Death Loved A Woman (Happy Holloway Mystery Book 2) (12 page)

“
S
hadow
,” Annie called out the back door. The dog didn’t come. She tried seeing in the darkness and failed. With a pale moon overhead, she saw nothing more than a few leaves and branches closer to the house. He could be wandering anywhere or not even on her property. “Darn animal.”

“Leave him be,” Flynn said behind her. “He’ll come home when he’s ready.”

She sighed and shut the door. “Fine. Are you hungry? I have leftovers. The smoky chicken and rice was a new idea, and it turned out decently. I’m proud of it.”

He grinned. “Sounds good. I think while you heat it up, I’m going to pull my car into the garage.”

“I almost never use it, but feel free.” She pulled the leftovers from the fridge and began plating them to put into the microwave. “Wait, are you scared people will talk? Because trust me, half the block already knows you’re here.”

He burst out laughing. “I’m sure they do, but no I have another reason. I’ll tell you later.”

Annie busied herself in the kitchen, thinking of the case. Since Mr. Witman had fallen for Barbara Jean’s story that she had a license to prove she was married to his son, it was likely he wasn’t the one that stole it in the first place. Nor did it sound like he was working hand in hand with his attorney to kill Annie.

She shivered, recalling the threats the man made. Mr. Witman was used to letting his money and position handle matters. Then there was Racine, the next in line to receive money from her mother’s estate.

Was Racine the leader behind the attorney’s actions? Maybe Racine told Kelley she would give him a healthy reward if he got rid of Barbara Jean. After all, she had used her stepson. Annie would discuss it with Flynn when he came back into the house.

A short while later, Annie and Flynn sat down at her kitchen table to eat, and her heart raced again. This was so domestic, and while she had eaten with Flynn several nights at her house, the fact that they were sort of a couple now made it real.

“What?” he asked, finding her watching him.

“Nothing.” Annie picked up a forkful of food, but her appetite abandoned her. She never thought she would see the day. Food was a huge part of her life—her love life. She adored it, but the pounds on her hips and thighs said it was an unrequited love.

Or too much love.

“I have to admit that I’m super scared, Flynn.”

“Don’t be. I’ll protect you.”

She smiled. “That’s sweet, but I meant about us.”

“We agreed. You can’t go back on your word.”

She laughed. “I wasn’t. Annie Holloway doesn’t back down from a challenge. Mostly.”

“If you run, I’ll chase you.”

Instead of making her afraid, his teasing excited her. Her insides warmed, a foreign feeling. She still couldn’t handle a full on embrace. That hug earlier had almost set her off, but at least she didn’t try to scratch his eyes out like the first time.

“You’ll sleep on the couch or in the spare bedroom,” she told him.

“Of course.”

She tried to see if he was disappointed but couldn’t spot anything. Flynn was fully prepared to go at her pace. “Okay, well I’m a little tired, so I’m going to take a shower and change. We can watch a movie after if you want.”

“Sure.”

She left him to stack the dishwasher after he offered. Her full intention was to go over the kitchen after her shower. An hour later, they settled in the living room with the lights turned off and only the glow from the TV illuminating the room.

Annie sat near Flynn on the couch, but their legs didn’t touch. She noticed his wet hair from the shower, and he had changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt.

Feeling shy, Annie reached for his hand and held it. Flynn squeezed hers. She never thought she would feel comfortable enough to hold anyone’s hand other than her sister Jane’s. Embarrassment washed over her at the fact that she felt triumph holding a man’s hand at her age.

A sound at the back of the house made her stiffen. Flynn pressed a finger to his lips, and her eyes widened. He didn’t look surprised at all. Was he waiting for someone to try to break in? Was that why he hid his car inside her garage?

Flynn signaled for her to wait there, but she grabbed a small vase and gripped it in both shaking hands to follow him. When they were almost at the back door, a shadow separated from the wall and hurtled toward Flynn.

“Flynn, look out,” she shouted.

“What?” came a deep, startled voice. The person slid to a stop, but his momentum brought him into Flynn’s range. Flynn swung a fist, and Annie heard the crack of impact.

“Where are you going?” Flynn demanded.

The man fell backward, moving into the light cast from the TV down the hall and the moon through the back door’s window. He flipped to his hands and knees to try to crawl away, but Flynn chased after him and grabbed hold of his jacket.

“Annie, turn on the lights,” Flynn ordered.

She ran to do so, and a man about early forties came into view. Annie didn’t like judging people without knowing them, but with his faded and worn out slacks, dusty jacket and scruff on his face, the man came across as a smalltime petty crook type—the kind that couldn’t do well living a straight
or
crooked life.

Flynn gave him a shake and dropped him on the floor, hovering over him. The man cowered. “Hold on. I’m not a bad guy.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Who sent you?”

The man pressed his lips together and glanced with a worried expression at Annie. Flynn shook him again.

“Don’t look at her. Look at me, and you better start talking before I call the cops.”

“Whoa, uh, look, buddy. Don’t blame me. He said I should just scare her a little. That’s all. I swear.”

“Funny, the last time it seemed more serious.”

The man’s eyes bugged. “I’m not a killer.”

“Three seconds.”

“Kelley, all right? Kelley sent me. I’m just paying off a debt I sort of owe him. He kept me out of jail this last time in exchange for some work. This is my first time working for him. Please, if you let me go, I’ll—”

Flynn’s jaw clenched, and he leaned down closer to the man. Even Annie felt nervous at that look. She wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of Flynn’s anger. “Are you about to threaten us?”

The man squeaked in alarm. “No! I’m Kelvin. Kelvin Dempsey. I’m just small time. Petty theft. But I know a lot of guys in all kinds of stuff. If you let me go, I swear I’ll do you favors if you ever need me. All you have to do is call me and tell me what you want. I’ll get it for you.”

“Sounds like that’s the same deal you offered Kelley. One threat of the cops, and you sold him out.”

“Except that he’s a piece of work, and I would love to screw him over. To tell you the truth, he asked me to rough her up real good, but I don’t go in for hurting ladies. I was just going to scare her instead. I didn’t count on you being here. I only knew about the dog.”

Annie gasped. “Shadow!”

She spun away from the two of them and ran to the back door. When she flung it open, she expected the dog to run in and attack Kelvin for his gall, but only a chilly breeze blew in. Annie shivered and spun around.

“What did you do to Shadow? If you hurt him—”

He ducked as if he expected Flynn to punch him. “I don’t hurt pooches either. I just gave him something to make him go to sleep for a while.”

Annie cried out.

“He’s okay, I swear. In the back yard, out by the fence.” He pointed.

“Wait, Annie,” Flynn told her. “I’ll go find him.”

Annie ignored Flynn and ran out of the house. She almost fell off the end of the deck but kept moving, hapless of rocks and broken branches making her stumble in the darkness. Thank goodness the moon chose that moment to shine brighter. She picked her way to the back fence half by its pale light and half by memory.

At the rear of her property where it lined with the neighbor behind her, she came upon a low wall, almost flush with the ground but not quite. She’d seen it before but forgot about it. There, atop the broken bricks, was Shadow lying on his side.

Tears coursed down Annie’s cheeks, but when she rested a hand on Shadow’s side, she found him breathing easy as if he had decided to take a nap. “Good, boy,” she whispered. “I know you would have protected me if you could.”

Shadow was too big for her to carry, so she waited with him for Flynn to come. Thoughts of bugs crawling in the darkness popped into her head, but she hummed and stared at the sky to try to distract herself.

“Flynn, hurry up,
please
,” she shouted when she thought something brushed her ankle.

Flynn appeared beside her and raised the dog into his arms. Annie ran behind him as they entered the house. She looked around for Kelvin but found him gone. She dismissed him from her mind as she worried over Shadow.

“Easy, Annie,” Flynn said as he laid the dog on the living room carpet. “He’s just sleeping. If he doesn’t wake up in a little while, we’ll get him to an emergency vet.”

“That might be too late!”

He ran a hand over Shadow’s coat. “I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I believe Kelvin when he says he didn’t poison Shadow.”

“He might have. Maybe he was the one who poisoned Wesley.”

Flynn looked at her. “You’ve come to love Shadow, haven’t you? After you didn’t want to take him and despite having a hard time with his dirt and touching his coat?”

She frowned. “Okay, yes, I love him. I never thought I would. I told myself it was for a little while, until I couldn’t bear him anymore. But I want to keep him, Flynn. He has to be okay.”

“He will be. Trust me.”

Annie sank to the floor beside Flynn and Shadow. She watched as Flynn stroked the dog and spoke to him in a gentle, encouraging tone. When Annie began to yawn with sleepiness, her head kept dipping forward. Still, she stayed where she was, waiting. An hour later, Shadow raised his head and licked Flynn’s face. He started to do the same with Annie, but Flynn caught him. Annie sighed in relief that he was okay, and she and her canine buddy headed off to bed.

“
F
lynn
, what are you doing?” Annie asked, when he didn’t walk into Kelley’s secretary’s area right away. Instead, he lingered in the hall and peered down the passage.

“Making sure there’s no secondary door.” He frowned. “There is. If he suspects what we’re up to, I’m thinking he’ll try to break for it.

Flynn pulled his cell phone from his pocket. She knew what he intended to do, and that was call Sheriff Appleton. Unfortunately, all they had was circumstantial evidence so far. Annie hoped the attorney would crack under their questions and admit the truth. She had to admit, if only to herself, she wasn’t looking forward to this interview.

When she questioned Flynn about his conversation with Kelvin after she ran outside, he told her Kelvin refused to testify against Percy Kelley. He wanted no part of it, and as far as he was concerned, he was never at her house that night. Flynn had also told her no one would take Kelvin’s word over the prestigious attorney’s.

Flynn got off the phone looking frustrated, and Annie didn’t bother asking him how the conversation went. He threw open Kelley’s office door and strode in. Annie was hard on his heels.

“Play along, Annie,” Flynn whispered.

“With what?”

He kept walking without explaining.

“We’re here to talk to Kelley,” Flynn said. He spoke with the authoritative tone of a policeman. The secretary was sufficiently cowed. Her eyes widened, and the pages she held in her hand fluttered to the floor.

“Mr. Kelley isn’t in. If you’ll leave your name and—”

Flynn pivoted and headed straight to the door leading into Kelley’s office.”

“Hey, you can’t go in there,” the secretary called.

Flynn threw the door wide, and Annie gaped at finding Percy Kelley half standing and stuffing papers into a briefcase with an alarmed look on his face. Oh, he knew they were coming all right, and he was frightened.

“Taking a trip?” Flynn snarked.

“You have no right to be in here,” Kelley snapped. “Get out before I call security.”

Flynn waved his hand. “Don’t worry. I’ve already called the police.”

The blood faded from Kelley’s face, and he fell into his chair. He moaned and shut his eyes. “I don’t have the energy for this or the mental capacity. I was a fool to even think it would work out.”

Annie knew when a person had given up the fight, and she recognized it in the attorney. She imagined all their questions and the subterfuge wasn’t what he was used to. Percy Kelley had probably lived a mostly honest life up until temptation took hold of him and wouldn’t let go.

Or someone presented him with an opportunity he couldn’t resist.

She pulled a chair out on the opposite side of Kelley’s desk and sat down. With his weary expression, she was less afraid. “So why did you kill Wesley, Mr. Kelley?”

He looked almost green. “
I
didn’t kill him.”

“Who did?”

He hesitated to speak, and his gaze flitted to Flynn.

“You could wait until the police get here,” Flynn told him, “or you can clear your conscience now.”

Kelley mopped the moisture off his bald head. “Someone…I…I had the opportunity to inherit the money. We’re talking millions. Can you imagine? No more bowing down to— And kissing his feet. I would be on his level.”

Annie’s eyebrow’s rose. “You aspired to stop toadying to Mr. Witman?”

He slammed a fist on the desk. “Have you met him? He’s the most arrogant man I have ever dealt with in my life, and no matter how hard I have worked for him and his family all these years, I don’t get the respect I deserve.”

“Surely you have other clients,” Annie said.

“Mr. Witman
is
Mars Cove. My other clients amount to pocket change, and more often than not, I had to meet with the little guy to buy their silence about this or that. There were times I was forced to threaten them with a lawsuit. These were good honest people. It pains me to admit without Mr. Witman, I wouldn’t have a firm.”

“So you resented him,” Flynn said. “You saw a way you could stick it to him and end up rich in the process. You could stop working for him, maybe even disappear and start over somewhere else.”

Kelley’s eyes glazed as if he saw this new life in his mind’s eye. For a moment, Annie felt sorry for the man. “Why would you get the inheritance, Mr. Kelley? Were you close to Wesley’s grandmother?”

“I can answer that.”

Annie twisted around in her chair to the door leading directly to the hall. Mark Witman stood in it, and she gasped when she saw the gun. “Mark!”

He grinned, and she could only describe it as evil. “In the flesh.”

Mark moved farther into the room and shut the door. He turned the lock while keeping an eye on Annie and Flynn and then moved to lock the door leading to Kelley’s secretary’s office.

Kelley surged to his feet. “What are you doing, Mark? It’s over. You don’t think we can still get away with this, do you?”

“We?” Flynn repeated. “So he’s the one you’ve been working with, not Racine.”

Mark snorted. “My stepmother’s a pawn, and so is my father. Why should he have all the money and power? Then his sniveling, loser son was going to inherit even more. None of them deserve it.”

“Not like you do,” Annie said, her tone sarcastic. Flynn gave her a look that said don’t antagonize him. “You killed your brother out of spite? So he couldn’t get his grandmother’s money?”

“Spite? No. Did you forget what I told you, Annie?”

She tried to recall but didn’t bring up anything that would explain Mark’s actions other than spite. He rolled his eyes in exasperation, and for that split second of inattentiveness, Annie caught Flynn’s shift forward. Her heart thundered at the thought of him being shot. She had to do something.

“Tell me why? I’m having trouble figuring everything out,” she said. “I know you stole the first license that wasn’t filled out.”

He smirked and waved the gun. “Racine would do anything to get Barbara Jean out of the way. I’m surprised she didn’t think of killing her.”

Flynn swore, but Mark only laughed at him.

“You never had a chance, did you?” Mark teased. “She liked money. I guess if I inherited without anyone finding out what I did to get the money, she’d have started flirting with me. Don’t worry, though. She’s not my type.”

Flynn stepped forward, and Mark straightened, aiming the gun at his chest. Annie forgot her fear and left her chair to stand in front of Flynn.

“Annie, get out of the way.” Flynn grasped her arms, but she planted her feet.

“You got rid of the priest, didn’t you?” Annie asked, trying to distract the two men.

Flynn stilled, and Mark waggled a finger. “Not me. Him.”

Kelley rocked and groaned but didn’t deny it.

Annie realized this was the confession she had wanted. Why didn’t she think ahead of time of turning on a recorder on her phone? They could prove Mark was the bad guy and that Kelley was in on it. As it was, Mark could shoot her and Flynn, and make it look like some sort of love triangle gone wrong.

“How did you expect to get the money?” Annie said.

He sighed. “I told you, Racine loved me more.”

“So? The money belonged to her mother.”

“And her mother couldn’t stand her.”

Annie blinked. She didn’t get it.

Flynn spoke up. “Racine’s mother wanted to keep her from getting any of her money, so she made her grandson her beneficiary. If for some reason, he couldn’t meet the terms of the will, or was otherwise unable to inherit, the money goes to Mark.”

Annie’s mouth fell open.

Flynn looked toward Kelley. “Isn’t that right?”

The sweating and miserable man nodded. “Yes. She could do whatever she wanted with her estate. I have a copy of the will, although I’m not her attorney. Only Racine, Wesley, Mark and I knew the terms. We were careful to allow everyone to believe Wesley was the only beneficiary.”

Annie moved out of Flynn’s hold and slapped a hand down on his desk. “You lied to me saying Racine would inherit since her son couldn’t.”

“I was under no obligation to tell you the truth.”

“Hey,” Mark called out. Annie and Flynn looked over at him. “This conversation is fun and all, but I’ve got to wrap it up.”

“The police—” Flynn began.

Mark shook his head. “Don’t bother. I heard your conversation in the hall. The police have nothing on us, and even if they did, my dad will squash it fast. The cops aren’t coming.”

Annie clutched her hands together. She swallowed the lump in her throat, thinking they would be found dead in a ditch.

Mark waved the gun. “Come on. Let’s move nice and orderly. We’re going down the back stairs. I have a car waiting, and you two are going to behave yourself. Don’t think I won’t—”

Annie didn’t give herself time to think twice. When Mark waved her and Flynn forward and stepped aside from the door, she waited until she was close enough and launched herself at him.

The one time she thanked the heavens for her plump figure, she used her weight to bump him hard. Mark bounced off the wall and banged his elbow. The hand holding the gun wobbled, and his finger spasmed. The gun went off, and Annie screamed.

“Annie!” Flynn tore her backward.

A scuffle started between Flynn and Mark, and she wasn’t sure where the gun ended up or if she’d been shot. Her knees gave, and she fell on the floor. The next instant, the office filled with uniformed policemen and Sheriff Appleton.

Annie’s head busied itself spinning when she heard the click of handcuffs. She raised a hand to her face, and Flynn’s arms circled her.

“Are you crazy, woman?” he demanded. “Don’t you ever do that again.”

Annie forced her gaze up to meet his. “Was I shot?”

He frowned. “No.”

Her throat dried. “Were you?”

“Everything is fine, Annie. Easy.”

She wondered why he said
easy
until she realized her hands shook hard, and her teeth chattered. While panic stirred inside her from his embrace, she didn’t have the energy to pull away. On another level, Flynn’s arms felt just right.