by Ami Diane
“Did you pass him on the road? The mayor? He was walking back towards town.”
“No. He must’ve ducked into the forest when he heard my car.”
The moment they crossed the boundary, she let out a breath. They were safe.
“That’s right, Will. I did run into the forest.” Mayor Bradford stepped out from behind a tall pine.
Ella choked back a scream. For a large man, he was stealthy.
“I’d hoped that luck would be on my side, and you’d both be stranded. But it appears—once again—that I’m going to have to intervene.”
He lunged at Will, and they toppled onto the boarder, onto the sand and gravel line, in a tangle of fisticuffs. The mayor’s weight proved to be an advantage, and he kept Will pinned to the ground.
The inventor’s fist connected with Mayor Bradford’s face in a right hook that’d make Muhammed Ali proud.
Ella jumped onto the mayor’s back and tried getting him to move by choking him, but it was like trying to move a house. He threw her off, and she rolled onto the ground.
She frantically combed the area for anything she could use as a weapon. Nearby, Will let out gurgling noises as the mayor wrapped his hands around the inventor’s throat.
Ella shot her leg out in one of her donkey kicks. Her foot landed in the mayor’s side, sinking a couple of inches before springing back.
Not only did the move not help Will, it actually made the mayor’s grip tighten even more. Like a predator, he’d latched onto his prey.
Will’s skin was turning an unsettling shade of purple. Ella’s hands groped the ground, scraping over rocks and needles. Then, they found a sturdy branch a few feet long. A perfect nature-made bat if there ever was one.
As she was picking up the weapon, a glow burst all around them, permeating the air as if a light switch had been flipped. Ella looked up.
Keystone Village was under a giant dome of crackling electricity. The starry, dusky sky warped like a magnifying glass, turning shades of turquoise and purple. She stood memorized by the scene.
“Ella—” Will’s gasp from the ground brought her back.
The tussling had taken the two men over the boundary line. The crackling dome of light bisected the mayor and Will, their legs in Keystone, their torsos and heads in the desert.
“No!” she screamed.
She leaped towards them as she swung the branch, her muscles remembering her high school softball days.
With a loud crack, the wood connected with Mayor Bradford’s head. She followed the move with a hard kick between his legs. He slumped against Will, whimpering.
Then, she brought her bloodied foot up and shoved his haunches with all the energy she had left. He tumbled over Will, head-first into the sand, stirring once then growing still.
Will’s eyes were closed. Ella dropped the branch and called his name, but he was unresponsive.
The crackling light of the dome was nearly blinding now, brighter than the brightest, sun-filled day, forcing her eyes into slits.
Frantic, she gripped his feet and pulled. Her bare heels scraped over the gravel for purchase. Inch by inch, she scooted him closer until only his head was over the line.
Then the world turned white.
CHAPTER 32
ELLA GAPED AT the tall trees and vines of a jungle. In the spot where the mayor had been a second before, a massive fern danced under the steady patter of raindrops. Going from the arid desert, the high humidity took her breath away.
“Is it over?” Will rubbed the water from his face and sat up.
“Oh good. You’re awake. Could’ve used that a few seconds sooner, but whatever. How do you feel?”
He touched his throat. “Like I almost died.”
“I know the feeling. Thanks for coming to get me, by the way.” She didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened if he’d arrived a few minutes later.
She propped him up and helped him stagger to his feet. The air was alive with the songs of hundreds of birds, the buzz of insects, and what she would swear were monkeys swinging and jumping between branches.
“Looks like we’re in a tropical rainforest,” she said. “But what year?”
“That’s always the question.” His eyes strayed to the fern. “He’s gone?”
She nodded.
“Good.”
She stared at the spot too. She’d given him the death sentence he’d chosen for her. It was poetic, yet it dragged on her soul.
“You did what you had to, Ella.”
She didn’t say anything but let the steady raindrops wash away her guilt. They lingered near the new terrain for some time, getting soaked and listening to the patter of rain on the canopy above.
Ella broke the spell and held her wrists up. “You wouldn’t happen to have a pocketknife on you, would you?” Her skin around the rope had been rubbed raw.
The inventor tugged at the bindings with the patient hands of someone used to intricate, methodical work. Once she was freed, they trekked up the road towards town, their clothes now soaked to the skin.
As they crested the slope, Keystone came into view in the bright light of a new day. The Keystone’s tall evergreen forest was swallowed by the backdrop of dense jungle.
At the south end of town, a rainbow appeared over the fields, reminding Ella that filth could be washed away.
She sucked in a slow, cleansing breath. It was still Sunday. The start of a new week. A new beginning.
It took several days to unravel the mystery of Kay’s death. After getting a thorough checkup by Pauline, Ella stayed at the sheriff’s office through what was Sunday night for Keystone.
Sheriff Chapman grilled her for hours, extracting every detail, including how she knew Six had broken into Kay’s apartment.
He promised not to reveal to the outlaw how he’d come upon the information or throw her in jail for trespassing and hindering a police investigation if she promised to stay out of trouble in the future. She readily agreed.
Pauline took samples of the white snakeroot and was able to match it as the poison that had killed Kay. Now that they knew what to look for, Chapman and Pauline were able to get enough of a sample from the Bradford Farms milk in Kay’s fridge that Ella had foolishly poured out and match it to the white snakeroot.
After Ella’s recount of events, Chapman came to the conclusion that when Mayor Bradford’s cows had broken through the fence, they ate the poisonous plant, then died shortly thereafter.
It was anyone’s guess as to what happened next, but Chapman’s theory was that it gave the mayor a solution to his problem and that he intentionally let one of his cows eat the snakeroot, milked it, then gave that bottle to his daughter.
Ella also handed over the note she’d found outside her door warning her to stop snooping. Chapman was able to identify and match it to the mayor’s handwriting.
With most of the loose ends tied up, he retrieved Kay’s stolen documents from Six’s cabin and charged him with breaking and entering on top of a litany of other charges. Ella learned that Keystone’s justice system didn’t have the infrastructure to incarcerate criminals for long and that the cowboy would be let out after a short stint in the slammer. She let the sheriff know exactly what she thought about this and only stopped yelling when he threatened to put her in a cell with Six.
By Wednesday, the whirlwind of an investigation was finally drawing to a close, and Ella could get home for some much-needed rest. She had practically lived at Chapman’s office for the past three days.
Maybe it was the time change, but she couldn’t remember the last meal she’d had or the last time she saw her bed. With the investigation finally closed, Ella crashed onto her mattress at 6:00 PM on Wednesday.
She rolled out of bed Thursday morning to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and pancakes—a scent that hadn’t filled the inn since Rose’s arrest.
Fluffy stretched out on Ella’s bed like a throw pillow. After rubbing his belly until she couldn’t resist the
call of caffeine any longer, she went downstairs.
She pushed the door to the kitchen in and froze. Rose sat at the table, impeccable as ever, a fork waiting in her hand. Carefully, Jimmy set a tower of pancakes in front of her. “Welcome home, love.” He pecked her cheek.
Ella teetered in the doorway, unsure if she should enter. Eventually, the prospect of coffee and the sizzle of bacon on the stove won out.
She doused the hot brew with cream and forked several strips of bacon onto a plate. She settled at the head of the table across from Jimmy, and the room fell silent.
She shifted in her chair, wishing either Flo or Edwin would join them. The awkward quiet stretched, broken only by the sound of her crunching bacon and the scrape of Rose’s knife over her plate.
Eventually, Fluffy padded in and sat at her feet, staring at her with luminous eyes. After slipping him scraps of bacon, she scratched his chin.
Across from her, Jimmy unfolded the latest addition of Keystone Corner. He rattled it pointedly until Ella looked up. The entire front page was taken by a picture of Mayor Bradford’s smarmy face.
She swallowed a particularly crispy bite of bacon that scratched her throat on the way down and looked away.
Despite coming out once a week, the paper had put out a special edition, detailing Kay’s murder and the mayor’s scandalous backstory—or so she’d heard from Wink. Ella had yet to read it.
After kicking back the rest of her coffee like it was beer, she cleared her throat. “Alright, I can’t take this. I just want to say again, how truly sorry I am. I never should’ve thought either of you killed Kay. And honestly, I didn’t at first. But when the evidence—you know what? I don’t have to justify my actions. They were reasonable conclusions about people I’d just met. Nevertheless, I do feel terrible.
“You two were nothing but kind and took in a stranger.” Her eyes dropped to the bottom of her empty cup. “I just want you to know, I’m looking for my own place. Once I get my first wages from the diner, I’ll move out. I was even thinking about Kay’s place, but… it feels weird.” She pressed her lips together, realizing she’d been talking nonstop.
Rose exchanged a look with her husband then reached across the table. Her eyes scrunched with a smile behind her cat eye glasses. “Ella, it’s okay. We forgive you. No hard feelings.”
“Really,” Jimmy said. He rested the paper on the table. “I probably would’ve done the same thing.”
“And if you want to move out,” Rose said, “that’s up to you. But I’d like to see you stay. It’s been nice having another guest here, even if she was the reason I was in jail.” She laughed. “I’m just playing. But really, please stay.”
Ella looked back and forth between them. They had truly forgiven her.
“Thank you.”
She searched for more words to express the depths of gratitude she felt, but nothing was adequate. She couldn’t believe there were really people in the world who were so quick to forgive.
Unwittingly, she’d stumbled into a town full of loving, caring residents, even if some of them were nuttier than a bag of trail mix.
After pouring another cup of coffee, Ella said, “So, can I ask a serious question?”
Rose’s mouth turned down, and she glanced sideways at Jimmy. “Of course.”
“Are all those pancakes for you?”
Rose cracked a smile and forked over three fluffy pancakes which Ella promptly doused in syrup. She pointed a drenched fork at the paper in Jimmy’s hands. “I heard there are some salacious details about the mayor in there.”
“My heavens, yes.” Rose leaned in. “I read it earlier. Did you know he was on the lam?”
“I did hear that. How come he was running?”
It was Jimmy’s turn to answer. “Apparently, he knocked his wife around one too many times, and it left her brain dead—”
Ella swore then slapped her hand over her mouth, apologizing.
“When the police came to investigate,” Jimmy continued, “he ran, taking Kayline with him. Keystone turned out to be the perfect getaway.”
Ella lapsed into silence. The taste of the pancakes dulled as she thought about Kay’s life. That poor young woman had had such a rough start and was searching for a break from her prison, fleeing the shadow that was her father.
But the darkness had caught her and swallowed her whole. At least in death, she was finally free.
Ella stared out across the lake. Mist floated in from the rainforest, settling over the water like a fog. It gave the illusion of a crisp fall morning, except she knew better.
“Got any big plans today?” Rose asked.
Ella shook away the melancholy. “Actually, I convinced Will to go on a run with me.”
Jimmy looked up from the paper. “William Whitehall said he’d go on a run with you?”
“Yep. I’m thinking of making sweatbands out of some rags and convincing him that that’s what we wear in the future, make up something about the aerodynamics of it.”
“Well, I’ll be. What’s this town coming to.” Fluffy curled around Jimmy’s leg, startling the innkeeper. He bent to pet him, but the feline hissed and batted his hand away. “Glad to see some things never change.”
Out in the park, a speck of bright neon pink that could only be Wink was attempting to climb a tree. Even though she couldn’t see him, Ella knew the reason was Chester related.
She smiled. For the unforeseeable future, this village was now her home. This was her new family.
Maybe she struggled to open up, to trust people, but it was something she could work on. She could change because that’s what Keystone Village was: new beginnings.
Book 2: The Body in the Boat
CHAPTER 1
ELLA BARTON WATCHED a fiery sun march over the horizon, bathing the village below in hues of fire and beauty. It was the start to what promised to be a perfect day. It was also the day she would die.
“This is a bad idea.”
Wink brushed aside her blue hair and sighed in a way that let Ella know the older woman had heard those words one too many times. “You said that already.”
“Did I? Well, it’s still true.” Ella’s gaze drifted to the road that wound down Twin Hills. “You know, I think I forgot something back in my room. I’m just going to go get it…”
Wink snatched Ella’s elbow and redirected her to the waiting glider of death perched in front of them. “No you don’t.” She released Ella and focused again on her pre-flight inspection.
“No really. It’ll only take a second.”
The diner owner’s lips moved in silent words, her hands running over wires and other parts which Ella couldn’t even begin to guess their purpose of, as she ignored Ella.
Before leaving the inn that morning, Ella had written a message to Pauline, the town coroner, and slipped it into her pocket in the unlikely—or now, very likely—event of her death. On the paper was Ella’s wishes for burial and included several unsavory, choice words about Wink.
Ella’s breath came out shaky, and she looked up at her last sunrise. “Why am I doing this?”
“Because you lost a bet.” Wink strapped a helmet on Ella and handed her goggles.
“Oh, right. But why am I doing this?”
Wink let out a frustrated sigh. “Honestly, you’d think you were going to die or something.”
“Don’t say that! Why would you say that right before we take off in this death trap?” Ella sucked in a few calming breaths that did more to help her hyperventilate than to actually soothe her. She was grateful she’d put on one of Wink’s adult diapers she claimed she didn’t have but Ella had found in the woman’s bathroom.
All too soon, Wink was strapping Ella into a second harness before getting in the first herself. Ella felt like a fly caught in a spider web, trapped in the very thing that would be the cause of her death.
While Wink zipped up her harness, she spoke with the breathy excitement of an adrenaline junkie. “This is a tandem glider. I ev
er tell you how I got this contraption?”
Ella shook her head. For some strange reason, her teeth had taken to chattering on their own accord, despite the warm, humid morning.
“The pilot got stranded here… I think it was during the same jump when Pauline and Kay did too. It’s hard to keep all the flashes straight.”
Ella noticed she hadn’t included their recently departed mayor in the group. Probably because he was a murderous SOB and didn’t count.
“Anyway,” she continued, “he came soaring to his landing site just as the town was appearing. Landed right in the cornfield. When his ride didn’t show up, we got anxious, so the sheriff spilled our big secret. The guy freaked out—as you say—and went straight to Lou’s.”
“That so?” Ella’s fingers had begun tingling. “And the guy actually made it out of Keystone in a car that ran?”
“Far as we know, he made it over the boundary line, and that was good enough for us.”
“I’m guessing he didn’t take the glider?”
One of Wink’s hands caressed the bar in front of them. “Yep, and I’ve been gliding ever since. If they had had these in my time…”
“You realize you have an unhealthy obsession with an inanimate object, right?”
Wink pulled her hand away and cleared her throat. “Ready?”
“Not even a little.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“Eight hundred feet down.” Ella swallowed, hoping to work some saliva down her parched throat. “Hey, Wink?”
“If you say this is a bad idea one more time—”
“This is a bad idea.”
Wink lifted the bar in front of them and ordered Ella to run. Her reluctant feet where nearly dragged behind her as Wink sprinted beside her. The sail above them filled with air, and a new sensation pulled Ella’s stomach somewhere near her feet. A moment later, her shoes left the ground, and the hill fell away beneath them.
Ella’s voice caught in her throat in a silent scream. Below, the town moved out of her field of vision as Wink angled their flight path around the west hill, following Main Street out of town.
