Minnie Crockwell - Will Travel for Trouble 02 - Trouble at Sunny Lake (12 page)

I nodded a greeting and picked up a loaf of bread.

“I heard you were up early this morning,” she said.

It seemed even the smallest movement was cause for talk in the RV park.

“Oh, really?” I laid the bread on the counter and fished in my wallet for money. “From Sean?”

“Yes,” she said. “He said he told you about…” Her face crumpled, and tears rolled down her face.
 

I didn’t know what to do. I knew she wouldn’t welcome a hug.

“Oh, Mary, I’m so sorry. Did you know Sean’s fiancée?”

She shook her head, and wiped at her face with a tissue. Her tears slowed, and she drew in a deep breath.
 

“No, but her death broke his heart,” she said in a mournful voice. “Just broke his heart. He hasn’t been the same since. Do you think that angry man is the same pleasant boy that I said goodbye to when he went off to Afghanistan?” She pointed in the general direction of the park. “No! Jason is to blame for that.
I
blamed Jason for that.”

I looked into her blurry pale blue eyes, and I wondered.

Yes, Minerva! Yes!

Apparently, Ben had the same questions. I thought I might throw some oil onto the fire.

“The sheriff’s office says they found some DNA evidence on Jason. Hair caught in his hand. My guess is that he grabbed hold of someone’s head as he fell.”

Mary’s eyes bulged, and she sucked in a sharp breath. Her eyes flew to the door. I wondered why.

“Whose hair is it?” she cried out in a strangled voice.

“I don’t know. Deputy Wilson said that the lab is analyzing it now, and they should know in a few days.” Maybe it wasn’t my place to have said anything, but I couldn’t resist shaking things up a bit. And boy, were they shaken!

Mary turned and looked around the office wildly. She positioned her back to me, and I couldn’t see her expression.

“Mary? Are you all right?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. I can’t wait to find out who killed Jason,” she said in a muffled voice. I peered around to see that she covered her face with her hands.

She dropped her hands and swung toward me. “Excuse me. I’ve got to lock the office for about an hour. I’m going to lunch, and Sean is busy in the park.”

“Oh, okay,” I murmured. She hurried out of the office and ushered me to the front door. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye before she slammed the door behind me. I heard the lock click.

“Ben? What’s she doing? Can you see?”

She is hurrying back to the office. She opens the money drawer and pulls money from within.

“Ben! Is it possible…?” I didn’t finish the sentence.

That she committed the crime, and not some large man with greater strength? It would not take much to push someone over the edge of a cliff.

I moved away from the door and around to the opposite side of the building. From that vantage point, I could see Mary’s movements if she left the building. Within minutes, she came around the corner and headed up the hill toward her trailer. She paused and looked out over the park as if looking for Sean, but apparently not spotting him, she quickened her steps.

 
“Guilty much?” I asked, a rhetorical comment more than anything.

I beg your pardon? Yes, I think she must be guilty.

“I know. I think I’m going to sort of sashay up there and see what I can see!”

Minerva! If Mistress Mary is capable of murder, why do you think she would hesitate to kill you? Be sensible. Call the authorities with your suspicions. Call the handsome and charming Deputy Wilson.

“If I’m wrong, I’d look like a complete idiot. Maybe she’s just shook up. Maybe she thinks Sean did it, and she took the money from the till to bankroll him while he makes a run for it. Either way, if I don’t know what’s going on, what could I tell the police when I called?”

Please be careful.

“Always,” I reassured Ben.

Loaf of bread still in hand, I moved away from the office building and headed toward a thicket of trees off to the side. From there, I could climb the hill and approach the trailer from the safety of some bushes behind it. I’m not sure if I wished it were dark, but some sort of waning light would have made me feel less visible. Sunny Lake was living up to its name once again, with the sun high overhead and illuminating everything.

I heard her voice coming from the trailer, raised in a veritable shriek. I couldn’t tell if she was on the phone or yelling at someone in the trailer. I could no longer see Sean or his golf cart from my hidden vantage point. I strained to make out her words, garbled as they were with emotion. Given that her trailer was isolated from the other campers, she seemed unconcerned that she could be overheard.

“I have to go,” she cried hysterically. “No, you don’t understand. I can’t wait for you. I’ve gotta go now.”

Who was she talking to? I heard no other voices.

“I’m sorry, Sean. I’m sorry.” Sobs distorted her voice.

So, she was talking to her grandson. Was he in the trailer?

Just then, I saw the golf cart charge up the hill toward the trailer, Sean driving with one hand and holding a cell phone with the other. I ducked down behind the bushes, and I pulled my phone from my jeans pocket to push the redial button for Josh’s number.

“Grandma!” Sean called as he jumped out of the cart and ran into the trailer. “What’s going on? Where are you going?”

I pressed the phone to my ear. Josh answered on the second ring.

“Hello there!” he said warmly. “What’s going on?”

“Listen,” I hissed. “Just listen.” I held the phone out in the direction of the trailer.

“What do you mean?” I heard Sean shout. “You did
what
?”

“I killed him. I killed that scum. I made him pay for what he’d done. No one else was going to.”

“Grandma! You’re out of your mind. Of course, you didn’t do it. You couldn’t hurt anyone.”

“I hurt him, Sean. He ruined your life. He ruined
you!
”

I put the phone back to my ear and whispered. “Can you hear? They’re at Mary’s trailer.”

“We’ll be right there!” Josh muttered. “Get out of there, Minnie. Get back to your RV.” He hung up the phone.

I stuffed my phone back in my pocket and listened to Sean and Mary. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“No, Grandma, no,” Sean pled with his grandmother. “You didn’t kill him.
 

I heard her voice breaking.
 

“I did,” she sobbed. “The day he paid for the cabin, I said I knew a good fishing hole. I drove him out there, and I told him what he had done to you, how you had changed, and how much I hated him. I don’t think he realized how close to the edge we were. It was nothing to push him over. He grabbed my hair, but I didn’t think anything of it. Now, the police have my hair, and when the DNA comes back, they’ll arrest me.”

I heard Sean’s voice break, and my heart went out to him again. Not only had he lost his fiancée, but he was about to lose his grandmother one way or the other.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” she cried, still hysterical. “I’m not going to prison.”

Sean must have grabbed her.

“Let go of me, Sean. Let go.”

“Grandma, no. Don’t make things worse. You can’t get away. Where are you going to go?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know.” I heard renewed sobs, and Sean seemed to murmur soothing words.

I heard sirens in the distance.

“They’re here! They’re here!” Mary screamed. “How did they find out so soon?”

I kept my head low. I worried that she might come after me if she found out I had called the police.

“I don’t know,” Sean shouted over her cries. “Don’t run, Grandma. Don’t run. They’ll shoot you.”

The sound of the sirens grew louder.

I heard a scuffle at the door, and I peeked around the bushes to see Mary erupt from the trailer. She ran for the car, and Sean stood in the doorway watching her go, his hands hanging helplessly at his sides. His face was beet red, and tears ran down his face.

Mary jumped in a small silver truck and started to back away. Sheriff’s units raced into the park, and one familiar truck barreled up the hill and skidded to a halt behind Mary’s smaller truck.
 

Josh jumped out, weapon drawn, and trained it on Mary.
 

“Get out of the truck, Mrs. Sanders!”

Sean ran toward Mary’s truck.

“Don’t shoot her! Don’t shoot her!” he yelled. He tried to position himself between Mary and Josh. Deputy Kline jumped out of his vehicle, as did several other sheriffs. All had weapons drawn on Mary.

“We’re not going to shoot your grandmother, Sean,” Josh yelled. “Back away!”

Sean did as he was instructed, and Josh pulled a weeping Mary from the truck. I slammed my eyes shut for a moment. I couldn’t bear to see the older woman manhandled and cuffed. I heard them read her rights to her, and her continued sobbing.
 

I rose to my feet, feeling rather idiotic for hiding in the bushes. Josh saw me out of the corner of his eye and shook his head. He did not seem angry that I had disobeyed his orders to leave the area.

Minerva, you should leave now,
Ben said.
I would not like to see Sean confront you. It would be most unpleasant if he knew you were the one who alerted the authorities regarding his grandmother.

I took Ben’s advice and hurried down the hill. No one, with the possible exception of Josh, saw me leave. I made my way back to my RV and slipped inside, dropping the loaf of bread on the kitchen counter, and sinking down onto the couch.

“I can’t believe it!” was all I could say. I shook my head. “I really can’t believe it!

I shall never again easily dismiss an elderly woman as harmless,
Ben said.

“I really didn’t even consider her seriously as a suspect,” I said. I drew my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs. “How awful for everyone. How awful for Sean. Poor Mary.”

You sympathize with Mistress Mary and her actions?

“Empathize maybe. If Sean was a fairly pleasant fellow before, there’s no evidence of it now. Mary seemed to think he was terribly scarred by the loss of his fiancée. If I loved someone and they were hurt, I might want to kill someone myself.”

Surely not!

I shrugged. “Maybe not. I don’t know. I just know I hate to see an old woman go to prison. Somehow, none of this is guaranteed to turn Sean back into the nice guy he apparently used to be.”

No, it is a pity. It seems that Mistress Mary found a poor solution to remedy her grandson’s grief.

I nodded.

And the handsome and charming Deputy Wilson came to the rescue!
 

“Yes, he did,” I said with a grin. “Quite dashing, don’t you think? Hopped out of his truck, weapon drawn, just like in the movies.”

Very dashing
, Ben said. I heard a slight mocking note in his voice, but then his tone changed and grew more serious.

He might make you a worthy husband, Minerva.

I gasped. “What?”

In addition to being handsome and charming, he is intelligent, can provide adequately for a wife, and appears to be quite taken with you.

“Ben!” I coughed and started to laugh. “No, no. I’m not looking for a husband. If anything, I’ve got one right here. Besides being bossy and a fun companion, you’re handsome, charming and intelligent.”

Ah! But I cannot provide adequately for you. I am, however, quite taken with you.

My cheeks burned.

“Ben! You’re such a flirt. Really!” I steered the conversation away from longings that might hurt too much.
 

Do not forget you are promised to dinner with Deputy Wilson.

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll be way too busy to remember that. Good thing I got a loaf of bread.”

My cell phone rang just then, and I pulled it out of my pocket.
 

Apparently, the good deputy is not too busy to remember your dinner engagement
, Ben said in an ironic tone.

I made a face into the air.

“Hello?”

“Hey there,” Josh said. “I know things are crazy right now, but we’re still on for dinner tonight, right?”

I blushed.

“Are you sure you’re not too busy, Josh? I’m so sorry about Mary.”

“Yeah, I gotta admit, I couldn’t believe it when I heard her confession over the phone. I never in a million years would have thought that old gal could toss a big guy off a cliff. I thought for sure Scott had killed his brother.”

“What’s going to happen to her?” I said with a sigh.

“Prison, I imagine. I feel for Sean. He’s taking it pretty hard.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.”

“Well, listen, I gotta get back to work. Sam took Mrs. Sanders in to book her, and we’ve got a ton of paperwork to do. But I’ll see you tonight.”