Bed, Breakfast and Murder (A Ryli Sinclair Mystery Book 4)

by Jenna St James

  I swallowed hard. “How would you take care of it?”

  Wayne shook himself as though coming back to reality. He looked over at me and scowled. “After Trent married the little brat, her uncle was gonna have a little accident. Cybil would be so distraught over the death of her husband, she’d pretty much hand over the farm to me—or Trent. Either way I was the winner.”

  “But Trent didn’t keep up his end of the agreement, did he?” Aunt Shirley asked.

  Wayne let out a growl and slammed the suitcase shut. I jumped nearly a foot in the air. “No, he didn’t. One day I came across him watching a video he’d taken of him and another woman. I waited until he left his office and found the camcorder. I realized then I could probably make some quick cash until I could talk the idiot into getting on board with my plan. He had no idea I would sneak into his office and get photos to blackmail those women.”

  Wayne crossed in front of me and grabbed the recorder off his desk. “Using Bessie as the fall person was really just a stroke of genius. I came across the wig one day in my trunk of tricks, and it just clicked.” He pushed play on his recorder and the sound of typing filled the air. His lips twisted. “She deserved it! She came over here banging on the door one too many times. Demanding I stop writing. Demanding I get a computer like everyone else and write silently. Demanding, demanding, demanding.” He suddenly threw the recorder across the room. It hit the wall and shattered into pieces. I let out a little yelp. “But over the years I’ve come to learn that people see what they want to see. I go into the post office and open a box looking like a female—frizzy red hair, plump in all the right places, conservative dress—people expect me to be a female. They aren’t going to question it too much.”

  Wayne looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. His pupils dilated and I nearly fainted in fright. He reached over and grabbed one of his silk handkerchiefs off the top of the dresser and stuffed it in my mouth. Panic flooded my body. I knew it was only a matter of minutes before he killed us both.

  Inches from my face, Wayne reached behind him and pulled out his gun. “What I hadn’t anticipated,” he thumped the gun against my temple to emphasize his words, “was you two meddling twits.” He stood up and stared menacingly down at us. “I figured just the normal wanna-be crime solvers would come this weekend. I knew it was my lucky day when I saw on the reservation board that two of Trent’s former flings would be here. It was the perfect time to set Trent up. The Wainwrights would confront him with the pictures, setting themselves up as potential murderers. Then there was Dayna, the jealous ex, two old flings who were being blackmailed...” He leaned back down to scowl in my face. “Everything should have been perfect!” Spittle flew from his mouth and hit my cheek.

  For the record, gagging with a handkerchief stuffed in your mouth is very difficult to do.

  Wayne stood up suddenly and shifted gears once again. The guy was definitely off his rocker. He shoved a handkerchief into Aunt Shirley’s mouth then stood and looked at us. “So now I have to leave my home. The very place that should have been mine, just because you two couldn’t leave well enough alone!” I barely resisted the urge to duck as more spittle flew out of his mouth. “I know I can’t shoot you and risk bringing everyone running. Lucky for you I got just the thing. A bit of rope to strangle the life right out of you.”

  He laughed manically and went into the bathroom. I looked wide-eyed at Aunt Shirley. She shook her head at me then closed her eyes. I could hear Wayne cursing and shoving things around in the bathroom. He obviously couldn’t find the rope. Thank God!

  Aunt Shirley coughed slightly and I turned to look at her. I could tell she was trying to grin but couldn’t with the handkerchief stuffed in her mouth. She brought her bound hands up, twisted her wrists until they went from being side-by-side to facing each other, then quickly wriggled out of the zip ties.

  I couldn’t believe how quick she’d been! I tried doing the same, but my wrists were already facing each other. Obviously I didn’t know the right way to get tied up with zip ties.

  She shook her head at me and yanked the handkerchief quickly out of her mouth. Unfortunately, her top dentures were still attached to the handkerchief and they flew across the room, hit the wall, and fell to the floor. I was so shocked I couldn’t help but giggle.

  “Found it!” Wayne cried triumphantly from the bathroom.

  I could feel my body going into panic mode. Not only were my teeth starting to chatter around the gag, but my body couldn’t stop shaking.

  Aunt Shirley picked up her purse and quickly unzipped it. She reached in and pulled out a handful of silver circles. The minute Wayne rounded the corner out of the bathroom, Aunt Shirley started throwing!

  Two of them struck Wayne in the chest and one in the face. He brought his hands up to deflect the blows, but it was no use. Aunt Shirley was throwing the discs with all her might. It wasn’t until she reached in her purse for more that I realized they were ninja stars!

  I laughed hysterically at the thought of toothless Aunt Shirley hurling ninja stars at a murderer. Wayne let out a bellow of rage and opened the door at his back. Aunt Shirley didn’t let up. She grabbed her purse with her left hand and kept on throwing with her right.

  I jumped up off the bed, wrists still tied and mouth still gagged, bent down and picked up Aunt Shirley’s false teeth as fast as I could with confined hands, and followed them down the hallway. No way was I missing out on this!

  I could hear Wayne’s screams of rage and pain. Aunt Shirley was gaining on him and I’d bet anything those stars were taking their toll on poor Wayne.

  I spotted Wayne and Aunt Shirley at the top of the staircase. Wayne pivoted and turned to face Aunt Shirley. He whipped out the gun from his waistband and aimed it at Aunt Shirley. I let out a blood curdling scream—well, as much as I could with the handkerchief still shoved in my mouth. At the same time Wayne fired the gun, Aunt Shirley swung her oversized purse and hit Wayne on the side of his head. The force knocked him off his feet and he fell down…down the flight of stairs. His screams echoed in my head.

  I suddenly realized it wasn’t just Wayne’s screams that echoed in my head, but my own screams as well. And Aunt Shirley’s? What was going on? Why was everyone rushing toward me screaming? Mom, Paige, Aunt Shirley? And why did my arm feel like it was on fire?

  At least there was good news…I couldn’t feel myself clutching Aunt Shirley’s false teeth anymore.

  Chapter 18

  You can’t even begin to imagine how much begging and pleading I had to do for Garrett not to haul butt down to the hospital I had to be checked into. I tried bribing the EMTs to say I was okay, but they didn’t bite.

  Wayne’s bullet did make a connection—into my arm. Well, not exactly into it, really more of a graze. And that’s what I had to keep repeating to Garrett. It wasn’t like I was actually shot, just more grazed. But Garrett knew enough to know what that meant.

  The truth was, it felt like I’d been shot. The pain was so intense I thought I would explode. But I knew for the sake of my family that I could never let on how much it actually hurt.

  When Mom first reached my side, she was an absolute mess, yelling at me and Aunt Shirley about once again getting in over our heads. She was so mad she said words I didn’t know she knew. Then she switched gears and started crying and kissing me…but still giving Aunt Shirley the evil eye.

  Paige was crying and wailing, then trying to say some of it was hormones from the baby. But I didn’t believe it for a minute. I knew from their reaction that I needed to suck it up and live with it. Otherwise, I’d never hear the end of it on how I almost went and got myself killed...again!

  I especially needed to get over it where Aunt Shirley was concerned. Aunt Shirley had been deathly quiet the whole time I was being worked on. Mom’s yelling, Paige’s crying, I expected that. But Aunt Shirley hadn’t said a word the whole time they patched me up. And that scared me to death. I knew she was terrified.

  So by
the time I got to the hospital, I knew I had to pretend I was fine, and that I needed to convince everyone that it really didn’t hurt very much. I even succeeded in convincing Garrett not to come down and arrest Aunt Shirley for whatever accusation it was he made up on the spot. And when Hank called the hospital to check in on me, I promised to give him an exclusive once again...even go into detail about how I’d been shot.

  I held in all the emotion I was feeling and only let it out when I was alone.

  The truth is, I was scared to death when I finally realized I’d been shot. The adrenaline I’d been running on came to a crashing halt when the reality of what’d happened finally broke through.

  But the good news is, I only had to stay one night in the hospital. Mom stayed with me while Aunt Shirley and Paige went back to Mystery Farms. Sheriff Simpson and his deputies wasted no time in arresting Wayne—who also suffered injuries. He had two broken legs and a broken arm. Couldn’t have happened to a better person if you ask me.

  Monday morning the doctor came around, gave me a prescription for pain medication, and released me back into the care of my mother. By ten o’clock we were on the road back to Granville. I jokingly asked Mom if we could hit some wineries on the way home since we hadn’t done any wine tasting yet. That earned me a glare.

  Luckily, I slept most of the way home, thanks to the yummy pain killers the doctor gave me.

  “Wake up, sleepy head,” Garrett crooned in my ear.

  I smile and rubbed my chin against the side of his neck. “I don’t want to. I want to stay right here, just like this.”

  Garrett chuckled. “Ryli, we are still inside the car. We should at least get out.”

  I opened my eyes and kissed him. I put everything I had into it. I blocked out the pain, the fear, everything…and just kissed him like I never wanted to let him go. Which I didn’t.

  Garrett finally broke off the kiss. “I missed you. And I can’t believe you went and got yourself shot.”

  I laughed and slowly opened my eyes. “How big of a lecture am I going to get?”

  “Huge! Maybe not quite as big as the lecture Aunt Shirley is going to get.”

  I laid my hand on his arm. “Please don’t. You want to yell at me, sigh, shake your head…that’s fine. I can handle it. But please don’t make Aunt Shirley feel worse than she already does. It was a great weekend, and I just want to remember it that way.”

  I could see Garrett was wrestling with my request. He wanted nothing more than to do the man/cop thing and lecture and remind Aunt Shirley and me of how silly we were, and we weren’t real investigators, and how he always knew something like this would finally happen. It was the same lecture he gave every time we got into a mess like this.

  Only this time I wasn’t sure if Aunt Shirley could take it. On the drive home, as she sat in the backseat of the Falcon with me, every time I opened my eyes she was there giving me pats and smiles. But I could see the worry in her face.

  “Fine,” Garrett growled and kissed me again. “You have one free pass this time.”

  “So you admit there will probably be a next time, right?” I joked.

  “Please don’t make me throttle you on your first night back.”

  I grinned and pulled him in for another kiss. I was obviously kissed deprived.

  ***

  It took about a week for me to recover and go back to work. Hank got his exclusive for the paper, even though he was quite pissy with me for taking another week off for an “extended vacation” as he so eloquently put my recovery time.

  I tried to get Aunt Shirley to stay with me while I recovered, but she begged off saying I needed my rest. I didn’t like how far apart we seemed to have grown since my accident. I knew I’d have to put my foot down and demand we talk about the elephant in the room soon.

  Mom decided to celebrate my introduction back into society with a dinner at her house. I called Aunt Shirley to tell her I’d come by and pick her up, but she said Garrett already made arrangements to pick her up after he collected me. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Usually Garrett had to be bribed to pick up Aunt Shirley.

  When we pulled into the circle drive at the Manor, Aunt Shirley was already standing outside waiting for us. She got in Garrett’s truck with no fuss or mouthiness. So unlike Aunt Shirley. We drove in silence to Mom’s.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Aunt Shirley as we pulled into Mom’s driveway and parked behind Paige and Matt’s car. Garrett shut off the engine.

  Aunt Shirley shook her head. “Nothing.”

  I twisted around to look at her, and only winced once. I still didn’t have full use of my arm, and certain movements were still painful. “You’ve been silent since we returned from our trip. Now tell me what’s going on.”

  Aunt Shirley looked at Garrett then back at me. Her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Ryli.”

  My heart seized. “What? What is it? Are you dying?”

  Aunt Shirley laughed. “No, I’m not dying, you ninny! I’m just…” She sighed and look out the window.

  I knew that look. That was the look of Aunt Shirley not talking. And when Aunt Shirley didn’t want to talk—nothing could make her talk.

  Mom stuck her head out the front door. “Everything okay?”

  Garrett stuck his head out the window. “Everything’s fine. Ryli and Aunt Shirley are just talking.”

  Mom walked down the front steps and opened the back door. “What’s going on?” Mom asked as she slid inside and shut the door. “Why aren’t you guys coming inside?”

  I shrugged. “I told Aunt Shirley I want to throw this out on the table. I want her to tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Aunt Shirley,” Mom said. “Is there something wrong? Are you okay?”

  After a few seconds Aunt Shirley spoke. “I’m just real sorry how things turned out, Ryli. I never meant for you to get hurt. For you to get shot.”

  I jerked back. “I know that, Aunt Shirley. Why would you think I wouldn’t know that?”

  Aunt Shirley leaned forward on the seat and reached over to clasp my hand. “I wasn’t kidding when I said you were the daughter I never had. I love you so much. And then I went and promised your mother I’d protect you with my life, and I failed.”

  “You didn’t fail,” I whispered over the lump that suddenly formed in my throat. “If anyone is at fault, it’s me. I should have just let you get the guy. Instead, I jumped up, still tied up, and went running after you. Not to save you, but to see what you’d do to him once you got him! If I’d have been thinking, I’d have stayed put and waited for you to come back and get me. So you see, you didn’t fail me, Aunt Shirley.”

  Aunt Shirley nodded. “Yes, I did. I went full steam after a man who had not only tied us up, but had a gun pulled on us. I went after him without a care in the world—mainly because it’s how I’ve always lived. I’ve only had myself to look after. But now it’s different, and as much as I love going on these adventures with you, I can’t help but think I’m putting you in harm’s way too much.”

  I sucked in my breath. I didn’t like where this was going at all.

  Aunt Shirley sat back in her seat. She looked defeated and sad. “I really think it’s too dangerous. I think maybe we need to take some time from each other.”

  My mouth dropped open. I saw Garrett nod his head, and that made me angry. “No! Absolutely not!”

  “Now, Ryli,” Garrett started in, “what your aunt says is—”

  “The biggest load of horse poop I ever heard!” I exclaimed. “I’m not letting you take the brunt of what happened, Aunt Shirley. I was just as culpable as you. And you aren’t the only one that gets something from our relationship. As much as I roll my eyes and say you are a pain in my butt, I really don’t mean it. I look forward to seeing you every day. I look forward to whatever stupid adventure you’re going to get us dragged into. Before you came around, my life was boring. I had a boring job. I never did anything crazy.” I swiped at the tears falling from my eyes. “
I can’t imagine not having you around, not having someone dragging me kicking and screaming into impossible situations. So, no. You aren’t going to take the blame for what happened to me and my arm. And you aren’t going to keep your distance from me. I won’t allow it.”

  I heard Garrett sigh and nearly laughed. Poor guy had no idea when he pursued a relationship with me how hard it would actually be.

  “Ryli’s right,” Mom said. “As much as it pains me to say this, because I realize I’m all but giving you permission to be reckless, but I feel Ryli has grown a lot in the six months you guys have gotten close. Before the first murder in October, you two would see each other once a week or so, and then go about your own business. Now there is a true connection. A true family connection. And as much as it hurts to think of the things you two do together, I can’t help but see how important it is in your relationship. So as much as I wanted to blame Aunt Shirley for what happened to you, Ryli. I know I can’t.”

  Aunt Shirley chuckled. “You were pretty pissed at me the day they wheeled her in the ambulance after she was shot.”

  Mom’s lips twitched. “I was pissed at you. I was so mad I wanted to take one of those ninja stars you were scrambling around trying to pick up and throw one at you!”

  Garrett inhaled sharply. “You have throwing stars? That’s how you took the guy down? With throwing stars?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “You should have seen her. She was whipping them so fast out of her purse and chucking them at Wayne. He was screaming and trying to dodge them as he ran. It was the funniest thing I’d seen in a long time.”