Murder in the Marigolds by Dale Mayer (best young adult book series .txt) 📕

She winced. “Probably because of me.”

He just stared at her, confused, as she quickly summarized what had just happened.

“Well, we have to get out of here,” he said.

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” she said, “but he took my phone.”

He immediately slapped his legs, looking for his, and quickly pulled out his own phone.

“Please phone the cops,” she whispered. “I’ve been through too much already.”

He sent out several alerts, and she hoped that maybe this time it would be okay. He looked at the animals and said, “What the devil. No animals are allowed in here.”

“Well, that should have been my first clue,” she said, “because he said that it was fine.”

“Well, it’s not fine,” he said. “This is a new guy. I met him here, and he told me that he was supposed to come as part of my crew. I let him in, but I didn’t have time to even talk to him because we had to take off right away.”

“Well, I don’t know quite how it all happened,” she said, “but I think he took over your vehicle in order to get to me, and his intentions are likely violent.”

“Great,” he said, groaning. “Normally I’m not alone, but we’ve been short-staffed right now.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, “and here I am taking you away from somebody else who really needs your help.” She looked over at Mugs. “We have to do something.”

“We can go through the connecting door here,” the guy said, “and get to the front seat, but he isn’t likely to give up without a fight, and we don’t know if he is armed. Plus, he could crash the vehicle, and that could kill us.”

“I would imagine he probably is armed. We suspect he already killed a woman, but that was with a knife.”

At that, the ambulance driver gasped and shrank back into the mattress.

“Right,” she said. “It changes your perspective a little, I know. We don’t really need to try to be heroes, if he is going around killing people.”

“No,” he said, “absolutely not. That’s the last thing we need.”

With the animals watching, and now almost enjoying the ride, the driver took them across the bridge. “Wow,” she said, “we’re in West Kelowna now.”

“I know,” he said, “but I don’t know where he is taking us. I did get messages out.”

“Let’s hope they get here fast.”

“I don’t think they believed me at first,” he said, “but, after I sent several more SOS cries for help, they said they’re on the way.”

“Great,” she said, muttering. “It’s never easy, is it? He should have just ditched you back there,” she muttered. “Now you’re a problem too.”

He stared at her in shock. “But I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

“Well, believe it or not,” she said in exasperation, “I didn’t either.”

He looked at her, “Really? You didn’t do anything wrong?”

“No,” she said, “I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He nodded. “That happens, doesn’t it?”

“Way too often,” she said, muttering to herself. And, soon enough, they pulled off at the top of the big hill on the other side of the bridge, into what looked like the parking lot of a huge movie theater. The driver turned around and backed up the ambulance against another vehicle. She whispered, “I bet he’s planning on changing vehicles.”

“Well, he can’t do that. Not with the two of us,” he said. “We can take him.”

She looked at him in surprise. “Well, that’s the spirit,” she said.

“No,” he said, “but I really don’t want to get into another vehicle with this guy.”

“Me neither,” she said, with a bright smile. “So, on the count of three, I suggest we both rush him.”

He stiffened, as he straightened up a little bit, and said, “I can do that.”

But they didn’t even get a chance. Instead James hopped out, turned, and disappeared. She immediately climbed out of the vehicle. She stopped and looked around and said, “There’s no sign of him.”

“I know,” the EMT said, clearly confused.

“I was so sure,” she said, looking around in confusion. “I thought for certain he would move us into another vehicle.”

At that, a man behind her said, “That would be foolish, since there’s two of you. Once you’d gotten the ambulance driver free, I had to change plans again.” James glared at her, stepping out and pointing a gun in their direction. “You’re becoming a pain in the ass.”

“I haven’t done anything,” she cried out. “If you hadn’t killed Robin, none of this would have happened.”

“But she told me that she changed the will in your favor and that she’d left you a long explanation,” he said. “If you’d like to hand that over, I’ll let you live.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said quietly, “because, once that’s handed over, you’ll kill me for sure.”

“Well, look at that,” he said, with a smile, “you are smart enough to figure this out.”

“It still doesn’t make sense that you killed her.”

“She was worth half a million dollars a year in income to me,” he said. “No way I was letting that go.”

“Wow.” She didn’t even know what to say to that. “Maybe she really did just want to change her life and become somebody else,” she said quietly. “According to Rex, she had fallen in love with him.”

“She fell in love with everybody. And it would last for a few months, maybe a year or two,” he said. “Then she’d find another con or another mark, and she’d fall in love all over again. She would never have stayed with Rex.”

“And what if it was different this time?”

“Well, we’ll never know now, will we? She did try to get out of the industry, and, for that, I do blame Rex. I should pop him for it too. Because now I’m in the hole, by a lot.”

“How could you kill your own parents?” she cried out.

“Easy,” James said, with a snarl. “And she helped me. That started us down this pathway.”

“So, why become lawyers?”

“Well, it was a great cover for one