Costume Catastrophe (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 21) (15 page)

“You’re lying. I happen to know Levi didn’t ask you anything.”

I looked straight into Tommy’s eyes. “Is he dead?”

Ellie gasped.

“Not yet. But he will be if we don’t hurry.”

“Hurry?” I asked.

“Hand me your cell phones. Levi’s too.”

I took Ellie’s and then handed Tommy all three phones.

“Can’t have anyone tracking us,” Tommy said as he tossed the phones out the window.

“Tracking us where?” I asked.

“Just drive. I’ll tell you where to go.”

I knew that going along with Tommy without putting up a fight might not be a good idea, but I was worried about Ellie, and I really wanted to see if he was taking us to Levi, so I followed Tommy’s instructions. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

“My sister Lisa has Levi and Rachael tied up in an abandoned cabin out on the old highway and is threatening to shoot them. She has it in her warped little head that they wronged me and need to pay for their sins. I tried to talk her into just leaving town with me, but she’s adamant that they should pay for what they did to me the same way I made Joey pay for what he did to Rachael.”

“Did you kill Joey?”

“It was an accident.”

“We need to call Salinger.”

“We aren’t going to call Salinger. You and I are going to figure a way out of this situation without bringing the cops into it.”

I glanced at Ellie, who was as white as a sheet. “What’s your plan exactly?”

“We’re going to meet up with Lisa and you’re going to help me convince her to come with me peacefully. It won’t make things better if she kills Rachael and Levi. You have to help me make her see that.”

“Convince her how?”

“I don’t know. I guess figuring that out will be your problem if you want to save your friends.”

I turned off the highway onto the county road that led out to the cabin. “I want to help Levi and Rachael, so I’ll do as you ask, but maybe you should tell me exactly what happened so I can figure out the best way to deal with this situation.”

I watched Tommy in the rearview mirror as he settled in for what I assumed was going to be a long explanation. “When I heard Rachael was moving back to Ashton Falls I decided to come for the game as a way to spend time with her. I love her, you know. I always have and I always will. We were meant to be together and we most likely would have if not for Levi.”

“Levi stole Rachael from you.” I was stating a fact I already knew to be true.

“Yeah. And the worst part was, he didn’t even want her. Not really. He used her and then he tossed her aside, which is how she ended up with Joey. Did you know Joey was the father of Rachael’s daughter?”

I decided not to admit I knew it. I wasn’t sure where this whole thing was going, so I decided to keep what I knew close to my chest.

“He didn’t want her of course,” Tommy continued. “He could have had this beautiful little girl in his life and he wanted nothing to do with her. I tried to fill in and be a father to Joslyn, but Rachael didn’t want me hanging around. She didn’t understand how much I loved and needed her.”

I glanced at Ellie, who was softly crying but otherwise silent.

“So you came to Ashton Falls and shot him.”

“I came to Ashton Falls to see Rachael, but when I got here I found out that Joey was sleeping with my sister. My baby sister. She’d just turned eighteen a few months before. I could see he was using her the way he used Rachael and I flipped. I didn’t mean to kill him. I just wanted to talk to him, but things got heated, and the next thing I knew he was dead.”

I slowed the car and turned onto the dirt drive Tommy indicated.

“Okay, so I get that you shot Joey in a moment of passion, but who shot you?”

“Lisa.”

I didn’t see that one coming. “Your sister shot you? Why?”

“It was intentional. Once I realized Joey was dead I figured I’d be a suspect if anyone put everything together, so Lisa and I decided if I got shot as well I would be seen as a victim instead.”

Apparently crazy ran in the family, although I had to admit Tommy’s plan had worked brilliantly. That was exactly what had happened.

“Lisa has a small handgun and she was careful. Stung a bit, but nothing vital was damaged. Things would have been fine if you hadn’t started snooping around. I’ve heard how you always manage to find the killer, so I guess I sort of freaked out when I heard you were investigating.”

I pulled up in front of the house. “Which is why you checked yourself out of the hospital. What I don’t understand is why you’re still in town.”

“I couldn’t leave without Lisa, and I’m having a harder time than I thought I would convincing her to let bygones be bygones. Lisa isn’t right in the head. Never really has been. She gets these ideas in her head and they take root whether they make sense or not. Lisa saw Levi and Rachael together in town last night, which seemed to ignite her irrational side. She’s convinced that if Levi hadn’t stolen Rachael from me and Rachael hadn’t cheated on me with Levi, she never would have ended up with Joey and I wouldn’t have had to kill him. She’s convinced it’s unfair that Levi and Rachael have each other when she and I have ended up alone.”

I glanced at Ellie, who looked shocked but still hadn’t spoken.

“Lisa really cared about Joey,” I realized.

“She really did. The man had changed. I don’t know what happened to him, but he ended up being as crazy as she is. I guess she liked that.”

This was officially the most absurd investigation I’d ever been involved in, but I knew I needed to get into crazy Lisa’s head if I was going to save everyone involved.

I turned and looked into the backseat. “Okay, so Lisa has Levi and Rachael tied up inside. She doesn’t think it’s fair that they have each other when the two of you don’t have anyone, so she wants to punish them. What exactly does she plan to do?”

“She has a gun. She’s going to shoot them.”

“Why didn’t you just take the gun away from her?” I wondered.

“Honestly, I’m not confident she wouldn’t shoot me if I tried to interfere. She’s seriously grieving over Joey, and in her mind it’s Levi and Rachael’s fault he’s dead. I needed to buy some time to figure things out if I wanted to save Rachael, so I told Lisa I needed to go into town to get my video camera so we could record Rachael and Levi’s confession.”

“Their confession?”

“Lisa wants them to confess to everything she’s certain they’ve done to create the current situation. She liked the idea of recording it, so she agreed to wait to kill them until I came back with the camera. I saw you pull up in front of Levi’s building as I drove past and got the idea that maybe you could help me talk Lisa into leaving with me without further violence.”

“And why did you think I could help?”

Tommy shrugged. “You’re smart and resourceful and I knew you’d be motivated. I really didn’t plan this whole thing. I just saw you and made a decision.”

“Okay, you and I will go in, but Ellie waits here.”

“Sorry. We all go in. I want to stop Lisa, not get her arrested, so I need to make sure no one alerts the cops before we get away. Lisa is unpredictable. If you want your friends to live you’ll help me convince Lisa to leave with me.”

I paused briefly. I was pretty sure I could take Tommy if push came to shove. He was a lot bigger than me, but I was fast and wily. Of course Tommy had a coat on, so I had no way of knowing if he had a gun, plus I really did want to save Levi and if I attacked Tommy, Lisa might very well shoot both her captives. I glanced at Ellie, trying to convey that everything was going to be fine, before I opened the driver’s side door and got out. I took Ellie’s hand as we slowly walked toward the front door of the old house.

“Why’d you bring them?” Lisa whined when we walked in. Rachael and Levi were tied up and gagged. Both were sitting on wooden chairs near the far wall of the main living area.

I noticed Ellie’s eyes lock with Levi’s as Tommy answered.

“They stopped by when I went to get the camera. I must have said something to make them suspicious. When they started acting strange I decided to bring them along.”

“I wish you hadn’t done that. Now we’ll have to kill them too.”

“What if we just tie these two up too and skip the killing part?” Tommy suggested.

“Levi and Rachael need to die. If not for their cheating, Joey would still be alive. We were going to get married and now I’m alone again. It just isn’t right.” Lisa lifted her gun and pointed it at Levi’s head.

“No. Please, no” Ellie cried.

“Joey’s not dead,” I blurted out. Okay, that was a wild shot in the dark, but what did I have to lose?

“What do you mean, he’s not dead?” Lisa asked.

“I mean when Levi found him and the paramedics showed up he still had a slight heartbeat. It wasn’t strong, and without very special equipment you wouldn’t even know it. They took him to a special hospital down in the valley and now it looks like he’s going to be fine.”

Lisa actually looked like she was mulling over my words. I guess a tiny sliver of hope is all it takes to convince the mind that what it wants to believe is real.

“I know everyone has been saying he’s dead, but the sheriff thought Joey’s life could still be in danger because we didn’t know who shot him, so he decided it was better to let people believe he died that day.”

“You aren’t lying?”

“No, I’m not. I can take you to him if you want.”

Lisa lowered the gun just a bit.

Tommy had an odd expression on his face. I doubted that he, like his gullible sister, believed Joey was alive; he was probably trying to decide whether this was part of the plan to get his sister to leave with him.

“Of course the only way I’m going to take you to see Joey is if you let my friends go,” I added.

“They need to die after what they did to Tommy and me.”

“Maybe, but Joey and Levi are friends, and Joey and Rachael have a child together. How happy do you think he’s going to be if you kill them?”

“I guess he might not be happy about that,” Lisa admitted.

“So let the others go and I’ll take you to Joey.”

Lisa lowered her arm.

“I’ll take Lisa to see Joey,” Tommy countered. “You can give us directions.”

I shrugged. “Fine by me. Do you have anything to write with?”

“We should tie them up in case they are lying,” Lisa suggested. “If they are we can come back here and kill them.”

“That sounds like a perfect idea,” Tommy agreed.

After I drew a set of bogus directions Tommy tied up and gagged Ellie and me and the two of them left. It was going to be up to Tommy to prevent Lisa from returning before we could make our escape. I wasn’t too worried that we were tied up in a house well off the beaten path and no one knew where we were because I knew Zak would rescue us. He always did.

We didn’t have long to wait. As it turned out, when Zak had realized Alex’s cell was still in my car he’d tracked it when I didn’t call him back right away. He’d then called Salinger, who’d headed to the location Zak had given him, before heading out to the house himself. Zak had arrived seconds after Salinger, who had been turning into the drive just as Tommy was pulling onto the highway. It looked like the crazy siblings wouldn’t get away after all.

“Are you okay?” Zak asked as he removed my gag.

“Yeah. Help Ellie. She looks like she’s going to pass out.”

Zak untied Ellie and then she untied Levi while Zak worked on Rachael’s ropes. Eventually Zak got back around to me.

I glanced at Levi, who held Ellie in his arms while she wept. “Let’s wait outside,” I suggested to Rachael and Zak.

I wasn’t sure how things were going to work out, but it did warm my heart to see Levi so totally focused on Ellie. I noticed him place a hand on her stomach, assuming he was asking about the baby, and saw her nod. He pulled her close once again and I watched from a distance while they both cried.

Chapter 11

Monday, October 31

In spite of everything that had happened, Zak and I managed to pull off another spectacular spooktacular on Halloween night. The house was decorated to resemble a magical Halloween town and the food Ellie had prepared with Tiffany’s help was both delicious and theme appropriate. It did my heart good to see my friends and family sharing laughs and having good, old-fashioned Halloween fun without the drama of the past week hanging over them. Tucker was feeling better and attended with Scooter after they’d gathered bags full of candy trick-or-treating, and Alex had invited Tony, which had Zak glaring at them the entire evening.

“You don’t need to keep giving Tony the evil eye,” I said as we watched the young couple.

“She’s only twelve.”

“Yes, but she’s a bright, mature, levelheaded twelve. And Tony is a good kid. I think we can trust they aren’t going to engage in any age-inappropriate activities.”

Zak didn’t answer, but I could see he still wasn’t as relaxed about the whole thing as I was.

“Phyllis and the girls are here, and it looks like they all brought dates as well,” I commented as our school principal, Phyllis King, walked in with history teacher Ethan Carlton and the three teenage girls who boarded with her and their dates. “And Alex and Tony are joining them, so you can relax.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I guess I have been a little manic about this. Tony
is
a good kid and Alex can be trusted. I never realized how hard this parenting thing would be until Alex began to think about boys.”

“You’re a great surrogate dad.”

“Sure, to the boys. I don’t stress about Pi and Scooter nearly as much as I do about Alex. Maybe we’d better stick with boys when we have children of our own. Less to worry about.”

I laughed. “First of all, I don’t think we’ll have a choice, and second, there’s just as much to worry about with boys.”

“I’m going to have to disagree with you on that. When Pi lived with us I never once worried that some girl was going to take advantage of him and break his heart, but it seems once Alex announced she was interested in a member of the opposite sex that’s been all I can think about.”