Double Black Diamond (Mercy Watts Mysteries) (33 page)

I gave him a full rundown although my feet had turned to ice cubes. He typed everything into his phone. “It’s time,” he said, “to take a closer look at Mr. Echols.”

“I agree.” I knocked on the door and smiled at the faint noise of blasters going off on the other side. Must be another tournament going on.
 

Uncle Morty yanked open the door and yelled, “What?” Then his eyes focused on me. “What happened to you?”
 

“Someone tried to kill me in the hot tub,” I said.
 

Uncle Morty stomped out of the doorway, picked me up in a huge bear hug, and carried me inside yelling, “Aaron, chocolate! Fergus, scotch!”
 

He settled me on the easy chair next to the sofa where none other than Pete sat, looking horrified and holding a game controller.

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked.

“What happened?” asked Pete.

“You texted me to meet you at the hot tub or at least your phone did and someone tried to flatten me with a microwave.”
 

Pete’s mouth dropped open and Fergus ran over, handing me his flask. Uncle Morty insisted I take a drink that burned like acid going down and then yelled at Aaron, who I hadn’t seen yet. Rodney came in on his crutches, carrying blankets in his mouth and dropped them on my lap. Then he went into the kitchen talking about how red beans and rice would cure what ails me. Meanwhile Pete had done nothing. You’d never know he was good in an actual emergency. The guy did ER rotations for heaven’s sake.
 

“Hello!”

Pete dropped his controller and tried to examine me.

“If you touch me, I’ll drop a microwave on you and I won’t miss,” I said.
 

“I don’t understand what’s happening here,” he said. “I didn’t text you,”
 

“Yeah, I got that much. Where’s your phone and what are you doing here?”
 

Uncle Morty barged in and stuck a meaty finger in Pete’s face. “Gimme the damn phone.”
 

“I lost it,” said Pete, once again trying to examine me. I smacked his hand.

Uncle Morty started hollering about compromised security and Detective Carey quickly explained the situation.
 

Uncle Morty pointed at Pete again. “Security!”

“What exactly happened?” asked Pete.

“Dr. Lindstrom,” said Detective Carey, “your phone gave access to Mercy and allowed her to be lured to a location where she would be isolated.”
 

“Who kills people with microwaves?”
 

“I admit it’s unusual, but it does give the killer distance and ease of escape afterward.”

Uncle Morty had sat down with two laptops and began typing furiously while Detective Carey questioned Pete on where he lost the phone. He and Aaron went to get hot dogs from Copper Red Hots and that was the last time he saw it on the counter. Detective Carey asked who else was there, but it was lunchtime and the place was hopping. Anyone could’ve swiped it off the counter.
 

“Security!” yelled Uncle Morty.
 

Aaron put a mug in my hands and stood over me with hands clasped. I sipped and a feeling of ultimate well-being washed over me. I smiled up at Aaron. “Just what I needed. New chocolate?”
 

He clapped and went up on the balls of his feet. “Pucinni Bomboni.”

“Italian?”
 

“Dutch. You want more?”
 

“Absolutely.” I sipped. Aaron’s hot chocolates must be sipped to truly be appreciated.
 

Detective Carey finished typing in a few more notes and told me never to be alone. No problem there. I wouldn’t be hot tubbing alone again for quite some time. “Where’s Kera?” he asked.
 

“Still at work,” said Fergus. “I’m supposed to go get her in a minute.”
 

“I’ll go with you,” said Detective Carey.
 

He and Fergus left and I sat back, my eyes on Pete.
 

“Will you at least tell me how you’re feeling?” he asked.
 

“I have Aaron’s hot chocolate in my hand so better.” I glared at him and I could see he didn’t know how to take it, especially since he hadn’t actually done anything on purpose. I don’t think I’d ever been mad at him before. Frustrated maybe. “What are you doing here?”
 

“I dropped by to check on Wallace.” He looked to the left of my face when he said it. A dead giveaway. Liar.

“I don’t believe you. We’ve been here for days and we haven’t skied once. You’ve always got an excuse. What is going on?”
 

“Nothing.”
 

Uncle Morty reached over and popped him in the back of the head. “Tell her, skinny. It’s about time.”
 

My eyes narrowed to slits. I would say I was seeing red, but it was more of a mauve. “Tell me what.”
 

“Nothing,” said Pete.

Smack. Uncle Morty didn’t even look up.
 

“Alright. Fine,” said Pete. “You want to know. I’ll tell you. I’m a nerd.”
 

I rolled my eyes. “You’re a nerd. Please. What a news bulletin. Now tell me the truth.”
 

“That is the truth. I was trying to hide it, but there it is,” said Pete.

“Well, you’ve done a piss-poor job of it. I know you’re a nerd. Everyone knows that. You read textbooks for fun. Hell, Rory Dushane knew it and he never even spoke to you. He called you Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
 

“I’m not that obvious.”
 

“You’re Captain Obvious,” said Uncle Morty. “Tell her or I will.”
 

“Are you saying you know Pete better than I do?” I asked.
 

“Yep. You’re pretty clueless.” He glared at me. “Drink your chocolate.”

I sipped obediently, but only because I wanted to. “What don’t I know?”
 

Pete stuttered and I thought Uncle Morty would smack him again but instead he continued to type like mad. “He’s one of us.”
 

Rodney came in now carrying a heating pad. Pete plugged it in and put it behind my back.
 

“One of who?” I asked.
 

“Us,” said Rod as he got in the other easy chair and elevated his feet.

“You?”
 

“Us.”
 

Uncle Morty growled and pointed at Pete. “He games with us. He’s a cyber freak. Dungeons and Dragons. Star Trek. Star Wars. He owns light sabers. He uses them.”

I gasped, “No.”
 

Pete hung his head. “I know it’s not cool.”
 

That’s an understatement.
 

“I thought you were just a science nerd,” I said.
 

“I’m all nerd. One hundred percent.”
 

“So…” I looked around at all the gaming consoles and whatnot. “You’re all here because…”
 

“Pete asked us,” said Rodney. “A gaming getaway. Awesome.”
 

I twisted in my seat and leaned over to Pete sitting all flushed on the sofa next to the leader of all nerds Uncle Morty. “You’ve been here the whole time. Instead of skiing with me.”
 

“I hate skiing. It’s not at all like sitting. Are we still going out?”
 

Uncle Morty growled, “You better be. I ain’t breaking up my crew. Do you know how hard it is to find a cleric?”
 

“You know this stuff isn’t real, right?” I asked.

Then Uncle Morty pointed at me. “Don’t ever say that.” He went back to typing and scanned some document and I got one of those feelings. Something was about to come down on me.
 

“So what are you thinking?” asked Pete.

“I’m thinking how come I didn’t know this before? I’ve been to your apartment. I’ve never seen evidence of this.” I waved at the room that was filled with controllers, consoles, legos, light sabers etc…

Pete’s pale cheeks pinked up. “I hid it.”

“You put all your nerd junk away, so I wouldn’t see it?” I asked.
 

Uncle Morty pointed at me. “Not junk.”
 

“Um, gaming paraphernalia then.”
 

“I didn’t think you’d want to know,” said Pete. “You always say…”
 

Uncle Morty gave me the stink eye. “What does she say?”
 

No. No. No. Don’t say it. Gaming is awesome. Not a waste of time. Not at all. Gaming is freaking awesome.

“Nothing,” said Pete. “Mercy likes to get out, go places, do things.”

Real things.

“Alright then,” said Uncle Morty and he went back to his manic typing.

“So let’s get this straight,” I said. “You have light sabers?”

“Yes.” Pete got a little more pink.

“How many?”
 

“Thiry-two counting the vintage collector’s editions.”
 

Holy crap!

“That’s a lot of light sabers,” I said, because what else could I say. It was a tremendous amount of light sabers. Why couldn’t he just play golf and wear goofy pants like all the other doctors. And then it hit me. Like all the other doctors. What was I thinking? I wasn’t like every other girlfriend what with the whole father detective thing, why should I expect Pete to be so-called normal.
 

I reached over and pulled him to me. “I don’t care. You don’t have to wear ugly pants.”

“Huh?”
 

I kissed him hard and it got a little slobbery. Rodney was grossing out in the background, but I may as well get used to the nerd patrol in this aspect of my life, too. They weren’t going anywhere.

“So we’re good?” asked Pete.

“Absolutely.”
 

“You’re not good.” Uncle Morty looked up and I swear the room went dead silent. I think Rod stopped breathing.
 

“What?” I asked in my innocent voice. I don’t know why I bothered. Uncle Morty never thinks I’m innocent, even when I am.
 

“I just got into Carey’s phone. He’s got some pretty interesting ideas about you,” he said.
 

I swallowed. “A lot of people do. Thanks to the internet.”
 

“It ain’t about the internet.”
 

What the heck did Carey say? He couldn’t know about Keegan…

“What’s it about?” asked Pete and we both looked at my adorable skinny nerd. A nerd that wasn’t ready for all aspects of my life, just like I wasn’t ready for all of his.

Aaron came in with his French hot chocolate pot and refilled my mug. “Nancy’s worried.”
 

“I bet she is,” said Uncle Morty. “You two disappear and we got her dog.”
 

I sat up. “Wallace. OMG. Where is she?”
 

“On my bed,” said Rodney.
 

I ran into the bedroom, glad for an escape. Wallace was on Rod’s pillow doing her upside-down donut and snoring. She wasn’t wearing her red turtleneck anymore, but a black tee. I popped back into the living room. “What’s she wearing?”

Rodney grinned. “We bought her a Copper Mountain tee. She likes it.”
 

“Where’s the sweater?”
 

“Aaron sent it to be washed. It was barfy.”
 

“Oh, thanks, I said. “Is she okay?”
 

“I gave her a milk tonic,” said Aaron.

I bit my lip afraid to ask. “Did this tonic have perhaps maybe a little alcohol in it?” I couldn’t believe Wallace hadn’t woken up to bite the crap out of me without a little help.

“Perhaps? Maybe?” bellowed Uncle Morty. “Hell, yes. She got a little of the good stuff. Knocked her little butt out. Let’s get back to the main topic.”

Let’s not.
 

I got my phone and checked for texts. There were about thirty-five from Nancy slowly escalating in panic level.
 

“She’s gonna call the police,” said Aaron.

“Yeah, she is.” I pulled Pete to his feet. “You better go there now and put out the mom fire.”
 

“Aren’t you coming?”

“In a minute. I’ve got to…got to…get Wallace awake and functioning before she sees him.”
 

“Right.” He went to the door and hesitated. “Should I tell them about the hot tub thing?”
 

I looked at Uncle Morty, not sure of how to proceed. The hot tub opened up a whole shit storm of Watts family traits, the investigating, the crazy, and that’s just my parents.
 

“Tell ‘em,” said Uncle Morty. “Tell ‘em everything.”
 

“Everything?” Pete asked slowly.

“If you don’t, I will,” he said. “Mercy ain’t nothing to be ashamed of. Prove you’re good enough for her. The jury’s still out as of now.”
 

“They’ll want to know why someone tried to kill her.”
 

“If they don’t, they’re brain dead. Tell them who she is, cause she ain’t gonna change. Mercy would’ve found your light sabers eventually, if you get my drift.”
 

“About the Bleds,” said Pete. “I’ll leave that for later.” Then he went out the door.
 

“What’s that about the old bats?” asked Uncle Morty.
 

“I really don’t know. He had me lie about knowing Myrtle and Millicent.”
 

He stroked his keyboard. “I’ll figure that out after I get some answers.”
 

“Did you find out why Darren is so interested in getting the band back together?” I asked.
 

“First you’ll tell me why Carey thinks you’re hiding something about Rory Dushane and the night he was attacked.”
 

Because I am.

I shrugged. “Can’t control the man’s thoughts.”
 

“I happen to agree with him. Spill it.”
 

“Nothing to say.”
 

“Well, I’ve got something to say to Tommy. Your dad’ll be pretty damn interested in somebody trying to kill his baby girl.”

“He’ll say it’s my fault. That I should’ve known the text was hinky or something,” I said.