A Killer of a Case: McCall / Malone Mystery, #9

CHAPTER ONE

THEN

Something was wrong with the doll.

It looked okay on the outside. The frilly pink dress was clean and neatly in place. The blond hair was carefully combed. The shiny plastic skin was without any dust or blemish.

But inside, something was broken. The doll wouldn’t sit up straight, slumping to the side no matter what the little girl did to fix it.

She trembled as she tried one more time and then gave up with a sniffle. She set the doll on a shelf, in one corner leaning against the wall. The rest of that shelf held her schoolbooks.

Maybe Daddy wouldn’t notice. Daddy didn’t like things that were broken. It could be bad.

She climbed back into bed, lay on her side, pulled her legs up, and clutched a pillow to her chest. She wished her mother hadn’t died.

Apart from the doll, her room was perfect as always: her toys put away, her bed made, her little desk clean. The books on the shelf all straight. Just the way Daddy liked it. Except for the doll. She wished she had a sister, or even a brother. Someone.

She was half-asleep when she heard the first shout. She was wide awake when she heard the second and realized that it was not Daddy. Who could it be and why was he yelling? There was never anyone in the house but her and Daddy. Was Daddy gone? Had he left her alone with a strange man in the house? But the stranger was clearly yelling at someone. Daddy? Was he in trouble? What would she do if he was in trouble? She had no phone in her room and he would never forgive her if she brought the police into the house.

She eased herself off the bed onto the floor so that she couldn’t be seen from her doorway. She held her breath as she heard more shouting, including Daddy now, and then things breaking.

She closed her eyes tight. Oh, this was really bad.

Then, abruptly, it was quiet.

Really quiet. There was total silence, except for the susurration of her own shallow breathing as she listened for something, anything, to tell her what had happened, what was happening.

After what seemed like a very long time, she raised her head to peek over the bed at the doorway. No one. Nothing.

Slowly, slowly, she edged around the end of the bed and crept across the room to the hallway. Still no sound other than her own breathing. She moved to her left, as silently as she possibly could. That was the nearest way out, but also the direction the sounds had come from.

She got past the first open doorway, Daddy’s bedroom, without any problem. The second open doorway, the bathroom, without any problem. Then she reached the living room, where the front door was.

All the shades were pulled, blocking most of the early morning light. But all she had to do was cross the room and go out the front door. What she would do then, she wasn’t sure, but she knew something bad had happened in here and she wanted to be out there.

She dashed for the door.

And tripped over something halfway across the room, going down on her knees hard. She couldn’t help crying out before she scrambled to her feet and looked down to see what had tripped her.

Even in the dim light, she could see it was Daddy. Lying in a pool of blood. In all her eleven years, she had never seen so much blood. She froze in place, making no sound, not even breathing.

Her breath returned in a gasp as she detected movement out of the corner of her eye. Someone else was in the room. After a moment, she forced herself to look up.

Then she began to scream and, on some level, never stopped.

CHAPTER TWO

NOW

Morty has been kidnapped!

The wail exploded into the room the second I answered the agency main line. I’d seen on the display it was our old client Agatha Pepper and put it on speaker so that my wife and partner could also say hello to her.

Apparently we were going to skip the niceties.

Ms. Pepper! Agatha! I interrupted a second, even more prolonged wail. This is Clint and Devon is here, too. You’re on the speakerphone. Tell us what happened.

I just told you! Morty has been kidnapped!

Ms. Pepper was an elderly retired librarian and Morty was her hefty and equally elderly beagle.

Malone leaned in and I could tell she was suppressing a grin so it wouldn’t be in her voice. When and where was Morty kidnapped, Agatha? And do you know who did it?

It was three hours ago! Three hours! And Rodney has only just told me!

Ah, I said with no surprise at all in my voice, the dog was taken from Rodney. Rodney was Agatha’s ne'er-do-well and not-very-bright nephew who was recently written into her will after trying to kill her several times. Long story. Maybe we’d better get the specifics from him, I continued.

You can’t! I’ve thrown him out of the house! And out of the will, as soon as I can get to it. Irresponsible twat!

Malone stepped in again. Take a deep breath, Agatha, and stop yelling. As calmly and clearly as you can, tell us what you know of what happened. We can’t go out and find Morty with no information.

Malone and I made eye contact, which was not that easy when we were both rolling our eyes. I’d joked a couple of months ago about getting into the business of pet-finding, but I hadn’t expected the reality.

We listened to our old—and apparently new—client take a couple of breaths. Rodney took Morty for a walk this morning, as usual. He stopped in a delicatessen for a snack or a coffee, I don’t know, and left Morty tied up outside, just for a minute, so he says. Another deep breath, followed by a small sob. Morty was gone when he came out.

And that was about three hours ago? So, eight or a little after, Malone confirmed.

Yes.

Which delicatessen?

Agatha and Rodney Pepper lived in Lake Oswego, one of the richer suburbs of the Portland metro area. I didn’t think there were very many delicatessens there.

The Lake Oswego Deli, of course!

Of course.

Did Rodney see anyone suspicious? I asked. Or maybe a vehicle fleeing the scene? Anything like that?

Not that he mentioned. Another stifled sob. I confess I didn’t give him much chance to talk after it became clear that he’d lost Morty.

Do you have any idea where Rodney is now? We need to talk to him.

Oh, he’s probably in back.

In back?

There’s a small cottage at the back of my property here. That’s where he usually goes when he’s afraid of me.

Aha. Well, we’ll come out to interview him for further details as soon as possible and of course we’ll also check out the deli to see if there were any witnesses.

Please hurry. God knows who has Morty or what is happening to him.

We’ll be there as soon as we can, my partner assured her.

All right. And if I get any ransom calls in the meantime, I’ll take notes.

That’s good, Agatha. We’ll see you soon. Malone stood to reach across the desk and end the call. Good thing we don’t have a lot on our plate right now, she said as she sat back down. How the hell are we going to find a kidnapped beagle?

I shrugged, having no more idea than she did. We’ve got to give it a try. You know Agatha dotes on Morty. She’d be devastated if he were gone forever. Plus, I’d hate to see her convicted of Rodney’s murder. I’m sure she still has that handgun of hers, especially now that she’s famous for it.

Malone swiveled her chair a little to look down on Stark Street and the Monday morning busyness of Portland’s downtown. Yeah, we’ve got to save the dog to save the two humans. She grinned. Plus, we’ll be getting our per diem to investigate a dognapping. Let’s get going.

But it was not to be. We were just getting to our feet and I’d opened my desk drawer to retrieve my Smith and Wesson when there was a very soft knock on our door. It opened slightly and stopped.

Come on in, I called as I closed the drawer again.

The door swung the rest of the way to reveal a small young woman, maybe late twenties, rail thin, with pale complexion and almost white blond hair—an adult waif who looked like she would twang if you flicked her with a finger.

She stood in the doorway wearing a light jacket over a prim, knee-length green dress and clutching a small leather purse.

Can we help you? I inquired.

Are you the detectives? Her voice was as frail as her frame.

I stood up and gestured for her to come further in. Yes, I’m Clint McCall and this is my partner Devon Malone. What can we do for you?

She didn’t move, just looked from one of us to the other. I want you to find out who I am.

CHAPTER THREE

I exchanged a quick glance with Malone. I think you’d better have a seat, I said to the young woman.

She made her way across the room to the visitor’s chair nearest me and carefully settled herself, sitting very straight with the purse positioned squarely in her lap. She seemed to be waiting for us to speak first.

So I did. You don’t know who you are?

The corner of her mouth twitched as if there might be a smile back there somewhere. Or possibly a grimace. Well, I know that my name is Sylvia Ralston, that Sharon and Jeffrey Ralston were my adoptive parents, and that I write cozy mysteries under the name Lynn Hanna. What I don’t know is my original name, my birth parents, or what happened to make me forget all that.

Wow was all I could think to say for a moment.

So Malone took over. Maybe you’d better start at the beginning, whenever that is. How far back do you remember?

The woman seemed to relax slightly. Twenty years. I was found unconscious in an alley here in Portland, near the downtown area. I had a variety of injuries, evidence of abuse both sexual and physical. When I finally came to, after several days in a coma, I remembered nothing. Not who I was or where I’d been or what happened. Nothing. They estimated that I was ten or eleven years old.

Sylvia Ralston did not look like a rich woman, so I figured I’d better jump to the bottom line before we got too far. Two decades is a very long time. Trying to find out what happened that long ago could be a lengthy and very expensive process with no guarantee of success.

Again there was that twitch. I was put in the foster system after I got out of the hospital, of course, but less than a year later I was adopted by the Ralstons who had no children of their own. Lucky for me, they had plenty of money. My father, my adoptive father, developed a number of computer games that were very successful. Now that they have both passed, I’ve inherited a sizable fortune.

How did they die? asked Malone.

My mother died of cancer four years ago and my father in a car accident almost a year ago.

Did no one ever report you missing?

No. No one. There were no missing person reports that could have been me.

And you never tried to find out about your true identity before now?

She sighed. No. No, I haven’t. It’s complicated. I always got the subtle but strong message from my adoptive parents that they didn’t want me to look. I don’t know why. But I grew up with that and it’s taken me almost a year to get past it even now that I’m entirely free to do as I choose.

You were entirely free when you turned eighteen. Devon Malone was not one for subtlety.

The young woman shrugged it off. "Like I said, it’s complicated. Jeffrey and Sharon Ralston rescued me from foster care—where I was not thriving, to say the least, and provided me with love and education and material well-being. I went from nothing to everything overnight thanks to them and I never wanted to go against them."

I took a turn. Have you done any checking of your own? Adoption records, old friends of your adoptive parents, anybody?

She shook her head. No, that’s why I’m here. I’m not up for it even now. I want to go back to my writing and leave it to the professionals. She looked at Malone, sitting on the other side of our partners desk with her shoulder-length brunette hair and all-black leather outfit including kickass boots. The contrast between the two women was pretty extreme. You two are married as well as partners, right?

You’ve done your research, replied my wife.

Yes, I have. You were a police officer in Tigard and then a detective who worked on missing persons cases here in Portland. She transferred her attention to me. And you were a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and then professor—with a fourth-degree black belt, I understand.

Very good, I responded.

And now you’re partners in this detective agency.

Yes.

She looked from me to Malone and back, maybe wondering what the svelte and mid-thirties Malone was doing with the slightly stocky, slightly balding guy in his mid-fifties. So. Will you take my case?

Or maybe that.

Malone and I exchanged our own look across the desk. We couldn’t pass it up. Of course we will, I told Sylvia Ralston as I pulled another drawer open. We can do the paperwork and get started if you’re prepared to give us a retainer."

I have my checkbook right here.

And now we had a lot on our plate.

CHAPTER FOUR

The past two months, since the latest rescue of my daughter and her boyfriend in August, had been relatively quiet. Just the normal routine of cheating spouses, disappearing creditors, and larcenous employees. Our one ongoing case of any urgency was a downtown jewelry store that wanted their security evaluated and enhanced. It was urgent only because they’d recently been robbed and they were extremely nervous about being hit again.

It shouldn’t be that hard, I thought, to add in the search for a kidnapped dog and the identity of our new client. The latter would probably just be a lot of research, most of which would be done by others anyway.

My daughter Colleen and her boyfriend Hoke, by the way, seemed to have a clearer focus since their last adventure. At the moment, in fact, they were both fully and gainfully employed: Colleen was the assistant stage manager at a reputable downtown theater and Hoke was working for a construction company that was a regular client of ours. I held out some faint hope that they’d both stick with it.

In a further half-hour or so of paperwork and interviewing, we learned among many other things that Sylvia Ralston had never been married and didn’t currently have a boyfriend. Then we sent her on her way to gather any records and notes she could find from around the time she was found, treated, and placed in foster care. The door closed behind her as I sat staring at the remarkably hefty check she had left in my hand. Malone drew my attention by standing and retrieving her Glock from her desk drawer.

If you’re done drooling, she said, we need to head for Lake Oswego. We still have a dog to find and Ms. Pepper may have shot Rodney by now. I’m surprised she hasn’t called to see what happened to us.

Indeed. I stashed the check and paperwork in the middle drawer, got my Smith and Wesson from the side drawer, and followed my partner out of the office.

Since Morty did not require much advance planning, we mostly discussed the Ralston case as I drove us to Lake Oswego in my Subaru Outback.

Along the way, Malone called Portland Police Lieutenant Mike Whitehall, my long-time friend and her former colleague, to ask if he could track down any report on the discovery of Sylvia Ralston in that alley twenty years ago. He said he’d try, but it might take a while. He hadn’t entirely forgiven me yet for involving him in the extralegal violence two months ago. While he didn’t mention it, I knew it might add a little more delay.

Nevertheless, it allowed us to feel we’d started the research on Ms. Ralston’s case before we delved into the dognapping.

It was a little past noon as I drove up Agatha Pepper’s tree-lined driveway to her front portico. The three-story home was almost large enough to qualify as a mini-mansion. For a retired librarian, Ms. Pepper had done quite well financially, probably because she was even more intelligent than she was eccentric. Which was saying a lot.

I hope she’s planning to feed us, my partner muttered as we bailed out of the car and climbed the three steps to the porch.

The door opened before we could knock and there she stood, looking very much as she had when she’d first come to our office: classic little old lady, wearing a colorfully patterned muumuu that fell almost to her ankles, a bright red ribbon holding her white hair in a long ponytail.

The biggest difference was her drawn and worried countenance. She’d been happy and excited to hire private detectives because someone was trying to kill her. A missing Morty, on the other hand, was serious business.

At last! she cried. I thought you’d never come. She anxiously motioned us inside.

We hadn’t been in her home before and we found ourselves in a large foyer of muted colors with what looked like an actual crystal chandelier hanging from a twelve-foot-ceiling. There was a broad staircase to our left, an archway leading to a large sitting area ahead of us, and a closed door to our right. Very close to a mini-mansion, indeed.

The living room to which our client escorted us was much more in her style—colorful cushions on colorful couches with colorful drapes and wall decorations. It was a little like walking into the largest candy store I’d ever seen.

Sit, sit, she urged us to the nearest couch, which happened to be deep purple with bright green cushions. Tell me what you’ve done so far. She lighted on a bright yellow chair nearby and bounced a little. I was already beginning to wish I had some Dramamine.

I held up both hands placatingly. We haven’t done anything yet, Agatha. As I told you on the phone, we need to talk to Rodney and get as many details as we can about what happened then check out the deli.

And then?

Well, hopefully we’ll get a lead somewhere in there. I glanced around the room, squinting slightly. Rodney’s not here?

Agatha Pepper huffed. Must you talk to him?

Of course.

All right. There must have been a pocket somewhere in the folds of the muumuu because she produced a phone and tapped it, then put it to her ear. Rodney? Are you in the cottage? She listened a moment. No, I don’t forgive you, but I need you in the house. The detectives are here to review your many failings. She shoved the phone back into her garment and we waited.

It was about three minutes later that we heard a door open and close somewhere in the back of the house, followed by footsteps hurrying in our direction. Rodney Pepper duly appeared in the archway.

He too looked about the same as when we’d last seen him: younger than his thirty years, with tousled brown hair above a round face with deceptively innocent blue eyes and a small silver earring in his left earlobe. He was stocky heading toward hefty, wearing a white tee shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes.

He glanced at us but focused on Ms. Pepper. I am so sorry, Aunt Agatha.

Piffle. Get in here, sit your butt down, and start making up for it.

He scuttled—there was no other word for it—to the nearest free armchair and perched on the front edge. He looked at us, then dropped his gaze to the floor. What can I tell you?

Start at the beginning, Malone told him, when you left the house with Morty. Every detail. Don’t leave anything out.

He looked up again. You’ll be able to find him, won’t you?

We’ll do our best, she responded with some asperity. I recognized the tone: hamburger deficient.

But we need your help, Rodney, I jumped in.

Okay. Well, I always take Morty for a walk first thing after breakfast. That’s what we did this morning. We left between seven and seven-thirty and took our usual route.

Which is? That was my partner.

Five blocks east on this street here, then five blocks north, then ten blocks west, then five blocks south, and finally back home.

Where is the deli in all that? I asked.

About the middle of the ten blocks west.

What’s the name of the street?

I don’t know. I’ve never paid any attention.

Ookay. Well, what happened when you were at the deli? Every detail.

He closed his eyes as if trying to picture it all. I tied Morty’s leash to the bike rack out front as I always do. I went inside. There was a guy behind the counter and no other customers...oh, and I think there was an employee out front, sweeping the sidewalk. Yes, there was. I ordered my coffee, paid, came back out...and Morty was gone. There was no one in sight, on foot anyway.

What happened to the person sweeping the sidewalk? my partner asked.

Rodney thought about it. I don’t know. Maybe he came back inside while I was getting my coffee—or maybe he went around back for something.

That needed some further investigation, right there, but I had another question. Are you sure you didn’t see anyone else or anything unusual? Think. Take your time.

He took his time, eyes closed again, sweat beading on his forehead. Well...I think there was a girl....

A girl? That was Malone.

A kid, that was walking by while I was tying Morty’s leash to the bike rack.

What did she look like?

I don’t know. She was a girl, young girl, maybe twelve or fourteen, dark hair, short.

She was short or her hair was short?

Hair. She was average size, I guess.

How was she dressed?

He made a face. Shit, I don’t know. Dark clothes. Pants, not a dress. Some kind of top. I don’t know.

I exchanged a glance with Malone. We weren’t going to get anything else. I stood up and looked down at Agatha who had been quiet throughout our questioning of her nephew except for the occasional snort. We’ll do our best to find Morty, I said.

She scooted forward in her chair and glared first at me, then significantly at Rodney. I just hope we all survive this misadventure. I didn’t think she was talking about us or Morty. From the way he paled even further, I don’t think Rodney thought that,