Privy to Murder

by Carol Shenold

  “Donna?”

  “Shhhh He’ll hear you, and then I’ll have to kill you both. Might anyway,” she said conversationally.

  “Where are you, Donna? Why did you lie to the police about me? I always treated you right.” Frank stumbled around some more before he slammed his way into the house. At least he hadn’t pitched his drunk self into the pool on the way in.

  Donna stood in a listening pose, as if waiting for prey to come to a decoy. When a shot rang through the night, it was as if I’d known it was coming. Sean buried his face in my jacket.

  “There, that should take care of that pest. He’s more trouble than he’s worth. Now for you two.”

  I heard Keith yell. “Donna. Get yourself over here. I need your help. I can’t do everything. Get your ass in here and stop fooling around.”

  “Guess I’d better go take care of that, too. I have to do everything. I think there is one too many bosses around here. I’ll be back for you all in a minute.”

  A wave of cold rammed into me when Donna whirled around. Evil radiated off of her. Keith didn’t kill those women, Donna did. She killed her own mother and Betty Ann. I couldn’t prove it, but I knew it like I knew my name, like I knew my own gifts.

  Donna swung out of the shed, but I didn’t hear her latch the door. As soon as I thought she was far enough away, I threw off the handcuffs.

  “Come on, babe. We have to get out of here, now.”

  Sean hung back. “But what if she comes back? What if she catches us?”

  “If we stay here, she’ll be back, so I think we’re better off finding somewhere to hide, where I can call someone.” The cell phone was thin, but not thin enough to be comfortable in my boot.

  We skirted round the back of the shed, past the pool toward the trees. I fished out the phone and dialed JT’s cell, home, and office, leaving messages everywhere.

  Donna was yelling in the background as we went further into the trees, trying to make very little noise. Then lights went on, all over the yard and in the trees. We became silhouettes against the lights.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  What’s with all this light? These are new.” The night birds went silent, as if confused by the lights.

  Sean’s voice shook. “Mom, we’d better move before they figure out where we went. I think they know we’re gone. They’ll see us.”

  “Okay, okay. Just let me think.” I looked around for a place to duck into.

  “Look, Mom, over by the pool.”

  Blue and white tent-like cabanas clustered around the square pool, vultures around a body. “Maybe that’s a choice, they couldn’t see us, worth a try.”

  We bolted for the pool, stopped at the edge of the patio. The pool lights came on when the yard lights did, all around the outside of the pool patio. Chlorine fumes wafted up from the water, making me dizzy. Did they never check the levels? I didn’t hear or see anyone. Maybe we’d be safe. We ducked into one of the middle tents but I didn’t exactly feel safe.

  The dark, musty tents provided cover, but flimsy at best. Had Frank or Donna gotten them? There had been no tents around the pool when I found Betty Ann. I guess it didn’t matter as long as we were hidden enough and they didn’t think to look here, although I had no good reason for hoping they wouldn’t. Donna might be a killer and Keith a felon, but they weren’t so stupid that they wouldn’t look everywhere. There was being hopeful and being foolish.

  Voices yelled and something crashed. Frank’s voice was one of them. Maybe he had fallen into something, again. I’d been afraid Donna killed him after she took off.

  Someone ran down the walk to the pool, stumbling more like it.

  Frank mumbled. “You’re crazy. You killed Mag and Betty Ann but you’re not going to get me, you ungrateful witch.” He paused like he was listening to someone then spoke more loudly. “She’s so much like you, Mag, you ought to be proud.”

  I wanted to peek out but didn’t know who else might be close, or what else for that matter. What a fix. If Sean hadn’t been curled up in a corner, I might push myself into the middle of whatever was going on, but I couldn’t put him at more risk. Where was JT? Why hadn’t he come or called or something.

  Sean coughed and began wheezing. Damn, the chlorine must be getting to him, and no inhaler.

  “Who the hell’s here? You’d better come out,” Frank yelled at the top of his lungs. “I can hear you.”

  “Frank, it’s Tali,” I whispered. “Shut up, they’ll hear you.”

  He yelled. “Who cares? They’re idiots.” Then in a lower voice, sounding like he was ready to blubber, “I loved her, you know, in spite of her temper and her drinking. I loved Donna too, because she was Mag’s daughter. How can a daughter kill her own Mom? That’s what I want to know.”

  “Are you sure? How do you know she did it? Maybe it was Keith.”

  “She told me. No. She bragged to me about it.”

  I paused. “You don’t think it could have been Keith?”

  “Nah. He’s just a patsy, like me. She’s the brains. He’s after the money but he’s not going to get his hands dirty. Where are you anyway? Why can’t I see you?”

  I peeked through the tent flap and saw Frank almost in front of me. Crap. He was going to draw Donna and Keith straight to us.

  “Frank. Move away from this tent. Sean is in here and I don’t want him to be found by those crazy nuts. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Tali. I’m not stupid, you know, just drunk and mad as hell.” He lurched toward the far end of the pool.

  Donna’s voice drifted down the hill. “Come on, Frank. I can see you. Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you.” Her tone of voice made me want to run in the opposite direction. It sounded about as trustworthy as a snake. “Really, Frank. I’m worried about you being around the pool, and you being so drunk. You could fall in, just like Betty Ann. I can hear your voice echoing. Talking to yourself isn’t a good sign.”

  She creeped me out and I wasn’t the target at that moment. But I would be. Murderous intent radiated off of her, cracked in the air, disturbed even the water surface. She moved closer.

  Faint sounds came from the other side of the pool, as if Keith had circled around. I couldn’t tell where Frank went to ground. For once he was quiet. I heard Sean breathing, but I was right next to him. Maybe she couldn’t. I also felt him shaking. He was so damned scared and I could kill all of them for putting him in this position.

  What the hell was I going to do now? Create a distraction? Push her into the pool? There was a thought. Would she be able to shoot me as she fell if I caught her off guard? Could I move fast enough getting out of the tent to even catch her by surprise? I wasn’t sure about that. Then there was Keith to contend with. Was he willing to save Donna? Sure he would, she was the money.

  Something scrabbled around the outside of the tent. Now what?

  “Come out of there. I can see you moving around.”

  I held my hand out to caution Sean to be quiet.

  “I mean it. I’ll just start shooting through all the tents if you don’t come out now.”

  I edged out of the flap and saw another movement out of the corner of my eye.

  Donna smiled, not a pleasant sight. “Cool, two birds. Dumb birds, but birds none-the-less. Where’s the kid? Tell him to come out too.”

  “I sent him for help.”

  “I’m not that dumb, Tali. You think you know everything but even I know better than that. You wouldn’t let him go off by himself. You baby him too much for that. But I’m not going to waste my time searching tents right now. Let him pee his pants waiting until we’re ready to find him.”

  “What do you want with us? We didn’t hurt you.”

  “I could care less about you except you’re a meddler. Keith is the one who wanted you all. I just think you’re a complication we don’t need. But what Keith wants, he gets.”

  I gasped when Keith spoke from behind me, almost in my ear.

  “You know what I want a
nd what you did to me. You helped take away years of my life. How do you think you can pay me back for that? Frank, I wouldn’t move any closer if I were you.”

  Frank roared at him. “You. It’s all your fault! You caused all of this. She was a good girl until you came along.”

  “Don’t fool yourself, man. This little girl had her plans all made before I was a blip on the horizon. I was simply the icing on her little poisonous cake. She was the baker.”

  I turned to Donna. “Do you really think he will back you up? He’ll turn you in the second he thinks it’s to his advantage. He’s only an accessory to murder. The cops won’t be nearly as hard on him.”

  Keith laughed. “With my record? Right. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to share the money without her. I wouldn’t turn my little meal ticket in.”

  Donna laughed at the shock on my face. “Did you think I was some innocent kid led astray by the big, bad jail bird, blinded by his good looks, hypnotized into thinking he loved me?”

  “Well, innocent, no.” I remembered her outburst in the shed and wasn’t certain how impervious she was to his charms.

  “We both know what we want,” Keith said. “So, are we talking this to death or shall we get on with it? You take care of Frank, I’ll deal with this piece.”

  Just then, my boot rang. Donna jumped and dropped her gun, which went off, sending a shot pinging off the side of the pool, ruining a tile and pulling a string of curses out of Keith. A blur shot out of the tent behind me and rammed into Donna. Sean shoved her again as he cut to the left and she flew over the edge, into the pool.

  “You are one dead kid,” she screamed on her way down.

  “Run, Sean,” I hollered.

  Keith snatched hold of my hair and hauled me toward the house. I stumbled along, pulling at his fingers to keep him from ripping out chunks of my hair by the roots.

  “We are going to have a little fun,” he panted. “At least it will be fun for me.”

  “Don’t you think Donna might object to this scenario a little,” I gasped, finding it almost impossible to talk with my head at such a sharp angle.

  “She’ll be fine. She’ll be busy hoisting herself out of the pool and chasing after your kid.”

  I pounded at his arm even harder, trying to loosen his grip on my hair. I couldn’t let him get away with this, or let Donna find Sean. Didn’t know how I was going to stop it, but I had to. My long skirt tripped me up, and I sprawled down onto my butt. I thought I’d pass out between the pain that tore into my hip and the fear that the skin would tear off my skull.

  Lights flashed across us. What the hell. Pain ripped across my head as Keith jerked even harder. An engine roared down the driveway and kept coming straight toward us. Keith dropped me like a hot potato and dove to the left, I plunged into the bushes at the edge of the porch, rolling to the right.

  The driver swerved left to keep going straight at Keith who was screaming and cursing at the car. I didn’t wait to see who was driving but scrambled out of the bushes and took off toward the pool, determined to find Sean before Donna.

  It felt like forever but in reality Keith had only been dragging me toward the house for a few seconds. I ran by the pool and heard a garbled screech.

  Donna stood near the edge of the pool pointing her pistol at me and started forward. As she did, her heavy, wet pants fell, tripping her.

  I kept running, praying that the stories about wet guns were true and she wouldn’t shoot me in the back. When two bullets whizzed by I knew the stories weren’t true. Thank God for poor aim. I ran toward the direction I’d seen Sean go into the trees, grateful that the skirt had torn up the back slit sometime in the struggle and it was easier to run.

  “Sean, where are you. It’s Mom. Everything’s all right. Come on out. I think the cavalry is here?”

  Sean’s voice came from off to the right of me. “Mom? I thought you were Donna crashing through the trees.”

  I laughed, relief flooding through me. “Thanks a lot. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I smelled a skunk though, but I was afraid to move in case it heard me.”

  “Come on, kid, let’s get out of here. Enough is enough.”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I heard Donna’s voice behind me. “Not so fast, you two. You know way too much for my taste. Turn around and go back to the house. I don’t know how you got away, but I bet Keith is waiting for you.” Water squelched in her shoes as she walked. She motioned with her gun. “I still have bullets, the gun works, and I won’t miss this time.”

  We walked single file, Sean, me, Donna. Now what? I felt cold at the thought of what that woman was capable of doing.

  We passed the pool, inhaling clouds of chlorine. Sean wheezed harder and harder. I didn’t have his inhaler and neither did he. He slowed down, trying to breathe.

  “Suck it up, kid and keep going or I’ll shoot your Mom so you can watch.”

  “Are you nuts?” I yelled, fury spilling out. “You’ll make it worse. Give him time.”

  “Move it and spare me the mommy histrionics.”

  We grew close enough to the house to see Keith pinned between the car and house.

  “What the fuck is going on here? What did you do to him?” Donna screamed at me. “Go get him loose.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  Mumsie climbed out of the vehicle. “I did. You get him loose yourself.” She held up the keys, then threw them as hard as she could toward the pool. They hit the tile patio and began to slide across, right to the edge.

  “You’ll pay for that,” Donna promised and fired the pistol at Mumsie.

  Sean screamed.

  My mother grabbed for her shoulder and fell against the trunk of the car, rocking it slightly. Keith yelled. With Donna distracted I threw myself at her knees, hoping she’d drop the gun when I tackled her. We both went down hard.

  Donna scrambled up faster than I did, grabbed for the gun and fired at me. The gun clicked on an empty chamber.

  JT ran up from God knows where, gun drawn. “Put that gun down, Donna. I won’t hesitate to shoot and I have plenty of ammo.

  Donna threw the gun at him and ran for the keys on the patio, thinking, perhaps, to make a break for freedom with the car. She tried to reach the edge of the pool. Mag appeared, two inches from Donna’s nose. Donna screamed, obviously able to see her mother. Horror turned to fear as she flailed her arms and fell, once again, into the water.

  Mag looked at the rest of us, smiled, made a rude gesture, and disappeared.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Two weeks later, relative calm reigned. Did I say calm? Never mind. But the weather had turned cool for early September, high eighties, low nineties. Fall would be here soon, complete with leaves to rake, homecoming bonfire, pecans to gather. I was so ready. Chaos showed up the night we came back, as if she knew everything was okay so she could come out of hiding.

  Sean was back to himself after a couple of weeks of breathing treatments on a routine basis, and a round of cortisone. The chlorine had almost done him in. If he ever wanted to go out for the swim team it could be a real issue.

  We had decided to have our own party for a change, to celebrate the end of summer. Cherilyn and Reneé were both expected. JT was due at four to start the fire and grill the steaks. I’d set up nets for badminton. Cass had invited Cathy, a new friend from work, and neither of them wore black nails or black lipstick.

  I opted for jeans and a tank top the color of the sky. My hair was held back with a large clip and felt great off my neck. I washed avocado off my hand and stirred the salsa to mingle flavors. Citron candles and spray kept away flies and mosquitoes. The steaks marinated in the fridge, lathered with mustard, which didn’t leave a mustard flavor but just a really nice spiciness. Potatoes waited in the oven, covered with coarse salt and olive oil, ready to be baked. Salad was cold and crisp. Garlic bread would be popped on the grill at the last minute. A pitcher of citrus margaritas chilled, along with a galvanized ova
l bucket full of sodas and crushed ice for Sean and his friends.

  With corn chips in a large bowl, I took the nibbling goodies out to the deck and arranged them under netted covers. Then I handed Mumsie a tall gin and tonic and joined her for a moment of quiet.

  For a woman pushing seventy, she’d handled getting shot in the shoulder as if it happened on a routine basis. She had agreed to stay put in a lounge chair with her feet up.

  “It’s not as if I were in any great danger from her. She couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, that girl.” Her expression grew grim. “I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on how dangerous she was when I did her reading.” She looked up at me. “Could I be losing my touch?”

  I put my arm around her. “She fooled a lot of people, you know. Not to worry, you’ll never lose your touch. Besides, you showed up and trapped the SOB. I don’t think you have to worry about losing your gifts. You found us.”

  She grinned, looking quite proud. “Well, there is that. I saved the day.”

  Frank had recovered from being shot, but I expected it would take him much longer to wrap his mind around what Donna had done and would have been willing to do, all for her mother’s money. As for Donna and Keith, they faced kidnapping, attempted murder, assault and murder charges. I didn’t think either of them would be seeing the light of day in our lifetime, especially Donna, since it was double homicide. Keith was only an accessory, but as a convicted felon on parole, it didn’t look good for him at all.

  Brian had dropped the custody case after I reamed him out that day. Not that he couldn’t pick it right up again, but I’d worry about that later.

  I had scrapes and bruises everywhere, an extremely tender head from the attempted scalping, and my dress was toast. I took a deep breath of air, a long drink of my gin and tonic, and jumped up to answer the ringing doorbell.

  JT stood in the doorway, a huge bouquet of flowers in his arms and a bottle of sparkling wine. “Hey, Sheriff, how’s it going.”