In Deep Shitake Part 36

Officer Dan shook his head. "You're no more Russian than I am. You're from Georgia, and I don't mean the Republic of Georgia."

"Nyet."

"Yes." Officer Dan smiled. "Don't you remember me? We went to high school together."

Mo stood and went to Ross's side. "I don't understand."

"One day he was plain old Harold Moss, son of a farmer from Guyton," Officer Dan said referencing a nearby rural community. "And the next he called himself Yuri Kubikov, a former KGB agent from St. Petersburg with an accent straight out of a Bullwinkle cartoon. He seemed to think it gave him street cred. And this guy," he said, pointing to Gigantor. "This guy is his brother, Van."

"Let me through," an abrasive female voice said as a woman pushed past a line of onlookers and stepped up to Kubikov with her hands on hips. "I see you've finally done it now. Got yourself arrested."

"Betsy," Kubikov said. "Sorry, honey."

"Don't sorry me. How are the baby and I supposed to live?" Kubikov's wife screeched. "Tell me where it's hidden."

"My money is in the safe deposit box. The key is taped to the backside of the photo of Mom on the wall in my office at the strip club," Kubikov replied.

"Thanks," Betsy said.

You'll bail me out?" Kubikov asked.

"Yeah sure," Betsy said, smiling. "That'll be my first priority." Then she turned away from Kubikov to his brother, Ivan, throwing him an air kiss.

"I'll turn state's evidence against the boss," Ivan offered in a voice that had no accent.

"What are you talking about?" Kubikov asked. "You're my brother. You're going to betray me?"

"Yeah. You'll go to jail and I'll be with Betsy...and my son."

"What?" the mobster formerly known as Kubikov said. "Your son?"

"You never appreciated Betsy," Ivan spat at his brother.

A commotion broke out at the police tape.

"Officer." Mrs. Truesberry, in Kelly green housedress and wide-brimmed straw hat, called from a few yards away. "I've got important information."

What could Clarence's landlady want now? Just when everything seemed to be wrapping up smoothly and he would get a chance to talk to Mo alone.

Officer Tim waved her through the police barricade and the old lady wobbled over.

"That's him," Mrs. Truesberry said. "That's the man who killed my dear Clarence."

Had the senile old bat implicated Ross?

"Ross wouldn't kill anyone," Mo said, stepping in front of him as if she could physically s.h.i.+eld him from the accusation.

Ross's heart melted. He'd never had anyone defend him so sweetly.

"Not him," the landlady said. "Him." She pointed a bony finger at Kubikov.

Mo blew out the breath she'd been holding. The landlady hadn't implicated Ross after all. They just might get out of this with their lives and Ross's film career.

"How do you know?" Officer Tim pinned Ross with a stare as he asked the question.

Uh oh. Ross might not be in the clear after all.

"My lovely boy, Clarence, said he was about to make a lot of money blackmailing someone and he showed me that man's picture," the landlady answered.

"Blackmail?" Officer Tim shook his head. "With what?"

"Clarence had a thumb drive with photos of some papers... I didn't understand all of it."

"Where did Clarence get this thumb drive?" Mo asked.

"I gave it to Betsy," Ivan piped in.

"Where is this thumb drive now?" Officer Dan asked.

"It's in Ms. Tuttle's purse," Mrs. Truesberry said with a confident smile.

Suddenly, the memory of Clarence at her house, just after the fight with Ross, came to her. "That's right. Yesterday, just before his murder, Clarence was hovering around my bag."

"But how did you know the thumb drive was in Mo's purse?" Ross asked Mrs. Truesberry.

"He...um...he told me," the old lady sputtered.

"I see," Officer Tim said.

Mrs. Truesberry returned to her Ches.h.i.+re cat grin, seemingly happy she'd come up with a satisfactory explanation.

But there was something wrong with this.

"Then you did see him yesterday before he was killed," Mo pointed out. "You said yesterday that you hadn't seen him."

"That's right. You did say that." Officer Tim eyed the old lady with suspicion.

The smile so confidently plastered on Mrs. Truesberry's face slipped into a frown. "Oh no, I remember now. I was gardening all morning. I didn't see him."

Mo moved closer to the woman. "You weren't outside gardening all morning. I distinctly remember you were coming out of your house when I drove up yesterday."

"Oh no, that's not right," Mrs. Truesberry defended, her eyes widening as she took a step back.

"Oh yes," Mo insisted. "Besides, you had to have seen Clarence yesterday if you know about the thumb drive, because he put that item in my purse about an hour before he was killed."

"How do you explain that, Mrs. Truesberry?" Officer Tim asked.

The landlady stood silently for a few moments before answering. "Then I guess I did see him."

"But why did you say you hadn't?" Officer Tim took a step toward her as if ready to restrain her if necessary.

"Because you'd think I'd killed him. And I didn't want you to think that," she replied.

"But you did kill him, didn't you?" Mo asked.

"Yes," the old lady confessed, her face crumpling. She sobbed for a few moments but she produced no tears.

"But why?" Mo cried. Clarence might have been a screw up and a nuisance, but he didn't deserve to be killed.

"It was a terrible accident," the landlady insisted with an emphasis on the word terrible. "I saw Clarence come home yesterday. He was in such a rush to get inside, he didn't stop to talk to me."

"But when did you find out about the thumb drive?" Officer Tim asked.

"That woman," she said, pointing an accusing finger at Betsy Kubikov. "She came to Clarence's apartment. I followed her upstairs and listened at the door. I heard him saying how he had put the thumb drive with the blackmail doc.u.ments in Ms. Tuttle's purse to hide it."

Officer Tim turned to Betsy Kubikov. "Is that true?"

"Yes," Betsy admitted. "I was there. Clarence and I were having an affair."

"Him too?" Kubikov shook his head sadly.

"Just so Ivan and I could use him to blackmail you for the money," she said with a frown. "But my husband wouldn't pay." She turned to Kubikov. "Why didn't you just pay? This could all have been avoided."

Officer Tim swiveled back to the landlady. "So what did any of this have to do with you killing Clarence?"

"He had told me he wasn't involved in a relations.h.i.+p." Mrs. Truesberry placed a hand on the officer's arm. "I was upset when I heard Clarence saying how much he loved that Betsy woman and I just lost control of myself."

Officer Tim nodded and patted her hand consolingly.

"Can you believe it? Clarence told that Betsy girl that he loved her after all that free rent I gave him." The landlady turned to Mo. "You can see why I did what I did then, can't you?"

"What did you do?" Mo asked.

"That Betsy woman left and he called you," Mrs. Truesberry answered Mo. "After he hung up, I pushed the door open. I said to Clarence, 'what do you mean you love Betsy? You said you loved me.' And then Clarence said he didn't have time to talk to me. He said he didn't love me. He said he'd never loved me. He said he was moving out anyway so he didn't have to pretend that he loved me for the free rent anymore. Free rent! That was all I had meant to him."

Finally, real tears leaked from the old lady's eyes. "I said something like that can't be true because it was so special when we kissed. I tried to touch Clarence, but he pulled away. He said it disgusted him to kiss me."

Mrs. Truesberry swiped at her cheeks. "So anyway that was when the accident happened."

"The accident?" Ross asked.

Mrs. Truesberry faced Ross. "Clarence turned away from me and took his suitcase out from under the bed. Then he started pulling clothes out of his closet and throwing them in the suitcase. And I asked him where he was going."

The old lady turned back to Mo. "Clarence said that as soon as he talked to you and told you about the thing he put in your purse that he was going to leave town. And then I said he wasn't going anywhere and I hit him with the big gun. It was an accident. I don't even know when I picked up the big gun. It happened so fast."

She turned back to Officer Tim. "It wasn't my fault. It was really my husband."

"Huh?" Officer Tim's brows converged in confusion.

"Yes, my husband," Mrs. Truesberry said, nodding. "He stopped having s.e.x with me. A woman gets crazy without s.e.x."

"That's true," Officer Dan commented with an arched brow and wry smile.

"In fact, I'm certain that's the defense my lawyer will use. Temporary insanity as a result of o.r.g.a.s.m deprivation."

When Mo's purse was searched, Mrs. Truesberry cheerfully pointed out the lipstick tube, saying she recognized it from Clarence's apartment. Sure enough, in the top was a gloss lipstick and in the base was a thumb drive.

"But the bad guys searched for it there and didn't find it," Mo observed.

"I guess they didn't think to look closely at a lipstick," Officer Tim said, placing the tube in an evidence bag.

Mo and Ross rode, hand-in-hand, to the offices of Incredible Love in the back of a police cruiser. Following Mrs. Truesberry's confession, Ross latched onto Mo and wouldn't let go, which was just fine with her. In fact, it was more than fine. Though getting in the vehicle through the same car door proved to be awkward.

Ross's thumb traced a caressing pattern on the back of her hand as they pa.s.sed the distance of a few blocks. But his inscrutable face told her little about his thoughts. Then he smiled and dropped a brief kiss on her lips. Their eyes locked. Mo was certain he was about to say something, but the arrival at their destination interrupted him.

Leo waited on the sidewalk outside the agency building. When he spotted Mo, he spanned the distance between them in two long strides before wrapping her in a crus.h.i.+ng hug. Even then Ross didn't let go of her hand.

"I had to see for myself that you were all right," Leo said. He released Mo and looked from her to Ross. "That you're both all right."

Mo chuckled a bit. "I'm tired, hungry and grimy, but otherwise okay."

The edge of Leo's lips quirked into a smile. "You're always hungry."

"Looks like you both can go home," Officer Tim said.

"Cheers," Ross said with a grin.

"Just don't leave town," the officer warned with a scowl.

OmiG.o.d, Mo thought. Were they still suspects?

"You can't leave town until..." Officer Tim smirked. "I get another autograph from Mr. Grant."

Relief. Thank gouda it was over.

"I'll be glad to oblige any time," Ross said with a smile.

After giving them a wave that resembled a salute, Officer Tim hopped in the cruiser and pulled out of the parking place at the curb. But before Mo could relax, a rust bucket pulled into the s.p.a.ce and Stewart Milton jumped out.

"What the jalapeno," Mo exclaimed. "Did you install some kind of GPS device on me? How do you know where I am at all times?"

"I'm a reporter. It's my job to know," he said with a smirk.

"What do you want?" Ross demanded, gripping Mo's hand more tightly.