03 - Organized Grime (8 page)

“Someone’s been here.” The place was ransacked. Not a table or book had been spared. Her plants had been turned upside down and dirt scattered the floor. Her posters had been ripped in half. Her couch cushions had been gutted.

Riley stepped around me to survey the damage. “Did Sierra do this yesterday when she snuck inside?”

I shook my head, staring at the mess around me. “I can’t imagine she would do this. What purpose would it serve?”

“If it wasn’t Sierra, then who?”

“Whoever is behind all of these crimes.” It seemed a reasonable deduction. “Maybe they want to find Sierra. Maybe she has something they want. Maybe that’s why she snuck back into the apartment yesterday.”

Riley shook his head, his jaw jutting out to show his disapproval of the situation. “This is getting crazier by the moment, Gabby. I don’t like it.”

Another thought hit me—a horrible thought, but one I needed to address. “Riley, we need to make sure Sierra’s not here. Sharon saw Sierra come in. She didn’t say she saw her come out.”

Riley’s eyes registered my thought process, moving from disapproval to concern. He put his hand on my shoulder. “You stay here. I’ll go check everything out.”

I didn’t argue. I stepped backward into the clacking beads and held my breath. He stepped over some books, dodged a broken bowl and slid around the overturned dining room table. He knew enough to not disturb anything. Evidence could be all around us. Fingerprints, footprints, fibers. If Sierra were hurt, the police would collect all of that in order to find out the person behind the crime.

I held my breath.
Please, Lord, help her to be okay.

Riley disappeared into the hallway, back toward the bedroom. I waited, the minutes painfully stretching onward. What did Riley see? Was my friend okay?

“Gabby, you’re going to want to come see this.”

I swallowed, my throat burning. What had he found? I tiptoed along the same path as Riley did earlier and found him in the bathroom.

Raw ground beef—along with its juices—was strung across the sink, creating a terrible stench in the small space.

Then on the mirror were the words “Meat is Murder.”

Chapter Nine

I stared at Parker who, even with his Brad Pitt good looks, couldn’t make a scrunched up nose look attractive. He stared at the mangled, raw ground beef in Sierra’s bathroom. As quickly as he lost his Fed composure, the aloof detachment returned

My hands went to my hips as I grew impatient with him trying to process the scene. “What do you think this means?”

He shrugged, still staring at the very visible—and effective—threat left by the person behind this chaos. “I’m not sure. Someone’s definitely trying to make a statement, though.”

“A statement that they want Sierra dead.” I bit my lip, not wanting my thoughts to go there.

Parker shook his head. “Not necessarily.”

My eyebrow twitched in curiosity. “What do you mean? What else could this message possibly mean?”

He turned from his examination of the bathroom and stared me straight in the eye. “You said your friend saw Sierra sneaking in here yesterday, correct?”

I stepped back, indignation flashing through me. “You think Sierra did this? No way. Why would she do that?”

He shrugged in such a casual manner that I wanted to sock him. “To take the suspicion off of herself.”

“She wouldn’t do that.”

“She’s smart enough to devise a plan like that.”

I swung my head back and forth, anger boiling through me. “No, she’s smart enough to turn herself in if she’s guilty. And she’d never touch raw meat. Never.”

“I think she broke in here, picked up any evidence that might point to her, something she might have missed, and then tore the place up.”

My finger went in the air. “You’re off base. You’re way off base. You’re wasting valuable time looking in the wrong direction.”

Parker didn’t back off. He stepped toward me, arrogance saturating his gaze. “Okay, Miss Know-It-All, what do you think is going on here?”

“I think my friend was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I think she’s being set up. And I think she’s running for her life because whoever is behind these crimes knows that she knows.”

“Nice theory. Not likely though.”

Riley grabbed my finger, which ever since I’d raised it had been swinging wildly through the air with each word I spoke. “Let’s put that away,” he mumbled. “Fussing at each other will get us nowhere.”

Parker sighed and lowered his voice. “Gabby, we have it on video that Sierra was at the office of Harrison Developers only four days ago. She entered the building with a back pack. She left without it.”

The information felt like a slap in the face. Finally, I came out of my stupor. “That means nothing. Another coincidence.” But even to my own ears, my words didn’t sound right. “I’m going to prove she’s innocent, Parker.”

His gaze locked on mine. “Just don’t get yourself killed in the process, Gabby.”

Riley followed me to the door and said nothing as I charged outside, hoping he was behind me. I climbed into his car and, to my relief, he did also. We sat silently a moment until finally Riley asked, “Well?”

“Right now I want to track down someone named Bruce Watkins.”

“Who’s Bruce Watkins?”

“No one. Just an ecoterrorist.”

***

We pulled into a parking space at the gas station, and Riley turned toward me. “And your plan is…?”

I shrugged. “I have no plan. I’m going to wing it.”

“Winging usually doesn’t equal winning.”

“Is that court talk?”

He blinked at me. “Court talk?”

“You know, what you tell yourself before a trial or something?”

Riley shook his head. “No, it’s just common sense.”

I opened my door. “How about this then? Let’s do this on a wing and a prayer.”

He groaned, but stepped out of the car also. A couple of snow flurries pecked me in the face as I hurried across the parking lot. Just as I pulled open the door to the convenience store, a man breezed out. Just before he was out of my line of sight, I read his nametag. Bruce. This had to be my guy.

I stopped in the doorway, and Riley slammed into my back. I turned toward him, raised my eyebrows and nodded toward the employee who’d just left.

Riley silently mouthed, “What?”

I shrugged and nodded toward the employee again.

He shrugged, his eyes wide in confusion.

I nodded toward Bruce Watkins again, wondering why Riley was having such a hard time reading my brilliant body language.

“Casual,” I whispered. “Come on.”

I walked back toward Riley’s car, keeping my eyes on Bruce as he climbed into an old clunker of a car.

Riley leaned toward me, close enough that I could feel his breath across my cheek. “You don’t look casual, Gabby. You look like you were attempting a robbery, but your plan was foiled,” he whispered.

“We’ve got to follow that man before he gets away. This is no time to worry about if I look suspicious.” Regardless, I tried to relax my shoulders and slow my gait.

Riley climbed into the driver’s seat just as Bruce pulled away.

“We’ve got to follow him!”

Riley put the car in drive, a little too slowly for my tastes. He glanced at me once more, still not moving. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

I nodded in fake confidence. “Absolutely.” Yeah, so really I had no idea. “Let’s go!”

We followed him through Norfolk until he stopped at some townhouses, parked his car and climbed out. I watched as he unlocked the townhouse with the red door, looked both ways, and then went inside.

“What now?” Riley asked.

That was a great question. What now? I made a decision. “Now I’m going to go talk to him.”

Riley arched an eyebrow. “Just like that? Go up to his door and demand he tells you where Sierra is?”

I shrugged. “Not exactly.” I unlatched the door and waved my head in the distance. “You’ll see.” Before I slammed the door closed, I grabbed a clipboard from the backseat, jammed a blank piece of paper under the clip, and tucked a pencil behind my ear.

“Do I even want to know?”

“Probably not. You’re going to need to stand where he can’t see you. Otherwise, he’ll never buy my story.”

“I’m not sure I want you that close to him alone.”

I pointed to a bush. “You just crouch there. You’ll be close enough to spring into action if I need you.”

He drug in a breath. “I’ll have to trust you on this one.” He gave me one last look before taking his place out of sight.

I tucked a hair behind my ear, threw my shoulders back and rang the doorbell. A moment later, Bruce answered the door, already clad in an undershirt and flannel pants. His dirty blond hair looked a touch greasy at the part and his beard had a few crumbs in it. “Can I help you?”

“The question is, can I help you?”

He twisted in head in confusion. “Excuse me?”

I extended my hand. “I’m Gabriella and I have a cleaning service. I’m trying to drum up business in the area, so I’m going around from house to house and offering one free basic cleaning in hopes that you’ll consider my services.”

He paused. “You want to clean my house? For free?”

I nodded. “That’s right.”

“Do I have to sign something? Buy something? Commit to anything?”

“Absolutely not. I only ask that if you like my work that you’ll consider me for the future or tell anyone you may know, who’s in need of a cleaner, about me.”

He looked from side to side again, and my heart stopped a moment as I feared he’d seen Riley. Finally, he looked back at me. “You’re really a cleaner?”

I nodded. “I am. I was a teacher, but I lost my job when the economy went south. So now I’m cleaning houses and I find I quite enjoy helping people get their homes back in order.”

I waited for his reaction. He continued to try and size me up. Finally, a grin broke across his face. “I like that. I lost my job too awhile back, so I know what that’s like. I work at a gas station now. What can I say? It helps to pay the bills, even if I am helping to deplete the ozone layer by selling a product that’s bad for the environment.”

I nodded. “I know. I hope the new government regulations will make it harder for people to buy those gas guzzling vehicles. It should be a felony.”

“I agree. It’s like they enjoy torturing Mother Earth.”

“You gotta take care of Mama E.”

He grinned again. “I like you. And I’d like you to come spiffy up the place. I can’t promise you I’ll be able to hire you afterward, though I could try to recommend you to some friends.” He shifted his weight. “Do you use environmentally friendly cleaning products?”

I used my most incredulous expression. “Of course. Vinegar and water. Sometimes some lavender oil. All natural stuff.”

“Can you come tomorrow?”

“You name the time.”

“Eight o’clock. I have to leave for work at nine. Will that be okay?”

I nodded. “Of course. I’ll do what I can in the time I’m here.”

He reached over and touched one of the overgrown shrubs in front of his house. My throat went dry as I wondered if he would see Riley and this whole operation would be uncovered. My heart pounded in my ears as I waited for what would happen next.

“You don’t do lawn work too, do you?”

I wanted to laugh in relief. Instead, I said, “All I have to do is look at a plant and it dies. Sorry.”

“I understand.” He looked me over and smiled again. Chills raced over me at his obvious interest. What was I doing? He could be a dangerous man. “I’ll take what I can get.”

Sierra, I reminded myself. I had to think of Sierra.

I tried to offer a winning grin. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“I’ll see you then.”

***

“Are you crazy? You can’t be alone with that man in his apartment!” Riley crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me from the moment we climbed into the car.

“It’s the only way I can think of to find out what he knows.”

“Gabby, I don’t like this. Didn’t someone tell you that they think he could be an ecoterrorist? Doesn’t the word ‘terrorist’ have any meaning to you at all?”

“Of course it does. I’m going to be careful.”

“I can name a million other times in the past when you were ‘careful’ and you almost died.”

“A million? You’re exaggerating just a little, don’t you think?”

“You know what I’m saying, Gabby. This is a bad idea.”

I put my hand on his knee, trying to get his neurons to stop firing at such a rapid pace. “I’m going to be fine. I’m going to clean, look around a bit, and then leave.”

His jaw twitched as he drove, and I knew he wasn’t happy. Silence stretched between us. I tried to think of something to say that might snap him out of this mood, but not a thing came to me.

Finally, I noticed that we turned in the opposite direction of our apartment. “Where are we going?”

He continued to look straight ahead. “We’re meeting Lydia Harrison for coffee.”

“Lydia Harrison?”

“I took the liberty of calling her to see if we could talk.”

“That was… awfully nice of you.”

“Yeah, at least I can be there with you when you talk to her. I’ll have some measure of comfort in that fact.”

“Riley…” Again, I didn’t know what to say. Finally, I settled for “thank you.”

***

I stared at Lydia Harrison, and I suddenly knew what it meant when people said, “to shoot daggers with your eyes.” The woman had such an air of confidence about her that I wanted to throttle her. Instead, I gripped my chair so hard that my knuckles hurt. “So you have no idea who Sierra is? Are you sure?”

Lydia shook her head, her hair not moving even a fraction of centimeter with the action. She took another sip of her fancy coffee—which she did indeed drink with her pinky raised—and kept her eyes on Riley. “I’m positive. Why would I know this Sierra you’re speaking of?”

I closed my eyes and willed myself to remain calm and collected. Maiming someone at an expensive coffeehouse wasn’t on my bucket list. “She said you had answers.”