Head whipping between Deidra and Garrett, lingering longer on Garrett and the gun, Sam choked out, “I don’t understand.”
“Garrett,” I spoke softly, hands out in front of me as I stepped toward him. “Maybe, if you put the gun down, you can talk to us. Tell us what’s going on.”
“I’m going to tell you all right. I’m gonna tell everybody every single shameful secret this woman has.” He sneered at Deidra.
She stiffened and lifted her nose higher in the air. “Don’t listen to him, Samantha.”
“I said be quiet. One more word from your lying mouth and I duct tape it shut.” Garrett waved the gun back at me. “You. You’re going to tie up blondie here. I’d prefer to do it myself, among other things,” he stalked forward and rubbed a finger down Sam’s neck and along the collar of her shirt, “but then you might try to escape.”
Sam shuddered.
“What do you want me to tie her up with?” Anything to get him away from Sam.
Garrett dropped his hand from her and turned to point to a pile of rope across the room. It lay on a long, black rain slicker. Something clicked. My eyes jerked to the back of Garrett’s neck while he was still facing the rope. There it was. An oddly shaped white blob of a birthmark on the back of his neck. Sam had described it to me once after Sunday lunch. That was what struck me as familiar when I saw him running away from the old man. I didn’t put it together that the man in the raincoat was Garrett because I heard him called Wade.
“Okay. I’m getting the rope.” I kept my hands up and moved slowly across the room, one small step at a time, hoping to put him at ease. A twitchy trigger finger we did not need. At least this time it isn’t my fault we’re in the middle of a crazy mess. Not much consolation but still, the thought spurred me on to find a way out, if only to point that out to Sam later. For now, I’d keep it to myself; I doubted she would currently be amused.
“Hurry up.” Garrett scowled, yanking the top two buttons of his collar undone. Sweat beaded on his forehead. I began to think he might be as nervous as we were. There might be hope for us yet.
I edged between Garrett and Sam. Grabbing her hand, I led her away from him.
“What are you doing?” More a roar than a yell, Sam flinched and shut her eyes tight as Garrett came up behind us.
Turning, I talked to him like I would one of Grandpa Rex’s grandboys. “It’s okay, Garrett. I’m taking her to the end of the table to tie her up by Deidra, exactly like you asked me to. That way, you can watch them both easier.” Garrett’s face clouded and I could practically see the squeaky wheels grinding in there, trying to process that information. Spinning, I pulled Sam further away while he remained preoccupied.
I grabbed a chair, dragging it a little bit closer to Deidra. Making a big show of sitting Sam up straight in it, I leaned close to her ear and whispered. “He’s Wade. From the church dead guy.”
She raised her eyebrows but stayed otherwise impassive.
“Get on with it.”
Gathering the rope, I wound it around Sam, weaving it in and out of the carved wooden design on the chair back.
“You better make it tight.” Garrett narrowed his gaze at me.
At least the gun was finally lowered to his side, no longer waving around the room.
“You bet.” I tugged on Sam’s hands, pulling them all the way to one side of her chair and kicking Deidra’s foot under the table. She glared at me. I bumped her again, this time gaining her attention lower. Sam’s hands were within reach.
One sharp nod. The only acknowledgement Deidra gave. I hoped she understood.
As expected, Garrett marched down the table the moment I stepped away from Sam and checked the knot. It was as tight as a fishing line hung on a log.
Garrett grunted, jerking me by the elbow and, as I allowed him to lead me to the other side of the table, I almost smiled. He hadn’t noticed that Deidra could now reach Sam’s hands with her own. With a little luck, plus some discreet wiggling, one or both of them would be free soon.
Since I had used the last of the rope on Sam, Garrett held on to me while he tried to decide what to do next.
“Are you going to tell us all the secrets now?” Sam’s voice cracked through the silence like a whip.
Garrett scowled. “Impatient, aren’t you.”
“Kind of bored, actually.” Sam exaggerated a yawn. “I’m not a big fan of being tied up and held against my will. I have better things to do.”
While Sam was buying time, I scanned the room through lowered lashes. Other than getting my hands on a chair, there wasn’t much hope of securing a weapon. The only things Deidra had in the dining room were expensive, delicate little teacups in a magnificent display case, so large I doubted I could even push it over if given the chance, and a silver spoon collection in a shadowbox on the wall that I would have to stand on tiptoe to reach.
A sharp tug on my elbow interrupted my scheming. “Sit down.” Garrett shoved me roughly into a dining chair. Turning, he glowered at Sam. “You have better things to do? That sounds familiar.” Hatred filled his eyes as his gaze moved over Deidra. “She always had better things to do, too.”
“What do you mean?” Sam tilted her head.
“She got pregnant before she got married. But she had better things to do than raise a kid. Better life to live than be the wife of some broke cashier.”
Deidra’s mouth tightened in a thin line. She didn’t blink, didn’t speak, staring at Garrett with contempt.
“Is it true?” Sam looked at her mother.
“You bet its true.” Garrett snapped. His fingernails digging into my shoulder now.
Deidra remained silent. No denial. No laughter, no protest; only a stony face and rigid posture.
“And you think you’re her son?” I looked up at Garrett, drawing his attention back to me with the question, giving Sam and Deidra more time to work the ropes.
Garrett squeezed my shoulder tighter. The gun pointing at my chest as he waved it admonishingly. “I don’t think; I know. I have proof. Now, shut up. Nobody is talking to you.”
Yep. Must be Deidra’s blood; he inherited her unfathomable annoyance with me and he doesn’t even know me.
“Can you show me?” Sam lowered her lashes, turning her mouth down at the corners in a tiny pout. “Can you show me your proof that our mother abandoned you?”
“You wanna see?” Garrett dropped the gun back to his side. He let go of my shoulder, taking small steps toward Sam. She was playing him and the maniac couldn’t even see it, so hungry for sympathy and belonging.
“Please.” Sam nodded. Eyelashes batting. She deserved an Emmy.
Placing my hands flat on the table, I eased up out of the chair. Just a few inches. Slow movements. Move. Pause. Move. Pause. My pulse raced in my ears. The door was only six or eight feet behind me. If I could make it back to my phone…. My heel bumped the chair leg and the scraping sound it made dragging across the floor made us all jump.
Garrett spun back around.
I tried to run, knocking over the chair. Garrett kicked it at me. It slammed into the back of my ankles and I stumbled, falling to one knee and my hands.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The gun swung uncomfortable close again as Garrett righted the chair.
“Bathroom?”
“Sit down.”
“Sorry, I used all the rope.” I shrugged. “Now there isn’t anything for you to tie me up with.” Sam made exasperated faces at me behind Garrett’s back; no doubt she thought I was an idiot for choosing sarcasm to point out the obvious flaws in Garrett’s plan right now.
“I’ll still tie you up. Hold still.” Garrett began fumbling with his belt.
Chewing on my bottom lip, forcing myself to sit still and act defeated, I waited for any chance, any opening to take advantage of his divided attention.
Garrett cursed as the buckle stuck. Frustrated, his one-handed attempts useless, Garrett put the gun down on the table and focused entirely on his
belt.
This might be the last shot we had. Praying it worked, and hoping that either Sam or Deidra had gotten their ropes loose, I sprung up from my chair. With all the force I could manage, I rammed my elbow into Garrett’s side, grabbing for the gun.
Garrett shoved me from behind, arm reaching around me. We grappled for the gun. I couldn’t get a good grip. Not willing to risk Garrett getting it, I used the back of my hand to slide the gun away from us both.
Pain erupted along my jaw as Garrett grabbed a fistful of hair and shoved my head into the table. I slid to the ground. Garrett raised a booted foot above me and I curled inward, wrapping my arms around my head, bracing for the blow.
“Garrett, stop!”
The pain didn’t come. I risked a peek out one eye. Garrett wasn’t looking at me anymore. From below the table, I could see Sam’s legs. She was standing. Her ropes lay coiled on the floor. Praise God! I scrambled to my feet, grimacing against my aching jaw. Warm liquid ran down my chin. Wiping my hand across my mouth, I found my lower lip bleeding.
“Piper, tie him up.” Sam had the gun trained on Garrett.
Deidra stood, her ropes also removed, and tried to walk past me as I made my way around the table.
“Mother, where are you going?”
Deidra rubbed her wrists. “To get dressed, of course. We have a dinner to get to. You did bring the clothes, right?” She studied her hands again. “I’ll have to change jewelry to cover these hideous marks.”
“Mother!” Sam’s voice startled me. She kept her eyes on Garrett, sparing a cutting glance for Deidra. “You aren’t leaving yet. We are going to get to the bottom of this.”
“I will not waste any more time in this room with this lunatic.”
Garrett growled. “I should have shot you. I should have killed you just like you killed my father.”
Deidra pushed past me.
“Do not leave this room, Mother.”
“Or what? You aren’t going to shoot me, dear.” She fluffed her hair and took another step.
I raised my eyes at Sam. She gave me a nod of permission. Grabbing Deidra by the wrist, I held her in place. “Sam said stay. Not to mention, the police will surely be here soon. I have a feeling they would also prefer we are all still here not galivanting off to sip martini’s and stuff yourself with shrimp.”
Deidra’s eyes flashed. “How dare you!”
I didn’t see the slap coming. My already hurt jaw was set on fire when Deidra slapped the same side of my face. Thinking didn’t come into play. I reacted. And I punched her in the stomach.
CHAPTER 22
“Oomph.” She doubled over and I pulled her back into a chair.
“Well, hell.”
My head snapped up as a new voice exclaimed in the room. Landon! Landon stood in the doorway, just behind one of the best sights of my life: a uniformed police officer with his gun trained on Garrett.
“Ma’am,” the officer sent Sam a hard look. “You need to put the weapon down.”
Sam shakily sat the gun down and leaned forward, palms on the table, breathing deeply.
My sense of relief turned into dread as I looked around. Had Griff seen me punch his mother?
Landon must have seen the look of guilt. “Griff is outside helping get that security guard guy into the golf cart.”
I sighed. Thank goodness.
“Jerry.” Sam supplied the name as she straightened. “The guard is Jerry. So, he’s okay?”
Landon shrugged.
“I want these people arrested.” Deidra pointed to Garrett and me. “Both of them. He broke into my house and she assaulted me.”
The cop radioed outside for assistance. Cuffing Garrett, he looked at me. “Is this true?”
Sam spoke before I could explain. “Piper merely detained my mother as she tried to flee before giving a statement.”
“Tell you what. We are all going downtown and everyone will give a statement.” He tugged at his collar, clearly uncomfortable with the look of outrage Deidra shot his way. “This one is above my paygrade to sort out.”
Griff appeared in the doorway and hurried inside. “What in the world?” He gave each of us an incredulous stare.
“It is a long, long story.” I sagged, feeling energy drain out of me.
Sam nodded. “And I don’t think we’ve heard the whole thing yet.”
~
At the station, it didn’t take long to sort out Deidra’s accusations and see to it that she stopped trying to press charges. Sam confirmed my story that Deidra actually slapped me first. Given that dried blood covered part of my face and multiple colors of bruising had started, the police were inclined to agree that we were both at fault. I didn’t correct their assumption that Deidra’s slap had done most of the damage; it had definitely added to the array of colors dotting my face.
Mayor Lowe, called in from a late game of golf, showed up blustering about the nerve of the police department to detain his wife. They ignored him, insisting Deidra and Mayor Lowe stay to sort out the accusations of Garrett.
At Griff’s request, they allowed us to listen to the interview.
“I didn’t know these things were real.” Sam ran her fingers around the glass, window on our side, mirror on the other.
I wrinkled my nose. “It smells like sweat and fish in here.”
“Shh. They’re starting.”
I joined Sam to stand at the window. Griff chose a chair, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“Please state your name, for the record.”
“Wade Dunkin.”
“Well, now we know Garrett’s actual name.” That confirmed my thoughts that he was the man who ran away from the older man’s body at the church.
“Yeah. Now it’s time to find out who he is.” Sam shivered.
Placing a hand on her back, I nodded. “Whoever he is, we’ll deal with it.” I knew the accusations against her mother, supposedly his mother, hit her hard. Griff, I glanced back at him, well, Griff kept his thoughts hidden right now.
The crackling voice through the intercom snared my attention.
“You were heard accusing Deidra Lowe of killing your father. Your father,” the detective consulted a notepad, “James Dunkin passed away this week of a heart attack. His body was found at the Sandy Shores Evangelical Church. No evidence of foul play turned up. You were the last person seen by the body.”
“She killed him.” Wade banged his fists on the table. I had trouble thinking of him as Wade and not as Garrett. “He may have had a heart attack but she may as well have shot him. My dad’s heart broke when that witch tried to give me up for adoption without even consulting him. His heart broke when she made him buy me from her, threatening him if he even thought about taking her to court and creating a scandal. Said if she couldn’t give me up for adoption that he had to pay to adopt me himself or she would sell me to someone else.”
Sam’s jaw clenched. I kept rubbing small circles between her shoulder blades. For her sake, I really hoped this Wade guy was delusional. Somewhere, deep in my gut, I feared everything he said about Deidra would turn out to be true.
“Mr. Dunkin, you weren’t even born at the time. How is it that you came to this knowledge? Do you have proof?”
“I’ve got proof. My freshman year of school, I went looking for some money or some beer. Figured Dad probably kept it stashed in his room since there wasn’t any in the fridge; he always smelt like beer, my old man. I knew there had to be some around. Instead, I found a box of photos and papers in my dad’s closet.” Wade stared into the corner of the room. His eyes grew distant. “The lid barely fit on the box. Stuff stuck out all the sides. I bumped it looking for some cash. Everything spilled in the floor and I thought ‘oh shit, I better clean this up.’ But the pictures were of my dad and this girl. Everywhere, the park, the ocean, in bed. She looked wild and they both seemed crazy happy.”
“Did you ask your dad about the box?” The detective looked up from taking notes.
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“Yeah. I thought she must be my mom because there were pictures of her pregnant. Then I found the picture from the adoption agency and I got confused. I took it all out that night, spread it across the dining table and demanded he tell me about her.”
Wade shook his head. “I thought he’d be angry. I was angry. Ready to fight. But he wasn’t. He got scared, so, so scared, man.” Tears welled at the corners of Wade’s eyes. “He told me that nobody could find out. That he’d promised her. Turns out, the pretty lady in the photos decided she could do better than dear old dad when she caught the eye of a well-to-do politician. She erased all traces of her old life. Couldn’t have the scandal, she told dad, couldn’t let anything threaten the career of the man who would one day sit in the White House.”
Sam balked. Her mother had abandoned a man and child for a greedy dream of power.
“Dad told me to let it go.” Wade continued, getting angrier. His face turned red. “He started drinking even more. I started getting into trouble. Finally, I left and decided to find her. I couldn’t get close as Wade Dunkin. I knew that. So, I became Garrett Hopsinger. A few fake stories about success. Shiny gold watches and a nice car, stolen or rented, and it worked like a charm. All Deidra Lowe saw were dollar signs, same as before.” A harsh laugh burst from Wade’s throat. “She played right into my hand, trying to foist her barbie-doll daughter off on me. I would have ruined her, too, caused a great incest scandal just to see Deidra’s face when she found out who I was. Little sister wasn’t interested in money like Mommy-Dearest; lucky for her, I guess. She wasn’t interested but I could still let the whole world see what kind of scum the perfect mayor’s wife really was.”
“So, you leaked stories and photos to the paper and media?”
“That’s right. There’s more than enough proof of what kind of person Deidra is. I just dug it up and let people see it.”
“Why go to her home? Why break in, tie her up? Why not release the story about your birth and let it run its course?”
“It wasn’t enough. I heard the paper might not print any more stuff with her threatening to sue. She had to know money didn’t make her better; it didn’t make her untouchable.”
Ooey Gooey Bakery Mystery Box Set Page 59