Frank Kenton followed Cynthia. As he opened the door to her squad car he gave Aysha a long, hard look.
Defiantly, she stared back.
Til live to see you rot in hell." He smiled.
"I like that, Frank. There's a real irony to that—you as a moral force." Aysha laughed at him.
"Don't lower yourself to talk to him," Ottoline snapped.
"She lowered herself plenty in San Francisco," Frank yelled at Ottoline. "Lady, we'd have all been better off if you hadn't been a mother."
Ottoline hesitated before trying to get in the back seat of the squad car. Rick held open the door. The way the two women were handcuffed, they couldn't maneuver their way into the car.
"This is impossible." Aysha stated the obvious.
"You're right." Rick unlocked her handcuffs.
That fast, Aysha sprinted toward the trees.
"Stop or I'll shoot!" Rick dropped to one knee while pulling his revolver.
Cynthia, too, dropped, gun at the ready. Aysha made an easy target.
Tucker dug into the earth, flying after Aysha. Passing the human was easy for such a fast little dog. She turned in front of Aysha just as Rick fired a warning shot. Harry was going to call the dog back but thought it unwise to interrupt Tucker's trajectory.
Aysha glanced over her shoulder just as Tucker crouched in front of her. She tripped over the little dog and hit the ground hard.
Cynthia, younger and faster than Rick, was halfway there, when a wobbly Aysha clambered to her feet.
"Goddamned dog!"
"Put your hands behind your head and slowly, I said slowly, walk back to the squad car."
Ottoline, crying uncontrollably, slumped against the white and blue car. "I did it. Really. I'm guilty."
"Shut up, Mother! You never listen."
A flash of parental authority passed over Ottoline's face. "If you'd listened to me in the first place, none of us would be in this mess! I told you not to marry Mike Huckstep!"
"I don't know anyone by that name!" Aysha's whole body contorted with rage.
Ottoline's face fell like a collapsed building. She realized that in her frantic attempt to save her daughter she had spilled the beans.
45
Reverend Jones was the last to join the little group at Harry's farm for a potluck supper hastily arranged by Susan. He greeted Mrs. Hogendobber, Mim, Little Marilyn, Market, Pewter, Ned, Blair, Cynthia, Kerry McCray, and her brother, Kyle.
"What did I miss?"
"Idle gossip. We waited for you," Mrs. Hogendobber told him. "Fair's the only one missing. He'll come when he can."
"Did you ever find out how Aysha transferred the money?" Susan eagerly asked.
"Yes, but we don't know what she's done with it, except for the sum she transferred into Kerry's account. She fully intends to hire the best lawyer money can buy and serve out her jail term if she doesn't get capital punishment. She'll probably be out on good behavior before she's fifty, and then she'll go to wherever she's stashed the money." Cynthia sounded bitter.
"How'd she do it?" Mim asked again.
"There was a rider attached to the void command in the Crozet National computer. Remember all the instructions for dealing with the Threadneedle virus? Well, it was brilliant, really. When the bank would void the command of the virus to scramble files, a rider would go into effect that instructed the computer to transfer two million dollars into a blind account on August first. The money didn't leave the bank. Later Aysha or Norman squirreled it out. For all we know, it may still be in that blind account, or it may be in an offshore account in a country whose bankers are easily bribed."
"Where was Mike Huckstep in all this?" Blair was curious.
"Ah…" Cynthia smiled at him. She always smiled at Blair. "That was the fly in the ointment. She had everything perfecdy planned, a plan she undoubtedly stole from Huckstep, and he shows up at Ash Lawn just before her trap was set to spring. She wasn't taking any chances and she was shrewd enough to know the death of a biker wouldn't pull at many heartstrings in Crozet. She coolly calculated how to get away with murder. She told him she was enacting his plan. He signed the bank cards willingly, thinking the ill-gotten gain would be pirated into his account. They'd be rich. Norman inserted the account information into the system, not knowing who Mike really was. Meanwhile, Aysha told Mike she wanted him back. He didn't know she was married to Norman, of course. She told him how awful she'd felt running out on him, but she was afraid of total commitment, and when she realized her mistake she couldn't find him—he'd moved from Glover Street, where they used to live. She suggested he pick her up on the motorcycle and they could cruise around. Bam! That was it for Mike Huckstep, her real husband. Not only is she a killer and a thief, she's a bigamist."
"How did he find her?" Harry wondered.
"He knew her real name. Aysha got a break when he showed up at Ash Lawn strung out like he was. He called her by the name he knew best. Of course, Ottoline is claiming Huckstep must have been killed by a drug dealer or some other low life—anyone but her precious daughter."
"So, Coop, how did Huckstep find Aysha?" Susan asked.
"Oh," she said, smiling, "I got off the subject, didn't I? He must have tapped into our Department of Motor Vehicle files or he could have zapped the state income tax records. The man seems to have been, without a doubt, a computer genius."
"Imagine if that mind had been harnessed to the service of the Lord," Mrs. Hogendobber mused.
"Miranda, that's an interesting thought." Herbie crossed his arms over his chest. "Speaking of his mind, I wonder what provoked him to look for her."
"Love. He was still in love with her, despite all," Blair firmly stated. "You could see that the day he came to Ash Lawn. Some men are gluttons for that brand of punishment."
"We'll never really know." Cynthia thought Blair's interpretation was on the romantic side.
"Takes some people that way," Kerry ruefully added to the conversation.
"Guess he got more and more lonesome and—" Susan paused. "It doesn't matter, I guess. But what I can't figure out is how he knew to go to Ash Lawn."
"Yeah, that's weird." Little Marilyn recalled his visit.
"My hunch is that Aysha bragged about her pedigree, that old Virginia vice. She probably said she was or would be a docent at Monticello or Ash Lawn or something like that. I doubt we'll ever truly know because she is keeping her mouth shut like a steel trap." Cynthia shook her head. "In fact, if it weren't for the way Ottoline keeps letting things slip, we wouldn't know enough to put together a case."
"Poor Norman, the perfect cog in her wheel." Kerry's eyes misted over.
"Why couldn't Mike put his plan into effect?" Little Marilyn asked.
"A man like that wouldn't have friends inside a bank. He needed a partner who was or could be socially acceptable. I suppose the original plan entailed Aysha working inside a bank," Mim shrewdly noted,
"Aysha decided she could pull it off without him," Cynthia said. "When he showed up she shrewdly told him she'd found a dupe inside the bank. They could be in business pronto. Although Mike probably did love her as Blair believes, she couldn't control him the way she could control Norman. And she definitely had her eyes on the whole enchilada."
"I keep thinking about poor Hogan. There he was in Market's store, telling us he was going to work late that night, telling Aysha." Susan shivered, remembering.
"He scared her for sure. The fog was pure luck." Cynthia glanced over at Blair. He was so handsome, she couldn't keep her eyes off him.
Little Marilyn noticed. "Thank God for Mrs. Murphy and Tee Tucker, they're the real heroes."
"Don't let it go to your head," Pewter chided.
"You're out of sorts because you missed the fireworks." Mrs. Murphy preened.
"You're right." Pewter tiptoed toward those covered dishes in the kitchen.