by James, Emily
I waited for a couple of minutes, even though every creak of the vents above me made me jump, thinking Mr. Green had returned. I needed to give my wrist as much of a chance to rest as possible.
When I couldn’t stand waiting any longer, I stepped up onto the main cabinet. It groaned under my weight.
I’d have to do this in two stages and pray the old pieces of cabinet could hold out long enough.
I planted one foot onto the drawer, raised my hands over my head, and pushed off. My hands collided with the grate, and I shoved. It was heavier than I’d expected, and slightly rusted shut. My wrist burst into internal flames, but the grate clattered to the side. I’d have to go the other way when I jumped in.
The drawer beneath me let out a popping noise. I lowered to the main cabinet and stumbled back to the ground.
One of the screws in the drawer had given out. I wouldn’t be able to hesitate once I climbed on again. I’d have to grab the edge of the ducting and jump up without hesitating.
Blood pounded in my wrist. If it’d been fractured, I’d made it worse. But I was almost there. I just had to get inside and I’d be safe. Safe-ish. Safer than I was now anyway.
I drew a deep breath, stepped back up on the main cabinet, and counted to three. I launched onto the drawer, grabbed the edge of the ducting, and jumped. I pulled up with my arms.
My wrist felt like it exploded and black dots flashed at the edges of my vision. I got my elbows over the edge, then my stomach up onto it. I wriggled and pulled until I lay on my side inside the ceiling.
The ducting moaned but held. I hadn’t considered that it might not be able to bear my weight.
I needed to crawl farther down the ducting so that my feet weren’t dangling over the edge, but waves of nausea buffeted me every time I tried to lift my head. I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore on my injured hand. Everything from my wrist down was heat and pain.
Move, a voice in my head shouted at me. You didn’t come this far to give up now.
It didn’t sound like Fear this time. Fear had been quiet this whole time when he normally would have been beating me into a panic attack.
This time the voice I heard urging me on sounded like a combination of Claire and Dan.
I closed my eyes and imagined Claire with her hands planted on her hips, lecturing me about how quitters never prosper. I imagined Dan, going on with his life, refusing to let everything he’d lost and been through beat him. I imagined Eve, sunglasses on her head and smile on her face, choosing joy. And I imagined Janie, her little forehead screwed up in concentration, refusing to give up as she struggled to figure out the Russian piping tips.
They weren’t quitters, and neither was I.
I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth and inched my way deeper into the ducting. Dust filled my nose and made my eyes itch. The ducting swayed beneath me.
Definitely not safe. Had this been new, light-weight ducting, or the kind of ducting they put into houses, it never would have supported my weight.
I hit a portion that felt more solid and stopped. I had to be over top of the wall now that separated the filing room from the hallway.
I laid my head down and closed my eyes. There was nothing else I could do but wait.
23
I dreamed that Dan was calling my name.
No, it couldn’t be a dream. There was no way I could have fallen asleep with the pain. Maybe I’d passed out.
I forced my eyes open, but nothing met my gaze. Everything around me was dark. This wasn’t my truck. Where was I?
Mr. Green pulling a gun on me and then my struggle to climb up into the ceiling came back in a rush.
“Isabel?” Dan’s voice called again. “Are you in here?”
I tried to call back, but my tongue felt taped to the floor of my mouth.
“Check all the closets and every locked room,” Dan was saying. His voice sounded muffled.
Which made sense. We did have ceiling tiles and metal ductwork between us.
The pain was muddling my thinking.
I swallowed hard, trying to moisten my mouth. “Dan!”
His name came out in a croak. Maybe I was dreaming after all, and it’d be one of those dreams where you screamed for help but no one heard you.
I tried again.
“I hear her,” he said. “Isabel?”
His voice was louder than the first time. He must have moved closer.
“I’m up here.” The words came easier now. My brain and my vocal cords were syncing up again.
“Up where?” Dan’s voice had stopped moving.
I didn’t blame him for being confused. Murderers didn’t tend to leave their intended victims in the ceiling. I tapped on the edge of the duct with my good hand. It clanged. “Up here. But you might want to call the fire department. I’m pretty sure I can’t get out.”
* * *
Everything between then and when I woke up in my room in Claire’s house was a bit of a blur. Dan did radio for the fire department, and they had to cut through the ceiling and the ductwork to get me out.
I must have passed out again because the next clear memory I had was of a doctor saying my wrist was badly sprained but not broken, splinting it, and prescribing me some strong pain killers and an ice pack.
I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten from the hospital back to Claire’s and then into bed. A few times I thought I heard a child’s voice saying something about pigs and chickens and little red trucks. The only way I could explain that was the pain medication.
I opened my eyes slowly. The room around me was muted, like it was daytime, but someone had drawn the curtains to block out some of the light. My wrist rested propped on a pillow on a partially melted ice pack.
And Janie’s face was less than a foot away.
I jerked back into my pillow slightly.
She grinned. “She’s really awake this time,” she yelled.
She was so close to me when she did it that my ears rung with it, and I could smell peanut butter, grape, and milk on her breath. I wouldn’t have cared if she smelled like garlic and sweaty feet. Seeing her again made so much of my world right again.
I motioned her over and wrapped my good arm around her.
She clung to me like an adorable tick. “I wanted to stay on the bed with you like Claire does for me when I’m sick, but Daddy said I couldn’t because I might hurt your wrist on accident. He put the chair for me instead. I read to you.” She pointed to a book with the title Farmer Doug’s Big Red Truck. “It’s the only one I know, so I read it lots.”
So it hadn’t been a hallucination after all. “Thank you. I’m sure that’s why I had good dreams.”
She let go and pointed to a very drippy cup on the bedside table. The residue inside was a faded purple. “I made you a purple cow too. But then the ice cream started to melt, and I got thirsty, so I drank it. I’ll make you another one now that you’re awake.”
She darted from the room.
Dan ducked in after her, barely avoiding being run over when she barreled past.
“What’s a purple cow?” I whispered.
Dan’s smile looked more relaxed than I’d seen in weeks. “Grape juice, ice cream, and milk. She learned how to make it at vacation Bible school. She wanted to make you something herself, and that’s really the only thing she knows how to make without help.” The smile faded from his face, and he took the chair Janie had vacated. “You might need the sugar hit once you hear the rest of what I need to tell you.”
Part of me wanted to tell him that I wasn’t ready for any bad news yet. But the more rational part knew I wouldn’t be able to rest until I knew. “Did Mr. Green get away?”
Dan shook his head. “We caught him, and he gave himself up immediately. He kept defending his actions to anyone who would listen, saying he did it to protect his employees.”
Because of my negative experiences, I’d lean more toward vigilante justice if someone didn’t check me. Mr. Green was a perfec
t example of the problems inherent in not having a dedicated police force. He’d found a way to justify everything he did, even harming me, an innocent bystander, in pursuit of the greater good. He’d sacrificed the few to save the many.
Having seen the ways an individual taking justice into their own hands could go wrong, and having now met individuals like Dan and Nicole’s friends in the Fair Haven police department, I think I was safely content with the justice system handling things. Flaws and all, it was better than the alternative.
There was one part of all of this that I hadn’t been able to work out. “How did you find him? I thought I was the only one who’d figured out he was Anthony Rigman’s killer, and I didn’t realize it until it was too late.”
Dan’s foot bounced on the floor. “You didn’t show up at the station, and you didn’t answer when I tried to call you.”
No, I hadn’t. For obvious reasons. “I guess you could say I was locked up.”
My wrist still hurt a bit too much for me to grin along with my joke.
Either Dan didn’t catch the play on I was tied up or he was worried about my reaction because his cheeks didn’t even twitch with the start of a smile.
“I don’t want you to think I’d do this if I wasn’t worried about your wellbeing.”
I understood. He’d tracked my phone again the way he had when he’d thought Jarrod might have found me. “It’d be stalkerish if you did it just to ask me to come over for dinner, but any time you think my life might be in danger, feel free.”
The tension was still in his shoulders. “I didn’t think your life was in danger this time.”
Oh, wait. He’d thought I was running. As much as I hated to admit it, in some ways, it amounted to the same thing. “Someone once told me that I’m safer where I have friends.”
His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Sounds like a smart man.”
“He is.” He shouldn’t have been hesitant to tell me anything of what he had so far. More was coming. “I’m still waiting on the bad news.”
“Your truck. When we found Green…”
My stomach clenched, and I was suddenly glad I hadn’t put Janie’s purple cow in it yet. “What did he do to it?”
Dan drew in a deep breath. “If I hadn’t found him by tracking your phone, the fire department would have. He took it to an isolated spot outside of town and doused it in gasoline. If we’d been much later, I might not have even recognized it.”
Buzzing filled my ears. The truck hadn’t technically been my home anymore, but it still felt the same as if I’d watched my house burn down. Only worse. I’d lost my home and my business.
Warm fingers closed around mine. I glanced down. Dan’s hand held mine. The panic brewing in my chest blew away rather than turning into a storm.
“Do you have insurance?” he asked.
I couldn’t help it. It felt so ironic that an insurance salesman caused me to need my insurance. I cracked up laughing.
“Isabel!” Janie zipped into the room and plopped a glass of thick purple goo on the counter. “Your friend’s here. She’s coming up, and I’m going to make her a purple cow too.”
“Did you call Nicole?” I asked Dan.
He shook his head.
Eve stepped into the room, her sunglasses pushed up on top of her head. She glanced back over her shoulder. “Did she just call me a cow?”
Maybe it was the stress, but I broke out laughing again. This time both Dan and Eve joined me.
When we pulled ourselves together, Dan gave up his chair to Eve.
She dropped into it and pulled a tablet out of her oversized purse. “I won’t stay long, but I made you a little gift. I wanted to thank you for sticking with me through all of this.”
At least if it was a gift she’d made, I wouldn’t worry about the cost. Not like the sunglasses.
I edged up in the bed until I could sit up straighter.
She tapped on the screen a couple of times, then handed the tablet to me.
On the screen was the website for a catering business. The color scheme was pink and purple, like my truck had been. The design was beautiful without sacrificing function.
I knew what she’d done before my eyes found the website name—How Sweet It Is.
Eve leaned forward. “I heard what happened to your truck, but if you have a website, you can still take catering orders and cook from the kitchen here.”
Tears burned at my eyes. Her gift was thoughtful. It would help grow my business.
It was also more dangerous than she could ever know. Because someone at the Rigman & Associates barbecue had obviously been taking pictures. The website was full of images of me, Dan, Claire, and my truck.
My truck was gone, and the insurance money might or might not be enough to buy me another one. I’d only been able to afford the most basic coverage. So Jarrod couldn’t come looking for my truck.
But my face was everywhere.
If I hadn’t already decided I wasn’t going to run anymore, I’d be gone, truck or no truck.
“Do you like it?” Eve asked, her voice uncertain.
My throat felt too thick to speak. I nodded and handed her tablet back to her.
She grinned. “I can help you keep it updated or show you how to do it yourself. It’s hosted on through my sister’s company, and she owed me a favor, so you have five years of free hosting.” She sneaked a glance at the glass of melting purpleness of my bedside table. “And now I’m going to get out of here before I have to taste whatever that is.”
“It’s actually pretty good,” Dan said.
Eve scurried to the door. “I’ll take your word for it.”
She wiggled her fingers at me in a wave and was gone.
Dan came back to my bedside and pulled the website back up on his phone. His gaze scanned the screen. “We can take the pictures down. I have enough tech skills to do it without Eve knowing about it unless she goes back and looks.”
Eve wasn’t likely to look. This project was complete. She’d be on to the next one.
The blood seemed to pound through my sprained wrist with extra force. “It might already be too late. He might already know I’m here.”
Dan laid his phone down and took my hand again. “If he does, we’ll face him together. Remember, that’s what friends do.”
Recipe: Red Velvet Cupcakes
I first learned to bake red velvet cake when I met my husband. I’d never even heard of it before. (I guess it’s more common in the US south?) My husband’s birthday tradition, though, was to have red velvet cake, so I knew I had to figure it out. These cupcakes were born out of that. They’re less dense than the cake version, but they still have that traditional red velvet flavor.
(And if you don’t like to use food coloring, you can leave it out. The only thing it changes is the color.)
Cake:
1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 oz red food coloring
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Cream Cheese Icing:
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (35%), cold
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
To Make the Cake:
1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2.In a large bowl, beat together sugar and oil until well combined.
3.Add in the egg, and beat until well combined. (You’ll know you’ve reached that point because the mixture will look smooth and uniform in color.)
4.Mix in buttermilk, vanilla extract, and red food coloring. Combine well.
5.Mix in hot water and vinegar until well combined.
6.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. These are your dry ingredients.
7.Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and gently mix by hand until just combined.
8.Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full with the batter.
9.Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (It’s okay if there are bits of cake stuck to the toothpick, but not wet batter.) Do not overbake.
10.Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
To Make the Icing:
11.Place your bowl and mixer whisk attachment into the freezer for 10 minutes.
12.Remove whipping cream from fridge at the same time as you remove them from the freezer.
13.Immediately, whip the cream on high speed until thick and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
14.In a separate bowl, beat together cream cheese and powdered sugar. Once they are well combined, add in the vanilla extract and continue to beat until it’s combined as well.
15.Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
16.Store cupcakes in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before eating.
Makes 12 cupcakes.
Letter from the Author
Thank you for continuing on with Isabel, Dan, Claire, and Janie.
I love Isabel as a character because she has so much room to grow. What happened to her in the past isn’t fair, but she hasn’t let it stop her. She’s trying to figure out a way to have a better life.
For those of you who are fans of the Maple Syrup Mysteries, I hope you also enjoyed the cameo by Nicole and Mark.
The next book in the Cupcake Truck Mysteries is Gum Drop Dead, where a body falls from the sky at a hot air balloon festival!