The Azalea Assault

by Alyse Carlson

  “That doesn’t sound like him—I mean according to Annie’s grumbles. But what does it mean?” Cam asked Rob.

  “Tobacco largely ruins the land for other crops. It has to sit a few years, recovery crops—that kind of thing. The state considered a parachute for tobacco farmers. Normally Schulz was all over stuff like that, but he voted against it, and took a couple other senators with him. It changed the outcome.”

  “Oh, geez. How fast can we get there?”

  Rob looked up the address on a map.

  “Fifteen minutes, maybe?”

  “Let’s go.”

  “In what, babe? My Jeep is still in holding as evidence.”

  “Annie’s car. The Mercedes probably shouldn’t go on a rescue run, but the Bug is an old pro.”

  He grinned and followed her outside.

  They weren’t a bad team with Cam driving and Rob navigating—far better, Cam thought, than if the roles were reversed. Rob didn’t trust her navigating, so refused to take her directions, and then offered being lost as proof she couldn’t read a map. She knew, though, that the inability to ask for directions was a trait solidly bound to the Y chromosome.

  This time they managed beautifully, up until they found themselves on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere. They parked and decided to walk the rest of the way so they didn’t alert anyone to their presence.

  Cam was starting to spook herself, and Rob found this amusing enough that he kept pointing out things to keep her on edge.

  “Will you stop that? I’m scared!”

  “You are not. Cam, this is just an old farmhouse with about three outbuildings—that satellite view showed nearly nothing out here.”

  She frowned irritably. She knew he was trying to calm her with his humor, and she, half hoped he was right, though she was also half waiting to shove his face in it if he was wrong, even if she didn’t want to confront whatever would make him wrong.

  The farmhouse, when they reached it, appeared to be abandoned, as did the shadowy buildings off to the side, though in the little bit of moonlight, the slatted design of the tobacco-drying barn made the structure look like something out of a horror movie. The spaces between the slats emitted only blackness.

  “Look!” she whispered.

  To the side, in the shadow of the tobacco barn, was an edge of white that Cam felt certain was the boxy corner of Joseph’s Volvo. She was very glad he thought of himself as a white knight. A black car never would have been visible, and they might not have gotten closer.

  Rob pushed a button on his cell phone.

  “Jake? I’m pretty sure we found Joseph. The address you gave me south of town used to be his family’s tobacco farm.” He held up his phone toward the part of the Volvo they could see, transmitting a picture to Jake. When he hung up, Cam looked at him intently.

  “Rob, I don’t think we should wait. What if he’s torturing Annie or something?”

  “Torturing? Do you have any reason to think he would?”

  “He killed somebody just to frame her.”

  “Allegedly, but good point. What should we do?”

  “We need to get her out of there! I guess I don’t know how we do that, but we could sure plan it a lot better if we could see what was going on.”

  Rob seemed skeptical, but he nodded, resigned to getting closer. “Seems like we probably want to come at it from the back, don’t you think?”

  Cam nodded and took Rob’s hand so he could lead her around the edge of the property.

  As the moon passed behind a cloud, they lost their only light source, making walking more difficult, but soon enough, they were near the barn. Approaching quietly from the rear, they could hear noises coming from within. It sounded like the scraping and the moving of something across boards.

  “They’re above us,” Rob whispered. “I’m going up.”

  He indicated the pattern of siding at the back and a large window up above that indeed made the building look climbable.

  Cam thought about arguing but knew she’d only hold Rob up—upper body strength wasn’t her strong suit. “What do I do?”

  “Show Jake where we are.”

  “Oh no!”

  “Shhh.”

  He was right. It was not the time to make her case, but neither was it time to sit and wait for the cops. She wasn’t sure what to do, but walking away from the barn where both her best friend and boyfriend might end up in trouble was not an option. She looked at her watch. They had called Jake ten minutes earlier, and he should be there soon, provided he’d left Roanoke immediately. She thought he probably had. That meant if she could somehow buy ten minutes, everything would be fine.

  Rob wouldn’t be at all happy with her plan, but she wasn’t thrilled with his either, so she decided to go for it, creeping slowly toward the front of the building, and walking close to the Volvo as she did so.

  There was a roll of duct tape on the seat, and gardening twine—visible because the driver’s door hadn’t been shut all the way, so the light was on. There was also a small gardening clipper, probably to cut the twine with. It was the sort that was sharp on the blade, to cut vines and small branches, but dull at the point—unlike the shears used to stab Jean-Jacques. If nothing else, she thought the clipper would be useful for cutting at any fingers trying to get too close, so she opened the door a little wider and grabbed it.

  As she moved toward the front of the barn, she tried to listen more closely. She thought she heard Annie yelling, but muffled—she had something in or over her mouth. Joseph was talking calmly to her, though he was too far away for Cam to make out his words.

  Cam edged around the front, peeking into the larger opening. The air coming from within smelled of dried tobacco, and she could make out some leaves still strung to the rows of clips that had at one time held up entire harvests to dry in the late summer heat.

  The beam from a flashlight shone above her head, but it was angled in such a way that she couldn’t tell what it was illuminating.

  She judged Rob had reached the level where Annie was right now, and what she needed to do was draw Joseph down so Rob could free Annie. She stepped into the doorway.

  “Joseph!”

  It took a moment, but then she heard scuffling.

  “Miss Harris. You shouldn’t be here. What do you need?”

  “Just to talk to you. Can you come down?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t. I’m in the middle of something.”

  “Then I’ll need to call the police.” She pulled out her cell phone and started to dial.

  “No! No need for that. Just give me a minute.”

  “I can’t do that. I’m afraid you’re going to hurt my best friend.”

  “Oh, Cam, this isn’t personal.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Joseph. This is very personal. Annie and I have been best friends for twenty years.”

  He paused a moment. “Annie? What does Annie have to do with this?”

  Cam didn’t believe him. “Come down and talk to me and I’ll tell you.”

  He sighed loudly, unhappy with this development, but he seemed resigned to having to talk to her. Cam did a little internal cheer, hoping her plan might work.

  Joseph climbed down the ladder and walked toward her. She caught the glint of something shiny in his hand, and she realized he had a knife of some sort. He stuck it in a back pocket and pulled out a small box, though she couldn’t make out what it contained.

  “Now, Miss Harris. Why is it you think your friend is here?”

  “She’s disappeared, and I could tell there’d been a struggle at her apartment.”

  “Surely you’ve noticed she’s not a reliable girl.”

  “She wouldn’t disappear without her car, and she wouldn’t go without telling me.”

  Joseph made a quick motion, and only then did Cam realize the small box was matches. He threw the tiny orange fireball behind him, and old straw and tobacco leaves blazed as though they’d had an accelerant poured on them.
/>
  “No!”

  “It’s okay, Cam. It’s my own property.”

  “But Annie!”

  “I assure you, Annie’s not here.”

  “Rob!” Cam shouted. “Catch!” She tossed the clipper she’d grabbed onto the loft and heard Rob scramble.

  “Got ’em!”

  “What?” Joseph looked angry and perplexed, pulling his knife again and heading toward the ladder.

  Cam dived and grabbed his ankles, tripping him, but he turned with the knife. She scrambled backward out of Joseph’s reach. He again headed toward the ladder and got partway up before Cam reached it, pulling with all her might. It didn’t dislodge, but it shook enough to throw Joseph off.

  “You little brat! Get out of here if you know what’s good for you!”

  “We’re leaving, Cam! Run!” Rob’s voice was sweet relief—she could stop fighting Joseph, because he couldn’t hurt Annie or Rob anymore. She turned to sprint out, just clearing the doorway out of the barn when Joseph caught her ankle. She fell spectacularly but flipped onto her back and kicked. She was pretty sure she broke his nose as she backed the rest of the way out of the barn, trying to regain her footing.

  Joseph rose, his face bloodied, and came toward her. She rolled, tried to run, then rolled again. Unfortunately, Joseph was like a madman, intent on taking her down. She scrambled for what she thought was her last time, and Joseph lunged at her. What happened next seemed in slow motion.

  Just as Joseph reached her, a body flew toward them from the side of the barn at lightning speed, tackling Joseph. The knife spun away into the tall grass. It was only then Cam remembered how fast Rob could round bases. She gasped for breath, and Annie, following Rob from around the barn, reached her side, limping. She toppled down and pulled Cam into a hug.

  Cam hugged back momentarily and then found her second wind and ran to the Volvo, fetching the duct tape. Rob had Joseph in a choke hold, and Cam and Annie finished binding his wrists and ankles just as they heard the sirens of arriving police cars.

  Jake arrested Joseph and then proceeded to scold Cam and Rob on their recklessness.

  “Annie would have been a roasted marshmallow if we hadn’t been here!” Rob complained.

  Jake sighed. “Okay, I get why you did what you did, but you also could have all three been roasted marshmallows. Wouldn’t that have been worse?”

  “No!” Rob and Cam shouted together, and Jake rolled his eyes. Apparently they were a bad influence.

  “Fine. You don’t believe me. Law enforcement needs to play its role. Rob, you should have called me when you first realized where Joseph was.”

  “We thought it was a long shot.”

  “Uh-huh. But don’t you think this would have been a whole lot easier with police?”

  Cam was growing more irritable. “Actually, we rocked. Rob saved Annie, and I took down the bad guy.”

  “I took down the bad guy,” Rob argued.

  “Only after I did.”

  Jake looked up at the sky, praying for patience. Cam winked at Rob, who grabbed her into a tight hug and laughed.

  “Three-love!” Annie shouted, leaping at them, one-footed.

  “We’re a good team,” Cam said.

  “We are,” Rob agreed.

  “We still only have him for kidnapping Annie at this point,” Jake said.

  “And miles and miles of circumstantial stuff on the murders!” Cam protested.

  “Cam, circumstantial is circumstantial.”

  “And drugging Samantha. Say, I bet Samantha can get the truth out of him!”

  Cam drove Annie and Rob to the hospital, insisting they be checked for smoke inhalation. The accelerant had caused the flames and smoke to rise upward, rather than filling the space Cam and Joseph had tussled, so Cam felt okay, but worried for her friends. While they were waiting, Cam found her way to Samantha. Samantha came around about a half hour after Cam arrived and, after calling for something to stop her head from pounding, listened as Cam explained what had happened during the last several hours. Samantha was mortified with the facts of the day, not least because Joseph had apparently changed her clothes and set her up as a prisoner.

  Midway through their conversation, a nurse came to administer ibuprofen. “A headache is pretty common after the large dose of ether you had.” She smiled reassuringly and left.

  Cam continued talking. “We are sure Joseph committed the murders, too. Can’t you help us get him to admit it?”

  Samantha looked at Cam curiously. “I think I can get him to confess.” She sounded not only deeply angry but also so confident, Cam believed her.

  It was only after leaving Samantha’s room that the nurse’s ether comment registered with Cam. She wondered why Joseph hadn’t used the sleeping pills he had used the first time.

  The next day, Jake initially refused to allow Cam to watch Samantha’s meeting with Joseph from behind the interrogation room’s one-way window, but given multiple reminders of all the help she, Rob, and Annie had provided, Jake finally yielded.

  Now, peering through the glass, Cam watched as Samantha entered the interrogation room. She looked stately as she stepped toward the lone table at which Joseph sat, and seated herself purposefully at the chair across from him. “Hello, Joseph,” she said icily.

  Joseph seemed oblivious to her tone. “Samantha, darling! You came!”

  Straight from the hospital, Cam mentally added, though she looked good, considering.

  “You’ve never called me darling before.” Samantha held herself stiffly, and Cam wondered if she would be able to coax anything out of Joseph when she looked so hostile.

  “But you know I’ve always adored you!” Joseph was manic, twitchy and sweating. Samantha kept evading as Joseph reached for her hand, but she did so subtly, so as not to tip him off.

  “I suppose I knew. You were only protecting me, then?”

  Joseph looked thoroughly confused for a moment, the sheen of sweat Cam had seen in the photographs once again dampening his forehead and intensifying the unhealthy pallor created by the room’s florescent lights. “Of course I was! I will always protect you!”

  “So why did you kill Ian?”

  “Who’s Ian?”

  “The man you hit with the camera.”

  “That was unfortunate.”

  “Joseph, look at me. What was unfortunate about killing Ian?”

  “Samantha! I had to—you know why, don’t you?”

  “Of course not, Joseph. Can you tell me?” Her glare was menacing.

  “He saw! And then… well… when they thought it was him. That senator’s daughter was accusing him! I worried he’d break and tell them everything, even after all the money…”

  Joseph leaned close to Samantha, whispering. But Samantha refused to stay close enough to hear if he didn’t speak up.

  “Why did you frame Annie?”

  “They were talking about you! If it was Annie… don’t you see?”

  “No, and you’re in trouble for taking her and doing what you did. You need to admit what you did, Joseph. They can see how upset you are.”

  “But…”

  “Joseph, you need to admit to killing Ian… and Johnnie.”

  “Johnnie?”

  “Yes, Joseph. You killed my nephew to protect me. You must have.”

  “What?” Joseph started to whimper. “But darling, you—”

  Samantha cut him off. “But you did kill him.” The statement held a sort of finality.

  Joseph frowned. “Did I?” He stared around, upset at this news.

  “It’s okay, Joseph. I know.”

  He nodded but without admitting anything, then said,

  “I love you, darling! Do you love me?”

  Samantha leaned over the table and whispered something, and then kissed Joseph’s cheek.

  “You really want me to confess?”

  “All this to protect me?”

  Joseph nodded, resigned.

  When Samantha came out, Jake
went in and explained he still had a right to a lawyer.

  “I know you wanted to speak with Ms. Hollister first, but it is still your right. Would you like to have an attorney present?”

  “No. I know what I need to do,” Joseph said.

  Jake pulled out a notepad and began giving instructions to Joseph.

  “Thank you, Samantha. You were amazing,” Cam said.

  “I just know how to handle him. Now if you’ll excuse me, I feel rather violated and I’d like to go home and shower.”

  Samantha left, and Cam went out to the precinct room to see Rob. He hugged her, and they held each other until Jake came out of the interrogation room.

  “You need to go let your nutty friend know she’s in the clear,” he said.

  “So you like her?” Cam teased.

  He grinned helplessly. “Yes, I like her. I just think maybe she has some things to work through.”

  “Well, who doesn’t?”

  “Touché, Cam. Touché.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Cam’s dad had said a friendly good-bye to Jane Duffy. They exchanged addresses and promises to stay in touch. Hannah and Tom also finally got to leave town. Cam thought they were glad their fiasco of a visit was finally over.

  Cam had had mixed feelings about attending Jean-Jacques’s funeral given all the trouble his life and death had caused, but she wanted to support Samantha and couldn’t seem to help herself anyway. Joseph’s confession had sat with her funny. There were some details that kept nagging at her, and this seemed a better place than any other to try to find answers.

  She’d spent the fifteen minutes in the pews before the service trying to avoid Madeline’s eye. Her boss wasn’t happy, though Cam thought she appreciated Cam’s efforts to spin the news so Joseph looked tragic rather than deranged, and the Roanoke Garden Society looked heroic for having included him in spite of his eccentricities.

  Rob’s article about the murders in the Roanoke Tribune had only helped matters. Several Roanoke Garden Society members had come across as either sweet or smart for their compassion in the first case and their assistance in the second. None of it, though, had particularly flattered the dead men.