“They left him there? Are you telling me that he’s free to go back out?”
Sid realized that probably wasn’t the wisest thing, after all. He was confused. He didn’t know what to think. “Look, I’m at your house. I’m gon’ go in and talk to Stan. Maybe he can help me sort all this out. Meanwhile, I’m gon’ have to put an APB out on Celia. You say she’s in your car?”
“Yes, although I can’t see how that could be, if she stole David’s car.”
“Maybe she stole your car because she couldn’t go back to David’s, since we’d found it.”
“Sid, for this to be true, I’d have to be lying about her being with me all night. Are you calling me a liar?”
“She’s your friend, Jill. You’re tryin’ to keep her outa trouble.”
“I’m not a liar, Sid!”
Sid cut the phone off and dropped it on his seat, then got out of the car and dashed to the front door.
Stan answered the door, and saw Sid standing there. “What’s going on?” Stan asked. “I heard sirens over an hour ago. I tried to call the station to find out what was going on, but I got put on hold—”
“Somebody broke into your house and turned on the gas starter in your fireplace, so you’d die in your sleep.”
Stan’s eyebrows lifted. “And you were there, right? Caught him?”
“No,” Sid said. “We botched it up, man. Whoever it was got away. We found David Bradford’s car on the other side of the woods, and thought sure it was him. And Celia claims she found the checkbook in his briefcase, but she’s disappeared, and I don’t even know if Jill was tellin’ the truth about her bein’ at Aunt Aggie’s all night, and David’s reported his car stolen, claimin’ Celia and Lee Barnett took it, and we found wet clothes in Barnett’s floor, even though he really couldn’t have had time to do all this since the time he was in jail for the bar fight…and whoever the killer is would have a key to Barnett’s apartment anyway…”
“Wait a minute,” Stan said, cutting him off. “David said that Celia and Lee Barnett stole his car?”
“Yes,” Sid said.
He backed off, trying to think. David had the checkbook. David’s car was at the scene of the crime. David had lied about Celia stealing his car.
“What is it?” Aunt Aggie called as she came up the hall in her robe. “Somethin’ happened?”
Sid nodded, but Stan grabbed his arm and made him look at him. “If David said that, Sid, then he’s the killer. Celia didn’t do it.”
“But man, I don’t know where she is.”
“The question is, where is David?”
“He’s at the Newpointe Inn, with his folks. Two of the boys took the stolen car report and left him there.”
“Left him there? Just like that? Sid, are you crazy?”
“They arrested Barnett. Celia’s missin’. All the evidence points back to—”
“Sid, there is evidence, and then there is evidence.” He tried to catch his breath. “You’re falling for all of it, just like he wants. You aren’t using your head. Think! He got away and had to change clothes so he could refocus the suspicion. He had a key to Barnett’s apartment! He had to go somewhere!”
“But it’s too far-fetched. It ain’t as obvious…”
“Sometimes evidence can be too obvious, Sid!” Stan shouted. “Come on. We’ve got to get to the Newpointe Inn. If it’s David, he’s not going to stay there for long. And if Celia’s out there somewhere, she’s probably looking for him. If she gets to him before we do, her life is in danger.”
“Or his,” Sid said.
Stan grabbed his gun and shoulder holster, which had been lying on the table, jerked the keys out of his friend’s hand, and headed for the door.
“Wait up, you!” Aunt Aggie shouted. “I’m comin’ too.”
“You can’t, Aunt Aggie,” Sid said, hurrying out the door. Stan went to the driver’s side. “Stan, you can’t drive in your condition. I’ll drive. Just wait up.”
Stan grudgingly gave him his keys back and got in on the passenger side. Aunt Aggie ran out behind them and jumped into the backseat.
Sid stopped her from closing the door. “No way, Aunt Aggie. Get out!”
“You gon’ drag a ole lady outa the car?” she challenged.
“If I have to!” Sid shouted.
“Shut up and get in the car!” Stan yelled. “Celia’s life is in danger!”
Chapter Sixty-Four
Celia drove aimlessly, looking for David. If he’d gotten away without his car, he must be on foot. Maybe she would spot him.
But after some time, she realized that she wasn’t going to find him. He was too good at this.
She sobbed into her hand, unable to believe that her brother was a killer. She didn’t understand. Why would he do it? Why would he have killed Nathan six years ago? Why would he have set her up? Why, after all this time, would he have poisoned Stan? It made no sense at all.
She thought of her parents, who had shunned her at the funeral. He had eaten dinner with them tonight. They were still at the Newpointe Inn.
She didn’t know why, but she decided to go there, to confront them.
Her hands trembled as she parked Jill’s car in the parking lot and hurried inside. She stopped at the desk and asked for her parents’ room number.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to give that information.”
“Please,” she cut in, beginning to sob again. She dropped her face, tried to cover her mouth. “Look, they’re my parents…the Bradfords. I need to see them…”
The woman looked like she felt sorry for her. “Look, I’m not supposed to do this, but if they’re your parents…” She checked her computer, then turned back to her. “They’re in 305.”
“Thank you.” Celia headed for the elevator.
She rode up, wiping her face and trying to decide what she would say to them when she saw them. Should she tell them that she suspected David? Would they even believe her? Would they know where he was?
She got off and found their door. She took a deep breath and knocked.
She heard voices inside, and knew someone was looking at her through the peephole. Would they pretend they weren’t there, and hope she’d go away? She pressed her forehead on the door. “Mom…Dad…please let me in. I have to talk to you.”
The door opened, but she saw no one there. She pushed into the room, and turned to see who stood behind the door.
David grabbed her arm and closed the door behind her. She screamed, but he threw his hand over her mouth. “I have a gun,” he told her in a whisper. “Don’t scream again.”
She swallowed as he let her go, and turned around to see the pistol he held pointed at her.
“David, why are you doing this?” she cried.
“Mom, Dad,” he called into the bedroom. “It’s okay.”
Her parents came out with looks of terror on their faces. They looked at Celia, then at the gun he held on her.
“Be careful, David,” her mother said. “That thing could accidentally go off.”
She couldn’t believe her ears. “Mom? Don’t you see what’s happening?”
“Don’t talk to her, Mom,” David said. “Just get out. You and Dad get out of the room where you’ll be safe. Call the police and tell them she’s here.”
Suddenly, it was all so clear to her. David was the killer. And he had convinced her parents that she was. “Mom, Dad! It’s him! He did all this!”
Her parents wouldn’t listen. Instead, they opened the door and fled out into the corridor.
The door swung shut behind them. “Why, David?” she asked him. “Why?”
He laughed. “If I shoot you, I can claim we were fighting over the gun, and it went off. I’ve convinced Mom and Dad that you’re certifiable. I’ll convince the police, too. Even Stan will believe me when it’s all over.”
“But…I don’t understand. What did I ever do to you? Why do you hate me so much?”
“Why?” He laughed again. “I
didn’t hate you, Celia. I hated the way they felt about you.”
“Who? Mom and Dad?”
“You were their trophy child,” he said. “I was invisible.”
She backed away, trying to make it to the door. She turned the knob, but he came closer with that gun.
“David, that wasn’t my fault. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I loved you…”
“And then you grew up, and there you were with your husband taking an executive position in the company…”
“You got one, too,” Celia said. “Dad didn’t overlook you!”
“He didn’t value me, either. You were gonna get the lion’s share of the inheritance, like you got everything else.”
“Then why didn’t you kill me?” she demanded on a sob. “Why did you kill him? Why did you go after Stan?”
“Because,” he said through his teeth, “if I’d killed you, you’d have been a martyr. They would have built a shrine to you. Started a foundation. Grieved over you so hard that I still would have been invisible!”
“But David, it wasn’t that way—”
“You have no idea how it was. But it changed, Celia. As soon as they thought you were a murderer, I wasn’t invisible anymore. You weren’t the trophy child; you were the embarrassment. And then the whole inheritance was mine, and I was the one who was going to take over the company some day…”
She couldn’t speak. Sobs rose up in her throat as her heart broke.
“Then Stan started working on them about your birthday, and I saw them starting to pull out your pictures again, and I knew that they were going to forgive you. I had to remind them what you really were. I had to make you a murderer again.” He stepped closer to her, ran the barrel of the pistol across her throat. “But you know what? If I kill you now, you won’t be a martyr. It won’t hurt them a bit. You’re a threat. An embarrassment. They’ll be glad you’re finally gone.”
She dropped to the floor, trying to sob silently. “David, I’m pregnant. I’m carrying your niece or nephew. You couldn’t kill me, could you?”
He bent over her. “I can’t let another trophy child be born. It would ruin everything.”
She wailed out a sob, and he yanked her to her feet.
“Now, here’s how we’re gonna do this.” He took her hand and closed it around his hand—the hand that held the gun. “We’re going to struggle for the gun, Celia. And it’s going to go off. And you’re going to die, but they’ll see the gunpowder on your hands, and they’ll believe the evidence.”
“No,” she cried, trying to pull her hand away. “No!”
He grabbed her wrist and made her hold the gun, and suddenly, she realized that if she didn’t fight back, if she didn’t struggle, he was going to kill her. She closed her hand around the gun, and tried to raise it up, but he was stronger, and he overpowered her. He turned it in to her, but she pushed it away with all her might and prayed with all her heart.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Stan saw Jill’s car parked at the Newpointe Inn. “There’s Jill’s car,” he said, as Sid double-parked behind it. “That means Celia’s here. And she’s in trouble.”
He got out of the car, and Sid and Aunt Aggie got out behind him.
Stan saw Celia’s parents standing at the front desk, talking frantically on the phone. They saw him and spun around. “Where’s Celia?” he demanded.
“She’s up in the room with David. We’re calling the police.” Joanna looked up at Sid. “It’s okay, though. David’s got a gun.”
Stan didn’t know he had such energy left in him as he bolted for the open elevator. Sid jumped on as the doors began to close, and he heard Joanna scream as Aunt Aggie came into the lobby.
The elevator opened, and Stan shot into the hall and ran to 305. He was out of breath and soaked with sweat, and felt as though he might pass out. As he ran, he pulled his weapon out of his shoulder holster.
Just as he reached the door, a gunshot shattered the silence. He bolted into the room and saw David and Celia struggling with the gun. David was overpowering her, pointing the gun at Celia’s chest.
Stan aimed and pulled the trigger.
David flew back against the wall, then slid down into a heap on the floor.
Celia screamed and collapsed on the floor, holding her head with both hands and rocking back and forth. Stan went to her side and pulled her into his arms.
She couldn’t stop screaming.
Sid looked stunned as he came into the room. He turned back to Celia and Stan, then looked at David.
Stan heard people running up the hall, and Vern and R.J. burst into the room.
Celia’s screaming stopped and became desperate, gasping sobs instead.
“Get the paramedics up here,” Sid told them. “She may be hurt.” He went over to David, took his pulse. “He’s dead.”
“Nooo!” she wailed. “Noooo!”
Stan only held her, trying to comfort her, trying to whisper soothing words into her ear.
Issie Mattreaux and Steve Winder ran in with a gurney and laid it down beside Celia. “Celia, are you hurt?”
She was shaking and sobbing, and Stan wouldn’t let her go. “She’s pregnant,” he said. “In her condition, this kind of thing…”
They pried his arms off her and tried to examine her, but she couldn’t calm down. “Let’s get her out of here,” Stan told them, helping her to her feet. “Come on, baby, let’s go downstairs.”
Still wailing, Celia let him walk her out.
Chapter Sixty-Six
It took over an hour for Celia to calm down, but Stan wouldn’t let them give her a sedative for fear it would harm the baby. Since he didn’t feel sure enough that their own home was safe, he took her back to Aunt Aggie’s house. There he tucked her into bed then lay beside her, holding her.
She didn’t yet know that Aunt Aggie was alive. Her aunt and parents had been in a police car, out of harm’s way, when they’d brought her through the lobby. She had been so distraught at the time Stan had decided not to tell her then. He’d been more worried about getting her to the hospital to make sure she was all right.
Now, he wondered if it was time to tell her. Maybe the news would pull her out of her despair. He knew that Aunt Aggie was downstairs with Jill and Stan’s parents, chomping at the bit to come up and comfort Celia.
“Celia, honey, look at me,” he whispered.
She turned her swollen, red eyes to him, and he thought he would do anything in the world to put some joy back in those eyes. “Honey, there’s something I have to tell you. Some good news.”
He knew she couldn’t imagine any news being good after what had happened tonight. “What?” she whispered.
“Well, while you were in jail, some of us tried to come up with a plan to draw out the killer,” he said softly. “We had to figure out a way to get you out of jail so he could strike again. We knew he couldn’t do something and blame you if you were in jail.”
She was listening carefully, trying to follow him.
“So…we had the idea that…if there was a death in the family…there’d be a good reason for you to get out…”
She frowned and sat up slowly, staring at him. He sat up, too, and framed her face with his hands. “Celia, Aunt Aggie isn’t really dead.”
She caught her breath, got up, and gaped down at him. “Stan, this isn’t funny.”
“It’s not meant to be. Honey, she’s alive. She’s downstairs.”
She bolted to the staircase and tore down the stairs. Stan followed her.
“Aunt Aggie!” she called, and suddenly the old woman came out of the kitchen and ran into her arms.
“I ain’t dead, sha!” Aunt Aggie said, bursting into tears. “It was just a hoax to draw the killer out. We didn’t know it was gon’ be David.”
Celia began to weep again, clutching her as if she’d never let her go. Hannah and Bart came out of the kitchen and watched quietly, and Jill came, too. They all watched as Celia crushed the old woman ag
ainst her and cried out what was left of her tears. Finally, Celia stepped back and looked around at all of them. “I want to know whose idea this was!” The words came out through her teeth, and her face was red as she looked around at them. “Who decided to tell me my Aunt Aggie was dead?”
Jill stepped forward. “It was my idea, Celia. It was the only way I could think of to—”
Celia slapped her face. Jill brought her hand to the print on her cheek and took a step back. “Celia, I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Celia fell into Aunt Aggie’s arms again. “It ain’t her fault,” Aunt Aggie told her. “If it weren’t for her, you’d still be in jail. And David, he’d still be foolin’ all of us. Stan might be dead…”
Stan stepped forward and touched Celia’s shoulder. “Honey, I know you feel betrayed…”
“Everybody betrayed me!” she cried. “Everybody!”
She let Aunt Aggie go and fell back into his arms. He held her, stroking her hair, squeezing her against him.
Slowly, his parents stepped up to her, touched her hair tentatively. “Celia, we hope you can forgive us someday,” Hannah said.
Bart was beginning to cry himself. “We’re so sorry.”
She stepped out of Stan’s embrace and looked at her in-laws through teary eyes. For a moment, he thought she might slap them, too, but instead, she just reached out for them. They hugged her desperately.
After a moment, she turned back to Jill. She looked at her, shaking her head, then reached out for her, too. Jill hugged her like a sister. “Oh, Celia,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry I slapped you,” she said. “I should be thanking you…for sticking by me.”
“It’s okay,” Jill whispered.
“Let’s get you some eats,” Aunt Aggie said when the two women had let each other go. “You eatin’ for two now. And this has been a rough night. Got to calm you and the baby down, let him know arrything gon’ be awright.”
Celia laughed for the first time in a long time and followed her aunt into the kitchen.