by Ellery Adams
“Those are the logs I mentioned, the ones that border the park,” Nathan answered, carefully stepping over the hindrance. “It looks nice during the daytime, but if you don’t know they’re there, you can break your neck.”
“She could be anywhere,” Trish whispered. “I can’t see a thing.”
Danny crossed his arms, scanning the park with a determined gaze. “We’ll split up. Cover more ground that way.”
With a squeeze, Cooper let go of Nathan’s hand, drifting off to the left side of the park as he went to the right. The others fanned out, moving slowly, searching as they walked.
Trish hung close to Cooper. “I’m surprised she didn’t get farther,” Trish said. “I’d be running like a bat out of—”
“She doesn’t know the neighborhood,” Cooper interrupted. “I’ve spent a lot of time here, and I’d still have to stop and get my bearings before running away. Besides, she’s probably walking instead of running.”
“You think?”
“Sure. If someone saw her running, they’d take notice.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
A third set of footsteps joined them, and Cooper looked over to see Nala on the other side of Trish. So much for splitting up.
“Do you think we can sneak up on her?” Nala asked, her voice low.
Trish shook her head. “Jake ruined any chance of that when he fell over.”
“Do you think she can see us now?”
“Maybe,” Cooper said. “Or she might have moved on already.”
Cooper narrowed her eyes, trying to make out shapes in the shadows. Trees. Bushes. Statues. One shady outline faded into the next. The park grew eerily silent, and the playground felt more like a graveyard than a place for children to play.
Then, out of the silence came a scream. Cooper spun around, searching for its source. Across the playground, two shadowy figures struggled in the dark. Running toward them with Trish and Nala, Cooper could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Panic gave her speed. Someone had found Mandy, and Mandy wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
As she approached the scuffle, Cooper’s eyes adjusted, and the two shadowy figures became more pronounced. One of them was Mandy. The other was Christine.
Christine screamed a second time. Nathan’s feet pounded against the playground lawn, full speed toward them.
“Stay back!” Mandy yelled. “Or I’ll cut her!”
Only then did Cooper see the glint of metal against Christine’s throat. With one hand, Mandy held Christine’s hair tightly. With the other, she pressed the blade of a Swiss Army knife to the soft flesh over Christine’s carotid.
Christine’s eyes were wide with panic. Her breathing was quick and shallow. The more she tried to pull away from Mandy, the more vise-like Mandy’s grip became.
Keeping his distance for Christine’s sake, Nathan stood directly in Mandy’s line of sight. “Please, don’t hurt her,” he pleaded. “Please, Mandy. Don’t.”
“I will if you come any closer,” Mandy replied.
“Okay. Okay. What do you want? What can I do to make sure that my sister doesn’t get hurt?”
“Get me my keys. Let me get to my car. I’ll take your sister with me to make sure you don’t follow. When I’m sure I’m safe, I’ll let her go.”
“How can I trust that you’ll do as you say?”
Mandy stared at him coolly. “Can you afford to not trust me?”
A subtle movement behind Mandy caught Cooper’s eye. From the shadow of the bushes crept none other than Danny. Slowly, methodically, he plotted his path toward Mandy.
“I’ll get the keys,” Trish volunteered, taking a small step forward.
Mandy jerked her head to look at Trish. “Stay back.”
Danny gestured to Nathan, whose expression never changed. Not even the slightest bit. From her vantage point, Cooper couldn’t tell exactly what Danny was trying to convey, but she did get the general idea. They were to keep Mandy occupied.
“We’ll do this your way,” Nathan said, drawing Mandy’s attention back from Trish. “Whatever you want, we’ll make it happen. All right?” He nodded to Trish, who slowly backed away toward the sidewalk. “She’ll get your keys, and then this will all be over.”
Mandy smiled. “Glad to see we’re on the same page. Christine and I will wait right here for you, Trish. Hurry back.” She looked again at Trish, allowing Nathan the chance to close some distance between them and him. He took three quick steps forward before Mandy glanced his way.
“I will hurry,” Trish assured her. The more she talked and distracted Mandy, the closer Danny was able to come. “I’ll go get your keys. Wait. Do you want the purse? Or just the keys out of the purse?”
“Just bring me the whole bag. Now.”
Trish nodded, still moving toward the sidewalk under Mandy’s watchful eye. Nathan took one more step. Another. Then, a third. Behind Mandy, Danny was only two yards away.
By the time Trish had reached the sidewalk, Danny was in striking distance.
Nathan swallowed hard, his body tensing. Mandy must have seen it, because her expression darkened. She pressed the knife harder into Christine’s flesh.
“Nathan, whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it.”
No sooner had she finished the statement than Danny jumped into action. He grabbed Mandy’s knife hand and pulled it away from Christine as Nathan ran at them from the front. But Mandy broke her knife hand free and cut the air wildly, striking at anything she could reach. With her other hand she kept a firm grip on Christine’s hair.
Danny tried to keep a hold of Mandy while reaching for her flailing arm. His grip was tight but somehow he wasn’t hurting her. A former Marine, he probably could have killed Mandy if he’d wanted to, or easily broken her bones. Instead, he just tried to wrestle her arms away from Christine. He was doing his best to not do any permanent damage.
Nathan tried to get hold of the knife, but Mandy was too quick. Finally, Danny put his arms around her waist, hoisting her up an inch off the ground. Mandy retaliated by swinging her head back into his face, smashing his nose.
The blow stunned Danny, but only momentarily. He stumbled back, wiping the blood from his face. Then he lunged back into the fray.
But Christine couldn’t get away from Mandy’s iron grip.
Before she knew what she was doing, Cooper ran toward them. She grabbed Mandy’s hand and, one by one, peeled back her fingertips from Christine’s scalp. Mandy snarled and struggled. Jake grabbed Christine and pulled her away as Mandy twisted, lashing out with her knife. Cooper felt the cold blade cut across her lower back. The shock caused her to stumble away, hand on the cut, but she kept moving until she was with Christine and Nala, a safe distance from the fight. Bryant grabbed a hold of Mandy’s knees, tipping her off balance.
Nathan twisted Mandy’s hand until, at last, she dropped the knife. Danny tackled her to the ground. And finally, sirens blared, and the flashing red and blue of approaching police cars cut through the darkness.
• • •
Within half an hour, Mandy was in handcuffs, sitting on one of the logs bordering the playground. McNamara stood over her, writing in his notebook, while the Bible study group and the Sphinx employees looked on. Cooper sat in the back of an ambulance, with Nathan by her side holding her hand. The cut in her back wasn’t deep enough for stitches, so the paramedic closed it with butterfly Band-Aids. When he was finished, Cooper and Nathan joined the rest of the onlookers.
McNamara ambled toward them, Mandy in cuffs at his side and another officer behind her. “You’ve had quite the evening,” he said. “Ms. Lee, how’s your back?”
“All right,” Cooper replied. “The cut wasn’t too deep.”
“Good. Now then, I’ve been getting stories from the different officers who took your statements. I’d like to hear from all of you how you put the pieces together.”
“It was Kenneth,” Cooper said before anyone else could speak. “He knew someth
ing wasn’t right. He knew that Sinclair didn’t commit suicide. That’s where Nathan came in.”
“What did Nathan do?”
Kenneth continued the story. “We thought maybe the time of death was incorrect, and Nathan thought to check Sinclair’s Fitbit for when his heart stopped beating.”
“When was that?” McNamara asked.
“An hour and a half before the original time of death,” Jake replied. “Then Cooper realized that when Sinclair’s body was found, he had on a different color pin than he had in the photo Quinton took earlier that day at the park.”
Mandy rolled her eyes. “That stupid picture.”
“Quiet,” McNamara snapped. He turned back to Jake. “Please continue.”
Jake did as the inspector said. “We were able to figure out who swapped pins with Sinclair. It was Mandy.”
“Those stupid pins,” Mandy muttered, shaking her head.
McNamara sighed. “Something you want to add?”
“That idiotic pin. I didn’t want a pin to begin with, because they were cheap and tacky. But still I had to wear the dumb little sphinx. And you . . .” She directed her venom at Cooper. “You just had to find a picture from the park, didn’t you? After all I went through to get rid of it, you just had to find it again.”
“What do you mean?” Trish asked. “Mandy, what did you do to get rid of the photo?”
Mandy glanced at Danny. It was the most fleeting of looks, but it was enough.
“My stolen camera,” Cooper said. “You broke into my truck and stole the camera, and when Danny came at you, you cut him with your pocketknife. Then you ran him over.”
McNamara looked from Mandy to Cooper. “Ms. Lee, are you saying that this woman was responsible for the attack on Danny?”
Cooper nodded. “She attacked him at the hospital, too. My guess is that she was afraid Danny saw her face in the parking lot and could ID her.”
Christine drew in a sharp breath. “That’s right! Mandy used to work at a florist shop! She told me so during our getting-to-know-you questions at the park.”
“So she’d know how to get her hands on a delivery uniform,” McNamara concluded. “What about the money in Sinclair’s safe?”
Kenneth crossed his arms. “I’m probably to blame for that. I asked Mandy and Christine to help me clear out Sinclair’s office. Mandy’s the one who found the evidence in the safe. She’d probably just planted it there. Say, what about that psychiatrist’s business card that fell into Sinclair’s printer. Did Mandy plant it there?”
Mandy looked at him blankly. “What psychiatrist?”
“I think it’s more likely that Sinclair accidentally dropped the card there himself,” Cooper said. “That’s not a place anyone was guaranteed to look for planted evidence. I imagine he needed to talk to someone about everything going on at work . . . you know, since one of his employees thought he was an adulterer, and another one was stealing from him.”
“You can’t prove any of this,” Mandy insisted. “All you have are guesses and theories. My lawyer won’t even let this get past an arraignment.”
“Not so fast,” McNamara said. “I have a feeling we’ll find blood on that pocketknife of yours, and I’m not just talking about Ms. Lee’s. Mr. Gordon was cut, and so was Mr. Allis . . . Danny. That’s all the evidence I’ll need to get you sent to county without bail until your court date. No judge in Virginia would rule otherwise.” McNamara nodded to the other officer, who pulled a still belligerent Mandy away to one of the squad cars. The inspector turned back to the group, his expression grim. “You people really don’t know how to stay out of police business, do you?”
The members of the Bible study group exchanged glances.
His frown dissolved into a smile. “But it looks like everything worked out for the best. Not just with catching Mr. Gordon’s killer. I believe you know Dave Howard. He confessed to vandalizing a car at the festival, and he’ll be busy with community service for a while. You’ve been a busy bunch. Now, go home, get some rest . . . and don’t interfere with any more police investigations.”
Cooper returned the smile. “We’ll do our best, Inspector.”
19
The week flew by. Work was back to normal, and so was the Bible study. Christine was home and well, and Nala invited the whole group to her apartment-warming party. At last, Cooper could relax.
Almost.
On Saturday morning, it was finally time to talk to Nathan about the idea that had been brewing in her mind. An idea she dearly hoped Nathan would agree with.
Nathan arrived at the Lee home early, just as Maggie and Earl were cleaning up from breakfast, and he and Cooper sat on the front porch swing, in the beautiful clear air. The warm sun beat down on them, tempered by a cool breeze. The bird feeders at the edge of the porch were a flurry of activity.
After a few minutes of silence, just enjoying nature, Nathan said, “You sounded so serious when you called last night. You scared me.”
“It is serious,” Cooper began slowly. “I have an idea I want to share with you. It’s about the job in L.A.”
Nathan drew in a deep breath. “You don’t want me to take it, do you?”
“That’s not it at all. I actually think you have to take it. You need to have this experience. If you don’t you’ll always regret it, and you’ll wonder what could have happened, but . . . I’m not ready to go to California.”
Nathan began to panic. “Wait. What are you saying?”
“It’s okay,” Cooper assured him. “I’m not saying I don’t want to be with you. I’m just saying I’m not ready to go to California.”
He sighed with relief.
She continued. “Here’s the thing. I’ve been looking at this situation as if we have two options. Either I leave with you to go to California in a couple weeks, or you don’t take the job. What if there’s a third option?”
“I’m listening.”
“You said that the trial period will last a few months, and you won’t really know until it’s over whether or not you have the job on a permanent basis.”
“That’s right.”
“If you think about it, it’d be a really bad idea for us to pick up and move to L.A. without the job being a sure thing.”
Nathan thought for a moment. “I hadn’t considered that. I guess we could wait to sell my house until after the trial period.”
“Exactly! And maybe I could keep my job until the trial period is over, too.”
Nathan let it all sink in. “You mean . . . you’d stay here, while I go to L.A.? We’d be on opposite coasts.”
Cooper said nothing. It wasn’t a perfect plan, not by a long shot. It would require them to be apart—an idea she hated. However, it was a compromise that would allow them both what they needed. She was carefully considering what to say next, when Nathan took her hand.
“I want you to know that I’m open to any plan you come up with,” he said. “I want to hear it.”
“Okay.” She took a moment and gathered her thoughts. “I told you I needed more time here, and I still do. If you get the job, and we move to L.A., then we’ll have a great adventure together, just the two of us, away from everything we know. But I don’t want to leave Richmond before I’m ready. I don’t want to end up regretting the decision to go too soon, any more than I want you to regret turning down that job offer.”
“I’m not sure I can be away from you that long.”
“I don’t want to be away from you that long, either . . . But you can fly back to visit me, and I’ll come to visit you.”
Nathan held her hand more firmly, as if he didn’t want to let go ever. “Is this really what you want?”
Cooper hesitated. “Yes. I think it’s the best scenario, Nathan. I really do. You get your job. I get a little more time here. You can do your work without distraction, and I can go wedding dress shopping with Mama, Ashley, and Hannah. And in the end, we wind up together. We get our adventure. What do you say?”
N
athan leaned in and pressed his lips to Cooper’s, holding her in a warm, lingering embrace. When he finally backed away, he wore a smile. “I think we can make it work.”
Cooper put her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, happier than she’d been since Nathan told her his news. The anxiety was gone. The worry disappeared. And the peace she’d thought was fleeting consumed her.
As they embraced, the front door swung open, and Grammy came out of the house. Cooper hadn’t even noticed the old Caprice pulled up at the curb.
“Have fun, kids,” Grammy said, glancing in their direction. “But not too much fun!”
“You, too, Grammy. Where you going?”
“Out.”
And without another word, she was gone. She stepped into the Caprice, and the car pulled away. Cooper turned to Nathan. “How would you feel about tackling one more mystery?”
• • •
The Caprice kept a steady speed on the highway, making it easy for Cooper to follow at a distance. Traffic was light, so she settled in behind a semi to remain undetected as she explained to Nathan exactly what they were doing.
When she finished, Nathan asked, “So she’s been disappearing every Saturday? All day?”
Cooper nodded.
“Did you ask her about it?”
“Of course I asked her! She just didn’t want to tell me.”
“Not to overstep my bounds, but if she didn’t want to tell you, maybe we should respect her wishes.”
Cooper waved off his concern. “You sound just like my folks. They don’t understand the relationship I have with Grammy. She’s always kept an eye out for me, even when I didn’t want her to. She sticks her nose into my business because she loves me and she wants to take care of me. Well, now it’s time to return the favor.”
Nathan laughed. “Are you sure this isn’t just idle curiosity talking?”
“I admit in the beginning I was just feeling a little nosy,” Cooper admitted. “But she’s so reluctant to talk about Frank and what they’re doing that I’m honestly worried. She usually wears her opinions on her sleeve, and her life is an open book. The more she refuses to talk about what’s going on, the more it makes me wonder about this Frank character. And if Mama and Daddy aren’t going to butt into Grammy’s affairs to make sure everything is all right, then I’ll have to be the one to do it. Would you mind checking on the Caprice for me?”