Tacked to Death (29 page)

After Anthony left, she went into the
waiting area and joined Marianne. She took her small hand. "I'm
sorry, Mare."

Marianne turned and looked at her, her
eyes red from crying. "Sorry? Sorry? Oh honey, don't be sorry. Are
you kidding me? Joey is gonna be fine and we all knew what we were
signing up for with this deal. You don't need to be sorry. I have
to tell you, that was the best damn time I've had in years. Please
don't apologize. The only reason I'm upset is that I know for the
next however long it takes for Joey to heal, I've got to play
nursemaid." She started to laugh. "Okay, so maybe I'm a little
worried, but honestly, Joe is not a good patient."

"I imagine not." They both laughed. "I
really do hope you know how sorry I am about all of
this."

"Dammit, Michaela, you say that one
more time and I'm gonna knock you across the room. Just stop
it."

Michaela gave her a hug. When she
pulled away she looked up and saw Jude heading toward them. Her
stomach sank.

"Hello, ladies. Michaela, I think we
need to talk."

She nodded. Marianne excused herself
and Jude asked her not to go far, as he planned to question her as
well. When she left the room, he turned to Michaela. "Do you want
to tell me why you and your friends were chasing a car that Tommy
Liggett was driving with Lucia Sorvino inside it? Oh, and don't
leave anything out, especially the part where you shot out Tommy's
tire."

He wasn't happy with her and she didn't
know how she was going to get out of this. "We spotted Lucia being
dragged into a car by Tommy and it didn't look good, so we followed
them and could tell she was in trouble. I shot out the tire because
I was afraid he was going to kill her."

"And why would you think
that?"

"Because I found out that Sterling and
Tommy were dealing in stolen jewels. Lucia had connected them with
her cousin Diamante Pizzini, and then Tommy murdered Sterling,
because last summer the two of them were involved in the death of a
woman in Santa Barbara."

Jude placed his head in his hands. "Oh
God. Go on."

"While Detective Peters was busy
pointing the finger at me, and you were off on your cruise, I
didn't have much choice but to try and figure out who really
murdered Sterling Taber." She told him everything she'd found out
about Rebecca Woodson and what she surmised had happened last
summer on the pier. "I think Tommy was there, and whether or not it
was an accident, either Tommy or Sterling pushed her. Then, I think
they agreed to cover for each other. I spoke with Rebecca's brother
this week and he said that Sterling had tried to get him to meet
with him. He told him that he had information about his sister's
death. I believe that Sterling was greedy and planned to tell
Rebecca's family that Tommy had killed her. Tommy found out about
this and so he killed Sterling—because Sterling was about to betray
him and also because of the jewels they were dealing in. Sterling
wanted all the profit. He wasn't the type to share."

"Interesting. If you have that all
figured out, then why don't you tell me what part Carolyn Taber
played in all of this."

"I think Tommy killed her. I think he
had a set of tapes that Sterling probably gave him. When he saw
that there might be holes in the case against me, he knew he'd need
another fall guy and he chose Carolyn. She was easy to frame. I bet
that if you run a handwriting analysis on the suicide note, it
won't match Carolyn Taber's handwriting."

"Maybe you should become a
cop."

"Funny." She smiled at him but he
didn't return the smile.

"You know that Anthony Pellegrino, who
is your friend Joe's cousin and who was in the minivan with you and
the others, is now downtown with Lucia Sorvino, representing
her."

"He's a good lawyer."

"He's a tax attorney, Michaela. I know
there are blanks to fill in here. You haven't been forthright from
the get-go. But honestly, I don't think I want to know everything
anymore, because I've got a bad feeling that if I did know, I'd
have to arrest you. And I don't want to do that. You better hope
that the holes in your story don't get bigger and that none of your
partners fill in the blanks."

"Yep." She took a sip of coffee. It was
all she could say. A minute later, Jude stood. She asked him, "Have
they found Tommy?"

"Not yet. But we will. I've got to get
back to the station. Tell Mrs. Pellegrino that I hope her husband
is better."

"You aren't going to talk with her? I
thought you said—"

He held up a hand. "Like I said, I
don't think I want to know. I've got enough to file a report and
keep you out of jail. But we do need to talk. We really do. Just
not now."

She nodded. Jude left the room and she
watched him walk down the hall to the exit. She got up and paced
the hall. A few minutes later Marianne came back and said, "Where's
the cop?"

"Gone. He says he hopes Joe feels
better and he changed his mind about talking with you."

"Huh. Okay. Well, Joey is out of
surgery and the doctor says it looks good."

"That's great. Can we see
him?"

"They say he's in recovery and it'll be
a while. You know, why don't you go on home and I'll call you. I'm
kinda worried about the kids anyway. I'm sure Camden and Dwayne
have their hands full."

"Of course. Sure. Yes, call
me."

Michaela headed home with an empty
feeling inside. Her friend was hurt, and she'd done a dumb thing by
trying to take down a madman. Jude was right: She needed to stop
playing detective. She didn't have the skills for it.

It was getting dark and all the lights
were on at Dwayne and Camden's place. She walked in and was
pleasantly surprised by what she saw. On Camden's lap sat a
sleeping Isabel; Dwayne was playing Monopoly with Vincent and
little Joe. Gen was drawing and Giorgio was watching a TV show.
Wow.

"Hi, Michaela," Dwayne said. Camden
smiled at her and brought a finger to her lips. Who knew that
Camden could be…domestic? A wave of comfort came over her and she
wanted to sit down and start crying, but she knew that would raise
too many questions, and the last thing she wanted to do was break
up the peaceful scene. She went over to the table where the
Monopoly game was going on. "Sorry guys, it took us a little longer
than we thought. Um, and I think the kids will probably stay for a
little while more. I'll go out and feed the horses and then take
the kids off your hands and give them dinner."

"No, no. I be making some burgers for
them. I got the grill fired up already and Cammy girl made the
patties earlier for us," Dwayne said. "We all be good. You sure
'bout the horses? I can feed 'em."

"No. You look like you're having a good
time." She glanced at Camden and smiled. "Look at you," she
whispered.

"I know," she whispered back so as not
to wake the toddler. "I know." She smiled.

Michaela left them and headed to the
barn. She piled flakes of hay onto the wheelbarrow and began her
rounds. She fought back all of the emotion that ate at her, which
ranged from anger, frustration, sadness, and fear to the other end
of the spectrum after seeing Camden and Dwayne with the kids—which
had given her a sense of peace and happiness. She'd had her doubts
about those two getting married, but any lingering questions had
been wiped away in the last few minutes. They were going to be
married and start a family and Michaela wanted all of that and more
for them, because it was her strongest desire to have a family,
too. If she couldn't have one then her best friend should, and she
could share in their joy.

Her stallion, Rocky, snorted as she
passed. Here was her family. He tossed his head as she started to
open his stall door. "Okay, okay, easy. I'm getting it," she
said.

Rocky pawed the ground. He was always
eager when it came to dinnertime, but there was something off about
him tonight. She pushed the stall door open a little farther as
Rocky sent a shrill whinny echoing through the breezeway. It all
happened in seconds, but Michaela felt something go around her
neck. She reached her fingers up, clawing at the object. Someone
was strangling her. Rocky reared up inside his stall. She could see
the whites of his eyes and his nostrils flare, fear emanating from
him. She kicked and struggled. She knew who had her: Tommy Liggett
had come to her ranch and hidden out, waiting to strike.

As she felt the lead rope tighten
further, she heard Tommy telling her what a stupid bitch she was.
"You didn't have to keep snooping around. I killed Carolyn Taber
for you. I actually liked you. I didn't want you to go to jail.
Then I thought Carolyn would be a perfect killer to pin this all on
and you'd be free. But no, you had to keep after me, send in Lucia
and the troops. What the hell is wrong with you?"

Michaela, still struggling, grew dizzy.
She knew she was losing the fight. And as she faded, Rocky shoved
his stall all the way open with his head and charged at Tommy, who
dropped the rope. Now on the ground, Michaela rolled quickly to her
side. Rocky reared up again and came crashing down, knocking Tommy
onto his back. He screamed, but it was too late; Rocky's hooves
came down on Tommy's chest. Michaela sat up. Her horse had just
saved her life.

Forty-Four

It was over. It had been a week since
Tommy Liggett was taken away in a body bag from Michaela's ranch.
The police closed the investigation after running the handwriting
analysis, as Michaela suggested. Lucia worked with the police in
fingering her cousin in the jewelry scam and told them what Tommy
had said to her in the car about killing Sterling. She did not,
thankfully, tell the police about Marianne's and Anthony's role in
any of it. Anthony was able to get her a deal if she cooperated
with the cops, and no one was the wiser about how things had really
occurred the day they chased Tommy down.

Jude and Michaela finally had that
talk, and both came to the conclusion that maybe they weren't right
for each other. She knew that Jude had been hurt by her dishonesty
with him, and she'd been hurt by his lack of faith in her. She had
to wonder if she'd ever find the right man and start a family. Joe
was back home with his brood, and she'd taken food over for them
several times and run errands for Marianne, wanting to help out as
much as she could.

Dwayne and Camden had gone back to
putting all their efforts into planning their wedding and running
the tack shop.

Rocky was her hero, and every day she'd
gone out to see him with an extra handful of carrots. As horrible
as Tommy's death had been, Rocky had saved her life and she was
grateful.

Michaela sat out back, her eyes closed,
listening to the waterfall pour into the pool. She thought about
Ethan and wondered how everything was going with him. He'd called
when he heard what had happened, and wanted to come over. She'd
insisted it wasn't necessary. She knew that the two of them needed
to have some space between them. Summer was not her favorite person
in the world, but Michaela knew her feelings for Ethan were wrong,
and she needed him to stay away. She needed to move on with her
life, and thankfully tomorrow would be the beginning of that as she
went back to giving riding lessons. She got up and went inside to
make herself some dinner. Camden and Dwayne had gone out for the
evening, and although she thought she'd relish having time to
herself after all she'd been through, she felt pretty
alone.

She seasoned a chicken breast and put
it in the oven to bake. As she started fixing herself a salad, the
doorbell rang. Who could that be?

Ethan stood on the other side of the
door, little Josh in his arms. He looked distraught. "Ethan? What
is it? What's wrong?"

He walked past her, put Josh down on
her family room floor, and handed him a set of plastic keys to play
with. He grabbed her arm and took her into the kitchen, where in a
lowered voice he said, "She left."

"What?"

"Can you believe it? Summer. She just
left us. I was at work. The baby was at day care. I had to go down
to the Helen Woodward Center in San Diego yesterday. Then, I got
this call from the day-care lady, who said that Summer never picked
him up. She'd called yesterday and asked her to keep him overnight,
but then she didn't show up today."

"What?"

"Yeah, so I raced home and picked him
up and came home to an empty house. She even took her
horses."

"No, Ethan. No! That's not
true."

He handed her a letter. "Read
this."

Michaela took it. Summer's letter
detailed how she couldn't handle being a mother, that she thought
she'd loved Ethan but now she didn't think so, and she didn't want
the life. She wanted a different life. The words were crazy and
unfathomable. How could a woman leave her baby? The letter further
stated that she'd met someone, and for Ethan to expect divorce
papers and that she wouldn't fight him in a custody
battle.

"Oh my God, Ethan. No. Look, you have
to find her. Maybe she's going through some type of postpartum
depression like we talked about, and she needs help. Women don't
just leave their children. They don't do it, and I know she loves
Josh. I've seen her with him."