Fudge Brownies & Murder (17 page)

While she would love to eavesdrop more on the clandestine discussion, duty called. Amy grasped the handle of a nearby cart and gave it a shove. The rumble of the wheels over the uneven cement floor silenced the man and woman, who had apparently been too engrossed in their conversation to notice she had joined them in the back room. She peeked out the window of the small door leading to the docks. The chocolate-brown mini catering truck that Amy was there to meet was lining up to back down the ramp. She smacked the button on the garage door opener. Snowflakes pelted her face as the paneled door rose. A shiver vibrated through her, not because of the cold, but because it felt as though she was being watched.

Amy used hand signals to direct Sophie into position. When the van was settled in place, the driver's door swung open. The baker emerged with a warm smile on her face. She opened the back doors of the vehicle and asked, "How's it going? Did you hear if JoJo got her furnace fixed?"

She shook her head as she took the first box of insulated foam cups from Sophie. "Haven't heard anything from JoJo. I hope the problem was something simple and inexpensive to fix." Amy turned to place the box on the cart she had commandeered. Buck Bates was creeping through the shadows along the back wall of the receiving area.

"I hope so too," Sophie said as she began unloading gallons of milk from a cooler and setting them near Amy's feet. "It's not a good time to be without heat. I can't believe how cold it's gotten. I'm not mentally prepared for winter yet!"

"Me neither. I hate being cold."

LeighAnne was making a break for it when Amy turned to arrange the milk jugs on the bottom shelf of the cart. She'd been right about whom the voices belonged to. Now she needed to figure out what they were talking about. The snippet of conversation had sounded friendly, bordering on intimate. An odd tone, considering LeighAnne had been supposedly disgusted with Buck and his skirt-chasing tendencies only a day earlier. Maybe the strange aura disturbances that Geri witnessed were because LeighAnne was trying to feign indignation to cover up an inappropriate affair. Something like that would have to stir up an aura storm.

"I've gotten lucky the last few days. Carla takes a nap every afternoon now, so I've been able to get her phone easily. I've called all of her friends and coworkers. The shower's on for Tuesday night at the town house. I hope we can pull it off," Geri said as she refolded the super-soft gray fleece blanket and slipped it back into a shopping bag. She twisted in her seat to place the present on top of all of the other packages on the back seat of the Mini. "We won't be able to decorate anywhere except the nursery, but I've found a couple games I can set up without her knowing. I just want to make sure you can handle the food for about a dozen people. If I cook anything more than my own lunch, she'll know something is up. Bruce had a heart-to-heart conversation with me. He doesn't even want me to cook any Meatless Monday meals from now on. I didn't think I was that bad of a cook."

"You aren't." Amy shook her head as she steered Mimi onto the frozen dirt road. "He's just a meat-and-potatoes instead of lentils-and-chickpeas kind of guy. Don't take it personally."

Geri flapped her hand. "I don't offend easily. Everybody can do their own thing. Except for my daughter. She cannot go without a baby shower."

The collection of rattles, wooden blocks, and learning toys sounded like a preschool percussion section as the car bounced over the cement hard ruts in the rural road. Amy said, "Momma, not momma-to-be, knows best."

"Absolutely! You are such a sweetheart to help put this crazy, last minute shower together. I'm so glad my daughter has you for a friend."

"This is nothing compared to planning the entire wedding in three weeks. I would do anything for Carla. She's like the sister I never had."

"I'd be proud to call you my honorary daughter."

The sentiment settled in Amy's heart, filling up a tiny bit of the void her alcoholic mess of a mother had hollowed out. They drove in silence for a few minutes as Amy concentrated on steering around the frozen puddles that were bigger than the Mini. No wonder Buck had a pickup. Once the road to his house was covered in snow, it would be impassable for anything other than a four-wheel drive.

Amy went from a snail's pace to a complete stop when she spotted a patch of red in the grayness of the hibernating forest to her left. She glanced at the GPS app on her phone that she had silenced so she could talk to Geri. The driveway to Buck and Esther Mae's house was right around a sharp hairpin curve. She could see the barn he used as a shop through the trees. As Amy lifted her foot off the brake pedal, another splotch of color caught her attention. Black. In the shape of a big lifted pickup truck near the side door of the house.

She stomped on the brake pedal, slammed the gear shift into reverse, and sped backward until the car was beside a dense clump of pine trees. "What's going on?" Geri asked as she whipped her head from side to side.

"Harlan's truck is parked by the back door of the house."

Geri shook her head. "I'm sorry. I've never been good with remembering names. I don't know whom you're talking about."

"The guy who threw the Coke bomb at us."

"Ooooh…what do you think is going on?"

Amy punched the release button on her seat belt buckle. "I'm not sure, but I'm going to see if I can find out. Can you come around and sit in the driver's seat, in case we need to make a quick getaway? Anybody in the house won't be able to see the car behind these trees. I'm going to sneak through the woods to get a better look at the situation."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

She pointed at her gray coat then at the lime-green one Geri was wearing. "I'm wearing better winter forest camouflage. I'll be okay. I've done this kind of thing before."

Geri's eyebrows shot up. "Ooookay, but be careful. Carla needs you to help with the birth."

That reminder almost kept Amy in the warm, safe escape vehicle. But whatever was happening at Buck's house could be a huge clue for Shepler. If the murder was solved, that would help even more than Amy telling Carla to breathe like she is blowing out a candle during a contraction.

A thick layer of dead leaves coated the ground under the trees that formed a natural barrier around Buck's property. Amy gently put her foot down with each step to test for hidden sticks that could snap and announce her presence to anybody who might be lurking around outside the house. Just a few feet into the journey, her boot broke through a thin layer of ice on top of a puddle hidden by leaves. Cold water seeped through the seams of her cute, but not waterproof, mid-calf lace-up boots. She moved from tree to tree, silently thanking her lucky stars that it was a mature forest with lots of wide, massive trunks to hide behind. Nobody was in sight around the house. The only sounds she could hear were her own heartbeat thumping in her ears and the rustle of dead leaves disintegrating under her boots.

She zeroed in on a burly tree that was close enough that there was an unobstructed view of the house and big enough to keep her out of sight. Hopefully. The side door of the house, near Harlan's truck, began to swing open when she was halfway to the target tree. Forget being quiet. She sprinted to the tree, balancing on her tippy-toes to try to minimize leaf and stick crunching.
You are in control of your body.
Rori's mantra of encouragement for her yoga students forced itself into Amy's consciousness when her shoulder slammed into the rock-hard trunk. She straightened her back and then her shoulders to stay in line with the tree. The cold, rough bark scraped over her cheek as she slowly peeked around the maple…or maybe it was an oak. There weren't any leaves on it for easy identification.

Her mind snapped back from the horticultural puzzle. Harlan stood by the back bumper of his truck. A revolver was in his hand. A bang cracked through the freezing air. Amy slapped her hand over her mouth to stop the internal scream that was racing through her brain and heading for her mouth then ducked back behind the tree. Did he shoot at someone?

She inched her head around the side of the tree trunk again. Harlan had the gun raised, pointing it at Buck who was standing in the middle of the yard in only plaid boxer shorts. Apparently he liked to hang around his house wearing only his undies. Amy focused on the half-naked woodworker. He didn't appear to be injured. In fact, he was pointing a shotgun at Harlan. It looked like the same weapon he had used to scare two years off her lifespan when she delivered the meals to him. It was a Wild West standoff. In the middle of the woods in Michigan. With one dueler who was inappropriately dressed for the winter weather.

"Get off my property, and don't come back you sonuvabitch!" Buck yelled as he pumped the shotgun. "If you steal anything else from me, you'll end up in the ground just like Esther Mae!"

The two men froze for a few seconds, weapons pointed at each other in silence. Then Harlan began backing toward the driver's side door of his truck. "You'll be sorry you threatened me, old man," he said before yanking open the door.

Amy ducked back behind the tree as the truck grumbled to life. Gravel pinged on the house's siding as rocks flew from the tire lugs. She flattened herself and her gray, hopefully camouflaged, coat against the tree trunk as the truck roared up the driveway that was only about ten feet away from her hiding spot. Harlan knew what her car looked like. What would he do if he found it, with Geri inside, sitting on the road? Play monster truck and destroy her beloved Mimi as if she was a prop in a car crushing exhibition?

Crashing through the woods would draw Buck's attention. His words had sounded slurred. Maybe he had been running around outside in his Skivvies because he had enough alcohol in his blood to serve as antifreeze. If he had been drinking, would he mistake her for a deer? Was it hunting season? She didn't know. Amy's knees wobbled like a newborn fawn when she saw the black truck turn left, instead of toward Shepler's mother-in-law. He would be pissed if Geri got hurt under her watch, even if it was his mother-in-law's idea to come to Buck's house in the first place. Geri figured if he was in single-and-on-the-prowl mode like LeighAnne had said, maybe she could get some information out of him about the murder if she batted her eyelashes enough while admiring his woodworking tools. While Amy thought it was a bad idea, especially after what she had overheard on the loading dock, she had finally relented to the shopping side trip after Geri pointed out that the visit might help solve the murder.

Amy smacked the back of her head on the rock-hard bark when another
bang
bounced through the forest. When she stopped seeing the constellation of shooting stars, she peeked back around the trunk. Buck was gone. Of course—the bangs weren't from a gun. It was the front door of the house. Amy counted to ten then slowly made her way back toward where the Mini and Geri were hidden. Several more leaf-hidden puddles were discovered during the journey.

Geri sprang out of the car when Amy dashed around the edge of the cluster of pine trees. "I am so glad to see you! I thought one of them had kidnapped you!"

Amy collapsed into the driver's seat as Geri returned to shotgun position. When the doors were both closed, she explained what she saw while she did a U-turn. There was no way she wanted to follow Harlan's truck again. There might be more than a glass of pop waiting for them if he spotted the blue Mini tailing him.

"Do you still want to cozy up to Buck? I bet he hasn't put any clothes on yet," Amy joked while sincerely hoping Geri wouldn't say yes.

"Um, I'll pass. I'm not afraid to admit that wasn't one of my most brilliant ideas. I guess I'm not the hippie version of Angela Lansbury." Geri pulled her phone out of her coat pocket. "Should I call Bruce or maybe the police department to let them know about a disturbance?"

Amy drummed her fingers on the top of the steering wheel. "Neither. I don't think any crime was committed. Not to mention reporting it would tip off Buck that somebody was watching him since there are no neighbors around to stick their nose in his business. And I'll need some time to figure out how to tell Shepler about what I saw without having him try to kill me for endangering you."

"It was my idea. Don't you think he'll appreciate me being candid about my part in this escapade?"

"He'll be something, but I really doubt it will be appreciative."

Carla slammed the refrigerator door shut with her hip. The cinnamon roll cheesecake brownies were one of Amy's best creations yet. Irresistible. She needed to remember to tell her that she should try entering the recipe in a contest. Carla picked up the plate that her mother made, stacked with two of the brownies that her best friend made, and began lumbering back to the couch.

The deadbolt on the front door clicked open before she and her food bounty made it back to the cushions that were beginning to form permanent depressions in the shape of her body. Her mother rushed in accompanied by a swirl of snow. Amy followed on her heels. She slammed the door shut, but it was too late. Carla had a case of all-over goosebumps. The baby showed its disapproval of the involuntary reaction by kicking her in the ribs. "Where have you two been?" she asked as she used her free hand to rub the tender area on the edge of her belly. "I thought you were just going downtown."

Amy shrugged. "We decided to expand our shopping area and went to Ann Arbor, too." She was staring at the painting of a rocky beach that hung on the wall beside the fireplace. Something was going on. Lack of eye contact meant Amy was doing her usual poor job of trying to hide the truth. She didn't wear her heart on her sleeve. Amy broadcast her emotions through her facial expressions.

The two of them had been gone for the entire afternoon. More than enough time to come up with all kinds of devious plans. "And what else did you do?"

"Nothing much…we had lunch at an Indian vegetarian restaurant." Amy scuffed her boots on the welcome mat. They were splotched with dark water stains and blobs of mud. "Other than that, just making sure you are all set for the baby since you don't want a shower."