Cowboy Cool: Book 5 (Cowboy Justice Association) (30 page)

She smiled and sat down across from her, the gun pointed directly at Kaylee’s chest. “There are so many reasons but mainly the fact that you don’t deserve what you have. You write that filth and it sells a hundred times what I sell. It’s wrong, and the more I thought about it the more I realized that I needed to do something about it. I needed to make things right.”

“How will killing me do that?”

Kaylee’s heart was racing and sweat was pooling on the back of her neck and under her arms. She needed to keep Cheryl talking as long as possible. Perhaps Reed would come back early as he’d threatened. She crossed her fingers and hoped.

“That’s only the first part,” Cheryl said, waving her gun and making Kaylee queasy. “Killing you is just the added bonus, really. Always so sweet and innocent. Everyone loves Kaylee. Everyone wants Kaylee’s advice,” Cheryl said with a bitter tone. “You write that crap and everyone worships at your feet. It’s not fair. Just like everything else in my life.”

“Everything else? Killing me won’t change anything else that’s happened.”

“You have no idea,” Cheryl spat. “The things I’ve put up with. Selfish men who didn’t appreciate me and now readers who don’t either. But I’m finally going to even the score. I’m going to make sure I get what I deserve.”

A one-way ticket to the funny farm? Life in prison?

“What is it that you deserve?”

Keep her talking. Stall.

“Why, everything,” Cheryl said as if it should have been obvious. “My mother always said I was meant for better things. When I married my husband I thought I’d found that.”

Kaylee remembered Reed’s background check on Cheryl. “You’ve been married more than once.”

Her eyebrow rose. “Your boyfriend’s been thorough I see. Yes, none of the men in my life have been able to give me what I deserve. I’ve finally realized that it’s up to me. I have to do it.”

“By killing me?”

“Sadly, yes. But I’ve made sure you won’t be missed.”

Once again Kaylee had put her trust in the wrong person and sent away the one person she did trust. If Reed were here he would have protected her. But she wasn’t giving up.

“If you wanted to kill me, why didn’t you just do it instead of sending me letters and pictures?”

Cheryl’s face was all smiles. “Because it was fun. It made things much more dramatic don’t you think? I did the same in my third book. The killer played a lovely cat and mouse with the hero. Of course this is going to have a much different ending.”

Her mind racing, her gaze darted back and forth between Cheryl and the exits.

Think. Think. Stay calm. Don’t show any fear.

Sitting in the living room, the front and back door were both more than ten feet away. She’d never make it if she tried to run.

The stairs? No, she’d be shot on the way up.

The hallway to the office? Kaylee doubted she would make it before Cheryl shot her but she couldn’t just sit here and wait to die. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to live and spend more time with Reed and maybe even see him open up a little more. She wanted to love him.

“Because you hate me?” she asked, still trying to stall. “And you’re jealous?”

Apparently it was the wrong things to say. Cheryl’s expression turned venomous and her eyes shot daggers of hate. “I am not jealous. I am simply righting the wrongs of the universe.”

Riiiiggghhht.

Wait.
The mystery party. Cheryl was in the house. Was there another person in on this?

“Who tried to run me down when you were in the house? Did Brent do it?”

Beads of sweat ran down her back under her t-shirt and she pressed her damp palms to the denim of her jeans. Funny how she could hear her own heartbeat just as she’d written about it in her books, but this was actually happening. She needed a real solution to this non-fiction problem.

Cheryl waved the gun and laughed.

“Brent is sweet but he worships the ground you walk on. Hardly killer material. But I thought he’d be fun for the red herring in this little story.” Cheryl’s lip curled in a sneer. “He was so pathetically easy to encourage. I told him that you were secretly attracted to him and that your friend Reed would soon be gone and out of your life. The fact that your sexy boyfriend glommed on to Brent was exactly what I’d hoped. His questioning of Walt was just a bonus.”

“And don’t you worry about Reed when this is all over,” Cheryl trilled. “I’ll be happy to console him in my own special way. I doubt he’ll mourn you long.” She tapped her chin. “But as to who drove the car? That was me. Linda innocently provided my alibi by saying I was in the house when of course I wasn’t. She asked me where I was and I said I was upstairs. She’s as dumb as you are and believed me. But my aim was never to kill you. I just wanted to scare you. It was the third act pinch point, you see. The emails were the inciting incident. The first letter and picture the gateway to act two. And so on. It really is my best work by far.”

“And this is the final act? The black moment? You’re going to shoot me and walk away. What if you don’t get away with it? Reed’s a good cop and he’ll know it was you that shot me.”

Cheryl pulled something from her pocket and placed it on the coffee table between them. “I’m not planning to kill you, Kaylee dear. You’re going to do that yourself. Reed won’t be looking for a murderer when there’s been no crime. You see, this is the final act plot twist.”

A large prescription bottle sat between them and Kaylee swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.

“And why would I do this? And why would anyone believe it?”

“Your horrible guilt about stealing my stories drove you to it.” Cheryl kept the gun trained on Kaylee as she used her other hand and pulled a piece of paper from the laptop bag, slapping it on the table. “This letter details the whole thing. How you stole my work and put your name on it. How you published it and profited. Finally you couldn’t take the guilt any longer. So sad. Everyone will know you for the cheap hack that you are. And me? I’ll be the victim. People love a victim.”

Kaylee had to give her credit, she’d thought it through. Mostly. But not quite.

“No one will believe I did it. No one will believe my books were written by you. We have completely different styles.”

“They’ll believe it if you say it. Everyone believes every word out of your precious mouth,” Cheryl snarled. “Let me get you a pen to sign the note and some water for your pills. By the time your boyfriend returns it will be too late.”

“How are you going to explain that you sat by and watched me steal your work?” Kaylee needed to slow everything down. There was no way she was going to swallow those pills. She’d make Cheryl shoot her first. Kaylee didn’t know how experienced Cheryl was with a gun but hitting a moving target was never easy. And Kaylee was determined that she wouldn’t be stationary if Cheryl decided to pull the trigger.

“You were threatening me, of course. You said you’d tell everyone I’d stolen your work. You know as well as I do that reputation is everything in this business. No one would take my word over yours.” Cheryl stood and walked to the kitchen, but the gun never wavered. “Now let’s get you a nice big glass of water. You’re going to need it to take all those pills.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

R
eed found a quiet, out of the way table at the coffee shop and sat down with his black coffee and the large stack of background checks and copies of the original emails and letters. He’d spend some time looking through them but first he needed to call Logan and see how Ava was doing. Reed pulled out his phone and had Logan on the line in seconds.

“How’s it going? Are you taking good care of Kaylee?”

Reed was relieved to hear Logan sound in such good spirits. He and Ava had been having such a tough time of it with this pregnancy.

“I’m trying to, how are things there? Is Ava still at home?”

“She is and her blood pressure is down but the doctor is being cautious. But I know one of the reasons she’s so calm is that you’re there dealing with this situation. She knows you won’t let anything happen to Kaylee.”

“Nothing will happen on my watch,” Reed vowed. “She’s safe as a kitten. Actually she’s got a friend at the house right now and they’re working.”

“She kicked you out, didn’t she?” Logan chuckled and Reed figured that the same must have happened to his friend. “They get all prickly when they get to certain points in the book. Best to give them some space.”

“I gave her about one mile which is as far as the coffee shop is from the house. Plus I can check on her anytime with all the cameras I have installed. I can pull the feed right up on my phone.”

“Now that is an idea,” Logan declared. “But I’m not sure I would tell Ava that they were there. She might not appreciate my concern.”

Ava might be the only woman in the world that could handle Logan. She gave him hell and he gave it right back, but the whole damn thing seemed to work.

“So Presley and Madison were here yesterday and talked to Ava about a baby shower. A dozen or so women, cake, punch, and crepe paper streamers. I’m not sure I can take this. You need to get back here soon and save me,” Logan laughed.

“What did Tanner say?”

“He slapped me on the back and said to take it like a man. That this stuff was small potatoes compared to actually raising a human being. Hell, he’s probably right.”

Tanner usually was which is what pissed everybody off. It was like hanging around with that Yoda character from Star Wars.

“Anything else I need to know?” Reed loved being with Kaylee but he had to admit he missed the day-to-day goings on at the station. It was the one place where he knew what to do. No messy emotions involved.

“There was some party over at the Perry spread,” Logan replied. “Seth had to go down there and break up what looked like a damn riot. Everyone throwing punches at each other for no other reason than they liked to hit things. It was a fucking mess. Seth ended up with a couple of stitches on his hand and a piss-poor attitude. He’s had it with the Perrys. And you know Presley—hell, she’s fit to be tied about the whole thing. Clucking around him like a mother hen and muttering about how Bennett isn’t going to be a cop.”

“Glad I wasn’t around for that. Anything else?”

“Naw, everything is pretty quiet. Crime will gear up for the holidays though. It always does. It’s just taking a breather right now. Is there anything I can do for you to help find this guy?”

Reed stared down at the stack of papers in front of him. “I’m going back to the beginning. Looking at motive and opportunity while we wait for the bastard to strike again.”

“Send me copies of what you have. I’ll take a look at them. Maybe a fresh set of eyes will help,” Logan offered.

Reed rubbed his temple. “Couldn’t hurt at this point. I’ll send them to your office.”

“Oh hell no. You know how Jillie is. She’ll print out every goddamn piece of paper and carry it into my office one at a time. Shit. She’s terrified of technology. Send it to my home email. I’m working quite a bit from here anyway to spend more time with Ava and I’ll be looking at the evidence in the evenings.”

“Let me get something to write with. Hold on.” Reed didn’t have a pen on him but he spied one sitting on a table near him where a man was reading the paper and doing a crossword. “Excuse me, can I borrow that pen for just a minute? I need to write down an address.”

The man barely looked up but nodded and handed the pen to Reed while he worked the puzzle in pencil.

“Shoot.” Logan rattled off the address and Reed scratched it in the margin of one of the papers. “Let me make sure I’ve got this. ‘LAW RIGHT’? Is that it? That’s interesting and easy to remember.”

Reed handed the pen back to the patron and stared down at the email address. Something was bugging him but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“It’s our names, Einstein,” Logan laughed. “L for Logan, A for Ava, Wright for our last name of course, but then to make it easy for people to remember it spells ‘Law Right.’ Ava made it up. You know writers and the way they like to play on words.”

Reed frowned, still staring at the words he’d scrawled. “Listen, I need to get off the phone. I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ll send you those copies when I get back to the house.”