3 Madness in Christmas River Read online

  But it was hard to ignore the fact that Marie had lived a full, healthy life all of these years, while Anthony’s body was never found.

  “I really did love him, Cin,” she said, sniveling.

  “But you stayed with Victor,” I said. “How can you say you loved him, then stay with the man who killed him for all of these years?”

  My voice was shaking. It was all starting to hit me hard.

  “Victor took care of me. He got me out of Christmas River. He gave me the life I always dreamed of. Anthony’s blood was on both of our hands. And that cross was easier to bear together.”

  I shook my head.

  I couldn’t wrap my mind about what she and Victor had done all those years ago.

  “I never wanted you to know any of this about me,” she said. “I know you must think I’m an awful person now.”

  We sat in silence for a few moments.

  I started saying something, telling her that I didn’t think she was an awful person, but that it made me sad to know she’d done something like that, but then a thought struck me.

  “But what does this have to do with what’s been going on?” I said. “Who’s been leaving photos of Anthony?”

  She bit her lip and looked at me for a long moment with sad eyes.

  “We tried,” she said. “But we didn’t get away with it, Cin.”

  I stared back at her.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  Just then, I heard the jingle bell on the front door ring. Someone stepped inside from out of the cold.

  I was sure that the sign facing out had said closed.

  Chapter 58

  “I’m sorry, but we’re clos—”

  “Even to an old man like me just looking for a little shelter from the cold?” he said, taking his hat off and revealing a bright grin.

  “Especially to old men looking for a little shelter from the cold,” I said, smirking. “My grandpa always told me those were the ones you really had to watch out for.”

  The last thing I had wanted was an interruption. But for Sully, I’d make an exception.

  “Your grandpa taught you well,” Sully said, winking.

  “Well, what can I get you, old timer?” I asked, opening the sliding glass door to the pie case.

  “I guess you could say I’ve come by to collect on a debt,” he said.

  I smiled, remembering poker night, and the money I owed him.

  “You old devil,” I said. “Let me go to the back and get a fresh pie for you. How’s cherry sound?”

  “No, cherry won’t work,” he said, leaning over the glass.

  “Well, what about Moundful Marionberry? Or Lemon Gingercrisp? Whatever you want, Sul,” I said, smiling. “By my count, I owe you a lot of pie.”

  But he just shook his head.

  “I’m afraid pie won’t do it this time, darlin’,” he said.

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “Well, what will?” I asked. “Brownies? Cake? Beer?”

  I smiled.

  That kind, gentle, old-man expression he’d always had suddenly twisted into something else.

  “My ornament,” he said, reaching for my arm across the pie case.

  Chapter 59

  “I know you’re back there, Marie,” he shouted.

  He twisted my arm, and I yelped loudly.

  “Come out here and let’s talk.”

  My heart pounded furiously in my chest as I stared into Sully’s changed face. Nothing like the kind old face I had known my entire life.

  I stood there, trapped in a resin of fear.

  Unable to believe what was happening.

  Marie still hadn’t come out from the kitchen.

  “What the hell, Sully! Let go of me,” I said in a hoarse voice, trying to break free of his grasp.

  “I’d really love to, darlin’, but your cousin has forced my hand on this one,” he said. “I’d rather you hadn’t been involved, but sometimes we’re just guilty by association. You know what I mean?”

  I didn’t know. I didn’t understand what was going on.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I said, trying to appeal to the man that I had always thought he had been.

  The kind, generous, thoughtful man who was a lifelong friend of Warren’s.

  “I’m afraid I do, darlin’,” he said, twisting my arm harder.

  I screamed, hoping that somebody who could help would hear me.

  “Don’t you think Cin’s been through enough, Marie?” he yelled again. “I think she has. Her car’s been busted. That mutt of hers got hurt. And to top it all off, somebody’s gone and destroyed her wedding gown. Why, I’d say it’s about all a woman could take.”

  “You son of a bitch,” I said, the words slipping out before I had a chance to think them through. “What are you doing this for?”

  “Your cousin missed her yearly payment,” he said. “You know, she would still be rotting in jail right now if it weren’t for me.”

  I heard the squeak of the dividing door open behind me. Then the sound of heels against the tile floor.

  I looked back.

  Marie stepped out of the shadows.

  “Well, there she is,” Sully said, loosening his grip on my arm slightly. “That was quite the disappearing act you pulled, Marie. You almost had me, old girl.”

  Marie looked at me, her eyes wide and filled with fear.

  “You see, Cin,” she said, her eyes filled with desperation. “We didn’t get away with it.”

  I looked back at Sully. A wry smile came across his face.

  “Nobody ever did when I was sheriff,” he said.

  He looked back at her.

  “Now, Marie, where in the hell are my diamonds?”

  I gasped at the harshness in his voice.

  Marie shook her head, backing away.

  “I don’t know, Sul,” she said. “It’s the honest truth. I put them in the pink ornament at the lighting ceremony, the way I always do every year. The ornament should have been there.”

  “But it wasn’t, darlin’. My men ripped that tree apart and found nothing.”

  She started sobbing.

  “I swear, Sul. I did everything you wanted,” she blubbered. “I don’t know where they are.”

  A flash of anger shot across his face, and he let go of me. He stomped around the side of the glass case to where she was, facing her down.

  “You give those diamonds to me, woman,” he said. “I don’t care if you have to get more. You do it.”

  “I’m broke, Sul,” she said. “I can’t get anymore.”

  He grabbed her arm and twisted it to the point where I thought it might snap. She cried out in pain.

  “Stop!” I yelled. “Stop.”

  Marie was wailing.

  “I know where they are!” I blurted out.

  He dropped her arm and turned back toward me, looking like a bear that had been rudely awakened from its hibernation.

  “I… I can show you,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “Just don’t hurt her.”

  He stuffed his hands in his coat pocket and pulled something black and shiny out.

  I felt a few surprised and fearful tears pop from my eyes and slide down my cheeks.

  He held the gun out, pointing it toward Marie.

  “Take me there,” he said.

  I nodded, taking my apron off and going for my jacket on the coat rack in the back.

  “Nuh-uh,” he said. “I can’t have you calling your intended, now, can I.”

  I left the coat where it was.

  I tried to imagine what Warren would do when he found out about all of this.

  I hoped he would kick the living daylights out of Sully Coe.

  And I hoped that I would still be alive to join in.

  Chapter 60

  I drove along the dark highway, my hands trembling as they gripped the wheel.

  Sully and Marie were sitting in the backseat. Sully rested the gun on his lap, lazily pointing it t
oward my cousin.

  Marie was still crying.

  I tried not to think about what would happen after Sully got the ornament filled with the diamond jewelry. So instead, I busied my mind with trying to put the pieces together.

  Sully must have found out about what Marie and Victor did all those years ago. He would have had to—he was the sheriff then, and a damn good one, from what Warren said.

  He must have found out that they killed Anthony Matthews.

  But he didn’t arrest the two teenagers for what they did.

  Instead, he saw a big pay day in it for himself.

  Victor’s family was filthy rich. Sully saw the angle, and played it. All these years, he’d been blackmailing them over Anthony Matthews’ death.

  In the end, Sully was nothing more than a dirty cop who bullied and scared people to get his way.

  The morning after the Christmas tree lighting ceremony, Marie must have found the ornament on the front porch, and realized something had gone wrong with the delivery of her payment to Sully.

  And she’d gotten out of Dodge as soon as she could.

  But Sully knew she had a weakness. He lured her back here by going after me.

  It was all such an ugly mess. And even though I was frightened, driving into the unknown with a dangerous man in my backseat, I was more than anything, disappointed.

  Disappointed that Marie wasn’t who I thought she was.

  Disappointed that Sully wasn’t who I thought he was.

  And that they had both failed a teenage boy whose only crime had been loving somebody too much.

  I cleared my throat and glanced up in the rearview mirror.

  “There’s something I don’t understand, Sully,” I said, meeting his black eyes. “Why have Marie put the jewelry in an ornament? Why not just have her deliver the diamonds to you?”

  He scoffed.

  “I didn’t get to be my age by being stupid,” he said. “Certain agencies have, ahem, taken an interest in me. And I can’t afford to have a slip-up at this ripe stage in my life.”

  It was more than just agencies that had taken an interest in him, I realized.

  Somehow, Evan had noticed what went on every year at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Like Sully all those years ago, he too had seen his opportunity to get rich quick. And he’d taken it.

  Or tried to, at least.

  The car fell back into an icy silence. I kept my eyes ahead on the road, winding ahead in the distance through the snow-covered trees.

  It felt like we’d never get to the cabin.

  Chapter 61

  A frosty black wind cut through my thin sweater as I trudged through the deep powder.

  I tried to steady my breathing as I led Sully and Marie, trying to remember where the ornament had been buried.

  The moon was almost full, and lit up the woods with an eerie blue glow. Sully held a flashlight out in front of us, but there wasn’t any need for it.

  “It’s over there,” I said, pointing to the sloping depression in the snow.

  He jabbed the flashlight into my back.

  “Well, go ahead on, then,” he said.

  I glared back at him.

  His face remained emotionless.

  I realized that there was only one thing he cared about in all the world.

  And that us—me, Warren, Marie, and probably all of his friends—didn’t mean a damn thing to him.

  I forced my legs forward. I was shaking, my hands already numb in the whipping wind. My legs burned with the cold.

  The temperature had to be in the single digits.

  I threw myself into each step, my heart thundering in my chest as we drew closer. When we approached the area, I turned around and looked at Sully.

  “It’s under there?” he asked, his hand stuffed firmly in his pocket, the gun bulging from his right side.

  I nodded.

  “Well, you all get to digging,” he said. “Let me know when you get to it.”

  I looked at Marie. She was shivering too. But she had a jacket at least.

  I looked back at Sully.

  “Well?” he said.

  I grabbed the rusted shovel that was leaning against a tree. I started digging, tossing scoopfuls of heavy, dense snow, until I hit dirt.

  After a few more shovelfuls, I knew something was wrong.

  A giant knot grew in my stomach, growing ever larger with each moment.

  I swallowed hard, glancing over at Marie’s frightened face.

  It wasn’t there.

  The ornament was gone.

  I pretended to keep digging, trying to stall the inevitable as long as I could.

  Evan must have moved it.

  That, or the police had already gotten to it after bringing Evan in.

  But wherever it was now, it didn’t matter.

  It wasn’t here.

  And I knew with every fiber of my being that that little fact might just mean a death sentence.

  After a few moments, Sully seemed to realize something was up. He walked over.

  I looked up at the night sky, noticing the bright and beautiful stars twinkling above, more beautiful than any diamonds on earth.

  I took a deep breath, trying not to think about what would happen next.

  Trying not to think about the fact that this might be the last time. The last time I would look up into a night sky. The last time I’d see the stars.

  Time was running out. And I knew that my life was circling the drain.

  I was so close. So close to getting everything I’d ever wanted in my life. To having it all. A good home, a good living, a good husband.

  But now, I would never get a chance to have any of it.

  Warren was wrong. I didn’t have any more luck than my mom did.

  And I was going to die young, just like her.

  Daniel shot through my mind.

  I wondered if he knew just how much I loved him—if he really knew just how much he meant to me.

  I hoped that he did.

  Because I wouldn’t get a chance to tell him.

  “Well, where is it?” Sully said, peering into the empty hole.

  “It’s just a little further down,” I said between chattering teeth.

  He sized me up and saw through my lie right away.

  “You’re fibbing, darlin’,” he said. “You were always no good at bluffing.”

  “Sul, please let us go,” Marie said. “I can get you your money. Okay? Just give me a little time.”

  Even in the dim light, I could see his face growing red with anger.

  “I’m not sure if this arrangement is going to work anymore,” he said, scratching his chin with the top of the gun’s barrel. “I’m afraid to admit it, but our business relationship seems to have soured, Marie.”

  “No, no,” she said, looking at the gun. “I can get it for you. No problem. You’ll have it by tomorrow night.”

  “Victor’s dead,” he said. “And that jewelry business of yours is tanking. I’m thinking that maybe we ought to quit while we’re ahead. What do you say?”

  She shook her head, squeaking out something inaudible.

  “I know it’s hard to face, but it’s just the sensible thing to do,” Sully said. “I’ve got to close the account out.”

  He raised the gun, pointing it at her. She shrunk like a flower under the first frost of the year.

  “Don’t!” she screamed.

  His finger moved to the trigger.

  That’s when I did something stupid.

  Chapter 62

  “Run, Marie!” I screamed.

  I threw myself in Sully’s direction, going for the gun. I lunged into his shoulder. He recovered, retaliating like a rattlesnake going after its prey. He threw his elbow out, hitting my face and knocking me to the ground. I hit the cold snow hard, needles of pain erupting at the base of my skull.

  I tasted blood.

  I opened my eyes and looked back up at Sully. All I could see was blackness where his face
should have been.

  Like in my nightmares.

  He was pointing the gun at me now.

  I knew that I was beat.

  And there was nothing I could do now to change that.

  An image of Daniel flashed through my mind. Of him dressed in his suit, waiting at the end of the aisle in the church for me.

  An aisle I would never walk down.

  I thought of all of them there. Warren, Kara, Marie… None of them would be at the wedding.

  Because there wasn’t going to be any wedding.

  A bullet was going to put an end to all of it.

  “I didn’t want it to be like this,” Sully said, out of breath. “But you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, darlin’. That’s all.”

  I took a deep breath.

  “Warren’s going to kill you for this,” I said.

  “I doubt that very much, hon.”

  He lifted the gun and took his aim at me.

  I closed my eyes tightly, trying to think of the wedding day, of the soft music playing as I walked down the aisle. Of the cold winter sunlight filtering in through the church’s stained glass windows.

  Of Daniel’s green eyes. Of his bright smile as he watched me walk toward him. Of him slipping the ring on my finger.

  Of us starting our new life together.

  Then, the gun went off.

  Chapter 63

  I heard a scream. And then a thud.

  I opened my eyes slowly.

  Sully was no longer there, standing over me.

  Instead, he was on the ground, writhing and moaning in pain.

  Voices echoed through the woods around me. A moment later, somebody was pulling me up off the snow.

  It felt like I wasn’t even there, that I was watching everything take place from somewhere up in the trees. I was overcome with a foggy, disconnected feeling.

  For a split second, I wondered if I was dead. If this was what it was like to be dead, slowly rising up over your body. Drifting away to some place in the sky.

  But then I felt someone drape something heavy over my shoulders, and then someone’s arms were around me, and I was brought back down from the trees, back into my shivering and trembling body.

  I gasped for air.