Mind Your Own Beeswax (34 page)

“When?”

“Back then, but later.”

“Oh my gosh!” Holly and I stared at each other. We’d drawn the same conclusion. The pieces were beginning to fall into place. And they had nothing to do with Johnny Jay.

Rain was coming down so hard I couldn’t see out the windows, but I heard it pounding on the awning out front. We didn’t have a single customer in the store at the moment.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s pretend he catches up with Lauren and drives her home. He accidently strikes Wayne Jay with the car. But Wayne isn’t dead, and he gets a good look at T. J., who realizes he’s driving drunk and in big trouble. T. J. always had a lot of direction. He knew he wanted to go into dentistry from the time he could talk.”

“And a charge of manslaughter would mess up his plans,” Holly said, getting worked up and into the moment. “For COL! (
Crying Out Loud!
) It’s possible! After that, he ran over Wayne again to finish him off, hit the tree, and left Lauren to take the rap for him, since at that point she was probably passed out. But why kill her now?”

My turn. “When he found out Lauren was coming back to town, he thought she might have remembered what really happened. Maybe she was coming back to confront him with the truth. So he killed her.”

“But how did he find out she was back?” Holly wanted to know.

The answer to Holly’s question came to me instantly. “I know the answer to that! Last time I was in the dental chair T. J. told me people tell him all kinds of personal information. Because he’s a doctor they treat him like their personal therapists or clergyman.”

Right then, I heard a voice directly behind me shout out, “You’ve nailed it!”

Holly squealed. I did, too.

There stood Patti, wearing a green rain poncho and looking like something that crawled out of the Blue Lagoon, dripping water everywhere.

“Will you please stop sneaking up on people,” I said, relieved it was only creepy, crawly Patti. If she kept this up we’d have to rename her C. C. Patti instead of P. P. Patti.

“I heard everything,” she said, “and I think we finally figured it out.”

“
We
figured it out?” Holly said. “You weren’t even here.”

Patti ignored her. “We need more evidence. And a motive. If Lauren was dying, why would he kill her?”

“Maybe he didn’t know she was dying?” I offered, since Patti must have missed part of my conversation with my sister. “Or thought she knew the truth? Right now, all we have are maybes and ifs.”

Patti saw me pick up my phone and start punching in numbers. “What are you doing?”

“Canceling my dental appointment,” I said.

Patti lunged and grabbed the phone out of my hands. “Hold on. You have an appointment?”

“Today. Give me my phone back.”

“You’re really seeing him?” Patti asked me.

I shook my head. “Not anymore. I’m canceling the appointment right now.”

“No, wait.” Patti peeled off the poncho and I could see electronics dangling from her neck, tied together into a plastic bag to keep them safe from the rain. Some were clipped to her belt, too. “This is the chance we’ve been waiting for.”

I groaned. “This is the chance
you’ve
been waiting for.
Your
big scoop. You’d really sacrifice me for a job?”

“I’ll be close by. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

“We should call the police,” Holly said. “Let them handle it.”

I thought about that. “Johnny Jay is unofficially still running the police department. He’d rather string me up from a lightpost than listen to common sense.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Holly said.

“He doesn’t like you, either,” Patti informed her. “Or me, now that I think about it. We’ll have to handle this ourselves.” Her eyes literally gleamed in anticipation. “This is my big chance. The big story that will get me a slot on the newspaper. I’ll be a real reporter.”

“I’m calling Hunter,” I said.

Patti sneered. “Sure, have your boyfriend fix it for you.”

Ignoring Patti, I punched Hunter’s number into my cell phone and was rerouted to his voice mail. I left him a message to call me ASAP.

“He’s doing K-9 training today,” I said to Holly and Patti. “He must not have his cell phone with him. Or he turned it off.” I’d watched him train before and vaguely remembered him removing everything from his pockets. When he was training dogs to attack, he wouldn’t want to break anything. Just my luck.

Patti leaned in, conspiratorial, serious, professional. “We can do this. The three of us. We’ll be your backup, Story.”

“Not me,” Holly croaked. “I have to watch the store.”

Suddenly my sister was a responsible business owner. How nice.

“I haven’t agreed to any of this,” I reminded Patti.

“You’ll be on the inside, in the dentist’s chair, asking some tough questions and letting him know you’re onto him,” Patti said. “I’ll be on the outside, close by, I’ll be watching every move. We’ll have video, audio, you name it, we’ll have it all. Trust me.”

“The last time I trusted you,” I reminded her, “you ran away and left me in Norm’s house to face the music alone.”

Patti rolled her eyes impatiently. “But I saved you in the end when it counted, didn’t I?” Patti didn’t really expect an answer. I could tell she was thinking hard, working over the details.

I tried calling Hunter again. No answer.

Then I glanced at the time, which was running out. Whether I wanted to or not, I was in deep. And torn over what to do. My dental appointment really was the perfect opportunity to confront T. J. and possibly get the truth. And I
did
have backup support even if it was only Patti and my sister. What to do?

Patti dug through her arsenal and came up with a small electronic device. “We have to wire you. Well, it isn’t a wire in the sense that I’ll be able to listen in. It’s a digital voice recorder,” she explained. “Next best thing. Where’s the duct tape?”

“Aisle two,” my sister told her, going to get it herself.

“We’ll tape it between your boobs,” Patti said, studying my chest. “That should work. It’s voice activated so you don’t have to be concerned with turning it on and off. We’ll have a permanent record of the conversation.”

“So if I’m in trouble, who’s going to help me again?”

“Your job is to make T. J. confess,” Patti said. “He’ll think he has you trapped so he’ll open up and spill the whole story. If I see him make an aggressive move, I’ll break down the door.”

“This is a really bad idea,” I mentioned.

But then I thought of Carrie Ann, stuck in a jail cell without an alibi, thinking she might have actually killed people during a blackout. Unlike Lauren, my cousin wasn’t going to serve time for a crime she didn’t commit. If this worked, she’d be free by the end of the day.

“It’s bulgy,” Holly said, checking out my wired-for-sound bra. “Won’t he notice?”

“It’ll work,” Patti said. “Wish I could send you with a can of wasp spray but that would be a dead giveaway. Where’s your pepper spray?”

“In my pocket.”

“Now remember,” Patti went on, “the first thing you talk about is him driving the car that night. Watch his reaction.”

I nodded.

“And don’t let him work on you, no matter what.”

I gulped.

“Good. Let’s go.”

“One more thing,” I said before I voluntarily walked the plank. “Ali is going to get me in the chair, then she’s going to come over and help out here until I get back. Holly, don’t breathe a word to her.”

“’K,” Holly said. “I can be cool.”

My cool sister was biting her nails. She only did that when she was under extreme stress. It couldn’t be a good sign.

Patti left me alone at the door leading into the lion’s den and went off to find the perfect place in back of the building to set up for surveillance. I took a deep breath and walked through the door.

Ali popped into the reception area, which was empty except for the two of us. “Hey,” she said, looking surprised to see me. “You actually showed up! Good. I’m working on something in back. Have a seat.”

So I plopped down in a chair and thought about what I would say to T. J. after I hit him with the driving question. Nothing much came to mind. But I’m a professional blurter. Something would come out of my mouth.

I had a few loose ends to wrap up in my mind, something not quite right regarding Carrie Ann and her lost-memory trail, so I used my waiting time wisely.

“Hey, Stu,” I said into my cell phone, keeping my voice extra low. “When Carrie Ann was in the bar the afternoon Lauren died, I forgot to ask you something. Was she with anyone?”

Stu didn’t know for sure. He hadn’t been paying attention.

“Was T. J. there?”

He didn’t think so, but talking about my dentist must have triggered a memory because he said he thought Ali had been sitting with Carrie Ann. Yes, now he remembered.

That sent a cold chill down my spine. I glanced around. Ali wasn’t in sight, but I could hear her humming in the back.

“Did they leave together?”

He didn’t know.

“Are you absolutely sure T. J. wasn’t in the bar?”

Stu was almost sure, but not totally positive.

“One more thing,” I said. “If someone has only one or two alcoholic drinks but still has a blackout, how could that have happened?”

“Drugs,” Stu said. “They’d have to mix the alcohol with some kind of drug.”

I hung up. And thought about all the different kinds of drugs in a dentist’s office. I bet T. J. had lots and he knew how to use them. He could have spiked Carrie Ann’s drink. That would explain her complete blackout.

What if he gave Carrie Ann drugs so he could set her up? Maybe he dumped her in The Lost Mile and left her unconscious while he met and killed Lauren and Hetty. That would explain Norm Cross’s eye-witness report.

What if T. J. tried to give me something bad, too, like Patti had suggested?

Not good.

Ali had been in the bar with Carrie Ann. She would know all about drugs and how to use them, too. She’d worked here for years.

Were we after the wrong Schmidt?

Just then Ali came back into the reception area and led me into T. J.’s torture chamber. I sat down in the dental chair.

“Where’s T. J.?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound as tense as I felt.

“He’s finishing up with a patient in the other room.” Ali attached a plastic bib around my neck. “I’ll be right back with the tray, get things set, then head for the store.”

I saw Patti go right past the window. I’m in this one, I wanted to yell to her, thinking she’d missed me. But a few seconds later, her face reappeared and she gave me a thumbs-up before ducking down. My cell phone, tucked in my lap for emotional support, was coated in a layer of palm sweat.

What should I say when T. J. came in? Should I just come right out and accuse him? Let him think I figured out what had really happened that night? Bluff? But what about Ali?

I wasn’t sure of much, but I was absolutely positive my cavity would have to wait, because no way was either of them actually touching me until this was all worked out.

Ali came back in carrying a tray filled with instruments and set it down. “Let’s make you more comfortable,” she said, pushing a button that lowered me into a more relaxed position. Only I wasn’t relaxed.

When she bent over to arrange T. J.’s dental equipment, I saw a heart-shaped locket around her neck, tucked inside her collar.

I groaned inwardly as my mind started working overtime.

The locket! I’d forgotten all about it after Gunnar had come into the bar with Carrie Ann’s bad news. I’d left it behind, and Ali had taken it.

Right then I knew for sure. I’d made the wrong assumption. The locket hadn’t belonged to Lauren. It was Ali’s. She’d been the one driving Lauren’s car.