Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (17 page)

“That would make me a rather heartless jerk, wouldn’t it?”

“Certainly wouldn’t be the first time someone’s called you that,” Jake said cheerfully. “I know I’ve called you that and worse over the years.”

Edward took a deep breath before replying. “I did not kill my son.”

“Oh, I’m sure you wouldn’t dirty your hands by doing it yourself, Edward.”

“That’s enough,” I said quietly. I took another sip of my tea. “How many women have there been over the years?”

“Too many to count,” Edward said, glaring at Jake before focusing on me.

“Were there any that were more upset than some of the others?”

“Are you suggesting that someone from his past assignations…” I winced at that word. What happened between the two of us were not assignations; more like full frontal assaults. “…is responsible for my son’s death?”

“We think it’s a possibility,” Jake replied.

Edward looked over at the bar, and got the waitress’ attention. “Let me tell you what I think. I think the two of you murdered my son, cooked up some alibis with your friends, and are now trying to accuse some innocent people for your crime.” He stood up, picked up his black overcoat and slipped it on. Reaching into his breast pocket, he took out his wallet, removed some cash, and thrust it at the waitress. “I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that you get the punishment you so richly deserve. Nice act, Ms. Crenshaw. You had me going there for a while. Jacob, I will be speaking to your father about this.” He brushed past the waitress, and stormed out the front door.

“That went well,” I sarcastically said.

“You want some dessert?” the waitress asked us. “The cinnamon and sugar beignets are delicious, and so is the apple tart ala mode. Your friend gave me more than enough money to pay for it.”

“It’s getting late,” I said. “Do we have time for dessert?”

“Edward’s paying for it, why not? Bring one of each dessert you mentioned.”

“What now? We didn’t get any useful information from him.”

“We go home tonight and regroup. If my father is home, I’ll talk to him.”

Edward sat in the back of his Town Car. He pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number. “It’s me.”

“Yes, Mr. Winthrop?”

“They’re at the Black Rooster. The Mathias boy drove his mother’s Lexus. It’s chocolate brown.” He rattled off the license plate number. “Do it.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Winthrop. Not a problem.”

Chapter 22

It was after 7 p.m. before we got back on the road. It was dark by then, which made me more nervous about going down that winding road. “I’m guessing anyone with half a brain doesn’t drive this road at night?” I asked Jake as we went around a hairpin turn.

“Are you trying to say I’m an idiot?”

“You know I would never say that to you…not out loud, anyway. But I might make an exception tonight.”

With just the headlights illuminating them, the bare trees looked menacing. If given half a chance, those branches would reach out, grab us, and crumple the car like a piece of paper. I felt a cold chill go up my spine.

“You doing okay over there?” Jake said.

“Yippie skippie.” I turned my head to look at him. “Do you think Edward really believes we killed Ethan?”

“He’s a stubborn man who’s used to getting what he wants. Right now, he wants answers. Doesn’t matter if they are right or wrong. Ethan meant the world to him. He wanted Ethan to run the company with him, make it this big giant of the corporate world.”

“But Ethan had other plans.”

“And they were never in line with what his father wanted. Edward spent a couple of million dollars bailing Ethan out of trouble, hoping that he would finally grow up.”

“Poor Edward. How disappointing for him.” I looked out the window as we neared a yellow highway sign, and I thought I saw a flash of light reflect off the shiny surface. “But that doesn’t sound like love to me. More like domination.”

“Yeah, it did seem that way at times,” Jake said. “I never saw him show Ethan much affection.”

“What about his mother?”

“She died when Ethan was three. Cancer, I think. Edward didn’t know what to do with Ethan, so he hired a nanny to take care of him. Ethan spent more time with her than he did with Edward. But if he needed something, Edward got it for him, no questions asked. But he exacted a high price for it.”

“You mean he wanted Ethan to do what he wanted him to do, and didn’t give Ethan any room to disagree?”

“Pretty much.”

“Where was Edward the night Jessica was killed?”

“Where in the world did that come from?” Jake said. I could hear the surprise in his voice. “Why are you asking me that?”

“Mrs. Simpkins gave Ethan a strong alibi, which means he couldn’t have killed Jessica. You just said that Edward was willing to do anything for Ethan, so that makes me wonder…”

“…if Edward killed Jessica to keep his son out of jail,” Jake finished. “You can’t be serious, Lizzie.”

“I’m just thinking out loud.”

“I don’t think Edward would go that far, not even for his son.”

The interior of the car seemed a bit brighter, and I looked over my shoulder. “Looks like someone else decided to take the evening death ride.”

Jake checked his side mirror. “Well, I wish he would back off a bit. He’s getting a bit too close.”

“I’m sure he’ll slow down when we get to the next curve.”

On the next curve, whoever was behind us got closer. Way too close. They tapped the back bumper, jerking us forward against the seatbelts. “What the hell?” Jake said, gripping the steering wheel harder as he negotiated a turn. “Tighten your seatbelt.”

I did as he asked before looking out the back window. “He’s speeding up.”

Jake sped up, taking the next curve a little too fast for my comfort. The other car slowed down, apparently not feeling quite as daring. “Can you tell what kind of car it is?”

“Not really. The headlights are blinding me. I just see little green spots before my eyes.”

“My shades are in the glove box.”

They were sitting right on top. Putting them on, I turned around again. “Here he comes again. The lights are up high.”

“So it’s a truck.”

WHAM! The truck slammed into us harder than the first time. The left side of my face bounced off the headrest, sending the shades flying into the floorboard. “What is he trying to do?” Jake growled.

“Did you really just ask that, Mathias?” I said. “I’d say he’s trying to wreck us out. Wouldn’t you?”

“It was a rhetorical question, Lizzie.”

“Didn’t…” WHAM! “…sound like it to me.”

The SUV fishtailed a bit. The truck dropped back for a minute, before speeding up. “There’s a stretch of road coming up that curves a couple of times. I might be able to speed up some to put some distance between us. But…”

“But what?”

“There’s a steep drop off to the right.”

“Oh.” He didn’t need to say more than that. The truck moved over into the other lane, and I prayed there was no one coming from the other direction. The driver sped up until the right front bumper was near our left back bumper. “He’s going to try and pit us,” I told Jake. “Speed up if you can.”

“You’ve been watching too much
Cops
,” Jake said.

“Actually,
Alaska State Troopers
.”

He jerked the wheel to the left, and the other driver responded by moving to his left to avoid getting hit. Jake moved back over into the right lane as we started going around another curve. The truck sped up and managed to hit us in just the right spot on the bumper. The SUV started sliding to the right, doing a three quarter spin. We stopped in the middle of the road, facing away from the guard rail. That’s when I saw the headlights of the truck coming right at us, just before he hit Jake’s side of the car. Jake was pressing down on the brake as hard as he could, but that really doesn’t work when you’re going sideways. The smell of burning rubber was pungent. The side airbags deployed, blocking my view out the side window.

Which is probably just as well. I didn’t have to see us through the guardrail and over the edge. Jake grabbed my hand as the car tilted sideways. I closed my eyes and held on for dear life.

I was at some kind of carnival with T.J., and we were waiting in line to play the ring toss game on the Midway. When it was our turn, the carny was Edward Winthrop. “Win a prize for the lovely young lady, sir!” he said, handing T.J. three yellow rings. T.J. missed the first two, but hit the bottle right in the middle with the third one. “You win the grand prize!”

He pointed to his left, and there was Ethan, holding a bouquet of black roses. “I told you things between us weren’t over,” he said, shoving the flowers into my arms. I cried out as my arms and hands were cut by the sharp thorns on the stems. Throwing the flowers to the ground, I turned to hide behind T.J., but he was gone. Edward was just standing there, laughing.

I started running down the Midway, bumping into people everywhere I went. One of the people I ran into was Gladys, who sneered at me. “Karma, Elizabeth Crenshaw. You’ve been taunting karma for months, and now it’s come back for you,” she cackled as she poured a glass of lemonade over my head.

Shoving her aside, I headed for the funhouse. I figured I could lose him somewhere inside. I went through the open door, going up and down over the walkway as I held onto the rails. It got dark as I made it past that point, and I felt my way forward by sliding my hand along the wall. Suddenly, someone threw a breaker, and the room lit up. I was in the Hall of Mirrors, and Ethan was staring at me. “You didn’t really think you could outsmart me, did you, Lizzie?” he laughed, moving toward me. I backed away from the mirror in front of me, and right into Ethan, who grabbed my arms and turned me around. “Things are never what they appear. Haven’t you learned that yet?”

I stomped on his foot and kicked him in the shin. He let go of my arms, I shoved him away and ran through an open door to the right. There were no lights on, and I was forced to feel my way along the wall again. A section of the wall gave way, and I stumbled into a room that looked eerily like my office. Ethan came in after me, pushing the section of the wall closed and locking it. Where had the lock come from? Who puts a lock on a wall? Frantically, I looked for another way out, but there wasn’t one. Every section of wall had a sliding bolt, and they were all locked into place. When I turned around, Ethan was standing in front of me again. “Looks like you’re out of places to run, Lizzie,” he said. He grabbed my arms, pulled me toward him, and started kissing me.

Someone started pounding on the wall. “Winthrop, let me in!” I heard T.J. yell. He started kicking at the wall, but nothing happened. Ethan ignored the noise. He grabbed my shirt sleeve at the shoulder, and ripped it off. I pounded on his chest, but he just pinned my arms behind my back, tying them together with my sleeve.

“Lizzie, hang on! Lizzie!” Wait a minute; Jake was here, too? Where did he come from? “Lizzie, wake up! Talk to me, damn it!”

“Stop yelling.”

“Open your eyes, and I will.”

Ethan was holding onto me, trying to get me to stay, but I was drawn to Jake’s voice. Ethan’s face slowly faded away, and I opened my eyes to find Jake staring at me. “Are you real?” I asked him. I reached out and touched his cheek, which was warm. “Where’s Ethan?”

“You were having a nightmare, I think.”

“Where are we?”

“Well, your side of the car is against a tree. Beyond that, it’s too dark to tell for sure.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Pretty sore. You?”

I felt something warm trickling down the right side of my face, which I was sure was blood. I took my seatbelt off, grabbed my bag off the floorboard, and took out my phone. Turning on the flashlight app, I looked over at Jake. The SUV was caved in just behind his seat where the truck had hit us. I looked at my side and all I saw was a tree trunk. “Can you get your seatbelt off?”

He pushed the button with his right hand, but nothing happened. “It must be jammed.”

“Do you have a knife?”

“There’s an emergency kit in the back. Garth put one back there just in case.”

I got my seatbelt off. “You really have to tell me about him sometime,” I said.

“Most of what I know about him is classified.”

“You’re joking.”

“Maybe a little. It’s really only about fifty percent classified.”

Since I couldn’t get out on my side, my only option was to crawl over the seats. Once I did that, I used my flashlight to look around. The back window was broken. “I see a couple of black bags here, and some blankets.”

“There should be a first aid kit in one of those bags,” Jake replied.

I dug around in the first bag, and found the first aid kit as well as a large black Maglite. Turning off the app, I stuffed my phone in my jacket pocket and grabbed the flashlight. “I’m going to crawl out the back window and check out the car.”

“Be careful,” Jake warned me. “We’re probably in the middle of the hillside.”

I used the handle of the flashlight to make sure all the broken glass was out of the way before I crawled out. Flipping on the Maglite, I saw the damage and shook my head. There only way to get him out was to either pull him out the driver’s side window, or over the seats and out the back window. I crawled back inside, shoved both bags and the blankets into the backseat, and slowly made my way back to the front seat I put the bag in the back seat, took out the first aid kit, placing it on the console between the front seats. A little digging through one of the bags turned up a Swiss Army knife.

By this time, I was starting to ache all over. “I hope there some ibuprofen in one of these bags,” I said.

“You and me both.”

I handed him the Maglite. “Here, hold this.”

He held it with his right hand for me while I searched through the bag. “Granola bars, water, chocolate, clothes, socks, first aid kit…geez, he thought of everything, didn’t he?”

“It’s a good idea to carry an emergency kit in your car. Don’t you have one in your car back home?”

“Nope. I do my best not to get into a situation where I would need one,” I replied.

“That’s because you have no sense of adventure.”

“I have a strong sense of self-preservation, thank you very much.” I took the flashlight from him, handed him a bottle of water and three ibuprofen. He put the water in the cup holder, opened it with his right hand, put the tablets in his mouth and washed them down with the water. “Something wrong with your left arm?”

“You mean besides the fact it hurts?”

I put everything except the knife back in the bag, and shoved it down on the floorboard. “I can’t reach it from here, so I’m going to crawl in the backseat and get behind you,” I said, sticking the knife in my pocket.

“I thought you were going to cut the seat belt strap.”

“Let’s leave it on for now.” I got out, opened the back door, and slid across the seat until I was right behind Jake. “I’ll be as gentle as I can, but this might hurt a bit.”

“Go ahead.”

Starting near his neck, I gently moved my hand across his shoulder and down his left arm. “Did you try calling someone on your phone?” I asked him as I leaned forward a little more and ran my hand over the front part of his shoulder. I could feel something out of place, and Jake sucked in some air when I touched it. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he grunted. “Yeah, I tried, but no signal.” Putting my hand under his arm, I felt his ribs. “That hurts.”