A Spirited Gift

Johnny didn’t turn around. “Yeah? You owe me money. Think of me as a pawnshop dealer. You pay me—I give it back to you.”

“I want it now. Right here. Right now. Or the devil will be collecting your soul tonight.”

“You don’t have the guts to shoot me. Might as well go back home. I’ll give it back to you when you pay me. Don’t come back without the money.”

“I’m not fooling around, Johnny.”

When Johnny ignored him, the man with the gun shot him in the back of the head. Johnny slumped over. The killer took two boxes from the desk where Johnny had been working. He didn’t wait to see if Johnny was dead—just closed the door as he left the room. The rest of the Blue Whale was empty around them. No one close enough to hear the single shot fired.

The killer threw one of the boxes into the bushes behind the Blue Whale and took the other box with him.

Chapter 43

I came back to myself lying on the burgundy brocade sofa with two worried faces staring into mine. I realized I must have lost consciousness. The gun was on the floor near the door to the shop—probably where I’d dropped it.

“Dae?” Chief Michaels whispered, chafing my hand with his. “Are you okay? Do you need some water?”

“She needs an ambulance,” Sheriff Riley snarled. “I think she hit her head when she fell. Let me get on the line and call—”

“No! I’m fine. No ambulance—no paramedics necessary. Sometimes it’s like this when the emotions inside something I touch are strong. But I’m fine now. Really.”

I could hear footsteps running heavily along the boardwalk. Fists started pounding on the door and Gramps was shouting to be let in.

“Did you call him while I was moving her over here?” Sheriff Riley demanded.

“He’s her only living relative. What else did you expect me to do?” Chief Michaels yelled at him as he went to open the door.

Gramps was in like a shot. He knelt beside the sofa and took my hand as the chief had. “Are you okay, honey? Do you need the paramedics?” He glared at Chief Michaels. “I can’t believe she passed out and you called me instead of the ambulance.”

“That’s what I said,” Sheriff Riley joined in. “She needs medical attention.”

“I don’t need anything,” I told them. “Well, maybe a cup of tea.”

It was amusing watching all three men scramble to make one cup of tea. I wasn’t sure if my teapot and cups could handle all the clattering. Sheriff Riley and Chief Michaels kept butting up against each other. Gramps looked for sugar and I finally told him that I take honey in my tea.

Within a few minutes, I had a cup of tepid tea in my hands. I smiled at all three men, who’d found places to sit down.

Sheriff Riley wiped a red rag across his forehead. “I don’t know about you all, but I need something stiffer from Wild Stallions after this. Is this what you go through all the time?”

I sipped my tea—glad that they were scared. “Sometimes. It all depends.”

“We should never have asked you,” Gramps said. “I shouldn’t have asked you. I’m sorry, Dae. Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“I hate to ask, but did you see anything?” Chief Michaels inquired reluctantly. Sheriff Riley and Gramps looked at him like he’d grown another head. “Well, it would be a damn shame to have put her through all that and she didn’t see anything. Wouldn’t it?”

I described Johnny’s death scene at the Blue Whale. “I’m afraid I didn’t see the killer.” I put the cup of tea on the table next to me. “But he was scared. His hand was shaking when he fired the pistol. He killed Johnny and took two wooden boxes from him. One of them was the music box Johnny had planned to give Miss Elizabeth. The other was hard to make out. I’m not sure.”

“We already knew that gun killed Simpson,” Sheriff Riley said in a defeated way. “That’s not what we needed.”

“I picked up a few other details that weren’t so clear.” I tried to focus on those other things, but they kept drifting out of my grasp. There was something important about the box the killer had taken with him. I just couldn’t quite see what it was. “Someone else has fired the gun twice since then. I’m sure it was a woman. I don’t know if she killed Sandi and Matthew.”