Teased to Death (Misty Newman 1) (20 page)

Sarah barked a laugh. "What do you know about Anthony?"

"Not a whole lot, which is why I am
clueless
as to why you pinned his murder on me," I said, pushing a stray hair back from my face.

"It was too easy. Much too easy, Misty. Plus, you always hated me. I needed someone to blame, and you were it. Really, don't take it too personally."

"You've always been psycho! Ever since kindergarten," I said, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

"And you've always been pretty and smart and successful. How about leaving the rest of us something to do well at?" Sarah retorted.

"What?" I gaped at her. "You're
jealous
of me?"

"Not anymore, ironically. Which was an unplanned bonus of this whole debacle. Enough talk. I don't want to kill you out here. People might hear. Walk back toward the garage, and if you move a muscle, I'll shoot."

I scanned the path for anything I could use against Sarah. A stick, a spare shovel, a leftover ball from a neighbor kid. But there was nothing. Her yard was immaculate. Almost as if she was prepared for the situation.

"Press the button," she said, gesturing next to the garage door. "The big one. Anything funny, you move a muscle, and you're dead."

I pressed the button. Sarah stayed just far enough behind me so that I couldn't lash out at her with a foot or swing an elbow. She was good. She was careful. She was calculating. And she didn't seem to be taking any stupid risks, which was probably how she'd gotten this far without getting caught in the first place.

My stomach jolted a few notches. I didn't have a good feeling about how this would end. As the garage door opened, I wasn't sure what to expect.
Dead bodies? Mrs. Jenkins?
Though I hadn't known what to expect, I'd expected
something.
Not the barren room before me. There was nothing in the garage. Not a car, not a shelf—nothing. With the exception of a suitcase and a small purse in the corner, the place was spotless and empty.

"Going somewhere?" I asked.

"Might take a sunny vacation for a bit when all this is over. I really can't stand any more of Jax's
nagging
. Commitment this, commitment that…but then again, you and I—we have that in common, don't we?" She smiled. "You ran away from him too. Poor Jax. Will the guy ever learn?"

She crooked an eyebrow, which served to turn some of the fear in my stomach into anger. Jax didn't deserve this. Not now, not ever. He was a good guy. I couldn't let Sarah get away, leaving Jax to wonder what he'd done wrong again. I wouldn't let that happen.

"You're evil," I said.

"Yeah, yeah." She rolled her eyes. "You were always Miss Mother Theresa, weren't you? I was quite surprised when you came back as a stripper with purple hair."

"It's
ombré
," I said. "And I'm not a stripper. You should know that. You took my class."

"Enough chitchat. I'm getting bored, and I've got a flight to catch." Sarah raised the gun and glanced at me. Her finger crooked back.

"Wait." I called out. "Tell me one thing."

Sarah's finger relaxed. "What?"

"Why did you do it? Why kill Anthony and blame me?"

"You really haven't put it together?" Sarah's hand remained steady.

"Some of it…" I paused.

But obviously Sarah didn't want to indulge me, judging by her twitching trigger finger.

I took that as my cue to start talking before Sarah shut me up permanently. "Let me guess, then. You moved back here from somewhere—you mentioned you went to San Diego. Did you live there?"

Sarah's expression was somewhat less than mildly amused, but she didn't comment. A lightbulb clicked on in my head.

"You got into the whole cosplay thing in San Diego. Then when you moved back here. Maybe you missed it, or maybe you needed extra cash…or something," I said, gaining steam as Sarah's eyebrow lifted. "Then, for whatever reason, you found out about the underground comic shop in Little Lake."

"Pretty good, actually. In fact, I met Anthony in San Diego. He mentioned that if I ever moved back, he had an opportunity for me in Little Lake. Good money, easy hours, fun job," she said. "I was pretty bored of traveling around by that time, and I wanted to buy a house. So I came back."

"But you didn't have a job, so you took up Anthony's offer for some quick cash," I added. "And then it turned out to be more than you bargained for. It started as innocent costume stuff, but Anthony wanted more. Did he pay you to sleep with him?"

"I'm not a
prostitute
." Sarah's eyes flamed. "I loved him. Shut your mouth, Misty. I don't ever want to hear you say that again. I loved Anthony, and he loved me."

"But apparently he didn't love you enough to leave his wife for you." I pressed onward, mostly because Sarah seemed to have forgotten about the gun in her anger, and it drooped to point at my midsection. I could maybe survive if the gun went off at that angle.

"He was
going
to leave her." Sarah looked a bit uncomfortable. "He kept promising me."

"But you gave him an ultimatum?" I asked.

"He waited too long! It wasn't my fault. He got the inheritance, and he was going to have to split it with the old witch because he didn't leave her in time. That money was supposed to be for me and Anthony. We were going to go away to San Diego, or the Bahamas—someplace warm. Because we loved each other."

"He wasn't going to go," I said quietly. "You realized it. And he wasn't going to give you his money."

Sarah raised the gun. "That's right, asshole. People aren't who you think they are. Ask Jax. I'll bet he was surprised when you left him ten years ago. Really broke his heart, you know. He still talks about it. Cries, even. Embarrassing for a grown man."

I leapt forward. I didn't care about the gun. The feeling of hatred inside me had been bubbling up ever since I'd seen Sarah again, latent after years and years gone past, back to when she'd stolen my tooth at the tender age of five. I guess she'd just been born a bad apple.

But now, the rate at which my anger increased had gone up exponentially since we'd entered the garage, and I wanted to grab her, shake her until she was scared and breathless, until she said she was sorry for hurting Jax, and for killing the Jenkinses, and for ruining my studio.

Her eyes widened, but before I could get to her, there was a shot.

I crashed into Sarah, the gun clattering to the ground as her hand flew to the side of her head.

"Ow, goddamn it! I'm shot!" Sarah wrestled me off her, but I had years of resentment built up inside, and I pinned her to the ground. I kicked the gun out of reach, wondering who in the heck had shot at Sarah. And if it had been a bullet, why she wasn't dead.

A noise in the bushes drew my attention, and I looked up to see Donna walking toward me holding Harmony's BB gun.

"Donna!" I said. "What are you doing?"

She gave a sheepish smile. "I didn't trust you not to go in, so I drove home and called the station. I explained quickly to Jax and Nathan everything they needed to know, and then I came right back here. This was the only thing I could find," she said, raising the BB gun. "I don't allow guns in the house, and you'd brought this over with Harmony yesterday."

"I'm buying you two steaks," I said. "You're a rock star."

"Bitch, that hurt," Sarah said, still struggling to throw me off of her.

I concentrated my efforts on keeping her down. Donna gave her another shot, this time to the thigh.

"The next one is in your eyeball," Donna said. "So don't move. And I have a few questions myself."

"You do?" I asked.

"You bet I do," Donna said, looking none too happy. "Sarah, did you steal my sunflowers? I left those for Misty. But when I stopped by Jax's place and ran into Sarah, I saw some looking suspiciously like them sitting on his kitchen table."

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Did you?" Donna pressed.

"Yes, fine. It was too easy to pin it on that creep, Alfie."

"Alfie didn't have the sunflowers in his backpack when he left that day?" I asked. "I assumed he did."

"It was probably his stupid costume in the bag," Sarah said. "He carried that thing everywhere."

"What about the break-in at my house? Did you get someone to do that?" I asked.

"No, that was all me. I took Jax's cop car. He didn't even notice, and again, Alfie was too easy," Sarah said. "The people in this town make it
so
easy to commit a crime!"

"It was you that called the station and tipped off the cops after class, and the first phone call about Mr. Jenkins's body—that was you, too, wasn't it?" I asked, things slowly falling into place. "I thought it was nosy Barbara who called after class, spilling her guts about Mrs. Jenkins's odd comments. And it was
you
I passed on the day my studio was vandalized." I shook my head. "And when you broke into my house, was it to steal another stocking?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Very good. A-plus as usual. Still the straight A student you were all your life, except now it doesn't matter anymore."

"Did you kill Mrs. Jenkins with the stocking?" I asked.

"I didn't kill her. At least…she's not dead yet. Unlike Anthony. All it took for that man was a tiny bit of seduction, and he was all mine…" Sarah winced as Donna prodded her with the tip of the BB gun.

I stood up and jabbed a foot into Sarah's back. "Where is she?"

"I'm not saying. She'll be dead soon anyway. And I have full confidence you'll find her in the very near future," Sarah said.

"Where is she?" I jabbed my foot again.

Sarah frowned but didn't break down. "It was a shame, really. All that effort to break into your house, and I barely got to use the stocking. In fact, Mrs. Jenkins had a lot more fight left in her than Anthony."

My stomach churned at how easily Sarah could describe killing people. Her voice didn't waver. Her eyes didn't flicker with regret—there was simply nothing. She could've been describing the chemical makeup of a rock, and her tone would've been fitting.

"You're gonna be spending your life in prison," a voice said from behind the garage. "So you might as well do it with two eyes. You have three seconds to tell us where Mrs. Jenkins is being held, or else I'm turning around while Donna carries out her promise to aim for your eyeballs," Jax said, his voice flat.

I turned and made eye contact with Jax, who must have been hiding behind the garage. He emerged from the side walkway, holding a gun out in front of him, a mask of stone covering his features.

"Jax," Sarah said. "These women—"

"Don't start. I've heard everything."

"Everything?" I asked, wincing a bit, remembering the bits about me sticking up for Jax, defending him, all the lovey-dovey stuff. I couldn't remember all of what had been said aloud, and what I'd kept to myself. The moment was already a blur of emotions, nerves, and adrenaline.

"Everything. There's time to discuss
that
later." Jax's tone was final. He held the gun close to his former lover's head. "Right now I'm waiting to hear where you've left Mrs. Jenkins."

Sarah's mouth remained shut. "Jax, you wouldn't."

"Donna, I'm turning around now. I encourage you to
not
shoot Sarah in the face, but if you miss her thigh, there's not much I can do about it." Jax nodded at me. "You're a witness, right? You'll back me up that Donna's aim is terrible, and she
accidentally
shot Sarah in the eyeball in self-defense?"

I nodded. "Donna's life was definitely in danger. It's completely self-defense."

"I've been waiting for action like this forever." Donna lifted the gun, her finger on the trigger, balancing sights and taking aim.

"Wait. Fine." Sarah squinted. "The studio. She's in your studio."

"My studio?" I asked. "Seriously, haven't you done enough to it?"

"She's done enough forever," Jax said. Speaking to the back of the garage, Jax continued. "Guys…bring her in. I'm headed over to the studio to get Mrs. Jenkins."

"I'm coming too," I said, glancing around to see how many other cops had been waiting out back.

"Me too." Donna let the BB gun fall to her side.

"No, Donna, you've seen enough. You've helped more than I could've asked for. Just go home to your kids. I'll let you know what we find," I said.

Donna looked as if she were about to refuse flat out, but she glanced down at the BB gun and paused. "Alec was coughing…I should probably see how he's doing."

"Go. Thank you for everything. Go to your kids." I gave Donna a hug. "You've saved my life enough times today—I promise. There'll be plenty more opportunities for life-saving later."

"The kids are with the neighbor now. She was more than happy to help out," Nathan added. "Don't worry, you've got a bit of time."

"It was my pleasure. Plus, I really wanted a steak. You owe me one." Donna smiled, kissed me on one cheek, and then moved over to where her husband held down Sarah.