Dandelion Dead

by Chrystle Fiedler

  Amy directed us to her late sister’s Mercedes and handed Simon the keys. “Simon, you drive. Willow, sit in the passenger seat. I’ll be in the back and I’ll have the gun on both of you. So no surprises.”

  We got inside the car. Amy got in the back. As Simon fastened his seat belt, he gave me a look of pure desperation. Turning my head so that Amy couldn’t see, I mouthed, It’s going to be okay.

  He blew out a breath and put the key in the ignition. “Where are we going?”

  “Back to Pure. I have to make a deposit, and a withdrawal.”

  “What?” Simon said. “What does that mean?”

  “Go! And no talking!”

  When we arrived at Pure, Amy said, “Go around and pull up next to the B and B so no one sees the car.”

  Simon did as he was told and drove across the grass path next to the vines in front of Pure, around the bed-and-breakfast, and parked the car. I couldn’t decide whether we should try to jump her or wait it out and hope that Jackson and the police arrived soon.

  “I know what you’re thinking, and don’t try it,” Amy said. “Now, get out of the car slowly, and remember that I have a gun pointed at your backs.” We got out of the car and waited for her instructions. “Go to the barn, and open the door.” When we got inside, she pointed to the far side of the barn. “Walk down there.”

  “You’re not going to shoot us, are you?” Simon said. “Don’t shoot us!”

  “No, I’m not going to shoot you, but I am going to put you in a place where you can’t escape. You see that handle on the floor? Simon, grab it and pull.”

  He opened the compartment and looked in. “What is this?”

  “That’s the crawl space. Get in.”

  “I’m not going in there,” Simon said. “It’s dark and creepy.”

  “Okay, so you want me to shoot you instead? Fine.”

  “No, no! Don’t shoot! I’ll go!” He climbed down the ladder.

  “Now, you.”

  “Amy, this is nuts, you can’t get away with this.”

  “I think I can. I have plenty of cash since I withdrew most of Ivy and David’s money, I have a current passport, and if they ever do find you, I’ll be in a nice warm climate.”

  “Did you plan to kill Gerald tonight?”

  “No, things got out of hand, and people saw me go outside with him. So when they find his body they’ll put it together—even these dumb cops. So that’s why I have to leave. For good. Now get in there.”

  chapter twenty-four

  Stuffy, dusty, and dirty, the crawl space ran the length and width of the barn, but with only about three feet from the ground to the beams that bolstered the wine cellar’s floor. Cobwebs covered the walls, the corners, the beams, the window frames, and discarded objects, including an old hot-water heater, a broken lawn chair, a cracked BBQ, and a tarp. But at least the light near the stairs worked.

  “This place is filthy,” Simon said. “This is really going to set off all my allergies, big-time, plus I’m all hunched over because I can’t stand up in here, so there goes my back.”

  “Simon, you’re alive, that’s what’s important. So give it a rest and start thinking of ways to get out.”

  “How are we going to do that? She locked the door, and those windows are too small.”

  “If we could find some kind of tool, we could dig around one of the windows to make the opening larger and crawl out. Let’s take a look around and see what we can find.” The two of us began to scuttle around the space, trying to avoid hitting our heads on the beams above.

  “Okay,” Simon said, “I really wish she hadn’t taken your phone.”

  “Tell me about it.” As I stepped forward, I kicked something with my foot that made a metallic sound as it hit the wall.

  “What’s that?”

  “I think it’s a hammer.” I went over and picked it up. “Yup.”

  “Hey, I found a screwdriver.”

  “Good, I’ll work on the left side of the window, you work on the right.”

  • • •

  Half an hour later, we hadn’t made much progress, and we were both cold, tired, and thirsty.

  “Now what?” Simon said. “We just hope that someone finds us, and if not, we die down here? I hate that plan.”

  “Me, too.” I used the hammer to shatter the window, and glass shards landed on the grass outside. “Start yelling. If anyone is around besides Amy, maybe they’ll hear us.”

  “Help! Help! We’re stuck in the crawl space!”

  “Yeah, help us! We’re in the barn—under the barn in the crawl space. Help!”

  A few minutes later, the handle on the door to the crawl space turned, and the door opened. “You called?”

  “Jackson!” I ran up the stairs, and he enveloped me in a warm hug. “I’m so glad that you’re here!”

  “Me, too, McQuade, me, too. I was worried about you. But then I heard you two yelling, and here I am.”

  Simon climbed out and collapsed on the floor. “Thank goodness you came. We were trying to dig ourselves out and it wasn’t going well.”

  “Not at all. But how did you know that we were here?”

  “Well, when you two didn’t come back inside, I went outside to look for you using a flashlight from one of the guys who works at the hall. I did a grid pattern, and on the first pass, I saw your earring by the cliff—and spotted Gerald’s body on the beach—then I spotted the other one, and then the ring, and the beads from your dress and followed them to an empty space in the parking lot.”

  “But how did you know that we were here?” I said.

  “After I found the empty parking space near the last few beads you dropped on the asphalt, I went into the security center at Southwold Hall and asked them to run the surveillance video. One of the cameras had a good view of you and Simon and Ivy behind you with a gun, walking into the parking lot and getting into her Mercedes. So I called the police and told them about Gerald and what Ivy had done, and came here since I thought this is where she might take you, parked halfway down the road so she wouldn’t hear me, and walked the rest of the way. If you weren’t here, Ivy’s house would have been my next stop.”

  “But it isn’t Ivy, it’s Amy,” I said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Somehow Amy switched identities with Ivy. But I’m not sure how.”

  “What are you talking about? Please, please explain.”

  “In my wallet tonight, I found the receipt from Amy’s guest cottage for this specific type of lipstick that only she wore.”

  “Lipstick? I don’t get it.”

  “The date on the receipt for Amy’s special lipstick?”

  “Yes . . .”

  “Was Thursday, four days after her death. So unless Amy needed lipstick, specifically Bodacious Ruby Red Lip Love, in the afterlife, there is no reason to buy it.”

  “Unless Amy was very much alive.”

  “Exactly. And when I told Ivy my theory, she confirmed that it was true. Ivy is really Amy Lord.”

  “Wow,” Jackson said. “Amazing. You’re good.”

  “She is,” Simon said.

  “So where is Amy now?” Jackson said. “There’s still a Mercedes parked next to the B and B.”

  “She said she had to make a deposit and a withdrawal. I think that we were the deposit.”

  “Me, too,” Simon said. “For sure.”

  “So what’s the withdrawal?”

  “That’s a very good question,” Jackson said.

  chapter twenty-five

  Jackson, Simon, and I left the barn and began looking for Amy Lord. First, we checked the bed-and-breakfast, and not finding her there, we went into the main building at Pure. But the tasting room was empty, with only the lights above the art on the walls for illumination.

  “Where to next?” I said.

  “Wait a minute,” Jackson said. “Did you hear that?”

  “What?” I said.

  “Listen, it sounds like someon
e is moving around in Ivy’s office.”

  We moved quietly toward the door in the tasting room that led to the office and listened again. “I think she’s in there,” Jackson said, taking out his gun. “Is she armed?”

  “Yes, she has a gun.”

  “Where are the police?” Jackson said. “I called them when I left Southwold Hall.”

  “If we wait, she might get away,” I said. “And Lily might go to prison for a crime she didn’t commit.”

  “It wouldn’t even be for the right person, because Amy is alive and Ivy is dead,” Simon said.

  “I know. We need to act, we can’t wait,” Jackson said. “I’m going to see if the other door to the office is open and I can see what she’s doing.”

  He took off and went around the corner to Ivy’s office. We couldn’t hear him moving around: hopefully neither could she. Moments later, he returned and waved us over to the doorway. “She’s trying to get into the office safe.”

  “I guess that’s what she meant about making a withdrawal,” I said. “But she told us she already had money.”

  “If you’re going to live your life on the run,” Jackson said. “You always need more money.”

  “But why did she wait until now to get it?” Simon said.

  “Because she wasn’t planning on going,” I said. “Until she had that confrontation with Gerald and killed him, she was good. The police had arrested Lily. She could stay as long as she liked.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Simon said.

  “The safe is over the couch on the right wall facing the desk,” Jackson said. “She’s standing on the couch and trying different combinations. I spotted the gun on the desk.”

  “At least she’s not holding it,” I said.

  “Yes, but she could grab it.”

  “What are you going to do?” Simon said.

  “I’ve got the element of surprise on my side, at least. I’ll go in the door from the main room and pull my gun on her, but she may try for the gun or make a run for it, so you two need to stay away from this door.”

  I nodded. “Where should we be stationed?”

  “Get behind the tasting bar, and stay low. If you hear shots, run out the back.”

  “Be careful,” I said.

  “I will,” Jackson said. “Stay alert.”

  He left the room, and Simon and I got behind the mahogany tasting-room bar, where I found a full-size flashlight that worked. Moments later, we heard Jackson say, “Amy, put your hands up. It’s over.” Then we heard the sound of glass shattering, a gunshot, and someone running. Seconds later, Amy burst through the tasting-room door, headed for the barn.

  “Jackson? Jackson!”

  “I’m okay.” He ran through the tasting-room door. “She threw the painting that was over the safe at me, and I shot at her leg but missed. I just wanted to stop her, but now we’ve got to catch her. She’s got the cash from the safe, and she’s on the run.”

  “Does she have the gun?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  We ran out of the tasting room following the beam of the flashlight I’d found inside, and down the pathway in time to see Amy running toward the B and B.

  “Amy, stop!” Jackson fired a warning shot over her head, but she kept running. When she got to the B and B, she turned the corner.

  “She’s going for the car!” Simon said.

  When we reached the corner, Jackson said, “You two, stay back!”

  He stuck his head around the corner of the building, and Amy fired a shot, then revved the engine. “I’m going to try and blow out the tires to stop her.” Jackson stepped out and fired. Bam! “I got the rear tire! She’s out of the car and running for the back fields!”

  Simon and I ran up to Jackson and watched as Amy ran away from the car carrying a satchel. We ran after her as she headed across the field, past row after row of vines, toward the Halloween corn maze.

  By now the cloud cover had passed, and the full moon illuminated the land, casting a wide beam of light across the vineyard, but as we approached the corn maze, the clouds returned, plunging us into darkness. Sunday had been the last night of the festivities here, but all the decorations were still in place, if not the friendly Dracula who’d greeted us on Friday night.

  “How do you want to do this?” I said.

  “Slowly, and I’ll go first since I have the gun,” Jackson said. “You two stay behind me. Hopefully, the police will get here soon, so if we flush her out, they can catch her as she runs to her car. There’s really no place else for her to go.”

  I pointed the beam of the flashlight onto the red arrows spray-painted on the ground. “Let’s go.”

  With Simon and I walking behind Jackson, we made our way past Marcy’s Creepy Goop Corner, but no mummies greeted us this time. Neither did we see the costumed Harry Potter, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, or the Hulk touching gross guts, the eyeballs of naughty children, and a strawberry-colored brain, and eating witches’ boogers or being kissed by a wolf. Or the zombies, mummies, vampires, and ghosts who had jumped out to scare us.

  Slowly, we rounded another corner and found the central station for the kids with the neon butterfly bush, the face-painting station, and pumpkins with pink wigs.

  Jackson stopped and whispered, “Did you hear that?”

  “What?” I said, looking around.

  “I thought I heard someone behind us.”

  “That can’t be Amy,” Simon said. We took a few more steps in silence, and he stopped. “Wait a minute, you hear that?” He pointed ahead. “I think I heard somebody up there.”

  “Keep going slowly,” Jackson said. “We’re moving into the Super Scary area. She could be hiding there.”

  We continued along, following the bloodstains that now led the way. No Friday the 13th actor was chasing us with a chain saw tonight, but this was far more intense—an armed killer could be waiting in the shadows.

  We walked past the place where the army of bloody scarecrows with pitchforks had been and came to the area where the mad scientist had been operating on a monster’s skull, and the fake corpse was still on the table. Suddenly, a shot rang out.

  “Get down, everyone!” Jackson said. A shot zinged past his shoulder and exited through the wall of the corn maze. Jackson grabbed my arm and Simon’s and pulled us to the right, and around the corner. Zing! Another shot rang out and flew through the corn maze.

  “You’re making me mad.” Amy’s voice sounded disembodied and otherworldly. “And you’re going to pay for it.”

  “She must be on the PA,” Jackson said. A cloud of black smoke started blowing through the maze. “Now she’s trying to disorient us. It sounds like she’s to the left.” Jackson pointed to his right. “We need to keep moving. If we can get out of the maze and circle around, we can trap her from behind.”

  “You’re not going to get away,” Amy taunted. We started to run, as fast as we could, with Jackson in the lead, then me, then Simon. We passed the elaborate abandoned cemetery without the zombies and—zing! Another shot rang out.

  Jackson pushed us out of the way and fired back. “She’s getting closer, keep running, as fast as you can!”

  We turned the corner and kept running, through the darkness and the smoke, and another shot rang out. “Unfortunately, I think she’s got a semiautomatic,” Jackson said. “Which means that she’s not going to run out of ammo anytime soon.” He fired back at her. “Our only hope is to get out of here. Double-time it!”

  We made the next corner and took the turn, but then Jackson tripped over another corpse in the middle of the path, and Simon and I ended up in a scrum on top of him. Another shot rang out, and then another, and we heard a woman scream. We stopped and listened to the silence.

  The PA crackled, and Amy said, “I have some friends of yours, and mine. Stop and stay where you are if you want them to stay alive.”

  Moments later, out of the smoke appeared David; Tony, who held his hand; and Lily, who favored her shoulder
—and Amy with her semiautomatic pistol pointed at their backs. In her other hand she carried the satchel full of money from Ivy’s safe.

  “What did you do to them?” I said. “Lily, Tony, are you all right?”

  “She shot the gun out of my hand and winged Lily in the shoulder. But we’re okay.”

  Amy gestured to Jackson. “Drop the gun, or your girlfriend gets it.”

  Jackson looked at me, then put his gun on the ground. “You need to give yourself up. We’ve called the police. They’re on their way.”

  “I don’t think so. You see, I called them and told them that it was a false alarm. That you all had been found and everyone was okay.”

  “They’re cops,” Jackson said. “And I told them that you kidnapped Willow and Simon. They’re coming.”

  “Okay, you got me. I called them and told them I was holding you two hostage at my house in Orient.” She looked at her watch. “They should be there right about now.”

  “And when they don’t find you, they’ll come here,” Jackson said. “They’re not stupid.”

  “I think they are. But I’ll be long gone before that.”

  Lily moved her shoulder and let out a groan.

  “I really wish you hadn’t come here, Lily. What are you doing here?” I said.

  “We couldn’t find you at Southwold Hall, so I checked in with Max Becker, a cop friend of mine, now retired, who’s the head of security,” Tony said. “He told us about Jackson viewing the surveillance tapes and what he’d found. We both figured you’d be here. The cops are AWOL, so I called them and we headed over.”

  “We searched the grounds and got to the barn,” David said. “And then we heard someone on the PA that sounded like Ivy, saying she was mad or something. We didn’t understand what was going on, but we figured you were in the maze, so we headed in, and Ivy came at us with a gun. I think she’s lost her mind.”

  “Her name is Amy,” I said. “Not Ivy.”

  “Amy? Amy’s dead,” David said. “Now you’ve lost it.”

  “It’s true, David,” Simon said. “Ivy is dead. This is Amy.”

  David’s eyes opened wide. “What in the hell are you talking about?”

  Quickly I explained again how I’d figured out that Ivy was actually Amy.