Swan with the Wind (Bought-the-Farm Mystery Book 9)

by Ellen Riggs

  “Not again!” She peered over her shoulder at the glow of headlights.

  I confirmed it by speeding up and slowing down to judge the other driver’s actions. Meanwhile, Keats stayed on yellow alert, ears forward and ruff up. That hadn’t changed much all evening. Things were definitely heating up. I could feel it, too.

  “I’m going to pull off at the next side road and see what happens,” I said. “Can you text Janelle and let her know we’ll be late?”

  I slowed to be sure we didn’t hit the ditch on the turn. The goal was to catch a glimpse of the vehicle as it passed and then find a new route to the hotel.

  “What if they trap us on the side road?” Jilly asked, after messaging her cousin.

  “Evasive maneuvers,” I said. “I’ve been practicing with Edna. If a zombie’s heading my way I want the skills to go over, under or around.”

  “I wish I could laugh but my heart’s clogging my throat,” Jilly said.

  “It’s all good,” I said. “But hold on tight. You too, Keats.”

  I took the next exit abruptly and without signaling. Before the tail passed, I turned out our lights and stopped. A few seconds later, the vehicle went by at a crawl. There was enough light to see it was a red pickup truck.

  “Doug!” My voice overlapped with Jilly’s and Keats confirmed it with a mumble.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  “Find another route to the Strathmore,” I said.

  With Janelle’s help, we navigated the side roads fairly well and she was waiting in the hotel parking lot when we arrived. Doug hadn’t made it, but he’d likely turn up soon.

  “Maybe he’s guessed our plan and wants to catch us in the act,” I said.

  “I say we go ahead,” Janelle said. “We may not get another chance.”

  “Agreed,” I said. “You on board, Jilly?”

  She looked to Keats for advice. While the dog was still on alert, his ears were up and forward. He was good to go. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s do this.”

  Janelle didn’t waste another second. She was our decoy and well suited for it. Off she went around the side of the turreted building to the rear patio. She’d called ahead to offer to show the bartender—and the guests—her signature flaming tropical cocktail that packed quite a punch. If we needed more time, she’d be kicking off a dance contest.

  We’d planned to change clothes in the truck but with the threat of Doug’s arrival, decided not to waste a second. I gathered the gear we needed, while Keats and Percy went to round up the swan.

  Kicking off our heels, we pulled on men’s rubber boots. Jilly tied her full skirt into a knot. I bid the dress I’d borrowed a fond farewell as I waded into the pond. It would be the first casualty of the rescue and hopefully the only one.

  Hera circled the fountain warily with wings raised like a warrior. The fluffy cygnets plopped off her back with small splashes.

  I spoke gently to the mother swan and explained our plan, and that she had to go first. I expected one heck of a fight, but she practically swam into my outstretched arms. That said, once I had her secure in my embrace, she turned to watch her babies uttering low, hoarse cries. The little ones didn’t understand their orders and scattered, leaving Jilly to chase them down.

  “This is going to take all night,” she said, plodding after them. They moved like pinballs, colliding and parting and colliding again, cheeping the whole time in distress.

  Keats circled on the far side, pushing them in her direction with his energy. Finally, she nabbed one and splashed over to the empty ferret cage I’d left beside the pond. Bridie didn’t know Arnie was loose in the house, but I was confident Keats could round him up later.

  As Jilly bent to grab another bird, Keats stopped and turned. The unease he had shown all night ramped up to red alert mode. Doug must be coming.

  “Jilly, we may need to abort,” I said. “Keats is sounding the alarm and we can’t leave any babies here without their mother. Maybe it’s better to fight this battle another day.”

  “No,” she said, cupping cygnet number two and rushing to the cage. “I’m getting the hang of this now. Five minutes oughta do it.”

  Keats was far enough away that I couldn’t hear the rumble in his chest, though I felt it in my heart. This threat was real and it was bigger than Special Constable Doug Farrows.

  “We don’t have five minutes,” I said. “I see headlights through the trees now. Someone is coming up the lane and it isn’t a pickup truck.”

  A sleek black sedan slid sinuously into the hotel parking lot. It looked like a government issue security vehicle. The kind a bomb couldn’t explode.

  “What the heck?” My eyes flicked from the car to Keats, who was now on his belly in the grass. “We’ve got trouble.”

  Jilly stopped with a third baby bird in her hands. “Yeah. We sure do.”

  “Is it the kind of trouble that’s keeping Bridie in hiding?”

  “I—I think it might be.”

  “Well, they’re parked between us and my truck, so I guess we’re going to have a wee chat.” I looked over at her and tried to smile. “Bet you wish you didn’t have your skirt in a knot.”

  “And bird poop on my fingers,” she said. “On the bright side, someone might want to shake hands before offing us.”

  “They won’t off us. It’s Bridie they’re after, right?”

  “Or possibly Janelle. Either way, they’ll keep us around until they get what they want. I’ll do my best to help you stay out of it, Ivy. And I’m sorry in advance for what you might see here.”

  “No apology required. I’m super curious.” I adjusted my grip on the swan. “I do worry about the birds though.”

  Jilly straightened her shoulders and continued to the ferret cage with her catch. “Let’s just pretend they’re not there and continue till we can’t,” she said. “They’re probably considering the optics of snatching us in front of so many hotel windows.”

  “Should we call Janelle? Will it help or hinder?”

  “Hinder. They know she’s here because of her car. But it’s better to let them think she’ll come out with weapons drawn instead of dancing the Macarena.”

  “All right, then. Let’s keep pretending that chasing waterfowl in black tie finery is completely normal.”

  “It is normal… for us,” she said, creeping up on the next cygnet.

  “I’m impressed with your grace under pressure, Jilly. It’s like you haven’t a care in the world.”

  “Whereas I’m wondering if life as we know it is over. If I’ve brought danger not only to Gran, but the farm. Ah! Gotcha.” She delivered another cygnet to the cage. “Now I realize it was silly to think they wouldn’t show up eventually. After fifteen years, I got complacent.”

  Keats started crawling toward the car on his belly and I called, “Don’t buddy. This is beyond what the three of us can handle.”

  He looked back at me, and I could swear his blue eye emitted a light I’d never seen before. His mumble was terse, as if telling me not to count him out.

  The black car’s high beams came on, blinding me and making Jilly mutter words that rarely dropped from her lips. The last of the cygnets fled.

  There was the click of a car door opening and a new kind of dread filled my chest. I’d faced murderers but they were regular humans gone over the edge. This was different. Organized crime, I gathered. Organized sociopaths. There was no bargaining with people like that. All I could do was hold my ground. Hold my dog in place. Pin the cat on the hood of the truck, where he’d retreated to watch. And hug the swan a little closer without crushing her. I could feel her heart racing, or perhaps it was my own. Just when I thought she’d break free, she looped her long neck right around mine. It may have looked like a noose to others but it was surprisingly comforting.

  She trusted me to know what to do when I had no idea. I had to figure out how to get us all out unscathed, including my friend who was now running full tilt after the last cygnets. She
feinted left and then right, coming up empty. Panic was getting to her.

  “Jilly, stop,” I called. “They’re coming.”

  “They’ve been coming half my life,” she panted. “I’m not going down without the birds.”

  My legs started to wobble and I worried they’d collapse outright, leaving me to greet our opponents on my butt in the water. At least there were no alligators in this manmade pond.

  Buzzing started in my head. That often preceded a faint but I forced myself to breathe. If I passed out I was no help to anyone. My vision swirled and then cleared. Another set of headlights came into the parking lot. A pickup truck. Had Doug come to join the pool party?

  Between my momentary dizziness and the black car’s high beams I couldn’t make anything out. But I heard doors open and boots hit the gravel. Two people came running toward the pond.

  “Ivy Rose Galloway, get out of the water with that bird,” someone yelled. “You’re a sitting duck, dagnabit.”

  And with that, I did sit down.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Edna Evans bent over and hauled me to my feet. “I didn’t mean literally. What kind of soldier sits down on the job?”

  “The kind who wants to live to fight another day,” I said, trying to get my legs to cooperate. “Help Jilly, please. The people in the black car are after her and her family. It’s like a crime syndicate. A powerful one. Possibly even magical.”

  “Your brother’s got her covered,” she said, getting behind me and literally hoisting me to my feet. “Ivy, you sound addled. Are you stoned?”

  “Stoned! Of course, I’m not stoned. Do you think I’d get stoned before rescuing animals? Or ever?”

  Her chuckle was as reassuring to me as my umbrage probably was to her. “The sedan left lickety-split. It’s a shame I never got a chance to try my new weapons.”

  “Asher let you store weapons in the truck?”

  “What that boy doesn’t know won’t hurt him. I told him I packed a complete set of antique china for Bridie and that killed any desire to peek inside the storage box.” She perp-walked me out of the pond and then eased me down in the grass.

  “Watch the swan,” I said.

  “As if I could miss it,” she said.

  “We need to put it in the dog crate Keats doesn’t know I have.”

  He circled Edna, tail low and swishing, almost abasing himself. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked. “Is he stoned, too?”

  “Just relieved,” I said. “We’re both grateful. And surprised.”

  “Surprised Asher and I made it through a long drive without killing each other? You should be. It’s not for lack of desire, I assure you. He refused to surrender the wheel under order of Chief Hottie McSnobalot, but when Kellan learned you’d taken Jilly into python country, Asher got antsy. I convinced him that I was better rested for the last leg of the journey, and of course my boot is a whole lot heavier than his. Without that, we wouldn’t have made it in time to scare off these so-called crime lords. I don’t know where your swans would be without me.”

  Turning, she shone a powerful flashlight into the pond. Asher was running through the water wearing his Clover Grove police uniform with both arms outstretched. “I’ll get ’em, Jilly,” he called. “Don’t worry.”

  “I know you will,” she said. “Thank you.”

  Edna shook her head. “He drove day and night for this big moment, only to look like a uniformed zombie. I don’t like his chances with Jillian.”

  I laughed, careful not to jar the mother swan, who was still looped like a living noose around my neck. Our difficulties weren’t over, but I could share a light moment with my apocalyptic solider friend. “Asher’s chances are good, Edna,” I said. “Very good. Don’t you dissuade him.”

  “I want the best for Jillian and you know it. If he lands the birds and wins her heart, I’ll dance at their wedding.”

  Asher gently captured the last cygnets in his big hands and delivered them to the ferret cage. Only then did he turn and sweep Jilly into his arms. She clung to him, rubber boots dangling, and after a dramatic swing that sent one boot flying into the water, he carried her to shore. Tears filled my eyes and I reached carefully around the swan to brush them away.

  “Buff your dancing boots, Edna,” I said. “I’m picturing a fall wedding in the orchard.”

  “Will you be wearing your swan cape for the occasion?” she asked. “Because I’ll bring my rabbits out of mothballs.”

  “My neck ornament is very much alive, thank you very much. She’s going to spend the rest of her days in a lovely waterfowl sanctuary. Now we have to go back to the Briars and collect her spouse. I hope he’s as cooperative as she was, but I have my doubts. He’s on edge due to recent events.”

  Edna flicked her light toward the hotel and pinned Janelle in her beam. She was dancing and spinning all the way down the path. When she caught sight of us, however, she stopped and called, “What did I miss?”

  “Your calling as a reality show star?” Edna suggested.

  “A scary moment,” Jilly added, from Asher’s arms. “While you were doing the Macarena, the black car came.”

  Not a black car. The black car. Janelle’s hands dropped to her sides and the wind went out of her sails. “The limbo, actually,” she said. “It takes so much focus. That’s how I missed your call.”

  “I didn’t call,” Jilly said. “It seemed better that way.”

  Janelle came the rest of the way. “You should have. It’s me they wanted.”

  “It’s all good,” I said. “The cavalry arrived in time.”

  She crunched quickly along the path and when her heels hit the pavement, she started clicking toward her old beater. “Change of plans, folks. I need to get back to watch over Gran right now. Doug’s on the prowl. There’s no one at security and a breach in the fence.” Pausing with the door open, she added, “I look forward to chatting later. I assume you’re Asher and Edna.”

  “My reputation precedes me,” Edna said, grinning.

  “The fatigues were a giveaway.” Janelle grinned back before sliding into the car. “My gran is all atwitter about meeting you. You’re a celebrity.”

  Before Edna could answer, the old hatchback roared out of the parking lot.

  “Let’s hurry,” I said, as Edna helped me to my feet. “Jilly, I’m surrendering Hera and the cygnets to you. I’ll go collect her mate.”

  “We’ve got it,” Asher said, still holding Jilly’s hand as she stumped toward me with one bare foot.

  “Edna, would you mind going with them?” I asked.

  “You need me,” she said.

  “I do, so please get to the Briars as soon as you can. But I can’t risk anything going wrong on the way to the sanctuary. Keats will help me with Zeus.”

  Asher shook his head. “I promised the chief I wouldn’t leave you alone for one second.”

  “I’ll call him and chat all the way back, brother. I’m confident Keats and I can handle this alone.”

  The dog muttered a cheeky “so there,” which made Asher laugh. “You’re mouthing off to an officer of the law, dog.”

  “You have no jurisdiction here,” Edna said. “I’ll carry your gun for you.”

  “You’re wrong, Miss Evans,” he said. “The two chiefs had a chat.”

  “Too many chiefs never helped anything,” Edna said, leading the way to his truck. “I’ll drive and you can hold the cygnets while Jilly wears the swan noose.”

  Hera went meekly into Jilly’s arms, looping around my friend’s neck as she had mine. The dog crate wasn’t necessary after all.

  In moments, they were on their way. After changing into my work boots, I followed and made good on my promise to call Kellan. He listened without interruption, and because I knew that cost him something, I hurried through it without color commentary.

  “Do you know anything about these black sedan people?” I asked at the end. “Jilly seemed terrified. Even Janelle was upset, and she rushed back
to guard Bridie.”

  “Nothing,” he said, “and I’ve done plenty of digging into Wyldwood Springs and beyond. However, they do have a stack of cold cases ten times taller than mine. That’s not a town I’d ever want to take on. Their chief sounded, well… overwhelmed would be a good word.”

  “They need a chief like you,” I said. “Especially with a little help from Keats and me.” Before he could answer, I added, “Not that I’ve had much luck with the recent murders at the Briars.”

  “I looked into the people you mentioned,” he said. “There are plenty of bad debts. Vaughan Mills, for starters. Looks like he left Chicago in a hurry. Alba Fletcher disappeared from custody in suspicious circumstances after defrauding her employer. And Elsie Cornwall seems to be in some trouble right now.”

  “Elsie? Really? She’s so sweet.”

  “Maybe, but her husband isn’t. According to a source in Cincinnati, Carlisle got their son to borrow on the equity of the family home and he’s about to lose it. That will leave Elsie’s grandchildren out in the cold. On top of that, Carlisle bilked a couple of women out of money.”

  “Maybe Lottie found out about that,” I said. “And Elsie did more than steal her crystal ball.”

  “Crystal ball?” he said. “Wait, don’t even tell me. Just come home before you get any deeper in this. Some of the Briars residents deserve to be even more detained than they are.”

  “But what about Bridie? You found nothing on her? Or Janelle?”

  “Nothing yet, but Gillock is turning every stone, I promise. He’s diligent and persistent, I’ll give him that.”

  “Okay. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

  “I only gave you one thing to think about, and that’s packing your things. I sent Asher to collect you. Edna insisted on coming—partly to escape your unruly llamas. From what I hear, they’ve been giving her a run for her money.”

  Lottie’s crystal ball may have dished out some truth there. “So, who’s my acting farm manager?”

  “Cori and Gertie are both on site. Your ark is afloat, although I understand there’s a ruckus with the mini horse.”