Lie Catchers (30 page)

“We’re going to eat dinner together, dammit. You invited Mallen and Jenny; tell them to come over.” Liv reached for Chet’s hand. “This is a gesture of solidarity,” she said, her voice wobbling. “We might be down but we’re not out.”

Harriet and Parker stood in the middle of the living room, their eyes on the two convalescents sitting in overstuffed chairs, feet up on ottomans. The doctor had come and gone, tutting over bruised heads. In the end, he gave out sample packages of pain pills and told them to rest. Both had taken showers and put on clean, comfortable clothes. Still, Harriet shook her head. “You look awful and you’re so tired you’ll face-plant in the food.”

Parker observed his worst nightmare. Not one, but two people he loved, hurt as a result of his profession. He scrubbed his brow, identifying with the weariness of his two charges. “What do you think, Harriet?”

“You’re hungry,” said Harriet. “You can’t find any of the people you’re looking for, so why not enjoy a meal? I’ll put food on the sideboard in warmers so people can eat when they’re ready.” She bustled off.

Parker pulled up a dining room chair and sat down facing Chet and Liv. “While it’s fresh in your minds, I want you to recall all you can about the man who took Liv. Dad, we’ll start with you.”

Chet let out a growl. “I’d taken out the garbage, leaving the alley door open. He must have slipped in when my back was turned. Later, while I was sweeping up the floor, he thunked me on the head and I dropped like a stone. Never saw, smelled, tasted, heard a thing until Liv came down. Some security guard, huh?”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Dad. This guy’s quick and cunning.”

Chet nodded. “Embarrassing.”

“Liv? How did he capture you?”

“He tapped me on the back of my head so I saw stars. I was disoriented enough that he had time to blindfold me and tie my hands behind my back. Without a word he drove me to Sandy Beach Park, to the shelter there. He retied my hands around one of the shelter posts. Had me sitting on my fanny on the concrete floor of the place.”

“You think it was Tuck.”

“I’m sure of it. As I said before, same aftershave. I smelled it on his hands. The guy whispered to hide his voice, but he used ‘bloody,’ in his angry moments. He hit me at least five times, trying to get me to talk. I sensed that anger in Tuck when he threatened me about the article in the paper and my spreadsheet. Then, just like in the store the other day, he twisted my necklace.”

Parker spread his hands on his knees. “Once you’d fingered Tuck, we got into his apartment. Nothing. In his Landing office, we found two death certificates hidden under the desk pad: Tilly and Everett’s. A one-way ticket to the Caymans, too.”

“We find him; we’ll arrest him,” Ivor growled as he entered the living room. “I’ve deputized two more people to take up the search. The other thirty people we called in to look for Liv are on alert, as well. I’ve asked them to keep an eye out for Nilson. I’m going to make one last turn around town, then I’ll come back and grab something to eat.” He ruffled Liv’s hair. “Keep questioning this one, Parker. She’s got more in her brain than she realizes.”

Parker rubbed his forehead, his eyes on Liv’s red, swollen face.
I’ll kill the fucker.

“I’m going to keep Harriet company,” Chet said, rising slowly from the chair. “
My
brain is useless.”

Patting his father’s arm as Chet passed him by, Parker kept his eyes on Liv, intent on reading her mood. The sob she’d swallowed when she’d talked to him on the phone, the defiant front over eating a normal dinner together. What was really going on in her brain?

I’m so tired of keeping my distance from people I care about. She needs me now. I might not be able to keep her from harm, but I sure as hell can love her when she’s with me.

He stood up, went to Liv and gently moved her legs off the ottoman. “Liv, honey, stand for a minute. Let me sit with you and hold you for awhile.” He helped her rise, lowered himself into the leather chair, and motioned for her to sit on his lap. “You might be handling all this calmly, but I need comforting after your ordeal.”

Liv snuggled into his arms, laying her cheek against his chest and humming before she said, “I was wrong about detectives in the article I wrote.”

He kissed the top of her head, drawing in the scent of shampoo. “Think so?”

He felt her move her head up and down.

“You and Gus are more effective when you show you care about people, when you identify with them.” She looked into his eyes. “You taught me that. As soon as Gus adopted your traits, he got somewhere in the investigation.”

“Gus is a fictional character.”

“Made real by acting like you. At first I didn’t see what I was doing, but when we started using Gus’s story to flush out our killers, I saw that Gus had become you.”

“There’s a benefit in remaining neutral,” he said while he tucked her hair behind her ear. “But this is where I belong, holding you after you’ve been through hell.
I’ve
been through hell, worrying about you. I need this as much as you do.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. When I knew he was behind me in the workroom, and I was sure he meant to hurt me, I called out to you, Parker. The whole time Tuck had me tied up, I worried I’d never see you again, and my family, the people in this town.” She sighed, then let the tears fall. “When he hit me, the hurt wasn’t in his blows, it was in my heart if I’d lost you.”

He thumbed away her tears. “Let it come, sweetheart. Let it out.”

Liv turned her eyes into his shirt and cried while he held her, his own tears coursing down his cheeks, sad that he’d let two years go by denying himself the chance to hold someone he loved.
I’ll keep her as safe as I can.

Later, Chet checked on them, put his finger to his lips and went back into the kitchen. Soon, Liv took Parker’s handkerchief, mopped off her face, and draped the handkerchief over her face. “I look awful. Beaten around the face, eyes red from crying. I’ll wear a veil.”

Parker smiled. “You look beautiful to me.”

“Ouch! It hurts to smile! And I’ll bet with a split lip it’ll hurt to kiss you.”

“Well damn. That’s a revoltin’ development!”

“Why don’t we try? Very carefully. After letting me soak your shirt and then calling me beautiful, you deserve a reward.”

Liv used her elbow to bring her face up to Parker’s. Her smile was crooked from the split, swollen lip, and her eyes were red from crying, but it was the beauty of her soul and her courage that shone through. When he kissed her, his world, tilted for such a long time, righted itself.

****

“If anyone cares, the food’s on,” Harriet announced, her voice sounding as if it came from a mile away.

Liv gave one last nibble to Parker’s lower lip and pulled away, smiling at his groan of regret. “I was the one who pushed for a civilized dinner and I think I heard Mallen and Jenny come in the back door.” She touched his lips, then moved her hips a modicum, to take note of his rising interest in something more than conversation. With a sigh, she said, “I hate to get up, but we better get crackin’.”

Using the chair arm and his knees as bolsters, she rose from Parker’s lap and held out her hand to him. “Damn if I’m not hungry!”

He grabbed her hands and pulled her close to whisper. “I want
you
.”

With a laugh, Liv said, “Our reward after we nab criminals. You stipulated.”

“What a dumb idea.”

Liv led Parker to the dining room. “Mallen, Jenny. Welcome. Chet and Mom have already given you the rundown on my perils, right?” She waited for their nods. “You’re allowed to say ‘uff da’ about my face, once, then let’s eat and solve crimes together.”

Mallen and Jenny stood statue still, wine glasses in hand, staring at Liv.

“My face isn’t that bad, is it?” Liv asked, feeling her cheek.

“Uh, no. No,” Mallen said. “It’s just…”

Jenny stepped in front of Mallen with anxious eyes. “We’re sorry you’ve been hurt so many times, Liv. The whole town is in turmoil over what’s happened to you. Mallen and I…we…uh...”

Giving Jenny a hug and Mallen a shoulder squeeze, Liv said, “I’m okay.” She gazed at Parker. “Now, I am.”

He stepped to her side. “It’s going to be a working dinner for Liv and me, I’m afraid. Ivor will join us in a few minutes to go over the details and try to sort out who’s guilty.”

“Grab some food while it’s hot,” Harriet yelled from the kitchen.

Mallen and Jenny dutifully took plates from the sideboard, filled them with food and sat down at the dining room table. Liv frowned at Parker, inclining her head toward the two women.

The meal was a quiet affair, moments of silent eating sprinkled with compliments on food and comments on the weather. Ivor came dragging in, his expression taut with worry. He plopped beef and mashed potatoes on a plate, smothered both with gravy, and sat down at the dining room table next to Mallen. He squeezed her arm in greeting and nodded to Jenny. Both women responded with tremulous smiles, looked at each other, then down at their plates.

“What do we know?” asked Liv.

“Nada.” Ivor forked a hunk of beef. “Tuck and Nilson are AWOL. The town is jumpy as hell.” He put the fork down. “Liv’s been hurt twice, two people have died, and now I have two men missing. Seriously, how many guilty parties do we have in this town? Are we coming apart at the seams?” Shaking his head, he picked up his fork and stuffed the meat into his mouth.

Silence filled the room. Uncomfortable. Uneasy. Parker stared at Jenny, then directed a raised eyebrow at Mallen. “Jenny,” he asked gently. “You have something to say?”

She dropped her fork on the plate, the clatter bringing everyone’s attention to her.

Mallen put her hand on Jenny’s shoulder as she turned to Ivor. “Leave her alone. If there’s any guilt in the room, it rests on my shoulders.”

Raising her hands in a ‘stop gesture,’ Jenny said, “No. Mallen acted on my behalf. I didn’t ask her to, but she meant to protect me.” With tears in her eyes and head shaking, she gazed at Parker, seated across the table from her. “You guessed.”

He gave a little shrug.

Harriet put down the bread she was buttering. “What is going on? Jenny? Mallen?”

“Everett Olson,” Parker said, eyes on Mallen.

She cast a wounded expression at Ivor. “I was a fool to get mixed up with him. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life that the lure of money and an attentive man turned my head.” Mallen exhaled. “I saw him the night he probably went missing, the night I gave Jenny a sleeping pill so she wouldn’t wake up and find me gone.” She gave a speculative look at Parker. “You figured that out.”

Parker nodded. “Go on.”

“I took a taxi from my hotel and met Ev at Anthony’s on Shilshoe Bay. He was over the moon excited about all this money he was going to ‘inherit.’ He’d rented a 25 footer sedan and tied it to the restaurant dock, planning to take it out fishing the next day. He couldn’t wait to show it off to me. Once he’d given me a tour of the boat, we ate in the restaurant. I’d never seen him so happy and magnanimous. ‘Order anything you want. We’re celebrating, baby!’”

“What night was this, Mallen?”

“October 29
th
.”

Parker nodded. “He checked out of the hotel that day. Probably decided to sleep on the boat.”

Mallen’s eyes narrowed. “With me, chump that I am. What a stupid, needy person I turned into.” Jenny took Mallen’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry, Grandma. About the sleeping pill. About being such a disappointment to you.”

Jenny nodded. “We agreed to have this all out and move on. Finish up, dear.”

Straightening her back, Mallen continued, her eyes on Parker. “We left the restaurant for an overnight on the boat around 11:00.” She cleared her throat. “But his buoyant behavior puzzled me, so when he was in the bathroom, I looked through his backpack. Two tickets to the Caymans. One for him and one for Susanna.”

“Oh, Mallen,” Liv said.

“Serves me right.” She sighed. “I slapped him and left. Last I ever saw of the bastard. Even as the taxi drove me to the hotel, I had the urge to go back to Ev’s rented boat and kill him. But I didn’t. Jenny needs me at the B&B.” Mallen gave a crooked smile to Jenny.

“But that’s not all,” Parker said, directing his accusation to Mallen.

With a head-wag, Mallen said, “No. Not nearly all.” With a defiant expression, she said. “I shot at you in Sing Lee Alley. I meant the shots to warn you. Scare you. Confuse you. To stop the investigation into Ev’s murder. Because I knew the detectives would eventually come to me if I didn’t do
something
. I didn’t have an alibi and I had a motive.” She turned to Liv. “I never meant to shoot you, hurt you. The bullet ricocheted. I’m sorry, Liv.”

Liv nodded. Jenny put her head down.

“Jenny?” Parker prompted. “Is that true?”

“Um?” she asked. “Is what true?”

“The reason Mallen just gave. Did she shoot at me to stop the investigation into Everett’s murder?”

“Yes,” Jenny said, her eyes on her lap. Mallen rubbed Jenny’s shoulder.

“Jenny? Jenny. Please look at me,” said Parker.

She raised her eyes to Parker’s, tears brimming in them.

“You told me that it’s unhealthy to carry guilt. Shouldn’t you abide by your own principles?”

With a shake of her head, as if to deny the responsibility, Jenny said, “I can’t.”

“Yes you can. I did it. You should, too. Greta.”

“Greta?” Liv asked. “What about Greta?”

“Grandma. No,” Mallen said.

Parker held up his hand. “Jenny, tell us the real reason why Mallen shot at us.”

With tears coursing down her cheeks, Jenny shook with tension.

Ivor frowned at Parker. “What in the hell is going on?”

Harriet rose and stood behind Jenny, hands on her shoulders.

With a gasp, Liv said, “Oh my god. Greta. My column on Sing Lee.” She turned wide eyes on Mallen. “You shot at us because of my story!”

Jenny mopped her eyes with her napkin. “I killed him. I killed Sing Lee.”

“I couldn’t bear to see one more life consumed by guilt,” Jenny said, her face blotched from crying. She sat on Harriet’s couch, Mallen’s hand in hers, the two of them a study in remorse. “Mallen would have spent years hiding facts about Everett’s case and would forever feel badly about hurting Liv. I’ve spent decades agonizing over my part in Sing Lee’s death.” She cast a glance at Parker. “Then you came into my life, presenting a mirror of how guilt destroys a person.”