“No, they don’t.”
Sonja paused, surprised at this answer. “What?”
“I mean, the sheriff came by to collect them, but when they opened the box, it was empty.”
Sonja’s jaw dropped open for a moment. “So, it was all missing?”
“That’s right.”
Now, that might explain it. Maybe Chandler told Frank to go to the hotel room to get the equipment, knowing full well he’d already hidden it somewhere else. Either that or someone else had done so.
Sonja shook her head. “Well, that’s odd.”
“I agree. I wish I knew where it was.”
Sonja gave a sympathetic smile. “Well, I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end.” Pulling her purse up onto her shoulder, she took a step back. “I better get going.”
“Thanks for everything,” Patty said before closing the door.
Chapter 12
When Sonja stepped outside onto the hotel’s sidewalk, the rain had begun to pour from the sky after threatening the small town all morning. “Just great,” she mumbled, rushing to her car. Trying to find Kamson in the rain would be more difficult.
At the very least, she could offer him a ride back to the hotel as an excuse to talk.
That way, he couldn’t escape when she asked the hard questions.
On the other hand, could she escape if he turned out to be the murderer?
Where would he have gone anyway? Did he go to hide the bow and arrows? Or was he just trying to avoid his own guilt and feelings around his girlfriend’s untimely demise?
Then an idea popped into her head.
What would be the best place to hide a body where the police might not think to look?—why, back near the scene of the crime, of course!
Putting her car into gear, she headed out along the lakeside road for the second time that day. That distinct feeling of going in circles came back to her, and that got her to thinking. Perhaps there was something circular or cyclical about this murder case as a whole.
She considered Kamson’s admitted drinking problem and all the inevitable cycles that come with the process of overcoming such an addiction. Each time you slipped up and had another drink, it was like cycling back, yet moving forward all along as you strove to conquer the heart of the problem.
Had there been other similar things that Kamson had done, mistakes he had made more than once, apologies he’d meant to make multiple times?
Could it be possible that he’d had an on again off again relationship with Patty behind his girlfriend’s back?
Coming back to the murder victim herself, did Ruby have any harmful cycles of her own?
Sonja had a good feeling that she was on the right track, eyeballing her purse and thinking of the pill bottle inside.
Pulling off the road and into the small parking lot at the trail’s head, Sonja spotted a figure in the distance, shrouded in the downpour like a ghost in a sheet. They seemed to be heading back up the mountain toward the falls.
If she didn’t catch up, she’d lose them in the branching paths of the woods.
She was almost certain it was Kamson, but there was only one way to find out. Grabbing her purse, she stepped out into the rain which came down in heavy torrents upon her head. She had an emergency umbrella in the glove box, but it would do her little good now. Standing outside for only a few seconds had soaked her to the bone.
Still, she figured it couldn’t hurt and leaned in to grab it. Popping the orange and yellow patterned contraption open, she held it high above her head and slammed her door. She dashed up the sloped trail which was quickly becoming slick with the rainwater, transforming from the usual hard and rocky dirt to the mushy and sticky mud.
“Kamson,” she yelled out over the rush from the sky. A boom echoed its response and Sonja prayed she didn’t get struck by lightning while out here. Thankfully, the trees acted as a form of protection. Spotting the walking figure just up ahead, she called again. “Kamson!”
This time, the person stopped and turned.
“Sonja?” he responded with a hint of shock.
Breathing heavily as she trudged up the steep terrain toward him, she held the umbrella high to enclose his head as well once she got close enough.
“What the heck are you doing out here in this mess?” he inquired, looking up at the sudden and unexpected shelter being produced over him.
“I could ask you the same thing,” she responded.
“True enough, I suppose,” he admitted, wiping water from his nose.
“Should we get out of the rain?” she asked.
He waved toward the parking lot below. “You go on ahead. I want to walk around for a while up here.”
“In the rain?” she pressed, growing more suspicious.
He raised an eyebrow, beginning to see that she’d purposefully come looking for him.
She also wondered if he was guessing at what she was up there with him for.
Sonja was glad to see he’d sobered up some in the past few hours and she hoped it would mean he could be open and honest with her when she asked her next question. Digging into her purse, she produced the vitamin bottle for him to see. “I’m hoping you can help give me some clarification about this,” she pointed out.
“About a vitamin bottle?” he asked, playing dumb.
“These were Ruby’s vitamins, Kamson.”
His face took on an ashen appearance, his eyes growing wide, red, and desperate. Sonja worried for a moment that he would either run off or attack her, but she held her ground nonetheless.
“Or, is it not vitamins at all?” she pressed the point, desperate for an answer. She felt as if this bottle somehow would help clinch the entire case.
He hesitated, his jaw hanging open for a second. Then, he answered by saying, “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” and turning to continue his climb up the trail.
“Kamson, what’s in this bottle? Why are you so desperate to hide it?”
Turning on a dime toward her, his lips clenched together until they were white and his eyes so wide they looked like they’d pop out of his head, he pointed a finger at her. “Just drop it, okay, or you’ll regret it.”
“Was that a threat?” Sonja asked, regretting the words coming out of her mouth. She didn’t want to provoke him, especially if he was implying that he would do the same thing to her that he potentially did to Ruby,
“You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”
“This morning you said you were dealing with alcohol abuse. You said you agreed to get help if Ruby got help.” Sonja paused, trying to read the expression on his face. “What is it that she needed to get help for?” She shook the pill bottle again.
“I said, leave it,” he barked, puffing out his chest and getting close.
Sonja’s instinct was to run, but she held her ground. Suddenly, an idea came into her head that might just help loosen Kamson’s lips. “I already took the real bottle to the police this morning after I found it. This is a decoy,” she lied, holding the bottle aloft. “They’ll be testing the pills in the lab soon.” While Frank hadn’t taken the bottle from her, she had taken it to the police. That part was true.
She hoped it was enough to get some answers.
The tight and angry expression on Kamson’s face slowly faded. He realized he was caught. Taking a few steps in the muddy earth, he leaned against a tree trunk, handling an old knot for support. “Ruby had a real chance at the Olympics in two years. She’d been training so hard for years, doing as many events as possible around the states.” He sighed, pointing a finger at the bottle. “But if it got out that she was taking those pills it would have ruined her shot in an instant. That and any other chance to participate in any kind of professional sporting event, period.”
Sonja looked down at the bottle, through the clear plastic. “She was taking steroids, wasn’t she?”
Kamson bit his lower lip and then nodded. “She was. I had wanted to keep it from coming out, even in her deat
h,” he admitted.
That was answer enough for Sonja. “It’s too late for that.”
“Once the cops figure it out, they’ll come for me, won’t they?” he said more than asked.
“They’ll have some questions, it’s true.” She took a step closer to him, not worried anymore about him attacking her. “For one, they’ll want to know where you hid the body.”
He looked at her with surprised eyes.
“I figured you took it, so they wouldn’t do the autopsy and find the drugs in her system,” Sonja deduced. Her next conclusion was a stab in the dark, but she felt like she was getting close. “And I assumed you tucked her away somewhere near the original crime scene, thinking it wouldn’t be a place the police looked very closely.”
Kamson was quiet, his eyes watery. “Okay. I’ll take you to her.” As he headed up the slope, Sonja followed.
“Is that where the bow and arrows are as well?”
Pausing, Kamson turned back to her. “The bow and arrows? I didn’t hide—” before he could finish his sentence, a sharp whizzing noise echoed through the trees.
A steel arrow struck Kamson in the upper portion of his chest.
Chapter 13
Sonja let out a scream as the man stumbled. Letting out a wheezing noise, he fell toward her and she managed to grab him before he hit the ground. “Kamson?”
“Go. She’s up behind the falls,” he managed to say before his eyes closed.
Bending, Sonja lowered the body to the ground as another arrow whizzed out from the trees below, just barely missing her and going over her head.
“Oh, my goodness,” she shouted, running up the path. She knew if she stood still for too long and waited for the killer to notch another arrow, she would be in trouble.
Bobbing and weaving in and out of trees, she headed for the falls where this had all seemingly started. Another arrow darted by, striking a tree and sending splinters off into the air. “Eek,” Sonja managed to cry out.
She had to get a hold of Frank somehow.
Concentrating on her running, all while bobbing and weaving to keep any arrows from hitting her, she dug her phone out of her purse and hit speed dial one. The line rang a few times before Frank answered.
“Hey, Sonj’. I really don’t have time to talk right now.”
“I know where the body is,” she blurted out loudly.
“Hold on, what? You do?”
“Kamson told me where he hid it.”
“Where are you? Where is Kamson?” he demanded, not liking the idea of his wife being in potential danger.
If only he knew, Sonja thought. “Kamson’s been hit by an arrow.”
“What?” Frank practically screamed, hurting Sonja’s ear.
“The killer hit him while we were talking and now they’re after me. I’m in the woods below the falls. The body is somewhere nearby.” She was barely managing to get the words out between heavy breaths.
If doing the marathon was hard, this was even worse.
“Find someplace safe to hide. I’m on my way.”
“I’ll try,” Sonja gasped into the phone as another arrow zoomed by her head. She prayed the killer was almost out of ammunition.
Venturing off into the trees themselves, Sonja knew her pace would be slower but there would be more to obstruct the killer’s aim. As she climbed, her legs burned as if they were on fire but soon the rush of water could be heard even over the rain.
She was almost there, but then what?
Running up the final stretch to the rocky ledge behind the falls, one final arrow struck the boulders and glanced off, shrapnel just scraping Sonja’s face as the pieces fell. Backing up into the cave, she took heavy breaths.
Sliding into the slot in the far back, she tried to be quiet, keeping her eye on the light coming from the opening.
For a few minutes, all was silent.
However, when a dark figure appeared, silhouetted by the gray daylight filtering through the falls, Sonja knew she was trapped. The person stood poised with the outline of the composite bow in one hand, an arrow at the ready.
Sonja wondered if it was her last arrow.
She decided she had to try and talk her way out. “Patty, you don’t want to do this,” she said.
“Yes, I do,” the familiar female voice retorted. “You know it was me, you know I killed my own sister and shot Kamson just now. I can’t let you go.”
“Even if you kill me, the police will know it was you. You’re the only member of the group left. Ruby is dead, Kamson is wounded, and your boyfriend is being held at the police station.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she spat. “I knew I could set him up and get him out of the way by using his bow and arrow. He was teaching me how to shoot, you know?”
“In any case, that only leaves you as a final suspect,” Sonja informed her.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. The only reason I did any of this was to get Kamson.”
Sonja furrowed her brow, sliding back slightly in the darkness. If she couldn’t be seen, that arrow was less likely to hit her. Her voice echoed enough to distract from where she might be. “Kamson?” she wondered out loud. Then she remembered what he’d told her in the hotel room that morning. “You and Kamson?”
“It was only one time, but that’s all it took for me to know he was the one. I’d been trying to drop hints for years, since high school in fact, that I liked him—but all he ever cared about was Ruby.” She took a step further into the cave.
Sonja stumbled over her thoughts for something else to say. “That night when you two were together, that was a mistake. Kamson was drunk.”
“It doesn’t matter. He belongs to me, not that pill popping cheater of a sister.”
“Ruby’s gone now,” Sonja reminded her.
“And it didn’t change anything. I tried to comfort Kamson while he was upset, but he didn’t want anything to do with me. He pushed me away when I tried to hold him.”
“So, you shot him?” Sonja gasped.
“He can’t be with anyone else,” she insisted, taking another step.
Sonja knew there was no reasoning with her and there was no way out. She had to make a run for it and push Patty down. At this close of range, Sonja knew she would be hard to hit.
She held her breath and decided to count down from three to herself before making her escape. However, she never ended up having to.
From a dark crevice in the wall, another person seemed to appear, stumbling forward practically on top of Patty. Even in the dim light, Sonja could see the open dead eyes and hanging mouth of the murder victim.
“Ruby,” Patty shrieked, dropping the bow and stumbling backward out of the mouth of the cave.
“Look out,” Sonja cried.
Patty didn’t listen, she continued her uneasy steps backward until she lost her balance and fell off the falls. There was a splash from below.
Ruby’s body, which had fallen out of its hiding place, lay in the dirt motionless.
Chapter 14
“She’ll live,” Frank said the next morning over breakfast. He picked up a slice of crispy bacon and crunched down on it, following it with a sip of coffee. “Thankfully, so will Kamson. The arrow didn’t hit any organs, just went through the shoulder muscles.”
They sat together in the cottage’s breakfast nook, just off the kitchen and overlooking the estate grounds. After the rainfall the day before, a mist had settled over the grassy area giving it a ghostish look.
Sonja picked up her pink floral teacup from its saucer and drank the coffee that was in it. “Well, thank goodness for that.”
“They had to operate to remove it properly, and he may need another operation followed by some seriously painful physical therapy, but the doctors think he’ll be back in fighting shape in no time.”
“And Chandler?”
“He’s sticking around in town until Kamson is well enough to travel.”
Sonja set the cup down and picked up a piece of bacon.
“Now, that’s a true friend. Even after everything that has happened.”
“They’ve both lost their girlfriends in a way,” Frank pointed out.
“True. I can’t decide which situation is worse, though.”
Frank sighed, shaking his head. “Neither can I.”
“So, no charges for stealing the body?” she asked, munching down on the savory piece of meat.
“Well, I can’t exactly overlook it, but I’ll try to be lenient. Tampering with evidence and withholding information from the police both apply here.”
“I see,” Sonja agreed.
“You know, someone else didn’t exactly make wise choices,” he pointed out, narrowing his eyes at her.
Her jaw dropped. “Frank, I worked very hard to not stick my nose where it didn’t belong. When I did stumble upon something, I tried to bring it to you.”
Slumping his shoulders and putting his elbows on the table, he smiled. “I suppose you did. It’s more than I can say for past cases.”
“Besides, without my ritual in the woods, we would have never found that bottle of steroids.”
“Not that it applied directly to the murder, but it did tie in with Kamson’s crimes.” He cut into his waffle and took a bite, chewing it thoroughly before swallowing.
Sonja stared out at the woods beyond the grassy field, wondering what sort of spirit it was that had helped her this time.
“You and your ghosts,” Frank broke into her thoughts. “I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse. It might help us solve murders, but it sure seems to put you in danger.”
“I didn’t know I was going to be hunted and I was pretty sure that Kamson wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Well, he wasn’t a murderer, was he?” Frank said, pointing with his fork.
“No, he wasn’t.”
“But he might have been.”
“True, but I had a gut feeling about it.”
Frank twisted his lips in thought. “Are those gut feelings supernatural or just regular old Sonja feelings?”
She shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
Zombie Waffle Murder (A Wicked Waffle Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 8) Page 6
