Can You Picture This? (Sam Darling Mystery #3) Read online

  “Hi ya, Sam,” George approached me and gave me a peck on the cheek. “Hey, Richie. What’s up?” He looked back at me as he asked it.

  “Well,” I said, scared to be confessing my screw up. “Well, Richie accidentally took a picture of a stabbing. We don’t know if the victim is dead or not, but it looked pretty serious. It happened between 5 and 10 AM. The light makes it look like it was around 6 to 8, wouldn’t you agree, Richie?”

  He nodded. Richie had a smile on his face that showed his excitement.

  George looked thoughtful and said, “We’ve not had any reports of a stabbing, at least not that that I’m aware of. Why don’t you two come in back with me?”

  He took my arm solicitously and we went into the police station proper. A hive of cops and support personnel kept the place buzzing. George ushered us to his corner of the world, and we sat—him on one side of the desk and Richie and I on the other.

  I still hadn’t confessed.

  “Where’s the photo?” George asked with great interest.

  “You see, I…‌I mean Richie…” At Richie’s growl I went back to, “Well, I…‌I…”

  “Sam, spit it out,” George said, all business now.

  “I think I lost it.”

  “Lost it?” His face showed his disbelief. He wasn’t too upset. He hadn’t noticed yet that it was a Polaroid camera. “Well, it’s still on the camera, right?”

  I looked at the camera. Richie looked at the camera. George looked at the camera.

  “What in the hell are you doing using this kind of camera, Richie? Haven’t you ever heard of digital? And, Sam, why in the hell would you be so careless as to lose the only picture of the so-called crime?”

  “So-called crime? You don’t believe us? Just because it’s going to be easier on you to pretend it didn’t happen, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Richie and I both saw the picture. We have it in our brains. You might want to have someone interview us separately about what we saw.”

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job!”

  Now his voice was raised and his face was red. Because he was losing his hair, I could see the redness all over his head. I didn’t think I’d ever seen George this angry since we had started dating. He was usually sweet and very understanding of my sometimes ditzy ways.

  More quietly George added, “We do have to take a statement though. It’s policy.

  Ignoring his last comment, I stood. “C’mon, Richie,” I said, trying to sound dignified. “Let’s go solve this one ourselves.”

  THREE

  The thing that really made me mad was that George didn’t try to stop us. The only thing in his favor was that when I looked back at him, he wasn’t laughing. When Richie and I got outside the police station, my phone whistled, signifying an incoming text.

  I stopped to read it. Richie stopped a few steps ahead. “It’s from George,” I whispered to myself, happy that he was going to apologize.

  Instead, the text said, “I love you. See you tonight.”

  See you tonight? After he practically called me a liar. Yeah, right. Then another whistle. “You’re right. There I said it. Please come back in so we can get a description of the picture you saw.”

  What a guy. Not afraid to say he was wrong. It would be hard for me to do, but he didn’t have all the “quirks” I had. Maybe eventually some of his more positive characteristics would rub off on me.

  I said to Richie, “George wants us to come back in and describe what we saw.” There was a look of satisfaction on my face that I wasn’t proud of. So I promised myself I wouldn’t gloat when I saw George.

  As Richie and I walked back into the station, I literally ran into George rushing out.

  Over his shoulder he said, “Sorry. Just got a call. Have to go. Officer Darling will talk to you.”

  I couldn’t be mad at George, even though it would have been fun to be able to feel superior for a moment. And even though Rob was a “lowly” newbie, it was cool of George to have my brother be the one to interview us.

  The receptionist buzzed us through and Rob met us on the other side of the door.

  Right away, I said, “You just left. What happened?”

  “Oh, Jimmy just wanted to talk to me about something. I came in by the back way.” He motioned for Richie to take a seat in the hall and he ushered me into an interrogation room. It was a stereotypical interview room. Not much different than the ones on TV—metal table and cinderblock walls. Ugly and cold.

  “I thought I’d interview you first, because you’re older and more likely to forget what you saw.”

  I was ready to punch his cute face, but then I noticed the grin. My baby brother was teasing me. And he sure knew how to get to me. “Okay, okay,” I said. “Let’s get this over with while I still remember.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me what happened,” Rob said as he turned on a digital recorder. “Is it okay if I tape this?”

  I nodded, and then realizing that it was an audio recording, said, “Yes,” too. Then I began.

  “This morning I ran into Richie. He startled me by taking a flash photo of my face while I was walking, so I shoved his bike away. Naturally, he fell over, and he was upset at me. Then I…”

  “Sam, I don’t need all the ‘before’ details. Tell me about the picture.”

  I didn’t like it, but complied. “Well, if you don’t want the whole scenario…‌for context…‌Richie showed me a photo of a man collapsed against a building. Another man, in a bright blue hoodie, was stabbing him in cold blood, right at the time the picture was taken. It looked like a rather large knife being pushed inside the guy. I’d say it was near his heart, but not quite that high. Definitely on the left side though.” I paused a moment. “Oh, I forgot. Richie told me it was taken between 5 and 10 AM, or maybe 10:30 AM. I can’t remember.”

  “Good, Sam. Good. Now close your eyes and see if there are any other details you can remember.” My little brother was good at this.

  I did as he asked, and visualized what the instant photo looked like. “The light in the photo showed it couldn’t have been taken as early as 5. It was too light for that hour. So I guess I’d say 6 to 8. Sorry I can’t be more exact about that.” I scrunched up my face as I tried to see more.

  “Relax a little more,” Rob suggested. “Don’t try to force it. Do you remember where the sunlight was coming from?”

  I felt my shoulders and my face relax. “From the left maybe. And the building, the building had limestone blocks on the bottom. It was white above the foundation.” But many of Quincy’s buildings had limestone blocks in them. The city was built on limestone bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, so that didn’t narrow things down too much.

  “Good. Good. Was there anything else in the picture? Grass, streets, lights, vehicles?”

  Deliberately relaxing my shoulders again, I went back to the picture in my mind. “I saw a green bush, a little grass, and some blacktop maybe. Not a sidewalk. Something looked familiar, but I’m not sure what.”

  “Okay, Sam. Open your eyes.”

  As I did, I looked at my baby brother in a new light. Not only was he a rookie cop, he was also someone who would make detective in the future. I was sure of it.

  He then said, “You did a great job. When you sit out in the hall, relax and think about the picture. If you come up with anything else, let me know when I’m finished talking with Richie.”

  I nodded, and got up to leave, but not before I said, “You did a great job, too.”

  Richie and I exchanged places and I could imagine what he was saying to Rob. The one thing I hadn’t remembered to ask Richie was where he had ridden that morning. I’d have to ask later.

  But the next time I saw him he was in no position to talk.

  FOUR

  While I sat, waiting for Rob to finish talking to Richie, I realized it had been a long time between bathroom breaks. My phone rang as I looked down the long, green-tiled hallway and saw the universal sign for bathroom s
ticking out from the wall. I answered my phone, thinking that I still had a few minutes before Richie would be done.

  The phone call was a computer reminder that I had a reunion committee meeting on Wednesday night. I quickly made sure the appointment was in the calendar of my smart phone as I walked briskly to the women’s bathroom. There were only two stalls inside and both were occupied, so I leaned against another green tiled wall and waited. Waited with my legs crossed. As I uncrossed and sat I felt the universal relief that only comes from this situation.

  I hadn’t planned to be away that long, but as I washed my hands I thought that I wasn’t gone long enough for Richie to be done with the interview. When I tried to exit the ladies’ room, there were two women trying to get in. They wouldn’t budge, so I had to back up and step aside to let them enter. I did take an extra moment to give them dirty looks, but of course, it didn’t change anything.

  I looked back down the hall and saw that the row of metal chairs was empty, so I felt relief that Richie wasn’t done yet. But when I got to the chairs, I also noticed that the door to the interrogation room was open and the light was off.

  Hurrying out to the lobby, I didn’t see Richie or Rob there either. I asked the receptionist to page Rob. In a few minutes he appeared looking a little confused.

  “Where’s Richie?” we both said together.

  Rob started talking right away. “When we were finished we thought you must have gone to the car, since you weren’t in the hallway. So Richie went out to your car.”

  “I was in the bathroom,” I said. “He’s probably waiting out there for me.”

  But he wasn’t.

  I retraced our route, reversing it and driving from the police station to my home, impatient with every traffic light, but no Richie. I didn’t know if he had a cell phone or not, but at any rate I didn’t know how to contact him. And when I got home his bike was still parked next to the carriage house. I left again, thinking he might have walked a different way. Again, no luck.

  By then I was worried, but not yet frantic. I called Rob on his cell and told his voice mail of my concerns. I called George, and left a little more detail since he hadn’t been in on the interviews. I even called Michael to see if he had Richie’s cell phone number, but there was no answer. I called the Quincy Whig, but the newspaper employee told me they were not allowed to give out private numbers.

  I returned home and decided to stop thinking about Richie, knowing he would turn up sooner or later. As I entered the house, I heard the TV and the sounds of laughter. The picture I saw in the living room was one that made my heart smile. My grown-up kids, Adam and Sarah, were sitting on the couch watching TV and laughing. For a brief moment it brought me back to their childhood days when they’d watch cartoons together on a Saturday morning. Sure it was Saturday morning now, but near lunchtime instead of early morning. But when I got inside far enough to see what they were watching, I saw the TV was turned to the Cartoon Channel.

  “Some things never change,” I said as I wiggled between the two of them on the couch.

  Adam lowered the sound with the remote and put his arm around me. Sarah did the same on the other side of me.

  “We made a Mommy Sandwich,” Sarah said. Same thing she used to say when she was small when both kids hugged me at the same time.

  This was a slice of heaven. “You guys hungry? It’s lunchtime.”

  “Nope,” Sarah answered. “We just finished breakfast a little bit ago.”

  “Okay. Remember we’re going out to dinner with George tonight.”

  Adam said, “Yep, we remember and were just talking about it. We want to meet the guy you’ve hated all our lives and then suddenly love.”

  “Wha…‌wha…‌what?” I sputtered. “How did you know about that?”

  Sarah and Adam both smiled as Sarah answered for them. “You have a lot of brothers and sisters. Most of them are very happy to share the latest news with their sweet niece and nephew.”

  Adam joined in, “By the way, when is Clancy coming home? We saw your note that she was at the dog park, but shouldn’t she be home by now?”

  “Yeah. I see Gus’s car outside. I’ll run over there and see.”

  I wiggled out the opposite of how I wiggled in, and realized that when the kids were here I missed them more than when they were gone. It didn’t make sense, but when they were away at school I knew they were fine and they were happy. But when they were home I looked ahead to when they had to leave and it made me sad. Dumb.

  I went over to Gus and Georgianne’s place, knocked on the back door and let myself in. Gus walked into the kitchen, put his finger to his lips, and beckoned me to follow him quietly. So I did. We walked through the kitchen, breakfast room, and dining room, and reached the room that Georgianne called a parlor, I saw her sound asleep and snoring on the old-fashioned velvet couch. And my big beautiful dog was lying on top of her asleep as well. Clancy did manage to open one eye as we approached, but was too tired to keep it open.

  A few months ago I would have thought this was an abomination. At that time Georgianne was not a friend of mine, to put it nicely. I had always loved Gus, and tolerated Georgianne because of that. Now I grudgingly admitted I loved them both—Gus more than Georgianne, however.

  “She really had a workout at the dog park,” Gus said.

  “Which one? Clancy or Georgianne,” I teased. Then I added, “I really miss Clancy,” I whispered. “Bring her home as soon as they wake up. Okay?”

  Gus nodded, and I walked out the way I walked in—quietly. I held the screen door as I exited. Life without Clancy was not a good life for me. She helped me every day by being my confidante and a loving friend. She also worked with me at the Clinic as a therapy dog. This just started a few months ago, after we solved the poisoning murders. Our psychic connection gave me a dog who not only listened well, but communicated her thoughts to me some of the time.

  As I walked down the porch steps toward my little corner of this heaven, I saw that Richie’s bike was gone. He must’ve grabbed it and left before I could see him.

  A voice boomed, “Hello.”

  I turned to see a tall elderly woman that I didn’t recognize. From first glance I could tell she was a character. She had flaming red hair with earrings to the ground and boobs to the sky. I wondered how she did that at her age.

  “Hello, I’m Sam Darling. I live here,” indicating the carriage house.

  “I’m Julieanne Harmon, Georgianne’s younger—much younger—sister.”

  We shook hands as we introduced ourselves. Then I said, “Georgianne is asleep. I just went in and talked to Gus.”

  “Thanks. I’ll go in quietly. Hope to see you again.” With that, she hugged me so hard my stomach touched my spine. Then she and her booming, dramatic voice began walking up the stairs to see her sister and Gus.

  When I went inside my home I asked if anyone had knocked while I was gone. At their simultaneous “no” answer, I had a quick thought that they should have been twins instead of two years apart.

  As I made myself a quick peanut butter sandwich, I reflected on how lucky I was to have such great kids. At 21, Adam had just finished his junior year at the U of I and was searching for his place in the world. Sarah, now 19, was going to be a sophomore there in the fall. She worked at the hospital at night, helping a registered dietitian plan appropriate menus for patients with differing needs. I stood in the kitchen, eating, and looked into the living room at my loves. Adam with his dark hair and dark eyes. Sarah with her golden hair and blue eyes. My ex-husband and I had always said we each had a reproduction of ourselves. I silently hoped that Adam didn’t turn out like his father, however.

  I told them I was going to take a nap, but that I wanted them to wake me if anyone came by.

  “God, Mom, are you that desperate for company?” Adam came by the sarcastic gene honestly.

  There was no way I wanted to get into the Richie thing with them, so I just let his jibe flow off of me. When I got
to my room, I did what I usually do there. I took off my jeans, and pulled the covers over my head. My bed was lonely without Clancy. She’d been my sleeping buddy for several years.

  Now George had changed things a bit.

  FIVE

  I woke to Sarah crawling into bed with me and giving me a hug. Felt like old times. Whenever I’d overslept when she was a kid, she would wake me this way. “Hi, sweetie,” I said. “I love having you home.”

  “Love being here,” she said. “It’s time for you to get up. I’ll wait and take a nap after our dinner and before I go to work.”

  “Okay, sweetie. I’ll get a quick shower.” I jumped out of bed as quickly as I could. Seeing George always gave me energy. It was then I noticed Clancy was back. She’d been sleeping with me and I hadn’t even known it. I guessed that Gus must have brought her home while I was sleeping.

  Sarah stayed in my bed and turned on the TV, watching the news. Clancy curled up next to her and Sarah petted her absentmindedly. My shower took just a few minutes. I’d already showered earlier that morning and washed my hair then. I wrapped myself in my terry-cloth robe and walked back into my bedroom. I laughed as I realized Sarah and I had traded places. She and Clancy were both sound asleep. I crawled into bed with them and woke Sarah up. She smiled as she realized the tables had turned.

  “We’ve got to get going, honey,” I reminded her. “What are you going to wear?”

  “A skirt, I thought,” she answered. “Okay with you?” She smiled as she said it.

  “Perfect, and make sure your brother at least puts on clean jeans.”

  About a half hour later George walked in the front door, kissed me, and stayed quiet as I introduced him to my kids.

  Sarah shook his hand with a smile. Adam said, “Good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”