Illegally Iced (27 page)

“But we know that Forrest is armed with a gun that actually has bullets in it.”

“What can we do? We’ll just have to sneak up behind him and disarm him. I know it’s not a perfect plan, but we can’t just stand by and watch someone murdered while we’re waiting for the infantry to show up. Grace, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“I’m going wherever you go,” she said.

“Then let’s do this before we lose our nerve, or something else bad happens out there.”

We raced outside and did our best to hug the tree line so that Forrest wouldn’t spot us coming. As we got within range, Rebecca saw us. Her eyes widened for just a moment, but she managed to kill her expression before Forrest caught on.

I was within three feet of him when my foot hit a fallen branch on the ground. As he started to turn at the sound of the snap, I rushed toward him and shoved the antique gun into his back so that he couldn’t see my weapon. “Drop it, Forrest.”

“You don’t understand,” he said.

“Shoot him! He wants to kill me!” Rebecca shouted.

“You’re the murderer!” Forrest protested.

“If that’s the truth, then who has the gun?” she yelled back.

At that moment, I wasn’t entirely certain who to believe, but Rebecca’s argument was a powerful one.

“This is the last time I’m going to tell you, Forrest. Throw your weapon over there, or I’m going to shoot.”

Was he going to call my bluff, or do as I’d asked? I waited three heartbeats before I saw him start to lift the weapon. If he spun and fired at me now, I was dead, and I knew it.

After another moment of hesitation, he chucked the gun over into the woods.

At least now we were all unarmed.

“What happens now?” Forrest asked in a voice filled with resignation. “You’ve made a huge mistake, you know.”

“My boyfriend will be here anytime,” I said. “He can sort things out when he gets here.”

“Jake’s coming?” Rebecca asked.

“Even as we speak,” I said.

That’s when she dove for the gun.

Forrest had the same idea, but he was just a shade too late.

When Rebecca came up with it, I found that we were both staring down each other’s barrels. “There’s nothing you can do now. It’s still a stalemate,” I said.

Rebecca just laughed. “It might be if you knew how to load one of those pistols, let alone fire it. Those particular weapons haven’t been fired in seventy-five years, I’m willing to wager.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I’m a bit of a gun nut. I thought for sure your friends from Napoli’s must have told you. I saw them at the firing range just the other night.”

That’s when I remembered that Angelica had told me that a woman from April Springs had been at the shooting range in Union Square when we’d seen her there.

It was clear that Rebecca knew what she was talking about. Then again, if she
was
bluffing, I wasn’t willing to call her on it.

I lowered my weapon and dropped it just as I heard Grace’s fall near mine.

“There, now isn’t that better?” she asked.

“Jake is still coming,” I said.

“I doubt it. I think you’re trying to bluff me again. What are you going to do, try to drag this out until someone notices that you’re both gone and comes looking for you two?”

It would be in my favor for Rebecca to believe just that, so I dropped my head in defeat as I said, “You’re right. He’s not coming.”

My captor smiled broadly at me. “I didn’t think so. Now, who wants to go first? I believe we’re going to have a little murder-suicide scenario here. Forrest, you’re the murderer, so you go last. Suzanne, would you like to be his first victim, or should I shoot your best friend, Grace, first?”

“Shoot me,” I said, nearly at the same time that Grace echoed the exact same words.

Rebecca found that amusing for some reason. “I get it. Friends to the end. You two really are BFFs, aren’t you? It’s just a shame that forever didn’t last nearly as long as you must have hoped.”

I took a step toward her, hoping to rush her before she could get more than one shot off. If I took the first bullet, it might allow Grace and Forrest a chance to escape into the nearby woods. The plan had the added bonus that if Rebecca didn’t kill me outright, I might be able to wrestle the gun away from her. It wasn’t much of a strategy, but it was all that I had.

The only problem was that I wasn’t close enough yet.

I had to stall her until I could get close enough to limit the damage she could do.

“Why did you kill James, Rebecca? You’re a pretty woman, and there are lots of other men in the world. Surely you could have found a replacement easily enough.”

“Not like him,” she said. “I begged him to take me back, but he kept insisting that all he wanted was your friend Trish. I couldn’t believe that I cried all of those tears for nothing.”

“Did you already do something to Trish?” I asked. No matter what her answer was, I just had to know the truth before I died.

Rebecca scowled when she heard my question. “I tried to, but when I went by her diner today, I found out that she was closed for the day. She wasn’t at home by the lake, either. Don’t worry. I’ll find her right after I finish with the two of you. She won’t know what hit her.”

“If you and James were fighting,” I heard Grace ask, “how did you manage to get so close to him in the park? He had to be suspicious.”

“That man was so naïve. I told him that I was sorry, and then I said that I wanted one last hug for old time’s sake. As I moved close to him, I wrapped one arm around him as I drove the skewer into his chest with the other.”

“What I can’t figure out is how no one saw you do it,” Grace said, her voice moving away from me. Was she planning to do something on her own? I had to move quickly now before she had a chance to act. I wasn’t about to let her save me if I could help it.

“I was as shocked as you were. After I stabbed him, he just stood there silently clutching his chest. I turned and started to walk away, and I was nearly back to my car when I heard the first scream. I saw you as you looked up from the donut shop, but you must not have seen me. I almost killed you that night, Suzanne, but I wasn’t going to do anything until I could wrap up the rest of my loose ends.”

“Why do you want to kill Forrest, though?” I asked.

“Go on. You can answer that better than I can,” she said to her third captive.

“She was blackmailing me,” he said simply. “James told her about something that I’d done in confidence, and the moment he was dead, she decided that it was time to collect.”

“And you refused to pay her off?” Grace asked as I took another single step forward. I was almost there now.

“I forked over the money the first time,” Forrest said. “But then she got greedy. I told her I wasn’t going to pay her another dime, and she wouldn’t allow it.”

“Did your mother see what happened? Is that why she left here in an ambulance?” I asked.

“What? What are you talking about?” he asked me.

“Your mother had some kind of attack. An ambulance came and got her, and she’s in the hospital right now.”

“Mother! What did you do to her?” Forrest yelled at Rebecca as he threw himself at her. She was as shocked as Grace and I were, and she took a step back as he dove toward her.

Just as the shot rang out, Grace and I tackled Rebecca from either side, and the gun went flying through the air. There had been no thoughts of escape from either one of us. Once again, I was proud to call Grace my friend, and I was even more thrilled that our relationship would live on past today.

*   *   *

Jake got there two minutes after Rebecca shot Forrest. He had his gun drawn when he came around the corner, and the moment he saw us, I yelled, “Jake, it’s okay. I have her covered. She just shot Forrest, and she’s the one who killed James.”

“I’ll call for an ambulance,” he said, and did so as he continued to point his gun at Rebecca’s heart. After he hung up, he barked at me, “Keep that pointed at her, too. If she so much as blinks, shoot her. Can you do that?”

“I’m ready and willing,” I said, though in truth I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to. Then again, if she threatened Jake or Grace, I had to believe that I could overcome my reluctance and do exactly as I’d been told.

Jake knelt down and applied a compress made out of his jacket to Forrest’s chest.

“Is it bad?” Forrest asked as he lay there. “I can barely feel my chest.”

“Give it a second,” Jake said as he continued to apply pressure. “When it hits, it’s going to feel like you’ve been kicked by a mule.”

“Am I dying?”

“I don’t think so,” Jake said, “but then again, I’m not a doctor.”

He started to try to get up, but Jake easily held him down with one hand. “Stay right where you are.”

“But Mother is in trouble,” he said. “I have to be with her.”

In the distance we heard the ambulance sirens, so I said, “I think that’s exactly where they’re going to take you.”

After the EMTs arrived and started taking care of Forrest, Jake took my hand and lowered the gun I was still holding on Rebecca. She had been surprisingly silent the entire time, and I had to wonder if she was in a state of shock herself. It was most likely one thing shooting at targets and silhouettes, but something else entirely when it was a real live person.

Jake cuffed her, and then he said to me, “Why don’t you follow me to the local police station? I need to deliver this package, and then the two of you can give your statements, too, while we’re there. Are you both up to it, or should we have you checked out at the hospital as well?”

“We’re fine,” I said. “Right, Grace?”

“A little jumpy maybe, but overall, I’m just peachy keen.”

“Good. I’m glad you’re both okay.”

“Not as much as we are,” I said.

I looked at the antique pistols still lying there in the grass and thought about retrieving them, but ultimately I decided to let someone else do it. I’d had my fill of guns for the moment, and I wasn’t in any hurry to pick one up again anytime soon.

*   *   *

After Grace and I were finished with our statements, Jake met us in the hallway. “Are you all through?”

“We are,” I said. “Now we just want to go home.”

“I have to stick around a while, but I’ll be there shortly.”

“Come to the cottage when you get back to April Springs,” I said.

“You can count on it.”

As we started toward Grace’s car, he called out, “Aren’t you both curious about what happened to Trish?”

“Rebecca told us herself that she was okay, at least she would be until she could get around to killing her. Why? Nothing happened to her, did it?”

“Nothing bad,” Jake said. “It turns out that James’s cousin came by the Boxcar and told her who he really was.”

“I’m glad Rome came clean with her,” I said. “What happened?”

“He wanted to hear all about the cousin he never knew. It turns out that the feud was between the fathers, not the sons. When Rome discovered how much of a kindred spirit James was, he wanted to hear everything there was to know about him. Trish agreed, and on a whim she decided to shut the Boxcar down so they could have some time to celebrate James’s life, and his ideals.”

“Funny, but that’s what ended up saving her life,” I said.

“James was a good man to the very end,” Jake said.

As Grace and I drove back to April Springs, I had some time to reflect on just how many lives my friend the blacksmith had touched in his short time among us.

He would be missed by those who loved him, and honestly, what better legacy was there to leave behind? All of the wealth he’d inherited had done him no good in the end, but at least he’d had the satisfaction of knowing that his riches reached well beyond any bank balance or stock portfolio.

When it was my time to go, I only hoped that the same could be said about me.

ST. MARTIN’S PAPERBACKS TITLES

BY JESSICA BECK

Glazed Murder

Fatally Frosted

Sinister Sprinkles

Evil Éclairs

Tragic Toppings

Killer Crullers

Drop Dead Chocolate

Powdered Peril

Illegally Iced

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ILLEGALLY ICED

Copyright © 2013 by Jessica Beck.

All rights reserved.

For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

www.stmartins.com

eISBN: 9781466818736

St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / January 2013

St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.