Death Before Diamonds (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 10) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I am, Deputy Chief Walsh.”
    “Dina was away from her desk,” he
said, “but I talked to Tyler. He’s pretty sure that our last missing persons
case was eighteen months ago when Bernadette Carvel called to report that
Lumwinkle was gone.”
    “That who was gone?”
    “Lumwinkle,” Trent said again.
“Apparently, he’s her lucky garden gnome.”
    I didn’t know what to say, so I
waited for the rest of the story.
    “But there was a somewhat happy
ending,” he continued. “Denny Santiago found Bernadette’s missing property the
next day. Apparently, Pat and Mickey O’Rourke had painted the little fellow
blue, dressed him in a toga and left him on the front steps of City Hall.”
    I smiled. “Was it meant to be a
political statement about Mayor Washington?”
    “I have no idea,” Trent said. “And
I’m not about to ask.”
    “How did you connect the O’Rourke
brothers to the crime?”
    Trent scoffed. “Have you ever met
them?”
    “I haven’t had the pleasure,” I
said. “Although I’ve heard a few things.”
    “I’m sure that whatever you heard
is true,” Trent told me. “Between the two of them, I’d say you’re looking at an
IQ in the high double digits.”
    “Trent! That’s not very nice!”
    He laughed. “But it’s the truth. I’ve
got the Lumwinkle report pulled up on my computer. I guess Pat and Mickey had
been enjoying a few pints of Guinness down at The Wagon Wheel that day. On the
drive home, they decided to stop at Tipton’s Liquor Mart for a bottle of
whiskey. As you might imagine, it was all downhill from there.”
    “Sounds almost exactly like another
story that I heard about them,” I said.
    “No doubt,” Trent agreed. “But that
particular day, when the O’Rourke boys pulled in at Tipton’s, Bernadette was
right ahead of them. She took the last parking space and didn’t appreciate it
when Pat jumped out of his brother’s truck and told her where she could go.”
    I sighed. “Yep. That was also in
the story I heard, but it didn’t involve Bernadette or the liquor store parking
lot.”
    “Well, pretty much every other
story with those two goes along those lines,” Trent said. “I guess Pat and
Mickey were so peeved about the parking mishap that they stole Lumwinkle from
Bernadette’s front yard late that night, turned him into a Roman Papa Smurf and
left him at City Hall.”
    “Okay,” I said. “But how’d you know
they did the deed?”
    “Facebook,” Trent said.
    “They posted something about it?”
    He laughed. “Yep. Video and a bunch
of pictures. By the time they sobered up the next morning, Bernadette had
already filed the missing persons report.”
    I decided not to pursue the
incident, even though a few questions had started to gather in the back of my
mind. Instead, I asked Trent if he would be willing to run a license plate
number.
    “Why?” he said.
    “Curiosity,” I answered.
    “Is this related to the visit you
mentioned?” he asked. “From the guy looking for his brother?”
    “Actually, it is. Rex Greer was
driving a blue sedan with Pennsylvania plates. I don’t know if his brother is
really missing or not, but I thought it might be worth asking you to check the
tags. My work load is fairly light this week, so I might also do a little
snooping just in case.”
    “Uh-huh,” Trent said dismissively.
“I’ve heard that before.”
    “You know how it goes. I miss the
old days in Chicago. And I still love solving a good whodunit.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “But you can
scratch that itch by watching reruns of Law & Order or NCIS .”
    “Which I do quite often, thank you
very much.”
    Trent chuckled. “Which one is Rex
again?”
    “He’s the one I met here at Sky
High,” I said. “His older brother’s name is Theo.”
    “What’s the number?”
    “Hang on,” I said. “I made a note
on my phone, so—”
    “Maybe just shoot me a text,” Trent
suggested. “I need to run out real fast and get something to eat. I’ll