COFFIN COVE a gripping murder mystery full of twists (Coffin Cove Mysteries Book 1), JACKIE ELLIOTT [most recommended books txt] 📗

Jim dragged her onto the deck and pushed Tara back into the house. “Turn the light off!” The deck plunged into darkness.

“What the fuck?!” Andi heard Harry’s voice in the darkness and nearly cried with relief.

“Well, thanks for doing all the work, Harry,” the figure said. “You seem to be turning up everywhere. Hand him over. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want Brian.”

Hilstead, Andi thought.

To her surprise, Harry laughed.

“You’ve killed two people already, Hilstead. You’ll kill me in a heartbeat. You want McIntosh? Come and fucking get him.”

“What is he doing?” Andi said frantically. “He’ll get himself killed!”

“Shut up,” Jim muttered to her. “He knows what he’s doing.”

Hilstead strode away from the truck. Andi’s eyes readjusted to the dark. From where she was lying, stomach down on the deck, she could make out the outline of Harry’s bulk. She could hear Harry grunting and guessed that he was dragging McIntosh with him. She hoped that Tara was calling the police.

Hilstead was advancing slowly, his gun — Nikos’s gun, Andi thought — held in a firing position. He stopped. Andi guessed that he was listening, trying to hear movement. Harry must have stopped still, because she couldn’t see him anymore.

Andi heard a click, followed by a loud quick flash of light. In that second, she saw Harry holding on to Brian, right in the line of fire. She heard Hilstead laugh, and before he could fire again, she pushed herself to her feet and started running towards Hilstead.

“Stop firing, you fucker!” she screamed.

“Andi!” she heard Jim shout behind her, but she kept running.

She heard another click, and she swerved to her right, as the gun flashed in front of her and the sudden loud noise made her ears ring. But then one leg crumpled under her.

I’ve tripped, Andi thought, as she fell — in slow motion, it seemed — to the ground. But her leg didn’t move with her body and she felt a searing pain in her thigh.

Oh, Andi thought to herself, as her head hit the ground, I’ve been shot.

A dark shadow loomed over her.

Hilstead, Andi thought. He’s going to kill me. I hope my phone is still recording. And for some reason, that thought made her giggle.

She heard another click over the buzzing in her ears.

He must be near.

This is it.

In the distance, Andi heard gunfire. But she felt nothing, except the burning in her left thigh.

She felt the ground vibrate beside her. The movement made her leg hurt more, and although she just wanted to close her eyes, she put her hand down and pressed hard. Somewhere she’d read that this was the right thing to do.

Her hand was wet.

There were shadows above her. They faded in and out of sight.

Andi was getting cold.

And then lots of shouting. Was that a truck? Was Hilstead getting away? Andi tried to turn her head. She felt a presence beside her. Harry?

“Are you OK?” a voice asked her.

Andi recognized the voice, but it wasn’t Harry. It was a woman.

“Sue?” Andi said. “I think I’ve been shot.”

Sue’s face came into view. “Stay still. You’ll be fine. Help is on the way.”

“What are you doing here?” Andi wondered, her voice sounding like it was coming from far away.

“Settling a debt,” Sue said.

“Oh. OK. I see,” Andi said, although she didn’t.

And then it all went very quiet.

Chapter Forty-Two

Andi was surprised to receive flowers at the hospital.

Hope you get back to writing soon, best wishes for a speedy recovery, Andrew Vega, the card read.

He’d been as good as his word too. He’d visited Andi and allowed her to ask as many questions as she wanted, with the one stipulation that he got to read the story before it went to print.

Vega’s team had Hilstead in custody. He’d been charged with the murder of Pierre Mason and Captain Gerry Roberts. He’d first hired Dunn and Grant Associates as his lawyers, but had possibly been persuaded, as Vega put it, that if he cooperated and handed them some decent information on Paul Nguyen, he might not serve life in prison. His decision was still pending. Nguyen’s influence was everywhere. Even in prison, Vega explained to Andi.

Brian McIntosh had been charged with Sarah’s murder. He’d known she was alive when he tied her up and left her to drown in one of the abandoned, flooded hatchery buildings. He was also charged with stealing Harry’s gun. McIntosh was busy trying to blame his brother, Vega said, sadly.

“And Joe?” Andi had asked.

Vega shook his head. “No charges. Joe has liver cancer. He only has weeks, maybe days to live. His life has been a torment, a living punishment. I can’t imagine. Punishment harsher than the court system can hand out, I think.”

“What about Hades?”

“We’ve left that up to the DFO. But I think after the embarrassment with Captain Roberts, they’ll not pursue charges. I think Nikos Palmer is going back to help his son.”

“And you’ll be glad to hear that I’m not charging you with anything,” he’d said with a smile that Andi found quite charming.

“That’s because I didn’t do anything,” she had replied.

“Really? How about impeding an investigation, conducting unlawful surveillance, being a pain in the ass?” He’d laughed. “When you come to Vancouver, I’ll buy you lunch.”

Andi had agreed. She liked him. He had a dry sense of humour and he wasn’t bad-looking when he smiled, she thought.

Jim hadn’t been enthusiastic about Andi going to Vancouver.

“Is that a date?” he asked suspiciously. “Haven’t you had enough of Vancouver men? Can’t you find a date on the island?”

“Sure,” Andi said sarcastically. “I’ll learn to fish and skin squirrels, OK? Then I’ll have to beat off Coffin Cove men with a stick.”

Jim laughed. “C’mon, we’re