Rear-View Murder: A Gemma Stone Cozy Mystery Read online

  “Well, your suicide note is going to tell them the whole story. How you accidentally killed her and asked me to cover it up by dumping her body,” he explained.

  And this time Gemma knew the shiny black object in his hand was not a cell phone. This time it was a gun.

  “Just couldn’t live with what you’d done,” Chuck added and waved the gun at Gemma and Holly. “That is, after you kill these two nosy bitches.”

  Holly made a whimpering sound. Gemma swallowed hard, fear sliding a cold hand up her back.

  “Chuck, this is insane,” Senator Dixon said.

  “Not any more insane than you thinking Opal was going to wait for you. We had plans, you and I, remember? You were going to run for governor. I was going to run your campaign. And when you won the election - which you would because I’m just that damned good - I would be your right hand man,” Chuck snarled.

  While he talked, he moved two chairs from the small kitchen table so they were sitting back to back. He never took his gun off of the three who had instinctively moved closer together.

  “But Opal was in the way,” Gemma finally said.

  “Opal and what she represented was in the way,” Chuck said. “Ladies, have a seat.”

  When they hesitated, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a handful of zip ties. “I said, have a seat.” He shoved Gemma into the closest wooden chair. After they were seated back to back in the chairs, Miller said, “Now, Senator if you’ll do the honors and make sure these two stay put.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Senator Dixon whispered to them as he secured their wrists to the chairs.

  “Too late for sorry,” Miller snarled.

  Without moving his gun off of them, Miller withdrew a covered syringe from his pocket and popped the cover off of the needle with his thumb. The sight of the hypodermic syringe in his hand scared Gemma more than the gun or any other threats he might make. She found herself unable to do anything but stare at it. Quicker than she thought possible, he shot forward and jabbed the needle deep into her thigh, pushing the plunger all the way in.

  Holly screamed.

  “No,” Senator Dixon moaned.

  “It’s okay,” he said, tossing the syringe aside, getting another out of his jacket pocket. A tiny glass vial came out along with and rolled across the floor. Miller ignored it. “Soon she won’t feel a thing.”

  Before anyone could react, he pumped yet another syringe into her.

  “Holly, I love you,” Gemma said, thinking she might not see her best friend ever again. The thought was devastating and tears streamed down her face. Nausea rolled through her and she thought she was going to pass out. “I’m sorry I got us into this.”

  “It’s okay, honey,” Holly said, her voice sounding very far away.

  There was more but Gemma could barely hear her. Her heart raced and blood pounded in her ears. The room was suddenly so hot she could barely breathe.

  “What...what...?” Gemma tried to ask. She couldn’t seem to form the question and her own voice sounded slurred.

  “Fast acting insulin. It’s what keeps my grandmother alive. But it will have the opposite effect on you. Just ask Opal when you see her.” Chuck said. “But the syringes are small, so the second dose was just to be sure. That will take care of you. Nothing so discreet for the Senator though. For him, suicide note...gunshot to the head.”

  Gemma heard a sharp explosion. Holly screamed again. She vaguely wondered if he had shot Holly or the senator...or had he shot her after all? Her thinking was fuzzy and she simply could not keep her eyes open. Breathe, she kept saying to herself, breathe. But even that was becoming more and more difficult.

  The last thing she heard was a thud and then glass shattering.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Gemma. Gemma, honey, wake up.” That was Holly and she sounded frantic.

  Gemma struggled to open her eyes but she was so, so tired. She just wanted to sleep but Holly kept yelling at her. And then she smelled blood and something else and her mouth was full of something sweet, very, very sweet. She choked, strangled and the thick substance slid down her throat. That was followed by more and she began fighting, struggling against whatever was happening. If this kept up, she would drown.

  “She’s coming around,” Holly moaned. “Come on, Gemma. Wake up.”

  Finally, Gemma found she could move her hands. She smacked at whatever was in front of her face, pushing it away and turning her head. The sticky substance covered her cheek and slid down her neck.

  “Stop.” Gemma felt like she was screaming the word but realized the word had come out as a grunt. She tried again, “Stop.”

  “It’s okay, honey. Open your eyes and look at me,” Holly was practically sobbing, her voice right at Gemma’s ear.

  At long last, Gemma forced her eyes open and looked straight into the blood spattered face of Senator Everett Dixon. He was holding her against him in the crook of his arm like an infant. After smiling down at her, he placed whatever he had been holding in his hand on the table. He maneuvered her into a sitting position while Gemma swiped at her face, her hand coming away covered with something sticky.

  “Not blood,” she muttered, looking at her hand.

  “Not blood,” Holly said, squeezing her other hand.

  “Syrup.” That was the Senator. “The insulin he gave you caused your blood sugar to drop. That is why you are still disoriented. Your body was shutting down your brain to try to keep your heart and lungs working a bit longer. My wife is a diabetic so I knew what to do.”

  Sirens filled the air just as someone pounded on the door.

  “Senator Dixon? Senator, this is the police. Are you alright?” That someone on the opposite side of the door wanted to know.

  Holly left her side only long enough to open the door. Several police officers stormed into the room, followed by paramedics.

  “He’s been shot,” Holly told them.

  Gemma sat up slowly and realized that the senator had slumped to the floor nearby.

  “He’s lost a lot of blood,” Holly told her.

  The two sat side by side on the floor, watching paramedics work with the older man.

  “Miller?” Gemma whispered.

  Holly simply pointed at the broken window. “Senator Dixon wrestled with him and got shot in the process. He pushed Miller out of the window, Gemma. He saved us.”

  “Is he...?”

  Holly shook her head. “I called 911 as soon as he cut the zip ties holding me to the chair.”

  More EMT personnel entered the room, laden with equipment, and someone directed them to Gemma. Holly refused to leave her side and they began their examination quickly.

  “He gave her insulin, but she is not diabetic.” Holly explained, clutching Gemma’s hand.

  The young EMT nodded and finished taking Gemma’s vitals. “What kind?” he asked her.

  Holly handed him an empty vial from the floor.

  The EMT nodded. “Fast acting. I use the same kind myself. It should stop working just as fast if we can get enough sugar in you. Eat this”

  He handed her a tube that looked like toothpaste but the contents tasted like cake frosting. She felt a flash of pain in the fingertip of her other hand and realized he was checking her blood sugar level.

  “There sure are a lot of people with diabetes,” Gemma slurred.

  “Yeah, it’s becoming the American epidemic. Whoa!” the EMT said. “Have another tube of glucose paste. You are still in hypoglycemia”

  Gemma’s own voice sounded far away and she could scarcely hear it over her own racing heart. “He said his grandmother was diabetic.”

  “That’s probably how he got his hands on the insulin.”

  “I still feel bad,” Gemma told him. “Kinda woozy.”

  “You will for a while but you’re going to be fine. We’re taking you to the hospital just to make sure.

  All Gemma knew was that she was covered in cold sweat and sticky syrup and so very, very tire
d.

  Chapter Sixteen

  When Gemma woke up again, Nick was sitting in a chair by her bed. She was aware of an IV attached to her right hand and confused for just a moment.

  “Hey,” Nick said, standing up and coming to her side when he saw that she was awake.

  His hair was sticking straight up as if he’d been raking his hands through it while he sat. Gemma knew that meant he was worried or upset about something.

  “Hey, Charlie Brown,” Gemma breathed.

  Nick kissed her fingers and she loved the feel of his stubble on her skin.

  “Where’s Holly?”

  “She went with Mitch to get coffee,” Nick said.

  “How did you know...?”

  “I’m a newspaper reporter, remember? It’s my job to know about things like this. And when I heard the senator had been shot, I put two and two together, grabbed Mitch and we headed down here.”

  “Sorry I scared you,” Gemma said.

  “That was the longest trip of my life, especially since the hospital wouldn’t tell us a thing.”

  “Miller was going to kill us,” Gemma said, still not believing the words even as she said them.

  “But he didn’t.”

  “The senator?”

  “He’s fine. Lost some blood but he’ll be okay.”

  “And, you, young lady, are not ever leaving my sight again,” Nick said, pushing her hair back off of her face and then looking at his hand.

  “Syrup,” Gemma explained.

  He nodded as if that made all the sense in the world.

  Seconds later, the hospital door opened and the last person Gemma thought she would ever see again stepped into the room. He carried a small bouquet of flowers.

  “I come bearing gifts,” he said with a little smile.

  Gemma pushed herself up to a sitting position. “Nick Leonard, this is Detective Patterson with Richmond PD.” She said and accepted the flowers. “Thank you.”

  “It was the least I could do for someone who solved a murder case that I didn’t even think was a murder,” he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “And who almost got herself killed in the process.”

  “I just couldn’t let it go. No one else cared, and that made me mad.”

  “You taught me a lesson. One I won’t soon forget,” he confessed.

  “Did Miller survive the fall?” Gemma asked.

  The detective nodded. “He’s pretty banged up, but we managed to piece together the story from both him and the senator.”

  “Senator Dixon had nothing to do with Opal’s death,” Gemma said quickly.

  He nodded. “I know. The senator asked Miller to drive Opal home to Louisa. He decided he didn’t want to make the drive and tried to put her on the bus. She didn’t want to go home at all and put up a fight.”

  “In the bus station. Sweet Jimmy Blue told us about that.”

  “When she was getting back in his car, he whacked her on the head with a tire iron, thinking he would just knock her out and then dump her out on Chamberlayne. Figured that would be enough of a warning. But when he got in the car, he realized he had hit her a bit too hard. She was still alive but just barely. He panicked and shot her full of insulin and then drove around until she was dead.

  That statement reminded Gemma of the vicious look on Miller’s face when he drove the needle into her thigh. “Evidently, he’s pretty good at that.”

  “Will the toxicology report prove that Miller killed Opal with insulin?” Nick asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Detective Patterson said with a shrug. “I’ve never seen a case like this before.”

  They pondered that for a moment.

  “Miller has been taking care of his grandmother for years,” Detective Patterson told them.

  “So he knows how insulin works.”

  The detective continued. “After that, he panicked again and ended up at the long-term parking garage at the airport. He found a car...”

  “My blue Honda.”

  “Pried open the trunk with the crow bar and hid her body under the coats and blankets in there. The security camera at the airport captured it all. Who knows how long it was before the car was repossessed and then left sitting on the bank parking lot. And then sold at auction to...”

  “My brother-in-law,” Nick said. “Who couldn’t get the trunk open, assumed it was empty and sold it to Gemma.”

  “Crazy, huh?” Detective Patterson said, shaking his head.

  “And if I hadn’t found the ring, we might not ever have known what happened to her,” Gemma added.

  “All I know, is if you ever need a job as a detective, I think we can find a place for you here in Richmond.”

  Gemma was already shaking her head. “No way. I never, ever want to go through this again.”

  Holly and Mitch returned to the room and the detective left after reassuring himself that both of them were doing well.

  “The doctor just told us he’s going to release you right away,” Holly told her.

  “Good. I’m ready to get out of here,” Gemma said, happy to see a nurse right behind them who came in to remove her IV.

  “It’ll be good to get home,” Holly said.

  “I have one quick stop to make before we get home, though,” Gemma told her.

  “The senator is going to be fine,” Holly told her.

  Gemma shook her head. “Not him.”

  “Well, you’re not going to see Miller,” Nick said.

  Gemma just smiled.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The farm house where Opal grew up looked the same when Gemma and Holly walked toward the porch. Opal’s sister stood at the top of the steps, smiling at them tentatively.

  “I just wanted to give Opal’s ring to you,” Gemma said, pressing the small box into her hand. “And to check on you and your family.”

  “Thank you,” Natalie said, smiling through tears. She clutched the small box to her chest. “Makes me feel like I have a part of her with me. We didn’t always get along but I loved her.”

  Holly was the closest thing Gemma had to a sister but she understood.

  “My folks asked me to thank you for finding out who killed my sister. He’s already confessed to the whole thing and, thankfully, there won’t be a trial.”

  “I know how it feels to lose a part of your family. Feels like the family has been torn apart. I thought maybe if I brought her killer to justice it would help yours to heal,” Gemma explained.

  Natalie shook her head. Her long, straight blonde hair shimmering in the sun.

  “Our family was torn apart before Opal died,” she began. “She was always the wild child. My parents were either trying to find her or save her or something and I was left to fend for myself. They couldn’t go to my high school graduation because they were looking for her.”

  “I’m sorry,” Gemma said, slowly understanding.

  “This ring won’t fix it. We’ll never be a whole family again. All we can do is pick up the pieces and move on,” Natalie told her, sounding wise for her years.

  “You’re right,” Gemma said, giving her a quick hug.

  “We do appreciate everything you’ve done for us,” Natalie said.

  “Let’s go home,” Holly said after a moment of silence.

  They were back in her SUV, the farm house fading from sight. Gemma noted that Natalie was still standing on the porch alone. “I feel so bad for her.”

  “Don’t. She’s a strong girl. She’ll be fine.”

  They were silent as Holly moved onto the interstate.

  “What about you?” Holly asked. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yeah. You know Oprah Winfrey is right about life being a master class. We’re all teachers and we’re all students,” Gemma mused.

  “I agree.”

  “Anyway, our next adventure shouldn’t be nearly as dangerous.”

  “What adventure?” Holly asked, glancing at Gemma briefly.

  “HealthGems. The kiosk at the mall
. Christmas. Remember?” Gemma reminded her.

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “I mean, what could possibly happen?”

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