Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #3) (8 page)

“We got that dresser at a yard sale.
You should have seen what a beat-up mess it was. We sanded it,
primed it, and painted it. Jenny picked out the crystal knobs. She
said she needed some sparkle.” I pulled out the bottom drawer. “You
can put your things in here. Jenny cleaned it out for
you.”

“She’s so nice!”

“She is, I agreed, thinking of the
good-hearted, generous-spirited girl who was now in California,
getting to know her late father’s side of the family. “We have a
few rules here, Mickey, so let me just fill you in. Don’t go out of
the house without letting someone know. We have an alarm system and
it will go off. It’s loud enough to wake the dead, not to mention
the fact that the local police will show up. Believe me when I tell
you they won’t be amused by a false alarm.”

“Oh, now I get it.” She flopped back
down on the bed. “That’s why my mom wanted me to sleep here
tonight.”

“What?” I looked askance at her,
surprised at her comment. “What does that mean?”

She sat up, crossing her legs as she
leaned up against the headboard, before she confided in me. “She’s
worried about some creep.”

“Is she?” I cautiously measured my
words. “What makes you say that?”

“I heard her talking to Dennis
Pisciotti on the phone. She told him to check on a license plate
because she thought she was being followed.” There it was -- proof
that little pitchers do indeed have big ears.

Chapter Seven
--

“Actually,” I smiled, hoping to
dissuade her from worrying, “it was my idea. I offered to put you
up the other day, when she booked the Black Oak Room for your
grandmother. I even told your mother it would be my Christmas gift,
but she turned me down. She said you had a perfectly good room at
home.”

“Swear?” For the first time since she
arrived, I met Michaela’s gaze head on, and I took in all the
details of that fourteen-year-old face. There was real anxiety in
those brown eyes of hers, and it wasn’t just there because she
thought there might be someone stalking her mom. Mickey knew
something. I needed to find out what it was.

“I swear. Scout’s honor.” I held up my
hand, giving her my solemn vow. “Why? Is there something that makes
you think your mom has a problem?”

She bit her lip, and I saw that glint
of metal as the light hit her braces. I could tell she wanted to
say something, but she wasn’t sure if I was the right person.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be eating away at her.

“Mickey? If you know something and it’s
important, we have to tell your mom.”

“It’s no big deal,” she tried to
insist, but I wasn’t convinced.

“Tell you what. Why don’t you let me
decide whether or not that’s true? I’ll take responsibility for
this, and if I think your mom needs to know, I’ll help you tell
her.”

“Some guy called me the other
day.”

“Did he call on your cell phone or the
landline?” I cut in. There was a big difference between the two.
Michaela was attached to her Smartphone; she didn’t share it with
her mom.

“My cell phone. He knew my name and he
said my mother was a...a....” She couldn’t bring herself to say the
word. I took a stab at the problem, sitting down on the bed next to
her.

“He called your mother a bad
name?”

She nodded again, finally spitting it
out letter by letter. When I heard what it was, I
cringed.

“Honey, why didn’t you tell your mother
right away? That’s something she needs to know, especially if it
involves a case she’s working on.”

“I didn’t want her to get upset. She
hates that kind of language.”

“Oh, Mickey,” I hugged her. “Has anyone
told you lately what a great kid you are?”

“No.” Suddenly weepy, she clung to me.
I could feel her trembling.

“Well, you are. I’m proud of you for
telling me. Now, don’t worry. Your big, old Uncle Bur is right out
back, we’ve got a super security system, and we take very good care
of all of our guests at the Four Acorns Inn. Tomorrow your
grandfather will be here,” I reminded her, trying to distract her
from her concerns. It didn’t work.

“What about my mom? What if someone
wants to hurt her?” Unlike a lot of teenagers, Michaela was a
little too aware of life’s ugly realities. How could I reassure her
that everything would be fine?

“I will call her right now. Let me
write down the details of what happened to you. In the meantime,
you can get settled for bed.”

“I don’t think I can sleep now,
Scarlet. I’m scared.” When I studied her, I saw the tired eyes.
Maybe Larry wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been getting enough
shuteye.

“Good thing we have three dogs.” I
patted her hand. “Three very noisy watch dogs. Does that make you
feel better?”

“I guess.” She gave me a tentative
smile. “I wish I had a dog.”

“By the way, don’t be surprised if
Mozzie climbs into bed with you. He doesn’t like to sleep alone.
Oh,” I chuckled, finally understanding why Jenny was so eager to
offer Michaela a place to stay. “I guess that girl is pretty
clever, suggesting I invite you to stay at the inn. I think she
wants you to look out for her best buddy while she’s
gone.”

“I don’t mind. I like dogs.”

“Good thing. I hope you also like cats.
You’ll probably come across Scrub Oak at some point. By the way, we
don’t let him outside. Too many predators in the woods. Coyotes,
foxes, even fisher cats.”

“Ooh, that sounds scary.”

“Nothing you have to worry about,” I
assured her.

“Honest?”

“If you ever come across a wild animal
in the woods, just make a lot of noise and carefully back
away.”

“I’d rather just run,” she insisted,
“as fast as I can.”

“With predators, if you do
that, they’ll think you’re vulnerable prey and chase you. The trick
is to make them think you’re scarier and more dangerous than they
are. Sometimes you have to puff yourself up and have a bigger
growl.” I pretended to be fierce, standing up, arms in the air, and
let out a menacing
g-r-r-r
from my diaphragm.

“I’ll remember that, Miz Scarlet,” she
promised, giving me a metal-lined grin.

“Good. Now why don’t you go down and
say goodnight to my mother? I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Sure.” She scampered off the bed and
made clawing gestures in the air above her head, lowering her voice
until she sounded like a demented troll. “Get away from me, you
ugly beast, before I kick your sorry behind!”

Amused, I watched her disappear down
the stairs with all the grace of a five-hundred-pound canary on
steroids.

As a responsible adult, I did what I
thought was best. I pulled out my cell phone and made the call,
even though I knew the homicide investigator would hit the
roof.

“Rivera,” she announced when she picked
up, suggesting she was so busy, she didn’t even have time to check
her caller ID. Not a good sign.

“Larry, I think you’ve got a serious
problem on your hands.”

“What kind of problem?” she wanted to
know. I gave her the date and time of the phone call, along with
the gist of the menacing message to Michaela.

“Crap!” said Larry. I waited for the
rest of her wrath, but it never came.

“Larry?” The silence continued, and for
a moment, I thought she had left me to handle some police matter.
When she did speak, it was to berate her own parental
skills.

“I’m a terrible mother, Scarlet. I
failed my kid. I failed her big time. I should have been there for
her. She should have been able to tell me about this.”

“Actually, she was trying to spare you
any worry. She thought she’d handle it herself. It turns out you
raised a good kid, Larry.”

“I wish she had told me. Lord, I’ve got
to scramble to get the phone records. Luckily, the account’s in my
name. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Larry!” I said her name urgently,
hoping to catch her before she hung up on me.

“What?”

“You come to the inn to sleep tonight.
I’ve got a room all ready for you.”

“Thanks, Miz Scarlet, but I’ll be
fine.” Even as she blew me off, I pushed back. Knowing I’d worry
about her if she wasn’t with us, I had no intention of taking no
for an answer.

“I mean it. You know that Kenny put in
that security system. It’s top of the line. You’ll be able to able
to get some rest. I can even have Bur sleep at the inn tonight,
unless you’ve got a better idea.”

“Miz Scarlet....”

“Larry, you’ve got a kid worried sick
about you, and the only thing that’s going to make her feel safe is
knowing she’s got her mom within screaming distance. If you need
back-up, feel free to bring your cop friends.”

I could hear her breathing on the other
end, and as the seconds ticked on, I waited patiently. It was just
a matter of time before Larry folded. She could huff and puff all
she wanted, trying to convince me that she knew how to take care of
herself and that she’d be fine, but she was missing the big
picture. An innocent teenage victim, caught in the blowback of
Larry’s wake, had found her life turned upside down, and now it was
time to step up to the plate and play for the team.

“This isn’t about you as a homicide
investigator,” I reminded her. “This is about you as a mother.
Don’t tell me you let your kid down and then refuse the chance to
make her feel protected.”

“That’s a low blow, Scarlet!
Using guilt on me is just plain mean!” she announced
churlishly.
Did she really just play the
“defenseless girl” card? Two can play dirty. Watch me.

“I’m more than capable of going under
the limbo bar, Rivera. Might as well just say yes now and save
yourself a lot of pain, because I’m not going away any time
soon.”

“God, you’re a pain in the tush.” There
was another long pause and I knew she was contemplating the
situation. Michaela was the chink in her armor, but something told
me it was more than that. Larry really was genuinely worried. Did
she know something specific or was she just operating on instinct?
Overworked and stressed, was she even thinking straight? Could
there more to that threat to Michaela than Larry wanted to admit?
Did she hope to draw the bad guy away from her daughter by keeping
her distance, staying away from Mickey and making herself the
target?

“I may be a pain in the tush, but you
know I’m right. Your kid needs you, Larry. Not next week or next
month, when the case is wrapped up. Mickey needs you
now.”

Finally she spoke to me. “Can I bring
Max? I want to keep this unofficial until I know what’s going
on.”

“Absolutely. Good choice. Call me when
you’re on your way.”

“Will do,” she agreed. With that
settled, she hung up.

Larry doesn’t want this to
be official. She’s a state trooper and her kid was threatened, but
she doesn’t want colleagues to know about it. Instead, she’s
turning to her former partner, the man who always had her back.
Does that make any sense? Maybe there’s something going on at work
I don’t know about, something serious.

Max had been Larry’s long-time mentor
at the Connecticut State Police homicide unit. After twenty years
of complaining about the crazy hours and the nasty suspects, and
dreaming about buying a bar down in Daytona Beach and spending his
days sipping Margaritas with a bevy of beautiful women in bikinis,
he ended up taking a job with Darwin Pellman, the high-power
defense attorney down in New Haven a few months ago. He had gone
over to the dark side, in the eyes of former colleagues, and yet,
he was the man Larry reached out to for help. She trusted
him.

Max pulled into the driveway a little
after ten, triggering the motion-sensor lights, and stopped his car
in our small parking area. I watched him climb out of the driver’s
seat, grab his overnight case, and hobble to the front porch of the
Four Acorns Inn as I stood on the top step, feeling the cold air
through my sweater as I waited.

“Hey!” I greeted him with a hug. “How’s
everything? Thanks for coming.”

“You know me, Miz Scarlet. I’d do
anything for Larry Bear.”

“I thought as much. To tell you the
truth, Max, Michaela’s rather upset by all this nonsense, and Larry
even more so.”

“I can’t really blame her. No cop wants
to hear that his kid is being menaced by some creep who belongs in
a jail cell.” His worn face was now adorned with a new pair of
glasses, metal rims, and a graying moustache. We walked into the
foyer together, and once he removed his navy parka, I hung it
up.

“Let me show you to your room,” I said,
taking his arm in mine. With his bad knees, I knew stair-climbing
was a challenge for Max, so I steered him to the small elevator
that would take us up to the second floor. We chatted about the
weather, the family, and his new job as the tiny car traveled
slowly to its destination. Michaela was already there, waiting for
us, as the door open and we stepped into the hallway. She threw her
arms around her mother’s former partner and gave him an almost
desperate hug.