Your Goose Is Cooked (A LaTisha Barnhart Mystery) (29 page)

My eyes scanned her hard. She was still, eyes flicking.
Scanning behind me.

I smiled. That’s when she made a quick move into her trunk. In a second, a gun was trained on me.

That’s when Hardy broke through the hedge, hollering like a man on fire. I threw my elbow into Flossie’s stomach, clamped onto her wrist and squeezed until she dropped the gun. Hardy, steamrolling toward us, made a flying leap onto Flossie and taking her to the ground. I straightened in time to see Chief round the corner, his gun out and aimed at Flossie.

“I’ve got her, Hardy,” Chief announced.

Flossie let out the scream of a banshee and broke down into sobs.

“He told me he didn’t love me.” Her words slid out. Chief got her on her feet and took control of her. Mac got there seconds later.

Hardy crept up beside me and tucked his head under my chin. “No way was I going to let her shoot you.”

I spread my hand on his back and pulled him close. “You sounded like some maniac tearing out of those shrubs.”

He raised his head. “Nah, I’m your hero.”

I kissed his head. “You’ve got a mighty fine motor under that hood, Hero.
Mighty fine.”

Epilogue

Betsy had suspected something between Flossie and Aidan. She confessed to inflating fees, hoping George and Elizabeth would be her next victims. She also admitted to being infatuated with George, dreaming of running away from Maple
Gap,
and trying to coax him into leaving Elizabeth.

To her credit, she got worried about Eugene when Eddie and Roger started putting pressure on him to get rid of Molly. Betsy made the call to Michael
Nooseman
, knowing he would contact the chief. The warning that went to the Denver reporter was after Eddie and Roger had lured her into making the call, playing up the idea as a great boost to Eugene’s campaign since it would gain him sympathy votes. They had planned to plant incriminating bits of evidence that would lead the police to believe Lester Riley was the person behind calling the hit.

Eddie and Roger, from what we can gather, knew Aidan and Flossie had something going and probably that she had pulled the trigger. By doing this, they hoped Chief would pay closer attention to Flossie, gaining them extra time to intimidate Eugene into signing the withdrawal slip and leaving town.
Which is almost exactly what happened.
They haven’t been found yet.

My heart goes out to Carl, the innocent in all this. His feelings for Flossie were not only unrequited, but misled. Flossie will be in prison for a long time for the murder of Aidan
Abbett
. Carl was devastated over her betrayal, saddened by the choices the woman he loved had made. I have no doubt now that he really had harbored hopes of getting back together with her. Randy
Holbraker
is supplying Carl with a welcome diversion, and I do believe Carl is enjoying teaching and sharing his expertise with the young man. Who knows, maybe he’ll take Randy on as partner someday.

Flossie had a long story about Aidan, blaming him for forcing her to pull the trigger. She claims he double-crossed her. At the beginning of their little operation, Aidan had vowed to split the sale of the jewelry fifty-fifty, provided she was willing to help lift the jewelry from Carl’s prosperous clients. Flossie, always having a taste for expensive things and a shopping channel habit, did her part. At some point in the relationship, Flossie started falling for him. He, in turn, started cutting her percentage, telling her he’d pay her back later, to trust him, and a bunch of other old lines that Flossie fell for like a sack of bad potatoes.

That, coupled with her jealousy over his inattention when Eddie and Roger came to town, got the ball rolling for her to contemplate revenge. She took to carrying her father’s old service revolver. The day Aidan got shot, Flossie had prepared to have it out with him once and for all, demanding the money he owed her so she could leave town. When she went out the back entry and saw Aidan coming out of the Goose, she’d been prepared. He pulled her deeper into the alley and away from prying eyes, but his confession that he didn’t love her, and had none of the promised money, sent Flossie over the edge. Shocked by what she’d done and the sight of so much blood, she fled into the funeral home. Only after the state police cleared the alley did Flossie feel that it was safe to dispose of the gun in Betsy’s Dumpster.

Dr.
Cryer
won’t see his mother’s necklace ever again, but now that the mystery of the fake jewels is cleared up, he’ll get the insurance money as soon as he files the police report. For now, Dr.
Cryer
and Carl have made peace, regaining a decades old friendship.

The state police discovered that Eddie, Roger, and Aidan were known thieves who had used many aliases and had possible mob connections. They think they were trying to infiltrate Maple Gap through Eugene in order to get their hands on the land and turn it into a landfill. Makes me extra glad townsfolk shot down the idea. But defeat apparently didn’t come easy and the three hatched another plan and waved some money under Eugene and Betsy’s noses.

Mayor Riley was horrified to know how deep Eugene had gotten with those thieves, and how close Maple Gap had become to being the new landfill location. He’s enjoying being mayor. He’s open and honest and is willing to listen to arguments for and against his ideas. We truly are in good hands with Mayor Riley, though I think he misses his cows.

Chief and I tried to piece together the redhead-in-the-blue-car incident. The license plate hadn’t helped much, only verifying that these guys were crooks, since the registration showed a false name. But without being able to question Eddie and Roger directly, and without being able to find the ladies, the best we can guess is my near miss was an unfortunate accident. There’s no way they knew my reputation as an armchair detective and they had no way of knowing I was working on the crime.

We’re settling back into a peaceful routine, Hardy and I, enjoying watching the budding romance of Sasha
Blightman
and Lionel
Bailmout
. I’ve never seen Sasha’s car need so many repairs, and if that didn’t beat all, I saw her in a sweater streaked with grease the other day, Lionel at her side. It made my heart smile.

William is being tested and prodded. He hates every minute of it, but has really blossomed under the attention he gets from Elizabeth, Hardy, and me. He’s teaching Elizabeth and me all about bread making, and considering opening up a little shop inside the store that used to be Aidan’s Jewelry. It sure would be nice to have a bakery in Maple Gap again.

As for Hardy and I, we enjoyed our fortieth anniversary, celebrating with all our babies and grandbabies in attendance. What really tickled our funny bones is finding out how Hardy, in his call to
Bryton
, had asked his oldest son to get everyone together to have a surprise party for me, not knowing that I was doing the same through
Shayna
. We all had a good laugh over that, capping off the entire celebration with good food and lots of love.

The fund-raiser went off without a hitch the following day. We canned hot pepper relish, stirred up pots of chili, one of chicken and noodles, and one of stew. We had loaves of William’s bread in every flavor possible, auctioning them off.
And that chocolate
babka
?
It’s delicious! I nibbled enough to get a taste, but seeing the way all the children gobbled it up let me know truly how good it was, plus it brought the highest bid—fifty-nine dollars!

Beautiful weather and good advertising brought people out from Denver in crowds. We had private donations and some from businesses, enough to raise almost eight thousand dollars for the
Buchanans
. It was my privilege to present them the check and hold Elizabeth tight as she cried into my shoulder. The amount won’t cover everything, but it’s a start, and with all the offers of sponsorship that are coming in, we’ve decided to do it again in the fall.

 
After we presented the check, my oldest boy took the stage. He shocked me and Hardy speechless by sharing with everyone about his experiences growing up and how we’ve made such a positive impact on their lives. The applause and cheers brought tears to my eyes and a hot blush to my cheeks. I don’t do praise. Just when I thought I couldn’t stand another bit of joy,
Bryton
announced that in honor of our fortieth anniversary, he and his siblings were giving us a surprise.

An all-expenses-paid surprise.

I’m dictating this from the deck of the
Fair Lady
en route to the Mediterranean. Hardy is stretched out beside me working on his suntan, whatever that means for a black man. I think he’s just basking in the peace of knowing he’s on vacation for the next twenty-five days. Rome, Venice, Sicily, I plan on enjoying every minute of this wonderful gift, despite the fact there is a rumor going around that some lady jumped overboard last night for no apparent reason. I’ve been keeping an eye on her husband. He’s sure acting the part of grieving widower, but the tears seem to come on real sudden-like. Too sudden-like, if you get my meaning, and I think I saw
him
huddled at a table one night, late, with another woman.
Hm
. . .

About the Author

S. Dionne Moore writes the
LaTisha
Barnhart Mystery series,
LaTisha
is the creator. Together they inspire one another to greatness, both in faith and fiction. S. Dionne can still do an entire week of laundry in a
day.
. .aren’t you impressed? Besides writing, she is also a choir director, homeschooler, and the sole organizer of organization. Born and raised in Northern Virginia, she is a city girl with a small-town heart transplant who no longer has to take anti-rejection drugs! You can read more about her at her Website, www.sdionnemoore.com

About Spyglass Lane

Spyglass Lane Mysteries is a collection of Christian cozy mysteries—modern-day
whodunnits
with colorful characters and plenty of wholesome romance.

Discover other Spyglass Lane titles at
Smashwords.com
.