“Oh, you knew about it.” I shake my head in disbelief. “That’s why Craig told his brother that he wanted out. He said it wasn’t just the money. He said there were dark underpinnings in the bar, and those women and their nefarious dealings are exactly what he was talking about.” I examine the two of them, their proximity to one another. “And you were having an affair. Craig tried to talk you out of it.” My eyes flit to Kadie. “And that’s where you come in. You were cheating on your husband—in a marriage that hardly came back from a separation if it wasn’t for the girls. Your husband told me as much. You were on the cusp of getting caught. Craig knew about it. Hilary, I’m guessing did—others probably know, too. That night at that restaurant, you said you’d do anything for your girls. Does that include murder, Kadie? Is that why one of your tubes of SMACK lipstick was found near the body?”
She lets out a cry as she turns to Lloyd. “I thought you said you took care of it?”
“I did,” he snips before looking to me with his chin dipped a notch, sweat beaded along his upper lip, and a rabid look in his eyes that lets me know I’ve gone too far and there is no going back.
“Okay, Bowie,” he breathes it out low and measured as if we were in the middle of hostage negotiations. “You got it right. Craig and I owned the bar. With him gone, I don’t have to mortgage my life. Craig was a jackass when he wanted to be. Always sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. What the hell did it hurt him to run a dating service in the bar?” He lays a heavy emphasis on the words dating service and lets me know I was right about the brothel. “Who the heck cares? And who was he to tell me who I could and couldn’t sleep with?” His voice hikes an octave and swims around the cavernous room as if it were an echo chamber. “Kadie has the girls to think about. We didn’t need him ratting us out.”
“No.” I shake my head once again. “I’m not buying it. I’m sorry, Kadie, but I don’t think he cares about those girls as much as he claims to. If he did, he would respect their father and wait until you left the guy before he started entertaining you in the bedroom. The only thing you cared about, Lloyd, was keeping your name clean. You’re running for sheriff. You can’t be known as the brothel king, or the other man. Craig knew too much. He was dangerous, and that is why you killed him.”
Kadie groans as she hooks her gaze to his. “You said it was for love. That we had to do it to protect ourselves. You didn’t say anything about the bar. And are you kidding me? You’re running prostitutes through that place? What kind of a stepfather are you going to make? What the hell is wrong with you?” She glances my way. “Now what do we do about her? I’m sorry, Bowie. I’m not losing my girls—not to Skip, not to prison.”
My feet begin in a backward trajectory as I slowly try to remove myself from their presence.
I shouldn’t have said any of that.
I shouldn’t have confronted them alone with nothing but a corpse to have my back literally.
And judging by the way they’re both steadily moving in my direction, I’m feeling a sudden onset of consequences coming on.
“Don’t worry, Kadie”—Lloyd slips his hand behind his back— “I’ll take care of this.” In the blink of an eye, I’m staring down the barrel of a gun.
“Oh God,” I whimper as my hands begin to rise.
I’m pretty sure my Uncle Vinnie will be disappointed to learn I never made it to Canada. That I got waylaid by a friendly town, by a sexy neighbor, and that I got shot on the altar of a Protestant church next to an open casket. I don’t know how many mirrors I broke as a child or how many ladders I inadvertently walked under, but I’m up to my eyeballs in bad luck and I don’t even believe in that stuff.
“Oh God did you say?” Lloyd pumps a dry laugh from his throat. “You’re in His house. And in a moment you’ll be in His arms. Don’t worry, Bowie. I’ll make it quick. I didn’t let Craig suffer, and I won’t let you suffer either.”
He takes a step out and steadies his arms, but I don’t wait for the boom. Instead, I leap like one of Opal’s many cats and land on the other side of the casket.
Kadie runs after me and makes an abrupt stop at the pulpit to pick up that cinder block of a Bible.
Lloyd darts for me, the barrel of that gun zooming in for the kill, and in a panic I trip and knock the casket right off the pedestal and toward the floor.
“Freeze!” a deep voice booms at the very same time and I glance up to see Shep pointing his weapon in this direction, Nora doing the same behind him.
And before I can say anything, before Craig Walker can hit the ground, Kadie crops up next to me and takes a wild swing at my head with that Bible in her hands.
My Nana Rose always said I needed to be hit upside the head with a Bible, although I’m not sure she would approve of this scenario.
And just like that, the room around me goes black.
Chapter 18
My head hurts.
It’s about two hours after Kadie Beaumont bonked me on the head with the good word and I don’t feel
