Dandelion Dead (32 page)

“Shouldn't we wait for backup?”

“The man could be dying, Simon! Let's go!”

“I'll do it on the way!”

I took off my heels and his jacket and left the items on the cliff face, and we headed down the wooden steps that led to the rocky beach. Any kid who grew up out here, including me, knew that there were 101 steps from the top to the bottom, and it certainly seemed like a long way down tonight. The steps were in need of repair, and more than once I almost put my foot right through, and the railing was rickety and unstable.

As we got closer to the beach, Simon tried repeatedly to call Jackson and 911, but he couldn't get a signal. “I have no bars,” he kept screaming. “Is it too much to ask for one freakin' stinkin' bar!”

A few minutes later we reached the beach and made our way across the large stones and between the boulders to the cliff's edge, where the body had fallen.

But it wasn't David Farmer, it was Gerald Parker.

“Gerald? Gerald! It's Simon and Willow,” Simon said. “Are you okay?”

Gerald opened his eyes and choked out, “No . . . just wanted to talk. Make it fair.” He closed his eyes again.

“Gerald, who did this to you?” I said, but his eyes remained closed. He had a bloody gash over his left eye, and bruises all over his face. His pants were ripped at the knees, and his right arm stuck out at an odd angle and was probably broken.

“Gerald! Answer her,” Simon yelled.

Gerald opened his eyes and stared into the inky blackness of the sky. “Two of them.” His eyes closed, and he opened his hand. On his palm were two leaves from one of the poison-hemlock plants on the lawn. Suddenly, the night seemed so still, except for the waves lapping at the shore.

“Oh my God, he's dead, isn't he?”

“Simon, we need to get out of here.” I stood up. “I think I know what's going on.”

“Now you figure it out? You couldn't have done so a little earlier?”

“Stuff it. Get going, and try to get the police and Jackson again.”

We climbed back up at double time while Simon repeatedly tried to reach someone and became more and more panicked as we neared the top of the steps. “I still can't get a freakin' bar! What is it with this place? I thought that sound signals or something travel better over water. I can't believe this. We should never have come out here alone. We should have waited for Jackson. Oh my God, I realize that we could be next!”

“Keep trying. And try not to freak out.”

“I can't stay calm at a time like this! Damnit! It won't go through. Hey, what were you saying about figuring it out? Who did this?”

Finally, we reached the top and stepped onto the ground. As we did, I said, “It all fits now, I think it's—”

But before I could finish, someone stepped out of the shadows, pointing a gun at us. “Surprise, you two. It's me, Amy.” She had a fiendish look in her eyes, as if the mask she'd been wearing for the past week had slipped, and the bottom of her red formfitting dress now had grass and dirt stains on the hem.

“Amy?” Simon said. “Amy's dead. Amy? Oh my God! What is happening?”

“Actually, I'm very much alive.” Amy smiled. She'd put back on the red lipstick that she'd always worn in life. In the moonlight, her skin washed of color, she looked almost ghoulish.

“It's Amy, all right,” I said. “And I think I can prove it. But I need to open my purse.”

“Do you have a gun?”

“No, of course not.”

“You should in your line of work. It can be dangerous.” She smiled even wider. “Go ahead, open it.”

I opened it, pulled out the wallet, and took out the receipt. “I found this in Amy's coat in the guesthouse closet. It's a receipt for a very particular shade of lipstick. The only shade that Amy likes to wear—Ivy, on the other hand, goes for pink and coral hues.”

“I don't get it.” Simon shook his head. “Lipstick? What?”

“This receipt is dated Thursday, four days after
Amy died. She wouldn't have much use for lipstick in the afterlife.”

“Very good, Willow. I picked it up this week. You see, I'd run out of Bodacious Ruby Red Lip Love, and it is
my
signature hue. And I like to wear it when I'm by myself at night in my guesthouse.”

“That's why you didn't get rid of any of your clothes, too.”

“I might need them.”

“I don't get it. If you're Amy, then why did you kill Gerald?”

“Usually, I am very organized, but it slipped my mind that I'd left my share of Pure to Gerald. Things happened so fast on Sunday that I had to improvise. Gerald inheriting part of Pure just didn't work for me, so I eliminated that glitch. Now, Amy's money will go to me as Ivy. It keeps it all in the family.” She took out her cell phone and checked something.

“What happened to your watch?”

“That was my sister Ivy's, it's not something I need or want. So I got rid of it.” She put the phone in her pocket. “You're very clever to have figured it out, Willow, but it's too bad that you won't live to tell anyone.”

•  •  •

It was after midnight, early
Monday morning, when Amy Lord took our cell phones and threw them into the Sound, pointed her gun at us, and told us to walk directly to the parking lot on the east side of Southwold Hall. Simon seemed to be barely holding it together and kept throwing me panicky looks, but thanks to daily
meditation, even though I was very cold, my mind was clear, and I quickly formulated a plan.

Beginning with the steps at the cliffside, heading toward the parking lot, I decided to create a trail for Jackson and others to follow. Thanks to the cloud cover that obscured the moon, it was now pitch-black outside, and Amy Lord would have limited visibility. I was free to act.

First, acting as if I were brushing my hair out of my face, I carefully reached up and pulled my right earring off and dropped it to the ground. When I had walked another few feet, I repeated my actions with the left earring. The next time, I dropped the ring that Jackson had just given me, and when I was out of jewelry, I tugged at the beads that were attached to the silver lace on my dress and dropped them, too.

Amy directed us to her late sister's Mercedes and handed Simon the keys. “Simon, you drive. Willow, sit in the passenger seat. I'll be in the back and I'll have the gun on both of you. So no surprises.”

We got inside the car. Amy got in the back. As Simon fastened his seat belt, he gave me a look of pure desperation. Turning my head so that Amy couldn't see, I mouthed,
It's going to be okay
.

He blew out a breath and put the key in the ignition. “Where are we going?”

“Back to Pure. I have to make a deposit, and a withdrawal.”

“What?” Simon said. “What does that mean?”

“Go! And no talking!”

When we arrived at Pure, Amy said, “Go around and pull up next to the B and B so no one sees the car.”

Simon did as he was told and drove across the grass path next to the vines in front of Pure, around the bed-and-breakfast, and parked the car. I couldn't decide whether we should try to jump her or wait it out and hope that Jackson and the police arrived soon.

“I know what you're thinking, and don't try it,” Amy said. “Now, get out of the car slowly, and remember that I have a gun pointed at your backs.” We got out of the car and waited for her instructions. “Go to the barn, and open the door.” When we got inside, she pointed to the far side of the barn. “Walk down there.”

“You're not going to shoot us, are you?” Simon said. “Don't shoot us!”

“No, I'm not going to shoot you, but I am going to put you in a place where you can't escape. You see that handle on the floor? Simon, grab it and pull.”

He opened the compartment and looked in. “What is this?”

“That's the crawl space. Get in.”

“I'm not going in there,” Simon said. “It's dark and creepy.”

“Okay, so you want me to shoot you instead? Fine.”

“No, no! Don't shoot! I'll go!” He climbed down the ladder.

“Now, you.”

“Amy, this is nuts, you can't get away with this.”

“I think I can. I have plenty of cash since I withdrew most of Ivy and David's money, I have a current passport, and if they ever do find you, I'll be in a nice warm climate.”

“Did you plan to kill Gerald tonight?”

“No, things got out of hand, and people saw me go outside with him. So when they find his body they'll put it together—even these dumb cops. So that's why I have to leave. For good. Now get in there.”

Stuffy, dusty, and dirty, the
crawl space ran the length and width of the barn, but with only about three feet from the ground to the beams that bolstered the wine cellar's floor. Cobwebs covered the walls, the corners, the beams, the window frames, and discarded objects, including an old hot-water heater, a broken lawn chair, a cracked BBQ, and a tarp. But at least the light near the stairs worked.

“This place is filthy,” Simon said. “This is really going to set off all my allergies, big-time, plus I'm all hunched over because I can't stand up in here, so there goes my back.”

“Simon, you're alive, that's what's important. So give it a rest and start thinking of ways to get out.”

“How are we going to do that? She locked the door, and those windows are too small.”

“If we could find some kind of tool, we could dig around one of the windows to make the opening larger and crawl out. Let's take a look around and see what we can find.” The two of us began to scuttle around the space, trying to avoid hitting our heads on the beams above.

“Okay,” Simon said, “I really wish she hadn't taken your phone.”

“Tell me about it.” As I stepped forward, I kicked something with my foot that made a metallic sound as it hit the wall.

“What's that?”

“I think it's a hammer.” I went over and picked it up. “Yup.”

“Hey, I found a screwdriver.”

“Good, I'll work on the left side of the window, you work on the right.”

•  •  •

Half an hour later, we
hadn't made much progress, and we were both cold, tired, and thirsty.

“Now what?” Simon said. “We just hope that someone finds us, and if not, we die down here? I hate that plan.”

“Me, too.” I used the hammer to shatter the window, and glass shards landed on the grass outside. “Start yelling. If anyone is around besides Amy, maybe they'll hear us.”

“Help! Help! We're stuck in the crawl space!”

“Yeah, help us! We're in the barn—under the barn in the crawl space. Help!”

A few minutes later, the handle on the door to the crawl space turned, and the door opened. “You called?”

“Jackson!” I ran up the stairs, and he enveloped me in a warm hug. “I'm so glad that you're here!”

“Me, too, McQuade, me, too. I was worried about you. But then I heard you two yelling, and here I am.”

Simon climbed out and collapsed on the floor. “Thank goodness you came. We were trying to dig ourselves out and it wasn't going well.”

“Not at all. But how did you know that we were here?”

“Well, when you two didn't come back inside, I went outside to look for you using a flashlight from one of the guys who works at the hall. I did a grid pattern, and on the first pass, I saw your earring by the cliff—and spotted Gerald's body on the beach—then I spotted the other one, and then the ring, and the beads from your dress and followed them to an empty space in the parking lot.”

“But how did you know that we were here?” I said.

“After I found the empty parking space near the last few beads you dropped on the asphalt, I went into the security center at Southwold Hall and asked them to run the surveillance video. One of the cameras had a good view of you and Simon and Ivy behind you with a gun, walking into the parking lot and getting into her Mercedes. So I called the police and told them about Gerald and what Ivy had done, and came here since I thought this is where she might take you, parked halfway down the road so she wouldn't hear me, and walked the rest of the way. If you weren't here, Ivy's house would have been my next stop.”

“But it isn't Ivy, it's Amy,” I said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Somehow Amy switched identities with Ivy. But I'm not sure how.”

“What are you talking about? Please, please explain.”

“In my wallet tonight, I found the receipt from
Amy's guest cottage for this specific type of lipstick that only she wore.”

“Lipstick? I don't get it.”

“The date on the receipt for Amy's special lipstick?”

“Yes . . .”

“Was Thursday, four days after her death. So unless Amy needed lipstick, specifically Bodacious Ruby Red Lip Love, in the afterlife, there is no reason to buy it.”

“Unless Amy was very much alive.”

“Exactly. And when I told Ivy my theory, she confirmed that it was true. Ivy
is
really Amy Lord.”

“Wow,” Jackson said. “Amazing. You're good.”

“She is,” Simon said.

“So where is Amy now?” Jackson said. “There's still a Mercedes parked next to the B and B.”

“She said she had to make a deposit and a withdrawal. I think that we were the deposit.”

“Me, too,” Simon said. “For sure.”

“So what's the withdrawal?”

“That's a very good question,” Jackson said.

Jackson, Simon, and I left
the barn and began looking for Amy Lord. First, we checked the bed-and-breakfast, and not finding her there, we went into the main building at Pure. But the tasting room was empty, with only the lights above the art on the walls for illumination.