“Terry, thanks so much for coming!” She threw her arms around him. “You don’t know how glad I am to see you!”
Terry cuddled her close and kissed the top of her hair.
“I’m glad to see you too.” He scanned the room, evaluating each of his tired friends. “So… what have you gotten yourselves into now?”
“We didn’t exactly have any choice,” Vic defended them. “It wasn’t like we asked to be mixed up in a murder.
“You never do…”
He sat down with them and snagged a slice of room-temperature pizza from the coffee table.
“Why don’t you start at the beginning, and tell me how you ended up here again?” Terry looked at Erin. “I thought we had agreed that you should just stay out of this.”
“I didn’t think there was anything else I could do. I never said I would stay out of it.”
He rolled his eyes and took a bite of pizza, gesturing for her to begin her explanation. Erin looked at the others, not sure where to start. “I told you about the Dysons taking Charley…”
“Well, we knew she had gone with them. By choice.” He cocked an eyebrow at Charley. “Right? You wanted to go talk to Dwight Dyson.”
Charley shrugged. “Yeah… I figured it was the only way not to get killed. But things didn’t exactly go as well as I’d hoped.”
“They kidnapped her,” Erin said.
“Kidnapped?” Terry repeated. “Were you held against your will?”
Charley nodded. “Well, yeah. I didn’t exactly choose to stay there in a creepy basement room full of bugs and rats.”
“Have you reported this to the police?”
“No.”
“If you want to have them arrested, you need to report it.”
“That’s not what I want. I’m out now. Nelson let me go after he talked to Erin.”
“So what do you need my help for?”
“We think we figured out who killed Bobby,” Erin said.
“How did you do that?”
Erin didn’t explain the how, which was too long and convoluted, and she didn’t want to highlight Vic’s dysfunctional family. “We think that Charley was the target, not Bobby. The idea was to force her to leave town. Killing Bobby was an unexpected development.”
“You think.”
“We’re pretty sure.”
“What makes you think that?”
Erin expanded on what they had learned from Nelson, from Charley’s recollection, and their analysis of Trenton Plaint’s estate succession. Terry sat, rubbing his jaw, thinking about it.
“Nelson has surveillance video of what happened.”
“Yes… but I don’t think he’s going to give it to anyone,” Erin admitted. “Even if we can prove who it is in the video, I think he’s keeping his cards close to the vest. He’s not going to share it with the police.”
“So how do you expect to prove this? Davis has already avoided charges a number of times. He’s pretty savvy where the law is concerned. He’s not going to confess.”
“Then we go after Alton, get him to admit who hired him and the whole conspiracy.”
“Because Alton has always been so open and honest before,” Terry said wryly. “So easy to get along with.”
“Well… no… but he knows which side his bread is buttered on. If he sees he could end up going to prison for Bobby’s shooting, he’s going to turn on Davis and make a deal, don’t you think? He’s always been in it for his own gain.”
“We need some leverage. We need to start somewhere. We can’t just go in and say that we know he killed Bobby, but we have no evidence that it was him or that he was working with Davis.”
Charley shuffled forward in her seat. “We need a sting,” she said. “Catch the two of them together. Maybe they’ll say something incriminating.”
“That might be an idea. But we’ll have to get Jack Ward or someone else local on our side. Again, going to them without any evidence…”
“Davis is still in prison, isn’t he?” Erin asked.
“Yes.”
“Then if Alton has been meeting with him, he’ll be on the visitor records.”
Terry nodded. “Maybe right after Bobby’s death. The timing of the visits might be informative.”
“And if they’ve been seeing each other, there might be video or audio recordings of their visits…”
“If you’re lucky. But I don’t think any of the prisons around here are very high-tech.”
Chapter Thirty
I
t took some convincing, but eventually, Jack Ward agreed to at least consult with the prison on Davis’s visitor list and any surveillance they might have available. When he got back to Terry, his tone was cautiously optimistic. “You were right about the two of them meeting, anyway,” he admitted. “Unfortunately, Plaint is only in medium security, and their visits have not been subject to audio or visual surveillance.”
“So where can you go from there? Is there anything I can lend a hand with?”
“You’ve been helpful, but there’s not a lot anyone can do until Plaint and Summers meet again. If they do. We just have to wait and see.”
As luck would have it, it wasn’t long before Alton returned to the prison to report to Davis on developments.
Davis had apparently already heard some whisperings of trouble through the prison grapevine. He leaned in close to Alton, his voice low, difficult to hear over the background of all of the other conversations in the medium-security visitor’s room. But they had a microphone under the table that picked up most of the conversation.
“What’s going on?” Davis demanded, leaning close to Alton. “First I hear she’d been killed by the Dysons and then I hear she’s fine and still hanging around Moose River!”
Alton ran a hand through his thin, stringy hair. “She’s not dead,” he said. “I’m not sure where that rumor came from, other than that she dropped out of sight for a few days. I think she was taken by Dwight Dyson.” He looked back and forth, watching for anyone that was paying more attention to him than they should be. “Things are getting pretty hot, boss. I think we should pull out. Cut our losses.”
“That’s not good enough,” Davis objected. “You said you could get her out of town. That’s what we agreed to. We can’t pull out. She needs to disappear.”
“There’s only one way I know of to make sure she disappears and never comes back. We’ve tried everything else. She’s just as stubborn as her sister. I couldn’t get anywhere with that one, either.”
Davis’s face was getting red. “You said you could do it. We’ve wasted all of this time. This whole thing has blown up into a huge mess. You need to fix it.”
Summers sat back in his seat, folding his arms. “All right,” he agreed. “I’ll fix it.”
Davis stared at him. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make her disappear.”
“How?”
“You don’t want to ask me that.”
“You remember what I said before. You promised.”
Summers shrugged. “If you want me to act for you, you need to give me the freedom to do what I need to. If you’re having second thoughts, I can pull out. If you want me to go ahead, then don’t put restrictions on me.”
“Fine.” Davis’s mouth formed a thin, straight line. “You do what you said you would.”
“We’ve got police guards on Charley Campbell,” Jack Ward assured Terry. “They’re not visible, but they’re close by and monitoring all of the approaches with video surveillance. As soon as Alton Summers makes his move, we’ll be ready for him.”
Erin, listening to the call on speakerphone, shook her head. “Why can’t you just arrest him? As soon as you tell him you know what he’s been doing, he’ll confess. He’ll make a deal so he doesn’t have to go to prison too.”
“Not likely,” Ward disagreed. “If he’s the one who shot Bobby, he’s got blood on his hands and he won’t confess to that, because it’s a sure trip
to prison.”
“But he’ll plead,” Erin argued.
“Maybe he would plead if we had some evidence, but we don’t. We just have a theory and a cryptic conversation at the prison. He didn’t admit to killing anyone and didn’t say exactly what it was that he was going to do, other than make Charley disappear permanently.”
“Which means he’s planning to kill her.”
“That’s your interpretation,” Ward said. “He can argue that he meant he was going to talk to her. Persuade her, bribe her, whatever.”
“But you know that wasn’t what he meant.”
“What I think he meant is beside the point. That doesn’t hold up in court. Juries need proof, not speculation. Don’t worry, Miss Price, we are guarding your sister. Nothing is going to happen to her. When Summers proves his intent, then we’ll be able to arrest him. And when we have proof of wrongdoing on his part, then we have something to bargain with to put Davis away permanently.”
Terry put his hand over Erin’s, giving her a reassuring smile. Erin did her best to smile back.
“Okay. Just please take care of my baby sister.”
Chapter Thirty-One
T
he fixer moved stealthily, his feet barely making a sound as he approached the door. His heart was pounding hard and fast in anticipation, feeling the euphoric adrenaline rush that was getting harder and harder for him to achieve.
She thought she could defy him, that she could ignore his warnings and just go ahead and do whatever she wanted to. She thought she was smarter than he was. She thought she could outwit him, when she didn’t have a clue what was going on.
Now she was a sitting duck, oblivious to his presence. He took a careful look around to make sure that nobody was watching and no wireless cameras had been installed since he’d been there last. Stupid of her to think that a burglar alarm triggered by an opened door or window was going to stop him from doing what he was there to do.
He disabled the front door sensor and jimmied the lock to let himself in. The place was quiet. After all of her excitement over the last few days, she was asleep early, thinking herself beyond the reach of the clans. But he knew better. Charlotte needed to be shown that no one was out of reach. He could always find a way to fulfill a contract.
The carpet inside the door was thick enough to muffle any noise from his movements. There was nothing to wake her up. He went down the hall to the room that he’d previously noted as being her bedroom, his arm down at his side, finger inside the trigger guard, savoring the moment.
Just as he stepped forward, there was a horrible screeching noise. Something thumped against him in the darkness, the howling filling his ears.
He was distracted from his target for only a moment, but when he brought his weapon up and pointed it at the bed, the covers were thrown back and it was empty.
Alton swore. It was only one misstep, but it was a big one. He couldn’t complete his mission without a target.
“Erin,” he said softly into the darkness. “Where are you, Erin?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
E
rin lay on the floor on the other side of the bed, panicked and disoriented. She could hear Alton moving into the room, his feet whispering over the carpet, his voice pitched in a low, soothing tone as he hunted her down.
Orange Blossom let out another furious scream, yowling and screeching like a cougar at the intruder. Alton stumbled and swore, obviously tripped up by the angry puffball.
Why hadn’t the burglar alarm gone off? What was the point in having it if it didn’t give her any warning of a break-in and didn’t let the neighbors, Vic, or Terry know that something was wrong?
Her phone was on the bedside table on the other side of the bed. In order for Erin to get it, she would have to expose herself. But it wasn’t going to take that long for Alton to make it across the room, around the bed, and to find her where she cowered. By then, it would be too late for Erin to go anywhere or try anything.
She tried to squirm under the bed. It was a pretty tight fit. She was skinny, but that didn’t make her skull any smaller. She was glad the mattress on the antique frame was raised more than three inches, but she still wasn’t sure she could crawl underneath without getting stuck. All Alton had to do was fire through the mattress or lift it up off of the bed so that he could get a clear shot at her.
It was dusty. Erin spent a lot of time at the bakery and not so much time vacuuming the house. With two furry pets, the dust balls reproduced at an alarming rate.
Alton was still advancing, speaking to her in that creepy, soothing voice. He knew she was in the room and he had only to get her in his sights. Orange Blossom was still dancing around him like a Tasmanian devil, hissing and yowling and occasionally clawing or biting Alton when he could. Alton tripped, scraped his shin on the iron bed frame, and swore.
“Why are you giving me such problems, Erin? It’s time to stop playing around.”
Erin squirmed the rest of the way under the bed, and took a couple of deep breaths, even though the dust tickled her nose and filling her lungs made it an even tighter fit. At first, she had only been trying to hide from Alton, but once she had the mattress over top of her, she had another thought. If she could get to the other side of the bed without exposing herself, then maybe she could get ahold of her phone and place a call to Terry. If only someone else knew she was in trouble, she had a chance of surviving.
Erin inched forward under the bed. She kept running into boxes and other items that had been stored under it, and was beginning to wonder if there was any clear route to the other side. She tried to gently move things out of her way without making any sound to give away where she was and what she was doing. Luckily, Orange Blossom kept making a racket and giving Alton trouble.
Erin felt a sudden shifting of air on her hand. It was out from under the bed. She felt for the phone’s charge cord, and used it to drag the phone over to her, catching it when it fell. Just a few seconds, and she would be through to Terry. She couldn’t tell him what was happening without alerting Alton, but she was sure he would go to her house if she didn’t say anything. He would know that a call that late wasn’t just a pocket dial. Erin tried to hide the brightly-lit screen from Alton as she turned on the display.
All of a sudden, the burglar alarm started shrilling. Erin jumped and hit her head on the iron frame of the bed, making her see stars and nearly black out.
Alton swore and turned toward the bedroom doorway. They could both hear footsteps in the kitchen.
“I’m sorry! I was half asleep and I forgot about the stupid alarm,” Vic called out. “Is everything okay, Erin?”
The footsteps left the hard tile of the kitchen and Erin knew Vic was in the hall walking toward the bedroom.
“Stay back, Vic! He’s got a gun!”
Alton swore irritably at Erin. He turned around to face the door, his gun raised to the level, waiting for Vic to appear in the doorway.
Erin had called Terry’s number and laid her phone face-down on the floor so that the light would be covered and Alton couldn’t use it as a beacon to shoot her. As Alton moved toward the door, Erin retreated farther back, putting space between them and sheltering behind the bed.
There wasn’t a sound from Vic. Erin strained her ears. Did Vic understand? Was she still there or had she retreated? Erin held her breath, which was rasping in her own ears, and listened harder. She could still hear nothing but Alton moving and cursing under his breath at Orange Blossom, the cat still yowling and trying to drive the stranger from his territory.
There was a tinny voice coming from Erin’s phone, muffled because the speaker was against the rug. Terry trying to figure out what was wrong.
Erin heard a creak from the hallway floor. She recognized it. She knew where every creaky floorboard in the house was, and she now knew where Vic was, just outside Erin’s bedroom door.
Without thinking it through, Erin grabbed her phone and threw it across the room. Alton whirled
toward it and fired. At almost the same instant, Vic moved into the doorway and leveled her gun, taking careful aim at Alton before firing. At her shot, Alton turned slowly back to look at Vic. The hand gripping his gun started to lower slowly, like a plant drooping without water.
Vic remained motionless in the doorway, gun still up, waiting for Alton to make a move. Erin wanted to shout at her to get out of the way and to take cover. She shouldn’t just stand there where Alton could shoot her. He’d already fired his gun once, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
But Alton’s hand lowered all the way to his side. Then he dropped his gun. Erin thought she should probably grab it before he could bend over and pick it up again, but she was paralyzed.
Sirens sounded outside. More than one. Terry had dispatched the sheriff and Tom as well. They were all closing in on the house.
Alton just stood there. Vic stood at the ready in the doorway, not moving, even though Alton had dropped his gun.
The cars stopped outside the house. She could hear running footsteps up the front walkway. Terry’s voice sounded from the front door.
“Erin? Are you okay?”
Erin tried to answer, but her voice was so small it didn’t register. She still didn’t want Alton to hear her, even though he seemed to be folding into himself, slowly getting closer to the floor.
“I’m in the hall,” Vic called to Terry. “Erin is in the bedroom. I think the gunman is Alton Summers.”
Terry’s voice got closer. Erin could hear K9 panting, and imagined he was eagerly pulling on his collar, wanting to get closer to the action.
“Where is he?” Terry asked. “Are you safe?”
“He’s here. I shot him. He dropped the gun, but he hasn’t been secured.”
Terry’s form appeared behind Vic. He stood there for a moment, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dark and assessing the situation.
“Alton Summers, you’re under arrest. Put your hands above your head.”
Stirring Up Murder Page 22
