Warrior, Fatal & Flawed Page 4

  I speared a piece of fettuccine and tried to ignore Lee’s words.

  I couldn’t. I raised my eyes to meet his. “If you want me to help you clear your name, you’d better not call me ‘hefty’ again.”

  “No, I mean you look really good. I just meant you don’t look like your typical yoga teacher.”

  “You’re not the first to point that out. Now eat your pizza so we can get busy on your case.”

  Chapter 7

  It’s not like I felt I had something to prove to Lee about my ability to solve murder cases, but, frankly, his attitude irritated me. I was either going to have to help him so he could leave town or wait for Josie and the Jasper Sheriff’s department to solve the case. I’d seen paint dry faster. They had all those rules to follow, after all. Ideally, I could solve it this afternoon and still make it back to the studio in time to teach the four o’clock Sit and Stretch class.

  On the schedule, the class was called Gentle Yoga. But all those ladies wanted to do was sit on their mat and stretch a little, so that’s what Stormy and I called it when no one was around. I crossed my fingers that Stormy would take over that class when she got certified. I liked to teach the more active yoga classes. Sit and Stretch just made me sleepy.

  In the meantime, Lee and I traipsed over to Garry’s Auto Repair, the town’s lone garage, run by Garry Manor. He had the honor of dating my sister, Cindy, when she had first moved to Jasper right out of the police academy. Apparently, their break-up was amicable, and both went on to marry other people. Still, he always asked about her, which I thought was odd. Cindy said it just reflected his friendship and the fact that she was a public figure.

  Garry’s garage filled most of a corner lot a couple of blocks off Main Street – close enough that we could walk to it to get our cars but far enough away that it wasn’t an eyesore of old, beat-up cars sitting around. I rang the bell as we came through the customer entrance.

  A lanky man probably in his late twenties in a gray jumpsuit came around the corner, wiping oil off a large wrench in his hands.

  “I was looking for Garry.” I was so surprised to see someone other than Garry behind the counter that I almost jumped up to look under the other side of it.

  The man nodded and smiled, waving the wrench in the general direction of downtown Jasper. “He’s taking a late lunch. Can I help you?”

  His name tag said “Adam,” so I thought I’d start there.

  “Adam,” I turned to Lee, “were you here when this man brought his red convertible in yesterday?”

  Adam looked at Lee and recognition flickered across his face as he nodded again. “Yes, ma’am. How are you, sir?”

  “Is my car done?”

  I smacked Lee on the arm and turned back to Adam, who spoke before I could smooth over Lee’s rudeness.

  “No, sir. As Garry told you when you brought it in, we have quite a backlog to get through first.”

  This time he waved the wrench toward the back of the shop. I stepped over to the door and peered through. Sure enough, about a dozen cars in various stages of being worked on littered the room. Through the open double container door, I could see Lee’s car sitting in the back lot next to a blue Range Rover.

  Lee frowned, his eyes narrowing. “The sheriff didn’t tell you to keep my car, did she?”

  Surprise flickered over Adam’s face, not even stopping at his high and sculpted cheekbones.

  “No, sir. Why would the sheriff tell me to keep your car?” His eyes got wide. “It wasn’t used in a crime, was it? I don’t think Garry will be happy about that. He runs a clean shop and—”

  “No!” Lee cut him off. I put my hand on his arm to quiet him but kept my eyes on Adam.

  “The girl who came here with Lee was killed and we are following up on it,” I said.

  Adam’s face darkened. “I did hear about that girl. What does that have to do with the car?”

  “We’re just retracing Lee’s steps to see if he remembers anything or anyone about when they came into town. You’re our first stop. Were you here when he brought the car in?”

  Adam nodded, lightly banging the wrench in his hand. “Garry took the tow out and drove it back.”

  “Did you notice anything unusual?”

  He shook his head and then shrugged. “Not really. Just that those two—” he pointed with the wrench toward Lee and out the door – “they were arguing. Not really my business, though.”

  “No, it’s really not.”

  Adam looked toward Lee and scowled. I rolled my eyes and threw my gaze at Lee. “Are you done?”

  Lee blew out a breath and turned away, stepping outside of the garage. I looked back at Adam.

  “Sorry about that. It’s been a rough twenty-four hours. Who are you exactly? I don’t remember seeing you here before.”

  Adam laughed, embarrassment crossing his face. “I just moved to town about a month or so ago. You must not have had car problems since then, huh?”

  I smiled and tapped the counter. “Knock on wood.”

  The last time I had brought my car to Garry’s was when a murder suspect (mine, not the sheriff’s) had slashed all four of my tires. But I didn’t think I needed to bring up that unhappy memory just then.

  “What brought you to town? The job?”

  “Nah. I was just looking for someplace new to be, so I came here. My aunt is the mayor.”

  “Mayor Sue is your aunt?”

  “Yeah, do you know her?”

  I grinned at him. “Everyone knows Mayor Sue. Where exactly did you move here from?”

  Adam cocked his head to the right, his eyes bearing into mine. “Why are you asking me so many questions?”

  Lee stuck his head in the door. “She used to be an investigative reporter. Also, she’s nosy.”

  I pushed his face back out the door. “Ignore him. I’m just curious.”

  Adam’s face relaxed. “It’s okay. I’m from Walnut Grove on the other side of Sac.”

  “Mariah, can we go?” Lee’s voice was on the verge of a whine, so I shrugged in Adam’s direction. “Thanks for the help. What’s wrong with his car anyway?”

  “It has a broken starter. It’s a tough part to get for that particular model, but it needs to be replaced.”

  “Mariah! For the love of….”

  Lee’s voice tapered off as if he already had started walking away. I threw a wave at Adam and trotted out the door to catch up with him.

  Step Number One on retracing Lee’s footsteps and we weren’t any closer to solving the murder than we had been fifteen minutes ago.

  I sighed as I watched Lee’s back moving away from me. It was going to be a long day.

  Chapter 8

  We walked back toward Main Street and the hotel, where Lee and Serena had checked in.

  “Did anyone else see you fighting with Serena?”

  Lee pointed to the crafts shop across the street from the garage as we walked past. The owner, Alyssa Gonzalez, waved from the front window. I waved back, trying to remember when she would hold her next open crafts night. I had to been to a couple and they were fun.

  “She probably saw us, and whoever owns that store probably saw us and that guy probably saw us.” Lee pointed to the stores and a couple of houses that sat along the street. “Probably anyone who happened to be out of their house that day saw us because apparently no one in this town can mind their own business.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Lee hung his head and kicked at a rock as we walked. “Someone told the hotel managers that we were fighting and the police—”

  “Sheriff’s deputies.” I shook myself. I was getting as bad as my sister and Josie about correcting people about local law enforcement. Because the post was based on Jasper’s main drag, the town council had gotten rid of their police department through budget cuts during the recession. Cindy wasn’t wild about her staff having to serve both functions, but she recognized the necessity. Although, if any more murders cropped up, the town c
ouncil might have to rethink their stance.

  I rolled my hand to get Lee to continue.

  “Anyway, the cops came and arrested me.”

  “Technically, they took you in for questioning, right? You weren’t actually booked.”

  “Whatever.”

  We had reached the front door of the hotel. I checked my watch. “I have a class to teach soon. Why don’t you go get some rest and we’ll talk to the hotel staff and people at the diner later?”

  Lee shook his head and ran his hand over his face. “No, I don’t want to wait. Why can’t we talk to them now?”

  I tried again, feeling like I was explaining to a toddler. “I have a class to teach in a little while that I need to prepare for. Plus, we want to talk with the staff who was there at the same time that you and Serena were there last night.”

  Lee looked at me with something like admiration glinting from his eyes. “Hey, that’s pretty smart.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “No, Mariah, it’s just I don’t remember you being so smart and on top of things when we were married.”

  I bit my lip. “Again, thanks for that.”

  Lee stood in front of me and tried to look deep into my eyes. “You’re welcome.”

  I stared back at him. “You’re an idiot.”

  I shook my head and turned toward The Yoga Mat, waving away his protestations. He muttered something like “Now who’s the mean one?” but I decided to ignore that. No wonder we were divorced.

  Stepping into The Yoga Mat, I slipped off my shoes just inside the doors.

  “Hey, Mariah.” Stormy called from the studio, where she had her head inside the supply closet.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Planting poison in a bottle behind the tissues.” Stormy stuck her head out of the closet, a wicked grin on her face.

  I made a face at her then turned into the office. “Don’t forget to call the Sheriff’s Department to frame me.”

  Stormy cackled. I still didn’t think it was all that funny. Someone – a killer, actually – had planted a bottle of arsenic in my supply closet a couple of months back, leading the detective-in-charge – Neil Samuelson – to arrest me for murder. I still made Stormy check the supply closet regularly under the guise of making sure we had enough supplies. Apparently, she had seen through my ruse.

  She closed the closet door and sauntered into the lobby area, stopping to wipe down the shelves containing the cubbies. “We’re getting low on toilet paper for the bathroom, Mariah. Could you put it on the list, please?”

  I stopped and jotted “TP” on a piece of paper taped to the file cabinet beside my desk. If that was all we needed, I could pick it up at the Corner Mercantile. If we started to run out of more supplies, I would make a run to the big box stores in Sacramento.

  “How’s Lee?”

  “He’s an idiot. I can’t even believe I was married to him for fifteen years.”

  Stormy peeked around the corner and smiled. “They do say love makes us blind.”

  “And deaf and dumb, apparently.”

  “C’mon, yoga lady, let’s get that good karma going.”

  I stopped and stared at Stormy. She was right. Since Lee had shown up, I had felt much more negative. It wasn’t just the chaos that had come to town with him. I felt like I needed to shore up my defenses against him, so I wasn’t taken down that same path again.

  I was happy with my life in Jasper. Ecstatic, even. I was building a business doing what I loved and sharing it with others. I had rebuilt a relationship with my older sister and created friendships with strong women like CeCe and Josie. Not to mention my budding relationship with a certain sheriff’s detective, or for now anyway, a sheriff’s front-desk receptionist.

  I leapt from my office chair and headed into the studio. “Grab your mat.”

  Stormy tossed her cleaning cloth into the trash can and hit the dimmer light as she padded softly into the studio. She threw down her mat next to mine and then mirrored my cross-legged position.

  We both closed our eyes and breathed in deeply, taking a moment to center ourselves on our mats.

  We moved into pelvic rotations to open our hips and pull energy from the earth, then came to a standing position. I led us through the “Dancing Warrior” series that ended in Warrior 3, which resembles a standing airplane. We each stood on one leg, bent at the waist with our arms in front of us and our other leg out behind us. We repeated the whole sequence on both sides, helping me to build up strength and courage to keep Lee at a distance while maintaining a sense of myself.

  After we had finished several rounds of the poses, we came into Child’s Pose to rest, letting our foreheads touch the mats and our muscles collect all the good energy. When we returned to seated positions, I reached across my mat and threw my arms around Stormy.

  “Thank you,” I whispered. “Sometimes things can take hold better if there are two of us.”

  Stormy smiled, then hugged me again. “Thank you for letting me be part of that, Mariah. That was powerful stuff.”

  She wiped the sweat from her brow.

  I laughed. That was one way to put it. I set my mat back at the front of the room in preparation for the class that would come in shortly.

  As I dropped a couple of drops of essential oils into the defuser, the front door swooshed open. I glanced up and my eyes widened as Mayor Sue McCafferty stepped inside, glancing around like she was making sure no one saw her. Serena greeted her from the office, then handed her the liability form and a pen.

  I finished with the defuser, satisfied with my selection of a cinnamon mixture, a scent that is both calming and promotes stress relief, perfect for the upcoming class.

  The mayor handed the liability form and her credit card to Stormy as I walked back into the lobby. She stood uncertainly, her long thin legs seeming gangly in her yoga outfit.

  “Mayor Sue, welcome to The Yoga Mat. I was just talking about you today.”

  Sue’s eyebrows rose in surprise, so I hastened to add the context. “With your nephew. I met him at the garage today.” I called to Stormy, who had gone into the office to run the credit card. “You should meet him. He’s about your age and you would probably hit it off. He’s a cutie, too.”

  The mayor’s face relaxed and she smiled a little. “Adam is a good kid, but I wouldn’t count on him sticking around too long.”

  The front door swished open again, and two of my regulars stumbled in, laughing and talking together, interrupting our talk. I greeted them both, chatting with them about their day. Stormy returned the mayor’s credit card and showed her where the cubbies were to put her shoes and purse. Then she turned to me.

  “Mariah, of course, will be teaching your class, Mayor.” Stormy turned away to help other students who had begun to wander in.

  The mayor stood like a deer in the headlights in the doorway. She clutched her cell phone and stared at the sign on the door that had a cellphone with a line through it. Her lips pursed and turned downward. “I need to keep my phone with me in case City Hall needs to get hold of me.”

  “Of course, Sue. Just put it on silent mode and set it aside so it won’t distract others around you.”

  “But I might miss an important call.”

  I gave her the warmest smile I could. “Let’s give it a try and see, okay? We’ll put you close to the door in case you need to duck out to take your very important call.”

  She stared me down like she thought I was making fun of her. I wasn’t. Well, maybe a little. It’s a character flaw and I’m working on it.

  Then she nodded and bent down to take off her shoes as the door swished open again. Jennifer Parks, the director of a local charity, stepped inside. She hadn’t come to yoga class as often lately since I had essentially accused her of murder a few weeks back, so I was glad to see she was there.

  Her eyebrows went up when she saw the mayor. “Sue? What are you doing here?” The tone of her voice was incredulous.

  The may
or stood up stiffly from tucking her shoes into the cubby. I saw her face rearrange into a welcoming smile.

  “Hello, Jennifer. Everyone seems to be enjoying Mariah’s studio, so I thought I would check it out. We can all do with a little bit more flexibility, right?”

  With that, Sue stepped gingerly into the studio and onto her mat, which I had placed near the swinging bar-like half-doors that separated the lobby from the class.

  Jennifer’s brows stayed high and skepticism showed on her face. “Or maybe you just want to get as flexible as those girlies your husband is messing around with,” she mumbled to herself and anyone in the vicinity.

  A couple of the ladies around her gasped. Polly, an older woman who was a regular, swatted Jennifer.

  “You behave, young lady. Don’t bad-mouth the mayor and her husband. It’s hard enough being a public figure without personal attacks.”

  Jennifer rolled her eyes and her mouth started to open in a quick response to Polly’s admonition. Just as quickly, she closed it and nodded as if in agreement. I admired her restraint.

  The class was a calming flow using simple yoga poses that flowed from one into the other. With quiet music playing in the background, I led the nearly full class through a slow series of poses designed to open the chest and provide peace. The mayor seemed uncomfortable at first, but after a few poses, her body relaxed. I smiled to myself. Maybe yoga would be good for our notoriously Type-A mayor for whatever reason she had for coming to class.

  As class was ending, Cindy slipped in the door and into the office. She was taking off her shoes as I wandered in, leaving Stormy to chat with students. Stormy was an excellent salesperson for The Yoga Mat. Excited about yoga, she encouraged others to buy three- and six-month passes to improve their commitment to being on their mat.

  She threw me a wink as she waltzed in with a credit card for one of my students. “Tina has decided to amp up her practice with a three-month unlimited class pass.” She paused as she slid the credit card into the reader. “It’s a good thing you accused me of murder, Mariah, for both of us.” She laughed as she danced back out the office door.