Chapter 16
They’d built a new police station in Garden Cove about five years back. When Gilly was arrested, it was the first time I had stepped foot in the place since my dad passed away. I thought going to the station would bring up too many painful memories, but it was the opposite. It looked completely different from the old building, so I found I had no emotional attachment to the place whatsoever.
The same couldn’t be said now. This was where my sweetheart worked, and I had spent a lot of time inside these walls assisting with cases. The cops inside were once again like family to me. If I had to give it up, I’d miss it. Unfortunately, if my character continued to be smeared in public, I might not have a choice. I’d be a liability for cases going to trial, not an asset.
Shawn had called me shortly after the arrest and summoned me to the police station. He said that Mayor Green wanted a word with me, and he didn’t make it sound like a good thing. However, I didn’t go running there like a lapdog being called to its master. I was still in my pale pink sweats, and there was no way on this “Green” earth that I was going to meet with the Mayor looking like I was on a trek to the grocery store.
Instead, I went home, showered, and changed into something that would give the mayor pause before she came at me. I’d worked as a corporate leader for years, and I knew how to pull off a power suit. I picked a tan linen blazer and wore a chocolate brown vest beneath it. The vest was fitted, like my slacks, and didn’t require a shirt under it. My arms were decently fit, even at fifty-six, and I wanted to be able to show them off with a casual drop of the jacket if needed. I chose a pair of Gucci signature mules. The chunky heel made walking easier and standing for long periods tolerable. I tucked my hair into a bun and pinned it with a diamond hairpin that had been my mother’s, making sure my makeup was appropriate for daytime but added a touch of bronzer for a bit of glam.
I was going to give Allison Green the take-no-prisoners, ball-busting, deal-sealing Nora Black, who knew how to get things done.
When I walked into the station, Broyles was the first person I encountered. He assessed me up and down and then said, “Day-um. You did not come to play.”
“I did not,” I agreed.
“You can relax a minute,” he informed me as he scratched his head. He’d said earlier that he’d just turned forty. In the god-awful fluorescent lighting, I could see peppers of gray in his dark hair. “The mayor is currently reaming the chief and Detective Holden new buttholes. It’ll be a minute before she gets to yours.”
“I like my butthole right where it is, thank you very much,” I told him. “And if I were in the market for a new one, I wouldn’t get it from Mayor Green.”
Broyles laughed. “You’re not afraid of much, are you?”
“I’m afraid of all kinds of things. Just not blowhard politicians who care more about elections than the truth.”
He raised his brows. “Were you ever in the military?”
“No, but I grew up the daughter of the chief of police here in Garden Cove. Being his child was kind of like being in the military.” I grimaced when I remembered his memory of wretched combat. “Sorry,” I apologized. “My upbringing was nothing like what you went through.”
He shrugged. “It’s no never mind to me. I get it. My dad was an MP in the army. He’s the reason I joined. There’s a lot of pressure to follow in a parent’s footsteps.”
“But you became a demolitions expert, not an MP,” I pointed out.
He smiled, making his face appear more youthful, and spread his hands. “But look at me now?”
“You’re still a demolition guy but also a cop.”
“The best of both worlds.”
I shook my head at his bravado. It seemed to me that it took a certain kind of person to play with explosives—one that liked to live on the edge and didn’t always care about dying.
Reese came into the bullpen. “Hey, Nora,” she greeted. “Looking spiffy.”
“Then mission accomplished,” I told her. “Spiffy was the aim.”
“Then bullseye.” She mimicked drawing a bow and shooting an arrow. “We just processed Edgar. I’ve never seen a man cry so much. He went through an entire box of tissue between fingerprinting and mug shots.”
“Has he lawyered up?”
“Nope.” She gave a low whistle. “For a smart guy, he’s kind of dumb.”
Poor Edgar. He was going to go to jail—go directly to jail, and not collect two hundred bucks—if he didn’t wise up. I was half tempted to call Jasper Riley to take his case. I wouldn’t, of course. I was in enough trouble already, apparently.
While waiting for my turn with the angry mayor, I hummed the theme song from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
“I can’t believe that movie came out in nineteen sixty-eight,” Broyles said. “The man was ahead of his time.”
“The theme song was composed by Richard Strauss in eighteen ninety-six.” I gave him a “yep, I said eighteen ninety-six” nod. “Strauss was ahead of his time.”
“My buddies and I would binge old sci-fi when I was at AIT at Elgin Air Force Base in Florida.”
“I thought you were in the Army.”
“He was,” Reese answered. “He trained as an explosive ordnance specialist at Elgin, though.”
“Okay,” I said to Broyles. “I gotta ask. Do you think the person doing this has demolition training?”
“What, you don’t believe it’s the banker?” he asked, sounding doubtful. Then he shook his head. “The materials this guy is using aren’t weapon-grade. They’re chemicals almost anyone can get hold of. I don’t think he’s a pro.”
“Okay, that’s good insight. I didn’t think about that. You mentioned something about fuming acid igniting latex. Why is it different?”
“Nitric acid available to the public has a much lower concentration of acid than fuming nitric acid.” He took out his phone and showed me a video. A guy sprayed a glove with the acid, and it burst into flames.
“Woah,” I said. “That’s very cool.”
“What’s your take on Edgar Jones, Nora?” Reese asked. “You usually have a sixth sense, no psychic pun intended, about these cases.”
“I don’t think Edgar is our guy. This man... he seems more like a geek or a nerd,” Reese commented.
“Edgar is totally a nerd,” Reese commented.
“I mean, like a science fiction and science fact kind of nerd.”
Reese peered at Broyles. “You mean like Tony?”
“Tony, huh?” She flushed. “That’s his name.”
“It is,” Broyles agreed. There was a hint of amusement in his tone. “Am I a suspect?”
“No,” I replied. Not because he wasn’t capable. The guy loved movies, science fiction, and he was an expert in stuff that blew up. But when that stink bomb went off, I saw one of the worst days, I assumed, of his life. If he’d been responsible for what was going on, he wouldn’t have picked something so triggering.
“That’s it?” he asked jovially, “just ‘no’?”
“If you had been the guy, I would have seen it already. You have some very strong emotions.”
He paled, then nodded. “Gotcha.”
“Well, I, for one, am comforted that you have gotten Nora’s seal of approval,” Reese said.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I snickered.
Broyles laughed again. “I’m sorry for the way I treated you before.”
“It’s fine,” I told him. “My ability can be hard for people to believe. I struggled with it myself. Besides, we live in Missouri. Sometimes you’ve got to show to know.”
He chuckled. “You showed me.”
“I sure did.” I glanced down the corridor that led to Shawn’s office. “At this rate, I think she’s knitting them a butthole necklace.”
“What?” Reese asked, confused.
Broyles gave her a barely perceptible headshake and said, “I’ll explain it later.”
“Cripes, what fresh hell am I living in?” a woman behind us asked. I knew the voice immediately. Carol Flipping Billingsly. Whatever I’d done in this life or another, I can’t believe it warranted this kind of payback.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What are you doing here, Carol?”
“I could ask you the same,” she countered.
“I was summoned.”
“Hah!” She smiled smugly. “I was invited.”
“Potatoes, po-tah-toes.”
“The mayor is going to give me an exclusive,” she bragged. “Edgar Jones, Prank Bank Mastermind.”
I almost choked on my own spit. “That headline is heinous.”
“You’re heinous,” Carol said. “I can’t wait to expose all your secrets, Nora. Then people will know what I’ve known all along. You’re a selfish, entitled brat.”
“In what past life did I hurt you?” Holy cow, the woman really had it in for me. “Is this about Shawn?”
She screwed into a sideways pucker. “Shawn?”
“Rafferty,” I said. “You know, the chief of police and my ex-husband. Is this because you had a crush on him in high school?”
Carol’s laugh was almost maniacal.
Broyles muttered, “Nora was married to the chief?”
Reese shushed him. “Unless it gets physical, we’re staying out of it.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Carol shook her head in disbelief. “You don’t even know what you did, do you, Nora?” She put a lot of ugly emphasis on my name as if it were a cuss word.
I returned the favor. “I think we’ve established that, Carol.”
“I worked hard to get recommendations to go to Girls’ State our junior year, but they chose you to go instead.”
“I didn’t even go to Girls’ State,” I said, full of confusion. Girls’ State was a week-long summer leadership program awarded to one or two high school juniors from each school in Missouri every year. You couldn’t apply to the program; you had to be nominated by your teachers as a leader. I had no interest in politics or public office. Girls’ State would’ve been wasted on me.
“Exactly! It could’ve opened so many doors for me, but they gave the opportunity to a rich, entitled daddy’s girl who didn’t even want it!” Spittle was flying off her lips. “You know you only got in because your dad was the chief.”
“Oh my gosh, Carol. Get over it. I am sorry you didn’t get into Girls’ State. It’s not my fault. I was sixteen years old and had no control over who they chose or why. The only thing I could control was if I wanted to go, and I didn’t. I didn’t do that to spite you. I did it because I was sixteen and wanted to spend the summer with my boyfriend, who had just graduated from high school and was heading off to college.” I was pretty sure I was spitting now. I took a deep breath to calm myself. “I’m sorry your life didn’t work out the way you expected. I think anyone past the age of forty can attest to the fact that it rarely does. You’re old enough now to know better than to blame a hormonal teen for the decisions she made in the past.” Besides, it wasn’t like the program would’ve taken Carol had I not been nominated. After all, there were two positions available, and she hadn’t been offered either one.
My reasoning seemed to take the wind out of her sails, but it didn’t stop her from glaring at me. Well, at least now I knew. Carol Billingsly still had the emotional maturity of a sixteen-year-old, and if she hadn’t grown out of it by now, she probably never would.
Ezra walked up the hall, shaking his head as he entered the room.
“Do we still have jobs, Boss?” Reese asked.
“Yep,” he said. His gaze found mine, and his eyes softened around the edges. “No one is losing their job. No one.”
I exhaled my relief. “Then why have I been called in?”
He stared at Carol. “We found out that the anonymous letters were written by Carol Billingsly. She tried to cover her trail, but the owner of the paper gave us backdoor access to her work computer, and her keystrokes were logged last night at a quarter after ten. She’s our concerned citizen.”
“So,” Carol huffed. “I didn’t do anything illegal. I spoke the truth. Nora is a menace to this town.”
“I’m mighty certain the only menace here is you,” Reese said in my defense.
“The chief and the mayor are talking with Darla Potter, the owner of the Gazette, and she is planning to issue a public apology for any wrongdoing on behalf of her staff.”
Carol’s skin turned sallow. “She... she can’t do that.”
“What you wrote about Ms. Black and then tried to pass off as an anonymous letter is a libel,” Ezra continued. “That’s beyond ethical journalism, and our prosecutor thinks we have a strong case if Ms. Black wants to move forward with it.”
“I guess I’ll have to think on it,” I replied.
Carol blanched.
I had no intention of suing the wretched woman, but she didn’t need to know that. The words she’d written about me were so vile that I didn’t think I could forgive her, but I wasn’t interested in taking her to court over it. The trial would only expose me and my gift even more.
“Good ol’ Nora.” Carol’s eyes were glassy. She spoke in a barely audible whisper, and I had to lean in to make out the words. “Always the hero. We’ll see how much after tonight.”
I narrowed my gaze at the reporter. “What do you mean by that?”
“You’ll see,” she hissed. “This race isn’t over. Watch yourself, baby, or you’ll get burned.”
“Light up the sky like the fourth of July,” the mystery man had said in the memory, “I’m coming in hot, dog, and the race is on. Wow, wow. Try an’ stop me. I’m unstoppable. Stop, drop, and roll, hero, or let it burn, baby, burn.”
Was it a coincidence that Carol had used some of those words? I didn’t think so. I turned to Ezra. “She’s part of this,” I told him.
“Part of what?”
“Carol is in league with The Scent Stalker.”
She glowered at me. “Prove it.”
“Not a denial.” Ezra rested his hand on his holster. “That’s good enough for me.”
“She said there’s something coming tonight,” I told him. “If we can’t stop it, someone’s going to burn.”
“You’ll burn, they’ll burn, everyone will burn,” Carol seethed as Reese put her in handcuffs. “You’ll all burn in hell.”
My stomach lurched as the implication settled in. Carol was in cahoots with the man tormenting me. Had she been in league with him this whole time? Whatever the case was, I couldn’t shake the awful feeling that tonight was the big finale of their plan.
“We have to find her partner,” I told them. “We have to find him and stop him.”
“So...” Broyles scratched his jaw. “Does this mean Jones isn’t the guy?”
“Jones is not the guy,” Ezra confirmed. “How long do you think we have?”
“Light up the sky like the fourth of July,” I told him. “I think as soon as it’s dark, all bets are off. We have about four hours to figure it out.” How many people would suffer if we couldn’t? As far as I was concerned, even one would be too many.