Death by Chocolate Cake--A Short Read
Page 6
When she had faded out of sight altogether, Miranda took Jack’s hand in hers. “She’s gone, Jack. She’s at peace.”
He nodded. He didn’t have to ask who she meant.
Barbara wiped at her eyes again. “But please, tell me. That couldn’t have been all of it. There had to be something else that told you I killed Anya.”
“There was,” Miranda told her. “When Jack and I were in here with Marvin, the power went out, turning off all the lights in the house. Marvin couldn’t have done it because he was here with us. In fact, he couldn’t have done it anyway, because only someone who was familiar with the house and knew where the main switch was could have done that. Millie’s just the caterer. I doubt she’s been looking through every inch of this place trying to find some hidden jewels. You have. You know where everything is, including the main shut off for the power.”
“Ah. I see.” Barbara nodded. “I had to kill Thomas, too. He figured out that I killed Anya. He was about to come and tell you his suspicions, Jack. I would have lost everything, and I didn’t want to go to jail. So I shot him. Then I turned out the lights when I saw you had the emerald box, Miranda, and I took it from you.”
“And clubbed me over the head,” Jack pointed out.
“Frying pan,” Barbara shrugged. “Sorry.”
“So why not kill us, too?” Miranda had to ask. “You’ve already killed two people, what’s a few more?”
“Because I’m just so tired of killing,” Barbara explained. “Besides. You have my gun.”
That was when uniformed officers of the Ravens Falls Police Department came rushing in. After a few words of explanation they took Barbara into custody, and asked Jack and Miranda to wait for someone to talk to them outside.
After all, this was an active crime scene again.
Out on the front lawn, Miranda and Jack were met by Constable Simpson, looking just as sour and taciturn as before. He took possession of the emeralds from Miranda, and gave a low whistle when he looked inside the box.
“Don’t get many cases like this in Raven’s Falls,” he said.
“We didn’t used to in Moonlight Bay, either,” Jack said lightly. “Not until Miranda showed up.”
Kyle put his fists on his hips, leaning in to glare at Jack. “He should be a bit more grateful, don’t you think? After all, you and I practically solved this whole case!”
“Not the whole case,” she told him.
“What’s that?” Simpson asked her.
Jack smiled at her, amused and unwilling to help her out of the spot Kyle had just put her in. “Um,” she hedged, “what I meant was there’s still one loose end. Marvin Locke is still at large. He was the accomplice in the original jewel heist.”
“He wanted me to come investigate this,” Jack explained. “He figured if all eyes were on the murder he’d have a chance to find the emeralds and make off with them before anyone was any the wiser. He didn’t expect to get caught up in the murder investigation himself.”
“Riiight,” Simpson said slowly. “Well, we’ll be leaving that part up to the boys in the Northern Territory. Our concern right now is securing this crime scene so that—”
“Get back!” a uniformed officer came screaming out of the front door. The others followed, with Millie and Barbara in tow. “Move! Get back!”
Miranda didn’t know what was happening but she moved away like she was being ordered to. Then she felt the rumbling of the ground.
Then the entire house began to shake apart.
In very short order, the house was tilting, leaning, sinking into the ground as beams cracked and stonework broke apart. Windows shattered. It was exactly what she had seen in her vision, but Miranda still couldn’t believe it.
The ground was swallowing up the house where Anya and Thomas had lived, and loved, and lied. It was descending into the depths of the Earth, and it was taking Thomas’s body with it.
They all ran further, over to the other side of the street, as the ground continued to turn soft and slide away. With a horrible rumbling, like the sound of Satan himself swallowing the world, the house collapsed down, down, down. Dust and dirt plumed up in its wake, and a jet of water from some severed underground pipe jetted up high in the air for only a moment before it was buried along with everything else.
Constable Simpson swore very quietly, and very eloquently.
“Sinkhole?” Jack wondered aloud.
Miranda didn’t think so. She wouldn’t say anything until later, when she was alone with Jack and there wouldn’t be so many ears to hear her and call her crazy, but she knew better.
There were some things that people did to each other that were so horrible, so terrible, that they violated the bonds that connected every living thing in the universe. When that happened, the universe tried to course correct by erasing the evil from existence.
Theft. Greed. Murder. Lies and deceptions both old and new. All of that had taken up residence here in this house. It had been an evil place.
And now it was gone.
When she looked over at Jack, she saw him smiling. Watching that place get swallowed up had brought him a sort of peace as well. His past was truly erased now. There was only his present.
His, and hers.
“Yup,” Kyle said into the silence that settled all around them. “Jack’s a keeper.”
“I know,” Miranda told him, settling herself against his side. “I know.”
-End-
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About the Authors
K.J. Emrick
Kathrine Emrick writing as K.J. Emrick is the author of the popular Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery series and the Pine Lake Inn Cozy Mystery series.
Strongly influenced by authors like James Patterson, Dick Francis, and Nora Roberts, Kathrine Emrick dreamed of being an author for the majority of her life.
She never quite gave up on the idea of being a published author and at the age of 51, thanks to Amazon and their Kindle platform, she finally realized her dream. Her maturity allows her to bring a variety of experiences and observations to her writing.
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Kathryn De Winter is a passionate Cozy Mystery Author & Bookworm who spends her days writing and reading in Melbourne, Australia. Born in the UK her passion for crafting stories began during her childhood and it has stayed with her ever since.
Anytime Kathryn writes, she strives to create something entertaining that her readers thoroughly enjoy to read and dreams of being a New York Times® Best Seller one day. The authors who influence her work the most are Agatha Christie and James Patterson. She is also deeply inspired by her good friend K.J. Emrick.
Kathryn lived in the USA during her twenties where she became a single parent after her first marriage ended. Coincidentally, she met her now Australian husband in the US five years ago, when they were both there on holidays.
When she has a few moments to herself, Kathryn likes swimming, bike riding, cooking tasty meals, and discovering new places. She is also an avid music and animal lover. (Drums are her instrument of choice and she is a cat & dog person.) One of Kathryn’s favourite places to be is her local library. Most importantly, she loves spending time with her wonderful husband and son.
Kathryn De Winter recently finished a three-part cozy mystery series and has written another two cozy mysteries in a different three-part series. To find out more about her publications, visit her official website: http://www.kathryndewinter.com