by Casey Mayes
Zach said, “I can’t believe I was wrong about Grady.”
“Steve had us all fooled until the last second,” I said, reliving the fear and pain of my experience. “Is he going to be okay?”
Zach smiled, but I could see tears tracking down his cheeks as he did. “He’s going to be limping for a while. You probably just should have let him jump.”
“I know it would have saved the taxpayers the cost of a trial, but I couldn’t let him get off that easily. Could you?”
“Ordinarily I’d say no, but in this case, I might have been willing to make an exception.” Zach turned and patted Barton on the shoulder.
“I hear you saved her life.”
“Not by any stretch of the imagination could you say that,” Barton said. “I was coming up to my garden for lunch when I saw blood on the doorknob. I hit my panic button, and my security chief came up and intervened.”
“Don’t let him get away with that,” I told Zach. “Barton had every chance to turn around and run, but he walked toward Steve while he was holding a knife to try to save me. That delayed him long enough for reinforcements to get there. He’s a hero.”
“I just did what any uncle would do for his niece.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it.”
Zach asked me, “Do you have to stay here overnight?”
“No, they’re going to clear me. I lost a little blood, but they gave me a tetanus shot and stitched me up, so I’m going to be a little sore.”
“Don’t worry; I’ll take good care of you.”
The door opened, and I was surprised to see my uncle Thomas come in.
“How did you get here so fast?” I asked as he hugged me.
“I had to come to Charlotte on an errand, and Zach called me. Are you okay?”
“I’m a little worse for the wear right now, but I’ll be fine.”
“Good.”
He turned to Barton, and I saw a look of panic in my prodigal uncle’s eyes. Thomas held out his hand, and Barton quickly took it. “Thank you, J.B.”
“You’re welcome.”
Thomas didn’t let go of his grip, though. “You evened the scales today as far as I’m concerned.”
“I keep telling everyone that I didn’t do anything.”
Uncle Thomas grinned at him. “So, does that mean you don’t want to get to know your little brother again?”
“I never said that,” Barton said, his voice trembling.
Thomas hugged him, wrapping Barton up in his arms. “Welcome home, J.B.”
THE BROTHERS LEFT TOGETHER, AFTER BEING SURE THAT I was being taken care of by my husband and the entire hospital staff.
Zach sat down in a chair beside the bed I was sitting on. “Who would have believed it?”
“What, that Steve was a killer?”
“That, too, but I’m talking about your uncles. It’s hard to imagine that a couple of murders would bring them back together again.”
“I’m just happy it turned out all right. How’s Grady?”
“He was pretty upset with me when I called him a killer, but the second he heard about Steve, he got over it. He’s outside right now, but I told him he had to wait before he could see you.”
“Are you telling me that you’re keeping the mayor of Charlotte stewing out there so we can chat?”
“That sounds about right,” he said.
“That’s just one of the reasons I love you.”
“If you can think of any more, be sure to let me know.”
I grinned at him. “Wait until my shoulder stops killing me, and I’ll show you. Where are we going after this?”
“If you don’t want to go back to the hotel, I completely understand.” He glanced at his watch. “We can be back home in less than three hours, and that includes checking out of here and packing our bags.”
“As much as I’d love to be back working in my garden, I think we should hang around a few more days before we take off.”
“What’s the matter? Are you afraid to give up room service?”
“That’s part of it,” I said with a laugh. “But what I’d really like to do is get to know my uncle a little better.”
“He’s offered us that suite on a permanent basis, if we want it.”
“Tell him I said thanks, but no thanks.”
Zach nodded. “Too many bad memories there, I understand completely. When I told him that, he offered us another suite on that floor, and he said he’d have it decorated however we wanted. It would be rude to say no to him. After all, we don’t want to hurt his feelings, do we?”
I laughed, despite the pain. “We’ll talk about it. For now, I just want to enjoy being with you.”
“I can handle that,” Zach said. He took my good hand in his, and squeezed it gently. “We seem to have a knack for getting ourselves into jams, don’t we?”
“As long as we come out all right on the other side, I’m fine with it.”
Zach glanced at his watch, and then looked away. “Am I keeping you from something?”
“No. I just realized that you have another puzzle due in a few hours. Want me to call Derrick?”
“No, I’ll take care of that myself.”
“You’re not actually going to try to create a puzzle after all you’ve been through today, are you?”
“I don’t want to, but I need to.”
Zach nodded in understanding. “You have to wash the bad taste of Steve’s puzzle out of your mind, don’t you?”
“That’s it exactly.”
“I’ll go find you a pencil and some paper.”
As he went out on his search, I marveled at what had happened in the past few days. If it weren’t for my puzzles, Steve might never have been caught. He’d picked the wrong gal to mess with, though.
Puzzles were in my blood.
I started playing with ideas in my mind, and realized that today’s puzzle was going to have to be another simplified version, given all that had happened. Derrick wasn’t going to be happy about it, but then again, he rarely was, anyway.
It would be enough to get a new, fresh look at the puzzles I loved so much.
And that, along with my newly expanded family, was all I really needed.