Marked Down for Murder (Good Buy Girls) (10 page)

“Oh, Maggie, I’m so sorry,” Claire said as they left
the building. “You tried to tell me that you were staying out of it and I completely ignored you and now Sam is mad at you. Gah, I’m a horrible friend.”

“No, you’re not,” Maggie said. “Yes, we probably shouldn’t have gone to the jail and no, I really shouldn’t have said anything to Blair, but Sam keeps forgetting that this is a small town. People talk. People care about what happens to their fellow residents. He’s just going to have to embrace this way of life.”

“You sound very pragmatic,” Claire said. “But I think that’s easier said than done. I mean, he was in Richmond for a long time.”

“I know,” Maggie said. “Good thing he has me here to help him adjust.”

“So you’re not upset with me?” Claire asked. She paused as they reached the end of the walkway. She had to go back to the library in the opposite direction than Maggie would take to go back to her shop.

“No way,” Maggie said. “You’re a Good Buy Girl. I could never be irritated with you unless you scooped me on an amazing sale. Besides, this situation is not your fault. I should have stayed in the shop and had you call Sam and tell him what you found out.”

“True, but then I wouldn’t have gotten this extensive book order from Summer,” Claire said. She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and glanced at it. “After all my years of being a librarian, people still surprise me with their individual reading tastes.”

“Why, what did she ask for?” Maggie asked.

“Not what you’d guess,” Claire said.

“No glossy magazines or steamy romance novels?” Maggie asked.

“No. In fact, she wants cookbooks,” Claire said.

“Summer cooks?” Maggie asked.

“Apparently, very well,” Claire said. “Her preference is for French cookbooks, but she’ll take anything gourmet. She says reading recipes relaxes her.”

“Okay, yeah, I totally didn’t see that coming,” Maggie said.

“Call me later,” Claire said. “Tell me how things shake out with Sam and, if you get the chance, please apologize to him for me again.”

“Will do,” Maggie said. She gave Claire, who was not a hugger, a quick squeeze before they set off in different directions.

As she stepped around a few icy patches left over from last night’s bitter temperatures, she wondered what she was going to do about Sam. She hoped that once he calmed down, he’d see reason, but she had to admit she didn’t really picture it going that way. The big city and a small town were worlds apart, and she and Sam were just going to have to navigate the differences together.

Maggie spent the rest of the day in the shop, trying not to think about Bruce Cassidy’s murder, the fact that he had been married before and Blair hadn’t known, and that Sam was miffed at her.

Thankfully, she had a flurry of customers who kept her occupied. In the best deal of the day, she sold the two armchairs in the shoe section to a young woman who was furnishing her first apartment. The young woman was a good haggler, but Maggie threw in a lamp and was able to keep the original price.

She was just prepping the shop for closing when her phone chimed. She hoped it was Sam and that their dinner was still on, since it would give them a chance to talk things over. Instead, it was a text from Michael. It declared in all capital letters that Joanne was in labor and they were on their way to the hospital.

Maggie quickly texted Sam that she was going to meet them and would keep him posted, then she dashed out the door. She wondered if Joanne’s water had broken or if she was dilated at all.

Her phone kept chirping with texts and she figured it was Ginger and Claire checking in. At the stoplight, she paused to check. Yes, they were on their way. She noted there was nothing from Sam. She hoped this did not mean that he was still annoyed with her.

Maggie parked in the visitor’s lot and hurried to the maternity ward. Joanne was already in a room, so she took a seat and waited. She picked up a magazine, but then her attention kept straying to the double doors, where Joanne was, and to her phone, which still had not shown a text from Sam.

It was okay, she reassured herself. He was working a murder case. He was probably tracking down a hot lead and was too busy to text her back right now. This was life with a police officer, and she just had to be patient.

The need to be in motion had her up and moving, and before it was even a conscious thought, she was walking to the front doors of the hospital to wait for Ginger and Claire in the lobby.

She had just reached the first floor when a commotion sounded from the emergency room, which was off to her right. She pushed through the doors with the panicked thought that something had gone wrong with Joanne and she was in the emergency room instead of the maternity ward.

She was halfway into the room when a stretcher with Blair Cassidy on it was wheeled by her. She only got a quick glance, but a medic was moving with the stretcher and holding a pad on Blair’s shoulder. Even as they rushed past her, Maggie could see that the gauze was saturated with blood.

Maggie hurried to catch up. “Blair? What happened?”

The medic looked at her. “Are you family?”

“No, but—”

“Maggie?” Blair opened her eyes, looking for her. Maggie hurried to walk along beside her.

“I’m here, Blair,” she said. She put her hand on Blair’s free hand and the other woman grasped her fingers tight.

“Tell Summer that I love her,” Blair pleaded. “I know I wasn’t the best mother, but I tried. I really tried.”

Maggie whipped her head in the medic’s direction and hissed, “How serious is this?”

He glanced between the two of them and apparently decided that holding hands qualified Maggie to ask questions.

“It’s a gunshot wound,” he said.

“Gunshot?” Maggie squawked.

“I might not make it, Maggie,” Blair said. “Promise you’ll tell Summer what I said.”

Horrified, Maggie said, “Yes, yes, of course.”

“And if you could . . .” Blair paused to cough, and Maggie looked to see if she was coughing up blood. No, there was none, but it sounded awful just the same.

“Hang in there, Blair,” she said. She felt utterly useless.

“Maggie, if you could . . .” Blair paused to cough again. “If you could see your way to cutting Sam loose so that he can be with his one true love, my daughter, Summer, it would make a dying woman breathe her last breath in peace.”

Maggie gaped at her, and then she heard the medic snort.

“You are not dying, Mrs. Cassidy. Far from it,” he said. “The bullet just grazed you. It’s a flesh wound. A few stitches and some antibiotics and you’ll be just fine.”

“Is that true?” Maggie asked Blair.

Blair gave the medic a sour look and jerked her hand away from Maggie. “If I do die, you’re both going to be sorry.”

“No doubt,” Maggie agreed, just to be nice. She looked at the bloody gauze on Blair’s shoulder and hoped like heck that the medic was right. It seemed like a lot of blood for a grazing. “But I don’t understand. How did you get shot?”

“I was checking on Summer’s shop,” Blair said. “I was just locking up when this truck came out of nowhere. It jumped the curb and the driver got out and shot me!”

How could that have happened across the street from her shop without her knowing? Maggie realized that in her race to the hospital to be with Joanne, she must have just missed it.

“What sort of truck?” Maggie asked. “Did you see the driver? Can you describe them?”

“I don’t know. No, I had my back to them,” Blair said. She sounded truly rattled, and Maggie didn’t blame her one little bit. How terrifying. “It all happened so fast.”

“Excuse us, ma’am,” the medic said. “We need to get her in there.”

“Oh, all right,” Maggie said. Then she leaned forward and said, “I’ll tell Summer what you said, you know, if I need to.”

Blair gave her a wan smile as they wheeled her into a room where a doctor stood waiting. Maggie turned around to find Sam striding down the hall toward her. She cringed. None of what had just happened was her butting out; in fact, it was very much her butting in. Sam was going to be so mad. Any hope she had of him forgiving her for what happened earlier was about to be blown to smithereens.

“Maggie!” Sam broke into a run. Maggie didn’t get a chance to say anything as he scooped her up and held her close. When she leaned back to get a look at his face, he kissed her.

When he pulled away, she was left breathless and weak-kneed while he ran his hands all over her as if to reassure himself that she was in one piece.

“Oh, man, I think I just had four heart attacks. I heard the call on the radio that there had been a shooting in front of one of the consignment shops in town,” he said. He cupped her face. “You’re okay? You’re really okay?”

“I’m fine,” Maggie said. Then he kissed her again. She hugged him close. This was infinitely better than him being miffed at her.

“Sam, it wasn’t my shop,” she said. “It was Summer’s. Blair was locking up and a truck jumped the curb and stopped in front of her and the driver got out and shot her.”

“How is she?” he asked.

“The medic said the bullet just grazed her and that she’ll be okay.”

Sam frowned, and she could tell he was thinking it over, sifting through the facts in his cop brain.

“I promised Blair that I’d go and tell Summer that she loves her,” Maggie said. Sam opened his mouth to speak but Maggie held up her hand. “I know you want me to butt out, but honestly, in a town this small, it’s virtually impossible. That being said, when I made that promise to you I did mean it. I just didn’t know how hard it would be to keep it.”

“It’s okay,” Sam said. “Deputy Wilson pointed out to me, in her usual subtle way, the impossibility of my request. Although she did say it was impossible because you’re terminally nosy.”

“She did not!” Maggie protested.

“Yes, she did,” he said with a laugh. “Now don’t get your nose out of joint over it.”

“Hardy har har,” Maggie said. She was so relieved that things were good between them, she didn’t mind the teasing. In fact, it made her feel as if they were a-okay.

“So how did you find out about Blair?” Sam asked.

“I was here because Joanne—oh my god, Joanne!” Maggie cried, and then she turned and began to jog out of the ER. “She’s having the baby!”

Sam watched her go with a grin. “I’ll be up as soon as I can.”

“I’ll text you if there’s news,” Maggie said.

Then she blew him a kiss and bolted back up to the maternity ward. She was just rounding the corner when she slammed into Ginger, who was pacing. She almost knocked her down but Claire leapt forward and caught her.

“Sorry!” Maggie cried.

“Where have you been?” Claire asked.

“We thought you were already here, and then we heard sirens,” Ginger added. “Lord-a-mercy, we had you dead in a car accident.”

“I’m sorry. I was here, but I was down in the ER,” Maggie said. “While I was waiting for you, Blair Cassidy was brought in. She’s been shot!”

“No!” Claire and Ginger gasped together.

“Yes,” Maggie said. “She was checking on Summer’s shop, and when she was leaving, a truck hopped the curb in front of her and the driver got out and shot her. Then they sped off.”

“Did she see who it was?”

“No, she seemed fuzzy on the details. But I’m sure Sam will help her remember more.”

“First Bruce, now Blair—who do you suppose has it in for the two of them?” Claire asked. “Maybe they were bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde and now the law is coming to get them.”

“No, the law doesn’t hop out of a truck, shoot you and take off,” Ginger said. “This is personal.”

“I don’t know why,” Maggie said. “But whoever it is, they seem willing to go to any extreme to get the Cassidys.”

Ginger shuddered. “I’m not overly fond of Blair, but I can’t help but feel sorry for her. I can’t even imagine how terrified she must be.”

Maggie gave a wry glance. “Not terrified enough to miss the opportunity to ask me to dump Sam as a mother’s dying wish.”

“She. Did. Not,” Ginger said.

“Oh yes, she did,” Maggie said. “I almost fell for it, too, but the medic told me she was going to be fine, so I made no promises that I’d have to break.”

“Wow. Bruce did say she was a terrier when she made up her mind that she wanted something,” Ginger said.

“I’d say ‘terror’ is more like it,” Claire said.

The doors that led to the maternity ward opened and Michael and Joanne walked out. Maggie could tell by the look on Joanne’s face that her hopes to meet her baby had been dashed once more.

“False labor again?” she asked.

Joanne didn’t say anything. She opened her mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was a weepy wail as she started to cry.

“I am so tired of being this big beached whale who can’t tie her own shoes and never sleeps,” she said in a sob-studded stammer that the others had to strain to decipher.

As one, the Good Buy Girls formed a huddle around her, patting her back and hugging her. Michael stood awkwardly and charmingly in the thick of it, never leaving his wife’s side.

“So is this what you four do right before you hit a sale?” he asked. “Huddle up?”