Matt looked up the mountain. "We had a deer stand we used to use. It's not far from here." He raced across the road and started up a narrow path between the trees
I glanced towards the end of the road where all the emergency vehicles were and then decided I'd better go after Matt instead. If he found Jack he was going to need me. Either to provide comfort or run for help.
I stepped onto the narrow path and pushed aside a tree branch that was hanging too low, praying that Jack was still alive. He was trouble, no doubt about it, but he was also Matt's brother.
Chapter Twenty-Six
As I followed Matt up that narrow path that was halfway grown over with long grass and overshadowed by tree branches, I found myself very glad that I'd gone home and thrown on some jeans. I would've been cut and scratched all over if I hadn't.
We couldn't hear anything as we climbed higher. No shouts for help. No birds in the trees. Nothing. Just the sound of us crashing through the woods.
Matt didn't call out Jack's name. I don't know why. Maybe he didn't want to deal with the lack of an answer. Maybe the fear of what he was going to find was choking his throat so much he could barely speak.
He just plowed ahead, shoving his way forward with a relentlessness that left me behind. I still wasn't up to hiking at that altitude and within a couple minutes was gasping for air as I tried to keep up. But I kept going. Because whatever he found up there, he was going to need me. Even if he found nothing. That would probably be the worst. To still not know where Jack was. To wonder if he was hurt somewhere on the mountain, with no way to find him.
I wondered if the local police even had a search dog for that sort of thing. I knew they had drug dogs. There'd been a big article in the paper the week before, but I was pretty sure drug dogs weren't the same as search dogs. And what about cadaver dogs? Were those yet another type of search dog entirely?
Ugh. Hopefully it didn't come to that.
I paused next to a giant evergreen, no longer able to keep moving forward without stopping to get some air into my lungs. But then I heard Matt cry out ahead of me and I raced forward, pushing myself even though it felt like I was breathing glass instead of air.
Matt was on the ground, kneeling over a body, his shoulders shaking. I fell to the ground next to him and wrapped my arm around his shoulders.
"We found him," he whispered as he leaned into me. "We found him."
"Is he…?" I couldn't ask the question. I didn't know if I could handle the answer. Jack was incredibly pale. And still. And there was blood on his shirt. Dried blood.
I reached out to touch his neck. That's what you do, right? You check for someone's pulse. As I laid my hand against his skin I felt the slightest movement. He moaned and opened his eyes, looking up at me with a dazed expression.
"An angel?" He laughed weakly. "No. That's not where I'm headed. I'm headed to that other place. The one with the fun people."
"You're not dead, Jack. And I'm not an angel."
He closed his eyes again. "You sure?"
"Positive."
I glanced back at Matt. "You want to go for help? Or you think we should just take him down the path ourselves?"
He stared down at Jack. "I don't want to leave him."
I grimaced. "I'm not sure I can get down and back up here again with too much speed. I'm not in the shape you are."
"Then we take him down with us."
He shook Jack awake. "That the only wound you have?"
Jack grinned at him with a dopey grin. "Hey bro. You found me. You gonna arrest me?"
"Not right now."
Jack closed his eyes again. "Good. I didn't actually blackmail him anyway. He shot me first. Can you believe that? He shot me. And I don't even know why." He laughed and then winced.
I put a hand on his cheek. "Jack, take it easy, okay. Is that the only wound? He shot you once?"
He tried to sit up to look at it, but immediately fell back. "Yeah. Just the once. I knew to run after that. Not going to stick around when someone's trying to kill me." He stared at me again. "You really do look like an angel, you know. With that light behind you."
"Good to know." I glanced at Matt. "You already gave up your shirt, but we need something to bind that wound if we're going to move him."
He tore a couple strips off the bottom of Jack's shirt. (Revealing some killer abs, but who was looking?)
We managed to bind up the wound as much as possible and then get Jack standing. He wasn't with it enough to walk down the mountain on his own, but he at least could take the majority of his own weight when we slung him between us.
It wasn't easy to get back to the road. That trail had been narrow for one to travel down, it certainly wasn't made for three people walking side-by-side, so we took it sideways most of the way, with Matt in the lead, Jack in the middle, and me at the back.
We were lucky that the ambulance hadn't left quite yet. We caught it just as it was driving past.
The medics leapt out of the vehicle as soon as they saw us and took over.
I just collapsed on the ground next to the van and watched them work as Matt hovered over them, asking over and over again if Jack was going to be okay.
It took a few minutes for them to get Jack stabilized enough to head out to the hospital. He'd lost a lot of blood already and was bleeding even more after our efforts to bring him down the mountain. But at least it was summertime and there was no hypothermia or anything like that to make it worse.
As they loaded him into the ambulance, Matt came and knelt down in front of me. "Thank you, Maggie."
"Of course." I don't know why I suddenly wanted to cry, but I did.
He glanced back at the ambulance. "Are you going to be okay? If so, I'm going to go with him."
"Yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine. Go. He's your brother. He needs you."
"Okay." He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before he left.
I sat there for a long while after the ambulance had pulled away. I knew I needed to get home and get a shower and tell my grandpa everything that had happened. But I couldn't bring myself to move. It had been one heck of a day.
At least we knew who the killer was. I wondered if Matt had bothered to tell anyone yet. I thought about waving down Officer Clark and letting him know, but I decided to just let it go. Matt would handle it.
Eventually.
Me, I needed a shower.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I didn't get that shower. Not right away, at least. My grandpa was waiting for me in the living room as soon as I walked in the door, Lesley at his side, holding his hand. She looked perfectly groomed as always with her snow white hair pulled back into a simple but elegant little chignon.
"You look like hell," he said. I would've been insulted if it hadn't been true and if I hadn't heard the shake in his voice that meant I'd scared him with the day's events.
"I feel like it, too. I'm going to have to take some actual hikes on my days off. It turns out walking Fancy around the neighborhood is not good enough exercise."
Fancy must've sensed something was off, too, because as soon as I collapsed onto the goldenrod couch across from my grandpa she jumped up next to me and started climbing all over me and licking at my face.
"I'm fine. Stop that."
But it took her a good minute to settle down and believe me. She still didn't go far, though. She jumped off the couch and lay right at my feet, almost touching me. (Which for Fancy and me was about equivalent to settling down right in my lap.)
I pet her with my foot as my grandpa ran to the kitchen and came back with an almost-frozen can of Coke and a big slice of chocolate cake for me.
"How'd you manage this?" I asked. "You didn't know when I was going to be back."
Lesley smiled up at my grandpa as he went back to join her on the other couch. "He's been putting a new Coke into the freezer every fifteen minutes since you left and taking each one out after forty-five minutes to make sure none explode."
"Ah, Grandp
a. You're the best."
Fancy nosed at my plate and I pulled it away from her. "Not for puppies. Sorry. No chocolate for you, little one."
She settled her head back on her paws with a little huff and then rolled over on her side, leaning her head against my foot.
"So." My grandpa leaned forward. "Start at the beginning and tell us everything that happened today."
I did.
"So it was Wilhelm who killed everyone?" my grandpa asked, after I'd told him everything.
"Looks like it. He definitely shot Jack if nothing else."
My grandpa shook his head. "It was smart of Jack to set up that email. Didn't know you could do something like that. That boy. If he ever got his head on straight he could really make something of himself."
"Yeah. Imagine where he could go if he turned his mind to being an investment banker or politician instead of a blackmailing thief."
"Maggie May. You be nice. Not all of us start out on the right path."
I gave him my best innocent expression. "I was being nice. He probably would do very well as a politician. He's got the charm and the looks for it. And the moral flexibility."
Lesley patted my grandpa's knee before he could launch into a debate with me over politicians and crooks and what they might have in common. She shook her head slightly. "I have to admit, I did not like Wilhelm the few times I met him, but I still don't understand why he'd want to murder Kristof, Jack, and Friedrich. And what about Greta? Where is she?"
My grandpa reached for his non-existent cigarettes and frowned when all he found was an empty shirt pocket. "Let's assume this all started with Kristof. He came to steal that painting, but stumbled on something else. Something about Wilhelm. So he tries to blackmail him, just like Jack did."
We both nodded. "Makes sense," I said.
"So Wilhelm kills him and that's the end of it. Until they find the body and Jack strolls into town talking about how he knows a secret that Friedrich needs to hear."
"But that was about Greta."
"Wilhelm doesn't know that. So once more whatever secret he was hiding is about to come out. So he tries to kill Jack."
"Okay. But what about Friedrich and Greta?"
"Maybe he's worried that Friedrich already knows the secret. After he takes care of Jack, he goes over there to find out. One thing leads to another and he bashes Friedrich's head in."
Having seen the result of that particular action, I winced at his graphic description. "And Greta?"
"She stumbles upon what's happened and he kills her and hides the body so there'll be someone else to blame."
"Why not just put it on Jack?"
"Because no one's going to connect those two. Jack skips town, no one thinks another thing about it. Just like no one worried when Kristof went missing. But there's no reason to think that Jack killed Friedrich on his way out of town. There's nothing obvious to tie the two together. Greta on the other hand…"
I sunk back against the couch. "So you think she's dead already? He just took her somewhere else to make it look like she'd killed her husband and ran? Well, that sucks."
"Life sometimes does."
I pushed myself off the couch. "Alright. Well. I'm going to go take a long, long very hot shower and try to forget all about this. You two take care."
I slept in Matt's shirt that night. It comforted me to have his smell so close, especially after the miserable day I'd had.
(I know. Don't get started with me. I am not a logical human being and my actions and feelings when it comes to members of the opposite sex are not always normal and rational and sane. I could tell you all about why I am the way I am but then I'd have to kill you. Not really, but, you know. "None of ya" as Jack so eloquently told me about his business.)
Anyway.
It was a miserable night. Fancy had me smushed right up against the headboard for most of the night because she was feeling insecure enough to not jump down and sleep on the floor like she normally does after half an hour. And to add to that, I couldn't get to sleep for hours because every time I closed my eyes I saw that horror scene at Greta's house.
Where was she? What had Wilhelm done with her? Hopefully she was just missing but I had to face facts and admit that she was very likely dead. And how horrible was that?
At least Matt had called me before I'd gone to bed to let me know that they'd arrested Wilhelm and that Jack was in stable condition, so I knew it was going to be taken care of eventually. Wilhelm didn't strike me as the type to hold out under any sort of intense interrogation. (Although he did strike me as the type to lawyer up and hide behind his constitutional rights, which wasn't going to help in finding Greta.)
I just wanted it all to turn out alright. And to forget what I'd seen earlier in the day.
I finally fell asleep at three in the morning out of sheer mental exhaustion. Unfortunately, my late bedtime didn't keep Fancy from wanting to be fed at five thirty.
Love that girl, but there are days…
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I was seriously dragging when I walked through the door of the barkery the next morning. I'd considered calling in sick. Jamie had just had two days in a row off, she could give me this one, but I was still making it up to her for all the time I'd taken off between my grandpa's little adventures in being a murder suspect and my own.
Plus, I was already up thanks to Fancy and really didn't want to sit around the house with nothing to do while I worried about what Wilhelm might have done to Greta. I knew I wouldn't be able to get into my latest book—it was by one of my favorite authors, but just didn't grab me enough to distract me from murder and mayhem.
If I'd stayed home all I would've done is paced on the front porch and watched the police station for any sign that Wilhelm had confessed what he'd done with Greta.
So I went to work.
And…
Jamie practically tackled me the minute I walked through the door. She was squealing and jumping up and down. And then she gave me a giant hug before squealing again.
I stared at her like she'd gone crazy. She's always been a positive person, but this was an unheard of level of insane happiness that my couple hours of sleep had not prepared me to handle.
"What on earth is wrong with you?" I asked.
She held her left hand up to show me the very large but very classy diamond ring on her finger. I'm sure it was a princess cut or whatever fancy shape fancy people choose when they get engaged. And I'd bet there were a few carats involved as well, if not more.
My first reaction was to turn around, leave, and go bury my head in my arms somewhere where no one could find me. I was happy for her, don't get me wrong. But on top of murder and near death experiences, I did not need my world upended at whatever unholy hour of the morning it was.
But she was my friend. My best friend. And I'd never seen her glowing this way. And, as rushed engagements go, I had to admit that Mason Maxwell was a darned fine catch. As far as I knew, he'd done nothing that warranted prison time, unlike her last couple of love interests. He'd also shown himself to be a pretty stand-up guy, both as a lawyer and a man.
So, I squealed right back at her. "Oh my gosh! Mason proposed?!" I even jumped around with her a bit. I went all in.
Because, really, how often does one of your best friends get engaged to a man who makes her that happy? Sure, it was probably going to be a catastrophe at some point, but for the time being it was amazing and I needed a little bit of amazing given everything else that was going on.
Her smile was so big and bright it was almost blinding. I couldn't help but match it. "Congratulations!" I hugged her close for a long moment.
She had to pull away to help a couple of customers so I grabbed myself a Coke and a cinnamon roll with an extra serving of frosting. I was going to need all the unhealthy fuel I could get to make it through the day.
As soon as the store was empty, she joined me. "I know. You think it's too soon. You think we don't know each other well enough and t
hat we should wait and…" She burst out laughing. "But I don't want to, Maggie. I love him so much. He's so perfect for me. You don't even know…"
I kept my mouth shut and took a really big bite of cinnamon roll as she rambled on.
"Yes. He's uptight. And he's older. And he doesn't own a single pair of jeans or tennies and he's probably never said a cuss word in his life, but…"
She grabbed my hands and squeezed them, laughing once again. "Oh, I love him so much. And he loves me."
"And that's what counts. I'm happy for you Jamie, because you're happy. And if you tell me he's the man for you, then he's the man for you."
She frowned at me. "But I want you to like him, Maggie. I'm only going to be happy if my friends like my husband." She squealed. "Oh my god, my husband. I'm going to get married!"
I laughed. I couldn't help but feel her joy.
"So? Do you approve? Do you like him?"
I nodded. "Yes. Any man who can bring this much joy to my friend's life is a man I approve of. And, added bonus, I don't even feel the need to threaten his life if he ever causes you pain, because I don't think he will. See? Perfect."
She settled back in her chair, staring off into space with a dopey grin on her face. I gotta tell ya, love is scary the way it can completely demolish a person's rationality. To shake off that thought, I asked, "So, when's the wedding?"
"I don't even know. I don't even care. I'd marry him tomorrow if he wanted me to."
"Tomorrow? Wow." I shuddered at the thought of being swept off my feet that completely, but I hid it from Jamie. I was happy for her. I really was.
She shook herself off. "Enough about me. How was the store yesterday?" she asked. "Anything exciting happen?"
"Um. You know. Things were pretty slow here."
A Buried Body and Barkery Bites Page 11
