Bed & Breakfast Bedlam (A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery Book 1) (17 page)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Friday
Evening, AGD

We all drove back to Yasamee the same way
we went. Me and Bay in one car, and the Sheriff alone in his squad car. Darius
Hamilton got to go home with his daddy.

The two sheriffs, Bay and Darius’ lawyer/father
talked long and hard about the evidence – or lack thereof – against Darius. No
one could see that there was enough to bring him up on charges. And maybe it
wasn’t him that killed Gemma, Bay had to admit. Maybe it was the guy at the
park.

“Jeffrey Beck,” I said.

“Jeffrey Beck,” Bay said and looked at me.
“He is definitely a person of interest.”

“I’mma call Miss Vivee,” I said pulling
out my iPhone. “And let her know what happened.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Bay said. “I just hope
she won’t be too disappointed about it.” He glanced at me. “You know, that we
didn’t have enough to arrest Darius Hamilton.”

“I just hope that she won’t want to go out
and get the evidence you need to arrest him.” I raised an eyebrow. “Because I
know she’ll try and drag me along with her,” I said as I punched in the Maypop
number on my phone.

Miss Vivee picked up the phone on the first
ring. I put my phone on speaker.

“Hi, Miss Vivee.”

“Hi, Grandmother,” Bay said.

“Hey you two. I could hardly sit still
waiting for your call,” she said. “Did you get that son-of-a-gun?”

I looked at Bay. “We didn’t arrest him,” I
said.

“Why?” she shouted into the phone.

“You tell her,” I whispered to Bay.

“We didn’t have enough evidence against
him, Grandmother.”

“What in tarnation? How could you not? He
was in town the day she died.”

“Yeah, but according to his account.” Bay
said “He wasn’t the only one in Yasamee that day.”

“Who else was here?”

“Should I tell her?” Bay mouthed to me. I
shook my head no.

“What? What you say,” Miss Vivee said
yelling.

“Jeffrey Beck might have been there,” I
said.

Bay’s eyes got big. “I thought you didn’t
want to tell her?” he said in a voice just above a whisper. I hunched my
shoulders.

“How do you know?” she asked.

So I told Miss Vivee the whole story as
told to Bay by Darius Hamilton. All about the blackmail and the reason Gemma
left teaching at Euclid Park. I told her about when he came to Yasamee and the
argument he witnessed. And I told her that Bay and Sheriff Haynes were going to
find Jeffrey Beck and talk to him, but that Darius wasn’t completely off the
hook. When I finished, Miss Vivee didn’t say a word. She was so quiet it made
me nervous.

I looked at Bay and then back down at the
phone. “Miss Vivee, are you there?” I asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Yes,” she said. “I’m fine.” Her
voice was low and had started to trail off. “Well I’ll let you two go. I don’t
like talking so much on the phone. I’ll see you when you get back.”

“Okay, Grandmother,” Bay said.

“And Bay,” she said.

“Yes.”

“When you get back, make sure the Sheriff
comes in with you.”

“Okay, Grandmother.”

“Okay now. Don’t forget,” she said.

“I won’t.”

I hung up the phone and looked at Bay.
“What was that all about?”

“I don’t know, but I’m worried about her,”
he said. “I know I gave that whole little speech to you when we were in Atlanta
about her being independent and not coddling her. But right now, that’s just
what I want to do. I just feel like I wanna protect her. She sounded so sad. I
don’t want this making her feel sick or depressed.”

“Me too,” I said. “I’d feel so bad if she
got sick about this. So, let’s hurry up. Get back and make sure she’ll be okay.”

Riding with Bay to Melborne and back wasn’t
as bad as I’d thought. I enjoyed his conversation, and even though Miss Vivee
was his grandmother, we shared the same concern about her. Bay called the Sheriff
and told him to meet us at the Maypop and we all made it back as quick as we
could. The Sheriff pulling up at the same time as we did. When we got there,
there were a few cars out front.

The bell jangled over the oak doors as the
three of us, Bay, Sheriff Haynes and I walked in. And there in the foyer were
Renmar, Brie, Deputy Pritchard, Mac, Hazel and Oliver. And Miss Vivee was
sitting on the bench we always shared, Cat lying at her feet.

“Is everything okay?” Bay asked looking
around the room.

Renmar waved her hand in the air. “Mother
made us all come in here and wait for you.” She cut her eyes toward Miss Vivee
and scowled. “She says she’s solved Gemma’s murder and we all had to be here
for her to tell us who did it.”

All of us looked at Miss Vivee.

“What do you know, Miss Vivee?” I asked
and went over and sat next to her on the bench. “Was it Jeffrey Beck?” I didn’t
know how she could know that if that was what she was going to say. But she
answered, “No.”

“Then who,” I asked. “Who killed Gemma
Burke?

Miss Vivee pointed her finger to the
person standing at the bottom of the steps. Their bruised hand resting on the
banister.

“It was Colin Pritchard,” she said. “He
killed Gemma Burke.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“I’m . . . The murderer?” Colin seemed
confused. Even frightened. He spoke in short, quick sentences, taking a breath
between words. His eyes darting around the room “No. No way. I’m . . . Not . .
. I-I couldn’t be.” I saw a tear roll down his face as he started backing away
toward the door. “I loved her.” He looked over his shoulder at the entranceway,
just as the sheriff stepped in front of it.

Miss Vivee leaned over and whispered to
me. “Told you. That boy don’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.” Then she
shouted at him, much louder than necessary, “Yes, Colin Pritchard, you are the
murderer. Tell him Mac.”

“Gemma died from blunt chest trauma. A
diaphragmatic injury,” Mac explained. The diaphragm is a muscle that allows the
lungs to work. It relaxes so the lungs can fill up and pushes up to expel the
air. When it doesn’t work, because it’s been ruptured like Gemma’s so Vivee
tells me the autopsy found, then the person can’t get in enough oxygen and then
they drown. It’s called dry drowning.”

“What are you talking about, Mac?” Colin
said. “I didn’t do anything to Gemma’s diaphragm.”

“The diaphragm can rupture from a fall or
if struck with a firm object like a bat or a ball. Or a fist,” Mac said balling
up his hand and shaking it at Colin. “A fist to the abdomen, if the blow is
hard enough, can burst a diaphragm.”

Colin looked down at his hand and then his
gaze drifted off.

“You remember that bandage you had on your
hand the day Gemma died, don’t you?” Miss Vivee asked Colin. “The bruise I
brought salve for?”

My breath caught in the back of my throat.

Colin started shaking his head.

“You hurt your hand when you hit that
tree, didn’t you,” Miss Vivee asked. “You were the one that Darius Hamilton saw
arguing with Gemma in the park. You hit that tree with your fist. And you hit
Gemma in her stomach.”

Bay moved in closer to Colin and the Sheriff
stood in front of the door and spread his legs shoulder width apart.

“Why is everyone looking at me?” Colin
said. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You killed her, Colin,” Hazel Cobb said,
a look of realization on her face. “I remember that bandage. You killed Gemma
Burke.”

“I did not.” His eyes darted around the
room.

“How did you hurt your hand, Colin,” Bay
asked.

“We fought . . . I mean argued. Me and
Gemma. I’ll admit to that,” Colin said. “And I did hit that tree with my fist.”
He rubbed his hand where the bandage had been. “I was just so upset. But she
was fine when I left her.”

“Tell us what happened,” Bay said.

“She kept following me. First I went to
Atlanta, then she came. I came back home and then she came back home. I wanted
to know why. Why would she follow me around if she didn’t want me? Why dump me
and then taunt me?”

“She didn’t dump you, Colin,” Miss Vivee
said.

“See, Miss Vivee, that’s where you’re
wrong. She did.” Colin closed his eyes and took in a sharp breath. “She knew I
wanted her and she knew being around her would make me want her even more. So I
just confronted her. I saw her out jogging and I asked her to come and talk to
me. We walked to the park and I asked her why was she doing that to me and she
said she wasn’t following me. She said she didn’t even think about me when she
decided to move to Atlanta or back home. How could she say that? That’s when we
started arguing.”

Tears started streaming down Colin’s face.
His voice deescalated to a whimper and he looked bewildered.

“Calm down, man,” Bay said. “It’s okay.”

“I was just so mad, Bay. You understand,
don’t you?”

“Yeah, man. I understand.”

“I was just so mad that I hit the tree.
And then I had my fist balled up . . .” His eyelids started to flutter and he
kept licking his lips. “And I was just saying ‘Why,’ you know?”

Bay said, “I know.”

“And my fists were here.” He put them in
front of him. “And then I pulled them apart, real fast. You know, saying ‘Why,’
Not to hit her or anything.”

Bay nodded.

“I pulled them apart too fast and . . .
and Gemma was standing just to the front of me . . . On the side like here.” He
pointed to a spot, remembering what happened. “And my right fist hit Gemma in
her side. On her right side. Right here.” He pointed to the area on his own
body. I hit her so hard. But . . . But . . . It was an accident.”

“I know it was,” Bay said.

“And then . . .” Colin looked at Bay,
tears in his eyes. “And the force of me hitting her made her fall down those
stone steps over at Mims Point Park. Just a couple,” he said. “She only fell
down a couple. She just hit them so hard. When she got up she was holding her
side. I asked her was she okay. She said it just knocked the wind out of her. I
asked her did she want me to help and she said just to leave her alone. I
probably shouldn’t have left her I know, but she told me to. And I was so mad
at her.” He shook his head as if he was trying to clear it. “I was so mad. I
was even still mad at her when the Sheriff and I came here and she was dead. I
didn’t even care. How could I still be mad then?”

The Sheriff stepped forward and put
handcuffs on Colin and he and Bay led him out the door. We could hear Colin
saying through sobs, “I didn’t mean to do it.”

“Well, shut my mouth,” Brie said with a
giggle. “Colin is the one that killed Gemma and all this time I thought it was
death by bouillabaisse.”

“Brie!” Renmar said. “You really do need
to shut your mouth. What an awful thing to say!” She put her hands up to her
face. “And poor Colin. Really Brie, none of this is funny.”

“Renmar, I hate to tell you,” Miss Vivee
said. “But until Logan and Bay told me that Darius Hamilton overheard the
argument and saw the guy hitting his hand on a tree, I thought it was your
bouillabaisse that killed her, too.”

Epilogue

Saturday
Morning, AB (After Bay)

My big, time-altering event was that I
fell in love with Bay Colquett. It had taken exactly seven days from the time Gemma
Burke died to the day that Miss Vivee solved her murder and in that time my
life had been divided into two separate and distinct periods:
Before Bay
(BB)
and
After Bay (AB)
. Although minute by minute what happened
before he came into my life was slowly fading into a blur.

Won’t my daddy be happy.

I know. Isn’t it the weirdest thing? All
along I thought I was attracted to Colin Pritchard and hated Bay Colquett. But
thinking back on it, it was easy to see. I couldn’t even ever think of anything
to say to Colin. Our love affair was all in my head. But Bay, even though I
thought he was going to arrest me, made it easy to talk to him. But what I
think really made me sit up and take notice of Bay was the way he interrogated
Darius Hamilton. He was so forceful and fierce. It made me tingle all over. Who
doesn’t like a man like that?

“I always just thought he was cute,” I
said defending myself. “I wasn’t trying to move in with him.”

“That’s not what you told me,” Bay said. I
was sitting on his lap. He, Miss Vivee and I were sitting in the dining room
when they had decided to tease me about “having eyes,” as Miss Vivee put it,
for Colin Pritchard, The Murderer.

“It’s a good thing for your mother that
you got me to look after you,” Miss Vivee said. “Otherwise, I don’t know what
might’ve happen to you.” Miss Vivee patted me on my knee and shook her head.
“Bless your heart.”

“I know what would have happened to her,
Grandmother,” Bay said and tugged at my ear. “She would have been filling out
the visitation forms at the Brentwood Correctional Facility so she could visit
her convict boyfriend and take prison pictures to post on Facebook.”

“Oh yeah. You two are real funny,” I said
and hopped up off of Bay’s leg. “But lucky for you both, I picked the right one
in the end.”

“You sure did,” Miss Vivee said. “You
couldn’t ask for a better man than my grandson.”

Miss Vivee was right about that, I
thought, my eyes beaming. She had been right about so much. She knew from the
start that Gemma had dry drowned. I found out that she and Mac had seen a case
of a boy, years earlier that had died the same way. That’s how they knew the
symptoms.

And Miss Vivee made the right call when
she said the sandstone steps at Mims Point Park could have been what killed
her. It was actually the combination of the hard hit from Colin’s fist and the
fall that did it. But Miss Vivee knew that, too. And she said, she could tell
by the injury to Colin’s hand, when we told her that the person arguing with
Gemma had hit the tree, that it couldn’t be anyone but him.

Colin was being charged with involuntary
manslaughter, which in the State of Georgia carried a prison term of one to ten
years. He was standing trial though. He said that his actions weren’t reckless
and he couldn’t have known what he did would cause Gemma’s death, elements that
must be proven to convict him. My uncle, Greg and my brother, Micah, both
lawyers, agreed that if he got himself a good lawyer, he might could prove that
in court and get off on the murder charges.

I was just glad I hadn’t acted on the
feelings I thought I had for him.

Everything had changed for me and I
couldn’t have been happier. I called my parents to tell them about Bay, and my
mother told me she’d got me permission to start an excavation on the Island.
(Yay!)
Renmar and Oliver didn’t seem too happy about that (I never did find out what
their conspiratorial actions were all about), but Renmar was happy that I was
staying on at the Maypop. As was Koryn Razner.

Miss Vivee had given her a room so she
could stay at the Maypop until she got on her feet, which probably wouldn’t be
long because Viola Rose and her husband, Gus, had offered her a job at the
Jellybean Café.

Bay was going back to work, but he
wouldn’t ever be too far, he had promised. Sometimes, I hate to say it out loud,
but crime does pay. Because of me trespassing at Track Rock Gap, I found the best
FBI guy in all of Georgia.
Nay
, in the entire world, who I wouldn’t mind
if he kept me in his custody forever.

The End