“Like one of your donuts?” he said, still smiling.
“That video allowed us to get a search warrant for everything,” she said. “And all because you couldn’t wait until we were really gone to hang up this picture.”
Clarke did stumble for a moment but then regained composure. “So?” he said. “I wanted to hang up an autograph from someone I admire. Is that a crime?”
“No,” Ryan said. “But receiving stolen property is. And you knew for certain that this signature was stolen and part of a felony murder case because we questioned you about it. There’s no wiggle room on that.”
“Perhaps I was overzealous in obtaining an autograph with a dubious origin,” said Clarke. “But that’s all you’ve got. You can’t link me to anything else. All I did was buy some art that I shouldn’t have.”
“Funny thing about that,” Heather said. “When we made it clear that you were going to prison for receiving stolen property and believe me, you will be going to prison; it seemed that more people were willing to talk about your role in other crimes.”
“Imagine that,” said Amy.
“Phil Hunter, who is protected,” said Heather. “You won’t be able to hurt him. He has told us all about your involvement in Tormund Brown’s murder. And it’s not just his word against yours. How would a young intern be able to obtain such a rare poison? Because he had help from Lyle Clarke, of course. He’ll be able to back up his claims.”
“Stupid boy,” said Clarke. “And my lawyers will eat him alive. It’s clear that he’s just trying to make a deal. I don’t care what your evidence says.”
Hoskins ran into the room to join them. “Three more people are willing to talk about what Clarke did.”
“Do you care about that?” Heather asked.
“Much as I enjoyed these friendly chats, I think now is the time for me to exercise my right to be silent,” said Clarke.
“That works for us,” said Heather.
“It’s preferable even,” said Amy.
“The evidence will do all the talking,” said Heather. “Lyle Clarke, I don’t think we’ll be meeting again. I try to avoid prison.”
With that, Ryan and Hoskins read Lyle Clarke his rights and started escorting him from the room.
Heather couldn’t resist one more comment because he left.
“Bon voyage,” she said.
They took him away. Heather and Amy faced each other.
“You actually did it,” said Amy.
“That felt so good to see him taken away,” said Heather. “His web of crime will fall now. He won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”
“Congratulations on solving the biggest case yet,” said Amy.
“We solved it,” said Heather.
“I think you did the most brilliant detective work,” said Amy. “But I’ll take the compliment. Especially if there are donut prizes involved.”
“Of course there are,” said Heather. “And we can go back to my house and… oh no.”
“What?”
“Our new flight isn’t until tomorrow, and we literally have nothing in our house,” Heather said.
“Don’t worry,” said Amy. “I’ve been cooking up an idea about that.”
Chapter 18
Heather and Ryan walked up the path to their Hillside house with Amy.
“But why are we going here?” Heather said. “I already told you there’s nothing inside.”
“Well,” Amy answered. “That’s not completely true.”
She swung open the door, and the Shepherds were greeted with a resounding “Surprise!”
Heather had to keep herself from crying when she saw everyone she loved in Hillside gathered together. Because of the lack of furniture, everyone was able to fit inside. However, there were still donuts, of course. The counters were covered with them. Maricela and Jung were overseeing their sugary arrangement.
“I’m sorry that all your parties had to be rolled into one,” said Amy. “But consider this your going-away-slash-you-finally-caught-Lyle-Clarke-slash-surprise party.”
“How could you arrange this so fast?” Heather asked.
“Easy,” said Amy. “I just started calling people and telling them they had one more chance to see you before you moved. Then when we went to catch Clarke, Jamie took over plans.”
“Are you talking about me?” Jamie asked.
“Thank you for helping to plan this,” Heather said.
“It really makes us feel appreciated,” said Ryan.
“Of course, it just drives home even more how much I’m going to miss my amazing best friend,” said Heather wistfully.
Amy and Jamie exchanged a look.
“Should you tell her or should I?” asked Jamie.
“Tell me what?” Heather asked.
“Well, we have good news and bad news,” said Amy. “The bad news is that the heirs to our current house decided that they are going to sell it. We’re going to have to move.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Heather. “But what’s the good news?”
Amy smiled. “We’ve decided to move to Key West as well.”
“Don’t tease me,” said Heather.
“We’re not,” Amy assured her. “Remember all those secret meetings Jamie was having? He was meeting with Rudolph Rodney.”
“My new investor?”
“I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up until I had more details,” said Jamie. “But Rudolph Rodney has agreed to help me start my own pet grooming business in Key West.”
“Jamie, that’s wonderful,” said Heather.
“It’s not going to be as fancy as your store or Geoff’s. It’s going to be in a van and be a mobile business, but he’s going to help me get started,” Jamie said, smiling. “When I learned that having our house wasn’t as certain as it seemed, I wanted to look for other options. I have a good friend who lives in southern Florida anyway, so it works out for me.”
“And since my P.I. partner is moving away it might be good for my investigative business to follow her.”
Heather hugged her best friend. When they released, Amy said, “Now go mingle. You’re going to be able to see me a lot. Go see your other friends.”
Heather nodded. There was a lot of mingling to do. Her friends and people who she had helped on cases had all gathered to see her off. She had a short conversation with Geoff and discussed wedding plans briefly with Col and Mona. She saw Emily Potts and her new puppy Chip, and Heather was quite certain that they would love this house as much as she did.
Many people came up to thank her for all her sleuthing work. Caroline Humly of the Hillside Humly Hotel shook her hand for so long that she was afraid it was going to fall off.
Many people also came up to thank her for all the delicious donuts she had provided for them too. Heather assured them that Maricela would continue to do the same.
Outside Heather saw Herman Schultz, a short lawyer with a German accent who had helped them on a few cases. He was smoking his trademark cigar as he gave Heather his warm wishes. Heather was going to miss that interesting character but admitted she was glad to get away from the cloud of his cigar smoke.
“Mom,” Lilly said, running up to her. “I have good news.”
“So do I,” said Heather. “Amy and Jamie are coming to Key West too.”
“That’s great!”
“What’s your news?” Heather asked.
“Nicolas and Marlene are getting along great here,” said Lilly. “I think they’re going to become good friends. Now I don’t have to worry about them feeling lonely when I’m gone. We’ll all miss each other, but we’ll still have friends.”
Heather agreed that this was good news, and then Lilly ran off to play with her two best friends.
Heather saw Ronald Tombs and had a sweet conversation with him. He was Heather’s first investor and had helped her online business to grow. He was pleased to see that it was going to expand even further but admitted that he was glad that someone else was goin
g to take over as the main investor. He told Heather that he had been thinking about retiring from business for a while and do some traveling. Heather couldn’t begrudge him that; she was about to move to the beach.
Heather had been looking for Eva and Leila, and finally found her friends talking to Rudolph Rodney.
“There you are,” Eva said.
“We were just talking to your fine investor here,” said Leila.
“It seems that you never told him which house of his you were going to select,” said Eva.
“I didn’t?” Heather asked. “I’m so sorry. I’m normally so on top of things. It’s just been crazy.”
“I’m not worried,” said Rudolph Rodney. “You’ve done everything you’ve said and more to prepare for opening the new shop, and it sounds like you also caught a mobster at the same time. I think that you believed any of the houses would be fine, and so it wasn’t at the top of your To-Do list.”
“That’s probably right,” admitted Heather.
“But don’t worry,” said Eva. “We’ve already told him which one you have selected.”
“You did?” Heather asked. “Which one did I choose?”
“The three-family house, of course,” said Eva.
“You and your family will have one section. Amy and Jamie can have the second,” said Leila.
“And the third one,” Eva said.
“Can be for us!” said Leila.
“That is, if you don’t mind, dear,” said Eva.
“I don’t mind at all,” said Heather. “I’d love it. But do you really want to move?”
“We were looking at going there for a vacation,” said Leila. “But the more we looked, the more we liked it.”
“But your house was just fixed,” Heather pointed out.
“We did discuss that,” said Eva. “And I don’t plan on giving up the house. But we realized that all the people that we love are moving to Key West. And those people are more important to us than being in the house. You feel like family to us, and we’d like to stay with our family.”
“Plus,” Leila joked. “I really need to work on my tan.”
Heather was too happy for words. Her nemesis was headed to “the big house,” and the people she loved would be moving into a house with her. Add in some sand, sea, and donuts, and it sounded completely perfect.
Heather couldn’t wait for the new chapter of her life to being.
The End
Also by Susan Gillard
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Stay Curious,
Susan Gillard
About the Author
Susan Gillard is a lover of all things mysterious. She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri where her love of murder mystery novels grew.
Now she travels the country in search of the best baked goods and engaging with the locals who often become the inspiration for her wacky characters
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