“She was going to ruin my plans. I heard her tell Preston that she was pregnant with his child. He was mine first!” The flashlight shook in Marta’s hands.
So that was it. I had all my answers now. “You’re still in love with Preston. And you needed both Daphne and Sylvia out of the way to have him.”
She sniffed. “You don’t understand. He’ll see that it’s for the best when Sylvia goes to prison. We were always meant to be together. We have a child, for goodness’ sake!”
When I didn’t reply, she went on. “I know that you were getting ready to go to the police. I’ve been following you around. But I can’t believe you had the gall to come back and bother Preston again today after he said he was getting a restraining order. You just can’t take a hint.”
“Does Willow know that you’re her biological mother?” I blurted out. Now I realized why Marta had looked so familiar the first time we’d gone to the house. Willow might have Preston’s eyes, but the rest of her face was all Marta.
She shifted the flashlight so that I could see her face. Her lips trembled, and she brushed a hand across her eyes. “I sometimes think that Willow suspects, but no, she’s never asked me, and I promised not to tell. After I got pregnant, Preston said that he couldn’t divorce his wife and marry me. He’d built a public persona as a happily married man and author. He said he loved me, but it would hurt his career. I was so crazy for him that I was willing to do anything he asked.”
“And you still are,” I said quietly.
Marta ignored my comment. “Preston had just had his first bestseller. He wanted the baby but refused to divorce Sylvia. He said she was the type of wife who would enhance his career. Not a young girl like me who had nothing.”
My eyes darted toward the door while I waited for her to go on.
“Sylvia.” Marta spoke the name between clenched teeth. “She wanted to give Preston a baby more than anything. She’d been trying to get pregnant, then had to have an emergency hysterectomy. Sylvia knew Preston had been cheating on her, and he admitted it. When he told her about the baby, they agreed to let me stay in the house and have contact with Willow as long as I never told her I was her mother. They made me sign my rights away. And I was stupid enough to do it.”
Marta gulped back a sob, then turned slightly and jerked open the drawer of the microwave stand, obviously searching for something. The flashlight moved off my face and into the drawer. Although dizzy, I wasted no time charging at her. The room turned upside down, but I managed to catch her off guard for a second, before the flashlight connected with my ear and a stinging pain shot through my head. Marta stumbled backward, and the flashlight shot out of her hands and cracked against the ceramic flooring, leaving us in total darkness. I didn’t wait to see what she’d do next. I needed to get help for Gabby. In the darkness, I found the door to the main store and fumbled with the knob, then slammed it shut behind me.
“Get back here!” Marta screamed.
I was surrounded by complete darkness. My heart was in my throat as I moved clumsily through pitch black. I felt the edge of an aisle, moved down it, and then kept walking until I hit the wall. I ran my hands quietly over the bottom shelves until I found a thick hardcover book, which I lifted in my hands. Still reeling from my earlier fall, I forced myself into a crouching position and waited. I could hear Marta moving around in the store, throwing books to the floor and cursing. “Where’s the light switch?” she screamed.
I smiled to myself, grateful she couldn’t see my reaction. The only wall switch was up by the front of the store, and it would be a while before she found it. I tried to figure out my position in the store and guessed I must be close to the halfway mark of the front door.
Gabby had a hammer behind the front register. I’d seen her use it last week when she was hanging pictures. I’d have to try and find it in the darkness. I didn’t think Marta had another weapon on her and most likely was searching for a knife when I charged her. But had she found one?
“You’re ruining everything!” Marta’s voice rang out in the darkness, and too close for my comfort. “I thought the rock and spray paint would scare you off, but no, you still had to be a pest, trying to figure things out instead of leaving it to the police, like normal people do. You gave yourself away today. As soon as you asked about the cannoli, I knew you were on to the truth. Why couldn’t you have left well enough alone?”
There was silence, as if she expected to hear me answer, and then Marta spoke again, more quietly this time. “You see, I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want to lose Willow, but I had nothing to give her. No money. No family. If I’d tried to keep her, I would have had to leave the Rigottas’ home and employment. Willow would have everything she needed with them. Money, excellent schools, the finest clothes. Every opportunity I never had, and this way I would still get to see her. When I overheard Daphne tell Preston about her pregnancy and that he was the father, I knew it was now or never. I had to act fast.”
Her voice had grown closer, as if she was standing directly across from me in the middle aisle. My heart thumped so loudly I was positive she could hear it.
“Don’t you understand?” Marta asked, her tone softening. “He’d never have come back to me if Daphne had his child. She would have demanded he leave his wife, and I’d be left with nothing…again. By killing Daphne, I solved the problem. And by framing Sylvia, I’d finally get her out of the way. With Preston alone and grieving the loss of his child, I could have provided the love and support he needed, and he would finally realize that I was the woman he should have been with all along. We could have been a family—me, Willow, and Preston.”
But if he’d loved you in the first place, Marta, he wouldn’t have stayed with Sylvia. You killed an innocent woman for nothing. It wasn’t even Preston’s child. Oh, how I longed to say those words out loud, but I forced myself to stay silent. I had to make a break for the front of the store when or if she ever moved away from me.
Marta started breathing move heavily. “Where are you? Come out now. I promise not to hurt you.” Her voice sounded closer, and books crashed to the floor again. She was in the aisle to the right of me. I could try to run past her, but it was risky. I hoped she’d move back in the opposite direction.
“God, how I hate Sylvia. I should have killed her, too!” she screamed suddenly. “Can you believe she always made me call her Mrs. Rigotta? She loved the fact that she got the title, and I didn’t. She deserves to go to prison. For years, I’ve had to put up with her ordering me around, doing all her bidding. But do you know why I hate her the most?”
I gripped the bookshelf with my fingers until I was near the middle aisle. Marta’s breathing slowed, and I listened to the silence, trying to get a bead on where she was. My heart was in my throat, and then horror of all horrors, a sneeze started to build inside me. I almost dropped the book when I put a hand over my face.
“She can’t even boil an egg, but she got all the credit,” Marta snickered. “By the way, that’s how I knew you were lying. Sylvia never would have told you I made the cannoli or anything else for her precious show. That was one secret she was prepared to take to her grave. But that’s not the biggest reason I hate her. It’s because of the way she treats my daughter. Like an inconvenience, instead of as a gift, which is what Willow is.”
I managed to suppress the sneeze and raised the book in front of me, ready for action when she moved closer. As I’d hoped, she kept on talking.
“The night of the signing, Willow called and asked if I would come pick her up. She and Sylvia left when Daphne arrived but they had an argument, which was nothing new. So Willow got out of the car and marched back to the bookstore. When I arrived, I went into the back room from the alley and didn’t see her. But I did see the key sitting on the counter and picked it up. Then I went back outside to the car in the alley and waited for Willow. She came out of the coffee place a minute later, a
nd we left.”
The alley had certainly been doing a booming business that night.
She chuckled quietly in the darkness. “After everyone went to bed, I called Daphne up and said that Willow and Gabby needed to meet her at the store. Some copies of Preston’s books were missing pages, and customers were upset. Daphne wasn’t happy but said she’d be there.”
My head throbbed unmercifully, as I listened, not daring to breathe. I was waiting for that perfect moment—one that I could not afford to waste, as our lives depended on it.
“So Daphne came to the store but instead of Gabby, she found me.” There was triumph in Marta’s voice. “I had a tray of cannoli, and she thought they were left over from the ones you made. When I told her Gabby would be back shortly, she immediately started stuffing her face with the pastries. Within a minute, she was lying on the floor, begging me to call for help. She asked me to get her purse and said that she had an EpiPen in it, but I moved it out of her reach. Shortly afterward, she passed out.”
Bile rose in the back of my throat. How sick was this woman? She’d not only killed Daphne but had watched her plead for help while dying.
My breathing sounded a bit loud to my own ears, as the whiff of Marta’s lilac perfume hit my nose. Sheer panic set in, and I didn’t wait any longer. I heaved the book forward as hard as I could in the darkness and was rewarded with a resounding “Oof.” I moved to the right and hurried through the darkness. For the first time in my life, I had an idea of what it was like to be blind. The loss of such an important sense left me feeling defenseless and frightened. I’d never even liked to sleep in total darkness, always preferring to have a light on in the house somewhere. The blackness was suffocating as I continued to run through it, hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel.
Hope bloomed in my chest as I moved on, aware of Marta’s boots clomping after me. I must be close to the front door. I only needed to find it, slide the lock back, run out into the street, and scream for help.
My stomach was heavier than a bag of rocks. Jackhammers pounded inside my head until I longed to scream in agony. My arm bumped into one of the aisles, but I managed to stay on my feet and keep moving. I had to be close to my destination.
At that moment, I crashed into something—most likely Gabby’s book cart—and a wave of pain shot through my body. I went down, hitting my face hard against the floor. With a groan, I tried to stand but was immediately hit from behind and shoved back down.
For a skinny little thing, Marta was strong. Within seconds she’d pinned me to the floor with her knees, one resting on my right arm while the other one pressed painfully into my chest. It immediately became difficult for me to breathe. I twisted and writhed but was weak from my fall and couldn’t free myself. Marta wrapped both of her hands around my neck and started to squeeze it tightly.
Her face was directly above mine, but I couldn’t see it. She was panting heavily, and her foul, moist breath seared my nostrils. My lungs screamed for air. Panicked, I managed to dig the nails of my left hand into her wrist, desperately trying to free her fingers from my throat. She wriggled her hand free and smacked me across the face so hard that my ears began to ring.
My mother’s and father’s faces flashed before me, then Dylan’s. I became lightheaded and knew I was about to lose consciousness. Heaven help me. I didn’t want to die like this. With my last bit of strength, I managed to lift my knee and thrust it into Marta’s stomach. With a gasp, she fell off me. I tried to lift myself off the floor, choking and wheezing, but she found me in the darkness and pushed me down. She began to squeeze my neck again when a loud clanging noise vibrated through the bookstore’s walls. Marta let out a groan and released her hold on me.
The room was silent, except for me gasping for air. I couldn’t seem to get enough into my lungs and must have lain there for a minute before the light came on. I blinked against the sudden brightness. I was on my side, staring at Marta’s limp body next to mine. She was flat on her back and out cold.
Bewildered, I glanced up. Gabby stood a few feet away from me with a triumphant smile on her face, swaying from side to side and looking like she might keel over at any minute. Her dark hair was matted with blood, and her face was a sickly white color. For several seconds, I continued to stare at her in amazement, wondering if my mind was playing tricks on me.
She extended her hand for me to take. In her other one was the steel serving tray I’d used for the cannoli on the night of the signing. I’d forgotten I’d left it here. With her help, I managed to stand, albeit clumsily, and she wrapped an arm around my shoulders to support me. I bent at the knees, still gasping for breath.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Thanks to you,” I said hoarsely.
She guided me forward. “Come on. I’ve got some electrical tape behind the counter.” She reached for her phone. “We can tie her up, and then call Gino.” A frown creased her face. “You look awful. Can you breathe all right?”
I managed a nod. My throat was sore, my head hurt, and every other part of my body ached. “Thank goodness you woke up in time.”
“But I didn’t.”
I stared at her, dumbstruck. “Wait a second. You mean—you were faking? The entire time?”
Gabby gave a low chuckle as we limped toward the counter. “Not the entire time. She did knock me out for a couple of minutes, and then it took me a few more before I could get up and figure out exactly what was going on. I may have been down,” she said, “but I sure wasn’t out. You were trying to get her away from me, and then it was my turn to do the same for you.”
“We’re quite a team,” I said.
“Darn straight,” she agreed. “As my brother would say, family over everything.”
Twenty-Three
A banging awakened me from a deep sleep. Puzzled, I opened one eye and listened. Luigi was lying on Dylan’s pillow staring back at me, his motorized purrs filling the room. When the noise came again, he yawned, stretched, and jumped off my bed.
There was someone at my front door. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. Seven o’clock in the morning. Ugh. Way too early for visitors, and it felt like I’d just gone to bed. That was partially true—it had been after two o’clock when I’d returned from the hospital.
With a sigh, I found my robe, grabbed my phone off the nightstand, and staggered to the doorway, where Luigi was waiting. I followed him down the stairs, gripping the rail between my hands as the banging continued. By staring at my phone screen, I’d already deduced who was at the front door. The urgent voice that called from outside confirmed my suspicion.
“Tess?” Justin shouted. “Are you okay?”
Luigi waited while I unlocked and opened the door. Justin stood there, looking rugged and handsome in jeans and a gray shirt that matched his eyes. When his gaze came to rest on mine, his eyes filled with relief.
“Thank God.” He stepped inside and wrapped me in his arms. “I just saw your text. Sorry—I went home last night and slept for ten hours straight. Are you okay? How’s Gabby?”
“We’re both fine.” When I sent the text from the hospital around midnight, I was aware he might not see it for a while. He’d come off an eighteen-hour shift and had to be exhausted. But I also knew that if I hadn’t attempted to contact him, he’d be hurt and upset when he found out later.
He continued holding me in silence for a minute while I let myself drink in the woodsy scent of him that reminded me of the great outdoors. It was wonderful to feel safe and protected again. Justin had always been there for me, but I hadn’t felt secure since Dylan died.
“Gabby has a slight concussion, so we were at the hospital until pretty late. They didn’t make her stay over, so she went home when I did. Lou’s taking care of her.”
He drew back from me and gently touched the bruise on my cheek where Marta had struck me. His jaw tightened in anger. “I’d love to
be in a room alone with that psycho for about five minutes.”
I squeezed his arm. “It looks worse than it feels.”
“I can’t believe this happened to you, and I didn’t even know about it! Like Dylan being murdered wasn’t enough for you to deal with.” His voice became gruff. “I’m glad Gabby was there for you, if I couldn’t be.”
The memory of Marta choking me and the final darkness closing in was enough to make me shudder inwardly. “If Gabby hadn’t been with me, I don’t think I’d be standing here right now.” Somehow, I needed to forget about those few minutes of sheer terror when I wasn’t sure if I’d live or die. “Gino said that Marta will go away for a long time.”
Justin’s expression was grim. “Well, that doesn’t bring Daphne back, but I’m thankful you’re safe.” He took me by the hand, and we sat down together on the couch. Luigi immediately jumped into his lap, and Justin absently scratched him behind his ears. “Is everything still going forward with the grand opening?”
“Yes, it’s happening as planned.” I brought my hand to my throat, fully aware that Marta’s fingermarks were still on display. “Good thing I own turtlenecks. And some cover-up will do wonders for my cheek because I wouldn’t want to scare off the clientele.”
His eyes were warm and soft as he looked at me, similar to a cuddly blanket. “You have me marked down for a table, right? Reservation for two.”
My heart sank into the pit of my stomach at his words, but I tried to act nonchalant. “Sure. It will be nice to see Natalie.” I hoped he knew what he was doing but didn’t think I could watch her break his heart again. Maybe I’d get used to it eventually. I vowed to be there for him always, no matter what happened between them.
It Cannoli Be Murder Page 22
