Single Elimination: A Cozy Mystery (Brenna Battle Book 4) (18 page)

“I’m sorry. I’ve been trying to get her done as fast as I can.”

“You know what’s on the line here, don’t you?”

I thought I saw a subtle change in the young man’s body language. A pause. A look on his face, of intense fear and disgust.

“She gave me a hard time,” the young man said. “There’s only so much I can do, by myself.”

“Some of them are tougher than others,” Gunter conceded.

The men carried the mysterious cargo into the studio, and I followed.

“Brenna! No!” Blythe mouthed.

But I had to. I had to see who was in there. They left the door open, and I waited just outside, standing against the outer wall. I peeked into the studio. Both men had their backs to me.

Gunter ripped the tarp aside with dramatic flair. Underneath it was a long, cloth-wrapped bundle with a distinctly human shape, tied to a board with bungee cords. Whatever was under there, it wasn’t moving.
Her.
She
wasn’t moving. The men started unhooking the bungee cords, and I stopped breathing. My chest ached. Where was Blythe? I couldn’t see her anymore. Had she called the police? Of course she would call. How long would it take them to get here? How long would it take Will? At least five minutes. I didn’t have five minutes. Whoever that was under there—if she was still alive—she didn’t have five minutes.

I had to act now. I could only take on one of them at a time. Which one was more dangerous? Gunter, or the younger guy? The stranger had youth on his side, but my money was on Gunter. Besides, his back was turned. He was closest to the door. I crouched, then pounced on him with all the spring I had left since my knee injury. I slipped my hands in and had the choke secure, my legs wrapped tightly around Gunter’s body, before he even knew what was happening.

“Let her go! Let the girl go!” I cried.

“Let who go?” the young man said.

“The girl.” I nodded to the table.

Gunter’s gurgling ceased. His body went slack. I let him drop to the ground. Sometimes people came to right away when a choke was released, but I’d had that one in deep, and I was counting on Gunter being wobbly on his feet and disoriented even once he did come around.

“There’s no one,” he stammered. “There’s no one there. Look, don’t hurt me. I’m just an art student.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I grabbed a chisel from a shelf on the wall. It was covered with plaster dust.
 

“It has everything to do with that!” He reached for the bundle on the table.

“Hands up!” I said. His hands shot up in the air. On the floor, Gunter twitched, then moaned. I switched the chisel to my left hand and swiftly undid the rest of the bungees. I tore off the cloth and revealed—something hard and cold. Plaster.

“See?” the young man’s voice was high, almost a whine. “It’s a sculpture. Who are you?”

“I’m undercover,” I said quickly. My head spun with a mix of relief and confusion. A sculpture. I’d just assaulted Gunter Hatton, renowned local artist, over a sculpture.

Which was exactly what you’d expect to find in a sculptor’s workshop. I took a step toward Gunter. He blinked at me. I almost started apologizing, checking to see if Gunter was okay. But something stopped me. This wasn’t right. My gut had told me Gunter was up to no good from the second I saw that text. And every move he and his little visitor had made tonight gave me the same impression.

“Of course it’s a sculpture,” I said, playing it cool. “A sculpture of a girl, right?”

“Well, yeah, a mermaid.”

“What are you going to do?” the young guy said, “Try to sell it on the black market? Good luck with that. It doesn’t even have Gunter’s signature on it yet.”

Gunter’s signature? Was Gunter’s art really that valuable? And if Gunter had made the sculpture, what was this guy doing with it? Gunter slowly raised himself into a sitting position. He started to fall over, then reached out and caught himself.
 

I grabbed a bungee cord. “Turn around,” I told the stranger. “Put your hands behind your back.”

I tied his hands securely, then took out my phone.

Gunter found his voice. “No. Don’t call them. I’ll pay you. Come on, Brenna. Who are we really hurting?”

“I’d say you’re hurting someone, or you wouldn’t have anything to hide, would you?”

The young guy said, “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t want any trouble.”

“She’s nobody.”

The young man muttered, “This wasn’t worth it. No one should die over this. I told Dalton—”

“Keep your mouth shut!” Gunter snapped.

“Nobody, Gunter? Nobody’s ready to hog-tie you and dial the cops.”

“Look, lady. It’s good work. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a gig where I actually get paid for what I’m good at? Making art? Gunter here hit it big. He found a big fan who loves his work and has been selling it overseas. They can’t get enough of it in Japan. They love the small-town artist angle. But Gunter can’t meet the demand.”

“So you make the artwork for him?”

“Some of it. Then he signs his name, ships it off to the foundry, who sends it to the buyer, and we both get paid. Like I said, we’re not hurting anyone.”

“Let it go, Brenna. We can go on like nothing happened. No hard feelings. The whole town doesn’t need to know you tried to choke me to death.”

“I didn’t—”

“You didn’t choke me unconscious and leave me for dead? That’s sure what it felt like to me. Isn’t that what it looked like to you, Aaron?”

“That’s exactly what it looked like to me.”

“That’s enough. If you two think you can bully me, then you have no idea who I am.” I turned on my phone to call Will, but I stopped halfway through.

A tall figure darkened the doorway, gun drawn.

27

“Freeze!”

I knew that voice. I loved that voice. Will was here, with Tony Pfeiffer. And I was glad, at least about Will. But at the same time, how was I going to explain this?

I put my hands up in the air, just like Gunter and Aaron. Better safe than sorry, even though these guys knew me. It was dark, and I wasn’t taking any chances. Besides, I wouldn’t put it past Tony Pfeiffer to shoot me in the rear or something.

“Where’s the victim?” Will said.

“There isn’t one.”

“What?”

“There is no victim.” I pointed at the table where the mermaid lay.

“A sculpture?” Will said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Pfeiffer guffawed at that. His little head bobbed on his skinny neck.

“Hey Tony, did anyone ever tell you you sound like a Muppet?” I snapped.

Will caught my eye for a split second. He gave his head the tiniest shake. Disapproval, or just disbelief? I gave a little, apologetic shrug.

“See, there’s no victim. Total false alarm,” Gunter said.

“Actually, there is a victim,” I said quickly. “Lots of them. Just not here. It’s not kidnapping or murder he’s involved in; it’s fraud.”

“It’s his name. He can sign it on what he wants!” Aaron said.

Gunter kicked him, still with his hands up. Not the smartest kid, this Aaron the Art Student.

“Arrest her!” Gunter pointed at me with one of his upraised hands. “She tried to kill me!”

“Re-a-a-a-ly?” Tony said, sounding intrigued.

“Um…don’t I have the right to remain silent?”

“See!” Aaron said. “She choked him. I’m a witness. If you let me off the hook for this fraud thing, I’ll testify.”

“I acted in defense of what I thought was a helpless woman. I didn’t think I had time to wait for the police. I didn’t know if she was still alive. She was all wrapped up.”

Tony moved toward me with a pair of cuffs. I looked to Will.
Rescue me! Please!

Will pushed Tony aside. “I’ll do it.”

What?

He did it. The man I loved cuffed me like a criminal. The cuffs snapped into place. That sound had such finality to it. I guess that’s what I deserved for putting him in this position. Why did all my idiotic ideas seem so right before I actually acted on them?
 

Will lingered close to me for a second, behind my back, his hands still on my wrists. “You’re killing me, Brenna,” he whispered.

“Look on the bright side,” I whispered back, “You get to frisk me.”

He turned me around and gave me a stony look. “Only so Tony doesn’t get the pleasure.”

Great.

We heard the sirens approaching. Gunter’s property was swarming with all five of Bonney Bay’s available officers. The fire department rushed in next, with a stretcher. Of course they’d sent an ambulance. As far as Blythe knew when she made that call, there was a woman under those tarps.

“No one’s hurt,” I said. Unless you counted my pride, which had been dealt a gushing mortal wound.

“Speak for yourself!” Gunter said. “I want to get checked out. I was unconscious just a minute ago, thanks to her.” Gunter nodded at me, his hands cuffed behind his back, courtesy of Tony.

Chief Sanders appeared in the doorway. He eyed me, standing next to Will, in cuffs. “What’s this, Riggins?”

“Just a misunderstanding.” I gave Chief a lame smile. I had a feeling I’d just tossed whatever respect I’d earned in Sanders’ eyes down the toilet. I was back to being a meddlesome idiot, or worse. A criminal.

Okay, so I’d done a little breaking and entering and other semi—and completely—illegal stuff in the name of justice. But physically hurting someone who hadn’t laid a hand on me…

I’d been warned since I was a teenager that the law could be especially harsh with people it deemed “martial arts experts” who committed assault. In some states, it counted as Assault with a Deadly Weapon.

Will summed up the situation for Sanders. Sanders shook his head at me. I could tell he felt pretty sorry for Will. Some smart people, even sharp, dedicated police officers, just didn’t know how to pick ’em when it came to the opposite sex.

“Let’s get this guy checked out.” He pointed at Gunter. “And then off to the station to join these two.”

These two. Me and Aaron, the art fraud.

“Brenna, I think you just mopped that same row of mats five times,” Blythe said.

“Huh?” I could barely function, let alone think or remember what I’d already mopped. It had been a real battle just getting up this morning. We were running late and our campers would be here soon, eager to start their day.

I’d spent an awkward hour or so in police custody before I was released and allowed to go home with Blythe last night. I hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk to Will. I didn’t even want to think about it right now. I just wanted to sleep.

Before I turned in for the night, I’d e-mailed Helen from the
Blaster
the scoop. Nothing about the investigation, just what I’d witnessed and heard myself. With the election a day away, we needed to make sure the public knew about Hatton’s fraudulent art scheme. Better to have him knocked out of the race at the last minute than have him get elected, than have Bonney Bay suffer through a second mayor turning out to be a criminal and getting removed from office.

Blythe and I were too spent to teach anything new, so after the kids arrived, we warmed them up and declared it a game day. As we supervised a noisy game of Bulldog, I asked Blythe, “Do you think this art thing has anything to do with the murder?”

“I don’t know. But the police will investigate it. They’ll find out.”

Right. The police. Not me. When was I going to learn that lesson?

“Do you think they’ll charge them both with fraud?” Blythe asked.

“Probably. I don’t know if it will stick or how severe the punishment will be if it does, though.”

“But Gunter’s campaign is over, that’s for sure.”

“I hope so,” I said. “I’ve never trusted him. A lot of people dismissed his bad character when it came to Millie. People think our character in our personal lives is different somehow. But now we have evidence that Gunter wasn’t just willing to cheat with another man’s wife; he was willing to cheat when it came to his art career, too. I feel kind of bad for the that kid Aaron, though. I know he’s just as guilty, but Gunter probably came to him with a very generous offer. He probably didn’t go looking to cheat like Gunter did.”

At noon, Blythe and I were in the dojo, going through our supplies and taking inventory now that camp was over. The bell on the studio door dinged, and Will entered and pushed it shut behind him with his foot. His hands were full with cold, whipped-cream-topped coffees. Blythe was closest to the door, and he offered one to her first. She gave him a grateful hug.

“Hi.” I forced the greeting over the lump in my throat.

Will gave me a tired smile. “Iced Raspberry mocha. I thought something different might perk you up.”

Will wanted to perk me up? That, in itself, perked me up. “Thank you.” I took a long drink and enjoyed the flood of sugar and caffeine. Ahh, the taste of love.

“Can we talk out back for a minute?” he said.

“Sure. Be right back, Bly.”

She waved me off, and Will and I went out the back door, to the parking lot.

“Before you say anything, Will, I’m sorry. I completely humiliated you.”

Will just looked at me for a second with his big brown eyes. A little smile played on his lips.

“What?” I demanded.

“You’re getting better at this apologizing thing.”

“Well, unfortunately I’m getting a lot of practice.”

“True. But actually, Chief Sanders thinks you’re pretty brave.”

“But stupid.”

“Well…”

“Will!”

“I don’t know what to think, Brenna. It makes me so mad when you pull stunts like that, but I know your heart’s in the right place, and I can’t deny you’ve helped solve every murder this town has had to deal with since you came here.” He paused, then said, “And when I think about it, I don’t know what I would’ve done, if I were you.”

“I’m still sorry.”

“And I still love you.”

“You do?”

“Of course.” He took the coffee out of my hand, set it down on the step, and put his arms around me. He kissed me for a long time, so soft and sweet.

“I kind of knew what I was getting into as far as your snooping goes before we ever had our first date, you know?”

“I guess so.” Yeah, I’d definitely gotten into a little trouble before the two of us were ever a thing.