Chapter 52

CHAPTER 52

I paused as soon as I entered Ecstasy, checking out the midmorning crowd. Several civilians. Pike was partly hidden at his usual spot at the counter around the corner. Coral was leaning forward talking to him. And there was that sultry blonde, Louise, at the window table who alerted on me like Maggs on a treat. She stood up and intercepted me on my way to my coffee, a dangerous move.

"So, there's a new sheriff in town," she said. She smiled at me, and she was definitely beautiful, and I definitely wanted nothing to do with anybody coming on that strong. Unless it was Rose. Then she added, "I'm thinking about breaking the law."

"Get in line," I told her and tried to detour around her.

She took a step to block my way. "I'd like to report a crime." she said, and when I didn't look interested, she reached out to touch my chest, and I recoiled as she said, "It's a crime how hot you are."

"That's the best you've got?" I said. "Go try it on somebody who'll appreciate it, I have work to do."

She looked surprised, like it was the first time a guy hadn't been interested. "Clearly, I've underestimated you." She looked at me, no come-on now. "And so has everybody else."

I tried to go around her, but she stepped in my path again, not predatory anymore. She looked at me for real, appraising. "And you're the guy who finally got Rose to give up the goods." She narrowed her eyes, surveying me. "Rose is no dummy. Why you?"

"It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma inside of a puzzle," I said and stepped around her to go to the counter where Coral was waiting.

Coral folded her arms, which I knew meant she wasn't happy. "Louise really is very beautiful."

"That's not enough," I told her.

She smiled at me and unfolded her arms. "Good."

I walked around the counter to where Pike was and explained to Pike my desire to wire Oddities.

He shook his head. "Sorry, but I don't deal in that stuff. I'm old school. Eyes on the target. The Ferrells are the ones to see about surveillance gear."

"I wonder if the Ferrells are the ones we should be surveilling," I said.

"Which Ferrell?" Pike asked.

"Both of them," I said.

Pike shook his head. "They hate each other."

"What if that's pretend?"

"They're not good enough to pull that off. And why would they be killing people here?" He shook his head. "Do better, Marshal."

"Hey, I didn't ask for this job," I protested.

Coral had come down the counter to listen and chimed in. "The moment you went upstairs in Oddities you asked for it. You have responsibilities now, Max."

Pike picked up his coffee cup. "You realize there's a good chance Herc will be able to hack into any surveillance gear."

He was right, of course. If I wired the shop, Herc would be watching all day long. Another brilliant plan gone to dust.

"I need to get back to Rose," I told Pike.

Coral brought me a cup of coffee to go, and Pike walked me outside.

Louise came out of Ecstasy behind us, gave me the eye and a little wave, and headed down State Street.

"The problem is, I can't link the three deaths," I told Pike. "Both Melissa and Sid were doing jobs when they were supposed to be retired, but Harvey wasn't working. Herc wouldn't have been happy about Melissa and Sid, but he'd have had no quarrel with Harvey. Sid and Harvey were both after Rose, but Melissa wasn't. I don't believe there's more than one killer, but I can't figure out why anybody would kill all three."

Pike thought about it. "If Herc wanted them dead, I can see the Ferrells doing it. Hell, if Herc told Dottie or Lionel to light themselves on fire, they'd be torches. But if he wanted something done in town, he'd as likely call you, since you're replacing Oz."

"Herc doesn't think I'm replacing Oz," I protested, but I agreed that the Ferrells weren't the kind of people Herc would rely on for wet work. "Do you have any ideas about this? It's pissing me off that we can't get traction on this."

"I have an idea that Louise is heading for the Tennessee post office," Pike said, and I turned to watch Louise walk up Lionel's steps, preparatory to walking all over him again. She disappeared from sight. I couldn't care less about them.

But then Dottie came bursting out of the North Carolina post office, a machete in her hand, and I started to run. There was no way I was going to be able to run fast enough to intercept her, but I sprinted as fast as I could, Pike bringing up the rear. "Dottie! Stop!" I yelled. Like that was going to work.

She didn't even turn her head as she disappeared into her husband's post office. I was breathing way too hard, proving that walking and running were very different activities. I drew my pistol as I went through the post office door, expecting to see blood and splatter, but the front was empty. I heard Louise scream something and Dottie yelling back at her to shut up.

I ran around the counter and into the back. The stairs leading to the SCIF were down and the commotion was coming from up there. I took them two at a time.

When I got to the top, I had to pause to sort out what was going on.

The room was filled with smoke, but there was no sign of an active fire. Louise was standing to the side, intact, frowning at the scene, an empty fire extinguisher in her hand. Lionel was on his back on the metal floor, Dottie kneeling at his side. But she wasn't chopping him to pieces, she was doing chest compressions, humming "Staying Alive" to keep the rhythm. Half the electronic gear was covered in the foam from the extinguisher and there was the distinct odor of burnt plastic and fried electrics in the air.

"What the hell?" I said.

"He was like that when I got here," Louise said, still frowning. "I put the fire out. This makes no sense."

Dottie stopped the compressions and gave two breaths of air into her estranged husband. I knelt on the other side and checked Lionel's neck.

"I've got a pulse," I announced.

Dottie slumped back and Lionel gave a deep, shuddering breath as he came back to life. The machete was forgotten on the floor next to her.

"This is your fault, " Dottie said to Louise, almost sobbing from the stress.

"I didn't do anything," Louise said to her, still calm. "The stairs were down and he was on the floor when I got here and that—" she pointed at the gear, "—was on fire. Nobody can get up here except for you and Lionel, right? How did somebody start this fire? Unless it was just Lionel being inept." Her tone said that would be nothing new.

Dottie glared up at her and her hand darted toward the machete.

"No." I pointed at the smoking electronics. "If she hadn't come up here, you wouldn't have, and Lionel would be dead."

Lionel's eyes opened, saw both women, and closed again.

If he was having a heart attack, he deserved it.

* * *

Louise left before Dottie could regain her composure and lop her head off. It took Lionel about five minutes to become lucid and then he told his story.

He'd been working (so he said) and smelled smoke. When he removed the panel, flames surged out and the smoke almost overwhelmed him. He'd spotted the source: two wires arcing from a surge. He'd grabbed them and pulled them apart, thus getting the shock that had stopped his heart.

"What?" Dottie said. "You idiot. You could have died ." She was clearly shaken.

"I had no choice," Lionel said. "I would have died anyway if the system had gone off." He pointed up and explained. "There's a powerful fire-suppression system built in here that has as its number-one priority keeping the data and machinery safe. It's toxic to anything living."

It was nice to know the designers of SCIFs had their priorities down.

Dottie shook her head. "No. I turned that off right after it was installed."

Lionel blinked. "What? Why?"

"Because it can be set off remotely even if there isn't a fire and, well, you know who has his finger on the button."

Dottie not trusting Herc made perfect sense to me. It also proved she was the brains between the two of them, or at least was the more paranoid.

They were seated side by side, almost in harmony. Dottie had looked at the gear and then said, "I need to check something," and disappeared for a couple of minutes outside.

"Lionel," I said. "Word of advice. Stop pissing Dottie off."

"She's a passionate woman," he said, sounding smug.

Lionel was obviously an idiot.

Dottie came back in and turned to me. "Okay, New Oz. Why would someone want to kill Lionel?"

I thought about saying "Why were you heading here with a machete?" but decided that wouldn't be helpful, and the reason had been obvious and was gone now. "How do you know this was deliberate?"

"The surge." Dottie reached in her blue shirt and showed us a blackened piece of metal. "Someone placed a battery on a line in back of the post office. Sent the surge and it found the weakest point and overheated it, starting the fire."

Since she would be the likely suspect in an attempt to kill Lionel and she'd saved him, this really wasn't making things better. There's faking things and then there's not breathing. And Lionel had not been breathing when we came in. And I didn't see Louise fibbing to help either of them, she'd looked confused and not happy about it. Plus, Dottie was a spur-of-the-moment woman. Whoever did this had a plan.

"Who would know how to do that?" I asked.

Dottie looked at Lionel. He shrugged. "Another snoop. Someone who knows electronics."

"Are there any other retired snoops in Rocky Start?" I asked.

They shook their heads in unison.

"Herc wouldn't have liked that," Dottie explained.

I suddenly realized that this was all a fa?ade. Herc was the actual sheriff of Rocky Start. Except things seemed to be out of his control now.

Harvey dead and an attempt on Lionel on the same day. Our killer was vibrating. This wasn't the careful serial killer Rowan had described.

"Maybe Lionel was collateral damage," I said. "Maybe someone wanted to destroy the SCIF."

"Why?" Dottie asked.

"Do you have footage of the road out of town to the west this morning?" I asked.

Lionel weakly nodded, but Dottie was the one who grabbed the chair and scooted over to the one intact monitor. "Why?"

"Someone killed Harvey on the forest road to Pike's place."

"Well, that'll set Bea free," Dottie said as she typed away. She pointed. "There's Rose walking out of town with your dog. Where the hell is she going?"

"Just keep rolling the tape," I said.

"It's digital, not tape," Lionel groused from the floor.

"There's Harvey," Dottie said, "in that ugly van of his." She checked the time stamp. "Less than three minutes later. He must have had eyeballs on her place and saw her leave."

Less than a minute after, another vehicle appeared heading in the same direction.

It was a hearse.

"That's—" Dottie began.

"Fast forward," I snapped.

A half hour later the second vehicle drove back into town, the deadly deed done.

"I'll be damned—" Dottie began, but I held up a hand. "Keep your eyes on State Street and the roads. Call me if you see Geoffrey Nice again."

I left Pike behind me as I ran out of the SCIF to find Rose.