Chapter Sixteen #2
“Do you two have to do this here?” Bennett asked stiffly. “I’m feeling very uncomfortable right now.”
“Ignore him,” Fifi said, her eyes finding the rearview mirror every few seconds, probably more than was safe as she flew around the curvy mountain road. “I feel like we’re in our very own soap opera. Well, c’mon! Answer the man, Charlotte Calamity Pax!”
She couldn’t hold back anymore. “Yes!” She did actually squeal with happiness, as well as throw her arms around his neck and hug him hard.
He laughed again, although this time it wasn’t stifled, but an open sound of happiness and love that seemed to wrap itself around her and cuddle her close.
She’d never thought she’d ever crave safety, but then again, she never realized it could feel so good.
Pulling back, Kieran framed her face with his hands and just looked at her for a long moment. “It’s a little terrifying how much I love you.”
“Really?” She clutched his wrists as if to hold him in place. “I love you so much, but I’m not scared at all.”
Kieran grinned at her. “Of course you’re not.” He gave her a short, hard kiss. “Because you’re fearless.” He kissed her again, longer this time.
Charlie couldn’t stop smiling, even as she kissed him back.
Bennett groaned. “Please make it stop.”
Fifi laughed and whooped.
Charlie pulled back just enough to speak. “It’s weird having a cheering section while we kiss.”
“You’re the one who wanted to share our honeymoon suite,” Fifi reminded her, not sounding at all abashed.
Charlie couldn’t even think of a teasing comeback. She was too occupied by staring into her husband-to-be’s eyes.
“Sorry to interrupt.” Bennett did not sound sorry at all. “But could you check with Lou to make sure everything is in place on their end? Charlie? Charlie!”
“Okay, okay.” She reluctantly pulled away, although she couldn’t stop staring at Kieran and his ridiculously happy expression as she pulled out her phone. When she finally managed to peel her gaze away, she saw a text pop up on her screen.
Minor problem, Lou had written, bringing Charlie back down to earth with a metaphorical thump. Okay, fine. Slightly major problem.
“Lou says there’s a problem. She’s rating it as ‘slightly major,’” Charlie told the others, sending Lou a few question marks as a request for more information.
Several new texts popped up on her screen.
“Daisy’s deputy husband was called away.
Apparently, there was a bomb threat at the elementary school. ”
“Uh.” Fifi’s fingers tightened on the wheel as she sent Charlie a concerned glance. “How does this plan work without our deputy roadblock?”
“It doesn’t.” Charlie’s brain was already grinding away at possible new plans as she texted. “Lou wants to know how many minutes until Jane’s in Simpson.”
“Sixteen,” Bennett said, his voice even tenser than normal. “Twenty-two max, if she goes the speed limit, which isn’t likely.”
“Even if she’s not stopped in Simpson, she still has the GPS tracker,” Kieran said, giving Charlie’s jiggling knee a squeeze.
Despite the situation, Charlie felt herself calm slightly at his touch.
The man was magic, but she’d already figured that out.
“We’ll just keep following her and grab her when she eventually stops. ”
“No time.” Charlie watched the ellipsis on her screen with renewed tension as she waited for Lou’s return text. “Jane has to be at court in Denver by nine. She could drive for hours if she has a full gas tank, and the woman has a bladder of steel.”
“She really does,” Fifi confirmed.
New plan underway, Lou texted, and Charlie let out a breath of relief. May take time to put into place, so any extra minutes would be appreciated.
“Not sure how Lou expects us to slow Jane down, but I’ll tell her we’ll try,” Charlie grumbled as her thumbs flew over the screen. “She said they’re working on setting something else up.”
“Can you catch up to her?” Kieran asked. “Get in front of her to slow her down?”
“If she knows we’re behind her,” Fifi said, “she’ll go rogue—and she might find the GPS device. We’ve been chasing Mom unsuccessfully for weeks. If she loses us this time—now that she has the necklace—she’ll be gone forever.”
They fell into tense silence as Fifi maneuvered around the hairpin turns leading up to the pass.
“Twelves minutes out,” Bennett reported, his gaze locked on his phone screen.
Charlie texted Lou the updated arrival time.
Need more time!!! Lou responded.
“Lou’s used three exclamation points,” Charlie warned. “They’re not going to be ready in twelve minutes.”
“Eleven now.”
“B, love you like a brother, but that’s not helping.” Charlie leaned forward so she could look over his shoulder at the dot moving too fast across his phone screen. At least, it had been moving too fast. “Hang on… Did the dot just slow down?”
“Yeah.”
Kieran nudged Charlie’s side and showed her the traffic map on his phone. “A large vehicle is causing traffic to slow over this stretch.” He pointed to a section of road that was highlighted red.
“Thank the gods for feather-footed, RV-driving tourists!” Charlie crowed, peering closer at Kieran’s phone as Fifi gave an answering whoop. “What is that—about four miles? Five?”
“Just under five.”
“Do the math, B,” she urged, bouncing a little in her seat. “What’s Mom’s new ETA?”
“If the traffic stays at this pace, then twenty-seven minutes.”
“Yes!” Charlie quickly texted Lou the update and got an immediate response. “She said they can work with that. Probably.”
Brake lights lit the night as the vehicles in front of them slowed to a crawl, and Fifi brought their car in line with the others in the long, creeping caterpillar inching over the pass and down the other side toward Simpson.
“Oh,” Charlie said.
“What is it?” Kieran looked around, obviously picking up on the startled disappointment in her tone.
“I just realized that it’ll take us twenty-seven minutes to reach Simpson too.”
He gave one of his snort-choke-laughs before gripping the back of her neck in an affectionate squeeze. “You’ll survive.”
Her own snort was skeptical. “We’ll see about that.”
***
Somehow, she did manage to survive the endless half hour before traffic loosened up just a few miles before the Simpson town limits.
As they sped past the RV sitting on the short section of shoulder marked as a slow-vehicle pull-off, Charlie gave the driver a cheery thank you wave. It was likely they’d saved their bacon.
“Jane’s less than a minute outside Simpson,” Bennett reported.
Charlie fumbled a little as she texted Lou, adrenaline making her thumbs feel large and clumsy. Despite that, she managed to pass on the message, receiving just a thumbs-up icon in response. “Can’t wait to see what alternative plan they came up with.”
“Knowing Lou Sparks,” Kieran said wryly, “it’ll be a doozy.”
“Doozy?” Charlie teased. “Okay, Grandpa.”
Before he could respond, they went around the last curve before passing the WELCOME TO SIMPSON sign.
Charlie felt a delighted smile stretch across her face as utter chaos, lit by the pink and gold dawn light, came into view. “I take it all back, Kiki. This is, indeed, a doozy.”
“What are those?” Fifi peered through the windshield at the milling animals. “Sheep?”
“Goats,” Bennett corrected.
“That’s Millie Iverson’s truck and trailer.” Kieran nudged Charlie over to get a better view between the front seats, but she refused to budge. This was just gorgeous, so perfectly chaotic. “And her goats.” He paused before speaking again, sounding rather awed. “All of them.”
An ancient pickup and even older stock trailer were parked diagonally across the street, blocking the road. A large herd of goats milled around, completely surrounding Bones’s white car. Charlie peered through the VW’s back window.
“I don’t think anyone’s in there,” she said, her heart giving a thud of dread. A memory of searching for Jane in the forest behind their house popped into her head. After all this, would they end up just losing Jane on foot?
Fifi slowed the car, and Charlie hopped out even before it had come to a complete halt. She scanned the scattered groups of early-rising townspeople watching the commotion, but she didn’t see Jane or any of the treasure hunters.
Nor, come to think of it, did she see any of the murder club ladies.
“Lou?” Charlie called, weaving her way through the goats.
It was trickier than she would’ve thought, their warm, furry bodies pressing against her legs and then skittering off to the side, her clear path suddenly not clear anymore, and she tripped over a goat that definitely hadn’t been there a half second earlier.
The pavement flew toward her face as she fell, but then she stopped before hitting the ground, her face just inches from the pavement.
Craning her head around, she saw that Kieran had caught her by the back of her shirt.
“Thanks, Ki.” She grinned at him from her awkward position. “That would’ve hurt and been especially embarrassing. You know that Fifi would’ve gotten a picture.”
He just grunted, and she knew she had it bad, because the surly sound sent a rush of love through her.
“I love you.”
He placed her on her feet and snorted an almost laugh. “Love you too. Let’s find your mom.”
“Charlie!”
That sounded like Lou. Charlie scanned the churning crowds of animals and onlookers before she spotted the waving woman, on her knees in a cluster of goats.
“There she is!” Charlie waved back as she waded through the surging goats.
Kieran followed, his hand still holding a fistful of the back of her shirt, as if to be ready in case the goats took her down again.
“Charlie!” Lou shouted excitedly when Charlie and Kieran drew close. “Look who we’re sitting on!”
Charlie took a few steps closer, and the goats parted like a wiggly, fuzzy curtain, revealing Lou, Rory, Daisy, and Ellie—the entire Simpson Murder Club—all helping to keep a furious Jane pinned to the ground. Charlie grinned. “You guys give the best gifts.”
Fifi and Bennett, having finally made it through the goats to Charlie’s side, suddenly halted. “Is that Mom?”
“Kind of hard to tell under all the goat poo, isn’t it?” Charlie laughed when Jane let out a frustrated roar at that. “Come on, Fifi. Our skip has a court date to make.”
“I’m not the one you should be chasing,” Jane insisted as they each grabbed one of her arms and hauled her to her feet.
Fifi quickly pulled Jane’s hands behind her back and cuffed her.
“I don’t have the necklace. Rhys or Bones must’ve lifted it off me.
You can still catch them. They got out of the car at the same time I did, so they’ll be on foot. ”
“Nah,” Charlie said, her grip not loosening on Jane’s arm. “They can keep it.”
“Whaaat?” Jane’s shriek held complete outrage. “That’s my necklace! You can’t just let them take it!”
“It’s okay.” Charlie made her voice as annoyingly soothing as possible, delighting when her mom gave an irritated huff in response.
“After court, we can go to Target, and I’ll pick up another necklace just like the one the fortune hunters have.
We can even attach the nifty GPS tracker, if you like? ”
“The…” Charlie saw the second realization hit Jane, and she took advantage of her mom’s stunned silence to give Lou and her friends a wide grin.
“We owe you one, Murder Ladies. Thanks for all your help.”
“Thank you for bringing some excitement to Simpson,” Lou responded. “It’s been so sleepy and boring lately. What’s the point of having a murder club when there aren’t any murders?”
The chirp of a siren interrupted the other women’s chorus of goodbyes. Chris, Daisy’s deputy husband, gave up trying to maneuver his squad car any closer and got out to wade through the goats.
“Everyone okay at the school?” Daisy called to him.
He nodded, looking annoyed. “False alarm.” His sharp gaze landed on Jane. “Know anything about the bomb threat that was called in? Maybe to keep law enforcement out of the way while you were driving through town?”
Her mom’s face was blank with innocent confusion—too blank. Charlie knew that look. “Just let us get this court visit over, and then we’ll bring her back to you for an interrogation,” she promised Chris.
He gave a grim nod before looking around at the chaos. “All this to replace me?” he asked, looking a little proud of the fact.
“We’d better go if we’re going to make it on time,” Fifi said, and Charlie nodded.
Flanked by Bennett and Kieran, they hauled their mom through the goat sea to Fifi’s car and wedged Jane between them in the back seat.
Bennett headed for the driver’s seat, and although Kieran looked for a moment like he’d challenge the other man to a quick rock-paper-scissors game to determine the driver, he instead headed for the front passenger seat without saying a word.
With a final enthusiastic wave to the murder club ladies and all the early-rising residents of Simpson, Charlie turned back around and caught her sister’s gaze across their still-quiet mother.
“We did it, Fifi.”
“Of course. Never doubt our awesomeness, Charlie.”