Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (32 page)

“Why aren’t you here yet? I expected you ten minutes ago.”

“Um…I heard from Maddie. She said that she overheard a woman talking on her phone, saying that she knew we were setting up a sting at my house. I think you should bring Ethan over to Jake’s house.”

“I don’t know. Have you talked to T.J. about this yet?”

“No, I haven’t. I thought I should call you first. If they know what’s going on, then the whole thing is a bust, anyway. And I don’t want to spend another night with Ethan in my house.”

“But Jake’s house may be the first place they look for him.”

“Well, you could always tie him to a tree and hope to draw them out.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“You heard me. If we tie him to a tree, put his car out front, then it will draw their attention. It might be a great way to catch them offguard, before the whole thing blows up in our face.”

Hopkins didn’t say anything for a minute. “You’ve got a problem, don’t you?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Gotcha. Will you be fine for a few more minutes?”

“So I’ll see you in about twenty minutes?”

“Sooner than that, Lizzie, I promise. Hang tight,” he told me before he hung up.

“Okay, they’ll be here in about twenty minutes. That will give you time to get set up for your ambush, or whatever you’ve got planned.”

“What was all that business with tying Ethan to a tree?” Barbara asked.

“I figured if I gave him a ridiculous option, he’d realize it was better to bring him here. It worked, didn’t it?”

Now I just hoped I would still be alive when the calvary arrived.

Chapter 41

Five minutes later, Barbara was tied up on the couch next to Sage, and I was tied to a kitchen chair in the middle of the living room. Edward placed Barbara’s gun on the coffee table. “Don’t you think Hopkins is going to get a wee bit suspicious if he sees me like this as he walks in?” I asked him.

“He’ll be dead before he can ask you what’s going on,” Edward said confidentally.

“What about me?”

“Well, let’s hope you don’t get hit by a stray bullet.”

“And Ethan?”

“Oh, he’s going to go with me,” he replied. “We’re going to have a long overdue father/son talk on our way to the airport.”

“You’re not going to kill him?”

“Of course not! He’s my son. I’m just going to make sure that he leaves the country and stays far away so he can’t testify against me. One of those countries that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the U.S.”

“And how long do you think he’ll stay away?”

“As long as I tell him to, especially if he wants to inherit anything when I die.”

“So, in other words, I’ve saved the idiot’s life.”

Edward laughed. “Well, that’s one way to look at it.”

I sighed and shook my head.

Suddenly, the lights went out. Edward looked out the window. “It looks like the whole neighborhood has lost power,” he said.

“Someone must have run into a transformer. You know how these small town hicks are,” I replied, glancing at Barbara.

“Doesn’t Jake have a back up generator or something?”

“Not that I know of,” I said. “But then again, he’s not around here much.”

There was a knock at the front door. Edward signaled for us to be quiet. Another knock. “Power company. Anybody home?”

“Answer him,” Edward said quietly.

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Power company, ma’am. We were working on one of the lines a few blocks away, and one of our trucks backed into a transformer. It looks like the power is going to be out for a while.”

“I appreciate you letting me know.”

“Could you come to the door, ma’am?”

Edward shook his head. “I’m afraid not. When the lights went out, I was in the shower. I’m not decent.”

“I understand, ma’am. We might have to climb the pole behind your house to check the lines, but I promise we’ll have the power back on as soon as possible.”

“I appreciate that very much.”

“Good night, ma’am.”

“Good night.”

“Well done, Ms. Crenshaw,” Edward said after a couple of minutes.

“You’re welcome.”

Suddenly, the front and back doors burst open at the same time. Edward hid behind my chair, and pointed his gun at the front door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Barbara free her hands from the ropes. She jumped up, grabbed her gun off the coffee table where Edward put it,  moved in front of me, knelt down, and pointed the gun at the back door. Talk about being a sitting duck.

“Now, gentlemen, if you come any closer, one or both of us will shoot, which will cause you to instinctively fire back. Chances are, you’ll hit one or both of us, but you’ll also hit Ms. Crenshaw. I’m very sure you don’t want that to happen. I strongly suggest that you back out of here, and close the doors as you go.”

“Mr. Winthrop, you know that’s not going to happen,” T.J. said from behind me. “Why don’t you just make things easier for everyone? You and Ms. Stephenson need to put down your weapons and stand up.”

“Where’s Ethan?” Barbara demanded.

“He’s outside,” Hopkins replied.

“Get him in here.”

“Not a chance,” he told her.

Barbara put her gun in my ribs. “It’s either her or him. What’s it going to be?” she said, cocking the gun.

I saw Hopkins look at me, and then over the top of my head. “Greene, bring Winthrop closer.”

“Why?” Owen’s voice came from behind Hopkins.

“Someone wants to talk to him. Just bring him close enough that he’s within shouting distance. Put a flak jacket on him, too.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Just do it, Owen!” T.J. yelled.

It seemed to take forever, but it was only two minutes. “All right, we’re in position,” Owen said.

“Son?” Edward called out.

“Father, what are you doing?” Ethan said. “Have you gone crazy?”

“That’s a fine thing to say to me,” Edward snapped, “considering you’re the one who’s planning to testify against me.”

“They didn’t give me much of a choice,” Ethan replied.

“That’s not what I was told. They offered you the chance of immunity, and you grabbed it. Dillard said you didn’t even hesitate.”

“Well, considering they were planning to charge me with being in on the money laundering with you, as well as a few other charges, I thought it was in my best interests to watch out for myself. Isn’t that what you’ve always taught me, Father? To look out for number one?”

“And in this case, that was me, not you.”

“So I changed my priorities,” Ethan said.

“After all I’ve done for you over the years.”

“Done for me?” Ethan retorted. “What have you done for me? You’ve let people think I killed Jessica Mangrove for the last eighteen years. But we both know that’s not true, don’t we, Father?”

“What’s he talking about?” Barbara said to Edward.

“Ignore him,” Edward said.

“He means,” I said, “that Ruthdale Simpkins told Jake and I that on the night Jessica was murdered, Ethan was in her classroom doing some make up work. There’s no way he could have killed her.” I looked at Edward. “We believe it was Edward that did it.”

“Is this true?” Barbara said.

Edward shrugged. “She came to me that night, saying she was pregnant. She was planning on having the baby, and she wanted Ethan to support the little bastard. There was no way I was going to allow his mistake to ruin his life. So, I strangled her, and had Sims get rid of the body. Obviously, he didn’t do a very good job.”

“But Ethan…” she said.

“Was totally innocent, at least of that crime,” he said.

“All these years,” she said incredulously, shaking her head, “I’ve been blaming Ethan for her death. I’ve followed him from city to city, slowly planning my revenge. I was going to kill him tonight.”

“No one told you to obsess about this,” Edward said. “You should have just let it go, and moved on with your life.”

“I didn’t because I wanted whoever killed her to pay for what they had done to her.”

“Barbara,” T.J. said quietly, “he just confessed in front of a police officer and a federal agent. Jessica’s death is still an open case, so he will be prosecuted for it.”

She started shaking her head. “He’ll do what, twenty years? Do they even have any evidence linking him to her murder?”

“That I don’t know, ma’am. That’s a question for the prosecuting attorney,” he said.

Hopkins inched forward just a little bit. “Don’t think about it, Agent Hopkins,” Edward warned him, “just stay right where you are. Sheriff Greene, is my son in handcuffs?”

“No, sir, he is not.”

“Then kindly hand him your weapon, or I will blow Agent Hopkins’ head off.”

“I don’t want a gun,” Ethan said.

“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you to take his weapon.”

“Over my dead body,” Owen said.

“It will be over Ms Crenshaw’s dead body if you don’t do it,” Edward said.

“Father, I’m telling you, I’m not going to take his gun. You need to stop this right now.”

“You always were a wuss, Ethan.”

“No, I’m just not as cutthroat in business and life like you.”

As they continued arguing, Hopkins looked at me, and jerked his head slightly to his left. I gave him a quick nod, and waited. Glancing at Barbara, I noticed she wasn’t pointed her gun in T.J.’s direction anymore. She was pointing it at Edward. “Um, Barbara, what are you doing?”

“I came here tonight, determined to kill the man responsible for destroying my family. You heard him; he admitted what he did. I’m going to kill him.”

“If you do that, then you’re no better than he is,” I said.

“I don’t care.”

“Have you ever killed someone before, Barbara?” She shook her head. “I have. I didn’t want to do it. I begged her to give up, but she was pointing a gun at myself, Deputy Roosevelt, and Agent Hopkins. She didn’t give me a choice, so I killed her. She was a member of my family.”

“That sounds rough.”

“I live with it every day. It’s not a pleasant thing. But there’s a difference between what I did and what you want to do,” I said. “I did it to save our lives. You want to do it for revenge. You’re not doing it to protect yourself, and that’s murder. You’ll be no better than he is.”

“I killed to protect my family,” Edward said.

“You did it because you’re a self-centered jerk,” Sage said from the couch.

“Shut up, Sage, you’re not helping,” I told her.

Hopkins looked over his shoulder before turning back toward me. He nodded and raised his Glock. I leaned over to the right, and then threw my body to the left, wincing as I hit the floor hard. My movement caused Edward and Barbara to fall backwards as T.J. and Hopkins rushed forward. I saw Owen’s large frame fill the doorway as the first shot rang out, and he went flying backwards out of sight. Hopkins threw himself on top of me as Garth took Owen’s place. I couldn’t tell who was doing the shooting, or what they were shooting at. I heard someone cry out, but I had no idea who it was. A few more shots went off, and my ears started to ring from the sound. My left arm was starting to go numb from all the weight being put on it.

Finally, Hopkins rolled off me, and T.J. sat me upright before he cut the ropes. My ears were ringing so much I couldn’t hear what he was saying, and I could barely move my left arm because it was numb. He swept me into his arms and carried me outside. As we left, I couldn’t tell who was hurt; everywhere I looked, there were people on the ground.

When we got outside, I was amazed at the number of cars and trucks in the neighborhood. “What did you do, call the National Guard?”

“I thought about it, but I didn’t want to go overboard.” I noticed Olivia was standing in the yard, her rifle pointed at the ground. “Olivia, would you open the passenger door of my truck, please?” T.J. said as we got close to her. She nodded and rushed over to open it. He placed me on the ground and helped me sit down. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so,” I said. “Just my left arm from all the people that landed on top of me.”

“What were you thinking, falling over like that?” he said.

“Hopkins told me to.”

“Is that what the head jerking was about?” I nodded. “Crazy fool.”

“Where is he right now? He fell on top of me to protect me. I want to make sure he’s all right.”

T.J. glanced up at Olivia, who hurried off. “I’m not sure. She’ll find out.”

I looked through the front windshield, and saw Owen on the ground, being worked on by two paramedics. Pushing T.J. out of the way, I slid out of the truck and rushed over to Owen. His eyes were closed, and he looked so pale. “How bad is it?” I asked one of the paramedics.

“Not good,” the paramedic replied.

“Come on, Lizzie, move back and let them do their job,” T.J. said, pulling me toward him.

A couple of officers brought Sage and Barbara outside, both in handcuffs. “Where’s Ethan?”

“Gone,” T.J. said. “Two FBI agents, Bolivar and White, put him in a car and took him to another safe house. I don’t know where.”

“Was he hurt?”

“No. Owen put his own vest on Ethan just in case someone from inside decided to take a shot at him.”

“Lizzie!” I turned around to see Trixie running toward me. “I heard there was a shooting. What’s going on?”

“I…I…oh, Trixie,” I whispered.

T.J. stood in front of Trixie so she wouldn’t see Owen on the ground. “There was a hostage situation, and yes, there was a shooting. So far, we don’t believe anyone was killed…”

“But?” she said, staring at him. “What aren’t you telling me, T.J.?”

I took a deep breath. “Owen was shot, Trix.” Her eyes widened in surprise. “The paramedics are working on him right now.”

“How bad?”

“I don’t know.”

She tried to move around us, but T.J. grabbed her arms to stop her. “Let them do their job, Trixie. You should go get your mother, and be at the hospital when he gets there.”

“I don’t want to leave him.”

“But your mom is going to need you,” I said. “You should go. We’ll meet you there later.”

She looked at me, tears in her eyes. “Okay.” Glancing at her brother one more time, she took a deep breath and left.

Another pair of paramedics carried a stretcher out of the house. Edward was on it, ranting at the medics about the way they were treating him. Sounded like he was going to be fine. Olivia came out after them and headed toward us. “Don’t worry about Edward. He just has a broken leg. It looks like the chair you were sitting in fell over on top of him, and the added weight of you and Hopkins snapped it. Too bad it didn’t give him a concussion or something that would make him shut up. He was yelling at the medics the whole time they were treating him. I had to resist the urge to shoot him and put him out of his misery.”