to her throat, but Annie figured it was more nerves than anything that made her do so. She doubted the night was cold because her A/C system whirred, producing air.

  Annie raised a hand about to tap on the glass, but Evie disappeared behind a tree. The light winked out when she must have turned a corner of the house. Annie spun on her toes and ran back to her room. She yanked on the shorts and simple top she had worn earlier that day and then stumbled down the stairs to the first floor.

  Pausing to listen first, she pressed her ear against the back door. Nothing stirred out there. She didn’t bother peeking through the window because the back yard was always much less illuminated than the street. The street was almost pitch black because of few lights in the residential area. Most of her neighbors and Annie installed outside lights to help, but few included motion censors in her block.

  Annie opened the door and eased out. She squinted in several directions but saw no sign of Evie. Where had she gone? If she disappeared from the left side of the property, perhaps she crossed the yard. Yet, that was in the opposite direction of her own house.