Fit To Be Tied

by Elizabeth Craig

  Colleen snorted. She threw a hand back to indicate the huge house behind her and jeered, “Why do you think I need to blackmail anybody? I sure don’t have to commit crimes to earn a little spending money. Don’t you see where I’m living?”

  Beatrice nodded and said in a quiet voice, “I see exactly where you’re living. Where you’re living is making me wonder if maybe you’re over-mortgaged. I also understand that you haven’t paid the church fee yet for your daughter’s wedding.”

  Colleen rolled her eyes. “That’s called being busy, not being stretched for cash.”

  Beatrice calmly continued as if there hadn’t been an interruption. Wyatt should be there soon. “It makes me wonder if there are other, more important and pressing, bills that you haven’t paid. That would explain why you felt you needed to resort to blackmail. I have the feeling, though, that Gerald wasn’t one to be blackmailed. He didn’t strike me as the kind of person who would take very kindly to it. He wouldn’t have wanted to be a victim.”

  Colleen said, “Wait, back up. You haven’t even told me what I was supposed to be blackmailing Gerald over. What kind of leverage could I possibly have had over him? Oh, hold on—you probably think that I was threatening to tell Laura about Gerald’s and my affair.”

  Beatrice said, “If you told Laura about your affair, it would have given her good reason to legitimately ask for a divorce, as the wronged party. And, with no prenuptial agreement, as you pointed out, Laura would be able to make out like a bandit from any divorce settlement.”

  Colleen’s voice was a little higher when next she spoke, which told Beatrice that she might be getting close to the truth. “And you think that Laura would have wanted to divorce Gerald? But everyone in town always thought that they were the perfect picture of a happy couple. That they were so good together.”

  Beatrice said, “In some ways, they were good together. I think they had a successful partnership. But Mark believes that Laura is also seeing someone else. She’s certainly happy to leave Dappled Hills behind; she’s been packing up since before the funeral. If you’d told Laura that Gerald was having an affair with you, she’d have quickly been talking to a lawyer. And Gerald, proud as he was, would have felt thoroughly humiliated at being left. Plus, he would have taken quite a financial hit.”

  Beatrice moved closer to Colleen and Colleen took a few steps back.

  Colleen said, “What you’re saying doesn’t even make any sense. If I had been blackmailing Gerald, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to kill him. That would have meant that I wouldn’t have gotten any more money from him.”

  Beatrice said, “Oh, but as I pointed out, Gerald wouldn’t have wanted to be blackmailed. He would have hated being embarrassed over his wife leaving him and he would have hated losing money that could have gone back into his business. But he also wouldn’t have wanted to be a victim. I think he pointblank refused to talk with you about it. What’s more, he likely announced he was going to turn the tables on you by calling the police and reporting that you were attempting to extort him.”

  Colleen snorted. “I see. And then I just tied up Gerald with some rope I conveniently had on me?”

  Beatrice was quiet for a couple of beats. “Well, you’ve just confirmed that you knew how Gerald was murdered. And that wasn’t public knowledge.”

  Colleen froze and her eyes grew so wide that Beatrice could see the whites of them. She lunged for Beatrice and shoved her backward, making her stumble back a few steps before recovering. Before Beatrice knew it, Colleen was in her car and thrusting the keys in the ignition.

  Beatrice hurried toward her but Colleen had already put the car in drive and was heading toward her through the yard, a wild gleam in her eyes. Beatrice barely had time to scramble out of the way before the car flew past her. Colleen was clearly intent on mowing her down.

  She pulled her phone out of her pants pocket and called Ramsay, who picked up immediately. “Any news from Piper?” he asked urgently.

  Beatrice gasped out, “She’s having some labor pains, but it may be nothing. But Ramsay, Colleen is the killer. She’s trying to run me down with my car.” She gave him the address.

  “I’m not far. Hang on,” he said in a grim voice before ending the call.

  Colleen, in her eagerness to try to run Beatrice down, was in the middle of her large yard and was now swinging the car around for another pass at her. Beatrice bolted for a grove of trees and stood in the middle of them, trying to catch her breath.

  Colleen hit the accelerator again and then the car screeched to a stop. Colleen stood on the accelerator and the engine roared but the car didn’t move.

  Colleen was totally focused on revving the engine and trying to move past the stump. Beatrice jogged up to the car, pulled open the door to the backseat, and grabbed Len’s demolition bar just as Colleen, in a panic, was climbing out.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” snapped Beatrice, repeating what Colleen herself had said to her just minutes before. And Colleen sank back down in Beatrice’s front seat as two cars, one with a siren going, sped down Colleen’s driveway.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  MINUTES LATER, COLLEEN was handcuffed and glowering out the window of a state police car.

  Wyatt had an arm around Beatrice and gave her a small hug from time to time as if to ascertain that she really was there and all right. Ramsay was making notes in his notebook and fielding excited calls from Meadow.

  But Beatrice’s explanation of what had just transpired was temporarily delayed by a phone call from Piper.

  “Mom? Are you okay?” she immediately asked.

  “Absolutely fine, sweetheart. I was just momentarily delayed. How are you?” asked Beatrice as Ramsay and Wyatt watched intently.

  Piper gave a gasping chuckle. “Well, I’m in actually in labor this time. But the pains aren’t close together at all and the doctor thinks I’ll be in the labor and delivery room most of the day. So no hurry.”

  “I’ll get there just as soon as I can,” said Beatrice quickly.

  “A nurse is coming in, so I’ll let you go. See you soon.” And Piper hung up.

  Ramsay said, “Regardless of how long her labor is, I know you want to be over there as soon as possible, Beatrice, so we’ll make this as fast as we possibly can. Now, how did you figure out that Colleen was the one behind the murders?”

  Beatrice rubbed her head. “It was really just a lot of circumstantial evidence and hearsay.”

  Ramsay said, “And that’s all right, because not only have we already found some evidence in Colleen’s very stately home, but she’s already given us a brief confession. It’s like she just suddenly deflated.”

  Beatrice said, “That’s good to hear. Honestly, I was just here because of a church thing.”

  Wyatt sighed. “I should have been here instead of you.”

  Beatrice said, “You had no way of knowing what was going to happen. At the time, Colleen was simply an irritating person who was trying to bend the rules for wedding ceremonies.”

  Ramsay said, “So you drove up and what happened? I’m assuming that you didn’t do that to your car.” He gestured to Beatrice’s sedan, which was perched on a low stump.

  Beatrice made a face at the car. “I hope it’s still drivable.”

  “A tow truck is on the way,” said Wyatt.

  Beatrice said, “And you’re right, Ramsay, Colleen did that. I didn’t originally go off-roading and park on a stump. When I arrived, I started thinking things over. Colleen has this huge house and I was thinking what Edgenora had told me—that the church still hadn’t received payment from her. I wondered if maybe Colleen was stretched, financially.”

  Ramsay nodded. “And we’ve found records to that effect inside her house. Also, we’ve seen that Colleen isn’t very good about opening up her bills.”

  Beatrice said, “It makes sense. It’s funny to think that apparently Colleen and Gerald met at a fundraising event. I suppose she was trying to project a particular
image but just couldn’t keep up with her lifestyle. That’s why I started thinking about blackmail.”

  “What made you automatically consider that?” asked Ramsay. “Wouldn’t it have been more natural for someone like Colleen to instead just move to a smaller house and curtail some of her expenses?”

  “It would have been more natural, but it wouldn’t have been Colleen. I’ve seen every indication that Colleen loves her lifestyle and wants to keep it up. Colleen also shared some very interesting inside information about Gerald and Laura’s marriage. She referred to the fact that they didn’t have a prenuptial agreement.”

  Wyatt frowned. “So a dissolution of their marriage would mean that Laura might be entitled to a great deal of money.”

  Ramsay gave a low whistle. “And Gerald was using a lot of money to fund his business during bad months.”

  “Exactly,” said Beatrice. “And Joan, one of the times I’d spoken with her, called her father a ‘proud man’ and said that he would have hated any ‘public humiliation’. Gerald wouldn’t have been pleased about his wife leaving him.”

  Wyatt said, “So, at some point, Colleen started blackmailing Gerald.”

  Beatrice said, “Actually, she didn’t. But she thought she would be blackmailing him.”

  Wyatt said, “Okay. So she approached Gerald and told him that she was going to tell Laura about their affair. Colleen believed that Gerald would pay her money to keep the information quiet—he wouldn’t want Laura to divorce him because he stood to lose a good deal of money in the process and needed it for Dappled Hills Pimento Cheese.”

  “Exactly,” said Beatrice.

  “But Gerald didn’t allow himself to be blackmailed? How did he end up murdered?” asked Wyatt.

  Beatrice glanced over at Ramsay who cleared his throat. “Yes. Well, according to Colleen, Gerald not only refused to be blackmailed, but he threatened to tell the police, regardless of the outcome. Then he really told her off—called her names, said mean-spirited things about their former relationship, that type of thing. She was also still angry at him for breaking up with her publicly. Pride played a big role in Gerald’s death.”

  Beatrice said, “Colleen might have thought of Gerald as being proud, but she was exactly the same way. It must have infuriated her when he said those things to her.”

  Ramsay nodded. “The thing was, she was also very familiar with his office because that’s where they would frequently meet before work or over the weekend, whenever no one was around. She knew that Gerald had a collection of unused sleeping pills there. She also knew Gerald’s habits—that he was the first one over at the office every day and started out with a cup of black coffee. The following day, she returned to his office, put the pills in the coffee, and slipped back outside, waiting for him to drink it. When he became sufficiently woozy, Colleen went back inside and tied him up to prevent him from making any phone calls. Although, with the number of pills that she gave him, he wasn’t going to wake up.”

  Beatrice said, “So that explains Gerald’s death. At least, it’s as much of an explanation as we’re going to get.”

  “And Salome?” asked Wyatt.

  Ramsay sighed. “I think she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Beatrice said, “Was Salome outside when Colleen killed Gerald? I know that she wanted to talk to Gerald and ask him for child support. And was likely going to blackmail him for it.”

  Ramsay said, “According to Colleen, Salome wasn’t outside then, no. But she was outside the day before when Colleen tried to blackmail Gerald. She saw Colleen storm out of the office. And Salome, being Gerald’s assistant, knew exactly who Colleen was. At some point, Salome put two and two together and got in touch with Colleen, hoping she would pay her off. Although I don’t know how she got Colleen’s contact information.”

  Beatrice said, “Salome told me that she’d been at the office for so long that she still had all of Gerald’s contacts on her phone. Almost as if she expected him to ask her to call someone for him, she said.”

  Wyatt said, “And when Colleen heard from Salome, Colleen killed her to keep her quiet.”

  Ramsay nodded. “She waited until Salome was alone and then attacked her with the frying pan.”

  Wyatt shook his head. “I can’t believe that she thought she’d get away with it.”

  Ramsay said, “Not only did she think she’d get away with it, but she was determined to keep anyone from finding out. Clearly, that’s what happened with Beatrice. Colleen realized that Beatrice was suspicious, wasn’t sure exactly what she knew, and decided to ensure that she’d stay silent. For good.”

  Beatrice gave a wry smile. “And then found her plans curtailed. She did try to send me off in the wrong direction by telling me about Laura’s affair—she’d apparently seen Laura and her friend in Lenoir a few times. But Colleen would never have told Gerald about it because it would have foiled her blackmail plan if Gerald had realized he wasn’t the only unfaithful partner in the marriage.”

  The tow truck pulled into the driveway and Ramsay gestured to Beatrice’s car.

  As the driver worked to remove the car from the stump, Beatrice said, “Wyatt, I have a couple of loose ends from this crazy day. First off, Mark Carpenter called and said he wanted to stop by the house. Any idea what that might be about?”

  Wyatt nodded. “He called me back when he couldn’t reach you. He just found the bid information for the church’s heating and air conditioning project and wanted to make sure we got them.”

  “Oh, okay, got it. The other thing is that Len apparently really needs this demolition bar that I was using to ward off Colleen. I’d promised to bring it over to the house he’s working on, but I think my plans have changed,” said Beatrice with a laugh.

  Wyatt said, “I’ll call him back and see if he still needs it today.”

  A few minutes later, the car was free and apparently none the worse from the experience. Beatrice hopped in.

  Wyatt said, “I’ll follow you to the hospital. Len says that he was able to use another of his tools and can just pick up the bar tomorrow.”

  Ramsay sighed, looking at Colleen still staring out of the police car window. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, but I have some loose ends to take care of. I’ve no doubt that Meadow is already there or on her way.”

  As it happened, Piper’s labor didn’t end up being as long and protracted as the doctor had originally thought. When Beatrice and Wyatt arrived at the hospital (along with Meadow, who’d left a dental appointment early), they were greeted by a beaming Ash holding a lustily-crying baby boy at Piper’s hospital room door.

  Piper gave them a tired smile and asked, “Cutest baby ever?”

  “And then some!” said Meadow as happy tears streamed down her cheeks.

  Ash asked Piper, “Should we tell them?”

  Piper’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “You tell them.”

  Ash said, “We’re calling him William. Will, for short.”

  Meadow said, “The cutest name ever!”

  Beatrice said, “I think he has your eyes, Piper.”

  “And yours, too!” said Piper with a grin.

  Beatrice added, “But Ash’s dark hair.”

  Meadow said, “The perfect blending of both parents!”

  The nurse came back in and said briskly, “There are a few things I need to do with Mom and baby—but I’ll have him in the hospital nursery in just a few minutes if you’d like to watch through the glass.”

  This was clearly their signal to go, so they walked into the hall, Ash staying with Piper.

  Meadow said, “What a happy day! I’m just so glad that Piper and little Will are doing so well. He was the most beautiful baby ever.” She paused. “But where on earth is Ramsay? Has there been a development with the case?”

  Beatrice glanced at Wyatt and then said, “It’s probably not the best time to go over it all, but Ramsay is in the process of arresting Colleen Roberts.”

  “What?”


  Beatrice gave her a short version of the story with just the headlines. She ended by saying, “But Ramsay said he’d be over as soon as he could.”

  Meadow’s eyes narrowed. “That Colleen! She’s the worst! Trying to spoil our special day with the baby. The very idea!”

  Wyatt said, “But it didn’t work. And the good news is that it’s all over and we don’t have to worry any longer about a dangerous person being on the loose.”

  Meadow nodded and somehow coaxed a smile out. “All we have to worry about is spoiling that little grandbaby.”

  Beatrice turned to see Ramsay hurrying toward them with a large stuffed bear from the hospital gift shop. She grinned. “Somehow I don’t think that spoiling the baby is going to be a problem.”

  About the Author:

  ELIZABETH WRITES THE Southern Quilting mysteries and Memphis Barbeque mysteries for Penguin Random House and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She blogs at ElizabethSpannCraig.com/blog, named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. Elizabeth makes her home in Matthews, North Carolina, with her husband. She’s the mother of two.

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