Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Ihad done everything wrong. I hadn’t told anyone where I was going. I hadn’t even texted Rob to wish him good morning. I’d come tearing over to the woods without a thought in my head besides finding out who killed Jackson Moorehead. Now I knew, and I was in no position to do a thing about it.
“Why are you here?” I blurted, without thinking. “I thought...”
“Oh, you thought that you narced on me to your boyfriend?” she asked, moving the pistol so it was now pointed at me. “Thought you’d gotten me locked up? Well, sorry to report, honey, but they had no reason to hold me.”
She snorted, curling her lip as she continued.
“Stupid small towns. All you gotta do is trot out your high-powered lawyer and they fold like a cheap suit. And yeah, little miss nosy, I spotted you following my car. In fact, I threatened to press charges against you for stalking. I have a feeling that’s what really got through to your lover boy at the station.
How did someone like you ever land a guy who looks like that? ”
My mouth opened and closed a few times, and I probably greatly resembled a fish as I tried to figure out how to respond. She gave me a dismissive look and moved the gun back to her brother.
“And you probably blabbed the whole thing, didn’t you? And to think I tried to give your stupid little hobby a chance in my world. You disgust me. You’re just like your mother. Father would be appalled at what you’ve become.”
“Nat, are ya saying you’re the one who killed him?”
Declan looked as if he could cry. Strangely, I felt the same.
“Duh. At least I stand up for my family. Unlike you. You’re yellow, aren’t you? Father always said you were, but I didn’t want to believe him. I did what had to be done, Dec. And I’d do it again. No one steals from the Fairmonts. No one.”
“But...” I said, unable to stop myself. “You called yourself Adams.”
Why was my brain like this? Here I was, facing a madwoman with a gun, who’d already attempted to blow someone up and was minutes away from shooting us, and I was curious about her name. What was wrong with me?
“A girl’s allowed to get married, ain’t she?
” Natalie said. “Not that it lasted. But it was too much of a hassle to get it changed back. Now. To business. I’m sorry, Dec, but this is the way it’s got to be.
If it helps, I’ll take Fang back so you don’t have to worry about him.
Not that you’ll be alive long enough to do that, but who knows what happens after we shuck off our mortal coils? ”
“Much obliged,” Declan said, his face gone completely blank. “But I’d rather you didn’t kill us. At least let Olivia go. She’s got nothing to do with this. I told her nothing. Just that he stole my book. That’s all.”
“Hmmm,” Natalie said. “Now, what would old Moorehead write in this situation? You know, I think he’d have you be the killer, brother.
And poor, misguided, middle-aged Olivia would stumble on the truth and try to take you down.
She’d play the role of the aging busybody in a small town who ferrets out the truth.
But unfortunately for her, you’ll kill her and then take your own life in a fit of despair.
Yes, I think that will work nicely. I’ll have rushed over here to prevent it, but sadly, I was just too late. ”
The emotions that ranged across her face would have put a trained stage actor to shame. She’d missed her calling, that was for sure.
“I’m not a busybody,” I said, temper rising. “And it won’t work. You need to turn yourself in, Natalie.”
She giggled and stage whispered to her brother.
“Notice she didn’t refute the fact that she’s old. Funny.”
“You killed someone and injured a bunch of people. It’s not funny,” I said. “And now you’re going to shoot your own brother?”
“Well, half brother. And it’s not like we’re that close.
He’s pretty much a mooch, if you ask me.
‘Oh Nat, it’s so hard to break through in this industry.
Would ya be putting in a good word for me?
’” she raised her voice in a sing-song interpretation of her brother’s voice as he gaped at her.
“He’s a lousy brother and a worse writer. ”
“If I were that bad, why did he steal my work then? Slap his name over mine?” Declan asked, voice shaking. “Nat, you don’t want to do this.”
“Oh, but I really do. You see, it’s just bad form to leave loose ends.
That’s how the killer always gets captured.
I really lucked out finding both of you in one spot.
Made my life so much easier. Thank you, Olivia.
Now I just need to figure out who gets it first. Will it be the bookseller or the failed author? Choices, choices.”
I was running out of time, and I knew it. Help would not come. No one knew I was here. Unless there was a way to overpower her without getting shot in the process, I was a sitting duck.
“How about a third option?” I said, unable to keep my voice from shaking as she turned the gun on me. “How about you get out of here and we pretend this never happened?”
“You think I’m an idiot? Two minutes after I left, you’d be crying your little heart out to that cop. I’m not worried about you, Dec. You at least have a few self-preservation instincts. You’d hightail it with my dog and then pop up somewhere as someone new.”
“Let her go, Nat. This is between us. We’ll end it the way our pa would’ve wanted. No need to air our dirty laundry.”
“Oh, no thank you,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve got plans, you see. And it just so happens that the dearly departed author named me as his beneficiary. I’ve got all those lovely royalties to look forward to. Quite the cherry on top, if you ask me.”
I gasped as Natalie began laughing.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said.
She wiped her eyes with her free hand, checked to see if any mascara had smudged on her fingers, and shrugged.
“You should have seen his face when he figured out what I’d done.
It only took two sips of the coffee I swapped out to put him under.
That guy I talked to in Denver wasn’t kidding.
Only a tiny bit is fatal. I added way more than that to the awful coffee I got from that stupid cafe.
If I weren’t trying to rig up a murder/suicide situation here, I might have used the rest on the two of you.
You never would’ve known what hit you. Shoot!
Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to do that. Get it? Shoot?”
I blinked a few times, trying to process just how deeply twisted Natalie was. Declan had gone so pale his freckles stood out like dark splotches on his skin. Fang happily chewed on his bone, and from the way he acted around Natalie, I doubted he’d be any help, even if she did shoot her brother.
“And isn’t this just how it goes,” she continued, pacing back and forth.
“I have to do everything for you, don’t I?
Oh, Natalie, your boss stole my manuscript, boo hoo, what do I do now?
And now you don’t even have the grace to do this for me.
You’re going to make me shoot my own brother.
The only kin I have left in life. You really should be ashamed of yourself, you know? ”
The mental gymnastics this woman was capable of were definitely gold-medal worthy. Declan’s face twisted, and he looked at his sister with so much sorrow it could have filled an entire lake.
“Oh, Nat. Let her go. It’s me you’re mad at, not her.”
“Mad?” she said, cackling. “You think I’m mad?
Well, if that isn’t the underestimation of the century, I don’t know what is.
Because of you, I had to kill my best client.
And now, because of you, I have to mop all of this up.
You should have died with your mother. There’s a reason he left, you know, and it wasn’t to find his riches, although he did at that.
He left because he couldn’t stand his miserable excuse of a son and his grasping wife.
He found happiness with us. Never with you. ”
Declan’s face went red, and he snarled. The family resemblance was so shocking in that moment I couldn’t see how I’d never caught it before.
“Don’t you talk about me ma like that. She was practically a saint!”
“Oh, whatever. This is boring. Enough talk. So, Olivia, do you want to go first, or should it be Declan? It’s the least I can do to let you pick.”
Declan had been edging closer to her, but the way she swung that pistol around made it clear she knew how to handle it. Even if one of us managed to rush her, one of us would get shot.
I swallowed hard and wished for... so many things.
So many moments. Millie’s delighted chirp when she woke from a nap and saw me.
Seeing Rob smile. Jo’s zany antics, Emma’s perpetual attempts to corral her.
Sandy’s forthright way of looking at the world.
Naomi’s dedication to her dead husband. Meg and so many people flashed through my mind.
Is this what it meant? Seeing your life pass before your eyes? Not the life we’d lived, but the life we would miss. My throat clenched so tight that I could barely breathe.
“Put down the weapon and back away slowly,” came a voice from the trees.
A voice that, just seconds ago, I swore I would never hear again. Hope blazed bright in my chest as Natalie froze, her eyes wild.
“Which one of you did it? Which one of you called the cops?” she hissed, spinning in place.
The woods were quiet. No birds sang. No insects buzzed. The only sound came from the rhythmic chewing of Fang as he worried his bone, oblivious to the drama playing out before him.
“Put down the weapon and step aside.”
There! To my left. I was pretty sure his voice was coming from there. I didn’t dare turn, couldn’t run; my feet felt like they were frozen in place. A shot echoed, and I turned to see Declan as he fell, clutching his side, eyes wide in fear.
Natalie made a strangled sound and dropped to the ground, visibly straining against some sort of invisible bonds.
A slight golden glow flitted around her.
I flung myself on top of her, pinning her to the ground as I fought to wrest the gun from her hand.
Her fingers were frozen around the trigger, and her eyes wild as they met mine.
I kept tugging until I heard a crack and the gun popped free.
I flung it away as hard as I could. Fang’s barks rang through the trees as he strained at the end of his chain, spittle flying from his mouth.
“Don’t even think about it,” I said, panting. “Declan?”
He didn’t answer. I risked turning my head to see him lying on the forest floor, a patch of red underneath him growing steadily.
“Rob, we need help,” I said, desperation pitching my voice higher than I’d ever heard it before. “He’s been shot. I don’t know how long I can hold her.”
The brush to my left rustled, and Millie appeared, moving slowly.
“I’ll hold her as long as I can,” she said, her voice so soft I could barely hear her.
Behind her, Rob appeared, his face a mask of disbelief and shock.
“Olivia?” He asked, as if he were in a daze. “What happ...”
He wasn’t looking at the woman frozen underneath me. He wasn’t looking at Declan a few feet away. His eyes were trained, narrowed, on my cat. My stomach sank as I realized there was no explaining this away.
“Later. Please, I don’t think I can hold her much longer. And I might have broken her finger...”
Rob snapped into awareness, and his weapon rose, trained on Natalie’s head.
“I’ve got her, Livie. Check on Declan. The ambulance is on its way.”
There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but they were going to have to wait.
I had no idea how he’d ended up in the woods.
I didn’t know what my cat was capable of.
But I knew one thing. Declan was grievously hurt, but we were safe.
Rob cuffed Natalie’s hands behind her back as the remainder of the golden glow around her faded.