Seven Deadly Zins

by Nancy J. Parra

  I sneaked a peek. The inside of the house was sparsely furnished. Someone sat in a settee that had its back to the window. I could see that the person sat sideways, her legs and feet handing off the side—at least, they looked like a woman’s legs. From the spiky heeled boots on the feet, I knew it wasn’t Aunt Jemma. A sense of disappointment filled me.

  The person got up, and I caught a glimpse just before I ducked down out of sight.

  “What?” Holly mouthed.

  “It looked like Mandy.” I said in a low voice.

  Holly looked as confused as I felt. “Why would she be here?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I didn’t see anything else.”

  “We can’t do anything until we know for sure your aunt is here. We need some tangible proof.”

  “I know.”

  We heard the back door open and froze. We were at the side of the house and out in the open. All Mandy had to do was look around at the side of the house, and we would be caught. I didn’t think the lost dog story would work on Mandy.

  “Honey, I’m telling you she doesn’t know who we are,” we heard her say. “The blindfold is tight. There’s no way she knows where she is. No, there’s no way anyone knows. I haven’t talked to anyone.” We heard her pacing on the back porch, and we hunkered down closer, our backs pressed to the siding.

  “No, no one’s come up the drive. I promise I’ve been watching. There is no television here and no Wi-Fi. It’s just me and the old lady.” She paused. “No, I’ve not been streaming things on my phone. For goodness sakes, I know what’s at stake here.”

  I looked at Holly, and she looked at me. I went to stand up and confront Mandy, but Holly grabbed my arm and stopped me. She shook her head. I sent her a fierce frown. All I could do was imagine my aunt tied up and blindfolded.

  The door slammed shut and all was quiet. Mandy had gone back inside.

  Holly took my hand and pulled me away from the house to the shed, and then the barn, as we retraced our steps to the car. She unlocked it, and we climbed inside and locked the doors.

  “She has my aunt. Mandy has my aunt. Mandy has been in on this from the start. Think about it! She worked for Hoag. She was conveniently gone when he died. She was there when Dr. Brinkman died. For all we know she is the killer, and she has Aunt Jemma!”

  “We need to call the sheriff,” Holly said emphatically. “We can’t confront Mandy alone. There is no way a conviction would stick. It would be your word against hers, and she has a deputy for a boyfriend.”

  “Well, I am friends with Sheriff Hennessey.”

  “And you were under suspicion for murder just a few months ago.”

  “Fine!”

  “Good!” She said.

  There was a knock on my window, and we both screamed.

  Chapter 27

  “Get out of the car.”

  I looked into Sheriff Hennessey’s face and unlocked my door. “When did you get here?”

  “I wasn’t far behind you two when we talked on the phone.” He straightened. I saw Deputy Hanson standing near the squad car that had stopped on the drive behind where we parked.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” Holly said. “It’s Mandy. She has Aunt Jemma in the house.”

  “How do you know?” Sheriff Hennessey asked. He crossed his arms over his beefy chest.

  “We heard her talking,” I said and mirrored his stance by crossing my arms over my own chest. “She was telling someone on the phone that there was no way the old lady knows where she is or who took her because she is blindfolded.”

  “That sounds suspicious, right?” Holly said. “Go and arrest her.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Sheriff Hennessey said. “We have to have cause.”

  “We just gave you cause …”

  “What I can do is go and knock on the door and see if anyone is home,” he said. “You stay here. Hanson, make sure these ladies stay put.”

  “But what if she doesn’t answer?” I asked. “What if my aunt is in there and dies of a heart attack because Mandy refuses to answer the door?”

  “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said. I watched as he strode up the drive and out of sight.

  “Does Deputy Bloomberg know you are here?” I asked Deputy Hanson.

  “Most likely,” he said. “We let dispatch know we were heading out this way. Why?”

  “That’s why he called Mandy,” Holly said.

  “We think he’s involved and was spying on us,” I said.

  “Why would you think that?” Deputy Hanson asked. “Bloomberg is a straight-up guy.”

  “Really?” Holly said and put her hands on her hips. “Did you know he was one of the inner circle of the Brinkman group?”

  “He was trying to sell this place to the Brinkman group to develop it into a fancy retreat house for self-helpers,” I added.

  “Bloomberg? Why would he do that?”

  “His grandfather is Harvey Winkle, the owner,” I said. “People will do amazing things for money.”

  “You need to go find out what is going on with Sheriff Hennessey,” I said. “He might need backup.”

  “Against a young woman? Did you see anyone else when you were up at the house?”

  “No,” I said, “but we suspect the murderer is Mandy. If she can kill Jeffery and Dr. Brinkman, there isn’t a lot keeping her from killing Sheriff Hennessey.”

  “I think Hennessey can take care of himself.”

  “Well, I don’t,” I said and headed up the drive.

  “You have to stay put,” Deputy Hanson said.

  “You can’t stop us both,” Holly said and followed after me.

  “I can,” he said and pulled his gun. “Stop or I’ll have to shoot.”

  “I’m going to bet you won’t,” Holly said. “Run!”

  We raced up the hill. I glanced back to see Deputy Hanson swear and put his gun back in its holder before chasing after us.

  I got up to the barn and raced straight to the front door of the farmhouse. Sheriff Hennessey was nowhere in sight. I banged on the farmhouse door. “Let me in, Mandy. I know you’re in there. I want my aunt and I want her now!”

  Holly was beside me and banging as well. The door opened and Sheriff Hennessey stood there. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop them,” Deputy Hanson said behind us. He was winded and bent over, putting his hands on his thighs, to catch his breath.

  I pushed past the Sheriff. “Aunt Jemma! Aunt Jemma, it’s me. Where are you?”

  Mandy stopped me as I began to climb the stairs. “What are you doing? Your aunt isn’t here.”

  “She is and I’ll prove it,” I said and raced up the stairway. “Aunt Jemma?” There was a center hall with four doors. I opened the first. It was an empty, old bedroom. I opened the second. A dirty bathroom. I opened a third. Nothing. I went for the last one as Mandy came up the stairs with the Sheriff behind her. “Aunt Jemma!”

  There was a cot in this room, and it looked as if it had been slept in. I searched the room and saw a closet. I reached for the closet door as Mandy grabbed me. “Stop!” she said.

  “I will not stop,” I said. “Shame on you. Shame on you for hurting and scaring an old woman with a heart condition.” I pulled the closet door open and peered inside. It was empty.

  “I told you she wasn’t here,” Mandy said.

  “I’m checking the basement.” I tried to push past Mandy and Sheriff Hennessey, but he stood in my way.

  “You need permission to check,” Sheriff Hennessey said softly, “or you are trespassing.”

  “Fine.” I turned to Mandy. “The only reason you wouldn’t give me permission to check the premises is if you have something to hide. Do you have something to hide?”

  “No,” she said, her eyes narrowing.

  “Good. Then I’ll be checking the basement.” I hurried down the stairs, calling my aunt’s name. I checked the parlor, the small kitchen, and th
e pantry. I opened every door until I found the basement door and turned on the light and went downstairs into the cool musty air of a cellar. Multiple wine barrels were stored down there. The floor was dirt. “Aunt Jemma?” I called her name and thought I heard something.

  “She isn’t here,” Mandy said from the top of the stairs. “Stop this nonsense.”

  “Shush,” I said and put up my hand. “I heard something.” It was dark in the back of the cellar, so I turned on the flashlight on my phone and peered into the darkness behind the barrels. There was a wooden wardrobe the size of a closet. I pulled the door open and found my aunt sitting on the floor of the closet. Her eyes were covered with a cloth, and she had a cloth stuffed in her mouth. “Aunt Jemma! She’s here! Call an ambulance!”

  I heard scuffling behind me as Mandy tried to run. Sheriff Hennessey must have taken care of her. I didn’t pay attention to what was going on. I was fully focused on my aunt. I gently pulled the rag out of her mouth. “Aunt Jemma, it’s me. It’s Taylor. Are you okay?”

  “Water,” she said in a harsh voice.

  “Someone get some water!” I called to the people behind me. I untied the binding on her eyes and carefully helped her out of the closet. She was cold and stiff and had trouble standing.

  By the time I got her up, Sheriff Hennessey had passed Mandy on to someone else and came back to help me get her my aunt up the stairs and onto the settee.

  I gave him a stern look. “I told you she was here.”

  Aunt Jemma put her hand on mine. “I knew you would come for me.”

  “How did they get you?” I asked. “You were on your way to the coffee club and then didn’t show up.”

  “I was stopped by Deputy Bloomberg,” she said. Her voice was shaky. I sent Sheriff Hennessey another look that said, “I told you so.”

  Sheriff Hennessey had his notepad out. “Did he pull you over?” His tone was flat and severe.

  “Yes,” she said. “I was surprised because I didn’t think I was going too fast, but then I was just tootling along, so I wasn’t sure.” She shrugged. “If a police officer pulls you over, you stop.”

  “Then what happened?” he asked.

  “I don’t remember,” she said and looked confused. “He asked for my license and registration. I got it out of the glove box and turned toward him to show him. The rest, well, is fuzzy.”

  “Did he hit you?” I asked and looked for bruising or a knot on her head.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t worry,” Sheriff Hennessey said. “The EMTs will check her out thoroughly. What’s the next thing you remember?”

  “I couldn’t see anything, and my hands were tied in front of me. I think I was on a chair or a bed. I sat up startled, but couldn’t see. I felt the bindings on my face and wondered if I’d been hurt somehow.”

  “Were you alone?” he asked.

  “I called out, and there was someone there. A woman, I think. She had an odd whispery voice. Then the voice changed again, but I swear there was only one person.” She looked at me confused. “Can a person change their voice?”

  “If they use a voice app,” I said. “She must have recorded her voice and played it back.”

  “The next thing I know, she handed me a phone. I thought I heard you, Taylor.”

  “Yes,” I said and held her hand. “I asked for proof you were alive, and they gave me the phone.”

  “I only spoke briefly before I smelled something sweet, and then the next thing I knew, I was woken up, and the woman was demanding I get up. She kept shouting at me and jerking me downstairs. So many stairs. Then it was cold, and I was told to sit and stay quiet. She shoved a rag in my mouth.”

  Holly brought in a glass of water, and Aunt Jemma thanked her and took a few sips.

  “I always thought I would be difficult to kidnap. I’m a fighter. I fight back.” She started shaking.

  “It’s okay,” I said and put my arm around her. There wasn’t a blanket, or I would have tucked her into one. The sound of the ambulance could be heard as it pulled up the drive.

  “Did you recognize the woman’s voice?” Sheriff Hennessey asked.

  “No,” she said and shook her head, frowning. “Should I?”

  “It was an extreme stress,” he said carefully. “Most likely you wouldn’t recognize the voice.”

  She looked at me. “Did you have to pay a lot of money?”

  “No,” I reassured her. “No.”

  “Oh, good.” She held her head. “Good.”

  The EMTs came in and took over, pushing me out of the way. They put a blanket around Aunt Jemma and took her vitals.

  “I’m going to have to get a statement,” Sheriff Hennessey said.

  “I hope you’ve arrested Deputy Bloomberg,” I said.

  “My team has him at the station,” he said, his mouth a grim line.

  “Mandy was at Tim’s the night Jeffery went missing. There’s a beige car in the barn. It looks like it hasn’t been there very long. I think it might be his missing car.”

  “My guys will take care of it.”

  “Mandy was at the theater the night Dr. Brinkman was killed too. He was killed in her dressing room. She must have killed him, cleaned up, and then come back to get me as her alibi.”

  “I said, we’ll connect the dots.”

  “I’m just so angry,” I said and rubbed my forearms. “What was she thinking? Why take Aunt Jemma?”

  “We’ll get the truth,” he said. “You should not have come out here. You put yourself and Holly in danger.”

  “You wouldn’t have found my aunt if I hadn’t,” I said and tried not to accuse him of not doing his job.

  “Miss, we’re ready to take your aunt to the hospital,” an EMT said.

  “Can I ride with her?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “We’ll be talking later,” the sheriff said as I followed my aunt, on a stretcher, out.

  “Holly,” I called to my friend as I walked out. She was on the front porch, her face pale and her arms hugging her torso. “I’m going with Aunt Jemma. Are you okay to drive?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said and waved me on. “I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

  More police cars arrived, filling the weedy lawn. People in uniform were everywhere, opening the barn door and the shed. I climbed into the ambulance and held Aunt Jemma’s hand.

  “You did it,” she said and smiled weakly at me. “I’m so proud of you.”

  I smiled at her and patted her hand. I just wish I had figured it out before they took her. She suddenly looked her age for the first time since I’d moved back home.

  Chapter 28

  “I guess Deputy Bloomberg turned on Mandy,” Chelsea said. “He pled guilty to accessory to murder and kidnapping.”

  “Tim is free,” I said. I glanced at my phone. “He texted to say he’s on his way over with a case of his best wine.”

  We sat in Aunt Jemma’s living area. The sliding glass doors to the patio were open, letting in the soft evening breeze. A fire crackled in the center fireplace. Aunt Jemma was lounging on her pink fainting couch, her white, faux fur blanket tucked firmly around her. Chelsea sat in one flowered, wing-backed chair, and Holly and I were curled up on the big overstuffed couch.

  “He owes me more than wine,” Aunt Jemma said with drama.

  “I can’t believe they were able to drug you so effectively,” Holly said. “Are you still feeling effects?”

  “The doctor said it was propofol and it will be in my system for a few more hours,” Aunt Jemma said.

  “Where did they get the drug, I wonder?” Chelsea asked.

  “Mandy is very manipulative,” I pointed out. “It didn’t take much for her to convince someone to help her. It turns out she was the one who put Dr. Brinkman and the Winkle family together.”

  “Here we all thought she was one of Tim’s ditzy girlfriends,” Holly said. “She really didn’t seem that bright.”

  “I know,”
I said. “I guess we all just assumed there wasn’t much going on behind those blank blue eyes.”

  “Turns out it was all an act,” Chelsea said. “Mandy was also connected to the Senator. It seems she was busy manipulating many people in the county.”

  “Why did she kill Jeffery Hoag?” Holly asked.

  “Deputy Bloomberg confessed to Sarah’s assessment. Jeffery caught Mandy making out with Deputy Bloomberg. He knew she was also the Senator’s mistress and threatened to tell him.”

  “Wait, she was the Senator’s mistress? What was she doing with Tim?” I asked.

  “Apparently, she targeted Tim with her helpless idiot routine to get him to sell so they could increase the size of the Brinkman estate.”

  “Well, she blew it then,” I said.

  “Yes, being caught with Deputy Bloomberg would have blown everything she had been working on,” Aunt Jemma said. “She had to silence him.”

  “How did she kill Jeffery?” I asked. “I’m assuming Deputy Bloomberg helped put him in the vat with the grape must.”

  “He did,” Holly said. “I heard that Mandy hit Jeffery in the head with a bottle of wine. He dropped dead instantly.”

  “She then convinced Deputy Bloomberg to help her put the body in the wine. She was hoping the fermentation would destroy all evidence,” Chelsea said.

  “She didn’t know too much about wine fermentation, did she? I mean alcohol is a preservative,” Holly said.

  “Still, it was brilliant, framing Tim. No one suspected her,” Aunt Jemma said.

  “It was actually Deputy Bloomberg who drove the car off Tim’s property and out to the Winkle barn,” I added.

  “And Dr. Brinkman?” Holly asked.

  “The Senator pulled out of the deal after Jeffery died. He didn’t want any connection to murder,” Chelsea said. “When they lost the zoning backing, Dr. Brinkman told Mandy he was going to propose the group go south to Orange County. He had connections there for a beach retreat.”

  “Mandy didn’t want that?”