Murder and Salutations (Book 3 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) (28 page)

I started for the door, and Kaye asked,
“Where do you think you’re going?”

“
I’m getting Bradford,” I
said. “Don’t leave until he gets here.”

She laughed in such an odd way that it made
me look closely at her. I don’t know why I was so surprised, but
Kaye had a gun pointed at me.

I couldn’t believe the woman’s audacity. She
really was out of her mind. “What I don’t understand is why you had
to kill Bailey? Did he see something he shouldn’t have?”

Kaye shook her head. “He denied it, but I
know he saw me stab that witch. I couldn’t let him turn me in,
could I?”

“
I don’t understand why he
didn’t just call Bradford if he knew something.”

Kaye gave me a smile, but it was devoid of
warmth or pleasure. “I told him I’d kill Sara Lynn if he whispered
a word about what he’d seen, and then the fool went and told you on
the loading dock. I can’t believe I missed. I had you both in my
sights.”

“
He never told me anything
that night,” I said.

“
Why should I believe
you?”

I stared at her, and said, “Why should I
lie?”

“
My mistake, then,” she said
as she appeared to take it in. “You know it all now, though. Sorry,
but that means that you’ve got to die

“
Kaye, do you honestly think
you can get away with killing me now?”

She narrowed her eyes, then said, “Jennifer,
you came in here today to rob me, and I had to defend myself. Your
business can’t be doing that well. I’m willing to bet I can get the
state police to believe it, and after I have them on my side, your
brother won’t have any choice but to go along with their
conclusions,”

There was a wild look in
her eyes that shook me to the core. I had to find a way through her
fog so she’d know how delusional she was. “There is no way on earth
that anyone is going to buy that, especially my
brother. I had to wonder if the woman truly was
insane.

She appeared to consider it for a few
seconds, then asked, “Okay, if that’s no good, how about this? Yon
came in to chat and I was cleaning my revolver by the counter. You
wanted to see it, and it accidentally went off as I handed it to
you. Those things happen all the time. I’ll be able to sell that
story to your brother, once I have it staged.”

And knowing her, she just might be able to
pull it off. I only had one chance, and I had to take it quickly
before she squeezed that trigger. I knocked over a display with my
foot, and as her crazed glare shifted toward it, I picked up a
large bottle of perfume off the counter and threw it at her. As
Kaye ducked, I dove behind one of the aisles as a bullet shattered
a vase near my head,

“
There goes your accident
theory,” I shouted. “You might as well give up now. You’re not
getting away with it.”

The gun barked again, and a lamp exploded
into a thousand pieces, stinging my face and my right arm with
shrapnel.

“
I don’t care what it looks
like now” she screamed. I just want you dead.”

From the back of the store, we both heard a
voice say, “Drop it, Kaye.”

It was Thad. I looked back to see Kay’s
husband with a gun of his own trained on her. Instead of doing as
she was told, she shifted her aim and shot at him instead. Thad
staggered back, but not before he got off a shot of his own. My
ears were ringing from the gunfire in the small store as I saw Kaye
fall back against the counter. The smell of spent gunpowder was
heavy in the air, and there was a haze that stung my eyes.

The thing that struck me the most was that
Kaye had the oddest expression on her face as she was hit, as if
she couldn’t believe her browbeaten husband had actually had the
nerve to shoot back. He’d done a good job of it, too. I glanced at
Kayo’s motionless form. There was nothing I could do for her. I
dialed 911, and told Bradford’s dispatcher that there had been a
shooting, and that they needed to send an ambulance to the
drugstore. The daft woman on the line was still asking me questions
as I throw the telephone down and raced back to Thad. He’d been hit
in the shoulder, and his face was milky white.

“
How is she? Did I hit
her?”

“
Don’t worry about that
right now,” I said, “You’re bleeding.”

“
There’s gauze over there,”
he said as he gestured to the first-aid aisle. I grabbed a roll,
ripped off the wrapping, and handed it to him. As Thad pressed it
to his shoulder, he said, “What do you know. Having a drugstore
finally came in handy.”

He tried to get up, but I wouldn’t let him.
“Jennifer, I need to make sure she’s all right.”

“
She’s not going anywhere,”
I said. “And you shouldn’t move.”

He must have seen something in my eyes,
because he started to cry. “I love her. I know I shouldn’t, but I
do. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that she wanted me for
anything besides money. I never should have tricked her into
thinking I had any, but I wanted to marry her more than anything
else in the world. I didn’t have any choice, Jennifer. I had to
shoot her. She was going to kill you.”

“
You did the right thing,” I
said as I stroked his hand. By the time Bradford got there, we were
both crying. I wasn’t sure why I was so openly weeping. Probably an
aftereffect of being shot at.

Bradford asked softly, “Jennifer, are you
hurt?”

“
No, I’m fine,” I
said.

“
You’ve got blood on your
arm,” he said.

I looked down and saw that one of the pieces
of lamp must have cut me. “It’s nothing. Is the ambulance on its
way?”

“
It’s right behind me,” he
said. “What happened?”

“
Let’s get him taken care
of, then I’ll tell you.”

“
I wish I could do it that
way, I honestly do,” my brother said. “But I need to know right
no

Thad said, “It’s all right. I’ll tell him.
My wife killed Eliza and Bailey. She was trying to kill Jennifer,
too, so I had to shoot her.” Then he started sobbing again.

“
Is that the truth?”
Bradford asked.

“
Every bit of it,” I said.
“He saved my life.”

My brother squeezed Thad’s hand. “Thank
you.”

All Thad could manage was a nod, his eyes
still staring ahead. It was almost as if he could see his wife’s
body, though she wasn’t visible from where we were. The paramedics
came, and soon had him on his way, strapped onto the same gurney
I’d ridden on before.

One of them looked at me, and asked, “Are
you all right?”

“
It’s just a scratch,” I
said.

“
Don’t worry,” Bradford
said, “I’ll take her to the hospital myself.”

“
It’s not that bad.” I said,
though I doubted anyone heard me.

There was a scream as they took Thad past
Kaye’s body, and then there was nothing but silence.

Finally, Bradford said, “Let’s get you to
the hospital. On the way, you can tell me why this all
happened.”

“
What about
Kaye?”

Bradford shook his head. “I don’t doubt the
shot killed her instantly. Jody and Hank are out front. Nobody’s
going to disturb the scene while I’m gone.”

I grabbed another roll of gauze and dabbed
at my arm. “It’s barely a scratch. You need to be here. I can take
myself to the hospital.”

“
I don’t think so,” he said,
obviously reluctant to leave the crime scene. Bradford called out
to Jody and Hank. “I need one of you to take my sister to the
hospital.”

I was surprised when Hank said, “I’ll do
it.”

“
I want Jody,” I said in a
whisper.

“
Tough, I need him here.
Don’t worry; Hank’s a good guy once you get to know
him.”

“
Fine,” I said. My arm was
starting to sting a little, and I wondered if the shock was just
starting to wear off, or if it was finally setting in.

“
I’ll be there soon,”
Bradford said. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“
Where would I
go?”

I averted my eyes as I walked past Kaye’s
body. It was only partly because I felt squeamish, but mostly it
was because I didn’t ever again want to look at the: woman who had
widowed my sister. She was a killer twice over, and as far as I was
concerned, she’d gotten exactly what she’d deserved.

I needed four stitches for the cut on my
arm. At least my wrist was feeling better. Bradford walked into the
exam room just as they were finishing up with me. To my surprise,
Lillian was right behind him.

She hugged me, then said, “What did I tell
you about going off on your own?”

“
I forgot all about it,” I
admitted. “Sorry.”

Bradford said, “I hate to break this up, but
I need to interview my witness.”

“
Go right ahead,” I said.
“I’m ready to talk about it now.”

Bradford turned and looked at Lillian, but
before my brother could say a word, she said, “If you think I’m
leaving, you’re insane.”

‘
This is official police
business,” Bradford said.

I interrupted him. “Could she stay here if
she promises to keep quiet? I don’t want to have to tell this more
than once.”

‘
Then wait for me,” Sara
Lynn said as she walked in. “I need to hear this, too.”

Bradford clouded up for a second, but he
finally said, “I give up. You two can listen, but not a word out of
either one of you, I expect your promises.”

After they both pledged their solemn oaths,
Bradford looked at me, and said, “Go ahead.”

“
Do you want to hear what
happened, or how I figured it out?” I asked,

“
Why don’t you start with
your reasoning, and I’ll interrupt if I have to. And Jennifer, make
it as succinct as you can,”

I looked at him and said, “Kaye Jansen
killed Eliza and Bailey, then tried to kill me. Thad shot her
before she could do that, though.”

He shook his head. “I know that much.”

“
You said to be brief,” I
reminded him.

“
Okay, then,” he said as he
ran a hand through his hair. “Let’s hear the long
version.”

“
Kaye was cheating her
father-in-law by falsifying the books and failing to ring up sales.
Eliza must have caught her doing it while she was working on her
fraud, and gave Kaye time to make restitution. She started stealing
from the store to make up the money, and Eliza probably called her
on it. Kaye killed Eliza, and for some reason she thought Bailey
witnessed it. Maybe she saw him leaving, or just thought she did. I
don’t suppose we’ll ever know. Anyway, for whatever reason, Kaye
tracked Bailey down, found him at Whispering Oak, then she killed
him.” I glanced over at Sara Lynn, but she looked like she was
taking the news as well as could be expected. “Kaye thought I was
upstairs, so she started the fire to take care of both of us. When
I confronted Kaye about the theft, she tried to kill me, then Thad
stepped in.”

“
But how did you know she’d
been stealing?” Lillian asked, then immediately clapped a hand over
her mouth.

Bradford didn’t say a word, so I answered.
“She was wearing a diamond necklace when she came to ask me for
money, and Kaye was always complaining about how little money she
had. Then when I went by to talk to her one day, I noticed that she
failed to ring up a sale, and a pretty large one, at that.”

“
That wasn’t much to go on,”
Bradford said.

“
I know it wouldn’t be
enough to bring to you, but it was good enough for me. I honestly
never thought Kaye would try to shoot me.”

“
No, why would you think
that?” Bradford asked. “After all, she’d just managed to kill two
other people to hide her secret. What on earth made you think she’d
stop with two?”

“
I just didn’t think, I
guess,” I said.

Sara Lynn stepped up and hugged me. “Thank
you, Jennifer.”

“
I didn’t really do
anything,” I said.

“
You found my husband’s
killer,” she said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a funeral to
plan.” And then Sara Lynn broke down. I’d never heard her cry so
fiercely. A doctor poked his head through the curtain as Bradford
wrapped her up in his arms. He waved the doctor away as Lillian and
I joined them in a familial embrace. It was time to mourn, now that
Sara Lynn knew the truth, and we’d do the best we could to help her
through it. After all, when it came down to it, that was what
family really was all about.

CARD-MAKING TIPS

One of the techniques mentioned in this book
is quilling. It’s amazing what you can do with a quilling needle,
some paper and your imagination. By wrapping thin strips of paper
tightly and then manipulating them, you can easily make circles,
ovals and many other shapes. Besides creating the three-dimensional
flowers and hearts that Jennifer and Lillian make in this book, you
can fabricate wreaths, balloons, clouds or even automobile tires!
You can cut your own strips, but it gets tedious, and besides, most
craft stores sell precut, multicolored strips ready to work
with.

Have fun, and don’t be afraid to experiment.
That’s one of the real advantages of card making. Most of the
supplies are inexpensive enough to play with, and some of my
favorite techniques and designs have come about because I achieved
different results from what I was originally trying to create.