Spooky Hijinks (25 page)

“Enough, Brian.”

“By all means, Rosco. This is your show, isn’t it?” I said with a sneer.

“You might know my name, but that’s about as close as you were to figuring out who I really am or that I’m ringleader of this theft ring.”

“Oh, I figured that out easily enough, and given more time, I’d have brought you down to your knees like we do all of the criminals we catch.”

“Here’s how it’s going to go. The Hill boys will shoot you, and then we’ll put a gun into your hands after you’re dead and have you kill them. The police will never find the guns we’re moving out tonight and will think that the Hills transported them already before you showed up and got into a gun battle with them. Case solved.” He laughed now until tears glistened in his eyes as he said, “We were able to move a large amount of guns without the ATF ever catching up to us.”

“What about Megan and Robert?”

“It’s too bad about you and your girlfriend, Robert, but you both have to go. I’ll dispose of your bodies in the middle of Lake Huron.”

Robert threw a protective arm around Megan now. “That wasn’t part of the plan. You said we’d both be able to leave safely.”

“I don’t think so. I’m not about to trust a kid and his girlfriend.”

“Seems like Robert’s been a big help to you, so why kill him? And Megan did what she was told. She’d be useful in the next town.”

“You’ll have to kill me first because I won’t allow you to harm Megan.” Robert turned to me and said, “His name is Rosco Miller, and he’s my dad.”

“But I heard your father left your mother when she was pregnant with you? Why would your mother ever be around him?”

“She’s been in love with me ever since I knocked her up, and she was more than willing to allow me back into her life. She didn’t care all that much that Robert took part in our scheme, either. Not as long as it benefited her with expensive items.”

“Like the curved television. You killed her to keep her quiet, then?”

“She knew too much about me, and it would have been a matter of time before she talked, especially when her son never came home.”

“You bastard,” Robert shouted. “You promised me my mother wouldn’t be harmed.”

“Can’t you see Rosco is just scum?” I said. “He played you both.”

Curtis and Curt’s faces were tight, and they motioned to the stair with their eyes. Suddenly, Curtis stumbled sideways and slammed his body into Rosco, who lurched to the side, his gun going off. Robert was hit and was on the ground now with a wound to his shoulder.

As Rosco made a move to shoot Curt, Curtis jumped in front of him, head-butting him. I reached forward to catch the gun before it hit the floor, just as Stuart and several federal agents burst into the basement. I quickly told them what Rosco had planned in regards to the guns, pointing out the injured Robert on the floor and Megan, who was hiding in the shadows. “Rosco was planning to murder those kids.”

“We need to stop them from handing over the guns. I’m sure they’re trying to move them by way of the lake,” Eleanor said.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ve handled it.”

Rosco’s pupils dilated as he was slammed to the floor and cuffed. “No, that’s not possible.”

Curt and Curtis were untied, and Curtis knocked Brian to the ground. “So you’re the mole? I knew someone had to have been funneling information to those crooks, but I can’t believe you’d do that to us, brother.”

Brian put his hands up, screaming, “Make him stop.”

Stuart said, “Hurry up and get in a few more punches, Curtis. We need to cuff him, too.”

Brian squealed as Curtis raced forward, planting a knee in Brian’s midsection, then landing the last blow to Brian’s nose. “That one was for setting us up. Because of you, Curt was shot.”

Two federal agents came forward and cuffed Brian. “Looks like you’re going to be popular in prison. A militia member who went against one of his own. Nice.”

Eleanor and I went up the stairs, making way for the deck of the house, where I just knew something was going down. Harvey Smith and several other men were taking guns off a boat as federal agents were cuffing several other men.

“It’s about time,” Curt said, joining us. “We were going to be goners if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”

“They kept you just so you could kill us?” Eleanor asked.

“We’d be dead all right, but I don’t think they planned to kill you until you kept poking into the investigation,” Curtis said. “We were the fall guys. Our bodies would have been found to look like a gun deal gone bad, or that’s what we were told. I was surprised when you girls showed up.”

“What’s Harvey doing?” Curt asked.

“He’s working with the feds,” I said.

Harvey made his way over to us. “We received a tip from an informant that something was brewing in the Tawas area. This group has been doing this all along Lake Huron, changing towns. They targeted areas where militia groups are, robbing individual members that they knew had huge stockpiles of guns. He used his past relationship with Vivian for his crime spree.”

I frowned. “And she went along willingly, until they decided to kill her. If I hadn’t taken those guns from her house that day, she might still be alive.”

“She isn’t quite so brave when Rosco’s not around,” Harvey said.

I shook my head sadly. “She didn’t have a bit of sympathy for her son’s involvement. What kind of mother would do that, allow her son to get mixed up with something like this?”

“Not a good one, apparently, but since he’s a minor, he won’t be serving a long sentence,” Harvey said.

“I still can’t believe that Robert got Megan involved.”

“I know, and she’s lucky you came here when you did.”

“When we were lured here, don’t you mean?”

“She was forced to, according to her mother. They made Robert look like a captive the entire time, until you showed up.”

“What about Tonya?”

Tonya came running out of the house with an agent hot on her heels. He grabbed her, and she fell to the ground, kicking and screaming. “You can’t do this to me. I swear I didn’t know what was going on here!”

“That’s not true,” Megan said as she came out, crying. “You made me think Robert would be released after the deal went down. Rosco planned to kill me all along.”

“No, he wouldn’t do that. He promised me that we’d all move to Florida with the money he made with the deal.”

“He lied, of course. I bet he sweet-talked you, too,” I said.

“No, he loved me,” she cried as she was hauled off the ground and cuffed.

“What about the others involved?” I asked.

“The Coast Guard rounded them up. Gang members from the Detroit area,” Harvey said.

“Wow, stealing guns and selling them to a gang. This seems so surreal, and right here in Tawas, of all places.”

“You’d be surprised. This happens more than you think. At least now we know that those guns aren’t in the streets, and we can get them back to their rightful owners now.”

“I don’t suppose we’ll get our guns back,” Curtis said.

“Since you’re both felons and prohibited from owning guns, I think you should be feeling fortunate that we’re not charging you,” Stuart replied.

Curt and Curtis grumbled, but they nodded, since that’s all they could really do. I personally didn’t like the fact that Eleanor and I were actually targeted for our investigating. We’d never have had our wedding date if those men had had their way, and that would have been sad indeed. Eleanor and I would have died single women.

“Can we leave now?” I asked. “We don’t know anything other than the fact that Megan called us here to be murdered, but I can see how she was also manipulated to do it. I just wish she had told us what was happening when we were here the first time, questioning her.”

“But I did mention a man with a dragon tattoo on his face,” Megan said.

“That’s like a needle in a haystack.”

Her shoulders slumped forward. “I know, but that’s all I could do. At the time, Robert was held elsewhere, and I didn’t know where. Can’t you see that I had to wait until it all played out?”

“I hope this is a lesson to you. Never trust a man, especially if he’s involved with unsavory people.”

“He told me he wasn’t doing anything illegal. He promised me that he wasn’t or I’d have never befriended him the way I did.” She pouted for a minute. “But I’ll sure take your advice.”

“Who will you live with now?”

“My grandparents. They’ve wanted me to stay with them for a while now. At the time, it had more to do with the fact that they don’t care for my mother. They think she makes bad decisions and gets involved with lowlifes. Seems like that’s how it turned out.”

“I’m sorry, baby. I swear all I ever wanted was to make your life better. I hoped after this deal we’d be able to start over,” Tonya said.

“Except with Rosco, it wouldn’t be good no matter where you went,” I insisted.

Eleanor and I left just as the horizon had begun to show across the lake. I had no idea we’d been called out in the middle of the night. All I knew was that I was exhausted, and luckily, Eleanor and I had dodged the bullet, yet again.

Stuart walked us to our car. “For what it’s worth, your tip about the neighbors panned out. They were able to describe the man with the tattoo enough so that we were able to locate him here, since you also found out his first name was Rosco.”

“But didn’t Harvey already do that, know where this was going down?”

“He knew the guns were going to be moved tonight, but not about the man with the tattoo. Things came together fairly quickly after we were able to connect Vivian to Rosco, and then tracked him to a specific location. Apparently, Vivian had her last name changed to Miller after her son was born so it was much easier to track Rosco that way.”

“Thanks, Stuart. We make a good team.”

Eleanor and I wearily got into the car now, and as I drove back to the mansion, I was happy just to be alive. And also happy that the Hill boys hadn’t been killed. After all, they were good boys.

* * *

After Eleanor I were rested from our ordeal, we were seated in the dining room with Andrew and Mr. Wilson. I had explained how an attempt to hush us up had been executed, but also about how it went awry, thankfully. And, well, the conclusion of yet another case.

“So that’s it, then. You can finally concentrate on our wedding. You do know that it’s tomorrow, right?”

I had almost forgotten what day it was. “Yes, today is Christmas Eve. Martha is free to leave the lighthouse, and Eleanor and I will be staying there tonight. That way we won’t have to make a mad rush there on our wedding day.”

“You girls need to be more careful,” Mr. Wilson said as he wrapped an arm around Eleanor. “I almost lost my Peaches.”

“We plan to be, really.”

“Then why would you head out in the dead of night? You should have called the police and called it a day,” Andrew said.

“We called Stuart en route.”

“I hope this is a lesson for the both of you. Stand down until the cops show up.”

“Or better yet, let them handle it. It’s their job, not yours,” Mr. Wilson added.

“Let’s not get so worked up about this. It’s over now.”

Martha came rushing through the door. “I just heard. It’s all everyone in Tawas is talking about now, how you brought down the gun traffickers.”

“Not really. There was a federal investigation going on.”

“That’s not how I heard it. I’m so proud of you, Mother. It’s great that they didn’t murder you and that dim-witted friend of yours.”

“Of all the nerve,” Eleanor said. “Neither of us fit that description.”

We all laughed, and I tried to change the subject. “Are you going to help us settle in at the lighthouse?”

“No, you’ll be just fine.” She handed me a key. “This only works for the side door. I just got off the phone with your friends, and they’ll meet you there with your dresses. So you better get moving.”

“But I thought you were planning to help out?”

Martha shrugged. “I know, but when have I ever been counted on before?”

That sure was the truth, and she had been stuck at the lighthouse for an entire week. At least she had agreed to walk us down the aisle for our wedding so I let it drop.

I kissed Andrew on the cheek. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I hope so, unless you plan to get into more trouble today. I wouldn’t put it past the two of you.”

Eleanor gave Mr. Wilson a peck, and we were off. We had collected our belongings earlier in the day and packed our suitcases. Martha and Millicent helped load our suitcases and carried them to the car. While they were gone, I called Caroline and Malcolm. “Caroline, you can’t show up until tomorrow, but Malcolm, we need you to come along with us to the lighthouse so we can introduce you to Blanche.”

“I’m not so sure,” he began, leaning against the sofa. “What if she doesn’t like me?”

Seriously, why were these ghosts so worried about if another ghost would like them or not? It sounded so strange, but I guess the undead aren’t much different than the living.

Eleanor and I were soon going down the road in the direction of the lighthouse. Before we headed out, Martha told us about the guests she had confirmed would be attending our wedding from out of town. I was glad to hear that the flamboyant Mrs. Peacock and Mrs. Canary were to show up with the cranky Mrs. Barry from the thumb area of Michigan, along with Kimberly Steele and her husband, Jeremy, who had welcomed a new baby not long ago. I didn’t even know if it was a boy or girl. We also expected Eleanor’s sister, Margarita, and those crazy girls from Louisiana, Tammy and Dixie, who moved up to Bear Paw to help Margarita with her failing restaurant that was now quite the hit. Yes, we expected quite the crowd at our wedding.

Malcolm was looking out the window as we drove. “I bet it’s cold out today, is it? I haven’t felt cold since I died.”

“Freezing. I do really hope this works out with you and Blanche, and it’s not like you have to stay at the lighthouse, unless you really want to. I just thought it might give you something to do instead of getting so cross with Caroline and Niles all the time.”

“That was the woman I planned to marry.”

“Yes, and the same one you ran down. It’s time for you to forget about it and wile away your hours with someone who wouldn’t mind having you around. I mean—”