Spring into Murder (Alaska Cozy Mystery Book 5) Page 14

  Conrad Spencer watched Brent conceal himself behind a tree trunk, wearing a black rain poncho that gleamed in the dark. He silently placed his gun at the ready, and moved forward across the carpet of pine needles on silent feet. “Drop it,” Conrad said and pressed his gun up against Brent's back. Brent froze. “I said drop the rifle.”

  “Okay...take it easy,” Brent said, turning into the coward that he truly was. He dropped the rifle. “Hey, don't go crazy on me. This was all my sister's idea, not mine. I'm just—”

  “Yeah, yeah, playing along,” Conrad said in a disgusted voice. “Put your hands behind your back.” Brent did as Conrad said and felt a cold steel cover his wrists. “Turn around.”

  Brent turned around, fear and cowardice in his bloodshot eyes. He looked into the angry face of a brilliant cop who wasn't in the mood for lies. “I—”

  “Who killed William Archie Hopski? Was it you?” Conrad growled.

  Brent looked down at the black leather jacket Conrad was wearing. The man was obviously the New York detective who was supposedly absent. “I—”

  “The truth,” Conrad demanded. He was wet, exhausted and hungry. When Sarah called him after she, Milton and Chet left her cabin the night before and explained the case to him, he had hopped the first flight back to Alaska, arriving back in town just as night was falling. Just in time to help spring the trap. But hey, he thought, feeling relieved he had caught the bad guy, there wasn't anything he wouldn’t do for Sarah. After all, the woman was working her way deep into his heart.

  “Okay, okay...Natalie and me—”

  “And Teresa,” Conrad prompted.

  “Yeah, and Teresa, we all worked together to get the old man up here into the woods. Natalie slipped a sedative into his drink during dinner and drugged him pretty good. She drove him to the airport where Teresa and me were waiting with my small plane. I flew us out of Los Angeles to Alaska. I made a couple of landings for gas, but no one ever asked questions. It was smooth flying. The field was a little hard to land in, but that was no sweat to me.”

  “Where is Teresa now?” Conrad asked Brent.

  “Parked down the street in a gray van.”

  Conrad took a small pen flashlight from the pocket of his leather jacket and sent a quick Morse code. Sarah, standing near the kitchen window, saw his signal and smiled in relief. Then she turned her attention back to Natalie who was just sitting down at the kitchen table. “Amanda, count the money.”

  Amanda slapped down a cup of coffee in front of Natalie with a surly look. But she said not a word, and sat down at the kitchen table, grabbed the briefcase, and began counting the money.

  “Where is my half of the journal?” Natalie demanded.

  “In time,” Sarah said. “Let Amanda count the money. While she is, can you answer me one last question, Ms. Hopski? I would be very grateful.”

  Natalie glanced at the kitchen window, seeing the clear line of sight from the woods to target the two other women. Soon Sarah and Amanda would be dead. “Yes, what is it?” she asked in an annoyed voice.

  “Your so-called employee...or employees, I should say, are people you know personally, right?” Sarah asked. “I did some digging. I know your brother Chet’s wife Teresa is actually your blood sister. I also turned up a man named Brent Dedd, another sibling of yours, who, as it turns out, was a pilot in the Air Force.”

  Natalie tried to control her expression, surprised by Sarah’s revelation. “I—”

  “You didn't think I would forget about Natalie Hopski, did you?” Sarah asked, remaining calmly at the kitchen window. “Ms. Hopski, I'm always prepared.”

  Natalie checked the watch on her wrist. Five minutes to go. “Yes, it's true, Teresa is my blood sister. I arranged for her to marry Chet in order to destroy the man. Milton is no threat to me. He's a weak little man. But Chet is a threat. He's strong and, unfortunately, very smart. I had to keep him occupied.”

  “Occupied?” Sarah asked.

  “Yes,” Natalie confessed. “I needed time to locate my biological brother. By the time I located my brother, which was very difficult, I found out about the change to my father’s will. You see, my initial plan was to kill Chet and Milton in Los Angeles after I managed to reunite my original family, and then devise a plan to kill off the old man.”

  “You used Charlene Nelton to manipulate Mr. Hopski.”

  “That was the easy part,” Natalie said snidely. “I promised Charlene power and money and she took the bait. She was supposed to be my 'inside' person, but she failed me. She knew all about the cabin and the change to the will but didn't speak a word, that little schemer. Unfortunately for her, I found out about her plan to double cross me.” Natalie's eyes clouded with rage. “So I played her very carefully. I let her think she would be richly rewarded if she helped me make it all happen in Alaska instead of Los Angeles. It was my ‘Northern Plan’ as Brent began to call it. Charlene jumped on board and handled, well, the useless tasks that I assigned her, such as making Chet and Milton believe their old man had left for another one of his hunting trips.”

  “You used Charlene Nelton and then killed her when she was no longer useful to you?”

  Amanda was still pretending to count the money. She glanced up at Natalie, who watched her contemptuously. “Your stepmother wasn’t helpful anymore?” she prompted Natalie helpfully.

  “No,” Natalie said with a hissing tongue like a snake, “And she was never my stepmother. That skinny little nothing was a power-hungry idiot. Charlene came right up to Alaska as planned, and as soon as I was done with her, I had Brent drug her with a hallucinogen, make her write that note, and hang her. One bird down, two to go.” Natalie looked at the kitchen window and decided to fluff her feathers even more. “And it worked, too. I won. I killed them all, in the end.”

  “What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

  “That journal you found tells the truth. I killed that awful woman who dared call herself my mother. She wasn’t my real mother. She never took my side, she called me a liar at every turn and turned my father against me, too. When I pushed her down that flight of stairs, it was with happy hands. Then I killed my father, and now my dear adopted brothers will rot away in prison until they die. I win. I killed them all. Natalie Hopski won the battle. She came out the winner!” Natalie smiled viciously. It was time. She stood up and walked over to the kitchen window. “Detective Garland, may I show you something?”

  “Sure,” Sarah said innocently. She stood up and walked over to the window. “What is it?”

  Natalie grinned. “It's time to die,” she said and tapped the kitchen window with the sparkling diamond ring on her right finger, then quickly backed away from the window. Before Sarah could react, Natalie had reached into the right sleeve of her dress and pulled out a tiny, snub-nosed gun. She trained the gun on Amanda, planning to subdue Amanda and march her in front of the window for a second execution. Only, Sarah didn’t die. The window didn't shatter with gunfire.

  Natalie stared open-mouthed at the window in panic, giving Sarah the opening she needed.

  “Not this time, you don't,” Sarah yelled. She aimed a hard kick at Natalie's left hand so that the gun spun away from her across the kitchen. As Natalie cursed in pain, Sarah dropped down to one knee, yanked out her own gun, and aimed it at Natalie. “Get your hands in the air. You're under arrest.”

  Amanda held up a stack of money. “A few hundreds on top, all fake paper underneath,” she told Sarah and tossed the money back into the briefcase. She looked at Natalie and smiled. “But we didn’t need your dirty money, anyway. And I guess where you're going, you won't need money, will you?”

  “Get her gun, June Bug.”

  Amanda walked across the kitchen and retrieved the small black gun. “What is this?” Natalie demanded, though the look of panic on her face told Sarah that she clearly knew that her posturing was useless.

  A sudden, hard knock on the door answered Natalie's question. “Answer the door, June Bug,” Sarah said with
satisfaction as she took out a pair of handcuffs and fastened Natalie’s wrists tightly behind her back.

  Amanda hurried and opened the back door. Conrad appeared, soaked from the rain and plainly tired, but grimly focused on his task. He shoved Brent Dedd and Teresa Hopski into the kitchen ahead of him. Both were handcuffed and hung their heads down, defeated. “Signed, sealed and delivered, Detective Garland,” he said and managed a wink followed by a yawn. “Ah, coffee,” he said, spotting the coffee pot. “Do you mind?”

  “Not at all,” Sarah said. And without being able to control her emotions, she then walked over to Conrad and hugged him. Her embrace was fierce and it was a long time before she could let go. Finally, she whispered to him, “Thank you for coming to my rescue.”

  “Anytime,” Conrad whispered back into Sarah's ear, “anytime.”

  Amanda smiled. Maybe love was in the air. But not for Natalie Hopski, Teresa Hopski, and Brent Dedd. “Alright, you low-lifes, eyes on the floor,” she yelled in her best, tough-guy voice. “This romance movie isn't for your eyes.”

  Sarah and Conrad both laughed as they separated. “I think we have a future cop on our hands,” Sarah smiled into Conrad's eyes. Conrad gently reached out to touch Sarah's soft cheek and that one gesture said more to her than words could ever communicate. Then he turned and poured himself a cup of coffee without saying another word. Outside, the rain continued to fall, but the worst of the storm had truly passed. The rain was now clean and healing as it fell on the lush forested hills around Sarah’s cabin, and no longer dark and deadly.

  ***

  Conrad watched Chet dig into a second piece of apple pie. Chet caught Conrad watching him eat and blushed. “I'm making a pig of myself,” he said shyly.

  “Not at all,” Conrad told Chet with a chuckle and pointed to his own empty pie plate. “I've eaten three pieces of apple pie myself.” Conrad liked Chet. The guy was okay. He also liked Milton, even though Milton resembled a short mafia boss. Milton, too, was polishing off a slice of apple pie. Conrad grinned at him, “Nice suit.”

  Milton smiled proudly, puffing his chest out a little in his gray and blue pinstripe suit. “Maybe that doll face detective will notice, huh?”

  “Maybe,” Conrad grinned. “But let me give you a little advice, okay?”

  “Shoot,” Milton said and grabbed a glass of cold root beer. “But make it quick, the dames are due to arrive at any moment.”

  “Dames?” Conrad grinned again. “Uh...never mind, Milton. It seems like you have women figured out better than I do.” Conrad leaned back in the diner booth and looked at Chet. Chet shrugged one enormously tall shoulder and continued to work on his apple pie.

  Milton took a drink of his root beer. “Ah, what an afternoon. Clear and blue and beautiful as a sapphire. It's going to be a great day for a hike.”

  “Are you guys sure you want to hike all the way back to your dad's cabin?” Conrad asked. He knew Milton and Chet were both putting on brave faces as city men who had only just recently gotten to know Snow Falls, Alaska. “Sarah told me the cabin is far off the trail. Maybe we should fly you in?”

  “We have to hike,” Milton told Conrad. “That's why Chet and me are filling our gullets so much. We know our feet are going to cover some miles today, don't we Chet?”

  Chet nodded his head. “It's better to be full than to be hungry when you take a hike. Walking burns off calories, too.”

  Conrad nodded his head. “Yeah, that makes sense. Eat a lot and walk off the food,” he said. “I want you guys to be okay, that's all. Today is going to be a very difficult day for the both of you.”

  “Pop's body is waiting for us in his cabin,” Milton reminded Conrad. “It wouldn't be right to fly to his cabin. Chet and me, well…we feel that we owe it to Pop to walk to his cabin, to walk the land he and Ma loved so much.”

  “Daddy deserves to be respected,” Chet said and pushed his pie plate away. “I'll try not to get my suit messy on the walk.”

  Conrad saw sadness wash through Chet's eyes. “We'll walk slow,” he promised and spotted Sarah and Amanda walk into the diner, both wearing warm black dresses and hiking boots. He waved at Sarah. “Are we ready?”

  Sarah walked up to the booth. “Andrew is getting our backpacks loaded into the truck now,” Sarah explained. “Sorry we're a little late.”

  “My husband decided to start ringing his bell at the last minute,” Amanda explained with a sigh. “It’s been back to the bloody bell for me, if it doesn’t drive me mad first!”

  Milton and Chet smiled. The brothers were starting to feel like a part of the little community and they even liked it when Amanda fussed about her husband and his bell. “Well,” Milton stretched his arms, “there aren't any dames answering to bells where we're walking to, so we might as well get walking.”

  Sarah looked at Chet. “Guys, I have some news for you before we go.”

  Chet picked up a glass of water and took a drink. “Is this about Natalie?”

  “Yes,” Sarah replied.

  “Shoot, doll face,” Milton told Sarah and winked at her.

  Sarah smiled and shook her head. Milton sure was a piece of work. “Natalie Hopski, Teresa Hopski, and Brent Dedd are all going to spend life in prison without any possibility of parole. The evidence we managed to gather is enough to make sure of that.”

  Chet sighed heavily. “Daddy just wanted us to love each other.”

  “Yeah,” Milton said sadly. “But Natalie was a sour lemon, and I guess a murderer, too. I suppose we should be happy she's going to rot in prison, but I’m glad Pop isn’t around to see it. He wouldn't be happy one bit.”

  Chet looked at Milton. “Maybe Daddy would be happy?” he told his brother. “Daddy believed in forgiveness,” he insisted stubbornly. “Maybe his heart was still open toward Natalie. If she was ready to apologize.”

  “You’re probably right,” Milton agreed. But he wasn’t the type to think about it for long. “Okay,” he said and popped to his feet, “no sense in sitting around this diner or I’ll just order more pie. Let's move.” Milton grabbed Sarah's hand. “You're with me, hot stuff.”

  Sarah smiled at Conrad. “Looks like I'm taken for the day.”

  Conrad stood up. “Looks like it,” he said and shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket.

  “Well, then,” Amanda smiled at Chet, “I think I'll take the company of this handsome man,” she said and reached out her hand. “Chet, will you be my hiking partner?”

  Chet looked at Amanda's hand and then looked up into her caring, warm eyes. “Okay,” he said and stood up to his full, towering height as he gently took Amanda's hand in his own. As he did, he felt a feeling he had never felt before. Not a romantic love – but a kind of safety that comes from true friendship, compassion, honesty and truth. He smiled. “I'm ready to go.”

  Five hours later, Sarah walked up to the remote cabin with Milton at her side. “Wow,” Milton said in pain, wincing as he looked up at the cabin. He stomped over to the front porch steps of the cabin, sat down, and began rubbing his ankles. “That was some walk.”

  Amanda walked up to the cabin not long after with Chet at her side. Chet was not tired at all. In fact, the hike through the woods and up the river seemed to have given him a renewed air of vitality, causing him to fall in love with Alaska. But when he spotted the simple, polished wood coffin sitting on the far side of the cabin, he stopped smiling. Tears began falling from his eyes. “Is that—”

  Chet held up a kind hand to forestall Amanda’s reply, and silently walked to the coffin. He dropped down to his knees and bowed his head in prayer, and then his shoulders shook as he cried. Milton stopped rubbing his feet, ran over to Chet, stared at the coffin, and stood very still as tears began flooding from his eyes. “Poor guys,” Sarah whispered to Conrad.

  Conrad spotted Andrew bringing up the rear with his rifle at the ready and his backpack on. Andrew looked at Chet and Milton, shook his head, and walked over to Amanda and stood quietly.
“Being a cop is never easy,” Conrad whispered and watched Chet and Milton mourn together.

  After the burial, Chet and Milton decided to go off on a walk alone to talk about their memories of their father. “We won't go far,” Milton promised.

  “Maybe you should trail them in case of bears,” Conrad told Andrew in a worried voice.

  “You got it,” Andrew said, and followed the brothers into the woods, keeping a respectful distance.

  Amanda hugged her arms. “It's getting late,” she commented, watching the shadows on the ground grow darker and darker. “We need to leave soon.”

  Conrad looked around, searched the woods and saw the beauty of the spring season. He listened to the silence. Then he turned around and studied the old cabin. In his heart, he saw a newly married young couple, desperately in love with each other, standing on the front porch of the cabin, holding each other as the day faded away. He saw the man and woman smiling into each other's eyes while a hot pot of coffee brewed over a cozy fire inside. “A man may have died here, but love was shared here, too,” he whispered. For a moment he couldn’t speak because of the lump that arose in his throat, threatening to turn into tears.

  Sarah looked into Conrad's eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Conrad only nodded his head and turned to let his eyes soak in Sarah's beautiful face. He finally spoke, saying, “I'm grateful you called me.”

  “I'm grateful you came so quickly,” Sarah admitted.

  “Did you have any doubt? I only wish you’d called earlier. I mean, Sarah, if I hadn't showed up, Brent Dedd would have shot you and Amanda.”

  Sarah gently touched Conrad's cheek. “I didn't doubt you for a second,” she said and then suddenly realized that her hand was lingering on Conrad's cheek and pulled it away. “A good cop is always on time,” she said and looked down at her hands.