Unnatural Causes

by Dawn Eastman

  Samson? She hoped it was an ironic name for a toy poodle.

  * * *

  Katie parked her car off to the side of the cabin on a patch of bare ground. She heard the woodsy sounds of squirrels chattering and crows cawing. The trees seemed to draw close around the small house as if protecting it from intruders. But the light was fading fast, and the shadows were deepening.

  She crunched through the few leaves and stepped onto the wooden porch. Her knock echoed in the small clearing. Katie looked around nervously. The dog didn’t bark.

  Worried now that she was too late, she tried the door. Locked. Katie walked to the back of the cabin and peeked in the window. The place seemed deserted. Could Eric have already harmed the dog? Had he found them and taken them back home?

  She wondered if there was a key hidden under a rock or on a windowsill.

  Katie pulled out her phone to check the text. Could she have stumbled onto a different isolated cabin? Then she noticed that the text had come from Lynn’s phone—her old phone. Katie had warned her not to bring her phone with her when she left.

  Thinking about a hidden key reminded her of a fleeting thought she had about the key to Ellen’s house. Besides Ellen, Christopher, and Beth, there was one other person who would likely have a key. She thought back over the last couple of days, and then she knew who had really sent the text.

  Katie frowned. The pieces finally clicked into place. She backed quietly away from the window and turned to run to the car.

  “Stop right there, Dr. LeClair.” The voice was cold with just a hint of threat.

  Katie stopped and turned slowly. Maybe she could bluff her way out of this.

  “Marilyn, what are you doing here?”

  “This is my cabin. I come here sometimes when I want to get away.”

  “I came out here to pick up a dog for a friend. Do you know anything about that?” Katie stayed at the bottom of the steps looking up at Marilyn. The light from inside made Marilyn no more than a silhouette, and Katie couldn’t read her face.

  “There’s no dog here,” Marilyn said. “Would you like to come in?”

  Katie backed away. “No, I must have made a mistake.”

  “Yes, you did.” Marilyn opened the door wider and pointed a hunting rifle at Katie’s chest. “Come inside.”

  Katie cast a forlorn look at her car, but it was too far away to make a run for it. That was why Marilyn hadn’t answered the door. She’d wanted to get Katie as far from the car as she could. She had no idea how good a shot Marilyn was but wasn’t going to take the chance.

  She walked up the steps and into the cabin. It was lit only by a couple of oil lamps on the kitchen table.

  Marilyn pulled out a chair. “Give me your phone. Sit.”

  Katie sat and surveyed the room. They were in a barely used kitchen. If Marilyn spent any time here, she didn’t do much cleaning. The table where they sat had been recently wiped, but the counters were covered in dust and food wrappers.

  Marilyn gestured at the mess.

  “My son likes to use this as his hunting base camp. I never could get him to clean up after himself.”

  Katie didn’t say anything. She watched the rifle and stayed very still. She didn’t want to agitate her more than she already had.

  “I really liked you, Dr. LeClair. I wish you had left the Ellen Riley thing alone. What is it about you newcomers that you need to stir up trouble by looking into the past?”

  “Marilyn, all Ellen discovered was that you might be related to Christopher. She suspected you had the same father.”

  The gun dropped and pointed toward the floor. “So it’s true?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but it seems likely.”

  “When Todd told me, I was so furious with Christopher for all the years I’d tolerated his mother. All the years I was grateful to him for paying me to clean his house just so I could get by. I could run him over again, just thinking about it.”

  Katie didn’t think she was doing a very good job of defusing the situation. She decided to give Marilyn something else to focus on. “You can take a DNA test if you want to find out for sure. Then you could sue him for your portion of the business.”

  “No, I don’t care anymore. I just want to be sure Todd is okay.”

  “Todd?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Marilyn glared at Katie. “Ellen Riley must have told you. She found out somehow. I heard her arguing with Christopher about how he should do the right thing. That Todd could handle it.” Marilyn’s eyes narrowed, and she swung the gun so it pointed right at Katie.

  Katie felt her heart racing. Her mouth was dry. She had to keep Marilyn talking. Maybe she could convince her to put the gun down.

  “Marilyn, how is Todd involved?”

  Marilyn pulled a chair away from the table and sat down facing Katie. The gun didn’t waver.

  “I might as well tell you.” Marilyn sighed. “I’m sure you’ve heard Christopher’s side of the story. Even if Ellen never told you, I know you went to see him at the hospital. Besides, neither one of us is going to get out of this alive.”

  A chill crept down Katie’s spine. Just keep her talking, Katie told herself. Watch for an opportunity.

  “It was a night like any other,” Marilyn began. “Eric was at a friend’s house, so it was just me, Todd, and Noah. We’d finished dinner, and I was cleaning the dishes while Todd did homework at the table.”

  Marilyn nodded toward the table where Katie sat.

  “I was nervous because Noah had been drinking. Anything could happen when he was drunk.” Marilyn stopped and stared into space.

  She looked back at Katie. “Anyway, Todd asked a question, and I turned to answer him. I hit a plate on the edge of the sink, and it broke.” Marilyn mimed the action.

  “That was all it took. Noah went ballistic. He came at me saying I was clumsy and stupid and that he wasn’t made of money.”

  She hesitated.

  “I don’t know why I did it. I still had the broken plate in my hand, and when he swung at me, I lifted my hand, and he sliced his arm open on the jagged edge. Blood was everywhere, and he was enraged. He launched himself at me and got his hands around my neck. I thought, This is it; he’s really going to kill me this time. Todd was yelling at Noah to let go. Just as I started to see black dots, Noah’s hands loosened, and he fell to the floor.”

  Katie didn’t move. She didn’t want to break Marilyn’s trance.

  “Todd stood there with the baseball bat that Noah kept by the front door. His ‘antiburglar system.’” Marilyn tightened her grip on the gun. “Todd was only thirteen, just a kid.”

  “I’m so sorry, Marilyn,” Katie said. “I didn’t know.”

  Marilyn shrugged off the sympathy. “It was in Sylvia’s book. She showed me where she had it all written out. After she died, I kept thinking, Someone is going to find the book, and after all these years it will all come out. But then, nothing happened. I thought maybe Sylvia had destroyed it before she died. Then one day at the house, I saw Ellen with the book. She tried to hide it, but I knew what I had seen.”

  “What happened to Noah?” Katie asked, but she had a feeling she already knew.

  “Noah lay dead on the floor in his own blood. I didn’t know what to do, so I called Christopher. We’d been close since we were kids. He was the only person I could think of who would help me and not run screaming from the house.”

  Marilyn stood and paced in front of Katie, far enough away that Katie didn’t want to try to get the gun away from her.

  “Ten minutes later he arrived. He took Noah out back and buried him while I cleaned up the blood. The three of us swore never to tell anyone. But Christopher told his mother, the worst person in the world to tell. She held it over my head until the day she died. She made it clear that with one word from her, Todd would go to prison even though he had been underage at the time. I was so glad to see that witch buried. And then, somehow, Ellen fou
nd the book. I wasn’t going to live in fear of someone spilling the secret again. I had to get rid of her.”

  “I’m so sorry for what you went through with your husband, Marilyn,” Katie said quietly. “But if Ellen knew about it, I don’t think she wanted to hurt Todd. Christopher said she wanted him to acknowledge Todd as his nephew and to give him part of the business. I have the book now. You and Todd are not in it, but there is a page missing. Either Sylvia destroyed it or Ellen did.”

  “What?” Marilyn turned to face Katie.

  Katie shifted in her seat, trying to gauge whether she could knock the gun out of Marilyn’s hand.

  Marilyn’s eyes grew wide, and she set the gun down on the floor next to her. “What have I done?”

  Katie stood and reached for the gun just as the back door flew open. Marilyn stood to face whoever was there. Katie’s eyes widened in surprise, and she ran for the front door.

  “Don’t move, Doc.” The voice was deep and raspy, and Katie knew who it had to be.

  Katie turned slowly to face Eric Swanson.

  “Eric, put the gun down,” said Marilyn.

  Eric shook his head. “Sit down, Doc. You too, Ma.”

  “Quit messing around,” Marilyn said. “That thing is loaded.” But she sat next to Katie at the kitchen table.

  A crooked smile spread over Eric’s face. “I’m glad you weren’t bluffing. Imagine my surprise when I followed the GPS on Lynn’s phone out to the cabin. I didn’t think she’d be stupid enough to try to hide here. And I was right.”

  “Mr. Swanson, please put the gun down. I’m sure you don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  Eric spun and leveled the gun at Katie. “I’ve been trying to get you to back off for weeks. I left those notes. I warned you. I thought once that meddling Ellen Riley was dead that Lynn would settle down. Little did I know it was my own dear mother who killed her.” He winked at Marilyn. “Thanks, Ma. I could always count on you, right? And then you started in with Lynn, telling her to leave me.”

  “Eric—” Marilyn began.

  “No. I’m not listening to you anymore. You have Lynn’s phone, which means you must have helped her get away. How could you do that?” His eyes became red and watery. “She took the kids, Ma.”

  Marilyn stood and took a step toward Eric. She put out her hand, but just as she was about to touch him, he raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

  34

  Katie watched in horror as Marilyn crumpled and fell to the ground.

  Katie took the opportunity to launch herself at Eric. She knocked the rifle out of his hand and slammed him into the cabinet. His surprise only lasted a moment, and then Katie felt him spin her around so her back was against the wall. His hands circled her neck and squeezed.

  “Why didn’t you just mind your own business?” Eric’s face was an inch from her own, and she saw the fury in his eyes.

  She knew she only had a few moments before she passed out. Her breaths were raspy, and she felt panic set in. Her hands were on his, trying to pry them off. She dug her nails in, hard, and felt his grip loosen. She put her hands on his shoulders and used the one trick she knew. She brought her knee up and into his groin and pushed him away at the same time.

  Eric fell and curled himself into a ball. Katie grabbed the gun off the floor and pointed it at Eric. She eased over to Marilyn, keeping an eye on Eric the whole time. Marilyn was breathing shallowly and winced when Katie touched her.

  She looked around the kitchen for her phone and saw it on the counter next to the sink. Still watching Eric, she sidestepped to the counter and picked it up. When the emergency operator answered, she told her to send an ambulance and the police.

  “Address?” the operator asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s in the woods off route twenty-nine. It’s Marilyn Swanson’s cabin.”

  “The old Swanson place?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “I’ll have someone there in less than ten minutes. Stay with me on the line until they get there.”

  Katie wanted to help Marilyn. She could at least assess how bad things were and maybe stabilize her, but she didn’t want to give Eric an opportunity to get away. He began to sit up, and Katie stepped forward and slammed the butt of the gun into his lower back. She hoped that it would reactivate his injury enough to keep him down until the police arrived.

  She heard the voice on the phone talking. “What happened? Are you still there?”

  Katie put the phone to her ear. “I’m fine, but I need to check this patient—I’m going to put the phone down.”

  Katie set the phone on speaker and set it next to Marilyn. She kept one eye on Eric, but he had curled into a ball again and wasn’t moving.

  She carefully rolled Marilyn onto her back and saw that the bullet had entered her right shoulder. Katie grabbed a dish towel off the table and pressed it to the wound. Marilyn moaned.

  “Shh. You’re going to be fine,” Katie said. “Help is on the way.”

  Then she heard the sirens in the distance.

  * * *

  John Carlson was the first one through the door. He rushed to Katie’s side.

  “I’m fine, but Marilyn’s been shot.”

  John looked at Katie carefully, and his eyes cut to the gun at her side.

  “I didn’t do it,” she said. She gestured at Eric, who was trying to sit up again.

  Carlson went to him and pulled him roughly to his feet. Eric cried out and grabbed at his back. Katie thought about telling Carlson to be careful but decided against it.

  Carlson turned Eric over to Sean Gallagher, who had followed him into the room, and stepped outside to direct the EMTs.

  Katie’s hands were shaking and covered in blood when she finally stood up and let the paramedics do their job. She went to the filthy sink and ran water over her hands until it stayed clear. She wiped them dry on her jeans as Carlson put his arm around her shoulders and led her outside to his cruiser. She suddenly felt very cold as the shock settled in. John grabbed a blanket from his trunk, and she pulled it tightly around herself as she watched the stretcher come out of the house and get loaded into the ambulance.

  The trees lit up alternately red and blue. Katie closed her eyes, but she could still see the changing of colors.

  Finally, she heard the ambulance siren start up and disappear into the distance.

  35

  The tiny police station was packed when Katie walked in, still holding the blanket tight around her shoulders.

  Sean and Chief Carlson had brought Eric through the back door to the interview room. The chief groaned audibly when he came out to the reception area to talk to Katie.

  It seemed half the town was there. Katie and Caleb sat in chairs along the wall, and Katie fended off questions from Beth and Todd. Apparently Debra had called everyone she could think of when Sean got the emergency call about Katie and a shooting. Matt had been in the ER finishing his shift when he heard that a gunshot wound was on its way. He’d raced to the police station when he’d heard that Marilyn was the victim and Katie was with Carlson. Matt sat on the other side of Katie looking worried. Emmett and Nick stood with Linda Carlson and Debra. They all turned to the chief when he came through the door.

  “I need everyone to go home now,” he said. He held his hands up when the questions began. “I don’t have any information yet.”

  Caleb had already jumped up and was dragging Katie toward the door.

  “Wait,” the chief said. “Not you. I need Dr. LeClair and her . . . friends to stay.”

  “We’re all her friends,” Emmett said.

  Katie looked at him and fought the tears that had sprung to her eyes.

  “No, just those friends,” the chief said. He pointed to Matt and Caleb. Katie had told the chief that she, Matt, and Caleb had still been investigating on their own. He had not been pleased.

  Grumbling ensued from the others, but they eventually left after extracting promises from Katie to call when she could.


  The chief stood in front of the three of them and glared.

  “Who is going to tell me how Katie ended up out in the woods with Marilyn and Eric and a loaded gun?”

  “I went out there to rescue a dog,” Katie said.

  “I didn’t see a dog,” Carlson said.

  “There wasn’t one,” Katie said. “I was tricked.”

  “Tricked how?” Carlson crossed his arms.

  “I got a text from Lynn Swanson saying she needed me to watch her dog for her.”

  Carlson narrowed his eyes at her. “Do you always run a pet boarding service for your patients?”

  “No.” Katie dragged out the word to show her irritation with his snarky attitude. “She had gone into hiding at a women’s shelter to get away from Eric. She said she was worried he would hurt the dog. You know how I feel about dogs in need.” Katie knew it was emotional blackmail, but she didn’t shy away from reminding John about his precious Bubba.

  Carlson’s voice softened. “Yes, I do know.” He turned to Matt and Caleb. “You two wait here. I need to talk to Dr. LeClair alone.”

  Chief Carlson brought her back to his office. She nodded at the now familiar pictures of Bubba.

  He gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Do you want some terrible coffee?”

  Katie shook her head.

  Carlson sat in his brown leather desk chair and pulled a legal pad out of a drawer.

  “Okay, shoot.”

  Katie told him the whole story. About her suspicions that Ellen had discovered something that led to her death, about the color-blindness research, and how she had guessed that Marilyn and Christopher were related. She didn’t mention the computer or Caleb’s assistance. She’d save that for another time if it became necessary.

  She told him again about Lynn and her escape from Eric and how Katie ended up going out to the cabin alone, thinking she was helping Lynn by rescuing a dog.

  And then, she had to tell him about Marilyn’s husband and his death.

  The chief took notes throughout. His pen only faltered when she described Todd hitting his father with a baseball bat to protect his mother.

  “We’ll have to dig up the yard out there and see if she’s telling the truth,” the chief said. “That’s enough for tonight. This gives me a whole list of questions for Marilyn and Eric. As far as you know, Lynn is safely away with her kids?”