I talked Stephanie through the directions to the Tennessee River and she maneuvered the 30-foot vehicle with four adults and four barking dogs.
When we pulled up to the river, we saw Red, Joe and Turbo along with a crowd of police with guns pointed toward Fiona who had removed Rex’s collar and was holding him up by the scruff of his neck with a crazed look in her eye. Mary Kilpatrick had her arm around Mai’s neck and a gun pointed at her head.
I opened the door to the RV and hopped out. Red glanced around and, seeing me, he shook his head and yelled, “Stay back.”
I froze.
Fiona extended her hand so Rex was now dangling over the river. She snarled, “Stay back or I might just lose my grip and drop him.” For a brief second, my mind cleared and remembered Dixie mentioning the gun Beau kept in the glove box. I leaned back in the vehicle and slowly and quietly opened the glove box. I reached my hand in the glove box until I felt the gun.
“Drop your weapons on the ground or I’ll blow her brains out,” Mary Kilpatrick yelled.
Red and the other officers delayed until Mary fired a shot into the air. The blast from the gun and the crazy look in her eyes must have convinced them that she meant business.
Turbo was growling and barking and lunging toward Mary, but Joe held onto him.
“Keep that dog away or I’ll kill her,” Mary yelled.
Red tried to rationalize and get Mary to drop the gun and let Rex and Mai go, but both women were beyond reasonable thought.
“Shut up,” Fiona yelled. “I’ve waited too many years to get my hands on this.” She held up Rex’s collar. “There’s no way I’m walking away without it.”
I hid the gun by my side and took several steps forward. I could tell that Red saw what I was doing, but he gave no indication of anything happening behind the women.
“Why did you kill Archibald Lowry and Paul Carpenter?” Red kept their attention focused on him.
Fiona cackled. “I didn’t kill Lowry or Carpenter.” She spat. “That was Eli. We’ve been poisoning him for months with arsenic while we tried to figure out what the old man did with the money.” She shook her head. “That was the plan, poison him slowly and then when we got the rest of the money, one big dose. Clean and easy with no blood and no mess, but he couldn’t wait.” She snarled with disgust. “Eli had to get greedy and start siphoning the money out of the trust.” She snorted. “How dumb. Of course, Archibald found out and put two and two together.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Aggie crouched down by a concrete pillar behind Fiona. She was on her stomach like a sphinx and was crawling on her belly, inching closer and closer to Fiona the way Chyna and Leia did when going through the crawl tunnel in the agility ring.
“We knew there was more money than what he had in that trust. He had the money from the bank robbery. We just needed to find out what he’d done with it. Eli went to the art museum and Lowry told him he knew he’d been draining the trust and he intended to stop him. They argued and Eli killed him. Right before he died, he saw the jewels in the collar and figured out what the old man had done.” Fiona stared at the collar and then smiled at Red. “Now, we have it.”
Mary laughed. “That’s why we needed to get our hands on that blasted dog. Once we found out what that old man had done, putting the jewels out in plain sight on that dog, we just needed to get him and then be on our way.”
I took a few more steps forward but stepped on a leaf which sounded like a bomb exploding in the quiet of the night.
Fiona turned. “What are you going to do?”
I pointed the gun at her.
Red shouted, “Lilly, no!”
Fiona laughed. “If you shoot me. I might just lose my grip on this little rat.” She shook Rex and my heart skipped a beat when I heard him yelp.
Mai gave a loud yell. “NOW!” Then she bent forward and kicked her head backward, head butting Mary.
Mary screamed, and in one smooth, quick move, Mai reached up and pulled back on Mary’s fingers. We heard a crunch and Mary slumped to the ground.
Fiona glanced over toward Mary and that’s when Joe released Turbo who took one flying leap toward Fiona and bit down on her arm.
Fiona opened her hand. Rex let out a scream and then splashed down into the river.
Joe commanded Turbo to release his hold while he moved in and secured Fiona down onto the ground.
The other officers swarmed forward and secured Mary who was rolling on the ground, screaming in pain.
Red began removing his shirt and shoes, prepared to jump in the water.
That’s when I saw a blur from the corner of my eye as Aggie took a flying leap from the pier and leapt into the water.
“Aggie, Noooo,” I screamed.
Stephanie opened the RV door and yelled, “Lucky, go.”
Like a golden flash, Lucky flew past me and leapt into the water as well.
My knees buckled and I collapsed. Red hesitated for a split second, unsure whether to come to me or save my dogs.
Stephanie rushed to my side and put her arms around me. “I’ve got Mom. Save Rex,” she called to Red.
He nodded and then dove down into the black murky depths of the Tennessee River.