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Chapter Twenty-Two

When I awoke, it took a few minutes for me to understand where I was. My head ached. Ugh. I had to start paying attention to my surroundings. Someone had been following me, while I followed Mr. Carthage.

Someday I’d learn, but that hadn’t been tonight.

The arguing nearby was a quick reminder that someone had whacked me in the head. I reached back to touch my skull and found a wet mess. That explained the headache throbbing so hard it felt like my heart was in my brain.

I forced myself to take a deep breath and then another one. I had to get myself out of this trunk before I passed out again.

“We could have explained—why did you do that?” Mr. Carthage said.

Crud. They were just outside the trunk. I felt around for a weapon and hit a jug of something.

The one thing I loved about this dress was that it had pockets in the folds. Lucky for me, they hadn’t noticed them. I turned on my phone’s flashlight. There were no bars on it, so no phone service.

“Exactly how would you have explained that we were running off to the garage together?”

“I didn’t agree to any of this,” he said. “The murders—I’m not allowing my son to go down—you can’t kill the doctor too.”

“If you want to implicate yourself, that’s fine by me. You’re the only one she saw. I’m happy to leave her here with you. However, I’ll be in the Maldives, which is one of the places I can’t be extradited from.”

He sighed. “What’s your plan?” I turned on the recorder on my phone. If nothing else, maybe I could nab a confession before they killed me, and I hid my phone in my pocket again.

“I’m going to drop her body off a bloody cliff.”

Great.

“No, I don’t care about the doctor. I mean, Caleb—I can’t let him go down for the murders. The plan was for your lover boy to go down for it, but you killed him.”

Again, he used the plural: murders . Who else had they killed?

Or did they plan to kill? Crud, Angie was still very much in danger.

Whatever was about to happen, I didn’t have much time.

The female voice was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. I rolled over with my phone. There was service! Finally!

First, I texted all my friends: 911 I’m in a trunk of a car. Look for Carthage. He’s here with a woman—in case I die before you get here.

Then I used the flashlight to see if I could find a weapon. Two bottles of antifreeze were in the back of the car, one of them half empty.

“I told you. He killed himself rather than murdering the bride-to-be. I’m surrounded by weak men.”

“I’m not weak,” Carthage growled. “And I don’t believe you. Why would he do that when he was all set to ruin everything?”

“He grew a bloody conscience,” she said. “I had him under control until he saw her that day. Idiot. He’s the one who ruined everything.” There was silence for a moment, then the woman continued. “I have this handled. Your son can’t go down for the crime. Any evidence they might have is circumstantial. They don’t have any evidence because it’s all going off a cliff with the doctor.”

Great.

Something rolled underneath me when I moved and poked into my ribs. I reached underneath and pulled out a crowbar.

My weapon.

I was about to pick it up when I noticed some plastic. I pulled it from the corner. The mallet, which was still inside the evidence bag. The mallet either she or he had hit Angie with at the party.

I very much disliked these two.

They’d done their best to ruin my friend’s wedding.

I used the light to find the trunk release. Though, I’d wait for them to leave before I used it.

Then there was an ominous click and the trunk lid opened. When Angie’s stepmom leaned over, I clocked her between the eyes with the crowbar, and she stumbled back.

I yelled like a banshee, as I pulled myself to a sitting position.

I’d taken self-defense classes years ago, and everything I learned came back to me.

“You,” the stepmom—the one currently married to Angie’s dad—screamed, as she came toward me, and I swung the crowbar like a bat.

When I made contact, she stumbled again, this time falling to her knees.

“Get her,” she screamed.

Mr. Carthage took a step forward, but I brandished the crowbar at him as I crawled out. I blinked, everything blurry in the dim light of the garage.

Do not pass out.

If these two had anything to do with it, I’d be right back where I started—only dead.

Stay focused.

“Why?” I grunted. It was the only word I could speak.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about?” Mr. Carthage said.

“You do.”

“I just found this woman about to kill you. I’m only here to help,” he said calmly.

As much as I liked Damien, his dad was a piece of work.

“Heard you.” Once my stiff legs were out of the car, I leaned against it. I didn’t have a lot of strength left.

“You’ve been hit on the head by that woman and are delusional. No one will believe you.”

“I’m going to kill you,” the stepmom screeched as she launched herself at him.

He went down, as did she, and they skirmished on the cold garage floor. I probably should have tried to hit one of them really hard with the crowbar, but I was afraid if I stumbled from my perch, I might fall on top of them.

They rolled on the floor, batting at each other like small children fighting on the playground.

“Stop,” I yelled.

Ewan and Henry came sliding in from the outer door.

I pointed to the couple on the floor. “They tried to kill me.”

That was all it took. Soon the pair were handcuffed and facing a wall. Abigail, Mara, and Jasper came rushing in; and right behind them, Angie and Damien.

“What happened?” They all ran toward me except for Damien. He stared at his father.

“What did you do,” he said angrily.

His father turned his head and huffed.

“She committed the murders,” I whispered. My throat hurt as if I’d swallowed glass. “He helped.”

Everyone gasped except for Abigail, who was busy examining the wound on the back of my head.

“Ouch,” I said as she pushed on the abrasion.

“Very little swelling, and the bleeding has already stopped.”

There was that.

“Get her out of here,” Ewan ordered.

“So, so bossy,” I whispered. “But I want to hear what they have to say. Even though I have their confession here.”

I took the phone out of my pocket.

Dara’s eyes widened, and then she lunged at Mr. Carthage. “Bloody idiot. You’re as stupid as that son of yours. I told you to check for a phone.”

“Father, what did you do?” Damien looked ready to pop. His face was red, and his body shook.

“I tried to protect you from yourself, son. As I always have.”

“What did you do?” Damien repeated. The words cut through the air like a dagger.

“Are you okay?” Angie whispered to me.

I nodded.

She moved to stand by her husband.

“Tell me. Now,” Damien said.

His father stared down at the floor.

“He didn’t want you to find out that Robbie was your half brother,” Dara said.

“Stupid woman,” Mr. Carthage hissed.

Damien took a step back. “What?”

“That’s right. Robbie had to have kidney surgery, but when they tried to find a match, there was a problem with the blood type. Your father promised him a kidney if he kept quiet and disrupted your wedding.”

Poor Damien turned gray, as did Angie. This was unexpected.

“Robbie and I were seeing each other, and he confessed everything to me. I’m the one who convinced him to blackmail your father.” Blood streamed from her face.

I’m a doctor, but that I’d hit her hard enough to make that happen gave me a sense of pride.

Dara was who Robbie had been seeing. Marianne said he’d been so happy, but he had to have known he was sleeping with Angie’s stepmom.

Maybe that was part of the thrill of revenge. A way to get back at the woman who’d broken his heart—for good reason.

If my friends hadn’t been holding me up, I might have fallen. Even leaning back on the car, my left knee gave out on me.

I’m not sure what I looked like, but with one glance, Ewan’s face turned an angry shade of red. “Crime scene, everyone out,” he ordered again.

“No,” Angie said sternly. “They tried to kill me. We deserve the truth.”

I tried to smile but it hurt.

“I want my lawyer,” Mr. Carthage said.

“Good luck finding a decent barrister,” Damien said. “As of this afternoon, I have Mom’s share of the company. I have controlling interests, and we will not be covering any of your legal fees. I’ve also instructed her to move all of your joint accounts into her name only.”

“You can’t do that.” Damien’s father blustered. “She can’t do anything without my signature.”

“No, father. She doesn’t need anything from you. The money was from her family, she put you on her accounts when you married, as a formality. Technically, she can do whatever she wants.

“I told her she needed to distance herself from you to save her family name. The audit of our business accounts? That was me. I had to find out just how much you’d been embezzling.

“You would have been arrested right after the wedding. I didn’t want to ruin my wife’s special day with your dirty business.”

He peered down at Angie. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

She kissed his cheek. “I got you, babe,” she said.

His father sagged in Henry’s arms.

“Did you want to confess anything else?” Angie asked her stepmother. “I can’t believe you wanted me dead.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dara said. She batted her eyes at Ewan. “I’d like my barrister please. Until then, it’s ‘no comment.’”

Ewan appeared ready to throttle her, but he wasn’t that sort of man.

“If no one else is confessing, I’d like to lie down,” I said.

“Let’s go,” Ewan said as he jostled Dara out of the garage. Henry did the same with Mr. Carthage.

I’m not sure how Abigail, Jasper, and Mara made it to our room, half carrying me, but they did.

I must have passed out during the journey because I woke up with my back against the outside of the tub and my head back.

I opened my eyes to find Abigail rinsing my hair.

“Easiest way to get the blood out,” she said.

“Did I pass out?”

“Yes. We need to get you to a hospital. There may be bruising on the brain.”

“Angie too.” I’d been wanting to get her into a scan for days, although she seemed fine.

“Yes,” Angie said. She sat up on the counter with Mara and Jasper.

“Your party.”

“It’ll be going all night. Most of them are drunk enough they won’t even know we’re gone.”

“We’ll be heading out soon,” Abigail said. “I thought I’d get you cleaned up and change your clothes so Ewan can have the ones you were wearing for evidence.”

“Smart.” Every word seemed an effort. “Concussion?”

“Eyes aren’t dilated. Did they force you to drink anything? You had something sweet smelling on your face.” As she said the words, her eyes went wide.

“Mara, finish rinsing her hair. I’m going to do a blood test and start an IV.”

I didn’t remember drinking anything, but that didn’t mean that horrible woman hadn’t poured it down my throat while I was passed out.

“I can’t believe Dara did all of this,” Angie said. “I thought she might be strong enough to straighten out my dad.”

“Confessed,” I said.

“So we heard,” Angie noted. She jumped off the counter and moved to the other side of me on the floor. “I’m so sorry they tried to kill you. I—” A tear slid down her cheek.

“Feel the same way about you,” I said weakly.

“If anything had happened to you, I would have never forgiven myself.”

“Wedding stories. You’ll have the best ones.”

Everyone around us hooted with laughter, even Angie.

“I hope some of those will not be repeated, if we can help it.”

I gave her a thumbs-up. I wasn’t sure why I kept doing that. I wasn’t really a thumbs-up kind of person. In fact, until that day, I’d never once made that gesture.

Abigail came back with test strips.

Angie helped Mara wrap my hair in a towel while Abigail pricked my finger.

“It’s our last one,” Abigail said as she put the test strip in the vial.

“Oh.”

“What?” Mara leaned toward me.

“Evidence in the trunk,” I managed to say.

“I’ll call Ewan and let him know,” Jasper said. “He’s been texting every two minutes to check on you.”

“Oh, here’s another one now: he says the helicopter is back and ready to take you to the hospital.”

“I’ll have to meet you there,” Abigail said. “I need to make sure Tommy is settled.” She sounded so worried.

“It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”

“I’m coming with,” Mara said. “Abigail, I promise to let you know everything the doctor says.”

“I’ll be there as well,” Jasper said. “We won’t let her be alone.”

Abigail blew out a breath. “Thank you. Tell them she tested positive for ethylene glycol. The good news is it looks like only trace amounts. But they’ll need to flush her system.”

“Can you text all that to us?” Mara asked. She and Jasper helped me off the floor. I was dressed in my robe and fuzzy boots.

“Can’t go like this.”

Mara snorted. “We’ll grab a coat for you on the way out.”

“No need,” Ewan slammed into the bathroom with a wheelchair, and another man followed him in.

“I’m Dr. Herbert,” he said.

Abigail started barraging him with information as they rolled me out to the helicopter pad.

The helicopter blades whirled loudly. “Whoo-hoo.”

“What did she say?” Ewan asked.

“No idea,” Jasper said.

“Em. Em?” Ewan sounded worried, but I no longer could stay awake.