4 Malice in Christmas River (21 page)

Twenty minutes later, I pulled into the polished stone driveway of the McSween estate. It took me a few minutes to gather up enough courage to get out of the car. My heart was pounding hard and fast in my chest just like a runaway horse.

I got out, shut the door behind me, and stared up at the massive estate, glistening in the dimming colors of the evening.

I swallowed hard. My mouth was dry and felt as rough as sandpaper.

I walked up and with a shaky hand, I rang the doorbell. A few minutes later, Laurel answered, holding a glass of white wine in one hand.

She raised her eyebrows.

“Why, Cinnamon,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I know,” I said, forcing a phony smile. “And I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve been cooped up in my house for days, and I was just thinking, I could really use a girls’ night, you know? But if you’re busy, just say the word and I’ll—”

“No, no,” she said, grinning. “It’s actually perfect. Bernie’s staying late for a city council meeting and Ashley’s out too. I’m all by my lonesome here in the house.
Again
.”

She rolled her eyes.

“So you see, I’d love some company.”

“Great,” I said.

“Let me get you a glass of wine,” she said, letting me in. “I’m sure you need one after everything you’ve been through these past few weeks.”

She was right about that.

I did need one.

I needed to find the courage to do what I came here to do.

Chapter 59

We were out on the deck again, sitting in those same Pottery Barn chairs that we had been sitting in the first night she’d invited me over for drinks. The sunset was turning the sky brilliant shades of magenta.

But I couldn’t enjoy it. I was too busy wringing my hands, thinking about what I was about to do.

Starting to doubt myself.

Maybe I was off my rocker too. Maybe I was about to make a huge mistake.

Laurel sat across from me, drinking white wine and making small talk. I kept looking at her, wondering if Jo was right.

“Once, when me and Bernie were courtin,’ I tried making him a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in my dorm using a microwave oven,” she was saying. “I nearly broke the poor boy’s teeth. They came out as hard as—”

“Where’s Ashley tonight?” I said, suddenly.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise as I interrupted her.  

“Oh, Ash? She’s in town at the movies with some friends,” she said. “You know, I can’t believe that in less than a week, she’ll be headed to Stanford. Time sure passes quickly, Cinnamon. It seems it was only yesterday when she was just a little girl. We used to make breakfast together in the kitchen, and she was so little, she’d have to stand up on one of those chairs to reach the counter. Now here she is, all grown up and headed to one of the best schools in the…”

I took in a deep breath, and decided to take a wild shot in the dark.

A shot that was going to burn any bridge I’d built, or planned to build, with Laurel and her family.

But that was a risk I was willing to take.

“I know what she did to Michael Pugmire’s horse, Laurel,” I said. “I know the whole story.”

She stopped talking, and looked as if she’d just been stabbed. Her face went pale.

I decided to let it all out while she was still too stunned to stop me.

“I know everything. About how Michael and Ashley started dating. And one day, he broke it off with her. And how that very next day, his horse, his prized stallion, ends up with a broken leg, just by standing there alone in the barn. How does that happen, Laurel?”

She started to say something, but I didn’t let her get far.

It was time to go all in.

“I know that the Pugmires called Daniel out when it happened. Michael Pugmire told him that he knew Ashley was the one who hurt the horse. Daniel was looking into it the week before his accident. He came out here and talked to you and Ashley about it. And she denied it. But Daniel knew something was off.

He told the Pugmires as much, and that he was going to get to the bottom of it. And that he’d see to it that justice would be served. Just as soon as the Rodeo was over.”

“
Cinnamon
,” Laurel said between gritted teeth, her pale face now turning bright red. “What are you saying, doll? Stop this. You don’t know what you’re talking ab—”   

“You’re saying that she’s innocent? That she didn’t do it?”

Laurel slammed her glass down on the table and cleared her throat.

“You’ve been talking to Jo, haven’t you?” she said. “That
wench
.”

“This isn’t about Jo,” I said. “But as long as we’re going there, Jo seems to have a very different version about why your two families don’t get along. And it’s got nothing to do with Harry being in love with you once upon a time. She told me about that real estate deal all those years ago. How your husband screwed Harry out of all that money.”

“She’s a
liar
,” she said, her voice cracking. “And so are you, Cinnamon. You come here accusing my daughter and perpetuating these horrid lies. And after I’ve been so kind to you and your family?”

She shook her head angrily and stood up.

“Shame on you, Cinnamon.”

There was no turning back now, I realized.

“You’re a liar too, Laurel. You made me think you wanted to be my friend. When all you really wanted was to get on Daniel’s good side. You wanted to use me. As if being my friend would stop him from arresting Ashley for—”

“Fine,” she said, holding up her hands. “Fine. Maybe you’re right, Cinnamon. Maybe you’re right. But you can’t blame me for doing that. Ashley, she’s…”

Water started flooding her eyes. Perfectly-shaped tears popped out of them, flowing down her cheeks.

“Do you know how hard Ashley worked to get into Stanford?” she said. “Four years, this kid has been pouring her heart out. Staying up late every night, studying until two in the morning. Getting to school hours before everyone else. Joining every stupid club under the sun just so her application looked good. And then after all this, this little white trash Pugmire kid comes in and tries to ruin it all. I mean, he was terrible to her, Cinnamon. You should have seen what dating him did to her self-confidence. And she just took it, until finally he ended it. Just out of the blue, for no good reason.”

She leaned forward and lowered her voice.

“You ask me, I was proud of her for breaking that horse’s leg. She could have done a lot worse, and let me tell you, he would have deserved it.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But I can’t think the folks at Stanford would look too kindly at charges like that. I’m no expert, but I’m sure that’s grounds for expulsion.”

A few more tears streamed down her face. She grabbed a perfectly folded, embroidered handkerchief from the pocket of her Lucky jeans and dabbed at the bleeding mascara.

“Ashley’s not a bad girl,” she said. “She just let her emotions get the better of her. And you know, I’m sorry if you felt like I was trying to use you. But what could I do? It was going to ruin her. All that hard work, Cinnamon. Just flushed down the drain over some good-for-nothing boy. I’m sure you can relate to that – we’ve all been there, haven’t we? Your first husband, for instance. He must have been...”

She sobbed some more.

But I didn’t feel one ounce of sympathy. For her, or for her daughter.

Maybe if it had just been the Pugmire horse, then I could’ve understood.

But we both knew that the madness didn’t end there.   

“So was it you or her that let the horse out that night at the Rodeo?” I said. “Or was it a team effort?”

My words came out seething, like cold water hitting a hot pan.

Laurel looked dead into my eyes.

“I haven’t the
faintest
idea of what you’re talking about,” she said. “I know you think I’m a horrible human being, Cin, but I would never hurt anybody over—”

“Oh, enough already,” a forceful voice said from the French doors behind us. “Just tell her the truth already, would you Mom?”

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.

I turned around in my chair.

Ashley’s lips were curled up into a horrible smile.

Chapter 60

I watched as she stepped through the doors and made her way across the deck.

Evil wore a pair of plastic pink-rimmed glasses, a pair of high-waist riding pants and tall leather boots today.

I knew now that Jo’s bad feeling about the accident had been spot on.

The innocent, sweet teenage girl who had brought Daniel flowers in the hospital was actually a monster.

She still played the part of innocent girl, though. Her silky blond hair was pulled into a high ponytail. She wore a pink V-neck shirt and girly pink lip gloss.

I was sure she had the whole town fooled. 

Ashley took Laurel’s glass of white wine from the table, and took a long drink.

“Now, Ash, that’s something I won’t stand for,” Laurel said, feebly.

She wouldn’t stand for her daughter drinking. But she would let her kill animals and attempt to murder people.

Ashley didn’t listen to her mother. She took several large gulps and then smacked her lips together.

“That’s the good stuff right there,” she said.

“Ashley Anne McSween, you need to leave right now. I’m about fed up with—”

“So, Cinnamon, what do you want to know?” she said, ignoring her mom and turning her attention to me.

I imagined that this was the way it had always been between them. Laurel, weakly and uselessly pleading with her daughter. Ashley, spoiled and entitled, ignoring her mother like she was a fly buzzing around the room.

I looked at Ashley, probing her calm eyes.  

“Did you do it?” I said, my voice trembling. “Did you unlock the trailer and spook the horse that night? Did you hurt Daniel?”

She didn’t flinch a bit under my hateful stare.

“Unlike Mom, over here, I’m not afraid to admit what I’ve done. Although it’s not like I wanted to do it. I’ve always kind of… well, I’ve always kind of liked the Sheriff. He’s got those beautiful aqua eyes that just…”

She let out a long, dreamy sigh. All I wanted to do was reach over and rip that ponytail right out of her head.

And tell her that his eyes were green, not aqua, while I kicked the living daylights out of her.

But that would have been as futile as Laurel’s mothering techniques. There was no way to make a psychopath understand such things.

I balled my hands into fists, trying to keep calm.

“Why’d you do it?”

She shrugged.

“He didn’t buy my whole heartbroken, innocent girl routine when he questioned me about Michael’s horse,” she said. “I could tell. And Mom here wasn’t working fast enough on you. By the way, I never thought that was going to work.”

She paused, shooting a sharp stare at Laurel. Then she picked up where she left off.

“He would have figured out a way to charge me over that horse thing. And, well, I think my mom told you about Stanford, didn’t she? I just can’t afford a setback at this stage in my education. And I wasn’t about to let some small town sheriff get in my way. No matter
how
hot he is.”

I was turning into a one-woman teapot. I was close to exploding. To burning everybody in a five-mile radius.

Ashley smiled, noticing how close I was to losing it.

“You know why I’m telling you all of this, Cinnamon?” she said.

I was squeezing my fists so tight, my nails were digging into the skin of my palms.

“Why?” I said, barely able to formulate the word.

“Because you’ve got
nothing
,” she seethed. “Just some crazy, ludicrous story. There’s
nothing
that puts me at the Rodeo that night. I’ve got alibis. I planned the whole thing out.”

She let out a shrill chuckle.

“I never thought I’d get anything out of that stupid criminal forensics club I joined in high school, but I guess I was wrong. It just goes to show, you never know what you’ll get out of—”   

I stood up quickly.  

If I stayed any longer, my nails would be digging into something else other than my palms.
Ashley’s neck.

“You have no idea what you’ve done, do you?” I said. “You almost killed someone, Ashley. You don’t see how horrible that is?”

She smiled.

“You just tell the Sheriff that it’d be a real bad idea to go ahead with those animal abuse and trespassing charges. Could be he’s the victim of another
accident
. Or maybe more worrisome, could be that
you’re
the victim of an accident, Cinnamon. Probably plenty of opportunity for those at your pie shop. Hot ovens, burners, wet floors… gas leaks.
So
many options.”

All I could see was red.

I came real close in that moment.  

Real close to lunging at her. I wanted to beat her until there was nothing left. Until everybody in Christmas River could see just what she was.

A monster.

I stared at her a long moment. Then I looked over at Laurel.

She looked horrified. As if the secret she’d been keeping all these years had finally been exposed to the outside world.

I didn’t say anything. I bit my lip and walked out of there without so much as glancing back.

Laurel cried after me.

“She’ll be away at Stanford in a week, Cinnamon. Just let her have the week, and you’ll never hear from us again.” 

I shook my head, thinking of Daniel laid up in the hospital all these days. Of him stuck in that wheelchair. Of his headaches and the pain meds and the nightmares.

Thinking of the time Ashley had taken from us.

Of the honeymoon she’d stolen.

Her going away to Stanford in a week just wasn’t going to be good enough.

Chapter 61

I pulled over to the side of the road, my insides jangling like a wind chime in a tornado.

I stopped the car, pulling the phone from my pocket.