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“She was lucky,” the doctor acknowledged. “If she’d fallen even one centimeter to the left or to right, things could have been a lot worse.” He turned to Uncle Alec. “Odelia told me this was an accident?”

“It was,” said Alec, giving Gran a look of defiance.

“It wasn’t,” Gran instantly shot back. “My granddaughter was attacked in her own home by the notorious Yellow Parka MacGyver Gang, and the members of this gang have yet to be caught. All the while, the police are doing nothing to stop the carnage. Nothing!”

The handsome young doctor frowned.“That’s very disturbing. I hope you catch this… Yellow Parka MacGyver Gang before they cause more harm.”

Alec pressed his lips together. He clearly wasn’t happy with Gran’s intervention.

“Oh, don’t worry,” said Gran. She tapped her chest. “I’ll catch them. Because when the people paid to protect the citizens of this community fail to do their job, it’s up to us to take matters into our own hands and go after the bastards ourselves.”

The doctor gave her a puzzled look, then nodded.“Well, then. I’ll keep you all informed of Odelia’s progress. In the meantime, you can join her again. But don’t keep her up. What she needs right now is rest, rest, and more rest.”

And with these words, he was off at a brisk trot.

“What are you up to, Ma?” asked Alec, a note of ice in his voice.

“I’m going to catch the bastards, just like I said. Cause if they tried to kill her once, they’ll try again—and I promise you I’ll be there when they do, and I’ll strike them down with my fist of fury!” She shook her bony fist to emphasize her words and walked off.

Chapter 36

Alec and Chase stood conferring by the vending machine. Alec was nursing a styrofoam cup of watery coffee, wondering why the brew in these places always tasted like sewage.

“What do you make of Vesta’s wild accusations?” Chase asked.

Alec shook his head.“You know what my mother is like.” He just hoped she wouldn’t go out and start some kind of private vigilante search for this gang of men in yellow parkas.

“Yeah, but she’s not completely unhinged. There are signs that something is seriously wrong here. Like that mast dropping on Marge. That was tampered with, right?”

Alec heaved a deep sigh.“I know that’s what I said but now I’m not so sure.”

“What do you mean you’re not so sure?”

“At first glance, I’d say that yes, someone sawed through that thing, but now that I think about it, it could have simply been shoddy construction. An expert will have to determine what caused that mast to collapse when it did.”

“And what about Tex and his flowerpot incident?”

“Coincidence,” said Alec. “We searched that house top to bottom. No indication anyone was even in there when that flowerpot fell down. I’m blaming it on a draft that kicked open a window and knocked down that pot. Like I said, just a coincidence.”

“And the roller skate? Or Odelia’s rug?”

“Accidents. Anyone could trip over a roller skate, or a rug. How would an attacker even know Vesta would be the one to walk by at that exact moment, and step on that exact skate? Unless he was psychic, which I think we can agree is just crazy talk. Nah. That skate was left by some kid, and Vesta just happened to trip over it. Same thing with Odelia’s rug.”

“What about Brutus almost being run over?”

“Same thing. Cats get run over by careless drivers every single day. Why would this be any different? The only thing that makes this a strange case is the fact that all these accidents happened within the space of a day, to members of the same family. That is weird. But not criminal.”

Chase nodded.“I’m glad you say so cause I think you’re absolutely right. Only thing worrying me is Vesta going off like a loose cannon, stirring up trouble all over the place.”

Alec wholeheartedly agreed with his younger colleague. Then again, Vesta would do what Vesta would do. Not a damn thing they could do about it.“All in all I’m pretty satisfied only one crime was committed here. And that’s Dany Cooper’s murder.”

“And we have her killer in custody, so case closed.”

“Case closed,” Alec agreed. The comment about the mole had been the final piece of the puzzle. Now he was fully convinced Wolf Langdon was the man they’d been looking for.

“Then I only have one question for you,” said Chase as he took a sip from his own cup and winced, then dumped it in the trash.

“Yeah?”

“Who is Ringo?”

Uh-oh.“Um… Ringo?”

“The witness you mentioned? You said a new witness came forward and he testified that Dany’s murderer had an owl-shaped mole on the back of his right hand?”

“Yeah, that wasn’t a witness, per se,” he said, backtracking.

“So what is he? And can I talk to this Ringo character?”

“Ringo is, um, not someone who reached out to us,” said Alec carefully. “He actually came to Odelia. He’s one of her sources. And you know how Odelia is about her sources.”

Chase groaned.“Not again. What is it with Odelia and her mysterious sources?”

“Reporters, Chase. That’s how they operate.”

“So when can I have a crack at this Ringo?”