Ryan shook her gently. “Honey, relax. Leticia’s not dead. The killer missed her heart but got her in the shoulder. She’s at Hillside Regional, under police protection.”
“Oh my gosh,” Heather said, and her knees gave out.
Ryan embraced her and lifted her onto her feet again. “She’s fine. As fine as she can be given the circumstances.”
“Did she see anything?”
“No,” Ryan said. “She was shot and then passed out from the pain. The killer removed the arrow from her shoulder, so we don’t know what she was shot with.”
Heather’s sleuthin’ mind kicked into high gear. “Wait, the killer removed the arrow but didn’t try to finish Leticia off?” She grimaced at the turn of phrase.
“They probably thought she was dead.”
“Or they panicked. Maybe this attack wasn’t planned out properly. Not premeditated.” Heather sucked her bottom lip. “But why? Why Leticia.”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Ryan replied.
“No. No guessing,” Heather said. “Leticia Jackson knows something. Why else would the killer have attacked her?”
“Psychopathy?” Ryan suggested. He let go of Heather, and stepped back, then leaned against the wall. “What are you thinking?”
“I believe that I need to pay Leticia a visit tomorrow. For her sake and the benefit of every other resident of Hillside.” Heather exhaled slowly. Her heart rate had returned to normal, at last. “This killer clearly has no trouble with the idea of killing again. We can’t allow that.”
“I agree,” Ryan said. “Now, let’s go back into the living room and enjoy ourselves. Have a donut. The sugar will do you good.” He slipped his hand beneath her elbow and guided her toward the cheers in the living room.
Leticia Jackson. Her name burned through Heather’s mind. What did the gold medalist know? And what had driven the killer to strike again?
“Tomorrow,” Heather whispered.
Chapter 16
Leticia’s drip bag hovered to the left of her bed, but the room was silent. No heart rate monitors, or steady blip, blip noise to make sure she didn’t go into cardiac arrest. The Olympian sat bolt upright in bed, her arm bandaged tight.
“I thought you might come to see me,” she said.
“I’m used to more noise in these rooms,” Heather replied. “Kinda quiet isn’t it?”
“I made them turn off all those beeping machines. Totally unnecessary. I was shot in the arm, not through the heart, for heaven’s sake.”
Pragmatic as ever. Leticia leaned back against her pillows, a small smile playing on her mouth. “Like I said, I thought you might come visit.”
“Why were you so sure?”
Leticia’s smile split into a grin. “Because I know intelligence when I see it. And you’re one of a kind, Mrs. Shepherd.”
“I’m flattered,” Heather said and grasped the Donut Delights box in her left hand. She’d loaded it up with every type of donut she could fit inside. Heather pointed at the chair beside the hospital bed. “Mind if I sit down?”
“Only if I can have one of those donuts,” Leticia replied.
Heather popped the box on the judge’s lap. “Help yourself.” She sat down in the chair, then propped her elbows on her knees and leaned on them.
Leticia opened the donut box and brought out an M&M Surprise. “Oh, I love M&Ms,” she said. “My guilty pleasure.”
“You’re in the hospital. No guilt.”
Leticia took a bite of the donut, then groaned. “Delicious.” She chewed in silence, swallowed, then speared Heather with a gaze. “And yeah, there’s some guilt floating around in this room. All of it is mine, though.”
“No, I claim some of it.”
“What?” Leticia asked, and took another bite. “Why?”
“Because I was the one who asked you to meet me at the fields. If you hadn’t been there…”
“It would’ve happened anyway,” Leticia replied. “I have my suspicions about who did it, I’m sure you do too, but first, you need to hear what I have to say.”
“I’m all ears,” Heather replied. Leticia was a woman after her own heart. She got straight to the point and didn’t linger on formalities.
“I omitted some information during our talk yesterday,” she said.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” Leticia replied. “A couple of days ago, the afternoon before the competition was supposed to start. Jessica Laverne came to see me.”
Jinx? Heather forced puzzle pieces, but they didn’t click into place, just yet. She’d need more than that. “What did she want?”
“Oh, just to talk. She came into the woman’s locker room, all sugar and sweetness. Complimented me on my gold medal, said she looked forward to the competition. You know, the usual stuff someone says when they’re trying to butter you up.”
“Okay. Then what happened?”
Leticia ate the last bit of her donut, then licked the glaze off her fingers. “She cut to the point, eventually. Okay, so I told her to cut to the point because I didn’t buy the honey she’d tried to sell me.”
“All right.”
“She offered me a thousand dollars to fix the competition and announce her the winner.”
Heather gasped. She couldn’t help it. Bribery? The papers had said that Jinx’s father had tried to throw the games, not her. Unless, she’d taken up the habit after her father had passed on.
“A thousand dollars.”
“I didn’t take it,” Leticia said. “Before you ask. I explained to her, politely, that the judging system wasn’t just reliant on me, but my co-judge, and that it was largely electronic.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nobody uses pure human judging for archery. That would be ridiculous. The High School provided the facility, but a lot of bigger sponsors chipped in for this competition to provide equipment. Specifically, the targets, the scoreboard, and the scoring system. They had to bring in technicians to get it all installed, correctly.”
So that was why the school hadn’t taken down the range, yet. They didn’t have the know-how.
“How did Jessica react?”
“Oh, as you would expect. All that honey slipped right off her face. No more sweet-cutesy talk to the judge. She went hard as nails. She told me that anything was possible and if I wasn’t willing to throw the match, she’d find someone else who would. The other judge.”
“Huh,” Heather said. “But the other judge was Kyle. She’d have to know that he’d never take a bribe from her, after their history together.”
Leticia opened the lid of the donut box and studied the contents. “That’s the thing,” she said. “I don’t think Jessica knew who the other judge was yet. We didn’t have Kyle on board until the very last minute. They hadn’t even printed his name in the programs yet. She didn’t know, and I didn’t tell her.”
Heather mulled it over in her mind. “So, you rejected her bribe, and she probably went to find Kyle. Did you hear anything else? See anything?”
Leticia sighed. “No. I left afterward. I was pretty irritated that she thought she could pay me off. People need to have integrity in any sport, and she doesn’t.”
Heather chewed the inside of her cheek and narrowed her eyes.
“She’s the killer,” Leticia said and brought out a Choc Revolution donut. “I’m telling you. It’s her. I feel it in my guts.”
“I want to agree with you,” Heather said, “but I learned my lesson when it came to making assumptions like that. I’ve accused way too many people of being murderers.”
Leticia burst out laughing, then winced and pressed her hand to her bandage. “Ouch.”
“Besides, the murderer keeps shooting with carbon arrows, and Jessica uses graphite. I need the arrow you were shot with before I can prove anything.” Not to mention that a bribe seemed like weak motivation to kill someone.
After all, this wasn’t the Olympics. This was a small town competition. It wasn’t as if
she had anything to gain from this but minor notoriety.
“Suit yourself. But please, make sure those cops out there stay on my door until Jessica is behind bars or out of this town.” Leticia bit into the Choc Revolution donut, then moaned. “You know what else should be a crime?” She asked, around a mouthful of cream.
“What?” Heather asked, burning through the possibilities in her mind’s eye.
“How good these donuts are, wow.”
Heather laughed, but joy didn’t bubble through her at the compliment. Jessica Laverne? Maybe, but it felt as if a piece of the puzzle had dropped off the board.
Chapter 17
Heather clomped up the front stairs to Bill and Colleen’s, her mind turning the case over and over again. Jessica Laverne, Jessica Laverne. The name repeated in her mind.
Why would a young woman need to bribe judges when she had the talent? And why would she have killed for a small town competition?
Heather knocked on the front door, then scratched her chin. She’d promised Lilly she’d take her for a bike ride, this afternoon since Colleen had finally lifted the ban on the activity.
The latch clicked, and the door swung inward. A tall woman in bright blue sweat pants and a white cotton shirt stood on the threshold.
“Who are you?” She asked, and her upper lip curled back to reveal two yellow incisors.
“I’m Heather, and I’m here to pick up Lilly.” Heather paused and folded her arms. “Who are you?”
“Elizabeth.”
Heather ground her teeth until they squeaked, then walked past the young woman and to the bottom of the stairs. “Lils, I’m here for our day date.”
“Coming, Au-Heather,” Lilly yelled from upstairs. Her footsteps pattered around upstairs. “I’m just getting my helmet. Ugh, it’s so ugly.”
“Safety first,” Heather replied.
“Uh, can you stop screaming? I was trying to have an adult conversation before you turned up,” Elizabeth said, behind her.
Heather breathed deeply, but it didn’t calm her one iota. “And what would you know about an adult conversation?” Heather asked. She turned to face the younger woman, then froze. Her jaw dropped. “What are you doing here?”
Coach Hardy leaned against the doorjamb, his back to Bill and Colleen’s kitchen. Sunlight streamed through the window behind him, glancing off the white tiles and counters.
He folded his arms and stared at her. “I’m here to discuss Elizabeth’s career. Not that it’s any of your business, woman.”
Heather looked at Elizabeth, the adult bully, to Coach Hardy, the sweaty man with a bad attitude. “What about Jessica? You’re going to coach two women for the same competition?”
“No, not this time. Jessica’s gone,” Hardy replied. He shrugged. “She took off without telling me a thing. Not even a goodbye. And she stole my arrows too. Unbelievable.”
Ice trickled down Heather’s spine. “She left.”
“Uh, yeah, did I stutter? I swear you Hillside females have got to be the dumbest –”
“I beg you not to finish that sentence, Hardy.” Heather held up a palm.
“What’s your problem?” Elizabeth asked, then rearranged her torrid blue sweats. “You jealous because you can’t shoot?”
“She’s just being an idiot,” Hardy said. “She thinks –”
“Quiet,” Heather said and massaged her forehead. “I’m trying to think.” Jessica had run off with the arrows. She’d possibly skipped town. Or hidden in wait to hurt someone else. It had to be her.
This was the puzzle piece.
“Yeah, hah, good luck with that,” Coach Hardy replied. Already, sweat had pooled underneath his armpits and streaked his calves. The guy had a serious issue.
“Hardy,” Heather barked.
The man jumped, then cleared his throat and tried to act cool. “What?”
“Did Jessica ever tell you anything personal? Anything at all? About Kyle Henson or the school or Leticia Jackson?”
Coach Hardy’s mouth puckered up. “Huh? Uh, I don’t think so.”
Lilly bundled down the stairs behind Heather, then stood on the bottom step and stared at the adults. Her gaze swept over Elizabeth and traveled away. Heather grasped Lilly’s shoulder to give her moral support.
“Anything. Think. Please. It’s got to be Hillside related. Archery related.”
“Uh, she told me that she used to train with Henson on the smaller field. There were bleachers, and he used to make her stand way back and shoot from there. She hated it because she missed most of the time and the other kids could hit the targets.”
“The smaller field. Anything else?”
“No, sheesh, what’s your deal?” Hardy asked, then flapped his sweaty shirt.
Lilly clamped her fingers on her nose and squeezed.
“My deal is that there’s a murderer on the loose, and she’s been using your arrows to kill people. Come on, Lils, let’s get out of here.” Heather marched her charge forward and out the front door of the Foster Folks’ house.
They stomped down the front stairs and the path, then stopped beside Heather’s car?
“Where are we going?” Lilly asked. “What about the bike ride?”
“I’m sorry, honey, but we’re going to have to postpone that. I’ve just figured out who killed Kyle Henson. I need to call Ryan. I need to call –”
“But what am I going to do?” Lilly asked, and twisted her lips to one side.
Heather stared at the young girl. Her ruddy cheeks shone in the morning sunlight. Innocent and free.
“You want to spend some time with Eva? She’d love to see you.”
Lilly’s grin lit up Heather’s life. “Yeah, that would be great! Can Dave come to?”
“Yeah, he can. Get in the car, sweetie, let’s go fetch him.” Heather opened the back door for Lilly, waited for her to get in, then shut it behind her.
She had to hurry. There wasn’t much time. Jinx was on the loose, and if she didn’t get to her in time, things in Hillside would get real bad, real fast.
Chapter 18
Eva Schneider stood on the sidewalk, her hands on her hips and an apron fastened around her neck. “I was making a pie,” she said. “There’s going to be plenty to share.”
Lilly scooted off her seat and jogged to Eva, Dave padding along beside her. “Hi, Aunt Eva,” she said and threw her arms around the old lady. “Heather said Dave and I could spend the afternoon.”
“Of course, you can, dear,” Eva replied, and patted the girl on the top of the head. “And you can have some pie too.”
“Eva, I messaged Colleen and told her that Lilly is with you. She said it was fine. Do you need her number?” Heather asked. Butterflies pummeled the lining of her stomach, demanding attention. Demanding Heather rush off to find Jinx, right away.
Amy slipped out of the passenger seat of Heather’s car and leaned her forearms on the top of the car. “I don’t like this,” she whispered.
Heather shot her a look. “Not in front of Lilly,” she hissed.
“We’ll be back a little later to pick you two up, Lils. Be safe. Enjoy the pie.”
“Bye!” Lilly waved, then led Dave up the garden path. Eva walked next to her and chattered on. Pie this, cherries that.
They disappeared inside the house, and the door slammed shut behind them.
“Like I said, I don’t like this, Heather. It doesn’t feel right.” Amy shivered and rubbed her upper arms. “What if she, you know, the bow and arrow. She’s got to be good at aiming.”
“Relax, we’re not doing this on our own. I’ve got to phone Ryan and tell him what’s going on.” Heather scrabbled her phone from her front pocket, and her fingertips brushed against the rough fabric. She brought it out, then frowned.
The notification light at the top of the phone flashed purple.
Heather swiped her finger across the screen and unlocked it. A message from Jung flashed front and center. She tapped to open it.
Somethi
ng weird is going on at my place. Call me back.
Heather bit her lip. “I’ve got to call Jung first.”
“What, why?”
“Let’s find out.” Heather dialed his number, then placed the phone against her ear.
It rang three times, then clicked. “Boss?” Jung asked.
“Yeah, I got a message from you, Jung. Is everything all right?”
Jung exhaled into the phone and the sound distorted. “No,” he said. “Everything is not all right. Something creepy happened a couple of minutes ago, boss.”
“What is it?” Heather met Amy’s gaze and shrugged. Amy rapped her knuckles on the top of Heather’s car and rocked from side-to-side.
“Someone tried to break into my place,” Jung replied. “I heard this weird noise at the back of the building, like metal or glass or, I don’t know how to describe it. Went to look and the trash can was tipped over.”
Heather heaved a sigh of relief. “You're just jumpy. It was probably a cat or a dog.”
“Rats?” Amy suggested, then fake-gagged.
“No,” Jung said. “No, boss, I’m serious. I went down there and checked it out. I found blood shards of an arrow in the trash can next to the one that’d been thrown over. And now, shoot. Hold on a sec.”
Jung’s voice disappeared. Scratches and crackles replaced it. A muffled shout.
“Someone hanging around outside the window. Just saw them there. A woman. She ran off before I could get a good look at her,” Jung said.
Heather puffed out her cheeks and exhaled. “All right. All right, it’s okay.”
“Sounds like a cheer from that Bring It On movie. Do you remember that?” Amy whispered.
Heather shushed her. “Jung, lock yourself in and stay away from the windows and doors for heaven’s sake. I believe that person is armed and dangerous. I’ll call Ryan and have him send over a car.”
“Thanks, boss, you’re the best.”
And then he hung up. No panicking or unnecessary questions. Pure acceptance of the facts. Another pragmatic person.
M&M Surprise Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 17 Page 6
