The Root of Murder Read online

  “It was great. I’ve always thought you were a great dancer, Elizabeth.” Madison sounded exhausted and frightened. “Don’t you want to go home now? Your family’s going to get worried.”

  “Stop saying that! You are my family.” Elizabeth grabbed a fistful of Madison’s hair. “I’ve done everything for you. When you hurt, I hurt. When you cry, I cry. When that worthless piece of garbage you called a father hurt you, I paid him back for you.”

  “You killed my daddy?”

  “I did that for you!”

  Madison uttered a cry of gut-wrenching remorse. “No!”

  “He betrayed you! He made you cry! I couldn’t let him get away with that!”

  “You bitch!”

  “Bitch? Bitch!” Elizabeth slapped her. “I’m your sister! I killed for you and that’s how you thank me!”

  “Where’s our backup?” Cameron asked with a hiss.

  “We need to go in.” Joshua grabbed Cameron’s arm and whispered into her ear. “I’m going to swing around and see if I can come in through the front door. You stay here. Distract her if you have to.” He slipped out the back door.

  Cameron opened the door ever so slightly to look inside.

  Elizabeth was dressed in tights and leotards and dance shoes. Her bleached hair was held back with a headband. Madison sat in a straight back chair. Through a dim beam of light from a street light, Cameron could see that she was taped to the chair.

  After finding another song on her phone, Elizabeth proceeded to leap and twirl and dance about the dimly-lit cluttered studio.

  The floor to ceiling mirrors were filthy from lack of care, but Elizabeth didn’t notice. She had escaped to a time when it had been a place of dreams—when she was young and her future was full of possibilities for acceptance and love.

  Elizabeth was immersed in her dance when Cameron saw a slight movement behind where Madison was bound to the chair.

  Just a little bit more.

  Elizabeth went into a spin.

  Keeping low, Joshua crept up behind Madison’s chair. He took a knife from his pocket and placed his hand on hers.

  Startled, Madison shrieked.

  Elizabeth teetered and fell.

  Joshua sliced through the tape holding one of Madison’s arms to free her.

  “No!” Elizabeth screamed above the music while holding out her arms to them. “Don’t take my sister!”

  “Police!” Her weapon drawn, Cameron sprung from the store room. “Don’t move, Elizabeth!”

  Elizabeth threw up her legs to kick the gun out of Cameron’s hand. The weapon slid across the floor. Elizabeth then swiped Cameron’s legs out from under her. Cameron hit the floor with a thud. Elizabeth pounced on her.

  Seeing Elizabeth attacking Cameron like a crazed maniac, Joshua froze.

  “Please don’t leave me!” Madison grabbed him with her free hand.

  “Get Madison out of here!” Cameron ordered while delivering a punch to Elizabeth’s face, which barely seemed to faze her.

  Joshua continued to slice through the tape holding Madison as fast as he could.

  “You have no right taking my sister from me!” Elizabeth went after Cameron with everything she had—nails, fists, kicks. Cameron tried to fight her off as best she could while reaching for her backup weapon on her ankle.

  Once Madison was free, Joshua pulled her out of the chair. Too terrified to move, she threw both arms around him and held on while he practically carried her outside.

  Two cruisers pulled into the parking lot as he went out. A uniformed officer spilled out with his weapon drawn. “Hold it right there!”

  Straddling Cameron, Elizabeth had both hands around her neck. “How dare you take my sister from me. Can’t you see we’re a pair? We belong together. No one can take my sister from me.”

  It took every ounce of strength for Cameron to suck in every bit of breath to stay conscious. With one arm, she fought to break Elizabeth’s hold on her throat while stretching her other arm for her ankle. Just a fraction of an inch more.

  Elizabeth’s face swirled above her. Her expression was filled with complete insanity.

  Consciousness slipping away, Cameron dropped her arm from her leg. The cold touch of metal against her forearm sent a jolt up her arm and to her brain.

  The burst of gunfire drowned out the rock chorus of the song bursting from Elizabeth’s phone.

  Joshua pushed through the two uniformed officers leading the way inside. He found Elizabeth on top of Cameron in the middle of the floor. They were motionless. Cameron’s service weapon lay next to them.

  “Cameron!” He ran across the floor and shoved Elizabeth off his wife. There was so much blood on them, that he couldn’t tell who shot who. “Cam?” He pressed his fingers against her throat.

  The touch of his hand made Cameron jump up with a loud gasp. Her eyes flew open. She grabbed his arm as if intent to break it. He took her into a tight hug while she coughed and gasped for oxygen to fill her lungs.

  “You scared me to death,” he breathed into her ear.

  “I scared you?” she gasped out. “I scared me.”

  Standing above them, the ranking uniformed officer called in the police shooting.

  It wasn’t until they had erected lights in the studio to examine the scene that the significance of Elizabeth’s final dance struck home.

  Under the brilliant spotlight, she lay sprawled out in the middle of the dance studio floor dressed in her bright blue leotards and dance shoes. One arm lay across her blood-soaked mid-section, while the other hand landed above her head. One leg was straight, while the other leg was crossed at the ankle.

  Her blue eyes and mouth were open wide—an expression of ecstasy in the ballerina’s fatal last dance.

  Unsteady on her legs, Cameron knelt to study the half-heart necklace around her neck. It was the first time she had a chance to read the inscription on the heart:

  Forever My Sister. Always My Friend.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Whose cars are those?” Madison’s voice went up an octave when Joshua pulled Cameron’s cruiser into the Whitaker driveway. It was the middle of the night before they could take Madison home to where her mother had been waiting for word about her daughter.

  Cameron recognized Tony’s SUV. She also recognized Kathleen Davis’s elegant vehicle. “What is Kathleen Davis doing here?” she asked in a raspy voice. Her throat was sore from being strangled.

  “She killed Mom!” Madison threw open the car door before Cameron could come to a complete stop.

  “I’m sure Tony wouldn’t let that happen,” Cameron said.

  “Maybe she killed him, too,” Joshua said.

  The kitchen was filled with loud girlish laughter. Sherry, Kathleen, and Tony sat around the kitchen table. Each one had a margarita glass in front of them and a puppy in their arms. Kathleen wore a housecoat, plus an apron on top of that, to protect herself against puppy drool and dog hair.

  “Then John told the police officer that I was choking and that he was doing the Heimlich maneuver, to which the officer replied,” Kathleen laughed so hard, she could barely finish. “‘What is she choking on? Your tongue?’”

  They bent over with laughter. Even Sherry’s pack of dogs and pups seemed to be joining in the merriment.

  “I guess the wives are getting along,” Joshua said.

  “Oh, yeah, we’ve been getting along great,” Sherry said while taking the last sip of her margarita. Seeing Madison, she jumped to her feet. “Maddie! You’re okay!” Still clutching the pup, she hurried across the kitchen to hug her daughter.

  “They found her!” Kathleen flew out of the chair to join in the hug.

  “I’m so happy!” To their surprise, Tony also stood to join in the group hug.

  Puzzled, Madison looked over her mother’s shoulder t
o Cameron, who picked up the empty pitcher that had held margaritas.

  “I guess you two are okay with Dad’s shenanigans,” Madison said.

  “Well,” Kathleen said, “the news was an awful shock to say the least.”

  “To say the least,” Sherry said.

  “But then, between Heather’s being in intensive care and you getting abducted, we both needed someone to lean on. I wouldn’t have made it through the last several hours of waiting, if it hadn’t been for your mother.” Kathleen took Sherry’s hand. “I can see what it is about her that made my husband run off to commit bigamy.”

  “Oh, you’re too kind, Kathleen,” Sherry said. “You were the strong woman behind the man, and Shawn respected that. He knew he needed you. It was your strength that got me through this night. Why, I wouldn’t have made it if I didn’t have you to listen to me rattle on and on.”

  “I was rattling more than you,” Kathleen said while stroking the puppy, who was licking her jaw.

  “We were all rattling,” Tony said.

  “The doctor called,” Kathleen said, “and if Heather continues like she has been, he’ll be able to bring her out of the coma tomorrow morning.” She smiled at Madison. “Maddie, I know she’ll want you there.”

  “I guess you arrested Elizabeth?” Sherry asked Cameron.

  “She’s dead,” Cameron said.

  “You were right, Mom,” Madison said. “She was crazier than a fruit bat. She thought I was her sister.”

  “Did your father have a third wife?” Sherry asked.

  “I don’t see where he would have had the energy,” Tony said.

  “Mom, she killed Dad,” Madison said with a sob.

  The three women once more went into a group hug.

  “Well,” Sherry sniffed, “Shawn or John, depending on who he is to you, may be gone, but one good thing did come out of this. We’ve all found each other—and I have a feeling your father is looking down on us with a big grin on his face.”

  Exhausted, Joshua and Cameron left, with Tony directly behind them on the way out the door.

  “We’ll drive you home,” Cameron ordered Tony.

  “They insisted.”

  “You’re on duty,” she said.

  “Are you going to write me up?”

  “I should, but I’m tired. Get in the car.”

  Tony slid into the back seat of Cameron’s cruiser. Joshua got behind the wheel.

  “I found out what it is about Davis that had those two women falling all over him,” Tony said. “I mean, let’s face it. The guy wasn’t any Brad Pitt in the looks department, and they were ga-ga over him.”

  “What was it?” Joshua asked.

  “He had sex with them every night.”

  Joshua hit the brakes. “Every night?” He looked over at Cameron who was looking him up and down.

  Tony hiccupped.

  “I’m sure they were just exaggerating.” Joshua pressed his foot back on the accelerator.

  “That’s what I thought until they started comparing notes,” Tony said.

  “Notes?” Cameron asked.

  “We’re talking glorious details. From what those two were saying, John Davis could have taught Hugh Hefner a thing or two.”

  “I’m sure it wasn’t every night,” Joshua said with a shake of his head.

  “Josh,” Cameron said, “why don’t—”

  “We’re not going to talk about it.”

  Tony grabbed the back of Joshua’s seat. “Every single night, I tell you. Whichever wife he was with at the time.”

  “Nobody is that amorous,” Joshua said.

  “He was married to Kathleen Davis for over thirty years and she said he never missed a night when he was home.” Tony pounded Joshua’s seat. “Not even food poisoning could stop him.”

  “Now I’m depressed,” Joshua said.

  “I thought we weren’t going to talk about this,” Cameron said.

  Sheriff Sawyer woke Joshua up the next morning with the news that Aaron Collins had not only survived the night, but that he had also regained consciousness. A chemical analysis of his drink revealed that it contained an overdose of over-the-counter sleeping pills. The doctor suggested that the only thing that kept Aaron alive was a combination of the caffeine in his energy drink to counter the sedative and his large size.

  Aaron broke down upon learning the news of his wife’s death.

  Sheriff Sawyer, Joshua, and Cameron exchanged glances of sympathy while the young man, who was not quite twenty-five, sobbed upon hearing the news that the mother of his children was dead.

  “We know this is a very difficult time for you,” Joshua held out a tissue box to him. “but we do have to ask you some important questions. We need to make sense of this.”

  Aaron took several tissues and dabbed his tear-filled eyes. “I guess you’ve figured out that Elizabeth was the one who put the sleeping pills in my energy drink.”

  “Why would she try to kill you?” Cameron asked.

  “We had a fight.”

  “Every couple fights,” Cameron said, “but they don’t all try to kill each other.”

  Aaron hung his head. “Elizabeth had issues.”

  “Elizabeth was a killer,” Cameron said. “She murdered Madison’s father.”

  “I thought he was Heather’s father,” Aaron said.

  “He was also Madison’s father,” Joshua said.

  “Last week, Elizabeth told me that she had killed Heather’s dad because Maddie was upset because he was carrying on with her mother,” Aaron said. “Then, a couple of days ago, she came home saying that she’d overheard Maddie and Heather talking. Turns out she’d murdered Maddie’s dad and he was cheating on her mother with Heather’s mom. I thought she’d killed a second man.” He looked up at them. “Who did she kill?”

  “It’s complicated,” Sheriff Sawyer said.

  “You moved the body, didn’t you, Aaron?” Joshua said.

  “We matched tracks left at the dump site to your SUV,” Cameron said. “We also found blood in the rear compartment—enough to run DNA tests.”

  Aaron rose his eyes to Cameron’s. Slowly, he dragged his gaze to Joshua’s.

  “Elizabeth wasn’t strong enough to move a grown man,” Cameron said. “Davis had been stabbed thirty-two times. She must have been covered in blood when she got home that night. She told you what she’d done, so you went to the apartment and found John Davis’s body.”

  “Your first thought was to protect Elizabeth. So you moved the body and cleaned up the scene in hopes of destroying any evidence that she had been there,” Joshua said.

  “She was my wife,” Aaron said. “It was my job to protect her. I knew I couldn’t support her like she wanted to be supported, but I could do what I could to protect her.”

  “Even when it’s murder?” Sheriff Sawyer asked.

  “She was sick,” Aaron said with a shrug of his shoulders.

  “Then she needed help,” Cameron said. “Not having her crimes covered up. Did Elizabeth tell you how the murder had happened?”

  Aaron wiped his nose. “Somehow, Madison had become friends with Heather Davis. Those two hated each other back when they were competing in dance. Well, suddenly, out of the blue they were friends and that drove Elizabeth crazy—especially since she blamed Heather for Lindsay getting killed. She felt like Heather was muscling in on her position at the dance studio.”

  “What was her position at the dance studio?” Cameron asked.

  “She told me that Madison hired her to manage the place so that she’d be free to teach dance,” Aaron said. “But then I saw when I was setting up the computers at the place that really Elizabeth was just a receptionist. She did some social media stuff, but not much else. But if you had asked her, she’d make like it was a lot more. When she told Mom that
she was teaching dance, I thought she was just trying to sound more important than she really was.”

  “But it was more than that,” Cameron said.

  “She bleached her hair to make it the same color as Madison’s and got all these dance clothes like what Madison wore. I thought she just admired Madison and wanted to be like her,” Aaron said. “Then, one day last week, she went into the studio where a class was getting ready and started to lead them on the warmup. Madison was really upset about that when she walked in and saw it.”

  “Elizabeth was delusional,” Joshua said.

  “When she found out that Madison and Heather were going out together that Friday night, she went nuts,” Aaron said. “Madison had left early—leaving Elizabeth at the studio. Elizabeth closed up the studio early and followed her.”

  “We have witnesses who identified her from a picture at the bar where Madison had met Heather,” Cameron said. “She hid at a corner table to watch them.”

  “Elizabeth told me that Heather’s father was having an affair with Madison’s mom,” Aaron said. “Or maybe it was the other way around. They found Madison’s dad cheating with Heather’s mom? Whatever? They all got into a huge fight. Madison was hysterical when they left. Elizabeth went nuts because he had hurt her. So, she knocked on the door. He answered and she confronted him about upsetting Madison. She said he didn’t even know who she was—which got her even madder.” He shook his head. “She told me that he should have known who she was—because she was Madison’s sister. Totally weird.”

  “After killing who she thought was Heather’s father,” Cameron said, “Elizabeth tried to frame Derek because she knew he had issues with the Davis family. Why did you dump his body out at the Newhart farm?”

  “Because it was out in the sticks,” Aaron said. “We’d gone out there for Madison’s Christmas party. It was out in the middle of nowhere and since it was late at night, I figured it might take a while for anyone to find the body. I had wrapped it up in a comforter and doused it in gasoline. I figured it’d burn up into ashes and no one would know who it was.”