I followed him to the morning room. Not surprisingly, Abigail waited on one of the cream sofas.
“Ms. Talbot,” she said. “I understand you think you can solve a problem for us. What problem would that be?”
I took a seat on the opposite sofa. “Did you know Griffin gave you an alibi for the night your husband was killed?”
“I wasn’t aware I was in need of an alibi,” she said.
“Let’s assume for a moment that you actually are, because someone saw you leave the marina immediately after Holly Aiken.” I offered her a sunny smile.
“Whaaat?” Griffin still hovered between the two sofas. He looked at me like I’d offended him, then turned to Abigail. “That’s not what she said on the phone.”
Abigail’s eyes glittered. “Why are you here?”
“Truthfully?” I said. “I could spin a tale about how I want money, offer to let you buy me off, but the truth is, I really just wanted to watch your face when I told you we have you.” I really just wanted to satisfy myself that it was her and not Griffin who’d shot her husband. It could easily have been either of them. But my money was on her.
“You have nothing,” she scoffed.
“As I told you, Mrs. Bounetheau was with me the entire evening the night Mr. Bounetheau was killed,” said Griffin.
“Y’all probably did watch The Wiz,” I said, “You just didn’t do it that night. Because that night, you, Griffin, stowed away on the Chris-Craft, didn’t you? You hid in the sleeping berth. You can’t give Abigail an alibi. You weren’t here.”
Shock stole over his face.
“What?” I asked. “Did you overhear Dwight or C. C. talking about the boat parade? You had to know how outlandish that was. Did you stow away to spy on them for Abigail? See if you could come up with some information she’d like to buy?”
“Well, I have never.” Griffin reached for an offended look but didn’t quite pull it off. He was scared.
“Did the two of you plan the whole thing from the get-go?” I asked. “Or did things just come together on the fly?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Abigail.
“That’s fine,” I said. “You can play it that way. Doesn’t really matter. I have you. I have two witnesses. One saw you…” I looked at Abigail. “And another saw you.” I turned to Griffin.
Griffin opened his mouth to speak.
“Be quiet, Griffin,” said Abigail. “Show Ms. Talbot out. Our attorneys will sort this out.”
I laughed. “You know what that means, don’t you, Griffin?”
“What do you mean, I know what it means?” asked Griffin.
“Griffin, do shut up,” said Abigail.
“Griffin, how long have you worked for Abigail?” I asked. “Do you think she’ll throw you to the wolves to save herself? If you’re half as smart as you think you are, you’ll know that’s exactly what she’ll do.”
Griffin sputtered. “You said you were here to solve problems.”
“Oh, I am,” I said. “Just not yours. Unless, of course, you can convince me you had nothing to do with C. C. Bounetheau’s death.”
Abigail stood. “Show her out, Griffin.”
I stood too. “Griffin Ellsworth, you’re under arrest for the murder of C. C. Bounetheau. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say—”
“What? You can’t be serious,” said Griffin.
As I finished with his Miranda rights, Abigail left the room.
“Where are you going?” screamed Griffin.
I said, “I understand twenty-five thousand dollars is a lot of money to someone in your dire situation. You should’ve asked Mr. Bounetheau. He probably would’ve loaned it to you.”
“What? No. No. I didn’t shoot anyone. For Heaven’s sake, I don’t know how. I’ve never held a gun in my life. You have to believe me.”
“It doesn’t really matter what I believe,” I said. “Unfortunately for you, Abigail has all the money on her side. She can pay the fancy lawyers. But she’s not going to buy one for you, is she, because you’re her scapegoat.”
He started to hyperventilate. “I didn’t. I didn’t. She did. I saw her do it.”
Abigail came back into the room holding a gun. “Yes, yes. I should have known you’d cave in five minutes. You’re weak, Griffin.”
“Well, maybe I am,” said Griffin. “But I’m not a murderer.”
“Is that the same gun you shot C. C. with?” I asked.
“Oh, my goodness, no,” said Abigail. “That gun’s long gone. It’s on the bottom of the Intracoastal Waterway. This gun is registered to my husband. I’m afraid Griffin took it and shot you when you tried to arrest him.”
Griffin went to hyperventilating again. I looked at him. “So, what, your plan was to blackmail her? Are you out of your mind?”
He nodded rapidly.
“You never knew, did you?” I looked at Abigail. “About C. C.’s affair with Holly? About Tallulah?” She planned on shooting us both. She didn’t care what she told me at this point.
Dark hatred washed over her face. “He humiliated me. Far worse than that, of all the women on the planet, he chose to have an affair with the one woman who might’ve changed the trajectory of Peter’s life, and thus Peyton’s as well.”
“Griffin find the DNA report?” I asked as casually as I could, given she was pointing a gun at me.
“He did, as a matter of fact,” said Abigail. “And the letter from Sam Witherspoon, among other things.”
“You watched C. C. attack Holly Spencer,” I said. “Where were you?”
“Aboard a neighboring boat,” said Abigail. “The owners weren’t around. I wish he’d killed her before I killed him. Perhaps this will work out even better. He’s dead, and she’ll rot in prison. Like my sons.”
“It was smart of you to untie the boat,” I said.
“Please, you flatter me,” said Abigail. “Anyone would’ve thought to do that much. The rowboat could’ve ended up anywhere. It bought me some time. Otherwise, Charles might’ve been discovered before I was off the island and safely home.”
“You even thought to pick up your shell casings,” I said. “So thorough. You must’ve gotten Holly’s too.”
“Hers must have landed in the water,” said Abigail. “I did get mine. One thing I won’t have to worry about today.” She raised her arm.
Then behind her in the doorway was the large black man who’d tailed me to and from Edisto and he had a gun too. She must’ve seen my expression change. She turned. I was just thinking how it was going to be so much harder now that there were two of them when he reached for her arm with his left hand and she jumped away from him, scooted across the room.
“Who are you and what are you doing in my house?” she said.
“You mean he doesn’t work for you?” Who was this guy?
He looked at Abigail. “Lady, why don’t you just give me that gun and have a seat? Save yourself and all of us some aggravation.”
While she was looking at him, I reached into the holster under my jacket in the small of my back and pulled out Sig. I pointed it directly at her chest. “I think that’s a great idea.”
From there, everything happened so fast it was a blur.
Abigail looked at me, then at the big black guy. Then she pointed her gun at me. Her arm jerked towards the ceiling, like someone hit it hard from underneath, just as she fired. The bullet hit plaster somewhere.
The black guy aimed to shoot her.
She put her gun to her head and fired.
Griffin fainted, hit the floor.
Sonny, Nate, and Blake rushed into the room.
Nate looked at me. “You all right?”
“I’m fine. I just don’t know who—” The black guy was gone.
“Where did he go?” I asked
.
“Where did who go?” asked Sonny.
“The big black guy?” I crossed the room, looked into the hall, down the stairs. “He was right here. If it hadn’t been for him, Abigail would’ve probably shot me and Griffin too.”
“Is he okay?” Sonny nodded at Griffin.
“Yeah, he fainted,” I said.
And then Sonny was talking into a handheld, calling for an ambulance.
TWENTY-FIVE
At five thirty the next evening, Nate and I sat on the sofa in our living room going over it yet again. We were due at Mamma’s at six for her Official Christmas Dinner, but we were dressed and ready.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“It’s just cleaner if we don’t bring him into it,” said Nate. “No one saw him except you.”
And then tendrils of smoke and sparkling swirls of light in every color in the rainbow filled the room. My heart jumped up and lodged in my throat—I couldn’t breathe. Someone hit the pause button on the world.
Nate and I watched in wonder as Colleen appeared, perched atop the back of one of the club chairs.
I jumped off the sofa and ran to hug her.
She materialized and climbed off the back of the chair just in time to make that possible.
I held on tight to her, and Nate came up behind her and we all just stood there and hugged.
Finally I pulled back, looked at her. “I can’t believe it. Are you back?”
She nodded. “I never really left, actually.”
“You were with Darius—”
“Yeah, well, I was reassigned. Because I did break the rules. But it turns out not everyone is as receptive to guardian spirits as y’all are. It was hard to get anything done with Darius. They could see that things ran much smoother when I was with you, even if I did break the rules. And then you needed me. So yeah, I’m back. You’re officially my points of contact again. I had to promise to do a better job of staying out of trouble.” She looked at Nate. “I’d do the same thing again, and they’re okay with that.”
My heart was in my throat. “There’s not something else—”
“No,” she said. “Nothing’s going to happen to correct the course of history, nothing like that.”
“You hit Abigail’s arm,” I said.
Colleen made an upward chopping motion with her arm.
“And Holly…” I said.
“Same move,” said Colleen. “Holly needed an intervention. She’s a good soul who got pushed way past her limit. She was acting in self-defense, but still. She didn’t need the death of one of God’s creatures on her conscience.”
I scrunched my face at her. “You were allowed to interfere with that?”
She nodded. “I was specifically told to. There are forces at work in this world who conspire to get good people off track. Holly was targeted. She was here when it happened. This is my island.”
“What all else have you been up to?” I raised an eyebrow at her.
“Let’s see,” she said. “I helped Poppy forget her insurance paperwork so y’all would be on the ferry and you’d meet Tallulah.”
“Wow,” I said. “I kept thinking you were around, but that never occurred to me.”
Colleen nodded. “The advice you gave Kenny Hartley, those were words I put in your mouth. The two of them were meant to be together.”
“I thought that was the tequila talking,” said Nate.
“And I may have scattered a few thoughts in Tess Hathaway’s head,” said Colleen. “Let’s just say I encouraged her to be helpful.”
“I feel so bad for poor Tess,” I said. “Abigail may have been a monster, but she was still Tess’s sister. It’s got to be hard losing her, especially like that.”
“It would’ve been far worse for both of them if Abigail had gone to prison, not to mention Abigail’s children and grandchildren.” Colleen sounded quite certain of that.
I pondered that for a moment. Colleen could see alternate scenarios—knew precisely how things might have been, the consequences for everyone involved. She could’ve easily bumped Abigail’s arm as well and saved her life. Mercy was apparently far more common than we mortals ever knew.
The front doorbell rang twice.
“Are you expecting anyone?” I asked Nate.
He looked like maybe he was holding his breath. “No, are you? I’ll get it.”
He walked into the foyer and opened the door.
I was stunned mute when I heard Scott’s voice. “Hey, bro. You free for dinner? I brought fried chicken.”
What the actual hell was going on?
Colleen motioned for me to hide behind the desk.
I scrambled over to do that, but I had no idea why. Then I remembered I could ask her. I was out of practice already. Why am I hiding? I threw the thought at Colleen. He’s the one with outstanding warrants.
“Because once they go into the dining room, you need to be able to sneak out of the house and call Blake. Like Nate asked you to.”
Nate led Scott down the hall to the dining room.
This doesn’t make a single lick of sense.
“It will,” said Colleen. “Be patient. Take your phone and slip out the front door.”
I did like she told me. I went out the front door and down the steps and around the house, where I was sure no one from inside could hear me talking.
“Blake,” I said when he answered. “You’ll never believe it, but Scott showed up here. Come quick.”
“That explains it,” said Blake.
“Explains what?”
“All hell broke loose fifteen minutes ago. We had shots fired in Sea Farm, a fire on a boat at the marina, burglar alarms going off in every building that’s closed downtown—”
“Every bit of that’s a diversion to keep you tied up.”
“I figured that part out. I’m on my way. I’ll be there as quick as I can,” said Blake.
Now what should I do? Where’d Colleen go?
I crept back up the steps, eased the door open, and tiptoed down the hall.
I heard voices coming from the dining room.
I eased closer.
“What the hell are you doing to me?” Scott sounded like he was about to explode.
“I haven’t touched you. What are you talking about?” Nate laughed.
I crept closer, leaned in to see, but Nate saw me first. “It’s okay, Slugger, you can come in. Did you call Blake?”
Colleen, who, obviously, Scott could not see, had wrapped ropes he also couldn’t see around his waist and legs, securing him to the chair.
I laughed out loud. “Yeah, he’ll be here as quick as he can. Apparently, there’s a crime wave on the island this evening.”
Scott bucked the chair trying to get loose. “I have fulfilled my obligation. I am leaving.”
“Don’t let us keep you,” said Nate.
“Whatever you are doing to me,” said Scott, “you can be sure it’s a violation.”
I looked at Nate. “What’s he talking about?”
Nate said, “I have no idea. Sounds delirious to me. He doesn’t appear to have head trauma. Drugs maybe?”
Colleen laughed her signature bray-snort laugh. Oh sweet reason, how I’d missed that god-awful racket.
Scott turned fuchsia. “Oh…oh…I’ll tell you what I’m talking about—”
Colleen stuffed the scarf that matched her pink striped dress into his mouth.
Nate howled with laughter.
I was certain Scott was going to have a stroke.
When Blake, Clay Cooper, and Sam Manigault arrived a few minutes later, Colleen released the ropes and took the scarf out of his mouth. As they led him out and read him his rights, he was babbling that we’d held him against his will.
Naturally, we told Blake exactly
what happened. Scott showed up unexpectedly with chicken. Nate had kept him occupied while I called for help. Scott seemed to be suffering some sort of seizure. That was our story and we were sticking to it.
TWENTY-SIX
Nate, Blake, and I were late for Mamma’s Official Christmas Dinner, but she was so thrilled by the good news Scott had at long last been apprehended—not to mention excited about our trip—that she didn’t even bat an eye.
We all gathered around the table and she asked the blessing. Then we formed a buffet line—Poppy first—and fixed plates from the sideboard, which was overflowing with all of Mamma’s traditional dishes: turkey and ham, two kinds of dressing—one with fried oysters, one with cornbread, sourdough, and sausage—gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet and sour sautéed collard greens, corn pie, tomato pie, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, two kinds of cranberry sauce, and yeast rolls. Somehow, we all found room for dessert—Mamma’s Christmas Trifle.
After dinner we all piled into the Navigator and went to the park to join in the singing. A huge crowd gathered around the light-strung gazebo. We saw most everyone we knew. Someone else must’ve been serving the hot chocolate, because Moon Unit was there with Sonny. I paused to wonder where that was headed. I adored them both, and they seemed to make each other happy.
Darius looked like a massive weight had been lifted off him and I had to laugh, thinking about him and Colleen. He and Calista surely looked happy. I sent up a little prayer for them. Calista had been through an awful lot. It was a perfectly magical evening, filled with family, friends, and abundant joy.
Kenny and Tallulah were there with the girls and both sets of parents. It certainly looked like he’d been successful at winning her back. They were holding hands, everybody looked happy, and there was no sign of Oliver Flynn.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Later at home, Nate and I finished packing for our trip.
It was quarter til twelve when I finally closed my suitcase and came downstairs looking for him. Of course, packing took him much less time. I found him on the sofa.
“Hey, you ready to go to bed?” I asked. “We have to get up early.”
LOWCOUNTRY BOUGHS OF HOLLY Page 21