Blackberry Pie Murder (38 page)

The real truth was even more shocking than Hannah had imagined. The woman who’d pretended to be Loretta’s daughter had been the real Jennifer’s best friend when they were on the streets together in Minneapolis. They’d both been in Keith Branson’s stable and neither one of them had seen any way out of the life they’d been duped into leading.

Loretta’s daughter had been known as Sugar, and Sugar was dead. Keith Branson and Lady Die had beaten Sugar so badly when Sugar had attempted to come back home that she’d died of her injuries. The woman who’d pretended to be Jennifer was Honey and she’d been the one to find Sugar after the beating. Honey had managed to move Sugar to an aban-doned building and she’d done her best to nurse her back to health. Nothing Honey had done had helped, but at least Sugar had been comforted by a friend when she’d died.

It had taken Sugar five days to succumb and she’d talked 320

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about her happy memories of Loretta and Carly at home in Lake Eden. It had seemed idyllic to Honey who had never known more than a series of foster homes before she had run away with Keith. Near the end of Sugar’s brief and unhappy life, she had made Honey promise that she would go to Lake Eden and tell Loretta how much she regretted what she had done and how she’d never stopped loving her mother and her little sister.

Honey had used the last of her money to buy a bus ticket to Lake Eden. In reality, she’d had no choice. Keith and Lady Die were already searching for her and she knew exactly what would happen if they found her.

Hannah looked over at her passenger. Honey was crying softly. “When did you tell Loretta?” she asked her.

“The first day when I got there. Carly was at work and I told Loretta everything. She invited me to stay right there at the farm. She said she’d figure everything out and the farm was the safest place for me. Since I looked so much like Sugar, she said to pretend I was her daughter.”

“But Keith figured out where you were.”

“Yes. And Lady Die sent him to bring me back. That’s how I got hurt that day in the woods. I told Loretta and Carly that I tripped and fell, but it happened when I was trying to fight Keith off.”

Hannah turned off the gravel road and onto the highway.

“Did you punch Keith in the face?”

“No. The man did that. He was a really good fighter. I could tell that with the first punch he landed.”

“Do you know who the man was?” Hannah glanced at Honey, but she quickly focused on the road again. Traffic was heavy and she needed to pay attention to her driving.

“I don’t know who he was. He just came out of the woods on a horse and pulled Keith away from me. And when they started to fight, I ran away as fast as I could.”

“Where did you go?”

“Back to the farmhouse. I was going to pack a bag and BLACKBERRY PIE MURDER

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run, but Loretta came home. She said she heard that there was a man killed on the road that ran past the farm and she drove right home to make sure I was all right. ”

Honey gave a little sob and Hannah looked over at her passenger again. Honey’s face was still tear-streaked, but she looked more at peace than she had since Hannah had first met her. Perhaps that was because the truth was out and Hannah had promised to help her deal with the fallout.

“Are you okay?” Hannah asked her.

“I’m okay. It’s just that nobody ever cared that much about me before. And I’m worried about Loretta and Carly.

What if Lady Die figures out where I went and she comes out to the farm to kill me?”

“You won’t be there. That’s why you’re going to my place.

I called Mike and left a message for him. He’ll probably be waiting for us at my condo. Between Stella and Mike, they’ll figure out a way to keep you safe until it’s time to testify against Lady Die and put her away for good!”

“But will Loretta and Carly be safe?”

“I’ll call the shop and tell Loretta to stay with Trudi tonight, just in case. And Carly can stay at my place with Michelle, or go to stay with any of her other friends. If Lady Die does drive out to the farm, the only person she’ll find there is a deputy who’ll arrest her.”

“Okay then. That’s all good.” Honey breathed a deep sigh of relief as they pulled into Hannah’s parking spot. “Are we here?”

“We’re here, but I guess Mike’s not, at least not yet. He would have parked in my other spot.”

Hannah motioned to Honey and both of them got out of the car. Hannah led the way up the stairs, unlocked the door, and caught Moishe in her arms. This elicited a laugh from Honey, the first laugh Hannah had heard from her, and they went inside.

“I called Norman to come and stay with you so you won’t be alone,” Hannah told her. “He should be here any minute.

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Just help yourself to anything you want in the refrigerator, and don’t let anyone in.”

“How about this Norman? I’m supposed to let him in, aren’t I?”

“You don’t have to let Norman in. He has a key. And he’ll probably bring his cat to play with Moishe. Her name is Cuddles.”

“That’s a cute name. I like cats,” Honey said quite unnecessarily since she was standing by the back of the couch scratching Moishe under his chin.

Hannah was just getting ready to leave when there was a knock on the door. “That’ll be Mike,” she said, not bothering to look through the peephole before she opened the door.

“Wrong,” a female voice said, and Hannah found herself staring into the barrel of a pistol that was pointed at her head. “Back up, lady! Where’s Honey?”

A million thoughts flashed through Hannah’s mind in the space of a nanosecond, but none of them did much good. She’d miss her mother’s wedding if she died right now, Honey would end up dying too, and Norman and Mike would discover their bodies. Delores would grieve for her, that was certain, and she’d probably wear ugly black outfits for years. Hannah’s mind clicked. Her last thought had been so incongruous, it had given her an idea.

She made a motion behind her back that she hoped Honey would catch. It was a wave that was intended to tell Honey to run and hide in the safest, most obscure place she could find. And then Hannah deliberately took a step closer to the woman in the doorway.

“Where
ever
did you get that incredibly
horrible
outfit?”

Hannah asked in her best authoritarian voice.

“Wha . . . ?” Lady Die was clearly taken aback, and she did as Hannah hoped she would do. She looked down at the outfit she was wearing.

“Mistake!” Hannah said, grabbing the barrel of the gun and knocking it away. At the same time she planted her foot BLACKBERRY PIE MURDER

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in Lady Die’s midsection and kicked her back as hard as she could.

It worked almost like it had in the movie Hannah had seen with Mike. There was only one exception. She didn’t have a black belt in any martial art. The pistol
did
fall over the rail to the ground below just like it had in the movie. And Lady Die
did
stagger back a half-step or two. But she recovered her balance much more quickly than the villain had in the movie.

And she came after Hannah with a vengeance.

As Hannah turned to run, she knew not where, she heard a sound she recognized from the end of the hallway. The exercise machine was on and the treadmill was running! Hannah dashed down the hallway and into her bedroom, making a sharp turn just inside the doorway. She saw an orange and white streak as Moishe jumped off the treadmill and slid under the bed at high speed. At almost the same instant, Hannah scrambled over the mattress and dropped to the rug between the wall and her bed, feeling frantically for the bowl of flour she kept under the bed. She pulled it out and popped up just in time to see Lady Die step squarely on the belt of the treadmill.

Time slowed to a crawl for Hannah as she watched Lady Die recover her balance once. The woman must be in incredibly good shape, probably enhanced by using Keith’s “girls”

as punching bags. Then Lady Die managed to stay on her feet a second time by windmilling her arms and grabbing at the handlebars. Surely she couldn’t maintain her balance for long. Or could she?

Hannah didn’t want to take the chance. There was too much at stake. She sidestepped around the edge of the bed and planted herself in front of the handlebars. Then she ripped off the lid she kept on the top of the bowl.

“This is for Sugar,” Hannah exclaimed, throwing the bowl of flour squarely into Lady Die’s face.

Lady Die let out a sound that was part scream and part growl as she lost her grip on the handlebars and fell, head-first, on the belt. The belt kept moving, carrying her back-324

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ward and she crashed into the bedroom wall at the back of the machine. It should have been over, but Lady Die would not give up. She attempted to make her way to the handlebars again by crawling.

“Hands up!” a male voice yelled, and Hannah’s head swiveled toward her bedroom doorway in time to see Norman sprint forward to pull the plug on the machine. “I said, hands up! I’m a dentist!”

What happened next made it fairly obvious to Hannah that Lady Die must have suffered some brain damage when she fell and hit her head on the machine. She just sat there wiping the flour from her eyes and laughing.

“So whatcha gonna do, Mr. Dentist?” she asked. “Pull my teeth?”

“I don’t pull teeth for free,” Norman replied, raising Lady Die’s pistol and pointing it at her head. “But I do occasional charity work and ridding the world of someone like you falls into that category. You can put your hands up, or you can be my next tax deduction. It’s your choice.”

“Thanks, Norman. I got her now,” another male voice said.

Hannah glanced at her bedroom doorway to see Mike standing there, and she watched as he grabbed Lady Die, hauled her to her feet, and cuffed her. “Good job,” he said to Norman.

“Thanks.”

“Do you even know how to shoot that pistol?” Mike asked.

“Not really, but I saw you pull in right before I came through Hannah’s door and I knew all I had to do was create a diversion until you got up here.”

That was when Hannah heard a sound behind Mike and she moved to a better vantage point to see Honey standing there with her hands held up to her face.

“Honey! Where were you?” Hannah asked her.

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“In your laundry room. I hid in your dryer since it’s one of those big ones. Do you know you have wet clothes in there?”

“Uh-oh! I did a load this morning, and I was going to dry it, but I guess I forgot. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“You’re safe now, Honey. Lady Die’s in cuffs and you don’t have to cry.”

“I’m not crying,” Honey said removing her hands from her eyes. “I’m laughing. Your cat was on the treadmill, you threw a bowl of flour in Lady Die’s face, a dentist with a gun he doesn’t even know how to use came in the front door, and there’s a cute little cat out there in the living room looking totally confused. This place is a zoo!”

Hannah burst into laughter. “I guess it is. Are you really sure you want to stay here in Lake Eden?”

“Oh, yes!” Honey said, and she sounded very certain.

“Sugar told me she left because her hometown was boring, but it’s not boring at all. If everybody else in Lake Eden is as much fun as you guys are, this is the perfect place for me.”

Chapter

!
Twenty-eight
#

“Sorry I’m late,” Hannah said, sliding into her place next to Andrea at the big round table in the Lake Eden Inn dining room. “I got tied up.”

“Literally?” Michelle asked, chuckling slightly at her own joke.

“Almost literally. I’ll tell you all about it later.” Hannah turned to their host. “It’s nice of you to invite us to dinner, Doc.”

“I enjoy your company, but that’s not the only reason I invited you to join me here tonight. I waited until you got here to start, but I planned this evening as a dinnervention.”

“Dinnervention?” Hannah asked, beginning to laugh.

“That’s right. It’s a combination dinner and intervention.

Lori’s causing a problem for all four of you and I have a solution. All I need is your word that you won’t tell anyone about my solution until Lori and I are married.”

“You have my word,” Hannah said quickly.

“Mine, too,” Michelle chimed in.

“And you have mine,” Andrea promised. “We almost went crazy trying to plan this wedding.”

“Lisa?” Doc turned to the only one of them who hadn’t spoken.

“I agree, but I’m not too happy about it,” Lisa told him.

“When I married Herb we promised we wouldn’t have any secrets from each other, except for Christmas and birthday BLACKBERRY PIE MURDER

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presents, and little things like that. But this isn’t little and it’s a secret.”

“You can tell Herb,” Doc assured her. “I’d like you to warn him not to tell anyone else.”

“I can do that. Herb will never tell. He keeps secrets better than anyone I’ve ever known.”

“It’s fine then.” Doc looked around at each of them. “If Lori gets even a hint of this, it’s not going to work.”

Hannah was about to ask what Doc’s solution was when Sally brought an appetizer tray. “Check this out,” she said, setting it in the center of the table. She turned to Doc and asked, “Did you tell them yet?”

“Not yet. We were just waiting for Hannah to get here.

You can bring the drinks, Sally. And once you do that, please sit down and join us. You’re a part of this, too.”

Sally hurried to the bar and picked up a tray of martini glasses that she carried back to the table. “These are Blackberry Pie Martinis,” she explained as she set a glass in front of each of them and took one for herself. “Dick came up with the recipe.”

“Thanks, Sally, but I really shouldn’t . . .” Michelle started to say, but Sally put a hand on her shoulder.

“No worries,” Sally said. “Yours is nonalcoholic. So is mine. I have to cook tonight.”

“These are incredible,” Lisa said, after she’d taken a sip.

“Yes, they are,” Hannah agreed with a smile.