“Well, then it looks like my grandmother came out the winner after all. Come on, Grandmother, we need to finish this right now.”
Moving forward, Leslie pointed her gun at Aiden and Megan again and demanded that they tell them what evidence JT had left behind. Marlene was silent; she seemed very shaken by Charlotte’s story. As Leslie waited for an answer, Richmore and Barneto pushed Aiden and Megan away from the row boat and were getting ready to push it out into the water. Richmore, always the gentleman moved forward to help Marlene into the boat. She followed his guidance still numb from her confrontation with Charlotte.
“Leslie, I get your grandmother’s motives, but why did you have JT killed? No one has ever been shot during one of your deals before that we could find out … why now?” asked Aiden, stalling for more time.
“He wasn’t supposed to be killed. You can blame Barneto for that. He brought in some of his thugs from Philly to rough him up and scare him into telling us where he had hidden some evidence he had on our Neptune Trident scam, and they got out of control. We have never had these kinds of problems before. If John had just told me where he hid the pictures, things would have ended so differently. We know that they were still on the camera he used; Barneto’s men managed to get that out of him before they lost control of the situation. I’ve looked everywhere for the camera, you must have it; that is the only evidence he could have; we are too careful for anything else to be possible.”
“You’re wrong, Leslie; we don’t have any camera or film. An innocent man was killed for no reason.”
As Aiden spoke to Leslie, Megan remembered something they had found and gave him a subtle nudge with her foot and whisper the words “Spy Pen.” The movement and sounds were enough to catch Leslie’s attention, and she aimed the gun at Megan.
“Megan, I believe that you are as much a pain to me as Edith was to my Grandmother. If you had just been somewhere else that evening, none of this would have happened. John’s body would have just surfaced, and it would have been another sad, unsolved murder. I’m tempted to shoot you just for all the trouble you’ve caused me. Maybe I will--”
As Leslie raised her gun higher, there was a loud noise from the woods behind them. In an instant, the beach was swarming with men dressed in black, ready to take over the situation. The distraction was all that Aiden needed: bending over at the waist, he charged forward towards Leslie like a pro linebacker. His surprise attack sent her to her back and her gun flying. Quickly she rolled to her side and tried to reach for the gun.
Her sharp cry of pain made Aiden bring his head up to see that Megan had also rushed forward. It was a shame that when she kicked the gun out of Leslie’s reach she had also given the woman a swift kick to her ribs. She smirked at Aiden when he gave her thumbs up signal.
It didn’t take Aiden’s security patrol long to get the others securely under control and to notify the sheriff. Within minutes, the beach was full of people: partygoers, volunteers, wait staff, the authorities, and of course Kim Heart from the Daily Press.
While Kim Heart tried to get the story from Sheriff Green, Megan looked around for Lucy and Paul. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her cousin helping her best friend across the sand towards them. Rushing forward, she hugged Lucy and asked if she was okay.
“I’m fine, one of them stung me with a small dosage of a Novocain-type of drug that caused my leg to suddenly go numb. While Paul was getting me to a chair, they grabbed Mrs. Potter. Is everyone okay? What happened? Paul, go to Mrs. Potter and let’s get these two out of here.”
Aiden looked over from where he was filling in the sheriff and agreed with Lucy.
“Go ahead, Paul, get these two home and out of the limelight. I’m going to be tied up here for hours and the sheriff will handle the press. Take them to Mrs. Potter’s and see that her staff doesn’t let anyone in or answer the phone. I’ll catch up with you when I can.” Aiden gave Megan a swift kiss before turning her over to her cousin’s care. Within seconds, he was pulled away to see to another detail in arresting the criminals and starting the process of shutting down their scamming business.
Chapter Twenty Six
Sunday, Monday &Tuesday
It had taken Aiden longer than a few hours to catch up with Megan and the others, and when he did, he was only able to stay for a few minutes. He explained that he was catching a jet up to Philly to close up the rest of the Black’s operations before they had the opportunity to hide evidence. Pulling Megan aside, he made sure she was really okay.
“I’m sorry I have to leave like this. You know it’s not my choice, don’t you?”
“I understand, Aiden. You need to complete the job … I want you to finish it and make sure that these people go away for a long time. You’re always welcome here, and I hope you do come back.”
“I’ll get back here as soon as I can. We have things to discuss. And I believe you promised me dinner and dancing.”
“That I did. But next time, how about at the Club House where things will be a little tamer?”
Laughing, Aiden gave Megan a promising kiss and then said good bye to the others.
After he was gone, everyone had gotten each other caught up with their part in the night’s activities and then Paul had insisted that Lucy go to bed to sleep off any lingering effects of the shot she had been given. Megan had agreed to spend the night at Mrs. Potter’s, and then both enjoyed the silence after they were alone.
“Are you all right, Mrs. Potter?” Megan finally asked her softly.
“Yes, dear. Just reflecting on past deeds that have affected so many lives. All centered on love: the love between a man and a woman, between lovers, between a town and its land. So many things could have been different with a bit of honesty.”
“True, but I believe there is a plan for everything, don’t you?”
“Absolutely, and we can only do our best with what we are each given in life. Thank you for everything, Megan. I think that you truly understand what went on all those years ago in Citrus Beach. Now, how about a nightcap to toast a better tomorrow?” Mrs. Potter seemed to shake off her reflections of yesterday and grinned over at her friend, ready to meet the hopes of tomorrow head on.
Megan grinned back and accepted the shot of whiskey Mrs. Potter had poured “Here’s to tomorrow,” they toasted. Finishing her drink, Mrs. Potter told Megan she was going to bed and would get up in the morning when she felt good and ready.
The morning’s paper had brought all the headlines Kim Heart had ever hoped for. Her story about the night’s activities was really good. The girl could write well when she stuck to the facts and reported the news as it actually happened. Of course, no one had told her the story of those three young women from years ago, but that really wasn’t a story that needed to be reported.
On top of all the activity from last night, the second big story was that the tropical storm Arlene was now a category 2 hurricane. She had quickly developed over the warm waters of the ocean and now was a serious threat to land. Even though she would not hit Citrus Beach, Megan knew that somehow they would be affected.
Sunday had passed in a blur. The sheriff had been over first thing in the morning to get statements from her and Mrs. Potter. He told them that the “Spy Pen” JT had hidden in his office was indeed full of evidence. There was enough evidence to close down the Black family’s operation completely. Once this evidence had been shown to Leslie, she had told them everything she could, hoping to shift the focus of the police from her and her grandmother to Richmore and Barneto. Once the two men found out what she was trying to do, it became a blame game. In the process of all the finger pointing, a confession was pulled out of the two men in lock up for the murder of JT. By the time the sheriff finished telling Megan and Mrs. Potter all the facts as he knew them, Paul and Lucy had shown up, and the story had been gone over again.
By noon, Megan just wanted to be home with her dogs and have some peace and quiet. That worked for a while, but then the phone had sta
rted ringing. Megan answered one call from Kim Heart and then unplugged the phone. But for once Kim had been polite and professional, so Megan had given her a simple statement for her follow-up story.
Monday passed quickly too. Things were back to normal at work and her entire staff reported in to the office, happy to find their boss safe and sound. There was much to be done that day. Megan had personally called Carol to let her know all that had happened and reassured her that all was fine now.
One interesting item that happened was that the Travels decided to leave town for a while. Councilman Travels also announced his resignation from the town council. After an emergency meeting of the board, an interim councilman was voted in: and it happened to be Paul. He was pleased, and Megan surprised: she had no idea he was interested in the town government.
By Monday evening, Megan found she was exhausted and disheartened, as well. She had still not heard a thing from Aiden.
Tuesday morning, Megan woke up refreshed and determined to get on with her daily life. She must have read too much into those quick little kisses from Aiden.
After getting some work done in her office, Megan decided to walk over to the main office and see how Janice was doing with her to do list. As she was driving the cart, with Barney by her side, across to the office, Paul pulled up alongside of her with Eric. Since he was in one of the larger diesel trucks, he got out of the cab and walked over to her. After giving Barney a pat on the head, Paul asked his cousin how her day had been going. They talked for a few moments and then Paul turned to walk back to the truck. Then, as if he had just remembered something important, he snapped his fingers and turned back to Megan, smiling with a smug look of mischief.
“Hey, Megan. I know I should have discussed this with you before doing it, but I rented the apartment out temporarily. The guy was in a bind, and I didn’t think you’d mind helping him out.”
“You did what? Oh, Paul I wish you hadn’t … Barney stay!”
But Barney was gone, running across the grass towards the apartment. Turning in his direction, Megan heard his excited barks. Putting her hand up to shade her eyes, she saw a man walking towards them.
“Oh, Paul, I’m so glad you did.” Blowing her cousin a kiss, Megan put the cart in gear and drove to meet Aiden as he walked towards her, with Barney doing the happy puppy dance around his feet.
THE END
A Note From the Author
There’s more to come…
Where will Hurricane Arlene make landfall?
What secrets will come to light from the storm?
Where will Megan and Aiden’s relationship lead?
For the answers to these & other questions;
BE SURE TO WATCH FOR THE NEXT CITRUS BEACH MYSTERY!!
From the author…
Thank you for reading this book. I hope that you enjoyed it. I would love to hear your feedback, and you can easily leave your reviews on Amazon.com
Want to find out more about Citrus Beach Mystery Series, or my new series Sister Station? Stop by my web site for this and direct links to my blogs and Amazon to purchase my books
www.VictoriaLKWilliams.com
I also invite you to visit my Face Book page. Here you can find hints about the next book, inside information about the writing of this series, and fun interesting facts about Florida and some of the items mentioned in my books.
https://www.facebook.com/CitrusBeachMysteryseries?ref=hl
And now you can follow my blog: Pen in Hand…my adventures into the world of writing
https://vlkw2pen.wordpress.com
Love to Garden? Read along with my 2nd blog: GOSSIP FROM THE SOUTHERN GARDEN
https://botanicalconceptsvlw.wordpress.com
HAPPY READING,
VICTORIA LK WILLIAMS
Murder For Neptune's Trident...A Citrus Beach Mystery (Citrus Beach Mysteries Book 1) Page 23