Carrying the large bag of sweets to her truck, Kate noticed Amy Roberts who was standing several yards up the block. The young woman appeared to be arguing, but the other person was standing where Kate couldn’t see them.
She climbed into her truck and it was just the shift in perspective she needed to realize that Amy was arguing with Olivia Tartt.
She popped a fudge ball into her cheek, rolling her window down in hopes she might be able to overhear.
“This is going to come down on both of us,” Olivia hissed. “You know that.”
“There’s nothing I can do,” said Amy, who quickly deepened her tone. “You’ve been threatening my father, but he had nothing to do with Doris’s death and you know it. I’m sick of this. I sold you the house. Mrs. Hyatt’s locked up. What else do you want?”
“I want that ring.”
“The police have it. There’s nothing I can do.”
“Don’t you understand that they’re going to find out Doris killed herself, and when they do, they’re going to want to know who buried her in that basement?”
“Do you think I’m an idiot? Why do you think I moved away from here and haven’t been back?” said Amy.
“She will kill us,” said Olivia, her tone cracking with fear. “We need to make this go away.”
“So print a story. Make it go away,” Amy suggested.
“It doesn’t work like that. I can’t print fiction.”
“So publish something about that fix-it woman’s health. Create a distraction. That was the plan, wasn’t it?”
“That was just a threat. I was pushing it by just spreading a vague rumor. Printing confidential health records will cause all kinds of trouble, and we don’t need that, do we?”
Amy held her head high. “I don’t think she’ll kill us.”
“You fool.”
“We’re not kids anymore. She can’t make us do anything.”
“The only reason she hasn’t come after us is because your mother’s body stayed buried under a foot of asphalt. She’s not buried anymore. And I’m scared.”
Amy’s eyes widened as though an idea was taking hold. “So, we kill her.”
“When?”
“Tonight, at the fireworks. No one will hear it.”
“How?” asked Olivia before quickly pacing away and muttering, “This is crazy, we can’t do this.”
“Do you want to live in fear for the rest of your life? Or worse, do you want the police to find out what we did?”
Decisively, Olivia said, “Fine. Tonight.”
Amy smiled. “She’s as good as dead.”
Kate leaned back in her seat as the women climbed into Amy’s car and pulled out of the parking spot. As they drove away, Kate wondered who the mystery woman was, what she had made them do, and how, if at all, Kate might be able to prevent her murder.
Chapter Eight
Dusk was settling over Rock Ridge as Scott angled his truck toward the entrance gate. In the passenger’s seat, Kate fished the twenty-five dollars Dean had given her earlier that day out of her overalls and handed it to her husband.
“We won’t need this much,” he commented.
“Trust me,” she said, shooting him a knowing look.
“Highway robbery,” he grumbled, handing the cash to the girl inside the booth. After a moment, she passed a parking slip to Scott and he tucked it on the dash in plain view, rolling forward where a line of cars inched along, vying for parking spaces.
Kate had explained to him all that she had overheard between Olivia Tartt and Amy Roberts. In usual Scott fashion, her husband had downplayed the exchange, reminding her not to believe everything she heard. But Kate had a gut feeling about this. At the height of the fireworks display, someone would be killed.
“I’m going to check in with Celia,” she explained, climbing out of the truck as soon as Scott had parked near the back of the lot.
After trying and failing to rest at the house, Kate had spent two hours putting the pieces together. Doris might not have been entirely stable, but Mrs. Hyatt’s role in the matter boiled down to smoke and mirrors, nothing that could help Kate make sense of that dark night. Despite this, she gleaned that a woman had discovered Doris’s affair with Mr. Stone. Whether Mrs. Hyatt had supplied Doris with poison or the woman had, the result was the same. Doris had gone to extreme lengths to stop herself from falling prey to the evils of the Victorian house. In Kate’s mind, perhaps Doris had ingested the poison in Celia’s bathroom, maybe after. Only forensics would be able to identify how quickly the poison had taken effect in her system and they hadn’t determined that variable just yet.
Regardless, the results proved deadly.
And the woman, whoever she was, had either encouraged or forced young Amy and Olivia to mix asphalt and bury the dead body of Doris Chestnut. How the woman might have managed to do this was almost too dark to fathom. But her role had compelled her to threaten the girls.
Why?
If Doris truly had killed herself, then why not let her die in plain sight? Why not allow the police to discover the suicide? What had compelled the woman to cover it up?
And what was so important about it that she had held death threats over Amy and Olivia’s heads their entire lives?
In a sense, Kate felt that a strange sort of justice might be served if she kept out of it and allowed Amy and Olivia to kill the woman who had been hanging over their heads like a dark cloud. But her conscience wouldn’t let her. Rock Ridge had seen so many murders over the years and Kate had never before been in a position to stop one. She couldn’t turn her back on this town. Rock Ridge needed her now more than ever.
As she made her way through the slow moving crowd, zigzagging toward the red and white tent where she hoped to find Celia, Kate couldn’t help but remember the last time she’d been here apart from work. Jason and Jared had been with her, the amusement park in the midst of its grand opening. It hadn’t been a happy day, but a terrifying one as Jason came face to face with the woman who had stolen his heart and then shattered it, Becky Langley. But before that fateful moment, when they had walked as a family through the crowd, Kate had felt content. She didn’t blame her sons for moving away, quite the opposite. She felt their decision had been a good one. But she missed them all the more because of it.
The red and white tent came into view. Kate wondered about Celia. She had known the woman for ages and had seen Celia go through tumultuous ups and downs, but could her long-time friend have harbored such a terrible secret as having coerced two young girls into burying a suicidal woman in the basement of an abandoned house? Kate would like to think not, but Celia had admitted to spending time with Doris that night. Also, Larry had confirmed that one of the Johnson’s, either Celia or her husband at the time, Ken, had purchased asphalt. What if Celia had been so distressed that a crazy woman had confronted her in her house, that she perhaps momentarily lost her mind and wanted Doris to disappear? Or worse, what if Celia realized Doris had ingested poison, and as Doris had gone running from the house, Celia feared the suicide would appear to be a homicide and she would get arrested? Fear had the power to make sane people do crazy things. And there was just no telling.
Kate stepped under the tent and scanned the faces. Employees were standing behind a table and selling raffle tickets, but Celia wasn’t one of them. She worked her way through the residents, and when she reached the table, she shouted, “Have you seen Celia?”
The employee, a young woman who seemed overwhelmed, met her gaze. “Uh, she’s over by the food vendors.”
Following where the girl was pointing, Kate noticed a line of food carts across the way. Celia was picking at a puff of cotton candy. Kate hurried through the crowd toward her.
“Quite the vanishing act,” said Celia in mock compliment of Kate’s earlier disappearance.
Grabbing her arm, which got her instant attention, Kate said, “I think your life is in danger.”
“What?” She looked stunned but then burst in
to laughter. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I need to know if you threatened Amy Roberts…I mean Chestnut,” she blurted out, recalling that as a twelve-year-old, Amy would’ve had the same name as her mother. “And Olivia Tartt.”
“Threaten them? I hardly knew them. What on earth has come over you?”
“Celia, this is serious.”
“I can see that, you’re hurting my arm.”
Kate released her in favor of planting her fists on her hips. “Did you threaten those girls? Because if you did, I’m afraid they’re going to come after you and come after you tonight.”
Celia’s expression shifted from horror to interest, a glint of hunger flaring behind her eyes at the thought of learning some juicy gossip. “Amy and Olivia are going to kill someone? Right here at the fireworks celebration?”
“I know you bought asphalt,” she pressed. “I had Larry dig through his records.”
“Oh, Kate,” she huffed. “Do you have any idea how frequently Ken bought asphalt? Nearly every spring. The potholes in our driveway were atrocious, you know that. If you’re suggesting I killed Doris Chestnut and then poured asphalt over her dead body, why then, you’re crazier than Doris herself.”
Kate didn’t have time to badger her, considering she believed Celia was telling the truth.
“If they approach you—”
“I won’t go off with them, that’s for sure,” Celia supplied. “But they won’t approach me because I had nothing to do with any of that. Really.”
Celia was going on about how nuts Doris had been that night, but Kate wasn’t paying attention. She scanned the crowd, hoping to find Mr. Stone, who was another name on Larry’s list. She didn’t fear for his life, but Kate hoped that if she could present this grave information to the man, it might compel him to tell her everything.
As she started off through the crowd, Celia called out, “Nice talking to you!” But her tone was highly sarcastic.
She nearly reached the onset of the field where tons of residents had laid blankets down to reserve their spots for the fireworks display when she heard a guy shout, “Hey, wait up, Boss!”
Turning, she found Maxwell Stone jogging toward her.
“Where’s your dad?” she insisted. “Is he coming tonight?”
“Uh, why?”
“Is he?” she demanded.
Maxwell rounded his shoulders as he glanced around. “I think so, but we’re not exactly close. Want me to call him?”
“Could you?”
Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he said, “I’ll be cashing in all these favors soon.”
“What favors? I’m going to pay you for your work today.”
As Maxwell hunched into his phone call, Kate caught sight of Amy and Jack Roberts through the crowd. As always, they appeared to be arguing, and if Kate wasn’t mistaken, she thought she spied an awfully big bulge in Amy’s purse.
Urgently, Kate told Maxwell, “Tell them to stay home.”
“They’re already here,” he said. “What’s this about?”
Locking eyes with him, she explained. “Do you remember a woman that night? A woman whom you might have seen with Amy and Olivia?”
“What do they have to do with it?”
“I think a woman forced them to pour asphalt on the dead body of Doris Chestnut,” she said grimly.
Suddenly, Maxwell looked ill.
“You know something,” Kate exclaimed. “What haven’t you told me?”
“Look, Kate, you have to leave it alone.”
“Why?” When he said nothing, she pressed, “I’m not going to leave it alone. Did you see a woman that night?” Again, he didn’t respond so she explained, “Amy and Olivia are going to kill whoever that woman is. If you don’t tell me—”
Abruptly, he stated, “I have to go,” and started off through the crowd.
Kate kept at his heels, but he was too fast, too energetic. She fell behind, though her eyes were glued to the back of his head.
Her assumption that he was rushing to find his father was expelled the second she realized he was approaching Olivia Tartt. He grabbed her roughly by the arm and began dragging her toward one of the tents. For a few seconds, Kate lost them and when she stepped into the tent, she couldn’t find them.
Panicking, she pivoted and scanned the crowd.
Amy Roberts was sneaking up behind an older woman near one of the rides. As Kate barreled through the wall of residents, she realized the older woman was Mrs. Stone, whom she had seen only briefly in the Stone’s kitchen.
Why was Maxwell confronting Olivia if Amy was in the process of taking Mrs. Stone?
That’s when it hit her.
The woman who had tormented the girls with threats their entire lives was Mrs. Stone and Maxwell was trying desperately to prevent her murder.
Quickly, Kate found her cell phone and dialed Scott, as she jogged after Amy and Mrs. Stone. But his ringer must have been off. She heard his outgoing voice message kick in and left a brief, muddled message.
Amy was dragging Mrs. Stone into the woods where it edged the lake. As Kate rushed after them, the billowing voices of the crowd softened.
Amy threw Mrs. Stone to the ground, and in the blink of an eye, whipped a gun out of her purse, aiming it at the older woman’s head.
“Wait!” Kate screamed, running up to Amy, who immediately spun, pointing the barrel at Kate.
“You think I won’t kill you too?” she hissed.
“You don’t want to do this.”
“I do. Do you have any idea what this woman did to us?” she demanded. “Do you?”
“I have an idea, but killing her won’t make it right.”
“She knew my mother was sick, that she couldn’t think straight.”
“And she wanted her dead because Doris had been having an affair with Mr. Stone, I know,” said Kate. “But she didn’t kill your mother. You can’t kill her for something she didn’t do.”
Overcome with emotion, Amy keeled over, sobbing, but soon reeled in her anguish. “She made us. She stood over us and made us pour asphalt onto my mom.”
“And that’s a crime,” said Kate. “She’ll be brought to justice, but it won’t be by your hand. Please, Amy, give me the gun.”
Mrs. Stone was cowering, too afraid to look up at either of them where she kneeled on the muddy shore of the lake.
In a flash, Amy returned the gun to Mrs. Stone’s head. “Tell her what you did.” The older woman only shrank and Amy screamed, “Tell her!”
Trembling, Mrs. Stone confessed, “I put poison in that ring.”
“Do you see?” Amy asked Kate. “Do you get it now?” Then, to the older woman she yelled, “Tell her!”
“Mrs. Hyatt had put some kind of potion in the ring. It was nonsense!”
“Tell her!”
“I think it was syrup, and Doris thought it was some kind of magical potion that would save her life. She was crazy! Your mother was insane! She killed Mrs. Hyatt’s son!”
“Shut up!” Amy screamed, pressing the gun to the older woman’s temple. Locking eyes with Kate, she said, “My mom wasn’t right in the head, but that night, when she ingested whatever was in that ring, she thought it would save her. But it didn’t. It killed her. Because you killed her!”
“They were meeting at my house! At my home!” Mrs. Stone insisted, settling into the mud. “It was awful! I was just supposed to act like I didn’t know? Like I couldn’t hear them? When she left that ring on the living room table... I did what I had to do.”
Kate heard a twig snap behind her, and glancing over her shoulder, she found Scott and Detective Kilroy stalking toward them, their guns trained on Amy Roberts.
Scott yelled, “Drop the gun, Amy.”
“I can’t,” she cried.
“You have to. Drop the gun.”
After an anxious moment, the disturbed woman tossed her gun to the mud and Detective Kilroy swooped in and apprehended her. Scott was quick to lift Mrs.
Stone out of the mud, but when she thanked him, he said, “You’re under arrest for the murder of Doris Chestnut.”
Chapter Nine
Kate sat nervously on the exam table and studied the shape of Scott’s hand in hers. He was standing beside her, stroking her red hair and telling her softly everything was going to be okay.
“What’s taking the doctor so long?” she complained. Every inch of her felt stiff with tension.
“Doctors are always late,” he said easily.
After the ordeal of last night, the arrests of Mrs. Stone and Amy Roberts, it had been a struggle for Kate to enjoy the fireworks. She ended up sneaking out early with Scott, and when they got home and her head hit the pillow, she fell instantly to sleep. She had dreamed, but not in nightmares, the tall tales of the House of Slaughter having left her thoughts. Yet, when she woke she felt exhausted. Scott had nearly carried her out to his truck just to make this appointment, and between the waiting room and more waiting in the exam room and her doctor’s orders not to consume a gram of caffeine, Kate was suffering with a splitting headache.
Finally, the door popped open and Dr. Faulkner stepped in, his eyes glued to Kate’s medical chart.
“Good morning—”
“Please tell me you know why I’m tired and just fix it,” she begged. “I can’t go on like this.
As Scott hushed her, the doctor closed the door. “The good news is that I do, in fact, know why you’ve been so tired, and I can promise you it’s entirely temporary.”
Kate burst into tearful laughter. “Oh, that’s great. Thank God. Why?”
Dr. Faulkner smiled at Kate and Scott, but the suspense only made Kate want to punch a wall. “Well, the fact of the matter is...”
Kate blurted out, “Just tell me!”
“Congratulations! You’re pregnant!”
DEAD AS A DOORNAIL
Chapter One
January in Rock Ridge was brutal. It always had been and always would be. Sleet beat against the windshield in jagged sheets as Kate eased her truck through the slushy parking lot in front of the library. Though her windshield wipers were thwacking at their highest speed, it barely cleared the icy downpour. She was all bundled up with a puffy hat, warm gloves, scarf wrapped tight, and an extra-large winter coat, one she had bought online back in December in anticipation of her growing belly.
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