True Grit Spirit: A Maddie Graves and Hannah Hickok Mystery

by Lily Harper Hart

  Realization washed over Maddie. “Oh. You were on the hook for killing your roommate and yet she voluntarily left.”

  “I knew the moment the cops showed up on my doorstep that I was in trouble,” Cadence volunteered. “Reading people is a gift of mine. They’d already decided I was guilty. I had a choice at that point — stay or flee — and I chose to flee.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” Even as she said the words, Maddie wasn’t certain she felt them. “So, you’ve been on the run all this time. Did you ever figure out what happened to Sarah?”

  Cadence nodded, her expression grim. “As a matter of fact, I did. She’s here.”

  Maddie was taken aback. “Here in Casper Creek?”

  “She’s with the psychics.”

  Whatever she was expecting, that wasn’t it. “You’ve seen her here?”

  Cadence nodded. “I have. What’s worse is that she’s seen me. We’ve both changed our appearances some, but when you live with someone for two years ... .” She trailed off.

  “And you’re certain it’s her?” Maddie pressed. “There’s no doubt in your mind, right?”

  “It’s her. I just ... it’s not like I could forget.” Cadence’s gaze was imploring when it locked with Maddie’s somber orbs. “I can’t stay here. She’ll try to frame me again to make sure I can’t tell anybody about her true identity. You have to help me.”

  “I can’t help you.” Maddie was earnest. “I don’t have access to any of the vehicles in the lot. I’m a tourist here, too. I came up the lift and our rental is at the bottom of the mountain.”

  “Then give me the keys to your rental,” Cadence insisted. “I’ll go down the lift.”

  The sound of footsteps behind her had Cadence dragging her attention in that direction. Her features paled when she took in the woman standing there.

  “They’ve shut down the lift,” Carrie announced, her eyes seeking — and finding — a nervous Maddie. “I guess I have you to thank for that, Rosie. I should’ve known you would foul this whole thing up.”

  Cadence’s eyes went wide at mention of her real name. “I told you this wasn’t my fault,” she hissed in Maddie’s direction. “I told you I didn’t do this.”

  Maddie had already come to the same conclusion. Carrie’s appearance changed everything ... and not in a good way. Despite the fear twisting through her, Maddie remained calm. “I take it you’re the one who killed Velma, huh?”

  Carrie narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits. “That’s a dangerous accusation to throw around. I hope you have some proof to go with that innuendo.”

  “I don’t need proof.” Maddie refused to back down. “It’s what makes sense. That’s why you were so angry when I let it slip that Velma had tapped you to take her spot. You were running a con on Velma and Melissa and weren’t ready for the information to come out.”

  “Oh, you think you’re so smart.” Carrie made a face. “You think you know everything and yet you know nothing.”

  Despite the circumstances, Maddie was feeling stronger. “Then why don’t you tell me?”

  Carrie shot a dark look in Cadence’s direction. “Gladly. I’m sure the pile of crap you’ve been getting from this one paints me in a bad light. Let me tell you the real story.”

  Carrie took a deep breath and then jumped right in. “Whatever she said is a lie. I was the victim when we were living together. She stole from me and threatened my life. That’s why I took off the way I did and assumed a new identity.”

  “Oh, she’s lying,” Cadence protested.

  “Shut up,” Carrie snapped. “It’s my turn to tell a tale.”

  To Maddie’s utter surprise, Cadence shrank back from the woman who used to be her roommate. It was a telling reaction, although she’d already come to her own conclusions about Carrie. There was nothing the woman could do to change her mind.

  “I’m sure she told you she was the one who came up with this psychic gig first,” Carrie started. “Well, that is a complete and total lie. It was me.”

  Cadence made a protesting sound with her tongue but otherwise remained quiet.

  “We met when we were both young, barely out of our childhood homes, and I thought we would bond over that. Instead, she tried to steal my life. She went all Single White Female on me. It was ... freaky. She followed me everywhere, tried to steal my identity. I was scared for my life.”

  The emotionless way Carrie delivered the last line had Maddie hiking an eyebrow. “You were scared for your life, huh?”

  “I was.” Carrie bobbed her head and let loose an ingratiating smile that Maddie didn’t believe for a moment. “You have no idea how horrible it is to have to push furniture against your bedroom door at night because you’re just that terrified.

  “I’ve always known I was special,” she continued. “I had abilities others didn’t, and that made me a target. When I first moved in with her, I hid what I could do. We became close for a time, though. This was before I realized how psychotic she really was. One night while drunk, I made the mistake of confiding my secret. After that, things changed.”

  “That’s not true,” Cadence argued. “None of this is true.”

  Rather than respond, Maddie sent her a quelling look. “I want to hear the story in its entirety,” she insisted.

  Cadence obviously wasn’t thrilled with the response, but she snapped her mouth shut.

  “I ran when I realized she planned on killing me,” Carrie explained. “I overheard her talking with her boyfriend. He was the rough sort, a biker, and they were plotting against me. I knew I had to get out.

  “I waited until the next day, when I knew she had a job, and that’s when I left,” she continued. “I didn’t want her to realize I’d run right away. That’s why I only packed a few things, nothing noticeable. I fled not just the city but the state I was so frightened. I never looked back.

  “You can imagine my surprise when we ended up at the same event years later,” she continued. “At first I didn’t recognize her. She’s changed quite a few things, put highlights in her hair and modified her nose, but it didn’t take long for me to put it together ... especially because it was rather noticeable that she was avoiding me.

  “When I realized who she was, I told Velma. It was that first day. I was terrified. You have to understand that.” Her tone turned pleading, to the point where Maddie almost wondered if she was telling the truth. “I thought Velma would help me escape down the mountain without anybody noticing, but instead she decided to confront Rosie. I knew it was a mistake, but she wouldn’t listen.”

  When Carrie stopped talking, Maddie held out her hands. “Is that it?”

  Carrie nodded, morose. “It’s my fault Velma is dead. I should’ve said something the day it happened. I knew in my heart that Rosie was responsible. I was too afraid, though. That’s on me. If I’m guilty of anything, it’s that.”

  Maddie kept her eyes on Carrie — for obvious reasons — but she knew the minute Nick was close. She could feel him. Wisely, though, she kept herself from looking through the window. She didn’t want to tip off Carrie.

  “It’s an interesting story, and it does fill some of the gaps,” Maddie said finally. “The thing is, it doesn’t hold together quite as well as Cadence’s story.”

  The relief on Cadence’s face was palpable. “You believe me.”

  “I believe most of the story,” Maddie confirmed. “I’m sure you prettied things up to make yourself look better. You’re still a grifter looking to take advantage of people, and that doesn’t make you a good person.”

  “No.” Cadence immediately started shaking her head. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. That’s not who I am.”

  “That is who she is,” Carrie argued. “She’s a horrible person. She ruined my life.”

  “Honestly, I think each of you damaged the other,” Maddie countered. “I think that you were scammers, living together, and one of you stumbled over what you thought was a foolproof way to make money. That person was Cad
ence.”

  “You’ve got it wrong,” Cadence countered. “I admitted I went into the business thinking it would be easy. It was hard, though. I had to learn the cards, and how to read people.”

  Maddie waited for her to understand what she was saying, but the moment of clarity never arrived, which caused her to heave out a sigh. “Knowing what cards mean and figuring out what people want to hear doesn’t make you a psychic.”

  “See!” Carrie triumphantly jabbed a finger in Cadence’s direction. “She’s a scammer. I’m not a scammer. I’m the real deal.”

  “No, you’re something else entirely,” Maddie countered, rubbing the back of her neck. Weariness was starting to catch up with her. It had been a long couple of days. “You’re just as bad as Cadence. You wanted to take advantage of the hopes and dreams of others. You also wanted to take the easy way out. At least she was willing to work for it, no matter how misguided her attempts.

  “You, however, are the worst kind of grifter,” she continued. “You are willing to kill to get what you want. For example, the boyfriend you mentioned. You can try to pin him on Cadence all you want, but the truth is, he reported you missing because you were the one involved with him. Why else would he do it?”

  “To cast suspicion off the two of them,” Carrie replied, matter-of-fact. “By reporting it, they made sure the cops wouldn’t look at them.”

  Maddie’s forehead wrinkled. “How? Everybody knows that the first person the cops look at is the person filing the report. That’s one of those things everybody knows. Besides, Cadence was a prime suspect, and I’m willing to bet the police termed Brad a person of interest back then. I wonder what ever happened to him.”

  “Ask her,” Carrie hissed. “He was her boyfriend.”

  “Oh, he was not,” Cadence argued. “I didn’t care about him in the least. He was gross ... and stupid. He let you lead him around by the nose and never once argued. He was willing to kill for you. I heard you guys that night when you thought I would be late at the party. I know everything.”

  “You know nothing,” Carrie shot back, her temper flaring. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You were the one dating him.”

  “She wasn’t, though,” Maddie countered. “It was you. Ignore that for now, though. Cadence doesn’t have a motive for killing Velma.”

  “I just told you the motive.”

  “Except Velma would never put herself on the line to protect you. She wouldn’t even expose herself to protect her own daughter. She definitely wasn’t going to do it for you.”

  “You didn’t know her,” Carrie argued. “She was a good woman.”

  “She was a horrible woman who got off on lording it over others,” Maddie shot back. “I’m willing to bet that she only joined forces with you in the first place because she liked torturing her daughter. Now, I’m not going to pretend Melanie is a good person, because I think her mother taught her to be evil, too. She didn’t kill her mother, though. You did.”

  “I didn’t.” Carrie’s eyes were narrow slits of hate. “I’m innocent. Why would I kill Velma? Without her, I have nothing. If she can’t name me her successor, then I literally have nothing.”

  And that right there was the problem, Maddie realized. “She was never going to name you her successor. That big announcement? I’m betting it had something to do with naming her daughter to the position you thought was going to be yours. She’d just gotten seven figures in her account. I’m betting she signed on for something ... some deal. She wasn’t going to share that money with you. It was always going to her daughter, no matter what games she played.

  “You couldn’t deal with that — you were certain she was serious when she offered the gig to you, which is why you were willing to essentially lick her boots for two years — and you lashed out,” she continued. “That’s what happened, isn’t it?”

  “You don’t know anything about my relationship with Velma,” Carrie seethed. “We were close. Closer than close. I loved her like a mother.”

  “And yet I’m willing to bet you left your mother in the dust when you faked your death and never looked back.”

  “You don’t know anything.” Carrie’s tone was low and dangerous. “You’ve fallen under her spell, just like everybody else. You’re naive ... and weak ... .”

  “And I’m right,” Maddie added. “You killed Velma because she was going to announce a partnership with her daughter. You saw the look on Melanie’s face. She had no idea you were in cahoots with her mother, and there’s a reason for that. It’s because Velma was using you.”

  “Velma was weak and naive, too,” Carrie countered. It was obvious this encounter wasn’t going the way she envisioned. “Why can’t you just fall in line?”

  And that, Maddie realized, was her ultimate motivation for entering the saloon. “You didn’t even see Cadence until after you’d killed Velma. You thought you had time — there were so many others to look at, after all — and you offered up Velma’s list of enemies because you thought it would get you off the hook.

  “The problem is, Boone kept looking,” she continued. “You wanted to run but waited it out so as not to draw attention to yourself. Then, when you realized Boone might look beyond the list, you started panicking ... until you realized who Cadence was. That happened the night of the seance, right?”

  Carrie frowned. “I have nothing left to say to you.”

  “It happened that night.” Maddie was certain of it. “Once you realized she was here, you knew you had a different sort of leverage. That’s when you decided to push suspicion to her. Your whole plan today was to make me turn on her in favor of you. Then Boone would’ve taken her in and given you time to escape.

  “You said yourself that the lift is down, which means you were going to run earlier,” she continued. “Once that option was taken from you, it was time to regroup. That’s what you’re best at, regrouping.”

  Carrie scowled. “Well, you certainly seem to have it figured out, don’t you? There’s just one problem with your little scenario.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Nobody is taking me in.” Carrie reached inside her coat, to retrieve a weapon if Maddie had to guess, but before she could wrap her fingers around whatever she was going for, a strong hand grabbed her wrist and drew it back.

  Boone, his expression dark, yanked her hand back. “I don’t think so.”

  Carrie’s eyes went wide. “I ... you ... I didn’t even hear you.”

  “I’m certain you didn’t.” Boone removed a set of cuffs from his belt, his gaze never leaving Carrie’s face. “I think you’re going to have to come to town with me and answer some questions.”

  “I’m innocent,” Carrie insisted. “They’re framing me. Both of them.”

  “I guess we’ll find out when we get to town.” Boone slid his eyes to Cadence, who was steadily sliding toward the back door. “You’re not going to want to go anywhere. You’re coming with us, too.”

  Cadence balked. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “That may or may not be true, but neither of you are leaving until we sort all of this out. And, by all of this, I mean all of this. You’re stuck here for the duration.”

  Cadence turned morose. “I should’ve run the first moment I saw her. I panicked, though. I broke into the shed and hid inside. I should’ve done something different.”

  “That would’ve been best for both of us,” Carrie agreed. “Now we’re stuck and it’s all your fault.”

  “Um ... it’s your fault.”

  “It’s totally your fault!”

  “You’re both jerks,” Maddie supplied, shaking her head as Nick eased around Boone so he could get to her. “Unfortunately, you’re both too self-absorbed to realize it.”

  “Something tells me they’re both going to have time for self-reflection,” Boone noted. “Maybe one or both of them will learn from this and grow.”

  Maddie shook her head and Nick drew her close. “I wouldn’t bet on it.”<
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  19

  Nineteen

  “Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed. I was expecting more.”

  Hours later, Hannah sat in her apartment drinking a beer and talking to Maddie through the bathroom door. The men were downstairs dealing with the fallout — Carrie and Cadence both screaming that they were innocent and being railroaded — and the women were more than happy to escape from the noise. On top of that, Hannah had a little present for Maddie ... even though the Michigan blonde had been less than thrilled when she saw it.

  “I’m actually happy that no shots were fired,” Maddie offered, escaping from the bathroom. She looked white as the ghosts she spent her days talking to.

  Hannah gave her a long once-over. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

  Maddie scowled. “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not pregnant?”

  Hannah’s brow wrinkled. “The test came up negative? I thought for sure it would be positive.”

  “The test needs two minutes,” Maddie replied, her expression dour. “I still can’t believe you snuck out to get a pregnancy test for me. That’s so ... weird.”

  Hannah snickered. “I haven’t left Casper Creek in days. Jackie was running to town earlier and I had her pick one up. I thought it would be easier if you knew rather than just screaming ‘I’m not pregnant’ at the top of your lungs every five minutes.”

  Despite herself, Maddie found she was nervous as she perched on the edge of the chair next to the couch where Hannah sat. “Well, I’m certain I’m not pregnant.”

  Hannah studied the other woman for a long beat, conflicted. Ultimately, she decided to go for it and lay all her cards on the table. “What are you really afraid of?”

  Maddie jerked her head in Hannah’s direction. “I’m not afraid. I’m just ... we’re not ready.”