Bagels and Betrayal, page 2
“I appreciate that you haven't pressed me about the phone call,” Julie told Bethany in a voice filled with deep gratitude. “I was able to convince Amanda that the phone call I received was from my ex-husband and that the trip we're on right now was a much-needed holiday.”
“Let's go inside and make some coffee. We'll talk more once we get settled in.” Bethany threw her eyes around. “I know Davy is a stranger, Julie, but I would feel better knowing someone else is here with us. I barely remember Davy, but what I do remember about him is that he came from a decent family. I honestly feel he's a good man.”
“I didn't sense anything wrong about your friend, either,” Julie agreed. “I must admit, it is a bit scary being on this mountain alone. I mean, love, we were just on Icy Mountain fighting to stay alive. Now look at us.” Julie let out a hopeless smile. “We're a pair, you and me.”
“We sure are.” Bethany picked up her luggage. “Let's go inside.”
Julie retrieved her own luggage and followed Bethany into an enormous house that reflected the authenticity of the Victorian era. Bethany's mother had gone above and beyond to ensure the interior of the house was colored with antiquated paint strokes filled with brilliance and charm.
“My goodness, it's so lovely.”
Bethany stepped into a large foyer that smelled of old peppermints and cherry pipe tobacco.
“Oh my...even after all these years...” Tears nearly escaped from Bethany's eyes. Daddy's pipe tobacco. I can still smell it. I can still smell mother's peppermint.
“Love, are you all right?”
“I'm alright,” Bethany promised her friend. “Will you close and lock the front door?”
“Of course.” Julie set down the two suitcases she was holding and tended to her chore. “Well,” she said, feeling safer now that the front door was locked, “maybe we should go to our rooms and put our luggage up before we have coffee, love?”
Bethany stood still and looked around. A bright overhead light was shining down on her. The electricity is on, which means the built-in generators are working. That's a plus. When I was a little girl, all we had up here were lanterns, candles, and fireplaces to give us light and warmth. It's been so many years since I've been here, but why? Why did I let that awful man control my life and make me miss out on everything I once loved? A deep bitterness filled with pain and remorse walked into Bethany's heart like a stone soldier. Well, there's no sense in being angry about what can't be changed. I have to focus on protecting Julie. Hopefully, Davy won't be gone too long. I wasn't keen on being up on this mountain with Julie alone. I acted in such haste, I wasn't able to plan everything out carefully. When Julie told me her life was in danger, I acted. Now, I will have to sit back, take a deep breath, calm down, and plan.
“The stairs are this way.”
Julie picked up her luggage and followed Bethany to a staircase that seemed to lead back into a beautiful time long forgotten. She looked off to her left and spotted a doorway leading into what she assumed was a family sitting room. A second doorway off to the right stood closed. Two hallways, both settled on each side of the staircase, wandered off in two directions. Glossy wooden floors, deep-colored carpets, and old walls imbued the interior with a heartbeat that simply took Julie's breath away.
“Well, if I'm going to die, I would rather die here than at that horrible ski lodge we were trapped at.”
“You're not going to die.” Bethany glanced into Julie's eyes. She's terrified. Whoever called Julie has caused my friend to become a scared, wounded animal. I don't like that. “Come on, honey. I'll walk you upstairs.”
“Sure, love.” Julie followed Bethany up an antique staircase with a long green carpet running down the middle of it. She smelled dust, cherry pipe tobacco, and peppermint with each step she climbed. The steps creaked and moaned under her feet, creating a somewhat scary atmosphere. “Well, if we're not alone, then whoever might be hiding in this house knows we're here.”
Bethany had to admit that the silence buzzing in her ears was troublesome. She resisted the urge to stop and look down the staircase to see whether a deadly stranger had somehow appeared at the bottom. Instead, she drew in a deep breath and continued upward. I'm certain no one could have followed us. I'm certain that Julie and I are safe. Stay calm and stay productive.
“Almost to the top...” Bethany said.
Julie glanced over her shoulder. No one was standing at the bottom of the staircase. She nodded and followed Bethany onto a silent landing. A single hallway ran from one side of the house to the other. Two hallways branched off the single hallway and dived north, deeper into the womb of the house. One hallway, Bethany quickly explained, was lined with bedrooms, and the second hallway led to an enormous library, a den, a music room, and a sewing room.
“This is an amazing house.”
“Years and years’ worth of building and work,” Bethany spoke in a tired voice. “Follow me, honey.”
Bethany broke off the main hallway and made her way down another shadowy hallway that stood off to her right. She carefully walked Julie down the hallway and stopped.
“The doors on the right and on the left lead into the two master bedrooms. You can take the bedroom to the left, and I'll take the bedroom to the right. When Davy returns, he can choose a room from one of two remaining bedrooms.”
Julie glanced at a solid wooden door and nodded. “Meet you downstairs in the kitchen in about twenty minutes.”
“Sounds good.” Bethany waited until Julie entered her room, and then braced herself to enter a room she hadn’t been in since...well, it felt like ages had passed. “It's been so long,” Bethany spoke but stopped dead in her tracks when the bedroom door swung open.
“Oh my,” she gasped out the words like blood squirting from a wound, but inside her mind, she screamed out the words.
Someone had placed a rocking chair right in front of the door. A body was sitting in the rocking chair slumped over, and the rocking chair was moving...a pair of dead arms swinging back and forth in the air. Before Bethany could react, she heard what sounded like the front door opening and closing downstairs.
Stay calm...don't panic...don't panic...stay calm...Panic and fear screamed into Bethany's heart so loud that the woman could barely hear her own thoughts. Get to Julie…
Bethany forced her legs to move. She backed out of the bedroom she had stepped into and burst into the bedroom Julie had entered. Julie was just setting her luggage down onto a large bed that required steps to reach a decent night's sleep, a bed with an old-fashioned green curtain that wrapped around it.
Julie quickly turned around to face Bethany. One look at her friend's face spoke volumes.
“Bethany—”
“There's a dead man in my bedroom. I thought I heard someone open and close the front door downstairs.” Bethany searched a large bedroom filled with priceless furnishings. Where is the telephone? There it is, on the telephone stand beside the window. She charged across the room on hurried legs. She snatched up an old-fashioned brown telephone and dialed 911—at least, she tried.
“What is it, love...don't tell me—”
“Dead,” Bethany dropped her shoulders. “The phone line must be cut.”
Julie wasn't certain what to say or do. “Are you sure there's a dead man...well, of course you are. You wouldn't say such a horrible thing if it wasn't so.” Words couldn’t express the fear that growled in Julie's ears. “What do we do?”
Bethany put down the phone receiver she was holding with a shaking hand.”
“Let's go back to my room.”
“Why?”
“To make sure the man I saw is truly dead.” Bethany quickly hurried to Julie, took her friend's hand, and cautiously eased back into a silent hallway. She stuck her ears down the hallway and listened for a few seconds. The coast seemed clear. “Come on...”
Julie made her way into Bethany's room and froze. A man was sitting in a creaking rocking chair. He was lurched over with his arms swinging in the air, his fingers about two inches from the floor.
“Oh my.”
Bethany let go of Julie's hand, drew in a scared breath, and forced herself to walk forward. Julie watched as the nervous woman picked up the dead man's right arm as if she were picking up a poisonous rattlesnake. Bethany checked for a pulse and found only death. She released the arm.
“He's dead, but his body is still warm. This man hasn't been dead for long.”
“Do you know who the man is?” Julie asked, keeping her voice down to a mere whisper.
Bethany shook her head. She moved behind the rocking chair and examined the victim’s back. “I see a gunshot wound, in the middle of the shoulder blades.” I'm looking at a man wearing a brown suit...looks to be in his twenties...his fingernails were very neat and well taken care of. He’s wearing fancy loafers...I doubt the brown suit I'm looking at was cheap. She forced her mind to soak in every possible detail that her eyes could pinpoint.
“What do we do, love?” Julie's voice caused Bethany to look away from the back of the dead man.
“I'm not sure,” Bethany confessed. Davy left. I saw him drive away. There's no way he could have driven away and circled back to the house to kill the man I'm looking at. No, someone was in the house. But how? How did anyone know I was bringing Julie to Old Wolf Mountain? It makes no sense. I'm certain no one was following us when we drove from Snow Falls to Seattle. I used my personal cell phone to make every call. When I saw mother off at the Anchorage airport, I made sure I wasn't followed, and Julie stayed with Amanda and Sarah.
Bethany struggled to expose any hidden thought that might shine a practical light on a deadly situation. “Julie, I think it's time you tell me who called you.”
“I think so, too.” Julie forced a pair of scared eyes away from the dead body. “The person who called me...I can't be sure, Bethany...” Julie's British accent became very heavy and very shaky. “I believe the person who called me was a man I once dated years ago before I met my ex-husband. I...ruined his career. He vowed revenge. I never made another enemy.”
Before Bethany could answer, she heard the front door open.
“Someone is in the house!”
Bethany ran forward and slammed the bedroom door closed, then activated a heavy deadlock.
“Julie.” Refusing to die without putting up a fight, Bethany bolted over to a cobblestone fireplace and snatched up an old fire iron. “If we're going to die, we will die fighting!”
Chapter Three
“Ms. Lights! Ms. Walsh!”
Davy's voice boomed up onto the second floor of the Victorian house like a wild rider yelling for a lost princess. “Ms. Lights! Ms. Walsh!”
“Davy?” Bethany lowered the fire iron she was gripping with two nervous hands.
“Bethany...could he be the killer?” Julie whispered, feeling too afraid to move. Being close to a dead body affected people on different levels. Not that Julie feared dead bodies. It was just, well, she always feared that if she got close enough to a dead body, the body might come back to life and grab her.
“I don't see how, unless there's two killers,” Bethany whispered. “I don't see how Davy could have killed anyone, placed the body in this room, and escaped between the time we saw him drive off and the time I found the body.” Could there be two killers? Could Davy be a dangerous man? No. I don't see how. Besides, I went to school with Davy.
“Ms. Lights! Ms. Walsh! Where are you? My cab...someone shot out the two front tires on my cab…Ms. Lights!. Ms. Walsh!” Davy's voice sounded urgent and breathless, as if he had run at full speed back to the house. Davy had, in fact, run back to the house as fast as he could. Being a man in his forties meant that he wasn't as agile as a sixteen-year-old. Running fifty yards was enough to make Davy gasp for air.
“Wait here, Julie!” Bethany ran to the bedroom door, disengaged the lock, and prepared herself to either help an old friend or be killed by a brilliant mind. “Davy, we're up here in the bedroom!” she yelled into the hallway after she yanked open the bedroom door.
Davy heard Bethany's voice yell from her location. He slammed the front door closed and activated a sturdy lock. “Stay where you are!” With those words, Davy fought his way up a long set of stairs and found Bethany standing just outside her bedroom.
“Someone shot the two front tires of my cab out.” A stream of blood was running down the right side of Davy's face.
“You're bleeding.”
“I was shot at just as the cab was turning a sharp curve. I ran the cab into a tree.” Davy raised a quick hand and felt his forehead, locating a small gash. “My head hit the steering wheel pretty had. Could have been worse.”
If someone shot at Davy's car, that person could have already been down the mountain road. The person I heard leave the house left after Davy drove away in his cab. Davy had a good ten-minute head start, maybe fifteen. Unless the person I heard leave the house can run like the wind, it seems like there might be two killers on the scene.
“Did you see anyone, Davy?”
“Not a soul.” Davy covered his bleeding forehead with his left hand. “I'm not even sure why I'm standing here. Whoever shot the tires out of my cab could have easily filled me full of holes. It was stupid of me to run the way I did, but I was afraid whoever was shooting at the cab might take a shot at me. Figured it would be better to die trying to escape than just sitting still like a dumb duck.”
“Davy...I...you better see for yourself.”
“See what?” Davy looked into Bethany's tense face.
“You'll see. Come on.” Bethany grabbed Davy's right arm with a firm hand and pulled the man into a bedroom that had transformed into a nightmare.
Davy followed Bethany into a strange bedroom, hitting the brakes when his eyes spotted a dead man sitting in a rocking chair.
“What in the world...what is this?”
“Do you recognize that man?” Bethany asked, hoping Davy might recognize the murder victim.
Davy spotted Julie staring at him with cautious eyes. The woman looked upset and terrified. “I don't know who that guy is, no,” he offered an honest answer. “I can't see his face. He's bent forward too far, but I don't recognize the hair or the suit.”
“Someone shot him in the back,” Bethany explained, struggling to remain calm and productive. Panic would only frustrate any attempt to find practical answers. “I didn't hear any gunshots. I did hear someone leave the house when I walked into this bedroom.”
“And someone shot the tires out of my cab, which means—”
“The shooter didn't want you to leave the mountain,” Bethany finished for Davy.
“Sure seems that way.” Davy shook his head. “Ms. Lights—”
“Davy, call me Bethany. And that's Julie,” Bethany interrupted. “I think we're past the pleasantries here.”
“Are you sure you don't recognize the victim?” Julie asked Davy pleadingly.
Davy shook his head. “I owned my own business in Pine Lakes for close to twenty years and serviced the surrounding towns. During that time, I got to know countless customers. Most customers became friends.” Davy checked his left hand. The palm was soaked with blood. “Can you get me a towel or something?”
“Hold this, Julie.” Bethany handed Julie the fire iron she was holding and rushed over to a closed bathroom door on the east side of the bathroom. She eased the door open, peeked into an old-fashioned bathroom covered with soft green walls, and vanished. Seconds later, she reappeared with a green hand towel. “Here. Gentle now.” Bethany placed the hand towel over Davy's wound.
While Bethany tended to Davy's wound, Julie pulled herself together to think. She hurried over to the only window in the bedroom and, using extreme caution, peeled back a deep green drape just enough to see a beautiful clear lake surrounded by lush autumn woods.
“I see no one in the backyard area or near the lake,” she called out to Bethany as her eyes scanned a land covered with bright autumn leaves.
“Hold the hand towel over your head. I'll be right back.” Bethany ran over to Julie and joined her friend. The land in the back of the house was silent except for a cold wind whispering about. The lake showed no signs of human interference, and the woods appeared to be filled with shadows rather than human life. “It takes an hour to reach the bottom of the mountain by car, and a half hour to reach town. I feel like I'm back on top of Icy Mountain.”
“Me, too,” Julie whispered. “Bethany...are we cursed?”
“I don't know,” Bethany offered an honest answer, her heart taking a quick dive into a pessimistic pool of despair. Maybe Julie and I are cursed? Three murder cases, and we're not even settled in Snow Falls yet. Well, we're not broken in, is more like it. But this is no time to worry whether you're cursed or not. I know I'm not Sarah Spencer. Sarah is a brilliant detective, but Sarah isn't here, and I have to rely on my own wits. “Okay, Julie, honey, we better get away from this window. Someone out there has a rifle, and I'll bet my bottom dollar whoever shot up Davy's cab is watching the house as we speak.”
Julie quickly backed away from the window. The idea of being shot wasn't very appealing.
“Davy,” she spoke in her thick British accent that became heavier with fear. “The phone is dead. Bethany believes the phone line has been cut.”
“I wouldn't doubt it.” Davy closed his eyes for a few seconds to gather his thoughts. “Why would someone leave a dead body out in the open?”
“To be found,” Bethany answered Davy. “Why someone wanted the body to be found is a different question.”
“What is this? Some kind of sick game?” Davy felt anger swell up inside of him. He threw his eyes at Bethany. “Look, I know it's none of my business, and Mrs. Lights, your mother, told me you two were coming to Old Wolf Mountain to take a vacation. But now I'm thinking there's more to this situation. If I'm right, I'd appreciate some open honesty here.”
“Fair enough,” Julie spoke before Bethany could. “Davy, two weeks ago I received a threatening phone call. I told Bethany about the phone call and my friend, bless her sweet soul, jumped into action, as you Americans might say. She pulled me out of our home in Snow Falls, Alaska as quickly as she could without making those we care for and love suspicious. Mrs. Lights, Bethany's mother, was being honest when she told you Bethany and I were traveling to your state to take a well-needed rest. We do need to rest...and hide.”
