by Nick Vellis
“I was shocked daddy paid anything,” she said.
She just stood there, but the lie was scrawled across her face.
“Cut it out. There’s no point in denying it. You don’t know where the money is, do you?” I asked.
Her lips moved ever so imperceptibly and said, shit. She took a step closer to protest and I held up one hand to stop her.
“Nancy Cameron had some beef with Greer. You two hatched a plan to screw Greer and Stephanie out of the money. Did she abduct Greer?”
The fear glowed in her eyes now. “How did you…OK, Mac. I knew Stephanie set up the blackmail and I was going to get some of the payoff, but I swear didn’t kill her or Luck Taylor,” she insisted.
Her eyes moved to the left. She was remembering facts. She hadn’t killed Stephanie or Luck Taylor. If she didn’t…
“It was all part of your plan,” I said.
“When I found out what Stephanie was doing, yes,” she said. “The part I didn’t plan was falling love with you,” Her voice turned soft. She ran her left hand over her breasts. “Don’t you want me?” she cooed. “Wanna see what I have on under this?” She took a few more steps toward me as she began to slip her arm out of the single strap. She peeled down her top exposing her breast and waited, “I don’t have…”
“Oh you’re good,” I chuckled, “very good.” It wasn’t going to work, not this time. “Don’t you want me?” I said, in a mocking falsetto.
“Please Mac, you have to believe me. I…”
“Now you’re just scraping the bottom of the pathetic barrel,” I snapped. “Why should I even listen to you? By the way, remember, I can see the truth in your words. You better shut up.”
“You offered to help with an alibi, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but that was to get you talking. An interview technique, you know, establish rapport with the subject.”
I’d been an easy mark, a total sucker, but not anymore. She stared at me in disbelief as she slipped her strap back on and rearranged her goods in the skintight mini dress.
“Mac, I’ve built up a big bank roll. We can leave together, go tonight,” she said. Her voice had just the right inflection and broke with emotion in just the right spots. The way her body and her eyes moved told me it was a sham.
“I can share it, Mac. Maybe we got off to a bad start, but there’s plenty for us both. Think of it, the two of us could go to Bora Bora, maybe Brazil. We could do anything we wanted…lounge on the beach, party, anything, with no worries. We’d have plenty of time for us, for great sex. You and me in…”
“Really,” I said. “You’d do that. Won’t your partner have a problem with that?”
I noticed she mentioned places with no extradition.
“I love you Mac, oh Mac,” she begged. “You…”
“Shut up, will you?” I said. “Look, the cops will find Sharon Greer any time. When she talks, they’ll nail you. She’ll talk about you, the blackmail, the dummied up lawsuit, and how you stole the tetrodotoxin. Who told you Stephanie had double-crossed you? Was it Greer or Nancy? My money’s on the fact they were both trying to cut you out.”
A sound in the outer office triggered a queer sort of smile that washed across her beautiful face. It gave me a chill. Maybe I wasn’t as smart as I thought.
“Come on Ashton. The cops will have Greer soon. She’ll tell them how you manipulated everyone in this mess. We only have a few minutes to get our story straight. Give it to me fast and we can make up a story that’ll work!” I said.
“You’re a real pain in the ass,” she said.
I heard the noise again. She fumbled in her purse for a gun. I snatched the Beretta from the open drawer as I leapt to my feet. She’d been too slow. I had the drop on her. The smile went away from her face.
My old fears rose from the dark reaches of my brain. The sweat popped out on my forehead as I felt the ghosts of Iraq slipping their fingers into my mind. I had to defeat this demon, even if it was just this one time.
“Put the gun on the desk Ashton,” I said hoping my voice wouldn’t crack as I stood. I zeroed my Berretta on her lovely chest, centered on her rotten heart. She was startled to see my gun and froze with fear, but only for a moment. “Is that .45 from your father’s collection?” I said, my confidence returning.
“You can come in now,” she called out.
Suddenly I realized she’d played me again. Nancy Cameron, dressed all in black, was standing in the doorway pointing a piece at me. From the size of the barrel, it had to be a .45. Bright lights flashed in front of me as my anger rose. I had to hold it together.
“Hi, Mr. Everett, remember me?” she asked with a broad smile. The slim, athletic woman looked more like a dancer than an assassin, but that’s just what she was, a stone cold killer.
“How’s your head?”
“You did that?” I exclaimed.
“Yep, I work out, remember. I’m surprised you made it. It felt like I bent that damn tire iron.”
“It’s about time you got here,” Ashton said to her accomplice. “What took you so long?”
“I’ve been chatting with an old friend. Besides, I wanted to make out how much he knew.”
“A likely story, you were waiting until he shot me,” Ashton shot back.
“Oh, partner love, whatever gave you that idea?” she said with a wry smile. “He wasn’t going to shoot you. You’ve worked your magic on him.” Turning to face me, Nancy said, “How much of that line of crap I told you did you believe?”
“Not much,” I replied.
“You know, I almost felt guilty leading you on like that. You were so kind to me, but business is business,” she said, “How much of it did you tell the cops?”
I just smiled. Nothing I could say was going to save my ass.
She waited a few beats and when she saw I wasn’t going to answer she said, “Ah, don’t let me interrupt your conversation. Oh, Mr. Everett, toss the gun over there.”
She motioned toward the corner with her piece. I tossed the Berretta.
“Have a seat and put your forearms on the desk,” she said. “We don’t want you trying any heroics.”
“Look, the cops will pick Sharon Greer up any minute. She’ll talk about you two, the blackmail, how you stole the tetrodotoxin…”
“You want to tell him or shall I?” Nancy said.
“You break it to him,” she said replied, her confidence returning.
“I’ve taken care of Sharon Greer,” Nancy explained. “I snatched her right after I laid you out. We’ve had a long talk.”
“It took you long enough.” Ashton said then continued. “Daddy let it slip he suspected Stephanie was the one blackmailing him over Cary’s affair, but he didn’t think she was in it alone. I had to do something or it would lead back to me. Daddy is old, but he’s no fool. He would have found me out eventually.”
“Yep, I’d worked out a foolproof plan to screw Sharon, but I needed a lawyer. One landed right in my lap,” Nancy said. “I worked hard to get that job at the Perimeter Marine Institute. I got close to Sharon. I broke her and Stephanie up and then I set her up.”
I introduced Nancy to Stephanie,” Ashton said.
“Then Stephanie introduced me to Sharon,” Nancy said. “She thought she was getting a piece of me and of the action, but she was tying her own noose.”
“Which one of you killed Stephanie?” I asked.
“That was the most delicious part,” Nancy said. “Because I had her ear, I convinced Sharon that Stephanie was a threat. Stephanie was trying to get her husband back so Sharon already felt betrayed.”
“So Sharon killed Stephanie?” I asked.
“Who else?” Nancy shrugged.
“I guess so,” Ashton added. “Stephanie was out of the way and when they arrested my brother things couldn’t have worked out better.”
“So you figured if she threatened to give you up on the lawsuit scam, you could hold the murder over her head until you could eliminate her.
Pretty slick,” I said. I was impressed.
“Mr. Everett, please keep your hands flat on the desk,” Nancy said, motioning with her gun. “Sharon killed her. Who else had access to the tetrodotoxin?”
“Mind if I have a smoke?” I asked.
“Sure, go ahead, but move slow. Don’t make me nervous,” Nancy warned.
“Why do you hate her so much?” I asked.
“Did,” she said, “why did I hate her?” she smiled a Cheshire cat smile. “I finished her off tonight. You should have seen her face when I told her who I was! That was right after she finally told me where she’d stashed the damn money.”
“Where was it?” Ashton asked.
“She had a second car in a storage garage downtown,” Nancy disclosed. “The suitcase was in the trunk. Now it’s in mine.”
“It took you long enough,” Ashton huffed.
“Shut your yap,” Nancy grumbled. “It was a messy business. I used one of her own knives on her. She held out longer than I expected.”
“Why all this hate,” I asked.
“Tell him,” Ashton said as she nodded her head toward me. “It won’t do him any good.”
“I believe Ash told you about Sharon’s arrest. The girl she stabbed was my little sister. She’d stumbled into a West Village bar called Pride by mistake, while looking for a friend. She had no idea it was a gay pick up club. Sharon, ever the predator, hit on her and my sister got scared. She said no and you don’t say no to that one. Sharon stabbed her, puncturing a lung and carved a mark on her cheek. My sister survived the collapsed lung, but the facial scar…she committed suicide three months after getting out of the hospital. That’s why I’d do anything to get her. Hell, I’d have done this for free, but getting paid is so much better.”
“Wish I’d known that,” Ashton said.
“This was all a plot to get back at Sharon Greer?” I asked. “So many bodies for simple revenge, I can’t believe it.”
“No, not just that,” Ashton said. “It was an opportunity to make a lot of money.”
“Did you plan to have Stephanie killed when you stole the neurotoxin? That was in April and…”
“No, it was in March,” Nancy said. “I was going to use that on Sharon then I found out Stephanie and Sharon had this great plan. I decided to wait.”
“Did you give Sharon the poison or did you just plan to pin the hit on her.”
Nancy just smiled. “Brilliant idea, don’t you think,” Nancy bragged.
“Everything was going according to plan until her idiot brother mucked things and got himself arrested.”
“He was the logical suspect,” I said.
“He was out of town for God’s sake!” Nancy shouted. “I shot the rest of them because I ditched the neurotoxin.”
“Once they had their man the cops stopped looking,” I replied. “The other murders only muddied the waters.”
“I hadn’t counted on that. I was going to plant the guns and the empty vial in Sharon’s car, but she ducked me. I slipped the second vial into Ashton’s purse. I figured her for my fall guy, but now I have you.”
The petite woman looked out of place holding a .45. I started to think it might be the last thing I was going to see.
“Why did you make a play for me Ashton, I was flattered, but…”
“But why would a woman like me fall for a loser like you? Yeah, I overplayed that one.”
“I put her up to it,” Nancy teased. “When you hold someone’s secrets, well I can be persuasive, can’t I Ash.”
“Shut up and get this over with, will you,” Ashton croaked.
“I thought we might need you,” Nancy said to me. “It turns out we do. We can pin this whole mess on you.”
“You were surprisingly gallant,” Ashton said. She gave me a tense smile. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” I mocked.
“Don’t be a sore loser,” Nancy grumbled.
“Why Ashton? All this for money, you’re family’s filthy rich; you’re a New York lawyer…”
“It’s never enough,” she mumbled. “There is that wad of cash I owe the syndicate and Daddy’s apparently going to live forever. The SOB won’t die. I planned to kill him, but couldn’t go through with it. I needed that money if I wasn’t going to get an inheritance. It all seemed so simple.”
“Why so many dead? Did you have to kill…?”
“Oh come off it,” Nancy snapped. “Haven’t you done worse? How about the water boarding, the electric shocks and worse.”
“You killed for an honorable reason, is that it?” I scoffed, “and the suitcase full of money was no concern. What about the tennis coach, Taylor and Detective Wagner, did they need to die?”
“They knew bits and pieces. When you started putting things together, they had to go,” Nancy crowed.
“We had a deal. I helped you, but you forced me,” Ashton hissed. “You shot all those people.”
“Oh chill out. I wanted to blame it all on Sharon. You wanted your father, brother, and Stephanie out of the way. It was the perfect set up.”
“What about Kristin Wagner?” I asked.
“The woman with the pictures, she would have recognized me,” Nancy insisted.
“Kristin couldn’t have recognized you. She had those pictures, but she never saw you in the flesh,” I insisted
“Well that sucks for her,” Nancy shot back. “The others, well they got in the way.”
“You told me she had to be killed,” Ashton exclaimed. “You set me up! The cops never stop looking for a cop killer.”
“Oh calm down, that’s why we’re here, to give the cops a fall guy. You figured that out didn’t you, Mac. When they find the murder weapons in your car after your apparent suicide it’ll be quite convincing. Maybe we’ll put one in your car and one under the mattress. There’s no sense making it too easy for them.”
She was right, with my history, the drinking, and proximity to the hits, if the cops found the two guns at my place they’d be stupid not to believe it. They wouldn’t even blink to close so many tangled cases. I had to stall.
“Do you hear yourself, they got in your way, you’re going to kill me, and plant the evidence. It won’t work,” I said. “The lead detective is a friend. He might believe I’d kill with a gun, but with a poison, he’d never fall for it. You need someone to pin it on, but who uses poison? That’s a woman’s weapon.”
I looked over at Ashton hoping she’d pick up on my suggestion she could also be a fall guy. I was praying Stan would show up soon.
Nancy was smiling. Leaving me alive was not part of her plan. Someone had to take the rap. So long as it wasn’t her she was fine with any candidate.
“Why use two weapons?” I asked trying to stall.
Ashton was taking it all in. A dark shadow had fallen on her face and I wondered who she would plug first.
“Was it to sow confusion? The cops know the killings are connected,” I reminded them.
“Mac, you have to help me. She made me do it,” Ashton complained.
Nancy swung her .45 until it was trained on Ashton.
“You're taking the fall, sweetie,” I snarled. There was no malice in my voice or my heart, just business and self-preservation. “You’ve never played square with me for more than five minutes at a time! You used your family, your client, even your body to make your lies believable. Well, I’m no weak sister and you’re through.”
“You know in your heart that in spite of everything I've done, you love me,” she pleaded. “I’ll share what I have…”
“You plotted your own father’s death, helped kill all those people and you’re going over for it. Kristin is the one that tipped the scale. If it hadn’t been for Kristin, I might have gone along with you for part of your dough. The other thing is I’d have something to hold over you. I know what you really are and you can’t stand that. If I went along, I’d never know if or when I’d get a syringe of poison or a bullet to the head. How soon would it be before you
pushed me off a sailboat or arranged for some accident? If you think for one minute I’d be with you again, you’re as crazy as a shithouse rat. Besides, Nancy here isn’t going to let either of us live.”
“I’m afraid you’re right, Mac,” Nancy muttered. Her gun had swung away from me and was aimed at Ashton. “If you think I’m taking the fall for all this…”
I was about to go for my .380 when the door to my apartment opened. We all turned toward the sound. Now there was a third gun in the room and I wasn’t holding it. General Martin Hunt was in the doorway and he was holding a piece.
“Nobody move!” the general ordered.
“Daddy, what are you doing here?” Ashton said. She sounded like a ten-year-old caught sneaking cookies.
“Shut up,” he demanded. “Captain Everett invited me to this party,” he explained. “Thanks for the call Captain. Sorry I’m late. I let myself in through your apartment as you suggested. Ash,” he said turning to his surprised daughter, “I came in just as you were explaining about the SOB who wouldn’t die. Very interesting.”
“You have a part in this too, don’t you, sir? I asked.
He looked at me, and then nodded. “I completely misjudge you, Captain. You puzzled it out, didn’t you?”
“Yes sir, it was muddled by all the falling bodies, but I figured out who kicked over the first domino.”
“What are you two talking about and daddy, what are you doing here?” Ashton demanded.
“My investigator invited me here for a briefing,” he replied. “What did you find captain?”
“Can we all lower our guns a little? Being the only one in the room without a piece is giving me a complex.”
I only had one more confession to secure. Then they could all blast away. The three of them lowered their guns and I breathed a silent sigh of relief.
“General, I found the answer in something Ashton said about you. You’re a student of history so you’d find the irony in a death by tetrodotoxin,” I said. “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. George Santayana said that, sir, not Churchill. It occurred to me you were telling me something, maybe even unconsciously when you said that. I looked up the facts on the Nha Trang serial killer. There’s a whole page on Wikipedia about the Nha Trang murders and the suspect, Wan Tran. He paralyzed his victims with an injection of blowfish venom before he raped and killed them. Blowfish venom is tetrodotoxin, isn’t it, sir?”
