by Beth Byers
Zee looked at Carver and then after where Professor Pretty had gone.
“You probably just expect more from professors because your mom wouldn’t have been caught so easily,” Zee said. She laughed at me and then at Carver. I wasn’t sure what had happened between them but their relationship seemed to have evened out. I wondered what had happened the evening before when Carver had sped off with Zee into the nighttime.
“It doesn’t make sense,” I said again.
I just didn’t believe that Stevie was that stupid. I would have thought all of her natural instincts would have gotten her to run after stealing that money. Why kill over it if you took it? To keep the job? A few million, plus whatever Stevie had on her own…in the right country that was enough to live the rest of her life like a queen. Maybe that was worth killing over but why would you stay here? Why wouldn’t you take the money and leave immediately?
“Why not?” Simon took my hand, tangling our fingers together.
“I mean…the ivory tower stereotype is baloney for the most part. Do you think professors don’t have to figure out mortgages and loans? Working for a university or college is a dog eat dog world and people at those places are very good at eating other dogs.”
Maddie laughed and then said, “I’m not sure what you said except I’m bothered that you, of all people, are talking about dog’s eating each other.”
I leaned my head back, tapping my fingers against the table as Az came out with a tray full of food.
“I don’t believe that Stevie was this stupid. Something else was happening.”
Az nodded as he served us grilled chicken, smothered in sautéed veggies. The tray had a basket of bread. This is what my mom would have made. Some healthy and sensible. Something that was comforting for me like mashed potatoes and gravy or macaroni and cheese was for others.
“We’re missing a piece of the puzzle,” I said. “Don’t you think?”
“She did steal the money,” Carver told me. “We have video of her and Frank stealing it. We have to follow the evidence.”
“But Frank is dead…” I didn’t buy it. Not one little bit.
“Which means Stevie Lyman was greedy enough to manipulate Frank into stealing it and then evil enough to murder him to keep it all for herself.” Carver glanced at Zee and Simon for backup, but neither of them said anything.
“Maddie. Jane, google me Frank Gentile,” I said suddenly.
“I can tell you about Frank Gentile,” Simon said. “He’s the economics professor. He lived with Jayla for at least two decades. No kids. No marriages. He’s the type to marry. All of his siblings are. But Jayla wasn’t.”
“I bet that chapped his hide,” I said. “Frank makes sense. He sacrificed everything for Jayla. Then she leaves him. Maybe temporarily, but she leaves him. Only to later call him back from Stevie. I bet Frank felt like a dog who’d been lost, found a better home, and had to go back to his original owner. That was why his hand was on Stevie’s waist. That was why Jayla looked so mad. She knew she hadn’t gotten all of him back when she yanked Frank home.”
I took a deep breath, my mind racing as I tried to figure it out.
“It makes sense to me that he’d get so angry. I absolutely get him stealing Jayla’s money. Maybe that was why he went back to Jayla. To get a chance at it. He touched Stevie like there was still something between them. Maybe there was! Jayla screwed him over. She took the future he once wanted and then…somehow got him to go back to her. Maybe the somehow was his own plot.”
Zee nodded, warming up to my theory. But, of course, it made sense. Frank had helped to steal the money.
“She was a psychology professor. She probably knew just how to manipulate him home,” Jane said cutting in. “My psychology professor could make people do all kinds of stuff with enough information. Jayla would have known everything about Frank after that many years of living together.”
I blinked as I processed what Jane had said. Jayla had manipulated Frank home. Maybe he’d come back, realized nothing had changed, and decided upon stealing things.
“Well,” Carver said, but I held up my hand as I tried to follow the thought. I even closed my eyes as it all came together.
“Oh…evil,” I breathed.
“What?” Zee demanded. “Was it not Stevie?”
I scratched the back of my neck as I considered and then added, “So evil.”
“Rosie luv,” Az demanded, “Tell us.”
“Professor Pretty,” I muttered as I opened my eyes. “You said he dealt with behavior and manipulation?”
Zee nodded.
“He did it,” I said, convinced.
“You think it was the pretty boy who shot Jayla and Frank?” Carver demanded.
I noted his term for the professor, but I was too distraught to be amused.
“No,” I said. “I think he manipulated Stevie into doing it, I think he convinced her that her best plan was to play it cool instead of escaping, and I think he left her locker open because he knew I’d snoop. He set all of us up. And we fell for it. Stevie killed them. Stevie stole the money. And Professor Evil manipulated all of it to be the only one who benefited.”
I looked down at the comfort food Az had made me. The type of food Mom cooked the entirety of my life. Quick, healthy, sensible. Professor food.
Soon enough one of them was going to be eating prison food while another benefited from the crime she’d committed. Because as sure as I was that Professor Evil had set everything up, I didn’t think there was a snowball’s chance in Hades that he’d done anything you could get arrested for. In fact, I would bet that he would remain behind for a while. He’d watch from the sidelines and revel in being uncatchable. And then, he’d disappear into whatever location he already decided upon.
“That…” Simon stared at Carver who stared at Zee. We all looked at each other and considered upon my theory. Simon finished, “That makes a lot more sense than it did before.”
“And it’s entirely unprovable. Not just unprovable, but he didn’t actually do anything.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. I was sure he hadn’t. He hadn’t needed to do a single thing to win. Other than plant ideas and watch Stevie Lyman.
* * * * *
Simon loaded the last of my things into a box in the back of my Forrester. It didn’t all fit in one car any more, but we’d already made a trip or two and I’d had a lot of my things at Simon’s for a while now
“You ready to come home?” He smiled down at my face. I didn’t answer with words. I wrapped my arms around his waist, pressed my cheek into his chest, and squeezed him tight.
The last few weeks as Stevie tried for and received an insanity plea, the rest of us had watched in dismay. One evening a few days after Stevie had been arrested, the Reed College professors returned to Portland. Eleven days later, Professor Evil went hiking alone in the woods and never came back.
It wasn’t that surprising to realize when he left that his checking accounts were empty. That he’d shipped out a lot of his things and that they never found a body from his hike into the woods. He wasn’t dead. He’d very disappeared brilliantly. We couldn’t prove what he’d done, but our suspicions had made it a little easier for Stevie to end up in a mental facility rather than prison. She didn’t need our help to get there, but she got it all the same. She didn’t deserve our help either, but we couldn’t stop ourselves from trying.
Professor Evil got away with his plan. It made me furious beyond belief, but…he didn’t pull the trigger. He didn’t even steal the money the first time around. For all we knew, the account where it ended up had both of their names on it. Either way, I hoped karma was coming for him and I focused on the good in my life.
Like Simon. And Zee. Maddie. Jane. Az. Massages and dogs. Long walks on a gray beach. Blown glass art and clam chowder.
Life was good. I was blessed. I was, in fact, loved. My second chance was all I could have hoped. I reached up on my toes to kiss Simon’s jaw, and then
he opened my car door for me and drove me home.
The End
Thanks so much for reading my new story! I had so much fun writing it. If you enjoyed this story, I would be so grateful for a review. Reviews mean a lot to writers like me as well as to readers.
The next book in this series, Cinnamon Rolls & Cyanide is available for preorder now!
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Also By Beth Byers
The 2nd Chance Diner Mysteries
Spaghetti, Meatballs, & Murder
Cookies & Catastrophe
(found in the Christmas boxset, The Three Carols of Cozy Christmas Murder)
Poison & Pie
Double Mocha Murder
Cinnamon Rolls & Cyanide (Coming March 2018)
The Brightwater Bay Mysteries
(co-written with Carolyn L. Dean and Angela Blackmoore)
A Little Taste of Murder
(found in the Christmas boxset, The Three Carols of Cozy Christmas Murder)
A Tiny Dash of Death
A Sweet Spoonful of Cyanide
Also By Amanda A. Allen
The Mystic Cove Mommy Mysteries
Bedtimes & Broomsticks
Runes & Roller Skates
Costumes and Cauldrons (found in the anthology Witch or Treat)
Banshees and Babysitters
Spellbooks and Sleepovers: A Mystic Cove Short Story
Hobgoblins and Homework
Gifts and Ghouls (found in the anthology Spells and Jinglebells)
Christmas and Curses
Potions & Passions (found in the anthology Hexes and Ohs)
The Zinnia West 1950s Mysteries (co-written with Christina Hill)
Zinnia West & The Corpse Served Cold
Zinnia West & The Corpse Burnt Crisp
The Rue Hallow Mysteries
Hallow Graves
Hungry Graves
Lonely Graves
Sisters and Graves
Yule Graves
Fated Graves
Ruby Graves
The Inept Witches Mysteries (co-written with Auburn Seal)
Inconvenient Murder
Moonlight Murder
Bewitched Murder
Presidium Vignettes (with Rue Hallow)
Prague Murder
Paris Murder
Murder By Degrees
Curses of the Witch Queen
Fairy Tales Re-Imagined
Song of Sorrow: A Prelude to Rapunzel
Snow White
Kendawyn Paranormal Regency Romances
Compelled by Love
Bewildered by Love
Persuaded to Love
Other Novels
These Lying Eyes
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by Amanda A. Allen
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.