A Crafty Crime

by Eryn Scott

  The kitchen light glowed bright yellow in the windows. Hadley’s breath caught in her throat. Cathy had a handgun pointed at her own temple.

  “Cathy, please.”

  Paul’s voice was calm, even, but it held a tightness Hadley recognized as fear. She took a few steps forward and he came into view pointing his gun at her, but there was a pain written across his face.

  “What’s the difference? You’re going to shoot me anyway.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not. I’m only here to ask you some questions.”

  Cathy scoffed. “You wouldn’t be here unless you knew.”

  Paul let out an audible sigh. “You killed Edith. You’re going to have to answer for that. Don’t make it worse, though. Think about Greg and Bobby.”

  At the sound of her son’s names, Cathy’s hand began to loosen its grip on the gun; it dipped slightly from her temple.

  “They still need you around.”

  For a second, it looked like Cathy might put the gun down, but she pushed her shoulders back and tightened her grip. “As long as you have that gun pointed at me, this one stays right here.”

  Hadley’s spine stiffened at her tone. The evenness, the calm in her words, made the woman sound reasonable, but Hadley had a bad feeling. Especially when Paul said, “Okay, here. I’m putting mine down.”

  She closed her eyes and sent a quick prayer up to the sky, then opened them back up just in time to see Cathy drop her own gun. But instead of putting it down, she pointed it right at Paul’s chest.

  “You James twins were always too trusting.”

  Fear coursed through Hadley’s body. Everything seemed to slow as she watched Cathy adjust her stance and move her other hand up to steady her shot. Her finger moved on the trigger.

  Jumping at the back door she was crouched next to, Hadley yanked it open and screamed, “No!”

  Hadley’s entrance caused the woman to turn her body slightly just as the gun went off. Taking advantage of the element of surprise, Hadley launched herself forward and dropped her shoulder like Tyler taught her when they were practicing his football moves in high school.

  She tackled Cathy. From the “omph” that escaped her as they fell onto the kitchen floor, Hadley guessed she’d succeeded in knocking the wind out of the older woman. And from the way Hadley struggled to breathe, Cathy wasn’t alone. Scrambling around on the floor until her knee was sort of pinning Cathy down, Hadley wrestled the gun from her grasp and slid it behind them.

  “I’ve got her, Paul.” She panted over Cathy’s coughs and growls of anger.

  Hadley almost felt like smiling, celebrating, until she realized that the kicked-in-the-chest feeling wasn’t dissipating. Eyes wide, Hadley turned, glancing over to where Paul had been standing.

  Where he was now lying on the floor, not moving.

  Her heart stopped. The room began to tilt.

  “Paul? Paul!”

  She glanced down at Cathy, squirming under her weight, wanting nothing more than to run over to her brother. But Cathy would surely run if she was given the chance and there were two guns loose in the room. Hadley couldn’t risk it.

  Tears gathered in her eyes, but she didn’t have a free hand to wipe them away, so she shook her head, trying to clear her vision enough. It felt like someone stabbing her in the heart to look at him, but she couldn’t give up.

  “Paul, come on. Get up,” she pleaded, the last part a whisper.

  And then he groaned, sitting up slowly.

  Hadley laughed, tears streaming down her face. Through the blur, she could see a crimson spot on his shoulder. But before she could focus too much on it, the back door slammed open and Sheriff McKay stormed in, followed by a handful of officers. She couldn’t see straight enough to count them.

  “Kevin, we need an ambulance here, now.” He grumbled and lumbered over to where Hadley still held Cathy.

  Closing handcuffs around her wrists, he freed Hadley to stand and rush to her brother’s side. There were a few officers surrounding him, but she pushed her way through until she was clutching his hand.

  She swiped at her eyes so she could see clearly, but seeing the blood staining his tan uniform brought on a new round of tears. He was still sitting, not even trying to get up, and was wobbling slightly.

  An officer came up behind him and held some thick gauze up to his wound, pressing tight. “Looks like it went through, James,” the man said, to which Paul nodded.

  McKay pulled Cathy to her feet. Another officer led her out the back door.

  “I’m so sorry,” was all Hadley could think to say as she looked back to Paul.

  He let out a raspy chuckle. “Had, why are you sorry? You just saved my life.”

  She blinked. “I did?”

  “That gun was aimed right between my eyes. If you hadn’t distracted her, causing her to aim down and lower, I would be a goner right now.” He shook his head, or maybe he was just wobbling from the blood loss.

  “I was looking through Edith’s yearbook to keep me distracted while I waited and saw that she’d been in the sharp-shooters club. I knew I had to come warn you.”

  Paul swallowed. “Well, if I’d have known that, I probably wouldn’t have set my gun down.”

  Hadley knew Paul was hard on himself, especially when it came to his training. “You couldn’t have known. Plus, you thought you were doing the right thing by making her feel less threatened, like she had more options.”

  He wheezed out a laugh. “I just didn’t realize one of those options was shooting me. This small-town sheriff business isn’t as quiet as I thought it might be. I need to stay on my toes a little more.”

  Just then, paramedics swarmed into the room. Hadley stepped aside as they loaded Paul onto a stretcher. She followed close behind, then insisted she be allowed to ride in the ambulance with him.

  “I’m his twin sister,” she said matter-of-factly, as if it might give her a pass.

  The Cascade Ridge paramedics glanced from Paul to Hadley. “You don’t look like it, but okay.”

  Hadley didn’t care if they didn’t believe her. She climbed in next to him, taking his hand in hers and gripping it tight the whole way to the hospital.

  27

  One month later…

  The Stoneybrook community center was packed. Gorgeous arrangements from Valley Wildflowers sat on either side of the stage and as centerpieces on the tables in the back of the room. Hadley smiled as her basket labeled Pickled Asparagus Needles went up for bid at the first annual Edith Butler Charity Auction. She’d added a set of actual knitting needles sticking into two balls of variegated sock yarn for effect.

  She’d unraveled the sock yesterday as she put the basket together. It had turned out wavy, an odd mixture of too tight and too loose. The result had been… unwearable, and there was no way it would fit a human foot, or an ankle—not to mention a calf. Her mother had appreciated the thought. Actually, when she saw the picture Hadley sent her, the woman had laughed so hard she’d cried but had been fine with Hadley saying she was going to try a shawl instead of a sock. Sure she needed much more practice before attempting socks again, Hadley decided someone else might be able to appreciate the wool.

  The auctioneer, Louise, started the bid at fifty dollars and it began to climb, quickly reaching one hundred. When it sold for one hundred sixteen dollars to Hal, Hadley was delighted. All of the profits from the auction were going to the local animal shelter in Edith’s name, and she was happy to have done her part.

  Speaking of doing her part for the local animals, Hadley clutched the paperwork in her hands to officially adopt Ansel. Jennifer had brought it by as a thank you and a goodbye just before leaving town that morning. It was a good thing, too, as Hadley had fallen head over heels for the little cat and wasn’t about to let him go.

  Looking behind her, Hadley found Paul and Suze standing with Kevin. They applauded her on the success of the asparagus basket and sent her beaming smiles to match her own.

  While o
ut of the worst of his bandages, Paul still sported an odd sling concoction the doctors had given him to keep his shoulder as immobile as possible. The bullet had nicked his collar bone, resulting in a stress fracture, which doctors said was well on its way to healing.

  Regardless of the injury, Paul looked the most relaxed he’d seemed in months. After taking a bullet in the line of duty, McKay had awarded him with a law enforcement purple heart and had all but abandoned his plan to put his nephew in Paul’s place—especially after said nephew got hired on in a larger town just north of Seattle.

  They took her basket off the stage and moved on to the next item, a beautiful light-pink shawl with a gorgeous pattern snaking along the edging.

  Hadley felt someone sidle up next to her. It was Luke Fenton. He dipped his head.

  “Nice job with that basket. It seems like it was a hit.”

  “Thanks. I hope Edith likes it.”

  “I’m sure she loves it.”

  “How are you feeling about having new neighbors soon?” she asked.

  “Mixed.” He sighed. “It’ll always be Edith’s place to me, but I’m glad another family will get to live there for now.”

  After spending the few weeks in Stoneybrook cleaning out her sister’s home, Jennifer had decided to keep the house. She didn’t want it turned into a golf course any more than the rest of the community, so she was renting it out until she decided exactly what she wanted to do with it.

  “I need to get out of the tenant house at some point, though.” Luke shook his head. “I feel a little too much like a hermit living back in the woods, surrounded by fields.”

  Hadley laughed. “Tell me about it. I think I need to start looking for a new place too. Living so far from town is peaceful, but lately it’s just me, Ansel, and my thoughts. And those are getting a little loud. Plus, there’s too much history there for me to stay.” She realized too late she’d let that statement slip. She kept any talk about Tyler to a minimum around Luke as a rule.

  He didn’t seem to be mad, though. Then he held her gaze with his and sighed. “Had, I didn’t know. I mean, not at first. When I found out what Tyler was doing, I told him to stop. He told me he would, but apparently it kept going on.”

  Hadley’s mouth parted in surprise. She didn’t know what to say, didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded. It wasn’t closure, but it was something. She just wasn’t sure what yet. They watched the next auction item sell for over a hundred dollars and clapped as they carted it off the stage.

  “Luke,” she said after a few moments. “Only a few people—”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, cutting her off. “I know you’re not telling people what Tyler did. I don’t agree with it, but I’m not going to be the one to spread it around if you don’t want me to.”

  He reach out and squeezed her arm gently before walking off to talk with his sister.

  A peace settled over Hadley as she looked out at her town, crowded into the community center all to celebrate the memory of someone half of them hadn’t even liked all that much. For the first time since her divorce, things were starting to feel like they were getting back to normal in her town.

  Cathy had confessed to dissolving the fatal dose of medication into Edith’s tea and had been convicted of both premeditated and attempted murder. She’d originally gone over to confront Edith about the affair. When she saw Edith’s bag packed, Cathy jumped to the conclusion that Edith and Dirk were going off to meet each other, and she snapped. So Edith was none-the-wiser when Cathy offered to make some tea to drink while they talked.

  Dirk really had just been worried about his own blood pressure after the stress of bad financial deals and hiding his Cascade Ridge partnerships from everyone, even his wife. The day he’d asked Hazel about a blood pressure medicine overdose, he’d been asking about himself since he’d upped what he was taking and was worried he might be overdoing it.

  Robert was moving back to Seattle, having found a friend he could stay with until he got his feet back under him. Hadley didn’t know what that would look like and she didn’t care, as long as he wasn’t stealing from any other people to get ahead. And Louise was doing her best to keep Edith’s memory alive, telling everyone how grateful she was every day that her boss trusted her enough to leave her the knitting shop.

  Hadley glanced back at Suze and Paul. Suze said something that made Paul laugh his loud, booming laugh, and she socked him in his uninjured arm.

  If nothing else, life was getting back to normal in Stoneybrook. Now if they could just manage to keep it that way.

  Recipes

  Both of the following recipes are created by Marisa McClellan, creator of Food in Jars.

  Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

  Makes 3 pints

  4 cups of chopped strawberries (about 2 pounds)

  2 cups of chopped rhubarb (about 1 pound)

  4 cups sugar

  3 tablespoons powdered pectin

  1 lemon, zested and juiced

  Prepare a boiling water bath canner and 3 pint jars.

  Place the chopped berries and rhubarb in a large, non-reactive pot. Whisk the pectin into the sugar and stir it into the berries. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes, until the sugar has begun to dissolve.

  Place the pot on the stove and bring to a boil. Cook jam over high heat, stirring regularly for 20-25 minutes, until it takes on a thick, syrup-y consistency.

  Add the lemon zest and juice and stir well.

  Check for set by taking the temperature of the cooking jam (it should set around 220F) or by watching how the droplets fall off the spoon. Remember that it will thicken as it cools, so don’t cook it so long that it achieves your desired consistency while still hot.

  Remove the jam from the heat and ladle it into the prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings and process them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

  When the time is up, remove the jars and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When the jars have cooled enough that you can comfortably handle them, check the seals. Sealed jars can be stored at room temperature for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.

  Pickled Asparagus

  Makes 3 pints

  3 pounds asparagus

  1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

  1 1/2 cups water

  2 tablespoons pickling salt

  3 teaspoons mixed pickling spices

  3 garlic cloves, peeled

  3 slices of lemon

  Prepare a boiling water bath canner and 3 pint jars.

  Wash the asparagus and trim it so that it will fit in your jars, leaving about 1/2 inch of headspace.

  Combine the vinegar, water, and pickling salt in a pot and bring to a boil.

  Remove the jars from the hot water bath. Put the lemon slice in the bottom and measure 1 teaspoon of pickling spice into each jar.

  Pack the trimmed asparagus into the jars (it’s up to you to determine whether you want to go tips up or down). Tuck a garlic clove down into the asparagus spears.

  Slowly pour the hot brine over the asparagus spears, leaving 1/2 inch for headspace. After all the jars are full, use a wooden chopstick to work the air bubbles out of the jars. Check the headspace again and add more brine if necessary.

  Wipe the rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

  When the time is up, remove the jars and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When the jars have cooled enough that you can comfortably handle them, check the seals. Sealed jars can be stored at room temperature for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.

  Wait at least 24 hours before eating, to give the asparagus spears a chance to absorb the brine. Don’t worry if the spears initially look wrinkled. Over time, they will plump up again.

  Visit Marisa’s blog and website, Food in Jars, for tons of recipes, tips, product reviews, and links to her books.

  Don’t miss the next book i
n the Stoneybrook series:

  Competition stings…

  There’s nothing like the Stoneybrook farmers market in summer. Fresh flowers, organic veggies, delicious jams… and a dead body. When an outsider turns up murdered, all the evidence points to his rival, Stoneybrook’s beloved florist.

  Unable to believe a pillar of their community could be guilty of such a heinous crime, Hadley dives head-first into the investigation. Sure, she’s busy looking for a new house, running her business, and dealing with her ex—who’s back in town—but Hadley is determined to find the truth before the wrong man is put in jail.

  Get your copy today!

  Also by Eryn Scott

  Mystery:

  The Pepper Brooks Cozy Mystery Series

  A Fresh Kill: Stoneybrook Mysteries, Book 2

  Women’s fiction:

  The Beauty of Perhaps

  Settling Up

  The What’s in a Name Series

  In Her Way

  Romantic comedy:

  Meet Me in the Middle

  About the Author

  Eryn Scott lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their quirky animals. She loves classic literature, musicals, knitting, and hiking. She writes cozy mysteries and women’s fiction.