Adieu to Destiny (The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod Book 4)

by Tracy Ellen

  Jack snorted.

  I put up the hood of my jacket, put my purse strap over my head, and opened my door. The howling snowstorm rushed in to fill the Jeep’s interior and the wind tried to snatch the door out of my grasp.

  Jack got out and came around to my side while I retrieved my overnight case out of the back of Lady Liberty. We heard the rumble, and then glimpsed the monster pickup truck with spotlights mounted on the roof and a snowplow attached to the front through the white curtain of snow blowing all around us. It drove back and forth moving the drifts off the drive while waiting for Jack. Fleetingly, I wondered if that teenager’s Granny baked any more of those delicious iced ginger cookies for Luke.

  “Now remember, She-Devil,” Jack called out and bent down to see my face as a miniature snow drift built up rapidly on the bill of his Vikings cap, “if things go south in there for any reason and Luke can’t help you, lock yourself in a room, pull your gun out, and hit speed dial. No heroics or fancy punches--anybody comes through that door other than a friendly face before I get there, you do what you need to do.”

  “Got it.”

  “Get out of here, and be careful.”

  Holding the overnight case in front of me like a shield, I ran up the unshoveled sidewalk to Luke’s back porch, as pellets of icy snow stung my exposed cheeks. Jack waited to leave until I got into the house. He would then set up base over at Reg’s with the kid and his plow.

  There was no welcoming light on to light my path, and when I knocked on the back door nobody immediately answered. I didn’t wait, but let myself into the back hall.

  I could hear the rattle of glasses and raised voices off in living room, although the kitchen and dining room appeared empty and dark, but for a night light above the stove. The voices sounded hectic, not angry.

  I said a quick hello to Luke’s house and then called out, “Hey, anybody home?”

  Flipping on the back hall light, I toed off my snowy boots. I bent to brush the snow off my jeans and when I stood up, Pam was there, anxiously wringing her hands.

  Our plan was off to the right start. Luke had agreed to send Pam to greet me and give us a chance to talk alone, so that I could pump her for her impressions. Nobody would expect me to want to be there to hang with them, or for Luke to play the friendly host towards me. We’d been thrown together against our wills strictly to help the police remove a threat.

  Pam said loudly, “Oh, hello, Bel. Is the driving as treacherous as it looks?” She took my shoulders and whispered fervently in my ear, “Why didn’t you tell me that you were kidnapped? Luke didn’t say you’d been hurt, but I remember how funny you were walking that next day when we met for lunch in Faribault.” She asked bluntly, “Did you get beat up or raped?”

  As she braced herself for my answer, Pam had unconsciously tightened her grip painfully on my shoulders, as if in dread of my response.

  “No, neither. That was from splinters in my butt from a wooden chair. My kidnapper was gay,” I answered quietly.

  I raised my voice then like she had and called out, “Whew! It is so bad out there, you wouldn’t believe it!”

  “Oh, thank God,” Pam muttered, eyes closed as she breathed out in relief. Then her lids snapped open and she smacked my shoulder while she whispered fiercely, “It was bad enough knowing you sat there and listened to me go on and on about my stupid marital problems when you had been kidnapped the night before, for God’s sake, but if you had been raped…” She blew the golden-brown bangs out of her eyes, unable to express how terrible she felt.

  “I wasn’t, so don’t beat yourself up,” I rubbed my shoulder pointedly, “or me.”

  Pam giggled, but fired back up again. “Save me--that sleaze came back with Luke again tonight!” Cheeks blazing and freckles popping in outrage, she rubbed my upper arms briskly, as if to prepare me for a bout in the ring. “I want to kill her, but I promised Joe that I would behave. Isn’t that the strangest shit? I have to behave while she struts around. But now that you’re here, please kick her skinny, flat ass for me and I’ll owe you for life.”

  “You already owe me for life from last weekend. Since he made you promise not to hurt her, may I suggest you sucker punch John-Joe instead, whenever you get the chance?” I drew off my damp mittens and stuck them in my jacket pocket before shrugging it off to hang on a peg on the wall. “Sorry, Pam, but I’m here only to help the police catch a killer.”

  “Oh, I know, I know,” She laughed nervously and reassured me quickly, “but you can’t blame a girl for trying.”

  Pam glanced around furtively, and then clasped my arm to pull me briskly down the hall. “Come on, we can’t talk here and I have use the bathroom.”

  I laughed silently at the thought of Jack Banner’s face if he could see me heading off alone with Pam to the bathroom within thirty seconds of my arrival.

  She continued talking quickly between her teeth like a ventriloquist, trying to get out everything she wanted to say while we were alone, but also keeping her voice down. “Good God, and then last night! I’m still reeling over last night. I’m so sorry you have to come over here and pretend everything’s peachy after what Luke did, but I am so glad you are here. Welcome to the freak farm. Everyone is freaking out after what Luke just told us,” she rolled her bright blue eyes and spoke faster, “not that they weren’t freaking out before. Job or no job, I don’t want to hang with the Chicago people when I move there,” she shot me a droll look, “before I sell the condo and reinvest the cash.”

  Pam didn’t wait for my comment, but called out in a hearty voice, “The snow is that bad, huh? Do you want a hot drink in a minute to warm up?”

  “Yes, that would be great,” I called back, puzzled why she was acting strangely and why we needed to call out overloud pleasantries, but I played along.

  I could hear Luke’s mesmerizing deep voice in the living room patiently soothing Emma. The woman was complaining loudly in a tearful voice about the S.W.A.T. team shooting them in the crossfire due to the blizzard conditions and small-town ineptitude.

  Pam sniggered at the expression on my face and pulled me left into the small hallway that led to the bedroom area. Closing the main bathroom door behind us, Pam dropped my arm and bolted for the toilet.

  While she dropped her jeans with a blissful sigh of relief, I looked around in astonishment at the mess that had hit the bathroom since the last time I’d been here. The room had been sparsely decorated then with a hand towel and soap.

  Now expensive cosmetics and perfumes spilled out of a large Hermes weekend tote. The makeup competed with two blow dryers, three curling irons, a flat iron, a large magnifying mirror, a huge round brush, and assorted other combs and brushes to occupy every available surface inch of the long vanity. Bottles of various shapes and sizes crowded the shelf corners of the bath tub. Towels were haphazardly draped everywhere and on the floor, as well as a few clothing items.

  Emma White hadn’t worn any makeup last night and her short haircut was definitely of the no muss-no fuss style.

  “Welcome to Hurricane Prissy.” With a disgusted giggle, Pam swung and kicked a pair of high heels aside with enough force that one went flying into the tub. “This is nothing. You should have seen the look on Luke’s face when he came home tonight and saw the kitchen. Thank God, Joe and I are sleeping downstairs and have our own bathroom and privacy.” She frowned and then angrily muttered, “Luke sent the douche bag down there to play video games while he talked to his partners, so I’ve got no choice but to stay up here with freaks.”

  I asked, “Yeah, what did you mean by everyone is freaking out? Who freaked out first?”

  Pam shrugged. “Emma. She was like, ‘I’m so scared, Dan, we need to leave. I’ve been sick all day and my nerves can’t take this. I don’t care about the snow! We need to go home tonight, right now.’ Yeah, what if her fallopian tubes got shot to shit, or something,” Pam scoffed in derision. “But then Dan got all ticked off, usually he’s so patient with her it’s sicken
ing.” Pam finished her business and then washed her hands vigorously under hot water, using a squirt from one of Prissy’s bottles to get a soapy foam going. “Not that I blame him. The man is devoted to her while, in my opinion, Emma is a major pain in the ass and always whining about something.” Pam rinsed her hands and stared at her image in the mirror while adding, “Joe and I could hear them fighting last night after the party, too. Joe believes something’s wrong with Dan these last couple of days.”

  “Like what?”

  “You heard her last night. The woman is absolutely obsessed with getting pregnant.” Pam turned to me and snorted out a wry laugh. “You know how much that subject thrills me after dealing with Papa Ogelbachen.”

  “Whew, I can imagine,” I agreed sympathetically, understanding Pam’s repulsion since her father-in-law judged his son’s wives worth strictly on their value as baby-making machines.

  “I want to have kids as much as the next person,” Pam glanced at me while she dried her hands and corrected with a grin, “well, excuse me, as most persons, but Emma is too much. She and Dan have tried everything to get pregnant for years.” She complained in disgust, “I’ve heard every single detail of every frickin’ procedure until I’ve wanted to scream.”

  “Emma’s had a lot of procedures?” I asked mildly, although I was surprised at Pam’s harshness. She was generally a spritely, elfin type, but tonight she seemed more furiously fae.

  “Yep, she’s tried everything known to modern medicine--several times.” Pam’s eyes grew comically wide when she whispered, “I feel sorry for Emma that she’s had several miscarriages when she was younger because that really blows, but she’s forty now. If you can’t get pregnant, adopt already, right?” Practical Pam shook her head. “Miss Priss said Emma’s had more than the average number of IVF procedures, but refuses to give up because there’s nothing medically wrong with her or Dan. Now she’s having problems finding reputable clinics that will do the procedures.” She nodded her head towards the other room. “Dan actually raised his voice at her when she wouldn’t stop whining about wanting to leave and now Emma is crying again.”

  That sounded promising. Artificial reproduction treatments are expensive and rarely covered by insurance. I didn’t see a connection between killing me and Emma getting pregnant, especially when the killer paid Dickie ten thousand out of pocket, but I wouldn’t take her off the list. She was pretty crazy last night. It hadn’t sounded like a drunken, one-time occurrence, as Dan wanted me to believe. There was also Dan to consider. How far would a man like Dan go to please the woman he loved?

  I totally believed Svettie was behind my abduction fix once the police said she killed Dickie. Leaving a person to freeze and die of exposure seemed more like a crime a female would conceive, without being too painful or messy. I should have thought it through a step further. Svettie hated me and would want me to suffer.

  My fix was a passionless, hands-off attempt at murder. Applying the logic that Svettie believed the killer was someone from DDL, and they wanted me dead as a means to an end that revolved around Luke, gender profiling didn’t apply anymore to my crime.

  But if women didn’t do messy murder, as a norm, then what about the stabbing of the fake Dickie? Did the fact the killer used Dickie’s own butcher knife indicate the murder was not planned like my fix? Did we have two murderers? Or one man that had no problem getting his hands dirty when he must? Or one woman that was desperate and reacted uncharacteristically?

  ‘Holy Moly, this detective crap is making my head hurt!’ I thought, holding my throbbing lump as the questions whirled around in the brain box.

  ‘Stick with what you do best. Stop thinking and rattle cages,’ the detective voice suggested calmly.

  “What did Daniel and Prissy say when Emma and Dan’s freak out was going on?”

  Pam crossed her arms and huddled beside me against the messy vanity. “They freaked, too,” she whispered conspiratorially. “Priss was all for leaving, saying she didn’t want to be in any danger. Daniel flat out refused. He wasn’t going to brave a certain death out in the snow. Daniel didn’t help matters by making fun of Prissy’s worries. He joked about Svetlana escaping the cops and getting into the house. She’d cut the power with her metal hook arm and then slice everybody up.” The tough, little bitch Pam giggled uncontrollably, apparently enjoying Daniel’s macabre sense of humor. “Prissy was pissed. She demanded Daniel take her to go stay in a hotel in the Cities.” Pam deadpanned, “She thought the penthouse suite at The Ivy would do nicely.”

  We performed synchronized eye rolls. At three thousand a night, that was one of the most expensive hotel suites in Minneapolis.

  Pam indicated the Hermes weekend tote. “Guess what that retails for?” She didn’t wait for an answer but said, “Over seven grand!”

  “Holy bejoly, Bucky’s teeth must give awfully good graze,” I murmured, shaking my head. I hoped I was never so rich to buy such unattractive items simply for the snob factor.

  Pam mimed a mean rabbit face giving rabidly aggressive head. She wouldn’t stop hopping all over the bathroom while pretending to growl, nip, and tear into imaginary penises. I had to hold onto the vanity to prevent myself from falling to the floor, I was snorting so hard.

  She finally took pity and stopped, saying breathlessly, “That’s when Luke told the group nobody was leaving to drive in this storm because the State Highway Patrol has shut down 35W from Lakeville south to Albert Lea due to white out conditions.” Pam grinned cheerfully, almost too cheerfully. “Then you came knocking.”

  I eyed my friend’s wide grin carefully while I thought about what Luke had said earlier that Daniel couldn’t afford Priscilla. The company provided decent salaries for the three partners, but they plowed the profits back into the company to grow it according to their agreed upon business plan. They had the potential to be wealthy men in a short time, but currently, a forty thousand dollar diamond ring would be a huge extravagance for Daniel to afford. Luke said Daniel was already over-extended with the lifestyle he lived.

  I wondered if Prissy came from family money, but then thought of her teeth. That overbite never would have survived a wealthy childhood. I suppose her father could be a Texas oilman, a wildcatter that struck it rich after Prissy and her teeth were grown up.

  There was a knock on the bathroom door and Bucky’s voice called out, “Yoohoo! What are ya’ll doing in there so long? Can I come in?”

  Pam and I stared at each other in startled amusement. She did one rabbit mouth move and I flared my eyes in warning.

  I took a deep breath to contain my laughter, slipped my hand into my purse pocket to get a good grip on Rita, and called back, “Sure, come on in.”

  As Prissy opened the door and stuck her head around the corner with a big, wet smile, I noticed Pam had picked up a makeup brush and a pot of pink powder blusher.

  Prissy closed the door behind her, but her smile faltered when she saw Pam had dabbed bright pink circles on each cheek in a Raggedy Ann fashion while humming under her breath.

  The look in her eye a little manic, Pam waved the brush and said, “I hope you don’t mind…?”

  “Oh no, you go right ahead,” Prissy assured her quickly, but laughed uneasily while she looked over at me. She motioned to the clutter on the vanity. “I can’t go for even one night without all my girl stuff.”

  “I love my lotions and potions, too,” I agreed in a friendly voice.

  I watched Bucky for any sudden moves, at the same time I watched Pam start drawing on her lips with an unbecoming plum shade of lip liner.

  Bucky was wearing a long skirt to her ankles, a form fitting blouse, and obviously no bra. I couldn’t see where she’d store a weapon, since the skirt was slinky and outlined her thighs.

  I reached forward, removing the plum lip liner from Pam’s hand while I shook my head in the negative at her inquiring frown. I switched out the colors, handing Pam a bronze shade that would flatter her autumn skin tones.

 
; I said, “Hold still, Pammie, my love.” Using my right hand, I blended in the pink circles along her cheekbones while still gripping Rita with my left.

  I wasn’t sure if the stress of having the un-cousin under the same roof two nights in a row had sent Pam down a dark path, especially so soon after her stress of dealing with her public humiliation last weekend, but that was no excuse to join the freak show of life with your cosmetics application.

  “Oh much better, honey,” Bucky said approvingly, bouncing in place with a clap of her hands. She rummaged for a second and brought out a small gold case studded with tiny crystals. “Here, close your eyes, Pam. Wait until you see.” Bucky grinned widely at me, as she stroked on the bronzy-apricot color to Pam’s upper lids. “This is the best eye shadow color to bring out pretty blue eyes.”

  Bucky finished and tapped Pam’s shoulder to look. Pam leaned forward to closely inspect her work in the mirror. It did look great. Now Pam’s eyes gleamed manically bluer.

  “I want to apologize, Anabel, for last night. I feel we got off on the wrong foot,” Bucky said to me, sincerity oozing from every pore. “Those boys gave me way too much drink. I tend to get a little overstimulated,” she laughed and blushed demurely, “and then I say and do things that make me want to sink through the floor when I remember the next day.”

  I waved off her apology and smiled back. “Don’t give it another thought; you seemed perfectly natural and real friendly.”

  She got that confused glint in her eye, but her smile was all teasing naughtiness. “Oh, I’m sure glad to hear that because I thought I’d been a bad, bad girl.”

  Seeing that Pam was debating over blue or black mascara, I tapped the black tube. “First black,” I demonstrated pulling the wand along the lashes on the upper lids, “and then like this with the blue to lengthen the corner lashes. See?”