Death Before Diamonds (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 10) (8 page)

CHAPTER
15

When I got outside to my car, I put
the envelope holding Rex Greer’s phone and pictures on the passenger seat. Then
I called Zack to let him know that I wouldn’t be back after all.

“That’s okay,” he said, ever the
understanding gentleman. “I know you’re trying to help that guy find his brother,
so I’ll see you tomorrow. Just make sure that you’re being careful, okay?”

“You’re the best,” I said.

“Ditto,” he replied. “I love you,
babe.”

“Love you,” I said. “Now, forever
and always.”

After a few more whispered words, I
promised to call as soon as I had finished my next errand.

“Go on then,” Zack said. “Take that
stuff to Trent and give me a buzz when you’re safe at home.”

The drive to the Crescent Creek PD
headquarters gave me a chance to practice two different versions of my story.
But by the time I walked through the office door and sat across the desk from Trent,
I was too tired to do anything more than go right for the truth.

“I have Rex Greer’s phone and some
other belongings,” I said, putting the white envelope on the desk. “Please
don’t ask me how they came to be in my possession.”

Trent squirmed in his chair before
folding his thick forearms over his chest.

“Katie?” he said in a deep, hoarse
tone. “How did these things come to be in your possession?”

I sighed. “I thought maybe they
could help,” I said, flying past his rhetorical query. “Like, maybe the GPS
will show you where he’s been during his visit to Crescent Creek. And the call
logs and text message history can be helpful, right?”

Trent groaned. “Magic?” he said.
“Is that it?”

“What’re you talking about?”

His unhappy expression brightened
slightly. “You avoided my question. I wanted to know where you found Greer’s
phone.”

I lifted both hands, fluttered my
fingers in the air and said, “Abracadabra! Presto chango!”

Trent slapped both hands over his
face. “Why are you torturing me, Katie?” he moaned. “I’ve been awake for twenty-eight
hours!” He rubbed his eyes. “
Twenty-eight hours
! Do you know how tired I
am?”

I waited until he lowered the meaty
mitts. Then I smiled, tapped the white envelope and said, “You’re welcome!”

His jaw clamped down and the chubby
fingers of one hand reached for the package.

“I know that you’re right,” he
said, loosening the flap. “About the GPS and the rest. But I get a little
ticked off when people meddle with our investigations.”

“How am I meddling?” I asked. “As
soon as I took possession of Greer’s belongings, I came right over to see you.”

“How’d you know that I was still
here?”

“I didn’t. But if you weren’t, I
would’ve left the envelope with the front desk.”

Trent laughed. “That’s the first
smart thing you’ve said all night,” he told me. “Want to try for another?”

I nodded.

“Where’d you find the phone?” he
said.

I shook my head. “What does that
matter? Why don’t you see if it has anything useful to help find Theo Greer and
identify Rex’s assailants?”

“Why are you being so evasive?” Trent
asked. “Are you trying to protect someone?”

I nodded.

“Besides yourself?” he said.

I waited for a few seconds, wondering
how much deeper down the conversational rabbit hole we would go before Trent
yielded to reason.

“There’s a sensible explanation,” I
began. “I have it on good authority that Rex’s things were on the ground
underneath his backpack when the ambulance reached him. The paramedics
apparently picked up everything at once and loaded it onto the gurney. When
they arrived at the hospital, the backpack, phone and other things followed Rex
from the ER to his room.”

Trent scoffed. “What backpack?”

“It’s still at the hospital,” I
said. “Bottom drawer of the bedside table.”

“Why didn’t you abscond with that,
too?”

“Because,” I said, “I didn’t want
to…um, how did you put it? Oh, yeah! I didn’t want to meddle with your
investigation. I left the backpack for Dina or Tyler to recover when they interview
Rex Greer. I have the phone and pictures because he asked someone to give them
to me.”

Trent shook his head and pushed
back from the desk. Then he got up and walked to the windows. As he stared
through the glass into the endless black night, I saw his shoulders gradually
relax beneath his wrinkled dress shirt.

“Oh, Katie, Katie,
Katie
,”
he mumbled, turning back to the desk. “What the heck are we going to do with
you?”

I straightened my posture and shared
a dazzling smile. “Maybe the keys to the city?” I said. “And a ticker tape
parade?”

He glared at me and flopped back
into the chair. “I know you’re not
trying
to be a thorn in my side.” He
paused, lowering his chin and staring at me down the length of his nose. “Because,
frankly, it comes naturally to you. I mean, you, Kate Reed, can be a nuisance,
a rabble-rouser and a total, one-hundred percent pain in the neck.”

I felt my stomach flutter with a
strange mix of nerves and pride. I’d known Trent long enough to realize that he
wasn’t truly angry, but I wasn’t sure exactly how his little speech would end.

As I waited for him to finish, I
slowly raised one hand.

“Yes?” he said. “Do you have a
question?”

“Can I make a statement in my
defense?”

He smiled. “That’s not necessary,
you crazy rabble-rouser. I know you don’t mean any harm. But I think maybe next
time, if there
is
a next time, you’ll leave the evidence where you find
it and give us a call so we can process it according to department regulations.”

He was right. And we were both
tired. So I apologized for overstepping and reminded him that the phone and
photographs were in a sealed envelope.

“I never actually handled the evidence,”
I said, slipping out of the chair. “That’s at least one thing in my favor,
isn’t it?”

He got up again and walked around the
desk. Then he gave me one of his standard issue Deputy Chief Walsh bear hugs.

“Thanks, Katie,” he said as we
walked toward the doorway. “I’ll let you know if we get anything useful from
the phone.”

“I’d appreciate that,” I said. “I’m
just trying to help Rex find his brother.”

Trent nodded and walked me to the
elevator. When the bell chimed and the doors opened, he waited until I’d
stepped inside.

“And I hate to burst your balloon,
Katie,” he said. “But they haven’t done ticker tape parades around here in
about twenty years.”

CHAPTER
16

Zack answered on the first ring when
I called him from home a few minutes before midnight.

“How’d it go?” he asked. “Was the
guy okay?”

“Let’s just say that I would be comatose
for a year if I took half of the pain pills they’d given him.”

I sat on the edge of my bed and
fell back onto the mattress.

“They had him pretty doped up?”
Zack asked.

“Massively,” I said, kicking off my
shoes. “The nurse told me that Rex was in really bad shape when the paramedics
brought him in. I only have part of the story, but it sounds like he was
assaulted in front of the post office by someone with a Taser. They think he
fell after he was zapped and hit the decorative fence around the flower beds in
front of the building.”

“How bad was it?”

“He had a deep puncture wound on
one side just below the rib cage,” I said. “As well as another on the back of
his head.”

“Any idea why he was attacked?”

“Not really,” I answered. “Rex told
me a couple of details, but he was too drowsy to make much sense. My guess is
Dina or Tyler will interview him in the morning after he’s had a chance to get
some rest.”

“Doesn’t that sound nice?” Zack
murmured.

“The interview?” I said. “Or the
rest?”

“The second one,” he replied with a
yawn. “I fell asleep watching a documentary about the Wright Brothers.”

“Was it good?”

Zack laughed. “The first ten
minutes were riveting, but I couldn’t tell you a thing about the rest of it.”

“Well, you sound pretty sleepy,
handsome.”

“I am. Although my guess is that
you’re the same, Katie. You’ve been up for about nineteen hours or so, right?”

I glanced at the clock on the bedside
table. “Give or take. But going to see Rex was definitely worth it. I get the
sense that he’s trying to be stoic and brave, but this thing with his brother
has him pretty scared.”

“Did you talk to Trent at the
hospital?”

“He wasn’t there,” I said. “But I
stopped by the office for a quick chat. I’ll probably call him again tomorrow to
get the latest.”

“Is that when you’ll tell him that
you’ll be doing some snooping, too?”

“I don’t know if I’ll use that
exact phrase,” I answered. “But I’ll have another talk with him. For whatever
reason, I think Rex Greer trusts me.”

“I bet it’s your eyes,” he said.

“Is that right?”

“You bet, babe. I remember the
first time that we met. I thought, ‘Now, here’s somebody trustworthy. I bet
she’d be a good ally if I’m ever assaulted on the street in front of the post
office some random night.’”

“Hey! Don’t make fun of the guy.”

“Sorry,” Zack said. “I was just
teasing. But I’m serious about your eyes.”

“Trustworthy?”

“Very,” he said. “Not to mention
beautiful and captivating and sexy.”

“They’re also probably bloodshot at
this point,” I joked. “I think it’s time for me to call it a night.”

“Okay, sweetheart. Want me to come
over and tuck you in?”

I closed my eyes and pictured him
walking through the door of my apartment and down the hallway to the bedroom.
He’d be dressed in a sleek black tuxedo, carrying a bottle of champagne and two
glasses along with a box of chocolate-dipped strawberries. After putting the goodies
on the nightstand, he’d sweep me into his arms and press his lips to my—

“Katie?”

Zack’s voice shattered the fantasy.

“Huh?”

He snickered softly. “You were
falling asleep, beautiful. Why don’t we say good night? I’ll stop by Sky High tomorrow
morning for breakfast.”

“That sounds perfect,” I said.

“Love you,” Zack whispered.

“Ditto,” I replied. “More and more
and more each day.”

CHAPTER
17

Julia’s face was speckled with dozens
of tiny brown spots when she walked through the door the next morning at five-fifteen.

“Don’t ask,” she grumbled.

I smiled. “Okay.”

I watched while she dropped her
jacket and purse on one of the stools near the back counter, trudged to the
coffee maker and filled the mug that I’d left waiting for her.

“It’s nothing contagious,” she said
after her first sip. “They’re from a Sharpie.”

The revelation left me smiling.
When Julia glanced over, she scowled furiously for a moment or two before a
case of the giggles replaced the sneer.

“What happened?” I asked as she laughed
uncontrollably.

“Emma!” She clamped one hand over
her mouth to stop the snickering. “She asked me where freckles come from.”

“And you told her they were from a
felt-tip marker?”

“No, no! Of course not! But she’s
five, so I thought a demonstration might be helpful. Jared had taken Will and
Shep to Garfunkel’s to shop for baseball gloves, so Emma and I were at home doing
art projects. Out of the blue, she asked me about freckles. Since she’s a
visual learner, I drew a little face on a sheet of construction paper and
explained that freckles form when our skin is exposed to sunlight.”

“Okay,” I said, walking over to
refill my cup. “How’d the make-believe freckles get from the piece of paper to
your face?”

Julia shrugged. “After Emma got
bored with drawing, she wanted to watch
Frozen
again, so we—”

“For the ten millionth time this
week?”

Julia laughed. “Fourteenth,” she
said. “But who’s counting?”

“Sorry,” I said with a shrug. “I
interrupted.”

“That’s okay,” Julia replied. “We
went into the living room, I put in the DVD and about two seconds later I fell
asleep.” She raised one hand and used it to circle her face. “All of this loveliness
was done while I was dozing,” she added. “Ninety-six spanking new artificial
freckles drawn with permanent black ink.”

“Who counted them?”

“Jared,” she answered. “When he and
the boys got home and I woke up.”

“And what happened to Emma?”

Julia smiled. “Like mother, like
daughter,” she said. “After she finished with my freckles, she took the Sharpie
into the bathroom and did the same thing to her chubby little cheeks.”

“You can probably get those off
with makeup remover wipes,” I said. “Or rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball.”

“Oh, I know.” She smiled. “And we
will. But Emma decided that we had to keep them for at least one full day.”

“Because they’re so cute?” I asked,
resisting the urge to laugh again.

“No,” Julia said. “Because her
father announced that they’re works of art that should be cherished before
they’re erased.”

“Sounds like Jared enjoyed the
spectacle.”

Julia’s upper lip curled into a
stern scowl. “A little
too
much,” she said. “He took a half dozen
pictures before I could grab his phone.”

“Well, that’s not a bad thing,” I
said, walking over to get a clean apron from the drawer. “One day, when you’re
old and gray, you’ll look back on this moment and smile.”

“We all will,” Julia said with a
mischievous twinkle in her eye.

“What did you do, Jules?”

She giggled and blushed. “After
Jared fell asleep,” she said, “I went into Emma’s room, borrowed her Sharpie
and created my own little masterpiece on the bridge of Jared’s nose.”