Red Hot Deadly Peppers (6 page)

Chapter Nine

The drive to the Riggers’ farm took less than two minutes, but there was no real walking shortcut that I could see. Even though Nera’s farm was right next to the Riggers’, I noticed that a barbed wire fence separated the two properties.

Nera pulled into the driveway and honked the horn.

“Just announcing our arrival. Harry’s truck is here, but . . .”

The pepper plants stretched out in beautiful, straight green rows about three feet high. From the driveway it was easy to see past the garage to the small barn behind it. The barn’s doors were wide open, revealing some farm equipment. The Riggers’ simple white bungalow-style house didn’t seem to fit with the detached garage, which was a dark tan and had a starker, modern look to it, as though it was a long-after-the-house-had-been-built addition.

“Let’s go,” I said.

Nera turned off her truck and bit at her bottom lip. “There is absolutely no reason to think something weird is going on here, but something just doesn’t feel right.”

“Maybe you’re just feeding off the cryptic phone call I got.”

“Maybe.” She looked at me. “But there might be more. You found the door to my shed open, right?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t have broken in.”

“Someone did.”

“What do you mean?”

“That door is always locked. Always. I’m obsessive about it, and so was Graham. I wasn’t in there this morning. If Graham was, I’m sure he would have locked it.”

“Maybe he was distracted, or maybe he thought he locked it.”

“It’s a small, small possibility. I was in my kitchen when I saw you knock on the door and it swung open. Honestly, it took me this long to really realize something was wrong. At the time I was more curious about you than the door being unlocked.”

“And you think maybe someone else knew how important the experiments were, too?”

“There was potentially big, big money involved, Becca. People get weird when that happens.”

I looked at the house. “The Riggers are all about peppers, and they live right next door. Do you suppose they saw things happening and got curious? Would they have killed Graham, though? That’s a big leap,” I said. Being the voice of reason wasn’t a role I was used to playing. I was usually the one jumping to some crazy conclusion, though sometimes my crazy conclusions proved to be right on track. Instincts were valuable tools; I might be pointing out inconsistencies, but I didn’t want to discount whatever Nera’s feelings were churning up.

“Yesterday I would have said no way, but something . . . something’s not right.”

“Should we just wait here for the police?”

Nera seemed to ponder the question but soon said, “No, I’ll just knock on the door, check the house.”

I followed her out of the truck and up the two short steps to the front door. She pulled open the screen and knocked on the solid wood inner door. It had no windows, but a large picture window on the front of the house and to the left of the door would offer us a view inside, if necessary.

Silence filled a long few seconds but was then punctuated by a loud crash. Something heavy and glasslike had smashed against something else, sounding just like Chester’s escape, and I feared that this time the origins of the noise weren’t as innocent.

Nera reached for the doorknob and turned before I could tell her to wait a second. Maybe we could look in the front window first?

Unfortunately, the door wasn’t locked, and she was able to open it wide and run into the house before I could do much more than utter a weak protest.

“Becca, come in and help me!” she exclaimed only a second later.

I didn’t hesitate.

Nera was on the floor, next to Susan Rigger, or maybe it was the body of Susan Rigger. It was hard to tell with all the blood matting her pretty red hair.

Fortunately, her eyes fluttered, and I realized that she’d been the one to cause the crash. Somehow she’d thrown a vase to the ground, probably to get our attention. She probably couldn’t have yelled if she’d wanted to.

“She’s a mess,” Nera said, “but she’s alive. Grab that and look around the house.” She pointed to another vase; this one was porcelain. “You might need a weapon,” she added as if her suggestion made complete sense.

I grabbed the vase.

“Mr. Rigger?” I said as I walked out of the room and toward a short hallway. “Nick? Harry?”

If I have learned nothing else in the last year or so it is that when you are faced with this sort of situation, you don’t do what you think you will do. You don’t do what your common sense dictates you should do. Nera and I should have gotten out of the house and waited for the police to arrive. But when people are hurt or in harm’s way or potentially in harm’s way, it becomes human nature to see what you can do to help. By the time I got to the first bedroom doorway, my common sense wasn’t even whispering any longer; my human nature had taken over. I was hell-bent on finding Nick and/or Harry and helping them if they needed it.

There was no one in the first small bedroom. I hurriedly peered under the bed and into the closet but didn’t find anyone, dead or alive.

I sprinted toward the second bedroom, giving the small empty bathroom a quick glance as I passed by.

The look from Nick Rigger’s eyes told me almost everything I needed to know. He was horrified but at least alive.

He was on the full-sized bed, his ankles tied together and his wrists bound behind his back. He was on his side with his head toward the bottom of the bed. His neck was bent back, and he had a scarf shoved into his mouth and another one tied around his head to keep the first one in place, but that didn’t stop him from trying to speak.

I pulled one scarf down and then the other one out of his mouth.

“Susan? Susan?” he said, his voice raw and almost broken.

“She’s in the front room,” I said as I moved to untie his wrists. We both worked on his ankles. “What happened? Where’s Harry?”

“Those stupid kids . . .” he muttered, but he didn’t say more before he propelled himself off the bed. His legs gave out on him, but he caught himself on the bed frame before he hit the floor. He pulled himself up, trying to make his legs function normally. I didn’t know if they were injured or if they’d lost feeling from the awkward position. I tucked myself under one of his arms and helped guide him.

“Nick, if you can tell me what happened . . .”

“Let me see Susan,” he said.

“Fine. Just one question—Harry, is he here?” I stopped walking, which was cruel but I had to know.

“Yeah, yeah, the boys took him outside. I don’t know if they hurt him.”

I started walking again.

“Susan!” he exclaimed when he saw his wife. I didn’t know how anyone could survive what had been done to her head, but Nera had her sitting up and her eyes were mostly open.

“I think I’m okay,” Susan said weakly as Nick fell to his knees next to her.

“He said Harry was here,” I told Nera and then, turning to Nick, asked, “What boys are you talking about?”

“Brad and Cole. They’ve lost their minds,” Nick said as he reached for his wife’s hand. “I think they were responsible for Graham’s death. They were ranting and raving about some sort of experiments? I don’t know. Harry had stopped by—we were chatting when the boys came in. Harry talked to the boys so we couldn’t hear, and then they started freaking out. We didn’t know what they were talking about. We didn’t understand why Harry was here either. Then the boys wanted us to help them, but we couldn’t understand what they wanted. They said they’d been over at your place, Nera, and if we’d just go with them they’d explain what they needed. We refused.” He looked at Susan. “I’m so sorry we refused. They were just so . . . out of control. They hit Harry and then Susan. They restrained me in the bedroom, and then I heard them talking to Harry. Then they left out the back door. I think they were going back to your place—they just left a few minutes before you got here. What experiments were you doing over there—and did they have something to do with peppers?”

“Cole and Brad?” Nera said as though that was the only part she’d heard.

“Yes, what’s going on?”

“We’ve got to get back to my place, Becca. We’ve got to help Harry before they hurt him, too. The police are on their way. Nick, Susan, will you two be all right?”

They were both confused and in shock, but they’d be okay. Nick’s legs had recovered enough that he was able to walk back to the bedroom and bring out two shotguns.

“If the boys come back, I will kill them if I have to,” he said. “You take one, too, just in case.”

Nera didn’t want to, but she took the gun. I just swallowed hard, but I didn’t blame Nick. I really, really hoped the police got to the boys before we or he did, though.

Nera carried the gun like she knew what she was doing. I followed her back to the truck.

Chapter Ten

Nera pulled the truck out to the road but then veered back toward the side. She braked hard, moved the gearshift to Park, and then rolled down the window. She threaded herself up and out the window.

“What’s up?” I said.

“Hang on,” she said.

A moment later she was back in the truck and said, “It looks like some of the wire between the properties has been bent. Believe it or not, traveling from the Riggers’ to my place is easier than going in the opposite direction. Their house is closer to the property lines, and from their side it doesn’t seem like such a walk. My house is on the far side of my property, but the garage and the shed seem a lot closer. It’s an optical illusion, really, but I get why the boys thought they could just walk over easily.”

“How did this happen? How did those kids get involved?” I asked.

Nera thought a moment. “They’ve been spending a lot of time over at the Riggers’. They must have seen Graham at my place. Maybe they talked to him at the trading post, too. Graham wasn’t as good at keeping secrets as Jimmy was. For a long time I was the only person Jimmy talked to about what he was doing. Graham lived with him but didn’t care at all. He just thought his dad was messing around with plants in his greenhouse.”

“But why would the kids care about the plants? They’re too young to care about those sorts of things, aren’t they?”

“The way Graham was—he could have been telling them that he was onto something that would make him millions of dollars. He might not have been all that far off.”

“Just by making a pepper hotter?” I said as we pulled into Nera’s driveway.

“It’s for medicinal purposes. Like I said, Becca, it’s big business.”

Nera put the truck into Park and switched off the engine. We both sat still for a long few seconds. Now that we were there, potentially facing danger, I was glad for the shotgun, but I didn’t think I could ever shoot a couple teenagers no matter how threatening they were.

“They’re kids, Nera. Maybe we can talk them out of being stupid. We don’t know that they killed anyone. We still don’t know if Graham or Jimmy were killed. Susan looks bad, but I think she’ll be okay.”

I couldn’t tell if my words were making a difference or not, though she seemed to hear what I was saying.

Finally, she looked at me. “I’m not going to shoot anyone unless I have to, Becca. You should stay here in the truck, though. I can’t wait any longer. Harry might need my help.” And then she was out of the truck and moving toward the garage and the shed, holding the shotgun in front of her.

I didn’t have anyone I could call. Sam, Ian, my family, they were all in South Carolina. Even with all the crazy situations I’d gotten myself into, I’d been able to make a call and be assured that someone might come help me or at least find my body.

Before Nera could get far, I was out of the truck, too, and running to catch up.

She looked at me quickly. “Stay behind me at least.”

I nodded and stayed to her side but back a little.

We turned the corner of the garage only to find the shed door wide open but no one in sight.

We moved closer to the shed and peered in. Still no one.

“Ner . . .” Harry’s voice yelled from behind us.

I turned and jumped at the same time. I saw that Harry’s hands were tied around his back, and Cole was holding onto one of his arms. Brad punched Harry in the jaw, which propelled his head backward, but he recovered his composure quickly. Harry’s cowboy hat was noticeably missing.

Nera turned and aimed the gun at the three of them.

Don’t pull the trigger, don’t pull the trigger
, I thought.

“Come on, boys.” I jumped forward. “You haven’t done anything too terrible yet. Don’t hurt Harry. Let him go.”

No one moved—really. People looked at each other, but for a suspiciously long time, no one moved.

Finally, Nera spoke. “Becca, go over there and untie Harry. Cole, Brad, step away.”

The boys did as instructed, but what should have caught my attention was that they smiled while doing it.

I moved to Harry, but just as I reached for the rope behind his back, Nera spoke again. “Stop, Becca. Stop.”

I turned toward her, but she was no longer alone. The two boys were now standing beside her, both with their arms crossed in front of their chests.

“It was Nera,” Harry said to me. “She killed Jimmy. She killed Graham.”

“What?” I said too adamantly. I really didn’t want to believe what I was hearing. “No!”

“It’s what I suspected when you found Graham’s body, but I’m pretty sure she’s proving it now,” Harry continued.

“For pepper juice? That seems so . . .” I wanted to say “ridiculous,” but it probably wasn’t wise to insult the person with the gun.

Nera laughed. “Sorry, Becca. I didn’t think you’d ever find out. I didn’t think anyone would figure it out. I didn’t plan for Graham to die today, but the opportunity presented itself, so I took it.”

“How’d you kill him?” Harry asked.

“Put crushed-up pecans in his juice drink. He was early to the trading post, and it was sitting right there. I had to take the opportunity. He was alone. I put the pecans in the drink and swiped his epi injectors. I knew he’d be alone for a long time. I thought someone would eventually find him dead on the ground. I can’t explain why he was sitting up. Sorry about that, Becca.”

“And you killed your uncle, too?” I said. I still wasn’t scared. I was not yet ready to believe what I was hearing.

“Sure. I suffocated him. I knew tradition would dictate that he be buried quickly.”

“But you pushed Harry and the police to look into his death.”

“I did. Isn’t that what a concerned relative should do? I knew nothing would ever come of it.”

“Nera,” Harry said with deep disappointment.

“How’d you figure this out?” she asked him.

I didn’t think Harry would share what he knew, but he must have realized either that it didn’t matter now anyway or that talking would forestall any shooting.

“When Becca said Graham’s eyes were shut tight, I suspected anaphylactic shock, and I knew about his allergy, but I waited until the ME figured out the COD. I knew he’d figure it out quickly if it was anaphylaxis. Graham hadn’t been home—you walked me through his house and told me as much. You were his only family, Nera. He’d been showing up at work, and I knew he didn’t have a girlfriend, or a boyfriend for that matter. I suspected he’d come here, to your house, so I honestly thought his allergic reaction might be an accident. But then I came here and saw the boys unlock the shed and go in. They looked like they knew what they were doing, so I snuck up and eavesdropped. They were talking about how you told them that their next task was to frame the Riggers for Graham’s death. They were going there to plant some of the crushed-up pecans. It all fell into place from there, and I rushed over to the farm to warn Susan and Nick.”

“Good boys,” Nera said. They smiled bigger.

“We didn’t know what else to do when we got there, and Harry confronted us, Nera. We tried to get him to just come with us here. We knew you’d know how to handle things. When he wouldn’t come with us, we hit him real hard and knocked him out and, and then we kind of panicked, but we made sure the Riggers couldn’t do much of anything until you told us what you wanted us to do with them. When Harry came to, we walked him back here. His truck is still at their house. We decided that we could probably pin everything on him,” Cole said.

“We’ll take care of them shortly,” Nera said, but I could hear her own panic building. Her list of “problems” was growing.

“I tried to call you, Becca,” Harry said.

“I know. Thank you. You tried calling Nera, too?” I asked him.

“No, I lied about that,” Nera said. “I also lied about calling the police. No one’s on their way to help either of you or the Riggers,” Nera said.

How had I been so fooled? How had I missed the clues?

“What about the postcard?” I said.

Nera laughed. “I wrote it myself. I thought it might help draw suspicion away from me, should that become necessary. It worked with you.”

“It did,” I conceded. “So, now you’re going to kill us?” I said.

“I don’t think I have any choice.”

“Over pepper juice?” I said.

“No. You need to disappear now because you know too much.”

Obviously, I wanted to protest, but suddenly I couldn’t find the right words. Thankfully, Harry still had his wits about him.

“Which one of the boys are you going to frame for our deaths?” Harry asked. “You’ve got to throw at least one of them under the bus. I might not have gotten the time to tell the Riggers what you were up to, but they know who attacked them. They’ll be able to back up any story you give the authorities about how Cole and Brad are violent, unless you kill them too.”

“Relax, boys,” Nera said, though her voice was tenser. “I’m not going to frame either of you. I’m going to make it look like Harry was responsible for everything.”

Harry laughed. “Right. I’ll be dead. How’re you going to make that happen? Even if you tried to make it look like I committed suicide, not one person would truly fall for that. You’ll have to pick one of the boys.”

“Really,” I said, following Harry’s lead. “I don’t see any other way it will work.”

“Yeah, what are you going to do?” Cole asked as both he and Brad, the smiles now gone from their faces, took steps back from Nera.

“Don’t worry about it,” Nera said. “You’ve both been wonderful. You’ve worked on the experiments so diligently and done what I asked you to do. We’ll work something out.”

The boys were teenagers who’d clearly been manipulated in the worst way possible, but they weren’t stupid. They looked at each other and shared a silent conversation. Nera was wicked in ways that most people didn’t ponder. They knew how cushy it was to be on her good side, but how deadly it was on her bad side.

A second later Cole dashed into the shed. His movement caught Nera off guard, and she started to swing the gun, but I stepped toward her as she did. She turned the gun back in my direction. She wasn’t sure where to aim.

“Cole, come out of there,” she said. “If he doesn’t come out, Brad, shut him in.”

Brad didn’t move and gave her a look that said he might be done listening to her orders.

Suddenly Cole burst from the shed. He had a jar in his hands. Just yesterday, I wouldn’t have known what was in it, but today I knew. Nera tried to shoot him, but she must not have been able to set her aim because she missed and blew a hole in the side of the shed just as Cole flung the contents of the jar at her eyes.

She dropped the gun and went down, screaming in agony. Pepper juice. The irony was something I’d appreciate later.

“Get over there and pick up that shotgun, Becca, and then get me untied,” Harry said.

I did exactly that.