by Jana DeLeon
“I can’t believe it!” I said.
Gertie grinned. “I know, right? Best ending ever. Molly is alive and okay. Silas is going to prison for killing Johnny. Ida Belle will have awesome catering at her wedding, and Jeb promised me he’d call me for a date. This has been one heck of a week.”
“I assume Carter knows?” I asked.
“Of course,” Ida Belle said. “The nurse at the hospital recognized Molly as soon as she walked in and called the sheriff’s department. Molly’s disappearance was all over the local news. Nothing like working the night shift and thinking you’re seeing a ghost walk in the door.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” I said.
And I’d bet Carter was elated but also dealing with a very unhappy DA. Once again, I was really happy to be a lone agent and not under the thumb of the red tape bureaucracy and career climbers that Carter dealt with every day. I imagined the DA wasn’t going to be excited at all about Molly’s return from the dead.
“Did someone call Nickel and Angel?” I asked.
“I’m sure Molly did as soon as they got her in a room,” Gertie said. “We figure they headed that way as soon as they got the news, but Ida Belle thought you might want to be on hand because they’re sure to tell her about Johnny.”
Ida Belle nodded. “I think she’ll have questions.”
“Don’t we all,” I mumbled, staring out the window.
This was all exciting and I was thrilled that Molly was all right and even happier that she would finally have some answers about what really happened to her brother. But once again, I had that niggling feeling that I was missing something.
The hospital nurse greeted us as soon as we walked in and appeared as if she was expecting us. She directed us to Molly’s room and asked that we try to keep our voices down. Apparently, all the excitement coming from Molly’s room had been disturbing the other patients.
Angel and Nickel were sitting in chairs next to Molly’s bed and they both jumped up when we walked in. Angel rushed over to give me a huge hug and whispered, “God bless you for everything,” when she pulled me in. Nickel surprised me by following suit with the hug and saying, “I can’t thank you enough.”
Molly was sitting up in her bed. She was bruised but smiling.
“Get over here and give me a hug, skinny girl,” she said.
A tiny tremor of fear ran through me, but Molly took it easy on my rib cage and I came out of the hug with everything intact. Molly sniffed as she released me and shook her head.
“I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you,” she said. “But I’ll make you that dip every darn week, I know that.”
“As much as I would love to live on that dip, I still have a couple items in my closet that don’t stretch,” I said.
She laughed. “I knew I was going to like you the first time we met. But when Luke told me he’d hired you to look into my disappearance and that it led to you solving Johnny’s murder, well, I’ve never been more overwhelmed. Nothing can bring my brother back but the three of us have suffered so hard and so long, knowing that the official story couldn’t possibly be all there was.”
“I’m glad I could help,” I said. “And I’m really sorry that it turned out your father was responsible.”
Molly sighed. “I know it’s a horrible thing to have to say but that’s probably the one thing in all of this that didn’t surprise me. I wish my father had been a different person…a better person. But he is who he is. I’ve hated him most of my life. At least now he’ll pay for one of the horrible things he’s done.”
Angel reached over and squeezed her hand and Nickel nodded.
“Got that right,” he said.
“What about you?” Ida Belle asked. “How are you doing?”
“I’m going to be fine,” Molly said. “They’re keeping me overnight for observation but come tomorrow, I’ll be shopping for your wedding food.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Ida Belle said. “We can manage without stressing you as soon as you leave the hospital.”
“I’d be more stressed sitting in my house with nothing to do,” Molly said. “It’s only going to take me ten minutes to pack up the extent of Dexter’s belongings and less time than that to toss them out the front door.”
“I guess the cops had to let him and that woman out of jail,” Gertie said.
Molly shook her head. “My not being dead kinda put a hitch in that whole murder charge, but it seems the DA thinks they have enough to get them on conspiracy to commit murder. Apparently, a night without a fix had Marissa rolling on Dexter and telling on herself. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but the DA is determined to make something of it.”
“You never intended to leave your business to Dexter, right?” I asked.
“Good Lord, no!” Molly said. “That man can’t tie his shoes with both hands free. Why on earth would I leave someone like that my business? I had intended on getting everything drawn up legal and leaving it to Ally. I don’t know her well but I know she’s trustworthy and can cook. I heard Dexter showed up to give her some trouble.”
“He did but Fortune disabused him of that notion,” Ida Belle said.
Molly grinned. “Heard about that part too.”
“So what happened to you?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Molly said. “I remember leaving, thinking I’d take a boat ride and get some air. I was frustrated with Dexter but mostly with myself for not doing anything about it. And I was giving my best friends grief for even bringing it up. I remember being on the phone with Angel, complaining about Dexter, but then everything goes blank. I can see flashes of being pulled into a boat and remember chicken broth but nothing more than a second or two until I woke up in that cabin.”
“Do you think Dexter and Marissa went after you?” I asked.
“If they did, I don’t remember,” Molly said.
“What about the hole in the boat, and the blood?” Gertie asked.
“The hole was my own fault,” Molly said. “I chunked my new anchor in and put a little too much steam behind it. Cussed myself for two days over that hole and need to get it fixed. As for the blood, I don’t know. I assume maybe I fell and hit my head. That’s what the doctor thinks.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t drown,” Ida Belle said.
Molly nodded. “All they can figure is that I must have been aware enough to float.”
“Well, whatever you did, we’re really glad of it,” Gertie said.
I nodded. “We’re usually happy with catching the bad guy. Having your victim turn up alive is better than winning the lottery.”
“Uh, Molly,” Ida Belle said, looking a little sheepish. “There was an issue with your van during our investigation.”
Molly grinned. “I saw the video. That was a narrow escape. You guys are resourceful. But don’t worry about the van. I carry really good insurance and it’s probably not the first time the insurance company has had a filing about a bear.”
A nurse popped her head in and gestured at us. “That’s enough visiting for now. The patient needs some rest if she expects to get out of here tomorrow.”
“You heard the woman,” Molly said. “Get the heck out because I’m not riding this bed another day.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
We all said our goodbyes and headed out. Nickel and Angel were going to grab some coffee and breakfast at the cafeteria and wait for the next set of visiting hours. Ida Belle, Gertie, and I headed for the parking lot but when we got to the lobby, I paused.
“I need to make a stop at the ladies’,” I said. “Do you guys mind grabbing us some coffee for the drive back? And if there’s doughnuts there, I’d be forever grateful.”
“Now you’re talking,” Gertie said. “I’d only gotten one cup in before Ida Belle called. And no food at all. I’m starving.”
“Find us something to tide us over until we can get back to Sinful and have a celebratory breakfast at the café,” I said.
They nodded and heade
d off. I went back down the hall but instead of going into the restroom as I’d said I was going to, I headed back to Molly’s room.
She was still sitting upright and smiled at me when I walked inside.
“I thought you might be back,” she said.
“There’s a couple things I thought you might be able to clear up,” I said. “And I figured you might not like them to be general knowledge, although I have a feeling you didn’t manage all of this alone.”
She cocked her head to one side. “And just what is it you think I managed?”
“Oh, I don’t know—setting up your boyfriend and his side piece to be arrested for murder, for starters, but I don’t think that was the main purpose. I think the real reason you faked your own death was to get someone to look into Johnny’s death again because you always believed that your father was responsible. You just couldn’t figure out how he did it and you knew the police wouldn’t look into it again. Not without a reason. And since they couldn’t be depended on to make the connection between your disappearance and Johnny’s, you hedged your bets and had Nickel hire me.”
“Whiskey told Nickel that if you had a 10,000-piece puzzle missing a single piece, you’d turn the world upside down to find it.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or a character flaw, but it’s probably accurate. Silas didn’t have anything to do with taking out that insurance policy, did he?”
Molly put on a blank face and remained silent.
“You see, the interesting thing is that the agent identified the woman who took out the policy as you and he had a valid driver’s license,” I said. “We figured it was manufactured or stolen and that Silas had hired someone to play your role. It was a good assumption and exactly the one you were hoping we’d make, which is why the signature on that policy was so far off from your own. It needed to look like a legitimate attempt at fraud.”
“I couldn’t have taken out that policy. When that document was being signed, I was catering a party in Mudbug.”
“I’m sure you were. But Angel wasn’t. She’s almost as tall as you with similar features, and when the policy was taken out, she was pregnant. She told us she gained weight all over and was still working on losing it. With baggy clothes and a fake hairpiece, that ancient and half-blind insurance agent would have sworn he was looking at you.”
Molly remained silent.
“It’s a big risk, you know. The cops will pursue that angle as part of their murder conviction—to try to prove that Silas was successful once so he was going to try again. They’ll run those documents. If Angel’s fingerprints are on file for any reason…”
Molly finally broke her impassive expression and smiled.
“She was careful not to touch anything except the pen, and she took it with her when she left,” she said.
“Then you called him from a burner phone and told him to meet you at your house about the policy. That way he was on-site when you disappeared, giving him motive and opportunity to cash in again. And with the back taxes owed and the bookies sniffing around, motive was increasing in urgency every day.”
“So what do you plan to do with all this knowledge?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
Her eyes widened. “Why not?”
“Because the only law broken was the fraud with the insurance policy and with no fingerprints, no one will ever prove who set that up.”
“And if there had been fingerprints?”
“I still wouldn’t have said anything.”
“I figured you to be one for justice.”
“I am, and Johnny finally got some. I don’t blame you for what you did. In fact, I admire your cleverness. It was well planned. The biggest gamble you took was in counting on me to dig in and figure it all out.”
“I did my asking around,” Molly said. “Whiskey isn’t the only person who speaks highly of you. Back when I first started cage fighting, Big Hebert helped me out with some funds to get started.”
“Big Hebert?”
“He’s some sort of fifth cousin three times removed or whatever. You know how Louisiana families are.”
“So much about this is making more sense. I suppose it was Nickel who gave you a ride out of the bayou that day and stashed you somewhere—their camp, maybe?”
Molly frowned. “My one regret about all of this is that we lied to you. But I didn’t see any other way. I didn’t think the cops would dig deep enough, but everyone who knew you said you would.”
“Then why didn’t you just ask me to look into Johnny’s death?”
“Because you would have gotten the same information the cops did and said there wasn’t anything else. And I wouldn’t have blamed you. But with me missing in the same way and Silas looking to cash in again, I figured you’d keep digging longer than the evidence called for. And I needed someone really smart because none of us could figure out how he did it even though we were all certain he did.”
I thought about it for a bit. Was she right? Would I have done my due diligence and dismissed the claims like everyone else? If Molly hadn’t disappeared and set up that fake life insurance cash-in for Silas, would I have focused my laser attention on him as a murderer? Would I have questioned Johnny’s death, or would I have assumed that three grieving people couldn’t cope with the truth?
I wasn’t sure.
And if I wasn’t sure then there’s no way Molly could have been. For all her manipulating and lying, she’d come up with the one way to get me to literally dig out the truth. And I didn’t blame her for that.
“How did you know?” Molly asked.
“Small things. Things that gave me that feeling that something wasn’t on the up and up.”
“Like what?”
“When we talked to Angel, she would refer to you in present tense, then past tense. It’s not uncommon with a recent death, but it makes more sense when you put it in the context of you still being alive. Then there was a statement Ida Belle made about unless you can pull one of those Jesus tricks like my dad. He has a thing for rising from the dead. And there was a statement that Angel made—that she wasn’t interested in justice. She was interested in retribution. And the thing that never fit at all was your father’s insistence that you had taken out the policy and called for him to meet you. It was no more outlandish than Dexter’s insistence that you were going to leave him your business. And yet both of them said those things with a ring of truth in their statements.”
Molly smiled. “You know, I feel sorry for any criminal that thinks he’s going to set up shop under your radar. This town is a much safer place with you on the job.”
“You did lead Dexter on, didn’t you?”
“Of course. Even had him sign a fake document that I burned afterward. That idiot had always cheated on me, but when he hooked up with Marissa, he crossed a huge line. She kept bugging him to get money from me and then started asking if he got everything if I died. She fed him the idea of cashing in if I bought it, so I started stringing him along by making him think there was something in it for him if I died.”
“And how did you know all of that?”
She shrugged. “A friend overheard them talking and let me know.”
“Uh-huh. This friend wouldn’t be a regular at The Bar, would he?” I asked, remembering that Glenn had said a lot of current and former cage fighters frequented the joint.
“I suppose it’s possible.”
“If you knew what Dexter was up to, why not just dump him?”
She thought about this for a bit. “I think because Dexter was going to be the last time a man used me. After everything I’d gone through, and he was actually trying to figure out how to kill me to get money for a junkie. I guess you could say it was the final straw.”
I shook my head. “So much went into this. So many people searched for you, grieved for you.”
Molly nodded. “And that’s the one thing I feel bad about. Well, and lying to you. But if I had it to do over again, I’d still do t
he same thing. You managed to do what no one else would have, and without those circumstances, I don’t think that would have been possible.”
“I don’t have any hard feelings about what you did. I probably would have done the same thing in your situation. But I want you to make me a promise.”
“Anything.”
“If you ever need my services again, tell me the truth. I won’t stop until I have answers. I can’t promise they’ll be the answers you want, but I can’t let things go until I know the truth about them. Character flaw.”
Molly sniffed. “It’s a good one to have.”
“Also cumbersome.”
She extended her hand to me and I placed mine in it. She squeezed and a single tear ran down her cheek.
“Thank you for finding Johnny. It means everything to me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Saturday was bright and clear and hot as heck, but that didn’t put a dent in the celebration at all. All of Sinful had cheered Molly’s return to the living and now half of Sinful was in my backyard, anxiously awaiting the wedding that was never supposed to happen. The backyard had been transformed by me, Gertie, Ally, Marie, Emmaline, and Carter with some assistance from the local florist. There were a ton of white chairs in neat rows and a pretty arch with flowers draped around it at the end of the rows where Ida Belle and Walter would stand and make everything legal. A white satin runner split the chairs into two sides and residents had some fun arguing over whether they were guests of the bride or the groom, as they’d known them both forever.
Gertie and I were everywhere—outside ensuring people found places to sit and that the water stations remained filled with ice and bottled water, and inside, making sure when the time came, everyone was treated to some of the finest food Sinful had to offer. My kitchen didn’t have one square inch of counter space left, and it smelled as though heaven had opened up and officially catered Ida Belle’s wedding.
Molly was there and helping get the food staged for distribution. We’d figured she’d drop off everything and run but she surprised us all by showing up in a bright purple pantsuit that matched her hair and claiming that no way was she missing Ida Belle’s nuptials as it was the equivalent to spotting a unicorn.