Chapter 12 #4
Scott took several more steps backward.
Mack shook his head. “I’m not saying it’s a bomb, but obviously Mugs doesn’t like it.”
Doreen interjected, “My mind immediately thinks of scary movies, where somebody’s ear might be in there or something.”
Nick stared at her in horror. “Why on earth would you say that?” he cried out, staring down at the box, then backing up to join Scott.
“I’m just saying out loud what everybody here is thinking,” she stated. “You guys seem to be reacting in just that way.”
Nick pointed out, “Hey, your dog is setting off the alarm.”
Mack agreed with him. “Mugs’s reaction concerns me the most.”
“So, what do we do?” she asked.
Just then the doorbell rang again. Nick announced, “I’ll get it.” And, with that, he soon returned with Detective Daniel Sherwood.
Doreen frowned at him. “Why are you back so soon?” she asked.
Daniel ignored her question and asked her one, “What is going on here? Nick mentioned a delivery.”
She pointed to the package. “Nobody wants to open this.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not sure, but Mugs is really against it. And we have really good evidence that he’s always been great with his nose.”
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Daniel snapped. “I’ll do it.” As he did, everybody stepped back.
Doreen looked inside the little box, now opened, seeing only tissue paper, and muttered, “At least it’s not a bomb.”
“Not one you can see,” Nick noted.
The detective snorted and asked her, “Did you really think it was?”
“I don’t really want to open up surprise packages addressed to my dead husband and delivered to my dead husband’s home, where we find a dead body buried in the onion patch as soon as we arrive here and most recently one in the garage apartment,” she murmured, glancing over at Mack.
Mugs barked several times. She looked down at him and said, “You were right, honey.”
“What do you mean, he was right?” Daniel asked. “It wasn’t a bomb.”
“We didn’t say it was a bomb,” she clarified, looking at him. “We just didn’t like the way Mugs reacted to this package.”
Daniel shrugged. “He’s hardly a trained police dog, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”
A hint of something akin to disgust filled his tone, enough so that she didn’t like anything about it. “Since when did you become so critical, Daniel?”
“When I became a cop and learned that the world was not a nice place.”
She had to consider that, conceding he really did have a point. “I get that, but you didn’t use to hate dogs.”
“I don’t hate dogs,” he argued, staring at her. “Yet I really don’t want a dog making decisions for us.”
She laughed. “What decision?” she asked, scoffing at him. “We were going to open this package anyway, but we did have to deal with some apprehensions beforehand.”
Daniel shrugged. “I just want to make sure that we aren’t dealing with something more here.”
“I think we’re dealing with plenty,” she pointed out.
Doreen retrieved the kitchen knife and dragged away the tissue paper on top.
For Daniel’s benefit, she explained, “Since I’ve already touched both the outer box and the inner box, I’m going to shake out what’s left.
” One handwritten note fell out. Another seemed stuck in the bottom of the little box.
She gasped and pointed to the first message.
I told you that you would pay, Daniel.
She looked over at the detective in shock and then at Mack.
Mack frowned and asked, “Daniel, does this mean anything to you? Who would send a message to you here? And why was this delivery addressed to Mathew? He’s been dead for months. Wouldn’t the sender know that already?”
Doreen glanced at the three men nearby, with nobody responding, then took a deep breath and nodded. “Daniel? What’s going on here?”
“I don’t know,” he snapped. “I’m not the only person named Daniel in this world.”
“Funny how someone named Daniel has been around for days though?” Doreen noted, studying him.
“Somebody’s attempt at bad humor.”
As she shook her head, she pulled out the second handwritten note, accompanied by a picture.
She read the note out loud. “In the wrong place at the wrong time, Daniel. Not our problem, It’s for you to find.
” Bewildered, she noted, “It’s a rhyme, a note addressed to you again.
Plus, this photo is of our dead man from the onion patch,” she muttered, handing it to Mack.
Mack continued to stare at Daniel.
Doreen added, “I don’t know what’s going on, and it would be really nice if you could explain this to us, Daniel,” she declared.
Daniel swallowed, then sneered at her. “Did you send this package here, Doreen? Trying to divert attention away from you? Because you’re sitting very pretty on a very large sum of money now, aren’t you?”
She snorted, glaring at him. “Wow. Daniel, do you realize you were called out here, twice now, to investigate the murders on this property?”
“I am well aware of that,” Daniel snapped.
“But all of Mathew’s money has your focus,” Doreen pointed out. “How is that doing your job here? You just seem jealous.”
“You are a suspect, Doreen,” Daniel stated gleefully. “You came into a lot of money here.”
She nodded. “Yes, I did become the sole heir of Mathew’s estate.
However, I didn’t kill Mathew for it, which is the only way that works.
I surely didn’t kill anybody else. So tell me, Daniel.
How does me killing the guy in the onion patch end up with me inheriting Mathew’s estate?
Is Pete Singer related to Mathew in any way?
As you well know, I didn’t leave Mathew, but I should have.
He’s the one who kicked me out. Why didn’t he update his will way back then?
It’s his fault that he failed to change his will, not some supersecret plan I had going on.
I mean, really, Daniel? Look at the facts.
I don’t know why you are so fixated on Mathew’s money.
Regardless, I really couldn’t care less about Mathew’s stuff.
Mainly because it was all about him. Also,” she added, shooting daggers at Daniel with her gaze, “I was already set up to receive a very large amount anyway from my grandmother, who loves me very much. Mathew never loved me. He made that very clear throughout our entire marriage.”
“Yes, but once he divorced you”—then Daniel frowned—“I guess you still would have gotten a large chunk due to being married for all those years.”
“Well, I should have gotten a very large chunk,” she agreed. “Even though he tried at every stage to not give me my due as we discussed protracted divorce proceedings. Regardless that’s still not the point.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, eyeing her quizzically. “Because I’m not so sure about that.”
Doreen snapped, “That’s because you’re looking for somebody to be in the wrong, and no matter how much you want it to be me, it’s not.”
He shrugged. “That’s what you say.”
“And it’s the truth,” she declared. “Look. I don’t expect you to be some long-lost friend and automatically believe me. Just do your job, figure it out, and then you’ll know the truth too,” she stated. “I have never been mean to anybody. That was all Mathew.”
“Until you found yourself homeless and on the streets.”
“Not even then. Thankfully my grandmother stepped in and saved me,” she countered, scoffing.
“Without my grandmother, … things could have been very different, but she gave me a home, and I found a purpose in everything else I did after that,” Doreen told Daniel.
“But I can see that, for you, it’s apparently all about money. ”
“For most people it’s all about money.”
“Not Doreen,” Mack declared.
Doreen shook her head. “Don’t waste your breath, Mack. And, Daniel, it doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, but I did expect you to do your job.” And with that, she picked up her phone and began taking photos of the contents of the delivery box.
He stood behind her. “You do know we need the contents of that box?”
“You didn’t ask for it yet, and you aren’t leaving yet either, and I doubt Mack would allow you to take this evidence anyway, not with your name clearly on both messages,” she snapped, as she took pictures of it all.
“Just Daniel is on those notes. Doesn’t mean they are for me. Now what are you doing?” he asked in exasperation.
“You’re making me doubt that you’ll do your job properly, and that leaves me in the position where I need to make sure that someone is looking after my rights. So I will document any evidence before I turn it over … to your captain.”
“What are you talking about?” Daniel cried out. “I’m right here, aren’t I? I’m the lead detective.”
“Yes, you’re here,” she confirmed, “in name only, as I’m not sure you can be objective.
Now, with your name on these two notes, I really doubt you can be by the book.
But hear me when I say that I am not about to have anybody bulldoze me into a murder charge or two, when I had nothing to do with either death here. ”
“He knows you didn’t have anything to do with it,” Mack interjected.
“I presume he knows that these notes put him in a bad light right about now.” He turned to face Daniel.
By this time, Nick and Scott stood with Mack, making a line of defense between Daniel and Doreen.
Also adding in some barrier before he grabbed the evidence and destroyed it all.
“Sorry, Daniel, but you know I must report this to your captain.”
Daniel glared at him.
Doreen asked, “Don’t you work with a partner? I only ever speak with you. Don’t you work in pairs, have a backup?”
He shook his head at her. “I don’t need backup.”
Doreen interjected, “Why don’t you try to redeem your reputation by sharing some details with us? As in, how long has Pete Singer been dead?” she asked.
He sighed and replied, “I haven’t got the autopsy report yet, so I don’t know. These things take time.”
“It all takes time,” she stated, looking at him, “but that’s really got nothing to do with it. She should have been able to give you an estimated time of death fairly quickly.”