All In The Family (3 page)

“Okay, ready?”

Berry jumped off the chair, came to stand next to her, and slid her hand into Callie’s. The action surprised her, but she liked it. She could get used to this little girl real quick. Not to mention Uncle William.

***

Callie’s cell phone rang just as they finished dinner. She looked at the number. “Sorry, I have to take this.” She flipped open the cell phone. “Johnson. What’s up?”

Damn, not now. Looked like it was going to be a long night. Figures, just when she started enjoying herself.

“Be there in five.” Callie couldn’t remember when she had enjoyed an evening so much. Since coming back to Symtheville, she didn’t socialize much. Not because she didn’t want to. Unpacking took a good deal of her time, but mostly because of the job. Working twelve to fifteen hours a day wasn’t the best job for a single woman. But she enjoyed her work, and wasn’t looking for a relationship. If it happened, it happened. “I’m sorry I have to go. I had a great time. Thanks for dinner.” She stood and gathered her purse, half hoping William would suggest meeting again.

“Can we do dinner again, Uncle William? Can we, pleeeease?”
Berry pulled on William’s arm.

Callie chuckled at the way
Berry batted her lashes at her uncle. That little girl definitely knew how to get her own way. “I have to run.” She turned and hurried to the door, trying to spare William the need for a response. She reached her car door and footsteps sounded behind her.

“Callie, wait.” William said as he followed closely behind
Berry.

“You didn’t give us a chance to invite you to dinner,”
Berry said.

Callie opened her car door and slid inside. Poor William
. Berry wasn’t about to give up.

“How about Saturday evening – say around six, six thirty?” William looked down at her.

“I...” what the heck, what did she have to lose? Besides, she liked him. “Sure, Saturday is fine. Where should I meet you?”

“How about we pick you up?”

“Okay, listen I really have to run.” Callie pulled the car door closed. “See you Saturday.” She started the car and pulled away before she realized they didn’t know where she lived. Oh well. They could call the station and find out. Right now, she had a missing person’s case to deal with.

Chapter
4

Callie pulled up in front of Shirley’s house, got out of her car, and walked up the path. Nice house. Small
, but typical for most of the houses in this town. Well-kept yard, lawn recently mowed, leaves raked. She went inside.

“What’s going on, Peters?”

“Like I told you on the phone – missing person. Sister says she hasn’t seen or heard from Shirley in three days.”

“Yeah I got that. She called me too.” When the call came in from Shirley’s sister, Misty,
Callie didn’t take it seriously. After all Shirley’s a grown woman free to come and go as she pleased. “Maybe Shirley took a last minute trip.”

“Misty insisted that she and Shirley talked everyday – sometimes two or three times a day. She knows something bad happened to Shirley.”

“So why do you think it’s something different?” This wasn’t making a lot of sense to Callie. Something just didn’t feel right about it all.

“Misty said she talked to Shirley’s neighbors and no one has seen her, and the car’s gone too.”  Officer Peters ran his fingers under his collar and squirmed.

“All that proves is she took the car.”

“Yeah but Misty and Shirley were close. She wouldn’t have gone off on a trip without telling her sister.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I’ve heard Shirley and Misty didn’t always get along.”

Officer Peters shrugged. “True, but three days. They never went that long without talking. Misty came over tonight to check things out. She hesitated about going in for fear of messing up a crime scene. So she called me.”

“Okay. Let’s check it out.” Callie went inside and looked around. Small, neat living room and kitchen. Few dirty dishes on the sink. That wasn’t like Shirley. Everything else was meticulous. A place for everything and everything in its place. That was Shirley. She headed toward the bedroom.  

Something didn’t look right. Something out of place? Missing? Or maybe moved around?  Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, but something wasn’t right.  Callie looked around the room again. Did that lamp always sit at an angle like that? Had the table been moved? Darn, what was it? Maybe the jewelry.  Did Shirley always leave her jewelry scattered about like that? It almost looked as if she came home late, removed her earrings, necklace, and watch and threw it on the dresser without a care as to how it landed.

“That’s it, the watch!”

“What?” Officer Peters looked up.

“Huh, oh sorry, talking to myself.” Darn, she hadn’t meant to speak aloud. But the watch told her Shirley hadn’t left voluntarily. Shirley treasured that watch. Her grandparents gave it to her over twenty years ago when she graduated high school. She even had it repaired a few times.

Shirley said it was the last thing they gave her before their fatal car accident. Shirley’s grandparents had raised her, and though the watch wasn’t expensive, Shirley rarely took it off.  Nope, she’d never leave home without it. Shirley wouldn’t have thrown it so carelessly on the dresser either. She was a neat freak – the rest of the room bore that out. The bed, neatly made up, clothes precisely hung in the closet with all the buttons facing the same direction, and the drawers, almost meticulous. Each stack of underwear had exactly three pairs of panties and three bras. The socks layered with three pair to a stack. Callie smiled. Shirley must have liked the number three. She could have added another pair or two to the stack, but no three stacks, three high.

Callie opened the jewelry box – again everything meticulous – three necklaces or bracelets hung from each hook, earrings arranged smallest to largest. Someplace there had to be a clue – Shirley hadn’t just disappeared into thin air.

Callie came into the living room and looked at Misty curled up on the couch. Girl appeared too calm for the earlier hysterics over the phone. Misty turned the pages of a magazine. How does one read when they’re worried about a loved one? But if Misty had something to do with Shirley’s disappearance why call the police? 

She went back into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Amazing, even the shelves of food were meticulous.  Apparently, Shirley led an organized life. She didn’t seem the type to take a spontaneous trip, especially without notifying someone. And she’d never leave dirty dishes. Nope, didn’t make sense. Since Misty was her only living relative, Callie doubted she’d go anyplace without telling her, angry or not.

Back in the living room, Callie turned on the computer.  Maybe it held a clue. She checked the history. Shirley hadn’t been on anything since Wednesday. Let’s see, what were some of these sites? Photography site, dancing site, not much help there.  Okay, how about the email.  Nothing in the inbox. Callie clicked on the sent box. Bingo – two messages both dated three days before. And both to sweet-but
sexy.  Callie clicked on the first one.

Hey Britt, k every thing’s all set. See you tonight.  Love, Shirl.
  She scrolled down. No message from sweet.  So she clicked on the previous one.  This time, she scrolled down and a previous message was displayed. 

Hey, Shirl – can’t wait to meet you. Seven o’clock –
McCarthy Park? Love, Britt.

Callie scrolled back up to see Shirley’s answer. Apparently she was planning on meeting someone named Brit. She read Shirley’s answer.

I’ll try to make the arrangements. I’ll let you know later this afternoon. Are you sure Misty doesn’t know? Love, Shirl

Callie went back to the living room. Misty still looked cool and unfettered. “Who’s Britt?”

Misty looked up. “Who?”

“Britt.”

Misty’s face changed. Her eyes narrowed, skin went pale. But she was good, she recovered quickly. “I don’t know any Britt.”

“Your sister did.”

“Britt Elliot,” Officer Peters said. “He works at the flour mill. Only Britt in this town. You know him, Misty. I saw you dancing with him at the bar last Saturday.”

Misty squirmed. “Oh, Britt. I forgot about him. Yeah, I know him. What about him?”

“Your sister was supposed to meet him three days ago. Know anything about that?”

Misty shook her head.

Misty lowered her eyes
. Callie knew right away she was lying.  So could it be that big sister was moving in on what Misty considered her territory?

Even now jealousy
was written all over Misty’s face. “What did you do with your sister?”

“I didn’t...I mean...” Suddenly Misty broke down crying. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I just wanted to talk to her, ya know?”

Callie sat down next to Misty. “Tell me what happened?”

“I came over to talk to her. I found out she was going to run off with Britt. I swear I didn’t mean to hurt her. We argued. She hit me. I hit her back and she fell. She hit her head against the nightstand in her bedroom.”

“What did you do with her?”

“That’s just it. I didn’t do nothing with her. I left her like that. I panicked and ran.”

“Was she still alive?”

“I don’t know. She looked dead. Her eyes were staring, like dead people do, ya know. I ran.”

“Why did you wait until today to call us?”

“I came over earlier. I was going to report her murder, but she was gone. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“And you have no idea where your sister is?”

Misty shook her head.

“Have you talked to Britt?”

“Not since that night. I talked to him for a couple of minutes. He told me...” Misty gulped and wiped a tear. “He said he didn’t want me to call him
no more – that he found someone else. I knew he meant Shirley.” Misty put her head in her hands. “Oh God, what did I do?”

“Okay, you better come down to the station and make a statement. Peters, you take her. I’ll go check out to Britt’s and see what his story is.” Jealousy
’s a crazy thing. Callie only hoped she’d find Shirley alive.

***

Five minutes later, Callie pulled up in front of Britt Elliot’s house. Lights were on, that was a good sign. The TV flickered through the window. She rang the bell and waited. No answer. She rang again then knocked. 

Finally the door opened a crack.

“Shirley?” Callie could barely see thru the crack but something told her it wasn’t Britt.

The door opened wider and Shirley stood there, a bandage around her head. “What do you want?”

“Just to make sure you’re okay. Your sister is worried sick about you.”

“My sister, ha, she left me for dead. If it wasn’t for Britt I might have been. Misty doesn’t worry about anyone but herself.” Shirley opened the door and motioned Callie to come inside.

“Okay, that might be true, but she did call us, and I had to check it out. Had to find out if you were okay or not. Do you want to press charges?”

“If I had wanted to press charges I would have done it by now.”

“O-kay. I guess we’re done here then.” She turned toward the door. “I’ll let Misty know you’re all right.”

“Don’t do me any favors.” Shirley’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

Obviously, she wasn’t going to forgive her sister any time soon. Callie got back into her car.

For this she missed an enjoyable evening. At least she had Saturday to look forward to, and it couldn’t come any too soon. She drove back to the station to file her report. This night couldn’t end soon enough.

Chapter 5

Saturday morning, Callie woke up and stretched. Today promised to be a good day. A very good day. William had called twice since Wednesday. The first time to get her address and the second just to talk. And talk they did, for over an hour and a half after Berry was in bed. Seemed they had a lot in common. Both of them liked to hike, not that she got the opportunity much lately. And they both liked to dance. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been to a dance.

She got out of bed to get ready for work, praying it would be
an easy day. Mostly she didn’t want a late case that would prevent her from leaving. She couldn’t wait to see Berry and William again.

Callie
buttered a bagel, turned around and stopped dead in her tracks. A huge dog stood in her kitchen. How the hell had he gotten in? He just stood there looking at her. The patio door stood open behind him. Crap, was someone in the house? She hadn’t heard anyone come in. Memo to self, get lock fixed on patio door. She’d forgotten about that and neglected to put the pipe in the track. Afraid to move, she stood there, looking at the dog.

“Nice doggy. Are you hungry?” Callie tossed him the bagel. He caught it midair and gulped it down. Now what? She grabbed another one and tossed it toward the open door, hoping it’d go outside. Again he caught it midair and gulped it down.