Page 103 of Midnight Secrets

The tip of Mina’s gun dipped, and she squinted. “Grace? Is that you?”

Snow crunched softly under the woman’s boots as she stepped forward, bringing her features more into the glow from the streetlight, and I recognized her. Grace Alonso was a teacher at the school. I’d seen her in The Cozy Cup too.

“Hello, Mina.” Grace offered her a sad smile. “I’m sorry to involve you in this. You picked a bad night to visit your friend.”

The frown on my face deepened with every word. What was she doing here?

Then it clicked. Sometimes it paid living in a small town.

Grace Alonso and Officer Gabe Turner were siblings.

My eyes widened as it all came together in my mind. “Oh my God. You’re the one who torched my office. Your brother was Marie Hammond’s lover.”

“And that’s why I set the fire. You’re too clever, Claire. Unlike my damn brother, who can’t remember to pick up after himself,” she growled through clenched teeth. “Those pictures you took of Marie’s house needed to be destroyed before you could make the connection to him.”

“The shirt on the hamper,” I said, hoping to keep her distracted. She hadn’t told us to put our rifles down again, and I wanted to keep it that way. “It was your actions that made us think harder about what I had that the killer wanted. If you’d left it alone, we probably wouldn’t have known.”

“Lies!” Grace shifted her stance. “Eventually, the truth would have come out. Because Gabe’s an idiot!” The gun wavered in her hand.

I tightened my grip on my rifle and cast a quick look at Mina from the corner of my eye. Her rifle rose fractionally.

“I had this all planned,” Grace continued. “Down to the last detail. And then Gabe had to screw it all up and sleep with her one last time. He told me they were through. That when she toldhim they were going to Boston to look for a house, he knew she was serious about leaving, and he ended things. But he didn’t! He took what that whore gave him and left his shirt behind. It wasn’t until after I stabbed the bitch that I learned what he’d done. I found it cleaning up.”

Gracemurdered Marie?

“It was the perfect plan. Marie died. Then, eventually, the cops would find Warren dead in the backyard of his house, with a letter in his pocket that said he couldn’t live with the guilt or without her. It was all supposed to be wrapped up with a neat little bow. Then Gabe could move on.” Her hand shook and her cheeks flushed as anger blazed in her eyes.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I didn’t want to kill her. Gabe was supposed to let her go, but he…just…couldn’t. He wouldn’t have been happy on the East Coast. This is his home. So, the bitch had to die.”

Boy, but was she delusional. Who murdered their brother’s girlfriend so he wouldn’t move away or pine for her?

A siren sounded in the distance.

Finally!Relief flooded my veins, making my limbs a little heavy.

Grace’s eyes darted toward the sound. “Dammit! Stupid, nosy neighbors. This is Alaska. People shoot guns.”

Not inside houses, they didn’t.

Her stance shifted and her expression hardened. “I’m sorry about this.” The gun in her hands swung toward me.

I saw the decision in her eyes before her body acknowledged it.

She was going to shoot me.

Except I had no plans to die tonight. I—hopefully—had a man in that house who I planned to hold close for many years to come and a long life left to live.

This crazy woman wasn’t going to take that from me.

Years of hunting had made me an excellent shot. From this distance I knew I couldn’t miss. Before she could pull the trigger, I took aim and fired.

CHAPTER 37

Ozzie

“What the fuck was that?” My head came up at the crack of a rifle outside.

Ellis froze, still on the phone.

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