“He acted like he was doing her a favor.” Joyce sniffed her distaste and continued. “She didn’t have a choice. She had two children to support. After they moved off the land, he supposedly discovered gold. Daddy always said Grandmother believed Joshua Tatum killed my Grandpa so he could get the gold. She could never prove it, though. The Haygoods were considered nobodies. She would’ve never stood a chance against Joshua Tatum.”

I looked over at Dee Dee and Nana. The way their mouths lay open, they could’ve easily been mistaken for Venus Fly Traps. I mirrored their thoughts, I’m sure. How could this nice, sweet lady be involved in something so sinister?

“Why seek revenge now, Joyce?” Keep her talking. “That was so long ago.”

“Why, indeed,” Joyce spat, words full of venom. “My family poured their sweat and blood into this inn. When Grandmother moved into town all those years ago, she began working at the inn as a maid. A maid! She labored like a slave for years so she could take care of her children.

“When we were old enough and had saved enough, my sister and I bought the inn. We wanted to take care of our family and pay them back for all their years of hard work. Of course, the Tatums owned the place.” Her eyes narrowed and her face reddened. “We’d been making payments to the Tatums all these years so we could own it out right.

“We just about had it paid off, too, when she got cancer and died. Her insurance policy barely paid for the funeral expenses. It didn’t begin to cover her medical expenses. Leroy and I have been trying our best to make ends meet so we could continue the payments. We were a couple behind and, according to the contract, John had the right to call in the loan if we missed any payments.

“We begged him to work with us. Oh no, not Mr. Fancy Pants. It wasn’t enough that he’d bought up most of the town. He wanted the inn, too. He came to me, demanding that we pay the loan in full. Yeah,” she snorted, “like that was going to happen. He knew it was an impossible task.” She stopped to get her breath, and stared where my hand, holding the recorder, made my pocket bulge. Her brows lifted.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

She stepped closer, fists curling.

“Wait a minute,” I blurted, and slipped my hand out nonchalantly. My mind whirled, thinking back to the image of Mr. Tatum on the day we arrived. “Is that what he was doing here Friday, when he came storming out of the lobby and ran into Dee Dee?”

“He was as angry as a raging bull,” she nodded. “He told Leroy he wasn’t going to wait any longer to start proceedings to call in the loan. Leroy and I talked it over, and decided we didn’t have a choice. We had to move quickly if we wanted to keep the inn. We figured he deserved whatever he got. Leroy followed him over to the museum Friday afternoon. When he saw the chance, he took it.”

“Stop talking. You’ve said too much.” Leroy lifted the gun again.

Joyce actually looked contrite. “I really am sorry I had to involve you and Dee Dee. I liked you. But when a scapegoat fell right into our hands, we couldn’t pass it up. Then you wouldn’t leave well enough alone. How was I to know you would be as stubborn as a bulldog when it came to defending your friend? I sure never had any friends like that.”

I was sorry she hadn’t, but good grief, that wasn’t any excuse for murdering someone. She let Leroy take another man’s life and was going to let Dee Dee take the rap. To me, that came from the heart of someone very evil. Gooseflesh skittered over my arms, as if a shadow fell over the room.

I will fear no evil…Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me…I prayed for guidance, for deliverance, for Dee Dee, for Nana, and even for poor, greedy Mr. Tatum.

“Yeah, and when the sheriff arrested Frank Dalton, you could have gotten Dee Dee off free and clear. But no, you had to play the part of a bleeding heart,” Leroy waggled the gun at me. “Isn’t that right, Aunt Joyce?”

“Isn’t that right, Aunt Joyce?” Nana mimicked, breaking any spell that may have fallen over the hushed room. My goodness, was she trying to get us killed? I reached over and gave her arm a hearty squeeze in hopes of hushing her up.

“I said keep your hands to yourself,” Leroy barked. “Aunt Joyce, what are we going to do with them? They know everything now.”

I’ve heard you can never know too much. In this case, I definitely knew more than I wanted to. I couldn’t imagine how we’d escape. “This is a fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Ollie,” popped into my head, and I pressed in an insane laugh.

A banging at the door was an answer to our silent prayers. “EMTs! Open up! Someone called for the ambulance.”

Leroy’s focus shot from us, to the door, to Aunt Joyce. He motioned to her to take care of it, waving the gun off his target, and I saw my chance to make a move.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Fist curled around my cane, I crashed it down on his wrist as hard as I could. A sickening pop resounded on contact. The gun flew out of his grasp and it clattered to the floor.

“Aunt Joyce!” He hissed, hugging his broken wrist, and shoved me down with his other hand. “Send them away before they call the cops!”

Joyce moved in what seemed slow motion as my vision tunneled on that flash of silver laying on the floor. In the background, I could hear Nana and Dee Dee yelling toward the door for all they were worth.

“Help us!”

“We’re kidnapped! Call the police!”

I looked from the weapon to Leroy, and held my gaze steady. One of us was going to pick it up and shoot the other. We stood, equally frozen, unmoving.

Lord, give me strength to save us. I prayed.

He flinched first in our game of Chicken. He knelt, reaching toward the gun, but I was closer. Before Leroy had a chance to get the weapon, I lunged between it and him.

When I came to, I was in a hospital bed with Dee Dee on one side and Nana on the other.

They twittered around me like mother hens protecting their chicks. I was sore all over and had a ferocious headache, but I was alive! I tried to move my leg, but pain seared my knee like a branding iron. I cried out in a hiss.

“Whoa there, Missy,” Nana cooed. Her musical voice soothed my ears. “You’ve hurt your knee again, and the doc wants you to take it easy. I’ll call the nurse and let her know you’re awake and need some pain medicine.”

I looked from Nana to Dee Dee. “What happened?” They started talking at the same time, and I waved at them to stop. “Hold up; I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Dee Dee, you tell her,” Nana acquiesced.

“Oh, Trix. I’m so glad you’re all right.” Dee Dee stood grinning like the cat who ate the cream. “I never figured you for the hero type, but you’ve sure proved me wrong. Do you remember getting the gun from Leroy?”

“The last thing I remember is taking a nose dive to the floor so he wouldn’t get it after I knocked it out of his hand.”

“You mean broke his hand! You should have seen yourself, flying through the air. You moved quicker than an alley cat chased by a dog. You and Leroy got there the same time and you butted heads. I thought for sure you’d have a skull fracture. Knocked you both right out.”

“The EMTs?” I asked, wondering about the knock at the door that saved us.

“Sueleigh asked one of her EMT friends to come and offer us a hand. She was worried about you. When they heard the ruckus, they broke the door in.

“I thought Joyce was going to have a heart attack right then and there. And if that wasn’t enough excitement, Sheriff Wheeler saw the ambulance heading towards the inn and followed them. He and Deputy Ray showed up the same time they did.”

“Nana and I told them what happened, and he arrested Joyce and Leroy right on the spot. Put handcuffs on them and escorted them out to the sheriff’s car.”