Murdering the Roses (A Heavenly Highland Inn Cozy Mystery)

by Bell, Cindy

  Then she remembered the first time she had realized she made a mistake by hiring Bob. It was when she asked him to finish adding some decking to the employee quarters. He promised it would be an easy task for him, and that he was more than capable of doing it. She had gone out back to check on him, and found him digging beside the deck instead of in front of it where she wanted the deck to be extended. She watched him for a few minutes, trying to figure out just why he would need to dig beside the deck. She was always trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. But then finally, she had asked him.

  "Why are you digging over here?" she asked, mystified. "I told you, I want the deck built straight forward from the one that is already there," she reminded him and crossed her arms with irritation. She had even considered that he might have been drinking. She distinctly recalled sniffing for the scent of alcohol, and getting a nose full of dirt kicked by his digging instead.

  "I know what I'm doing," Bob had barked at her sharply, as he pushed the shovel back down deeper in the dirt. "Just leave me alone, it'll get it done,” he had been very rude and brusque, as if he wanted to get rid of her as quickly as possible.

  Vicky had been put off by the way he talked to her, but at the same time she needed the deck done, so she decided to let it go and walk away. What did she care if he dug extra holes? He obviously was not very bright, and that was something she had remembered about him from high school. He never did very well in his classes. She had never really thought about that day again, since Bob had finished the deck and it had turned out just fine. He filled in the extra hole he had dug, and she had just assumed that he realized his mistake.

  "I think I know where he buried it," Vicky whispered, absolutely stunned as the memory played over in her mind. Was it really possible that she had interrupted Bob creating a hiding place for his stolen money? She couldn't believe how naive she had been to think that he was really just looking for a job. She had been rubbing elbows with a violent criminal without even realizing it. He was looking for a place to lay low until he was sure it was safe to spend his fortune.

  "Where?" Aunt Ida pressed and grinned eagerly as she snapped her fingers. "I'll get the shovel!"

  "By the deck," Vicky nodded slowly, trying to recall the exact spot where he had dug. "If it's going to be anywhere, it's going to be buried beside that deck!" she said with confidence.

  It felt a bit like a wild goose chase. What were the chances that they were right? But what harm would it do to dig a little hole beside the deck? It would do a lot of good if it turned out to be true. They stopped at the garden shed on the way to the employee's quarters to grab a shovel. All of the tools had been inspected and evaluated, but none had shown any evidence of being involved in the crime. When they reached the area beside the deck, Vicky carefully looked over the dirt and grass. She was replaying the memory so that she could find the exact right spot. Aunt Ida couldn't stop talking.

  "Oh I bet there are jewels," she said gleefully, her eyes wide and shimmering. "How I love jewels. Just think of all that booty!"

  "Aunt Ida," Vicky actually managed a laugh as she began digging where she thought the right spot was. "Bob wasn't a pirate,” she pointed out as patiently as she could.

  "A pirate, or a thief, what's the difference?" she shrugged mildly with a smile. "Who cares as long as there are diamonds in that treasure chest!" she was practically drooling at the thought.

  Vicky thought Aunt Ida's wild ideas were getting a little out of control, but again, she didn't think they would do any harm. As she pushed the shovel deep into the dirt, she hoped there really would be a treasure chest. If there was, she could turn it over to the police, and all of this would be put to rest. Vicky tossed quite a few shovels of dirt to the side. It was hard work on an unusually warm spring day, and she was getting covered in sweat. The physical labor was also aggravating the bump on the back of her head, but she kept digging. Aunt Ida kept prattling on.

  "Maybe Bob really did steal it from pirates," Ida pointed out dreamily. "We don't know what he might have stolen. So there really could be diamonds in there. If there is, it wouldn't do any harm to keep just one, now would it Vicky?" she asked with a quiet giggle.

  When Vicky didn't answer she looked over at her niece. "Vicky?" she asked again.

  Vicky's shovel had struck something hard and large. Too large to be a pipe. Something was down there under the dirt.

  "I think I found it," she murmured back, her brow covered in sweat. She crouched down and began to brush the dirt away with her bare hands. It wasn't long before she uncovered a large box. It was metal, and didn't exactly look like a treasure chest, but it did have a lock on the front that looked like it would fit the small key. Vicky picked it up out of the hole and was about to turn around to show it to Aunt Ida, when they heard a booming voice call out to both of them.

  "Put the box down!" Timothy commanded. He was positioned right behind them and must have sneaked up on them while they were busy staring at the box. When Vicky looked up at him she looked down the barrel of a gun that was pointed in her direction. She was terrified, she had never had a real gun pointed at her before. Slowly, with trembling hands, she lowered the box to the ground in front of her.

  "Well, I can't tell you both how much I appreciate the two of you doing my dirty work for me," he laughed, and his gratitude actually seemed genuine. Vicky knew why, since the hot day was causing sweat to trickle down her back, and her arms were aching from digging.

  “Why don't you just mind your own business?” Aunt Ida snapped, causing Vicky's eyes to go wide.

  “Shh!” she hissed at her aunt, who she was certain was going to get them both killed. “Just do what he says!”

  Timothy laughed in reaction to the antics of the two and stepped forward to pick up the box. “Thanks again,” he called out.

  Before he could bend all the way over, Aunt Ida shouted loudly. “Now!”

  Vicky only stared as her aunt sprung into action and swung her foot hard between Timothy's legs. Timothy let out a loud yelp of pain and buckled over in pain before slowly tipping to the side and collapsing on the ground. He jerked and curled up, a loud low groan escaping his lips. He didn't look very scary when he was curled up like a baby, with tears slipping past his tightly squeezed lashes.

  “Why didn't you help me when I yelled ‘now’?” Aunt Ida demanded with irritation as Vicky scooped up the box into her arms. It was a little heavy.

  “I didn't think you were going to do that!” Vicky pointed out breathlessly, her heart pounding so hard that she could barely hear her own voice over it. “Come on, hurry up, before he gets up off the ground.”

  “Oh, he'll be a minute,” Aunt Ida said dismissively. “But just to make sure,” she landed one more swift kick between his legs just as he had stopped writhing on the ground. Still he clutched to his weapon for dear life.

  “I'm going to kill you old woman!” he shouted through gritted teeth and writhed in pain once more.

  “Ha, we'll see about that,” Aunt Ida smirked and stuck out her tongue at his rude words.

  “Let's go, let's go,” Vicky tugged at her aunt's hand, there was no time for getting offended by a criminal's words. “Hurry!” She knew that as soon as the man was recovered enough to stand up they would both be in trouble. She thought it would be too much of a risk to try to disarm him, as he was clutching his gun, besides she had never shot one in her life and didn't think it would do her any good to have it. They couldn't run back towards the house, as he was already starting to get up, and to do so would mean that they would have to run past him.

  “The truck!” Vicky gasped out as she tugged Aunt Ida towards the staff parking lot. They had a truck for transporting large furniture and loads of supplies for the gardens. Vicky hadn't driven it for quite some time, in fact she was pretty sure that Bob would have been one of the last people to use it. But she still had a key for it in on her key chain in case of an emergency or if one of the staff lost the key to it. As they ran across t
he parking lot towards the truck, Vicky couldn't believe what they had just lived through. She kept glancing over her shoulder to see if Timothy was chasing them. He wasn't. In fact, he had stopped running towards them. He was looking past them when he shouted loudly.

  “Get them! They have the box!” Vicky turned back to the parking lot just in time to see Timothy stepping out of his car which he had just parked there. She felt a wave of dizziness as she wondered if she was losing her mind.

  “Aunt Ida,” she gasped out, thinking that maybe she had a concussion after all. “Are you seeing what I'm seeing?”

  Aunt Ida for once was stunned into silence. She too looked between the two men who appeared to be absolutely identical. When she finally found her voice she stumbled at her words.

  “There are definitely two of them,” Aunt Ida said incredulously. “I just didn't expect they would be carbon copies of each other.”

  “Twins!” Vicky suddenly cried out as she realized that this was the only way that there could be two of them. That was how one could have an alibi while the other was committing the crime! “Aunt Ida we're going to have to move fast,” she hissed at her aunt and pulled her swiftly behind her. If they didn't make it to the truck then it was certain that they would end up just like Bob. Timothy and his twin brother weren't there to play games or to let people go, especially after what Aunt Ida had done to one of the brothers. So their only chance was to get into that truck, hopefully before either of them got off a shot in their direction.

  Vicky ran as fast as she could, though she had to be careful not to trip up Aunt Ida at the same time. Still it felt like it took them an eternity to get all the way across the parking lot. The entire time her heartbeats were thumping in time with the sound of the brothers' footsteps digging deep into the gravel parking lot. When she finally felt the cool surface of the door handle of the driver's side door of the truck, she felt an instant sense of relief, as if she had reached home base in a childhood game of tag. But this wasn't home base, and she wasn't automatically safe for reaching the truck. The men were still swiftly approaching them. Vicky tore open the door and pushed Aunt Ida up into the seat. Aunt Ida got stuck climbing over the middle console. Vicky reached up and gave her aunt's behind a firm shove until she tumbled into the passenger seat of the truck.

  “Oof, ouch!” Aunt Ida gasped and complained, but it was the only way to get her over the hump.

  “I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” Vicky mumbled quickly. Then Vicky jumped up into the truck herself. She tossed the box onto the floorboard of the truck on the passenger side and shoved the truck key into the ignition.

  “Please have gas, please have gas,” she mumbled as she tried to pull the driver's side door shut. Before she could close it all the way, an arm shoved into the truck. It had the same tattoo on the forearm that Bob's did.

  “Leave us alone!” Vicky shrieked and slammed the door shut as hard as she could. The man cried out in pain as his arm was crushed by the heavy truck door. In the same moment she threw the truck into gear and slammed on the gas. One of the brothers fell down beside the truck and was half-dragged across part of the parking lot before he was able to get his arm free from the truck. The other brother pulled his gun and was preparing to shoot at the truck, when his identical counterpart commanded him not to.

  “Don't! Gunfire will bring the cops, that's the last thing we need! Those two have the box!” he shouted and ran towards the car he had driven into the parking lot. “Hurry up, get in!”

  Vicky saw this through the rear view mirror and cursed under her breath. She had hoped that once they got into the truck they would be home free. But the twins were pulling out of the parking lot right behind the truck! Aunt Ida finally managed to get herself upright in the passenger seat. She wasn't hurt, but she was more than a little frazzled.

  “Ugh, I think I broke a nail,” she fretted as she looked down at her perfectly manicured fingernails.

  “Not now Aunt Ida,” Vicky snapped at her, having no patience for her dramatics at the moment, when the situation was already so dramatic. “We have armed criminals chasing after us!”

  “Oh I know,” Aunt Ida sighed as she looked over her shoulder. “They are persistent aren't they?” Vicky had no idea how her aunt could stay so calm in such a frightening situation, but she guessed it had something to do with her losing her mind.

  “Aunt Ida, we are about to die!” Vicky pointed out sharply as she tried to keep the truck on the road. She was driving so fast that it was veering back and forth on the old unpaved road. Luckily for her, she knew the road better than the twin brothers who had never driven on it before. She could maneuver the dips and sudden curves because she had learned to drive on it when she was a girl. Still it wasn't easy to keep ahead of the twins who were in a much newer and faster car than she was. Not to mention the fact that they might decide to start shooting at the truck at any moment. The old truck they were driving in was not known for its reliability either, as Sarah had refused to invest any more money in it. She said they would drive it until it died, and then buy something new. Vicky could only hope that today wouldn't be the day it decided to die.

  “That's it!” Vicky suddenly declared. “I'm not going to risk my life without even knowing what's in that box!” she fished the key out of her bra once more and handed it over to Aunt Ida. “Open it up, let's at least see what's inside before these crazy brothers run us right off the road!”

  Aunt Ida reached down to the floorboard for the truck and grabbed the box. She settled it into her lap and then tried to slide the key inside the hole. It was no easy task because the truck was bumping and bouncing up and down all over the road. Finally she got the key into the hole and turned it. Vicky glanced over briefly as Aunt Ida opened the lid on the box. They both gasped with surprise. The box was stacked high with what appeared to be hundred dollar bills. There had to be close to a million dollars inside of it.

  “That's a lot of money!” Vicky gasped and tried to keep the truck on the road. “No wonder they're chasing after it so fiercely!”

  “Hmm.” Aunt Ida mumbled as if she was entirely unimpressed. She was rummaging through the stacks of cash. Finally she sat back with disappointment. “I don't think that there are any diamonds in there,” she frowned.

  “With that much money you could buy plenty of diamonds!” Vicky announced, though her attention was more focused on the car that was gaining on them fast. “Aunt Ida hold on!” she called out as she turned the wheel on the truck hard to the right. She knew of a small side road that she was sure the twins wouldn't know about. The truck listed hard as if it might tip over, but it finally settled back on all four wheels. She glanced over at Aunt Ida to be sure she was not hurt, but the woman was just looking through the money again.

  “Maybe we could just take a little,” Aunt Ida suggested as she began slipping some of the stacks of money into the deep pockets of her jacket.

  “Aunt Ida,” Vicky growled as she glared at the older woman. “You put that back in the box right now. That's stolen money, it doesn't belong to us any more than it belonged to Bob and his acquaintances. Put it back!” she insisted with a ferocious tone. She didn't usually speak to her aunt in such a way, but she was at the end of her rope.

  Aunt Ida let out a loud and dramatic sigh. “I thought you were the fun one Vicky. I'd expect Sarah to make me put it back, but you?” she looked very disappointed.

  “In the box!” Vicky snapped, she didn't have time to be more diplomatic as the twins' car had negotiated the turn onto the road right behind them.

  “Can you please try calling Mitchell, or the sheriff,” Vicky said desperately, she knew there was no real way to escape the twins. “We're going to need some help or we're never getting out of this,” she tossed her phone to Aunt Ida who caught it easily. She busied herself with the phone, cleverly forgetting to put the money back into the box. Vicky gunned the engine and reached the end of the side road. She pulled out onto a larger paved road that still saw very little traf
fic.

  “Hello?” Aunt Ida shouted into the phone. She wasn't the most knowledgeable when it came to technology. Sarah and Vicky had tried to talk her into using a cell phone, but Aunt Ida flat out refused. She called it a leash, and said she was a free spirit who couldn't be collared.

  “You have to hit the green button Aunt Ida,” Vicky explained to her as patiently as she could. In her rear view mirror she saw something sticking out of the passenger side window of the twins' car.

  “I hate these newfangled things,” Aunt Ida complained as she shouted into the phone again. “Hello? Hello is there anyone there?” she shook the phone with annoyance. “This thing is broken, I'm sure it is!”

  “Get down!” Vicky shouted and pushed her aunt down in the seat, using her free arm to shield her head and neck. “They're going to shoot!” She did her best to duck as she braced herself for the gunfire. “Keep your head down!” she commanded, fear creeping into her high pitched voice.

  Chapter Five

  Mitchell looked down at his phone as it began to ring again. It was Vicky's number again. He glanced up at the sheriff who was studying a map of the area around the inn.

  “There's so many little roads back there,” he sighed as he shook his head. “They could be hiding out anywhere, really,” he paused a moment to look over the map again.

  “So where would the killer have gone?” he was musing to himself, and getting nowhere fast. Mitchell had waited long enough. He wasn't going to let Vicky think he was ignoring her if she needed his help. He snatched the phone up off of the desk.

  “Don't you answer that phone Deputy,” the sheriff warned as he spun around to face Mitchell. Mitchell openly defied him as he lifted the phone to his ear, and met the eyes of his superior.

  “It's my job to make sure she's safe,” he said flatly, as if it was no longer open for debate.