by Jessica Beck
“Sorry. I didn’t hear you. I was in the shower.”
Had she really been taking a shower, or was her hair wet from lurking outside the Iron in the rain? Maybe Annie had been right about someone eavesdropping on our conversation after all. If so, Harper had to know that we suspected her of murdering her boyfriend.
“If this is a bad time, I can always come back later,” I said as I took a step back. Where was Annie? I needed her to know what was going on, but I was still hoping that she’d stay undetected.
“No, now is fine. Come on in.”
“Honestly, I don’t mind postponing our conversation until later.” If I was lucky and she really had been showering, maybe I still had a chance to get away.
That’s when I looked up and saw the kitchen knife in Harper’s hands.
“Get in here right now,” she ordered.
Apparently the last bit of my luck had just run out.
It took every ounce of willpower I had not to shout out to Annie to run. If Harper knew that my sister was close by, it might spell trouble for my twin as well, and at the very least, we’d lose the element of surprise, which was about the only thing that we had going for us at the moment. I cursed myself silently for not being armed when I started to comply and walk into the house. For an instant, I considered turning and running away, but how fast was Harper with that knife? And what if I escaped, but she managed to hurt Annie instead? I knew that I couldn’t live with myself if that happened. No, it was better to do as I was told and hope that my sister would be able to get help before Harper finished me off. I intentionally took my time obeying her command, however.
Harper wasn’t having any of that, though.
“Come on, Pat. The longer you wait, the worse it’s going to be for you, and your entire family, too.”
That was it. I knew that I had to move. There was still hope that I could help Annie, though. As I walked in, I noticed that the side-door lock was one of those old-fashioned push-button models. It was set to lock when it closed, but I might be able to do something about that. I pretended to trip on the sill as I stepped inside and banged against the door for a moment. As I righted myself, I pushed the button and coughed loudly to cover the noise of what I’d done.
“Let’s go! I’m losing my patience with you,” she said as she moved the knife closer to my chest.
“Sorry. I tripped,” I said.
Harper closed the door, and I held my breath, praying that she wouldn’t see what I’d done. It appeared that she’d missed it! At least now Annie might be able to try it and see what was happening inside the house when she couldn’t find me outside. If my twin sister could only hear us talking, maybe she’d be able to summon Kathleen in time to get me out of the jam I was in.
Harper led me to the living room and gestured to a straight-backed wooden chair. “Sit down.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather be on the couch.” I wasn’t being fussy about the seating arrangements. The chair would put me out of Annie’s line of sight if she peeked in through the door, whereas if I sat on the couch, she’d be able to see me immediately.
“I said the chair,” Harper said harshly as she motioned with the blade for me to sit.
“Fine,” I said, doing as I was told. I’d already pushed her too far. The conditions weren’t ideal, but they were the best I was going to get. “You don’t have to hurt me. I really don’t know anything.”
Harper smiled wryly. “Nice try, but I heard you and your sister talking on the porch a little while ago.” The killer looked around, and then she asked, “Where is she, anyway?”
“She’s off looking for Franklin,” I lied. “See? We still aren’t sure who killed Chester.”
Harper seemed to buy that, at least for the moment. She moved behind me, and I felt a rope encircle my rib cage, pinning my arms against my sides. Before I knew what was happening, I was trapped in her web. “That’s good,” she said. “At least one of the leads I gave you paid off. Tell me the truth. I should have just left you alone the entire time, shouldn’t I? Did it make you suspicious, how eager I was to provide you with clues about who might have killed Chester?”
“The thought crossed my mind,” I admitted. “Why did you kill him? Was it because he broke up with you?”
She shook her head. “It was never about love; it was always about the money. Chester changed his will after our second date to include me in it for a minor share. I was going to trick the fool into marrying me so I could get it all, but it didn’t work out that way. I saw soon enough that he might be interested in dating me, but marriage was another thing altogether. That’s when I decided to cut my losses, get rid of him, collect what I had coming to me, and then go shopping for my next victim.”
“Is that when you tried to run him down? It wasn’t in your Miata, was it?”
“No, I borrowed my uncle’s car, but Chester was too agile for me. When that didn’t work, I tried to make it look like a hunting accident, but the fool shot back at me and nearly killed me instead! That’s when I got the idea of killing him somewhere in public, where there would be plenty of suspects.”
“Why did you choose the Iron, though?” I asked, hoping that Annie was close enough to hear us inside.
“Why not? I saw the pan lying out on the counter the day before, so I thought what better place? It was nothing personal, Pat. You two were convenient, that’s all.”
I tried not to react, but I wasn’t as far out of the line of sight as I’d first suspected. I could see one edge of the door I’d left unlocked slowly begin to open. Was it just Annie, or had she had time to go for reinforcements? Either way, I had to keep Harper talking. “What good is it going to do you killing me, Harper?” I asked.
“You and that twin sister of yours are both too nosy for your own good. After I take care of you, I’m going after her.”
“Don’t you think Kathleen will figure it out?”
“If I gave her enough time, she probably would, but she won’t be alive long enough to come to any conclusions. I’m about to wipe out what’s left of the Marsh clan.”
From her tone of voice and the look in her eyes, the woman had clearly gone around the bend completely. She was actually under the delusion that she was going to get out of this unscathed.
“Answer something else for me,” I said, doing my best to stall her as long as I could. “What made you choose Chester in the first place? From every outward sign, he wasn’t a rich man.”
“It was purely by accident,” she said. “I happened to overhear him talking to Bryson on the phone once, and after I did a little digging on my own, I found out just how much he was really worth. After that, the poor guy didn’t stand a chance.”
“But then you two had a fight. Help me understand what happened next. You’d already tried to kill him twice, but what was the hurry this time? You could have taken your time and planned something better than hitting him in the back of the head with one of our skillets.”
She frowned, clearly angry with herself. “I did something stupid, and he caught me. He threatened to change his will in the morning, so what choice did I have? If I didn’t kill him before he spoke with his attorney, all the time that I invested in him would be lost.”
“What did you do that was so bad?” I asked, sneaking a glance in Annie’s direction.
She was approaching Harper silently from behind, the blade fully extended and pointing toward the killer. Did Annie have what it took to stab Harper in the back? Normally, I would have said no, but with my life hanging in the balance, I had a feeling that she would do anything to save me. I knew that I would have done it without a second thought if the circumstances had been reversed.
“In a moment of weakness, I had a fling with Franklin,” she admitted. “That was bad enough, but then the fool crowed about it to his younger brother! When that happened, what choice did I have?”
“You could have been loyal to Chester,” I said.
She spat on me, a look of ha
tred on her face. “That’s it. I’ve had enough of you.”
I braced myself for the knife attack, preparing to fight back, even if it was futile.
As Harper neared me, there was a crashing sound behind us, and she whirled around to face Annie.
It was just the distraction I needed. Lifting my legs, I kicked out at Harper’s back and sent her staggering toward my sister. The kitchen knife flew out of her hands, and I saw her scramble to pick it up, but Annie wasn’t going to let her retrieve it that easily. She jumped on the knife herself, her own blade clattering uselessly to the floor. As the women wrestled for the large knife, I knew that I had to act. Pushing myself with everything I had, I managed to shove my chair backward, sending my body crashing to the floor. I’d hoped to loosen the rope, but the outcome was even more spectacular.
The chair split apart upon impact, and I was free.
Better yet, I now had a weapon of my own.
Pushing the rope off me, I grabbed the chair leg that had splintered away and headed for the fray.
I was too late, though.
Harper had won the struggle for the large kitchen knife, and even as I watched, she began to plunge it toward my sister’s throat.
CHAPTER 26: ANNIE
I couldn’t believe that I lost the battle over the knife with Harper, and too late, I realized that I should have used the small blade Pat had given me instead. I’d panicked, and now I was going to pay for it with my life. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the blade snaked toward my throat, and though I wanted to squirm away, it was clear that I was out of time.
And then I heard a sound of anger explode from my brother that somehow managed to startle Harper, slowing the blade in her hand for an instant.
I watched as my brother leapt toward us like a man possessed! As Pat landed on her back, he swung the broken chair leg toward the back of her head. Making contact with it, he drove Harper off me and to the floor. I moved quickly out of the way, and this time, I grabbed the knife before Harper could get anywhere near it.
“Call Kathleen,” Pat instructed me as he pinned Harper to the floor. There was no way that she could move, let alone threaten either one of us ever again.
I threw the knife into the kitchen and pulled out my cell phone. My hands were shaking so badly that it was difficult to dial Kathleen’s number, but I somehow managed it.
Before she could answer, I said breathlessly, “Help. We need you.”
Leave it to my sister not to ask me a single question that wasn’t immediately pertinent. “Where are you, and what do you need?”
“We caught Harper. She confessed. We’re at her house. Hurry.”
I hung up even as my sister was still speaking. I wanted to throw up, but I knew that I had to keep it together long enough for Kathleen to get there. Solving Chester’s murder had been more of a puzzle than an actual event, but Harper physically threatening both my brother and me had made it all real enough. We’d been playing for the highest stakes, and despite a pair of very close calls, we’d lived to see the end of it.
That didn’t mean that I ever wanted to do it again, though.
I leaned down toward Pat, who was still fighting to keep Harper down. “Are you okay?”
“I’m going to be sore tomorrow from hitting the floor, but I’ll live,” he said. “Stop moving!” he commanded, but Harper continued to struggle.
“Should I hit her with the chair leg, too?” I offered in a rational voice. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable offer and one I never thought I’d ever have to make.
Harper quit fighting the moment I made the suggestion.
“She’s okay now,” Pat said. That’s when I noticed some blood on the back of his head seeping down his neck.
“How about you? You’re bleeding. Did she cut you?”
“No, I must have scraped it when I broke the chair,” he said with a grin. “With the adrenaline rushing through my system, I don’t feel a thing.”
“I’ve got a hunch that you will soon enough,” I said.
A moment later, I heard the sirens.
Kathleen was on her way.
I didn’t really breathe again until Harper was handcuffed. She’d gotten her second wind and was struggling mightily and cursing everyone in sight as they led her out to the squad car. We caught Kathleen up to date, and she offered to give us a ride to the hospital so a doctor could take a look at Pat’s injury.
“Thanks, but if you don’t mind, I’d rather drive him myself,” I volunteered. “I appreciate you not lecturing us about what we did.”
Our sister shrugged. “That will come later, after I’m sure that you’re both okay. Seriously, though, you two took a real chance coming here and facing her alone.”
“You were sure it was Franklin, remember?” I asked her with a grin.
“Don’t remind me,” she said. “I’ll catch up with you later.” She started to go, and then, on the spur of the moment, our sister the sheriff decided that neither one of us was going to get out of there without being hugged.
I couldn’t speak for Pat, but it was certainly welcome for me.
As I drove him to the hospital, Pat said, “I didn’t think you’d ever show up.”
“I was there longer than you might think. I kept waiting for her to make a mistake, but when she didn’t, I decided to come in and force the issue myself.”
“I thought you might call for reinforcements,” Pat said.
“If I took the time to do that, you might not have made it.” The realization of how close I’d come to losing my twin brother was just about more than I could stand.
“That’s true,” he said. “Thanks for saving me, by the way.”
“Are you kidding? I would be dead if it hadn’t been for your attack. What was with that scream, by the way? I knew it was you, and it still sent chills through me.”
He smiled slightly and then winced a little as he started feeling the pain from his impact. “It was my war cry.”
“Well, whatever it was, it worked.”
As I drove, I kept glancing over at my brother. He had been right before; he’d saved my life, but I’d saved his as well. I tried to never take him for granted, but after what we’d just been through together, I was going to make it a point to make sure that he knew how much I loved him each and every day. It wouldn’t hurt to tell our big sister Kathleen that, as well.
My family might not have been perfect, but it was plenty good enough for me.
CHAPTER 27: PAT
The next day, things were pretty much back to normal, if there ever was such a thing. I had a small bandage on the back of my neck where a splintered piece of chair had scraped it, and I felt as though I’d been beaten up by seven angry men, but nothing was broken, and I knew that given a little time, I’d be good as new. Annie and I were both at the Iron, exactly where we belonged. Edith was distributing the day’s mail to all of the tiny boxes, Skip was dusting the wares on his shelf, Annie was working the breakfast grill, and I was at the register.
A man I vaguely recognized came in with a serious frown on his face. “You’re Pat, aren’t you?”
“I am. Do I know you?”
“We met once a long time ago. I’m Greg Daily, Molly’s cousin from Charlotte.”
I knew I’d heard that voice before. “You were at her place the other night, weren’t you?”
“That was me,” he admitted. “To tell you the truth, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Listen, Molly would kill me if she knew that I were here, but I’m on my way out of town, and there’s something I have to tell you before I go. Don’t give up on her, okay?”
“What? She was pretty clear about where things stood.”
He nodded, accompanying the movement with a frown. “She made a mistake, and she knows it. I don’t know what it’s going to take for you two to work things out, but life’s too short not to be happy, you know what I mean?” He looked around the Iron and smiled. “This is a nice place you have here.”
“Remember, this is just between the two of us. See you around, Pat.”
“Bye,” I said, wondering if what Greg had just told me was really true. Was Molly having second thoughts about giving up on us? If there was the slightest chance of us ever getting back together, I was going to do whatever it took to make it happen. I’d come too close to dying, and it had taught me one thing more than any other: life was for the living. I wanted to be the happiest that I could manage, and if that meant that I had to make a fool out of myself pursuing the love of my life, then so be it.
Today was indeed a new day, and I meant to take full advantage of it.
RECIPES
CAST IRON BEEF STEW
We like to have this meal when it’s cold outside, but honestly, it’s good any time of year. This stew, as with many of the cast iron dishes we enjoy, can be cooked outside over a campfire just as easily as on the stovetop or in the oven inside. There’s something about the heartiness of this offering that appeals to me and my family, and the aromas that waft through the house are almost worth the trouble to make this meal even if you didn’t have such a delightful ending waiting for you when you dished out the food!
Ingredients
Beef stew meat, 1.5 to 2 pounds, browned
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 to 5 carrots, cut into substantial wedges
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 onion, large and cut into wedges as well
4 potatoes, quartered if russet, whole if red
Beef or vegetable broth, 14.5 oz. (1 can)
Tap water 14.5 oz. (use the broth container to measure)
2 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons crushed pepper
2 bay leaves
A dash of dried thyme