Thirty-Four and a Half Predicaments: Rose Gardner Mystery #7 (25 page)

She gasped. “Oh, my stars and garters. It’s a message.”

We continued through the book until we found:
Bill the proof is in the other journal in the room

Neely Kate jerked the book away from me and frantically searched the book for another hidden word. “What room?”

“I don’t know,” I murmured. “Maybe she didn’t finish her sentence. Or maybe she knew Bill would understand the message.”

We were silent for a moment.

I sighed. “She had another journal. I bet that’s where we could find all the missing information. The extortion scheme. Who probably killed her. Who my father is.”

She shot me a glare. “Your daddy’s your father. And that book could be anywhere. I say we focus on talking to people who can help us now.”

I thought about it for a moment. “You’re right. Finding that journal is gonna be like looking for a needle in a haystack. We should talk to Dirk. We planned to anyway. And maybe he’ll be able to tell us who Bill is.”

Neely Kate twisted her lips to the side. “Dirk sounds like he might have been involved. She talked about placating him. And Miss Mildred said he was a foreman.” She went back to her desk and started typing on her computer. After a few moments, she turned to me. “2345 Crescent Drive. I think we need a field trip.” She grabbed her coat and her purse and walked back to the table.

“How are we gonna get him to answer our questions?” I asked as I stood.

She picked up her Taser and put it into her purse. “I’ve always wanted to use one of these. Maybe we should give them a test drive.”

I had a sneaking suspicion I was going to regret Joe giving her that thing.

“We’re only gonna talk to him,” I said for what had to be the hundredth time as I pulled my truck up to the curb. But Neely Kate seemed exceptionally bloodthirsty, and truth be told, I didn’t trust her all that much to behave. “Let me do the talkin’ this time.”

“That hardly seems fair,” she grumbled.

“It all happened twenty-five years ago, Neely Kate. He’s bound to be old and incapacitated. He’s probably wheelin’ around an oxygen tank.” I took the keys out of the ignition. “So just be careful with the elderly gentleman.” All we needed was for her to Tase him and give him a heart attack.

“Sure.” But she didn’t sound like she meant it.

We walked up to the front door of the rundown brick ranch home. I stepped in front of Neely Kate and knocked. When no one answered, I waited a moment and knocked again.

An elderly woman next door poked her head out her front door. “He ain’t home.”

“Mr. Picklebie?” Neely Kate asked.

“Mr. Picklebie,” she spat out in disgust. “Ha! He ain’t no mister. And if you’re lookin’ to collect yer money, good luck to ya.”

Collect our money? “Do you know where I can find him?”

“He’s down at the pool hall, probably bettin’ his money away. Again.”

Oh, crappy doodles.

Neely Kate stared at me. “Elderly gentleman, huh? We have to go there.”

I didn’t answer, but my mind was reeling. Did I really want to risk seeing Skeeter? Other than the morning I’d run into Skeeter when I went out to breakfast with Mason, this would be our first public encounter since I started my role as the Lady in Black. How would he react? It was probably the worst idea of all ideas since the beginning of time, but I found myself saying, “Yeah. Let’s go.”

We headed for the truck and I pulled away from the curb in silence.

“It’s a public place, Rose. There’s nothin’ wrong with you goin’ to the pool hall. We’ll go find Dirk Picklebie, get our answers and leave. You don’t even have to talk to Skeeter. Shoot, he’s probably not even there.”

I doubted it. I’d learned enough about Skeeter’s work habits over the last two months to know he made Mason’s workaholic tendencies look like a cute hobby. “I’m still in charge of asking the questions.”

“Fine.”

My phone vibrated and I found a text from Mason.

I can’t get away for lunch. The sheriff’s department has confined me to the courthouse. Joe said he’d take care of our errand. Do you feel safe?

I stopped at a stop sign and answered.
I have it now. I’m fine. I’ll see you tonight. <3

Fifteen minutes later I pulled into the parking lot of the pool hall. It was early enough that there weren’t many cars there. I figured it would make finding Dirk Picklebie a whole lot easier.

“Do you see Skeeter’s car?” Neely Kate asked.

“I don’t know what he drives.” Which was strange, but true. “I’ve only seen the car Jed drives, which isn’t here, but I think he parks in the back. If I were a betting woman, I’d put my money on them being here.”

“What are you gonna do if you see them?”

“Ignore them. I can’t let on to anyone that I’m intimately acquainted with them.”

Her eyebrows rose and she teased, “Just how intimately acquainted are you?”

“Not how you’re suggesting, and you good and well know it,” I grumbled as I opened my door and hopped out.

I took a deep breath before opening the door and walking into the place. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the gloom that seemed to be the pool hall’s defining feature. There were a few guys in the place, none of whom I recognized. So far, so good.

Neely Kate pointed toward a table in the back. “I bet that’s him.”

A man who looked like he was in his late fifties was bent over a table, pool cue in hand. He made a shot, then rose and grabbed a bottle of beer off a tall table. His flannel shirt was faded and his graying hair was in desperate need of a trim. He looked like he’d hit hard times. Two teens huddled around a table in front. They shot us a look of alarm, then relaxed when they realized we weren’t truant officers.

I took a deep breath and pushed my anxiety away. What was I so nervous about anyway? Maybe because Skeeter was expecting an answer from me in less than twelve hours and I still didn’t know what to tell him. Unfastening my coat, I walked up to the bar and grabbed the bartender’s attention. “I’ll have two of whatever he’s having.” I pointed to the back.

The bartender—a college-age-looking kid—shook his head and squinted toward the back. “Him?”

“Yep.” I leaned closer. “Do you know who he is?”

He leaned over the bar. “Dirk Picklebie and he’s a major loser. You’re wasting your time with him.” He gave me a cocky smile. “Sit here with me, baby.” He looked over my shoulder and his smile widened. “Your friend too.”

I glanced back at Neely Kate. “You want a beer?”

She shrugged and gave me a half-smile.

I turned back to the bartender. “Make it three.”

He shook his head in confusion. “Okay,” he muttered as he walked to the cooler.

I glanced down at my clothes. I was wearing jeans, a scoop-neck peasant-style shirt, and my brown boots with a three-inch heel. I wasn’t overly endowed, so the modest neckline left a lot to the imagination and the heels made me look like I wasn’t about to muck out a barn. There was a good chance one of us was going to have to do a little flirting, and since Neely Kate was still sporting her grunge look, that probably left me with the job. Great.

The bartender set the bottles on the counter and started popping the tops. “He fancies himself a pool shark. Don’t be makin’ any bets with him.”

“Really?” Neely Kate’s eyes lit up.

The bartender handed Neely Kate her beer and winked. “I’ll be over here, more than willin’ to keep you pretty ladies company.”

“Thanks.” I grabbed two of the bottles. “We’ll keep that in mind.”

Neely Kate winked. “Start a tab.”

As we moved away from the bar, she said, “I have an idea.”

“Does it involve trying out your new Taser?”

“No…well, maybe… If we need to escape.”

I stared at her for three full seconds. “Okay, sounds good. What’s your plan?”

“Let’s play a game with him and pretend to suck. Then let me do the rest.”

Fortunately for her, I didn’t have to pretend.

“You start talkin’ to him after I make the introduction, then I’ll jump in,” I said.

“Okay.”

She followed me back to the pool table. Dirk was leaning over, the pool cue in his hand, as he eyed his next shot, but his gaze shifted to my stomach and slowly rose to my face after taking a slight delay at my bust.

I held out one of the bottles. “Hi. You look thirsty.”

He straightened up and lowered the pool cue to the table as his gaze shifted from Neely Kate and back to me.

Neely Kate shifted out her hip. “My friend and I are here ’cause we want to learn how to play pool. We saw you back here, and I said, ‘Rose, he looks smart. I bet he can teach us.’” She turned to me. “Ain’t that what I said?”

I nodded, then took a sip of my own beer while still holding out the other one out to him. “Sure is.”

A shit-eating grin spread over Dirk’s face as he grabbed the bottle from me and clinked it against mine. “I think I can manage that.”

Neely Kate gave him a smile full of innocence. “Well, ain’t you sweet?” She turned to me. “Ain’t he sweet, Rose?”

I nodded my agreement, wondering why she was laying it on so thick, but I’d let her butter him up before I swooped in with my questions.

He took a long drag from the bottle. “I’m Dirk.”

“Neely Kate,” she pointed to herself, then me. “And my friend Rose.”

“Well, let’s get started.” Dirk grabbed a rack and swept the balls over to one end of the table. “How about eight ball?”

Neely Kate’s eyes widened in confusion. “Eight ball?”

I pointed to the table. “Isn’t it that little black ball in the middle?”

He chuckled. “Don’t you girls worry. I’m gonna teach you all about it.”

He explained the rules of the game—pretty much the same rules Skeeter had explained to me the first time we met—and we started playing.

We were halfway through the disastrous game when I asked, “What do you do, Dirk?”

“Oh, a little bit of this and a little bit of that.” He took his shot, getting his solid colored ball into the pocket. “I’m into investments right now.”

“Oh,” Neely Kate squealed. “Like a stock broker.”

He chuckled. “Something like that.”

“Have you always been a stock broker?” I asked.

“Nah,” he leaned over the table for another shot. “I’ve done a bunch of other things.”

“Like what?” Neely Kate asked.

“Oh…” He moved around the table, looking for his next shot. “I was a used car salesman. A truck driver. And once upon a time, I was a supervisor at a plant.”

Neely Kate’s eyes widened with interest. “You got to boss people around?”

He grinned. “Sure did.”

She put her hand on her hip. “A plant, you say? Shoot. I bet you’re exaggerating. You probably supervised a few employees at an office supply store.”

“You’ve got it wrong, little lady. I bossed around a lot more than that. Back in the day, I was a supervisor at Atchison Manufacturing.”

“You don’t say?” Neely Kate said. “Ain’t that the place that closed down after a big fire years ago?”

He nodded. “Sure was.”

“Goodness,” I said, feigning fright. “Were you there when the fire broke out?”

He leaned over the table and lined up his cue. “Nope. It happened late at night after everyone had left for the day.”

Neely Kate turned to me. “Hey, Rose. Don’t you know someone who used to work there?”

“Oh! You’re right. I forgot all about it.” I leaned against the table. “Dirk, maybe you knew her.”

“Well.” He took his shot, sinking another ball. “It depends on when she worked there.”

“Right up until the fire,” I said. “Gloria Gunner.”

Neely Kate flashed me a look of surprise over his head, but I had my reasons. If he knew something about Dora, he might clam up if I mentioned her name.

“Yeah, I knew Gloria.” He finished off his beer and set it down on the table. “She was a real busybody.”

The bartender was openly staring at us, so I motioned for him to bring another bottle over. He rolled his eyes and shook his head as he moved to the cooler.

“She liked to get in everyone’s business?” I asked, taking another sip of my beer.

He eyed it longingly.

The bartender walked over with the fresh bottle and handed it to me. I leaned into his ear. “Keep ’em comin’.”

“
Really?
” he asked in dismay before grabbing the three empty bottles on the table. Changing tactics, he waved up and down at his chest, beer bottles clutched between the fingers of both hands, and shot me a cocky grin. “Darlin’, I’ll give you a round on the house if you come sit with me.”

Dirk’s head jerked up. “Hey!”

Neely Kate stopped mid-shot, then cast an adoring gaze at Dirk. “I found my honey bunny.” She waved her hand in a shooing motion. “You can run along now.”

The bartender lifted his eyebrows in question as he turned to me.

I gave him an apologetic grin and tilted my head toward the slovenly man on the other side of the pool table. “We’re fighting over him.”

Dirk looked like a goat let loose in an aluminum recycling lot.

The bartender groaned his disgust as he stomped back to the bar.

I could see his confusion. Not only did he look a whole lot better than Dirk; he smelled better too.