by Leona Fox
“Yes, I’m Candy,” she said, “how can I help you?”
“This is a nice dorm,” Sadie said looking around at the color-coordinated furnishings.
The poufy bed covering matched the bed skirt. Both were the same shade as the towels neatly folded over the back of a chair. In fact, thinking back to her own dorm room, this girl was one of those obsessively neat girls who Sadie had envied. There were times when she couldn’t see her floor for the clothes and shoes covering it.
“I like things to match,” Candy said. “Everything is in my favorite color for interior decoration, Candy pink.” She positively beamed at Sadie.
“I have different favorites for different things,” she explained.
“Sour apple green is my favorite color to wear,” she pointed to her T-shirt. “Red Hots red for outerwear. My car is jelly bean purple.”
“You must have a colorful personality,” Sadie said, and immediately regretted it. Could she be any lamer?
But Candy laughed and said, “Yes I do!” before looking at Sadie with anticipation.
“I’m sorry to barge in on you so early in the morning,” Sadie said, “but I’m looking into the sororities on campus. Did you rush this year?”
Was it Sadie’s imagination, or did Candy’s smile freeze?
“I did rush, yes, but I didn’t get into the sorority I wanted.” Her chin began quivering slightly but she stilled it.
“She wouldn’t even let me participate in the heinous hazing she had planned. She said I wasn’t their kind. Can you imagine the nerve? I even asked other sorority sisters if they agreed with her, and they didn’t know what I was talking about. She didn’t even ask anyone else their opinion. I’d like to know who she thought she was.”
“Was?” Sadie asked.
Candy had a look of complete satisfaction on her face. “Her days of snubbing are over.”
Sadie put her hand in her pocket and dialed Zack’s number. She had practiced dialing without looking for moments just like this one.
“What do you mean?” Sadie asked.
“Didn’t you know? Sylvia Jones is dead, dead, dead.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Hey! What are you doing? Take your hand out of your pocket.”
Sadie pulled her hand from her pocket and held it up, empty. Candy stepped forward, put her hand in Sadie’s pocket and pulled out her phone. She glanced at it, dropped it on the floor and ground her heel into it. Sadie thought it was a good thing she didn’t get attached to phones because this one came to a particularly brutal end.
“What are you doing on the phone?” she asked.
“Don’t play innocent with me,” Candy snarled. “You were recording. You were going to blackmail me.”
“I don’t think so,” Sadie said, trying to make her way stealthily toward the door, one step at a time.
“Oh yes,” Candy said, looking Sadie up and down.
“You clearly don’t have enough money to successfully blackmail me. No matter. What you don’t know is I can kill you as easily as I killed her.” Sadie bolted for the door.
“No!” Candy yelled at the top of her voice, lunging for Sadie and grabbing her leg.
Sadie struggled to stay upright but lost her balance, going down with a yell of frustration. “Why didn’t I bring Lucy or Betty?” she thought, “or even better, Mr. B!”
She kicked out at Candy but didn’t connect. Candy held on harder and pulled her further away from the door. Sadie kicked again and wriggled free, scrambling away on hands and knees only to be grabbed by the back of the pants and hauled back again.
"You’re strong for such a puny thing," Sadie grunted, and then yelled, "Help me!" as loud as she could.
Candy threw her arm around Sadie's neck, putting her in a headlock and dragging her back toward the bed. Sadie decided that fighting fair wasn't an issue and dug her fingernails into Candy's arm. Candy wailed and tightened her grip, cutting off Sadie's air supply.
Sadie pulled at Candy's arm, but the college girl was stronger than she appeared. That probably came with the crazy. How much time before she lost consciousness? She couldn't remember how long that took. She already was seeing black spots in front of her eyes.
She was about to pass out when the door slammed open and a group of girls spilled into the room. Sadie had a vague impression of baseball bats and scissors. One girl had what looked like a short whip in her hand. They converged on her, pulling Sadie from Candy's grasp.
Sadie fell to the floor and gasped for air. When she no longer felt like she was going to pass out, she turned around to see the other girls had wrestled Candy to the bed and were rolling her tightly in the pink quilt. That done, they sat on her.
Sadie now could see there were only four of them. Somehow it had seemed like there were twice that many when they'd come through the door. Perhaps that was because she was seeing double for lack of air.
"Thanks," She said. "You saved my life."
"Yeah," an athletic-looking girl sitting on Candy's legs spoke up. "It's become a regular thing. We live across the hall and keep one ear open for trouble. I don't know why no one presses charges, I would."
"Probably because she threatens to kill them if they do," Sadie said. "She's a regular horror."
"I am not a horror," came the strangled cry from within the quilt. "I'm misunderstood."
"Yeah, right." Sadie rolled her eyes. "She can go be misunderstood in prison."
At that moment, Zack came crashing through the door loaded for bear. He had his gun drawn and at least two officers at his back. If looks could kill the whole lot of them would have been dead.
"It's okay, Chief," Sadie said. "I've been rescued."
"Sadie, thank goodness. Your phone went dead and I had no idea where you were." He holstered his weapon.
"You need to file flight plans, so I know where to go looking when you are missing."
He reached down and helped her up from the floor. "Are you all right? Your neck is bruised."
"I'll be fine," she said. "Although I think I might be hoarse for a while."
"And who are these young women?" he asked, indicating the group on the bed.
"They live across the hall. I haven't had the chance to get their names yet, but apparently they've made it their mission to rescue folks from Candy Foster.” They finger waved at him.
"Candy's rolled up in the quilt. She's a real nutter," Sadie said, absently rubbing her neck.
"I can hear you," came the muffled voice from inside the bedroll, "and I am not a nutter."
"I'm sure she has a much nicer name for herself," Sadie said, "but I could say a lot worse than nutter."
"We studied narcissists in psychology," one of the girls chimed in. "I'm pretty sure Candy is one Classic symptoms."
"I am not!" The bundle of covers rocked as Candy tried getting free.
"It's not my fault people like to get in my way. If they didn't do that, I wouldn't have to retaliate. Not my fault."
Zack looked at his officers. "Take her out of here," he said. He looked at Sadie, "Did she confess to murdering Sylvia?" he asked.
"She said she would kill me like she killed her. I don't know if that counts as a confession or not."
The officers released the girls from their roles as Candy suppressors. As they slipped off of her and out of the room, Candy exploded from the quilt.
"Of course, I killed that stupid girl," she shouted as she jumped up and tried to dash past the police officers.
"She deserved it!"
She dodged one officer but smacked right into the other. They had her on the floor with her hands cuffed behind her back before she could even blink. Sadie was happy Candy wouldn't be trying her throat hold on her again. That was not pleasant.
"I should be in charge of that sorority," Candy said from the floor.
"They didn't even let me pledge." The two police officers grabbed her by the upper arms and hefted her to her feet.
"That's discrimination," she said as they frog-hopped her
from the room.
"They discriminated against my clear superiority." Candy continued talking as they led her down the hall to the elevator, but Sadie stopped listening, preferring to focus on Zack.
"Thank goodness you showed up when you did," Sadie said. "I was going to have to murder her if she talked for much longer."
"While I can sympathize with the sentiment, I can't condone the action," Zack said, but then he grinned. "And anyway, they are going to have a field day with her in court. It'll be a three-ring circus."
"Speaking of three-ring circuses," Sadie said, "we can spring Justin from jail now. Surely Steve Ryan will have to let him go now that Candy confessed? Don't you think?"
"Hard to say, but if you like, we can ride up there in my jeep and talk to him about it." He smiled down at her. "I'd love to take a ride with my girl. Especially as I nearly had a heart attack when your phone went dead!"
Sadie pointed to the bits of phone scattered over the floor. "That's what's left of my phone. I probably should retrieve the SIM card." She searched around until she found the bit of phone that still held the SIM card. When she picked it up she saw something familiar under the bed.
"Zack," she said, "come look at this." She pointed to the scrap of fabric wound into a ball under the bed.
"Isn't that the same fabric as the scarf that was twisted around Sylvia's neck at the lake?" He bent down to look under the bed but then was down on his hands and knees using a pencil to slide the material from its hiding place.
"Does fabric retain fingerprints?" Sadie asked.
"Some do. This one probably not, at least if it was in the water with Sylvia for any length of time." He slid the fabric into an evidence collection bag.
"But we want to keep from contaminating it." He closed the bag and labeled it.
"Do you always have evidence bags in your pockets?" Sadie asked, surprised. She couldn't remember him ever pulling an evidence bag from his pocket before.
"Not usually, I was at a crime scene earlier in the day and had an extra, so I put in my pocket. I had a premonition I would need it." He grinned.
"You have got the lousiest poker face I've ever seen," Sadie said. "Thank goodness or I might believe you were all-powerful."
She slipped the SIM card from her phone into her purse. "Can we get out of here now?"
"Just a minute, I've got to get a team here to go over this room. We'll have to wait until they get here."
Sadie dragged a chair into the hall and settled in to wait, thinking it would be forty-five minutes at least. But she hadn't been there more than five minutes when three officers stepped off the elevator.
The tall, dark one, seeing her surprise, said, “The team that removed the suspect called us. We had a head start on the boss.”
He grinned, his teeth bright and she automatically smiled back. Some people just have a way of making your day a little better. The team went into Candy’s room and shortly after that Zack came out.
“Come on, you,” he said. “Time for lunch. I hear the O’Learys have opened a taco stand on the pier out on Cottage Bay. The fish tacos are to die for, according to Officer Wilton.”
“Can’t say I’ve ever had fish tacos,” Sadie said. “But I’ll try anything once. Can we stop by and get Mr. B on the way? He’s been stuck inside since our walk this morning. I didn’t anticipate being gone this long.”
She tilted her head to see his watch. “Wow, it really is lunch time. It takes much longer to get the air choked out of you than I thought.”
He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “The fresh air will do you good, and after we eat, we can let Mr. Bradshaw run on the beach. I doubt there will be anyone down there, mid-week and all.”
Sadie started to feel better when Mr. Bradshaw was in the jeep with them, and by the time she was tasting her first bite of fish taco she was starting to feel like herself again. “So Chief Woodstone,” she said after wiping her mouth, “where do you plan to take me on our honeymoon?”
“I was thinking the south of France might be nice,” he said, “but you’ve traveled overseas so much that I changed my mind. What I think we should do is to rent an RV and go on a road trip. That way we can take Mr. B with us. And that way we could go wherever we wanted. To the Florida Keys, or up north. West toward the Rockies.”
“Or we could park it on the bluff above Seagrove,” she said, “and not go anywhere at all.” She laid her hand on his. “And roast hot dogs on the fire pit and sleep as late as we wanted.”
“That too,” he said. “If it makes you happy, it’s fine with me.”
“You are too good for me,” she said. “Really, you deserve someone who would make you meals and keep your house clean.”
“If I want meals and a clean house, I’ll hire a housekeeper. What I want is Sadie Barnett, independent outspoken champion of the downtrodden.”
“Oh good grief,” Sadie gasped.
“We’ve forgotten Justin. He’s rotting away in Steve Ryan’s jail while you’ve got Sylvia’s killer in yours.” She smacked herself on the forehead.
“How could I have forgotten him?” She looked at the food in front of her.
“Here I am stuffing my face. I don’t know how you can call me the champion of the downtrodden when I’ve been thinking of no one but myself.” She began getting up but he stopped her with a hand.
“The few minutes it takes us to finish eating won’t make that much of a difference,” he said.
“You’ve had a tough morning, Justin has been safe and sound – and fed – and the experience probably will make him a better teacher. Eat, or I’ll be as stubborn as you and refuse to drive you there.” He lowered his eyebrows at her, but it only made her laugh.
They took a few minutes to finish eating and then piled back in the jeep – after promising Mr. B a walk later in the day – and drove up to see if they could get Professor Ives out of jail.
Steve Ryan did not appear to be thrilled to see Sadie, although he was polite as he led them to his office. He scowled when he saw her and his face only cleared a little when Zack stepped up behind her. When they both were seated in his office, Steve cocked an eyebrow in their direction, clearly indicating he was waiting for them to tell him why they were there.
"We have proof," Sadie began at the same time Zack said, "I've got a suspect in..."
They looked at each other and Sadie struggled to keep a straight face. Life was just that much better when she was with Zack.
"You first," he said.
"No, you. You know all the legal jargon. I will be reduced to using whatsit, and doohickey if I go first," she said.
"If you insist," Zack said.
"I do," she said.
Steve Ryan sighed. "Any day now," he said.
"I have a woman in custody who has confessed to killing Sylvia Jones," Zack said. "And a team in her dorm room is collecting evidence. We found the remainder of the scarf that was wound around Sylvia's neck in this woman's room and it seems pretty cut and dried."
"I think it's a pretty compelling reason to release Justin Ives," Sadie butted in.
"Oh sorry, I was letting you go first." She waved a hand for him to go on.
"Actually, I think that's all we need to say for now," Zack said. "Steve and I will need to negotiate an exchange of prisoners and evidence, but that can wait."
"At least until we see if the state wants to step in," Steve said. "I'm not sure I'm ready to release Mr. Ives at this point, though. What if they were in it together?"
"Got any proof of that?" Zack asked.
"Not really," Steve admitted.
"Then let us take him home," Sadie exclaimed. Both the men raised their eyebrows at her.
"Please," she added. "Oh, come on. Give the guy a break. He's already totally demoralized."
"If he's a murderer he deserves to be demoralized," Steve said.
"But he's not. I know he's not, Mr. Bradshaw knows he's not," she said, pointing to the dog at her feet. "And Zack kn
ows he's not."
"Zack?" Steve said.
"I am ninety-nine point nine percent sure Justin Ives is not a murderer," Zack said.
Steve took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay, I'll release him, but he's not to leave the state until we tell him he can."
"Done," Sadie said and stuck out her hand for him to shake.
He waved her away. "This isn't a handshake deal," he said. "This is a paperwork deal, you'll need to be patient."
"Why don't we take Mr. Bradshaw for a walk while we wait?" Zack said. "Paperwork is never quick."
"Can I talk to Justin first?" Sadie asked.
"Better let her, Steve," Zack said, "or she'll be sitting on your desk until he's released."
In the end, Steve capitulated and Sadie was able to tell Justin he was being released. He seemed a little like Eeyore, but he perked up when they said he didn't have to go back in his cell while he waited. Sadie told him she'd be back to take him home.
"The lake?" Zack asked as they exited the big double doors.
"Uh, no," Sadie said. "Let's drive over to the coast."
"Your wish is my command," Zack said and opened the jeep’s door for her.
"Listen you, the last time you said that we found a dead body," she said.
"Anything for you," he said.
"Much better," she said, doing her best to keep a straight face and failing miserably. "To the beach, James."
So, of course, he took her there.
* * *
Find out what Sadie discovers in book 9 of The Seagrove Mysteries! Coming Soon!
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