Hell in a Handbasket

by Denise Grover Swank

  “She wants to destroy it,” James said from the entrance to the kitchen, and a wave of relief flooded my head. He was okay. He was still okay.

  “So you’re the man who tried to buy the file out from under me,” Wagner said with a laugh, now spinning to face James, his gun pointed at his chest. “You worried? You should be.”

  What did that mean?

  “Rose,” James said in a deadly calm voice, “take Calvin outside and let me and Wagner settle this dispute.”

  “I kind of like the idea of Lady stayin’,” Wagner said.

  “Rose.”

  Wagner shook his head. “Clydehopper stays, but Lady’s welcome to stay outside if she likes. I’ll deal with her after I finish you two off.”

  “Rose,” James said. “Go.” When I didn’t move, he added in a more direct tone, “Now.”

  “So she does take orders from you,” Wagner said. “She’s your puppet.”

  “I’m no one’s puppet,” I said, opening the screen door and walking inside. I knew full well he’d played me, but I’d deal with that later. “Calvin, get up.”

  “I can’t,” he said, his face deathly pale. A quick glance at the huge puddle of blood under his thigh was enough to tell me that Calvin was in danger of bleeding to death.

  “I’m gettin’ a towel, Wagner,” I said, backing up to grab a towel from the kitchen counter. “I need to apply pressure to his wound.”

  “You’re wastin’ your time,” Wagner said. “I’m gonna finish him soon enough.”

  “I’m getting the towel anyway.” Still keeping my gun trained on him, I reached back and grabbed the terrycloth towel before dropping to my knees next to Calvin, splattering blood on my knees and my dress in the process. His pants were covered with so much blood I had trouble finding his wound. Then I saw a hole at the top of his leg and pressed the towel to it, all while still holding my gun on Wagner.

  Calvin released a weak cry at the pressure, but I pressed anyway. Even if we called an ambulance now, I wasn’t sure it would get here fast enough to save him.

  “What happened to my man?” Wagner asked.

  “He won’t be disturbing us,” James said.

  Wagner took a step back. “So what’s next? I hand you this envelope, and then you let me go?”

  “If that’s the way you want to play it,” James said.

  Wagner tilted his head toward me. “So what’s the deal with you two? Why are you tryin’ to pass her off as neutral?”

  “She is neutral,” James said.

  “Then why are you with her now?”

  “Because Dermot and I take turns makin’ sure she has backup if she needs it.”

  “I know you must be screwin’ her, but why’s Dermot involved?”

  James’ mouth twisted into a smile, but his eyes were deadly cold. “I guess you’ll have to ask him.”

  I couldn’t help noticing James didn’t deny Wagner’s statement about me.

  “You know I help settle disputes, Wagner,” I said, fighting to keep the gun up and pointed at him. It was tiny compared to my shotgun, but it was still getting heavy. “I helped Dermot locate something that was missing.”

  “That damn necklace,” Wagner said. “But that was for Reynolds. Rumor has it you helped depose Reynolds in favor of Dermot.”

  “His men made that call, not me.”

  “You were there when it happened,” Wagner said.

  “Then you know what I was lookin’ for.”

  “Scooter Malcolm.” He motioned his gun toward James. “But I’m smart enough to know that you were really lookin’ for him.”

  “I was lookin’ out for the good of the county, just like I always have. All this bloodshed only tears it apart. Don’t you think Crocker did enough damage? I’m trying to help the county heal.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “You can call Dermot and ask him yourself.”

  “I don’t give a shit what Dermot says, because I’ll never recognize you as anything other than Malcolm’s whore.” Then he spun to point his gun at me. “That’s why I’m gonna kill you first.”

  I heard a gunshot. For a moment I wondered if I was in shock and the pain would come later, but then I realized that James had shot him first.

  Wagner fell to his knees, then to the floor, his eyes wide open and a bullet hole in his head.

  James leaned over and picked up the envelope, then reached out a hand to me. “Come on.”

  My gaze was still on Wagner, but I lifted it to James. “I can’t go. I have to put pressure on Calvin’s leg.”

  “Rose, he’s gone.”

  I dropped my gaze, and Calvin stared up at me with vacant eyes, his chest not moving.

  I snatched my hand back, still clutching the towel.

  “Come on, Rose. The nearest neighbor’s not that far away. They’re bound to have heard all the gunshots. We have to get out of here in case they called the sheriff.”

  That knocked me out of my stupor. “What? We can’t just leave!”

  “We can and we will.”

  “It was self-defense.”

  “It wasn’t. I was protecting you, not myself, and given my history with the sheriff’s department, it won’t go well. We have to leave.”

  I shook my head. “If we go, no one will ever know what happened to Patsy. Or June and Calvin for that matter. We can’t go.”

  He held my gaze. “You feel that strongly about it?”

  “Yes. I’m not going.” I looked up at him. “But you are.”

  His eyes darkened. “Like hell I’m leavin’ you here with this mess. How are you gonna explain who shot Wagner?”

  “I’ll tell them I did it.”

  “My fingerprints are all over the gun, Rose!”

  “Is it registered in your name?”

  He stared at me for a second. “No.”

  “Then wipe off your prints and I’ll hold it.”

  “That’s not enough. You’ll have to fire it.” He shook his head. “No. I’m staying.”

  I could see that he would. He would risk his freedom to stay . . . because of me.

  I snatched up his hand. “I’m gonna have a vision.”

  “Have you had one yet?”

  “No, so there’s no better time to try.” I closed my eyes and concentrated. What will happen if James stays and admits he killed Wagner?

  My fear nipped at the edge of my hazy eyesight, keeping me from slipping into the vision.

  I felt James’ arm wrap around my back and pull me close, my body flush with his. He whispered in my ear, “Vision or no vision, I’m here with you, Rose. I won’t leave you.”

  I relaxed into him, resting my cheek on his chest, and the vision burst into life.

  I was in James’ head, sitting at a table in an interrogation room in the sheriff’s office. Mason and Joe were sitting in front of me. Joe was wearing his uniform and had his arms crossed over his chest. His expression was grim. Mason was in a dress shirt and tie. A sly grin spread across his face as he said, “I’ve got a mountain of charges here. Lucky for you, you’ve got plenty of time to hear them.”

  Then the vision changed, and I was sitting in a courtroom. I was standing next to Carter Hale, while Mason stood at the table across the aisle.

  Judge McCleary sat at the bench. “How does the jury find the defendant?”

  A man in the jury box kept his gaze on a piece of paper in his hand. “In the first charge of second-degree murder, we find the defendant guilty.”

  There was a gasp in the courtroom.

  The jury foreman continued. “In the second charge of second-degree murder, we find the defendant guilty. In the third charge of second-degree murder, we find the defendant guilty.”

  Then the vision changed again, and I was sitting in front of a tray of food in a large cafeteria filled with men in prison jumpsuits. I felt someone brush against me, and then something sharp stabbed into my back.

  “That’s from a friend of J.R. Simmons,” a man snarled in my ear. “Say
hello to him in hell.”

  My eyes flew open and I stared up at James in horror. “You’re gonna get killed in prison.”

  His face was perfectly blank.

  “Aren’t you gonna say anything?” I demanded.

  “If you stay, I’m stayin’.”

  “Let me have another one. I want to see what happens if you leave.” I didn’t have time to give much thought to the fact that the vision had felt different. I’d seen three scenes, whereas before I’d only ever seen one at a time unless I continued to ask questions. “Please. Let me try.”

  He pulled me tighter. “Okay.”

  I rested my cheek against him again, his rapid heartbeat in my ear. Closing my eyes, I asked, What will happen if James leaves me to deal with the sheriff?

  I was at the pool hall, sitting at James’ desk in his office. I could feel anxiety rolling off me in waves, and I was tempted to get a drink, but I wanted to be sober if Rose needed me.

  The phone rang, and I answered it immediately. “Rose. Where are you?”

  “I’m fine,” I heard my weary voice say. “They let me go. No charges.”

  The vision changed, and now I was in Carter Hale’s office.

  “Why the sudden urge to change your will?” he asked.

  “Something . . . changed. I need to be prepared.”

  “You already are. We worked it all out years ago. Jed gets most of it, the secret accounts go to Scooter.”

  “That’s why I need it changed. I need to make sure she’s taken care of,” I growled in frustration.

  “Skeeter . . .”

  “Carter, you know what I’m about to do. We both know how it might work out. Why are you fightin’ me on this?”

  Carter sat back in his seat with a look of resignation. “Okay, I’ll make the changes.”

  The vision shifted again, and I was in James’ bedroom, lying next to Vision Rose as he kissed a trail down to her naked stomach. Her left hand rested over her lower abdomen, the stones in her engagement ring glittering in the light. I placed my hand over hers. “It’s gonna be okay, Rose,” I said in a husky voice.

  “You don’t know that, James. Let me have a vision.”

  I shook my head. “No. We both know I have to do this, no matter how it turns out. I’d rather go into it not knowin’.”

  She nodded, tears in her eyes. “Okay.”

  I was plunged back into the kitchen, surrounded by three dead bodies, as I said, “I’m not gonna be charged.”

  He tilted my head back. “What does that mean?”

  I was still shaken by the other two visions, but I couldn’t think about them right now. “It means if you go and let me deal with it, they’ll question me, but they won’t charge me.” I tried to pull out of his arms and push him way. “You have to go.”

  “Rose. I can’t just leave. We need to come up with a story.”

  He was right. “Okay.”

  “We need Jed.”

  “No. Neely Kate—”

  But he’d ignored me and was already pulling up Jed’s number.

  She was going to kill me. She’d begged me to keep him out of all of this. “James. Stop!”

  Taking my hand, he tugged me out the back door as they began to scheme.

  Chapter 28

  The next morning, I woke up to the song of a bird outside my window, surprised by the bright light streaming in. I leaned over to check the time, alarmed to see it was after eight o’clock. I grabbed a robe to throw on over my pajamas, then headed downstairs.

  Neely Kate and Jed were sitting at the table in the kitchen, their heads leaning close together as they talked in low voices. I would have thought they were acting like a new couple in love if Jed didn’t reach over to wipe a tear from Neely Kate’s cheek.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry I involved Jed last night.”

  She quickly wiped both cheeks and turned to face me. “What are you talkin’ about?”

  “James called Jed to help cover everything up. I know you . . .”

  A confused look filled Jed’s eyes as he looked from her to me. “What am I missin’?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “I told her I’d stop monopolizing your time.”

  He gave Neely Kate a surprised look.

  “Oh,” I said hurriedly. “She never said anything. It’s just that I recently realized how much I rely on you, and it’s not fair to either one of you.”

  “Rose,” he said as though he were talking to a toddler, “we’re friends. Friends help each other.”

  “Most friends don’t ask their friends to help alter crime scenes.”

  “The only thing I did was suggest you wipe Skeeter’s prints off his gun, then have you shoot the wall.”

  “We altered the story of what happened. You helped with that too.”

  Within ten minutes, they’d decided on the story I should tell the sheriff’s deputies. It went something like this: I suspected June was up to no good, so I listened in on her phone conversation in the office. When I overheard she’d be meeting Calvin, I hid in the back of her minivan, worrying what would happen if she caught me following her. She got out at the cottage, but I stayed to eavesdrop outside. Wagner and his man showed up, but only Wagner came into the kitchen. He and his associate had gotten into an argument, and Wagner had hit him in the head with the butt of his gun in the living room. Everything else remained the same at that point—overhearing his confrontation with June and his attack on Calvin, intervening in the hopes of saving him. The rest was altered. I managed to get ahold of the gun Wagner had gotten off his partner, then used it to shoot him when he tried to kill me. Since I didn’t have a cell phone, I had to use the emergency call option on the one I found in June’s purse. That’s how I’d gotten in touch with Joe.

  James had had me open the envelope and find the information about Calvin and Patsy and the list of prostitutes Wagner had sent to Calvin, ensuring they weren’t covered in his prints since we were leaving the papers as evidence. Everything else—including the envelope—went with him. He promised to let me look it over when everything was said and done, but a cursory glance proved Wagner had information on James, Reynolds, Dermot, and quite a few other players in the crime world. We still had to figure out what to do with that, although my first choice was to burn it all.

  What I hadn’t seen was information on me. Had Charlene been lying about it? Or had she kept it for herself? What I hadn’t figured out was who killed Charlene. She’d been murdered shortly after we left her—June had already gotten back to work. But I told Joe we strongly suspected Charlene had killed Carol Ann over Wagner’s papers, which was why we’d picked her up from the Big Thief Hollow rec center . . . and why we’d run from Abbie Lee. We just didn’t have proof. I figured I’d let them try to figure out the rest on their own. I felt guilty not telling him about Charlene’s confession, but I knew Neely Kate and I would be in big trouble for sitting on it, and the only way we could explain it was by confessing about the file.

  Right or wrong, that wasn’t happening.

  The interrogation had gone on for hours and hours, and my hands were swabbed for gun powder. Close to midnight, Joe had told me I wouldn’t be charged and walked me out to the waiting room. Neely Kate was there, and the two exchanged looks.

  “Neely Kate,” Joe said. “I know this isn’t the time or place.”

  She’d walked toward him and slowly wrapped her arms around his neck.

  He held her close for several seconds, then said, “I’m gonna do better. I promise.”

  She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes and whispered, “I know. I’m sorry I was such a witch.”

  He shook his head. “You had every right to be upset with me. I’m still learning how to do this brother stuff right. Don’t give up on me yet, okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  He gave her a kiss on her forehead before releasing his hold on her. “Take Rose home, give her a stiff drink, and put her to bed.” He paused as he looked at me
. “You should make an appointment with Jonah. There’s no shame in needing someone to help you work through this.”

  I didn’t understand what he meant at first . . . and then it hit me. He was talking about me killing Kip Wagner. “Yeah,” I said. “That’s a good idea.” Then I’d gone outside and called James, and the conversation had gone down just like it had in my vision.

  Now here I was in my kitchen—a free woman—trying to figure out how to interpret the other two visions.

  “I think it’s a good thing you’re taking the day off,” Neely Kate said as she got up from the table and headed for the coffee maker. “You need to take it easy today.”

  “Actually,” I said, “I’m gonna help Bruce Wayne at his job site today. He’s got a big job. He could use the help.”

  “Why don’t you stick around here, Rose?” Jed said. “Witt’s takin’ Marshall back home, so you and Muffy will have the place to yourself.”

  That sounded like the worst idea ever. I was struggling enough with my guilt over lying to Joe about something so horrific. Stayin’ alone would only make it worse.

  “Nope,” Neely Kate said as she handed me the cup of coffee. “Rose is right. She needs some time in the dirt.”

  Jed stared at us both like we were crazy but got up and gave Neely Kate a kiss. “Okay,” he finally said. “I’m going to make a few phone calls. Still want me to drive you to the office?”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  He grinned. “Love to.” He headed out the back door, Muffy on his heels.

  “How are you really doin’?” she asked.

  “Not so great.”

  She took the coffee, set it on the table, then pulled me into a hug. “I haven’t been a good friend lately.”

  “What are you talkin’ about?” I asked, my words muffled by her shoulder. “You’ve been a great friend.”

  “No, I’m not. I coerced you into takin’ Patsy’s case. Then I practically abandoned you to hunt for Becky.”

  “It was a lead.”

  She shook her head. “I spent too long on it, and both you and Jed were too nice to tell me to give it up.”

  “I can’t speak for Jed, but I could see you were workin’ out some personal demons. Lord knows I have plenty of my own that I struggle with. I love you, Neely Kate. If you need to spend a day lookin’ for a lost girl to deal with yours, I’ll gladly give it to you.” I put my hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. “But I wish you’d share your nightmares with me. You know I won’t judge you.”