Death Comes to Suburbia (Book 2 Molly Masters Mysteries)
Page 24
“Sorry,” I murmured. “I hate to tailgate.”
“Yeah? Well, I hate slowpokes, and I got the gun.”
I cleared my throat as we caught up to the Buick ahead of us. Time to try the standby ego-massage. Maybe he’d get to like me enough so he wouldn’t want to kill me. That was highly unlikely, but there was little to lose at this point. “I have to admit, it was a smart idea to set up his drinking buddies with threats from an anti-porn group.”
He grinned. “Yeah. I liked that, too. ‘Specially how well it worked out, with you screaming at him ‘bout entering your cartoon. See, I’d been keeping an eye on him. When he went to your house, I made my move and delivered your box. Then I called him on his cell. Told him I needed the money now and I’d meet him at his home. He tried to tell me he didn’t care if I tell the world he’s my father, he just wanted me to have some money ‘cause he was starting a new life for himself and wanted to set the past straight. Like I was stupid enough to believe that bullshit.”
Why couldn’t there be a single patrol car or fire truck out on the road? Then I could honk and swerve all over the road and get help.
“Did you mean to kill me that time you shot at me and Tiffany?”
“That was just a warning. I’d tried to keep outta sight for a while till this all blew over, just drove by the house a few times to see what was happening. Then I spot you and the pig’s daughter getting onto the school bus. I gotta tell you, Mike, you’re like, nuttier than my mom.”
“So what are you going to do now, Dayton? The police know all about this. The sergeant I’ve been working with will be looking for me by now, wondering why I haven’t returned from your mom’s house.”
“And I suppose next you’re going to tell me that if I let you go, you won’t go to the police and I’ll go scot free.”
“No, but if you let me go at least your mother won’t get tied to this. If you kill me, they’ll think she was in on it. You’ll both go to jail for the rest of your lives.”
“She didn’t have anything to do with it! She still doesn’t even know where I got the money, or that I killed him!”
“I’m sure that’s the truth but, Dayton, I already told the police that if anything happened to me, she did it and forced her son to help. Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to go out to a killer’s house without even telling the police where I was going?”
If only the correct answer to that particular question had been no.
He flopped back into his seat, but one glance into the mirror assured me he was still aiming the gun straight at my head. “Here’s another scenario. I blow your head off and dump your body. It looks like an act of random violence. While the police are still trying to ID your headless body, me and my mom are safe in Tahiti.”
Dear God. My stomach felt as if I’d been sucker-punched. “Please stop pointing that gun at me. If we hit a bump and you accidentally shoot me while I’m driving, we’ll crash.”
“This gun can only go off from the cocked position. No worries.”
No worries!? Seriously!?
He gestured with his free hand. “We’re gonna turn left up ahead. We can’t have you drive through Carlton and risk someone recognizing your car.”
The road up ahead that Dayton indicated seemed to head out into the boonies. I’d never been on it before. I made the split-second decision that I couldn’t afford to wait any longer. He fully intended to kill me. I had to try something, anything, to escape.
“Slow down,” Dayton yelled, “that’s our turn.”
“Whoa, sorry,” I said as we sped past it. “My mind was wandering. I’ll turn around up ahead.”
My heart was pounding. My only hope was to crash the car deliberately. He wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. He was in the backseat, though, which improved his chances of survival. I slowed down as if I intended to turn, but all the while scanned for trees to hit. Maybe I could swing the car around so the back would get the most damage.
A police cruiser was up ahead in the opposite lane! I had to act fast before Dayton spotted it, too. There was a nice-sized tree alongside the opposite lane.
I took a deep breath, slammed on the brakes, and jerked the wheel to the right.
Chapter 20
I’m Going to DisneyWorld!
I hoped to orchestrate how my car would hit the tree, but as soon as I swung the car off the road, we went into a screeching skid and I lost control. Dayton screamed, “Oh, shit!”
I covered my eyes and kept my weight on the brake as if that would save my life. It felt as if the car went sideways at a hundred miles an hour into the tree on the driver’s side. The windows shattered. My body felt as if it was going to be jettisoned, but then my airbag inflated. It felt like I’d been punched in the face. My left wrist, too, had struck something. The pain shot through my entire body.
My head felt as though it had been used as a punching bag, but I stayed conscious. My one thought that I’d kept throughout the crash, was, “Get out of the car!” Even though I was dazed and barely capable of rational decision, that thought governed my actions.
My door was smashed. Without so much as a glance into the backseat, I released my seatbelt, frog-kicked my way to the passenger side, unlocked that door, and dove out. I tumbled onto hard-packed earth and tried to scramble to my feet. Pain shot up my left side. I now knew for certain that my arm was broken. I managed to stagger toward the police car, which had just completed a U-turn and was just coming to a stop beyond my car and its tree.
A male officer was starting to get out of the passenger door. I yelled, “He’s got a gun.” I ran toward the officer, supporting my left arm at the elbow. My arm throbbed. Pain stabbed at me with each step. The time it took me to get past the officer, protecting my backside, seemed to last forever.
The second officer, who’d been driving, got out. His gun was drawn. For a moment I thought I was hallucinating, but blinked and realized it really was Tommy Newton. “Get down!” he hollered at me.
In what may have been partially a faint, I dropped flat onto the ground next to the police car. Behind me, I heard Dayton cry, “Don’t shoot! She’s crazy! That woman tried to kidnap me!”
Tommy hollered, “Lie on the ground! Put your hands above your head!”
“I’m unarmed,” Dayton cried. “That’s her gun in the car, not mine! That bitch tried to shoot me!”
“Listen, punk,” Tommy growled at him. “I happen to know this lady, so show some respect.”
I couldn’t hold the tears back any longer. I rolled onto my right side and raised myself up a little to look back through blurred vision as Tommy’s partner slapped handcuffs onto Dayton, who was lying face down on the ground. With his partner keeping a gun drawn on the prone, handcuffed Dayton, Tommy returned and helped me up, asking if I was all right.
I swiped away my tears with my right sleeve and said, “I think my arm’s broken.”
He opened the back door of his cruiser and helped me in. I sat down on the edge of the seat, rocking myself in pain as I cradled my arm. Tommy was watching me, his eyes full of concern.
“What were you doing way out here?” I asked him.
“Your husband called the Carlton Club when you didn’t answer at home. When you weren’t there, he tried Lauren’s, and learned you were looking for some waitress. So he called me. Just took me a while to follow your tracks to Lindsay Mintoff.”
“That’s her son, Dayton, the messenger.” I gestured with my chin. “He did it.”
A second police car pulled to a noisy stop behind us. The officers joined Tommy’s partner and soon helped Dayton to his feet and marched him past Tommy’s cruiser toward theirs.
Dayton caught my eye and snarled at me, “You and your damned country-club friends will be making foursomes in hell!”
The kids had signed my cast before we even left the hospital. Nathan had used his careful, though crooked, lettering. Karen had written I love you, Mommy with a red pen and had drawn hearts around it.
&n
bsp; Jim and I hadn’t had a moment alone, though he had given me a big kiss and a long hug when we first saw each other in the emergency room. I’m sure he felt just as unsure as I did about how much information we should let the kids hear. All I had told them personally was that the man who’d shot Preston had tried to kidnap me, so I crashed the car and broke my arm, but that the important thing was he was in jail now and we were safe. I didn’t know if that was too much information or not enough. Nor was this the stuff of any child-care handbook I knew of that I could consult.
Jim helped me into the Toyota. I hadn’t asked where his wrecked Jeep was and he hadn’t volunteered the information. As we waited at a stoplight partway home, I said, “So. On a scale of one to ten, how mad at me are you?”
He shrugged. “At this point, I’m just grateful you’re all right.”
My sense of relief was overwhelming. Finally I realized that this was truly over, and I hadn’t destroyed my marriage after all. But having just survived one car accident, I was particularly careful not to distract the driver. I merely patted his thigh as best I could, while reaching across my body with my good arm. “Guess we don’t need those tickets to Florida anymore.”
Jim grinned. “This morning I changed the reservations. The four of us are flying to Orlando Saturday morning.”
“Orlando?” Karen cried from the backseat. “Nathan, that’s where Disney World is!”
The children cheered wildly and exchanged joyful hugs, only their seat belts preventing them from bouncing off the ceiling with excitement I put a hand to my chest in mock anger and said to Jim, “And you didn’t consult me first? The nerve!”
Jim spoke into his fist as if he were holding a microphone and said, “Molly Masters. You’ve just purposely totaled my car and scared your family half to death. What are you going to do now?”
He held the fake microphone to my lips.
My heart felt ready to burst with my love and gratitude. I kissed his hand, then played along and said, “I’m going to Disney World!”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leslie O’Kane also writes under the pseudonym of Leslie Caine. She considers the incident in which she was taken hostage to be the start of her “life in crime.” When the robber clobbered her with a shotgun to make her stop laughing, she learned that a sense of humor can be dangerous. Leslie lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Dear Readers,
I hope you have enjoyed my book. If so, I hope you will want to read my other books in the Molly Masters series. Especially for dog lovers, you might also enjoy my Allie Babcock series. I am currently in the process of writing a radically different style of book—a trilogy of thrillers for young adults, which I anticipate having available as eBooks in July of 2013.
If, however, my writing style doesn’t appeal to you, I hope you are at least having a nice day. Thank you for reaching the end of my book even so.
As I am writing this, my website is being redone by my wonderful Web Designer, Maddee James. Please visit my site at LeslieOKane.com.
Thank you so very much for reading my book and supporting my career. You have my deepest appreciation, and my warmest wishes always.
Yours sincerely,
Leslie O’Kane
eBooks By Leslie O’Kane
DEATH COMES eCALLING
DEATH COMES TO SUBURBIA
DEATH COMES TO THE PTA
DEATH OF A GARDENER
DEATH COMES TO A RETREAT
DEATH ON A SCHOOL BOARD
DEATH AT A TALENT SHOW
PLAY DEAD
RUFF WAY TO GO
GIVE THE DOG A BONE
WOOF AT THE DOOR
THE SOUL SHIFTERS BEGINS: Jake Greyland, A Short Story
THE SOUL SHIFTERS: A Novel
Coming Soon:
ECHOES OF SOULS
SHADOWS OF SOULS
Writing as Leslie Caine:
DEATH BY INFERIOR DESIGN
FALSE PREMISES
MANOR OF DEATH
KILLED BY CLUTTER
FATAL FENG SHUI
POISONED BY GILT
HOLLY AND HOMICIDE
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Unnamed