Trouble at the Kennel (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery #9)(34)
“Kelly, It’s all my fault. Hank told me he’d hurt the baby if I didn’t call you. I can’t hurt my baby,” she said, sobbing.
Hank said in a smooth comforting voice, “Don’t worry, Sandy, I’ll be back in a little while and everything will be okay. Trust me. Our baby will be fine. Now that Mary’s gone, and Kelly will soon be gone, there won’t be any reason for me to get angry anymore. You know how much I love you. I’m doing this for you and our baby,” Hank said, gently wiping Sandy’s tears away.
He turned to Kelly. “I want you to walk over to the door that leads to the garage. I’ll have my gun on you the whole time so don’t even think about trying to make a run for it. I’m going to tie your hands behind you with some rope. When I’m through doing that I want you to get into the back seat of the silver car in the garage and lie down. If I sense you’re trying anything, I’ll shoot you. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she stammered, doing exactly what he asked. A few moments later he put the car in reverse, backed out of the driveway, and began driving. “This will take a few minutes. Just stay where you are and don’t get up until I tell you to.” He turned on the radio to a music station and hummed along with the singer.
Kelly felt the car make a series of turns. She snuck a peek and saw that they were in a heavily forested area. She didn’t know who he worked for or where they were, but she sensed that her life was about to end.
Why didn’t I take Rebel into the house with me? Really stupid of me. Mike has no idea where I am, nor does anyone else. It’s just me and Hank Reston. This is not how I wanted my life to end. Alone in the forest with a crazy man who has a gun. I guess the only thing I can do is maybe buy a little time, and see if I can get him to talk to me.
“Hank, what are you going to name your child?”
“We’re still talking about it. We haven’t found out yet whether it’s a boy or a girl. We’ll get serious about the name once we know that.”
“I’m curious about something. It’s pretty apparent you were the one who killed Mary Barnes, but I don’t understand why. Since it looks like I’m not going to ever be able to tell anyone, I really would like to know.”
“I didn’t plan on killing Mary. I let the dogs out to teach her a lesson, not to snoop in other people’s lives. She told Sandy we should see a shrink because of a couple of small black and blue marks Sandy had on her face. Course she deserved them, but I guess Mary didn’t see it that way. Anyway, I’d just let the last of the dogs out when Mary came out of the office and saw me. I didn’t know she was in there. I didn’t have a choice, so I hit her over the head with an iron bar that was lying on the ground next to the kennel. I didn’t think about it, I just acted on instinct. I was wearing rubber latex gloves, so I wasn’t worried about them finding my fingerprints on the iron bar. I had to keep my fingerprints off the kennel closures, because if fingerprints were found somebody would find out I had a couple of problems with the law a few years ago.”
“I didn’t think you could practice law if you had problems like that,” Kelly said.
“You can’t. The man who hired me at the lumber mill wanted my legal knowledge, but knew I couldn’t practice in a court of law. Although my license was pulled because of those little problems, everybody’s happy now. I got a job, and he gets legal advice for a lot less than he’d pay a lawyer licensed by the state. If they need an attorney, he has one he uses, and I act as an adviser. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. That’s enough talking. We’re here. I’m going to open the car door and step back. I want you to walk over to the shack. Once we’re inside, I’ll use the silencer, and you’ll be history. Nobody’s around, so I’ll have plenty of time to dig a grave and voila, no more Kelly Reynolds.”
Kelly started to walk towards the shack, but then stopped and looked up, silently praying. Please, please help me.
“By the way, you can forget about asking anyone for help. Prayers aren’t heard out here. Now quit stalling and get in the shack.”
Knowing she was taking the last few steps of her life, Kelly walked through the door of the shack.
CHAPTER 27
Mike had just returned to his office from a meeting he’d had with several of his deputies giving them an update on the Barnes murder case. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to tell them. There were plenty of suspects, but none of them had emerged as someone who could be arrested for the murder. When he sat down at his desk he glanced at his phone and saw that Kelly had called him but hadn’t left a message, which was very unusual for her.
Several months earlier he’d read about the Messages app on the iPhones for texts which allowed a person to continuously keep track of where someone else was physically located. He and Kelly had agreed it would be a good thing to do, so they’d always know where the other one was, particularly if they were running late. Mike clicked on her name and hit location. He looked at his watch and was sure the location would show that she was at the coffee shop. It didn’t. It showed she was south of Cedar Bay, actually quite a distance from the coffee shop. He kept hitting refresh, and he saw that she was moving in a southwesterly direction.
Something’s wrong. This is not like her. I better see what’s going on.