Casey Mayes - A Killer Column

Just out of camera range, someone had left a stuffed animal, a golden teddy bear with sad brown eyes.

And there was a letter opener plunged into its chest.

Was this a warning for Jenny, or for me?

Chapter 15

JENNY LEANED DOWN TO PICK IT UP WHEN I GRABBED her arm.

“Don’t touch it,” I snapped.

“Why? Do you think it could be booby-trapped?”

“No, but there might be prints on it. I need to call Zach.”

He picked up on the first ring. “Hey, Savannah. We’re now in possession of four new tires. It’s got to be cheaper than what the rental place would have charged us. I’ve got to tell you, Murphy may have his faults, but I like his tire guy.”

“That’s great. How close are you to Jenny’s house?”

He sounded confused as he said, “I thought I was picking you up at the Crest?”

“Plans have changed. Get here as soon as you can.”

“Did something happen?” he asked, his voice shifting into police mode.

“We found a pretty mean little calling card on Jenny’s sidewalk. The only problem is that I can’t tell if it’s for her, or us.”

“Don’t touch anything. I’ll be right there.”

After I hung up, I said, “Zach is on his way.” I started to lean over the teddy bear when Jenny reminded me, “Hey, you told me not to touch it.”

“I’m not about to,” I said as I got closer. “What’s that under him, though?”

She looked with me, and then finally said, “It looks like there’s some kind of note.”

I took a pen from my bag and moved toward the bear.

“Savannah, what are you doing?”

“I want to see what it says,” I answered.

“No. We’re going to go back to my car and wait for your husband.”

“Since when did you become so interested in following the rules?”

“Since I have so much to lose,” she said.

I shrugged, and we walked back to her car to wait on Zach.

In nine minutes, he pulled up in front of her house, the new tires squealing as he stopped.

“Hey, those are brand-new,” I said as he jumped out of my car.

“Then there’s tread to spare. Do you think the rental place is even going to notice that we replaced the tires? What’s going on?”

I pointed to the skewered bear. “Someone’s trying to warn one of us, but we can’t figure out who.”

Zach nodded, looked at the bear, and then took out his cell phone.

“You’re not calling Detective Murphy about the teddy bear, are you?”

“Not yet,” he said. As he lined up his telephone, I suddenly knew what he was doing. “You’re taking a picture for the record, aren’t you?”

“What can it hurt?” After he got his shot, he took his borrowed pen and nudged the teddy bear onto his side. Taking his bandana out, Zach gently pulled out the note from underneath it, and then laid the bear back down.

Jenny and I looked at it at the same time he did. It said in block letters,

DON’T BREAK MY HEART, JENNIFER.

“It’s for you,” I said as I turned to Jenny.

“Wonderful. It’s a shame whoever did it didn’t give us the courtesy of appearing on camera.”

“How do we know he didn’t?” Zach asked. “We need to check the DVD.”

“Should I get the bear?” I asked as he started toward the house.

“Leave it right where it is,” he ordered, and I could see how he’d commanded a room full of cops. There was an air of unquestioning authority in his voice that made me want to obey. In our marriage, it was something I generally did my best to ignore, but this time, I decided he was right. Zach was a world better at handling evidence, while I tended to be better at putting seemingly unrelated pieces together until there was a complete picture. We were the perfect complement of each other.

Zach placed the note on Jenny’s table, and two minutes later, came back with the bear. It was almost sweet the way he’d wrapped his bandana under it to carry it.

I felt really bad for the bear.

And worse for Jenny.

She looked pretty shaken up by this latest discovery. “This is serious now, isn’t it?”

Zach nodded. “I won’t lie to you, this isn’t a good sign.”

Way to sugarcoat it , I thought.

But he was right.

We looked at the DVD, but the only trespass it had captured was a neighborhood cat running across the frame.

“He’s smart,” I said.

“A little too smart, if you ask me.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s pretty clear that he spotted my cameras. Why else leave the bear on the sidewalk?”

“You did a masterful job of hiding the cameras,” I said.

“I think so, too. To spot them, you almost had to know that they were there.”

“Do you mean like if someone saw you looking at them at the store?” Jenny asked.

Zach nodded. “Mason Glade.”

“Hang on a second,” I said. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. There’s someone else who might be able to spot a camera. Say someone with a cop’s eye for detail?”

“Murphy,” Jenny said. She stared at the bear, and then said, “Yes, he could have done this.”

“Does that take Charlie off our list? He wasn’t at the store, and he certainly doesn’t have a cop’s eye for detail. He couldn’t have seen you plant them, he was gone, remember?”

“Sure,” Zach said, “but could he have been watching us from the corner before he came home? Did anyone notice anything?”

None of us had. After a moment, I said, “Then we’re right back where we started from.”

“Maybe not,” Zach said. He gently removed the letter opener, as if operating on a real patient. After examining the blade, he set it aside and started looking at the bear.

“This wasn’t cheap,” he finally said.

“All the more reason not to butcher it,” Jenny said.

“That’s not what I’m getting at. There’s a good chance a grown man bought it. We need pictures of the three of them so we can show some toy store owners in town.”

“I’ve got photos of Mason and Murphy from when we were together,” Jenny said. “Charlie might be a problem.”

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

She retrieved a shoebox from her bedroom and opened the lid. Inside were an assortment of photographs, talismans, and other small reminders of lost loves. Jenny was a nester, and that was a good thing at the moment. After she pulled out two reasonable photos of her former boyfriends, she said, “Hang on. I have to have a picture of Charlie somewhere.”

She frowned, and then went to one of the bookcases. Jenny took a photo album out, started leafing through the pages, and then suddenly stopped. “Is this good enough?”

We both peered over her shoulder and saw a photo of a block party, clearly taken out front. It showed Charlie smiling for the camera, and Zach said, “It’s perfect. Now we’re cooking. Tomorrow, we’ll start looking for that teddy bear’s mates.”

“In the meantime, there are some things I need to discuss with you,” I said to Zach.

“Understood,” Zach said.

“So, where do we begin? With the keys we found earlier?” Jenny asked.

I’d been about to pull out the planner, but that could wait. “Sure,” I said as I retrieved them from my jacket pocket.

I handed them to Zach, and as he took them, he asked, “Where did you find these?”

“Jenny found them while we were searching Derrick’s hotel room.”

“And you didn’t think to turn them over to his wife?”

I recognized that tone of voice, and I wasn’t in any mood to hear it, especially from my husband. “Zach, we weren’t about to give her what could be an important clue. If we decide they aren’t going to help us, we can ‘find’ them someplace else.”