The Fashion Hound Murders (6 page)

“No,” Josie said. She didn’t explain that she was a mystery shopper.

“Nedra’s one of the good guys. The store manager, Dave, is not. He’ll do anything for money, even sell abused puppies. He flew to the head office this afternoon. If Milwaukee has an ounce of sense, they’ll fire him for this scam.”

“Who’s the store’s supplier?”

“I tried to get into Dave’s office to check, but I don’t have the key. I’ve heard him talking to the guy on the phone. The puppy mill is in the woods somewhere in St. Louis County. The miller—that’s what we call them—delivers the pups in a dark, beat-up truck. He smears mud on the plates. He has a funny first name, like something in the Bible. I can’t remember it. Don’t be fooled by the Bible name. He’s greedy as the devil.”

“Do you know his last name or the name of the mill?” Josie asked.

“No. All I can tell you is he says the road to his kennel is so bad he nearly broke an axle coming here after that snow. And he complains about his help. He says the boys don’t work hard enough. He’s such a horrible man. I’m sure that’s how he talks about black people. I’m quitting as soon as I get my paycheck in two weeks. I don’t care if I don’t find another job. I can’t stand it here anymore.”

The automatic doors whooshed open. Edna clutched Josie’s arm and said, “That’s Jennifer. She spies for Dave. I have to run.”

“Wait!” Josie cried.

“Good luck with your new pet,” Edna called, waving good-bye. “Nice to see you.” She cut through two rows of cars, heading for section D.

Josie watched a dark pickup cruise past a row of parked cars. The truck moved slowly, as if the driver were looking for a parking spot. Edna, keys in hand, was heading for a red Saturn. The truck sped up, hurtling straight toward her. Edna didn’t notice.

Josie screamed, “Edna! Look out!”

But Edna didn’t see the truck until it was almost on top of her. Then she tried to run. The truck bore down and struck her in the back, knocking her sideways. Edna was dragged several feet by her long scarf. Her hat flew off and landed on a car hood.

Then the truck was gone. Josie saw the sparkle of broken glass near the body. Edna didn’t move. Her head was at an impossible angle.

Chapter 5

“No! Edna no! You can’t be dead. Please,” Josie wailed, as she wept beside the woman.

The shrieks of the sirens mocked her screams and the blazing lights were from some hellish disco.

Josie heard the slam of a car door, and a uniformed officer swaggered over to her.

“Please help Edna,” Josie begged him. “A truck ran her down and drove away.”

“Step away, please, ma’am,” the officer said, “so the paramedics can take care of the lady.”

Four paramedics expertly loaded Edna onto a gurney and roared off to Holy Redeemer Hospital. Josie had the horrible feeling there was no need for their haste.

While she waited to talk to the police, Josie called her mother. “Mom, I witnessed an accident. The police are talking to me.”

Jane gave a startled cry. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but I don’t think the poor woman who got hit will be so lucky. Yes, I know Stan is delivering the couch in a few minutes. Tell him hi for me. I’ll be home as soon as I can. Please call Alyce and tell her I’m fine.”

“How do I know that unless I see you?” Jane asked.

“Mom, I’m talking to you, aren’t I? That should be proof. Call Alyce or she’ll worry. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

The uniformed officer was standing over Josie. “I’d like to ask you a few questions,” he said. His name tag said RICHARDS.

Her teeth were chattering and she was shaking so badly she could hardly talk. Officer Richards led Josie inside the store to the employee break room, a bare, white-walled room with a long folding table, six chairs, a soda machine, a fridge, and a microwave. The only decorations were OSHA and minimum-wage posters. The air smelled of red sauce and cardboard from countless microwaved dinners.

Officer Richards handed her a cup of heavily sugared hot coffee. Josie took a sip, then wrapped her hands around the cup to warm them. She still couldn’t stop shaking. She heard the break room door shut. Officer Richards had a round open face, short brown hair, bulging gym muscles—and a bad cold. He kept sneezing. Josie pulled her coffee away from him, and hoped it was out of range.

Between sneezes, Richards asked Josie the standard questions about her age, name, marital status, and what she did for a living.

After a few sips of coffee, she felt a little better, but so tired she had to struggle to keep her eyes open.

“How long have you known Edna Prilosen?” Richards asked.

“Is that her last name?” Josie said. “I didn’t know it. I met her today when I was mystery-shopping this store. Edna advised me not to buy the puppies because they were from a mill.”

“An employee told you not to buy a product her store was selling?”

Josie could hear the disbelief in his voice. He gave a mighty sneeze and pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket.

“Yes,” Josie said. “Edna said the puppies were unhealthy, and her manager—Dave—bought them from a puppy mill.”

“Miss Marcus, could you tell me what kind of truck hit the victim?” That question set off another attack of sneezing and wheezing.

Josie waited until he finished. It gave her time to think. “My ex-boyfriend had a Ford F-150 pickup. This pickup looked like his, only dark gray or black. The color was hard to tell under the mercury vapor lights. I think it was older, too. The truck had a lot of scrapes and dents. I guess it has a busted front light now. There was broken glass or plastic all over the blacktop.”

“Did you get the truck’s license plate?” Officer Richards asked. “Even a letter or a number would help.”

“The plate was smeared with something dark, like mud,” Josie said. Mud, she thought. What did Edna tell her about mud?

“Did you see the driver?” Richards asked.

“I think he was wearing a black ski mask.”

“He?” Officer Richards sneezed again.

“I didn’t see his face, but he seemed tall and his shoulders were broad like a man’s.”

“Tell me again from the beginning about your encounter with Edna Prilosen,” Officer Richards said.

Josie tried to think back to the morning when she’d met Edna. It seemed another lifetime. It was. Edna was alive and healthy and trying to save abused animals this morning. Josie’s eyes filled with tears. She talked fast to keep them from spilling down her cheeks.

“I was mystery-shopping the store. Edna was very helpful. She gave me a free cookie from the bulk bin. It was a carob cookie treat for dogs. I took a bite and she said people ate them, too. I got half a pound, as a joke. I don’t have a dog.

“Then I asked her about the store’s pedigreed dogs—their papers, parents, their veterinary care. She avoided a direct answer. When I said my ten-year-old daughter wanted a puppy, Edna became agitated. She dragged me to a ‘dead zone’ where she couldn’t be seen on the store’s security cameras.”

“What did she tell you?” Officer Richards unleashed a mighty sneeze. Josie backed her chair away an inch. She thought she heard someone rattling the break room door.

“She said I shouldn’t buy a puppy there because the dogs weren’t healthy. She thought I was an animal activist. Edna told me to come back tonight when she got off work because the store manager was suspicious that she was on to him. She wanted me to meet her outside the store at six thirty. Then her manager called her to register two. Edna panicked and ran up there. I bought a bag of dog food and left. I feel like this is all my fault.”

“It is all your fault, Miss Marcus,” said a voice behind her. “When amateurs meddle in police work, innocent people get killed.”

Josie turned and saw her Rock Road Village nemesis, homicide Detective Gray, leaning against the break room doorway. As usual, he was wearing a gray suit and dark tie. Josie had met him when Nate was murdered. He didn’t like her then, and she could see the same distaste in his shrewd eyes.

Officer Richards looked up in surprise.

“Miss Marcus and I are old friends, officer,” Detective Gray said. “And wouldn’t you know it? She’s connected with another murder.”

“Murder?” Josie asked. “Edna’s dead?” The news wasn’t a surprise, but the reality was a punch in the gut. Josie clung to her coffee cup as if it could save her from slipping off the earth.

Detective Gray regarded Josie without warmth. “It’s interesting,” he said. “I haven’t seen you for almost a year, when your ex was murdered. But I stop in here and the first words out of your mouth are lies.”

“What lies?” Josie said.

“Don’t bullshit me, Miss Marcus. I just saw the parking lot security video. If you met the victim today, why did you greet Edna Prilosen outside the store at six thirty-two tonight like she was your oldest friend? There’s no sound on that video, but I saw you hug that woman. Do you always embrace strangers?”

“That’s what we agreed to do when I met her this morning. It’s all on my tape.”

“Your tape?” Detective Gray raised one eyebrow.

“I had a purse camera for my mystery-shopping assignment. It recorded our conversation.”

“You’ve got audio?”

“Not with me. Harry, my boss at Suttin Services, has the tape now. He said it was legal to record myself in Missouri. I hope there’s not a problem.”

“Officer Richards, call the PD Geek Squad and have them make a mirror copy of the store’s security video system’s hard drive,” Detective Gray said.

“The Geek Squad, sir?”

“The police tech services unit. I need a copy of that store security video to see if it tallies with her account. When did you have this conversation with the victim, Miss Marcus?”

“A few minutes after the store opened at noon,” Josie said.

Detective Gray turned to Officer Richards. “Tell them the hour between noon and one is most important. Secure the room where the machine is. These tapes have a habit of erasing themselves.”

“Yes, sir. Do we need a warrant?”

“Let’s seize the tape first and then get a judge’s permission to view it. Where’s the manager, Dave?”

“He was called to the store headquarters in Milwaukee this afternoon,” Officer Richards said.

“Have someone get hold of them and track him down. Now.”

“Yes, sir.” Officer Richards dashed out of the room.

Detective Gray turned back to Josie. “What’s your boss’s last name?”

“I don’t know. I’ve always called him Harry.” She left out “the Horrible.” Josie was pretty sure he wasn’t listed that way in the phone book.

“Where’s he live?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“You must have an emergency number.”

“I do, but it’s at home.”

“When we finish here, I’ll have an officer accompany you to your home for that phone number. Did you have a tape running when you talked with Miss Prilosen in the parking lot?”

“No,” Josie said. “She’d spotted the recording device in the store and asked me not to bring it. So I just had this. She checked it.” She held up her black purse.

“What did she tell you before she was run over? And remember, Miss Marcus, if you hide anything, there will be serious consequences. A woman was murdered because of your meddling.”

“Edna said she tried to get into Dave’s office to check his records, but she didn’t have a key. She did hear him talking to the puppy mill owner on the phone. Edna said the mill was somewhere in St. Louis County.”

“That’s real helpful,” Detective Gray said. “We’re only talking about some five hundred square miles. What else?”

“The puppies are delivered in a dark, beat-up pickup,” Josie said. “The miller smears mud on the plates. He has a funny first name, like something in the Bible.”

“More useless information,” he said.

“Well, at least you know the killer isn’t named Cliff or Bruce.”

“Is that a joke?” Detective Gray asked.

“Not a very good one,” Josie said in a small voice. “That’s all I know.”

“Well, it isn’t a whole hell of a lot,” he said.

“Edna started to tell me more, but then Jennifer came out of the store. She’s another saleswoman. Edna said Jennifer was Dave’s spy. She got scared and ran away and—” Josie couldn’t say the rest. It was too horrible.

“Looks like we’d better have a talk with this Jennifer,” Detective Gray said. “In the meantime, let’s go over your statement again, from the top.”

They went over the details twice more. Then Josie signed a statement. “I’m really tired,” she said. “It’s been a terrible night.”

“It wasn’t a whole lot of fun for Edna, either,” Detective Gray said.

Josie fought back the tears.

“Officer Richards will follow you home,” Detective Gray said. “You will give him your boss’s after-hours phone number. If you don’t cooperate, I’ll throw you in jail as a material witness.”

It was nearly two in the morning when Josie pulled in front of her flat. Officer Richards parked behind her. Josie saw the lights on in her flat. She parked the car and sleep-walked past the couch out by the curb. Officer Richards walked next to her. He stank of menthol and made crunching sounds. Josie guessed he was chewing cough drops.

Jane was waiting for her at the door.

“Mom, I have to get some information for this officer, and then he’s going home.”

“You look tired,” Jane said to the officer. “May I get you some coffee or a brownie?”

“Thank you, ma’am, but if I don’t get back, I’ll be skinned alive.”

Josie found Harry’s emergency number in her bedroom office. As she passed Amelia’s room, her daughter called softly, “Mom, are we still getting the cat tomorrow?”

“After school, sweetie. That’s a promise.”

“Good,” Amelia said.

Josie handed the information to Officer Richards and walked him to the door. She noticed Mrs. Mueller peering out the slats in her blinds. The old snoop was on duty even in the middle of the night.

Josie closed and locked the front door. She expected her mother to be angry. Instead, Jane was sympathetic. “You look tired,” she said softly. “How are you, sweetheart?”

“I’m fine, Mom,” Josie said. “But Edna’s not. She’s dead.”

The tears that Josie had held back all night suddenly burst forth. Jane folded Josie into her arms and Josie cried on her mother’s shoulder for the first time in years.