The Full Cup of Murder: Cozy Murder Mystery (Full Cup Mysteries Book 1) (8 page)

“Alison, Alison…” It was Jason. He was running towards me. He got to me and took the gag off. I was crying and I could not stop. I saw that Racheal and Helen were ok but Shanna lay very still.

“Jason,” I cried out. “Is she...”

“Yes and we have Reese and the men on the boat in custody. They picked up Riley at the air port along with a few of the other big key players.” I shook my head. Riley was going to leave Shanna here with Reese holding the bag. I looked sadly at Shanna’s body. It was all so sad. In a way, I was glad Shanna did not know about Riley’s pending betrayal. As much as I wanted to be angry about all of this I was very sad about Shanna. She was right. All of her life she fought to be important. Even making other women beautiful just picked away at her insecurities of feeling like a nothing in our small town where everyone, including her, was very important. The one person who made her feel like she was something had been in the process of hurting her more than any of us could of even tried to do. He made her trust him, fall in love with him and then he was getting ready to desert her. The ambulances and FBI all started showing up. They got Helen and Racheal settled for transport. I spoke to them both. Neither one of them held any ill will against me. I apologized repeatedly until Helen hushed me.

“I wouldn’t change a thing dear. It has been a long time since I have had any excitement in my life. As long as my Racheal is, ok and you are ok as well. No, harm no foul. Come see us dear. Anytime.” I hugged her and they took them to the hospital.

“Come on Alison. You have to go too.” Jason said. More hospital time. I thought. Just what I needed. I knew better than to argue so I let them strap me in a gurney and do what they needed to do.

I was lucky. I was only in the hospital for a couple of days. I was dehydrated. It was very obvious according to the nurse that I had been assaulted so bringing charges against Reese would be very easy. Jason, of course was by my side nearly twenty-four seven. If he was not Jenna, Lisa and Jim were. My nurse Marla was really was very happy to see me as I was her. Jason filled me in on everything. Marla had gone out to her car to get a couple things thinking I would be ok. She got talking to my neighbor Bonnie and realized I had not come out of the house. She went back in and realized I was gone. Jason told me they had hunted for me for days when he got my call. They knew Shanna and Reese had taken me. Jason had been on his way home to let me know that the FBI had finally figured out Shanna was not a victim but pretty much one of the main players. The more they dug they also realized that Shanna’s beauty parlor had been bought out by Riley so he could hold the papers over Shanna’s head. However he made it look to Shanna that he bought the place was going to sign it over to her if their relationship lasted. If it did not she could buy him out. I firmly believed though that Shanna had fallen in love and in doing so would do anything to protect Riley. I believe her anger and jealousy of me was not only directed towards me but all of the girls who grew up popular or pretty.

“Linden and Holbrook will be here shortly to fill us in about Reese.” I looked up at him. How was I going to tell Jason about what Reese had done?

“Well I guess before they get here…” I started.

“Yes, Alison, tell me what happened. “ He grabbed my hand and we sat on the couch.

“Jason, Reese forced himself on me.” I decided to put it straight out there and not beat around the bush. I saw Jason’s face go from shock to sadness to anger to pure fury. He stood up and paced around. “I am sorry.”

“Sorry?” He sat right back down next to me and pulled me towards him and as much as my body hurt I did not care. I had missed his touch. The safety of his arms. “You don’t have to be sorry. I am sorry I was not here to protect you.” Tears welled up in his eyes.” I touched his cheek. I kissed him gently.

“You were there.” I told him. “Every time I grew terribly scared, alone or sad while they had me captive I thought of you. While Reese was hurting me I zoned out and just completely was able to pretend I was in the safest place in the world. Your arms.”

“I want to hurt him for what he did to me.”

“I know.” We hugged until the FBI got there. Finally, we were meeting to put closure on this whole thing. There was court to still deal with but I was so ready to just get everything settled.

“Ok.” Linden started. “Riley Malanta and five of his boys were caught at the air port with tickets to Costa Rico. Riley has three pages of Federal Charges coming plus a first-degree murder case. Reese as well has both Federal and first degree murder charges coming.”

“What more do you know about Reese?” I asked.

“Reese, whose real name is, John Sheldon Andrews.” I was shocked. I do not know why I was shocked after everything but I was shocked. He was not even, close to who he said he was. “He was born in Kansas in 1975. His parents died in a freak accident when John was 12. However there were rumors that John may have even had something to do with it.”

“At 12?” I asked.

“Yes. He was moved into home after home. He did not exactly make great choices. He finally ran away from the system at sixteen and everyone lost touch with him. Apparently, he found himself in Redwood Maine where he was taken under the wing of Riley Malanta. Riley took him in. Gave him a job and basically treated him like a younger brother. So when John was old enough Riley brought him into the underworld of crime.”

“Oh goodness.” I said. Digesting all of this was hard. So many different shocking truths coming out but I braced myself for more.

“Thanks to Dan and his investigating Riley started feeling the pressure of getting caught for his activities here. By that time we were involved as well. Riley set up for John to move here under the name Reese, get the job at the school, and meet you. Since all of the meetings were taking place at the Full Cup, they were worried that you either had caught on or were getting ready to figure out what was going on. Riley figured if he sent John here to distract you they could get done what they needed to do to get this multi-million dollar shipment in and then leave the country.”

“This was a lot bigger then I even imagined.” Jason said shaking his head. “I think even bigger then Grandpa thought as well.”

“Oh most definitely.” Holbrook agreed.

“How did poor Raymond get involved?” I asked. I felt so bad. With everything going on, I still had not paid my respects to Raymond or his family. I really needed to do that.

“After everything is settled down.” Jason smiled at me. I could not help to smile even with all of this going on. I didn’t even have to say anything and Jason knew what I was thinking.

“Raymond was a complete innocent victim. He was at the bank one day cashing a check Jeff had given to him. He ran into Riley and Reese. He thought it was odd that the Superintendant of a school was mixing it up with a known drug smuggler.” Holbrook continued. “So Raymond got a hold of us after a couple of weeks of by chance seeing things happening in your bar as well as down at the docks. One night about three weeks ago Raymond was waiting for Jeff to give him his check. He had been sitting down at the docks when he saw a motor boat pull up and out from between the buildings he saw Reese and Riley come out and talk with the men while the boat was being unloaded. He even saw you pull up a little while later, Alison and pick up Reese.” I remembered that day. Reese had told me he was going to go deep sea fishing with some friends and had asked me to pick him up. When I had told him I would meet him down at the docks, he was very firm that I waited for him in the car claiming the docks were slippery. I did not really think anything of it because I rarely went down on the docks anyway unless I had the right boot or shoes. I had lived there all of my life. I knew the wood on the docks got very slippery sometimes.

“Oh poor Raymond” I sighed.

“Riley and Reese saw him and Riley approached him later. Raymond being who he is told him he was going to make sure this all stopped. It was the wrong thing for Raymond to do. When he told us about this confrontation, we asked him to please step back. After phone calls, text and death threats like the one sent to you Alison he decided to confront Riley again and that is the conversation that went on in your bar that night and then you found Raymond dead.” I shook my head. I just could not believe any of this. It was like a horror, suspense mystery you could read only it was happening for real.

However, the more shocking news was still yet to come. Linden continued.

“John is the one who killed Carl, sent the messages and made the calls to you Alison and also rammed into Jason’s truck.”

“I am not surprised. “Jason said. He was so angry I was almost scared but was totally with him.

“John is even in more trouble than Riley. Kidnapping, Criminal threatening, attempted murder, first-degree assault, drug trafficking. The list seems to get longer every time I talk to the attorney general.”

“I want to talk to John one more time.” I said.

“What?” Jason turned to look at me.

“I want to look him in the face and let him know I am not scared. He did not ruin my life.”

“You can’t talk about the case, Alison.”

“Oh I know that but don’t you think I have the right to make the steps to heal?”

“Most definitely. I guess we can arrange this.” I was surprised because Linden was able to make it happen within the hour. John was already processed and sitting in our jail and was being transferred to Redwood in the morning.  All of us drove over. As we walked through the building, I saw people smiling at me and waving. Little by little, it was going to take awhile for this small town to heal. We were lead to a small conference room. When Linden opened the door, I saw John seated at the table. Two Federal Marshals standing behind him. He looked up and for the first time since this all started he made eye contact. Jason stood back by the door with Holbrook. I knew he felt if he got any closer he would grab John. Linden walked with me to the table and we both sat down. John’s lawyer spoke up.

“John will not say anything to incriminate himself.”

“I know.” I said.

“This is not an interview.” Linden added.

“I just want to know why?” I asked. “At any time at all, did you have any emotions or feelings towards me?” He looked up but did not say anything. It was so quiet in that room. He finally cleared his throat and looked at his lawyer.

“I owe you nothing!” He spat at me. Jason started to rush towards him but was stopped. We got up and left quickly. We all stopped in the hall.

“I am sorry.” I apologized a bit shaken up.

“No apologies needed.” Holbrook said. We all shook hands. I knew I would see them in court but at this time, I really needed just to get away from it all. I grabbed Jason’s hand and he led me to the truck.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Do we really need to have a destination?”

“Naw” I smiled. He pulled out of the driveway. He drove us out to the camp. We got out and sat on the porch. The lake looked so peaceful. I curled up and cuddled closer to Jason. As I thought about the last few weeks, I realized how much I have changed. How much the people of our small sleepy town will change. I was considering signing the bar over to Lisa and Jim. I asked Jason what he thought.

“Sell the bar? It has been in your family for so many years.”

“I know but there are so many frightening memories there for me. My whole family was rather involved with this, you know. What kind of legacy do I want to leave my children? The bar held some great memories for my family and I over the years and for a lot of families in the town but it also reminded me that my family had been in danger for years.”

“What are you going to do from here?” He asked me as he realized what I was saying was true. It was a chapter in my life that I needed to close. As much as parts of it would really hurt.

“I am not sure yet but I do have something else I must do.”

The next day Jason and I drove back to town and headed right to the cemetery. We found Ray’s headstone immediately. His family and Jeff had bought a beautiful headstone shaped like a lighthouse. It was inscribed with his name and birth and death date and “May the light guide you to the peace you have earned” We both looked at each other with tears in our eyes. We also walked over to Shanna’s head stone. We did not go to her funeral. I had heard not many people did. Although I felt like I had to pay my respects because deep down I did not feel that Shanna deserved any of this. I just wanted to remember her as a young girl who just eagerly wanted everyone to accept her.

“Come on.” Jason coaxed me.

“Where are we going?”

“Just come with me.” He smiled. He led me back to the truck and he drove us over to the Full Cup. We went inside and I was surprised to see Jim, Lisa, Jenna, her family and so many other local people I was close with.

“Jason what have you done?” I turned to him. He was on his knee holding a ring box. I felt the heat go to my face.

“Well?” Jenna asked after a few minutes of silence. Everyone laughed. I looked at Jason.

“Yes.” I said. “Yes I will marry you.” Everyone clapped and we kissed. As people came up to talk to us I kind of wandered away from the crowd towards my office. I opened the door. Lisa had cleaned it up and organized it but it was still the same. I picked up the picture of Carl. Poor guy.  I walked over to the window and pulled the curtain aside. I saw a car pull up and a familiar person get out of it but I could not place him. Moments later, there was a soft knock at the door. Jason stuck his head in.

“Alison.” He opened the door wider. Behind him stood Uncle Junior. He looked great compared to the pictures I had seen. He had aged nicely. He was dressed in a nice pair of jeans and casual shirt.

“Junior.” I said.

“Hello Alison.” He came in and Jason left and closed the door.

“You have grown up to be a beautiful lady,” Junior said to me.

“Thank you.” He just kept looking at me. For some reason I followed my urge and hugged him tightly. It was like years of tension just flowed from both of us. We talked for a while and Jason had to finally come get me as people were asking about me.