Due or Die

by Jenn McKinlay

  Beth and Lindsey bundled back up. Stepping out into the biting wind and thick snow was almost more than Lindsey could stand. She grabbed the shovels and held on to Beth as they zipped back to Nancy’s house.

  The porch and path to the front door had been cleared, but the snow was beginning to pile up again.

  “Why don’t you stay here?” she asked Beth. “It might be safer if the storm gets really nasty.”

  “I can’t leave Slinky and Skippy John,” Beth said.

  Lindsey wanted to argue, but she knew how much Beth loved her two kitties.

  “Besides, I have to get this snowmobile back to Mr. Chester so he doesn’t worry.”

  “Be safe,” Lindsey said.

  “I will,” Beth promised. “Mr. Chester has a cell phone. I’ll call and let you know I made it.”

  “All right,” Lindsey said. “Don’t forget.”

  Beth nodded and revved the engine. Lindsey watched her hop over the drifts with a nervous flutter in her chest. She glanced up at the sky. The snow pelted down onto her goggles, melting against the flesh-warmed plastic until all she could see was spots.

  CHAPTER

  17

  BRIAR CREEK

  PUBLIC LIBRARY

  Heathcliff danced a doggy dance of delight when Lindsey stepped through the door. She smiled, almost tempted to match his happy dance. There was something about coming home to a being that had no compunction about showing how much he had missed her that made Lindsey’s mood lighten even as the storm beat down on the eaves with a hammering that was relentless.

  Although they had not discussed it, they all gathered in Nancy’s living room to while away the rest of the afternoon and evening. They cooked spaghetti on Charlie’s stove while Nancy whipped up a salad and Lindsey ran up to her apartment to bring down a fresh loaf of olive bread.

  They ate in candlelight, and conversation moved from Charlie’s tour and the uncertain future of the band to what Lindsey had seen while she was digging out the library.

  Carrie offered to help Lindsey with the dishes. Since she was bone weary from shoveling the snow, Lindsey was grateful for the assist.

  The window over the kitchen sink looked out over the side yard, and Lindsey noticed that Carrie scanned the yard every time her gaze strayed to the window.

  “Are you looking for your kids?” she asked. “Are they on their way?”

  “No.” Carrie shook her head. “I told them to wait until the roads were passable. Our family has suffered enough tragedy for the time being.”

  Lindsey was silent for a moment, not sure if she should say more, but she wanted Carrie to know that she could talk to her.

  “What is it, then?” she asked. She figured it was better to offer Carrie the opportunity to talk even if Carrie gave her the brush-off. “It’s obvious something is on your mind.”

  “I just”—Carrie hesitated—“I just can’t help wondering if Markus was the intended target of the shooter.”

  “What do you mean?” Lindsey handed her the last of the dripping plates.

  “I mean, and I know this sounds nuts, but what if the killer was looking for me?”

  “Is there a reason you think this?”

  “Well, I know Markus wasn’t very well liked,” Carrie said. “But I don’t think anyone hated him enough to shoot him. He rarely left the house. He never left his zip code. Who could have wanted him dead?”

  “The police don’t think it was an accident, do they?”

  “They haven’t said for sure.”

  “But?”

  “But I don’t see how they could,” Carrie said. “Both of my neighbors have called me to see how I’m doing, and when we talked about what happened, neither of them could remember hearing anything like a shot being fired in the evening. No matter what the medical examiner says, I know he was shot after seven o’clock, because when I left the house, he was fine.”

  “It’s nice of your neighbors to check on you,” Lindsey said.

  “Well, we’ve all lived there for twenty-five years. Marcia lives on one side and Cindy on the other,” Carrie said. “Our kids ran in and out of each other’s houses for years. I know them almost as well as I know myself.”

  She stacked the dried plate on top of the pile, and Lindsey put the stack up in the cupboard.

  “But if what you say is true, then you’re saying someone would want to shoot you. You’re very well liked in the community,” Lindsey said. “I can’t imagine that anyone would want to harm you.”

  Carrie carefully folded her dish towel and placed it on the counter. When she looked up again, her brown eyes were troubled.

  “There’s one person,” she said. “But I hate to name names. I mean, what if I’m wrong? That would be slander.”

  Lindsey studied her. She thought about who in town might have a grudge against Carrie. One name leapt forward and she said, “How about if I guess?”

  Carrie raised her brows and nodded.

  “Marjorie Bilson, aka Batty Bilson, who apparently has a passion for Bill Sint?” Lindsey asked and Carrie gasped.

  “How did you know that was who I was thinking?”

  “Because she’s off her rocker,” Lindsey said. “She came after me when you took over Bill’s role as president of the Friends.”

  “Really?”

  Lindsey nodded. A draft of cold air circled around her and she shivered. “Come on, let’s talk by the fire.”

  They rejoined Charlie and Nancy in the living room. The two of them were engrossed in a game of chess. Judging by the accumulated pieces by each of them, Charlie was winning.

  Lindsey and Carrie sat down on the hearth and let the fire’s heat wash over their backs. Soon it would be too hot to sit this close, but for the moment it felt good. Heathcliff lay down beside Lindsey and rested his chin on her feet. She reached down and gently rubbed his ears.

  “The day after Markus was shot, I got a weird and very creepy phone call from Marjorie Bilson,” Lindsey said. “I didn’t mention it to you because I felt you had enough going on, but I did play it for Officer Plewicki and she recorded it.”

  “What did it say?” Carrie asked.

  “Basically, that now that you were going to jail for murdering your husband, she wanted to know when Bill would be reinstated as the president of the Friends.”

  Both Charlie and Nancy turned their attention from the game to listen.

  “Is that the message you played for Emma at the police station?” Nancy asked. “I heard her tell the chief about it. I got the feeling she was going to bring Marjorie in, but I wonder if the storm has shifted their priorities.”

  “It would have to,” Charlie said. “They can’t chase down a murderer when half the town is out of power and buried under snow.”

  They were all silent for a moment or two. The house, still without power, creaked and groaned under the onslaught of wind and ice. Even huddled together in the cozy living room, it was impossible not to feel vulnerable.

  Heathcliff rose to his feet and did a quick survey of the doors and windows. To Lindsey, it looked as if he were checking the perimeter. He was just a puppy, but she found it incredibly comforting to have him finish his circuit and sit back down at her feet as if assured that all was well.

  “If your neighbors didn’t hear a shot, and assuming it wasn’t an accident, then that means it was someone who knows how to use a gun,” Lindsey said. “Does Marjorie have a history with firearms?”

  Carrie, Nancy and Charlie all looked at one another. Charlie was the first to raise his hands in defeat.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I mean everyone knows her elevator doesn’t reach the top floor, but it’s not like she’s Dale Wilcox.”

  “True,” Nancy said. “Now there’s one you don’t turn your back on.”

  “Who’s Dale Wilcox?” Lindsey asked.

  “He’s a local fisherman,” Charlie said. “You see him down at the pier a lot. He runs a charter operation, but he’s as mean as a hornet, and whe
n he’s drunk, he’s mean and crazy. He did time for assault and battery a few years back, and if I remember right, he had a weapon on him at the time of his arrest.”

  Carrie fretted her lip. “It wasn’t Dale. I know he has a bad reputation, but he wasn’t always like that. I don’t believe he’d harm anyone.”

  “He went to jail for assault!” Charlie argued. “Rumor has it he was going to shoot that guy.”

  “As you say, rumors not facts,” Carrie said.

  “Wait a minute,” Nancy said. “I just remembered! I was at the grocery store, and I saw Dale and Markus get into a road-rage incident a few weeks ago. Dale thought Markus had cut him off to steal his parking spot, and when he yelled at Markus about it, Markus threatened to call the police. Dale got so mad at that he threatened to back over him.”

  “Did Markus call the police?” Lindsey asked. This would be excellent, as it would give the police yet another lead.

  “No, Milton Duffy happened by and tried to talk them both into doing some sort of yoga thing together,” Nancy said. “Markus refused because of his back, and Dale just stalked off toward the package store.”

  “I never heard about this,” Carrie said, and she began to fret her lower lip with her teeth. “I wonder why no one told me.”

  “Probably, so you wouldn’t worry,” Charlie said. “Dale drunk is flat-out scary. Sully won’t even let him on the pier if he smells booze on him.”

  An icicle snapped off the side of the house and fell with a thump. They all jumped. Lindsey’s back was hot now, so she scooted off the hearth and sat on the floor beside Heathcliff, who obligingly rolled onto his back to have his belly rubbed.

  “Well, this does give us a new direction to look in,” Lindsey said. “Was there anyone else Markus had an altercation with recently?”

  “Define altercation,” Carrie said. “He had a row with our handyman, Clyde Perkins, over the tile we hired him to put in our bathroom. Markus refused to pay him when he was done because he said he didn’t like the way the tiles felt under his feet. He thought they were too spongy.”

  Nancy shook her head and Charlie blew a breath out between his lips.

  “What happened?” Lindsey asked.

  “I had to pay Clyde on the sly,” Carrie said. “But, oh, he was so mad at Markus. Apparently, Markus said he did shoddy work and he was going to report him to the Better Business Bureau.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I believe Clyde threatened to use his tile cutter on him.”

  Nancy clucked. “Clyde is one of the best handymen in town.”

  “I know,” Carrie said. “Markus also got into a tiff with Della Navarro, his physical therapist. He said she was nothing more than a gym teacher and should have her therapist license revoked. He was going to file a complaint against her.”

  “Della is a big girl,” Charlie said. “I don’t think I’d sass her.”

  “Didn’t she rehab Cooper Highsmith after his car accident?” Nancy asked.

  “Yes,” Carrie said. “She got him walking again when they said he never would.”

  “Wow, I’m surprised she didn’t snap your husband like a twig,” Charlie said.

  Carrie sighed. “My husband was not an easy person.”

  Nancy and Lindsey glanced swiftly at one another and then away. Not fast enough, however.

  “What was that look for?” Carrie asked.

  “What look?” Nancy asked.

  Lindsey gave her props for sounding so innocent, but she knew they were busted.

  “That look that says you think I’m mental,” Carrie said.

  “No, that’s not it,” Charlie said. He moved his leg right before the toe of Nancy’s sneaker would have connected with his shin in an attempt to shut him up.

  “Oh?” Carrie looked at him. “What is it, then?”

  “It’s just that no one in town has ever been able to figure out how such a nice lady like you ended up with such an old, well, stinker,” Charlie said.

  “Charlie!” Nancy reprimanded him, but Carrie held up her hand to indicate that it was okay.

  “He wasn’t always like that,” she said.

  Nancy looked at her with one eyebrow raised in disbelief.

  “Oh, all right, he was always like that,” Carrie said with a sigh. “He really thought the world owed him.”

  “You think?” Nancy asked. “I mean, I didn’t know him well, but even I knew that he spent his days cooking up one crazy, get-rich-quick scheme after another.”

  “Yeah,” Charlie snorted. “He wanted Sully to buy some boat parts from him. He’d gotten them from some guy at the dump and they were crap.”

  Carrie nodded, looking pained. “I remember that.”

  “He was so mad when Sully said, no, thank you.” Charlie shook his head. “He really thought he was going to make a fortune.”

  “Oh, and remember when he wanted the Blue Anchor to carry his signature cookies?” Nancy asked. “Turns out he was buying the nearly expired throw-out cookies from the bakery and palming them off as his own.”

  Nancy tsked. Lindsey could tell that this left Nancy with a particularly bad taste in her mouth, not surprising since she was known for baking the best cookies in town.

  “He said he always figured he’d be rich and living in a mansion like the Sint estate by the water on the bay,” Carrie said. “But he never wanted to work for it.”

  “So, why did you stay with him?” Lindsey asked. She couldn’t imagine what Carrie had seen in such a lazy scam artist.

  “I just, well, I made a vow. And when you make a vow, you have to stick to it.”

  “Oh.” Charlie nodded. “So, when you made your wedding vows before God, you took them to heart. I get it. That’s really admirable.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” Carrie said.

  They all looked at her. A wry smile parted her lips.

  “I know God would have forgiven me for leaving Markus. He was a miserable person and tended to bring everyone around him right down into the muck with him. Truly, he is…was a complete downer.”

  “Then why did you stay?” Lindsey asked.

  “His mother, on her deathbed, she made me swear I’d never leave him,” Carrie said. “She was dying. I couldn’t refuse.”

  “So you kept your vow to a dying woman,” Charlie said as if it all made sense now. “Wow, that’s amazing.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Carrie said. Then she snorted. “The truth is, I was afraid the old bat would haunt me if I broke my promise. The only person more high maintenance than Markus was his mother. God rest her soul.”

  “I think you were wise. If there was a woman who could haunt you, it would be Jane Rushton,” Nancy said. “You were right to be afraid.”

  The two women looked at each other with sheepish grins. Charlie looked at them like they were both loony, which made them laugh.

  He looked at Lindsey for backup, but she had started to crack up as well. Probably, it was exhaustion creeping up on her, but she couldn’t stop the indelicate snort that escaped through her nose.

  Surprised, Charlie laughed at her, and Heathcliff hopped to his feet to lick any face he could reach.

  A deep, repeated banging broke through their laughter.

  “What was that?” Nancy asked.

  They all went silent, listening. Then the banging started again.

  CHAPTER

  18

  BRIAR CREEK

  PUBLIC LIBRARY

  For a crazy second, Lindsey thought it was Jane Rushton coming to haunt them for being so callous as to laugh at her.

  Heathcliff, the bravest of them all, charged the door, barking a warning.

  “It sounds like someone knocking on the front door,” Charlie said. He rose slowly to his feet. “Who would be insane enough to come out in this weather?”

  “Well, you did,” Lindsey said.

  She stood, too, feeling more nervous than she wanted to let on. At least Charlie lived here. It wasn’t so odd that he
’d tried to get in during the storm. But now that all of the residents were accounted for, there was no reason for anyone to be knocking.

  “Well, we won’t know until we answer it,” Charlie said. He picked up a flashlight and led the way, leaving Lindsey and the others to follow him. He opened Nancy’s apartment door and peered out into the darkness.

  “Hello?” he called.

  There was no response.

  Heathcliff began to growl low in his throat. Lindsey reached down and stroked his head. The fur between his shoulder blades bristled, and Lindsey tried to soothe him with whispered words of comfort. Heathcliff wasn’t having any of it.

  “Stay back,” Charlie said. “I’ll answer it.”

  “No, don’t,” Carrie said. “It could be the murderer.”

  “We have to,” Nancy said. “It could be someone in trouble.”

  “Nancy’s right,” Lindsey said. “You two stay back. Nancy, get your cell phone ready. If it is someone bad, shut yourselves in a back room and call nine-one-one.”

  Nancy opened her mouth to say something, but the pounding on the front door resumed and they all jumped.

  “Go now,” Charlie ordered.

  As the two women stepped back into the apartment, Charlie and Lindsey stepped forward. She held Heathcliff’s collar to keep him from jumping.

  Charlie unlocked the door and pulled it open just a crack. “Who’s there?”

  “It’s Sully, and I’m freezing.”

  Charlie yanked the door open. “What are you doing out in this weather, boss?”

  “Looking for Lindsey,” he said. He had to shout because Heathcliff started barking an enthusiastic greeting and launched himself at Sully, obviously recognizing him.

  “You found me,” Lindsey said with a wave.

  Sully knelt down and let Heathcliff lick his face. “How are you doing, boy?”

  Heathcliff wiggled even closer to Sully, and Lindsey had to smile. There was a definite mutual-admiration-society thing happening there.

  “Come on in,” Lindsey said. “We have a fire and I’m sure Nancy has some hot tea.”

  “Sounds nice,” he said.