Russ gathered up the basket left in front of Edgar and Estelle Puckett’s ruined fence and stored it in the trunk of the cruiser. Sometime during the night the Pucketts had been treated to a cut fence, and pink spray paint and pink balloons adorned the fence posts. He had spent most of the morning interviewing a furious Estelle Puckett, who had finally admitted when threatened with a warrant that yes, she used that “damn woman’s” soaps and lotions and in fact used every product in the basket. Unlike the other two incidents, Edgar and Estelle weren’t out much more than the cost of a little barbed wire, Ida’s unholy amusement at the situation, and a morning of aggravation while Edgar and his brother Bruce gathered up the cows and calves along the highway. And that’s what made this attack different from the other two, Russ mused as he started back to town. The first two caused the victims a serious monetary loss. This attack seemed to be more about embarrassing the victims than anything else. So why the change in tactics? And what about the fact that Estelle used every product in the basket? Did the basket vandal, or vandals, as he was beginning to think of them, know her intimately?
About halfway to town he remembered to call Angie. “There was another basket left last night. Do you want to meet me at the justice center or do I need to bring it to the store?”
“I’m already in town,” she said tersely, her voice cold. “I’ll meet you at the justice center.” Without another word, she’d hung up. Russ stared at the phone for a minute. Was something eating Angie this morning?
He parked the cruiser and carried the basket into the justice center where he found a stone-faced Angie sitting in the lobby.
“Morning, Angie,” he said as he motioned for her to come with him. “I need you to take a look at this.”
She glanced up and the look she gave him just about froze him in his tracks.
Okay, she was pissed, seriously pissed about something. Was it the delivery of another basket and the potential loss of business that was sticking in her craw, or was her ire of a more personal nature?
Russ caught a whiff of scented soap and beautiful woman and his groin tightened involuntarily. Damn, he was going to have a get a lid on the lust before dealing with her or his resolve to keep his distance was going to evaporate like spit in the hot summer sun.
“If you’ll come with me?” he asked her politely.
Without speaking she followed him down the hall and into one of the interview rooms. He shut the door behind her and set the basket down on the table.
“Do you have any memory of making up this basket? Is it a generic or custom?”
She took a careful look at the basket. “Generic. I make it up especially for a little shop outside Leander. Why in the hell did they leave it out at Estelle Puckett’s?” Angie rubbed her arms as though she were chilled. “That woman would bathe in pure lye before she bought anything from me.”
Russ’s lips twitched as he fought not to smile. “Not so. Apparently Estelle’s a closet fan and shops in Leander so nobody will know. She uses every product in that basket. I had to threaten her with a warrant before she’d tell me the truth.”
“Oh. And now that venomous old woman will bitch up one side and down the other all over Verde about being targeted,” Angie said bitterly. “What did they do to her place?”
“Cut a fence and spray painted the fence posts pink. And tied pink streamers and balloons to the cut fence. Edgar and his brother Bruce will be all morning gathering up the cattle that got loose. But no real damage. Not like the other three.”
“Whatever. It still isn’t going to do my business any good,” she said. “So why haven’t you caught the SOBs who are doing this to me? Isn’t there anything more that you can do?”
“Yes, and I intend to do it,” Russ said tightly. “Even if it means pissing people off. And that includes your in-laws.”
“Piss them off all you want,” Angie broke in harshly. “You need to find out who’s doing this to me. And them—I don’t owe them the time of day.”
“And I also need the names of any of your old boyfriends.”
“Why?” Angie’s voice dripped ice as she looked at Russ disdainfully.
“Because at this point I have to explore every possibility, no matter how unlikely,” Russ said patiently. “And ‘every possibility’ includes them.”
“None of them had anything to do with it. I’m quite sure of that.”
Russ shook his head and handed her a piece of paper. “We can’t take that for granted. I need the names of every boyfriend you’ve had since your divorce.”
Angie muttered under her breath and her fingers shook as she scratched out a short list of names before practically throwing the paper at Russ. “Are we through here, Deputy Riley? I need to get the shop open in case I actually get any business today.”
Okay, she was mad at him personally.
“‘Deputy’? What happened to Russ?” he taunted even as her delicate perfume tempted him to pull her into his arms.
Angie glared at him. “Roxanne came by the shop for a new lipstick for her hot date last night with the local man-whore. I thought we were going to have a fling but apparently you changed your mind. My bad for giving a damn.”
Russ’s lips tightened as her barb struck home. “We had our fling, Angie. You said you wanted a fling and now we’ve had it.”
“We didn’t have a fling, we had a one-night stand,” she said coldly.
“A fling, a one-night stand, whatever,” he said. “Look, Angie, I’m sorry if I’ve pissed you off, but you told me you weren’t interested in anything heavy and I took you at your word. You’re giving off mixed signals, ma’am, and maybe you need to decide what you really want before you tangle with the next guy.”
Angie was silent for a minute.
“You are probably right about that. Next time I’ll be sure not to tangle with a bed-hopping lowlife with fewer morals than his own tomcat and find somebody who really wants a fling. Have a nice day, Deputy.” She threw open the door and banged it shut behind her.
Russ was still staring at the door when it creaked open a couple of minutes later.
“Damn, that woman knows how to make an exit,” Rory laughed as he pulled the door shut behind him. “She stomped all the way to her car.”
“Her parting shot wasn’t bad, either,” Russ said ruefully. “Say, you got a minute? This puppy was delivered to Estelle and Edgar Puckett this morning. Another spray-paint job but no real damage done. Willing to give me your two cents worth?”
“Sure.” Russ and Rory sat down at the table where Rory donned gloves and looked through the basket “Nothing too earthshaking here, Russ. So tell me what you have on this so far?”
“Three actual incidents. One is an incompetently carried out arson and two are almost whimsical attacks with pink spray paint. One of the spray-paint jobs seriously damaged Jimmy and Holly’s place; the other did almost no damage to the Pucketts and is more annoying than anything else. And one very expertly disabled alarm system.”
“Sounds like more than one vandal to me,” Rory mused. “The pink spray paint and balloons—that’s a woman. And the alarm system is somebody with the background to do that kind of thing. Might be the same woman, but I doubt it.”
“And at the risk of losing my man card, I’m also interested in the fact that one of those baskets, Estelle’s, had the particular products she uses and the other two, Holly’s and Ida’s, didn’t. That suggests that the vandals know Estelle well but not the other two and that at least one of the vandals is a woman. A man, even one close to them, probably wouldn’t.”
“Interesting that only local customers have been attacked,” Rory said thoughtfully. “According to Lisa, most of Angie’s business is from Internet sales.”
“They probably don’t know who her Internet customers are. Anyway, whether she likes it or not, I’m expanding the scope of the investigation past the people who might still be angry about her getting Wade once upon a time. She was already pissed at me when she came in here. Asking for the names of her old boyfriends really ripped it.”
Rory’s eyebrow shot up. “Already mad at you? Ya think? After the stunt Lisa said you pulled? Never would have guessed. And I doubt any of the old boyfriends would have had a thing to do with it. From what Angie’s told Lisa and Lisa’s told me, she generally ends her flings on pretty good terms with them.”
Russ looked at Rory curiously. “She never has anything more than one-night stands? And just what kind of stunt have I supposedly pulled?”
“Uh-oh,” Rory said. “I do believe that you and that lovely lady have had a failure to communicate. Again, according to what my wife tells me, Angie doesn’t have one-night stands. She has ‘flings.’ Six to nine months. Discreet affairs with dates away from her home base and her business. Oh, and she gets to end the affair, not the guy.”
“So that’s why she’s so pissed,” Russ said thoughtfully.
“Yep. She was expecting a few months of your time and you’re out of there after one weekend and on to the next one. You broke her rules, which you really didn’t want to do. And you also managed to piss off my wife, who actually encouraged Angie to have a fling with you.”
“Damn, I didn’t mean to hurt Angie’s feelings. Or make Lisa mad.”
“They’ll live, both of them. But, Russ, if I could run a thought by you? Verde County isn’t all that big and if you keep running through women like an alcoholic through Scotch there isn’t going to be anybody else to love and leave by the middle of next year. Then what are you going to do? Recycle?”
“Point taken. And I really do feel bad about the misunderstanding with Angie.”
So Angie expected a six-to-nine-month affair with him, he thought later as he walked the basket to the lab for processing. That was her idea of a fling, and she was hurt and disappointed when that didn’t happen. But that was all the more reason to stay away from her. As innocent as those expectations might seem, they were expectations, and one kind of expectation could easily turn into the kind of expectation he couldn’t live up to even if he wanted. So he would keep his distance from the woman he couldn’t seem to get off his mind and hope that it wouldn’t take too long for her to quit haunting his dreams.