Dandelion Dead (33 page)

“Where to next?” I said.

“Wait a minute,” Jackson said. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” I said.

“Listen, it sounds like someone is moving around in Ivy's office.”

We moved quietly toward the door in the tasting room that led to the office and listened again. “I think she's in there,” Jackson said, taking out his gun. “Is she armed?”

“Yes, she has a gun.”

“Where are the police?” Jackson said. “I called them when I left Southwold Hall.”

“If we wait, she might get away,” I said. “And Lily might go to prison for a crime she didn't commit.”

“It wouldn't even be for the right person, because Amy is alive and Ivy is dead,” Simon said.

“I know. We need to act, we can't wait,” Jackson said. “I'm going to see if the other door to the office is open and I can see what she's doing.”

He took off and went around the corner to Ivy's office. We couldn't hear him moving around: hopefully neither could she. Moments later, he returned and waved us over to the doorway. “She's trying to get into the office safe.”

“I guess that's what she meant about making a withdrawal,” I said. “But she told us she already had money.”

“If you're going to live your life on the run,” Jackson said. “You always need more money.”

“But why did she wait until now to get it?” Simon said.

“Because she wasn't planning on going,” I said. “Until she had that confrontation with Gerald and killed him, she was good. The police had arrested Lily. She could stay as long as she liked.”

“So what's the plan?” Simon said.

“The safe is over the couch on the right wall facing the desk,” Jackson said. “She's standing on the couch and trying different combinations. I spotted the gun on the desk.”

“At least she's not holding it,” I said.

“Yes, but she could grab it.”

“What are you going to do?” Simon said.

“I've got the element of surprise on my side, at least. I'll go in the door from the main room and pull my gun on her, but she may try for the gun or make a run for it, so you two need to stay away from this door.”

I nodded. “Where should we be stationed?”

“Get behind the tasting bar, and stay low. If you hear shots, run out the back.”

“Be careful,” I said.

“I will,” Jackson said. “Stay alert.”

He left the room, and Simon and I got behind the mahogany tasting-room bar, where I found a full-size flashlight that worked. Moments later, we heard Jackson say, “Amy, put your hands up. It's over.” Then we heard the sound of glass shattering, a gunshot, and someone running. Seconds later, Amy burst through the tasting-room door, headed for the barn.

“Jackson? Jackson!”

“I'm okay.” He ran through the tasting-room door. “She threw the painting that was over the safe at me, and I shot at her leg but missed. I just wanted to stop her, but now we've got to catch her. She's got the cash from the safe, and she's on the run.”

“Does she have the gun?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

We ran out of the tasting room following the beam of the flashlight I'd found inside, and down the pathway in time to see Amy running toward the B and B.

“Amy, stop!” Jackson fired a warning shot over her head, but she kept running. When she got to the B and B, she turned the corner.

“She's going for the car!” Simon said.

When we reached the corner, Jackson said, “You two, stay back!”

He stuck his head around the corner of the building, and Amy fired a shot, then revved the engine. “I'm going to try and blow out the tires to stop her.” Jackson
stepped out and fired.
Bam!
“I got the rear tire! She's out of the car and running for the back fields!”

Simon and I ran up to Jackson and watched as Amy ran away from the car carrying a satchel. We ran after her as she headed across the field, past row after row of vines, toward the Halloween corn maze.

By now the cloud cover had passed, and the full moon illuminated the land, casting a wide beam of light across the vineyard, but as we approached the corn maze, the clouds returned, plunging us into darkness. Sunday had been the last night of the festivities here, but all the decorations were still in place, if not the friendly Dracula who'd greeted us on Friday night.

“How do you want to do this?” I said.

“Slowly, and I'll go first since I have the gun,” Jackson said. “You two stay behind me. Hopefully, the police will get here soon, so if we flush her out, they can catch her as she runs to her car. There's really no place else for her to go.”

I pointed the beam of the flashlight onto the red arrows spray-painted on the ground. “Let's go.”

With Simon and I walking behind Jackson, we made our way past Marcy's Creepy Goop Corner, but no mummies greeted us this time. Neither did we see the costumed Harry Potter, Ariel from
The
Little Mermaid
, or the Hulk touching gross guts, the eyeballs of naughty children, and a strawberry-colored brain, and eating witches' boogers or being kissed by a wolf. Or the zombies, mummies, vampires, and ghosts who had jumped out to scare us.

Slowly, we rounded another corner and found the central station for the kids with the neon butterfly
bush, the face-painting station, and pumpkins with pink wigs.

Jackson stopped and whispered, “Did you hear that?”

“What?” I said, looking around.

“I thought I heard someone behind us.”

“That can't be Amy,” Simon said. We took a few more steps in silence, and he stopped. “Wait a minute, you hear that?” He pointed ahead. “I think I heard somebody up there.”

“Keep going slowly,” Jackson said. “We're moving into the Super Scary area. She could be hiding there.”

We continued along, following the bloodstains that now led the way. No
Friday the 13th
actor was chasing us with a chain saw tonight, but this was far more intense—an armed killer could be waiting in the shadows.

We walked past the place where the army of bloody scarecrows with pitchforks had been and came to the area where the mad scientist had been operating on a monster's skull, and the fake corpse was still on the table. Suddenly, a shot rang out.

“Get down, everyone!” Jackson said. A shot zinged past his shoulder and exited through the wall of the corn maze. Jackson grabbed my arm and Simon's and pulled us to the right, and around the corner.
Zing!
Another shot rang out and flew through the corn maze.

“You're making me mad.” Amy's voice sounded disembodied and otherworldly. “And you're going to pay for it.”

“She must be on the PA,” Jackson said. A cloud of black smoke started blowing through the maze.
“Now she's trying to disorient us. It sounds like she's to the left.” Jackson pointed to his right. “We need to keep moving. If we can get out of the maze and circle around, we can trap her from behind.”

“You're not going to get away,” Amy taunted. We started to run, as fast as we could, with Jackson in the lead, then me, then Simon. We passed the elaborate abandoned cemetery without the zombies and—
zing!
Another shot rang out.

Jackson pushed us out of the way and fired back. “She's getting closer, keep running, as fast as you can!”

We turned the corner and kept running, through the darkness and the smoke, and another shot rang out. “Unfortunately, I think she's got a semiautomatic,” Jackson said. “Which means that she's not going to run out of ammo anytime soon.” He fired back at her. “Our only hope is to get out of here. Double-time it!”

We made the next corner and took the turn, but then Jackson tripped over another corpse in the middle of the path, and Simon and I ended up in a scrum on top of him. Another shot rang out, and then another, and we heard a woman scream. We stopped and listened to the silence.

The PA crackled, and Amy said, “I have some friends of yours, and mine. Stop and stay where you are if you want them to stay alive.”

Moments later, out of the smoke appeared David; Tony, who held his hand; and Lily, who favored her shoulder—and Amy with her semiautomatic pistol pointed at their backs. In her other hand she carried the satchel full of money from Ivy's safe.

“What did you do to them?” I said. “Lily, Tony, are you all right?”

“She shot the gun out of my hand and winged Lily in the shoulder. But we're okay.”

Amy gestured to Jackson. “Drop the gun, or your girlfriend gets it.”

Jackson looked at me, then put his gun on the ground. “You need to give yourself up. We've called the police. They're on their way.”

“I don't think so. You see, I called them and told them that it was a false alarm. That you all had been found and everyone was okay.”

“They're cops,” Jackson said. “And I told them that you kidnapped Willow and Simon. They're coming.”

“Okay, you got me. I called them and told them I was holding you two hostage at my house in Orient.” She looked at her watch. “They should be there right about now.”

“And when they don't find you, they'll come here,” Jackson said. “They're not stupid.”

“I think they are. But I'll be long gone before that.”

Lily moved her shoulder and let out a groan.

“I really wish you hadn't come here, Lily. What are you doing here?” I said.

“We couldn't find you at Southwold Hall, so I checked in with Max Becker, a cop friend of mine, now retired, who's the head of security,” Tony said. “He told us about Jackson viewing the surveillance tapes and what he'd found. We both figured you'd be here. The cops are AWOL, so I called them and we headed over.”

“We searched the grounds and got to the barn,”
David said. “And then we heard someone on the PA that sounded like Ivy, saying she was mad or something. We didn't understand what was going on, but we figured you were in the maze, so we headed in, and Ivy came at us with a gun. I think she's lost her mind.”

“Her name is Amy,” I said. “Not Ivy.”

“Amy? Amy's dead,” David said. “Now you've lost it.”

“It's true, David,” Simon said. “Ivy is dead. This is Amy.”

David's eyes opened wide. “What in the hell are you talking about?”

Quickly I explained again how I'd figured out that Ivy was actually Amy.

“That's totally crazy,” David said. “I know my wife.”

Amy pointed the gun at David. “Clearly you don't.”

“What is happening? I don't understand.”

Amy smiled. “I killed my sister, Ivy, with the poison hemlock that I found last week during my walk through the fields. I garnished four of the scallop appetizers with it, and brought them to Ivy on my plate. I told her I'd saved them for her because that appetizer was almost completely gone. I knew she'd eat them without question, because she loves scallops.”

“And then we were talking and she offered me two of hers, because she knows I love them, too,” David said.

Amy nodded. “Yes, I didn't cound on that. And then you offered one to me. Hilarious.” She smirked.

“But then I got that call from Nora,” David said.

“Yes, and you left your scallop appetizer on the table. If you hadn't, you'd be dead by now, too.”

“But if you're Amy—you ate it,” David said. “I saw you.”

She shook her head. “No, I didn't. I knew it was poisoned, duh. It only looked like I did.”

“So when the poison killed Ivy, it's because it had been on the appetizer she ate,” Jackson said. “That's why they found it in her stomach.”

“Correct, but I threw out the remains of the poison hemlock on both of your plates so it could never be tested or traced to me. Not that anyone would have figured it out.”

“And after Ivy was dead, before you screamed at the party and we all ran in, you switched places with her—you became her,” I said. “But why? How? David told me that Ivy had a distinctive birthmark on her leg—how did you fake that?”

“Fooling all of you was easy. When we were kids, we'd often dress up as each other and fool people. We had different tastes even then. I loved pink and she loved purple. But as we got older, we kept doing it, even in college at parties and events if we were bored. As for the birthmark, I just didn't sleep with David right away and went up the island to a shop and had a tattoo artist fake one. David never questioned it.”

“Wait a minute, what do you mean about switching identities when you were at college?” David said, aghast. “Was I engaged to you or Ivy when we were at BU?”

“That was all me.” Amy stepped closer and leveled the gun at David's chest. “I loved you so much. The day we got engaged was the happiest day of my life. But, of course, my big sister, Ivy, ruined that.”

“What? How?”

“I know that Ivy sent you a letter before graduation telling you that I had been pregnant with a baby boy
and ended it without telling you. She even went so far as to create a phony lab report from the clinic. And you believed her and broke off our engagement. But it was all a lie. I was never pregnant.”

“But that document looked so real, and when I talked to Ivy, she seemed so sure, like she was telling the truth.”

“She wasn't.” Amy poked the gun at David's chest. “And because you wouldn't let me explain, no matter how many times I tried, I never had the chance to tell you the truth. The fact that you ended up engaged to Ivy—which is what she wanted, and we all know that she gets what she wants—destroyed my life. And when last week I found the letter that she'd sent to you, I decided you both needed to pay.”

Suddenly, I realized something. “You're the one who sent that message to Ivy on her watch the day of the party about her being a bitch and paying for something she did.”