Murder Most Owl, page 24
I whipped my head around.
When I saw the gun pointed at me, I froze.
THIRTY-FIVE
‘Don’t even think about it,’ Avery said as my gaze flicked from the gun to the pitchfork.
I returned my focus to the weapon in her hand, my skin suddenly cold and my thoughts in a panicked whirl.
‘Turn around and start walking,’ Avery ordered.
‘But—’
‘Do it!’ The ice in her voice hit me like a hard slap to my face.
Flossie and Fancy whined and scratched at the shed door as I did as I was told. My feet felt like lead, every step a struggle. At least Avery had locked the dogs away instead of doing something worse to them. I hoped they were unharmed.
As I walked across the farmyard, the dogs began barking again. I stared straight ahead and forced myself to quicken my pace. The last thing I wanted was for Avery to decide to go back and silence the spaniels.
My heart lurched when Avery grabbed my arm and yanked me to the right. ‘This way.’
She marched me along the side of the barn rather than across the front of it. I tried to get my brain to work as we walked. Its frantic spinning wasn’t doing me any good. I needed help, but Callum might not be back for ages, and Aunt Olivia was in the carriage house with a broken ankle. If she could see us, and realized what was happening, she could call the police. But first the shed and now the barn hid us from view of the carriage house.
If I couldn’t count on anyone else to help me, I needed to save myself and then free Flossie and Fancy. Thinking of the sweet dogs strengthened my resolve and chased away the panic clouding my thoughts.
Maybe I could distract Avery and escape long enough to free the dogs and run for help. I slowed my pace, but when she nudged my back with the butt of the gun, I walked faster again. We passed the westernmost paddock and began crossing the big open field at the back of the farm, heading for the woods.
I didn’t want to think about what would happen once we disappeared among the trees. I cast around for something – anything – that I might be able to use as a weapon, but there was nothing but the grass underfoot.
‘Why are you doing this, Avery?’ I asked, hoping that as long as I could keep her talking, she wouldn’t pull the trigger.
‘Because you’ve been asking too many questions, sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
She let out a short, harsh burst of laughter. ‘Please. Drop the act. If you didn’t know what this was about, you wouldn’t have asked about my stepfather’s photographs.’
I hadn’t been as subtle with my questions about the pictures as I’d thought. Clearly, I also hadn’t focused my attention on the right suspect.
‘Why did you kill Dorothy?’ I asked, deciding to get right to the heart of the matter.
She nudged me with the butt of the gun when I stumbled on the uneven ground. ‘I thought you had that all figured out,’ she said.
‘Did you think she had money stashed away in the woods too?’
‘After all these years?’ she asked with disdain. ‘Only a fool would think that.’
‘Then why kill her?’
‘Because if I didn’t, she was going to inherit Victor’s estate.’
‘You said he was leaving most things to charity,’ I reminded her as the wind swirled around us, throwing the occasional drop of rain into my face.
‘That was a fib,’ Avery said. ‘He left some money to charities, but there was a lot left over.’
‘And he left it to Dorothy?’ I guessed.
‘Under her real name.’
I slowed my pace slightly, hoping she wouldn’t notice. The woods loomed ominously ahead of us, and I wanted to stay out in the open as long as possible.
‘They stayed in touch all these years? After changing their identities?’
‘No, but Victor must have held a torch for her. After my mom died, he hired a private investigator to find Ellen. The guy tracked her to Twilight Cove, figured out she was living under a different name.’
‘Victor told you all this?’ I asked, surprised.
‘Of course not! I found his correspondence with the private investigator after his stroke and I saw a copy of the will.’
‘So you did have the combination to the safe.’
‘No, but Victor had another copy in a filing cabinet in his study. He betrayed me and my mom’s memory.’
‘By leaving the bulk of his estate to Dorothy?’
‘And leaving me hardly anything! Unless Dorothy died before him.’ She let out a huff of disgust. ‘I was his only remaining family and I was his alternate beneficiary. Alternate! He should have left everything to me!’
‘I thought you didn’t need his money,’ I said, the wild anger in her voice chilling my blood. ‘You have a successful business in Chicago.’
‘It was successful, for a year or two. Now it’s almost dead in the water and my husband and I are up to our eyeballs in debt. We could lose our penthouse apartment, our sportscars. I couldn’t let that happen.’
She took someone’s life to keep a penthouse and cars?
Her selfishness and callousness sent my fear seeping deep into my bones. I wanted to cry, but instead I kept talking.
‘Did you kill Victor as well?’ I asked.
‘There was no need,’ she said, her voice full of scorn. ‘I knew he was dying. I just had to bide my time.’
She gave me a shove, sending me stumbling. I managed to stay on my feet, but dismay passed over me like a dark shadow.
We’d reached the woods.
Avery nudged me onward and I had no choice but to step in among the trees.
‘I’ve been scoping out this farm all morning, trying to figure out what to do with you,’ she said as we crunched and crashed our way through the undergrowth. ‘I couldn’t believe my luck when I came across this place.’
Before I had a chance to ask her what she was talking about, Avery gave me a hard shove.
I stumbled forward, and the ground disappeared beneath my feet.
THIRTY-SIX
My left arm smashed against something hard as I fell. I slithered down, scrambling to find a way to stop my descent. I dug my fingers into the dirt and hung on tight. My arm had hit a brick, I realized. There were a few of them strewn about near the edge of the hole I’d half fallen into. Toppled timbers also lay nearby, an old rope tied to one of them. The dirt crumbled beneath my fingers and I slid farther into the hole.
‘Avery!’ I cried out.
She stood and watched, her eyes cold, as my hands slipped over the edge and I fell down toward the darkness below.
I flailed and my hand brushed against the old rope. I grabbed on to it.
The rope burned my hands as it slithered through my grip, but it slowed my descent as I fell. Then the rope ran out and I tumbled another short distance before landing in shallow water with a splashing crash. Pain radiated through my body, and my stunned brain tried to figure out what had happened. I heard a groan as I tried to untangle my limbs, and I realized the sound had come from me. Everything hurt, but nothing so much as my hands and my left arm.
I blinked grit out of my eyes and took in my surroundings. I was sitting in chilly, murky water up to my shoulders at the bottom of a deep, circular hole. The walls of the hole were made of old bricks, with weeds poking out through the cracks in the mortar.
It was an old well, I realized.
Shivering, I looked up to find Avery standing near the edge of the hole, peering down. Panic shot through me as I realized how helpless I was, stuck at the bottom of the well with nowhere to hide.
‘Please don’t shoot me,’ I beseeched, raising my voice so Avery could hear me.
She held up the gun. ‘What? With this?’ She lowered the weapon. ‘It’s not even loaded. I found it in Victor’s desk, but he didn’t have any bullets. That doesn’t matter. It could be years before anyone finds your remains down there. And even when they do, it’ll look like you simply had a tragic accident. If only I’d known about this old well before I killed Dorothy, nobody ever would have known it was murder. I thought I had a foolproof plan, but the old witch struggled, even after I drugged her. I don’t have to worry about that with you.’
My shivering intensified. I cradled my throbbing left arm against me and scrambled to my feet. My sodden, dripping clothes clung to my skin, but at least the water barely reached above my knees now that I was standing.
Avery grabbed the rope that had likely saved my life – for the moment, anyway – and hauled it up. I tried to grab the end but it was already out of reach. I watched the last of the rope disappear out of the well with a heavy stone of dread sinking in my stomach. Then Avery moved out of sight.
‘Avery!’
I don’t know why I bothered calling out to her. She wasn’t going to have a change of heart and help me out of my predicament.
I heard Avery crashing through the underbrush, moving away from my position. Soon the sounds faded away and all I could hear was the pattering of raindrops. The skies opened up and the pattering intensified to a thunderous drumming.
‘Help!’ I yelled.
The pouring rain drowned out my voice. Not that it mattered. There wasn’t anyone out there to hear me.
My teeth chattered and I knew that time was now my enemy. Even though it was June, with spring giving way to summer, the nights were cool and hypothermia was still a danger. I knew I couldn’t count on someone saving me, so I had to get myself out of the well.
I felt along the rough bricks until I slipped my fingers into holes in the mortar. Then I found a crevice to lodge my right foot in and pulled myself up. I bit back a whimper as my left arm ached in protest. I lost my grip on the brick wall and slid back to the bottom of the well with a splash.
I leaned against the rough wall and closed my eyes, trying to regroup. Somehow, I had to fight through the pain and climb out of the well. Otherwise, I would die from hypothermia and Avery would get away with murder. Multiple murders. And who knew who else she might hurt in the future if she wasn’t caught now. She’d already killed Dorothy, and most likely Victor’s lawyer, Simon. I was also now certain that she’d killed Byron Szabo. Probably by drugging and smothering him, just like she’d done to Dorothy.
The rain pelted my head and shoulders. Still shivering, I opened my eyes and looked up. The hole was too deep for me to climb out of on my own. I was well and truly trapped.
Despair settled over me, a heavy weight on my shoulders.
In the dim light at the bottom of the well, a shadow passed over me. I looked up again. Euclid perched at the edge of the hole.
My heart lifted at the sight of him.
‘Euclid!’ I blinked raindrops out of my eyes. ‘Can you help me?’
Maybe it was crazy of me to ask an owl for help, but I didn’t exactly have anything to lose by doing so. Euclid’s head swiveled like he was looking for something, or maybe listening. He hopped out of sight and my heart sank.
Then I heard a rustling sound. Euclid reappeared at the edge of the hole with the end of the rope clutched in his beak. He peered into the well and then dropped the rope. It slithered down to slap the brick wall in front of me.
I could hardly believe what had happened.
‘Thank you, Euclid!’ I called up to him. ‘You’re the smartest, most wonderful owl in the world!’
If he thought anything about my praise, he didn’t let it show. With a flap of his wings, he lifted up into the air and disappeared from sight.
I grabbed the rope with my sore hands and tested it with my weight, hoping it wasn’t ready to snap. When it held, I gritted my teeth against the pain in my hands and arm and lodged the toe of my right shoe into a crevice in the brick wall. Then, slowly, I began my ascent.
I made it only a few feet before I slipped and splashed back down into the cold, murky water. I wanted to cry with frustration and fear and misery, but instead, I channeled all that emotion into a renewed effort at climbing. About three-quarters of the way up, I lost my footing but managed to keep clutching my lifeline. My body bumped against the brick wall as the timber the rope was tied to creaked ominously above me.
Worried that the line might break, I felt about until I found another foothold. It took all the strength I could muster, but I managed to shimmy up another few inches. I was so close to the top now that I could almost see over the edge of the hole.
Just a little farther, I told myself. You’re almost there.
I tried to keep going, but my body refused to cooperate. My hands wouldn’t unclench from around the rope and I was shivering so hard that I lost my footholds and bumped my shoulder against the bricks.
I slipped down an inch.
You can do it, I told myself as I tightened my grip on the rope. Just keep going.
Despite my internal pep talk, my hands and feet still didn’t move. I hung there, my face slick with rain and probably a few tears too. I slipped another few inches and cried out as the rope cut into my already sore hands.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t hold on any longer.
I scrunched my eyes shut.
They flew open when I heard barking in the distance.
The sound was getting closer, second by second.
That knowledge gave me the strength to tighten my grip on the rope.
I heard more barking, definitely closer now. Then came a voice through the wind and rain.
‘Georgie?’ Callum called.
Hope welled up inside of me.
‘Callum!’ I yelled. ‘Help!’
The barking stopped, but I could hear Callum and the dogs crashing through the woods.
I called Flossie’s and Fancy’s names, then Callum’s again.
The crashing noises became louder. Then the spaniels appeared at the edge of the hole, panting, their fur wet from the rain.
Raindrops and tears rolled down my cheeks. ‘I’m so happy to see you.’
Pounding footsteps sounded close by and Callum appeared next to the dogs.
He swore at the sight of me and dropped down to lie flat on his stomach. He reached into the hole, grabbed the waistband of my jeans, and hauled me up to safety. I crawled away from the edge of the well and then sat in the mud, shivering. Flossie and Fancy climbed onto my lap and licked me all over my face.
I laughed and cried at the same time. When the dogs backed off, Callum took my hand and pulled me to my feet and then right into his arms.
‘What the hell happened, Georgie?’ he asked as he held me close.
I could feel his body heat through his wet and muddy clothes. I tried to soak it in, but continued to shiver.
‘Avery,’ I said through chattering teeth. ‘She killed Dorothy. She pushed me into the well because she thought I knew too much.’
‘Who’s Avery?’ he asked, confused.
‘Avery Hembridge. Victor Clyde’s stepdaughter.’
He kept one arm around me while he pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans. ‘I don’t know who that is either, but I’m calling the police.’
I released him and crouched down to hug Flossie and Fancy. They licked my face and whined.
‘It’s OK, girls,’ I soothed. ‘Everything’s going to be OK.’
I hoped that was the truth.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Rosie, Daisy, and Violet grazed peacefully in the pasture with the other alpacas. I rested my arms on the fence, watching the animals as I breathed in the fresh air. The sun shone down on me, warming my skin.
Flossie nudged my leg with her nose and I pushed away from the fence, crouching down to pet her and her sister. Flossie rested a paw on my knee and Fancy let out a quiet whine.
‘I know, girls,’ I said as I stroked their fur. ‘I’m going to miss you too. But I’ll be back soon. I promise.’
I’d planned to return to Los Angeles once Aunt Olivia was back on her feet and then sublet my studio apartment until the end of my lease so I could move back to Twilight Cove. That plan had changed when I found a fellow screenwriter who wanted my apartment and needed to move in three weeks from now, not six.
After my tumble down the well, Auntie O’s friends and neighbors had rallied around, insisting that I rest for a few days while they all pitched in to help Callum look after the animals. Now they had a roster ready and would continue helping out while I was in LA packing up my old life.
I was glad my aunt lived in such a tightly knit community, one that banded together to help their neighbors. Knowing that I would soon be a permanent part of that same community brought me a sense of comfort and security that had so often been missing in my life.
I kissed the dogs on the head and stood up. ‘Come on. I need to pack up the car.’
Flossie and Fancy stuck close to me as we walked back to the farmhouse. Only a few days had passed since my terrifying encounter with Avery, and I still had aches and pains that had yet to fade completely. Thankfully, I had no broken bones, but my left arm was black and blue and tender. My raw, red hands had started to heal, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to grip my car’s steering wheel too tightly as I drove back to California.
Approaching the farmhouse, I spotted Aunt Olivia and Tessa sitting on the back porch. Flossie and Fancy ran up the steps, tails wagging, to greet both women.
‘Can you sit for a few minutes before you leave?’ Tessa asked as I climbed the stairs to the porch. ‘If I’m not going to see you for nearly three weeks, I need to get my fill now.’
I smiled at that. It was nice to know that I’d be missed while I was gone. I’d certainly be doing my share of missing people and animals while away from Twilight Cove.
As I got comfortable on the porch swing next to Tessa, a police cruiser pulled into the driveway. A knot of apprehension formed in my chest. I hoped we weren’t about to receive bad news. Surely there was no way that Avery had been released from custody.
The police had caught up with her at Victor’s mansion, where she was packing her suitcase into the trunk of her rental car, preparing to hightail it to the airport. She’d tried to flee on foot when she saw the cops coming for her, but she hadn’t made it far before a police dog took her down.
