Mom, Aunt Pearl, and I followed behind Tonya and Jack as we headed across the garden to the gazebo. Tonya Plant and Jack Tupper III were reluctant participants, duped into the premise of Aunt Pearl's arrest at the scene of the crime for Sebastien Plant's murder.
While both Tonya and Jack were eager to see Aunt Pearl arrested for murder, they were even more enthusiastic about getting the paperwork signed for the sale of our property.
I tapped my watch. "Aunt Amber was supposed to arrive an hour ago. I'm sure she'll be here any minute." It was a lie, designed to stall them.
"That will have to wait," Sheriff Gates walked towards us. "I've got some business of my own to take care of. I've got some questions that need answering about Sebastien." Tyler pointed to Tonya, who ignored him. She stood several feet back from the group, immersed in something on her smartphone screen.
Jack cleared his throat and fidgeted with his hands.
It took Tonya a moment to realize that everyone was staring at her. "You can't be serious. It’s a wonder you got hired as sheriff, even in this little hick town. You do realize that nobody else would take the job here."
Sheriff Gates ignored the insult.
"Most people wouldn't even want to live here," Tonya added. “Even incompetent cops."
Pearl's eyes narrowed. "This so-called hick town is on a vortex, missy. You're just jealous you can't live here. If you think you're taking over our vortex, you've got another thing coming."
Mom patted Pearl's arm. "Settle down, Pearl. The vortex is for everyone to enjoy."
"But not to take over and exploit," I added.
Sheriff Gates looked confused. "What vortex?"
I waved my hand in dismissal. "I'll explain later.”
"Whatever." Tonya scowled at the sheriff. "I knew this would be a waste of time. I've got to go, so I'll leave the paperwork with you. Any questions can be handled through my assistant." She rummaged through her purse and extracted a business card. She shoved it into the sheriff's hand.
"You're not going anywhere," he said.
"You can't order me around. I'm free to do as I please. You're too incompetent to ever find my husband’s killer.”
The sheriff ignored the insult. "You're under arrest for the murder of Sebastien Plant.”
"That's ridiculous. I've got an alibi. They all saw me at the inn." She waved her hand dismissively at Mom, Aunt Pearl, and me. "I was with them, dealing with their abysmal customer service at the time of the murder."
"I don't recall seeing you," Aunt Pearl said.
I made a cutting motion across my neck. The one thing my aunt excelled at was getting everyone riled up and off topic. That was the last thing we needed right now.
"I doubt you remember much of anything, you old bag." Tonya slung her purse over her shoulder and motioned for Jack to follow.
I recalled Aunt Pearl's comment about Tonya being older than she looked. Why didn't she look that way if she had been stripped of her powers? Maybe there was a delay before it took effect.
"You have no right to talk to me that way!" Aunt Pearl held her wand in the air and was just about to use it before I stopped her from another criminal charge.
Thankfully Tonya ignored her. She turned to Jack. "Let's go."
Jack frowned but turned and followed on Tonya's heels.
"Hold up," Sheriff Gates said. "You can't leave until I say so. You both have plenty to answer for."
"The hell with that," Tonya said. "You can talk to my lawyer. I was at the Inn the whole time, so you can't blame me for Sebastien's murder.
So much for the grieving widow.
"Aaah, but that wasn't when the murder happened. Sebastien Plant died much earlier, and during that time you had no alibi. You were alone for an hour, starting from when Sebastien took his walk, until later when you met Jack in his room."
"That's not true. I never left my room. These ladies can confirm I was inside the Inn the whole time. Isn't that right?"
She stared at me so I nodded. "You never went outside with Sebastien for a walk."
"See, sheriff. You couldn't solve a murder if your life depended on it. It's obvious to everyone that Pearl West killed my husband with her cane. Anything else is just ridiculous." Tonya punched in some numbers on her phone. "I'm calling the governor. I want you removed from the case immediately."
"No one's removing me from the case, because the case is solved." Tyler's eyes met mine in a silent thank you as he pulled out handcuffs. "You're under arrest for the murder of Sebastien Plant."
He read Tonya her rights but didn't cuff her right away.
"Right to remain silent, my ass." Tonya glared at him and turned sideways. She yelled into her phone, but whoever answered the governor's calls was apparently screening them. "Put me through to him right now or I'll get you fired."
Hardly the behavior of a mourning spouse, I thought.
"Shut that thing off." Tyler waved the handcuffs in front of her face. "The only person you should be calling right now is a lawyer."
Tonya glared at him but finally listened. She stood silent and crossed her arms if only to delay the inevitable handcuffs.
"You might not have delivered the blow, but you did kill your husband. Most of the time it's the spouse, and this time isn't any different."
"You really are an idiot." For the first time Tonya's face showed a hint of fear.
"Sebastien suffered blunt force trauma, but it wasn't Pearl's cane that did it." Tyler Gates scanned our faces. "His attacker is right here."
"It's obviously Pearl," muttered Tonya. "She was even stupid enough to leave her cane behind."
"How dare you call me stupid!" Aunt Pearl raised her cane in the air and started towards Tonya.
"She's at it again," Tonya cried. "Stop her!"
I grabbed my aunt from behind in a bear hug and pulled her back. I realized that I couldn't remember ever hugging her. She just wasn't really the touchy-feely type. It was like I was seeing her for the first time though. My aunt was just so full of spunk and vinegar that I hadn't realized how tiny or fragile she really was.
"Pearl didn't kill him," Tyler said. "She's not strong enough to apply that much force."
I glanced nervously at Mom. Pearl had plenty of strength with her supernatural powers. Tonya was well aware of that too. Was she desperate enough to reveal we were witches?
"Actually, she can—"
I cut Tonya off before she could finish her sentence. "Pearl's obviously no match for a three-hundred-pound man."
"Especially not one over six feet tall," Tyler added. "She couldn't reach high enough to hit him on the top of the head. And there’s just no way she has enough strength to disable him."
Aunt Pearl's eyes narrowed as she scowled at the sheriff.
"Can I go now?" Tonya snapped.
Tyler Gates ignored both of them. "Whatever struck Sebastien's head was much heavier than Pearl's cane. His attacker was also strong enough to leave an imprint not just on his skin but also cracks on his skull."
We all turned to look at Jack, who, at over six feet, towered over Tonya. His eyes widened as Alan stepped out of the gazebo. At six-foot-two, he looked rather intimidating next to Jack. He smiled, ready to assist the sheriff if needed.
Tyler Gates' left hand held handcuffs. "In fact, we know exactly what his attacker used.” He bent down and picked up a tire iron beside the gazebo steps. "A tire iron, exactly like this one. The end of this tire iron left a distinct impression on Sebastien Plant’s skull. An impression that doesn’t match Pearl's cane. It does however, exactly match the tire iron from Jack's Lamborghini."
"You can't prove that." Jack broke out into a cold sweat. "It could have been anything."
Sheriff Gates shook his head. "The imprint on Sebastien's temple is very clear. I got a warrant to search your car this morning. Your tire iron was missing."
Jack breathed an audible sigh of relief.
"That is, until we recovered it from the trash can in your room. The blood on it was Sebastien's."
"That's a lie. Pearl's cane was covered in blood too."
Tyler dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "You stole Pearl's cane and left it at the gazebo to implicate her. The imprint on Sebastien's temple eliminates her cane. Not only that, but the angle and force required to make that imprint could only be done by someone much taller than Pearl. In fact, you're the only one at the Inn last night that meets the height requirement."
"He's the guy I saw!" Pearl's hands flew to her mouth. "The guy in the hoodie."
Tonya shrieked. "You killed my husband!" She charged Jack and pounded his chest with her fists.
The sheriff fixated on Jack. "You followed him to the gazebo and hit him over the head."
"No way, I wasn't there."
"You don't have an alibi. Besides, we have an eyewitness."
"I want a lawyer," Jack said. "I had nothing to do with this."
"Jack was so jealous of Sebastien." Tonya's shrieks were replaced by dead calm. "Jack insisted I leave him, but I refused. So he killed my poor, sweet, husband."
"That's a lie," Jack cried. "You told me you wanted him out of your life. That he beat you."
"I said no such thing. You're just obsessed with me." Tonya wiped a pretend tear from her dry cheek. "Seb and I had a happy life together. Cut short by a monster."
"It doesn't matter all that much in the end," Tyler said. "The blunt force trauma isn't what killed him."
"It didn't?" Jack seemed suddenly hopeful.
Tyler shook his head. "Sebastien was poisoned. Jack's hit just disguised the true cause of death."
"No, Jack killed him. I demand you arrest him right now," Tonya cried.
I suddenly noticed four Shady Creek police officers walking across the garden. They waited about ten feet away as Sheriff Gates talked. They had probably been brought in as reinforcements.
"Sebastien Plant died from ethyl glycol poisoning. In fact, he was already dead when Jack hit him with the tire iron. That's why there wasn't much blood," Sheriff Gates said. "It's also why the tire iron left such a distinct impression on his skull. The coroner said that if he was still alive with his blood circulating, the tire iron's imprint wouldn't have been so distinct."
Aunt Pearl scoffed. "That woman has a whole bag of tricks up her sleeve. What a witch."
I flinched from her reference, but no one else seemed to take notice.
Sheriff Gates pointed to Tonya. "You concocted this elaborate scene to frame Jack for the murder. That's why you checked in early and kept Sebastien in his room until he could barely walk. Sebastien wasn't drunk, he was poisoned. You persuaded him to go outside for some fresh air and walk off his drunkenness. You had to, because there was no way to carry an obese, three-hundred-pound man."
"Why take him to the gazebo at all?" Alan asked.
"He was hidden from view. It bought her time so that he wouldn't be discovered too soon. The antifreeze effects can be reversed, but there's only a small window of time before it's too late. She couldn't leave him in her room without explaining why she didn't call for help. Claiming he took a walk in the garden was perfect. She has an alibi while he was slowly dying."
"It's all my fault." Tonya's voice broke. "He was very depressed and I never should have left him alone. He was having suicidal thoughts the last few months. But I had no idea he drank antifreeze."
"Most people don't know that ethyl glycol is the chemical name for the main ingredient in antifreeze, yet you seem awfully familiar with it."
"That's because I'm a smart person, Sheriff. Just wish I was smart enough to stop my husband from taking his own life."
"I'm quite confident you helped him," Tyler said. "Someone put the ethylene glycol in his drink. We tested the glass on the nightstand in your suite and found traces of the chemical. Your fingerprints were on the glass. You must have slipped it in his drink."
"That's some imagination you've got, Sheriff. But that's not what happened."
"No one commits suicide with antifreeze,” Sheriff Gates replied. “They take pills or put a gun to their head. There are other things we found that are inconsistent with suicide. Oddly enough, while Sebastien's glass had your fingerprints, his were missing. You held the glass to Sebastien’s lips while he was barely conscious and forced him to drink it. Suicidal people don't wear gloves to hide their fingerprints. They don't care about stuff like that, because they no longer care about anything once they decide to check out."
"Your crime lab is probably just as incompetent as you," Tonya said. "You missed his prints or got the wrong glass."
She sounded more desperate by the minute.
"It's the state crime lab. This is just one of many cases they handle, and they've got a pretty good reputation. I'll pass on your feedback to the crime lab and the governor too."
"If he was actually poisoned, how could he even walk, let alone travel all the way to the gazebo?" Tonya fake-sobbed.
"Easily. The poison effects from the antifreeze aren't instantaneous. The first signs are when a person slurs their words and loses coordination."
"Like a drunk," Mom said.
"Exactly," Tyler said. "The poison became apparent during the autopsy. Ethylene glycol forms crystals in the kidneys that remain intact after death. That was the cause of death. The blunt force trauma from Jack's tire iron was severe, but it happened later. In any event, it wasn't enough to cause instantaneous death."
Jack's brows furrowed together as he studied Tonya. "You lied to me. You made up all those lies about Sebastien. You just used me."
Tyler looked pointedly at Jack. "That's exactly what she did. She framed you for Sebastien's murder."
Aunt Pearl nodded. For once she was on the sheriff's side. "Always suspect the spouse, no matter what."
Tonya scowled as Sheriff Gates placed the cuffs on her wrists. Another officer did the same for Jack, and the two were led away to the waiting police cars to be transported to the Shady Creek jail.
We stood in silence as we watched them.
"I'm glad that's over," Mom said.
"It's over for you but just starting for Tonya," Tyler said. "Sebastien wasn't Tonya's first husband—or the first one to die under suspicious circumstances either. Her first husband died suddenly at age thirty-eight. His family wanted an autopsy but as next-of-kin, Tonya refused. I suspect they'll be exhuming his body.”
The witch who had everything had just lost it all.