Treated and Dyed (A Bekki the Beautician Cozy Mystery Book 13) (8 page)

“What's so bad about that?” Bekki asked. “You did rent the place from her,” Bekki pointed out impatiently.

“Yes I did,” Holly said. “She must have learned from a real shark, because she knew exactly what she was doing. When I moved in, I told her that I might have to pay more one month and less another. She told me she was flexible and it would be fine. Instead, each month she raised the rent. First by ten dollars, then by fifty, then by one hundred. Each time I said I needed a day or two to make the rent she would tack on late fees and threaten to padlock the door of the shop. I invested everything I had in this place, because she promised me that she would be flexible with me,” she pursed her lips. “She lied, and then she basically held me hostage. She told me the lease was binding, and it was in the language of the lease that she could raise the rent at any time for any reason. I didn't read it, I trusted her. I signed my life away.”

“Surely, there had to be a way to solve this amicably,” Bekki said. She could see the flush in Holly's cheeks and the anger in her eyes. Holly no longer looked innocent or mild mannered.

“I knew it was coming up to rent check time again,” Holly whispered. She was speaking more to herself than to Bekki. “All I could hear all day long, and even in my sleep, was her sucking on that candy. I knew I wouldn't have the rent. I knew that she would ruin me, and take everything from me. She always had that for rent sign in her car to put in the window if I was even thinking about being late. She threatened to take everything from me, like I was nothing more than trash to be thrown out on the curb.”

“She was a business woman, maybe she wasn't the nicest or the most honest one, Holly, but that was no reason to kill her,” Bekki said.

“I didn't say I did, did I?” Holly asked sharply. “I can see why people would want her dead though. Even after she was gone her lawyer was over here harassing me. Why can't people just leave me alone and let me live my life?”

“Did you let Stella live her life, Holly?” Bekki asked as she stepped closer to her “Or did you take it away from her?”

“No matter what happened to Stella she had it coming,” Holly said harshly. “She was a terrible person, and eventually someone would have cracked under all of the pressure that she put on people. You can't just twist people into knots and threaten them and expect nothing bad to ever happen to you in return.”

“So, you fell back on your old profession. You poisoned her favorite candy, so that you would never hear her suck on it again?” Bekki pressed. She wanted the truth from Holly. She also wanted to keep Holly from getting into her car. If all of those bags of candy were poisoned she wanted them as evidence and they needed to be destroyed before anyone else got hurt.

“You'd like me to say that I did, wouldn't you, Bekki?” Holly asked. “Would that make you feel just so much better about yourself, Bekki? You treated that woman the same way everyone in this town did. Like she was above the standards of being a good person. You all knew what she was like, and yet no one tried to stop her from conducting business the way she did. No one stood up for the people she tried to destroy. What if it was your father that she had treated this way, Bekki?” she demanded.

“I can't answer that,” Bekki said. “I don't know for sure what I would do. But I do know what I wouldn't do. I wouldn't murder someone because I couldn't pay my rent.”

“As if it was really that simple!” Holly nearly shouted. Bekki started to take a step towards her, but suddenly stopped when she heard something that made every muscle in her body tense up.

Bekki heard the release of the safety before she even knew that someone else had walked up to the car. She froze at the sound of the subtle click. Holly didn't appear to have heard it, perhaps because she was still so focused on Bekki. As Bekki slowly tilted her head to the side to look in the direction of the sound, it felt as if the entire world had slowed down. She wasn't sure if she would have another second to live. When her eyes settled on the face of the person holding the gun, she was even more shocked.

“Jodie?” Bekki asked. Her voice was weak as her breath was shortened by confusion and panic. Jodie continued to point the gun directly at Holly. Holly finally realized that Jodie was there and turned to face her.

“Don't shoot!” Holly gasped with fear. “Jodie, what are you doing?”

“Don't shoot,” Jodie mimicked teasingly. “That's quite an original thought to have, Holly. Is that the extent of your creativity?”

“Jodie, just put the gun down,” Bekki said. Her words were muddled by the trembling in her voice. She took a slow breath to try to steady herself. “Whatever you have done, there is help for it. This isn't the way out of it.”

Had she been mistaken the entire time? Were Holly and Jodie in on the crime together?

“I know what I'm doing,” Jodie snapped. “Like I said, Bekki, you honor my mother your way, and I'll honor her my way. You're going to pay for what you did, Holly,” Jodie said.

“What are you talking about, Jodie?” Holly demanded. “You hated that old witch as much as I did.”

“Jodie, let's talk this out. Whatever you've done, Nick can help you,” Bekki offered in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

“Whatever I have done?” Jodie asked. She narrowed her eyes at Holly. She would not dare to even look in Bekki's direction. “I've had a lot of things taken from me in my life. My father, my step-father, my chance at living a decent healthy life. All of those things were taken from me. So, it shouldn't have come as any surprise to me that my mother would be taken from me, too.”

Bekki looked from Jodie, to Holly, and then back to Jodie. She had no idea what was going to happen next.

“As if you even care,” Holly said. She pursed her lips dismissively. “I saw the way that you treated your mother, as if she was a bank. While she was dragging every last penny out of my pocket, she was padding yours with whatever you wanted.”

“Is that what all of this was about, Holly? Jealousy?” Jodie demanded. Bekki stared between the two women. She could feel the hatred flowing between both of them.

“We should talk about this down at the police station,” Bekki spoke up.

“Quiet Bekki!” Jodie snapped. She kept the gun pointed at Holly despite yelling at Bekki.

“Why shouldn't I be jealous?” Holly asked gravely. “We're the same age, did you know that, Jodie?”

“No,” Jodie replied. Bekki was a little startled by the revelation as well. Holly looked at least ten years older than Jodie.

“Of course you didn't, because you've been pampered all of your life. You've had facials, and massages. While my face wrinkled and cracked from heat and hard work, you slathered on the most expensive lotions money could buy. How’s that fair?” Holly laughed bitterly. “What did I do so wrong that I ended up fighting every day of my life, while you got to coast through it?”

“It's not my fault if you've had a hard life,” Jodie said defensively. “It's not like mine has been easy.”

“It's not my fault either,” Holly nearly shouted. “That's the point. My mother used to tell me that all it took was hard work and dedication. She said all I had to do was live a good life, and I would be rewarded for it. But that's not what happened. I did everything right. I studied hard, but I didn't get a scholarship. I pinched every penny and dime while I worked full time and paid for college tuition. I got my degree, even if it meant I missed out on every single party invitation I ever received. I knew it would all pay off in the end. I was going to be a pharmacist. I would get to help people while making a good living, but that's not what happened. Because I was so tired I made one stupid mistake and that was it, everything I had done meant nothing. I scraped up just enough to rent this store, and told myself, I could do it. Maybe I could have,” she shrugged. “I never had the chance to find out, because your mother conned me out of every single cent. She didn't even need the money. She had more money than she could ever spend.”

Bekki stared between the two women. She didn't want anyone to get hurt. She knew with the highly charged emotions running through both women that one of them was bound to explode at any moment.

“So what?” Jodie demanded. “She had every right to treat you the way she did. You think the world owes you something because you were born poor? Get over it, Holly, you've never made anything of yourself because you're a screw up. I found out about your past, I had McAllister look into it. That's how I knew it was you who did this. That's how I knew that you had been the one to tamper with the candy and murder my mother. You lost your job because you were careless. Now, you're going to lose the rest of your life because you are a heartless killer,” Jodie took a step closer to Holly.

“We can call all of this a misunderstanding,” Bekki attempted to interrupt. She nervously watched the gun in Jodie's hands.

“Shut up!” Holly snapped. “Did you have to watch this spoiled brat get everything she wanted while her rigid, stingy, old mother robbed me? No you didn't!”

“Don't you talk about my mother that way!” Jodie shrieked. She took another step forward. Bekki without thinking stepped between the two women. She turned to face Jodie.

“Jodie, don't do this. Your mother is gone, nothing can change that,” she reminded her. “But you have the chance now to make her proud of you. This wouldn't make her proud.”

“Nothing I have done or can do would have made my mother proud. My mother may have been a mean, old broad,” Jodie said darkly. “But she didn't deserve to die for it. You're a murderer, Holly, and you're going to pay for it.”

“This wasn't supposed to happen like this,” Holly moaned. “No one was supposed to suspect anything. Your mother was old, death from a heart attack should have appeared to be natural causes. You would have had everything you wanted, Jodie, all of her money. I thought you wouldn't have cared about the shop, you would have left me alone to run it.”

“Or maybe you hoped that if something was suspicious, all eyes would be on me?” Jodie asked. “That the people of this town would think I was capable of killing my own mother?”

“They did, didn't they?” Holly smirked. “Even Bekki thought you did, didn't you, Bekki?”

Bekki lowered her eyes. She still had herself positioned between them. She tried not to look directly at Jodie as she didn't want to spark a reaction from her. Bekki was sure that Jodie was drunk. She realized that she must have been driving the car that was swerving all over the road. This had been her intention, to get revenge for her mother's death on the night of her memorial. It would be very difficult to convince Jodie that she was making the wrong choice.

“Jodie, Nick knows that I am here. He's going to be here any minute. He will arrest Holly and he will prove that she murdered your mother. If he shows up and you still have that gun in your hand, you're going to be in trouble. Just put the gun away. You deserve time to grieve your mother, not any of this,” Bekki said quietly.

“Grieve her,” Jodie muttered. “The only thing I'll be grieving is that I never had a mother to cry for in the first place.”

Bekki bit into her lower lip. She didn't want to argue with a woman who was wielding a gun.

“You see? I did you a favor, you should be thanking me,” Holly said with a laugh. “Just let me go, Jodie, you'll never see me again.”

“No,” Jodie said coolly. “My mother was not much of a mother, but if someone had done something to hurt me, she never would have stood for it. I can do the same for her. We at least had that. Get down on the ground, Holly.”

Bekki took a sharp breath. She wondered for a moment if Jodie was cruel enough to shoot Holly.

“Don't Jodie,” Bekki pleaded and continued to stand between them.

“Here Bekki, if you want to be so helpful, then be helpful,” Jodie tossed her a length of rope that she had tucked in her pocket. “Tie her hands. I don't want her getting away. I don't want this murder getting pinned on me.”

Holly was still standing boldly beside the car.

“Just do what she says, Holly,” Bekki said quietly as she moved closer to her.

“Is this it?” Holly asked as she looked into Bekki's eyes. “Is this your version of small town justice? She deserved to die, Bekki, you know she did.”

“Get down,” Bekki urged Holly. She shielded Holly with her own body. She was trying to stall Jodie enough that she could formulate a plan to protect Holly. Bekki had a black belt but with Jodie holding a gun she didn’t want anyone to get hurt if she made a mistake. If Jodie was drunk enough to shoot Holly, then she was likely drunk enough to get rid of the only witness to her crime as well. Holly reluctantly sank to her knees. She put her hands behind her back.

“You understand don't you, Bekki?” Holly asked in a whisper. As Bekki tightened the rope on Holly's wrists, she noticed that Holly wasn't even trembling. She was eerily calm.

“It was worth it,” Holly muttered. “It was worth it.”

“She offered me one of those candies, Holly. Would you have even cared if someone else died too?” Bekki asked. Holly didn't answer. She only stared at the ground. As Bekki stood up, Jodie lowered the gun. Bekki was surprised and relieved.

“Good decision, Jodie,” she said.

“It wasn't loaded,” Jodie said and showed the gun to Bekki. Then she tucked it into the back of her pants. “Even I don't get drunk enough to think that carrying around a loaded weapon is a good idea. So where's Nick?”

“I'm calling him now,” Bekki said.

“I thought you said he was on his way,” Jodie said. She looked at Bekki incredulously.

“I might have fibbed a little,” Bekki admitted. She dialed Nick's number. “I couldn't just let you shoot her.”

Jodie shook her head.

“Bekki?” Nick's voice was strained with concern. “Where are you? The memorial is almost over.”

“I'm at the Get and Go, with Jodie and Holly,” Bekki said. “I think you and Dave need to get over here fast.”

“We're on our way,” Nick said without questioning. No more than a minute later Nick's car sped into the parking lot. Dave climbed out of the passenger seat while Nick rushed towards Bekki.

“What's this?” Dave asked. He peered down at Holly who was still tied up on the ground.

“A citizen’s arrest?” Bekki suggested with a slight shrug. She stood close to Nick. “I think if you check the bags of candy on her backseat that you will see the candy is coated in the same powder that was used to poison Stella.”

“Is that so?” Dave asked. “Well, I guess we have our murderer then, don't we?”

“And why are you here, Jodie?” Nick asked as he looked over at her.

“I stopped by to see why she wasn't at the memorial,” Jodie said. “I walked in on the confession.”

“She held a gun on me!” Holly cried out. She wriggled her wrists free as Dave untied her. “She's trying to frame me for what she did to her own mother.”

“That's not true,” Bekki said. “Well uh, the gun part is,” she added. Nick stared hard into her eyes. Then he turned slowly to face Jodie.

“Do you have a weapon on you, Jodie?” he asked in a calm tone.

“Yes,” Jodie replied.

“Put it on the ground,” Nick instructed. Bekki saw his hand come to rest on the butt of his gun. She heard the click of the handcuffs closing around Holly's wrists. Jodie reluctantly reached for the gun. She lowered it slowly to the ground.

“It's not loaded,” Bekki said.

Nick did not look in her direction. “Step back from it,” Nick instructed Jodie. Jodie took three large steps back away from the gun. Nick leaned down and picked it up. He checked to make sure it wasn’t loaded.

“I think we have some things that we need to sort out down at the station,” he said. His eyes met Bekki's and she could tell that he was not the least bit happy with her. Morris' patrol car pulled into the parking lot. While Nick, Dave, and Morris sorted out how to take everyone into the station, Bekki glanced up at the star-filled sky. She knew that she had missed the memorial, but she had a feeling that Stella was glad that she did.