The Nora Abbott Mystery series Box Set

by Shannon Baker

  Heather tapped Nora’s arm with the phone. “It’s for you.”

  “What?”

  “Your mother.”

  The cherry on the top of a disaster sundae. Nora took the phone. “You have Heather’s number?”

  “Of course I have. I also have her email and have friended her on Facebook. She’s my friend. You remember about having friends, don’t you?”

  The little Abigail inside Nora’s head banged a sledgehammer against the backside of her forehead.

  “It’s a good thing Heather had her phone. Yours is in the apartment,” Abigail said.

  One hand on the wheel and her eyes straight ahead, Nora said, “What do you want, Mother?”

  “Oh. Well. I just wondered when you’d be home.”

  The sledgehammer thudded inside her head. Dick Cheney and his gang had nothing on her mother. They could have conserved buckets of water if they’d used Abigail instead of water boarding.

  “Cole called this afternoon. He’s such a nice man and so concerned about you. Really, Nora, he’s quite a catch.”

  “Mother.” The word packed so much warning Heather raised questioning eyebrows.

  “All right.”

  “If you only called me to matchmake with Cole, thanks. I’ll be home later.”

  Abigail drew in a breath and let it out. “I have something I want to discuss with you.”

  “I thought you had your club meeting today.”

  Abigail let out a sigh. “I did. But your officer friend, Gary, decided to search your apartment.”

  “What?”

  Abigail lowered her voice. “Don’t worry. I put him off and he ended up taking me to town for questioning.”

  Thud, thud, thud. The tiny Abigail fiend worked in Nora’s brain.

  “Barrett sent his attorney to help me and when he showed up I excused myself to go to the powder room.”

  “That’s good, Mother.” Big Elk was probably gathering a force to track her.

  “I didn’t have to use the facilities, Nora.”

  “Okay.”

  She paused. “I snuck out and ran to the club meeting and had Marilyn drive me home.”

  Nora snapped to attention. “You left a police interrogation?”

  “Just like Emma Peale. Now I’m home. What do I need to hide before the cops get here.”

  “You think I’ve got something to hide? You think I murdered Scott and his girlfriend?” Even calling Maureen Scott’s girlfriend made her heart feel like a bruised pear.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you didn’t murder anyone. Everyone has something to hide. Like maybe,” she whispered, “a vibrator.”

  “Mother!”

  “Oh please. We’re both grown-ups. I don’t know where you keep yours and I thought you might want me to get rid of it.”

  The Abigail in Nora’s skull found another sledgehammer and delightedly slammed them both into Nora’s head.

  “Wait.” Abigail said.

  Nora waited.

  “Someone is outside,” Abigail whispered.

  “Mother.”

  “Shhh.”

  “Mother!”

  “I’m going to hang up now.” Nora strained to hear Abigail’s words. “Hurry home.”

  “Call the cops,” Nora said.

  “I can’t honey. They think I’m in interrogation.”

  “I’m on my way home.”

  “One more thing,” Abigail still whispered. “Don’t tell Heather, I’m sure her father wants to be the one. But congratulations are in order.”

  Nora’s stomach now throbbed too.

  “Barrett asked me to marry him and I’ve accepted.”

  32

  Maybe Abigail thought she played some Cagney and Lacy game but life didn’t mimic TV where everything always worked out. Scott and Maureen’s murders proved that. An hour ago Abigail told Nora someone lurked at the lodge. Abigail’s phone put all messages to voice mail since then and Nora had raced to Flagstaff with growing concern.

  They sped up the mountain road toward home.

  A hint of anxiety crept into Heather’s voice. “Poppy’s going to be mad.”

  “Because you ran off with your boyfriend and ended up in the middle of a lynch mob?”

  “Ex-boyfriend.”

  “Parents can be so unreasonable.” Was Abigail all right?

  Heather rolled her eyes.

  Nora whipped into the Kachina Ski parking lot and jumped out of Heather’s car. “I don’t blame him.”

  Heather followed. “Now you’re going to go all adult on me.”

  Her heart hammered while she rushed up the path. “Being irresponsible is not cool.”

  “That sounded just like your mother.”

  The mother she hoped would be waiting with musty mint tea and tales of outwitting the cops.

  Heather hurried beside Nora. “I really like your mom but this whole dating thing with Poppy is creepy.”

  Even if it meant Abigail moving out, taking all her perfectly hung clothes on newly purchased hangers, packing the potions lining the bathroom counter, and eliminating processed foods from her refrigerator, the idea of Abigail with Barrett gnawed at Nora, too. “Why do you say that?”

  “He’s my father and I love him and all that, but….” A raven cawed while she hesitated. “He’s like a king. People always do what he says, even if they don’t want to. I’m afraid he’ll change Abigail. She’ll turn into a robot, like everyone else around him.”

  “Are you afraid that’s what will happen to you?”

  Heather laugh. “Poppy won’t ruin me. I’m worried I’m so much like him I’ll ruin other people.”

  Heather and Nora climbed the deck stairs.

  Charlie and Cole stood by the lodge door so immersed in their conversation they hadn’t heard Heather and Nora. They looked up, startled.

  “What’s going on?” Nora asked.

  Cole pushed his hair from his forehead. “Benny said you cause all kinds of trouble at the rez.”

  Nora shrugged. “I brought Heather home in one piece.” Barely.

  “Damn it, Nora. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to Hopiland?”

  “Like you and Charlie tell me everything?”

  “Now, honey,” Charlie started.

  She interrupted him. “Where’s Abigail?”

  Charlie looked sad. “She’s at her club meeting. You didn’t notice the muted colors of the mountain?”

  It would break Charlie’s heart when he found out Abigail was engaged to Barrett.

  “She didn’t go to the meeting,” Heather said.

  Nora looked up at the apartment and a jolt of fear hit her. “Didn’t you fix that window?” she asked Charlie.

  He followed her gaze to see the edge of the screen peeled back.

  Cole’s head whipped toward the window.

  A crowbar lay in the shadow of the deck railing, as if dropped from the window. Why hadn’t she seen that before? Nora sniffed the air. “Propane.”

  Charlie cocked his grizzled head. “You smell gas?”

  “Where’s the tank?” Cole already moved to the back of the lodge where Nora pointed.

  Heather sniffed. “Now I smell it.”

  Charlie inhaled deeply. “Nose ain’t been the same since the Radio Fire in ’99.”

  Nora leapt for the apartment stairs. “Mom!”

  Charlie pushed Nora back with surprising force for a degenerating alcoholic. He cleared two stairs with his first leap, Nora on his heels. “Abigail!”

  “Mom!”

  Charlie reached the landing while Nora was only halfway up the stairs. It felt as if cement filled her shoes. She imaged Abigail collapsed on the living room floor, her face contorted in agony, gassed and left for dead.

  Charlie pulled the door. Locked! Someone snuck in the window and locked the door on the way out. They had probably hid inside before Abigail got home. And Abigail, pumped from her jailhouse escape, never noticed a crowbar or wrecked window.

  “Ab
igail!” Charlie’s voice sounded like Nora’s heart, splitting with fear. He lunged for the window, wrenching the screen. Nora grabbed a corner, her hand ripping on the sharp metal. She braced herself and pulled it back and Charlie dove inside.

  “Mom!” Propane wafted around Nora.

  “I’ve got her,” Charlie yelled. “Stay back.” He coughed. “There’s too much blood.”

  Blood? “No!” Nora fought the screen. What blood?

  Charlie coughed again.

  “I’m coming,” she yelled.

  “Don’t…”

  Ka-whump!

  The world erupted in fire and sound.

  Blinding light seared Nora’s eyes. Shattered glass and other airborne objects crashed into her, stinging and bruising. The stairs disintegrated and suddenly there was nothing under her feet. The sickening drop of her heart and stomach ended when she crashed onto the deck amid shards of glass, splinters and burning debris. Pain exploded along her spine and she couldn’t breathe. It seemed like forever before her mind caught up to her body and she sucked air into her lungs.

  Flames leapt from the window and stretched out the apartment doorway which now tilted off its hinges. Smoke scorched the blue sky and blistering heat seared Nora’s face and legs. She jumped to her feet wishing she could leap to the upstairs apartment. She screamed before she was aware she’d opened her mouth.

  “Mom!”

  She charged for the ragged remains of the stair railing and tried to climb the wobbly structure to the apartment. “Mom! Charlie!”

  Rough arms pulled her back.

  Through the roar of the flames Heather yelled. “You can’t go in there!”

  She fought against the arms but they dragged away. “Mom!”

  Heather stepped in front of Nora. “Charlie will get her out.”

  The arms around her felt like iron but Nora fought to escape. She had to get to Abigail.

  Nora succeeded in twisting away long enough to see that Cole held her. She didn’t get more than half a step away before he latched onto her, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her off the ground.

  She kicked and jerked. “Abigail needs me!” Nora had to pull her mother and Charlie out of the apartment before they burned. God, why wasn’t her mother on a cruise somewhere? And Charlie, he didn’t deserve to be hurt.

  “Call the fire department,” she screamed at Heather.

  Panic ringed Heather like a sulfuric aura. “They won’t get here in time.”

  It didn’t matter how hard Nora fought, the arms around her didn’t weaken. “Help them! Don’t let this happen.”

  Her mother was vital and beautiful. Abigail couldn’t burn up. She had too much to do. She had to stick around and straighten Nora out. She had to keep breaking men’s hearts and spending too much money. Oh please, let her be okay.

  “If you quit fighting I’ll go get them,” Cole said, his mouth close to her ear.

  Nora remembered a self-defense class she’d taken and with the one move she’d actually practiced, she lifted both arms.

  Not prepared, Cole lost his grip.

  Nora lunged for the railing, determined to save Abigail.

  Heather shouted something, probably trying to get Nora to stop.

  Nora launched her flight, aiming for a spot several feet up the railing where a small portion of a step remained, hoping momentum would carry her to the entryway of the apartment and the wall of flames.

  She flew by Heather before she registered that Heather had the crowbar in her hand. That was a blink before it smacked into the back of her head.

  White pain exploded and the world disappeared.

  33

  Nora surfaced to the sway of Heather’s Rav4 and the thrump-thrump of wheels flying across seams on the highway. Where was the cannonball that struck her head? Her skull throbbed.

  Abigail!

  Nora tried to sit but her arms wouldn’t push her off the back seat. “What the hell?” Pain shot across her back and every muscle felt like a giant pulsing welt. Her arms and face stung with an army of cuts.

  Heather glanced over her shoulder then back to the road. “Good. You’re awake.”

  “I’m tied up. What’s wrong with you? Let me go.” The pounding in her head made her want to throw up and she’d gladly aim for the back of Heather’s neck if she could sit up.

  “If you didn’t wake up, like in the next five minutes, I was going to take you to the hospital in Winslow. And I didn’t want to do that.”

  “Where’s Abigail?” Nora tugged at the loose knots trussing her wrists to her ankles.

  Heather didn’t respond.

  “What happened? Is she alive? What about Charlie?” The knots loosened more.

  “I don’t know. Cole pulled them out of the apartment and then we got you to the car. After that he went back and I tied you up and took off. The ambulance was there before we got off the mountain. I’m sure she’s okay.”

  Nora slipped her wrists out of the rope. What was Heather doing with rope in her car anyway? “You’re not sure of anything. Take me to the hospital.”

  Heather shook her head. “Cole is there. He’ll take care of them.”

  Nora sat up and reached over the seat. She wanted to grab the wheel and stomp on the gas but they were traveling down the Interstate at ninety miles an hour. “Did it ever occur to you Cole might have set the explosion? Where the hell are we?”

  “Twin Arrows. Cole is on your side, Nora.”

  Half way from Flagstaff to Winslow. “Turn around.”

  “Cole told me to take you to the rez.”

  “No.”

  Heather’s phone jangled with that rap bullshit. She pushed it to her ear and mumbled. She shoved the phone at Nora. “It’s Cole.”

  Nora grabbed it. “How’s my mother?”

  At the sound of Cole’s Wyoming drawl she wanted to reach through the line and pull the words from him. “She’s in the emergency room now. I don’t have any information. She’s burned but I can’t tell much. She was unconscious and has a big gash on her forehead. They don’t know if there’s any internal damage from the explosion.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He let out a breath. “We just don’t know.”

  She shouted above the rush of blood in her ears, fighting to stay focused. “Charlie?”

  “He’s at least got a concussion and burns on one of his hands. They’re working on him, too.”

  Nora slammed the back of the seat with her palm. “I need to be there.”

  Cole’s reasonable tone tethered her. “Listen, Nora. You have to stay away. The cops—“

  “I don’t care about the cops.”

  “Okay, how about: Someone tried to kill you. It might be Big Elk, might be someone else. Whoever it is, they aren’t going to give up. The rez is the safest place for you right now.”

  “The same rez where they tried to shove me off the cliff?”

  “Nora, trust me. I wouldn’t put you in danger.”

  “I can’t hide out there when my mother’s in the hospital.”

  “Just until tomorrow. I’m close to figuring this out.”

  “I won’t stay there.”

  “Heather can make sure you do.”

  “Right. She can’t tie a knot to save her skin.”

  Exasperation crept into his voice. “Don’t force it, Nora. Heather knows enough people at the rez that keeping you won’t be a problem. And if you’d like another knock to the head, my guess is that it can be arranged.”

  “Kidnapping.”

  “If that’s what it takes to keep you safe.”

  “Did you try to kill my mother?”

  “Damn it! Quit being stupid.”

  She breathed fire into the phone, imagining it branding the side of his face.

  “Nora?”

  “What?”

  “I…we care about you. I’ll take care of Abigail and Charlie.”

  She didn’t answer.

  “See you tomorrow.” He hung u
p.

  Nora slumped in the back of the Toyota. She spent the remaining hour and half ride churning. They drove to a different mesa than where they’d gone to the ceremony that morning and turned onto a dusty road. Heather pulled in behind a dilapidated shed and cut the engine.

  “We’ll hide the car here and walk the rest of the way. There’s a village at the top of this mesa. We’ll stay there tonight.”

  Nora folded her arms. “I’m not moving from this car. Take me back.”

  Heather pulled the keys from the ignition and shrugged. “Whatever.” She climbed from the car, slung her leather slouch bag over her shoulder, and slammed the door.

  Nora wasn’t going anywhere without the keys. Maybe she could steal them. That being her only plan, she needed to stay with the keys and wait for an opportunity when Heather was distracted. Nora climbed from the vehicle and they tromped up the trail in silence.

  The sun hovered over the western horizon, casting ominous shadows filled with Big Elk and hostile enemies that wanted Nora dead. She didn’t see anyone lying in wait for her, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

  She followed Heather up a worn yellow dirt trail, switchbacking along the side of the nearly vertical wall. A paved narrow road wound its way up the mesa some distance from the trail. Too bad Heather hadn’t felt it safe enough to drive up; it might have saved Nora from marching in rhythm to the pounding pain in her head, the ache in her back, and the dull throb of her ankle. She named the peak-sized lump on the back of her head Mount Heather.

  Once the trail intersected the road, where at some time in the last two centuries some hopeful Native American had built a structure, long since abandoned. “Why didn’t you park behind this place? Your car would have been hidden and we wouldn’t have to walk so far.”

  Heather grinned. “I could have. If I’d remembered it was here. Sorry about that.”

  “You’re sorry. Right.”

  They topped the mesa not far from a tall structure with a flat roof similar to those in the village they’d been in earlier. They walked around the edge of the building to the plaza. Buildings, like aboriginal pueblos constructed of desert sand, created the enclosure.