Read Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 05 - Till Death Do Us Part Online

Authors: Peggy Dulle

Tags: #Mystery: Cozy - Romance - Kindergarten Teacher - Sheriff - California

Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 05 - Till Death Do Us Part (9 page)

BOOK: Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 05 - Till Death Do Us Part
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After trying on what felt like a hundred veils, Savanah and I finally decided on a beaded headband that matched the beading on the dress and a mid-back veil with some of the same beading on its edges. It was beautiful, although I wouldn’t have chosen it in a million years. I guess that’s why you bring someone else along. You don’t know you’ll like something until you try it on.

“How much is all this going to cost me? I didn’t see any prices on any of the dresses.”

“I’ll ask the sales clerk.” Savanah got up and left the room.

I stood in the middle of all those mirrors and twirled. I had to admit I looked wonderful – just as a bride should on her wedding day. I continued to twirl and run the wedding day in my mind. I could see Tom standing under an arbor waiting for me and my dad walking me down the aisle and giving me to Tom.

The cost was in my budget so I paid the clerk, got a receipt and left all of the items at the bridal boutique. I would pick them all up the day before the wedding.

We left the bridal boutique and I asked Savanah, “What would you like for lunch?”

“I am good with anything. What would you like?”

“How about Panera’s? I enjoy their food and rarely get to eat it. When you teach you just don’t have time to go out to lunch, but I am not sure there is one here in Walnut Creek.”

“No, problem. That’s why they developed the smartphone.” Savanah typed a few things into her phone and smiled. “Yes it’s over on Locust Street.”

“You navigate and I’ll drive,” I told her.

Panera was tucked next to a Starbucks and was decorated just like the one in San Ramon. I guess it must be cheaper to have one design plan and follow it in every place. I always forget how nice downtown Walnut Creek is with all its little shops and eateries.

I ordered a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a tomato and mozzarella cheese panini and Savanah ordered a chopped chicken Cobb salad with avocado. At first, I thought I should switch my order. After all, I was getting married in a few weeks and didn’t want to have the dress altered to a bigger size. But after I got a look at her salad with Gorgonzola cheese, several hard-boiled eggs, bacon and an entire avocado, I figured there was probably more calories in her salad than my soup and sandwich.

The weather was warm but not hot, so we sat outside under a striped umbrella to enjoy our lunch.

“So Savanah, did you always want to be a wedding planner?” I asked, between spoonfuls of soup laden with huge pieces of chicken and noodles.

“Actually, I got a degree in business and was working at a bank until my sister decided to get married. She worked full time as a nurse and went to school at night to get her masters. She had
to move her wedding date up because her husband was going to be deployed to Iraq and she needed some help. I took over and planned the entire event. It was fun and everyone had a great time. I got a loan from my bank, quit my job and opened up my business.”

“Do you keep pretty busy?”

“I have at least ten clients at any one time and I’m pretty busy.”

“Well, I appreciate you taking me on. It was short notice, after all.”

“I would do anything for Jordan’s sister.”

“Were you that close in high school?” I asked.

“No, not really, but I try to keep in touch with my high school classmates and give them my help when I can.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“So tell me what your fiancé is like,” she asked.

“Tom’s a cop.”

“Oh, rather controlling, isn’t he?”

“You must have dated a cop once?” I suggested.

“No not really, but I have done weddings for a few. I bet he told you he didn’t care what you choose but then when you told him, he had an opinion on everything.”

I laughed. “You’ve got him pegged.”

“Well, I’m sure everything will be just right for the both of you.”

We were finished eating, so I paid the bill and Savanah went to use the restroom. When she returned, we picked up and disposed of the trays.

“Can you do me a favor, Liza?” she asked.

“Of course. What do you need?”

“I told you my car was in the shop, right?”

I nodded.

“They called while I was in the restroom. Don’t you hate answering your phone when you’re in the bathroom?”

I laughed. “Yes and calls that you are waiting for always seem to happen just as you step into the stall.”

“Yes, they do. They called and said my car won’t be ready until tomorrow. Can you give me a ride home?”

“Now?”

“Yeah, I can work from home and pick up the messages from the answering machine without going into the office.”

“What about tomorrow? You were going to drive out to Modesto.”

“I’ll give you a call in the morning. If my car is ready, they’ll come and get me. If not, you may have to pick me up and drive. Is that okay?”

“Of course. Where do you live?”

“In a duplex in San Ramon.”

“Where?”

“It’s on Shadow Mountain Court. Do you know where it is?”

I laughed.

“What?”

“I live in one of those duplexes, too.” I told her. “It’s a small world.”

“Every time someone says something about six degrees of separation, I think they’re wrong. I don’t think there is more than three with most people.”

“That’s true.” I drove home. Savanah lived in one of the duplexes with an open carport rather than a garage like mine. But she wasn’t more than a mile from my house.

I dropped her off and went home. Shelby met me at the door.

I pet her quickly and said, “Wait a minute girl, I’ve got to go to the bathroom. I shouldn’t have
drank so much tea at lunch.”

I ran into the bathroom and threw my purse on the vanity. As soon as I sat down, my cell phone rang. I laughed remembering Savanah’s and my conversation. I let it go to voice mail. Then I spent some time with Shelby in the backyard, throwing a ball. She loved to play fetch. After a few minutes, I went into the living room and decided to watch a DVD. I put in the first of the Die Hard series and then remembered my phone and the call earlier.

I got my purse back out of the bathroom and checked the missed call. There were three from Tom but no voice mail. If it’s important enough to call three times, why doesn’t he leave a message?

I dialed his number. He answered on the first ring.

“What the hell, Liza? Why didn’t you tell me that Kenny killed someone?”

 

 

Chapter 12

 

It was
that
tone and I hung up, threw the phone onto the couch and went back outside to play fetch with Shelby. Obviously, Tom put Kenny’s name into his cop computer. I wasn’t surprised. Tom ran everyone through his cop computer. I knew exactly what Tom was referring to and really didn’t want to discuss it with him. It wasn’t any of his business. It was Kenny’s.

It had happened when we were sophomores. It was his mom’s loser boyfriend, the one before Earl. His name was Woody, and he went after Kenny’s mother with a butcher knife. Kenny stepped between them and used one of the moves I showed him that my dad had taught me when I was only twelve. When someone comes at you with a knife, you lean back, sucking in your stomach, making them fully extend their arms, then you grab their wrist and turn the knife back at them.

Kenny had done the maneuver exactly correctly and ran the knife into Woody’s body. When Woody went after him, he used the knife to stop him. It was ruled self-defense, but Kenny still went to a therapist for six months. It was a waste of time. Kenny was fine. He had done it to protect his mom and never told them who taught him the maneuver. He told the cops he learned it on television in one of the cop shows. We had a great laugh about that.

When I came into the house again, I had seven missed calls from Tom and a voice mail.

I played the voicemail, “I’m sorry Liza. It just scared me when I read the police report. Could you please answer the phone the next time I call?”

The phone rang three seconds later.

“Hello, Tom,” I said.

“Hello, Liza.”

“Did you put Kenny into that little computer of yours?” I asked even though I knew the answer.

“I put everyone in it, Liza. You know that.”

“I could have told you about Woody. He was a biker guy with tattoos all over his body and a total ass.”

“That’s what the police report says, too.”

“Then what’s the problem? It was self-defense.”

“He stabbed the guy five times.”

I didn’t ever know the exact number, but I knew it was more than once. “The court ruled it self-defense, so again I ask, what’s the problem?”

“There is a difference between reasonable force, excessive force and lethal force. Stabbing someone a few times because they are after you or you are trying to stop them, might be deemed reasonable force, but not five times. It’s like bringing a gun to a knife fight.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me, less chance of the person with the gun getting hurt.”

“Do you know that Earl was stabbed ten times?”

“No man deserved it more,” I said.

“Don’t you see a pattern there?”

“What? Stupid abusive loser men getting stabbed. Yeah, I see it. Karma
is
a bitch.”

“No, men associated with Kenny get stabbed.”

“Kenny was on his way to Arkansas when Earl got into the bar fight.”

“Who says?”

“Kenny says and I believe him. He would never lie to me.”

“Did you specifically ask him whether he killed Earl?”

“No, why would I? I repeat he was on his way to Arkansas with his mom when Earl was killed.”

“Are you sure?” He asked.

It was time to change the subject. “Is there any news on the two women who were killed in Anaheim?”

“No, and stop trying to change the subject.”

“I don’t want to talk about the other subject so if that’s all you want to talk about. I’m going to put in a DVD and watch it.”

Tom blew out a long exasperated breath. “How did the wedding planning go today? Did you order the invitations?”

“Not yet, I have to find the place first.”

“That makes sense. I like the idea of red on the invitation and in your bouquet to match your hair.”

“Well, Savanah thinks we should go with either a red with some pink in it or purple. She doesn’t think we should go with a color exactly the same as my hair.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. What about your dress? Did you find one today?”

“Yes, I did. It’s beautiful.”

“Did you get everything you wanted?”

I thought back over the day’s events. I didn’t get the dress or veil I thought I wanted, but the one I chose, or Savanah helped me choose, was beautiful.

“Liza?” Tom interrupted my reminiscing.

“The dress is beautiful and you will love it.”

“I love you in everything, especially nothing, Liza. What about the veil?”

“You know a lot about wedding attire, Tom.”

“Been there, remember? Pamela wore a beautiful dress and veil but she didn’t look like herself. By the time they piled up her
hair and added enough makeup to enroll her in clown school, I barely recognized her when she came down the aisle.”

“My veil is very nice and I’ll be wearing my hair up, too.”

“Ah, Liza. I like it down.”

“Me, too. But Savanah says that it’s just not done. All brides wear their hair up, so they can wear the head piece and veil.”

“I don’t think I like this Savanah. So far she’s changed the color of the invitations and the flowers. She’s talked you into wearing your hair up. Tell me you got exactly the gown you wanted, right?”

“Yes, I did.” Well, I thought, I got the one that looked fabulous on me.

“Okay, just don’t let this Savanah person railroad you into doing or having anything you don’t want to have or do, okay?”

My phone clicked and I saw that Justin was calling.

“Justin’s on the other line, Tom.”

“I’ve got to go anyway, Liza. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Call me before I go to bed. I like talking to you when I’m lying in bed.”

“I like lying in the bed next to you.”

“Me, too.”

“Talk to you later.”

I clicked over to Justin.

“Hey, Teach. I talked to my mom and she said she has seen a couple of people in the neighborhood in the last few days. She saw the maintenance men for the complex. They were mowing
the lawns, trimming the hedges, and generally making enough noise to drive Shelby crazy.”

“She does love the lawn people.”

“Love is not the right word, Teach.”

I laughed. “They generally come on Friday. I wonder why they came so early in the week.”

“Well, it’s been really hot, maybe they needed to make sure the lawns weren’t all dying.”

“They were looking rather brown. And the weather man says another week of this hot weather.”

“Yeah, they probably needed to change all the timers so figured they’d mow the lawns while there were there. She also says that she’s seen a black car several times but it never stops, just drives through.”

“That’s weird; maybe they were looking for an address and couldn’t find it.”

“Probably, did you find your bracelet?”

“Nope.”

“Figure out anything about the two women who were killed?”

“Nope. I’m zero for zero.”

“Probably nothing to find with the two women, or we don’t have enough, or the right, information.”

“I would agree. If we think it’s a serial killer with a victim type, these can’t be the first two women he’s ever killed.”

“Unless there was some kind of stressor that caused him or her to start killing.”

I laughed. “You and I watch too much cop television.”

“It’s good television, especially the real cop shows rather than the dramas.”

“If it wasn’t a stressor then there has to be more dead women. Can you do a search and see?”

“What criteria you want me to use?”

“Run it several ways, on each of the stats. Run one for women killed by stabbing with long hair, then long dark hair, another with my height, and then weight. Let’s just see what comes up.”

“Do you want me to concentrate in California?”

“No, open it up to the entire country.”

“Okay, you got it Teach. I’ll call if I find anything.”

“Thanks, Justin.”

“Super Cyber Sidekick away!”

BOOK: Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 05 - Till Death Do Us Part
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