Taylorwood (Alexandria Whitney Mystery)

by McCarthy, G. L.

  “Yippee. Thanks, Dr. Dez. I hope I don’t see you for six months. Bye.” She threw the lead rope around Phantom’s neck and swung up. She was free to ride all afternoon, even if it was only at a walk.

  Dez reached for her phone just as she came out of the valley. It came to life with the sound of a message waiting. It was Cyn telling her to call her immediately. She was on her way to school to stop Alex from doing something really stupid. Dez hit her memory number for Cyn and waited for her to answer.

  “Dez, where are you?” Cyn loved caller ID. “I’m on my way, what happened?” Dez wondered what stupid thing Alex was going to do.

  “The creep who has been stalking her sent her an email this morning. She’s going to confront him, and I believe she means, by the tone in her voice, to shove it up his ass.” She figured Alex could do it too, but needed back up.

  “What are you talking about? What stalker?” Dez felt like she was listening to someone else’s conversation.

  “The flowers, the medal, the poem? She didn’t tell you about him, because you’ve been so self absorbed that she didn’t want to waste your precious time.” Cyn shouldn’t have said that, but didn’t care.

  “My God, she’s been stalked since the first day of school and didn’t feel she could talk to me about this?” Dez felt horrible and completely insensitive to Alex’s needs.

  “Just get to school and meet me in the administration office, that’s Rebecca Greenway’s office.” Cyn pushed end. She had a lot more to say, but now wasn’t the time to say it.

  Dez was in overload mode. Alex was being stalked and she wasn’t aware of it. Sally had been making her daughter’s pony sick and she wasn’t aware of that. What was she doing, walking through life with blinders on? She hoped she could find Sally and set her straight that she was not interested in her. She didn’t want to wake up after one of Sally’s meals in some secret room like a pet. She saw how she treated her pets. But first she needed to find Alex and make sure she was okay.

  Alex pulled into her parking space out of habit. She wanted to drive her truck right up the front of Administration, honk the horn, and run over Richard Greenway. She knew he wouldn’t be that accommodating. The school was practically deserted, not like last Sunday when the school was humming with activity due to fall cleaning. She went to Mrs. Greenway’s door and found it locked, then to Richard’s which was locked too. How could he have gotten away so fast? Just then Alex heard someone coming up behind her.

  “Oh hi, Mrs. Jennings. Do you know if either of the Greenway’s are here? I need to talk to both of them, or one at a time, I don’t really care.” Alex was calming down and she needed to stay fired up.

  “Well, now that you mention it, I did see the two of them walking out towards the gazebo. They were having a rather loud conversation something about doing it again, and how could he be so stupid? Not really sure what that was all about.” Sally smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

  “Great! I can get the two of them in one location. That saves me a lot of time.” She thanked Sally and headed for the gazebo. The grass was giving way under her feet from all the rain. It was very soggy and she was sinking as she went.

  When Alex got to the gazebo no one was there, but there were tracks heading off towards Old Woman’s Hill. She followed the tracks until they ended at the edge of the ravine. As she was trying to figure out where they could have gone, she heard something behind her. Alex turned around and was surprised to see Sally, who was smiling as she approached her. “No luck? I’m so sorry you didn’t find them. But then I’m not surprised – since they aren’t here. You see Richard left yesterday after his mother confronted him with all your information. She’s probably already filled out the paperwork for the restraining order too.” She stopped right in front of Alex.

  “If you knew that, then why did you send me out here on this fool’s errand?” Alex was totally confused.

  “I got you out here so no one would see me push you over the edge. You see, you made it all so easy for me. I was in Mrs. Cline’s office on Thursday and heard everything. When Richard took off it was perfect, as now everyone will think he came back and killed you for rejecting him.”

  Just then Sally reached out and grabbed Alex quickly plunging a needle into her forearm. Alex pulled back instantly when she felt the pain of the needle, but it was too late. The syringe had been emptied. She was stunned and confused as she walked towards Sally who was backing up waiting for the drug to take effect.

  “Why are you doing this to me, why?” She felt warm all over, it wasn’t a half bad feeling at that.

  “Because, you fool, I want Dez and I need to get rid of you to get her. You see, I’ve planted a few things in that pervert, Richard Greenway’s, office that will lead the police to blame him for your murder. I even found the note he sent you on his computer, so with that and the e-mail this morning he will be their number one suspect. Then I will be there for your grieving girlfriend and no one will be the wiser.” Sally felt she had covered all her bases.

  “Well I don’t feel like a fool now, I just feel sorry for you. Didn’t Dez tell you we broke up? I was home packing when I got the e-mail you must have sent from Richard’s computer. You stupid woman. If you would have just waited you could have had her without killing me – until she finds out how crazy you are. I hope you know a good lawyer who can get you off with an insanity plea.”

  Alex tried to move but her legs weren’t working. She sank to her knees, then sat back on her heels. She tried to scream but nothing would come out. She was trying to stay awake, but it was a losing battle. She fell to her left side and lost consciousness. The drug had worked fast. Sally walked around, grabbed her arms and started to drag her. The rain soaked ground was making it difficult to get good footing. Alex’s sweatshirt was soaking up water and her jeans were acting like the scoop on a bulldozer, bringing the mud along too. Sally struggled, pulling hard to get Alex to the edge where she could finish what she’d started.

  “Stop! Police!! Put your hands up and walk towards me!” Sheriff Taylor was a crack shot and it wasn’t likely he would miss at this distance. Sally looked up, shocked.

  “Stay away from me or I’ll take your precious friend with me.” Sally was panicking as she had a crowd staring at her. It seemed the Cavalry had shown up in force.

  “Sally, you don’t mean that. Come away from the edge and we can talk about this whole thing.” Dez was shaking as she slowly walked towards Sally. She feared Alex had been overdosed on Ketamine and needed to get her to a hospital, now.

  “Stay away from me! You let me fall in love with you before you ever told me you had a girlfriend, and then you didn’t even tell me that you two had split up. I was going to divorce my husband for you. How could you treat me like that? How could you be so insensitive?” Sally was in a rage.

  Sheriff Taylor had moved to the right so he would have a clear shot if he needed to take it. Frederick and Cyn had moved to the left of Dez, who was taking Sally head on.

  “Stop right there or so help me she goes right now.” Panic was taking over and Sally had stopped thinking of her own safety.

  She reached for Alex’s jeans to give them one good yank to get her over a pile of mud, but just as she did she lost her footing. She went down in a heap, her momentum carrying her partially over the edge, which had broken away. With Sally holding on to her belt, the added weight was pulling Alex dangerously close to the edge. Sally was now frantically trying to climb back up over the top of her, but the more she tried to get up, the more the muddy hillside gave way beneath her.

  Just then Cyn grabbed Alex by the ankles, trying to pull her back, while fighting hard to keep her footing in the slippery mud. At that same moment, Dez jumped forward to grab Sally, forcing her to let go of Alex. Dez was trying to stay to the side, not wanting to impede Cyn‘s efforts. Frederick came up alongside of Cyn and helped her pull Alex back to safe ground and out from under the screaming Sally. Dez was now on her knees trying to hold on t
o Sally’s arm as she was hysterically screaming and grabbing for her as she fought to keep from falling.

  Sheriff Taylor holstered his gun and ran to help Dez, but now there was a bigger problem to deal with. The area of ground where Dez and Sally were was beginning to move in one big section. Sheriff Taylor yelled at Dez to hurry as the whole side could go. Dez grabbed hold of Sally and pulled with everything she had just as the hillside gave way, sending both women down the side. Dez lost her grip on Sally in an avalanche of mud, rocks, and dead roots. She crashed into a large root that had been uncovered and held on hoping it was still attached to a living tree and would hold her weight. She had lost sight of Sally who disappeared into the debris.

  Meanwhile Frederick had picked up Alex like a rag doll and started to carry her towards the parking lot. Sheriff Taylor was already radioing for an ambulance for Alex, and a helicopter to look for Dez and Sally. Cyn ran to the edge to see if she could see what had happened to both women and spotted Dez hanging onto the root. She ran back to Sheriff Taylor who told her he had a rope in the trunk of his patrol car. Cyn grabbed his keys and ran to get it. As she passed by Alex’s truck she lowered the tailgate so Frederick could lay her down on a dry surface. By the time Frederick got back to the parking lot and gently set Alex down, he heard the ambulance siren off in the distance.

  “They’re coming Alex. Please hold on. They’re coming.” He held onto Alex’s hand and tried to wipe some of the mud off of her.

  When Cyn got back up to the cliff’s edge she tied a loop in the rope and threw it down to Dez, who grabbed it. The root she was straddling was only slightly bending. Thank goodness it wasn’t dead. Cyn and the sheriff had a bit of trouble pulling Dez up due to the same slippery footing that had prevented Sally from getting Alex to the edge sooner, but Dez finally reached the top. She was quite a mess, muddy, shaking and scratched up. Her ribs hurt from the collision with the root, but she was alive.

  Sheriff Taylor told them the helicopter with a search and rescue team was on their way to look for Sally. The sheriff had a lot of questions to ask, starting with how was it that he was called out to keep Richard Greenway from assaulting Alex and ended up helping to prevent her murder by some crazed woman? This report was going to be interesting, to say the least.

  Alex was going to be fine, as soon as the hallucinations stopped. Luckily for her Sally hadn’t given her enough Ketamine to kill her, as her intent was for her to die from the fall. Cyn stayed by Alex’s side for as long as the nurses would let her, and then camped out in the waiting room until she could see her Sunday morning. By then she was able to relay to Alex the events leading up to her rescue.

  She and Dez had followed her to school. When they found the administration offices locked they looked around and noticed the tracks through the wet grass heading for the gazebo. At that point Frederick and Sheriff Taylor had arrived and they all followed the tracks up to Old Woman’s Hill. When Cyn called ahead to let Frederick know of Alex’s plan to confront Greenway, that prompted him to call the good sheriff. It was just great karma that they all arrived at the same time. The stars were definitely looking out for her on that day.

  The search and rescue dogs ultimately found the unconscious Sally under some dirt and debris near the bottom of the ravine. She was fortunate she didn’t end up being washed down stream, as the little creek below had turned into a rushing river from all the recent rain. She was in a coma, and her condition was guarded. She would be arrested for attempted murder when she recovered, not to mention having a psychological evaluation. The sheriff told Cyn they would try and keep the specific details from the papers. The fact that only a few people knew the real story was helpful, and he suggested she not to talk to anyone about the case.

  Dez was checked out with two cracked ribs, and was lucky it hadn’t been worse. She went to see Alex around nine. She told her what she had learned from Megan and how Sally had been making Phantom sick just to get her out there more often. She asked Alex to please forgive her for putting her in danger from her thoughtlessness. She was sorry for everything

  – not being more aware, not figuring things out sooner, and mostly for not being there for her.

  Alex looked out her hospital window at the rain. She would never complain about too much rain again, as the mud and wet ground had led her rescuers to her and prevented a crazed woman from sending her to her death. She said a prayer and asked Mother Nature to forgive her for trying to tell her how to do her job.

  Alex asked Cyn to go to her one o’clock appointment for her, explain where she was and check out the little house. If she approved, she should leave her deposit check to hold it. She trusted Cyn to evaluate the place and was sure she knew what Alex liked in a home. She needed to focus on moving, and not all that had recently happened. She knew with a little more help from her friends she would be able to move forward as well. But mostly Alex knew she could count on herself – that her own strength and determination would get her through. After all she was not going to let anything get in the way of a future full of new and amazing things.

  Epilogue

  Alex looked out the window at the vast breathtaking landscape below. She had been to New Mexico once before and knew why it was called, “The Land of Enchantment.” The plane was on its final descent and Alex was anxious to be back on solid ground.

  The school had given her two weeks off and she was looking forward to spending the time with Jessie. She planned to catch the Stagecoach Shuttle Bus, then try to rest a bit on the way out to the ranch – something she could never manage to do at thirty thousand feet in the air. Boy, did she ever need this time away after all she’d been through!

  Luckily, everything went according to plan, and Alex already felt better when the bus pulled to a stop in front of the guest ranch office. The first one out to greet her was Winston.

  “Hey boy, did you ever get big! Do you remember me?” Winston was just a puppy when Alex visited two years ago. “Where’s your mom & dad?”

  Just then the screen door slammed and out walked Jessie and Dawson. “Right on time – am I glad to see you!” Jessie looked relieve as she wrapped her arms around Alex. The two hugged tightly as Dawson welcomed her with a kiss on the cheek, on his way to collect the bags.

  The guest quarters of Jessie and Dawson’s “Casita” looked warm and familiar. Dawson went back to work, knowing the girls would want a little time alone. They needed to catch up, plus make a few plans for the evening and following day.

  “We’re having a bar-b-que tonight – ribs, chicken, beans – the works. Then I know you’ll be ready for an early bedtime, as always. Tomorrow there’s a two-hour ride going out at 11:00. How does that sound?” Jessie hoped Alex would be able to relax and settle into “ranch life” A.S.A.P. This would be so good for her.

  “I can’t wait – for dinner, for bed, or for a trail ride! You know me pretty well don’t you, girlfriend? Hey Jess thanks again for having me.”

  The next morning Alex was up early and about to go hunt for some coffee, when her cell phone rang. “Alex, hi, sorry to call so early. Are you up?” Cyn’s voice sounded a little odd.

  “You bet. It’s early to bed and early to rise here too. You sound a little funny – is everything okay, Cyn?” “Oh yeah, I mean except for the fact that my P.O.S.

  car won’t start. The tow truck is on the way, so I thought I’d

  call you now while I’m waiting. I wanted to make sure you got

  there safe and sound.” Alex had only been gone a day, but Cyn

  already missed her.

  “Everything is fine. The trip was uneventful, I’m

  happy to report, and of course it’s beyond beautiful here. I was

  just about to head out to get a ‘cup o’joe’ and some ‘chow.’

  How do you like that for ranch lingo? Then later this morning

  I’m off for a trail ride.”

  “Sounds great, cowgirl. Hey, I don’t want to keep you,

  just checking in
. Oh, remember, don’t ride faster than your

  guardian angel can fly!”

  “Don’t worry, Cyn. I prefer low gear so I can relax

  and enjoy the views. Thanks for calling, and don’t get too mad

  at that car. I’m sure it’s just some minor thing. I’ll call you in a

  few days.”

  Alex smiled to herself wondering if Cyn had once

  again flooded the engine in her frustration. She was sure the

  Mustang would be up and running in no time – and yet she

  suddenly felt a little uneasy. She ordered herself to snap out of

  it and went off to search for coffee, breakfast, and Jessie – in

  that order.

  By the time 10:45 rolled around, Alex was ready to

  ride. As she entered the corral she saw nearly fifteen horses tied up and a couple of cowboys saddling them for the guests. One horse in particular caught her eye. He was a little smaller than Beau, but with similar markings. She took an immediate liking to him. She paused for several minutes to soak up the sights, the sounds, and the smell of it all. Alex closed her eyes.

  “This is Heaven,” she thought.

  Just then she was startled by the tickle of whiskers on

  her right ear. She turned and realized Jessie and Cody had

  snuck up behind her. “Good morning again. You remember the

  other love of my life, don’t you?” Jessie asked with a wink. “Of course. Hi, handsome! Were you flirting with

  me?” Alex asked, as she gave Cody a kiss on the nose and

  stroked his neck. He was a very sweet buckskin gelding that

  Dawson had given Jessie shortly after their move to the ranch. “I bet you want to ride Bruce Willis, don’t you? I saw