Stranger Danger

by Maria Geraci

  Did he have opportunity? No. He was in a car trying to get away as fast as he could. He and Anita left the beach house at what … four fifteen? Jefferson was murdered sometime between five and five thirty, about an hour after Archie and Anita had already left town. They were all the way to Tallahassee when they …

  They were all the way to Tallahassee?

  Wait. What did Travis tell me again?

  I thought you’d like to know that about an hour ago we caught Hoyt Daniels and Anita Tremble. They were outside of Tallahassee when they got stopped by the highway patrol for a broken taillight.

  Travis gave me that information at almost ten o’clock the night of the murder. Tallahassee is less than a three-hour drive. If Archie and Anita really did hightail it out of town when they said they did, then by 9 p.m. they should have been almost to Jacksonville.

  Which means they didn’t leave town at four fifteen.

  Anita and I got back to the beach house around four that afternoon. Once we knew we’d been compromised, we packed up and left the beach house immediately.

  Archie said they left the beach house at four fifteen. He never said they left town. I made that assumption on my own. Which means he was still in town when Jefferson was killed.

  There was something else about that conversation with Archie that has me puzzled. What was it?

  I pull my VW bug into The Bistro parking lot. Betty Jean must be wondering what’s taking me so long. I unclip Paco’s leash and open the kitchen door.

  Archie was disturbed when I told him that Jefferson never went to The Harbor House to see the potential mark, who I now know was Betty Jean. And he had no idea that Jefferson was murdered between five and five thirty. I gave him all that information when I went to see him at the jail.

  Once again, I ask myself, why would he confess to a murder he clearly didn’t commit?

  And then, it hits me.

  Archie was disturbed because it was in that moment when I unwittingly gave him the missing pieces to the puzzle, that he was able to figure out who killed Jefferson Pike. There’s only one person Archie cares enough about to take the fall on a murder rap.

  Paco starts to growl.

  The kitchen is eerily quiet. “Betty Jean?” I call out.

  I fumble for my cell phone. I need to dial 911.

  “Put that phone down, Lucy.” Anita Tremble’s voice sounds anything but mousy right now. “Or your geriatric friend here is going to get a free neck job.” Anita is standing in the doorway that leads to the dining area. She’s got one hand wrapped around Betty’s Jean’s waist and in the other hand, she’s holding a paring knife to her throat.

  Rats. I should have seen this coming. When will I ever learn? Will isn’t the only one who suffers from too-stupid-to-live syndrome.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Fortunately, or unfortunately, this isn’t my first one-on-one with a crazy person threatening someone with a knife. If my past experiences have taught me anything, it’s that I have to defuse this situation logically, without emotion. I need to reason with her. It’s the only way I can get her to do what I want.

  “Anita, you’ll never get away with this. Now, please, before this gets worse for you, put that knife down,” I say firmly.

  “Make me.”

  That didn’t go well.

  “I’m only going to say this one more time,” says Anita. “Get rid of the phone. Better yet, step on it.”

  “You want me to step on my phone? Are you crazy? This is an iPhone 11. Do you know how much this thing cost?”

  “I don’t care if it’s made of gold. I’m not going to have you call the cops. Either you smash it now, or Betty Boop gets some much-needed plastic surgery.”

  “Hey!” says Betty Jean. “People say I look great for my age.”

  Anita snickers. “Shut up, you dumb cow. You looked ridiculous in that blonde wig, by the way.”

  Since logic and reason don’t seem to be working, it looks as if I’ll have to humor her while I find a way out of this mess. “Okay. Sure. No problem. I’ll smash my phone. Just give me a minute.”

  “Now.”

  I blindly fumble with the screen for a moment and discreetly text 911, only since I can’t see what I’m doing, I’m not sure if I was successful. I throw my phone across the room. It shatters into two pieces against the hard tile floor. There went my free upgrade.

  Paco looks up at me like he’s asking me what to do. I give a little shake of my head no. Stay right where you are, boy.

  “Happy now?” I ask Anita.

  “I will be as soon as I do what I came here for.”

  I’m afraid to ask what that is, but I think I have a pretty good idea.

  “I don’t understand,” says Betty Jean. “What did I ever do to you?”

  “Yeah,” I say, “I don’t get it. Why did you kill Jefferson? If Archie did it, I’d understand. They were partners, and money does crazy things to people. But you weren’t even part of the gang until just a few months ago.”

  “You think I killed Jefferson over money? That shows what you know.”

  “Do you know that Archie confessed to the murder? He could have gotten a reduced sentence. Now he’s given up the money and his life. For you.”

  “What? I never asked him to do that. You’re lying. Why would he confess to something he didn’t do?”

  “Call your lawyer. He’ll tell you. Archie confessed to the feds to save you. Because you’re his daughter.”

  “You know about that?” Anita’s voice cracks. “We could have had it all. The money, a great life. Until she ruined it.” She tightens her hold on Betty Jean.

  “Me?” squeaks Betty Jean.

  “You had to have J.W. Quicksilver at your book club meeting, didn’t you?” sneers Anita. “Jefferson was obsessed with Quicksilver’s books. He must have read Assassin’s Creed twelve times. After Archie and I found one another, he told Jefferson he was done with the real estate scam. They were going to retire. The three of us were on our way to Key West and then eventually the Cayman Islands when Jefferson saw this bitch’s message on some reader board.”

  “And he couldn’t resist playing J.W. Quicksilver?” I ask.

  “He said it would be a quick thirty or forty grand. But it wasn’t the money he was after. It was the opportunity to play out some stupid fantasy. To be the big author. You saw him that night at the restaurant? The way he signed books and flirted with all the women.”

  “You … were in love with him?”

  “In love with him? He was my husband.”

  “Uh-oh,” Betty Jean mutters. “You mean … I slept with a married man?”

  “There didn’t look to be much sleeping involved,” says Anita. She laughs at the shock on my face. “What? You think that just because Jefferson was a few years older than me that our relationship was weird? It was love at first sight. For both us. Archie didn’t approve, but it was a little too late for him to tell me what to do.”

  A few years older? Sounds like someone has some serious daddy issues. I think I’ll keep that observation to myself, though.

  “If everything was so great between the two of you, then why did he cheat on you?”

  “Because he was a greedy S.O.B. who couldn’t keep his paws to himself.”

  Travis was right. It was literally a crime of passion.

  “When Jefferson told us that the real J.W. Quicksilver had confronted him, I begged him to leave town right away,” continues Anita. “But he was having too much fun. He wanted to get his kicks and play famous author one more night. Archie and I left town, but I didn’t want to go without Jefferson. We were about fifteen miles out when I convinced Archie to turn around and come back.”

  “So you went to The Harbor House?”

  Anita nods. “By that time, it was around five, so we thought he’d be at the bar. When I realized he wasn’t there, I had a pretty good idea where he’d gone.”

  “To Betty Jean’s house?”

  “She practically th
rew herself at my husband the night of the signing. It was obvious what she wanted. And he wanted to fulfill some sick groupie fantasy. So I snuck out a side door to the restaurant and walked to her house. When I got there, some old woman was peeking through the window. I waited until she was gone, and then I took a look myself.”

  “And then after Betty Jean left to go to the store, you went inside?”

  She snorts. “She even did me the favor of leaving the door open. I wasn’t going to kill him. But there he was, sleeping on that chair with this stupid grin on his face. She’s eighty years old! What sort of sick age difference is that?”

  “And you’re twenty-five,” says Betty Jean. “I hate to break it to you, but I’m a lot closer in age to your departed husband than you were.”

  “Shut up! Or I’ll—”

  “Anita,” I plead. “Don’t do anything you’re going to regret.”

  “It’s too late. I killed my husband. And now she’s going to pay too.” There’s a crazy look in her eyes that’s making my palms sweat.

  Who did I text 911 to? It could be any one of my contacts. But I really hope it’s Travis. Or Will. Or even Brittany. At this point, I’d even take my mother.

  Paco starts to whine like he wants to do something. But we’re on the other side of the room. It’s too far away for him to jump on Anita and surprise her. I could signal for him to slink over toward her. I know he’d understand. But I don’t want to take a chance on him getting hurt. Besides, I really do think I can talk her down. I just have to find the right bait.

  And then it hits me. I think I know her Achilles’ Heel.

  “Archie never suspected anything, did he? After you stabbed Jefferson, you walked back to The Harbor House, pretending to be inside the whole time. When you went out to the car, what did you say to him?”

  “I … I told him that I’d seen Jefferson and that he refused to come with us.”

  “So when he found out that Jefferson never met anyone at The Harbor House, he knew you’d lied to him. That’s when he realized that you murdered Jefferson.”

  “I regretted that. Archie was good to me. I felt bad lying to him.”

  “Yet here you are, letting him take the fall for a murder you committed. It’s not too late to do the right thing. Now that Archie has told the feds where the money is, he could get a light sentence. If he was cleared of the murder charges.”

  “You, on the other hand,” shoots off Betty Jean, “will go away for life.” The minute she says this, she realizes her mistake.

  Oh boy. Just when I thought I might be getting somewhere. Betty Jean’s big mouth is going to get us killed.

  “You’re right,” says Anita. “I don’t have anything to lose. You, on the other hand,” she mimics Betty Jean’s words, “are about to lose that wrinkled-up neck of yours.”

  The sound of a car pulling into the back lot startles Anita. “What’s that?”

  “It’s the police,” I say, hoping I’m telling the truth. “Right before I smashed my phone, I dialed 911.”

  “That’s a lie.” But the panicked look in her eye says that she might believe it.

  “Do you want to take that chance? Put the knife down, Anita.”

  “No!” With the knife still at Betty Jean’s throat, she forces her to walk forward. “You’re going to open that door, and if the cops are really there, then you’re going to tell them that I need a car with a full tank of gas. I’m taking this old bat as a hostage. And if you’re bluffing, you’ll be sorry.”

  Paco looks up at me as if to say, I got this.

  For all our sakes, I hope he’s right. But he’s never let me down before. My Spidey sense tells me to trust him completely.

  “You want me to open the door?”

  “Are you hard of hearing? Yes. Open the door.” She inches closer, still holding the paring knife at Betty Jean’s throat, but now instead of being on the other side of the room, she’s just a few feet away from us.

  “Okay, here goes.” At the same time I open the door, I look at my dog. He looks back at me. It’s amazing how in tune we’ve become in the short time we’ve been together.

  Anita shuffles Betty Jean forward. She’s just about to reach the open door when Paco lunges and wraps his teeth around Anita’s ankle causing her to drop the knife. At the same time, Betty Jean elbows Anita in the stomach. “Take that!” she cries.

  I grab the knife off the floor.

  Travis rushes through the door and quickly takes everything in. “What’s going on?”

  “Get this mutt off me!” screams Anita. Paco hangs on like he’s never letting go. Good boy.

  “Anita killed Jefferson Pike,” I tell him. “She was about to kill Betty Jean with my paring knife. Archie Clements only confessed to save her. He’s innocent. Of murder, anyway.” But what I really want to say is, I told you so.

  Now that the humans have a handle on the situation, Paco lets go of Anita’s ankle and Travis cuffs her. Paco jumps into my arms and we hug. “Who’s the best dog in the whole wide world?” I croon, scratching him behind the ears.

  He barks as if to say, Me!

  Betty Jean lets out a long breath. “Whew. For one hot minute, I thought I was a goner. Thank God you came,” she says to Travis.

  “I got a weird text from Lucy.” He looks at me. “I tried to call but it went straight to voice mail.”

  “And you knew to come over?”

  He shrugs. “Knowing you, it seemed the prudent thing to do.”

  Anita starts crying big fat crocodile tears. “This is a terrible misunderstanding. Please, Officer, I can explain.” Oh, she’s good. I can see why Cindy was fooled by her.

  “You can tell us your version down at the police station,” says Travis. I follow him out to the parking lot. He puts a still crying Anita in the squad car and promises to call me with an update.

  Back in the kitchen, Betty Jean is calmly eating one of my double chocolate chip muffins. “I couldn’t find whiskey,” she says, “so chocolate will have to do.”

  I know exactly how she feels.

  “Are you okay?” I ask her. “How’s your neck?”

  “I’m fine. But I think I’ll spend tonight in my own house, thank you very much. Being your roommate could be hazardous to my health.”

  The next night is Sunday, which means dinner at the McGuffin household. The usual suspects are all here and accounted for. My brother passes the mashed potatoes while I give a recap of everything that went down.

  “So Archie Clements was cleared of the murder, but he’s going away for real estate fraud. Anita Tremble confessed to killing Jefferson Pike. I promised Victor Marino that I’d let Paco participate in a séance, and Betty Jean is sleeping in her own bed again.” I also owe Rusty Newton free muffins for life, but since Travis is sitting across from me at the table, I refrain from adding that into the mix, because I really don’t want to have to explain.

  “Looks like everything in Whispering Bay is back to normal,” says Dad. “For now.”

  Paco barks as if to say, Don’t expect it to stay that way for long.

  We all laugh.

  “This certainly has been an exciting week,” says Mom. “First we meet J.W. Quicksilver. Then he gets murdered, and then we find out he’s not J.W. Quicksilver but some infamous con man. Then Betty Jean is almost killed by the man’s wife.” She shakes her head. “And then, in a bizarre twist of fate, we find out that the real J.W. Quicksilver was in town after all, but no one knows who he is!”

  “Lucy knows,” says Brittany. “At least, that’s what she said. Right?”

  Everyone turns to look at me. Even Will, who’s looking at me the hardest.

  “I was mistaken. I thought I knew, but it looks like I was tricked too.”

  There’s a collective moan of disappointment.

  “Well, not all’s lost where that’s concerned,” says Sebastian. “I have some fascinating news. You tell them, Will.”

  Will lays down his napkin, then clears his throat.
“It appears that Shirley Dombrowski is going to get a significant publishing deal.”

  “What?” I say. “Shirley? Sebastian’s Shirley? How did that happen?”

  Will looks around the table. “Shirley gave me her manuscript to read for a critique. Out of politeness, I thought I’d read the first couple of pages, but then I found that I couldn’t put it down. It’s quite brilliant, actually. I forwarded her manuscript to the same company that publishes J.W. Quicksilver’s novels. According to his publisher, he read it too, and he agreed with me.”

  “All that in just two days?” Mom looks bewildered.

  “I guess if you’re a bigshot like J.W. Quicksilver, you can make things happen fast.” I try hard not to grin at Will.

  “Do you know that he’s reimbursing everyone who came to the book reading the cost of their ticket?” says Brittany. “Not only that, but Betty Jean told me that his publisher is going to provide an advanced autographed copy of his next book to everyone in her book club.”

  “What a guy,” says Dad.

  “Do you think we’ll ever know his real identity?” asks Mom.

  “Probably not,” I say. “You know those high-strung literary types.”

  Dad grunts. “Just as long as he keeps pumping out those books, I don’t care if he’s the man on the moon.”

  I notice that Travis has been unusually quiet. “I think Travis has some news, too,” I say.

  “Really?” says Mom. “What is it?”

  I take a deep breath. “First, I need to confess something.”

  “Here?” Dad asks. “At the dinner table? Whatever happened to going behind closed doors?”

  “I was never a member of Young Catholic Singles,” I blurt. There. Now it’s out in the open.

  No one says anything for a few seconds. Then Mom shrugs. “I knew that.”

  “What? You did not. I totally had you fooled.”

  She raises a brow at me. Okay, I never had her fooled.

  Huh.

  “I have something else to confess too. Travis and I are only fake-dating. I said we were going out so that you wouldn’t bug me about Young Catholic Singles.”