A Killer Cake (22 page)

“Happy to do it,” Moose said. “Do you mind if
we make a stop along the way? I want to check out the tree at the
dry cleaners she supposedly hit.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing that myself,” Paul
said.

We parked the truck once we found the tree in
question, and we all got out to examine the scraped bark.

Paul ran a hand over it. “It doesn’t look too
bad.”

“Honestly, I don’t know how to judge it,”
Moose said. “The way they make cars these days, it doesn’t take all
that much to total them.”

The attorney looked a little unsettled by
that statement, and he was on edge until we got to the shop.

Wayne was surprised to see us so soon. “Back
already?”

“Here’s the owner of the other car you got in
today,” Moose said. “He wants a look at the damage.”

Wayne shook the attorney’s hand. “You need a
new front left fender, but there was one at the parts warehouse, so
I can have you fixed up in no time. Like I told your assistant
earlier, it’s cheaper to pop a new one on this model than it is to
try to repair the old one. She was going to pay cash. Is that still
the way you’d like to handle it?”

He shook his head. “Call this number. My
insurance company will take care of you.”

Wayne shrugged as he pocketed the card.
“That’s fine. It’s all the same to me.”

“When will it be finished?” Paul asked.

“If it weren’t for the sheriff, I’d be done
with it by the end of the day,” Wayne told him.

Paul looked surprised to hear that, and I
suddenly realized that we hadn’t told him about the possibility
that Kelly had used his car in an attempted vehicular homicide.

After I brought him up to speed, Paul
frowned, and then he asked Wayne, “Do you have a vehicle I can rent
in the meantime?”

“We’ll be glad to take you wherever you need
to go,” Moose said.

“I appreciate the offer, but I’m going back
to my office in Charlotte. My associate will make the trade-off
when he comes to take over here for me.”

“Rebecca will be disappointed to hear that
you’re leaving,” I said.

Paul shook his head. “No more than I am. I
won’t give up on her that easily, though,” he added with a
grin.

“That sounds good. I’m betting that she’ll
appreciate your efforts.”

We left Paul Gray at the garage and headed
back to the diner. Moose and I still wanted to speak with Sylvia
and Asher, but if they kept dodging us, we didn’t have much choice
but to bide our time.

As for Kelly, she was now a prime suspect,
more than ever, in fact.

Chapter 16

“There you are,” Sylvia Jones said
breathlessly as we got out of the truck back at the diner. “I’ve
been waiting for you forever!”

“What a coincidence,” Moose said. “We’ve been
looking for you, too. We hear you were in an accident today.”

“What? Who told you that? I’m fine.”

“You’re car is in the shop right now,” I
said.

Sylvia waved a hand at us dismissively.
“Asher must have done it. Why am I not surprised that he didn’t
tell me about it? Moose, Victoria, you’ve got to do something about
him. I hate to say it, but my son has lost his mind. He’s
dangerous!”

“Calm down, Sylvia,” Moose said. “Would you
like to come in and tell us what happened?”

“I can’t,” she said as she looked wildly
around the parking lot. “It’s not safe.”

“It will be safer inside than it is standing
out here in the open,” I said. “If Asher comes into the diner,
we’ll protect you.”

“Do you promise?” she asked. “I hate not
feeling protected from my own son.”

“We’ll look out for you,” Moose said.

When we walked in, Moose nodded toward
Martha, but we didn’t stop to chat. My grandmother read the clue
beautifully again and gave us our space. Moose led us back to a
booth near the kitchen, and I approved of his choice. We could all
sneak back there in a heartbeat if Asher approached, and I didn’t
care how crazy he might be; I doubted that he’d tackle Greg when my
husband had access to so many sharp and dangerous weapons.

I fetched us all coffee, and after Sylvia
took a big gulp of hers, Moose said, “Tell us what happened.”

“When Asher found out about Loretta last
night, he snapped. He told me that he was going to scare her off if
it was the last thing he did, but when he came back to the house
later, he said that it had backfired. Evidently Loretta is more
like her father than any of us originally thought.”

“So, you believe her story?” I asked.

“What, that Roy was her father? There’s no
doubt in my mind that it’s entirely possible. After all, my
ex-husband wasn’t known for his self restraint.”

“What exactly did Asher say today that has
upset you so much?” Moose asked.

“He was ranting like a lunatic about her all
morning, and nothing I could say helped. I urged him to let the
attorneys handle it, but he took it as a personal affront that she
was going to share in his inheritance. Asher kept asking me why he
should share it all with anyone else, since he’d been the one who’d
done all of the work.”

What an odd thing to say. “Did you have any
idea what he meant by that?”

“He couldn’t have killed his own father,”
Sylvia said without the slightest conviction in her voice. “It’s
impossible.”

I wasn’t so sure, but this wasn’t the time or
place to bring that up. There were more pressing things to deal
with at the moment. “He couldn’t have been all that happy about
Kelly Raven inheriting half of it all, either,” I said.

Sylvia shook her head. “If I were her, I’d
hire a bodyguard, or maybe even two. Asher said that after he’s
done with his sister, he’s going after her. He isn’t planning on
sharing Roy’s estate with anyone.”

“But legally, there’s nothing he can do about
that,” Moose said.

Sylvia looked as though she were about to
cry. “I told him that, and he said that if the judicial system
wouldn’t see things his way, he’d take care of everything himself.
After he said that, Asher grabbed the keys to my Jaguar and stormed
out. I thought he’d gone out to blow off some steam, but then I
heard about what happened to Loretta on the radio.” Sylvia drank a
little more coffee, and then she asked, “Is it bad?”

“She might die,” I said. It was a fair
assessment, based on what we’d heard over the sheriff’s radio.

“Oh, no. What am I going to do?”

“We need to call the sheriff,” Moose said.
“And I mean right now.”

“He’s probably still at the accident scene,”
I said.

“I have a hunch that he’ll come running if he
hears what Sylvia has to say about her son. Go ahead and call him,
Victoria.”

I nodded, but before I dialed, I asked
Sylvia, “Are you sure that you’re okay with this?”

“I can’t handle him anymore myself,” she
said, and she finally started to quietly cry next to me.

Sheriff Croft picked up on the second ring
and said, “Victoria, I was just about to come by the diner. I’m not
a minute away. Can it wait until I get there?”

“That’s fine. We’ll tell you then.”

“Tell me what?” he asked.

“It’s about Asher.”

“Hang on. I’ll be there in a second.”

The sheriff took nearly a minute to make it
to The Charming Moose, and the second he walked in, he spotted us
and walked straight to our booth in back. “What’s going on?”

“Do you want to tell him, or should we?” I
asked Sylvia.

“It’s my son,” she said as she dabbed at her
tears. “He’s lost his mind. I’m afraid of what he might have done,
or what he might still do.”

“Explain,” the sheriff said.

Sylvia did a credible job of bringing him up
to speed, with just a few interjections from my grandfather and me.
She finally ended with, “You’ve got to find him and stop him.”

“We’ll do our best,” Sheriff Croft said. He
stood and moved away from us so he could have some privacy.

“Will he be able to find Asher, do you
think?” Sylvia asked.

“He’s very good at what he does,” I replied,
trying my best to reassure her. I was glad she hadn’t added
anything to her question. I’d been thinking the same thing myself,
only my question had been, ‘Will he be able to find him in time?’ I
wasn’t one of Kelly’s biggest fans, but I was now fearful for her
life. I took a chance and called her number, but there was no
answer. If she had Caller-ID—and who didn’t these days—it wouldn’t
surprise me at all if she’d declined to pick up when she saw who
was calling her. I left a quick message telling her to find the
sheriff, no matter what, and hoped that I’d been able to reach her
time. Moose had listened in as I’d left the message, and he nodded
his approval as I hung up. “That’s good thinking.”

“Asher wouldn’t really hurt her,” Sylvia said
aloud, no doubt more to convince herself than the two of us.

“We’re just taking every precaution,” Moose
said. There was a reassuring tone to his voice that always amazed
me. How did he do that?

The sheriff walked back over to us, and I
told him, “I just called Kelly Raven, but she didn’t pick up.”

“I’ve got a man on his way to her apartment
right now,” Sheriff Croft said.

“What about my boy?” Sylvia asked.

“I’ve got officers out looking for him, too.
That’s all we can do right now.”

“How’s Loretta doing?” Moose asked.

“It’s still touch and go,” the sheriff said.
“There’s no doubt that it was deliberate, though. Somebody wanted
her dead.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“There were no skid marks at the crime scene
except hers, and from the look of her car, I’ve got a feeling that
she was tapped more than once before her car finally went over that
embankment.”

It just amazed me what people could do when
they were driven by greed. How much was another life worth? How
about two or three?

“If that’s it, I’m going out on patrol
myself,” the sheriff said. “First, I have to stop by the garage and
have a look at those cars, though.” His radio squawked, and he
said, “Excuse me,” as he stepped aside.

“What’s that all about?” Sylvia asked
hopefully. “Have they found my Asher?”

“We’ll know in a second,” I said.

The sheriff walked back, and from the
troubled frown on his face, it was clear that the news hadn’t been
good.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Kelly Raven’s apartment door was standing
wide open when my officer got to the scene. It appears that there
was some kind of struggle there.”

“Was it Asher?” Sylvia asked, the dread thick
in her voice.

“We have no idea. There were no witnesses.
I’ve
really
got to go now.”

“What about me?” Sylvia shrieked. “You can’t
just leave me here alone! He might come after me next.”

The sheriff shrugged. “I can’t do anything
except lock you up in one of my cells for your own protection. I
don’t have a single officer I can spare to look after you right
now.”

“You want me to go to jail? I won’t!” she
said adamantly.

“Are there any friends you could call?” he
asked. It was clear that there were other things the sheriff would
rather be doing than babysitting Sylvia Jones.

“To harbor me and keep me safe? No, there’s
no one.”

How sad was that? I was about to offer her
our sanctuary at the diner when Moose said, “Come on, Sylvia, I
know that you’re friends with Anita Bidwell. Call her.”

“I couldn’t,” Sylvia said. “How can I explain
what’s happening?”

“You’ll find the words. I’ve got a better
idea. Why don’t I just take you over there in my truck? She’ll have
a harder time turning you down if you just show up on her
doorstep.”

“Are you suggesting that I visit her without
even phoning first?” Sylvia looked even more horrified by that
prospect than she’d been about spending time locked up in jail.

“You don’t have much choice, Sylvia,” I
said.

“It’s as good a plan as any,” the sheriff
said.

“I don’t suppose I have any real choice, do
I?” she asked.

“It’s going to be all right,” he told her,
and then my grandfather turned to me and added, “I’ll be back
before long.”

“Be careful,” I answered.

Two minutes after they left, my cell phone
rang.

It was Wayne at the garage. “Hey, Victoria.
Do you have a minute?”

“Sure, always for you,” I said.

“Would you mind coming over to the shop?
There’s something here you should see.”

“Can you give me a hint what it is?” I asked.
I didn’t like going anywhere without Moose when it concerned the
case we were investigating.

“Believe me; you’re going to want to see this
for yourself. It’s easier to just show you than to explain it to
you, if you know what I mean.”

I made an executive decision right then and
there. After all, the repair shop was out in the open. How
dangerous could it be going by myself? “I’ll be there in five
minutes,” I said.

“That’s great,” he answered.

As I approached the front, Martha asked,
“Victoria, are you leaving so soon?”

“I’m going to go see Wayne at the repair
shop,” I said. “Send Moose over there when he gets back, would
you?”

“I’d be happy to. Should I have him call you
first?”

I pulled out my telephone and saw that it was
nearly out of its charge. “Do me a favor and put that in the
charger for me, would you? I’ll pick it up when I get back.”

“Do you want mine in the meantime?” she
asked.

“Since when did you start carrying a cell
phone around with you?”

“Don’t tell your grandfather,” she said with
a grin. “I’m going to keep it a secret as long as I can.”

“He won’t hear it from me. Thanks, but I’m
sure that I’ll be fine,” I said.

“I hate to sound ungrateful, Wayne, but have
you told the sheriff what you’re about to share with me?”