50% Off Murder (Good Buy Girls) (29 page)

“If there is, I can’t think of it,” he said. “Come on, try again, and this time you can yell and scream all you want.”

They stood shoulder to shoulder, and Maggie let out a war whoop as they pulled against the shelf. Even Max let out a few throaty yells, and Maggie echoed them. And suddenly, they weren’t pushing against the shelf anymore but
free-falling through the open freezer door to the hard tile floor beyond.

A strong hand grabbed Maggie by the arm and Max by the collar as they hurtled out of the freezer. Maggie looked up through her tumbled red hair to see Sam staring down at her.

“Maggie! Max! Are you all right?” he asked as he lifted them to their feet.

He let go of Max, but his arm went around Maggie, pulling her close as he rubbed her bare arms, trying to warm her.

“It’s Gwen,” Maggie said. “She’s the one who killed Templeton.”

“I know,” Sam said. “In fact, she’s outside with Deputy Wilson.”

“You mean you caught her?” Max asked.

Sam nodded. “We’re taking her in right now. She actually thought she’d get away with it all. Oh, and your client, Claire Freemont, is being processed out as we speak.”

“I have to get down there,” Max said. “She might need me.”

“Come on, I’ll give you a ride,” Sam said.

“How did you…?” Maggie asked, letting the question dangle.

“Your note,” he said. “The note you left with Deputy Crosthwaite put it all together. Come on, I’ll explain while we drive.”

Outside, a very unhappy-looking Gwen Morgan was sitting in the back of one of the sheriff’s squad cars. Deputy Wilson—Dot—had her arms crossed over her chest while she glared at the woman in her car as if daring her to make one false move.

“You ready to roll, Dot?” Sam asked.

“I was born ready,” Dot answered, and she climbed into her car.

Sam gestured for Maggie and Max to climb into his car, and they followed Dot all the way back to the jail.

“So, how did you figure out from my note that the killer was Gwen, when I was pretty emphatic that it was Summer?” Maggie asked.

She turned in her seat so that Max, who was in back, could hear her.

“I took the note to Claire,” he said. “You know, the book that was left at the scene of the murder—we just assumed it came from the basement. But because you singled it out as having been put there on purpose by Summer, well, it made me rethink.”

“I asked Claire who she loaned the book to, and she—”

“Said Gwen Morgan,” Max jumped in.

“No,” Sam said. “She said Tyler Fawkes.”

“Huh?” Maggie was confused.

“So, then I tracked down Tyler Fawkes,” he said. “And he had loaned it to—”

“Gwen Morgan,” Max said again.

“No,” Sam said. “He loaned it to Alice Franklin, who loaned it to Bill Parsons, who loaned it to Cheryl Kincaid, who used it for third base during a softball game, and then left it in the Perk Up after the game for Gwen Morgan.”

“Whoa, talk about your six degrees of separation,” Max said.

“Indeed,” Sam agreed. “From there it was pretty easy to read the Perk Up’s financials and see that Gwen had taken money from Templeton and that they were in trouble.”

Sam pulled into the parking lot behind Dot. While Dot escorted Gwen into the building to be processed, Max ran around them to help expedite Claire’s release.

Sam opened the car door for Maggie and looked her over when she stood before him. “Are you all right? No frostbite?”

She shook her head. “No, we got lucky. I don’t know what would have happened to us if you hadn’t gotten there when you did.” She placed her hand on his arm while her gaze met his. “Thank you, Sam.”

Sam looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he opened his arms and pulled her in for a hug. He held her for a minute without speaking, and then he leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Don’t ever scare me like that again, Carrots.”

Maggie smiled into his shirt front, surprised that she didn’t feel the need to knee him in the privates for use of the abhorred nickname.

Sam must have been surprised, too, because he pulled back to study her face. “Don’t tell me we’re going to become friends now.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“We’ve been everything else,” he said.

“Enemies,” she said.

“Lovers,” he said.

Maggie felt her face get hot, but she ignored it.

“Maybe being friends will suit us,” she said.

“Maybe.” But the look he gave her scorched, and Maggie wondered if perhaps he viewed friendship a bit differently than she did.

“There is one thing we need to clear the air on, however,” he said.

“What’s that?” Maggie asked.

“I was never in the library basement with Summer Phillips,” he said. “That was someone else.”

“But I saw your football jersey,” she said. “Clear as day. The name on the back of it read Collins.”

“Yeah, I gave that jersey to Tim Kelly to hang in his bar at the end of the school year,” Sam said. “When I was in his bar the other night, he told me Summer Phillips had borrowed it the night before I left town. She told him she was going to have me autograph it. I checked the signature. It isn’t mine, but I didn’t have the heart to tell Tim that.”

“So that wasn’t you?” she asked. “She set me up.”

Sam nodded. Maggie felt as if she’d been sucker punched. She had a million more questions for him, but she never got the chance to ask them.

Just then the doors to the building burst wide open and
out ran Claire with Max, Ginger and Joanne right behind her. Maggie was enveloped into a group hug that included tears, crusher squeezes and lots of laughter. When she did extricate herself from her peeps to look for Sam, she saw him walking into the building. He didn’t look back.

1. Do as Maggie does and sign up for every free customer rewards program you can. Dedicate one e-mail account to these programs, which you can monitor for special savings and deals. Even if you rarely shop at some of these stores, having a rewards card will eventually earn you coupons and discounts.
   
2. Joanne is the list-maker, and her advice is to write a list before you go shopping—and stick to it. Make a careful plan of what to buy before you go and don’t put anything in the cart that’s not on the list.
   
3. Follow Maggie’s advice and clean out your closet. If you haven’t worn something within the last year, get rid of it. You can have a yard sale or take it to a consignment shop, or even donate it for a tax deduction.
   
4. Ginger’s best tip is to plan your meals around your grocery store’s flier. With five men to feed, she can get creative in the kitchen but needs to buy the food that’s on sale in the grocery store’s flier. You can do the same.
   
5. Claire recommends doing your holiday shopping right after the holidays. And she doesn’t mean just for Christmas—the day after any holiday is an excellent time to stock up. Buy your plastic eggs the day after Easter or your Fourth of July decorations the day after Independence Day, when the prices are usually 50 to 75 percent off.
   
6. Ginger’s tip when shopping for seasonal items, such as children’s sports equipment: Start by shopping used. Used items cost so much less than retail and are usually in fine condition.
   
7. Joanne suggests learning to live by the golden rule of the ten-second pause. When you pick up an item, before you can add it to your cart or take it to the cashier, pause for ten seconds and consider why you’re buying it and whether you really need it. If not, put it back.
   
8. Ginger suggests trying generic brands of items you buy regularly, like vitamins. Instead of sticking to your familiar label, try the store brand or generic version of the item.
   
9. Claire suggests going to your local library. It’s not just for books anymore. Libraries have free computer access, DVDs, CDs, video games, free passes to museums and loads more. Some even have their own cafés.
   
10. Maggie recommends buying your staples in bulk. If you buy your non-perishables, such as trash bags, detergents, diapers and so on, in bulk, it cuts down on their cost per usage by quite a bit and will save you a nice chunk of change.