Mink Too, All the Riches in the World Can't Buy Love Read online

  Mink Too

  All the riches in the world can’t buy love

  by

  B.L. Wilson

  Mink Too

  All the riches in the world can’t buy love

  Brought to you by

  Patchwork Bluez Press

  Mink Too copyright 2016 by B. L. Wilson.

  All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the author.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share

  Edited by BZ Hercules www.bzhercules.com

  Dedication

  Sometimes, we think we are protecting our children by keeping secrets we think will hurt them. In reality those closely held secrets when exposed, hurt us and our children more than if we had simply sat down and talked to them.

  To all those secrets keepers, now is the time to release them. Help your child understand why you did what you did and pray he or she will forgive you.

  In the moment of crisis, the wise build bridges and the foolish build dams.

  ~ Nigerian proverb~

  Make some money but don’t let money make you.

  ~Tanzania ~

  Author’s Note

  Mink Too, all the riches in the world can’t buy love was written and takes place in a time when technology was somewhat more simple. You will find references to flip phones and people not being as easy to reach as they are now. Social media was nonexistent, at least not like it is in the present day, and most of my characters did not feel incomplete without a laptop. Updating the technology might change the plot elements, so I have left the “old-fashioned” ways untouched and request that you enjoy this bit of “nostalgia” as it is written.

  Thank you.

  B.L. Wilson

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE … Swimming and other lessons

  CHAPTER TWO … The club, part I

  CHAPTER THREE…Lessons learned are not forgotten

  CHAPTER FOUR…Bang, bang you’re dead.

  CHAPTER FIVE …The Gilmores

  CHAPTER SIX … Another footnote

  CHAPTER SEVEN … Going home

  CHAPTER EIGHT …Who do you think I am?

  CHAPTER NINE … At the club, part II

  CHAPTER TEN…Scene of the crime

  CHAPTER ELEVEN … And the jailhouse rocks

  CHAPTER TWELVE … Mine, all mine

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN …Water, water everywhere

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN … County Lockup

  EPILOGUE

  THANK YOU FOR READING!

  MORE BOOKS BY B.L. WILSON

  CHAPTER ONE … Swimming and other lessons

  The sleek black sports car zoomed past the unmarked patrol car, kicking up gray-brown dust and tiny pebbles of gravel as it continued down the quiet dirt road. The police officer sighed. She put the unmarked squad car in gear and sped after the little car. Jeez! This was the third time this month that she warned the crazy female driver about speeding. One of these days, the woman was going to kill somebody. She pressed the gas pedal down to the floorboard and felt the patrol car lurch forward as she tried to catch the expensive little car. The patrol car caught up with the little Jaguar ten miles down the road, but the driver drove another five miles before she brought her car to a full stop on the road’s shoulder.

  The police officer, a female sergeant, touched the brim of her beige Stetson hat as she leaned down at the driver’s window. “Good afternoon, Ma’am. I need to see your license and registration.” She rested a hand on the gun at her side while she waited for the driver to comply with her instructions. “Do you know why I stopped you, Ma’am?”

  “No, Officer, I haven’t the slightest idea.” The driver pretended innocence. “Maybe you had nothing better to do on a hot afternoon.” The woman behind the wheel smiled sweetly as she looked up at the tall officer and then dabbed the perspiration on her face with a jasmine-scented, hand-stitched lacy hanky. She dug through the classic Coach bag at her side to pull out her license and registration, then offered them to the officer as a gift. “Here you all go, Officer. Knock yourself out!” she remarked in an exaggerated southern drawl.

  “Remove your sunglasses. I’d like to see who I’m speaking with if you don’t mind, Ma’am.”

  The driver noted the cop wore mirrored sunglasses. Her forehead wrinkled in frustration. “I will, if you will, Officer…” Her voice faded as she stopped to read the officer’s nametag. “Look, Officer Gilmore, I’m in a hurry. If you could just give me your usual lecture, it’d save us both time and energy on such a hot day.”

  The officer frowned, straightened up to fold her arms across a solid chest, and stared down at the driver. “Miss Drummond, we can do this the easy way or I can have a backup car sent over here in five minutes. Which one do you want? Easy or hard?”

  Susan Drummond stared up at the officer, sighed, and removed her sunglasses. “There! I removed them. Are you satisfied?” Clear hazel eyes glared at the officer.

  “No, Miss Drummond, I’m not satisfied. I want you to get out of the car. Stand next to the hood. Keep your hands where I can see them. Do I have your permission to search the car?” The officer rested one hand on the gun’s grip handle while the other hand casually touched her thigh. She was ready for anything the crazy driver might try this afternoon.

  “Sure, why not? You’re not going to find whatever you think you will.” Susan exhaled loudly and fanned her face with a newspaper. “It’s hot and I’m late, so hurry up!” Who did this cop think she was? One of the characters from CSI or something? She flung open the car door suddenly and barely missed whacking the officer’s thigh.

  Sergeant Elizabeth Gilmore jumped backwards to avoid the swinging door. Oh, how she’d love to kick the rich bitch’s ass for that little trick. Instead, she fumed silently, then calmly brushed off her pants. She noted long, shapely golden-brown legs that flashed in the sun when Susan Drummond exited the low-slung sports car. The Drummond woman was leggy and taller than she looked sitting in the little sports car.

  “Stand over there,” she ordered, pointing to the front of the car. “Keep your hands visible.” She waited until Susan Drummond complied before she opened the door, leaned into the front seat, and started to conduct a physical search of the car. She moved the seats back and found a cigarette butt lying on the floor mat. She picked up the cigarette and smelled the stub to make sure it wasn’t marijuana or some other illegal substance. It wasn’t. She ran a hand along the floor under the seats and found a few aspirin tablets under the passenger’s seat. So far, there wasn’t anything worth putting in her report. “Mind if I look in the trunk, Ma’am?”

  Susan shrugged.

  “I need you to give your answer verbally, please.”

  Susan threw up her hands in annoyance. “Christ! Just hurry up and search the damned trunk!” She glanced at her watch and muttered, “I’ll never make it to the ceremony now!”

  The sergeant pushed aside several tennis outfits and the usual trunk junk to search in the corners. She removed three shopping bags, a gym bag, and an emergency road kit from the trunk to search them. She opened each item, emptied it, and then stacked the contents on the ground next to the rear tire on the passenger side of the car.

  She unlocked the compartment containing the spare and took out the spare tire. She leaned the tire against the back fender so she could run her hands around the rim and then inside it as she checked for illegal substances. She didn’t think she’d find drugs, but she didn’t know what a bored, rich woman did during
her leisure hours. Wiping her hands on a hanky, she strode to the front of the car.

  “You’re right, Ma’am. I didn’t find anything.” Elizabeth touched the brim of her hat politely. “Keep your speed inside the posted limit, Miss Drummond. People crash and die for doing less than you have. The speed limit is forty around here. You were doing seventy. I won’t write you a ticket this time. Consider this a warning.”

  Susan glared at the sergeant and then at the items neatly stacked against her car’s rear bumper. She pointed to the items and said, “You’re not gonna leave my stuff like this, are you? You messed it up, so clean it up, Gilmore!”

  “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but the law doesn’t require an officer to put the items back in a drug search.” Elizabeth Gilmore touched the brim of her hat and smiled. “Remember what I said about speeding along this strip. Have a nice day, Ma’am.”

  The tall officer with the long-legged gait sauntered back to her squad car. At least that was how it looked to Susan. The cop had some nerve leaving the mess that she’d made sitting on the road’s shoulder for her to clean up. She wrinkled her nose as she contemplated her plight, then glanced at her Rolex. Shit! She was going to be late again. Why did she have to go to the groundbreaking ceremony anyway? It was so boring listening to another one of her daddy’s long-winded ribbon-cutting speeches.

  If she missed this one, he’d scold her. The first thing he’d say was how he didn’t pay for an MBA from an expensive college for her to lounge around poolside or sip drinks with her snobby friends at the country club. Then he’d remind her that he paid for her damn education so she’d go to work as he did. He’d end the lecture with how she’d better find something that interested her real quick or he’d cut her off and stop supporting her foolishness.

  Susan whipped out her cell phone and pressed some buttons. Nothing lit up. Disgusted, she angrily threw it into the front seat. If she’d remembered to charge her cell battery last night, she could get Johnny or one of her friends to pick her up. “Damn it! How does all this shit fit in the damned trunk?” she muttered, struggling to return the spare tire to the compartment without getting dirty. Then she grabbed the tennis outfits and shopping bags and managed to stuff them back into the small trunk. She looked down at her filthy clothes and groaned. Well, she wasn’t going to take the weight for missing her father’s ribbon-cutting party alone. Soon as she reached a phone, that egotistical cop would learn what real power was! Angry, sweaty, and tired, she drove the lonely stretch of highway going home to change her clothes. She missed the unmarked patrol car hidden in the trees a quarter of a mile down the road.

  Hiding behind the Welcome to Woodsville sign, Liz Gilmore put her binoculars down and watched the little car drive under the speed limit until it was over the next hill. She could hear the engine rev in the distance and sighed. “Good! Maybe the rich witch learned something about not speeding this time. Forcing the bratty woman to use a little elbow grease wasn’t a bad idea, was it?” she muttered to the interior of the empty patrol car.

  She grinned at the image of the arrogant, rich woman bending down to haul the dirty spare tire back into its compartment. Her boss, the sheriff, gave his cops strict instructions about the Drummond family. He said it was hands-off the family. It irked Liz that she couldn’t give Susan Drummond a speeding ticket. The Drummond woman was a habitual speeder, but her father practically owned the police department in these parts. Liz couldn’t understand how an officer of the law could allow a person’s constant speeding to continue without repercussions. It was far too dangerous. Soon or later, the Drummond woman was going to hurt somebody or herself. Liz frowned. The sheriff said hands off the Drummonds. Since he was the boss, she had to obey his orders. “Better get back to the stationhouse and tell my side before all hell breaks loose,” she mumbled. She backed out of the bank of trees and headed in the opposite direction toward the stationhouse.

  Several officers greeted her with affectionate slaps on the back and wide grins when she walked into the stationhouse.

  “What’s the joke?” Liz frowned. She wondered why her fellow officers were so happy to see her.

  “Aw! Come on, Sarge, you know,” one of the officers replied with a grin and an exaggerated wink as he walked to the front door.

  “We heard you stopped the Drummond woman … again. Did you really do a drug search this time?” Officer Ingrams tried to contain his snicker behind a broad hand. He and his partner greeted Liz with broad smiles.

  Liz shrugged. “Yeah, I did. So what, guys?”

  The two officers shoved each other in the ribs and started giggling like two schoolboys up to no good.

  “Hot damn! That’s brilliant, Sarge. Wish I woulda thought of that myself. Please tell me you didn’t put the stuff back in the trunk for her fine, snotty butt.” Ingrams put his hands together as though he was praying when he spoke.

  Liz shook her head. “The law doesn’t require it.”

  “Sarge, if you weren’t my supervisor, I’d kiss you right now.” Ingrams was ready to burst at the seams with laughter.

  “I’d let you kiss me, Ingrams, but then I’d have to arrest you for assault.” Liz grinned at the two young cops. They left the stationhouse roaring with laughter. When she walked to the back of the squad room, more officers congratulated her. She knew the Drummond woman had been a problem since she returned home from graduate school almost six years ago. She managed to befuddle every officer that dealt with her. Her father, Owen Drummond, had two officers fired for trying to discipline her. After that incident, officers handled her with kid gloves.

  “Sergeant Gilmore, get in here!” the sheriff yelled as soon as he saw his goddaughter stroll into the squad room as if she hadn’t a care in the world. He stood at the door to his office with a big frown on his face and a half-chewed, stubby cigar jammed between tight lips, watching her walk over to him.

  Conversations in the squad room stopped as the officers waited to see what would happen between their sergeant and their boss.

  “Hey, Sarge, it looks like Daddy Warbucks made a phone call about you!” one of the cops called out when Liz marched to the sheriff’s office door.

  The sheriff looked around and saw a room full of cops watching every move he made. He yanked the stogie out and used it to point at his entire crew. “What the hell are you guys looking at? Get back to work, goddamn it!” he yelled, then jammed the unlit cigar between clenched teeth. He held the door open for Liz to enter and then banged it shut. The door shook on its hinges from the force of his anger. The audience of officers could hear the sheriff’s booming voice through the closed door.

  “What the hell is wrong with you, Lizzie? Are you crazy or something?”

  “Calm down, Uncle Ted. It’s not that bad. I stayed within the law,” Liz Gilmore said, holding her hands up in surrender as she assured her godfather what happened on the road between her and the Drummond woman was legal. “You can look at the video from the patrol car if you don’t believe me. I did the drug search because I figured anybody going that fast must be drinking or using drugs. I made her take her sunglasses off so I could see her eyes, Boss.”

  “Was she drunk?”

  “I didn’t smell anything on her breath.”

  “What about her eyes?”

  Liz shrugged before answering him. “They were clear.”

  “Did you find any drugs in your search, Sergeant Gilmore?”

  Liz took off her hat and stuck it under one arm as she faced him. “No, Sir, I did not.”

  The sheriff groaned. “Did you at least help the woman repack the trunk?”

  Liz shook her head no for the third time. “No, Sir, I did not. The law doesn’t require it.”

  The sheriff rolled his eyes skyward, then steepled his hands together like he was pleading with God to help him with this one. He yelled again, “Goddamn it, Lizzie! Don’t you dare tell me what the goddamn law says! I don’t give a shit if you are studying to be a lawyer. I’ve forgotten more law than you’ll e
ver know! I told your father I’d take you under my wing down here because I thought it’d be a good experience for you. Him and me go back a long way in the law community, but that don’t mean I can’t can his daughter’s ass.”

  Finished with his lecture, Sheriff Ted Reeves calmed down and stared at his only goddaughter. “Lizzie, I know you ain’t from around here, but how long is it gonna take you to understand our ways? No, we don’t have the kind of crime wave big cities do. This job is mostly about community relations. The Drummond family is the community and the only important relationship in this town. I want you to go by the Drummond estate and make nice with the daughter. Smooth her feathers a little. Tell her you’re sorry for the inconvenience you caused her. Ask her if there’s a way you can make it up to her. Offer to give her an escort or something. I don’t care what you have to do. Just get her goddamn father off my back, pronto! Got it, Sergeant?”

  “Yes, Sir.” Liz came to attention and saluted. “Sir, could we talk off the record?”

  The sheriff sighed wearily and rubbed his temples. “Yeah, Lizzie, what ya want now?”

  “Uncle Ted, you’re a good cop. One of the best investigators I’ve seen. Why are you worried what Drummond and his cronies think?”

  The sheriff sighed heavily and wondered if his goddaughter would ever fit in this community. He decided the only way she’d fit was if she relaxed and enjoyed the power her job sometimes gave her. “Stick around here long enough, Lizzie, and maybe then you’ll understand. Go see the damned Drummond woman and leave me alone.”