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One would think the sight of two women bound and gagged would leave me stunned and frightened, but instead a sense of relief fell over me like a warm sunrise on a winter’s morning. Someone had trussed the women up like calves at the local rodeo, except instead of rope, they were bound by black duct tape around their ankles and wrists. A short length of tape wrapped around their heads prevented them from speaking, not that they would, since they were both unconscious.
“Are they alive?” Bozeman asked.
The women laid sprawled on the floor facing each other. I saw Amelia’s chest rise and fall like she’d just run a mile, and after a second, Jackie took a breath as well. “Yes, but I think Amelia is having trouble. Help me get them out of here.”
I moved farther into the room, careful not to step on anyone, and bent over to lift Amelia’s shoulders while Bozeman stepped in and attended to her feet.
“Let me know when you’re ready,” he said when he got into position.
“Okay, go,” I said. I grunted, lifted Amelia an inch, then dropped her. “Sorry about that.”
“You want to switch positions?” Bozeman asked.
“Not necessary. I lost my grip. Let’s go again.”
I counted to three this time, and since that magical spell always worked, I managed to lift Amelia’s torso and together, Bozeman and I shuffled her out into the more spacious storeroom.
Bozeman searched for the edge of tape around Amelia’s legs but didn’t find it. “You have anything sharp on you?”
“Usually only my wit,” I responded as I dug around in my pocket for Brantley’s keys. My hand closed around them, and I tossed them to Bozeman. “Try these.”
While Bozeman tried to free Amelia’s legs, I worked at the tape covering her mouth. Someone had wrapped it around her head three times, so it extended from just below her nose to just above her chin. With a delicate touch, I started with her face. I pushed on her cheek to give me some slack and got a fingernail under the tape’s edge. I lifted it and followed it around her head until I found where it had ripped from the roll near her left ear.
“Give me a hand here, Boze,” I said.
Bozeman set the keys down and joined me.
“Sit her up,” I said.
Bozeman grabbed Amelia’s shoulders and gently got her to a sitting position. Once she was up, I at last loosened the tape edge and began to unwrap her. With the speed of a running sloth, I peeled the tape away, careful to take as little skin and hair with it as I could. On the second loop around her head, I discovered her abductor had covered her mouth with a dark red napkin. After I completed the third loop, I tossed the tape to the side and removed the napkin that had not only covered her mouth but was half in it as well.
As Bozeman watched, I gently removed the napkin from Amelia’s throat. She took in a large gasp of air, and then her breathing returned to normal.
“Lay her down,” I said.
Bozeman did and made a move to free her feet when I stopped him.
“Hold off on that. Let’s go get Jackie first,” I said.
He nodded, and we returned to the little room where we found Jackie still sleeping. This time, I let Bozeman take her top half, and together we wrestled her from the tiny spot and into the main room. I repeated the process to remove the tape from around her mouth and found she had a dark blue napkin shoved into her throat. Once I removed the obstruction from her mouth, Bozeman returned to undo Amelia’s bindings as I worked on Jackie’s.
I glanced over and saw Bozeman was still sawing away at Amelia’s tape with the keys, and I guessed maybe that wasn’t the best way to go about it. I ran a fingernail around Jackie’s taped legs until I found the edge, picked at it until I got enough to grip, and pulled at it. The satisfying sound of the tape releasing filled my ears as I pulled, and after a half dozen loops around Jackie’s legs, I released the last of the tape and placed it on the floor.
“Do you think they’re going to want fingerprints from that?” Bozeman asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Nor do I really care at this point.”
After I freed Jackie’s legs, I started to work on her bound wrists. Fortunately, her assailant had ducted taped them together in front of her, so I didn’t need to roll her over. I repeated the method I used on her legs, and soon I had her arms free and resting at her sides.
“Jackie?” I yelled. “Can you hear me? Jackie?”
I received no response at all, so I shook her shoulders.
“Jackie? Hey! Are you there? Hello?”
I still got no response. Whatever they had drugged her with was effective. As a last resort, I picked up her left arm and cradled it in my lap. I took her hand and pinched the tip of her index finger as hard as I dared. Finally, I got a response from her as she moaned and instinctively pulled her hand away.
“What are they on?” Bozeman asked.
I shook my head. “No clue, but it has to be something powerful. I can’t bring her around at all. How are you doing over there?”
I glanced over, and saw Bozeman had Amelia’s tape removed, and he had no better luck at reviving her than I did Jackie.
“Should we splash some water on them?” Bozeman asked.
I considered it for a moment. “No. Then they’d be unconscious and wet. I think the best we can do here is let them sleep it off until they either come to themselves, or we can get them some proper medical attention.”
“So now what?”
“I’ll be back in a jiffy.” I rose and left Jackie lying by herself on the floor. With haste, I returned to the secret room and looked around, even though there wasn’t much to see.
The room itself was only four feet square. Its spartan walls were unfinished, and whoever had created the room hadn’t even bothered with drywall. The prominent feature was the vertical wooden studs that went from floor to ceiling every sixteen inches. Besides the studs, I saw cables in various colors, mostly in white and black. In the far corner, a small-diameter copper pipe came out of the wall, did a ninety-degree turn, and disappeared into the unfinished wood floor.
I crouched low to look for clues, but spotted nothing. No telltale torn buttons, no hair samples, no wayward threads, no confession notes. Nothing but dust, so far as I could tell. Dejected, I left the little room and rejoined Bozeman.
“Find anything?” he asked when I joined him.
“Not a thing. I couldn’t even guess what that room is supposed to be used for.”
“What’s in there?”
“Conduit mostly, and I think a gas pipe.”
Bozeman shrugged. “Now what?”
I shook my head, trying to produce a plan out of thin air. After all, I didn’t have many items remaining on my list of things to do. I’d found the missing keys, and the missing women. All I needed to do was figure out the last missing piece of who the culprit was. Oh, and find the missing gun.
“Well, I’d really like to figure out who caused this entire mess and pass the baton back to Viola. And I’d love a nap and a shower. And maybe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
Bozeman chuckled. “I know what you mean. I’ve run out of gas and patience for this night. And I like your idea about the sandwich.”
I sighed out of weariness more than anything. “We’ll have to get Laurel to make them for us when we get back to the bus.”
Bozeman got up, stretched, and took a seat on top of the large teacart. “There’s something I don’t understand.”
“Just one?” I teased.
“Exactly one. How is it that of the three of us, Laurel makes the best sandwiches? I mean, it’s the same ingredients, same counter, same knife, same everything. Yet somehow, they’re on another level than what either of us make.”
I hadn’t thought about it, but now the question pushed into my already crowded head. He was correct. Laurel’s sandwiches were far superior to the ones Bozeman or I made. It must have had something to do with the peanut butter to jelly ratio she used.
I got poised to offer my opinion when I got interrupted.
“Codi?” My name was but a whisper, but it shot right into my ears and caught my attention as easily as a firework exploding in the sky.
I looked down and saw Jackie’s bright blue eyes staring at me.
“Hey, you,” I answered. I found Jackie’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “How are you feeling?”
She blinked a couple of times. “Tired. My head hurts. What happened?”
“I’m hoping you can tell me. Do know where you are? Or remember how you got here?”
Jackie closed her eyes. I waited, and after half a minute I thought she’d gone back to sleep. Then she opened them. They seemed a bit more alert than a minute before.
“I was in the ballroom. I felt a pinch on my shoulder, then I overheard some voices, then I think I fell asleep.”
“Which shoulder? And whose voice was it?”
“Left. It really hurt.”
I looked at her left shoulder and spotted a small dot of red. I lifted the fabric of her sleeve and looked closer. There on her arm right above a freckle was the spot where someone had injected her with something.
“Hey, Bozeman, can you come down here and see if Amelia’s got any needle marks on her?”
Bozeman did as I asked while I returned Jackie’s dress to normal.
“Someone has drugged you with something. Do you understand?”
Jackie’s eyes never left mine, and she blinked a few times before my words finally sunk into her head and she nodded.
“Do you remember the voice? Who did you hear?”
“I’m thirsty. Can I have something to drink?” Jackie asked.
“Bozeman, can you get her some water?” I asked, without breaking eye contact.
“Hold on, let me finish this first.”
I waited, unaware I’d been holding my breath until my lungs started to burn. I exhaled and drew in a fresh breath.
“Found it, Codi. There’s a blood spot on her right thigh. I’ll assume that’s where she got hit, because that’s the only mark I found. Stay here and I’ll go get that water.”
I looked up and watched as Bozeman selected a glass from a shelf and headed for the bathroom. I returned my attention to Jackie. She’d closed her eyes again.
“Jackie? You with me?”
“Yes.”
“Who did you hear?”
“Here.” The words I heard got combined with the glass that floated into my visual field.
“Bozeman has water for you. Let’s sit you up.”
I struggled to lift Jackie’s shoulders, but eventually got her to a sitting position. I repositioned myself so I kneeled behind her, and I wrapped my arms around her.
“Jackie. Have some water.”
Jackie shook her head twice, like she’d just walked face first into a spiderweb. Bozeman held the glass steady to her lips, and when the water touched them, Jackie slowly raised her arm and took the glass from him. She drank deeply and finished three quarters of the water before I had a chance to tell her to take it easy. Jackie smiled and passed the glass back to Bozeman.
She found words, and they came out stronger than before. “Thank you. I needed that.”
“Jackie, please. Can you tell us who did this to you?”
Jackie took a deep breath, exhaled, and finally gave me the answer I’d been waiting for.
“Brantley. He did it.”
“You’re sure?” I asked.
“One hundred percent. He did this to me, and I’m sure he’s behind everything else that’s happened tonight.”
“Brantley? But why?”
Jackie shrugged. “That would be a question for him, wouldn’t it?”
She was correct. “I guess I’ll need to go ask him. Would you do me a favor and stay here and watch over Amelia?”
“I will,” Jackie said.
I let her go and clambered to my feet. “Bozeman, would you care to join me?”
He didn’t answer but based on his clenched fists and the look in his eye, he didn’t need to.
From the storeroom, we hustled directly to the ballroom. Bozeman had stepped in front of me, and I struggled to keep up with him. Even moving into a light jog, I could barely match his lengthy gait. He stopped briefly just inside the ballroom door, and since I hadn’t expected it, I almost ran right into his back. Bozeman paused for just a moment, spotted Brantley across the room, deep in conversation with Claude, and resumed his journey.
“Bozeman!” I shouted, trying to get him to stop, but he didn’t. I’d seen Bozeman in a rage before, and although he wasn’t anywhere near his worst, I still couldn’t stop him.
Everyone in the room reacted to my yell, and every head turned in our direction. Brantley turned just in time for Bozeman to get close enough to grab him by the shoulders and bend him backwards over the table Brantley stood next to.
Without a word, Bozeman made a fist and drew his arm back, and I knew if I didn’t do something quick, Bozeman would end up on the wrong end of a murder charge. Especially with the police chief watching.
I took the only action I could. I jumped and grabbed Bozeman’s right arm. Normally, he’d have no problems lifting me, even with a single arm, but since he didn’t realize I was there, I threw him off balance with my weight. He stumbled backward, tripped over the leg of a chair, and fell. Since I was still dangling from his arm like a Christmas ornament, I hit the deck as well. Lucky for me, I didn’t get his full weight on top of me. Instead, I only received his elbow in my gut. I lost my breath, then heaved when I couldn’t catch it back. I felt like his one blow had snapped several ribs, ruptured my spleen, and destroyed my soul.
Bozeman rolled over onto his side, and when he did, I sat up. I managed a couple of deep breaths, deduced I wasn’t dead, and got to my feet. By the time I returned to Brantley, Claude had peeled him off the table like the sticker from a banana.
It was my turn, and I got toe to toe with Brantley and shoved my finger at his chest.
“You tried to kill me!” I screamed in his face.
Brantley raised his hands to protect his face. “I didn’t do anything.”
Claude stepped in front of me and forced me to back up a few feet. He put a hand lightly on my shoulder to restrain me. “What’s going on here?” he asked.
“Brantley murdered Hawthorne, assaulted Viola, and shot at me,” I said.
My comment drew some interest, and the circle of people around us grew. Helen, Loren, Laurel, and Viola had joined the party.
Bozeman hadn’t found his feet yet, so Loren stepped next to me and wrapped his paw around Claude’s wrist.
“You should let her be,” Loren whispered.
Claude hesitated for a moment, then dropped his arm. “I only want to know what’s going on.”
“Boze and I found Jackie and Amelia in a secret room. He drugged and bound them up with duct tape. When Jackie came to, she told us that Brantley drugged her. It’s not a far leap from kidnapping to think he did the murder as well.”
“This all true, Brantley?” Viola asked.
“Of course not. Only pure speculation on her part.”
“You had all the access, Brantley,” I said. “And you had the keys to enter the locked areas, and you had the app. You controlled the gong and the lights when Hawthorne got shot. And the lights when you struck Viola. I’ll bet your fingerprints are all over the note you left me, and the candlestick that struck Viola.”
In a feeble attempt to regain his composure, Brantley took a moment to smooth out his tunic. I noticed the hole in his tights had expanded and ran all the way up his thigh.
“It’s all circumstantial,” he argued. “Should I remind you that you found no gun on me? Or that I stood almost right next to you when you got shot at? Or that it was Amelia with the app on her phone? Did you even see me with a phone tonight? No, you didn’t. Because I don’t have it with me, because I follow the rules.”
“Is that it?” I prodded. “Did you get tired of following the rules? Sick of being underpaid and taken advantage of? Did you want a bigger piece of the pie?”
Brantley shook his head. “You have no clue what you’re talking about. You’ve got nothing on me. No motive, no opportunity, no evidence.”
“You mean no evidence except for Jackie’s eyewitness account,” I said.
“Don’t forget about Amelia’s,” Bozeman added as he stepped to my side.
Brantley opened his mouth, but only a single unrecognizable syllable slipped out before he shut it again.
Viola put something cold in my hands. I looked down and saw her handcuffs.
“Do the honors, Codi,” she said.
I lifted the cuffs and dangled them in front of Brantley’s face. “Bozeman, Loren, could y’all help me get him turned around?”
Before the men could move, a gunshot rang out. As one, we turned around and faced the direction of the ballroom door. There, Amy Ewing had a gun pointed at the group. The muzzle smoked, and my eyes went to the ceiling, where I spotted a hole in the plaster above her.
“I told you she’d figure it out somehow. Come on. Let’s go. No one else move.”
Brantley pushed his way through the crowd and strode to Amy’s side. He leaned toward her and she took her eyes off of us long enough to give him a kiss. When they finished, Amy raised the gun and shot another round into the ceiling. Almost everyone in the group instinctively ducked, and during the distraction, Amy and Brantley disappeared from the ballroom.
