Of course, one of the reasons Jamie and I were such good friends was that very capacity of hers to forgive people when they messed up and to not hold a grudge. See, I could be friends with Jamie because she was just a genuinely good person who didn’t hurt others. She could be friends with me because she forgave and forgot when I was prickly and rude.
I pulled up outside the store, all of my earlier excitement gone. Sure, it was possible Luke was still the killer, but Matt’s words had wiggled their way into my brain and made me doubt it. And I just knew in my gut of guts that Luke was going to get a pass for the Katie thing. Because what love-struck seventeen-year-old is willing to turn on her older boyfriend? None.
Ugh.
As usual, Fancy didn’t let me sit and brood, barking her head off and demanding to be let out of the van as soon as we were parked. She dragged me right for the entrance, too, probably eager to see Lulu. Jamie didn’t bring Lulu in every single day the way I did Fancy, but she’d started bringing her in more and more.
Fancy and Lulu were double trouble. They adored each other, but had their moments of insanity, too. Puppy teeth are sharp and Fancy’s paw of doom was not to be underestimated. I let Fancy drag me towards the door, trying to figure out what I was going to say to Jamie.
Should I tell her anything at all?
The breakfast rush had just about ended. Katie was wiping down the tables and taking dishes to the kitchen while Jamie rang up the last customer. I glanced towards the barkery side, trying not to feel sad at how quiet it looked. At least online sales were ticking along nicely…
As soon as the last customer left—a man I didn’t recognize who had the definite look of a tourist with his fancy sunglasses—I let Fancy off her leash. She immediately ran to the cubby where Lulu had been sleeping and the two proceeded to cry and lick and bite at each other.
I almost laughed at the way Fancy’s tail swished back and forth, but instead I turned my attention to Jamie. And Katie; I’d forgotten she’d be there.
Jamie tilted her head to the side. “Hey, Mags. I thought I told you to stay at home today. How’s your grandpa?”
“They should be releasing him in an hour or so. At least Matt, Officer Barnes, let me bring him his meds last night. Who knows what shape he’d be in otherwise.”
“So they really think he did it, huh? Your grandpa? That just doesn’t fit, does it?”
Katie walked back out of the kitchen. “Yes, it does. That man is definitely capable of killing someone.”
I blinked slowly, stunned by her words. My grandpa actually liked her. I couldn’t believe she’d just said that about him. I mean, granted, I’d thought it a time or two myself. And it was probably true, but…Who says that kind of thing?
“He didn’t kill anyone,” I said, lashing out. “It was Lucas Dean.”
Katie dropped the plate she’d been holding and it shattered on the floor just as I realized what I’d said. “Jamie…”
I stepped toward her.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, her hands shaking as she tried to figure out what to do with them. “Luke? He’s not a killer? Why would he…? It can’t be Luke.”
“It wasn’t Luke.” Katie was there next to me, her eyes flashing with anger—the first time I’d seen real emotion from her. She’d picked up a piece of the shattered plate and it must’ve cut her because blood was dripping from her hand onto the floor.
“It wasn’t Luke!” she screeched.
I stepped back from her, finally seeing what I’d missed. She was right. It wasn’t Luke. It was her. It was Katie.
Katie had known about the gun. And the bat. She’d been there when I told Jamie about my grandpa threatening Jack Dunner and about the robber’s cave. She had the same secret to hide. It wouldn’t put her in jail, but if she was in love with Luke…
“You’re right. It wasn’t Luke, was it, Katie?” I took another step back.
Jamie was frozen behind the counter.
“It was you, wasn’t it, Katie?” I asked. “Why did you do it? Why did you kill those two men?”
She tightened her grip on the broken plate and it sliced deeper into her palm, blood flowing in a steady stream to the floor. Part of me wanted to take the plate away from her before she hurt herself worse, but another part of me was sort of hoping she’d lose enough blood to faint because I wasn’t too interested in fighting a teenaged murderess who’d already killed two people.
Jamie started to come around the counter, but I waved her back. “Stay back, Jamie. She’s dangerous. She killed Jack Dunner and Mr. Jackson.”
“Did you? Katie? Why?”
Katie wasn’t looking at anything we could see, but she nodded slowly. “I was going to lose Luke…He said we had to stop…”
She shook her head, like she was trying to clear it of something.
I slowly reached for the cellphone in the outer pocket of my purse, hoping she wouldn’t see it, but she dropped the plate and grabbed a steak knife off a nearby table, lunging at me with it, her eyes wild. “Don’t. Put it away. Over there.” She gestured towards the corner.
I threw the phone away from me, risking a glance towards Jamie who’d started inching her way towards the store phone. All she had to do was get it off the hook and dial 9-1-1. That’s all she had to do. But as she took a step towards the phone, Katie screeched at her and sliced her knife through the air.
“And you!” She swiped at Jamie again. “You were going to take him from me. He loved me until you showed up.” She swiped at Jamie again and I started to back towards where I’d tossed my phone, but Fancy chose that moment to notice what was going on and came running, barking her head off.
I lunged for her collar and pulled her back just as Katie swept her knife towards Fancy. That awoke a fury in me that I could barely contain. “What is wrong with you,” I screamed at her.
I know—this girl had already killed two people and was looking like she was going to try to kill me or Jamie, too, but I didn’t lose it until she threatened my dog. What can I say? I have some very skewed priorities. Plus, Jamie and I could handle ourselves. Fancy…
Well, it turned out Fancy could handle herself, too.
She tore free of my grip and ran right at Katie, snarling. I’d never seen her do that before, but let me tell you that when a hundred-and-forty-pound dog comes at you, teeth bared, it can be downright scary. Scary enough that Katie shrieked, dropped her knife, and ran towards the corner of the store.
Fancy cornered her there, barking her head off in her “you’ve really upset me and I want you to know it” bark. I raced to my cellphone and hit Emergency, but hung up a moment later.
Because pulling into the parking lot outside was Officer Matthew Allen Barnes. My white knight—if he’d been about five minutes earlier, and hadn’t had Lucas Dean with him, seated in the passenger seat instead of cuffed in the back like he deserved.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Fancy. Enough,” I said, cutting through her barking, as Matt and Luke came inside. She glanced back at me, clearly not ready to let it go, but when she saw Matt she wagged her tail and ran over to him. Traitor.
Luke stepped past Matt and Fancy and headed for Katie.
“Luke? What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice trembling as she swayed on her feet, her hand still dripping blood all over the floor.
I almost felt sorry for her then. Almost.
“Katie, what have you done?” He stepped closer, hands held up to calm her.
“I just wanted us to be together…” she whispered. “I just…We were going to go to Mexico when I turned eighteen. Remember? I…” She started weeping. “I just wanted us to be together. I just wanted us to be together.”
“Oh, Katie.” He pulled her close as she sobbed into his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
I glanced at Jamie. She was watching them with a frown, her arms crossed. I realized she still didn’t know about Luke and Katie. I stepped closer. “I saw them together this morning.
At Luke’s house. I thought that meant Luke was the murderer. I came here to tell you.”
Jamie looked at me, dazed. “But…He and I…”
I shrugged, not wanting to remind her in that moment that Luke was a cheaty cheat cheater and was never going to change.
Fancy finally ambled over to my side and I put her back on her leash. The store was a mess, blood all over the floor, tracked there by her giant paws, but I didn’t care. I was just glad to have her back by my side.
I heard sirens and glanced up to see an ambulance pulling up outside. I guess Katie did need it, although honestly I was okay with her bleeding out a little bit more first. (She’d threatened my dog and my best friend. You don’t do that and expect me to care one whit about you.)
Matt saw my look and gave me a half grin and shake of the head as another officer arrived. He turned to brief him, pointing towards Katie and then the ambulance. The officer went over to Luke and Katie and they slowly walked out to the ambulance as Matt came over to join me and Jamie.
“I told you it wasn’t Luke.” He leaned against the counter like he owned it.
I gave him my death stare, but it didn’t faze him one bit. He glanced at the bloody floor. “What exactly happened here?”
I met his unflappable look with one of my own. “Katie didn’t like it either when I said Luke was the killer. That’s when I realized who the killer really was. She grabbed a knife and I think would’ve hurt one of us, but then Fancy came to the rescue.”
I scratched at Fancy’s ears. “Who knew you had it in you, girl?”
She just groaned and leaned into my hand, all signs of her ferocious snarl long gone.
“So Fancy’s the hero of the day, is she?” Matt walked over to the barkery side and grabbed a Doggie Delight out of the case. “I think your mother would agree that you’ve earned a special treat, young lady.”
Fancy sat, waiting for him to give it to her, patient as patient could be, drool forming a puddle at her feet, but Lulu started barking up a storm, not wanting to be left out if treats were on offer.
I shook my head and grabbed her one, too. Dogs. Gotta love ‘em.
Chapter Thirty
I shooed both of the dogs out back into the dog run, figuring we had enough bloody paw prints already, we didn’t need to add to the count. When I came back inside Matt and Jamie were talking quietly, leaning close to one another across the counter. For a brief moment I felt almost jealous, but then I remembered that I was the one who’d told Jamie to go for him. I reminded myself that if Jamie ended up with a guy like Matt that would be the best thing in the world.
Far better than her ending up with Luke. I let them have a moment and then joined them. “Are you going to charge him?” I asked. “For the Katie thing?”
Matt winced. “I don’t know. That’ll depend on what Katie says. We have no photos, remember?”
I glanced at Jamie, not wanting to hurt her, but not wanting to see Lucas Dean get off scot-free for what had happened. “I know what I saw. They were…together.”
Jamie grabbed a rag from the bleach bucket under the counter and started scrubbing at the blood stains. “Nobody’s perfect, Maggie.”
I didn’t want to argue with her. Not today. Not when so much ugliness had already happened. She’d come around eventually, once she really thought about what he’d done, she just needed time to see it.
Instead I turned back to Matt. “By the way, you better make sure to charge Katie with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.”
“For what happened here, today? Wouldn’t that be two counts of attempted murder? And it’s not like she really wanted to kill you guys, she was just upset that her whole world was unraveling.”
“No. Not for today.” I glanced at Jamie. “For the explosion. In the kitchen. I’m pretty sure that was Katie’s fault, too. It was just her and Jamie here that day and she was conveniently outside when it happened.”
Jamie turned back to me, mouth hanging open. “Do you really think…?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I do. I think she was crazy in love with Luke and that when you showed up and he started showing you attention that she wanted you gone so she could have him all to herself again. Jealousy of you was probably what made her snap in the first place. Jack Dunner and Mr. Jackson happened after that.”
Jamie sank into a chair and buried her face in her hands. “How did I not see it?”
Matt squeezed my hand before stepping back. “How about I get your statements later.”
“Thanks. Appreciate it.”
I locked the door after him, flipped the café sign to closed, and grabbed us two beers from the mini fridge. “Come on, Jamie. Let’s go outside with the pups.”
She glanced at the beers in my hand. “It’s not even noon, Maggie.”
“Eh. It’s five o’clock somewhere. And if the last hour didn’t make you want to have a drink, I don’t know what would. Now come on. Let’s go.”
We spent the next hour sitting outside on a gorgeous early summer day, the wind blowing through the trees, trying to make sense of the last few weeks as our dogs slept in the shade nearby. Neither one of us wanted to deal with the mess inside, although we knew we’d have to eventually.
For the time being it was just enough to know that we were both safe and that my grandpa was going to be freed. Jamie still couldn’t wrap her mind around the whole Luke and Katie thing—any of it—and I sort of doubted she ever would. She’s one of those rare people who sees the good in everyone, even the murderers, liars, and cheats. Part of me was glad this hadn’t ruined her. Part of me wished she’d wisen up a bit, especially if Luke didn’t end up spending at least six months in jail for his little affair with Katie.
I did at least manage to convince her to let me ban him from the store for life. It wasn’t much, but it was progress.
As I sat there drinking a beer with my best friend way too early in the morning, I took a deep breath.
My move to Creek hadn’t turned out at all the way I’d thought it would. My grandpa wasn’t the feeble, needy old man I’d believed him to be, but was instead spry, stubborn, and, most surprising of all, in love. The valley wasn’t the haven from the real world I’d always imagined, either. I knew now that people there were full of the same wants and needs, hatreds and loves as anywhere else.
The barkery wasn’t yet the raging success I’d hoped for. There was an annoyingly handsome cop I couldn’t stop thinking about. We were down one shop assistant. Our store was covered in blood. Jamie was probably still in love with Luke…
Despite all that, it was still the best decision I’d ever made to move to the valley. I was glad that my grandpa was probably going to be around a lot longer than I’d thought. And that I lived somewhere with people as real and flawed as I was.
And I was still living in one of the most gorgeous places in the world, running a business I loved, with my best friend in the world and Miss Fancypants at my side. Life wasn’t perfect, but I couldn’t imagine it being much better.
If I could just get through the next month without someone else being murdered, life would be very good indeed.
About the Author
When Aleksa Baxter decided to write what she loves it was a no-brainer to write a cozy mystery set in the mountains of Colorado where she grew up and starring a Newfie, Miss Fancypants, that is very much like her own Newfie, in both the good ways and the bad.
You can reach her at [email protected] or on her website aleksabaxter.com.
To hear about new releases or promotions, sign up for her mailing list.
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by M.L. Humphrey
All rights reserved.
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A Dead Man and Doggie Delights Page 14
