A Killer Cake (23 page)

The mechanic grinned as he wiped his hands on
a rag. “He’s the one who suggested that I call you. He’s well aware
of what I found.”

“Then I’d love to see it.”

“Follow me,” Wayne said.

We walked into the service area, and I
noticed that two cars were on lifts, side by side at the same
level. One was pointed in one direction, while the other one was
just the opposite.

“What am I supposed to be looking at?” I
asked as I studied both cars.

“One belongs to the Jones family, and the
other one is Paul Gray’s vehicle. Look a little closer. Don’t you
see it?” Wayne asked.

“All I see are two cars. One has a dented
front fender, and the other has a busted back one.”

Wayne nodded. “That’s all true enough, but
try to imagine how they might have happened. Study both fenders,
and take your time.”

I looked, but I really didn’t see anything.
“I’m not sure why I’m doing this. One hit a tree and a car, and the
other sideswiped a parked car. What do they have in common?”

Wayne stepped between the cars as he
explained, “This is the front left fender, and this is the right
rear.”

“Okay, I can see that much.”

“Now look closer.”

I stepped up, and studied one ding, and then
the other. “The paint on this fender matches the paint on that
one,” I said.

“Excellent,” Wayne said as he nodded in
approval.

“So, does that mean that Kelly hit Asher
while she was driving Paul Gray’s car?”

“Not necessarily. Asher could have just as
easily have hit the car Kelly was driving. There’s no way to tell,
based on the impact.”

“Why would one of my suspects hit the other
one?” I thought about the possibilities, and then I said, “Hang on
a second. If these cars hit each other, who knocked Loretta Jenkins
off the road?”

“We won’t know that until the police lab does
a lot more tests. The sheriff’s going to confiscate both fenders
for further analysis, but at this point, there’s no visual evidence
that either one of them hit the Jenkins car.”

“Is there any chance that the car that hit
Loretta’s tried to scrape the paint off onto the other car?”

Wayne laughed. “What are you, a cop? That’s
exactly what the sheriff asked.”

I felt pleased to hear the compliment. “And
what did you tell him?”

“Some paint might have transferred, but they
shouldn’t have any problem determining which vehicle hit the
Jenkins car.”

“How long will that take?” I asked.

“I have no idea. All I know is that as soon
as I get each fender removed, I’m supposed to call the sheriff back
so he can pick them up and send them to Raleigh for analysis.”

“So, it won’t be anytime soon, then,” I
said.

“Hey, I’m just a simple mechanic,” Wayne said
as he spread his hands out. “I have no idea.”

“I kind of doubt that,” I said. “What’s your
hunch? Do you have one?”

“I have a guess, but I’m not one hundred
percent sure, so I hate to say it out loud. Do you know what I
mean? I might be damaging someone’s reputation here.”

“Don’t worry. Right now I believe that either
one of them could have done it, so you won’t be sullying anything
in my eyes.”

“I understand that, but I’d still rather not
say.”

“I can respect that,” I said. “Thanks for the
show.”

“You’re welcome. For what it’s worth, I hope
you catch the bad guy.”

“That makes two of us,” I said. Things still
didn’t make sense, and I knew that I was running out of time.

Chapter 17

Instead of going straight back to the diner,
I decided to take a drive and try to come up with a solution that
explained the whirlwind of facts swarming around my mind. After
wandering aimlessly around for twenty minutes, I figured that it
would make more sense for me to just head home. After all, my
backyard was my perfect oasis away from the world, and I could
really think there. I might even light a fire on the new propane
fire pit. Dancing flames had a way of stimulating my thoughts
sometimes. And in the end, what could it hurt? At least I’d get to
have a fire. When I got there, though, I couldn’t find the long
matches Greg had bought especially for lighting the fire, and I
didn’t feel like going inside to hunt around for them. I played
with one of the green propane cylinders, tossing it from hand to
hand as I pondered all of the possibilities. It was warm enough
sitting in the sun, anyway. We’d need a fire tonight if we came
out, but for now, just sitting by the pit was enough.

I had a hunch that I had all of the facts I
needed to figure this mess out, if I were only clever enough to
come up with the killer. The key had to be somewhere in the
accident that had forced Loretta Jenkins off that road this
morning. It was clear, at least to me, that it had to be one of our
final suspects, Kelly or Asher. I was leaning toward Asher at the
moment, but I had to wonder if he could actually kill his own
father. I knew that it was a popular theme in mythology, but in
real life, I just couldn’t buy it. Could someone else have done it
for him, though? What about Sylvia? She’d certainly seemed afraid
earlier when she’d come by the diner, but her fear of her son could
be real enough to explain her behavior. What if Asher had
discovered that his mother had killed Roy Thompson for him? It
might just be enough to drive him over the edge. Then Asher could
have gone after Loretta, not so much for the money, but for trying
to steal what he regarded as his birthright. If that were the case,
though, why hadn’t he made an attempt on Kelly’s life yet? After
all, she was getting half of the estate if the current will made it
through probate. Did that explain the struggle at her apartment? Or
was there another, more sinister, reason that he’d saved Kelly for
last? Then I remembered that I’d seen Asher near the diner when
Kelly had visited us there earlier. Had he been waiting to talk to
my grandfather and me, or Kelly? When she left, she’d said that she
had an appointment she’d forgotten about. Could it have been with
Asher, her partner in crime?

Why not? Things suddenly started to fall into
place. Asher and Kelly both had a great deal to gain by Roy
Thompson’s death if they knew about his last will and testament,
and the fact that it was about to be changed would be something
they would each want to stop. The two of them would have both lost
fortunes, and I knew that stranger conspiracies had been founded on
a great deal less in the past.

Suspecting it and proving it were two
different things, though.

I had to wonder if my grandfather and I could
trap one of them into confessing. I’d go back to the diner and get
Moose, and we’d give it our best try.

I never got the chance, though.

Asher came around the side of the house as I
was getting ready to head back out, and before I even had a chance
to react, I had a gun pointed straight at my heart.

“What are you doing, Asher?” I asked as he
gestured for me to go back toward the fire pit. I had no choice but
to obey.

“Drop the act, Victoria. I saw you at the
auto repair shop before, and then I followed you around until you
came back here. It’s pretty obvious that you know that I’m the one
who forced my so-called sister off the road today.”

“Actually, Kelly did a fairly good job of
trying to protect you there. When she rammed your car with Paul
Gray’s vehicle, flecks of paint lodged on both fenders. It might
not be enough to get you off in court, but then again, there’s a
legitimate shadow of doubt that she planted there. You got lucky
when you chose your partner in crime. My guess is that she’s been
running the show from the start.”

Kelly must have been waiting out of sight in
the bushes, because when I said her name, she knew that I realized
that she was a part of this murder conspiracy, so she stepped out
and joined us.

At least she was unarmed. “You’re smarter
than I gave you credit for, Victoria,” Kelly said. “How did you
know that I was in on it?”

“It’s the only way it all made sense. You
must have stumbled upon Roy’s will at some point. And why wouldn’t
you? After all, you had access to everything the man did. I’m
guessing that when Roy told you to summon Paul Gray and bring
witnesses with him, you knew that the riches you’d been holding out
for were all about to disappear. Did you approach Asher with your
plan, or did he think of it himself?”

“We decided together that my father had to
go,” Asher said indignantly. It was clear that the man was
constantly being manipulated by women, first his mother, and then
Kelly.

“Fine, whatever you say, Asher,” I said. I
always made it a point never to argue with a man holding a gun on
me.

I had nothing to lose, and at least maybe I’d
be able to discover the truth if I pushed them both a little now.
It would be little solace, but at least I wouldn’t die of
curiosity. “Kelly, I’m guessing you’re the one who poisoned the
cake. It’s hard for me to imagine that a man could kill his own
father in cold blood like that.”

“Whether I did it or not, good luck proving
it. I’m willing to bet that no one even saw me at the festival,”
Kelly said.

“You had time, though, didn’t you? I’m sure
that no one noticed that you were gone from the office, but if we
go through the photos the police collected, I’m willing to wager
that you turn up somewhere, unless you were smart enough to
disguise yourself.”

She smiled as I said it, so I had a hunch
that I was right on the money. “As I say, this is all speculation
on your part. It will be impossible to establish any of that.”

“Maybe so, but with Asher’s testimony, I
don’t need to prove anything.”

“We’re partners,” Kelly said with a hard
laugh. “If I go down, he knows that I’ll take him with me.”

“Does that include the plan to get rid of
Loretta Jenkins, too? That was a pretty desperate act, wouldn’t you
say? Actually, it was the only sloppy part of your entire
plan.”

“Asher did that all on his own; I can assure
you of that.”

“She had to go! There was no way I was going
to let her mess up our perfect plan. Why didn’t you just use your
new fire pit, Victoria?” Asher asked a little petulantly as he
looked at me. “It would have saved us all from this mess.”

“What did you to do to our pit?” I asked,
thinking about how close I’d come to lighting it half an hour
earlier.

“The first match you struck would have been
your last,” Asher said with a little too much pride for my comfort.
“Now we have to do it ourselves.”

I had to move fast, and I had to do it
now.

The small propane tank I’d been playing with
earlier was within my reach, and I hoped that if I could throw it
at Asher long enough to distract him, maybe I could make it to the
woods behind our house before he could recover.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all that
I had.

But first I had to say something that would
get that gun off me. “Kelly’s going to kill you after you get rid
of me. You know that, don’t you, Asher?”

“Don’t listen to her. You know that I
wouldn’t do that. Like I said, we’re partners,” Kelly said, doing
her best to reassure him of her intentions.

“Think about it. People around her seem to
keep ending up dead. Did you notice that, Asher?”

“You don’t understand. I would have been
willing to wait, but Dad
had
to die,” he said. “He was going
to ruin everything when he wanted to change his will.”

I had no idea if what I was about to say was
true or not, but that didn’t matter at this point. Every time Asher
spoke to Kelly, the gun pointed toward her as well. I needed to use
that to my advantage. “You could have challenged the new will
yourself in court. After all, you have legal standing. Kelly would
have been out in the cold, though. You didn’t need to kill your
father, Asher. All you had to do was just wait for him to die.”

“Is that true?” Asher asked Kelly as he
pointed the gun toward her subconsciously.

I couldn’t afford to wait for her to respond.
I knew how slick Kelly was, and if I hesitated now, the next order
she’d give him would be to shoot me.

I reached down, picked up the cylinder, and
threw it straight at Asher.

It didn’t hit him directly, but it did manage
to startle him enough to make him drop his gun on the ground. I
planned to let the two of them fight for it while I was running for
my life.

I never made it two steps into the woods.

“Both of you stay right where you are!” Kelly
barked. I looked back to see that she was now holding a
small-caliber pistol in her hand, and more significantly, she was
fanning it between the two of us.

“What are you doing?” Asher asked. He was
clearly outraged by the new dynamic of the situation. I wasn’t sure
if I was any better off now, but I wasn’t any worse off,
either.

“Asher, you’re becoming more of a liability
than an asset,” Kelly said. “If I play this right, I can get rid of
both of you. Here’s how this is going to play out. Asher, it’s
going to look as though you shot Victoria, but not before she
managed to get off a kill shot of her own.”

I had to give Asher credit. Whether it was
through rage or a strong sense of self preservation, he lashed out
at her in an instant.

Without hesitation, Kelly shot him in the
chest at fairly close range.

I couldn’t stay to see how he was.

Asher was on his own now; I had to try to
save myself.

The caliber of Kelly’s gun looked small
enough so that I figured if I could put some distance between us, I
might still get out of this alive.

I started for the woods when I heard a
familiar voice call out behind us all, “Drop the weapon, Kelly. You
have two seconds, and then I’m putting you down.”