Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
The strip mall where Quick-N-EZ loans was located flashed red and blue. Police cars lined the lot, their lights reflecting on the glass storefronts. A commotion was occurring near the entrance of the shop, with two police officers trying to wrestle a man out of the building. The man was huge, and it didn’t look like he was going easily.
Archer pulled in to the strip mall and was waved off by a police officer. He parked on the far side of the lot and exchanged a glance with Ralph.
The older man unclipped his seatbelt and pursed his lips. “Let’s go see if they’ve got the bastards.”
They walked across the asphalt and angled toward the grassy slope that separated the lot from the freeway. On it, Jimmy the gas station attendant watched the goings-on with interest. When he spotted Archer, he frowned.
“Come over to warn me off Scarlett again?”
Archer grimaced. “I, uh, may have overreacted.”
Story of his life.
Jimmy snorted, then turned to watch the police try to shove the big man through the door.
“What’s going on?” Archer asked.
“Not sure. Police came in hot, and now it looks like they’ve got Ollie Patz in custody.”
“Trying, anyway,” Ralph added.
Archer watched a uniformed officer jog toward the doorway as another came flying out, rolling on the asphalt and landing in a heap. The jogging officer let out a Braveheart-style yell, then leaped at the tangle of flesh that was comprised of two other officers and the much-larger Ollie Patz.
The whole pack went down. All Archer could see from his angle were legs and feet flailing wildly. A can of Dr. Pepper came rolling out of Patz’s leather jacket pocket. An officer kicked it away, and it hit the wall and exploded.
This was the getaway man on the bike. A fierce dart of satisfaction pierced Archer’s chest. He deserved to get roughed up for causing Scarlett to take a dunk in the Stirling River.
The first to stand up from the pile of bodies was Detective Rick Holden, who put his knee on Patz’s back and snapped handcuffs on the big man’s wrists. It took three people to haul the perp up to his feet.
“I want my lawyer!” he yelled, trying to shrug off the officers that flanked him.
They finally dragged him out of the shop and toward the waiting police car. Before they could shove him inside, Patz caught sight of Archer. His already heavy brows lowered even more, so his eyes were just two dark slivers shooting daggers across the lot.
“ You ,” Patz snarled. “You killed my Ethel.”
His Ethel?
The eyes of every police officer swung around to look at Archer, who froze. “What? No I didn’t!”
“If you’d locked your tools, she’d still be here with us. My beautiful woman is gone, and it’s all your fault.” He jerked his shoulder and threw off one of the officers, then let out a feral yell as he pushed the other. Then he ran at Archer like an angry bull who’d had enough of a matador’s taunting. His upper body swayed from side to side, his hands still cuffed behind his back. But he was moving fast.
Archer crouched, ready to take whatever the larger man had in store. But before Patz reached him, Detective Holden stepped in front of him and blasted the big man with a healthy dose of pepper spray. Everyone around him backed away. Archer was upwind, but he still lifted his shirt to cover his nose and mouth and turned away until the sound of the sprayer stopped.
Patz went down like a cut log, shrieking in pain. His feet scraped against the asphalt as he writhed, a candy bar tumbling from his pocket.
Archer tried to shake off some of the adrenaline that had dumped into his veins.
“Murderer!” Patz screamed, his eyes red and streaming with water. He glared at Archer. “You killed her! It’s your fault.”
“It’s the fault of the man who wielded the wrench, and no one else,” Ralph snarled. Archer straightened at the edge in his old mentor’s voice. No one ever defended him like that.
“She never deserved that,” Patz wailed. “She was a beautiful woman. Perfect woman. She was mine, and Frank couldn’t handle it.”
“Wasn’t Ethel Brown, like, seventy?” Jimmy asked no one in particular.
Patz opened bloodshot eyes. “Have you ever had an older woman? She was perfect. We loved each other. All I wanted to do was give her all the flowers she deserved, and now she’s dead.” He shuddered, sobbing on the last word.
Archer stared at the man on the floor, his red face, his handcuffed hands behind his back, struggling to understand what was going on. “You were having an affair with Ethel Brown?”
“It wasn’t an affair,” Patz spat out. “We were in love .”
“So you broke into Pushing Daisies to give her flowers?” Archer still struggled to make sense of the other man’s words.
“Of course I did!” Patz wailed. “She said it would be romantic. She said she loved a man who committed crimes in the name of love for her.”
Archer and Ralph exchanged a glance.
Detective Holden stood above the man, his arms crossed. “Then what happened?”
“Then Frankie showed up and ruined it all. He wanted her for himself, but she told me he could never satisfy her, and that’s why she loved me more.”
Rick paused at that, glancing at one of his officers. At his feet, Patz sobbed. “You’re saying both you and Frankie Smith were sleeping with Ethel Brown.”
“We. Were. In. LOVE. ” Bloodshot eyes rimmed with angry red skin glared at the detective. “She loved me! We were going to run away together!”
“What happened after Frankie showed up?”
Patz closed his eyes and groaned.
Rick nudged him with his toes. “What happened?”
“He got angry. He—he didn’t know about me and Ethel.” Patz closed his eyes, his head resting on the asphalt. “He had the wrench in his hands when he walked in. I think he was following us. He was aiming for me, but I—I ducked. You have to understand,” the man said, opening his eyes again to stare at Rick, then at Ralph, then at Archer and Jimmy and the next closest officer with beseeching eyes. “She was only with him because of the cash. He was holding it over her head.”
“What cash?” Rick asked.
“The counterfeit stuff! Frankie and Ethel had a good thing going, but it fell apart when her son got locked up. She needed a real man to comfort her. She told me so herself. Said we’d run away together just as soon as she could get the money back from Frankie. He ripped her off, and she needed me to take care of her for a while. We loved each other, and he killed her.”
Archer glanced at Ralph, who arched his brows.
“Holden!” Chrissy, one of the uniformed officers, came jogging out of the loan shop. “You’re going to want to see this. We just found at least a dozen boxes of counterfeit bills. They look like the ones from last year’s operation.”
Rick nodded at her, then returned his attention to the man on the ground. “Where is he?” the detective demanded, his voice flat and unaffected. “Where’s Frank Smith?”
“I don’t know! He left an hour ago. I need water! Someone rinse out my eyes!”
“Where did he go?” Holden bent over the man on the ground, his voice turning colder with every word.
Patz let out a defeated sigh. His gaze came to rest on Archer, tears still streaming out of both his eyes. “He said he’d find the people who ruined his life, and ruin theirs right back.”
Archer’s blood turned to ice. He looked at Rick, then at Ralph. “Scarlett,” he breathed, then turned on his heel and sprinted to his truck.