“We actually thought it was a good thing,” Peggy said. “It made us feel safer. After all, if someone was attacking us…” She shot me a guilty look. “But we couldn’t really believe someone would actually seem to be attacking me.”
Tracy Beal had been trying to get out of our yard in the quickest possible way, to escape Virginia. But she’d been running toward his territory and his owner, so Chaka had obeyed his earliest training. He’d jumped the fence and clamped his jaws on Tracy’s left arm.
Somehow, Tracy managed to stay on her feet, but the weight of the dog on her arm had forced her to crouch.
Chaka was not interested in savaging the woman he’d brought down, only in restraining her until Peggy dealt with her.
Tracy hadn’t known that.
Peggy had started running to the fence. By a flash of lightning, Peggy saw that the struggling woman had raised a knife. Acting purely on instinct, Peggy seized one of Lena’s new garden statues (the elf) and hurled it at Tracy Beal.
It must have been like being hit with a missile. Tracy had staggered, then gone flat on her back, her hand releasing the knife.
Since his prey wasn’t resisting anymore, Chaka let go of Tracy’s arm. He sat by the body, waiting for Peggy to praise him.
Peggy said she could see Tracy was dead. She told Levon, “I didn’t know what to do. Chaka was innocent. I couldn’t let him be killed. And it was her fault! She wasn’t supposed to be in Roe’s backyard. Clearly, she was up to no good.”
“What did you do then?” Levon said.
Chaka looked from Peggy to Lena, perhaps hoping for a treat.
Robin held out his arm, showing me that his sleeve was marked with dog saliva.
“You pulled off the sweater she was wearing,” I said.
Peggy just nodded. “I stuffed it in the bag I took to the Goodwill drop-off the next day.”
Lena began crying, almost silently.
“Shit,” Phillip whispered, and I could only agree.
“After that?” Levon said.
“I got the statue and threw it back into our yard. And I told Chaka to jump back over. I followed him. I took the statue inside and washed it and put it back in the urn.”
She took a deep breath. “When Chaka went into Roe’s yard after Moosie, I pretended I couldn’t jump the fence. But I knew Roe had seen me do it before. I guess you just put it all together?” Peggy turned her gaze from Levon to me.
I could hardly bear to meet her eyes.
“Yeah,” I said. “I suddenly saw the whole picture.”
“And you put this together to catch me.”
I nodded.
“Well, bully for you,” Peggy said, with overwhelming bitterness. “I divorced my husband, my son doesn’t come to visit, and what I’ve got are my sister and my dog. I wasn’t going to let that bitch stab Chaka. A person who’d do that to a dog deserves to die.”
Levon said, “I have to take you in, Ms. Herman.”
“What will happen to Chaka?” Peggy asked.
“I don’t know. That’s not up to me, and I’m glad,” Levon said. He called the station.
“You okay? If we go?” I asked Levon.
“Sure,” he said. After all, he was the one with the gun.
Phillip and Robin trailed me back to the door. We watched out the window until the uniforms showed up with their siren whooping. The Cohens wouldn’t like that, of course.
Levon had to pass through our house to get to his car, parked in our driveway. “I’m going to call for an ambulance for Lena,” he said. “She’s distraught.”
“Who will take care of Chaka?” Robin said, dismayed.
“I’ll come back to get him. I’ll drop him off at the kennel where the Hermans have boarded him when they had to be out of town.”
I was relieved. I did not want to entertain Chaka as a houseguest.
“Do you think she’ll stand by her confession?” I wondered if Peggy would decide to fight.
“She might,” Levon said, shrugging. “She knows she deserves to be in jail. Or maybe the shock of jail life will scare Peggy so bad she decides to recant.” Levon left.
“She deserves to be there?” Phillip was outraged. “Peggy didn’t set out to hurt anyone. She’s not a criminal. She was trying to protect her dog. A lot of people would think she was justified.”
“Not Tracy Beal’s mother and sister,” I said. “For starters.”
Robin said, “As Levon said earlier, not my call. And I can’t forget Tracy came in this house in the night intending to harm Aurora. After all, she brought a knife.”
Phillip looked troubled, maybe doubtful, but after he glanced at the clock he let out a yelp and dashed for the shower. I had forgotten his friends were coming over, and it did not occur to Phillip to cancel. He’d have an amazing story to tell them.
Down the hall, Sophie began to advise us that she was lonely.
Robin said, “I’ll get her.”
“I won’t turn that offer down,” I said, and sat on the couch, arranging a throw pillow in my lap, ready to hold Sophie in the best position.
The terrible drama that had played out in our backyard seemed almost like a dream, one that had left trouble and fear in its wake. Virginia, Ford, Marcy, Lena, Robin, Phillip, me, Peggy, even old Mr. Redding … we were all dislodged from the groove of our lives, from the ripple effect of that chance encounter on a dark night.
But having had that thought, I couldn’t see that it changed my life in any way. It was not some deep philosophical dilemma I would ponder.
I was pretty sure I would settle back into my place in the pond of suburban life and be content. But I recognized that motherhood had changed me, for better or worse, forever.
And I was fine with that.
* * *
The next morning after Phillip had taken off for school, Arnie Petrosian showed up at our door. Like Peggy, he seemed determined to rid himself of a burden.
“I’m really sorry I brought Ford here,” he said. “He was a good assistant. When the business slumped, he didn’t keep asking for raises I couldn’t give him. Sure, I should have fired him after the burglary at Rick Morrison’s, but he hadn’t been convicted yet, and I wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.” He’d said this all in a stream of words, so we’d had no chance to say “Hello” (or “Go away”).
We looked at each other, nonplussed.
Finally, Robin said, “It’s over and done, Arnie. You did bring him into our house. But after all, he had the keys Virginia left with. I think he hoped he wouldn’t have to come in while we weren’t here, because that was a big risk. We might return, one of our neighbors might notice, or Phillip might have walked in. I guess that’s why he was rummaging around hoping to find Virginia’s phone when you two were working here.”
Arnie looked directly at us, and heaved a sigh of relief. “Thanks,” he said. “I won’t make the same mistake again. And your security system installation is free.” He turned and went back to his Spartan Shield van.
“I don’t know how to feel about that,” I said.
“I, for one, will not vote for him in the next election,” Robin told me with great dignity, and I began to laugh.
The same afternoon, Mother brought John over. He was walking slowly, but I didn’t wonder if he was going to topple over at any moment. It was another gorgeous day. We all trooped into the backyard, where I gave John the crime scene tour. I felt a little squicky about it. For all I knew, Lena might be watching from her kitchen window.
“I hear they found Tracy’s sister’s car behind a house for sale on the street behind you,” John said. “You see Lena?”
“It’s like she’s gone,” I said. “Along with Peggy. And Chaka.”
“She killed a woman to save a dog,” John observed. “What do you think of that?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Peggy did what her heart told her to do. I guess I’ll find out how she felt about Chaka. Robin wants to get a dog.”
John smiled. “You’ll enjoy it,” he said.
“Easier than having another baby,” I muttered.
John laughed out loud. It was a good sound, and I hoped I got to hear it for years to come.
And over the baby monitor stuffed in my sweater pocket, I could hear Sophie making preliminary sounds of hunger. Back to business as usual.
Five minutes later, I was looking down at her fuzzy red head; and I began to wonder if a second one would be so very awful, after all.
ALSO BY CHARLAINE HARRIS
AURORA TEAGARDEN MYSTERIES
All the Little Liars
Poppy Done to Death
Last Scene Alive
A Fool and His Honey
Dead Over Heels
The Julius House
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
A Bone to Pick
Real Murders
LILY BARD MYSTERIES
Shakespeare’s Counselor
Shakespeare’s Trollop
Shakespeare’s Christmas
Shakespeare’s Champion
Shakespeare’s Landlord
SOOKIE STACKHOUSE / TRUE BLOOD NOVELS
After Dead
Dead Ever After
Deadlocked
Dead Reckoning
Dead in the Family
Dead and Gone
From Dead to Worse
All Together Dead
Definitely Dead
Dead as a Doornail
Dead to the World
Club Dead
Living Dead in Dallas
Dead Until Dark
HARPER CONNELLY MYSTERIES
Grave Secret
An Ice Cold Grave
Grave Surprise
Grave Sight
CEMETERY GIRL TRILOGY (WITH CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN)
Inheritance
The Pretenders
MIDNIGHT, TEXAS NOVELS
Night Shift
Day Shift
Midnight Crossroad
About the Author
CHARLAINE HARRIS is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for more than thirty years. Born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area, she is the author of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, which are the basis for the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Aurora Teagarden original movies; the Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series, which was the basis for the HBO show True Blood; the Shakespeare mysteries; the Harper Connelly mysteries; and the Cemetery Girl mysteries. Harris now lives in Texas with her husband. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Also by Charlaine Harris
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
SLEEP LIKE A BABY. Copyright © 2017 by Charlaine Harris. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover illustration by Lisa Desimini
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Harris, Charlaine, author.
Title: Sleep like a baby / Charlaine Harris.
Description: First edition.|New York: Minotaur Books, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017021226|ISBN 9781250090065 (hardcover)|ISBN 9781250090089 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Teagarden, Aurora Roe (Fictitious character)—Fiction.|Murder—Investigation—Fiction.|GSAFD: Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3558.A6427 S58 2017|DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017021226
eISBN 9781250090089
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact your local bookseller or the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at
[email protected] First Edition: September 2017
Charlaine Harris, Sleep Like a Baby
(Series: Aurora Teagarden # 10)
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