by Cindy Bell
“But not like this.”
The door to the study swung open. Ally held her breath as Clara walked towards them. She glanced over her shoulder, then pushed the door closed.
“I’m sorry that it has come to this. I didn’t want to have to kill you.” Ally and Charlotte froze at her words. Could she really be a murderer?
“Clara, let us go.” Ally pulled at the rope. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Oh, you’re wrong. I have no choice. I’m so very sorry. You were both so kind to me, and I wish things could be different, but this is how it has to be. If only Shane had stayed out of my business, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
“It doesn’t have to be like this, Clara,” Charlotte said. “Just let us go, and we will leave your name out of everything.”
“There’s no way to.” She shook her head, then closed her eyes. “If only I’d been smart enough to see the scam before I fell into it, none of this would have happened.”
“What do you mean?” Ally leaned forward and looked into her eyes. “Are they threatening you?”
“If only it were so simple. I was a star, and I liked the lifestyle, I liked the money. I hadn’t worked in years besides a minor role here and there and the money began to run out. I was in my late fifties and all alone and I knew I would have to sell my beloved home. I was a little distraught. A friend told me that she knew of someone who could help me. I met with this man, and he offered to take over my debts, all I had to do was allow his friends to stay in my home now and then. I should have known better, it was too good to be true, but I wanted to keep my home so badly that I agreed. They weren’t businessmen, not with the way they carried themselves. I tried to refuse them access to the house, but they forced their way in, and their boss threatened to sell the house out from under me. Apparently, I signed the house over to him. I was just so confused. I was so lonely. Somehow I got so involved with him and his activity. Over the years we got closer and closer and he taught me everything about the business. I got in so deep that I couldn’t get out. I fell in love with him.” Her hands trembled.
“Who is he?” Ally asked. “Is it Mario?”
“No not Mario, his brother Vincent. He’s out of the picture now anyway. He passed away, a heart attack,” Clara said with tears in her eyes. She was clearly heartbroken by his death. “I couldn’t let all of my hard work go to waste. Lose my house! Lose my money! Lose my reputation! Lose my freedom! No I couldn’t let any of that happen, so I took over the business. It was a natural progression.”
“You’re running the drug trafficking operation?” Ally asked with disbelief.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but I have to protect my house, my life. If the truth came out I would lose everything. That’s why I invited you and your boyfriend to the private party, Ally. I knew he was a police officer, and I hoped to find out what he knew about my involvement in all of this. I needed to protect my business. I thought maybe I could add him to my list of cops that are well let’s say helpful. It would have been very lucrative for him and a mutually beneficial relationship.”
“I should have seen it.” Ally sighed. “I should have seen what you were up to.”
“How could you? I played my part well. I am an actress after all. You see I saw you looking at something on your computer when I came into the shop, I thought they might have been Shane’s films from what I could hear, but I wasn’t sure. But then when my police contact confirmed that you had been the one to hand them in, I knew you must have made copies and you were looking at them in the shop. I needed to get them back.”
“Is Mario in on this with you?”
“No, Mario has nothing to do with this.” She shook her head. “If something annoys him he lets people know. But he’s all talk, no action. He has some dodgy scams, but he would never be involved in drugs. He uses the Mazzalli name to get what he wants, but he loves his daughter more than anything and she doesn’t want him to have any part of that life. He doesn’t want to ever put her in a dangerous situation. It used to drive Vincent crazy that he never wanted to work with him.”
“If you let us go now, we can tell the police you helped us. We can get you out of here.”
“I can’t let you go. Sorry. Just like I got my men to kill Shane to protect my secret. I am going to have to kill you, too.”
Ally tried to think of anything to keep her talking. If she was talking then she might change her mind. “Why were you and your men in such a rush to leave the screening.”
“Ugh, incompetence,” Clara growled. “Red, who you’ve met, killed Shane because I instructed him to, but he was furious that Shane was trying to expose my business so he wrapped the film tape around his neck as a symbol for him filming at the cabin and my mansion. He got so angry that he didn’t want to wait so he killed Shane too early. He didn’t listen to me to wait until the end of the screening. He didn’t think that if he was dead the movie would stop and the body would be found. So the body was found too early. I wanted to stay at first so I could find out what the police suspected had happened, but my men convinced me that we had to get out of there before we were questioned by the police. We needed time to get our stories straight at least. Now, there will be no mistakes this time around. In the morning, after I have the flash drives I will be getting rid of you two.” Her eyes changed from friendly to cold.
Clara turned and walked back out of the room. Ally looked towards her grandmother with panic in her eyes.
“What are we going to do, Mee-Maw?” Ally asked. “They’re going to kill us.”
“Don’t worry we….” Before she could continue the door opened. Ally gasped when she saw who was standing there. Keith, Karen’s brother. Had Clara changed her mind? Had she sent him to kill them now?
Keith walked towards them. Ally could see something in his hand. Was it a gun? Was it a knife? When he got closer she could see that it was a small bag of cookies. He opened the bag.
“Here, have one, you must be hungry.” They both looked at him skeptically. Were they poisoned? “It’s okay I’m not going to hurt you.” He took a cookie out and took a bite. Ally tentatively reached her hand into the packet and took one out.
“Keith, please let us go,” Charlotte said as she took a cookie.
“I wish I could, but I can’t. There’s no way out. If there was, don’t you think I would have run by now? Clara has the whole house surrounded with security. Even if we made it out of the house we would never make it off the property. Then who knows what she will do to my brother. I’m afraid you two will just have to be patient and hope that someone rescues you.”
“How could you be part of this?” Charlotte shook her head. “Shane is dead.”
“I didn’t like Shane and I didn’t like the fact that he hurt my sister. But I never wanted him murdered. The truth is, I didn’t realize that Clara had Shane murdered until I heard some of the men here talking about his murder, and I realized that they were responsible, which meant that in a way I was responsible.”
“But how?” Charlotte asked.
“I mentioned something that I shouldn’t have.” He shook his head. “But that doesn’t matter now. There is nothing I can do about it now.”
“You can do something about us now though. You could let us go.”
“I can’t.”
“Please Keith. Your sister would want you to let us go,” Charlotte pleaded. “How will you feel if we are killed.”
“Terrible.” He sighed. “I didn’t want you two to be hurt.”
“You can protect us. You can let us go,” Charlotte said.
Keith paced back and forth thoughtfully. “I am going to let you go, but that’s all I can do. I can’t promise that you will get past the guards,” Keith spoke as he untied Charlotte and Ally.
“But you have to come with us,” Charlotte said. “We can’t leave you here.”
“No, I can’t, I don’t know what they’ll do to my brother if they find me missing.”
“Keith,
you are helping us. We can try to make sure that you get that consideration when you turn yourself in.” Charlotte looked into his eyes.
“Please, Keith let us help you.” Ally stood up from the couch, her legs ached from sitting still for so long. “Come with us, we’ll let the police know that you saved us, and they may not even press charges.”
“No, I’m sorry. I won’t, if I had just kept my mouth shut about the cabin none of this would have happened.”
“What do you mean?” Ally asked.
“It doesn’t matter now. Please hurry before they come to check on you. If they find you free they may do away with us all on the spot. Just do your best to stay out of sight.” Keith went to the side door and unlocked it. He directed them towards the door. Ally wondered if she and her grandmother were about to step straight into the line of fire.
Chapter 19
Ally stepped out through the door of the mansion followed closely by Charlotte.
“Mee-Maw, stay very close to me.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart I will, but keep moving. If we stand still we’ll be a target.”
Ally reached back for her grandmother’s hand, then began to run along the side of the mansion. With the high fence that surrounded the entire property it seemed impossible to get out.
“Our only chance is going to be the gate,” Ally said.
“But there are guards there.”
“We can’t scale the fence. There’s no other way out.”
“Maybe there isn’t, but maybe there’s another way to solve this problem.”
“What’s that?”
“We can hide.”
Ally stopped running for a moment and flattened herself against the wall. “Hide?”
“Sure. They’re going to expect us to run for the gate, they’ll be waiting for us there. If we find a good place to hide we can wait until their guard is down and then escape.”
“Mee-Maw, that’s a brilliant idea. Where should we hide?”
“There are cameras everywhere, it’s going to be hard to find a place.”
“I think I know.” Ally pointed towards a large crop of bushes that were cut to resemble a maze. It would be easy to hide there as the bushes were about two feet taller than Ally. “I bet they don’t have cameras there.”
“No you’re right, they probably don’t.”
Ally led the way to the maze with her grandmother’s hand still clutched in hers. Just after they reached it floodlights turned on all around the property. It was clear that their absence had been discovered.
“We have to keep moving, Mee-Maw.” Ally’s heartbeat quickened.
“What if we can’t get out of here?” Charlotte looked around at the tall bushes.
“If we can’t find our way out then they might not be able to find us.”
“Good thought.” She hurried along the path with Ally right beside her. As they went deeper into the maze Ally heard dogs barking. She wondered if the maze was the right decision. Maybe if they had taken their chances at the gates they would have managed to escape. As it was, the dogs were getting closer, and they wouldn’t need any help to pick up their scent and find them in the maze.
“Hurry, Mee-Maw, those dogs are going to find us fast,” Ally said with urgency.
“I’m trying, Ally, but it’s quite dark in here and there are a lot of roots. Maybe you should go ahead.”
“No way, I’m not leaving you.” Suddenly gunfire rang through the air. “Get down, Mee-Maw, get down!”
Charlotte crouched down on the ground. Ally did her best to shield her. In the distance she heard the gunfire again, then the most beautiful sound she could imagine, a siren.
“The police are here. We just need to hide out until they get to us.”
“I think it’s too late for that, Ally.” Charlotte shuddered as she stared into the face of a growling Doberman.
“Just be very still.” Ally put her hands on her grandmother’s shoulders. She stared hard at the dog. Just as the dog appeared ready to attack there was a loud snort. The dog whimpered and backed off a few steps. From behind Ally Arnold charged forward. He snorted and squealed so loud that the Doberman retreated.
“Arnold!” Ally wrapped her arms around his neck. “You sweet pig, you saved us.”
Charlotte rubbed his ears and patted his back. “My hero, Arnold.”
“Ally?” Luke’s voice carried over the top of the maze.
“Luke! We’re over here!” Ally stood up and waved her arms in the air.
“Ally, what if the guards see us?” Charlotte pulled her back down.
“Trust me, after all of that commotion I think they know where we are. We just have to hope that Luke gets to us before they do.”
Minutes later Luke jogged towards them with two officers right behind him.
“Ally, Charlotte, I’m so glad I found you.” Arnold snorted and stared up at him. “Okay, I’m so glad that Arnold found you. Are you hurt?” He looked from one woman to the other.
“We’re okay.” Ally sighed. “But I am so glad to see you.”
“Me too.” Charlotte waved to the other officers. “Is it safe?”
“It is. We rounded up Clara, Keith, Ken and Clara’s men.”
“Keith too?” Ally frowned. “He tried to help us.”
“That’s for the courts to sort out.”
“He let us go, Luke.” Charlotte bent down and hugged Arnold. “If he hadn’t we might not have made it out of there alive. That has to count for something.”
“I’m sure it will.”
“Clara was behind it all,” Ally said.
“I know.” Luke nodded. “Shane caught those men on film trafficking drugs, but when the Geraltin PD followed up there was nothing to be found. I finally figured out the final piece to the puzzle. Clara mentioned to us at dinner that she owns a boat on the pier. She also said she had so many guards because she was afraid for her safety. I decided to look into why she was so afraid, and whether there were any credible threats against her. That’s when I discovered that her finances are completely falsified. The IRS had already opened an investigation. I started to wonder where that mystery income was coming from.”
“You never mentioned any of this to me.” Ally stared into his eyes. “Why not?”
“At the time I didn’t think it had anything to do with Shane’s murder. I had no idea that the men on Shane’s film were working for Clara. I never thought she would be involved in drugs and I certainly didn’t think that she would get Shane killed. You adore Clara and I didn’t want to reveal anything that would change your opinion until I was sure.”
“What finally made you certain enough to come here?”
“I heard about the emergency call from your cell phone and went to the house. When I found Arnold and Peaches locked up in the bedroom I knew something wasn’t right. Like I said I had my suspicions about Clara and I wanted to follow it up. When I called her, she didn’t answer. I came here to check things as she was my best lead to find you, but I brought back-up in case there was trouble with the guards, and Arnold because he wouldn’t let me leave the house without him.”
“What a good little pig.” Charlotte kissed the top of Arnold’s head.
“Yes, he is.” Luke smiled at him.
Detective Neil walked up to Luke. “Looks like you interfered with my investigation after all,” he said sternly,
“I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to.” Luke slid his arm around Ally’s shoulders. “But when it involves my two favorite ladies, I can’t stay out of it.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. The mansion is full of drugs, and we found some on the boat at the pier. It looks like they brought the drugs in on the boat, stored it at the pier in the storage box until it could be transported to the cabin, then distributed some and stored the rest at the mansion.”
“I can’t believe that Clara was behind all of this.” Ally shook her head. “I can’t believe that Keith helped us.”
“From what Keith just told me
, everything changed when he found out that Shane was killed and it was related to the drug running. He didn’t agree with his murder, and was afraid she would kill the two of you as well. It’s a good thing he let you go when he did as Clara found out we were on her trail and she was going to kill you tonight. She was prepared to risk the flash drives becoming public, but she couldn’t risk you telling everything you had found out to the police. Thanks to both of you we’re going to be able to take down Clara’s operation,” Detective Neil said.
“Clara said that Mario had nothing to do with this,” Ally said.
“I know, he called in a tip about an hour ago about one of his storage boxes in Geraltin being used to store drugs. Apparently, now that his brother is no longer around he doesn’t want the Mazzalli name associated with anything illegal so he has offered to help us,” Detective Neil said. “Apparently, Ken let Clara’s men use the storage box to store the drugs.”
“There’s one thing I don’t understand though.” Ally frowned. “Professor Shumer owned the cabin that they were using to smuggle drugs. So they brought the drugs in on Clara’s boat, then kept them there until they could safely move them to the storage box or the cabin. So, Professor Shumer must have known his cabin was being used. Which means he had a part in Shane’s death, too.”
“Actually, I don’t think he did. We contacted him about the cabin and whether he knew about the activity occurring in it. He insisted that he didn’t and that he hadn’t even been out to the cabin in several years. He assigned the surrounding location for all of his students to use for their nature documentary. I doubt he would have wanted them there if he knew that there was illegal activity happening in the cabin,” the detective explained.
“He didn’t just give it to Shane to use for filming?” Luke asked.
“No, he said he offered the location at the beginning of the class to all of his students.”
“Oh!” Ally shook her head. “I know what happened here, and it’s going to be heartbreaking for Karen.”
“What do you mean?” Luke studied her.
“Karen was in class with Shane at the start of the school year. She must have been told about the cabin as well. She may have even gone up there with Shane. She probably told her brothers about the place, since they’re so protective. Keith and Ken were involved in Clara’s drug business. Keith mentioned to us that he should have kept his mouth shut. Maybe they mentioned it as a way to move up in the ranks. Keith could have offered the cabin and Ken the storage box where he worked to Clara to use as a storage place when the pier was too busy to bring the drugs in. That is why Keith said to us if only he had kept his mouth shut. He must have realized that his actions lead to Shane’s death and he didn’t want it to lead to more deaths.”