I headed out of the hospital and ran into Ava.
“Where are you going in a hurry? Shouldn’t you be resting?”
“If one more person tells me to rest—” I started.
“Calm down, princess!”
I filled Ava in on what happened and what I’d just realized and where I was going next.
“I’m coming with you,” Ava said.
“UH-UH, no way!” I pointed to the interior of the hospital, turned on my heel and jogged to my car. I looked behind me and Ava was struggling to do a waddle-jog. I stopped, feeling sorry for her. She was already starting to show, which seemed early.
“Good Lord, I’m pregnant. Have a heart,” she puffed, leaning on the hood of the Honda and breathing hard. She opened the passenger door, got in, and got a family-sized jar of chunky peanut butter from her new, big, mustard-yellow tote. She rooted around and pulled out a full-sized silver butter knife and a snack-sized bag of Cheetos.
“You aren’t going to do what I think you’re going to do, are you?” I took a deep breath. Did I take a Pepcid this morning? I did. My stomach churned and I swallowed the spit that formed in my mouth. “Oh Ava, please don’t.”
“I have to.” Ava took the knife and slabbed some nutty peanut butter on a Cheeto and shoved it in her mouth, closing her eyes, then chewing and moaning.
I stared at her in disbelief and the smell changed from horrid to pleasant. I reached for a Cheeto, dipped it in the peanut butter and took a bite. Not bad.
“See, right?” Ava’s eyes gleamed.
“It actually works,” I said, starting the car and pulling out.
Five minutes later, I pulled into the Make Yourself at Home B&B and put the car into park. Ava popped another salty cheese delight in my mouth. I nodded in appreciation.
Ava looked at where I parked. “Why did you park all the way in the back?”
“Because we are going to take the back path.” I pointed. “I want to catch the killer by surprise.”
“It’s dark. I think we’re safe,” Ava whined, not wanting to trek it.
“I told you not to come with me. Stay in the car. That way you can call someone if I’m not back in fifteen minutes.”
I got out and started moving along the bushes toward the path that led to the gate of the pool where I knew a side door I could get into. Unfortunately, I’d been knocked out near here before and that’s how I knew. I heard the voice of the person I was looking for talking on the phone outside and ducked behind a bush.
She was speaking in Italian and I couldn’t translate, but I caught a glimpse of her face in the light by the pool. She looked angry, then she switched to English.
“No way! I don’t want to come back now! No one knows anything. I need to stay here. I’m telling you I can turn him. He agreed to dinner with me.”
I could make out an enraged expression on Imelda’s face as she listened to whomever was on the other end of that call.
She raised her voice, “Wait just a minute! SHE found out about your little plan. I had no choice but to silence her—Fed or no Fed—”
She must have been cut off by her accomplice because she began to pace and kept looking as if she wanted to butt in but held her tongue. I moved a few steps closer as Imelda yelled out again, “No, the uh, the guy who has the cookie name—he purchased a plane ticket for me after I was already here. No one suspects a thing!”
NESTLE?!?
I felt a light tapping on my back and thought a branch was hitting me and reached back to swat it away and felt a hand.
I screamed out then slammed my hand around my mouth, eyes wide open. “AVA!” I whisper-yelled. “You scared the bejeezus out of me!” My heart raced and my breath came in gasps.
“What? I’m sorry. You keep running away from me,” she pouted.
“I told you to stay in the car!” I scolded.
“It’s creepy out there in the back of the lot by myself.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stay behind me and keep your phone in your hand,” I said, and handed my pepper spray to her.
“I think we should get licenses to have guns,” Ava whispered at me.
I turned on my heel, staring at her in disbelief. “Ava, we can’t even control where our puke goes. I don’t think anyone would be safe if we had guns. That’s a hard no!”
I turned back around and couldn’t see Imelda anymore. I hoped she had gone inside. I had called and gotten her room number from my friend who worked here.
“Okay, let’s go,” I started quietly inching toward the gate. I could hear Ava crunching the leaves behind me.
“Shhh—” I turned to share my gesture with Ava and saw she was flat on the ground. “Ava,” I started to run toward her when someone jumped out of a bush at me.
Imelda and I wrestled on the ground and I felt her long hair fall on my face as hands reached around my neck. I kneed Imelda in the stomach and she grunted, lifting me from the ground and jerking me around. She held me close to her body and I could see Ava lying on the ground as Imelda’s muscular arms wrapped around my neck. She lifted my body slightly, allowing her to tighten her chokehold as she squeezed harder to cut off the blood from my head.
“You think you know Mick. You don’t know him like I do. You don’t know the things he’s done,” Imelda said as my eyes slid down to Ava and she became a blurred vision and I felt my body go limp, then everything went black.