Ravioli Soup Murder (The Darling Deli Series Book 27) Read online

  “I’m sorry!” the other woman exclaimed. “I panicked. Did I hit him?”

  “I don’t think so,” Moira said. She lowered her hands slightly. If Shay was so worried about shooting a dog, would she really hurt her? “Where did you get a gun?”

  “I carry it in my car, just in case. I show a lot of houses alone, and Charlie wanted me to be prepared if something happened.” Her lip quivered. “I can’t let him find out about me and Jonathan. He’s such a good man. He doesn’t deserve me.”

  “I won’t tell anyone,” Moira said. It was a lie; of course she would tell David — and the police — as soon as she could, but she was okay with being dishonest if it meant saving her own life in the process.

  “Really?” Shay said. She lowered the gun slightly. “How can I trust you?”

  “What’s done is done, and Charlie is David’s friend. I don’t want to hurt him either. From the sound of it, what happened with Jonathan was an accident, so it’s not like you’re a danger to anyone else.”

  Shay nodded quickly. “It was an accident. He wanted me to move away with him, and I said no. He threatened to tell Charlie about the affair, and I told him he was a jerk and shoved him. He tripped over a box and hit his head on the corner of the furnace. It all happened so fast, then you found him, and I was too frightened to tell the police what had happened.”

  “What were you doing here today?” Moira asked, taking a cautious step back. If she could just get into the house, she might be able to lock Shay out and use the landline to call the police.

  “He kept photos of us together in a box. I knew I had to find them before his family arrived to clear out his belongings. I burned them in the kitchen sink just now. All of the evidence that we were ever together is gone.”

  “That means there is nothing left to tie you to the crime,” Moira said. “But if you shoot me, they will be able to match the bullet to your gun, won’t they? It would link you to both my death, and his.”

  Shay let the hand holding her gun fall to her side, frowning.

  “You didn’t mean to kill Jonathan. You’re not a murderer. But if you kill me right now, in cold blood, then you would be.”

  “I’m not a bad person,” Shay said. “I just don’t want to go to jail, and I don’t want my husband to hate me.”

  “How about we both go home and forget about all of this?” Moira suggested. “I’ve got a lot going on myself. I just found out that my ex-husband had a child with another woman.”

  She thought that mentioning her own rocky marriage of the past might help, and was relieved when Shay nodded. “I’m sorry, that must be terrible. You understand what it’s like to have marriage issues. I — I don’t think I could shoot you even if I wanted to. Can we do what you said and just forget about all of this?”

  Moira nodded, forcing herself to smile. “Yes. I’m going to go home now, and you get out of here too. No one will ever know what happened here.”

  Shay nodded and put the gun down on the hood of her car. “Thank you, Moira. You’re a good person.”

  Taking a firm grip on Maverick’s collar once again, she led the dog down the driveway, glancing cautiously behind her once. She saw Shay leaning against her car and sobbing. She felt a tiny spark of guilt for betraying the other woman, but knew it was what she had to do. She could never keep a secret like this. Anyone who was willing to point a gun at her to keep her quiet was too dangerous to ignore. She hoped Shay enjoyed her last few minutes of freedom, because as soon as she and Maverick got back home, she was calling the police.

  EPILOGUE

  * * *

  Moira stood at the sink, lost in thought as she stared out the window. She was supposed to be washing the dinner dishes, but hadn’t yet tackled the pile of plates stacked next to the soapy water. Candice and Eli had just left, and she didn’t know when she would see them again. It had been wonderful having her daughter back for the weekend, but hard to see her go.

  “Are you alright?” David asked, coming up beside her.

  “Yes,” she said, refocusing on the task at hand. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I was worried about you. You’ve been quiet ever since yesterday.” He grabbed a plate and began to scrub it, prompting her to do the same.

  “I can’t stop thinking about Shay. I know I shouldn’t feel bad about turning her in, but I do, a little bit.”

  “You did the right thing. She made her decisions, and now she has to live with them. It’s Charlie I feel bad for.” He sighed. “Poor guy had no idea his wife was having an affair, let alone that she killed someone.”

  “Back when you were tailing Jonathan, you didn’t have any idea?”

  “No. They must have been very careful about where they were meeting. To be honest, I’m not completely sure that he never had an affair with Tillie. Did you know that she and Derek were arguing because he wanted a divorce?”

  “How did you learn that?”

  “I spoke to Detective Jefferson before he left yesterday when he was here to take your statement. He thought that Tillie might have pushed her husband down the stairs, but both of them are denying it, so there’s nothing he can do. Derek did admit to slashing Jonathan’s tires, though. He saw him through the trees with a blonde woman, and thought it was his wife.”

  “That’s one less mystery, at least,” Moira said with a sigh. “So many marriages are falling apart.”

  “Not ours,” he said, pulling her closer with a soapy hand and giving her a kiss.

  “I know,” she said, smiling at him.

  She resumed washing the plates, pausing only to call Maverick over to give him a leftover piece of one of the baked potatoes. She had gone over his entire body carefully the evening before, and hadn’t been able to find any sign of injury. She was glad that Shay’s bullet had missed him. The poor dog had just been trying to protect her.

  “Oh, David, I almost forgot; yesterday I found a pawprint at Jonathan’s house. I took a photo of it. Do you think you would be able to tell whether it’s from a coyote or a dog? If there’s a stray dog wandering around, someone should catch it before it gets hurt.”

  “I’ll take a look,” he said.

  She dried her hands off and brought the photo up on her phone. David gazed at it for a moment.

  “I’m not completely certain, but I think it’s from a dog.”

  “Well, at least we know Jonathan wasn’t completely crazy. There really was a big dog hanging around his house.”

  “We’ll call animal control tomorrow and let them know,” he said.

  They went back to washing the dishes in a companionable silence. The past week had been so full of ups and downs. Candice had gained a sister, and Allison had lost a father. Her daughter had found someone to rent out the farmhouse. She had stumbled onto the truth about her neighbor’s murder, but turning the killer in hadn’t felt as good as she had thought it would.

  For better or for worse, it seemed things were back to being busy. Thanksgiving was just around the corner, and she had a lot of planning to do. At least with all of the changes that had been happening, there was one thing that she could rely on to remain the same.

  She turned to smile at David. The two of them had gone through a lot together, and it had only made their relationship stronger. Not all marriages lasted forever, but she knew without a doubt that hers would.