Deep Fried Revenge (A Farm-to-Fork Mystery Book 4)

by Lynn Cahoon

  “What’s wrong?” Felicia scanned the area. “Do you see something?”

  “It’s what I don’t see that bothers me. Where’s Bleak?” She called to Ian. “Ian, where’s…”

  “She’s there.” Felicia pointed to the middle of the crowd. Bleak was talking to an older woman dressed in a long denim skirt and a peasant blouse. Her hair was wrapped around her head in braids. The two seemed to be arguing about something, and Angie saw Bleak try to step away. The woman grabbed her arm, pulled something out of her tote, then slammed it into Bleak’s forearm. The girl went down like she’d been shot.

  “Ian, stop her.” She pointed to the crowd then started out the door. “Show him where she is. I’m going after them.”

  She pushed through the crowd without a sound. She tried to aim in front of where the woman would have Bleak now, especially since the girl wasn’t able to struggle. Then she saw Bleak’s shirt. The woman had her standing, walking her out of the area. They’d just been stopped by the guard at the front gate.

  “I can call emergency services, and they can get her some assistance,” Angie heard him say as he reached out to get his microphone.

  This time she saw the black stun gun in the woman’s hand. The guard started shaking, then fell on the ground.

  “That won’t be necessary,” the woman said as she stepped over him and dragged Bleak with her. Angie had one shot before the pair got into the stream of people heading to the exit. She judged the distance, then dove into the woman. She knocked her down onto the ground.

  They were all in a heap on the grass.

  “Leave us alone. You don’t understand. If Bleak doesn’t fulfill the contract, Amie will have to step up. She’s too young.” The woman dug in her tote, but Angie saw the stun gun had fallen out in the struggle.

  Angie pushed Bleak away from them. The girl was still out of it as Angie stepped between her and the woman who appeared to be her aunt. “You’re not taking her. No matter what your reason is. She’s not going back.”

  “You don’t know what you’re doing.” The woman dove for the stun gun, and Angie crossed the few feet between them and stepped on her arm. The woman screamed and jerked back, but she didn’t throw Angie’s stance off. But she didn’t expect the aunt to fling her other arm toward Angie’s knees and toss her on the ground. They both reached for the stun gun, but a male hand reached down and picked it up.

  “This isn’t the way to come visiting your niece. And she was just telling all of us what a good person you are. I guess you had her fooled.” Ian picked up the stun gun and tossed it to Felicia, who was now standing next to him watching. “Hold this while I tie this one up?”

  Ian pulled the woman to her feet. Angie rolled over toward Bleak and checked to see if she was breathing.

  A golf cart rolled up to the site. The security guard from the first night called out to the growing crowd around them. “Move aside, folks, let me in. Looks like we have an issue here.”

  Angie waved him over. “This girl needs an ambulance. That looney tune used a stun gun on her.”

  The security guard glanced at Ian, who had Bleak’s aunt in a hold with her arms behind her back.

  Ian smiled at the guard. “Todd, you don’t have any handcuffs or restraints, do you?”

  Todd picked up his walkie-talkie and called for an ambulance, using his other hand to give Ian the handcuffs off his belt. Then he knelt beside Angie and checked Bleak’s pulse. “You people seem to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Tell me about it.” Angie brushed Bleak’s hair away from her face. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “Her heart rate is steady. Are you sure she just stunned her?” He glanced up at Angie. “Typically, people don’t pass out from being stunned.”

  “I saw her pull something out of her tote.” Angie stood and went over to where the woman’s purse sat on the ground. She dumped it out on the grass.

  “Hey, that’s my property.” The woman—Bleak had called her Martha, Angie remembered—tried to pull away from Ian.

  “We won’t steal anything from you. Not like you tried to take Bleak from us.” Ian pulled her back, away from the purse.

  “Bleak isn’t yours. She’s my family,” Martha growled.

  Angie pointed to a syringe on the ground. “What did you shoot into her? Into your family member?”

  Martha shrugged. “Just some go-to-sleep juice. It’s an easy fix when you need someone to be quiet.”

  Angie wanted to scream. The fact that Bleak was as normal as she was had to be a testimony to the girl’s determination. She definitely didn’t get it from her family. She made eye contact with the guard. “The ambulance needs to hurry.”

  “Don’t worry, they’ll be here soon. It’s just hard to get through all these people.” He stood and began to try to disperse the audience watching the scene they were causing. “Nothing to see here, folks. Check out your evening news if you want the full scoop.”

  Felicia knelt next to Angie. She pointed out other things on the ground. “Duct tape, rope, more drugs. Man, the woman came prepared.”

  “With a stun gun to fight us off. Who does that?” Angie took the stun gun from Felicia and tucked it in her jacket pocket. She’d hand it over to the police, if they ever got here. Maybe the guard hadn’t adequately expressed the urgency of the situation. But he had been successful in moving the people away. She glanced around at the slowly dispersing crowd. “And where is the ambulance?”

  “Relax, mama bear, I can see it coming down the walkway.” Ian nodded to the left and all of a sudden, they were surrounded by five more golf carts and a full-sized ambulance van. Emergency personnel poured out of the vehicles and moved in on the group.

  “Ian, what do you have there?” Sheriff Brown went right to his nephew. “Tell me this is Martha Lancaster. I’d like to sleep a little better tonight than I thought I was going to with her loose.”

  “According to her Utah driver’s license”—the security guard picked up the wallet and handed it to the sheriff—“that’s her name. And this was all in her purse. I witnessed Ms. Turner dumping it out on the ground.”

  Sheriff Brown looked at the license, then at Angie. “There a reason you dumped her belongings on the grass?”

  “Yes, we assumed she’d stunned Bleak, but then, Terry here said that a stun gun wouldn’t make someone unconscious. So, we needed to know what she gave her. She said it was some sort of narcotic.”

  “Well, from her employee ID card, it looks like she should know. She’s a CNA at a nursing home in George, Utah.” Sheriff Brown turned back to the woman. “Looks like you’re going to need to come with me.”

  “I’m going to sue all of you. There won’t be a restaurant when I’m done with you. And I’m suing the fair for letting these people manhandle me. I was just taking my niece home,” Martha blustered as two deputies took her and put her in one of the golf carts. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Take her to the security trailer. We need to make sure what jurisdiction should be prosecuting her attempted kidnapping and assault.” He walked away from the screaming Martha and then took Angie’s arm and pulled her away from Bleak. “Let the EMTs do their job. She’s in good hands now.”

  “I can’t believe I watched her just try to walk out with her. I told Felicia to call you. Or I thought I did. It’s all jumbled up. I probably shouldn’t have tackled her, but I couldn’t let her just take Bleak like that. I mean, if Bleak wanted to go, I’d drive her back home. But she shouldn’t be forced to go, right?” Angie knew she was babbling.

  Ian came to her side and tried to move her away. “Come sit in the trailer. Let them do their work.”

  “I had to save her. You know?” Angie leaned into him and then let him lead her back to the trailer. When they got there, he opened the door and sat her in a chair. He got her a bottle of water, then knel
t down to look at her.

  “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not hurt, right?”

  Angie sipped the water. “No. I’m just shaken up. Do me a favor and go check on Bleak. Send Felicia with her in the ambulance. She shouldn’t be alone.”

  “I’ve already called Maggie. She’s meeting them at St. Luke’s, but I agree, someone should go with her. I’m going to send Hope home, but I’m pretty sure she’ll ignore me and go to the hospital too.” Ian picked a piece of straw out of Angie’s hair. “You did awesome out there.”

  “You helped.” Angie shuddered, remembering reaching for the stun gun and trying to beat Martha to it. “If you hadn’t shown up then and she’d gotten the stun gun, Bleak would be gone.”

  “Let’s just say it was a team effort.” He glanced out the window at the empty event area. “Looks like we missed the announcement of today’s winner. I’ll try to find out who won.”

  Angie shook her head. “Don’t bother. I’m not even curious. Just go make sure Felicia stays with Bleak. I’d hate to learn there’s another relative just waiting to snatch her at the hospital. Or run the van off the road and kidnap her there.”

  “Your mind runs in weird ways. If there is someone, Felicia might be hurt.” He paused at the door.

  “Felicia carries in her handbag. She always has.” She laughed at his look of horror. “You thought she was all sweet and innocent, right? The girl has a conceal and carry license and spends at least one day a month target shooting. I’d trust my firstborn with her against a storm of baby kidnappers.”

  “The things you don’t know about people.” He nodded to the water. “Finish that and I’ll take you out to dinner as soon as I get back from talking to her. Then we can go spell Felicia at the hospital. I think we both need a short break from crazy.”

  Her life seemed to focus on the crazy. At least since she’d been home from San Francisco. Who knew that the big city horrors she’d been warned of so many times by well-meaning friends before she left Idaho wouldn’t occur until after she’d moved back home? People were crazy everywhere. Maybe Idaho was just a smaller area so you ran into them more frequently.

  She was considering this line of thought when a knock came at the trailer door. Either Ian had been really fast and had locked the door when he’d left, or she was about to get a lecture from Ann Cole about not being available when the awards were given out. She hoped it was Ian, but she had a bad feeling that she was in trouble.

  She swung open the door. And immediately a man forced his hand on her mouth and pushed her back inside, closing the door with his foot. “Scream and I’ll make this quick.”

  Angie looked into blue eyes that reflected a glee at his threat. She had no doubt that he’d follow through. She felt the point of a blade at her stomach. She stayed still and nodded her understanding. The man in front of her had been the man who had scared Miquel. The carny who had been visiting the restaurants.

  He dropped his hand off her mouth. “You seemed like a bright girl. I’m just sorry I’m going to have to take you out.”

  “Why were you at the County Seat? Why are you attacking chefs?” Angie’s throat felt bone-dry, and she wanted to cough but thought if she moved even an inch, the knife might make its way into her body.

  “Aren’t you the curious one? You don’t ask why I’m killing you. Or even beg for your life. Although we might get to that later.” His gaze dropped to her chest, and he licked his bottom lip.

  The movement made Angie shudder. She swallowed again. “So, are you going to tell me?”

  “Why should I? Why should I waste the precious time we have together?” He leaned into her. “You smell wonderful. All cinnamon and sugar and a little bit of fear.”

  She tried not to move. “Humor me then.”

  “You are a determined one. I like my women like that. Maybe I’ll just take you with me. The carnival is closing up and leaving tomorrow anyway. We could be two states away before anyone even misses you. And my sister can just deal with it.” He licked her neck.

  The smell of his breath, heavy on the whiskey, made her tremble. She was going to die. Today, tomorrow, next month, whenever he was done with her. It didn’t matter, it was going to happen. All she could do was hope that it would be fast. She glanced around the trailer hoping that Felicia had been too distracted with Bleak’s abduction to put away all of her knives. Maybe there was something she could fight with. And going down fighting was better than just letting it happen. She was having a very bad day. She just prayed it wasn’t her last.

  She saw the door move a bit in the wind. He hadn’t closed it when he’d kicked it. It had banged open again. Ian stood outside the door, his face red and finger to his mouth. He held up a phone and then pointed away from the trailer. Translation, she hoped, was that he was going to call for help. If it had been Felicia, she would have just told Angie to drop and she would have shot him.

  Angie felt in her pocket. She still had the stun gun she’d taken from Felicia when she’d dropped it by Bleak. She shook her head, hoping that Ian wouldn’t walk away because she thought she’d only have one chance at this.

  Tackling Martha had been the dumbest thing she’d ever done. In just a few seconds, it would be the second dumbest.

  The man pushed away from her. The grin on his face made her gut drop. He might kill her, but he had other things on his mind now.

  “Yeah, you taste really good. She’s just going to have to wait a bit for your demise.” He set the knife down and shrugged out of his jacket.

  “Who’s your sister?” Angie didn’t wait for an answer. She stood, planted her feet, and raised the stun gun. She hoped this version didn’t have some sort of safety she had to mess with. If it did, she was probably dead. And Ian with her.

  She pulled the trigger.

  Chapter 21

  The man fell toward her and as she jumped back away from him, Ian burst into the trailer.

  Ian stared at the man on the floor. “What in the world did you do?”

  Angie took his phone and pointed to the man still jerking from the shock. “You probably should tie him up or something. Is this Sheriff Brown?”

  “What is going on over there?” The phone vibrated with his voice.

  “I did what I needed to do. Oh, by the way, I forgot to give anyone Martha’s stun gun. So, it’s going to have been used again. How far away are you?”

  The door swung open, and she had her answer. Sheriff Brown stood in the doorway, filling up the small trailer area. He handed Ian his handcuffs. “We were coming to deal with this.”

  “The guy had a knife to my gut. I think I would have been in the hospital on a surgery table in the best scenario if I’d waited. He’s pretty crazy.” Angie nodded to the door. “Do you mind if I go sit outside at the table? I think I might need to throw up now.”

  Sheriff Brown moved away from the door, and Angie aimed for it. Her vision was off. She hadn’t been hurt, so why was she feeling so woozy? He grabbed her arm. “Hold on a moment. What’s on your neck?”

  She reached up, but he held back her hand. “Ian, grab me a wet paper towel and a baggie if we have one in here.”

  Angie giggled. “Bottom drawer. He left his cooties on me.”

  “He left a lot more than cooties.” Sheriff Brown eased her down the stairs and onto the chair. He took the items from Ian. “Tanner? Get in there and get that guy under custody. He’s poisoned her.”

  “I don’t feel poisoned. I feel happy.” Angie stretched her neck out to the left so the sheriff could clean the powder off her skin. “And tired, really, really tired.”

  “Ned, call for an ambulance. We’ll meet them at the front gate so she doesn’t have to wait.” He tucked the paper towels into the bag. “Let’s get her on the golf cart, and we’ll head over to the front gate. Tell them to hurry.”

  Ian moved in front of his uncle and
picked Angie up into his arms. “I’ll carry her. You drive.”

  “I can walk, you know,” Angie protested, but honestly, she wasn’t sure she really could. Her head was pounding now, and the light seemed really bright. She closed her eyes and leaned into Ian. “You smell really good. Not like that other man. He smelled wrong. Like he was too angry for a long time.”

  “Shhh, now. We’re going to take a quick run to the hospital.” Ian slipped into the back seat of the golf cart and checked to make sure she was tucked in beside him. “Go, Allen, I think it’s getting worse.”

  “I just got a text. The ambulance will be waiting for us. They had been called out on a heatstroke incident but the kid refused treatment.” Sheriff Brown started the engine. “Let’s get her out of here.”

  They weaved through traffic, taking the golf cart as fast as it would go, which seemed like forever to Ian. When they reached the gate, the EMTs took her off his lap and put her on a gurney. Ian followed them. “I could have walked her here faster.”

  “Not with all those people. They would have knocked her out of your arms.” Allen slapped Ian on the back. “Go with her. Give me your keys, and I’ll have someone drive your truck over to the hospital. Do you remember where you’re parked?”

  “Row EE near a light pole.” He nodded to his uncle. “Thank you. I’ll let you know what they say.”

  “I’ve got a few things here to clean up, then I’ll be over there. Maggie’s already there with Bleak, so check in with your aunt too, okay?” His phone rang, and he nodded to Ian as he walked away from the ambulance. “Sheriff Brown.”

  The EMTs had already loaded the gurney with Angie into the van. One of the guys held open the back door. “You ready?”

  Ian climbed inside and started praying.

  * * * *

  Angie’s eyes hurt as she blinked them open to see where she was. She remembered little about what had happened after they’d finished service. Something about Bleak. Something about Chef Nubbins. Her attacker’s face filled her mind. She tried to sit up. To get away.