Sealed with a Kill (25 page)

With the loss of her weapon, it was easy for Nate to subdue Paula. He stood up and hauled her with him. Matt and Tenley came racing back.

“Brenna!” Tenley cried. “What’s going on? Are you holding a gun?”

“Call Chief Barker,” Brenna said. She held the gun loosely at her side, facing away from them as if it were a bomb that might go off on its own. “Siobhan’s been shot. She needs an ambulance.”

Matt immediately fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed the chief’s number.

“Let me go!” Paula tried to yank her arms out of Nate’s strong hands. “You have no right to hold me.”

“You killed Harvey Lester,” Brenna said. “We have every right to keep you here until the chief arrives.”

“What?” Tenley asked. Her eyes went wide. “Paula killed Uncle Harvey? But why?”

“Why do you think, Sis?” Paula snapped.

“What did you call me?” Tenley looked at Paula as if she’d sprouted another head.

Paula’s eyes narrowed with cruelty. “You heard me, Sister dearest. Why don’t you ask Daddy who I am? Then again, he paid my mother off to disappear while she was pregnant with me, so maybe he doesn’t remember having a torrid affair with his secretary twenty-four years ago.”

Tenley’s eyes were huge and she wobbled on her feet. Matt closed his phone and reached out to steady her with an arm.

“That’s not true,” Tenley said. “You’re lying. My father would never do anything like that.”

Paula gave a bitter laugh. “Would and did, sweetie. Can’t you see the resemblance between us? I’ve been studying us. We both have his nose and chin and his blue eyes.”

Tenley looked from Paula to Brenna. “Tell me she’s crazy. Tell me this isn’t true.”

“I’m sorry, Tenley,” Brenna said. “You’re only halfright. She is crazy, but I’m afraid it is true. Your father did have an affair, and it did produce a child.”

“Let me go and I won’t tell,” Paula bargained. “Let me go and I’ll give your ring back.”

“You took my ring?”

“It should be mine,” Paula said, sounding petulant. “But I’ll give it back; just let me go.”

“I’m afraid not,” Nate said. He glanced at Brenna and she nodded. He began to lead Paula up to the parking lot.

Several cars with flashing blue and red lights arrived and illuminated them where they stood. Nate had to half drag, half carry Paula as she fought his hold. She punched at him with her free hand, but he pushed her relentlessly forward.

“Stop!” Paula screeched. “No! You’ve ruined everything. Everything!”

Brenna walked over to Tenley and enfolded her in a hug while Chief Barker handcuffed Paula and put her in the back of one of the squad cars. Officer Meyers stayed with her while Chief Barker and Officer DeFalco came running across the lawn with Brian Steele and two EMTs on his heels.

“Where is she?” Brian looked wildly at the group. “Where’s Siobhan?”

“She’s in the woods,” Brenna said. “She was shot in the shoulder.”

“Brenna, do you think you can lead us to her?” Chief Barker asked.

“I think so,” she said. She squeezed Tenley’s arm, took a deep breath, and ran back into the woods. She fervently hoped they weren’t too late.

The beams of several flashlights illuminated the path and it was nowhere near as scary as it had been the last time, but still Brenna felt her heart pounding heavily in her chest. This time she wasn’t running for her life, however ; this time she was running for someone else’s. They had to find Siobhan and quickly.

Just when she was sure she must have taken a wrong turn and lost her way, she saw her, a splotch of white in the dark woods.

“This way,” she cried. The heavy tread of booted feet sounded behind her as they pounded down the seldomused trail. “Siobhan, we’re coming!”

She saw Siobhan raise her hand to signal that she’d heard. Brenna let the men run around her to get to her. Brian crouched at her side and held her hand while the EMTs went to work with improvised lighting provided by Chief Barker and Officer DeFalco.

Brenna stepped forward and looked down on Siobhan in the glare of the large Maglites. Her eyes were shut and her skin was so pale it was almost translucent. The EMTs were trying to get a line into her arm and Brian was whispering softly to her.

“Brenna, I want you to tell me everything you know,” the chief said.

Brenna talked while they worked. She told them everything about Paula and her affair with Harvey; her revenge on her father, Rupert Morse; and how she shot Siobhan. Finally, she wound down.

“And then Hank jumped on her and Nate subdued her while I got her gun,” Brenna said. She glanced down and realized she was still holding the weapon. “Here.”

She handed the gun to the chief, who checked that the safety was on and then tucked it into his belt.

Having told him everything she knew, she took a deep, restorative breath. The chief let out a low whistle, which Brenna took to mean he hadn’t seen this mess coming. She knew exactly how he felt.

“All right, she’s stable, but we need to get her to the hospital ASAP,” one of the paramedics said.

They each took one end of the stretcher and began the long hike back to the cabins and the ambulance. Chief Barker and Officer DeFalco lit the way and Brenna followed. The trip back seemed faster, and before she knew it, they were striding across the meadow toward the waiting ambulance.

As they got ready to load her, Siobhan glanced up at Brenna and gave her a small smile. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Brenna stepped back, and Brian hopped into the back with one of the paramedics, and the doors slammed shut. With a flash of lights, they tore off down the driveway.

Brenna scanned the small crowd that had formed until she spotted Nate. He stepped up beside her and put his arm around her shoulder. She was shaky with spent nerves, and she turned into his arms, seeking warmth and comfort.

“Brenna, can you come down to the station?” Chief Barker asked.

She nodded and heard Nate say, “I’ll drive her in.”

The chief tipped his head and turned to the squad car where Paula was sitting, cuffed. He banged twice on the roof and Officer Meyers turned on the engine. Paula’s face was a contorted mask of rage on the other side of the glass. She stared at Brenna with a malevolence that made her shudder.

DeFalco and the chief followed quickly in their cars. Brenna stood in the circle of Nate’s arms and watched their taillights disappear down the drive, carrying Harvey Lester’s murderer to jail.

Brenna set out carrying two of Stan’s tasty lattes across the town green, although it was really more of a town brown now that all the grass had died. A bitter wind from the north made her burrow her nose into her scarf, and she was grateful for the hot cups of coffee warming her hands.

The sky was a stern steel gray with clouds that held the threat of snow in them. It would be the first of the season, but that was okay. She had her fireplace all ready to go, and she even had someone to share it with. Life was good.

She had made it halfway across the square when she saw him. He was dressed casually in jeans and a thick wool sweater. As she watched, he took a vibrant orange Nerf football and threw a spiral pass across the park to a carrot-topped adolescent thirty yards away. Even from here, she could feel the raw power pulsing from him.

It had been a week since Paula’s arrest, and although she had talked to Dom, she hadn’t seen him. She had discovered that the reason Chief Barker had first shown up at the cabins was because Brian had called to report Siobhan missing, and then Dom had called the chief to report a disturbance at Brenna’s cabin. Dom hadn’t known that she was in danger; he’d just had a feeling that their phone call hadn’t ended naturally and had badgered Chief Barker into going and checking on her.

Suede, the recipient of Dom’s pass, caught the ball and sent it back in a less-practiced spiral. A woman with the same vibrant hair appeared, and just before Dom caught the ball, she ran in front of him and snatched it out of the air.

Dom didn’t hesitate. He tackled her. Their laughter rang out in the crisp air and got even louder when Suede came charging up to tackle the man who had sacked his mom.

As the group broke apart, Dom glanced up and saw Brenna watching them. He grinned and she smiled back at him. She was glad he and Julie had found each other. They seemed to be a perfect fit.

She raised her paper cup at him in a silent salute, and he nodded his head. Brenna was happy for him and happy that there seemed to be no hard feelings that she had chosen Nate. She was confident that their friendship would stay intact; after all, she never knew when she was going to need the former mobster in her life.

She continued across the green and crossed the street. When she got to Vintage Papers, she hooked one arm through the handle on the door and pulled it open. The bells jangled and she slipped through the open door, letting it close behind her.

“Baby Mama,” she called. “I’ve got your decaf latte.”

A dark-haired woman was standing in the center of the shop with her back to Brenna. She slowly turned and Brenna almost dropped her lattes. It was Tricia Morse, Tenley’s mother.

Brenna felt her jaw go slack. If ever there was a footin-mouth-ectomy needed, it was right now.

Tenley was standing just past her mother at the counter, and she smiled at what had to be a look of complete horror on Brenna’s face.

“It’s all right,” she said. “She knows. Now give me my latte.”

Brenna stretched out her hand and gave Tenley the cup with her latte.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Morse. It’s nice to see you again.”

Mrs. Morse looked her over. “Yes, I don’t believe we’ve seen each other since that dressing-down you gave us over dessert.”

“What did you do?” Tenley asked.

“I just gave them my point of view,” Brenna said. She took a restorative sip of her coffee.

“It spoke well of you,” Mrs. Morse said. “I’m glad Tenley has a friend like you.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Morse. That’s nice of you to say,” Brenna said. She wondered briefly if she was dreaming. Mrs. Morse had never come into Tenley’s shop before and in fact had been very vocal in her disapproval of her daughter going into a trade. What could she possibly be doing here today? Did she have a sudden need for paper goods?

“Call me Tricia,” Mrs. Morse said. “Please.”

“All right.” Brenna pinched herself just to make sure she wasn’t asleep. Ouch. Nope, not sleeping.

“Do you know why I never worked?” Tricia suddenly asked them.

“Because you had four daughters,” Tenley said. “That is work.”

“It was,” Tricia agreed. “But not to me. I loved being a mother. I loved having these four beaming symbols of your father’s love for me. It made me feel almost as if I was worthy of him.”

Brenna and Tenley exchanged a look. Brenna nodded toward the back room. She didn’t want to intrude on a mother-daughter moment, but Tenley shook her head, letting her know that she was to stay put.

“You were worthy of him, Mother,” Tenley said. “More than worthy. When I think about what he did, I just . . .”

“I wasn’t surprised when I found out,” Tricia said. She was wearing a slim gray wool dress and black pumps. Her heels clicked against the wood floor as she strolled over to a display rack to examine some papers. “I always knew he would stray one day. How could he not? He was so handsome and I . . . Well . . .”

“Just because he was handsome, that’s no reason for him to cheat on his wife,” Tenley said. “And he didn’t just hurt you; look at the poor woman who was cast aside and her child, my sister. Look at the damage that was done to them.”

Tenley’s voice rose and Brenna felt really uncomfortable and wished she hadn’t hurried back from Stan’s quite so quickly.

“Don’t judge your father too harshly,” Tricia said. “It was my fault. What happened to that woman and her daughter was my fault.”

“Your fault?” Tenley repeated. “How?”

“I loved him so much, I was so afraid of losing him, that I . . .” Tricia’s voice trailed off.

“You what?”

“I forced him to send them away,” Tricia said. She spun back around to face them, and her face was filled with regret. “Maybe if I hadn’t done that, Harvey would still be alive and that young woman wouldn’t be in prison.”

“Mom.” Tenley put her coffee down and came around the counter. She wrapped her arms around her mother and said, “They made their own choices, Harvey to cheat on his wife and Paula to seek revenge. It could have been handled so differently by everyone; no one person is to blame.”

Tricia Morse placed her hand alongside her daughter’s face. “That is what has always made you special, your infinite capacity to love.”

Okay, now Brenna definitely felt like she was intruding. She began to ease her way slowly back through the shop.

“Matt is very lucky to have you, you know,” Tricia said.