“They made me do it. They’re evil! Evil exists. They made me do it!”
She was still shouting when the police came for the two women.
And then Danni could at last throw herself into Quinn’s arms.
Epilogue
It was sunset.
A glorious sunset.
Danni looked out the plate glass window of their hotel room to watch as the sky burst into a prism of colors.
She felt Quinn’s arms slip around her and she smiled.
Key West was wonderful, beautiful—spectacular.
Even if there had been zombie nuns running amok—controlled by a vicious woman.
Once Officer Sandy Burnett had come to take control, the story had come out. Vanessa Green had met Tracy Kendall through her husband and Kathy.
Vanessa had been bribed into helping with the absurd zombie-nun murder spree, convinced that she’d become a true star. She’d manipulated the animatronics at times when others saw Tracy—thus giving her an alibi.
And as for Tracy….
The motive they hadn’t understood had been greed. Mrs. Kennedy—Colby’s and Kathy’s mother—was suffering Alzheimer’s disease—and a host of other ailments. She wasn’t long for the world.
Kathy had been intended as the first victim—with the animatronic operated by Vanessa. Others had to die, too, of course, so that the real motive wouldn’t be known. With Kathy gone, when the elder Mrs. Kennedy expired, the old Victorian the family owned would go straight to Colby.
It was worth millions.
Greed. It had always been a key motive for murder. The animatronics had simply provided very bizarre weapons.
“She’s going to try to get off,” Danni murmured. “Tracy. She’ll keep up the claim that the nuns were evil—and that they made her do it. She’ll go for an insanity plea. And Vanessa…she’ll get an attorney to help her with the same plea, or help her to come up with some story about being terrified of Tracy. They killed four people and put three others in the hospital—and they could get off.”
Quinn pulled her closer to him. “No one is going to get off—not even Colby. He was guilty of bribery—and of stealing the zombie nun animatronics. When he learned the truth, I think he went a little crazy himself. He believes that once he owned the property, Tracy would have killed him, too. And he feels a horrible guilt; he just had to have all the zombie nuns. He admitted to the police that he did bribe the delivery driver and stole the other two nuns. I think they did make him a little crazy.”
“Will he do time?”
“I don’t know. He did—unwittingly—set it all into motion. But, whether he does time or not, he’s going to hate himself and perhaps punish himself worse in his mind than anything could that might be done to him by the legal system.”
Danni slipped her arms around his waist and looked up at him. “Do you think that the nuns were evil?” she asked him.
He smiled down at her. “Well, in the end, one didn’t harm either of us—it saved us.”
“True,” she agreed. “So, do they need to come back to the house on Royal Street?”
“No. Officer Burnett—soon to be Detective Burnett—has seen to it that they never go anywhere again. They’ve been shot up to ribbons—including the one in the boxes that ‘disappeared’—into Tracy Kennedy’s car.”
“Ah.”
“All that remains is to go home,” Quinn said softly. He trembled slightly as he held her. “When we can, of course, when we finish with all that still needs to be cleared up with the legal machinations. And, of course, Detective Mason is asking that you come by the hospital so that he can thank you—and beg your forgiveness.”
“He’s going to make it?”
“Thanks to you,” Quinn assured her, smiling. “And, of course, I’ve told Andrew Bracken that we will have lunch with him. He’s torn—horrified by everything that happened—and speculating on what will happen with his movie. Oh, he needs a new leading lady. I think he has his eye on you.”
Danni shook her head. “I think I’m done with robots, animatronics…and, definitely, I don’t want anything to do with an evil mannequin.”
She turned back to watch the sky as the sun fell in its palette of colors, leaning against his chest. “It doesn’t seem as if it should be quite right, seeing such beauty, enjoying it…when so much bad happened.”
She felt Quinn’s hesitation, then he said quietly, “We helped stop a lot of bad things, too, Danni. And, there will be more that happens in the world that’s bad. Evil, even—because we both know, people can be very, very evil. Thing is, that makes it so that you have to appreciate every moment in life that shows what good is all about. Like the sunset,” he added.
“Like the sunset,” she agreed.
She turned into his arms again and kissed him.
And the kiss became much more….
And beyond the window, the sun continued its descent, bursting with color, then fading into pastels, falling gently upon them as they enjoyed the good that could happen in life as well.