“I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” Morgan whispered to Fiona.
“If what Jolene found on the computer is true, then this is our best bet for catching the killer and finally proving you didn’t do it.”
“It seems pretty dangerous. Maybe we should have waited until Jake could come.”
The promise she made to Jake flitted across Fiona’s mind, but she knew he was on duty tonight and this couldn’t wait. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to come and arrest her for what she was about to do.
The back door to the house opened highlighting the silhouette of Eli Stark in the light streaming out from the kitchen.
Fiona crouched down even lower behind the bush holding her breath, praying Eli wouldn’t spot her and Morgan on the other side of the driveway. Glancing over at her sister who wore an all-black outfit, hair stuffed up under a black baseball cap identical to hers, she realized she needn’t have worried. It was a moonless night and the girls were all but invisible.
Stark got in his Black Lexus SUV and drove away. Fiona crept out from behind the bush quietly making her way over to the door. Taking a set of jeweler’s tools from her pocket, she worked on the lock.
“Just how do you know how to pick a lock, anyway?” Morgan glanced around the yard nervously.
“I looked it up on the internet.” Fiona shrugged. She’d never tried to pick a lock before, but it had looked easy and she already had the tools.
The door clicked then swung open and Fiona let out her breath. They tip toed into the house, carefully closing the door.
The house was dark. Fiona turned on her small flashlight sweeping it around the room. The kitchen of the small bungalow smelled like greasy fried food but was neat and tidy.
Who knew Eli was such a neat-nick?
A small table sat in one corner and the counters were bare. A dinner plate, silverware and a glass were stacked neatly in the sink.
Fiona made her way over to the knife rack while Morgan opened the drawers.
“Find anything?” Morgan asked.
“No, but I guess it’s probably not the kind of knife he would keep in the kitchen.”
“Yeah, let’s look for an office or something That seems like a more likely place.”
Fiona placed the knife rack exactly where she had found it and followed Morgan into the living room, then up the stairs, her heart leaping up into her throat at every creak and groan of the steps.
They found his office on the right. Morgan went over to the window and pulled the shades shut so no one would see their flashlights from outside. The girls started opening drawers and searching surfaces.
Fiona swept her flashlight across the room. The light fell on a big oak filing cabinet on the far wall. “I’m going to check out this filing cabinet.”
“I’ll go through the bookshelf over there by the door. Maybe he hid the knife behind a book or something.”
Fiona grasped the filing cabinet handle and pulled, relieved when it opened smoothly. She pushed the files to the back of the drawer and looked underneath them. Nothing. Then she started to fan through the files, the knife could be inside any one of them.
Her heartbeat picked up as she glanced at the file tabs. One was labeled ‘Blackmoore’.
Was Eli keeping a file on them?
She saw another one labeled ‘Overton’. Clearly Eli was up to something. She started to flip through Overton’s file trying to figure out what it was. She was so engrossed in her task that she was oblivious to everything else.
A frightened squeak sounded behind her. She whirled around. Her heart froze.
Eli was standing just inside the doorway, his hand over Morgan’s mouth, a knife to her throat. A seven inch serrated knife with a fancy hilt. Just like the one that had killed Josh Gray.
“You’d love to see what’s in that file, wouldn’t you?” He sneered at Fiona.
Fiona’s heart pounded in her chest as he advanced toward her, dragging Morgan with him. Morgan’s eyes darted around the room in panic.
She dropped the file holding up her hands. “Let Morgan go.”
Eli snickered. “Let her go? I don’t think so.” He tightened his grip on Morgan and Fiona’s heart jerked at the muffled noise her sister made behind his hand.
Fiona’s back was against the filing cabinet and she had nowhere to go. Her eyes searched the room frantically for some sort of weapon.
“Get the duct tape out of the bottom drawer.” Eli indicated the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet with his foot. Fiona bent down as slow as she could, stalling for time.
“Hurry up!” Eli kicked the drawer causing Fiona to jump back. Instead of intimidating her as he intended, it only served to piss her off. Apparently Eli didn’t know not to mess with a redhead that had a feisty temper.
She narrowed her eyes up at him. “Is that the knife you killed Josh Gray with?”
Eli snickered. “Well, aren’t you the clever one? How did you figure it out? I suppose it doesn’t matter now since I’ll be killing you and your sister with the knife, too.”
“So, you did kill him.”
Eli nodded. “Little shit thought he could blackmail me. I showed him what for.”
Fiona thought he almost looked proud of himself. “You hired him to kill Prudence and he threatened to tell.”
“I paid him good money but he kept coming back for more, over and over. I just couldn’t have that. So I took care of business.”
“Well, it won’t do you much good, the police know all about everything and they have proof so, even if you kill us, you’ll get caught.”
Eli pushed his chest out. “Ha! That’s your mistake. I’ve got Overton in my pocket. He’ll never prosecute me.”
“I wasn’t talking about Overton. I sent the information to the Fed’s and they are very interested in what you have been doing.” Fiona lied. Her heart pounded against her rib cage— this was her only chance.
Eli narrowed his eyes. She could almost see the wheels turning inside his head wondering if she told the truth.
Fiona saw him loosen his grip on Morgan. Adrenalin shot through her body. She grappled behind her, grabbing onto the cast iron doorstop she’d seen earlier.
She swung her hand up, shooting up from her squatting position at the same time to put as much force behind it as she could.
Eli threw his arm up instinctively to defend himself.
Morgan jerked away to the side.
Fiona felt the doorstop connect with Eli’s forearm. Disappointment shot through her, she had aimed for his head. Hitting his forearm wouldn’t be enough to knock him out. She had the doorstop raised high over her head for another attempt when a voice yelled from the doorway.
“Drop it and put your hands up!”
Fiona dropped the doorstop like a hot potato and put her hands up in the air, palms out.
“Not you.” Jake stood in the doorway, Brody Hunter behind him, their guns raised and trained on Eli.
“Him.” He said jerking his head toward Eli who had already dropped the knife and had his arms raised.
Fiona felt the tension drain from her body. She put her hands down and rushed over to Morgan who stood on the other side of the room rubbing a small nick on her neck.
“Are you okay?” her heart clenching at the small drop of blood.
“I’m fine.” Morgan smiled at her. “I can’t believe you got him to admit everything.”
Behind them Brody and Jake were subduing a frantic Eli. Eli kicked and yelled about Overton and lawyers while they struggled to get him into the handcuffs.
Fiona’s stomach dropped when Overton appeared in the doorway.
Would he ignore the evidence and make them let Eli go?
Fiona pointed to the knife on the floor. “Eli had the knife he used to kill Josh Gray and he was planning on using it on us.”
Overton’s eyes went from the knife to Eli. His face looked haggard and worn. His shoulders sagged. He motioned for someone to put the knife in an evidence bag.
“Eli Stark, you’re under arrest for the murder of Joshua Gray.” Overton turned to Brody. “Get him out of here.”
Eli stared at Overton, rage filling his beady, black eyes.
“You won’t get away with this!
I’ll tell them everything I know about you!
I’m not going down alone!” He screamed as Brody dragged him from the room.
Overton looked at Fiona and Morgan with disgust. “I guess you girls got your way … this time.” He shoved a toothpick into his mouth, turned on his heel and headed out of the room.
Morgan looked at Fiona. “I guess an apology was too much to expect.”
Fiona’s heart clenched when she saw Jake coming toward them.
“Are you okay?” His gray eyes studied both women with concern.
Fiona and Morgan nodded.
Jake sighed. “Thank god.”
Fiona’s heart skittered in her chest as he gathered her into his arms, bending to kiss her forehead.
“How did you know to come here?” Morgan asked.
“I went to your house. Jolene told me everything. She’s pretty good with the computer. We could use someone like her down at the station … if I’m even still employed there.”
“I hope you didn’t put your job at risk for us.”
“We caught the bad guy, and that’s what counts. I don’t think we’d have been able to do that if it wasn’t for you and your sisters.”
Jake loosened his grip on Fiona. Tilting her head back he looked straight into her eyes. “But I am a little miffed that you didn’t keep that promise to call me.”
Fiona blanched. “Sorry, I wanted to call, but I knew you were on duty …”
Jake just nodded then pulled her close again.
“Well, I can see I’m going to have to keep a
very
close eye on you from now on.”
Fiona snuggled closer. A warm, satisfied glow spread through her veins. Having Jake Cooper keep a close eye on her was something she wouldn’t mind, one bit.
Morgan Blackmoore tapped her finger lightly on the counter barely registering the low buzz of voices behind her in the crowded coffee shop as her mind raced over the events of the past few days.
“Here you go.” Felicity handed Morgan a tray full of hot coffee and tea. Morgan turned and walked toward the large table where Fiona, Jake, Jolene, Celeste and Cal were seated.
“I still don’t understand why Eli wanted to frame Morgan.” Celeste said to Jake as she accepted the tea from Morgan with a nod of thanks.
“Actually, he was killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. He wanted Prudence out of the way so Ed would sell him their land and he figured if Morgan went to jail, the rest of the Blackmoore’s would be eager to sell him the land where
Sticks and Stones
is since they’d have less income and more legal fees.” Jake took a latte from the tray, handing it to Fiona before grabbing a coffee for himself.
“But what about the newt?”
“That was just luck on Eli’s part. He was in the cafe and heard the exchange between Morgan and Prudence. He had already arraigned for Josh to kill Prudence and he knew newts were plentiful in the woods so he simply called Josh and had him add that little twist.”
“He’d already planned to plant the scarf, so the newt was just a bonus.” Fiona added. “The whole town knows about our ongoing feud with Prudence so he figured they’d just think Morgan finally got fed up and snapped.”
“So, if Eli thought putting me in jail would cause financial hardship, he must have known about our trouble with the taxes.” Morgan’s brow creased as she wondered how he knew.
“Sure, it’s easy enough to figure out what we make for income and do the math.” Jolene shrugged.
“Speaking of which.” Cal pulled a check out of his shirt pocket and pushed it across the table to Morgan. “I found someone who was happy to buy that necklace.”
Morgan’s eyes widened when she looked at the check. “That’s almost twice what we need for the taxes.”
Cal leaned back in his chair smiling around the coffee stirrer he was chewing on.
Morgan looked at him suspiciously. “Cal, I hope this generous buyer isn’t really you just giving us money.”
The deep timber of Cal’s laugh echoed across the restaurant causing four women at the next table to glance over and ogle him, which wasn’t really any surprise to Morgan.
Since they were teens, Cal had been like a magnet to women. He had quite a reputation as a playboy but along with being handsome, smart and funny, Cal was also a nice guy that would do anything for his friends. Including disguising a gift of money as a sale of jewelry to make sure those friends didn’t object.