by Lauren Carr
“Oh, dear Lord,” Joshua clutched his stomach with his hand with the realization that his worst nightmare was coming true. He made one last attempt to contact him on the phone. “Hunter? Are you all right?”
The cruiser fishtailed when the sheriff turned off Rock Springs Boulevard onto the little street and came to an abrupt halt. Joshua threw his cell phone onto the seat and ran down the steps to where the officers were still making sense of the situation. The front door was wide open.
Recognized as the prosecuting attorney, Joshua ran inside without anyone attempting to stop him. “Where are they? What’s happened? Gunshots were fired?” he asked a deputy he recognized as a senior officer.
“MacMillian is on the way,” the deputy said.
Joshua felt sick to his stomach. Tad? They called the medical examiner? Oh, dear God …
“She’s back there.” The deputy jerked his head in the direction of the kitchen. “Your daughter is with her.”
Joshua’s whole body felt numb. Afraid of what he would find, he slowed his pace but at the same time hurried to get to Cameron and Hunter.
He only took a few steps before clearing the threshold into the kitchen where he found Tracy kneeling over Cameron. With Tracy blocking his view, he could only see the lower half of Cameron’s body covered in a blanket.
“Well, at least this time you didn’t jump off a roof,” Tracy was saying.
Cameron’s voice trembled when she said, “It was a fire escape.”
“Whatever.”
In the middle of the floor, there was another body that Joshua recognized as Lorraine Winter’s, lying in a quickly growing pool of blood. Her body was riddled with bullet holes.
“Mr. Thornton,” Hunter called to him from the corner of the room where he was being questioned by another senior deputy, “I’m sorry we got cut off, but suddenly things got really busy here.”
The senior deputy shot Joshua a grin. “Looks like your son-in-law-to-be is a real hot shot. Hasn’t even been to the police academy one day and he’s already broken his cherry.” He gestured at Lorraine Winter. “His first kill.”
Hunter didn’t look as thrilled as the deputy did. “Not really such a hot shot,” he said. “I screwed up. I saw the open door and assumed she had gone out the back while I was coming in the front. I let my guard down and almost got killed. If I hadn’t seen the look in Cameron’s eyes warning me, we’d both be dead.”
Joshua clasped Hunter on the shoulder. “You did good, son. I’m proud of you, and your father would be, too.”
Sheriff Sawyer came around the corner to shake Hunter’s hand. “You’re going to be a fine addition to the department. Let’s get you outside to get your statement.”
Behind Hunter’s back, the sheriff fired off a glare in Joshua’s direction.
Joshua didn’t need to hear the words to understand what was going through Sawyer’s mind. The sick feeling he had in his own stomach said it all. Joshua had sent a civilian in to save his wife and Hunter wasn’t just any untrained civilian, he was Tracy’s fiancé. It could very easily have been Hunter bleeding out in the middle of the kitchen floor.
Tracy moved aside to allow Joshua room to kneel next to Cameron. “She must have a hard head,” she whispered with a grin. “Most people would be dead with a blow like that from a cast iron skillet.”
“Just like every other woman in my life.” Joshua lifted Cameron into his arms. The blood that covered the side of her head smeared onto his clothes, but he didn’t care. She was safe, and he was holding her. The feel of her breathing against him confirmed that she was alive, and that made everything okay.
She opened her eyes and gazed up to him. “Josh,” she murmured as best she could with a numb tongue.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered to her. “You’re going to be okay, baby. You scared me half to death. You know that, don’t you?”
Caressing his face, she squinted into his blue eyes. “No need to worry. You’re not burying this wife. I promised. Remember.”
“Yeah, I remember.” He stroked her blood soaked hair off her forehead. “I love you, Cam.”
“I know.” Closing her eyes, she rubbed her face against his chest and drifted off.
Epilogue
Sheriff Deputy Michael Gardner was buried with full military and police honors. The front row was filled with his widow, his son and his fiancé, his adopted family, and members of his family who he had never met: his grandmother, Eleanor O’Reilly, and his aunt Flo.
Police officers from every district in the area, including many from Ohio and Pennsylvania, turned out to honor the young deputy who died while trying to solve the case of the murdered hooker, who no one seemed to care about except him.
But one detective was not in attendance. She wanted to go, and had even dressed in her uniform in an effort to work up her courage. But instead of going to the funeral, Homicide Detective Cameron Gates ended up in Crickster’s drowning her grief in hot fudge.
Joshua Thornton stayed the minimally required amount of time at the reception that followed at the church home of the Gardner family before meeting his wife at their place. Seeing that she had eaten enough, he ordered his own sundae.
“What did you tell everyone?” she asked him.
“I think everyone understands.” Joshua reached across to stroke the side of her face, which was bruised from her forehead and down her cheek to her jaw. Tad claimed it was a miracle that Cameron hadn’t died from the brutal blow to the side of her head, which had fractured her skull.
He told her, “Between your second concussion and the doctor tacking another two weeks on to your sick leave … you’re excused.”
She slowly shook her head. “I owed it to Mike, and to Hunter, to be there as an officer and show my respect.”
“That’s something for you to work on.” Joshua forced a grin. “The O’Reillys were there. Douglas’ mother and sister. You should have seen how they looked at Hunter, who has already made arrangements to have their farmhouse renovated.”
“Renovated?” she asked. “The whole house?”
“For wheelchair access,” Joshua said. “Tracy took him out there to meet them, and he’s going to make good on his grandfather’s promise to take care of them. Tad was talking to them at the reception. He’s going to recommend a good motorized wheelchair for Eleanor. They’re also going to look at a wheelchair lift so that she can come down from the second floor on her own. Everyone was crying with joy when I left.” He grinned. “I think Hunter is going to fit in well with our family.”
The corners of Cameron’s lips tugged in a grin while she fought to push away the memory of her first husband and his police funeral.
“Good news.” Joshua sat back to allow the server to place his sundae in the middle of the table. By habit, she gave him two spoons, one for him and one for Cameron. “Forensics had gotten a fingerprint from the duct tape used to killed Ava Tucker and Virgil Null. There was never any match for it until now. It was a match for Lorraine Winter.”
“So she did kill them,” Cameron said, “Because Virgil was going to confess to their killing Douglas O’Reilly, and she didn’t want her family shamed by what her son had done.” She let out a chuckle. “Ain’t it ironic?”
Joshua was unsure of what she was commenting on. “What?”
“Lorraine Winter murdered Ava Tucker,” Cameron said. “In the end, who killed Lorraine?” She waited a beat before answering her own question. “Ava Tucker’s grandson.”
While his mouth was hanging open in surprise, Joshua spooned some ice cream and whipped cream into it. “I never realized that, but it’s true.”
“Which proves what goes around, comes around.”
“Ain’t it the truth?” Joshua nodded his head. “Lorraine’s DNA was also a match to the blood left on the scene at Dolly’s house.”
“Which clears R
achel Hilliard of Dolly’s murder.” Cameron propped her chin on her hand. “I so wanted it to be her.”
“Oh, her career is over,” Joshua said. “She’s got a dream team of lawyers, but by the time the media gets ahold of all those tapes that Larry Van Patton recorded throughout the years, plus the tape with Henry MacRae’s testimony about what he knows—even if she doesn’t go to jail, she’ll never get re-elected.”
“Speaking of media getting ahold of tapes …” With a mysterious grin, she looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Exactly how did Dolly’s tape of Rachel and MacRae make its way to The Review and the Associated Press? Somehow Jan Martin-MacMillan got her hands on it? Do you know how?”
With mock innocence, Joshua rolled his eyes. “Gee, I have no idea. You know Jan. She didn’t make it up to editor at The Review playing by the rules. She smelled something and refused to stop until she got to the source. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t sneak a copy of that tape out of our own home in T. J.’s diaper.”
“You wouldn’t?”
With a chuckle, he returned to his sundae.
“You know how I hate unanswered questions,” she said.
“What ones do you still have?”
“Why did Lorraine kill Dolly?”
“I thought it was because she didn’t want you reopening the investigation into Ava’s and Virgil’s murders,” he said.
“I thought so, too,” she said. “But then, I guess after the stars cleared from my head, I remembered that Lorraine was in the car when Dolly and I were talking about Ava’s murder. I didn’t know about Virgil until we were at Dolly’s house—after Lorraine had gone home. Did Lorraine even know Ava’s name?”
“Why else would Lorraine kill her?” Joshua asked.
“Because she was just plain crazy,” Cameron said. “She and Dolly had an altercation here at Cricksters that day. It wasn’t the first time. They were adversaries and neighbors. They had been fussing for years. Lorraine could have gone off the deep end on that very day and decided to do something about her deep-seated hatred for Dolly—that could have been her motive.” She frowned. “For all we know, the fact that Dolly was enlisting my help to solve a double-murder that Lorraine had committed was nothing more than a coincidence.”
“Is that what you think?” Joshua cocked his head.
“We’ll never know,” she replied in a soft tone. She uttered a deep sigh. “I hate cases that end like that.”
“So do I.” Wishing he could bring a wider grin to her face, Joshua stabbed at the ice cream with his spoon. Maybe it’s best to just give her time. He was aware of her watching him while he ate his ice cream in silence.
“You are such a good man, Joshua Thornton.”
“Really?” His heart leapt to see her smiling at him when she sat forward and leaned her elbows on the table.
“You didn’t say, ‘You were wrong, Gates.’”
“What were you wrong about?”
“Don’t you remember when I told you and Sawyer that Mike Gardner’s, Ava Tucker’s, and Douglas O’Reilly’s murders had to be connected? What are the odds that three people, all from the same family, get murdered separately, and that they’re not all connected?”
“But they were,” Joshua replied.
“No, they weren’t,” Cameron said. “Philip Lipton ran down Douglas O’Reilly while driving under the influence—“
“Lipton says Virgil Null was driving,” Joshua said.
“I believe Russell Null when he said it was Philip Lipton,” she said. “He was the most aggressive in the recording. Besides, Russell isn’t fighting the charges brought against him by Pennsylvania. I think that with the remorse he’s feeling, if it had been Virgil, he would have said so by now. Even if the prosecutor chooses not to prosecute, which I don’t think he will, at least the O’Reillys have closure.”
“I tend to agree with you.”
“Only because you’re a nice guy,” she said. “The fact is, none of these murders were connected.”
“Ah, but there was a connection.” Joshua laid down his spoon.
“What?”
“Have you ever heard of the domino effect?”
Fearing that he was going to start a discussion that was destined to go over her head, she sat back in her seat. “I’ve heard of dominos.”
“It’s the same idea,” Joshua said. “Only instead of talking about a toy or game, it is a real-life occurrence. A linked sequence of events that’s set in motion by one single—” He held up a single finger. “—even small—action.”
Narrowing her eyes, Cameron cocked her head at him.
“Ava Tucker made the bad decision to get pregnant, which would have forced Douglas to marry her,” Joshua said. “That decision put him on the road that night to go see her, which resulted in his death.”
“Then Lipton and Null made the bad decision to cover up the accident, which resulted in Toby’s suicide,” Cameron said. “If you want to, you can trace it back to Ava’s bad decision. Otherwise, O’Reilly would not have been out on that road for them to kill accidentally.”
Joshua said, “Since they covered up his death, Ava thinks her boyfriend committed suicide, so she blames herself and becomes a call girl. Toby’s suicide causes Virgil to come clean, which drives the already-insane Lorraine Winter to murder him and Ava, which, years later, brings Mike Gardner, Ava’s illegitimate son, into the case.”
“Because he was investigating Ava’s murder,” Cameron picked up the domino, “he has a fight with Belle, who tells Royce, who uses the opportunity to kill Mike.”
“If Ava hadn’t decided to get pregnant and trap Douglas into marriage,” Joshua said, “Mike would never have been born—or murdered.”
“But if Mike had never been born, then he would not have had Hunter, who is now marrying your little girl,” Cameron said with a wide grin.
“Which proves that God does have the power to turn tragedies into blessings,” Joshua said. “Which leads to my bad decision.” He dropped his eyes in shame.
“What decision was that?”
“I never should have sent Hunter in to save you,” he said with a sigh. “I broke police regulations and procedure, which I know. But I let my emotions for you override everything. What if Hunter had been hurt or killed saving you? Tracy would have been so heartbroken—”
“I know the feeling.”
“How would I have ever earned my little girl’s forgiveness?” Sickened by the thought, he pushed the sundae aside.
She reached across the table to take his hand. “You wouldn’t have.”
Caressing her fingers, he noticed the light catching both of their wedding bands to send sparks of light in the middle of the table.
“That is why you are never going to ever do anything stupid like that ever again, Josh.” She squeezed his hand. “Promise me.”
He squeezed her hand back. “Promise.”
“Do you have stock in this place?” Sheriff Curt Sawyer’s booming voice interrupted their moment. They had been so wrapped up in their discussion that they had failed to notice when the sheriff came in and sauntered up to their booth to show off that he was not alone. His date was clinging to his arm like self-adhesive wallpaper.
“Cameron, Joshua, I believe you met Tiffany from that hostage situation in Weirton.” Curt’s pride was evident by how he held her slender hand tipped with long manicured nails in both of his hands.
In contrast to how Cameron and Joshua had previously seen her, she was dressed in a backless summer dress that fell modestly down to her mid-calves, and high heeled sandals. Still, in spite of the long dress, her sensuous appeal oozed from every curve. She was the type of woman who could look sexy in a flour sack.
“Tiffany, you remember our county prosecutor Joshua Thornton, and Detective Cameron Gates,” Curt introduced them.
&
nbsp; Apparently, Tiffany was too distracted by her attraction to her handsome date. She barely glanced in their direction before telling Curt, “Not really.” She wrapped both of her arms around the sheriff to take him into a tight hug. “All I remember is you sweeping me up in your big strong arms to save my life.” She sighed a deep breath filled with adoration.
Caught up in their own bubble filled with love, the two of them strolled to the other side of the restaurant to cuddle up in a booth.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Cameron leaned across to table to ask Joshua in a harsh whisper, “Was that the stripper from the Blue Moon?”
“She’s not a stripper,” Joshua said. “She’s a dancer—”
“She’s a pole dancer,” Cameron replied. “She dances half naked for drooling men.”
“Curt insists that she’s a professional—an artist,” he countered. “He says she studied under Abby Lee Miller.”
“Who’s that?” Cameron shot back.
With a combination of a shake of his head and a shrug of his shoulders, Joshua spooned the last bite of the sundae into his mouth before answering, “Some VIP, I guess.”
“I never heard of her.” Cameron squinted at him. “VIP in what?”
“I have no idea,” he confessed. “My guess, she’s a Very Important Pole-dancer.”
Her laughter signaled a lightening of her mood.
Setting the spoon down next to the empty bowl, Joshua said, “Tracy really wants you to come to the wedding, and Hunter did save your life. He thinks that means you owe them.”
Instead of answering, she grinned across the table at him. Arching an eyebrow, she said, “I guess that’s our next mystery.”
The End
For The Lovers in Crime’s Next Case—
Til Murder Do We Part
A Lovers in Crime Mystery
Chester is in the throes of preparing for what promises to be the social event of the year—the wedding of Joshua Thornton’s little girl to Hunter Gardner.
