Murdering the Roses (A Heavenly Highland Inn Cozy Mystery) by Cindy Bell

“Keep your head down!” she commanded, fear creeping into her high pitched voice.

Chapter Five
     
    Mitchell looked down at his phone as it began to ring again. It was Vicky's number again. He glanced up at the sheriff who was studying a map of the area around the inn.
    “There's so many little roads back there,” he sighed as he shook his head. “They could be hiding out anywhere, really,” he paused a moment to look over the map again.
    “So where would the killer have gone?” he was musing to himself, and getting nowhere fast. Mitchell had waited long enough. He wasn't going to let Vicky think he was ignoring her if she needed his help. He snatched the phone up off of the desk.
    “Don't you answer that phone Dep uty,” the sheriff warned as he spun around to face Mitchell. Mitchell openly defied him as he lifted the phone to his ear, and met the eyes of his superior.
    “It's my job to make sure she's safe,” he said flatly, as if it was no longer open for debate.
    “Hello? Vicky?” he asked quickly. Then he held the phone away from his ear as he heard someone shout.
    “Get down, they're going to shoot!”
    “Vicky?” he shouted into the phone, his voice full of alarm. “Are you there? Where are you? Who's shooting at you?” he was desperate for information.
    That got the sheriff's attention. He marched over to Mitchell and began listening in on the conversation. Finally a voice came back on the line.
    “Hello is this Mitchell?” Aunt Ida asked, sounding very confused and aggravated.
    “Yes, I'm here,” Mitchell said quickly, relieved to hear that she wasn't terrified. “Where are you? Is Vicky with you?” he fired off his questions swiftly.
    “Tell him about the twins,” Mitchell heard Vicky call out in the background. “They need to know there are two!”
    “Listen Mitchell, do you remember that good looking young fellow Timothy?” Aunt Ida asked as if they were settling into some beauty shop gossip.
    “Yes, Ida, are you safe? Where are you?” he asked more firmly this time. He could tell something terrible was happening but the woman on the phone was acting as if everything was fine.
    “Well, as it turns out there are two of them, twins,” Ida laughed into the phone. “Isn't that amazing?”
    “Tell h im we're near the inn!” Vicky shouted desperately. “We need help, Mitchell!” She couldn't drive and talk on the phone at the same time but Aunt Ida was taking things too lightly.
    “They're near the i nn,” Mitchell told Sheriff McDonnell who immediately began to radio for cars.
    “Are you in danger?” Mitchell asked as he ran out of the police station and toward s his cruiser. There was no way he wasn't going to get as close as possible to them. “What's happening right now?”
    “ Vicky is driving like a lunatic,” Aunt Ida explained calmly. “But that's only because one of those boys is pointing a gun out of his car window at us!”
    “I need a location,” Mitchell said desperately as he started his cruiser and began d riving in the direction of the inn. He was definitely not obeying the speed limit.
    “Well , I can't really say where we are, we're driving so fast,” Aunt Ida attempted to explain as the truck bumped over some patches in the road.
    “Can you get back to the i nn?” Mitchell asked hopefully, it was the one place he knew that they could find in the myriad of dirt roads and roads that weren't even identified on the map. “We have cars going out there right now. If you can get back to the inn then you'll have some help,” his voice was trembling as he felt he was too far away to be of any real help.
    “We can try!” Aunt Ida replied and then turned to Vicky. “He wants us to get back to the inn, he said police are on their way to help us,” now her voice was shaking slightly, as if the danger of the situation was just beginning to set in.
    So far the twins had not taken a shot at the truck, but Vicky knew that if they evaded them much longer they