Lilah was shocked. The notice must be a mistake. She turned back toward Beth, her mouth already forming the words of the question that she was going to ask her, when she saw the small gun in the woman’s hand. Fresh tears were rolling down her face.
“Just go,” she sobbed. “Leave me alone.”
“I don’t understand,” Lilah said. “The sandwich shop isn’t yours?”
The tearful woman shook her head angrily. “It was supposed to be mine. I’m his only family, it should have gone to me when he died… but he took out a second mortgage on the place without telling anyone. The bank took the restaurant, and everything else that should have gone to me. Pete died for nothing.”
“What do you mean he died for nothing?” Her eyes were on Beth’s gun. It was small, tiny enough to easily fit into her purse. She seemed to have forgotten that she was holding it.
“Do you know I offered to buy the sandwich shop from him?” Beth asked. “He kept telling me that I didn’t want it, that it was more trouble than it was worth. I thought he was just trying to get back at me for running out on the family after my dad gave him the shop. I didn’t realize that he was trying to protect me from the mess he made. If only he had met with me, if he had talked to me like I had wanted, he could have explained everything. I’m so sorry, Pete. You drove me to it. Why couldn’t you just tell me the truth?”
Beth shouted the last few sentences angrily. Lilah flinched as Beth waved the gun around, as if threatening Pete’s ghost. She still didn’t understand why the woman was having a breakdown in the middle of the sandwich shop’s kitchen. Had the stress of the last few weeks made her snap?
A noise from behind her made her turn. Eliza was fiddling with the lock on the employee door, trying to undo it. Her face was pale and her hands were shaking. She looked up and met Lilah’s gaze.
“She killed him,” she gasped. “Don’t you understand? She wanted the store so she killed him. We have to get out of here before she comes to her senses and realizes what she’s said.”
“That can’t be true,” Lilah said, horrified. “He was her brother, she couldn’t have —”
The sound of a hammer being pulled back made her freeze. She turned slowly to look at Beth, who was pointing the gun, not at them, but at herself.
“I can’t live with this,” she said. “I can’t. Please, just leave. Leave me alone. I’m going to rejoin my family.”
“Wait,” Lilah said. “Don’t do this.” Even if Beth was a killer, she didn’t think she could bear to witness something like this.
“How can I live with myself?” the other woman asked in a hollow voice. “This letter… if only I had gotten it before I killed him. I would have realized that they never meant to hurt me. I was the selfish one. All along, it was me.” She crumpled up the letter with one hand and tossed it toward the garbage bin. It bounced off and rolled toward Lilah’s feet.
“Killing yourself won’t solve anything,” Lilah said. She was terrified, not for herself, but for the woman holding the gun. If what she was saying was true, then it was the letter that Lilah had delivered that had driven her over the edge. If she died, then that would make Lilah responsible for her death. She heard the sound of a lock clicking behind her, then the door opened and she heard footsteps receding. Eliza had left.
“Staying alive won’t solve anything. It won’t erase what I’ve done.”
“Your father loved you, didn’t he?” Lilah asked, glancing toward the letter at her feet. “Do you think he’d want both of his children to die? His final act was to write this letter to you. If you kill yourself now, after reading that letter, because of that letter, how do you think that would make him feel?” She faintly heard breaking glass from behind her, but had no idea what it could be.
To her relief, Beth lowered the gun slowly, a fraction of an inch at a time. Lilah stepped forward slowly, prepared to duck if the other woman showed any sign of turning on her. She reached for the gun and carefully slid it out of Beth’s limp grip, then slid it across the floor away from them.
“Thank you,” the woman whispered. “Thank you for stopping me from being selfish again. You’re right, I shouldn’t take the easy way out this time. I deserve to suffer for what I did to Pete.”
“Please… just… sit down,” Lilah said. She was shaking. She had stopped someone from ending her life, but it didn’t feel quite as good as she had expected. The woman had killed her own brother because of greed, and had been fully prepared to take advantage of Lilah and steal her and Margie’s money. Still, she didn’t regret getting the gun away from her.
A minute later, she heard vehicles pulling into the parking lot behind the sandwich shop and before she knew it police were swarming through the employee entrance. Detective Eldridge put Beth in handcuffs, and another officer bagged the handgun. One of the men’s shoes kicked the crumpled-up letter closer to her, and without thinking she bent down and picked it up. Smoothing it out, she read,
My dearest daughter,
I know we’ve had out differences over the years. You’ve always been a strong-headed child, and even though I never said it, I admired your stubbornness. You have deserved this apology for a long time, but my own pride made me put it off until now, when it’s almost too late. My dear Beth, I am sorry for giving the sandwich shop to Pete instead of you. I didn’t do it out of favoritism, as I know you believe, but because I thought Pete needed more help than you did. You have always made your own way in life, and I knew you would go far even without my help, but Pete’s options were more limited.
I should have explained all of this to you the day of our fight. I should have known how important our family’s restaurant was to you. I should have listened when Pete told me that he thought you should have it, that he wasn’t interested in inheriting it. I thought you had put him up to it, but he tells me now that you never even knew that he had tried to get me to leave the sandwich shop to you instead.
It’s too late for us to make up in this lifetime. I’ve made my peace with that, and I hope you know that I have always loved you. Please go easy on Pete. I know the two of you haven’t always gotten along, but he’s been a good big brother to you in his own way. He loves you and I love you, and I hope that one day you’ll come back and put things right with what’s left of your family.
Love,
Dad
Tears pricking her own eyes as she imagined what Beth must have felt while reading this, Lilah folded up the letter and handed it to one of the officers. She hoped it would find its way back to Beth eventually. It was saddening to think that the Talbot family had been torn apart because of one unsent letter.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
* * *
Thanksgiving was a day late at the Hatch household that year. After Beth’s arrest, Lilah and Eliza had spent hours at the police station telling their part in the whole affair. By the time they were released and were able to return to Margie’s house, the children were asleep and no one had the energy to bring all of the food out of the fridge. They had never gotten the stuffing, either. Margie made Lilah promise to come over at noon the next day, which she was more than happy to do.
She didn’t get much sleep that night, lying in bed for hours, staring at the ceiling, and thinking of Beth and the Talbot family. She couldn’t help but draw parallels to her own family; she didn’t have any siblings, but her relationship with her father was just as bad. She didn’t want to wait until her dad was on his deathbed to fix things between them. Despite their differences, they were still family. She didn’t want to lose that.
Lilah still felt groggy when she went over to Margie’s house the next morning. The table was still set from the previous day, and her friend was busily heating up the food that they hadn’t been able to eat. Eliza was sitting at the breakfast bar, and gave Lilah a welcoming smile when she came in. This, more than anything, made her feel better. Being accepted by Margie’s family meant the world to her.
“We had pizza last night because you got arre
sted,” Jacob said brightly, appearing in the kitchen doorway. He was holding a foam sword, and was grinning at her as if she was the coolest thing he had ever seen. “Thanks!”
“She didn’t get arrested, Jake,” Eliza called after him as he dashed back into the living room. She shook her head. “Sorry. He was already asleep when I got back, and heard the story secondhand from Lexi.”
“It’s all right,” Lilah said, laughing. “At least he’s talking to me now. He seemed so shy the first time I came over.”
“He just takes a while to warm up to strangers,” Eliza said. “So do I, I guess.” She looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry for the way I treated you before. I know it’s no excuse, but I was worried you were going to take advantage of Margie. I’ve told her before that she’s too trusting for her own good.”
“It’s fine,” Lilah said. “I hope you know that I’d never do anything to hurt her. I feel bad enough about accepting the loan as it is.”
“I know. Yesterday proved to me that you’re a genuinely good person.” She hesitated. “Speaking of yesterday, I’ve also got to apologize for breaking your car window. I panicked, and all I could think was that I needed to get to my phone, but the car was locked and you had the keys. I’ll pay to get it repaired.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you called the police and they got there when they did. I don’t know what I would have done if Beth had gone for the gun again.”
“I’m glad you saved her,” Eliza said. “I know she killed her brother, but I still don’t like the thought of her dying. At least this way she’ll get the punishment she deserves, and maybe she’ll find a way to make peace with herself eventually.”
“It’s time to eat,” Margie called from the dining room. “Sit down, everybody. Don’t let it get cold.”
Lilah took her place at the table. The food looked amazing, even after being reheated. There still wasn’t any stuffing, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the food that made Thanksgiving, anyway.
“A toast,” Margie said raising her glass. “To family.”
“To family,” Lilah repeated, clinking her glass with Eliza’s. It was a simple toast, but it was perfect. This was what Thanksgiving was about: family, and friends, and being grateful for what they had. The food was just a bonus.
Killer Maple Cookies: Book 3 in Killer Cookie Cozy Mysteries Page 8