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“Ok, I’ll stay. Go downstairs and see to them while I see to myself.”
“I will have you later. Don’t you worry.”
I wasn’t worried in the slightest, not about that anyway.
He’d mentioned closing the case. What exactly had happened, and who was the perpetrator? It couldn’t have been Stuart or Damian, but I suspected it involved them somehow.
I pulled up my sweats and sat on the bed. What should I do next? I’d insinuated I was staying with John over the holidays, but the thought of being here twenty-four seven with his parents was a little daunting.
Would they be the same as my parents? I didn’t think so. John was gay, and they had no problem with him, and his mama seemed genuinely pleased with me being there.
I’d have to suck it up. If I got overwhelmed, I could come up here or ask him to take me home.
Wanting to make the right impression, I put on a pair of jeans and went back downstairs.
“Come sit here.” Annie patted the seat next to her. “John’s going to tell us about this big case he’s just cracked.”
“Not a big case, Mama, but Liam knows some of the players.”
He told us how they’d found out about Georgie and her manic idea. I wasn’t surprised it was her. She’d always struck me as being…unhinged.
“So what happens now?” I asked. “Will Stuart and Damian get out?”
“No, Stuart is there for the duration, and Damian will get a reduced sentence. We’ve already picked up Georgie. That’s why I was a little late. Seems the guy in the hospital, our third victim, is actually the guy she’d hooked up with to do her dirty work. He’d threatened to turn her in to the police, and she couldn’t have that.”
“So she tried to kill him,” I said.
“She tried to kill him. We can put her away for several things right now, attempted murder being the biggest charge.”
My heart swelled, and a lump formed in my throat. I was on the verge of tears.
“Does this mean it’s all over? I won’t get any more text messages?”
“It’s over, yes. They’ll all spend a lot of time in prison.”
“Who sent the message?”
“Georgie. I think it was more of a scare tactic than anything else. You were never in any real danger. She’d been in touch with Stuart, and they’d been watching us and seen you with me. That was the connection.”
“Aw, Johnnie. You’ve upset him.” Annie put her arm around me, pulling me into her ample bust.
“I’m not upset at him. It’s like…” How could I explain it? “Like a weight has been lifted. I don’t need to worry about anything anymore.”
I couldn’t believe it. For five years, I’d lived in limbo, always hovering on the edge of something, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Was it fate leading John to my shop? Was it fate for me to find Ziggy in the coffee shop? Were they sent to give me someone when all this ended so I wasn’t alone?
Whatever ever it was, my emotions ran high.
“Does Ziggy know? It concerns him too.”
John nodded. “He has been told.”
“What did he say? Is he okay?” I asked, worried for my friend.
“The first thing he asked was if you were all right. I know you’ve felt as if he’d left you behind, but he’s still there for you.”
I knew that, and I vowed to meet up with him after Christmas, maybe reconnect with the others too—Beau, Suzie, and Duke.
