“It’s Joe Cap,” he said. “And the EMTs. They’re coming. They’re going to check you out and make sure you’re all right. Oh, God, Diana, when I heard that shot, I thought…”
Then all at once, a bolt of realization shot through her and she tried in vain to straighten up in his arms.
“Cay…dee,” she managed to force her lips to move. “Oh…God, Cady…” She tried to look around, but all she could see was gray light and vague shadows. “Shot…?”
“She’s all right. She’s fine,” Ethan said.
“Where is she?” Diana forced the words out. “Need to…”
She was lowered to the ground, and as she listed to one side, she felt the soft, warm fur of a panting dog next to her. She smiled, and with great and awkward effort moved her hand to rest on the most beautiful dog in the world.
And then she passed out.
Epilogue
“I never got to ask what happened to your face,” Diana said, reaching to touch Ethan’s marked-up skin.
They—she and Ethan, along with Maxine, Iva, Juanita, Orbra and Cherry—were sitting in his living room. Cady was on the floor within easy reach of her hand so Diana could stroke the lab’s head whenever she thought about how Cady had saved her life.
Which was a nearly constant thought. So the dog was getting a lot of petting.
It was the next day, Tuesday, and Diana had—against her vociferous arguments—been kept overnight at the county hospital to make certain she had no ill effects from Jonathan’s cocktail. Thanks to the fact that she’d puked up most of the drugs and alcohol, she’d slept off the remnants in only a few hours and was feeling clear-headed and relatively perky today, all things considered.
“Running through the forest,” Ethan replied. “Ran into a few bushes and trees.”
“And tell me again how you came to be there, Maxine?” Diana asked as she cuddled closer to Ethan in the corner of the sectional.
“Yes, tell us the whole story. Some of us have businesses to run and can’t go gallivanting off whenever the mood strikes us,” groused Orbra.
“Businesses to run…or studly distinguished lawyers to bang,” Cherry added with a sly look at Iva.
The other woman’s cheeks pinked and she looked, Diana thought, just as satisfied as she herself did. Good sex with the right man—a caring, respecting one—did that to a gal.
“I ran into Ethan at the grocery store—he bought the last bottle of my favorite wine from up to Traverse City,” Maxine said, giving him a steely glare. “Whatever happened to respecting your elders, young man?”
“I respect you, Maxie,” he replied with a grin. “That’s why I wanted to buy that last bottle—so you could keep your head clear and help catch a murderer.”
She snarled at him, but continued her story. After all, she had the spotlight and didn’t have to fight for it. “When Ethan was loading up his groceries after he paid, I saw he dropped a package of chicken there by the cart. It wouldn’t do for it to go bad, so Juanita and I brought it over here.”
“The same way you noticed I left my sweater at Trib’s Saturday night?” Diana asked sweetly.
“The exact same way,” Maxine replied, meeting her gaze with a dark, glinting, knowing one of her own.
Diana smiled. They understood each other perfectly.
“And it’s a damned good thing I did,” Maxine went on, fingers gripping the cane. “Because I was the one called in the cops while I was driving over to Jean’s house—”
“That’s a ride I’ll never forget,” Juanita interjected. “Ay-yi-yi! I think I’m scarred for life. There’s a reason you’re not supposed to text and drive at the same time—”
“I wasn’t texting, you old fool,” Maxine shot back.
“Well, you were dialing your phone and driving, and it was worse than when I—”
“Well, I got there safe, didn’t I? And got the cops there? And helped catch a murderer.”
“A multi-murderer,” Juanita said with a nod and a complacent smile. “We both did.”
“I don’t really know what happened,” Diana confessed. “I was kind of out of it.”
“I was on my way running through the woods when I heard Cady barking and then it sounded like a cat yowl—”
“Looked like Motto laid some good tracks on that murdering bastard’s face before he knocked her away,” Maxine said. “Good for her!”
“And then I heard a shot as I was still running through the woods,” Ethan continued, “and that just about stopped me dead right there.”
“It missed Cady,” Juanita said. “We saw it. Good girl.” She reached over to pet the happily panting lab, ignoring the low growl from Bruce Banner, who was tucked in her lap. “Good thing I left little Brucie in the car, huh, chiquito?”
“We saw it all happen,” Maxine said. “Cady attacked that bastard, and the cats joined in. One of them bit him on the back of the leg—it was Arty. He tried to shoot them—he was a terrible shot. Diana, you were collapsed on the ground and we thought you were dead—but he missed and then Cady went for him again and he musta dropped the gun.”
“I was just coming out of the woods at that moment,” Ethan explained, “and I got over there just as Maxine whacked him across the head with her cane. He fell like a stone.”
“I tripped,” she said in a prim voice that fooled no one.
“Exactly,” Juanita said with a grin. “It was impossible for you to avoid him. And that’s how I told Joe Cap it happened too.”
“And then, I don’t know, somehow I had my cane in his belly, and he was moving around so much I couldn’t lift it up high enough to get it away—strength in my arms ain’t what it used to be,” Maxine said piteously.
“He was moving around an awful lot,” Juanita agreed. “And you got real tired, didn’t you Maxine? I saw you had to lean real heavily on your cane, or you would’ve fallen over.” She nodded, looking around the group with a smile. “And that’s how I explained it to Joe Cap.”
“And then Diana horked all over him,” Maxine crowed. “That was the best part of it all.” She laughed, and it was a deep, rolling sound that reminded Diana of the ocean roaring through a narrow channel.
“And then Bruce Banner and Cady tried to clean him up,” Juanita said, patting her dog. “Didn’t you boy? Tried to lick that bastard clean.”
Cherry made a disgusted face, but she was laughing anyway. “And you—fortunately—were the one who retrieved the gun, Ethan?”
“Yes. I—”
“He grabbed it right from under my nose,” Maxine grumbled. “Second time that day he beat me out on something! I was just reaching for it, and he damn near pushed me out of the way so he could grab it first.”
“Oh,” said Iva, her eyes lit with laughter she didn’t dare release, “it was probably just as well, as you were busy keeping Jonathan restrained, weren’t you, Maxie?”
“Coulda done a better job if I had the gun,” she muttered.
Diana exchanged looks with Ethan and they both managed to keep from chuckling out loud.
“So now what?” asked Orbra, always the pragmatist. “Are you staying or are you going, Diana? And what’s going on with the two of you? And how about those cats? And what about Jonathan?”
“Well, he’s going to be charged with two counts of murder one, and also attempted murder,” Diana said. “But as it turns out, he wasn’t the one breaking in and he didn’t set the fire—he was truly shocked when he showed up at Aunt Jean’s and found it burned. He’d assumed he’d find me staying there and as it turned out, it was really just his luck that I happened to be there when he arrived.”
“I’m sure he would have found another way to get to you,” Ethan said in a hard voice. “And it might have been back in Chicago—when there was no Maxine to save you,” he added.
“Well, it wasn’t, and I’m safe, and all is well. Lawrence Amerson confessed to the fire—when they began to accuse him of murder, he realized things were serious, and he began to tal
k.
“As for me,” Diana continued, looking around at them, “I’m not going to sell the house. I’m going to fix it up and use it as a weekend getaway from Chicago.” She looked at Ethan. “Probably.”
“Or you can stay here,” he said with a soft smile.
“Or I can stay here.”
“And what about Motto and Arty?” asked Cherry. “The two of them seem…pretty content.”
They all looked over at the cats, who lounged on two separate, very large cushions on the floor in front of the fireplace.
“They and Cady seem to have called a truce, since they had their moment of glory in taking down a murderer,” Ethan said.
“And saving my life,” Diana added, reaching to scratch the lab’s head again. “We think they’re going to get along just fine here at the cabin.”
“And what about the two of you?” demanded Maxine.
Diana found herself—and Ethan—the object of five pairs of glinting, expectant eyes.
“You know Jean always talked about getting the two of you together. I told her it was a crock, never happen, but I guess I could be wrong. Once.” Maxine nearly smiled.
“Well,” Ethan said with his own smile, “I guess we’ll have to see what Jean and her Tarot cards have to say about that.” He nudged Diana gently. “Don’t we?” He grinned down at her and gave a subtle wink.
“I think that’s a good idea.” She reached over to pick up the mahogany box, which now had a place of honor in Ethan’s living room instead of on the piecrust table at Aunt Jean’s.
She opened up the box, took the cards from their black silk wrappings, and shuffled gently. She wasn’t an expert, but she knew how to keep a certain card on the bottom…
So when she chose a card, it was the one from the bottom.
She laid it out on the table in front of the Tuesday Ladies.
The Lovers.
THE END
A Note from the Author
If you enjoyed this book, please take a moment to recommend it to a friend or write a brief review on Amazon or Goodreads! Word of mouth recommendations are priceless to—and so very much appreciated by—authors, musicians, and other artists.
Were you intrigued by the little spitfire Bruce Banner, Juanita Acerita’s papillon? I’d like to introduce you to the inspiration for little Brucie—my own darling papillon named Ranger.
He’s just as feisty as Bruce Banner, and ridiculously cute, as you can see. If you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you’ll find that I often post pics or videos of Ranger.
He likes to lay on top of the floor vent in the kitchen when the furnace is running, so he can stay warm. What a life!
Turn the page for information on more Wicks Hollow Ghostly Romantic Mysteries!
A sexy blacksmith.
A CEO turned innkeeper.
A haunted speakeasy.
And a very desperate killer…
Leslie Nakano needs to make a major life change—getting away from the dog-eat-dog corporate world, as well as getting past a personal loss—so she buys a large turn-of-the-century mansion in Wicks Hollow, with plans to renovate it and turn it into an inn.
She doesn’t care about the rumors that it’s haunted—she just wants a new life.
But she sure wouldn’t mind finding the missing gems that belonged to Red Eye Sal, a bootlegger who lived in the house during Prohibition.
Blacksmith Declan Zyler, who has more work than he can handle, working on historical restorations, has suddenly acquired a fifteen-year-old daughter he never knew he had. This turns his life upside-down when he decides to take on the role of single father.
When Leslie hires Declan to restore the iron staircase in her inn, neither of them realize they are disturbing a spirit from days gone by…and until they determine how to put that ghost to rest, neither Leslie nor Declan will be able to move on with their lives.
NOW AVAILABLE!
LEARN MORE AT AMAZON.
An uptight lawyer.
A carefree palm-reader.
A haunted antiques shop.
And a very mortal villain…
When Fiona Murphy inherits a small antiques shop from an old man she met only once, she’s filled with surprise, confusion and delight—and a little bit of terror at having a new responsibility in a life she prefers to be free and easy.
But as she takes over ownership of the quaint shop, odd things begin to happen. Lights come on and off by themselves, even when they are unplugged…and there is a chilly breeze accompanied by the scent of roses even when the windows are closed.
H. Gideon Nath, III, is the stiff and oh-so-proper attorney who helps settle Fiona’s inheritance. Despite her flightiness and fascination with all things New Age (which he considers bunk), he finds himself unwillingly attracted to her.
After she finds an unpleasant surprise in one of the shop’s closets, scares off an intruder in the store, and uses her skill at palmistry to read Gideon’s future—of which she seems to be a part—Fiona begins to realize that her free and easy life is about to change…whether she wants it to or not.
COMING IN MARCH 2018!
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About the Author
Colleen Gleason is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. She’s written more than forty novels in a variety of genres—truly, something for everyone!
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Also by Colleen Gleason
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Sinister Summer Page 30
