Hungry Hostages

by Marilyn Miggles

  I sighed, "it's okay, I understand your predicament. Hey, have you heard about this petition of the sheriff's to send me packing?"

  "You know about that?" He asked sounding surprised.

  "Why? Did you think everyone knew except me? Seems like I was the last to know."

  "It's not that we're all laughing behind your back or anything. I was hoping the sheriff would see it was hopeless and you wouldn't have to know about it."

  "I know you're only trying to protect me. You don't have to, you know?"

  "I don't think many have signed it. You're more popular than the sheriff by far, Bryony. They're more likely to sign one to get rid of him,"

  "I hope you're right. I am in hurry to return to New York and I like it here now."

  "Good, 'cause I'm sure you'll be staying for a very long time."

  "I sure hope so."

  C h a p t e r7

  So I was left to go it alone. I would just have to think up some excuse of calling on his wife, which was proving very tricky for me, as I'd always had Eddy's police badge to get people talking before.

  This morning, I was in my office, sitting at my desk and staring out at the rain from the window in front of me, desperately trying to come up with a back up plan that should have already been in place in case something like this happened. But I was never one to be prepared and now I would have to make up for it.

  The answer came to me while I was lying in bed that night. I would pretend to me writing an article for sunshine news and ask her for an interview about her husband. Hopefully, she would be the type of woman who wanted her side of the story about her husband heard.

  I put my plan into operation the next morning, punching the address into my sat nav and heading out to Sunnydale bright and early, dressed like a reporter in a pale blue suit and midnight blue blouse, my hair neatly clipped up out of the way.

  The street I was looking for was in the quieter end of Sunnydale on a small estate. I parked up and knocked in her front door, using the brass knocker in the form of a zebra.

  The door swung open and a small, buxom woman, with shoulder length auburn hair, was standing before me.

  "Hi, I'm Bryony Womack. You may have heard of my newspaper, sunshine news?"

  "I haven't heard of you. Is this about my husband?" She asked in a Dutch accent to match her husband's.

  "I would like to interview you about your husband's death. People have being saying bad things about him in sunshine bluff and I thought you might want to set the record straight."

  "What bad things?" She asked and I was surprised by her question. She knew better than anyone about his misdemeanors. Could there have been something else he was hiding?

  "I was hoping you could tell me, Mrs Pickering."

  "Please call me Julia. You had better come through."

  "What would you like to know?" Julia asked once we were sitting side by side on her couch with a coffee warming our hands.

  "Did you know about your husband?" I asked, not wanting to spell out what I knew in hopes she would tell me all about him.

  "If you mean was my husband seeing other women, then yes. So I'm afraid I can't set the record straight, as you put it."

  She seemed to be resigned to the other women. Had her motive been something different?

  "You don't sound too angry about it?"

  "Well, I was used to it. I'd put up with it all the way through our marriage and these last few years we were separated. What would be the point in my being angry about it now? I ask you."

  "Julie, was your husband in hiding for some reason? Is that why he moved to a small town like sunshine bluff? Many people have wondered about it."

  "He was in some trouble years ago but I'm not going to go into the details about it, there's no point in dragging it up now." Her jaw tightened as she spoke and I could see she would never give anything away, even if we sat there all day.

  "Okay, do you know anything about this vendetta his brother had against him?"

  Julia laughed, "who told you that?"

  "I can't rightly say."

  "Oh, confidentiality and all that. No, I don't know anything about his relationship with his brother. He never talked about him."

  "Did you see Mr Pickering while he lived in sunshine bluff?"

  "No, I've never stepped foot there."

  "Do you know of anyone who may have wanted to harm your husband?"

  Her face darkened ever so slightly as I asked the question and she treated me suspiciously from then on.

  "Now you're sounding like the police. I thought he was killed in a robbery."

  "That doesn't answer my question though, does it?"

  "I don't like your tone. Are you a private investigator?"

  "No, I work for the sunshine news."

  "I won't answer any more of your questions. I want you to leave, right now!" Julie shouted, jumping to her feet.

  I felt it was best to leave it here. I didn't want to upset a suspect, though she sure was behaving guilty at this moment.

  If I had learned anything from going it alone, it was that I wasn't much good at being under cover. This was the beginning of my doubts about my abilities as an amateur sleuth.

  C h a p t e r8

  I now felt his brother was the best person to talk to about Gerald and his wife. Maybe he had the missing key to all this. The problem was that he lived about a three hours drive away from here. I would need to set out early to make my trip and get home again before it went dark.

  I knew it wouldn't be happening tomorrow morning, me promising Alley I would attend her and Luke's engagement party that night and the chances of me getting an early night would be slim. Nevertheless, I slipped into a shimmering blue dress and went to the party at Lulu and Alley Pine's house.

  It wasn't so bad and I enjoyed the evening better than I expected, even though I had to spend all the evening with Lulu and watching the loved up couples congratulating Alley and Luke and planning their own parties to be held very soon.

  Eddy was there with Jamie Anderson to whom he had lately got engaged and I had to watch yet another guy who had slipped through my fingers happily contemplating the future.

  "How's the case going? Did you get to speak to Julia Pickering?" Eddy asked me at one point during the evening, while Jamie was busy talking to Alley about her wedding plans.

  "Yes. She wasn't giving much away, however. I think she knows something alright," I replied, smiling and pretending to be happily single.

  "Me and Jamie are going away now for a while, visiting my family. I won't get to hear much more. Good luck with it and the petition. You can fill me in when I return."

  "Of course. If I'm still in sunshine bluff by then."

  "I'm sure you will be. I hope you will be. It won't be the same town without you, Bryony."

  "Then you had better have a word with your sheriff, hadn't you?" I teased.

  "I will for you."

  "It's alright, Eddy. I'll take whatever comes."

  "Is there any sign of an arrest yet, deputy Shiller?" Lulu asked.

  "Not yet. The sheriff is waiting for some new evidence to come to light so he can have Kit and his gang taken down but you know how slippery the guy can be."

  "Don't I just," she replied, screwing her hand up into a fist.

  Here we go, I thought.

  ∞∞∞

  A few mornings' after the party, I turned off my alarm that had been set extra early and headed to where Markus Pickering lived, stopping off for breakfast on the way.

  Arriving at his house at ten-thirty in the morning, I was suddenly struck with trepidation by its run down appearance and that of the street. He was housed in the ruff area of town.

  I was taken aback when the man who answered the door to me was an exact lookalike of his brother Gerald and for a moment I thought it was him. They must have been identical twins to look so alike.

  The more I observed him, however, I began to notice a few differences, like he didn't have a goaty beard
like his brother had but he was clean shaven. He also looked a lot fiercer around the edges and his muscly arms bulged out at the side of his white vest.

  I have to admit, his appearance didn't fill me with much confidence and I decided it would be best to conduct the business I had with him strictly on the doorstep, as opposed to going inside. I was sure it would be the place to hold a gun.

  "Is my brother with you?" He asked in a loud, slurred voice when I mentioned Gerald by name.

  "He isn't. I'm afraid your brother is dead, Mr Pickering. Had you not heard?" I asked in as gentle a voice as I could find for this ruffian before me.

  "Is he now?" He asked without sounding too put out.

  "He died in an armed robbery at the newsagents where he worked."

  "He worked at a newsagents?" He sneered.

  "He did. In sunshine bluff."

  "Never heard of the place. So, my little brother didn't make much of himself before the end. Pity."

  "You were twins?" I asked, wondering at his use of the term 'little' in relation to his brother.

  "So?"

  "Then why did you call him little?"

  "I came out first, but that's not the reason. I call him little because he couldn't keep quiet about things and he wasn't successful in business."

  I wondered at the emphasis on the last word and said, "you were in some kind of illegal business venture, weren't you? Is that what the argument was about?"

  "Why do you say argument?" He asked and I took his silence on my earlier question as confirmation.

  "Estrangement then?"

  "Yeah, it was." Unlike Gerald, he had all but lost his Dutch accent and only a trace of it remained.

  "Is that why you killed him and made it look like a robbery?" I asked, mustering up all the boldness I could find in me.

  "What are you talking about? I never killed no one."

  "Well, where were you on the nineteenth, when he was killed? Anywhere near sunshine bluff?"

  "Nowhere near! I told you I've never heard of the place!"

  "Do you keep a gun in the house?" I asked, feeling my voice shaking.

  "Yeah, but I've got a licence for it."

  I left his house as quickly as I could and sped away in my car in case he sent someone after me as he was obviously a gang member too like Kit Harrington. I wondered if the two were connected somehow. Perhaps it could all be linked to Kit after all?

  C h a p t e r9

  I had now well and truly drawn a blank. All my suspects seemed to be innocent and I had been so positive Gerald's death hadn't been the result of a robbery by Kit Worthington and his gang. Had I been wrong and the sheriff right? How could I ever live that down? It just had to be unconnected! It just had to be! I couldn't afford it not to be. Not with this petition going around.

  A chance encounter at Lulu's diner that lunch time, didn't give me much confidence in my abilities as a detective and I was beginning to doubt I had ever had any at all. Were the other murders I'd solved just happy coincidences and lucky guesses? I was beginning to wonder.

  "Is everything alright there, Bry?" Lulu asked, when she reached my table to take my order.

  "Sure. Can I get a chocolate and toffee dream surprise tray bake and a banana and almond milkshake, please Lulu?"

  "You can," she replied, jotting it down. She lingered, as though waiting for me to open up to her.

  "It's okay, Lu. I've just realised I'm not as good at this detective malarky as I thought. I'll get over it soon enough."

  "What's brought this on?" Lulu asked, sitting down opposite to me.

  "I've drawn a blank with this one and I'm pretty sure the sheriff's right about it being a robbery gone wrong. I am dreading seeing his face when he is proved right."

  Some commotion in the background drowned out Lulu's reply and we both stood up to see what was going on.

  Kit Worthington had just come into the diner and he had picked an argument with a man neither of us had recognised, who had been sitting by the window. Kit must have seen him from outside and come in here to confront him.

  Kit was shouting about something the stranger had not done that he was supposed to have done and I wondered if he was one of his gang members. Everyone in town knew who was responsible but it was proving it that had been the trouble. They didn't give much away but it was obvious to everyone in the diner that day what the argument was about.

  Lulu quickly got rid of them by clapping her hands and it seemed Kit realised he was drawing too much attention to himself, so he left without too much fuss.

  "You were saying?" She asked me.

  "I think that's just proved it to me completely. The sheriff is right. Kit is responsible for Gerald Pickering's death. I have just prolonged the investigation needlessly," I said, sounding depressed.

  "Rubbish. What about all those other cases you've solved? The sheriff didn't have a clue! That's obvious to anyone with a brain! Even if he is right about Gerald Pickering's death, it doesn't prove you were wrong."

  "I suppose not," I said unconvinced.

  "And don't worry about the names on the petiton. They won't go above the good most people would say about you in sunshine bluff."

  "What names? Have people signed it?"

  Lulu covered her mouth, "You didn't know?"

  I shook my head.

  "Only a few have signed it. Midge Dexter being one of them."

  I rolled my eyes, "I know why he has it in for me."

  "Don't you fret, Bry. You have some good friends who will always stand up for you. Don't you forget it," she said, rubbing my shoulder.

  "I won't," I said, forcing a smile.

  "I'll just go get your order."

  ∞∞∞

  I made my way home from the diner in a bit of a dilemma. Now I knew that the petition was genuine and not just some whim of the sheriff's, I had to do something. To make matters worse, there were a group of people on the corner of my street and they appeared to be whispering about me.

  I made a quick dive for my house and slammed the door behind me. I couldn't decide which was more terrifying, being talked about in the town or facing the sheriff.

  I sat myself down beside Sunny to determine the best course of action. After giving it some careful thought, I jumped up and threw my coat on again. I wasn't going to be beaten by sheriff Mali, or anyone else. I would face this as my gran would have done.

  It was time me and Al Mali had a talk!

  C h a p t e r10

  I walked into the Sheriff's office, my face feeling hot and flushed.

  "I would like to see the sheriff, please," I asked the officer behind the desk, my hands on my hips to let him know I meant business.

  "I'll see if he's in his office, wait here," he said seriously.

  He knocked on Mali's office door and went inside, coming out moments later with a look of determination on his face not to let me inside.

  He opened his mouth to speak but before anything came out, I rushed towards him and pushed him aside, barging into Mali's office, who stood up quickly from his chair, his hands up in the air defensively.

  "What do you want, Bryony?"

  "I'll tell you what I want! I've just about had it with you, sheriff! What have I ever done to you so that you turn everyone in this town against me!"

  Sheriff Mali was pacing up and down, his hands on his hips, coming to a stand still just as I reached his side and he turned to face me.

  "You've done that yourself," he said it quietly but his voice betrayed the contempt he felt for me.

  "How?" I burst out angrily.

  "Just by coming here. You are not wanted in Sunshine Bluff, Bryony!" He said my name sarcastically.

  "How can you say that?"

  "You're an outsider, that's why. You are not from around here and people want you to leave."

  "It's you who wants me to leave, you've had it in for me from the start! Well, let me tell you something, I have every right to be here, it was my grandmother's home!"

  "
I'll tell you again, you're not wanted here by more people than me. People round here don't like the way you go poking your nose in where it's not wanted! You made yourself an enemy when you saw fit to interfere with sheriff business!" He folded his arms across his chest to show his defiance.

  I was very angry now and hurt. The two did not go together and I started to hit his arms with my fists, "I hate you! You're so bitter and twisted and you think you own this town!" I cried.

  He started to laugh defiantly and I hit him all the more for it but he didn't feel a thing, he was far too strong.

  "I would stop that if I were you, you'll hurt yourself," he said seriously and there was that little softness there again. He was trying to prize my hands away, he succeeded after the second attempt and held my wrists still.

  I just looked him in the face, my hair falling loose from my ponytail, which must have made me look almost wild to him.

  "I meant what I said," I said, a little calmer now.

  Suddenly, he slid one hand along my arm until it reached my face, tangling in my loose hair and pulled me to him. I froze with the action and he tried to kiss me but I pulled away and stood with my back to the wall behind me.

  I felt confused because this time it had felt so right and impulsively, I moved towards him again and kissed him.

  We were startled by a knock on the door and Mali moved away quickly just as the door opened and the officer put his head around the door, "remember that job you wanted doing?" He asked, as Mali raised his eyebrows at him questioningly.

  He has a short memory, I thought of the officer.

  "What about it?" Mali asked.

  The officer looked at me as though he'd only just noticed I was there.

  "I was just leaving," I said, as he obviously did not feel he was aloud to discuss whatever the job was in front of me.

  I walked slowly out of the room, without looking back at Mali and I could feel his eyes trailing after me.

  Dazed and confused, I somehow managed to find my way to the diner but instead of my usual wave to Lulu, I kept my head down and immediately found myself an empty table in the far corner and sat down.