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Kevin was atop Hazel, pinning her to the ground. Hazel had a wild look in her eyes as she clutched a giant stuffed animal head that was rapidly losing its stuffing.
“You shot Bobby!” Hazel’s voice was full of venom as she clutched the head, sounding close to tears.
“What happened here?” Sam scanned the room, taking in every detail, the strangest of which was a frying pan lying next to a smashed teacup.
He tried to piece together the events that might have led to this moment. He had no idea why Jo, Kevin, and Bridget would all be here, much less why they would be participating in this macabre tea party.
Jo rubbed her wrists where the zip ties had dug in and tried to steady herself with the help of Bridget. “Hazel is the one who took Tammy… and others.”
Sam’s brow quirked up. Hazel? Female serial killers were very rare, and he hated the idea that she’d been right here under his nose the whole time. “She confessed?”
Jo nodded, standing on shaky legs. “When I talked to Lily, she had this necklace on.” Jo turned to Bridget. “It was mom’s necklace, the one Tammy liked. It even had the chip where Tammy had dropped it in the driveway.”
Bridget hugged Jo. “Maybe you shouldn’t be talking.” She turned to Sam. “Hazel drugged her tea.”
Jo shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I need to explain. When I saw that necklace, I rushed here without thinking.”
Sam nodded. It was starting to make more sense. “When you never answered my texts or showed up back at the station, I went to Lily’s, and she told me you rushed out after finding out Ricky had given her that necklace.”
Jo looked apologetic. “I should’ve let you know, Sam. I had no idea it would turn out like this.” She gestured to the bizarre scene around them. “She drugged me and took my gun.”
Meanwhile, Hazel continued her struggle, her eyes wild. “Bobby made me do it! I did nothing wrong!” she shrieked, her voice cracking as Kevin finally clicked the handcuffs around her wrists.
Sam’s focus shifted to Kevin. “Good job, Kevin. But how in the world did you know to come here?”
Kevin shifted uneasily. His voice was steady, but his hands betrayed a slight tremor as he told Sam about discovering the contents of the thumb drive. “I was actually on my way to give it to you.” He paused, his gaze flickering to Bridget. “I stopped at the diner for a coffee… and ran into Bridget there. We got talking.”
Bridget nodded as if to lend credence to his story.
“The thing is,” Kevin continued, “I didn’t even remember why I had the thumb drive. It was just there, with my stuff from the hospital. But then Bridget mentioned something about her sister and the beech trees, and I realized the numbers on the drive were actually coordinates.”
Kevin glanced at Jo, an apologetic edge to his tone. “If I had known the significance, I would have brought the drive to you sooner, Jo. I’m sorry.”
Jo, her expression softening, shook her head slightly. “No need to apologize, Kevin. You would have no way of knowing about any of that. I was going to bring you in on this, too, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”
“It’s fine,” Kevin assured her. “Anyway, the coordinates on the drive pointed to the woods out back here. We had to see if it led to the beech trees related to Tammy’s case.”
Jo glanced at Bridget. “And did they?”
Bridget nodded. “There’s a stand of beech trees out back in the woods with lower branches broken and stripped of bark long ago. We saw the lights on in the place through the trees and came to investigate then saw you inside.”
“I came in to distract Hazel and hopefully get your gun from her,” Kevin said.
“Thanks for that. You did good.” Jo smiled at Kevin then turned to Bridget. “But what areyoudoing in here?”
Bridget looked sheepish. “I followed Kevin in. He told me to go back to the car and call Sam, but I… Well, I didn’t.”
Sam’s attention was drawn to the frying pan on the floor. “And the frying pan?”
Bridget grimaced. “I thought it might make a good weapon.”
Kevin chimed in. “Turns out she was right. If that pan hadn’t hit Hazel and thrown off her aim, she would have shot me instead of Bobby.”
With a firm grip, Kevin hauled Hazel, who had been muttering and crying the whole time, to her feet. Jo leaned on Bridget as they all made their way out of the house.
“Hazel’s confession makes things a lot easier,” Sam said.
Suddenly the old woman straightened up and glared at Sam. “I didn’t confess to anything!”
