by Zara Keane
“I’ll ask her, but I’d rather stay in my own home.”
“Just for a couple of days, Maggie.” His eyes pleaded with me. “I’d feel more comfortable if I knew you weren’t out there all alone without a car. I’m going to be working long shifts to wrap up the Huff murder case, and I won’t be around if something goes wrong.”
In other words, if someone tried to hurt me. In spite of the stuffy air in his office, I shivered. “Okay. I’ll pack a bag when I get home and find somewhere to stay. Julie’s place might be more convenient for working at the café. I’ll call her after our breakfast.”
His relief was palpable. “Thanks, Maggie. I’ll sleep better knowing you’re safe.”
After Reynolds and I had finished our coffee and scones, I left to go in search of my cousin. Julie taught Irish classes at the school on Saturday mornings, and she’d mentioned finishing at eleven o’clock. I glanced at my watch. If I walked quickly, I’d make it on time.
I speed walked through the town, navigating my way through crowds of tourists, and hurrying past islanders who wanted to pump me for details on last night’s dramatic arrest. When I reached the elementary school, my cousin was climbing into her new SUV. I flagged her down before she exited the parking lot.
Julie rolled down her window. “Hi, Maggie. What’s up?”
“Could you give me a ride out to Shamrock Cottages?”
“Sure. Hop in.” She reached across and opened the passenger door for me.
I climbed up and fastened my seat belt. “I have another favor to ask. Could I crash at your place for a couple of nights? Reynolds doesn’t want me staying on own my until he wraps up both murder cases, and I have to admit I don’t feel comfortable being out there with no car.”
“No problem, but I don’t have room for all your animals.”
“Noreen looked after them while I was in Galway last night. I’m sure she won’t mind keeping them for a day or two.”
Julie’s phone rang as we pulled up in front of my cottage. She glanced at the display and pulled a face. “It’s my boss. Go on in and get packed. I’ll take the call out here.”
“Okay. I’ll make it quick.”
I jumped down from the SUV and jogged over to my front door. I slid the key into the lock, but to my astonishment, the door opened before I’d finished the last twist. That was odd. A cold dread froze my limbs, but I shook it off. Noreen had a spare key. Maybe I’d forgotten to give her something for the animals, and she’d come back to get it.
I glanced over my shoulder, but my cousin was still on the phone. Shaking off my nerves, I pushed open the door and stepped inside. A quick check assured me that the cottage was empty. Relief washed over me and the heart rate I hadn’t noticed increase returned to normal. I went into my bedroom and threw a few essentials into a bag. I’d already packed toiletries for my overnight trip, so I only needed a few extra items as well as more clothes.
When I was sure I had everything I’d need for the next few days, I zipped the case closed and went back into the hallway.
Under my home office door, a sliver of light spilled onto the floor. I frowned. Knowing the weather forecast for the weekend predicted hot temperatures, I’d closed all my shades before I’d left with Lenny yesterday. I was certain I hadn’t left a light on in the office. I looked through the open front door. Julie was still on the phone. I glanced back at the office door. Cursing myself for my paranoia, I sidled down the hallway and eased the office door open.
Sure enough, the light was on, and my laptop was open. My heart lurched in my chest. No way had I left it open. Time to get the heck out of here. I spun on my heels and collided with the hard chest of Amb Huffington.
28
THE IMPACT WINDED ME. I staggered back, giving my opponent the advantage. Amb shoved me against the desk and kicked the door shut. I groped for a weapon and my fingers closed around a paper knife.
“Drop it,” Amb snarled, his eyes manic.
“Why should I?”
His sneer turned my blood to ice. “Because I have this.”
The instant he pulled the gun, I let the paper knife fall to the ground with a clatter. My heart pounding, I backed behind the desk.
“I’m not planning to shoot you, Maggie. Not unless you make me.” Amb turned the key in the office door, locking me in the room with him.
“You killed your father,” I said dully. “Why threaten to shoot me? The police already suspect you and Martha.”
Amb’s laugh rang hollow. “Did Doug tell them we killed Dad? Typical. He’d sell us all down the river to save his own neck.”
“Why are you here, Amb? What were you hoping to find on my laptop?” I said a silent thanks to Lenny for insisting I used strong passwords.
“Whatever dirt you’ve dug up on my family an me. Grandmother should never have hired you. As soon as she told me she’d asked you to look into Jimmy Wright’s murder, I knew you wouldn’t stop there.”
“And you knew I was a more competent investigator than Sergeant O’Shea,” I added. “The person you were sure would take over both murder cases once you’d ensured Sergeant Reynolds was out of the way. Doug took the blame for that, you know.”
Amb shrugged. “He was stupid enough not to wear gloves when he took the poncho off me. If the police found his prints on it, he only has himself to blame.”
“Doug didn’t know you’d left Reynolds face down in the stream, though. He thought you’d just hit him over the head.”
“The policeman fell into the water. I didn’t put him there.”
“I don’t believe you. I think you’d killed your father less than twenty-four hours before and you figured one more death wouldn’t make a difference.” I swallowed past my rage and kept my voice steady. “Just like you thought nothing of cutting my brake lines when you felt I was getting too close to the truth.
Sweat beaded on Amb’s upper lip. “You have no proof. It’ll be your word against mine.”
“I have you in my cottage, pointing a gun at me,” I snapped. “That’s not the action of an innocent man.”
“You were supposed to be away. Candace said you’d gone to Galway for the weekend.”
“For one night, not the whole weekend.” I took a deep breath and tried to steady my nerves. Julie was outside the cottage, safe in her car. What would Amb do when she came into the cottage looking for me? “Does Candace know what you’ve done?”
A look of revulsion passed over his face. “Of course not. I’d never involve her in anything this sordid.”
“When you’re hauled off in handcuffs, she’ll be involved,” I said tartly. “Candace and Hailey. How will your daughter feel growing up knowing her father is a murderer?”
Amb’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “I regret any pain my actions will cause my daughter and my wife, but I can’t change what I’ve done. I had no choice.”
I had no choice. The words echoed in my mind, creating a kaleidoscope of memories. “The weed killer in the milk,” I whispered. “That’s why you had no choice. Candace was going to kill your father before he had a chance to change his will.”
Amb’s jaw dropped. “You knew about that?”
“The gardener found sour milk and weed killer in the soil of the potted plant outside your father’s bedroom. I put two and two together.” Well, I had…just this instant. It made perfect sense. Candace would have considered her husband too weak to get the job done. Amb, in an act of twisted loyalty, chose to kill his father so that his wife wouldn’t be convicted of murder.
“I couldn’t let her do it,” he said, his voice shaky. “The guilt would have destroyed her.”
“How did you find out what she intended to do?”
“After the drama at dinner, I was agitated and couldn’t sleep. Candace wanted me to take one of her sleeping pills and said she’d take one as well.”
“But you didn’t take yours.”
“No.” His mouth twisted into a wry smile. “I hate sleeping pills. I only told her I’d
take one to give her peace of mind. I guess she didn’t take hers, either.”
“You saw her sneak out of the room and you followed her,” I prompted.
“Yes. I thought she was just going down to the kitchen to make hot chocolate. She sometimes does that when she can’t sleep. I decided I’d join her.”
“But when you got there, you saw her use the back door to go out to the shed where she broke the padlock and stole a container of weed killer.”
He nodded wordlessly.
“And then you saw her add a dose of the weed killer to a glass of milk.”
He shuddered and took a step back. “My father was in the habit of going for a late night swim if he had insomnia. When he dried off, he always drank a glass of warm milk before he went back to bed. George, his valet, prepared it for him and left it in front of his bedroom door.”
“And Candace intended to swap George’s milk for her poisoned version?”
“I guess so.” He stared at his shoes, the gun no longer pointing straight at me, but still very much present.
“So you got rid of the poisoned milk and decided to kill your father yourself.”
Amb’s sneer returned. “And I don’t regret it. My father was a horrible man. He made my mother’s life a misery, and he delighted in torturing his children and his employees. The world is a better place without Ambrose J. Huffington III.”
“Maybe, but murder is murder,” I said quietly. “It doesn’t matter how loathsome he was. You took his life. We have a justice system for a reason.”
“I don’t intend to be around to try out your justice system,” Amb said, his voice eerily high. He pulled back his shoulders and straightened the gun.
A cold sheen of sweat trickled down my back. Any second, he’d pull the trigger, and I’d be dead. And then he’d go after Julie. I had to stop him. But how?
In one fluid motion, I bent down to retrieve the paper knife from the floor and hurled it at Amb. Startled, he leaped back and fired, splintering the window frame.
Taking advantage of his distraction, I sprinted to the door, turned the key, and raced down the hallway toward the still open door. Outside, Julie had climbed out of her car and was running toward me. “I heard a shot.”
“Hit the deck,” I roared. “He’s got a gun.”
Wide-eyed with fear, my cousin threw herself onto the ground and covered her head with her hands.
I’d almost reached the door when I spotted a pair of large green orbs on top of my hallway closet. In a leap worthy of an acrobat, Mavis jumped down from her perch with a hiss and landed in front of Amb. He tripped over her and sent his revolver flying.
In a move my former gym teacher would have approved of, I caught the revolver with one hand, twirled it, and pointed it at Amb. “Hands where I can see them.”
He didn’t move a muscle.
“I’m serious. Hands up. And no funny business, or I might shoot you anyway.”
The man held up both arms. His fingers were curled into fists. “Please. I didn’t mean to hurt you and your friend.”
“Open your fingers,” I demanded. “Right now.”
In the distance, sirens drifted in the warm breeze.
Amb stared at me, dumbfounded. “You called the police.”
No, but my cousin must have done so. Thank goodness for Julie’s quick thinking. “Open your fingers.”
In a split second, Amb opened his hand and hurled a knife at my right arm. I got off a round before I registered the pain, but I must have only grazed him.
“Julie, stay down,” I yelled.
Amb charged out of the cottage and ran to Julie’s SUV. He leaped behind the wheel, and I let off another round, shattering the front windshield. With my injured arm, my aim was lousy. Quick as a flash, I switched to my left.
He gunned the engine and sent gravel flying as he roared down the drive. I fired twice, hitting one of the back wheels as well as the back windshield.
Only two rounds left. I had to make them count. Keeping my arm steady, I fired my last rounds, hitting one of the tires twice.
The SUV swerved all over the drive, but Amb kept his foot on the gas pedal.
“Can he keep going with the tires in that condition?”
I flashed her a grin. “Not for long.”
The sound of the approaching sirens grew louder. Julie and I ran to the end of the drive. The flashing lights of one of Whisper Island’s two squad cars zoomed toward us, closely followed by Lenny’s purple van.
My heart was in my throat as I watched Amb aim the SUV at them.
“He’s going to stop, right?” Julie whispered beside me. “Reynolds will swerve at the last second?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but no words came out. My throat was bone dry.
The SUV was almost to the squad car, at the narrowest point in the road. I heard a scream and realized belatedly that it came from me. In the next instant, Amb swerved the SUV toward the cliff, slowed briefly, and then accelerated.
Julie’s car flew over the side of the cliff, appeared to hang in the air for a second, and then began its perilous free fall to the rocks below.
29
IN SUBDUED SILENCE, Julie, Reynolds and I stood at the cliff edge and stared down at the wreckage of the SUV.
Only Lenny seemed thrilled by the action-packed turn of events. “Dude, two wrecked cars in one week? That’s epic, even by your standards, Maggie.”
“I only crashed one,” I pointed out. “Amb is wholly responsible for wrecking Julie’s car. And before he took off in it, he confessed to attacking you, and killing his father.”
“And himself,” Reynolds said quietly. “No one could survive that fall.”
We fell silent for a moment. Then Reynolds turned to me, tears in his eyes and pulled me close. “I thought you were in that car.”
Enveloped in the comfort of his arms, I leaned in and rested my head against his chest. “I’m fine, and so is Julie.”
“Fine apart from a cut on your arm,” a gruff voice said.
I whirled around to see Paddy Driscoll leaning against the passenger side of Lenny’s van.
“Paddy?” I asked in confusion. “What are you doing here?”
“I hitched a ride over to your place with Lenny. I was going to talk to you about Nancy.”
Guilt gnawed at my stomach. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you find the answers you wanted.”
“On the contrary.” Paddy pulled a thick envelope out of his shirt pocket. “You asked questions and jogged someone’s conscience. That person came forward to confess they’d hit Nancy with their bicycle and buried her in the woods.”
I slow-blinked. “Nancy was hit by a bike?”
“By a kid on a bike.” Lenny nodded to Paddy in a silent acknowledgment of an agreement they must have struck on their way to meet me.
I cast my mind back to my odd conversation with Carl Logan at Marley House, and the pieces fell into place. “Carl?” I mouthed to Lenny.
He gave me the briefest of nods, and solved the mystery of what had befallen Nancy the sheep.
Paddy stepped forward and shoved an envelope of cash into my hand. “This is more than we agreed on, but your work was worth it to me.”
“I can’t take your money,” I protested. “I didn’t solve the case. I had nothing to do with the person responsible coming forward.”
“But you did,” Paddy said firmly. “The fact I hired a P.I. made him realize how much the incident still bothered me, and he decided to confess. There are no hard feelings. He was only a kid.”
Reynolds laid a hand on my good arm. “Come on, Maggie. There’s nothing you can do here now. Go with Lenny and get your arm checked out. I’ll wait for the rescue team to arrive.”
I bit my lip and wondered if I should tell him about Candace’s intention to kill Huff. In the end, my sense of justice overcame my reservations. “Amb claims he only killed Huff because Candace intended to kill him with weed killer.”
Reynolds raised an eyebro
w. “Is that the weed killer Rob Hennessy found in the potted plant?”
I nodded. “What are you going to do with the information?”
“I’ll question Candace, obviously, but at the moment, I don’t see how I could charge her with the intention to kill her father-in-law.”
The breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding came out in a whoosh. Even if Candace had contemplated murder, I didn’t want to see Hailey left with no parents. “Will you let me know what happens?”
His slow-burn smile turned my knees to jelly. “I’ll fill you in on all the details, Maggie. If I didn’t, you’d never let me hear the end of it. Now go with Lenny and get your arm checked by a doctor. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Reynolds knocked on my door holding a bag of Noreen’s muffins. “It’s my turn to come bearing breakfast and gossip.”
I inhaled the scent of my aunt’s banana chocolate muffins. “My favorite flavor. I’m starving, too.”
I dragged him through to the kitchen and fixed us coffees to take outside. When we were settled on the deck, and I was armed with a muffin, I demanded, “Spill. I want to know everything.”
“There’s not much to tell. Candace was devastated, but Martha and Helen seemed resigned. Martha seems to think she’ll be able to persuade Candace and Hailey to join her on her trip to Italy next month.”
“I hope they take her up on the offer. A change of scene before they go home sounds like a good idea.”
“And Helen Huffington asked me to give this to you.” Reynolds drew an envelope out of his breast pocket.
I took the thick cream envelope gingerly.
“You’re looking at it as if it contains anthrax,” Reynolds said dryly.
“I’d rather not hear from any of the Huffingtons ever again,” I admitted. “I’m perfectly happy to go back to my mundane, murder-free existence.”
He grinned. “Aren’t you going to open it?”
“Oh, all right.” I tore open the envelope and removed the single sheet of paper it contained. A check fell into my lap. I glanced at the amount and gasped. “Fifty thousand euros? Is she out of her mind?”
