Murdering the Roses (A Heavenly Highland Inn Cozy Mystery) (9 page)

“Not now Aunt Ida,” Vicky snapped at her, having no patience for her dramatics at the moment, when the situation was already so dramatic. “We have armed criminals chasing after us!”

“Oh I know,” Aunt Ida sighed as she looked over her shoulder. “They are persistent aren't they?”
Vicky had no idea how her aunt could stay so calm in such a frightening situation, but she guessed it had something to do with her losing her mind.

“Aunt Ida, we are about to die!”
Vicky pointed out sharply as she tried to keep the truck on the road. She was driving so fast that it was veering back and forth on the old unpaved road. Luckily for her, she knew the road better than the twin brothers who had never driven on it before. She could maneuver the dips and sudden curves because she had learned to drive on it when she was a girl. Still it wasn't easy to keep ahead of the twins who were in a much newer and faster car than she was. Not to mention the fact that they might decide to start shooting at the truck at any moment. The old truck they were driving in was not known for its reliability either, as Sarah had refused to invest any more money in it. She said they would drive it until it died, and then buy something new. Vicky could only hope that today wouldn't be the day it decided to die.

“That's it!”
Vicky suddenly declared. “I'm not going to risk my life without even knowing what's in that box!” she fished the key out of her bra once more and handed it over to Aunt Ida. “Open it up, let's at least see what's inside before these crazy brothers run us right off the road!”

Aunt Ida reached down to the floorboard for the truck and grabbed the box. She settled it into her lap and then tried to slide the key inside the hole. It was no easy task because the truck was bumping and bouncing up and down all over the road. Finally she got the key into the hole and turned it.
Vicky glanced over briefly as Aunt Ida opened the lid on the box. They both gasped with surprise. The box was stacked high with what appeared to be hundred dollar bills. There had to be close to a million dollars inside of it.

“That's a lot of money!”
Vicky gasped and tried to keep the truck on the road. “No wonder they're chasing after it so fiercely!”

“Hm
m.” Aunt Ida mumbled as if she was entirely unimpressed. She was rummaging through the stacks of cash. Finally she sat back with disappointment. “I don't think that there are any diamonds in there,” she frowned.

“With that much money you could buy plenty of diamonds!”
Vicky announced, though her attention was more focused on the car that was gaining on them fast. “Aunt Ida hold on!” she called out as she turned the wheel on the truck hard to the right. She knew of a small side road that she was sure the twins wouldn't know about. The truck listed hard as if it might tip over, but it finally settled back on all four wheels. She glanced over at Aunt Ida to be sure she was not hurt, but the woman was just looking through the money again.

“Maybe we could just take a little,” Aunt Ida suggested as she began slipping some of the stacks of money into the deep pockets of her jacket.

“Aunt Ida,” Vicky growled as she glared at the older woman. “You put that back in the box right now. That's stolen money, it doesn't belong to us any more than it belonged to Bob and his acquaintances. Put it back!” she insisted with a ferocious tone. She didn't usually speak to her aunt in such a way, but she was at the end of her rope.

Aunt Ida let out a loud and dramatic sigh. “I thought you were the fun one
Vicky. I'd expect Sarah to make me put it back, but you?” she looked very disappointed.

“In the box!”
Vicky snapped, she didn't have time to be more diplomatic as the twins' car had negotiated the turn onto the road right behind them.

“Can you please try calling
Mitchell, or the sheriff,” Vicky said desperately, she knew there was no real way to escape the twins. “We're going to need some help or we're never getting out of this,” she tossed her phone to Aunt Ida who caught it easily. She busied herself with the phone, cleverly forgetting to put the money back into the box. Vicky gunned the engine and reached the end of the side road. She pulled out onto a larger paved road that still saw very little traffic.

“Hello?” Aunt Ida shouted into the phone. She wasn't the most knowledgeable when it came to technology.
Sarah and Vicky had tried to talk her into using a cell phone, but Aunt Ida flat out refused. She called it a leash, and said she was a free spirit who couldn't be collared.

“You have to hit the green button Aunt Ida,”
Vicky explained to her as patiently as she could. In her rear view mirror she saw something sticking out of the passenger side window of the twins' car.

“I hate these newfangled things,” Aunt Ida complained as she shouted into the phone
again. “Hello? Hello is there anyone there?” she shook the phone with annoyance. “This thing is broken, I'm sure it is!”

“Get down!”
Vicky shouted and pushed her aunt down in the seat, using her free arm to shield her head and neck. “They're going to shoot!” She did her best to duck as she braced herself for the gunfire. “Keep your head down!” she commanded, fear creeping into her high pitched voice.

Mitchell looked down at his phone as it began to ring again. It was
Vicky's number again. He glanced up at the sheriff who was studying a map of the area around the inn.

“There's so many little roads back there,” he sighed as he shook his head. “They could be hiding out anywhere, really,” he paused a moment to look over the map again.

“So where would the killer have gone?” he was musing to himself, and getting nowhere fast. Mitchell had waited long enough. He wasn't going to let Vicky think he was ignoring her if she needed his help. He snatched the phone up off of the desk.

“Don't you answer that phone Dep
uty,” the sheriff warned as he spun around to face Mitchell. Mitchell openly defied him as he lifted the phone to his ear, and met the eyes of his superior.

“It's my job to make sure she's safe,” he said flatly, as if it was no longer open for debate.

“Hello? Vicky?” he asked quickly. Then he held the phone away from his ear as he heard someone shout.

“Get down, they're going to shoot!”

“Vicky?” he shouted into the phone, his voice full of alarm. “Are you there? Where are you? Who's shooting at you?” he was desperate for information.

That got the sheriff's attention. He marched over to Mitchell and began listening in on the conversation. Finally a voice came back on the line.

“Hello is this Mitchell?” Aunt Ida asked, sounding very confused and aggravated.

“Yes, I'm here,” Mitchell said quickly, relieved to hear that she wasn't terrified. “Where are you? Is
Vicky with you?” he fired off his questions swiftly.

“Tell him about the twins,” Mitchell heard
Vicky call out in the background. “They need to know there are two!”

“Listen Mitchell, do you remember that good looking young fellow Timothy?” Aunt Ida asked as if they were settling into some beauty shop gossip.

“Yes, Ida, are you safe? Where are you?” he asked more firmly this time. He could tell something terrible was happening but the woman on the phone was acting as if everything was fine.

“Well,
as it turns out there are two of them, twins,” Ida laughed into the phone. “Isn't that amazing?”

“Tell h
im we're near the inn!” Vicky shouted desperately. “We need help, Mitchell!” She couldn't drive and talk on the phone at the same time but Aunt Ida was taking things too lightly.

“They're near the i
nn,” Mitchell told Sheriff McDonnell who immediately began to radio for cars.

“Are you in danger?” Mitchell asked as he ran out of the police station and toward
s his cruiser. There was no way he wasn't going to get as close as possible to them. “What's happening right now?”

“
Vicky is driving like a lunatic,” Aunt Ida explained calmly. “But that's only because one of those boys is pointing a gun out of his car window at us!”

“I need a location,” Mitchell said desperately as he started his cruiser and began d
riving in the direction of the inn. He was definitely not obeying the speed limit.

“Well
, I can't really say where we are, we're driving so fast,” Aunt Ida attempted to explain as the truck bumped over some patches in the road.

“Can you get back to the i
nn?” Mitchell asked hopefully, it was the one place he knew that they could find in the myriad of dirt roads and roads that weren't even identified on the map. “We have cars going out there right now. If you can get back to the inn then you'll have some help,” his voice was trembling as he felt he was too far away to be of any real help.

“We can try!” Aunt Ida replied and then turned to
Vicky. “He wants us to get back to the inn, he said police are on their way to help us,” now her voice was shaking slightly, as if the danger of the situation was just beginning to set in.

So far the twins had not taken a shot at the truck, but
Vicky knew that if they evaded them much longer they would. The truck would not serve as any kind of shield from the bullets and the twins were not likely to give up. After all with the amount of money they were after they certainly wouldn't care about two more murders.

Vicky
turned hard to catch the street that would lead them back to the inn. Luckily the twins missed the turn and Vicky was able to get some distance between them. She had the gas pedal to the floor when the engine began to sputter. The old truck was about ready to give out. She could see the inn in the distance rising up against the mid-morning sky. Never before in her life had she been so desperate to get to it. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. Now would not be the time to lose control of the truck.

“We're heading that way,” she called into the phone that her Aunt held up for her to speak into. “So far they're not shooting, but they are definitely armed.”

Meanwhile, the sheriff was running the information they had on Timothy. It was sketchy at best, but when run with the new information of Timothy having a twin brother, they came up with a match. In fact, it was an identical match of a man who was a Bob’s cell mate. A man who had been charged in the past with crimes related to murder for hire. The sheriff was being driven by one of the rookie officers to the inn when he got on the radio to all cars available.

“We are dealing with some very dangerous individuals, who are reported to be armed. Please proceed with extreme caution, and remember we have civilians in the middle of all this, so be care
ful what you are shooting at!” He then looked over at the rookie officer and barked at him, “can't you drive any faster?”

As
Vicky drew closer to the inn she could see the flashing lights of police cars against its stoic walls. She felt a slight sense of relief, but that relief disappeared when the twins' car began ramming them from behind. They must have seen the flashing lights as well and were trying their hardest to run the truck off the road before it could reach the inn.

“Aunt Ida we're going to crash,”
Vicky warned, her voice shaking as she spoke. “I can't keep the truck on the road much longer!”

Just then she heard the squeal of tires and the sound of gunshots. She closed her eyes briefly, expecting to feel the pain of a bullet at any moment, but when she opened them she was still pulling into the long driveway that led up to the
inn. The twins' car was no longer ramming them from behind. She dared a look in the rear view mirror and saw that a police cruiser had pulled up behind the twins' vehicle and taken out both of its back tires. The car had spun off into the ditch beside the driveway. The driver of the cruiser emerged with his gun drawn.

“It's Mitchell!” she cried out with relief as the truck sputter
ed into the parking lot of the inn before finally giving out. The truck was immediately surrounded by police cars that were waiting for them. Officers jumped out to escort the two women from the truck.

“He needs back up!”
Vicky announced with desperation in her voice, but other cars had already driven up behind Mitchell's, including Sheriff McDonnell's. Several officers were pointing their weapons at the twins' car. The two men began climbing out of the car as Vicky and Aunt Ida were whisked to safety within the inn's walls by two police officers.

“What a ride!” Aunt Ida cried out with glee as she peered out the front window to see what was happening.
Vicky was anxiously watching to see if Mitchell was safe. 

She watched as the twins surrendered their weapo
ns to the officers and then lay down in the driveway to be cuffed. They knew there was no way to get out of the situation now. As soon as Vicky was sure they were in custody she rushed out of the inn. Aunt Ida followed right after her.

“Do you have any idea
how much danger the two of you were in?” Sheriff McDonnell demanded as soon as the two brothers were escorted away to a waiting police cruiser. All of the officers were now congregated in the parking lot of the inn.

“Of course we do,” Aunt Ida said as she furrowed one perfectly thin eyebrow. “We were there you know. I bet you don't even know that youngster threatened to kill me, and,” she gasped and lowered her voice. “He called me an old lady!” She
pursed her lips and tilted her chin upward, then cast her gaze towards the sheriff as if she was a fashion model. “Now, do I look old to you Sheriff McDonnell?” she asked.