Moonlight, Murder, and Small Town Secrets

by K C Hart

  Dear God, please deliver me from this insane woman. The silent prayer went up as they moved forward into the thick line of trees. The sound of Evelyn’s voice gnawed away in the background as the bile and vomit struggled to come up. Every effort of concentration was needed to keep both at bay.

  “Making your car break down was the easy part.”

  The last sentence penetrated Katy’s armor and she began to focus on the words coming from Evelyn’s mouth. “You did something to my car?”

  “Well yes, aren’t you listening? I thought you wanted to know all of this. I did it when I got you to come over and check on Mother. At first, I was worried Mother was going to give it away, but nope. You didn’t catch on at all. While you were in the house, I just took a long screwdriver and shoved it through your grill.” She giggled as she looked at Katy’s astonished face. “I put a hole in your radiator. That was easy. Then I just kept you there running your mouth until the fluid had time to drain out. Pretty smart huh?”

  The smug look of pride on Evelyn’s face made Katy want to slap her. “Yeah, pretty smart.” She turned and stumbled along through the woods, unable to look at the woman a moment longer. Evelyn had been playing her all along.

  “Finally,” Evelyn said, noticing the slump of Katy’s shoulders and hanging low of her head. She had won the battle of wills. “Now Katy, let’s get this over with. The pond is just a little way through the woods there.” She pointed in the opposite direction of where Katy had run earlier. “I need you to cooperate and get on over there.”

  The gun nudged into Katy’s back. Her legs felt like noodles and her arms like lead. She was no match for Evelyn. She dragged herself on toward the pond. Her watery grave.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The sound of a diesel engine reached both women at the same time. Someone was coming up the logging road at breakneck speed. Evelyn grabbed Katy’s arm and jerked them both behind the nearest pine tree. Katy couldn’t stop the moan that came from her mouth as the pain jolted through her foot.

  “Shut-up,” Evelyn hissed as she shoved the barrel of the pistol in her throat. “I’ll shoot your nosey little head clean off if you make another peep.”

  The sound of brakes and truck doors slamming had both women’s complete attention, but for totally different reasons. “That’s it. That’s the SUV that picked her up.” Katy recognized Mr. Byrd’s voice. Bless his heart. He’d come to save her after all. She listened and silently prayed that he had brought along somebody besides his slow-moving wife.

  “You sure it was a gunshot your heard Mr. Byrd?” Katy knew she’d heard this man’s voice before, but she couldn’t quite remember who it belonged to.

  “Yeah boy,” Mr. Byrd answered, clearly aggravated. “I’m sure. Katy came out of these here woods toward our house, but somebody fired a shot at her. Lord help her. At first, I thought she’d been hit, but then she got back up, like I done said, and headed into these woods.”

  “Okay Mr. Byrd, you stay here and wait for the sheriff.” Katy recognized the third voice as Joe Phobs. “We’ll start looking for her and whoever owns that big black tank.”

  She turned her head slightly toward her captor. Evelyn was staring in the direction of the voices, fear creeping into her eyes. Katy slammed her elbow into Evelyn’s ribs as hard as she could with one arm and pushed the pistol away from her neck with the opposite hand.

  The gunfire was deafening. Evelyn and Katy both hit the ground and this time the pain in Katy’s foot was more than she could stand. The trees above her began to spin. The world went black.

  I’m going to throw up. The words popped into her mind before she could open her eyes. Rolling to her side, she heaved and lost her breakfast on a crunchy brown pile of pine straw near her head. She lay back and waited for the world to refocus. The hot coals and piercing arrows from the injured foot continued course up her leg, but she refused to give in to it again. Pulling in a deep breath, she turned her head to the right where Evelyn had been. She was gone. So was her gun.

  The ringing in her ears from the exploding gunshot made it difficult to sit up, but not impossible. Sucking in as much air as possible while sitting hunched over on the ground, she let out a scream that would rival a banshee. Had anyone heard? She couldn’t tell. “Help me, I’m over here!” she yelled out. “Somebody help me!”

  An old-school telephone ringing, but as loud as a fire alarm, that’s all she could hear. Only there was no telephone, just her ears. She tried to push up and stand with her good leg, but the slight movement was just too much. The bad foot refused to cooperate, and the throbbing refused to let her move. She forced down the bile that was creeping up her throat and shifted her upper body to face the direction of the logging road. If anyone was coming to her rescue, it would probably be from there. She leaned forward and eased the muddy house shoe off the hurting foot. Even doing that raised the pain back to black-out level. Her foot looked like one giant black grape with five little black grapes lined across the end. Yep, something was broken.

  A movement through the woods caught her eye. Relief flooded her being as Tubby Robinson came crashing through the trees like a flannel-clad football player with just a touch of asthma. That must have been the voice she didn’t recognize earlier. She waved both arms frantically above her head to make sure he saw her. He lumbered over to her side, leaned over, and put both hands on his knees in an attempt to bring more air into his lungs. His face was candy apple red and his massive 300 plus pound frame was drenched with sweat from the brief excursion.

  “You okay?” He managed to ask between gulps of air.

  “I’m okay. Are you okay?” Katy responded, thankful her hearing was returning.

  Tubby nodded his head. “This body wasn’t built for running.” He straightened back up as his breathing became more controlled. “I heard a shot and hot-footed it in this direction.” He squatted down beside Katy and noticed her ugly, bulbous purple foot. “What in the world’s going on? Me and Joe stopped at your car and Mr. Calvin came running up with a wild tale about gunshots in the field by his house.” He stopped again to catch his breath. “I didn’t believe the old guy until I heard one for myself a few minutes ago.” He helped Katy get up and they began making their way back to the SUV at a snail’s pace.

  “Tubby, Joe, yaw out there?” Mr. Byrd’s voice called, shakily.

  “We’re coming Mr. Calvin,” Tubby yelled, scooping Katy up and jogging toward the logging road. “Hang on.”

  Mr. Byrd was sitting on the ground propped against Tubby’s work truck. Joe Phobs pressed an old T-shirt to the back of the old man’s head. “She got the best of me, Tubby,” Mr. Byrd said gravely. “I was looking back up the road yonder for the sheriff and she snuck up behind me and hit me with something.”

  Joe took his make-shift compression bandage away and peaked at Mr. Byrd’s bloody grey-haired scalp. “It ain’t too bad. I don’t think you’ll need stitches.” He reached under the older man’s arms and lifted him up. All four climbed into the double cab work truck.

  “She lured me to her house today, then messed up my car,” Katy said as she leaned across the seat and patted Mr. Byrd’s wrinkled hand. “You were an answer to prayer. If you hadn’t come out looking for me, I’d be dead right now.”

  “I ask the good Lord to use me every day.” The corners of the old man’s lips turned up slightly into a soft smile. “This is the first time he’s ever used me like this.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The nurse stuck one last piece of white silky tape over the IV line, securing it to Katy’s arm. “We’ll have you rehydrated and feeling better in no time,” she said. She checked the flow rate on the IV. “Make sure you push that call button if you need anything. I won’t have you falling on my watch. The pain medication I put through your line may make you a little groggy, but your foot should start feeling better soon.”

  “How’s Mr. Byrd? Did he need stitches?” Katy asked, looking around the exam room.

  “Naa,
just a little clean-up and an x-ray,” the nurse responded. She picked up her supplies from the bedside table and stuffed them in her scrub pocket. “I think his son is checking him out now. He’ll be home in time for supper.”

  Katy said a silent prayer of thanks. The emergency room cot was narrow and lumpy. The safety of the bustling medical staff and security of the sheriff standing in the corner whispering with John gave Katy a peace that brought comfort beyond the slightly inadequate bedding.

  A cloud of sleep began dropping over her like a warm blanket. Evelyn was out there somewhere. The sheriff had tracked her back to the car dealership, but Miles, Tripp, nor any of their staff had confessed to seeing her. Miles was supposedly going through all his inventory to see if a vehicle was missing. He swore to Todd that he would get him this information as soon as possible, but Katy felt sure that he was just blowing smoke.

  The sleep pushed in all around her, but the rapid-fire thoughts fought to push it back. Where was Amanda Carson? Had Evelyn already killed her before going after Katy? The black fog of sleep muscled in shoving her eyes down. John was here. She was safe.

  “Katy,” A hand pressed against her shoulder. “Katy. Wake up for just a second baby.” The bright blue florescent light over the emergency room cot glared into her face as she tried to focus on John’s words. “Baby, I need to step out for just a second. Kelly Ann is out front.” John faded from view as the warm blackness returned. “Katy, are you hearing me? Kelly Ann wants to come in, but I have to go verify that it’s her before the desk lady will let her in here.”

  The warm calloused hand touching her cheek was John’s. She would recognize his touch even if she were in a coma. She pushed against the led weights holding her eyelids down. The harsh, cold light exploded in her vision for just a second before she closed her eyes back to the darkness. “Okay. I’ll be okay. I’ll just nap until yaw get back.”

  The sound of the exam room door swinging shut swished softly as John exited causing a faint gust of cool air to sweep across her arms. Goose flesh instantly popped up. She needed another blanket. The distant burning sensation from her injured foot pounded in the background through the morphine haze. The medication was wearing off. Good. She needed to wake up. She needed to think.

  The cool air washed over her again as the soft swooshing noise registered in her foggy brain. Lifting her eyelids was like lifting dumbbells. She pushed them open and a sliver of the brightness crept in through the crack. “Kelly Ann, John…that you?”

  “You’re an idiot, and so is your husband.”

  Katy’s eyes popped open with no trouble as Evelyn’s voice triggered a rush of adrenalin. The perfect make-up and flawless hair passed through her line of vision for only an instant but was blocked by the hospital pillow descending on her face. Strange how the object that felt so good behind her head was quickly causing panic when applied to her throat and face. The soft cotton fluffiness pressed down, molding over her mouth and nose effectively sealing off the air.

  Blackness, no longer comforting, engulfed Katy as she attempted to lift her limbs and fight against her airless prison. The weight and heat of Evelyn’s body pushed down against her shoulders, face, and neck through the pillow. Evelyn’s hand squeezed through the softness and tightened around her windpipe. Bright bursts of light and sharp bursts of pain began to fight for room inside her skull. Her lungs struggled to be released from the airless trap. Evelyn’s laughter floated through the pain as Katy’s consciousness slipped away.

  “And you are sure she’s going to be okay?”

  “She’ll be good as new in no time at all. You got back to her just in time.”

  John’s voice, strong, manly, sincere…she loved that voice. That’s what had attracted her to him in the first place all those years ago. Her tongue refused to move. It was covered with sand and glued to the roof of her mouth. She peeled it off and tried to lick her lips. No good. Too dry.

  “Look Doc, she’s waking up.” The voice she loved. She fought with her eyelids to get them open. She wanted to find his face. Two Johns, both distant and hazy gradually merged into one as her eyes found their focus. “Woman, you scared the life out of me.” John leaned down and planted a soft kiss on her forehead as he spoke.

  “Wha…” The sound of a croaking toad rose from Katy’s throat as she attempted to speak.

  “Wait, honey,” John gently lifted her head and held the pink, plastic, standard-issue hospital cup to her lips. “Here, sip some water.”

  The cold water immediately flooded the dry cavern in her mouth and throat. “Thank you,” she managed to whisper.

  “Talking may be hard for a while,” Dr. Roberts said, stepping up beside John and patting her IV free hand. “She had a lot of pressure on your neck and there’ll be some residual swelling to deal with.”

  Her hand found its way to her throat as the doctor spoke, finding the puffiness and soreness he described. “What happened,” she whispered, trying to piece together why she was in this shape. The pain medication made everything so warped and dreamlike.

  John pulled a chair up from the corner to the side of her bed. Somewhere along the way she had been moved from the ER exam room to a real hospital room. She shifted her shoulders slightly to face him and soreness dripped from every muscle.

  “Don’t try to talk,” John said, sitting on the edge of the hard, vinyl-covered chair. He took her hand through the bed rails. “I’ll fill you in as best I can on what happened. The pink lady had stepped away from the desk in the lobby. Evelyn must have used the desk phone and called back to the ER room. She got me to come down there looking for Kelly Ann then she came up here. When I figured it all out and got back up here…”

  Katy looked as tears rolled down his cheeks. She hadn’t seen him cry since the day the twins were born. Salty tears ran down her face onto her cracked lips.

  “Anyway,” John wiped his eyes with the back of his hand then gently blotted Katy’s eyes with a tissue. “When I got back, she was stretched across you with a pillow over your face.”

  That part was starting to come back. “Where is she now?” she whispered.

  “Down in the ER or either the jail. I’m not sure, but the sheriff has her.”

  “I think they’ve left with her already.” Dr. Roberts said. “Her shoulder wasn’t fractured, just sprained.”

  Katy had forgotten the doctor was still in the room. She furrowed her eyebrows trying to remember how Evelyn’s shoulder injury had happened, but nothing surfaced.

  “Your husband pulled her off you and she hit the floor with considerable force,” the doctor said, looking at Katy’s face. “But don’t worry. She’ll mend up just fine in prison.”

  She must have been completely out when that occurred. She had no recall whatsoever of John coming to her rescue but thanked God that he did.

  “Todd’s supposed to come to talk to you after while, but if you’re not up to it we’ll make him wait,” John said.

  Katy drank more water from her pink cup. “I’m doing okay now, long as I keep sipping something wet.” She sounded froggy, but her voice was fast returning. “Has anybody checked on Amanda Carson? I’ve been trying to call her for two days and can’t get an answer.”

  “I don’t know,” John replied, “I haven’t heard anybody mention her. Why?”

  “Laney stole papers proving Miles Brown is a bigamist. I’m ninety-nine percent sure that she found these papers while cleaning up Jenna Williams’ room at the Brown mansion. I think she has stashed them at her mom’s place for safekeeping. Laney tried to blackmail the Browns with those papers and that’s what got her killed.”

  “I need to tell this to Todd.” John pulled his phone from his pocket. “This mess has got to stop.”

  “I think Evelyn thought I had the papers,” Katy whispered. “That’s why she was taking me to that pond in the woods. She was planning on making me tell her where I had put them, then kill me and sink me in that pond.”

  John began pacing back and forth
across the brown speckled tiles on the hospital floor, his work boots clicking with each step. He relayed the information to Todd and hung up the phone before sitting back down. “Todd’s going to come over and write down everything you know so he can add it to what they’ve found out from Evelyn Brown. He thinks that will be the quickest way to figuring all of this out.”

  “What about Amanda Carson?”

  “They’re sending someone over to her house now and making some calls to try to figure out what’s going on.” John noticed Katy shiver and pulled the covers up over her shoulders. “Don’t worry. They’ll figure this out. You just try to get some rest so we can get you home in the morning.”

  Katy dozed off. She didn’t want to, but her body didn’t ask her for permission. John stretched out on a cot an aide brought in for him and attempted to look at a magazine. Nothing could hurt her now and there was nothing she could do to make things better. Her eyes drifted close.

  “This chicken is pretty sad.” Katy put the pink cover back over the tray the nurse had left at her bedside minutes before. “I’m so glad you brought me some fries, Todd.”

  He had brought a hamburger too, but her throat was just too sore to swallow that much bulk. If she chewed the fries to a mushy pulp and went slow, she could get them down without too much pain. She wadded up the empty silver fry container and tossed it in the white, grease-stained Burger Barn bag.

  “No problem Aunt Katy.” He had refused to let her talk about ‘her trip to the woods,’ as John was now calling it until she finished eating. Now that she was done, he was all ears.

  “I’m ready to hear what you’ve found out,” Katy said, as she finished a long slurp of coke from the thirty-two-ounce Styrofoam cup. She smiled at her nephew then winced as the cracks in her lips stretched tight.