Deadly Chocolate Addiction (Death by Chocolate Book 6)

by Sally Berneathy

  Somebody gasped. It might have been Maggie. It might have been me.

  Ransom had told me he was a former alcoholic, but I hadn’t pictures him inebriated and out of control.

  “I checked on her. She was dead. I started to call 911, but Gary stopped me. We were driving under the influence. We killed a woman. We would go to prison. We would lose our law licenses. Our lives would be over.”

  Ransom had continued to practice law. He had not gone to prison. I glanced at Maggie. Her eyes were wide and wet. She was thinking the same thing I was thinking.

  “God help me, I listened to him. I knew it was wrong, but I justified my behavior by telling myself she was dead. Nothing else could be done for her.”

  Across the room Maggie sobbed softly and Warren pulled her close.

  “The woman’s car was sitting a few hundred feet down the road with a flat tire. She must have been trying to flag us down when we killed her. Her purse was in her car. Gary told me to destroy all her identification while he drove the car into the lake. I couldn’t do it. I saved the license so I could let her family know. While Gary was getting rid of the car, I took pictures of the body. I am enclosing the driver’s license and the pictures of the body. I didn’t plan it, but the pictures include the image of Gary’s front license plate. I’m ashamed to admit that I never contacted that woman’s family. I was afraid of being caught. We dragged her body into the woods and left her.”

  A chill shot down my spine. How close had I come to the same fate as that woman…murdered and my body dragged into the woods to be left as a feast for the critters?

  “I stopped drinking. If I hadn’t been drunk that night, Joanna Wilkins would still be alive. That was her name, the woman we killed. I have lived with the horror of that night ever since, and I can’t do it any longer. I am planning to turn myself in. I filed for divorce so Kathleen won’t be the wife of a convicted felon. Our marriage has not been good, but I’ve already destroyed one life. I don’t want to destroy another.”

  If I’d had any doubts that Kathleen had lied about the spousal abuse, those words would have erased that doubt. While he’d been working to protect her, she’d been plotting his murder.

  “I retrieved the evidence from my safe deposit box in St. Louis, came to Kansas City and locked it in the file cabinet in my office here so it would be readily available when I went to the authorities. My confession would also convict Gary, so I met with him and told him what I planned to do. He tried to talk me out of it. He doesn’t want to lose his house, his Cadillac and Corvette, his good life. Finally he agreed. However, he then asked for the key to my file cabinet. He said he wanted to study the evidence as any lawyer would so he would be prepared.”

  The key had unlocked Ransom’s toy chest. Had Gary thought the key was to the file cabinet?

  “I let him examine everything but refused to give him the key. I want to trust him, but I want to remove temptation. Before I leave this office, I will retrieve all the evidence, buy a padlock, and move everything to my old toy chest. I will then return to St. Louis, take care of some details, and come back here in a week. I do not anticipate any problems, but should something happen to prevent me from taking this evidence to the proper authorities, Mom, Dad, or whoever finds this letter, please take the enclosed to Adam Trent. Even though Kathleen and I betrayed him, I know I can trust him to do the right thing.”

  Trent exhaled a long breath. “That’s all.”

  A loud, dark silence settled over the once comfortable room.

  Maggie was the first to break it. She rose and wiped her eyes. “I’ll get some more coffee. Lindsay, would you like another Coke?”

  I understood what she was doing. When you hurt so badly you can’t face the pain, fall back on manners, beverages, and food.

  “Yes, thank you.” I picked up the plate of chocolate chip cookies and brownies and moved around the room.

  Fred selected a cookie.

  Trent hesitated.

  “Take a brownie,” I said. “Eat it. Don’t make me force it down your throat.”

  He smiled.

  Of course I was kidding.

  Kind of.

  He pulled off the rubber gloves and chose a brownie with chocolate chips and nuts.

  I bullied everybody, including myself, into having some chocolate.

  Maggie returned with coffee and Coke.

  Warren, fortified with chocolate and caffeine, stood and walked over to the lamp table.

  Trent held out a restraining hand. “It’s evidence.”

  “My son is dead because of those pictures. I need to see them.”

  Trent shook his head. “No, you don’t.”

  “A little boy who played in my yard and ate at my dinner table murdered my son. I need to see why.”

  Trent pulled on the rubber gloves and lifted first the small driver’s license then the pictures, one at a time.

  “Is it enough to convict him of killing my son?” Warren asked.

  “I don’t know. He’ll go to prison. We’ll get him for abducting Lindsay and threatening to kill her. This—” He waved a hand at Ransom’s letter and the photographs. “This should be enough to convict him of Joanna Wilkins’ accidental death and then covering up the crime. We’re going to do a DNA match of the man who broke into Lindsay’s house and murdered the drug dealer standing guard outside. We’ll probably be able to get him on that. We can charge him with Jeff’s murder, but the only evidence we have for that is circumstantial. He’ll have a good lawyer. Whatever happens, I promise you he will go to prison for the rest of his life.”

  Warren’s jaw firmed. “I want him to admit he killed my son.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen. He’s a lawyer. He knows how the game is played. He’s never going to confess.”

  I turned to look at Fred.

  He looked back at me, his expression blank as if he didn’t know what I was thinking.

  “Fred can do it. He can get a confession.” Drugs, cattle prods, Vulcan Mind Meld. I refrained from mentioning any of his methods. Despite rumors to the contrary, I can keep a secret.

  “No,” Fred and Trent said at the same time.

  “Gary won’t meet with Fred,” Trent said.

  “We can put Fred in disguise as a felon in jail with Gary and he’ll have to meet with him.”

  “No!” Fred and Trent again.

  “Let me talk to him.” Warren’s voice was soft, gentle even. Yet it gave me chills. The quiet words didn’t mask the pain and anger.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Trent said. “I don’t know if I can get anything out of him. If I do, it will have to be in an unofficial capacity, off the record. I’ll have to promise him it won’t be used in court, that it will be strictly so his friend’s grieving parents can find some closure.”

  Chapter Twenty

  I left the remaining desserts with Ransom’s parents. I wanted to do more for them. Make them a Death by Chocolate Cheesecake or a Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake. Do something to ease their pain.

  As I hugged them good-bye on their front porch, I knew their pain went too deep for even chocolate to heal. But it would help.

  Trent and Lawson drove away in their anonymous dark sedan, and Fred and I left in his immaculate white Mercedes.

  “Why won’t you do it?” I asked as soon as he pulled away from the curb. “Why won’t you go down and make Gary confess? Maggie and Warren need to know for sure.”

  He turned a corner, keeping all four wheels on the street. “First, I do not believe Gary is as suggestible as Corey, and second, he’d never agree to see me. As a prisoner, he has the right to decide who he talks to. Trent has the best chance. He can appeal to their history as friends and remind Gary of the kind things the Gablers did for him when he was a boy.”

  “That would require that Gary have some remnant of humanity left. I don’t believe he does. If Trent fails, will you try?”

  He rolled his eyes.

  I read somewhere that rolling our e
yes is good for the eye muscles. All my friends must have very strong eye muscles.

  “All right. I promise to try if Trent fails.”

  That was easy.

  Too easy?

  When we got home, I walked straight from Fred’s driveway to Paula’s house to tell her about the letter and pictures.

  Zach and Paula were in the front yard, rolling a large colorful ball back and forth between them. Zach chased it with the energy and focus only a three year old could have. He saw me, dropped the ball, and charged over. “Anlinny! We’re going to have hamburgers for dinner. You can eat with us. Mama said she needs to go inside and cook. Will you play ball with me?”

  A year ago he’d have lifted his arms to be picked up. Now he was too big for that…physically and emotionally. I wished he would anyway. I wanted to hold him close and protect him from all the evil in the world.

  That was, of course, impossible. One day he’d grow up and leave home, get married to some woman who didn’t deserve him and be on his own.

  The way Ransom had done.

  “I need to talk to your mother for a few minutes. Then I’ll play ball with you while she cooks dinner.” Playing ball was way down on the list of things I wanted to do that Saturday afternoon, but I’d just seen how easily a son could be taken from his family. I’d play ball with Zach or whatever he wanted to do.

  “Did you bring cookies? Mama says I can’t have a cookie till after I eat dinner.”

  “No, I gave my cookies to somebody who needed them.”

  His small face fell. “I need cookies now.”

  I ruffled his blond hair. “You’re tough. You can make it for a couple more hours without a cookie.”

  Paula joined us. “Aunt Lindsay’s right. You’ll survive. Why don’t you come inside and play with Gordon while Aunt Lindsay and I talk?”

  I followed her onto the porch. “Gordon?”

  “His imaginary friend.”

  We all went inside. Zach grabbed an orange truck and began running in circles with it.

  I followed Paula into the kitchen. I sat at the table and she put hamburger patties into a skillet.

  “Zach has an imaginary friend? Do you worry about him being an only child?” Ransom had been an only child. “Have you and Matthew talked about…you know…things like marriage and children?” Even though she was my best friend, Paula didn’t tell me everything the way I told her everything. Okay, I tell everybody everything. Paula’s always had secrets. I don’t understand that.

  “No,” she said. Just like that. No. No details. “Tell me what happened today. Did the key unlock Ransom’s toy chest?”

  “Yes.” I thought about stopping with a one-word answer the way she had. But I couldn’t. I told her everything.

  She turned the hamburger patties in silence. “Are you staying for dinner?”

  “No. Thanks for the offer, but I want to be home when Trent gets there.”

  “Please let me know if he learns anything from Gary.”

  “I will.”

  “Let’s tell Zach you’ll play ball with him another time. It’s getting late, and dinner’s almost ready.”

  I nodded. With her evil ex in prison, Paula had become less fearful and no longer lived in a fortress, but this reminder of how easily someone could lose a son had probably sent her back into protective mode.

  Does anyone ever completely recover from the presence of evil in their lives?

  Zach readily agreed to the change of ball game plans. He and Gordon were having a race with toy cars. To my intense relief, Gordon’s car didn’t move as Zach pushed his across the finish line.

  I left and Paula closed the door behind me. I felt certain she also locked both deadbolts.

  Henry joined me as I crossed the yard to my house. He was fearless. He’d never encountered an evil he couldn’t take down.

  I wanted to lift him into my arms and hold him close, but he would no more tolerate that than Zach would.

  We went inside. He ate cat food with a side of tuna. I took a long, hot shower.

  Then I got a Coke, sat on the sofa, and picked up my book.

  After I read the same page three times and still had no idea what it said, I gave up on that idea.

  Outside the evening shadows gathered.

  Henry went to the front door and stood looking at it. He wanted to go out.

  He went out every night unless it was raining or snowing.

  Tonight I didn’t want him to go out. I wanted him to stay inside so I could watch over him.

  He stood on his back legs, front paws wrapping around the door knob, trying to turn it.

  “What if you run into a coyote out there?” I asked. “What if someone tries to kidnap you?”

  He dropped back onto all four feet and turned to gaze at me with those piercing blue eyes. I could read his mind. Pity the coyote. Pity the potential kidnapper.

  “But there are other terrors in the night.”

  He continued to stare at me. Pity the woman who tries to keep me inside.

  I opened the door and let him out then returned to sit on the sofa and sip my Coke while the night came inside and gathered around me.

  Where was Trent? Why hadn’t he called? How long did visiting hours at the jail last?

  The burst of music from my cell phone startled me.

  I answered.

  Trent.

  “I’m leaving the Gablers’ house and heading your way,” he said.

  “Did Gary talk?”

  “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  How many is a few?

  More than a couple.

  Fewer than a lot.

  The earth slowed. Time crawled.

  Trent turned his key in the lock and came through my door seven minutes later, but it felt more like seventy.

  He closed the door, came over and kissed me. “Why are you sitting in the dark?”

  I flipped on the lamp beside the sofa. “Saving energy.”

  “I could use a beer.”

  I went to the refrigerator and brought back two beers and a glass of wine. “Neither of us is driving anywhere tonight. As long as we can make it upstairs, we’ll be okay.”

  “If we can’t make it upstairs, we can both sleep on the sofa.”

  “I get to be on top.”

  “Deal.” He opened a can of beer and drank from it.

  I drank about a fourth of my glass of wine. “Well? Did he confess?”

  Trent nodded and had another long pull from his beer. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his gaze straight ahead. “He says he didn’t intend to kill Jeff. He just wanted to get the key to the file cabinet so he could destroy the evidence. He didn’t want to lose everything and go to prison. He was desperate. Jeff refused to give him the key so he stabbed him.”

  Was he really taking up for Gary? “He just happened to have a knife with him?”

  “He searched Jeff’s body and the room but didn’t find the key. He took Jeff’s watch and wallet so it would look like a burglary, but he refused to tell me what he did with them.” He spoke in a staccato tone, more emotionless than when he’d read Ransom’s letter. “Kathleen was in town. He thought she might have it. He broke into her hotel room. She told him you had the key. He didn’t know who you were, so he invited her to visit him and tell him about you. That’s the night you followed her. She told him who you were and that Jeff had come by to see you. So he came to your house.” Trent drained the rest of his beer and popped the top on the second one. “He was breaking in here when a man came out of the bushes and attacked him. He killed him. This one was self-defense. Not his fault. And, come to find out, the man was a drug dealer, so that murder shouldn’t count against him either.”

  “Shouldn’t count against him? So if Henry hadn’t attacked him that night would he have come upstairs and murdered me when I couldn’t give him the key and justified that murder too? If he’d slit my throat and dragged my body into the woods for the coyotes and worms, would that
not count against him either?”

  Trent finished his second beer and I downed the rest of my wine.

  “I thought he’d tell me the truth because he regretted what he’d done and would want to give Jeff’s parents any peace they can find. But he didn’t. He thinks everything he did was justifiable. If the woman hadn’t jumped in front of his car, he wouldn’t have hit her. If Jeff hadn’t threatened to go to the police, everything would be fine. Jeff would still be alive, and Gary wouldn’t be in custody. If the man guarding your house hadn’t attacked him, he wouldn’t have had to kill him.”

  “If he’d killed me, how would he have justified that?”

  Trent shook his head slowly. “I’m sure he’d have come up with something. He killed Jeff and the drug dealer and tried to kill you to get his hands on a key that wouldn’t have helped him. The key didn’t fit the file cabinet. The documents weren’t in the file cabinet. It was all for nothing. I grew up with Gary, played with him, went to school with him, but I didn’t know him.”

  “How did the Gablers take it?”

  “Hard. We all hung out with them so much when we were growing up, they feel like they’ve lost two sons. I’m going to stay in touch with them. I’m the only one of their boys they have left.”

  I picked up his empty cans and my empty glass and went to the kitchen to get refills.

  When I returned and offered him another beer, he shook his head. “What I need right now is to hold you.”

  “That works for me.” I snuggled up next to him on the sofa.

  Ransom’s murderer was in jail.

  Trent’s former wife was in jail.

  All was right with the world.

  Except it wasn’t.

  If Kathleen was free, would he be snuggling with her right now instead of me?

  She wasn’t free, and he was with me. I should celebrate. Let the past go.

  But I had to know.

  “What about Kathleen?”

  He stiffened. “What about her?”

  “How do you feel about what she did, planning the murder of your friend?”

  “I really don’t want to talk about her right now.”