Murder at the Pet Boutique

by Cindy Bell

  “Me, too.” Tim’s jaw rippled, and he kept his gaze on the road.

  “Were you close?” Nikki softened her voice as she sensed that his grief was raw.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” He veered the car into another lane, then stepped on the gas.

  “Sorry.” She wobbled in her seat, unable to brace herself with her hands tied behind her back. “You don’t have to do this, Tim. You can trust me not to say anything.”

  “Right.” Tim flashed her a brief smile. “You’re just going to forget all about being abducted?” He shook his head and turned his attention back to the road.

  “I will, I promise, Tim. I will.” Nikki squirmed in her seat in an attempt to look at him, but he kept his focus on the road. As they drove along she tried to untie the rope. “I know you don’t want to do this. I know that you’re not a killer.”

  “You’re wrong. I am.” Tim turned off the main road. “Bryan is dead because of me.” He turned down another road, that paralleled farmland, and woods.

  “You can still do something about it.” Nikki took a sharp breath as she wondered if his words were a confession. Had he really killed his brother? “Go to the police.”

  “You’re crazy.” He turned down another road, and she noticed that the pavement disappeared. As the car rolled along the dirt, her heart sank. This was where he was headed the whole time. He had a plan for her, and it didn’t include returning her safely to her apartment.

  “Please, Tim, think about what you’re doing.” Nikki began to panic more as he pulled the car to a stop on the side of the road. He leaned across the car and untied the cord from around her wrists.

  “I have thought about it. I’ve thought about it from the moment that I got involved with John again. When I got out of jail, I thought I owed him something. I got arrested and he paid an attorney to help me get out. About a month ago he came to me about the emeralds. He needed a way to get them out of the country.” Tim shrugged as his eyes widened. “It seemed like such a simple thing to do. I knew that Bryan wanted to open a shop, and that he would be shipping some products to customers outside the country. I was sure we could find a way to use that.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat. “I couldn’t have known that things would get this out of control.”

  “No, you couldn’t,” Nikki said gently. “I know that you loved your brother. I know that you never meant for any of this to happen.”

  “I didn’t.” Tim opened his eyes and looked into hers. “But once I was involved with John, there was no way out. He set it up so that Bryan would get the shop space he needed to open his business. Bryan had no idea what was going on, until I showed up.” He lowered his eyes. “You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me. I thought maybe he would be happy, but he wasn’t. I tried to get him to volunteer to be involved in the smuggling, but he refused. He insisted he wanted to run a clean and legal business and that he didn’t want anything to do with me or John.”

  “That must have upset you.” Nikki chewed on her bottom lip. “You can tell me what really happened, Tim, I’m listening.”

  “I don’t know what happened!” He shook his head. “That’s the worst part of all of this. John insists that he didn’t kill Bryan, but I don’t know! I pulled Bryan into this mess, and eventually he complied. He helped me smuggle the emeralds in his products out of the country. I think he did it to protect me, because I told him that John would kill me if he didn’t follow through. For a week, all was well. Then all of a sudden, he decided he couldn’t do it anymore. John found out, he came to Dahlia. I tried to talk some sense into Bryan, I warned him that John was a dangerous man. He said that was why he needed out. He’d made a mistake and sold a collar with some of the emeralds to Mrs. Whitter. He got the emeralds back, but what if he hadn’t? He couldn’t live in fear. John would have gone after him.” He rubbed his hand across his forehead and groaned. “He was such an idiot!” He punched the steering wheel. “All he had to do was give all the emeralds to John, but he refused, he said he didn’t have them. I think he thought John wouldn’t harm him until he had the emeralds. When I left the shop, he was still alive. But as I was riding away, I heard a gunshot. I heard it.” He drew a sharp breath. “Someone walked right in that shop after I left and killed my brother, and I did nothing to stop it!”

  “I’m sorry, that is heartbreaking, and it’s going to take some time for you to get through that, Tim.” Nikki’s mind spun with the information he gave her. He wasn’t a murderer, she wanted to believe him. He might have put his brother in danger, but maybe he wasn’t the one that pulled the trigger. That meant that there really could be a spark of good inside him. “You can’t do anything to change that now. But you can change this moment. You can make a good decision right now. One that your brother would be proud of, that he would encourage you to make.”

  “Keep quiet.” He groaned again, then opened the car door. “There’s nothing I can do. Either I will do it, or John will. He’s going to kill me, too, if he doesn’t find those emeralds.”

  “I can help you with that.” She shifted in the car seat, her hands finally free of the cord, still ached from being tied. “I know where the emeralds are.”

  “Don’t lie to me.” Tim sighed as he looked over at her. “I know that you have no idea where they are.”

  “No, I do.” She locked her eyes to his. “I lied to John, you’re right. I lied to him because I wanted to protect Mrs. Whitter. I had to get him away from her.”

  “You lied to him about where the emeralds are, but you know where they are?” Tim pulled his car door shut as he stared at her. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes, I am.” Her stomach churned. She knew that if she led him back to Mrs. Whitter’s house and she hadn’t found her phone, then she would be putting her friend in danger, again. But if she had found the phone, then the police might be right there waiting for them. But she couldn’t take the risk. She would pretend that the emeralds were close to Mrs. Whitter’s house, buried in the park, then if the police were in the area hopefully they would see her. “I can take you to them, Tim.”

  “Why would you do that?” He studied her. “Why would you tell me where they are?”

  “Because I want to live, Tim. I believe you don’t want to hurt us. We can make a deal.” She bit into her bottom lip and held her breath as she expected him to refuse.

  “What kind of deal?” Tim settled back in the driver’s seat.

  “I will take you to the emeralds, if you promise to let me and Mrs. Whitter go. Mrs. Whitter never saw you, she has no idea that you were involved. As far as she knows, John was the only one behind all of this. I’ll give you the emeralds, and you can take off. The police will have their criminal, and lock up John. He won’t be able to come after you. You can start a new life somewhere fresh, somewhere that you can forget everything that happened here.” She held his gaze as her heart pounded. “You can be the person who I know you really are inside. All you have to do is agree, and within an hour you’ll be on your way.”

  “This is just another trick.” Tim frowned, but narrowed his eyes with interest.

  “It isn’t, Tim. If I’m telling the truth, then you’ll have your emeralds, and your escape. Like you said, John is just going to kill you, too. Right?” She raised an eyebrow. “What do you have to lose?”

  “Nothing, I suppose.” He slid his hand along the steering wheel. “If this is some kind of game, you’re going to regret it.”

  “Oh, it’s no game. As long as Mrs. Whitter and I go free, I can assure you, you will have all of the emeralds you are looking for.” Nikki felt some relief as he started the engine. She’d just bought herself a bit more time. But would it be enough?

  Chapter 14

  Nikki directed Tim back into town, though she did her best to be evasive as to where they were actually going. She made sure that he took a road that went past the police station. As they neared it, her heartbeat quickened. She knew she only had one c
hance at this, and if she didn’t take it, she might never have another one. As he drove past the police station, she grabbed the steering wheel and tugged it hard in the direction of a group of signs.

  “What are you doing?” Tim shouted as he struggled to regain control of the car. It careened into the signs, despite his best efforts. As it crashed through them, Nikki braced herself against the dashboard. Her entire body bounced and lurched in reaction to the collision. She drew a deep breath as pain shot through her legs and wrists. The crash didn’t cause as much damage as she hoped it would. As Tim started to back the car up, she reached for the door handle. The lock clicked shut before she could open it.

  “Don’t you even try it.” Tim snarled at her as he stepped on the gas. The car flew across the road in reverse. He slammed on the brakes, which caused Nikki to crash into the dashboard again. As her vision blurred with panic and pain, she heard the sound of sirens. At least her plan had partially worked. The crash had drawn the attention of a police officer. The patrol car bolted after them. As its engine roared she found some comfort in the thought that she was about to be rescued. But as Tim navigated the streets and sharp turns, she realized that she may have underestimated him. He wove through thick traffic and then cut down a side street, losing the police car for several seconds. When the flashing lights and sirens returned, he again executed several sharp turns, and cut off a line of traffic at a green light. She squeezed her eyes shut as she anticipated the sound of shattered glass and twisting metal. Instead, he sailed right through the intersection and made another hard turn followed by a quick succession of turns that led him deeper into a heavily populated neighborhood. Only when she began to relax did she realize that she could no longer hear the sirens. Her heart sank.

  “What did that do?” Tim cut a glance in her direction. “Huh? What did it do?”

  Too frightened to speak, she stared through the windshield. He had lost the police officer. No one knew where she was, or who she was with, or even that she was missing, aside from Mrs. Whitter. Her best guess was that Mrs. Whitter hadn’t found the phone. She was sure that if she had, Quinn would have the entire police force out looking for her. Since that didn’t appear to be the case, she was quite certain that he didn’t even know she was gone. She stared through the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of flashing lights. She strained to hear any hint of a siren. With every second that passed, her panic increased. At this point, she felt as if the only way out was to jump out of the car. The lock was still in place. But Tim was distracted with driving and might not notice if she unlocked it and opened the door. She shifted her body in the seat to block her actions, and managed to get the lock up. A quick assessment of their speed warned her that she might not survive hitting the road. There were also other cars around them that she might get struck by in the process. But anything had to be better than being alone with Tim as he stewed in his betrayal and anger. She gritted her teeth, then did her best to distract him. As long as he wasn’t looking at the door, she thought she could get it open before he discovered that it was unlocked.

  “Tim, please, just let me go! Where are you taking me?” Nikki grabbed desperately at the handle of the passenger side door.

  “Enough!” He pushed the lock button, then glared at her. “If you do that again I’ll make things a lot worse for you.” As a car blared its horn at him, he focused his attention on the road again. “John is right. I need to listen to him, and take care of things, instead of letting things get any more out of hand.”

  Nikki’s heart dropped at the thought of him listening to John. There would be no way to convince him that she knew where the emeralds were now. He would never believe her again. She cringed as she wondered how she had ever thought he was a good person. Was her radar so off that she didn’t know when someone was a violent criminal? She stared hard out the window in an attempt to calm herself. It didn’t take long before she recognized the direction he headed in. Right back to the dirt road.

  “Tim, this is a mistake.” Nikki forced the words out, despite the fear that threatened to paralyze her.

  “The only mistake I made was ever trusting you. I never should have believed you. You made a fool of me. I really thought we could end this without it getting even worse, but I was wrong.” He turned onto the dirt road.

  Nikki closed her eyes and held back tears. Maybe if she had followed through with her promise, and given him the emeralds, maybe he would have let her go. But she couldn’t risk taking him back to Mrs. Whitter’s house. Maybe it had been the wrong choice, but it was too late to change it now. She’d broken any chance of trust between them, and motivated him to follow through with his orders. As the knowledge of what was about to unfold set in, she felt defeated. The car came to a stop. He turned off the engine. Silence blanketed the car as neither of them moved a muscle. She wondered what ran through his mind. Did he regret the choices he’d made that led him to this moment? She certainly did.

  Without looking at Nikki, Tim pushed the door open and stepped out of the car. It struck her as she watched him walk around the front of the car to the passenger side, that she might never know who killed Bryan. It could have been John, it could have been Royce, it could have even been Heather. It could be the person who pointed a gun at her through the passenger side window. Tim used his free hand to open the door.

  “Get out.” He held the door open.

  Nikki clenched her teeth and willed herself not to scream. No one would be able to hear her, and she didn’t want to give Tim the pleasure of hearing it. Did he take pleasure in this? She dared a look into his eyes, and found something molten and dark there. She couldn’t place exactly what it was. But none of it looked like mercy.

  “You’re better than this, Tim. I know you are. You loved your brother. Don’t you want to find out what really happened to him? I can help you with that.” Her voice trembled, but with each word she spoke it got stronger. “I can get the detective working the case to—”

  “No.” Tim released the safety on the gun as he pointed it at her. “It doesn’t matter. He’s gone. That’s all that matters. Nothing can bring him back, and nothing can change the fact that it was my fault. This is who I am, Nikki. It’s who I’ve always been. Fighting it was the only stupid choice I ever made. Now, get out.” He reached into the car and grabbed her roughly by the arm.

  As he jerked her out of the seat, hot fear seized every nerve in her body. Alarms rang deep in her senses. Her knees threatened to buckle, but she managed to remain on her feet.

  He gave her a light shove so that he could step behind her.

  “Walk.” He gestured to the woods in front of them.

  “Please, Tim, don’t do this.” She didn’t move her feet an inch.

  “Walk, or I will drag you.” He pointed the gun at her. “It’s your choice.”

  Nikki forced her feet to move. The last thing she wanted was to encourage him to pull the trigger.

  “I was supposed to walk my dogs today. They’re probably all upset about not getting out.” She shivered as she heard him step on a twig behind her. He followed so close that she could smell his cologne. “Their owners are going to be looking for me.”

  “Lots of people can walk dogs, don’t worry.” Tim gave her a light push. “Keep going.”

  “I guess I never thought it would end like this. There’s someone I care so much about, I guess, if I’m honest, I’m in love with him.” Nikki glanced over her shoulder. “I haven’t even had the courage to tell him.”

  “I’m sorry about that.” Tim moved her along with another light push. “But you’re probably saving yourself some pain. True love doesn’t even exist.”

  “I don’t believe that.” Her heart pounded harder with every step she took. “I’ve loved him since I was just a teenager.”

  “Sure.” He grabbed her shoulder to stop her. “That’s far enough.”

  “Tim please, don’t do this.” She released a slow breath as she prepared herself for what would happen next.r />
  “Quiet!”

  Nikki could feel his presence behind her. She knew that he still hesitated to pull the trigger. As much as he wanted to be the bad guy, he just didn’t have it in him. The sound of a motorcycle made her jump. She sensed Tim take a few steps away from her, as someone plodded through the woods in their direction. She didn’t dare to turn around. She knew who it was.

  “What’s going on here?” John demanded as he crossed the distance between them. “Tim, I told you to take care of this, and you still haven’t?”

  “She said she knew where the emeralds were.” Tim frowned as he looked over at John. “I thought she was telling the truth, but it turns out it was just another one of her lies.”

  “And you fell for it? You told me she didn’t know where they were.” He ran his hand back through his hair. “Every time I start to think you’ve grown a brain, you show me you haven’t.”

  “Keep quiet! You thought she had the emeralds, first! You’re the one who brought her into this in the first place!” Tim turned to face him.

  Nikki heard Tim’s shoe twist in the dirt. She felt his attention shift from her and became aware that the gun was no longer pointed in her direction. This was her chance, her last chance, and it might be the last decision she ever made.

  “You’re so stupid.” John scowled.

  “You tell me right now!” Tim aimed the gun straight at John’s face. “You tell me what you did to my brother!”

  “Tim, I told you, I had nothing to do with that.” John smiled and held up his hands. “Relax man.”

  “Liar! You’re lying to me!” Tim growled and lunged forward another step.

  Nikki took this as her cue. She felt her legs propel her forward without even instructing them to. Her entire body came alive with a pressing need to escape. She knew that at any second she could pay the price for her decision to run with a bullet in her back. She just hoped that the two men behind her were too involved in their own argument to notice her escape. Each time her foot landed on the ground, she felt a stronger sense of freedom. She was going to make it, she could sense it. Her blood pumped with such intensity that she could hear it.