“I’ve already told her. Why do you think I’m here, Rick?” Beth looked from Eve to Rick, her expression torn. “I told you, I don’t remember anything, Eve. Rick believes in his mother. How do I know that she’s not everything he thinks she is?” She took a step closer to him. “Doesn’t she have a right to defend herself?”
“Beth, she is defending herself. Everything she’s done has been to defend herself and strike out at any danger to her family and position. Including killing that child at the chalet.”
“No,” Rick said quickly. “Su Kim didn’t die. She was fine. Her father took her back to Macao. I sent a generous bonus to him a few months later.”
“That little girl probably died in Toronto, Canada. It was too late to treat her by the time they got her out of the country to a place Nelda considered safe.”
“That’s a lie,” Rick said. “That’s not what happened.”
“Tell her what did happen, Rick,” Beth said. “I know it’s some terrible mistake about that girl.” She gazed at Eve defiantly. “Why do you keep talking about her? Gelber’s report was probably nothing but lies.”
“But it bothers you, doesn’t it?” Eve asked. “And you were particularly resistant when I asked you about Rick’s attitude toward your young friends.”
“Because it was nasty. Rick’s not—”
“Didn’t you hear him just now?” It was proving almost impossible to break through Beth’s loyalty to her father. “Everything in Gelber’s notes was true. Your father isn’t denying it, Beth. That girl was at the chalet. She was hurt, and he thought she’d recovered.” She whirled back to Rick. “And do you know why Beth didn’t remember anything about what happened at that chalet? Because those wonderful doctors your mother turned loose on her tortured her every time that memory popped up. There’s still so much trauma that she won’t let it surface.”
His eyes widened in shock. “Now that’s a complete falsehood. My mother wouldn’t do—”
“She did it,” Eve said coldly. “It’s clear she’d do anything to protect herself. She probably considered it a fair exchange. You’d made her commit murder by your self-indulgence with that Asian girl. So she took away your daughter, whom she considered a major inconvenience anyway.”
“That’s not true. My mother wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Eve gave him a skeptical glance. “You couldn’t have gone through all these years with her without seeing that side of her. I’m sure she tried her best to hide it from you, but you’re not stupid. Though I can see you accepting whatever she told you because it was more comfortable for you.”
“You think it was comfortable for me to know that Beth was in a mental hospital?” His arm tightened around Beth’s shoulders. “I love my daughter. You don’t believe any of this, do you, Beth?”
“No, of course not.” Beth was shaking her head dazedly. “Didn’t you hear me? I told Eve that it was all wrong.” She lifted her hand to her temple. “But I don’t remember—I don’t understand. She said terrible things about you, Rick. About you and that young girl—and you’re saying that she was there, too. But you wouldn’t do that, Rick. You wouldn’t hurt a twelve-year-old girl.”
“No, of course I wouldn’t.”
“But she was there. You said she was there.”
“Because she wanted to be. I’ve never forced a girl in my life.” His hands closed on Beth’s shoulders, and he turned her to face him. “Listen, Beth.” His voice was soft, urgent. “If she hadn’t wanted me, I’d have sent her away. I spent time with her, making sure. She liked me. She even said she loved me.”
Beth was looking at him with an expression of growing horror. “She was twelve years old.”
“She had a hard life, I gave her enough money so that she’d have a choice whether she wanted to go with any other man again. I wanted to make sure that our time together was only good for her.” His hand stroked her cheek. “So stop looking at me like that, Beth. It hurts me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said dully. “But twelve years old, Rick. Why?”
He didn’t speak.
“Why?”
“It’s hard to explain.” He shrugged. “It’s just … preference. Why not? I told you that I didn’t hurt anyone. I made them feel good, not bad.”
“And … how did you feel, Rick?”
“I loved them,” he said simply. “They were fresh and sweet and like the first breath of spring. Nothing complicated, just bright and happy and wanting to make me happy.”
Beth looked as if he’d struck her. “I feel sick.” She closed her eyes. “So wrong, Rick. You’re so wrong.” Her eyes opened, and she whispered, “And if you’re that wrong about those girls, how can I be sure you’re not wrong about your mother’s putting me in that … place?” She stepped back away from him, and her voice broke. “And that Eve’s not right about your turning your back on me because it was more comfortable for you.”
“Because I love you,” he said harshly. “You’re my little girl, my daughter, and I love you more than anyone in the world.” He shot a tormented glance at Eve. “You see what you’ve done? She believes those lies you’ve been telling her.”
Eve ignored him. “I think you’re done here, Beth. It will be at least fifteen minutes before Joe or Newell get here, and I don’t think it’s safe to stick around. Shall we go?”
Beth nodded jerkily and turned toward the steps.
“Wait.” Rick was suddenly standing before Beth, and he smiled the beautiful smile that he’d given Beth when she’d first arrived. “You’re upset right now,” he said coaxingly. “But you’ll think about everything I’ve said, and you’ll realize that I’m still the father you’ve always known. Perhaps there have been mistakes made, but we can make everything right.”
“How?” Her voice was shaking. “By putting me back in that hospital?”
He flinched. “No, you’re well now. My mother must not have realized that you’d made such progress. We’ll start out fresh.”
“You still believe her,” Beth said wonderingly. “And that scares me more than anything that’s happened.” She turned to Eve. “We’d better go. You were right. Coming here may have been a terrible mistake. They could have used him to bait the trap.”
“Don’t be silly,” Rick said. “There’s no trap. No force. I was only supposed to persuade you that it would be better to go back to the hospital to continue your treatment. But it’s clear that’s not necessary now.” He reached out and gently touched her cheek. “Do you know how happy I am to see you so well? It’s like a dream come true. But you’d better give me your address, so we can straighten all of this out with the police.”
“I don’t think you’ll need our address,” Eve said grimly as she followed Beth down the stairs. “Your mother has probably taken care of seeing that she’ll know where we are.” She unlocked the driver’s door and got into the car. “But we’ll work on changing that as soon as I meet with Joe and—”
The scent of sulfur.
It smells of sulfur.
Kendra’s words in Beth’s hospital room came back to her.
And Eve had caught that scent again the moment they had gotten into the car.
“Eve?” Beth was looking at her, puzzled.
“It’s okay.” She reached into her pocket and drew out her .38. “Just … get out of the car, Beth. I forgot to tell Avery something.”
“What?”
“Get out of the car!” she said sharply. “Now!”
Beth instinctively threw open the door and started to scramble out.
“Close that door. Get back in the car.” The muzzle of a gun was pressed to Eve’s head as a man’s arm slid around her neck from where he was kneeling on the floor of the backseat. At the same time, the edge of his other hand came down on Eve’s gun hand, numbing it. He took her .38. “Unless you want to see her brains spattering on that windshield.”
“Drogan?” Eve said. “God, I was stupid. I should have searched the car and
not counted on just locking it.”
“It took me a good five minutes to open it. I was in full view of you for a couple of those minutes,” he murmured. “But you were very absorbed with each other. I was counting on that since I couldn’t be waiting for you in the house. I cased it before Avery came today but there was no decent place to hide. And she said that her precious boy mustn’t be involved. Now start the car and back out of the driveway.”
“Let Eve go,” Beth said. “It’s me you want, isn’t it?”
“Actually, you’ve taken second place of late. Start the car, Duncan.”
“Beth?” Rick Avery was coming down the steps, his eyes squinting against the glare of the security lights from the garage. “What’s happening? I saw you start to get out of the car. Did you change your mind? Come back into the house, and we’ll talk about it.”
Drogan muttered a curse. “Keep him away. Tell him anything, but keep him away.”
Beth was frantically rolling down the window. “Rick, stop.”
Rick had reached the bottom of the steps. “I won’t stop. This is too important to both of us.”
“Keep the bastard away,” Drogan snarled. “This wasn’t supposed to—”
But Rick was beside the passenger side of the car. He was smiling. “Beth, I knew you wouldn’t let our—”
A pop of sound.
A hole appeared in the center of Rick Avery’s forehead.
Beth screamed.
“Start the damn car,” Drogan said through his teeth to Eve. “Or I’ll put another hole in her head. Everything’s gone wrong. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
Eve started to back out of the drive.
“No, I’ve got to go to him,” Beth was struggling to get her door open, tears running down her cheeks. “Maybe I can—”
“He’s dead, Beth,” Eve said.
“Quiet her down,” Drogan said. “I don’t really care whether I kill her now or later. It’s up to you.”
“Beth,” Eve said. “You can’t help Rick. But you can help me. Just don’t lose it. Calm down, okay?” She didn’t wait for an answer but continued to back out of the driveway with a screech of tires. She had to get Beth away from the sight of Rick’s crumpled body. She couldn’t count on anything from Beth after she had just seen the murder of the only person in the world she loved. “Where, Drogan?”
“Just around the corner and two blocks up. We need to ditch this car and take my truck. Quinn will be able to track this car too easily. He won’t know what I’m driving.” He pocketed the gun he’d taken from Eve before pointing to an old Chevy truck parked next to the curb. “Get out. Both of you.”
“Why not just let us go?” Eve asked. “Nelda Avery is paying your blood money, isn’t she? You just said that you’d blown your deal by killing Rick Avery.”
“That was your fault. If you’d driven out of the driveway right away, I wouldn’t have had to kill him. He was going to cause trouble. I had both of you where I wanted you, and I wasn’t about to let him ruin everything.”
“And you panicked.”
“I don’t panic, bitch.”
“You killed him, didn’t you? Now you’re not going to get any more cash from her. Let us go.”
“I might still be able to negotiate with her. It depends if her love for her son is greater than her love for herself. I’d bet on her loving herself more.” He shrugged. “And, if I’m wrong, there are other satisfactions. You’re a rare prize, Eve Duncan. I was hoping to have Quinn present to participate, and that might still be an option. That would be the best scenario.”
She heard a sudden rustling, slithering sound.
Drogan chuckled. “Mama Zela agrees with me.” He held up a small cage. “She likes to perform to an audience.”
A snake. He had a snake in that cage.
Eve had a sudden memory of that part of his dossier.
His mother’s skeleton was found years later buried in a coffin with a snake wrapped around her throat.
Mama Zela was his mother’s name. And he called this snake Mama Zela. It seemed hideous that he’d name a snake after the mother he’d murdered.
She was shuddering. The idea filled her with horror. Don’t let him see it. He would feed on her fear as that snake had fed on his mother.
But he’d already sensed it. “You’ll be braver than my mother,” he said softly as he opened the car door and gestured with the gun for them to get out. “She couldn’t believe that it could happen to her, that I’d actually do it. She kept screaming for me to let her out.”
That brought a picture to mind that was even more vivid. She didn’t answer him.
He didn’t like that response. “But everyone breaks in the end. When they realize no one is going to save them. You’ll beg me just as she did.”
“Go to hell.”
He laughed. “Oh, you’ll pay for that.” He glanced at Beth, who was sitting frozen, her eyes fixed straight ahead in shock. “Or she will. I’m still annoyed with her. Quinn’s interference just managed to shift the principal emphasis.”
“You killed Rick,” Beth said numbly. “How could you do that?”
He didn’t answer.
Eve reached out and took Beth’s hand in silent support.
“How touching,” Drogan said. “You’ve obviously become very close. Maybe I should put both of you in the same coffin. I’ll have to think about it…”
* * *
KENDRA WAS KNEELING in the driveway beside the crumpled figure of a man when Joe’s car screeched to a stop in front of the Malibu cottage. She looked up as he jumped out and ran toward her. “Eve?”
She shook her head. “Not here. Neither is Beth. I got here ten minutes ago, and all I found was him.” She nodded at the dead man. “It’s Rick Avery.”
Joe nodded jerkily. “Evidently, the trap didn’t go as planned.” Keep cool. Keep calm. He wouldn’t get anywhere if he panicked. “But he didn’t kill either Eve or Beth. Maybe Drogan had plans, too. He was angry as hell when he phoned me yesterday.” Better not to think of that vicious malice toward Eve now. “Where’s Newell?”
“He took off to check out the houses in the neighborhood and see if he could find any trace of Drogan. I wanted to stay here and look around.”
“What did you find out?”
She shook her head.
“Don’t tell me that,” he said through set teeth. “I know what you can do. This is Eve. You’ve got to—”
“Shut up, Joe,” she said curtly. “I know you’re hurting. But I’m not perfect, and I can’t pull something out of the air if it’s not there. Do you think I don’t want to—”
“Sorry.” He cut her off and reached for his phone. “I’ll call the local police and report Avery’s murder. We can at least set them moving on his trail.” He talked briefly to 911 and hung up. “You said you’d been here ten minutes? There aren’t any neighbors or curiosity seekers around. That bullet in his skull must have come from a gun with a silencer.”
Kendra nodded. “Possibly. But I think he may have improvised this time. Maybe wrapped his gun in rags or a towel to muffle the sound.”
“How do you figure that?”
Kendra knelt at the edge of the driveway and picked up two small, charred, cloth fragments in the tall grass.
Joe took the fragments. They both showed evidence of flash burns and gunpowder residue. “You’re right. But that’s not the kind of information I need, Kendra.”
“I’ve found the car.” Newell was striding down the street toward them. “Drogan made Eve abandon that rental car she was driving. It’s parked down the block and around the corner.”
Joe was already running in the direction Newell was indicating. The Toyota was unlocked, and he jerked the driver’s door open.
Nothing. What had he expected? A miracle? A sign from Eve that would have told them something, anything.
“Nothing here.” He turned to Kendra who was now beside him. “Not a damn thing.”
“T
hat may not be true,” Kendra said slowly, her head lifted. “Not in the front seat. But maybe in the rear…” She opened the rear door of the car. “Yes…”
“For God’s sake, what?”
“A combination, I think.” She turned on her purse flashlight and shined the beam on the carpet. “And one that could come only from Drogan … or someone with similar interests.” She brushed her hand across the floor, and tiny black grains stuck to her fingers. She sniffed her hand. “I think this is…” She held it out to Joe. “Taste it.”
He tentatively touched it with his tongue.
“For God’s sake, I’m not trying to poison you,” she said in disgust.
“You never know.” He tasted it again. “Salt?”
She nodded. “Black salt. Voodoo practitioners use black salt for protection. You said that Drogan believed in that stuff, didn’t you?”
Joe nodded.
Kendra rubbed her thumb and forefinger together. “It’s mixed with the oil I’ve been smelling. Sulfur, again … I smelled it in Beth’s hospital room, too, but it didn’t strike me as too unusual then since sulfur is also used in medicines. It didn’t really click until I was driving here tonight and thinking about what you and Eve told me about Drogan’s being into voodoo. They use various oils in their ceremonies, and sulfur is one of the most-frequently-used ingredients.”
“Ceremonies? In the backseat of the car?”
“Don’t talk. Just let me concentrate for a minute and see how many ingredients I can identify.”
“What difference does it make?”
“Drogan has to get his oils from someplace. We might be able to locate him through his source.”
“Maybe he makes it himself.”
She shook her head. “Not likely. Among other things, the oils are supposed to protect against negative energy. The cults have strict recipes and procedures, and most practitioners only trust holy men to create them.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I spent a summer working in a club on Bourbon Street. You don’t hang around New Orleans long without becoming a little familiar with voodoo lore.”
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