Birds of a Feather (An Agnes Barton Senior Sleuth Mystery Book 9)

by Madison Johns

  “What’s going on?”

  “We’re making a barbecue pit,” Andrew said. “How else are we going to roast the pig?”

  “We’re having a pig roast?” I asked, astonished. Just then I jumped back as a pig raced by with a squeal, Bernice chasing it with shotgun in hand. “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to catch that pig for dinner.”

  “Wouldn’t a shotgun fill the pig full of shot beads?”

  She put down the shotgun. “Good point. It seems like that pig is long gone, now. I better go to Neiman’s Family Market and buy some chickens. It would take all day to roast that pig, anyway.”

  * * *

  I was dressed comfortably in a yellow pantsuit with white shirt underneath, waiting for the guests to arrive. There was a blazing fire going in the fire pit and chickens were roasting on the open fire.

  Cars skidded to a stop and the gang was all here, arriving at the same time, it seemed. Elsie and Jack, Marjory and Bill dressed alike in green golfing clothes, Adam and Martha. Sophia and Trooper Sales were invited, as was Sheriff Peterson, but they hadn’t arrived of yet and I wondered if they would. Perhaps they were wrapping up the details of the case. I still had reservations about whether it was really concluded, but I’d discuss that with Eleanor later.

  Rosa Lee had been in the kitchen making brownies earlier when her sons Curt and Curtis showed up to pick her up. I’d have to thank the Hill brothers later for building such a wonderful fire pit, although I hoped it wouldn’t fall apart since the mortar hadn’t had time to harden before they started using it.

  The refrigerator quickly became packed full of all of the food my friends had brought. I realized we’d have more desserts than anything, which was why I made baked beans and chopped potatoes wrapped in tin foil and seasoned with garlic and pepper that was thrown on the fire pit. Eleanor and Wilson pulled up and I met them halfway. “I hope you brought corn on the cob,” I said.

  “You know you can count on me.”

  “It took me over and hour to wrap it all up in foil,” Wilson complained.

  The corn was added to the fire pit while we wandered in my backyard. We had mosquito control spray our yard in the hopes this would cut down on the insects. Tables were being set up by Curt and Curtis, but my Andrew never left the grill. I had no idea he was a grill master, but the smile on his face told me more than I ever knew about him.

  “What a nice party,” Elsie remarked. “I told Jack if he didn’t apologize to the judge and soon that I was tossing his sorry behind out. I don’t want to be the girlfriend of a jailbird.”

  “Perhaps next time, you’ll have to go with him when he goes out.”

  “Oh, no. I have a reputation to uphold.” She chuckled.

  “I thought that was ended when you and Jack got together.”

  Elsie puffed up her chest. “It seems that I’ve been forgiven for that and Jack isn’t that abrasive, like he used to be. Even if he made a fool of himself in court.”

  “He’s lucky the judge let him out so quickly.”

  “Well, it’s not like he mooned the judge.”

  “I’d love to see that,” Marjory said. She shook her head, bouncing her curls. “The most my husband ever does is fart on the course.”

  “I imagine they’re used to that at the golf club by now, and you both must be their favorite customers.”

  “Yes, but for some reason none of them ever join us for lunch.” She then went on to talk about her recent rectal exam and I had to leave in search of Eleanor, who was speaking to Rosa Lee near the corner of the house.

  “I think Agnes really blew it this time. I just don’t believe Betsie Sue was running cars off the road.”

  “She ran into your car, or have you forgotten?” I said.

  “I agree with Rosa Lee, Eleanor,” Elsie said. “She never harmed anyone. Sure, she totes that shotgun around, because she doesn’t care for trespassers.”

  I turned to Elsie, since I hadn’t realized she had followed me. “Donald and Mary might have been on her land looking for birds and she got mad.”

  “No. I don’t buy it,” Eleanor said. “Whoever did this I believe lured them out to Plank Road.”

  “I must admit I have some reservations myself, but when she ran into your car like that—”

  “You jumped to conclusions like me,” Eleanor interjected. “Think about it, Agnes.”

  “Fine. I must admit that I don’t understand why Donald was out on Plank Road when all the bird watching festivities were happening in town or out at the point.”

  “So, you think he was lured out there?” Rosa Lee asked.

  “Yes, and so was Mary, the other accident victim, but I can’t figure out a real connection with Betsie Sue.”

  “Then June Crawford and Mrs. Patterson were lured out there by a man,” Eleanor said.

  “They were killed in accidents, too?” Elsie asked, shocked.

  “No, just practically run off the road. Mrs. Patterson was an experienced driver so she managed to stay on the road and whoever was driving the truck drove off when more traffic was coming down the road.”

  “Now that I don’t get. Betsie Sue isn’t married, nor does she have any male family members,” Elsie said.

  My phone rang and I answered it. “Hello, Agnes,” a shaky voice said.

  I strained to hear who it was. “Who is this?”

  “Can you come out to Tuttle Marsh? My car is stuck in the mud.”

  “Who is this?”

  “Janice, you know, from the bird watching club.”

  “Sure. Eleanor and I will be right out there.”

  “We’ll be right out where?” Eleanor asked, after the call ended.

  “Tuttle Marsh. Janice needs some help out there.”

  “Can we come, too?” Elsie asked.

  “No, but if we’re not back in a half hour, tell Andrew where we went.”

  I went inside and pulled Andrew’s keys off the hook and crept over to the LX so I wouldn’t alert Andrew that I was leaving. Fortunately, he had never gotten around to taking it to the garage and therefore had used that to pick us up yesterday, instead of my Mustang. When Eleanor and I were in the car, I coasted down the driveway, skidding onto US 23.

  “What kind of help does Janice need?”

  “Her car is stuck in the mud.”

  “Wasn’t she already stuck in the mud once?”

  “That’s what Peterson said, but she must be in real trouble if she called me.”

  “Well, step on it, would you.”

  I did just that and there was a ‘water over the road’ sign at the entrance of the Tuttle Marsh, but I blew right through it. “I’ve never known water to be over the road out here,” I said.

  “Me either,” Eleanor agreed with me.

  I pulled over at the sign that pointed out wildlife viewing. I shut off the car then. “We’ll have to hike up the wetlands dike trail and hope we’ll be able to see Janice.”

  “But the road ends here.”

  “I know, that’s what has me worried.”

  I made way for the trail, surrounded by the sounds of the calls and shrill shrieks of the birds that flock to the wetlands in the spring. The dampness and mustiness packed into my nostrils and the sun wasn’t able to even reach us as of yet, making it feel much colder.

  We made it about quarter of a mile before we spotted footprints that led further into the woods. They would have been nearly impossible to see if you weren’t looking. I left the trail and sunk into muck up to my ankles, making me gasp at the coldness.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I saw footprints coming off the trail, leading this way.”

  It took us five minutes before we were able to reach a higher spot.

  “What now?” Eleanor asked. “You said Janice’s car was stuck in the mud. I don’t see how a car could get this far without sinking to the bottom of the marsh.”

  “Follow the footprints,” I pointed out, since they once again left where
we were standing and headed back into the muck.

  “But what if we fall in some sinkhole out here? Nobody will know where to look for us.”

  I took off my necklace, hanging it off a branch. “If Andrew sees this, he’ll know where to find us. Or I could call him.” I pulled out my phone, but nearly tripped and it sunk into the mud. “Oh, no.” I pulled it out and wiped it against my pants, but when I tried to push a button on my phone, it was obviously dead.

  “Oops,” Eleanor said. “We need to leave now. I forgot my cell phone back at the house.”

  “It’s too late. I have to follow those footprints and see where they lead. Janice might be in dire trouble.”

  I continued to walk through the muck and in the distance I saw a piece of fabric that was caught on a tree branch and stared at it. “It might be a piece of Janice’s clothing, but we should leave it there just in case someone needs to follow our trail.”

  “Or our bodies,” Eleanor suggested.

  We walked twenty feet more and then I saw Janice standing, trembling against a tree. She waved us over and when we made it to her side, she had tears smearing the make up she wore.

  “I-I’m so glad you came out here. We have to be quiet or he’ll find us.”

  “Who?”

  When her eyes widened and she shook to the point of convulsions, I knew someone was behind us.

  I turned to a man, whom had a gun trained on us. It was Brian, Janice’s brother!

  “I had hoped Janice wasn’t able to make a call way out here. And now I’ll have to get rid of the three of you. Move.”

  We walked ahead of Brian and every so often he pressed the barrel of his gun into my back. When we were nearing a shelter of sorts, I began to panic. I knew we’d face certain death there if we went inside, so I whirled and said, “What is the meaning of this, Brian?”

  “I thought you were some kind of smart investigator.”

  My lips formed a big O. “So, you’re the one who really ran Donald and Mary off the road! I should have known, but I guess you were good at concealing the truth.”

  “And to think that we thought Janice might be the one responsible,” Eleanor said. “Although I can’t imagine she’d want to kill Donald since she obviously was in love with him.”

  “I was, until Brian had to get involved with my life,” Janice cried.

  “Why can’t you understand that I was trying to help you? Donald broke your heart and I took care of him for you. It wasn’t too hard to lure him out to Plank Road, not when he thought Mary was broken down out there. I never knew it would be so easy to run him off the road straight into a tree.”

  “You had no right to do that. Donald didn’t break my heart, he had no idea how I felt about him.”

  “But I saw you crying.”

  “I was upset when Donald showed me no interest, but I’d never wanted to see him harmed. I’m not a psychopath.”

  Brian’s eyes narrowed. “I did you a favor.”

  “So why kill Mary?” I asked.

  “I imagine Brian blamed Mary for stealing Donald from his sister, too, right?” Eleanor said.

  “Probably, but how did Janice even know Donald and Mary were seeing each other?”

  “It was obvious to figure out,” Janice admitted. “I followed Donald to Oscoda once when he was taking his mother to the doctor. He slipped away and met Mary at the Coffee Mill.”

  “Okay, so Brian decided to pay Mary back for taking Donald from you, even though you were never romantically involved with him, Janice?”

  “Yes, but I swear I didn’t know anything about it.”

  “So why try to run June Crawford and Mrs. Patterson off the road, Brian?”

  “I thought Mary might have told them something after Donald died. They would have figured out the connection to me,” he said. “I had no idea it would be so hard to run them off the road. Luckily for them another car came by and I had to stop the chase.”

  “And when the cops didn’t come to speak to either of you, you knew they didn’t have a clue about you being involved. And I imagine you lured them out by a throwaway phone so you couldn’t be traced,” I said. “What I don’t understand is that if you did all of this for Janice, why is she so frightened of you now?”

  “I love my sister very much and I thought I could trust her enough to tell her the truth, but she freaked out on me. Now I have no other choice than to kill her.”

  “You have other choices, like turning yourself in,” I exclaimed.

  “Good try, but that’s not going to happen.”

  I held Janice protectively at my side. “I won’t allow you to harm her. Turn yourself in or else.”

  “Or else what?”

  “I’ll thump you on the nose,” Eleanor said.

  He laughed as the gun came up and he pulled back the hammer. “It’s long past time that your investigative ways are put to a stop. Forever.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Brian was startled by the sound of dogs in the distance and it was my chance to lurch forward, shoving him into the mud. His gun whirled in the air and landed deep in the muck, disappearing beneath it.

  I pushed Janice ahead of me and with Eleanor hooked at my side, we tried to race away from him, or at least as far as the mud would allow us to go. “It won’t take much to choke the three of you. I’ll even make it look like an accident,” he threatened, as he climbed to his feet.

  He was just pulling straws to scare us, which he didn’t need to do since we were already frightened. The sound of dogs grew nearer to us and suddenly, two German Shepherds ran past us, jumping on Brian and toppling him to the ground. He screamed as they attacked him and thankfully, we heard a gun shot in the air.

  “We’re here! Help,” we screamed.

  Voices came toward us and it was Sheriff Peterson and his merry band of deputies. A young man came forward and pulled the dog off Brian, as he screamed loud enough to send birds into flight.

  “Are you ladies all right?” Peterson asked.

  “Yes, we are now. We thought we were goners.”

  “Luckily for you, Elsie Bradford called us right away and told us where you were going.”

  “And when we saw the ‘water over road’ sign,” Deputy Greenleaf said, “we knew we had better find you and soon.”

  Peterson wiped his brow with a hanky. “Our canine unit hadn’t gone back to base so we thought we’d bring the dogs.”

  “I’m glad the handler was with you.”

  “George and Joe aren’t all that bad, only if you’re a bad guy,” said a young man who was holding the dogs. “And police dogs aren’t trained to kill anyone.”

  “Glad to know. I’m just glad you got here. I had it all wrong. Brian over there is Janice’s brother and he was the one responsible for Donald and Mary’s death. He also tried to run the old ladies off the road because he thought Mary might have told them something that would lead back to him.”

  “Janice had no idea her brother had killed Donald and Mary to pay them back for breaking her heart, even though Donald never knew how Janice felt. Janice and Brian have a close bond,” Eleanor added.

  I still couldn’t believe Brian would try to kill his own sister. “The bond apparently wasn’t strong enough to keep him from wanting to kill Janice when she didn’t like the fact he killed people for her.”

  “I swear I didn’t know about what Brian had done. When I found out, I was going to tell the cops about Brian’s involvement before he forced me to come out here. He has a red truck with lifter, but he told me it was in the shop. I never for a minute thought he’d be involved with running anyone off the road.”

  “We need to find that truck,” I insisted.

  “We found it a few hours ago parked in the Walmart parking lot. The damage on it is consistent with running cars off the road. Brian apparently didn’t expect anyone to notice the truck there,” Peterson said.

  “So it was hiding under our noses the whole time. Will Betsie Sue be let out of jail, now?” />
  He chuckled. “Yes. She claims she didn’t see the Cadillac until it was too late, but also that’s what happens to trespassers.”

  “Then why did she run off like that?”

  “She claims you were chasing her.”

  “Yes, but not until she ran.”

  “I think she made an honest mistake and I don’t think she deserves to rot in jail.”

  “I agree and we’ll certainly never go near her property again.”

  “Let’s get out of this mud and back to the cars. You all must be freezing walking around in this mud,” Peterson said.

  Andrew was waiting for us when we got back at the LX and he ran to me. “Are you okay?”

  “I-I am now.” I shivered.

  “Lets get home and get you both showered and into dry clothes.”

  “Do you have somewhere to go, Janice?” I asked.

  “She should get checked out at the hospital,” Trooper Sales insisted. “Who knows how long she’s been out here.”

  “Since last night.”

  “But I thought you said Janice and her friends were found, Peterson?”

  “We found Aaron and Darin, but Brian said Janice had made it back all right. It never occurred to me that he lied.”

  “He lied all right. I’ve been tied up in a makeshift shack since last night,” Janice insisted.

  “What about Aaron and Darin? How did you get separated?”

  “It wasn’t too hard for Brian to drag me off when it was dark, but once he had me tied up, he left.”

  “Probably so he was able to report you missing and look like he had never been with you,” Peterson pointed out.

  “Did Brian come out with you and your friends?”

  “No. I even snuck away so he wouldn’t know where I went.”

  “He must have laid in wait out here,” Eleanor said. “He did know you and your friends wanted to come out here.”

  “Looks like you might want to verify that Aaron and Darin are okay,” I said.

  “No need,” Sales said. “They came into the post not long ago reporting that Janice was missing, which was confusing since we thought she was safely with her brother.”