Parker took her by the arm, gave her a shake. “Get to the front. There are ambulances there. Someone will treat you. I’ll find your mother.”
She nodded and walked off in the direction he’d indicated.
Parker turned the other way and kept staring at faces. They were all strangers. Where was she? Where was Tia? Where was his wife?
Miranda had gone toward the stage. She was following Tia. Maybe they got out the back. He began to head that way toward the winding walkway that led to the door he and Miranda had used when they visited Pipia here during her practice.
A yellow-clad fireman stepped in his path, blocking him. “I am sorry, senhor. You cannot go back there.”
“You have to let me pass.”
Another man in identical uniform stepped up beside him. “The building is about to collapse. It looks like the fire started in the back.”
Fear tore through him. “My wife could be back there.”
“She’s probably in the front. That’s where most everyone came out.”
Of course, they did. “She isn’t in the front. I just came from there.”
“We’ll try to find her, senhor.” But they didn’t move. And wouldn’t until he complied. To hell with that.
“Let me through.” Parker forced himself forward but strong arms held him back.
He heard a crack, looked up and saw flames whipping along the building’s roofline. Tears stung his eyes as he continued to struggle with the men.
“Miranda! Miranda!”
His heart turned to char inside him. Was she gone? Burned to death? Would he never see her again?
The terror that he had finally lost her forever seemed to swallow him whole.
Chapter Fifty-Six
It took forever to reach the door. Miranda thought she had slipped into a dreamlike trance. Some hellish nightmare where she was crawling endlessly and never getting anywhere. But at last her head bumped into something hard.
Remembering her safety training at the Agency, she laid the back of her hand against the door. It wasn’t hot. Outside had to be safety. Life.
She lifted her head and gazed at the door giddily. The red exit sign glowed above her, far out of reach. She couldn’t do it. No more strength left.
Tia touched her cheek. “Miranda. Thank you for all you have done for me. I know how hard you tried.”
She was giving up? Hell, no. She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t.
“Just give me a minute.”
She had one last burst of energy inside her. She knew she did. Forcing a deep gulp of sooty air into her lungs she forced her legs under her, her body up and reached for the handle. She pressed as hard as she could. The door opened and she stumbled out into the night air.
Behind her somehow Tia had gotten to her feet. Doubled over, she came out of the building gasping and coughing.
Miranda tottered to her side, put an arm around her. “We’re safe. We made it. We’re outside.”
She looked down at herself. Her silver dress was tarnished and torn, sequins hanging loose from it. Tia didn’t look much better but they were both alive.
They stood there together a long moment, holding onto each other, catching their breath. Miranda became aware of the cool air filling her lungs, clearing out the soot. It felt so good.
Overhead the fire crackled on the roof. Black smoke poured into the night sky. The building could collapse any minute.
They had to get out of here.
She wiped her eyes and blinked at her surroundings, trying to shake the feeling of disorientation. Finally she saw the railing and realized they were at the back of the opera house. Near the winding walkway.
“Pipia,” Tia murmured against her neck.
Miranda patted her cheek. “We’ll find her. She’s got to be out here somewhere.”
She started along the path and then stopped.
Standing a few feet away was the dark shadowy figure of a man.
Dark slacks. Black T-shirt under a black leather jacket. Tall. Longish dark hair. Piercing eyes. A man she knew only from the photos she’d studied the past few days. The magazine cover. The surveillance photo.
She could make out a five-o’clock shadow on his chin. He hadn’t recently shaved.
But other than that he looked just like Rico Dominguez.
She felt Tia grow stiff under her arm as she gasped out a breath. “Sebastian.”
Tia recognized him? The name rattled around in her muddled brain, then clicked into place. Rico’s brother. But he was supposed to be in the hospital.
“Tia,” he said.
“What are you doing here?” Tia said.
He smiled at the building. “Admiring my work.”
“Work?”
“Don’t you remember when I set the barn on fire back in Minas Gerais?”
Tia shuddered under Miranda’s arm. “We were children then. You were six years old.”
“Old habits. You never really forget them.” He cocked his head and studied her as if she were a bug under a microscope. “I have decided I am glad you escaped the fire. Now I can ask you why you never answered my love notes.”
Tia’s hand when to her throat. “Love notes?”
“The letters I left on your doorstep. Just for you.”
Miranda felt the woman’s body begin to quake.
“It was you who wrote those death threats?” Tia turned to her, confusion in her eyes. “I thought it was Nelito.”
“We were wrong,” she admitted.
The man took a step toward them. Under the light a knife gleamed in his hand. Had to be the one he’d bought at Nunes Sporting Goods. The same one he’d used on Juli Torres. Miranda was exhausted. Totally spent. But somehow she had to get to the knife away from him.
She put her lips near Tia’s ear and whispered as softly as she could. “Keep him talking.”
The look-alike bared his teeth. “Shut up. Do not speak to her. You are supposed to be dead.”
“Sebastian,” Tia said, in her best hostess voice, though it quivered a bit. “How did you get here? I thought you were—”
“In the hospital?” he sneered. “They let me go. They said if I took my medication regularly I could lead a normal life now.”
That detail hadn’t been in her research, but Miranda just bet part of that medication was Rohypnol. And that he hadn’t taken any of it for weeks.
He wagged the knife at them. Its sharp curved tip glistened. “But the doctors are idiots. I do not want a normal life. I have never wanted a normal life. I want a life like Rico’s.”
Tia blinked at him. “Like Rico’s?”
“At the hospital they taught me to work on cars. They said I could be a mechanic. Ha.” He spat on the ground. “A low life like I was in Minas Gerais.”
Mechanic training. That was how he knew how to tamper with brakes.
“After they let me go, I went to see my brother. My famous, successful brother. I asked him to give me a job. He was rich and powerful, after all. He could have found something for me. But he said no. He was on his way to Paris and was too busy to even discuss it.”
He took another step toward them and Miranda backed away. She could feel the heat of the burning building at her back. They didn’t have much time before the structure gave way.
Sebastian’s eyes glazed. “I begged him and begged him. Finally, he said he would take me back to Minas Gerais and let me work with our brothers there. On the sugarcane plantation where I grew up. He wanted me to work for them. Can you imagine? Someone with my talents?”
So he was the loser of the family but he imagined himself as talented as his very successful brother. The doctors probably called it delusions of grandeur.
“I talked him into taking me here to Esquecer. I told him I had to see the place one more time.”
“I remember you came to see us from time to time,” Tia said in her hostess voice again. “We have missed your visits.”
Wrong move.
He stepped c
loser and raised the knife. Overhead the fire roared. There was a loud crack. Miranda didn’t dare back up. Or take her eyes off the madman before her.
“Oh, my loving brother took me here, all right. But he refused to let me see you or the girls. Instead he took me on a walk around the estate, up to a high mountain. He thought it would quiet my nerves. Ha!” He spat on the ground again.
Tia wrung her hands. “I—I am sorry we did not see each other.”
“I told him I wanted to stay here. I belonged here. He said no. He was taking me back to Minas Gerais. And that was that. Minas Gerais!” He cried out as if in pain. “Where I would be nothing more than what I was as a boy. A worthless slave.”
“I…wish he would have spoken to me about it.”
Miranda’s heart banged against her ribcage. Tia was running out of things to say. But if she could just keep the guy focused on his story maybe she’d get a chance to get at that knife.
She’d have to let him get close and trust her reflexes.
He flicked the knife up, slicing the air. “I told Rico I would not go. He yelled at me. I yelled back. We began to fight. I hit him and he fell back against the rocks. He hit his head. He was bleeding. Bleeding. Bleeding. So much blood. And then he stopped breathing. He was dead. I knew then it was a sign, an omen.”
“A sign?” Tia’s voice quaked. The details of how her husband died were getting to her.
“I was to take his place. I was not to be like him. I was to become him.” Sebastian’s big eyes glistened with madness. He moved closer. “There was one bright spot in Minas Gerais. Do you not remember, Tia? We used to play Cinco Marias in your yard. You and my brothers and I.”
Tia forced a smile and her eyes grew moist as she trembled again. “Yes, Sebastian. I remember how carefully you would lay the five stones on the ground.”
“It was important to be careful with them. But Rico would always toss his stone so high, he gathered all the others before anyone had a chance. And when I told him it was not fair, he would push me down and laugh at me. I hated him so much.”
Tia didn’t have a reply for that. All she could do was stare at the insane brother-in-law who had murdered her children’s father.
C’mon, you bastard, Miranda thought. One more step. The fire crackled behind her. The air at her back grew hot and smoky.
“You were so beautiful, Tia. That was when I fell in love with you. I have always been in love with you. But Rico took you away from me. And when I thought at last you were free of him, I saw you with that man at the restaurant. The one with the dark hair and glasses.”
“Valdinho? That was my lawyer. I—I was seeing him to start divorce proceedings against Rico.”
He let out a snarl. “Liar. I saw him at your house. He is your lover. You are planning to marry him despite my warnings not to.”
If you go through with it, I will kill you. That was what he’d meant.
Sebastian opened his mouth in an anguished cry. “You betrayed me, Tia. I cannot let you get away with that. You must die.” He lunged toward Tia slashing out with the knife.
Miranda shoved Tia away just before the blade hit her and hurled herself at the lunatic. Reaching out she managed to snatch his wrist.
Sebastian stumbled back toward the railing, the drop. A second later his body clanged against the metal bar halting his progress.
The force of the shock rippled through Miranda but she didn’t let go of the madman’s wrist. The weight of her body tipped him backward over the barrier.
He twisted and turned struggling to get free. “Vaca. Get off me, bitch!” He batted his arm at her coming dangerously close to her eyes with the blade.
“Drop the knife, you creep,” she grunted.
He didn’t even flinch. He punched at her face with his free arm. Gritting her teeth she fought to capture his other wrist or at least the sleeve of his jacket. She didn’t dare take her eyes off the knife.
They wobbled to the right. To the left. He jerked back, his dark hair hanging over his head. Sweat dripped from his forehead. She could smell the woods on him. And the need of a bath. The bangles at her neck dandled over his throat. She watched the muscles in his neck strain. They couldn’t hold on much longer.
With another grunt she shifted her weight and they tilted the other way, balancing like a child’s teeter-totter in a playground. Beneath her Sebastian’s chest began to heave. Spittle oozed out the side of his mouth and into the chasm below.
She heard movement behind her. “Help,” Tia cried.
From the corner of her eye Miranda caught a glimpse of Tia running for the side of the burning building. “Help! Help!”
Sebastian saw her, too. “Look what you have done. I have lost her forever.” Insane rage blazed in his eyes. Miranda could see the fire reflected in them like a demon from hell.
She still held his wrist but her strength was giving out. He pulled back and swung the blade at her with the strength of ten men. It sliced across her chest. Pain sizzled through her.
“Aaah!” She pulled back. Blood sputtered out of her onto his face and he began to laugh.
She flashed back to Leon.
He’d attacked her like this once with a knife. She’d survived but only because of Parker. But Parker wasn’t here now. She was on her own. Still holding his wrist she kicked at Sebastian’s legs with her single high heel, trying to knock him off balance. She hit the shin.
“Yow!” he cried and swayed sideways.
She pulled her weight the other way, praying they wouldn’t tumble over the side. They dipped lower. Her hair tumbled over her face. She felt them slip. One more second and they were going down.
She did the only thing she could do. She let go of him and grabbed the railing.
He grabbed the metal on the other side. His knife hand was free and swinging.
“Now,” he cackled as he raised his arm over his head. “Now, bitch. You will die.”
“Not if I can help it.”
Miranda felt a powerful hand take hold of the straps at the back of her dress and pull her off just as the madman stabbed at her with the knife. The strike would have killed her instantly if it had landed.
Without missing a beat Sebastian swung at the new target. But Parker batted the madman’s arm away in one seamless movement.
The knife flew out of his hand and clattered to the concrete walkway.
Parker grabbed him by the leather jacket and gave him a shake. “Give it up, Sebastian. It’s over.”
“No.” Sebastian glared at him, at Miranda, at the firemen and others who had gathered around. The crazed look in his eyes grew wild. “No one can make me less than I am meant to be.” Laughing he jerked out of Parker’s grasp and before he could capture him again, clamored on top of the railing.
He stood up, balancing himself and spread his arms wide, a sick, giddy smile on his face. “I will never go back to the hospital. Never. I have won. I am Rico Dominguez!”
“Don’t.” Parker lunged forward to seize him but the madman was too quick.
Before Parker was even close, Sebastian leapt into the darkness as if diving into a swimming pool.
There was a long cry then a crunching sound as he hit the rocks below. Someone screamed behind her. Miranda raced for the railing, peered over the side. She saw nothing.
Down below all was still.
She looked at Parker he seemed as dazed as she was.
Sebastian Dominguez had ended his life in total blackness.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Rico’s memorial took place the next day as Tia had planned.
It was held on the ivory veranda of Boteco do Sabor, the resort’s restaurant. At the far end of the platform a table had been covered with a white cloth and decked with photos of Rico and white carnations.
A local priest made a short, tactful speech memorializing the long-time owner of Esquecer, the town’s most popular resort. But most of his remarks were about Tia. It was obvious to Miranda that the townspeople who ha
d come out for the ceremony were there for her.
Afterwards another table was set up and laden with delicacies from Carlota’s kitchen and everyone filled their plates and stood around chatting while quiet music played in the background. The mood was somber but not maudlin and everyone dressed as they normally would. Parker had explained to her this was the custom, so she’d worn one of her dark business suits.
Eyeing the crowd, Miranda stood near a column at the edge of the veranda as Inspector Gaspar filled her in on the final details of his investigation.
“As I explained to your husband, the fire in the opera house started in the basement. Somehow the perpetrator gained access to the building, brought in gasoline cans and matches. He also controlled the electrical panel and locked the doors. If your husband had not broken the front glass we would have lost many lives.”
“He is handy like that.”
Miranda smiled across the room at Parker who was chatting with the mayor and some of Rico’s relatives, as well as a few reporters who had shown up. She was glad to let him handle that detail this time. But her heart swelled with pride at the story she’d heard about what he had done last night to get the audience out of the building.
Gaspar remained stiff-lipped. “Inspector Keith and his team located Rico’s car in an abandoned parking lot in Rio. Since he was not reported missing, no one was looking for it. Sebastian was driving an old truck we found this morning. It was parked alongside a little used road three kilometers outside Campos do Flores. Rico’s Cielo cards were found on the remains of Sebastian’s body. The hospital in São Paulo confirmed Sebastian was released mid May.”
Just before the letters began arriving.
Miranda chewed on a canapé and nodded slowly. She’d given the police Sebastian’s confession in her statement last night but it was good to have it all verified with evidence.
“All charges have been dropped against Nelito Alves and Geninho Fernandes. They have both been released.”
Miranda took a swallow from the can of soda she was holding. “Good to know.”
Gaspar looked down at his feet and for a moment she wondered if he was going to admit how wrong he’d been about Nelito. But then she and Parker had been wrong, too.
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