Deadly Neighbors (20 page)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Marsha, are you coming?” Mom laid a hand on my arm.

“Is Bruce here?” Withdrawing from the car, I left the fake title on the seat and faced my mother.

“
He left about ten minutes ago, and said he’d be back in an hour.” She peered in my face. “Are you all right?”

I nodded. Checking on Duane took
first priority. I could give Bruce my information when he came back. As long as the suspect didn’t know I’d figured anything out, we still had time. “I want to see Duane.”

As soon as I sat in one of the green striped chairs in the waiting room, a doctor in scrubs entered. “Marsha Steele?”

I popped up. “That’s me.”

He smiled. “Mr. Steele can see you now. He’ll be fine. We’re keeping him overnight for observation. The tip you gave us was right on. He
digested a rather large dose of a medication commonly known as Versed. We’ve administered an antecdote.”

“Thank you.” I tore down the hall
as the doctor called out Duane’s room number.

Duane sat up and grinned as I burst into his room. I wrapped my arms around him and
sobbed into his shoulder. He rubbed my back. “Sweetheart, I’m going to be fine. I’m still a little dopey, but that’ll pass.”

“You scared me. When you didn’t know my name, well, what if your memory loss would’ve been permanent?”

He tilted my face so I’d look at him. “Then I would’ve fallen in love with you all over again.”

After p
lanting a kiss on his lips, I moved to recline beside him. Within seconds, his breathing slowed, and I realized he’d fallen asleep. With the utmost care, I slid from beneath his arm and stared down at his face. The dark shadow of whiskers colored his face. Lashes a woman would die for rested against rugged cheeks. Full hair, showing a few strands of silver, topped off the beautiful picture. Mrs. Duane Steele. Yep, I liked the sound of that, and if he didn’t propose soon, I’d do the asking myself.

Guilt over not loving Robert as he’d deserved
almost caused me to double over in pain. How could I have married him and born his child, knowing I’d still loved Duane? Sobs shuddered through me. I was a horrible person.

In his way, Robert had known. That explained his staying out late more and more often as the years progressed.
The reason he hadn’t wanted to seek out his brother. Their separation had been my fault.
Forgive me, Robert
. My soul cried out for peace. Fear clogged my throat. What if I couldn’t love Duane as he deserved? Maybe I was incapable of a love that deep.

No, I knew God loved me and forgave me of my selfishness the moment I asked. The best thing to do would be to move forward and be the best person I could.

I slid from the bed, planted a kiss on Duane’s forehead, and made my way to the restroom. After washing my face and patting my hair into place, I shuffled back to the waiting room.

Mom hugged me. “Bruce is in inside. I mentioned you wanted to speak with him.”

I took a deep breath and stepped in to deliver my news. “Bruce, I want you to sit down and not interrupt until I’m finished. When I’m done, if you still think I’m off my rocker, then I’ll step aside and not interfere in your investigation again. Agreed?”

“You’re always off your rocker.”

I cocked my head and raised an eyebrow in what I hoped was the perfect imitation of my mom’s intimidating ‘mother’ look. “Agreed?”

“Fine.”
He crossed his arms.

Beginning with Sharon Weiss’s death, and counting off every one of the robberies that followed, plus The Corner Store and Kyle Anderson’s death, then moving on to the paint on my Prius
and the blank sheet of paper, I squared my shoulders. “By now you know Duane was poisoned by Versed. All the times we’d eaten cookies, dropped off by a so-called, well-meaning friend, we’d been eating the medicine. Out of stupidity. . .” I held up a finger to stop his comment.

“We didn’t check to see where the cookies came from. We assumed
they came from well-meaning people. Also, I believe Sharon Weiss ate Versed, grew disoriented, thus falling to her death. Plus, Stephanie Jackson’s husband is a pharmacist. Super easy for her to get her hands on drugs.

“Now, are you going to arrest
her for the thefts in this town and the murder of Kyle Anderson?”

Bruce whipped his cell phone from his belt and phoned in the order to pick up Stephanie for questioning. He glanced up at me. “You did good.” With those words, he marched from the room, his shoes clicking against the tiled floor.

Duane was awake again and held his arms open. I slid into the place I most wanted to be in the world. “You, my love, are an amazing woman.”

“I did pretty well for myself, didn’t I?” I closed my eyes
against the knowledge I’d be in the market for a new car again. Maybe there’d be someway I could keep the Prius.

The ringing of the bedside phone woke me.
After several fumbling attempts to grasp the handset, I succeeded. “Duane Steele’s room.”

“Marsha?”

“Bruce?”

“Stephanie has vanished. Her husband has no idea where she is. A suitcase is missing, along with the money they’d saved for the adoption. Don’t go home alone.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

“You think she’s going to come after me?” I bolted to a sitting position. Duane stiffened beside me.

“Just a precaution. There’s no way she can know we’ve figured it out.”

We?
Marsha Calloway Steele solved the crime with no support from River Valley’s finest. Stephanie had to know I would check the title eventually, even being the procrastinator I am. I chewed the inside of my cheek. Everyone knew I’d been nosing around. It wouldn’t be hard. That’s why the two night-time visits to my home. “Okay, I’ll stay here until she’s caught.” I hung up.

“What?”

“Stephanie wasn’t home. It appears she’s skipped town. Her husband had no idea she’d been stealing.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed. “He thought she was really good at saving.”

Duane grabbed for my hand. “Where are you going?”

“To let my mom know the latest and to grab a bite to eat from the cafeteria.” I bent and delivered a kiss to his forehead and grabbed my purse. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Mom listened with a grim expression while I recounted my conversation with Bruce. Leroy laid an arm around her shoulder. “I’ll watch out for your mother and daughter. You stay here with Duane.”

“Thank you, Leroy.” I gave him an impulsive peck on the cheek. “I couldn’t trust them in better hands. Y’all go home. I’m getting something to eat. Duane and I should be able to join you in the morning.”

I watched the three of them leave then turned to find my way to the cafeteria.
A hand reached out of the women’s restroom and yanked me inside. I stared into the barrel of Stephanie Jackson’s gun. My heart skipped a beat. “Hello, Stephanie. Bruce is looking for you.”

“He won’t find me.” She motioned for me to walk ahead of her. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” The first stirrings of anger simmered within me. How dare she do all the horrible things she’d done, then accost me in the hospital?

“None of your business. You won’t be around long enough to care.
There’s a lot of places in these hills to leave you. By the time someone stumbles across your body, I’ll be in Mexico and the proud mother of a beautiful little girl.”

The saliva dried in my mouth.
“Do you actually think they’ll let you adopt a child after this?”

“They’ll see the color of my money and won’t ask too many questions.”

“You won’t be able to bring the child back to the states.” I hoped she would like Mexico.

Stephanie poked me in the spine all the way to the parking lot and
beside a dark green Toyota. If I looked closer, I knew I’d locate a smear of white paint on the bumper. The knowledge the woman had tried to run a couple of innocent kids off the road raised my blood pressure.

“Get in.”

I slid in the driver side door and climbed over the gear shift to the passenger side, dropping my purse on the floorboard. My brain spun trying to figure out where we’d go that the others could find me. Keeping her gun trained on me, Stephanie backed from the parking lot and headed east on Interstate 40.

“Since you’re going to kill me anyway, can I ask a couple of questions?”

She shrugged. “Sure. I don’t like killing you, Marsha. I’d hoped we could be great friends. We’d share parenting stories, have play dates. That sort of thing.”

As if.
Didn’t she realize my child was fifteen? “Why the stealing? If you were meant to be a parent, there are other ways.”

She chuckled. “I thought you’d want to know how I figured out you knew it was me.”

“Okay.” That would’ve been my next question.

“I went to your place today after hearing Duane ate the cookies meant for you.
Mark has a police scanner, so it’s easy to keep up on what’s going on. I’d suspected for a while that you were getting close to figuring things out, and I put enough medicine in those cookies to knock out a horse. Having a pharmacist for a husband comes in handy, doesn’t it?” She giggled. “Anyway, it worried me. I don’t have anything against that handsome man. Thought I might have put in too much. I broke in, saw the medical journals turned to a compromising page, and put two and two together. Brilliant, aren’t I?”

“What did you do with Cleo?”

“Locked her in the shed. She’s got a big bark, but still caved under a handful of dog biscuits.” Stephanie whipped the wheel to take us down Highway 64. “I should’ve poisoned those too, but I’ve got nothing against animals.”

“Why did you kill Kyle?”

“That man was too smart for his own good, and even nosier than you. He was in the pharmacy filling a prescription and saw me in the back filching drugs right under my dear husband’s nose. He was going to blackmail me.”

I nodded.
“How much did you put in Sharon’s cookies? The way I figure, she ate them, then fell and hit her head.”

“Good guess. That woman really ought to learn to lock her front door. It’s too easy to waltz in and drop something off.”

Stephanie Jackson was officially crazy. My stomach growled. “Any chance we can get something to eat?”

“I’m finished talking
, and you won’t need food much longer.”

I clicked my seatbelt into place
, thankful she hadn’t worn hers. Desperate times relied on desperate measures, or so the saying went. I leaned over and yanked the steering wheel from her hands. The gun went off, sending a bullet into my thigh. Oh, sweet heaven!

The pain burned worse than the Tazer.
Nausea rose and spots swam in front of my eyes. Blood soaked the denim of my overalls. I blinked against the threatening dizziness and screamed as we sailed over the embankment.

We skid and
bashed into a tree. My seatbelt locked into place. Stephanie wasn’t so lucky. Her head bounced off the side window, knocking her unconscious. The airbags deployed, almost choking me on their powder.

After I fought my way free, I fumbled on the floor for my purse and zapped her with my Tazer for good measure. Acid rose in my throat as the pain in my leg worsened. I wanted to zap her again

The door was crinkled past the point of opening so I crawled through the window, whimpering like a wounded puppy, and fell into a heap on the ground. My breath came in gasps. How was I going to get home with a hole in my leg?

Stephanie groaned, spurring me to action. I pulled to my feet, scrambled to the driver’s side, then succumbed to the temp
tation of the Tazer again, and pressed it against her lily-white skin. So what if she had a heart attack from the electricity. It would serve her right.

She jerked and
glared at me. “Fair’s fair, sweetie. And I do
not
want to be your friend.” I palmed her in the side of the head. “That’s for running my daughter off the road. This,” I slapped her harder. “Is for shooting me.” I doubled my fist and laid a good one along her jaw. “And this is for poisoning the man I love.” Her eyes closed, and I slid to the ground, shaking the pain from my hand.

The world spun around me
, and I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. Anger could only spur a person so far, and now the pain overcame the infuriation roaring through me.

“Marsha!” I peered around the front of the car
and tried to focus. Mom and Leroy slid down the embankment. Lindsey’s face stared through the window of Mom’s Cadillac.

“I’m over here.
” Mom slipped getting to my side. “How did you find me?”

“We followed you.” She ran her hands over my leg. I winced. “
Sorry. We were still in the parking lot trying to decide where to go for dinner. When Stephanie walked out of the hospital behind you, I wished I’d had a gun myself.” She grinned. “Leroy drove worthy of a race car driver trying to keep up with that crazy woman.”

Darkness threatened. “My purse is on the ground. Use my cell phone to call the police and an ambulance. I’ve been shot.” I laid my head back and closed my eyes.

When I woke, Duane leaned over me. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

He brushed his lips across mine. “They couldn’t keep me down once I found out you’d been brought in.” He stepped aside to let Bruce step up.

“Stephanie said you zapped her and hit her. Twice on the zap, three
slaps to the head.” He grinned. “She wants to press charges.”

“Let her go for it.”
I returned his smile. “I did hit and zap. And I’d do it again.”

“
Good thing I took away your gun. You might’ve shot her.”

“Good deduction.”

He patted my shoulder. “I’m very impressed, Marsha. But you could’ve been killed. Next time, let the police handle it.”

Did he honestly think there’d be a next time? “Sure thing.”
From now on, I’d stick to stuffing bunnies and Time-Out Babies.

Once Bruce left, Duane leaned over and smoothed my hair away from my face. “Woman, I love you so much it scares me to death.”

“There’s only one thing to do then.”

“What’s that?” The corner of his mouth quirked.

“Marry me.”