Grounds to Kill Read online

  Back in Kiki’s car, I listened to Kiki phoning around to a few friends, but sadly nobody had seen my dad.

  “I know it’s a long shot, but let’s try Merlot’s again.”

  We drove down the alley of the coffee shop, but Dad wasn’t lurking anywhere near Dumpsters. When I saw Mitch’s Camaro parked in its usual spot. I felt a gripping need to see him.

  “Pull around front and we’ll check the street again.”

  When Kiki pulled to the front, though, there was no Dad taking up residence on a spot of pavement across the street. Part of me had ached to see him there as he had been for weeks. I guess I thought he might just be delusional enough to go back to that location.

  “Could you park?” I asked Kiki quietly. “I really need to go inside and talk to someone.”

  Kiki said he’d stay in the car and keep look out. I walked into Merlot’s and spotted Minnie behind the counter.

  “What the heck happened to your face?” Minnie gasped.

  “I walked into a wall. Repeatedly. Where’s Mitch?”

  “He’s in the back with someone.”

  I sped past her and into the back room. Mitch was sitting at the small staff table with a phone in his hand. He dropped the phone, sprung up from his seat and grabbed me into a bear hug.

  “Oh my God, Jen, I’ve been worried to death. Kellum came by here looking for you and your dad. He said you’d been locked up in a storage locker by Arthur.”

  I sighed into his hug.

  “I’m fine.”

  He pulled away.

  “You don’t look fine but you’re alive.”

  “I need to find my dad.” I was no longer able to keep emotion out of my voice and the words came out on a sob. “I’ve been looking everywhere. Arthur’s going to kill him!”

  “Arthur won’t get him,” Mitch said firmly.

  Leading me by the arm, he pushed open the storage room door and inside the room stood my father.

  I threw my arms around Dad’s neck and sobbed uncontrollably. He looked distinctly uncomfortable at my show of emotion, but he didn’t pull away.

  Kellum arrived within seconds, and the EMTs were there shortly afterward. Dad and I rode to the hospital together and Kellum came along in the ambulance. Dad still wasn’t talking, but I could see relief in his eyes. I talked to Kellum about what I’d put together regarding Arthur and his connection to Misty.

  “We caught Arthur just outside the Bread of Life a few minutes before we got Mitch’s call,” Kellum said. “Arthur basically confessed to everything and, of course, we’ve got Kiki as a witness,” the detective told me.

  “I’m just so glad it’s over!”

  “Well, Arthur was on our radar before Misty’s death. We’d heard from a few people on the street that he might be dirty. We placed a tiny surveillance camera at both entrances to your building after your break-in. When Arthur dropped off flowers at your place, he had Kiki waiting outside in the car for him. Then Kiki was seen entering the building when you and Mrs. Rudnicki were attacked. Arthur had ordered him to kill you both in Mrs. Rudnicki’s apartment. Kiki said it was because you suspected Charlie.”

  “So Arthur figured Charlie would be a great fall guy?” I asked. I unconsciously rubbed my aching head. I was going to have one helluva headache.

  “Yeah. Kiki said Arthur checked into Charlie and agreed that he had no alibi, had access to both you and Misty and also had an old assault record. If things went sideways, Charlie was the perfect scapegoat.”

  “And is Kiki going to do time?” I asked. “He rescued me and he could’ve killed me and Mrs. Rudnicki, but he didn’t.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be fine in return for testifying against Arthur.”

  After a few hours at the hospital, they’d agreed to keep Dad to complete his psych evaluation and I was told I’d have to stay overnight for observation. Kellum stayed with me while the doctor cleaned my wounds and dressed my head with non-designer gauze bandages.

  “I just don’t get why Misty would go hooking? I mean, sure, when she was in her teens she got into some bad drugs and turned a few tricks. When she moved in with me and Dad, she kept stealing from me, even pawned my mother’s jewelry that she left me. It’s what caused the rift between us. But I thought she’d put all that behind her. I thought she’d even gotten a good job at a department store or something.”

  “She had,” Detective Kellum said. “But she had friends still working the streets. She hung out with them and Arthur saw her, ran a background check, then couldn’t resist getting a little on the side and using her old record against her. He convinced her to do a few rolls in the hay for some good customers in return for him not telling her current boss.”

  I told him what Kiki said about how Misty bragged that she’d blackmail Arthur in the future.

  “I could see she could see that as a way out,” Kellum said.

  “When my dad saw Misty on the streets, he took the pictures and made the lost dog flyers to try and get my attention,” I said, shaking my head sadly. “I was too stupid to really pay attention.”

  “Nobody noticed the flyers were a message.”

  “So was Dad in the apartment after Arthur killed Misty? Was the flyer left on her face his calling card?”

  “We don’t know for sure. Once he’s feeling better, maybe your dad will talk to us. We’ll have to see.”

  “If only I’d thought to hand my dad a pen and paper instead of a cup of coffee every day.”

  Kellum tossed back his head and laughed at that and said he had a ton of paperwork to do on this case. He said he’d send in the fans waiting in the lounge area of the hospital.

  All the good people in my life arrived to see me: Beth, Mallory and Mitch. And, yes, even Mojo who’d been smuggled into the hospital under Mitch’s hoodie.

  “I’ve got the day off tomorrow,” Beth said. “So I’ll stay at your place with Mojo.”

  “Promise you’ll play Attack Duck.”

  “Sure. I’ll even accidentally drop a bit of cheese for her after her walk.”

  “Thanks.” I grinned.

  “I can pick you up in the morning and take you home,” Mitch offered touching my cheek tenderly with the tip of his finger.

  “I accept.”

  After everyone was gone, the doctor gave me something to help me fall into a dreamless sleep. Before I knew it the morning had arrived and Mitch was there to drive me home.

  “Do you mind if we check on my dad first?” I asked.

  We headed to my father’s hospital room only to find it vacant. The nurse at the front desk said he’d checked himself out very early in the morning.

  “How was he? Was he stable and were you able to give him some meds?”

  She sighed.

  “You know how these things go...”

  Yeah. I did. He could be on his medications today and stay on them for a lifetime, a month or an hour.

  “Oh we did find this in his room though.” She reached behind the counter and handed me an old photo. “It had a note saying to give it to Jen.”

  I blinked back tears that he’d remembered my name. That was a good sign right there.

  “Thanks,” I said looking over the photo with a feeling of nostalgia and longing.

  It was a picture of our family: my mom, dad and me. I was about twelve. Probably the last year I thought of my dad as normal. I turned the photo over and saw a note in Dad’s crisp script.

  Dear Jen,

  Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.

  Mitch read it over my shoulder. “Sounds like it’s from the Bible. Do you know what it means?”

  I shook my head no, but I suspected Dad knew about HOD and thought I should use it for good.

  We left Harborview and climbed into
Mitch’s Camaro. Although my head still felt like I’d gone a few rounds with a sledgehammer, I got him to crank the radio and drive with the windows rolled down just so I could feel alive.

  When he pulled into the parking lot of my building a familiar feeling came over the palm of my hand.

  “Kellum still has my purse, do you happen to have a pen and paper?”

  “What’s with the weird smile?” Mitch asked as he reached into the glove box and pulled out a scrap of paper and a ballpoint pen.

  “I’m feeling lucky.”

  * * * * *

  About the Author

  Wendy Roberts is an armchair sleuth, fan of all things mysterious, but a huge chicken at heart. She is also the author of the Ghost Dusters mystery series. Wendy resides in the Pacific Northwest with her four children and an adorable Yorkshire terrier named Bella. She happily drinks large quantities of coffee while writing about murder. Visit her on the web at wendyroberts.com.

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  ISBN: 978-14268-9489-3

  Copyright © 2013 by Wendy Roberts

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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