by Mitzi Kelly
Clarissa laughed. "That's just another example of your incredible stupidity. No, actually I'm here because Tom didn't die."
Trish frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, did I forget to mention that fact?" she asked sarcastically. "You see, Tom tried to commit suicide tonight. Or, at least that's how it's going to look. But somehow the shot didn't finish him off. I waited a while to see if he was about to kick the bucket, but someone knocked on the door. So, you see, that's why I still have the gun. I didn't have time to wipe it clean and place it in Tom's hand."
Edna drew in a ragged breath. She realized what Trish had just realized herself. That knock on the door had come from Joe. But Clarissa didn't know that, and Trish wanted to make sure that fact remained. "I'll bet you jumped out a back window."
Clarissa grinned. "For once, you got something right. By now the neighbor has probably called the police and an ambulance-if Tom's still alive, that is. It will be all over the news in the morning. So, now you can understand why I'm here."
Trish sighed as if bored, and noticed with relief that Edna had actually taken a couple of steps back. The main thing was that Joe was safe. Clarissa thought it had been a neighbor at Tom's door. "Are you going to tell us the true story or not, Clarissa?"
The lights suddenly flickered as thunder boomed loudly and the rain started to pour. Not now, Trish begged silently. Clarissa could panic, and Edna still wasn't far enough away from her for Trish to help.
Clarissa's eyes darted between Trish and Edna as she slowly reached in her pocket and pulled out a small handgun. Edna gasped and took several steps back. Good girl, Trish encouraged silently, her heart pounding in her chest, but she kept her expression flat.
"Well?" she asked again, hoping to get Clarissa talking.
Clarissa grinned. "Are you sure you want to hear how stupid you all were before you die?"
"Oh, definitely," Trish said as she nodded, "and then that way, when I'm reincarnated, I won't make the same mistakes."
"Aren't you the funny one?" Clarissa snarled. "But I think I will tell you, just the same" She planted her feet slightly apart and crossed her arms over her chest, the gun still nestled in her right hand. "You see, Tom really did kill Susan Wiley-and, for all the reasons I told you," she said with a wink. "It looked like he was going to get away with it, too. Well, I couldn't have that. Tom hated Sam for ruining his life, and I hated Tom for ruining mine. I needed something to plant in Tom's house that would tie him to Susan's murder. This may shock you," she said with a wicked grin, "but I was in Sam's house when you three tried your silly re-enactment of the murder."
Trish remembered the strange feeling she'd had that day that they were not alone in the house. "Then, you were the one who broke into Millie's house, weren't you?"
"Give the girl a star!" Clarissa said. "Yes, you three actually told me where the combination to Sam's safe was kept. Well, I stole the old lady's address book, broke into Sam's, and got the earrings. It was truly brilliant, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it was brilliant," Trish said dryly. "Go on" Where was Millie? There was no way she was still in the bathroom, and Trish could only hope she had seen what was happening and escaped across the street to call the police.
"Well, I must admit the plan didn't work out quite like I thought," she said bitterly. "Tom was over one day not long after the murder, begging me to come back to him, as usual, and when my back was turned he stole the earrings from my purse!"
Trish had to stall for time. "Wow, it seems like you're just surrounded by idiots." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Edna was moving again. Trish wanted Edna closer to her so that, when Clarissa made her move, she could get between Edna and Clarissa.
"You can say that again. Of course, he didn't know they were Susan's. He thought they were mine," she said, shaking her head at the irony and unaware of Edna's movements.
"Ouch, that must've rankled," Trish said, letting her grin show.
"Shut up!" Clarissa shouted as she dropped her arms to her side.
"Okay, okay," Trish said quickly, "settle down. Go on with your story"
Clarissa took a deep breath. "Well, then the stupid idiot gave them to that Mary girl! He owed her money for some bookkeeping work she had done when he was trying to get his own business going, and she wouldn't leave him alone about it. So, to shut her up, he gave her the earrings." Clarissa suddenly grinned. "Boy was she surprised when I turned up"
"I'll bet she wouldn't give them to you," Trish said, suddenly seeing the picture clearly. Mary would have refused to hand over the earrings, not realizing they were stolen from a murdered woman, and Clarissa killed her. That poor woman, Trish thought, as a feeling of nausea threatened to overtake her.
"You, my dear, would win that bet."
Trish took a deep breath, trying to settle her stomach and her nerves. They were out of time. So much of what they had suspected was true, and so much of it was shocking. There was no way Clarissa was going to get away with another two, possibly three, murders, but that fact didn't really make her feel any better right now. The goal was not to die tonight, but options to prevent it were becoming scarce.
She casually glanced along the counter to her right. Surely there was some kind of weapon she could use. A kitchen always held secret weapons, at least according to all the crime movies she had seen. But there was nothing except a crockpot and a toaster. She almost cried in frustration. If she survived this, she was going to plant small, heavy objects in all the drawers and on every available counter space.
Suddenly, Trish saw a slight movement behind Clarissa, and her heart slammed against her chest. It had to be Millie. No, she wanted to shout, get out of here! Instead, she looked at Clarissa and let her disgust shine through. "Mary was just an innocent bystander in all this," she said, hoping Clarissa would keep talking.
But Clarissa didn't get a chance to answer. All of a sudden, strong arms came around Clarissa, knocking the gun from her hand and throwing her to the ground. People were suddenly everywhere! Two uniformed men with rifles barreled through the small hallway into the kitchen, Joe was rushing toward Edna, his face as white as flour. Henry stood beside the doorway talking into a walkie-talkie. And, the man who had tackled Clarissa was none other than Larry. And then, finally, there was Millie, marching determinedly through all the commotion to give Trish a big hug.
"Did Joe get in touch with Sam last night?" Trish asked once Edna and Millie had sat down at the kitchen table.
Edna nodded. "Yes, and it was very emotional. Joe said Sam couldn't stop crying. He kept thanking all of us for believing in him and for finding Susan's killer. He'll be over later today"
"And how is Joe doing this morning?" Millie asked, stirring sugar in her coffee.
"He's fine, but I had a hard time convincing him to let me come over here alone this morning." Edna smiled, taking a sip of coffee.
"I imagine it's going to be a while before he's able to relax, you know." Trish set the plate of fresh cinnamon rolls in the middle of the table and sat down. "That man was scared to death"
"Oh, he wasn't nearly as scared as I was" Edna shuddered.
"You handled yourself very well," Millie said. "I was so petrified I couldn't move for hours, it seemed. But when I heard Clarissa call me an old bat, I knew she was crazy. I snuck into your office and called Henry. I didn't expect him to show up with a full platoon! I thought for sure he was going to blow it, but he told me they had parked down the street and he had left one man there to watch for Joe."
"Who would have thought Henry could have organized something that well?" Trish asked.
"Well, I did," Edna said. "But why did it take him so long to make his move against Clarissa? We were almost dead meat!"
"No, you weren't," Millie grinned. "He was getting her full confession on tape. No way is that crazy woman going to get out of this."
"It's a shame that Tom died before he could stand trial," Trish remarked with a sigh.
"I know. When
Joe got to Tom's last night, he saw him sprawled at the front door. He had crawled there after Clarissa shot him, but he was still alive, if only barely." Edna shook her head sadly. "He was able to tell Joe about Clarissa, but he died right after that. Poor Joe-he was so worried. He was racing over here when the police stopped him at the corner."
"Larry is real proud of us, by the way," Trish said. "He's going to come by later today."
"He's such a sweet man," Edna said.
"And he's a good-looking one," Millie said with a twinkle in her eye. "We'll have to think of some way to keep him coming by, you know. It does an old heart good to see a handsome sight like that."
"Millie!" Edna exclaimed.
Just then the doorbell rang, and Trish grinned as she got up to answer it. "That's probably Joe. He figures you've been gone long enough."
But it wasn't Joe who followed Trish back into the kitchen a few moments later. "Have a seat, Henry, and I'll get you some coffee"
"Thanks," he said as he pulled out a chair and reached for a roll. "How are you all doing this morning?"
"We're doing fine, Henry." Edna smiled. "We are so grateful for your quick actions last night. You literally saved our lives."
"Actually, Millie is the one who deserves the credit. She kept her head about her and did the right thing."
Millie sat up straighter and beamed. "Thank you. So, when is the female scumbag's trial going to be? I'd like to be a character witness."
Henry laughed as Trish placed a cup of coffee in front of him. "There won't be a trial. She's confessing to everything. It wouldn't matter, though. I have it all on tape"
"You know, Henry," Millie said, "all of this could have been prevented if you had only believed us from the beginning."
Trish winked at Edna as she sat down. Millie's good behavior couldn't have lasted much longer, anyway.
Henry cleared his throat and nodded. "I admit, at first I thought you ladies were blinded by your friendship with Sam. I was just following the evidence, and Tom made sure it looked like Sam had killed his wife. According to Clarissa, he even tampered with both Sam's and Claire's cars to stall them and make the situation appear even more suspicious. If it hadn't been for you, Sam may very well have been tried and convicted of the crime. You did a good thing, and I want to thank you. But --2'
"No `buts,' Henry," Millie stated, "because we were amazing, and you know it."
"But," Henry continued with a stern glance, "what you did was extremely dangerous. You are very, very lucky I happened to still be in the office when Millie called."
Trish shuddered. "We know how lucky we are. I don't even want to think about what might have happened"
"Larry hinted that you were checking out some new information, Henry," Edna said. "Was he just trying to pacify us, or is what he said true?"
Henry reached for another roll. "No, he was telling you the truth. The main reason we suspected Sam from the beginning was that the fingerprint analysis on the radio showed Sam's print on the plug. We thought we had our man for sure. But, believe it or not, Larry and I were swayed by your conviction that Sam had been set up. There was an unusually long cord on the radio, a handmade splice job. And, there was another fingerprint on it, one we couldn't identify at the time."
Henry paused and sipped his coffee. "One of the officers at the crime scene remembered that Sam had touched the plug on the radio cord when he was asking him if he could identify it, so we stopped placing so much emphasis on that. Then, we finally got lucky. The fingerprint analysis finally hit a positive match: Tom Jones. He had just renewed his license a month before, and his fingerprints were on file."
"Wow," Trish breathed, "what a strange set of circumstances."
"We won't ever forget your help in this, Henry," Edna said softly.
"I don't care whether you forget it or not. What I want is your promise that you won't do anything so crazy again! Okay, look," he said, pushing himself up from the table, "I have tons of paperwork to do. I just wanted to come by and fill you in and to thank you for your part ... and to threaten you within an inch of your lives if you ever do it again."
"You're welcome," Millie said sweetly.
After Henry left, Trish sank down in her chair and sighed. "Well, everything's back to normal, I guess"
"Hopefully so," Edna sighed. "It has been an exciting few weeks, though, hasn't it? We need to find something to do that will bring us the same stimulation, don't you think?"
"We could always take karate lessons," Trish suggested wryly.
"Actually," Millie said, "Michelle said there is something strange going on in her office. You know she works for that insurance company? Well, it seems that there has been an inordinate amount of stolen-car claims from their clients. Her boss is worried that it's going to put him out of business."
"No," Trish exclaimed, "don't even think about it."
"What? I was just telling you-"
"Come on, Millie," Edna said, grabbing Millie's arm, "I need to get home and you need to go cook something."
"Edna, you're being rude," Millie stuttered. Trish laughed as she followed them to the door. When she opened it, she looked out in surprise, and then let out a deep sigh. She had forgotten about her new yard man. Charlie waved as he pushed the lawnmower across her grass.
"I'll see you later, Trish," Millie said guiltily as she turned and hurried across the street.
"You ought to make Millie pay for your yard service, you know," Edna said wryly, shaking her head.
Trish grinned. "I should, shouldn't I? Well, I'll call you later." Trish leaned against the door frame for a moment and watched her friends leave. She was extremely lucky to have such warm, caring people in her life. They were truly God's gift to her, and she swore, then and there, that she would never take their friendship for granted.
Closing the door, she headed for the kitchen, a smile still on her face. It had been an exciting time, but now she had to get back to her normal life. Even the thought sounded boring.
After cleaning up the dishes, she walked over and looked at her exercise machine. She could always start her exercise program today, she thought to herself. Surely there was no chance of her being interrupted this time. But as she headed for the bedroom to change, she recalled Millie's words about Michelle's problem. Surely Millie had just been teasing-hadn't she?
Maybe she'd better just give Millie a call ...