Casey Mayes - A Killer Column

“Do you think they were trying to hurt us?”

He shook his head. “Actually, I’m pretty sure they wanted us dead. If we’d opened that room door when we first smelled smoke, something very bad could have happened to us, and I don’t mean getting a burn.”

“Then I’m glad you thought to get two rooms. It appears that we’ve managed to push someone beyond their limits.”

Zach nodded as the elevator opened on the ground floor. “Let’s just hope we can push them again. Do you have any ideas?”

“Maybe one,” I said.

“That’s more than I’ve got. I’m listening.”

Chapter 23

“ IT’S TOO RISKY,” ZACH SAID AFTER I TOLD HIM MY PLAN. WE were sitting in the parking garage discussing it away from anyone who might want to listen in.

“We’ve just lost our best chance to find out who killed Derrick,” I said. “Do we really have that much choice?”

“We could always sit back and let Murphy solve it,” Zach said. “After all, that’s what he’s getting paid to do.”

“I can’t just wait for someone to burn Jenny’s house down. Isn’t that next? Somebody’s willing to commit murder to shut us up.”

Zach shook his head. “That fire was meant to be a distraction, nothing more. Once we got to the door, the real fun was going to start.”

“Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t been smart enough to get a connecting room?”

Zach frowned, and I could tell that I was starting to wear him down. It was time to step it up. “You’ll be right there in case anything happens. I’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Savannah, as much as I’d like to, I can’t protect you from everything,” he said.

“I know that,” I said softly. “I have to do this. You see that, don’t you?”

He tapped the dashboard, and after a huge sigh, he said, “Go on. I’ll make the telephone calls as you drive.”

AS I DROVE BACK TO PULLEN PARK, ZACH PHONED KELSEY Hatcher. I listened in on his side of the conversation as I drove, and hoped my plan to smoke out a killer worked. He’d really have to sell it, but I had faith in him.

“Savannah asked me to call you to tell you that we’ve just about got this solved. There’s something in the planner that’s going to blow the lid off the case and help the police arrest the killer.”

There was a pause, and he replied, “Detective Murphy is meeting Savannah in Pullen Park in an hour to get the planner. As a matter of fact, she’s already over there waiting for him.” Another pause, and he replied, “I can’t. I’ll be downtown with an old friend. We’ll be leaving soon, and I need to say good-bye before we go back to Asheville.” Another pause, and then Zach said, “That’s right, by the monument to The Andy Griffith Show , as a matter of fact. Gotta go,” he said quickly, and then hung up.

“How’d I do?” he asked me.

“You were wonderful.”

“Brady was with her, I could hear him in the background asking questions, so that just leaves Cary and Mindi.”

Zach called Cary and had much the same message, conveying the information we wanted them to believe was true. I pulled into the parking lot as he hung up.

“Well,” he said, “we’ve set the trap.”

“Let’s just hope someone gets caught in it this time.”

AS WE LEFT OUR CAR, I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE THAT THE park was nearly empty. I’d been counting on having enough people around to add another layer of defense, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen.

Zach and I would manage, though.

We stepped over the embedded railroad tracks and back onto the herringbone laid pavers. As we neared the ticket office where they sold entries to the carousel, the kiddie boats, and the train, I saw that the booth was closed for the day. That explained the absence of cars in the parking lot. We came around the corner and onto the open expanse of grass encircled by the same brown pavers, with the statue we wanted on the other end of the green. There was a grouping of heavy shrubs just behind the statue, and I could see that my plan just might work. Zach would be close enough to hear anything that was said, yet still be protected from sight.

Now it was just a matter of waiting to see if anyone turned up.

“Do you have the folder?” Zach asked.

“It’s in my bag,” I answered.

“You might want to get it out so everyone can see it,” he said.

I did as he asked, and then tried to look everywhere at once. Zach caught me looking. “Relax. Nobody’s had time to get here yet. We can still call it off, you know.”

“I’m fine. I promise.”

Once I was settled in, Zach moved behind the cluster of bushes and vanished from my view. A moment later, he stepped back out. “This isn’t going to work.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t see you.” He looked around, and then pointed to another cluster of bushes nearby that partially shielded some kind of large green electrical box. “That might work.”

He walked quickly to the spot, and a moment later, Zach asked, “Can you see me?”

“No. If I hadn’t seen you go in there, I never would have known you were there.”

“Good, that’s the way we need it.”

“What do we do now?”

“It’s the easy part; we wait.”

THIRTY MINUTES LATER, I WAS BEGINNING TO DOUBT IF anyone was going to show up. I almost said something to my husband when I heard a telephone ringing in the bushes.

“Sorry, I forgot to turn it off,” he said. I heard a few whispers, and he surprised me by coming out from his hiding place.

“What’s going on?”

“That was Murphy,” Zach said. “He’s ready to make an arrest.”

I felt the air go out of my lungs. “Who did it?”

“Cary killed him for the life insurance, and Mindi found out. She was blackmailing Cary, which explains her change in attitude. Evidently Cary refused to give her half the money, so Mindi came to Shawn with her story. He’s going to arrest Cary for murder, and he asked me if I wanted to come along for the arrest.”

“Of course you do,” I said, seeing the gleam in my husband’s glance. “Go.”

“I hate leaving you here by yourself, but there’s no way I can bring you along,” Zach said.

“Don’t worry about me. If the killer’s there, I have to be safe here. Why don’t you go, and I’ll phone Jenny to come by and get me. She can be here in a few minutes. Would that make you happy?”

“Probably, but I still want to wait with you here until she shows up.”

I hated being coddled. “Zach, go on. I’m a grown woman. I can take care of myself.”

He looked like a puppy, he was so eager to go. “Go on.” “If you’re sure,” he said.

I threw him my car keys. “I’m positive.”

He caught them midair, and then said, “I’m not going anywhere until you call her. If she can’t come, I’m staying with you.”

I called Jenny. “Hey, I need a ride.”

“Sure, where are you?”

“I’m at Pullen Park.”

“The carousel’s not open now,” she said. “I don’t think the boat dock is, either.”

“I’m not asking you to go on a picnic with me,” I said. “Can you come get me?”

“I’m on my way,” she said.

After I hung up, I said, “See, she’ll be here in no time.”

“If you’re sure,” Zach said as he kissed my cheek.

Before I could answer, he was sprinting down the path toward the parking lot. My husband could be such a child sometimes.

I was marveling at how Cary could have killed her husband when I suddenly realized that the police had to be wrong. Mindi may have been blackmailing Cary—that didn’t surprise me one bit—but her sense of self-preservation was too strong to risk her own freedom just to get back at Cary. And then I remembered how Cary had reacted to the mere mention of a knife being used on her husband. Cary hadn’t been acting then, I was certain of it. She might have bludgeoned her philandering husband with something, but I doubted seriously that she would stab him.