by Cindy Bell
“It didn’t at first. I wanted her to be my face. I thought eventually she would commit to only eating organic and vegan food, she said she would and I believed her. I thought she would take a stand. But then she started twisting things. She made it all about money and appearances. Mark tried to tell me, he warned me that Alexa had gone off the rails, but I wouldn’t listen. It wasn’t until she pulled out on doing the exposé on Vanessa that I realized he was right. She wouldn’t follow through.” Her eyes widened as she stared off into space. “She was my soul mate, you know.”
“I can only imagine how close you were.” Joyce clasped her hands together to hide the tremble in them.
“So close.” Poppy closed her eyes and a few tears slipped past. “I just wanted her to see how wrong she was. I wanted her to know that she couldn’t play favorites. She liked Vanessa, that was the problem. She didn’t want to ruin her life, she didn’t think it was fair. Is it fair to eat toxic food? Is it fair to stand back and let these CEO criminals poison our children with no consequences?” She opened her eyes again and looked at Joyce. “Is it?”
“No.” Joyce breathed. “It’s not fair.”
“It wasn’t fair that I had to kill my best friend. It wasn’t fair at all. But I had to do it for the good of all. I couldn’t be selfish about it. I wanted to be, I wanted to just let her go. But then I realized how weak I was, how I was willing to let people be poisoned if it meant I got to keep Alexa at my side. That’s when I knew, I had to kill her, I had to prove that I really wanted to protect the people.” Poppy wiped at her cheeks. “And now, we need to make sure that this company will never forget the sacrifice that I made. It’s time to send a message that will ruin this company, that will ruin the farm.” She looked over at Joyce as a small smile drifted across her lips. “You can take comfort in knowing that you will be a big part of this, Joyce. Because of you, people will be protected.”
Joyce nodded a little, but panic rushed through her. She was certain that her part in all of this was not one she would survive.
Brenda paced back and forth as the crime scene technicians entered the motel room.
“We can’t just stand here. We have to find her!” She frowned as Detective Crackle hung up his phone.
“I’m doing everything I can, Brenda. But we have no idea where to look. I’ve got every car on the streets looking for Mark, and we’re checking every place he’s stayed or visited since he’s been here. Hopefully, the search of the motel room will turn up some kind of clue.”
“A clue.” Brenda bit into her bottom lip. If she knew anything about Joyce it was that she was a hound for mysteries. “If someone took her, she would have tried to leave a clue behind.” She began to walk the length of the sidewalk. “But maybe not inside. She might have left something out here.”
“We checked her car already and there was nothing in there.” Detective Crackle followed after her.
“There’s something, trust me.” Brenda frowned as she scoured the sidewalk and the parking lot just beyond it. “Here!” She crouched down and picked up a small, green wrapper.
“Brenda, the parking lot is full of garbage.”
“No, this is a wrapper from one of Joyce’s favorite mints. She always has some on her. It might not be hers, but if it is she doesn’t litter. She might have dropped it on the ground and if she did, she did so for a reason.” Brenda skimmed the cars that lined the parking spaces. “Someone brought her out here. Probably to put her inside of a car.” She began to walk again, towards the adjacent parking spaces. “Look!” She gasped as she headed towards another green wrapper. She paused in the middle of the parking lot and assessed the location of the wrapper. “She was put in the passenger side of a car that was parked here. See?” She pointed to the wrapper and where she stood. “That’s the position the car would be in. Maybe we could check the surveillance video and see what car it was?”
“We could, but unfortunately there aren’t cameras here. I already checked. I will investigate it further.” Detective Crackle shoved his hands into his pockets. “The good thing is that now we know she was okay when she left here, and her abductor put her in the front seat which is a good sign.”
“A good sign.” Brenda nodded, then wrung her hands. “I want only good signs.”
“I’ve got something.” Detective Crackle pulled his phone out and checked it. “They’ve traced her phone. She’s at Country Grocery Place.” He looked up from his phone, his brows knitted with confusion. “Why would she be at a grocery store?”
“Country Grocery Place?” Brenda snapped her fingers. “That’s the grocery store that Vanessa made a deal with to sell her products through. Plus, Alexa and Mark staged protests against them. That’s more evidence that Mark was here.”
“Or it could be evidence that she doesn’t realize we’re looking for her and she is just doing some grocery shopping.” Detective Crackle tucked his phone into his pocket. “I’d prefer that myself.”
“No, you saw the signs of a struggle in that motel room, Detective. You and I both know that this was no shopping trip.” Brenda started towards her car. “I’m heading there right now.”
“Wait!” Detective Crackle stepped in front of her.
“Don’t try to stop me!” Brenda stared into his eyes. “I never should have let her leave this morning, and nothing is going to stop me from finding her now.”
“I’m not going to stop you.” Detective Crackle gestured to his car. “I’m going to give you a ride. With lights and everything.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Deal?”
“Deal!” Brenda followed him to his car and climbed in the passenger side.
The detective lit up the car, then tore out of the parking lot. Brenda grabbed the handle of the door to steady herself as he wove through traffic. As she looked over at him, she could see the tension in his face. She realized in that moment that Detective Crackle was just as determined to find Joyce as she was.
The parking lot for Country Grocery Place was packed. He drove straight up to the entrance and climbed out of the car. Behind him a few patrol cars pulled up.
“I want this entire store sealed off!” He barked at the officers who ran up to him.
“What should we tell the manager, sir?” The youngest of the group gazed at him.
“You tell him to lock the doors and account for all of his employees. No one goes in or out. Understand?” The detective clapped his hands together. “Now!”
“Yes, sir.” The officers took off into the grocery store.
“She could be out here in one of these cars.” The detective placed his hands on his hips as he turned to scan the parking lot. “It looks like just about every space is taken.”
“She has to be here somewhere.” Brenda scanned the faces of the people on the sidewalks that had managed to make it out of the store before the doors were locked. “Detective, if Mark is planning something, then I’d guess he’d want as much attention as possible. My guess is he’s inside.”
“That’s a good guess.” Detective Crackle took his hat off and wiped the back of his hand across his forehead.
“So, let’s look for her, we might not have much time.”
“Okay.” Detective Crackle cleared his throat as he set the hat back on his head. “Let’s start inside. I’ll have the patrolmen do a sweep of the parking lot.”
“I just hope it will be enough.” Brenda did her best to keep her stomach calm. “Anything could be happening to her right now, and we don’t even know for sure that Mark has her. Maybe Poppy does?” She shook her head. “Maybe Mark forced her into it?”
“Maybe.” Detective Crackle led her through the front door of the grocery store. Several people were gathered near the front, and all seemed restless, if not upset.
Brenda looked through all of their faces, and tried to remember if they were familiar. It was nearly impossible as she saw so many people at the donut truck on a daily basis, that just about everyone in town looked familiar. As Detective Crackle got invo
lved with talking to the manager of the store, she wandered off. If whoever had Joyce was there, she doubted they would be hiding among the crowd. She began to walk the aisles of the grocery store. With everyone corralled in the front of the store, the rest of it was eerily empty.
“Joyce?” Brenda stood in the middle of the frozen section and looked at the coolers. “Joyce! Can you hear me?”
Tears welled up in Brenda’s eyes as she received no response. Then she spotted it, a glint of green in the corner near the door that led to the cooler. The sight of it made her head spin both with relief and fear. How much time did she have left to save her? Or was she already too late?
Chapter 15
Joyce shivered. The cold air of the freezer had begun to sink into her bones. Although she still felt young in spirit, at times she did feel like she was getting older. After a yoga class, and whenever it was very cold. It made her body ache. Her eyes watered as she had yet to take them off Poppy, who paced back and forth near the freezer door. She paused, then peeked out through the door.
“The cops are out there. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Why are the cops out there?” Poppy spun on her heel and looked at Joyce. “It’s because of you, isn’t it? Are they looking for you?”
“I don’t know.” Joyce shivered again, the cold air sunk deeper into her bones. “Poppy, if you just come clean about all of this now, the police will make a deal with you.”
“Nonsense!” Poppy growled at Joyce. “No, this is just fine. It’ll make an even bigger statement.” She drew a deep breath, then rubbed her hands together. “It’s time to make sure that the message is delivered.” She looked back at Joyce. “Stand up.” She pulled a thick, black marker out of her pocket.
“Why?” Joyce huddled back on the crates in the corner of the freezer.
“Just be still.” Poppy approached her. “This can be done the easy way, or the hard way.” She uncapped the lid of the marker and held it up in the air.
“Poppy, that’s not going to work. No one is going to bother to read the message. Don’t you see? They’re only going to call you a murderer, they’re only going to focus on that. Your message will get lost, because everyone will talk about what a terrible thing you did instead of why you did it.” Joyce ducked her head away from the tip of the marker.
“You’re wrong! The only way people will listen is if you shock them! That’s what I tried to teach Alexa. The people have to be woken up first, they have to be jolted out of their stupor so that they can actually hear the message, and see the truth.”
“But they didn’t hear you when you dropped Alexa’s body at the town square, did they?” Joyce gulped back a sob as Poppy grabbed her arm and began to scrawl across her skin.
“I didn’t make the message clear. I will this time. When they find your body sprawled out in the produce section, with the details of how each organ in your body was poisoned by their chemicals, that is something they won’t be able to ignore!” Poppy jerked Joyce’s arm towards her. “Be still!”
Joyce took a deep breath. She knew that her only option for escape was to overpower Poppy. But Poppy was much stronger than she was, and fixated on making sure that Joyce became her palette.
“Why don’t you just let me say all of those things? Poppy, you could walk out there with me right now. Show me to the police. Demand a news camera. You could say everything you have to say, and people will be shocked.” Joyce closed her eyes tight as the marker dug into her arm. “Please.”
“Why, so they can kill me? So I can spend the rest of my life in prison?” Poppy shook her head. “No, I will be walking out of here before they have a chance to catch me.”
As she spoke, the freezer door swung open.
“Poppy?” Mark’s voice carried through the freezer. “Poppy, are you in here?”
Poppy froze. She looked over her shoulder as Mark approached with a pile of signs in his hands.
“Go away, Mark. I am handling this myself, now.”
“Why? I brought the signs. You agreed not to wait, we were going to do this—” His voice cut off as he caught sight of Joyce. “What is going on here?”
“She’s going to kill me, Mark!” Joyce had no idea whether he was involved or not, but she was desperate, and he was her only chance. “Please! Help me!”
“Kill you?” Mark dropped the signs that he held. “Poppy! What is she talking about? We were just supposed to hang some signs.”
“Signs! Really, Mark? Do you think that’s going to change anything? No, it’s not. You and Alexa were both too scared to do what needed to be done. But I’m not, I’m not scared at all! Like I told you when I tried to stop you from instigating the violence at the protest. A punch isn’t going to make a difference, it’s going to distract from the real message. You need to take drastic action to make a change, but you never listened to me!”
“Poppy, what have you done?” Mark reached for her, just as Poppy pulled a gun out of her purse and aimed it at him.
“Don’t! Don’t take a single step closer to me. I will not let anyone stop me! I came here to send a message, and I’m going to send it, no matter what it takes. You can either help me send the message, Mark, or you can be part of it. Which would you prefer?”
“Poppy, you don’t have to do this. We can get the audience to hear us. I will get our message across on the videos. I’ve already deleted some of Alexa’s videos, so we can take the limelight. Please stop, Poppy,” Mark pleaded. “You don’t have to do this.”
Joyce knew that she only had one chance. She eased up off the crates she had been sitting on and grabbed one. As she swung it through the air, she was aware that the moment she made impact, that gun would likely swing towards her. Despite her petite size she put all of the force she could muster into that swing, and cracked the crate down over the top of Poppy’s head.
As she did, a gunshot rang out. In the confined space, the gunshot sounded so loud that it made Joyce’s head spin. Pain flashed through her body. Had she been shot? Had Poppy anticipated her attack and swung around before she had the chance to strike?
Poppy slumped down to her knees. Across from her, so did Mark. He grabbed at his stomach and let out a low groan. Joyce tried to make sense of the situation. But she didn’t have long to try to figure it out. Because Poppy jumped right back up to her feet, and spun around to face her.
“You shouldn’t have done that. You threw off my aim. Now Mark is going to suffer because I couldn’t get a clean shot to his head. What kind of monster are you?” Poppy pointed the gun directly in her face. “You’re just like the rest of them, selfish! You’d rather protect yourself than wake up your own community. You disgust me.”
“I’m sorry, Poppy, let’s get Mark some help, please!” Joyce gasped as Mark continued to clutch at his stomach.
“I am helping him! And I’m helping you! Now be still, I can do this with you alive or after you’re dead.” Poppy pulled out her marker again.
Joyce froze. She hoped that whatever message Poppy wanted to write would take her some time. Long enough for someone to save her.
Brenda jumped and gasped at the sound of the gunshot. She grabbed Detective Crackle’s arm.
He pushed her away as he drew his own weapon, then nudged the freezer door open.
Brenda could see his muscles strain as he attempted to resist barging in. “Stay here!” He shot her a look of warning.
Brenda held her breath as he stepped through the doors. The last thing she intended to do was stay there. She had to find out what was happening in that freezer. She ran along the freezer doors. She could catch glimpses of the areas inside the freezer through the shelving that displayed the frozen foods. But she couldn’t see enough to spot Joyce.
A flood of police officers headed towards the freezer, summoned by the sound of the gunshot. Brenda watched as they surrounded the area. But something didn’t sit right with her. Why would a murderer go into an area that couldn’t be escaped? She was quite certain that wouldn’t happen. He
r heart pounded as she realized there had to be another exit. With most of the police presence inside the store, the murderer just might escape while they looked in the freezer.
Brenda tried to escape through the nearest exit door, but when she slammed her hands into it, she found it was locked. She ran towards the front of the store, determined to get out. As she neared the front doors, an officer stepped in front of her.
“No one can leave!”
“Open that door or I will break it open!” Brenda swung her foot back to kick it.
The officer lunged for her before she could.
“Stop!” Detective Crackle ran up between them. “It’s okay, she’s with me.”
“Are you sure?” The officer frowned as he eyed her with some confusion. “She was about to kick through the door.”
“I’m sure. Brenda, what are you doing?” Detective Crackle turned to face her.
“She wasn’t in there, was she?” She stared at him, her cheeks flushed as her heart pounded. “Joyce?”
“No, she wasn’t. Mark was.” He tipped his head towards a gurney that was being wheeled towards the door. “He’s been shot, he’s unconscious, but he should be fine. Joyce must have gotten the gun from him.”
“No!” Brenda’s head spun. “No, she wouldn’t have shot him and then run. No, someone else has her! We need to get to the parking lot before they get away.” She stepped aside as the gurney rolled past them. “If it’s not Mark, then maybe it’s Poppy!” She bolted through the door and out into the parking lot. She saw the ambulance, and several police cars. Then she caught sight of a car nearing the exit of the parking lot. “That’s it!” She shouted as she broke into a run. “That’s the car! It has no taillights!”
Detective Crackle barked into his radio as he chased after Brenda.