“And how do you propose to explain shooting me?” I asked.
“I don’t propose to explain it at all. I’ll simply return here tomorrow morning with Gail’s parents and gasp at the shocking discovery of a dead woman in my living room. Ballistics will match the weapon used to kill Gail and everyone will think you were in on it with him or snooping about again and this time, you came up short.”
I felt my heart drop. He was right. Suspicion wouldn’t fall on Nolan. Everyone thought he was tucked away in a hotel, not to mention the fact that no one else knew he could walk. That was exactly what I’d been hoping to capture with the camera. It would have blown Nolan’s entire alibi out of the water.
“I told the others,” I said, trying to come up with a way to delay the inevitable. Time produced options.
He cocked his head to the side and studied me. “You’re a convincing liar, but nonetheless a liar, I think. And even if you told them your suspicions, they have no proof. By the time those two busybodies convince anyone to check their story, I’ll be long gone.”
He lifted the gun and I looked down and saw the red line move up my chest. I knew it stopped on my forehead. “Goodbye, Sandy-Sue Morrow. You were too smart for your own good.”
I dived off the couch as a shot rang out. I hit the ground and rolled, expecting the shock to hit me at any moment. Instead, I instinctively popped back up, gun drawn, and looked over to see Nolan lying on the floor, a single bullet through his forehead.
I whirled around and spotted Carter standing at the window I’d used to climb in.
He shook his head. “I keep having to kill people when I’m around you.”
Crap. Nolan was dead and I was breaking and entering. There was no good way to arrange that story.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked.
“Get out of here before someone reports that shot,” he said.
“But what about Nolan?”
“I heard everything. I’ll handle it, but I can’t do that if you’re in the middle of it, so go.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I headed to the window and bailed out. When I landed on the ground, I threw my arms around Carter, momentarily startling him.
“Thank you for…everything,” I said, then dashed off through the hedges.
Chapter 18
I’d barely made it home when my cell phone started ringing. It was Ida Belle.
“Shots fired at Nolan’s house,” Ida Belle said. “Peaches heard it this time and called the police, then Marie, because she was afraid she was still staying there.”
“Yeah. I kinda have inside knowledge on that.”
“I knew you were up to something! What the hell have you done? Do we need to raise bail money? Get Harrison in gear to find you a safe house?”
“Nothing that dire. Carter’s covering for me. Again. It’s no wonder he doesn’t want me as a girlfriend. I present enough trouble as a resident.”
“Well, don’t just stand there lamenting. Get your butt over to Gertie’s house and fill us in.”
She disconnected the phone call and I smiled. They were going to be pissed that I’d left them out, but it wasn’t a mission that required two, so why run the risk?
Until the end. If not for backup, you’d be dead.
I shook my head, refusing to dwell on the facts. They were too inconvenient.
I grabbed my Jeep keys and headed for Gertie’s house. They were going to have a stroke when I told them who the real villain was.
When I walked through the doorway to Gertie’s house, they were ready for me. Ida Belle stood in the middle of the room, hands on her hips and a disapproving look on her face. Gertie was sitting, so the hands-on-hips thing wasn’t a good option. Instead, she wagged her finger at me, looking totally disappointed.
I held my hands up in the air. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But I wasn’t sure and if I was right, I didn’t want you implicated in what I was doing. The worst Carter could do to me is have the CIA move me to a farm in Idaho, but the two of you would be left here to deal with Celia hounding him to arrest you.”
Ida Belle looked over at Gertie. “Should we forgive her?”
“Hell yeah,” Gertie said. “Now get those lips to flapping. Start with who’s dead. We heard the paramedics carried out a body bag.”
“Nolan is dead,” I said.
“What?”
“Oh no!”
Their expressions reflected shock and horror.
“Before you start feeling bad,” I said, “Nolan killed Gail.”