The van switched lanes, cutting off a sedan, and to stay on its tail, Kate cut the wheel and immediately heard a horn blaring. She swerved back and shouted, “Sorry!” finally seeing the vehicle in her blind spot.
Then the black van took a hard left turn onto Rock Ridge Boulevard where it picked up speed.
Maneuvering carefully, she eased into the left lane, and then cut the same turn. With hardly any vehicles on the boulevard, she was able to pick up speed, but didn’t dare get too close to the van. Her Mrs. Fix It truck was distinct, and if Grady glanced in the rearview, he might put together who was following them.
Which begged the question: What in the hell were they doing?
Was she chasing a red herring as Carly had warned her against? Or was this knee-jerk reaction to follow them a trustworthy instinct that would add one more piece to the puzzle she had been convinced she had solved?
The black van turned off the road, slowing and bouncing over the lip in the asphalt that separated the boulevard from a mustard packing facility.
MUSTARD?
She read the name clear as day on the side of the warehouse: Langley’s Best Mustard Since 1979.
Curving around the side of the warehouse, the black van disappeared from view, and if she followed after it any faster or closer, she would be in danger of being caught, so Kate pulled off and wedged her truck between a delivery truck and a beat up Volvo, venturing to take the next steps on foot.
She kept her gait quick and soundless, as she advanced around the warehouse, listening for Daisy and the ex-cons under the noises of the packing machines. Who knew making mustard could be so loud?
And why on earth had Daisy driven to Lance Langley’s facility?
Piling up in her mind were more questions than answers, and when Daisy came into view, as Kate peered into the packing plant, those questions became even more complicated.
Grady began unloading the boxes from the van, stacking them beside a crate of mustard jars, as Daisy snapped her fingers at the Langley employees who dared glance her way and it did the trick. With each snap, they diverted their eyes and kept to their work, minding their own business.
What gave Daisy the authority, Kate wondered? And why were the Langley employees obeying?
Kate realized Bobby Shank wasn’t in the mix, and she scanned her eyes through the facility, searching for him.
She startled, her stomach leaping up her throat, when she felt hands grabbing her from behind. Before she could scream, a hand covered her mouth, giving her left arm the freedom it needed to slam her elbow back into the ribs of whoever was seizing her.
He grunted, but yanked her backwards then slammed her against the side of the warehouse. It was Bobby Shank, she realized looking up at him.
“You think you’re smart, do you?” he said through his teeth, not at all the helpful passerby she had met at the amusement park construction site. “You shouldn’t have followed us.”
“Why did Daisy slash her own tires?”
He glared down at her. “You really want to mess with a woman who’s nuts enough to drive a knife into her own tires?”
“Is she nuts enough to have killed Clifford?”
“And bait you into getting Meredith locked up.”
Kate gasped. Scott had the right killer all along and Kate had messed everything up.
“But you told me Meredith had fought with Clifford that day,” she asserted. “She’s innocent?”
“No one in Rock Ridge is innocent.”
Before he could elaborate, Daisy appeared, stepping out from the warehouse with Grady.
Ordering Shank, she said, “Throw her in the van.”
“No!” Kate started fighting, trying to kick and elbow Shank to wriggle free, but he was far too strong and barely felt her blows.
To Kate’s shock, the Langley employees kept their backs to her, as Shank threw her in the back of the van and climbed in after.
When Daisy hopped into the passenger’s seat, Kate demanded, “Why frame Meredith?”
“I didn’t,” said Daisy. “Meredith and I had a deal. She wanted out, and I told her all she had to do was leave Rock Ridge.”
“Are those boxes filled with drugs?” she asked.
Daisy only stared at her.
“Why Langley’s?”
Laughing, Daisy told Grady, who was climbing up behind the wheel, to kill Kate.
“I am the police chief’s wife!” she yelled, finally embracing the title she had been resisting for the past two years. “You can’t kill me.”
“I can kill anyone,” said Daisy so easily that it set Kate’s teeth on edge.
“You’ll never get away with it.”
“I already have.”
“For drugs? That’s what this is about? I thought you said you would never hurt Clifford?”
“Sometimes, when you really love a person, you have to kill them to ensure no one will ever hurt them.”
My God, thought Kate. The woman’s completely insane.
“Why kill Clifford in the exact same way Cookie was killed?”
Daisy turned misty eyed, saying, “Because he wanted it that way. I gave him a choice and that’s what he asked for. He really loved that woman.”
“Meredith will turn on you. She’ll take you down with her.”
This time, Bobby responded. “She won’t. There are so many of us on the inside, our girlfriends in the women’s prison. She won’t talk, not without a world of misery coming down on her. And she knows it.”
“You actually thought you could kill Clifford without getting arrested for it?”
“You’re talking in circles,” Daisy pointed out. “But no. I thought Scott would be dumb enough to go after Meredith first and foremost.” Then she locked her eyes on Kate. “He’s better than I thought. And you’re worse.”
In protest, she suddenly began thrashing around, but Bobby restrained her. As she stilled under the weight of his stone grip, she felt her cell press into her chest and a faint digital tone.
Her heart leapt in her throat she might have accidentally dialed the last person she had texted, but then it sank again. If Bobby heard a voice coming through, she might be killed before they got to where they were going.
It had been Scott. He was the one who texted her last.
And the second she heard his voice come through, asking, “Kate?” she began screaming out the license plate number.
“Black van! Heading east from the mustard—”
Bobby’s hand slapped over her mouth, and he snatched the phone from her overalls.
“What do we do?” he asked Daisy.
“Kill her.”
“Now?”
“You heard me.”
“With what?” he asked, bewildered. “I thought we were going to drown her in cement at the construction site.”
Daisy yelled, “Get creative!”
But all at once, everyone realized there were sirens blaring up behind the van.
“It’s over,” said Grady, under his breath.
“It’s over when I say it’s over!”
But Grady was easing the van onto the shoulder.
When it came to a stop, Kate heard Officers Garrison and Tolland rushing towards the back of the van then the door popped open.
“Freeze!” they yelled, weapons drawn and locked on the convicts.
“Kate, come out,” said Garrison.
She crawled from Shank then stepped out for the police officers to arrest them all, and when she turned, she saw Scott’s truck pulling up behind the squad car.
Running towards the driver’s side door, as he stepped out, she said breathlessly, “You were right!”
“So were you,” he said, wrapping her into a big hug.
“Meredith confessed?”
“To her role and Daisy’s,” he said.
Chapter Eleven
That night, Kate could barely eat dinner. It was a struggle for everyone. Jason sat on the couch. He had been withdrawn with stress all even
ing. Jared kept by his side, but it did little to pull him out of his silent panic. They had gathered at Kate’s house with the Langleys. Amelia looked distraught and the expression on Lance’s face indicated that no one was more scared them him.
After Kate busied herself clearing away all the plates, which were stacked with Chinese food no one had the stomach for, Scott escorted Lance out to the surveillance van where he would be dressed with a mic and wire before getting into his Cadillac to meet the kidnapper at the amusement park site.
“I should be the one to go,” said Jason, boldly getting off of the couch, as Scott and Lance reached the front door.
Scott raised his hand to ward off Jason’s advances. “We have to play ball. The kidnapper didn’t ask for you. He asked for Lance.”
“I’ll be alright,” said Lance, struggling to meet Jason’s gaze. “The next time you see me, I’ll have Becky.”
Kate hoped he was right. She had a bad feeling about this. So much could go wrong. And the construction site was plagued with hiding places. There was no way Scott’s team could cover every inch of it. But she had to trust him. There was no other option.
“We’ve got cameras set up all over the site thanks to Dean,” Scott explained, meeting Amelia’s grief-stricken eyes. “You’ll be able to watch from the other surveillance van.
Breaking from Scott, Lance gave Amelia a hug and reminded her he would be fine even though neither of them believed it. Then he stepped through the doorway and followed Scott to the van.
Kate wasn’t sure how she’d feel sitting in a van with the police. She might have nightmares about being in the back of a van for months. At least Daisy, Grady, and Bobby had been arrested, but it was nagging her why they had left those boxes at the mustard packing facility. Did Lance and Amelia know their warehouse had turned into a rendezvous point for passing off drugs? Or were they completely in the dark? As the CEO and owner, Lance was at the very top of the pyramid, and other than making occasional visits to the factory, he conducted the majority of his business from the office if not at home.
But it did beg the question of why Becky had been kidnapped in the first place. What if Lance did know drugs were being run out of his warehouse? What if he put his foot down and tried to call it off, and kidnapping Becky was retaliation? Maybe whoever worked above Daisy had demanded the cash because it was how much they expected to lose no longer being about to deal out of the mustard factory. Or maybe Lance hadn’t known, but found out and Becky had been taken as a result.
Whatever the reason, she knew she wasn’t going to get it now, not in this moment. The best she could do was keep holding it together, be strong for her boys, and do all that Scott might require of her, even if it amounted to staying out of the way.
As soon as Lance was outfitted with the mic and climbed into his car, Kate kissed Scott.
“Be careful,” she told him.
“I will. You all can meet Garrison at the precinct. That’s where the other van will be.”
She watched him drive off in his truck after Lance and then invited Amelia to get into the passenger’s seat of her truck.
“I’ll be right behind you, Mom,” said Jared, as he and Jason started off for Jared’s car.
After climbing into her truck, she got situated and waited for Amelia to put on her seat belt. When she had, Kate backed out of the driveway and started down the long and winding road that connected with main road that would take them into the heart of Rock Ridge.
It suddenly struck her she might not get another private moment with Amelia once Becky was home. Amelia and Lance would probably want to shower her with love and wouldn’t have time for Kate’s probing questions. Drawing in a deep breath, she hoped what she was about to say wouldn’t be in poor taste.
“So Clifford Green was staying at Over the Moon,” she began, mentioning Amelia’s inn where the ex-con had holed up as soon as he got into town.
“Yes, that was weeks ago.”
“A convict staying in your inn, then others dropping boxes of drugs off at Lance’s warehouse...”
“Excuse me?”
“Any thoughts on that?”
“Yes, I have thoughts on that. I think you’re being appalling right now. I am hanging on by a thread to get my daughter back, and you think I had something to do with Clifford’s murder?”
“No,” she blurted out. “No, that’s not what I think. I think Lance, and people who were using your factory, are victimizing you. I’m just trying to get to the bottom of it.”
“Well don’t,” she snapped. “Not now. Please.”
When they reached the precinct, everyone piled into the surveillance van where Garrison was waiting. It was a tight squeeze, but they made it work, Kate sitting between Jason and Jared, and Amelia beside Office Garrison across from them.
Officer Tolland, who was behind the wheel, explained, “We’ll pull along the road about a quarter mile out.”
“You can’t get closer?” asked Amelia.
“Not without blowing our cover. We’ll have good reception to watch everything. And we’ll hear Lance through his microphone.”
Amelia turned stoic, lacing her fingers and keeping her gaze on the van floor.
Soon Tolland pulled the van to the side of the road and killed the headlight. Then Officer Garrison flipped on the surveillance monitors and Kate saw Lance’s Cadillac pulling into the dark amusement park.
“As soon as Scott sees Becky,” Garrison explained. “He’ll order our men to charge in and get her, hopefully the bag of money too, and apprehend the kidnapper.”
Kate was holding her breath.
Amelia started praying when, on the monitor, Lance stepped out of his car with the bag of money and began walking into the beam of light from the Cadillac’s headlight.
Lance began slowly walking further into the amusement park, calling out, “Hello? Lance Langley here!”
Jason was squirming beside her, his nerves getting the best of him.
From out of nowhere, a flicker of light arched into frame on the monitor.
“What was that?” Kate asked Garrison, suddenly alarmed.
Garrison leaned in close. There was a white object resting on the ground five feet in front of Lance.
Through the speakers, she heard Lance say, “It’s a note,” as he bent down to pick it up.
The beam of headlights must have caught the white hue of the paper, Kate thought. She was so jumpy over this ransom exchange that her eyes had played tricks on her.
Again, Lance’s voice blared through the speaker, though he was speaking quietly.
“He used a rubber band to tie a note around a rock,” he explained and immediately Garrison radioed Scott to see if he was locating where the kidnapper had thrown the rock.
Lance went on. “It says, ‘Drop the bag of money and get back in your car.’” After a brief pause, he began speaking directly to Scott.
“Oh, God. Where is Becky? Why does he want me to get in my car?”
Scott said, “Do as he says. He probably has her at another location.”
Though Lance was slowly making his way to his Cadillac, he said, “This was supposed to be a swap!”
“We have to do as he says,” said Scott calmly.
“Oh my God,” said Kate, her gaze locking onto a shadow on the monitor. “Is that a woman?”
Pointing at the shadow, her gaze darted to Jason then snapped back to the screen, as a woman eased out from behind a bulldozer far in front of Lance’s car. Examining her on the screen, Kate saw brown hair and when her face came into view, it looked exactly like Becky.
Urgently, she shoved Jason close to the monitor, switching seats with him and saying, “Who does that look like?”
But he wouldn’t answer.
Garrison drew him back to have a look and then radioed Scott, but the second his voice came through the walkie-talkie, the monitor blurred white, and Kate heard a deafening explosion billow out from the construction site.
Without a do
ubt, Kate knew it had been a bomb.
~~~
CLAMPED ON MURDER
Chapter One
Where’s Scott?
The explosion was deafening. She felt the ground tremble from where she sat in the back of the surveillance van. The monitors, which had shown Lance’s Cadillac idling at the amusement park, had turned to static. Jason looked stunned beside her, but not more so than Officer Garrison, who was in a sudden panic over how to proceed.
“Chief York?” he shouted into his walkie-talkie, his tone raw and distressed. “Chief?”
Kate wasn’t about to wait for a reply. She scurried, hunching over, to the back of the van and threw the doors open, jumping out. In the distance was smoke and fire, the sound of shrapnel raining down on asphalt.
As she ran up the road towards the park, she kept telling herself that Scott couldn’t have been anywhere near the explosion, but until she saw him and looked in his eyes, she wouldn’t believe everything was all right.
Forcing worst-case scenarios out of her mind, Lance Langley became her primary concern. She didn’t hear Officer Garrison calling her name and charging after her. She didn’t know Jason and Jared were at his heels.
Lance had barely reached his car when the bomb went off. Had it been a bomb? A grenade? Why the hell would the kidnapper blow up half a million dollars instead of taking it in exchange for handing Becky over?
There was no way Lance could’ve lived through that.
When she reached the asphalt parking lot where he had driven his Cadillac in, Kate saw Lance on the ground. Smoke was wafting through, obscuring her vision in clouds both thick and thin. Even so, she could tell he wasn’t moving.
“Kate! It’s not safe!” Garrison yelled, racing up behind her then grabbing her arm to usher her aside, as a swarm of police officers outfitted in helmets and bulletproof vests jogged in, sweeping their assault rifles through the dust and smoke.
“What the hell happened?” she asked, her eyes wide and pleading, though she didn’t think anyone would have an answer.
Her boys reached her, Jared putting his arm around her and Jason halting at the sight of Lance and running his hands through his hair as if he were coming undone. In the background, Garrison called in an ambulance.
Mrs. Fix It Mysteries, Season 2 (5 Cozy Mystery Books Collection) Page 19