A Killer Tail

by Addison Moore

“And I’ve got another scoop on her for you.” His steely eyes meet with mine. “That’s exactly why I swung by.”

  “You mean you didn’t show up because your hormones were having a Mack attack?” I tease.

  “All right.” He winces. “So I had a dual purpose.” He pulls me to the side, out of range of the crowd clamoring for lemon tarts. “I’ve got info on Brooklynn Knight. For the record, she is pretty hot.” He gives a sly wink.

  “Nice to know Mackenzie hasn’t changed your womanizing spots. What have you got?”

  He nods. “Since she’s been disbarred—outside of working at some club in Seaview—she’s what’s known as a legal ghost. In layman’s terms, a legal consultant for the underworld, mobs, drug runners, you name it.”

  “Oh wow, that’s interesting. Why did she get disbarred?”

  “She was convincing clients they were being sued for sexual defamation. Career killing stuff if it got out. Of course, it wasn’t true. She was convincing them to settle the false claims for large sums and pocketing the money. The long and short of it? It was extortion. She was caught. She’s a convicted felon. She’ll never work in the legal field again, not in any upright way. I doubt they’ll let her run a coffee shop. It’s a tough world out there after a conviction. She’s lucky she has a gig or two lined up. Being disbarred is tantamount to the death penalty to an attorney.”

  I glance her way and catch Georgie and Juni chatting her up.

  “She seemed pretty desperate,” I say. “I wonder what caused that to happen?”

  “She needed money, and fast. Whatever was happening, she was unrelenting in getting her way. Desperate times lead people to do desperate things.” He sniffs in the direction Mackenzie took off in. “I’d better find Mack. She looks too good tonight to let out of my sight.” When I dared her to wear that catsuit out in public, I didn’t think she’d take me up on it. But she did say she’d do anything for me.

  Hux takes off just as Dax and Stormy pass by and I wave them over. Dax has on a muscle shirt showing off his biceps. Back in the day, Hux used to call those shirts a trip to the gun show. And Stormy has on a rainbow tie-dyed shirt that I’m sure will be the envy of Georgie and Juni once they spot her in the wild.

  “Hey-ho!” Dax waves to both Macy and me. He nods to my sister. “How’s the healing coming along?”

  Macy scoots in my way. “All healed and ready to be revealed. In fact, I bought a brand new swimsuit that shows off my wild side nicely. And come tomorrow afternoon, you can see your artwork on display at the cove.”

  Dax belts out a soft laugh. “Sounds good. I’m glad you like it. Make sure to keep it in the shade. No burns for your bottom.”

  Stormy nods. “Let’s just say I didn’t follow the doctor’s advice and found myself self-medicating with tequila for the rest of the night.”

  Macy waves her off. “I’m one step ahead of you. I already plan on having a steady supply of mimosas by my side all afternoon.” She points to Dax. “You might just see my backside one more time before the summer is through. My left cheek is getting jealous of all the attention.” She bops back to her table. “I’d better drum up some business. The rent ain’t going to pay itself!”

  I guess it’s true what they say. The pain from childbirth is quickly forgotten once you cradle your baby in your arms, or in my sister’s case, bottom.

  Dax shakes his head her way. “I get it. If it wasn’t for Stormy, the landlord would have shut down my shop.”

  “Oh?” My investigative antenna goes up. “The Needlepoint?”

  “Yup.” He snaps up a lemon tart. “We had a rough winter, and I’ve been playing catch-up as best as I could. But there was a pay or quit notice stapled to my door one morning. My landlord is a tough cookie when she wants to be. I almost lost it all.”

  Gatsby perks up and lands his paw to my leg. I just remembered something! Stormy asked Wyatt for a loan one day and he refused to do it without a kiss. That’s when Molly stepped in. It was ugly.

  My lips part at the revelation.

  I force a smile to twitch on my lips as I look to Dax.

  “So Stormy saved the day?” I look to the girl with the stringy hair. A bright blue feather dangles from her greasy locks as if a bird flew in and couldn’t find its way out.

  Stormy giggles at the thought. “Don’t women always save the day, Bizzy?”

  I nod. “That they do.” And I hope Jasper sees it that way when I hand-feed him this information. “So how did you do it, Stormy? Are you officially a part owner in the shop?”

  “Yes, I guess I am a part owner.” She laughs. “Let’s just say I gave him a rather creative loan and saved the Needlepoint from its impending doom.” Stormy bats her lashes up at her beau while he stuffs his face full of lemon tarts.

  “A loan?” I’m almost amused by how they’re classifying the theft. “Did Wyatt give it to you? Molly mentioned he was generous to a fault the night I met him.”

  Stormy and Dax exchange a quiet glance.

  “No.” Stormy is quick to put that rumor to rest. “I was able to pick this up all on my own.” And now that Wyatt is coincidentally dead, I won’t have to worry about slowly paying it back. Not that I probably would have, but it was a nice thought while it lasted.

  This is my moment. I can feel it. It’s now or never with these two.

  I lean toward Stormy. “Any idea on who took that book from the glass case?”

  She gives a sideways glance to the crowd swarming around those bargain boxes.

  “I don’t know who did it. But I bet the answer is closer than you think.” I’m just sick I didn’t think of it first. I can’t believe there was another criminal mastermind at work the very same night.

  “You think either Thomas or Brooklynn took it?”

  Stormy shrugs. “Thomas was always drooling over it. Wyatt, of course, wouldn’t even let him touch it. I’ve never seen anyone so beaten down the way Thomas was.”

  I clear my throat. “I guess it had to do with that secret society they were a part of.”

  Stormy nods. “You heard? Thomas mentioned once that Wyatt was the leader back then, just like he is today.”

  I bear hard into her glossy green eyes. “Did Thomas or Wyatt ever mention anything at all from that time in their lives?”

  She squints up at the dark sky. “He said something about letting a night of impulsive partying get away from them once. I guess everyone’s got their skeletons, though. They argued about the past every now and again. Some people can’t let bygones be bygones.” She blinks up at Dax. “Whatever it was, I guess Thomas won’t be worrying about it anymore.” She glides her arm around his waist.

  Dax nods toward the crowd behind them. “We’d better get my business cards circulating. The shop needs people.” And without a bookstore to clean out, we need to start earning our keep the old-fashioned way—also known as the hard way.

  They take off into the thicket of bodies, and I’m about to retrieve my phone from my pocket to let Jasper in on the fact we have an all but formal confession to the thievery that hit Killer Books the night of Wyatt’s murder, but I pause midflight when I see Molly Shay headed for my sister’s wares.

  “Molly!” I give a friendly wave and point to the lemon tarts in an attempt to lure her over.

  Gatsby moans and tucks himself under my table for safekeeping.

  That woman never goes away, does she? I bet she’s satisfied now that no one else will ever have Wyatt. She wanted it that way. She never made a secret about it.

  A mean shiver rides through me at the thought. If Molly is the one that killed Wyatt, she certainly arranged for no one else to have him.

  “Bizzy.” She hitches a loose lock of dark hair behind her ear as she picks up a lemon tart. “Mmm, these are the best.” She takes a bite and moans hard. “I have a confession to make. That night at the murder mystery party? I had abandoned my character and snuck off to inhale as many of these beauties as I could.” She polishes off the rest. “I guess that�
�s an odd thought to have. I was literally eating these while my boyfriend was being brutally stabbed to death. You’d think I’d have an aversion to these lemony treats.” She shakes her head as she looks to the sky. “And oddly I don’t.”

  “So you were at the refreshment table around the time Wyatt staggered back into the room?”

  She nods, scooping up a handful of bite-size lemon tarts. “I saw him heading over. I remember thinking, wow, he really overdid the blood. And my next thought was, there was never any blood before when we’d done those types of parties. I just thought Wyatt was stepping up his game because he invited the entire town to the anniversary celebration. But then when his face went white, I knew. There are some things you simply can’t fake.”

  “No, I guess you can’t.” I glance to Thomas and Brooklynn as they lean in and whisper to one another. “Molly, did you know that the first print run Agatha Christie that Wyatt kept in a glass case upstairs was missing?”

  Her eyes widen a moment before she turns to look directly at Thomas.

  He finally did it. I didn’t think he’d have the cookies to pull it off.

  “Molly, you think Thomas took the book?” I ask. It would confirm what Stormy suggested the first time we spoke about it.

  Her lips swim with an ambivalent smile. “It’s almost as if you just read my mind.” Her eyes narrow over mine. “You know, I might be a fake psychic, but I wasn’t kidding the day I read your palm. You have some strange lines running across them, and according to all the books I’ve read, you might be the real deal.” She leans in. “You don’t have any psychic abilities, do you?”

  “Let’s see”— I bite down on my lower lip to keep from grinning like a loon—“I do have the eerie ability to wake up exactly five minutes before my alarm goes off.”

  Her chest bounces with a laugh. “That’s not quite what I meant.” She looks toward Killer Books. “Can you believe it? The greed never ends. No sooner did Brooklynn plunk down a bunch of cash to help Wyatt open the bookstore than she wanted to take over. It’s like she wanted to control Wyatt.”

  “That’s interesting,” I say. “But wasn’t the bookstore partially owned by some investment group?”

  She nods. “And she’s the group. That was just a front to keep it out of her name. I think she likes to run dicey with the law.”

  “Brooklynn is the Weatherston Collective?” Huh. So she lied.

  Molly takes a breath. “I asked her once about why she would want to invest in a bookstore. I mean, it’s not like she was a wealthy woman. She said herself she couldn’t quite afford it. But she said she was doing it for her fiancé.”

  “Her fiancé?” I blink back, surprised at the answer. “That’s very kind of her.”

  “Yeah, I guess he passed away and she wanted to give him a tribute of some kind. He must have liked books.” She chuckles, looking their way. “And it looks as if she got her wish. About six months ago, she was asking for hot tips on how to land a man, and now look at her? Holding Thomas’ hand, right out in the open.”

  I look that way, and she’s doing just that.

  Gatsby lets out a snapping bark. I don’t buy it, Bizzy. That woman has a dark heart. There are some things that a dog just knows, and that’s one of them.

  A dark heart.

  Molly staggers over to Macy’s table and begins to pick up the candles she has on display and sniffs them.

  Stormy said that Wyatt was controlling Thomas. That Wyatt was lording something over him. Channing Neville comes to mind.

  Gatsby doesn’t trust Brooklynn.

  Molly suggested that Brooklynn bought an interest in the bookstore when she couldn’t quite afford it—and that she did it for her fiancé.

  Her fiancé…

  I pull out my phone and do another search on Channing Neville and quickly dive into an article that promises to tell me exactly what I’m looking for. Family and friends mourn top scholar. Originally from Weatherston. Fiancée deeply grieved. Vows revenge.

  Oh my God.

  I glance up at Thomas and Brooklynn.

  It all makes sense now.

  I think I know who the killer is.

  And I think I know who may be next, as well.

  Chapter 17

  Gatsby comes along with me as I abandon my post at the Country Cottage Café table for a moment.

  What is it, Bizzy? Why are we headed toward Killer Books? That look on your face… You know something, don’t you?

  I shake my head. “I’m not sure what I know,” I say it lower than a whisper as I weave my way through the crowd.

  Georgie and Juni are rummaging through one of the bins on the end, but there’s no sign of either Thomas or Brooklynn.

  “Hey, ladies,” I say, breathless, as if the walk over exasperated me. But it wasn’t that twenty-foot crawl. It’s the fact I think I’m onto something—something murderous.

  Georgie looks up. “They’re running a buy-one-get-one-free special. I’m doing my best to stock up on mysteries for the next year.”

  Juni hands her mother a few more. “And I’m collecting funds for the bookstore while they’re in the back getting more books.”

  “The back?” I glance to a split between the buildings that leads to an alley.

  I’m familiar with it. Macy’s store has one, too.

  Gatsby barks. Follow me, Bizzy.

  And I do. Gatsby leads us down the narrow path just as Thomas comes our way with a couple of heavy-looking boxes in his arms.

  “Hey, Gatsby.” He laughs at the sight of him. “Hello, Bizzy. Just getting the rest of the inventory to the front.”

  “Helping out a friend?” I ask.

  “That I am.”

  “I saw you with Brooklynn. That’s very nice of you.”

  “She’s great.” He squeezes by me and I do my best to adhere myself to the wall. “In fact, in a few hours I hope to show her just how great I think she is. She actually asked me out on a date. I’ve been waiting months for this.”

  He takes off and an icy chill runs through me.

  Why would Brooklynn want to date someone who might have had something to do with her fiancé’s disappearance?

  And then it hits me. Something tells me that Thomas may not make it home from that date alive.

  “Come on, Gatsby,” I say as the red-haired pooch continues to lead me to the back of the building. We spot an open moving truck halfway filled with boxes, and I see Brooklynn making her way out of it.

  “Bizzy,” she says as she walks down the metal ramp. “Who knew this day was going to be so crazy? Can you believe all the people?” She jumps down next to me, wiping her brow with her arm. “I’m just glad I can offload the rest of these books. I’ll reduce them all down to a dollar before the night is through.” She glances behind me. “Are you trying to get into the back of your sister’s shop?”

  “No, actually, Gatsby took off running and we ended up here.” I shrug his way as a form of a meager apology for using him as a scapegoat.

  Don’t worry, Bizzy. The cute pup pants. I want to get to the bottom of this as much as you do.

  And that I believe.

  “Hmm.” Brooklynn shrugs over at him. “He seems content now. Hopefully he won’t take off on you again.”

  “I don’t think he will.” I inspect her features a moment. She seems weary, bone-tired. The crow’s feet around her eyes, the puckering around her mouth—it looks as if you can see years of bitterness etched onto her face. “Brooklynn? I hope you don’t mind if I ask you something.”

  “No, not at all. In fact, I’ll take any excuse not to get back out there. That crowd can be brutal.”

  I think on how to approach this for a moment.

  “Thomas mentioned you held an interest in the bookstore.” I leave out the part where she had already told me as much. I want to see how good she is at keeping her lies straight.

  She makes a face. “That I do.”

  “I thought you told me you sold your share over a year ago?”


  Her expression darkens. “Yes, well, I guess this place never left my heart.” How do you like that? Falling over my own lies. Ah, who the heck cares. “I still own a little piece of it. And I’m telling you this is the moment that makes me regret it. Back in the day, I was sort of holding the dumb end of the stick while Wyatt was running the show.”

  “You’re doing great.”

  “I’m going to have to walk away from it. I don’t have the money to save it.” But that was never the point.

  “Stormy was just telling me that you bought the place in honor of your old fiancé. I guess he liked books?”

  Her eyes hook to mine. “Yes, actually. I guess you could say he was scholarly. He would have graduated with honors had he had the chance. He was the great love of my life, but he passed a long time ago.”

  “I’m sorry to hear it.”

  “So am I.” She swallows hard, her gaze lost in the woods behind me.

  “Your fiancé’s name was Channing Neville, wasn’t it? He was the great love of your life. You vowed revenge in an article I read. You got that revenge, didn’t you? Against Wyatt first. And soon you’ll be taking it against Thomas, too. Perhaps even as early as tonight.”

  Her eyes widen, and her face looks bleached of all color under the duress of the streetlamp above.

  “How did you…?” She continues to look right through me, unblinking.

  “You didn’t have much money to purchase half of this bookstore, so you stole money from your clients while working as an attorney. You trumped up false charges against them and forced them to settle. And that’s how you bought an interest in this place. You told me you were a silent partner and that you sold your interest, but you forgot about that because it was never true. You’re hiding behind an investment group comprised solely of you, the one you created. You were so bent on revenge, you didn’t care if you burned your life down to do it.”

  Her cheeks ignite a shocking shade of pink.

  “I didn’t want to burn down my life,” the words roar from her. The veins in her temples pulsate as her breathing becomes erratic. “You think I wanted to steer away from my own dreams and goals? Bizzy, I needed to do this. Wyatt and Thomas forced me into a groove I wanted nothing to do with. I couldn’t be free until I knew their lives were over just the way they arranged for Channing’s to be. I kept tabs on them. And once I was through with law school, I moved right down here to begin my work, my good work.”