She settled on black leggings and a white oversized tunic top and was waiting at the door when Simon arrived.
He handed her a box of Godiva chocolates.
Skye led him to the sofa. “Thanks for the truffles. They’re my favorite.”
“Have one.”
“A little later. I haven’t eaten anything but toast since lunch yesterday. I’m afraid Godivas are too rich for me right now.”
“Why don’t I go pick something up?” Simon started to rise.
“That would be great, but I want you to see what I’ve found first.” Skye handed him the envelope and explained how it had come to be in her possession.
He looked through the contents. “So you had this the whole time you were hit on the head, crawled out of a burning building, and were found searching the police chief’s drawers?”
“Yes, what do you think of it?”
“I agree with you. It’s the same man all the way through but with different women. Although when there are three people, the second woman seems to be the same in all the pictures. Too bad we don’t have any way of running this film.”
“Yeah, I guess I’ll have to turn it in to the police after all. I can’t quite see anyone around here printing it for us.” She narrowed her eyes in concentration.
Simon thought for a minute. “Mike Young is the only person I know who has a darkroom.”
“That’s not a good idea. Mike is one of our top suspects.”
“True. How about the rest of them?”
“Okay, I’m pretty sure Darleen and Chief Boyd are in the clear. Her problem is with Mike, not Honey, plus she has an alibi. And since I only suspected him because of her . . .” Skye trailed off, having gotten lost in her own logic.
“That makes sense, although like you said earlier, I have to wonder what she was paying Honey to keep quiet about.”
“Charlie has an alibi. I checked with Fayanne and she backs him up. I’ll have to call him to find out what time the school board meeting ended last night. If it was after I was attacked, that would put Lloyd out of the running too.”
“I drove by there at ten, and the lot was still full of cars,” Simon said.
“Well, since we know it’s not Vince,” Skye looked hard at Simon and he nodded, “who is left?”
“Only Abby and Mike, if we’re still using your original list.”
“Abby is very strong and jealousy can be a powerful emotion. Or she could be the woman in these pictures, and Honey decided to start blackmailing her now that she was dating Vince again.
“On the other hand, Mike could be the man in these negatives. We know he was being blackmailed.”
“Could it be Darleen in the photos?” Simon took one out of the envelope and examined it again.
“I didn’t know her in high school, but unless she’s changed a lot, the body type is all wrong.”
They thought in silence, until Skye’s stomach growled audibly.
Simon got up. “This is silly. You’re hungry. Let me get us something to eat, and then I’m sure we’ll both think more clearly. What do you feel like?”
“Would you mind driving over to Clay Center? I’d love some chicken from their restaurant.”
“No problem. Clay Center’s only ten miles away. The restaurant you mean is the Shaft, right?”
Skye nodded.
“It shouldn’t take me more than forty-five minutes. Meanwhile, don’t let anyone in. I talked to Wally this morning. He said that if you hadn’t been hit with a cheap aluminum flashlight that broke open after the first whack, you could have been in real trouble.”
“I’ll lock the door as soon as you leave.”
CHAPTER 25
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Skye decided to take another look at the police report on Mike Young. She grabbed an apple from the fridge and curled up on the sofa with the pages. The police had set up surveillance at the local drive-in and caught him selling marijuana, LSD, and heroin to a high school crowd. He never did admit who his supplier was.
His original sentence was three years, but he had been a model prisoner who attended church and took vocational school courses in photography, so he was released in little more than eighteen months.
She put the report down suddenly. What was that noise?
Skye rose from the couch and looked out the window by the front door. The Impala was alone in her driveway. A breeze rippled through the leaves on the trees, but nothing else moved.
Sitting again, she looked at her watch. It was two-thirty in the afternoon. Simon had only been gone a few minutes.
This time the noise was louder and sounded like it came from her bedroom. Skye picked up the baseball bat Vince had given her as a housewarming gift and walked over to the half-shut bedroom door. She nudged it all the way open using her foot and, with the bat at the ready, looked into the room.
It was as she had left it. Sighing with relief, she let the bat down from her shoulder and relaxed. At that moment, someone wearing black driving gloves grabbed her arm, spun her around, and put a gun to her temple.
“You thought you were so smart, Miz Psychologist. Spying on people, searching places you had no right to be, sticking your nose where it didn’t belong,” Mike Young jeered as he dragged Skye through the great room, pausing only long enough to snatch the envelope containing the reels of film and the negatives from the coffee table. “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
“Mike, you sound angry,” Skye responded automatically.
He slapped her across the face with the gun, and she felt the pain explode in her cheek. “Don’t use that psycho-shit on me. They tried that while I was in prison. You’d better think of Matthew, chapter three, verse seven: ‘Flee from the wrath to come.’ ”
They were in the foyer now. Mike grabbed her purse and dumped it onto the hall table. He snatched her keys and pushed her out the front door and down the steps.
He wrenched open the passenger door and shoved her into the car. “Slide all the way over. I can’t be seen driving your vehicle.”
Afraid that another blow to the head would make her pass out, Skye scooted over quickly. “Why are you doing this, Mike?”
She threw both hands up to ward off the impact when he raised the gun to hit her again.
Mike pushed his face into hers. “Don’t ask stupid questions. You searched Honey’s condo and the old train station. This is what you found.” He held up the envelope containing the film and negatives.
“How do you know all that?” Skye shrank as far away from him as the seat would allow and attempted to get the keys into the ignition.
“Once the police had searched Honey’s condo, I placed a surveillance camera in the hall outside. I saw you pick that lock like a pro. You and that grave digger were in there a long time, but you didn’t come out carrying anything, so I had to follow you to see what you found.” Mike frowned. “Now start this car, and don’t forget to fasten your seat belt. We don’t want the cops pulling us over.” He buckled his own belt, then waved toward the road with his gun. “Drive down Stebler and take a left on Basin.”
As Skye backed the car out of the driveway, she quickly scanned the area, but the road was deserted. “That’s how you found me at the railroad depot.”
“Yeah, I followed you from the time you left work. Until you led me there, I had forgotten about Honey using that place as a hangout. I didn’t think you were going to find anything until you went back and crawled under that counter.” Mike slid down in the seat until he wasn’t visible from outside the car. His gun was now aimed at Skye’s heart.
“Why didn’t you take the envelope when you hit me on the head?” Skye turned her head to look at him, and the car swerved.
“Drive straight, or I’ll kill you right here.” Mike shoved the gun into her side. “I didn’t take the envelope because you didn’t have it in your hand. It was possible you hadn’t found anything. Before I could search you, I saw the police car cruise by and slow down, so instead
I figured I would burn up whatever evidence there was. Better safe than sorry.”
Skye carefully made the turn onto Basin. She was looking desperately for some way to save herself, but made her voice remain calm and professional. “What exactly is the evidence?”
“You idiots are too stupid to live. I can’t believe you or your boyfriend couldn’t figure out what was going on in these pictures.”
“How do you know we didn’t figure it out? Simon’s at the police station this very minute telling Chief Boyd everything.”
Mike snorted. “Good try. Simple Simon has gone to get his poor sweetums something to eat, not to tell the police anything. No, Simon is no threat to me. Only you and these damn movies.”
When she had to stop at the light on Basin, Skye considered jumping out of the car, but there were few other vehicles and no pedestrians to try to signal for help. “How do you know that?”
“Turn right here.”
“Where are we going?”
Mike ignored that question and answered her previous one. “I know your boyfriend hasn’t got a clue because I bugged your house right after I saw the surveillance tape from Honey’s condo.”
Her mind frantically searched for a plan. “So, what was Honey blackmailing you over?”
“Nosy right up to the bitter end, aren’t you?” Mike never took his eyes off her. “If you must know, after Honey left town she hooked up with a bunch of other young girls who had run away. They all wanted to be actresses, so she brought them down here and she and I put them in the movies. I played the male lead, and Honey made an occasional guest appearance.”
Skye drove along Maryland until she got to Kinsman, where Mike told her to turn left.
He continued, “We sold those movies through ads in porno magazines. Then I was busted for drugs and went to prison. During that time Honey got a job at the Chicago TV station. She was a gofer for some local celebrity. The money wasn’t the best, but she was hooked on the idea of show business.
“When I got out of prison, we both wanted to go straight, so we parted amicably. Or so I thought. A few months later, just as things started going good for me with the studio and the church, Honey called me. She demanded money, or she’d show everyone in town the dirty movies we’d made. It seems she had gone to my apartment after I was arrested and taken all the negatives and reels of film.
“The amount of money she wanted wasn’t too much, so I paid.”
Skye frowned. “Was she willing to expose herself? She was in those pictures too.”
“Not in all of them. It would have been easy enough for her to pick out ones that only I appeared in.”
“So, you were behind all the Chokeberry Days pranks. You were trying to get them to cancel the festival, so Honey wouldn’t come back to town.”
“You need to show how smart you are to the bitter end too, don’t you?” Mike’s voice was disgusted. “You never did learn your place.”
Skye hardly heard his insults. She had realized they were coming up to a one-lane bridge, where Kinsman crossed over the river. He’s going to kill me when we get to wherever we’re going or he wouldn’t be telling me all this. I’m a good swimmer and I’d rather die trying to save myself than be shot like a helpless little girl. I’ll have the element of surprise. If I drive off the bridge on his side, I can have my door open before he knows what’s happening.
“You were paying her for a long time, so why did you decide to kill her now?” Skye asked to keep him distracted.
“Because she raised the payment to fifteen hundred. She had found proof that some of those girls in the movies with me were underage.”
They were approaching the bridge. Skye asked one last question, hoping to keep him talking, so he wouldn’t notice her slipping out of her Keds. “Did you mean to implicate Vince by using his shears?”
“Nah. I didn’t go there to kill her, but she just wouldn’t back down. When I put my hand in my pocket and found the scissors I knew it was a sign from God. ‘My father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. ’ I had to kill her. She would have ruined me in this town. Then I searched the trailer for the film, but it wasn’t there and people started pounding on the door. It was easy to slip away without anyone noticing.”
As the car started over the bridge, its tires made hollow thumping sounds on the narrow planks of wood used to guide vehicles safely across. Skye had been going the legal limit of fifteen, but now she pushed the speed up to thirty-five. Taking one last look at the madness gleaming in Mike’s eyes, she said as she whipped the wheel to the right, “ ‘Don’t mess with a woman,’ Helen Reddy, nineteen seventy-three.”
The next few seconds seemed to tick by in slow motion as the Impala burst through the flimsy guardrail and became airborne. Skye held on to the driver’s door handle with all her strength, and prayed that her seat belt would hold.
She heard Mike groan as the car lurched and he was jerked toward her. In a quick glance to her right she saw that Mike’s seat belt had prevented him from sliding very far in her direction. The Impala hit the water, floated for a moment, and rapidly sank until it settled on the passenger side on the river bottom.
Skye sat for a moment, dazed by the impact and by the chaos she had put into motion with a turn of the steering wheel. Finally, she stole another peek at Mike. He had been pulled down and to the right. Cracks radiated in the passenger-side window around the place where his head had slammed into the glass. He looked dazed, but had not dropped the gun.
Skye quickly unbuckled her seat belt and struggled to wrench the door open. It was much harder than she expected. The force of the water acted as a wedge to hold the door closed. She could hear the blood pulsing in her head as she fumbled for the crank to roll down the window and relieve the pressure. Muddy water gushed into the car, and she was afraid she would drown if she didn’t act quickly.
She put all her weight behind one mighty shove, and the door flew open. She quickly thrust herself through the opening. Once out, she shot to the surface, sputtering and coughing.
Immediately she began to swim for shore, worried that Mike would be coming after her. She struggled up the riverbank and turned to look.
There was no sign of Mike. Then she remembered: Jed hadn’t fixed the latch on the passenger-side seat belt. Once it was buckled, there was no way to unfasten it.
CHAPTER 26
On a Clear Day
Skye sat silently in the passenger seat of the old Buick Regal as it rattled into her parents’ driveway Wednesday afternoon. Although she was physically present, much of what was happening around her seemed to be playing on a movie screen rather than in real life. She watched May hurry out of the kitchen and Jed appear from the garage. She saw an unspoken signal go between her parents, broadcasting that neither recognized the car or the heavily tattooed man who got out of it.
As Jed stepped forward, the boy in the backseat bounced out and opened the front passenger door. He reached in and grabbed Skye’s hand, pulling her out of the car like a stuffed toy.
He was the first to speak. “This here is Miz Denison. She’s from my school. I found her by the river. You her folks?”
Hurrying forward, May put her arm around Skye, who was still soaked despite the heat’s rapid drying power. “Yes, she’s our daughter. What happened to you, honey?”
Skye didn’t answer, and the boy chimed in, “She ain’t said much since I found her.”
Jed walked over to the tattooed man and stuck out his hand. “Jed Denison.”
“Earl Doozier, and this here’s Junior.” He shook hands with Jed.
“Thanks for bringing her home. What happened?” Jed gestured to Skye, who stood dripping onto the gravel.
Junior spoke up. “I was playin’ near the river when this car started across the old bridge. Sudden like, it sped up, and then just drove offa the bridge—exactly like on TV. In a few minutes I seen Miz Denison swimmin’ to shore. Then I run home and got Daddy.”
Jed sw
ore under his breath.
May exclaimed, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!”
“She wanted Daddy to jump in the river to see if this here Mike guy was still livin’, but Daddy don’t know how to swim. When she found that out she made us drive lick ety-split to the police station, and she went in and came out right quick. Then we brung her here. Think she was tryin’ to kill herself?”
Skye spoke up for the first time. “Junior, I wasn’t trying to kill myself, but someone was trying to kill me.”
May, who had been herding them all toward porch chairs, halted abruptly. “Everyone, sit down,” she ordered. “Skye, tell us what happened.”
Her audience sat listening intently as Skye relayed the events prior to her trip off the bridge.
“What happened when you stopped at the police station?” May jumped up from her perch on the table edge and began to pace back and forth.
Sighing, Skye closed her eyes. “I didn’t want to find myself in the backseat of Chief Boyd’s squad car again, so I told Thea the story and asked her to send the rescue squad. I probably should have gone back to show them the exact spot, but I just couldn’t.”
Junior had seated himself at her feet and was leaning against her leg like a puppy. “Don’t you worry, Miz Denison, they’ll find it right off. You can see the car from the bridge. I looked when we drove over.”
Skye turned to her father. “Well, that’s it for the Impala.” A slight smile hovered at the edge of her lips. “Guess I’ll finally have to get a new car.”
Skye woke up with a start. Where am I? She slowly scanned the walls and realized she was back in her old room at her parents’ house. Memories of the last few days were nudging their way through the sleep-induced haze when May popped her head into the room.
“Come in. I’m awake,” Skye said.
“How are you feeling?” May sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed Skye’s hair from her forehead.
Murder of a Small-Town Honey Page 21