Chapter 9
“The bottom line is, I would add Ivan Gregware to our list of possible shooters,” Lucy summarized.
“He mentioned Floyd and me specifically?” Liz asked.
“Gregware seems to believe Keller has been flying around because of the natural gas rights he heard were found on your property,” Margaret said. “To be honest, he made a good point.”
“Which is?” Gloria asked.
“If there are valuable resources at your place, it’s possible they don’t stop at the property line. They could extend to Mr. Gregware’s property, maybe even to your neighbor Christi’s place,” Margaret said.
“You’re right,” Liz agreed. “If Keller wanted this property, maybe he’s after theirs too. Although he could go about conducting aerial surveillance in a way that doesn’t annoy everyone around here or harass us by throwing stuff out of his plane.”
“Maybe he should bypass planes and go straight to trespassing, peeking in your windows, digging holes in the yard,” Gloria pointed out. “At least if he’s buzzing around overhead, you know where he is.”
“Point taken. Maybe now that someone took his plane out of commission, he’ll give up and find someone else to harass.”
“Or maybe he’s mentally unstable and is plotting his next move.” Ruth tapped the side of her forehead. “At the very least, I wouldn’t trust him. Why toss tomatoes out of the plane window?”
“Revenge? To scare Liz and Floyd into selling?” Dot guessed.
Liz squared her shoulders. “I am not moving. He can throw all the rotten tomatoes he wants at us. I put a lot of time and effort into making this my forever home and I plan to take my last breath here.”
“In other words, over your dead body,” Margaret joked. “Let’s hope that’s not the case.”
“It’s getting hot in here.” Ruth fanned her face. “Do you mind turning on the ceiling fan?”
Liz popped out of her chair and ran to the switch. “This isn’t just any old ceiling fan. It’s a fandelier.”
“A fandelier?”
“Part fan. Part chandelier. Check it out.” Liz flipped the switch. Shiny blades fanned out, creating a rainbow of sparkling lights dancing off the crystals dangling from the fan’s base.
Margaret let out a low whistle. “Fancy pants.”
“It’s one of my favorite kitchen accessories.”
“Which makes perfect sense, considering you don’t like to cook.”
Liz ignored Margaret’s playful jab. “Who doesn’t appreciate a little bling in their kitchen?”
“I have to say, the fandelier is right up your alley,” Gloria teased, rubbing her hands together. “It’s time to get down to business.”
The women discussed their next step…snooping around the airport, to find out if Keller had any enemies, other people who knew his flight route and might be behind the shooting.
“It’s getting late.” Ruth packed up her gear. “Leonard Navoy and I are hosting a YouTube training class this evening. We’re working on signing up new recruits for the NASCA Midwest group.”
“What’s this one about? Assembling an alien test kit for when you capture a flying saucer?” Lucy joked.
Ruth rolled her eyes. “Very funny. We don’t capture aliens. The North American Surveillance and Communications Association is about surveillance and communications. You make us sound like nutjobs.”
Lucy elbowed Gloria. “Remember when Rose came up with the Alien Allure potion? I sure do miss her.”
“Me too. She and Johnnie are living the dream. Rose is concocting all sorts of new stuff for VitaNew,” Dot said. “We should plan another road trip. We could head south, swing by and pick up Rose and take her with us.”
“My cousin, Millie, has been asking when we plan to take our next cruise on board Siren of the Seas,” Gloria said.
“Another cruise sounds fun.” Lucy clapped her hands. “Sun, sand, and the high seas.”
“I’m all in, but first we need to get through my current crisis,” Liz said.
Gloria jangled her keys. “We’ll get cracking on it tomorrow morning. What time do you want to meet?”
“We could have breakfast at Dot’s Restaurant and then head on over to the airport.” Liz promised to have all pertinent information with her for the meeting.
“I’m in,” Margaret said.
“Ditto,” Lucy said.
“What time?” Dot asked.
“Let’s meet at nine.” Gloria tapped her sister’s shoulder. “In the meantime, I would keep quiet about what we know so far.”
Liz made a zipping motion across her mouth. “Mum’s the word.”
After the women left, Liz meandered from room to room. It had been a long haul…three designers, one dead, another a suspect in the first designer’s death until finally—the third time was the charm and Liz found Evie.
She wondered how the segment’s editing was going, which was tentatively scheduled to air in early December. Liz checked on Duchess and Teddy, who were curled up and sound asleep in the kitchen’s doggie bed.
“Hey, lazybones.” She gently nudged Duchess with the tip of her toe. “You can’t sleep the day away. It’s time for a little fresh air.”
Liz let the pups out and caught up with them on Echo’s deck, where she discovered a wide swath of dried tomatoes splattered from one end to the other. “What a mess.”
Grabbing the garden hose, she turned it on and began spraying it off. With Echo’s broom in hand, she scrubbed the spots while the pups played nearby. She finished her good deed for the day, shut the hose off and draped it across the holder.
Discovering the dogs had wandered off, Liz tracked them down near the back. “There you are.” A ring of bright red caught her eye. On closer inspection, she realized it was a bullseye, set up for target practice.
Liz stared at the target, her mind whirling. Echo owned a handgun, something she fully supported considering what had happened to her when a hired hitman had come after her.
Could it be that Echo had been target practicing, missed her target and inadvertently struck Keller’s plane? She’d mentioned being annoyed by the plane buzzing by at all hours.
Maybe she had fired a warning shot, but instead of warning, she accidentally hit the plane. Liz promptly dismissed the idea. There was no way Echo would shoot the plane down. Still, it was clear her tenant had been firing her weapon.
Making a mental note to mention it to Floyd, Liz called the pups and continued walking until she reached the creek where she’d picked Lucy and Margaret up after their confrontation with the farmer.
Liz had heard her husband mention Ivan Gregware’s name. She’d even seen his truck drive by now and then, but had never met the man. He owned the nearby farm fields but lived elsewhere, which meant he wasn’t a viable suspect unless…he also knew about the flight tracker, knew Keller was doing flybys, drove out to wait for him to show up and then shot at his plane.
An uneasiness settled over her. Although she trusted Echo, a former criminal evidence technician, she didn’t know her all that well.
The continuous flights were disrupting everyone’s peace. Echo had mentioned Teddy being terrified by the sound of the tomatoes hitting her deck. Had she lost her cool, grabbed her gun, fired a warning shot and hit the plane?
One thing was certain: Liz had grown sick and tired of it to the point she’d actually done something. Which led to another troubling concern…she’d been angry enough to start a petition and gathered as many signatures as she could.
Liz made a mental note to point this out to the investigators—how she wasn’t the only one who was angry over the spy plane in the sky.
Back home, she decided to surprise Floyd and prepare a meal guaranteed to knock his socks off…a Mediterranean baked chicken.
Figuring she could handle placing chicken breasts in the bottom of a lightly greased glass baking dish, she followed the directions to a “T,” mixing spices and sauces in a medium-size bowl. Next, she poured the contents over the top of the chicken and popped it into her brand spanking new Forno commercial-grade oven.
“This should be tasty.” Liz fiddled with the oven timer, struggling to figure out how to set it. She tried Googling it and finally gave up, deciding to use her cell phone instead. “Where is that pre-cooked rice the Missy’s Meals in Minutes commercial kept hyping up?”
She stepped into her spacious pantry, nearly the size of the main bedroom of their previous home, and sorted through the contents. Liz silently thanked Evie’s assistant for helping her organize the contents.
She finally found the rice and carried the bag into the kitchen. Liz placed it next to a glass mixing bowl and dusted her hands. “Thank you, Gloria and Missy’s Meals in Minutes. Floyd is going to be impressed.”
The door opened, and her husband appeared. “Hey, sugar lips.”
“You’re home early.” Liz greeted him with a kiss.
“Good thing I got here when I did. I had to chase a local news crew away.”
Liz’s heart skipped a beat. “A news crew?”
“They were filming the front of our house.”
“Maybe it was someone from Elegant Estates by Evie. They came back for some additional shots of the outside for the upcoming television segment.”
“I doubt it, unless they work for Channel 5 news.”
“Great,” Liz groaned. “The local stations caught wind of the plane crash and are going to report on it.”
“That would be my guess.” Floyd hung his jacket on the hook by the door. He bent down to greet Duchess and Teddy. “I heard back on Tristan Keller’s condition.”
“Please tell me he’s going to be okay.”
“The wife of one of my employees works in the ER unit at Green Springs Memorial Hospital. From what he heard, Keller has a broken leg, is suffering from a mild concussion, and has some cuts and bruises. He’ll probably be laid up for a few days.”
“Thank God. I hope he learned his lesson and stops spying on us.”
“I’m gonna guess his plane isn’t going anywhere, at least not anytime soon.” Floyd sniffed the air. “Do I smell something cooking?”
“You do,” Liz beamed. “I made dinner.”
He placed a light hand on her forehead. “Are you feeling all right?” he playfully asked.
Liz swatted his hand away. “Very funny. I made Mediterranean baked chicken, also known as dump chicken.”
“The chicken fell on the floor and you dumped it in a pan?”
“No.” Liz grinned. “I placed chicken breasts in a baking dish, mixed up some other ingredients and poured it over the top. I hope you like diced tomatoes, red peppers, olives, feta cheese and garlic. I also added basil and balsamic vinegar.”
“Sounds good to me.” Floyd patted his stomach. “I skipped lunch. You made me such a nice breakfast this morning that I wasn’t hungry.”
Liz tilted her head. “I fed you an already prepared breakfast sandwich.”
“It was made with so much love, it kept me full all day.” Floyd eyed the package of rice. “Chicken and rice, the perfect combination.”
“I hope so. If not, we have the local pizza place on speed dial, and they deliver fast.” Liz returned to their original topic of conversation. “I have some new information on Keller’s plane crash.”
“Hopefully about who might have fired the shot.”
Liz filled him in, starting with what she and the others had discovered. “The plane ended up in Ivan Gregware’s field. He wasn’t a fan of Keller’s either.”
“I imagine not.”
“He seems to think Keller was after his property.”
Floyd grew quiet. “It stands to reason if natural gas is over here, they could also find it across the road. Did you talk to him?”
“No. Lucy and Margaret did. We were…” Liz’s voice faded.
“Snooping?”
“Sort of.” She hurried on. “We went over to take a quick look around. While we were there, Gregware showed up. Gloria, Dot, Ruth and I managed to sneak away. Lucy and Margaret got caught red-handed.”
Floyd frowned. “How did they get caught red-handed?”
“With Ruth’s metal detector.”
“You went over there with a metal detector?” Floyd roared. “You’re lucky you didn’t get shot.”
“Looking back, it might not have been the brightest idea.”
“Liz Rasmussen,” he lectured. “You should not be traipsing around private property without the owner’s permission. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you it’s hunting season. What if a hunter mistook one of you for a deer?”
Liz remembered the deer blind they’d spotted while investigating. “It would have been bad,” she said in a small voice.
“Please promise me you won’t trespass again.”
“I promise. Did you know Echo set up a target practice in her backyard?”
A flicker of surprise flitted across Floyd’s face. “Where?”
“It’s out back by the trees. You don’t think Echo shot him, do you?”
“No, but I suppose I need to chat with her and go over gun safety. We can’t have her firing off her handgun without letting us know.”
“I agree. On a brighter note, I’m wrapping up the final plans for the party.”
“I’m sure you’re champing at the bit to show this place off.”
“Why not? We put a lot of time and effort into it.” Her phone’s alarm sounded and Liz carefully removed the dish from the oven. Making use of her spacious center island, she set it off to the side and placed the warmed rice next to it, along with a dish of baked asparagus she’d added at the last minute.
Floyd, his mood greatly improved, filled his plate, complimenting Liz on her culinary creation.
She scooped up a sampling of sauce, added a morsel of chicken and took a big bite. “It’s tasty. I love the tart flavors, not to mention this is a healthy meal. Maybe I should start serving more Mediterranean dishes to help me lose a few pounds.”
“You don’t need to lose a single pound.” Floyd leaned in for a quick kiss. “You’re perfect the way you are.”
“Thank you, Floyd.” Liz glimpsed movement through the window. It was a car. “Someone is here.”
She ran to the door to see who it was. “Great. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”