Only too well. I’d woken many nights to him wearing a path in the carpet from one side of the bed to the other.
“I was doing that. She had me so worked up. I went from the kitchen to the living area to the bedroom. She followed me, still going on about how we could fix this. Then all of a sudden, she stopped talking. I turned, and she had this look of clarity about her. ‘We’re not going to fix this. I’m leaving. And if you think I won’t throw you under the bus for this, guess again.’”
Oh no. “Did she actually use that phrase?”
“She did. Those were her exact words.”
Millie knew him well then. Jonah hated catchphrases and throwing someone under a bus was at the top of his most hated list. Right above being ‘on the same page’ and ‘reaching out’ to people. His brother had started it. He was constantly accusing people of throwing him under the bus. If any teensy-tiny thing went wrong, he’d toss it out there. “Why am I always the one getting thrown under the bus?” And every time, it would earn him sympathy. Usually from their mother.
“She said it on purpose,” Jonah accused now. “I was already more stressed-out than I’d ever been, and she knew that would set me off. I was standing next to my bedside table, and I swear to you, Jay, I wasn’t even thinking. It’s like I was operating in a total fog. One second I was staring at her, wondering how I ever thought she was the right person for me, and the next, I’ve got the gun in my hand and Millie is bleeding all over my comforter.”
“Your gun was in the nightstand?”
“Right where you used to keep yours.” His expression tightened, and I couldn’t tell if he was smiling or about to cry. “We don’t have kids, so I kept it loaded and didn’t bother with a case.” He stared down at his hands as though expecting to see the weapon there. “I shot her. I didn’t mean to. Or at least I didn’t plan to. It was one of those heat-of-the-moment things. You have to help me, Jay.”
I laughed, then remembered I was recording this. “What do you think I can do? I can’t erase what you did.”
He grew quiet. Too quiet. I needed to tell him the truth about Millie or I’d never get the rest out of him. “What happened next? After you realized you shot her? Did you check on her? Did you call 911?”
“No. I told you, I panicked. All I could think was that I needed to get out of there. I blindly grabbed some clothes, shoved them in a duffle bag, and left.”
“Then you don’t know what Millie’s condition is for sure.”
His entire body snapped to attention. “You do?”
I let the tension drag out for longer than was necessary. “After I got back from investigating the car in the ditch yesterday, we had dinner. Remember?” He nodded. “I needed a little space so ate by myself. After that, I went upstairs to get my slippers, and your lady friend followed me up to my apartment. We talked for a short time, and I found her behavior suspicious, so I called my former captain to ask if anything on a Camille Gordon had come across his desk.”
Jonah barely breathed while he waited for me to deliver the coup de grâce.
“I thought maybe you’d kidnapped her and was expecting him to come back with a missing person’s report. Imagine my surprise when he told me Camille Gordon was in the hospital recovering from a non-fatal gunshot wound.”
Jonah slumped with relief. “Oh, thank God.”
“Don’t get too comfy. You still shot her.”
“I did. And I’ll take responsibility for that. But she isn’t dead.”
“There’s one thing I don’t understand. Why bring a pretend Millie here? If you wanted my help to cover up the shooting, why not just race up here and tell me what you did?”
He sat back and seemed to struggle with this question. “I don’t know. I told you before, I was panicking and trying to figure out what to do—”
“While sitting at the club watching Brandi dance?”
He wouldn’t look at me. “Yes. You came to mind, so I decided to come up here and see if you would help me. Then I noticed that Brandi looks kind of like Millie. She was wearing a dark wig at the time. I figured you knew Millie and I had been dating and . . .”
“And you thought I might get suspicious if my ex showed up at my B&B alone. You figured you’d spend a little time reminiscing with me and then once you had things smoothed over, you’d tell me the real reason you came up here.”
“That’s pretty much exactly what I was thinking.” He rubbed his cuffed hands over his face. “I get it. It was stupid. It all made sense at the time.”
“You didn’t think through the ‘wrong turn’ excuse, did you?”
“No. I hadn’t expected your boyfriend to question my route.”
Score one for Tripp! He toppled Jonah’s entire house of cards with one question.
“For the record,” I stared at him until I had his attention, “I don’t keep up with your love life. Okay, next topic. Why did you go into Leslie Lamar’s room with your gun?”
The color drained from his face. “I heard the call come over your walkie talkie last night. The one about the car in the ditch.” He let out a moan as his head dropped back. “I knew it had to be the one I hit.”
“And?”
“I figured I was already in so much trouble, I didn’t want her to tell you it was me who hit her.”
“And you thought shooting her was the way to keep yourself out of further trouble?”
“No. I swear, I only wanted to intimidate her.” He scooted his chair a little closer to me. “It was like at home in my bedroom, though. One minute, I’m standing there thinking about things, and the next, I’ve got the gun in my hand.”
Really? He was claiming “I just snapped” as his defense?
“Jonah, I believe that what happened with Millie was done in the heat of the moment. She kept pushing and pushing until you reacted. I don’t believe that was the case with Leslie.”
“But—”
“I saw you hovering around that room. You were listening at the door and tried to look in when Lily Grace opened it. I saw you walking away from the room when I went up to get my slippers. You’d been planning to get rid of her since you figured out who she was. You kept hanging around, waiting for the right moment when you could get in there.”
That moment being the one when I walked away rather than waiting for Jola to finish her shower.
“No. I swear. I’m not a killer. I didn’t plan to shoot Millie, and I didn’t shoot Leslie. I only wanted to scare her. All I wanted was for her to say she didn’t see the car that hit her.”
“Quick bit of info about Leslie.” Time to wrap this up. I’d heard all I needed for my report. “Her girlfriend used to beat her.”
Jonah blinked but didn’t react otherwise.
“She told me that she’d been both physically and emotionally abused for years. In fact, they’d been fighting in the car that night.”
Jonah seemed to shrink before me as my words sunk in. “In the car?”
“The one in the ditch. Yes.”
“Where is the girlfriend now?”
I stood. “Come with me.”
Jonah shoved his feet into his shoes. Dad helped me get him into his jacket, cuffed hands zipped inside it. Then Dad kept him steady while we walked out to the garage.
“Trust me, Dad,” I told him when I opened the door, “you don’t want to see this. Why don’t you stand off to the side?”
Fortunately he agreed and stayed next to my Cherokee while I walked Jonah around to the far side of the Civic and lifted the tarp. I looked around Esther’s body, but by the animal sound Jonah made, he’d looked right at her.
“This is Esther. When you hit this car, it spun and flew into the ditch, coming to a stop by a pine tree with branches weighed down with ice and snow.” I gave him another few seconds to take in what he’d done. “If you would’ve stopped to check on them, the charges wouldn’t be so severe. However, along with vehicular manslaughter, you’ll also likely be charged with a hit-and-run. Since you brought t
hat gun into Leslie’s room and fired it at her, I imagine attempted murder will be thrown in as well.”
He turned away from the car. “I’m going to puke.”
I shoved him out the open garage door. I did not want to have to clean that up.
“Here’s the kicker with the Leslie situation,” I added. “She told me that if I figured out who the driver of the BMW was, to let her know. She wanted to thank that person for saving her life.”
He moaned. “She what?”
“Leslie was convinced her girlfriend would kill her someday. In her mind, you’d saved her life. It’s entirely possible she would have denied knowing it was you.”
And then he did puke.
Chapter 29
Deputy Atkins stared at me in a way that left me unsure what he thought of my actions. “And that’s when you called me.”
“That’s when.” I sat back, exhausted from having to rehash all of that. It wouldn’t be the last time. I’d most likely get called in to give testimony at the trial. Unless Jonah saved everyone a lot of time and heartache and pled guilty to everything.
Tripp reached over and took my hand. “You okay, babe?”
“I will be. All I want to do is sleep for a couple days.”
“I hear you.”
“Tripp,” Atkins began, “I need to get your statement too. Let’s take a short break and meet back here in fifteen minutes. Jayne, if you’d like to sit with him, you may. Same rules, though. No talking, just support.”
Tripp had already been through enough in the last two days. No way would I make him give his statement alone.
We left the office to find Morgan and Briar sweeping the main level. As in, the witchy version of sweeping.
“What are they doing?” Tripp asked.
“This is what they did to the garage loft before I set it up as my space. After I contacted Gran and got her blessing to use the room, they cleansed it. First they stir up the bad juju, and then they sweep it out a window or door.”
“Briar insisted your house needed cleansing,” River explained from behind us.
“Cleansing,” Tripp repeated. “Not cleaning?”
“The ladies Barlow have multiple versions of cleaning,” River informed. “This one involves ridding a structure of negative energy. There is a great deal of that in this house right now. You must sense it.”
Tripp agreed. “I don’t know what it is, but something does feel off.”
We watched the witches work as though in a trance, seemingly unaware that we were standing there. Every swish of their brooms was made in unison. Their mouths muttered inaudible chants. The house already felt better.
As they glided closer to the stairs, Tripp asked, “Are they done?”
“With the main level, yes,” River confirmed. “We’ll be here a while longer. They intend to liberate your entire premises of negativity. They believe that, like heat, negativity rises. Therefore, they’re directing all of that energy upward. They’ll repeat the process on the second level until all of it has gathered in the highest location.”
“In our apartment?” Tripp objected.
River smiled. “Never fear, Master Tripp. There they will send the energy out a window and conclude with a smudging.”
Tripp crossed his arms. “Sounds like one nasty dust ball.”
He went off to the kitchen, and I wanted to check that Brandi knew the plans for tomorrow morning. Rosalyn was going to give her a ride back to Madison. Oh, to be a fly on the ceiling during that trip. Before I could do so, River stepped in front of me.
He placed his hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes. “I feel it is important for you to believe that you did everything within your power over the last two days. You accepted assistance when offered and requested it when required. That is commendable. Jonah’s path was determined before he arrived here, and there is nothing you could have done to alter it. With the exception of the unfortunate woman in the car, everyone else is alive and will be fine.”
He was right. There’s nothing I could have done to prevent Esther’s death. Leslie would heal physically, and Jola would make sure she got help for her emotional scars. Brandi might face some minor charges, but her decision to go with Jonah might actually result in a better, safer lifestyle for her. Sometimes the Universe chose unusual paths to take us where we’re meant to be. As for Jonah, I couldn’t begin to understand how his life had gone so far off course.
Whether it was River’s hypnotic gaze or that my emotions had settled enough to allow logic back in, I felt better.
“Thank you, River. I’ll be fine. What I really need is a break from all this. I may turn off the walkie talkies and let the village fend for itself for a couple of weeks.”
He gave me a nod and a look I couldn’t quite understand, and then I went in search of Brandi. She was packed and ready to go home.
“Thanks for the chat before, Sheriff. And, you know, for encouraging me to find a new job.”
Had I done that? “I think you came to that conclusion on your own. I’m happy if I helped you get there, though.”
“You know how it is. Sometimes all you need is for someone to say what’s already on your mind. I mean, if I feel like I need to disguise myself and can’t look at people in the grocery store, that’s kind of a sign that something needs to change.”
She promised to stay in touch and then reported she was going to lock herself in her room all night and watch sappy movies on the Hallmark channel. She and Rosalyn would get along just fine.
Back in the office, Tripp’s statement to Deputy Atkins only took an hour, whereas mine went on for almost four hours.
“You two have been through enough,” Atkins declared after turning off his recorder. “You know the drill. I may have follow-up questions, but for now, we’re done. You can have your office back. I’ll question the others in the dining room.”
After Atkins left, Tripp closed the office door, sat on the edge of the desk, and pulled me into his arms. We stayed like that, holding each other, neither of us saying a thing, for many minutes. Finally, he released me.
“I’m going up to bed,” he said through a yawn.
He had gone above and beyond the call of boyfriend duty. Once he’d gotten some sleep, we’d have a good long talk about everything that had happened.
“We should make sure Morgan and Briar are done up there before you crawl into bed.”
Tripp preferred to sleep in the buff.
We found Rosalyn and Dad sitting by the fireplace chatting about her plans after graduation. Tripp said goodnight and goodbye then vanished up the stairs. Meeka stood on the couch and watched him, seemingly unsure if she should follow him or stay with Auntie Roz. Tripp’s need for comfort outweighed her desire for a belly rub, and she followed him to the apartment.
Dad pulled me aside. “That car is out of your garage now, right?” He meant the Civic.
“They took it a couple hours ago.”
“Then grab your jacket and come with me.”
He led me outside and toward the garage. Halfway there, Farkas let out a mournful howl far in the distance.
I cocked my head toward the sound. “Sounds like he’s heading home to his pack.”
Dad closed his eyes, also listening for a second howl, and smiled. “Do you remember hearing a wolf when you were little?”
“I do. I asked Gran if there was a werewolf in Whispering Pines.” I laughed, remembering the amused look on her face. “She said it was a gray wolf, not a werewolf. I heard him another time. Before this weekend, I mean. It was back in July after I found Gran’s journals. It was farther away than this one was. It might have been Farkas. Could the sound travel all the way down here from the circus?”
Dad cleared his throat and, in his professor voice, informed, “A wolf’s howl can be heard through six miles of forest and ten of open tundra. It’s quite possible you heard one from the circus pack. Or Farkas might be an escape artist and comes to visit you more often than you think.”
I clapped my hands excitedly. “Maybe Briar’s right. He might be my spirit animal.”
We completed the walk to the garage where he flicked on the lights for the loft and let me go up first. It hadn’t even been forty-eight hours since I’d been up there, but it felt like weeks.
“I like what you’ve done up here.” Dad took in the rug and the chaise lounge, table, and floor lamp trio. “Everyone should have their own space. I think your grandmother would approve.”
“Is that why we’re here? You wanted to see my decorating skills?”
“I’ve seen what you’ve done to the house. I already know your skill level. No, I brought you up here so we could do a ceremony together.”
A coven gathering during Yule and now a ceremony? He seemed to be jumping back into Wicca.
“The moon isn’t technically full until tomorrow, but I think we’re close enough. We don’t have to if you’re not interested.”
His voice sounded strained, and he wasn’t looking at me as he spoke.
“Dad? What’s wrong?”
He propped his hands on his hips and exhaled. “I was scared to death for you last night. Hearing you use that voice.” He exhaled again. “You were clearly in control, but it’s strange to hear and see someone acting so differently.”
“My cop self is trained to be tough when necessary. I haven’t had to pull out that persona in a long time. Thankfully, this situation was far from normal for Whispering Pines.”
He arched an eyebrow at me, and we laughed over the use of “normal” and “Whispering Pines” in the same sentence.
“We don’t have to do a ceremony,” he repeated, more at ease now. “I was thinking of asking the Goddess to protect you, but we could meditate on that together instead. I thought, after all you went through, you might need something to help you relax.”
“A good long sleep will help the most, but I understand what you’re saying. I have no idea how to do a ceremony. How about I watch?”
“How about you assist me?”
He started by gathering items from the armoire. First a white altar cloth that he positioned precisely at the center of the table. Then he took out three white pillar candles and silver discs to set them on.
Whispering Pines Mysteries Box Set 3 Page 72