Haunted Fixer-Upper, The (26 page)

I shook my head.
“She could be in any of the rooms down there.”

“
This was our bedroom,” he said, looking around the room.

I touched his arm.
“I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone for a bit while I go downstairs and look for her.”

“No, I’ll go with you. You don’
t need to confront her alone.”

I was thankfu
l for the offer because I didn’t want to confront her alone. I tried to be tough, but that eighty-five-pound woman really gave me the creeps. We stepped out of the room and headed back downstairs. The house was still eerily quiet.

When we made it to the bottom of the steps
, we paused and looked around. No one was in sight. This was just downright creepy.

“I’
ll check one side of the house and you can check the other,” Blake said.

I nodded.
“Okay. I’ll go through the dining room and the kitchen.”

We we
nt our separate ways, which didn’t seem like such a good idea now that I was walking through the dining room alone. It was funny, this man was a complete stranger yet I still felt safer with him around. I’d take being with him any day over confronting Evelyn.

I made my way through the din
ing room and into the kitchen. There was still no one in sight. This was getting ridiculous. And I felt I was building myself up into a panic. I needed to remain calm, I told myself. This was no time to panic.

I looked on the window
into the backyard just in case Evelyn had walked outside. It was unlikely, but I had to check every option. When I didn’t spot anyone outside either, I made my way back through the rooms and into the foyer. Blake hadn’t returned yet, so I decided to head into the parlor and at least find him. That was if he hadn’t disappeared too.

Chapter Thirty-One

My heart rate increased as I moved through the entrance of the parlor and saw them standing in the middle of the room. Evelyn turned around and narrowed her already beady eyes at me.
She had a tight grip on the gun in her hand. Where had she gotten the thing? A Civil War museum? The handgun had a brass scroll design on the sides and a long barrel.

This was certainly a reversal of situations. Reed had been the one who
had found me when the crazy realtor had tried to kill Mama, Reed’s Aunt Carolyn and me. Reed’s hands were cuffed and he had a look of disappointment on his face. If I knew him, and I was beginning to after more than six months, I knew that he was disappointed with himself for letting a little old lady handcuff him. But now was not the time for worrying about something like that.

I had to figure out
how to fix this situation. Evelyn now had Blake and Reed in the corner with the gun pointed at them. There were three of us and one of her, but she had a gun so that kind of evened the playing field.

“
Get over there with the other two now.” She gestured with the gun.

I didn’
t respond. Instead I did as I was told and moved slowly over to the other side of the room and stood beside Reed.

“
Hurry up, you little trollop. I don’t have all day.” Her nostrils flared as she spoke.

Where else did she have to be? Was she late for killing someone else? She had been the one to kill Gordon Millerton. And I
’d thought Stan was the one who had killed him.

“I can’
t believe what you’ve done with this place even after I gave you the set of rules. Either y’all are stupid or just plain old mean. In my opinion, it’s probably both.”

“
Why are you doing this? We haven’t done anything to you,” I said.

“
Let them go,” Reed said. “They don’t have anything to do with the work in this house. Everything that’s been done is all me.”

That wasn’
t true, but I admired Reed for trying to save me yet again.

My phone be
gan to ring and I knew she didn’t appreciate the loud ringtone. I hoped that whoever was calling hung up soon because she’d probably shoot us soon if the phone didn’t stop chirping.

“
For your sake I hope that god-awful noise stops soon. I hate annoying noises as much as I hate annoying people and as of right now you meet both of those criteria.”

She continued to point the gun at me. Maybe she was a bad shot. Was I willing to test that thought out? No way. This was one time when I wished I had a gun like
Raylan Givens on that Justified show on TV. I’d whip it out and shoot the gun right out of her hand and save the day. Okay, that was neither here nor there now—I had no weapons. Maybe if I threw my cell phone at her I could knock the gun from her hand. Nope. A flashback of when I pitched at the softball game came back to me. No one ever wanted me on their team and it was highly likely that my phone wouldn’t come within ten feet of its intended target.

As we sto
od there in a showdown, a mumbled noise floated through the room. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly where the sound was coming from though. Evelyn must have noticed that I had heard the noise because a smile spread across her face.

“I guess you’
re wondering what that noise is, huh? Are you missing two people who you are quite fond of?”

My face must have turned bright red. She had my mother and Lacey?

“Where are they?” I asked.

“They won’t be coming to save you if that’s what you’
re thinking. They’re a little tied up at the moment.”

“
I asked where my mother and my friend are.” I had somehow grown bold when I learned she was holding Lacey and Mama.

“Let them go, Evelyn,”
Reed said again. “They have nothing to do with any of this.”

“
They were meddling in business that didn’t concern them. Therefore, that makes them a part of this. If everyone had just minded their own business we wouldn’t have any of these problems, now would we?”

“
How were they meddling in anything? They aren’t even from around here,” I said.

“
Well, I ran into them this morning and they were telling me what to do. Especially that bossy mother of yours, so I decided to just get rid of them.”

“
You didn’t hurt them, did you?”

I thought I was going to be sick. I’d got
ten my mother into another life-or-death situation. I couldn’t let anything happen to them. My thoughts raced a million miles a minute, trying to figure out a way to escape this lunatic woman. If I could just get her attention off of us for a moment, maybe I could tackle her. Okay, I would probably trip or something, but maybe Reed could tackle her and I could clobber her over the head with the metal chair.

“
Don’t I know you?” Evelyn asked Blake.

He stared at her, his face was emotionless.

“Don’t you speak?” she asked.

“No, I don’t think you know me,”
he said.

S
he stared for several seconds, then I supposed she gave up on trying to place his face. It had been twenty years, so he had probably aged, but I knew if I’d told her his name she would remember instantly. I was sure he had a lot of hatred for the woman who’d helped his wife’s killer go free.

“
Mr. Millerton ignored my guidelines. I had to get rid of him before he did any more destruction to the homes. Now you are doing the same thing. I simply can’t allow that to happen.” Evelyn made a sweeping motion with her hand, swinging the gun through the air.

We all ducked, but she seemed unaware of her careless movements.

“How did you kill him?” I asked.

She looked down, then back up at me. There was no remorse in her eyes. Actually, it was as if she wasn’t even behind her eyes. Her expression was blank and emotionless. I didn’t think she cared that she’d murdered the man. And I didn’t think she’d care if she murdered us.

“The hammer was right there on his desk. He’d been hanging a picture showing the front of the home after he’d made the hideous changes to it. I just couldn’t stand to look at it any longer. When I told Gordon about the guidelines, he had the nerve to act like he didn’t know what I was talking about. He actually scoffed at me and mocked me. He was a terrible man.”

The last time I checked scoffing at someone wasn’t grounds for murder, but I
didn’t point that out to her.

“H
e thought because he had plenty of money he could just get by with anything in town. My relatives built this home,” she said, waving the gun at us. “That stupid Stan wouldn’t kill Gordon for me. I was his alibi when he killed that teacher. He owed me a favor. When he wouldn’t do it, I had to kill the bastard myself. Now I realize it isn’t so hard to eliminate a problem.”

“Were you the one following me in the white car?” I asked.

“A couple times, yes. The other times I had Amanda Porter follow you. She was more than happy to do it for a little extra cash. She’d do anything for Mr. O’Hara. He should have stayed with her.” Evelyn smirked.

There was no way I’d let her get under my skin right now.
I just needed a chance to get closer to Evelyn and maybe I could knock the gun out of her hand. Of course maybe I would trip or make a mistake and she would shoot Reed and then me. It was a chance I’d have to take. She was going to kill us if I didn’t do something to stop her.

A glint of gold caught my eye and I spotted my mother in
the hallway. I couldn’t let on that she was back there. Lacey and Carrie stood behind her. My heart thumped. I didn’t want my mother involved. I wanted to tell her to run away as quickly as possible. But if Evelyn knew she was back there then she might turn around and shoot my mother. I couldn’t let that happen.

Out of the c
orner of my eye, I saw Mama inch closer. Was she really going to try to sneak up on Evelyn? After a few more steps, Mama was directly behind Evelyn. I didn’t dare look at Reed. He was probably freaking out.

In one swift movement, m
y mother wrapped her hands around Evelyn’s neck and pulled her back. The gun went off as I lunged forward. Everything was a blur. I grabbed Evelyn’s hand and yanked the gun from her grasp. My mother was sitting on top of Evelyn as I pointed the gun at her. Trust me, there was no way Evelyn was going anywhere. I was worried however that Evelyn might be smothered to death by sequins.

Lacey and Carrie stood in the doorway with their mouths wide open.
Mama and I had saved Reed’s life. I guessed we were even now. Would he still be mad at me after that? I sure hoped we never had to be in this situation again. I didn’t want the tie breaker.

“Where have you been?” I asked my mother.

“
This crazy woman managed to tie us up and make us stay in that basement.” Mama’s voice was even louder than usual.

“
You were in that horrible basement?” I shivered at the thought.

“
Yes. You wouldn’t think a little thing like this woman could pull something like that off, but she’s a clever one.” Mama shifted her weight on Evelyn.

“How did you get free?”
I asked.

“Your
new friend here let us go.” Lacey smiled at Carrie.

“When you’re phone went dead I got worried,” she said.

“I’m glad you did.” My heart rate still hadn’t returned to normal.

“Why did you confront Evelyn?” I asked them.

Lacey pointed to my mother. “She was the one who figured it out.”

“You mentioned a peppermint at the murder scene. Well, when we met her she had one in her mouth, so I asked her about it.”

I knew a jury wouldn’t convict someone over a peppermint, but we didn’t have to worry about that now. Evelyn had just convicted herself by holding us hostage.

“
Would someone mind getting me out of these things?” Reed rattled his hands, breaking up our conversation.

I handed Lacey the phone. “Call 911.”

Evelyn mumbled something under the weight of my mother’s body, but Mama just applied more pressure. If the cops didn’t show up soon, she’d definitely accidentally smother the woman.

I ran over to Reed and wrapped my arms around him. “I’m so sorry for what I said last night.”

He shook his head. “No, it was my fault for being a stubborn jackass. You can handle yourself and you were just trying to help me. I didn’t want you to be hurt though. I guess I’m too much like my uncle.”

“Speaking of your uncle
. Are you going to tell me why you two are fighting?”

“He’s upset with me for leaving Georgia.”

“But you’re back now. What’s the problem?” I asked.

“Yeah, but not for good,
” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“You and I both know you’re a Kentucky girl. Even with this house, we have to go back there.”

I nodded. He was right. Kentucky was where my heart was.

“Why were you talking to Evelyn today?” I asked.

“Melody gave me the papers that Gordon had wanted me to have. They were the news articles about what had happened in the house. Evelyn happened to pull up when I was sitting in front of the house and she saw me reading them.”