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“Thank goodness for Josie butting into everything,” I said. “When I talked to my mother, she told me she gave Josie the go-ahead to have Brett go over and take a look around. But if he’d been even a few minutes later….”
I let the words trail off. Yes, I’d gotten Al Loomis talking, but sooner or later, he would’ve gotten tired of our little chat and pulled the trigger. Or maybe, when the moment came, he wouldn’t have had the nerve. However, I was glad I hadn’t been forced to rely on a sudden attack of his conscience to keep me safe.
Anyway, he was still looking at five to ten for pulling the gun on me, and a lot more for all the other little escapades he’d been involved in, including trespassing on the property to install his fake-demon setup inside the wall, as well as violations of something called Title 13, since he’d installed hidden cameras all over the house to keep track of my mother and Tom’s comings and goings. And while Miriam was loudly proclaiming her innocence, no one seemed inclined to believe her. Calvin’s deputy Ben had provided the electronic trail that proved she was The Lightman Group’s one and only officer, and from there it wasn’t too difficult to follow the breadcrumbs and see that she’d been involved every step of the way. She might still be kicking up a fit and complaining about the conditions in the county lockup — Josie had dropped that little tidbit when she stopped by to get the full story from me — but it was pretty apparent that Ms. Jacobsen’s reign in Globe was now over.
It also helped that Al had pretty much thrown her under the bus and told Chief Lewis the entire thing was her idea, and that she’d egged him on with the promise of a big payout once the development company bought the property from her for many times what she’d paid for it.
There was definitely no honor between those two thieves.
Calvin leaned over and brushed his fingers against my arm, and a happy little warmth flowed through me. Funny how just the slightest touch from him was enough to make me all gooey inside. “But Brett wasn’t too late. You’re safe, and the mystery of the Bigelow mansion demons has been solved.”
“And my parents are planning to come back in a week or so after Brett has all the repairs done and gets some new paint up,” I said, relaying what my mother had told me earlier that afternoon during a lengthy phone call. “So, that’s definitely all’s well that ends well.”
“I’m glad they’re not giving up the house.” Calvin drank some of his wine, then pushed himself up from his chair so he could go tend the chicken skewers.
Watching him, I found myself smiling, so glad to be there in the sunlit tranquility of his backyard. Yes, there had been mayhem and deceit — and some pretty nasty property damage — but at the end of it, the bad guys were in jail where they belonged, and Globe was peaceful again.
I suppose I’d have to wait and see how long that lasted….
