Meredith Potts Fourteen Book Cozy Mystery Set

by Meredith Potts

  “Detective Griffin,” Deputy Martin said in a gravelly voice over the police radio.

  Steven grabbed his radio and replied. “Griffin here.”

  “We’ve got Patrick Boswell.”

  My ears perked up when I heard that.

  A sense of urgency came to Steven’s voice. “Wait. What do you mean?”

  “About half an hour ago, Boswell followed a man into a gas station restroom off of Route 25 and jumped him,” Deputy Martin said.

  “Where is Boswell now?” Steven wondered.

  “Still at the gas station.”

  Steven was confused. “What do you mean?”

  “While Boswell was in the process of taking the man’s clothes, wallet, and keys, the manager of the gas station walked into the restroom and caught him in the act,” Deputy Martin explained.

  “Then what happened?” Steven asked.

  “The gas station has been hit with a number of robberies lately, so the manager has taken to keeping a pistol behind the counter. The manager called nine-one-one and has been holding Boswell at gunpoint until our arrival,” Deputy Martin revealed.

  Steven was wide-eyed. “That’s amazing. Are you en route?”

  “Affirmative,” Deputy Martin replied.

  “Good. This is exactly the break we have been looking for,” Steven said.

  Chapter Sixteen

  When Deputy Martin arrived at the gas station, he handcuffed Patrick Boswell, took him into custody, and loaded him into the back of his squad car to bring him back to the police station for questioning. While Steven waited for Patrick to be transported back to the station, I headed out and made a side trip to the hospital. If there was anything that could trigger Amy’s memory, I figured it would be seeing Patrick again.

  Steven sat Patrick down in a sterile, dank, spare interrogation room at the police station while Amy and I stood on the other side of the room’s two-way mirror. Amy focused intensely on Patrick while my focus was watching Amy’s face for any cue that her memory had returned.

  Amy stared at Patrick’s athletic, thirty-eight-year-old body, his square face, his hazel eyes, and his messy black hair, in search of anything that would trigger her memory. It didn’t take long for progress to be made.

  Just like what had happened when her husband had stopped by her hospital room before, as Amy looked at Patrick right then, her body had a visceral and distinctively negative reaction. Her skin began to crawl the longer she stared at him.

  Only this time, she didn’t just have a physical reaction, she had a mental reaction as well. As a few moments passed, she no longer had a blank face. There was a look of recognition in her eyes.

  Meanwhile, back in the interrogation room, Steven began to question Patrick. Or at least he tried to.

  Patrick was making a serious ruckus. “You have this all wrong.”

  Steven glared at him. “That’s what they all say.”

  “I’m telling you the truth. I shouldn’t be here,” Patrick said.

  “I know someone who says otherwise,” Steven replied.

  “What? That punk from the gas station? You can’t listen to him—”

  Steven cut Patrick off. “It isn’t anyone from the gas station.”

  Patrick looked confused.

  Steven signaled towards the glass of the two-way mirror. “Amy, do you want to come in here?”

  Patrick tensed up at the mention of Amy’s name.

  A few moments later, the door to the interrogation room opened and Amy and I walked in.

  The second Patrick saw Amy, his face completely changed.

  “Amy, there you are. I’ve been looking for you,” he said.

  Amy narrowed her eyes. “To finish what you started?”

  Patrick looked as confused as ever. “What are you talking about?”

  Amy glared at him. “You tried to kill me.”

  Patrick shook his head and vehemently denied her accusation. “No. You’re not remembering things right.”

  She corrected him. “Actually, my memory is as clear as ever.”

  Patrick began stammering as his voice cracked. “You have this all wrong. I saved your life.”

  By then, Amy was smoldering with rage. “You liar.”

  Patrick kept up the ruse. “Why don’t you remember? We were taking a walk in the forest when a mugger rushed over to us and tried to take our wallets. I fought back and began wrestling with him. In the scuffle, the mugger pushed you against a tree, causing the gash on your head. I told you to make a run for it as I continued wrestling with the mugger. Finally, I managed to put up such a fight that the mugger ended up running away. After I got my bearings back, I ran through the forest looking for you, but I couldn’t find you.”

  Steven stepped back in. “That’s a pretty interesting story. Only, here’s the problem. If you really were attacked by a mugger, then why didn’t you call the police? And why did you jump that man in that gas station restroom?”

  “I tried to tell the gas station manager this before he pulled a gun on me. It wasn’t just any man that I attacked in that restroom. That guy was the man who tried to mug Amy and me in the woods.”

  Patrick was making as convincing of a case as he could. That being said, none of us bought it.

  “That man says otherwise,” Steven replied.

  “Of course he does. He’s trying to cover his tracks,” Patrick said.

  Steven was fed up with listening to Patrick’s stories. He pounded his fists on the table in front of Patrick.

  “Stop lying. I want the truth,” Steven demanded.

  “That is the truth,” Patrick replied.

  Amy shook her head and spoke up. “No. The truth is that you brought me to the woods that day under the guise of taking a walk, but you had really brought me there to kill me.”

  Patrick nervously chuckled. “That’s ridiculous.”

  Amy wasn’t deterred. She kept explaining herself. “No, it’s not. You were going to kill me and stage the scene to make it look like a mugger had done it.”

  “Why would I do that?” Patrick asked.

  “Because I told you that I was tired of you being abusive to me. I was determined to leave you, and you couldn’t accept that. Even more, you were worried that I would turn you in to the police and show them the bruises you had left on my body.”

  Patrick folded his arms defiantly. “Don’t listen to her. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

  “Oh, no? If she’s making this up, then where did she get the bruises on her back from?” Steven asked.

  “From when the mugger pushed her,” Patrick said.

  Steven shook his head. “Nice try, but the doctor at the hospital told me those bruises were from days before she was found in the woods. In addition, if you really were attacked by a mugger, then why was only your blood found on Amy’s sweater and not the mugger’s blood as well?”

  Patrick didn’t have an immediate answer for that one. He tried to formulate a response, but Amy got tired of waiting.

  “You’re a scumbag, you know that? You should be ashamed of yourself. I hope you rot in jail for what you did to me,” Amy said.

  After keeping his temper bottled up for most of the questioning, Patrick finally blew his top. “Shut up. That’s your problem. You never know when to keep your mouth shut.”

  There was a fire in Patrick’s eyes that did nothing but incriminate him even further. This latest show of rage erased any doubt that he could be innocent. In my eyes, he couldn’t be any guiltier.

  Steven was in disbelief. “Really? You’re going to erupt like that and yet still insist that you are innocent? Who do you think you’re fooling?”

  Patrick shut right up and didn’t say another word. Instead, he averted his eyes and stared at the ground. His silence spoke volumes. As Patrick didn’t even make another attempt to proclaim his innocence, Steven couldn’t help but assume that he was guilty.

  Finally, my boyfriend had heard enough. He booked Patrick for the addi
tional charges of assault and attempted murder of Amy, then read him his rights before dragging him back to his jail cell.

  Chapter Seventeen

  With all the charges that were leveled against Patrick, it was clear that he would be behind bars for a long time. Having closed that part of the case, I could turn my focus to the other pressing matter at hand. Namely, Amy’s emotional state. There she was, finally having regained some of her memories, only for every one of them to be negative. Reliving that trauma again must have been awful for her.

  There was no doubt in my mind that she needed comfort, and I intended to provide just that. I met up with her on the front steps of the police station, where she was grabbing a breath of fresh air.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  Amy had been staring into the distance. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn’t even noticed me approaching her. My comment pulled her head out of the clouds, and she turned to me with a surprising amount of resolve on her face.

  “I will be,” she said.

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “I have to be. I can’t let this break me,” she declared.

  It was pretty amazing to see her being so strong. I fully expected her to be more vulnerable and fragile than ever. It didn’t bother me in the least to see that I had been completely wrong.

  I stared deep into her eyes. “I just want you to know that I really admire you. If I had been in your place, I’d probably be a complete mess right now.”

  Amy disagreed. “After watching you work for the last few days, I find that hard to believe.”

  “Well, either way, after what happened to you, it’s no wonder that you lost your memory. What you went through was so traumatizing that even after getting over the initial concussion, your brain probably tried to block out what had happened.”

  “It turns out an event as shocking as that could only be blocked out for so long before it all came rushing back.”

  “Just in time, too,” I said.

  Before I had a chance to continue, Steven exited the police station and joined us on the front steps. My boyfriend had a congratulatory tone in his voice. “Well, that’s it. Patrick Boswell will probably be spending the next twenty years in jail.” He turned his focus to Amy. “Thanks to you.”

  Amy gave him a smile. “It took me a while, but I finally got just enough of my memory back.”

  “By the way, how much more of your memory has come back?” I asked.

  “A surprising amount, actually. It has started coming back in little waves,” Amy replied.

  “Do you remember anything about your husband?” Steven wondered.

  Amy nodded. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  “I’m all ears,” Steven said.

  “To start, I know why I had that visceral reaction when Larry came to visit me in my hospital room before.”

  “Why?”

  “A month before I went missing, I had told him that I wanted a divorce.”

  Steven’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll bet he didn’t take that well.”

  Amy shook her head. “Not in the least. Larry told me that if I left him, he’d kill me. He also threatened my life if I tried to go to the police.”

  My stomach turned as I listened to her. “That’s awful.”

  “It gets worse,” Amy said. “I felt boxed in. Completely trapped. I wanted to leave him, but I didn’t know how. Then, my friend Patrick came up with an idea.”

  I was confused. “Your friend?”

  Amy corrected herself. “My former friend. Patrick was a lot more charming before he tried to kill me.”

  “I’ll bet,” I said.

  “It became clear that the only way to end my nightmare was to fake my own death. Patrick decided to do the same thing by going purposefully missing on a camping trip a few weeks before. As for me, the day I went missing, I told my husband I was going out for a swim at the beach. Only, I wasn’t actually going to go swimming at all. I parked my car at the beach, then jumped into the used car that Patrick had recently bought in cash under a fake name. Patrick and I drove off that day looking to start a new life together. Little did I know that Patrick would end up being no better than my husband,” Amy said.

  My heart went out to her even more than ever. “I’m so sorry.”

  Amy took a deep breath. “So am I.”

  Steven tried his best to comfort her. “If it makes you feel any better, at least it’s finally over.”

  “What about Larry? He’s still out there somewhere,” Amy said.

  “Let me tell you something. You can only run from the law for so long before you get caught,” Steven said.

  “Are you sure? I’d hate to see him get away clean,” Amy replied.

  Steven tried to assuage her fears. “Police all throughout the Midwest are looking for him. Trust me, eventually, we’ll find him.”

  “In the meantime, you can finally move on with your life,” I said.

  Amy nodded. “Yeah. Because of you two. Thank you for all of your help.”

  “Of course. We’re just glad that justice has been served,” Steven said.

  Amy had a different take. “I’m just glad that I’m alive.”

  “That, too,” Steven said.

  Amy breathed a deep sigh of relief. “It’s finally over.”

  I nodded. “It is.”

  Amy looked out into the distance. “At the same time, I can’t help but wonder what I’m going to do now. I’ll have to start all over.”

  “Now that you mention it, I have an idea about that,” I said.

  Amy turned to me. “You do?”

  I smiled at her and nodded, confident that she had a bright future ahead of her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Six Months Later

  There was no better way to start a day off than with a good meal. That morning, my taste buds craved a breakfast sampler from Gary’s Greasy Spoon Diner. In short time, a generous portion of scrambled eggs, buttered toast, mouthwatering bacon, and crispy hash browns would be mine. Sure it was a simple meal, but something that tasty didn’t need to be complicated.

  What could I say? While some people believed that variety was the spice of life, I was not one of those people. My philosophy was that when I found something I liked, I stuck with it. That approach had served me well when it came to both my relationship and my appetite.

  Fortunately, my boyfriend agreed with me wholeheartedly. Like me, he never grew tired of eating at Gary’s. We both believed that reliability was an underrated thing in life, and there was no place in Cedar Falls to get such a consistently delicious meal at such an affordable price. In addition, not only was the food great, but so was the service.

  For the last few months, that service had come from an all-too-familiar person—Amy Donnelly. Yes, that Amy. As matter of fact, she was our server that morning as well.

  “Good morning,” Amy said.

  I looked at the wide smile on her face and gave her a return grin of my own.

  “I’ll say. It’s hard to have a bad morning after eating a breakfast sampler from Gary’s,” I replied.

  Following Patrick’s arrest, Amy had decided to stay in Cedar Falls. Kenosha had brought her so much pain and strife that she wanted to start over fresh. I understood exactly where she was coming from. Settling down in Cedar Falls provided that blank slate.

  In Amy’s case, it turned out that a little variety was a good thing. To help her get back on her feet, I pulled some strings with Gary to get her a job at the diner. Amy had grander plans for her future, but waiting tables allowed her to build up her savings account to a healthy level.

  The first few months in Cedar Falls were not the easiest of her life. Of course, that was to be expected, given all the trauma she had experienced. Steven and I helped her out every chance we got. Now, it looked like things were finally coming together for her.

  “Does that mean you want the usual, then?” Amy asked.

  That was a definite yes on Steven’
s part. He didn’t even have to look at the menu. His stomach was grumbling so loudly for bacon that he didn’t even notice how uncharacteristically wide Amy’s smile was.

  The joy on Amy’s face did not escape me, nor did the gleam in her eyes. It was unmistakable as I looked at her, especially since I had rarely seen her like this.

  As hungry as I was, I had to make a mention of Amy’s delightful mood. “Wait a minute. Don’t try to bury the lead. There’s something different about you this morning.”

  Amy bit the corner of her lip. “Is it that obvious?”

  I nodded. “It sure is. I’ve never seen you this happy.”

  Her smile grew wider. “I don’t think I have been this happy since coming to Cedar Falls.”

  “Well, don’t make me wait any longer. What gives?” I asked.

  “Last night I went on an amazing date,” Amy said.

  It warmed my heart to hear that. Considering how sleazy the last two men she was with were, it would have been easy for her to write off guys forever. Instead, she had approached the dating scene gingerly, and it looked like it had paid off. “That’s wonderful to hear. Who is the guy?”

  “Jim Tompkins.”

  “Nice catch,” I said. “He has a good heart. Not to mention a handsome face.”

  Amy nodded. “He sure does—on both accounts.”

  “I’m really happy for you.”

  Amy crossed her fingers. “Let’s hope tonight’s date goes as well as last night’s did.”

  “You two must really like each other. You’re moving quickly.”

  She had a different take on the situation. “I’ve waited long enough for a good guy to come into my life. If anything, I think I’m just making up for lost time.”

  Oddly enough, Steven picked that moment to re-enter the conversation. “Speaking of lost time, I received some news on that ex-husband of yours.”

  I couldn’t believe how strange Steven’s timing was. “Really? We’re having a conversation about Amy finally moving on and you bring up her abusive ex-husband?”