Credible Alibi

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Red hair ascended the stairs. A red-painted smile followed.

  Loraine gave her a wink.

  “Don’t worry,” she cooed. “No one is going to hurt you but me.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Loraine swung the gun around and pulled the trigger. Miller made an awful noise. He stumbled backward into Madi. She barely managed to keep standing as his weight hit her side.

  “Miller!”

  “Get out of here,” he yelled.

  Loraine laughed. Madi grabbed the man’s arm and pulled.

  “Come on,” she said hurriedly.

  Miller didn’t fight her but he did struggle. Together they barely made it back into her bedroom.

  “He might have a phone,” Madi realized, looking at Green Eyes in the closet. He was motionless against the floor.

  Miller didn’t respond. Madi went from pulling him along to pushing him. It wasn’t gentle by any means but she wanted a door between them and Loraine. The closet was their best bet. Especially if it meant they could get the man’s cell phone.

  “Oh, Madi. Going in there isn’t going to stop me,” Loraine called from the bedroom doorway. She was taking her sweet time.

  Miller hit the ground and crawled out of the way so Madi could close the door behind him. An antique glider her mother had given her when she’d found out Madi was pregnant sat in the corner. Madi dragged it in front of the door, heart beating a million miles per second.

  It blocked the door but it wouldn’t hold for long.

  Madi knelt down and went through her would-be torturer’s pockets. Desperate for a phone. All she found instead were the skewers and a knife she would have preferred to never think about again. However, it was their only weapon.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she cried.

  “Get away from the door,” Miller said before his words devolved into coughing.

  Madi joined him against the wall directly to the left of the door. Miller’s gunshot wound was gut-wrenching. He’d been hit in chest. Blood had already soaked his shirt. Madi grabbed one of her T-shirts hanging above him and knelt next to him. It was an awkward movement with her belly. She tipped over to the ground and decided sitting was the only option if she wanted to help the detective.

  “Put pressure on this,” she ordered, handing him the shirt. “I need to be ready if she comes in.”

  “Oh, Madi, what are you really going to do?” Loraine asked through the door. Madi tightened her grip around the knife’s handle. “I know you, baby girl, you’re not that kind of gal. You let your words do the cutting, right? The rest of us are the ones who use the blades.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Loraine,” Madi volleyed back. “I don’t even know why you’re here.”

  The door shook but never opened. Madi put both of her hands around the knife’s handle. She was shaking.

  “I really am going to have to thank Dr. Pulaski,” Loraine said through the door. “When she said she could really make me look unrecognizable she wasn’t kidding.”

  Madi shared a confused look with Miller. His face had become pale.

  Loraine laughed.

  “I guess you’re confused, huh?” she continued. “Don’t worry, that was the point. I would have been upset if you’d figured out who I was.”

  Madi shook her head, as if that would knock loose some answers.

  “Who are you?”

  Loraine’s cackle was so loud it was like she was inches from them and not on the other side of the wall.

  “Does Tabitha Walker ring a bell or did I fail to leave an impression?”

  Madi felt like her world flipped upside down. She lowered the knife, eyes as wide as they would go.

  “Who?” Miller whispered.

  Madi shook her head, refusing to believe it.

  “Answer him, Madi,” Tabitha called out. “Tell him who I am!”

  Madi’s mouth had gone dry. When she spoke it was like sandpaper.

  “A girl who hated me more than you ever did.”

  Tabitha laughed again.

  “That’s right! You aren’t the only one, Detective Miller, who has dibs on cursing Madi Nash’s name! That’s actually why I had to shoot you. See, I need you to die so I can put it on Madi and then I need Madi to die so I can put it on my husband, who I will then take out in self-defense. My God, what a wild cycle this has become!”

  Madi felt like she was going to be sick. Even more so when the door shook violently. “But I’d like to see your face for some of this, Madi! Open the door or I’ll have to go get Cooper to help me.”

  “Oh no, no, no.” Madi put a hand over her mouth. She squeezed her eyes shut. “No, no, no.”

  “What?” Miller asked. It sounded like he tried to move closer. He sucked in a breath. She met his stare.

  “She’s just realized how royally screwed she is,” Tabitha answered. “I’ll be right back! Time to tell Cooper the inn is secure enough and it’s to come up! Don’t go anywhere!”

  “Why are you screwed? Who are these people?” Miller prodded.

  Madi cradled her stomach. She took a deep, wavering breath.

  “Tabitha Walker and Cooper Tosh. I went to a therapy camp of sorts when I was younger for kids who had been through traumas. They were in my group.” She shook her head, remembering how the two had rubbed her the wrong way even as a child. “They were mean, vindictive. Used their anger to hurt anyone and everyone they could. One day they did awful things to one of the boys in the same group and I—well, I humiliated them in front of everyone. Used my anger as an excuse to cause more pain. After it happened, I turned over a new leaf, but they were pulled from the group before the next session. But that was so long ago. I actually hadn’t even thought of them until earlier today.” Madi laughed. It was a hollow sound even to her ears. “How’s that for a coincidence?”

  Miller tried to sit up straighter. The shirt he was using for pressure was completely drenched.

  “You need to get out of here,” he said. “Make it to the window and repeat what you and Julian did the other night along the roof.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” Madi decided. “By taking that bullet you saved me and I’m not—”

  “And by leaving me you can save your daughter.”

  Madi opened her mouth only to close it again. Miller’s expression softened. He was right. It wasn’t just her she was trying to save.

  She had to think of her child.

  Miller must have seen the decision in her expression. He smiled.

  “Godspeed, Madeline Nash.”

  Madi took the knife, moved the chair and threw open the closet door. She ran across the room without hesitation. Then it was another bout of déjà vu. A gunshot went off somewhere in the house behind her. Madi didn’t wait to see who caused or received it. She needed to get back to the trellis and head for the woods. Julian would find her. She just knew it.

  Madi used the palms of her hands to push the window up. The knife’s blade tapped against the glass. It made the urgency of her escape grow.

  Loraine had gone from stuck-up stranger with a mean streak to a vengeful specter from her past. Neither had cared about the child in Madi’s stomach.

  “I was about to worry that you weren’t going to try to run. Though, I assure you, I’m not like my husband’s lackeys,” came a voice behind her. Tabitha had never gone to get Cooper at all. “I’m not about to go racing across the roof when a well-placed bullet can save me the work.” Madi stopped midmovement. Slowly she turned, knife out in front of her. “I have work to do,” Tabitha continued, standing in the doorway of the bedroom. She still had her gun. “And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you make it any harder than you already have.”

  Tabitha’s voice was unforgiving. So was her expression. It twisted with anger.

  “I don’t
understand,” Madi admitted. “Why did you come here? What’s your endgame? Why now? Have you really hated me this long?”

  Tabitha shook her gun at the knife and then motioned to the bed. Madi suddenly felt exhausted. She dropped her weapon and perched on the edge of her bed. Now she was directly across from the woman. It seemed to satisfy her.

  “You’re putting yourself right back into the center of attention again,” she started. “I’m not surprised. Thinking you’re the cause of all of this and the endgame. Just like when we were kids, here you are clawing for attention. Making everything about you. You think your words back then could cause all of this?” She took a small step forward, nostrils flared and lips thinned. “Despite popular opinion, you aren’t that good.”

  “Then why?” Madi asked, frustration nearly boiling over. So many questions, still not enough answers. “What are you really doing here? And how does Cooper fit into it? How does your husband? Why kill Kathy Smart?”

  The corner of Tabitha’s mouth twitched. Madi could only assume she was gearing up for another show of cruel disregard for basic decency.

  “It’s quite simple, really. Even after your boy toy showed up and ruined our original plan.” She moved to the end of the bed. Madi wondered if she was like a Bond villain. Would the need to share her diabolical plan outweigh the need to keep her plan in forward motion?

  Tabitha licked her lips. She smiled.

  “Love,” she said simply.

  That caught Madi off guard.

  “Love? You have a funny way of showing it for your husband.”

  Tabitha’s smile vanished.

  “Cooper is the one I love. The only thing I love about my husband is his money,” she said. “Which is why I needed to die before I disappeared. You can’t suspect a dead person of taking your money, now can you?”

  “That’s why you killed Kathy Smart. You needed everyone to think you were dead so you used that poor woman’s body,” Madi realized. “Then—what?—you decided to set me up for it and leave when I was convicted for it?”

  Tabitha shook the gun, anger lighting up her features again.

  “Don’t make it sound that simple,” she yelled. “We thought of everything. Everything! For years we looked for the perfect plan to make our escape so we could live out our days with the money I’d been collecting in secret. All that we needed was a fall guy. One we could set up perfectly. It wasn’t until a lovely man approached us in a bar that I realized we could get what we wanted and knock down Overlook’s beloved Madi Nash. You owning an isolated bed-and-breakfast? Well, that just made everything easier. Cooper even spent time up here months ago, watching, to confirm you were basically all alone. He became so good at sneaking around that he took it to the ranch and managed to stumble onto your tree house! He only got better, too. When we actually started to execute our plan, it was flawless! Taking your phone to call mine while you were distracted before you even went up to your room and then putting the body and shotgun in their places? All while you were in the bath? Perfect.”

  “But things got messy when Julian showed up, didn’t they?” Another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “And let me guess, you didn’t know about Kathy Smart’s metal plate with a registration number. You didn’t count on your husband hiring people to find out the truth, either, did you?”

  Tabitha snarled.

  “It doesn’t matter what happened. We keep adapting.” Tabitha nodded to the closet. “This crime scene will confuse everyone so much they won’t think about me until we’re long gone. Sure, it’s not as ideal as the original plan of playing dead, but like I said, we keep adapting.”

  The sound of something heavy hitting the ground below them vibrated the house. Tabitha’s eyes widened but she didn’t say anything. Instead she pulled the gun up to aim at Madi’s head, and for the first time since they’d started talking, Tabitha looked down at Madi’s stomach. Her expression didn’t soften. There was no remorse in her eyes when she returned her gaze.

  “Please, Tabitha. Please don’t do this,” Madi pleaded. “You and Cooper, just go. Right now. Let me call in that Miller has been shot and the response will create an opening for the two of you to get out of town. You don’t have to do this.”

  “I’d do anything to ensure our future. Anything.”

  Madi had never known fear so acute. It consumed her. She hunched over, absurdly hoping she could protect her child somehow. Pain squeezed her heart. She closed her eyes.

  “Funny, I was thinking the same thing.”

  Madi’s head flew up, her heart already singing.

  Julian stood behind Tabitha. He had a gun to her head.

  “If you hurt her, your guy, the one I just hurt very badly downstairs, dies,” he said, voice so low and dangerous that goose bumps erupted across Madi’s skin. “Give me the gun and he lives. Simple as that.”

  Tabitha opened her mouth to say something. She thought better of it. Julian slowly circled her, gun revolving around her head, until he was the one looking her in the eye.

  “I should warn you. It will take a lot more than some bullets to keep me from protecting them.”

  Madi couldn’t see Tabitha’s face anymore but she heard the defeat in the sigh that followed. She threw her gun onto the bed. Madi scooped it up.

  “Now, make sure Cooper doesn’t die,” Tabitha spit.

  “I already did. I’m guessing most, if not all, of the law enforcement from Wildman County are almost here.”

  Julian ordered her to the closet, where he used Madi’s belts to restrain her and Green Eyes. Sirens blared in the distance. Madi dropped down to Miller’s side. He was unconscious but alive. She put pressure against his wound but looked up at Julian, standing sentry in the doorway.

  Without the threat of a gun pointed at her, Madi took in new, terrifying details. He was bruised and bloodied, his clothes ripped and stained. However, the most alarming detail was the bullet wound in his side.

  “Julian, you’ve been shot!”

  The man, the beautiful father of her child, simply smiled.

  “I wasn’t lying. Nothing was going to keep me from you two. Not even bullets.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chance Montgomery picked up the cowboy hat off the hospital nightstand and gave it an appraising look.

  “Not bad,” he said. “Not my particular style, but have you seen me?” He grinned. “You can’t copy something this good.”

  Julian laughed. It hurt, but nowhere near as bad as it had before surgery. Now it was more of a soreness. A bullet to the side could have been a lot worse. Thankfully, Cooper Tosh had been a poor shot.

  “Yeah, yeah, we get it. You’re God’s gift to mankind. Now, why don’t you help me carry my stuff out of here?”

  Chance laughed and put Julian’s bag across his shoulder. Julian grabbed the cards that had been set up on the table in his room and both of them looped a vase of flowers under each arm. By the time they made it down to Chance’s truck, they looked like they’d robbed a florist.

  “I guess the town of Overlook has decided they believe you and Madi are the good guys.” Chance threw the bag in the back and put his flowers on the seat between them. It was a crowded but colorful space in the small cab.

  “Yep. Turns out Tabitha’s love for Cooper wasn’t just a dramatic declaration. She cut a deal and told the cops everything in an attempt to reduce his sentence. She owned up to killing the coroner, shooting Holloway and shooting Cooper’s girlfriend, Kathy Smart.” Julian shrugged.

  “You don’t think she did those things?”

  “I think she did them, I just think she didn’t do them alone. But I get it,” Julian admitted. “She’s trying to protect someone she loves. I know the feeling.” Julian cut a look over to Chance. After he’d gotten out of surgery Chance had been in his hospital room along with Madi. She’d called the cowboy in and given him
the lowdown on everything that had happened. Chance had been in town every day since, trying to help where he could.

  He was a great friend. Which was why Julian had to apologize.

  “When the cops checked my alibi and called you, you backed me up. I shouldn’t have put you in that situation. Not after everything you’ve done for me. I’m sorry, Chance. I really am.”

  The Alabama cowboy took his hand off the steering wheel to wave off the concern.

  “I trust you, even the lies you tell,” he said. “You believed in Madi and I believed in you. That’s no biggie in my book.”

  “Still, thank you for it.”

  “No problem.”

  They drove straight to the ranch and up to the main house. A thrill of nerves went through Julian. Neither man got out of the truck.

  “Whatever happened to Nathan, by the way?” Chance finally asked. “I meant to ask but time kept flying by at the bed-and-breakfast with those Nash brothers. They’re good at fixing bullet holes and broken things, but, man, when we got to talking about football, it was like the rest of the world went away.”

  Julian laughed at that. The Nash brothers hadn’t been the only ones pitching in to help with the damage that had been done to Hidden Hills and the ranch. Overlook wasn’t just a town, it was a community. One that was quick to act. Madi’s bed had already been replaced with a new mattress before Julian was even out of surgery.

  “Last I heard he was still paying a fortune for a lawyer who wasn’t doing a great job. I don’t think anyone can save him from prison. He hired hit men to torture a pregnant woman and a lawman. Not to mention everything Tabitha added to it. Telling the FBI about all of his seedy business dealings definitely didn’t do him any favors.”

  “And to think, he had no clue his wife had only married him to steal his money, fake her own death and run off with her boyfriend.” Chance shook his head. “If Tabitha had just tried to run off without all the killing she might have made it. Instead she managed to go up against two separate parties all looking and fighting for the truth.”

  “Yep,” Julian agreed. “My favorite part of this whole mess, and please note my sarcasm as I say favorite, has to be what went down with the photo album.”