So Linda had contributed to Richie being ripped off. Gus had owed him more money for the hours he’d billed on cars. But Linda had adjusted the time cards and logs and Richie could never prove it. “Did Gus have you do that?”
“No...well...yes, but he said the men were lying. They were hoodwinking him out of hours.”
And Linda had believed him because she was in love with him.
“Your sister knew all this and never confronted you?”
“No. But she confronted Gus. She said she’d handled it and to keep my mouth shut.” Tears streaked her cheeks. “I went to digging in the garage after that and I found this.” She pulled out a clear storage bag encasing a wrench. In the dark, Aurora wasn’t sure if that was blood or rust on it. “What are we gonna do?”
“First you’re going to tell Sheriff Marsh all this at the station and then he can have some testing done. DNA. Fingerprints. Then we’ll question Darla.”
“You can’t.”
“Why?” Aurora turned left.
“Because she’s reckless right now. I think she might even be suicidal. She could be taking her life as we speak.”
The hysteria in Linda’s voice sent a wave of panic through Aurora. “How do you know that? And if that’s true, why didn’t you call the police?”
“I did.”
“You called the police and then left?” Something wasn’t adding up.
“I was afraid to stay, but I don’t want to see my sister hurt herself.” She shoved the bag back into her purse, keeping her hands inside. Then she let out a frightening cry. “I don’t want to do this.”
Aurora’s grip tightened on the wheel. “You don’t want to do what?”
“You haven’t given me a choice, Aurora! Cops will start searching my place. I have to do this.” Linda pulled a gun from her bag, pointing it directly at her. “Keep driving.”
Aurora’s blood raced through her veins, leaving her light-headed.
“Linda, what’s going on? Have you done all this to me? Because I’m trying to exonerate my innocent dead brother?”
“I—I—Just drive!”
“Is that the real murder weapon or were you using it as a decoy?” Was she trying to save Darla? Was Darla on her way out of town or something? Or was Linda trying to save herself? The pieces wouldn’t fit into place.
“I have to bury it somewhere new. Somewhere far away from me and my house. I don’t know! I can’t keep it.”
Linda was going off half-cocked here. Had she thought anything through? Or was she reacting out of panic now? “Where? Where are we heading, Linda?”
“Your place. Go to your place, and don’t you dare try anything or I’ll...I’ll shoot you right here and now.”
Irrational. Erratic. Aurora needed to think. Be calm. Assert authority without being intimidating. She turned left, heading to her house. “Linda, I thought you said Darla killed Gus. Did she?”
“He was going to leave her. He was.” She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her coat.
Be calm. She searched the roads. Could she wreck them and get away? “Why didn’t he leave her, Linda? What happened that night? Did you see Richie?”
Linda wrung her hands. “I never saw Richie. I knew Gus was working late. Thought I’d surprise him but...when I showed up, he was in the garage. With Darla. He was with her. And I knew he’d been lying to me. Seducing me.”
“Darla told you that.”
Deep lines creased her forehead as she squinted. “Darla? No. Darla didn’t know.”
“But you said that you confessed to Darla and she told you she’d known all along and handled it. You said she’s suicidal right now.” Aurora came to a four-way stop and turned right. Once they arrived at her home, she might have the upper hand due to familiarity.
“Stop trying to confuse me!” she hollered, and shoved the gun into her temple. “Drive.”
“I’m trying to understand, Linda. Are you telling me that you killed Gus?” She worked to make sense of everything Linda was spewing. “I can help you. I’m a defense attorney.” Would she? No way. But she needed Linda to lower that gun before it went off accidentally. She needed to do whatever she had to in order to survive.
“You’re lying!”
“I can help you. You could tell a judge you’re not in your right mind. Not now or back then when you realized Gus had been using you to fix the books. Which is what he did, wasn’t it, Linda? He used you.”
Linda let a wail escape her lips. “He did. And I told him so, but he didn’t care. So I...I got so mad, you know. I blinked and he was lying there, bleeding and not moving.”
“You hit him with the wrench. The wrench you brought?” Why would she bring it?
“Yes. Then I ran. I went home, hid it and I kept my mouth shut. I was scared. But now the cops will be coming and I have to get it far away from me, from Richfield, where no one will think to look.”
Why not throw it in the Mississippi? Aurora could think of a dozen places better than here. But Linda was panicked. Irrational. And impulsive.
“Does Darla know now what you did?”
Linda kept silent.
“She never really confessed to anything, did she? Because she didn’t know about you and Gus. You kept it quiet so you wouldn’t get caught.” Was Linda planning to kill Darla and pass it off as a suicide? She could have already murdered her.
Linda refused to speak, but the truth was written on her face. Aurora had hit the nail on the head.
“Linda...” She had to make one last effort.
“Shut up!”
Aurora approached her home and turned into the drive.
“I didn’t want it to end this way. But you won’t leave things alone. It was a long time ago! Get out.”
Linda kept the gun trained on Aurora as she eased from the truck.
Carefully Aurora unlocked the door to her house, the gun poking into her ribs. “Are you going to shoot me in my own home, Linda?”
“I been keeping up with what’s going on. Saw you raised a stink in the town over that boy. They’ll find you dead and anyone can be to blame. The dead lady’s husband. Anyone you made mad. Doesn’t matter.”
“Linda, think this through.” Could she? The woman was off her rocker.
Linda used the gun to urge her into the house.
“Right now, you have a case. You could win it. Temporary insanity. You could plead out, do way less time, especially if you turn in the murder weapon instead of trying to rebury it somewhere else. But this...this is murder one, Linda. This will get you life. And Beckett will figure out the truth. You and I know that.” He’d come straight for Linda.
She rubbed the bracelet on her wrist. When Beckett realized she wasn’t at the station or coming, and wouldn’t answer her phone, he could track her.
But would it be in time?
Aurora stood in the middle of the dark living room. Only a sliver of moonlight beamed upon Linda. Wild-eyed and hand shaking, she kept the gun on Aurora.
“Linda, you don’t have to do this. It won’t work. Let me help you.”
Aurora wasn’t getting through to the woman.
“You didn’t have to go to these lengths.” Aurora paused. She didn’t. A man had attacked her in her garage. A man had threatened her. “Who did you get to help you?”
Linda grabbed her head. “I can’t think! Shut up! This is all your fault. Everything was fine. Just fine.”
Pop!
Aurora hit the ground. Glass littered the floor where the bullet had sliced through the freshly fixed window. Linda collapsed, red staining her neck and chest.
Beckett! Beckett found her.
She trembled, then jumped up when the door creaked open farther.
“You don’t know how glad I am to see you!” She r
ushed to the door and stopped dead in her tracks.
“What? Not happy to see me?”
Her knees turned to water. This couldn’t be happening.
“You’re dead. You died.” She backed up a step. And another.
“Did I?” He tsked. “Don’t believe everything you read or see on the news, Aurora.”
Severin Renzetti stood before her. Gun in one hand. Shovel in the other.
THIRTEEN
“But how?” Aurora glanced toward the kitchen, planning an escape. Severin Renzetti had died in prison. Someone had put a hit out on him and he’d been shanked. Back in June.
“Aurora, I never took you to be dull-headed. When you have the kind of money and power I have, you can pay anyone off to say anything. Guards. Medical personnel. Funeral home directors. The list goes on. Everyone has a price.”
He raised his gun. “Let’s take a ride, shall we?”
She froze.
“Now,” he boomed.
Aurora walked on jellylike legs through the front door. The scent from her office, the garage...same scent on Severin now. Same cologne he used to wear, unique. That’s why she couldn’t place it and yet it had felt familiar.
Severin had faked his death.
No vehicle out front but Mitch’s.
“We’ll take your friend’s truck. Keys, please.” He held out his hand, a sickly-sweet smile on his face.
Where had he parked? Off on a back road? Down the street? Couldn’t be too far. Aurora and Linda had only been inside for a few minutes before he’d killed her. She handed him the keys grudgingly.
He opened the passenger’s side. “Get in.” Reluctantly she climbed inside the cab and scooted to the driver’s side, then he slid into the passenger seat, his gun trained on her. “Drive. Hope Lake.”
Her hands shook as she cranked the engine. “You don’t have enough money to pay people off forever. They’ll want more. They’ll eventually talk. They can’t help themselves.”
“Dead people don’t talk, Aurora. You’ll discover that soon enough.” He grabbed her arm and forced her to look him in the eye. “Ask me what kept me going in prison.”
She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe.
He shook her. “Ask me!”
“What? What kept you going?” she squeaked.
“Revenge.”
Aurora swallowed, but her mouth and throat were like sandpaper. He let her go and signaled with the gun to drive.
“You stole my life away from me. Everything I cared about.”
So Severin was taking it all from her.
He forced her to park in the secluded lot at Hope Lake, and then he marched her into the dense woods, the chill already causing her teeth to chatter. Up a steep hill, where her heels sank into the ground, making it difficult to move, on top of the fact her body was freezing. She’d planned to be in a heated barn all night, not climbing a hill in the middle of the woods in twenty-degree weather.
“How long have you been out of prison?” she asked.
“Long enough to watch you settle in and act small-town. Long enough to know you riled up the good people of Hope,” he mocked. “I’m a patient man. But you know this.”
He’d made subtle advances toward her. She’d thwarted them all. And he’d told her: Aurora, after this case is over you’ll see I’m not my father. I’m a patient man. I can wait for you.
“Long enough to see you get chummy with the sheriff. I thought I had him that day in the garage when I cut through the chain. I admit I would have liked to have seen him smashed. And you. But this, no, this is much better.”
Severin had followed them and worked on cutting the chain while they interviewed Darla. He’d been watching them as they rode horses. When Beckett almost kissed her, he’d fired the gun. Jealousy, or was he simply enjoying his evil scheme? Either way, the thought nauseated her.
“It was you in the crowd that day, wasn’t it?” She noticed the shovel again. Was he going to kill her and bury her out here? Would Beckett find her in time?
“It was.”
“And the phone calls?”
“You put up a brave front. I enjoyed watching you sleep.”
“Why Kelly? You murdered her.”
“That’s on you. I wouldn’t have had to take her away from you. But you robbed me of people I care about.”
Severin cared for no one but himself. She didn’t utter a word, though.
He laughed and shoved her forward. She lost her balance and collapsed into the mud.
“You blew up my business. You knew I’d come fix that stupid machine. What is this? Plan B?” She worked to sound brave. Her knees knocked and her feet had gone numb. She could barely stand. Severin yanked her up.
“You blew up mine when the guilty verdict came in! But you’re wrong, Aurora. I didn’t know about that machine. I have learned that every Saturday your employees clean the machines. And that means unplugging them.”
“I guess your dad hooked you up with his bomb guy.” Aurora stumbled forward like a baby calf.
“I’m not discussing my dad. Unlike you, I protect the people I love. You won’t even be able to save your new man.”
“He’ll end you.”
Severin backhanded her. The sting blinded her as blood filled her mouth. “Move.”
She continued to push farther into the woods, her teeth clicking together uncontrollably, but adrenaline raced to help her ignore the rawness of the elements. It seemed like they walked for miles. “What about Linda? You killed the only suspect.”
“Get real, Aurora. The best suspect here is Oliver Benard. That crazy woman tried to take you out, but Benard has been planning your demise for too long to let anyone else have you first. He’s been quietly lurking in the shadows. He saw her get in the truck with you at Farley Pass, but neither of you noticed him in the distance. He made his move. Shot her. Then he murdered you and maybe he killed himself because he couldn’t take it.”
How had she not realized Severin had been following her all this time? She hadn’t seen any cars on the road earlier. “Is he dead? Is Oliver dead?” Aurora’s blood drained from her head. “Have you murdered him, too?”
The moon slashed through the trees, and up ahead she saw a mound of dirt. Her stomach roiled and panic set off a spasm of shakes. “Severin...please...”
Before her lay a wooden box.
She blinked, shivered.
She stared down at the grave. He couldn’t. She couldn’t let him. Terror scorched her chest and tears welled.
“Found this nice secluded spot when I was following you and the sheriff on your little ride. Dug it days ago. But no way was I going to let Loony Linda get the glory of taking your life. That’s unfair and wrong.” He snarled, eyes glazing over. “Things seem to be looking up for me. Like you. You’ll be looking up at me.” He banged the shovel on the box. “Get in.”
Tears poured down her cheeks. She couldn’t control them. “No!”
“You let me rot in prison. Day after day. It’s your turn, Aurora. To rot and think about what you did. You’ve been put on trial.”
No.
“Final verdict? Guilty as charged. Get. In. That. Box.”
Severin may have been plotting his revenge since he’d entered the prison system, but she was not going to bear that responsibility anymore. He belonged there.
But she couldn’t get into that wooden grave. She sobbed and begged, but Severin shoved her toward it. Her calves hit the edge and she tripped, landing inside. He swung her throbbing legs into the box, splinters digging into her bare skin. The smell of pine and earth drenched her senses.
Beckett, find me.
She grabbed for her bracelet to give her some comfort that Beckett could track her.
Fear bulleted thro
ugh her.
It was gone!
It must have broken and fallen off when Severin shoved her and she’d collapsed in the mud. But she couldn’t be sure.
God, help him find me somehow! Please don’t let me die this way.
The back of her head hit the wood. “Severin, I’m sorry. Please. Let me go and I won’t say a word. I won’t tell anyone you’re alive. I promise.”
“Like you said, people talk. They can’t help themselves. And I’m enjoying myself.”
“You’re sick.”
“Is that your closing argument? Because it was weak.” His smug expression erased the charm and good looks, revealing nothing but his ugliness.
“I don’t need a closing argument. Sentencing has clearly been passed.”
“Fiery. I like that. Hey, at least when they see that crazy woman dead in your house and put the pieces together, everyone will know Richie never murdered anyone. You’ve accomplished what you set out to do. That ought to give you some solace while you rot in this wooden cell.”
“You won’t get away with this. Beckett will figure it out.” But Beckett could only track her as far as the bracelet, and they’d moved up two hills and deeper into the woods. A mile, maybe even two—she couldn’t be sure. And if she’d lost it in Mitch’s truck, then it could be even farther.
The bitter weather seeped into her marrow, terror weaving through the wintry temperature. She couldn’t feel her toes.
“He might. But I’ll be long gone to a country where there’s no extradition. And you’ll be dead either way.” He leaned down. “I wonder what will kill you first. Lack of oxygen or the elements.” He laughed. “Enjoy prison, Aurora.”
He closed the lid while she screamed and begged.
She was plunged into sheer darkness.
“Severin!” She pressed on the lid, hollering until her chest was on fire. Air. She needed to conserve her air and hope Beckett would figure out how to find her without her bracelet.
She heard a click. Then the box moved. She screamed as he lowered it into the grave.
The sound of dirt pelting on wood came over and over again as she silently cried and beat on the box, her eyes refusing to adjust. Uncontrollable tremors convulsed her body.
Final Verdict Page 17