Heart of Gold

by B. J Daniels

  Recognize him? Lived down the street? A cold spike of ice rattled up her spine. “You mean when we were teenagers?”

  “He went by Patrick then. Patrick Gregory Shafer. He was that old man’s stepson. Did you really not know about him and Lindy?”

  Charlie felt blindsided. She stumbled and Lacey’s grip tightened. “Still, why did you shoot him?”

  “Because he deserved it,” she snapped. She pushed open door after door, a labyrinth of passages behind the scenes in this massive hotel, and hurried her along. Charlie thought she heard running footfalls somewhere in the maze behind them. Shep.

  “What happened that night?” Charlie asked, thinking she had to no the truth.

  “That night you locked Lindy out of the house,” Lacey said, grinding the barrel of gun into her temple hard enough to make Charlie cry out. “You knew she was afraid of the dark.”

  “You both tormented me, but I suspect you were the real mean one.”

  Lacey laughed. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that.”

  Charlie could feel time running out. “Did you kill your sister?”

  Lacey slowed at the next doorway to meet Charlie’s gaze. “I would never have hurt Lindy. Never.” Her voice broke. “It was him. Patrick Gregory Shafer. He had told her that he was in love with her. I tried to warn her. She didn’t know anything about men. That night I met him out in the woods. He thought I was Lindy. I told him I didn’t love him and that I never wanted to see him again. I did it for her own good.” Tears filled Lacey’s eyes. “How was I to know that he could come back that night when he heard Lindy screaming for you to let her back in?”

  Charlie felt her heart drop. She remembered what Shep had told her. “But Lindy had to know about the key hidden at the back door.”

  As they passed through another doorway, she saw that they had entered the kitchen. It was empty with breakfast over and lunch still hours away except for several prep cooks who took off the moment they spotted the gun.

  “I didn’t have time to put the key back,” Lacey said. “By the time I looked out the basement window and saw them arguing, it was too late. I couldn’t get to her in time.”

  The words shocked her. “You saw Greg kill her?”

  “He didn’t know there were two of us. He didn’t know.” The words came out on a ragged breath. “I just wanted him to leave Lindy alone. She couldn’t have a boyfriend. Why couldn’t she see that?” Her voice broke. “I didn’t know he was going to kill her. He thought she was the one who’d said all those awful words to him. He didn’t know about me. Not until he saw me walk into his wedding and shoot him. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. But then he knew. That second when I pulled the trigger. He knew the mistake he’d made killing Lindy.”

  Charlie felt the grip on her arm loosen. She saw her chance as Lacey pulled her past hanging racks of pots and pans and large stoves...past where the two prep cooks had been working. Charlie spotted the knife lying next to a chopped pile of veggies. Pretending to stumble, she brushed the edge of the large metal table and surreptitiously grabbed the blade’s handle. Just as quickly, she broke free of Lacey’s grip, shoved her and the barrel of the pistol away from her head and drove the knife into Lacey’s side.

  A shot went wild, pinging off the wall behind Charlie’s head.

  Lacey looked down at the knife protruding from her side and aimed the gun this time.

  Charlie had only a second to reach for one of the cast iron skillets hanging next to her. She swung it as hard and fast as she could. The heavy skillet struck Lacey’s arm and the gun broke from her grasp, flying through the air to skitter across the floor away from them.

  Before Charlie could swing the skillet again, Lacey struck her in the chest with her fist, knocking her back. The blow reminded her of the one that had struck her in the shoulder blades up on the ski hill.

  Charlie crashed into one of the tables full of pots and pans and went down, the cookware clattering around her as everything hit the floor.

  She watched breathless as Lacey pulled the knife blade from her side, dropped it and went after the gun.

  * * *

  SHEP HAD raced down the hallway where he’d last seen Charlie and Lacey. He followed the sound of hurrying footfalls through a maze of hallways. He tried to make sense of what he’d just seen.

  Lacey had shot Greg. Or did she know him as Patrick? There was no doubt that she knew who he was. Otherwise why shoot him? But then again, why shoot him at all, especially on his wedding day? Shep could think of only one reason she would do that. It was all tied to whatever had happened the night Lindy was murdered all those years ago. Tied to why Lacey had come back.

  But now Lacey had Charlie. He knew how she had felt about Charlie all those years ago, how she’d tormented her. More recently, Lacey had tried to scare her. Or was it warn her? Either way she had a gun and Charlie. He thought of the destroyed doll and didn’t even want to contemplate on what malicious feelings Lacey still harbored against Charlie.

  He’d gotten turned around a couple of times and for a few moments, he’d thought he’d lost them for good. He didn’t hear the echo of footfalls ahead of him.

  Then he heard a gunshot on the other side of a door.

  Shep hit the door at a run and burst into a huge hotel kitchen. Lacey was raising the gun, aiming... He rushed forward, thinking only of stopping her at all costs. Before he could reach her, Charlie swung a large cast iron skillet, catching the wrist of Lacey’s gun hand. The gun went flying as Lacey shoved Charlie into a table, and Charlie went down in a shower of pots and pans.

  Lacey saw him and went scrambling toward something on the floor. The gun.

  He ran at her full bore, slammed into her and took them both to the floor. She grabbed the gun, tried to raise it. He shoved her harder to the floor and twisted the weapon from her grip, putting all of his weight on her to hold her down.

  Behind them, he heard Charlie getting to her feet.

  “Why?” she asked as she came over to Lacey. “Why stalk me if you were really after Greg?”

  “You worked with him. I thought you knew,” Lacey said.

  “I didn’t know,” Charlie said, sounding close to tears.

  “You locked her out,” Lacey spat.

  “The back door was open,” Shep said. “Greg came in after he killed your sister. He would have killed Charlie, too, if that policeman hadn’t come to the front when he did. Where were you? Hiding somewhere?”

  Lacey made a sound like wounded animal and began to cry.

  “You were the one who cut my hair,” Charlie said. “It was you. The doll—”

  Lacey cut off her tears with a laugh as brittle as glass and just as sharp. “I cut your hair.” She chuckled. “When I told Cara... It was her idea to cut the doll’s hair. She always wondered about the doll her mother kept on the top shelf in her room and wouldn’t let her touch.” Lacey laughed. “My little sister.”

  Two security officers came running in, guns drawn. Shep handed Lacey over to them and turned to find Charlie still holding the huge cast iron skillet. He took it from her and set it on one of the metal tables.

  They could hear Lacey’s laughter echoing through the hotel. Charlie’s eyes filled as she stepped into his arms.

  EPILOGUE

  THAT FOLLOWING SUMMER, the wedding was small and held in a meadow alive with wildflowers. Shep would have married Charlie sooner, but by the time everything with Lacey was sorted out, he had to get back to school, back to his students, back to teaching. Charlie had needed time to come to grips with the past and look for another job closer to Stevensville, where he was.

  The winter had been long, the spring even longer. It had been a time of healing. Shep talked to Charlie every day as she began to stitch her past and present together. She knew now that she wasn’t responsible for Lindy’s death. So many people were involved in what happened that nig
ht—Lacey at the forefront. Shep and Charlie told the police everything that Lacey had confessed to them.

  But it was a letter that Greg had slipped under Charlie’s hotel room door just before he’d gone downstairs to get married that helped tie up loose ends. He’d been determined to tell her what he’d done. He’d been in love with Lindy. He’d been twenty-four to Lindy’s seventeen. He’d wanted her to run away with him—just as Lacey had found out. What he hadn’t known was that the young woman who came to him that night and broke things off wasn’t Lindy but her identical twin.

  Shep often wondered about Greg’s last few minutes of life as he lay mortally wounded on the floor at his wedding. His expression had been one of shock, according to Lacey. He really must have thought he was seeing a ghost—until he realized the mistake he’d made.

  What Greg must have thought in those last few minutes as he stared at Lacey! Like Charlie had, he must have thought Lindy had returned from the grave for justice.

  In the letter, he told Charlie that he’d wanted to make it up to her—what he’d done to her stepsister and that was why he’d gone to so much trouble to hire her—along with the fact that she was very talented. But the more he was around her, the more guilt he’d felt. He had wanted to confess.

  All Shep could think about when he’d seen the transcript of the letter was the sound of footfalls Charlie had heard on the stairs that night. Had it been Greg and if so, what was he planning to do when he got to Charlie’s room and found her there?

  He’d come into the house, he’d started up those stairs... Had he planned to kill Charlie? Had he been worried that Charlie knew about him and Lindy? Had he worried that she might have seen what he’d done? Had he been worried right up until his death that Charlie knew the truth?

  Kat had called one night after hearing the news about Lindy’s killer having been found. Shep was still in Bozeman with Charlie so she’d put the call on speaker so he could hear.

  “The man was twenty-four,” Kat had said. “What had Lindy been thinking? What had he been thinking? I told Matt I didn’t want children. I told him I would be a horrible mother. I thought when I had Cara that I would get another chance and do it right this time. We all deserve second chances, right?”

  Charlie’d had no answers for her. Neither had Shep. “What will you do now?” Charlie had asked.

  “My husband wants me to come back home with Cara, but I don’t know. Cara wants to be there for her sister’s trial. I don’t think it’s a good idea. Lacey’s been writing her.”

  “You know Cara’s the one who defaced the doll,” Charlie had said.

  Kat had been so quiet, they’d both thought maybe she’d hung up. “I think I’ll take Cara to Europe. It will be good for us both. The farther away the better, don’t you think? At least until the trial is over. Charlie? I’m so sorry.”

  Neither of them had known what else to say. Two months later, Charlie had seen the obituaries in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Kathryn Ramsey and her daughter Cara had died in a suspicious house fire in Spain. They had only been renting the house for a few days. Arson was suspected. The fire was under investigation.

  Charlie had called him to tell him about the fire. “You don’t think Kat would purposely start the fire, do you?” she’d asked.

  “Because she feared that Cara might be like Lacey?” He hadn’t wanted to believe that. “It could have been Cara and she accidentally got caught in it. Didn’t Kat say that Cara and Lacey were writing to each other? Lacey must have some strong resentments toward her mother and maybe even her little sister.”

  Shep hadn’t wanted to think about it. Kat and Cara were gone and Lacey would never see the outside of a prison cell. That part of Charlie’s life was behind her, behind both of them.

  Now, as Shep admired his amazing bride, he couldn’t believe that fate had given them a second chance for happiness. Charlie was the most beautiful thing he’d ever laid eyes on. She’d wanted a wedding in sunshine and she’d gotten it. The day was crystal clear, Montana’s big sky a deep blue over their heads.

  “Do you take this woman to be your bride?” Judge WT Landusky asked in his gravelly voice. The judge had agreed to marry them, coming all the way from New Mexico in his and Meg’s classic VW van, which was now parked at the edge of a meadow. The two of them had looked like old hippies when they arrived, but the judge had changed into a suit and tie for the ceremony.

  “Well?” Landusky snapped.

  “I do take this woman to be my bride,” Shep said around the lump in his throat.

  The judge smiled and looked over at Charlie. “And do you take this man to be your—”

  “Yes!”

  Landusky shook his head and muttered. “You haven’t changed a bit, young lady. All right then,” he said, raising his voice so those gathered could hear. “Then with the authority vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Son, you can kiss your bride!”

  And Shep did. A cheer rose from the meadow, sending birds flying into the summer air. Shep took a mental snapshot as the kiss ended and he looked into Charlie’s eyes. He never wanted to forget this moment. “Hello, Mrs. Shepherd.”

  * * *

  CHARLIE GRINNED AT him, tears in her eyes as he took her hand and they turned toward the small crowd gathered.

  The rest of the day was a blur of hugs and good wishes. The judge and Meg left after the reception in a nearby bar. They’d been traveling around the country in an old VW van the judge had apparently bought Meg for her birthday. Charlie loved how happy they were. The judge swore that Meg had taken years off his life. They were headed for the West Coast, to watch some rock band they wanted to see before the members were too old to take the stage.

  Shep’s friends and her own had attended their wedding. Tara brought her husband and kids, including Charlie’s namesake. Amanda was there with Royce. She’d wanted to be Charlie’s matron of honor, but Tara had already gotten the honor. Amanda had inherited Greg’s money and his company. She and Royce were running it. Tara had quit and gotten another job.

  It was good to see everyone. Charlie was amazed how many of her friends had driven all the way to Stevensville for the wedding. People often forgot just how large Montana was until they tried to drive across it.

  As the reception died down, Shep pulled her aside. “You ready for the honeymoon?”

  She grinned at him. “You’re not going to tell me anything, are you?”

  “Nope. It’s a surprise.” He patted the breast pocket of his Western suit jacket where he’d put the tickets. He had the rest of the summer off from teaching and Charlie didn’t start her new job until September 1.

  “How long is this honeymoon going to be?”

  “For the rest of our lives,” Shep said as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “Buckle up.”

  * * *

  ISBN-13: 9781488056024

  Heart of Gold

  Copyright © 2020 by Barbara Heinlein

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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