Death by Pumpkin Spice (27 page)

“Margaret,” I warned as she took a step toward her car. “Don't make me.”

She snorted. “Make you what, dear? Text me to death?”

My grip tightened on Paul's phone. “Don't do this,” I said. “I know about Elaine, about Howard's will.” Or least, I thought I knew. I was mostly bluffing, hoping Paul would secure Christian before Margaret got away.

Her jaw clenched and she pulled the briefcase closer to her. “He gave her everything!” Barely suppressed rage made her quake. “I stuck with him despite everything. The house. The women. And he gives it all away to some . . . some . . .
child
he made with a tramp who didn't understand the basic concept of contraceptives.”

“So you decided to have her killed.”

Margaret's eyes narrowed. I think she was trying to determine if Philip had turned on her, or if I was simply guessing. In the end, she must have decided it didn't matter either way.

“This is all Howard's fault.” She started for the car.

“Margaret!” I shouted, but this time, she didn't stop.

The struggle was still going on behind me, Paul cursing nearly nonstop. Even partially zip-stripped, Christian was putting up a good fight. It meant he wasn't going to be able to help me, and since Buchannan—and more than likely most of the small police force—were busy keeping Elaine Harmon safe, I had to stop her by myself.

Knowing no help was on the way, I did the only thing I could think of.

“Catch!” I shouted, throwing Paul's phone at Margaret's head. She ducked, surprised by the heave, and the phone sailed harmlessly past her.

It was a good thing hitting her hadn't been my intent.

The moment her eyes were off me, I charged forward. With a primal scream, I went to dive over the hood of the car to tackle Margaret. I, of course, didn't put enough oomph behind my leap and landed on the hood instead of on the fleeing woman. I slid a few inches and then
rolled
down and on top of Margaret. We went down in a tangle of limbs, and I cracked my chin a good one on the concrete.

“Get off of me!” Margaret shouted, but I remained where I lay, mostly because my head was spinning, and partly because I was afraid she'd take off running the moment she was free. There was no way I was going to chase her down, age difference or not.

When I didn't move, Margaret sank her teeth into my right arm.

I screamed, surprised by how hard she'd bitten me. This wasn't your typical feeble old lady. She bucked under me, causing me to partially roll off her. I grabbed her by the arm and started to reach for the briefcase when she swung it.

I tried to duck, but I was already low to the ground as it was. The briefcase hit me upside the head hard enough to cause my neck to jerk back, slamming the back of my head into the front bumper of the Lexus.

My grip on her loosened and she tried to slither away, but I grabbed her again and reapplied my weight to keep her down. She wasn't going to get away, not as long as I was conscious.

Margaret opened her mouth as if she was going to bite me again when a shadow fell over us. She looked up, savage snarl forming on her lips, and then just like that, it all died away. She went limp beneath me and released her grip on the briefcase.

“It's not fair,” she mumbled before bursting into tears.

“It's okay, Krissy,” Paul said from above me. “You can get off of her now.”

I didn't think I could stand, so I rolled off her, once more hitting my head on the pavement. “Ow,” I grumbled, closing my eyes as Paul began to read Margaret Yarborough her rights.

28

There were children everywhere.

Rita stood beside me in the parking lot of the local church, talking nonstop about my discovery of not just the killer, but the person behind the entire fiasco. She was impressed, as she always was whenever I do something. I imagine I could have baked a batch of cookies and gotten a round of applause from her.

I nodded in all of the right places and did my best to answer her whenever she had a question, but my heart wasn't in it. I was so over Margaret Yarborough and the mess she caused because she didn't want to give up what she viewed as her inheritance to a girl who was deserving of it.

Andi and Georgina stood on one side of Rita, listening raptly to her as she gushed over my involvement in the case and how her tip led to the arrest of Philip Carlisle, who still insists he committed the crime of his own volition. Even after she'd all but abandoned him, the guy was loyal to Margaret. True love? I suppose even killers needed someone to care about.

“Trick or treat!” A pair of miniature ghosts appeared before me.

“Terrifying!” I said with a mock shudder as I deposited a piece of candy in each of their bags. They giggled and ran off.

As soon as they were gone, I rubbed at the bandage on my arm where Margaret had bitten me. It still itched. I hadn't realized it at the time, but she'd broken skin. My head hurt, but not as much as the darn bite. With the way it was starting to itch and burn, I was afraid it might get infected.

Will won't let that happen.
I smiled, thinking of how he'd bandaged me up, tsking over and over again, though I could see the pride in his eye.

“Here you go,” Lena said, handing candy to a ten-year-old priest. The girl was as cute as could be, and her grin caused even the normally somber Adam to smile where he stood at the back of the group.

The trunk or treat was going better than I'd expected. Parents were happy to let their children run free as they retrieved candy from the groups present. There were games on one end of the lot, things like pin the tail on the werewolf, that had many of the children screaming in laughter. I didn't even know there were that many kids in Pine Hills, though I suppose many of them had come from nearby towns.

My car sat behind us, trunk filled with candy. While all of the other cars in the lot had candy in them, most were using bags to hold it. Rita had insisted on dumping the candy out into the trunk, claiming it was tradition, which was supposed to make it all right. I knew I was going to find rotten candy hidden in the corners of the trunk for the next ten years.

My eyes traveled along the parking lot as a break in the kids appeared. The church itself had its own car. The local preacher and a few old ladies were handing out candy, smiling and treating everyone with kindness, even the kids dressed as demons and devils. No one was left out here, no matter race, gender, or religious beliefs. It was enough to make me smile. The sense of community was overwhelming.

“There's Officer Dalton!” Rita said, waving at him. “He's the arresting officer, you know?” she told Andi and Georgina, who nodded knowingly.

I really didn't want to look, but my eyes betrayed me. Paul was with a few other cops, including John Buchannan, who was actually smiling as he passed out candy. Paul looked up at nearly the exact same moment I glanced over, as if he'd heard Rita's exclamation. Our eyes met. We both blushed. And then the moment was gone as we both looked away to focus on the latest beggar.

“Here you are,” I told a boy who had to be at least eighteen, dressed like Cinderella. He curtsied and then moved on.

I looked past him to the pink car parked two spaces away. It was the most popular, and with good reason. Jules was dressed in full-on super candy mode. He wore a red-and-white-striped suit, with matching hat and tie. And the candy he was giving out put everyone else's to shame. I wished we would have been placed next to each other because I really would have liked to talk to him, rather than listen to Rita extoll my virtues.

“And then she tackled her, without worrying about hurting herself. Look over here a second.” Rita grabbed my chin and turned it so a pair of middle-aged women I didn't know could see the scab there from where my chin had struck pavement. “And here.” She let go of my chin and nearly yanked my arm out of its socket to show the bandage.

“I'll be right back,” I said as the women oohed and aahed. “There's something I need to do.”

“Don't be too long!” Rita said, before going back to her story.

I scurried away and headed for the police car. While I knew they had the killer and his accomplices, I still didn't know what had happened to them, or to Elaine for that matter. Had Margaret sent someone else after her? Or had she and her lawyer taken the money and were going to make a run for it? I was determined to find out.

“Hi, Krissy.”

I froze as Will approached, leading a little girl by the hand.

“Will,” I said, face flaming as if he'd caught me smooching Paul Dalton in the closet. “What are you doing here?”

He smiled. “My niece.” He turned to the girl in question. “Gemma, say hi to Krissy.”

“Hi, Krissy!” She was six at the most, and cute as a button. She was wearing a Batgirl costume and holding a bag with Wonder Woman on it.

“Hi, Gemma,” I said. “Are you getting a lot of candy?”

“Yeah!” She sounded excited, which was understandable. I would have loved going to something like this when I was a kid. “See!” She opened her bag so I could peek in.

“Wow,” I told her. “That
is
a lot!”

She giggled and went sorting through her bag, adults forgotten.

I turned my attention back to Will. “I didn't know you had any siblings.”

He shrugged. “It never came up. My sister would have been at the costume party, but she was out of town for work. I'm glad she didn't come, though. It was bad enough my parents were there for that.” He looked glum for a moment before smiling. “But we all made it through it okay.”

“Yeah.” Other than Jessica Fairweather, that was.

“Come on, Willy.” Gemma tugged at his hand. “I want to see the funny man.” She was looking at Jules, who was tap dancing in front of his car, Lance looking on fondly.

Will smiled and gave me a helpless shrug. “I'll talk to you later, okay?”

“Sure. Have fun.”

He let himself be led away. I watched him go with a contented sigh. He was good with kids and looked natural with Gemma. I could see him as a doting father someday.

My stomach tightened at
that
thought, and I turned to find myself looking at the police car where Paul was busy handing out candy. I no longer wanted to go over and talk to him, afraid that Will might take it the wrong way. He knew we'd gone on a date, which means he knew we might still care for one another. I really didn't want to screw up a good thing.

“Torn, huh?”

I jumped and turned to find Chief Dalton dressed in full uniform smiling at me.

“I don't know what you are talking about,” I said.

“Sure you don't.” She laughed and then tipped back her hat. “You are becoming quite a celebrity around here. One more solved murder and we might have to build you a statue.”

I blushed. “It's nothing.”

“Right.” She sighed and shook her head. “I don't know what I'm going to do with you. Sometimes, I want to kiss you, others, I want to smack you so hard upside the head, you get whiplash.”

“I'm just a coffee shop girl.” Lately, it was starting to feel as if I was anything but. “How is Elaine?”

Chief Dalton rubbed at her chin as she scanned the mass of children. “She's good. Inherited everything apparently. Since Mrs. Yarborough is going to be spending the rest of her life in a cell, she'll even get the house.”

“Is that legal?” I paused, thinking how stupid it sounded to ask a cop that. “I mean, wouldn't Margaret still have control of the house, even locked up? She's not dead.”

“That, she isn't,” she agreed. “But she never did have any real claim to the house. Apparently, it was solely in her husband's name and he had a provisional clause in his will that stated that if anything were to happen to her—including incarceration, if you can believe it—Elaine was to receive everything.”

“Wow.” I thought about that a moment. “I guess he never really trusted his wife, did he?”

“Not at all. She was left almost completely out of the will. If she would have left well enough alone, she would have lived comfortably, but not as comfortably as Elaine and her mother. She couldn't stand for it, though. She hired Mr. Carlisle to kill the girl who was standing in her way of a fortune.”

“Where do you find a hired killer, anyway?”

Patricia snorted. “She didn't. As far as we can tell, the only person Mr. Carlisle has killed was Ms. Fairweather. Everything else was just boasting and rumor.”

“Huh.” Go figure. “I would have thought the Yarboroughs being married would have meant Margaret would have a bigger say in the fate of the estate.”

“It was all part of the prenup she agreed to when they were first married. And with everything that happened, you can bet Mr. Yarborough knew what his wife was capable of and made precautions against it.”

“Krissy.”

I groaned and turned to see the last person I wanted to talk to standing nearby, a sheepish grin on his face.

“I'll let you two chat,” the chief said before walking away with a knowing chuckle.

“What do you want, Robert?” I'd thought he'd left town—
hoped
for it, actually—but apparently he hadn't. “I'm kind of busy right now.”

“I won't take up much of your time.”

I resisted the urge to say, “Too late.” But there was no sense in starting a fight. I crossed my arms and waited for him to tell me what he had to say so he could go away, preferably for good.

“I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stalked you like that.”

Surprise warred with my distrust. “No, you shouldn't have,” I said, and then added, “but thank you.”

“And I shouldn't have cheated on you.” He looked down at his feet. “I was wrong to lie to you about it. I should have owned up to it right away.”

Darn it. I was finding it harder and harder to hate him, the jerk. “It's okay, Robert. It's all in the past now.”

“I guess I just want to know if you'll ever see it in your heart to give me another chance?” He looked up, trying his best to look like a sad puppy, begging for his master's forgiveness.

I wasn't buying it. I'd seen that look before and it always led to no good. “Robert, I have no interest in dating you. I'm sorry, but I just don't.”

The puppy-dog eyes cracked and turned hard. “You'll change your mind,” he said. He looked around the church parking lot, nodding as if in approval. “I like it here. I think I might stay.”

And with that grand declaration, he turned and walked away.

“Great,” I grumbled, heading back for my car. Just what I needed, Robert hanging around, hounding me to get back with him. Maybe I could sic Buchannan on him.

I resumed my place at Rita's side and proceeded to hand out candy to the smiling faces. Even after everything, I found myself smiling right back. Despite Robert, despite the recent murder, and despite my indecision over two great men, things were looking up for me. Life was good.