Nice thought, but I couldn’t count on it.
I hurdled a flat rock that, if I remembered correctly, held a bronze marker that dedicated the park to a former mayor of Chilson. The perfectly executed leap boosted my confidence and I found that I hadn’t been running as fast as I could. Not quite.
Run, Minnie, run, I told myself. For Carissa. For Cade.
I don’t know if it was because I’d sped up or if Karringer had slowed, thinking that he’d lost us in his clever turn into the park, but I finally saw the back end of the golf cart. So far ahead, though, that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to catch up. I had to stop him… but how?
Come on, Cade, I thought.
“Stop!” I yelled, loud as I could. “Stop right now!”
Karringer’s head swiveled around and the golf cart started drifting to the right. I saw his mouth move when he caught sight of me, and it didn’t look like a very nice word that he said. He turned back around, but by the time he’d done so, the cart was headed directly toward a large and very solid-looking trash container.
He wrenched the steering wheel around. The cart turned hard. Too hard. In one quick movement, it fell on its side.
Car headlights swept across the scene, pinning Karringer down with its bright beams. My car, since I heard Cade’s voice calling, “Minnie! Minnie, are you all right?”
“Fine,” I said, waving, and ran to Karringer. His legs were trapped underneath the golf cart.
“I think my ankle’s broken,” he croaked. “I think it’s bleeding. You have to help me.”
With great caution, I approached. “You’re hurt?” If he was injured, I did need to help him. And if his ankle was broken, he wouldn’t be running away. I edged closer, trying to see.
“Minnie!” Cade was limping fast, cane in one hand and the gun in the other. “Stay back! I’m sure he’s trying to get you close enough to grab and use as a hostage.”
I backpedaled, my eyes wide.
Karringer cursed.
“Thanks,” I breathed to Cade as he came up to me. “Sometimes I forget how naïve I am.”
“Part of your charm, dear Minnie,” he said. “You are all right, aren’t you?”
“Pretty as a picture,” I said. “You?”
“Fit as a fiddle.”
Karringer was still whining about his ankle, and off in the distance, we heard the welcome sound of sirens rushing toward us.
“Well, my dear,” Cade said, “I’d say Trap Two is turning out terrifically.”
I laughed, and was pleased that only the teensiest bit of it sounded out of control. “Totally.”
Karringer made one more try to wriggle out from under the golf cart, but Cade stepped forward, raising the gun. I grabbed a rock from the nearest flower bed and Karringer fell back, giving up.
Trap Two was Tremendous.
Chapter 21
The next morning, I’d given Kristen the short version of the previous evening’s events, but she hadn’t had time for the full-length story.
“Stupid restaurant,” she’d muttered. “Why can’t I have a Monday-through-Friday job like everybody else?”
“You did, remember? You hated it.”
“Oh, yeah.” Her smile came through the phone. “I did, didn’t I?”
We scheduled a confab on the marina’s patio, and I headed up to the boardinghouse for the last of the big summer breakfasts.
Come Sunday afternoon, Kristen and Eddie and I were comfortably sprawled out in the warm sun. Kristen and her long legs, which were somehow deeply tanned in spite of her long hours at the restaurant, were stretched across two chairs that she’d dragged together. Eddie and I were sharing a glider love seat that, for the first time all summer, was not squeaking on the forward glide. Either Chris had finally remembered to oil it or the people in the closest boat slip had done it themselves.
“Spill,” Kristen said lazily, her face lifted to the sun. “Top to bottom.”
So I did. She’d known bits of it before, but now I told her everything. I told her about Barb calling me when Cade had been questioned by the police, told her about my promise to Cade, told her about the accidents and the various possible implications, told her about Greg Plassey and Trock Farrand and Hugo Edel and Carissa’s friend Jari. I told her about the traps, about the weekends, and about Eddie being on the roof and saving the day. I did not tell her about the rabbits.
Kristen turned toward me and opened one eye. “So it was the Weasel?”
I nodded. “Brett Karringer. After the police got there, he wouldn’t stop talking. That Deputy…” I paused. “Ash Wolverson, do you know him?”
Kristen shook her head, which meant Wolverson wasn’t from Chilson. I felt a small bleat of disappointment; I’d been a little curious about the man. “Anyway, after the police showed up, Brett confessed to everything. It was kind of weird, actually.”
It had been very weird. Uncomfortable didn’t begin to explain how I’d felt, stuck there until the police gave me permission to go, having to listen to Brett Karringer talk on and on as if he’d never stop.
“I love her so much,” he’d said. “It was the worst torture to see her throwing herself at those older guys. She was the love of my life. Maybe she didn’t know it, but she would have, I know she would have. All I had to do was show her how much I loved her, that’s all.”
At that point, Deputy Wolverson had pulled him to his uninjured feet. The effort didn’t stop Brett from talking.
“I knew I had to do something after I saw her picture with you on Facebook.” He practically spat at Cade. “She was seeing way too much of you. I couldn’t let that keep happening.”
Cade murmured something indistinguishable and Deputy Wolverson made enough of an encouraging noise that Karringer kept going.
“Yeah, I’ve been one of her Facebook friends for years, not that she knew it was me,” he said, smirking. “I just tracked down a yearbook from her high school, found some guy who wasn’t on Facebook, and signed up to be him. She friended me right away, asking if I was still dating Mimi Martin.”
He laughed at his own cleverness.
I shivered.
“The way she posted stuff online,” Karringer went on, “it was the easiest thing ever to see what she was up to. I can’t believe some of the stuff she posted. I mean, if someone was out to get her, it would have been a piece of cake to track her down.” He shook his head, then grinned at Cade. “That phone call I made got you to come running, didn’t it?”
I glanced over. Cade was staring at Karringer with an expression that I couldn’t quite interpret, and wasn’t sure I wanted to.
Karringer tried to point at Cade. His movements were now restricted by the handcuffs that the deputy had placed around his wrists. “I’m the one who really loved her. Not you, not Plassey, not Farrand, not Edel, not anyone. Me! I was the one!”
He stopped, blew out a few guttural breaths, then slid into a kind of whine. “I had to take care of all those guys she posted about on Facebook. I thought those accidents would be just the ticket, but none of them worked the way they should have. I knew I’d have to try again, so I got a gun, but I had to lie low after Carissa. Didn’t want to make it look too obvious, you know?”
“You did something to Greg’s ladder, didn’t you?” I asked.
Karringer chuckled. “Big expensive fence he put up doesn’t do much good when he gives the code to all his friends. Pretty smart of me to be his friend, huh? I figured that was the way to go after threatening Edel didn’t work. Telling Farrand to keep his hands off didn’t work, either.”
He’d shaken his head. “All those old guys, it didn’t make sense for Carissa to be with them. It wasn’t right, you know? I had to stop her from wasting her life. I wanted to kill you worst of all.” Karringer had nodded at Cade. “But I couldn’t work out how, not if I wanted to set you up for Carissa’s murder.”