Murder at the Holiday Flotilla (16 page)

“
So tell me, what did you say? Did you accept?” I asked excitedly.

“
I accepted, naturally. This is what I have worked for all of my career. I’ll be inaugurated as originally planned. I’ll be the new president. I just want to give out a cheer and jump in the air.”

“
Me too.” I gave her a hug. “I’m so happy for you, big sis. You deserve good things.”

At midnight, Melanie and I stood with our arms around each other in the doorway to the drawing room. “They love her,” I said.

“
Yes, they are enthralled,” Melanie agreed.

“
She is dazzlingly beautiful,” I said.

“
She looks more like Mama than I do,” Melanie said.

“
Yes,” I said with an ache in my heart. “When Mama was young. Before that dreadful disease took her away from us.”

“
I know, shug. I know. Wouldn’t she be happy that we are united with Scarlett?” Scarlett was our mother’s love child.

And now Scarlett stood in the center of Melanie’s drawing room, singing her way into everyone’s heart. It was true the guests loved her. She wore an emerald green satin gown that made her green eyes sparkle. Ray accompanied her on the baby grand piano as she sang the best of Cole Porter: “What Is This Thing Called Love?”; “You Do Something to Me”; “All Through the Night”.

After resounding applause, she led the guests in a sing-along of popular Christmas tunes and traditional carols.

I gave Melanie a kiss. “Wonderful party, Mel. You’ve outdone yourself.” And then Cam joined her and they were surrounded by their guests, bidding them good night. Everyone calling “Merry Christmas” as they collected coats and headed out into the night.

And then it was just family.

“
We’ll never top this,” Jon said, hugging me.

“
Who would want to,” I said.

He handed me the car keys. “Why don’t you go on out and warm up the car. Cam and I will collect the babies. Aunt Ruby and Binkie, and Scarlett and Ray are up there now with them. I sent the nanny home.”

“
I’ll walk out with Ashley,” Melanie told Cam. “Then I’ll run them over to Wrightsville. Tell them to take their time. I’ll get the car heater going and meet them out front.”

Melanie and I grabbed our coats and headed out into the night. I clicked my car door open and threw my purse inside. Then I turned to say goodnight to my sister. Out in her driveway, under a starry sky, we gave each other a rocking hug.

“
I love you, Mel,” I said. “Who would have thought that our lives would turn out so good? We’ve got so much to be thankful for this Christmas. I’ve got Jon and our babies. You’ve got Cam. Who is a good influence on you, by the way.”

She giggled. “I have led a wicked life, haven’t I? You know, little sis, at first I resented her but now I love having Scarlett in our family. Ray too. And Binkie and Aunt Ruby, of course. What would we do without them? We are blessed, Ashley. Blessed. Think you can meet me at the eleven o’clock service in the morning? Actually, it’s already morning. Almost one.”

I started across the driveway to the Escalade. “Sounds good. See you at church tomorrow.”

I had turned as I spoke to her and was walking backward. And that is when I bumped into Santa Claus!

16

There in front of me stood a man in a Santa suit, complete with beard and glasses, and red hat. The glasses looked vaguely familiar. Had Melanie hired a Santa to entertain at the party? And was he late? Very, very late?

Melanie had moved up close to me. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

She held up the car remote control with her thumb poised over it. I knew what she was about to do: sound the horn.

But Santa spoke mildly. “I think I’m lost. I’m supposed to be at a party but I think I turned up the wrong road.”

Melanie relaxed. So did I. Just what he was waiting for. Quickly he reached out with his left hand and grabbed the remote from her. “I’ll take that.” In his right hand, he held a gun that he’d been hiding in his bulky costume.

He pointed the gun directly at us. “Get in,” he ordered as he popped the trunk.

“
I can’t,” Melanie argued. “I’ll scream.”

“
You do and I’ll shoot her.” He grabbed me and pressed the gun to my temple.

“
Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot. We’ll do as you say.”

She crossed to her car and stared down into the open trunk. “Please don’t make me get in there. I’ve got claustrophobia. Just take the car. I’ll give you a few minutes to get away. I don’t want any trouble.”

“
In the trunk, I said!” He was dragging me toward the open trunk. Then he was pushing me inside. “Get in!” he yelled at Melanie.

There was scarcely room enough in the trunk for two people but Melanie squeezed inside, crying and moaning. When he slammed the trunk shut, we were in total darkness. I felt so trapped. I’m the one with claustrophobia.

“
If this is a carjacking why doesn’t he just take the car? What does he want with us?” Melanie wailed.

“
Mel, I recognize those glasses. And that voice. That is Roger Craighead.”

The engine started and the car was rolling.

“
And I’ll tell you what he wants with us. The gold. He’s onto us. He figured out we withheld that second page of the will because there was something written on it that we didn’t want him to see. Confirmation that the legend was true. That there really was a fortune in gold.”

“
So what is he going to do with us? We don’t know where it is?”

The car came to a stop, then turned right. We were at the end of Melanie’s driveway and he was turning onto Airlie Road toward the Waterway.

“
He doesn’t know that. Remember Amy Wood telling us he asked permission to look around her land with a metal detector? For military artifacts, he said. And she also told us that someone was skulking around at night and she thought it was Dewey Carter. It was Roger. Spying on her. Searching for the gold.”

“
Well, we don’t know where it is. What does he want with us?”

“
Mel, he doesn’t know that. He may think . . . Ouch! Watch your knee.”

“
Sorry, but I’m cramped. Where are we anyway?”

“
I think we’re on Airlie Road, driving out toward Eastwood.”

“
But where is he taking us?”

“
My guess? Somewhere secluded. Maybe out on the beach where he thinks we’ll be alone and he can question us about the gold. If only there was a way out of here.”

“
This car has GPS. Cam will call the police. They’ll trace the car. They’ll find us. Oh, we’re stopping.”

“
We must be at Eastwood. I hear the siren. The bridge is going up.”

“
At this hour?”

“
They open it on request. If they are opening the bridge, he must be waiting. Change of plans. Trying to make a left turn instead of taking the bridge. There must be traffic backed up on Eastwood.”

Then I spotted it. “Mel, what is that shiny thing I see? It kind of glows in the dark.”

“
Oh, cripes, where is my mind? I’m so panicky I can’t even think. My salesman showed me that thing. It’s an escape latch. Can you reach it? My arm is pinned under me.”

“
Can you scoot over? I can’t lift my head. But if you scoot over I can get my hand up there.”

We shifted around, banging knees and elbows. Then my hand was free and I grabbed the latch and pulled it. And miracle of miracles, the trunk popped open.

There was light. And precious air. And I was right. We were at Eastwood just at the drawbridge approach.

We scrambled out of the trunk, holding onto each other, falling onto the pavement, helping each other up. Roger would have heard and felt the trunk open. He’d be after us.

“
The bridge!” I yelled. “Run up the ramp.”

“
But the bridge is opening,” Melanie cried.

“
It’s not open yet. The arm isn’t down. We can’t go back. Everything is closed up. He’ll corner us. Hurry! Hurry!”

We ran up the pedestrian ramp. A railing separated us from the few cars stopped in the car lanes. Beneath us in the water, two tall ships waited to sail through.

“
Come on,” I called over my shoulder. “There’s a guy up there in that glass booth tending the bridge. We’ll get help.”

Melanie paused to kick off her high heels. I turned back and grabbed her by the hand. “He’s coming!” I cried. “There’s no time to stop.”

The siren was a warning that the bridge was about to open. Then the arm would go down and the bridge would start to lift into two separate sections. I prayed we had time and didn’t get trapped.

There were popping sounds as bullets whizzed by us. “He’s shooting at us!” Melanie screamed.

Just as we reached the top of the ramp, the bridge’s arm began lowering in front of us. “Hurry, we can get under it,” I shouted.

We ducked and hustled under the arm just as the noise and vibration sounded under our feet. “It’s opening,” Melanie screamed.

“
Jump! Jump!”

Holding hands we jumped from one side of the bridge to the other. Roger was still after us. Shooting wildly.

We scrambled away from an opening that led straight down into the water. The opening grew larger and the bridge began its upward slant.

But if we could clear the parting bridge, Roger thought he could too. The man in the bright red Santa suit leapt into the air. Then disappeared from sight.

17

“
That heavy Santa suit weighed him down,” Walt Brice said. “The Coast Guard is searching for his body. It’ll surface. But the Waterway current is swift. They think he’ll float up somewhere downstream.”

On Sunday afternoon, we were gathered in my library. My family and our attorney, Walter Brice. What a night we had suffered through. The EMTs checking us over. The Wrightsville police. The Coast Guard. Even Homeland Security questioned us. In the early morning hours we were released and sent home to try to get some sleep. Hopefully to sleep away the horrors of being shot at on the bridge.

“
It’s a blessing our darling girls survived their ordeal,” Aunt Ruby said. She was holding little Jonnie on her lap. Or was it Peter?

Scarlett’s eyes were fairly popping. “Every time I come here to Wilmington you are involved in some life-threatening criminal case. My life on Broadway is tame by comparison.”

“
I agree,” her husband Ray said. “You guys live on the edge here. Wall Street is nothing like Wilmington.”

“
What other news do you have, Walt?” Cam asked. He was seated on the couch, Melanie in his arms. He had vowed he was never letting her go. Jon and Cam, and our family, had been frantic when they’d come out of the house last night and found us and the car gone. They’d left the babies with Aunt Ruby and jumped into the Escalade to start out Airlie Road in search of us. When they got to Eastwood, they were caught in traffic. A driver had abandoned a car at the intersection. They didn’t know the car was Melanie’s or that the fleeing driver was Roger Craighead. Then all Hell broke loose with emergency vehicles racing for the bridge.

“
What other news do you have about the case?” Ray asked.

Walt settled back in an arm chair and tented his fingertips, a gesture I had come to recognize as meaning he was about to impart important information. “Regina Redfield has returned. And she is singing like a canary.”

“
But where was she?” Melanie asked.

“
According to Lieutenant Edmunds, she’s been at Bald Head Island. Seems she has a listing over there, an unoccupied house for sale, and she was hiding out in it. She walked to the ferry at Southport and took it to the island, then used a golf cart to get to the house.”

“
What else did he say?” I asked.

“
It was a matter of the falling out of thieves,” Walt replied. “In this case, the falling out of murderers. Mrs. Redfield and her nephew Roger are behind the killings. She just got sick of her husband’s philandering and his ineptitude. When she found him foundling the babysitter at your flotilla party, Melanie, that was the last straw. She shoved him down the stairs. He was supposed to be controlling Senator Henry, but he couldn’t even do that, she complained, not even after they’d provided substantial bribes. She just lost it. Was fed up with the man. She shoved him and he fell on the stairs and broke his neck. But she professes that it was an accident, that she was simply angry, and did not mean for him to die.”

“
I just know she was the one who tried to shove me in the lagoon at Airlie,” Melanie said.

Cam nodded his agreement.

“
How did Roger get involved?” Binkie said. “He had a promising career at the university.”

“
We don’t know if she persuaded him or if the conspiracy was his idea,” Walt said. “She’s blaming him. Their original plan was to get Senator Henry to sponsor a bill that would let them set up a gambling casino at the marina. They thought they’d make a bundle off that. You know, the house always wins.

“
When that didn’t work out and they realized Senator Henry was going to be a formidable opponent against them, they decided to get rid of him. Only Mrs. Redfield insists it was Roger who laced the coffee with oxycodone. She claims all she did was lure Henry to the house with the promise of sex. She said she thought that when they got him there, she and Roger were just going to discuss the gambling bill, try to persuade Henry to change his mind. She said she would never have participated in murder. That she didn’t even know the coffee was laced with a drug until Henry lost consciousness.”