by Jessica Beck
“Is there any chance that the car that hit Loretta’s tried to scrape the paint off onto the other car?”
Wayne laughed. “What are you, a cop? That’s exactly what the sheriff asked.”
I felt pleased to hear the compliment. “And what did you tell him?”
“Some paint might have transferred, but they shouldn’t have any problem determining which vehicle hit the Jenkins car.”
“How long will that take?” I asked.
“I have no idea. All I know is that as soon as I get each fender removed, I’m supposed to call the sheriff back so he can pick them up and send them to Raleigh for analysis.”
“So, it won’t be anytime soon, then,” I said.
“Hey, I’m just a simple mechanic,” Wayne said as he spread his hands out. “I have no idea.”
“I kind of doubt that,” I said. “What’s your hunch? Do you have one?”
“I have a guess, but I’m not one hundred percent sure, so I hate to say it out loud. Do you know what I mean? I might be damaging someone’s reputation here.”
“Don’t worry. Right now I believe that either one of them could have done it, so you won’t be sullying anything in my eyes.”
“I understand that, but I’d still rather not say.”
“I can respect that,” I said. “Thanks for the show.”
“You’re welcome. For what it’s worth, I hope you catch the bad guy.”
“That makes two of us,” I said. Things still didn’t make sense, and I knew that I was running out of time.
Chapter 17
Instead of going straight back to the diner, I decided to take a drive and try to come up with a solution that explained the whirlwind of facts swarming around my mind. After wandering aimlessly around for twenty minutes, I figured that it would make more sense for me to just head home. After all, my backyard was my perfect oasis away from the world, and I could really think there. I might even light a fire on the new propane fire pit. Dancing flames had a way of stimulating my thoughts sometimes. And in the end, what could it hurt? At least I’d get to have a fire. When I got there, though, I couldn’t find the long matches Greg had bought especially for lighting the fire, and I didn’t feel like going inside to hunt around for them. I played with one of the green propane cylinders, tossing it from hand to hand as I pondered all of the possibilities. It was warm enough sitting in the sun, anyway. We’d need a fire tonight if we came out, but for now, just sitting by the pit was enough.
I had a hunch that I had all of the facts I needed to figure this mess out, if I were only clever enough to come up with the killer. The key had to be somewhere in the accident that had forced Loretta Jenkins off that road this morning. It was clear, at least to me, that it had to be one of our final suspects, Kelly or Asher. I was leaning toward Asher at the moment, but I had to wonder if he could actually kill his own father. I knew that it was a popular theme in mythology, but in real life, I just couldn’t buy it. Could someone else have done it for him, though? What about Sylvia? She’d certainly seemed afraid earlier when she’d come by the diner, but her fear of her son could be real enough to explain her behavior. What if Asher had discovered that his mother had killed Roy Thompson for him? It might just be enough to drive him over the edge. Then Asher could have gone after Loretta, not so much for the money, but for trying to steal what he regarded as his birthright. If that were the case, though, why hadn’t he made an attempt on Kelly’s life yet? After all, she was getting half of the estate if the current will made it through probate. Did that explain the struggle at her apartment? Or was there another, more sinister, reason that he’d saved Kelly for last? Then I remembered that I’d seen Asher near the diner when Kelly had visited us there earlier. Had he been waiting to talk to my grandfather and me, or Kelly? When she left, she’d said that she had an appointment she’d forgotten about. Could it have been with Asher, her partner in crime?
Why not? Things suddenly started to fall into place. Asher and Kelly both had a great deal to gain by Roy Thompson’s death if they knew about his last will and testament, and the fact that it was about to be changed would be something they would each want to stop. The two of them would have both lost fortunes, and I knew that stranger conspiracies had been founded on a great deal less in the past.
Suspecting it and proving it were two different things, though.
I had to wonder if my grandfather and I could trap one of them into confessing. I’d go back to the diner and get Moose, and we’d give it our best try.
I never got the chance, though.
Asher came around the side of the house as I was getting ready to head back out, and before I even had a chance to react, I had a gun pointed straight at my heart.
“What are you doing, Asher?” I asked as he gestured for me to go back toward the fire pit. I had no choice but to obey.
“Drop the act, Victoria. I saw you at the auto repair shop before, and then I followed you around until you came back here. It’s pretty obvious that you know that I’m the one who forced my so-called sister off the road today.”
“Actually, Kelly did a fairly good job of trying to protect you there. When she rammed your car with Paul Gray’s vehicle, flecks of paint lodged on both fenders. It might not be enough to get you off in court, but then again, there’s a legitimate shadow of doubt that she planted there. You got lucky when you chose your partner in crime. My guess is that she’s been running the show from the start.”
Kelly must have been waiting out of sight in the bushes, because when I said her name, she knew that I realized that she was a part of this murder conspiracy, so she stepped out and joined us.
At least she was unarmed. “You’re smarter than I gave you credit for, Victoria,” Kelly said. “How did you know that I was in on it?”
“It’s the only way it all made sense. You must have stumbled upon Roy’s will at some point. And why wouldn’t you? After all, you had access to everything the man did. I’m guessing that when Roy told you to summon Paul Gray and bring witnesses with him, you knew that the riches you’d been holding out for were all about to disappear. Did you approach Asher with your plan, or did he think of it himself?”
“We decided together that my father had to go,” Asher said indignantly. It was clear that the man was constantly being manipulated by women, first his mother, and then Kelly.
“Fine, whatever you say, Asher,” I said. I always made it a point never to argue with a man holding a gun on me.
I had nothing to lose, and at least maybe I’d be able to discover the truth if I pushed them both a little now. It would be little solace, but at least I wouldn’t die of curiosity. “Kelly, I’m guessing you’re the one who poisoned the cake. It’s hard for me to imagine that a man could kill his own father in cold blood like that.”
“Whether I did it or not, good luck proving it. I’m willing to bet that no one even saw me at the festival,” Kelly said.
“You had time, though, didn’t you? I’m sure that no one noticed that you were gone from the office, but if we go through the photos the police collected, I’m willing to wager that you turn up somewhere, unless you were smart enough to disguise yourself.”
She smiled as I said it, so I had a hunch that I was right on the money. “As I say, this is all speculation on your part. It will be impossible to establish any of that.”
“Maybe so, but with Asher’s testimony, I don’t need to prove anything.”
“We’re partners,” Kelly said with a hard laugh. “If I go down, he knows that I’ll take him with me.”
“Does that include the plan to get rid of Loretta Jenkins, too? That was a pretty desperate act, wouldn’t you say? Actually, it was the only sloppy part of your entire plan.”
“Asher did that all on his own; I can assure you of that.”
“She had to go! There was no way I was going to let her mess up our perfect plan. Why didn’t you just use your new fire pit, Victoria?” Asher asked a little petulantly as he looked at
me. “It would have saved us all from this mess.”
“What did you to do to our pit?” I asked, thinking about how close I’d come to lighting it half an hour earlier.
“The first match you struck would have been your last,” Asher said with a little too much pride for my comfort. “Now we have to do it ourselves.”
I had to move fast, and I had to do it now.
The small propane tank I’d been playing with earlier was within my reach, and I hoped that if I could throw it at Asher long enough to distract him, maybe I could make it to the woods behind our house before he could recover.
It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all that I had.
But first I had to say something that would get that gun off me. “Kelly’s going to kill you after you get rid of me. You know that, don’t you, Asher?”
“Don’t listen to her. You know that I wouldn’t do that. Like I said, we’re partners,” Kelly said, doing her best to reassure him of her intentions.
“Think about it. People around her seem to keep ending up dead. Did you notice that, Asher?”
“You don’t understand. I would have been willing to wait, but Dad had to die,” he said. “He was going to ruin everything when he wanted to change his will.”
I had no idea if what I was about to say was true or not, but that didn’t matter at this point. Every time Asher spoke to Kelly, the gun pointed toward her as well. I needed to use that to my advantage. “You could have challenged the new will yourself in court. After all, you have legal standing. Kelly would have been out in the cold, though. You didn’t need to kill your father, Asher. All you had to do was just wait for him to die.”
“Is that true?” Asher asked Kelly as he pointed the gun toward her subconsciously.
I couldn’t afford to wait for her to respond. I knew how slick Kelly was, and if I hesitated now, the next order she’d give him would be to shoot me.
I reached down, picked up the cylinder, and threw it straight at Asher.
It didn’t hit him directly, but it did manage to startle him enough to make him drop his gun on the ground. I planned to let the two of them fight for it while I was running for my life.
I never made it two steps into the woods.
“Both of you stay right where you are!” Kelly barked. I looked back to see that she was now holding a small-caliber pistol in her hand, and more significantly, she was fanning it between the two of us.
“What are you doing?” Asher asked. He was clearly outraged by the new dynamic of the situation. I wasn’t sure if I was any better off now, but I wasn’t any worse off, either.
“Asher, you’re becoming more of a liability than an asset,” Kelly said. “If I play this right, I can get rid of both of you. Here’s how this is going to play out. Asher, it’s going to look as though you shot Victoria, but not before she managed to get off a kill shot of her own.”
I had to give Asher credit. Whether it was through rage or a strong sense of self preservation, he lashed out at her in an instant.
Without hesitation, Kelly shot him in the chest at fairly close range.
I couldn’t stay to see how he was.
Asher was on his own now; I had to try to save myself.
The caliber of Kelly’s gun looked small enough so that I figured if I could put some distance between us, I might still get out of this alive.
I started for the woods when I heard a familiar voice call out behind us all, “Drop the weapon, Kelly. You have two seconds, and then I’m putting you down.”
There was no doubt, no hesitation in the sheriff’s voice, and after a moment, I turned to see Kelly do exactly as she was told.
“How did you find me?” I asked the sheriff as he handcuffed Kelly. Asher wasn’t going anywhere, at least not at the moment, but the sheriff did kick both guns well away from the man’s reach before he turned to take care of Kelly.
The sheriff explained, “Moose got back from delivering Sylvia to her friend’s house, and Martha told him where you’d gone. Your grandfather called Wayne at the garage, and that triggered a manhunt. We had every cruiser we have out looking for you, as well as every last member of your family with a driver’s license. I had confidence that one of us would find you.”
“I’m just glad you did it in time,” I said.
“I’ve got to give you credit, Victoria. You figured it all out before I did.”
“I’m just sorry that I didn’t do it in time to tell you before Asher got shot,” I said.
“Speaking of Asher, could you watch him for me for a minute? I need to get Kelly into my squad car.”
I looked at the man, lying on the grass. “Is he even still alive?”
There was a moan then, and he tried to sit up.
“You shot me!” he said to Kelly, as though he were accusing her of stealing his toy train.
“Not very accurately, apparently,” Kelly said as she was led away.
I walked over and looked down at Asher. “Are you going to give me any trouble, or am I going to have to shoot you, too?”
Asher immediately laid back down where he was, and after that, he made no more attempts to move until the ambulance arrived.
I was glad for that.
I wasn’t sure that I would have had the heart to kick him, let alone shoot the man.
Two hours later I was back at The Charming Moose, surrounded by my family and friends, telling the whole story again for the third time.
The sheriff walked in and joined our little private party, and as he approached, he asked, “Victoria, do you have a second?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “What’s up?”
“I just wanted to let you know that Asher’s going to be okay. He just got out of surgery, but before he’d let them put him under, he insisted that he tell me about what he’d done to your fire pit. It’s a good thing Kelly was using such a small-caliber handgun. It could have been a lot worse.”
“Has he confessed to what they did?” I asked.
“They both have,” the sheriff said with a grin. “It’s going to be up to the district attorney which one to charge with the harshest penalty, but I have full confidence that they’re both going down.”
“I’m glad. To think that it all came about because of greed. What’s going to happen to Roy Thompson’s estate now?”
“I just spoke with someone in Charlotte named Paul Gray, and he assured me that it will all go to the named secondary beneficiary, which also happens to be the society Roy was going to change his will to when this whole mess started.”
“Does Kelly know that yet?” I asked with a wicked grin.
“Actually, I was just about to go tell her, unless you’d like the honors yourself.”
“Thanks, but I’ll pass. Honestly, I don’t want to see her again until I’m testifying against her at her trial.”
“I understand that completely. Now, I’ll leave you to your little party.”
“Why don’t you stay?” Greg asked as he approached us. “We’ve got a lot to celebrate.”
“I appreciate the offer, but there’s still a great deal of work to be done.”
After the sheriff was gone, Greg hugged me tightly. “I can’t believe how close I came to losing you again. You’re making too much of a habit of this, Victoria.”
“Hey, it’s not by choice, believe me.”
Moose came over and tapped my husband on the shoulder. “Don’t go hogging her, Greg. Give somebody else a turn.” As my grandfather embraced me, I could almost feel my ribs cracking, but I didn’t mind in the least.
I was right back where I belonged, surrounded by the people I loved most in the world.
As far as I was concerned, he could crack away.
It was good to be right where I belonged, and to appreciate every moment of it.
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