2 Yule Be the Death of Me (24 page)

Monday, December 16th

It felt like
time had come to a complete stop. Not that she would have minded such an event
happening, as the past week had been exhausting both emotionally and
physically. She sat alone in Sheriff Zeke
Rigsbee’s
office, having just endured the unpleasant task of standing in a police lineup.

She did have
an ace up her sleeve. She only hoped that her single allowed phone call would
yield the desired result.

As the sheriff
stepped into his office, he closed the door behind him and folded his arms
across his desk. “In all my years serving this town, I never would have
believed you capable of such a heinous act.”

Vivienne
lowered her head. “I know this doesn’t mean much, but it wasn’t me.”

He walked over
to his desk and sat down to face her. “Thankfully, my faith in humanity has not
been completely destroyed this year.”

“What?”
Vivienne lifted her head to face him.

“You are a
very lucky woman to have such good friends to cover your back.” Sheriff
Rigsbee
leaned back in his chair. “Kathy Saunders dropped
this off the moment she heard about your arrest.” He lifted a thick manila
folder off the desk.

“Thank you,
Kathy.” Vivienne felt an enormous weight suddenly leave her shoulders.

“Yes and you
are darn lucky that she did.” He spoke softly. “Your notes proved quite
useful.”

“So you read
it?”

“I have here
the information that one Samantha Charles has forwarded to you about the R.G.E.
Company and the plans to start drilling in Cayuga Cove.” He tapped the folder.

“Then you know
about Robert
Rothwell
and Natalie Burdick too?”

“I just got
off the phone with Miss Charles. We had an interesting conversation about
Natalie’s tenure in New York.” Zeke’s usual poker face was devoid of any
emotion.

“Natalie wants
the drilling to start at any cost.” Vivienne’s voice gained a sense of urgency.
“Joshua and Miss Octavia were trying to stop her.”

“I’ve had an
interesting talk with Miss Octavia as well. She’s a strange bird, but her story
matched up with the information in here. I may not believe in her magic mumbo
jumbo, but I do believe that she was setup in an attempt to keep this
department distracted and unaware of what really was going on out by the
cemetery.”

“She’s a very
dangerous woman.” Vivienne interrupted.

“She was also
spotted at Our Lady of the Lake today, after the attack on Joshua and Carlton
Jones.”

“Spotted by
who?”

“Suzette
Powell. Oddly enough, she was searching for you when it happened.”

“Yes.”
Vivienne worked fast to cover the fact that it had been Natalie impersonating
her inside the church. “During my investigating, I became aware that Eddie
Robertson had died from poisoning.”

“No one
outside of this department knows that, but I’m willing to overlook Deputy
Arkins
’ lack of judgment in sharing that with you given the
circumstances.” Zeke cast a wary eye at her. “Please continue.”

“So, I started
to wonder if maybe she was one of the gold digging black widow characters you
see on those true crime shows.” Vivienne felt quite proud of the little white
lie that was covering all her magical bases. “It made sense that in order for
her to get in on the family money, she had to bump off Eddie first. In order to
create a diversion, she came up with the plan to use the Bad Santa notes to
stir up dissent amongst the townspeople. After all, this is a small town. If
someone just opens their ears in the right place, you’ll learn more than you
ever thought possible. ”

Zeke nodded in
agreement. “You’ll get no argument from me there.”

“So, you’ve
found other poisoning evidence?” Vivienne hoped.

“Someone
poisoned all the baked good with
hydroxybenzene
.”
Sheriff
Rigsbee
revealed to her.

“So how did
you figure out Natalie was behind it?” Vivienne asked.

“You can thank
Suzette Powell for that. She picked you out of the lineup.”

“I don’t
understand.”

Zeke leaned
back in his chair. “You were placed at the bake sale this morning along with
several other women from the town. Suzette Powell told one of the investigating
officers that she had a small confrontation with you before mass started.”

“Oh.” Vivienne
  had
no idea what her imposter had done, but she had
to play along. “It was nothing.”

“Oh, it was
more than that.” Zeke continued. “That little spat happened to be your key to
freedom.”

“Really?”
Vivienne smiled. “I need to have words with friends more often.”

Zeke cleared
his throat. “Getting back to business, she informed me that after your spat,
she lost sight of you in the crowd getting the baked goods ready downstairs.”

“I had been up
late baking and wanted to get a quick nap in before it started so I snuck
home.” Vivienne put her cover story in place.

“Which your friend
Kathy was able to verify when she called to inform you about the attack on
Joshua.” Sheriff
Rigsbee
nodded. “Those smart phones
you own all have GPS location devices and the cellular carrier was able to
verify your phone’s location during the call this morning.”

“Thank
goodness.” Vivienne sighed. “So how does this all link to you suspecting
Natalie? She’s been missing for days.”

“As soon as
the morning service started, Suzette thought she saw you in the back corridor
near the restrooms. She followed up and discovered a strange woman who claimed
she was the church’s cleaning lady.”

“Natalie.”
Vivienne nodded.

“Standing
right outside the crime scene at roughly the same time we assume the attacks
happened.” Zeke finished. “Suzette informed me that the woman had her hair in
her face and avoided eye contact, but she still looked familiar. It wasn’t
until later on when she happened to glance at one of the missing flyers on the
church bulletin board that she made the connection and called the station.”

“Thank
goodness.” Vivienne sighed. “So when did you catch her?”

“We haven’t.”
Zeke’s posture tensed up. “I have a missing officer whose last known location
was the church and a bad feeling that she’s behind it.”

“I’m sorry,
sheriff.” Vivienne lowered her head. “What about the bake sale poisonings? Is
everyone okay?”

“They’re very
sick at the moment but the medical teams are dispensing medication to counter
the lethal effects. Her choice of poison is most peculiar.”

“I think she
was obsessed with using
hydroxybenzene
because the
original
Rothwell
family members were killed off by
the same thing.” Vivienne added. “It’s rather obscure now. Most likely if she
killed with it, there was a good chance it would not get picked up on a basic
autopsy.

“Unless
someone suspected otherwise.” Zeke concurred.

“Think about
it. After she married Robert
Rothwell
, she could
poison him with the same thing. If someone became suspicious, it wouldn’t have
been very hard to dump an amount into the waste water generated by the drilling
company and blame it on accidental exposure while visiting the site in person.”
Vivienne finished. “The black widow kills her final victim and walks away with
a large chunk of the
Rothwell
family fortune.”

“Not if we
stop her.”

“Vivienne,
it’s time I fill you in with the plan we have to catch this Natalie in the
act.” Zeke announced.

“She’s very
intelligent.” Vivienne spoke up. “You better have a good trap.”

“It’s one we
think she can’t resist.” Zeke tipped his hat at her. “You.”

There was a
knock on the door as one of the officer’s stepped inside. “She’s back from her
supply run.”

“Send her in.”
Zeke nodded.

Vivienne
looked up as Miss Octavia stepped into the room with a large silken bag in her
grip. “Am I glad to see
you.
”

“I told them
you needed my help.” Miss Octavia smiled. “Even if they don’t believe in ‘mumbo
jumbo’. She glanced warily at Sheriff
Rigsbee
.

“I don’t care
what you use, I want her stopped.” Zeke folded is arms across his chest. “You
can employ Santa Claus for all I care.”

Both Vivienne
and Miss Octavia groaned in response.

*            
*             *

“We are asking
all of our responsible citizens to help us out in capturing this dangerous
fugitive.” Zeke spoke to the press outside the Sheriff’s office. “If you spot
her, please don’t try to detain her. Call the police right away and tell them
as much information as you can.”

“How did she
escape?” One of the reporters asked.

“I am not at
liberty to discuss that.” Zeke scolded the intrusive reporter. “Our priority is
not to assign blame, but to ensure that Vivienne Finch is brought to justice
and made to answer the charges against her.”

Kathy turned
to Clara who was standing in the throng of concerned citizens gathered to hear
the press conference. “Good thing we’re in on this or I’d be hopping mad at
him.”

Clara nodded.
“You? If they hadn’t told Nora she’d have had a stroke by now.”

“I hope she’s
careful.” Kathy worried.

“She’ll be
okay. She’s our Vivienne. One of the smartest cookies we know.” Clara whispered
back. “Let’s get out here and hope it ends soon.”

*            
*             *

Thanks to a
secret ride in a patrol car, Vivienne and Miss Octavia had been safely
transferred to Gus Holt’s land where the drilling equipment was quiet and shut
down for the evening.

Their
protector,
officer
Jeff Waverly, was hiding off to the
side behind a large tanker of waste water that the drilling process had
generated. Both Sheriff
Rigsbee
and Vivienne had
agreed that only one officer be posted to ensure Natalie would not spot the
trap too early by mistake. It was a risk, but one that needed to be taken.

As agreed to,
Vivienne decided to start the dialogue that she hoped would draw Natalie to her
while Miss Octavia and Officer Waverly remained hidden. “Okay Natalie, you’ve
won.  You can come out now and finish this.”

There was
nothing but silence. Vivienne had to force herself not to look in the direction
where her surprise party was hiding. Seeing that her words were not enough, she
decided to make it more personal. She retrieved the silver brooch from her
purse and held it tightly in her palm. “Natalie, the police know all about your
plan to destroy the town. It’s not going to work.”

A gentle breeze
blew along the snowy field but Vivienne remained alone. As she carefully
crunched across the snow, she noticed the fresh set of little footprints. She
thought for a moment and decided to take the biggest gamble of all. Before
leaving the Sheriff’s office, she had stopped at the vending machine and
purchased a pack of chocolate chip cookies to snack on as her stomach growled
incessantly with hunger pains. Thankfully, she had been too nervous to eat
them. She pulled the cookies out of her jacket pocket. “Connor, I have cookies.
Just like I promised. Do you want some?” She called out.

A moment
later, Connor stepped out from his hiding place behind a large trailer that had
sections of metal piping strapped down. “Cookies?”

He bounded
toward her, a look of pure joy upon his face. “They are all for you, sweetie.”

He stopped at
her legs and gave her a little hug. “I love you Miss Vivienne.”

Her heart
melted and she fought back a flood of tears. She knelt down to embrace him.
”You poor thing, caught in the middle of this vicious plot.”

He took the
cookies from her hand and began munching on them. “I don’t like staying at
Uncle Gus’ house. He won’t let me play in the cemetery like Mommy does.”

“Where is your
mommy?” She asked.

“Right here.”
Natalie’s voice called out from behind her. “Using my son to get my attention.
Have you no shame?”

“It’s over,
Natalie.” Vivienne spoke quietly. “It ends here.”

Natalie raised
her arms into the air as the wind picked up to a howl, scattering snow in a
crazed fury. “Yes it does.”

“Don’t move
another inch.” Jeff jumped out from his cover with his gun aimed in Natalie’s
direction. “Stay right where you are.”

“I intend to.”
She yelled back to him and then waved her left fingers.

A piece of
metal pipe tore off the water tanker and smacked him in the back of his head.
Jeff dropped to the ground, unconscious. “Now, we finish this.”

“Yes, we do.”
Vivienne directed the large piece of silver rope to snake up behind Natalie and
wrap itself tightly around her body.

“Connor.”
Natalie cried out. “Help mommy get out of this.”

“No Connor,
don’t listen to her.” Vivienne warned.

“Mommy?”
Connor appeared confused and remained frozen in place.

“Good work,
Vivienne.” Miss Octavia stepped out from the shadows of the drilling equipment.
“That will hold her for now.”

Natalie
struggled and squirmed, falling to the ground with a thud. “No.” She turned her
head to face Miss Octavia and opened her mouth. A great wind blasted her
backwards, forcing to put her hands up against her face to fight off the icy
blast.

Vivienne
cleared her head and recited the silence voice spell that Octavia had faxed her
at the Sheriff’s station.

Natalie’s wind
died off as suddenly as it started. She turned to Vivienne in anguish. She
mouthed words, but no sound left her lips.

“I’m sorry.”
Vivienne spoke back.