She gave her head a little shake. “It was seeing him…Oh, I miss him so much!” Her voice quavered. She pressed a hand to her mouth and blinked hard.
I stepped over to the armoire and hit the power button on the television. The screen went dark. I pushed the eject button and pulled the tape out, looking blankly at the label. Finally I crossed the room and laid the tape on the kitchen counter next to my glass of juice.
“I think we should watch it,” Ed said. “Put it back in the machine.”
At the same time Kay asked again, “Where did Bob and Ambrose go?”
I turned to her. “We saw a grocery store at that little town at the crossroads about fifteen miles back. He and Ambrose have gone to pick up food,” I told her. “They must have taken Ambrose’s car. You may have passed them on your way here. I don’t think they had been gone very long when you arrived, but I was in the shower. I'm not sure how long it’s been.”
“Ah,” Kay nodded, knowing my showering habits. “I wasn’t paying attention to cars going the other way,” she confessed. “You know what?”
“What,” I obliged.
“I think we should all watch the tape together. I’ll follow Ambrose and Bob. I'm sure I can find them, and I'll get them to hustle their butts back here.”
“But—” I started to object.
“If they arrive and see Bonnie’s car, Bob will either take off again or barrel in here thinking he needs to save you, Louisa.”
I nodded.
“Which car should I take? Bonnie, I'd better take yours, in case I miss them on the road and they get back before me. In the meantime tell Louisa more about what we talked about last night.”
Bonnie nodded. She was still pale but had recovered her composure. She held out a ring of keys with her left hand. A gold fob engraved with the letter B dangled among the keys.
Kay took the ring and started for the door. “I'll be back as soon as I can,” she said over her shoulder.
“Wait a minute,” Ed said. He stood up from the arm of the chair he’d been slumped on. “You dragged me out of bed to see this tape. Get back here and let’s watch the blasted thing.”
She glared at him. “I got you out of bed because we need your help. We’re after a murderer, remember?”
“Alleged murderer,” he said. I held my breath, hoping he wouldn’t call her ‘lady.’ Kay continued before he had a chance to.
“We need someone official to get this guy behind bars. If you can't wait for Bob and Ambrose, watch the tape with Louisa and Bonnie. But I don't see what difference a few more minutes is going to make.” She turned again and started out the door.
“I'm coming with you. Give me the keys.”
“No.” She stopped to scowl at him. “I can find Bob and Ambrose without you.”
“You can, but you’re not going to.”
Kay spun around and was out the door. He followed her. I was amazed that anyone so rumpled and sleepy-looking could move so fast. Bonnie and I hurried out to the front porch. Kay had the engine started and the car moving.
“All right, you can drive,” Ed said as he jerked open the passenger door and threw himself inside. She executed a tight three point turn and sped down the drive to the road. I could hear their voices over the sound of the car. Ed waved his hands to emphasize whatever point Kay was not listening to. The Mercedes turned onto the road and disappeared. The sound of the engine faded into the distance.
I looked at Bonnie. She blinked.
“Goodness, what a pair. Your cousin is, um, a forceful woman,” she commented.
“My cousin is hell on wheels,” I told her, “but she’s also one of the best people I know.”
“She made me stay at her place and we ended up talking most of the night. This morning she decided we needed official help, so she went to Ed’s house and woke him up and made him come with us.”
“That sounds like her. I wonder how she got past his mother.”
“He’ll arrest me as soon as Mr. Richardson gets back and says he wants to press charges.” She looked sad and tired and resigned.
“You’re lucky she only made you spend the night. She’s capable of anything. You could have ended up racing back to High Cross to kidnap Carl.”
“Don’t think we didn’t consider that,” she admitted.
“I can't speak for Bob, but I don’t think he’s all that mad at you. He did say it was a very polite kidnapping. And what man wouldn’t want to be kidnapped by a beautiful blonde?”
“Yeah, right,” she scoffed, but a small smile curved her mouth. The sunshine bathing the cabin’s porch lit her face.
Realization dawned. “Bonnie,” I said slowly, “do you know what you did?”
“What?” Her brow puckered in concern.
“You saved Bob’s life.”
“What do you mean?”
“You got him out of the way at just the right moment. I don’t think Carl showed up at his house at dawn the next morning just wanting to say hello, do you?”
Her eyes widened. “You’re right. Carl is desperate to hide his crimes. The stakes get higher with each murder.”
“He’ll be furious when he finds out what you did. He probably thought he could sneak over to Willow Falls, find Bob and quietly kill him, maybe even hide the body or make it look like another suicide, and get away with murder once more.”
“That sounds like him.”
“And you waltzed in, scooped Bob out of a grocery store, and hid him away where he was safe. I don’t think Bob’s going to be mad, I think he’s going to be kissing your feet. I think you should have business cards printed—Bonnie Becker, Deus ex Machina.”
A real smile lit her face for the first time. “Wouldn’t that be Dea?”
I laughed. “Hey, you want to come in and have some orange juice?”
She nodded. “Love to. It would feel so—so normal to drink orange juice.”
I started into the cabin. Her sudden intake of breath stopped me in my tracks. I turned to see her staring toward the road, body rigid and eyes wide. Following her gaze I saw a big black car sliding down the drive. It was driven by a man, a large man I had last seen searching my car in front of Bob’s house.
Carl.
Here.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Oh. My. God,” Bonnie breathed. We jumped into the house and I slammed and locked the door. “He followed us here. He must have found your cards and Kay’s shop.”
“He would have been watching her place when you left.” I said. “And when Kay and Ed drove off just now…”
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Bonnie gasped, looking around wildly.
I peered through the small panes of glass in the top half of the front door. The black car stopped and Carl climbed out. He took a leisurely look around before he turned toward the cabin.
“Quick, into the bathroom,” I told Bonnie.
She gave me a confused look. “What? You want to hide in the bathroom?” She clearly thought I was insane.
“No, that’s where the back door is. Come on,” I threw over my shoulder as I hastened across the room.
She followed. I tugged back the deadbolt on the outside door and tried to turn the knob. Still locked. A twist of the inset button and we had the door open. As Bonnie and Emily Ann crowded through, I remembered the tape. It was on the kitchen counter. If I left it, we’d have no concrete evidence that Carl had killed his wife or her son.
I dashed back into the cabin. The porch step creaked as it took Carl’s weight. Perhaps he was unsure it would hold him; a pause before the next creak gave me time to flee back into the bathroom. I slammed and locked the door I'd just come through, and lunged for the one leading outside. I took a moment to twist the lock button in the knob—if he came around and tried to get in this way, it wouldn’t keep him out for long, but it might buy us a little time. And if he made it in the front door and into the bathroom, well, it would give us one more second to run away.
I looked around for Bonnie and Emily Ann. I had a half-formed idea that we could creep around the house and steal Carl’s car while he was breaking in. Anything to avoid another woodland chase scene. But Bonnie had already dashed across the yard toward the woods, and I couldn’t call out to her to stop without alerting Carl. So, tape in hand, I followed.