“You stabbed him only once?” Tabby asked.
“Yeah, and then I ran.”
“Well, isn’t that interesting? Tell me, Isabella, just how do you know what Gage did? You must have been in the building, am I right?” Tabby asked.
“Si, I was there. I was at the top of the stairs watching the whole thing,” she said. “What does it matter now? Neither of you will be around to tell anyone after tonight.”
“Oh, it does matter because you killed Alex and not Gage. You delivered the second and fatal blow,” Tabby answered.
“He was stabbed twice? I only did it once, I swear,” Gage stated. “Are you saying I didn’t kill him like I thought I did?”
“No, you didn’t. Isabella came down after you left and finished the job. She was going to let you die thinking that you killed him,” Tabby replied, turning to glare at the cold-hearted murderer. “You were the woman that Gladys Twittle saw leaving the area with the scarf over her head, aren’t you?”
“You again, are right,” Isabella admitted.
“I am so glad that I didn’t kill anyone,” Gage sighed, relieved at the news.
“Why did you kill Alexander Martinelli?” Tabby asked.
“He was going back to my father to report that I could not control my husband and that it was my fault that Anthony could not be convinced to keep his mouth shut. He was also going to tell him about Anthony’s son with Angelina Salmeri and I would have been disgraced in my father’s eyes. I had gone to the bookstore to get him to change his mind when Gage came into the store. I just finished what he started, no?”
“You are one sick woman…” Tabby mumbled
“None of that matters now; what matters is the will.”
“You may be a great actress, but you lack in the common sense department,” Tabby commented.
“And what do you mean by that?” Isabella snapped, not liking the fact that she was insulted.
“I mean… even if you manage to get Gage’s copy of the will, the attorney that Anthony hired has a copy as well. And, Sheriff Puckett has also been a witness to the new will.”
“Again, you think the Peletronis are a stupid family. The attorney’s copy has already been obtained and he is resting comfortably in the cornfield along with all the others who have crossed our family,” Isabella said, proudly.
“You, yourself, killed the attorney?” Tabby asked surprised.
“Someone had to do it,” Isabella said, matter-of-factly.
“You are nothing like what you appear to be,” Tabby stated, shaking her head in disgust.
“That is how I survive. Now, where is that will? Once I get my hands on that and dispose of both of you, the property will remain in the family.”
“You can keep the farm; it really doesn’t matter now. I found the skulls that Anthony hid and turned them over to the sheriff. They have been identified and the sheriff is getting a warrant to dig up the rest of the field following a map that your husband drew and secretly passed on to me. Your family secret is already out. The Peletronis are finished,” Tabby warned.
“Nothing can be tied back to my family. We can testify that we knew nothing about what was going on in the fields. We didn’t even live in the area,” Isabella boasted.
“Again, you are wrong. I have evidence. A ledger that had names and dates of all the victims of the cornfield,” Tabby said, “and the contract pay-offs.”
“Do you mean this one?” Isabella asked, pulling the black book out of her purse.
“Yes, that one. You may have the ledger, but I have pictures of every page,” Tabby insisted.
“And where are these pictures? On the cell phone that I now have in my hand, no?” Isabella laughed, putting both items back in her purse. “You have nothing and they will have nothing once I get rid of you two and have the last existing copy of the will.”
“It’s not here,” Gage said.
“Where is it then?” Isabella demanded, standing behind him, pointing the gun at his head but still keeping her eye on Tabby.
Tabby looked at Gage and Isabella; that was when she saw Greg looking in the corner of the window. She looked away from her boyfriend’s face not wanting to let on that he was there.
“I’m not telling you,” Gage said.
Isabella was furious. She walked over to Tabby and grabbed her by the hair. She yanked her backwards over the couch cushion and held the gun to her head.
“You have to the count of three to tell me where it is or she goes first,” Isabella screamed.
Greg rapped loudly on the glass which broke Isabella’s concentration for a split second as she let go of Tabby’s hair to turn to see who was at the window. Tabby took full advantage of the distraction and tackled Isabella at the knees as Sheriff Puckett and his deputies came through the front door with Greg close behind.
The deputies had her handcuffed before she even knew what hit her. Kicking and biting, she continued to scream in a mix of Italian and English, threatening everyone in the room with death threats as they took her away to put her in the cruiser.
Greg pulled Tabby up off the floor and hugged her. She insisted she was fine and asked him to help the sheriff release Gage from the chair.
She walked over to the purse on the mantle and took out her cell phone. She then handed it to the sheriff informing him that the missing ledger was in the purse. The gun was also recovered from under the hutch where it had slid when Isabella was tackled and added to the evidence.
“I am so glad I decided to come home early. I called Gage repeatedly and he didn’t answer the phone. I had a bad feeling in my gut and knew something was wrong,” Greg claimed, holding on to Tabby’s waist and kissing her cheek.
“He looked in the window and saw Isabella with the gun and called me,” Sheriff Puckett stated. “We were hoping you would do just what you did to give us time to get in the house.”
“She is one cold killer,” Tabby said. “She also murdered Anthony’s attorney to get his copy of the will. Gage and I were next.”
“What about Anthony or Alex?” Sheriff Puckett asked.
“Yes, she did deliver the second and fatal blow to Alex, but she did not kill her husband; Alex did,” Tabby answered.
“Only the second? There were two wounds to account for,” Greg said.
“Yes, and I’m sure that Gage and the sheriff will have quite an interesting conversation once they get back to the station, right Gage?” Tabby answered.
He nodded, shuffling his feet on the floor
“I need both of you to come back to the station and give statements,” the sheriff requested.
“We’ll be down shortly,” Greg said. “I want Doc Holden to take at look at Tabby’s head first.”
“I’m fine. There’s no blood and all I need is a good dose of medicine for the headache. We don’t need to bother the Doc this time of night,” Tabby insisted. “We’ll be right behind you, Sheriff.”
Statements were given and passed on to the FBI as it was now a federal case because it crossed state lines. Tabby was called in several times over the next month to talk to agents.
Gage had been given two years probation and had to report to Sheriff Puckett once a week during that period of time.
Lily’s Layover Bed and Breakfast was full as the FBI had descended on the town and were ripping apart every corner of the cornfield. The Peletroni family members had been rounded up in Boston and the South Shore area and were sitting in jail awaiting trials.
The black sedan and its two occupants had been stopped entering Massachusetts and arrested for driving to endanger and fourteen counts of attempted assault with a dangerous weapon; a car. All the missing items from the secret room had been found in the trunk of the car.
As the autumn days passed, the amount of agents dwindled. Seventy-nine bodies had been pulled from the cornfield and the remains taken back to Boston.
In the middle of everything, the winners of the Halloween Window Display Contest had been announced. First pla
ce had gone to Chocolate Motion for their display of ghosts, vampires and other Halloween characters eating fudge and the fudge making a mess all over their faces and hands.
Greg’s Smells So Fine Flower Shop took second for his spooky wedding display. Tabby’s window took third place. This win gave Greg total bragging rights that his window beat Tabby’s and he didn’t let her forget it for quite some time.
Samantha Moon finished in fourth place behind her daughter. She had been dethroned, not by her daughter, but by a bunch of chocolate covered creatures of the night.
Haunt-A-Thon was only a week away.
CHAPTER 17
* * *
Jenny was almost herself again and been helping Tabby along with the rest of the volunteers to get the haunted house ready for the weekend. Halloween fell on a Saturday this year. There would be a Halloween festival on the town green with lots of games and events. Apple bobbing, decorating pumpkins, face painting, and cider apple donuts hanging on a string eating contest were among the events offered. All items had been donated and the booths manned by the locals.
Gage had donated all the pumpkins in his dad’s name. He wanted Anthony Capri to be remembered in a good way and vowed to donate the pumpkins every year to keep his memory alive. He also told Tabby that next year the haunted house could be held in the old farmhouse like Anthony had wanted it to be. He was excited that a publishing company wanted to publish his dad’s stories and Gage was dedicating the book to Tabby.
At the festivals conclusion, there would be trick-or-treating in town for all the kids. Each business would stay open from four to six and hand out candy to the visiting children. Then, they would close and move on to where they had volunteered to work for the night. It was a long but fun packed day.
Tabby unlocked the door at six-ten and walked through the haunted snack bar to make sure everything was in place. The volunteers would arrive, in costume, by six-thirty and the place would open for visitors at seven.
Tabby’s job was to stand at the exit and hand each child a small plastic trophy that had a bright orange sticker with the words “I Did It” on it. Greg was playing the mummy that pops out of the popcorn machine as people pass. Jenny would man the front door selling tickets at fifty cents apiece and only allowing groups of six in at a time. Eight other locals would be in costumes and pop out from different places along the route that the ropes had been set up to follow.
The vampire that Anthony donated was placed at the register as the cashier. The witch had been placed in the kitchen as the cook with her cauldron spewing smoke from dry ice and water. The mummy figure had been placed next to the popcorn warmer, holding two popcorn buckets, to distract people so they wouldn’t notice Greg until it was too late.
Fake rats, moldy food, and cobwebs covered the food warmers and counters. Large furry spiders hung from the ceiling and one was rigged on a string to be dropped down on unsuspecting passerbys.
Skeletons were scattered about holding various food containers of items that were served at the drive-in when it was open. Some had on aprons and others had on chef hats.
The wind blaster had been set up right inside the entrance door. When the kids stepped on the black mat, which was hidden by the semi-darkness of the place, streams of air would blow up around them. The kids looked forward to this every year so it had to be included somewhere in the haunted house.
The volunteers were beginning to arrive. Greg awkwardly got out of his car and Tabby burst out laughing. He looked like a walking gauze bandage with only his eyes and nose showing. He was wrapped from head to toe. At five of seven Tabby helped him climb into the popcorn warmer and then poured some popcorn over his legs and around his torso.
There was a long line waiting to get in when they opened the doors. They stayed open for three hours and the line only dwindled at the very end near closing time. They had made more money this year than any other year. The committee would be able to throw a great Christmas Party for the children of the town in December.
They closed the doors on another successful haunted house. Greg had trouble getting out of the popcorn warmer as he had been in there for three hours and his leg muscles were cramping up. It took three people to get him out and help him stand until he got the feeling back in his legs.
The group agreed they would return the following day to take it down. Jenny had put the money in a deposit bag, gave it to Tabby, and headed home.
Tabby walked around turning off the battery operated lanterns. Greg came up behind her and put his arms around her. He had taken off all the gauze bandages and was back to himself.
“You did an awesome job,” he complimented her.
“I didn’t do it by myself; everyone did an awesome job. The money raised here and at the Brown Bear Lodge haunted house will be more than enough to fund the Christmas Party this year for the kids,” Tabby replied. “Thanks for being such a good sport and sitting in that warmer for three hours.”
“My pleasure, although I don’t think my legs would agree with what my mouth is saying,” he said, laughing.
“The kids appreciated it. I heard the squeals when you jumped out at them,” Tabby chuckled.
“Who knows, maybe someday our kids will be coming through the haunted house,” he said turning her around.
“Maybe,” she answered, putting her arms around his neck.
Tabby turned off the last lantern and they kissed.
“On to Christmas,” Tabby said, as they walked out the door together saying goodbye to another Halloween.
The End
Backwood’s Al’s Berrie Company
Plymouth, Massachusetts
508-317-0205
www.alsbackwoodsberrie.com
Blood Orange Marmalade
2 pounds Blood Oranges
1 package Dry Pectin
3 pounds sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
8 jelly jars and lids
Slice oranges (peel and all) into fine strips and add to a large saucepan with lemon juice and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and let simmer for two hours.
As the oranges are simmering, fill a second, large sauce pan with water. Place jars and lids in and bring to a boil, making sure the water totally submerges the jars and lids.
At the end of two hours, slowly stir in pectin to the orange mixture and bring back to a boil. Continue to stir as you slowly add the sugar, not stopping so it will not burn to the pot. Once sugar is incorporated, bring everything to a boil for one minute.
Take hot jars directly from water using tongs and fill with hot jelly.* Place lids on top of jars and turn upside down on counter for one minute. Then turn upright to allow the jars to seal.
Yield: 8 – 8 ounce jars of jelly
*Wear some type of gloves as jars and jelly will be extremely hot to work with.
Bloody Good Marmalade (Jams, Jellies and Murder Book 2) Page 14
