by Lee Hollis
The police chief might not have mastered the English language, but he was one hell of a law enforcement officer.
“You see, Billy, signing a false police statement is illegal. You could get serious jail time.”
“Say what?”
“I got the judge on speed dial. I can have the warrant in a couple of hours. But I don’t want to do that to you, Billy, because my gut tells me you weren’t the shooter. Tell me who was and I will rip up this report.”
“Nick! It was Nick!”
Billy wasn’t wasting a second.
“We were just fooling around. We’d only had a few beers. We weren’t drunk, but Nick pulled out his pistol and was waving it around, trying to get a rise out of Hugo. He said he wanted to toughen him up and teach him how to shoot. He pointed the gun right at the poor kid, who was just sitting at his desk. I thought the boy was going to piss his pants—he was so scared. Nick thought the safety was on, but it wasn’t. The gun went off and the bullet whizzed right past Hugo’s ear.”
Garth had been at war with Lex’s crew over their noisy shop machines.
The walls were extra thin.
The bullet went straight through.
“We . . . we never dreamed anyone got hurt, let alone—”
“Killed by the bullet.”
A long pause.
Hayley heard sniffling.
And whimpering.
Billy Parsons was crying.
“Hugo freaked out and Nick had to slap him hard across the face to calm him down. He tossed the kid another beer and we went back to drinking until we heard the sirens. Nick poked his head out first and saw what was going on. Rusty Wyatt told him Garth Rawlings was dead. That’s when he put two and two together and warned us to keep our mouths shut and not say a word and just to follow his lead. When we all read in the paper that the coroner thought Garth died from a beating, we breathed a huge sigh of relief. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It keeps me up at night. I should’ve spoken up sooner.”
“Do you have any idea where Nick may have disposed of the gun?”
“Disposed of it? No way. He’d never get rid of it. It’s a family heirloom. Goes back in his family generations. He may have hidden it somewhere in his house, but he sure as hell would never, ever part with it.”
It made sense.
In Nick’s mind nobody was ever going to find out Garth Rawlings actually had been shot, given what the coroner and the papers were saying. So, why toss out a prized possession if there was no danger of it ever connecting him to any crime?
That gun was the key to pinning Garth Rawlings’s murder on Nick Ward.
Chapter 36
Sergio gave Billy Parsons a stern warning not to contact Nick Ward and alert him to the fact that the police were onto him. Sergio needed time to secure a police warrant to search Nick’s house for the gun that killed Garth Rawlings. Billy knew the chief had that false police report to hang over his head, so he promised not to say a word. At this point Billy was more concerned with saving his own skin than protecting his good buddy.
Or so Hayley thought.
Sergio dismissed Billy, and Hayley watched him fly past her, not even noticing her standing outside in the hallway. He wiped his brow with a dirty, stained handkerchief as he scurried out the front door of the police station and into the night. Sergio put a call into the judge for the warrant, which would take at least a couple of hours to be issued.
Hayley checked her watch.
It was already half past five in the afternoon.
She prayed there would be no delays; because if Nick got word about what was happening, he would surely go to any lengths to get rid of the gun.
Suddenly there was pandemonium in the station as a call came through the dispatch radio about a major three-car pileup outside town, near the Trenton Bridge. A local woman hit a patch of ice with her Chevy Malibu and spun out of control, sideswiping a Ford pickup truck and a Prius. No fatalities, but there were reports of injuries. Sergio grabbed his coat and raced out the door, his deputies Donnie and Earl on his heels. The search warrant was going to have to wait.
Hayley heard the sirens screaming as they sped away to the scene of the accident. There was nothing left for her to do but to go home and wait for news from Sergio after he had a chance to surprise Nick Ward with the warrant and search his house. She walked outside to the parking lot and hit the button on her remote to unlock her car; then she heard a man’s voice a few feet away from her. She glanced around and spotted Billy sitting in his Range Rover, parked a few cars away from hers. The driver’s-side window was open partway and he had his cell phone clamped to his ear.
“They know everything, Nick! You’ve got to get rid of the gun or you’re going down for murder. Do you hear me? Call me back the minute you get this message! I’m going to try to text you.”
Billy started tapping out a message on his phone.
Hayley crouched down between her car and the one parked next to hers to avoid being spotted by Billy. She couldn’t believe it. Billy had lied about keeping his mouth shut. And with Sergio on the outskirts of town dealing with the car accident, there was no way to stop Nick from disposing of the gun that would pin him to the murder.
Hayley’s mind raced.
She had to do something.
Billy had gotten Nick’s voice mail.
That was a good sign.
At least she had a little bit of time before Nick checked his messages.
She waited for Billy’s Range Rover to pull out and drive off before she jumped in her own car and drove straight over to Nick Ward’s house on Ledgelawn Avenue. She knew exactly where he lived; several years ago Nick had bought six boxes of Girl Scout cookies from Gemma and they had personally delivered them to his door.
Nick’s house was a modest two-story structure painted white with black shutters. As a contractor he kept the property in immaculate condition, since basically it was an advertisement for his work. Nick had divorced seven years ago. His wife claimed irreconcilable differences, but rumors were he had knocked her around for years until finally she stood up to him and said enough was enough. But that was just idle gossip. Still, given recent events, and seeing what a bully Nick could be, Hayley was prone to believe the stories.
Hayley was surprised to see so much activity on the block. There was hardly any street parking and she watched as people poured into Nick’s house, which was lit up with Christmas lights. She heard Madonna’s version of “Santa Baby” playing from inside. Nick was hosting a Christmas party. That would surely explain why he hadn’t answered his cell when Billy called to warn him.
She parked her car a couple of blocks away and hurried down the sidewalk toward Nick’s house, blending in with a crowd of merrymakers who were heading into the house for Nick’s soiree. The place was packed.
The guests Hayley arrived with shook off their coats and made a beeline for the open bar, which was serving spiked eggnog and assorted spirits. Hayley followed suit, but she kept a watchful eye out for Nick.
She scanned the living room.
No sign of him.
She wandered over and glanced in the kitchen.
He wasn’t there either.
That’s when Santa Claus, with a big sack of presents tossed over his shoulder, came marching down the staircase. “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!”
It was Nick.
No wonder he hadn’t checked his voice messages or texts.
He was too busy playing Santa Claus.
A handful of children hovered in the living room near the fireplace. Their eyes lit up with wonder at the sight of Santa, and they clapped their hands wildly. Nick sauntered over to them. A couple of them grabbed his leg, hugging him, while two more jumped up and down excitedly. Nick began doling out presents to the tots as their beaming parents looked on.
This was Hayley’s chance. Nick was going to be busy for a while. Here was the perfect opportunity for a quick search.
She rushed upstai
rs to see if she could find the gun. She started with a guest room that Nick had converted into a small office, furnished with a desk and a computer. The drawers were pretty much empty, except for a few bills and tax papers.
Against the opposite wall was a gun rack. Hayley carefully inspected each firearm, but they were all rifles. No pistol.
She then made her way into Nick’s bedroom, closing the door behind her, and checked his dresser drawers. There were just socks and underwear and a small stack of white t-shirts.
She crossed to the closet. Mostly work boots, an assortment of plaid flannel shirts, and a few pairs of jeans and khaki slacks folded on the shelf.
She was about to leave and go back downstairs, but then she heard the doorknob to the bedroom jiggle. She scooted into the closet and quietly shut the door behind her as two people entered the bedroom.
“Are you sure Nick won’t mind?” a woman’s slurred voice said.
“Baby, he’s never going to even know we were here. Relax,” an equally drunken male voice cooed.
Hayley opened the closet door a crack to see the couple fall back on the bed in a fit of giggles. The man slipped his hand through the woman’s bright red blouse and began caressing her breasts as she reached down to work the zipper on his pants.
Oh, dear God.
They were about to have sex.
And Hayley was going to be the captive audience.
She slid down to the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees, hoping this would not take too long. She didn’t want to be stuck in the closet all night.
Through the crack Hayley watched in horror as the woman yanked the man’s pants down as he lay on top of her, giving Hayley the perfect view of a full moon. She averted her eyes to the floor, where they settled on a shoe box, just to her left, tucked back in the corner of the closet.
She reached over and pulled off the top. Resting in the middle of some white tissue paper was a gun.
A pistol.
Hayley knew instantly she had just found the weapon that had killed Garth Rawlings.
Chapter 37
As the inebriated couple fumbled with one another on top of the bed, the man wheezing and thrusting, the woman moaning and gasping, Hayley reached up and plucked one of Nick’s flannel work shirts off the hanger. Slipping her hand through the sleeve, she used the shirt to pick up the gun, being careful not to get her own prints on it. She wrapped the rest of the shirt around it and held it until the couple on the bed finally finished. The man rolled off the woman and collapsed on his back. Hayley spied the woman smiling, satisfied. The man closed his eyes and fell instantly asleep, snoring loudly. The woman, offended that her partner wasn’t as anxious as she was for some postcoital pillow talk, violently shook him awake. He grunted and snorted and finally came to his senses. She shoved him off the bed and ordered him to put his clothes back on and get her a drink. The man was spent, but he did his best to do as he was told.
Once the woman checked herself in the mirror, wiping some smeared lipstick off her chin, the couple finally retreated out the door and back downstairs to join the party.
Hayley waited a few moments, making sure the coast was clear, before slowly opening the closet door. Tucking the gun wrapped in Nick’s shirt under her arm, she crossed past the now-disheveled bed and headed to the bedroom door. Before she even had a chance to reach for the knob, the door swung open, nearly banging her in the head.
Standing in the doorway was Santa Claus.
Or, at least, a nightmarish version of him.
This Saint Nick had a menacing look on his face, his eyes wild with rage.
Hayley took a step back as Santa pushed his way into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
“I thought I saw you slipping up the stairs,” Nick growled. “I don’t remember inviting you to my Christmas party.”
“I had no idea this was an invitation-only party. I thought you were having an open house and I just wanted to stop by and wish you ‘Merry Christmas.’”
“Really?” Nick said skeptically, leering at Hayley.
His eyes went right to the balled-up shirt tucked underneath Hayley’s arm.
“You trying to steal one of my shirts?”
“I was cold. I was just going to borrow it while I’m here.”
Nick lashed out, grabbing one of the sleeves that was dangling, and ripped it away from her. The shirt unraveled and the gun clattered to the hardwood floor.
They both briefly stared at it.
Then Nick raised his eyes and stared at Hayley.
“You know.”
He advanced upon her.
Slowly.
He quickly glanced back to make sure the door to the bedroom was firmly shut.
Hayley moved away from him, her eyes searching for some means of escape.
“Damn it! I thought I had taken care of you, once and for all,” Nick said, spitting out the words, his face a mask of fury.
“By locking me in the freezer?”
“I was so sick of you snooping around and badgering Hugo!”
“You were afraid if I kept at him, I might get him to crack, so you decided the best thing to do was to put me on ice permanently.”
“Why couldn’t you have just let it go, like everybody else? We were so close to getting away with it and putting it all behind us.”
“Not ‘we,’ Nick. You! This is on you. You pulled the trigger. You were the one who killed Garth Rawlings!”
Hayley ducked to her right.
Nick lunged at her.
Then in a flash she ducked to her left, faking him out.
She managed to get past him; but before she reached the door, he was on top of her, throwing his beefy arms around her, pinning her against his chest.
“Sergio knows where I am! He’s probably on his way over here right now!”
“You’re bluffing! If Chief Alvares knew anything at all, he wouldn’t have let you come here on your own!”
Nick hurled Hayley onto the bed with all his might.
She landed on her back, bouncing up and down on top of the mattress. She scrambled away from him and hit her head on the headboard.
Nick unbuckled the shiny black belt around his Santa suit.
Hayley shuddered at the thought of what possibly could come next.
He reached up underneath the red coat and yanked out the large, fluffy white pillow he was using to create the illusion of Saint Nick’s ample stomach.
Hayley suddenly knew what Nick was planning to do. She opened her mouth to scream. Nick jumped on top of her in an instant.
The last thing she saw was the self-satisfied sneer on his face as he pressed the pillow over her face and began smothering her.
Chapter 38
Hayley struggled desperately, kicking and clawing, but Nick was too powerful. As she thrashed around violently, he managed to keep her pinned down and the pillow clasped firmly over her face. She couldn’t breathe. She knew it was only a matter of minutes now before she would get light-headed from lack of oxygen and lose consciousness.
Just like when she thought she was going to die in the freezer, Hayley thought of her children and how horrific it would be for them to find out they had lost their mother so close to Christmas. She couldn’t bear the thought of them going through that. It just made her fight harder.
But Nick was twice her size. And twice her strength. She was not going to win this one.
Suddenly she heard a man yell, “Nick, what the hell are you doing?”
Within seconds Nick loosened his grip and then let go of her completely. Someone was hauling him off her. There were sounds of a scuffle: two men punching each other. One let out an earsplitting war cry. It sounded like Nick.
Hayley threw the pillow off her face and gasped for air. She turned her head to the side just in time to see Nick scoop up one of Lex’s crutches that had fallen to the floor during the melee. He raised it up to bash it into Lex’s skull, but Lex was too fast for him. He delivered a roundhouse
blow to Nick’s right cheek.
It was a sickening, crunching sound. A tooth flew out of Nick’s mouth as he spun around and dropped to the floor.
Dazed.
Barely conscious.
Lex grabbed the shiny plastic black belt Nick had used to tie around the waist of his Santa suit. He flipped Nick over on his stomach and pulled his arms together, using the belt to tie his hands. He left him there, writhing on the floor, and hobbled over to the bedside to check on Hayley.
“Are you okay?” He placed a gentle hand behind her neck and helped her sit up.
She nodded, still gulping in air. “Lex . . . ,” she panted. “How did you know?”
“I didn’t. I just came by to confront Nick about the damaged wall, maybe strong-arm him into confessing. I had no clue he was throwing a Christmas party. Someone downstairs said she saw him heading upstairs, so I came up to find him and just walked in on him trying to . . .”
Hayley stood up, but she was still woozy, and Lex had to steady her. “We better call Sergio and tell him what happened.”
Nick was on the floor, groaning. “It was an accident. . . .”
Lex was already on his cell phone, calling the police station.
Hayley walked over and stood over him.
He flopped around a bit like a desperate trout on the deck of a fishing boat. “I never meant to hurt anyone. . . .”
“Maybe you didn’t intentionally kill Garth,” Hayley said, feeling no sympathy. “But you lied and you covered it up, and that’s just as bad, if you ask me. Plus you tried to kill me twice. You’ll always be a murderer in my book.”
Hayley watched as Nick groaned some more and struggled against his bonds, but it was half-hearted because he knew in his heart that it was over. He was going to prison for a long time.
Sergio left Officers Donnie and Earl to deal with the car accident and raced back to town in his cruiser to place Nick Ward under arrest. After scolding Hayley for charging into a dangerous situation without any backup, he tossed Nick in the back of the squad car and spirited him off to jail.
Hayley found Lex leaning against the flatbed of his truck, staring up at the stars as she was heading back to her car to go home to her kids. His face was pale. His shoulders sagged. The crutches were propped up next to him.