Perplexity on P1/2 (Parson's Cove Mysteries) (20 page)

     “That’s about it. As far as Hatcher and his associates knew, Cecile Tucker and Grace Hobbs, were both into the drug and gambling scene.”

     “Does that mean that Grace Tucker was an undercover cop too?”

     “She used to be a cop up north some place. Seems to me that’s where the two met. She knew Cecile was undercover but she lived the life. It’s a rough life, you know. Never knowing what’s going to happen next. Never knowing if your husband will come home alive. Not something I could put my wife through. Was she still a cop? Well, she obviously couldn’t walk the beat anymore but she did work for us. Nothing ever to do with Cecile and his assignment though.”

     “Okay, so who’s the other Andrea Williams then? The
real
one who went to Las Vegas? Or, was she real?”

     He moved the toothpick to the other side of his mouth. “Ha! The real one? Oh yeah, she’s the real McCoy all right. She’s a tough one, that one. We’ve been waiting a long time to catch old Hatcher and Williams.”

     “You mean to tell me that she was in on all this too?”

    “Yes, ma’am.”

     “In other words, I was mixed up and spending time with a bunch of hoodlums?”

     Kyle grinned. “Now, Mabel, ain’t you glad you had a couple of cops in there watchin’ yer back?”

     Stella spoke up. “That’s jus’ you saying that Cecile is a cop. I don’t know if I’m believin’ that, Kyle.”

   “Plus,” I said, “one cop was murdered so who was it who was protecting my back? Doesn’t seem anyone was protecting Grace’s back.”

     Kyle nodded. “I know what you’re sayin’ but there’s not much more I can tell you. I truly don’t think your life was ever in danger, Mabel.”

     “If my life wasn’t ever in any danger, Kyle, why did the body end up in my little town?”

     He shook his head. “That’s a mystery.”

     “Well, that and who killed Andrea Williams and why they killed her? Yes, I guess it is quite a mystery, Kyle.”

     He slid out of the booth and stood up. Maybe the Captain gave him money to pay for our breakfast; whatever, he said ours was no good so we didn’t argue. We followed him outside.

     “There’s really no point in you driving half a block to our hotel,” I said. “We can walk that far. I’m sure the Captain won’t mind.”

     Kyle grinned. “I don’t know, Mabel. He said to watch you like a hawk.”

     “What about Flori and Stella? What did he say about them?”

     “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

Chapter Twenty Six

     “What time does that shuttle come to pick us up, Flori?”

     “Not for another two hours, Mabel, but you know what the Captain said. We aren’t to leave the hotel. And, this time, we’re going to listen to him. We’re not going anywhere. Right, Stella?”

     Flori and Stella were sitting on the one bed, watching an old black and white movie on the movie channel.

     “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if we took a walk along the beach. It’s kind of sad to spend the last couple of hours here, glued to the television. I mean, we can do that in Parson’s Cove, Flori. We might never see the Gulf of Mexico again.”

     “You heard what he said. And, Kyle, too. Kyle would be very disappointed if you left the room. You promised him you wouldn’t, didn’t you?” Flori looked at me and raised her eyebrows. The motherly look.

     “I said that so he wouldn’t worry, that’s all. Just walking over to the beach isn’t like leaving the premises.”

     “Going across the road is leaving the premises. Quit trying to wriggle out of your promise, Mabel.”

     “Okay, maybe that was stretching it a little. We could go to the pool. We haven’t been there since we got here, Flori. It looks inviting and that’s still in the hotel. Why don’t we do that, girls?”

     I was sure Flori would mention that we’d already packed our bathing suits and that we couldn’t get them wet but as it so happened, neither one heard me because Humphrey Bogart crushed Audrey Hepburn to his chest. Well, I don’t know if you could call it ‘crushed’; after all, he wasn’t very young and if the truth be told, he didn’t seem very muscular either. Flori and Stella were wiping away the tears and ready to watch it all over again. I slipped out the door.

     I bypassed the pool and went out the rear exit door. I needed one last look at Avenue P½. Before I headed down the back lane, I took a quick peek around to the front of the building and the parking lot. No sign of Kyle or any other uniformed person. Maxymowich was probably in Parson’s Cove by now. I imagine he felt there was no point in hanging round here if he couldn’t even make any arrests. I wondered what Reg and the boys were doing back home.

     I checked my watch. This would have to be a fast run. I had two hours, max. If I didn’t show up when the shuttle bus arrived, Flori would disown me. Or, worse.

     One thing going for Yellow Rose was the back lanes. It seemed that every street had them and some streets that were really streets, looked like back lanes. In about ten minutes, I was on P½. I went down the lane until I hit Thirty Sixth Street. This was apparently Ben Williams’ home. The home of Ben, the cop, and Andrea, the tough one. How, on earth, did they ever get together?

     Everything looked quiet and normal. Hard to imagine there’d been a shoot-out just hours before. I snuck in beside the garage where we’d parked the Cadillac and checked out the house. How long would I have to stand here and wait for someone to come out? Ridiculous. I wasn’t going to waste the afternoon doing that. Two hours go by very quickly. I’d already used up several minutes.

     I walked up to the backdoor and banged on it.

     The door swung open and there stood Andrea Williams. Not the black one or the dead one but the one who’d won the trip to Las Vegas. My mouth gaped open but no words came out. She had a wild animal look in her eye. Before I could swallow the saliva building up in the back of my throat, she’d grabbed my arm, pulled me inside, and slammed the door shut.

     I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be the friendly reunion I’d been hoping for. Her fingernails cut into my arm as she whisked me through the kitchen and shoved me into a chair in the living room.

    No one had said anything to me yet. They didn’t have to. Andrea had a gun in her hand and her friend, Mr. Hatcher was holding a gun. Andrea had hers pointed at me, and Mr. Hatcher had his pointed at Cecile Tucker.

     Cecile looked me over and said, “Who the hell are you?” Before he could say anything more, Hatcher shoved the gun to his head and said, “Shut up. We’ll tell you when you can talk.”

     This was the first time I could get a good look at Cecile. If he were a cop, he could’ve fooled me. He still looked like a slime ball and I doubt a shave, bath, and haircut would’ve helped.

      I had no idea what Hatcher or Andrea knew about me. Cecile, the supposedly good guy, didn’t know anything. Surely, the other two thought that I was Mabel, the innocent one, who truly believed she’d won a trip to Las Vegas. What else could they think? I decided to pretend that I hadn’t noticed the guns.

     “Andrea,” I said, (my heart was beating at such a rate, my shirt was flopping up and down) “you never said how beautiful Yellow Rose was. To be truthful, I would prefer to visit here rather than Las Vegas any day. And, you, Mr. Hatcher?” I stretched my dry unyielding lips into a smile. “Why, on earth, are you here? Don’t tell me someone else won a trip? That is awesome. I just came over to tell you, Andrea, how much I enjoyed sharing the experience with you. (At this point, I was starting to feel like a bobble head.) Is there going to be another one soon, Mr. Hatcher? I was wondering: can a person keep sending in coupons or do you have to wait for a while? You know, is there a time limit? Like, you can only send in every six months? I mean, I wouldn’t want to be greedy, you know.”

     The last two words came out high-pitched. That happens when someone grabs the back of your hair and pulls.

     “Shut up, you stupid old bag,” Andrea said as she jerked my head back, using my hair.

     Hatcher looked over at her. “Now, what are we going to do? I told you not to answer the door.”

     Cecile spoke up. “Let this woman go. She doesn’t know anything. She’s just here…” He turned his head to me. “Why exactly are you here?”

     “I told you to keep quiet,” Hatcher said. He slammed the side of the gun across the side of Cecile’s head. It made a loud whack. He must’ve done it a few times before I arrived because I noticed several bright red scrapes along the side of Cecile’s face.

     “We’ll have to get rid of both of them. We have no choice.” Andrea once again grabbed my hair. If I didn’t die, I would be bald. “Too bad you got so nosy, Mabel. You should’ve stayed back in that little hick town you came from.”

     “So,” I said, trying to ignore the pain in my scalp. “You’re going to shoot me between the eyes like you did the other Andrea?”

     Andrea looked puzzled. “What are you talking about? I didn’t shoot anybody between the eyes.” She let go of my hair and put her face up to mine. “Or, are you telling me that that’s what you want? A nice clean shot?” She laughed. “I can do that easy enough.”

     I looked up at Hatcher. “It was you then? You shot Andrea?”

     I’m not the best judge of character but I was sure the look on his face was blank. Cecile tried to say something but his jaw was swelling at an amazing rate and I couldn’t understand him. He needed ice in a very bad way.

     “In other words,” I said, “neither one of you claims to have killed Andrea Williams?”

     “Are you nuts? I’m Andrea Williams.” Andrea pointed her gun at Cecile. “What’s this woman talking about?” He shrugged.

     “He can’t talk,” I said. “You’ve obviously broken his jaw, Hatcher. If you had any decency in you at all, you’d get some ice for it.”

     Hatcher shook his head. “I’ve had enough of this. Tie them up and gag them. We’ll dump them in the Gulf tonight.”

     Andrea nodded and left the room. I assumed to hunt for rope.

     “Hatcher,” I said. “What’s going on here? Why are you going to kill Mr. Tucker and me? What have we done to you?”

     “Well, I’ll tell you what Mr. Tucker has done to me, Mabel. He double-crossed me. Know what I mean? He pretended to be a friend.”

     I cringed as he pushed the butt of the gun into Cecile’s ear. “Didn’t you, old buddy?” he said, and shoved it in a little further.

     “Stop, Hatcher, there’s no need to wreck his eardrum. He was only doing his job. Why should you kill someone for doing his job?”

     He laughed but it wasn’t a nice laugh. “Oh yes, he did a real good job. Didn’t you, Cecile?” He removed the gun and jabbed Cecile’s jaw with his fist. Cecile winced. “You’ve got me in big trouble and you know it. If you don’t own up and tell me where that money is, my life is as good as over. And, so is yours, Cecile, don’t forget that. You’re going to die before I do.” He waved the gun at Cecile’s head. “Everything was running nice and smooth. Nice and smooth. Then, all of a sudden, something goes wrong. The money disappears. Grace disappears. Some stoolie comes up to me and says, don’t trust Cecile Tucker.”

     “You trust a stool pigeon?” I said. “I wouldn’t trust one as far as I could spit. Maybe you’re the one who made the mistake, Hatcher. Maybe you lost the money.”

     “We didn’t make a mistake, lady.”

     “But what about me? Why are you going to kill me? I don’t sell or buy drugs. I don’t even gamble. Or,” I said, “did you think I did? Is that why you wanted me on that trip? ”

     “I’m going to kill you, Mabel, because you have no business being here and you are very irritating. Why are you in Yellow Rose anyway?”

     “I came to find out who killed Grace Hobbs.”

     “What are you talking about? First, you say Andrea is dead and now you say Grace is dead?” He forgot about poking Cecile in the face for a moment and stared at me.

     “Yes, Hatcher. Grace is dead. Shot right between the eyes. You don’t have to try to put that shocked look on your face. You don’t fool me. I know you and your friend, Andrea here, had something to do with it.”

     “You’re a crazy old woman talking nonsense. Why would we kill Grace? And, why did you say Grace and then change it to Andrea? You don’t even know who you’re talking about, do you?”

     Andrea appeared in the doorway, her gun still pointing in my general direction. “I told you she was one weird old duck. Now we know for sure; she’s losing her mind. That’s what I think.”

     “No, I’m not.” I looked at Andrea and then at Hatcher. “And, I’d appreciate if you would both stop calling me old and weird. At least, give me some dignity before you murder me. I’m telling you the truth: Grace’s real name was Andrea Williams.” I looked at her. “The same as yours. She was an undercover cop. She and Cecile here were working together.”

     They both stared at me. Cecile groaned.

     “You’re an undercover cop?” Andrea walked over to Cecile.

     Through a mouth almost swollen shut, he said, “Don’t listen to her. You said yourself, she’s as crazy as a loon.”

     I then realized that I’d said too much and if Cecile’d had a gun, he would be completely within his rights to use it on me.

     “So, if they don’t think you’re a cop, why are they holding a gun to your head?” I asked.

     “Because,” Hatcher said, “he swindled all our money. That’s why we’ve got a gun to his head.”

     “But,” I said, “if Grace is dead, why don’t you think she stole all the money?”

     “I don’t know, Mabel. You’re so smart. Maybe it’s because Cecile is the one who talked me into using her? So, if she really is dead, maybe the two were in it together and Cecile killed Grace to get all the money for himself.”

     “Well,” I said, “wouldn’t it be pretty stupid to show up here then? Wouldn’t Cecile be somewhere on a beach in the Bahamas now? Isn’t that what all you big time crooks do?”

     Hatcher and Andrea exchanged looks. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid these criminals can be.