| |
“Let’s go!” Martha looked excited.
The following afternoon, they picked up Martha in front of her duplex, painted in shades of yellow and cream, and made to look like it had been built in the Victorian era.
The fluffy white puppy sat on the walker. Today he wore a pink collar to match Martha’s pink sweatpants ensemble.
“I see you’re color coordinating with him,” Lauren said, gesturing to the collar.
“I couldn’t resist.” Martha chuckled. “I like how we match.”
“So do I.” Zoe smiled.
“Does he mind wearing pink?” Lauren asked.
“Ruff!” It sounded like No.
Lauren folded up Martha’s walker and put it in the trunk. Annie, Martha, and the puppy fitted in the rear, while Zoe was in the passenger seat.
“Have you looked up Jill’s address?” Lauren suddenly realized that was one topic they hadn’t discussed. “Is she working today or is she at home?”
“I’ll know in a sec.” Zoe pulled out her phone and typed with her thumbs. “I’ve got her office address. Ooh, I know. I’ll call her and ask if she wants to do a follow up interview with me like Thelma did. She gave me her number last week. Then I can winkle out of her if she’s at the office now or at home.”
“Good thinking,” Martha said in admiration.
Zoe turned around and grinned at her fellow sleuth. “Thanks!”
After dialing Jill’s number, she spoke briefly to her. “Okay, see you soon.” Zoe ended the call. “She’s at the office for a while, and then she’s going home.”
“What are we going to ask her?” Lauren queried.
“If she saw something unusual at the premiere,” Zoe said.
“What am I going to ask her?” Martha called from the backseat.
“I’m sure you’ll think of something.” Zoe turned around and winked.
“Ruff!”
“Brrt!”
***
LAUREN PULLED UP OUTSIDE Jill’s office building, a tall, multistoried structure with lots of glass. She hoped they weren’t making a mistake.
The automatic sliding doors parted for them and they walked into the large lobby. The place seemed deserted.
“Oh good, no security guard asking about my little guy.” Martha smiled down at her puppy, who sat quietly on the walker seat.
Lauren had buckled on Annie’s harness, and her fur baby led the way.
“Martha, do you have a lead for your little guy?” Zoe asked.
“Yep.” Martha patted the black padded seat. “It’s in the basket underneath.”
“You might want to put it on him,” Lauren advised. “Is he trained already to walk on the lead?”
“Sort of. The shelter said he was a good boy and didn’t mind being on it. But we haven’t tried it ourselves, have we, cutie?”
The fluffy white puppy shook his head slightly.
“Jill said she was on the third floor.” Zoe punched the button for the elevator. It arrived instantly with a little Ding!
“Ruff?” The fluffy puppy cocked his head at the noise, and looked around the silver cage with wide eyes, but remained sitting on the walker.
“Look how good he is,” Martha said. “Ed was right – he is the dog for me.”
“Ruff!”
“Brrt,” Annie said in an encouraging way.
When they got out on the third floor, there was only silence.
“It looks deserted.” Lauren glanced down the cream painted hall.
“Jill said the office isn’t far from the elevator.” Zoe led the way down the corridor.
“There!” Martha pointed to The Sacramento Community Star emblazoned on a door.
“Hello?” Zoe pushed open the glass door. “Jill?”
“Brrt!” Annie towed Lauren inside. She made a catline toward a desk in the corner.
“Jill?” Lauren called out.
Silence.
“She said she’d be here.” Zoe frowned.
“Ruff?” The puppy turned around in a circle on the walker.
“Can you see anything?” Martha asked him.
“Maybe you could call her again,” Lauren suggested.
“Good idea.” Zoe pulled out her phone. After a minute she said, “It’s going straight to voice mail.”
“Uh oh,” Martha said. “What if the killer has already got her?”
“Who?” Zoe’s eyes widened. “Do you mean Donald? Or Thelma?”
“Donald and Thelma,” Martha suggested.
“You think they’re working together?” Lauren crinkled her brow. She certainly hadn’t considered that.
“Why not? They could have killed Nathan together and now Jill’s found out and they rushed here to silence her.”
“But what would be their motive?” Lauren asked.
“Lemme see.” Martha closed her eyes in thought. “What about ... Thelma was jealous because Jill works for a newspaper in Sacramento and she doesn’t. And Donald ... hmm ... Donald was upset because Jill was rude to him at the premiere – yeah!”
“Did you hear her being rude to him?” Zoe asked.
“Well, no.” Martha looked disappointed. “But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t.”
Zoe roamed the room. It was deserted.
“Maybe we should go.” Lauren started feeling awkward. “Jill isn’t here.”
“Maybe she went to the bathroom,” Martha suggested.
“Good one.” Zoe pointed to her in approval.
“Ruff!”
“Maybe she’s in the next part of the office.” Martha gestured to a large door. “Come on, little guy. We’re gonna investigate!”
The puppy’s eyes widened even more in curiosity as Martha trundled them toward the brown wooden door.
“What do you think, Annie?” Lauren asked her fur baby. “Is Jill still here somewhere?”
Annie considered for a moment. “Brrt.” No.
“Where on earth did she disappear to?” Zoe tapped her cheek. “That’s if Martha’s wrong and the killer didn’t get her.” She tried calling Jill again and made a face. “Voicemail.”
“Maybe Jill got a hot tip phoned in between the time you spoke to her on our way here and when we arrived,” Lauren suggested. It seemed more likely than the killer suddenly appearing and doing away with her – didn’t it?
“Yeah, that could have happened,” Zoe agreed. “I guess we’d better get Martha.”
Muffled banging sounded from the direction Martha and the puppy had trundled off to.
“Help!” a voice sounded faintly.
“Brrt!” Annie trotted toward the wooden door Martha had opened. Lauren jogged after her.
“Martha?” Zoe zipped over as well. “Are you okay?”
“Ruff,” the puppy sounded dimly.
Lauren tried to open the door – and failed. Her eyes widened. She tugged again.
“Martha, are you in there?” Zoe called.
“Yes!”
“We can’t open the door,” Zoe told her.
“Where are you?” Lauren asked. “In another part of the office?”
“I’m in a closet,” came the muffled reply. “And it’s dark in here!”
“Did you accidentally lock the door?” Lauren queried.
“Of course not! I just opened it and then I shut it so we could investigate, but now we can’t get out.”
“Ruff!”
“Try fiddling with the doorhandle on the inside,” Zoe advised. “Is there a catch thingie you can press?”
“I’m pressing everything,” came Martha’s voice. “It’s not working!”
“Hold on,” Lauren encouraged her. She turned to Zoe. “Maybe the door is just stuck. You know how wooden doors can warp a little depending on the weather.”
“Good one.” Zoe nodded. “Okay, let’s pull on the doorknob together – really hard. On three.”
“One, two,” she counted.
“Three!” They wrenched open the door together, Lauren’s shoulder twingeing. She stepped back hurriedly as Martha tumbled out of the closet, a little disheveled.
“Are you okay?” Zoe reached out to steady her.
“Ruff!” The puppy looked like he didn’t know whether to stay sitting on the walker or jump off and feel the solid ground beneath him.
“What’s on my head?” Martha felt around her crown.
“It looks like a scarf,” Lauren told her.
“Oh good – I was worried it might be a big spider or something but I was trying not to panic.” Her voice sounded a little shaky and her cheeks were flushed a bright pink. “I had to stay calm to look after my little guy.”
“You did a great job,” Lauren praised, wondering if this was what Mitch had called Martha going rogue.
“What’s in there?” Zoe poked her head inside the large, dim closet. “Oh, it looks like office supplies.”
“And scarves.” Martha unwound the black scarf that had somehow found its way on her head and tossed it back in there. “Did you find Jill?”
“Nope.” Zoe shook her head. “And her phone went to voice mail again.”
“I guess we’d better go home.” Martha suddenly looked weary.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Lauren said. “Why don’t we stop off somewhere on the way and get a snack?”
“Yeah, like a burger or a shake, or fries or—”
“Now you’re talking.” Martha looked a little brighter. “Let’s do that.”
“But maybe not too much for us, because we’re having pizza tonight.” Lauren checked her watch. It was almost four o’clock.
“But you can have tons, Martha.” Zoe winked.
They headed out of the office and toward the elevator.
“Don’t you think it was strange the office was unlocked?” Zoe mused as they whooshed their way down.
“I do,” Lauren agreed.
“Brrt!”
The lobby was deserted again when they made their way through the automatic sliding doors to outside.
“Good old fresh air.” Martha stopped for a moment and sniffed. “Mmm.”
“Let’s go home.” Lauren put Annie and the puppy into the back, and then she started folding up Martha’s walker to place it in the trunk.
“Hey!” Zoe grabbed Lauren’s arm. “It’s Jill!”
“Where?” Martha turned her head this way and that.
“Over there!” Zoe pointed to a short girl with blonde hair sauntering toward the office building.
“Hey, Jill!” Martha hollered.
The figure halted and looked around. Then waved at them.
“Let’s grill her!” Zoe zoomed toward her.
“Wait,” Lauren called. “I have to ...” She shook her head and looked at Annie and the puppy. “Will you two be okay if we go over to Jill for a minute?” She rolled down all the windows by over two inches each. It wasn’t a warm day but she knew cars could heat up, even with the windows down.
“Brrt,” Annie said encouragingly.
She hurried after Zoe and Martha.
“Sorry, Zoe,” Jill was saying. “I got a hot tip from one of my contacts and I thought I could run over there to see him and get back before you arrived.”
“You couldn’t talk to him on the phone?” Martha wanted to know.
“He said it was ...” she lowered her voice “...too sensitive and he’d only talk to me in person.”
“Wow,” Zoe sounded impressed. “What was it about? Or can’t you tell us?”
“I wish I could.” Jill sounded regretful. “But I shouldn’t say anything until I write the story and get it published.”
“We understand,” Lauren said, turning to check on Annie and the puppy. Annie peered out through the open window, and she caught a glimpse of the dog’s white fur.
“Did you want to talk about a follow up interview?” Jill asked.
“That would be awesome!” Zoe’s eyes sparkled. “But we also wanted to ask if you saw anything unusual at the premiere.”
“No.” Jill looked puzzled. “Not that I can recall. It was a week ago and I’ve covered more stories since then.”
“I understand,” Lauren replied.
“We’re sleuthing,” Martha explained. “I bet we can catch the killer before Mitch can! That’s Lauren’s husband.”
“Really?” Jill looked interested.
“Mitch is a great detective,” Lauren said. “And he’s working hard on the case.”
“Yeah.” Martha nodded vigorously. “And he’s pretty fair. But sometimes we can sniff out things he can’t.”
Lauren glanced at Zoe, wondering if she’d picked up on Martha’s use of ‘we’. It seemed she had by the humorous sparkle in her brown eyes.
Jill opened her blue purse and pulled out a notebook. “Now, what time is good for you for a follow up interview?” She flipped open to a new page.
“You’ve got a piece torn out at the bottom,” Lauren observed.
“Oh.” Jill shook her head in a deprecating way. “I’m always writing notes to myself so I remember things.”
“I do, too.” Martha nodded.
“Don’t you use your phone to do that?” Zoe asked.
“I did.” Jill flicked to a fresh page that was intact. Lauren spied the initals JJ on the bottom corner. “But one day my battery died and I couldn’t use my phone to check the address for an important interview I had that morning. I ended up being late and the guy wasn’t impressed and complained to my boss. So now I go old school.”
“That’s the best school.” Martha nodded in approval.
“How about sometime next week?” Zoe proposed. “Monday is good because that’s our day off. Or else I can do after work Tuesday to Friday - no, not Friday because that’s craft club. Or next Saturday afternoon, or—”
“How about Monday?” Jill scribbled a note with her pen. “Morning or afternoon?”
“Morning?” Zoe glanced at Lauren. “And then we could visit Mrs. Finch in the afternoon and tell her all about it.”
“Okay.” Lauren looked over at the car. Annie was still peering out at them, as if she were ‘supervising’, and the puppy seemed to have gone to sleep.
“We could do a phone interview,” Jill suggested. “It would save me from driving down there, unless you want to meet up here?”
“Yeah, I guess a phone interview will do,” Zoe sounded a tad disappointed. “Although there’s this awesome ice cream shop in Sacramento. Have you been there? They’ve got maple and rhubarb, and green tea ice cream, and licorice, and—”
“Why don’t you tell me about it on Monday?” Jill smiled. “Then I can check it out and write up a review. My editor loves it when I write different types of stories. Unfortunately, we’re not big enough to have a dedicated food writer.”
“You’ll love it,” Zoe assured her.
They said goodbye, after arranging for Jill to call Zoe at ten on Monday, and headed to the car.
“I can’t wait to get me some fries and a chocolate shake,” Martha said when she buckled her seat belt. The puppy snored softly, still curled up on the back seat.
“Sounds good.” Zoe nodded.
Lauren pulled into a fast-food place off the highway when they were halfway home, to grab their snacks. Zoe ordered the same as Martha, while Lauren requested a vanilla shake. She didn’t want to ruin her appetite for pizza that evening.
Martha was quiet during the drive home apart from enjoying her snacks. Annie lapped up water from the travel bowl Lauren provided.
They helped Martha bring the puppy into her duplex when they arrived in Gold Leaf Valley.
“He’s still asleep,” Martha said in an exaggerated whisper, cradling the white fluffball to her.
“He’s so cute,” Zoe admired him, then turned to Annie. “But not as cute as you.” She winked.
“Brrt.” Thank you.
They said goodbye to Martha, then drove the few blocks home.
“See you in a couple of hours!” Zoe waved as she zipped to her house.
“Brrt!”
***
“I’M STARVING.” CHRIS’S eyes lit up in anticipation as Lauren placed the pizza boxes on the kitchen table. Their order had just arrived, and she silently admitted she was hungry as well.
“Me too!” Zoe helped herself to a slice of Zoe special, which tempted with pepperoni and sausage. So did Chris.
“How is the case going?” she asked Mitch, noticing he had shadows under his eyes.
“No one seems to have liked Nathan much. And I tracked down one of the people outside the town hall who said they saw Thelma out there.”
“So she couldn’t have killed Nathan,” Chris said.
“Not while that other person was there. But the witness can’t remember now exactly how long he was out there. He said he was getting some fresh air and then finally confessed he was sneaking a cigarette.”
“So Thelma could still have killed Nathan.” Zoe tapped her cheek, somehow not leaving a pizza sauce trail.
Lauren enjoyed her usual Lauren special. Annie sat next to her, watching every bite, despite having eaten beef in gravy.
“Did you get any information from Jill today?” Mitch finished a slice and reached for another piece.
“Not really.” Zoe frowned. “But she’s going to do a follow up interview with me on Monday – on the phone. And Martha got stuck in a cupboard.”
The guys chuckled when Zoe finished telling them about Martha and her puppy’s adventure.
“It sounds like Martha did go rogue,” Mitch said.
“She was a little shaken afterward,” Lauren pointed out.
“Yeah, we all had to stop for some treats on the way home,” Zoe added.
“All we found out from Jill is she writes notes on pieces of paper, instead of relying on her phone,” Lauren said.
“Brrt.”
The conversation turned to other topics, such as what to watch on TV that night. They eventually chose a detective drama – with a twist at the end that Lauren didn’t see coming.