by Rose Pressey
“No, we’re not going there,” I said.
Once she realized where we were going she’d probably think it was a lot creepier than the distillery.
“Okay. Don’t even tell me where we’re going. It’s probably best that I don’t know before we get there.”
Stepping outside, I paced the length of the front porch, waiting for Claire Ann to show up. After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only ten minutes, Claire Ann pulled up in front of the house. She eyed me suspiciously as I walked toward her car.
When I climbed in, I said, “What took you so long?”
“I had to change out of my sweaty clothes.” She shifted into drive.
That probably meant she’d had to shower and fix her hair and makeup too. Whatever. I was just glad that she was here and that I didn’t have to go to Connie’s house by myself.
“I know I said I didn’t want to know, but I guess you’ll have to tell me where we’re going since I’m driving.” Claire Ann slowed to a stop at the red light.
“Yeah, I didn’t want to remind you of that until you got here.”
Claire Ann glanced over at me and then back at the road. “Well, I’m waiting.”
I released a deep breath and then said, “I want to go to Connie Dayton’s house and talk with her.”
Claire Ann groaned. “The last time we went to someone’s house to talk with them it didn’t end so well.”
“It wasn’t so bad. The killer was arrested,” I said.
The murderer had pulled a gun on us and trapped us in her home. Luckily Kent had found us.
“Not before almost killing us.”
“We’re fine and we’ll be fine if we go talk with Connie. Don’t worry.”
“That’s easy for you to say.” Claire Ann turned right.
We eased up to the white farmhouse. It had a white picket fence around the front and a swing on the porch. Red flowers popped from the planters by the front door. A ‘for sale by owner’ sign was in the front yard.
“What a cheery house,” I said.
“For a not-so-cheery person,” Claire Ann finished my thought.
I stared at the house for a moment longer.
“What are you going to say to her?” Claire Ann cut the engine.
“I hadn’t thought it out completely. I’ll just say whatever comes to mind.” I opened the car door and climbed out.
Claire Ann opened the little gate and motioned for me to enter first. I pushed my shoulders back and accepted her challenge. She walked behind me as I headed up the path toward the front door. I glanced at Claire Ann as we stood in front of the door and she motioned for me to knock. I sucked in a deep breath and rapped my knuckles against the wood. The house was quiet. There was an unusual silence around the whole area.
“I don’t think Connie’s home,” I whispered after a minute.
“That’s probably for the best. Connie wouldn’t tell you anything anyway.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
As we walked back up the path toward Claire Ann’s car, a noise sounded from behind us. We exchanged a look and stopped.
“Did you hear that?” Claire Ann asked.
I nodded. “What was it?”
“It sounded like a moan.”
“Maybe it’s an animal that needs help,” I said.
We stepped through the yard and around the house. The sound carried across the summer air again.
“It’s definitely louder back here,” I said.
Claire Ann and I looked around the back yard. There was a black table and chairs on the patio and a small brick building behind the house. It looked like it had been there since the house had been built. Probably some kind of outbuilding.
The sound came again.
“I think it’s coming from that building.” Claire Ann pointed across the yard.
We ran toward the small stone building. When we reached the door the sound came again. It was muffled and I didn’t think I’d heard anything like it before.
“I don’t know what it is,” I whispered.
“Me either. I’m a little scared to open the door,” Claire Ann said.
I grabbed the old wooden handle. “Me too, but we have to in case it’s a poor little animal that needs our help.”
I pulled on the door, but it wouldn’t open. I yanked again and it moved slightly, so I gave another yank. Finally, the door opened, throwing me back a few steps. Dust floated out of the small space. It was dim and I couldn’t see anything, but the noise sounded again.
“I can’t see anything,” I said.
Claire Ann pulled out her iPhone and used her flashlight app to shine light inside the space.
“I still don’t see anything,” I said.
She pointed the light to the left. “There’s no way I’m walking in there,” she said.
I grabbed her arm. “I don’t want to go alone.”
Claire Ann moved the light to the right. That was when I saw her.
Julian Montgomery was sitting on the dirt floor of the small stone building. Fear was on her face. A pleading look flashed through her eyes.
“Oh my gosh. Are you okay?” I rushed into the building with Claire Ann moving behind me holding the light so that we could see.
Julian had a scarf wrapped around her mouth so that she couldn’t talk. I reached down and pulled the scarf from her mouth. “Are you okay?” I asked again.
“Yeah, I think I’m okay.” She brushed hair from her eyes.
“How did you get in here?” I glanced over my shoulder at the still-open door.
“Connie Dayton put me in here,” Julian said.
“We need to get out of here.” I took Julian’s hand.
Being in this building where Connie had put Julian was terrifying. What if she found us here? She could be back at any minute. I had no idea why she had put Julian in here, but I wasn’t going to stick around and give Connie a chance to do the same to Claire Ann and me.
Connie had to be crazy to tie up Julian and put her in this dark space. That made me believe it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Connie would kill people either. I didn’t know why she’d done it, but it was looking more and more likely that she had. Connie would be furious if she saw that I’d taken the scarf from Julian’s mouth. There was no telling what she would do to us. I helped Julian to her feet.
“I can’t believe Connie did this to you. Why did she put you in here?” I asked.
Julian opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. A look of terror spread across her face. She was staring over my shoulder.
I swallowed hard and eased around to look at what she was staring at. I knew without having to look that Connie had returned and discovered all of us out there in the building.
How would I talk my way out of this one? I had a feeling there would be no talking my way out of this one. I couldn’t believe that I’d pulled Claire Ann into another dangerous situation. I really needed to stop doing that before she stopped being my friend.
My heart thumped wildly when I saw Connie standing in front of us. She held a small pistol in her right hand. It was pointed at me. Her eyes were narrowed and she had a scowl on her face. The daylight was partly blocked by Connie’s body, making the space that much darker. Claire Ann still had the flashlight turned on, but she didn’t point it directly at Connie. I could see enough of Connie’s angry face without the light directly on it. That was all I needed to see.
“I see you found my little secret,” Connie said.
I was afraid to find out what other secrets she might have. I wasn’t even sure how to respond.
“Connie, what are you doing?” I asked in a weak voice.
“Never mind what I’m doing.” She waved the gun. “I want all of you to back up against the wall.”
I stared for a moment, then she waved the gun again. That was probably the last time she would ask before actually using the gun on us. The three of us moved until our backs were against the wall. Was Connie going
to kill us? The look in her eyes said she wanted us to go away forever. She kept the gun pointed at us as she glared. “I don’t want to hear any noise out of you all. I’ll be back.”
She backed out of the building, closing the wooden door once she’d exited. It slammed with a loud thud and then the lock clicked. We were doomed now.
“What do we do now?” Claire Ann asked.
She was being surprisingly calm. I was ready to freak out. Honestly, I had no idea what we would do now.
“That woman is crazy,” Julian said.
That was kind of obvious. If we didn’t get out of there she would surely kill us.
Silence filled the air. There was nothing but the sound of our heavy breathing.
“I wonder if she’s still out there,” I whispered.
Claire Ann said, “She’s probably thinking up just how she wants to kill us.”
“Don’t say that.” I was thinking the same thing, but we shouldn’t actually say it out loud. Once you said it out loud it would make it come true.
More silence filled the air and then I said, “Julian, why did you meet Connie at the abandoned distillery?”
“You knew I met her? How did you know that?” Julian asked.
“Claire Ann and I were spying on you,” I said.
“That’s not very nice. Do you spy on people often?”
“Only when I suspect them of murder,” I offered.
“You think I murdered Luke and Darcy? Just because they were dating behind my back is no reason that I would kill them.”
“Well, actually it is a reason,” Claire Ann said.
“Regardless, I didn’t kill them,” Julian said.
“Okay, I believe you. But why did you meet her there?” I asked.
Julian sighed, and then said, “Connie wanted to know what I knew about the murders. I kept telling her nothing, but she insisted that I knew something. She wanted me to find out what you knew too. She thought if I met her in person that I wouldn’t be able to lie to her. That last time I was a little afraid she might kill me.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. She had her eye on me from the beginning,” I said.
“That’s because she wanted to know if people suspected her,” Julian said.
“I think I heard something,” Claire Ann whispered.
We stopped talking and listened. No noise came from outside the building. I wiped the sweat from my forehead. Okay, my mother always said ladies didn’t sweat, we glistened, so I wiped the glisten from my forehead. The temperature in the building was almost unbearable. We wouldn’t last long in there with heat like that. Connie wouldn’t have to shoot us, the heat would get to us first. That was probably why she’d locked us in there.
“What else did Connie say?” I asked.
“She confessed to both murders.” Julian’s words hung in the thick hot air.
I knew Connie was guilty, but hearing Julian admit it made my stomach turn.
“Why did she do it?” I asked.
“She never told me that,” Julian said.
“I suspect it had something to do with the real estate. Did you notice the ‘for sale’ sign out front?” Claire Ann asked.
“She wants to sell it herself after working with Luke. There had to be something to that,” I said.
“It’s so hot in here,” Claire Ann said.
“Maybe it will get better once the sun goes down.” I tried to sound confident.
“Do you think we’ll be in here that long?” Julian asked.
“I don’t know how long I can stand the heat.” Panic sounded in Claire Ann’s voice.
Footsteps came from in front of the door. We stopped talking. I wondered how much of our conversation Connie had heard. The door rattled and then sunlight flooded the space. I blinked, trying to adjust my eyes to the brightness. Connie stood in the middle of the doorway and stared at us. The gun was still tightly grasped in her hand as she pointed it at us.
We stood frozen on the spot. One slight move and it could set Connie off. If only I could get the gun away from her. That seemed impossible though.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Everyone come out.” Connie motioned with the gun for us to exit the building.
Maybe she didn’t intend on letting us have heat stroke after all. I had to think quickly for a way to get out of this situation. I had to act fast before she shot us or threw us back into that tiny space.
We stepped out into the bright sunlight. I blinked, trying to adjust my eyes. She motioned for us to move away from the door, so we stepped beside the tall oak tree. I didn’t take my eyes off her or the gun. I wondered if she had a good aim. As close as she stood to us, I guessed it wouldn’t matter. We were easy targets.
Why had Connie singled me out? Was it because I had discovered the body with Ross? Why hadn’t she gone after him too? Connie was in too deep with this now. There was no way she would let us go. This would not end well. I couldn’t let her get away with this. This was life or death and I wasn’t ready to die.
“I suppose you’re wondering why I had Julian locked away in the building?” Connie asked.
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to respond or just let Connie talk. She stared at me, so I figured she was waiting for a response.
“Why did you lock her in?” I asked. This seemed like a trick question.
“She wouldn’t give me the information.”
“What information?” I pressed.
“I wanted to know who everyone suspected killed Luke and Darcy. I wanted to see if anyone suspected me.”
“Just because you killed them.” I watched her for a reaction.
She remained emotionless. “You certainly weren’t any help.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I said.
“Yes, I do. Nothing else I did to get people to think you did this worked. I thought that idiot ex-husband of yours would go down for Luke’s murder, but they let him go. So now I have no other choice. You shouldn’t have come here.” She waved the gun. “You know what I did now and I have to kill you all.”
It seemed that she wanted to get rid of me no matter if I’d come to her house or not. I didn’t know what else to do. At least now I knew for sure that she had tried to set me up for the murders. Thank goodness it hadn’t worked, but now it didn’t matter anyway.
I felt Julian and Claire Ann’s tension. They were quiet, allowing me to talk with the crazy woman. If only I could distract her long enough maybe Claire Ann could get the gun away from her. But if I moved Connie would probably shoot.
“Why did you kill them?” I asked.
A frown immediately spread across Connie’s face. Perhaps I shouldn’t have asked that question. Especially since she had a gun pointed at me. “Because he tried to take the house from me.”
“How did he do that?” I asked.
“I wanted him to sell the house at a fair price, but he wanted to just give it away to his friend. He turned real buyers away so that his friend could steal the house from me. Then I went to Darcy for help and she did the same thing. That was when I realized they were in on this together.”
“So you killed them because they didn’t want to list your house for the price you thought it was worth?”
That was not exactly a reason to kill someone. It wasn’t like there was any good reason to kill anyone, but I was talking to a crazy person, so that didn’t matter. She wouldn’t understand rational thought anyway.
“They were keeping the price low so that their friend could get my house. Didn’t you listen to what I said? Oh, never mind and just stop asking questions. I don’t want to talk with you anyway.”
She stretched her arm out and aimed the gun directly at me this time. I swallowed hard as my heart hammered in my chest. This was it. She was about to shoot me.
The loud bang rang out and the bullet whizzed by my ear. I fell to the ground. So far nothing hurt, but maybe that was a delayed reaction. Claire Ann and Julian had fallen to the ground at the same time. The
y were staring at me, probably wondering the same thing as me. Had I been shot?
Connie was on the ground. Mitchell Green was holding her arms. Where had he come from? I wasn’t sure, but what I did know was he had saved my life. When I moved to push to my feet, Connie swung her arm around and smacked Mitchell in the head. It sent him to the ground. That gave Connie a chance to grab the gun that had been knocked from her hands. I wished I had grabbed the gun while Mitchell had her on the ground.
Connie was climbing up from the ground with the gun in her hand.
“Drop the gun,” the male voice called out.
When I looked toward the side of the house I spotted Kent standing there with his gun drawn. My heart thumped even faster. I didn’t want him to be shot. I had no idea how he’d found us. Connie was frozen on the spot, but I got the feeling that she would make a move at any moment. I didn’t want to see her get shot right in front of us. I didn’t want Kent to have to return fire if she used her gun.
Connie moved her foot forward but before Kent had a chance to fire his gun, she stumbled to the ground. This time I wasn’t going to give her a chance to get the gun again. I ran over as Kent was running toward us. Mitchell was sitting up from where he’d fallen. Claire Ann and Julian were staring at us in disbelief. I scooped up the gun just as Kent reached us. Kent grabbed Connie and pulled her to her feet and then secured her hands behind her back with handcuffs. My hands and even my legs shook.
“How did you find us?” I asked breathlessly.
Kent held on to Connie. “I just happened to be driving by and saw Claire Ann’s car. I knew right away that she wasn’t over here on her own.”
Obviously, he knew me better than I realized. Kent called for backup on his radio as I helped Mitchell up from the ground.
“Mitchell, how can I thank you? How did you know we were here?”
“I didn’t. Connie asked me to dig a couple holes for her. Said she would pay me. When I got here I saw her pointing the gun at you.”
My stomach turned. Claire Ann looked terrified.
Once the other police had arrived Kent and I stood beside his cruiser.
“How did you solve two murders?” Kent asked.
I bit back a smile. “It’s a natural talent, I guess.”
