Circle of Influence (A Zoe Chambers Mystery)

by Dashofy, Annette

  “I’m here, honey.” Zoe stepped inside with Matt right behind her.

  “Allison? What the—?” Matt halted for a moment, apparently startled by the lump on the ground covered by a horse blanket. “What happened?”

  Allison made a feeble attempt to turn her head. “Matt? Is that you?”

  He crutched past Zoe, keeping enough distance that she dared not attempt a tackle. Not when he had the gun aimed at the girl under the blanket. He stopped next to Allison and looked down at her, his mouth pressed into a questioning frown.

  “It is you,” Allison said. “You came to save me.”

  “Not hardly.” The words slipped out before Zoe could catch them.

  Matt shifted the gun into the same hand as the crutches. But it was still aimed precariously at Allison. He leaned down, and with his free hand, swept the blanket aside. He straightened and laughed. “What the hell do you call this? You bandaging a kid or a horse?”

  While his attention was locked on the bizarre sight of a young girl with Vet Wrap and splint boots on her arms, Zoe edged closer. Not that she had a clue as to what she’d do, but she needed to protect Allison. Somehow. “Because of you, she cut herself.”

  “You slashed your wrists?” he said to Allison.

  She struggled to sit up. Wiggled and strained, but couldn’t lift herself up. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah. Me, too.” Matt grunted. “You should have done something that would’ve worked.”

  Gun or not, Zoe considered jumping the snake.

  He held up the revolver. “See? This would work much better than a knife.”

  A knife? Zoe’s mind flashed on the knife dropping from Allison’s hand into the dirt of the barn floor. Where had it gone?

  Allison started weeping. “You’re going to shoot me? I thought you were here to save me. I thought you loved me.”

  Matt shook his head and looked at Zoe. She snapped her attention from searching the ground to him. “Kids,” he said. “Where do they come up with these stupid ideas?”

  She’d had the same stupid idea once.

  “So what’s your plan?” Zoe said. “You’re going to kill both of us?”

  “I don’t have much choice, do I?”

  “You could let us go. I’ll still give you the hard drive. Without hard evidence, no jury will convict you. But you kill us? Then you’ve got murder charges to deal with.”

  He studied Allison who was growing paler and shivering harder by the moment. Zoe took the opportunity to inch a little closer to where she thought the knife had fallen. Unfortunately, Matt happened to be standing at that spot. With her luck, he was standing on the damned thing.

  “I’m afraid it’s too late. Maybe before Ted Bassi stuck his nose in my business. But now?”

  Allison’s weeping became louder. Matt lifted the gun, pointing the muzzle at the girl.

  “No,” Zoe said in her best authoritative voice. Keep him talking. Keep him off kilter. “If you’re planning to kill both of us, you’d damned well better shoot me first.”

  “Huh?”

  “Because the second you shoot her, I’m going to jump your ass and beat you to death with your own crutches.” She’d told him a lot of lies that evening. This, however, was gospel.

  His hand lowered a bit.

  Now for the buying-time part. “If you’re going to kill me anyway, I’d like to go to my grave with some answers. I know you didn’t plan to kill Ted, but if it was an accident and not murder, why not just call 9-1-1?”

  Matt swung the gun toward Zoe. “Do you honestly expect me to fall for the oldest ploy in the book? Keep me talking until help arrives?” His deep laugh carried to the barn’s rafters.

  She stared at the gaping black muzzle of the gun. As angry as she was about Ted, about Allison, about every time Matt or any man had betrayed her, at that moment, the only thing she could process was she did not want to die. “It’s no ploy.” Stay calm. Play to his ego. “I know you’re smarter than that. Or are you? Everything would have been so much simpler if you’d just called the cops in the first place.”

  “Simpler? Are you kidding? I could just hear the questions. What was Ted’s daughter doing there? What were you and Ted arguing about?” Matt shook his head. “I couldn’t let the cops find his body at my place. So I enlisted Allison’s help and together we loaded Ted’s body into my trunk. She followed me in her dad’s pickup over to Jerry’s place. At least, she followed me until she ran the thing off the road.”

  Just when Zoe thought Matt couldn’t sicken her any more. Not only had he killed Ted in front of his daughter, he’d made her help him dispose of the body and cover up the crime.

  Zoe risked looking away from the gun to check on the girl. How was she reacting? She wasn’t. Her eyes were closed. Her lips were tinged with blue. She wasn’t shivering any longer. Allison needed an ambulance. And she needed it now.

  Zoe forced down the rising panic. “What about Jerry McBirney? I thought you were friends.”

  “No. You thought I was his lap dog. Isn’t that what you said?”

  The menace in his voice brought her focus back to the gun still aimed squarely at her head.

  “After the incident at the supervisors’ meeting, I figured Jerry was an easy alibi. Everyone would believe he’d killed Ted. The investigation wouldn’t go any further.”

  Matt had been the one to feed her the information about Ted and Marcy’s affair. And Zoe had swallowed it whole.

  “If only I’d gotten my hands on that computer.” A wistful note crept into Matt’s voice. “Stupid girl. I can’t believe she didn’t erase those e-mails.”

  For a moment, Zoe thought he was going to kick Allison’s unconscious form. Gun or no gun, she braced, ready to pounce on him. Instead, he gave a little hop on his good foot. As he moved, Zoe spotted it. He had been standing on the knife. Half buried in the dirt floor, only the brown leather hilt was exposed.

  Don’t look at it. Don’t draw his attention to it.

  “Then what?” she said. “Did Jerry find out you were framing him so you had to kill him, too?”

  Matt kept the gun aimed at Zoe, but shifted his gaze to Allison. “He called me. Said he wanted to meet me at Rodeo’s, but this one…” He nodded toward the girl at his feet. “This one phoned me and insisted we get together.”

  Matt’s gaze stayed on Allison. The gun drifted off target. Zoe eyed the knife on the ground and inched closer, hoping he wouldn’t notice and bring a sudden and deadly end to his reminiscences.

  “I called Jerry and told him I’d be late,” Matt went on, “but the son-of-a-bitch apparently couldn’t wait. He showed up and caught us.”

  “You really ought to lock your doors,” Zoe quipped and regretted it immediately.

  Matt swung back to her, and once again, she stared down the gun’s barrel. “You’re a smart ass, aren’t you, Zoe? You’re right. Allison isn’t about to cause me any more problems. Hell, look at her. She’s probably dead already. You, on the other hand…I should definitely shoot you first.”

  The combination of cold and terror seeped through Zoe’s coat. She hugged herself to quell the shivering. If she had any fragment of hope to save Allison and herself, she had to stay steady. Matt was right about the girl. She looked dead. Except for the miniscule movement in her chest. Whatever Zoe was going to do, she had to do it soon.

  And she had to not get shot.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she said.

  “Oh, yeah, I do. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. You don’t even know how bad or how long I’ve hated you.”

  “Huh?” This wasn’t going in a direction she expected or liked.

  “I’ve despised you from the moment you walked out on me.”

  “Me? Walked out on you? You cheated on me. Hell,
you didn’t lock the doors back then, either.”

  “I told you that girl meant nothing. I loved you. But you were so high and mighty. You refused to forgive me. Instead, you started seeing other guys. Ted. Jerry. I wanted to strangle you every time I saw you with someone else.”

  The man was certifiable. Zoe wanted to tell him so, but the words froze in her throat.

  Matt laughed. “You wanna hear the funniest part? I got you back and you didn’t even know it was me. You blamed good ol’ Jerry. See? He’s been my scapegoat for years.”

  Her eyes fogged for a moment as the realization of his words sunk in. “What do you mean?”

  “That precious horse Jerry bought and boarded for you. He didn’t poison her. I did. I was sick of seeing you shacking up with that old reprobate. All because he bought you a fucking horse. Hell, I’d have bought you a whole herd if I knew that’s what you wanted. Getting rid of her wasn’t hard. I’d trimmed my hedges—our hedges—and snuck a handful of the clippings into her hay. A tasty treat.”

  Matt’s hedges. The toxic Chinese Yews at the base of his steps where Ted had died. Where she’d found his eyeglass lens. McBirney may have been a pig and a scoundrel. But he wasn’t the monster Zoe had always thought. Matt Doaks was the monster.

  Her knees gave out on her, and she sunk to the dirt. Her stomach heaved, but she swallowed back the bile. Her vision cleared, becoming sharper than she’d ever known.

  The knife lay only five or six feet in front of her. Matt stood another foot or so away. Allison’s skin was turning gray, her breath barely discernable. Somehow, Zoe knew Matt was watching her every move. Look away. Just one second, that’s all I need. Look away.

  “So what happened when Jerry walked in on you and Allison?” she said.

  “Oh,” Matt said, reminded of the story he’d been telling. “The old cuss wanted a piece of the action. Can you believe it? He’d figured out about how his car came to be found with Ted’s body in it and was furious. But he had a price for keeping quiet. He wanted to share the girl.”

  Okay, so Jerry was a monster, too.

  “He was all set to do sweet Allison when Logan walked in. That kid was ready to hand me my head, but then he saw what Jerry was doing to his little sister. It kind of distracted him if you know what I mean.” He laughed again.

  Through the laughter, Zoe heard something. A car. The distant crunch of gravel in the lane. Not close to the barn. Not yet. And Matt apparently hadn’t noticed.

  “But Logan didn’t kill Jerry. You’re the one who stabbed him,” she said.

  “Who told you that?”

  Zoe wasn’t about to give up Allison. “The coroner’s report. You stabbed him with a Philip’s head screwdriver. The cops know, Matt. You aren’t going to get away with it this time.”

  His eyes were on her. Damn it. Look away.

  “It wasn’t me.” Gone was the lilting laugh. Instead Matt’s voice became shrill, reeking of guilt. “When they find that screwdriver, my prints won’t be on it.”

  “What did you do? Wipe it clean and then hand it to Logan?”

  All signs of good humor had vanished. Dragging the crutches with him, Matt took an uneven step toward her, his face ugly in its rage. But all Zoe saw was the yawning maw of his gun.

  The sound of tires on gravel grew louder. Zoe willed her hands to be still. No trembling. Her muscles tensed. She knew she’d only get one chance. To Matt, she hoped she looked like she was collapsed on her knees. In reality, she was crouched and ready.

  The vehicle outside pulled up to the barn. Matt’s eyes shifted. A car door slammed. Matt wheeled toward the sound. The gun barrel followed his gaze.

  And Zoe sprang.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Pete passed an unfamiliar car edged off the lane several yards from the barn and parked next to Zoe’s truck. The Chevy’s driver’s-side door stood open. But no Zoe. As he stepped away from his car, the sharp crack of a gunshot shattered the country stillness, followed by a shriek.

  He ducked behind the pickup’s open door. With one hand, he released his sidearm from its holster. Something on the ground caught his eye. A smashed cell phone. Zoe’s? In an instant, every sense became sharper. Details leapt into his consciousness. He focused on the barn, the smaller door, flanked by two larger ones. The light seeping out beneath them and through the windows along the side of the building. He watched for any hint of a shadow indicating movement inside.

  He listened, too far away to hear clearly. The sound of a car passing on the road below made the effort even more difficult. But he thought he made out the rustling of movement. And perhaps…sobbing?

  He punched 9-1-1 into his cell phone.

  God, was he too late?

  “Shots fired,” he rasped when the operator picked up. “Vance Township Officer needs assistance. Kroll farm on Route 15. At the barn.”

  He hung up.

  Where was Zoe? Was she hurt? Or worse?

  He knew damned well he should wait for back up. He also knew there wasn’t time. In a crouch, he picked his way across the gravel to the barn. The metal sheeting would do squat to stop a bullet. Don’t think about it. He pressed his shoulder into the edge of the doorway and reached out, pounding on the door. “This is the police. Throw out your weapon and come out with your hands where I can see them.” He hunkered down and moved back, sighting his weapon on the doorway.

  “Pete.” It was Zoe’s voice that called to him. “Help us! He’s unarmed.” Her voice sounded odd. Strained. Was she being forced at gunpoint to lure him in?

  Pete stepped again to the side of the door, this time testing the knob. It offered no resistance. He swung the door wide and stepped into the opening, his weapon in front of him.

  The scene before him made him lower it.

  Zoe knelt over Matt Doaks who was moaning and squirming. Zoe’s hands were pressed against his blood-soaked thigh. Next to them lay a motionless Allison covered with a dusty horse blanket.

  “Call an ambulance,” Zoe shouted at him. “Two patients. Tell them to call in Life Flight. And expedite it.”

  Already, sirens wailed in the distance. Pete redialed the emergency operations center and added the request for a medical response.

  “Where’s the gun?” he said.

  She tipped her head. “I kicked it over there.” Then she nodded toward Allison. “And the knife is there, next to her.”

  “Knife?”

  “It’s a long story. I’m sure I’ll have to repeat it a few dozen times.”

  “So give me the short version for now.”

  “Matt killed Ted.”

  “I know.”

  She looked up at him. “You know?”

  “Well, I pretty much figured it out before I headed over.”

  “He’s been supplying Allison with drugs, too. And I’m fairly certain he was the one who administered the fatal stab wound to Jerry McBirney.” She turned back to her patient, bearing down on the wound. “That’s what happened, isn’t it, tough guy?”

  Doaks yelped. Pete bent over him. The punk looked as though he was on the verge of bursting into tears. A thought occurred to him. “Hey, Doaks. How’d you get the alarm codes to my police station?”

  Doaks whimpered. “Allison. She’d seen Sylvia punch them in and remembered them. Then she lifted the old lady’s key, let herself in the front door, and opened the back one for me.”

  Son of a—

  Pete turned back to Zoe. “But what happened here?”

  “He intended on killing Allison and me,” Zoe said. “He had the gun. Allison had cut her wrists. Bad. Attempted suicide.”

  Pete eyed the girl. Maybe more than just attempted.

  “She dropped the knife she used, but Matt didn’t see it. I did. So when he got distracted by the car—you—I grabbed the kni
fe and stabbed him.”

  Doaks let out another girlish wail.

  Pete moved to where the gun lay and leaned down to get a better look. “He had a gun and you had a knife?”

  She gave him a tired grin. “I know what you’re gonna say.”

  He said it anyway. “Don’t you know? Never bring a knife to a gunfight.”

  “Very funny. Now take your sense of humor into the tack room and get me some bandages out of the cabinet in the corner.”

  Three months later, daffodils and crocuses offered a burst of spring color at the base of the VFW’s flagpole, and the air carried a tease of warmth. Zoe stood in the sunshine, taking advantage of a night off duty and the rare rain-free day.

  “Ready to play township supervisor one last time?” Rose strolled toward her.

  “Oh, yeah. If I’ve learned nothing else in the last few months, I do know I never want to go into politics.” Zoe opened her arms, and her friend stepped into the quick embrace.

  “That’s too bad, you know? You and Sylvia together on the board? That would bring back the entertainment value to these meetings.”

  Zoe raised a hand, acknowledging Howard Rankin, who passed by the women on his way inside. Howard would no doubt keep the chairmanship. Joe Mendez, who had taken over the seat vacated by Matt Doaks, was a shoo-in to keep it when the residents voted in three weeks. And Sylvia was running for Zoe’s slot with her blessing. Funny, no one had tried to talk Zoe into putting her name on the ballot. “The world isn’t ready to handle the two of us overseeing anything. Not even a little rural government like ours.”

  Rose snickered, and Zoe contemplated how glad she was to see her old friend coming back to life.

  “How are the kids?”

  Rose shoved her hands into her jeans pockets and lifted her face to the sun. “They’re going to be okay. Mr. Imperatore is pushing for some community service for Logan and feels the DA will go for it. All he really did was punch McBirney. Matt’s the one who stabbed him.”

  Zoe breathed in the spring air and nodded.