A Shot to Die For

by Libby Fischer Hellmann

“Kim killed her sister?” Luke shot us a dubious look.

  I told him about the calls on the borrowed cell. When I’d finished, he shook his head. “I don’t believe it. Kim wouldn’t kill anyone.”

  “How do you know?”

  He looked at the ground. A flush crept up his neck and ears.

  “It’s all right. I—I know about you and Kim,” I said quietly.

  His mouth opened slightly. “How?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It—it was a long time ago.” He looked up. “Kim was beautiful, but she was never very—stable. She had these—fantasies.” He shrugged. “I didn’t buy into them, but when a woman throws herself at you….” His neck and cheeks turned bright red. “Annie’s death put an end to it. And then I went away. When I came back last year, Kim came to my apartment. She said she still wanted something between us. There isn’t—there never was. I told her that. After that I made a point of staying clear of her.”

  I felt a stab of both guilt and triumph; guilt for thinking of my relationship with Luke at a time like this, triumph that Kim had no claim on him.

  “Luke, does Kim know about this place?” Jimmy asked.

  “I never brought her here—”

  “But it’s been in the family since you were a kid. It’s possible she knows where it is?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “Okay. Let’s get you both back downstate.”

  “I don’t know,” Luke balked. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

  “There isn’t any other solution,” Jimmy said. “I’m going to call in. See if there’s any word.” He pulled out his cell, snapped it on, and gazed at the tiny screen. “Dammit. Not again.” He looked at me. “Is your phone working?”

  I pulled it out and checked. I shook my head.

  “If you want to make a call,” Luke said, “you have go down to Desmond’s bait and tackle shop in town.”

  “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” Jimmy waved a hand. “Luke, get your things together. We’ll all drive back together.”

  “I have the plane,” Luke offered.

  “No,” we both said in unison.

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  The interior of the cabin was as impressive as the exterior. Light spilled from the windows, and there were beamed ceilings and lots of polished wood, all of it a warm, inviting peanut butter brown. Plus all the conveniences you’d expect: dishwasher, microwave, washer-dryer.

  I followed Luke upstairs to a cheerful room with a brass bed and braided Indian rugs. The walls were white, with wood moldings, and the window gave onto a beautiful view of the lake.

  He pulled out a suitcase from under the bed. “The best muskies in the world live in Star Lake.”

  “I don’t know the first thing about fishing.”

  “I don’t either,” he admitted, grinning. “That’s not why I come up here.”

  “This was your sanctuary.”

  He opened a five-drawer captain’s chest, took out some clothes, and tossed them into the suitcase. “That’s right.”

  I looked out at the lake. A man and a boy were rowing past us in a dinghy. The boy dipped his oars in the water, his arms stretched out in front of him. As he pulled through the water, he leaned forward, hunched his shoulders, and splayed his elbows. Then he dipped the oars and repeated the action. The rhythm was mesmerizing.

  I felt Luke’s hands on my shoulders. “I’m sorry about the way I treated you,” he said. “I wouldn’t be up here if it wasn’t for you. Thank you.”

  I kept my eyes on the boaters.

  “Why didn’t you give up on me?”

  I turned around slowly. “It was the time in your plane. You were—you knew I was afraid. You were—so caring.”

  “And now it’s your turn?”

  I shook my head. “You came back here on your own.”

  “It’s going to get ugly.”

  “Not if you want the truth to get out.”

  He shook his head. “Even with the truth. It will be a long time before anyone speaks the Sutton name without disgust.”

  “I have faith.”

  “Faith, huh? Is that what I need?” He moved closer. “What are you, Ellie? My savior, my jailor, or my lover?”

  “What do you want me to be?”

  “Let me show you.” He slipped his arms around me and kissed me. I leaned into him.

  I heard a rustle, then a few footfalls, like someone sprinting up the steps. A harsh voice cut in. “Well, now, I guess this is one of those scenes, isn’t it?”

  We broke apart. Luke spun around. I sucked in a breath.

  Kim Flynn was standing in the doorway. Her hair was mussed, her cheeks were crimson, and she was breathing hard. And she was aiming a pistol at us.

  To his credit, Luke stayed calm. “What kind of scene are you talking about, Kim?”

  “Like in the movies, when the wife catches her husband with another woman.”

  “It must be a movie I’ve never seen.”

  “Don’t play coy, Luke. It doesn’t become you.” She gestured toward me with the gun. “You’re the one I’m here for.”

  My stomach clenched.

  “How did you know we were here, Kim?” Luke said neutrally, as if she was an unexpected, but not unwelcome, visitor.

  “Her daughter.” She pointed the gun at me. “I called her house. She told me you were driving to northern Wisconsin.”

  I felt the blood drain from my face, realizing how close Kim had gotten to Rachel, even just on the phone.

  “I didn’t realize you knew about this place,” Luke said smoothly. I could tell he was trying to draw her out, slow things down while he thought of a way out. I tried to remember what he had done with the shotgun. Was it downstairs? Or out in back? Either way, I realized dismally, it didn’t matter. There was no way I could get to it in time.

  “I found it a long time ago.” She favored him with a smile. “When you were still out West.”

  “You’ve been here by yourself?”

  “Once or twice.” She seemed to fill with pride. “I slept in that bed. I knew it was yours.”

  I must have moved just slightly, because Kim straightened the arm holding the pistol. It was an automatic, I thought. Like my father’s Colt. But smaller. Shit. Where was Jimmy? How long did it take to make a frigging phone call?

  “Kim. This isn’t the way.” Luke reached out his hand. “Let me help.”

  “Get away from me, Luke.”

  “But Kim….”

  “No, Luke,” I cut in. He was doing it wrong. We should humor her. “Kim is right. Your family has treated the Flynn family very badly.”

  Luke shot me a look. I stared him down. Then I saw it register. He turned back to Kim. “She’s right, Kim. I—I guess I never realized it.”

  I tried to estimate how far I’d have to lunge to bring her down and whether I could do it before she got off a shot. She was over eight feet away. Too far. But what if I could edge closer? If I was within five feet, I might have a chance.

  “We knew we’d get our chance. If we could just be patient.” She laughed, a tinny, high-pitched chuckle.

  I cleared my throat and inched forward. Kim swung her arm my way. “Don’t even think about moving,” she barked, her voice icy.

  I went rigid. My pulse pounded in my ears. Where the fuck was Jimmy?

  “We had to wait, but then it happened.”

  “What?”

  She smiled, the same mirthless smile I’d seen on her mother. “DNA.”

  I wasn’t sure I’d heard her right.

  “DNA,” she repeated. “When DNA tests started to be used, my father knew he had the proof he needed. He knew whose DNA would show up on Annie’s clothes. And the baseball shirt. He knew Annie wasn’t killed by an outsider. He knew it was either you or Chip. But when he tried to tell your father, your old man told him if he didn’t keep quiet, he’d make sure he was convicted. And then he tried to pin it on him anyway. My father had to run
for his life. But he knew his time would come.”

  I glanced at Luke, then at Kim. “Your father got it wrong, Kim,” I said quietly.

  Her eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  “The clothes were in the ice house—unprotected—for thirty years. Whatever DNA might have been there has most likely been contaminated. There’s virtually no chance they’ll find anything of value at this point.”

  She leveled the gun on me. Her nostrils flared. “You’re lying. You’d say anything right now.”

  “Ask Jimmy.”

  “Jimmy’s the one that ordered the tests.”

  “It was a ploy to squeeze out information.”

  “You’re a liar,” she repeated. But uncertainty flashed briefly across her face.

  Where was Jimmy?

  She read my mind. “I don’t believe Jimmy’s here. You’re making that up, too.”

  “She’s telling the truth.” Luke held out his hand. “He’s making a call. Please, Kim, put the gun down. We’ll talk.”

  She gave a defiant shake of her head. “Back off, Luke.”

  Keep her talking, Luke, I screamed in my head. It might distract her, and I could take her. But Luke was silent and cautious, keeping his distance as you would with a wounded, feral animal. I had to think of something. “When did you first get the idea to blackmail the Suttons, Kim?”

  “It was my father’s idea. After Mother got sick, the medical bills nearly put us under. The restaurant was in trouble. We were living on credit. It was just a matter of time before everything collapsed. We needed a miracle. That’s when Dad told me what he’d seen that night.”

  “You and he planned it together after he came back?”

  “It was our only option.” She glanced at Luke. “We had to even the playing field.”

  “Did your mother know?”

  “Are you crazy?” She made a small, snorting sound. “She had a hard enough job just trying to recuperate.”

  “What about Daria?”

  She didn’t answer.

  I thought about the timing. Herbert’s return. The second sniper attack. Daria Flynn’s murder. Suddenly, the last piece fell into place. “Daria knew, didn’t she?” I said. “Daria found out about your scheme.”

  Kim looked up, startled, but then her expression hardened. “She didn’t want us to do it. She threatened to go to Jimmy.” She looked at Luke. “Or you.”

  “Your own sister,” I went on. “She was interfering, screwing everything up. Everything your father waited for all those years. You couldn’t let that happen, could you, Kim?”

  She looked at Luke again. “We couldn’t let her. And then when she met with you at the Lodge, well, I was sure she was going to warn you.”

  “That was the last straw, wasn’t it?” I inched forward, more of a lean than a step.

  Kim gave a helpless shrug. “You can understand why I couldn’t trust her.”

  “Of course.” I took another tiny step forward.

  “Daria always got everything she wanted. She was everyone’s darling. Prettier, smarter, more ambitious. My father liked her better. Mother thought she was going to be a star.”

  “It was you she was apologizing to on the phone at the rest stop.”

  A muscle in her jaw twitched. “We’d been fighting. But it was too little, too late.”

  I heard a swish of tires outside. Kim didn’t pick up on it. “So you and your father had to kill her.” It took all my concentration to keep my tone conversational.

  “No. It was me.”

  “You?”

  “I called Fred. Told him Daria wouldn’t be able to meet him. A family emergency had come up.” She grimaced. “He wasn’t happy. He’d made all those pastries.”

  Where the hell was Jimmy? I kept going. “And you knew Daria would call you back and ask you to pick her up after the catering gig fell apart.”

  She nodded. “She couldn’t afford to get her car fixed.”

  “You’d already gotten Watkins to steal the green pickup by then.”

  She looked surprised. “How do you know about him?”

  “He left fingerprints on the bed of the truck. So….” I picked up the thread of the story. “You called Fred and told him the gig was off. Then you dropped Daria at the rest stop, met Watkins, ditched the car for the pickup, and doubled back to kill her.”

  She threw me a glance of grudging respect.

  “How’d you get Watkins to be your triggerman?”

  “He was dealing, and I busted him. He was desperate to stay out of jail.”

  “But afterward, he became a problem, didn’t he?” I paused. “So you killed him, too.”

  “I had no choice.” She grabbed the gun with her other hand and aimed it at my chest. “Just like you.”

  Shit. Time was running out.

  “You should never have gotten involved.” She smiled tolerantly.

  “It was you who came to my house,” I reminded her. “You and your mother.”

  It was strangely silent outside. No car door opening. Or closing. Had I imagined it?

  “Kim,” Luke cut in. “You can’t blame Ellie. She didn’t want any of this to happen.”

  “But it did.” Her eyes skittered with anger. “And now she’s in the way. Like Daria. Taking what was mine.” She paused. “Including you.”

  “It was never going to be.”

  I nudged forward another inch.

  “I never promised you anything,” He kept his eyes on her, but I could tell he knew what I was doing.

  She tilted her head, as if she didn’t quite understand. “It happened. You can’t deny it. We were a couple.”

  My eyes strayed to the doorway behind Kim. Jimmy was crouching in the hall with Luke’s shotgun in his hand. It was aimed at Kim. Her pistol was trained on me. Whatever was going down would happen in the next few seconds. Light streamed in from outside. For a bizarre moment, I imagined us all in a still life by some past master: Kim’s gun on me, Jimmy’s gun on her, all of us frozen on a horrific canvas.

  “But I’m not surprised.” The corners of her mouth stretched into a grimace. “No one ever keeps their promises to me. Not you. Or Daria. Or her.” She steadied the gun and squinted.

  Jimmy cut in before Luke could answer. “Kim, put the gun down.”

  She whirled around. Her voice spiked. “Jimmy, get out. This isn’t your concern.”

  “Oh, but it is, Kim,” he replied quietly. “I can’t let you do this.”

  I was pretty sure Jimmy had a clear shot. Why didn’t he shoot? Luke started to edge forward.

  “Kim,” Jimmy repeated. “This is your last chance. Put the gun down.”

  Kim wavered and turned back to us. When she realized Luke was coming toward her, her eyes widened. I lunged. She pulled back the slide on the pistol. The blast of a shotgun roiled the air. I fell a foot short of Kim. She staggered back, her feet twitching like a marionette’s. I went temporarily deaf. Her body collapsed, and she dropped to the floor. Eddies of air swirled around us.

  Jimmy lowered the gun. His hands were shaking.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  “It was inevitable.”

  “What do you mean?” Susan asked. We were hiking down the bike path a week later. The path was stippled with the clear light of evening, the leaves rustling in the breeze.

  “The shoe print turned out to be Chip’s.”

  “He killed Herbert Flynn?”

  I nodded. “He probably thought he was doing what his father should have done thirty years ago.”

  “Do you think his father put him up to it?”

  I thought about it. “It’s an interesting question.”

  “There was a precedent.”

  “In both families.”

  Susan’s eyebrows lifted.

  “Two families. Two murders. Two siblings. But in the Flynns’ case, Daria discovered what they were up to.”

  “She wasn’t in on it?”

  I shook my head. “Apparently, sh
e went ballistic when she found out. But Kim was desperate. Especially after she suspected Daria was seeing Luke.”

  “You’re not saying she killed her sister over a man she slept with thirty years ago.”

  “No. Money and revenge were at the root of it. But I’m sure the rumors about Luke and Daria didn’t help.”

  “How did she arrange it? It had to take a lot of planning.”

  “It wasn’t that hard. After she enlisted Watkins, she got him to steal a green pickup, waited until she knew Daria would be heading to the oasis, then called the guy Daria was planning to meet and canceled it on Daria’s behalf.” I shrugged. “For all we know, she could have tampered with Daria’s car to begin with, so it would be out of commission.”

  “All that just to stage a sniper attack?” Susan turned a shocked face to me. “And Herbert didn’t know?”

  “Kim claimed he didn’t.”

  “I guess I believe her,” Susan said. “I mean, how does a parent let one of their children kill the other?”

  “That’s a question I’d like to ask Chuck Sutton.”

  Susan pressed her lips together. “Has Chip confessed?”

  I shook my head. “He’s all lawyered up, but if Luke testifies against him, it should be a done deal.”

  “Will he?”

  “He’s given statements to that effect.”

  “So what really did happen that night?”

  “From what I can gather, Chip saw Annie getting ready to go out. When she told him she was going to the airstrip to talk to Luke, he decided it would be one of those nights. It wasn’t the first time, you know,” I said grimly. “He managed to intercept her in the backyard. This time, though, she fought back. She somehow got his fishing knife—he had it with him all the time—”

  “Fishing knife?”

  “He bought it in northern Wisconsin. They say Chip still has a scar on his shoulder where she stabbed him. Eventually, though, he overpowered her. Threw the knife in the water, I guess. It’s never been found. Then he strangled her. When he realized she was dead, he panicked. He stripped off her clothes and the baseball shirt with his blood on it—”

  “Luke’s shirt.”

  “According to Luke, he borrowed Luke’s things a lot.”

  “That’s kind of telling right there, don’t you think?”