by Tonya Kappes
“This little baby was your mistake. You thought you could take it to a pawn shop to get rid of the evidence.” I buried it in my palm and grabbed the butt of the gun to steady my shaking hand. “Wyatt!”
Polly put her hands in the air and slowly stood up. “Wyatt isn’t here. He and my dad went to the store. Why don’t you sit down and let me explain?”
“No.” I waved my gun for her to sit back down. No wonder Wyatt’s car wasn’t there. “You sit down and I’ll tell you how things are going to go down.”
“You can’t tell my dad.” Polly’s eyes teared up and her face started to contort, reminding me of her mother’s. “He doesn’t know he isn’t my father.”
“Did you call Toots and tell her about how you killed Doc Walton because you found out that he was really your father and he had HSP, the same disease you have?” I asked through gritted teeth, never once taking my eyes off of her. “I know Toots was fired and she’d do anything for you. Did she go back to the scene of the crime and try to cover up your mess? Did she take the knife out of his neck? The knife you used to stab into his already dead body? How did you use the mercury? I never figured you for that smart.”
I painted a bleak and ugly picture with my words so she could visualize the evil she had done in her pretty little head.
“My parents took a break!” she screamed, pounding her small fist on the table. “They were on the verge of divorce and she went to see Doc Walton for medication to help her with depression. That horny old man took advantage of her!”
Polly’s shoulders slumped and she fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. She might have gotten some sympathy if Wyatt was home, but she wasn’t getting any from me.
“So you went to see Doc Walton about the results and found out he was your father. Then you went to work and made it look like a break-in. Sick! You pulled a Son of Sam and drew the Chinese family symbol on him and the floor of the jewelry store. Then you pawned your bracelet so it looked like a thief did it.” I kept my gun on her.
“I pawned my bracelet to pay for the genetic testing so I wouldn’t use my parents’ insurance. I didn’t want them to find out so I paid for it myself,” Polly said in a shaky voice, her eyes staring at the gun.
“Oh, how convenient. A little too tidy, if you ask me.” I’d heard enough. It was time to get this crime in the books. “Polly Parker, you are under arrest for the murder of Doctor Ronald Walton.”
“What is going on here?” Wyatt stood at the back door, his mouth open, his eyes wide. “Kenni, put the gun down.”
“Wyatt, keep her father out of here.” I kept my gun on her and didn’t move. “She killed Doc Walton because he was her father. She found out and went nuts. When she realized what she did, she wanted to make sure she wasn’t a suspect, so she ransacked White’s and took the jewelry to the pawn shop.” I used one hand to pull out the bracelet and tossed it to Wyatt. “You were right. Shirley ID’d Polly just like we thought.”
“Wyatt?” Polly lay limp on the ground. Her head tilted up. “You think I killed my own father? Where is my dad?”
“I’ll cuff her,” said Wyatt. Taking one hand off my gun, I jerked my cuffs off the strap on my shoulder holster and tossed them to Wyatt.
“Are you sure about this?” Wyatt asked and bent down next to Polly. “I left her dad at the dealership. He’s buying a new car.”
“Cuff her,” I growled, glaring at the cold-blooded killer.
“Polly didn’t kill anyone.” Poppa stood in the hallway next to Wyatt’s kitchen. I turned my attention toward him. “You need to go to the bathroom.”
Wyatt took the cuffs and did what I told him.
“What?” Nothing was adding up. Everything pointed to Polly Parker.
“Kenni-bug, calm down. Take a breath. Gather your wits. Polly didn’t do it,” Poppa insisted. “Go to the bathroom.”
I looked between Wyatt and Polly a couple of times before I dropped my gun to my side and walked back to Wyatt’s bathroom.
“What are you doing, Kenni?” Wyatt asked, walking on my heels. “Kenni, you need to go see a doctor. I think you’re losing it.”
Poppa stood over the bathroom countertop. He pointed to the medicine cabinet.
“Kenni.” Wyatt’s voice hardened. “Don’t.”
My eyes drew down to the sink where there was denture cream and a box for dentures. I grabbed the cabinet door and opened it. Quickly I scanned down all of the empty prescription bottles with Doc Walton’s name on the label. Rows and rows of empty Oxycodone bottles. I grabbed the last bottle and held it up to the light. Little balls of mercury filled it halfway. My eyes glanced down at the trashcan where shards of glass glistened.
“What is this?” I asked, unable to believe what I was seeing. “Did you break a bunch of thermometers and collect the balls in this bottle?”
“Kenni.” Wyatt stuck his hand out in front of him. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“It’s exactly what it looks like.” Poppa pounded his fist in his open hand and ghosted himself out of the bathroom.
“What is this?” I repeated, picking up the trashcan.
“Kenni!” Poppa yelled from the other room. I ran out into Wyatt’s office. There was a picture of Wyatt Granger with the B3 G60 Syncro Passat, smiling proudly standing next to it. In an open white jewelry box sitting by the photo was Viola’s big diamond. “Wyatt is the killer.”
“Oh, Kenni.” Wyatt had followed me to his office. A grin crossed Wyatt’s face.
“It’s okay, Wyatt. We can get through this.” I sucked in a deep breath, hoping he’d buy my sensitive side and I could gain control of the situation.
“I don’t think so.” Wyatt wagged his finger in front of me. “See, I can’t just let you go now, Kenni. It’s a shame that our sheriff is going to be found dead in a murder-suicide. Since you uncovered Polly and Doc’s secret, it gives Polly a motive to kill him and now you and herself, because she just couldn’t bear the humiliation this is going to bring to her prestigious, squeaky-clean image. Though she is screwing our mayor.” Wyatt let out a bitter laugh.
“Wyatt.” I had to buy some time. The evidence I had collected and Wyatt’s reaction to all of it swirled in my head, making me sick to my stomach. “We can get you out of this.”
“Oh, yeah. Jailer kills doctor, because the doctor gave him all the drugs in the world until he got a conscience and decided not to prescribe any more to him. That will not make a good headline, Sheriff.” Wyatt lifted his pant leg and grabbed his handgun out of his ankle strap. There was also a knife strapped around his calf.
“Oh my God.” My hand flew up to cover my mouth. The harder I tried to hide my feelings, the more I couldn’t. “Is that the knife?”
“It is.” Wyatt shook his head, pride on his face. “Did you think I was stupid enough to leave it at the crime scene?”
“You saw Summer of Sam at Luke’s. You’ve been planning this for a long time and had Polly Parker in your mind as your fall guy. Her father is one of your best friends.” Bits and pieces of evidence were coming together in my head, finishing the puzzle.
“Your father is also one of my best friends.” His evil was showing. “Don’t worry. I’ll comfort your daddy and your mama.”
“You know you’ll never get away with this,” I warned. “Finn Vincent knows about the evidence. Your tire tracks left at the crime scene. Everything.”
“I wouldn’t worry about him.” He walked over and shoved the gun in my ribs. I grimaced in pain. “I assured him that you and I had this under control this morning. I saw him at Cowboy’s waiting on Toots while you went off on the wild goose chase to the pawn shop. It was lucky that I had decided to drop by the office. If not, Finn Vincent would still be in Cottonwood. I called the reserves and thanked them for loaning him to us while we were between deputies and that the c
ase was solved.”
He pushed the barrel of the gun deeper into my ribcage.
“Move it. I’ve got to get this done before Pete Parker gets back with his new car. Polly didn’t want to go and it was the perfect opportunity for me to kill her, but then you showed up.”
Polly Parker was eerily quiet when we walked back into the kitchen. Her eyes were fixed on the gun Wyatt had stuck in my back.
“Small-town secrets have a way of bubbling up to the surface,” Poppa said and smiled before he walked off into thin air.
“Don’t leave me now!” I screamed, just as Wyatt flung me to the ground next to Polly.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Polly held up better than I thought she would as Wyatt took pleasure and time in tying the two of us together. I grabbed her hand and gave it a good squeeze. It was my way of telling her it was going to be okay. I was going to get us out of here somehow.
I cussed my Poppa up and down in my mind. He might have helped solve my case, but he sure wasn’t helping save my ass.
“You are too damn nosy,” Wyatt spat as he stomped back and forth in front of us. “Why couldn’t you just leave well enough alone? I planted all the evidence to point to her.” He jabbed his gun toward Polly.
Her body flinched. I could feel her fear.
“Now I have to kill you, and that makes three people.” Wyatt slid his finger across his throat. On instinct, I gulped. Then he smacked his own head with the butt of his handgun, screaming in pain as the blood trickled from the gash. He talked as the blood worked its way down his face. “I had to save myself because Polly smacked me with my own gun.” He unloaded the bullets and bent down, shoving the handgun in Polly’s cuffed hands, forcing her to get her prints on it.
He stood back up and grabbed the shotgun she really had been cleaning for him off the kitchen table and slowly loaded it bullet by bullet. He cocked it.
“Shotguns make nasty wounds.” He grinned. “But it’s all in self-defense, since I know Kenni went to see your mama. The little whore called your fake daddy while we were at the dealership.” Slowly he pulled the shotgun up to his face and looked down the barrel. “After this mess is cleaned up, I’m going to resign as jailer. I’ll make a great sheriff.”
I could make out the gleam in his eye as he zeroed in on me. A pool of blood that had not yet congealed dripped from his head into a small puddle on the floor.
Out of nowhere, Sterling Stinnett swung a baseball bat right at the knees of Wyatt Granger, sending him to the ground in a thud. Wyatt scrambled for the shotgun, but Sterling stomped his foot on it, pinning Wyatt’s hand.
“Good work.” Finn Vincent stood in the door, out of breath. His eyes focused on mine and relief settled on his face.
My Poppa stood behind him with a smile that reached clear to his heart.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The festival went on as planned. The sun and seventy-degree temperatures allowed the muggy mess at the fairgrounds to dry up and the ground was firm for the fun rides. I had even gone to my parents’ house for dinner before I went to the festival to meet up with Tibbie and Katy Lee.
“I guess I haven’t thanked you properly.” I handed Jolee a couple of dollars to pay for two caramel candied apples, handing Finn one. I wanted to know all the details about how he found out I was at Wyatt’s. I had to drag him away from my friends, who were hanging out by the beer tent.
“You don’t have to. That’s what partners do.” Finn took the apple. The touch of his fingers on mine sent an electric jolt through me.
“We are not partners.” I tried to be the hardass I was when I first met him, but I was afraid I was losing my edge. “I guess you’re going to get back to the Kentucky Reserves since Wyatt is now behind bars. How did you figure out it was Wyatt?”
It was a question I hadn’t yet asked him since the arrest of Wyatt Granger for the murder of Doctor Ronald Walton through mercury inhalation poisoning, after Doc cut off Wyatt’s prescription drug supply he’d been using to feed his addiction.
“It was the strangest thing.” Finn bit into the apple. Juice rolled down his chin and out of instinct, I lifted my napkin to his face and gingerly wiped it off. He grinned. “Thank you.”
“Yeah.” I played it off. “You were saying?”
“I went to the new condos to follow up on what people around here had said about them, but found nothing. Everyone who lived there was nice, so I decided to head to the jail to see what was going on with the evidence. I found the file Wyatt had compiled for the evidence lab. He sent the evidence off, but checked the box to not process the evidence. It didn’t make sense. Then I went to see Toots. She said she went back to Doc Walton’s to get Polly’s file from him since Polly had gotten the DNA test. She didn’t want to see him. Toots and Sterling were just there at the wrong time. Then I went back to the Cowboy’s Catfish where Bartleby asked me about the murder. He said he didn’t see anything fishy over at the jewelry store, just Wyatt checking the business like he had done every morning; only that morning, he was doing it a little earlier than normal. I found that odd. Then my evidence report came back from the tire tracks. I knew from talking to Wyatt while I’ve been here that he loved cars and he told me he owned a B3 G60 Syncro Passat.”
“That’s how you knew he was guilty?” I asked.
“I had a hunch. I was going to see if Doctor Walton had a file on him, but that was when Sterling Stinnett came running up to me in front of Cowboy’s Catfish after I had gotten a call from the reserves saying the crimes had been solved.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I told Sterling the investigation was over, but he insisted that he’d walked by Wyatt’s house and heard screaming. I got in my car and Sterling ran back to Wyatt’s, obviously making it there faster than me.” He laughed. “I still don’t know my way around this little town. I had no idea Wyatt’s was right around the corner.”
“I’m glad you listened to Sterling,” I said. “All of it started to add up when I was at Wyatt’s house accusing Polly of all the crimes. I realized it was strange that Wyatt had beat me to the crime scene when he never gets up that early. And he was quick to point fingers. Then there was the evidence I had to stay on him to send to the lab.” I shook my head. “He was definitely planting the seeds to make it look like Polly did everything. The White’s Jewelry break-in was perfect. Plus, he used the family symbol to tie in Doc’s murder.”
“Pretty brilliant.” Finn nodded. “Wyatt was coming back to the house to kill Polly and blame it on self-defense since all the evidence pointed to her. He was going to let his secret get buried with her.”
“I’m glad Viola got all her jewelry back. He must’ve been frantic running around to all those different pawn shops,” I confirmed.
“Good job.” Finn grinned.
I grinned. Finn pointed to the Ferris wheel.
“Want to ride?” he asked.
“Why not?” I took a bite of my apple and followed him. “Everyone will come looking for us.”
“Let them.”
Silently we waited for the next open bucket on the Ferris wheel. The operator told us when to hop and quickly slammed the rod across us, locking us in.
Cottonwood looked so pretty from way up in the night sky. I could see my friends were still gathered at the beer booth.
“Well, thank you.” I felt a warm glow inside me. “Now that you’re going back to the reserve unit, I’m sure your girlfriend will be happy to see you.”
“Girlfriend?” He looked at me.
“I couldn’t help but see the picture of the pretty brunette in your wallet when you paid the other day at Ben’s.” It was tattooed on my brain.
“Kenni.” His arm wrapped around my shoulder. “That is my sister.”
My face flushed. I felt so stupid.
“You act like you care.”
&n
bsp; There was amusement in his eyes.
“I don’t,” I spat, lying through my teeth.
“You’re lying.” He laughed. “Kenni, would you like to…” He stopped talking when the Ferris wheel stopped, interrupting what I thought might be an invitation to a date. My heart hammered out of my chest.
Mayor Ryland and Polly Parker stood next in line to get on.
“There you are.” Mayor Ryland approached Finn and me before Finn could finish his question. I wanted to give the mayor a big shove. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Here I am.” Finn put his hand out and they did the guy handshake thing. Polly and I politely nodded at each other. There was an unspoken bond between us now.
“We are having an emergency town council meeting tomorrow night.” The mayor spoke with a loud, commanding tone.
“We are?” I asked. Why was I always the last one to know?
“We are. I’m proposing Finn Vincent stay in town and be voted in as the permanent Deputy Sheriff.”
“Really?” Finn asked. “Cottonwood has grown on me.” He put his arm around me and squeezed. Just then, my parents walked up.
“Mama. Daddy.” I blushed. Daddy looked at Finn’s arm around me, giving him a look.
“You must be Finn.” My daddy stuck his hand out.
“Yes, sir. I am.” Finn and Daddy had a good handshake.
“It’s nice to finally meet you.” Daddy was giving Finn the onceover. He could always tell when I was falling for a guy.
Finn slowly took his arm from around me when Mama grabbed him, inviting him to Sunday dinner after church.
“I’m proud of you.” Daddy smiled. “I told your mama I was tired of hearing complaints about the career path you took.” Daddy pulled me in for a hug. “You are a damn good sheriff. It’s in your blood.”
“Thanks, Daddy.” I still had to look up at him. He made me feel like a little girl.
