Her Deadly Touch: An absolutely addictive crime thriller and mystery novel (Detective Josie Quinn Book 12)

by Lisa Regan

  Josie said, “Gloria, you don’t have to do this. We can get you help.”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “Help!” she yelled. “Help!”

  Mettner said, “Just put the gun down and we’ll talk.”

  Ignoring him, Gloria said, “There is no help. Surely you’ve figured that out already.” Her expression turned sad for a fleeting moment. “My Teddy never came so I assume you’ve got him already. Did he tell you how we cooked this whole thing up? Did he tell you how we met? He delivered food to my house! Can you believe that? We recognized each other. It was awkward but there was also this… strange attraction. We were definitely not ever supposed to be with one another. That caused a lot of chemistry.”

  From the side of his mouth, Noah whispered, “Should we tell her Ted was killed?”

  “No,” Josie said. “Not now. We have to get that gun and get her into custody so we can check the barn.”

  “She doesn’t seem like she’s going to shut up anytime soon,” Noah said.

  Gloria continued, “… obviously, he told me about what he’d been doing with Miles. I mean, that was crazy. He also told me about seeing Faye with Corey Byrne. That bitch. She always acted so high and mighty at those PTA meetings. Former model and all this bullshit. But the idea to start killing didn’t even occur to us until I had this argument with Krystal in the yard one day. We were fighting over that stupid swing set, like I told you, except she confronted me about the whole orthodontist thing and me and Nathan having been home the day of the accident. I was upset but more than that, I was curious about how she found out. We vowed never to tell anyone, but it didn’t matter. Krystal put it together by accessing some files at work. I decided to try to be her friend instead of her enemy. It took some doing but eventually I even introduced her to my Teddy, and we came up with this plan to find out everyone’s secrets. Krystal and I both were so tired of everyone acting like they were so perfect…”

  Josie nudged Noah and lowered her voice. “She’s trying to buy time. Dee and Heidi are in there. I bet she was turning on the carbon monoxide to whatever chamber she’s got rigged up in there. That’s why she was coming from there. If she talks long enough, they’ll die.”

  “Can we risk her shooting one of us or herself, though?” he said.

  “… of course then Krystal didn’t want to be a part of killing anyone when it came right down to it. She chickened out so we just said hey, let’s make her the first victim. She was going to call the police and tell them what we had planned. We couldn’t let that happen. So my brilliant Teddy built two chambers—one to keep them in and another to keep the car in. One feeds into the other. It’s very clever, actually. I had stopped at Faye’s house by chance around the time he was building the chambers because she wanted to talk about the vigil, and I had this idea to take some candles. Pretty savvy, right? Sealing their lips shut? Teddy had kept her Tiffany earrings from way back when he was helping Miles. We thought it would be a nice touch to leave them at the scene. By that time, we had found out Sebastian’s little secret. Actually, it was Krystal who found out from her work records. Well, she pieced it together when she saw he had pushed through a script for oxy for Virgil on the day of the crash. She was pretty damn upset about that when she realized what it meant. She was really off the rails—threatening to just go to the police with the whole thing so we had to take her. Then we had her login to her work database while we had her, just to make sure. I needed to see for myself. Hey!”

  She swung the gun upward, pointing it in the direction of the nearest vehicle. “Are you guys listening to me or not? I know I said I wouldn’t shoot you, but at this point, what have I got to lose? Why shouldn’t I take one or all of you with me?”

  Mettner called out, “We’re listening, Gloria, but you don’t need the gun. Just put it down and we’ll listen to everything you have to say.”

  She swung the pistol back and forth, as if she was searching for a target, but they were all ducked out of sight behind the vehicles.

  Gloria laughed again, sounding more unhinged by the second. She kept talking. “It was so easy to get them to come with me. Faye, Dee, Heidi. They all trusted me. I had to invent some emergencies to get them to leave everything behind and go with me quickly, but they all followed.”

  Josie huffed. “I can’t wait any longer, Noah. You guys are going to have to distract her while I make a break for the barn.”

  She inched her way over to where Gretchen and Mettner stood behind his car and told them her plan. Gretchen nodded and then turned her attention to Gloria, shouting, “Your plan was to avenge your kids’ murders by killing more people?”

  “Not just people,” Gloria insisted. “They deserved it. They all bear some responsibility for what happened that day…”

  Josie didn’t look back or listen to another word. She kept her body crouched as low to the ground as she could and followed the fence to the barn.

  She was almost to the door when a gunshot boomed across the valley.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Josie didn’t look back, but she prayed that no one on her team had been hit. She kept running until she came to the barn doors. Luckily, they weren’t locked. Josie pushed through them, falling as she reached the other side. Cold air rushed at her face. The smell of barn animals and gasoline fumes stung her nostrils. Jumping to her feet, she looked around, taking in the space. On each side of the structure was a series of stalls. Each one had slatted floors, just like Dr. Feist had predicted. Each one was littered with hay and animal hair. Obviously alpaca or other animals had been kept here at one time. Josie ran past all the open stalls until she came to the end where two stalls had been converted into one large enclosure with two garage bay doors. They’d been sectioned off with drywall and even a ceiling—like a large box within the barn. Josie went to the first door and pressed her ear to the metal. From inside she heard the low hum of a car engine. Josie reached down and gripped the door handle. Using her lower body as leverage, she pulled as hard as she could. It didn’t give. She ran to the second door and pressed her ear against it. No sound.

  It was then that she noticed the thick rows of duct tape sealing the bottom of the door to the concrete under it. Sealing everything inside. This was the chamber where Dee and Heidi were being kept. She tried to pull the door open, tugging with all her might, but it didn’t budge. She banged both forearms against the door.

  “Dee! Heidi! Are you in there?”

  Still nothing. Were they restrained? Or was Josie too late?

  Josie banged against the door again, throwing her entire body into it. “Heidi! Dee! Answer me!”

  Nothing.

  She dropped to her knees and started peeling the tape away. The margin between the concrete and the door was no more than a sheet of paper at best but still, Josie rested her head on the ground and pressed her mouth against the bottom of the door. There, just beyond the other side of the door, a diamond sparkled. Faye’s earring. “Dee! Heidi! Are you in there? It’s Detective Josie Quinn!”

  Finally, a faint voice came. “Hello?” It was weak but it sounded like Heidi.

  “Heidi,” Josie yelled into the bottom of the door. “Heidi!”

  She heard the sound of something dragging along the floor and then a thump on the other side of the door. Heidi was close. She was on the other side, and she was still alive. Josie jumped up and grabbed the door handle again, pulling until her hands ached and sweat poured off her entire body. The door gave a little but it wasn’t much, barely a half inch, and as soon as Josie let go of the door, it slammed shut again.

  “Shit.”

  She needed something to wedge under it. Maybe then Heidi could try to breathe through the crack until Josie figured out how to get the chamber open. She looked around but everything in the barn was too thick. She catalogued her gear, but everything was too bulky to fit under the door.

  “Heidi, hold on!” she hollered.

  She took off her vest and put it onto the ground. Pull
ing up on the handle with her hands, she used one foot to try to wedge the vest under the door, but that was too thick as well. Sweat poured down her face in sheets, burning her eyes. This couldn’t be it. She couldn’t be this close and not be able to break into the chamber. Where was the rest of the team? Surely, they could find some way to get in. Maybe they could just ram one of their vehicles through the door of the other chamber and at least turn off the running car—the source of the carbon monoxide. Josie patted her pockets, looking for her phone but not finding it. But her fingers passed over something hard and round.

  The rosary bracelet. The beads were much thicker than the average rosary. But they might just fit under the door. Josie placed the bracelet onto the floor next to one of her feet. Then she pulled up on the door again with all her might, using the toe of her sneaker to move the beads beneath the door. They slid under easily. Josie let out a whoop and got back onto her hands and knees. She could fit her pinky finger through the crack now.

  “Heidi!” she called again. “Heidi!”

  The weak voice came again. “I’m… here.”

  “Get onto your stomach and put your mouth and nose against the crack at the bottom of the door. You have to breathe through the crack.”

  A moment later, Heidi’s voice was closer, louder. “I’m herrr,” she slurred.

  “Take in as much air as you can,” Josie instructed. “Can you get Dee over here, too?”

  “She’s passed out. I don’t think I can move her.”

  “You have to try. My team will be here any minute. I’m going to try to get you both out of there. Stay with me, Heidi.”

  Another gunshot sounded from outside. Josie squeezed her eyes shut, praying everyone was all right. When she heard the barn door bang open, she opened them. Mettner stood there, gun in hand, looking haggard.

  “Noah,” Josie squeaked out. “Is he okay?”

  “Everyone’s fine,” he said. “Gloria tried to shoot herself. Gretchen dove for her and managed to get there just in time, but Gloria went crazy. Thrashing and trying to hit them. Gretchen and Noah are restraining her now.”

  Relief that her husband was fine was fleeting as the problem at hand came rushing back. “The car is inside that chamber, Mett. Running. They’re inside this chamber. Both are locked. They’re dying in there. I can’t get either door open.”

  He ran over and studied the door to the chamber holding Dee and Heidi, eyes traveling from the bottom to the top and then all four corners.

  “Now, Mett,” Josie screamed. “Now!”

  He holstered his gun and pointed to the two upper corners. “There are pins,” he said. “Lesko custom fit pins to keep the door closed. If one of us can get up there and pull them out, we can get the door open. I’ve got pliers in my car.”

  “Well, go get them!”

  He ran outside. It felt like an eternity that he was gone. Josie laid down on the floor and tried to get Heidi to respond to questions. Her speech was slowed and inaudible. Finally, Mettner returned with a pair of pliers in hand. He reached up toward the top right corner of the door but couldn’t reach. He handed her the pliers. “Here,” he said. “You stand on my back. You’re lighter.”

  Before Josie could react, he got down on his hands and knees, making a bench out of himself. She put a foot on his lower back and stood shakily. It took several tries but finally, the pin slid out. They repeated the process on the other side just as Noah burst into the barn.

  “Help us,” Josie yelled.

  The three of them lifted the door and Heidi tumbled out. Several feet away, Dee Tenney lay face up, unmoving, on the slatted floor. Fumes hissed from a vent on the wall adjacent to the other chamber. It was far too high for either Dee or Heidi to reach and try to block it. Noah said, “I’ll hold the door. You guys carry them outside.”

  Josie and Mettner made quick work of it, carrying Dee first and then Heidi out into the grass. Noah followed.

  “She’s got a pulse!” Mettner said excitedly, fingers pressed into Dee’s neck.

  “Is she… ish he gerring to be okay?” Heidi tried.

  Josie and Noah knelt down on either side of Heidi. Josie smoothed the hair away from Heidi’s face and stared into her eyes while Noah pressed two fingers into the inside of her wrist, checking her pulse. “It’s strong,” he told Josie.

  Relief swept through her. It was so powerful that for a moment, she felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. “Yes,” she choked. “Dee is going to be okay. You’re both going to be okay.”

  “The Chief’s here,” Noah said, pointing toward the copse of trees that separated the alpaca farm from the tiny house and barn. Josie turned to see Chief Chitwood’s car bouncing through the flattened grass toward the house. He had stayed behind with the marked units to secure the scene at Gloria’s store.

  Shouts carried from the house to where they now gathered in front of the barn. Josie’s eyes panned the area surrounding the house until she saw Gretchen, on the ground between the house and their vehicles. She lay on her back, rolling side to side and holding one of her knees. She was crying out in pain, Josie realized, and Gloria was gone.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Noah said, “Mett, stay here.”

  He jumped up and sprinted toward the house. Josie gave Heidi one last look and then followed him. He reached Gretchen before Josie, dragging her over to one of the vehicles and propping her against the side of it. Her face was stark white. Sweat poured from her hairline down her cheeks. She clutched at her left knee. “She got me,” Gretchen huffed. “She threw up in the back of my car. Since she was sick, I let her out and she stomped right on my knee!”

  Noah dropped down and began to roll up Gretchen’s pant leg, but she swatted him away. “No. No. Go get her. She’s still cuffed. She won’t get very far. Just find her.”

  “What the hell is going on here?” came Chief Chitwood’s voice.

  He stood before them, hands on his hips, one bushy eyebrow raised. Josie didn’t answer. Instead, she asked Gretchen, “Which way? Did you see which way she went?”

  “Through the trees. Headed back to the alpaca farm. There might be vehicles there. Go! Go get her before she gets off this farm!”

  Josie took off in a run. Without her Kevlar vest, she was light and fast. She headed around the trees and back toward the alpaca farm. Gloria wouldn’t hide in the grove of trees. Either the police would locate her quickly or they would simply surround the area and wait for her to come out. Gloria was too smart for that. As the gated area with the alpacas came into view, Josie spotted Gloria running along the fence line with her cuffed hands behind her. She didn’t look back. Josie wasn’t sure where exactly she was headed—to the vehicles or one of the buildings—or what her plan was, but she wasn’t about to let her get away.

  Again, Josie was grateful for having punished her body over the last four months, running even on the hottest days of summer, because she gained on Gloria quickly. When she was only a few feet away, she shouted, “Gloria! Stop!”

  Gloria glanced over her shoulder at Josie and sped up, heading now for the trucks. Fleetingly, Josie wondered if she’d considered that she didn’t have keys to either truck. Or did she, and how the hell did she think she was driving anywhere with her hands cuffed behind her back? Just as Gloria reached the door of the closest truck, Josie caught the collar of her shirt. She whipped her around and slammed her back into the truck door.

  “Stop,” Josie instructed.

  Gloria’s blue eyes were wild. She pulled her head back and then thrust it forward, trying to headbutt Josie, but Josie stepped deftly out of range. Gloria lunged toward her, head down, trying to drive one of her shoulders into Josie’s hip. Josie stumbled back and out of Gloria’s reach. She grabbed Gloria’s shoulders, keeping her upright. “Gloria, stop!”

  “Just shoot me,” Gloria snarled, pushing against Josie, trying to headbutt her again. “I know you’ve got a gun. Just shoot me.”

  “No.” Josie shouted to be he
ard over the guttural wails coming from deep in Gloria’s throat.

  “Shoot me!” she screamed. “Just do it. If you don’t, I’ll kill you. I’ll kill everyone.”

  She thrashed, breaking Josie’s hold, and Josie quickly wrapped her in a bear hug. She smelled like sweat and vomit. She kept struggling but Josie held her tightly. Into her ear, she said, “Stop. I’m not going to shoot you.”

  “Please,” Gloria begged. “Please.”

  Josie cinched her arms more firmly. Slowly, Gloria’s body went limp until she felt like a heavy sack of bones in Josie’s arms. The moisture from her tears soaked through the shoulder of Josie’s shirt.

  “I’m going to let go now,” Josie told her. “I want you to sit down.”

  Gloria didn’t protest as Josie released her and guided her into a seated position next to the truck. She looked up at Josie. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do it. I can’t take it. Do you have any idea what this feels like? To lose your whole world? To be so broken inside that you feel like you’d do anything to make the pain go away? To avoid feeling it?”

  Josie sighed. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I do.”

  A vehicle pulled up behind them. Josie turned to see Chief Chitwood emerge. He walked over and looked down at Gloria. “Everything secure here, Quinn?”

  Josie let out a long breath and looked down at her shirt, which was now covered in puke from having been pressed against Gloria. “Yes, sir.”

  “More units are en route,” Chitwood said. “Plus the ERT and some ambulances.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Josie said. She stared at the top of Gloria’s head. Josie could see her frame shaking with silent sobs.

  “Quinn,” said Chitwood.

  Josie looked up at him. He held out a hand to her. In it were the rosary beads. “You left these back there.”

  “Oh, shit. Sir, I’m sorry, I just—I used them to—”