“Ok, Cleo. We’re going to take a bit of a detour.” As we got closer and closer, I started to feel a bit more apprehensive about the whole idea. Once we got off Main Street and started walking down the smaller roads, everything seemed a lot more isolated, and I began to wonder if maybe I should have told Leanne where I was going after all.
No, I wasn’t going to do that. I was going to prove that I could do things without others. I had lived my whole life that way, and I wasn’t about to change now just because I had found a new group of people that I was genetically related to. It had always been me and Dad, and now it was just me. I could do this on my own.
Steeling myself, I spotted a half-rotted mailbox on the side of the road perched precariously on top of a pole with the house number on it. Well, most of the house number, anyway. One of the ‘5’s had disappeared, but I was fairly certain that was the right place.
“This is how horror movies start, isn’t it?” I asked Cleo as we walked down the lane. I was surrounded by fir trees that rose so high into the sky they hid all the light from the sun; it felt closer to seven o’clock than just after three.
“I don’t know, I’ve never seen a horror movie,” Cleo replied. “However, a queen never gives up in the face of battle.”
“That’s a good point,” I muttered as we continued along. After walking probably a hundred yards on from the mailbox I spotted the shack which Roman and Leonard must have shared, and it was just as tattered and worn as I had been led to believe. Honestly, it was a miracle the place was still standing. The timber boards that made up the walls were old and leaning precariously to the right. The tin roof seemed to have shifted over the years and there was a gaping hole in one side; it had to be hellish whenever there was a storm.
The yard was littered with rusty bits of old equipment. There was a small tractor missing its wheels that had been tipped onto its side, and a wheelbarrow with a flat tire that looked like it hadn’t been moved since the Civil War.
“This looks like the kind of place where mean Rottweilers chase cats around,” Cleo muttered next to me.
“I agree. Feel free to run if you see a dog coming after you.”
“I’m very good at taunting them from up in the trees.”
“Good,” I said with a small laugh. I had to admit though, I was nervous. This idea seemed worse with every passing minute. But I was here now, so what did I have to lose?
I pulled out my phone and set up the voice recording app. Now, if Roman came out and I could get him to admit what he’d done, I’d have proof.
Of course, if he killed me and hid my body no one would ever know either.
I pushed that thought aside and slipped the phone back into my pocket.
“Roman?” I called out. This seemed like the kind of place that would be booby-trapped, and I didn’t want to find myself suddenly hanging in a net fifteen feet above the ground. “Roman, it’s Eliza, the woman from the coffee shop. The new one.”
“Go away! Private property!” came Roman’s voice a minute later from inside the house.
“Roman, can I talk to you?” I asked. “It’s about your brother.”
The man came out from the front door then, and I gasped as I took a step backwards. He was holding a shotgun, and he had it aimed right at me.
“I told you, private property.”
“Look,” I said, holding up my hands. “I don’t want any trouble. I was just hoping we could talk.”
My mouth went dry as I looked at the gun. The more time passed, the more I thought this was a stupid idea. I had badly overstepped, and I should just leave.
“What do you want to talk about?” Roman snarled.
“Nothing. Never mind, you’re right. I’ll just go,” I said, taking a careful step backwards.
Roman put the gun down. “It’s the shotgun, isn’t it?”
“It’s just a little intimidating.”
“Fine,” he said, putting it down on the stoop and taking a couple steps toward me. “What did you want to talk about?”
Part of me wanted to run away as fast as I could back toward town. But if I did that, I might never get my answer. So I took a deep breath as I collected myself.
Chapter 26
“You’re the one who killed Leonard, aren’t you?” I asked when Roman had taken enough steps away from his gun for me to be comfortable accusing him. If he tried to get it I was fairly certain I could run back toward the road and be far enough away that he’d miss me by the time he got the gun.
In response, Roman laughed. “Think you’ve got it all figured out, do you? But I wasn’t in the coffee shop when he was poisoned.”
“No, you weren’t, but you’re the one who swapped out the medicine in his new blood pressure medication for the ground wolfsbane. You didn’t have to be in the coffee shop. All you had to do was swap the pills at home. Maybe you didn’t even know he was going to take that pill that day, you just put the poisoned pill back in the bottle and waited for nature to take its course. But that’s how you did it. I’m right, aren’t I?”
Roman laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “So you finally figured it out. I knew it wouldn’t be that idiot Jones. You won’t get me to admit it publicly, though. Everyone here thinks you did it. I have to admit, your arrival in town worked out pretty well.”
“So it’s true, then. You put the poisoned pill in with all the others?”
“That’s right. He always took two pills with him to work. Took one at the beginning of his shift, and one at the coffee shop at the end of it. Regardless, it wouldn’t be able to be tracked back to me.”
“All because he didn’t want to sell your land.”
“Yes. He wasn’t being practical about it. How do you think we’ve eked out an existence for the last few decades? It’s been ridiculous. Look at this house! We’ve been poor our entire lives, and here was a chance for us to finally live like we deserved. We were both old. I’m old. I don’t want to have to keep doing upkeep to this stupid shack until I’m eighty. I want to live out my years in the luxury afforded to me by this deal.”
“Right, and so to do that you decided your brother shouldn’t get to live out his years at all.”
Roman shrugged. “He didn’t deserve to have nice things. He’s the one who insisted on our mother being cremated, going directly against her wishes. So I just went against his wishes to keep breathing.”
I shook my head, incredulous at how calmly Roman simply admitted to murdering his brother. He didn’t seem to have any regrets, or feel guilty in any way. I had totally misjudged him that day in the coffee shop.
On the bright side, because the recording in my pocket should have been working, I would have his entire admission on my phone. Now all I had to do was get out of here.
Cleo had wandered away at some point; I assumed she was still nearby.
“Alright,” I said. “Well, now that I know the truth, I’ll be going.”
“Not so fast,” Roman said, pulling a handgun from the back of his jeans. I gasped as he pointed the barrel right at me. “Now that you know the truth, you don’t get to leave.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” I lied. “Who’s going to believe me, anyway? As you said, I’m the new person in town, and you’ve been here forever. It’s much more likely that I killed Leonard.”
Roman laughed again. “Right. Because I trust you not to tell anyone. You’re probably recording this conversation secretly.”
Whoops.
“I’m not,” I lied. My throat was starting to close up; I was scared. I was really, really scared. I didn’t want to die. My life might not have been going perfectly lately, but it was still my life. I wanted to see how it would all play out. I didn’t want it to end here, being shot by a murderer trying to get away with it.
And yet, I had no idea what to do. I just hoped Cleo got as far away from here as possible. Hopefully she was smart enough to see the gun and leave.
I took a deep breath to try and calm myself down, and
held up my hands.
“There’s no need for this, Roman. You’re not going to get away with two murders.”
“Please. There’s going to be no need for me to get away with another murder. You’re going to have an accident. Your body will wash ashore in a few hours, and people will think that you decided to end it all out of guilt after you killed Leonard. Now come on, there’s no time to waste.” He motioned with the gun for me to start walking, and I didn’t really see what choice I had.
I eyed the weapon carefully as I stepped in the direction Roman wanted me to go. I quickly saw where he was leading me: a thin path led away from the house, toward the water.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said as we began walking along the path, my eyes constantly glancing toward the gun. “I’m telling you, this is a bad idea. People know I’m here. People won’t think I killed myself. They know I’m investigating. It will come back to you. You’ve only killed one person so far, you don’t have to kill two.”
I was really just throwing any idea I could come up with at the wall and hoping one of them stuck.
“Yeah, yeah. Shut your mouth. Nothing’s going to save you anymore. There’s nothing you can do to stop me, and nothing you can do to save yourself. You’re going to go into the water, and that’s where you’re going to die.”
I was well aware of just how right Roman was about the dying thing. Just a few hours ago I had gone into the water for probably about two, maybe three minutes, and I had barely managed to make it back to shore with Cleo. And even then, I probably would have been in trouble if it wasn’t for Kaillie’s magic immediately warming me back up.
Magic! I was a witch. I had magical powers. In fact, I had a wand in the pocket of my jacket right now. The problem was I had no idea how to cast a spell that might be useful. I could change the color of the gun from black to green, sure. But that wasn’t exactly going to be helpful.
Still, I gripped the wand, almost more for emotional support than anything. Roman was walking about ten feet behind me, careful to make sure I wouldn’t be able to attack him before he could get a shot off. I needed an advantage, but I just didn’t know how to get one.
The sound of the ocean roared in my ears now; I could see the edge of the small cliff I was going to be thrown from to my death. I probably had less than two minutes to come up with a plan before I would be unceremoniously shoved to my demise.
I vowed not to make it easy for him. I wouldn’t just throw myself into the sea. Either Roman would have to shoot me – and when my body came to shore they would know I had been murdered – or he would have to shove me in himself, in which case I would do my best to take him with me.
I might have been about to die, but in the words of Dylan Thomas I was not about to go gentle into that good night. I steeled myself, ready for the fight ahead.
Just then, a rustling came from the bushes nearby. I turned to see what had happened when a black blur suddenly darted out of the trees and jumped toward Roman. There was a glimmer of white teeth, then a howl of pain as Cleo bit down on his arm, hard.
“What the? Get off! Get off me, you crazy animal!”
Roman shook his arm, trying to get my cat to let it go, and the gun exploded. Pain ripped through the upper part of my arm and I let out a yelp, clasping my hand to it. Still, this was my chance. I ran back toward Roman and collided with him. We both went flying, the gun fell to the ground, and Cleo darted back off into the woods.
“Run, Cleo!” I called out to her. “Get away from him!”
I scrambled to my feet as quickly as my injured arm would allow me to and began running back along the path toward the house. There was no time to try and find the gun. My best chance of escape was to take advantage of these precious few seconds.
I looked around and spotted Cleo in front of me. “Go,” I called to her. “You have to escape.”
“Not without you,” she panted back.
“You’ve already saved me once,” I said.
“That makes us even.”
I was touched by my cat’s insistence on staying with me. As I rushed through the forest I didn’t bother checking behind me. I didn’t want to waste precious seconds to see if Roman was catching up to me, which was why, when I finally reached the house, I was shocked to see him standing there, the gun leveled right at me.
“What?” I said, blood leaving my face, and he grinned.
“You forget I’ve lived on this property my entire life. I know every single inch of it like the back of my hand. Now, I’m going to kill you, and then I’m going to kill that meddlesome cat of yours, too.”
I looked down to see that Cleo had disappeared once more. Thank goodness. More than anything I wanted her to get away.
Roman stepped toward me, the gun leveled at my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. All I could do was stare at that barrel, knowing that I was about to die.
“Right, you’re too much trouble to get rid of the way I’d planned,” he said. “I’m just going to shoot you and leave your body in the woods. You won’t be found for years, I promise you that. Any last words?”
I couldn’t even shake my head. All I thought about was Dad. Dad, who had made me promise when he was on his deathbed that I was going to live my life the best way I knew how. Dad, who had always been there for me, and assured me that no matter what I did in life, he was proud of me. Dad, who told me in those precious few minutes we had as his heart was failing that his greatest regret was that he was never going to walk me down the aisle.
Well, Dad, you didn’t miss out on that. I was never going to get to walk down that aisle. As it turned out, we were going to be reunited a lot sooner than I had expected.
I wanted to close my eyes. I didn’t want to see what was coming. But I couldn’t do it. It was like every muscle in my body was frozen in place.
Suddenly, I saw movement behind Roman, and he crumpled to the ground without a sound. The gun fell harmlessly to the side, and I gaped at my savior. It was Leanne.
She was holding a shovel, staring down at the unmoving Roman like she couldn’t believe what she’d just done.
“Leanne,” I said quietly. “You… you saved me.”
“I did, didn’t I?” she replied, dropping the shovel. I ran over to the gun and grabbed it, then checked Roman for a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.
“We have to call for help,” I said. Leanne nodded and pulled out her phone. I stared down at Roman while I heard Leanne speaking in the background, and Cleo made her way toward me, wrapping herself around my legs.
“Did you go and get Leanne?” I asked.
“No,” Cleo replied. “I was running up the road like you told me to and I saw her. As soon as I did, I led her straight here.”
“Thank you,” I said. “You’ve saved my life twice today.”
“Well, you know, I am a queen among cats. A heroic action or two isn’t completely out of the ordinary for me. Although I would enjoy payment in the form of fresh salmon.”
“Done,” I replied. “I promise I’ll get you some, although it might be a while before we’re allowed to leave here.”
Leanne hung up the phone. “The police will be here in a few minutes. It looks like it’s all over.”
I had never been more relieved in my life.
Chapter 27
Five minutes later Detective Ross Andrews showed up, followed closely by a couple of EMTs carrying a stretcher. They immediately began taking care of Roman while Detective Andrews carefully led me off to the side.
“Are you alright?” he asked me at first, and I nodded.
“Yeah. I mean, I think so. Maybe ask me again in a day or two when I’ve had time to process what just happened.”
“Good instincts,” Detective Andrews said. “You’re running on adrenaline right now, I’m sure. But I do need you to tell me what happened while it’s fresh in your mind.” Then, he noticed the bleeding of my arm.
“Were you shot?”
I looked over
at the cut. It stung like crazy, but I had to admit, it didn’t look that bad. It appeared the bullet had just grazed my arm, and a small incision in the side of my arm bled.
“Oh. Yeah, I was.”
Detective Andrews immediately called over one of the paramedics, who instantly began to take care of the wound, wrapping it in gauze and giving me care instructions.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Detective Andrews asked, and I nodded.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
He flipped open to a new page in his notebook while I recounted the entire story. I pulled my phone from my pocket, turned off the recording, and handed it to him. “If you don’t believe me, it should all be there, anyway. I recorded the whole thing.”
“Well, there’s nothing Chief Jones will be able to say about that,” Detective Andrews replied with a grim smile. “Thank you for this. Although, I do need to ask what it was that convinced you coming here by yourself to confront a murderer was a good idea.”
I sighed. “No one believed me. Everyone in town thought I was a killer. I couldn’t live here with that hanging over my head, so when I realized it was Roman, I thought I could get him to admit it to me, and then I’d be able to leave. I never thought he’d try to kill me, too.”
“Yes, it was lucky that your cat here managed to attack him,” Detective Andrews said, reaching down and scratching Cleo under the chin. She mewed in appreciation; she was obviously already a fan of the detective.
“It was,” I said. “And that Leanne came, as well.”
“Yes, why was she here?” Detective Andrews asked, and I shrugged.
“I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask her. But oh boy, am I ever glad she came.”
“So am I,” Detective Andrews replied, his eyes softening. “You’re very lucky to be alive, but I’m glad you are. You should have come to me. I’m trained to deal with murderers.”
“Would you have believed me, though?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied firmly. “Unlike most people in town, I don’t jump straight to conclusions. I know there are bad people everywhere. I go where the evidence takes me. Of course, you were ahead of me there. I didn’t realize the poison was in the pill, and not in the coffee. It was a stupid mistake that I should have caught.”
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3 Page 15