Iced Tea (23 page)

“From where?”

“Oh, I didn’t mean we’d been traveling, although, from your beautiful accent, I’d be willing to bet you weren’t born here in Florida.”

“I’m from Jersey, and nobody has ever called it a beautiful accent before.”

“Well then those were very short-sighted people, weren’t they?
 
Everything has it’s own beauty.
 
That’s what my grandma always says.”

“Your grandma is a wise woman.”

“Yes, she was.”

“You aren’t here visiting your grandma?”

“No, actually, I’m here to sort out Louis’s condo.
 
His brother hired me to do so after he passed.”

“Louis died?”

“I’m sorry, yes.”

“He was one strange bird.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I like to tell you, that boy was always running around helping out.
 
He was a cop for criminy sake.
 
And a good lookin’ thing.
 
Why was he hanging out with old ladies instead of some hot little number?”

“I wasn’t aware that he was.”

“Oh, yeah.
 
He spent a lot of his time with the manager and her mother.
 
I once seen him carry her across the lawn like she was the Queen of Sheba.”

“Sounds like a nice man.”

“Either that or he was just trying to get at her money.
 
Don’t let the place fool ya.
 
There are some rich widows in this place just ripe for the pickin’ if you know what I mean.
 
I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but something there just didn’t add up.”

AJ and Jessie came out of the men’s room and gave us a subtle headshake.
 
Teagan walked over to talk to Jessie, and left me alone with our quasi-informant, who whispered loudly, “Now that is one pretty girl.
 
How do you know her?”

“She’s my sister.”

“No kidding?
 
Your mother must have had a little something going on on the side.”
 
She winked at me and walked away.

I didn’t have time to be insulted.
 
Or to trip her.
 
Teagan was back with key in hand.

“You know, I’m betting that this place is vacant a lot.
 
He could probably have gotten in the lady’s room without much trouble.”

“Teagan, this is stupid.
 
Women use more TP then men do.
 
If he hid anything in there, it’s long since gone.
 
Let’s just admit that this was all a wild goose chase and go.”

“We’re here, it doesn’t hurt to go look.”

“Fine.”

“Oh, I get it, you don’t want to go into a public restroom, all those germs.”

“I’m not a germaphobe, germs don’t scare me at all, I just like my house, the place where I live, clean.
 
I’m not a freak, and you guys are beginning to piss me off.”

“Sorry.”

“Can we just do this?”

“Sure.”

We walked into the lady’s room, which was actually very nice.
 
There were two stalls, one for the physically challenged, one not.
 
Teagan went into the first stall, played with the TP holder, nothing.
 

I tried hard not to smirk.

Smirking is not nice.

It is also hazardous to your health when Teagan is in a mood, and she was working her way into one.

She went into the second stall, fooled around with the holder, I thought I heard her closing it back up, when I heard a noise come out of my sister that was somewhere between pure, well, I’m not sure what the sound was, but I am now convinced that Teagan is a screamer.
 
Eww.

AJ and Jessie came flying in the room as Teagan came out of the stall with something in her hand.

“Look what I found.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a memory card.”

“That has got to be Louis’s.
 
Who else would stick a memory card in a TP holder.”

“It wasn’t really in the holder, it was between the stall wall and the holder.
 
I didn’t see it at first, but when Cara was smirking at me, I put my head down to take a breath, so that I could maintain my composure, and I saw something not quite right.
 
I used a nail file and wedged it in there, and the thing fell out.
 
There might be more of them.
 
We need to take the TP holders off the wall.”
 

“Or not.
 
You know, this is where the bad guys always come in with guns and start shooting the place up.
 
We need to put that thing back and call someone.”

“Who do we call?
 
We don’t know what’s on there.
 
It could be anything from porn to solving the serial murders he was working on, to proof of alien abductions.”

“Well, I know I’m not giving it to Officer Jerkface.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I think that we have to find the other ones, if there are any other ones, and then we have to figure out who we turn them over to, and we do that as soon as humanly possible.”

Jessie said, “I’ve got tools in my car.
 
I’m going to calmly run out and get them, AJ, stay here with the girls.
 
Somebody pull out your phone and dial 911 and keep your finger over send.
 
Just in case.
 
I’ll be right back.”

Teagan did as instructed.

At some point, probably minutes, seemed like hours, Jessie came back with tools, we checked the TP holders and the paper towel holders and came up with a total of 8 memory cards.
 
That is a whole lot of memory.

We each took two, and headed back to the condo to lock up and leave.

We met back at my apartment and came up with a plan.

Well, the beginning of a plan.

Each of us would get into our own car.
 
We would each have two of the memory cards.
 
We would take different routes.
 
We would meet in Old Town at AJs photography studio, he has a huge safe for housing his equipment and we could stuff the memory cards in there.
 

Unless someone knew we had the cards, and were personal friends with a talented safe cracker, the memory cards should be safe until we figure out what to do with them.
 

The guys wanted to load the memory cards onto the computer and see what was on them.
 

Teagan was adamant that we not do that, because, for the moment, we had plausible deniability.
 
We might be in trouble for taking them out of that bathroom, but we couldn’t get in trouble for whatever was on them, because we didn’t know, and in this case, what we didn’t know, might keep us healthier.

I’m not sure that it’s a legal defense, but, if not, we could use stupidity as a defense.
 
I am well aware that ignorance is no defense, or at least it never used to be, but I think once the whole Twinkie defense got into the courts, stupidity might qualify.

After we’d locked the memory cards in AJs safe, we went across the street to the diner, where I had fries and a Coke, my comfort food, AJ and Jessie had a slice of pie, and Teagan ate everything else in the place.
 
Well, maybe not everything, but when she is stressed, Teagan eats, and Teagan was very stressed.

After about an hour, we rolled Teagan toward the public parking lot, promised to meet for breakfast in the morning to figure out our next move.

When AJ and I got home, there was a note on the door from my neighbor.
 
WE NEED TO TALK.

I made some noise by my front door, figuring that if he wanted to talk tonight, he’d hear us, and come out.
 
He didn’t.
 
AJ tucked me into the house and went out looking for his car.
 
Didn’t find it.
 
I racked my brain trying to remember if it was his bowling night, but couldn’t remember.
 

Seems I’m getting more and more self-involved.
 

I didn’t even remember to call my sister to see if she needs help painting.
 
I’m becoming my worst nightmare.
 
One of those women that get involved with a guy and forget everybody else.

AJ saw the look on my face and asked if I was okay.

I explained.

He pointed out that I wasn’t being self-involved, I was trying to solve a problem that threatened my family, and that it wasn’t because he had walked into the picture, it was because I had this whole
is it a murder, is it not a murder
, dealing with whackos thing going on in my life.

I felt better.

After we danced in the kitchen, and had a cup of tea, and danced some more and went to bed and talked and snuggled and talked some more, I felt even better.

In the morning, AJ was in a very good mood.
 
I joined him.

We rushed through our showers and getting presentable, and met Jessie and Teagan at the appointed time.

“I know we said we weren’t going to talk about it until we met up this morning, but Jessie and I talked about it last night, and we think we should go to the chief of police.”

AJ smiled.
 
“What if Louis was investigating the whole police department.
 
The chief is in charge of all of it.
 
Wouldn’t it be better to call the FBI or the State Attorney General or somebody?”

I huffed, “You guys, we don’t even know if those memory cards are Louis’s.
 
If we call in the FBI, and they are something completely innocuous, we look like idiots.”

Teagan leaned forward, “Better to look like a healthy idiot, then one of those girls in Louis’s journals, with her legs all akimbo.”

“Good point, but Teagan, we don’t know that one has anything to do with the other.”

Jessie piped in, “Cara, I don’t mean to stomp on your theory, but why would someone hide something innocuous in the bathroom stall of the condo clubhouse?”

“Okay, maybe not completely innocuous.”

Teagan rolled her eyes, “I’ll bet you guys just used the word innocuous more times than it has been used this century, but Jessie is right, if whatever is on those memory cards is harmless, then why hide them?”

“Maybe it belongs to someone else in the complex.
 
Maybe it’s just geezer porn.”

Jessie grabbed a napkin, “Jesus Cara, not this early in the morning!”

“Sorry.
 
You have to admit, when you and Teagan were running around together back in your formative years, you would have considered what you are doing now as geezer porn.”

I thought Teagan’s head would explode.

“Hey, you’re the one that showed me the whole mirror thing.”

Jessie looked confused and just suspicious enough not to even ask what we were talking about.
 
He has years of experience with Teagan and her weird insights, some of which are better not discussed at a table, with mixed company, in public.

“If it’s geezer porn, and can I just say, eww, why did Louis have the key hidden in his house?”

“True.
 
Geezer porn is a bad thing, but not worth hiding the key.”

“And why would Officer Jerkface be after geezer porn.”

“True.”

“And if Officer Jerkface is after something, his supervisor must be in on it, because he came to Mom and Dad’s the night that Jerkface tried to run you over, and there didn’t seem to be any ramifications.”

“True.”

“So if a supervisor is in on it, we don’t know just how high this thing goes up the chain of command, and we can’t count on the cops to help us.”

“What about your brother?”

“Oh, hell no.
 
We aren’t getting him in the middle of this.
 
If there’s any way to keep the O’Flynn name out of it completely, we should do that.
 
I’m going to have dinner with a guy tonight who knows the chief, and he used to be some kind of spy or something, and I’m gonna pray that he can help me figure out what to do next.”

“I think that you should call the FBI right now.
 
This is nothing to fool around with Cara.
 
If we look like idiots, I’m okay with that, as long as you guys are safe.”

“I can’t get my name in this.
 
If it turns out to be geezer love, I am not going to put my brother in the position of being the brother of the sister that tried to bring down the whole police department with some photos of 100 year old pervs going for the money shot.”

“Oh Lord Cara, did you really have to say that?”

“Sorry.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“I’m going to meet my neighbor tonight.
 
If he can’t think of a better plan, then tomorrow morning, bright and early, I will go to the FBI, or the CIA, or whoever.
 
I just want to give it one more shot before I put myself out there.”