Murder for a Rainy Day (Pecan Bayou Book 6) (18 page)

Although I was pretty sure I was in the very early stages of labor something was bugging me. It was a nagging thought that pulled me away from the storm shelter.

The cryptic messages were finally making sense, and I was pretty sure I knew what the people in my dreams were trying to tell me. If I followed through on their clues, they could point me directly to the murderer.

Still, though, I felt trapped riding along in my aunt’s station wagon. If I could just take a half hour and check it, I could concentrate on the baby. I opened my phone and called Leo.

"How is the storm chasing going?"

"Great. We’ve seen a funnel cloud from less than a mile. It’s awesome! Oh no. Are you having the baby?" Leo asked, with just a little disappointment in his voice.

"Doing fine." I wasn’t lying. I was doing fine in progressing towards labor. Labor could take anywhere from ten to twenty hours. He would be back in plenty of time. 

"Good. You had me worried there for a minute."

"Are you going to be back soon? We’re evacuating to the shelter."

"You of all people should know it's pretty hard to predict a storm. I promise we’re heading your way. From the way it looks, I should be out with them for less than an hour, and I'll join you at the shelter. As exciting as all of this is, I also have the feeling that this could be the day for the baby."

Me too, I thought. "Well that's good to hear. I really want you with me tonight." I looked around the car to make sure my fellow passengers could not hear Leo’s side of the conversation. If I wanted to run a side errand, this was going to be the only way to do it.

"Yes. I guess I could do that," I said into the phone. My words confused Leo on the other end.

"I’m sorry, Bets. What did you say?"

I continued with my fictional conversation. "Okay. I'll tell you what. I'll meet you in front of the police station. That works for me. How about you?"

"The police station? Why would I want you standing outside at the police station in this weather? You should go to the shelter with the family. Are you feeling okay?"

"Okay then, I guess I'll see you in about an hour in front of the police station. Don’t be late." I clicked the phone shut and turned and smiled as if nothing was out of the ordinary. 

Aunt Maggie's head jerked around from the front seat. "Did you say you're meeting Leo at the police station in an hour? What is he, crazy? Let me talk to him on that phone."

I held up the phone to her.

"Sorry, he already hung up. They were zeroing in on another tornado."

"You have to be nuts if you think I'm going to let you stand out in front police station," Maggie said.

My little subterfuge wasn’t working. I scrambled for a better reason to be at the station.

"What he really said was Dad asked him to ask me to go into the police station and pick up some red flares for the storm."

"Well that's simple. We can do that on our way."

This was not getting any easier. "No, Aunt Maggie. I really want you to get the boys to the shelter. This is really no big deal and I’m just glad I can help, what with the police force being so busy with the storm. I think the flares are in the back closet. It won’t take me long, but I do have to search a little for them. By the time I find everything, Leo will be there to pick me up."

Leo's mother pursed her lips and began shaking her head. "Why don't I come with you? What if you go into labor?"

"No, Gwyn. I really want you to be there with the boys. Tyler especially needs you there." I pushed hard on her fraternal grandmother instinct.

"Is your cell phone charged?"

I pulled out my phone and checked the bars. "Yes I’m fully charged. See?" I held it up for the entire car to count the bars.

"I’ll be fine. You know, some women go two weeks over their due dates. If I feel anything suspicious, I’ll call you, and you can rush over to pick me up before Leo gets there. It's only an hour."

"I really don't know about this, Betsy," Maggie said as she pulled up to the police station.

"Call Dad and check if you don't believe me."

Maggie thought for a moment, and then raised her hand to shew me out of the car. "I don’t like this, and if I don’t hear something from you in the next hour, we’re stormin’ the station, do you hear?"

I pulled myself out of the car and waved goodbye, then pulled out my key to the station. My father gave it to me years ago when I was still a teenager. He wanted me to be able to get in the building even if they were locked down.

As the door opened, the air in the station felt different. Most of the time there were emergency lights flooding the hallways, but tonight it was very dark inside. The police department building had been shut down to move the base of operations to the shelter. Even cops need to be safe.

I felt on the wall and thankfully found a light switch. I knew the stolen items would be in the back of the building, in the impound yard. It was overcast and extremely dark outside, and I wished I had thought to bring a flashlight.

As my eyes adjusted, I could see the outlines of shapes. I knew they were the animals, but they could have been anything, including a person. I found the outdoor flood lights and flipped them on. The beams of white electric light illuminated the eerie black shapes into the animals I had come to examine.

Stepping out into the yard I walked to the side of the cow. Even with the flood lights on, it was hard to see. Relying on my sense of touch, I ran my hand along the lower side of the cow, feeling for the hole I had seen when it stood in Connor Holman’s yard.

As I reached down, I felt the tug of the baby. There was a painful pulling down, and I knew I had to be dilating. I looked at my watch deciding to time what I knew was an early contraction.  It wasn’t an intense contraction, and with Zach’s birth, at this point I was still many hours away from delivery. I leaned up against the fence and took a deep breath as the contraction waned.

I went back to the cow, and putting my hand on the rough edge I tried to turn the cow itself. It was too heavy to move. Trying a new approach, I got down on my knees for a view of the underside of the cow. I reached along the crack again, and as I had suspected, there was a ragged hole that had been patched.

The crack led me to what I was looking for. I punched my fist through the patched area and reached in. Was the smiley-face painter’s murder connected to whatever was inside this cow? 

My fingers landed on something that felt like a paperback book. When I pulled it out, I knew who had slashed the throat of Connor Holman.

What I pulled from the cow was not a book, but a banded stack of bills, reminding me of cash in a bank vault.

Stuffing the cash back up in the cow’s stomach, I backed out of the enclosure, turned off the light and returned to the front of the police station. With the crazy message I gave Leo, I knew he would turn the storm chasers our way. He probably thought I was out of my mind and in labor. He’d be right on at least one count, maybe both.

I locked the front door of the police station and felt another contraction. I looked at my watch. It had only been six minutes since the last contraction. This one picked up a little in intensity. The rain and wind whipped around my ankles. I leaned against the wall waiting for the contraction to pass. Six minutes apart wasn't too bad, and it could go on like this for hours. I could do this, I reassured myself. 

Panic slowly crept into my forced calm. I was all alone on the deserted Main Street in Pecan Bayou. Everyone who could possibly help me was now in the shelter protected from the storm. The sound of the wind would block out my screams.

For the last two weeks I couldn’t avoid everybody and their neighbor asking me if I was in labor. Right now, I would give anything for one person to ask me that irritating question. Yes! I would tell them. I’m in labor.

"Is anybody listening?" I shouted. "I’m in labor!"

A tear escaped from my cheek to the arm I was leaning on. I was going to have to deliver my baby alone in a storm, and it was all my fault. If I had just listened to Aunt Maggie, I wouldn’t be in this mess. I was alone. I should have at least shared my suspicions with my father. Maybe I could call Maggie and have her come pick me up. Before I could punch in her number, I spotted car lights approaching. I breathed a sigh of relief. Leo was here. I knew he would save me. I just knew it. 

I waved my hands over my head as the headlights came closer. Thank goodness. I was saved. For a car that had been chasing storms, there was a surprising lack of equipment attached to it. When the driver exited the car, I knew I had just made a deadly mistake. 

Lonnie Carello came over and took me by the arm.

"Are you okay?"

"I think I need to go to the hospital, or even the shelter."

"Well of course. I'll be glad to drive you there. What in the world are you doing out here all by yourself?"

I realized I hadn't taken the time to dig the extra flares out of the closet. My whole reason for being here was now a lie.

"My husband told me to meet him here," I said as Lonnie helped me into the car. He reached out to me, and I was sure he was about to snap my neck. I flinched and then he handed me the seatbelt.

"We need to be safe, especially now, little mama. I’m quite surprised your husband left you out in the storm. I certainly wouldn’t let my pregnant wife alone for a minute. Hey, I heard the funniest thing about you. Someone said you had a knack for solving murders. I had no idea you were so talented. Any ideas on our horse thief?"

"My husband is with the storm chasers, and he told me he could just pick me up on the way. You know, I think I should probably just wait for him. He’ll be so upset if he doesn’t find me here. Maybe the storm slowed them down. You know, as a matter of fact, I think I'll just wait here for him."

"I can't let you do that sweetie. You could going into labor right here, and you would be all by yourself. No. Papa Lonnie is going to take care of you tonight." He closed my door with a resounding click and headed for his side.

I could just open the door and jump out. Would he drag me back? What kind of danger would it put me and the baby in? What kind of danger were we in already? My mind was racing, and as he got into the car I tried to open my door to get out.

"No really. I'll just wait for my husband." Lonnie Carello put a hand on my other arm, squeezing just a little too tightly. 

"I can't believe you're refusing a ride from me. I won't hear another word. I couldn’t face myself if you got in trouble out here in the storm by yourself. Now let go of the door." His last few words were no longer laced with the artificial friendliness he was so full of when he first found me. I shut the car door and he hit the gas. I shot up a prayer as another contraction began.
Let Leo find me.