Thirty-Six and a Half Motives: Rose Gardner Mystery #9 (Rose Gardner Mystery Series) (32 page)

A low growl rumbled in Skeeter’s chest. “Shut your mouth, Joe Simmons. I’ve never laid a hand on her.”

J.R. laughed. “But you want to. James Malcolm finally loves a woman, and the irony is he can’t have her. It’ll only make it that much more bittersweet when you watch me kill her.”

That seemed to knock some sense into Joe. He shook his head. “Nobody’s killing anyone.”

“Wrong,” Kate said. “So wrong.” She released a sigh. “But the best part of tonight isn’t here yet.”

“She’s not comin’,” I said, my stomach twisting into knots. “Just leave her out of this.”

“Who?” Joe asked.

Kate smiled. “Neely Kate—and I’d tell you why, but that would ruin the surprise.”

“I’m damn fed up with surprises,” Joe said.

“That’s too bad,” my best friend called out from the dark. “This is the best surprise of all.”

“
N
eely Kate
!” I shouted. “Go! Get out of here.”

“Can’t,” she called out, her voice echoing off the metal equipment as she lingered in the shadows. “I’m just as much a part of this as you are.”

The look on Skeeter’s face told me he knew she’d been waiting out there, which meant Jed was probably on the premises, too.

Joe’s gaze shot from me to Kate and then to his father. “Why is Neely Kate part of this?”

“I have a story,” Kate said in a singsong voice. “A true story from twenty-five years ago.”

“The factory fire?” Joe asked.

“That’s part of it,” Kate said.

She released Hilary’s hair, giving her a shove for good measure, and returned to her perch on the desk. She scanned the dark factory as she talked, continuing to shoot glances at her captive audience.

“Once upon a time,” she began, “there was a king who ruled his own kingdom—and what a kingdom it was. But it wasn’t enough. He wanted more, as most kings do. So he promised the lowly king of another kingdom an abundance of riches if he abdicated and became a loyal subject. The king of Fenton County—Allen Steyer—reluctantly agreed. The new king set up shop in a nearly bankrupt manufacturing plant and then manipulated and bribed his way into more riches. But when things began to go wrong, the king used the men at his disposal to threaten the owner and the bookkeeper. While the manufacturing plant owner was easily controlled, the bookkeeper was harder to keep in line.” Kate gave me a wistful smile. “Like mother like daughter, they say.” She gave a little shrug. “The bookkeeper kept several detailed journals filled with evidence of the king’s wrongdoing, and word got back to the king that she had enough evidence to bring him down. He told the deposed king—now one of twelve knights at his twisted roundtable—to get the evidence . . . or else.” She tilted her head to the side. “In the meantime, the king liked to visit his new land, especially since a pretty young peasant girl had caught his eye. The king had the knight set up a place for the king and his concubine to shack up. You see . . .” she drawled, “the king has a thing for teenagers.” She winked at her father and then turned to Hilary. “But you know that from firsthand experience.”

Hilary’s face turned white. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t be so coy, Hil,” Kate teased. “I
saw
you years ago.”

Joe shook his head slightly, his eyes wide. “Saw her doing what?” he asked, fear edging his voice.

Kate pointed at him with her free hand and gave him a wicked grin. “Exactly where your mind just went.”

“
You slept with my father?
”

The terrified woman I’d seen at Jonah’s church this morning was back. Tears filled her eyes. “I . . .”

“Joseph, enough,” his father barked. “This entire conversation—let alone situation—is preposterous.”

“We’ll circle back to that in a bit,” Kate said, making a circular motion with her finger. “First we need to finish this story.” She turned to look at Joe. “Who knew one little decision—trying to take over a manufacturing plant—could produce so many ripples?”

“How is Neely Kate part of this?” Joe asked, his voice strained.

Kate tsked. “So impatient.” Then she shifted on the desk. “The king was very fond of his latest pet. He visited her often. But the pet was careless in many ways. For one thing, she was quite a nosy girl. The king had her holed up in his apartment when the knight came to bring bad news. Try as the knight might, the bookkeeper could not be swayed to hand over her evidence. The king had been having a very bad day, and while the poor girl had already taken the brunt of his frustration with both his fists and his favorite appendage, he lost his temper at the news. The king shot the knight, leaving him to die on the wool rug.”

J.R.’s face had turned a pale crimson, and he looked desperate enough to physically make his daughter stop.

“The girl wisely kept her mouth shut, especially since she had recently discovered she was pregnant.”

J.R.’s mouth parted, and Joe gave his head a tiny shake, blurting out, “What?”

“The peasant girl was terrified, so she stole the gun and ran away, never letting the king know about her baby. Seven months later, she gave birth to a baby girl.” A mocking grin spread across Kate’s face as she tilted her head toward Joe. “
Surprise.
We have a half-sister. But even more importantly—” she pointed the gun at J.R., “—we have the gun our father used to kill Allen Steyer twenty-five years ago.”

“That is enough, Kate,” J.R. barked, slowly losing his cool. “We are Simmonses. Simmonses stick together.”

“Then Neely Kate needs to come out here and join us.”

“Why?” Joe asked, but the realization grew in his eyes.

Neely Kate walked out of the darkness close to the windows, her eyes steely. “I’m not a Simmons.”

“I’m sure your DNA says differently,” Kate drawled. “Your mother was smart to leave. She knew our father would have killed her when he found out about the baby. No loose ends.”

J.R. looked like he was close to blowing his stack. “I’ve heard enough, Katherine. You are done.”

“I’m the one with the gun,” she said waving it in his direction. “
I’m
the one who says when I’m done. You can’t control me anymore.”

I took a step back, bumping into a candle-covered desk.

J.R. released a low growl. “So what’s your purpose with this little show? Are you trying to embarrass me? Because you’re currently the embarrassment.”

“Embarrass you?” she spat out. “And don’t you pretend to care about me. I was nothing to you! If anything, you were so smitten with Hilary you hardly paid any attention to me. Even when we were kids.”

“He wasn’t smitten with me,” Hilary said, looking at J.R. with tears in her eyes. “He raped me in the name of teaching me how to hold on to Joe.”

The horror of it all stole my breath. I had known for some time that J.R. Simmons was an evil person, but this . . .

“My God,” Joe said in an agonized voice. “Is that true?”

His father wisely kept his mouth shut.

Hilary started to cry. “I was seventeen. We were juniors. You were supposed to be in love with me, but you kept screwing other girls. He said if I learned how to please you, you’d stay with me.”

Joe put a hand on his stomach, looking like he was going to vomit.

“He told me once you settled down with me, he’d leave me alone. But Roberta saw me coming out of his office that first night . . .” She wiped her face. “I went home and locked myself in my room, planning to run away Monday morning when everyone thought I was at school. It would have given me an eight-hour head start.” She started to sob. “But then you came over, and you had that note from your father . . . J.R. said if I didn’t cooperate, he’d accuse Roberta of stealing from the family. He threatened to have her arrested.” She shook her head. “I loved her, Joe. I couldn’t let him do that.”

“Oh, God,” Joe forced out. “We had sex that day. I thought you were a virgin . . .”

Hilary began to sob. “I was desperate to make J.R. stop. I thought he’d stop if I had sex with you. But he didn’t. He didn’t stop until much later.”

Joe’s chest rose and fell rapidly. His gaze lowered to her rounded abdomen. “Is it . . . ?”

“It’s yours,” she said. “I swear it. He told me I had to make you marry me. It was his idea for me to get pregnant, but he insisted the baby had to be yours.”

“Are you sure?” Kate asked in an amused voice.

“Oh, my God,” Hilary spat out, turning to face her. “You call me a monster, yet you’re the one who’s enjoying this horror show. What does that make
you
?”

“Unsatisfied.”

“Maybe this will help,” J.R. sneered, and the sound of gunfire burst in my ears. “Is this what you wanted, Kate?”

I dropped to a crouch—we all did—and a red stain began to blossom across Hilary’s chest as she fell to the ground. I cast a glance toward Skeeter, but J.R. stood between us.

I screamed as I heard another gun shot.

Skeeter squatted and shoved his hands against the back of his legs, breaking the zip-tie. Then he ran for Neely Kate who stood a few feet from him at the edge of the equipment.

Joe leaned over Hilary’s body, grabbing her wrist to feel for a pulse.

Kate sat on the desk and laughed.

But Joe ignored her and pulled out his cell phone, starting to make a call.

“Drop it,” J.R. said, pointing his gun at Joe.

“What are you going to do?” Joe asked, getting to his feet, then taking a step toward him. “
Are you going to shoot me?
Go ahead and do it! You’ve taken everything else.”

“Not yet.” J.R. lunged and grabbed my arm, pulling me toward him and putting the gun to my temple.

“Call 911, Joe,” I said, surprised I felt so calm. “You need to get an ambulance for Hilary.”

He looked at me with a blank expression. “She’s already dead.”

Grief washed over me like a tidal wave, making my knees weak. He’d lost another baby. My gaze turned to Hilary, her hand covering her stomach, protecting her baby even in death. She’d never stood a chance with her upbringing and considering what J.R. had done to her . . . what he had turned her into.

J.R. didn’t seem to notice the desperation around him, or perhaps he just thrived on it. “That was unfortunate, but she’d proved herself incompetent time and time again, not to mention she was warned to keep her mouth shut. Why won’t people listen to me?” He looked over and realized Skeeter was gone. A wry grin lifted his lips. “Malcolm left you? That’s an unexpected surprise. No matter. You’ll do for now.”

He placed me between himself and the dark factory as he started to limp toward the window.

“Where the hell do you think
you’re
going?” Joe snarled.

“Rose and I have unfinished business,” J.R. said as he continued toward the window. I let him lead me, too overwhelmed by the sight of Hilary’s now mostly red shirt.

So much death. So much destruction.

Kate was not amused. She hopped off the desk. “This is
my
party, and it isn’t over yet.”

“That’s your problem, Kate,” J.R. said. “You never know when to let something go.”

Joe suddenly dove for the gun I’d kicked toward Hilary. He rose to a squat, pointing the weapon at his father’s head. But J.R. viciously shoved his gun into my temple, making me cry out in pain.

“Stay back,” J.R. said. “Or I’ll make her suffer even more.”

“Shoot him, Joe,” I pleaded. “Even if you miss and hit me, I’d rather die here than let him do what he has planned.”

“You’re not dying tonight,” Joe said. “
No one else is dying tonight.
”

“Maybe one more person,” Skeeter called out before I heard another gun shot.

But J.R. had already ducked behind me, and the bullet zipped over my shoulder. Before I knew it, J.R. was on the move again, tugging me toward Henry Buchanan’s office. A new terror filled my head. If he got me in that room and locked the door, I knew I would wish I were dead.

I tried to kick him with my heel, but he stood far enough behind me to avoid contact. Grabbing a handful of my hair, he pulled me backward, using me as a human shield.

When he reached for the doorknob with the hand holding the gun, I decided it was time to try another escape. As if he could read my mind, he gave my hair a vicious jerk.

I tried to drop to my knees to avoid being pulled into the office, but his hold on my hair kept me upright. Once we were clear of the door, he shoved me hard into Henry Buchanan’s office. He slammed the door, plunging us into darkness, and I heard the click of the lock.

How was I going to get away from this maniac? Then it hit me. I could hide in the closet to buy myself some time. I had the advantage of knowing the layout of the room, and I’d bet money that J.R. hadn’t been in here for years, if ever. The factory had no electricity, so I could use the lack of lighting to my advantage. At least until he pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight.

As quietly as possible, I groped for the closet doorknob. Within seconds, I had closed myself inside of it. With any luck, he hadn’t heard me—there was enough of a racket outside the office door to cover any smaller sounds. The problem was that I didn’t know how to lock the closet door from the inside.

I took a step deeper into the closet, bumping into something in front of me—something that felt like a person. Terrified, I pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket and turned on the screen to produce a low glow. I gasped when I discovered Mason bound to an office chair with duct tape, his mouth taped shut. His eyes widened when he saw me.

“Mason,” I whispered in shock as I ripped the tape from his face.

“Rose, you have to get out of here,” he whispered, his eyes wild. “There’s a bomb.”

“
What?
”

“Kate set up a bomb. It was her grand finale. Go!”

I heard J.R. cursing and metal scraping the floor in the other room, as well as the muffled shouting in the warehouse.

“I can’t,” I whispered, setting the phone on a shelf before squatting in front of him to work on the tape restraining his right wrist to the chair. “J.R.’s in the other room looking for me—he’ll be here any second. How’d
you
get here?”

“Kate,” he whispered. “I was about to head to my meeting with the state police when she called. She said that you were in trouble here at the factory and that we couldn’t involve the police. She picked me up and brought me here.”

Which is why I didn’t see his car.

“Once we got here, I figured out you weren’t here—yet. She hit me over the head in the closet, and when I woke up, she was putting the finishing touches on my duct tape. She told me that I was going to be part of the
explosive
big finale. Then she closed me in here. She has enough explosives to blow this whole place up.”

Great.

The sounds in the office abruptly stopped, and my heart hurt from beating so hard.

“Rose?” J.R. called playfully on the other side of the door. “Where are you?”

I tried to work faster, but Kate had gone crazy with the duct tape. “We have to hurry.” I was on the last layer. “I still have a gun in my coat—”