Daisies for Innocence (24 page)

“Hurry up, you guys,” I called, taking a step toward it. “We have to get out of here!”

“And why is that?”

I whirled around to see Karl Evers had walked right in as if he owned the place.

A
LARM
turned to fear, winging through my veins. Then the fear turned to terror as I saw his freckled smile drop into a sociopathic sneer. “Why, Ellie Allbright. I sure didn’t expect to see you here.”

The smell of the aftershave I’d thought my ex had started using wafted through the air, acrid and sour. I’d smelled it on Josie’s body, and in Harris’ office. Now I realized it had been a barely there undercurrent of the all the kitchen smells at the Roux Grill, and I’d put that down to Harris, too. But I didn’t remember smelling it on Harris when he came to Scents & Nonsense to complain about my hiring Maggie.

It had been Karl all the time.

“Inga!” he called. “Where are you? Get out here.”

“No!” I yelled. “Lock the door and call the police!”

Karl grabbed my arm. “Shut up.” His gaze flicked to the stairway.

Inga stood looking down at us with her hand on the rail. She was so pale that her face shone white in the semidarkness at the top of the stairs.

“Ah, there you are. Good.” He looked back at me. “She knows better than to call the cops. Don’t you, dear?”

He sneered down at me. I tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip. “You’re not going anywhere. Now sit down.” He pushed me back, and I landed on the sofa.

“Good girl,” he said softly. “Inga, come down here.” His gaze rose over my shoulder. “Now, please.”

I heard her footsteps on the stairs behind me. I realized Karl was older than I’d originally thought. The red hair and Howdy Doody demeanor gave him a boyish air, but the lines around his eyes and mouth told a different story. Karl Evers was pushing forty.

Oh, and those eyes. Now that I was so close, I could see the deep-seated and carefully nurtured resentment in them.

And fear. There was so much fear in the room . . . Oh, wait. Even though I recognized Inga’s trademark disquiet, the fear that was making my hands tremble wasn’t something I was picking up from her or Karl.

That was all mine.

Karl smiled at me again. He liked how scared I was. Then the smile dropped. “Why are you here, Ellie? Did you think you could horn in on the money like Josie did?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I began.

“Of course you do.” He looked down at the photos on the table. “I have one of those, too, you know.”

I tipped my head to the side, remembering the blank spot on Josie’s living room wall. “But you stole yours, didn’t you, Karl? You stole Harris’ key to Josie’s apartment. The manager there heard you going through her things next door.”

He smirked. “And where did you get yours?”

I was silent.

He looked up at Inga. “Come on over here.”

She walked around the edge of the sofa and sat down next to me. Then her trembling finger pointed to the envelope on the table. “Take it and go.”

He crossed his arms. “Well, now thank you very much for your installment, but it appears that now I have a little more to think about than what do with all that cash, don’t I? For example, what am I going to do with you ladies?”

“The police are on the way,” I said.

“Hmm. You know, I don’t think they are. I think you came here looking for a payoff from the golden goose here, just like me. And I don’t think you’d invite the cops to the party.”

I was getting pretty sick of everyone thinking I was either a murderer or a blackmailer. “You’re an idiot,” I said, still scared but now angry, too.

He blinked.

“Not everyone in the world is as money-grubbing as
you are. Not everyone is as evil or walks around with a big chip on their shoulder, thinking the world owes them something.”

My words must have struck a chord, because his jaw set and his nostrils flared.

“Josie never wanted any money from Inga.” I jumped to my feet and backed toward the front door.

“Sit down,” he grated.

“But you were so sure she was as horrible as you are that you killed her, didn’t you? Josie didn’t want Inga’s stupid money, and she didn’t know anything about what you were doing. You lured her to the park and killed her for nothing!”

Karl took three steps, grabbed my arm, and yanked me into the kitchen. I slipped on the tile floor, but he pulled me to my feet and reached for the wooden knife block on the shiny granite counter. He selected a utility knife with a nine-inch-long blade, turned, and jerked me after him. In front of the sofa, he pushed me. I staggered. The sofa hit the back of my knees, and I sat down with a thump. Beside me, Inga, who hadn’t budged, sucked her breath in between her teeth.

A charged silence filled the room. I turned to glare at Inga. While Karl and I had been in the kitchen, even so briefly, she could have run out the front door. She looked at the stairway, and I got it. No way would she leave her children.

Who were upstairs.
With Astrid.

And Karl had no idea Astrid was in the house. I thought of the balconies overlooking the front drive.
Would it be possible for her to climb down from one of those?

He began to pace back and forth in front of us, swinging the knife in time with his steps. When he turned away, my gaze shot over to the phone I’d seen on the console. Maybe I could get to it long enough to punch in 911.

I shifted in my seat. Karl paused midstep and pointed the knife at me. “Stop fidgeting, and let me think. As you know, I’m perfectly willing to use this if you try anything stupid.”

Wide-eyed, I fell still. He resumed pacing.

My hand was in my pocket, though. Moving as slowly as possible, I uncorked the bottle of bittersweet, heather, and chestnut oils.

Truth, protection, and justice.
The volatile oils immediately rose into the air.

Suddenly Karl stopped. I saw him sniff the air. Then he paused in front of me.

“I didn’t lure Josie to the park. I made her go with me.”

“She fought you.”

Regret flickered across his features. “She did. And she got away.”

And came to the first building on that end of town.

He blinked, then narrowed his eyes at me. “Enough with the interrogation.”

Except I hadn’t asked him any questions.

Truth: check. Now for protection and justice.

“Where are your kids?” he suddenly asked Inga.

Anxiety cascaded off Inga, but there was that ferocious mother-bear protectiveness, too. She would do
anything to protect her children. Her eyes narrowed, and she glared at him.

“Where?” he demanded, sounding desperate. He pointed the knife at her.

“Where you can’t get to them,” she said, her eyes shifting for a split second to the stairs. She couldn’t seem to help herself.

Karl saw it, and his lips thinned. “All right. Here’s what we’re going to do. I know there’s a safe in the house.” His eyes flicked to me, and he smiled. “Josie told me that before I killed her.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

“So we are going to go up to your bedroom, and you are going to open that safe, Inga. You are going to give me everything inside of it, and then I’m going to leave. Easy as pie.”

“You’ll really go?” Inga asked in a small voice.

He nodded. “Yep. Far away.”

She stood.

“Inga,” I said. “He’s lying.”

“Oh, Ellie. You clever thing.” He motioned me up with the knife. “Come along.”

Having no choice, I shuffled toward the stairs. As I passed the console, I looked down at the portable phone handset. It was glowing orange.

Someone was using another handset.
Astrid.

We began to climb. I said, “He’s going to kill us, Inga.”

We just have to stay alive long enough for help to arrive.

“We know he killed Josie.” I looked over at her.
Understanding passed between us. Whatever she had in mind, Inga wasn’t giving up yet.

“True!” Karl crowed from behind us. “I never said I wasn’t going to kill you. In fact, I’m thinking you’ll be found with the knife in your hand, Ellie. According to the ranting of your ex-husband, the police already think you killed Josie. They won’t be surprised to find you killed Inga, too.”

“I called them before I came,” I said. “They’ll know it was you.”

“Nice try, honey.”

We’d reached the upstairs hallway. Five doors opened off it, two on each side, and at the end, double doors led to the master bedroom. Where was Astrid?

Inga stopped and turned to face Karl. “I’m not opening any safe for you.”

He reached out and pushed her. She stumbled against the wall.

“Yes, you are.”

Her chin came up. “Why should I, if you’re just going to kill us?”

“Because if you do what I ask, I won’t start opening all these doors until I find your children. I’ll do what I have to do, and then I’ll walk away.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them as if she’d made a decision. “You’ll leave them alone?”

He nodded.

She turned and looked at me, then put her hands on my shoulders and squeezed. “I’m sorry, Ellie. I don’t have a choice.”

And then, very slowly, she winked.

Inga turned and walked to the end of the hallway. “The safe is in here.”

But instead of opening the doors to the master suite at the end, she opened the door on the right.

Karl’s eyes narrowed. “Josie said the safe was in your bedroom.”

“It is,” Inga said. “This is our bedroom.” She walked in.

At first I thought she was trying to trick him, but when I got a good look at the books on the nightstand, the mussed coverlet on the king-size bed, and the tray on the dresser that held a phone charger, keys, and loose change, I changed my mind. The scent of the custom perfume I made for Inga confirmed it: This was where she and Brock slept.

Karl pushed me into the room behind Inga and waited in the doorway.

I turned to look at him, and saw Astrid standing behind the door. I looked away again, not wanting to give her away, but in that brief glimpse I saw she was absolutely livid.

Livid was good. Astrid kicked butt when she was livid.

Inga went to a tapestry on the wall and moved it aside. The wall safe was right behind it. Karl seemed to relax when he saw it.

“Open it.”

Inga moved to stand in front of the safe, twirling the combination forward, back, and forward again so none of us could see the combination. Karl smiled, seeming to find her secrecy amusing. After all, we’d both be dead soon.

It took all my effort not to look at Astrid. I carefully kept my attention on Inga, exactly where Karl expected it to be, while trying to see what my friend was doing from the corner of my eye. The tiny bottle of oil was still clenched in my fist. Casually, I upended it and let the oil dribble out on the floor.

Karl looked confused, but the two women didn’t seem to notice.

Inga twisted the handle, and the door of the safe silently opened. “What do you want me to do now?” she asked, without turning around.

A satisfied smile spread on his face, and Karl stepped into the room.

And slipped in the puddle of oil. The klutzy cook went sprawling. The knife flew out of his hand and clattered against the wainscoting. He groaned, the wind knocked out of him, and Astrid and I both jumped on him to try to pin him down.

He grunted and was still.

We relaxed and gave each other a grin.

Suddenly, he twisted, and pushed me off. He took a swing at Astrid, and his fist glanced off her shoulder.

“Ow,” she grunted, struggling with him.

“Karl, be still,” Inga said.

I looked up at her, gaping.

She stood in front of the safe, training a gun down on Karl.

Astrid and I scrambled out of the way. Karl stared at her, his bravado and arrogance shriveling as he tried to sit up.

A banging came from downstairs, then voices.

“Ellie? Astrid? Inga?”

“Up here, Detective Garcia,” I called, holding my hand out for the gun.

Inga relaxed and handed it to me. “I think I might need a new perfume from you in the next few days.”

“Come by the shop,” I said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Lupe Garcia looked around the edge of the doorframe and took in the tableau. I motioned her into the room and handed her the gun.

“This is Inga’s.” I pointed to the knife on the floor. “So is that, but Karl was planning to use it on us the same way he killed Josie Overland.”

Detective Garcia grinned at me. “Nice job, Ellie.”

Out in the hallway, I saw Max Lang redden and look away. I tried very hard not to feel self-satisfied—and utterly failed.

I tipped my head at Karl, who was still lying on the floor. “He grabbed the knife from the Fowler’s kitchen. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if the knife that killed Josie came from the Roux Grill kitchen.”

His glare told me I was right. I smiled at him.

“I have to check on my kids,” Inga said, pushing out of the room.

I looked in the safe, expecting to see a sheaf of cash, or at least a jewelry box. But there was nothing in it except for another even larger gun.