by Jessica Beck
“Got it. Should I drop you off at Bobby’s place or the police station?”
“Are you sure you’re all right with this?” Jake asked.
“I’m fine,” I said, and I meant it. “To be honest with you, I wouldn’t mind having a little time alone. As much as I appreciate your offer, I’m not sure that I’m ready to pack up everything and move to the beach just because that’s where my momma’s going, you know? I always thought of us as mountain people, not beach folks.”
“Why can’t we be both?” Jake asked. “It’s not like we’ll never come back here to visit.”
“I know, but it won’t be the same, and you know it.”
We got to the station, and I found the chief waiting for Jake. He had three bags with him, and he handed one to me. “I got you a burger, too,” he said.
I laughed. “It’s not because you feel guilty about pulling my husband away on the spur of the moment, is it?”
“Maybe,” he confessed. “Does that mean you don’t want it?”
“No, I wouldn’t want to be rude,” I said as I took the offering. “Now you boys behave yourselves, and don’t stay out too late. Tomorrow’s a school day.”
They looked at each other and then at me without comment.
Oh, well. At least I thought I was funny.
“See you later,” Jake said.
I waited until after they drove off, and then I drove the Jeep over and parked in front of the donut shop. The place was dark and empty inside, but it still felt like home to me. As I ate the burger and fries, I marveled at how Donut Hearts had become such a big part of my life. Could I walk away from it, just like that? Sure, I’d have Momma and Jake with me, but I’d be leaving behind the shop and, more importantly, a great many people I cared about, from Grace to Trish to Emily to George to dozens more folks that brightened my life on a daily basis merely by being in it.
I wasn’t at all sure that I could do it, but then I thought about what Jake had said. Momma wasn’t getting any younger—for that matter, neither was I—and I had no idea how much time I had left with her. Could I just let her leave my world completely, spending a few days with her every year and trying to cram a lot of living into a short amount of time? I finished the meal and started driving around randomly, trying to find the answer.
To my surprise, a little later I found myself on the road that led to Becky Rusch’s place and those greenhouses. There was something that had been nagging at the back of my mind, but I hadn’t been able to put my finger on it. Then it hit me. When I’d brushed up against her boot earlier, a bit of damp clay had gotten on my shoe, but she’d claimed to have come straight home from work and gone right to bed. So where did she get the fresh soil on her? Not on the walkway from the parking area. I’d seen that gravel myself. No, the only place she could have picked it up so fresh had to be from one of the greenhouses on the property. Had she just neglected to mention that to us, or had she deliberately lied about what she’d done when she’d gotten home? I decided to go ask her about it since I was so close by.
Her car wasn’t there, though.
Evidently her migraine had suddenly improved.
But I still wanted to check on those greenhouses. I pulled my Jeep off to one side, grabbed a heavy-duty flashlight I kept beside me, and started toward the first structure. The gravel quickly ended, and I found myself walking in the same dirt as Becky’s boots had been spattered with, moist red clay soil. What had been so important inside for her to hurry home after having a confrontation with Bobby Wells at the flower shop? The greenhouses had locks on the doors, but someone had accidently left the first one unlocked.
I walked in and looked around, turning my flashlight on and playing it around the space. It was starting to get dark out, and the greenhouse just accentuated that fact. At first I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but then I flashed my light down on the one of the raised bed sections that was currently devoid of any plant life.
The soil there was freshly turned, but only in one small section, about six feet of the fifty-foot-long bed.
For the life of me, it looked like a grave.
It couldn’t be that, though. Where was a shovel or even a hoe? There weren’t any tools that I could see, and I couldn’t stand the thought of not knowing if something, or someone, had been newly buried there. Getting down on my hands and knees, I started pulling away the loose soil on top.
When I got to a man’s flannel shirt, I felt myself go numb.
It was the same pattern Bobby Wells had been wearing the last time I’d seen him alive.
I’d just found the missing clerk, and what was more, I finally knew who the killer was.
The only question was if I’d get help in time to do something about it.
Chapter 13
“Jake, I need you,” I said as my husband’s phone went straight to voicemail. Why did he never answer when I truly needed him? I called Chief Grant and got the same result. Maybe one of them would get my message, but I wasn’t counting on it. I started for the door, dialing 911 along the way, when I saw headlights approach. They lit up the greenhouse! I’d stood up automatically in horror upon finding Bobby’s body, and I had to wonder if I’d been outlined in the car’s beams as it had pulled in. Ducking down, most likely too late, I punched the last “one” and finally got a real person on the other end.
Becky was too quick for me, though. She must have spotted my car the moment she’d driven up, and I’d probably given myself away in her headlights. I had a choice: I could finish the call, or I could defend myself. I threw my phone away from me into the darkness, hoping that whoever was on the other end would hear enough to put it together in time. I had other, more immediate problems on my mind. All I had with me was my heavy-duty flashlight, and I was going to use it. There was no place I could run to or anything I could hide behind, either. Standing by the door, I held the flashlight over my head, ready to strike, as Becky came in.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t unarmed.
She’d picked up an ax on her way to me, and since it clearly trumped my flashlight, I did the only thing I could think of doing.
I threw it at her head with everything I had.
Chapter 14
Unfortunately, I missed.
Chapter 15
Becky frowned at me as the flashlight hit the side of the greenhouse and fell to the ground, the beam of light still working, though shining in a very limited area now.
“That wasn’t very nice of you, Suzanne.” It was getting quite dark now, but Becky knew this place, and I didn’t. She reached out and flipped an overhead switch that I’d missed before, bathing the place in gentle illumination.
“What did you expect me to do, stand there and let you clobber me with that ax?”
“Why not? It worked out fine that way with Bobby,” she said with an uncharacteristic giggle. This woman had clearly gone over the edge. “You really should have minded your own business.”
“Did Bobby know that you were the one who killed Teresa Logan? Was that why you killed him and buried him out here in one of the greenhouses?” I was trying to give the police operator a clue as to where we were, but I wasn’t even sure that the call was active. Still, I had to act as though it was.
“Why are you talking like you’re in some kind of play?” She looked around, and unfortunately, my cell phone was easy to spot. With a broad smile, she took the ax and slammed it down into my phone, neatly impaling it on the blade and holding it aloft like some kind of trophy. As Becky pulled it loose, I thought about trying to jump her, but she was too quick for me. “I don’t think so.” She looked around, and I did, too, hoping to find some weapon I could use against her, but the place was bare. “I used a shovel for Bobby, but I don’t trust you. Get down on your hands and knees and start digging.”
“Are you seriously asking me to dig him up?” I asked her, horrified by t
he thought of what I’d find if I did as she instructed.
“No, silly, move down a few feet. This is only temporary. Once things settle down, I’ll move you both to a nice quiet spot I’ve already picked out in the woods. It’s really quite lovely.”
She was definitely insane. “You don’t want to do this, Becky.”
“Of course I do,” she said, and then she gestured toward me with the ax.
It appeared that I had two choices: I could die, or I could dig.
I decided to dig.
But as I started moving the soil around enough to make my own shallow grave, I wanted some answers. I might be about to die, but I didn’t want to go without being satisfied. “Why did you kill Teresa in the first place?”
“I met her at her office—oops, I lied to you about that, sorry—and she told me that she was dropping my case. She said that it was unwinnable, that I was unstable, and that she didn’t want to have anything to do with me. I lost it; I admit it. A switch goes off in my brain when somebody calls me crazy! She turned to get my file for me, and I grabbed the closest thing I could find, a pine cone bookend, and I hit her with it. After that, I panicked! Wouldn’t you? I ran out of there without even grabbing my file, which was probably a good idea, now that I think about it. The chief might have noticed if it was missing, since I already had an appointment on the books. I came back here and stewed over it, trying to come up with something to save myself, but I couldn’t do it. Then I remembered Bobby’s crush on her and the way she’d rejected him so soundly. I was at the grocery store when it happened, so why not use it to my advantage? I went by his trailer and cut a pair of his roses in the middle of the night, and then I took one to Teresa’s rental house. I beat that thing silly, and then I dropped it out back. Why didn’t the police find it?”
“Someone must have picked up the trashcan and put it over the stem by accident,” I said as I paused in my digging.
She gestured with the ax again, which was all of the incentive I needed.
I kept digging.
“Why the rose at her office, then?”
“I wanted to make sure that the police got the message when they didn’t find the first one,” she said. “I’m not so sure our new police chief is bright enough to lead the force.”
I strongly disagreed with her, but I didn’t think it was the proper time or place to argue the fact with her. “Why kill Bobby, then?”
“I didn’t want to, any more than I want to kill you,” Becky said, her voice whining as she said it. “When I saw that idiot out walking on Viewmont Avenue, I pulled over and picked him up. His car broke down again, so he was heading home to get his motorcycle. Can you believe he was actually stupid enough to get in the car with me? You’ll never guess where he was going, though. He was headed for my place! Bobby accused me of killing Teresa, but I denied it. I lured him out here to show him a piece of ‘evidence’ I had against the real killer, and the young fool believed me. I told him it was buried in the soil where I knew it would be safe, and when he started digging to retrieve it, I took care of him.” She recounted what had happened as though she were reporting the weather.
“You might be able to get away with killing Teresa, and maybe even Bobby, but how are you going to explain me away?” I asked as I dug deeper and deeper. To my horror, it was beginning to look exactly like what it was to become, a shallow grave for a nosy donut maker.
“What’s to explain? I’ll pretend to be as puzzled as everyone else. Who knows? Maybe I’ll start a rumor that you and Bobby were having a secret affair, and you ran off together.”
“My husband won’t believe that, not for one second, and neither will my family and friends.”
“You give them all too much credit, Suzanne. We’re designed to believe the worst in people.” She peered over from the other side of the raised bed and looked down. “Nicely done. That should be deep enough.”
I tried to grab her then, knowing that it was my last chance, but the soft soil gave way, and I found myself slipping into the hole I’d just dug.
Becky laughed at the horrified look on my face as I lay with my back in the grave I’d just dug for myself. “Don’t worry, Suzanne. It will all be over soon.”
With that, she raised the ax above her head and began to swing it down toward me.
Chapter 16
That’s when two shots rang out, spaced so closely together that they almost sounded as though they were echoes of each other instead of two separate reports.
As Becky’s body fell toward me, I moved to one side to miss the falling ax.
They both landed solidly in the soil I’d pushed aside, and I shakily climbed out of the grave that had been meant for me.
Chapter 17
“Suzanne, are you okay?” Jake asked as he pulled me up to him.
“Don’t. You’re going to get dirty,” I said. It was an odd thing to say, and I wondered if I might be in shock. Given the circumstances, it wouldn’t have surprised me one bit.
“I don’t care about that, you nit,” he said as he stroked my hair. “That was brilliant of you.”
“Which part, digging my own grave and almost getting killed or having to be rescued by the two of you?”
“You figured out what was going on before we did,” Chief Grant said as he leaned down and checked for Becky’s pulse. He shook his head, and I was surprised to realize that I felt nothing upon learning that my would-be assassin was now dead instead.
“I got lucky,” I admitted, and then I started to shake. I’d been calm enough during the confrontation, but now I could barely stand up without Jake’s support. Fortunately, I had it, in more ways than one.
“You followed your instincts,” Chief Grant said. He looked down and saw Bobby’s arm sticking out from the fresh soil and checked for a pulse there as well, though I could have told him that he was wasting his time. “Sorry it took us so long to get here.”
“If I hadn’t grabbed my phone to call you so I could tell you that it would be on silent, I never would have gotten your message in time,” Jake said.
“But you did, and you got here right when I needed you.” I looked around the greenhouse and felt as though I was going to be sick. “Can we get out of here?”
“Of course,” Jake said. “An ambulance is on its way.”
“They’re wasting the trip,” I said, fighting to keep myself from looking at the murderer and her final victim.
“It’s for you,” Jake said. “You’re in shock right now.”
“I must be,” I said, and then, to my surprise, I fainted.
Chapter 18
“Suzanne, are you okay?” I heard a familiar voice say from my bedside. It was my mother, and when I opened my eyes, I was happier to see her than I could have described.
“You’re here,” I said as I smiled at her.
“Where else would I be?” she asked.
“I don’t know, maybe the beach,” I said. “Could I have some water?” My throat was bone dry.
“Of course. I’ll hold the cup for you,” she said. “They gave you a straw earlier.”
“No, I can get it,” I said as she handed the cup to me. I noticed with surprise that my hands were pristine, though they’d been caked with soil the last time I’d seen them. “Somebody cleaned me up.”
“They took good care of you,” she said. “There’s something we need to discuss. It’s about the beach.”
“Momma, I can’t deal with that right now, not after everything that’s happened.”
“You’re going to want to hear this. I’m not moving.”
“Because of me? You can’t do that,” I protested as I looked around for my husband to back me up. “Where is Jake, anyway?”
“He went to get us some coffee,” she said. “And I’m not staying because of you. Well, not entirely because of you,” she amended.
“Is Phillip going by himself?” I asked. I couldn’t bear the thought that I might be the reason the two of them could be splitting up.
“No, of course not. He’s my husband. He belongs with me.”
“I don’t understand,” I said as I gently rubbed my head. Had I taken a blow to the skull that I didn’t remember? No, there were no lumps or lacerations, at least as far as I could tell.
“It’s all quite silly, really,” Momma said. “We were watching a show on beach properties for sale. Phillip thought I was hinting that was where I wanted to live, and I thought he was doing the same. If we’d just discussed it without both of us running around like a pair of lunatics, we could have saved everyone a great deal of trouble.”
“So you’re not leaving me after all? I mean April Springs?” I asked her, feeling the relief flood through me as I realized that I wasn’t going to have to leave, either.
“Of course not. I’ll be here forever.”
I knew that wasn’t true, not about any of us, but I still appreciated the sentiment. I hadn’t realized just how much tension I’d been holding in about the move until it was all gone. “I’m so glad.”
“As am I,” she said.
The door to my room opened, and Jake came in, carrying two cups of coffee. “Hey, you’re awake. That’s perfect, because I just heard that they’re sending you home.”
“Shouldn’t she at least stay overnight for observation?” my mother asked, to no one’s surprise.
“No, I want to be home with Jake,” I insisted. “He can take care of me just as well as they can here.”
“Better, if you ask me,” Jake said with a grin. Momma frowned until Jake added, “You’re welcome to join us at the cottage tonight, if you’d like. I know Phillip is driving back from the Outer Banks, but he won’t be home until tomorrow. We have a spare bedroom, you know.”
“I won’t evict you from the master suite,” Momma said.