They say God works in mysterious ways, and what happened in the next few minutes was a testimony to the truth of that statement. John had tied Nana to a straight back chair with her hands and feet clasped together with zip ties. I can’t imagine the fear she must have felt when they trussed her up like a Thanksgiving turkey.
When John’s footsteps clomped down the steps, Nana donned a pitiful face. “These ties are cutting into my skin. Can’t you loosen them up some?”
“All right, but you better not try anything funny. I’m going to cut them off and if anybody makes a move their as good as shot.” Ellie scrounged around until she found a wicked looking pair of scissors. She reached to cut the plastic band and the next thing I knew Dee Dee had moved with the grace of a cat, or maybe an elephant. She took the purse I’d never make fun of again, reared back like a discus thrower, and with one fell swoop brought it down on Ellie’s back.
Startled, Ellie let out a blood-curdling scream and fell to the floor and the gun landed close to Nana’s now untied hands. She grabbed it up, and boggled it like a hot potato. It flew up in the air and landed next to me on the bed. With the calmness of a sane person I picked it up and mimicked the stance Ellie took earlier with my legs apart and the gun pointed straight at her.
Dee Dee smoothed out her pirate’s costume as if she were ready to make her debut on the runway. She looked at Ellie and smirked. “Now whose court is the ball in?” That’s my Dee Dee. My heart strummed in my chest and I struggled to keep my arms up. The gun was heavy and cold in my hands.
Before a stunned Ellie had a chance to act, the door burst open and a bevy of blue-uniformed SWAT officers swarmed in. One of them took the gun as I lowered it, and then someone yelled the all clear. The sea of blue opened up and I was never so glad to see anyone than I was to see Detective Baker striding toward me. It was all I could do to resist giving the burly guy a great big hug.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
With the arrival of help, my adrenaline waned and my brave persona dissipated. As my knees buckled, Detective Baker caught me, and the next thing I knew George and Dee Dee were helping me to the couch.
Nana squealed, “George, I knew you’d find me.”
“You better believe it. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to my new friend.” He gave her a wink.
The policemen released Nana from the chair while others handcuffed Ellie. Seems what goes around comes around. Now she’d know what it felt like to have her hands bound. As we followed them outside, I saw that John was already sitting in the backseat of a patrol unit.
“How? Why? What happened?” My shattered nerves prevented me from stringing together a coherent sentence.
Dee Dee didn’t do much better when she tried to speak. “Yeah, what she said.”
Detective Baker signed something on a clipboard for one of the uniformed officers, and turned to us. “Ladies, you’ve just helped us nab a couple of international jewel thieves.”
Nana spoke up. “And they killed Grace. I heard them talking about the murder. We all did.” George stood beside Nana with his hand on her shoulder while she rubbed her numb wrists.
“We know,” Detective Baker said.
I couldn’t help feeling a bit smug that he had more respect for us now.
“They had this crazy notion we’re insurance investigators. I guess because we were asking the guests questions about the murder.” Detective Baker’s brow raised, but he only shook his head at my confession.
“They weren’t too far off.” George’s next words surprised me. He shot me a huge smile. “You see, I’m the insurance investigator. I work for International Insurance Company and I’ve been following this pair for several weeks now. They’ve been hitting tourist towns and then moving on to their next destination.”
“When you disappeared from the festival, he alerted me, and we put out a BOLO for you and their car.” Detective Baker said. We all turned to John’s car sitting under a live oak.
“I told you George was on the up and up,” Nana said.
George laughed. “I know you had doubts about me, Trixie. It was easy to tell you suspected there was more to me than being just another tourist. I’m sorry I had to be so evasive, but I didn’t want to blow my cover. As soon as I arrived in town I let Detective Baker know who I was.”
“So he was in on it from the beginning?” Thoughts swirled in my head like water swirling around a drain.
The Detective picked up from there. “Yes, he was. As soon as George told us about them we gave him the go ahead to continue his investigation as long as he kept us in the loop.”
Dee Dee interrupted the detective with a question I had on my mind. “Is Laura off the hook now they’ve confessed to murdering Grace?”
The first sincere smile I’d seen on Detective Baker’s face appeared. “Yes she is. I’m sorry she had to go through the traumatic experience, but I had to do my job until the evidence was gathered. These two have gotten away too many times, and we couldn’t risk losing them again. When the cat found that bracelet, we had another direction to go and almost enough evidence to connect the murder to the stolen jewels. Their kidnapping you and confessing will make the D.A. very happy.”
Nana asked George the next question. “How did you find us?” She reached up and patted the hand on her shoulder. She looked so little and frail. Her tenacity often made me forget just how fragile she was. I wiped a tear, so thankful nothing had happened to her. Even though she was a little spitfire to be reckoned with, I shuddered to think what my life would be like without her.
“When I discovered you’d left with a young couple, I knew they’d taken you. I drove straight to Detective Baker. I’d already put a tracking device on their car so I knew we could pick up where they were. The detective called for backup from the Savannah Police. We arrived just a few minutes before John came out. He walked right into the hands of his captors.”
Detective Baker barked, “Get ‘em out of here.”
In my hysteria I thought of a line from Hawaii Five-O, “Book ‘em, Dano.”
We’d called ahead and let Mama and Laura know what had happened and that we’d be home after we gave our statements. They ran out to meet us when we arrived.
“Nana, I’m so glad you weren’t hurt.” Mama hugged Nana with one arm and me with the other. Dee Dee circled in and we laughed, cried, and laughed some more before beetling over to the couch to go over everything that had happened.
We stayed in town another day to answer more questions for Detective Baker, giving our formal statements, promising to let him know if we recalled anything later we might have forgotten.
Living through a life and death situation makes you see the future in a different way. It was almost like everything was so beautiful it was in 3-D. I returned to Vans Valley knowing without a doubt I wanted to become Mrs. Beau Beaumont.
We decided to have a Christmas wedding.
John and Ellie were charged with Grace Watkins’ murder. George became a hero with his insurance company. There were many happy jewelry owners who gave their thanks to George. He and Nana are corresponding and making plans to meet at a future date.
In a twist of fate, Grace had left a legacy. When the lawyers read her will, no one was more surprised than Edna because Grace left her Ocean View Inn. All those years working for Grace and enduring her tyranny paid off for Edna. The first thing she did was hire Mary Sue Bartlett to help run the bed and breakfast with the promise of a significant pay raise, a room for her daughter and herself, and the promise she could develop recipes to her heart’s content. The buzz is that they are releasing a cookbook with all of Mary Sue’s specialties to start a college fund for Sarah Joe.
Since I had been officially on vacation, Harv didn’t expect me to write an article about Savannah or Tybee Island. However, I knew with Savannah’s rich history I’d be able to write an award-winning article. I took extra time with it, and when I turned it in to him, Harv was thrilled. He ran it as a feature, and when “Turtle
s and Tourism are only the Tip of the Talk in Tybee” won the Silver Award at the Excellence Awards Gala sponsored by the Magazine and Publishing Association of Georgia, I finally felt like I’d lived up to my title as a historical magazine writer.
Beau and I would love for y’all to attend our wedding. And bring your appetite, because we’re featuring several of Mary Sue’s world famous dishes.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
♦ The verse Trixie chose for “Terror on Tybee Island” is: Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Matthew 6:26 (NIV). What is your favorite verse?
♦ Betty Jo, Trixie’s mother, talks her and Dee Dee into helping her friend Laura when she becomes the main suspect in a murder case. Trixie was hesitant, but decided she would want someone to do the same for her. Have you found yourself in a situation where you didn’t want to help in the beginning but you were glad you did? Do you ever ask yourself “Wouldn’t I want someone to do the same for me?”
♦ Trixie was sure Nana’s new friend, George, might be up to no good. It turns out that not only is he a good guy, but he saved their lives. Have you ever jumped to conclusion about someone and then found out you had misjudged them? Do you have an example?
♦ Nana is a little spit-fire. She is not going to sit in a rocking chair just because she has a little age on her. Do you know a Nana or have a Nana in your life? Have they done something funny or embarrassing?
♦ What is your favorite scene? Why?
♦ Who is your favorite character? Why?
TERROR ON TYBEE ISLAND
BY DEBORAH MALONE
ISBN 10: 1-60039-214-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-60039-214-6
ebook ISBN: 978-1-60039-728-8
Copyright © 2013 Deborah Malone. All rights reserved.
Print and Electronic Format & Layout Copyright © 2013 by LAMP POST Inc.
Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication — whether in printed or ebook format, or any other published derivation — may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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Terror on Tybee Island (A Trixie Montgomery Cozy Mystery Book 3) Page 14
