by Sarah Fox
“I was hoping I could talk to you about something.”
“Sure. On the phone, or do you want to come over?”
I hesitated, knowing there was a good chance that Brett would be there. But when my eyes shifted to the darkening windows, my sense of unease returned full force. “I’ll come over, if that’s all right.”
“Of course it is.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll be there soon.”
After pulling on my jacket and grabbing my tote bag, I flipped on the porch light and stepped cautiously out the front door. The pool of yellow light didn’t stretch very far, but it allowed me to see that no one was lurking on the porch or at the bottom of the steps. I locked the door and clutched my keys in my hand as I made my way over to my car, my eyes darting in every direction.
With the gusting wind lashing rain across my face, I unlocked the driver’s door and tossed my bag onto the passenger’s seat. To be extra careful, I checked the backseat before climbing in behind the wheel.
You’re safe, I told myself as I shut the door.
Still, I didn’t want to linger.
My car bumped along the driveway, splashing through puddles, and I left the warm glow of the porch light behind. When I turned onto Wildwood Road, the only illumination came from my car’s headlights. It wasn’t a great night to be out driving, but I didn’t have far to go. Despite the bad weather, I’d likely arrive at Chloe’s place in less than five minutes.
At least, that was what I thought until the sky really opened up. One moment I could see fairly well with the aid of my headlights and windshield wipers, but the next I could hardly see ten feet in front of my car. I slowed my speed, my hands tightening around the steering wheel. Although I knew the stretch of road well, I had no desire to try to drive it blindly.
I considered turning around but I knew I’d feel safer at Brett and Chloe’s place, and I was almost at the edge of town. I slowed my speed even more, but then bright headlights flashed in my rearview mirror. The twin lights closed in fast. Too fast.
“Slow down,” I said to my rearview mirror.
The lights kept coming.
I tried to swerve, but the impact happened too fast.
Metal crunched and tires squealed.
My body whipped forward and my head hit the steering wheel.
A flare of pain.
The world slipped away for a second or two, but not long enough to miss the sudden bounce and painful jolt as my car left the road. It came to an abrupt stop, flinging me forward again.
I blinked, slowly becoming more aware of my surroundings. The front end of my car tipped downward at a sharp angle. Was I in the ditch?
The driver’s door opened and someone leaned over me. I tried to push the person away, but they unbuckled my seatbelt and grabbed my arms, pulling me from the car.
Alarm bells clanged in my groggy mind.
Rain pelted against my face, jolting me into greater awareness.
Whoever it was, this person wasn’t trying to help me.
I struggled, flailing and thrashing as the shadowy figure dragged me up out of the soggy ditch. I tried to yank myself free of the hands gripping my arms. The hands lost their hold on me and I fell, hitting the wet pavement as bright lights blinded me. Even though I couldn’t see, I scrambled to my hands and knees. I had to get away.
A hand grabbed the back of my jacket and jerked me to my feet. I spun around, ready to pound my assailant with my fists. Pain blasted through my right cheek as a hand struck me. I hit the ground again, stunned, barely aware of the pouring rain drenching my hair and clothes.
I blinked up at the figure standing over me, now illuminated by the headlights of the vehicle that had forced me off the road.
I recognized her right away.
Tina.
Chapter 25
Tina grabbed me and pulled me up from the ground. She was surprisingly strong and my wooziness had me at a disadvantage. I yelled for help, but the roar of the pouring rain drowned out my voice. Not that it mattered. The dark road was deserted in both directions.
I kicked Tina hard in the shins. Her grip on me loosened and I tried to dart out of her grasp, but she latched onto me again and drove a fist into my stomach. I gasped and doubled over. She dragged me along the side of her vehicle—an old van, I realized for the first time—and toward the open side door.
Wrenching myself free, I smacked my left arm into her face. She stumbled backward and lost her footing, tumbling down into the ditch. I didn’t wait to see if she’d get back up. Abandoning my car, I took off. I ran through the pouring rain, following the dark road. My legs shook beneath me, but I didn’t ease up my pace. I ran as hard as I could, powered by fear and adrenaline.
Chancing a glance over my shoulder, I caught sight of a blurry form behind me. Tina was coming after me.
The cold rain whipped against my face as I kept going. My feet pounded against the wet pavement, splashing through puddles with almost every step. I rounded a bend and the lights of the town came into view. I almost cried with relief, but I didn’t slow down.
When I reached the pool of light cast by the nearest streetlamp, I darted across the road, my desperate sights set on Saratoga Street. My lungs burned and my leg muscles begged me to slow down, but I pressed onward. I knew I couldn’t stop until I reached Brett and Chloe’s house, until I was safe.
A squeal of tires cut through the air. A car horn blasted, followed by a sickening thud.
I whirled around in time to see Tina hit the road. A silver sedan sat ten feet away from her, its headlights illuminating the driving rain. A woman climbed out of the car, a hand over her mouth. Every one of my taut muscles screamed at me to keep running, to flee to safety, but Tina wasn’t moving.
Ignoring the fear that still had me in a tight grip, I retraced my steps, jogging toward the scene of the accident.
The middle-aged driver was crying and shaking. “She ran right out in front of me!”
Cautiously, I crouched down next to Tina. Even though she was unconscious, my residual fear left me wary of her. I touched two fingers to her neck and felt a pulse beating beneath her skin. By the light of the streetlamp, I could see blood dripping down her face, creating a ghoulish mask. I put a hand to my pocket before I remembered that my phone was in my car, abandoned down the road.
“Do you have a phone?” I asked the driver.
“I…I don’t know.” She stared at Tina’s unmoving form with wide, terrified eyes.
A man and woman emerged from the nearest building, a blanket and an umbrella in hand.
“We heard the accident,” the man said. “We called 911. Is anyone else hurt?”
“I don’t think so,” I said.
I was relieved that help was on the way, but anxiety still hummed through every inch of my body. The man gently covered Tina with the blanket and opened the umbrella to shield her from the worst of the pouring rain. The woman who’d arrived with him put an arm around the driver and got her to sit down in her car.
My eyes darted every which way. I knew I needed to stay at the scene of the accident, but I didn’t feel safe there. Tina was no longer a threat to me, but Daryl might be nearby. What if he was lurking in the shadows, waiting for a chance to grab me?
As the rain continued to pour down, the cold drops pelting at my face, a siren wailed, drawing close. The fire station was nearby and the truck turned onto the street seconds later, cutting the siren. I backed farther away from the scene as the firemen converged on Tina.
“Marley!”
My heart jumped and I spun around at the sound of my name.
Relief surged through me when I saw Brett jogging toward me through the rain.
“What happened?” he asked when he reached me, his eyes going to the firemen before returning to my face.
“Tina ran me off the road and chased me. She was hit by a car.” The words came out in a rush.
“What?” He took me by the shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. “Are
you hurt?”
“Just bruises,” I said, my voice shaking. “I’m okay.”
“Maybe you should see a doctor.”
“No, that’s not necessary. I might need an ice pack tomorrow, but otherwise I’m fine.”
He pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him and held on tightly.
“You’re shaking like a leaf,” he said into my ear as more sirens wailed through the night.
“She tried to kidnap me.” I spoke the words into his chest, but somehow he still heard me.
“Why?”
“I think she and Daryl are the ones who stashed the stolen goods in the workshop and killed Jimmy.”
He pulled back, his hands resting on my shoulders again. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
I nodded.
He looked over my shoulder and I turned to follow his line of sight. An ambulance and two sheriff’s department vehicles had arrived on the scene. The sirens shut off, but lights continued to flash, pulses of blue and red flaring in the darkness.
“Where’s your car?” Brett asked.
“Around the bend,” I said, pointing away from town. “It’s in the ditch.”
He took my hand, leading me toward the darkened storefront of a thrift shop. “Let’s get you out of the rain.”
We took shelter under the awning and I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering from the cold and the shock of all that had happened.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked.
“Chloe was worried when you didn’t show up and she couldn’t reach you on your phone. I came to see if I could find you.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you’re here.”
He took my hand and squeezed it. “We need to get you somewhere warm.”
“I can’t leave.” My gaze shifted to Tina, now on a stretcher that was being loaded into the ambulance.
“Let me have a word with Ray. I’ll be right back.”
As Brett jogged across the street toward his uncle, I leaned against the building. The adrenaline that had fueled my flight from Tina had worn off and my legs wanted to collapse beneath me. I moved toward the store’s door and sank down onto the front step. Although there was still a lot happening on the street, I couldn’t focus on the scene. Sights and sounds blurred together and I was tempted to close my eyes, but my concern that Daryl could be nearby kept them open.
A minute or so later, Brett returned with Ray at his side. I pushed myself to my feet, the simple movement taking great effort.
“Marley,” Ray greeted, his face serious. “Can you tell me what happened?”
I sketched out the events that had occurred since I’d left Jimmy’s house. By the time I’d finished, the ambulance had departed, whisking Tina away to the nearest hospital.
“How badly is she hurt?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ray replied. “She’s still unconscious.”
Brett put an arm around my shoulders. “Can I take Marley home? She needs to get warm and dry.”
“I’d like to see where Tina ran you off the road,” Ray said to me. “But then I’ll drive you home. I might need to speak with you later, but there’s no need for you to stay out here in the rain.”
I nodded my thanks, my teeth chattering. With two of Ray’s deputies remaining at the scene of Tina’s accident, we piled into the sheriff’s car and he drove slowly out of town. It took less than a minute to reach my hatchback, its nose down in the ditch, the white van parked behind it on the shoulder of the road. Ray got out of the car and Brett and I followed. We stood and watched as Ray circled the vehicles, inspecting the scene in the light of his cruiser’s headlights.
“She did a good job on your back bumper,” Ray commented when he returned to stand next to us. “I’ll get a tow truck here once I’m finished with the scene.”
“Can I get my bag?” I asked. “I’ll need my house key.”
“I’ll fetch it for you.” Ray worked his way down into the ditch, ducking in through the open driver’s-side door of my blue hatchback and emerging seconds later with my tote bag in hand.
“Thank you,” I said when he handed me the bag.
“Now let’s get you home.”
We all climbed back into his car, and a few minutes later Ray had dropped Brett and me off at Jimmy’s house. Flapjack appeared in the foyer to greet us. Although I would have liked to pick him up, I simply gave him a scratch on the head instead. I didn’t think he’d appreciate soggy cuddles. He accepted the scratch with a purr and then turned his attention to Brett, giving him a curious but cautious sniff.
“What do you think, bud?” Brett said to him, crouching down and holding out his hand. “Can we be friends?”
Flapjack touched his nose to Brett’s hand and then bumped his orange head against it, his purr revving up again.
“I think that’s a yes,” I said with a smile.
Brett stood up and Flapjack wandered off toward the back of the house.
“You need to get into some dry clothes,” Brett reminded me.
I glanced toward the front door, wondering if he was planning to leave. “Can you stick around for a bit?”
“Of course.”
His response brought me a sense of relief. After all that had happened, I didn’t want to be on my own. “Make yourself at home. I’m going to take a quick shower.”
“No rush.”
While he joined Flapjack in the family room, I forced my exhausted legs to carry me up to the second floor. I peeled off my sodden clothes in the bathroom and stepped into the shower, welcoming the rush of hot water against my cold skin. As soothing as the hot shower was, I stayed in just long enough to ease my shivering.
Minutes later, I headed downstairs, dressed in blissfully dry sweatpants and my coziest hoodie. Maybe it wasn’t the most glamorous way to appear in front of a guy I liked, but I was desperate for comfort. Besides, I’d pretty much put an end to anything that might have happened between us.
Remembering that sent an ache through my chest, but I did my best to smile when I walked into the family room. Brett was in the kitchen, pouring steaming hot water into a mug.
“Feeling any better?” he asked when he saw me.
“Much.”
“I made you some tea.”
“Thank you,” I said gratefully as he handed me the mug.
We stood there in front of one another, both silent. I stared down at my steaming tea, not knowing what to say. After the way we’d parted the other day, I didn’t want to look into his eyes and see that he’d shuttered himself against me. I didn’t think I had the strength to deal with that at the moment.
I was about to turn away, to say something about Tina or the weather—anything other than the two of us—when his hand brushed my cheek. My breath caught in my throat as he tucked a damp ringlet behind my ear.
“I’m glad you’re safe, Marley.”
My eyes met his and my heart thudded in my chest.
Someone knocked on the front door. I jumped at the sound, sloshing hot tea out of the mug and onto my hand.
“Ouch!”
“Are you okay?”
I switched the mug to my left hand and shook out my right one. “Yes. I’m more startled than burned.”
Brett touched a hand to my arm. “I’ll get the door.”
He returned with Ray a few moments later as I was running cold water over my hand in the kitchen sink.
“Any word on Tina?” I asked as I dried my hands with a tea towel.
“Not yet,” Ray replied. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m all right.” I glanced around the kitchen. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“No need, but thank you.” He removed his hat, soaked from the rain. “A tow truck is taking your car to the local garage, and I ran the license plate on the white van. It’s registered to Daryl Willis.”
I glanced toward the window, hidden by the closed curtains, wondering if Daryl was nearby, if he knew what had happened to his partner in crime
.
“But there’s no sign of him?” I asked.
“No, but we haven’t had much chance to look yet.”
I settled on the couch to appease my tired legs and the others sat down as well, Brett on the couch with me and Ray in an armchair.
“Do you think you’ll be able to tie Daryl and Tina to the burglaries?” I asked as Flapjack hopped up onto the couch and curled up on my lap.
“That remains to be seen.”
“I thought Jonah Krantz was the burglar,” Brett said.
I stroked Flapjack’s sleek fur. “He broke into Jimmy’s house and I’m guessing he stole Leigh’s key so he could get into the office at the pancake house, but I don’t think he was responsible for the other break-ins. He wanted to find and destroy a promissory note so no one would know he owed money to Jimmy’s estate.”
“Jonah says Jimmy loaned him the money so he could start an online business,” Ray added. “That was back when Jimmy and Goldie were still on good terms. But the business didn’t get off the ground and Jonah didn’t have the funds to pay Jimmy back.”
“But you don’t think Jonah’s the killer?” Brett checked with me.
“I thought he could be, but after what happened tonight, I think either Tina or Daryl committed the murder.”
I explained my theory that Daryl and Tina had stashed the artwork in Jimmy’s workshop, possibly killing him when he’d returned unexpectedly to find one or both of them on his property. I also told him about Tina’s bracelet and added what I’d learned about the glitter and how it could have been transferred from their clothes to Jimmy’s after they’d killed him.
“I got word about the bracelet late this afternoon,” Ray said once I’d finished. “It matches the description of one stolen from a house in Port Townsend. If Tina’s still wearing it, we’ll get it from her at the hospital and have it checked out.”
“Okay,” Brett said. “But even if Tina was involved in the burglaries and Jimmy’s death, why run you off the road?”
“She and Daryl must have known that I’d been asking questions, trying to figure out who killed Jimmy. I talked to Michael the other night. Maybe he mentioned that I’d been asking about Daryl and that spooked them.”