“So, do you think that...” I started to say.
“No, not Josh. No, I don’t think he killed her,” Micah said with a slight chuckle. “He’s a little off, but not like that. Besides, I think he liked their little arrangement, and I don’t think he knew how she felt about him at all. If he did, there’s no way he’d keep taking care of that cat and giving her money for rent. She was always blowing her paychecks on makeup and new clothes. Josh would bail her out. He has plenty of money. Whatever he does for a living, it pays well. Maybe that’s why she didn’t want me to date him. She had to know there was no way I’d let any man of mine keep paying some other chick’s rent.”
After I left Micah, I stopped by the freezer section to get my ice cream and the refrigerated section to grab a couple of packages of sausage. The house probably would have provided that stuff for me, but I wanted to make sure I had it. The craving was getting stronger, and if I’d gotten home and Hangman’s House didn’t bless me with rum raisin ice cream and spicy breakfast sausage, I would have had to send Thorn back to the store.
I went through the self-checkout and headed back to Thorn’s truck. The sentry mode had activated, but I assumed it was because someone had gotten in or out of their car. The cars on either side of me were different than when I’d gone in, and the sentry thing in Thorn’s truck was too sensitive. Just like mine. Half the time, I didn’t even bother checking the sentry events, and that was one of those times. I’d gotten myself in a hurry to get home and eat, and I’d forgotten that someone had slashed my tires the other day.
“I’m going to need you to take your hands off the wheel,” a man said from my back seat.
It was then that I wished I’d brought Thorn along to stay in the vehicle while I went into the store. I also wished I’d bothered to at least check the sentry event.
“How did you know I wouldn’t check the sentry event?” I asked.
I looked up into the rearview mirror, and my heart sank. It was Josh, and he was wearing the same hoodie as the person who’d slashed my tires the other day. Micah had been wrong about his level of creepiness. Pepper had most likely ignored any warning signals he put off because he was giving her money.
“Are you why she was in the police station before she died?” I asked as Meri snuck out of my bag. It was on the passenger seat, and he couldn’t see my familiar skulking out. Not that he would have been worried about such a tiny kitten. It wasn’t like I had a Rottweiler tucked away in my bag, but oh, Meri could be so much worse.
“She suspected someone was stalking her, but she had no idea who. She never suspected me,” he said and thrust something forward into my back through the seat. He was holding something behind me, and I suspected it was a gun because I didn’t hear the leather ripping.
“Is that a gun or a knife?” I asked. I was trying to distract him until Meri could pounce.
But when Meri did pounce, something unexpected happened. Josh caught him off guard and fired a perfect shot. It hit Meri, and his little body fell back onto the passenger seat and rolled to the floor.
“Meri!” I called out.
I tried to use magic to freeze Josh in place, but nothing happened. Maybe he slowed down a little bit. Josh’s face looked a little confused, but I certainly didn’t freeze him in place. I tried again, and while my magic made Josh look uncomfortable, it wasn’t stopping him.
Meri was out cold from being shot, my magic wasn’t working, and Josh moved the gun to point at my temple. He was behind me with his arm reaching around the headrest.
I tried magic again, and Josh made a little moaning sound like I was causing him some pain, but he held the gun steadfast. I was completely screwed.
And then there were lights and sirens. All of Coventry’s deputies, and Thorn’s cruiser right behind them, sped into the grocery store parking lot.
“What?” Josh asked. “How could they?”
I didn’t answer as Thorn and his deputies jumped from their cars and trained their guns on Josh, but I knew. I ignored the sentry reports from our vehicles, but that’s not something Thorn would ever do. In fact, the reports from his truck went to his phone.
Josh must have slipped into the back seat of the truck right as I was coming out of the store. It may have taken Thorn a minute or so to see it. Perhaps he was in the bathroom or making a sandwich, but when he did, he called it in. Then he raced across town in his cruiser to get to me.
Once they had Josh safely in handcuffs, I had to ask him. “Why? Why did you kill her? Why were you helping her and then killed her that way?”
“He’s been advised of his rights,” Thorn said to me.
“But he can answer if he wants to, right?” I asked.
Jeremy stepped over. “Just go home, Kinsley. Let us do our jobs.”
“No, I’ll tell her,” Josh said. “I think maybe she already knows. I heard her tell you.”
I thought about it for a moment. Pepper had never told me anything, so who was the “her” he was talking about? Maybe he’d been following me in the store? Perhaps he’d been right around the corner the whole time.
“Micah?” I asked. “It was about Micah?”
“The perfect woman,” Josh said. “Perfect for me anyway. She was going to be my future life’s happiness. I thought for sure she’d go out with me too. Surely, Pepper would put a good word for me.”
“You killed Pepper because
