Coffee Shop Capers by Christine Zane Thomas

Author:Christine Zane Thomas [Thomas, Christine Zane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-29T22:00:00+00:00

Forever your friend,

D.

21

“I see you found it.” Pam’s voice was like ice. “Don’t say I didn’t try to prevent it. But your girlfriend, she just had to read these letters. And you—this whole time—you wouldn’t leave well enough alone. It would’ve stopped at Barb if you just hadn’t…”

“Hadn’t what?” I asked.

“Kept meddling,” she snapped. “You’re even worse than Kelly Sue was. I should’ve known better than to stay here. I would’ve turned tail and gone back to Vermont if I didn’t think the police would find it suspicious.”

Pam dug around in her purse. This time, not for tissues. Something metallic glinted in her hand. The reality settled over me—I was in the room with Barb’s murderer.

“I should’ve known better,” she repeated.

I could stall her, just long enough for Avett to get back. But then I’d be dooming us both.

I had to do something. My hand still rested on my lap, just beside my silenced phone. I inched my thumb over and pressed on the home button. I hoped my muscle memory would remember how to call Felicia, the second person in my favorites, after Memaw.

“I think I should call Felicia,” I said. “And let her know there’s more evidence.”

“Evidence against whom?”

“Kelly Sue,” I lied.

“Come now, you know it links me just as much as it does her—if not more so. Don’t play dumb. You think it was Kelly Sue who blackmailed me when it was me who blackmailed her.”

“How?” My voice was that perfect library volume. A whisper.

“Kelly Sue signed a nondisclosure agreement. She couldn’t out me if she wanted to—otherwise her own publishing career would be in ruins. I’d sue her for the damages she caused. I’d be entitled to every advance she ever received.”

“But she had this,” I said.

“Which meant nothing by itself. I made sure there was no other record of Doreen’s handwriting. This could be a forgery. Couldn’t it? Up until you two found Barb’s box of letters.”

“That’s why you killed Barb…”

Pam nodded.

“Did you kill Doreen too?”

“Now you get it.”

“And what about Kelly Sue—where is she now?”

“That I don’t know,” Pam said. “She really did write that letter. Just not when you three were there.”

We never had seen Kelly Sue that day. It was all a show—a ruse. And the evidence in her room, Pam had planted it there.

Click.

The small sound sent a shudder down my spine. I’d seen enough movies and TV to know exactly what it meant.

“We can play this one of two ways,” Pam said. “You can give me that paper, and we can pretend your eyes never saw it. Or—”

“Or what?” I asked boldly.

She trained the gun on me. The thing was so small it barely registered as a threat. It was mostly pink aside from the chrome barrel. It almost looked like a toy.

“Or this.” Pam gestured with the small gun.

“You’d really shoot me?” I asked. “It’s much different from poison. You think you’d get away with that just like you did with Barb? Just like Doreen? There are witnesses.”

“There’s no witness in this room,” Pam pointed out.

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