Candy-Coated Secrets

by Cynthia Hickey

  A creak came from the front room.

  I clicked off my flashlight and plastered my back to the wall. My ears strained. My heart thumped wildly. Praying against discovery, I held my breath.

  Soft footsteps rasped against the worn vinyl of the trailer floor. I suddenly wished for the ski mask I’d tossed back into Joe’s car. If seen, my hair would be a dead giveaway. I mentally kicked myself for using the word dead.

  I closed my eyes, took another deep breath, and hurled myself from the bathroom. My feet tangled in a discarded towel and I toppled forward. The fall to the floor sent a spasm of pain through my shoulder. My feet slipped as I struggled to stand. The footsteps were no longer soft. Someone pounded toward me.

  My skidding feet reminded me of a cartoon where the feet move but the character doesn’t. Once I managed to get back inside the safety of the bathroom, I slammed the door closed and tried to engage the lock. It wouldn’t hold.

  The footsteps stopped. The knob turned. With a shriek, I shoved the door open. The impact sent the person behind it slamming into the wall. With a speed born of fear and self-preservation, I sprinted down the short hall and out the front door.

  My breath labored, but I fought against it, not stopping until I found shelter behind the arts and crafts building. Thank You, God. I searched for my aunt. She sat on a stump surrounded by a mob of caring people.

  She played the injured woman to the hilt, grasping her hip and moaning. Once I felt I could breathe without gasping, I made my way to her side. It was now my turn at acting.

  “Aunt Eunice, are you all right? What happened?”

  “Summer.” There were actually tears in my aunt’s eyes. “I’ll need help getting back to the booth.”

  “When you didn’t come back, I got so worried.” Putting a hand beneath her arm, I helped her to her feet. “Thank you all for taking such good care of her.” Murmurs of well-wishing followed us into the building.

  “You can stop limping now,” I said as I released her.

  “No, I can’t. I hurt my hip when I fell. Must have landed on a rock.” She lowered herself gingerly into a nearby chair.

  “You aren’t faking?” Now I felt horrible. In no way had I wanted Aunt Eunice to actually hurt herself.

  “Just tell me this new bruise will be worth it.” Aunt Eunice raised eager eyes to mine.

  I glanced around to ensure no one paid attention to us. “I know Millie didn’t hang herself. Even as small as she was, there’s no way she could have hung from the shower without pulling it completely away from the wall.” Leaning against the door, I put a hand to my chest. “Someone almost caught me. I’ve never been more terrified in my life.”

  “Who was it?”

  I shrugged. “I slammed someone into the wall and ran.” I groaned. “Ethan is going to kill me. They’re going to know someone was in the trailer, and I’ll be the first one Joe suspects.”

  “You do have a way of meddling.” Aunt Eunice pushed to her feet. “Let’s get back to the booth and pretend we’ve been there the entire time. Lord forgive me, but I can lie with the best of them if I have to.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ethan and Joe entered the booth. Neither said a word, just stood like sentries, arms folded, legs spread. Their absence of expression reminded me in an odd way of British palace guards. A fine sheen of perspiration dotted my upper lip. Maybe Aunt Eunice could lie, but I couldn’t. My face gave me away every time.

  Deciding avoidance would be the best protection against a third-degree grilling, I acted busy and rearranged candy in the refrigerator. Aunt Eunice kept up a nervous chatter behind me.

  “Hello, boys. Are you here to buy or just take up space, ’cause our space is valuable.”

  Joe grunted.

  “Okay. Well, then, if you ain’t buying, you need to move. You’re blocking the booth from prospective customers.”

  I peeked beneath my arm to get a look at the line of customers. No one waited, and neither man so much as twitched a muscle. They resembled very stern statues. Aunt Eunice propped her fists on her hips.

  “Look, Joe. Just because you are a member of the police force doesn’t give you the right to barge in here and terrorize innocent people.”

  Oh, boy. Aunt Eunice was going to spill the beans with her attempt at lying.

  “Get your head out of the refrigerator, Summer. I need to ask you a few questions.” Joe’s voice was colder than the air spilling from the appliance.

  I turned, banged my head on the door, and bit my tongue. “I’m busy.”

  “I need to know where you were for the past half hour.” Joe unfolded his arms and rubbed a hand over his head.

  “Right here,” Aunt Eunice answered.

  “Then why did Eddy Foreman just inform me you collapsed outside the back door?” Joe sighed.

  “I just stepped out for a minute. No law against that, is there?”

  “There is if you were covering for Summer so she could contaminate a crime scene.”

  “I didn’t contaminate anything.” I closed the door and rubbed the tender spot on the crown of my head.

  Ethan closed his eyes and gave a sigh that rivaled Joe’s. Joe pressed his lips tightly together. His face turned crimson. He became this shade of red so often, Crayola ought to name a crayon Joe Red.

  “Summer Meadows, do you mean to tell me that you did not go into Millie’s trailer, ripping down crime scene tape in the process? And do you further mean to tell me that you did not bang the bathroom door against the wall, leaving a big hole?”

  Why would he suspect me? Aunt Eunice. She hadn’t been exactly subtle with her distraction. Or myself for that matter. Getting tangled in the crime scene tape hadn’t helped. My cousin knew me too well. I collapsed in a stool. “I didn’t touch anything. The yellow tape got tangled in my hair. Okay, I might have touched that getting loose, but that’s it. Oh, and the doorknob.” I held up a hand. “But I used a towel to yank on the showerhead, so there shouldn’t be any fingerprints.”

  The color of Joe’s face intensified. “You yanked on the showerhead?”

  “Look. Instead of interrogating me, you might be more interested in knowing someone else was in there and tried to kill me.”

  “Tried to kill you?”

  “Stop repeating everything I say!”

  “I made a simple request. One little request. And just because someone came in, where you weren’t supposed to be, by the way, doesn’t mean they tried to kill you.”

  “Joe, take a deep breath before you have a heart attack.” Aunt Eunice laid a hand on his arm.

  “You knew I was up to something, Joe, or you wouldn’t have offered me the ski mask.” There. I had him on that one.

  “I was joking!” He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “Lord, take me now. Take me home right this instant.” He turned to Ethan. “You do something with her.”

  Ethan shook his head. “She’s hopeless.”

  Okay, time to switch tactics back to my life being in peril. “Does either of you care that someone tried to kill me? I know I mentioned this before, but the two of you don’t seem bothered in the slightest.”

  “Fine. But I’m looking for a new job the first chance I get.” Joe pulled a small spiral notepad out of his pocket. “Okay, shoot.”

  “Please don’t use that word.”

  “Get on with it. Did you see the person who tried to kill you? Did they have a weapon? Was it a man or a woman?” He held a pen poised over the pad.

  “No, and I don’t know. I slammed them into the wall. That’s probably how the hole got there.”

  “You slammed them into the wall. How do you know they wanted to kill you? Maybe they wanted to find out why you were there.”

  “You’re repeating again. They chased me. Anyway, I’m pretty certain Millie didn’t hang herself. No way. She’s about my size, and I was able to pull the showerhead away from the wall. And that was without a dead weight hanging on it.”

  “I don’t want to hear thi
s. You don’t think I’ve already figured that out? The minute I walked into Millie’s bathroom?” Joe glanced at Ethan. “I must have made God angry for Him to give me a cousin like this one.”

  To my horror, Joe unclipped a set of handcuffs from his belt. “I hate to do this, Summer, but I warned you.”

  “Ethan?” I leaped to my feet and plastered my back to the wall.

  “Joe, put those away.” Aunt Eunice, bless her heart, stepped in front of me.

  “I’ve got two sets of cuffs, Aunt Eunice. You’re an accomplice. I’m taking you in with her.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “You have got to be kidding. Roy, do something.”

  “I can’t meddle with law enforcement, Eunice.” Uncle Roy patted my aunt’s shoulder. “I’ll be down to bail you out in the morning. I’ll have to use the money we’ve been saving for a cruise.”

  “You’re going to wait until morning? Our cruise money?” Aunt Eunice crossed her arms. “I ain’t staying in no jail through the night. You know the type that frequents those places.”

  “You mean like you and Summer?” Joe smiled a grin worthy of the most evil of villains. The cuffs clinked in his hands.

  Not knowing what else to do, I did the best thing I could think of and bolted for the door. Ethan’s arm snaked out and wrapped around my waist. He lifted me off the floor. “No fleeing the law, Summer.”

  Aunt Eunice grabbed a handful of brochures from the counter and tossed them in our direction. Not much of a weapon, but I couldn’t blame her for trying.

  “Let go of her!”

  “Now, Eunice.” Uncle Roy stepped behind her and folded his arms around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides. “These boys are doing what has to be done. It’s for your own good.”

  “Get off me! You’ll be sleeping on the couch for a month. If we had a doghouse, you’d be in it.” She struggled against him.

  “Well, I know where Summer gets her spunk.” Ethan’s breath stirred my hair. Raising a knee, I mule-kicked him in the shin and got a great deal of satisfaction from his grunt.

  By this time, we’d attracted a great number of spectators. Glancing around at the wide-eyed people enjoying the show on our behalf, I stopped squirming. Fine, I’d allow Joe to lock me up. Not one more word would leave my lips in conversation with Joe or Ethan. The thought pained me. Almost as much as the ache in my heart at their turning against me.

  So I’d ducked under some crime tape. Big deal. There was a murderer loose, and Joe wasted his time on me and Aunt Eunice. If I were speaking to him, I’d give him a piece of my mind.

  Instead, I stuck my nose in the air, waited for Ethan to release me, then held out my hands for the cuffs. With a questioning look in my direction, Aunt Eunice did the same.

  “Summer, I—” Ethan tried to take my hands, and I turned away.

  Maybe I was being unreasonable. Maybe I was acting childish. I didn’t care. My heart ached. If my hands weren’t busy being secured, I would have clutched my chest. The cold steel of the cuffs cut into my wrists. Did Joe have to clamp them so tight? Where was I going to go? At least my hands weren’t behind my back.

  Tears welled in my eyes, and I blinked them away. Aunt Eunice sniffled beside me. A glance at Ethan was almost my undoing. You’d think he was the one going to jail, he looked so hurt. Good. A part of me wanted him to suffer on my behalf. The other part wanted to hide from the world in his strong arms.

  Joe took me by the elbow and led me through the throng of people. “Uncle Roy, work the booth, would you?” I yelled over my shoulder. We might as well make some money off the crowd’s curiosity. An arrest always seemed like good publicity for celebrities; why not me?

  My steps halted before the rear door of Joe’s squad car. “No way. I am absolutely not getting in the back of this car. Aunt Eunice, tell Joe I know what kind of stuff gets on the plastic seats of squad cars.”

  “Tell him yourself. I’m not speaking to him.”

  I stared at her. “Neither am I.”

  Joe groaned. “I’m standing right here. I can hear you.” He strode to his trunk, unlocked it, and pulled out a faded quilt. “Y’all sit on this. I keep it for the lucky days I’m on a nighttime stakeout. Alone and away from people.”

  I bit my lip against the thank-you that good manners warranted and stared straight ahead. When he placed a hand on my head to help me duck into the car, I jerked away. My forehead collided with the doorframe. Stars exploded before my eyes. Great. A knot to go with the one on the top of my head. Through tears of pain, I stared out the window to where Ethan stood.

  Where was my knight in shining armor? Why did he just stand there instead of rescuing me? Aunt Eunice sniffed again and raised her hands in a good-bye gesture to Uncle Roy. He promised again to pick us up in the morning.

  Joe slid into the front seat, started the ignition, then drove out of the fairgrounds. Aunt Eunice glared at me from the other side of the backseat.

  “What?” Her unblinking gaze made me squirm.

  “This is all your fault,” she hissed. “Joe warned you not to break the law.”

  “You were all for it earlier, Aunt Eunice.” I couldn’t believe this. Now even my sidekick was against me.

  Thankfully, the ride to the small brick building housing Mountain Shadows’s police department only took fifteen minutes. The chill flowing from Aunt Eunice could’ve had icicles hanging from my ears.

  We parked, and Joe reached in to help me out, but I shrugged him off. Still smarting from him arresting me, I slid from the car and stalked into the building. Like a common criminal, I bowed my head to not make eye contact with any of the other officers. Men and women I’d grown up with.

  Joe released us from the cuffs and ushered us into a small room where a stony-faced woman rolled my fingers across a black ink pad. Then she handed me a wet citrus-scented napkin. I scrubbed at my fingertips while they did the same to my aunt. Please don’t let them take our picture. I could only imagine what my hair looked like.

  My cousin grabbed our elbows again. Laughs and gasps of amazement followed as he led my aunt and me to an empty cell. Three concrete walls and another consisting of bars was home to a plastic bench that ran along two of the walls, one sink, and a seatless toilet. Depression settled over my shoulders like a tidal wave crashing on the beach. I perched on the bench. Aunt Eunice plopped next to me with rounded shoulders. We lifted our hands for Joe to unlock the cuffs.

  “I’ll be back later for the two of you to sign papers. You’ve been through enough for now.” Gone was the happy-go-lucky man I’d grown up with. This Joe looked carved from wood. Unsmiling and unfeeling. Okay, maybe his statement showed a little compassion toward us, but not much.

  The cell next to us contained four women. Two had the largest biceps I’ve ever seen on a female, and they made crude comments that made me blush. The other two wore so much makeup they looked as if they belonged in Foreman’s carnival.

  I felt overcome with contrition. The Lord asks us to love our fellow man, or woman, as in this case. Those women were probably some of the nicest people I’d want to know. Then I changed my mind when the comments grew raunchier.

  “I’m scared.” Aunt Eunice scooted closer to me. “That one big woman is staring at me.”

  “I’m sorry, Aunt Eunice.” My tears fell. “I’m so sorry for getting you into this mess. You’re right.” I wiped my face on my sleeve. “Joe warned me about breaking the law. My problem is, I don’t stop to think about the consequences. If I would’ve stopped, if I would’ve taken the time to think things through. . .” My words choked on a sob.

  Aunt Eunice put an arm around my shoulder. “You would have done the same thing. Problem with people is, most of them don’t think. You oughta change that within yourself.”

  What about her? I wasn’t alone in my breaking the law. “I can’t believe Joe actually locked us up.” I wiped my eyes on my sleeve.

  “More for his peace of mind than anything would be my guess. He’s a good boy. Just
doing his job. I’m sorry for encouraging you, sweetie. I’m older. I ought to know better.”

  That’s for sure. I shrugged. “You didn’t force me, Aunt Eunice.” Ethan’s betrayal hurt the most. The only thing that kept me from anger was the glance I’d gotten of his eyes swimming with tears. This bench wouldn’t feel so hard if my head were on his shoulder rather than Aunt Eunice’s resting on mine. The concrete wall would be warmer with his arms around me. If Ethan were here, I could block out the obscene comments from the cell next door.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Darkness, backlit by the yellow glow of a night-light, welcomed me when I opened my eyes. Aunt Eunice slept propped against me, an idea I’d jumped at. The thought of lying prostrate on the hard plastic had been unappealing. Who knew what might have made its home among the flecks of peeling gray paint?

  How did I come to this, Lord? All I wanted to do was solve this case, find out who followed me in the gorilla suit, and prevent any more people from getting hurt. If I had to bend a few rules to do so, what did it really matter in the grand scheme of things?

  Aunt Eunice snorted in her sleep, and I shifted, trying to relieve the weight from my numb bottom half. My arm tingled from lack of circulation. When I tried to raise it to see the time, I remembered they’d taken my watch. My watch, my jewelry, my beautiful engagement ring, all my personal belongings, and shoved them into an ugly yellow envelope.

  My fingertips still showed traces of ink from being fingerprinted, the pads darker than the rest of my hand when I held it up in the weak light. Now I had a record. I was officially a criminal. How could Joe do this to me?

  He’d threatened to so many times, but I figured he never would. Kind of like crying wolf. And he must have hatched the plan with Ethan. The man who professed to love me hadn’t said a word in my defense.

  A shadow moved. As if I’d conjured him with my thoughts, Ethan stepped forward and gripped the bars of my cell. Forgetting his betrayal, I leaped from the bench. Aunt Eunice fell over in a slump.