Merrily Murdered
Page 15
Abby took a step back and Gloria reacted by pointing the revolver at her.
“You’re not going anywhere. You’re not telling anyone. You hear me?”
The gun fired and Abby found herself falling.
Epilogue
The sun glinted in her eyes. Abby had no idea how long she could hold her breath underwater. Looking around, she searched for signs she had been hit, but the water looked pristine.
Had she heard another gunshot?
Keeping herself underwater, she turned and looked toward the end of the pool but she didn’t see Gloria. Again, she turned. That’s when she saw a shape that turned into Doyle. He appeared to be barking at the pool.
She watched some air bubbles erupt from her mouth and knew she would have to surface soon.
Doyle looked frantic, jumping from side to side and barking at the pool. She had another look around. She thought she saw a shape moving at the end of the pool. Looking back toward Doyle, she saw him take a backward step and then leap into the water.
His little legs pumped hard to keep him afloat. She swam toward him and emerged enough to scoop in a breath and look around.
Gloria was at the end of the pool, crouched down, her hands behind her back. Joshua stood over her, his phone pressed to his ear.
Looking at her, he shook his head.
Doyle bumped his nose against her and then covered her face in doggy kisses.
“Doyle, you came to my rescue!”
“You can come out now,” Joshua called out. “It’s safe.”
“Yeah, I’m not so sure. You sound grumpy.”
“Do you blame me?” He pointed toward one of the French windows.
The shot had missed her but it had hit the window.
“How close where you standing to that?” she asked.
“Too close for comfort.”
Abby didn’t wait to see Gloria Mercer being escorted out of her house in handcuffs. She wanted to go home to a cold shower, but before that she had to give Doyle a bath to get the chlorine out of him…
The AC in the car took care of drying her clothes while the sun shining in her eyes forced her to focus on the road.
She knew exactly when she reached town. An angel stood in the corner outside of Brilliant Baubles flapping her wings.
Joyce. She had forgotten to call her with an update. Abby imagined she had tried to contact Joshua but he had been on the line with her.
Abby pulled up outside the antique store and wound the window down. “We’re all fine.”
“I’ve been worried sick,” Joyce declared. “We saw several police cars speed by…”
“Sorry, it got a little sticky there for a while. But Doyle jumped to my rescue. I’ll tell you all about it later.”
“It’s carols night,” Joyce called out as Abby drove on to the pub.
She found Faith waiting for her at the curb. “Why is your phone not on?”
“It died on me. I need to get a waterproof phone.”
“Did you go for a swim? Why didn’t you call me? I would have loved to have a swim.”
“I didn’t really have a choice… Come on up, I’ll tell you all about it.”
“I feel I should write an incident report and post it outside the Gazette,” Abby said when she opened the door to her apartment and found Joshua standing in the hallway. “I had to tell Faith the entire story from beginning to end before she’d let me have a shower.” She nudged her head and invited him in. “I’m waiting for Mitch to bring up my dinner. I figured I should eat something before going to the singalong.” Joshua wore jeans and a T-shirt so that could only mean he had wrapped up the case. “Did you come here to tell me off for this afternoon?”
“I don’t have the energy. Just came to say we found the wrench in the shed. It’s been thoroughly cleaned but it’s definitely Harold’s wrench. He owned a special set of German tools. Quite expensive.”
Just as he sat down opposite Abby, there was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it.”
“No need. I told Mitch to knock and enter.”
Mitch walked in whistling a tune under his breath and set the tray down on the coffee table. “Now are you going to tell me what happened?”
“After I eat.”
Looking at Joshua, he said, “She’s getting good at employing delay tactics.”
“Yes, I know.”
“While I have my mouth full, Joshua can tell you if Gloria confessed.”
Joshua shook his head. “She’s all lawyered up and not talking. From what Jon Reeds finally told us, she’d met with Harold in the back paddocks. Jon Reeds drove her there and he saw them having an argument. When he drove her back to the house, she said she needed a lift into town the next morning. She must have found out Harold was going in to fix Joyce’s refrigerator.”
“What about Jon Reed?” Mitch asked. “Apart from driving her, how is he mixed up in all this?”
“He’s an accessory after the fact. In other words, he intentionally assisted Gloria after she killed Harold. He’ll have a hard time proving he didn’t know she’d killed Harold.”
Abby hadn’t sensed any maliciousness in Jon Reed. He could have harmed her, but he hadn’t.
“It’s tricky for everyone concerned,” Joshua added. “We’d have to prove Jon Reed knew Gloria killed Harold.” Joshua looked at Abby.
“And if he does manage to provide proof he didn’t know?” she asked.
“He’ll get off.”
“I hope he does.”
That surprised Joshua.
“We don’t know the whole story,” Abby murmured. “He’s been working for the family all his life. Why is he so loyal? There must be a reason. Gloria must have coerced him…”
Joshua smiled. “As a matter of fact… His sister needs expensive medical treatment and Gloria used the opportunity to bribe him. I shouldn’t say this, but if he convinces the court he didn’t know what Gloria planned on doing that morning and that he couldn’t be sure she had killed Harold, I don’t mind if he gets off.”
“I’m not looking forward to writing about this. In fact, it’s going to be brief and I’ll just stick to facts and say the police refuses to comment. Stevie Garth doesn’t need to come back from his honeymoon to face a circus. It’s bad enough he lost the father he’d only just found. I guess he misses out on the inheritance.”
Mitch picked up one of the photos Abby had on the coffee table. “Wow.”
“What?”
“The train. It’s vintage. A Lionel train.”
“Is it worth anything?”
Mitch nodded and looking at his phone, he whistled. “The Lionel Standard Gauge set from 1934 sold for around $250,000 at auction, but it was in mint condition.”
“Harold’s brother will be stoked.”
Joshua shook his head. “There’s some happy news for Stevie Garth. We found a new will Harold wrote himself but it still needed to be witnessed. Harold wanted to give Stevie his train collection. It will all have to be sorted out by the solicitors.”
“Where was it?”
“You’ll never guess.”
“The pram?”
Joshua nodded. “Folded into a tiny square.”
Doyle trotted into the sitting room.
“Here’s my hero.” Looking up at Mitch, she explained, “Doyle jumped in the pool to rescue me.”
“Finally, we get to hear the story. What else happened?” Mitch asked.
“Well, it all sort of started with the Christmas of ’09 power outage. You’ll have to hear that story before I tell you the rest. Are you up for it?”
Mitch checked his watch. “Is that the time? We have to head over to the park. Carols by Candlelight is about to start…”
*****
I hope you’ve enjoyed Merrily Murdered. Next in the Dear Abby Cozy Mystery series: Rocking the Boat - Book 7
Other books by Sonia Parin
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