He stared at his ma in shock. “Oh my God.” They both turned and looked at Doreen.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Wow. I guess when they say, birds of a feather, they really mean it, don’t they? I wonder how long before Alan suggested that you kill your own son?”
Peggy shook her head. “I wouldn’t have.” But she slid her gaze sideways and looked at him.
“Yeah, you would have,” her son stated, staring at her. “Good Lord, I can’t believe it.”
He looked at the gun in his hand, turned toward Doreen, and held it out to her.
“Don’t give it to her,” Peggy cried out lunging for it.
“It’s not real anyway,” he said in disgust. “I’m outta here.” And, with that, he turned and raced out into the night.
Peggy stared after him, the fake gun held loosely in her hand. “I can’t believe he’s even mine.”
“He’s yours all right,” she noted quietly. “But the cops will pick him up, so that’d be one less problem for you.”
She shook her head. “Yeah, well, and then there’s you. You’re a big problem. I wasn’t sure what you were up to at the visit today. Your grandmother’s never once invited me in for tea.”
“Ah.” Doreen nodded. “Normally you just stop by to see certain people, is that it?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “I like to keep an eye on what everybody is doing, keep up-to-date, find out who’s potentially got something to hand off, and who doesn’t.”
“Have you killed anybody else at Rosemoor?” Doreen asked curiously.
She shrugged. “No, but now that I managed to do it once, I was thinking that might not be a bad way to get a little bit of extra funding. Of course you’ll kibosh that, won’t you?”
“I will,” she gave a clipped nod. “I have this thing about people treating each other nice,” she murmured. “It’s just, you know, one of those oddities of my personality.”
The woman glared at her. “Now you’re just mocking me. I’m not a bad person.”
“No, of course not,” Doreen agreed immediately hoping to keep her talking. Surely Mack was on his way, “but, if you were a good person still, you’d turn around and go to the cops and tell them exactly what you did.”
“That’ll never happen.” And she took a couple steps forward, her hands fisting.
Doreen warned Peggy, “I really wouldn’t attack me, if I were you.” And then she remembered Nan’s attack, and she got angry. “You’re the one who attacked Nan too, aren’t you?”
Peggy nodded. “I was looking for that stupid sugar bowl. I never found it in that cupboard where she had it hidden. She told me later when I asked her about it that she’d given it to you.”
“That’s because she was planning on giving it to me,” Doreen explained, “but she just never got that far.”
“And now she did, so you have it.”
“Had it. I’ve since given it to the cops,” Doreen stated cheerfully. “So, even if you do manage to hit me too, it won’t make a bit of difference. Because, boy, oh boy, we’ve already got your number.”
“Says you,” she sneered. And, with that, she jumped on Doreen.
But Thaddeus had finally come awake, and he flew into the kitchen and landed on her gray curly hair, pecking away and pulling at it. She screeched and grabbed him by the leg, throwing him off. Mugs launched himself at her, and he must have hit Peggy in the kneecap. She cried out and her knee buckled, going down to the floor.
By now Goliath jumped on her back and dug his claws into her back. Doreen just stood by and watched as the chaos ensued.
Finally Peggy burst into tears and called out, “Get them off me! Get them off me!”
Hearing a noise at her side, Doreen looked up to see both Darren and Mack standing in her kitchen, glaring at Doreen, before Darren jumped into action, cuffing Peggy.
Doreen pointed at Mack. “Don’t glare at me. This woman attacked me. Besides, she killed Chrissy and was now looking at other women to kill in Rosemoor. She also attacked Nan, to get Chrissy’s sugar bowl back. And her son killed your Alan guy up in Rutland because Alan was making a move on Peggy and her house. Believe me. We heard it all.”
Mack asked, “Heard it all?”
“Yes.” She pointed to her phone.
He looked at it and asked her, “Did you record it?”
She gave him a fat smile. “Of course I did.” She turned to Darren. “Hi, Darren.” And then she got closer to Mack. “I really need a hug.” He opened his arms; she stepped into them, and, when they closed around her, she thought she’d never had such a great feeling as that sense of being home. She looked up at him. “We really need to find some nice people in this town.”
He burst out laughing. “They do exist,” he stated. “Whether you believe it or not, they do exist.”
She nodded. “Well, maybe, just maybe, you should help me try to find them.”
“And you know something? Maybe, just maybe, I can do that.” And he pulled her closer into his arms and just held her tight. “I’m really glad you didn’t get attacked this time,” he muttered against her hair.
She chuckled. “You and me both.”
Epilogue
Saturday
Mack reached out several times to Doreen to update her, to check up on her, then took her over to his mom’s for midmorning tea. During which, Doreen hopped up, wandered around the garden, and made a mental list of things to fix.
As she returned to them, Doreen looked over at his mother. “I’ll come by tomorrow and take care of those weeds,” she promised, knowing how the ones right in front of the older woman’s view bothered her terribly.
Millicent smiled gratefully. “Thank you. I know you’ve been busy with other things. Still, it does feel like I’m wasting your time, but I’d appreciate it, if you could come by.”
Doreen laughed. “Actually, you’re saving me,” she said, chuckling. “I keep getting into trouble, when I’m not working.”
Millicent shook her head. “What you do is very important,” she said, “and it helps my son.”
“Well, I try,” she said quietly, “but I work in a much different way.”
At that, the older woman nodded in full understanding. “You two make a good pair.”
Doreen flushed and refused to look at Mack. “Well, we certainly make a pair,” she finally muttered. “One who gets into trouble and one who tries to keep the other out of trouble.”
At that, Mack laughed. “Isn’t that the truth, but, even when you’re supposedly out of trouble, you’re in trouble.”
“And yet I don’t try to be,” she said, looking over at him. “But sometimes people tell me things, and I guess my brain works in a weird way.”
“A weird and wonderful way,” Millicent said firmly. She chuckled. “And I’m really glad. It’s shaken Mack’s life up, and that’s good. He was getting a little too set in his ways.”
He stared at his mother in surprise.