Jenn McKinlay - Due Or Die

“Did Markus call the police?” Lindsey asked. This would be excellent, as it would give the police yet another lead.

“No, Milton Duffy happened by and tried to talk them both into doing some sort of yoga thing together,” Nancy said. “Markus refused because of his back, and Dale just stalked off toward the package store.”

“I never heard about this,” Carrie said, and she began to fret her lower lip with her teeth. “I wonder why no one told me.”

“Probably, so you wouldn’t worry,” Charlie said. “Dale drunk is flat-out scary. Sully won’t even let him on the pier if he smells booze on him.”

An icicle snapped off the side of the house and fell with a thump. They all jumped. Lindsey’s back was hot now, so she scooted off the hearth and sat on the floor beside Heathcliff, who obligingly rolled onto his back to have his belly rubbed.

“Well, this does give us a new direction to look in,” Lindsey said. “Was there anyone else Markus had an altercation with recently?”

“Define altercation,” Carrie said. “He had a row with our handyman, Clyde Perkins, over the tile we hired him to put in our bathroom. Markus refused to pay him when he was done because he said he didn’t like the way the tiles felt under his feet. He thought they were too spongy.”

Nancy shook her head and Charlie blew a breath out between his lips.

“What happened?” Lindsey asked.

“I had to pay Clyde on the sly,” Carrie said. “But, oh, he was so mad at Markus. Apparently, Markus said he did shoddy work and he was going to report him to the Better Business Bureau.”

“Then what happened?”

“I believe Clyde threatened to use his tile cutter on him.”

Nancy clucked. “Clyde is one of the best handymen in town.”

“I know,” Carrie said. “Markus also got into a tiff with Della Navarro, his physical therapist. He said she was nothing more than a gym teacher and should have her therapist license revoked. He was going to file a complaint against her.”

“Della is a big girl,” Charlie said. “I don’t think I’d sass her.”

“Didn’t she rehab Cooper Highsmith after his car accident?” Nancy asked.

“Yes,” Carrie said. “She got him walking again when they said he never would.”

“Wow, I’m surprised she didn’t snap your husband like a twig,” Charlie said.

Carrie sighed. “My husband was not an easy person.”

Nancy and Lindsey glanced swiftly at one another and then away. Not fast enough, however.

“What was that look for?” Carrie asked.

“What look?” Nancy asked.

Lindsey gave her props for sounding so innocent, but she knew they were busted.

“That look that says you think I’m mental,” Carrie said.

“No, that’s not it,” Charlie said. He moved his leg right before the toe of Nancy’s sneaker would have connected with his shin in an attempt to shut him up.

“Oh?” Carrie looked at him. “What is it, then?”

“It’s just that no one in town has ever been able to figure out how such a nice lady like you ended up with such an old, well, stinker,” Charlie said.

“Charlie!” Nancy reprimanded him, but Carrie held up her hand to indicate that it was okay.

“He wasn’t always like that,” she said.

Nancy looked at her with one eyebrow raised in disbelief.

“Oh, all right, he was always like that,” Carrie said with a sigh. “He really thought the world owed him.”

“You think?” Nancy asked. “I mean, I didn’t know him well, but even I knew that he spent his days cooking up one crazy, get-rich-quick scheme after another.”

“Yeah,” Charlie snorted. “He wanted Sully to buy some boat parts from him. He’d gotten them from some guy at the dump and they were crap.”

Carrie nodded, looking pained. “I remember that.”

“He was so mad when Sully said, no, thank you.” Charlie shook his head. “He really thought he was going to make a fortune.”

“Oh, and remember when he wanted the Blue Anchor to carry his signature cookies?” Nancy asked. “Turns out he was buying the nearly expired throw-out cookies from the bakery and palming them off as his own.”

Nancy tsked. Lindsey could tell that this left Nancy with a particularly bad taste in her mouth, not surprising since she was known for baking the best cookies in town.

“He said he always figured he’d be rich and living in a mansion like the Sint estate by the water on the bay,” Carrie said. “But he never wanted to work for it.”

“So, why did you stay with him?” Lindsey asked. She couldn’t imagine what Carrie had seen in such a lazy scam artist.

“I just, well, I made a vow. And when you make a vow, you have to stick to it.”

“Oh.” Charlie nodded. “So, when you made your wedding vows before God, you took them to heart. I get it. That’s really admirable.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Carrie said.

They all looked at her. A wry smile parted her lips.

“I know God would have forgiven me for leaving Markus. He was a miserable person and tended to bring everyone around him right down into the muck with him. Truly, he is…was a complete downer.”

“Then why did you stay?” Lindsey asked.

“His mother, on her deathbed, she made me swear I’d never leave him,” Carrie said. “She was dying. I couldn’t refuse.”

“So you kept your vow to a dying woman,” Charlie said as if it all made sense now. “Wow, that’s amazing.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Carrie said. Then she snorted. “The truth is, I was afraid the old bat would haunt me if I broke my promise. The only person more high maintenance than Markus was his mother. God rest her soul.”

“I think you were wise. If there was a woman who could haunt you, it would be Jane Rushton,” Nancy said. “You were right to be afraid.”

The two women looked at each other with sheepish grins. Charlie looked at them like they were both loony, which made them laugh.

He looked at Lindsey for backup, but she had started to crack up as well. Probably, it was exhaustion creeping up on her, but she couldn’t stop the indelicate snort that escaped through her nose.

Surprised, Charlie laughed at her, and Heathcliff hopped to his feet to lick any face he could reach.

A deep, repeated banging broke through their laughter.

“What was that?” Nancy asked.

They all went silent, listening. Then the banging started again.

BRIAR CREEK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

For a crazy second, Lindsey thought it was Jane Rushton coming to haunt them for being so callous as to laugh at her.

Heathcliff, the bravest of them all, charged the door, barking a warning.

“It sounds like someone knocking on the front door,” Charlie said. He rose slowly to his feet. “Who would be insane enough to come out in this weather?”

“Well, you did,” Lindsey said.

She stood, too, feeling more nervous than she wanted to let on. At least Charlie lived here. It wasn’t so odd that he’d tried to get in during the storm. But now that all of the residents were accounted for, there was no reason for anyone to be knocking.

“Well, we won’t know until we answer it,” Charlie said. He picked up a flashlight and led the way, leaving Lindsey and the others to follow him. He opened Nancy’s apartment door and peered out into the darkness.

“Hello?” he called.

There was no response.

Heathcliff began to growl low in his throat. Lindsey reached down and stroked his head. The fur between his shoulder blades bristled, and Lindsey tried to soothe him with whispered words of comfort. Heathcliff wasn’t having any of it.

“Stay back,” Charlie said. “I’ll answer it.”