Honeysuckle Homicide (Trash-to-Treasure Crafting Mystery) (12 page)

I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. “I’ll talk you soon.”

“Sweet dreams,” he said.

I unlocked the door, but didn’t walk inside. I was surprised that he hadn’t insisted on making sure I was securely
inside before he left. Maybe the kiss had had the same effect on him.

After watching Kent
walk away, I turned back toward the door.

“You are so easily fooled,” the shrill voice said from over my shoulder.

I screamed and spun around. Doreen stood too close behind me. Her dark eyes were narrowed into a scowl. Her hair was a little frazzled with wisps pushed forward on her forehead.

“Where the hell did you come from?” I demanded.

“I’ve been sitting on that porch chair watching you and your boyfriend. Some sheriff he is that he didn’t even notice me. No wonder he made the mistake of arresting my poor son.”

Oh
, here we went. I didn’t want to listen to her irrational rant. “You have no right to watch us like that. You are trespassing and you need to leave,” I said.

“I came to ask you something. Why don’t you just calm down
?”

I glared at her. “You’re stalking me and you want me to calm down
? What do you want, Doreen?”

“I want
to know where Ross and Charity went.” She tapped her foot against the ground.

“How the heck am I supposed to know? I don’t talk to him and I don’t want to talk with him.”

Doreen pointed at me. “I haven’t seen them and I’m worried. He hasn’t called me.”

“He’ll be back around when he wants something. Trust me
, he always comes back when he wants something.” I stepped inside the door.

“I should have known I couldn’t get a straight answer out of you.”
She stomped down the steps and down the sidewalk.

Yeah, I wish
ed she would have realized that I wasn’t the one to ask the whereabouts of her good-for-nothing son.

I had to get Doreen to leave me alone. Obviously she didn’t realize that what she was doing was wrong. Why would I know where Ross
was? We were no longer married and Doreen couldn’t use me as his babysitter. He’d taken off with one woman before, I was sure he had done it again. Charity would soon regret her decision. Once a slimeball, always a slimeball, that was Ross. Now every time I came out onto the porch at night I would expect to find Doreen lurking in the shadows like some deranged killer.

The next day, I met Claire Ann at the supermarket. She had just gotten off work. We stood outside next to her car.

“How about we dri
ve over to Belleville and do some shopping?” She leaned against her car.

Employees parked behind the store next to the trash cans. Most of the time I’d walked to work when I was an employee there. I missed working with Claire Ann
, but I didn’t miss working at the store.

“Sure, I guess we can do that. I want to get away for a while anyway. I can’t go anywhere in this town without thinking about the investigation,” I said.

The blue sky was sprinkled with giant cotton ball white clouds and the wind carried the scent of the various kinds of flowers. I tried to ignore the smell coming from the nearby trash cans though because that wasn’t nearly as pleasant.

“Let me just grab my purse from inside. I forgot
it under the counter.” Claire Ann took off for the supermarket’s back door.

“You were in too much of a hurry to get out of there.” I smiled.

I leaned against the car and closed my eyes while I waited for Claire Ann. The sound of footsteps came from around the building.

“That was fast,” I said.

Claire Ann didn’t answer. When I opened my eyes I realized she wasn’t there. Instead it was Julian. She was beside a parked car at the side of the supermarket. She didn’t realize that I was back there. I watched as she pulled the phone from her pocket and dialed.

“What did you want? I don’t think I have time,” she said
into the phone.

I felt bad for listening to her conversation
, but not bad enough to stop eavesdropping.

“O
kay, I can meet you at the distillery again.”

Ah-ha. She must be talking with Connie. I had to know why they were meeting this time. Why was Julian meeting Connie when
Connie acted like they didn’t know each other? Maybe it wasn’t Connie.

Julian climbed in
to her car and backed out. Just then Claire Ann returned with her purse. I rushed over to her.

“
You’re not going to believe this,” I said.

She touched my arms.
“Calm down. What happened?”

“
I just overheard a conversation. Julian is going to meet Connie at the distillery again. We have to go there.”

Claire Ann grabbed my hand
. “Come on, let’s get there now.”

“
I hope we can find out what they’re doing this time,” I said as I climbed into the passenger seat.

After pulling out onto the street, w
e were only a few cars behind Julian. Claire Ann gave her a couple seconds once we reached the distillery before she pulled onto the road leading back to the buildings. When we reached that area, I spotted Connie’s car. She was parked in a different location this time. Julian pulled her car up next to Connie’s and got out.

Claire Ann parked a litt
le bit toward the back, hoping that the women wouldn’t notice her car. We got out of the car at the same time and rushed toward the location where Julian had disappeared. I maneuvered around the uneven pavement again, hoping neither one of us fell this time. Weeds had claimed the area as their own now. It was nothing but a ghost town.

Claire Ann and I reached one of the
short metal buildings and we spotted Julian and Connie. The women stood next to each other. They didn’t seem to be arguing, which I thought might be the case by the way Julian had talked to Connie over the phone. We were closer this time, so I thought we stood a better chance of hearing their conversation. Unfortunately though, we weren’t close enough yet. I looked at Claire Ann and she motioned for me to move closer. I shook my head.

“
I don’t think we can go without being noticed,” I whispered.

“We have to try or we won’t hear them,” Claire Ann said.

She was right. If we didn’t move closer there was no way we would hear what they were saying. My heart thumped as I prepared to head across the lot toward the women. There was a couple small buildings between us and our best bet would be to get to one of those.

“I
so
want to know what they are talking about,” Claire Ann whispered.

“Yeah, me too,
” I said as we inched along.

We couldn’t see the women right now because we were too close to the buildings.
From where we stood, I peeked out and saw Connie and Julian go inside one of the buildings.

“T
hey went in there.” I pointed.

“Can we get to them?”

The smaller buildings had doors on each side. Cutting through the building would be a shortcut.
“Maybe if we go through this one it will come out of the other side and we’ll be close enough to the building they’re in that we can listen.”

Claire Ann no
dded. It seemed we had a plan. Opening the old weather-beaten wooden door, I stepped inside the small building first. It was empty, just a concrete floor and walls. I wasn’t sure what the place had been used for. I motioned for Claire Ann to follow me out the door on the other side. With only two small windows and the two doors to let in light, I practically had to feel my way to the other side.

When we
stepped out to the other door, I walked over to the next building. Claire Ann shadowed close behind me. When we got to the little window, I peeked in, but I couldn’t see anything. It was too dark. If they weren’t in there, then where were they? How could they have gotten away so quickly? I gestured for Claire Ann to follow me again. We would have to check around the other side of the building. There were just too many little buildings around this place. When I stepped to the front, I spotted yet another small building. They had to be in there.

“
We have to check that one out. They have to be there.” I pointed.

Claire Ann nodded.
“That or they’re hiding from us.”

We
walked around to the other building. When I peeked inside the tiny window, I didn’t see the women in there either. This was crazy. Where else could they be? How had they disappeared? Then I heard the voices. Claire Ann and I looked at each other in panic. It sounded as if they were headed our way.

“
What do we do now?” Claire Ann whispered.

If we didn’
t get out of there, we would for sure be caught.

I scanned the area
, trying to think of what to do next. Our only option was to hide in one of the buildings and hope that Connie and Julian didn’t come in there and find us. Motioning Claire Ann over, I moved inside the building. The door had been open, so I decided to leave it that way. Connie or Julian might notice if it was now suddenly closed. Plus, it would have been too dark if the door was closed. The place was already spooky as it was—I didn’t want to add to that feeling. After stepping inside, Claire Ann and I huddled by the wall and waited.

I was probably holding my breath and didn’t even realize it.
Claire Ann was staring down at her feet, probably praying that we’d soon get out of there.

Just then the door slammed shut and darkness blanketed the area. Claire Ann reached out and found my arm. I was surprised that she hadn’t screamed. I was surprised that I hadn’t screamed. How had the door clo
sed? There hadn’t been any wind. Was someone in there with us? I held Claire Ann’s hand. My mind raced trying to think what we were going to do next.

“We have to move over to the door,” I whispered.

I guessed no one was in there with us, since they didn’t react to me speaking.

“Okay. I’ll move first since I’m closest to the door,” Claire Ann said
calmly.

When we reached the door,
Claire Ann pushed. It didn’t budge.

“
Oh my God. We’re stuck in here,” she said with panic in her voice.

“It ca
n’t be stuck,” I said, pushing on the door.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

I tried to remain calm so that I could think clearly. But I had no idea how we would get out of there. We’d both left our phones in the car. It wasn’t like we could call for help.

At least my eyes had adjusted to the light now because I could see a little more. I remembered that there were two s
mall windows on each side of the building.

“There’s a window over there.” I left Claire Ann’s side and moved over to the window.

I reached out and shoved on the sill. To my surprise it opened.

“You think you can get out of there?” she asked.

I pointed at Claire Ann. “Not me, you.”

She shook her head. “No way. I’m taller than you. You can use me to give you a boost.”

“That doesn’t make sense. If I give you a boost we’ll still have the same amount of height.”

She frowned. “You can climb better than me.”

“Fine. I’ll do it. We can’t stay in here, it’s getting hot.”

Claire Ann stood next to the window and clamped her hands together. I placed my foot on her hands and jumped up
, grabbing the windowsill. I shoved half of my body out.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I groaned. “I’m getting too old for this kind of stuff.”

“You just turned thirty
-two,” she said.

“Yeah, being over twenty means I’m too old for this,” I said. “I think I’m stuck.
Give me a little push.”

She placed her hands on my butt and shoved. I managed to get my leg over and my body turned around.
I didn’t even know that I could bend that way. I landed on the ground with a light thud.

“Are you okay?” Claire Ann asked.

I brushed dirt from my pants. “Yeah, I don’t think I broke anything.”

“Good
, now get me out of here before I have a heat stroke,” she said.

I had no ide
a if Connie and Julian were around, but if they saw me, I would just have to confront them. If that happened, I hoped it didn’t turn out badly. I glanced around and didn’t see them so I ran toward the door. What if I couldn’t get it open? We’d be in real trouble then.

I reached the door and
still hadn’t spotted either woman. I turned the knob and just as I’d feared, the door didn’t budge.

“What ha
ppened?” Claire Ann’s voice grew louder.

I didn’t want her to panic
, so I didn’t say anything. Although I was already starting to panic. I grasped the knob again and pulled. This time the door opened and I stumbled back. I landed on the ground. Claire Ann reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet.

“That was a close one. I thought we would die in there.”
She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

“I don’t even want to think about that.”

“Speaking of dying, where are Julian and Connie?” Claire Ann peeked around the edge of the building.

“I don’t know,” I said. “They’re not anywhere around here.”

Tiptoeing across the pavement, we went over to the side of the building. No one was there. It was like a ghost town.

“I think we need to get out of here,” Claire Ann said.

She was clearly spooked now. And she wasn’t alone in that feeling.

“How do you think that door closed?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think it was the wind.”

“What else could it have been?”

“I don’t know.”

My thoughts turned to Julian and Connie. They probably knew that we’d been in that building.
Had one of them closed the door on us? That was when the thought hit me. It was just like when I had been in Dumpster. I had thought it was the wind or a faulty lid, but I knew that wasn’t the case. After all, Connie worked at Coco’s now. She could have been there that day and I wouldn’t have known. But why would she do that to me? Did she think I would find out that she had killed Luke and Darcy? Sure, I was jumping to conclusions, but it wasn’t a stretch to think that could be the case.

Claire Ann and I finally made it back to her car. Of course Connie and Julian’s cars were both
gone. We quickly got out of there before either one of the women returned.