5 The Murders at Astaire Castle

by Lauren Carr

  Chapter Twelve

  Something was wrong. Mac felt it as soon as he woke up. It was still dark outside, as it had been since the onset of autumn. That added an even more ominous tone to the start of the day when he woke up with the feeling that something wasn’t right.

  Gnarly. … Gnarly isn’t jumping up and down on my chest. Mac glanced over at the clock. 06:05 am. Where is that dog?

  The bedroom door was open. Mac threw the comforter aside and slipped into his lounging pants. After picking up his bathrobe, he knelt to peer under the bed where Gnarly made his den. He wasn’t there.

  Gnarly would wake me up if something was going on … unless he couldn’t.

  The thought crossed Mac’s mind that something had happened to Gnarly. He couldn’t remember hearing the shepherd come to bed. With a glance over at where Archie was curled up under the comforter, he recalled that he was too preoccupied to notice. Mac put on his robe and slipped the handgun he kept in the bed stand drawer into his pocket.

  At the top of the stairs, he heard a soft voice drifting up from the kitchen below. As he made his way down the stairs, he recognized it to be singing. A soft smile came to his lips when he remembered how his adopted mother used to sing in the kitchen. Recognizing Chelsea’s voice and the scent of fresh brewed coffee, Mac relaxed and pressed the kitchen door open.

  Fully dressed in a running suit complete with jacket and cap, Chelsea was sitting at the kitchen table with a German shepherd on either side. “Oh, did I wake you?” She tossed a couple of capsules into her mouth and washed them down with cranberry juice.

  “Actually, Gnarly not waking me up is what woke me up.” Mac hurried over to the coffee maker to pour a cup of coffee. “Good morning. How did you sleep?”

  “Great,” she replied in a cheerful tone. “I’m going to go running. Do you want to come?”

  The thought of going running during the sunrise made Mac laugh. “Are you going with David?”

  She laughed. “I didn’t think he’d be up this early.”

  “Don’t be so sure.” Before Mac could explain, David was knocking on the kitchen door. Like Chelsea, he was dressed in a running suit.

  Seeing David, Gnarly jumped to his feet and ran to the hook where his leash hung. Taking the end of the leash into his mouth, he yanked it down and trotted over to the door when Mac opened it.

  “David takes Gnarly with him when he goes running in the morning,” Mac explained while inviting him in. “That’s why I thought the two of you were running together.” He told David, “Chelsea is going running, too.”

  “Be serious.” David took the leash from Gnarly.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Chelsea asked.

  With a smile, David knelt to clip the leash to Gnarly’s collar. “Back in school,” he told Mac, “Chelsea refused to do anything that would make her sweat.”

  Her eyes narrowed to almost transparent slits. She stood up from the table. “School was a long time ago. I start every day with a run now.”

  “How far?” David laughed. “Half a block?”

  “Five miles.” She sauntered up to him. “And now nothing turns me on more than a good hard sweat.” She pushed through the kitchen door. “Come on, dogs. Let’s show him.”

  Molly and Gnarly, with his leash trailing behind him, galloped out after her.

  “I think you just got challenged,” Mac said.

  Gnashing his teeth, David hurried out after her.

  “Ah, young love,” Mac mused while pouring a second mug of coffee to take upstairs to Archie. “I prefer a different type of exercise on a chilly morning.”

  “Want to race?” David caught up with Chelsea outside, where she was stretching in the circular driveway in front of the manor. Sitting with her legs spread out in front of her, she was lying practically flat out in between them. He didn’t recall her being so limber.

  “Do you find it uncomfortable—my being here I mean?” she asked.

  “No, do you?”

  “To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have taken Mac up on his offer if I had known you lived in the guest cottage. You’d think it would be awkward.”

  “Like you said last night, what happened between us was a long time ago,” David said. “You’re not the same person you used to be, and neither am I.” He turned to prop his foot up on the top step of the porch and stretched out to touch his toes. He could feel her gaze on his back. “You even like to sweat now. That’s big.”

  Her blonde eyebrows almost met in between her eyes. Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Why is Mac so nice? Why does he let you live here?”

  David considered revealing their familial relationship as half-brothers, which would have revealed his father’s early relationship with Robin Spencer. Uncertain, he shrugged. “Mac used to be a homicide detective. He understands what it’s like. That’s something we share.” He swallowed. “Mac’s my best friend. We’ve got each other’s back.”

  Her lips curled into a smirk. “I’m glad. I like both him and Archie. It’s good to have people who care about you.”

  “Do you have friends like that in Annapolis?” David bent over to touch his toes.

  “Kind of.”

  David stood up. “What do you mean by ‘kind of?’” Watching her, he took a chance to ask, “What about Roger?”

  Chelsea laughed. “He’s my boss and you scared the daylights out of him. I’ll be lucky if I have a job when I get back.”

  “He shouldn’t scare so easily.”

  “David,” she said, “you were packing a gun. Roger wasn’t.”

  “I wasn’t going to shoot him,” David said.

  “He didn’t know that,” she said.

  He smirked. “I know.”

  “You like that. You’ve always liked doing that.”

  He turned to her. “Like what.”

  She stepped up to him. “Intimidating people. Playing mind games with them. The only reason you want to race is to put me in my place by humiliating me like you always did before.” She poked him in the chest. “It’s not going to happen. I’m not the immature, insecure little girl who let you win because I was afraid I’d lose you.”

  “You never let me win at anything.”

  “Huh! Lot you know. Every chess match we used to have …”

  “Never!”

  “If I wasn’t such a wuss,” she chuckled, “I would have checked your mate at will every time.”

  Molly had a look of pride as she sat at attention while watching her owner smirk at the male human who dared to challenge her.

  “Like you could beat me in a race?” he asked. “Remember, I was an officer in the Marines.”

  “Desk jockey.”

  “No, special forces,” David countered with his hands on his hips. “And I’m still in the reserves.”

  “I run three marathons a year just for fun.” She stepped up to lock her glare on his.

  “I could beat you with one leg tied behind my back.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  “Bet,” he said.“Loser takes the winner out on a date—winner’s choice.” He pointed to the bridge in the distance. “We run to the bridge, cross the lake and come back. First one back here wins. That’s four miles.”

  A slow grin crossed her face, starting at one corner of her lips and crossing over to the other side. One eyebrow cocked up to form an upside-down “V”. She spit into the palm of her hand and stuck it out. “Deal.”

  David glanced down at the spit-covered hand. In a flash, he recalled when she was eight years old and he was ten. Chelsea demanded to be allowed in his and Riley’s boys’ club. In an effort to dissuade her, David offered a challenge. She had to eat a whole bowl of cold brussel sprouts. To seal the deal, David spit into his hand and offered it to her. That time, she closed her eyes
and cringed before shaking it. Without hesitation, she ate the whole bowl and they were forced to accept her into their club.

  She surprised him then. Why wouldn’t I expect her to surprise me again? Chelsea Adams is a woman full of surprises. “Deal.” David grasped her hand.

  After they shook, David and Chelsea picked up each of their dog’s leash.

  “You should tie your shoe before we start.” She pointed to his feet. “Hate for you to trip.”

  David knelt down to check his laces, at which time she shoved him over onto his side in the grass before sprinting off with Molly by her side.

  Equally incensed by the dirty trick, Gnarly strained against his leash so hard that he threatened to drag David on his stomach until he got up to his feet to catch up with her.

  In the time it took for David and Gnarly to run through the stone pillars marking the entrance to Spencer Manor, Chelsea and Molly were a third of the way down the Point. David and Gnarly sprinted down the road. With all of the residents being well-to-do millionaires who didn’t have to leave their homes to work in the morning, the road was deserted.

  In the fall, after the colorful foliage had fallen and before the ski season started in late November, Spencer was practically a ghost town except for the few year-round residents who, like Mac, were retired, or were worker-bees like David.

  It was for this reason that David, after falling into step with Chelsea when they turned right onto Lakeshore Road, noticed a silver sedan coming up behind them.

  Both runners moved over off the road to allow the car to pass them. When it didn’t, David’s instincts told him that this was not good. He slowed his pace to allow Chelsea to sprint on ahead while waiting for the car to move on. When the car slowed down almost to a halt, David whirled around while pulling his gun out of his pocket. The pause he took to ascertain the danger behind the wheel gave the driver ample time to surge forward while firing at him.

  “Gun!” he shouted a warning to Chelsea.

  While two shots were fired through the passenger window at him, David fired off three shots at the moving car. One bullet took out the front windshield, the second took out the rear passenger window. The last took out the rear window when the car surged on past. While the car sped away, David stepped out into the road and fired two more shots while running up to where Chelsea was lying in the ditch on top of Molly.

  Gnarly’s barks could be heard to the end of Spencer Point. Undeterred by his leash flapping behind him, he charged after the vehicle with every intention of catching it.

  “Are you okay?” David helped her to her feet. He could feel her hands shaking.

  “What was that about?”

  “I don’t know.” David knelt down next to Molly who was pawing at Chelsea. “What about Molly? Did she get hit?” Noticing that his own fingers were trembling, he rubbed his hands on his pants.

  “No.” She hugged the dog. “We dove for the ditch before the car got up here.”

  David noticed red blotches in Molly’s white fur. “Are you sure?” He ran his fingers through her fur in search of the source of the bleeding. More blood appeared. “I see blood.”

  Noticing the drops of blood, Chelsea searched her dog for a wound, but Molly, who was licking her face, wasn’t acting hurt in any way.

  His legs feeling numb, David knelt down. “Where’s the blood coming from?” He saw that his hands were covered with blood.

  “David! It’s you! You’ve been shot!”

  Her voice sounded like she was in a tunnel calling to him. Grabbing her by the arm, he fought to stay upright, but was losing the battle.

  “Oh, David!” she sobbed while holding onto him. “Stay with me. Don’t die.”

  “Call … emergency.” David sucked in as much breath as he could, which made the pain ripping through his side more intense.

  “David, no!” Chelsea yelled. “No! Not now! Not after … I love you. I’ve always loved you. I thought I hated you but when you called the other night all of those old feelings came rushing back. Even with Riley in the mental ward, you were all I could think about. That was why I had to see you, David. I love you but I’m scared and—”

  “Chelsea!” David gasped out in a sharp tone.

  Clutching both of his hands, slimy with blood, into hers, she swallowed. “Yes, David?”

  Grimacing, David gazed into her light blue eyes that were filled with tears. “Now’s not a good time to discuss it. If I live, we’ll talk later. If I die, it won’t matter.”

  His last vision before he lost consciousness was Chelsea pleading for him to stay with her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Gnarly’s barking was loud enough to wake up the residents of Spencer Point. Used to his barking at squirrels, birds, and low-flying aircraft; everyone had grown to ignore the protective shepherd. Yet, the frantic tone this morning brought some curious residents to their front porches when Gnarly, with his leash dragging behind him, ran past on his way to Spencer Manor.

  Shrugging into his bathrobe, Mac threw open the door when Gnarly slammed into it. Tying the belt to her bathrobe, Archie was right behind him.

  Instead of running in, Gnarly whirled around and ran back out into the driveway. When he saw that Mac had only come down off the porch, he ran back and jumped up to tag him hard in the chest.

  “David’s not with him,” Mac said to Archie. “Something happened to him and Chelsea.”

  She had already run inside.

  “Call Bogie!” Mac yelled as loud as he could while running after Gnarly.

  He didn’t get far before David’s cruiser, its lights and sirens going, pulled up alongside to him. “Get in,” Archie called to him out the window.

  That was when Mac realized he was in his bare feet and wearing only his bathrobe. There wasn’t enough time to change. He saw when he climbed into the passenger seat that Archie was also in her bathrobe and barefoot.

  “You know it’s illegal to steal a police cruiser,” he told her while they tailed Gnarly down the point, across the cove, and along the lake shore.

  “So arrest me.” She slammed on the brakes when they came upon the scene. “Oh, dear, God!”

  Chelsea was on her knees bent over David. Her leash dragging behind her, Molly ran up to Mac when he got out of the cruiser. Whining, she pawed at him before leading the way back to her owner.

  “He’s been shot!” Covered in blood, Chelsea had taken off her jacket, folded it up, and was holding it against David’s side. It was already soaked with blood. She held it against David’s stomach with one hand while holding her cell phone to her ear with the other. “The police and ambulance are on the way.”

  Mac knelt on David’s other side and pressed his hand on top of hers to stop the bleeding. He didn’t want to lift the coat to look at the wound for fear of allowing more blood to seep out. Glancing back at the cruiser, Mac saw that Archie was already on David’s radio. He could hear the sirens announcing the arrival of cruisers from both directions and an ambulance from across the lake. They were growing louder by the second.

  A black cruiser tore around the corner from up the road and screeched to a halt in front of them. Shouting orders into his radio, Bogie jumped out of the cruiser and ran to them. “What happened?”

  After assuring the emergency operator that officers were on the scene, Chelsea hung up her cell and tossed it to the ground next to her. “It was a silver Cutlass. Late model,” she said while applying pressure to David’s wound. “There was a car rental sticker on the rear bumper. Maryland plates. David shot out all of its windows.” She pointed up the road. “It went that way in the direction of the bridge.”

  Bogie went back to his radio to relay the information.

  “Good girl,” Mac said.

  “I wish I got the plate number or saw the driver,” she muttered with tears in h
er eyes.

  Mac grabbed her arm. His hand was covered with blood—David’s blood. “You got more than most people in this situation. Every little bit helps.”

  The ambulance pulled up next to Bogie’s cruiser. Mac stepped back to let the EMTs get to work. He didn’t like that David was unconscious. That’s not good—not good at all.

  When ushered away, Chelsea let Archie lead her back to David’s cruiser where Bogie and Mac were waiting. Gnarly and Molly were in the backseat where Archie had gathered them up to prevent them from contaminating any possible evidence.

  “What happened?” Bogie asked Chelsea again. “Tell me everything.”

  “The car came up behind us.” She folded her arms across her chest. “David and I were running with the dogs. David was ahead of me and suddenly he dropped back behind. I remember at the time thinking he was letting me win—”

  “Win?” Bogie asked.

  “We were racing each other.” She swallowed. “I had noticed the car come up behind us but wasn’t really paying attention. David must have gotten suspicious when he didn’t pass us. I didn’t think about it at the time. David slowed down and I sprinted on ahead. Suddenly I heard all these shots—”

  “How many?” Bogie asked.

  “Seven,” she said with certainty. “David’s got two gunshot wounds in the side.” She pointed at the side of the road where Archie had parked. “This is where it happened. When the shooting started, I tackled Molly and dove into the ditch. When the car sped off, David came running up to me to see how we were. He didn’t even know he’d been shot. He thought it was Molly’s blood. When I realized it was him, he collapsed.” She looked at each one of them. “Who did this?

  “David’s put a lot of people away,” Bogie said. “He’s got more than one enemy.”

  “Hollister,” Mac said. “He threatened David yesterday afternoon. I was there.”

  “Raymond Hollister?” Bogie asked. “He gave Ol’ Pat a real hard time because Pat accused him of having something to do with the murders.”

  “He told David that he wasn’t going to put him away for these murders,” Mac said. “I’m going to talk to him.”