CHAPTER 27
“ C laudia, I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to ask you a question,” I say to the woman as we stand on the Seniors Can Soar float while cruising down Main Street on Thanksgiving Day.
“Ask away,” she says. “Anything at all. What can I help you with?” She looks so joyful, a part of me feels bad that I’m about to drop her into a homicidal rabbit hole. But then, a stronger part of me has a very real craving for justice.
“I heard your shop was hurting.” My voice hikes just a notch above the music.
“Oh that.” She waves it off. “Business has been down everywhere, but those darn turkey hats really saved our necks. Thanks for putting a dent in our inventory, by the way.”
“You’re welcome.” I wince a little as I say it. “So your store was hurting financially? Is that why you went to Blythe for a loan?”
She inches back. “Blythe? Whatever gave you that idea? I’d never ask a friend for money. That would be crass. Vera and I got a loan from the bank.”
A swell of relief washes over me.
For an honest-to-goodness minute, I thought I was going to discover that one of my mother’s friends was a killer.
“So you went into a bank to get the loan,” I say with a little laugh caught in my throat.
“Well, I didn’t go anywhere. Vera took care of all that. She’s the one who procured the loan. In fact, funny you should mention getting a loan from Blythe—Vera actually floated that idea. And under no circumstances would I allow it,” she says staunchly. “Can you imagine if we did? Boy, that would definitely shine a light of suspicion over us.” She belts out a laugh and is about to step away, but something she said at the Crafters Warehouse comes back to me.
I remember her telling me that Blythe had a rough upbringing, that she never felt worthy to be loved, that she often flocked to whoever showed her any affection. And then she mentioned that Vera was the same way.
Blythe stole Beau from Magda. And if pattern proves correct, I wonder if Vera stole Beau from Blythe? After all, Beau certainly was stealable.
“Can I ask you one more question? My mother said that you and Vera would be joining us for dinner this evening. Will either of you be bringing anyone along? I think my mother mentioned that Vera had a boyfriend.” She didn’t mention a boyfriend, but that’s not the point.
Claudia laughs again. “I don’t have anyone to bring but myself. And as for Vera, well, she does have a mystery man that she sneaks off to now and again, but she’s not ready to introduce him to anyone—not even me.” I’m guessing he’s about as alive as these scarecrows. Vera always did have a penchant for the dramatic.
She takes off and a newfound resolve steels in me.
I’m betting Vera’s boyfriend is very much alive—although his wife isn’t.
I turn around and spot Vera Sparks looking right at me. A chill rides through me, and it feels like an electrical jolt, a warning of some sort that warrants my self-preservation to kick in.
She strides this way and I meet her in the middle.
“What are you doing here, Bizzy?” She gives a nervous laugh as her newly dyed crimson locks escape the bun they’re tethered in as the wind picks up.
“Vera, which bank did you borrow money from to save your store?” I ask a little too quickly, a little too harshly. “I’m looking to do the same with the inn. Maybe you can be a reference for me? We could go in on Monday together and you can vouch for me with the loan officer. I’m sure they know you by name.”
Her face turns the same crimson shade as her locks, and her eyes are red with rage as well.
“What’s going on?” she demands as she takes a step forward and all three dogs growl at her. She glances down at them and her breathing grows erratic. “What do you think you know?”
“If you confess everything, they’ll go easy on you,” I tell her as the band starts up in the distance. “If you try to lie your way out of this, it’s just going to cost you more in the end.”
“No.” She shakes her head absentmindedly as she stares off at the crowd. “This can’t be happening. I didn’t want to do it, Bizzy. She made me. I tried to tell her that I didn’t have the money. I couldn’t pay her back. I only needed half of what I borrowed. It was Beau who took the rest. Oh, he’s got a terrible gambling problem, Bizzy. The man is a mess.”
“But he’s your type of a mess,” I say as I swallow down a laugh. “Is that why you snuck off to the Marino Casino with him? And the two of you checked in as Mr. and Mrs. Marino?”
Her eyes grow to the size of the chips you might see at the casino.
“How did you know that?” she shouts. Beau Betty is a weasel! He swore on his mother’s grave he wouldn’t tell a soul, and goodness knows I haven’t. She casts a glance in Claudia’s direction. I haven’t even told my best friend . “Is Beau talking to the sheriff’s department?”
I give a noncommittal nod.
“Oh, he’s a peach, isn’t he?” she seethes. I should have known he would after what he did to Magda and to Blythe—even if he did do Blythe dirty by way of going out with me. “It was his idea to kill her.” She gives a short-lived smile. “He showed up and pulled the trigger.” I’ll never confess to pulling the trigger myself even though I did. I’m pretty sure Beau was at the casino until well after I sent him a text telling him she was gone, but it’s my word against his.
“Beau said he was at the casino. The security cameras have footage of him there at the time of the killing. You killed Blythe, didn’t you?”
A soft scream evicts from her. Her chest pulsates wildly with her every breath.
“Yes—yes, I did kill her,” she whimpers as she looks around for an escape, but the float is moving briskly now.
“And you were stalking her. You sent her those nasty notes and slashed her tires, too, isn’t that right?” It’s a shot in the dark, but I’m assuming she wouldn’t deny it if she did it, seeing that she’s already confessed to a felony.
“I had to,” she pants. “I wanted to spook her. She talked about leaving Beau and moving to Florida. I thought if I pushed her in the right direction, she’d do just that.”
“And that she would forget about your debt and leave her husband behind for you, too.”
“I don’t care about him. I don’t even care about the money.” I wanted him and I wanted to be debt free. Her death seemed like such a good solution at the time. “Blythe found out about the affair. She was going to smear my good name. She said I was no better than her.” She sniffs at the thought. “I don’t know what I was thinking. It was all a very bad mistake. I’m sorry, Bizzy, but I have to go.” She tries to bolt past me when Fish jumps right out of the tote bag and onto Vera’s back.
“Get off of me,” the woman shouts.
Chestnut and Acorn leap in front of her and effectively block her path.
How could you? Chestnut gives a sharp bark. That was my mother you killed! You should be ashamed of yourself. You should be in prison!
She should be dead, Acorn howls before clamping onto her ankle with his tiny little teeth.
Vera lets out a yelp as she does her best to limp away from me. She staggers to the center of the float and grabs onto one of the three ropes tethering my mother and Georgie to this monstrosity.
“Get off of me,” Vera shouts as she tries to shake Acorn off of her and in doing so yanks down violently on the rope, causing it to unhook itself from the latch, and soon it’s whipping around violently.
The hot air balloon shimmies and shakes and both my mother and Georgie belt out a scream.
Vera leaps up, and before she can make a break for it, Sherlock lands on her back and pins her to the ground. She screams and reaches for yet another rope that’s doing its best to ground that hot air balloon and it, too, unhitches from its post.
The hot air balloon zigs and zags as the fireball holding it up roars to life. And with all the commotion—or more to the point, motion , the final tether loosens and soon the hot air balloon is wobbling up into the sky.
My mother and Georgie scream once again, the crowd screams, and soon just about every woman on the float is screaming, too.
“ No ,” I shout as I try to reach for one of the ropes swinging wildly as they rise ever so much higher and just out of reach.
Without thinking, I hop onto a bale of hay and latch onto one of the ropes, just as Jasper and Leo hop onto the float.
“ She did it ,” I shout, pointing at Vera, now ensconced with all three dogs and one very feisty cat sitting on top of her head. “She confessed to killing Blythe Betty!”
More screams ensue, this time from the women on board the float.
Leo heads over to arrest her just as that hot air balloon belts out another fiery roar.
The rope begins to slip through my fingers, rising into the sky as if the Hulk himself were hoisting us toward Heaven.
“No, you don’t,” I shout as I loop my wrist around the rope twice and try to haul them right back to the float, but it’s no use.
“Bizzy, let go,” Mom cries. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself!”
“Keep holding on, Bizzy,” Georgie shouts ten times louder. “I don’t want to hurt myself!”
But before I can decide which way to go, my arm is yanked hard into the sky and the rest of me follows suit.
“ Bizzy ,” Jasper thunders as he dives in my direction and manages to catch the heel of my shoe just as the hot air balloon yanks me into the sky even higher.
My shoe falls off right in Jasper’s hand, and just like that, it seems I’m on my way to the moon.
I hope they serve pie there.