Coming out of the rain and the gloom, I could see Hilda speeding toward us in her white truck. As she hit our back b.u.mper, I felt the Mustang start to skid off the road. She was trying to kill us!
"Hang on," Lillian shouted as she fought the wheel. We were near a hillside with a pretty steep drop-off, and I doubted we"d survive the fall if Hilda managed to force us off the road.
"What are we going to do?" I asked, trying not to scream as I looked back at Hilda"s furious expression.
"We"re going to survive," Lillian said curtly. "Now stop yapping and let me focus."
Lillian took another hit, this one spinning us sideways, jamming us for one moment against a telephone pole and caving in part of the side before she managed to regain control.
"She"s not going to stop until we"re dead," I said loudly.
"Quiet," Lillian snapped.
She needed to concentrate on her driving, but time seemed to come to a standstill as I saw Hilda prepare to ram us again. I could barely recognize her. Her face was twisted into a mask of fury, and it looked like the only thing she wanted in the world was to see us die.
Hilda slammed into us again, and after a harsh jolt that slammed my head forward, I could feel the back of the car start to skid toward the trees. I didn"t know how Lillian managed it, but she corrected at the last second and somehow straightened us out of the fishtail.
Hilda was growing more furious by the second, and I could see her face redden as she shouted at us. No doubt she was frustrated that we refused to die.
She was nearly to us again and I braced myself for what might be the final impact when Lillian did something with the gas, the brake and the steering wheel all at the same time. The Mustang responded to her touch and we were suddenly turned facing the other direction and out of danger, at least for a moment or two. Hilda"s reaction time wasn"t nearly what Lillian"s was, and her vehicle kept going straight, though the road curved abruptly. The truck hit a tree, started to tip, then was upright again as another ma.s.sive trunk caved in the pa.s.senger side entirely. I hoped and prayed that Hilda was still alive, but not out of any humanitarian spirit. If she died, the secret of why she"d behaved as she had might die with her, and I didn"t think I could stand not knowing for the rest of my life.
Lillian looked at me and asked, "Are you all right?"
"I"m a little shaky, but I"m alive, thanks to you.
Where did you learn to drive like that?"
Lillian offered a partial shrug as she unfastened her seat belt. "Did you forget that my husband Hank raced stock cars when he was younger? He made sure I knew every trick he did before he"d let me out on the road. I"ll have to thank him for that. Maybe I"ll send him a card."
"Was Hank your third husband or your fourth?" I asked as I got out of my side.
"He was my second husband, and you know it."
I was about to say something smart when I saw the side and the back of Lillian"s car. "Oh no. It"s pretty bad, isn"t it?"
Lillian shrugged. "Jennifer, it"s only a car. I was getting tired of it anyway. Call your brother again, and then we"ll go check on Hilda."
There hadn"t been any movement from the truck, but I still kept a wary eye on it as I hit the redial number on the cell phone.
Bradford answered. "Jen, did you just hang up on me? This weather"s driving me nuts."
"There"s been an accident. We"re on route twenty-seven, just out of town. Call an ambulance."
I could hear my brother"s breath explode. "Jennifer, are you all right?"
"I"m fine. Just hurry," I said.
"I"ll be right there."
After we hung up, I saw Lillian walking toward the truck. I called out to her, "Wait a second; Bradford"s going to be right here."
"Jennifer, she might need our help."
"She tried to kill us," I said, shouting through the pouring rain.
"That doesn"t matter right now," Lillian said, and I followed her to the truck. I was braced for another attack, but when I got to the vehicle, I could see that I needn"t have worried. Hilda was pinned neatly against the steering wheel, and there was a steady pulse of blood coming from her forehead. I knew head wounds could be b.l.o.o.d.y, and Hilda"s was shaping up to be a real beauty.
I leaned forward, still staying out of her reach. "Hilda, are you all right?"
She seemed to-come out of it. "Jennifer? Is that you? What happened?"
Lillian stood beside me. "You tried to kill us," she said flatly.
"I know that," Hilda snapped. "How did I miss?"
"You can curse my second husband," Lillian said. "He taught me evasive driving."
"Wish he"d have taught me," Hilda said. "You two would be out of my hair now."
I took a deep breath, then said, "You don"t have any remorse for trying to kill us and succeeding with Maggie and Frances?"
Hilda said, "I"m sorry I didn"t get away with it, but that"s not what you want to hear, is it? So you figured Frances out, too. I was afraid the two of you were too clever for me. Can you get me out of here? My chest is killing me."
"The paramedics will be right here," I said, not wanting to help free such a dangerous woman, despite the current evidence to the contrary. "So why did you kill them?"
"Why do you think? It was all about the money. Frances was part of a rich family, and I wanted my share of it. I"ve been sick of living on a widow"s pension. She"d told us all that she might as well have been orphaned, but I didn"t believe her. I thought for sure I"d be her first choice, but then she named Maggie instead of me in her will. I couldn"t believe it! After Frances was taken care of, I cemented my friendship with Maggie. I waited until she had time to change her will to reflect our new relationship; then I decided I had to take care of her. That part of it worked, anyway. The daft woman even sent me a card from beyond the grave like she did the rest of you. I knew I had to kill her. It was the only way I was going to get my hands on Frances"s money."
"Maggie didn"t get any money from her estate," Lillian said simply.
"That"s what she tried to tell me when I confronted her. She was lying, though, and I knew it."
"So you decided to kill her too," I said as the rain finally started to ease up. I couldn"t hear the sirens yet, but I knew I didn"t have much time if I was going to get the truth out of her face-to-face, and suddenly it was very important that I did.
"I couldn"t trust her, so she had to go next," Hilda said calmly. The steady cadence of her voice sent chills through me that had nothing to do with the icy rain. "I waited in the back of her van, and I was ready to deal with her when I noticed she was driving to Howard and Betty"s house. If news of our arrangement got out, I knew I"d be a prime suspect, so why not muddy things up a bit? They must have had some row inside, because Maggie was shaking when she got back to the van. She drove about a mile up the road, then pulled over so she could calm down. It was easy taking care of her; she wasn"t expecting me."
I wanted to throw up, but the sirens were coming in the background, and I knew we didn"t have much , time. "So you made it look like an accident."
"I thought I did a pretty good job too," she said. "How did I slip up?"
"My brother told me he found Maggie with her seat belt unbuckled, and a friend of hers told us that she was an overly cautious driver, so I knew there was no way it was an accident like you"d staged it."
"But what led you to me?"
"A greeting card," I said as the first ambulance pulled up. "You used Maggie"s scissors to cut the edges of the card you just sent to Hester."
"They were rightfully mine," she said, showing emotion for the first time since we"d been talking, "She left them to me."
As the EMTs worked on getting her out of the truck, Lillian and I walked back to the road and waited for Bradford.
After what seemed like forever, I was finally back in my apartment. I could have gone out and faced the world if I had to, but for the moment, I just wanted to lock the door and keep everyone and everything out on the other side. I called Gail and brought her up-to-date, then turned down her offer to get together. I knew we"d talk about it later-we discussed everything happening in our lives-but for the moment, I just needed to be alone. The peanut b.u.t.ter sandwich I ate as the cats dined on their own victuals was finer than any other meal, since I didn"t have to leave to get it. By the next morning, I was feeling somewhat human again, ready to see what the day held.
I"d taken my shower, had gotten dressed, and was drying my hair when there was a knock at my door, I could think of a dozen different people who could be on my doorstep, and I didn"t want to talk to a single one of them. I glanced through the peephole lit and saw Barrett standing out there with a dozen roses in his hands.
"Go away," I said through the door.
Barrett said "Jennifer, I want to talk to you."
"Well, I don"t want to talk to you," I said.
"Penny and I are finished. Can we start over?"
This guy was out of his mind. I threw the door open after I grabbed my baseball bat. "Would you like a little of what Wayne got last night, or are you going to leave me alone?" I asked.
"These are for you," he said, holding the roses out like they were some kind of shield.
"I don"t want them. Barrett, if you"d turned Penny away the other night, things might be different between us now, but you made your choice."
"It was the wrong choice," he said. "Can"t I have a second chance?"
"Sorry, I"m fresh out," I said. Maybe I was a little hard on him, but I wanted to be sure there was no doubt in his mind where we stood.
"At least accept these as an apology."
He dropped them at my feet, then started down the steps. I picked them up and threw them at him before he could get to the bottom. "Thanks, but no thanks."
As he dodged the cascading flowers, I saw that I had another visitor just coming in. Greg had a bouquet of Shasta daisies with him, but when he saw the roses careening down the stairs, he started to back up.
"If this is a bad time, I can come back later," he said.
Barrett looked at him like he wanted to kill him. "That would be great. We"re not finished here."
Before Greg could leave, I said, "You"re wrong there. We never even started. Come on up, Greg."
He stepped over the roses and walked up the steps. In a lowered voice, he said, "Seriously, if this is a bad time, I can always come back later."
"I think your timing is perfect," I said as I led him inside, bolting the door behind him.
Greg started toward me, and I backed off a few steps. I asked him, "What do you think you"re doing?"
He looked confused by the question. "I thought we were making up. I was wrong. It"s not over between us."
"You bring me flowers once and think that makes everything all right? Have you lost your mind?"
"But they"re daisies," he said, obviously grasping for something, anything, to make things right. "They"re your favorite."
"I don"t care if they"re solid gold. You know what? Maybe you should just go."
He didn"t budge. "Listen, I don"t know what I walked in on, and I"m not sure I want to know, but whatever issues you have with that guy don"t involve me. I"m one of the good guys, remember?"
"It"s hard to tell you"all apart without a program sometimes."
He looked so pitiful I couldn"t leave it at that. Trying to soften my voice, I said, "Listen, Greg, I really do appreciate you coming by, and the flowers are beautiful, but what"s happened in the past between us can"t be fixed by a dozen bouquets."
I unbolted the door and held it open for him.
"Thanks for stopping by, though."
He shook his head as he walked out. "You"re welcome, I guess. See you later."
"Sure," I said as I closed the door behind him. As I put the daisies in water, I wondered what I was going to do about Greg. When he"d been in my life, I"d enjoyed great swooping highs, but I"d also seen more than my share of despair. Did I really want to go through all that again? The history between us was so strong that he was a comfortable choice, despite the way I felt when I was with him. But was I going to let myself be satisfied with comfortable anymore? I still wasn"t sure what I was going to do when I left my apartment and headed for the card shop. Thankfully neither of my neighbors were in the foyer, so I could make a graceful departure without any more confrontations. Penny"s car was gone from our little parking lot, but after seeing Barrett"s track record with her, I didn"t doubt she"d be back in his life again soon, at least for a little while.
Lillian was already at the shop when I got there, a strange and nearly unique occurrence. "I didn"t think you"d be coming in today," she said.
"Why not? We"re open, aren"t we?"
She shrugged. "It"s just that after what happened yesterday, I thought you might want some time to deal with it."
I hung my coat up. "You"re here, aren"t you? Why does everybody think I"m such a delicate flower?"
"I"ve accused you of many things, Jennifer, but that"s not even on the list."
I wanted to scowl, but Lillian"s good humor infected my sour mood. "Can you believe what happened yesterday?"
"I can"t quite grasp what"s been happening for months all around us. We had a murderer in our card club and neither one of us picked up on it."
I straightened a stack of cards that didn"t need it. "I don"t think a trained psychologist would have spotted anything. Hilda must have had a lot of practice fooling the world."
"I suppose this means we"ll have to disband the club," Lillian said.
"Not on your life. In fact, I"m going to start trolling for new members. Do you remember Daniel, the stay-at-home dad who"s been in here a couple of times? I"m going to ask him to join us."
Lillian frowned. "Honestly, Jennifer, do you think it will ever be the same?"
"Is that such a bad thing if it"s different?" I asked. "I"m getting tired of the same old same old. I think it"s high time we shake things up a little."
I was ready to teach some lessons, wait on customers and make some new cards. It was my life, and I wanted to get back to it. So I was excited when the front door chimed, but a little disappointed when I saw it was just my brother.
"I"ve had warmer greetings from prisoners in my jail," Bradford said as he joined us.
"Sorry," I said. "What brings you here? Have you finally decided to let me teach you how to make cards? Come on, it will be fun."
"Yeah, I"ll put that on my list. I just wanted to stop by and let you in on something."
I saw Lillian perk up She loved getting the inside scoop. "Go on, we"re listening."
Bradford ignored her as he told me, "I was talking to Patrick Benson this morning." He waited a beat for one of us to say something, but I wasn"t about to rat him out, and I knew Lillian wouldn"t either. Though our reasons were different, neither one of us wanted him exposed for sharing privileged information with us. After all, he"d saved Hester"s life; there was no doubt in my mind about that.
When Bradford saw we weren"t going to comment, he continued. "There"s something interesting about Hilda"s claims. It turns out she was right, at least about one thing."