“Stay here,” he said, his tone grim. “I’ll let you know what I can, when I can.” And, with that, he strolled toward the kitchen.
She sank back down onto the ground, and then it hit her. “Violets.” That was V. She snickered. She called out to Mack, “Are you still there?”
But there was no answer.
She picked up her phone and called him. “You did say violets, right?”
“Yeah, I did. Why?” he asked.
She heard his engine start, as he got into his vehicle. “How about Vanquish?” she asked. “How does Vanquished in the Violets sound?”
He snorted. “I think you’re grasping at straws.”
“Nope, I don’t think so,” she stated. “However, victim is better. Victim is perfect.”
“No,” Mack declared, “not at all because this is my case, not a cold case.”
“Ah,” she argued, “but it’ll be connected to one of the biggest cold cases you ever saw.”
He groaned. “Fine, Victim in the Violets it is.” And then he chuckled and added, “That’s a good one.” He ended the call, still laughing.
She put down her phone and laughed out loud. She reached over, gave Mugs a big hug, snatched Goliath and danced around with him in her arms, and then scooped up Thaddeus and plunked him on her shoulder. “We have another case,” she exclaimed, noting the pizza Mack had left behind.
“Pizza and a case,” she proudly proclaimed. “All we need now is coffee.” And she raced into the kitchen to put it on.
Life is good. Life is very good.
Chapter 2
After Lunch …
Once Mack left, the real implications of Ella’s death hit Doreen. Not only would Ella’s sister now be left alone but all those answers that Ella had, that she might have shared, had died with her. As much as Doreen didn’t want to believe that all was lost, it was hard at the moment to find a positive note about it all. To think how much Ella could have told Doreen and Mack—not only potentially about the guns and the treasure hoard but everything to do with that gang mess—was all gone, along with any connections to the Bob Small serial killer case too.
Surely Ella had kept some records, had kept some notes about something. The woman had been a politician. She knew how important and how damaging records were. Doreen didn’t want to believe that a woman, such as Ella, who had built up a rapport, who had that savvy reputation, and who had known many powerful people, would let it all go to naught. Surely Ella would have kept journals at least. She also hadn’t had a chance to come home to prep, hide, or destroy anything. She’d been taken out first, and, of course, that always made Doreen suspicious.
“Who could have done that? A lot of people have done that.” She wandered her house, frowning and fussing over little things, until she realized that she was trying to take her mind off the information circling and rolling around in her head.
Doreen wandered to the bowl that her grandmother had given her, still filled with bits and pieces of baubles Doreen had found hidden in all Nan’s clothing, including change, even a few rolls of small denomination dollar bills. Doreen had kept it all here in the bowl as a sign of affluence, a sign that she was doing okay, a sign of the changing times. But she had more than a little curiosity about the marbles, which she kept picking up and rolling around in her hand, loving the feel of them. Lots of other things were in the bowl as well, from buttons and paper clips to all kinds of miscellaneous items that made no sense.
And then she delved her hand into the bowl and pulled up something that she had meant to talk to Nan about further but hadn’t yet—the keys. Nan had safe deposit boxes in her name. Doreen pondered that, wondering if she should ask her grandmother more about that. The last time she’d asked her, Nan had gotten fairly upset at her. Mostly because of Nan’s confusion, and yet that confusion was there a little more often some days than others.
That condition was frustrating because, for somebody like Doreen, apparently answers were what made her tick, and she often needed her grandmother’s help. With Ella dead and Nan getting forgetful, Doreen could see how getting more information would be challenging now and into the future. Yet she had to remind herself that no answers were to be had with lots of these cases. And that just drove her batty.
Finally she looked down at the animals. “Right, let’s go for a walk.”
Mugs immediately jumped to his feet, barking, his tail wagging as if a helicopter rotor. She smiled and gave him a couple good scratches. “It’s all good, buddy. It’s all good.”
But, of course, it wasn’t, but hopefully it would be. However, it wasn’t Mugs’s fault that things had gone into the sewer. Doreen still needed answers, and they would not find so many now. She could only hope that Ella had maybe left a journal or something somewhere.
As she pondered that, her phone rang. She glanced at her Caller ID. Nan. Doreen winced. Apparently the news was out already. She answered, “Hello, Nan.”
“Is it true?” she asked in a loud voice. “Is it true?”
“I’m not sure what you’re asking about,” Doreen replied cautiously.
“About Ella,” she cried out, almost a note of hysteria in her tone.
“Easy, Nan, easy,” Doreen noted. “Calm down.” But there was no calming down her grandmother.
“You have no idea how upset her sister is,” Nan cried out.
“I’m sure she is. She’s her only sister. Ella was her only family, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, exactly,” Nan agreed slowly, her tone easing back from the panic.
“Why are you so upset?” Doreen asked.
Silence came first. Then Nan reluctantly admitted, “Nelly took something of Ella’s. It’s one of the reasons why they were fighting all the time. Nelly wouldn’t give it back.”
“Why would she do that?” Doreen asked.
“Because Ella had threatened to take her away from here. And, while we all think that Nelly is really sweet and quiet, she’s got hidden depths.”
“If she stole something from her sister, that sounds like sibling rivalry, which can happen at any time.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Nan stated. “Still, it doesn’t change the fact that Nelly feels terribly guilty because now she can’t give it back to her sister, and she can’t ask her sister for forgiveness.”
“Ah, how true,” Doreen noted. “I’m sorry to say that Ella was apparently found at the airport, dead, while waiting for her ride to show up.”
“Oh my,” Nan muttered, her voice still shaky.
Something was going on here that made Doreen more than a little suspicious. “Nan, what do you know about this?”
Her grandmother took a slow breath. “I know that Nelly went for a joy ride of sorts this morning. She was supposed to go along for the Rosemoor shopping trip. Everybody went into the store, and the driver went to get a coffee, and Nelly hopped into the Rosemoor van, drove off, and disappeared.”
“What?” Doreen exclaimed.
“Yes, yes, however, I’m sure she didn’t kill Ella though,” Nan added immediately.