“I know,” Freddie said, chuckling to himself.
I snuggled back into the sofa and Stanley let out a breath that flapped his gums before closing his eyes. I didn’t think I was going to be able to fall asleep with all this new Grady noninformation to speculate on, but within minutes, my mind had drifted off …
I was in a beautiful meadow. Birds were singing. The sun was shining. White chairs were lined up in the distance in front of a pagoda draped in white gauze. It was perfect … beautiful …
Terrifying!
Little brides and grooms—wedding toppers—had come to life and they were running toward me! Tiny little knives in their hands! They were coming for me! Cutting little trails through the grass! They were going to stab me with their little blades and—
“Erica!”
I jerked against the couch.
“Erica, wake up!”
I shot up. “What? What’s happening?”
“One of the motion sensors is going off,” Freddie hissed.
I wiped some drool from my mouth. “Are you sure it’s not just another raccoon?”
“No, it’s him! And he’s going for the garage!”
Chapter Thirty-nine
I pushed myself off the couch, landing hard on my knees.
“Watch Stanley!” Freddie shouted.
Stanley was fine. He was still on the couch looking annoyed.
I popped to my feet and raced over to Freddie at his computer desk.
“Where? Where is he?”
Freddie pointed to the top right video feed on his computer screen.
“Holy crap!” I shook Freddie’s shoulder. “That’s him!” I mean, I couldn’t exactly be one hundred percent sure given that I had only seen him twice under less than ideal conditions, but that was totally him. Who else would be sneaking around Freddie’s garage?
“This is it. He’s going to do it,” Freddie whispered. “He’s going for the door.”
I leaned closer toward the screen. “Do you have the dead-bolt switch ready?”
Freddie nodded and pointed at a lock icon on his other computer screen. “Now, we just need him to go inside and … wait … no! Why is he stopping?”
He had stopped right in front of the door, hand outstretched. “He’s looking at the handle!” I gripped Freddie’s shoulder even harder. “He knows something’s up. He…” He was turning the knob, so I shut up. But not for long. “I can’t believe this is working.”
“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up,” Freddie hissed. “I have to concentrate. Time it just right. I need to click the lock as soon as the door closes behind him.”
We were watching the screen that had the feed going from the inside of the garage. He was stepping inside.
“That’s it,” I whispered.
“Shut up,” Freddie hissed.
“Keep going.”
“Shut up.”
“The door’s shutting.”
“Shut up.”
“I don’t need to shut up! All you have to do is click the button…” I watched the garage door shut behind the man. “Now!”
Freddie clicked it. The man jumped just as all the lights in the garage went on.
“It worked!” Freddie shouted. “He’s trapped!”
The man was shaking the door handle. It wasn’t budging!
“Oh my God! We did it!” I shook Freddie’s shoulder some more and jumped up and down. “Turn on the monitor thingy! I want to hear what he’s saying!”
Freddie clicked around the screen.
“—out of here!” the man shouted. “What is this?”
“He’s freaking out,” I said. “Turn on the two-way so we can talk to him.”
“Hang on,” Freddie said, eyes darting around the screen.
“I’m not sawing off my own leg if that’s what you’re thinking!” the man shouted.
“Saw off his own leg?” I asked Freddie. “What’s he talking about?”
“You know that horror movie where the people are trapped and they have to—just freaking Google it! Later. I need to focus. I can’t get the two-way—”
“Wait, what’s he doing now?” I asked, looking at the screen.
The guy was tearing around the car now. Oh boy, he tripped … but now he was back up and …
“You locked the door that leads to the inside of the house, right?” I asked.
Freddie shot a look at me. “Of course I did. But you locked it again after you got those Popsicles from the freezer in there?”
“I … I think I did. What about you when you got us those beers?”
“I … I think I did too.”
We watched the man tear across the garage, up the steps that led to the door that accessed the kitchen, and then …
… we heard the door open.
Chapter Forty
“Weapons!” I screamed. “We need weapons!”
We could totally hear the guy in the kitchen. Even over all our screaming.
“Here!” Freddie ran to the fireplace and tossed a fire poker in my direction. I jumped out of the way and it clattered to the floor. “Erica, when are you going to learn how to catch?” He picked up the little shovel that went with the poker as I scrambled to pick the poker off the floor.
The noise in the kitchen stopped.
Where is he? I mouthed, clutching the iron to my chest.
Freddie shook his head.
We tiptoed across the floor so that we were standing side by side then we took a couple of steps toward the hallway that connected all the rooms … including the kitchen.
“Maybe we should just let him leave,” I whispered. “Or leave ourselves,” I said with a jerk of my head to the sliding glass doors.
“But we’ve come this far,” Freddie said.
“This far to die.”
“But this may be our one chance to—”
We heard a crash in the hallway.
“So help me if that was my collector’s Elvis bust,” Freddie said, “he is going to die.”
I couldn’t care about that though because all that clatter meant he was coming this way!
I pointed my poker shakily out in the front of me. Freddie did the same with his shovel.
Seconds passed like years then—
Everybody was screaming again.
I was screaming.
Freddie was screaming.
The guy standing in front of us was screaming.
But even though we were all screaming at each other, I couldn’t help but think that it didn’t look like he was going to kill us with that rolling pin in his hand. I mean, one, he was screaming like we were the ones who were going to kill him. And two … well, he obviously wasn’t all that smart because he had grabbed a rolling pin in a room full of knives. Not that I was judging. We hadn’t locked the door on our trap.
Eventually all of our screams dwindled away. Freddie let out one last little yelp, but that’s because he always needs to have the last word.
“Okay, everybody calm down,” Freddie said. “You’re scaring my dog.”
I took a look back at Stanley. He didn’t look that upset. In fact, he had just put his chin back down on his paws.
“What do you want?” the man asked. “Why are you trying to trap me in your house?”
“Justin?”
He just stared at me.
“We … we just want to talk to you,” I said, holding up my hands in surrender—while still holding on to the poker. “We’re friends of Candace’s. We want to know what happened to Lyssa.”
“I didn’t kill her,” he said, shaking his head violently. “I know that’s what you guys probably think. But I didn’t kill her.”
Neither one of us answered.
“I loved Lyssa. I would never hurt her.”
Chapter Forty-one
“Talk to us,” Freddie said. “Tell us what happened. Maybe we can help.”
“I just want my money, so I can get out of this place. I can’t even think about Lyssa. I can’t even…” He raked his hand through hi
s spiky hair while shaking his head.
I looked him over quickly. His jeans were torn and he was covered in dirt. He also looked half starved and dehydrated. “Have you been in Otter Lake this whole time?” I asked. “Where have you been staying?”
He nodded quickly. “Different places. I found an abandoned lodge in the woods, but the police came. I slept on the ground one night.”
“Why are you hiding from them?” Freddie asked. “What did you do?”
“They’re going to think I did it! Because of what Lyssa and I did. But we didn’t do anything wrong! It’s not illegal.” He was gesturing a little too wildly for my liking. “But don’t you get it? It’s going to look like I cut her out of the deal. I just want the money, and I’ll go. Start a new life. Start the life Lyssa and I wanted.”
“We’re not following,” Freddie said. “What did you two do?”
“Nothing,” he said, voice tightening with emotion. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. That guy knew why she was with him.”
“What guy?” I asked.
“The guy who gave her the money!” Justin grabbed his hair with his free hand. “That’s how it works. She gives him companionship. He gives her gifts and money. She never slept with him. But I looked out for her, you know? She—”
“Some guy gave Lyssa forty thousand dollars to hang out with him?” I asked.
“Forty thousand…?” He took a step back and pointed the rolling pin at us. “No. It was only a couple of grand. Enough for us to get down to the Keys. Lyssa said we could get jobs at one of those tiki bars. Maybe run our own one day. Why did you say forty—”
Suddenly there was a loud bang at the door. “Open up—Police!”
Justin dropped the rolling pin. “No, man. No, don’t let them in.” He clutched his head.
“It’s okay, Justin,” I said, holding out a hand. “I think … I think you might have an alibi.”
He was rocking now. “What are you talking about?”
“The guy you punched. He can maybe tell the police you weren’t with Lyssa at the gazebo when she died.” I didn’t know if that was true or not, but I needed to keep him calm. Sheriff Bigly was right. He was not stable.
Freddie was inching his way toward the hallway.
“But I went back!” Justin yelled. “She wasn’t there. I couldn’t find her. She was probably in the water.” He fell to his knees. “I could’ve saved her. If I’d known she was in the water, I could have saved her.”
Freddie made a run for the door, but Justin was beyond hearing him now. He was sobbing.
A moment later, Sheriff Bigly and Amos rushed in the room. Handcuffs at the ready.
This was awful. I didn’t know why exactly, but part of me believed Justin’s story. He was just so desperate and miserable.
“Sheriff, I know this sounds crazy,” I said quickly, “but I don’t think he did it. He—”
She looked up at me from under her brow. “It’s all right, Erica. You don’t need to worry about that.”
I took a step toward them. “But he seems genuinely confused about the money and—”
She kept her gaze leveled on me. “We’ll find out the truth back at the station. You two have done your part.”
“Done our part?”
“You’ve been watching my house,” Freddie said, coming to stand beside me. “You’ve been watching us.”
Sheriff Bigly and Amos pulled Justin up to his feet. He looked so done. He wasn’t crying anymore, but … he just looked done. “Well, I didn’t want you sabotaging our plan again, so I thought we might as well piggyback on yours. We would have gotten to your door sooner, but…” She shot a look at Amos. He was covered in dirt. It was hard running through the woods at night.
I shook my head. I don’t know why I was so upset. Maybe it was how pathetic Justin looked … or the pain emanating from him.
“Listen,” Sherriff Bigly said almost gently, “I don’t know what he said to you, but one of the first things you learn early on in this business is that people lie. They just do.” She looked at Amos and nodded. They turned Justin to leave. “Come by tomorrow to give your statements.”
“You have to talk to Tommy too,” I called out after them. “He might be able to give him an alibi. He followed him—”
“Erica,” Sheriff Bigly said almost kindly. “Get some sleep.”
“But—”
“You two look like you could use it.”
Chapter Forty-two
“Well,” I said, folding my napkin over my lap. “This is nice.”
It was nice. As nice as it could be given the circumstances. Yup, I couldn’t help but think Freddie and I had done a pretty good job putting the rehearsal dinner together considering the constraints we were working under.
We had spent the first part of the day giving our statements to Amos and the rest of the day trying to get the wedding details finalized. I kept going over and over in my mind every detail of what had happened the night before, but no matter how many times I heard Sherriff Bigly say people lie in my head, I just couldn’t shake the feeling in Justin’s eyes. He loved Lyssa. He didn’t want her dead. Okay, granted, it did kind of sound like he was acting as her pimp, which didn’t exactly speak to his character, but … again, going over the details wasn’t helping anything. And Freddie and I had work to do. And we were kind of doing it backward.
We were having the rehearsal dinner tonight before the rehearsal in the morning because the tent we had rented last minute still wasn’t set up, and until that was set up we weren’t entirely sure where we were going to have the actual ceremony, and …
Well, it was just depressing to think of all the work we still had to do.
The table looked beautiful though. Although it wasn’t actually one table. We had lined up some picnic tables end to end. It was a little awkward watching Candace’s mother get herself seated with her really lovely taupe pencil-shaped dress. But she had made it in the end. That’s right, Candace’s parents had shown up after all, but they kind of had the air of people going to a funeral not a wedding.
As for Joey’s side of the family, Antonia and Nonna were back in town too. I still hadn’t found the right time to talk to Antonia. But it was on the list. As there was no way we could safely get Nonna into the picnic table, we sat her at the end in one of the throne chairs Freddie had found for the bride and groom to use at the reception. She looked pretty cute all swallowed up in it.
Overall, Freddie had managed to create a pretty nice atmosphere for the dinner. He had taken poles from a couple of tents and actually made a pergola over the table, draping gauze over the top. I didn’t think it was going to work, but he surprised me. It was actually kind of dreamy with the sun getting lower in the sky. If this was any indication of what the wedding was going to be like, well, it might be … okay. That was really the best we could hope for given … everything.
Despite the nice surroundings, the tension in the air was thick. Suffocating almost. You could tell by all the throat clearing going on when the attempts at polite conversation failed. I was hoping things would pick up when my mother and Zaki joined us for dinner. My mother was oblivious to most social awkwardness and people just liked Zaki. He was very likable … you know, when you weren’t picturing him in bed with your mother. Yeah, they might help. They just needed to get here already. I figured it might take a while since they were also helping make the meal.
“Evelyn,” Freddie said from the other end of the table. “Would you like more wine?”
“Yes, please.”
Oh boy, she had already downed one glass, and we hadn’t even started eating. Not sure that was a good idea.
“So, Erica, Freddie,” Candace’s father, Michael, said. “Candace tells us that you two are not only the wedding planners, you’re also looking into who murdered Lyssa?”
“Oh well…” I began.
“We like to keep the two topics separate,” Freddie said, making a spreading motion with his hands. “No mur
der talk at the dinner table. That’s our rule at Otter Lake Security.”
“Right. Right,” Michael said, leaning back and templing his fingers. “Of course. But the one does affect the other. I mean, we wouldn’t want anyone else getting murdered the night before the wedding.”
“Dad,” Candace said tightly.
“No, I think he’s got a point,” Antonia said. “It could be dangerous. Maybe we should—”
“Antonia.” It was Joey giving the warning this time.
We all fell back into silence.
“Maybe I should check to see what’s going on with…” I had started to get up, but when I saw the look on Freddie’s face, I sat right back down. “I’m sure it will be out shortly.
“It’s nice having the tables all set up like this,” I went on. “I don’t have a big family, but I’m guessing this is what it’s like.”
Joey nodded. “This is how we ate in prison … too.”
Candace’s dad clutched the sides of his plate, as his wife put a hand on his forearm then said, “Certainly is buggy in New Hampshire, isn’t it?”
“I’ll light more lanterns,” Freddie said, jumping to his feet. We already had five or six lit around the perimeter of the table. If Freddie lit any more of them we all might die of toxic fumes.
Just then a noise caught my attention.
Was that … chittering?
I looked over my shoulder. Oh crap, it was chittering. A red squirrel was staring at us and swearing a blue streak by the sounds of it. I darted a quick look over at Nonna. I was sitting at her left at the end of the table. It didn’t look like she had noticed. In all the planning for this dinner—which, admittedly, was not very much—I had forgotten about the squirrels. It was a good distance away, but it seemed superannoyed that we were in its squirrel space.
“Erica?” Freddie called out.
My eyes darted back to the table.
“Is there…?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s good. Oh boy, I’m hungry.”
Just then I spotted my mother come out from the lodge’s front door. A couple of the vegan caterers from the retreat were following behind her with dishes. Oh, and there was Zaki too. With a dish of his own.
Down the Aisle with Murder Page 20
