Dragonwell Dead atsm-8

by Laura Childs

  She’d somehow stumbled into the water bog garden!

  No shelter here, she told herself. Just a big, dangerous trap.

  Struggling to pull herself out of the bog, Theodosia grasped at swamp grass and reeds, shredding water lily blooms as she fought to free herself. She felt guilty at pulling the blooms apart, destroying these protected plants, but she knew she had to do anything she could to get herself back on solid ground.

  Her feet churned through silt that seemed to have no bottom, then finally hit mud. She kept pumping her legs, felt the mud start to turn slightly more solid. Then she was out of the bog and limping up a hill on the opposite side of the bog.

  Splashing sounds behind her told Theodosia that Bobby Wayne had hit the far edge of the water bog garden, too.

  Dear lord, he’s so close behind me.

  She dug deep into her reserves and managed an ungainly sprint up the grassy hillside.

  “I see you!” crowed Bobby Wayne. “I see you.”

  As Theodosia reached the crest of the hill, her breath coming in shallow wheezes now, a loud boom filled the air and a bullet seemed to whiz by her head. She flung herself down, aware of a sharp jab at her left hip. Then she was up and running again, scared out of her mind. Dodging left, Theodosia was suddenly confronted by . . .

  The hedge maze.

  Without hesitation, Theodosia staggered toward it. Elaborate curlicues of wrought iron arched over the entrance, scrolling out words that Theodosia hadn’t noticed a week ago: Take Heed This Wyld Tangle.

  Ducking through the archway, Theodosia ran straight ahead, zigged left, then zagged right. Hoping this might be her salvation.

  Can I get lost in here? she wondered. Can I outwit Bobby Wayne? Hide from him then circle back and sneak out? Got to hope I can. Got to try.

  But her overwrought mind kept skittering from one thought to another and Theodosia knew she was just seconds away from a full-blown panic attack.

  She slowed her steps, trying to consciously slow her mind as well.

  Easy, easy, she told herself. What can I do? How can I stop him?

  Her mind seemed like it was spinning off in a million different directions at once. She suddenly flashed back to a week ago, when she and Drayton had been caught in here. When they’d . . .

  Theodosia came to a dead stop and forced herself to concentrate. She stared up at the sky, noted that a film of clouds had slipped in. Taking a deep breath, she thought harder. Seconds ticked by. A thin line etched itself between her brows as she patted the left pocket of her slacks, then reached in and pulled out her tea strainer.

  Theodosia spun on her bare heels and headed back toward the entrance to the maze.

  * * *

  It didn’t take more than ten seconds to find what she was looking for. The old grate, sunk into the ground.

  Dropping to her knees, Theodosia labored to work one end of the tea strainer into the sod and under the edge of the grate.

  At first it didn’t want to go. The earth was packed hard, had probably been that way for some time. Years maybe. Gritting her teeth, Theodosia bent forward, put her entire body into it. Her shoulders ached, her fingers went numb. But slowly, the edge of the tea strainer slid under the grate.

  Can I really pry this up? she wondered. The answer came roaring back at her. I have to try.

  She could hear Bobby Wayne stumbling up the hill, not fifty feet away from her. His angry muttered curses filled the air. Theodosia knew that this time he wouldn’t miss. This time he’d shoot to kill.

  She’d dug halfway around the grate now and had pressed her fingers underneath, hoping to gain leverage. Straining harder, Theodosia focused every ounce of strength she had on her task. And was rewarded when one corner of the old grate lifted upward.

  Got to work faster, Theodosia told herself as she heard Bobby Wayne’s footsteps crunch gravel just outside the hedge maze, felt the moon slip beneath the clouds.

  She had one end of the grate up now, was laboring to leverage it higher. And then it was starting to heave up out of the soil, the black depths of the old cistern yawning at her.

  “There you are,” said Bobby Wayne, his voice dripping with menace. “Wait until I get my hands around your throat. I’m going to . . .”

  “What?” barked out Theodosia. She was standing no more than ten feet away from him. She could just make out his faint outline in the dark. “You’re going to what?”

  “Snap your neck like a wishbone,” snarled Bobby Wayne.

  Theodosia stared at Bobby Wayne, praying the moon stayed behind the clouds. Praying he wouldn’t see where he was walking. “Then let’s get to it,” she dared him in a low, mocking tone.

  With an angry, strangled scream, Bobby Wayne rushed at her full tilt. Theodosia could make out the twisted anger on his face, put up a hand as if to ward him off. And then, suddenly, there was a mad skittering of shoe leather against earth and a strangled cry as Bobby Wayne plunged down into the cistern.

  A dull slosh sounded. Followed by an abrupt silence.

  Theodosia blinked, almost not believing her trap had worked. One minute Bobby Wayne had been a hideous, menacing crazy man, rushing to wrap his fingers around her neck, the next second he’d dropped out of sight. It was like Bobby Wayne had suddenly jumped on an express elevator and dropped straight to the subbasement.

  Theodosia’s brain wasn’t so quick to believe her eyes.

  Did the trap work? she asked herself. Did he really fall in?

  She crept over to the side of the cistern, dropped to her knees, and peered down tentatively.

  Bobby Wayne was down there all right, like a tiger who’d fallen through one of those bamboo jungle traps.

  Only there were no pointed spikes at the bottom of this pit.

  Only muddy, stinking water.

  Bobby Wayne suddenly broke his stunned silence. Began thrashing around wildly, screaming his fool head off.

  “Get me outa here!” he shrilled. “You hear me, woman? I’m talkin’ to you!”

  Theodosia’s head spun dizzily. She felt a brief moment of triumph, but she also felt like she was going to faint.

  “I know you’re up there!” screamed Bobby Wayne. “I can see you!”

  Theodosia pushed back from the edge as a rotten egg smell wafted up to her. With all the willpower she could muster, she forced herself to get back on her feet. She scanned the ground around her, finally found what she was looking for. A good-sized pebble.

  With a flick of the wrist, Theodosia tossed the pebble into the cistern. Then she waited until she heard a faint splash.

  Good, she decided. The darned thing’s deep enough to contain Bobby Wayne until I get some help.

  No ghostly arms would reach up to grab hold of her legs.

  “What was that?” Bobby Wayne called suddenly, his voice rising in hysteria. “What was that you threw in here? What are you doing?”

  Theodosia sighed heavily as she stepped carefully across the gaping hole in the ground.

  “Don’t leave me!” Bobby Wayne’s voice drifted up from below, almost drowned out by the shrill of sirens as fire engines rushed toward Carthage Place.

  Theodosia wrapped her arms around herself, trying to quiet her shaking. “Shut up, Bobby Wayne,” she called over her shoulder.

  Then she trudged slowly across the rolling lawn, damp with evening dew, toward the twinkling lights of Miss Maybelle Chase’s plantation house.

  28

  Miss Maybelle Chase turned out to be a real peach. She wrapped Theodosia in a warm blanket and gave her a pair of cozy terry-cloth slippers to wear. Then she got on the phone and called Sheriff Billings, and located Drayton at the Heritage Society.

  One of the firemen who’d come screaming up in a rescue squad, had gently led Theodosia into the kitchen where he’d applied antiseptic to her head wound and put a clean white bandage on it. He’d checked her blood pressure, pronounced it okay.

  When she came limping back into Miss Maybelle’s antique-filled parlor,
Theodosia was surprised to see Sheriff Billings, Drayton, Haley, and Parker peering at her nervously.

  And of course they all shouted questions at once.

  “Are you hurt?” asked Haley.

  “Do you need anything?” Drayton wanted to know.

  “How did you get away?” asked Sheriff Billings.

  “Sweetheart,” moaned Parker Scully.

  Theodosia had a few questions of her own.

  “Where’s Bobby Wayne?” she demanded of the sheriff.

  “Don’t you worry about him,” said Sheriff Billings. “My deputies pulled him out of that cistern and carted him off to jail.”

  “He tried to kill me,” said Theodosia. Her knees were still shaking.

  “We know that, ma’am,” said Sheriff Billings. “Do you feel well enough to tell us exactly what happened?”

  “Shouldn’t she go to the hospital first?” asked Drayton. “Get a CAT scan or something?”

  “Absolutely she should,” agreed Parker.

  “Wait a minute,” said a still subdued Theodosia. “How did you guys even know I was missing?”

  Drayton gave a slight chuckle. “Bill Glass saw you slip away with Bobby Wayne. He assumed you two were romantically involved.”

  Theodosia rolled her eyes. “I think Glass is the one in need of a CAT scan.”

  “Then Delaine started hunting around for Bobby Wayne,” said Haley. “Acting more and more crazy when she couldn’t find him.”

  “Which is when we all got worried,” added Parker.

  “And then when Miss Maybelle called the Heritage Society,” said Drayton. “Well . . . we weren’t sure what was going on!”

  Theodosia held up a hand. “Please, I’d like to tell you all about the night I’ve had.”

  She explained how Bobby Wayne had lured her with his story about the ring. Told how she’d been hit with a shovel and tossed in his trunk. How she’d escaped the fire and crawled through the tunnel. How she’d ended up in the hedge maze.

  They were astounded to say the least.

  “You’re so brave,” said Haley, clutching for her hand.

  “Amazing story,” whispered Drayton while Parker fixed her with an admiring stare.

  Sheriff Billings just shook his head.

  “Does Delaine know about Bobby Wayne?” asked Theodosia.

  “I’ll be speaking with her personally,” said Sheriff Billings.

  “It’s just going to kill her,” said Haley. “Being hood-winked like that.”

  “But think what Bobby Wayne did to Theodosia,” sputtered Drayton. “Besides, he wasn’t really going to ask Delaine to marry him. That was just a ruse to get Theodosia off by herself.”

  “From what you’ve told me,” said Sheriff Billings addressing Theodosia, “I’m fairly certain Bobby Wayne planted that fire accelerant in Fayne Hamilton’s garage. To, you know, implicate her in the fire and supposedly the murder.”

  “Because Fayne was in love with Mark,” mused Theodosia.

  “Probably more like infatuated,” said Drayton.

  “But when Bobby Wayne found out that you’d called Detective Tidwell about the Bahamian company, he obviously panicked,” said Haley.

  “Right,” said Parker. “Because there probably isn’t any such company.”

  “But Mark was going there . . .” protested Theodosia. “He’d bought a plane ticket.”

  “I just got off the phone with Tidwell no more than ten minutes ago,” said Sheriff Billings. “If Mark had actually gone to the Bahamas, he would have found a big fat nothing. According to Tidwell there are no Bahamian futures commission merchants.”

  “So Bobby Wayne was in a panic because of my call to Tidwell,” said Theodosia, gazing at Sheriff Billings. “I didn’t mean to step on your toes.”

  “Step away.” He laughed. “By doing so, you forced Bobby Wayne’s hand so to speak. Smoked him out.”

  Drayton shook his head. “Bobby Wayne probably figured that since Harlan Noble and Leah Shalimar were suspects—and both docents at Carthage Place—he could implicate them by bringing you out here and dumping your body.”

  Theodosia thought for a moment. “But Harlan Noble was at the orchid show.”

  “Not for long,” said Drayton. “Harlan stormed out in protest over my entry.”

  “Really?” said Theodosia.

  “And Leah wasn’t there at all,” added Haley. “So probably Bobby Wayne figured that since both of them were suspects, either one could have kidnapped and dragged you out here.”

  “Okay,” said Theodosia, still digesting all this. “Did Leah Shalimar know about the bogus company in the Bahamas?”

  “Doubtful,” said Sheriff Billings.

  “Leah knew sales,” said Drayton. “She told me herself that she’d sold Jaguars and Mercedes and before that time-share condos. She bragged that she could sell ice to Eskimos. My guess is, you tell Leah to sell, she’ll sell. But no way is she a financial genius.”

  “But Mark Congdon was,” said Theodosia.

  “Yes,” said Sheriff Billings. “Mark knew his business. Which is why he was suspicious. And had probably launched his own investigation. He must have suspected that Bobby Wayne was involved in something nefarious.”

  “But Bobby Wayne got to him first,” said Theodosia.

  “Killed him and then burned down the Featherbed House.”

  “He must have thought Mark Congdon had serious evidence on him,” said Sheriff Billings. He sighed, fingered the brim of his Smokey Bear hat. “If there’s any upside to this at all, it’s that your friend is in the clear and she’ll soon have a pile of insurance money to help her rebuild.”

  “Still,” said Drayton, “a very sad state of affairs.” He stared at Theodosia with sorrowful eyes.

  “Drayton,” said Theodosia suddenly. She pulled herself upright, put a hand to her head. “I forgot all about Orchid Lights. Did your monkey-face orchid win a blue ribbon?”

  Drayton crossed his arms, tucked in his chin, and shook his head solemnly.

  “Oh, I’m sorry . . .” began Theodosia.

  Then Drayton’s hand dipped inside his jacket pocket and he withdrew a bright purple ribbon that fluttered from a giant purple rosette.

  “Drayton!” squealed Theodosia.

  A grin split his lined face as he handed the ribbon to Theodosia. “A purple ribbon,” he told her. “Judge’s Special Award of Merit.”

  “I knew it,” said Theodosia, grinning at him.

  “It was the moss goobers, as you so aptly named them,” said Drayton. “And that marvelous bell jar Charlie came up with. The judges said they were bowled over by the creativity of the display.”

  “There’s that thinking outside the box thing,” quipped Haley. “Or is it thinking inside the jar?”

  “I’m so happy for you,” Theodosia told Drayton.

  “We better get you to an emergency room,” broke in Parker, looking more than a little concerned. “Get your poor head X-rayed, CAT scanned, and stitched if need be.”

  “I really am feeling a lot better,” said Theodosia. And she was. Surrounded by dear friends, her ordeal over, she felt warm, secure, and much loved.

  “Parker is quite correct,” said Drayton. “It’s off to the hospital for you.”

  There was the familiar clatter and rattle of china, and then everyone turned as Miss Maybelle set an elaborate tea tray down on the low table in front of them.

  “Leaving already?” she asked. “And I just made tea.”

  “Tea.” Theodosia sighed. Just the idea of sipping fresh-brewed tea went a long way to soothe her jangled nerves.

  Drayton glanced about nervously. “Is there time?”

  Placing one of Miss Maybelle’s needlepoint pillows behind her head, Theodosia leaned back against the couch and said, “There’s always time for tea.”

  Favorite Recipes From

  The Indigo Tea Shop

  Sweet Potato Scones

  1 cup all-purpose flour

  ½ tsp sa
lt

  2 tsp baking powder

  1 tsp sugar

  1 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes

  3 Tbsp melted butter

  1–2 Tbsp milk

  Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a medium bowl, stir in sugar. In a separate bowl, mix sweet potatoes and 2 Tbsp. butter, then add in dry ingredients. Mix to form a soft dough, adding milk as necessary. Place on floured surface and roll out or pat with hands to form a round that’s about ½-inch thick. Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut out scones, then place on greased cookie sheet. Brush tops with remaining 1 Tbsp. of melted butter. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown. Serve warm with butter and honey.

  Lavender Egg Salad

  8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled

  2 Tbsp minced green onion

  1½ Tbsp. Dijon mustard

  1⁄3 cup mayonnaise

  ¼ tsp salt

  2 cups iceberg lettuce, finely shredded

  8 slices chewy bread

  Chop eggs. Stir in onion, mustard, mayonnaise, and salt. Chill mixture. To prepare sandwiches, butter bread, then spread egg salad on 4 slices of the bread. Gently pile on shredded lettuce, then top with remaining bread slices. Using a sharp knife, carefully trim crusts and cut into quarters or finger sandwiches. Keep covered with plastic wrap until ready to serve. Note: this egg salad can also be served in croissants.

  Hot ’n’ Cheesy Crab Casserole

  1 lb crab meat

  1½ cups white sauce

  2 eggs, separated and beaten

  ¼ cup green pepper, chopped and lightly sautéed

  ¼ cup onion, chopped and lightly sautéed

  ½ tsp Tabasco sauce

  ¼ cup shredded Cheddar or Jack cheese

  Salt and pepper to taste

  Add beaten egg yolks to white sauce and stir. Mix in crab meat, green pepper, onion, Tabasco sauce, and dash of salt and pepper. Gently fold in beaten egg whites, pour into baking dish, and top with shredded cheese. Bake for 20 minutes in 375-degree oven until golden brown. Yields 4 servings.