Down Home and Deadly (31 page)

I squinted at the photo of the young cop. He looked so familiar. My eyes went to the date of the article. Five years ago. I glanced at the photo again. Suddenly
,
my heart jumped. Even though I’d never heard that name, I knew Eric Richardson.

I didn’t know why these clippings were here, but I did know one thing. I’d promised Amelia I’d let her know if I found out anything about her future son-in-law. And that lopsided grin definitely belonged to Ricky Richards.

I reached behind me for my phone
;
then my hand froze as the second headline caught my eye
:
Local Detective
Exonerated
in Wife’s Murder
. Police detective Eric Richardson had an airtight alibi for the time of his wife’s murder. He and a local businessman were fishing at
Tunica
Lake
during the time of the murder. “I will cooperate with the police in every way to find the murderer of my beloved wife, Judy.”

I pulled my hand back. What purpose would be served by calling Amelia? He’d been through so much. No wonder he’d changed his name. And if the presence of these clippings were any indication, exonerated or not, his past had followed him to
Lake
View
. Had someone been blackmailing him? Even though he’d been cleared, Amelia probably wouldn’t take it very well that he’d been suspected of killing his wife.

I skimmed down the rest of the article. Police had been about to arrest
Richardson
when local businessman, J.D. Finley, came forward with his alibi. I sucked in my breath. Someone had been blackmailing him all right.

But he’d apparently gotten tired of it.

I reached for my phone again. “How could I have been so stupid?”

A searing pain shot through my hand. I jerked around and tried to get to my feet but stumbled onto my knees. A tall shadow loomed over me, a big black boot firmly planted on my hand.

“Too smart for your own good if you ask me,” Ricky snarled. I stared up into the barrel of a gun, complete with silencer. “Asking questions about me was a big mistake.”

“My hand,” I breathed. He ground his boot like he was stomping a bug. I bit my lip to keep from giving him the satisfaction of hearing me cry out, but I couldn’t hold back a whimper. Hot tears spilled onto my cheeks.

“Stand up nice and slow,” he ordered, all trace of ‘good ol’ boy’ gone from his voice.

I cradled my hand against my stomach and pushed to my feet.

“If you’d have kept your nose out of things, this would have all been over.”

“Is that what your wife did?” I asked, blinking the tears away. “Asked too many questions?”

He jerked my arm
,
and I winced. “Judy’s death was an accident! I lost my temper and pushed her. I didn’t mean for her to die.”

“Was J.D.’s death an accident
,
too?” I croaked out.

He laughed
,
and my blood ran cold. “I planned J.D.’s killing down to the last detail.”

“So he was blackmailing you?”

“J.D. did a job and got paid. But he made the mistake of thinking he held all the cards when he
found me again
. At first I went along with him. I paid him what I had left of Judy’s insurance money, but he got greedy.”

He shoved the gun barrel into my ribs. “Too bad Bob’s no-good daughter is in jail. I could set her up for killing you
,
too. Guess you’ll have to have an unfortunate accident instead. I’m sure she hid some of your stuff up in the attic
,
and that staircase is so narrow
.
 
.
 
.
” He nudged me forward.

I dragged my feet, my brain racing. If I struggled
,
he’d shoot me, but as we neared the pool, a memory flashed into my mind. Seth had said Ricky told him, “If God
intended
us to swim, he’d have given us fins.”

We walked by the ten
-
foot marker
,
and I stumbled. He instinctively reached toward me. I slammed my body hard into his, grateful to see the gun go spiraling through the air just before we hit the water. A second later, my bright idea didn’t seem so bright. He couldn’t swim, but he had a death
grip on me. Literally.

In every lifesaving class I’d ever taken
,
we’d learned how to keep someone from drowning you while you were trying to save them. But we’d learned nothing about how to let them drown and save yourself. Not that I wanted him to drown. I just needed him unconscious. Right now, our futures were joined and looking pretty dismal. He
pulled
my head under again.

Suddenly
,
I felt and heard another splash. As my lungs burned for air, I groaned inside. Had he brought an ally with him? A lookout who’d come to rescue him and finish me off? I struggled to the surface and saw that the third person in the water was Seth, who did indeed seem to be trying to rescue Ricky. Panicked, Ricky continued to claw and fight. Seth drew back his fist and clipped Ricky on the jaw.

Ricky’s grip on me immediately relaxed
,
and I scrambled away from the men and over to the ladder. I
climbed
out of the water and
was
debat
ing
running when I spotted the gun at my feet. Just as Seth came out of the water dragging Ricky, I snatched it up and pointed it toward the two men.

Seth’s eyes grew wide. “Jenna Stafford, have you lost your mind? I had no choice but to knock him out. He was drowning me. And you
,
too, for that matter.”

My slippery grip wavered, but I forced myself to hold steady. “Put him down.”

He obeyed me and backed up a step with his hands up. “What did I do?”

“What are you doing here?”

He dropped his gaze to the floor. “Uh. I saw Ricky’s car in the parking lot and yours. And I
.
 
.
 
.
I
.
 
.
 
.
Doggone it, Jenna. I wanted to see if my partner had gone after the girl he knew I—” He dropped his hands. “I wasn’t breaking in or anything. And what about you? Why did you two decide to go for a swim with your clothes on?”

Ricky groaned
,
and I trained the gun on him. I could see the truth all over Seth’s face. All Seth was guilty of was jealousy. Ricky was definitely in it alone. “It’s a long story.” I motioned with the gun toward the newspaper clippings still lying on the floor
in
the closet doorway.

With a wary look at me, Seth walked over and picked them up. I kept one eye on the still unconscious Ricky as I watched Seth read the articles. A gamut of emotions flitted across his face. When he finished
,
his cheeks were red with anger. “He’s the killer?”

I nodded. He picked up his cell phone from the side of the pool and called for backup. Within minutes, sirens wailed through the quiet night.

*****

“Jenna!” Carly waved a paper at me as she and Elliott walked up to the basketball court. “I meant to tell you, this came to the diner yesterday.” She handed me a postcard.

I looked down at the picture, a cartoon of a red mustang and a leggy blond.

“I don’t believe it.” I grinned. “Listen to this. ‘Hey,
c
hickie, I finally planted my roots practically in my granny’s backyard. And the next
-
door neighbor is a really nice fellow. A preacher, no less. Did I mention he’s single? Wink, wink.
Thanks for hanging with me when I was in need of a pal. Jolene.
’
 
”

“A preacher?” Carly shook her head. “That man won’t know what hit him.”

Zac
dribbled his basketball up to us. “Y’all ready to choose teams? I got Elliott.”

Elliott held out his hands
,
and Zac threw him the ball. He passed it to Alex who made a jump shot.

When they were gone, Carly turned back to me. “
Alice
called yesterday. She and Harvey are settling down in
Florida
. She told me they’d found a little diner for sale, so she keeps having to remind
Harvey
what the word
retired
means.”

I smiled. “Sounds like they’re happy. Bob came to the club yesterday. First time he’s been there since we signed the papers three weeks ago. He didn’t come right out and say it, but he hinted that Lisa’s in a twelve
-
step program for her gambling problem. He said something like
,
‘
I
t’ll
take a lot of work, but Lisa’s got a good man behind her,’ so I assume she and Larry are working things out.
Oh, I almost forgot. He also said that Lisa had asked J.D. to take my pictures to the pool closet. Apparently he decided to stash his blackmail stuff there
,
as well.
”

“Well, look who’s here.” Alex walked over from the court to stand beside me as Seth sauntered toward us. He relaxed slightly as Tiffany emerged from the other side of the truck and jogged in Seth’s wake. “Hey, y’all, ready to play?”

Tiffany appeared to have lost weight since Ricky’s arrest, but she wore a smile along with her fitted jeans and cute
T
-shirt. Her hair was pulled into a casual ponytail, but she looked good. And happy.

Seth stepped back to let her go first, and I suddenly remembered him being so defensive with me when he thought I was trying to steal Tiffany’s man. What had he said? That she was a ‘real sweet girl’? Tiffany might get her happy ending after all.

“Hey, Seth. John too scared of gettin’ whupped to show up?” Alex asked.

“Oh, didn’t you hear? Denise went into labor right after Sunday school.”

Carly glanced at me. “Do you think we should go over to the hospital and check on her?”

Seth shrugged. “You can if you want to, but she had the baby about an hour ago
,
and everything’s fine.”

“Wow. That was fast,” I said.

“Yeah. It’s a girl.” Tiffany winked at me. “John said
that
since she was so curious and
impatient
,
he and
De
nise
were thinking of changing their mind
about
what to name her.”

Alex grinned and put his arm around my shoulders. “Let me guess
.
 
.
 
.
”

Seth nodded. “Yep, but then they decided
Lake
View
only had room for one Jenna.”

We all laughed
,
and Seth and Tiffany walked on over to the basketball court.

Alex pulled me close and brushed a stray curl back from my face. “I sure am glad
Lake
View
has you. I can’t imagine our lives if we hadn’t found each other again.”

I stared into his blue eyes
,
and in that moment my whole life seemed to click into place, as if I were seeing the big picture for the very first time.
Alex’
s mother’s words echoed in my head. All the disappointments
and trials
in my life—
not winning the Olympics
, losing a student, and even not buying the health club right away—had
just
been
part of my path. But
God
had taken that path and us
ed it
to b
ring me to where I stood today. In Alex’s arms.

I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Sisters Christine Pearle Lynxwiler, Jan Pearle Reynolds, and Sandy Pearle Gaskin are usually on the same page. And it’s most often a page from their favorite mystery. So when the idea for a Christian cozy mystery series came up during Sunday dinner at Mama’s, they determined to take their dream further than just table talk. Thus the Sleuthing Sisters mystery series was born.

Christine writes full-time. She and her husband, Kevin, live with their two children in the beautiful
Ozark Mountains
and enjoy kayaking on the nearby
Spring
River
. Jan, part-time writer and full-time office manager, and her husband, Steve, love to spend time with their two adult children and their granddogs on the lake or just relaxing at home. Sandy, part-time writer and retired teacher, works with her husband, Bart, managing their manufacturing business. With their daughter off to college, she hopes to devote more time to writing. The three sisters love to hear from readers by e-mail at
[email protected]
.