Home for the Holidays (16 page)

He gazed at her with steely eyes.  “You look vaguely familiar.”

Gloria forced a smile.  “I hear that all the time.” 

“Beverly!  There you are!” A woman wearing a black and white ballroom gown approached.

The commissioner’s wife disappeared to chat with another guest.  Evergreen lingered.  He honed in on Andrea and glanced down at her ring hand.  “What is a beautiful woman like you doing at a party like this…all alone?”

Gloria shifted.  It was as if she were in visible.  “She’s not alone,” Gloria sniffed. 

Evergreen gave Gloria a hard look, grabbed Andrea’s hand and raised it to his lips.  “The pleasure was all mine.”

He dropped her hand and walked away. 

Andrea waited until he was across the room before she turned her hand over.  In it was a card.  “He gave me his card.” She flipped the card over.  On the other side, someone had scrawled a phone number.

Gloria tugged on a strand of stray hair and glanced at Evergreen. “Snake.”  She remembered Evergreen had been caught with a prostitute.  Maybe he deserved to pay a little money, feel a little pain. “Have you heard anything else?”

Andrea shook her head.  “Nope.  No one looks suspicious.”

The look of disappointment on her face caused Gloria to smile.  The smile quickly faded.  She hoped this night wouldn’t be a complete waste of time.

Gloria glanced at her watch.  The party ended at 10:30 and it was already half past nine.  The culprit would have to make his move soon.

She turned to go when Ruth burst out of the closet, swung the front door wide open and disappeared from sight.

Gloria was hot on her heels with Andrea right behind her. 

Chapter 18

Bright floodlights illuminated the front yard.  Gloria raced across the manicured lawn as fast as her heels would allow.

Andrea, a little more accustomed to the heels, pulled away from Gloria and quickly gained on Ruth.  She lifted the hem of her skirt to reveal a gun holster strapped to her upper thigh. 

Still running, Andrea pulled the gun from the holster and picked up the pace. 

Ruth and Andrea reached the mailbox just as a dark sedan squealed out of the drive and roared off down the road. 

Andrea lifted her gun and fired off several rounds.  She lowered the gun.  “He got away but I think I hit the car.”  At least she hoped she hit the car. 

Gloria came to a screeching halt next to them. “Was it a patrol car?  What did it look like?” she gasped.

Ruth frowned.  “It was too dark to tell.  I don’t think it was a patrol car.”

Gloria glanced back at the house.  Whoever took the bait was now gone. 

“Lucy!” Gloria shouted.  Lucy was still inside, keeping tabs on the suspects. 

Gloria tugged one shoe off and then the other.  She lifted the hem of her dress and full out ran across the cold, hard lawn toward the house.  When she got to the porch, she dropped her shoes on the cement floor and shoved her feet in the shoes.

She sucked in a deep breath, smoothed her skirt, ran her fingers through her hair and stepped back inside.

On the outside, she was cool as a cucumber.  On the inside, her heart was pounding, her mind racing and her attention focused on one thing…figuring out who had left the party.

Lucy was right where Gloria had left her, completely unaware of the events that had just taken place. 

Gloria casually sidled up next to her.  “Anyone missing?”

Lucy scanned the guards.  She stepped outside to take a headcount.  Lucy knew exactly who was working security.  No one had gotten past her.  No one.

She stepped back inside the room and sauntered over to Gloria.  “Nope. All are accounted for.”

Gloria’s heart sank.  Her eyes met Lucy’s.  “Are you positive?”

“Let me check again.”

Gloria waited…and prayed Lucy would come back with a different answer this time. 

“Nope.  Still all here.”

Gloria’s shoulders drooped.  She was certain one of the officers had been involved.  After all, who else could have planted the money and notes in Paul’s locker?  It
had
to be someone who had access to the locker room!

Gloria shuffled into the foyer where most of the guests had gathered.  Andrea casually strolled over.  “Well?”

“All of the suspects have been accounted for.  We’re back to square one.”

Andrea’s eyes scanned the room.  “Maybe not.” Andrea turned to face the wall.  She reached inside her bra and pulled out the business card she had tucked away…the card City Commissioner Cal Evergreen had given her. 

She flicked her wrist and held the card out.  “Where did he go?”

Gloria eyes darted around the room.  Evergreen was nowhere in sight.  His wife was still there.  She was off to one side, talking to one of the nightly news anchors…a young man with dark hair and a fake smile.  “He’s probably out smoking.”

Gloria headed outdoors.  She crossed the porch, wandered around the yard, circled around the garage and stepped back inside.

She remembered Dot was keeping track of who was going outside and who was coming back in. 

Dot’s back was to her as she faced the kitchen sink.

Gloria tapped her shoulder.

Dot swung around.  She was wearing an apron. 

Gloria stuck her hand on her hip.  “Dot Jenkins!  What are you doing?”

Dot wiped her wet hands on the front of the apron.  “I can’t help myself.  Plus I was bored.”

She untied the apron and placed it on the counter.  “But I’ve been keeping tabs on who all has gone out and come back in.” She pointed to the large window in front of the sink. 

The glass window was like a mirror and Gloria watched as a guest – a woman – stepped outside. 

Gloria lowered her voice. “Remember the jerk who went on about the nuts…Commissioner Evergreen?”

Dot’s eyes widened.  “That was Commissioner Evergreen?  Yeah, he’s outside.”

It dawned on Dot where Gloria was headed.  “You think
he
might be the one?”

It was exactly what Gloria thought.  “I have a brilliant idea.”

She looked around the room.  “Where’s Andrea?”

Gloria tracked down her young friend and explained her plan.

Andrea scrunched her brow.  “You think this will work?”

If City Commissioner Cal Evergreen was the snake Gloria now suspected he was, she was almost 100% certain her plan would work.  “Go ahead and make the call.”

Andrea nodded, reached for her handbag and headed to a quiet corner to call Evergreen to set up a rendezvous. 

Andrea dialed the number on the card.  The conversation was brief.  After she finished, she pressed the “end call” button, shoved the phone in her bag and made her way over to Gloria.  “Forty-five minutes.” 

Gloria nodded.  “That should be plenty of time.” The place quickly cleared and the next time Gloria looked at the clock, it was ten thirty.  Mitzi gave instructions to the cleaning crew and met the girls in the living room.

Mitzi lowered her voice and looked around. “How did the sting go? Did we get a hit on the money?”

“Sort of,” Gloria hedged.  “We’ve got ‘em…him…on the run.  Now all we need to do is nail him down.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”  Mitzi wanted to nab this person as much as Gloria did. 

Gloria shook her head.  “We think it’s Commissioner Evergreen.”

Mitzi’s hand flew to her throat.  She touched the thick gold necklace with the tips of her fingers.  “Oh my!”

“But…but I heard he was part of the extortion, too.  Someone found out about him and some…” Mitzi waved a hand in the air.  “…escort service.”

“Unless it was a cover,” Andrea theorized.  “That would certainly throw police off.”

“There is one puzzling thing.” It was something that had just occurred to Gloria.  “If Evergreen took the money and ran, he left his wife behind.”

Mitzi shook her head.  “Good heavens.  Those two never go anywhere together.  Why I heard they don’t even live in the same house anymore.  The marriage is a sham and for appearance sake only so Cal can keep winning elections.”

Still, there was another accomplice.  Someone inside the police department.  Gloria remembered the other night when she had taken out the trash and noticed a police cruiser parked next to a government-issued vehicle. 

Gloria stood abruptly.  “We have half this case cracked.  Now to figure out the rest.”

The girls climbed into the van, but not before promising Mitzi that they would let her know as soon as they were able to name the suspects.

***

Earlier, Gloria had had to hurry and make a decision on where to have Andrea meet Evergreen.  She could think of no better place than home turf…Belhaven. 

The girls dropped Andrea off at home so she could pick up her truck.  Before she got into her truck, Ruth hooked a tiny mic to the back of Andrea’s dress so they could listen in on the conversation.

Ruth followed Andrea’s vehicle into town and then backed the van into the dark alley next to the post office before she shut off the lights. 

She placed the monitor on top of the dashboard and pressed the button.  “Andrea, do you copy.”

Static.

“Yep.  Loud and clear.”

Gloria’s main objective was to figure out if there were bullet holes in the back of Evergreen’s vehicle.  The thought ticked Gloria off.  The scumbag frequented houses of ill repute, all the while living off taxpayer’s dollars.  He was probably paying for it with her money! 

On top of that, the man had nearly ruined Gloria’s life.  Well, maybe not ruined but made it pretty darn miserable!

A light illuminated the back of Andrea’s parked truck. 

“Someone is coming,” Ruth hissed.

Dot, Lucy and Margaret leaned forward and five sets of eyes focused on Andrea’s truck.  A dark, four-door sedan pulled next to her.

The girls watched as Andrea slid out of her truck and approached the back of the car.  “Good girl,” Gloria whispered.  “Check for bullet holes.”

Andrea casually leaned against the back of the car and ran her hand along the trunk as Cal Evergreen edged closer to Andrea. 

It was a game.  He moved closer.  Andrea moved away. 

“If he so much as touches Andrea, I’ll march over there and punch his lights out,” Gloria vowed.

Andrea placed her purse in front of her, using it as a barrier to keep Evergreen at bay.

Gloria could have sworn she saw Andrea tilt her head and nod. It was Andrea’s signal she had found what she was looking for.

“Let’s roll!” Ruth reached for the driver’s side handle. Gloria reached for the passenger door handle.

They flung the doors open and hopped onto the pavement.

At the same time they hit the ground, Gloria heard the sound of tires squealing.  Headlights bounced wildly off the front of the restaurant. 

Gloria blinked. In an instant, cop cars surrounded Andrea and City Commissioner Cal Evergreen.  Not one or two cop cars, but a parade of cop cars.

The doors of the cop cars swung open and uniformed officers poured out of the vehicles, guns drawn.  “Hands up!”

Andrea and Evergreen raised their hands in the air.

A couple officers shoved Evergreen to the ground while another pushed Andrea forward so both her hands pressed flat against the trunk of the commissioner’s car.

“Oh my gosh!” Gloria had a horrifying thought.  “You don’t think police think she’s a …”

“Streetwalker!” Four women shouted simultaneously. 

“Stop!  Stop! You have it all wrong!” Gloria raced across the parking lot and darted across the street. 

One of the officers, a very familiar officer, turned.  “Gloria?”

Gloria came to a screeching halt.  “Paul?”

“What…”

Andrea glanced over at Paul, who was holding her wrist, getting ready to handcuff her.  “Hi Paul.”

“Andrea?”  Paul lowered the cuff and faced Gloria.  “Someone has a lot of explaining to do.”

Gloria crossed her arms and raised her voice.  “You got that right!”

Chapter 19

Andrea left her truck parked in front of Dot’s Restaurant and climbed into Ruth’s van for the ride to Montbay County Sheriff’s Station.

Andrea slipped into the middle seat, smack dab between Margaret and Dot.  She shuddered as she reached for her seatbelt. “They almost arrested me.”

Margaret patted her hand.  “Welcome to the club, dear.”

Andrea thought about what she had just said.  Margaret and Gloria had been arrested.  Lucy, Ruth and Dot had been taken to the police station for questioning.  So far, Andrea had been the only one to dodge the bullet.

The girls proceeded to argue as to whether the brief event constituted a full-blown incident. 

Dot and Margaret thought it should count since Andrea was scared half to death.  Lucy, Ruth and Gloria disagreed since Paul was the one who was going to arrest her and he didn’t count.  Now if it had been an officer they didn’t know…it might have counted.

“That’s a technicality,” Andrea argued.  “I was taking the fall!”

“True,” Gloria agreed.  “Okay. We’ll give it to you.”

Gloria’s mind wandered to Paul.  He had a lot of explaining to do.  She went from being relieved, to being hurt.  At that precise moment, she was downright livid.

By the time Ruth pulled the van into the police parking lot, she had cooled off.  The least she could do was give him a chance to explain.

Captain Davies was waiting for the girls in the lobby.  He motioned them to the back and they followed him into the cafeteria / conference room.

Gloria winked at Margaret as they stepped inside.  Hopefully the girls hadn’t been busted.

Captain Davies sat at the end of the table.  Paul sat next to him.  Gloria took the seat directly across from her betrothed.  She wanted to study his face as he explained what had gone down. 

Dot, the mediator, sat next to Paul, to protect him in case Gloria went after him.  She doubted it, but then Gloria had been under extreme duress.  Anything was possible.

The rest of the girls settled into their seats and turned to face Captain Davies.

He ran a hand through his cropped gray locks and scratched the five o’clock shadow on his chin.  “I’m going to guess you ladies were on to Commissioner Evergreen.”