Gia followed Savannah farther into the bushes, wedging herself between the fence and an azalea. At least, with the open split rail design at their back, they could make a quick escape if need be. Thankfully, Mallory had recently laid mulch beneath the bushes, and it didn’t crunch beneath their feet. A carpet of dead leaves would have given them away for sure.
Gia slid her phone from her back pocket. She couldn’t snap a picture, afraid the flash would go off, but maybe she could video whoever it was. Keeping the camera cupped in her hands, she hit the camera icon and checked to be sure there was no blinking light to alert the intruder to their presence. Satisfied she wouldn’t blow their cover, she held up the phone and tried to film the stranger through the bushes.
Savannah shifted a branch aside to give her an unobstructed view.
The figure was careful to stay out of the small circle of light cast by the spotlight beside the rear sliding door.
Gia filmed him digging. At least, she was pretty sure it was a man.
Guilt niggled at her. What if someone was injured or could be saved while she and Savannah crouched in the bushes watching their assailant? Maybe they should just call Hunt and Leo and keep an eye on the house from the car. She couldn’t do that. With the low fence, the stranger could escape from any side and they’d lose him. Since she couldn’t positively ID him, she had to wait until she could at least get a glimpse of his face on camera.
Besides, what if he was just innocently gardening. At this time of night. In the shadows. Dressed like a cat burglar.
Okay, probably not.
The man stopped digging and jammed the shovel into the ground to the side of the hole.
Gia let out the breath she’d been holding as quietly as possible, relief flooding through her. If he was done digging, the hole wasn’t big enough to conceal a body. But what on earth was he doing then?
After a quick look around, the man disappeared into the shadows between the bushes on the far side of the yard.
Gia started to stand, to try to see where he was going, but Savannah grabbed her arm.
A second later, he emerged from the bushes dragging something with him.
“What the…” Savannah let out on the softest breath. “Is that what I think it is?”
Gia tried to zoom in, get a good video of whatever he was pulling that Savannah seemed to recognize and still trying for a shot of his face under the hood.
He pulled a bush until its roots dropped into the hole, then hurriedly shoveled dirt back in around it. The crunch of the shovel hitting the dirt and the intruder’s harsh breathing filled the night. Could it be Ethan? Had he killed Jeremy and planned to frame Mallory for his murder? For Robyn’s murder?
The man patted down the dirt, then gathered handfuls of dead leaves from beneath a large oak at the back of the yard and scattered them underneath, apparently trying to make it appear as if the plant had been there all along. He propped his hands on his hips and looked around, then grabbed the shovel. Apparently satisfied his midnight gardening had gone unnoticed, he shoved his hood off and hefted the shovel over his shoulder.
Isaac.
Gia jerked back and stepped on a branch. It cracked beneath her weight, the sound like a shotgun blast in the silence.
Isaac stopped and stood perfectly still. He scowled toward the row of bushes, bending to look underneath. “Who’s there?”
She stopped the camera and felt behind her for the fence. They had to get out of there. If they crawled underneath, they could bolt for the car. Isaac would still have to go through the bush and over the fence. They might be able to make it, especially Savannah, who was much faster than Gia.
Something moved against her hand.
Gia squealed and shot to her feet, desperate to get away from whatever it was.
Isaac shifted the shovel to a two-handed grip. “Who’s there? I won’t ask again.”
Savannah started to stand, but Gia put a firm hand on her head and kept her in place. There was no reason both of them needed to get caught.
Gia inched sideways toward a gap where she could wiggle through, desperately trying not to think about whatever critter had brushed against her hand still scurrying around her feet somewhere. She held her hands up where Isaac could see them. Could she run? If he chased her, Savannah could get away and call for help. But if he hit her with that shovel, she might not get back up. “Isaac? Is that you?”
“How do you know my name?” He strode toward her, his head on a swivel as he tried to look everywhere at once, the shovel now raised over his shoulder like a batter warming up for a swing. “Who are you? And what are you doing there in the bushes?”
She tried for a smile then gave up. He probably couldn’t see it, anyway, since she was standing in shadows. “Isaac, it’s me. Gia Morelli.”
“Gia Mor…why were you following me?”
For the first time, a trickle of fear seeped in. It was late at night, in a dark secluded yard, and she was either standing face to face with a killer or with someone who had a lot of explaining to do. The fact that Savannah was still hidden was the only thing that helped her maintain any kind of composure. “I wasn’t following you, I…”
“Then what are you doing here?” he hissed between clenched teeth.
Think, think, think. Even with Savannah working with Mallory to buy a house, it didn’t give her reason to skulk around the woman’s house in the middle of the night.
“Answer me!”
“Friends of mine are buying a house, and Mallory is the real estate agent handling the sale, and she called today to say that their offer was accepted.” True enough, at least that part. Savannah had been beyond thrilled, as had Gia since they would now be neighbors. If, of course, Gia lived through the night. She didn’t dare give Isaac enough information to figure out who Savannah was. Thankfully, she hadn’t been with Gia when she’d gone to visit him. Hopefully, he’d had too much to drink before their run-in at the real estate office to remember her. “Unfortunately, they were leaving to go out of town for the holidays, and I have a wedding to attend tomorrow, so I said I’d drop off the paperwork Mallory needed tonight so she could get started. I’m supposed to put it in her mailbox. It’s kind of a rush sale. So, no one wanted to wait until they got back. Cause they’ll be gone for a while.”
Okay, Gia, shut up now. She bit down on her tongue, hard, to stop the flow of words.
“So what were you doing hiding in the bushes?”
“I saw someone creeping around back here and got scared, and I wanted to make sure no one was robbing Mallory’s house.” Okay, at least that sounded legitimate, unlike the rest of the nonsense she’d spewed so far.
He swiped a hand over his mouth and lowered the shovel. “All right, listen. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”
“That’s really good, because I don’t want that either. So we are definitely on the same page there.”
Bouncing the shovel up and down in the dirt, he looked around. “Did you give your boyfriend my father’s medicine like I asked you to?”
“I did, as soon as I left your house I stopped by the station and dropped it off.”
“Did he tell you what they found?” Isaac couldn’t stand still, bouncing from one foot to the other, fidgeting with anything he could get his hands on; his sweatshirt string, the shovel handle, his hood.
“No, but he probably wouldn’t. He’s not in the habit of discussing his cases with me.” Okay, that one was a big fat whopper. Hopefully, she wouldn’t die before she could ask forgiveness.
He shook a finger and started to pace back and forth in the narrow space between the side of the house and the bushes, the shovel swinging from his hand. “Okay, all right, I think maybe we can make this work.”
“Pardon?” She held her breath as he strode toward the bushes, praying fervently he wouldn’t see Savannah crouched there.
He turned, and she let out a sigh of relief.
He pointed a finger back and forth between the two of them. “You and me, we can make a deal.”
“We can?”
“Sure. Everyone has a price, right?”
She hesitated.
He took a step toward her, his grip on the shovel tightening.
“Sure, uh, yeah, I’m sure everyone wants something.” Like right now, she wanted to live through this encounter.
“That’s good. Right. What is it you want?”
“Pardon?”
“I need to make sure no one knows I was here, and you must need something. As soon as I get my inheritance, I can pay you whatever you want to keep your mouth shut. Anything. Just name your price.”
Could this kid possibly be this stupid? She was dating Boggy Creek’s chief of police, for crying out loud. “You know what? I’m sure we can work something out. After all, you’re related to Mallory. It’s not like you were doing anything wrong.”
“Right.” His head bobbed frantically up and down. “Yeah, I was just doing some work around the house for my dear Aunt Mallory, to make up for the scene I caused at the real estate office. It’s a surprise, you know.”
“That’s very nice of you.” His excuse actually sounded more plausible than hers. Gia took a step backward. When he didn’t protest, she took another. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”
“Oh, I won’t tell her it was me.” His eyes widened, and he grinned eagerly. “That’s why I want you to keep it a secret. Like a Secret Santa thing, like that, only instead of a gift, I did some yardwork for her.”
“That sounds like a great idea.” She took two more steps back, and the fence pressed into her back. Huh, that wasn’t a lie. If he were telling the truth at all, that would be a really nice thing to do for someone. “I may do that next year for a few of my friends.”
He stopped nodding and stood perfectly still.
She inched sideways down the fence toward the front of the house. No way was she turning her back on him to go over the fence and run, at least not until she’d put some distance between them.
“You’re not buying it, are you?”
“Wha—”
“You don’t believe me!” he screamed.
“Then why don’t you tell me what actually happened?” What difference did it make at that point? He clearly didn’t trust her, and probably planned on killing her before he left, so why not try to find out what was going on. Especially when it would also serve to buy her time to escape. “Why did you kill your mother?”
He gaped at her, mouth hanging open.
She held her breath waiting to see if he’d answer or just kill her and be done with it.
“Because she was squandering everything my father worked so hard for. She was going to change her will, leave everything to that loser. I couldn’t let that happen.” He grinned, baring his teeth in what looked more like a grimace. “Now it’s all mine. And dear old Aunty is no longer in control.”
Shocked he’d admitted that much, Gia racked her brain for what else to ask. “Did you put the belladonna plant at Jeremy’s too?”
“Yeah, the fool invited me to the house, gave me the perfect opportunity to get rid of him, so he could show me the copy of the will my mother wrote just before she died. Fortunately for me, he chose to reach out to me rather than go through the proper legal channels, the poor crooked dupe. Look where that got him.”
Hmm, so Jeremy really had forged the will to try to get Robyn’s inheritance from Isaac after the fact. “So why plant the belladonna? Were you going to frame him for your mother’s murder?”
“I shouldn’t have had to frame him!” Spit sprayed from his mouth, illuminated by the light from the full moon. “Your dumb boyfriend should have arrested him. He was the most likely suspect, had a history of killing off his wives. So this time I beat him to it. So what?”
Gia held her hands up in front of her for protection. “Isaac, calm dow—”
He took three long strides to reach her, the shovel hefted high over his shoulder.
Gia dove over the split rail fence and rolled, slamming her knee against the concrete.
“Freeze!”
Gia stopped where she was. She couldn’t have gotten up in that moment if she’d tried thanks to the pain radiating from her knee all the way to her hip and toes.
A figure emerged from behind the bushes lining the front of the house, gun pointed straight at Isaac. “Hands in the air.”
“Hey?” Hunt knelt beside Gia and lowered her arms. “He didn’t mean you, honey. You okay?”
“Keep them where I can see them, Isaac.” Leo crept toward him.
A second officer approached Isaac from the other side.
“Hey.” Hunt wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Gia, babe, you okay? Are you hurt?”
Heat crept through her and she plopped, not very daintily onto her butt on the sidewalk. “Yeah, I’m okay, but dancing tomorrow might be off the table.”
He laughed, shakier than she’d have expected, and pulled her close, then dropped a kiss on her head.
She wrapped her arms around him, and the line of sweat pouring down his back gave him away. He could play it as cool as he wanted, but he’d been terrified. She didn’t blame him; so had she. “How did you… Savannah.”
“Uh huh.”
“She was able to get away to call?”
“Nope.” He kept her in his arms, his chin resting on her head as they sat together and watched Leo arrest Isaac. “She texted Leo.”
“Oh, wow. I never thought of texting.”
Hunt laughed, it started off as a chuckle, then got deeper and louder. He shook his head. When he got himself back under control, he sighed. “Oh, Gia, what am I going to do with you?”
She grinned and sat back. “Well, I have an idea or two.”
His expression turned serious. “So do I.”
“Oh? You first, then, what’s your idea?”
“Nope. You first.”
She leaned up toward him and captured his lips with hers, then fell into his arms to snuggle against his warm chest. The night had turned chilly, but there in Hunt’s arms, she didn’t mind it so much. It was actually beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Except for the bum knee. That would put a damper on things. “So, what’s your idea?”
He tapped a finger against her nose. “I’m not telling you yet.”
“When are you going to tell me?”
“Tomorrow night, maybe, after the wedding. It’s a Christmas present.”
“Fine, then, I’ll wait until midnight, but not a minute longer.”
Hunt helped her to her feet and guided her to where Savannah waited beside her car, filing a nail.
She gripped her hands to stop her filing and pressed her forehead against Savannah’s. “Thank you, Savannah.”
“No problem.” She stayed there a moment, then stepped back. “Thank you.”
“Me? For what? Getting you in trouble with Hunt and Leo, putting you at risk?”
“Nope.” She grinned. “Thank you for getting to the bottom of this case. Leo would have set it aside to go on our honeymoon, but his head would still have been partly up here with the case. Now, he can let it go, and we can just enjoy ourselves.”
“Oh, is that how you’re spinning this?” Gia laughed. Only Savannah could get away with that.
“You bet it is, and you’d better have my back on this.”
“Every time, Savannah.”