The Christie Curse (17 page)

The first officer said, “No, ma’am. I don’t think it is a coincidence.”

The other one said, “Is this your residence, ma’am?”

“No. It’s my friend’s.”

“And your friend’s name?”

“Karen. Karen Smith.”

“And where is Karen Smith, ma’am?”

“I don’t know.”

More chin stroking.

“But…”

“I came by to see her and I could hear Walter here in distress and I thought I’d take
him out. Sometimes Karen gets tied up in business things and doesn’t get back. It’s
really hard on Walter. And it must drive the neighbors crazy. I could hear him when
I got out of my car.”

I could tell they wanted to believe this, but I know their training tells them to
be skeptical.

“Do you have a key, ma’am?”

“I don’t.”

“Then how did you get in?”

“Sorry?”

“How did you get in without a key?” A bit of edge in his voice this time.

I smiled as if it was the most logical thing in the world. “Didn’t need one. The door
was open.”

“Open?”

“Yes. Karen must have forgotten to lock it. She’s a bit…absentminded sometimes.”

The first cop said, “Your car, ma’am.”

“Yes?”

“Where did you park it?”

“Ah. Yes, it’s around the corner and down a bit.”

They exchanged glances. I should have had a sensible reason for parking the car there,
but I’d not been prepared for that issue. Be Prepared 101 and I’d flubbed it.

I said, “The last time I parked here a bunch of kids were skateboarding on the street.
I drive a vintage Saab. It’s in mint condition, and I don’t want anything to happen
to it. It was my mom’s.”

Their eyes flicked to each other. That could have been true. But the whole thing probably
seemed off to them, which of course it was. By now I was kicking myself for having
picked the lock and weaving this web of lies. How many times had I had it drilled
into me? Don’t lie too much, you’ll always get caught up in it. Stick as close to
the truth as you can.

“You have ID, ma’am?”

I felt my mouth go dry. I hoped that my words were clear. Clear and unconcerned. “Of
course.” I reached for my shoulder bag and fished out my driver’s license. “Here you
go. But I think if you get in touch with Karen, she’ll tell you that she often asks
me to walk the dog. She’ll be in soon I’m sure. She had a big show on this weekend.”

“Is this your current address?”

“No. I’ve just moved back to Harrison Falls. I work for Miss Van Alst.”

One of the officers said, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but your friend Karen Smith
is in the hospital. She’s been attacked.”

I gasped.

The other officer moved to check the door. He turned back to me. “This door wasn’t
left unlocked. The lock’s been picked.”

I said, “Picked? But who could…?”

They both turned and looked at me.

I let out a little whimper. I felt quite proud. “What if he’s still up there?” I swayed
a little bit for dramatic effect. “I could have been killed!”

They exchanged glances, and I figured the jig was up.

“Oh, here you are,” an unexpected voice said.

The three of us whirled. I don’t know which of the three of us was the most surprised
to see Officer Smiley. Walter was delighted. Instead of barking, he jumped for joy
and ran in circles wagging his ridiculous tail. Officer Smiley scratched his ears.

“Oh, it’s you,” I said. Had he been sent to pick me up? Drag me to the slammer? I’d
been right all along. The policeman is
not
our friend, children.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” he said with a dazzling smile at me. He might be pudgy
and cute, but some orthodontist had done an excellent job on his pearly whites, except
for the chipped incisor.

I said, “Don’t worry about it.”

He said to me, “I got caught up with a shoplifting incident. Guy’s going down for
a couple of rib eye steaks.”

“Shocking,” I said.

“I didn’t even have time to change. I didn’t want you waiting, so I hope you don’t
mind a detour before we go out.” He shrugged cutely.

“No problem for me.”

He nodded at his two colleagues. These guys didn’t even live in the same jurisdiction.
Did all cops know each other? If so, that was very creepy. “So, what’s going on, guys?”

The first one said, “Reported break-in. Lock was picked.”

The second one said, “She’d been inside. Seems to have apprehended the family dog.”

I said, “Apprehended? We call that ‘walked the dog’ where I come from. Walter was
upset and—”

Officer Smiley said, “But I’m sure Karen would have asked Jordan to take, um, Walter
out.”

“Exactly,” I said. “I knew this would get straightened out. Glad you finally got here.”

“You know her?” the first officer said to Smiley.

“Of course. We see each other all the time,” Smiley said,
smilingly. “Since I moved to Harrison Falls and she moved back.”

“Okay then. Guess the neighbor overreacted.”

I said, “Probably driven to the brink of madness by Walter’s sounds of distress. Really,
Karen shouldn’t keep him cooped up in that small apartment.”

Officer Smiley turned to me. “So, you ready to go?”

“More than. But I’d like to take Walter for a proper walk. I hate to put him back
upstairs. And Karen’s lock has been picked. What if whoever did that is still up there?”
I turned to the two cops. “Are you going to check out the apartment? And you really
should take a look at the shop too.”

Reluctantly, they headed into the building, leaving me standing there with Smiley
and Walter. Walter shook the Frisbee. Smiley said, “You in a little hot water here?”

“Not anymore. I’m glad you showed up. They got it into their pointy little heads that
I burgled Karen’s apartment.”

“Do you think anything was taken?”

“Hard to tell, really. She’s a bit of a pack rat, and there’s stuff everywhere. Stacks
of books and sweet little collectibles. Nice stuff, but it’s hard to tell if there
was even more stuff earlier, if you know what I mean.”

“Hmm.”

“I suppose we should wait to see what they find. I’d really like to go, but I don’t
want to leave Walter here alone. Karen’s—” Lucky I caught myself in time. Smiles or
no smiles, he didn’t need to know that I’d been in to see her. “What is happening
with Karen? Do you know?”

“She’s out of intensive care, but not out of the woods yet.”

“I can’t leave this dog in there. It’s cruel. I think Karen worked out of her house
and shop and he’s not used to being alone.”

“I suppose not.”

“But I don’t think I can bring him to my place. I live in a house that’s ruled by
a bipolar cat that can walk through walls. I don’t think he’d be safe.”

He scrunched up his face, something he does when he’s thinking. I don’t imagine he’d
ever win a poker game. “Bipolar cat? That sounds bad.”

The two cops took that moment to emerge. One shook his head in disbelief. “If anyone
got in there, looks like he brought stuff in instead of taking things out.”

The other one said, “Looks like the only thing missing is the receiver to the phone.”

I managed to keep my expression neutral. “The receiver?” With my luck someone would
pick that exact moment to call Karen and the stupid thing would ring from under the
rock. I’d lose my lock picks.

He said, “Yeah. Although it’s probably in there somewhere.”

They ambled off, exhibiting those cop walks I am so not fond of, leaving me with my
new best friend, Officer Tyler “Smiley” Dekker. And also leaving me to wonder exactly
why he’d showed up at Karen’s house while I was there. I imagined Tiff asking,
Have you seen Officer Stalker today?

Was it a coincidence? How could it be? Karen’s place was in Grandville, ten to twenty
minutes from Harrison Falls. Neither his jurisdiction, nor his business really. He’d
been prepared to lie to his Grandville colleagues, and he’d done a surprisingly good
job of it. They’d gone away thinking that somehow Officer Smiley and I had met on
schedule. Huh. My brain formulated three explanations: (a) he’d known I was going
to be there; (b) he’d followed me; and (c) he had some reason for wanting to get into
Karen’s business or apartment. I wasn’t crazy about any of these. I wasn’t even sure
that I’d trust him with Walter.

I said, “I know someone who’d be happy to give Walter a place to stay until Karen’s
out of danger and home again. No cat. Home all day. No problemo.”

I could tell he was relieved. We headed along the side walkway to the street to give
Walter a bit of a waddle with me thinking fast. He hadn’t been in the building, and
he
wasn’t showing any interest in it. Unless, of course, he’d already been through the
place. Walter had seemed quite comfortable when Smiley arrived. Had they met before,
say when Smiley was going through the apartment? The door had been locked when I arrived,
but what if he had Karen’s keys? He could have picked them up when we were waiting
for the emergency team. I’d been so distressed I wouldn’t have noticed. All this was
entirely possible and, really, no more unlikely than anything else that had happened
in the past day or so.

Now I needed to know how to get rid of him so that I could get back to the yard and
retrieve my lock-picking tools and Karen’s receiver from under the rock without an
audience of cops. But what if he followed me?

I stopped. “We can’t leave the door like that.” I was really surprised those two cops
would just leave. Of course, Grandville was the kind of town where folks probably
didn’t even make a habit of locking their doors, possibly laboring under the delusion
that the police might be looking out for them.

He shrugged. “It’s the homeowner’s responsibility.”

“The homeowner, who is in the hospital probably not even conscious? That homeowner?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“We need to do it. And yes, I realize that the person who picked the lock could come
back and pick the new one, but…”

“We don’t have the right.”

“Okay. I hear you. I’ll do it. As her friend. I’ll do it and I’ll take responsibility
for it and I’ll pay for it and I’ll make sure that the keys are taken to her in the
hospital. It’s the right thing to do.”

“But I don’t know if I can let you do it.”

This was really starting to irk me. “Really? Well, let me point out, Officer Dekker,
that this is not your jurisdiction and you have already told a double whopper to your
colleagues about meeting me here, so you can bend a little
more. Now, how about you go take Walter for a bit of exercise and I’ll call a locksmith
and you won’t know anything about it.”

It all came out huffier than I had planned, but my tone went unnoticed.

“Good thinking. But there’s no phone.”

“I’ll use my cell. You don’t have to be a witness to that. And I’ll find a bag and
clean up after our friend here.”

As they strolled off, I used my iPhone to locate a locksmith and made a quick call.
I glanced around. What kind of nosy neighbors were there? I guessed no one had spotted
me hiding the lock-picking tools under the rock, but in case someone had resumed their
watch, I used the guise of picking up after Walter and managed to snag the tools and
the receiver and tuck them below the waistband of my jeans. I held my bag in front
of me to hide the lumps.

Five minutes later Officer Smiley was back with Walter. I said, “We’re good. I’ll
wait here for the locksmith. No need for you to hang around.”

But of course, he did. I wondered what the neighbors had thought about the so-called
burglar hanging around with the persnickety Pug, who had just been walked by the uniformed
police officer. Now that would be a dinnertime story.

When the locksmith arrived, Smiley was keen to observe. I had to use Walter a second
time. I suggested that Walter was really behind on his walks and should have another
outing. I hoped to distract nosy Tyler Dekker long enough to get the locksmith to
make an extra key. By the time Smiley and Walter sauntered back, I already had my
copy in my pocket. And Officer Smiley promised to see that the official newly minted
key got to Karen right away.

“I can do it,” I said, sweetly.

“Better if I do. I am a sworn officer of the law.”

“I’ll go with you.” I didn’t say, “Because I don’t trust you.”

*    *    *

I TOOK THE blanket that I always kept in my trunk and spread it over the passenger
seat of the Saab. I couldn’t believe I was letting a dog into my precious vehicle.
I felt a bit like Vera might have if Walter had been lurching through her library
knocking first editions off shelves and chewing on the rosewood table legs. I hoped
my elegant mother wasn’t rolling in her grave, wherever that might have been.

It was cool enough in the covered parking area to leave Walter in the vehicle (as
Officer Smiley called it).

When we reached the fifth floor, we discovered that Karen was now in an induced coma
to allow the swelling in her brain to subside. And I’d thought I was having a bad
day. I reminded myself of just how bad things were for Karen and how much worse they’d
turned out for Alex Fine.

Officer Smiley turned on the wattage for the staff at the nurses’ station and arrangements
were made to take care of the keys. He made sure Karen would be given numbers to reach
him and me when she was conscious again. Luckily, no one remembered me as her visiting
niece.

After that, I decided it really was time to give him the slip. Whatever reason he
had for sticking so close, it wasn’t my problem. I had places to go and things to
do. Starting with dropping Walter off with Uncle Mick. That would also give me a chance
to return the lock-picking tools without arousing any suspicion in whomever was following
me, and I was pretty sure that would be Officer You-Know-Who.