Karma's A Bitch (A Pet Psychic Mystery) (17 page)

“Great view. You have a lot of flowers out there.”

“Yeah. Sort of a hobby.” That wasn’t really a lie was it? “Can I get you a drink while we wait for the police?”

“A glass of water would be fine, thanks.” He turned around and, on his way over to the sofa, he picked up two candles off the floor and put them back on the coffee table.

“Thanks,” I sighed, holding two glasses of water. “Karma must have knocked those off with his tail. This isn’t the ideal decor for a hundred and fifty pound dog.” We sunk down into the buttery leather couch.

“Do you plan on keeping him?”

I shrugged. “It never crossed my mind not to. I think he’d be kind of hard to adopt out with his special diet needs.” I smiled as he licked the glass with a tongue the size of a man’s shoe. “And I’d probably miss him.”

“And he does windows. Bonus.” Will laughed.

I moved my gaze from Karma to Will. His laugh was sunlight on my heart. And that smile…I sighed. He put his glass down and turned sideways on the couch to face me, then reached out a hand and stroked the back of my neck. The hair on my arms stood up. This was so dangerous. I was so much more susceptible to energy exchange during a storm. His energy flowed through me like a current of pure white hot fire. I had to keep my mind on why we were here.

“Will, do you think whoever painted that message was warning me to stop investigating Mad Dog’s death?”

“All the more reason I’m glad it’s over.”

I lowered my eyes. Nope, not over for me. And maybe the real killer knows that. Was it just a coincidence I was threatened after visiting the man who was lying about killing Mad Dog? Or at least where he killed him?

“You’re one of those girls who brought home stray animals, aren’t you?”

“Guilty as charged.” My words had a touch of breathlessness that I didn’t recognize. Will apparently did. His blue eyes flashed and he slid next to me, his grip on the back of my neck tightening. My breath quickened more as his touch set every nerve ending in my body vibrating.

“That’s what I love about you.” I felt his words as hot breath on my lips and began to tremble. His lips brushed mine. He held my gaze as he pulled away and then moved in to press his mouth to mine. I moaned. I was a goner. His hands moved to hold my head as he kissed me with such a hunger, I was swept away from any awareness of time or space. The only thing that existed was this entangling of our mouths, this connection of our souls. When he pulled away—his lips glistening, his eyes half-closed—I took the opportunity to suck in a shuttering breath.

“You okay?” He stroked my arm and the sensation was almost painful. I suppressed another moan.

“Yeah, I,” I tried to clear my head. “I forgot to wash off the paint.” I had to get us off this couch, out of this secluded space where a wildfire could burn out of control. It would only make it harder when I had to let him go. But, I wanted to give him something, let him know how special he was to me. “I’ve never been kissed like that before.”

He pushed a damp wave behind my ear and smiled. “Neither have I.” Then he took my hand. “Come on, I’ll help you clean the windows. The patrol car should be here any minute anyway.”

“Let me take Karma down with us. He probably needs a bathroom break.”

The cruiser pulled up while Karma was sniffing around the grass across the street. I watched Will greet them as they stepped out of the car. Oh great. It was Karma’s two favorite policemen.

“Hurry up, Karma. I’ve gotta get you back inside.”

Karma obliged and I held him close to me as we crossed the street. Halfway across he spotted the officers and I felt him grow a few inches taller as he held up his head, that rumbling starting in his chest.

“No. No growling.” I stroked the ridge of fur standing up along his back. “It’s okay, boy.” I wrapped his lead tighter around my wrist and, as we approached, held up my free hand.

“Let me just put Karma upstairs. I’ll be right back.” He kept focused on the officers as I led him to the gate but didn’t lunge toward them, thank heavens. I liked my arms
in
the sockets.

“Okay, sorry about that,” I said, reappearing. “Karma doesn’t seem to be too fond of y’all.” I smiled.

Officer Hutchins scribbled in his notepad. He briefly looked up. “The feeling is mutual.”

Will leaned down and whispered to me. “Cookie lady?”

Well, I see they had been busy. I whispered back. “Much more polite than my nickname for them, believe me.”

We managed to make it through the next fifteen minutes without trading any more jabs, but I couldn’t help but ask a final parting question.

“Officers? Did either of you have an altercation with Mad Dog before he died?”

They glanced at Will and then stared at me.

I wasn’t about to be intimidated. “I’m just trying to figure out why Karma feels y’all are such a threat.”

Officer Hutchins slapped his notebook shut and his mouth formed a smile that didn’t move to his steely eyes. “Any more problems, give us a call.”

“Might want to keep your girlfriend on a shorter leash. She’s playin’ in dangerous territory.” Officer Cruz said to Will before sliding into the passenger side of the cruiser.

Girlfriend? I wanted to knock on his window and explain that I wasn’t Will’s girlfriend—although the thought did warm me inside—and also that I wasn’t some animal to be put on a leash. The nerve.

“Don’t worry about them.” Will wrapped his arms around me. “They’re harmless. All talk.”

I pressed my forehead into his chest and sighed. Karma sure didn’t think so. They had to have done something to Mad Dog in the past for him to react to them with such mistrust.

“Come on. I’ll help you get those windows clean.”

It took twenty minutes to wash and scrape the threatening message off. We were both drained from the emotionally volatile evening. We parted ways and I fell asleep on my bed in my clothes. I was definitely going to have to be more careful with my sleuthing.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The next evening, after we closed up the boutique, I took a walk to clear my head. My plan was to do some meditating down by the water but, as I strolled north down the sidewalk along Straub Park, I spotted Frankie talking to a man in front of the building housing the glass Chihuly Collection. They made a strange pair. Frankie’s outfit consisted of red heels, zebra pants and a rhinestone baseball cap. The man was a hulking presence in a pair of dirty jeans with chains and a bandana. As I approached, Frankie handed him a shopping bag then he saluted, crossed the street and disappeared into the park.

I came up behind her. “Frankie?”

She whirled around and grabbed her chest. “Dear Lord, Darwin, you startled the hell out of me!”

“Sorry,” I jerked my head in the direction of the park. “Who was that character?”

“Oh,” she stared at me for a moment, thinking and then frowned. “That was Scary Harry.” She watched my eyes widen and rested a hand on my shoulder. “The world is complicated, sweetie. Come on up to my place and we’ll have a glass of wine and some girl talk.”

Her place turned out to be the entire top floor of one of the Vinoy Towers. We rode an elevator that opened right up into the five thousand square foot penthouse. Stepping inside nearly took my breath away. The gold and red walls, the huge chandeliers, the marble fireplace that sprouted from glossy cherry wood floors...the view!

“Holy Heavens,” I managed through my gaping mouth.

“Here we go, home sweet home.” Frankie smiled and bent over to pat Itty and Bitty as they ran up to us yipping. “Shush now, Mama’s home. You gals hungry?” She moved toward a granite and stainless steel kitchen the size of a restaurant. “Let me feed the babies. Go on and have a look around.”

I stood for a moment taking in the wide span of living space filled with décor fit for royalty and then my eyes moved straight out the massive windows to the blue sky and ocean.

“Oh, Frankie, it’s simply amazing.” I weaved my way through the leather strewn living room, drawn like a moth to light, to stare out through the glass. The entire side of the condo was glass. I had a tiny dizzy spell as I gazed out at the wrap around terrace. “Do you ever get tired of this view?”

“Haven’t yet,” she chuckled from the open kitchen. “We can sit out there and have our wine if you want.”

“Sure.”

“Go on out, I’ll be there in a sec.”

I opened the sliding door and stepped out into the warm evening breeze. It truly did feel like you were on top of the world here. As I settled into a wicker chair—grateful for the four foot curved glass barrier between me and a very long fall—I breathed in the salty air. It was such a blissful moment, I almost forgot why I had agreed to come. Almost.

“Couldn’t you just die happy out here?” Frankie stepped out and handed me a full glass of chilled white wine. Itty and Bitty were at her heels. They circled her feet, then each other, finally settling down together on a large pink pillow in the corner.

I wasn’t sure I liked her word choice, but she was right. Every bit of stress just melted away like a dream. This balcony was a bubble surrounded by sky and water that reality just couldn’t touch.

We sat, sipping in silence for a few minutes before I finally had to break the spell.

“So, Scary Harry?”

She stretched out her legs and pushed the red heels off with her toes. “I know what it looked like. Like I was consorting with the enemy, right?”

“Yeah.”

“See, the thing is, the man is mean as a snake. He’s not gonna stop messin’ with my family at Pirate City. And the police aren’t doing anything about his harassment. So,” she shrugged, “I’m paying him off.”

“You’re giving him money?”

“Well, no, not money per say—liquor. He likes expensive liquor, so I agreed to buy it for him once a week and he agreed to leave Pirate City alone. Tell you the truth, I hope he drinks himself to death. Waste of human flesh, that man.”

Well, that was a relief. Pirate City was safe, at least from Harry, at least for now. Something nagged at my thoughts. I went back over Frankie’s words. Oh, yeah…expensive liquor.

“How long have you been giving him this liquor?”

“Oh, we just struck the deal this week.”

“Oh, okay.” It was worth a shot.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, when they found Mad Dog, there was a bottle of Bacardi 8 rum lying in the grass. I thought maybe we could connect it to Harry.”

I could feel Frankie staring at me, I turned to her. “What?”

“Did you say Bacardi 8?”

“Yeah?”

“Huh. Well, I did have a bottle of that go missing, but it was weeks before Mad Dog got killed. Still, there’s not many of those bottles floating around.”

“Who do you think took it?”

“I chalked it up to Vick. I mean, I didn’t really care, he knew he could take it if he wanted it. Just seems like a big coincidence.” She got lost in thought.

“Frankie?”

“Hm?”

“Please don’t get mad at my next question, okay?” I seemed to be saying that a lot lately. “I’m just trying to cover all the possibilities. But, do you think Vick could have had something to do with Mad Dog’s death that night?”

“No. And don’t get me wrong, I know he’s not the most moral guy in the world, he’s got his faults. But, he was here all night. He left in the early morning, to go back to his place, and called me when he passed Mirror Lake and saw all the police cars.”

I nodded, remembering she had told me that before. “How are y’all doing? You and Vick?” I wanted to ask what in heaven’s name she saw in him, but I remembered my manners.

“I don’t know. He’s been acting kinda weird lately. We got in a fight at the benefit and since then, he’s been standoffish.”

“Well, you’re great fun to be around, Frankie. There’s plenty of other fish in the sea.”

“Thanks, but you know the hardest thing about having money is dating. You can’t trust anybody. You always have it in the back of your mind that they’re only in it for the money.”

“And Vick is different?”

She nodded and took a sip of her wine. “I knew him before I had money. Plus, he’s got his own money. Of course, that was a big part of our fight. I wish he’d give up his business. I don’t like it one bit.”

“His computer business?”

She glanced at me sideways. I recognized the action. She wanted to tell me more but didn’t know if she could trust me. So, I prodded a bit. “You said he sells stuff online? Is it not legal? Is that why you don’t like it?”

“Oh, it’s legal.” She shook her head and squinted out at the blue sky. “Damn well shouldn’t be.” She squirmed in her chair and then pushed herself up. “Hey, I’ll just get us a snack. I’ve got some fresh sushi and watermelon in the fridge.”

I started to protest, but she had already slipped inside. Itty and Bitty jumped up to follow her. I sighed. Probably wouldn’t be able to get her back onto that topic again tonight. Now she had me really curious, though. What in the world could Vick be selling online that was legal but upset Frankie enough to fight with him about it?

“Here we are.” She appeared back through the door with plates of fresh food, laying them out on the glass table between us. “Go lay down girls, this is for the big people.”

“You shouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.”

“Are you kiddin’? This is no trouble. Glad to have the company.”

I smiled at Frankie as I popped a juicy piece of watermelon in my mouth. She really did seem like a kind soul. Someone who just wanted to enjoy what life had so thoughtfully tossed into her lap and share some of that good fortune with others.

“Oh!” I swallowed. “I haven’t told you the latest news. So, I went and visited the guy who confessed to killing Mad Dog in jail and it was Hops!”

“Hops?” Frankie frowned. “I can’t imagine him killin’ anyone.”

“I know! So, he basically told me he confessed so he’d have a roof over his head and three meals a day. Can you believe it?”

Frankie’s eyes saddened. “Yeah, I can, sugar. He was gettin’ pretty desperate. Couldn’t find work. It gets tough out there. So, you’re really convinced he didn’t kill Mad Dog then?”