by Jessica Beck
“I’d say it’s about the only thing we can do right now,” I answered. “Poor Gabby. I’d hate to have so many suspects involved if something ever happened to me.”
“I wouldn’t care how many people wanted to see you dead,” Grace said. “I’d track whoever did it down and make them pay for what they did to you, even if it took the rest of my life.”
“I’d do the same thing for you,” I admitted. “It’s what being friends is all about, isn’t it?”
“For the two of us, at any rate. Come on. Let’s go see if we can find Tyra Hitchings and get her to at least give us an alibi.”
There was no answer at Tyra’s, but I noticed something the moment we walked up the steps.
The note I’d left there for her earlier was now gone.
“At least we know that she’s been here, Grace,” I said, pointing to the spot I’d left my request for her to call me.
“Maybe,” Grace answered. “What if someone else took it?”
“Why would anyone do that?”
“What if they didn’t want Tyra talking to us?” she asked. “We know for a fact that Manny was in town earlier. Maybe he saw it and grabbed it before she could get it.”
Something suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t even considered before. “Grace, I just had a crazy thought.”
“Don’t keep it to yourself. What is it?” Grace asked as she moved away from the front door and headed back to the Jeep.
As I followed her, I asked her, “Do you think it’s possible that we’re looking for two people and not one?”
“Do you honestly think that it’s possible that Manny and Tyra conspired to hit Gabby over the head and then burn her shop down? I honestly can’t see the two of them working together on anything.”
“I can’t, either,” I said. “But what if the person who hit Gabby wasn’t the same one who started the fire?”
She mulled it over as we got into my Jeep. “It’s possible, I suppose,” she allowed.
“Let’s go to Union Square and ask Manny,” I said. “At least we’ve got a pretty good chance of finding him at his shop.”
As we made our way out of town and drove past the hospital, I asked, “I wonder if Gabby’s had any luck getting her memory back? Should we stop in and see how she’s doing?”
“Maybe we should go find Manny first,” Grace said. “After all, I’m sure that Bo or Penny will call us the second anything changes with Gabby’s status.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I wonder if those two will give it another go?”
“We’ve both certainly done all that we can to push them together,” Grace said. “Suzanne, you’re a bad influence on me. You know that, don’t you?”
“What did I do?” I asked her. “You were all for meddling in their lives all by yourself.”
“I know, but I’ve seen you do it so many times that I couldn’t seem to help myself,” she answered with a slight smile.
I shrugged. “What can I say? I’ve discovered that when you’re in love, you want the whole world to be in love, too.”
After a few more minutes of driving, Grace said, “Wow, Jake wrapped that case up pretty quickly, didn’t he?”
“I don’t think it’s Chief Erskine’s fault that he didn’t think to look at other video security footages from around the crime scenes,” I said. “Jake has an awful lot of experience in this.”
“It’s almost as though he were born to it,” Grace said softly.
“You don’t have to tiptoe around it with me,” I answered. “I know that Jake’s got to get back into law enforcement in at least some capacity, even if it’s just working as a consultant. We discussed it last night, but I’m not sure if he’s really ready to commit to doing it, no matter what he says. I want to discuss it with him more, but I’m just not sure how I’m going to bring it up with him. He told me that he wanted to wait and see how this case turned out, but he solved it so quickly I don’t see how he can just turn his back on what he’s clearly so very good at.”
“You’re not going to suggest that he go back to the state police, are you?” she asked me. “It’s going to take him away from you for long stretches of time.”
“Trust me, I know that better than anyone else, but he’s got to find some meaning in his life, some purpose besides just being with me, no matter what it ends up being. Don’t worry. We’ll make things work, no matter what.”
She reached over and patted my shoulder gently. “I know you will. If there’s anything in the world I have faith in, it’s the two of you.”
“Hey, is that Tyra?” I asked Grace as we neared Manny’s shop. I was about to pull into the garden center’s parking lot when she passed us on foot going quickly in the other direction, so I kept driving until I could turn around and go back to talk to her. “Has she been crying? She looks miserable.”
That’s when Grace shouted, “Look! Manny’s following her. Suzanne, what’s going on?”
“I have no idea, but we’re about to find out,” I said as I whipped around and did a U-turn.
Grace asked, “What are you going to do?”
“My Jeep is too recognizable,” I said. “I’m going to park somewhere so Manny won’t see it if he heads back this way. I want to catch him off guard, and if he sees my vehicle, he’ll have time to prepare for us.”
“Okay, but find someplace fast,” she said, and then she grabbed my arm, the one I was steering with at the moment, almost sending me into the other lane of oncoming traffic. I whipped the Jeep into a nearby parking spot on the street and tried to get my nerves back under control.
“Grace, don’t do that!”
“I’m sorry, but I had to get your attention. Suzanne, they’re coming back this way! Is he actually chasing her down the street toward us?”
“Duck down,” I ordered. There wasn’t a lot of room in the front of the Jeep to hide in, but we managed to slump down in our seats enough for them to miss seeing us as they hurried past. I wasn’t sure we needed to bother. They were both so focused on each other that I doubted either one of them would have spotted us if we had been waving flags and shouting their names.
Once they were past us, I started to get out when Grace asked, “What are you doing now?”
“I want to get close enough to hear what they’re saying,” I said.
We were out on the sidewalk and heading after them in moments. Tyra was fast, quicker than I would have expected, and Manny was lagging behind a bit. He was still in hot pursuit, if you could call it that, but Tyra was clearly outdistancing him. We were back to his shop’s parking lot when I saw Tyra jump into her car and drive off. Manny got into a black SUV, and he was on her tail before we had time to turn around and head back to my Jeep.
Grace and I were the ones running now.
By the time we got back to my car and started the engine, it appeared that we’d lost them.
I wasn’t going to just give up, though.
I had a feeling that we had just witnessed a confrontation between a would-be killer and their accuser.
The only problem was that we still didn’t know which was which.
Chapter 22
“Where did they go?” I asked as I frantically drove on in the direction we’d last seen the two vehicles speeding away from us. “How could we lose them so quickly? They were in sight just a few seconds ago.”
“Maybe so, but they were both flying when we saw them,” she said. “They could be anywhere by now.”
As we raced out of town, the woods grew around us quickly on either side. Union Square had stopped developing in this direction, probably because there was such a steep drop-off on either side of the road. The woods here were dense, and it must have been difficult to build on.
I was driving faster than I should have been when Grace grabbed my arm again.
“Would you please stop doing that?” I asked her fiercely.
“I’m sorry, but I think I just saw something back there,” she said. “Turn around. Bette
r yet, pull off the road.”
“Where exactly am I supposed to do that?” I asked. There was no room at all on either side of the road.
“I don’t care, but we need to get back there. Suzanne, I think Manny and Tyra just had an accident.”
I found a spot a few hundred yards up the road, pulled the Jeep into it, and we hurried back on foot to where Grace had seen something moments before.
“Should I call the police?” Grace asked me as she pulled out her cell phone.
“No, let’s see what’s going on first,” I said.
We made our way to the spot in question, and as I looked down into a small ravine, I could see something shiny amidst the greenery. How anything managed to catch the light in such a densely wooded area was beyond me. “There’s something down there,” I said as I picked my way quickly down the steep slope. “How did you see anything from the road, going as fast as we were going?”
“The branches were broken and bent along here,” she said. “I knew something was wrong.”
“It’s Manny’s SUV,” I said as we got closer and I recognized the first vehicle.
“That’s not all,” Grace said as she pointed ahead of it. “That’s Tyra’s car in front of it.”
“He must have pushed her off the road, and then he ended up going in after her,” I said. It was the only scenario that made sense. There wasn’t much of a turn where they’d gone over the edge, and it was a beautiful day without a drop of rain in sight.
It had to be deliberate!
I held my breath for a second as I approached Manny’s vehicle, bracing myself for what I was probably going to find inside.
To my surprise though, it was empty!
While I’d gone straight to Manny’s car, Grace had made her way over to Tyra’s. “She’s not here!” Grace called out.
“Neither is Manny, but there’s blood on the seat and the door handle,” I said. Both air bags had gone off, probably saving their lives.
But they’d still been in an accident, and both of them had evidently managed to walk away from it.
The only real question at the moment was, where had they gone?
Chapter 23
I pulled out my phone to call it in, but I couldn’t get a signal. We were below grade and in the thick of a dense canopy of trees, so it was no wonder I couldn’t get through.
“I can’t get a signal,” I said as I put my phone away. “You were right. We should have called it in before.”
“Should we climb back up and call 911?” Grace asked.
“No, there’s no time,” I said. I chewed the situation over in my mind, and then I added, “On second thought, if you want to call, you can climb back up by yourself, but I’m going to go see what’s going on. I don’t want to risk being too late to save Tyra.”
“I’m going with you,” she said resolutely. “No matter what happens, we’re going to be together.”
“Then let’s go.”
We made our way deeper and deeper into the woods.
It wasn’t that hard a trail to follow. Not only was the brush disturbed where they’d both been running, but there were traces of blood on some of the leaves.
Manny’s wound appeared to be getting worse.
Grace was about to say something when I held my hand up.
Through the trees, I could see that there was something ahead of us.
It appeared that we’d found them at last.
Chapter 24
As I peered through the brush to get a better look, I saw that Manny was on top of Tyra’s back, pinning her to the ground in a small open area among the trees. He was bleeding freely from a scalp wound, and there was a zeal to his expression that gave me cold chills.
I motioned to Grace and whispered, “We have to stop him before he hurts her.”
“I’m with you,” she said as she picked up a nearby fallen branch. It was a good idea, but I couldn’t find one for myself.
I was going to have to go after him the old-fashioned way.
“Let’s do this,” I said, feeling my blood pumping through me so hard that I thought something in my head was going to explode.
I raced out into the clearing and tackled Manny with everything I had, knocking him off Tyra and ending up rolling on a bit farther myself from the impact.
Tyra was quick. I had to give her credit for that. She was out from under her attacker and on her feet again just as Grace loomed over Manny, a look of triumph on her face as she brandished her branch and threatened to hit him with it.
“You idiots!” Manny yelled at us as he lay there on the ground. “She’s the one who tried to kill Gabby and set ReNEWed on fire!”
Chapter 25
When I looked over at Tyra, still dazed by Manny’s declaration, I saw that there was a revolver in her hands, and it was pointing at the three of us. “Thanks for rescuing me, Suzanne. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of that one.”
“Let them go,” Manny said as he struggled to his feet. “Your beef is with me, not them.”
It was the most gallant thing he’d probably ever said or done in his life, and I was afraid that there would be no one left alive after this was all over to talk about it.
“They’re not going anywhere,” she said with a laugh devoid of humanity. “You know, when you think about it, there’s not a lot of difference between three bodies and one,” she said.
“Why did you do it?” I asked her. “Why did you go after Gabby? Was it because of Manny?”
“That was part of it,” she said as she gestured toward Manny. “The truth is that it was mostly about Gabby being so smug about the profit she was making from selling my precious things. When I confronted her about it, she just smiled that sick little grin of hers, like she was so much better than I was. Something in me snapped. I followed her into the back of the store and reached for an iron that was in a box near the door. I couldn’t seem to stop myself from hitting her over the head with it. She went down like a sack of grain, and I was certain that I’d killed her. I panicked, found the toaster oven, and then turned it on after putting all kinds of cotton clothing around it. I thought for sure that I’d killed her, and I didn’t want anyone to be able to figure out what had happened. I was shocked when I saw that fireman carry her from the building. It was rotten luck for me that she was still alive, and worse yet, now that she’s getting her memory back, I have to run, but not before I settle some old scores.”
“Manny, you pushed her off the road on purpose, didn’t you?” Grace asked him.
“She was getting away,” he said doggedly. “I couldn’t let that happen.”
“How did you know that she was the one who attacked Gabby and set the fire?” I asked him.
He didn’t even get a chance to answer. “I confessed everything to him not fifteen minutes ago, like a fool,” Tyra said. “I told him that with Gabby out of the way, we could be together. He rejected me, and called me a sociopath to boot.”
Manny shrugged, wincing a little from pain. Evidently the wreck had done more than just cut his forehead. “I told her that I was turning her in, and she said that they’d have to catch her first,” Manny interjected.
“So I ran away,” Tyra explained. “I would have made it too, but then the idiot hit me with his car and forced me off the road! Can you believe it? And he thinks I’m a sociopath!”
Was she honestly trying to justify her behavior to us? The woman was clearly unbalanced. I had to at least agree with Manny about that much.
I heard something in the woods over Tyra’s shoulder, but it took everything in my power not to look. Had someone followed us into the woods? If so, I didn’t want their lives to be in jeopardy, too. I saw that Grace still had the wooden limb in her hands. I tried to make a suggestion to her with eye movements, but even our close relationship wasn’t enough to convey what I was asking her to do.
At least not at first.
Tyra must have seen what I was trying to do, even if Grace hadn’t. “Drop that
club, Grace,” she commanded, pointing her weapon at my friend.
I could see the man moving toward Tyra’s back now as he neared her, and it finally became clear who it was.
It was my dear, sweet husband, Jake!
“Look out! She’s got a gun!” I shouted out, warning him that Tyra was armed.
“Nice try, Suzanne,” Tyra said without looking behind her. “I’m not stupid, you know, and I’m certainly not going to fall for that old trick.”
Jake was close enough to strike now.
“I still think it was worth a try,” I said, dropping my gaze and trying to act as though I’d been bluffing the entire time.
Tyra let her guard down for just a moment, dropping her aim slightly as she smiled. “Face it. I’m just too smart for you.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” I said as Jake was finally close enough to make his move.
His reactions were unbelievably quick as he reached out and took the weapon from Tyra’s hand before she could stop him. She was clearly shocked as he grabbed her roughly and put a plastic zip-tie around her wrists. “Where did you come from? How could you possibly know we were here?”
“I was driving home, and I saw Suzanne’s Jeep parked on the side of the road,” he admitted as he kept a hand on her shoulder. “I called Chief Erskine for backup, and then I followed the trail. I heard you all talking, so I circled around so I could get behind you.” He then turned to look at me. “Are you okay?”
“Grace and I are fine, but Manny’s got a pretty decent cut on his scalp,” I said. I looked over at the elder Romeo, who was now pressing a faded green bandana to his forehead. “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?” he asked, looking honestly confused.
“You tried to save us when you thought you were going to die, anyway,” I said. “There’s still some good in that heart of yours. It’s a shame you don’t let it show more.”