Pumpkin Picking with Murder

by Auralee Wallace

  “I get it,” I said, holding my hands up. “All the more reason for us to work together to get her out of here. But I can’t do this right now. I gotta go.”

  “You can’t just go, Erica.”

  I dropped my chin and raised my eyebrows, “You arresting me?”

  “No, but Grady, he said to keep you here until he got back.”

  Suddenly the door swung open just as I was saying, “I don’t care what Grady told you—”

  —and Grady was saying, “No handcuffs, but I want a guard on her room.”

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  I slowly rose to my feet as Grady and I locked eyes.

  “Is Kit Kat…?”

  “Stable. I got a call from the hospital,” he said quietly, shooting a look down the hall. “They’ve got her in a medically induced coma to reduce swelling.”

  “I’ve got to tell Tweety,” I said, turning on my heel.

  “No. I can’t let you do that.”

  I froze, every muscle clenched. “I’m sorry?”

  “I can’t let you do that.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Erica, I’ve got a job to do here, and I’m going to make sure it’s done properly. Lives are at stake.” He shook his head. “I thought tonight would have made that pretty clear to you.”

  I walked toward him. “And what’s this about a guard? You don’t think Kit Kat had anything to do with Mr. Clarke—”

  “Erica,” he said tightly, eyes boring into mine. “I’ve got two dead bodies. Two.”

  “I know, but—”

  “This cannot keep happening in my town.”

  “Grady—”

  “No, Erica,” he said. “There will be no more bending the rules. No more taking it easy. No more personal favors.” His eyes darted around my face. “That includes you and Freddie. This isn’t a game anymore.”

  He turned to walk away from me, but I grabbed his arm. “Grady, come on. She’s not even conscious.”

  His face softened. “I know, and I’m sorry for that, but—”

  “So what? You thinking she’s going to skip town? Where’s she going to go? Who are you trying to impress with all this?”

  He spun back around and pointed his finger close to my face. “You may not care what I say,” he said in a low voice, “but the people of this town are counting on me. I’m not taking any chances.” He walked a few steps toward his office again. “Now go home, Erica.”

  “Grady, could we please talk about this?”

  “No.”

  “Grady!”

  He closed the glass door behind him.

  I let out a scream of frustration. Then before I even realized what I was doing, my foot shot out and connected with the corner leg of Rhonda’s desk. “Ow!” I grabbed my toes. “Son of a—”

  Grady’s door swung open. He took three quick steps out, looked at my foot, and then up to my eyes. For a brief second, his face softened, and I thought he was going to ask me if I was okay, but then he pinched his lips and stomped back into his office, slamming the door behind him.

  “What was all that yelling about?” Tweety shouted from down the hall. “I couldn’t hear everything. Was that something about Kit Kat?”

  My eyes flashed to Rhonda. She shot me a warning look.

  “Nothing!” I shouted back before dropping my voice. “At least nothing I’m allowed to tell you.”

  “So I guess this means you’re not going to be seducing the keys to my cell out of him, huh?”

  “Yeah, no. You might have better luck with that than I would.”

  She laughed.

  “’Night, Tweety.”

  “Yeah, ’night,” I heard her call out as I headed toward the door. “And Erica? You know, you might want to consider laying off on finding the dead bodies. You’re going to get a reputation.”

  I straight-armed the door and stamped outside right into—

  “Matthew?”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  “Oh boy,” Matthew said, brushing his hair back. “By the look on your face, I’d say I’m too late.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Freddie thought you might need a ride,” he said. “Actually he wanted you to drive him home, and I thought maybe while I was here, I could calm Grady down.”

  “That’s really considerate of you,” I said, throwing him a sideways look. “But … why would you need to calm Grady down?”

  Matthew shoved his hands in his pockets. “Well, after you left with Rhonda, Freddie decided to make some sidecars to settle everyone’s nerves.” He paused, looking as though he was considering his next words carefully. “He maybe said a thing or two he shouldn’t have when Grady was questioning him.”

  “Of course.” I threw my hands into the air. “What did he say?”

  “Are you sure you want to know?”

  “Oh, I’m sure.”

  Matthew grimaced. “Well, there was lots of yelling about who keeps this town safe, a subpoena for something … Freddie said it was Otter Lake Security property, but Grady disagreed … then there was you,” he said with an apologetic tip of the head, “and something about Lightning?”

  I pinched my lips together and nodded. “Sounds about right. Go on.”

  “Well, they were both pretty mad, and then Freddie may have made a sound…”

  “What kind of sound?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Matthew?”

  He looked up to the stars and said, “A sound a pig might make?”

  “Oh come on,” I yelled, looking back at the station house. I clutched my forehead. No wonder Grady was so upset.

  “You could tell he didn’t mean it,” Matthew added quickly. “He apologized right away.”

  “Did he really?” I asked, dropping my hand.

  “Well … not in so many words.”

  I groaned.

  “By the look on his face, though, you could tell he knew that he had gone too far.”

  “I don’t believe this,” I said, throwing my hands into the air again. “I really don’t freaking believe this.”

  He nodded.

  “Listen. It’s sweet that you want to talk to Grady on Freddie’s behalf, but it probably won’t help.” Definitely not after the lemonade. “Could you just give me that ride back to your place?”

  “Sure.”

  “Freddie and I need to have a little talk.”

  * * *

  Trees whipped by the window of Matthew’s car, but I wasn’t really seeing them. I tried to hold on to the feeling of being angry at Freddie, but even that was seeping away. Nope, now that I had stopped moving and everything was quiet, all I could focus on was the snapshot of Mr. Clarke lying on the grass … and Kit Kat …

  Who could do that? Why?

  Right now, the twins should be sitting on my mother’s porch, clinking their mugs of gin together … not lying in a hospital bed, or locked up in a jail cell.

  I looked over at Matthew. A pang of guilt shot through me. He was going through so much, and yet he seemed so concerned about everybody else. It made what I was about to do so much worse. And yet I couldn’t stop myself. I needed answers. We all needed answers.

  “Matthew?”

  He turned his head from the road to look at me.

  “I need to ask you something.”

  His jaw clenched, like he knew what was coming. “Go for it.”

  “The other night at fair? By the VCR?”

  He met my eye again.

  “You said something about your mother.”

  He nodded and looked away.

  “I’m sure you were just joking around, but I have to ask…”

  “You can just say it,” he said tightly. “It’s fine.”

  He did not seem fine. I swallowed. “Are you sure?”

  “Go ahead. Say what you really want to ask me.”

  “I—”

  “You want to know if I think my mother is a murderer.”

  Chapter Tw
enty-nine

  “Matthew, I—”

  He waved me off. “It’s okay, Erica. I know you’re worried about Tweety … and now Kit Kat. And it’s not like Grady hasn’t asked me the same thing.” He rolled his grip over the steering wheel. “You’d think with all the people asking me, I’d have a better answer by now.”

  I waited, giving him a moment to work through whatever it was he was feeling.

  “Truth is, I don’t know the answer to that question.” He looked off again at the road. “I don’t know if my mother killed my father. How crazy is that?” He pulled the car into the winding drive of the manse. “I was kidding—if you can call it that—the other night at the fairgrounds, but I’ve found out a few things since then.”

  “What things?”

  “You mentioned Marg Johnson the other day. Don’t listen to anything she says.”

  “Why?”

  “You’ve probably heard that my father was less than faithful.” He took a shaky breath. “Well, turns out, they had a relationship.”

  “What?”

  “For years.” He shook his head. “My mother just turned a blind eye to it.”

  “Wow. I—”

  “This thing with Tweety, though? Apparently that was something she couldn’t ignore.”

  Matthew drove the car to the side of the house and cut the engine. He didn’t say anything or move to get out. I didn’t either. I couldn’t. Not with him sitting there, staring out the window … looking so sad.

  Before I even realized what I was doing, I reached out and grabbed his hand. I had only meant it to be a gesture of sympathy, but when our fingers touched … something passed between us.

  “I can’t imagine what this has been like for you. All of it. I’ve been so focused on the twins,” I said, shaking my head. “I haven’t even asked if you knew Mr. Clarke well.”

  He nodded, hand still on mine. “I didn’t. Not really. I mean, from what I knew he was a good man, but—” He cut himself off with a shake of the head then looked up at me.

  I could barely breathe with the intensity of his gaze. Actually, I didn’t want to breathe if it broke whatever it was that was happening between us, and that was … not good. I gently pulled my hand from his. “I think maybe I should say something here. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. I—”

  Suddenly someone’s hands crashed against the windshield.

  I screamed, and Matthew’s elbow knocked the horn.

  The person on the other side of the glass laughed.

  “Jesus, Freddie.”

  “You two,” he said, voice muffled by the glass. “You should have seen your faces.”

  I swung the car door open, sending Freddie scuttling back. Yup, there was all that nice anger back. “You and I need to have a talk.”

  “Oh no.” He waved out some jazz hands. “Is Dad still mad at me?”

  “You know what? Go to the boat,” I said with a point. “I’ll meet you there.”

  “Yeah, no,” he said, backing up two steps. “I’ll just wait over here. Seeing as there’s a killer on the loose!”

  I took a breath and turned back to Matthew. “So…”

  “Erica, really you don’t have to say anything. It’s been a crazy day for the both of us.” He opened his door, but kept his eyes on me. “I know you and Grady have something. I can respect that.”

  “Thanks. I—”

  “But,” he said, cutting me off with a smile, “if that something, turns out to be nothing … I’d like to be the first to know.”

  “Understood. I feel the same.” I winced and made a fist with my hand. “I mean, feel is probably not the best word.” I jumped out of the car. “I should go now.” I hustled over to Freddie, throwing a quick wave over my shoulder. “Thanks for the ride.”

  I didn’t wait for a response. “Let’s go,” I said, yanking Freddie’s arm.

  “You’re mad.”

  “Little bit.”

  “But you also seemed kind of … fired up.”

  “Kit Kat is in the hospital,” I said tightly. “Someone put her there. That someone is going to pay.”

  “Okay,” Freddie said, stumbling while trying to keep up with me. “But what exactly does that mean?”

  “It means no holding back anymore.”

  “Right. Well, I gotta say, part of me loves this side of you, but…”

  “But what?”

  “I’m also a little afraid.”

  “You should be.”

  Freddie stopped walking, but I didn’t wait for him. It wasn’t until I had almost made it to the boat that I turned back around and shouted, “What are you doing now?”

  “Just writing YOU SHOULD BE on my hand,” he shouted back. “I want to remember this moment. For the pilot.”

  “You know what else you write on your hand?”

  “What?”

  “Freddie pushes Erica too far, and she drowns him in the lake. I like that episode.”

  “What? Oh … good one. Coming!”

  Chapter Thirty

  Once we got back to Freddie’s, I decided to crash at his place—not to talk, he was in no condition—but because the lake was getting a little choppy, and I couldn’t face taking Lightning back to the retreat. I chose the bedroom farthest from Freddie’s to put some distance between me and his snoring, and then made a call to my uncle Jack. Not surprisingly, given the hour, he didn’t answer, so I left another message.

  I then grabbed some sheets from the linen closet, made the bed, and crawled in. Before I closed my eyes, though, I reached once again for my phone. There was just one more call I had to make. I tapped the first number in my contacts and lay back against the pillows.

  The phone rang five times before someone picked up.

  “Hello?” I asked after a moment. “Mom?”

  Silence.

  “Oh right,” I said more to myself than her. “Hey, Mom. It’s me.” I rubbed my forehead. Talking on the phone without someone answering was pretty awkward. “Sorry if I woke you. I know I should have called earlier to tell you I wouldn’t be home.” I bit the corner of my thumbnail. “Listen. A lot happened tonight, but I want you to know, in case you hear anything, I’m fine.” I could practically feel my mother’s eyes widen on the other end. “I, uh, found another body. Peter Clarke. I don’t know if you knew him. It’s a long story.”

  While I was talking, I heard something clatter, like she dropped … a mug?

  “I’m fine. Really.” I took another breath before continuing. “But you should also know that Kit Kat’s in the hospital. She’s stable, but—” My voice cracked. I had to take a breath before I could keep going. “She’s in a medically induced coma. I’m not sure what happened. I’m still trying to get ahold of uncle Jack. Maybe you could help in that regard?”

  I sighed again. “Okay, so, I’m going to spend the night at Freddie’s. We’re working on finding out who’s behind all this. I’ll probably see you sometime tomorrow.” I almost hung up, but the conversation I’d had with Matthew put a lot of things into perspective. My relationship with my mom had never been easy … but the sadness I had seen in Matthew’s eyes … well, I had a lot to be grateful for.

  “Mom?” I asked, not expecting her to answer. “I also wanted to say … I love you.” I looked up to the ceiling and shook my head. “Okay, so good night. Bye.”

  Just as I moved to press END CALL, I heard, “Erica! I love you too!” then a click.

  I stared at my phone in disbelief.

  She had broken her vow … to tell me she loved me.

  Whoa.

  I clicked off the light and collapsed into bed. A moment later, I was asleep, and when I woke the next morning, I couldn’t remember having a single dream.

  * * *

  “So, I was thinking,” Freddie said before making a popping sound with his lips. “I should probably apologize to Grady.”

  “You think?” I dropped down on one of the stools at the island in Freddie’s kitchen.

&nbs
p; “Can you do it for me?”

  “No!” I shouted, cringing at the volume of my voice. It was too early for yelling. “Besides, Grady and I aren’t exactly talking.”

  Freddie shot me a quick look before flicking on the coffeemaker. Guess the tone of my voice stopped him from probing that one too deeply. “Fine. I’ll do it.” He reached to take some mugs from the cupboard. “He’s pretty mad about the tapes.”

  I nodded slowly. “I can imagine.”

  “And for the record, I only told him to get a subpoena because he was so upset. I was afraid it might kill him if he found out we broke the tape.” Freddie grabbed a spoon from the drawer. “And really, by the time he had even gotten around to remembering the tape, it would have already been—” Freddie cut himself off when he saw the look I was giving him. “Okay,” he said slowly. “You know what? Fine.” He planted his hands on the counter. “Let’s just get to it, shall we?”

  I rolled my eyes up to his.

  “You’ll be happy to hear that I’ve come to the conclusion that I probably shouldn’t drink when we are on the job.”

  I squinted. “Why have you been drinking so much lately?”

  He tapped the counter and shrugged.

  “Freddie?”

  “I don’t know,” he said quickly. “I’ve been putting myself out there more … and I’m not entirely sure people can be trusted to see how awesome I am. It makes me nervous.”

  I considered him a moment—then a lightbulb exploded in my head. “Oh my God!” I felt my eyes widen. “Now I get it.”

  Freddie’s brow furrowed. “Get what?”

  “The uniform? Lightning? You’re afraid people might really see you,” I said, nodding, “like the real you. So you’re causing all this”—I threw my hands in the air—“distraction. You’ve always done it a little bit, but—”

  “You shut up, Erica Bloom. You just shut up right now.”

  “And here I was thinking you were so much more evolved than me for finding a way to be yourself, like really be yourself in Otter Lake, without worrying what people would think. But you’re just as bad as me!”