“Absolutely.”

  “My guess is that the killer is really scrambling right now. They are probably desperate to come up with a plan to throw you off of their scent.”

  “That’s why I need to keep the pressure on the suspects. I can’t let them get comfortable.”

  “I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

  “What other choice do I have?”

  “I’m not saying that you should take a different approach. Instead, I’m trying to warn you that your strategy might have unintended consequences.”

  “Like what?”

  “You think that by applying enough pressure, you’ll get the murderer running scared. But what if the killer decides to take extreme measures? What if they decide to strike again? And set their sights on making you their next victim?”

  “You sure know how to paint a terrifying picture.”

  “I can’t help it. That was one of the first thoughts that entered my mind when you started talking. And if it crossed my mind, you’d better believe that the killer has thought of it too.”

  “You’ve definitely given me a lot to think about.”

  “I’m glad I brought it up then. At least now you can be prepared if the worst does come to pass.”

  “That’s a big if.”

  “Well, yeah. Maybe the killer will end up running scared. I would definitely prefer that.”

  “Do you really think that’s going to happen? Is that what your instincts are telling you?”

  “I hate to say it, but I feel like it’s much more likely that the killer does something far more extreme,” Lisa said.

  I took a deep breath.

  Lisa continued. “Do you feel that way too?”

  I winced. “Unfortunately.”

  “Wow. Of all the things to agree about, this is the most concerning.”

  “I’m right there with you on that.”

  “What a crazy situation. And it might get even wilder.”

  I scratched my chin. “True. But maybe I can use that to my advantage.”

  Lisa shrugged. “What are you talking about?”

  I bit the corner of my lip and then replied, “I just got an interesting idea.”

  Chapter Nine

  In order to put my plan into action, I needed to track down a reporter. Thankfully, that wasn’t very hard to do. In fact, a conversation with a reporter was only a phone call away.

  Maureen Deckhard worked for the local TV station. When I told her that I had a scoop that was related to Connor’s murder, she was very anxious to meet with me.

  A few minutes later, I made my way over to the TV station. I gave Maureen a brief interview. I also provided her with just enough information to make things interesting, but I didn’t go into a level of detail that would spoil anything.

  Even though Maureen was anxious to throw a bunch of questions at me, my goal was just to tease the viewing audience. The hook was simple.

  “I’ve uncovered a crucial piece of evidence that will lead to the arrest of the real killer,” I said. “I have a meeting with the detective tomorrow. I will share it with him then. When I do, it’s going to change this entire case,” I said.

  Maureen pressed me for more information, but I didn’t give her anything further.

  Instead, I cut the interview short and headed home.

  I knew that by the end of the night, my interview would spread like crazy.

  In fact, I was counting on that.

  ***

  The question became, would my plan work? I definitely had high hopes. At the same time, there were inherent risks involved.

  In my experience, that was just the way life went sometimes. In order to get rewards, risks needed to be taken.

  After finishing up my interview with the reporter, I headed home. When I arrived back at my place, it wasn’t long before I headed back to my bedroom and turned the lights out. In fact, it was probably the earliest that I had called it a night in a long time.

  Just because I headed off to bed didn’t mean that the action was over for the evening. Far from it. Honestly, if I was correct, things were just about to heat up.

  All told, it was a couple of hours before any usual activity took place.

  The suspicious action began at my back door.

  At first, my handle jiggled. An intruder was in the backyard, attempting to pick the lock of my door. It took the intruder a few attempts, but they were finally able to open the door.

  Once the lock was picked, the intruder slowly tiptoed through my dark kitchen.

  From there, they made their way to my living room. When they saw that I wasn’t there, they began to walk down my hallway.

  The entire time, they remained incredibly quiet. It was actually pretty impressive how silent they were able to remain.

  When the intruder reached the end of the hallway, they turned left and entered my bedroom.

  That was when things got really hairy.

  The intruder made their way over to the side of my bed.

  At that point, they stopped.

  Suddenly, I heard a woman’s voice say, “Where’s this piece of evidence that you’re going to show the detective?”

  A few seconds of silence went by.

  The woman spoke up again. “I said, where’s the evidence?”

  The intruder then reached over and turned on the lamp that was on top of my bedside table.

  With the light now on, I could clearly see that the intruder was Betsy. She was holding a gun in her hand.

  While Betsy thought that she had me right where she wanted me, she was in for a serious surprise.

  As she looked at my bed, she quickly realized that I wasn’t curled up under my covers. In fact, I wasn’t in bed at all. When Betsy pulled back my comforter, all she found was a collection of pillows under my sheets.

  Under the cover of darkness, those pillows had given the illusion that I was in bed.

  In reality, I had been standing in the corner, waiting to sneak up behind her.

  That was what I did right then.

  I moved behind Betsy and placed the barrel of the gun that I was holding against the back of her head.

  I then spoke up. “There was no evidence. It was all just a trick,” I said. “At least, there was no evidence tying you to the murder…until you broke into my house.”

  Betsy’s body began to tremble. She knew that she was in deep trouble now.

  I continued, “Don’t move a muscle or I’ll shoot you.”

  “I don’t believe that for a second,” Betsy said.

  Even though Betsy’s reply was defiant, her voice cracked as she spoke.

  “Do you really want to test me? Especially given the fact that your life is on the line?”

  Betsy didn’t say a word.

  “Put your gun down,” I demanded.

  Betsy didn’t follow my orders. She remained still.

  I stared at the gun that she was holding in her right hand.

  I raised my voice. “Don’t make me ask again. Put the gun down. Now!”

  It took a few seconds, but Betsy reluctantly dropped her gun.

  I then reached over and grabbed it.

  I didn’t want her to try any funny business.

  “All right. Now, turn around,” I said.

  Betsy let out a groan. Once again, she didn’t follow my orders.

  “Don’t make me repeat myself again,” I said.

  Betsy slowly turned around.

  “You’re a maniac, you know that? You killed Connor. Then you broke into my house to kill me. And you almost pulled it off. Until I outsmarted you.”

  “Don’t you mean that you got lucky?”

  I shook my head. “No. This had nothing to do with luck. I set this trap, and you fell right into it,” I said. “It’s a good thing too, because you are psychopath.”

  “No. I’m just a woman who was betrayed.”

  “Is that how you explain all of this? So, did Connor tell you that he was going to leave Amy for you? And instead, when Amy found out about your affair, Connor broke this off with you to try to win Amy back? Is that the betrayal you’re talking about?”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  “No, but I can put the pieces together. For example, I’ll bet you were the so-called neighbor who placed the call to the police on the night of the murder. Amy was the perfect scapegoat. After all, she got into an argument with Connor shortly before his death and sped away from his house in a huff,” I said. “When the police wrongfully arrested her for the crime, you probably thought that you’d get away with murder. Then I started poking my head around, asking questions. At that point, you knew you needed to take action. Especially when you heard my TV interview. It would just be one more murder. Then you could skip town. Am I right?”

  Betsy stared me down, but she didn’t say a word.

  “Don’t want to answer me? Fine. I already know the truth. You’re a lunatic. And you’re going to be spending the rest of your life behind bars. Kiss your freedom good-bye,” I said.

  ***

  Like that, the case was over. My job was done. Not only had I proven that Amy was innocent, but I had also caught Connor’s real killer. What a crazy case. And a wild evening. Right then, it was impossible to overstate how grateful I was. After all, I managed to get through this without a single scratch on me. That was no small feat. I was definitely blessed. And I would be counting my blessings for a very long time.

  The End.

  Shortcake, Surprises, and Secrets

  Chapter One

  “What a crazy week,” I said.

  As a private investigator, my life was rarely boring. In fact, sometimes it was downright wild. Even so, I wasn’t used to things being this crazy in my small town.

  Majestic Cove was a small tourist town on the Pacific Coast. During the offseason, it was often a relatively sleepy place.

  That made the events of the last seven days even more shocking. A murder had occurred. The local police, including my good friend, Detective Scott Webster, had conducted an investigation. Amy Dearborn was then arrested for the crime.

  A few days later, I received a frantic phone call from Amy. She wanted to hire me to prove that the police were wrong. She insisted that she was innocent. My job was to track down the real killer.

  At first, I wasn’t sure if I could pull that off. Much to my surprise, I discovered that Amy was correct. Someone else had killed Connor Taggart. After a tense investigation, I managed to uncover the identity of the real murderer. In addition, I was able to set a trap that led to the apprehension of the killer.

  With the guilty party in custody, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. A weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. It felt so good knowing that a maniac was off of the streets.

  It was safe to say that of all of the cases that I had worked on over the years, this one had the most satisfying ending. After all, I briefly wondered if I was in over my head. The stakes had certainly been high enough.

  Right then, I knew how lucky I was to be alive. Although my plan ended up succeeding, it could have seriously backfired. In fact, going into the evening, there was a pretty decent probability that it would blow up in my face.

  Since it didn’t, it was important for me to thank God for my safety. The Lord had answered my prayers, and I was incredibly grateful for that.

  While my health was my top priority, there were other consideration at that moment. I couldn’t help but think about my client.

  Now that Connor’s killer had been arrested, it would only be a matter of time before Amy was set free. She wouldn’t have to worry about prison anymore. She could have her life back.

  Before that happened, however, there was an interesting wrinkle that needed to be dealt with.

  Detective Scott Webster and I had been on opposing sides of this case from the beginning. For the longest time, he truly believed that Amy was guilty. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have arrested her.

  However, he was wrong. The question became, how would he react to the fact that I had been the one to solve this case? Would he just be happy that the case was now closed? That the real killer was in custody? Or would he have hard feelings?

  Detectives often had big egos. They could be very prideful. Even though that had not been my experience with Scott over the years, would this be an exception?

  I had my worries. No one liked to be proven wrong. I knew that our conversation could go a number of different ways. I was really hoping that it wouldn’t be awkward.

  One thing was clear. Scott had an amazing poker face. I wasn’t able to get a good read on his mood. Since I was in the dark about what he was feeling, I decided to let him make the first move.

  “That was some great work you did there,” Scott said.

  So much for the conversation being awkward. He could not have been more complimentary of me.

  “Don’t you mean, that was some incredible luck that I just had?” I replied.

  “I’m not going to lie. You are very fortunate that the situation played out how it did.”

  “Is that another way of saying that I’m lucky to still be alive?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “Trust me. I’m well-aware of that. In fact, I’m not going to play the lottery for a while because I think I just used up the last of my good luck,” I said.

  “You could be right. Then again, perhaps you’re luckier than you think. This could be the beginning of a hot streak for you.”

  “I doubt that. I’m definitely not going to push my luck.”

  “That’s probably a wise move,” Scott said. “Either way, you were right about Amy being innocent.”

  I nodded.

  Scott stared at me, expecting me to say something.

  When I didn’t, he broke the silence between us.

  “Isn’t this the part where you say I told you so?” Scott asked.

  I shook my head. “No. This is the part where I breathe a huge sigh of relief.”

  His eyebrows rose. “You’re really not going to rub it in that you were right and I was wrong?”

  “No.”

  “Wow. That’s refreshing.”

  “What can I say? Gloating has never been my thing.”

  “I realize that. But this is a very unique case.”

  I put my hand up. “A very frustrating case. Which is why I’m just so happy that this investigation is finally over.”

  “I hear you. And we can both agree on that.”

  “Honestly, right now, I just want to put this all behind me and never think about it again.”

  “Do you really think it’s going to be that easy to put this all behind you?”

  “Probably not, but I can dream.”

  “Of all the things you could dream about, what an interesting thing to pick.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of dreams. This is just one of many.”

  “What else is on the list?”

  “Peace,” I said. “That’s actually at the top of the list. I just want things to settle down around here.”

  “You and me both. I certainly didn’t have a case like this in mind when I moved back to Majestic Cove.”

  “Wait. Did you really think you’d end up living a quiet and simple life?”

  “I was hoping for that to happen, even if I knew the odds were slim.”

  “So, is that the only reason you came back?”

  “I’m not sure this is the right time or place for that conversation.”

  “Why? Is the answer to that question really long and complicated?”

  “How about we get into that some other time?”

  “Fine. Pick the time.”

  He chuckled. “You really are the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.”

  “You should be thankful for that.”

  “That’s an interesting perspective.”

  “Think of it like this. If I wasn’t so stubborn, the killer would probably still be at-large.”

  Scott’s eyebrows rose. “What a terrifying thought.”

  “It sure is. Which is why I’m so happy that this case is finally over.”

  “By the way, thanks again for everything you did. I really appreciate it.”

  “Hey, I was just doing my job.”

  “You’re remarkably humble, you know that?”

  “What can I say? It doesn’t seem right to brag. Especially when things could have easily blow up in my face.”

  “Let me tell you, I’m so relieved that they didn’t.”

  “You and me both. I’m counting my blessings.”

  He scratched his chin. “I wonder how many blessings you have left.”

  “I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, I’d really love to take a vacation,” I said.

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “To tell you the truth, I’m not picky. Any place that is relaxing and peaceful would be great.”

  “Rest and relaxation does sound pretty wonderful.”

  “Unfortunately, vacations cost money. And I don’t have a lot of that sitting around.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “That’s a shame. I was hoping you were going to treat me with a nice trip,” I joked.

  “I’m afraid I can’t help you there,” he said. “The best I could do is some dinner.”

  “That works for me. I’m not going to turn down free food.”

  “Oh, I think you misunderstood me. I was talking about in the future. Not now.”

  I became deflated. “Oh.”

  “It’s just that I have some work to do back at the police station.”

  “Right. Of course,” I replied. “Don’t worry. I’m a patient woman. I can wait a day or two.”

  “Good.”

  “After all, I’ve been waiting a number of weeks for you to explain what brought you back to Majestic Cove,” I said.

  “You’re not going to drop that, are you?”