Murder, She Barked

Forty-five

I rolled on the ground, clutching Trixie underneath me to protect her. Philip’s gun flew through the air in a big arc. Happily, it didn’t fire when it landed.

I darted over and picked it up.

The golf cart had plummeted into the chilly lake.

“Help!” cried Philip. “I can’t move. I can’t feel my legs. I’ll drown.”

Kim screamed, “I hope you do!” She fled the water as fast as she could and ran for the cabin.

The golf cart sank at a worrisome speed.

“Ben! Maybe we should get him out of there,” I yelled.

“Not a chance.” He signaled me with a thumbs-up.

Huh? I called 911 but heard a siren before anyone answered. I turned around to see Dave pull into the driveway.

I inched closer to the golf cart. No wonder Ben wasn’t worried. The wheels in the back had hit bottom. It wouldn’t sink further.

“He’s injured,” yelled Ben to Dave. “I don’t think he can get out.”

“You’d better go inside to warm up and change into dry clothes,” I said to Ben.

Now that Dave had arrived, I wasn’t afraid. Okay, I was shaking. It wasn’t every day that I ran a golf cart into someone.

Dave radioed for an ambulance, and I handed him the gun.

“How did you know we were here?” I asked.

“Thank Zelda. She stuck a GPS collar into this golf cart because she was so worried about you. Then, when she charged Philip’s phone, she heard a rather interesting message.”

Philip groaned.

“You wanted the inn,” I baited him. “You drove the car that hit Sven. It wasn’t Tiny after all. You’re the one who let Dolce out and called the inn hoping Oma would come so you could plow her down.”

His jaw tightened.

“Oh my gosh.” I rambled on, speculating. “But then you decided that you didn’t have to kill Oma because you thought you would weasel your way into ownership of the inn through me!”

Dave tsked. “Lucky for your grandmother that Philip determined it would be cheaper and easier to inherit an inn than to buy it after her death.”

Ugh! He probably would have killed Oma and me eventually. I felt like the blood had drained out of me. “It was so easy for you because you live on the same street as Ellie. But why did you steal the car from Brewster?”

Philip grunted.

“And why would you be up here trying to murder Kim and Ben? They had nothing to do with . . .” Suddenly I felt like pushing him farther into the water. “You thought Ben stood in your way of conning me into a relationship.” I held the top of my head between my hands. I’d been so stupid using Ben as an excuse not to date Philip. I’d caused this nightmare by telling Philip that Ben and I were engaged. “I hope you and Brewster end up in the same place. You’re two of a kind.”

“I’ve got more guts than Brewster.”

Dave poked Philip’s leg, but he didn’t respond.

A spinal injury?

“Philip,” said Dave, “I’m going to wait for the med techs to move you.”

“I don’t get it,” I said. “If Philip killed Sven, then why did Tiny throw the car over the cliff?”

“He confessed once we brought up Brewster’s name,” said Dave. “As near as I can make out, Brewster hired Tiny to kill Jerry by hitting him with Mortie’s car. But this schlub, Philip, got wind of their plan, and thought he would change the victim so he could get rid of your grandmother. Pretty sneaky, actually. If Philip’s plan had worked, Tiny would have unwittingly killed Oma, and no one would be the wiser about Philip’s involvement.”

“It was Philip who sent Jerry in search of downed electric wires and called Oma to come search for Dolce?”

“Looks like it,” said Dave. “He knew she would come running to Ellie’s house if Dolce was lost.”

“So why did Tiny have the car?”

“Tiny was supposed to drive the car. He parked it at the end of the street in front of Philip’s house, left the keys inside, and took a walk to think about it. He needed the money Brewster promised him, but he didn’t want to kill anybody. Tiny didn’t know how to get out of that mess without angering Brewster. That’s when Philip stepped in. He stole the car, intending to hit your grandmother, but killed Sven by accident. Then he parked it near Hair of the Dog and took the keys.” Dave snorted. “Pretty obnoxious. Meanwhile, Brewster thought Tiny had killed Sven and was steaming mad. Tiny was afraid to tell Brewster he didn’t know who had driven the car. So he took credit for it but told Brewster he lost the keys. It really was Tiny you saw coming back from pushing the car over the cliff. Brewster had made a spare key. Brewster didn’t go out to the highway. Tiny walked back through the woods, where Brewster picked him up in a golf cart. According to Tiny, Brewster pressured him to kill the driver who saw him out on the highway. Brewster’s no dummy. He knew that if the driver identified Tiny, everything would lead back to Brewster.”

I gasped. “So Philip mailed the original car keys to Tiny.”

“Apparently so. Tiny mistakenly thought Brewster mailed him the keys as a threat. That’s why he was spending nights in his daughter’s sleeping bag up in your storage room. He was afraid to go home.”

Dave stared at Philip with a scowl. “The frightening thing is that Philip could have gotten away with it. We had enough against Tiny and Brewster to convict them and nothing tying Philip to any of this. Not until Zelda found his cell phone.” Dave crossed his arms. “Should have worn waders, this water is freezing. Hey, Philip, how’d you lose your cell phone?”

Philip didn’t say a word.

“I’m thinking you lost it running back and forth to Hair of the Dog to make phone calls the night you killed Sven,” said Dave.

“I’m going to have hypothermia. I can’t feel my legs. I’ll tell you if you get me out of here.”

“Okay,” said Dave. “You first.”

“It was that stupid dog, Dolce. He was crazy wild when I let him out. In the middle of the green, he jumped up and put his paws on my shoulders, knocking me down. My phone must have fallen out of my pocket. Now get me out of this water!”

It wasn’t going to happen. We couldn’t move him without the danger of making his injury far worse, and the golf cart weighed way too much for us to pull it out of the lake by hand.

The ambulance arrived minutes later. The medical technicians didn’t hesitate to splash into the water to stabilize Philip. They immobilized his head and strapped him onto a stretcher.

Trixie and I were the only ones who weren’t wet.