The wind was picking up and whipped my face with a sting. I trudged through the snow following the footprints, then froze when I noticed blood speckled on the snow ahead of me. The thought occurred to me that I might have just walked into some kind of trap, but concern for Daniel overrode that thought. What if he was hurt, seriously enough to not be able to find his way out? He was expecting me. Oh, God, what was he planning to tell me? Had someone killed him, and now they planned to kill me?
I yanked my cell out of my back pocked and tried to make a call, but I couldn’t get a signal. I stepped back, intent on leaving for the safety of the SUV. This might just be a job for the sheriff. As I turned to leave, an arrow whizzed past me, slicing through the sleeve of my jacket. I jumped around, raising my bow, placing an arrow in it, taking on a defense stance. A shot rang out and I fell to the ground in a heap. I laid in the snow face first, but before I contemplated where I was hit, strong arms jerked me to my feet and a man wearing a ski mask pulled me deeper into the woods. It was hard enough to walk in the deep snow with a pain in my hip, jarring my entire body with each step I took.
A wild panic gripped me. I tried to hit whoever had ahold of me, but didn’t have much luck. My shoulder burned and I remembered the arrow grazing it. Up ahead was a cabin and I swung blindly at the man. I knew if I ended up in that cabin, that it would be the end of me. My captor whirled and struck me full on the face. I saw stars and the man grabbed me under my arms, dragging me the rest of the way into the cabin.
When I hit the floor inside, I saw Daniel next to me, motionless, an arrow with a pink and white fletch protruding from his shoulder.
“What have you done?” I screamed.
“No, what have you done?” Patsy McNalley said.
Behind her, Winston yanked off his ski mask. “You did this to yourself, you and your poking around. If you just did the archery tournament and left it at that, everything would have been fine.”
“How is that, when Clayton was murdered?”
“He’s hardly innocent. We had a deal, and he stole my money,” Winston said.
“How would killing him get your money back?”
“He was supposed to have brought it with him in the woods that day, but like usual, he couldn’t be trusted.”
“It seems you would have waited to see beforehand.”
“I couldn’t. I had to make the shot from across the clearing. I wanted to make it look like a woman did it, possibly even his own wife.”
I stared at Patsy. “How did you come into this? Were you the one who lured Clayton out here?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get him to take his pants off? I can’t imagine him doing it for someone old like you.”
“A lot you know, but that was more of an afterthought. I held a gun on him and made him do it while Winston made the kill shot. I rather enjoyed belittling the man.”
“So you were both profiting from Clayton’s meth operation, then?”
“We financed it. He was supposed to be paying us, but he started getting greedy, just like that lazy-ass wife of his,” Winston said.
“So, she knew what Clayton was doing?”
Patsy’s eyes protruded. “How could she not? How couldn’t she know that Clayton was making meth in their shed? She was ready to take over the operation in her husband’s stead, but she refused to hand over the cash we knew was kept at their house. So, she became a liability when she found out who we were.”
“So, did she hand over the money?”
“No, we had questioned her, but she managed to get outside and tried to escape. Winston put a stop to that, though. We weren’t ever able to find the money. Do you know where she hid it?”
“Heck, no. She shooed us off that day when she found it. We only discovered her body because I wanted to question her about her husband’s death.”
I stared at Daniel. “Why did you kill Daniel?”
Winston gave him a kick and Daniel grunted in response.
“Why did you do that to Daniel? What did he ever do to you?”
Patsy shrugged. “Well, ever since the sheriff cut Troy and that Cindy loose, we need another suspect and you fit.”
“How do I fit? I just came into town and I have no reason to kill him or his wife.”
“I don’t see it that way. The way I see it is this ... you randomly killed Clayton, possibly when you were out target practicing. You found out that Clayton had cash at his house and then killed his wife. After all, you went to see Marilyn the same day the sheriff stopped by to give her the news. I saw you at her place that day when I drove past.”
“There is no way the sheriff will ever believe it.”
“Oh, I don’t know. When they find Daniel dead, too, you’ll look good for the crimes. It should give us more time to find the cash at the Percy’s place.”
“Unless it was kept in the meth lab that blew up, by the way.”
Winston’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Yes, it blew up. I guess you’ll have to find another place to make your meth.”
Patsy grabbed the gun from Winston and leveled it at my head.
My breath came short and hard as I asked, “How are you going to explain killing me?”
“You killed Daniel, and came at us. I was forced to protect myself. Self defense—don’t you know?”
I leaped toward the fireplace, grabbed the poker, and struck Patsy’s hand. The gun clunked to the floor and I made a mad dash for it. Just as my fingers grabbed it, Winston slammed a booted foot on my hand. I yelped, and caught movement from the other side of the room. Daniel jumped Winston and they tumbled to the ground. I now had the gun and I cracked off a shot in the air.
Patsy ran for the door and disappeared outside, while Daniel tussled with Winston. I had no choice but to go after Patsy. I chased her through the snow, but it was hard to run very fast. She moved quicker than I thought she should be able to, but she also had a head start. Unbelievably, she raced toward the same place where I had parked my car.
I heard sirens about now, and as I cleared the woods, the deputies ran toward me with guns drawn. I dropped the gun and shouted, “Patsy tried to kill me.”
“I did not. She’s the one.”
“Please,” I implored. “Winston shot Daniel with an arrow and they’re fighting in a cabin in the woods.”
I stood helpless as the deputies rushed into the woods, while another placed both Patsy and me into the back of two separate cop cars. My fingers clawed at the window. I was so worried about Daniel. Had Winston killed him during their brawl? Daniel clearly didn’t have the upper hand since he was injured.
Tears streamed down my face when an ambulance pulled up, and they carried a stretcher into the woods. Is Daniel ... dead?
It seemed like hours before they returned. Winston was cuffed from behind and dragged to another cop car. Once he was inside it, he kicked at the back windows of the car. That was, until it was opened and a Taser was used on him. The door to the cruiser I was in opened and I was helped out by Sheriff Price and led to another ambulance that had just arrived. “Is Daniel okay?” I cried.
“He’s injured and there is no telling if he’ll make it. Winston hit him on the head with a log when we entered the cabin. Who shot you?”
“It was Patsy.” I then went on to explain how Winston and Patsy were involved in Clayton’s meth business and how he had screwed them over, causing them to murder him, and ultimately his wife, Marilyn, when she wouldn’t hand over the money hidden at the house.
***
When I got to the hospital, I was immediately sent to surgery to remove the bullet that was lodged in my hip. I awoke in recovery full of questions about Daniel, but they fell on deaf ears. The nurses stated privacy policies as the reason they wouldn’t provide any information about him. But I was so worried that Daniel didn’t make it. I just couldn’t live with the thought that I’d brought him down. If it hadn’t been for me, he’d be at the winter festival enjoying himself, not here c
linging to life.
Daniel was one of my most worthy opponents to date. I still couldn’t get over the fact that he threw the archery competition for me, and he stood up to Nancy like that. What did Nancy have against me?
When I was taken to my room, Margarita was there with a sad-faced Dixie, who promptly hugged me once the nurses had settled me in bed.
“Oh, Sassy,” Dixie said. As she pulled away I noted her crocodile tears that bubbled down her cheeks. “What if...”
“Stop thinking like that. I’m okay. I was shot in the hip by Winston Hickey.”
“In the ass, you mean,” a doctor said, as he entered. “Lucky for you that you had plenty of padding in that area.”
Dixie smiled. “See, your ass might have just saved your life.”
“Do you have any information about Daniel Adams? He was brought in before me.”
The doctor cocked a brow. “I’m not at liberty to say, but if you happen to wander down the hall to room twenty-four, you might find him. If you breathe a word that I told you, I’ll deny it. Got it?”
“Is it okay for her to do that?” Margarita asked.
“Her wound is superficial at the most. Just help her roll her IV along with her. She’ll be released tomorrow.”
I stood, taking care to cover my backside as I made my way up the hallway.
“I’m so sorry my ex-husband shot you,” Margarita said. “Sheriff Price told us what happened and I feel just awful. My cook, Jase, feels bad for giving you that message, sending you out there.”
“It wasn’t his fault. How was he to know who really had called? Plus, if I hadn’t gone out there, Daniel would have been a goner, for sure. I just hope he’s okay. The sheriff told me that Winston struck Daniel with a log besides shooting him with an arrow.”
“That’s just terrible,” Dixie said. “How did those two think they’d get away with murdering two people?”
“By pinning Daniel’s murder on me. Then they planned to murder me to make it look like they had to kill me in self defense.”
“I knew that Patsy was no good, but being involved with the manufacture of crystal meth, well ... that’s just plain nuts,” Margarita said.
“From my understanding, Clayton was the one manufacturing and selling it with money given to him by Winston, but instead of paying whatever fee they had agreed upon, Clayton got greedy and kept the money for himself. I suspect he had no idea that Winston and Patsy would hatch a plan to murder him.”
“And what about Marilyn? Was she also involved?” Margarita asked.
“I’m not sure, but at some point I believe she found the meth equipment and tried to start making it herself after her husband died. That’s why the shed blew up that day we discovered her body.”
“Unless it was set up that way by Patsy and Winston,” Dixie suggested.
“Good point, but I guess we’ll never know unless Winston starts talking, but I doubt the sheriff will be supplying us with the particulars of the case.
I stopped walking when we got to Daniel’s room. I walked in and he was on the bed with IV’s attached and large circular pads connected to his chest with wires running into a small box. I stared at the monitors that measured his heart rate and pulse and it appeared quite good.
I sat in a chair next to Daniel’s bed and said, “Oh, Daniel, I’m so sorry you got dragged into this. I promise I’ll go to dinner with you if you wake up.”
One green eye opened. Then he squinted at me and said, “I’m gonna hold you to that promise, Sassy.”
I smiled. “Please call me Tammy. It’s my name, don’t ya know.”
“Okay, whatever you say. You know I’ve shot bows all of my life, but I never knew what it would feel like to be shot with one. I could do without the experience, if you want to know.”
“I bet. You saved my life, Daniel. I owe you one.”
“Dinner will be fine. I guess I shouldn’t have gone out there, but when I received a message that you needed me and were hurt, I had to go. I had no idea I was being lured out there. I never even considered that Winston was the one who shot me with the arrow until I woke up in that cabin. I prayed that you wouldn’t show up, but when Winston showed up with you later, I was so scared that he’d kill you. It was so hard to feign that I was passed out until I had an opportunity to jump Winston.”
“Yes, and right in the nick of time, too.”
He smiled and it didn’t occur to me until later that Margarita and Dixie had left.
Epilogue
Inside Hidden Pass, it was standing room only as Margarita threw a huge party, complete with Mardi Gras decorations since Dixie and I wouldn’t make it back to Louisiana in time for the annual celebration. In fact, we wouldn’t be back to Louisiana anytime soon since we had decided to stay in Michigan to help Margarita run her restaurant, which had now been revamped as a Cajun-style eatery.
I admired the yellow, green, and purple curtains and beads lining the walls of the dining room in wonder. There were also masks hanging on the walls. It almost made me homesick, but I knew it was right to stay and help Margarita. It was the best use of my prize money that I could think of.
Everyone cheered when it was announced that jambalaya would be served soon. That was the main course. I kept it to myself that I had made a King Cake for later.
I greeted Daniel with a kiss on his cheek when he arrived. It was the furthest I was willing to go with him. We’d had a few dinners, but we were taking it slow. I was amazed that I actually let my guard down enough to ever consider dating again. It had been a long time and I wasn’t ready to jump into the pond just yet. He was still healing from his wounds, and the worse part was that he wasn’t able to shoot his bow yet. We had agreed to another re-match when we were both a hundred percent.
Word was that Nancy Briggs had been relieved of her duties of running the chili cook-off, and she also was no longer allowed to help organize, or have anything to do with, the archery competition in the future, after she had attempted to fix the Tournament of Trouble competition in Daniel Adams’s favor. In my mind though, I still considered him the winner, one of the reasons I’m so determined to have a rematch at some point. Since Nancy had been rigging the outcome of the chili cook-off for years for Milton Pabis, he was banned for life from entering the cook-off.
I grabbed a cup of coffee and brought it to Sheriff Price, who sat near the door. “Hello there, Sheriff. I was hoping you’d stop by. I’d love to get a rundown about the case against Patsy McNalley and Winston Hickey.”
Margarita, Daniel, and Dixie clamored over. “Sit, please,” Sheriff Price said. “It makes me nervous with folks standing over me.”
We sat and waited until the sheriff took a few sips of his coffee, but Margarita couldn’t contain herself. “So, what gives?”
Patsy and Winston are off to prison as we speak. They both pleaded guilty, each blaming the other. They’ll be serving life sentences for the murders of Clayton and Marilyn, and the attempted murder of Daniel and Tammy.”
I let a breath out. “That’s sure good to hear.”
“But what about the money?” Dixie asked. “Did you find it at the Percy place?”
“I suspect that it was hidden in the shed when it exploded.”
My shoulders dropped. “Aww, that’s sad news, indeed.”
“Why is that?”
“I just hate the thought of burning money, that’s all.”
Bud stumbled up and led Margarita away. Those two had kept steady company of late and I was happy for the both of them. It was a great feeling to be safe at last, and I longed for quieter times that hopefully wouldn’t focus on another murder investigation. But if any criminals come knocking in this town, they just better watch out for Louisiana Sassy.
Daniel and I joined Margarita and we opened a bottle of wine from beneath the counter, pouring a glass for each of us. As I clinked my glass with Margarita’s, a round of applause echoed round the room. This wasn’t just a partnership, but a friendship that would e
ndure for years to come.
About the Author
When independent writer Madison Johns began writing at the age of forty-four, she never imagined she'd have two books in her Agnes Barton Senior Sleuths mystery series make it onto the USA Today Bestseller’s list. Sure, these books are Amazon bestsellers, but USA Today?
Although sleep-deprived from working third shift, she knew if she used what she had learned while caring for senior citizens to good use, it would result in something quite unique. The Agnes Barton Senior Sleuths mystery series has forever changed Madison's life, with each of the books making it onto the Amazon bestseller's list for cozy mystery and humor.
Madison is a member of Sisters In Crime. Madison is now able to do what she loves best and work from home as a full-time writer. She has two children, a black lab, and a hilarious Jackson Chameleon to keep her company while she churns out more Agnes Barton stories with a few others brewing in the pot.
Agnes Barton Senior Sleuths Mystery series in order:
Armed and Outrageous
Grannies, Guns and Ghosts
Senior Snoops
Trouble in Tawas
Treasure in Tawas
Agnes Barton/Kimberly Steele Cozy Mystery Series
Pretty, Hip & Dead
Romance books:
Pretty and Pregnant novella featuring Kimberly Steele
Redneck Romance (Published by Tirgearr Publishing)
http://madisonjohns.com
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Here’s an excerpt of Pretty, Hip & Dead, An Agnes Barton/Kimberly Steele Cozy Mystery.
http://madisonjohns.com
Chapter One
1 Target of Death Page 12