Die Smiling

by Linda Ladd

  I held up my hands. He removed the cuffs. Brianna and Bud were waiting at the base of the steps. I could see the lantern flame leaping, and I could hear Brianna crying and talking to me.

  “Claire, listen, please, please forgive us for this. I brought Bud into this tonight when I told him the truth, but I don’t want him to get hurt. I just told him because Walter is going to kill him. He had to know that, so he’d be careful. I told him I’d go back with Walter so he’d leave Bud alone, but Bud wouldn’t let me. And I don’t want to be with Walter. I won’t. I’d rather be in jail for killing him than to have to live with him and do the awful things he makes me do.”

  I felt a terrible, unwelcome wave of resignation roll over me. “You’ll never get away with this. You’ll all be as bad as Costin. You’ll be murderers. Bud, wake up, stop this before it’s too late.”

  Bud’s voice came then, angry, forceful. “You saw that tape, right, Claire? The way Costin manipulated those children to kill Bri’s stepdad. He was older; they looked up to him, trusted him. And now he’s been holding that tape over their heads for years, making them do whatever he wanted. He’ll end up killing them all, just like he did Hilde. Cutting off her lips was a warning to them. Bri and Shaggy have gone through hell since they were little kids because of him. I’m going to help them stop him once and for all.”

  “You’re not thinking straight. Don’t do it.”

  But then they were gone and I was left locked up and helpless in the pitch-black barn. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, so examined the box with my fingers, found it old but sturdy. Maybe I’d get lucky and the wood would splinter at the hinges if I kicked the door hard enough. There wasn’t much else to do. I couldn’t believe Bud got himself in this mess. And Shaggy and Brianna, murderers? Never. Even as bad as Costin was. I lay down on my back, doubled my knees, and kicked the door with both feet as hard as I could. If I could break out of this damn cage, I could still stop them.

  Sisterly Love

  The older one left the barn and walked alongside the man she loved. No one spoke, all of them thinking about the friend they’d just locked up in their old punishment box. Bud had betrayed his own partner, and she knew it was killing him. And it was her fault, every bit of it; it was all her fault. She shouldn’t have ever told him the truth when he picked her up after she’d won the pageant. She had gotten so emotional and frightened and had wept and spilled out the whole story, from the very beginning, the day when she’d met the boy under the bleachers.

  Bud had been incensed that Walter had put her and Bubby through so much hell and he had wanted to help them. He was the one who sent her here ahead of him while he got Bubby out of jail, and she had been so relieved that he didn’t hate her, that somebody like him, who knew how to use a gun, somebody tough and experienced and good would help them face the boy. But she should never have involved him in this. It would ruin his career as a homicide detective, and worse, it would destroy Claire’s trust in him.

  She waited until they were inside the house, in the living room, and then she said, “Bud, I’m so sorry all this happened. I know it’s killing you to do this to Claire.”

  Bud stared into her eyes. His face was strained, serious, tortured. He glanced over at Bubby, then paced a few steps across the room before he turned and looked back at them. He shook his head.

  “Bri, I just can’t do it. I thought I could, but there’s no way I can let you and Shag kill him in cold blood. As bad as he is, I just can’t do it. Claire’s right about everything. He’ll be dead, true, but all of us will be, too, because we aren’t like him and we can’t live with something like this. She’s right, right about everything. You both know it, too, don’t you? I know you do.”

  The older one nodded because what he said was the truth. She turned to Bubby, tears in her eyes. All this had been his idea, thought up while he sat in his jail cell. He had planned the ambush, originally just the two of them, Bubby, who had hated the violence and murder they were subjected to as children more than any of them.

  She said, “Johnny, we can’t. Bud’s right. We’ll all end up in jail for the rest of our lives.”

  Shaggy stood silently. “We gotta kill him before he kills us.” His voice broke. “Like he killed Sissy.”

  Bud said, “We can still take him down. Just the way we planned, but we’ll subdue him and make him confess to Hilde’s murder. He has no way of knowing I’m here. He expects you and Bri to be alone. And he thinks he’s getting her back. We can put him away for life.”

  Brianna said, “He’ll find a way to get away. He always finds a way.”

  “Not this time. All you have to do, Bri, is sit down here in the livin’ room and wait for him. I don’t want you hurt. Tell him Shaggy’s not here yet. Just stay here long enough to get him inside. I can hide at the top of the stairs until I can get the jump on him. Then we’ll cuff him, force him to confess, and take him in. It’s our word against his. If you both testify against him, tell the prosecuting attorney everything you know, we can put him away. Shaggy, you hide in the dinin’ room with the shotgun. Once he gets inside, I’ll come out on one side of him and you on the other. With both of our weapons on him, he won’t try anything stupid.”

  The older one and Bubby listened to Bud’s plan and followed his directions. But when their eyes met, they knew Bud’s plan wouldn’t work. The boy would try something, and it would work. He would get away free and clear. That’s the way it always had been and that’s the way it always would be.

  Nineteen

  “Kicking like that’s not gonna do you a bit of good, Detective.”

  The voice floated out of the darkness of the loft, close by, as icy calm and terrifying as if the grim reaper had materialized out of thin air. And I knew who it was only too well. Walter Costin. A grim reaper of his own sort. I recognized the voice, just as Carlos Vasquez had identified it before his lips were hacked off. I froze, muscles rock-rigid with dread. I strained to find him out in the inky black. An intense white light flared suddenly and slammed into my face. Momentarily blinded, I shut my eyes and shielded them with my hands.

  Boards creaked as he moved closer, and then I heard him laugh, softly with no amusement. “Wanna know why you can’t get outta there? I reinforced that box when I had to lock dear little Hilde inside it for a few days. She was havin’ a little problem remembering to obey me, the little stinker. But it didn’t do me much good. I found out later she’d been sneakin’ up here to Missouri behind my back and visitin’ Johnny and Brianna, all the while lying to me like a damn dog. Swore to me she didn’t have a clue where they were, put her hand on the Bible, even, said she sure wished she could find them. On and on, you know the story, she missed them so much and sure hoped they both were okay. All lies, because the truth is, she was a lying, betraying little bitch.”

  Now he was near enough for me to see him, but only a vague form looming behind the powerful flashlight beam. He kept up the chitchat, seemed almost pleased to tell me his story, lonely, I guess. Too bad I didn’t have a tape recorder. Problem was, he no doubt thought he could spill his guts like I was Oprah Winfrey because he knew I didn’t have a chance in hell of getting out of this box alive.

  “I gotta admit they covered their tracks pretty well. Managed to throw me off the scent for a long time, which I never would’ve believed possible. None of the darlings are exactly Einstein material. Except for Johnny, he’s fairly bright, I’ll give him that. But then I finally woke up and got a tad suspicious of Hilde’s odd little out-of-town jaunts back here to Missouri. So I asked myself? Why, indeed? Our family’s long gone, nobody around here anymore. So why’s she signing on for this little hick contest at your boyfriend’s hotel? So I decided to follow her and see what she was up to. Imagine my surprise when I saw Brianna drive up and get out of her car. And who shows up a minute later. Little Bubby himself, but that’s right, you call him Shaggy, don’t you? All three of them together conspiring against me. The rest is history, as they say. Espe
cially for Hilde.” His voice had grown increasingly cold, hard, and angry.

  I sat very still, said nothing, and tried to think through my options. I had no weapons, no phone, and was locked up helplessly inside a very sturdy box. That was pretty much it. There were no options this time. Maybe I could scream, try to give Bud a warning. But that was about it.

  Apparently, Costin was thinking along the same lines. “Don’t waste your breath tryin’ to scream. Nobody’s gonna hear you. They’re hiding inside the house, the Three Stooges, planning a killer surprise party for me. Even your partner jumped in on the deal, all his scruples suddenly shot to hell. That’s the effect Bri’s got on men. Most of ’em end up doing just about anything she asks them to. Even murder, like poor Bud. Not that I don’t know how it feels to be under her spell. She got me in her web when I was just a kid, long before she got as beautiful as she is now. Difference is, I found I rather enjoyed killing people for her. I doubt if Bud’s going to like it much, though.”

  Okay, if this freak wanted to be chatty, that was fine by me. Maybe it’d buy me time to think my way out of this mess. “So tell me this, Walter. Why’d you go after Carlos Vasquez? That seems a bit unnecessary. Overkill, even.”

  “C’mon, Detective, Carlos saw me at Hilde’s house, met me, in fact, could describe me to you. I knew you’d go down there sooner or later to check him out as a suspect and he’d tell you Hilde was deathly afraid of me. I had to shut him up and do it fast, but you still managed to get to him faster than I did. I cut him so you’d have a distraction to worry about. Figured it’d keep you down in the Sunshine State lookin’ for the murderer.”

  “Yeah? Only one thing went wrong.”

  “Oh, yeah? What would that be?”

  “Carlos Vasquez didn’t die. In fact, he put us straight onto you. Detective Ortega in Miami and Sheriff Ramsay both know you cut him up. They’re both out looking for you right now for murder one, not to mention that attempted murder. Don’t think you’re getting away with this, Costin. You’re not as smart as everybody else seems to think.”

  He laughed some more, this time sounded genuinely amused. Jolly as Old Saint Nick, he was. “Know what? I’ve gotten away with every single, goddamn thing I’ve done my entire life, good and bad. Brianna and Johnny know that only too well. That’s why they’re in the house waitin’ to gun me down. Problem is, they’re not as smart as I am, and neither are you, judging by where you’re sittin’ right now. You did give me a run for my money there for a few days, I’ve gotta say. Luckily, the Three Stooges saw fit to lock you up, so now I don’t have to worry about you. And they’re in for a very big surprise, because guess what? I bugged that house out there years ago. I knew I couldn’t trust them anymore. Hilde stood with me for a long time, then she betrayed me worse than any of them when she went over to their side.”

  “My advice, Costin? Get outta here while you still can. I already called in for backup from Springfield PD. They’ll be out here any minute.”

  “Yeah? You call them before your friends locked you in this box and took your phone, or after?”

  I was silent, but I was in one helluva bad fix. I tried to think how I could warn Bud but didn’t have long to worry about it.

  “Okey-doke, Detective. Time to have that surprise party but it’s gonna have a real surprising twist. And you’re gonna help me.” He knelt down in front of the box, the bright light still trained on my face. I heard a key scrape, and the door swung outward. I lunged out and head-butted him in the legs, but he evaded me and the arc of the light beam slashed downward and got the top of my head. The heavy Maglite cracked against my skull and I went down face forward. Stunned a little, I felt him grab my arms and bind my wrists behind my back with some kind of rope. I tensed my arms, hoping to create some slack in the knots, but he turned me over, jerked a gag tight around my mouth, and hauled me up by the back of my shirt. He shoved a gun barrel into my right ear.

  “Okay, I enjoyed all that bravado, you’re quite the girl, but that’s enough outta you for the moment. I’ve read all about how gutsy you are, but I don’t particularly want to kill you yet because you’re my ticket inside that house. But I’ll slit your throat, if need be, right here and now, if you try anything else stupid like that. You really need to understand that I won’t hesitate to do it. Then I’ll cut off your mouth and leave you bleedin’, just like Hilde and Carlos, and anybody else who ever crossed me.”

  Still a little dizzy, I staggered alongside him as he gripped the back of my shirt and half lowered me down the steps. Then he just let go and I dropped like a sack of cement and hit the floor hard. Grunting, I rolled with the fall and desperately tried to regain my feet. But he was down the steps way too fast and had me again, one fist gripping my hair. He put his mouth very close to my ear, made his voice husky, low.

  “Now you be real quiet, got it? We gotta surprise our good friends over there hidin’ in the house.”

  He made his way around the edge of the yard, dragging me along with him. It was still dark outside, and Costin’s car was not in the driveway. Nobody’s car was in the driveway. All hidden; everybody playing cat and mouse. Unfortunately, Costin was Sylvester and I was Tweety’s unlucky cousin. He’d been here the whole time, watching and listening, playing us for fools. I just hoped Bud and the others were inside that house, armed to the teeth, on guard and waiting for Costin to show up. He pushed me in front of him around back behind the barn. I stumbled once and almost fell, but he jerked me upright and forced me out into some trees edging the property. He brought me out of the woods at the far side of the house. It was all dark, quiet, but I know nobody inside could hear us. He shoved me to my knees while he threw a latch on a cellar door, lifted it up, and then took me down some steps to another door. He opened that one and pushed me inside.

  “Okay, Detective, listen good. Bri’s waitin’ for me up there in the living room, all ready to pretend she’s going away with me. Isn’t that the sweetest thing? Johnny and Bud are lurkin’ around, too, ready to shoot me in the back, blow me away like some kind of stray dog. Not exactly brilliant or creative, but then again, they didn’t have me around this time to plan it out for them. So let’s go, you’re gonna be my human shield. None of them will risk puttin’a bullet in you.”

  We moved up the steps that led into the house, me in front but in his grip, and then out into a dark, chilly hall off the back porch. I could see a dim light in the living room and tried to yell a muffled warning until Costin put his arm around my neck and squeezed my throat shut with his forearm. The sound dried up. Then he walked me to the open archway that led into the living room. Brianna was sitting in a rocking chair beside a cold fireplace.

  “Hello, sweetheart, look who I’ve brought along to see you.”

  Brianna hadn’t seen us yet, and the sound of Costin’s voice brought her up out of the chair and on her feet. Her face twisted with fear, and her eyes became enormous and glittered in the light from the kerosene lamp on the table beside her. “Don’t hurt Claire. Walter, please, please. I’ll do whatever you say. I swear I will.”

  “Okay, that’s cool. Tell Bubby and Bud to scoot on out here with their hands up, or I’ll blow her fuckin’ brains out.”

  I stood silently in front of him, his hand still fisted in my hair, his other hand holding a gun to my temple. I hoped to God Bud had the guts to open up on him. If they didn’t gun him down first, we were all dead.

  “Bud, Bud, he’s got a gun to Claire’s head,” Brianna cried out. “He’ll do it, Bud, he’ll do it!”

  Silence, maybe ten seconds worth, then my eyes caught a movement on the staircase leading to the second floor. Bud appeared on the landing. He had his arms straight out, his .45 up and targeted on Walter’s head. Shaggy suddenly loomed out from behind the dining room wall. He had already lowered his weapon.

  “Well, isn’t this nice? The whole family right here waitin’ on me to show up. That’s true family loyalty.”

  Bud didn’t move, didn’t react, kept
his weapon sighted on Walter’s face. Walter’s breathing didn’t alter. He was as calm as ice on a pond. “Go ahead, shoot me, Detective Davis, kill me, if you like, but your partner’s gonna be dead, too, before she hits the floor.”

  I saw Bud’s eyes shift toward me, just barely, and I shook my head. “Shoot him, shoot him,” I cried out underneath the gag but my words were muffled and my heart dropped when I caught Bud’s first hesitation. I knew then we were all goners.

  “Okay, Costin, we’ll put the guns down. Don’t hurt her.”

  Walter said, “You, too, Bubby boy, then get down on the ground on your stomachs, both of you.”

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to figure out what I could do next as the two men slowly put their weapons aside and lowered themselves to the floor. They shouldn’t have done it, no, no, don’t do it, I thought frantically. He’s gonna kill you, all of us, that’s why he’s here.

  “Brianna, baby doll, you’ll find some rope under the couch. Get it out and tie them to those dining room chairs over there. And make it good and tight. Don’t give me a reason to shoot the detective here.”

  “Please, Walter, listen to me. If you love me, truly love me, you won’t hurt anybody. I said I’d go with you, be with you from now on. That’s all you said you wanted. I’ll never run away from you again, I swear to God, I won’t.”

  “Now that, my dear, is music to my ears. Tie them up like I said and we’ll get the hell out of here.”

  Brianna quickly obeyed, and Walter pushed me down on the floor and held the gun pointed at the top of my head. My mind raced, but it didn’t go anywhere that had an answer to this dilemma. I couldn’t see any way out this time. Maybe he was telling the truth, maybe all he wanted was to kidnap Brianna and force her to go with him. But who was I kidding? This guy cut off people’s lips with scissors. You think he’d leave three witnesses alive to finger him? Huh-uh. We were dead.