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I thanked the kid for loaning me his phone, and my first call was to Galigani.
“Kate!” his voice boomed into the phone. “How’s the case going?”
“Mrs. Lozano is our perp. She just shoved Laurie through a parking lot. She bolted. I need you to call the police and tell them I saw her heading toward the salon. She’s driving a silver SUV. I’ll go inform Jane North. Would you also call Jim for me and let him know what’s going on?”
“Absolutely, I’ll call the police and Jim for you. Now listen. Stay away from the salon. If you have to go by the spa, fine, but do no confront Lozano on your own, understand?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
As if I have any intentions of confronting her again after she shoved Laurie’s stroller down a slope!
“And, listen, she has my cell phone. If she bolts, let the police know they can track it. I recorded her confession, but she snagged the phone from me while I ran after Laurie’s stroller.”
“Geez!” he snarled. He sounded as I angry as I felt and I was overcome with gratitude that he cared about Laurie and me.
“I got to go warn Jane,” I said. “For all I know, Lozano might try to go after her.”
“Watch your back,” he said.
“Will do,” I hang up, and returned the cell phone to the kid who’d been kind enough to let me borrow it, my hand shaking.
“Are the police coming here?” one of the barista’s asked, obviously having listened in on the conversation I’d just had.
“No, I sent them toward the woman’s salon,” I said. “But, if she’s got half a brain, that’s not where she went.” I took a deep breath and thanked the bystanders for their moral support before heading out.
Honestly, I had no idea where Mrs. Lozano was heading. I assumed she head to the salon to snatch her daughter.
My intentions were to let Jane know what had happened so that she could get be on the lookout in the event Mrs. Lozano was foolish enough to return to the scene of the crime as well as to wait to meet the police that Galigani was sending out my way.
I put Laurie in her car seat, and she started babbling at me a little like she was telling me all about the crazy woman who had just pushed her.
“I know, right? Mean old lady,” I said, and Laurie grinned.
Frankly, I was still fuming by the time I got behind the wheel of my car. I gripped the wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white.
I’ve never contemplated hurting another person, but at this moment I felt I could literally kill that woman.
Mama fury was a whole new level of fury.
Pushing Laurie through a parking lot!
Honestly!
I pulled out into the street and sped across the road into the parking lot of the shopping complex where both the spa and the salon was located. Mrs. Lozano’s car was parked in the lot; the engine running, and the doors wide open.
I stared trying to figure out where she was, taking my eye off the road for a split second, then disaster hit.
Someone ran in front of my car, and I slammed the brakes. But I was too slow. The person thudded onto my windshield cracking it with a loud splintering crash.
I screamed, and I swear, my heart physically jumped up into my throat. I swallow several times before that knot disappeared.
I was in shock.
Oh my lord. I’d just rammed into a pedrastian.
My brain replayed the image for me in slow motion.
I had rammed Sonya down – unintentionally, of course.
“Sonya!” Mrs. Lozano screamed, darting out of the nail salon.
In front my car, Sonya got to her feet. She looked surprised and seemingly unharmed, albeit a bit wobbly.
I’m not really an eye for an eye type person, but a small part of me was glad Mrs. Lozano had seen that. Even though it had been unintentional, she didn’t know that.
Push my daughter’s stroller through a parking lot, and I’ll ram yours down with a soccer mom van.
Mrs. Lozano was fighting mad, and she zipped around the side of my van with the intentions of probably coming right up to my door. I’ve never gotten into a cat fight, but Mrs. Lozano looked like she was ready to claw my eyes out. So, to avoid that, as she rounded the front of my car, I flung my door open nailing her with it.
Surprised at my own strength, I could hardly believe how Mrs. Lozano hurled backwards into the air and landed on the pavement. Sonya wasn’t going anywhere despite managing to stand up; she looked like she would fall over from the shock.
“Don’t move,” I warned Mrs. Lozano, and she nodded and cringed like she’d pulled something from the fall. A tiny bit of blood trickled down her face from her forehead.
Dang, I really hit her good with that door.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw none other than Officer McNearny standing a few yards back with his gun drawn and a slight smirk on his face. A second patrol car whipped into the parking lot behind him as he made his way toward me and the Lozano’s.
“Nice,” McNearny said to me as he knelt down by Mrs. Lozano, checking for weapons while another officer did the same with the distraught Sonya.
“Was that a compliment?” I questioned.
“A little bit,” he said as he pulled Mrs. Lozano to her feet.
“That woman assaulted us!” Mrs. Lozano pointed a finger in my direction.
“You sure?” McNearny asked. “Because from my angle it looked like that woman ran out in front this car and then you got in the way when she opened her door.”
“You’re not going to do anything?” Mrs. Lozano questioned.
“I’m going to arrest you for murder,” he said, tossing me my cell phone. “I’m guessing this one is yours since it’s got a picture of your baby on the phone case. Play the recording if she hasn’t deleted it.”
I smiled. She hadn’t had time to delete it yet.
Mrs. Lozano had gone straight from the coffee shop to the salon to snag her daughter, and the plan had probably been to quickly get out of town before I mowed down Sonya.
I pressed play, and Mrs. Lozano’s voice rang out for McNearny and the other officer’s present to hear, “You think you’re so smart,” she spat. “You’re not even a real PI. My daughter may have switched out the box of Stevia, but I was the one who knew how to work the sauna. How’s your mother doing, by the way? I never asked if I managed to kill her or not. I saw them drive you both off in an ambulance that day.”
And then Mrs. Lozano’s outright confession played out for all to hear.
Sonya’s eyes widened as she and her mother were both slapped with cuffs. The young woman started crying.
“Ryan is going to hate me!” she sobbed.
Mrs. Lozano was a lot less traumatized. She just rolled her eyes as though Sonya’s crying was embarrassing her.
The two women were shoved into the back of a patrol car. Then Galigani’s car pull up, and he hopped out along with my mom and with Jim.
Evidently, Galigani had rounded up the entire gang before coming here.
“Everything all right?” Galigani asked, approaching McNearny and me.
“She managed to get a confession on tape, and she took out both suspects while toting her baby around,” McNearny said and almost smiled at me. “I’m impressed.”
Jim looked pale. “You did what?” he asked.
“Laurie was in the car,” I said, but I know that didn’t make it sound better. “I hit one of them with the van... and then I flung my door open and smacked Mrs. Lozano.”
“For crying out loud, Kate!” Jim exclaimed, wrapping an arm around me. He hurried over to the back door and opened it up to see Laurie happy as ever in her car seat. “I’m glad you’re both okay!”
“I told you this woman knew what she was doing,” Galigani said to McNearny, but McNearny only huffed in response.
He wasn’t the type of guy to admit he was wrong, but I would take the half-hearted compliments he had given me before Galigani’s arrival.
That was pretty good for McNearny.
The nail salon employees and the spa employees emptying out into the parking lot, probably every last one of them wondering why a group of police officers were gathered outside.
I spotted Jane North among the crowd and gave her a thumbs up. I let Jim get Laurie out of the car seat and deal with her for a moment while I headed over to Jane.
“What happened!” she exclaimed.
“I got Mrs. Lozano’s confession on tape,” I said. “Case officially solved.”
“You’re kidding!” she cried.
“Nope!” I said, and she smiled happily at me.
I could hardly believe it. My case was solved, and I’d physically taken out both perks using my soccer mom van!
