“You really think that’s what the killer wanted?” Collette asked. “The location of the diamonds?”
“Sounds like a good motive to me. The killer gets the diamonds and the story. So he’s rich and looks like a genius at the same time. Perfect chick magnet,” Colin said.
“‘Chick magnet’?” I asked. “Colin, you have to stop watching those cop shows.”
“Maybe Danny Jones found out about the diamonds the same way you did, Torie,” Collette said. “But what if he didn’t know the diamonds were there and he just went to the cemetery for some other sort of research? Like Bradley Chapel and Kyle were doing the day you guys called me down there.”
“Then why hide from me? The picture proves he was there. If he was just there to get a few photographs for the story or whatever, then why hide when I pulled up? Why not just stand there and talk to me? That would be the normal thing to do, right?” I asked.
“That’s true,” she said. She looked up at Colin. “What do you think?”
“I was so sure it was Jeremiah Ketchum,” he said.
“What if Danny Jones was the one who stole Jeremiah’s wallet? He would have had ample opportunity,” I said.
“Ooooh, Torie. Your mind works in wicked ways,” Collette said.
“I don’t know,” said Colin.
The phone rang and all three of us jumped. Nervous laughter bounced around the room as I answered the phone. “Gaheimer House, Torie,” I said.
“Mrs. O’Shea,” a voice said.
“Yes.”
“This is Danny Jones.”
“Danny…” I said. “What a … what can I do for you?” Collette and Colin both came around the desk, Collette on my left and Colin on my right, each wanting to listen in on the conversation. Well, Colin was the sheriff, so I switched ears and let him listen.
“I need to speak with you.”
“All right,” I said. “I’m not very busy right now. What do you need?”
“No, I need to speak to you in person,” he said.
Colin shook his head no.
“All right,” I said. Colin threw his hands up in frustration. “What’s it about?”
“I need to explain some things and ask you some questions about what Jacob had written in his notes. I think you’re the only one who can help me,” he said.
“Okay. When?”
“This afternoon?”
“Sure.”
“Umm, let’s meet out at the Lutheran church,” he said.
Sirens went off in my head. Any other time, I would have asked why he couldn’t meet me at a restaurant in town. Or at my office. But clearly he had picked the Lutheran church deliberately. If I let on like I suspected something, he might disappear and never be found.
“Oh, that’s a lovely spot,” I said, hoping I sounded convincing.
“Three o’clock.”
“All right, see you then.” I hung up the phone, my hands shaking.
“What the hell was that?” Colin bellowed.
“He wants to meet with me at the Lutheran church. Call your deputies, Colin. I think your killer is about ready to knock off the one person he thinks can nail him.”
“Who?” Collette asked.
“Me,” I said. “He saw me that day. He knows I have pictures of his car parked in the lot.”
“Torie,” she said. “He could hurt you.”
“That’s why Colin is going to call in the troops. Right?”
“Torie,” he said. “Your mother will kill me.”
“Can’t be helped. I’m the bait. You know all those fishing things you’re always talking about with Rudy? Some fish like only certain bait. And this time, I’m it.”
Thirty-one
Now I knew what it felt like to be a worm on a hook. Well, I didn’t have a sharp pointy thing jabbed in my gut exactly, but otherwise, I could empathize. I stood in the middle of the parking lot, waiting for Danny Jones to arrive. Colin’s deputies were positioned inside the church. Newsome was up in the bell tower and Duran was just inside the door. Miller was up in the loft part of the covered bridge, and Colin himself was in the woods. I was covered. One false move and I’d have four country boys coming to my rescue. But I still didn’t much like waiting for a killer, thank you very much.
Just as that thought entered my head, the Chevette pulled across the covered bridge with a clatter. Danny came to a stop next to me and turned off the engine, which knocked, sputtered, and finally was silent. Danny got out of the car. He was wearing a big green plaid shirt and black pants made out of parachute material. His brown eyes looked worried. Okay, I knew he was supposed to be a vicious killer, but he seriously needed to work on his wardrobe.
“Mr. Jones,” I said, “what’s this all about?”
“I want to know if you’d go to the sheriff with me,” he said.
Not what I expected. “Why?”
“You know the sheriff really well, don’t you?”
“He’s married to my mother,” I said. “I know more about him than I ever wanted to know. Why?”
“Then he’ll believe you,” he said.
“There’s something I have to tell you, Danny. Believe it or not, the sheriff does not always believe the things that I have to say,” I said. I looked around, nervous. The glint of Duran’s gun up in the bell tower calmed me. Somebody was there. Somebody was watching. Somebody would save me if I needed saving. “In fact, he can be quite stubborn. What is it you want me to tell him?”
“I think I know who killed Jacob,” he said.
“Really,” I said, trying to look surprised. “Who?”
“Jeremiah,” he said. “But I think he’s going to try to pin it on me.”
I said nothing, waiting for him to speak.
“The day you came down to the college,” he said, “you were looking at my car so funny. And I knew then that you knew I had been here after the murder.”
I didn’t tell him that I had only just made that discovery. I let him continue to think that I had figured it out earlier. “So?” I asked.
“When you found the diamonds, I knew you would think that I had been here to get them. Or that I knew where they were,” he said. “And that would make me suspect number one. But, I tell you, I did not kill Jacob.”
“What were you doing here, then?”
“Earlier, on the day Jacob was killed, the three of us were eating dinner. Jeremiah got up to go to the rest room,” he said. “Jacob told me that if anything ever happened to him that the tombstones at the Lutheran church would prove all of his theories.”
“The diamonds,” I said.
“No, I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Danny said.
I studied his face for a second. The snow fell all around, accumulating on us as we stood there. He didn’t look like a killer. But then, that didn’t really mean anything. Jeremiah Ketchum didn’t necessarily look like a killer, either. But Danny was so young, and I’m usually a pretty good judge of character. “What do you think Jacob meant?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I’m sure I did not kill Jacob.”
I thought about it a moment, and then it dawned on me. Jacob must have found out that William Wade had paid for the tombstones. Which Jacob had taken, as I had, as confirmation that William Wade was indeed Eli Thibeau. Along with photographs of the two, that was enough proof. Maybe that was what Jacob had meant by the tombstones would prove his theories. “So why were you here that day?”
“I just came to look. I thought if I could come and look at them, then maybe I could learn whatever it was that Jacob had known,” he said. “But all I found were tombstones of unknown dead. Then you showed up.”
“Why’d you hide?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I was just so creeped out by all of it. As I was on my way out of the cemetery, I heard your car coming. So I ran to the parking lot and hid in the Dumpster over there until you and the minister left. When I saw you, I thought maybe there was something to what Jaco
b was saying. I thought if you saw me … I don’t know.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around. The breath billowed from his lips as he shrugged at his own indecision. “I’m afraid now that Jeremiah is going to pin this on me.”
“How can you be so sure it’s Jeremiah?” I asked.
“Because it is,” I heard a voice say. I turned around and saw Jeremiah Ketchum standing just under the awning of the covered bridge. Deputy Miller was right above him. It took all my willpower not to look up. Not that I would have seen Miller even if I had looked. He was safely hidden. But I didn’t want Jeremiah to realize he was being watched.
Somehow, I was more scared now that Jeremiah was here than I had been when it was just Danny. Which made no sense at all. A killer is a killer.
My gaze flicked to Danny, whose hands were now out of his pockets and twitching in a nervous fashion. He was ready to take flight. Don’t run, kid. Don’t run. I knew if he ran, he’d be in more trouble than if he didn’t.
“Mr. Ketchum,” I said in my best Scarlett O’Hara voice. “Whatever are you doing here?”
He laughed. “Mrs. O’Shea, they broke the mold when they made you.”
“I’ve been told that before, believe it or not.”
Panic settled in my gut as I realized that the sheriff and the boys didn’t know what was going on. Would they realize which one was the bad guy? Did I even know which one was the bad guy? In my gut, I thought it was Ketchum. Danny’s explanation of why he’d been here and then hidden from me sort of made sense in a stupid teenager sort of way.
“What brings you here?” I said in a more serious tone.
“You, and Danny. I’ve been following Danny for days.”
“You have?” Danny said.
“Why?” I asked.
“I was watching to see if he sold out to the reporter.”
“Mr. Chapel?” I asked.
“No, no, the pretty one with the sexy name. Collette,” he said. Something in the way he said her name made my skin crawl. “It didn’t take me long to figure out that Bradley Chapel couldn’t tell his butt from a hole in the ground. But Collette … well, she’s pretty bright. And then she had the enigmatic Mrs. O’Shea on her side. I knew it wouldn’t be long before you two would have everything figured out. But there were still lots of things you didn’t know, and lots of documents you didn’t have. And I thought Danny was going to get scared and sell out to the enemy.”
My mind was reeling. Sell out? If we found the information on our own and had the whole story, what could Danny give us? Collette had put together the story of a lifetime without their help. What could Danny have to tell us that could hurt Jeremiah and help our story at the same time? I snapped my head around and stared at Danny, who was looking quite unsure at the moment.
“Danny,” I said. “How exactly do you know that Jeremiah killed Jacob?”
“Because it was his idea,” Jeremiah said.
“What?” I asked.
“He looked up the train schedule,” Ketchum said. “He figured out that if we killed Jacob at precisely six-fifty P.M. a train would come by a few minutes later and I could jump the train to get away. He had a car waiting for me up in Sulphur Springs. What I didn’t know is that dumb shit over there had rented the car in my name, and with my credit card.”
“Oh, I don’t think he was so dumb,” I said, looking at Danny Jones with newfound admiration and shock. How could I have been so gullible a few moments ago? He definitely wasn’t the naïve teenager I thought he was. “Think about it. He knew that when they ran your credit card, it would show up, and suddenly your alibi wouldn’t look quite so solid.”
“You’re the dumb shit,” Danny said. “You had to go and get a speeding ticket.”
“I am not going to go down for this alone!” Jeremiah said. Suddenly, he pulled a gun from his coat pocket, and I freaked. I started screaming, and Danny grabbed me from behind, placing his hand over my mouth and sticking something sharp against my stomach. My situation wasn’t the greatest. I was being held at knifepoint by one psychopathic killer and had a gun pointed at me by another. Sweat broke out along my back and I had to fight to remain calm.
“You gonna shoot her?” Danny yelled at Jeremiah. “Wife, mother of three. Upstanding citizen and all that crap. Think about it, Jeremiah.”
“If I have to go through her to plant a bullet in you, that’s fine with me,” Jeremiah said.
Danny moved and put his arm around my neck, so that I was staring down at his elbow. All he had to do was tighten his grip and he could either strangle me or break my neck. But the truly terrifying thing was that I was his human shield. And somehow I believed Jeremiah when he said he’d put a bullet through me to get to Danny.
“Colin! Help!” I didn’t realize I had opened my mouth and screamed. I just sort of heard it from someplace deep inside me. Blood pounded in my ears and my thoughts raced. Could I get away from Danny? If I did, would Jeremiah shoot me before Colin and the gang had a chance to shoot him?
“Drop it, Ketchum,” Colin said, emerging from the woods. “You’re surrounded.”
Ketchum looked to the ground, shaking his head and laughing. “Ooooh, Sheriff. Isn’t that what they say in all the movies?”
“You really are surrounded, you jerk,” I said.
A blank expression crossed Jeremiah’s face. His nose and cheeks had turned red from the cold, the snow was falling in heavier flakes, and now the wind had picked up. Danny twisted from side to side, moving me with him as he did so, trying to locate the deputies. I could feel his grip on me tighten as his panic mounted.
“Ketchum, don’t do anything stupid. You know we can track you in this snow,” the sheriff said. “Plus, if you’re out too long in this, you could die of exposure.”
“Gimme your keys, Danny,” Jeremiah said.
“Don’t be stupid,” the sheriff yelled. “Lay down your weapon.”
Jeremiah stepped closer to me and Danny, closing the space in seconds. An expression of regret played across the sheriff’s face. Was he upset that he hadn’t shot Jeremiah when he had the chance? The sheriff and I have had our differences, but I could honestly say that if Colin could spare a human life, he would. He couldn’t have known that Jeremiah would make this move.
“Come on, Danny. Let’s get in the car and go,” Jeremiah said. “You and me.”
I couldn’t see Danny’s expression, because he was behind me. But I could feel him hesitate.
“Let’s walk Mrs. O’Shea to the car, get in, and drive. They won’t shoot us if we have her for cover,” Jeremiah said.
“Don’t listen to him, Danny,” I said. “Think about it. Once you guys are five miles down the road, he’ll shoot you dead and leave you for the crows.”
I looked all around in every direction I could manage. Colin stood there, his feet apart, pistol aimed, ready to fire. Miller was up in the top of the covered bridge, the barrel to his rifle showing. I couldn’t see the church behind me, so I wasn’t sure if Newsome had come out or not.
Danny started dragging me toward his car. “Danny, don’t. He’s gonna kill you!” I shouted. I was afraid to struggle too much, because I was sure Danny would just snap my neck.
“Shut up!” Danny said, and tightened his grip around my throat.
“You’re a fool,” I said.
“Shut up! Shut up!”
Danny opened the driver’s side of the car. Jeremiah hunched down so that nobody could get a clear shot at him and got in the car. Then Danny dived into the car and threw me to the ground. My ankle twisted in the process, the same one I’d injured before, and I slid in the snow.
In a blur, Colin and Deputy Newsome circled the car. Danny tried to start it, but it wouldn’t turn over. That twenty-year-old Chevette wasn’t a very reliable getaway car. I heard one shot fired and then lots of shuffling and running and “Get down! Face in the snow! Don’t move!” I wasn’t sure, but it sounded as if Deputy Miller actually said, “Don’t move, sle
azeball.”
None of it much mattered to me. I lay on my back in the snow, looking up at the sky, unable to move from shock. Hot, searing pains shot from my ankle up my shin, but I just lay there. From this position, the snowflakes looked black as they fell from the sky. And then I heard a voice.
“Are you all right? Torie? Are you all right?”
I blinked and realized that it was Colin speaking.
I turned my head slightly to look at him.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine.”
No, having Hugh Jackman lick your toes is fine …
“Okay, no, I’m not fine. I’m … not bleeding.”
Colin laughed. “Can you move everything?”
I shook my head back and forth.
“No? What can’t you move?”
“My left foot.”
“Again?”
“Shut up.”
Thirty-two
A few days later, I sat in my mother’s living room with my foot propped up on a pillow. I was thumbing through a Reminisce magazine I’d found in a rack next to the couch. My kids were playing in the other room, Rudy was out in the garage with Colin, and my mother was cooking. Fried chicken, hash-brown casserole, homemade biscuits, salad, baby peas, chunky applesauce from Fraulein Krista’s, and, my favorite, a Red Velvet cake for dessert. I was in heaven just smelling it.
The doorbell rang, and I yelled, “Come in.”
My father entered the living room, his demeanor hesitant. His big QT mug was in one hand and a single red rose in the other. He saw me lying on the couch and waved. “Hey, Jalena,” he said into the kitchen. My mother answered him, and he made his way toward me. Whatever differences I have with my father, I will say that I love the fact that he and my mother made peace and are friends. He is often a guest at dinner, and he is never excluded from holiday events or birthdays. They actually get along better now than they ever did. My opinion is that my dad is a little jealous that my mother has found so much happiness with Colin, but he would never show it. I can see it, though, in the way he looks at them. Like maybe he is seeing what could have been his if … well, if he’d been a different person.
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