by Tonya Kappes
The banned book file had a current list of books that were about to make it on the list. There was a link in one of the documents that I clicked on. It took me to a Google email that hadn’t popped up earlier.
In fact, the app wasn’t even on the computer and needed to be downloaded. I wondered if she’d had access to the app at home or on her phone. Another thing I’m sure the police had looked into. Out of curiosity, I downloaded the app on her computer. As it downloaded, some sort of pop up opened and a dancing pig appeared on the screen singing and oinking along with a few barnyard friends about some game that was a free download. It was so loud.
I moved the flashlight around the computer to find the speakers or a button to turn the sound off. In the meantime, the email popped open and needed a password.
With the sound of the farm animals having their good ole time, I typed in Crooked Cat, The Crooked Cat, Leslie, Honey Springs, but nothing. I had one more try before I was locked out.
“B-a-n-n-e-d,” I said over the now singing cow, “b-o-o-k-s.” I hit enter and the Google mail opened. “Hot dog.” I smacked my hands together and let my eyes scan down the page.
One after the other were emails from Drew Kirkwood. Randomly I clicked on one.
My eyes popped as I read through them. Each one professing their love for the other and how they were going to run off together until I read one from the night before she’d been killed.
“I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I’m going to come clean about our affair. If you aren’t going to live up to promises, I will help you,” I read, realizing that this was a reason for Drew to kill her.
In a reply to her, he’d begged her not to tell anyone. He couldn’t bear to hurt Mari like that and wanted to give them more time. He’d professed his love to both women and begged her some more to give him time.
There was a follow up email from Drew that’d yet to be opened. Without any hesitation, I clicked it open, though I knew I shouldn’t have.
“You must not,” I read aloud and noticed the letters were all capitalized and bold, “tell anyone about our affair. You will ruin me and you. No good can come of this. I’m on my way to see you. Do not tell anyone anything or this is over.”
The words burned in my head as I read them.
“Well, well. I knew you were going to be trouble.” The familiar voice carried over the now singing horse.
I jerked around. There was a flashlight shining on me.
“You couldn’t just let it die even after I ran you off the road,” Mari shined the flashlight on her face. The hood of her cloak over her head. “It was a warning. Now I’m afraid that warning, along with you, has expired.”
She drew a gun out from underneath her cloak.
“I know nothing.” I quickly tried to think of something smart like a lawyer, but only my kindergarten voice came out. “I don’t know a thing but that Drew killed Alexis.”
“And you were a lawyer?” she scoffed. “Drew didn’t want to kill her. After I’d found out about the little affair, I told him to put an end to it. I really thought they’d ended it. But that nasty daughter of hers has some very loose lips when it comes to drinking at the Moose. When I was down at the marina getting my boat fixed, I heard Bib telling the mechanic about who I was and how he’d heard from Leslie this big secret about her mom and Drew. How Drew was going to leave me and this big scandal. That wasn’t going to happen. I have a reputation to uphold in this town and no two-bit bookseller and her slutty daughter are going to ruin that for me.”
“Stand up.” She shoved the gun in my ribs. I cringed. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I kept my mouth shut. “We are going to go for a little boat ride.”
“I’m not fond of boats.” I lied in hopes she wasn’t going to take me on the boat.
“Don’t worry.” She laughed. “You won’t be in it for long.” She stuck the gun in deeper. “Get up.” There wasn’t any sort of joking in her tone. “Don’t you watch all the crime shows where it’s better to listen to the killer than not?”
“I don’t have time for those. Listen,” I put my hands in the air and stood up. “I won’t tell a soul. This is our little secret. You can hire me as your family lawyer and I can’t say a word.”
It sounded pretty good to me.
“No thank you.” She smiled a sweet smile and looked at me sternly. The same look I’d seen her give Drew the morning they were putting up balloons on the boardwalk when he was talking to the person on the dock. “If Leslie knows, then why not kill her? I did see Drew and her talking on the docks.”
“Leslie doesn’t know it all. At least not yet. She’s been doing like you and piecing together things. Things her mother had said and catching Drew here. Her mother had told her that she’d been seeing a married man, but other than that she’d not named Drew.” She waved her gun for me to move toward the door. “Boardwalk. Now.”
With each step I tried to come up with a good excuse for her to let me go, but my mind seemed to be mush.
“What about when I don’t show up for things? The Bean Hive? People will look for me.” I gave it a good shot.
“Nope. After I got your text about seeing some of your Aunt’s rentals, I knew you were coming here and snooping. I knew Alexis and Drew had corresponded through email from their iPads, and figured you’d be able to snoop around. I wasn’t going to risk it.” She opened the door of the bookstore when the coast was clear of anyone seeing us. We walked out. Her arm curled in mine with the gun still in my side. “Glad I didn’t. So I headed on over to that cute little coffee shop of yours and left a couple of notes for your dear sweet aunt about how you didn’t really want to do this anymore and your heart was dead set on being a lawyer and a wife.”
“Wife?” I asked.
“The man you left to come here.” Her words were nothing like what’d happened to me. “I’d found out all your information when I learned you were snooping around. Gossip around here spreads. Regardless, the website of your old law firm is on the Internet, with your husband’s contact information. I sent him a message that you were coming back and how sorry you were for leaving him.”
Did she really not know what’d happened to me? Nothing this woman said made sense.
Regardless, she’d had other plans for the end of my life.
“I really thought Drew killed Alexis.” A last-ditch effort from me before I saw the boat’s sparkly back edge come into view. It was tied up on the bank next to the boardwalk where I’d seen the same boat zoom out from.
“Think again, lawyer.” She loved using that word to show my ignorance of this situation. She glowed thinking she’d just outsmarted me. “Just walk to the boat and get in.”
“I need a life jacket.” I steadied myself on the rocking boat as I stepped on the cushiony seat on one side of the boat.
“Not where you’re going.” She pulled the flashlight out and shined it on the big chain curled on the floor of the boat next to a empty five-gallon paint bucket, a bag of concrete and a few gallons of water.
I gulped and sat down. She revved up the engine and threw it into drive. Images of that fateful morning seeing this exact same boat speeding down the lake played over in my head. I wondered if it was some sick joke from the great beyond playing with me as my fate was coming to an end.
Twenty-five
Chills ran up my body as the cold air whipped around me from the speeding boat. The dark had blanketed us. I had no idea how Mari could see where the boat was zooming. The roaring engine and air in my ears made it hard for me to hear anything she was screaming at me, which was probably a good thing.
I was thankful for the dark because I continued to try and see the bucket I knew she’d planned to concrete my feet into. I choked back any sort of vomit that’d crept into my esophagus and swallowed it back down.
My conversation with Patrick and professing our love for one another was a strange comfort in this moment. At least I wasn’t going to die with my true love buried. For a second I thought about
jumping out of the boat, then I’d talk myself out of it thinking I could still talk Mari out of killing me. Fat chance.
Mari brought the boat to idle. She looked back at me before she maneuvered the boat into a cove.
“It’s almost time. Do you want your shoes on or off?” she asked. She clicked the flashlight on me and the entire cove lit up.
It seemed to be a very strange question to me. If I were a killer, I’d want everything to be buried and nothing left for chance. As if the decision was that important, I looked down at my cowboy boots. The heels on them were thick.
“I’d like to take these off.” I kept to myself that I knew this cove. I knew it like the back of my hand. It wasn’t too far from Aunt Maxi’s, well, Patrick’s house. Patrick and I had explored the entire shoreline of Lake Honey Springs.
The cove had a cave that ran along the bank. If I dove far enough down, I knew I could get into the cave and stand up with at least one foot of breathing space above the water line. At least it was like that twelve years ago. It was worth the effort of trying.
Mari stood over me with that darn gun pointed at me and watched me as I placed my hand on the heel of my right boot. With ease, I pulled my right foot out of the boot and placed it on the floor of the boat. I placed my hand on the heel of my left boot. In a big jerk, I pulled it off my foot and gripped the top, swinging it up and under Mari’s nose sending her stumbling backward.
I didn’t wait around to see what had happened to her. I flung my body over the boat. The water was still so cold from the winter and hadn’t yet warmed with spring. Without letting the chill get me, I dove down and swam over to the edge, feeling with my hands through the dark.
“Where are you?” Mari screamed from the boat.
Pow, pow, pow. The bullets hit the water just as I dove down and found the opening of the cave. With my legs powering me further and further into the cave, my hand dragged along the wall until I felt the opening where I knew the pocket of air was.
Just by chance, Patrick and I found it while timing each other on who could hold their breath the longest. When Aunt Maxi said things happened for a reason, I couldn’t help but believe that this was the reason Patrick and I’d played that stupid game. I only hoped and prayed Mari didn’t know about it or have the stamina to get to me.
I swam up and when I felt the ledge, I planted my feet on it and slowly stood. Just like before, the water parted around my shoulders and there was breathing room between my head and the top of the cave. It was black as night, but during the day, there was a stream of light that did come through. I only prayed I could make it until daylight without my nerves, or the cold of the water, getting to me.
The rumble of the boat’s engine reverberated on the cave walls. I could hear Mari still screaming and what sounded like the gun being fired. Mari hadn’t taken the initiative to jump into the water. Maybe I had a chance to live.
I planted my back up against the cave wall and rested, trying to fight against my fear and not give up. It seemed like forever that I was down there waiting, listening before I heard the roar of a boat. The roar of two boats.
Slow and steady, I breathed out my nose to see if I could hear anything else. There were two engines idling. My heart pounded in my chest. Had Mari called Drew? Was he coming there to rescue her and help find me?
According to the emails he’d sent to Alexis, he didn’t want anyone to find out about their affair. Mari apparently was forgiving him and his emails sounded as though he didn’t want to be with Alexis anymore. My mind knew he’d do anything. Even go as far as helping Mari kill me.
The water around me rippled. There was only one of two times water in a still cave did that and it had to do with snakes or people. I prayed it was snakes, but the light coming toward me from the depths of the lake told me it was a flashlight and someone holding it.
My hand felt for the edges of the ledge. I was going to have to hold on and flail my legs in front of me, hoping to knock out Mari or Drew. Whichever one it was.
As the light got closer, my grip got tighter. I brought my legs up, bending them at the knee. Once the light almost hit the break of the water’s edge, I started to pedal my legs like I did on the bike. The flashlight broke out of the water and behind it a person.
I closed my eyes and flailed my legs in hopes there wasn’t a gun in the other person’s hands.
“Roxy! Stop! It’s me! Patrick!” His voice echoed in the tiny space.
I opened my eyes and when I saw him under the light, I began to cry.
“Spencer has Mari in custody.” He talked to me in a calming voice that told me everything was going to be okay. “Your aunt Maxi is up there waiting on the police boat for you.” He held the spotlight over us. He stared into my eyes. “Do you think you can swim out of here? I have a rope for us to be tethered so if you get nervous, I can help you out.”
“I’m fine,” My voice was shaky and I was in a little bit of shock, but I knew what I needed to do. I nodded at him and let him put the rope around my waist.
On the count of three we sucked in deep breaths before we dove back down into the depth of the cave and out into the lake where the lights showered the water around us.
Aunt Maxi and Spencer were hanging over the side of the boat with their arms out to pull me out of the water and into the boat.
Spencer had blankets and a change of clothes he’d said was for boat rescues. My hands shook as I used the small private space on the boat to peel off my wet clothes, replacing them with the baggy pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt.
After I came out, I sat down waiting to see what was next.
“How did you find me?” I sat on the police boat with the blanket wrapped around me along with Patrick’s arms.
Aunt Maxi and Patrick sat next to me while Spencer was processing Mari’s boat.
“Spencer called my cell phone and asked me where you were. I told him that you’d gone to Mari’s house for a meeting. He told me to get to the marina.” She patted Patrick’s leg. “I called Patrick on my way over and told him that something bad was happening.”
“That’s when I met her down at the boat dock where there was a police officer waiting for us. He informed us that Spencer had gone to Mari’s house because the 9-1-1 phone call information came back from when you were run off the road. You didn’t call 9-1-1 from your cell. The person who ran you off the road did. The number was traced back to Mari Kirkwood’s cell phone,” Patrick said.
I gulped.
“That’s why Pepper didn’t bark. He knew Mari from her volunteering at Pet Palace.” Aunt Maxi’s brow rose and she nodded her head. “The caller said she was you so when the initial report from the dispatcher came in, the tapes were of a women saying it was you. Spencer still had the tapes and numbers traced just so he could be sure. When it came up as Mari, he tried to call your cell and when he couldn’t find you, he called me.”
“He feared you were in danger because once he found out it was Mari, he went to the Kirkwood house and Drew spilled his guts about his affair with Alexis. Mari had found out and was in a fit of rage. She’d gone to Crooked Cat to confront Alexis. They’d gotten into an argument according to Drew and that’s when Mari pulled out one of Drew’s banned books from her purse and hit Alexis just right over the head, killing her.” Patrick ran a soothing hand along my back as he continued to tell the sordid tale. “Drew told Spencer that he and Mari just had a fight and she took off in the boat. I remembered you said something about a sparkly boat and they do have that sparkle on the back of their boat. When I pulled into the parking lot of the boardwalk, I saw your car. I told Spencer about the boat you’d seen and we figured you were on the water with her.”
“Spencer drove the boat and Patrick held the spotlight. He said that if you’d gotten to the cove, he’d know exactly where you were. He was right.” Aunt Maxi smiled.
“I told you earlier today that I’d lost you once and I wasn’t going to lose you again.” Patrick kissed me.
&nb
sp; “Okay love birds, break it up,” Spencer said.
When we looked up, he had Mari in handcuffs next to him. Her head was down.
“I’m going to take her to the station and book her. But I’m going to need all three of you down there to give your statements after we make it back to the marina.” He took another set of cuffs and cuffed Mari’s leg to the rail of the boat.
One of the police officers drove Mari’s boat back to the marina while Patrick sat between me and Aunt Maxi, his arms around both of us.
Patrick drove Aunt Maxi and me to the police station in his truck where we gave our statements and an hour later he dropped Aunt Maxi off at the boardwalk at her car.
“We can leave your car here and I’ll bring you back in the morning to get it.” Patrick wasn’t about to let me be alone and I didn’t protest.
My nerves were shot and I really didn’t want to be alone.
Epilogue
“I said six o’clock on the dot,” Low-retta waltzed into The Bean Hive the next day.
I’d surprised myself on how well I had slept. In fact, Patrick didn’t even wake me up for my four a.m. alarm. When I did wake up, it was on my own with Sassy and Pepper in the bed next to me. There was a warm thermos of coffee and a note from Patrick that said he’d called Bunny and they’d opened the shop for me.
When I walked into the cabin’s kitchen, there was a brand new bike with a big bow on the basket that was a perfect size for Pepper. With a big smile on my face, I ran my hand along the shiny new bike. Patrick was a keeper.
I’d finally made it to the shop around ten and was happy to see The Bean Hive was filled. Mostly with citizens trying to get the scoop on what’d happened the night before, but not Low-retta.
“I had a gun stuck in my side by a murderer. But I hope you enjoyed the southern tea cookies.” I knew she’d heard about Mari taking me hostage in an effort to kill me so I’d take the secret of the affair to the grave.