Cam’s eyes widen. “How do we stop her? We can’t barge inside her house.”
She could press charges for trespassing. And if we physically try to detain her, she might get us on assault charges as well. I grab my phone as I try to walk inside the house, but Rebecca Underwood locked the door behind her. “She’s probably already on the phone with Harmony.”
I dial Quentin.
“This better be good, Jo,” he answers. “I’m at the hospital with Quentin Junior.”
“Harmony Underwood killed Simon Porter. Cam and I are at her mom’s house right now. She’s locked us out, and she’s probably calling Harmony right now to tell her to run.”
Quentin curses into the phone. “Get out of there. Go back to Cup of Jo, and let me handle this.” He ends the call.
The front door opens, making me jump. Rebecca Underwood is pointing a gun right at me.
“Hold on,” Cam says. “Don’t do anything rash. No one has to get hurt here.” He pulls me behind him.
“You shouldn’t have called the police,” she says. “You should have left all this alone.”
“You didn’t know it was Harmony,” I say. “You had no idea until I put the pieces together for you.”
“She made a mistake. She has her whole life ahead of her. I won’t let you ruin that.” She’s talking through clenched teeth. “This is how it’s going to happen. You’re going to drive me to the police station. I’m going to confess to killing Simon. Harmony is going to live her life.”
I feel awful for this woman. First, she loses her husband, and now she’s desperate to save her daughter. “Mrs. Underwood, I understand this isn’t easy, but you can’t cover for her. Cam and I know the truth.”
“Then I can’t give you the chance to talk. You either agree to my plan, or…” She takes the safety off the gun.
I take a wild guess that she’s never shot a gun in her life. “That was Gabe’s gun, wasn’t it?”
A tear falls from her eye.
“What would he think of you killing Cam and me with it? From what I’ve heard, Gabe was a good man. He wouldn’t want this. What happened to him was an accident.”
“No, it wasn’t!” comes a voice from behind us. I turn my head to see Harmony walking up the driveway, her car across the street. “Go inside, Mom. You don’t need to fight my battles for me.”
“No, Harmony, you were supposed to leave. Go. Get far away from here. I won’t let them take you away.” Rebecca trains the gun on Cam. She wouldn’t really shoot us to create a distraction, would she? I don’t have children, but I’ve seen how protective parents can be.
“No one has to get hurt,” I say. “Please.”
“Harmony, go!” Rebecca says.
Next door, Lisa Porter steps out of her house to see what all the commotion is about, but the second she sees us, she runs back inside. Hopefully, she’s calling the police. Quentin probably went to the campground to find Harmony. He has no idea she’s here.
“Mom, don’t get yourself in trouble. Go inside. Let me handle this.”
“Why don’t we all go talk,” I say.
Harmony nods. “Yeah, let’s all go inside.”
She must know Lisa Porter is going to call the police, so why does she want to go inside the house where she’d be a sitting duck?
“You heard her,” Rebecca says, stepping out of the doorway so we can pass. “Get inside.”
Do they plan to use us to bargain for their own freedom? Are Cam and I hostages now?
Cam pushes me in front of him, keeping himself between the gun and me.
“To the kitchen,” Harmony says, and I hear the click of the lock as she turns it.
I’ve never been inside the house, but the outside is identical to Lisa Porter’s, so I’m willing to bet the inside is as well. We walk to the back of the house.
“Sit down at the table,” Harmony says once we’re in the kitchen. She takes the gun from her mother. “Mom, go pack a bag, quickly.”
Her mother nods and hurries down the hallway.
I sit down at the table. My phone is still in my hand, so I silence it and hit redial. “Harmony, you don’t have to kill us. If you and your mother run now, you can be long gone before the police show up here at the house.” I hope Quentin heard all that, and Harmony doesn’t think it’s odd that I clarified where here is.
“What, you expect us to leave you two behind to tell the cops? I’m not going to live on the run for the rest of my life,” she says.
“Why did you kill Simon Porter?” I ask. “None of this had to happen.”
“Yes, it did. He killed my father. I was four years old when he died. I grew up without my dad because of Simon. How is that fair? He got to go on with his life as usual.”
“No, Harmony,” Rebecca says, coming back into the kitchen. “That accident wasn’t Simon’s fault. It was the blasting that caused the rock to fall.”
“No.” Harmony shakes her head. “You told me Simon was singing at the top of his lungs when you were on the phone with Dad.”
“They both were,” she says. “You know how those two were together. They were always goofing around and acting like kids.”
“And it was Simon’s goofing around that caused the car to slide.”
Rebecca cups Harmony’s cheek. “No, sweetie. It was the storm that did that. Simon was torn apart after that accident. He loved your father like a brother. You think he went on to live his life as usual, but he didn’t.”
“What are you talking about? He still had the same job. He still lived next door. His life didn’t change.”
“He was your godfather.”
“What?” Harmony shrieks. “I don’t know that man at all. He never came here. He didn’t check on us.”
“Honey, you look just like your father. It was hard on Simon. Do you have any idea the amount of guilt he lived with over your father’s death?”
“Good! He should have felt guilty. He should have died that night, not Dad.”
“What would your father say if he heard you now? Your father loved Simon. They were family.”
“Family doesn’t kill family!” Harmony shrieks.
She killed her godfather, so I’d say that rule is out the window.
“You need to go,” Rebecca says. “I’ll tell the police it was me. I’ll stay behind. It will be my confession against their claims.”
“She’d have to tell you exactly how it happened,” I say, surprising everyone. But then again, none of them knows I have Quentin on the other end of the phone under the table. “Cam and I know how you killed Simon. If your mother’s story doesn’t match what we know, it won’t work.”
“See, they’re going to go along with it to save themselves,” Rebecca says. “Go, baby. Please.” She takes Harmony’s face in her hands.
“Mom, no.”
“You have to. At your father’s funeral, I made a promise to protect you. Let me keep that promise. You’re all I have left.”
Harmony starts to cry. “Some man had just left there. He shook his hand and told him he’d won. He was talking about a woman. The man’s wife. That’s what kind of man Simon Porter turned out to be. He was having an affair with a married woman, and for some reason that man basically gave him his blessing to be with his wife. It wasn’t fair. Everything works out for Simon. Everything!” She slams her fist into her thigh.
So Marcus Bishop was telling the truth. He really did shake Simon’s hand and admit defeat as far as Carla was concerned.
“I couldn’t take it. I grabbed the knife I had on me from the cabin, walked up to him, and stabbed him in the stomach.”
Rebecca starts sobbing.
“You stabbed him in the chest next, right?” I ask.
Harmony nods.
“And then the neck. Three stab wounds because your dad was killed on April third.”
Rebecca puts a hand to her mouth.
“Then I ran out. I took the knife with me.”
“You need to tell your mom where it is,” I say. “The police will never believe her if she can’t produce the murder weapon.”
“It’s in cabin four. I washed it and put it back in the drawer,” Harmony says.
A shadow in the front window catches my eye. From the kitchen, I can see straight into the living room in the front of the house. Quentin is here. Hopefully, he brought backup.
“Harmony, you need to get out of here,” I say. “You’re running out of time.”
“She’s right. Go, sweetheart. Go.” Rebecca kisses Harmony’s cheek. “Out the back,” Rebecca says. “Run through the yard behind ours and keep going.”
The shadow in the front window takes off. It must be Quentin running around to the back of the house.
Harmony opens the back door, peers out, and then turns back to look at her mother one last time. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
Quentin appears behind Harmony. “Drop your weapon.”
“No!” Rebecca yells. “She didn’t do anything. I did. I killed Simon Porter.”
Officer Liberman steps around Quentin and removes the gun from Harmony’s hand.
“Did you get all that?” I ask Quentin.
Officer Liberman holds up Quentin’s phone. “We got it. Recorded it, too.”
“Harmony Underwood, you’re under arrest for the murder of Simon Porter,” Quentin says, cuffing her hands behind her back.
Sunday morning, Mickey is sitting in Cup of Jo, telling everyone how he tipped off the police about the illegal activity Peter Holland and Jesse King were involved in. DeShawn Washington is pressing charges against them both, and construction on the hotel will resume tomorrow morning.
Harmony Underwood is looking at life in prison for killing her godfather. I feel terrible for Rebecca Underwood, who has lost just about everything in the past twenty years. According to Quentin, Lisa Porter showed up at the police station and took Rebecca home. I have a feeling those two will become close again after all this.
There’s a lull in the crowd, so I motion for Cam to come out of the kitchen. We need to talk to Jamar and Robin about hiring some more employees. It’s not fair how much we dump extra hours on them.
“Have a seat, guys,” I tell them both as I place four coffees on the table.
“Are we in trouble?” Jamar asks, sitting next to Robin.
“Not at all,” Cam says, taking the seat beside me. “We want to discuss something with you.”
“What’s up?” Robin asks.
“Well, we realized we haven’t exactly been fair to you both. You work so many hours every day.”
“Are we getting raises?” Jamar asks.
Robin slaps his arm. “You don’t ask that!”
I laugh. “No, it’s okay. We are giving you raises, but we also want to know if you’d like two days off each week. If so, Cam and I will hire more employees to fill those days.”
Jamar and Robin exchange a glance before Jamar says, “Honestly, weekends off might be nice.”
After Cam brought it up, I sort of thought Jamar and Robin would object to days off, but I can see why the idea would appeal to them. I bob my head. “We can do that.”
“Who will you hire?” Robin asks.
“I don’t know. If you two have suggestions, we’d love to hear them.”
“I can ask around. If I were you, I wouldn’t just put up flyers. You might get some strange applicants that way.” Robin bobs a shoulder. “And seeing as you two need to leave work to solve cases for the BFPD so often, you want to make sure you get quality people in here.”
She’s not wrong there. We have to be very careful with who we hire because there’s no way Cam and I will be able to keep them from finding out we assist Quentin more often than not.
“Did I hear you say you’re hiring?” Mickey asks, approaching our table. “You know, I might be persuaded to leave the janitorial staff at the high school to come work here.”
And give Mickey access to everything Cam and I discover on these cases? No way! “Sorry, Mickey, but it’s only for two days a week. Besides, we couldn’t afford someone with your talents.”
“You’re probably right,” he says. “Plus, I like my weekends free.” He raises his coffee mug. “Can I get a refill?”
“I’m on it,” Robin says, getting to her feet.
“I should get back to work, too,” Jamar says. “Thanks, guys. You’re seriously the best bosses ever.”
“So, I guess now we have to plan a wedding and interview new employees,” Cam says.
“One of those things sounds better than the other,” I say.
“I’m hoping you’re referring to our wedding.”
“I am.” I smile at him. “I’m thinking we get married on a Saturday evening. Just family and close friends, coffee, and cake.”
“I love that idea,” Cam says before giving me a kiss.
“Great. Just don’t tell Mo that we planned the wedding in a matter of a minute,” I joke.
“I wouldn’t dream of it. She’d probably have a heart attack.”
“Or murder us both, and it would be difficult to solve our own murders.”
“Just promise me that we won’t be solving any murders on the day of our wedding,” he says.
I smile as he stands up. I don’t say a word though because that’s one promise I’m not sure I can make to my future husband.
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