Hide and Snoop (The Odelia Grey Mysteries) (17 page)

“Forget it,” he snapped. “I’ll figure it out on my own.” It sounded like he was going to hang up without saying goodbye, which was fine by me, but instead he tacked on, “Hey, with Erica MIA, you still stuck with that kid?”

“Sorry, Mark. I’ve got people to see and things to do.”
Click
.

“Cheesehead Squirrel!” Lily screeched
as she launched herself into my arms. I clung to the little orphan like an octopus until she wiggled to be put down so she could make a flying leap at Greg. He picked her up and plunked her down on his lap and did a quick wheelie. She giggled with delight. We weren’t the first greetings she gave. Those went to Wainwright.

In my hand was a small bag with the extra clothes I’d picked up at the Holt house and the tacky doll I’d gotten from Erica’s. I pulled out the doll and showed it to Lily. She immediately snatched it from my hands and clutched it to her chest in delight. “Mummy.”

“That’s Mummy?” I asked her.

Lily wiggled back and forth with joy. “Mummy.” Then she ran off into the den with Wainwright on her heels.

“I’m glad you brought that, Odelia,” Zee said as we hung our jackets up by the back door.

We’d just moved all Lily’s baggage from the van into the house, including the car seat. We’d only sent her to the Washingtons’ with a change of clothes, thinking she was coming right back to our place. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all this, it’s that kids seldom travel light.

“She had a nightmare last night,” Zee continued, “just as you described—was crying ‘Mummy’ over and over.”

“Who knew,” added Greg, “that Mummy was a doll. And not a very cute one, at that. We thought she meant her mother.”

“So did we,” replied Seth. “Her scream in the middle of the night about set my blood to curdle. I’d forgotten about those kinds of nights. Our own had a few from time to time.”

I stuck my nose in the air and sniffed. “Oh, Zee, you doll. You made my favorite, chicken and dumplings.”

“It’s perfect for a damp day, and I figured Lily would eat it. She likes chicken real well.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Not a thing,” Zee said. “The dining table is set, the salad’s made, and we’re just waiting for the food to be done.” She turned to Seth. “Can you see Lily from where you are?”

He glanced into the den and nodded. “She’s on the floor, playing with the dog.”

Satisfied, Zee turned to me and Greg. “I almost had to call and cancel this visit,” she told us, her voice low.

“What?” we exclaimed in unison. I followed up with, “Is Lily okay?”

“She’s fine—in fact, her cold is almost gone—but we had a surprise visit from the county this morning,” Zee explained. “Lily can stay with us, but they didn’t want her upset by a visit with you and Greg. Seth had to do some fast talking to get them to change their minds.”

“I don’t understand.” I grasped to make sense of it. “We’re not planning on upsetting the child, and I’m not a suspect in her parents’ murders.”

“Keep your voice down, Odelia,” Zee warned. “Little pitchers have big ears.”

“It’s not that,” Seth said, returning to the topic. “They felt it would upset her to see you and not be able to go with you. And on that, they’re right. She keeps asking about Cheesehead Squirrel. She told them about Cheesehead Squirrel and the doggie and kitties.”

We stayed in the kitchen, where we could talk softly and still keep an eye on Lily in the den. I took a seat at the table. In my head all the players and information twirled until I was dizzy.

“As soon as they find Lily’s family,” Zee said, picking up the explanation where her husband left off, “she’s going to be handed off to them, and they didn’t want her traumatized any more than necessary. Seth finally convinced them that a visit from you would be healthy for her since she’s bonded to you so well.”

I gave Seth a small smile of gratitude.

“They’re trying to locate her grandparents now,” he told us.

“What about her father’s family?” asked Greg.

“The only lead they have are her maternal grandparents in the Caribbean. They still haven’t located her aunt. And they have no information at all yet about her father’s family.”

Zee poured us all some iced tea. Taking my glass, I told them, “Alyce, Erica’s secretary, and her husband came to visit me today to see how I was doing. Erica hasn’t contacted her yet either.”

“If they know, then the police are wasting no time questioning folks,” Seth said. “Makes you wonder what the police found out from that Baker guy, if anything.”

“Speaking of which, Mark Baker called me today,” I told them. “About some client file he was working on. It didn’t sound as if the police had contacted him yet.”

My dark thoughts spilled onto the table. “I can’t help but wonder if Erica’s dead, too.” I looked at my husband and friends. “Doesn’t it seem odd with the murder on the news that she hasn’t popped up?”

“Unless she did the killing,” Seth suggested.

“Odelia doesn’t think that,” Greg told him.

I took a drink of tea. “At least I’m trying not to think that way. I just can’t see a motive for Erica killing her sister. She might not have liked the idea of the Holts adopting Lily, but that wasn’t recent and shouldn’t be a reason to kill.” I shook my head. “No, if Erica’s still alive, I think there’s a good chance she’s running from whoever killed the Holts.”

Seth moved his head in agreement. “I think you might be on to something there, Odelia. She disappeared about the same time her sister did and her brother-in-law was killed.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “I’d love to get that weasel Mark Baker alone and make him talk.”

“Down, girl,” said my lawyer. “We don’t need you going all gangsta on us.”

Seth was right. Besides, I wouldn’t have a clue how to torture someone. Maybe I could talk them to death. “You think Dev might tell us anything?”

“Doubt it,” Seth answered. “He’s too close to you and has to appear objective. If you become a suspect, he might not be able to work the case at all.”

twenty

As expected, at the
end of our visit, Lily did want to come home with us, but we managed, with just a few shed tears on her side and me managing to dam up my own, to convince her to stay with Zee and Seth. We promised we’d come and visit again very soon. We told Seth and Zee about my plans to stay out of the office for a few days. Seth thought it sounded like a good plan, and Zee told me to stop by one day to have lunch with her and Lily.

“Honey,” I said to Greg as we were driving home, “I have an idea I want to run by you.”

“About the murder?”

“No.”

“About your job?”

“If you’d stop playing twenty questions, I’ll tell you.”

Greg shot a sexy grin my way, signaling I could talk without further interruption.

“What do you think about us adopting Lily?”

For a split second the van swerved, making me glad it wasn’t raining and the road slick.

“Where in the hell did that come from?” Greg glanced over at me, but he didn’t seem angry, just confused.

I shrugged. “I know we shelved the idea of adopting, but now I’m wondering if maybe we should step up and give Lily a home.”

“Lily has a family, Odelia. You just can’t snatch her from them.”

“Erica won’t want her,” I argued. “She was against the Holts adopting Lily in the first place. And who knows about the grandparents. If they’re retired and living in some tropical paradise, they might not want a little kid mucking up their lifestyle. If they’re anything like Erica, they’ll be happy to cut Lily loose, especially since she isn’t their blood.”

“True, but we don’t know about Hank’s family. They might be entirely different—very loving and happy to take Lily.”

“I’m just saying, if Lily does become a free agent, I think we should consider it.” I took a deep breath. “Unless you don’t want to. This has to be a one hundred percent mutual decision.”

“Agreed.”

We rode the rest of the way home in silence. I took the time to calculate what it would mean to take on parenthood at this time in our lives. I don’t know what was going on in Greg’s mind, but I was equally thrilled and terrified.

We were just coming into the house when my cell phone rang. I checked the display, half expecting to see Carl Yates’s name.

“That Carl?” asked Greg.

I shook my head. “It’s Clark. He probably got my package and has questions.”

After dropping my purse onto the kitchen counter, I answered the call. “Hi, Clark,” I said to my brother as soon as I answered. “Did you get my package?”

“It’s not Clark,” the familiar voice said, “although he is standing right here.”

“Willie!” As soon as I said the name, Greg perked up. “What a nice surprise. Greg’s here and says hello.”

“It certainly is a surprise, though I hardly think it’s nice.”

“What do you mean?” I had a sinking suspicion I knew what he meant. Willie Proctor had the uncanny ability to know everything about my life. He was like an eye in the sky or Big Brother watching over me.

I moved to a chair in the living room. Greg moved his wheelchair next to me. “He knows about the body, doesn’t he?” he asked.

Because I’m never quite sure where the mouthpiece is on my smartphone, I held my hand over the entire phone while I whispered to Greg. “He hasn’t said yet.”

When I put the phone back to my ear, Willie was saying something.

“I’m sorry, Willie, but I missed part of that. I was talking to Greg.”

“Put it on speaker, then,” Willie requested. As soon as I did, we heard a deep sigh. “Do I need to send Clark out there to keep an eye on you?”

“Absolutely not!” I protested. “I’m not a child. Besides, Greg’s here.”

“Okay, then, to keep an eye on the
two
of you?”

“And hey,” I said with sharp indignation, “since when does my brother need your permission to visit me?”

“He doesn’t. But maybe he needs to be there not as your family but in an official capacity as my head of security?”

“Are you mad because I asked for some fingerprints to be run?”

“Nice deflection attempt, little mama, but no.”

“Then I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, then my source was wrong? You weren’t hauled in by the police for questioning in a murder?”

I hemmed and hawed. Next to me, Greg fidgeted. Not bothering to cover the phone, I leaned closer to my husband and said, “My phone’s becoming Grand Central. Next time it rings, I’m not answering. And tomorrow I’m changing the number.”

“We heard that,” yelled a voice from the phone.

Cupping my hand, Greg pulled the phone closer to him. “Hey, Willie, it’s Greg. About that police thing, we’ve got that under control. As usual, Odelia found the body but is not a suspect.”

While he talked, I picked at a loose thread on the arm of the chair, then discovered another. One of the cats must have been using it as a scratching post. My money was on Muffin. Seamus was getting too old to be that ambitious.

“She won’t be needing those fingerprints after all,” Greg continued saying into the phone. “One way or another, Odelia’s going to leave her job, so it doesn’t matter if that Mark guy is sleeping with her boss or not.”

“The hell it doesn’t!” I stopped fussing with the loose threads and snatched the phone closer to me, falling headlong into the stampede of words flooding my mouth. “Willie, I still need those prints run. They could lead to the real killer. We don’t know if the killer went after Erica, who’s my boss and missing, and got her sister, Connie, by mistake, or even if Erica is still alive herself. But I’m pretty sure Connie and her husband were into some deep, dark stuff of their own.”

“What do you care?” Willie asked in a voice as mellow as warm tea.

His question stopped me in my tracks. “Huh?”

“I said, what do you care, little momma? If you’re leaving your job, this Erica will not be your boss any longer. And if you’re not a suspect, then you have nothing to prove. You and Greg sit back and let the police do their job. That’s what they’re there for.”

“But,” I began.

“No buts about it, Odelia,” Clark added, cutting me off. “Willie’s right. Without a tie to that law firm, you don’t have a dog in this hunt. There is absolutely no reason for you to put your life on the line for these people, so don’t. They wouldn’t do it for you. So stay out of this!” Clark’s voice escalated until it pushed me back in my chair. Greg took the phone from me.

“Calm down, Clark,” Greg said firmly. “No need to go all Nazi on Odelia. She’s been through a lot these past few days.”

Clark lowered his voice, but he wasn’t through. “Asking me to run prints was one thing. I was happy to do it to help you keep your job. But now there’s a murder, and that murder involves people at that firm. The sooner you get out of that damn place, the better.”

“Yeah, I feel the same way,” Greg said. “Mike Steele’s an angel compared to these guys.”

I jumped to Woobie’s defense. “But we don’t know the murder was connected to the firm. To someone
in
the firm, yes, but not the firm itself.”

There was silence on both sides until Clark broke it. “Look, sis, I’m sorry I yelled at you, but I worry about you and Greg. You tend to rush headlong into trouble without thinking.”

I leaned towards the phone. “I understand and appreciate your concern, Clark, but we’re not rushing into anything. I just need those fingerprints run. If they confirm anything, I’ll turn the information over to Dev Frye and step away. I promise.”

“Just so you know.” Willie’s voice came through the line. “I’ve set the prints and DNA samples in motion. And I’m going to hold you to that promise of stepping away. In the meantime, just keep your head down. Both of you.”

“They’re right, you know,” Greg said after the call was over. “We need to keep a low profile on this. Especially if we want a chance at getting Lily.”

I did a double take. “You mean you want her, too?”

“Yes. I think it’s a great idea.”

Throwing myself into my husband’s arms, I squeezed him tight. After a few seconds he pushed me back a bit and looked into my eyes. “But
only
if she is without a home. I will not condone taking her from her family or even trying to convince them to give her up. Understand?”

I nodded as I fought back tears.

“And you know,” Greg continued, “we’ll be put under a lot of scrutiny by the state and county officials and may not get her in the end. You ready for that roller coaster?”

Again I nodded. “Maybe they’ll let us be her foster parents and see how it works out.”

“You never know.” Greg gave me a look that melted my heart. “You ready to be a full-time mom?”

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully, “but if it’s meant to be, I’ll rise to the occasion.”

Greg took me back into his arms and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I know you will, sweetheart.”