by Misty Simon
“Let the show begin,” I mumbled. I pushed through the door and sucked in the delicious smells of sugary goodness baking. I was surprised she was wrist deep in dough when this was the grand reopening day, but maybe this was how she worked out her stress and the rest of the setup was already done.
“Tallie! What brings you by? Come give us a hug!” Rhoda smiled over her shoulder with her hands in a bowl again. Had those hands broken a man’s neck who was not exactly a kind soul but one who hadn’t deserved to be killed?
Jailed? Yes. Killed? No. Especially if it was only to keep her secret. And the poor kid didn’t even want anything from her except some medical information.
No one had to know unless Eli had been trying to blackmail her about the child she’d given away.
I hugged her shoulders and stayed away from the bowl. To do anything else would have been suspect before I was ready to lay out my cards. I still hadn’t come up with a brilliant way to introduce the subject of her being a killer. “Thought I’d come by and see how you’re doing. Annie has stopped at the Bean a few times to let me know this whole thing has you distraught. I wanted to see how you were handling things.”
“Oh, fine. Of course it’s sad that that poor man drowned in the creek, but those waters can be more dangerous than anyone gives them credit for.” Taking her hands out of the bowl, she moved to the sink and washed them thoroughly. Once she was done she went for the block of knives and my heart seized in my chest. She was going to double her body count! I should have brought Gina in. When would I learn?
Rhoda turned around with a towel, drying her hands, and I took a breath.
“Something wrong, dear? You seem upset. Do you want a cookie? A muffin?” Her blue eyes were wide and caring behind her thick glasses, but that didn’t mean anything.
It was, however, an opening. Maybe not the best one, and maybe I was just going to blurt it out. I had Burton in my pocket and Gina in the car, and this woman wouldn’t get the drop on me.
“So, there’s a story going around town that made me think that you and I should talk.” I sat at the center island in the kitchen. Picking up a salt shaker shaped like a hedgehog, I rolled it back and forth between my fingers.
“Aren’t there always stories going around?” She chuckled. “Is this the one where the inn is tanking and I am selling? Or the one where we’re up to our eyeballs in debt? Or the one where I use frozen food instead of making everything myself? My sheet thread count isn’t as high as I say it is?” She laughed again.
“Um, no, this is the one where you had a secret love child and you’d do anything to protect that secret.”
I watched for her fists to clench or her shoulders to go up, her hand to reach for something to use as a weapon. I had not done that subtly, or right, probably, but I had to know.
Her hands stayed flat on the table and her shoulders hunched forward, she reached for nothing as tears slid down her face.
Dammit. It was true then, she had murdered Eli, and I was going to have to turn her in. This amateur sleuthing business wasn’t always about turning in a bad guy who you were more than happy to see suffer, and it sucked.
Chapter Nineteen
I waited for Rhoda to say something, but she just kept gulping and looking at her hands. Had she strangled him? But my dad had said his neck was broken, so she must have had such strength in those fingers and anger that she didn’t know her usual limits. From kneading bread?
And then she did reach for something—a napkin. She blotted her face as we sat in silence, and I waited and waited. I didn’t quite know for what. Previously the people I caught had been angry and ready to try to kill me for finding them out, willing to give me their evil monologue as they tried to end my life, too. But Rhoda just seemed broken and sad.
Me, too.
“It was during the war. Arthur was deployed and I was so lonely. I thought he was never coming back, and we had a terrible fight before he left. I wanted him to muster out. He wanted to fight in some godforsaken jungle. I thought I wasn’t important. But he really didn’t have any choice. I wasn’t looking at it like that. So, he left, and I went to a dance in town and walked home with a boy who was at the local base. He came around a few times and we . . . you know . . .” Under her tears a blush formed.
I took pity on her. “I know.”
“When Arthur came home I didn’t know how to tell him I was pregnant, but I did and told him that he could leave and I would understand because I had broken our vows.” She sniffed and I wanted to sniff with her, even though I knew she and Arthur were still together. They must have worked it out somehow. “He told me that things happen, and it was a test that we might not have passed the first time, but we’d make it right from here on out. That was forty years ago, and we made it.”
And now I was going to have to turn her in and put her in jail for the rest of her life at sixty-five.
I wish I had never come.
“But then when I was six months pregnant, I fell down the stairs and was rushed to the hospital. The baby didn’t make it. I loved that little one and Arthur had agreed to take him on as his own and raise him with all the love we had for each other. We never did have any more children. I think it was punishment for the things I did wrong.”
“Wait, what? The baby died?” I gripped the edge of the island until my fingers turned white.
She dabbed at her eyes again. “Yes, there was no way to bring him back after that fall. They let me know that he was gone, and I cried and cried. Arthur held me through it all. Promising me that it wasn’t a punishment. But he was wrong, and now the whole town will know because that stupid man Eli tried to blackmail me for something that wasn’t even true!”
“And that’s why you broke his neck when you thought no one was here?”
This whole time she’d never looked at me. She’d looked at her hands and far off as if lost back in time but not at me directly. Now she zeroed in with a precision magnified by her big thick glasses.
“What are you saying?”
“The police know that Eli was blackmailing people, and he wasn’t supposed to be here that day. He called his secretary to tell her he had a business meeting he forgot and came to the inn. He told you he wanted money from you and then did you tell him to go to one of the rooms and you’d discuss it? The man who was asking for the information only wanted his medical history. No matter what Eli told you, the client didn’t want anyone else to know he was here. But if the baby died, then that can’t be your son.”
The kitchen door creaked and we both looked over our shoulders.
Maybe Gina had decided to come in anyway. But it was only Annie. “Oh, you have a visitor. I’ll talk to you later then.”
“This won’t take long, hon. Tallie and I are just finishing up. Come back in about ten minutes or so.”
“That’s fine. I have some things to tend to in the barn, anyway. Paul went to the store for those blueberries you wanted.”
“Excellent, thank you, dear!”
Annie left without glaring at me again. Maybe she finally understood that things were coming to a head. I knew she wanted to protect the woman she thought of as a mother, however, this had gone further than one killing.
Unfortunately, that left me with a crying Rhoda and no solid lead of where to go next. I had been so sure it was her who was trying to derail me from investigating anything and lying to the police about knowing he was here. And maybe she was still lying. Just because she said the baby had died didn’t mean it actually had. She could just be revising history so she didn’t look guilty.
I could go to the police with what I had and let them handle the rest, but I didn’t believe it would be taken care of at this point. They had their hands full with the mess created by Hammond being a dirty cop. Given that he had beat up Marianne to get her to stay quiet should land him in hot water for years, preferably in a prison. And if that didn’t put him there, then certainly his admitting that he’d killed Eli’s brother would put him a
way for life. When I’d set up this scenario with Burton, he’d told me that they’d found the file on Hammond, which he so desperately wanted bad enough that he hit Marianne to keep her quiet. Hammond would have killed her if my precious Peanut had not tried to rip the rear end of his jeans off to get him away from Marianne.
While there was no evidence of murder, just his statement, which should be enough, there was plenty of paperwork showing his pursuit of power over the town, and the underhanded things Eli had found out about him to get him to work with him.
So, the question then was should I just leave?
“I should go,” I said to Rhoda. “I’m sorry for bringing up such sad memories. I just want to solve this mystery.”
“I know, dear, and I have been trying to wrack my brain for who it might be, but I have nothing. Perhaps one of the other people? There were three other cars in the drive that day, and there shouldn’t have been any. Eli’s and a maroon hatchback, as well as a turquoise sedan. I did find out that the one belonged to the caterer who was talking with Annie, and the other belonged to the helper Paul was interviewing, so I guess that leaves them out.”
I guess it did. Back to the drawing board.
I left Rhoda in the kitchen and listened to her sob for just a few seconds. I had brought the grief on again after all these years, but I had to be sure it wasn’t her. It was tempting to go into the private residence and see if I could talk with Arthur. Maybe he was the one who had actually killed Eli. The man who would stand by his woman through anything and had seen combat might have lost it when his life and his wife were threatened. But I still struggled with how he would have accomplished all that from a wheelchair.
I turned to go back to talk with Rhoda again when something slammed into the back of my head. I went down like a ton of bricks.
* * *
I woke up sputtering for the second time in a week. This time my head was in the water, not dripping with dirty water from my bucket. I had no idea how much time had passed, but it was enough that I was no longer where I had fallen and I was dripping wet.
It took me a moment to orient myself. How could this be?
And then I realized I was in the creek and someone was shoving my head back under the water and trying to drown me.
I struggled and fought as best I could, but whoever it was had strength like I couldn’t imagine. They held me down and light burst in front of my eyes. I held my breath as long as possible, but it was getting harder not to open my mouth and scream. Especially when I saw a fish swim by my face and a snake float by. My God, I was going to die and sleep with the fishes.
And then air, precious air as I made one last futile attempt to resurface and kicked whoever it was in the shin or some other part that startled the person enough to let go.
I scrambled back on my hands like I was doing the crab walk in fourth-grade gym. At this point, I didn’t care what was in the water with me as long as I was still breathing. I hit one of those dips in the streambed and stumbled, almost drowning myself, but shot up out of the water just as a branch came at my head. I ducked and sidestepped and finally was able to see my attacker.
“Annie?”
“You just do not know when to stay down.” She growled and came for me again, her Victorian dress dragging through the water at her knees.
“What in the world?” I backed away from her, scooting my feet along the ground to make sure I didn’t hit another of those dips. She was too close, and she was between me and the bank. I could have dived for the other bank but it was a steep cliff and there was no way I’d be able to get away. At least not without her hitting me, or dragging me back to the water.
I had to get around her. Preferably before she swung with that stick again.
Keep her talking. It had never worked for me before but maybe there was a first time for everything.
“I don’t get it. What was Eli after you for?”
“As if you don’t know.”
“Um, I don’t, or I wouldn’t be asking.”
She laughed, and it was tinged with a maniacal twist that frightened me more than the snake that skittered two feet away.
I felt my pocket for my phone and found it gone. No one was going to save me. If Burton wasn’t listening and Gina was obliviously sitting in the car listening to music and Rhoda was baking her bread and dreaming of the child she never had, and Max was across the country, then no one was coming to save me. I’d save myself, dammit.
“Is the child yours?”
“You don’t know? I’m R.M. My first name is Rhiannon and my maiden name was Matthews. I heard you ask Rhoda about that.”
It clicked in my head. Annie was a nickname for Rhiannon, but she wasn’t the right age. Was she? And she said she couldn’t have children in the coffee shop that day. The coffee shop where first she’d tried to get me to drop the whole thing, and second she’d tried to blame it on the woman she said she thought of as a mother.
“The child is mine, and so is the shame of getting pregnant out of wedlock to a man who couldn’t do the right thing. I was not going to pay one penny to that lowlife Eli, though. I knew he was coming for me next if he found Rhoda. He wouldn’t be far away from finding me. I was so careful to cover everything up and I never told Paul. He still doesn’t know. It was before we got married, and he didn’t need to know since the deed was done. I went away for six months, faked a fight with my parents, and told them I needed time to sort through my life before I started to show. And then I had that little brat and gave him away to the first family who would take him. And now he comes back to haunt me. I did the right thing. I did and now I have to pay for it again and again. Well, I wasn’t going to do that. And so my secret is safe. You didn’t figure it out, and no one else will.”
“The police already know.”
“No, they don’t, Tallie. Don’t try to pull that crap with me. I know everything you know, you and your little friend, who by the way is taking a nap that hopefully she might wake up from even though you’re not going to survive your impromptu swim.”
I looked down as if checking out my attire when really I was searching for a weapon. Any weapon. “In my jeans, in the fall? You really think the police are going to believe that?”
“They don’t need to because I’m going to blame it on Hammond. He was down here, too. He’s the one who killed that brother of Eli’s, and I have proof. So, I’ll throw him under the bus for both.”
“Why would he have killed me, though?” She must not have known that Hammond was in jail, and I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her. I was still trying to circle around her, but she kept matching me step for step, so I couldn’t get around her. We were going to be in this godforsaken creek forever if she had her way. Or at least I would. The water had started creeping up her dress, absorbing into the layers of petticoats and velvet until her steps started slowing. Not by much, and she kept walking as if she didn’t notice in her fury, but I had, and I was waiting for that dress to get too heavy. I just had to survive until then.
“You are a menace and should have gotten a hobby. You don’t need to involve yourself in affairs that have nothing to do with you.”
“Is that what you had? An affair and that’s where the baby came from? You know your child only wanted to know about his medical history. The blackmailing was all Eli.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled. When her eyes opened, I was fifteen feet away and halfway to the bank. Who knew I could be that fast?
“Just the medical information?”
“Yes, he didn’t want anything from you. He’s dying and he needed his medical information to see if they could find something in his background to look at that might help.”
“He’s dying?” she repeated, her expression flat.
“He is,” I answered softly
Her eyes closed again, and this time I moved in a different direction. I wasn’t going to be able to leave her in the creek and go get help before she took off, even in that dress. I had to subdue
her and get her tied up. But with what?
And then I saw it. Fishing wire tangled in the branch above me. People often fished here and with the branches so low, they often didn’t cast right. They’d cut bait and walk down a little ways in their waders to a clearer spot and leave the line in the trees. And that was my ticket to freedom if I could get it.
As quietly as I could, I stepped around her and yanked on the fishing wire. It wasn’t quiet, though. It didn’t matter because she was crying and she probably couldn’t see me through the flood of tears. Heaving sobs dropped her to her knees in the creek. The water came up to her chest, soaking the dress and pulling at the lace on her sleeves.
“Dying. I know I called him a little brat, but I loved him and I wanted to keep him. I just couldn’t when I got no support. In the end, I tried so hard to give him the life I wouldn’t be able to give him, and he’s dying.”
I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want her to look over at me as I grabbed the tree branch and used my weight to try to snap it off the tree. Bouncing a few times made it creak, but it wasn’t enough.
“Everything is for nothing. That damn Eli, I’m glad he’s dead. He was trying to get Rhoda to pay to keep her secret and it wasn’t even hers.”
Keep talking, girl. One more bounce and the tree limb came free in my hands. I fell into the creek again on my rear end this time but scrambled up.
“And just what in the world do you think you’re going to do with that?” she asked, her voice low and menacing again.
I had been afraid this was going to happen. Now that she’d cried, she was pissed and was going to take it out on me. The time for action was now. I’d have to swing this tree limb and hit her hard if I was going to save myself, but it made my stomach hurt to think about hurting another person.
“Stop right there.”
We both turned to see Burton standing on the bank, gun drawn. Max stood next to him, and I almost dropped everything to run to him. Annie did drop into the water and tried to float away down the creek, but her dress only pulled her down and sank her where she sat on the creek bed.