by Lily Rede
It had finally happened, just as she worried it would. Colin had succumbed, and drastic action had to be taken to bring him back to the light.
How could he not see what was right in front of his face? That Evie Asher was poison. That she was worthless.
Not half the woman that I am.
Hank Daniels had never seen it either, and had spent decades adoring that simpering wife of his while she lurked in the background, never making waves, keeping the town running.
It was her turn to have happiness, to have one of the Daniels men acknowledge her true worth. No matter what she had to do.
COLIN AND EVIE, DRY and clothed, had just stepped out on the porch to consult Zeke about pizza toppings when Evie’s cell phone rang. She stared at it for a second in disbelief – coverage out here was spotty at best, and she’d gotten used to endless missed calls and messages.
“Hello?”
“Deputy Asher? This is Zoe with the Shoreline Pharmacy? You called a few days ago to ask about a prescription that was transferred to us by mistake?”
“Yes, I thought we confirmed that.”
“We did, but I was just going through the week’s records and noticed that there was a second page. I’m so sorry, I should have caught it the first time.”
“What are you saying?”
“The prescription order did get sent to us by mistake, but the doctor called to correct the error almost immediately, and the prescription was sent to Bright’s Ferry as usual. So the customer would have received a notice about the initial order, and a second one about the correction.”
“We didn’t question Jocelyn about Candace’s prescription,” Evie murmured to herself, as a horrific realization dawned.
“Excuse me?” The voice on the phone was polite, but puzzled.
“Thank you, you’ve been incredibly helpful.”
Evie hung up the phone and turned to Colin and Zeke.
“It’s Candace. She’s the killer”
Colin frowned.
“That’s not possible. We’ve been over this.”
“She said she couldn’t have killed Deirdre because she had to cross the bay to pick up a prescription. But the pharmacy says that Jocelyn transferred the prescription back here, which leaves Candace without an alibi.” Evie paced, working it out.
Colin was shaking his head, “But she was with Dreyer when Alan was killed.”
“She was with him last night, but that doesn’t mean anything. How long does it take to slit a man’s throat when he doesn’t see you coming? She could have left Dreyer’s, hidden her car, snuck in to kill Alan, and then arrived just in time to play the grieving widow.”
Zeke’s eyes were wide, and he gulped.
“This morning, she was walking stiffly. Colin, you said you struck the woman you ran into in the dark, right?” Evie questioned Colin, insistent.
Colin was starting to waiver, and doubt crept into his eyes.
“I can’t believe it. Candace?”
“You should compare the handwriting,” Zeke piped up, and Evie and Colin turned to stare at him, “I mean, she’s always writing notes for you and stuff, Mr. Daniels. Right? Even if she tried to hide it, those notes are going to show some similar things.”
Evie stepped up to the young man and kissed his cheek. He flushed beet red.
“You’re a genius, Zeke. Call Tony and tell him to bring Candace in for questioning. Colin, we need a sample of her handwriting.”
Colin was grim, but he nodded.
“Back at the house.”
Three minutes later, they were on the road, and Colin looked uneasy as Evie checked the clip of her weapon.
“You don’t really think you’re going to need that, do you?”
“I’m not taking any chances.”
THEY PULLED UP IN front of the house and jumped out.
“Where are all your guards?” asked Evie, pissed.
“I told them I was spending the night with you.”
“Great. That’s going to help my reputation,” Evie muttered.
Colin just grinned.
“If you want, I can spread the word that sex with a fallen woman is so much better.”
“You’re not helping,” she grumbled.
Suddenly, the front door wrenched open, and Millicent Grayson was shoved unceremoniously forward onto the porch.
“Colin!” she screamed, and started forward, but a hard yank pulled her back, and Candace stepped out onto the porch, prodding her with the barrel of a gun.
“Candace,” Colin breathed, shocked.
“I warned you,” she insisted, her voice low and venomous, “I warned you again and again, but you didn’t listen. And I sat here, waiting for you to come back from your tryst with that slut cop, and who should show up? Another lust-crazed harlot, dying to pull you even further into the dirt.”
“You need help, Candace.”
“Don’t tell me what you think I need,” she spat, jabbing Millicent harder. The young woman was crying now, babbling incoherently.
“Let Millicent go,” Evie said, “Let’s sit down and work this out.”
“It’s too late for that. And why should I listen to you? Your mother was a whore, too, and I blessed the day your poor Gram put her in the ground.”
Colin saw Evie edging for her weapon and was suddenly swamped with a terrifying vision of her, lying in a pool of her own blood in his driveway.
“Take me,” he said hastily.
“Colin, no!” Millicent and Evie were in horrified synch.
“Come on, Candace. You and me can go somewhere and talk this out. That’s what you really want, right?”
Candace seemed to consider her options. She jerked her head at Evie.
“Throw your gun over there.”
“You don’t want to do this.”
“Now!”
Candace pulled the trigger, putting a new hole in the side of Colin’s truck.
Her jaw clenched, she tossed her gun away.
“Now handcuff him and put him in the truck.”
Evie did as she was told, but Colin could see every muscle in her body screaming to act. As she cuffed him, hands in front, he whispered, “I’m going to buy you some time.”
“I’ll find you,” she promised, helping him into the passenger’s seat.
“I know you will.”
Colin could only watch as Evie stepped back, keeping a cautious eye on Candace as she closed the door and stepped back. Holding Millicent as a shield, Candace edged around to the driver’s side before flinging her away. Millicent landed in the gravel, hard, crying out as the sharp edges tore her hands and knees. Candace ignored her, her gun trained on Evie.
“You ruined him,” she said.
Colin could see the intent in Candace’s face.
“No!” he screamed, and kicked the driver’s side door open just as she pulled the trigger.
CRACK!
Evie screamed and went down, and Colin watched in shock. His worst fear was coming true, right before his eyes.
Candace climbed in and peeled out, driving one handed, her gun trained on his groin.
“Try anything and I’ll permanently disable that cock you use so freely.”
Colin looked back over his shoulder and said a silent prayer because, behind him, Evie was picking herself off the ground, clutching her arm, and racing for her gun. Down, but not yet out. The relief was so intense it made him dizzy.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere we can be alone.”
SON OF A BITCH. Evie ripped part of her shirt to make a tourniquet. The bullet had just grazed her arm, but it still hurt like fuck.
The truck had rounded the bend by the time she had her weapon up.
“Shit!”
Millicent pulled herself to her feet, shaky.
“She was here when I arrived.”
“I know. It’s okay.”
Evie kicked the side of the house in frustration, pulling out her phone.
“Y
ou couldn’t have done anything,” continued Millicent, “She was going to kill him.”
“She’s going to kill him anyway,” said Evie, and dialed.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE DINER WAS PACKED.
“I don’t know about this, Tony,” muttered Evie, anxiety seeping into her with each scornful look or gossipy whisper.
“The roads in and out of town are blocked. She’s holding him somewhere in this town.”
“Yeah, but detective work by committee doesn’t seem like the greatest idea in the world.” Evie flexed her newly bandaged arm, wincing.
Jocelyn’s hands had been shaky as she patched Evie up. It was the first time Evie had ever seen her rattled. She had promised the petite doctor that she would move Heaven and Hell to bring Colin home safe. And she meant it.
Tony clapped his hands.
“Okay, people, listen up! By now you all know the situation – ”
A chorus of disapproval and shock as each resident of Bright’s Ferry tried to express their horror over the discovery that one of their own was a deranged killer. Tony flapped his hands for quiet, and they settled down.
“We called you here because we don’t have very much time. Candace Wilkinson has taken Colin somewhere within the city limits, and we need your help to find them. His life could be in danger. I’ve already got teams scouring the hills, but you’ve all known Candace for decades, so what we need from you is some insight. Where would she take him?”
There was a rumbling of quiet anxiety as the locals discussed the problem, and then Dreyer Morton stepped up.
“She likes the movies. Try the theater.”
There were nods of approval, and Evie sighed internally. Apparently if you were the richest man in town, your reputation wasn’t going to be dented by the fact that you occasionally shacked up with a psychotic killer.
The suggestions started flowing.
“Town Hall.”
“The library.”
Zeke was busily writing down the half-dozen suggestions, but Evie looked at Tony, despairing as the list grew – there was no way they could cover all of these locations.
“It’s not enough,” Evie said.
“We’re thinking as fast as we can, young lady,” said a little old man, frowning at her. “And shame on you,” he continued under his breath, “your grandmother would be so upset.”
Evie steeled herself and continued.
“There’s no way the police can search all of these places. We need volunteers to go in groups, to check them out. But if you see anything out of the ordinary, do not, I repeat, do not go inside. This is not the woman you knew and respected. This is a woman who will have no trouble killing you, or killing Colin, in the most brutal manner possible.”
There were whispers now, and Evie could see the indecision flashing across many faces in the room. And then Jocelyn stood up, bless her.
“Of course I’ll help.”
Grace joined her, but stiffened as Matt Harris followed suit.
“Me too.”
Slowly, the whispers turned to nods, and Evie felt a pang as the town decided to put aside their antagonism to help her find Colin.
Tony offered a few more strict instructions, and the groups filed out, promising to check in every fifteen minutes.
Zeke was quiet, absently tapping his list with a pencil. Evie was coming to interpret his expressions well – the kid had good instincts.
“What’s up, Zeke?”
“Well, she’s not going to take him to Town Hall or the library or any place like that, is she?”
Evie thought about it.
“She’s going to want to take him someplace personal to her, but something out of the way.”
“Do you think,” Zeke gulped, “Do you think he’s still alive?”
Evie quaked inside, but nodded, firm.
“She doesn’t really want him dead. She wants him to understand and agree with her. She’s only going to kill him if he gives her what she wants and she has no more use for him. Or if he pushes her to the point that she just can’t stand it anymore.”
For once in your life, Colin, don’t push back, she prayed.
Mary was still leaning on the counter, thoughtful.
“I’ve known Candace my whole life. She always was a cold thing, but I never thought she’d do something like this.”
“What was she like as a child?”
“Quiet. Clean. I never saw such a neat child. Her mama was the same. Died when she was a teenager. Word was she fell down the stairs and broke her neck, but we always figured that bastard husband of hers was to blame. Can’t tell you the times I saw him pushing her around, and Candace was always covered in bruises. He died in an accident down at the docks while she was in college.”
“He was a fisherman?” Evie struggled, trying to put all the pieces together. She wasn’t surprised to learn that Candace had had a difficult childhood – that always left scars of some sort, as she was well aware. Of course some people managed to rise above it, to escape into adulthood and get a fresh start. She reasoned that only a very few became homicidal maniacs.
“Not a fisherman. He managed that fishery. Alan took it over after he died, so it wasn’t too surprising that she married him. For continuity and all.”
Tony raised his eyebrows, saying, “The fishery’s empty. Plenty of ways to kill someone there and toss the body without getting caught.”
“And it’s a place that would remind her of how she grew up,” remarked Evie.
“Let’s go,” said Zeke.
COLIN PRIED HIS SWOLLEN eye open as his uninjured one adjusted to the gloom. The smell of dead fish and saltwater was intense, and he realized that the warehouse was in fact, Alan’s small fishery down by the harbor.
Candace had pulled off the side of the road and knocked him out, and then apparently dragged into the back of the truck. She was much stronger than she looked, and he vaguely recalled his body hitting the deck outside the building. Once she’d gotten him inside, the whirr of machinery disturbed him again, but before he could make sense of it, she’d delivered a vicious kick to his head that sent pain searing through his body before blissful blackness overtook him.
Now, he pried his eyes open, and then realized that he was naked from the waist up, and that he couldn’t move. She’d exchanged the handcuffs for rope and attached him to the system designed to lift heavy fish nets from the boats for sorting. The hook was on a grid, allowing it to move around the warehouse with freedom, so Colin dangled six inches off the ground in the middle of the room, completely helpless.
“Candace,” he rasped, his voice weak. He licked his lips and tried again. “Candace!”
She stepped out of the gloom, neat and calm as always, not a hair out of place, the woman he’d known his whole life.
Well, except for the crazy eyes. Those were new. And the fish hook.
The hook was huge, steel, and sharp, with a worn wooden handle.
“Good, you’re awake, Hank. I want to talk to you before this goes any further.”
“Colin. It’s Colin, not Hank.”
Candace shook her head as though to clear the cobwebs, and frowned.
“Yes, of course. Hank is dead. Colin is alive. Hank is dead.”
“Please let me go, Candace. Let’s discuss this, and then everything can go back to normal.”
“Normal? You mean invisible, don’t you?”
She scraped the edge of the fish hook along his spine and he flinched at the feel of cold steel against his skin.
From the corner of his eye, Colin caught a flash of movement in the far corner of the room.
Evie.
He had to keep Candace distracted.
“You were never invisible, Candace.”
“I kept your calendar, I made sure you ate, I made sure that the leeches in this town didn’t suck you dry with their stupid, stupid little problems, Hank. For twenty-five years I was your wife, without any of the benefits.”
“I
should have paid more attention to you,” agreed Colin, “I’m sorry.”
“You should have loved me! Instead, you stayed with that clinging woman. Martha was never good enough for you, and I kept waiting for you to realize it.”
Vicious, she slashed the hook across Colin’s shoulder and he gritted his teeth as he felt the skin split, and warm blood trickled down his back.
“And I watched Colin grow up,” she said, nostalgic, “and I thought, someday I’ll have another chance.”
“But you had Alan.”
“Alan?” Candace scoffed, “Alan wasn’t a man. He was a pet who kept a roof over my head and didn’t seem to care that he couldn’t please a woman to save his life.”
She traced a finger through the blood on Colin’s shoulder.
“Daddy always said that the boys wanted a nice girl. A girl who could cook. A girl who was polite and knew how to keep her mouth shut. A girl who could keep a secret, because people are always trying to pry into things that don’t concern them. ”
Candace came around to Colin’s front, rubbing her arm as though from a remembered hurt.
“But they didn’t. They wanted the sluts. The ones that wore short skirts and tight sweaters, that tempted them with their round flesh and filthy lusts.”
Suddenly coming out of her daze, she whirled on Colin again, frowning.
“You hit me,” she accused Colin, “How could you do that?”
“I didn’t know it was you. It was dark.”
“And now she’s ruined you. Forever.”
She stepped behind him again, placing the tip of the hook at his heart, and fear filled Colin. Fear like he’d never felt before.
“Drop the hook, bitch.”
EVIE MOVED OUT OF the shadows, her heart pounding, her weapon trained on Candace’s head. With Colin in front of her, she didn’t have a clear shot.
Dammit.
She’d come in alone, worried that a full-on assault would prove fatal to Colin. They had no idea what Candace was doing to him in that warehouse. Tony had reluctantly agreed, and hurried to set up a perimeter. No matter what, Candace wasn’t going anywhere.
“You’re not welcome here.” Candace frowned, and pressed the hook lightly into Colin’s skin. He gasped, and a small trickle of blood flowed down his chest. “Stay back, or I’ll kill him. And then you can feel what I’ve felt. Alone. Rejected.”