Pumpkin Ridge (Rose Hill Mystery Series Book 10)

by Pamela Grandstaff

  She’d have to keep track of Ava, too, somehow, know when she was around and might drop in on Patrick at work. She could ask the other waitresses to tip her off; they were women, they’d understand. But were they hitting on him? She’d have to make sure whoever worked the afternoon shift was old and ugly.

  If she could structure her days around Patrick, and make sure he was never tempted, would it then be safe to marry him and have a child? Where she would find time to have a baby during all this, she couldn’t imagine. She wouldn’t be able to work all those hours, for one thing. Plus, she wouldn’t have the energy. A baby would take up so much of her time, time she wouldn’t be able to spend paying attention to Patrick. He would resent that, and go look for attention elsewhere.

  So a baby was out of the question.

  “Hey,” Hannah said. “You’re washing the finish right off the floor.”

  Missy realized she’d been so focused on her thoughts she’d quit paying attention to what she was doing, and had mopped the same spot repeatedly.

  “Sorry,” she said.

  “He’s probably at his mom’s,” Hannah said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Melissa said. “He didn’t know I was coming.”

  “Why are you here?”

  Hannah sat on a bar stool and patted the one next to her.

  Melissa sat.

  “I’m gonna take him back,” Melissa said.

  “Don’t do it,” Hannah said. “He won’t change.”

  “I know that,” Melissa said. “I’m the one who has to change.”

  “Why in the hell should you?”

  “He’s high maintenance,” Melissa said. “He’s weak-willed and needs a lot of attention.”

  “You’re describing an adult,” Hannah said. “How sad is that?”

  “If I want to be with him, and I do,” Melissa said, “I’ll have to keep an eye on him; be more available. I need to be what he wants so he won’t want anyone else.”

  “What about what you want?”

  “This is about compromising to get what I want.”

  “And he doesn’t have to compromise at all?”

  “He’ll have to quit foolin’ around,” Melissa said.

  “Or just be sneakier,” Hannah said.

  “I’m not going to give him enough leash to do that,” Melissa said. “I’m going to be one of those suspicious, controlling wives who always knows where her husband is and what he’s doing.”

  “Sounds fun,” Hannah said. “Maybe we could tag and track him, like a bear.”

  “It’s the price of admission,” Melissa said. “I want Patrick and the whole family back, and that’s what I have to do to get it.”

  “I hope he’s worth it,” Hannah said.

  Her phone rang, and she went behind the counter to pick it up.

  “That was Delia,” she told Melissa when she hung up. “Sammy’s throwing up copious amounts of Halloween candy and his daddy does not do vomit. He will do poop, but only mommy does vomit.”

  “You go on,” Melissa said. “I have a key, and I could do this in my sleep.”

  After Hannah left, Melissa took the bucket back to empty it in the washroom. As she rinsed out the mop, she wondered if she would be happy being that controlling, suspicious wife she just described to Hannah. It sounded sort of exhausting.

  The side door opened, and Melissa peeked out to see who it was. A disheveled college girl, a tall and long-legged blonde, stumbled through the door giggling.

  “You got me drunk,” she said.

  Talking to Patrick, it turned out, who followed her inside.

  Melissa ducked back into the washroom and held her breath, her heart thumping.

  “Hey, Kirsten,” Patrick said.

  “It’s Kristen,” the young woman said.

  “Oh, yeah, right,” Patrick said. “You see those stairs? You go up there and wait for me. I’ll get rid of Hannah and be there in five.”

  “Don’t make me wait too long,” the young woman said.

  “I’ll make it worth the wait,” Patrick said. “I promise.”

  Patrick disappeared into the front room while the young woman drunkenly made her way up the ladder to the loft.

  Melissa left the bathroom and paused, trying to ascertain where Patrick was.

  “Hey,” the woman said from upstairs, looking down at Melissa. “Whose panties are these? Who are you?”

  “Just a minute,” Patrick said from the front of the bar.

  Melissa slipped out the side door and met Ava walking up the wheelchair ramp.

  “Well, the gang’s all here,” Melissa said. “The good news is Kristen just found your panties.”

  “What are you doing here?” Ava asked her. “Who is Kristen?”

  “Nobody who will matter in the morning,” Melissa said. “Just like me.”

  “Why are you here?” Ava said. “I thought you two broke up.”

  “We did,” Melissa said. “He’s all yours now.”

  “What’s going on out here?” Patrick said as he looked outside. “Oh, crap.”

  “I guess we should each take a number,” Melissa said. “Looks like you’re rackin’ and stackin’ ‘em this evening.”

  “Patrick,” Ava said. “What is she doing here?”

  “I didn’t know she was,” Patrick said.

  Melissa saw the look that passed between Patrick and Ava, a look that said she was the one on the outside of this, looking in on the real deal.

  “Y’all have fun,” Melissa said. “I’m outta here.”

  They went inside. Melissa stomped down the ramp and stood on the sidewalk.

  Where was she going?

  She didn’t want to have to tell Delia, or anybody else, what had happened, and she didn’t trust herself to talk to anyone without crying. It was one thing to think about Patrick cheating, in the abstract; it was another to witness him cheerfully doing so.

  Melissa walked down to the river and then along the bank between the water and the rail trail. When she got to the dock behind Will’s bicycle factory, she saw a little rowboat tethered to one of the pilings. It was a restored vintage wooden model with a gleaming finish. She climbed up on the dock to look at it, almost stumbling over a pile of cinder blocks someone had stacked there. She pulled the little boat around so she could see the back end.

  “Happy Wife” was written on it in an elegant script.

  “She’s back in business,” Melissa said to herself.

  She considered untying the boat so it would drift down and go over the dam like the first one. She actually had her hand on the rope before she changed her mind. It would be a shame to destroy something so lovingly restored, so valuable.

  ‘I’m just a sore loser,’ she thought.

  Melissa went back to the little house and considered sleeping there, although there was nothing to sleep on. She was looking for her phone to call Delia so she wouldn’t worry when she realized she had left her cell phone at the bar.

  “Dammit.”

  She put her jacket back on and went back up the hill to the bar. All the lights were still on. She used her key to open the side door and yelled, “Hello!” but no one answered. She listened but didn’t hear anything upstairs. She climbed the ladder and peeked over the edge of the loft, but there was no one up there. She climbed back down and looked around, wondering what had happened. She retrieved her cell phone from the bathroom.

  She went to the front room and saw that the till full of money was sitting on the bar top next to two highball glasses, both partially filled with amber liquid. She picked them up to pour them out, mostly out of habit, and noticed there was residue in the bottom of one of them, a powdery substance settled beneath what smelled like whiskey.

  When she turned around, she saw Patrick’s cell phone, wallet, and keys on the back bar. His jacket was on the hook by the door to the back room where he always left it.

  Her mind raced.

  She picked up his cell phone and scrolled through his messa
ges. The last one inbound was from Ava, earlier this evening, telling him she was back in town and wanted to see him. His response was “no this is over.”

  Melissa checked her phone and saw that there was a message from Patrick about a half hour earlier. It said, “SOS.”

  Hannah walked in just then.

  “What are you still doing here?” she asked. “Skip called to tell me the lights were still on.”

  Melissa quickly told Hannah what she thought had happened.

  “Patrick was the only witness to Ava killing that guy,” Hannah said.

  “And he tried to break up with her tonight,” Melissa said. “She drugged him, and now she’s going to kill him.”

  “Was her SUV parked outside when you left the bar?” Hannah asked.

  “No,” Melissa said. “Her new boat was at the dock.”

  They rushed to the dock behind the bicycle factory.

  “There,” Melissa cried, pointing to something on the dock.

  “It’s Patrick’s pocket knife,” Hannah said. “His dad got him that when he made Eagle Scout.”

  “He’s leaving us clues,” Melissa said.

  Hannah called Ava’s house phone, but no one answered.

  “Let’s drive out to Ava’s,” Hannah said when she hung up. “Maybe Will’s gone, and she took him to the castle. The worst thing that can happen is we embarrass ourselves, and we’ll be glad we’re wrong.”

  “It will take too long to drive,” Melissa said. “We need a boat.”

  “Ed has a canoe,” Hannah said. “It’s on the carport. I think we can get it without waking them up.”

  As Hannah and Melissa were stealing Ed’s canoe, his dogs started barking, and he came outside.

  “What are you doing?” he asked them.

  Hannah quickly explained what was going on and what they were doing.

  “I’m calling Scott,” he said and went back inside.

  “C’mon,” Hannah said.

  The two women trotted down Iris Avenue and then Pine Mountain Road holding a canoe upside down over their heads. They put it in the river at the bottom of the road. Hannah unclipped the oars and handed one to Melissa.

  “See that red light,” she said, pointing to the far shore. “That’s Ava’s dock.”

  The only sound Melissa could hear as they paddled across the river was the swoosh of the oars in the water, the roar of the water as it cascaded over the dam, the whistle of the icy wind through the trees, and the frantic beating of her heart in her chest.

  Although they had aimed for the red light, the strong current brought them quite a way downstream from the dock before they reached shore. They pulled the canoe up onto the muddy bank and, using their phone flashlights, made their way toward the red light.

  About ten yards out, Hannah put her finger to her lips and turned off her flashlight. Melissa did the same. As they crept closer, they could see two people on Ava’s dock, and they seemed to be struggling with each other. Neither was large enough to be Patrick, however.

  As they got closer, they could hear what was being said.

  “I’m doing this for us,” Ava said. “You have to trust me.”

  “I won’t let you do it,” Charlotte said.

  There was a boat tied up to the dock, and as soon as she realized what was in it, Melissa clutched Hannah’s arm and pointed.

  “It’s Patrick,” she whispered.

  From the light of the moon, they could see Patrick was lying on his back in the small vintage rowboat, with cinder blocks tied to him with rope. Charlotte was holding another rope attached to the small boat, and Ava, holding an oar in one hand, was trying to take it from her.

  “I have no choice,” Ava said. “You have to see that.”

  Ava grabbed hold of Charlotte’s arm. Charlotte pulled away from her mother and turned to pull the boat closer to the dock.

  “I won’t let you do it,” Charlotte said.

  Charlotte started to tie up the boat, and in that instant, Ava lifted the oar with both hands and struck her daughter hard on the shoulder. As Charlotte fell she dropped the rope, and the small boat was quickly pulled away by the swift current and headed toward the dam.

  Charlotte was writhing on the dock.

  “You hurt me!” she cried.

  “I told you not to interfere,” Ava said. “Now see what you’ve done.”

  Melissa turned and ran, tripping and almost falling, down the muddy shoreline, trying to keep up with the small boat. Hannah followed.

  “Go to the dam,” Hannah called out. “We can catch it there and keep it from going over.”

  There was a large, broad mass of tree branches and sticks stuck at the edge of the dam, and Patrick’s boat was stopped behind it. Melissa attempted to walk out on the dam’s cement wall and almost lost her footing on the icy surface, so she was forced to back up. Patrick’s boat was now turning so that it was parallel to the dam, pushing the pile of branches and sticks over, a few at a time.

  Hannah caught up.

  “I’m going in,” Melissa said, as she handed Hannah her phone and kicked off her shoes.

  “Wait for me,” Hannah said.

  Hannah threw both of their phones up the hillside and kicked off her own shoes as Melissa dove in. She came up with a gasp and then swam toward the boat.

  “Jeebus it’s cold!” Hannah said as she waded in. “Just get the rope, and we can pull him in.”

  Melissa reached the side of the boat and pulled herself up so she could see Patrick. She took his wrist in her freezing cold hand and was relieved to feel a pulse. The mass of sticks was now halfway gone; it wouldn’t be long before the boat was next to go over.

  Hannah reached the boat and worked her way around to the prow.

  “Got it,” she said, between chattering teeth, as she held up the rope.

  Together, they turned the boat around and towed it to shore. Once they had it mostly out of the water, Hannah said, “I’ll find my phone and call Scott.”

  Hannah scrambled up the bank and disappeared in the tangle of rhododendron bushes that masked the shore.

  Melissa shook Patrick, but he was limp and unresponsive. Quickly, she started working on the knots to the rope that was wrapped around him and strung through the cinder blocks. Her body was shuddering from the wet and cold, and her fingers felt numb, which made it hard to use them with any dexterity. The only light she had was moonlight filtered through the fast-moving clouds.

  “You,” she heard.

  When she turned, she saw Ava standing behind her on the shore, holding the oar up over her head. Melissa managed to dodge the first blow, which struck a cinder block that cracked the oar. Ava raised it again, but before she could swing it down, Hannah came from behind with a large branch and whacked Ava across the back.

  Ava lost her balance and fell with a splash into the water. She struggled in the current, which swiftly pulled her out to the middle of the river and toward the dam. She called out for help, but a cloud passed over the moon, so Melissa could no longer see her in the darkness.

  “I couldn’t find the phones,” Hannah said.

  She climbed into the boat, straddled Patrick, and started working on a knot.

  “Aren’t you going to help her?” Melissa asked.

  “Hell no,” Hannah said. “If I’m the frog in this scenario then she’s the scorpion.”

  “What?”

  An outboard motor could be heard approaching, and light from a searchlight landed upon them. Men’s voices called out.

  “Over here!” Hannah shouted and waved.

  Melissa returned to her work: untying the knot of a rope attached to the cinder block intended to drag the love of her life to the bottom of the river and keep him there.

  Chapter Eleven - Tuesday

  W hen Melissa left Patrick’s hospital room, she found his mother Bonnie, an alarmed look on her face, walking down the hall toward her, carrying a bakery box and a super-sized coffee. Patrick’s wailing could be heard far down the
corridor, where staff members at the nursing station were leaning out to look.

  “Is that Patrick?” she asked Melissa. “Are you leaving?”

  Melissa nodded.

  “How can you leave him alone when he’s carrying on like that?” Bonnie asked.

  “He’s not crying for me,” Melissa said. “Now that you’re here I can go.”

  “I need to talk to you first,” Bonnie said.

  She looked at the door to her son’s room and seemed to weigh her options. The pull to immediately try to comfort her son was strong, Melissa knew.

  “He’ll be all right,” Bonnie finally said. “Let’s go down here.”

  Bonnie gestured to Melissa to follow her to a couple of chairs at the end of the hall by a window. Bonnie put her box and coffee on the table between the two, and they both sat.

  “I would have come last night, but I had Ava’s boys,” Bonnie said. “Scott assured me Patrick was out of danger or I would have been here.”

  “They gave him Narcan in the ambulance,” Melissa said. “He came out of it quick; he threw up and had a headache, but after we got him in a room he slept for several hours.”

  “I heard it was busy here last night. Scott said you all might have to stay in the ER for a while.”

  “Our nurse told us they brought over twenty overdoses in here yesterday,” Melissa said. “They had to Narcan one guy three times just to bring him around. I guess not everybody made it.”

  “Thank goodness you found him,” Bonnie said. “I hate to think what might have happened if you hadn’t.”

  “I’m glad you’re here now,” Melissa said. “I’m plum wore out.”

  “Have you talked to anybody?”

  “No, I lost my cell phone last night,” Melissa said. “Why, what’s happened?”

  “Ava didn’t drown,” Bonnie said. “She didn’t even get wet.”

  “What do you mean?” Melissa said. “Hannah knocked her in the river because she tried to kill me.”