Tattered Legacy (A Nora Abbott Mystery)

by Shannon Baker

  Darrell’s 4Runner was parked along the road. He’d know who to call to help them find Abigail. Abbey jumped to his feet and put his front feet on her lap, ready to escape the Jeep after being cooped up so long.

  She killed the engine and slipped from the Jeep. Abbey wanted out, but Nora held her hand up, blocking his exit. She pushed the Jeep door, snicking it closed instead of slamming it, though the roar of the wind would have masked a marching band.

  She sprinted for the house but when she ran around the curve, she stopped. Lee’s white pickup snugged up behind Rachel’s Passat in front of the porch. Where was Darrell? Did he have Rachel and Lee subdued inside? Did they have him?

  Hoping to avoid detection if Lee and Rachel were in the kitchen or living room or even on the front porch, Nora snuck around the cabin and came up the back. Maybe she’d be able to get some information about Abigail.

  Wind tugged at her hair and whipped it into her face. She fumbled a ponytail elastic from her wrist and gathered her hair, twisting the tie around it while she ran. The rain still fell in fat drops, slapping the dirt and dampening the sage and pinion, letting off their spicy scents.

  She slowed her pace as she neared the back deck. The wind continued its camouflaging racket and she sank to her knees. With great care, she moved as slowly as possible, careful not to draw attention to herself. Lying on her belly, she peered through the French doors into Lisa’s office.

  The office sat dark and empty. But lights in the kitchen shone on Rachel as she perched on a barstool facing the kitchen, her back to Nora.

  Lee leaned against the sink, his black hat pushed back on his forehead. He wore his standard scowl and radiated a super-intense attitude. His lips moved and Rachel nodded as he talked, but Nora couldn’t hear through the closed doors. She didn’t see Darrell.

  Nora backed away from the door and off the porch. She crawled along the side of the house, ducking under the open living room windows. The cabin blocked the full force of the wind and when Nora positioned herself directly under the window closest to Lee and Rachel, she could hear the hard notes of Rachel’s voice.

  “Nora’s gone. She knows there’s no film. She’s not going to cause any more trouble.” Yay, Rachel—sticking up for Nora’s life.

  “Darrell will find her and then it’ll be all over.” If Lee’s voice had fingers, they’d be wrapped around Nora’s neck.

  Darrell was in on the Warren cult along with Rachel and Lee? That didn’t make any sense. He must be playing along until he had the information needed to expose them.

  “Darrell’s not around, either. Maybe he’s finally going to do what Warren ordered him to do and then we don’t have anything to worry about.” Warren must have ordered Darrell to kill Nora.

  “Darrell won’t do it.” Disgust iced Lee’s words. “He’s never done Warren’s bidding unless there was something in it for him. He won’t put himself in danger just to please a dying man.”

  Of course Darrell wouldn’t do it. He wasn’t really working for Warren. But where was he?

  Nora eased up to peer over the windowsill.

  Rachel dropped her head to her folded arms on the counter. “We’ll need to get them both.”

  Lee’s mouth twisted as if he chewed on spoiled meat. “We’ll take care of them.”

  Like they’d taken care of Lisa. Like Warren might take care of Abigail?

  “Is Uncle Warren still determined to go through with this? It’s crazy.” Rachel said.

  Lee stomped to the end of the kitchen and back, as though his hatred couldn’t be contained. “It’s not crazy. The Sky People are coming. Uncle Warren’s more determined than ever now that he’s got his rightful heir.”

  Rachel sat up. “Why did she have to come here? Why did she have to know Lisa? If it wasn’t for Nora and her precious film, Lisa wouldn’t have died.”

  It sounded like Lee spit darts at Rachel. “Maybe Lisa died because of her unnatural ways. Maybe it’s her punishment for leading you to sin.”

  Rachel let out a sob. “She should still be alive.”

  Lee leaned on the counter and his eyes drilled into Rachel. “Alive for what? For you to continue this sinful life?”

  Rachel glared at him. “What kind of life do you think suits me better?”

  Surprisingly, he sounded almost gentle. “You know.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “You remember.”

  Rachel backed away. “I remember two good years.”

  “It didn’t have to end,” he said.

  She shook her head. “Even back then, you knew I wasn’t the right wife for you.”

  He straightened and the rime of hatred lifted from his face. “That’s not true. I loved you. I wanted you.”

  “That’s just it. You wanted me, but I didn’t want you in that same way. And you knew it.”

  “We could have worked it out.”

  Now her voice rose in near-hysteria. “I didn’t want to work it out. And then you brought Tessa into our home. I didn’t mind, really. In fact, it gave me a break from the part of our marriage I couldn’t stand.”

  He studied her. “Then why?”

  She swiped at tears. “Tessa was the younger sister. She loved me and is so easygoing. But then you brought Cassie. That ruined everything.”

  “She’s your sister. And she was getting too old for anyone else. I thought I owed it to you, to your family. I thought you’d want your sisters with you.”

  “No woman wants to share her husband with her sisters!”

  The rain intensified and Nora leaned closer to hear above the rumbling on the roof.

  “You never asked me or even discussed it. You filled up our home with the others. They pushed me out. And when they started having babies, you never even looked at me anymore.”

  Lee reached out again and she backed up further. “Then I met Lisa. She was smart and wild and so pretty.”

  He flinched as if she had burned him.

  “I finally knew what was wrong with me and Lisa didn’t think it was wrong at all.”

  Lee looked like he wanted to stick his fingers in his ears. “It’s wrong. It’s against God’s law.”

  “Whose God? A lot of people say what you do is a sin.”

  “You decided to love a woman because she paid attention to you and made you feel special.” He said it as if she were a six-year-old who stole her friend’s doll.

  “No. I didn’t decide. I discovered. One day, I was working at the farmer’s market and Lisa was buying cheese. She used to come by the stand every week and we’d talk about everything and anything.”

  Rachel drew in a shaky breath but smiled at the memory. “A mountain biking team walked by and they were tanned and muscled and nice looking. Lisa said, ‘I can appreciate a good-looking man, and those are excellent bodies, but they don’t do it for me.’”

  Lee let out a sound that might have been a wretch.

  “And I thought, ‘That’s how I feel. It’s how I’ve always felt.’ I looked at Lisa and I knew why I always got tongue-tied when she stopped at the stand. I knew why I flushed when I saw her in the crowd and got all flustered when she left.”

  A whine at the screen made Rachel and Lee jerk their heads to the front door.

  “Abbey?” Rachel said.

  Lee swung his head to the window. He made eye contact with Nora before she spun around and sprinted from the cabin.

  Once away from the protection of the eves, the wind and rain battered her. She swiveled her head to see Lee vault the front porch railing and land in the mud. He slipped in his cowboy boots, but pushed himself up and came after her.

  Clay caked on the bottom of her boots and soon she carried what felt like ten extra pounds with each step. She pumped her arms and took off for the Jeep.

  Lightning cracked and almost immediately, the thunder hit with a rumbling she fel
t in her bones. Another flash of lightning followed in rapid succession.

  Her legs fought the sucking mud. The rain slashed at her face and her arms ripped through the sharp thorns of the wolfberry bush.

  She barely made it out of the yard. The Jeep was a dark hulk camouflaged by rain. Lee grunted behind her. With the slick leather of his cowboy boots, he hadn’t gathered the layers of clay to drag him down.

  Fear fueled an extra surge of speed.

  Something slammed into her back with the force of a freight train, knocking her down to splash in two inches of water and mud. Her cheek slammed into something hard and Lee landed on top of her. He felt like a solid lead skeleton—heavy, hard, and bony, grinding her into the grime and red slurry.

  He pushed himself to his knees and grabbed a fistful of her T-shirt, hauling her up as he got to his feet. He didn’t speak, just turned toward the house and started dragging her.

  She pulled back, struggling and twisting. “Let me go!”

  The night closed around them in deep darkness and the rain felt like a curtain. The illumination of the cabin flitted like a strobe light.

  Lee slipped in the slick mud and Nora lurched back, ready to make another run. He reached out and closed long fingers around her ankle. He jerked and sent her to the mud bath again. Then Lee yanked her arm and pulled her to her feet. Without stopping, he grabbed her around her waist and hoisted her to his shoulder. With Nora’s rear in the air, Lee struggled through the red soup toward the house. She knew her kicking and squirming wouldn’t do much good. He had wrestled calves and cows meaner and stronger than Nora.

  Rachel met them on the front porch. She held the door open and Lee shoved Nora inside. He followed her and Rachel came after him, shutting the heavy oak door against the rain and wind. Abbey closed in on her, wedging himself so close to her legs he nearly sent her sprawling. He panted and dripped saliva on the floor. Mud and rain slid from his fur. Thunder and lightning scared him and he must have panicked in the Jeep, throwing himself against the loosely latched door until it opened. She put a hand on his head to reassure him and he leaned against her.

  Nora straightened and planted her dripping feet on the wood floor. She put her hand on her hips and demanded, “What have you done with my mother?”

  “She’s with Uncle Warren,” Lee growled and took hold of her shoulder, forcing her to sit on a barstool.

  Abbey pressed against her.

  A gust of wind rattled against the windows, roaring its challenge to the night.

  Abigail was alone with the man who’d raped her more than thirty years ago. She’d be terrified, assuming she was still alive. “What does he want with her?”

  Lee pressed Nora’s shoulders down, keeping her in the chair. “My best guess is that he’s looking for you.”

  “Call him, tell him to let Abigail go.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  She glared at him. “If you don’t, I’ll go to the FBI.”

  He called over his shoulder to Rachel. “Get me some rope.”

  Nora jerked her arms but he didn’t lose his grip. “I’ve got proof you killed Lisa. I found her camera and it shows you there.”

  He frowned. “Where?”

  “Let me go and I’ll give you the camera.”

  He ignored her and hollered for Rachel to bring the rope.

  Nora struggled against him but made little headway. Any knot Lee tied would hold Nora for decades—or at least as long as it took for Warren to hurt Abigail.

  Outside, lightning flashed and thunder sounded like a hungry lion. Abbey whined and put both front paws on Nora’s thighs, lifting himself to standing. If she hadn’t been propped on the barstool, he’d have crawled into her lap. The rain streamed down the windows in a black cascade.

  Rachel appeared behind Lee, a roll of duct tape in her hands. “We don’t have any rope. You can use this.”

  He grabbed it from Rachel with one hand while keeping a vise grip on Nora’s shoulder. He held the roll to his mouth and peeled a corner loose with his teeth.

  Rachel shifted from foot to foot. “You don’t have to tape her up. She’ll stay here.”

  With the end of the tape in his mouth, he jerked the roll away from him, making it squawk. He lifted his hand from her shoulder.

  Nora shoved her feet against the rungs of the stool and leaped from the chair. She had barely moved before Lee’s fingers clamped around her wrist and yanked her back. Her arm twisted behind her and she cried out.

  A German shepherd or Doberman pinscher might have taken her cry of pain as a sign to go for the jugular of her attacker. Abbey just appeared more agitated and frightened than ever.

  Lee snapped her other wrist around. The tape roll dangled from his mouth. He used the same motions he’d probably practiced a million times for rodeo calf tying. Within seconds he’d whipped the end of the tape from his mouth, slapped it on her wrist, and wound the roll around both wrists to secure her.

  He held her down by her shoulder again and hollered at Rachel. “Tape her ankles to the stool.”

  “This isn’t necessary. We can take care of her without taping her up.”

  Rachel was right. How much strapping down does it take to hold someone still enough to shoot them? Or slit a throat, or bash in their brains with a rock?

  “Besides, she can’t go anywhere in this storm,” Rachel said.

  “It’s always this way with you. Always arguing, always questioning, needing to know why.”

  Maybe they’d strike up a lover’s spat and Nora could bolt. But Rachel was right. The ground had been soup when they’d been outside. The rain had continued, driving down in sheets and running along the desert floor. Her Jeep might be stuck.

  “We’ve got to keep her here,” Lee said. “What if she gets away and Darrell finds her?”

  “Damn it! Listen to me for once. Leave her alone. She’s not going anywhere.”

  “Do you want to take that chance?”

  If Darrell was here, he’d have made a move to rescue her by now. Maybe Warren had him. Her last hope of help faded.

  Rachel took the roll of tape and bent down to Nora’s legs. Abbey licked her face and she gently pushed him aside. He crowded in close to her.

  Nora twitched her legs back and forth to keep Rachel from binding them. Lee’s face exploded with pent-up temper. He pulled one hand back to strike her. Rachel jumped up and grabbed it before he could swing. “No!”

  He stared at Rachel, nostrils flaring.

  Rachel’s voice dipped low and slow. “As far as I know, you’ve never hit a woman. Don’t start now.”

  Never hit a woman? She guessed snapping someone’s neck and arranging her body to look like an accident didn’t count as hitting.

  Lee gritted his teeth and said to Nora, “Cooperate. This is for your own good.”

  Interesting what he thought was good for Nora. Maybe if she didn’t fight, he wouldn’t need to smack her around before he killed her.

  She fought against the duct tape. It gave slightly, and in time, she’d probably be able to work free. But she needed something immediate. Think! She had nothing to bargain with. Or so she thought.

  Inspiration struck. “I’ll go to Warren. Trade me for Abigail.”

  “You don’t want anything to do with Warren,” Rachel said. She secured one ankle and moved to the other.

  Lightning split the sky. Hairs on Nora’s neck tingled. Thunder ca-whacked, thrashing the walls and floor. Abbey whined again and jumped, his front paws brushing Nora. He slid to the floor and sat beside her chair, panting and dripping saliva.

  Rachel huffed, nearly as frightened as Abbey. She closed her eyes for a second, then finished taping Nora’s leg and stood. Lee released his grip on her shoulder, easing the crushing pressure, and plopped on the couch facing her. Seeing the chance to get closer to a human who might ma
ke the terrifying storm go away, Abbey trotted over and leaned into Lee, putting his face far up into Lee’s lap. Lee put a hand on Abbey’s head.

  “Tell Warren I’ll do whatever he wants,” Nora pleaded.

  Lee’s fingers played in Abbey’s fur. Rachel folded her arms on her chest and bit her lip. “You don’t understand. We need to keep you here.”

  “I understand perfectly.” If Nora’s hands were free, she’d point her finger at Lee. “He needs to kill me so he can inherit everything. I swear I don’t want Warren’s money. He can have it all.”

  Bright crimson streaked Rachel’s pale cheeks. “It’s not just the money. It’s the power. He’s always craved it. That’s why he killed Lisa, to keep her from telling anyone what she knew.”

  Pop. Sizzle. Ba-whump. Nature’s artillery shells bombarded the cabin.

  Nora narrowed her eyes at Lee but he stared ahead, deep in thought, stroking Abbey’s head. Nora started to call out to him. She never got the words out.

  The world erupted in chaos.

  A freight train roared outside the cabin. The walls shook and the floor heaved. Rachel screamed.

  Nora’s heart flew to her throat as lightning flashed.

  thirty-three

  Lee sprang from the couch. Abbey let out a yelp and barked as if he couldn’t decide to run and hide or take the offensive. Lee bounded across the room to the door and wrenched it open. The deafening noise increased. Rachel raced after Lee. They both disappeared into the darkness of the front porch amid the sound of a jet engine firing up.

  “What is it?” Nora strained against the duct tape.

  The house shook again and the windows rattled in the wind. Abbey lunged at Nora, trying to land in her sloping lap. He dropped to the floor and whined.

  Lee and Rachel bolted inside. Together they shoved the door closed. Rachel’s blonde hair was dark and hung limp with rain.

  Lee swiped an arm across his face to dry it and strode to the window opposite Nora. His movements were jerky, as if he’d been zapped by electricity. He pressed his face to the glass. Rachel leaned against the door, pale and shaking.