by Sam Cheever
Robb held up his hands. “You got it. I understand.”
I nearly swallowed my tongue. Mulhern was going to kill Hal and me so he could get re-elected as sheriff? Seriously?
The sheriff shoved Robb away from the car and slid behind the wheel, glancing at me. “Ready to go for a swim?”
He took off so fast, it threw me back against the hard seat. Sending dirt and gravel into the air, Mulhern took the turn onto the road as if he were being chased by the hounds of Hell.
I was flung backward as he hit the gas and accelerated down a gravel road I didn’t recognize. I turned to look back at Mayor Robb, finding him standing next to a metal shed that was no doubt used to store fertilizer and other gardening implements. The man stood with his shoulders rounded, his gaze locked on us as we tore away from him.
I wondered if he was regretting getting mixed up with Mulhern. No matter what happened to Hal and me, he was going to be looking over his shoulder for a long, long time.
21
As I suspected, the river wasn’t far enough away. Mulhern raced down one dirt road after another and then slammed the car to a stop near a group of old-growth trees at the edge of the churning Fawn.
I stared in horror at the foamy water, knowing that the worst of the agitation was beneath the surface, unseen and oh-so-deadly.
The spot he’d brought me to was a small inlet with a sandy shoreline, which would have been pretty if I hadn’t come there to die.
In the middle of the river, lashed incessantly by the churning water, was a tangle of uprooted trees and broken branches that had been driven together by the current and seemed to be stuck there. I wondered if I could make it to that prickly island of relative safety before I drowned.
Swimming would be nearly impossible with my ankles and wrists bound. I had to try to talk him into taking them off.
The door groaned open and I tried to scrabble away from his grip, finding my escape halted way too fast by the other door.
Mulhern reached inside and grabbed a flailing ankle, brutally yanking me out of the car. I slammed to the ground hard enough to draw a pained wheezing sound from my lungs, my tailbone screaming from the impact.
The sheriff yanked me up and threw me over his shoulder again, barely noticing my fists slamming against his back and my feet smashing into the unyielding wall of his middle. The man might be a douche canoe of the highest order, but he had some rock-hard abs.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, playing dumb. Maybe I could get him talking and postpone the inevitable for a bit.
He threw me onto the sandy beach, where I discovered the sand was merely an illusion. It was about half an inch thick over what felt like rocks and hard dirt.
Agony speared through my back at the impact. My tailbone gave a sharp yowl of irritation and my head, which had never stopped screaming, took a moment to pound sharp nails into my brain.
I lay there a long moment, agony making it hard to breathe or think.
To my shock, Mulhern bent over me and cut the ties off my limbs. “I thought we’d already covered that.”
Breathing through the pain, I forced myself to sit up. If I was going to have a chance to survive, I was going to need to make a run for it.
The thought made all my bruised parts sing a chorus of resistance.
“Can we talk about what’s happening?” I asked him. “I don’t even know why you’re doing this. I don’t know anything that can hurt you or Robb. I haven’t learned anything at all.” Except that they were both jerks of the highest order and probably killers.
Mulhern walked around the trees, his gaze skimming the ground.
Seeing my chance, I tried to stand.
He reached out and shoved me back down, faster than I’d expected. Apparently, he was still paying attention despite his search for whatever he was looking for under the trees.
I fell into a puddle of agony on the rock-like beach.
“Feel free to talk all you want. But you’re still gonna die,” he told me.
“But, why?”
He bent and picked up a piece of branch. It was about 24 inches long and three inches in diameter. He smacked it against his palm, testing it. Unfortunately, it looked solid.
“Because I can control my cops. I can point them in the wrong direction for these murders and make it stick. But I can’t control you or your nosy boyfriend. So you both need to go.”
“You don’t think they’ll look into our deaths?”
He shrugged. “You fell into the river and drowned. It’s a tragedy. So close to your house.” He jerked his head upriver. “You live just a couple of miles from here. It’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.”
A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature made my teeth clank together. “And Hal?”
“He tried to save you. Big strong guy like that, it’s a shame he couldn’t manage it. Unfortunately, the Fawn’s a nasty witch. She’s taken down even the strongest swimmers over the years.”
With a sinking feeling that flared into nausea as I tried again to stand, I knew he was right. Unless I found a way to push past the pain, I was going to die.
Mulhern strode toward me, the piece of branch clutched in his beefy hand. “I know you think I’m enjoying this, Joey. But, I assure you, I’m not.”
I glared at him, not buying it for one second. In the blink of an eye, he’d reverted to his campaign persona. The kind, protective warrior with a gentle touch.
I nearly snorted at the mask he’d donned. And then it hit me. If he got away with killing me and my PI, that mask would be the reality for a couple of thousand people in Deer Hollow.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“This will only hurt for a second,” he assured me as his arm came up and a lethal smile creased his face.
Adrenaline swamped me, and I rolled away from the strike. I landed on a palm-sized rock and closed my fingers around it. Keeping it hidden with my body, I tugged on the rock, pulling it free of the sand. Mulhern stood over me again, his foot on my belly to hold me in place.
He lifted the branch, preparing to strike again, and rage joined the adrenaline in a potent cocktail that had me moving before my brain caught up to what I was going to do.
My hand with the rock came up, and I smashed it hard into his crotch.
Mulhern’s hand stalled in midair, his eyes going wide and his face turning an ugly shade of puce. He stumbled backward, releasing me from his weight.
I rolled away from him as the branch fell from his grip and he doubled over, a strange keening sound escaping his lips.
I shoved to my knees and then to my feet. My brain wobbled painfully inside my skull, but I ignored it, knowing I wouldn’t get another chance. I ran into the trees, praying I could find my way home without getting lost.
Then it didn’t matter if I was heading the right way because footsteps pounded after me, and I realized I’d wrung the only advantage I had out of the situation.
“Stop running, you stupid woman!” Mulhern bellowed.
The sound was like needles pricking my skin, and I knew if he caught me I was dead. As if to prove the point, a bullet smacked into the tree just ahead of me, bark and slivers of wood spitting from the resulting wound and slicing into my exposed flesh as I ran past. More bullets slammed around me. I couldn’t run any faster, but I could run smarter, so I veered off the path and deeper into the trees in the hopes of avoiding a bullet to the back of the head.
Ahead of me, a strange howling sound made my steps falter, and I caught a root with my toe. The impetus of my run sent me flying. I hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of my lungs again. I lay there wheezing, frustrated tears sliding from my eyes.
Footsteps crashed through the trees behind me. Close. Too close.
I thought about trying to keep running but knew it was too late. Instead, I dragged myself into the brush, under a half-rotted tree that had fallen onto the rich loamy soil, and prayed Mulhern would pass me by before the milli
ons of tiny insects feasting on the soft wood turned their sights on my poor exposed flesh.
I shuddered at the thought. A crawly sensation tickled along my calf, and I closed my eyes, pinching my lips closed to keep from screaming.
The thunderous footsteps slammed to a stop mere feet away from where I hid. I barely breathed, knowing the slightest sound would bring him down on me.
“Where are you, Joey? You know you can’t get away from me. I promise I’ll make it quick.”
He was a madman if he thought that was a compelling argument.
Something bit the soft skin at the back of my knee and, before I could stop myself, I made a soft sound of pain and slapped at the bug.
Mulhern’s head shot up, and he turned to look at me. A horrible smile spread over his face. “Gotcha.” He raised his gun, hand steady and eyes mean. “Buh bye.”
The underbrush split and threw a muscular golden shape into the air. A feral snarl rolled over me, lifting every hair on my body to attention.
Caphy slammed into Mulhern as he pressed the trigger, and the bullet sailed above my head, smacking into a large, dead tree at my back.
Amid a barrage of vicious, wet snarls and the terrifying snapping of large, white teeth, Mulhern screamed like a girl and dropped the gun.
Another large form emerged from the trees. The man was tall, wearing a fearsome expression, and he was a wonderful sight to see.
“I’d advise you to go very still, Sheriff,” Hal said, his tone colder than I’d ever heard it.
I turned my head to find Mulhern, bug-eyed and pale as a sheet, with pibl jaws wrapped around his throat. “Call her off, Amity,” Mulhern whispered harshly.
“Joey?”
I rolled from my hiding spot and grabbed the gun Mulhern had dropped. “I’m okay.” Mostly.
“Leave it, sweet girl,” I told my dog.
Caphy hesitated another beat as if to let Mulhern know she could finish the job if necessary and then released him, trotting over to lick an ant off my knee.
I was dimly aware of Hal binding Mulhern’s wrists behind his back as I dropped to my knees and buried my face in my dog’s soft fur. “You saved me again,” I said, my words thick with tears. “You’re getting donuts every day for a month.”
Caphy’s tail whipped the air, and she panted happily.
“I’ve got him,” Hal said.
I glanced up to find my PI yanking the sheriff off the ground with one hand and talking into his cell. “We’ll meet you at the clearing.”
Hal’s gaze slid over me as I joined him, making sure to stay clear of Mulhern. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m a little bruised and sore, but I’ll be fine.” I slapped at another ant, glaring at Mulhern. “Robb’s in on all of it with him.”
Hal gave a brisk nod. “We’ll talk about it after we get him locked up.”
“You don’t have anything to charge me with,” Mulhern said. He was either a really good actor, or he actually believed he’d get away with his crimes.
“I heard you and Robb talking about killing those people,” I told him. “You kidnapped and tried to kill me.”
Mulhern raised a dark brow. “That’s strange. I have a different story to tell. I heard you screaming and came to try to rescue you. Unfortunately, your dog tried to kill me. I’ll see that beast put down, Fulle. You have my word on that.”
Could he do that? Surely he wouldn’t walk away from two murders and two attempted murders? I dug my fingers into Caphy’s fur and just concentrated on breathing.
“Nobody’s touching that dog,” Hal said, giving me a reassuring glance before turning a stone-cold stare toward Mulhern. “And you’re going down for murder. Any way you paint it.”
Mulhern was silent as we stepped into the clearing where Arno and his deputies waited.
When I glanced at Hal, he smiled. And then, unbelievably, he winked.
22
“You need to go to the hospital,” Hal said for the fifth time. “You might have a concussion.”
“I’m fine. The headache’s not even that bad anymore.” It wasn’t a complete lie. The pain had changed from skull-shattering agony to only murderously miserable. A slight improvement. “Tell me how you found me in the middle of the woods.”
“You can thank Caphy for that part. As soon as we hit the clearing, she took off running as if she knew exactly where you were. It was all I could do to keep up with her.”
“How’d you know to look in the woods?”
“We didn’t,” Arno said, coming into his office and closing the door behind him. Caphy jumped up from her spot on the rug near my chair and ran over to greet him. “We tracked the cruiser to the river and planned to come in hot, with Hal keeping an eye on the back door in case Mulhern broke that way.”
“We knew Caphy could catch him even if I couldn’t,” Hal said.
Arno cupped my dog’s squishy face between his hands and gave her an enthusiastic scratch under the chin and behind the ears. “Who’s our good girl?”
I laughed as Caphy’s entire body wagged in a delighted response.
Arno sat down behind his desk with a soft groan. “What a day.”
“Tell me you have enough evidence to put Mulhern and Robb in jail.”
Both Hal and Arno grinned widely.
“What?” I couldn’t help it, I smiled too. Even though I had no idea what I was smiling about.
“We have the evidence to put them both in prison,” Arno said. He waited a bit and then said, “Thanks to your brother.”
My eyes went wide. “What does Josh have to do with this?”
“He was at Robb’s place when Mulhern dragged you out of that shed. He’d been watching Robb’s house and saw him come flying out, jump into his car, and tear down the road toward the back of the property,” Hal said.
“Wait,” I said. “I thought Josh was in jail.”
Arno shook his head. “I released him after a couple of hours. I didn’t have anything solid to keep him on, and I reminded him I’d be looking at his sister for the murders if he disappeared on me.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “You threatened his sister?”
“She was a person of interest. And she appears to be on the run. If we hadn’t caught the real killers, I’d have an APB out on her already,” Arno said.
I shook my head. He was right. Even though I didn’t like it.
“Anyway, Josh knew something was going on, so he followed Robb and caught the two men arguing about the mayor killing Calliente.” If it was possible, Arno’s smile widened. “Magness recorded it all. Every damning word of it.”
Hal nodded. “We were already trying to find Mulhern. His SUV was in his garage at home, but he wasn’t there.”
“I’d gotten a call from the lab asking why the gun never arrived for its ballistics tests,” Arno told me. “That was when I started to wonder what Mulhern was up to. I had a thought about that gun and checked it out. The community gun from the gang case was missing from the evidence room. We put two and two together and came up with Mulhern.”
“Josh saw the sheriff pull me out of that shed?” I couldn’t believe he’d been there. He could have gotten shot.
“He did,” Arno responded. “He called me immediately. But, by the time he got into his car and took off after Mulhern, the cruiser was gone. Magness covered nearly every road out here but couldn’t find you.”
I nodded. Once he lost me, it would have been a miracle for him to find me again. The dirt roads out there were like a spider web. “So you tracked the cruiser and found us.”
Arno nodded. “That brother of yours has a future as an investigator,” he said.
“Or a cop,” Hal suggested. “He was quick enough to get the number off the cruiser, so Arno didn’t have to waste time figuring out which of the fleet Mulhern had borrowed for his little murder spree. After that, it was just a matter of tracking the car through GPS monitoring.”
Hal touched my cheek with a warm finger
. “Now tell us what happened out there.”
I did, netting it out as quickly as I could and skipping over the parts where I thought I was going to die. I’d talk about those parts with Hal later. In private, where we could hold onto each other and celebrate the fact that we were both safe and alive.
“I’ll be sure to thank Josh for coming to my rescue.”
Hal nodded. “He knows who you are. He’s apparently been watching you for a while. I guess he’s been working up the courage to speak to you.”
My mind played back pictures from a stormy night a few months earlier when I’d seen a man standing in my yard. A flash of lightning had illuminated the familiar features he’d taken from my dad. It had jolted me badly. At the time, I’d thought it was my father, returning from the grave. I hadn’t been that far off after all.
I smiled as another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “That explains a few things,” I said, sharing a knowing glance with Hal. “Okay,” I said, changing the subject. “We know that Robb killed Calliente. But do we know why?”
Arno sighed. “Calliente threatened Robb for a big payoff when he found evidence in Robb’s home. Robb clearly didn’t handle the blackmail attempt well. He killed Calliente, believing the evidence was still in the house somewhere since Calliente hadn’t left since arriving to set up for the party. Robb thought he had it contained and would find it later. But he didn’t realize that Pammie Wickham had been at the house earlier. She wasn’t there long. We’re speculating that Calliente gave the evidence to her.”
I grimaced. “What exactly did Calliente find?”
“A wooden cigar box filled with souvenirs of Robb’s exploits, including the locket Karinne Magness reported stolen by Robb when he was running for City Councilman. Unbelievably, Robb kept women’s barrettes, jewelry, lipstick, even underwear. We found the box in Anthony Prince’s car, under about a year’s worth of dirty laundry. Pam Wickham must have given it to him to hide for her after Calliente was killed.”
I grimaced.
