“Come on, Jillian. Don’t delay the inevitable.” He said this so calmly it infuriated me.
I took a deep, quiet breath from the spot I’d chosen to hide under the laundry sink. I had no makeshift weapon. There had been no time to find those precious garden shears. This was the cat area. It smelled like the litter needed changing yesterday and I now had clay granules between my toes and stuck to the soles of my feet. A standing cabinet for extra supplies like paper towels and detergent was next to me. I wondered if I had the strength to topple it onto him when he finally found me. And he would find me.
He was sweeping his flashlight around and walked over to the cat room. He kicked the door open. I had known that there was nowhere to hide in there. He didn’t, but he soon found out.
Osborne then started in my direction, his light focused on the cabinet next to me. I moved a little bit more into the darkness provided by the side of that cabinet, trying to slide my hands behind it. There was no space for my fingers. No space at all. I willed back the tears of pure terror that threatened. Did he have that knife in his hand now? Was this his endgame?
And then I was betrayed not by any sound I made but by Otto. The kitten offered a plaintive meow and rubbed against my drawn-up knees.
The light swept down and caught me in its awful glow.
This was like a horror movie. This wasn’t real.
“Come on. Get up, Jillian.” He extended his free hand.
Yeah. Like I wanted to touch this freak. At least he still hadn’t taken the knife out.
When I didn’t move, his voice was sharp when he spoke. “Get up. Now.”
So I used the only tool available: a tray filled with hard clumps of dirty kitty litter. I lifted it like it was nothing and tossed the contents in his face. Maybe there was something to that adrenaline thing after all. He dropped the flashlight and shouted some very unpleasant words at me. But the more he rubbed his eyes, the more it had to hurt. Clay litter is not eye friendly.
Fearing he’d recover sooner rather than later, I picked up his hefty Maglite and smashed him over the head. He fell unconscious, flat into a pile of urine-soaked litter.
I loved cats for so many reasons. Dirty litter, however, surprised me.
Thirty-one
Tom must have flown home, he arrived so fast after I called him. Soon the entire emergency response team known as the Mercy Fire Department and paramedics had arrived, too. Plus there was Candace and Morris and B.J. and one very distraught Kara.
I was busy cleaning my feet with illumination provided by Osborne’s now-bloodied Maglite. There’s nothing I hate more than kitty litter between my toes.
Tom knelt beside me as I sat on the kitchen floor surrounded by cats—all six of them. He gripped my shoulders, which caused his flashlight to illuminate the ceiling. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I felt so devoid of emotion it seemed surreal. “I just hate it when I get litter on my feet.”
“You said he’s in the basement. Is he conscious?”
I simply nodded. For some reason I couldn’t look at Tom. Why couldn’t I look at him? “He is now.”
Over his shoulder, he said, “Candace, Morris, get down there and contain that bastard.”
“He’s hog-tied with clothesline. Growing up on my grandparents’ farm, I learned a lot of things and some of those things you just never forget.”
Marcy and Jake, the paramedics, were standing behind Tom, though it was a little too dark to see their faces.
Suddenly the lights went on.
“Ah,” I said. “That’s better.” I glanced around at the cats. “Isn’t that better, sweethearts?”
Tom sat on the floor facing me, still holding my upper arms. “Jillian, look at me.”
“Who turned the lights on?” I finally focused on his face.
“Billy Cranor fixed the problem. Jilly, did he hurt you?” When I didn’t answer, just kept picking litter off my feet, Tom glanced back again at Marcy and Jake. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Chief?” Marcy said quietly. “Let us check her out, okay? I think she’s in shock.”
* * *
There is nothing like sweet tea—two big glasses of cold sweet tea—to help a woman get her bearings. Maybe I had been in shock, but I wasn’t anymore. I came completely out of that strange, detached state when Morris shoved the handcuffed Osborne up our basement stairs into the kitchen and said, “Just how I like my crooked cops. Covered in cat piss.” He pushed the man, who also had blood all over his face, out the back door.
I laughed—not the hysterical laugh I thought might come. It was simply relief leaking out of every pore. Tom seemed to relax then, too. Maybe he wouldn’t be watching me so closely for the rest of the night.
I said, “I don’t break, Tom Stewart. Got a little close to crazy there for a few minutes, but I’ll be just fine.”
“I can tell.” He slipped off the barstool he’d been sitting on right next to me. “Come on. Let’s get more comfortable and you can tell me what this guy said.”
“Formal statement time?”
“No. That can wait. Just talk it out, because trust me, you may think you’re fine, but you need to talk.”
Candace and Kara ascended from the basement and joined us in the living room. B.J. was waiting in the squad car to help take Osborne to jail. I wondered how the other prisoners, none of them Mercy’s finest citizens for sure, would appreciate their fellow cell mate smelling like a toilet. Or maybe it wouldn’t bother them at all.
I related what had happened in detail as the three of them listened intently. Kara seemed the most distressed, though she probably had nothing on Tom. I knew he was beating himself up inside for me being home alone after the fake gang warning. But we’d work through all that later. I hoped I’d proven that I can take care of myself, not that I wanted to do it in such a fashion ever again.
When I was done, I said, “Okay, it’s your turn. There are gaps as wide as the Grand Canyon that I’d like you to fill in.”
Candace said, “Harris Schultz confessed to the Virginia cops that he first asked Chester Winston to help him buy weed and it was Chester who hooked him up with Osborne. We think Osborne was stealing evidence after drug busts and selling it. Unfortunately, compromised evidence means compromised cases. It’ll be a mess for the county prosecutor going forward.”
“So why did Harris take a hike? Because of Osborne?” I asked.
Tom nodded. “He was scared to death and wanted the Virginia cops to keep him in jail up there. It doesn’t work that way, of course. His crimes are here. But he will make an excellent witness against Osborne should this ever get to trial. I doubt that will happen, though. Dirty cops don’t do well in the general prison population. He’ll want a deal that protects him from getting shanked his first week there. Probably solitary confinement.”
“He’s such an egomaniac, he’ll enjoy spending time with himself,” I said. “What about that security guard?”
“He started talking up a storm when we picked him up at the hospital,” Candace said.
“I will argue for no deal as far as that jerk is concerned,” Tom said. “Seems that before we nabbed him leaving the hospital, he called Osborne and warned him everything was about to come unraveled. That’s what put you in harm’s way.”
I said, “This whole credit card con that Chester was playing around with at Minnie’s house . . . I don’t get how Osborne got involved. He admitted to me it was a mistake and obviously it was. Couldn’t Osborne have been doing more lucrative things than splitting money with Chester and Norm—because Norm obviously knew Chester for quite some time, right?”
Tom squeezed my hand. “Norm probably hung around the county shelter courting his girlfriend and had known Chester for ages. He also knew Osborne.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Working for him in the sheriff’s d
epartment.”
Tom smiled. “You really should help me out more often. Anyway, I believe the trouble began when Harris realized he had to tap into his mother for money to pay for drugs. Norm was selling drugs while Chester was already running the recovery fee scam. When Harris came to Norm, complaining about his mother and how he needed help getting money from her to finance his drug habit, he told Norm she was a confused old woman. Maybe she could be a good source of income if they could figure out a plan. Norm and Chester combined probably didn’t have a big enough brain to figure out that credit card fraud. They asked for Osborne’s help and he said he had an idea, but he wanted a cut. The rest is history. Osborne came up with the plan, and knowing the low-level criminal types he was dealing with, he checked up on the ‘business’ those two were running out of Minnie’s house.”
“It was all about his greed.” I shook my head. “Osborne did make a mistake. Why didn’t he cut his losses and just refuse to supply Norm with more drugs to sell to people like Harris Schultz?”
Candace finally spoke. “Osborne was afraid of being blackmailed by Chester, who, despite being a lowlife, did have a county position. Chester could have made waves and he wanted his income with the credit card fraud to continue. That meant Chester and Norm had to keep Harris well supplied—keep him happy so he wouldn’t talk, either.”
Tom nodded his agreement. “Osborne’s various crimes probably go back ten years or more. Ironic that getting involved in a stupid thing like what Chester and Norm were up to would be what brought him down.”
Kara had been awfully quiet. I looked at her and could tell by her tight expression that she was upset. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“This is my fault. Pushing to connect the cases and then going off with Liam for dinner and leaving you alone.” Tears began to stream down her face.
I got up and went over to her, not caring I was still in my pajamas or that clay litter still clung to my feet. I held out my arms. “Hug. Come on.”
And that was one of the best hugs we ever shared.
Kara and Candace left not long after, and it was time for Tom and me to share a moment. He took me in his arms and held me tightly—until Otto started to crawl up his leg.
We both laughed and he put Otto on his shoulder. “Come on, crime stopper. Time for bed.”
“I have to take a shower first,” I said.
“Oh, so do I.” Tom grinned. “Let’s conserve water.”
Thirty-two
The next day I did have to give that formal statement, so Tom and I drove together in my van. He’d be staying at work after I was done telling my story yet again, but he promised me dinner at The Finest Catch tonight, and since I had the wheels, he’d have to keep that promise.
Grace Templeton stood up when we walked through the door and smiled. “There’s our hero. We are all so proud of you, Jillian.”
I paused in front of her. “Are you sticking around—because the job will slow down now that half the population is in jail.”
She laughed. “I am sticking around—for now.”
“Okay. It’s almost midterms and Tom and I have someone we’d like you to meet when he comes home for his break from college.”
“Are you talking about Finn? I’ve heard plenty about him from the chief.”
I nodded. “I am. Unless you’re opposed to being set up on a blind date by the guy’s parents.”
“I am not opposed in the least.” She smiled at Tom. “That picture of him in your office is kind of persuasive. Hot guy.”
“He is very . . . good-looking inside and out,” I said. “Time to talk about crime now. See you later, Grace.”
Tom and I went to his office and I took one of the padded chairs across from where his swivel chair was.
He said, “You called us parents. That means a lot.”
“I’m through with all this stepdaughter/stepson thing. Family is the most important thing in the world and I don’t have time to qualify my relationships.”
“I like the way you think.”
Once I was done relating the events of last night again, we tossed around ideas about what happened the day Chester died. Tom believed it was manslaughter, not premeditated murder. We both decided that those fingernail pieces found in the closet probably belonged to Minnie. Chester and Osborne argued, she hid with her scaredy-cat Simon in that secret part of the closet and when Osborne couldn’t find her and eliminate her, he left. Her ending up in the hospital where one of his flunkies, Norm Garrett, was a security guard, probably made him as happy as a pig in mud.
“He overheard Minnie talking to Brenda in the hospital about the tall man and no uniform and relayed that to Osborne,” I said. “Did Norm run her off the road?”
Tom shook his head no. “Osborne is a control freak and a lot smarter than Norm Garrett. I’m guessing he had one of his more experienced coconspirators in the sheriff’s office take care of Dr. Ross after Norm called him. We’ll find out who it was, trust me. Anyway, Osborne had to get rid of anything connecting him to Chester or Brenda or Norm or anyone else. He probably stole her phone just like he probably stole the burner phones from Mrs. Schultz’s house. Chester, not the brightest bulb in the pack, bought those burner phones that he used to communicate with Mrs. Schultz using her credit card.”
“That is pretty dumb,” I said.
“No kidding. If Harris Schultz and Chester’s son and daughter-in-law hadn’t gone to high school together, none of this probably would have happened. Strange how the past always connects to the future.”
“You know, Sara Jo was sporting an engagement ring that Norm gave her. Do you think Norm was paid, in part, by Osborne with the ring? Because the jewelry box was hidden in that closet along with Minnie’s journals. She wanted to keep those things safe, maybe because something went missing weeks or even months before. Trouble was, she got so confused, she probably didn’t remember why she hid that box away after a while.”
“You’re probably right,” he said. “Maybe we need to borrow that ring from Sara Jo and show it to Mrs. Schultz. She’ll probably be able to identify it now.”
I smiled and thought it was about time for me to leave when Tom’s phone rang. “Hang on while I catch this. I need a proper good-bye kiss.”
He answered, and when his smile began to fade, I feared he was hearing bad news. I sure hoped Osborne hadn’t escaped. Someone was talking a long time and Tom kept nodding and finally said, “That is so sickening. Thanks for filling me in.”
He hung up, his eyes filled with sadness.
“What happened?”
“Well, it happened five years ago. As expected, Norm Garrett wants a deal almost as bad as Osborne. He knows a lot of things about the corruption in the sheriff’s department. But he knows something about Minnie Schultz—or more specifically about her husband . . . something we never considered in our investigation.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Apparently Osborne himself ran a man off the road five years ago—Otto Schultz.”
I was too stunned to speak for a few seconds. My hand covered my lips as I said, “I don’t understand. What did he have against Otto Schultz?”
“Norm Garrett says he and Osborne were shaking down businesses.”
“Businesses like Otto’s jewelry store?”
“Yup. Norm was an enforcer for Osborne. He collected protection money from a lot of people in the county who owned small businesses. When Otto refused to pay, Osborne decided to take the poor guy out—and Norm knew it. Osborne then told Norm it was no longer safe for him to work for the department. He got him the hospital job—and they kept their criminal relationship going. It was safer for Osborne that way, not really so much for Norm.”
I sat back, the pieces falling into place. “When Minnie ended up in the hospital, he already had his enforcer in place.”
“Yup.�
�
“Do you think Sara Jo knew she was engaged to a criminal?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. But I intend to find out.” Tom tented his hands and smiled.
I nodded, lips tight. Big crimes in small towns can bring a lot of people down, even the ones who seem nice.
Epilogue
Kara brought flowers in through the back door of Minnie’s house and set them on the dining room table. Belle had made the most beautiful cake for Minnie’s homecoming and it sat on her sideboard. With all the boxes long gone, the house was as beautiful as it probably had been before the poor woman had fallen so ill.
Otto and Simon were busy exploring each room as if it was the first time they’d been here. They would be so happy to see Minnie. The living room was once again crowded, but not with boxes this time. Until Minnie finished with her rehab, her son Henry and daughter, Greta, decided a hospital bed would be easiest for her to get in and out of. For now, this bed would help keep her visits to the bedrooms to a minimum. That was a room she had once shared with her husband, who had been murdered because he stood up to Osborne and Norm. The guest bedroom certainly wasn’t a good idea since Chester had been murdered there by the tall man who at times wore a uniform and then did not—Brad Osborne. In his plea deal, the dirtiest of cops had to admit his crimes, including running Brenda Ross off the road, just as he done to Otto Schultz five years before.
Brenda, though hobbled by her injuries, would arrive soon. It had been her idea that Minnie stay away from those bedrooms until she was fully recovered. Both Kara and I thought it was an excellent idea. When Minnie had been told that her husband hadn’t died in an accident but had been murdered, Brenda Ross said it had been a setback. For a week afterward, Minnie’s confusion returned. But now she was well enough to come home and Brenda would be helping her deal with the revived grief of losing a man she had loved very much.
The Cat, the Collector and the Killer Page 23