Fifteen
“Finally!” Lou crowed as Bennett and Felicity walked into the otherwise empty coffee shop. “I’ve been texted by no fewer than five—count them, five —firefighters saying that another body was found by a visiting private investigator, and who else could that be but the surprise husband of my new bestie, Felicity? So I’ve been stuck here making nonfat, decaf lattes while dying of curiosity.” She winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make a dead person pun. I’ll rephrase. I’ve been very curious whether the firefighters are actually right this time or if those gossipy little bunny rabbits are full of it as usual.”
Felicity was a little offended. “You’re getting credit for my dead body?” she asked Bennett, who held up his hands in a defensive gesture. “How much do you want to bet that the rumor came from Deputy Donkey-Face?”
“Deputy Donkey-Face?” Lou repeated with glee. “Is that Boaz? I thought Laurence was bad, but he quit, and the new guy they hired to replace him is like Laurence squared. Wait! You found the body? There is a body? Oh no, talk fast! A customer just pulled into the parking lot. Wait—it’s just Rory. But still talk fast because I need to knoooooowww.”
After meeting Bennett’s amused gaze, Felicity turned back to Lou. “I’m not sure how much we’re allowed to say?”
“You’re not law enforcement or anyone’s lawyer, so talk away.” Lou waved a hand as if physically brushing off her concern.
“I don’t know much.” Felicity sat on one of the counter stools as Rory came inside.
“Hurry up, Ror,” Lou said without taking her fascinated gaze off Felicity. “She’s about to serve the tea.”
“Isn’t that your job?” Rory asked seriously as she settled onto the stool two down from Felicity.
“It’s a euphemism.” Lou sounded as if she was used to translating for Rory’s literal outlook.
“We were watching the compound this morning,” Felicity said, still feeling like she shouldn’t be sharing the story. Even though she knew Lou was right, she still expected the sheriff to burst in to arrest her if she shared the details. “I got bored, so we walked around a bit. I saw something strange, and when we went to investigate, it turned out to be some human bones.”
“How’d you know they were human?” Rory asked, not challengingly but like she was actually curious.
“Well, the skull was a skull,” Felicity explained. “And the vertebrae were pretty obviously human—too big and flat to be a deer or elk or anything.”
“There was a skull ? A human skull?” Lou sounded equal parts horrified and fascinated.
“There was.”
“Anything else?” Rory asked. She seemed unusually talkative today. Dead bodies apparently brought out the social butterfly in her. “Other bones?”
Felicity shook her head. “We didn’t look too hard, although we did see a piece of fabric that looked like it came from a red-and-white flannel shirt.”
“Just the head…” Lou turned to Rory. “Any chance it belonged to Willard Gray, do you think?”
“Could be.” Rory pursed her lips in thought before turning to ask Felicity, “Were the vertebrae from the neck or lower on the spine?”
With a blank expression, Felicity stared at her. She was about to admit that she had no idea and ask who Willard Gray was when Bennett spoke. “Lumbar, probably. Possibly lower thoracic, but I doubt it.”
“Oh.” Lou looked a little disappointed. “Not Willard’s then. His spine was intact except for the very top part.”
Felicity wasn’t sure who to question first—the women about Willard Gray or Bennett on his excessive spine-identification knowledge. Since her fascination for her new husband outweighed her interest in some headless dead guy, she raised her eyebrows at Bennett. “Do you moonlight as a chiropractor?”
He shrugged. “I like anatomy.”
Lou gave Bennett a stern look. “That’s not a good, non-serial-killer thing to say at all.”
Swallowing a giggle, Felicity said, “He’s considering getting a van too.”
“Oh, honey, no.” Lou looked honestly horrified by this, and Rory nodded in serious agreement with her friend.
Unable to hold back, Felicity laughed out loud. Bennett gave her a chiding look that just made her giggle harder. He shook his head, but she could tell he was trying not to smile.
“You know,” Lou said, making Felicity realize that she and Bennett had been doing that annoying stare-into-each-other’s-eyes thing. “I wasn’t originally on Team Felicity and Her Stalker, but I kind of get it now.”
Rory eyed the two of them. “He’s fine. Not even close to the weirdest guy I’ve met.”
“That’s a pretty low bar, with some of your gun shop customers and your strange hermit neighbors,” Lou said, clucking her tongue, but then her irrepressible grin reappeared. “We got off track. Hurry and tell the rest of the dead-body details before the after-school crowd arrives.” She and Rory leaned toward Felicity, their avid gazes fixed on her, and she instinctively leaned away from them until her back bumped into Bennett’s chest. It was warm and comfortable, so she just stayed there.
“That’s pretty much it,” she said, holding out her hands in a shrug. “The bones looked sun-bleached, so I think animals dragged them from somewhere else, or maybe they got washed there in the spring snow melt runoff. I’m just guessing though. For all we know, that skull could be a hundred years old.”
Bennett disagreed in a grunt, and Felicity craned her neck to look up at him.
“No? Why not?” she asked, honestly interested in his opinion.
He shook his head. “You’ll just call me creepy,” he pouted, although there was a thread of amusement in his words too.
“I’d promise not to call you creepy, but if you say something creepy, I’m calling you out on it.” She shrugged, not really sorry.
With a dramatic sigh, he gave in. “One of the teeth had a composite filling. That wasn’t used until the sixties.”
“Dentistry facts, B? Really?” She did warn him after all.
“I remember facts and dates,” he said a bit defensively. “And I like science. I’m not interested in dentistry specifically .”
Lou was snickering. “Okay, I sort of get why you married him in Vegas. He grows on you, doesn’t he?”
“He’s adorable,” Felicity said fondly, reaching up to pat his cheek. He looked down at her with a long-suffering expression, but that couldn’t cover up the affection in his gaze.
“Puppies are adorable,” Rory said, sounding confused. “I’m not seeing the adorable here.” She gestured up and down Bennett’s beefy form, and he frowned at her.
Felicity laughed. “Didn’t you see his pout? There’s no way to describe it except as adorable.” From her angle, she could see a flush working its way up his neck, and she felt bad for embarrassing him. “Sorry, B. We’ll focus on dead people again.”
“Yes, please!” Lou’s eyes lit up again. “Where exactly—” Her question was cut off by the door opening, and a trio of high-school girls entered the coffee shop, giggling and chatting as they approached the counter. “Out of time. Too many conversational detours,” Lou muttered as she turned to help the girls.
Rory stood up. “Better get home. I have a shift tonight at the fire station.”
“Oh?” Felicity asked. “Are you one of the gossipy firefighters?”
“Gossipy? No.” Rory made a disgusted face. “Firefighter? I’m working on it. I still feel pretty clueless most of the time.”
With a snort, Felicity said, “I still feel that way, and I’ve been working as a bounty hunter for years.”
With a quick flash of a startlingly pretty smile, Rory turned and headed toward the door.
Bennett lowered himself onto the stool next to Felicity. “New plan?” he asked.
She groaned, stretching her arms out in front of her and resting her cheek on them, her head turned so she could see Bennett. “Forget Dino or dead bodies exist and enjoy our honeymoon suite?” She was thinking more on the lines of room service and sleeping in the soft bed, but the heat that flared in his eyes made her reconsider her phrasing. Clearing her throat, she sat up again. “First, food. Breakfast was forever and one human skull ago.”
As if she were psychic, Lou darted over as soon as the last high schooler took her blended coffee drink. “I forgot to ask if you two wanted anything! I’m a terrible barista.”
“You’re fine,” Felicity soothed. “There was a lot going on. Dead body trumps coffee after all.”
Bennett made a skeptical grunt. “Sometimes.”
Giving him a sideways look, Lou warned, “Setting off the creep-meter again, champ.” Her sunny smile returned the next instant. “Now what can I get you?”
***
Once she’d finished a turkey and avocado sandwich, Felicity’s brain started working better, and everything that was happening seemed a little bit more manageable.
“After all,” she told Bennett, who’d inhaled several sandwiches and an almond croissant as well as a large coffee, “neither of us is dead or horribly injured yet.”
“Been there,” Lou said over her shoulder as she steamed milk for one of the after-school crowd she’d warned them about.
“You’ve been dead or horribly injured?” Felicity asked, needing clarification.
“Neither, but I’ve been in the spot where that’s the only reason the glass is half-full.”
“Gotcha.” Felicity leaned on her elbow as she turned to look at Bennett sipping the last of his coffee. “Our only good lookout spot is now overrun by cops. What’s the plan?”
His eyebrow arched as he set his cup down. “Are you trying to get me to say we should break into the compound?”
“No.” Lacing her fingers together so they wouldn’t give her away with their twitchiness, she wished she had her own cup to occupy her hands. Her sense of honesty quickly got the better of her though. “Maybe.”
He snorted into his cup.
“I’m just saying that we shouldn’t dismiss it completely,” she explained. “Let’s just keep it on the table as an option.”
“What are some options less likely to get us killed?” he asked mildly.
Resting her elbow on the counter, she propped her chin in her palm. “If we can pick Dino up somewhere out of the compound, that’d be ideal. Who knows how many weapons they have in there, and the militia’s going to be extra twitchy with the murder investigation.”
As if murder was the word used to summon her, Lou was suddenly in front of them. “Murder investigation?” she repeated in a hushed whisper. “Is it definitely a homicide then?”
“Back to work.” Felicity made shooing motions with her hands, urging Lou back to the line of cranky-looking customers. “You’re going to have a revolt on your hands soon. Never stand between caffeine addicts and their drug of choice. You should know that.” A couple of her sisters had taught her that. When Lou didn’t move, just widened her pleading eyes, Felicity sighed heavily. “We have no new information. If we do, we’ll immediately share it with you, customers or no customers.”
It was Lou’s turn to give an exaggerated sigh. “Fine.” Once again, she plastered on her shiny customer-service smile. “Nancy! Good to see you. Your usual?”
Turning back to Bennett, Felicity paused, trying to remember where they’d been in their discussion before the interruption.
Bennett frowned. “Not sure how we’re going to do that.”
Right. Getting Dino out of the compound . Felicity felt a renewed surge of guilt. “If only we could’ve picked him up in Vegas. That was ideal.”
“Not really.”
When she gave him the raised-eyebrow look she’d learned from him, the corner of his mouth crooked up.
“We would’ve had to drive back with him,” he finally elaborated. “Plus Yarran likely would’ve been a problem.”
“Still can’t believe the head of a militia doesn’t have any active warrants.” Bennett’s points made her feel a little better about messing things up in Vegas, but it still seemed easier than somehow luring Dino out of the compound.
Wait. Luring… Her brain pinged with the start of an idea, and she sat up straight on her stool.
Bennett gave one of his “what?” grunts.
“Just thinking…” she said absently as she tried to tease through her thoughts to reach a workable plan.
Looking faintly alarmed, Bennett carefully placed his cup on the counter without taking his eyes off her.
“If we could lure Dino out somehow,” she said slowly, the idea still forming in her brain, “the way that the sheriff’s office at home sometimes sends out those fake ‘You’re a Winner!’ letters to everyone with an active warrant and picks them up when they come to claim their prize.”
“Doubt he’ll believe he’s won anything,” Bennett said thoughtfully. “Not with us right here.”
“True.” Still, it was worth a shot. “Lou!”
The barista immediately turned around. “Is there new news?”
“Not yet.” Some of the glow faded from Lou’s face, and Felicity felt oddly guilty. “Mind sending me Rory’s contact?”
“Sure.” Lou already had her phone out and was swiping at the screen. “Just so you know, Rory’s texts are quite abrupt.”
“I won’t be offended,” Felicity promised, amused, as she rattled off her number. Why Lou thought she’d expect Rory’s texts to be sunny and chatty when the woman wasn’t either of those things was a mystery. Her phone dinged with the contact. “Thanks.”
Hi Rory, it’s Felicity. Quick question—has Clint Yarran ever come into your shop?
It only took a few seconds for a response to pop up. At the beep , Bennett leaned close to see her screen. She moved her phone a little so he could better read the text.
No
Felicity revised her rough plan in her head.
Any contact info for Cobra Jones?
I don’t give out customer info
With a grimace, Felicity studied Rory’s last text for a moment before sending another. She didn’t want to state her growing suspicion as fact, but she had a feeling the cops would be coming back with an ID on the skull soon anyway.
Does it make a difference if he’s almost certainly dead?
It was Rory’s turn to pause, and several seconds went by before a new text popped onto Felicity’s phone screen.
Why do you want a dead guy’s contact info?
For some reason, the question struck her as funny, and she huffed a short laugh before responding.
I’m hoping the killer is monitoring his emails
The ellipsis repeated over and over for a solid minute, and then an email appeared on her screen.
“Hang on,” Felicity muttered, turning her phone so Bennett could get a straight-on view of Rory’s latest text. “Don’t tell me the militia is a 501(c)(3).”
“What?” Lou called over after obviously overhearing. “The Freedom Survivors don’t even have to pay any taxes? There’s something extra wrong about that.”
“Very wrong,” Felicity muttered under her breath, quickly sending a thank-you text to Rory. Opening a new email to Cobra’s address, she hesitated, looking at Bennett. “Should we send it to Cobra’s or directly to Dino? Even if Clint is monitoring Cobra’s emails, we don’t want to catch Clint in our trap. He doesn’t have any outstanding warrants, so it’d be a waste of a good sting.”
“Dino’s,” Bennett agreed. “Probably has a similar email format.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Where should we have him go to collect his ‘prize’?” Her breath caught as an even better idea occurred to her. “Hang on.”
Returning to her texting app, she sent another message to Rory.
Want to help us with a sting operation?
Almost immediately, Rory sent a one-word response.
Sure
“Yes!” Lou cheered, almost directly in Felicity’s ear, making her jump. “I knew you’d bring some excitement to this sleepy town, Felicity Pax.”
The thought of being responsible for her enthusiastic but amateur bounty-hunting army recruits made her panic a little. It must’ve shown on her face, because Bennett grinned at her.
“See if you’re still smiling if I accidently kill off an innocent Simpsonite,” she muttered at him, which only made his smile widen. Looking back over at Lou, who was looking much too excited, Felicity forced a weak smile. “Yay?”