by Kenya Wright
“Yes. The feeds are coming from all of my mini cameras in the trees. Sometimes I come down to check on them. There’s a ladder next to the same way we came in, but you were too busy falling to see it.”
I turned and noticed him dragging himself my way. “Can we climb up the ladder?”
“It can be accessed from the studio.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Just trust me on this.”
“You have me trapped in an old bomb shelter with cameras waiting to record five future suicides, excuse me if I don’t feel like trusting you right now.” I picked up the phone. It was one of the old phones with the big receiver that people held to their ears.
“That phone doesn’t work.” Hex took his time standing up and then did some sort of odd hop, walking to the first chair before collapsing into it. “I planned for Al and me to be down here until the last person dies. That’s why there’s all this food and water down here. The phone isn’t programmed to work until tomorrow evening.”
“The women are going to commit suicide tonight?”
“Yes. All five.”
“My guards will know that we dropped down here. It’s the most logical conclusion. They watched us go into the room. They’ll search the ceiling and all the walls around it. Plus, with the loud noise they’ll know something opened up.”
“I’m fine with that. Without the code or knowing what buttons to pick, they’ll have to wrench the floor up. It will take hours.” He checked his watch, then leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Gloria and the others will be hiding behind the trees near the garden soon. When it gets dark, I have the security cameras showing an old feed to the guards. Gloria and them will take the pills, walk out to the garden, and wait to slowly die.”
Chapter 28
Alvarez
“Then there was this big crashing sound.” Elle’s guard did frantic hand movements as he described what happened. “We ran into the room right as the floor was closing. We could hear her screaming. I tried to keep it open, but I didn’t know how to do it and then it just snapped back together.”
It took everything in me to not strangle the guard and make him pay for whatever Hex had done. What the fuck, Hex? What the hell have you done? Three maintenance men hammered and drilled away at the metal floor. I called the police and more handymen to deal with the trap door. Somewhere Elle lay under the floor, scared out of her mind, while my brother, motivated by whatever stupid, idiotic thing that incited him to have the trap door built in the first place, stood with an air of bloated confidence.
I’m going to kill him.
The guard hung his head low. “We tried our best.”
I held up my hand. “I understand. Just go outside and wait for the cops.”
I headed outside of the studio to where Detective White and Grandma studied the mini model of the castle we’d discovered inside Hex’s private room. “Have you come up with anything?”
“I already touched the room and the model. The spirits say Hex and Elle are under the floor, but we already knew that.” Grandma trailed her fingers across the area where her garden lay. “Elle has to be safe with him. Hex didn’t kill these women. Not my grandson. I know what’s in his heart. It’s good things, except when his art takes him over, and then he turns into a madman, but there’s no evil in him. If he did it, then it’s something to do with his art. Something foul inspired him and he went with it.”
“Do you believe that art really had something to do with these murders?” Detective White kneeled down by the first set of tiny trees with numbers on them. “What type of art did your brother do?”
“He did anything that came to him. Anything that inspired him, he went with it,” I said.
“What was his collection about this summer?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. All I know is that recently he was obsessed with. . .” I paused and stared at the model again. “Video art and interactive installations.”
Fuck. Why hadn’t I realized it the first time I looked at this little model? This is just like the models applicants submitted when they tried to get Hex’s and my approval to showcase their work in X-lab.
“This is his model for an installation art piece.” I glanced at the numbered trees. There were twenty that surrounded the garden, separated it from the studio, and also lined the castle.
There are way more around the real castle. So why did he choose to only number twenty of them?
I looked up. “Detective White, do me a favor and count the trees near the studio right now.”
He did. “Five.”
“Run over to the garden and tell me how many are on the west side of it.”
Detective White scurried away. Being such a short man, he still had a serious speed about him. When he returned, he barely huffed and puffed as he held up five more fingers.
“This model doesn’t show the exact number of trees, but the few he chose to show exactly match the real ones. There are five in front of the studio in the model and there are five out here.” I pointed to the big ones that Hex loved to climb. “Fuck. Hex climbs these trees all the time. These are the ones he’s always in.”
“He climbs trees?” Detective White raised one eyebrow. “That’s why he’s always disappearing in the night recordings. I see him leave the studio and disappear off in the trees. He’s traveling above ground.”
“Yes.”
“But Hex didn’t kill those girls.” Grandma shook her head and picked up one of the figurines. “My grandson would never do that.”
“But he had something to do with them dying, and it involves this installation art piece. And if he hid Elle and himself away then it means he didn’t want her to tell me what was going on. And that means that whatever it is, I not only wouldn’t like it, but I had a chance to stop it.”
“So more girls are going to die just like my visions?” Grandma sighed.
“Yes.” I gestured for one of grandma’s guards to come over to me. “See if you can get any of the men to climb these trees. I thought all this time he would just climb up and sing, but I was wrong. He’s doing something up there or there would be no reason why he’s numbering these trees. In fact, run inside the castle and have the staff bring out some ladders and volunteers to check these trees out.”
It took close to twenty minutes to get enough volunteers to stand by each tree numbered on the model and go up. Most said they didn’t see anything. It was Detective White who took the longest in his tree, snapping pictures with his phone, touching the bark, branches, and leaves, until finally he whistled and pulled something away. We all gathered around the ladder in anticipation of what he found.
“Your brother has cameras in the trees.” Detective White held a circular ball in his hand as he climbed down. It was barely the size of a tangerine. “There is a tiny camera in here. He’s taping everywhere near the garden.”
The damn garden, and everything around it, is the installation piece.
“The deaths are part of his collection.” I rubbed my eyes with shaking hands.
“And now we know what project the artists he invited to his property were working on.” Detective White handed me the ball.
“Ay Dios mio.” Grandma shook her head. “So Snyder isn’t coming back?”
“Well. . . there is that silver lining. We don’t have an evil ghost haunting and killing people on the property.” I handed the camera back to Detective White. “You told me that some of these women committed suicide, right?”
“Yes. At least three of the five. Another one was diagnosed with cancer.”
“Which meant she could’ve known she was dying and decided to kill herself,” I guessed. “So that gives us four people who may have been willing to commit suicide. They were artists who hung around Hex, which means they’re probably not fully sane and have an abnormal dedication to the creation of art.”
Detective White nodded. “I do remember one of the three recent victims attempted suicide long ago. While she hung by he
r neck, she tried to paint everything she saw. That’s an abnormal dedication for sure.”
I rubbed my eyes. “This is too much for me. We need a list of the remaining artists that Hex has here. Grandma, could you call Reece? She would know where everything is. Knowing her, she has all the names memorized. Once we get these people, we need to find them and make sure there is a sort of suicide watch on them. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“There’s no need to call Reece. I know who they all are. Since everyone else left I made it my job to know everyone’s name who stayed. Hex has them all on the second level of the east wing. There’s only seventeen of them left.”
“Grandma, have the servants round them all up and keep them in the sitting area below. Nobody else is killing themselves on our property.”
“We should have people guarding all the areas where Hex has cameras,” Detective White offered. “Plus, it is anywhere there are cameras. The last three suicides happened inside the house and ended in your office.”
“Yeah.” I clenched my hands into fists. “I’ll have to remember to thank Hex for that.”
“Now that we may have an idea of what your brother is planning, do you think you can anticipate his next moves?” Detective White asked.
“I would be a fool to say a confident yes, but I could try. I’ll just need time to think about this.”
“In the meantime, I’m having the penis in the jar analyzed to see who it could belong too.”
Grandma and I exchanged glances.
“What?” The detective looked at both of us.
Grandma handled it before I had to. “It is probably Hex’s penis. He’s always saying he’s cursed by it.”
“Why did he think he was cursed?”
Grandma and I shrugged.
“Let’s start with rounding everyone up and questioning them.” I walked away from the damn model that had played a part in the most horrific thing my brother had ever done in his life.
Why would you allow them to die, and right here around us all? Did you know I would find the first girl? Did you even care, or was it just the art to you, the creation process that fueled your madness?
And it was madness, all of it. Part of me hoped I was wrong with my guess, that Hex wasn’t a part of this, but deep inside I knew I was either correct or very close. Hex and his damn suicidal artists were involved in stirring up our lives, wasting the police’s time, and shoving the fear of God into everyone on the property. And what was it all for, art?
What the hell was his muse? Death, heartache, or chaos? If one more person dies, I’m done with him.
It hurt to even think the last statement. It killed me to have that thought in my heart, but the urge to leave him thrummed through me all the same. Guilt pulsed through my veins, but I knocked it all away. How many years had I spent, trying to make up for what my mother and stepfather had done to him? How much of my energy did I exhaust in these years so that I can forgive myself for leaving Hex by himself with that mad pair?
If you’re behind this, Hex, then we’re even. I owe you nothing else.
It took thirty minutes to gather Hex’s remaining artists and only one minute to realize that five women were missing. With tight-lipped, neutral expressions, they held hands with each other as if they were hippies who were part of a peaceful movement to eradicate discrimination. They all wore black boots, jogging pants, and huge watches on their wrists. When I looked at the surface of the watches, I saw that none of them had hands to tell the time. How symbolic. Time doesn’t matter to you all. None of them met my gaze, none dared. Perhaps they noticed the rage on my face or the dare in my eyes for one of them to say the wrong thing. I longed to punch the men and scream at the women.
You just let five of your friends die!
“So no one knows where they are?” I paced back in forth in front of the depraved co-conspirators. They knew exactly where the women were. They knew it and stood right there refusing to sit down or say anything more than yes or no.
You trained them well, Hex.
“If these women die,” Detective White took over, “then all of you are accomplices to murder.”
One shrugged. The rest looked away.
My temper left me. “Is the art really that important?”
“Calm down, Al.” Grandma carried a tray of fruit punch with cut out pieces of cheese and sliced deli meat on a wooden plate. Anytime in the past I would have taken the tray away and escorted her back to her cottage. Grandma holding food wasn’t a good combination. Even when I was a young kid and stayed with her during the summers, her guests never ate or drink from her house. At parties, the treats remained on the table untouched.
“Is anybody thirsty or hungry?” She gave them a warm smile that chilled me.
“No, thank you,” they all said one by one.
Hex prepared for Grandma, too?
“Are you sure?” She walked in front of them again.
They shook their heads.
Detective White exhaled. “Then we’re going to have to take everybody down for questioning.”
They left with no hesitation or dispute, departed from the castle, and took their time getting in police cars. Detective White took them away. Thankfully, he left more of his men just in case I needed them. Although now that we knew these deaths were suicides rather than a deranged serial killer, the guards and White’s men relaxed. Many chatted about sports. Others leaned on trees smoking their cigarettes or glancing every few minutes at their phones. This had turned into a vacation for them, where for me I’d been shoved into a pool of insanity with no option of swimming through the murky liquid.
Where would the last women kill themselves?
I considered where the others had died. Two committed suicide in Grandma’s garden.
Why? Was it the easiest place to have them do it, or were you trying to tell us something? Does this installation have something to do with us, Hex?
The third group must’ve attached themselves to wires or Hex had done it himself. Once they died, the wires carried them throughout the castle where they ended in my office. I’d barely ever left my office until Elle came. He probably saw me run off with her and figured it was the best time to put them in there. So you put the dead girls in a place where you knew Grandma and I would discover them? Why? Why did we have to find them? I guess the answer is, who else could’ve found them? Most of his artists were part of the whole charade. The rest were maybe distractions. Or maybe I was focused on the wrong thing. Perhaps, he needed his family to discover the bodies. Why? One thing Hex loved to stress about was how important life was, how we all needed to take it seriously and not waste our lives away doing tedious tasks. If I went with his thinking, then I completely understood why he would have the three girls in my office. He figured I worked too hard and didn’t spend enough time enjoying my life. Meanwhile, Grandma had been obsessed with lifting the curse from our family ever since we started taking care of Hex. She’d never dated or talked to her friends. It was all about the curse and keeping the evil spirits away from Dayanara.
You wanted us to see death. Look it right in the eye and realize that life was precious.
I concentrated on my theory of Hex wanting the family to find the dead women.
“What are you thinking about?” Grandma set the tray of food on the table.
“Dayanara.” I almost grabbed one of the cubes of cheese. “Did you put something in the food?”
“Just a little truth serum.”
I placed my hand in my pocket. “Then throw that stuff away. I don’t need anyone else being sick around here.”
“Speaking of the bad man, did he wake up?”
“I don’t know or care.”
“Why are you thinking about Dayanara?”
“I think Hex wanted us to find the dead women. He wanted you, me, and Dayanara to see them and somehow come to the conclusion that we should value our lives.”
Grandma snorted. “We value our lives.”
“We
value the family and keeping all of our heads above water, but we don’t value it the way Hex wants us to. We don’t take the time to breathe it all in.”
Grandma rolled her eyes. “He could have just said so. Instead he puts dead girls in my garden.”
At the mention of her garden, I considered the fact that it had rotted. “Why was your garden destroyed? Do you really think it was the gods?”
“No.” She waved me away. “I spilled chemicals all over the area. It’s bad luck to grow fruits and vegetables where someone died on the soil. It needs to be burned and prayed over before the soil is fit to bear fruit again.”
“So you figured you could kill two birds with one stone?”
“Yes. Burn everything with my liquids. Tell you and Hex the gods did it so you both would finally listen to me for once.”
“Do you realize that your meddling had us running around on a goose chase?”
She raised her hands in the air. “Don’t blame me. I didn’t tell women to kill themselves here. I only work with the cards I’m dealt. Besides, all of this discussion started because you were thinking about Dayanara.”
“Yes. I think Hex was going to have the last five women be discovered by Dayanara. Granted, she isn’t there right now, but he could have never guessed that part. Plus, he figured out a way to mess with the security cameras before. I’m sure he could’ve done something to Dayanara’s cameras.” I headed for the staircase. “Could you have some guards rush upstairs for me?”
“Al, I’m coming too.”
“Fine, but come with the guards, and don’t forget to get rid of that poisoned cheese and meat.”
“It’s not poisoned. It—”
“Needs to go in the trash.” I raced up the first flight of stairs, heading to the attic floor where I hoped to find five women still alive.
Chapter 29
Elle
We watched it all unfold on Hex’s cameras. Alvarez figured everything out and each time he came closer to a clue, Hex beamed with pride. It all would’ve been so adorable and breathtaking if not for me being trapped in a smelly metal room and Alvarez rushing to the attic where, on the third television screen, five women lay on the floor. The women had gone up there an hour earlier, right when Hex had walked me back to the studio to talk. The whole time Hex knew they would be heading to the attic while we strolled in the opposite direction. A month ago, Hex had gotten one of his video artists a security job where he managed the cameras. They’d been jamming and messing with them for the past hour.
