Poisoned Pie (Pineville Gazette Mystery Book 6) Page 14

  Mrs. MacNight stood tall and thin and very upset. Her usual lovely face was twisted into a fit of anger. “Leave Loretta alone,” she ordered Mary in a stern voice. “Apparently my husband is dead. Leave my daughter alone. I don’t want her harmed.” Mrs. MacNight wiped snow off the black ski coat she was wearing and then did the same to the black ski cap covering her short gray hair. “My husband ordered me to remain in Brazil, hidden and out of sight. But I became far too worried for my daughter, so I came back.”

  “Mrs. MacNight, Loretta is—”

  “I know where my daughter is,” Mrs. MacNight snapped at Mary. “I’ve had a man following her all day, as well as my husband…my stupid, stupid husband. I begged him to stop stealing money and sending it to the reservations but he would not listen. His intentions may have been noble, but…” Mrs. MacNight bowed her head. “Mary, leave Loretta alone. I will take her away and leave Pineville for good.”

  Mary wasn’t sure what to say. “Mrs. MacNight—”

  Mrs. MacNight raised her head. Tears were in her eyes. “My husband…once, Mary, I loved him. But through the years he changed. He became hungry for power and money. For the last ten years my husband has been working to establish a private army on the reservations. An awful man is trying to convince the Cherokees to rebel…” Mrs. MacNight wiped at her tears. “That is none of your concern, Mary. Our concern is Loretta. You must understand that she isn’t a bad girl…her daddy…he was very harsh toward her when she was young. All my precious baby wants is to be loved. Please understand that.”

  “I understand that Loretta is very scared and confused right now,” Mary informed Mrs. MacNight. “Mrs. MacNight, Loretta did admit to killing a man. She has to face the law.”

  “No,” Mrs. MacNight snapped and pulled a small black, gun out from her coat pocket before Mary could react. “Mary, right now all of the banks my husband owns are being robbed. Don’t ask by who.” Mrs. MacNight motioned Mary over to a closet. “I am taking my daughter and the money and flying back to Brazil.”

  “How—”

  “My husband was never aware that I also had the numbers to all the safe combinations,” Mrs. MacNight explained. “Mr. Prats is to thank for that.”

  “Mr. Prats?” Mary asked, confused.

  “Mr. Prats is my brother,” Mrs. MacNight informed Mary in a proud voice. “He is also a man who understands how to manipulate people. It was my brother who kept me informed about Loretta. Sometimes appearing simple-minded can work to your advantage, Mary. That’s how I fooled my husband all these years. Now…get inside the closet.”

  Mary threw her hands up in the air. “Yeah, sure, okay, Mrs. MacNight,” she said in a defeated voice. “Why not?” Mary stepped into the closet and looked into face that was carved with a mother’s worry. “Mrs. MacNight, tell Loretta that Betty and I really did want to help her….tell her that I forgive her for trying to kill me and—”

  “I’m right here, Mary.” Loretta stepped in front of the closet door. “Mother, can I have a moment alone with Mary?” Mrs. MacNight hesitated and then nodded her head. “Mary, I’m sorry for the mess I caused. I…honestly wanted Kent to love me…the way a woman wants to be loved. But then he hurt me and my heart became filled with…fury. All I could see was red. I also panicked and tried to find a way to blame Mr. Presley for this mess while protecting my daddy. I guess I was hoping if I accomplished my mission, Daddy would stop being angry at me…but after Kent died…” Loretta shook her head. “The more lies we tell, huh?” she said in a regretful voice.

  “Loretta, you did kill a man,” Mary pointed out.

  “I’ll live with Kent’s death the rest of my life,” Loretta spoke in a miserable voice. “Mary, I can’t go to prison. I…well, I’m sorry I attacked you. I guess my nerves were thinking for me instead of my mind. I wouldn’t have killed you…when I attacked you I thought I could…but I wouldn’t have been able to go through with it. Kent was….enough.”

  “I know, Loretta,” Mary said, reading sincerity in the woman’s eyes. “I’m sorry about your father.”

  “So am I,” Loretta sighed.

  “Mr. Presley is still tied up.”

  “Turn him over to the sheriff. I…no more killing,” Loretta pleaded with Mary and then said in a voice that broke Mary’s heart: “I betrayed my own heart hoping that a man would love me.” A tear dropped from Loretta’s eye. “I know I was never kind to you, Mary…but…please know…I’m not a monster.”

  Mary reached out and wiped Loretta’s tear away. “You’re a confused, hurt, scared little girl that got caught up in a very ugly darkness, Loretta. Now that darkness will follow you forever. And someday, even if you do manage to find love, the death of Kent Connors will never allow you to enjoy it. That’s your punishment…that’s your prison.”

  Loretta touched Mary’s hand and then closed and locked the closet door. “Let’s go, Mother,” she said. The two women walked out into the heavy snowstorm and vanished forever.

  Mary simply leaned her back against the closet wall, closed her eyes, and said: “Well, John, I sure got pie all over my face but at least one bad guy was caught. Now all I have to do is stand here and make sense of the ugly pie eating contest I was in.”

  Sheriff Mables limped out onto a snowy train platform with the help of a wooden cane. He spotted Mary sitting on a bench looking down the railroad tracks with anxious eyes. “You’re early. The train isn’t going to be here for another hour,” he said.

  Mary pulled her eyes away from the snowy world surrounding the railroad tracks and looked at Sheriff Mables. The poor man was barely able to walk and was limping horribly. “Why, Sheriff, you should be home in bed,” she worried.

  Sheriff Mables brushed snow off the bench Mary was sitting on and plopped down. “Law from California is on the way to snatch up Brent Presley,” he explained. “No luck with Ned Prats. Law in his town said they found his house empty and his wife gone. Looks they vanished into the wind, too.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Mary said and waited for a gust of icy wind to pass. She hugged the pink and white coat keeping her body warm.

  “Are you?” Sheriff Mables asked in a curious voice. “Are you sorry that all of Mr. MacNight’s banks were robbed last night?”

  “I was locked in a closet while the banks were being robbed. There was nothing I could do to stop the bad guys, Sheriff,” Mary explained in a voice that sounded too tired to care.

  Sheriff Mables pulled a pipe out of his front coat pocket and lit it with a match. “I asked you to help me on the case, Mary, not take the entire case and stick into a bag to carry alone.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call you, okay. I was wrong,” Mary told Sheriff Mables. “Maybe if I had called you Loretta wouldn’t have escaped. Maybe Mr. MacNight would still be alive. Maybe Ned Prats would have been captured. I…made a mess of things and I’m sorry.”

  “You were only doing what your instincts were telling you to do,” Sheriff Mables replied. He glanced down the snowy railroad tracks and then pulled a letter out of his coat pocket and handed it to Mary. “This letter was delivered to my office this morning. It’s from Loretta MacNight. Loretta confessed to everything that happened in detail…including your heroics. The letter is her way of saying…thank you for caring.”

  Mary opened the letter and read it. Loretta’s words were confusing to read but they made sense to Mary. “I’m not a hero,” she told Sheriff Mables and handed him back the letter. “William is hurt…two people are dead…Loretta has escaped. The only bad guy that was caught was Mr. Presley.”

  “Brent Presley is responsible for several bank robberies, Mary. The guy is no small fish.” Sheriff Mables put the letter away and then patted Mary’s hand. “You pushed Mr. MacNight down those attic stairs out of self-defense. You didn’t know he was going to die. You surely didn’t kill Kent Connors. And so what if Loretta MacNight and her mother escaped? So what if all those banks were robbed? I know you care—”

  “I’m too ti
red to care,” Mary confessed and grabbed the pink snow cap covering her lovely hair before the icy winds could grab it.

  “You do care,” Sheriff Mables corrected Mary. “Mary, my point is that in life you win and you lose. In this case you came out pretty even.”

  “Oh,” Mary fussed, “it was all so confusing to me. It was nearly impossible to discern if Loretta was speaking the truth or not…Mr. Presley…Mr. MacNight…they were all mingled into one chapter but all had different stories to tell…different characters speaking…oh, forget it.”

  Sheriff Mables grinned. “Made you think, didn’t it?” he asked.

  “All the cases I’ve been trapped in made me think.”

  “Welcome to real-world reporting, Mary,” Sheriff Mables said in a fatherly tone. “Writing about church bake sales and school plays is simple. When life steps into the mix, that’s when it becomes difficult and real.” Sheriff Mables took a minute to puff on his pipe, sending plumes of cherry tobacco smoke into the frosty air. Mary enjoyed the smell. “Mary, don’t give up the fight.”

  “What do you mean?” Mary asked.

  “When I agreed to let you help me on this case your eyes were full of fire. Now that fire is out.”

  “I’m simply tired, Sheriff,” Mary sighed. “I managed to sneak in a one-hour nap this morning and now I’m struggling to stay awake while I’m waiting for my husband to arrive home. John is going to be so disappointed in me.”

  “I think John is going to be very proud of you,” Sheriff Mables told Mary. “I think—”

  “Mary?” a voice said.

  Mary looked up at the speaker in absolute shock. “Loretta?” she gasped and jumped up. Sheriff Mables went for his gun and then decided not to. Loretta wasn’t going to cause any trouble.

  “I thought about what you said, Mary,” Loretta told Mary. “And you were right…even if I do find love someday I’ll never be able to enjoy it…I’ll always be trapped in my own prison. The only way to escape is to…take responsibility for my actions. I thought sending the letter I wrote to Sheriff Mables would help but it didn’t.” Loretta looked at Sheriff Mables and then held out her hands. “Sheriff Mables, I killed Kent Connors…I’m turning myself in.”

  “Yep,” Sheriff Mables said and looked at Loretta with regretful eyes. “Okay.”

  Mary watched Sheriff Mables stand up, take a pair of handcuffs out of his coat pocket, and arrest Loretta. Instead of crying Loretta smiled. “Who knows, Mary?” she said. “Maybe the judge will go easy on me.”

  “You have a friend, Loretta,” Mary promised. She walked over to Loretta and squeezed the woman’s cold hands. “I’m going to help you.”

  Loretta looked deep into Mary’s eyes. “Now I can see why you were so popular in school.”

  Mary touched Loretta’s cheeks with her gloved hand. “I’ll be down to see you tomorrow. My husband is returning home today and I’m exhausted.”

  Sheriff Mables, who was usually a tough man, felt his heart break. “Why not?” he grumbled and snatched the handcuffs off Loretta. “Listen, gal,” he said and quickly tore up the note Loretta had mailed him, “no one knows you killed Kent Connors except for me, Mary…and a few other people. As of right now it’s your word against ours until a jury proves otherwise.” Sheriff Mables looked at Mary. Mary was staring at him with confused eyes. “Look. Loretta did say Kent Connors threatened to kill her and I have no doubt that he wouldn’t have tried, do you?”

  “Well…why no,” Mary confessed. “I’m certain if Kent Connors had remained alive he would have attempted to kill Loretta, Mr. Presley, and Mr. MacNight.”

  “Then that settles it,” Sheriff Mables said. He looked at Loretta. “You killed in self-defense. Is that clear?”

  Loretta stood in shock. “I don’t understand. I killed a man and I even attacked Mary…I don’t—”

  “You also turned yourself in and did the right thing,” Sheriff Mables interrupted. “Now here’s the deal. I still have to run you in but for questioning only. I’m going to claim in my report that you acted out of self-defense because you were scared for your life. A jury will eat that up…a woman seeking love…betrayed…caught up in betrayal and murder…what was she supposed to do in order to come out alive?”

  Mary felt fire begin burning in her heart again. Maybe there was hope. Maybe life was ugly and harsh and difficult to report on…but…maybe there was still a little light left in the Lord’s rainbow…a little light—good light—still left in the hearts of people who, deep down, only wanted good and not evil.

  “Oh Loretta, I’ll stand by you every second,” Mary promised. She grabbed Loretta and hugged her. “I promise to always be your friend.”

  “Now this don’t explain the bank robberies…but I ain’t going into that,” Sheriff Mables told Loretta. “In your letter all you said was that an unknown person had access to the banks. Mind if I ask you who?”

  “My…mother. She is flying to Brazil today,” Loretta confessed. She looked into Mary’s eyes and began crying. “I’m not a monster, Mary…see…I did the right thing. My mother was furious with me—but I stayed to face the music.”

  Mary hugged Loretta. “Yes, you did, honey.”

  Sheriff Mables put his pipe away. “As far as I’m concerned the bank robberies are going to remain…unknown,” he said. “One poisoned pie is enough for this town. At least we have a cherry,” he finished and smiled at Loretta. “All right, Miss MacNight, I need to take you downtown for questioning and then you can go home. But no—you can’t go home. I’m afraid it’s a crime scene. I’ve got men digging up the cellar first thing in the morning to look for the body your daddy put there. Hopefully identify him and give him a proper burial.”

  “I don’t think I ever want to go back there anyway,” Loretta told Sheriff Mables. She looked at Mary. “Mary?”

  “My house.” Mary smiled. “John will understand.”

  “Okay.” Sheriff Mables nodded his head and limped off with Loretta following at his side.

  Mary sighed, plopped down on the bench, and then smiled. “This case sure didn’t turn out the way I expected,” she whispered and then just sat silent and waited for her husband’s train to arrive. Only, she dozed off a few minutes later and woke up when a snowy train announced its arrival.

  “Oh my…” Mary sprang to her feet, checked her hair, and rain up to the train. Mr. Little, who had arrived twenty minutes prior to the train’s arrival, rushed out of the small house that served as the office, holding a wooden stepstool. “Right on time,” he told Mary in a happy voice.

  Mary, feeling as if she were going to explode, watched Mr. Little place the stepstool on the platform directly in front of a green passenger car. Seconds later he opened the door and John appeared.

  “Mary!” John yelled.

  Mary burst out into tears. “Oh, John…John!” she cried.

  John nearly jumped out of the passenger cart wearing a pressed uniform, temporarily forgetting his hurt rib. He ran to Mary and took his wife into his arms. “Oh, Mary…Mary….Mary…” he said through tears of his own and began kissing his wife all over her face.

  Mary, unable to stop crying, kissed John back. “Darling…you’re home…oh, you’re home…this has to be a dream!”

  “It’s not a dream,” John whispered in Mary’s ear. “Oh, Mary, you’re finally in my arms again. Every time I sat in the pilot seat…every takeoff…wondering if I’d ever make it home…you never left my thoughts once.”

  “Oh, darling,” Mary cried and hugged John as tight as she could.

  John kissed Mary’s head and then kissed her soft lips. Mary pressed her head against his chest and closed her eyes. Surely, she thought, a dream had taken over her mind. Surely John wasn’t home. But oh, John was home and he was holding her in his loving arms. “Oh, John…never leave me again…”

  “I have two weeks…then it’s off to California,” John whispered. “But Mary, you can come with me. We’ll never be apart again.”

  Mary o
pened her eyes and looked down the snowy railroad tracks. “Never apart again,” she promised.

  “Never,” John promised and then said: “Say, let’s go to the diner and get something to eat. I’m starving. After we eat you can tell me what you’ve been doing in our boring, sleepy little town.” John hugged Mary and waited for Mr. Little to retrieve his luggage. “Now, where did you park the car?”

  “Well, about my car.” Mary winced. “You see, John…while you were gone I had a little trouble with my car.”

  John watched the icy winds play in his wife’s soft hair. “Engine trouble?” he asked.

  “Uh…not exactly. No,” Mary answered in an honest voice.

  John walked Mary a few feet further and stopped. “Flat tire?”

  “Well, I did have a flat tire…in Maine…when I ran my car off the road into a flooded ditch.” Mary winced again.

  John looked at Mary with wide eyes. “Maine…flooded ditch?” he asked. “Mary, what in the world are you talking about? Where’s your car?”

  “Uh…under water…in Oregon…the last time I checked…darling…sweetie…honey…” Mary waited for John to explode.

  “Oregon…under water…” John tipped his pilot’s hat down low. “Maine…flooded ditch…there I am flying bombing missions and my wife is traipsing all over the United States.” John shook his head. “Honey, maybe we better go home and eat instead of the eating at the diner, huh? I have a feeling you have a lot to tell me.”

  Mary closed one eye and made a there’s more face. John braced himself. “We’re going to be having a guest staying with us for a few days…honey…dear…sweetie.”

  “A guest? Who? Betty?” John asked.

  “Not exactly,” Mary answered. She quickly hugged John and buried her face into his chest. “Loretta MacNight.”

  “Loretta MacNight…that snob?” John asked in complete disbelief. “Mary, what in the world is going on here? Why in the world would Loretta MacNight come to stay at our house? Why, she lives in one of the fanciest houses in Pineville and—”