Kitty Litter Killer (23 page)

“Oh, hurry,” Hayley moaned. “Leighton is still bleeding, and I can’t stop it, but he’s alive.”

I leaped from behind the table. Linda, who had been frozen in place, suddenly came alive. She jumped up and pushed me. I stumbled over the coffee table, falling against Angelica. Suddenly I was in a race for the gun. Linda won, snatching it from the floor. Then she pointed it at me.

“No way. I can’t let you get away. I’m going to finish this here and now.”

Linda was not the criminal that Clark was. She didn’t have the same kind of nerve. The gun in her hand was shaking, and she eyed me and Angelica nervously.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, not again,” Angelica said behind me. “Will these people never stop?”

I agreed with her sentiments exactly.

“Shut up,” Linda said.

“Mommy?”

Angelica inhaled, breath hissing through her teeth. My stomach clenched. I felt Angelica’s hand on my arm.

“Go back to the laundry room, Sammie,” I said, keeping my eye on the gun in Linda’s hand. It was still pointed in my direction.

“No,” Linda said, gun wobbling in her hand.

“But, Mommy, the lady has a gun. It’s like something Charlie—”

“Go now!” I yelled.

“Don’t go.” Since the gun in Linda’s hand still pointed at me, I knew she wouldn’t shoot Sammie, but I was poised to launch myself between my daughter and a gunshot.

I heard Sammie’s feet patter down the hallway.

Linda’s eyes wavered between me and the hall where Sammie had disappeared. “Call her back out here.”

I said nothing. I wouldn’t. I would never call Sammie back into the room without a fight. I hadn’t given up hope that we would find a way out of this.

Clark groaned. Linda’s eyes widened with fear. If he woke up, we were all in trouble. I exchanged glances with Angelica, and she narrowed her eyes and gave me a slight smile. That’s when I knew our second miracle was coming.

She gasped suddenly and pointed at the doorway behind Linda. “Oh no—watch out! Here comes that cat! He’s vicious.”

The cat wasn’t even in sight, but the distraction was exactly what we needed. Linda turned, long enough for me to grab a magazine, lunge at her, and slap her hand away from us. The gun clattered to the floor.

Angelica hopped to her feet, snatched up the decorating book, and walloped Linda across the head with it. That stunned her and allowed me to push her into a chair and grab the gun.

Hayley reached over and snatched my cell phone from the floor where I’d dropped it. “I’m calling 9-1-1.”

“Good,” I said. I stared at my mother-in-law with amazement. “Wow. Way to go, Angelica.” I had never been prouder of anyone in my life.

For the first time since I’d met her, we shared grins. I hadn’t known she could grin.

“The curtain ties will do well to contain these two, don’t you think?” she asked as she glided over to the windows.

“Yes, I believe they will.”

Hayley’s voice was hysterical on the phone. Linda was crying and babbling as we tied her up. She didn’t fight us. She was a wimp. Too bad. I was ready to take someone on.

Clark, on the other hand, was not a wimp. And he probably lifted weights to keep his model shape. He began to come to as Angelica finished wrapping maroon ties around his wrists. As soon as he figured out what was going on, he swore and tried to get up on his knees. I used my foot to shove him off balance, then I sat hard on his legs while Angelica tied his feet. When she was done, I bounced for good measure, making Clark groan. Not hard for me to do. I kept thinking what would have happened if Sammie had eaten some of the ecstasy. I was furious.

“Please go take care of Sammie,” I said to Angelica. But she didn’t have to. Sammie walked into the room holding a phone.

“I called the police,” she said proudly. “They’re here.” I heard banging at the front door. Then I heard a voice I thought I’d never be glad to hear.

“State police!” Detective Reid bellowed down the hall. “Put your weapons down.”

Chapter Nineteen

Later that evening, I was perched on a chair in my mother’s kitchen holding Sammie, who cuddled her kitten in her lap. Abbie was sitting across the table from me. She still had circles under her eyes, but the tension that had lined her face for days was gone. Ma had just hung up the phone and dropped into a chair at the end of the table. Eric and Daddy leaned against the counter. A little black-and-white border collie puppy scampered on the floor between their legs.

“Well, Trish, you helped nail a killer,” Ma said, glancing at Eric.

He winked at me.

“Did you know that Nick Fletcher and I were working together?” I asked him.

He nodded. “I did. And I have to say, I was relieved. He was feeding information to someone at the state police. They were already closing in on Clark. And Leighton.”

“So Detective Reid isn’t all bad?” I asked the question reluctantly.

Eric shook his head. “Personality challenged and stubborn. Perhaps too eager at first to believe that Abbie did it. But she did look into the other information when she got it. I can’t fault her for that.”

“So the cops were already onto Clark, weren’t they?” I asked. “He was an idiot to think he could get away.”

He nodded. “Clark would have been arrested shortly.”

I bit my lip as I thought. “Do you think that’s what Philip was calling you about the day he was murdered? Had he learned what Clark was doing?”

“I think so,” Eric said. “I think he had suspicions, anyway.”

“I think Clark is a sociopath,” I said. “And he certainly had his mother fooled.” I rummaged through my purse and pulled out my steno pad and a pen. “I’ve dubbed him the Kitty Litter Killer for the litter next to Philip’s body.”

I wrote
Kitty Litter Killer
across the cardboard front of the notebook and stared at it. This would be my last mystery. No more.

I glanced across the table and met Abbie’s gaze. My best friend.

“So what about the kitty litter?” Abbie asked. “How did it get next to Philip’s body?”

“From Clark’s shoes, right?” I glanced at Eric.

“That’s what Detective Reid thinks,” he said.

“When the police roared into the Whitmores’, Linda started babbling. One of the things she said was that Clark used the containers or packages of things he was delivering to hide drugs sometimes. Twice he used bags of kitty litter destined for the Adlers’ store. One of those times was right before he killed Philip.

“They happened to be at the Gas ’n’ Go at the same time. Clark panicked and shoved his handgun into a bag of litter. The litter fell all over the truck, and he stepped in it.” I looked at Abbie. “That was the gun they were going to use to make it look like you killed yourself after you shot Philip.”

“Well, all’s well that ends well,” Ma said, patting Abbie’s hand.

Abbie smiled at me, and for the first time in almost a week, her eyes smiled, too. “Thank you. You’ve saved my wedding day.”

“It wasn’t all me,” I said. We touched index fingers. Sammie wiggled in my lap.

“I’m so proud of you, honey,” I whispered in her ear.

“I did what Charlie would have done,” she said. “Mommy, you’re squeezing me too tight—I can’t breathe. Can I go watch TV?”

“Sure.” I didn’t want to let her go, but I did.

“I thought for sure Henry had done it,” Ma said. “Their granddaughter is Philip’s daughter, right?”

Eric nodded. “And Henry gave Philip the black eye at the store that Sunday afternoon. Philip wanted to see his daughter. Peggy, the Adlers’ daughter, was seventeen when Philip got her pregnant. The Adlers agreed not to report him to the authorities if he signed an agreement giving away his parental rights. That was the deal. Henry was furious when Philip came back. But he wanted to see his daughter before he died.”

“It’s like a soap opera,” Ma said.

Daddy nodded. “That’s the truth.”

“Well, there might be a happy ending,” Abbie said. “The Adlers have contacted June. They’re still having trouble with this, but they have promised that at some point, June will meet her granddaughter. June says she’s going to be patient.”

“Are you okay about it all?” I asked her.

Abbie and Eric exchanged a glance, then she looked at me. “It’s hard. Especially when I look back and realize how all the choices I made keep reverberating through the years.” She smiled, but her expression held an edge of sadness. “It will take me a while to take it all in, I think, but I get to start over.” Suddenly she grinned. “And I have a fine man to start over with.”

She stood and walked over to Eric. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Max strolled into the room and kissed my forehead. “Chris is finally asleep.”

“Good.”

“Honey, I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have paid attention to your suspicions about Leighton. This afternoon never would have happened. You wouldn’t have even been there to confront Clark. Nick Fletcher called me to ask a few more questions about what I knew about Leighton Whitmore. He explained why he was asking. That’s why I warned you not to go over there. And when I realized you and Mom and Sammie were already at the Whitmores’, I called Nick back. They were already on their way over there when Sammie called them.”

I grasped his hand, and he pulled me to my feet. “Well, if it hadn’t worked out the way it did, we might never have known exactly what Clark and Linda had planned. That they were going to kill Leighton and Hayley then burn down the house. Make it look like a murder-suicide. As if Leighton just got tired of running from his past.”

“I certainly hope Whitmore is going to jail,” Ma said.

Eric shook his head. “I’m not sure. He may testify against his former employers and then go into witness protection.”

I heard the sound of the back door opening. Angelica and Andrew walked in from the mudroom. I’d never been so surprised to see anyone in my life.

Ma, bless her heart, hurried across the room and greeted them as if they dropped by every day.

“Did you know they were coming?” I asked Max. He nodded, and humor sparkled in his eyes.

After Angelica said hello to my mother, she crossed the room and pulled me into a hug. The hush that fell over the kitchen told me everyone else was as shocked as I was. If she hadn’t had her arms around me, I would have fallen to the floor.

She stepped back, hands still on my arms. “You made me so proud today.”

Apparently no one expected this from her, me included. I was at a loss for words.

Daddy cleared his throat. “Hey, how about the whole story. I wanna know what happened.”

Angelica and I took turns telling everyone about the chilling scene at the Whitmores’.

“So how did Linda get the money to run away with Clark?” my mother asked.

“She recognized Leighton when he moved here and approached him,” I said. “She’d met him at a real estate convention in Atlanta and had a one-night fling. He got drunk and told her things he didn’t even remember telling her.” I paused. “She’s someone who takes advantage of a situation when it arises.”

“Gail was right, you know,” Ma said. “I’ll never forgive myself.”

I smiled at her then continued my story. “Linda started dating Clark. And after Philip caught on to Clark’s dealings, she told Clark she had a way to get money to help them move to a safe place. Being what he was, he decided to take her up on that. Leighton was frightened of his former employers and wanted to protect Hayley. He offered Linda a million dollars to leave him alone.”

“What about Leighton and Philip?” Ma asked.

I glanced at Eric.

“I can only speculate at this point,” he said. He explained about Mary losing money in a real estate deal. “I think Philip figured out who Leighton was and wanted to talk to him. That scared Leighton, which was why he began making plans to move.”

“He had me and Angelica snowed,” Max’s father said. “His resumé was faked. The folks he had worked for were organized. They knew if Leighton went to jail that he’d blow the whistle on the organization, so they arranged to protect him and give him a new identity. He thought they’d be safe in a small town like this. Hayley had no idea.”

“She’s the one I feel sorriest for.” I glanced at Angelica. “She did nothing wrong except love her husband.”

“It’s all about choices,” Abbie said.

The back door opened again. Gail walked into the kitchen.

“My lands. Looks like a used-car lot out there.” Ma’s longtime employee smiled, looking like the Gail I used to know. She rubbed her hands together to warm them. She stared at me then at Eric. “You should hire Trish, you know. You need her to help you solve crimes and keep this town safe.”

She glanced at Ma and they nodded like two bobbleheads.

I smiled. The town was safe once again. Gossip central was back in business. Ma and Gail were back together.

“Well, we hope Tommy inherited Trish’s good sense by osmosis,” Angelica said. “If he handles a law enforcement job the way she handled the situation today, he’ll do fine.” I glanced at her to make sure she wasn’t being sarcastic.

She was smiling at me—really smiling. The Lord had used a bad situation to bring about a miracle. I was sure things wouldn’t be perfect, but we had a good start. And a chance at a real relationship.