The Eleventh Hour

by Anina Collins

  “Is this a formal request to enter my house, Derek?”

  Derek sighed loud enough for me to hear it in the hallway. I knew him well enough to understand that meant he was frustrated, but could we trust him? Was he involved in the murders with his brother?

  I had a hard time believing that. As much as I had to admit I never dreamed Dominick would be a murderer, the idea that Derek would do anything to hurt another soul just seemed impossible. It wasn’t who he was.

  “Alex, it’s one cop asking for help from another cop to keep someone we both care about safe. That’s all this is.”

  I held my breath waiting to hear what Alex would do. Letting Derek in might be inviting in a man who wanted me dead, even if I couldn’t believe that about him. As I thought about what would happen next, I heard Alex finally speak again.

  “Come in, Derek.”

  Peeking around the hallway corner to see Alex backing up toward where I was, I rose to stand behind him. He shielded me with his body, protecting me from someone who’d been a friend of mine since when I wore Mary Janes and knee socks.

  Derek’s brown eyes opened wide in surprise. “I’m happy to see you here, Poppy. I was worried about you after you ran out of Diamanti’s. Are you okay?”

  Alex’s body tensed up against mine, but he remained calm as he offered Derek a seat in the living room. “Let’s sit down.”

  He stopped me when I took a step toward the couch and whispered, “Don’t say a word about Dominick.”

  I nodded and followed him to where Derek sat waiting for us. Taking a seat next to Alex on the couch, I studied the face of the man who’d once been a sixth grade boy who told me he’d love me forever and hoped he wasn’t a bad guy like his brother.

  “Are you okay? Why’d you run out?” he asked, those familiar eyes filled with concern.

  “I’m good. It was just the mention of Alicia that made me feel like I needed to get out of there.”

  “Dominick told me at dinner that you were with him when he found Alicia dead. He said you were pretty shaken up by what you saw.”

  Guilt over her death pinched at me, and I swallowed hard. “I wasn’t shaken by seeing her lying there dead on her grandmother’s floor. The fact that I was to blame for what happened to her was…”

  I choked up, letting my sentence trail off. Thankfully, Alex took over and did the talking.

  “I’ve told Poppy she’s not to blame, and I’m sure you’ll say the same. But she’s having a hard time dealing with what happened.”

  Derek leaned forward toward me, and before my eyes, he morphed into that boy who’d professed his love for me on the way home from school that last day of the year. “Poppy, that wasn’t your fault. You and Alicia were both in danger. I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt.”

  “You do realize the same person who killed Geneva also killed Alicia, right?” Alex asked.

  “We still don’t know who the murderer of Geneva is. I’ve followed all the leads you two gave me, but neither Shelley nor Candy could have done it. The coroner says the marks on Geneva’s neck show the killer had to be much stronger than either woman. He thinks it had to be a male.”

  “The mayor,” I said quietly, hating that I had to lie to Derek. “It had to be Jefferson Girard.”

  “Do you know about the former mayor’s history with Geneva?” Alex asked Derek, who immediately rolled his eyes.

  “Know about it? I’ve had to listen to him complain about her and her visits to his office right up to election day when he was voted out. She was a thorn in his side, for sure. I don’t know if it’s enough to make him want to strangle her, though.”

  Alex reached over to the end table on his side of the couch to get the papers I’d left the day before. Handing them to Derek, he said, “There’s a lot more to them than just once-a-week nuisance complaints by Geneva.”

  As Derek read over the papers I’d printed out and examined the pictures, Alex nudged my arm. I turned my head slightly and saw him give me a look I knew meant we were on the same page about leading Derek on a wild goose chase. I didn’t like it, but letting him in on what we knew about his older brother was too risky.

  “So that’s why Dominick has been on the warpath about the mayor in the last two days,” Derek mumbled. Holding the papers up, he asked, “Can I keep these?”

  “Yes. I meant to give them to you right after I spoke to Alex about what’s contained in them, but I didn’t get the chance. I’m sorry, Derek. I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you.”

  He smiled warmly, making me feel even worse about lying. “I would never think you’d keep something from me, Poppy. If I can’t trust the first girl I said I love you to, then who can I trust?”

  For a moment as the three of us sat talking about the murder of two women, a tiny bit of sweetness and light crept into our conversation. Alex smiled, and I saw that no matter what had happened, Derek was still that boy I’d known all my life.

  “Well, I’m not entirely innocent,” I joked while the truth of how duplicitous I actually was being with him made me hate what I had to do.

  Derek blushed at my insinuation, but then he asked, “Dominick told me you were supposed to meet with Alicia. What were you going to talk about? Did it have to do with Geneva’s murder?”

  I felt Alex tense up again, likely worried that I’d forget not to say anything about Dominick as I explained all about what I believed Alicia was about to tell me that night. I wouldn’t let him down, though.

  “Alicia saw the man Shelley said had been visiting Geneva each night. This same man came to her house the night she was murdered. Alicia thought she knew who the man was. She didn’t want to talk about it or say his name over the phone, so we agreed to meet at the Madison that night. She never showed, even though I waited over an hour, and by the time I got to her grandmother’s house, she must have been dead.”

  Derek hung his head and blew the air out of his lungs slowly. “I wish she would have told me. I would have been able to help her.”

  I hated seeing the regret all over his face, so I quickly said, “I’m guessing she thought it was someone important in town that she didn’t think you could have protected her from. I think she thought Geneva’s mystery man who came to visit and then killed her that night was Jefferson Girard, and when he found out she was going to tell me, he killed her too.”

  Derek ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “Too bad I don’t have a lick of evidence to prove that. I can’t just haul the former mayor of our town in for questioning. As much as I hate to admit it, like I told Dominick when he demanded I do just that yesterday, we have to answer to the town council and even though Girard isn’t mayor anymore, he’s still got lots of friends on that council. I’ll lose my job if this all turns out to be a dead end and the murderer is someone else.”

  “Well, now that we know who did it, we can dig for proof,” Alex said in his best upbeat voice. “Girard isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. We can bide our time and help you build an airtight case.”

  “That’s all well and good, Alex, but who’s going to make sure Poppy’s safe?”

  I suddenly felt like some helpless girl in those blue knee socks from elementary school again. I didn’t need people to keep me safe. Not from the former mayor and not from Dominick.

  “Please stop talking about me like I’m invisible or inconsequential. I’m right here.”

  Both Derek and Alex turned to look at me with surprise on their faces. “Poppy, this is serious. I was fine with you helping with the case, but that was before a second murder occurred. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

  Rolling my eyes, I said, “Thank you, but I’m not some damsel in distress, Derek, and Alex can help make sure the mayor doesn’t get anywhere near me.”

  “You’re okay with this, Alex?”

  I looked at Alex and wondered why Derek would think he wouldn’t be okay with it. He’d offered before, so what could be the issue?

  But Al
ex simply nodded. “Of course.”

  Derek still looked unsure about Alex keeping me safe, but he didn’t pursue the issue, even though I now wanted to know why he hadn’t thought he’d want the job of keeping me safe.

  “Okay. I want to catch up with you two tomorrow after I do some digging on the former mayor, and as always, I want to know everything you find out. Agreed?”

  Alex and I promised to share anything we found out about Jefferson Girard, and as Derek walked toward the front door, he turned to look at me and smiled. “I don’t want to lose my first love, okay? Don’t do anything stupid and listen to Alex.”

  “I’m not really good at listening,” I joked. But seeing the look of concern in his eyes, I stopped my kidding. “Don’t worry, Derek. Things are going to be okay. You’re a good guy. Don’t worry. When this is all over, the three of us will get a drink at my dad’s bar and maybe laugh about things.”

  “Maybe I’ll be able to convince Dominick to join us since he’s had an ax to grind against Jefferson Girard for a while, and I think he’ll be up for celebrating the end of this case.”

  I hoped my uneasiness at hearing Dominick’s name didn’t show all over my face. I hated thinking how hard Derek would take hearing what his brother had done. Ever since we were all children, he’d looked up to him. Three years older, Dominick had always been everything Derek wanted to be. When he captained the football team in his senior year, all Derek could talk about was how he’d do the same when he got to his senior year. And when he did, it was Dominick’s return home from school to see that first game of the season that thrilled his younger brother more than anything that year.

  Now Derek would have to accept the fact that the person he’d based his entire life on was exactly the type of person he’d taken an oath to protect people from. I didn’t know how he’d deal with it.

  “Maybe,” I squeaked out, sad for what the future held for my friend and the first boy to ever like me.

  Alex stood to follow Derek to the door. “I’m wondering if we should keep Poppy’s involvement with the case out of any discussions with the chief. He seemed quite worried about her when he came by before.”

  “Dominick was here tonight?”

  “Yeah. A short time before you came. I just wonder if it might be more helpful to keep her part in this quiet.”

  Derek didn’t respond, but the way he looked at me and then at Alex like suddenly he was more troubled than before made me feel like he knew what we thought his brother had done. I didn’t know why, but it was just a vibe I had.

  “We’ll get together with you tomorrow,” I said, still not sure how long Alex and I would be able to keep up the charade that Jefferson Girard was our suspect.

  He smiled and nodded before turning to Alex and saying in a low voice I barely heard, “Be careful tonight. If Girard is the killer, he’s got nothing to lose coming out here to get her. He’s a man with a lot of power who believes he’s above the law.”

  After he left, Alex walked back to where I sat and I couldn’t help see how Derek had described the former mayor could just as well apply to his own brother. The police chief of Sunset Ridge had as much or more power than any mayor of the town, and I’d long wondered if the quarrel between Dominick and Jefferson Girard wasn’t more about two men jockeying for power than it was about justice and upholding the law.

  “He’s going to take it hard when he finds out his brother is the killer,” Alex said quietly.

  “I know. He’s admired him so much he put him on a pedestal. I don’t know how he’s going to handle news like that.”

  Alex leaned back away from me and smiled. “It sounds like he has someone else up on a pedestal.”

  I waved away his insinuation that Derek Hampton had any real feelings for me. “Don’t be ridiculous. Derek and I are friends. Period.”

  Shrugging, he said, “I don’t know. You were the first girl he ever said I love you to. That sounds pretty serious, Poppy.”

  His teasing lightened my mood a little, and I couldn’t help but smile at the idea that what a boy said to me twenty years ago meant anything.

  “I’m sure he’s said those words to a lot of women since then. Derek is the most popular single guy in town, maybe even the county. Well, at least he was until you showed up in Sunset Ridge.”

  Now it was Alex’s turn to roll his eyes. “I think his place as number one bachelor around here is pretty safe. I don’t think he has anything to worry about.”

  “For now, maybe, but from the way Jennie at The Grounds was talking, your calendar might get very full very soon.”

  His smile faded into a frown, and he stood from the couch. Looking down at me, he said, “I’m not interested in anything like that.”

  I didn’t say anything in return because clearly the time for joking had ended. He walked away into the kitchen and left me sitting there unsure what had happened to change his mood so suddenly.

  Then he spoke again and whatever he’d been unhappy about was gone. “Do you want something to drink? I have beer and some vodka.”

  I stood to follow him into the kitchen confused that he hadn’t mentioned his favorite drink. I was sure I’d been right in thinking I at least knew that about him. “No scotch? I thought that was your drink of choice.”

  He turned away from the island in the center of the kitchen to get glasses from the cabinet. “No. I never keep scotch here at the house.”

  “Why? If it’s your favorite, why only drink it when you’re out?”

  Placing two beer glasses on the island, he said, “Beer it is then since you didn’t say otherwise.”

  Something in the way he sidestepped a very simple question made me want to know the answer even more, but everything about his body language and stern facial expression as he poured my drink told me ignorance might be bliss in this case. He handed me my glass and raised his in the air.

  “To solving our first case together.”

  I raised mine to share his toast and said, “We haven’t really solved it yet, though. Dominick is still walking the streets free, and we don’t have enough proof that he’s the killer to even be able to accuse him.”

  He took a sip of his beer and smiled. “True, but we will so I didn’t think it was too early to raise a glass to our success.”

  “What do you think we’ll need to find to make an airtight case against him?”

  “We’ll need to pin Shelley down on Dominick being Geneva’s mystery man. I also think we can find evidence of his relationship with her in that house. Now that we know they were together, I think it will be pretty easy. Something tells me he didn’t pay attention to being invisible there until the night he murdered her.”

  “I still can’t really get my head around it. Why kill her? It’s not like them being together had to be some state secret. They were both single adults, so why do the sneaking in the back door routine in the middle of the night?”

  A noise at the back of the house startled us out of our discussion about the case, and Alex immediately moved to check it out. “I’ll be right back. I put my gun back on the bottom shelf in the island if I tell you to bring it to me.”

  I watched as he disappeared down the hallway. The wind had begun to pick up earlier, so the noise was likely just a branch knocking against a window. I took a sip of my beer and from behind me I heard a knock at the front door.

  “Poppy, it’s Derek.”

  Hurrying to the door, I yelled to Alex, “Derek’s back, so hang on. I’ll send him around to see what the noise was on the outside.”

  I opened the door just as I heard Alex yell something, and then before I knew it there was Dominick’s face glaring at me as he pushed hard on the door. I tried to close it, but it was no use. He was far too strong, and in just seconds, he charged through the door, overpowering me as he took hold of me.

  It all happened so fast that before I knew it, the one person who wanted me dead had me in his hold as Alex ran into the room with a horrified look on his face. I’d
foolishly fell for the trick Dominick and Derek had played on me countless times growing up, and now I’d pay the ultimate price for it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dominick held me tightly, crushing me in his arms as he breathed heavily next to my ear and pressed his gun into my right ribs. I’d seen him rejoice in the end zone after he threw the winning touchdown in the state playoff game and cry like a baby at his father’s funeral a year later. I’d watched him punish bullies who’d been picking on Derek on the way home from school and stand proudly smiling with an ear to ear grin in front of the police station the day he was promoted to chief.

  But I’d never seen Dominick Hampton like he looked as he came through that door at me. The rage in his eyes and the twisted look of madness on his face terrified me. Whoever he’d been all those times I considered him a friend, he wasn’t that person anymore.

  In my ear, he whispered low and ominous, “Always so trusting, Poppy. You’re such a small town girl, aren’t you? Didn’t you ever think it might be me, or did you naturally assume it was that lovesick brother of mine coming back to tell you how worried he is about you again?”

  I looked over at Alex as he stood frozen at the end of the hallway. He took a step toward the kitchen where I knew his gun sat in the island just feet away, but Dominick reacted immediately.

  “Take another step and Poppy gets a bullet in her.”

  Alex stopped dead and turned back to face us. He raised his hands in surrender and calmly tried to speak to Dominick. “Okay, okay. This doesn’t have to go down this way. Just let her go and whatever happened we can figure it out.”

  Behind me, Dominick pushed the gun hard against my side. “Poppy, your friend seems to think I’m one of the pieces of shit he’s used to dealing with in the big city. Tell him how much this gun pressing into your ribs hurts so maybe he’ll understand he needs to talk to me as his equal.”

  My side felt like at any moment the metal of the gun would break through my ribcage and send pieces of bone scattering inside my body. Tears welled in my eyes as I pleaded with Alex, “Do as he says, please. He’s the police chief of Sunset Ridge.”