The Tower of Evil (Bye-Bye Mysteries)

by Robert A. Liston

  She looked at Dr. Joy for approval. Rage distorted the once-beautiful face. He grinned at her. “I guess the Joy has gone out of your life. Too bad, doctor, but the jig is up, the cookie has crumbled, the music has been faced, the piper is—”

  “Let him take his lousy wife out of here.”

  Lupe beside him, he followed Uberreich to the kitchen passageway. It seemed to take forever for her to unlock the door, mount the stairs and unlock the second door. At last it opened and he burst inside.

  All three stood on the table across the room.

  “Oh, darling, I knew you’d come.”

  “Thank God, you’re safe.” She leaped from the table into his arms. “I was so worried, I thought—”

  “I know what you thought.” She kissed him.

  Over her shoulder he saw the other two, still on the table. “You can stop screaming now, Jamie, you did a fantastic job.”

  Mandy put her hand over his mouth to silence him. “You must be Walter Byerly. I’m Amanda—”

  “Sykes, the long lost. You’re a hard person to find.

  Lupe extended a hand to help her and Jamie down. “Let’s get all of you out of here.”

  As they returned downstairs and approached the front entrance, everyone stood aside, looking at them as curiosities. A voice said, “Why it is DeeDee.”

  Doreen recognized her. “Hi, Janet, do I ever have a story to tell.”

  “I’m sure you do, Mrs. Byerly, but I’m going to tell the truth first.” Joy Fielding took over. “This woman stole this little boy and hid him from his mother.” That brought a heightened murmur. “Fortunately Victor Dragon found out where the boy was, got a court order and saved him from this…this kidnapper and reunited him with his mother here at the estate.”

  “What a bald-faced liar you are,” Doreen said.

  “But she wouldn’t give up. Still determined to get the child back, she disguised herself in a wig and uniform and induced a friend to bring her out here, posing as a servant. She almost got away with it, too. Fortunately we recognized her and—”

  Doreen laughed. “Then why were Mandy and Jamie locked up in that tower? Hardly luxury accommodations, no toilet, no running water, a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. I suppose you were protecting them from little old me.”

  Joy Fielding looked around at her guests, all certainly puzzled now. “Don’t listen to her.”

  “You were going to tell the truth, Mrs. Kinkaid. Then by all means tell everyone how your goons abducted Mandy off the street, in broad daylight, and brought her here. Tell them how Mandy was locked up and held prisoner in this very house just so you could influence an election.”

  “This is slander. You can’t say things like that. There are laws. I’ll sue the pants off you.”

  “I’m wearing a skirt, but never mind. Yes, by all means sue, so all this can come out in court. Meanwhile, Mandy will support what I’m saying.”

  Byerly let Doreen fight her own battles, not that she needed help. His attention was on another drama. Mandy stood there holding Jamie, transfixed by Justin Wright. Apparently she had not seen him since…Byerly did not know since when, maybe since she slept with him, or perhaps the birth of Jamie. She was speechless, virtually unblinking.

  Wright was not much better. His eyes moved, but only between the faces of Mandy and her son. At last he spoke. “Is that…Jamie?”

  Mandy said nothing, just stared.

  “He seems…a…a fine boy.”

  Byerly waited for Wright to do something, perhaps go to his son, take him in his arms. He even sensed he wanted to. “You’re right, Governor, Jamie is a great kid. You should be very proud of him.” Now Wright looked at him. “I’m Walt Byerly. I tried to get you on the phone to tell you—”

  “My husband knows nothing about all this.”

  He had forgotten Edie Wright. She was tall, slender, with honey-colored hair and blue eyes, classy, patrician and regal. She was also a lioness defending her mate.

  “All this is just a nasty rumor, concocted by Justin’s political opponents.”

  “That’s the exact truth.” Joy Fielding jumped in. ”This is a good place to deny the rumor once and for all.”

  “I’m sick to death of these…these ghastly innuendoes about my husband.”

  “Are they rumors, Governor Wright?” Byerly said. “This handsome young man just might be your son, your only child. A simple paternity test would prove it.” Clearly the man wavered.

  Edie Wright went to her husband, touched his hand, said, “You’ll make such a good President, Justin.”

  “I doubt that, Mrs. Wright, at least he won’t get my vote. So what’s it going to be, Governor, truth or expediency?”

  Wright looked extremely unhappy.

  Mandy spoke. “Please stop, Mr. Byerly. Jamie’s father is for me alone to know. It is my right, and I will never tell. There will be no blood test. I want nothing from anyone.”

  “Thank God!” Joy Fielding said, “At last someone makes some sense around here.”

  “I want to say another thing. The Byerly’s did not steal my son. They protected him and tried to rescue me. I will always be grateful.”

  Joy Fielding clapped her hands, then a second time. “My, my, testimonials all around. Why don’t you take your son, these two busybodies, and leave? We all want to hear Governor Wright speak.”

  “This is my house. She may stay if she wishes.”

  Byerly heard the voice, then a communal gasp. He turned to see a man advanced in years, stooped and withered, leaning heavily on a cane. His voice was that of a younger man, however. Byerly wouldn’t have known who he was except Josh was with him. “Karl Kinkaid, I presume.”

  Josh answered. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you, Walt, but I wasn’t sure until the last minute that he’d come.”

  “And all this time I thought you were shiftless and uncaring.” He laughed. “My apologies, Josh.”

  “I’m the one who needs to apologize—for being such a fool.” Karl Kinkaid looked at his wife. “My grandson has told me about your recent activities, my dear.”

  “It’s lies, Karl, all lies.”

  “Perhaps, but I prefer to believe him. It gives me a way to get reacquainted with my grandson.”

  “Karl, listen to me.”

  “That’s the trouble, Joy, I listened to you too much. I let you sour me on my only blood relative. I let you tell me what a wonderful candidate….” He looked at Justin Wright. “Governor, you will get no more money from me. Ronald Reagan was a man of principle. I was told you were, too.” He shook his head sorrowfully. “You, sir, most definitely are not.”

  Justin Wright opened his mouth to speak, but Kinkaid silenced him with a dismissive wave. “Don’t embarrass yourself in front of these people any more than you have already.”

  He looked around at the guests, raised his voice. “I understand all of you paid $10,000 to be here for dinner. Your money will be returned to you, and you are welcome to stay and eat the food.”

  Byerly felt he couldn’t stop smiling. He looked at Doreen. There was joy and relief in her face.

  “Let’s go home, dear,” she said, “And take this little one and his mother with us.”

  “In a minute. First, we have some unfinished business here.”

  26: Whodunnit

  BYERLY TURNED TO LUPE. “Haven’t you a question or two?” She hesitated, suddenly cowed by the audience and situation. “The ball is yours, Lupe.”

  She looked at him somberly, then nodded. “Yes, we do have unfinished business here.” She squared her shoulders.

  “If I may ask, who are you?”

  She turned to Karl Kinkaid, sitting in a wheelchair now. “I’m Detective Lupe Hernandez of the Santa Barbara Police Department. A man was murdered a few days ago. I believe your wife may have some knowledge of it.”

  “Is that true, Joy?”

  “Of course not, Karl. The man committed suicide. There was no murder.”

  Lupe no
w looked at Mandy Sykes. “Why did you come to Santa Barbara?”

  She held her son in her arms. “Do I have to answer?”

  “I’m afraid so. A man has been murdered. I believe you have vital information.”

  “Sergeant, you’re the investigating officer.” The voice of the Dragon was heard in the land. “Can’t you put a stop to this nonsense?”

  Looking at Lupe, Buster Brogan hesitated. Clearly her warning about his pension had gotten to him.

  “At the very least, Sergeant, can’t you hold this stupid interrogation somewhere else?”

  Lupe answered. “Certainly, Mr. Dragon. We can go downtown, but you’ll have to come with us.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’ll see.” She turned back to Mandy. “Please answer my question, why did you come to Santa Barbara?”

  “I was told—” She sighed. “—that Jamie’s father wanted to meet him.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Harry Gould. We were friends from college.”

  “And the father of your child, no doubt,” Fielding said.

  Lupe ignored her. “Did Harry Gould pay your way from Boston?”

  “He arranged for me to pick up a ticket at Logan Airport.”

  “And made reservations for you and Jamie at the Upham Hotel?”

  “Yes, but it wasn’t his money. Harry didn’t have much money. He said he had a client.”

  “Do you know who that client was?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you meet someone else besides Harry Gould when you came to Santa Barbara?”

  “That man there. He was with Harry when they came to the hotel to talk to me.”

  “Are you pointing at Victor Dragon?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was he Harry Gould’s client?”

  “Yes, he did most of the talking.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “That Jamie’s father wanted some…involvement in his son’s life, that he wanted to provide financial support.”

  Byerly jumped in. “You’re doing great, Lupe, but I have to ask Mandy a question. Was Jamie’s father prepared to acknowledge paternity?”

  “That was not discussed. I did not ask for it. My impression was that everything was to be…secret.”

  Now Doreen got her two cents in. “Was Jamie’s father involved or was Victor Dragon acting on his own?”

  Mandy hesitated.

  “That’s a most important question,” Lupe said. “If Jamie’s father was a participant in all this, it may well make him an accessory to murder.”

  Byerly watched Mandy closely. She looked at Jamie, Doreen, her feet, everywhere except at Justin Wright—or tried to. Then the merest flicker in his direction came.

  The silence in the room was profound, the tension heavy.

  “It’s important, Mandy.”

  She nodded, looked at Lupe. “No, I don’t believe Jamie’s father knew anything about it.

  Byerly recognized his own disappointment, yet he admired Amanda Sykes. Justin Wright did not deserve a woman like her. “When you had this meeting with Gould and Dragon did they want you to do something?”

  “They said Jamie’s father wanted to see his son. They would take us to him the following morning.”

  “Did you go?”

  “No, Mr. Byerly. I felt uneasy about it. I’ve known for a long time that someone wanted Jamie out of the way. He was a threat—”

  “To Whom?”

  “I never knew.”

  “You worked in Congressman Wright’s office. He was promoting family values in his campaign for President. Surely you realized the effect the mere existence of Jamie would have on—”

  “I didn’t want to be involved in that. I didn’t want Jamie involved. That’s why I hid.”

  “So you didn’t trust Victor Dragon and decided not to meet him. What happened?”

  “I’d taken Jamie to a nearby park. There was a play castle for children.”

  “It’s called Kid’s World and it’s in Alameda Park,” Doreen said.

  “Jamie met a nice boy, Tommy. I’d struck up a conversation with his mother. She was the only person I knew in town besides Harry and Mr. Dragon.”

  “So you asked Karen to baby sit Jamie. Then what happened?”

  “I didn’t want to go back to the hotel the way I’d come. I was afraid it might lead them to Jamie. I took a circuitous route and ended up at the library downtown. I was lost. Then a limousine pulled up and I was told to get in.”

  “Did you?”

  “I had no choice.” She pointed. “That man there pulled me in.”

  “That would be good ol’ Dirk, the pancake man.” Byerly laughed at the man’s glower.

  “Who was in the car?” Lupe asked.

  “Mr. Dragon and a woman I now know was Mrs. Kinkaid.“

  “It’s a lie, I was never there.”

  Lupe waved that aside. “Then what happened, Mandy?”

  “They really didn’t want me, you see, they wanted Jamie.” She clutched the boy tighter. “They wanted me to tell them where he was. I wouldn’t.”

  “Were you threatened?”

  “Not in so many words, but I was locked in the tower and told I couldn’t leave until I revealed where Jamie was.”

  “God, how awful for you,” Doreen said. “I was only there a day or so, but you were held how long? A week or 10 days? It had to be torture, positively medieval.”

  He had to smile. Doreen was not helping Wright’s PR a bit.”

  “The worst thing, DeeDee, was that I had no newspaper, radio or TV. I had no idea what was going on in the world, no idea whether Jamie was safe or not. I worried constantly.”

  “Oh, my dear,” a voice said behind him.

  “You poor thing, how awful for you.”

  Edie Wright had the most sense of any of them. “Justin, I warned you not to get involved with the Fielding woman. I told you—”

  “I should have listened to you.” He raised his voice. “I want all you good people to know I had nothing to do with any of this. I knew nothing about it and definitely would not have condoned such conduct.”

  The voice of Dr. Joy did not live up to her name. “Oh shut up, Justin, you’re such a weasel.”

  “May Jamie and I leave now? We’ve had quite enough of this place.”

  “Just one more question,” Lupe said. “When did you last see Harry Gould alive?”