Death Crashes the Party

by Vickie Fee

  After she hung up I told Di, “I remember not being able to get my cell phone to work that day I was at Tonya’s. We’d better drive out there and warn her about Ray while we have Ted keeping an eye on him. I have a feeling that we’ll all be ready to drop this surveillance job by tomorrow morning, anyway. You should probably call Dave to let him know where we we’ll be.”

  The call to Dave went straight to voice mail, so Di called the dispatcher and left a message for the sheriff concerning our whereabouts. We jumped in Di’s car and headed out of town.

  “Oh my God, Di! ‘One lie too many,’” I said as Di stomped her foot on the accelerator. “That was the last entry in Duane’s diary. Maybe Darrell found out that Ray was a phony. Maybe that was the lie. And maybe Ray killed them because of it.”

  Chapter 30

  Di and I barely talked during the drive out to Tonya’s place, both of us preoccupied with thoughts of Ray. I did blurt out some profanities a couple of times as Di less than expertly negotiated the pothole-studded back roads of Delbert County at high speeds, bouncing us off our seats.

  Di pulled into the driveway and slammed on the brakes. Tonya emerged from the house just as the two of us jumped out of the car with panicked looks on our faces.

  “Tonya, thank God! Have you seen Ray Franklin recently?” I said.

  “No,” she said with a puzzled look. “Why would I?”

  “It’s a long story, but you may be in danger.”

  “From Ray?”

  Di broke in, saying emphatically, “Tonya, do you have a friend you could stay with for a day or two? It really may not be safe for you to keep staying here on your own.”

  “I suppose so,” Tonya said slowly. “Why don’t you two come in the house and tell me what’s going on while I throw a few clothes in a bag?”

  We stepped inside the house and then followed Tonya into her bedroom and talked as she thumbed through her closet.

  “So, are you saying the sheriff thinks Ray Franklin killed my boys?”

  “He’s definitely a suspect,” I said. “We’re pretty sure Ray Franklin is not who he pretended to be. He may have deceived your sons into believing that he was their daddy, that their father wasn’t really killed in Iraq.”

  “We have reason to believe Darrell found out that Ray was lying—and Ray killed both of the boys because of it,” Di added.

  “This is so hard to believe,” Tonya said. “I don’t really know Ray, but both my boys spoke highly of him. What kind of evidence does the sheriff have?”

  “Duane’s diary indicates that the boys thought Ray was their father,” I said. “However, DNA tests prove Ray definitely is not their biological father. We think he scammed the boys into smuggling drugs for him through the trucking company with the ruse that they were helping their long-lost dad.”

  “It’s also possible that he was even involved in the murder at the storage facility,” Di added.

  Tonya finished stuffing some clothes and toiletries into a small suitcase.

  “We really should get going. We may not have a lot of time, and it’s not safe here,” Di said.

  Tonya picked up the suitcase, and we all turned toward the bedroom door, just in time to see Ray Franklin step out of the shadows in the hall and into the doorway, with a gun in his hand.

  “That’s a real in’eresting story, ladies. Unfortunately, sticking your noses where they don’t belong can be real bad for your health. Let’s step outside,” he said, stepping back and motioning us into the hallway with the gun.

  When we got to the back door, he shoved me into Di, forcing us into the backyard. He told us to keep walking, and I could see the bed of his truck sticking out from behind a shed.

  “You can’t get away with this!” I said. “The sheriff knows we’re here.”

  “You really expect me to believe he’d let you two come out here if he thought there was any danger? Now, climb up into the back of the truck,” he growled.

  Di and I both froze.

  “Move it!” he shouted.

  We looked at each other and slowly climbed up into the bed of the truck. When we turned to face him, we could see Tonya tiptoeing up behind Ray with an extended rifle in her hands.

  “Okay, ladies . . . ,” Ray said with a sneer.

  He started to say something else but was interrupted by a rifle blast to the back. His eyes went glassy and blood gurgled from a the corner of his mouth before he fell limply to the ground.

  Horrified, but relieved, Di and I jumped down from the truck bed. But as we started walking toward Tonya, our relief quickly turned to dread when she raised the rifle and pointed the barrel squarely at us.

  “You were right, girls. It’s not safe here,” Tonya said with a wicked smile.

  “I—I don’t understand . . . how,” I stammered.

  “I understand,” Di said. “You helped Ray convince Darrell and Duane he was their long-lost daddy. Of course! The sheriff said Ray didn’t even serve with their dad. He couldn’t have pulled off the deception without your help. You gave him the photo of them as kids and the postcard they had written to their dad—everything he needed to persuade two gullible boys their father was still alive.”

  “How could you do that to your own sons?” I said, still reeling with disbelief.

  “What do you know about it!” Tonya shouted, her eyes wide with rage. “I was seventeen when I got pregnant with Darrell. Bobby joined the army to support us. It was tight early on, but he made it through training, got promoted. Then he got sent to Iraq. We figured once he finished his tour, he’d get another promotion and we’d get stationed somewhere—maybe even get to see some of the world. Instead, I was a widow at twenty-three.” Tears streaked her cheeks, but Tonya’s face was still twisted in anger.

  “That must’ve been real hard on you, being left to raise two little boys by yourself at such a young age,” Di said, sounding sympathetic. I surmised that she was trying to keep Tonya talking, trying to keep her calm—hoping to keep her from pulling that trigger.

  “You have no idea what it was like,” Tonya said in a shrill voice. “I went from having a future to having nothing. I worked day and night to put food on the table and had to move in here with my grandmother. The price of keeping a roof over our heads was me being her slave. I not only worked at the bar, but I had to do the laundry and the cooking and the cleaning around here. I would have run off with just about any man to get away from her. But do you think any guy would take on a widow with two kids? Not for anything more than a one-night stand, I can tell you that.”

  My head told me I should follow Di’s lead and try to humor Tonya, but my big mouth impulsively blurted out, “But your sons. It wasn’t their fault.” I immediately knew I’d made a big mistake.

  Tonya steadied the rifle and walked toward us with slow, deliberate steps. We both froze. When she got to within inches of us, she suddenly lifted the rifle, pivoted the barrel over her shoulder, and slammed the rifle stock into the side of Di’s head, knocking her to the ground. I looked down at Di, and before I could blink, Tonya had the rifle against my head. I could feel the edge of the cold metal pressing against my temple. A sudden wave of nausea washed over me, and I thought for a moment my knees would buckle.

  “You don’t have kids, do you?” she said, pushing the rifle hard against my skull.

  I moved my lips, but no sound came out. I shook my head slightly.

  “They worshipped their grandmother, who badmouthed me to them nonstop. And they whined about missing their daddy. How could they miss somebody they could barely remember? They treated me like the maid. The last time either one of them cared enough to give me a card for Mother’s Day was when Duane brought one home for me that he’d made at school.

  “The past two years things began to look up for me. First, that old biddy finally died and left me this house. Next, Darrell got a job, and I told him to move out and take his half-witted brother with him. Then I met Ray. Me and Ray had a chance to be happy together, if we cou
ld just get some money. He was doing some thieving and some penny-ante drug stuff and said he could parlay that into some big money if I could get my boys to move drugs through the trucking company. I knew they wouldn’t do shit for me. But they’d do anything for their dead daddy.”

  “I understand,” I said mildly, following Di’s lead to try to calm Tonya down. “You were just trying to make some money. You never meant for anyone to get killed.”

  “Move,” she said, jerking the gun to the right. “Just inside that shed, there’s some rope. Pick it up and toss it over to me.”

  I did just as she told me.

  “It’s too bad the sheriff caught on to Ray. I guess I’ll just have to figure out a way to spend all that money by myself. Now, grab Ray by the legs, drag him into the shed, and shut the door.”

  It took every ounce of my strength, fueled by a will to survive, to drag Ray’s dead weight across the rutted dirt and into the shed.

  “Now, take this rope and tie your friend up real tight.”

  “But I—I—I . . .”

  “If you don’t tie her up, I’ll have no choice but to put a bullet through her head.”

  Fortunately, I could feel that Di was still breathing as I tied her up. Then I grabbed her under the arms and pulled her onto the back floorboard of Tonya’s car, as Tonya instructed me to do. She tossed me the keys and told me to get into the driver’s seat, while she climbed into the backseat.

  “Now, you drive real careful exactly where I tell you. I’ve got this rifle barrel right up against your friend’s head. You try anything stupid, and I’ll blow her brains out.”

  As the sun sank into darkness, we snaked our way along back roads for over an hour. I was desperately trying to think of some way to get out of this alive. I decided if I saw a police vehicle of any kind, I was going to lay on the horn and swerve into the side of the car. Of course, you can never find a cop when you need one. In fact, we passed only two or three cars during the whole trip. I thought about running the car into one of them, but I figured I’d just end up getting some other innocent person killed.

  The silence was maddening.

  “Tonya, what happened?”

  “I don’t think I owe you any explanations. If you two had minded your own business, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”

  I figured she wouldn’t shoot me while I was driving, so I pressed my luck.

  “Look, you plan to kill us, anyway. How did Darrell and Duane end up dead? I’m sure that wasn’t the way you planned for things to turn out.”

  “No. Nobody had to die. But the boys started to get nervous when that idiot Bobo kept ramping up the delivery schedule. Darrell, who was never better than a C student, started to figure things out. He came by the house to ask me some questions and heard someone slipping out the kitchen door. He ran after him and discovered Ray. Darrell told him he was going to the cops. They started fighting. I panicked. I just grabbed the rifle and shot Darrell without thinking. After I fired the shot, I dropped to my knees, crying, and Ray lifted the gun from my hands.

  “I didn’t know Darrell had left Duane waiting in the car. But when he heard the shot, he came running around the side of the house, wearing that ridiculous uniform, still playing soldier, like a little kid. When Duane saw Ray standing over me with the gun, he yelled, ‘Don’t you hurt my mama!’ and started running toward us. Ray raised the rifle and put a bullet through him. I couldn’t believe that slow-witted fool actually tried to defend me. . . .” She sniffled as her voice trailed off.

  I continued to drive, half dazed, with no idea where we were at or where we were going. When Tonya instructed me to turn onto Highway 22, I finally figured out where we were. We were near the Shiloh park and battlefield.

  Please, God, let there be a park ranger out on patrol, I prayed silently.

  We drove slowly along the winding park roads until Tonya instructed me to pull down a dirt road that disappeared into the woods, which were devoid of light but were filled with the sounds of owls and cicadas and crickets and unknown animals snapping twigs and crunching leaves as they moved through the forest. Still, I would have felt safer with anything in those dark woods than I did with Tonya. And I would have taken my chances and made a run for it if Tonya didn’t have that rifle pressed against Di’s head.

  If I had any muscles, I would have tried to wrestle the rifle away from Tonya. I wished I had joined a gym. I wished I’d taken a karate class. I wished I could see Larry Joe just one more time.

  Di moaned a little as I pulled her from the car. At least I knew for sure she was still alive. Tonya told me to drag Di over a rise into a small moonlit clearing. I complied and she followed us, keeping a tight grip on the rifle.

  When the ground flattened out, Tonya said, “That’s far enough.”

  “Tonya,” I said hoarsely. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “Shut up. You’re done talking. You ladies are standing on hallowed ground. You may remember, if you ever took a school field trip to Shiloh, that this right here is the area known as the Hornet’s Nest. About six thousand Union soldiers fought desperately to defend a line here. There were heavy casualties, and the Confederate troops eventually captured the Hornet’s Nest, taking more than two thousand Yankees prisoner. You two are about to become part of history.

  “I know this place looks pretty deserted. But starting tomorrow afternoon, trucks and vans filled with pretend soldiers will descend on Shiloh and start setting up camp. And on Saturday even more cars and trucks will show up, with people coming to watch. And when those fake bullets start flying and Union soldiers start retreating over that hill, they’ll find you two here, plugged with very real bullets.”

  Chapter 31

  Tonya raised the rifle and aimed it squarely at me. My head was swimming. I was sure I’d faint before she could shoot me. I hoped that meant I wouldn’t feel the bullet rip through my flesh.

  Suddenly I heard a rustling in the woods just beyond us and saw a flash of light, followed by what sounded like a stampede. Tonya swung around toward the noise. But before she could do anything else, two husky men in blue Civil War – era uniforms grabbed her by the arms and lifted her off the ground, knocking the rifle from her grasp. Several other Union soldiers, some of them carrying lanterns, raced in behind them.

  The world started spinning under my feet. The next thing I remembered, I was lying on the ground, looking up at a bearded man who was kneeling beside me.

  “You and your friend will be okay now, ma’am. We’ve called for the police and an ambulance. Good thing Ricky always has his friggin’ cell phone on him, even though he’s not supposed to when he’s in uniform.”

  I felt my lips part in a faint smile as I grasped the man’s calloused hand. “I’ve never been so glad to see a bunch of damn Yankees in all my life.”

  “Happy to oblige, ma’am,” the bearded man said. “There actually isn’t a battle scheduled this weekend. We’re just setting up a period camp and doing some cannon-firing demonstrations. Certainly never expected to capture a rebel brandishing a rifle. If you want to see the Battle of Shiloh, you’ll have to come back in early April,” he said, giving me a smile and squeezing my hand.

  “And the lady with the gun didn’t quite finish that story she was telling,” he said, casting a stolid glance toward Tonya, who was still struggling against her captors. “Federal forces went on to win the Battle of Shiloh.”

  Dave and Larry Joe and I were standing at her bedside when Di started to come to. She blinked and looked up at us blearily.

  “Is that you there, Liv?”

  “Yes, sweetie. I’m right here.” I reached out and took her hand.

  “Come closer,” she said softly. “So I can kill you,” she said a little less softly, tugging at my hand.

  “Sounds like she’s going to be just fine,” Larry Joe said from the opposite side of her bed.

  “That’s right, Di,” Dave said. “The doctor says you have a pretty nasty bump on your head. They had to
put in a couple of stitches, and they’re going to keep you here overnight for observation. But they did a brain scan and said everything looks good—which was a complete surprise to me. I figured both of you must have brain damage, going after Ray Franklin like you did.”

  “We thought Ted was keeping an eye on Ray. Besides, I called your voice mail and your dispatcher before we left,” Di said, trying to sit up before plopping her head back onto the pillow with a moan.

  “Whoa, there. Settle down,” Dave said. “The doc doesn’t want you trying to raise your head just yet.”

  “We had just gotten word from the crime lab that they had retrieved a bit of footage from the security cameras that clearly identified Ray. I was tied up on the phone with the state police, then the FBI, and didn’t even see I had a voice mail from you,” Dave said. “When you called Terry and left a message that you had gone to Tonya’s, you didn’t explain to her what that meant. She didn’t realize it was a message of any urgency. So I didn’t get the message until I called dispatch to check in. I hightailed it over to Tonya’s house the minute I heard, but you were gone by then. If only Ray had left his place ten or fifteen minutes later, we would have had him in custody, and none of this would have happened to you.”

  “And Ray would be locked up, but still very much alive,” I said.

  “I called Dave when I got to Di’s place and saw that you two were gone,” Larry Joe said. “When he told me he’d found Di’s car and Ray’s body at Tonya’s, but no sign of either of you . . .” Larry Joe started to get choked up, imagining what might have happened. I walked over and slipped my arm around his waist.

  “Since there was no sign of Tonya, either, I had to assume she was involved,” Dave said. “I put out a BOLO in four states for all three of you, and we called in volunteers to comb the woods around Tonya’s farm. Then, when Terry relayed the nine-one-one report that two women had been rescued at Shiloh by some Civil War reenactors and were being transported to the hospital, something told me I’d find you two here.”