Gazpacho Murder (The Darling Deli Series Book 25)

by Patti Benning

  “Of course,” Moira said. “I’ll do it. Unless you’re going to be over in that direction anyway, Dominic.”

  “I have a meeting with a client later this evening, so I’ll be out of town. Sorry, otherwise I would be happy to.”

  Sad that their dinner had been interrupted, the deli owner watched as Martha packed her food into a box and said goodbye to her boyfriend. She waved at Moira and David, then hurried out the door. The three of them sat at the table for a few more minutes in awkward silence before Dominic rose as well.

  “I suppose I should be leaving too,” he said. “We’ll have to do this again sometime.”

  That left Moira and David to finish their meal alone together. She didn’t mind; it was always nice to spend some time out of the house with her husband. She and David had plenty to talk about, including the important matter of when they were next going to go and visit Candice and Eli.

  “Do you want to order dessert?” he asked as the waitress cleared away their plates after a satisfying meal.

  “Of course I want to, but we probably shouldn’t,” Moira said. “I’m full, and I know that I would regret the empty calories later.”

  “Do you want to head straight home then?” he asked. “I’d offer to head into one of the bigger towns and look for a new phone for you, but I’m sure most of the cell phone stores will be closed by now. We’ll have to go sometime next week.”

  “I don’t mind waiting until then,” she said. “Don’t forget, we have to stop by Martha’s house and take care of Diamond on our way home.”

  They rode in a companionable silence on the way back to Maple Creek. It wasn’t until they turned onto Martha’s street that David broke the silence.

  “What’s that?” he asked. “It looks like there’s someone in Martha’s driveway already.”

  The deli owner leaned forward. Sure enough, a dark red SUV was parked in her friend’s driveway. She felt her skin prickle. She had been so sure that with Evelyn behind bars, the mystery of the burglar had been solved. She had been certain that the young woman’s possession of the bracelet meant that she had been the second masked intruder. Martha had been noticing things disappearing for weeks, and the young woman could have taken it at any time. The death of Evelyn’s boyfriend had seemed to strengthen the evidence against her; even Moira knew that most homicides were committed by someone the victim knew.

  “Evelyn is still at the police station, isn’t she?” she asked.

  “As far as I know,” her husband said. “Maybe Dominic decided to stop by and feed the dog after all.”

  “I don’t think that’s his vehicle,” Moira said. “Doesn’t he drive a car?”

  “I’m not sure. I didn’t pay attention to what he arrived in at the restaurant.”

  “What should we do?”

  “I’ll go knock on the door and see who it is,” David said. “You stay in the car.”

  “I’m coming with you,” she replied. “I’m your wife, and there’s no way I’m letting you go up there alone. That’s that.”

  The fact that he didn’t argue was a sign of how well he knew her. He pulled into the driveway behind the vehicle and shut off the engine. They traded a glance, then got out of the car, both of them hoping that they weren’t about to walk right into another crime scene.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  * * *

  Despite her brave words, Moira kept slightly behind her husband as they walked up towards the front porch. She didn’t have the slightest idea what to expect. Would they be met by the madman with a gun? Or was it just Dominic, there to let the dog out?

  She felt hyperaware as they approached the door. Her breath caught as David raised his fist to knock. His knuckles never contacted the door. Instead, he paused a few inches away.

  “It’s open,” he said.

  “What?”

  “The door is open, see?” he said.

  Sure enough, the door was open a couple of inches. There was no sign of forced entry, but of course, there wouldn’t be. The burglar had a key, after all. The two of them had seen him unlock the door themselves the week before.

  “Should we call the police?” Moira asked.

  “Not just yet,” David said. “It may be Dominic, and he just forgot to shut the door behind him all the way. I would hate to waste Detective Jefferson’s time when he already has a suspect in custody who was caught red-handed selling stolen goods.”

  “Let’s go in, then,” the deli owner said reluctantly.

  “Stay behind me,” her husband said. “And be careful.”

  David pushed the door open slowly. The hinges were well oiled, and it swung inward without a sound. The thick carpet just inside the door muffled the sound of their footsteps as they went inside. She couldn’t hear a sound anywhere in the house, and was surprised that Diamond hadn’t come running up to them yet. Maybe David was right and it was Dominic, come to take the little dog for a walk.

  As David walked through the living room, Moira paused. She had heard a noise coming from the other direction. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered.

  “We should stay together,” her husband said back to her in a low voice.

  “It will just take a second. I think I heard the dog.”

  Before he could object, she had already turned around and was walking the other way, towards the kitchen. She heard the noise again; a scratching sound. It was coming from the pantry door. She pulled the door open and out came Diamond, her little tail wagging so quickly it was a blur. The dog let out a happy yap and Moira quickly shushed her.

  “What were you doing in there?” she whispered, bending down to pick the dog up. “Are you okay?”

  The dog appeared to be uninjured. She tucked Diamond under her arm and walked silently back towards the living room. David was at the foot of the stairs, frowning. He must have heard the yap, which meant that if someone else was in the house, they would have heard it too.

  “I’m going to put her in the car,” Moira said in a whisper. “Be careful.”

  She went back outside and opened the car door, letting Diamond hop into the back seat. She shut it as silently as she could, and was about to turn back towards the house when a gun shot rang out across the yard.

  Her heart leapt into her throat. Her first instinct was to run back inside and make sure David was okay, but for once common sense took over. She needed to call an ambulance. If he was injured, she would have no idea how to treat it. The quicker the paramedics got there, the better.

  Her hands patted her pockets, a reflexive gesture as she looked for her phone. The instant she remembered that it was stolen, she yanked open the passenger side door and slid inside, opening up the center console in hopes that David had forgotten to bring his cell phone with him into the house. It only took her a couple of seconds to realize it was pointless. The closest phone was in Martha’s house.

  She shut the console and glanced up towards the house just in time to see someone rush out the front door. The person was limping slightly, and her heart leapt, thinking for a moment that it was David. Then she saw the short brown hair and scruffy beard and knew that it wasn’t her husband. It was Sky, Evelyn’s brother.

  Before she knew it, he had yanked open the driver’s side door. He was already halfway into the vehicle by the time he saw her sitting in the passenger seat. His eyes went wide. Both of them froze for a long moment, staring each other. Then, she saw the gun in his left hand and he seemed to remember that he had it too.

  “Don’t move,” he said. He twisted around so the gun was pointing at her, fumbling with his right hand to reach across himself and shut the car door. Moira’s eyes darted towards the keys still in the ignition. It would be so easy to yank them out of the car and toss them out the window. The only question was, what would happen to her if she tried such a thing?

  Looking over at the gun in the man’s hand, she thought that the answer wouldn’t be anything good. Even as the fear was coursing through her, she began to piece together al
l the hints that she should have seen. Sky had been there the day her phone had been stolen, though he had been another table. Martha had said that he came over sometimes with his sister when Evelyn was taking care of the dog, which would have given him ample chance to scope out the house for valuables that he wanted to steal. As far as the argument in which Evelyn’s boyfriend had ended up getting shot, well, there were many reasons that she could think of that a brother might be angry enough with his sister’s boyfriend to lash out. It had been Sky all along. Evelyn must have known that something was up, since the young man would have had to go through Moira’s purse while the sister was watching, but it seemed that the young woman was innocent of the act of burglary itself.

  None of this helped her now. “Just let me out,” she said. “You can take the car, there’s no reason you need me in here with you.”

  “I don’t know,” he said roughly, “I can think of a few situations in which a hostage might be useful. You have a scarf or something?”

  The non-sequitur caught her by surprise. She noticed that he was pale and sweating, and remembered that he had been limping on his way out the door. Her eyes darted down to his legs. There was a bloodstain on the calf of his trousers, and it was spreading. Somehow, he had been shot in the leg. Had David had a gun with him? She couldn’t remember. She knew that he carried sometimes, but usually only while he was on a dangerous case.

  “I don’t,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  He grunted and shoved the gear shift into reverse, pressing down on the accelerator so hard that Moira’s head snapped forward. She barely caught a glimpse of David at the door of the house before the driver had yanked the vehicle around and was speeding down the road with her.

  Even if Sky had been in peak health, she would have been in deep danger. The fact that he was in the process of losing what looked like a lot of blood didn’t help matters any. He weaved across the road, nearly hitting oncoming cars twice.

  “Slow down,” she managed to gasp after the second near miss. “I don’t want to die.”

  “I’d rather die than go to prison,” he grunted. “This whole thing turned into a damn mess. If Freddy had just kept his mouth shut about my sister, we would never have been caught. That crazy lady thought that she had a ghost, Evelyn told me so. We were always careful to take little but valuable things, things that she wouldn’t notice were missing right away. It was fun, messing with her. Stupid Freddie. I know I shouldn’t have shot him, but he could just be such a jerk sometimes.”

  Moira slapped her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming as Sky narrowly missed driving off the road. He yanked the wheel to the left, overcorrected, and was in the oncoming traffic lane for an uncomfortably long time before getting back into the correct lane.

  “You’re the one that took my phone?” she said, talking more to take her mind off of the situation than because she was interested in the answer. All she wanted was to get out of the car.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I would apologize, but, you know, I don’t really care.”

  “How did you know that I was there that night?” she asked.

  At this, he glanced over at her. “I had no idea,” he said frankly. “I was just looking for valuable stuff in your purse. The phone was the most expensive thing in there.” He gave a little snort and turned his attention back to the road, for which the deli owner was grateful. She decided that keeping her mouth shut might be in her best interest if she wanted to keep the car from being wrapped around a tree.

  Her period of silence lasted until she heard the first sirens whooping in the distance. She glanced in the rearview mirror, but she couldn’t see the lights yet. She knew that Freddy had noticed them too. He seemed to be getting increasingly nervous. They were on the main road out of town, with nothing but trees all around them and a steep hill to one side. She remembered what Freddy had said, about preferring death over prison. Had he been serious?

  “If you let me out, I’ll tell them that you went the other direction,” she said. “It will give you time to get away.”

  “Yeah right,” he muttered. “The second you’re out of my sight, you’ll have no reason to keep your word. If it wasn’t for your meddling husband, I would be on my way out of town now with a bag full of jewelry and no cops on my tail. If I’m going down, you’re going down with me.”

  As the police drew nearer, Moira considered her options. She could try to overpower him, but chances were that would simply lead to a crash. They were going fast enough that she doubted either of them would survive a headlong crash into a tree, let alone driving off the steep hill to their left. Even if she did manage to get the gun from him, there was no telling whether or not he would believe that she would use it on him. She didn’t know if she would be able to use a gun on someone, and somehow, she didn’t think a threat coming from someone so uncertain would dissuade him.

  As the car began to weave again – Sky was looking even paler than before, and seemed to be on the verge of passing out – she looked down at the door handle. She wasn’t wearing her seatbelt — it had been the last thing on her mind when she had been kidnapped — and the car door was unlocked. Would she survive jumping out? If she waited for the right moment, she might be able to make it. It was better than being trapped in a car driven by a maniac, at any rate.

  Her moment came when Sky slowed down slightly to take a curve in the road. She watched as the speedometer’s needle ticked down to a more manageable number. Don’t think, she told herself. Just do it.

  In one smooth motion, she shoved the door open and pushed herself out of it, remembering at the last second that she was supposed to roll with the impact. Then the ground hit her with the force of a train and she didn’t have time to think about anything else.

  EPILOGUE

  * * *

  “I have been spending way too much time in hospitals lately,” Candice said. “First my husband, then my mom. I would be happy if I never stepped foot in one again.”

  “I told you that you didn’t need to come all the way up here,” Moira said. “I’m fine. Just a couple of scrapes and bumps.”

  “You have broken ribs,” David pointed out. “That’s a bit more than some bumps. I can’t believe you jumped out of the car.”

  “It’s a good thing I did,” she said.

  Not long after she had made her leap of faith, Sky had indeed swerved into a tree. He had clipped it, sending the car spinning into the undergrowth. Somehow, he had survived. In fact, he was in the same hospital the Moira was, a few floors up. The passenger side of the vehicle had been completely destroyed. Diamond had been found without a scratch on her, and was back safe and sound with her owner.

  “I still feel like I owe Evelyn an apology,” she added. “It turns out she didn’t kill anyone after all.”

  “She is not exactly innocent,” her husband said. “She had to know that her brother was a thief. She sat by and did nothing at all while he went through your purse.”

  “Compared to being a killer, it seems like a small thing,” Moira said.

  She wasn’t sure if the young woman would be charged with anything. Although she had protected her brother when questioned about where she had gotten the bracelet – he had given it to her as a gift – she hadn’t known that he had made a copy of her key to Martha’s house. She might have guessed that something was going on after her boyfriend, who had been in on the whole thing with Sky, had turned up dead, but there would be no way to prove that she knew anything. Detective Jefferson seemed to think that her surprise when the police showed up and told her that the bracelet was tied to a murder was real, but there was plenty of reasons to believe that she knew that the bracelet was stolen and was trying to get rid of it before someone recognized it.

  Even though she knew that Evelyn wasn’t exactly innocent, she still felt bad for the young woman. She had suffered through the loss of her boyfriend, and had been trying to protect her brother even though it meant that she had to spend a couple of days in th
e local jail. There was something to be said for that sort of loyalty, even if it was misguided and placed on a deadly criminal.

  “How are you liking your new phone?” Candice asked in an attempt to lighten up what had become a dark conversation. Moira turned her head slightly, wincing at the pain in her ribs, and glared at the device that was sitting on the bedside table. It was one of the newest models available, and truth be told, she hated it. She missed her old phone. It had been familiar and comfortable and best of all, simple. This new phone had so many features that she didn’t know where to begin with it. The screen unlocked at a touch, and it had a virtual assistant that could do anything she needed. All she wanted was a device with which to contact her loved ones. She didn’t need a computer that was more powerful than her tablet and could fit in her pocket.