Marked Down for Murder (Good Buy Girls) (17 page)

Maggie felt the blood rush out of her face. She turned to Blair with her eyes wide. “I know who killed your husband. I know who’s trying to kill you.”

Blair blinked at her. “Who?”

“Sela Cassidy,” she said.

She rose to go and tell Sam what she knew, but the back door of the ambulance slammed shut, locking her in.

“What the—?” Maggie cried. She banged on the
door. “Hey, open up!”

The ambulance lurched forward and Maggie was thrown to the floor. Summer and Blair grabbed onto each other and braced themselves against the wall while Dot clung to the handle of the stretcher she was still on.

“What the hell?” she cried. “See if Javier is up there and ask him if he has lost his mind.”

A small window looked into the cab of the ambulance. Maggie hauled herself to her knees and crawled to the front. She pressed her face against the window but could only make out the back of the driver’s head. It was not Javier. With a knot of gray hair on top of her head, it was clearly a woman.

Maggie rapped on the glass. The woman turned and faced her and Maggie sucked in a breath. The face wasn’t disguised by a surgical mask and cap this time, but there was no mistaking her. It was the nurse who was in the hospital the night Blair had been shot. Maggie suspected she was no more a nurse than Maggie was. In fact, Maggie would stake her shop on it. The woman driving the ambulance had to be Sela Cassidy!

Maggie stared at her. Then she rapped on the glass with her knuckles and yelled, “Stop, Sela!”

Sela’s eyes narrowed, and then she laughed. The sound was muffled, but even through the glass, Maggie could tell it was unpleasant.

“Hey!” Maggie slapped her palm against the glass. “I said stop!”

Sela ignored her. She gave Maggie a nasty look, then turned back to the front and cut the wheel hard to the right, causing Maggie to slam into the ambulance wall and the others to yelp as they struggled to hang on.

“It’s Sela,” Maggie said as she scrambled to grab ahold of something to keep from being tossed across the ambulance. “Sela Cassidy is driving the ambulance.”

“What?” Dot asked. “How do you know?”

“You told me. Sort of,” Maggie said as she grabbed a hand strap.

“What?” Dot looked like she wanted to smack the information out of her.

Maggie hurried to explain. “It all fits. Sam said that Sela was a professional skier until she blew her knee out. So it made sense that she would live in Europe, as she would be familiar with the lifestyle. Switzerland would be a natural fit for her. But do you remember the night Blair was shot? The first nurse who came when Blair called was limping.”

Summer and Blair didn’t get it, but Dot did. She clapped a hand to her forehead and said, “The person I saw running from the house was limping!”

“It has to be Sela,” Maggie said. “And I’m going to take a not-so-wild guess and say she’s our shooter as well as our arsonist.”

Dot slapped her hip. “Damn it! That cutie EMT gave my gun to Sam when he was examining me. Oh, when I see him again I’m going to shoot him!”

“Focus!” Maggie cried. “We’re in deep trouble here.”

“It’s me. She wants to kill me,” Blair said, clutching Summer close. “Maybe I can reason with her.”

“Mama, the woman shot you, tried to burn down my house and stole an ambulance. Does she seem reasonable to you?”

The ambulance swerved and they all braced themselves again, then they hit a pothole hard and everyone bounced in their seats as their teeth clacked together with the impact.

“We have to overpower her,” Dot said. “It’s our only chance.”

“Chance? We don’t have a chance. She’s going to kill us all,” Blair said. “She may have been gunning for me, but she’s not going to leave any witnesses.”

“We’re four to one,” Dot said. “We can take her.”

“With no weapons?” Summer cried. “Oh my god, we’re dead. Dead, I tell you.”

“Calm down,” Maggie said. “Dot’s right. We have to try to save ourselves. There has to be something in here that we can use.”

They each glanced around the interior of the ambulance. The medical equipment did not inspire any brilliant self-defense strategies.

“This is impossible. What are we going to do?” Blair asked. “Throw bandages and gauze at her?”

“How about this?” Dot asked. She yanked the oxygen tubes off her face and hefted the small tank off the wall and into her lap. “I can bash her on the head with it.”

“Yeah, I’m guessing she’ll shoot you before you manage to crack her skull,” Maggie said.

“I’ll sacrifice myself,” Blair said.

“What?” Summer cried. “Mama, no!”

“Listen to me, baby girl,” Blair said as she grabbed Summer’s hands. “You are the most important thing in my life. When she stops the ambulance and opens the back door, I will throw myself on top of her, and the three of you run.”

“That’s—” Dot began to protest, but Blair held up her hand. “It’s me she’s after, and I’m willing to sacrifice myself for my girl. You two get her out of here.”

“Oh, Mama,” Summer sobbed.

Maggie looked at Dot and wondered if she had a lump in her throat like Maggie did. Judging from the sheen in her eyes, she did. It just went to show that even the shallowest of people sometimes had hidden depths.

“I still say I can clobber her,” Dot said.

“Please don’t risk it,” Blair said. “This whole mess is my fault. If I hadn’t married Bruce, or Terry, or whatever his name was, then none of us would be in danger right now.”

“It’s not your fault, Mama,” Summer said. “You loved him. You had no way of knowing that he wasn’t who he said he was.”

The ambulance started to slow. Maggie glanced out of the window. Sela had driven them out of town and into the middle of a wooded area. Maggie wondered how she planned to kill them all. Surely, she had to realize that she was outnumbered and that even if she did get away with it, the police were bound to figure it out. Not to mention that if she killed Dot, it would be a cop killing, which was very, very bad.

“Let us go, Sela!” Maggie banged on the glass.

Sela turned around and gave her a hard, cold stare. She hit a button on the console and her voice came over a speaker into the back.

“Sorry, but you’re collateral damage,” she said. She said it as casually as if she were commenting on the weather.

“Why are you doing this?” Maggie asked. “We’ve done nothing to you.”

Sela glanced through the small window past Maggie at Blair. “She stole my identity.”

“No, I didn’t,” Blair protested. “Not on purpose. I didn’t know Bruce . . . Terry was a murderer. I never would have married him if I’d known.”

“What?” Sela cupped her hand to her ear as if she couldn’t hear Blair, but Maggie suspected she was faking.

“I didn’t know!” Blair cried. Her voice was a piercing shriek. “I promise you I didn’t know.”

Sela’s face went hard and dark. “I’m the only Mrs. Bruce Cassidy.”

“Oh, is that the problem?” Blair asked. “You can totally be the widow. I don’t mind at all. You can have all the money. Everything. Just let us go.”

Maggie looked at Blair with a frown. Did she really think she was going to be able to negotiate her way out of this? She turned back to Sela. The woman looked like she wanted to slap Blair.

“I’m the widow, because I killed him,” Sela said. “Terry was supposed to pose as Bruce and keep sending me money, but he fell for you and my money stopped coming.”

“Oh, did you hear that, Mama?” Summer asked. “Bruce . . . er . . . Terry wasn’t a murderer. She is.”

As the weight of her words had pressed in upon her, Summer went from looking cheered to very alarmed.

“Oh, that’s bad, isn’t it?” she asked.

“You think?” Maggie asked.

Sela hopped out of the front of the ambulance and slammed the door shut.

“She’s killed twice,” Dot said. “I don’t really think four more bodies are going to faze her much.”

Blair moved to stand in front of the back doors. “Stay behind me. I’ll try to tackle her.”

Maggie and Dot exchanged a glance. Blair weighed about one hundred pounds soaking weight. She couldn’t even tackle a chocolate éclair without backup.

Dot hopped off the stretcher. She still clutched the oxygen tank in her hand. Maggie and Summer moved in behind the other two. As far as Maggie was concerned, it was a one-for-all-and-all-for-one sort of moment. Somehow she had never imagined that she’d be side by side with Summer Phillips. It just proved that life was ever the surprise even when facing impending death. Maggie really wished she could see Sam just one more time.

“What is she doing out there?” Summer asked. She grabbed her mother’s good hand and squeezed. “If she’s going to kill us all, why doesn’t she just get it over with?”

The grumbling sound of a truck broke through the silence. There was a squeal of tires and the sound of someone braking hard. Maggie ducked low to peer out the window through the front of the ambulance’s cab.

“It’s a truck!” she cried. “Someone is here. Oh my god, it’s Tyler!”

Summer let out a shriek and she bent down next to Maggie to see. “It is him!”

Both Blair and Dot turned to look out the window, too. Tyler’s truck went by, spitting gravel as it whipped past them.

The back door was yanked open and there stood Sela, holding a gun. “Out! All of you! Out!” Dot glanced from the canister in her hand to Sela, but the woman was too quick for her. “Try it and I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

Dot dropped the oxygen.

Tyler’s truck swung back around. Maggie glanced up to see him get Sela in his sights. He stomped on the gas and headed straight for them.

“Is that boy insane?” Blair cried. “He’ll kill us all.”

“Oh, no, you should see him drive, Mama,” Summer breathed. “He’s amazing.”

Sela looked as if she wasn’t sure whether to run or not. Then she took up a shooter’s stance and fired off three shots at the truck barreling down upon her.

“Tyler!” Summer shrieked.

Still he kept coming. Sela had no choice but to run around the side of the ambulance to get away. Maggie knew she only had seconds to act. She jumped out of the back of the ambulance, feeling the wind from Tyler’s truck push her back against the vehicle as he sped by. She rounded the opposite side from Sela and headed for the driver’s side door.

She yanked it open and yelled, “Hang on!”

She turned the key in the ignition and shifted into drive just as she felt the cold metal barrel of a gun being pressed into her left temple.

“Shut the engine off now,” Sela said. She was standing just outside the ambulance in the open door Maggie had neglected to shut in her haste to start the engine.

Maggie’s hands shook as she reached for the key. The sound of a siren ripped through the night as a patrol car with flashing lights raced toward them.

“You’ll never get away,” Maggie said. She didn’t turn the engine off, hoping the siren would distract Sela enough to give her a chance to put it in drive and hit the gas.

“Sela Cassidy won’t, but Blair Cassidy will. Once I kill her and take her identity, I can start all over someplace far away,” Sela said. “With my new identity, I’ll get all of my money back.”

“Don’t count on it,” a voice said from behind her.

Sela whipped around just in time to take an oxygen tank to the side of the head. She dropped like a stone. Summer stood over her looking ready to hit her again if she so much as batted an eyelash.

Dot was on top of Sela, snatching her gun away and fastening cuffs to her wrists. Both Tyler and Sam had parked their cars and were coming toward them at a run.

Maggie switched off the engine, for good this time. Her knees were knocking so hard she didn’t think she could stand, so she let Sam push the door all the way open and grab her.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said.

Tyler was squeezing Summer as if he’d never let go. Dot was standing with one foot on Sela.

“Help!” a voice called.

“Oh, Mama!” Summer cried.

They all hurried around the ambulance to find Blair stuck in the back, trying to get down without using the arm that was still in the sling. Tyler reached forward and plucked her down, setting her on her feet.

“You have excellent timing, Mr. Fawkes,” Blair said.

He gave her a shy smile. “Please call me Tyler. Since I am going to be marrying your daughter and all, it only seems right.”

“What?” Summer asked.

“You heard me,” Tyler said. He frowned at Summer. “You love me and you need me and I do not want to hear that you have to think about it or any other nonsense. We were made for each other. That’s that, and we’re getting married.”

“Oh, Tyler.” Summer threw herself into his arms, and he kissed her as if his very life depended upon it.

Sam put his arm around Maggie and pulled her
close. “There must be something in the air.”

“Post–Valentine’s Day insanity,” Maggie said. “I’m pretty sure.”

“Either that or they’re onto something,” he said.

Maggie glanced at Sam and saw a glint in his eye that she couldn’t interpret.

“Hey, Sheriff, she’s coming around,” Dot said.

Sam let go of Maggie and strode over to where Sela was lying on the hard ground. He scooped her up and carried her into the back of the ambulance.

“I’ll ride with her,” he said. “Can you drive?”

Maggie nodded. She glanced down at her hands. They had stopped shaking, so she was pretty sure she could manage it.

“I am not getting into the back of that vehicle again,” Blair said.

“There’s no need,” Tyler said as he and Summer broke off their passionate clinch. “I’ll take you to the station.”

“Thank you,” Blair said. She hesitated, and then reached forward and patted his arm like she was patting a stray dog that she wasn’t quite sure was friendly. Tyler actually blushed.

Blair and Summer climbed into Tyler’s truck while Dot climbed into the back of the ambulance with Sam and Sela, who was still a bit loopy, with a growing knot on her head. Sam took a minute to hook Dot up to another oxygen tank as she started coughing and wheezing from the exertion of tying Sela up.

When he gave her the thumbs-up, Maggie closed the doors. She pressed her head against the cold metal for just a moment, grateful that they had survived a situation that could have gone tragically wrong.

After she climbed into the driver’s seat and buckled her seat belt, she started the ambulance and pulled out of the woods, turning down the road toward town. She was so relieved that they were alive, she almost turned on the siren, but good sense prevailed and she chose to hum a happy melody instead.

•   •   •

“And then what happened?” Ginger asked.

A day had passed since the fire and the showdown in the woods. They were all at Michael and Joanne’s, who had insisted that everyone come over for dinner so they could hear the story of Maggie and Sam’s adventure firsthand.

Michael had brought home a huge deli platter, and the rest of them pitched in with side dishes and dessert.

“Apparently, Tyler heard on his scanner that Summer’s house was on fire and he came rushing to the scene, but when he saw that the ambulance was leaving in the opposite direction of the hospital, he got suspicious and called Sam. That’s when they gave chase,” Maggie said.

“I think I will be in debt to Tyler forever for that one,” Sam said.

“After the cavalry arrived, we took Sela and Dot to the hospital to be checked out,” Maggie said.

“And when they were given the all clear, Dot went home and Sela was arrested for the murders of Terry Knox and Bruce Cassidy,” Sam concluded.

“Incredible,” Michael said.

He handed Joanne a plate of food and went to fetch her a beverage.

Maggie had always like Michael, but watching how solicitous he was of Joanne endeared him to her all over again. She remembered how fragile she had felt after Laura was born and how the helping hands of her sister, mother and husband had gotten her though those first few terrifying weeks.

Joanne was sitting on the couch with the baby in the bassinet beside her. When the baby started to fuss, she went to put her food aside, but Sam stepped close and said, “I’ll hold the baby for you. You need to eat.”

Joanne gave him a weary but grateful smile. Maggie watched as Sam picked up the tiny little bundle and cradled it in his arms. He walked around the room, smiling down at the petite infant, and Maggie felt her heart ache. He would make such an amazing father.

“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” Roger said. He was sitting on the love seat beside Ginger. “How did Sela convince Terry to impersonate Bruce?”

“Yeah,” Pete said. He was standing at the kitchen island with Claire while they loaded their plates. “He had to be an accomplice to the real Bruce Cassidy’s murder, didn’t he?”

“We may never know,” Maggie said. “Sela is recanting the confession she made to us right before she tried to kill us. She’s saying that the whole thing was really Terry’s idea and that he threatened to frame her for her husband’s murder if she didn’t flee to Europe and mail postcards saying that she and Bruce had moved there and weren’t coming back.”

“But that story doesn’t fit Terry Knox’s profile,” Sam said. “His personal history is that of an easygoing, odd-job guy who was never in trouble with the law and kept his life fairly simple. We’re hoping that some sort of evidence can be found at their old residence to implicate Sela in the murder of Bruce Cassidy.”

“Where does this leave Blair Cassidy?” Pete asked. “Was she even really married?”

“No,” Sam said. “Bruce used his fake identification for the marriage license, making it null and void.”

Maggie and Ginger exchanged a look.

“Does this mean she’ll be staying in town?” Ginger asked.

“Last I heard she was looking forward to planning the nuptials for Summer and Tyler,” Sam said. “Apparently, Tyler is quite the successful dabbler in the stock market and is much more well-off than Blair imagined. She is now welcoming him into the family with open arms.”

The baby stretched and yawned, and a tiny fist popped out of her swaddling. Sam caught it between his thumb and index finger and watched in fascination as her little fingers wrapped around his finger. He glanced up and said, “She’s got quite a grip. Have you two picked a name as yet?”

Michael and Joanne exchanged a glance. Maggie could tell it was the nervous look of parents who weren’t sure how the name of their baby was going to be received.

Joanne cleared her throat. “Because she took her sweet time in the making and in the arriving, we decided to name her the very thing that she taught us: Patience.”

“Oh,” Claire cried and clapped her hands together. “That’s perfect.”

Maggie stood and moved beside Sam to look down at the sleeping infant. With her round cheeks and rosebud mouth, she had certainly been worth the wait.

“She looks like a Patience,” she said. “Claire’s right. It’s perfect.”

“Agreed,” Ginger said.

Sam glanced up from the baby to Maggie and said, “Isn’t she something?”

Maggie felt her heart squeeze hard. She could tell by the look on his face that this was something Sam really wanted. A baby, a family of his own—and he would be so good at it.

“All right, Collins, you need to hand over that baby,” Roger said. He stood and held his hands out.

Sam turned his back to his friend as if he were refusing. “Get your own baby.”

“Mine won’t let me hold them anymore,” Roger said. “Teenagers, huh. They think they’re too manly for a snuggle.”

“Fine,” Sam said as he handed the baby over with obvious reluctance.

Roger returned to the couch, where he and Ginger cooed over baby Patience. Pete and Claire, meanwhile, seemed content to keep a safe distance in the kitchen.

Maggie glanced at the couples around them. It was so nice to be together in the Claramotta’s snug little house, sharing a potluck dinner, celebrating not only the arrival of the new bundle but also the fact that she and Sam had survived their encounter with a killer.

It was in that moment that Maggie knew what she had to do. It was only fair, and she owed it to Sam to do the right thing.