Ron took another step.
As she opened her mouth to scream, a car came squealing around the corner down the block, its high beams cutting through the night. Ron froze and looked over his shoulder, giving Missy her chance to run. She spun and ran as hard as she could, mis-stepping on the uneven lawn and tumbling across the grass. Every bounce and jolt and tree root hurt as she rolled to the sidewalk, while she tried to make sense of what she was hearing. More tires squealing, brakes jamming, men shouting, and in the distance now, a siren.
Missy dared to pick her head up and look across the lawn. Two cops had disarmed Ron and pushed him facedown into the grass. A third came up from behind, stuck his knee in Ron’s back and started putting handcuffs on the man.
Missy was crying. But she was also smiling. And laughing too. Just about every emotion flowed through at the same time. A few moments later, another police officer came over to help her up. It was Paul Johnson.
“You okay, Missy?”
She just laughed, grateful to be alive.
Chapter Twenty
It was very brave of you,” Connie said.
“Stupid, actually,” Missy said. She gave the other woman a sheepish grin from across the booth in the diner. “Thank God I took that call from Mrs. Wise. When I got cut off, she knew something was wrong. If she hadn’t called Paul Johnson…”
Missy shivered at the memory of the other night. Ron had been prepared to kill her.
“I still think it was brave,” Connie said.
Missy couldn’t take the compliment. She had to be honest with Connie.
“Not really. I thought it was you.”
“What?”
“I didn’t think I was in any danger when I went over there.”
Connie was still incredulous. “You actually thought I did it?”
Missy nodded. She had thought about holding back on the other woman, but it was better this way. She believed in being honest, even when the truth was unpleasant.
“Because we broke up?” Connie asked.
“Because at the time, I thought she had broken up with you, I saw you get into a heated argument at the Diet Club, and honestly, you seemed a little…unbalanced.”
Connie’s eyes narrowed. “My friend had just died.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.” Missy sat back in the booth. “But look at it from my perspective.”
Connie looked out the window, not answering her for a moment. A male customer walked by and did a double-take when he passed Connie, as if he recognized her but couldn’t place her. Missy hid an embarrassed smile. There was one way he might have recognized her…
Connie was still looking out the window. “Karen was curious but she wasn’t a lesbian. Not really. When I realized that, I broke it off with her.”
Missy said nothing.
“You were her best friend,” Connie said.
Missy sighed. “We were close, but not close enough for her to tell me about you. Or what was actually happening.”
Connie’s eyes snapped back around to her. “She was in a bad place.”
“And I had no idea. That’s all I’m saying.”
Connie nodded. “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”
Missy said nothing.
The other woman got up out of the booth and grabbed her purse. “Do we really know anybody?”
Missy had been struggling with that question lately. “Yes.”
Connie looked at her strangely. “How can you say that, after what you just went through?”
“Because I knew her well. Maybe not completely, we can’t ever know anybody completely.” Missy had been thinking about Karen, but now she was thinking about Tyler Brock. They had been so close all those years ago but she had never seen their break-up coming. “I think we can know people, we just have to pay attention.”
Connie made a noise and started walking out, but Missy grabbed her arm.
“What?”
Missy looked up at her. “Karen told people you were in the Club, didn’t she?”
Connie nodded. “That was wrong of her. It was a betrayal.”
“Why did she do it?”
“She logged onto my chat room anonymously and started telling all the men there that I was trying to lose all my weight. The guys that go on there are into a…certain look. Karen thought they’d leave if they found out I was trying to slim down.”
“But why did she do it?”
“I guess she wanted to get back at me. She felt like I’d taken advantage of her. It’s one of the reasons we had that argument you witnessed.”
“What was the other?”
Connie pursed her lips. “We hadn’t been together for awhile but I still cared about her. I was worried about her seeing Ron. I told her as much, but she threw it all back in my face.”
Missy let go of Connie’s arm. But the woman just stood there, as if giving her permission to ask another question.
Missy said, “If you don’t think we can know someone, how can you stand there and say you knew Karen wasn’t a lesbian?”
Connie smiled ruefully. “She was a jealous woman but you know that? She never got jealous when it came to me.”
Missy wanted to look away. She’d asked a hurtful question without knowing it.
“All those men that paid to see me…it didn’t bother her. But when she’d heard that Ron was dating again, the claws came out. It was like somebody had flipped a switch.”
Connie turned to leave, but Missy couldn’t leave things like that with her. She doubted she’d ever see the woman again but having bad blood didn’t make any sense.
“Wait.”
Connie stopped again. Missy got up and hugged her. It took a moment, but Connie finally hugged her back.
“I’m sorry,” Missy said.
“She was a great person,” Connie said. “I’m sorry too.”
“At least Ron is going away.”
“Not long enough,” Connie said. “He’ll probably get a few years and only serve one. That’s how the courts work.”
Missy was surprised by her attitude. It seemed like Connie was speaking from some kind of personal experience. Missy didn’t pry though.
They let go of each other. Connie gave her a sad smile then left the diner. Missy watched her go, then sat back down.
For awhile she just sat there, absently sipping her now-cold coffee. The waitress came and asked if she wanted anything a couple times but she had no appetite. She looked out the window across the street, at the fire station, and saw Aaron outside having a catch in the hot June sun with one of the fire fighters. He was laughing and joking with his friends and somewhere a pretty woman was thinking about their upcoming wedding. The thought made Missy smile.
“Melissa.”
She’d been so lost in her thoughts she hadn’t even heard him approach. Tyler Brock stood there, looking down with concerned eyes.
“Tyler.”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
He wasn’t wearing his ring again. She wondered if that meant anything or if that was just because he and his wife had a complicated relationship.
Missy said, “I have to stop almost getting myself killed.”
She’d intended it to be a joke, but his eyes remained serious. “Yes. You need to be more careful.”
He let go of her and slid into the booth across from her. Without even asking for his order, her waitress brought him a cup of coffee. Tyler smiled and thanked her before she left.
They both sipped their drinks and watched each other.
Tyler was the first to speak. “So you were right, as usual.”
“Yes and no.” She put her coffee down. It was cold and bitter, like the feeling she’d had when she woke up this morning. Karen’s death had been for nothing and now Ron’s life was ruined. It was all so sad. “I thought Karen had been murdered, but she wasn’t. I thought it was Connie, but it wasn’t. Right and wrong, all at the same time.”
“But you knew Ka
ren hadn’t taken the pills. And you never stopped believing that.”
Missy smiled. “I guess I did know her a little bit.”
Tyler nodded. “People aren’t so hard to figure out.”
She gave him a look. This was funny coming from him. In high school he’d been an open book. Now he was written in a different language half the time.
“Oh really?”
He nodded. “People are generally good and when they do bad things it’s usually with a reason. There are very few truly evil people out there.”
“You’ve been a cop for twenty years and you can say that with a straight face?”
“Almost twenty years, I’m not that old. And yes, I can say that with a straight face.”
“Then how come I don’t know you anymore, Tyler?”
She was surprised she’d asked it. He was too.
When he fumbled for an answer, she felt bad. “I was just kidding—”
“You do know me.” He looked deep into her eyes. “That boy you dated all those years ago, he’s still in here.” Tyler tapped the middle of his chest. “That boy I was, that girl you were, I don’t think those people ever completely go away. Deep down, that’s who we are.”
She hadn’t been expecting him to get so deep with her. She was at a loss for words.
Tyler continued. “So you still know me, Melissa DeMeanor. In many ways, you know me better than anybody.”
Oh God. Her heart was in overdrive now. No matter how much she tried to forget him, Tyler always seemed able to make her feel this way: flustered, out of control, defenseless. His eyes were so gorgeous and…
“I’m sorry to hear about your wife,” she said, not knowing where that had come from.
“Yeah.” He took a deep breath, getting up from the booth. Tyler dropped a five on the table, which was a nice tip for just a coffee. “She’s filing for divorce.”
Missy’s jaw dropped. She’d known that the woman had gone back to Philadelphia, but she hadn’t known their relationship was officially over.
“Tyler…”
He smiled sadly. “It’s for the best. We were together for a long time and we probably shouldn’t have been. We both tried to do the right thing, though, we tried to stay together because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?”
She thought it was a rhetorical question, but when he waited for an answer she realized it wasn’t.
“Yes.” Missy believed that. Her parents had always told her marriage could be difficult, but you were supposed to work things out. Too many people gave up too easily.
Tyler put his hand on her shoulder again. It sent a jolt through her entire body.
“Next time, call me before you enter a suspect’s house alone on a dark night, okay?”
She laughed. As always, his humor was perfectly timed and broke the tension.
“You think there’ll be a next time?” Missy asked.
“I know you, Melissa DeMeanor,” he said again. “When there’s trouble, you have a habit of getting involved because you want to help.”
Tyler waved goodbye and walked out of the diner. Missy waited a minute for him to leave, then got up and left a nice tip. As she walked out of the diner, she couldn’t help but think about the boy she’d dated in high school and the man she knew now.
Maybe she knew them both. Maybe they were still the same person.
Maybe she was too.
************
THANKS FOR READING!
I hope you enjoyed Diet Club Death, the third in the Missy DeMeanor cozy mystery series. I’ve got plenty more adventures planned for Missy, Tyler, Cody, and Noreen so if you enjoyed this book, please check out these other titles as well:
Flea Market Fatal
Book Club Bloodshed
Diet Club Death
Scrapbooking Slaying
If you have a spare moment, please let other readers know you enjoyed the books by leaving a review on Amazon.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brianna loves mysteries, hunky men, and crafts, but not always in that order. She has long yearned to write a cozy mystery series but always struggled to find the time between raising children, trying not to blow up the kitchen, and taking care of her rescued dogs. In her fleeting spare time, she enjoys scrapbooking, trying out new recipes, and binge-watching TruTV. She and her family live in Pennsylvania.
Feel free to tell all your Facebook friends about her books ;-)
For more information, visit her website: www.briannabatesauthor.blogspot.com.
ALSO BY BRIANNA BATES
MISSY DEMEANOR SERIES
Flea Market Fatal
Book Club Bloodshed
Diet Club Death
Scrapbooking Slaying
MARLENE AMBROSIA, WITCHY WIZARD COZY MYSTERY SERIES (coming soon)
The Once and Future Scream Queen
Diet Club Death. Copyright 2015 by Brianna Bates. All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, place and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.
Edition: December, 2015
Diet Club Death: Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mystery #3 (Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries) Page 14