Maggie, focused on trying to get her car door open, and on Rocky outside in the rain, heard Annie groan. She glanced back. Annie was looking for her pocketbook. “My gun,” she whispered. “In my bag. My gun.”

No way was Maggie giving a killer a gun. Especially a killer who’d lured her to wherever this place was and planned to kill her. She hoped the pocketbook was far enough back in the car that Annie, jammed in the front seat with a broken arm, wouldn’t be able to reach it. The gun must still be in her purse since she hadn’t seen it on the car floor.

Rocky was pointing his gun now, aiming it through the open car window, only inches from Maggie’s head.

If she closed the window would the glass deflect the bullet?

Not at such close range.

Besides, it would take too long to close the window.

“I think it would be simpler for me to shoot now,” he said, calmly. “At least I won’t be shooting either of you in the back of the head, Annie, the way you shot Cordelia. I’m giving you each a chance to think about what’s going to happen. Who wants to die first?”

One chance. Luckily the darkness and rain meant Rocky couldn’t see inside the car as well as Maggie could see out. She took every bit of strength she had left and pushed on her door.

This time it gave way, with the loud sound of metal scraping metal. The door sprang open, hitting the unsuspecting Rocky’s torso, including his gun arm, knocking him into the muddy street, and taking Maggie with it, as she held on to the door handle.

Rocky’s gun fired, and Maggie grabbed at the arm holding the gun, and kneed him in the groin.

He screamed and doubled up in pain as she grabbed the gun and managed to pull herself upright on the open door and limp a few feet away from both Rocky and the car.

She stood, gun pointed at Rocky, but with an occasional glance toward the car to make sure Annie hadn’t figured out how to reach her purse. And her gun.

Her ankle wasn’t just throbbing, she realized. It gave her no support. She couldn’t run.

She checked the gun. It was loaded. She’d hated going hunting with her father when she’d been a child, but she had learned a few things from those days.

She aimed, and she could shoot if necessary.

She didn’t say anything, and all Rocky did was swear a couple of times.

It seemed they were there, Rocky on the ground, Maggie standing in the rain and wind, forever.

But it was probably only a couple of minutes before they all heard the screams of an ambulance, and then a police car, in the distance. And then coming closer.

Chapter 40

Papaver somniferum.Hand-colored print from A.B. Strong’s The American Flora, or History of Plants and Wild Flowers, 1846. White Poppy, with yellow center and green stem and leaf. This variety, whose botanical name means “sleep-bringing,” is the plant from which opium is derived, which is why L. Frank Baum had Dorothy and her friends fall asleep in a field of them in The Wizard of Oz. 6.5 x 9 inches, toned at edges. Price: $50.

After the ambulance and police arrived, the flurry of activity and explanations was confusing, but adequate.

Rocky ended up at the police station. Annie and Maggie were both taken to Winslow General Hospital, with police escorts.

“Sorry to break up the bachelor party,” Maggie’d explained, after she was finally able to borrow a telephone at the emergency room and call Will. “But I hope you and Jim are still sober. There was a car accident, and I know you’re mad, but I need you to pick me up at the hospital. Bring Jim, too. I think I might need a lawyer.”

“Jim’s not with me,” Will had said. “Both pre-wedding parties were cancelled. You have no idea how worried I’ve been about you. Right after you left Gussie called to tell us to stay safe and dry and not go out tonight. I’ll call Jim now. You’re sure you’re all right?”

“Except my ankle. ”

“I’ll be there as soon as I get directions.”

Maggie was propped up on one of the emergency room beds when he arrived. She had an IV in her arm, a bandage on her left hand, and her left foot was raised and covered in ice packs.

He started to reach out to hold her hand, and then pulled back. “How are you?”

“Glad you came. All I could think of when I thought I was going to die was that I’d been a fool. That I loved you.”

Will smiled a little, but didn’t move closer.

“I’m okay. Bruised all over. Not too many cuts, though, and the X ray of my ankle showed it’s a clean break. As soon as the swelling goes down the doctor’s going to put a cast on it. What do you think about a blue cast? He’s out of pink, and I refused purple. They don’t seem to do white casts anymore.”

“This is from the car accident?” said Will.

“Most of it. I’ll fill you in,” said Maggie.

“And what’s the good news?” he asked.

“Oh, there’s lots of good news,” said Maggie. She wanted to say, The good news is that you came. “The best news is, I’m getting some good pain meds through this IV, so my ankle doesn’t hurt very much anymore, and my bruises and cuts are getting better all the time.” She stopped talking for a minute, and closed her eyes. Then she opened them. “And I know who killed Dan and Cordelia. And where Tony Silva got the pills that killed him. That’s all very good.”

Jim appeared in the doorway. “Maggie! I just talked to Ike Irons outside. He says you not only got into a car accident with his wife, you also got yourself into the middle of his investigation.”

“I solved all the crimes,” said Maggie. “Did he tell you that?”

“She’s on heavy meds,” said Will quietly. “I don’t know how reliable she is right now.”

“Ike told me when he and the ambulance arrived she was standing in the mud waving a gun at Rocky Costa and saying he’d told her he was going to kill her and Annie.”

“She was…what?” said Will.

“Absolutely right,” said Maggie. “He was. That was Rocky’s gun. You can check it out. I got the gun from him. One bullet’s been fired, but I didn’t fire it. He did. Ask Annie, too.”

“Annie won’t be answering any questions soon, Maggie. Her arm’s shattered, and she has some internal injuries. She’s in surgery.”

“I think I’d like to talk to my lawyer now. In private.”

Will looked at her. “Maggie, why don’t you wait until your cast is on, and you’re feeling better?”

“I need to talk to Jim now. Please, Will.”

Will shook his head and shrugged and left the room.

“Okay, Maggie. I’m here. What is it?” Jim sat down next to her bed.

“Jim, I found out who sold drugs last spring, and who supplied the drugs to Tony Silva. And who killed Dan Jeffrey and Cordelia West. The problem is, I don’t have proof. Annie Irons is at the center of it all. If I tell Ike Irons he could just ignore what I say. I think he may already know Annie was connected with Tony’s death last spring; that’s why he stopped investigating. Tonight Annie and Rocky were going to kill me because of what I’d found out.”

“Maggie, those are serious allegations.” Jim hesitated. “Are you very sure? Because you’re not only accusing two people of murder and drug trafficking, you’re suggesting there may have been a police cover-up.”

“I don’t know for sure about the cover-up. But it seems strange Chief Irons has never questioned the amount of money his wife spends. Jim, she collects very high-end antiques, and her clothes cost a fortune. Unless she has a very rich family or Ike is paid a lot more than most police chiefs in small towns, that money’s coming from somewhere. Ike may not know everything she’s involved with. But I think he suspects, and closes his eyes. And there’s circumstantial evidence to support what I’ve found out. There’s probably more, once someone knows who to investigate. But the investigation has to happen quickly. Chief Irons was right: I was holding a gun on Rocky Costa when the police arrived tonight. Rocky and Annie both know I found out about the drugs and murders.”