Gluten-Free Murder

by P. D. Workman

  “After they went to church.”

  “Yes.”

  “I didn’t think you were a churchgoer.”

  “No.” She wondered briefly what she had said or done that had clued him in to the fact. Or maybe he had just heard gossip around town. It did seem to be a little scandalous, the type of thing people loved to share around. In a Bible-belt town like Bald Eagle Falls, someone openly admitting to being an atheist was shocking.

  “I’ll let you in on a little secret.” He leaned forward. His voice was low and confidential. She couldn’t see more than the shadows of his face and had to picture the dimple in his cheek.

  “What?”

  “I’m not either.”

  “A Christian?”

  “Well… I was raised Christian… so I guess I still am. But I don’t go to church.”

  “Why not?”

  “I say it’s because of my work schedule. People are very understanding; they know emergency services still have to protect the public on Sundays.”

  “But…?”

  “But… that’s not why.”

  She waited for him to say more, but he didn’t explain further.

  “So, you had the church ladies over to the bakery for tea after their services? Clementine used to do that, didn’t she?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll bet they all enjoyed that. Everything went off well? Without a hitch?”

  “Yes.” Erin’s voice was tired and far away.

  “Nothing that seemed… out of place? Or that indicated you were in any danger?”

  “No. Nothing like that.”

  “You didn’t feel threatened?”

  “No.”

  There was a dragging noise, starting in the distance but getting gradually closer. Erin saw another light, twinkling off in the distance. Piper sighed.

  “That will be the stretcher. Then we can get you out of this hole and to the hospital for proper care.”

  “Yeah. Good.”

  They were silent for a while, both watching and listening to the man approaching with the stretcher. It wasn’t a wheeled gurney, which wouldn’t have been able to roll over the uneven floor, but a stretcher that had to be carried between two people and was currently being dragged behind one.

  Piper turned to look at the newcomer and the man’s face was lit up by Piper’s headlamp.

  “Oh. It’s you.”

  William Andrews looked down at Erin. His face, blackened as always, seemed both amused and concerned.

  “We haven’t exactly been introduced. My name is Willie. William Andrews.”

  “Hi,” Erin greeted faintly. She looked at Piper, concerned. Hadn’t he heard the rumors of William Andrews’s supposed drug-running? What was he doing there?

  Was Erin in one of his caves? One of the caves that Gema had said to stay away from? Had they gone straight to the caves that Gema had advised them to avoid?

  “Mr. Andrews is something of an expert on the caves in the area,” Piper said. “When I needed a guide to help me find you, I knew he was the one person I could trust.”

  Unless William Andrews had been somehow involved in Angela’s murder. Or Erin’s attack. Or drug-running and stashing drugs in remote caves where they could be hidden from prying eyes. Erin’s heart sped and her breaths started to come in gasps again.

  Piper put a hand on Erin’s shoulder. It was very warm and had a much stronger calming effect than she would have expected. “Trust me,” he said softly. And Erin did.

  William Andrews put the stretcher down and he and Piper moved in concert to lay it down next to Erin. Once it was in place, Piper shooed K9 out of the way.

  “Sorry, boy, can’t carry you too!”

  K9 obediently moved off to the side and waited.

  “Do you think you have any back or neck injuries?” Piper asked. “Obviously, you have a head injury, and that could mean a neck injury as well. Do you have any numbness or tingling? Pain in your back?”

  “Numb from the cold,” Erin said.

  William Andrews shone his headlamp along the floor of the passage, following Erin’s trail. “She’s already been moving around. I think we’re fine lifting her onto the stretcher. It’s less than she’s done by herself already.”

  He walked a few feet along the passageway, then returned to Erin and Piper.

  “We need to move her to get her out of here. We don’t have a back board or collar. We can’t wait for them to deploy a rescue team from Chattanooga; she’s already in shock.”

  Piper nodded his agreement.

  “I concur. Erin, do you want us to move you? Or call for help?”

  “You do it.”

  “Okay. I want you to try to stay completely still. We’ll do this as gently as we can, but it may still hurt.”

  “I know.”

  The two men got into position. Erin took a couple of deep breaths to try to calm and relax herself and prepare for the jolt she was going to get.

  #

  When she awoke, it took some time to swim through the fog of her brain and sort out the sensations. She was still face-down and still tied up. She was moving, rolling up and down or back and forth, she wasn’t sure of the axis. Just the movement, like a ship rolling over waves on the ocean. It made her seasick, the nausea building up inside her.

  She choked, trying not to vomit, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold it back. The movement stopped and she was set down on a hard surface. Someone was holding her head, turning it to the side as she threw up again, foul, acidic bile burning her throat and nose.

  Erin was pretty sure she had baptized her assistant. She realized she was no longer wearing the oxygen mask. Maybe it wasn’t the first time she had thrown up. Or maybe it had been too awkward to keep the mask on her while she was on the stretcher.

  “Okay?” he questioned.

  In the light that moved around her, Erin saw that it was Piper. Officer Piper had rescued her. Was rescuing her. Soon they would be out of the darkness, able to see the light of day once more.

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  “You done?”

  “Seasick.”

  He chuckled. “Sorry about that. We’ll do our best to make it a smooth ride.”

  They again lifted the stretcher and resumed their walk down the twisting paths of the caves. Erin tried to focus her eyes on something to combat the nausea, but they were still surrounded by darkness. The light from the men’s helmets was enough to illuminate the space for a few feet, but the little bubble of light didn’t extend very far.

  She tried to focus instead on her attacker. Did Piper already know who it was, or was he expecting her to supply the details? If Vic had gone to get help, then she must have been able to tell him something. They would have been at the cave together to explore. Vic had seen Erin attacked and had gone for help.

  It was a woman’s voice. Not William Andrews’s. But she wasn’t sure which of the women it belonged to.

  Seeing us together and then letting me know you intended to blackmail me.

  Who had she seen together? She had certainly never told anyone that she was going to blackmail them. The woman had killed Angela for threatening to reveal her secret. And she thought Erin knew and was doing the same thing. She was paranoid about having her secret revealed. That was what had driven her to action both times.

  Mary Lou? She claimed to have no secrets. But everybody had secrets. Melissa? Did she know where Trenton was? Did she know what had happened to him, or had she been involved? But that didn’t fit the puzzle.

  Seeing us together.

  The clue was in those three words. Who had she seen together?

  #

  “Gema,” Erin croaked.

  The men heard her and again set down the stretcher so that Piper could talk to Erin face-to-face.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “Gema. Was it Gema Reed?”

  “What did you remember?” he asked, giving nothing away.

  “I’m not sure… it coul
d have been her voice… she said, ‘you saw us together.’”

  “Who did you see together? What was she talking about?”

  “I saw her at the camping store… she said… it was her cousin.”

  “Her cousin?”

  “She was talking to a woman…”

  Piper shook his head. “So?”

  “I don’t know… she said it was her cousin.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  Erin tried to sort it out. She pictured their faces, thought about their expressions and body language as they had been talking together. As cousins, it made sense that they were close. That they were friendly.

  If Gema had been upset by Erin seeing them together, though, then maybe she had something to hide and they weren’t just cousins.

  Erin licked her chapped lips. Both her tongue and her lips were like sandpaper. So dry, they just rasped against each other.

  “Do you have water?”

  “I do,” William Andrews offered, standing close by. He put down his backpack and pulled out a water bottle.

  “How long was it?” Erin whispered to Piper.

  “How long… were you in here?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s been…” he held his watch close to his eyes and twisted his wrist back and forth, trying to catch the light of his headlamp. “Just over twenty-four hours.”

  William Andrews crouched beside her, holding the water bottle sideways for Erin to drink from. She ended up with water down her face, trying to drink at such an odd angle, but she was glad to moisten her lips and mouth.

  “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “Let’s keep going,” he told Piper. “The longer we stop to talk, the worse her condition is going to get.”

  Erin was impressed with the way William Andrews took over. In town, she had taken him to be an untrained laborer, someone who was only able to get odd jobs because he couldn’t hold down anything permanent. But it was obvious from Piper’s deference to him on matters caving and medical that there was more to William Andrews than there appeared.

  They hoisted her up without any further discussion. Erin still wanted to talk to Officer Piper, to try to sort out the random bits of knowledge knocking around her brain. Somehow, she knew Gema’s secret. Gema thought she was a threat.

  Was it because of the woman at the store? Or something else?

  They seemed to be on an uphill slope. Erin wished they had untied her wrists so that she could hold on to the edges of the stretcher, as she felt her body shifting down toward the end. There was light now, more than just what was coming from the two men’s headlamps. Erin lay still and tried to see where it was coming from. It kept brightening the farther they went up. And then Erin was blinking, her eyes streaming, as they broke out of the cave into the light.

  There were people there. She wasn’t sure who, because the sun cut into her brain like a knife and forced her to squeeze her eyes shut in an effort to block it out. She was afraid she was going to throw up again and called for Piper to help her. They put down the stretcher, but the man who ministered to her was not Officer Piper. He was a doctor or paramedic, barking out orders like an army general.

  Erin cowered there, overwhelmed by the noise and the light and the pain. They put a collar around her neck to hold it still and wrapped a bandage around and around her head before laying her down on a backboard. Once she was face-up, they finally cut away the ties that bound her arms and legs.

  “I still don’t want you to move,” the doctor told her gruffly. “I’m going to immobilize your arms and legs. Don’t be afraid, it’s just to protect your spine until we know the extent of your injuries.”

  Erin didn’t say anything as he proceeded to do so. Tears were streaming from her eyes. While mostly they were from the sun, Erin was also at the end of her rope. Far past the end of her rope, in fact.

  “Where’s Vic?” she asked, before they loaded her into the ambulance. “Is she okay?”

  “I’m here!” It sounded like Vic was calling from far away. “I’m right here, Erin. I’m fine.”

  “Is she hurt? Vic? Are you hurt?”

  “No. I’m okay. Not hurt.”

  “Good. Did you remember to feed Orange Blossom?”

  Vic laughed. “The cat is taken care of, don’t you worry! But he cried all night looking for you and kept the neighbors up!”

  They slid her into the ambulance, away from the bright sunlight. Away from the crowds of people. “Terry? Is Officer Piper there…?”

  “He can meet us at the hospital. Just rest, now.”

  Despite the layers of bandages wrapped around her head, every bump and bounce of the ambulance caused excruciating pain and made it feel like her brain was bouncing around the inside of her skull. She closed her eyes and tried to do as the doctor told her and rest.

  Chapter Sixteen

  WITH VIC BESIDE HER, holding her hand, Erin was finally able to relax and believe that her young assistant was safe and well. For so many hours, she had been sure that Vic was lying in the cave somewhere, dead or dying. No matter how many times they told her Vic was okay, she couldn’t really believe it until she could see and touch Vic for herself.

  “How much do you remember?” Officer Terry Piper inquired, sitting in the other visitor chair observing the two of them.

  “Most of it, I think,” Erin said. “Some of it is still kind of foggy, but hopefully Vic can fill in those parts.”

  She glanced at Vic. The pretty blonde nodded.

  The painkillers in Erin’s IV kept her reasonably comfortable and she didn’t have to move around anymore. They had operated, removing a piece of her skull to ease the pressure the swelling had caused, and cleaning up the wound and the fracture Gema had caused.

  It was Gema. Erin could remember that much now.

  “How did she know where we were going?” Erin asked Vic. “You didn’t tell her which cave we were going to, did you?”

  “No.” Vic shook her head. “She must have guessed. She just told me not to go to the Beaver Creek caves. So that convinced me to go to the old mine.”

  “She knew we’d go one of those two places?”

  “She knew we were beginners, but we didn’t want a big commercial outfit. So… that only left a couple of choices nearby. I guess it was a good bet.”

  “I suppose if we’d gone somewhere else, she would have waited for another opportunity.” Erin looked over at Officer Piper. “Seems like she was pretty good at waiting for the right opportunity.”

  He nodded. “So it would seem.” He was being very careful not to tell her any of what he knew, which Erin found annoying. She knew it was the right thing for him to do. He couldn’t plant information in her brain. But it was still annoying. She wanted to talk to him about what he knew, not drag the story out of her brain one thread at a time.

  “So, we got there, got all our gear out and ready. And then… Vic had to… uh… do something.”

  “Do what?” Piper asked suspiciously.

  “I had to pee!” Vic laughed. “So… I went into the trees to find a private spot…”

  “It’s not like you had to go far,” Erin said. “I could have just turned my back.”

  Vic shrugged. “I’m shy. I had to be where I knew no one could see me.”

  “And that’s when Gema showed up,” Erin explained. “I don’t know where she parked her car; I didn’t see it. She just came… out of nowhere. She hit me with something before I even saw her.”

  “I think a shovel,” Vic told her.

  Erin reached up and touched her bandaged head. “A shovel,” she echoed.

  “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. She hit me and I just went over like a log. After that, I’m not sure of much. She tied my hands and feet, I guess, and dragged me into the cave.”

  “So that when I came back from the woods, Erin was nowhere to be seen,” Vic contributed. “I thought maybe she decided to use the facilities before going down as well, so I waited.” She looked at Erin. �
��But you never came back.”

  “You must have been scared,” Erin empathized.

  “Me? You must have been terrified! That woman dragging you down to the bowels of the earth! You didn’t even want to go exploring to begin with. I had to talk you into it. Being down there with your skull caved in and a homicidal woman railing away at you…!”

  “It was scary,” Erin admitted. “It was so dark. She had a light, but I could barely see anything. She didn’t even let me walk, she just dragged me from one place to another. She must be really strong!”

  “She used to do lots of exploring and climbing,” Piper agreed. “She’s quite athletic.”

  Erin looked back at Vic again. “Do you remember seeing Gema at the camping store?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “What do you remember about it?”

  Vic thought back. “She helped me to pick out a compass. I don’t know what else. She told us about Angela and how she had messed things up so badly for Mary Lou, when Mary Lou invested with her.”

  “Do you remember anything else?”

  “Nnno…?”

  Erin didn’t say anything right away. Vic shook her head, looking bewildered. “What else? What am I missing?”

  “She was talking to someone.”

  “Before she talked to us?” Vic shrugged. “One of the sales clerks.”

  “Yes.”

  “What about it?”

  “Gema didn’t look like she was there looking for something or getting help. She was having a friendly chat with her, not asking for advice.”

  “Right.” Vic nodded her agreement. “And she said something. That she was just checking up on her cousin, or something like that.”

  “Yes. But when she was talking to me, when she took me down to that cave to leave me there… she said, ‘you saw us.’ Because I saw the two of them together.”

  “So, what? Why wouldn’t she be talking to her cousin? Who cares if someone saw them together?”

  “But she did care. So, it wasn’t her cousin. It was somebody she didn’t want to be seen with.”

  “Why not?”

  “She’d already been blackmailed by Angela. She’d killed Angela to stop her from revealing Gema’s secret. And when I said something, she thought it was starting all over again.”