Zonked in the Zucchinis (Lovely Lethal Gardens Rewind #1)

Chapter 30

When Doreen woke up the next morning, she was tired and groggy. However, as soon as her brain kicked into gear, she bolted out of bed, raced downstairs, and put on the coffee. She was just pouring her first cup, when Mack called.

“Talk to the captain,” he began, then a muffled sound came as his phone was passed over.

“Good morning, Doreen. We’ll do the DNA off the hairbrush Milford found to confirm Poppy was his wife,” he explained, “and we’re running DNA on the two samples that we have, as John Doe and Jane Doe. We may have something back in a couple days to confirm the John Doe as Jack Mahoney, Clive’s birth father. We expect the Jane Doe should confirm that body to be Rose, Clive’s birth mother. And your theory is probably correct that Clive found out through a genealogy search that he had a half sister, Lynda Mahoney.”

“Yes,” Doreen agreed. “Clive probably went looking for his real mother and probably uploaded his DNA, hoping for a hit, and, as a result, he could have found his half sister. Maybe even Lynda was notified of that match too.”

“Yes,” the captain replied. “Mack will go talk to Clive, before we proceed further on him.”

“Ah, I want to talk to him myself.”

“No way,” the captain declared, his voice sharp. “If this guy is the one who shot Lynda, he’s already got one murder under his belt. So another won’t faze him.”

“I know.” She groaned. “I just didn’t want to walk away at this point.”

“ Sure . Why walk away now?” he barked, but so much humor filled his tone that she groaned. “You’ve made all of us look like idiots again.”

“You know I don’t try to do that, right?” she asked the chief.

“No, apparently you don’t even have to try,” he declared, his laughter filling Doreen’s kitchen. She smiled with relief when Mack took over the phone.

Doreen sighed. “I’m really glad that you are so content and so strong in who you are that you don’t feel the need to be worried about your ego, when it comes to being a good cop.”

“Oh, that’s not an issue,” he said, “but, if you and I ever break up, I can tell you right now that the captain will hold me responsible, and he won’t be a happy man.”

“Goodness, why?” she asked. “You would think he would be happy to be rid of me.”

“No, because you’re his secret weapon,” he stated in a dry tone.

Doreen clarified, “You do realize this is merely a hypothesis at this point, a working hypothesis?”

“Of course. Then your grandmother and her merry gang arrived, zeroing in on whether you were right or not, asking whether we would bet for or against you.”

“Lord, did she really set up a betting pool?” she asked, fascinated. “I was hoping she hadn’t gotten that far.”

“Oh no, she was right there in the mix, like a dirty shirt,” he declared, a note of humor in his tone.

“Sorry.” Doreen groaned. “She seems to think that, if you guys bet too, it’s not illegal.”

Mack burst out laughing at that. “I don’t think anybody would even mind, except for the fact that they’re forever losing. So, this time everybody bet that you would be right.”

“ Uh-oh , I don’t think she’ll take those odds.”

“No, in fact, I’m pretty sure she was rushing to get away before she could accept any bets along that line. She was pretty sure that you were right too, and nobody was willing to take the chance of betting against you.”

Doreen burst out laughing. “I guess there are worst things in life.”

“You’re right, and, speaking of that, you’re still not allowed to go down to that corner store.”

There was dead silence, before she asked, “How did you know?”

“Because, just as you know me, I know you. You’re not going down there, do you hear me?”

“Yes, I hear you,” she muttered. “You really know how to ruin a good time.”

“Yeah, by keeping you alive. Remember that we think this guy has already killed somebody, so we’re not taking any chances.”

Just then came a knock on her door. “I’ve got somebody at the front door,” she said, as she walked, still talking to him. She couldn’t see anything out the window, but Mugs was barking heavily. “Mugs is not a happy camper over this one.” She laughed, as she went to open the door.

“Don’t open the door then,” Mack roared.

“Too late,” she said, as she looked outside, and her smile fell away. “Oh, hi. What can I do for you?” There in front of her was Clive himself, a gun in hand.

“Get off the phone.”

“Oh, I don’t know that I want to get off the phone,” she argued, now in a crabby mood and hoping that Mack would quickly pick up on what was going on.

In her ear, he was like, “Who is it? Doreen, who is it?”

“You’re the guy from that corner store, aren’t you?” she asked, breathing into the phone, trying to get that message to Mack.

“Yeah, now get off the phone.”

“Okay, I’ve got to go, bye.” And she put her phone into her pocket, but she never ended the call. As she faced Clive expectantly, she knew Mack would be racing to her. “Now, what can I do for you?”

Mugs was sniffing around his feet, and Clive gave him a hard kick. Mugs yelped, and she turned on Clive.

“How could you hurt a dog like that?” she cried out. “What did he ever do to you?”

He just glared at her.

“Speaking of which, what do you want anyway? You’re ruining my morning coffee.”

He snorted. “That’s not all I’ll ruin either,” he warned. “I didn’t realize who you were until somebody mentioned that you got into your car full of animals and drove away. I went out and looked for you after you were nosing around, asking questions. I didn’t have a clue until one of the kids who has worked there forever told me,” he muttered. “He said you were that detective lady with the dog and the cat.” Clive looked around behind her. “If this is what you’re calling a dog, that’s a pathetic excuse. Not even the size of a real dog. You’ve got to have one that stands upright. Not some squatty thing like this.”

“Don’t talk about Mugs like that.”

He stared at her. “ Mugs . Yeah, that’s a good name. It figures. He’s got an ugly mug all right.” With that, he burst out laughing, then the laughter abruptly cut off, and he glared at her. “What were you doing asking questions down there anyway?”

“I was looking for information about your half sister,” Doreen stated. “Wondering just how much Lynda had told you. After all, you decided to claim the family fortune and had no intention of sharing it, did you?” His glare turned even darker and more solemn than anything she could have expected.

“Good Lord, you really are dangerous.”

“I don’t know about dangerous,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “Yet people do tend to underestimate me.”

“I won’t underestimate you,” he stated, and suddenly the gun was pointing right at her head.

“Oh goodness,” she muttered, staring at the gun. Mugs growled, then barked several times.

“Shut him up,” Clive yelled, “or the first bullet is his.”

She looked at Clive, aghast. “You would shoot a poor dog?”

“He exists, and he’s annoying me.”

“Right, so apparently your half sister existing was enough to get you going too.”

“She wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t stop looking into Father’s death. The old fool had a real family, who all lived together and grew up. Not that he ever claimed me as his family. I didn’t even know Lynda existed. I had just recently found my birth father, so imagine my surprise when I found out that my father had this whole other family that I didn’t even know anything about.”

“How did you find your mother?” she asked.

“Genealogy, and then I found out who my father was. That was great. So I managed to get all that paperwork together, though I already knew of him. My adopted father told me that he had been led to believe that he was my birth father but asked me not to share that with my adopted mother. She would not take kindly to hearing the truth, and I wasn’t to ever tell her. Yet he knew all along that I wasn’t his biological son, and he figured out who my father was. He told me that money was there with Jack Mahoney, what with his big-time cattle ranch and the quarter horses and how I should go after it. So, that was my plan. I was the only family member left. It will take a while still to get Jack declared dead, but, with that taken care of, I’ll be set up for life. Then all of a sudden, this half sister turned up—the half sister who had been living with my birth father and who had had an actual relationship with him,” he stated, staring at her. “Like how fair is that?”

“You mean, you were upset about the lack of a relationship with your real father, or was it the fact that Lynda showed up before you finally got your hands on the pot and you didn’t have to share it?”

“I don’t have to share the pot now,” he declared, with a wave of his hand, “but she would have had a case against me if she’d wanted to push it.”

“Considering the fact that, as far as she was concerned, Jack was her father, and you were the interloper, she might very well have done so.”

“She might have tried,” he conceded, the threat evident in his tone. “She wouldn’t have succeeded.”

“But that’s what she told you that she would do, isn’t it?” He didn’t respond. “Did you talk to her that morning of the shooting?” He continued to stare at Doreen. “I assume that, if you were on that street, you had been talking to her already.”

“So what? What if I was talking to her? We had a good row, not that anybody would have heard us out in the empty park that morning,” he said. “I always kept things on the down low, but, yeah, she was pissed off.” He laughed. “And I was livid. So angry. I followed her, and she went to a house in my old neighborhood. I knew she would leave there soon, so I just waited outside, then popped her when she stepped out. It was easy, and then I just kept on walking to work. Nothing wrong here . I just kept walking.”

Doreen sighed. “I’m really glad to hear you say that. I’m not sure the cops would have had very much evidence to try you for this otherwise.”

“They don’t have any evidence.”

“The gun you’re holding would be the same one that you shot Lynda with, so that will go against you.”

“That would imply that you walk out of here with it. What will you do, jump me?” he asked, with a laugh.

It was all Doreen could do to keep her expression under control as she watched several cops pull up quietly behind them, sirens off. Parking at the street, a few houses away, the men came silently on foot and raced upward.

“The thing is, we never really know what other people can do. And, just when you think you’re safe, boom , you’re not.”

He glared at her. “I don’t know what you think you’re up to, but you’re just one interfering old busybody.”

She glanced at him and then nodded. “You’re not the first person to tell me that.”

He snorted. “Yeah, ya think? What a pain in the…”

“If you hadn’t shot your half sister—” Doreen interrupted.

“Whatever,” he snapped. “If she wanted to have any family life with me, she was way too late, just like the rest of them.”

“Meaning that you missed growing up with your birth mother and your birth father?”

“No. God, no.” He frowned at her. “You think I didn’t hear all the stories about Rose? I heard you were asking questions too.”

“Sure, it’s what I do.” She winced. “Sometimes it has a tendency to upset people.”

“You—”

“And again, it’s not personal, it’s just—”

“Shut up. Don’t speak. Just move into the living room. Just go.”

“I could move into the living room,” she noted, still standing in the entranceway, “but it’ll get really full very quickly.”

At that, Mugs moved forward, staying out of reach of getting kicked, but he was right up against Doreen’s legs, peering up at the gunman.

“Stupid dog,” Clive muttered.

Just then Thaddeus poked his head out from the fall of her hair and cried out, “Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here.”

Clive stepped backward, startled. “What the…?”

“They’re my pets,” she stated, looking at him. “We already know what your attitude about animals is.”

He glared at her. “There you go, making assumptions again. I had a dog growing up. I loved that thing.”

“Yeah, until what?” she asked. “Until you killed it?”

“No, not me,” he muttered. “It died of old age.”

“Good, though I’m sorry it died. That’s always very hard.”

“It happens. I mean, it’s an animal. What else do you expect it to do?”

She stared at him. “Right, so you weren’t terribly bothered.”

“Of course I was bothered, but I won’t sit here and cry about it.”

“No, of course not,” she muttered, staring at him. “That would be way too human.” He looked at her, confused. She just shrugged. “Never mind. It’s obvious that we would never be friends.”

He laughed. “I have no intention of being your friend. Besides, you won’t be around long enough to worry about it.”

“Oh really?” she asked. “You’ll use that gun on me? Is that the idea? Shooting your own half sister wasn’t enough?”

“I should have shot her a long time ago, when she came up the first time.”

“Wow.” Doreen shook her head. “And why didn’t you?”

“Back then I was just a kid and didn’t know about her relation to me, that’s why. Only after I uploaded to the genealogy site did she find out about me and reached out. Then there was all this whining about how her poor father was missing, and, since it was in my area, did I know anything about it and all that garbage.” He stared at Doreen. “What could I say? He’s dead. I didn’t know where or how, and I didn’t have anything to tell her, and all she wanted to do was raise money to find him.”

“So instead you shot her.”

“When she started poking around, I had to do something. So I agreed to meet her. We had a big fight and after that. I realized she wouldn’t go away.”

“She could have sued you for her part of her father’s estate, whether she found her father or not. Yet she didn’t do that. She wanted to get to know you. Doesn’t that count for anything?” Doreen asked.

“Now she can’t sue me,” he snarled. “And stop talking. Now get inside.”

At that, Thaddeus pulled out again from under her hair and screamed, “Thaddeus loves Doreen. Thaddeus loves Doreen.” And then the bird shrieked, and it sounded like the sirens on cop cars.

“Holy Moses,” Clive roared, as he jolted backward several steps. Mugs, already having him on the run, jumped forward, hitting him in the kneecaps and pushing him farther away from the front door. Even as Clive stepped backward yet again, Goliath appeared out of nowhere and jumped straight up to the middle of his chest, his claws dug into his shirt, and used his full body weight to slide down. Clive screamed and roared, trying to get the cat off him.

Doreen was more concerned about his gun hand.

But Mack reached around the whole melee, grabbed Clive’s gun arm, and removed the gun from his hand, then clapped a set of handcuffs on him, so casual and relaxed.

Doreen grinned. “Look at that,” she said, with a happy smile. “It looks as if we solved them after all.”

Mack groaned. “I don’t know how you do it, but you get into trouble and somehow—”

She looked up at him, her smile turning brilliant. “And somehow this absolutely wonderful man comes to my rescue.”

Mack glared at her. “That won’t get you out of trouble this time.”

Clive looked from one to the other, completely confused. “What is this? Are you two an item or something?”

She smiled at him. “Or something, yeah.” Then she twirled the ring around on her finger.

“You’re marrying a cop?” Clive asked, as if that were the worst thing ever.

“I sure hope so,” she replied, laughing. “Unless he decides to quit and join me full-time in solving cold cases.”

“Never,” Mack declared, glaring at her still. “You’re trouble enough when you’re on your own.”

She looked at him and nodded. “Can you imagine how much fun the two of us would have together, solving cold cases?”

“Nope, not happening. Besides, you’ll need somebody on the inside to keep you out of jail.”

She turned back to Clive. “I hope you’ve got somebody on the inside to help you because you’ve just confessed to murdering your half sister, and that won’t go down very well.”

“I didn’t confess to anything,” he snapped. “You’ve got no proof of that.”

She pulled her phone from her pocket and looked over at Mack, who nodded.

“I’ve got it recording at the office.”

She smiled. “See? The phone is still on, and we’ve been recording your confession the whole time.”

Clive frowned at her, glanced at Mack, and asked, “What? No way.”

Mack shrugged. “You can spend the rest of your life in jail figuring it all out, but I bet you won’t. There is just something different about Doreen.”