Sleeping Dogs Lie

by Jennifer Mearns

  First, I dialed Grant's cell phone. As soon as he answered, I cried, "Grant! It's Hannah. I just found out that Heather's ex-girlfriend is Leslie. The Leslie that is staying here! Leslie Parks. Her real name is Leah Stewart."

  "Hannah, slow down! What are you saying?"

  "I think Leslie or Leah killed Heather!"

  "Leslie was Heather's ex?"

  "Yes! And she's here! She's staying at the B&B like some sociopath."

  "Ok, don't do anything. I'll be there in five minutes."

  Oh my God. What was I going to do? I had to warn Jill. I texted her that I needed to see her immediately. I ran downstairs to wait for Jill to come out of the apartment, but she never came out.

  I went to the door of the apartment and found it locked. No one was in the B&B's kitchen. No one was around at all. I took out my key to use in the door and as I stuck it in the lock, it twisted and the door opened.

  "Hey, Hailey." Leslie said, holding a gun and Jill's cell phone. I looked past her to Jill, unconscious on the couch.

  "You know my name is Hannah," I said. "What did you do to Jill?"

  Leslie gestured for me to enter the apartment. I didn't want to, but I also didn't want to leave Jill alone with this psychopath. Or sociopath. Whichever. I walked warily past her to Jill. I checked Jill's pulse and breathing.

  "She's fine. Just sleepy. Wine and 20 milligrams of oxy will do that to you."

  "You drugged her!?"

  "Duh. How else would I get her out of the way while I dealt with you?"

  "What do you mean dealt with me?" I eyed her gun. Surely, she wasn't going to kill me? Wait. She was. She was totally going to kill me! I hoped Grant got here in time.

  "Before I tell you anything, I need you to write a note. Here." She handed me paper and a pen. "Write, 'Going hiking. Back soon.' and sign your name."

  "I'm not going anywhere with you."

  "If you want Jill to live, you will. You're dead anyway." She pointed the gun at me again.

  I picked up the pen and wrote the note. She gestured for me to follow her.

  "Nothing funny," she said as we headed out to her car. She held the gun at her side, finger on the trigger. "You drive." She handed me the keys. I looked around for Grant's car, but didn't spot it.

  "Where are we going?" I asked as I climbed into the driver's seat.

  "You're going hiking. And you just might happen to have a little accident." She gave me directions to a park. I knew there were a lot of lightly used trails here. Any one of those trails probably led to a cliff somewhere along the way.

  I saw Grant going in the opposite direction, toward the B&B. I was too scared to signal him with Leslie/Leah holding her gun on me. I could only pray that he saw me.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked her, driving with a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel.

  “Well. Certain things haven’t worked out in my life. Now, I have a chance to make things better for myself. Jill and I will run the B&B together and maybe my life will turn out ok after all.”

  “You know Jill isn’t gay, right?”

  “You don’t know that. Her marriage didn’t work out; that’s a big indicator.”

  “Her marriage failed because her husband cheated on her, not because she figured out she’s gay.”

  “So you say. Park there.” We’d arrived, apparently. “Now, get out of the car and start walking.” She held the gun at her side again. I got out and walked toward the trail she indicated.

  We walked for about thirty minutes. The trail led up, higher and higher. I was out of breath and so was Leslie/Leah. Apparently, she didn’t think too far ahead on this. Finally, we reached a clearing. I looked out and could see the valley below. Way below. There was a sharp drop of several hundred feet.

  Leslie/Leah bent over at the waist, hands on her knees, gun still in her right one. “Ok. Hang on.” She took several deep breaths. “Alright. Now jump.” She straightened and pointed the gun at me.

  “I don’t think so, Leslie. Leah. Whatever your name is.” I stood my ground and eyed the gun.

  “I will shoot you. I don’t want to because it might complicate things. But I will do it.”

  “I don’t think you will.”

  Leslie’s finger squeezed the trigger but all that issued was a click. The safety was still engaged. I kicked my right leg up and got Leslie right in the gun hand. The gun flew off into the trees. Leslie growled and lunged at me. We went down, rolling in the rocky soil. I yanked Leslie’s ear after realizing that her hair was too short to rip out from its roots. She socked me in the jaw and I let go of her ear. We rolled and I was on top of her and got a knee into her crotch, which admittedly didn’t hurt as much as if she’d been a man. But if you’ve ever ridden a boy’s bike when you were little and fallen on that bar, you know that it doesn’t tickle.

  We rolled again, closer to the edge. I managed to get my feet under Leslie’s stomach and pushed with all my might. With a scream she detached from me and tumbled over the edge. I jumped up and looked down at where she’d fallen. She was still. I didn’t know if she was dead or alive, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out.

  I ran back down the trail at top speed. I made it back down to the parking lot in half the time it took us to go up. As I cleared the trees, I ran smack into a solid person.

  “Hannah!”

  “Grant!”

  He grabbed me by the arms and held me up, searching my face. “Are you alright? Did she hurt you?”

  “I’m fine! I’m…I think I’m fine. But Leslie isn’t. She fell over a cliff. Well, I might have kicked her off of me and then she fell. But she was going to kill me, I swear it. And Jill! We have to get back to see if Jill is ok! Leslie drugged her!”

  “Hannah, calm down. Jill is fine. When I got to the B&B, I found her. I called the ambulance and your mom and her mom waited with her. Once I realized Leslie’s car was gone and that I’d passed you, I raced back this way, hoping I’d find you.”

  “I’m glad you did.” I looked over at Leslie’s Subaru. “Can you give me a ride back?”

  “Of course. I just need to call this in. We’re going to need a mountain rescue team to get Leslie. Why don’t you go sit in the car?”

  I went and sat in Grant’s car and waited until the sheriff and Mountain Rescue arrived. Grant spoke with Mac and Mac looked over at me and nodded. Grant came in my direction.

  “I’m going to take you back to the B&B. I called your mom and they didn’t take Jill to the hospital. They just gave her some fluids and she’s resting.”

  I sighed with relief. “Ok,” I said. “Ok, good.” I laid my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. My jaw was sore where Leslie had punched me. I’d have to put some ice on it when we got back.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Later that night, Jill and I sat in the sitting room of the apartment drinking tea and nibbling on cookies her mom had made. It was late and we’d just managed to get our moms to go to bed and give us some time to talk.

  “I’m sorry I got so crazy about Leslie. I had no idea she was such a psycho.” Jill looked miserably into her tea mug.

  “It’s ok. No one did.”

  “You and my mom did though. You both knew something was off about her.”

  “Well. My issues might have stemmed a little from jealousy. I had never known you to get so close to someone so fast. I guess I thought she was going to replace me. In every way.”

  “You’re crazy. You’re my cousin. We’re family. You could never be replaced, Hannah Banana,” she said, using my childhood nickname.

  I smiled. “Plus, I’m about to become a partner in running Lavender Hills.”

  “Seriously? You’re sure?”

  “Of course I’m not sure. But I’m going to do it anyway.”

  “So, you thought poor Alexander was the killer?”

  “Yeah. Turns out, his girlfriend’s name was Lacey and she really was in Virginia with her parents.”

  “Good thing you d
idn’t accuse him!”

  The next night, we all gathered in the dining room of the B&B for a family dinner. Mom and Tracey made pot roast and served champagne in dinner glasses because, “We have something to celebrate.”

  Ted said the blessing. “Dear God, thank you for today and thank you that my sister and cousin didn’t get murdered. Again. Amen.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Pass the potatoes.” Jill handed over the spuds and I scooped some out onto my plate. “So, Grant said that Leslie is going to make it.”

  “Dang. Well, at least that psycho will spend the rest of her life in jail.” Jill was unremorseful about what went down the day before. At least when it came to Leslie.

  “Jill, you had a stalker!” Mandy exclaimed. “Does that mean you’re hot, even if your stalker was the same sex as you?”

  “Obviously,” Jill said.

  “I can’t believe you guys are being so cavalier about this. Hannah was almost killed! And so was Jill!” Tracey took a gulp of her champagne and winced at the flavor. My family never have been big drinkers.

  “If I could get to that little psycho, I’d wring her neck,” Mom said. “But there are police all over the hospital.”

  “Easy Theresa,” Dad said, forking up some roast. “Your Irish is showing.”

  “I’ll show you Irish.”

  “I wish you would,” Dad said, smirking.

  “Ew,” I said.

  “I want to propose a toast,” Greg said, holding up his champagne dinner glass. “To a solid partnership, financial success and a boon to tourism in Pine Forest.”

  “Hear, hear!” We all raised our glasses and sipped. Ted let out an, “Ahh!” after he gulped some champagne.

  “Theodore Silas, how did you end up with a glass of alcohol?”

  “Tracey poured it.”

  “Sorry, sorry. I wasn’t thinking,” Tracey said and grabbed his glass, pouring it into her own.

  “Woah, Nellie!” Greg said.

  “Well, I for one am glad that Hannah finally made a decision. The right one!” Jill said.

  “I’m nervous and excited. But mostly excited.”

  “You know, I heard Millie Simms is looking for a part-time job since she retired from the school cafeteria. Maybe she’d be willing to help you two out some. I know it’s getting ready to be the off-season, but next summer will be here before you know it.”

  “That’s a thought,” I said, looking at Jill. I abhorred cleaning.

  “Sure, partner. We can ask her. Although, there really isn’t much of an off season.” Jill looked at me slyly. “Did I hear that Grant was coming over later?”

  “No! Well, yes, but we’re just friends!”

  “Hannah and Grant, sitting in a tree k-i-s-i-n—wait. K-i-s-s-i-n-g!” Ted finished.

  “Shut it, Teddy Bear.”

  Life was always interesting in my family. I had a feeling it was about to get even more so.