Trigger Snappy (23 page)

The shot echoed around the garage.

I watched my reflection in Penelope's eyes. My eyes widened in fear, and my mouth parted in a faint gasp. Then my reflection vanished as we slumped together.

Chapter Twenty-One

"Lexi? Lexi?"

From very far away, someone kept calling my name. I blinked, looking for something to focus on as my vision wavered. Above me, wooden beams and a roof came into view. A face appeared between those beams and I blinked again.
Lily.

"Lexi? Are you okay?" she yelled.

"I'm fine," I gasped.

"I think you got stunned, or something. I don't think you passed out. You just lay there with your mouth gaping like a goldfish."

"She shot me. Again!"

"No, she didn't. She shot herself. Again." Lily's mouth struggled to remain worried as the edges curled upwards. "You have no idea how lucky you are.
Again
!"

"My mom should be so proud."

"She is."

"Scrap that. Don’t even tell my mom that I took you to a shooting! She will never ever let me forget how I put you and the baby in danger."

"You didn't. You promised to protect me, remember? And you did. I stayed outside the whole time."

My hands felt like dead weights as I lifted them upwards, checking my body for any stray holes. My fingertips touched something wet and I winced. "I think my wound reopened."

"You're bleeding," Lily confirmed. "I changed my mind. I don't want to borrow that blouse anymore."

"Penelope?"

"Rob's got her. He pulled her off you."

"Is she..."

"Dead? Nope. But she's got more holes than Swiss cheese now."

I wanted to ask her more, but someone dressed in black dropped next to me, his hands reaching out for me. "Lexi?" Solomon's panicked eyes searched mine.

"Lexi one, perp zero," I said as I smiled.

"You scared me."

"I like to keep you on your toes. Can you help me up?"

"Stay still. Paramedics are on their way."

"Hurrah! I bet I get a discount now."

"You're still on company insurance."

"Double hurrah!"

"Lexi?"

I looked around for the new voice, connecting with Juliet. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I thought she killed you."

"No, not me..." I struggled to remember any pertinent information. My head hurt from where I hit it on the floor. A monster bruise would probably arrive very soon if the throbbing were any indication. "Solomon, check Juliet's drink. I think Penelope slipped something in it."

Solomon twisted on his knees. When he turned back, there were two glasses in his hand. He sniffed one, then the other. "Smells like almonds," he said. "It's very faint, but it's definitely there."

"What does that mean?"

"Cyanide." Solomon turned and handed the glass off to someone, instructing him to watch it until the police arrived to bag it as evidence. "Good save. Whoever drank from this flute would have been dead in a matter of seconds."

"Do we have enough evidence now?" I asked, my head whirling at the unexpected wave of dizziness and nausea. I didn't know if it was because of the bump to my head, my wound, or just finally catching Penelope in the act.

"Plenty. Stay still, Lexi."

"This isn't fair," wailed Penelope, a few yards away. I rotated my head. She lay on her back. Rob knelt at her side, holding one arm. Delgado was at her other side, holding her other arm. Someone else bent over her, pressing a bloody cloth over her wound. He moved his head and smiled. "Hey," said Maddox. "Nice work."

"Hey, yourself."

"Juliet deserved it. She ruined everything!" hissed Penelope.

"I...I..." stuttered Juliet. She stood between us, wrapping her arms around herself. "I am actually lost for words. I don't know what to say. How could you? How could you be so cruel to me? To Rob?"

"I did it for Rob. You destroyed our family! You deserved everything you got!"

"But... I didn't."

"I did everything right. I gave him his space. I let him move out, but we always talked. We did, Rob. We said we'd always be a family, and you promised you'd always be there for us. And always love me."

"Not like that, Penelope," said Rob, softly.

"Then she came between us! Her with her fancy education and her fancy job; and you just turned your back on us."

"We were over, Penelope. We were over long before I met Juliet, long before I even moved out. You know that."

"You said you never loved anyone like you loved me," wailed Penelope.

"Because you're you," said Rob. "Juliet's different. You're two different people and I love Juliet. I can't believe you'd do this to her. She helped you get a job and you tried to have her put in prison! You made people think she was crazy."

"She tried to kill me," added Juliet. "Twice."

"You don't deserve him," shrieked Penelope, wrestling against the arms that restrained her. "It should be me in that wedding dress, not you!"

"Seriously?" yelled Lily. "You want to argue over a man who doesn't want you? Don't demean yourself. You have enough problems without adding that to the list!"

"Very true," I agreed. "At least twenty years worth of problems."

"Shut up!" screamed Penelope. "Don't you see Juliet deserved it? She had everything and she still wanted more. It's not fair! All I wanted was Rob but you had to take him! You thought you would be Robbie's mom when he's mine, not yours! I just wanted to have our family back together but you lured them away with your money and fancy life, and all I got was your charity."

"We're having a baby. Did you ever think about our child? You would have killed our child along with Juliet. And our son? What about him? Did you ever think of him in any of this?" said Rob. Disgust simmered in his eyes as he released her arm. He began edging away moments before the police burst through the door, with Detective Donahue in the lead. A young, uniformed officer stepped into Rob's place, kneeling next to Penelope as she began to sob.

Rob got to his feet, hurrying to Juliet and wrapping his arms around her. "I'm so sorry," he murmured. "She'll never hurt you again."

"Penelope Cera," said Donahue, bending on one knee next to her. "You're under arrest..."

~

The diner near Maddox's office was quiet in the post lunch hour; all the local workers had already drifted back to their offices. All, that is, except us. Steaming cups of coffee on the table were in various stages of being drunk. Mine was the one with pink lipstick on the rim. Maddox's was almost empty, and Lily had something herbal that smelled putrid. Judging by the expression on her face, it tasted just as bad too.

Seeing my oldest brother enter, I raised a hand and waved to catch his attention. "What happened at the station, Garrett?" I asked, taking in his tired face as he approached our table.

"Haven't been there. Been parked at Montgomery General all night, thanks to your perp. She didn't stop talking until she went under for surgery; and then, she didn't stop talking once she was conscious again. It's one crazy story."

"I spoke to Donahue. He says all charges against Juliet have been officially dropped," said Maddox. "Penelope confessed enough information to link her to the fraudulent insider trading too."

Garrett nodded. "Penelope admitted everything, almost proudly. She spent a lot of time planning to set Juliet up. A jury will have no problem in convicting her."

"I want to cheer, but it's pretty sad," I said. "She's a mom."

"Being a mom isn't enough to exempt some women from doing bad stuff," pointed out Maddox. "We just don't expect that as a society, and it's always more shocking when a woman turns out to be the perp, and even worse when she's a mom."

"Do you really think so?" asked Lily, rubbing her bump.

"I do, but you'll be a great mom," said Maddox.

"Thanks."

"Did Penelope say how she did everything?" I asked my brother. "I have some ideas, and Lily and I figured out how she bought tickets at the airport by impersonating Juliet, but I don't know all of it. I don't know how she got away with it for so long. I also don’t know why. Not for sure."

"Why?" asked Maddox. "Money?" he guessed.

"Jealousy."

"Lexi's right," cut in Garrett. "Penelope was simply jealous of Juliet. Apparently, it was also very easy. With Penelope and Juliet employed by the same firm, Penelope had no trouble gaining access to Juliet's passwords as well as her computer. She even had spyware installed so she could send emails remotely, thereby enabling her to do the rogue trades. She had access to all of Juliet's accounts and her phone and used them all to alienate people, leaving Juliet no one to turn to. We picked up Juliet's home computer and I'm sure we'll find evidence on that one too. I don't think the lamp with the cut cord you found will help, unfortunately."

"Shame, I'm sure she sabotaged it. Penelope was always in and out of Juliet's house," I told them. "She had no problem copying keys and could enter as she pleased. In the garage, she even said she took Rob's new keys the day she took him and Robbie to the park. She made an imprint to copy later. She was relentless. But she was greedy too. When Donahue searched her house, he found all the fraudulent bags and clothes ordered on Juliet's credit card at her home. Her aunt lived next door to the vacant house, where she had everything sent, and personally identified her."

"She masqueraded as the perfect friend just so she could ruin Juliet's life?" asked Maddox. "That's sick."

Lily reached across and laid a hand over mine. "I would never do that to you."

"Thanks."

"I don't have the energy."

"Good to know." I waited a moment, wondering if Lily was about to change her mind. When she didn't, I asked Garrett, "Did she move the car?"

"Car? Hmm, she rambled something about moving a car and messing with Juliet's house. She's a mean piece of work."

"She can't have always been like that. She and Rob were in love once."

"She probably wasn't; and I don't think love has anything to do with this. Jealousy does bad things to people. We all have jealous traits from time-to-time, but Penelope's went into overdrive. She turned nasty and obsessive. Instead of making her own life better, and letting go of the past, she thought she could take Juliet's identity and make it her own. So she infiltrated Juliet's life, always looking for a way to get rid of her and restart what she considered was
her family
all along," said Garrett.

"Penelope said all that?"

"Pretty much."

"Did you think to give her a sedative?" asked Lily.

"No, but we made sure to record everything. Listen, I gotta go. I'll keep you updated with what's happening," said Garrett, rising and buttoning his jacket. "Donahue would appreciate any files you have on the case. We have Penelope on fraud, assault, and attempted murder, but he's still unraveling the financial aspects that got Juliet into hot water."

"No problem. I'll talk to Juliet later and drop them off as fast as I can."

"Solomon's files too?"

"I'm going to his office soon, but I'm sure either he or Lancaster Friedland already turned over whatever he has."

"I'll call Donahue and tell him you'll be by."

"Does this mean you're on the case?"

"Only for the attempted murder part of it. If work gets slack, I know who to call to speed things up," Garrett said, shaking his head at me.

I grimaced, then remembered what I meant to ask him. "Sorry. Can I have my gun back now?"

Garrett leaned over to hug me. "Soon. Don't ever make me investigate another attempt on your life," he said, kissing my cheek.

"I'm kind of worried about joining a mom and baby group now. What if they're all homicidal maniacs just waiting to break free? Ugh, bathroom break," said Lily, sliding out from the booth. "The baby seems to think my bladder is a squishy pillow."

"This has been a crazy case," said Maddox. "I'm glad you called me for help. It makes my case load look easy."

"You still have open cases? I hope we didn't distract you too much."

"No, not even a little bit. Besides, I'm all done for now."

"So what's next? Another case?" I asked.

"Something better. I'm going to Paris." He clapped his hands together and grinned, looking happy.

"For a vacation? Sounds great!"

"A case actually. I applied for a confidential position a while back and I got it. I leave tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Wait... what? I thought the FBI wasn't for you."

"It isn't with the FBI. You could call it a loan of sorts. I can't tell you a lot about it, sorry."

I raised my eyebrows. I suspected the answer already, but it didn't stop me from asking. "Classified?"

"One hundred percent. What I can tell you is it might take me back to my roots. I hoped the FBI would be the pinnacle of my career, one step from being a detective, but it isn't what I expected. Perhaps, this will change things. I'll be investigating a very interesting case." Maddox checked his watch. "I have to get back now. Let's catch up when I'm home again."